Voices in my Head

riot gear

2011-11-20T18:02:00.004-06:00

Whenever I would work on anything cyberpunk related I always tried to capture the government control over everything. So I was always looking around for pictures of cops in riot gear in action and such. Sometimes I would see one and think "Man that would be perfect if the writing on the buildings and such was in english".

Now I have plenty of shots like that to choose from. All in english... complete with US city streets and people... It made me think differently of all the other images that I've seen from other countries. At the people in them and what they were going through. Something moved inside of me.

It's easy to hate, really it is, I've been doing it for a while now. However at this point I'm discovering just how hard it is to give a damn about something and still going after it anyways.

I can't believe how far the 'Land of the Free' has fallen. At least we are still the Home of the Brave, and I'm not referring to the ones in the riot gear.

Screams from the Outhouse: Fortune Cookies

2011-11-07T22:34:00.001-06:00

Somebody mentioned the other day about someone using fortune cookies during character creation in a wuxia style game. Evidently the history of the fortune cooked being a Japanese invention that was made popular by Americans somehow taints the Chinese based wuxia ideas. Never mind the fact that it's Chinese restaurants that are giving out the cookies with every meal and thus making them popular in America....

Anyways, this got me thinking about using them as well. I'm not sure how the previous person used them as there was no link back to the actual statement of it. But here's what I came up with. You get your saying in the cookie and then use that to help set some sort of idea for your character. Here are a few I came up with:

“There is always a way, if you are committed.” The character never gives up on a cause no matter how much the odds are stacked against them. He is always searching for the way to succeed when facing certain failure.

“You are blessed, today is the day to bless others” The character is of a religious occupation or belief. He spends a lot of his times trying to spread that belief to others or aid them spiritually.

“Traveling more often is important for your health and happiness.” The character is always on the move and never settles down for long. He is always looking forward to what is over the next hill.

“Wisdom is on her way to you” The character is a seeker of knowledge almost to the level of obsession with gaining new sources to learn from.

These could be used in just about any sort of game as well. Not just anything of 'oriental' influence or what not. Just an extra little way to apply some twists to the characters during generation. Next time I run a game I may just try this out.

The ignore list

2011-11-06T11:37:00.003-06:00

Well I've been on rpg.net a lot more here lately. I've realised that I do something that other are incapable of on there. When somebody says trollish or flamebait things I put them on ignore. Many of the people who get banned from there are apparently can't do this. They get banned when they finally get tired of seeing it and go off on the trolls.

Why do they do this? The person is obviously trying to get a rise out of people and is probably seeing a person getting banned from their prodding as a feather in their cap. So why in the world would they care what they have to say the rest of the time? I know I don't.

Anyways I've been adding to my little ignore list already over there. Now if only everyone else would start doing the same then the actions of the trolls would be met with silence. Then the very few who also make some decent posts would notice the silence as well. Once the fun is gone they would leave.

Say what...?

2011-11-05T17:06:00.002-05:00

Okay now this is a pretty petty thing for somebody to get pissed off about. From the G+ page of Gareth Skarka.

Comment on Twitter about a wuxia game that uses fortune cookies for character creation.

Fortune cookies.

A Japanese invention, popularized in America.

Fucking gamers.

Yeah so he's mad about somebody using fortune cookies for character creation because they aren't a Chinese creation (which is where wuxia originated) but Japanese and made overly popular by Americans. He doesn't mention anything at all about all the Chinese restaurants ran by actual Chinese people that give away fortune cookies.

Really sometimes GMS comes off with some things that I really think are intelligent and thinking outside of the box. Then there are time, like this, where I can do nothing more than facepalm about it.

Yeah we gamers are supposed to be of a higher morale fiber than to use a Japanese creation made popular in America and given out at Chinese restaurants because it is, I don't know insulting, to the Chinese. I don't see many Chinese cuisine sellers complaining about things like this though.

His post is public for anybody on the Plus that wants to see it.

Fools who can't come up with their own topics

2011-10-31T23:25:00.000-05:00

Y'know what I find funny? When somebody who claims to hate rpg.net with a raging huge hard-on, and yet still has to steal topics from there for their own forum. Yeah RPGdipshit is at it again.

Does it bug you when a player has been participating in a game for several sessions, and still doesn't know how to do basic things in spite of having done them multiple times, and had it explained to him multiple times?

Would it make a difference in whether it bothered you if the guy was generally dim, or if you had the sense that he just doesn't care enough about learning the rules? Or if you got a sense that he won't learn the rules specifically because he knows everyone else will tell him how to do stuff?

An amazingly obvious copycat thread starter like this one over on the old big purple.

What do you do when a player simply won't learn the rules of the game.

He lacks so much in originality that he has to lift ideas from the place that he is constantly bitching about. Well the number of threads being updated per day seems to be down so I guess it is about time for him to start doing this in an attempt to get posting back up. He did the same when rpghaven was first trying to start up.

Guess that what has to be done when your raging epeen filled with anger online persona stops attracting the folks.

The Other Side: Skill resolution mechanics

2011-10-29T15:51:00.000-05:00

Skill ranking and mechanics idea. One main goal is to just use six sided dice since they are my preferred die type and easily available.

Most likely I'll be using cascade style skills like out of Unknown Armies or broad traits like Over the Edge. Either way there will be three rankings when you choose them skilled, adept and expert. This will tell you how many dice you roll. But you only keep one, the highest. Unless you are trying something you have absolutely no skill, in that case you keep the lowest.

unskilled roll two dice and keep the lowest
skilled roll one and keep the highest
adept roll two and keep the highest
expert roll three and keep the highest

Some skills would be listed as NA for unskilled and impossible to do without possessing it.

Target numbers would depend on the action. Some would be based off a preset difficulty. For example with lockpicking the lock would have its own number that needed to be reached. 2 for the easiest and 6 for the hardest. Others such as dancing would depend on a number determined by the GM, with 2 being easy and 6 being the hardest.

Target numbers for hitting somebody would depend on the weapon and range/actions of target. Examples: Long range would add one, moving target would add one, duress would add one, weapon is low quality adds one, things like this. So if you are trying to hit a perfectly stationary target at normal range the difficulty would be 2. But a target at long range that is running and you are being shot at also (duress) would be a 5.

Of course this could make combat pretty deadly with expert fighters. But then again, shouldn't it be that way?

Thinking of some sort of instant success choice with easy task. Like the take 10 and take 20 rules from 3rd Edition D&D. Where a skilled character spends extra time to make sure he is doing it correctly and is careful.

The Other Side: The Sight

2011-10-27T00:09:00.000-05:00

The Sight

In the world of The Other Side there are people who have a gift of sorts. It's a gift that allows them to see what most others cannot, they can see through the veil of our reality. The structure of our world has a tendency to try and protect those who reside in it. First step in protection is simply hiding what does not belong. So the cracks in the walls, creatures who have slipped through, people who have figured out how to use powers that are seeping in; all of these, they are covered up. Only those with the Sight can see or detect them.

They, of course, are the player characters.

Hopefully this will allow the game to be ran in a few different ways by game masters. From a group of monster hunters, to a occult detectives and people thrown into the power struggles between beings from another world who are using our reality as a battleground. It will also add in the extra antagonists of law enforcement agencies and such who will see an assault against an otherworldly humanoid predator as an assault on a strange acting homeless man. So there can be plenty of material to work with.

Now of course not everybody can see as good as the rest. The Sight will have a skill rating and anything that is hidden by the veil will have a difficulty number to beat in order to see. But everyone with the site can see the cracks, of course that's not necessarily a good thing since by seeing them you risk getting pulled though without a choice.

Why some people are able to see like this and others are not is a subject of great debate... among those who know of it. Common theories are human evolution in defense against a growing enviromental threat, influence by some as of yet unknown race from the Other Side who are secretly aiding us, even some think that it's caused by the amount of dependency that we have on avenues of escape from the world on a daily basis. The actual truth is nobody really knows. I don't even know and I'm never going to make a set reason. This is something of the cosmological setting in the game that will be left open for GM's to fill in for themselves if needed. Or they can use the same answer I will be 'nobody knows'.

Again idiots keep babbling on

2011-10-24T19:31:00.003-05:00

The RPGdipshit continues his usual tirade showing his true colors. Basically this post of his boils down to 'run games like I do or you are running it wrong!'.

The Swine mistrust both setting and players.

Look at the Call of Cthulhu Swine, when they insist that players should not be allowed to have a high percentage in gun skills, or want to actively punish those who do. That's distrusting the player, and/or the setting. Its assuming that the player will not themselves have the sense to know when to use the weapons or not; or for that matter, the setting won't have the sense that if a player doesn't use his judgment about when to shoot or not to shoot, the setting will kill him.

But the Swine have never cared very much about emulation, I guess.

So yeah evidently all players all over the freaking world are just like his players (okay some of his are probably imaginary). Sorry but some GMs have to put some of their own rules in place to make their games run how they like them. It's an age old tradition in gaming called 'house rules' he may want to check those out.

The Other Side - The good, the bad, and the ugly.

2011-10-22T22:27:00.000-05:00

Pulling the name from my never finished system for Dark West on this one. I've always been a fan of having advantages and disadvantage in my games. It helps add depth to the characters and gives the GM a bit more insight into what the players actually want to do with them. So nearly any system I come up with is going to have these. Just sometimes how they work may vary a bit. Here are some details on how I see them working in The Other Side at the moment.

The Good and the Bad.

First thing out of the box I am not going to allow these to give the PC's any sort of financial or material gains. Turns it into more of a 'look what I get to start with!' situation. Instead they will be about their actual body of the character. Things that will affect their physical, mental and social abilities. They will be subdivided down into those three categories as well (hat off to the old WoD on this).

Now what I haven't decided on is how to figure out how many of each the players can choose. There is always the point buy method of varying degrees. Massive point pool to buy the entire character with, but this doesn't fit how I see the rest of character generation. Point swap, where the Bads would give you points to buy the Goods with, this has potential. Then there are a few random methods as well. Rolling dice for the number you get is an easy out but lacks flair. Or maybe even the lifepath set up that is used in games like Cyberpunk 2020. I just want to make it match the feel of the game somehow, exactly how to do this is the big question.

The Ugly.

Now this idea is lifted pretty much straight from the Kult rpg and honestly it's probably the main thing about character creation that I loved in it. Every character has something they don't want others to know, part of their past that makes them what they are today. They all have a dark secret. Nearly anytime I've ever ran anything horror related other than Kult I wished that I had put this into it. So much to use is just handed over on a silver plate to the GM. So I am damn sure going to be putting this into The Other Side.

Now I always like it when players make their disadvantages/advantages all cross into each other and with their dark secret. Suffering from nightmares from when they were the victim of a medical experiment, cold blooded because years back they were in a situation where they had to kill other people to survive, these sorts of things. So I'm going to work in a way to reward players for doing this. Depending on how I end up making the resolution mechanics it may be chances to reroll per game, extra dice in die pools, or bonuses. Maybe even all of them based on how the relation is done.

I want character generation to make the players think about how they want their characters to really be. All the way to the core. This seems to be a good step in that direction.

Old post from livejournal.

2011-10-21T22:57:00.003-05:00

Fired up my old livejournal account and was looking back through some of the posts. Now over there is where I first started using the 'stupid shit' tag for special posts that just really made me go "What an idiot.". So after looking at a few of these I figured I would repost one of the old ones here. So dating back from April 23, 2009 here is one I titled 'What a twit....'.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Marcus King, the owner of the retail store Titan Games and Music, bitches about companies giving discounts on their pdfs but not to the brick an mortar stores. The article is here:

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/14705.html

Now I would like to add that the reason these publishers gave these discounts is due to the fact that WOTC pulled all their pdf titles down and the publishers were trying to help the pdf sellers 'keep afloat' or some such. Basically they are trying to keep another seller of their product healthy.

Now back to Marcus. I've met Marcus once at a con, didn't seem like that much of a dick. But after reading this article I've got to say he really looks like one now.

Bitching that he wants free copies of Exalted to give away. Guess all the point of sale boosters like posters, quick play guides and discounts for buying quantity at release points don't matter. Oh lets not forget the free VTES starters they gave out there for a while, or the free promo cards they used to give out. Shit guess he forgot about all that.

I used to play the hell out of the Cyberpunk CCG. I got into it when the local shop gave me and a buddy a couple of decks that he was sent FREE. Once we got a few others playing the shop sold several boxes of the game. 7th Sea was the same, walked into the shop and the owner handed us a couple of free starters he got from AEG.

You see many publishers have been BENDING THE FUCK OVER BACKWARDS to help out the brick and mortar shops for years now. I've seen it. Seen free books sent to shops, free give away stuff, free this and free that. Discounts at conventions to retailers buying straight from the publishers there. So when they go and try and help the pdf shops he gets all pissy about it.

Fuck him. I hate people with selective memory who forget things to make their own arguement more valid.

You don't see him bitching about internet discounters cutting into his bussiness though do you? Amazon sells a metric assload of rpg stuff for cheaper prices than the shops. But since he sells on amazon I guess he keeps his mouth shut there.

Liquid Television back on the air, well at least the net.

2011-10-20T20:51:00.003-05:00

MTV has finally did something really good for once. They created a Liquid Television website and uploaded, as near as I can tell, everything that ever aired on the show. This included a lot of animation made by very small studios, films that were a labor of love for these people. This included...

Aeon Flux.

Still one of the most surreal cyberpunkish series of shorts that I have ever seen.

Liquid Television - The alternative to reality.

Hell I still love that tagline for it.

Screams from the Outhouse: Todays dice.

2011-10-18T14:47:00.003-05:00

One of the first visuals that comes to mind when you mention role-playing games to anybody who has had any experience with them is that of dice. We seem to have a love affair with our dice. From people who collect endless amounts of sets and varieties to rituals that some do at the table to help their odds of rolling good numbers. Don't even try to grab somebodies little pile of polyhedrons without first asking for permission, you can lose a finger that way. It's in our blood to roll these things, the clickity clack of the plastic across the table is forever ingrained into our minds.

But usually the image in all our minds has pretty much remained the same. The colors may change, the six siders may have pips or numbers, the one may be a little picture instead of a number. But they all have nice, flat, solid sides. Koplow, Gamescience, Chessex and many other dice makers have their own fans who say they are the best, but in the end they all end up looking pretty much the same. Even when Crystal Caste turned up with some neater looking designs and the 'rolling log' appearance most still remember the ones they have spent years with.

However things are changing in the dice market now. The technology used to etch or laser craft dice has become more available over the years. People can now operate out of their homes, basements and garages in the dice business. The base unetched dice must still be bought from suppliers because, lets face it, plastic injection mold machines are a bit much to get into. So now you can have custom made dice for your specific game or campaign made just for you. Want a D6 with the symbol of the ruling empire in your game on it? It can be done, just decide how many you want and they'll send you a price. Combine this with blogging about all your new creations, your successful (and failed) tests and you can build up some popularity.

Dicecreator

However for some this is not enough. If a technology is out there and it can some way be used to fulfill a gamers dream then by god somebody will use it. Enter the age of 3D Printers. For those of you who don't know these are damn near micro factories that can print full three dimensional objects in a variety of materials. You just design the item you want, or scan the hell out of an existing one and let the printer 'build' it for you. They are truly wonderful things.

So of course people are breaking the mold in how dice should look. Especially since the 3D printers break all the rules of the old injection mold technology. Things that would have required multiple pieces and be glued together can now be built as one object. Over on Shapeways there is starting to be a large variety of these dice being made available all with some very interesting designs.

Made by Wombat

Masterworks

These are just a couple of what is there. Plus there are many other sites offering up 3D printer created objects. Prices will vary a lot from maker to maker of course. But this is the start of a movement into smaller independently owned creators and away from the mass quantity companies of the past. Will Chessex and their like go away? I doubt it. But they will have some unique competition now.

Story out of Sequence part five

2011-10-18T14:11:00.000-05:00

“Vehicle is a white Monte Carlo year 1980, excellent condition, plates number is SD4 56T. Doors appear to be locked; windows are rolled up, no keys present in ignition.” Detective Samantha Haberlin circled the vehicle talking into a small recorder in her hand. “In the back seat there is a plastic rifle case, several boxes of ammunition and a closed green sports bag. In the front there appears to be an empty bottle of Jack Daniels, an unfolded straight razor, loose cartridges for a pistol on the floorboards and a photograph of a girl. Oh and a sealed blank envelope on the dashboard.”

“You always seem to beat me to the scene Sam.” A voice sounded off from behind her.

“That’s right Murphy, always have and always will.” She turns to see the detective making his way around the police cruiser blocking off the alley. He looked like death warmed over this morning, probably hung over again. “Rough night?”

“As usual. It locked up?”

“Yeah, we’re supposed to get the keys for it sent down here once Julia gets done with the shit bag down in the morgue.” After pulling a five out of her coat pocket Samantha flags an officer over to her. “It looks like we will be here for a while why don’t you go get us all some coffee. Make mine black.”

“Same here.” Murphy spoke in as he peered through the side window of the car.

“Yes ma’am.” The officer turned away and headed off towards another patrol car on the street.

“So you think it’s going to be awhile before we get the keys Sam?”

“Well the body got pretty well ventilated. Jones is the one that finally took him down and you know how trigger-happy he is. With the way this guy went off you know he didn’t spare him any lead either.”

“Last count I got on the way up here was nine dead and fifteen wounded. With two of the dead being cops. I just can’t wait until we get a bullet count of how many rounds he put into him.”

