Explanation
[Fake Scotty accent]
We had a database crash here. We're still pickin up the pieces down here...
[\fake Scotty accent]
QABAL – a brief history of Magic
The beginning of time
In those days giants walked the earth and fought with the gods. Secrets were passed
from the gods to man through Thoth, Prometheus and Hermes Trismegistus - Secrets
of fire, science and magic.
350 BC
Plato describes Atlantis. It symbolises the origin of all knowledge. Believed to
be a myth, certain mystics claim it is a cipher for the location of the biblical
Eden. It has become apparent that there is a link between the ancient gods, Atlantis,
Eden and the biblical Flood that rid the earth of evil.
62 BC
Magi congregate at the court of Antiochus. They have foreseen a great conflict and
a divine peacemaker. The meeting is called to a sudden end after heated arguments
on how to deal with this matter. They depart undecided as to whether they should
welcome this new king or oppose him.
30 AD
Jesus of Nazareth, member of the Essene cult, is arrested and executed. Though he
was crucified by Roman hands it was the desire of his enemies, the Hebrew sorcerers,
that he die as a criminal. His chief disciple, Peter, defeats the sorcerer Simon
Magus in a magical duel and moves the cult of Christ into secrecy to avoid further
persecution.
685 AD
Khalid ibn Yazid, an arab prince, refuses his crown and leaves his court in order
to pursue his studies. He is taught by Morienus, a sorcerer and alchemist, but his
subsequent actions, purging his lands of other sects, have tainted his tradition
so that they are no longer known as holders of a secret wisdom but regarded as butchers.
930 AD
Sabbatai Donnolo unearths the hidden Sefir Yetsira or Book of Creation, a major work
of theology and also of magic and miracles. It is prolific during the Middle Ages
but later passes almost into the realm of myth. Whether or not the work is authentic,
passages from it survive and describe the magic used to create the earth.
1224 AD
A covenant is drawn up between two cults to ensure mutual protection til the end
of the millennium. In their desire to consolidate their agreement they alienate many
of the other cults extant at this time. Fortunately for them, most of these other
cults are destroyed by the fires of the Inquisition but some survive and remember
the betrayal.
1314 AD
Established in 1118 AD, the Knights Templar are destroyed on account of possessing
too much political and economic power. The charges brought upon them, however, were
idolatry and sedition.
1520 AD
In his key work De Occulta, Agrippa lays down his Unity of Traditions, a desire to
unite all religion. His intention was that his magical brethren should unite under
one purpose. His attempt fails but his works were widely distributed and have become
one of the main inspirations on magical thought.
1785 AD
Claude Louis, Count of Saint-Germain reappears to his pupil Etteila. Though his claim
that he is 325 years old is disputed, he surfaces several times in the next eighty
years. The last time he is seen is in 1875.
1850 AD
Eliphas Levi alleges Vintras and his Institute of Pity are an "absurd, anarchic
sect". This may have been true but it also has the effect of endearing Vintras
to Levi's enemies. The depravity of the time also drew attention back to occult philosophy.
This was received with mixed blessings among the Masters.
1875 AD
The Great Purge Several Masters are slain along with hundreds of their followers.
Their groups were small and their followers weak so there were no retributions. This
highlights the encroaching end of the millennium and the end of the covenant and
thus an attempt to regulate the members of the covenant is made.
1900 AD
Crowley expelled from the Golden Dawn for 'extreme practices'. He, and some of his
more loyal acolytes, form the Order of the Silver Star.
NOW
The Covenant is ending. An ancient alliance is ending. The future and untold riches
await those with knowledge and power enough to take it
The Books
A few days ago I received some chilling and frankly angering news.
We'd been distributed through Key20 for the last 18 months (and previous to that as well) and we'd sent them the vast majority of our stock. As of last week, they couldn't pay so they're sending back the remaining books and the only money we're getting is likely going to be paying for shipping back to us.
This is angering me because they received nearly all of our copies of Zombi, for which we're getting diddlysquat - and that leaves us up the creek without the proverbial paddle.
To this end, we're just going to offer fulfillment directly through Paypal and work on getting the PDFs done. It'd hard to find the time to do all of this especially when you consider that we're out a lot of money.
We've got a few books of each variety and we'll be receiving the shipping of the remainders coming soon and aiming for a second printing as soon as we can afford it.
SpaceNinjaCyberCrisis XDO
A self contained game set in a world filled with beautiful cyborgs, cute robots, superfast cyberbikes, powered exoskeletons, giant mechanoids, speed lines, comical pets, strange aliens, maniacal villains and demons with amazing groinal powers. The perfect bound A5 book is introduced by a four page comic drawn by the artist is P.J.Holden, known for professional comics work (DNA Swamp, Caliber Comics, 200AD, Judge Dredd Megazine, Fearless).
