Wings Over the Pyre

New Operation BSU Promo On the Site Now! Go Get It!

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:20:13 GMT

There’s a brand new promo for the show up on the TalkShoe home right now!

I suggest going to get it, downloading it, and sharing it with every single person you’ve ever met, heard of, chatted with, had sex with, licked, snuggled against, violated, corrupted, interviewed, broke bread with, or otherwise or in any way engaged in the process of human discourse near. No, seriously, go! Now!

You’ll thank me. And I’ll thank you.

Yes, as far as I know, we’re still on course to be interviewing Days of Our Decay this coming Sunday night on BSU. Updates as they’re available.

Neurotic and Obsessive, Yup

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:39:17 GMT

My Personality


Neuroticism	65
Extraversion	9
Openness to Experience	8
Agreeableness	1
Conscientiousness	90

You do not experience strong, irresistible cravings and consequently do not find yourself tempted to overindulge, however you feel enraged when things do not go your way. You are sensitive about being treated fairly and feel resentful and bitter if you think you are being cheated. People generally perceive you as distant and reserved, and you do not usually reach out to others. You are not interested in the arts and do not display aesthetic sensitivity. You believe that a certain amount of deception in social relationships is necessary. You are guarded in new relationships and less willing to openly reveal the whole truth about yourself, however you do not particularly like helping other people. Requests for help feel like an imposition on your time. You take your time when making decisions and will deliberate on all the possible consequences and alternatives.

Take a Personality Test now or view the full Personality Report.

The best Myspace Layouts

Can’t really argue that, I guess.

Dungeons and Douchebags: The Beginning

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 10:35:28 GMT

I'd like to take this very pleasurable moment to introduce the results of 5 days of rigorous research and work. I bring to you:

Dungeons & Douchebags

Within, you'll find all the secrets of the world of the Vast, including both the Tongues Moves Through Your Cleavite Like Water Prana and how to have Glittering Gemstones in even the most tasteful Dungeon. We do it all!

When confronted with this burgeoning masterpiece, DB1, proprietor of Hot Chicks With Douchebags, had this to say:

That is very bizarre and somewhat genius, good luck with it-
-DB1

High praise from a master himself!

Grab a SlideShare account for nothin' and download the full PDF of Dung&Dou for the low low price of ... nothin'!

Note that this is a prototype edition without art and very likely will require some tweaking to the Coin economy. Satisfaction not guaranteed but very much relished. Your milage may vary.

Brief Musical Interlude

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 01:56:39 GMT

You done been wape wolled!

Operating Parameters

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:29:08 GMT

Which OS are You?

Ironically, sans the step-brother, not too bad a call. OS/2 was a magnificent piece of machinery.

Frolicking In the Con

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 14:34:04 GMT

Due to circumstances beyond my control (ie. they called my bluff), I’ll be attending Frolicon as an invited guest and speaking on several panels:

Friday, March 21, 2008

2:00p-3:15p - Chronicles of Gor Discussion in Hunnicut C

3:30p-4:45p - Amateur Erotica Discussion in Dekalb
Saturday, March 22, 2008

2:00p-3:15p - Erotica in the Mainstream discussion in Dekalb

3:30p-4:45p - Hentai discussion in Medlock Auditorium

No, there will not be tentacle-demon-thing demonstrations in the Hentai discussion. I promise.

No, really, I promise.

C’mon down and catch my madness if you’re so inclined. I’ll be the guy with the burned out retinas and the horrified look on his face.

Sinning in Deep Space

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:38:29 GMT

Sins of a Solar Empire recently came out with the 1.03 patch, the second since the game was released roughly a month ago and one which makes some pretty hefty changes to ship balance and game mechanics, as well as cleans up a number of bugs, some of which I even manage to post about in a rational manner.

spasticferret, point5b and I have been playing the game since the week before we had Craig and Blair Frasier over on Operation BSU as special guests (episode 40), though I suppose it’s more accurate to say that I’d been playing much longer, since the first open beta opportunity back in 2006 while they’ve come on more recently. Regardless, we’ve been creating star-spanning empires of cut-throat cruelty with a complete lack of regard for weaker creatures, as it should be, but spasticferret’s had a problem: every time I created a pseudo-random map, inevitably she’d get stuck with a massive native militia or, even worse, the Pirate Base, floating right there astride the root of her attachment to the greater world at large. This can be disconcerting and it requires wholly different techniques than otherwise.