“Detective Haberlin?” An officer approached from the end of the alley. Sam turned and gave him a nod. “Miss Bates down at the morgue wanted me to deliver you this. She said you wanted it as soon as possible.”

“Thanks.” Sam takes the envelope and looks inside, “Better glove up Murphy. For once somebody worked in our favor. They went ahead and sent us the keys.”

“I call dibs on the trunk.”

“I figured that much.” She sat the envelope on the hood of the car and slipped her gloves on, then pulled the keys out. “Quite a few on here, guess later we get the honor of trying to find out what they all go to.”

“Yeah lots of fun that will be. Hopefully he had some local next of kin to help us out when we get ready to do that.” He made an angry face as he pulled his gloves on with a snap.

“You always look like you’re about to give a cavity search every time you do that.”

“Yeah but the guys down at the jail hate it when I do one, my hands are to big for their tastes. Now come on let’s open the baby up.”

Sam looks through the keys a bit before finally selecting one out. She slides it into the lock on the trunk and turns it. “Well time to see what a psycho gun nut keeps in his trunk.”

“Oh didn’t know we were going through Jones’s car.” Murphy said with a grin as the trunk rose. “Okay now that’s not what I expected.”

“Holy shit…” Sam raises the recorder up to her mouth, “Inside the trunk there are several knives lined up in a rack, varying in size. A box of latex gloves, plastic bags, several rows of duck tape, rope, a Polaroid camera and some storage boxes.”

“I’m opening one of these boxes.” His hands gently lift the top of one of the boxes open while attempting not to disturb anything else. “Pictures, um … nothing special just a few… wait a second.”

“What is it?”

Murphy stood back up and goes through a hand full of Polaroid’s while Sam looks over his shoulder. “Victims I assume. Bound up and apparently being cut to death.”

“I recognize that person. She’s one of the victims of that serial killer that disappeared about a year ago. You remember that?”

“Yeah the one who got nicknamed the slow slasher since he took his time killing the victims. That means our man lying on the slab at the morgue is probably him.”

“I’m gonna go call this in. This pulls it out of our jurisdiction now.”

From the mouth of a fool

2011-10-15T07:54:00.002-05:00

Okay I haven't made fun of the RPGdipshit in a while so I think now is the time. Over on his forums there has been a poll with various games listed and the question is 'which of these are storygames?'. Now the raving fool is all mad because his favorite game is scoring high as a storygame. He makes this comment:

This is a stupid thread. You don't vote in a poll to decide what's a storygame or not. Its a question of the landmarks that define gaming. If the majority vote differently, all that means is that they are misinformed.

Now keep in mind this is the guy who thinks that HE decides the landmarks and writes teh definition of what is an RPG. He will completely refuse to see another persons point of view if they think differently and label them as 'swine'. He is like Ron Edwards but only with a different set of favorite games... although they both hate White Wolf stuff most likely because they will never be that successful.

Yeah so his thinking is that everyone is misinformed because they refuse to follow HIS set of rules. Ron Edwards all over again. He is what he hates.

The Other Side visuals

2011-10-12T21:16:00.003-05:00

This is what you find when you make your way to the other side. The bleed was at an amusement park, one minute you were walking through the crowds of people smelling of popcorn and sweat. Then you saw the crack and you stared at it a few seconds to many. Then in a blink the people are gone and all you can smell is the mold and stagnant water.

You really don't want to be caught there once the sun goes down.

The Other Side - quick overview.

2011-10-11T23:00:00.002-05:00

A few notes about 'The Other Side' which I'm currently getting ready to start working on. It's my own personal little horror setting with influences from a bunch of different places. Some of the terms I have used before with other ideas or in various discussions about games I've ran. But they all seem to just lead right back to one place.

The reality we know is only one of many. They sort of exist like a spiders web, all tied together by various strands. Some exist right next door to us while others we have to cross more than one world to get to. Problems arise when the walls between these realities begin to weaken or crack and they start to bleed into each other. This also allows for things to travel between them.

Our little world is nearest to one that most simply call 'The City'. It mimics that which bleeds into it better than most others. Most of the surface is covered entirely by a city in various states of ruin and disrepair. Through it is how we gain access to others, but it's a dangerous place and many do not live to tell of their travels there.

Humans have souls, something that sets them apart from many other... things out there. Although there is no heaven and hell or angels and demons as we know them. There are, however, the places and creatures that provided the inspiration for the stories about them.

The characters will be those who are able to see the cracks in the walls of reality. For some unknown reason their minds are able to catch a glimpse of what others cannot. A few think this is an a sign of evolution, others think it's the laws of another reality bleeding into ours, many wish they never had that sort of sight at all. Because when you can see the cracks it tends to be easier to accidently slip over to the other side of them.

Once again....

2011-10-09T18:52:00.002-05:00

It's been a while. Had to take a break from my articles and get some stuff on the other side of the keyboard here straightened out. But hopefully I'll be back on here a bit more often now. There will be a few changes in what I'm doing.

Be A Better Player - this will continue, just not as a regular feature but just putting them up as I get the inspiration.

Cyberpunk Sunday - Dropping this one. I may put up one every now and then when I see something really damn cool though.

Truly Rural - I'll keep moving articles from there over to here.

The Other Side - This is my horror game that I'm going to start working on. All of my old Kult material will have the serial numbers scrapped off and worked into it. Going to be lots of randomness for it most likely, always a project in development. Not even remotely looking for a final product out of this.

See you all in a few days I hope.

Be A Better Player... well nobody will be better player at the moment.

2011-08-21T14:27:00.001-05:00

My new Be A Better Player will have to wait a bit. Life has been shoveling me some shit here lately and I've been busy digging my way out. Even when I get time to work on writing anything I'm not anywhere near in the right mindset to do so. So I would rather wait and write it right than hand out some half baked ideas. Hope you all understand

Cyberware and it's cost in humanity.

2011-08-19T21:19:00.000-05:00

Been going working over some ideas to adjust the humanity rules (empathy, karma, whatever for whichever system) when it comes to cyberware. Usually the common rule is the more of your body that is not real the less human you become. Eventually ending up as a stone faced killer with no empathy or a raving madman.

Now the main reason I can see this being in most games is for game balance and power limitations. You get your good with the bad, but you also can't get to much good either or you flip out. Now this works but it also acts like a bit of crutch for the GM and is one less thing to worry about. But it doesn't seem all that realistic.

If somebody loses both legs in an accident. This could set you for a life in a wheelchair as a very permanent handicap. So why would a set of fully functional artificial legs run down your human empathy or mental stability. I means it's a miracle of modern science, you can walk, run and jump again. Just doesn't make sense to me that the joy of regaining your mobility would dump you into the downward spiral of cyberpsychosis.

So for me in any cyberpunkish game that I run, having a cybernetic replacement of something that was lost due to an accident will cost zero humanity. As long as it's just a simple replacement, no special gadgets, hidden guns, etc.

Now lets say time goes by and you get something added to those legs for your job or to make life easier. A plug in to power your laptop or recharge your legs batteries, a dermal pocket with a small flashlight for emergencies, stuff like that. Again zero humanity cost.

So when will it cost you? Well when you make the decision to go and have your perfectly good eye cut out of your head and replaced, that's when the costs will start up. The more you have modified by your own free will the more the cost will go up. Because you are consciously stepping away from your humanity, stepping away from your own body. Start carving off your legs and your mind has to been a different state than most normal people.

More on this topic later.

Cyberpunk Sunday 008 - skin tech, t-cells, brainwaves and printers oh my!

2011-08-14T12:04:00.003-05:00

Well the last few weeks there have been some really damned amazing stories coming out. It's really hard to decide on which ones to cover here. But at least it gives me plenty of material for the next installment.

This first one was sent to me by a fellow Kultist named Craig Toehill. I had seen a few articles on this already but the one he sent was by far one of the better. Electronic skin grafts, well not quite a graft but an overlay of circuits onto your skin. With the developments and stretchable and bendable technologies (I've covered a bit of the bendies before) this seems to be a natural mix. Attaching the super thin circuits to your skin through a method that, get this, is exactly like putting on a temporary tattoo. They are so thin you can even put an actual temporary tattoo over the top to hide the attachment.

Tons of uses for this. Currently the first to mind for development are in the medical field replacing all the long cords and sticky pads of monitoring equipment. It would allow the patient a lot more mobility and a lot less discomfort. Other ideas come to my mind also, like an old idea I had for a wearable headset that just sticks onto your skin. I'll let you read on this some more and tell me what idea you have for it.

Electronic skin grafts.

Next up is a US study presented in the New England Journal of Medicine. It had my jaw dropping at its implications and the groundwork it helps lay for Biopunk and transhumanism. By modifying the T-cells of patients into tumor killing predators they have successfully wiped leukemia out of three patients who have now lived cancer free for a year. Yeah bioengineering at it's finest. Let me pull up my favorite quote from the article:

"Within three weeks, the tumors had been blown away, in a way that was much more violent than we ever expected," said senior author Carl June of the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

Yeah, violently attacked the tumors. I'm pretty sure this is still a rather tedious and expensive process as the cells would have to be tailor made from the individual patient. But this is a success story which is exactly what they need to get more funding to keep working in this direction.

Modified killer t-cells

Now for a few years there has been work with a brain-computer interface with quite a bit of success. They managed to get it down to where the person could operate a computer, although rather slowly. This is a tiny stepping stone into the direction of one of the least likely cyberpunk ideas, netrunning or full computer interface. But now they've done gone and took a step further by integrating it into an online virtual environment. They hooked it up to Second Life. While it's still a slow and hard to control interface and there is a lot of work to be done with the sensors and pads that will read your brainwaves (or maybe not... hmmm... that stick on technology that I listed up above) since it's hard to keep them positioned right on a persons head. But the future is looking virtual.

Brain wave interface with Second Life.

Okay and last but not certainly least the 3D printer. These have been in the tech news for a while here lately but this video gives a really good layman's terms description of how it works and shows them scanning in and 'printing' a wrench. Thanks to Sean Barton for linking to this article now it's my turn to share it with a few folks. Personally I believe in a decade or so this will start to revolutionize some of the commercial industries just like CnC machines have done in the past. It also fits the description of the microfactories out of Cybergeneration.

See the 3-D printer in action.

Replicant Society Stress Triggers and Models.

2011-08-12T22:36:00.002-05:00

Been hashing out some ideas for a game based on Blade Runner and the novel it was adapted from 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep'. Currently it's called Replicant Society and the players will be the Androids. This first little bit I posted over on my G+ stream. Might as well do a repost here.

Here are some quick ideas on stress triggers and android model types. This is all just ideas I've been writing down over the last couple of days.

One thing that androids do not have is a lifetime of experience. This is especially true in the area of the minds ability to handle stressful situations. Thus it become necessary to track the various types of stress that they are especially vulnerable to. Now some model types are more resistant to various types of stress than others. Now let's look at the four key stress triggers.

Socialization – This is the ability to handle constant social interaction with a variety of people in multiple situations.

Sexual Contact – The intimacy of sexual contact with a living being.

Combat – This is one stress trigger that androids tend to share with their human counterparts.

Emotional Crests – Intense amounts of any specific emotion. Be it fear, happiness, love.

Now the various model types are listed below. Each has specific triggers that they are more resistant while others they seem more susceptible to.

Administration – Resistant to Socialization.
Pleasure – Resistant to Sexual Contact and Socialization. Susceptible to Combat.
Combat – Resistant to Combat and Emotional Crests. Susceptible to Sexual Contact and Socialization.
Caregiver – Resistant to Emotional Crests and Socialization. Susceptible to Combat.
Labor – Neutral regard with all triggers.
Entertainment – Resistant to Socialization. Susceptible to Combat.

Story out of Sequence part four

2011-08-11T20:32:00.001-05:00

“So we’re just going to put his soul back into a body that’s been rotting in a box for a couple months? I thought, like, it would go into another body. Send that person’s soul out and put my fathers in.” Tonya spoke while still staring at the doors, waiting for an explanation.

“Well…” Robert paused long enough to light up a Camel, “…it’s only going to be in that state momentarily. Once he is safely tucked away inside I start up another ritual that restores the body. Normally it would be impossible for it to work on a corpse, but with the soul inside it takes. In about a week your dad will be up, walking around, in his old body just like it used to be.” Taking a few paces up behind her he placed his hand on her shoulder. “How does that sound to you?”

“Better than I had imagined actually.” Tonya turned around with a grin of excitement upon her face. She reached up and takes the smoking cigarette from his lips and took a drag off of it. “Of course I should have realized for what I am paying that I am getting a true professional.”

“I am nothing if not professional.” He let out a sly smile and moved his hands to her hips, pulling her closer. “On top of that there is nothing that I wouldn’t do for you.”

“Well then let’s get this started, shall we?”

“That bit of detail certainly got your enthusiasm up didn’t it?” Over dramatically he stepped away from Tonya and turned towards the doors. Turning his head just enough to catch her face in his vision he placed his hands on the handle and turned it. With one swift motion he turned back towards the doors and pushed them open while walking in.

Her breath nearly escaped her at its site. On a rolling rack before her was the very casket she had picked out for the funeral, slightly dirty with a few dings on the top and smelled of earth. She took a few cautious steps forward and placed her fingertips along its side making sure it was solid and not imagined. Then running her hand over its top she stopped at a folded red cloth just above where the head would be. “You’ve certainly outdone yourself Robert, I will give you that. But what’s in the cloth?”

“That contains something that will be most helpful in finding your dear departed father. You see contrary to popular belief the soul doesn’t leave the body upon death, but only upon burial. Until that time it is trapped inside and witness to the events that follow. Once the first few shovels of dirt land upon the casket the soul is pushed up and out of its former shell from there it will go wherever it is supposed to go.” Robert walked onto the side of opposite of Tonya looking down at the cloth. “Normally it is through a sample of dirt that is collected that we trace the soul through since that is what it passed through. This time, however, we have something very connected to you and his soul passed through it. We have the rose you laid upon the casket before it was lowered into the ground.”

“My last farewell to him. I was the only one who stayed to watch the actual burial. They took the other flowers off but I asked them to leave one that I had brought. Something that I hoped he would take with him to the other side.”

“He may not have taken it with him, but rest assured he did touch it on the way out. Now you guide from the front and I will push. Tell me before we get up onto the lines on the floor, we’ve got to be careful going over them.”

The wheels of the rack began to squeak slightly as Robert started pushing. Tonya grabbed the front handle with both hands and pulled as best she could while trying to watch over her shoulder directing them. With the weight being so high it felt as if there was an unavoidable topple whenever they hit any small crevice in the floor. Slowly they manage to get it up to the circle.

“Alright from here we are going to have be on either side and lift the rack up and move it forward over the paint. We need to take it slow or we will wind up having to start all over again, and that’s something I would rather not do.”

“No problem, I got it.”

“Get on the left; I’ll get on the right. Okay. You ready?”

“Yeah I got a good grip.” She looked down at the floor underneath her and placed her feet appropriately so as not to step in the wrong place. “I’m ready.”

“Good. On three, one, two, three lift!” They both strain and manage to lift the front wheels of the rack an inch off of the ground. “Now forward just six inches.” Franks voice strained. Each slowly inched forward just enough to bring the wheels over the line. “Down.”

Tonya looked back up at Frank with a little exertion sounding in her voice. “So tell me, why we didn’t move the casket in here before you put the lines down?”

“Can’t, the lines have to be down first then the host body added on top of them for it to work properly. A lot of magic like this is very specific about the order in which you do things. One thing wrong and it doesn’t work or worse, it does something unexpected.”

“Ah, okay. I should have realized there would be some sort of reason like that.”

For the next half hour they move the casket to the designs center a few inches at a time. Stopping to rest for a moment or two here and there before continuing on. A few final alignments at the end and Robert walks back to the side room.

“What next? We have something else to move?”

“Nope just a few things to carry with us to the other side. Come with me I’ve got something for you.” He works two locks open on a cabinet in the corner and waits until she has walked up behind him. “We are going into an unfriendly area. It is best that we protect ourselves why we are there.”

Tonya steps closer looking at the cabinet’s contents with a slow studying gaze. Several weapons hang inside, knives, swords with ornate handles, a beat up looking fireman’s axe and a host of necklaces and assorted objects. On the inside of each door was a black leather backpack with several pockets; along the bottom on the inside the cabinet were various clear glass vials of colored liquids.

“So are we going to have to take all of this with us?”

“No. Only a few will do us any good on the other side, the ones made to deal with those who reside there. What do you know how to use?”

“Well I can use a knife decently I guess but I’ve never even held a sword. I’ve used an axe to chop and split wood but not for anything else.”

“Then you will carry the axe. Put this necklace on as well, it will make it harder for you to be seen.” Robert throws a backpack over his shoulder and hooks a sword to his belt. “Whatever you do don’t loose the axe, it belonged to my father.”

“The only way I’ll let go of it is if I’m dead.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

Story out of Sequence part three

2011-08-09T18:58:00.000-05:00

Frank leaned back against the register looking off at the sun dropping behind the city skyline. Well as much as one could see through windows covered in sales posters, security bars and alarm wires. This was the time of day he enjoyed the most, almost no customers and nearly silent except for Tim stocking the shelves added into that the fact he got to go home in a less than half an hour. It was a good time to just relax, let your mind wander and plan what to do for the night.

Ringing from the door opening pulled his attention back into the store as someone entered. He looked over to see a young woman walking towards the counter holding a book bag out to him. “Thank you miss.” He uttered as she handed it over to him to place behind the counter, “Remember it on your way out.” She was kind of cute, he thought to himself, in a nothing fancy girl next door way. He couldn’t pull out much detail about her body but he did like what she was wearing. Loose fitting jeans, not those baggy ‘gangsta’ style ones everybody was wearing now days, just loose. A turtle neck sweater that covered her all the way up to the bottom of the jaw and only allowed her fingertips to stick out. Thin with a walk that was not attempting to show anything off.