ISBN: 1-901042-02-2
Stock currently 100+
Reviews:
SpaceNinjaCyberCrisis XDO - Review
Its not often that we do role-playing reviews in the SF&F newsletter but since this game was right up our street we thought what the hell!. SNCC XDO is the new game from Crucible Design, the same team that brought us The 23rd Letter last year (which, incidentally, has just gone into its 2nd edition and is well worth a look), and the standard of this game is at least as high. Like its predecessor, it is designed for the more mature gamer (although there is nothing preventing a beginner from enjoying the game at least as much) and is geared more towards storyline and character than rules. This is not to detract from the system in either game, since both work very smoothly. The point is that the game is left more in the hands of the GM to do with as he sees fit.
The background to SNCC XDO is one immediately familiar to fans of the anime/ manga genre. For the uninitiated, these are Japanese animations and comics dealing with frankly bizarre subjects (and Im a fan!). However, whilst it helps if one has seen at least one or two of the items on the recommended list at the back of the book, it is not necessary. The world is complete in itself and further reading/ viewing only adds flavour. Briefly, the game is set in the year 2019 after humanity has discovered MekaTek, advanced technology allowing mankind to do cool stuff like design whopping great suits of powered armour, space craft and so on. The setting concentrates on San Metro, immediately recognisable to fans of the genre. The citys main landmarks are described as well as a clever section about what Joe Average does in San Metro (a favourite of mine because it proves that they have football in the future). The different power groups in San Metro are described in some detail (handily giving plot hooks to the GM and showing how they fit into the scheme of things) and a brief history is also given. The background is very entertaining and there is plenty for characters to do. There are demons, aliens, cops, robbers, vigilantes, religious whackos, prophesies and too many other things to mention. Suffice it to say, you wont get bored.
Moving back to the system briefly, I have to say it is very, very quick indeed. Characters have ten traits which all start at 3 and are then added to with starting points. MekaTek is also a statistic which begins at 0 - players must spend points to increase it if they want to start out with mad techno gear. Some people might moan about the fact that they cant flesh out the charcter because of the limited skill list; I went through it as an experiment and I could not find anything theyd left out. If a character vitally needs to have a skill in Aardvark Tickling then he can bloody well talk to the GM about it. There is more than enough breadth and depth to allow such variation in the game. The point is that characters are about exactly that - character. Your history and personality should mean a lot more than numbers on a page. Besides which, the game has its tongue very much in its cheek. This is why I like the idea of the Life Notes. Apart from being very funny and setting the tone of the game nicely, they do give players a nice framework to build around. To add to the fun, there are both positive and negative notes which have to balance - for each roll on the positive table, you must also roll on ther negative table. The system itself is devastatingly simple. Roll 2d6 and try to get under your trait. I mean, the old Fighting Fantasy books were harder to suss than that! In short, the system is designed to be simple and quick, and it achieves this very well.
To finish up, you may have guessed that I am quite impressed with this game. Guilty as charged, Im afraid. What can I say? I mean, Im a fan of manga, I like the sense of humour that the game has (I challenge anyone to find a better tag line for a game than one that includes ... demons with amazing groinal powers...), I was very impressed with the system and background detail... suffice it to say, you get the picture. As if all of this wasnt enough, the new Crucible Design format of perfect-binding their games is very nice, and theyve even thrown in some art work. This is of a very high standard (I dont know much about art, but I know what I like) and includes a 4-page comic at the start of the book. Were there any faults with the game? Not really. More extensive playing might reveal a few hiccups, but I would be very surprised if there are any. It is designed to be a very fun game so my advice would be that if you like manga or you want to get a game that you can enjoy rather than endure, you should seriously think about buying SNCC XDO.
•REC (spoilers! beware!)
Last night, due to the absence of Jim, we watched movies up at Graham's rather than gaming. When I arrived (a little late due to teleconferences with NBC), they were just finishing off Dead Set. Michael's opinion was that it didn't add anything to the genre and although I think it was excellent, I am inclined to agree.
Afterwards we settled down to watch •REC. And there are spoilers ahead.
Our First Glimpse of an Alien World
Discover Magazine writes about our first glimpse of an alien world.
Achieving a feat that seemed impossible not so long ago, a team of scientists working with the Hubble Space Telescope captured the first visible-light image of a planet orbiting another star.
This stuff inspires me. It makes me wonder about what's out there - other worlds, other suns, other houses, other dinner plates. We'll never know, of course, because Fomalhaut b is 25 light years away and that means flying for 25 years at light speed just to get there - and maybe to find nothing. Any transmission we make will take 50 years minimum to get a reply. And as we all know, long distance relationships never work.