So, I’ve been tinkering with the in-game map system, figuring out it’s odd view of what constitutes clustering, realizing that I can have it create things in narrow bands if I so choose and relax certain constraints, which led to the map form up above. Randomly created, but it looks as if there’s enough resources in there to leverage through with a much wider network of connections than usual. I’m rather proud of it.

The map itself looks quite playable, moreso than the rather sparse and tree-like structure of previous ones so we’ll see. I think one of my oncoming projects will be to create a system with very distinct rings, lots of asteroids and a rare few homeworld class planets. Lots of lateral motion around a central ring … That could be different.

I even created a special icon for talking about the game that’s a little more biting than the older one. This one is taken from the in-game badge for the Achievement “Pink Ponies.” I finally unlocked it recently and I’ll be darned if I won’t use it, having earned it. (The Bee and the Ferret probably think that I should have the badge up for spending 66,000 credits on ordering space pirates to kill my enemies, but I’m a cynic. I figured that one went without saying.

If you haven’t looked into Sins yet, you need to. You really should.

Cruising Through the Cosmos, Best Dolly By Me Side

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:43:45 GMT

The Detailed Starship Quiz

LiveJournal Username

Spaceship Name

Spaceship Size

How is the spaceship piloted?

How is the spaceship powered?

What’s the upholstery like on the seats?

How do you see outside the spaceship?

What’s the spaceship’s primary purpose?

What’s the Captain’s catchphrase?

Main Weapon System:

Plasma Stream

Main Defensive System:

Magical Defenses

Chance of catastrophic failure at critical moments

44%

Voice of the ship’s computer:

kataish

Finds mandatory uniform unflattering:

demona_ilharse

Looks sexy in mandatory uniform:

ginger_blue

Ripped sleeves off mandatory uniform:

xxstitchdollyxx

Spends an unhealthy amount of time in the weapons locker:

ninjarhino

This Fun Quiz created by Akhmed at BlogQuiz.Net

Sagittarius Horoscope at DailyHoroscopes.Biz

Mmmmm, Magical Alien Death machine …

Deepest Annoyances

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:09:23 GMT

Very little is as annoying as losing a hard drive on a file server. It’s particularly galling when that disk contains a rather disturbingly massive music collection that you run a pirate radio station off of and all the archives of the podcast you occasionally assemble plus all your sound FX for your live show …

Yes, I’m marginally annoyed. I probably deserve to be, at myself, given how long that drive’s been going bad for, but what can you do? When you’re talking about that much raw data, backups on a home system are awkward at best and impossible at worst. All I can do is reassemble the things I can and work around what I can’t, which is interesting, because I actually don’t feel all that bad over it.

The podcast bits are annoying, but the bulk of them are up on Archive, which means they’ll probably outlive everything but the heat-death of the universe. I don’t and shouldn’t feel too bad about that. I’ve learned so much since doing the earliest ones and refined my hardware so much since then that it’s an entirely different show these days, anyway.

The sound FX are an annoyance, but there’s no reason to have a big library of sound FX on tap anymore with sites like Soundsnap out there that can toss me something I need when I need it. Fourty different kinds of “explosion” FX and my heart’s content for various things … Do I really need more?

The true Pain in the Ass(tm)(c) were my music piles — but here’s where the kicker starts: I have lots of CDs. As spasticferret can attest, I have several multi-hundred binders full of music. Plus, as I realized today, I own so much music from eMusic that I probably have a larger playlist just from eMusic than most radio stations have in their entire library. Never was that more clear to me than just a bit ago when I was telling the eMusic client to send me all the tracks I’d bought — one album at a time. Needless to say, it was tedious, exacting, annoying work, but I suppose it’ll pay off in short order. (It reminded me that I really need to listen to The Staggers’ “One Heartbeat Away From Hell” again since it is very likely my favourite album of all time No, really, it’s that good.)