He turned his attention back to the skyline, watching the glowing yellow disappear behind the business offices and car garages. All the while checking off in his mind the various activities that presented themselves for later. No dance clubs, didn’t feel like listening to throbbing music and even much less for dancing. Just going out and getting a good drunk going didn’t sound like what to do either even though he didn’t have to work the next day. He wanted music but nothing heavy, maybe some coffee with it as well. Maybe one of the more quite clubs down near the east side of the campus would do. Maybe.

“Next isle over ma’am, about half way down on your right.” Tim’s voice pulled him back into the store this time. So professional sounding, so utterly fake compared to what it’s like when he’s not around customers. He turned to watch the girl walk out of one isle and into the next one over.

“Hey Tim are you done stocking back there? It’s getting about time for me to clock out.” Frank called back.

“Yeah just a couple more boxes left and I’ll be done man.”

Beginning his normal leaving routine Frank cleared the bits of paper and plastic from around the register and wiping the counter down with a dust rag. Finishing up just in time as the girl walked up and place and armful of items down in front of him. “Find everything fine miss?”

“Yes.” Her small voice answered back.

She had beautiful blue eyes Frank noticed as he began scanning the items through and placing them in a bag. Looking at the prices ringing up and back at her more than at what was passing through his hands. “Looks like it’s going to be a nice night tonight, weather just cool enough for a jacket.”

“Yes it does look like it will be a nice night.” Her voice sounded smooth and quiet with a hint of shyness.

An exchange of currency between the two occurs without an announcement of the amounts. Frank handing her back the change without counting it. “Hope you enjoy it then.” He replied as he held the bag of merchandise out to her. “Oh and here’s your back pack also.”

“Thank you.” She turns and walks out the door without another word. Walking off to the left and disappearing from view.

Frank returned to his cleaning and realized that he forgot to give her the receipt. He pulled it out of the register and casually looked at it, going over the items in his head. Sewing needles, thread, rubbing alcohol, sterile gauze, medical tape, razor blades and a bottle of antiseptic spray. “What the hell.” He whispered to himself. Looking back out the door she left through he pocketed the receipt.

“Finished up man. Go ahead and get out of here if you want.” Tim’s voice barked, suddenly right beside him.

“Shit, don’t sneak up on me like that dammit.” Frank replied back with a smile.

“Sorry. Did Anna the ice princess get your attention? Noticed you watching her leave.”

“Ice princess?”

“Yeah down at the college nobody can even get her to talk to them for more than a couple lines. Lord knows a lot of us have tried, male and female.”

“Guess she’s not into being socially interactive.”

“Got that right. The only place I ever see her hang out at besides school is at that club down by the campus. She just sets in a corner booth drinking coffee all night and reading.”

“Which club would that be?”

Be a Better Player 9 - Remember the rules.

2011-08-07T13:24:00.000-05:00

GM – The black guardians slowly step out of the woodline around the campfire. They are on all sides effectively surrounding your group. The familiar sound of their blades being drawn, that high pitched scrape almost like screaming fills the air. It's very clear they aren't here to talk.

Player 1 – Oh hell here we go. I told you they would catch up to us.

Player 2 – Okay you were right. Arm yourselves guys it's time for a fight.

GM – I need some initiative rolls all around.

(sounds of dice rolling)

Player 3 – Um... how do I roll that again?

Player 1 – sigh... the same as last time.

Player 3 – I forgot. Tell me how it works again.

GM – Roll a ten sider, add in your initiative bonus. Don't worry about any negatives since your armor wouldn't give you any.

Player 3 – Ah okay. Where's the bonus at on the sheet?

Player 4 – We've been playing this for weeks now and you do this all the time.

Player 1 – Yeah man come on.

Player 3 – Relax, it's just a game. Chill out already.

Now we all know that the games we play have rules and at times they can become pretty essential. Especially for events like combat which can come up often. So learning at least the basics of rules can become a necessity to keep things rolling along. Nothing is worse than stopping every time to refresh somebody on how to roll to hit.

Before anybody gets riled up over this I'm not talking addressing people brand new to gaming or when you just start a new system for the first time. People new to the hobby usually take a bit of time getting the hang of the rules especially when, in the process of playing, you tend to go suddenly from amateur theater around the table to randomized mathematics at the drop of a hat. Nobody shouldn't expect a veteran player to suddenly know the rules for a system they never played before.

What I am talking about is when you've been playing games for a while and have been using a specific system for a while also. You should at least commit enough to remember how to roll for initiative, to hit, make a saving throw or a simple skill check. This alone will help save a lot of time and keep the game flowing along nicely.

If it's a system that is rather complex or you just have trouble remembering things then ask for, or make, a cheat sheet. Right down the basics of what you need to do on a spare sheet of paper and in a description that you can understand. Keep it right beside your character sheet during play for that fast reference. Hell I still have a couple of cheat sheets for some games I used to play, one even covered character generation so I could speed through it quickly. Personally I think a photocopy friendly cheat sheet in the back of core game books should be included right beside the character sheet. But that's just my opinion.

Story out of Sequence part two

2011-08-05T19:44:00.000-05:00

The brush glided along the floor leaving a trail of purplish red behind it. It turned, created circles, moved off at angles. Slowly the lines are laid down and each with its own purpose. Each stroke almost seemed random while it was being laid down and yet the finished product looked entirely predetermined. When all is done the brush is dropped into the jar holding the excess paint that was not used.

Robert stood back and gave a slow glance over his handiwork. It looked complete and, most importantly, perfect. He put the lid back on the glass container holding the specially mixed paint, leaving the brush inside, and placed it back on the altar. The mix must be kept separate from all the others, each has its own special ingredients and one would ruin the other if they were ever to come into contact.

"Well is it ready?" Tonya finally spoke up. She leaned forward out of the shadows of the far corner looking directly at his face. "Are you ready to start now?"

Robert moved only his eyes to look at her keeping his head facing the floor, "Why are you so eager to look at death? That is where you want to go isn't it?" She stood in silence at his words. "The realm of the spirits the home to those who have died. Called by many names such as hell, purgatory, limbo and countless others by those who have seen it or are bound there."

"You told me all this before Robert. Why do you keep saying it again and again? Do you think I am suddenly going to have second thoughts and back out?"

"If you are so ready then begin lighting the candles around the circle, and be careful not to smudge the symbols when you walk." He turned from the altar, holding a worn black leather book in his hands. It was made by his own hands, even the paper, then stitched together slowly over time, it was something wholly his own. "The slightest damage to them could get us bound there as well. What they do to people who don’t belong there is beyond reason and imagination to those who are still alive." Tonya looked at him with wide eyes and a face that was slowly filling with the emotion of fear. "Well are you still so anxious to go?"

"Of course, I have to do this." She tried to put on a sterner face but her eyes showed the fear that was building within her. He stared at her for a few minutes and then looked back towards the floor." Are you getting afraid yourself is that the problem?" She blurted it out in a louder voice than before, attempting still yet to summon up her courage.

“Now you do know that if we find him and successfully bring him back he may not be the same person that he was before?”

“What are you talking about? You told me that we will get his soul, the only soul he’s ever had, not a copy or dupe of any kind, but HIM! So it will be the same person as it was before, it will be my father!”

“Oh yes it will be your father. But… he may not be like you remember him.”

“What are you talking about?”

Robert turns towards her; she can feel his eyes like needles upon her face. It’s like this every time he’s about to get really serious. “He has spent some time in hell, his own personal hell. This is something that nobody can ever be fully prepared for. In that place minutes can seem like days on end, eternities could pass in a single day’s time. Nobody walks away from that unchanged.” He takes another couple steps through the symbol, careful not to touch a single brush stroke. “I know this from experience.”

“What, you mean you’ve died and came back yourself?”

“No. I’ve brought somebody back before, and she changed more than I could deal with. Fortunately for the both of us her changes also made me less desirable to her. So in the end the person I went to hell and back for decided that we were no longer meant to be together. So much for love eternal and undying eh?”

“Well that’s a risk I am willing to take for my father. He means everything to me.”

“Alright then let’s begin the final preparations. I will need your help to move your fathers casket out here into the center; it’s currently in the side room there.”

Face draining of color she follows his finger to a set of double doors on the side of the room. “You mean his body? You’ve got his body in that room?”

“Of course. I mean, his soul has to go somewhere when we bring him back doesn’t it then?”

Story out of Sequence part one

2011-08-03T21:36:00.000-05:00

Roscoe sat crouched down on his knees with his back resting against the brick. The cold felt reassuring against his spine. He could feel the sun beating down on him, especially on his head and face. The red glow inside his closed eyelids was even bright to him; all he wanted was the darkness. Only the cold metal in his hands gave him any other comfort besides the bricks at his back.

The sounds of the city around him beat in on his eardrums giving no silence for those who wanted it. The never ceasing dull hum of engines set the average that everything seemed to challenge. Horns blared loudly without notice, like spikes through the skin. Screams of insults and foul language would often erupt, usually after the sounds of smashing metal and breaking glass. That would bring those terrible sirens of the local law enforcement that would add even more raised voices and insults. It was all an unending circle of noise and aggravation. It never ceased and it continued to drive itself further into his head every day.

“Still crying about the sounds?” the voice in his head finally rang out.

"Go away. I don't want to hear you today." Roscoe said out loud. Becoming suddenly aware that he was doing so. He calmed in a second when he realized that there was no one else on the rooftop to hear him. "You give me a headache."

"I give you a headache? No, what gives you a headache is yourself listening to all the sounds of life out there. You focus on them instead of ignoring them or trying to get them to be quite."

"You make me listen to them. I know it. I never used to be this way until you came along. Now all I hear is every little noise around me no matter what I do to drown them out."

"Oh I did this did I? Maybe you’re just having your midlife crisis or something. Did you even think about that? Or are you just looking for someone to place the blame on?"

"You ask too many questions. Shut up."

"Shut up? Me? What have I done to you?"

"Shut up."

"I will not. I have a right to speak just as you do. Its not my fault that you're the only person who can hear me." In the distance the sound of car alarm rings out.

"Shut up!"

"You only think of yourself you know that? Have you ever thought of anyone beside yourself? Are you listening to me?" In the apartment building across the street the sound of a child screaming suddenly blares out.

"Shut up!" Roscoe stands straight up. He opens his eyes to the pain of the light in defiance. A car backfires. "Shut up!" He spins to face down onto the street. An argument starts between several teenagers over a game of basketball. "SHUT UP!" He clicks the safety off, and raises the rifle. The noise being added now is being created by him. Every part of the sound is audible, the inner workings of the firearm, the round firing, the ejection of the empty shell casing, the brass hitting the rooftop, the screams from below. "I said Shut Up!"

"No."

Cyberpunk Sunday 007 - Dipping into the roots of cyberwear.

2011-08-01T20:10:00.002-05:00

Microsoft, widely thought of by many to be the corporation of evil (until Apple started to blossom again) has always dabbled into areas a bit off the normal beat and path. This time they are looking at using the human body as controllers for electronics. While still in the early stages it has some interesting concepts. Your own body becomes a big remote control in a sense, so by doing a certain gesture or by touching a wall you can set off certain predetermined actions in electronics. So you wouldn't even have to walk five feet to hit a button to turn on your coffee make you could just point at it. Isn't technology grand!

You are the human antenna.

Actually technology is grand, especially when doing things like enabling the blind to see. Those wonderful German scientists are working on some cutting edge tech that implants a microchip carrying 1500 photosensitive diodes right into your retina where normal healthy photoreceptors of a non-blind person would be. Now it's still tied to an external power source, so this means a wire coming out of the eye. But in the test subjects who underwent this procedure all of them can identify bright colors and one could even read large printed words. Pretty damn spectacular if you ask me. One note to this on the test subjects though, it doesn't state if these were people born blind or had an accident or disease that rendered them blind. So the overall benefits of this aren't to clear yet.

Electronic implants allow the blind to see.

On another look into some more protocyberwear technology we have an implant that has helped a paralyzed man move again. Putting am electronic stimulator into the lining of the spinal cord has helped 'reconnect' severed connections. While not perfect it does allow the subject free movement of his legs although not up to the state of walking again. I'm pretty sure there is a lot of neural pathway mapping that has to be done to make the leap. But this gives us the great grandfather of the neural interface that would be necessary to operate a set of artificial legs. A small step in the direction of cybertechnology.

The full article on this.

Well that's the three links for this installment of Cyberpunk Sunday... or as it happened this week Cyberpunk Monday. Any suggestions for future articles or topics please send them to me at peteramthor@trulyrural.com if you don't mind. See you in two weeks.

This week only, Cyberpunk Sunday is Cyberpunk Monday.

2011-07-31T14:12:00.001-05:00

It's going to be a cyberpunk monday this week. I guess most schedules get tossed out the window during the summer when it's nice outside and you have kids.

The ABC's of NVD's

2011-07-26T08:01:00.001-05:00

Limitations to keep in mind when players decide to use Night Vision Devices. This article taken directly from the US Army's 'Countermeasure' magazine April 2003 issue.

Hope it helps a few GMs out there.

----------------------------------------------------------

Wow! A soldier has just looked through night vision goggles (NVGs) for the first time. He can see – he thinks – and he'd like to put the goggles on and go. What he doesn't know is that while NVGs increase night light to incredible levels, they don't turn night into day and they don't show him everything. Like all Night Vision Devices (NVDs), the goggles have some limitations. Some of those are limitations in the devices themselves while others are in the eye. Sometimes those limitations show up in the accident reports and they're worth being aware of. Let's look at some of the most common concerns.

Reduced Field of View
The view through NVDs can be a lot like looking down a tunnel. Your normal field of view is almost 190 degrees – but that is cut down to 40 degrees with NVDs. That side – or "peripheral" – vision you're accustomed to, and from which you often see your dangers, is just not there. To adjust for that you must constantly turn your head to scan for the dangers on either side of you that you can's see in your narrow field of view.

Reduced Visual Acuity (Sharpness)
At their best, NVGs cannot provide the same level of sharpness to what you see as what you're accustomed to in the daytime. While normal vision is 20/20, NVGs can, at best, provide only 20/25 to 20/40, and even this is possible only during optimal illumination and when you have a high-contrast target or scene. As either illumination or contrast decreases, the NVGs visual acuity drops, giving you an even more "fuzzy" image.

Reduced Depth and Distance Perception
Normally you use both eyes (binocular vision) to pick up the cues to help estimate the distance and depth of an object. However, with NVDs you are essentially using one eye (monocular) vision, which can pose real problems. For example, when you are wearing NVDs and you view two objects of different sizes that are side-by-side, the larger object appears to be nearer. When you view overlapping objects through an NVD, the one that is in front "appears" to be nearer – maybe much more so than is true. In addition, some objects viewed through NVGs may appear to be farther away than they actually are. The reason for that is that we tend to associate the loss of detail sharpness with distance. On the other hand, a light source that is not part of a terrain feature – for example, a light atop a tower – may look closer than it actually is. It's important to be aware of these potential problems and that NVG users tend to overestimate distance and underestimate the depth (how tall an object is).

Dark Adaptation
Your eye needs time to adjust from day to night vision. That's why you can barely see when you first enter a dark movie theater during the daytime – your eyes need time to adjust to the darkness. So it is with NVGs. You are basically getting a dim-day view, so when you remove your NVGs, your eyes need time to adapt to the darkness. The amount of time you need depends on how long you have been wearing the NVGs. Most people achieve about a 75 percent dark-adaptation within 30 seconds of removing the goggles. This is especially important to keep in mind if you are using your NVGs as binoculars – basically lifting them to your eyes and lowering them.

In Summary
Accidents ranging from fender-benders to mission stoppers sometimes happen because people misinterpret what they see through their NVDs. To train safely and win on the battlefield, you need to understand the limitations of your night vision equipment and be skilled in using it. Leaders also need to be aware of the hazards involved in NVD operations and take measures to control the risks.

Be A Better Player 8 - Stop multitasking

2011-07-24T21:48:00.000-05:00

GM – Okay you have the front guard taken out. All that is left are the two inside, what are you going to do?

Player 1 – Well first off I'm dragging the one we took out off to the side. Don't need anybody seeing him laying out there in the open.

Player 2 – Trying to find an area near the door where I can see inside. We need to get a good idea of where they are.

GM – Hey Adam what about you? Adam!

Player 3 – Huh? Oh sorry I was answering an email real quick it was kinda important.

Player 1 – Aren't they all.....

GM – Guard outside is down, two left inside are left.

Player 3 – Ah okay, I guess I back up the others on whatever they decide.

GM – Look can you just put the phone down for a bit. It's really breaking up the flow here.

Player 3 – I don't understand.

Player 2 – Get your head in the game damn it!

Player 3 – Yeah... okay... just let me check on a couple of auctions real quick. Need to see how much they are up to.

GM – What...

Player 3 – I'll start paying more attention, really. Just got some stuff going on you know?

When you aren't chatting with people over IM's or downloading the 'perfect' song to play in case the group goes to a club you are playing the game. Well sort of, sometimes you get distracted and have to be reminded of what's going on at the moment. But that auction ends in two hours and you are sure somebody is going to try and snipe it. Oh and there is always a good argument going on over at the forums you frequent.

