What's in the hole? http://blog2.moebiusadventures.com/2014/06/01/june-2014-blog-carnival/
Your spaceship has just encountered a hole (a wormhole really). What's inside or on the other side?
Sci-Fi Wormhole Table. (Roll 1d10,000)
1. A mirror universe replica of your spaceship heading in your direction.
2-100. The stomach of a hyper-space leviathan, uh-oh.
101-150. The wormhole appears normal but both ends will snap shut should the mass inside it excede half again the mass of the average free trader at any one time.
151-160. This seemingly stable wormhole opens up just 2 meters from the surface of a superearth.
161-162. This wormhole supports a stable universe a couple light years across, pitty hyper drives don't work once inside it.
163. The mouth of this wormhole pours out exotic matter, anyone entering the hole will find the exotic matter increases in density to the point the ether is rather dangerous.
164-165. This wormhole is an artifact from a civilization now dead for a billion years. The other side orbits a world ravaged by the ejecta of a red giant star.
166. this wormhole is far too small for the average spaceship, a small shuttle may be able to enter it...but rather unfortunaelty it leads through time/space to the Plank Epoch.
167. This wormhole itself exists under a set of laws identical to that of the Hadron epoch.
168. Matter slows down towards the center of this wormhole.
169. One side of this wormhole opens at roughly the same coordinates in space/time no matter when the other side is entered.
170. This wormhole is a temporal loop with the other side displaced about 10 earth years into the future.
171-300. This wormhole is long, it's not a shortcut.
301. A derelict spacecraft floats inside this wormhole.
302. Debris from a massive space battle fought long ago floats inside this wormhole.
303-400. This wormhole open just a few kilometers from the edge of a rather large blackhole.
401. an entire world sits inside one edge of this wormhole held safely from falling into a nearby blackhole.
402. this wormhole is part of a managed and maintained hyper conduit of a hyper civilization, they will not be happy to see you in it.
403-500. the other end of this wormhole opens during The Big Rip.
501-600. The other end of this wormhole opens during The Big Freeze.
601-700. The other end of this wormhole opens during The Heat Death of The Universe.
701-4000. the other end of this wormhole opens up into a safe and known location in the same sector of space.
4001-5000. The other end of this wormhole opens up into a safe and known location in the same sector about 12 hours ago.
5001-7000. the other end of this wormhole opens up near the crowded center of the galaxy.
7001-9000. The other end of this wormhole open up deep in intergalactic space.
9001-9999 the other end of this wormhole opens up in a galaxy far far away.
10000. The other end of this wormhole opens up in an alien universe, luckily the laws of physics change gradually so there;s a small chance of noticing before getting stuck.
Friday, June 13, 2014
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Beyond Belief Games
Simon Washbourne at Beyond Belief Games pumps out a good bit of material and doesn't hcarge an arm and a leg for what he does either. He recently released a new rpg called Crimson Blades.
Crimson Blades is a dark fantasy RPG built on the engine/mechanics used in an earlier title of his called Woodland Warriors. Both titles are technically a variation of Swords & Wizardy withthe major difference is all you need for play is a d6. No buckets of dice needed at all, just a couple d6, most rolls will be a single d6.
At first I thought reducing Swords&Wizardy and D20 style gaming to d6 roll was a crazy idea, but it works. with a smaller less fiddly range of modifiers to worry about it just plays quickly. Combat is quick and innovative in an odd way that gets combat done quickly, characters and monsters just roll 1d6 per hit dice when making attacks, there's some tweaking to lower the number of dice rolled and some monsters aren't as HP heavy as they may be in cousins of the game but it works great when 2 or 3 guys are fighting a dozen weaker foes. There's a number of minor variations that make d6 work for traditional or perhaps semi-traditional based on the implied settings of both games that use his variant system.
I'm eyeballing using Crimson Blades or using it for a house variant for my next campaign.