This is also a good time to reconsider my storage allocation methods. Traditionally, I’ve been sorting things into a directory based on the ARTIST/ALBUM hierarchy, but does it really matter? I’m almost tempted to start a wholly different hierarchy: just DATE_OF_ADDITION. It’s not like I don’t add all the individual tracks to a database for the broadcast server anyway and it would surely make it easier to import them as I go, but harder to find any given thing from just the directory hierarchy. Oh, who am I kidding? I’ll keep doing it the traditional way if only because it makes it fast to find things for download from the system for ftp purposes. Le sigh.

Until I get everything put back together, there’s no Redoubt. of course. I’m having to get by with Pandora, if you can imagine it. While it works, it’s not ideal. For one, there’s insufficient rockabilly … even when you make a channel specifically for it.

Fanfic of the Moment: Cold Day in Hell

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:57:47 GMT

There are times even I defer to a higher power when I do things. To get the full gist of this one, you might need to read this: Sins Lore Page Don’t say I didn’t warn you what drugged Squid do.

“Cold Day in Hell”

ACT I: The Snow Gathers

EXT. Bridge, The ship “Oh Hai” - space

FADE IN:

At least a hundred men and women run around the packed confines of the almost opressively-dark panels and relaxing-couches which double as acceleration benches.

The bulk of the bridge crew are women in their early teens to mid-twenties and when they pass each other, they hardly seem to talk so much as gesture a moment in the broadest sense, then move on. Almost all of then have clear marks of cybernetic augmentation, whether it be as mild as a metal-ridged finger stroking under a control or as grand as the one poor unfortunate seated down the dias at the Captain’s left whose entire face and upper torso were simply reworked in forms almost but not completely unlike her original shape. She is HEXETER, sensors technologist for the Oh Hai.

Across from HEXETER, long metal fingers spread like a spider’s legs and with all the delicacy thereof is SISSAL, imperious, cruel, and tied directly into the neural network of the ship’s weapons and defense systems.

Atop the dias, seated in a piece of equipnent clearly transplaned from another machine and as hideous in the light of this silver and gleaming wonder as an open wound on a white, bloodless corpse is the man they are calling VRAI. They call him a man, but he is not rightly named such, because he is a Vasari and in no way belongs in this place. The reptilian face with it’s extended features, the hissing, unctious voice as he deals with the petty business of the ship.

VRAI is not happy at all. The flick of one, leathery, near-black and bladed claw throws a battle-maiden crewmember across a consone at the bottom of the stairs.

VRAI

Idiots and fools! Have you people ever planned for travelling across the galaxy for a thousand years and what you’d bloody damn well eat once you got there? It’s as if —

HEXETER

(cutting him off)

As if we were absolutely psychotically and obsessively focussed on the end and by some slight alchemy miss that even we have need for resources and down-time for maintenance?

VRAI

(ironically)

So you can listen with those cute little ears you’re burdened with. I was beginning to wonder if they served any purpose but to keep your hair elegantly coiffed.

Hexeter turns to toss a dazzling, radiant snile over her perfect shoulder.

HEXETER

Of course, Lord Commander.

VRAI

You make my office seem so dirty.

HEXETER

Given that it’s the only one in the entire task force, it should be.

Hexeter throws her arm up in mock, elaborate disgust.

VRAI

One of the people on this ship have had extensive run-ins with … Whatever you can call the thing out behind us. That person would be me. Consider it a psychic advantage to not being stuck with that burden!

HEXETER

(drily)

Of course you’re right, Lord Commander. Such awareness of species-wide cowardice is hardly to be thought of more than one is able.

SISSAL

Leave the Vasari insect alone, Hexeter. I’m certain that he only means to protect the delicate lines of we wee women-folk through the galactic might of his — (snicker) — empire.

The flash of reflectance in his eyes almost gives away Vrai, but he eases back into the seat, various tubes and such penetrating the whole surface of his back, moving as he does.

VRAI

Sissal, range to destination.

SISSAL

Thirty-minutes more to the gravwell you’ve designated as Locus Major on the map you uploaded to us.