Yeah... you aren't a computer so keep the multitasking down. This all rolls around to breaking the flow and mood of the game rather easily. By not paying enough attention play has to stop and the GM has to repeat what he has just said. The GM is most likely getting aggravated by it and the other players are starting to line up right beside him with the same feelings. Thus turning an otherwise enjoyable time into an irritating one.

Let's also not mention the distraction. Ring-tone going off every time somebody send you a text. Alert sounds when that download is done. Even vibration mode still makes noise. All this adds up into a long continues string of interruptions and breaks down the flow at the table.

Now I'm not fool enough to suggest that you should turn off your phone when you sit down at the table to play. Emergencies happen, spouses call and sometimes you need to answer the calls. But put it on vibrate and stick it in your pocket. Don't flip it out and start cruising the net just when the attention on you drops a little bit.

Oh and on a related note, sending text messages back and forth among yourself and the other players isn't a good idea also. Not only does it cause many of the same problems but usually it's done in some effort to 'undermine' the GM. I mean, after all, trying to do this is basically saying that you don't want them running a game. Some will get that message and you'll be a bunch of players sitting around a table with their phones in their hands and nobody running the game.

So please, unplug for a bit, be social without a social network and get in the game.

Small delay on Be A Better Player

2011-07-24T09:41:00.003-05:00

Hopping on here for a quick note. The new Be A Better Player article will be just a tad late. Hopefully I'll have it up late tonight or tomorrow at the latest. Just had a busy week and weekend and didn't have time to finish writing it up.

Class/role ideas

2011-07-19T21:21:00.002-05:00

Okay I'm going to go with classes in my cyberpunk game I am trying to make. But I'm going to make two groups. One for street level type of games and one for the high end special ops type of groups. Just off the top of my head.

Street level classes- Courier, Musician, Freelancer (media type), hacker, street tech, some sort of freelance thug or bodyguard class, cop

Special Op level classes - Corporate executive, Security Specialist, a Tech class, a hacker class, police captain

All of this is up in the air as to how I will sort it out in make them different. Most likely giving the Special Op classes more starting points or some really nifty class only skills.

classes or classless?

2011-07-17T21:37:00.000-05:00

So I've been thinking of making my own cyberpunk game to run here locally at some point. Setting is going to be pretty generic standard stuff (no fucking magic though that shit isn't cyberpunk) so I'm really looking at the system. A cyberpunk heartbreaker if you will.

Here's my sticking point. Should I go with classes, like the roles from Cyberpunk 2020? Or should I go with a classless set up? Or some mash up in between? Which do you prefer and why? Just looking for stuff to get my creative thoughts flowing on this.

Cyberpunk Sunday 006 - Music and some of the technology behind it.

2011-07-17T01:32:00.002-05:00

Let's talk a little bit about entertainment. Now while the base of most forms is pretty much the same as always: music, movies, book, etc the way it's being done is changing. Some of the changes are rather impressive. We'll look at music this time around. Also for a change of pace all my links in this edition of Cyberpunk Sunday are to Youtube videos, so turn up the sound or toss on your headphones.

First up let's look at music. Now the front man of a group is usually the person who is recognized by most people. They get the most camera time in the videos, they get more interviews and people remember their names. Now what happens when the front man isn't really a person at all? Enter Hatsune Miku, she isn't real, she's a hologram.

Here's some footage from one of 'her' concerts.

Hologram technology has really been taking off in some places. The ability to create a false 'front man' is just one of the many uses of it in the entertainment area. Plus in this particular field it can also prove to quite profitable, and that can lead to plenty of money being put into developing the tech even further. Another band that has used this is the Gorillaz. In the clip below you can really see now good they can be. They perform their normal routine until a certain point where Madonna rises up onto the stage and then walks around them at the 2:50 mark.

Notice how she doesn't show through from behind.

Now the holograms are impressive. But lets go back to Hatsune Miku for a second. Not only is she a hologram, but even her voice is artificial. She is powered by Yamaha's VOCALOID technology, which stand for Vocal + Android, and was developed by Crypton Future Media in Supporo, and released on August 31st, 2007. You can create some amazing human sounding voices with this software, complete pitch control and vocal stresses. There have been several different 'singers' that have been created using this mix of Vocaloid and hologram technology.

Here are two singing together.

Now onto somebody live on stage. House DJ's have reached a new level of popularity in recent years. Again, as with holograms, this is bringing money in and allowing them to put it into technological advances with their tools of the trade. The mixing table has been something that has really evolved over the years, starting with a couple of turn tables and a few slider controls to something that just looks completely cyberpunk.

Here's one...

and another.

With bands like Daft Punk, The Glitch Mob and many others driving the techno house musician style further into the mainstream their styles are becoming the future. How far will they reach, well that remains to be seen. But personally I think they fit more into the cyberpunk genre than what we thought about ten to fifteen years ago. Rockerboys are being replaced by one man sound machines.

just ranting

2011-07-15T21:33:00.002-05:00

Personal rant I needed to do. Me bitching about something that most won't care about. So if you are here for gaming stuff just go ahead and skip to another post. I just gotta bitch someplace and facebook doesn't let me type this much.

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You hear people complaining about the use of certain words. They get angry when people nearby use them. Hell primetime television shows can get big rating boosts just because they are going to use the word 'shit' in an episode. Personally the word I keep finding more offensive than anything else is quite different from all the others.

Hope. I fucking hate that word. How people like to give it away and instill what it means into people. They tell people to hope and get them to hope only to actually have no intention of going through with anything they say. Keep your hopes up. Why? So they can just fall all that much further? I'm tired of it. People keep telling me to look on the positive side of things, that things will change, things will get better. Bullshit. False hope.

Somebody recently got my hopes up. Someone I could work together with to get out of the current situation in my life. I got that little tinge of happiness, that shining little ray of hope. Only to feel it burn as is it went black in a moment.

Really I'm tired of it. 'The harder you try the better things get' yeah except lets add in a sudden change in my family insurance plan that shoots it to a 5000 dollar deductible before they pay for ANYTHING at all. That's between a third to a fourth of my yearly take home income by the way, depending on how we work. Trying harder didn't do shit there. Try harder and watch the local school district constantly sending your children home with their hands out for such and such project/fund raiser/whatever. Making THEM feel guilty if I don't pay up something, forcing them to be the outsiders even more if I'm broke and can't do it. Trying harder did what? Busting my ass at work only to get wrote up when a sickness goes through my family and I end up missing days to stay home with one of my kids who is throwing up all night. Try harder...

Everybody can take their hope and shove it up their ass.

Why the FUCK can a single mother that makes the same as I do get government aid to help a little bit with daycare bills and some with food costs? Why is the system sat up to FUCK somebody who is white, male and happens to actually try and work for a living?

Why do people even bother trying to give others hope.

Going to be a slow week on here.

2011-07-11T21:31:00.002-05:00

Okay I won't have much up this week. We are going into overtime for the next few days and my free time will be quite limited. Hopefully this is only temporary as I have a few ideas I want to really put down for others to read.

Be A Better Player Seven - Enough jokes already!

2011-07-09T22:27:00.001-05:00

GM – Okay guys enough jokes for a bit let's get back on track here.

Player 1 – heh heh... yeah okay you're right.

Player 3 – Sorry bout that.

GM – Okay now back to where we were. Your party finally makes it way through the rubble up to opening of the cave. There are the remains of a few previous adventurers like yourself lying about near the entrance.

Player 2 – Oh shit watch out for rabbits around here.

Player 3- hehe oh hell I didn't think about that.

Player 2 – “That's the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on!”

GM – No that's not what....

Player 2 - “Look, that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!”

Player 3 – Oh damn my sides hurting I'm laughing so hard.

Player 1 – I should have known better than to trust the gm to NOT pull out the rabbit.

GM – groan...

Okay I'll admit a little humor at the game table is welcome when I'm running a game. Getting a good chuckle over something while in the middle of some number crunching makes the numbers flow a little better it seems. HOWEVER... you have to stop at some point. You may have the best joke in the world suddenly on your lips, but there are times when you need to just shut the fuck up.

First thing it can throw off the enjoyment of others. Some people are there to play the game and not sit around for three hours playing amateur comedy club night. You need to understand that they are there to invest their time into something and you may be keeping them from doing that. These are also the kinds of players that a lot of gamemasters like and if it comes time to cut somebody they won't be the first on the list and will probably be whispering about who they would like to see gone.

Second thing is that all this joking stops gameplay. So if there is an 'stop point' planned for the night you are pushing it further and further away. Maybe even past the point to which the players are willing to stay for. When game play stops like this it has a tendency to stop dead in it's tracks and takes some time to get rolling again.

Third is the complete destruction of the mood. Not all games are dungeon romps through perfectly made corridors and shop keepers that are merely vending machines for arrows and rations. In nearly any sort of horror scenario the mood becomes very important. The intent is to keep the players themselves on the edges of their seats to try and make them feel a bit of what their PC's are experiencing. Suddenly busting out a song of 'Knights of the Round Table' when you find a dining room with a circular table can throw all that right out the window. In a high action game the mood is for fast thinking and quick decisions, making everyone giggle every two minutes destroys that as well.

Forth thing, well lets just face it, usually you are never even half as funny as you think you are. So not only is everyone else getting belted with jokes but they are bad jokes at that. You are not a professional comedian, if you were you would probably be up on stage at a club on Saturday night getting paid instead of at the gaming table. We've also seen The Holy Grail about a dozen times and can repeat the lines as we watch it, we don't need your refresher course.

So watch for the subtle signs. The gamemaster or other players glaring at you, the lack of anybody but you laughing and everyone suddenly having to 'other things' come up. Being to much of a disruption is a sure fire way to not be told that the game night is switching to Fridays starting next week.

Google +

2011-07-09T18:54:00.003-05:00

Been trying out Google + for the last couple of days. It's a very interesting social networking application. Now for some opinions on various features it has or lacks.

Circles. Okay this is absolutely, hands down, one of the best things about G+. Basically you start off with so many circles already named, Family, Friends, Acquaintances and Follow. Now the idea you take the people you connected with into any circles they belong in. You can also name your own circles for further division if you need, for example I made a 'local friends' circle. Now whenever you make a post you can choose to make it only viewable by specific circles, all circles or even completely public.

Now people don't know what circles they are in, just that you put them in a circle. So there is no worry about people getting all butthurt over iDrama. This is all done with a drag and drop interactive interface. So much more better than clicking buttons over and over. More visually appealing and is automatically ready for touch screens.

+1. I've been seeing the little +1 buttons all over the place here lately to show that you like something. Now people can see what you gave one to in your profile.

The stream (sort of like a wall in fb) also has a neat little tool. You have your circles listed on the side of your screen. If you don't want to read everything you can just click the circle and see only the posts from people in that circle.

A notification button is also at the top of your screen. basically it turns red with the number of notifications listed in it. One nice touch is that it's also there when you are checking your gmail.

Voice, webcam and text chat are there but I haven't tried them.

What I see missing so far that I enjoy over on FB.

Public groups, interests and ... well that's all I can think of.

Now I will say I like the overall interface a LOT better than Facebook. It takes some getting used to because it's a step forward instead of just copying what we all are used to. This is a risk for Google but I think it will pay off, somebody has to move forward and somebody will hit the magic path (kinda like the Wii remotes).

More on this as I keep trying it out.

Datafortress 2020

2011-07-08T21:16:00.003-05:00

Just for those who may not have noticed.

Over on the right side is a small section called 'Gaming sites I recommend'. It's rather short right now but one day I will get around to adding to it. Anyways there is one called Datafortress 2020. Now what the guy behind this site did took a lot of work. He has been gathering Cyberpunk 2020 material off of the net for years. Some of it from sites that vanished. When GeoCities announced it was disappearing he went into action.

He started contacting site owners, authors and anybody else he could to get permission to host their material. Following years old emails on pdfs, doing web searches for names and asking for help on various forums about getting ahold of these people.

Amazingly he managed to track down a whole lot of them. So all this material that may have been lost to the shut downs of the net has been saved and stored. My hat is off to him for this effort, not a small undertaking was this. If for all your Cyberpunk 2020 fan material needs, Datafortress 2020 is the only place to go.

Give it a look. It's just right over there on the right.

When the new giant bought out the old giant.

2011-07-07T18:09:00.001-05:00

A little bit of gaming history here. This is a release from Ryan Dancey about the time when WOTC bought out TSR. He discusses the state of the company when they took over an what he thought what was killing it. Interesting to read if anything.

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Originally Posted by Ryan Dancey: the man, the myth, the legend

In the winter of 1997, I traveled to Lake Geneva Wisconsin on a secret mission. In the late fall, rumors of TSR's impending bankruptcy had created an opportunity to made a bold gamble that the business could be saved by an infusion of capital or an acquisition with a larger partner. After a hasty series of phone calls and late night strategy sessions, I found myself standing in the snow outside of 201 Sheridan Springs Road staring at a building bearing a sign that said "TSR, Incorporated".

Inside the building, I found a dead company.

In the halls that had produced the stuff of my childhood fantasies, and had fired my imagination and become unalterably intertwined with my own sense of self, I found echoes, empty desks, and the terrible depression of lost purpose.

The life story of a tree can be read by a careful examination of its rings. The life story of a corporation can be read by a careful examination of its financial records and corporate minutes.

I was granted unprecedented access to those records. I read the TSR corporate log book from the first page penned in haste by Gary Gygax to the most recent terse minutes dictated to a lawyer with no connection to hobby gaming. I was able to trace the meteoric rise of D&D as a business, the terrible failure to control costs that eventually allowed a total outsider to take control away from the founders, the slow and steady progress to rebuild the financial solvency of the company, and the sudden and dramatic failure of that business model. I read the euphoric copyright filings for the books of my lost summers: "Player's Handbook", "Fiend Folio", "Oriental Adventures". I read the contract between Gary and TSR where Gary was severed from contact with the company he had founded and the business he had nurtured and grown. I saw the clause where Gary, forced to the wall by ruthless legal tactics was reduced to insisting to the right to use his own name in future publishing endeavors, and to take and keep control of his personal D&D characters. I read the smudged photocopies produced by the original Dragonlance Team, a group of people who believed in a new idea for gaming that told a story across many different types of products. I saw concept artwork evolve from lizard men with armor to unmistakable draconians. I read Tracy Hickman's one page synopsis of the Dragonlance Story. I held the contract between Tracy and Margaret for the publication of the three Chronicles novels. I read the contract between Ed Greenwood and TSR to buy his own personal game world and transform it into the most developed game setting in history - the most detailed and explored fantasy world ever created.

And I read the details of the Random House distribution agreement; an agreement that TSR had used to support a failing business and hide the fact that TSR was rotten at the core. I read the entangling bank agreements that divided the copyright interests of the company as security against default, and realized that the desperate arrangements made to shore up the company's poor financial picture had so contaminated those rights that it might not be possible to extract Dungeons & Dragons from the clutches of lawyers and bankers and courts for years upon end. I read the severance agreements between the company and departed executives which paid them extraordinary sums for their silence. I noted the clauses, provisions, amendments and agreements that were piling up more debt by the hour in the form of interest charges, fees and penalties. I realized that the money paid in good faith by publishers and attendees for GenCon booths and entrance fees had been squandered and that the show itself could not be funded. I discovered that the cost of the products that company was making in many cases exceeded the price the company was receiving for selling those products. I toured a warehouse packed from floor to 50 foot ceiling with products valued as though they would soon be sold to a distributor with production stamps stretching back to the late 1980s. I was 10 pages in to a thick green bar report of inventory, calculating the true value of the material in that warehouse when I realized that my last 100 entries had all been "$0"'s.

I met staff members who were determined to continue to work, despite the knowledge that they might not get paid, might not even be able to get in to the building each day. I saw people who were working on the same manuscripts they'd been working on six months earlier, never knowing if they'd actually be able to produce the fruits of their labor. In the eyes of those people (many of whom I have come to know as friends and co workers), I saw defeat, desperation, and the certain knowledge that somehow, in some way, they had failed. The force of the human, personal pain in that building was nearly overwhelming - on several occasions I had to retreat to a bathroom to sit and compose myself so that my own tears would not further trouble those already tortured souls.

I ran hundreds of spreadsheets, determined to figure out what had to be done to save the company. I was convinced that if I could just move enough money from column A to column B, that everything would be ok. Surely, a company with such powerful brands and such a legacy of success could not simply cease to exist due to a few errors of judgment and a poor strategic plan?

I made several trips to TSR during the frenzied days of negotiation that resulted in the acquisition of the company by Wizards of the Coast. When I returned home from my first trip, I retreated to my home office; a place filled with bookshelves stacked with Dungeons & Dragons products. From the earliest games to the most recent campaign setting supplements - I owned, had read, and loved those products with a passion and intensity that I devoted to little else in my life. And I knew, despite my best efforts to tell myself otherwise, that the disaster I kept going back to in Wisconsin was the result of the products on those shelves.

When Peter put me in charge of the tabletop RPG business in 1998, he gave me one commission: Find out what went wrong, fix the business, save D&D. Vince also gave me a business condition that was easy to understand and quite direct. "God damnit, Dancey", he thundered at me from across the conference table: "Don't lose any more money!"

That became my core motivation. Save D&D. Don't lose money. Figure out what went wrong. Fix the problem.

