Ceramic monitor commune

A while ago I rolled up a term on the unpublished Worldboat table. It turned out I didn't need it then so here it is now: ceramic monitor commune. I'm interested in any weird ideas for what it might be.

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Gödellian Rhapsody

There's a reasonable popular-scientific sketch here on a 'grand theory of everything'. It's easy to follow and even uses metaphor from gaming and mapping. More importantly, it takes into account the limits of human structure and the problem of defining 'everything'.

Personally, I'd argue it doesn't go far enough - too little looking sideways for a start - and falls down on what life or a deity might be, in more hylozoic senses for example. If these are the best minds we have, good as they are, it may be time for more of us to help out.

For most of that, plus The Glass Bead Game, music, Dawkins, themes in the sly-fi and his work in opposing the cull, you might be interested in the views of this astrophysicist.

If you're wondering about that title, it's a reference to Gödel's incompleteness theorems.

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Trickster, Trapper, Sniper, Spy

This idea was prompted by a comment Sidney Roundwood left and a post at Gothridge Manor.

It's an alternative, live-action game to play at an event, for when gamers are posting photos of themselves in advance to help in meeting up and plan to take more when they're there to post later, as often happens. It also lets some protect their real-world identity if they want to or need to. I'll call them all posters.

It's simple. Everyone carries a camera and the idea is to take a clear photo of as many other posters as possible; other individuals in shot are considered innocent victims and reduce counts at an agreed ratio. Posters protecting their identity are a special case - they play the sniper end of the spectrum and can have other posters in the frame only.

Queues for entry and planned meet-ups are 'safe havens'. Zoom is allowed as it raises risk of blur, but cropping not. The pics are posted after the event and numbers totalled, and popular opinion decides quality if there's doubt, with all but the sharpest discarded.

It could add a real frisson to the event, more of the tension of actual struggle. It's funny more gaming events don't arrange overarching games, or weave them into the structure, maybe using ambient random or similar methods. With so many gamers in one place...
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Ambient random

Here's a quote that jumped out recently, from a text I linked to at the panspermia post.

Cosmology in the oldest lands radiated from the priestly classes, where, charged with religious power, the priests and magi who were able to understand the patterns politicized space to a great extent, often deciding public policy using one or another astrological method.

It got my attention for a different reason than you might expect. Not for the changing role of space agencies or the secret space missions or the contenders, or the recent big SF on the silver screen, even if all of these seem to make space a source of power now too.

Using dice or maybe a deck to produce so-called random numbers is, when you think about it, a bit weird. Why such artificial, physically complex systems? And building on the interview with Loquacious, when there's so much deep intricacy out there, they're a real sledgehammer. And impractical: they help to limit tabletop games to the tabletop, even without miniatures or other components, and maybe mean ever more components.

And why play so many games indoors, or sitting down, or in a fixed location? Moderate physical activity is healthy, oxygen too, and sunlight. In rules-light games in which the dice or cards are the big hindrance, why not ditch them and look for another system?

Table - OSRs

This is a revised version of the table I posted at The Other Side, for terms that could be making up the acronym OSR. I'll be linking back to it whenever a definition might help.

Roll 1D30 per letter. For example, 5, 4 and 15 give the usual Old School Renaissance.

Deep thought Friday

With a recent reminder of the Apollo programme and the clear contrast with Curiosity, it's natural there's been a lot of talk about how things stand.

So when we say a given entity was ahead of its time, could we in fact be a) recognising that we ourselves are behind our own time, b) admitting that we've allowed ourselves to become trapped in a future the given entity helped create, and/or c) accepting the entity as a creator and in doing so exonerating ourselves of failure to do better?

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Dust-offs & Debunking

In the first part of what looks like being a long and intriguing series, Rob Kuntz at Lord of the Green Dragons has this to say about the rather fashionable - maybe advantageous? - efforts to reconstruct 'correct' approaches to early RPGs:

The more you vest in "this must be the way it is done, because Rob, or Dave, or Hargrave, or EGG the Magnificent," did it that way, you have reached the dead end of creative and spontaneous thought and action, the very essence of the original game as composed for creative individuals.

But that's just, like, his opinion. Right? If you need help with a get-out, it could be the understanding that what the creators of D&D gave us wasn't an RPG, but a wargame.