VRAI

Fleet readiness?

HEXETER

Six disciple vessels proceeding us along the phase channel. Once we arrive, they will fall into array around the — Oh Hai — and thereafter be given near free reign to seek and fire on their own targets.

VRAI

Perfect. Let’s hope we can pin down some of these supply lines with just a single capital ship and a fistfull of ships I barely recognize as worthy of kicking as I walk by.

The SHIP’S HOLOPOOL ignites as a five foot wide oblate pool in front of the dais, moving upwards and spreading to reveal the new gravwell and, within it, a scout vessel already chaging engines to white-hot blazing to re-enter phase space and avoid the carnage to come. As the scout flashed out, surrounding it’s phase-ripple the Oh Hai’s complement appeared before the beast itself.

Facing them through the holopool are three siege frigates and a couple light frigs. None of them look like they’re in that great shape.

None of them look ready to fight. It’s the main wave gun on the Radiance-class capital that answers silence with flame and screams.

And the dance begins.

Pacifists Should Never Play 4X Games or Make National Policy

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:22:21 GMT

Bit of a reply to the post someone else made on the Sins of a Solar Empire forum yesterday:

……if the only way to conquer a planet is by genocide. I know, I know, its only a game, but am I the only one who doesn’t like bombarding the entire surface of a planet with nuclear weaponry? The concept of nuking a planet’s entire civilian population makes me a little uneasy, even if its just a game. How about a forced evacuation or some kind of surrender if you coordinate a successful siege for a certain length of time? Is there no other option except planetary extinction? If there is anything I would ask of a future release it would be the ability to wage war with some code of honor. (OK, I’ll get off my soap box now, lol)

This caused an endless cascade, but there came a time even I had to weigh in:

It’s probably worth noting that the Advent have an entire interstellar cannon that fires PURE F’IN LOVE across massive distances, impacts a target gravity well, and causes the people on the planet in question to swoon and think happy thoughts about them.

If it’s any help, play the Advent and imagine the bolts of psychic energy descending from the heavens over the besieged worlds is made of Pink Ponies and Pure Rainbows, convincing the populace that you’re In The Right. And there you go. Tilt your head just so and it kind of looks that way, too.

Me, I’m blowing merry Hell out of the homes of politicians, pacificists, and other undesirables to free the poor downtrodden masses to toil in my space-mines in freedom.

As much as I gripe about the twitch-reaction speed of 12-year olds in Call of Duty 4 and how frequently they shoot me in the face while chatting amiably about the rampant faggotry, at least they’re keen enough to know there are some people that just have to be shot in the face to properly be dealt with. It’s been an inviolate and understood tool of statecraft since there were three guys standing around and two of them started reaching for a rock because the third was trying to take their women. (This is differentiated from the alternative case, the origin of government, where the two reached for rocks to take the third’s woman. And so began the organized taking perfectly good things from good people that they’d collectively get less use out of than if they’d simply left it alone in private ownership.)

My personal feeling is that if you want to hand-wring about the kind of lives you’re taking on poor planetary environments, perhaps you ought not to be playing games that involve hundreds to thousands of ships populated by abstract tens of thousands being blown to shite every hour. You know, just a feeling. There is no Amish faction in Sins.

And thank Hades for that.

Advent-ageous Technology

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 12:50:35 GMT

After a rousing evening of running Canthan New Year missions with Kay and getting shot in the face in Call of Duty 4 with point5b, I decided to actually give in to my urges toward megalomania and hunger for destruction, and pick up where I left off in my last game of Sins of a Solar Empire. Luckily, I was bright enough to save it and the save game is still compatible with the latest patch, so in a brilliant fit of insight and genius, I just loaded it up and felt the command chair settle in around me.

I think my summary of the Advent, the faction I’m currently playing, to point5b was, “Imagine a race made up entirely of obsessive-compulsive psionic hive-minded Communist 12-year-old girls. Now put me in their overmind.” As a hint, this is what the Sins site itself says about the reaction of TEC (the ostensibly “normal human faction”) to discovering the progenitors of the Advent:

Shocking acts of deviancy, at every level of society, violated the venerable taboos common to all the Trader Worlds. Sinful cerebral integration technologies, unrestricted biological experimentation, strange forms of collectivism, and the wholesale usage of countless neurochemicals were but a few of the transgressions.

