I’m pleased to announce the next recipient of the Spent Glory Heroes award: Tripwire, the person who runs the Steam Mod for Tabletop Simulator. Spent Glory Heroes is a series where we celebrate those in the community who give back and help us grow, perform great feats, or are just generally good people to be around and enrich their local scenes. If you would like to nominate a hero in your community, see this post for details and send your recommendation to SpentGlory@gmail.com.

• Who are you, where are you from, and how long have you been involved in Underworlds?

Hi there, I’m Chris AKA TripWire, I’m from Arizona, and I’m the maintainer of the Underworlds mod for Tabletop Simulator. I started playing Underworlds in 2022 shortly after the release of Gnarlwood.

• What originally got you into the community?

I stumbled into Underworlds when I found a Gnarlwood box at a board game shop. I was drawn in by the minis, especially the Sons of Velmorn, and after my first game I was hooked! I loved the game, how quick it was to get into but also how much depth it offered.

• What community involvement have you had that has been the most meaningful to you?

I had convinced some friends to play Underworlds with me but it was difficult to get together consistently so we turned to Tabletop Simulator when we couldn’t play in person. I found a mod on the workshop but unfortunately it was no longer being maintained and was slightly out of date. That was when I decided to try my hand at updating the mod and I was able to stumble my way through adding the missing warbands. Around this time my friends and I had started to play Age of Sigmar (almost exclusively due to our enjoyment of Underworlds) and I began exploring those mods on the workshop. I was delighted to find that some amazing artists were able to make 3D models of the warbands. I gathered all of the models that I could find and started building my own version of the mod.

Shortly after releasing my mod on the Steam workshop I found the /r/WarhammerUnderworlds discord and the amazing mod that Nickramone had been maintaining. It was so well done and it had features I had dreamed of adding if only I had the time. I also found out that he had stepped away from maintaining the mod around when I had released mine. I felt like I had stumbled into a unique position to carry his work forward and serve the TTS Underwords community.

• Who has been your greatest inspiration in the Underworlds Community?

Nickramone to be sure, for his work on the TTS mod. Without his time and dedication who knows what Underworlds on TTS would look like. Also, all of the artists who create the amazing 3D models we get to enjoy in the mod. Ziggy Stardust for his dedication in creating models for TTS Underworlds and his help with creating the current version of the mod. The artists and everyone else who has contributed to the Stormvault project. I also want to make special mention of Mcrat for his work on UnderworldsDB which is an amazing resource for the mod and without it my life would be infinitely more difficult.

• Tell us more about your mod – what has it been like to lead a community from the online side?

The TTS Underworlds community is interesting because at the moment it’s largely decentralized. From my experience talking with players they tend to already have an established group they play with and that’s just fine for them. I’m just trying to serve those players and give them a place to play the game we all love inside of TTS. I’m always looking for feedback about the mod: what do players like, what do they wish was different, and what would they like to see added. As long as the players are happy and they continue to enjoy Underworlds, then I’m happy.

• When second edition launched, there was a lot of hype, but the older first edition tools were outdated. At what point did you realize you needed to step up and be the hero to help grow the new edition’s reach?

Around the launch of the second edition I was unsure of what to do next. Some players I spoke to were not keen on the new edition and wanted to continue playing the older edition, but I knew there would be others who wanted to continue getting the most up to date version of the game. In the spirit of player freedom-of-choice I decided to start over from scratch and build a second mod. This would preserve the state of Underworlds v1 for anyone wishing to continue playing it but would also give me more flexibility to create an improved version of the mod that I had wanted to build. A clean slate meant I could break some of the expectations I felt existed in v1, that I thought would lead to a better experience for the players. I should also note that I was not alone in this endeavor, Ziggy did a ton of work adding the board controls, FAQ page reference, and decorations to the mod.

• You’ve been working in this space for a long time – what wood you say is he most challenging part of putting updates together?

For most updates the challenge is getting the resources like models and card images together to be brought into TTS. Often the card images are already available but the models can take some time as the artists do their work or are limited by the available resources. Once that work is done its almost drag and drop to add a new warband or rivals decks to the game.

The updates that I dread are the rules updates. Every warscroll, fighter card, objective card, and power card has to reflect the updated rules as much as possible to make the experience smoother for the players. That involves editing the images to reflect the updated rules, re-adding and referencing the new images, uploading the new FAQ and processing it so it lags as little as possible, and ensuring the FAQ page number is still valid for every warband.

• What need do you see in the community that you would like to see somebody fill?

I mentioned previously that the TTS Underworlds community feels largely decentralized at the moment, which on its own isn’t a bad thing, but it would be amazing to see a greater TTS Underworlds community presence on Discord. For starters, just seeing more activity in the “looking-for-game” channel from TTS players would be awesome! If someone was willing, maybe a monthly or weekly meetup to play games of Underworlds in TTS and hangout on Discord.

• If you could give some advice to a newer player just getting involved in Underworlds, what would you say to them?

Above all else: have fun! Don’t worry about winning or losing, chasing the meta, or buying the latest thing to come out. My very first game of Underworlds ever was a crushing loss as the Sons of Velmorn and I had a blast the entire time! Follow the ‘Rule of Cool’ when picking a first warband and go from there. Also, don’t be afraid to get involved in the community!

• If you could have dinner with any one Underworlds character, who would it be? What would you talk about?

As a fan of the Grand Alliance Death warbands I’m not so sure I’d want to have dinner with most of them as I would run the risk of either becoming dinner or having my soul tormented for eternity. But if I had to pick I’d have dinner with King Velmorn and ask him if he thinks the crown was worth it, which I assume would not go well for me.

• What’s next for you on your WHU journey?

I want to continue to improve the TTS mod and see it continue to grow and bring players together to enjoy playing Underworlds. Beyond that I have a large backlog of warbands to build, paint, and play with. This may come as a surprise, but I actually haven’t been able to play many games of Underworlds in the past 3 years. I’m hoping to change that soon and maybe even get to some local events.

Wrap

Thank you again, Chris, for accepting the nomination and becoming a Spent Glory Hero, and thank you to all who fill a similar role in online communities. Being a facilitator of online play is a completely thankless job in many cases, but the ability for you to listbuild, shuffle, deal, and roll dice with people halfway across the globe is what keeps this community alive in isolated pockets when we have diminished support from the mothership so to speak. My community locally is doing well, but I know the game’s health worldwide is dramatically improved by the ability to play in way that Tripwire and others have given us.

Again, if you would like to nominate a hero in your community, see this post for details and send your recommendation to SpentGlory@gmail.com. We take all comers – you don’t have to be as big of a hitter as ‘the guy who makes TTS work’ to qualify!