tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44874130065591134712024-03-27T18:42:13.718+00:00Porky's Expanse!Vast tracts of nothingness in a nebulous region of hobby space...Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.comBlogger570125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-39602295311296660412015-07-16T17:25:00.003+01:002015-07-16T17:25:46.312+01:00The legendary Thuloid's gold<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKQpyF70RwLt_lwVp9WbJL4cHUnffBNeSTYRrkgW7USFaFXUOgL8W0MHCNeWXBfJ1FVgEaCpComoCd5f6DNIyKTimVLZzix5hqGSDExi6NNhafLxPSDuuruc4bGnz5a8bmLf329Dn2flCq/s1600/Gold.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="33" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKQpyF70RwLt_lwVp9WbJL4cHUnffBNeSTYRrkgW7USFaFXUOgL8W0MHCNeWXBfJ1FVgEaCpComoCd5f6DNIyKTimVLZzix5hqGSDExi6NNhafLxPSDuuruc4bGnz5a8bmLf329Dn2flCq/s200/Gold.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If you're reading this, you might be interested in a solid and fairly wide-ranging batch of discussions going on at <a href="http://houseofpaincakes.com/thuloid-speaks-gaming-and-hyperreal_31/"><b>Thuloid's latest post</b></a> at the <a href="http://houseofpaincakes.com/">House</a>, all assisted by that <i>gleaming</i> new Disqus plug-in.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The post looks at what makes a game interesting and the comments cover D&D and old school art, the aesthetics of GW's Age of Sigmar, the Iliad, Vampire, <i>The World's End</i>, <i>Frozen</i>, roleplaying the life enlisted, milking in the industry, and character history tables.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If you don't already know and you're a blogger, the House is a network you can join <a href="http://houseofpaincakes.com/join-our-blog-network/">here</a>. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: white;">_</span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com148tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-456476156149947822015-03-06T15:27:00.000+00:002015-03-06T19:01:07.764+00:00Dragons as dungeons and titan diving<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQjbaebWjBDWEaP5TAov8h3oWcTVF2e77axkv-2gaRR9EvDEWnya5MGezq9HGms43bVmjcFNxGW59VSTkqWlHwDQ8CS3Mzo-CwCIsulugXrP6G-F5vkUBWt9OGGnxF1VCPjWtxd7pFFg5t/s1600/Slime.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQjbaebWjBDWEaP5TAov8h3oWcTVF2e77axkv-2gaRR9EvDEWnya5MGezq9HGms43bVmjcFNxGW59VSTkqWlHwDQ8CS3Mzo-CwCIsulugXrP6G-F5vkUBWt9OGGnxF1VCPjWtxd7pFFg5t/s1600/Slime.jpg" height="45" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.houseofpaincakes.com/2015/03/porkys-wild-bore-gribbly-greebly-slimy.html">My post at the</a> <a href="http://www.houseofpaincakes.com/">House</a></b> this week got a bit out of hand, trying to cover just a little too much. I did manage an approach to going <i>inside</i> the big kits, a look at character infection as a way to offset combat, and the idea of living delves and spaces.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">But I had a lot more, so as a start on it, here are three related tables, for weird infections to replace more ordinary ones, for living landscapes, and for wargaming inside creatures.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Alternative infections <span style="font-size: x-small;">(for tactical roleplaying, 1d6)</span></span></b><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">basilisk stones - swelling as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculus_%28medicine%29">calculi</a> grow within, doubling in weight each day</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">gold fever - complete transmutation of 1d2 body parts per day, into solid gold</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">griffon pox - sprouting plumage of 1d3 lbs of feathers per day; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moulting">moult</a>ed annually</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">harlie's clap - internal liquefaction, attributes halving once per day (round down)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">orc flu - production of 1d3 pts of mucus per hour, with equivalent thirst suffered</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">the nids - outbreak of 1d100 <a href="http://carapaceking.blogspot.com/2015/03/a-question-of-gall.html">galls</a>, opening in 1d6 days; 1d10 alien grubs each</span></li>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Living delves / battlefields <span style="font-size: x-small;">(for tactical roleplaying & wargames, 1d6)</span></span></b><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">a dragon or similar creature grown so as to occupy its host complex entirely</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">a giant troll or like being with basilisk stones (see above), rapidly regenerating</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">a subterranean spore womb for an unemerging megasquig or kindred lifeform</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">a fallen hive ship, capillary column root network, or lairing or injured ultraphant</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">a hibernating or slumbering <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiju">kaiju</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu_Mythos_deities#Great_Old_Ones">great old one</a> or comparable eldritch entity</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">an orifice, system or organ within the vast body of a titan-beneath-the-world</span></li>
</ol>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Intrazoic battlefield effects <span style="font-size: x-small;">(for wargames, 1d6)</span></span></b><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">antibodies - after suffering its first casualty each unit suffers 1d3 more per turn</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">fasciae - no terrain over 1d3 storeys, artillery or flyers; skimmers etc. half speed</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">gas - each turn on a 1 in 2 the 1d3 units closest the table centre cannot be used</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">mucus - the full table surface is difficult ground, but offers the base level of cover</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">purge - each turn on a 1 in 6 the 1d3 units closest any table edge are destroyed</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">spasms - 1d3 extra hills are set up; all move with a random vector once per turn</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">For more diseases like these see Underworld Lore #2 via <a href="http://gorgonmilk.blogspot.com/">Gorgonmilk</a>'s left-hand sidebar, for more ideas on interacting with vehicles <a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/search/label/Crewbrew">the crewbrew posts</a>, for weirder world seeds <a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2012/10/new-genres-z-from-archeopunk-to-zombie.html">the A-Z possible new genres</a>, and for ways to get between them <a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-ends.html">the Ends mechanisms</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The series at the <a href="http://www.houseofpaincakes.com/">House</a> has me riffing off what the blogs in the rolls there are posting. I'd like to be able to link to yours as well. It's easy to <a href="http://www.houseofpaincakes.com/p/join-us.html"><b>get in</b></a> - the logo is <a href="http://www.houseofpaincakes.com/p/logos.html">here</a> if you want it.</span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">_</span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-62625489103408285022015-03-02T15:08:00.000+00:002015-03-02T22:08:26.422+00:00Old Stuff Day - For the love of Spock<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-MXRL22_vY668Gdn6t7TYf-mT1jZiPRbHNVT6xskVp5nxmx4Rwv_kZLaphDgsIuQ_o10UedFOgf2JGPmGo-pQ_y605LYznqR7HvZjIP0og6FWAkLsyh2NlTx1dhcWJJ1RhHbKcS4jF8w/s320/OldStuffDayFullSize.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-MXRL22_vY668Gdn6t7TYf-mT1jZiPRbHNVT6xskVp5nxmx4Rwv_kZLaphDgsIuQ_o10UedFOgf2JGPmGo-pQ_y605LYznqR7HvZjIP0og6FWAkLsyh2NlTx1dhcWJJ1RhHbKcS4jF8w/s320/OldStuffDayFullSize.jpg" height="200" width="140" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It's <b><a href="https://warhammer39999.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/starting-a-blogging-movement-renewal-day/">Old Stuff Day</a></b> today, for bloggers to highlight a post or two deeper in the archive, that might not otherwise be seen.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Nimoy">Leonard Nimoy</a> passing makes me feel mine could be this:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">'</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-glad-lightness-of-far-future-and.html">The glad lightness of a far future and alterpluristemics</a></b>'</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />The video also has Mr Nimoy giving some thoughts on the nature of Spock as a character, and clips from the episode.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Thanks to <a href="https://minimusingofabear.wordpress.com/">Miniature Musings of a Bear</a> for <a href="https://minimusingofabear.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/old-stuff-day-2015/">the memory jog</a>, and Rob at <a href="https://warhammer39999.wordpress.com/">Warhammer 39,999</a> for setting it in motion four years ago, not to mention Nimoy for helping make old stuff like Trek some of the newest we've got, even decades later. Per <a href="http://secretsun.blogspot.com/">The Secret Sun</a>, <a href="http://secretsun.blogspot.com/2015/02/until-it-happened-to-me.html?showComment=1425218221124#c6177314435343549939">where are the moon bases already</a>?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The rot might have set in even while the original series was being prepared, <a href="http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=32644#comments">if it is true it was</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_4">Mariner-4</a> that rattled our confidence, showing us a Mars different than in the fiction.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">And if you're a blogger, for any tabletop space, and want readers for newer posts too, maybe <a href="http://www.houseofpaincakes.com/p/join-us.html">join the House</a>. </span><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-76924653128385524922015-02-23T20:30:00.002+00:002015-02-24T07:58:07.903+00:00Rock-Paper-Scissors-Evolution<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFsiZl-nbSjhUd0oulSmBa1P6F2me5RnCSPLnH1NyO4YOTjE34UGTRVXtn2jG7G1hCkKrKeont_765yDQnHW0TlFExatTvHATzx3r6QwIe459PDcDgquEldHuT9gWZJiuLevEN85Vw7bwh/s1600/Flowers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFsiZl-nbSjhUd0oulSmBa1P6F2me5RnCSPLnH1NyO4YOTjE34UGTRVXtn2jG7G1hCkKrKeont_765yDQnHW0TlFExatTvHATzx3r6QwIe459PDcDgquEldHuT9gWZJiuLevEN85Vw7bwh/s1600/Flowers.jpg" height="200" width="196" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If you've been reading long enough you might well remember the old <a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/search/label/Growing%20a%20tabletop">growing a tabletop</a> posts. That's a thinking I've taken in other directions since, but this is a closely related idea, if a bit more general.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It's an underlying <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock-paper-scissors">rock-paper-scissors</a> system for this brave new world of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock-paper-scissors#Additional_weapons">rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock</a>. I've been thinking about statless rules, the tile-based tabletop game <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hive_%28game%29">Hive</a> and 40K's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranids">Tyranids</a>.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How it works</span></b></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Two people play rock-paper-scissors as normal, but if either player loses three rounds in a row, that player gets to invent one new sign and create two new relationships involving it, choosing specifically:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">which of the two signs used in the last round beats the new sign; </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">which of the two signs used in the last round is beaten by the new sign.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Each of the signs used in the last round must be involved in one new relationship, and the player must provide a basis for each relationship, if not obvious. Play then continues.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The second time this happens, and each subsequent time, the winner of the three can then opt to permanently remove one existing sign, one of the two used in the last round.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It's like evolving a new world of symbols, with the challenge of keeping up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The principle could also be applied to other games. In a wargame for example, three consecutive losses could allow the losing player to modify a single unit type, for example by switching one point of stat or one skill, or an equivalent, for one other. Three successive wins could allow the winner to do the same to a losing unit. Units are being retrained, or tech rejigged, or changes made to composition, possibly as a direct result of the destruction. It's a simple campaign system, a bit like <a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2013/02/40k-campaigns-without-campaign.html">the campaign-like-feel proposal</a> for playing 40K.</span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">_</span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-72182056118565491642015-02-20T12:43:00.001+00:002015-02-20T12:49:56.699+00:00The meta-part kit and character corporealisation<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiACI6PUXy87YZ8L9Jsvi4e868BlhUFZLOfTmP7x8R2lrTEvWvT2-ehGBW90q2a7CP3_OQuc-yrKlRRTXajEcc-7V1jsxgRsudXf8kXdl7Y2geg71xQj1-KXZrJC5-dW8f9EJir9lWuaxOP/s1600/Pretzels+-+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiACI6PUXy87YZ8L9Jsvi4e868BlhUFZLOfTmP7x8R2lrTEvWvT2-ehGBW90q2a7CP3_OQuc-yrKlRRTXajEcc-7V1jsxgRsudXf8kXdl7Y2geg71xQj1-KXZrJC5-dW8f9EJir9lWuaxOP/s1600/Pretzels+-+small.jpg" height="88" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If you've followed <b><a href="http://www.houseofpaincakes.com/2015/02/porkys-wild-bore-all-your-base-are.html#idc-container">the discussion on kitbashing</a></b> at the <a href="http://www.houseofpaincakes.com/">House</a>, now moving on to Lego, and the one at <a href="http://www.tenkarstavern.com/">Tenkar's Tavern</a> on <b><a href="http://www.tenkarstavern.com/2015/02/minis-do-you-use-them.html">using miniatures in roleplaying</a></b>, you might be interested in the set of posts going up at <a href="http://ironmammoth.blogspot.com/">Iron Mammoth's Studio</a> showing a miniature being made up from scratch.