Back into those financials I went. I walked again the long threads of decisions made by managers long gone; there are few roadmarks to tell us what was done and why in the years TSR did things like buy a needlepoint distributorship, or establish a west coast office at King Vedor's mansion. Why had a moderate success in collectable dice triggered a million unit order? Why did I still have stacks and stacks of 1st edition rulebooks in the warehouse? Why did TSR create not once, not twice, but nearly a dozen times a variation on the same, Tolkien inspired, eurocentric fantasy theme? Why had it constantly tried to create different games, poured money into marketing those games, only to realize that nobody was buying those games? Why, when it was so desperate for cash, had it invested in a million dollar license for content used by less than 10% of the marketplace? Why had a successful game line like Dragonlance been forcibly uprooted from its natural home in the D&D game and transplanted to a foreign and untested new game system? Why had the company funded the development of a science fiction game modeled on D&D - then not used the D&D game rules?

In all my research into TSR's business, across all the ledgers, notebooks, computer files, and other sources of data, there was one thing I never found - one gaping hole in the mass of data we had available.

No customer profiling information. No feedback. No surveys. No "voice of the customer". TSR, it seems, knew nothing about the people who kept it alive. The management of the company made decisions based on instinct and gut feelings; not data. They didn't know how to listen - as an institution, listening to customers was considered something that other companies had to do - TSR lead, everyone else followed.

In today's hypercompetitive market, that's an impossible mentality. At Wizards of the Coast, we pay close attention to the voice of the customer. We ask questions. We listen. We react. So, we spent a whole lot of time and money on a variety of surveys and studies to learn about the people who play role playing games. And, at every turn, we learned things that were not only surprising, they flew in the face of all the conventional wisdom we'd absorbed through years of professional game publishing.

We heard some things that are very, very hard for a company to hear. We heard that our customers felt like we didn't trust them. We heard that we produced material they felt was substandard, irrelevant, and broken. We heard that our stories were boring or out of date, or simply uninteresting. We heard the people felt that >we< were irrelevant.

I know now what killed TSR. It wasn't trading card games. It wasn't Dragon Dice. It wasn't the success of other companies. It was a near total inability to listen to its customers, hear what they were saying, and make changes to make those customers happy. TSR died because it was deaf.

Amazingly, despite all those problems, and despite years of neglect, the D&D game itself remained, at the core, a viable business. Damaged; certainly. Ailing; certainly. But savable? Absolutely.

Our customers were telling us that 2e was too restrictive, limited their creativity, and wasn't "fun to play'? We can fix that. We can update the core rules to enable the expression of that creativity. We can demonstrate a commitment to supporting >your< stories. >Your< worlds. And we can make the game fun again.

Our customers were telling us that we produced too many products, and that the stuff we produced was of inferior quality? We can fix that. We can cut back on the number of products we release, and work hard to make sure that each and every book we publish is useful, interesting, and of high quality.

Our customers were telling us that we spent too much time on our own worlds, and not enough time on theirs? Ok - we can fix that. We can re-orient the business towards tools, towards examples, towards universal systems and rules that aren't dependent on owning a thousand dollars of unnecessary materials first.

Our customers were telling us that they prefer playing D&D nearly 2:1 over the next most popular game option? That's an important point of distinction. We can leverage that desire to help get them more people to play >with< by reducing the barriers to compatibility between the material we produce, and the material created by other companies.

Our customers told us they wanted a better support organization? We can pour money and resources into the RPGA and get it growing and supporting players like never before in the club's history. (10,000 paid members and rising, nearly 50,000 unpaid members - numbers currently skyrocketing).

Our customers were telling us that they want to create and distribute content based on our game? Fine - we can accommodate that interest and desire in a way that keeps both our customers and our lawyers happy.

Are we still listening? Yes, we absolutely are. If we hear you asking us for something we're not delivering, we'll deliver it. But we're not going to cater to the specific and unique needs of a minority if doing so will cause hardship to the majority. We're going to try and be responsible shepards of the D&D business, and that means saying "no" to things that we have shown to be damaging to the business and that aren't wanted or needed by most of our customers.

We listened when the customers told us that Alternity wasn't what they wanted in a science fiction game. We listened when customers told us that they didn't want the confusing, jargon filled world of Planescape. We listened when people told us that the Ravenloft concept was overshadowed by the products of a competitor. We listened to customers who told us that they want core materials, not world materials. That they buy DUNGEON magazine every two months at a rate twice that of our best selling stand-alone adventures.

We're not telling anyone what game to play. We are telling the market that we're going to actively encourage our players to stand up and demand that they be listened to, and that they become the center of the gaming industry - rather than the current publisher-centric model. Through the RPGA, the Open Gaming movement, the pages of Dragon Magazine, and all other venues available, we want to empower our customers to do what >they< want, to force us and our competitors to bend to >their< will, to make the products >they< want made.

I want to be judged on results, not rhetoric. I want to look back at my time at the helm of this business and feel that things got better, not worse. I want to know that my team made certain that the mistakes of the past wouldn't be the mistakes of the future. I want to know that we figured out what went wrong. That we fixed it. That we saved D&D. And that god damnit, we didn't lose money.

Thank you for listening,

Sincerely,

Ryan S. Dancey
VP, Wizards of the Coast
Brand Manager, Dungeons & Dragons

Pathfinder vs D&D 4th ed.

2011-07-05T14:25:00.004-05:00

Just got back from the local comic/game shop. It's a rarity that I get to go there anymore with my full time job and raising both of my kids. They aren't old enough to be trusted in there without tearing stuff up so I have to elect just not to go but once in a great while. I was looking for a couple of comics a friend on facebook wrote (Project Superman and Rocketeer Adventures) but more about those later.

Talked with Dave (the owner) for a while about a few things. One thing came to mind that I had to ask him. The CEO of paizo recently made the claim that Pathfinder books are outselling D&D books (haven't read the actual claim myself but have seen several people talking about it). Dave agreed that this is currently the trend at his shop. Pathfinder is the number one seller when it comes to books. Overall, if you count other D&D products, they come in number two because he sells quite a few of the D&D Dungeon Tiles.

I found it interesting to see what is basically the older version of the D20 rules selling better than the new version. Plus he also noted that he still gets people in asking him to find 3.0 and 3.5 stuff. Now of course this appears to only be print copies of the books sold through distributors and not every shop will be the same. Not to mention we have no idea how much is coming in from DDI online.

Kromosome

2011-07-04T19:13:00.002-05:00

Dug out my copy of Kromosome today. For those who have never heard of this game it was one of the titles for TSR's Amazing Engine game line. While the Amazing Engine system leaves something to be desired this cyberpunk setting is rather well done. Squeezing in setting information, full game rules, all the needed system stuff for cyberware, bioware (genemods), netrunning, you name it; all into 141 pages. It's worth buying just to mine for ideas.

One of my favorite ideas is the Microcorp. The players basically form their own during character creation. Deciding what services or goods they offer, how they are going to go about making money, etc. It's a really neat angle to take with the game instead of just mercenaries out for a quick buck like most cyberpunk games.

I'll be posting up a few more things out of it as I give it a reread over the next few weeks. Heck I need to just write out a full review on it someday.

Cyberpunk 2020 role: DJ

2011-07-03T20:28:00.000-05:00

DJ

Charismatic Leadership

Awareness/Notice
Perform
Wardrobe & Style
Composition
Programming
Play Instrument
Streetwise
Persuasion
Electronics

Starting cash same as a Rockerboy.

You are the lone performer up in front of the crowded club. You don't have a band backing you. It's just you and the equipment you bring with. Mixing, overlays and mash ups, this is what you do. Taking samples from anywhere between two to two hundred songs, laying in some beats behind them along with fades, swipes and scratches and making it one stream that will move an entire audience. You do this in front of them, all eyes and ears on you, timing is everything. You get good enough and people will come from miles to hear you, you get better and they will fly from other countries, you become the best and they all will do what you say.

You have a lot in common with the Rockerboy. But you are a bit different. You mind works differently and instead of a single instrument you have a board with the ability to use songs as instruments. You are a bit tech savy along with some programming skill, this helps you put on a good show. Just remember to keep your head in the scene or get left behind.

Note: Watch for Cyberpunk Sunday 006 where I will cover entertainment a bit. Having some direct influence on this role and along with some other ones I am thinking of. Considering making a little sourcebook with various roles that are all entertainers and variants of the Rockerboy.

Cyberpunk Sunday 005 - hearts, politics and chips.

2011-07-03T07:47:00.001-05:00

This week I'm going to give you a short and sweet with three links. Each rather interesting if you ask me.

First up. We have all heard of pacemakers which make a heart beat in a specific rhythm, then there were artificial hearts that pump the blood through your system mimicking a normal human heart, well now it's to well with making a copy of the heart and just downright improving it. How about a set of turbines in your chest? Now how are these different than the others you may ask... I'm glad you did. You see they don't pump the blood through in bursts, instead you get a constant flow. Now add a level of creepy to this lovely little bit of protocybertech... this means there is no pulse and their EKG is constantly flatlining. Yeah no thump thump in the ole' chest anymore. Go ahead and read up some more on this by following the link.

The turbine heart

Now for a little political/social outlook. Michelle Bachman is currently tossing her hat into the ring for trying to become the next President on the GOP ticket. However she seems to be lacking in her facts on things. One, she claimed that John Wayne was born in Waterloo Iowa; two, she claimed that John Quincy Adams was one of the founding fathers of the United States. Both of these are wrong. But her supporters aren't letting that get in the way and they take a turn that gets them a cyberpunk mention. They log in and alter the details of John Wayne and John Quincy Adams to make them match what Bachmann has said. Rewriting history a bit if you will.

Now with more and more information being put online and a large number of folks depending on the internet to get their facts this can get interesting. Now these two changes got spotted because her claims got some national news media attention. But if people were to start going in and altering the facts of things that aren't being scrutinized right now how long would it take to be noticed? Would it get noticed? Once this false information is up there and people start reading it thinking it to be real it becomes more ingrained into ourselves that it's a fact. For those Cyberpunk 2020 fans out there this has a whole feeling of the Rache Bartmoss history altering virus he created.

Read the article

Finally IBM has just blown the doors off the memory market with their latest little invention. Phase Change Memory, or as it's been getting called 'instantaneous memory'. You thought the data flow was quick before, get ready for the doors to get blown off. This little thing is around a 100 times faster than the current top of the line memory technology (resetting the top of the line I guess). It uses controlled bursts of electricity to shift the special alloy into different physical states allowing it to do more, a lot more.

See the chip

That's it for this Sunday. Two weeks from now I'll be putting up an entertainment themed Cyberpunk Sunday installment. Hope you come back to give it a read.

Cyberpunkish youtube trailer

2011-07-02T21:05:00.001-05:00

One of these days I'm going to run Cyberpunk 2020 again. Or well maybe something close to it, a bit evolved and updated I'm thinking. But I will run it. Now some guy on youtube has made up a really good fake trailer for a Shadowrun series. I like it so much that when I do get around to running it I will play this trailer before the start of every session.

Don't worry there really isn't much to represent the Shadowrun magic or races in it. Mostly pure cyberpunk flash.

political rant and ramblings.

2011-06-30T21:30:00.002-05:00

Neofeudalism

I like this term. Saw some people talking about the current state of politics in the United States and somebody tossed out this word as an aside. Personally I think it fits perfectly.

Starting with the government punishing people for being teachers. Wages frozen, benefits yanked away, more students crammed into the classroom. Now with the current battle over the budget even more funding will be cut from our education system. Why would anybody want to become a teacher in an environment like that? Why would the government seem to let this happen?

They don't want an educated lower class. It's almost like a drive back to the middle ages where only the church/government families had access to higher education. The more ignorant the lower class is the easier they are manipulate and the less chance of there being some 'competition' from them come election day.

Let's see. Step one start eliminating the middle class. Step two stay in a continuous state of warfare. Step three further segregate the lower class from the upper class by removing educational services. Step four is win. Or something like that.

Keep us poor, keep us stupid, keep us just healthy enough to work.

Cyberpunk Role - Courier (well the basics of one)

2011-06-26T20:05:00.002-05:00

Going through one of my notebooks I found some stuff I had quickly jotted down for a Courier as a Cyberpunk Role. The kind of Courier found in Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. All I got were the system basics. I'll try to do a full write up soon and put it up as well.

Courier

Special Ability: Pilot-Street Board (if you ever read Snow Crash you know these boards require a special skill).

Starting cash:
1-5 = 1500eb - Road Rash
6 = 3000eb - Transporter
7 = 5000eb - Highway Prince or Princess
8 = 7000eb - Prima
9 = 9000eb - Ultra
10 = 12000eb - Elite

Career Skill Package:
Streetwise
Hide/Evade
Language - Street
Shadow/Track
Athletics
Stealth
Melee
Basic Tech
First Aid

Be A Better Player part 6: Be prepared to play.

2011-06-25T21:30:00.000-05:00

GM – Alright folks lets get this rolling tonight got a lot of loose ends left over from the last session that you are probably dying to tie up.

Player 1 – Damn straight. Gonna go shakedown that shopkeeper for my money back.

Player 2 – Yeah I think there was a reason he sold us that fake map. Somebody wanted us to go there.

Player 3 – Man I forgot my notebook, ah well I think I can remember everything.

GM – I hope so. Alright who was...

Player 3 – Hey anybody got a spare set of dice? I think mine are on the fridge back at the apartment. Keep forgetting them up there.

Player 2 – Again?

Player 4 – Here I got you covered just remember to give them back okay?

Player 3 – Oh and I need a pencil also.

Player 1 – Groan.

GM – Did you remember to bring anything?

Player 3- Um... well... actually can I get a soda from you?

There are certain things that are needed for play. Now even though it may vary from game to game or even from group to group there is still stuff you should remember. Having to borrow your way through a session really pulls any sort of immersion that the other players are having and tends to slow things down as well. Now if you are new to playing RPGs then sometimes this can be overlooked. But when you been at it for years there is no excuse. So let's cover some basics shall we?

Dice. Most games require you to have some dice. Some, like D&D, require a full set while others like World of Darkness stuff require just a lot of one type. But they still need them. Any gamer who has been at the hobby for a while should have his own set. Most have several of different colors and styles. Hell I have a box of sets and an extra box of oddities. So it shouldn't be hard to show up with what you need. Find out before hand what is being played and put the needed few aside for the game.

Pencil. Let me make that a bit clearer, pencil with an eraser. You have a character sheet, you will most likely be writing on that character sheet. Then throughout the game things on that character sheet may change or you will have to adjust something else. For this you will need the ever so handy pencil and eraser. So pick up one, or better yet pick up a cheap pack, and put them right next to your dice and bring them along.

Notebook. Not nearly as needed as the previous two items but damn it comes in real handy. Keeping track of npc names, places and various happenings in the game. Hell I used to keep a drawing of the game table with each player marked with their character names so I could refer to them in character while we were playing. So grab a cheap Wal-Mart special out of the notebook isle and put your pencil in the spiral and put your dice on top and you are set.

Now other games and other gamemasters may require more. Plenty of games out there require tokens, cards or some other item. Just check beforehand and find out what you are expected to bring to play. Get it all together in one place and make sure to take it with you. For bonus points bring along that extra dice set in case somebody forgets theirs.

Need weblinks....

2011-06-23T21:11:00.003-05:00

Really need to redo the links page on my website. Some major updates are in order. But before I do this are there any particular sites that you would like to see listed there? Your own personal site, blog, a favorite forum, a site that you just think is damned cool. I'll give them a look and if I like I'll post them up.

You can post them as a comment here or send them to peteramthor@gmail.com

Oh and for those who don't know where my website is:

Truly Rural Productions

Some rare color photographs from the 40's.

2011-06-21T15:46:00.003-05:00

Some amazing color photographs from the US depression era of the 40's leading up to and including some of the WWII mobilization. Also includes some from the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Now historically speaking I find this really damn neat. But also some of the shots of a Locomotive factory and a few others are so steampunk it hurts. You may want to check them out.

Page one.

Page two.

Figured I would just pass these on.

Working on the system for Rogue Televison

2011-06-20T22:27:00.002-05:00

Okay been brainstorming on a simple skill system to use with Rogue Television. I don't want it complex or number crunchy but with some variance. Also wanted to step away from the usual method of rolling under your skill level that I usually use in a lot of games.

Here is what I have so far copy/paste from my open office document I'm jotting all of this down on.

----------------------------------------------

Skill ranking and mechanics idea. Uses just six siders.

unskilled roll two dice and keep the lowest
skilled roll two and keep the highest
adept roll three and keep the highest
expert roll four and keep the highest

Some skills would be listed as NA for unskilled and impossible to do at that level.

Target numbers would depend on the action. Some would be based off a preset difficulty. For example with lockpicking the lock would have its own number that needed to be reached. 2 for the easiest and 6 for the hardest. Performing under duress adds one to the target number. Others such as dancing would depend on a number determined by the GM, with 2 being easy and 6 being the hardest.

Target numbers for hitting somebody would depend on the weapon and range/actions of target. Examples: Long range would add one, moving target would add one, duress would add one, weapon is low quality adds one, things like this. So if you are trying to hit a perfectly stationary target at normal range the difficulty would be 2. But a target at long range that is running and you are being shot at also (duress) would be a 5.

Of course this could make combat pretty deadly with expert fighters. But then again, shouldn't it be that way?

Cyberpunk Sunday 004 - Virtual Currency and something completely different.

2011-06-19T00:07:00.000-05:00

Let's start off this post with a little look at something related to the world economy. Say something along the lines of a virtual currency that isn't backed and supported by any government or major organization. Completely anonymous ability to 'pay' somebody with it. No real world form what so ever. I give you the Bitcoin.

Yes that's right... the Bitcoin.

Now what is this good for? Is this WoW gold or something? Well some places have embraced it completely. Several online services now accept it as payment.

Check their wiki for a list of them.