I'm not just endorsing Crimson Blades as you can tell by the title of the post. Beyond Belief games offers a number of games that are minor variations of other systems that I've found enjoyable: Tombs & Terrors, Go fer Yer Gun, and Medieval Murder Mysteries are all available for free these days and are each pretty good even if they aren't using Washbourne's d6 variation. Go check out what they offer if you like anything on this blog Beyond Belief Games is going to have something you like.
Crimson Blades is a dark fantasy RPG built on the engine/mechanics used in an earlier title of his called Woodland Warriors. Both titles are technically a variation of Swords & Wizardy withthe major difference is all you need for play is a d6. No buckets of dice needed at all, just a couple d6, most rolls will be a single d6.
At first I thought reducing Swords&Wizardy and D20 style gaming to d6 roll was a crazy idea, but it works. with a smaller less fiddly range of modifiers to worry about it just plays quickly. Combat is quick and innovative in an odd way that gets combat done quickly, characters and monsters just roll 1d6 per hit dice when making attacks, there's some tweaking to lower the number of dice rolled and some monsters aren't as HP heavy as they may be in cousins of the game but it works great when 2 or 3 guys are fighting a dozen weaker foes. There's a number of minor variations that make d6 work for traditional or perhaps semi-traditional based on the implied settings of both games that use his variant system.
I'm eyeballing using Crimson Blades or using it for a house variant for my next campaign.
I'm not just endorsing Crimson Blades as you can tell by the title of the post. Beyond Belief games offers a number of games that are minor variations of other systems that I've found enjoyable: Tombs & Terrors, Go fer Yer Gun, and Medieval Murder Mysteries are all available for free these days and are each pretty good even if they aren't using Washbourne's d6 variation. Go check out what they offer if you like anything on this blog Beyond Belief Games is going to have something you like.
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Sci-fi gaming is hard
Sci-fi gaming is hard. one big reason is because there really aren't any cheat codes (i.e. magical spells) the universe of a Sci-fi campaign is limited by a facsimile of known science, fantasy gaming doesn't generally have this issue. Beyond the investment in universes fandom cliques have latched onto over the years and the problems that can create sci-fi gaming has other issues.
With rare exception a fantasy universe isn't undo on the first appearance of a fairy, demon, vampire, or orc; should something new show up in a sci-fi universe you've got some explaining to do and the explanation should reasonably mesh with how the universe works.
My last post on transporters being B.S. touched on this; a sci-fi setting needs a coherent and moderately consistent framework on how things work. Sure science makes new discoveries all the time and technology improves all the time but some things just don't change. A lasers are light, they are limited to lightspeed, everything in the universe is effectively limited by the speed of light even cheating with whackeyon particles and hyper/sub space doesn't change this.
The universe is big, really big. The vast size of the universe in a sci-fi setting not bound to our earth is a pretty serious affair. There are very few fantasy camapigns where folks can jump in a ram ship get the sucker up to 99% the speed of light and go as far as they can for 10 of their own years... most of us lack the handle on math to even say how far they'd actually get in all that time (it's really far but not far at all considering how gosh darn big the universe is).
If the tech in your sci-fi campaign doesn't pay attention to what it is enabling any devious band with resources is goign to inflict havoc on the universe of that campaign. If nuclear powered starships common in your campaign, well the players have a dirty bomb they can use in a desperate situation, it get's even worse with exotic fuel systems. If there are disintegrators in your campaign every barrier, every target is getting a big hole punched in it and the GM is ultimately goign to have to unrealistically restrain the use of such items. Teleportaion works... be sure how and pay attention to what you are doing or the universe is going to shrink even more. If food replicators work for a wide array of races... well, you've handed anyone really bright and talented that can operate one the means to create a wide array of poisons, acids, and explosives with careful menu selections.
Sci-fi gaming is hard because all the pieces interact with each other with a great degree of verisimilitude and hand-waved logic or lapses of logic can wipe away the universe and ruin a campaign.