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">On the subject I have a question, and a thought about character creation, or generation.</span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The question. Multi-part plastic kits are a very useful thing, but per the discussion at the House, and <a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-unbearable-lightness-of-grimdark.html">the unbearable lightness of grimdark post</a>, they can still leave something to be desired. Is there a midpoint between this kind of kit and actual sculpting, something that gives the creator a freer field? I'm thinking more tactile than straight-up 3D printing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">And the thought. One of the points being made at Tenkar's about minis in roleplaying related to the way they can bring the participants out of the infinite scope of the theatre of the mind and down into limited forms and spaces. So how about this: instead of character arrival being largely paper-based, all of the players could be given a blob of plasticene or similar and asked to sculpt their character, roughly, in a couple of minutes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It could suit rules-light games where rolling stats doesn't take long, or where the players have more kinaesthetic approaches. Equipment can be modelled and injuries marked on the go. When the end comes the representation is just rolled up, rolled out and remade.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It's an ideal approach if the characters in the world actually are made from clay, or born or spawned from the earth, or entering the world through something like <a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2012/08/community-project-ends.html">the squishy cocoon</a>, one entry in <a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-ends.html">the Ends community project</a> for intercosmic transfer mechanisms.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Again, it's one of those things that must have been done more than once, and in a range of forms. If you've ever tried it, or something like it, I'd be interested to know how it went.</span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">_</span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-67780845953186384002015-02-18T16:46:00.001+00:002015-02-19T07:41:52.633+00:00In the House, or hanging out in the shed for now...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Not content with one sporadic gig here, I have <a href="http://www.houseofpaincakes.com/2015/02/porkys-wild-bore-all-your-base-are.html">a first post</a> up over at the <a href="http://www.houseofpaincakes.com/">House</a>, probably the start of a weekly series looking at what the member blogs have been up to, and going off on tangents.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This one covers basing miniatures and how it can be seen as an element of roleplaying, plus a potentially hobby-shaking development in the understanding of what miniatures might be, then representing low gravity in games. There's some interesting discussion in the comments as usual.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It's also worth saying that if you're a blogger and not a House member, but you want a bit more traffic</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">, have a think about joining up</span>. The info's all <a href="http://www.houseofpaincakes.com/p/join-us.html"><b>here</b></a>. There's no widget to add and the essay is just a joke, but you can play along if you feel like it. You don't even need to link back to the House or put up the <a href="http://www.houseofpaincakes.com/p/logos.html">network logo</a>, but it might be neighbourly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This could be </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">especially relevant to your interests if you're primarily a roleplayer and the blog is listed with the RPGBA, which looks like <a href="http://rpgba.blogspot.com/2015/02/rpgba-cease-of-operations-end-of-april.html">ceasing operation</a> in a couple of months.</span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">_</span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-73467132455791708732015-02-17T15:38:00.002+00:002015-02-20T18:41:57.758+00:00Dragoncrawls and behavioural deployment<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJVcmXIweDVmdZF2MlA6mTfA0ir8jRAv1KUdXRJ5cDv-J5N_ZWIR_-C5629q56dD7kfz5xHYF63hhKJvx_vjhSOcX-wQLG6tWnP4FH-mLDc0WKB-qgL2n8vvb-ztTTY4vMyQT9nfRadJHd/s1600/Battle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJVcmXIweDVmdZF2MlA6mTfA0ir8jRAv1KUdXRJ5cDv-J5N_ZWIR_-C5629q56dD7kfz5xHYF63hhKJvx_vjhSOcX-wQLG6tWnP4FH-mLDc0WKB-qgL2n8vvb-ztTTY4vMyQT9nfRadJHd/s1600/Battle.jpg" height="36" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Still here. One of the posts I put up ahead of the lull was <a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2014/08/dragons-dungeons.html">Dragons & Dungeons</a>, on reversing the standard emphasis, and since then <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/07015582577046093985">Red Orc</a> and <a href="http://the-disoriented-ranger.blogspot.com/">Jens D.</a> have</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">given the idea <a href="http://fantasyadventuringblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/more-on-dragons-dungeons-and-new-euro.html"><b>a bit more thought</b></a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Suggested reading order would be <a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2014/08/dragons-dungeons.html">the original post</a>, <a href="http://fantasyadventuringblog.blogspot.com/2014/08/normal-0-false-false-false.html">Red Orc's follow-up</a> then <a href="http://fantasyadventuringblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/more-on-dragons-dungeons-and-new-euro.html">the latest</a>.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I'm still wondering how it might work in wargaming. Maybe the forces would be set up based on likely unit activity, and the terrain simultaneously? Each force could be divided into a few categories, say <i>Special</i>, <i>Scout</i>, <i>Column</i>, <i>Support</i> and <i>Patrol</i>, which already happens to some degree in various games, with organisational charts, special rules etc.</span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In the case of a simple meeting engagement, one unit from the Special, Scout or Patrol category might be set up first, in the centre of the table, and have a given chance based on its category of being in cover: a higher chance for a Special, as if on a mission, and lower for a Patrol, as if actually patrolling. A terrain piece would be placed by that player.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This would then prompt the deployment of one or more units from the other force, determined randomly from one of perhaps the two most likely categories: a Special might trigger a Patrol or Support for example, a Scout might trigger a Patrol or Column, and a Patrol might trigger a Special or Scout. The new unit would then be deployed within a certain range of the first, based on category, also with a given chance of terrain.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A turn could be played out immediately between the units present or deployment could continue uninterrupted, with the new unit then triggering another, and that unit another, and so on, until both forces and all of the terrain are in place. Some categories could have a range that allows them to be left off a given table edge as reserves, as if drawn in.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This is actually very similar to the '<a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2011/02/getting-out-of-boat-1.html">Getting out of the boat</a>' approach, with its fluid set up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">But that's digressing. For now, Red Orc also has <a href="http://fantasyadventuringblog.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Oldhammer">some posts Oldhammerers might like</a>, including alternate histories - more topical in these <a href="http://www.houseofpaincakes.com/search/label/End%20Times">End Times</a> - and Jens is working on an OSRPG, <a href="http://the-disoriented-ranger.blogspot.com/search/label/LSotN">Lost Songs of the Nibelungs</a>, introduced as 'Germanic-Noir Tentacle Horror'.</span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">_</span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-30115357726577885472014-08-25T19:31:00.002+01:002015-02-17T14:24:26.178+00:00Edition whoring; fifth and seventh; and things unseen<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So we've lived to see a fifth <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons">D&D</a> and a seventh <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000">40K</a>. Who'd have thought it, back in 1974 or '87?<br /><br />I've been reflecting. The more editions, the more I think the magic, and the truer quality, was in the first, in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons#Edition_history">OD&D</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000:_Rogue_Trader">Rogue Trader</a>; and the more I think that after any new thing appears, if we love it, the way to honour what it represents is to carry on truly developing, to push the limits in corresponding ways, not just <a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2014/08/whats-made-40k-pay.html">rework</a>.</span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Some, like the producer of the game, may have an incentive only to tinker, see it as a cash cow to milk, a safe source of income. But maybe that's what success and comfort can do: we just get desperate, hanging in or hanging on rather than rolling with or riding.<br /><br />It's a bit like sugar. We can and do 'refine' it, to a form that's been called 'white poison', but the brown form, with its molasses, has higher mineral content, and maybe crucially is more of the source plant that emerged for a given moment in biological time in the overlapping ecosystems. It may be less about clarity than purity. Veracity, not voracity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(If you're worried about white sugar, or sugar in general, especially if you seen material like <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM">this</a></b>, you could consider moving to honey, or look into <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylitol">xylitol</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steviol_glycoside">steviol glycosides</a>.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I get the impression that a major attraction of fifth and seventh, and any new edition, is the ability to find fellow players easily. You can just go with the flow, barring influential reactions like <a href="http://old-hammer.blogspot.com/">Oldhammer</a> and the <a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2012/09/table-osrs.html">OSR</a> of course. The companies do the selling for you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">On the other hand, the bigger your gaming group, and the more you all share the same interests, or the more willing you are to look for and accept unknown or potential players and persuade and be persuaded to get your preferred games on, the less you need the new editions. You can dip in of course, but at leisure. You're in a long-term happy place, and less worried about what any sixth or eighth edition might be bringing, and how soon.<br /><br />Even beyond this of course, there are so many other great games to play - games doing what OD&D and RT did when they arrived and first grew, whether whole new things or radical progressions. After all, how much of what D&D and 40K haven't covered in their 40 and 27 years respectively can the fifth edition and the seventh actually have to offer?<br /><br />Let's turn that last broad question into a more specific set. We buy new editions not just to help with belonging, or from boredom or a hoarding instinct, but also for the changed or new rules. Bearing that in mind, does the newest edition of D&D or 40K have rules for:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">... higher or lower levels of gravity, plus zero gravity, that is, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro-g_environment">microgravity</a>?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">... relationships between dimensions, mass, density, attributes and value?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">... an underlying continuity binding items, living beings, vehicles and terrain?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">... atmospheric composition and pressure, as well as velocities of <a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2011/09/rumination-on-illumination.html">light</a> etc.?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">... a variety of distinct forms of sensory perception and physical interaction?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">... disability in starting characters or units, not caused only by injury in play?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">... a range of specific states of mind and mental illnesses, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphany_%28feeling%29">epiphanies</a>?