Sensor range

Anyone who's never visited Riskail should take a good look, for descriptions of a Truly Weird World. Sci-fi fans could try these recent posts on a transhuman type and various planets, while fantasy fans might find more in a new take on wizards or a dozen cults. The blog always inspires me. I am going somewhere with this, somewhere in the clouds.

In the last day or so I've visited Ghost Hunting Theories for the first time, and read this post at The Digital Cuttlefish. Things started happening in my mind.

How can we reconcile ghosts with hard sci-fi, or even high fantasy? How does the soul fit into deep physics? What remains of us in the world when measurable life signs end?

I will now speculate on these ideas, but in the far-out spirit of Riskail, as if getting ready to write something of that calibre. Sit tight.

Repelling boarders

I've been pondering control of spaces. In wargaming and roleplaying we could well be encouraged to invade, occupy and steal, and how we rationalise this is a big subject. Big Lee at his Miniature Adventures has a real life example, which is what set me off.

The problem has reared its head at the Expanse too. One follower showed surprising contempt for everyone else by manipulating a mechanism for his or her own ends. I don't like the idea of diversity suffering for limited personal gain, as I suggested here a while back on the subject of tournaments. With no means of contact, I've blocked the person, but will happily review the decision. If any Blogger blogger has a need to do this, they can click the green 'Followers' icon on the dashboard, then the given avatar, then select the option under the name. I feel unhappy for having done it, but better than I did before.

All of this reminded me of two movies featuring similar situations, one of which you probably know and the other quite possibly not. It's a common problem, but in both help comes from an unlikely quarter, from aliens, possibly those quogwinkles again.

Hanging back

I've finally caught up with the blogs in the rolls and my head is swimming with ideas. I feel just a little like this poor woman, but since none of the bloggers is "an unspeakable horror from hell" (probably), it's more "Fantastic!" and "Weird!" than "Horrifying!" She at least doesn't need to worry about her figure now.

I'll get back to you on more than a few of the ideas - count on that - but for now there's work to be done. A while back I put up a post aimed at tieing up loose ends in our reaches of the blogosphere, and the time has come to do it again. On my recent jumps I've found a fair few bloggers calling for backup.

Here we go.

PROTOSTARS!

Today the hot blog is Fire Broadside!, which also has a pulp exclamation mark. These exclamation marks could be big again.

Where to start with this one? I've got it listed in the fuller spectrum blogroll, meaning it spans game types or approaches. In this case it's a bridge between what we call roleplaying and what we call wargaming, but also takes in board games.

And it does all of this stunningly well. Visit the blog and look at the list of games recently played at the bottom of the right-hand column. How many of us can match that? More to the point, how many of us have shared thoughts on even half that number?

Matching the eloquence on display would be a challenge even if we had. See the last post but one, Earth Reborn - Buzzsaw Wielding Zombies!, for a taste of this. The eloquence is on display too in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay session write-ups, the atmosphere-rich Investigations in Stromdorf for example.

The blog also has a love of space and space exploration, and posts with this theme pop up every now and again, like yesterday's wonderful The Pale Blue Dot.

As if that were not enough, the site is a pleasure to browse - clean, well arranged and with a strong, attractive design.

Want to know more? For a review of 2010 and plans for 2011 there's this post.

That's Fire Broadside!

If you haven't read the first in this series yet, check out Blighty Waaagh Boys.
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PROTOSTARS!

Here we are then, the first top blog I believe has too few followers.

I've gone with the series title PROTOSTARS! because it's very pulp, but also because if the blogrolls are home to stars of hobbyspace, those with less followers can be thought of as protostars. It's not to patronise - the point is not that the blogs are young or new, just that I think they deserve more readers - but if you feel it's patronising, it can change.

They got lucky really, because they could have been Porky's Golden Truffles. I thought about it. Then again, a protostar becomes a star when it gets T Tauri wind, so if they're getting wind from Porky, perhaps luck's the wrong word...

The capital letters are to just grab maximum attention, plus they're pulp. Everyone knows exclamation marks are pulp too.

Enough theory. Today I want to thrust Blighty Waaagh Boys into the light of the assembled constellations. You are the assembled constellations.

Thanks

This weekend I was lucky enough to receive wonderful gifts by email. I've thanked the senders and I'm very grateful for their generosity. The same goes for the responses to this weekend's posts, which were far more, and more positive, than I could have hoped.

But I'm grateful for much more too and I want to say a bigger thanks, to everyone in this corner of the blogosphere for the sharing and the mutual encouragement and support. I visit a lot of blogs and I'm constantly amazed by the wealth of ideas and big-hearted giving in posts and comments. Being a part of this is always a pleasure, often stimulating and at times even electrifying. It's sometimes too much to take in.