But still. Somewhere out there....beneath the pale moonlight....
Oh. That's a lyric. Sorry.
Artistic Proofs
Thing I appreciate: Self-deprecating humour
Thing I don't: Humour that deprecates others.
Self-deprecating humour is related to Ethos, one of the "artistic proofs" in rhetoric. Ethos is an appeal to the honesty, authority or qualifications of the individual. In humour this would be an attempt to identify with the audience by describing what a terrible state the comedian is in.
The other artistic proofs are Pathos (an appeal to sympathy or emotion or a need for justice) and Logos (appealing to the audience through facts and figures).
A compelling argument should touch on all three. To argue the point, you have to be clear that you are being an honest broker and there is no ulterior motive or that you are uniquely qualified to make the point - this is your Ethos. This will the lend authority to your Logos - the facts and figures which will help the audience make a decision based entirely on rationality. Lastly - Pathos - especially if the audience can relate to a miscarriage of justice or how life has been unfair to someone - will drive the point home and silence anyone. Taken in any order they work fine - appealing to those who need authority, those who need facts and figures and those who are controlled by their emotions.
e.g.
- I've been working with these people for five years and I think this should be done for them.
- Based on the costs, it's extremely affordable at only a pound a week. That's less than 15p a day.
- They need this to live, it'll keep a roof over their heads. Isn't that a basic human right?
The arguments above can obviously be recycled. These could be applied to starving families in drought-plagued Ethiopia or the recent government bailout of our banks and financial institutions.
Apologies for the odd segway into artistic proofs but I had something to say and it seemed a little whiny without a little more meat.
SinglePlayer AI vs MultiPlayer
Scott Anguish writes about Left4Dead:
The other game I just tried out today was Left 4 Dead. This is one hardcore shooter that really ramps up the 'fast zombie' genre. Again, you come away feeling like you've been immersed in the game. I'm hoping the single player mode is long lasting (I hate playing online. I think in many cases it's a cop-out for the developer to limit the AI that they have to write. ...
I guess this is a worry - single player longevity.
For me, the Single Player Game is just a training mission for the online play/multiplayer modes. In the Single Player (as with Bots on your team in the multiplayer), you lose a little of the "stupid mistake" that makes the zombie genre so appealing. Like tonight - a reasonably seasoned group took 24 seconds to die (or so it seemed) because one guy went off by himself, got immobilised quickly and while the rest were coming for him, they got picked off by the admittedly well-timed attacks of the Infected team. Hint: you need all four people.
I enjoy the stupid mistakes that humans make. I laugh out loud when we make dumb mistakes. I howl in mock pain as my survivor is dragged by the Smoker's tongue. And I laugh when my brother (@savage_mf) blows my Hunter to bits with two shotgun blasts! It's just good fun.
I've been really enjoying Left4Dead. Scott now has me looking at Mirror's Edge to see what all the fuss is about!
23rd Letter RPG
The time is now.
Psychics exist, not many, but enough - enough to worry those in power, and interest those who seek power. Governments and Corporations fight over them. The Network provides an imperfect refuge for those that escape the clutches of those who would abuse them or their powers.Thousands are maimed and killed each year by the Corporations and Governments. Some do this for power, some for defence, but they all do it, - for the next war will be fought with the mind - and the victor will control the destiny of the human race.
Stock currently 100+
Downloads:
- 23rdLetter character sheet
- Projects SourceBook - raw and unfinished but useful!
Zombi RPG
the earth won’t hold the dead
What if the people who were dead got up one day?
What if they got up and started killing other people?
What if the people they killed just got back up and killed some more people?
What if it had already started?
What if that day was yesterday?
Stock currently <20.
Download the book in PDF form here. This version does not include art.
We've put some Zombi Ts on CafePress.
Click on the image (or here) to go through to Store. We'll be adding more Ts as time goes on.
It’s been slow here…
...and I apologise.
From June last year until July this year I was working in a very low creativity (but nicely paid) job which meant that from the very minute I left the office, I was bursting with creativity and had to get stuff written. In July, I left that job and started working as the Network Facilitator for The Digital Circle.
I speak to creative people every day. I'm on the road most of the day meeting and greeting. And when I got back from my honeymoon, I was brought into the fold of possibly the greatest thing to happen to digital media this century which is only a small amount of hyperbole. So, the situation has changed considerably.
That said, I have felt the impact of this lack of personal creativity and, lacking a suitable medium during the day, I turn again to LateGaming to provide me with the outlet I require, the relief from the frustration of not being a writer, a creator.
It's probably hard for other people to understand, especially as I'm probably a mediocre writer in the first place but it's a need. And the writing does give relief.