If you want an OD&D primer, Von is doing an overview at HoP, with 1, 2, 3 parts so far.

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Rogues' gallery - Trippies

After sending Trey my seeds yesterday I emailed Fenway5 my material for Rogue Transmissions #2, a fuller version of the lost and found item list.

Now that's done, I'll be finishing up and posting rules for a few general factions. They're also aimed at Rogue Space, but should be easy enough to convert to other systems and settings. First up are the transhuman Trippies.

So who are these Trippies then?

Humans of the clade known as the Trippies are squat, strong and bioengineered with a prehensile third leg grown from the lower back, an adaptation to dynamic atmospheres.

And what's that got to do with us?

At the GM's discretion, Trippies may be taken as starting characters and/or be NPCs.

Starting characters: Origin, nature and lifestyle mean around 50% of Trippies have the Technician Archetype, and all have a further +1 Hit Point. The many challenges and the clade rejection mean initial Empathy is -1D3. The GM may allow a finboard or skytrike.

NPC groups: A group may include 1D6 Trippies of up to 1D2 generations; all but 1D3-1 will have a finboard and there will be skytrikes with seating or anchors for all but 1D2-1.

The third leg: A third leg may be used to a) hold or manipulate as if a hand or b) move 50% faster than an average bipedal human. It may be used simultaneously to reroll one die per attack in melee against humanoids, to represent surprise kicks, trips, switches and bracing. If a third leg is badly injured, initial instability modifies all Attributes by -1.

Technologies: Trippies make extensive use of various advanced human technologies, notably anti-gravitics. In many colonies, Trippies are adept riders of tripedal finboards, these often towed by skytrikes; the largest skytrikes mate with interstellar driveframes.

                                                                                                                              

 Finboard, powered*    C -  H -  A -  S -  E  100% [2]  skims: 25' powered or 2 x rider move

                                                                                                                              

 Skytrike, suborbital, random pattern*

 C      16.6%    [1]   Canopod (seating for 1D3 Trippies: 1 rider + 0-2 passengers)

 H      16.6%    [1]   up to 3 Rating points of payload, 1D3+3 finboard line anchor points

 A      16.6%    [1]   C: 1  H: 1  S: 1

 S        50%     [3]   125'

 E        100%     6

                                                                                                                              

* Uses the vehicle construction rules in Rogue Transmissions #1.

But what are they doing here..?

The GM may want to roll below for each starting character or NPC group, who is/are:

1. ... trading, or otherwise seeking or offering skills, services or technology.
2. ... fleeing a threat, prejudice, a discrimination of some form, or far worse.
3. ... asserting a claim, attempting to right a wrong or continuing a vendetta.
4. ... seeking a suitably hazardous landscape to explore, exploit or colonise.
5. ... experimenting, releasing untapped potential or raising consciousness.
6. ... studying, self-engineering or otherwise adapting to this particular site.

As ever, feedback is welcome, but better yet tweak what's here or run with it. If you don't know Rogue Space, my original review is here and the links below lead to more material.

Rogue Space downloads - Rogue Space news

RS@Hereticwerks - @Swords & Stitchery - @Mik's Minis - @TheFairlyUnkempt - @the Expanse

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Giving fighters a once-over

Following last week's post on adapting Vancian magic, here's a general response to the recent discussion on fighters in early D&D, especially customisation. It's an even simpler suggestion.

In the course of character creation anyone playing a fighter can give a summary of a few words on the character's philosophy, specific school, fighting style, preferred techniques etc.

Before each attack, and consistent with this summary, the player can very briefly state how exactly the fighter makes the attack, what one additional effect the fighter aims to achieve etc.

For example, a fighter whose master emphasises positioning may declare a strike is also intended to turn the foe, or pressure an individual back, or draw one opponent off.

If the attack succeeds by a margin of a quarter the range of the die or more (e.g. 2 if a D6, 5 if a D20, or 25 if a D100), the usual result and the stated effect are applied. If the attack fails by this margin instead, the DM / GM may apply a relevant adverse effect.

You can tinker with effect power, and make it higher if you already use a similar system without a margin. It might be decided a given effect needs a further check of some kind.

This gives a player explicit scope for customisation and creative input in general combat, and there's automatic improvement as character skill rises. It could be used as a more overt mechanical basis for related interactions like shaming, angering or persuasion.