With rare exception a fantasy universe isn't undo on the first appearance of a fairy, demon, vampire, or orc; should something new show up in a sci-fi universe you've got some explaining to do and the explanation should reasonably mesh with how the universe works.
My last post on transporters being B.S. touched on this; a sci-fi setting needs a coherent and moderately consistent framework on how things work. Sure science makes new discoveries all the time and technology improves all the time but some things just don't change. A lasers are light, they are limited to lightspeed, everything in the universe is effectively limited by the speed of light even cheating with whackeyon particles and hyper/sub space doesn't change this.
The universe is big, really big. The vast size of the universe in a sci-fi setting not bound to our earth is a pretty serious affair. There are very few fantasy camapigns where folks can jump in a ram ship get the sucker up to 99% the speed of light and go as far as they can for 10 of their own years... most of us lack the handle on math to even say how far they'd actually get in all that time (it's really far but not far at all considering how gosh darn big the universe is).
If the tech in your sci-fi campaign doesn't pay attention to what it is enabling any devious band with resources is goign to inflict havoc on the universe of that campaign. If nuclear powered starships common in your campaign, well the players have a dirty bomb they can use in a desperate situation, it get's even worse with exotic fuel systems. If there are disintegrators in your campaign every barrier, every target is getting a big hole punched in it and the GM is ultimately goign to have to unrealistically restrain the use of such items. Teleportaion works... be sure how and pay attention to what you are doing or the universe is going to shrink even more. If food replicators work for a wide array of races... well, you've handed anyone really bright and talented that can operate one the means to create a wide array of poisons, acids, and explosives with careful menu selections.
Sci-fi gaming is hard because all the pieces interact with each other with a great degree of verisimilitude and hand-waved logic or lapses of logic can wipe away the universe and ruin a campaign.
Monday, June 9, 2014
Transporters are B.S.
Watched Star Trek into Darkness with the wife recently and while we both enjoyed the film for what it was we both reject it as science fiction as the rules of science are completely and utterly mutable and subject to whimsy of plot and story. Star Trek just isn't science fiction folks, It's science fantasy and always has been. The greatest and best evidence as to how Star Trek and it's ilk are science fantasy and not science fiction is the transporter. (SPOILER ALERT)
Here's the transporter functions:
Objects and beings are scanned and are broken down into a stream of subatomic particles. The particle stream is briefly stored in a pattern buffer while the transoorter system compensates for doppler shift to the destination. The matter stream is then transmitted to its destination through subspace. The transporter system maintains the integrity of the information contained in the particle stream. The initial process is reversed and the object or beings is reassembled at the destination.
Oh really? That's the explanation is it? Utter bullshit I'm afraid. How is the object or being reassembled at the destination, remotely by the transporter system? Wouldn't the data have to be manipulated remotely somehow, how's that done again, magic?
There's some implication, when convenient for plot, that successful trasmatter teleportation the distances have to be short and the location being trasmatted from and to are observable. Unless the story needs it to be otherwise. In the latest film the inability of Star Trek writers and filmmakers to understand such a simple concept as "the universe is big, really big" has them violate the pseduo-physics and "reality" of the trek universe yet again by having a man successfully teleported from earth to the Klingon home world seemingly by a man portable transmatter device. All of a sudden the Earth and Kronos are within transmat distance. The disruption this inflicts on any premise of science in the fiction of trek is severe indeed (ignoring the fact that "the universe is big, really big" is a frequent and unending issue with Star Trek over the decades).
Let's look at this again: A transporter records and destroys the item being transported by annihilating matter and changing energy into a form that may be transmitted through a subspace medium across a distance and at distance (separated by physical space and subspace) remotely reassemble anything into a lossless or virtually lossless facsimile. Somehow this data while beign temporarily stored can not be reliably recorded yet the system is reliable enough in it's data manipulation to resaemble an item remotely from a stream of energy. It's simply B.S. .