Anyway. I shall endeavour to do better.
MURDERDROME: iPhone comic reader BANNED!
Wednesday afternoon I popped round to Paul's house for a quick chat (and a couple of headache tablets) and I saw a demo of MurderDrome, the first iteration of a new comic application for the iPhone.
There have been a few comic reader apps for the iPhone/iPod touch out there, most notably ClickWheel Comic Reader which gives access to a lot of content produced for 2000AD.
The Murderdrome iPhone comic demoed to me that day had a few very startling and fresh ideas.
The content was perfectly sized for the high res (160 dpi) screen of the iPod touch and iPhone. The side-side swipe of the finger moved from page to page but the UP-DOWN swipe of a finger took you through the content on that page. It removed colour, then inking, then brought the images down to the base wireframe. You could see the process on how it was made. You can, at a touch, remove or re-add speech bubbles and there are other settings (greyscale etc) which I didn't have time to play with.
Paul (art, letters, colour) and Al (writer) have collaborated to make Murderdrome specially for the iPhone/iPod touch screen. The code was written by Philip Orr who you'll also recognise as one of the names behind infurious. Watch Phil's Blue Pilot for some very interesting developments soon.
See the Youtube video for more
The business model is simple. Aiming for a $1.99 price for a standard comic (equivalent to 22 pages in a standard American size comic), Apple take 30% of the money as their commission. InfuriousComics take 10% and the remaining 60% goes to the creators. Seem harsh? Not so much when you hear tales of how much comic creators get when their comics are sold - sometimes they have to sell in excess of 9000 copies just to break even - even if carried by a major publisher. This new model would mean creators get paid for every book they produce. If you sell 200 copes, you get 60% of cover. If you sell 3000 copies you get 60% of cover. That's a lot better than the rates offered in print.
BUT....
MURDERDROME has been banned from the App Store for breaking rules about content. Please view the video and show some support for content being made available on the App Store by commenting on the article here.
You'll also find links to other coverage of this cool new application.
Why is this relevant to LateGaming?
Apart from my association with Paul and Philip and subsequent involvement in InfuriousComics, there has been discussion about using their cool reader technology to build 'decision tree books' or as we used to call them 'Choose your path' style books. That has interest to me!
D&D 4th Edition … now with more!
I had a poke through a friend's copy of 4th Edition D&D. It seems it has been genericised to the nth degree, and everything has been made more powerful from the word go. On top of that, alignments have been simplified and there is even the concept of "unaligned" (maybe they read my previous article). More races, more abilities, more, more, more! I remain unconvinced that the gameplay has improved any since the first edition. Can't be arsed with any more words on the topic.
The Morality of AI
On the Morality of AI (from an rPG net thread about Eclipse Phase
"Their morality may seem alien because we may not want to grasp it but, at the end of the day, these will be our creations, our monsters.If they see us as annoying bugs, then it will be because we will have been acting like an annoying bug. We may not be able to grasp the mentality of a being that thinks in 'billionths of a second" and yet will never grow old, never die.
The ennui would be stifling." --Me
Gallifreyans do it in Time…
Wired writes about Gallifreyan incest:
"Doctor Who star David Tennant is currently dating Georgia Moffett -- the actress who portrayed The Doctor's daughter in the Who episode of that same name.
Moffett is the daughter of Peter Davison, who played The Doctor's fifth incarnation. So, she's a Doctor's daughter playing The Doctor's daughter. She's also the first Doctor's daughter who played The Doctor's daughter to date The Doctor."
| Georgia Moffett is insanely hot and, if you haven't seen the episode, will be returning to Doctor Who at some point in the future. Seeing as she was built 100% from Gallifreyan DNA, you'd have to wonder why the tech used to create her isn't used to repopulate the Time Lords and, frankly, any other species in danger of dying out. |  |
Or maybe the Doctor likes to be a lone ranger standing on the gates of oblivion and quite likes the fact they're all dead - and only resents the perennial resurrection of The Master and treats this new 'daughter' as an interloper.
Erick Wujick has passed away
Kevin Siembieda writes:
“Erick passed away as gentle as a snowflake.”
That’s how Kay Kozora, Erick’s ‘Beautiful Kate’ of nearly 30 years put it when she called with the sad news. She and other loved ones were present when Erick passed away, Saturday evening, June 7, 2008. A Press Release with more details can be found on the main page of Palladium's website. These are my personal thoughts.
|
Yep, Erick makes me smile. Right now, I envision Erick tooling around Heaven, bouncing from cloud to cloud to see who might be available to chat with. I can see him hunting down his old pals, Dan La Flesh and Roger Zelazny, and then grabbing Leonardo Da Vinci, Gandhi, Confucius, a few Roman Emperors, some saints, sinners, and Chinese Geomancers, and sitting them down to play test a new game idea. And when they are done, they’ll take a walk and discuss the I Ching, game theory, nanotechnology and time travel. And knowing Erick, he’ll eventually turn the topic around to, “So guys, what can we do about helping out Palladium Books?” |  |
Erick did a heap of work. Paranoia, Amber, TMNT, Rifts, Beyond the Supernatural. I feel really sad about this and wish my condolences to his family and friends.
