2024-03-02

Cepheus Setting

 


This new 2D roleplaying game has been released. Cepheus Universal is designed to be used for science fiction tabletop roleplaying games in a variety of SF genres.

I'm convinced. I want to set up a Cepheus Universal tabletop roleplaying sourcebook for a setting based on the philosophies of Carl Sagan and Ursula K LeGuin, among others.

The need for me to design a kinder, gentler science fiction setting where exploration and self-discovery, not conquest or profit, are the driving raison d'ĂȘtre.

2023-08-02

RPGADay 2023, Day 2

 Poached from my Substack blog:- https://open.substack.com/pub/passingforhuman/p/rpgaday-2023-day-2


And so we come to Day 2 of the RPG A Day challenge, and this time it’s the first RPG I gamemastered.

That could mean “the RPG I prefer to GM” or “the first time I GM’ed.”

I think I’ll go with the first option, and I’ll list the second option some time down the lane.

If I do GM a game, chances are it would be either a Lightspress Media game such as DoubleZero / Fantasy Manifesto / System Neutral, or Frostbyte Books’ Comae Space.

I love MythrasM-SpaceTraveller, and Onyx Path’s World of Darkness, among many other game systems - but they do tend to lean heavily towards crunchy numbers-based combat, rather than stories where the characters lead with their, well, character.

I want a game where I let the players’ decisions lead the story, where they get caught up in the drama and care about the characters, and the crunchy game mechanics don’t get in the way all the time. Game rules only establish an approximation of life. I like to GM a system which allows the narrative to beat the rules and crunch every day.



2023-08-01

RPGADay 2023 Day 1

Lifted from this post on Substack:- RPGADay 2023, Day 1 - by Alex Greene - Alex’s Substack

Welcome to RPGADay 2023, the annual celebration of tabletop roleplaying games.

This has been going on for decades, now - but this is the first year I’ll be attempting the challenge myself.

First RPG I played this year … It was a freeform, narrative game, not using any specific rule set. I was using this systemless game to simulate an adventure of The Chronicles of Shirae; the results were going up on my blog, The Spiral Room.

Halfway through the story, events took on a life of their own. Master Axan, the sorcerer protagonist, and Princess Rathi, end up having to live with one another for a month as a married couple, without rank or privilege.

Needless to say, this was not a situation which I could resolve with swordplay and hit point counting.

2022-01-02

2022-01-01 Doctor Who Inspirational Speech

ID: Because something seems impossible, we try. It doesn't work!

We try again. We learn. We improve. We fail again, but better. We make friends. We learn to trust. We help each other. We get it wrong again! We improve,together, then ultimately succeed.

Because this is what being alive is - and it's better than the alternative!

So come on, you brilliant humans! We go again. And we win!

- The Doctor, Doctor Who
- also, coincidentally, Campbell's Hero's Journey

2021-12-31

What If - Star Trek: The Next Generation Rewritten, Season 1

This post is a list of alternative episodes of the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, if I were given the task of writing the episodes from scratch.

The Starfleet officers introduced in the first episode of the aired show were all sort of superheroic - an android, a psychic, a Klingon, a badass superwarrior, a cyborg with impressive visual acuity. Oh, and a child prodigy to appeal to the yoof vote.

So I’d change that up completely.

The First Officer is Deanna Troi. She starts as she means to go on - command red, right from the start. Drop the Imzadi stuff which was a holdover from The Motion Picture and Star Trek Phase II. No Will Riker, no past history or old flames, *at all*.

Troi is a full telepath. Her Dad was Starfleet, and gave her the exotic Greek accent.

The Chief Medical Officer on board is one Doctor Beverly Crusher. She starts in Sickbay, on her first day assigned to the flagship, assembling the medical staff. No mention of her “walking like an erotic dancer” crap. Gates is one hell of a dancer, but Trek is better than that.

Doctor Crusher mentions that they need to take on more medical staff and also general science staff. She notes that the new Science Officer ought to be interesting, as is one of her doctors awaiting her at the outpost to which they are heading.

No Wesley. Crusher is Beverly’s maiden name. Jack, Picard’s old friend, was her brother. She and Picard have a past, but not romantic - that can develop, but even if they never get it on, Picard would happily give Beverly one of his kidneys, their friendship is that strong, as is Picard’s obligation to the Crusher family, who saved his life at the Battle of Maxia where he lost The Stargazer.

No mention of Q - not until the episode titled “Q”, episode 10. Give everybody time to establish themselves as people, not walking superpowers.