The voices for all the ships sound like petulant pre-teens on a bender and their fleets and defense forces lean heavily on fighter operations. Of course I’m having an absolute blast playing them.

This is a Deliverance Engine. It takes 18 Tactical Slots in planetary orbit to construct (by way of comparison, a big space laser gun takes one slot and a hangar for three bomber squadrons takes six.). What it does is act like a giant space mind control cannon that, when pointed at any planet in a solar system and charged up with antimatter and the trigger pulled, fires a big pulse of psychic energy at the target that temporarily makes them all mentally aligned to the Advent and gives any ships in combat in the system of the same faction as the firer a massive boost in power and morale.

It’s an Orbital Mind Control Satellite.

I fired it at my enemy’s homeworld. While my fleet was currently bombarding it to kill and enslave his population.

This is what it looked like:

You can’t see all my fleet, as it is arrayed all around the planet, the elements which can bombard doing so and the rest on the lookout for targets, but this is right after the Deliverance Engine gave everyone on the surface a bit of attitude adjustment. I now own this planet. I still need to hunt down the remnant of his colony worlds and destroy the pirate base system which is somewhere on the map, but I all but have this one in the bag.

Man, this is fun.

Commiting Visual Sins

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 12:42:46 GMT

Let the pretty begin.

I managed to put together a decent set of screenshots from Sins of a Solar Empire for the moment, along with a lot of other associated artwork. I need to put together some nice screen backgrounds as well, but it’ll wait.

So, who’s with me on ravaging the stars with our mighty evil?

The Sins Are Coming

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 11:38:19 GMT

Or rather, today is the release day of a game I’ve been anticipating for quite a while, Sins of a Solar Empire, which is a real-time 4x game with online multiplayer. For the hardcore old-school computer gaming geek like myself, this is the sort of thing you end up wondering where it’s been for the past decade or so, since it’s just not been done well. Or at all. Sins does an incredible job of joining the deeply pretty FX you expect in multiple fleets of ships flying around blowing the Hell out of each other with developing your homeworlds and resource bases for further conquest.

If you ever played Homeworld and wondered why it couldn’t be more like EVE Online, with multiple fleets under your command, starbases and planets, with vast sweeping fleets of destructive force issuing forth from your fingertips — but without the thousands of griefing assholes whose biggest fun is getting yours to be elsewhere — well, Sins is the game for you. And for me. For extra crispy goodness, Sins is being put out by Stardock, who also do Galactic Civilization, releasing it with no copyright protection because they trust their players and know a good game sells itself. GalCiv, for those in the know, is the pre-eminant 4x title at this point, powerfully leaving everything but Master of Orion II in the nebulaic dust of it’s passing. It’s that good.

I’ve been in Sins beta testing since release 1 and I have to tell you, it’s really undergone some serious refinement. It started out as a kind of mess of units and an interesting idea for a management interface, and they’ve really pulled it together. Basically, the idea is that the UI should be as minimal as possible. The epitome of that is a sort of tree-like break-down of your multiple fleets which hangs on the left of the screen. It displays, symbolically, where your fleets are, what they’re made of, and what they can do. And you can give every order in the game from that tree. Above, you have pull down panels for research, diplomacy, etc. And the bottom has a bar for doing special things with units with special powers, though they largely look after themselves. That’s it. The rest is full of a truly beautiful space window showing a smooth, continuous zoom from the scale of a single two-man fighter ship in deadly duelling combat across the surface of a frigate, all the way back to gazing at the galaxy as a whole, the nodes of star systems and jump-lanes between them, colour coded with the icons of the forces vying within.

Diplomacy deserves a special note, Unlike AIs in most games, the AIs in Sins can be influenced, and directly. But more importantly, indirectly. Say that you and I are playing and I decide I want your forces smashed, but I don’t really have the manpower to do so. What I can do is put a bounty on the heads of your forces, a reward I pay to whoever whacks one of your ships. Put the bounty high enough and it’s not just the hard-sccrabble pirates who’ll look to jump you, but even other human-run empires looking for the cash. You’re a wanted being. And I get to keep my claws clean.