Questions about Frontier
Back in the day, Eamon, Colin and I did spend some time discussing the concepts a long time ago but it's clear that we had divergent ideas. Some of these were because we knew too much (when you mix biologists and physicists and try to make a far-future sci-fi setting) and some of it was because we were simply different people. I wasn't entirely happy with their vision of 'alien races' and I feel they were equally dissatisfied with my 'handwavium' approach to theoretical physics.
Eamon emailed me with some questions about Frontier development as I see it.
Q: What do you see as the general Frontier missions for PCs?
There's a reason why the Captain of the Explorer is an AI. He can't beam down to the planet (Ho ho!) The following scenario threads immediately present themselves:
- mission 'statements' from Kumbu - this can cover trade, surveillance, colonisation
- SPR - humanitarian 'rescue' mission (from Saving Private Ryan)
- Free exploration ('boldly going')
- Escorts for other vehicles
- encounters with other vehicles, weird phenomena, unexpected aliens
- espionage/combat - very special circumstances, political maneuvering
Q: I was wondering if there's room for freelancing, or at least hiring space on starships. It would give the possibility of being dropped off in a system with a few systemships, do you job and go home (save for Factor X which messes things up and produces Adventure!). Or dropped off at Station X, or on Planet Y, or Asteroid Z.
Of course, you don't need to be a freelancer for these missions to occur. Modular starships could easily achieve the same effect.
I don't recognise this as being part of the setting per se, due to the immense cost of running a starship and limited access to Keyhole drives. Another category could be similar to the 'mission ship' game we played briefly, the Halo effect...players find some ancient tech which is flippin' class.
Also - remember that HU is post-scarcity. Trade exists but in a barter system. There is no universal credit, no gold-pressed latinum....
Q: Are starships so expensive to be solely owned by governments? Can conglomerates/individuals ever hope to own them?
There are no comglomerates or super-rich in HU. The USA, probably still the strongest of the non-HU Earth nations, could potentially field something to this effect.
Q: Are there any chances of encountering 'rogue' ships.
When you're MEANT TO BE the only bipedal humanoid species that speaks your anglicised dialect of Swahili (or a Swahili-ised dialect of English) for 200 light years, every other ship is a potential rogue.
Q: Taking a step down, the same question for systemships - everything from tugs to shuttles to asteriod prospectors. Who/what can own them?
"Who moves the cargo around Frontier space?" would be another way of looking at it.
Specialists - single purpose AIs, a hundred times less capable than an Expert AI. Why would you put a short-lived human through months of babysitting a rock?
Q: Do we have spacestations, mining stations, research bases, space colonies...etc in Frontier?
Yes, but again, these are not commercial interests within HU space.
These are not, by any means, the one true way to play Frontier but they represent the feel that I am aiming for. I think the genre I'm aiming for is under-represented in gaming as well as elsewhere. With the recent release of Traveller by Mongoose Publishing and the Thousand Suns rules from Rogue Games, the 'Imperial Sci-Fi' genre is well represented. Frontier is, to a degree, post-Imperial, neo-liberal in politics, transhuman in terms of taking what I see as practical and almost renaissance in outlook.
Citizen: a skill?
In our BRP-based Runequest game, Michael has asked a few times for rolls on 'Gloranthan Lore' and 'Human Lore' so that we can remember items from our own cultures. Because we're all grotesque combat monsters (with the exception of Jim's character), we've all spent maybe 10-20 points on these skills. Pretty feeble really but not surprising due to the way the BRP system works.
In writing for Frontier, I'm aware that there will be people who are on the peripherary of Human Unity, some who are embroiled in society and some who represent the pinnacle of society. My theory is that this takes time and effort and might best be represented in two ways?
- Skill - the knowledge and time invested by the character in realising their citizenship.
- Quality - the result of the time invested with applied knowledge.
For instance:
Chera Nyumba was born in a small village in Africa, in an area formerly known as Zambia. She lives with her husband and their three children. While the children are at school, Chera and Enzi work in their fields, collecting their crops. In the evenings, they watch and listen to the news feeds and Enzi tells the children stories until they fall asleep. Chera is interested in the environment around her as much as it affects her family and work. Chera is a Competent Citizen; she is part of her community and a functional, productive member of society.