It could work in wargaming too, even without a referee if the players agree effects first.
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Deep thought Friday

This time I'll just direct you to two discussions.

One is SinSynn's considered post On Violence in Gaming at House of Paincakes, which is still picking up thoughtful responses two days later.

The other is Dark nights apprising here at the Expanse, which stayed oddly quiet once it was posted despite solid traffic - until James S took up the gauntlet earlier today and made things a lot more epistemological and DtF in the process.

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Getting here

Some of the stranger search terms people and/or bots have used to visit the Expanse...

Community Project - The Ends

Here's the master list for The Ends, a community project for paths between worlds, to get ways of moving from one setting or universe to another. I'll be updating the post with new routes as they come. Anyone can jump in...

1. The barber's chair - the City to Wermspittle (Trey, From the Sorcerer's Skull)
2. The ornate painting - to the Sea of Stars (seaofstarsrpg)
3. The Gem of Muktra - to Zalchis (garrisonjames, Hereticwerks)
4. The Synchronocitor - point-A to point-C (garrisonjames, Hereticwerks)
5. The corroded metal plaque-like thing - unknown... (garrisonjames, Zalchis)
6. The Weak Points - to and from Wermspittle (garrisonjames, Hereticwerks)
7. A Tenebrous Scarlet Portal - many, various... (garrisonjames, Hereticwerks)
8. The Aeonic Synchropore - possibly to the past (garrisonjames, Hereticwerks)
9. The Aquaducts of Xembor - outwards, across alternities (garrisonjames, Riskail)
10. The Lunar Gates / Lunar Mansions - also into dreamspace (garrisonjames, Riskail)
11. The Anagogue; The Whirlpool Gate - into Imperial space (John Till, Fate SF)
12. The Maelstrom - to one of eight places (garrisonjames, Hereticwerks & Porky)
13. The Dryad's Saddle - to another world (C'nor (Outermost_Toe), Lunching on Lamias)
14. ... 
15. The First and Last Die - to other realities (Porky)
16. The squishy cocoon - to dark and nasty regions (Porky)
17. Confirmation of the Higg's boson - one here to others (Porky)
18. The little helpers' dust - one here, maybe, to many others at once (Porky)

There's more inspiration at the original post and in the portal list, and if you need a spark for the world an open-ended portal might have as its destination, you could try this table.

Update: We've got so many in there now an alternative presentation may be needed.

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Casting off a Vancian magic

JB at B/X Blackrazor has been carrying on the debate about the magic-user's role and power in early D&D and similar old school tactical RPGs. The two key aspects are generally spell access and rate of use so here's a suggestion for each.

First access. The suggestion here is having spell levels exchangeable at a given rate, which could be one-for-one, i.e. two first level spells are worth a second level, a first and second are a third etc. The magic-user can pool spell slots to memorise more spells of a lower level or fewer of a higher.

Second is rate of use, arguably the least intuitive element of the Vancian approach. The suggestion in this case is that spells are not lost if cast, but cause harm to the user, a more Bujillian and Lone Wolfish approach. The MU can use each spell multiple times a day. However, each use costs, say, a number of HP equal to 1D[spell level], i.e. a first level spell 1 HP, a second 1D2, a third 1D3 etc., adapted to suit spell progression. With no Zocchi dice, and for a D9 or D11, roll the die for a level higher and reroll a maximum.

If this seems too easy on the party, or you want more drama, a simple, non-tabled side effect could be a blast of energy over an incremental radius, e.g. HP x 5', so a loss of 4 HP means anyone at 20' from the MU takes 1 HP damage, at 15' 2 HP, at 10' 3 HP etc.

Using the first suggestion could shake up the usual campaign pacing, and maybe even the setting as the world-changing spells became available far earlier. With the second, MUs could be more involved and even sacrifice themselves to a higher purpose. It could also encourage riskier play, keeping a party pushing where they might now withdraw.

Update: There are some thoughts on fighters here.

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Path - lip - recollection

You return along the bank, following the trampled path. Soon the reeds thin; there ahead of you lies the irruption in the earth. Oil sprays still, glittering downwards past the lip.

You pause, unsure. You remember the sight of the void of stars beneath you, the vertigo as you looked down. The energy barrier, the broken tunnel lit from within. Your footing feels unsteady again, the earth fragile, the rising trees and wooded hills undermined.