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">... <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity">linguistic relativity</a> and translation errors? (D&D) / ... <a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2011/07/geddon-on-it-44-parley.html">negotiation</a>? (40K)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">... specific dream or vision content? (D&D) / ... R&D for unit mods? (40K)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">... actions altering a wider world? (D&D) / ... supply management? (40K)</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">These are fairly general but relevant areas that I can't recall being covered in any edition, if ever, beyond supplementary homebrew of course, although I don't spend as much time reading rulebooks as I once did, or playing in more sanctioned ways: one or two may have come up. In the case of D&D it may be the Dungeon Master's Guide will cover some. For 40K, let's be honest - who has a clue what the next year or two could bring?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A lot of these rules might seem unnecessary, because we can make them ourselves, or adapt them or improvise, but the same can be said for a lot of rules, even core elements like aspects of combat. Regardless of how easy they are to make, we still buy, and the ability to pick and mix and find new inspiration is useful. But having them, shifting the core away from the superficial and direct, might reshape the niche, and eventually the wider culture, as D&D did, and to a lesser degree 40K too. They'd be evidence of vitality.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If even a handful appear in the latest edition of either game, it would be a reason to look.</span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">_</span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-14273785751916133472014-08-21T13:06:00.001+01:002015-02-17T18:36:01.173+00:00The Return of the Jedi and/or the Rise of the Galaxy<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY79IvY91pT4BcI5TjcakMAuQ2sV929ZG9ejb5LsjeTnQ9tKfK3a4eNAi3VK5_A0CyZNSEd9KT0iG__MoRizIbYU36QYlHQe1p2ITh7AZ9SyR9UCjWVUA7VC0IowH608YfNeS9dfd-Wp3A/s1600/Blogging+our+adventures+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY79IvY91pT4BcI5TjcakMAuQ2sV929ZG9ejb5LsjeTnQ9tKfK3a4eNAi3VK5_A0CyZNSEd9KT0iG__MoRizIbYU36QYlHQe1p2ITh7AZ9SyR9UCjWVUA7VC0IowH608YfNeS9dfd-Wp3A/s1600/Blogging+our+adventures+1.jpg" height="31" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I'd think that in a leg of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_culture">western</a> history that looks heavily <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerd#Nerd_pride">shaped by and</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_capitalism">for</a> the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization">internationalist</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_alienation">disaffected</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism#Since_1900">atheist</a> 'nerd' with a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sources_of_fantasy">moderately idealistic</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature#Aesthetics_and_beauty">view of nature</a> - I'm generalising and conflating a bit - the <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ewok">Ewoks</a> would be more popular.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After all, they're an ungainly, galactic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everyman">everyman</a>, underdogs who come good, mastering a tyrannical aggressor with their own tech, even taking the first steps in a new paradigm.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">And if not absolutely popular, at least relatively, compared with, say, the <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Jedi">Jedi</a>, presented as physiologically favoured, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristocracy_%28class%29">aristocratic</a> alpha warriors not so much seeking progress by intelligence as led by an abstraction to restore a presumably <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_religion#Types_of_state_religion">established</a> religious order.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Why this dissonance? Is it just the Jedi having more readily identifiable individuals, or traditional hero figures? Or is it the personally empowering mysticism of the Force, or the Jedi access to not just spiritual but worldly power? Or is it something more subtle..?</span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I suppose if there wasn't <a href="http://secretsun.blogspot.com/2014/08/cult-fictions.html">so much that could be read into</a> the films, or so much that was unclear, contradictory, or even poorly conceived or realised, so much seeming to reflect life, or so easily used to gloss certain aspects of it from this or that perspective, even if only in vague terms or by blunt analogy, they likely wouldn't have been such a success. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">For example, this set of clips is almost a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koan">kōan</a> and may even suggest an existential arc. </span></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">_</span></span>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-56673831582666983642014-08-16T22:08:00.001+01:002015-02-17T12:03:07.680+00:00When worlds collide! or share a barycentre for a while<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I've not done a funky link set for a bit so here are some recent crossover posts, or more intricate combinations of theme, you might not have seen.</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/18394303166081684904">JD</a> at <a href="http://the-disoriented-ranger.blogspot.com/">The Disoriented Ranger</a> pondered <a href="http://the-disoriented-ranger.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-way-of-dm-random-ramblings-about.html"><b>design and play</b></a> in light of the OSR</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://realmofzhu.blogspot.com/">Zhu Bajiee</a> <a href="http://realmofzhu.blogspot.com/2014/07/amazonian-regiments-of-ever-glorious.html"><b>statted up</b></a> some <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A9kumel">Tékumel</a> miniatures for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_Fantasy_Battle#Third_edition_.281987.29">third edition Warhammer</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.thewordofstelios.com/">Stelios</a> <a href="http://www.thewordofstelios.com/2014/08/oldhammer-other-osr.html"><b>linked</b></a> <a href="http://old-hammer.blogspot.com/">Oldhammer</a> to the OSR and will do a third edition readthrough</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://beatronin.wordpress.com/">The Beat Ronin</a> reflected on <a href="http://beatronin.wordpress.com/2014/08/16/no-going-back/"><b>growing up</b></a> and changes in approach over time</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://kaptainvon.wordpress.com/">Von</a> showed the making of <a href="http://kaptainvon.wordpress.com/2014/08/10/40k-osr-knights-of-ashteth-a-sample-black-legion-warband-by-von/"><b>a Black Legion warband</b></a> with <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realm_of_Chaos_%28Warhammer%29">Realm of Chaos</a></i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/profile/09159992191793110319">Jonas</a> at <a href="http://deathworldadventures.blogspot.com/">Deathworld Adventures</a> played GW's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquisitor_%28game%29">Inquisitor</a> with <a href="http://deathworldadventures.blogspot.com/2014/07/inquisitor-scale-gi-joe-gaming.html"><b>action figures</b></a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/04647628467658839351">Trey</a> at <a href="http://sorcerersskull.blogspot.com/">From the Sorcerer's Skull</a> sketched <b><a href="http://sorcerersskull.blogspot.com/2014/07/ultra-warriors.html">a superheroic science fantasy</a> </b></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/04118962136054206381">Wayne R.</a> at <a href="http://initiativeone.blogspot.com/">SIU</a> listed <a href="http://initiativeone.blogspot.com/2014/08/modules-worth-emulating.html"><b>classic modules</b></a>, with work by <a href="http://lotfp.blogspot.com/">Raggi</a> and <a href="http://psychedelicfantasies.blogspot.com/">McKinney</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Early D&D player <a href="http://cyclopeatron.blogspot.com/">Cyclopeatron</a> <a href="http://cyclopeatron.blogspot.com/2014/08/menoth-avatar-conversion-with-scourge.html"><b>converted</b></a> a <a href="http://battlecollege.wikispaces.com/mkiiAvatar">Menoth Avatar</a> for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warmachine">Warmachine</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://alternativewargamer.blogspot.com/">The Alternative Wargamer</a> <a href="http://alternativewargamer.blogspot.com/2014/08/yg-4210.html"><b>scratchbuilt</b></a> a <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/YG-4210">YG-4210</a> for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_Flight_Games">FFG</a>'s popular <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_X-Wing_Miniatures_Game">X-Wing</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Nathan at <a href="http://www.corehammer.com/">Corehammer</a> <a href="http://www.corehammer.com/the-art-of-ian-miller-studies-in-transmogrification/"><b>compared</b></a> past GW artist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Miller_%28illustrator%29">Ian Miller</a> to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._P._Lovecraft">HP Lovecraft</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://secretsun.blogspot.com/">The Secret Sun</a> looked at the evidence for Lovecraft having <a href="http://secretsun.blogspot.com/2014/08/lovecrafts-secret-source-for-chthulu_9.html"><b>a secret source</b></a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/02923526503305233715">Tim</a> at <a href="http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/">The Other Side</a> wrote up <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Poppins_%28character%29">Mary Poppins</a>, as both <a href="http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2014/07/mary-poppins-witch-or-time-lord.html"><b>witch</b></a> and <a href="http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2014/07/mary-poppins-witch-or-time-lord-part-2.html"><b>time lord</b></a> <b><br /></b></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />There's a lot more weirdness going on, especially in the upper three blogrolls on the left.<br /><span style="color: white;">_</span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-30752412645588383572014-08-16T01:07:00.002+01:002014-08-19T23:15:31.337+01:00Making bones about Nagash<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/08/breaking-nagash-spotted.html">The 'leak'</a> is here for the new official miniature for <a href="http://whfb.lexicanum.com/wiki/Nagash">Nagash</a>, <i>the</i> necromancer in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_Fantasy_%28setting%29">Warhammer</a> setting. It looks like a sleek, <a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-unbearable-lightness-of-grimdark.html">comfortably variable</a> plastic kit, nipped and tucked neatly using <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-aided_design">CAD</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://mrsaturdaysmumblings.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-return-of-nagash.html">The previous one</a></b> gets a lot of stick and seems widely regarded, online at least, as one of the worst ever Citadel miniatures. There's mention in <a href="http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/08/breaking-nagash-spotted.html#comment-1543975745">this thread</a> of the idea the skull was badly sculpted on purpose. If true, not badly enough for me. I've always been quite fond of the model, and I'd argue the skull's the key feature.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So this is an alternative perspective, a reappraisal for posterity, or possibly <a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2014/08/waiting-for-ragnarok-oldhammer-to-win_9.html">Midhammer</a>.</span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Let's start with the body that frames it, which may or may not be <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joker_%28comics%29">clownlike</a>, but has a dense presence and</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> menacing bulk,</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> a tone of assured aggression and hidden depths among the folds and bones and calm mastery in the pose. The robes especially imply initiation and dark arts, classically fantastical turned up to 11; old school Warhammer fantasy, with less of the newer embellishment that seems to suggest an over- or faux- seriousness or uniform design cues, a need to tell, tell, tell, over every square millimetre.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Oddly, but naturally for what is a head, it's the skull that brings it to life, and suggests undeath more than just superficially. It's brutally massive and wickedly macabre, with the grimace going beyond even the restraint in the pose, into a keener and more deeply suggestive horror. A lesser model might be shouting or even screaming, <i>releasing</i> the tension; not truly horrific at all, and maybe more a parody of horror, or deliberately cathartic, blowing off steam before it can affect the viewer - who might after all be a child.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">But this model has its teeth clenched, the jaw tightly closed and the eyes staring all the more intently for it: as if the scream won't come, or can't; is being bitten down on. That intensifies that sense of density, malevolence and dark depths, the deeper mystery of existence in this aspect of the Warhammer world. That is what Nagash is about after all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So I say job done, but I realise it might take time and maybe need better pictures of the new mini for contrast. It remains to be seen if the new can improve on the effect, or even come close to it. But that's fine, especially if it really was accidental the first time round.</span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">_</span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-5077126401767807692014-08-13T23:15:00.000+01:002015-02-17T18:39:59.150+00:00From the Osteolix to the Inner Clumps<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibjrPMTwoV8oCIBL7ZguaAlHaQUn7O9X13VDm5fvvc6mfVO2oDUH6wxSDAgwYeTLlocK3SxPRmjDQpDbFuQhI1BGefa32lyk4hd_amM_fVXZkur_MT4whwADSlN00i_SLEpjq_qJ9zMBRk/s1600/...+XXX.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibjrPMTwoV8oCIBL7ZguaAlHaQUn7O9X13VDm5fvvc6mfVO2oDUH6wxSDAgwYeTLlocK3SxPRmjDQpDbFuQhI1BGefa32lyk4hd_amM_fVXZkur_MT4whwADSlN00i_SLEpjq_qJ9zMBRk/s1600/...+XXX.jpg" height="120" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://gorgonmilk.blogspot.com/2014/08/underworld-lore-4-due-this-week.html"><i>Underworld Lore #4</i> is coming this week</a>, which means the <b><a href="http://gorgonmilk.blogspot.com/2013/11/underworld-lore-6-arcane-dwellings.html">Arcane Dwellings</a></b> table needed to be done faster than expected, so I did the last nine myself, to be sure there are 30 ready to go.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If you want to add any, like <a href="https://www.blogger.com/profile/07015582577046093985">Red Orc</a> did with the <a href="http://gorgonmilk.blogspot.com/2013/11/underworld-lore-6-arcane-dwellings.html?showComment=1407801337268#c6079802645309255433">Threshold of Eternity</a> on Monday</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">,</span> go right ahead, and Greg can push that many of mine off the list.</span></div>