Now the first thing that came to mind was 'why would they do this?'. I mean it's virtual money and they offering services that usually fetch them real money. But here they are taking the Bitcoin as a form of payment. That's because some places buy and sell Bitcoins for real currency. Of course they charge a small exchange rate, that's how they make their money.

Here's one right now.

Going rate for a Bitcoin as I write this is $18.14 US. That's a pricey bit of coin that is. Trust me when I say people are starting to take notice. It has really become an amazing thing.

SmartMoney even did an article on it.

So now this makes for a very interesting future in money markets. It also proves the power of the internet at this point. When multiple bussinesses have decided to support a currency that only exists online and bears no allegiance to any countries printed currency. Of course there are all sorts of problems that will pop up and have to be worked out over the next few years of it's existance. But Bitcoin is really laying down some groundwork for a virtual economy.

Now remember up there at the top where I said it can be done anonymously. Yeah that's important on this last Bitcoin related link. You see everybody knows usually where there is big money to be made it's in something illegal. There is this Deepnet site (I'll talk about the Deepnet in the future) out there that provides a nice market for illegal goods. Drugs. Any drugs, all drugs, you name it and somebody is selling it for Bitcoin. You can't get to it by normal 'type in the URL' means either. You have to have a masked IP to get there, but once there you can take your pick of poison and pay for it with Bitcoin.

Wired has your 411 all about it.

So buying illegal drugs off a website that you have to know some computer trickery to get to and you pay for it with an untracable anonymous form of payment. Doesn't get much more cyberpunk than that.

Unless it's something that reads your brainwaves.

Yeah how about something that reads your brainwaves... wouldn't that be cool. Well it's out there. It can sense your brainwaves and tell if you are in deep thought, in a happy mood, daydreaming and what have you. It's a brain activity sensor that you wear on your head. No sticky pads with wires either, no surgery on the brain pan with some bits sticking out. That's cool as hell if you ask me.

So what does the company that came up with this thing do?

THEY PUT FUCKING CAT EARS ON IT!

Yeah cat ears... that move around to different positions based on your current pattern of thought. Now I'm no furry fan but this is just such a 'what the fuck are you thinking' idea that even I love it. Absolutely insane. When it's ready to goto market they are going to sell these things like they are a cure for freaking cancer, impotence and heart disease all rolled into one. Going to rake in millions. Hopefully with that millions they will put some of it into making something useful with the technology. Like maybe even the first actual real function mood ring.

Slow week on here....

2011-06-15T22:24:00.000-05:00

No nice thought out posts this week until Cyberpunk Sunday. Between my daughter getting sick and some other real world problems rearing up my free time got cut back. Hopefully next week I'll get another WoW and Cooking article up and get things going back in the normal motion.

Little Fears: NE old playtest report.

2011-06-14T12:50:00.001-05:00

Two years ago, on my old Livejournal blog. I was keeping track of some of my playtest games for Little Fears: Nightmare edition (which is very well done btw). Here is the entry from June 13, 2009.

-----------------------------------------------------

Some highlights of the playtest session from the other night.

The kids sneak into an abandoned house that is next door to Old Mister Crumpe's house so they can spy on him. When they find a room with a window they can use they also find notes from the child who used to live in the room. Notes detailing the old man following them, people who entered his house and never left, notes about things they saw in his yard... These notes were written in crayon around the window.

Hearing a series of metallic clicks all through the house and then discovering those clicks were all the doors locking themselves. Including the lock on the door for the room they were in. An added plus was the little knob to lock it was on their side of the door.

Zombie cop. Especially since that instead of the usual random moan is croaking out a slow drawn out 'help me'.

'I can' lie my way out of anything.

The npc next door neighbor kid who has a strange hang up with skulls. Then while searching for something that was dropped in the tall grass around Old Mister Crumpe's house he raises up and says 'look a skull!' and is holding an actual skull. Then suddenly everybody realizing the reality of the situation.

Sarah finding a gravestone with her name on it. With her birthday listed and todays date as the day she died.

L5R again

2011-06-12T10:47:00.000-05:00

L5R wiki

Been reading up on the Legend of the Five Rings setting. Finally I found the wiki that has been set up and it's been helping me remember a lot of it. Pretty sure if I do run the game the time period will be either pre-Scorpion Clan Coup or during the events leading up to the second day of thunder aka The Time of the Void(the first big storyline from the CCG which I am most familiar with).

Still not sure if I will ever actually get the time to run it.

Be a Better Player 5. Sometimes... you just have to leave...

2011-06-11T15:54:00.000-05:00

I'm doing this segment without a little example of play. For what I'm talking about this time I don't really think it's necessary at all. You see sometimes a few of the other players are the problem, or the GM, and it's dragging the game way down. Some times it makes you miserable, you aren't happy playing and showing up for the game is something that inspires dread. So as a player there is one thing you need to remember and it's the topic this time.

You can leave the game.

Now I know this is something that a lot of folks just don't seem to want to do. I know, I've been there. Having dedication to the group once you've agreed to play is something I value, showing up for the game is something I've done an article on before. But even I will admit you can't always continue to show up for something once it turns into something you can no longer stand.

Repeating to attempt to play like this can lead to burnout and discouragement from the hobby. Something that is not good. There is also a tendency to become the 'bad player' in the group. Detracting from everyone else's fun just because you aren't having any. Not a reputation I would like to earn myself.

Every gamer out there, players and GM's, all agree on one thing. You are involved in the rpg hobby to have fun. The problem arises when it comes down to what one person considers fun in comparison to what is fun for another. We just can't all agree on the details, or more precisely the process of creating that fun.

First exhaust your options. Talk to the GM off to the side and explain why you aren't having fun, be sure to do so in a rational manner. Also get a few of the other players off to the side and see if they are having the same problem as well. Just talking to others tends to get a lot of problems worked out. The GM may be unaware of what they are doing or the other players may feel the same as you. I've also had a group point me to a few other groups whose style of play was more to my liking, now that was a class act group of players.

If it can't be helped and it keeps going to the same old direction then it's time to exit the game. Just be sure to do so in a polite manner, but don't lie about it either. Just coming out and saying it's not working for you and you're not having fun at all should be enough for most group. Being a dick and burning bridges just hurts you down the line nine times out of ten, after all, many local gamers talk to each other. Giving them a false story of why you want out can bite you if they ever find out you lied to them.

But some folks can't handle polite or honesty and they will still be pissy about it when you leave. Don't worry that they are getting all butthurt over it. If they act this way over someone parting ways just imagine how much worse things could get if you stay.

So in the end, if things just aren't working out, just leave. There are other groups out there, some may be a bit of a pain to find but they are out there. Be careful not to let it build up into a 'flameout' as you leave.

Time of the Void

2011-06-10T21:58:00.001-05:00

Been reading the Time of the Void sourcebook for Legend of the Five Rings. It covers that events that took place in the first storyline arc of the CCG. That was the time that I was actually playing the CCG really heavy so I remembered a lot of the events and found myself smiling several times. Really happy to read more of what actually went down and all the storyline stuff they put into it. Just pretty damn sweet.

It also reminded me how much I like the setting of L5R. Great story in there, and both the CCG and RPG had some amazing mechanics. If I ever get the time to run a game again I may actually have to try my hand at running it. Would have to write up an intro packet for my players for some of the terms and setting details. Not to mention fiddling with little bits of the setting here and there.

Yeah I always liked the 'faux oriental' type of stuff. Even my first MMORPG was steeped heavily in it (12 Sky). But around here nobody else really got a lot of interest in it more than some other card players. Maybe one day I will try to get it going.

BG woes... a little look at Arathi Basin tactics.

2011-06-08T16:52:00.000-05:00

Going against the grain, a look at the commonly held tactics used in Arathi Basin.

Arathi Basin has always been one of my favorite battlegrounds. You are forced to spread out and communicate in order to succeed. Now there are some stead fast tactics that everyone seems to preach in there. Things that you must do in order to win, otherwise you fail 'u lozer noob'. Yeah well pardon me while I disagree with a few of them.

You must have the Blacksmith in order to win. Bullshit, complete and total bullshit at that. I've had several wins where we don't control it. Many times holding the blacksmith can make you lose instead usually from simple mistakes do to how important people think it is. Teams will over defend leaving to few to go around and take other nodes or they spend everything they have trying to take it. Don't get me wrong it's nice to have with a wonderful tactical position but it's not worth fighting for it while you lose everything else. So if you don't have it, don't worry. Hold onto whatever other nodes you have and keep an eye just in case the opportunity to take it arises.

The Gold Mine is next to useless. Yeah right, only three ways to get at it (each road in and the drop down) which makes it way easier to defend than the blacksmith. You may not have the ability to see the battleground like you can at other points but if communication is going well you don't need to. Not to mention the reputation of the place makes most folks try for other nodes so defenders usually see smaller attacks coming at them. Not to mention the farm or stables can't see you coming until you are more than halfway there. I've personally sat and 'defended' the mines for entire games and never saw a single bit of combat.

You must hold your starting node (stables or farms). Again, nice to keep them, but not necessary. Also this tends to be something the enemy likes to take and hold and will devote several of their force to. So if they hit and take it with a large group then bypass and hit another of their nodes. If you get pinned in at your starting point GY then try to get around (potions to turn invisible are wonderful for this). Actually when they start pinning people in up there they tend to rush from everyplace else to help so it leaves other places lightly or completely ungaurded.

Now another thing I would like to cover isn't really a hard stead tactic but something you see people yelling ALL THE FREAKING TIME. 'Don't fight in the roads fight at the flags' yeah I'm sure you've heard that. To all those genius people I would like to ask “What do you do when you and three teammates run into four team members from the other side while on your way to nodes?”. Do you pass each other and wave nicely and let them continue on to take whatever they want. Hell no. It's a fight right then and there. Sometimes that fighting on the roads keeps them from making it to the flags to fight at. Bonus feature is if they kill you there is a pretty good chance you may rez in time to defend the node they are after, maybe even a few people short themselves now.

Well there is some tactical advice that goes against what a lot of other people tell you. Take it or leave it. Just remember no plan stay intact past the initial encounter with the enemy so be ready to flex.

MSNBC displays worst news reporting ever....

2011-06-07T19:04:00.000-05:00

Read this article

Now I have no clue what it may say by the time you read this. Originally it said '25 to 30 bodies of children found in mass grave in Texas'. Then it changed to children are believed to be in the mass grave as well, then changed a few more times.

Not only that but it went from anonymous tipster to psychic. Bodies found to no bodies found. Area searched to no search warrant and no search done yet.

Yeah it's gone from nightmare fuel breaking news story to psychic says there are bodies buried there no search yet.

This has got to be the worst news reporting ever. MSNBC should issue apologies and admit they really screwed up. This should also show that you can never trust anything the put up as 'news'. The comments section of the article is a real mess because the first posts are response to 30 dead children FOUND, to psychic says bodies. So some folks are wondering where others are seeing what they read and all that.

Yeah. Gonna have to start up one of my old LiveJournal tags to file this one under. Welcome back 'stupid shit'.

Cyberpunk Sunday 003

2011-06-05T11:16:00.001-05:00

This time we are going to take a look at some links that have a particular interest to the idea of heavily armed gangs as well as a few ideas for Nomad types.

As many know the war on drugs and the cartels that are behind it has been raging in Mexico for several years now. It's been a violent and bloody fight that has left thousands dead. The cartels arm their 'soldiers' very well and when that's not enough they get creative. This time in the area of armored vehicles. Some of these are things straight out of gangland near future fiction.

This first one is an awesome 'narcotank'. I mean this thing looks pretty well put together and very capable of doing it's job. It's hosted on yahoo so don't expect it to stay forever (they tend to delete old news after a while) so grab the picture now.

See the tank

Up next is a youtube video in spanish showing some of the various vehicles Mexican officials have siezed. There are quite a variety ranging from the simple to the more extreme.

Watch the video

Here is another short article showing another big armored vehicle along with a video to watch with it. This one was apparently stopped due to the failure to add some protection to the tires.

Read and watch it

Finally we look at one last link showing something a bit different. Undersea trafficking using fiberglass submarines. The one in the story was carrying around 4 tons of cocaine, but that space could be used for all sorts of purposes in a cyberpunk future.

See the subs

Now the next time you write a bit of cyberpunk fiction or run a game of Cyberpunk 2020 and the gangs start rolling out the armored vehicles you have something to show them. No more cries of 'they can't have those' from the players.

Also keep in mind that Nomads would most likely have a few things like these stashed here and there or hauled in a trailer for whenever they run up on trouble.

The Better Bacon Cheeseburger cooking tips.

2011-06-04T19:15:00.000-05:00

The better bacon cheeseburger.

First off this tip only works if you have a wide grate grill. The thin bar grills don't seem to do to well since they don't retain a lot of the flavor from the bacon.

The best choice for maximum flavor when it comes to bacon (well in my opinion) is thick cut pepper bacon. Thick cut doesn't curl up nearly as much as the regular cut and it doesn't cook up into a incinerated crisp so easily.

First off prep your burgers before hand, shaped into patties and seasoned with whatever you like. Just keep them on the side in a pan, usually I keep my layered with wax paper to keep them from sticking together.

Heat up the grill to a low to medium heat, you want the bacon to cook for a bit on it. Once it's nice and hot cover the entire grill with a nice layer.

Flip it a few times and try to keep it from burning up. Watch for you hot spots and rotate out some of the lesser done bacon with what is cooking there. Now once you start getting some of it ready to come off get your burgers ready. As soon as you pull it off drop a burger right down in it's spot so it will soak up some of the bacon and pepper flavors. Of course it doesn't all get finished at once so keep it moving and remember which patties you put down first.

Cook the burgers like normal now and you're done. Add whatever you like to them. Personally I go with some cooked onions (I'll put up the tips for that later), Country Bobs and cheese. Of course your tastes will most likely differ.

BG woes... use your damn tools.

2011-06-02T17:27:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I wonder how many people are actually using the tools available to them while fighting in a BG. Seriously to many times in Warsung Gulch have I seen someone call out 'Where are the FC's?'. Or not noticing that there is no defense at the Mine or whatever during an Arathi fight. Really? Not to mention some of the people bitching how other people are playing are the ones making these mistakes.

Minimap, Shift+M, it shows up in the lower right hand corner of your screen. Would you all fucking use it please?

See in areas where you fighting for control it will show you each point and colored to represent who has it. Blue for Alliance, red for Horde and grey for neutral. No more having to ask 'Who has the Mage Tower?' in Eye of the Storm for the flag runner. Just a quick look and you know.

Also it has a little dot for everybody on your side. Giving you and idea of where to go when you have a flag to get some defense. If you have a moment or two to spare before making your move you can mouse over the dot and get a name list of who it is. Running towards the healers is usually a good call, or calling out to one what route you will be taking once you pick up the flag. This it something foreign to some folks, it's called tactics, but I'll rant about that another time.

These dots can also change a bit. They get a little triangle pointing in the direction they are moving if the toon is in a siege engine. In Tol Borad the unmanned sieges show up on the map even. Very helpful for backing up a push to break down a wall.

In some battlegrounds, like Strand of the Ancients, it shows the gates. Along with changing their icon when they are damaged or broken through. The more you know of whats going on where you aren't the better off you are to react and change you plans.

Now it also lets you know where flag carriers are. In Eye of the Storm it shows up blank in the middle of the map and then goes to the color of which ever side is carrying it. Warsung it goes a bit different though. When somebody grabs the enemy flag it immediately shows up so you can immediately react and move into a position to help defend them. However when your flag is grabbed by the enemy they get a short grace period before showing up on the map. Not to long maybe twenty seconds or so but it gives them time to get a bit of a sneaky head start. But soon enough they pop up on the mini and you can go after them.

So in the end the minimap is a damn good and very useful tool that everyone has. It would be an act of stupidity to not use it actually. So hit that shift + M and pull it up and keep a passing eye on it. Nothing about it will hurt you and all it can do is help.

Now this causes me some anger.

2011-06-01T20:46:00.000-05:00

Okay this is really getting frustrating. Blogger won't let me comment on my own blog. I keep getting shuffled through pick profile - log in - word verify and then back to pick profile.

Really aggrivating this is. Everything else works fine, my dashboard comes up, access to everything in my account. Just when I goto comment on anything, zip, nadda, zero.

Not sure what the problem could even remotely be.

New idea

2011-05-30T11:34:00.000-05:00

Okay so I've actually had a little bit of success with getting this blog going with my articles here lately. Along with having my website hits go up and actually recieving some feedback. So it got me thinking on something else I would like to try and do.

Using my little flip camcorder and my youtube page I am thinking of starting a series called 'Meet the GM'. Basically it would involve sitting down with a local (or not so local if they make it here or I actually get out and about) gamemaster asking a few questions and letting them give out some of their advice on running games. I think this would show a wide variety of types of advice since most differ in their styles and place one thing more important than the other.

It would be once a month given my limited free time.

Anybody got any thoughts on this? Good/bad idea? Anything?

Be A Better Player 4. Mr my favorite system.

2011-05-28T21:16:00.000-05:00

GM – Okay next week I'm going to start up a new game since we wrapped up this campaign. I'm going to run Conspiracy X for you all.

Player 1 – Cool been wanting to try that.

Player 3 – Sweet.

Player 2 – Well, what system are you going to use?

GM – Going to use the system in the book.

Player 2 – What? Are you kidding? UniURPS does it better. Trust me I know that system.

GM – Well I don't want to have to convert everything.

Player 2 – Oh no problem you just need to pick the main rulebook, the Private Spies sourcebook, Aliens 2 and 3 sourcebooks and Modern Conspiracy. That should do it.