Official release time for Sins is roughly 17 hours from now. If you want in on it, you can buy Sins directly from Stardock, and you should be able to download it by 8p Eastern. Everyone buying direct from Stardock gets the Collector’s Edition:

Sins of a Solar Empire comes in two forms:

Standard Edition ($39.95) which is what is available at retail.

and

Collector’s Edition ($49.95) which is available direct as well as certain retailers (I think Fry’s is one).

So what’s the difference?

The Collector’s Edition box includes the following bonus items:

a foldout tech-tree poster

artwork posters

a hotkey card

a music CD

For users who are doing download only, the Collector’s Edition is only $44.95 but they will still be able to get the music CD (we’ll be providing it as a digital download shortly after release) and PDF versions of the other materials (which we will also be providing after release). Since there’s less physical materials, it’s $5 less than the actual boxed version.

If you decide later you want the boxed unit, you can order that for $5 plus the cost of shipping and handling.

Also Collector’s Edition users will receive the Sins of a Solar Empire MyColors theme:

Users who didn’t buy the Collector’s Edition will be able to seperately purchase the digital content starting in late February.

If you buy the game directly from us, you are getting the Collector’s Edition (pre-order, beta tester, etc.). It is the only version of the game we sell digitally or box.

If this seems like the sort of thing you’re into (and I’m looking at you point5b and you, Kay, you wanna-be world-devouerers, get in on this fun stuff while you can.

Milcraft

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 01:15:16 GMT

What military aircraft are you?

B-52 Stratofortress

You’re a B-52. You are old and wise, and you absolutely love destruction. You believe in the principle of “peace through deterrence” and aren`t afraid to throw your weight around.

Click Here to Take This Quiz
Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Big booms. Lots of explosions. Overkill. Yeah, I’m in.

Serene on the Serenity

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 05:52:46 GMT

This will come as a surprise to absolutely no one:

Your results:
You are A Reaver (Cannibal)

A Reaver (Cannibal)		65%
Alliance		60%
River (Stowaway)		55%
Derrial Book (Shepherd)		55%
Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic)		55%
Wash (Ship Pilot)		55%
Jayne Cobb (Mercenary)		50%
Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)		35%
Malcolm Reynolds (Captain)		35%
Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic)		30%
Inara Serra (Companion)		30%

Reavers are savages that have been
driven to madness by the government.
They kill without any discussion.

Click here to take the Serenity Firefly Personality Test

Really, people, I’m brilliant, insightful, a bit cruel, a little crazy … but do you think I’d ever eat you? OK, wait, scratch that question …

Ironically, I’m only 5% less likely to be the whole durn Alliance. By myself. Damn, I rule.

Fringeworthy and Unworthiness

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 12:53:27 GMT

I just finished reading the 1993 reprinting of the 1987 game, Fringeworthy (hereafter FW).

I’m reminded why that I’m so deeply and abidingly glad that the design of games has changed so radically in the last twenty years, and simultaneously reminded why my friend maliszew’s near-obsession with the structure and feel of late ‘80’s games leaves me wholly cold.

Conceptually, FW is awesome. You probably know it better as Stargate SG-1 since 80% of the underlying concepts that went into the latter originated in FW. So much so that I’m absolutely shocked there hasn’t been any subsequent suits and huge settlements for ripping the idea off wholesale, but I digress. In FW, the world has discovered a set of huge, hovering rings that lead to a network of pathways between worlds. Only 1 in 100k can actually use these gates, so the UN administers the exploration of this new resource. Some gates open to planetary locations, some to alternate Earths (in fact, a massive, endless array of them), some to places in the solar system, some directly to other star systems. Humanity goes in, runs into aliens, finds some cooperative, others less so, and a Big Bad.

All pretty straightforward, right? I could run something based on the underlying idea in an endless parade of fun.