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<i><b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Osteolix</span></b></i> </blockquote>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Have we got an astounding self-timeshare opportunity for you! Our insane arcane architects will bend time and space and reason itself to construct for you a fine retreat - within your very own body! That's right: a spacious home in any single bone, internal deposit or exoskeletal plate of your choosing! Be in even when you're out! Shelter from the chill within your very own marrow! Look inside yourself and see your essential nature in a whole new mood lighting! Expensive? It can hardly cost an arm or a leg when you keep the limb and the limb keeps you! Arrange a looping today!</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /><b>Scribble</b></span><b> </b></i></blockquote>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Begun as a modest chalk circle on an oddly vulnerable site and expanded by innumerable frantic arcanists down the ages, this complex system of trans-Euclidian lines in a range of materials has become a labyrinthine fortress capable of resisting any imaginable onslaught at least somewhere within its extent, up to and including the onslaught of reason, as many of its most rational architects have found if the signs are to be believed. For messages smuggled out via dimension and plane, by ingenious means, suggest the sanctuary has become a nigh on unnavigable nightmare, a hungry honeycomb sucking in those seeking only a safe place to hole up, occupied by maddened figures in flight and hybrid populations of the traumatised, hunted through crazy spaces by unlikely beings summoned into existence in final acts of desperation, or trapped in their turn while sheltering from still greater threats. Hide by all means, but careful where...</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /><b>Waterborne</b></span><b> </b></i></blockquote>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Fed by essential waters bubbling up from deep springs, this creek will dissolve a persistent swimmer over a period of 1d3 turns per HD, once a turnly save is first failed; gathering oneself together once dissolved and pulling free takes twice as long. While protected amid its reed banks, a guest can rest easily on the silty bed, rising and falling with the tide and quite literally mingling with fellow waders and wallowers. However, the life of a solution is no solution for life: the evaporated salts of the surrounding flood plains speak drily of the existential risk of lingering out of season...</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /><b>The Salt Cellar</b></span><b> </b></i></blockquote>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hidden among the whispering dunes alongside Waterborne is a shallow pit half-filled with the local salts, gathered, sieved and compacted by the once-pitying former hands of a husk now sprawled nearby. This glittering mass constitutes an underworld in which the essences of 1d100 x 10 evaporated and leeched beings merge and live on, knowing each other almost innately but rarely able to form true compounds. It yearns in many hundreds of voices, and burns even several yards away, leeching the essence of the inquisitive into itself at a rate of one level per turn, once a turnly save is first failed. Restoration requires rehydration, with each of the evaporated or leeched beings then popping back into existence, albeit heavily intermixed, with each initial being now scattered among 1d100 new.</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /><b>The Wandering Chamber</b></span><b> </b></i></blockquote>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This well-travelled set of polished stalk panels is usually chanced upon in transit or temporary storage, often close by a thoroughfare, in a coach house, distribution centre or buffer, more rarely buried or otherwise concealed to prevent discovery, as at times of war. When assembled to its tattered plans, more or less accurate copies of which exist in many lands, it frames a room out of time in which all past, present and future occupants again coexist, breaking off their ageless discussions only to write out the export licences, packing notes and directions for the next leg.</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /><b>CMY</b></span><b> </b></i></blockquote>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Abandoned now for long years and heavily rotted despite its lamination, this stiffened wood pulp villa consisting of three geographically remote single-room cabins is in fact one structure refracted into three constituent colours and scattered to the vertices of the world. Each cabin has but one hue, either 1) cyan, 2) magenta or 3) yellow, with an occupant able to leap from one to the other by use of a suitable chromatic magic. Unfortunately, each set of walls, door, floor and roof form a physical barrier to the given constituent colour only, and only to the extent that the colour is present, allowing entities reflecting less in this hue to force access more easily, perhaps explaining the abandonment. Rumour persists of three further cabins, combinations of the hues, while wilder speculation claims that a previous owner resides even now within a unified seventh, entirely black.</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /><b>The Skyscratcher</b></span><b> </b></i></blockquote>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This well-appointed crow's nest several miles above the countryside is entirely invisible, as is the mast upon which it rises. If the base can be found and the long ladder climbed, or access gained by another means, ownership can be taken back from the creatures of the upper skies. A little lacking in privacy perhaps, and breezy too, with sphincter-clenching swings through arcs of several hundred yards at a time - but what a view!</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /><b>The Co-Riddor and the Junk Room</b></span><b> </b></i></blockquote>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hoarding instinct out of control? Contemptible home furnishing decisions? Simple inability to get on with your fellow residents? Live with your failings no longer! Just plug your dwelling into the Co-Riddor and we'll carry them off through our intracosmic back passage! And that's not all. You want a new life? We'll bring you one! It's not the rats in the walls - it's us! The Co-Riddor! And now, introducing the Junk Room! Feel like trash? Just want to live in a world of your own? We've got the pocket universe for you!</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /><b>The Inner Clumps</b></span><b> </b></i></blockquote>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As the dusts of upholsteries, insulations and tissues is ground down fine by the action of deep dwelling itself, they may pass out through the fabric of the cosmos and whirl in the crawlspaces beyond, where none but the subtler spirits make their homes. There the true nature of living beings and their furnishings grows apparent in impossible structures born of dreams of shelter, warmth and bliss, but wracked by decay, tension and catastrophic failure. While these outer clumps may be reached through a heart of hearts, and even occupied by those so inclined, they have their counterparts in the dusts trickling back in opposite directions, particles flowing in from other worlds - perhaps drawn for certain ends - to coalesce in warped reflections of those peri-homes and stand in all their beauty and horror in plain sight here, among and within the most intimate of spaces...</span></i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So that's it. If you have got one you want to go in <i>UL #4</i>, now's the time to post it <b><a href="http://gorgonmilk.blogspot.com/2013/11/underworld-lore-6-arcane-dwellings.html">here</a></b>. </span><br />
<span style="color: white;">_</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-85180927402297404912014-08-12T12:12:00.000+01:002015-02-17T18:38:18.076+00:00Firepower of that magnitude: FFG, GW and licensing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMtr6eoOPTJ7Ufx1ppAtBRLSuDtVZFqQRiAuHFsqxWZEFG7J32Qdxg7GyJ1neA6IzSLakbCKhVdBsubKxFP2_F9z6InL3ieFAzMY-7gMljKH5AzvqTbnl2l2zLs_hb16YnB1ln9HlHug_a/s1600/Cosmos+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMtr6eoOPTJ7Ufx1ppAtBRLSuDtVZFqQRiAuHFsqxWZEFG7J32Qdxg7GyJ1neA6IzSLakbCKhVdBsubKxFP2_F9z6InL3ieFAzMY-7gMljKH5AzvqTbnl2l2zLs_hb16YnB1ln9HlHug_a/s1600/Cosmos+1.jpg" height="37" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_Flight_Games">Fantasy Flight</a>'s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_X-Wing_Miniatures_Game">X-Wing</a> has been causing a great disturbance in the <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=FLGS">FLGS</a>, being unusually accessible with its well-known setting, light rules and prepainted miniatures. And soon there'll be <a href="http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4979">Star Wars: Armada</a>, for battles with capital ships.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It's easy to see how dogfights between stands of fighters in Armada could be played out as full games of X-Wing, to get the best of both systems and deepen the experience. It's also easy to see how FFG's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Roleplaying_Game_%28Fantasy_Flight_Games%29">Star Wars RPG</a> could be used to frame the battles, or play out a level of action on board the capital ships and even the fighters as a battle goes on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">There aren't too many tabletop gaming producers that can offer that breadth of in-house crossover. The daddy is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Games_Workshop">GW</a> of course, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000">40K</a> especially: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Fleet">Space Fleet</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlefleet_Gothic">Battlefleet Gothic</a> can be mixed up with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Hulk">Space Hulk</a>-based boarding actions and massed landings in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_%28game%29">Epic</a> scale, with fraught face-offs in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquisitor_(game)">Inquisitor</a>, and possibly 28mm special operations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">But just think. Little of that seems actively supported by GW these days. FFG on the other hand is just one springy step away from the core of it, and needs only to introduce a dirtside system of some kind to muscle in. With 28mm maybe a little too close to the action figure in size, and prepaints working well with vehicles, it may be 6-10mm comes first, building out from the battles of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoth">Hoth</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endor_%28Star_Wars%29">Endor</a>. That would follow a path <a href="http://www.spartangames.co.uk/products/firestorm-galaxy/firestorm-armada">Firestorm: Armada</a> is taking with Planetfall, and a form <a href="http://www.hawkwargames.com/">Dropzone Commander</a> is showing can work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If a licence could be or has been agreed to cover it, why wouldn't FFG want to? Is that the plan? They'd win over more of the more traditional wargamers and boost interest in their existing systems, but more usefully draw more core GW wargamers while they're still available and position themselves to exploit a growing vacuum if or as GW flounders.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It could be the future of GW that decides it, and with those new movies coming it might even decide the future of GW. FFG has also likely learnt from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_Strategy_Battle_Game">the LotR tie-ins</a> at GW, and would presumably transition play before licenses expire to its own long-term brands.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Of course, having said all that, it's not clear that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucasfilm">Lucasfilm</a>, and maybe more to the point <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walt_Disney_Company">Disney</a>, would want to support FFG in this. True, the alignment of Lucasfilm and Disney on the FFG side and GW with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Line_Cinema">New Line</a> and presumably <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Bros.">Warner Bros.</a> on another does suggest vast powers battling</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> by proxy</span> in tabletop gaming. But the alignment is likely to be temporary only, and while Disney might want Warner Bros. pushed back on game tables by FFG gaining relative to GW, it surely wouldn't want GW knocked out for good.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After all, a major licensor - or any party looking to outsource a thing - presumably wants not a monopolistic market with one powerful company to have to do a deal with, nor a highly competitive market where many thriving firms means each can't easily keep its customers under control, but more of an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligopoly">oligopoly</a> in which several large companies compete to some degree, but with large hinterlands of guaranteed customer ready to go.<br /><br />If all of this is the case, the question then is a fairly eternal one: how might a local party, here FFG, achieve its own ambitions even where these might conflict with those of a more distant patron (or 'partner', obscuring the power relationship), but without the patron becoming aware or concerned? One advantage may be in FFG better understanding <a href="http://masterminis.blogspot.de/2013/08/the-future-of-games-days-games-workshop.html">what the numbers currently coming out of GW could actually mean</a>, and where the GW player base is at this moment in the history of the company and its two major systems.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Thoughts welcome of course. It might be worth adding that for the title of this post I almost went with "Is FFG a faster hunk of junk than GW?", but that would have been folly. It's a whole other subject for another day - a doorway to one of the biggest there is.</span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">_</span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-81698163071152727262014-08-11T16:05:00.000+01:002015-02-17T18:42:56.464+00:00At Offalmongers' Folly<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvx7Mi4AUUrZ4AjD4ophQv_-U6e5SR3-IfB8kbCrrHwkDUyLZlK0lXmy2-G-QbSAgzNPK3pbgyQUnYMgGt5jMvr-5zWk12P74TBJSjoXC4yv0gz_2Hiyz_S_C0b9QQFHdl_IxgAPF_AB5f/s1600/XV.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvx7Mi4AUUrZ4AjD4ophQv_-U6e5SR3-IfB8kbCrrHwkDUyLZlK0lXmy2-G-QbSAgzNPK3pbgyQUnYMgGt5jMvr-5zWk12P74TBJSjoXC4yv0gz_2Hiyz_S_C0b9QQFHdl_IxgAPF_AB5f/s1600/XV.jpg" height="124" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I'm going to finish the <b><a href="http://gorgonmilk.blogspot.com/2013/11/underworld-lore-6-arcane-dwellings.html">Arcane Dwellings</a></b> table at <a href="http://gorgonmilk.blogspot.com/">Gorgonmilk</a> entry by entry. This is the first. If you want to jump in, no need even to ask: post <a href="http://gorgonmilk.blogspot.com/2013/11/underworld-lore-6-arcane-dwellings.html">here</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Here it is then, weird and maybe a little gross. If it's a mealtime, you might want to stop right now.</span></div>