Kesho has taken the skill "Citizen" at Professional. She grew up in the shadow of Kumbu and after her school years travelled through the Western European Expanses and the Americas. She now works with two Experts and four humans in the Explorer Crew Selection committee. For her leisure time, she enjoys sex and researching Explorer Disruptive Element reports. Kesho contributes to her community less than she contributes to Human Unity as a whole.
A character who has the Quality 'Citizen' is likely to belong to a family that has a reputation within Human Unity. By virtue of their heritage, their citizenship is seldom questioned even if they have not shown the character of their forebears.
A character who is within the Explorer Division should have Citizen at Competent or better. If generating an Explorer crew, give them Citizen at Competent for free but permit them to swap it out for any level higher. There is no way a character could be part of the Executive Team of an Explorer without this skill at least at Professional.
Description Difficulty Be able to name the metropolitan centres of Earth or rhyme off the first items Traded. This knowledge is typical for school children to memorise. No dice Prepare a presentation on Human cultures including those outside of Human Unity or know the likely location of the nearest Expert. 1d Name all of the Governing Experts or Master Experts that exist or detail the best process for the Kumbu archives. 2d Recite the laws and customs of Human Unity from memory or remember the primary missions of Explorer vessels in Human space 3d
I feel that with the introduction of 'free skills' we start to get a better feeling of the society. It acts like a "general education", a little like the BRP skills as well as the BRP-based "Know" roll which you find in Call of Cthulhu. The existence of baseline abilities like these (other than the generic 5% Human Lore in Runequest) indicate the presence of established education and, by inference, a more advanced society. In a primitive society, there may be a rich oral tradition but very few games model this particularly well - then again, a 'shaman' is going to have this oral tradition and a player character Shaman is more likely to place points into 'shaman-like' skills.
Some other games have provided copious amounts of information in an attempt to get the players to use the rulebooks as reference materials. Skyrealms of Jorune, Tekumel and Blue Planet spring to mind here. This has some pros and cons. Some of us, like me, really enjoy reading setting material and are considerably less willing to read rules materials. On the other hand, some people just can't handle the huge volume of background information that a game can produce (and if you don't believe me, I'll give you the metric weight of the material Michael reproduced for our Glorantha game and, yeah, our characters should know this stuff!). How do we strike a happy medium? Provide good detailed background about your setting and also provide a way for the more casual gamer to intercept it - this latter point is made a lot easier by having fiction, audio books, movies, maps and other 'props' available.
COPS – Japan Stylee
Eamon, a technologist in the area of Cybernetics I know[1], posted this:
"If you peruse Japanese foreign-resident forums you'll read a depressing amount of stories about foreigners being told to sign kanji-laden papers 'so you can go', only to find they've signed a confession - which the courts accept as totally truthful. That acceptance of the confession is because 'that's the way it's supposed to work in Japan'. The chastened criminal confesses, justice is served, end of story. Foreigners get it even worse, because arguing against one's confession is seen as insulting to the court. Bigger sentence time."
...and some other observations of the police forces in Japan. It's interested reading and story-nugget-laden as well. I don't know what Eamon expected from Japan but it would be interesting to see what he has made of it so far.
Sub to his blog. You never know, he might talk Sci-Fi!
[1] Eamon was one of the contributors to Crucible Design and one of the go-to guys for Sci-Fi technology, physics and the interactions between bones and stainless steel joints (via a PhD in the wear and tear on hip replacement). I kid you not. In gaming sci-fi, his only failing was 'knowing too much' and therefore losing some of the ability to partake of 'handwavium' for plot elements. He does know an awful lot about Traveller but I don't know if he games much these days.
Transhumanism
In 1966, Transhuman was defined by F. M. Esfandiary (later, FM-2030) as:
included physical and mental augmentations including prostheses, reconstructive surgery, intensive use of telecommunications, a cosmopolitan outlook and a globetrotting lifestyle, androgyny, mediated reproduction (such as in vitro fertilisation), absence of religious beliefs, and a rejection of traditional family values. (Source: Wikipedia
The word itself has come to mean "next evolutionary human" when it really means a stage of "Transitory Human", where we start to notice differences. Of course, nothing in the above quote has anything to do with evolution as we can achieve transhuman status within our own lifetimes. The evolutionary process is described only in successive generations.
(RPG.net has a thread about a new game called Eclipse Phase - "a game of transhuman conspiracy and horror".
From the thread and web page it seems like a Transhuman space-meets-Traveller-The-New-Era type background especially with:
the driving powers behind the wars—both AI and transhuman—were infected by a mutating virus with multiple infection vectors—biological, information, nano—dubbed the Exsurgent virus. Whatever its source, this virus has been known to sometimes transform its victims into something unexplainable ... something monstrous and reality-altering.