Porky's Expanse! is a fairly new kid on the block, but has somehow managed to pick up 59 intrepid fellow explorers, as well an array of good people giving welcome feedback and ever greater numbers just reading quietly. To all of you too I am very grateful.

I've decided I want to give a little something back in a more direct way. Whenever I have a mind too clouded with thoughts to find anything of value to say, I'll turn attention to the blogs that deserve far more of the limelight. There are so many with so much to offer. Hopefully more will find them and gain from the knowing. We'll all be the richer for that.

In the meantime, I encourage everyone reading this to travel as widely as they can through 'hobbyspace', to visit new blogs they've not read before, and to get involved and give feedback. Those listed in the left column are my particular recommendations, based on what I've had the privilege to visit so far. Be bold, and I think you'll like what you find!

Thanks again.

Porky models - Ork (5) - Ork 1

Here at last, the complete model, with all of the parts combined into one. A list of the parts first, with the links to the making.

Shoota 1

Stikkbomb 1

Body 1

Head 1

Pics next, and quite a few.

Porky models - Ork (4) - Head 1

Finally getting back to this guy. If you have no idea who it is, you can find the mission here, thoughts on Orks and conversion here, and every part using the 'modelling' tag.

The head has been ready for some time, but the original picture I took was so poor I'd been waiting to photograph it again with the finished model. I'm posting the head here alone to keep to a separate post for each element, in case anyone does one day want to find it again for reference. The rest of the pictures of the finished model I'll post as soon as I finish the write-up on how I got the various effects, hopefully this weekend.

With the head I had a chance to play up two of my favourite Ork elements - 'teef' and fungus. Teef function as currency, and Ork mouths and faces are very much defined by them. I love the ways the sculptors have played with them over the years and this is an homage. As for the fungus, it's always been in the background as food and drink, and since the late '90s and Gorkamorka the Orks have grown from it. Ork spores drift, Orks and their ecosystem grow in cool places and worlds are infested. I like the idea of fungus sprouting on an Ork as moles might on us, and a bare head is a good space.

The first of the two pics then.

Size matters / class war

How big should a ruleset be? At Warhammer 39,999 we have a poll to respond to with our choice of most important stat, but for me it's better to ask which stat is least important. As I see it, the 40K ruleset is bloated and often nonsensical.

When GW reworked Epic in the late '90s they simplified enough that I no longer recognised the game and walked away. Now I recognise that what they did was genius, or a step towards it. Today at the Statecraft blog Greg Christopher reports finding an elegant solution that gives more warfare with less. This is surely the point.

Heavens re-opened

A little more looking has turned up a few new movies for the list of '70s flicks that speak volumes about the hobby. Thanks to imaginarywars for the reminder of space1970 - I've added The Ultimate Warrior already. These posters at Coming Attractions of the Past! also gave me a prod, so I've added the four later movies in the original Apes series too. 

Here are trailers for two of the newest additions to the list. The mutants in the metro of Beneath the Planet of the Apes, and the sea and sorcery of Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. Watching them now, the ideas seem brighter than they did all those years ago.

Fundamental laws of a fictional universe (3)

Linked with the ongoing and perhaps endless discussion of breaking the mould, if you're a 40K player - and especially a 40K roleplayer - you might be interested in what JB at B/X BLACKRAZOR has to say on Stars Without Number.

On the subject of settings, but fantasy, and for D&D in particular, I direct you to some thoughts on essences at the stimulating Gorgonmilk. Have a good look around the blog while you're there - it's a breeding ground for the less than usual.

As for the fundamental laws of fiction, here's another card for the deck. The first two are here, and the next here. The latest is to get some interaction going among the cards themselves. There's no copyright on this either for the same reason as before.

Open doors

To access the new realm in the domain-level game being run at Hill Cantons you'll need to pass through a portal. Yes, one of those portals. Not sure how I feel about that, or rather how that feels.

If a portal offers instant passage to another location - possibly another world or even dimension in the polycosmos - what can we assume about it? We know we can pass through, but what about our clothing and equipment? Does it need to be in contact, and if so, with what exactly? Because those quivers and scabbards - or magazines and firearms - might not be touching skin. Do we take with us more than the air we carry in our lungs? Grubs in food of course, and a buzzing fly maybe, but a flagstone? Or floor?

In the House

The upstart House of Paincakes has opened up links with the Expanse. That is to say I'm in, but there's persuading to be done the decision was a good one. What comes of it is anyone's guess. For my part I've agreed to supply glimpses of life's deeper mysteries.

The network is growing fast and has some real talent so go explore by all means, but beware - as the logo suggests, it's a bumpy ride and not for the easily offended.