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<i><b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Offalmongers' Folly</span></b></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Those are no faultlines shaking our homes, nor true hills running with slides of mud, but the buried folds of the hide of a sleeping beast that lies across the worlds, a beast enclosed by skin on this side of the void, and maybe on the other; its viscera somewhere in between. We know because we climbed in - down the rabbit hole and out through one of the pores; we found the offalmongers' mark and copies in triplicate of the commission: to feed this world by teasing living tissue in from the beings of an outer realm. But the organs spilled, and flooded the land, and the 'mongers commissioned next a retaining membrane, fine and tight; and gave form to a new form of life. And what a growth spurt it's putting on! It's down there now, squirming and fit to burst. Brooding supervolcanoes? Interplanetary megaweapons? Nothing, our friend, to the bang when this goes up! In the meantime there's fine dining, and warmth all year round, not to mention that versatile pseudodermis, its delicate capillaries pumping otherworldly ichors. For research or revelry? You choose! Mining facility, manufactory and palace in one - what an abode! Might we interest you in a chamber..?</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I'll keep at it, unless you <a href="http://gorgonmilk.blogspot.com/2013/11/underworld-lore-6-arcane-dwellings.html">get there first</a>. If you're in, don't hold back - it's for <i>UL</i> after all.</span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">_</span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-65881092557362893602014-08-10T18:21:00.000+01:002015-02-17T18:48:01.805+00:00Unused, but useable die sizes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLlgMOf2czpNE3V8J2O4IziE-0s5zqbJddIzNj7PNcNJ6C2hbAQmoTg1v2ShhtuixCevFmOa0XIN3zMYXe_9FijNqHLkCX0SPAei32CjgGC9GNMAd7Ln5uQx-YKDnKV_GWozDjhedMuxWZ/s1600/The+D1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLlgMOf2czpNE3V8J2O4IziE-0s5zqbJddIzNj7PNcNJ6C2hbAQmoTg1v2ShhtuixCevFmOa0XIN3zMYXe_9FijNqHLkCX0SPAei32CjgGC9GNMAd7Ln5uQx-YKDnKV_GWozDjhedMuxWZ/s1600/The+D1.jpg" height="117" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If you wanted to out-<a href="http://jrients.blogspot.com/2011/06/im-just-curious.html">DCC</a> <a href="http://www.goodman-games.com/dccrpg.html">DCC</a> and recapture the magic and disorientation of early D&D with a new set of die shapes and ranges, what dice are left?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The classics of course are the d4 and d6 - the d2 and d3 included - the d8, d10, d12 and d20, plus the d100. Most are fairly useful, for the spread of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integer_factorization">factors</a>. DCC uses the d5, d7, d14, d16, d24 and d30, which are still solid. We covered the d1 <a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2011/01/d1.html">here</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The d9, d15, d18, d21, d25, d27 and d28 could all be useful, the d18 and d28 most of all, and maybe the d22 and d26 as well, but the rest up to 30 less so: the d11, d13, d17, d23 and d29.</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The d31 has a certain cracked old school charm, but does it exist?</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> And of course, when rolling with larger ranges, extracting smaller factors can slow the reading.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The shapes would likely play a key role in the decision, given <a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2014/08/fifth-edition-thoughts-depriving.html">how analogue the hobby has been and is at heart</a> - you might want that d9 and d15, say, for being more distinct.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Does unfamiliarity mean lower practicality from now on, or is there another way to do it?</span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">_</span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-68755577183556973742014-08-09T22:44:00.000+01:002014-08-25T18:24:24.528+01:00Waiting for Ragnarök - Oldhammer to win by default?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiybHZF2DhtVixI0e0ZG-nlVPK8k6GiupSegPizGKZ0PLO_Ndlur3X_iCrKkwDyJm2QfLHOVhwlvHHRscNJVKwMyrhMxgVee2qn0nB8G21Z9yxdWE_qk3-wteZQqEGN4uzTZV4bjKmQoGxe/s1600/Porky+ponders....jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiybHZF2DhtVixI0e0ZG-nlVPK8k6GiupSegPizGKZ0PLO_Ndlur3X_iCrKkwDyJm2QfLHOVhwlvHHRscNJVKwMyrhMxgVee2qn0nB8G21Z9yxdWE_qk3-wteZQqEGN4uzTZV4bjKmQoGxe/s1600/Porky+ponders....jpg" height="40" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It's true. There's a new <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Space_Wolves">Space Wolf</a> codex out for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000">40K</a>, the fourth since the codex cycling began, and all three original characters - <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ragnar_Blackmane">Ragnar</a>, <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ulrik_the_Slayer">Ulrik</a> and power armoured <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Njal_Stormcaller">Njal</a> - are still available, over 21 years after <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/White_Dwarf_156_%28UK%29">they first appeared</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Dwarf_%28magazine%29"><i>White Dwarf</i></a>.</span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Off the top of my head they're not just the oldest official representatives of the named character models - with the original <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ghazghkull_Mag_Uruk_Thraka">Ghazghkull</a> and <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Sebastian_Yarrick">Yarrick</a> long gone - but the oldest of everything usually thought of as old: the full <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Orders_Militant">sisters of battle</a> range, the various metal <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Imperial_Guard">guard</a> regiments, and the 28mm <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Leman_Russ_Battle_Tank">leman russ</a> and <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Chimera">chimera</a>, the <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Dark_Angels">DA</a> and <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Blood_Angels">BA</a> characters from <i><a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Codex:_Angels_of_Death_%282nd_Edition%29">Angels of Death</a></i>, the infamous <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ork">Ork</a> <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Warbuggy">warbuggy</a> kit, the <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Wartrakk">wartrakk</a>, even the <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Eldar">Eldar</a> <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Phoenix_Lord">phoenix lords</a> and <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Eldar_Jetbike">jetbike</a>, and presumably all of the <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Warlock">warlocks</a> currently available. Is there anything older still getting pride of place? Ulrik'</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">s </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">on the first page of the webstore today.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After <a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-unbearable-lightness-of-grimdark.html">the discussion last week</a> it may seem looking closely little has changed in all this time, but the change can be seen more clearly in the case of Ragnar in <a href="http://www.excommunicatetraitoris.com/2013/12/ragnar-blackmane-conversion.html">this conversion</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In the age of <a href="http://old-hammer.blogspot.com/">Oldhammer</a> elevating forgotten, abandoned and superseded classics, and with the release schedule for 40K more packed than for decades, if not ever, and maybe a certain level of mainstream snobbery towards older sculpts, isn't this a little unusual?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What's protecting them? Is it GW at such <a href="http://masterminis.blogspot.de/2013/08/the-future-of-games-days-games-workshop.html">a delicate point in its history</a> that it prefers to focus on releasing new products - <a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2014/08/whats-made-40k-pay.html">elaborating and recodifying</a> - rather than going back and spending time on updating the old? Or is there something less obvious going on..?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">While it may be too late for 'old' Oldhammer to benefit, with so much now so long out of production, it does suggest players who are fond of the intermediate and later years may have an easier time with a 'new' Oldhammer, which could then be labelled 'Midhammer'.</span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">_</span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-65330001093730320792014-08-08T14:06:00.000+01:002015-02-17T11:29:32.796+00:00Fifth edition thoughts - the depriving background?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw41K68bNEjLgWyNmAkr-oIHEZQPals2LrFP7EP8tX29-tyYQfbArTwLMKqhCObF_2G6W_aKkvC84Pdy2PQLDwgzPXzHwHIrPO4vJia4lrZ_-Fd06CmYTdH0rBgrZEwk-kaqqryJF3v0CH/s1600/Off+switch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw41K68bNEjLgWyNmAkr-oIHEZQPals2LrFP7EP8tX29-tyYQfbArTwLMKqhCObF_2G6W_aKkvC84Pdy2PQLDwgzPXzHwHIrPO4vJia4lrZ_-Fd06CmYTdH0rBgrZEwk-kaqqryJF3v0CH/s1600/Off+switch.jpg" height="186" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A quick comment on a piece of fifth edition <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons">D&D</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">At first I was generally positive about the idea of the so-called 'background' - the personality traits, ideals, bonds and flaws. Now I'm not so sure. It seems more gimmicky as time goes by, more predetermining of narrative as if establishing the characters for the first chapter of a novel, a set narrative, rather than supporting an exploration of another world - and ourselves - wherever it leads; and a shortcut avoiding the need for fuller player engagement, or further restricting player freedom.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Why play to someone else's prewritten background if you can decide one for yourself or start vague, as light as in a <a href="http://www.goodman-games.com/dccrpg.html">DCC</a> <a href="http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2012/06/dcc-and-me.html">funnel</a>, or with a single word or less, and let specifics emerge in play, based on choice and the elaboration of the world in the interaction between players and GM, and characters, factions and landscapes? I'm genuinely curious as to the justification. Surely not just to save more of that increasingly precious time..? If so, I've got a suggestion - do less. None of us have to do everything we're sold.</span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Linked with this is the question of why so many if not all imagined worlds would run off the same few conceptions, let alone a set of supposed real-world or pseudo-mediaeval ideas typical of what could be considered generic, or 'vanilla', even hackneyed in 2014.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Running deeper than that though, I think the background here may be a counteraction of one essential aspect of D&D since the very beginning in the mid-1970s. Let's remember it for a moment - an era pre-cellphone and even pre-PC, of fewer technological crutches - a time when kids roamed relatively fearless and free, in a world of sweat, grease and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Cassette">cassette tape</a>, and adults had a truer time out, un-networked and unpixellated; a world of hallucinogenic vision, free love, free thinking and freedom fighter: an age of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_signal">analogue</a>, that is, the continuous real. Of pen and paper, and people with their actual physical bodies in all their perfect imperfection engaging with each other around a table, working between and among the relatively few rules as much as with them: being there, giving it everything and feeling the imagined world maybe closer than foreground - in their beings.