...with a dollop of Cthulhu. I will likely buy the book (the same way I bought Sufficiently Advanced) though the blurb doesn't inspire me. Is it that I want a game filled with some hope for a change? It might be that I'm not looking really for the inexpicable in a game setting (which also belies my general annoyance with Call of Cthulhu - in a world where there are snuff movies, special effects and Tom Savini, is it possible to actually go insane from seeing something horrific? Would the existence of something like that freak me out? I don't think so!)
Horror and Sci-Fi sometimes works well. Alien would be the most obvious example of a resounding success. It's more likely that you'll find a dozen examples of where Sci-Fi didn't work well with horror - the most obvious one I can think of being Event Horizon. I once ran a somewhat abortive game using the 2300AD system. The players were investigating a space anomaly (which turned out to be a Colour). It put the crew into a torpor and the ship sustained their bodily functions. They arise from their suspended animation nearly a hundred years later and find that Colours, sentient but not sapient, have been harnessed as a energy source and mechanism for 'jump drive'.
I like Sci-Fi games but a lot of them end up with a resolute "What now?" after character generation is complete. Blue Planet and Transhuman Space have been accused of this at various times. I think it's less a problem of the game (especially as we see the amount of material available) but more of an imagination issue - whether the GM can put forward a gaming framework. Jorune managed this well with the Drenn trials and SLA Industries with their BPN system.
Of course, Frontier is my transhumanist game set in a far-flung post-apocalyptic future. Of course, in Frontier, Earth still has a major, advanced technological human civilisation and has fully recovered from the apocalypse that overtook most of the West. There is a reliance on technology for science, research, law, democracy and war. There are sapient and sentient artificial intelligences which act as both tool and mentor to humanity. My inspirations for Frontier are many and have departed considerably from the "Star Trek But Better" conversations that Eamon, Colin and I would talk about over a decade ago. We never specifically mentioned Transhumanism (probably because to a greater degree we were already living Transhuman lives.
At the moment I'm working on '6', 'illusion' and doing bits and pieces on the other lines. Frontier remains, for the time being, a long distance project.
War of the Worlds: Earth concept art
Which do people like more?
(See the comments for more info)
D&D 4th Edition – A lazy blog post
I decided to just post verbatim an IM conversation between the two of us about D&D 4th Edition. I make no apologies for my laziness.
The 23rd Letter: in film?
Back in late 2006, I got a bit of a shock. Maybe you do as I do but I like to beachcomb through Google and see what people are saying about the things I have written. I pick up a few comments about The 23rd Letter and Zombi most often, usually through RPG.net which seems to be the big granddaddy of RPG-related internet portals. It's pretty nice for the most part and I get to talk to some interesting people (and make excuses for the things I missed). As The 23rd Letter is still on sale via Key20, every now and then I get an email asking about it which is why I've started posting updated materials on the blog here. There have been some relative champions of The 23rd Letter, like Chris Lupton and Max Cairnduff, who have both gone above and beyond in the past to make the games known and for that I've always been grateful.
Anyway, this was the shock.
This page linked to Starway Pictures, a Hollywood-based production company, who were producing an adaptation of The 23rd Letter, a film about ESP and psychokinesis. I was utterly gobsmacked.
The script for "The 23rd Letter" was written by Jim Beck, an aspiring screenwriter who had also written gaming material for Paradigm Concepts , a small RPG company, but Jim Beck was mostly identified via his blog at blackroosterfilms.tripod.com. My stuff is also listed at pen-paper.net and a few years ago, t23l would have been a lot more on the lips of people.
Information on the 23rd Letter movie was posted all around on Filmmaker magazine, XLCinema.com and the Digital Video Information Network. The stars mentioned it on their myspace pages and there seemed to be loads of mentions of the name as I started digging deeper. Heaps more material is available on the Starway Pictures blog in February 2006, March 2006, April 2006, May 2006 and November 2006 including demo footage and pitch reels.
I found out about it in November 2006 and have been sitting on it for months. Why? Because I was really unsure at what to do about it. Am I supposed to assume the worst?
What do you do in this case?
[UPDATE: I've been talking to Robert Sanders @ Starway via email (and inadvertently to his lawyer (who didn't get the hang of "Reply All") and I think we're resolving any issues. I do not believe that there was any infringement of IP so it's now down to whether they change the name or we agree to jointly use the name).]
BRP
Let it be known that I hate BRP.
(because I fumbled a dodge twice tonight and put myself out of action both times.)
Really made me feel like a great and powerful warrior when natural rolls of 00 and 99 completely devastated me. Twice.
Balls to it.