GM – Yeah I don't think I'm going to go that route. Not what....

Player 2 – Oh so after we had to play this last fantasy game that was hopelessly crippled by using the D&D 3.0 rules. Which UniURPS would have done much better emulating with a few of the rules expansions. But now we have to play Conspiracy X on it's fail system?

GM – What... I don't even know....

Yeah, now that is really productive isn't it. Many of us have seen this, it's the 'My System Is The Answer' guy. No matter what you want to play, are planning on playing or just talking about, his personal favorite system is what fits it best. No matter how much it doesn't it just does.

Now if you are this guy you need to clue in on a few things. First off that system you love so much, well, not everyone thinks the same. Also it doesn't work for everything and never will. All the universal, in house rule sets and epic all encompassing systems don't work for everyone or everything. This is the first step you must just simply accept. It's just the plain truth. Get over it.

Onto the second thing. Even if your favorite system covers it very well not everyone is going to want to use it. People have their only personal tastes in how they want to play, in the level of number crunching they want to deal with. With the ultimate deciding factor falling on the GM and what system they want to use. Most likely it's the one they are most comfortable using or one they want to try out. Maybe you should give a chance also.

Third thing, this one I'm going to be rather rude about here. If no one else is interested in using your system and have told you so then... shut the hell up about it. Seriously, the only way you could get the group to go your way now is to annoy them enough. They will switch up just to shut you up and then they'll most likely resent you for quite a while over it.

If playing your favorite system all the time means that much to that you can't handle anything else. Then just leave the group and find one that feels the same way as you. Obviously people who want to try something different from time to time aren't your type of crowd.

Now that I've said that I'll say this. There is a time and a place and, most importantly, a way to suggest using your favorite system. Always remember to respect the other people at the table and their opinions. The prime time to offer it up is when the group is deciding together what they want to play next, when ideas are being tossed around. Not when the GM has already laid it out pretty clearly that he is running X using Y and that's what he is running.

Well that's all I have for this one. See you in two weeks.

Todays grilled up food at my household.

2011-05-28T13:25:00.000-05:00

Marinated Chicken and thin cut Sirloin along with some hot dogs for my kids. Plus in the foil is some sliced onion with butter, olive oil and lemon pepper.

Marinade for Chicken was a store brand lemon pepper. The Sirloin was mostly Worcestershire sauce, a bit of County Bobs, a bit of Baby Rays BBQ sauce and some olive oil all mixed together. Not a typical marinade but it was the flavors that I wanted today.

MK Legacy continues....

2011-05-25T22:06:00.000-05:00

Scorpion and Sub Zero this time around. This is also part one of their story and it looks like all hell is going to break loose with part two.

BG woes part two

2011-05-24T23:15:00.000-05:00

Okay so now I think I can figure out why the BOA gear is creating a worse situation in the battlegrounds than the old twink folks used to.

I've seen a lot of people over the time I've been playing remark that the lower level BGs are more enjoyable. So a lot of folks want to stay around that level and keep playing them. Now in the old way you just stopped questing and did only PvP since you gathered no xp. Well some folks whould have their high end guildmates run them through dungeons over and over getting all the powerful gear drops. They would also farm gold with their higher levels and send it to their pvp toon to buy the best gear with. Then once they hit around level 18 they stopped doing anything to gain xp. Maxed out great gear for that level which is something most casual players don't have. This is called Twinking.

People started complaining about this because it made it harder for anybody who doesn't have a guild backing them to put together a toon that compete. So after a while Bliz did two things to try and fix this. First they made PvP grant xp. Second they allowed for people to xp lock their toons so they won't level up but they would also be put in special BGs where you fight only other level locked opponents.

Up until this point twinkers always claimed they liked to fight other twinks and didn't go into BG's just to kill all the ungeared noobs. So now this give them their wish. But guess what? Those BGs were nearly always empty. People weren't signing up to fight in them with their twinks. Why? Because fighting other twinks is hard and they really just wanted to go gank noobs.

The option left to them is making a toon, gearing them out and then twinking for only a level or two before they more out of that range. Then if they want to fight that again they have to make another toon, gear them out again and wash rinse repeat. This takes work over and over for each toon.

Then with WotLK come heirlooms. They adjust to the level of whatever toon they go on and can be traded back and forth between your toons since they don't soulbond. So now this gives them a new option. They work their high level toons quite a bit and buy the heirlooms and send it to their toon. They gear up and go right into the BGs (some of it being in gear slots that you can't get anything for at that level otherwise) and twink until they level out. Then they make a new toon and send all the gear to that one via the good ole mailbox. You see that? They only have to work for that gear one time. It's become easy.

End result is that now there are more twinks ever before. Which isn't the original goal for the heirlooms but it's the way they are being used.

So now if you want to try out battlegrounds you had better level to 85 and grind some instances for a while. That way your pvp toon can at least survive. Want to play a bit on another server? Might as well forget about doing the BGs until you max out a toon first.

Anyways... I'll stop now.

Cyberpunk Sunday 002

2011-05-22T15:58:00.000-05:00

One of the constants of the Cyberpunk genre is the pervasiveness of technology. The cutting edge, the man machine interface, the life changing. It's there and most of the time you are waist deep in it wading through as best you can.

First off lets see the cutting edge of exoskeleton technology. Eythor Bender of Berkeley Bionics gives a nice little talk about what his company is working on. But not only that he brings out two working units on stage for a demonstration. One is meant for military personel whose loads of equipment get heavier and heavier. Basically doing the brunt of the lifting work for the soldier. The other is meant for disabled folks who are wheelchair bound. Walking it out on stage is a woman who has been paralyzed for 19 years. Really interesting stuff to see.

Exoskeleton on show

To add to this link is another of a UC Berkeley student who is paraplegic using a set robotic exoskeleton legs to make a short walk to receive his diploma. No video on there but there is a slideshow. This is just another example of the use of the technology that we may, or should I say will be seeing more of in the future.

Short walk at graduation

After this it's on to something different, and much smaller. Flexible interactive paper that works like a cellphone. It's functions are used by bending, folding and flexing it in various spots. Currently it's called the PaperPhone and is currently in the prototype stage of development.

Near the bottom of the article they mention some on how it's made along with other similar products in the works. This makes me think of the disposable phones from Ultraviolet and the interactive map in Babylon AD.

Bending technology

Hmmm.... makes me want an interactive menu at a restaurant. Zooms in on pictures of what the meal will look like, ingredients list, modifications available.....

Enjoy this Cyberpunk Sunday, I'll have another up in two weeks.

MK Legacy part 6: Lord Raiden

2011-05-20T23:52:00.000-05:00

Okay this is one of the better of the six installments so far. Say hello to the Legacy version of Lord Raiden.

BG woes....

2011-05-20T16:01:00.000-05:00

I think who ever at Blizzard thought it was a good idea to drop he graveyard in Warsung Gulch to the level it's at now needs to be fired. Seriously this has really broke that BG. Most of the battles I've been in have ended up as a GY camp. The side with the most BOA's on their toons pushes the other team back and blocks them in. This is really bad on the lower level BG's.

So unless you have an 85 that has farmed up plenty of points to buy your lower level toon all of the BOA's don't even bother going into a random. Seriously this is to the point of being worse than when twinked out toons were the problem.

BOA's basically recreated the twinks all over again but at least before when there was an attempted camp on the GY you had another way or two out. Either back into the keep and down the tunnel or down the ramp on the far side. Now there is one way out of the GY and that's back into the campers.

Yeah. So here lately when my random BG pops up Warsung Gulch I simply afk out and take the fifteen minute cowardice debuff and wait. They've taken one of the best, and well built battle grounds and screwed it up with one stroke.

Good job Blizzard.....

Be a better player. Article three.

2011-05-14T20:17:00.000-05:00

GM - “Okay we're already twenty minutes late on starting. Guess we'll have to start without Jim.”

Player 1 - “Yeah that's going to be kind of hard, his character was pretty important in what we got going on.”

GM - “Trust me I know, I've worked on this campaign for weeks for you guys. He had essential information for the story.”

Player 2 - “I just saw him yesterday and he said he was going to be here.”

Player 3 - “I've left four messages on his phone already. Don't know what the deal is.”

GM - “Well I'll just have to wing it or maybe do a little side adventure or something....”

Now this time it's for one of my all time pet peeves as a Game Master. Those who say they will be there and then don't show or even bother to let me know they won't make it. I'll try to keep myself contained and not go into a foaming at the mouth rant... I'll try harder to not name any names.

So here is the deal. The GM puts a lot of work into campaign because most players seem to ask for long term stuff more than anything. Writing up npc's, mapping out the area and important locations and working out all the adventures that all go together into the over all full end product. Now for it all to work out there has to be players who will show up each time, get involved and make it happen.

Most GM's will let you know well ahead of time that they are gearing up for that long term campaign. It's at this moment when you, the player, need to make a decision as to if you will or won't be there for it. Only agree to dive into this if you are, barring unforeseen circumstances, going to be there for every game. If you are on the fence about it then don't say yes.

Now with the mention of unforeseen circumstances lets cover those real fast. Life happens, things come up and sometimes you won't be able to make it. Here is where a lot of players that I've seen drop the ball, when it does happen THEY DON'T TELL ANYBODY. Come on I'm not talking about getting ahold of everyone and giving them a play by play of why you aren't there. But tell somebody something. A text message, an email, a voice mail, just as long as it's along the lines of 'Hey I can't make it for the game tomorrow. Sorry.'. Is this really that hard to do nowdays?

If you don't get ahold of somebody then at least answer your phone when it's game time and people are calling you. Seriously some folks tweet ten times a day and text more than they talk but when they are skipping out they suddenly 'had their phone off'. Yeah, trust me, nobody at the table will believe you.

For those who flake for no reason at least don't lie about it. Usually people figure it out pretty quickly or somebody sees you out and about. I could easily turn this into a GM advice section called 'kick their ass out of the game' but I'll refrain.

Okay that's it for this time around. Plan is to have another one up in two weeks.

update

2011-05-13T14:46:00.000-05:00

Okay this weekend I should have up the new Be a Better Player article. Found a few good links for another Cyberpunk Sunday post also but I'll probably hold off until next week for those. Last weekend just really didn't work out for setting down at the computer and writing.

Cyberpunk Sunday 001

2011-05-01T17:51:00.000-05:00

Back when Max had PsychoThriller going I used to do a little thing called Cyberpunk Sunday. That is where every sunday I would post up links that had some sort of connection to the cyberpunk genre, sometimes it was the latest real life tech advances, other times it was social statements, along with other various things. I've decided to restart that a bit.

So with this first installment (this time around) I'll start with some of the more depressing aspects of cyberpunk. One is a look at pollution the other a visual report on homelessness. So here we go.

This first one I've posted up on my facebook page recently but it's quite the amazing little news article. It's about the dumping of e-waste, waste directly related to technological advancement and us pushing the old and out dated into the trash. It all goes somewhere and in this case it's Ghana. Massive amounts of tossed off computers, electronics and other such products. The environmental and society risks posed by it are looked at.

Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground

Next up is a visual look at the homelessness problem in China. Showing the kind of shelters that are provided and how they live. There is no article to accompany this, just the pictures. In most cyberpunk setting the population is crushed in on top of itself and unemployment is high so things like this is what one would see walking through various streets or shelters.

Homeless Shelters

Take these two little bites with you the next time you dive into your cyberpunk world. Hopefully I'll have a couple more links for you soon. This may become an every other Sunday event instead of every week.

Be a better player. Article two.

2011-04-30T12:21:00.000-05:00

GM - “The bartender hands you your drinks and points your group over to the corner booth as an answer to your question. A lone figure sits there alone in the shadows, most likely the contact you are supposed to meet.”

Player 1 - “I take my glass and give the bartender a nod and start to make my way over to the table.”

Player 2 - “Doing the same, staying right up behind him.”

Player 3 - “Looking up at the bartender 'So how long have you worked here?'”

Player 4 - “Heading for the table... you're what?”

GM - “You three start making your way over as the bartender looks at you (points to player 3). 'Long enough man.' he says in a grumbling voice.”

Player 3 - “Really, several years I take it?”

GM - “The bartender looks around wondering why you're asking 'Yeah....'. Meanwhile the rest of you make it to the booth as the man in a business suit looks at you with a cutting glance.”

Player 3 - “I always thought about being a bartender myself. How hard is it to get a job at it?”

Player 1 - “Ah hell here we go again....”

Have you seen that before? The guy that just wants to roleplay conversations with nearly every single NPC they run across in the game. It doesn't matter just how throw away they are, how clear the GM makes it that they are not important, or how much everyone tells them to move on. For some reason they just have to have that conversation and nothing will keep them from it.

Yeah that's the subject for this article. 'I want to talk to them' or 'Shut up and move on'.

Now in most game worlds there is a large population of people. They are the backdrop, the added bit of realism, all going about around the PCs either in crowds doing jobs or just standing around. The GM will point them out from time to time to fill in some world detail, usually the ones the PCs come into contact will be the main ones. Shop owners, deal makers, waitresses and such. Others are simply flavor to fill spaces. The crowds dancing at the clubs, patrons in a bar with drinks in hand and shoppers milling through a mall.

The point to remember is that most of these are the faceless masses. They have no names, no faces, no background. Simply there to provide flavor, to fill the void so the characters aren't walking through an abandoned empty world. Some are there to sell the characters that monoknife or repair their armor.

So why do some folks feel the need to walk up and talk with everyone of them? I mean seriously I've had players do that. They decide their character wants a cup of coffee and they want to get all in depth with the person behind the counter. This is while the rest of the group is waiting for them... and waiting... and waiting some more.

Okay here is the deal most GMs will make it painfully obvious who you need to talk to and who is there to interact with. Just watch for the ones with the extra flavor in their description, that's usually a clear sign. Why else would they go through the trouble of coming up with it for no good reason. This is a lot of the time they will walk up and talk to you and start the exchange. Others are so obvious the GM might as well tell you to talk to them.

Don't forget to look for the clues that you need to shut up and get back on track. If the GM is basically feeding you two or three lines and then going back to the rest of the party for a while that's a big one. Especially if they are all leaving you behind and going on with the adventure. When the entire group starts bitching at you about it... yeah that's another sign. These sound like common sense but you would be surprised.

So don't expect to have a long extensive conversation with the swamp snails in Talislanta and not be left behind. Try not to bog down the game on meaningless talk with the lady selling Silverhand Tickets at the booth in Cyberpunk. Just don't...

That's my bit o' rant for this time. Next time maybe I'll cover something like 'Nothing freaks my character out' attitude, or the 'I'll be there and not show up' syndrome.

Part three

2011-04-26T19:16:00.000-05:00

Be a better player

2011-04-24T09:32:00.000-05:00

After years of seeing all sorts of GM advice floating around the web offering up advice on how to be a better GM I got a little tired of it. Yeah some it is helpful and some GMs may need to read it. But some of them approach it like they are always the problem and as a GM myself, that aggravates me a bit. I've had more problem players than I've ever had complaints about the way I run a game. Also I've played in more games where the players are the trouble while the GM is doing a good job.

So I've decided to make a series of articles for players to read. Things they may do to cause problems in a game that they need to watch out for. After all it's not always the fault of the game master.

Details don’t matter all that much.

GM – You manage to find a pick-up truck in the parking lot with the keys in the ignition. It looks like it’s in pretty good condition and should get you out of the town.

Player 1 – What kind of truck is it?

GM – A small blue one, nothing fancy about it.

Player 2 – I’m getting behind the wheel.

Player 3 – Let everyone else get in first while I keep an eye out for more zombies.

Player 4 – Getting in the passenger side.

Player 1 – Is it a Ford, Chevy, Dodge, what?

GM – You guys pile into the truck. It’s…um… a Dodge.

Player 1 – What kind of Dodge truck?

GM – I don’t… it’s a S10.

Player 1 – What? Dodge doesn’t make S10’s don’t you know anything about cars?

Ever seen this happen at the game table? Somebody in the group just keeps asking for more details on something that really isn’t important to the game? Have you been the person asking for all the details and getting aggravated that the GM couldn’t answer them all? If you answered yes to that last question chances are the problem isn’t the GM, the problem is you.

First asking a series of questions for details that will probably have no affect on gameplay slows down the pace of the game. It’s hard enough to get things rolling at an effective rate while dealing with system mechanics, NPCs and flavor text already. A game of twenty questions just makes it all that much harder.

Second, the GM cannot be an expert in everything. All because you know something on a specific topic doesn’t mean the GM does also. Showing off your knowledge by demonstrating their lack of it doesn’t go over well either. Generally this is frowned upon by all those involved in the game besides you.

Third, they just don’t matter. Really they don’t. Most of the time the GM will give you just the amount of details necessary for the game to continue, it’s when they don’t that you need to ask questions.

Now remember this doesn't apply to just vehicles. It also applies to all forms of weapons, machinery and just about anything else you can think up. Detail overkill just doesn't accomplish anything except cause problems. So you have a truck to get out of town, maybe something that may have importance should be asked. Is it a big or small truck? Can we all fit inside or are some of us going to have to be in the back? Things like this are normally fine especially if there is some sort of trouble expected down the line.

Next time I may bring up another problem that most players don't seem to get at times. Basically 'You don't need to roleplay with every npc you meet'.

Truly Rural update

2011-04-22T18:54:00.000-05:00

Okay I updated my site a little bit the other day. Just in the Sla Industries section though. Max Hattuer asked me if I still had any of his stuff saved (he started up another game finally and can't find where he stored his), of course I'm a hoarder of digital information. So I transferred it over into pdf format and uploaded it to my site.