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The background, because it's not numbers on a scale, but words, seems analogue. But as a frame or a cell for the character to slot into, a point on a scale itself, it's actually digital. It obscures fuller space and its broader potential. We do have digital measures like ability scores, but these don't generally limit the imagining - they provide a means of testing its suitability for a set of assumed physical laws, underlying constraints. A background bounds the imagining even beyond this, pre-empting the idea or guiding it into a more conducive pigeonhole as a presumed prerequisite. It papers over the cracks as if the cracks are not meant to be there, rather than glorying in them as a feature of nature and encouraging us to fall through, go beyond, like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland">Alice</a>. This doesn't seem true to the history of the game, or more importantly its essence, the potential of living beings.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Maybe not so quick, but that's the argument, devil's advocacy or not. It may be others can follow it further and deeper. I think we're open-minded enough to at least consider it.</span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">_</span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-73596210089522093512014-08-07T12:33:00.000+01:002015-02-17T18:50:02.760+00:00Pro-millinerial tension<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkV2mPyJmwIyyvzFB97TBR1-eHedBP649KjwOymjtuGMz3R26YBG-J3ix2CebjuBBG2XTPuwo2qfhdIOkRzAMwXtL8fcB75jpmiebA8NuTwYFTqsx6GdO1xJdRK3MWiBxxrKIdzzMkmo_g/s1600/Czes%25C5%2582aw+Mi%25C5%2582osz+-+The+Captive+Mind+-+Listening+to+History.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkV2mPyJmwIyyvzFB97TBR1-eHedBP649KjwOymjtuGMz3R26YBG-J3ix2CebjuBBG2XTPuwo2qfhdIOkRzAMwXtL8fcB75jpmiebA8NuTwYFTqsx6GdO1xJdRK3MWiBxxrKIdzzMkmo_g/s1600/Czes%25C5%2582aw+Mi%25C5%2582osz+-+The+Captive+Mind+-+Listening+to+History.JPG" height="200" width="199" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hats can be big in adventure fiction. Best known of all maybe is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28sQaaMDpZU">that myth made</a> for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Jones">Indiana Jones</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">But how do we know how important they are, or more importantly when they've fallen off? In mass wargames, who cares? In skirmish games many might, and in tactical roleplay it could be critical, not least because</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <a href="http://roll1d12.blogspot.com/2012/12/under-evil-wizards-hat.html">there could be things under them</a>.</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> But where's the rule, or rather that option?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">And what about wigs, bandannas or weirder, <a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/search/label/grimdarkling%20detail">grimdarkling</a>-ish things? The <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Navigator">navigators</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000">40K</a> have a third eye with an effect that in D&D and related games could be save or die: if it slips, we really need to know. They might be the season's must-have accessory - or not - and affect reactions.
Here's a simple approach:</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A modish hat, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wig#16th_and_17th_centuries">peruke</a>, bandanna, scarf or similar confers a +1 bonus for confidence, to either charisma or the equivalent, or to HP or similar if you think that's part of <a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2012/08/status-and-confidence.html">what the total reflects</a>. If no one knows what's modish in a place, any real modifier is 1d3-2, i.e. -1 to +1, presumably kept secret. Fumble an attack in melee, or get a critical against an opponent, strike successfully aiming at the item only or pull off a sleight of hand or similar, and an unfixed piece of headgear falls off, a fixed piece on a further 1 in 6. With each burst of speed or tumble there's a 1 in 6 chance of a fixed falling off, a 1 in 3 in the case of an unfixed, and a 1 in 2 if there's no hand free to hold it. Replacing it, if it's in reach, takes a round.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How's that? Easily exploited for no little chaos in those crazy spur-of-the-moment plans.</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/NTOlz2vk5mA" width="510"></iframe>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">If you're interested, the sculpture in the image is 'Listening to History' by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Woodrow">Bill Woodrow</a>, and now more than ever you really might want to read the book the cover of which it graces - Czesław Miłosz's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Captive_Mind"><i>The Captive Mind</i></a>. </span></span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">_</span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-65758711252782817472014-08-06T18:07:00.000+01:002015-02-17T11:37:07.853+00:00What's made 40K pay?<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOfMgLVhHfBr2LFRpn4UeImzVb1024ae7AJWJT888p0tGR6cGa68wGnZIbB0DAWsf831a0FvqhBgBc3k28tY7D8Jr8ld6mBIlSiKE0O51kpfTvMajDoamElYdLuLQ1Sity24RDE9CnXsiC/s1600/Sheen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOfMgLVhHfBr2LFRpn4UeImzVb1024ae7AJWJT888p0tGR6cGa68wGnZIbB0DAWsf831a0FvqhBgBc3k28tY7D8Jr8ld6mBIlSiKE0O51kpfTvMajDoamElYdLuLQ1Sity24RDE9CnXsiC/s1600/Sheen.jpg" height="27" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-unbearable-lightness-of-grimdark.html">My post on aesthetics in 40K</a>, <a href="http://kaptainvon.wordpress.com/2014/08/03/read-and-respond-porky-on-poseability-the-unbearable-lightness-of-grimdark/">Von's follow-up</a> and <a href="http://falsemachine.blogspot.com/2014/08/pictures-of-titans-and-link-to-better.html">Patrick's comparisons</a> produced some solid discussion and several insights. This builds on it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The success of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Games_Workshop">GW</a>'s various games hasn't given it a license to print money, but once the company captured a critical mass of attention* it's quite possible it did gain a set of very powerful tools for keeping the money flowing. Thanks to the responses to certain events over the past few years we've probably all got a better idea of what they might be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">* I'm thinking especially of the UK in the early days and the benefits of importing D&D, opening shops in so many towns and having <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Dwarf_%28magazine%29"><i>White Dwarf</i></a> in newsagents large and small, especially as <i>WD</i> moved towards coverage of GW exclusively, and of course creating one or maybe two major settings and several major systems amid a whole constellation of smaller. It's worth bearing in mind that a tabletop game producer can't sell one key piece of the puzzle - fellow players, who have to be numerous enough to make play worthwhile.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Once the interest was there, and assuming the interested parties had their own income or the income of parents or others to fund it, transfers of cash could well have been regulated by a set of general processes I'm going to call <b>elaboration</b>, <b>recodification</b> and <b>devaluation</b> in the case of three primary, and <b>rotation</b> in the case of a secondary.</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Elaboration</b> - the ability to add new elements to the setting and thereby new products to the range. Examples would be the additions of new factions, but also units within those factions or spanning one or more, which began via <i>White Dwarf</i> after the release of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000#Rogue_Trader_.281987.29">Rogue Trader</a>. The idea can be extended to supplements too, as well as to limited editions, accessories and licensed products. With a setting as broad as 40K's there's vast scope for this, but consistency seems to be key. A lot of recent criticism seems to flow from a sense the elaboration is extrapolating too far out, going into inappropriate spaces and diluting the core feel. Pace also seems to be important, in that customers who can't keep up, or stretch to more exclusive products, may feel they are missing out and become more or less alienated from the hobby.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Recodification</b> - the ability to adjust the relationships between elements and thereby the ideal combination of products for any given individual. A good example is the approach taken during and since second edition, which saw the simple 'black codex' in the boxed game provide one new codification for a faction, and the appearance of the first actual codices another, with a rolling release schedule ever since. It can also be seen in the edition changes themselves in which general rules changes affect multiple factions, as well as through the release of supplements. With a system built around the need for access to at least one army - i.e. a set of miniatures from specific ranges in permissible forms and quantities - a player may feel a lesser or greater need to update, to maintaining a consonance with the official and manage pressure from peers. This may be more tolerable if change brings improvement, but pace seems to be key. Recent criticism suggests the rate of recodification can be too fast for comfort. Consistency is important here as well, with the feeling rules should reflect the setting and earlier approaches.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Devaluation</b> - the ability to change the value of an element within the game system - in terms of capability and price in points, and thus value for points - and thereby influence the need for a corresponding product. As the cost in points of a given collection falls, the capacity to play at a given points value falls with it, unless the difference is made up, with one means being further purchases. A less obvious example is the recent introduction of 'flyers' (i.e. aircraft?) and the relatively limited availability of equipment for interacting with them reliably, most notable early on. Interestingly, one widely available means is a feature of another new element, an official fortification, presumably encouraging sales of that element as well. Again, consistency and pace seem to be factors in the degree to which the process is accepted.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">These could combine to produce <b>rotation</b> - indulgence of interest in one or more other factions, for lateral movement among armies: the expansion of a collection to include sets of miniatures from other ranges. This is naturally encouraged as new factions and units appear, relationships among them change and relative values vary. It may well be key to retaining customers longer term, allowing a parallel challenge as an army grows, or a means of starting over, but with the same community and, crucially, producer. That said, it may be that</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> directly</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> encouraging rotation discourages players from reaching useful army sizes, potentially limiting ability to play and other benefits of the collection.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If it gets to the point that rotation <i>is</i> being more directly encouraged, as it might be with the return of official alliances in sixth edition and the unbound concept in seventh (a form of recodification), and arguably also the general increase in the rate of releases (some elaboration) and the introduction of formations (also devaluation), it could be that cultivation of long-term interest is being harmed, possibly sacrificed for short-term gain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">All of this avoids any consideration of changing prices and what a rise in prices can do to reduce a player base, the use of a system in a given area and revenue for a producer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A lot of this is also relevant to other tabletop games and products in general and seems to suggest that one of the golden rules here too, as a minimum, may be <a href="http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/wheatons-law">Wheaton's Law</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Thoughts and corrections welcome.</span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">_</span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-45048336750057762892014-08-04T11:06:00.000+01:002014-08-06T18:54:41.965+01:00Dragons & Dungeons<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihk95iQpgBitLl8pMEEuB9K405w-hxv1U0FSb4HbBj4flQsGKKUvrfEj68RFqjsUf8bxF2tCNbRZjJemGOlT4gECmX9kPwzmRYgxe4x8P5svanbHH_50T6aJ_N6ub7cJ6p2VUggAhUZsZT/s1600/Strange+new+weekly+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihk95iQpgBitLl8pMEEuB9K405w-hxv1U0FSb4HbBj4flQsGKKUvrfEj68RFqjsUf8bxF2tCNbRZjJemGOlT4gECmX9kPwzmRYgxe4x8P5svanbHH_50T6aJ_N6ub7cJ6p2VUggAhUZsZT/s1600/Strange+new+weekly+2.JPG" height="44" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I wonder how different the world would look today if '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons">D&D</a>' actually stood for 'Dragons & Dungeons'?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Maybe no different. The typical <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_%28Dungeons_%26_Dragons%29">module</a> might be creature-focused rather than site-based. But the cascading consequences of even that fine change, in minds across the lands and down the years, could have done odd things.</span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In computing for example - bound up with the speculative genres and game playing - it might have encouraged the development of more semantic interfaces, oral over tactile say. Then when Scotty picked up that mouse in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_IV:_The_Voyage_Home"><i>The Voyage Home</i></a> the computer might really have understood. Assuming that Trek wasn't already old hat in this new new world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Maybe whales would be travelling back for humans, long since transcended to paradise?