Fundamental laws of a fictional universe (2)

There's a bold venture on the cards at Ostensible Cat and I'm behind it all the way. It's clear Johnathan wants not just a new game, but a new kind of game, one breaking new ground. It must be possible. For an existing game that doesn't necessarily fit the mould, see Harald's review of Itras by at The Book of Days. Synapse looks very promising too.

How would this affect those fundamental laws of a fictional universe? Well, I'm not sure they'd be so easy to lose. They're extensions of our nature after all, our expectations of a story and our willingness to pay with time and money, whether it's a story in cinema, literature or gaming. To change those expectations and that willingness we have to change ourselves. A noble mission, and not such a strange one at this time of year.

Here then are two more cards for the growing deck. The aim is manifold: first to allow the big events of fiction into your games; second to break down the barriers in how we define game types; third to identify recurring tropes as the first step to moving beyond them.

Status report (1)

Some order from chaos, a snapshot of the mood in the Expanse as it is at the moment.

A little bit of several recent posts in this: Bond and his antics of course, as well as the 1970s, but also monsters (this one comes good), exploitation of space and exploitation of women, and even an annual celebration, albeit later in the year. Plus laser battles.

Can't go far wrong with all of that, surely...

To expand on another past post and its sequel, Damien G. Walter has a link to further discussion of truth and beauty in sci-fi, while Slight Foxing has a view on Tron: Legacy.

Seventies heavens

This one's for joe especially. Yesterday's post was a lot to take in, and he reminded me I need to keep it simpler for readers less familiar with the world of gaming. He and others might like a primer in key influences and mental atmosphere.

Building on yesterday's use of cinema and taking the bold cyclopeatron and his 10 greatest works of fantasy fiction as encouragement, I venture into something more joe's bag - the 1970s - vital to understanding what makes many of us tick.

My criteria won't be overall impact, but apparent popularity and importance to the hobby, especially in this particular corner of the internet, especially to me, and I won't be annotating like cyclopeatron because I'm nowhere near clued-up enough. If you want my take on the influence of the '70s on the alien from Alien, that's still waiting for the brave.

Here we go then. Watch these to understand us better. All of the links will take you to IMDb, which ought to have a trailer for most. I recommend Wikipedia too for more on context. Remember, as always, some will not be for the sensitive or easily scared.

Fundamental laws of a fictional universe (1)

Here's something I've been tinkering with, but which I realise now will never be properly finished, except perhaps with your help. The stakes are high - the nature of reality.

Not such a long time ago at a blog not so far away, the The Angry Lurker put up this image of Luke's proton torpedoes entering the Death Star. As I mentioned later at the D6 post here, my comment was this: "It's a fundamental law of a fictional universe. You can't get round that kind of thing." At the D6 post I explained the thinking by saying "that is what we're talking about here - fictional worlds. A DM/GM and players may not be operating at high magnifications, and may not need to. I'd argue the range of options we expect in any given situation - and are happy to be given - are fewer than we'd think."

Since then I've come across the idea in all kinds of places, notably in the prototype mashup machine at The Lost Continent and in some thoughts on fantasy tropes at The Ostensible Cat. Cyclopeatron has just covered major influences, and the list is worth exploring. I was recently introduced to Seventh Sanctum and that site does this kind of thing very well - you might need your imagine much less for knowing about it.

Anyone playing a game has an interest in fiction, inspired by cinema and literature or not. Even in a real world setting, gaming is telling a story. Many systems allow for dramatic moments of the X-wing / Death Star kind, but others don't make it easy, or allow it only rarely, perhaps even accidentally. To make it more possible that some of our universal expectations occur, I've put together a simple card-based supplementary system. This something that exists in many games of course, but in going about it, I had in mind the strategy card system from the second edition of Warhammer 40,000. The idea is that each player is dealt one or more cards at the beginning of the game, which are then kept secret and played at an opportune moment, as directed by the card.

Our kryptonites

May I be the first on this bright day - painful for so many - to mention transmutation of matter.

At the thought-provoking Science In My Fiction yesterday the discussion turned to the practical and economic uses of superhero powers, the potential for supers to do more of a day's work.

If we can't be space marines with their many implants, and specifically the oolitic kidney with its emergency filtering of the blood, a superhero service provider wouldn't be such a bad idea. Who would even need the spectacular powers of an Alchemy, Metamorpho or Edward Elric? We can heed Life and Times of a Philippine Gamer and break them into parts. The enterprising superhero wouldn't want much more than a good reach. That's right...

With teletransmutation of a long enough range, riches could be made on dial-a-seltzer.

On the subject, Aeons & Augauries has a series on weird weapons, the latest here.