Data can be recorded. Data can of course be stored once recorded. If transporters are shuffling data there's no reason for the destruction of the original. Sure there are limits in data storage capacity but would anyone ever step on a transporter pad for an away mission knowing they are goign to be killed and recreated at the destination and have data that would allow them to be recreated if killed on the away mission be used to recreate them?
Let's not forget however that distance doesn't matter in the trek universe, distance can always be ignored in favor of the story. The storage capacity can be built to record every piece of equipment and every member of a starship crew assuming anyone would bother with starships at all if transporters could work across interstellar distances.
Effective and reliable long distance transporters undoes the Star Trek universe. Looking at the most cursory explanations for how transporters do and don't work undoes the Star Trek universe.
If you can scan matter, change it to energy, and remotely reassemble matter... all you need is energy and data after the initial scanning.
Why do photon torpedos travel through physical space? Why not transport them to the target? The answer is you can't transport through shielding and that's acceptable but why not simply transport them to just in front of the shields instead of giving away the location and improving targeting on your ship by launching a photo torpedo, every bit of data you send an opponent is a but of data they can use to destroy you. The explanation can't be the data can't be manipulated quickly enough as transporting already works on people and all the equipment they carry in a timely and effective fashion. It can't be the danger, phasers and photon grenades teleported with away teams don't explode. Transporters are B.S. .
Why can't transport technology be used to provide close tactical support in combat? An ever moving minefield that screens an assault team would be insanely useful.
Why not just send in the clones? People and equipment can be changed from data to matter, why not make duplicates with that data. Need 7 experts in warp field theory but only have one... transporters solve that for you. Only enough room on your ship for 30 redshirts but you need 40...transporters solve that for you. Sure lot's of other interesting questions are raised when you have to figure out what to do with surviving copies but that makes stories harder to tell.
The only reason transporter cloning wouldn't be effective would be that transporters don't work like they are supposed to work in the Star Trek universe. As presented transporters in Star Trek aren't science they are plot and story devices, they are science fantasy not science fiction.
Transporters are B.S., don't even get me started on starship combat and communicators.
Here's the transporter functions:
Objects and beings are scanned and are broken down into a stream of subatomic particles. The particle stream is briefly stored in a pattern buffer while the transoorter system compensates for doppler shift to the destination. The matter stream is then transmitted to its destination through subspace. The transporter system maintains the integrity of the information contained in the particle stream. The initial process is reversed and the object or beings is reassembled at the destination.
Oh really? That's the explanation is it? Utter bullshit I'm afraid. How is the object or being reassembled at the destination, remotely by the transporter system? Wouldn't the data have to be manipulated remotely somehow, how's that done again, magic?
There's some implication, when convenient for plot, that successful trasmatter teleportation the distances have to be short and the location being trasmatted from and to are observable. Unless the story needs it to be otherwise. In the latest film the inability of Star Trek writers and filmmakers to understand such a simple concept as "the universe is big, really big" has them violate the pseduo-physics and "reality" of the trek universe yet again by having a man successfully teleported from earth to the Klingon home world seemingly by a man portable transmatter device. All of a sudden the Earth and Kronos are within transmat distance. The disruption this inflicts on any premise of science in the fiction of trek is severe indeed (ignoring the fact that "the universe is big, really big" is a frequent and unending issue with Star Trek over the decades).
Let's look at this again: A transporter records and destroys the item being transported by annihilating matter and changing energy into a form that may be transmitted through a subspace medium across a distance and at distance (separated by physical space and subspace) remotely reassemble anything into a lossless or virtually lossless facsimile. Somehow this data while beign temporarily stored can not be reliably recorded yet the system is reliable enough in it's data manipulation to resaemble an item remotely from a stream of energy. It's simply B.S. .
Data can be recorded. Data can of course be stored once recorded. If transporters are shuffling data there's no reason for the destruction of the original. Sure there are limits in data storage capacity but would anyone ever step on a transporter pad for an away mission knowing they are goign to be killed and recreated at the destination and have data that would allow them to be recreated if killed on the away mission be used to recreate them?