What does it mean? Can anyone answer? Is there reason at all in this strange land?

Attempt now to climb down to the tunnel   Blog One   Blog Two   Blog Three

Skirt the hole, heading for the bridge   Blog One   Blog Two

Skirt the hole and return to the oak   Blog One   Blog Two
Call out to declare your presence   Blog One

This is one of 54 scenes so far in an adventure spanning eight blogs. Start here. You choose where it leads. You can add a scene at any point. Just leave the URL in a comment at the post with the option you've used.

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The beginning of the Ends

Here's an idea which was given a nudge by Trey's latest post, Opening the Doors of Perception. I recommend reading it, following the links and looking at the portal list.

The essence is this. All worlds are connected and each can be reached from any other. The idea is to get links between settings and game universes, so one campaign can run smoothly into another. What would a gateway to a given world look like?

Pick a world, any world - an existing space or a new - and describe a path across.

Here's a weird example: In a wild landscape, dig a cocoon in play dough, modelling putty or stained clay, then enter and settle in, buried alive. Fast, meditate and grow squishy like the squirming worms. Wake, and join their migration to dark and nasty regions.

Which could be a way you leave the current setting and end up somewhere like this...

A destination world could be much more serious of course, basically anywhere. I'll post more as I get them and make a master list, with links to whatever people come up with.

More inspiration.

Update: There's a master list here.

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100 items lost or found on the Rogue Spacer

This is for a slightly wacky Rogue Space setting, but could work for a lot of sci-fi roleplaying with a few tweaks. It overlaps with the Empyre setting.

Roll if checking pockets, packs, gloveboxes etc., or before character creation for a hint of who the character might be. The referee has the final word on exact nature. Or a roll could stand in for character creation, with the various stats and so on flowing from play.

1. 2D6 adhesive sigils
2. 1D3 anti-grav strips
3. assorted in-flight meal wrappers with scribbled notes to self
4. an augmented reality contact lens case
5. an auto-biographer
6. an autonomous arachnoid bodyvac
7. a ball of gelatinous plasma with a light coating of fluff
8. a biomonitor pendant with apparently erroneous readings
9. a bodily waste cycler
10. a can of landing foam, well out of date
11. a change of clothes, dehydro-packed
12. a clump of smart synthetic lint
13. a coil of quantum solder
14. a compression flask, overfilled
15. a cracked vial leaking a transparent being
16. 3D6 crystallised memory grains
17. a dark matter filter
18. a docking permit
19. a dowsing drill with filter pipe
20. 1D6 eggs, close to hatching
21. an emergency beacon, activated
22. an EM sample cone projector
23. an exoskeletal sander
24. an extensive holograph collection
25. a foil comfort blanket, torn
26. a fragment of a sacred text
27. a fugitive nanite colony
28. a furled solar cell, heavily creased
29. a hive node, damaged during extraction
30. a holographic skyway sign, stolen
31. a hormone jammer
32. 1D6 hotspots, unstable
33. a hydraulic doorwedge, prone to seizing
34. an ichor-stained rag
35. an imaginator, on the blink
36. an inertial leash, snapped
37. an inflatable sleep pod, unaired
38. 1D6 ion sump mushrooms
39. an IOU in the currency of a dead planet
40. a length of root, highly pungent
41. a light saver
42. a long-life fumer
43. 1D6 low-grade clarity tabs
44. a lucky rivet
45. a lump of vacwax, sweaty
46. a maxed-out credit tag
47. a memento of an extinct species
48. a micro-G sickbag, quite possibly used
49. a mind plug with an extensive playlist
50. 2D6 miscellaneous electronic components
51. a modular body part, poorly preserved
52. a motorised combi-utensil
53. a multifuel pocket turbine, squeaky
54. 1D3 organ regen capsules, 1 in 3 of which have been incorrectly stored
55. 1D6 over-the-counter brain faders
56. a pair of partially dissolved tweezers
57. a personal furcare product
58. a personal wormhole, either 1) collapsed or 2) prolapsing
59. a planar positioning device
60. a pocket hunter-nuker drone, claustrophobic and increasingly intransigent
61. a portable mess harness
62. a power finger
63. a receipt for an off-the-peg body
64. a recreational gene pool with applicator
65. a reel of servotape
66. a refundable intoxicant container
67. a roll of programmable laminate
68. 1D6 sachets of discolourant
69. a save point
70. a self-embalming kit
71. a set of 'how to' cartridges
72. a shard of crystal, pulsating
73. a shed skin
74. a sheet of psionic paper, partially corrupted
75. a shipspotters' guide, missing one volume
76. a shock test result
77. a small creature in an otherwise empty flare case
78. a souvenir replica of a wonder of known space
79. a spare psylamp bulb
80. a spinal floss generator
81. 1D3 spray-on IDs, unfortunately all cloned
82. a starliner ticket
83. 1D6 sticks of ruminoflubber
84. 2D6 stimulant flakes, 1 in 6 of which are contaminated
85. a subcutaneous picochip
86. a SupaVita bar, nibbled
87. a superluminet directory
88. a telescopic 10' probe
89. a tooth organ with amplifier, clearly untuned
90. a tracking thread, fraying
91. an ultrasonic gillpick
92. 2D6 uncashed entertainment complex tokens
93. a universal adaptor
94. an unpaid fine, long overdue
95. an unpublished oeuvre
96. a herbal infusion cube, slightly overgrown
97. a utility fog travel pillow
98. a vapourware inhaler with 1D3 empty cans
99. a zapdrive key
100. a zoink ball, initialled