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As the D&D generation grew up, the potential for greater insights into the nature of living beings could have deepened human interaction, revolutionised social structure. Gamers might be the great communicators, more so than now - at the heart of every community.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Or maybe none of that could ever happen. Could it be our residual or conditioned nature to put the thing before the person: rule before play, ownership over use, having for being?</span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">_</span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-70519528277215824922014-08-03T00:50:00.000+01:002014-08-04T23:23:37.152+01:00The Unbearable Lightness of Grimdark?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgJFyo1VEp5WU8jDoA8jeJOB9-rT616h6IQGbLXzk0bOTx2oBcrZZIvBvS4VGa3peCuwKjqklriZhWpU6_AOOZ9CV6k5J1aV7OyBc-0Yp5ZL17q0VfDgmhA8hUTDTKL0sZ4IPOj0IM7nGF/s1600/Nebula.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgJFyo1VEp5WU8jDoA8jeJOB9-rT616h6IQGbLXzk0bOTx2oBcrZZIvBvS4VGa3peCuwKjqklriZhWpU6_AOOZ9CV6k5J1aV7OyBc-0Yp5ZL17q0VfDgmhA8hUTDTKL0sZ4IPOj0IM7nGF/s1600/Nebula.jpg" height="30" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/08/logan-grimnar-on-space-viking-chariot.html#comment-1521420722"><b>This particular thread</b></a> is one of the more useful discussions on the aesthetic trends in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000">40K</a> that I've seen in a while, going beyond level of detail, phwoar factor and producer ranking. It's at <a href="http://www.belloflostsouls.net/">BoLS</a> believe it or not, on a more or less ephemeral post.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">One of the arguments corresponds to <a href="http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2008/04/how-dragonlance-ruined-everything.html">that idea</a> that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons">D&D</a> is now its own set of reference points, which came up again with the <a href="http://shirosrpg.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/thoughts-on-5eso-far.html">nods to past fiction</a> in fifth edition. A couple more:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Technical precision and intricate detail are nice, but those old minis had attitude; they projected a mood and a tone that permeated the entire range and let you know exactly what kind of game you were playing.<a href="http://disqus.com/AleksandrKavinsky/"><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></a></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">”</span> </b></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <a href="http://disqus.com/AleksandrKavinsky/"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Straylight</span></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b> “</b></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[A]lso there is the whole problem of designing things to appeal to kids. What kids actually want is things that have been designed to appeal to imaginative cool adults! Kids find ideas fascinating if they are obviously that bit too dark, complex and strange to really have been designed for them.<a href="http://disqus.com/Knight_of_Infinite_Resignation/"><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></a></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">”</span> </b></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <a href="http://disqus.com/Knight_of_Infinite_Resignation/"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Knight_of_Infinite_Resignation</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Patrick at <a href="http://falsemachine.blogspot.com/">False Machine</a> has <a href="http://falsemachine.blogspot.com/2014/03/questions-for-jes-goodwin.html"><b>some related questions</b></a>, and especially nos. 2, 4, 5, 15 and 16, but they're all worth a mull, not least for actually having been formed and asked.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">And he wrote <a href="http://falsemachine.blogspot.com/2013/10/still-that-is-not-point.html"><b>this post</b></a> on sculpture more generally. On <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Games_Workshop">GW</a> minis historically he says:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b> “</b></span>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It is possible that a combination of the limited means of lead casting and the, kind of, artistic 'moment' of the times meant that early citadel miniatures were better sculptures in this way. Less perfect as pictured things, and maybe not as skilled. But they occupied space and held mass in a different way and in that sense, were more pure sculptures because they did that thing that only sculpture can do.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">And they were made of lead, which weighs differently in the hand. And people might say why does it matter if the shape is better and I would reply why wouldn't it. It is a tactile form. it is a haptic form. The weight is part of what it is. It's not just what the material can do it is also what the material <b>is</b>.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">”</span> </b></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If you want a sense of the truth of that, and from scratch, you could try <a href="http://old-hammer.blogspot.com/">Oldhammer</a>, and <a href="http://realmofchaos80s.blogspot.com/">orlygg</a>'s <a href="http://realmofchaos80s.blogspot.com/search/label/%27Eavy%20Metal">posts on the older 'Eavy Metal pages</a> are a quick, cheap start, if less interactive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Personally, I think it's also about assembly, and the range of options in a kit. I think we could propose a simple rule: all else being equal, the more poseable a miniature, the more formless any given finished effect, and maybe the more gormless in appearance. That last could be<span style="font-size: small;"> a </span>death knell for the so-called 'angels of death', and fellow hard-cases.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Why? Because scope for poseability implies leftover freedom, space that to a degree someone other than the sculptor has to mitigate. This pragmatic blend in the name of choice conveys a less pure vision. If everything is possible, does anything carry weight?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unbearable_Lightness_of_Being"><i>The Unbearable Lightness of Being</i></a>, re <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_van_Beethoven">Ludwig van</a>'s last quartet, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan_Kundera">Milan Kundera</a> says:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b> “</b></span>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Unlike Parmenides, Beethoven apparently viewed weight as something positive. Since the German word </span><i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">schwer</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> means both 'difficult' and 'heavy', Beethoven's 'difficult resolution' may be construed as a 'heavy' or 'weighty resolution'. The weighty resolution is at one with the voice of Fate ('</span><i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Es muss sein!</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">'); necessity, weight, and value are three concepts inextricably bound: only necessity is heavy, and only what is heavy has value.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This is a conviction born of Beethoven's music, and although we cannot ignore the possibility (or even probability) that it owes its origins more to Beethoven's commentators than to Beethoven himself, we all more or less share it: we believe that the greatness of man stems from the fact that he </span><i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">bears</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> his fate as Atlas bore the heavens on his shoulders.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">”</span> </b></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We may be wrong. But any such belief would be presumably be key to an appreciation of the aesthetics of a grim, dark future of burdened humankind. A slow counteraction or nullification of the grimdark with this kind of lightness could be crucial to any decline in the aesthetics of 40K, and possibly, with the change in materials and kits in the past 20 years or so, and maybe the rapid releases in the past couple, also to a decline for GW.</span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">_</span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-40540583513042383572014-08-01T22:26:00.001+01:002014-08-01T22:32:37.774+01:00Deep thought Friday<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHiB54BqEZmVZ4lHRC19NBXDCgpGy2HymU7LV2BMff8VxrM0HjaQqVrucGSx8o2MuKJaNtwQTNImlcbReJcsprZAhe5xX8Z8CYCZotxXiuuWXRVAk1UtX46Jwl50clvBuylcZUnq5Q5L4K/s1600/Deep+thought+Friday.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHiB54BqEZmVZ4lHRC19NBXDCgpGy2HymU7LV2BMff8VxrM0HjaQqVrucGSx8o2MuKJaNtwQTNImlcbReJcsprZAhe5xX8Z8CYCZotxXiuuWXRVAk1UtX46Jwl50clvBuylcZUnq5Q5L4K/s1600/Deep+thought+Friday.jpg" height="195" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Haven't done one of <a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/search/label/Deep%20thought%20Friday">these</a> in a quite a while now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The background reading includes two posts from today: <a href="http://sorcerersskull.blogspot.com/">Trey</a>'s <a href="http://sorcerersskull.blogspot.com/2014/08/guardians-of-galaxy.html"><b>review</b></a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardians_of_the_Galaxy_%28film%29"><i>Guardians of the Galaxy</i></a>, and the idea certain aspects suggest <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farscape">Farscape</a>, and <a href="http://realmsofchirak.blogspot.com/2014/08/citogenesis.html"><b>a post</b></a> at <a href="http://realmsofchirak.blogspot.com/">Realms of Chirak</a> on '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_reporting">citogenesis</a>', essentially a lack of care in recording knowledge.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What's the connection? Read <a href="http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/eubanks20120310"><b>this article</b></a> at <a href="http://ieet.org/">the IEET site</a> on the idea of intelligence limiting itself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The question then. Is intelligence an evolutionary dead end and what role does culture play in this?</span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">_ </span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-89315173056502531962014-07-31T14:10:00.001+01:002015-02-17T10:52:24.077+00:00The Rule of the Jungle and the self-invasive species<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFztjWhgbZ3Yzs9Vvb7qblixXbIbEjabnVY7eb2GD1YeLDLTMMGmH5wmx4rtO6Zn-6Nulqw820impgJFFTAqxom7Wpkov0Akm09aiVOTGbiD0zIAIu-Sv0NE7GnloIHOclRsUTfHyEoejK/s1600/Jungle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFztjWhgbZ3Yzs9Vvb7qblixXbIbEjabnVY7eb2GD1YeLDLTMMGmH5wmx4rtO6Zn-6Nulqw820impgJFFTAqxom7Wpkov0Akm09aiVOTGbiD0zIAIu-Sv0NE7GnloIHOclRsUTfHyEoejK/s1600/Jungle.jpg" height="39" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This just squeaks in as my contribution to <a href="http://www.hereticwerks.blogspot.com/2014/07/july-rpg-blog-carnival-invasive-species.html"><b>this month's Blog Carnival</b></a>, hosted this time round at <a href="http://www.hereticwerks.blogspot.com/">Hereticwerks</a> with the theme <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_species">Invasive Species</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It's partly inspired by the recent release of <strike>sixth </strike><i>seventh</i> edition 40K and <strike>re</strike>release of <strike>past </strike><i>fifth</i> edition<strike>s of</strike> D&D, and maybe the latest report from GW, or <a href="http://theback40k.blogspot.com/2014/07/gw-financials-pre-game-show.html">some</a> <a href="http://bloodofkittens.com/blog/2014/07/28/network-news-tom-kirby-stepping-ceo-games-workshop-bitter-fashion/">of</a> <a href="http://bloodofkittens.com/blog/2014/07/29/network-news-games-workshop-annual-report-out-woe/">the</a> <a href="http://masterminis.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-future-of-games-workshop-part-15.html">re</a><a href="http://theback40k.blogspot.com/2014/07/gw-financials-rains-of-cash-still-here.html">act</a><a href="http://www.frontlinegaming.org/2014/07/31/tinbane-on-analyzing-gws-sales-figures-a-40k-players-guide/">ion</a> <a href="http://www.houseofpaincakes.com/2014/07/what-tom-kirby-really-meant-to-say.html">to</a> <a href="http://vom-krieg.blogspot.com/2014/07/my-gw-ceo-application-letter-in-style.html">it</a>. It's for tabletop gaming in general, so no specific system, a form of <a href="http://theporkster.blogspot.com/search/label/propluristemic%20content">propluristemic content</a>. It's an off-the-wall rule or regulation for more fully marketizing the gaming group.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In the wording of the rule, a gamer providing support is a <i>Financier</i>, but this could vary by setting: maybe <i>Lender</i> or <i>Rentier</i> for pseudomediaeval or historical settings, anything from</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <i>Bloodsucker</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> through</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <i>Shareholder</i> to <i>Saviour</i> for modern, depending on tone, and for an overblown grimmer and darker setting maybe <i>Splitgripper</i>, <i>Souldealer</i> or <i>God-Enabler</i>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u> </u></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><b>The Rule of the Jungle</b></span></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1. <b>A player may at any time, even during a game, </b><b>request support from one or more Financiers</b>, i.e. any other gamer in the group. <b>A Financier who agrees to provide support does so by contributing an agreed number of the Financier's own characters or units</b> (painted to a three-colour minimum if miniatures), up to an agreed value in points or in-game currency, <b>for the requesting player to guide alongside those</b></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> usually permitted</span></span>.