Sla Industries on Truly Rural

Now I'm also working on redoing the entire section just to make it look a bit more pretty. I'll update when I do that.

Rogue Television introduction

2011-04-17T14:01:00.000-05:00

ROGUE TELEVISION
Playtest draft v1.0
By PeterAmthor

Rogue Television takes place in a world that is much like our own, but one that has gone radically wrong in the area of media control. It’s a world where the high rise media corporations that pump out endless amounts of television broadcasts set back and brainwash the public viewers with embedded messages and flashing images. Where the networks are the political power and they make the laws to fit them and their ratings. It’s a place where it’s illegal to turn off your television.

In the beginning…

The first steps that were taken into this direction occurred during the United States Presidential Elections. Both the Republicans and the Democrats put up candidates that the majority of the populace was immensely unhappy with. There were demonstrations, protests and sometime acts of outright violence towards the two parties. In an attempt to become more favorable to the people an increase of television adds was put into place. Doubling the number that were shown, literally, overnight. This did not go over well.

Anthony Slater, owner of three networks that all had gotten the increase of ads, took notice of this and was displeased. He watched as the rating plummeted on his stations, where the increase of political propaganda drove the audience away. This began costing him financially as other advertisers began to stop having their ads shown with the new glut. Only one action came to his mind that could solve this, that of giving the people another choice, so he decided to run for President as well.

On the very same day that he announced his candidacy in the race he pulled all of the ads for the other two political parties from his stations. In their place he put up support for his ‘Network Party’ but not nearly in the numbers that the others were using. His platform was based around change in the political world to better serve the people. By putting those in charge that know what they want because they’ve been providing it for them for decades. The reaction was overwhelming and almost completely positive.

A landslide victory was the gift received by Slater when he pulled over eighty percent of the vote. His stations were the leaders in ratings and watched worldwide now. This, of course, didn’t settle well with his competitors in the television business. Soon other networks began running their own people into other offices; senators, congressmen, mayors, you name it. With the precedent set there was nothing the former leading political parties could do as they slowly watched their power get pulled from underneath them.

Within the eight years that Slater was the in the Oval Office the entire spectrum of the political arena changed hands. The networks were now in control leaving only five percent still in the hands of the old parties. Due to the sheer amount of different networks this basically created dozens of political parties now. This lead to a change in the way the television media operated also for now they were the ones in charge of the very offices that restricted what they showed and how they showed it. The power was in their hands and, like all power; it corrupted those who held it.

They created and approved laws that helped them. Now subliminal messages were in and privacy rights were out. Technology that could create a competitor was buried under red tape and restrictions that crippled their development. Computer technology was suppressed and the home computer system has never really came to exist as it does now. While anything that could be used to enhance the televised media and strengthen its grip were given free reign.

Now twenty years after Slater’s victory in taking the Presidential Office of the United States things are very different, although disturbingly familiar at the same time. The Network Governments rule over the masses and feed them constants streams of mindless and mind numbing programming. This is the world of Rogue Television.

Astoria and Aedarius

2011-04-11T23:22:00.000-05:00

Astoria, the Goddess of Life and her brother Aedarius, the God of Death. It makes sense for a Goddess to represent life since women are the ones who bring life into the world. All the while having a male represent death makes sense also since they are the ones who wage war and bring much death upon the world.

Astoria has the healers, the clerics and the caregivers. Commonly wearing white robes are very light armor that is polished to a mirror finish. The only weapon she carries is a dagger that is said to be used to cut the cord whenever a new progeny of the Gods is birthed. Clerics commonly carry two or three, each with a set purpose (child birth, defense and for eating).

Aedarius is usually shown as a hunter dressed in black leathers with a bow always in his hand. When one dies a common saying is to say they 'Caught the arrow of Aedarius'. Also at his side is a sword that is said to be used to issue his commands to his warriors.

The dress in white and black are to show the two sides of the world that no one can escape.

System post...

2011-04-10T22:56:00.001-05:00

I want a system that is simple. So a few things I won't be doing first.

No hit points by location. No armor coverage areas. Hell no hit loation chart at all. No Palladium style list of a ton of skills. No multple breakdowns of a skill so it become more than one skill. No multiplication or division of anything greater than single digit numbers.

I remember back when things like this weren't in the games I played. Then I kept creeping into complexity and 'realism'. I don't want that anymore. Now all I want is something that can take care of the random stuff pretty quick and get it over with so the game can move along. If I ever run another combat encounter in a game that lasts for an hour or more I'm gonna scream.

Not going to mire in endless little details. That arm is cybernetic now so it has a bit of an armor rating, a chance of messing up and some stat mods.... yeah I don't think so. If I run a cyberpunk game nearly all of the cyberware is going to be flash. All those ammo types and gun mods... yeah flash. Tripped out sword with serated edges and ... yeah flash also.

Basically I'm putting these blocks in my way so I have to build my system up to them. Not around, no sneaky system twist that works just like armor by location but isn't exactly it. These blocks are solid.

Magic and it's costs.

2011-04-10T15:19:00.000-05:00

I always wanted to make a spell caster who sacrifices part of themselves for their magic. Usually by the way of making their casting cost them Hit Points or some such. Normally I referred to them as Blood Mages or Life Magic, not really sure on a good proper term for them.

Suggested it as an alternate system for the old boxed set D&D games I ran. It go howled down because they have so few hit points even though it would allow them to cast more than one spell during the game. Never bought the idea of you memorized it and then forget it when cast, the spells are a mages life, they never ever forget them. Well that's my view. So this also could be done a few other ways. Maybe make it pain magic and they actually have to injure themselves to cast it.

Anyways just my thoughts at the moment again.

twin gods

2011-04-09T17:32:00.000-05:00

Religion idea for my fantasy world. Y'know the one I'm always working on in the back of my head. All the gods are twins. Some are the same sex and some are brother/sister pairs. Representing the dual nature of the world. Life and Death, war and peace, day and night, y'know stuff like that. Now with that in place anyone who is a twin born into the world would most likely be drafted into the church. They would end up being priests, clerics, palladins, etc. Most of the time they wouldn't really have a choice as they would start their education in the clergy early on and their parents would support the idea because it gives them a step up in the social circles. Just another random thought.

yawn

2010-07-18T10:28:00.000-05:00

Trapped in a bit of a summer dead zone here. Doing to many other things with the kids to really work on anything gaming wise. Again I'm usually doing some stuff on WoW when they are zombied out on the television or asleep. Heck I even added an rss feed on the side for my toons.

Firework day

2010-07-04T15:57:00.000-05:00

Happy July 4th.

I haven't been posting much this last week or so. Been sucked into WoW with the little free time I get. Midsummer festival is going on and I had some Horde fires to stomp out. Should be getting some new stuff up here soon.

Urban Mage

2010-06-20T10:11:00.000-05:00

Going through some old gaming stuff of mine. Here is something I need to return to one day. I was working on a more 'modern' spell caster for a cyberpunkish setting. An Urban Mage if you will. I wanted things that fit into the world he lived in. This is the basics of a spell list I had came up with.

Spells

Unlock: opens most key locks at first level, dead bolts at second, and on up in difficulty based on the type of lock used. The actual way it is used is by placing the fingertip on the lock itself. Diff = 0 for basic locks

Short out: causes electrical devices to short out. This can cause security cameras to stop working and other such things. To humans it feels more like a simple static electric shock.

Start up: a modified version of the short out spell. This allows the caster to start vehicles or other electronically triggered objects.

Musical accompaniment: This causes a memorized song to be heard by those around you. The source appears to be from the air two feet above you.

Cleansing: This is used to remove dirt, grunge, etc from clothing and from the body as well. Simply by gliding the hand across the area that needs to be cleaned.

Electrical discharge: Much like the common lightening bolt except it draws power from nearby electrical sources. Such as streetlights, local buildings, this is also very flashy due to the fact that most lights will burst and so will several other objects when drawn from.

City vision: This allows you to see things such as security beams, infrared lasers and other such things, which are increasingly growing in numbers in urban areas.

Illuminate: Much like a normal light spell, with the exception that it appears as a headlight shining out of whatever object it is cast upon.

Camera sight: Allows the caster to see through nearby video cameras.

Money on the street: The caster will find or acquire a sum of money by sheer luck within a few seconds after casting. The amount depends upon how successful the roll is and how many points were put into the casting. Examples – Find a wallet on the street with no identification but a few bills still folded inside, cause a ball at the roulette table hit the number that you are betting on.

EoP entry

2010-06-16T17:55:00.000-05:00

Okay been trying to work it out a bit and I think that the characters race will not be a trait. Simply doesn't work for balance and with humans not having any real set specialties it makes it a drag for their players. So Race will get it's own spot on the sheet.

So now to rethink the traits just a little. One trait will be your training package from Meny of course. Signs for this shouldn't be to tough from something as simple as your PC wearing their ID badge all the time or the bussiness op always wearing a suit in non-combat situations.

This opens the other two up for more character diversity.

So my old bussiness ops traits would be something like this:

Bussiness Package. Sign - Bussiness Suits
Trained by a Contract Killer. Sign - Physically fit with a workout routine
Born Leader. Sign - Always trying to take charge and organizing everything

Next I'll start looking at Flaws.

Edge of Progress entry one

2010-06-14T22:17:00.000-05:00

Been running a conversion through my head here lately. Taking Sla Industries (crunchy system with lots of stats and combat rules) and converting it to Over the Edge (system lite with fast resolution rules). Sounds like taking a Hot Dog and making a Kiwi out of it right? Well the original authors always said Sla wasn't about big guns and killing things but about the horror and conspiracy angle. But the rules made one believe otherwise. Of course a good crunchy combat system was still some what of the norm at the time the game came out. So I'm going to gut the combat beast and see if I can squeeze it into a smaller jar.

Where I see some problems. Ebb powers, straight up going to be a bitch getting it down to fit the streamlines of OtE. Probably going to have to bulk up the simple system for it just a bit.

But first off is Traits. In OtE you get three. A superior and two side traits to be exact. Your superior is supposed to be who you are and what you are about. But that's in a game world of (mostly) humans. In Sla you have a few majorly different races running about and which one you are is really important. So we'll make the Superior Trait your race.

The second trait will be your training package. Anything you may have recieved training for in Meny you would use this trait as it's score.

The third would be up to the player. This will help show up the differences between characters.

That's what's on my mind right now. Soon I'll post some more up as I wrap my head around it a bit more.

Truly Rural update part 2

2010-05-31T14:54:00.000-05:00

Moved a bunch of pages around in the file system today. Mainly making it more organized and easier for me to sort through behind the scenes. Everything should still work just fine and all the pages should come up. If I missed something let me know.

Next up will be finishing up moving things around and another run through of deleting things. Then it will be a front page redesign.

Truly Rural update

2010-05-22T16:40:00.000-05:00

Did some housecleaning on the Truly Rural site today. Mainly went through and deleted a bunch of stuff that wasn't used for anything anymore. Also got rid of the MAGamers section as nobody else around here really gave a damn about trying to get a local gaming community site going.

Next up will be a lot of rearranging of file locations. Basically making it more easier for me to find things and do updates. There shouldn't be anything different on the main part of the site (well unless I screw something up really bad).

After that will be updating the main page a bit. Maybe going back to an older design style I used to really like. Something better than what I have up now. Integrating my blog into it better along with any other 'networking' type of pages I have.

Finally after that I may be getting some new content up. But getting some actual free stress free time is a rare thing nowdays. So it may be a ways away.

Cyberpunk 2020 roles

2010-05-09T14:05:00.001-05:00

Been looking at picking up Team Fortress 2 for something to play after the kids are asleep. It looks like a good fun stress relieving first person shooter. Now while I was looking at the various classes for it I came to a thought.

One of the problems with Cyberpunk 2020 was trying to fit all the Roles together in a game. They were of a wide variety and it didn't really make sense for them to work together most of the time. So why not make different Roles to fit the specific style of game that you want to run. Team Fortress 2 already has a great breakdown for a combat action style of game. Basically breaking down the Solo role into specialties.

Team Fortress 2 has Scout, Heavy, Sniper, Spy, Soldier, Pyro, Demoman, Engineer and Medic. For a humorous view of each class (except pyro and medic) you can check out the class trailers at: http://www.teamfortress.com/movies.htm.

In a Cyberpunk game each of them would get a special skill to fit them. Soldier would get the regular Solo one, Demoman would get explosive bonuses, Snipers would get a hella bonus on aimed distance shots, etc. The only one I probably wouldn't use is Pyro.

This would help with the Rogue Television idea I've been working on for years also. Various media type classes along with a security class.

Quick system thoughts

2010-04-24T16:05:00.000-05:00

Thinking on system here a bit.

Part of me wants to start with the ole' red box D&D and add in what I need and drop what I don't. It's really a nice simple system and if I don't dump to much in it can stay that way. However some folks around here won't play anything with the D&D part in there. Also I could wind up with some malformed system that only works for those who helped put it together.

Writing up my own system from the ground up. I really enjoy doing this except for one big problem. I never finish them. Got several half written systems laying around that I've tossed off to the side and never looked at again.

D6 Fantasy. I know the rules here and they aren't to complex. But I would have to rewrite the magic system all over because I don't like it. That and the system itself just doesn't have the appeal to me for fantasy like it does for other genre's.

I could also find something all new but this is unlikely. Digging through a game just for the system or hoping to download the gem of a free system from all the open systems out there isn't something I want to do.

Anybody got any suggestions (like anybody reads this)? Would like a simple task resolution system and quick combat. Some sort of social system would also be nice to see with all the politics that could insue.

Project X

2010-04-12T16:46:00.001-05:00

Okay I've decided to incorporate a lot of the setting stuff that my friend Max Hattuer and I worked on a few years back. Most of it will fit right in. Originally our ideas started off as 'SLA Industries by Gaslight' but quickly went past that. We used to call it Project X. Here's a few notes on it, I will flesh it all out better in future posts.

Golems. Created by the Guild of Biological Sciences. They look human for the most part but tend to be a bit larger and more muscular. However their skin is covered in stich marks where it has been sewn together. The guild managed to figure out how to grow the creatures but not with skin on them, so it's grown seperately in 'sheets' and then stiched together and then onto them. They are the brainchild of the guild leader Shelley Frankenstien using some of her late Uncle Victors research notes. These will be a PC race.

Guild of the New Science. These are those who have decided to go a different direction in their scientific studies than the Biological or Steam Guilds. They are after real power, electrical power. Headed up my Prof. Tesla they power their section of the city with steady glowing electric lights and arm their most trusted constibles with Lightening Throwers.

The Church. They are the ruling class. Their Popes words are the laws of the land, and those who are closest to him help choose those words. But go against them and you may fall target to the Inquisition or the even to the Silence. So do what they tell you, go to your required sermons and pay your tithings and everything will be just fine.

More later.

Talislanta for free

2010-04-11T08:12:00.001-05:00

Well all the Talislanta material from over the years is being scanned in and put up for free download by the owner of the property. Not everything is up yet but it's getting there. Here is the url for where you can go to find it.

http://talislanta.com/?page_id=5

Now I'm not a big fan of the Talislanta setting overall. There is just to much crammed into one place and to much for what I want to wrap my head around all at once as a player or GM. But some of individual ideas in there are absolutely great. A great gold mine for anyone who needs some extra stuff for their hombebrew settings. I've stolen ideas out of a couple of the books for years for other games (both as GM and player).

setting wants

2010-04-10T19:23:00.000-05:00

Fantasy is where it looks like I'm leaning now. So I guess it's time to start figuring out the things that I want in the setting. So here is a quick list. Later on I'll do a system wants and begin work on that.

Setting wants.

Guilds. Lots and lots of guilds. Everything below the ruling church top level is controlled by guilds. Every character is going to be a member of one and each has their own benifits and hinderances. Pump up the politics.

Theocracy. The government is ruled by religion. There are mandatory religious duties that everyone must follow and they make laws that benifit that religion.

Some steam, bio, and electric punk. Of course a lot of this will be guild specific. Electricpunk will be a lot of Tesla theory pumped up to the extreme, don't know if anyone has really done this much. Steampunk will have some trains for moving the storyline out and around the country.

Massive capital city. Factories, crammed in housing, coastline of docks, all that.

Massive area controlled by the government. A vast and expansive empire. Plenty of room for going out to the far reaches and quelling rebellion.

Magic is outlawed by the church. But there are plenty of underground secret groups that still practice it. The further you get from the capital city the more common they become.

That's all I got right now.

two choices

2010-04-04T14:02:00.000-05:00

Still have a few folks wanting me to run a game someday. But I'm torn between what I want to actually run. Here are the ideas in my head at the moment.

Dirtbags in Space - Low level space game. No massive armadas or heavy politics. More along the lines of Firefly. The characters are more concerned with keeping the ship fueled and themselves fed than with the world of galactic politics and such.

Fantasy with shades of steampunk and some politics - Mostly city based with a few adventures outside of them. Want to have the players feel the crunch of working within the confines of a society ruled by guilds and a theocracy type government. Steampunk tossed in for flare.

That's about it. Not a whole lot of choices in there it seems. I just gotta get off of my ass, get my head out of WoW and work on them. Lord knows that alone may keep it from coming to existance.

Thinking of starting over here.

2010-04-03T15:26:00.000-05:00

Gotten tired of my old blog. Thinking of starting over here on blogger. Still weeks off from actually doing anything here more than likely. To much real life is going on for me to work on it.

So maybe....