Let's not forget however that distance doesn't matter in the trek universe, distance can always be ignored in favor of the story. The storage capacity can be built to record every piece of equipment and every member of a starship crew assuming anyone would bother with starships at all if transporters could work across interstellar distances.
Effective and reliable long distance transporters undoes the Star Trek universe. Looking at the most cursory explanations for how transporters do and don't work undoes the Star Trek universe.
If you can scan matter, change it to energy, and remotely reassemble matter... all you need is energy and data after the initial scanning.
Why do photon torpedos travel through physical space? Why not transport them to the target? The answer is you can't transport through shielding and that's acceptable but why not simply transport them to just in front of the shields instead of giving away the location and improving targeting on your ship by launching a photo torpedo, every bit of data you send an opponent is a but of data they can use to destroy you. The explanation can't be the data can't be manipulated quickly enough as transporting already works on people and all the equipment they carry in a timely and effective fashion. It can't be the danger, phasers and photon grenades teleported with away teams don't explode. Transporters are B.S. .
Why can't transport technology be used to provide close tactical support in combat? An ever moving minefield that screens an assault team would be insanely useful.
Why not just send in the clones? People and equipment can be changed from data to matter, why not make duplicates with that data. Need 7 experts in warp field theory but only have one... transporters solve that for you. Only enough room on your ship for 30 redshirts but you need 40...transporters solve that for you. Sure lot's of other interesting questions are raised when you have to figure out what to do with surviving copies but that makes stories harder to tell.
The only reason transporter cloning wouldn't be effective would be that transporters don't work like they are supposed to work in the Star Trek universe. As presented transporters in Star Trek aren't science they are plot and story devices, they are science fantasy not science fiction.
Transporters are B.S., don't even get me started on starship combat and communicators.
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Problematic Magical Light
12 Problematic Types of Magical Light
1. Sleepless Night- the light is just annoying enough one can’t
catch a decent catnap or bit of normal sleep while within the illumination of
this magical light.
2. Leaking Light- Remnant magical illumination "drips" leaving illuminated spots on surfaces touched by the light that are noticeable and last twice as long as the original light did, if the magical light is moved the drippings will leave a unfortunate trail. (Thanks to Leicester for that one; take a look at Leicester's Rambles )
2. Leaking Light- Remnant magical illumination "drips" leaving illuminated spots on surfaces touched by the light that are noticeable and last twice as long as the original light did, if the magical light is moved the drippings will leave a unfortunate trail. (Thanks to Leicester for that one; take a look at Leicester's Rambles )
3. Sticky Light- spending half an hour or longer within the
illumination of this magical light will cause a being and all equipment
carried to glow lightly making it impossible for them to hide, the illumination
provided by the glow will allow dim vision to about 5’ and ruins
infravision/darkvision of a being that finds themselves to be glowing.
4. Wandering Light- if the magical illumination doesn't move for 3 turns or more a patch of light 10' accross will seperate slowly and wander away at 10-60 feet a turn for the next 1d8 turns. If the original magical illumination is extinguished these wandering lights will dim in half the remaing time but not extinguish immediately.
5. Creeping Shadow- the area around the magical illumination
will become darker and darker, after 6 turns there will be a ring of darkness 5’
in diameter surrounding the area of illumination. It will grow by 5’ each following
6 turns until the magical illumination expires.
6. Hateful Shadows- every 2 turns after the first 6 there is a
1 in 6 chance of a Shadow (as per the monster) being summoned that will not
enter the illumination but will remain stalking outside it waiting for the
illumination to fade. Some report only as many shadows as intelligent folk
within the illumination will ever appear, this rumor has yet to be confirmed.
7. Nourishing Glow- this magical light will cause any plant
life (even fungula life) within the area of effect to grow unnaturally doubling
in size each hour and gaining 1d4hp as well. When the light is extinguished or
carried away the plant life will wither losing 2 bonus hp per round until
reduced to it’s original hp.