If Fenway5 likes the idea, I'll expand it for Rogue Transmissions #2, but group it in line with the material on equipment in RT#1, and for use with a D6 only, rather than a D100.

If you haven't seen it yet, Hereticwerks posted a Rogue Space adventure last week, and Jay at EXONAUTS! has 20 mission ideas for another rules-light game, X-plorers.

Rogue Space downloads - Rogue Space news

RS@Hereticwerks - @Swords & Stitchery - @Mik's Minis - @TheFairlyUnkempt - @the Expanse

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Mantis tanks close in

Blight Wheel Miniatures are expecting a batch of 34 mantis tanks to go up at the store a bit later today. There's a list of local posting times here.

It seems to me there are very few unusual vehicle designs in tabletop gaming, and even insectoid walkers like the mantis aren't especially uncommon. In fact, it seems like a good time to ask - can you think of anything weirder?

I've got the urge to stat something that could use this model so here's a possible profile for Rogue Space. I've used the vehicle construction rules from December, but the mech expansion being developed at TheFairlyUnkempt might well be able to do the job better.

                                                                                                                              

Hektid ASW Mk. VII, 'The Creepy Crueller'

The Hektid Armoured Support Walker sees extensive use on the broken ground of the Eternal Fronts, often operating remotely at the whim of its Notwork cranAI. A response to the depth of current craterscapes, the Mk. VII bears a Morder on its thoratic mount.

C       0%     [0]

H     37.5%   [1]   Manipules (1 Attack)   [1]  Head + 1 Light Pulveriser   [1]  1 Big Morder

A     37.5%   [3]   C: -  H: 1, 1, 1  S: 5

S      25%    [2]   25' (ignores terrain to thorax height and abdomen width; 1D2 Attacks per 1S)

E     100%     8

                                                                                                                               

The profile for the Light Pulveriser is here. The Big Morder is a new Empyric weapon.

                                                                                                                               

Big Morder       H       Shells       as Shell       Indirect fire

                                                                                                                               

I've updated the footer with new blogs working on Rogue Space. If you don't know it yet, you can get the pocketmods free here and the book here or here; my old review is here.

Rogue Space downloads - Rogue Space news

RS@Hereticwerks - @Swords & Stitchery - @Mik's Minis - @TheFairlyUnkempt - @the Expanse

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Fractal gaming

I imagine quite a few of us have a played a game within a game, where the characters themselves are playing, gambling say. But how often is this a game of the very same type - meaning an RPG inside an RPG, or a wargame inside a wargame?

This kind of 'fractal gaming' shouldn't be too hard to do with a rules-light RPG, with its freedom to improvise and rewrite rules on the fly, but it could be tougher with the narrower focus of a wargame, where we're given less scope for non-destructive interaction between individuals. Hold the thought.

Could we and the dice be seen as gods to the characters in our games? Collectively, we are the creators of the fictional world, and to the inhabitants we're potentially omnipotent, as omniescent as the game needs, and possibly even omnipresent: after all, the events exist only in the players' minds; things only happen if we go there. Hold that thought too.