</b> Other players may do the same, even opponents.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">2. <b>A player with Financier support is considered to be the steward of the combined contributions and undertakes to use them well, maximising success.</b> Note that this may mean that one player has access to a greater value of characters or units than another, which may reduce challenge or make a conclusion foregone. Nut up.<br /><br />3. <b>The session, mission or campaign is played and success or victory determined as usual.</b> <b>All standard measures of success in-game or out</b>, e.g. victory points, experience points, currency units, titles, prizes and winnings, or similar, <b>which would usually be accumulated by a player with Financier support are divided between this player and the respective Financiers in proportion to their individual contributions.</b> Each Financier may also count any or all collective results towards a personal win-loss record, whether or not the Financier was actually present at the table.<br /><br />4. <b>A player with Financier support is required to win, score or otherwise acquire at least one third of total standard measures available</b>, whether at encounter, site, mission, arc or campaign level. <b>Failure to do so allows any contributing Financier to force a vote by all on removing the player</b> as steward and appointing another.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">5. For the purpose of voting by a set of Financiers, each Financier has votes equal to points or in-game currency owned, with a simple majority of total existing votes required.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">6. <b>A player removed as steward retains ownership of all characters and units initially owned which would usually remain in play, and is eligible for the usual proportions of standard measures, but may no longer guide the characters and units personally.</b> In the case of miniatures, these must be made available to each successive steward punctually wherever and whenever they are to be used. Characters and units may be cashed in at an agreed value in points or in-game currency by finding a buyer among actual or potential Financiers, and may be repurchased if again on sale.<br /><br />7. <b>Any contributing Financier may force a vote by all to reward or censure a steward</b> for performance, strategy or policy adopted, or to comment or guide, per item no. 5 above. A steward may force a vote on any related matter, e.g. remuneration or expenses. <b>If misconduct</b></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>, e.g. excessive pursuit of private objectives,</b></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b> is suspected</b></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b> on the part of a steward,</b></span></span> the burden of proof lies with the Financiers and the vote on removal is taken by the full gaming group</b>, with a simple majority required.<br /><br />8. <b>Any gamer may force a vote to introduce, modify or remove any element of a rule</b>, including this one, with a turnout of at least 50% and two-thirds majority required.<br /><br />9. <b>Any players or Financier may transfer points or in-game currency to any other gamer in the group</b>, or undertake to do so, at any time other than during a vote. <b>However, a gamer must avoid giving the impression that this had any influence.</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u> </u></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It has benefits, and the risk of being </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">chewed up and s<strike>h</strike>pat out is low unless anyone tries to game the system. Still, it is good this kind of thing doesn't go on in other areas of life</span></span>.</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Tl; dr?</b> Good luck.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Q. </b> Isn't every species by definition invasive? Or, maybe more to the point, self-invasive?</span></span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">_</span></span></span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-88781791283835696102014-07-30T17:16:00.000+01:002014-07-31T20:23:49.839+01:00Digging the Gravelands<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0_053HzABM5u94tqCvFBlaNQmhMubW6z895BAacZUihTG3Q6JmysGFZuZD5dN4FZ01vCrOeMPDlU4UxTFqldNxVKqOVvHapMaDI4LbmoFITOLwHuqx_GcojRREO4kV0K3KW-mdEH-J1Wh/s1600/GL1_TaglarsTomb_Cover300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0_053HzABM5u94tqCvFBlaNQmhMubW6z895BAacZUihTG3Q6JmysGFZuZD5dN4FZ01vCrOeMPDlU4UxTFqldNxVKqOVvHapMaDI4LbmoFITOLwHuqx_GcojRREO4kV0K3KW-mdEH-J1Wh/s1600/GL1_TaglarsTomb_Cover300.jpg" height="200" width="154" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Have you seen this? While I was in stasis, <a href="http://www.hereticwerks.blogspot.com/">Hereticwerks</a> released a first shortform module, <a href="http://www.hereticwerks.blogspot.com/2013/12/gravelands-behind-scenes.html">GL</a>-1, <a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/131634/GL1-Taglars-Tomb-Revised"><b>Taglar's Tomb</b></a>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It's a revised and expanded take on a site they posted for <a href="http://www.tenkarstavern.com/search/label/Swords%20and%20Wizardry%20Appreciation%20Day">Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day</a> last year. If you're a regular reader, you know what I think of Hw, and this is as accessibly weird and as dreamily expansive as ever.*</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">If you play a tabletop game, or like a speculative genre, you can probably do something with the contents. If you play a rules-light roleplaying game, like D&D or a game inspired by it, like <a href="http://www.swordsandwizardry.com/">S&W</a>, you can probably do even more.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Even for wargaming, and not just for <a href="http://old-hammer.blogspot.com/">Oldhammer</a>. For an unusual scenario, the tomb could be set in a hill in the centre of the field, with a scaled up version of the map on a side table and troops entering moving between. The objective would be to get in, hold the line while the diggers go to work and get out with more goods. Assign a tolerance to the surrounding slopes and walls, agree a rule for collapse and let the madness commence.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The trek with the guide could also work as a rolling road, with one side deploying hidden. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It's PWYW so you can get it for free and if you like it go back to pay what you think it's worth.</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> They've also got <a href="http://www.hereticwerks.blogspot.com/2014/07/one-more-page-for-taglars-tomb.html">a page of extra material</a>, developing some of its vaguer elements.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As ever, check out <a href="http://www.hereticwerks.blogspot.com/">their blog</a> too, and <a href="http://hereticwerks.blogspot.com/2012/01/what-is-bujillis-sojourn.html">Bujilli</a> especially - he's got <a href="http://www.hereticwerks.blogspot.com/2014/07/bujilli-episode-99.html">a big decision to make</a>.</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">* As says <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Breton">André Breton</a> via their sidebar: "Objects seen in dreams should be manufactured and put on sale."</span><br /><span style="color: white;">_</span></span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-32978948688772666112014-03-27T12:30:00.000+00:002014-03-27T12:30:01.444+00:00Weapon patterns, marks and mods, and the squearoll<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2DYSfmSij8fMJEHwWlX0yMMBrm5snpCNSViEU-Vot-RluIy-9TG0lq-7wBACKi4tY563S7BKuW7mbsYF15eSSqXTDeah7PPg8I8DHCNquKN-ElEzy1EtUqKMddDgJS1CDWkMnbGb4hGio/s1600/Barrel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2DYSfmSij8fMJEHwWlX0yMMBrm5snpCNSViEU-Vot-RluIy-9TG0lq-7wBACKi4tY563S7BKuW7mbsYF15eSSqXTDeah7PPg8I8DHCNquKN-ElEzy1EtUqKMddDgJS1CDWkMnbGb4hGio/s1600/Barrel.jpg" height="38" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This has been on the list a while. It was sparked off by a discussion</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> on weapons in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000">40K</a></span> at an old <a href="http://www.belloflostsouls.net/search/label/Tabletop%20Fix">Outside the Box</a>, but could work for all kinds of games using dice to resolve success and failure.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The starting point was the fact 40K is nearly 27 years old now, in which time a lot of the core weapons have been sculpted in various forms. Compare <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Lasgun#Ryza_pattern">the original</a> <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Lasgun">lasgun</a> for the <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Imperial_Guard">Imperial Guard</a> - or Army as it was - and the <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Squat">Squats</a>, <a href="http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Genestealer_Cult">cult</a> etc. to more recent versions. In the real world, reflected in historical and modern wargaming, various modifications and variants also exist, and the same could well be true for other more fantastical settings.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Think about all the possible forms that slings, bows, crossbows etc. can or could take, let alone the range of melee weapons. This is true also for many if not all technologies</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> in conventional science fiction, science fantasy and fantasy</span>, possibly even innate abilities.</span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Relatively minor differences in operation generally aren't represented in larger-scale games, not least because using standard methods like modifiers or straight rerolls it could be impractical, especially when using dice with a low number of faces, like the d6: the various patterns, marks and mods could then end up more like new weapon types.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The squearoll idea</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The key mechanism for managing it is what might be called the squearoll, a kind of reroll that represents tight squeaks, moments the players might squeal. A squearoll is used when the result is on a knife-edge, specifically when one point away from success, with the reroll giving a fixed 50% chance of success and 50% of failure, e.g. a squearoll in 40K would presumably use 1d6, with a result of 1-3 then being failure, and 4-6 success.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Here's an example for 40K. Ten shots are fired using slimline bolt guns with advanced feeds, represented by Lighter Casing and Faster Action (see below). Each usually has a 3+ to hit, and the results rolled are 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, i.e. six hits. But because of the Faster Action, the 2s can be squearolled. Three dice are rolled, each needing 4+ for success: the results are 2, 3, 4, meaning one extra success, i.e. seven hits in total.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Using this in games</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The players agree how many units or individuals in each group have a variant weapon, or how many are assumed to be. Each variant weapon is identical to its normal form but with one or more positive attributes and one or more negative, as agreed by the players.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Possible attributes <span style="font-size: x-small;">- rifle-like weapons</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Here are some examples for rifle-like weapons, focusing on the 40K ranges especially.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Longer Barrel</b>, <b>Sight</b> or <b>Stand /</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b> Shorter Barrel</b> or <b>Hanging Trophy</b></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This weapon has a basic range 10% longer / shorter, rounding up / down.</span></blockquote>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Faster Action</b> or <b>Larger Clip etc. </b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b> / Slower Action</b> or <b>Smaller Clip etc.</b> </span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Each one-point miss / hit with this weapon may / must be squearolled.</span></blockquote>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Heavier Casing</b> or <b>Gun Shield / </b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Lighter Casing</b></span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> or </span></span><b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Exposed Workings</b></span></b></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Each save or similar roll based on armour or physical resilience failed / passed on behalf of the bearer by one point may / must be squearolled.</span></blockquote>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Larger Stock</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> or </span><b>Bayonet etc. / </b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Smaller Stock</b> or <b>Rounded Casing</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Each one-point melee miss / hit</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> by the bearer may / must be squearolled.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It's simple and quick once you get the hang of it, and it's WYSIWIG with miniatures. The squearoll idea has a lot of potential uses, maybe for a large part of a given system. It's one way to get a larger range of results without using a larger die size or rewriting stats.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">_</span></span>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/><i>Explore <a href = "http://www.theporkster.blogspot.com/">the full Expanse</a>...</i><br/></div>Porkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com5