8. Stretching Light- The light will stretch to encircle any being that was within the original area of effect when cast. This is a tenuous and fragile situation however as for every 100 feet a being moves from the original lights area of effect there is a cumulative 1 in 6 chance the light extinguishes cancellign the illumination.
8. Stretching Light- The light will stretch to encircle any being that was within the original area of effect when cast. This is a tenuous and fragile situation however as for every 100 feet a being moves from the original lights area of effect there is a cumulative 1 in 6 chance the light extinguishes cancellign the illumination.
9. Burning Bright- this magical illumination makes all other sources of illumination both mundane and magical of lower level ineffective so if one is inside the area of illumination for 4 or more turns they will be unable to see for half as long afterward when leaving the magical illumination or following the magical light being extinguished.
10. Slow Light- everything within this illumination is slowed, relative to the outside world. Anything inside the illumination will not notice but anything outside will be able to interact as if those inside were slowed.
11. Beacon of the Twelve Horrible Darks- when this magical illumination is extinguished the area of illumination is replace by one of the twelve darks. See here: False Machine- Twelve kinds of Dark.
12. Burning Radiance- this source of magical light is
radioactive, after an hours exposure one will find themselves assaulted by the
ravages of radiation each following hour. The radiation effects will intensify
with each failed save. See: Mutant Future, Four Bizarre Radiations, and StrangeRadiations
Notes:
Yup I’m making light spells and continual light spells (and
all similar spells) troublesome and risky. Clever players will certainly find
advantage in many of these side effects but they should ineed prove
troublesome. Effects could be rolled randomly, be fixed to a dungeon area, or
typical to a specific spell-caster. They should likely only turn up on a roll
of the spell level or less on 1d6 when cast.
Visited the 17th and 18th century yesterday.
Went to Fort Number 4 with my father and son yesterday. Once the northern most habitation on North America for the British Empire it's now a museum of living history. The fort is a square of multiple homes and emergency shelters with a great hall and a small tower. It was essentially the little keep on the borderlands.
There were a couple hundred re-enactors there and a faux-battle that I enjoyed watching. Showing my son a little piece of our history was fun, get out there share the world with your family.
There were a couple hundred re-enactors there and a faux-battle that I enjoyed watching. Showing my son a little piece of our history was fun, get out there share the world with your family.
Friday, June 6, 2014
Millions of People Don't Know You Are Here!
Millions of people don't know you are here and playing D&D, related games, and unrelated RPGS.
Many of them do not know about the options. Speak up.
One of my facebook friends mentioned there was a new version of D&D coming out and he was intrigued and looking forward to giving it a shot. Several people communed they would like to give it a shot or give it a shot again. The facebook friend didn't know about the OSR, the SRD, the OGL all of that is something he and most of the fellow posters on Facebook talking about D&D (even some of those who currently play RPGS) just don't know about.
There are a lot of D&D and RPG players and would-be players out there, they have no clue you exist and don't know how to reach you even if they thought they could or would. We're the ones screwing up.
Do you want the hobby to grow, to be dynamic to have new voices, and to be enjoyed by more?
Get out there and tell people about it. Let them know you are here.
Many of them do not know about the options. Speak up.
One of my facebook friends mentioned there was a new version of D&D coming out and he was intrigued and looking forward to giving it a shot. Several people communed they would like to give it a shot or give it a shot again. The facebook friend didn't know about the OSR, the SRD, the OGL all of that is something he and most of the fellow posters on Facebook talking about D&D (even some of those who currently play RPGS) just don't know about.
There are a lot of D&D and RPG players and would-be players out there, they have no clue you exist and don't know how to reach you even if they thought they could or would. We're the ones screwing up.
Do you want the hobby to grow, to be dynamic to have new voices, and to be enjoyed by more?
Get out there and tell people about it. Let them know you are here.
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