I really hate practical jokes. It just is not my thing. I mean, if you do, that’s great but I just find the whole thing annoying. I have never found how humiliating or belittling your customers was a good practice. That said, a joke product is fine (heck, one could argue that SA! is all about that) but that is not what I am talking about. It is more misinformation by a company and on a personal level.
Short version, you will not see HinterWelt or me celebrating April Fools. 
Yeah, I try to avoid posting non-hinterwelt things here but this is really pertinent. Music is important to my game experience and I really dig this station.
Warning: the music will play when you go to the site.
For what it is worth, as I write more I find myself to try and say more with fewer words. This is not to the detriment of understanding or clarity, in fact, it is in aid of clarity. I have found my squirrel books at 60 page of big margin digest format say a whole lot more than some of my larger books. I have had more than one newbie to role playing thank me for a clear rules set. To me, at this point, that is what I am talking about. It is what I prefer.
First go at the Planet Building system.
Aspects: These are descriptors. So, Physical Aspects are things like landmass, seas, size, environment and the like. They can:
1. have no quantifier
2. Have a quantifier between -10 and 10
For the quantifier we would use it like so. Say, Price Index has a quantifier of 3, then all product prices would be multiplied by 1.3. If it was -3, then they would be multiplied by 0.7.
GMs can make up whatever Aspects they want but some are suggested.
Below is a rough draft of the planetary fact sheet. Click for a bigger version.
Matt is asking about Nebuleon SE on facebook as well as Alan over on our forums. Here is what I told Matt:
Gee Matt, you don’t ask the easy ones.
So, I have kind of hit a loop/block. Part of what I am having trouble with is what should be included, what should be added and what should be subtracted. Short list off the top of my head:
1. V1 or V2?
2. Planet generation system? If so, what kind?
3. Ship gen system? Change the ship combat system?
4. I will be clarifying FTL, the effects of travel. the specifics of travelling.
5. Better/clearer rules on healing.
6. ???
7. Profit!!!!
Of course, any suggestions are very welcome. In fact, much like Clash over at Flying Mice I would ask for suggestions, modifications, revisions and requests for Nebuleon SE.
I have an idea for a project where you would be able to upload your own map, then put annotations and symbols on it. This would work, eventually, in conjunction with a campaign manager where players would be able to interact and say things like “My char is from city X” or “My family rules the outlying barony here!”. In general, the GM could have players getting very involved in the actual creation of the setting.
Am I crazy or does this sound useful?
Sorry for the late well wishes but Theo took ill this past solstice and had to be hospitalized. All is well though and he is back home and happily opening presents.
A very merry solstice to all and may light return to your life and bring you good fortune this coming year!
I have begin laying the foundation for the ILGen specifically creating the project in NetBeans and building the database. I am hoping to base it even more on rules based data-driven Model-View-Controller architecture than the CHARGen is. That is a tall order as CHARGen is very much designed using those principles.
My hope for this is a create a system that can be used to export data as well as import it in XML format but also I am considering a more graphic interface. Right now, the CHARGen is…utilitarian to put it mildly. I will keep you updated on the progress.
Oh, and any requests? I am tempted to have a GenGen where you can import any stats, any skills, any equipment all designed to be transported in XML format. Would that be interesting or an IP nightmare…?
So, I am typing along on ASMBE and I hear the neighbor mowing his lawn. Normally nothing of concern and I clickety clack along as I muse ont he finer points of a squirrel with mistaken identity of a lab rat. Lo and behold, I hear the sound of a lawn mower grinding and chewing on something decidedly not flora related, nay, dare I say decidedly metallic. I go to investigate as his mower has gone quite outside the garden window of my office. Sure enough, there he stands before a shredded cable. A cable which should have been buried over three years ago.
Enter the Technician
Sure, I think, we have business class and should recieve priority. Especially so since it is a simple patch. Enter the call at 7pm on a Friday and the dispatcher says “Sure! Between 10 AM and 1 pm tomorrow”. O.k. Never one to leave a bad thing alone, Linda and I spring into action. We splice, we tape, we strip the wire…to no avail. Despite our best efforts we will need to wait for the tech on the marrow.
He calls at 9:30 to say he will be hear at 10:30. We get ready as they may need to string an entire new cable. 10:30…11:30…12:30…1:30….O.k. here they missed the window so we call. “Oh,” says the dispatcher, “I cannot contact the tech. He is not answering his phone or pager. We will get the tech supervisor out there to see wha is going on.” We thank her and wait for the promised call in 5-10 minutes…and wait. An hour later we call back. Different person, same story. We wait again for the promised call….we bgin calling every 1/2 hour.
Finally, the tech shows up at 7 pm and runs a splice. It takes 10 minutes. This is no exaggeration. He could have done this on the way to work this morning he jokes…
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Hate, Vitriol and Melodrama
Well, if it has not been obvious I have been taking a break from the online community for a bit and I cannot tell you how it has given me perspective. On a personal level, I am just more happy (even though I am working harder than I ever have) and have a much better view on things. It has been a breath of fresh air.
On another level, I have reflected on the online RPG community. First, to call it a “community” is a misnomer. It is a diverse group of people across all manner of communities, countries and cultures tied together by interest in role-playing games. Second, it is a “community” drenched and reveling in vitriol and melodrama. It is a really negative place that it is difficult to see from within. I believe far too many people do not realize just how subtly draining and heartbreaking it is. From forum posts where people belittle others not based on what they have said but what broad type of game they play, making absurd claims that in any other area of interest would be laughed at or scorned as simplistic and inaccurate. Instead, you hear refrains of “You have to listen to WHAT he says, not how he says it” or merely the ba-ba of sheeple overwhelmed with their need to belong to yet another, different hate group. Now, I will most heartily agree that there are positive folks out there. Clash, Alan, Scott, Mike and several others you could possibly name. However, most often, it is like you are four guys at a KKK rally talking about racial tolerance while the several hundred white robed looks burn a cross and beat up a black guy. The RPG “community” is like that clan meeting. Tolerance, true tolerance of different games from what you play (note: if you don’t like it don’t talk about it) is just not the common ground of any forum, blog or community for RPGS.
Finally, I have to stress it again, if you are in it, you probably don’t even know it. You think that all is fine, all is great because you had a thread last month that did not devolve into an endless back and forth about the “right way to play”…well, except for that one guy and he was playing the game wrong.
Now, as far as this goes, it is something of a rant in that it should not be taken too seriously. If you are happy, then great. I have just found a few common threads and practices that leave me wondering, thinking that maybe, in a roundabout way, I might be onto something. It is backed up with having some great gaming over the past couple of weeks, meeting great folks who never logged onto RPG.FORUM.HATE.YOUR.GAME.com. Inevitably, the ones who were bitter, the few, were the ones who were avid members of one online community or several. Give yourself a break, play a game.
Good gaming everyone.