Then there’s the rest of the book. Remember, Tri Tac, ‘93. Ten pages of detailed, small-print human form location tables down to “front of spleen” or “5th metacarpal.” Fifteen of complicated strangely interwoven skill system, to the point of “Solar Powered Electronics” is on par with “Xenobiology.” Fifteen on randomly generating a new planet to be discovered, which is unlikely to really even be human habitable. Don’t forget the inevitable d100[1].

Could I run this? Not on your stinkin’ life. Which is pretty exemplar of the games of the era, a number of which I own in my extensive historical library.

I occasionally wonder if there’d be any money in picking up a license for some of these older properties and retrofitting a new system on the old setting info and feel. Some kind of stripped-down Fudge system would do just fine for the more mechanical systems, or maybe even just a description of common themes and means for dealing with characters in Primetime Adventures or Capes[2] . This would be impossible, since such licenses are always overpriced and would undersell, but … A man needs dreams.

Traveller done up as a Universalis plug-in and seed set amuses me so, though.

A review of the Fringeworthy 10th edition says it all:

And then there’s the combat system. I’m not even going to try to describe it—you won’t believe me. To make a long story short, it makes even Rolemaster seem fast and simple by comparison. Those who want the details anyway are hereby referred to Michael Richter’s review of FTL:2448.

In summary, this system is misbegotten all the way. Whether in or out of combat, the players and GM will be constantly flipping to different sections of the book just to find the information they need to do something. When they’re not doing that, it’ll be because they’re still trying to figure it out in the first place. Very bad for a game that has supposedly undergone ten years of playtesting.
Pretty much my core workhorse games now in many ways. PTA gives you a truly stripped-back character descriptor and conflict system, Capes gives you the GMless and conflict-focus for other things.

The UnSpeakable Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:44:12 GMT

It says something about me that in my travels around the Net, I managed to find an RPG inspired by Gurren Lagann. Not only that, but the mechanics are rooted in InSpectres, possibly the best of the supernatural horror / reality show hybrid RPGs ever written.

OK, the only one. But you get the idea.

I almost want to run it. Almost. But then again, I kind of want to run a Bliss Stage inspired by a mix of Gundam and Grey Ranks focusing on the inevitable horror, suffering, misery, and just plain damn coolness of giant robots in war.

So many things I want to do, so few people nearby to do them.

But I’m sure __oni_no_kaze__ will be amused at the Gurren Lagann RPG and introduce his Navy buddies to it forthwith.

Really, It's a Christian Metal Band

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 21:37:11 GMT

Yes, time again for some random meme off the Internet. Lifted from demiurgent and prodded be semiapies, I suppose I had to do it.

Rules are as follows:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.

http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.

http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

Using your favorite graphics program combine these three elements to design your album cover and post the result.

General Foods International is a post-punk pseudo-punk band from Nebraska who, like many young kids who don’t know how good they really have it, have taken up musical arms against “big industry and the government” along with a postured nihilistic philosophy that suggests that if they get stomped into the dirt by their enemies it doesn’t really matter anyway, so who cares, right? Musically, they’ve fused Seattle grunge with German noise-metal, producing an unlistenable melange of clanks and screams which is mainly good for scaring crows off the corn fields back home.

Madness and Flames

Sun, 13 Jan 2008 13:24:32 GMT

You know, I’m aware I’ve just not been blogging here in any significant sense lately. I really need to do something about that at some point, but with Operation BSU eating so much of the venom I used to put into blogging, it’d just turn into a rambling morass of gaming issues and design ideas, and who wants to read that.

Still, if you’re interested in tracking my comings and goings in a more meta-sense, check out my tumble-blog at Tumblr, Madness and Flames. Properly, it has “goddamn RSS” so you can follow it through your favourite reader and conflates my Twitter feed, my Flickr posts, the links I save to my Jaanix system, and my Google Reader shared articles. One stop shopping for the stuff I think is interesting, and tracks the things flowing across my eyes regularly.

Perhaps not as exciting as my rambly, perverse thoughts, but certainly will keep you up to date.

I’m debating working up some kind of audio-blog thing I can just mutter into when the mood strikes, but I haven’t decided on technology, yet. Probably that’ll involve yet more RSS feeds.