RPGnet whiners strike again
I loathe it when the RPGnet whiner crew crawl out of the woodwork and accuse people of being passive aggressive with the threat of bringing down the mods.
You can't even express an opinion without being asked to tone your language and the P-A finger is then pointed. That's the absolute definition of the Ad hominem attack. I've ranted about this before.
Don't like what someone says? For God's sake don't attempt to refute them, just dismiss their argument by calling them passive-aggressive.
Here's a big fuck-you to anyone who uses that term in a debate when they can't think of anything intelligent to say.
Things like this inspire games
I can think of a half-dozen things that would make a great game. It's not going to be any of those things though. It'll be something dull like a new source of some type of radiation.
Resolutions: Dealing with Canon and Context
Canon is the past in the play. It establishes facts which have gone before. It doesn't mean it can't be retconned afterwards but for the most part it is immutable (or at least it should have immutable facts and mutable descriptors, the latter of which may be changed due to Context.
Context is the present in the play. It represents experiences more than facts and, due to the way we lay down memories, is probably more immediately mutable than Canon though if left, it can be harder to change because it forms part of our experience memory and not just written Canon (which is essentially the basis of 'show, don't tell' - if someone visualises the experience they will have deeper connection to it rather than just having the story related to them).
Accepting is where you acknowledge and agree with the contributions from others to the Context settling it as Canon. This is most easily visualised when you try to reconcile the order of events taking place in a system which does not have a strict action-point (or similar) mechanic. In systems with Action Points or Strike Ranks, everything happens according to the time. To move the story along, it can be necessary to fudge the timings, e.g.
Zakary and Carey are two of the contestants in the Garhound contest and Zakary has caught up with Carey who is descending from the Storm Apple tree with a ripe Storm Apple. Though they are perhaps 4-5 SRs apart, the GM permits Zakary to assault Carey and steal the Storm Apple. Why? Because it will make for further flavour and discussion in the game. Who loses out? An NPC who wasn't doing well in the race anyway.
In a more narrative game, it can mean just the end of discussing a scene. Not everyone needs to be entirely happy with the outcome, but there has to be a sense of mutual consent so that the game can continue.
Returning - negates the contribution to Context but also provides options which can be considered. This is reserved for when there is disagreement within the group as to the interpretation and outcome of a scene. This is most common when there has been a GM fiat about a character and the player disagrees with it. It behooves the player in this circumstance to not only make his grievance known but also to provide a suitable alternative. This may, dependiing on the detail, be returned to the player again or returned to the group as a whole for a better resolution, e.g.
It would have been entirely appropriate for other players to dispute the conflict between Zakary and Carey because there was an immediate gain for Zakary. Though he had no chance of winning the race, Storm Apples are a potent magical item. What convinced them ultimately was that it would have little effect on their characters and in no small part would give Carey, an annoying NPC, a harder time of it. They had agreement and the option was not returned.
It's much harder to retcon against a dice roll because the randomising element is a central tenet of roleplaying. We use them to make the decisions for us and if we stop 'trusting' their decisions, we may as well switch to a fully narrative process (no bad thing in of itself).
The Doctor has arrived!
The new Dr Who RPG from Cubicle 7
It arrived. And I've been preparing.
I'ved watched five episodes of Torchwood (the Children of Earth miniseries) as well as four episodes of Tom Baker's Doctor (Robot) and a few episodes of Tennant's Doctor (Silence in the Library, Stolen Earth). I've got plans to watch all of Eccleston's Doctor over the weekend. I'd avoided most of the Doctor Who new stuff - having been soured of the Doctor by successively Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann and to be honest I'd never really warmed to David Tennant's portrayal - it just seemed a little madcap, a little too camp.
So, it's looking like Delta Green may be on hold for a while due to the holidays and some folks personal situations so I'm kinda keen to see what the fuss is all about.
I may have also ordered a copy of the Dr Who Technical Manual from Noble Knight Games. I already own a copy somewhere in the depths of my parents house - which, interestingly enough, I won when I was a kid from a competition which ran in the Daily Mail. It's the sort of fanboi hardback that every kid in the world should have. It even included things I'd never heard of - Movellans, CyberMats and other things from earlier in the many series that make up the canon. With over seven hundred episodes out there - it's a lot for anyone to take in and I'd previously only really watched part of Tom Baker, most of Peter Davidson and part of Colin Baker's runs on the role. But you can also view the contents of it right here:
The Doctor Who Technical Manual
Places to go for extra fun?
How about the Official Cubicle 7 Dr Who: Adventures in Time and Space online forum? There's already heaps of adventure seeds, character and kit writeups and discussions of campaigns that could be run.
Or maybe the Vortex Oracle for quick generation of Dr Who adventure seeds?