The visit to planet Deneb IV (“the biggest market for evewrything for ten sectors”) gets cut short soon after the arrival of the Second Officer, William Riker, and the new Chief Engineer, Chief Science Officer and Assistant CMO, namely Lts Cmdr Geordi LaForge, Data, and Worf, respectively.

There is a sector-wide alert: activity along the Romulan Neutral Zone. Newcomer Riker, handsome chap with a beard, has been on patrol in the Neutral Zone - that being his last assignment on the USS Hood - and he sighs as he realises he’s going right back to the patch of space he was patrolling before. Troi mentions something about “It’ll be like going home,” and Riker replies “The family reunions suck.”

The Enterprise is assigned the section of the Neutral Zone whose capital is a planet on the border of a region known as The Triangle, a badlands between the Federation, the Klingon Empire, and the Romulan Star Empire. The outpost is called Farpoint Station.

By now, you’re probably guessing that the title of the pilot episode is going to be exactly the same - “Encounter at Farpoint”

In fact … with one exception, they all are.

"Encounter at Farpoint" : The Romulans come back, but they bring a warning about a terrifying new unnamed race from the Delta Quadrant.

"The Naked Now": The Away Team (Troi, Riker, LaForge, Crusher) lose their inhibitions and nearly their minds while investigating the loss of 180 lives from a Federation cruiser.

"Code of Honor": The Klingons make their first appearance. Worf meets his estranged father, Captain Mogh, while hunting down a crew of rogue Klingons who have been raiding outposts in The Triangle. Riker consoles Worf, explaining how his own Dad has all but disowned him. Worf explains that, to the Klingons, "joining Starfleet" is the equivalent of a parent describing their kid as "running off to join the circus." He mentions clowns, and Riker shudders. Data discovers a new life form.

"The Last Outpost": The Federation encounter an ancient outpost, whose automated systems nearly destroy the Enterprise, until one of them translates the ancient T'Kon language.

"Where No One Has Gone Before": An unexplored region of space is filled with an odd gaseous anomaly. The crew begin to suffer their greatest fears. Troi fears isolation, light years from the nearest human mind. Worf and Riker confront their rejection. Picard and Crusher relive the day they lost Jack, and so on.

"Lonely Among Us": Riker learns that his father has died, and he keeps vigil. Troi forms a close friendship with Riker, who opens up about the animosity between him and his Dad which had led to his estrangement. An impetuous alien ambassador nearly sparks a war between two planets.

"Justice": A terrifying episode, where Geordi is accused of murder, and he must defend himself as the crew track down the true perpetrator. Worf conducts an autopsy, and clues reveal the identity of the real killer.

"The Battle": The Enterprise returns to the site of the battle where he lost the Stargazer. He finds the hulk of the ship, and the hostiles reappear. Picard battles his inner demons to bring a different outcome to this encounter: a diplomatic solution.

"Q": Picard's nemesis appears here for the very first time, bringing mischief to the Galaxy. Q takes Picard to a strange homeworld in a distant part of the Galaxy, where he meets a strange species of tall, imposing, quasi-reptilian aliens he has not met before. His First Contact is tense. When he returns to the Enterprise, Picard realises that he has met these aliens before, only they were dressed in encounter suits. They are the enemies of the Romulans, and their name "Renki" has been mispronounced as "Ferengi."

"Haven": Troi's mother, Ambassador Lwaxana Troi, arrives at Risa at the same time as the Enterprise. Deanna is bothered by Lwaxana's attempts to matchmake her with a Betazoid male. She tells her mother to keep Betazoid politics out of it, and refuses to be married off "like some Old Earth Princess" to cement an alliance between Betazoid dynasties. Worf meets a Klingon, K'Ehleyr, on Risa. Data discovers Jamaharon. LaForge reveals that he is an asexual.

"The Big Goodbye": An odd episode, where Picard finds himself living out a 1940s hallucination, where he meets characters who are played by members of his crew. This turns out to be a vision by Q, to teach Picard the value of optimism in the face of cynicism or something.

"Datalore": Data comes to the rescue of Doctor Bruce Maddox, who is a mentee of Data's creator. Bruce shows Data his creation, Lore, and Data helps Lore to escape Maddox when Data learns that Maddox builds androids with short lifespans, transferring Lore's programming into new bodies. Despite assistance from LaForge, Lore dies in Data's arms - Data transfers Lore's "soul" into his own positronic matrix..

"Angel One": The Enterprise is sent into The Triangle to recover a probe which was sent by the Federation in the year 2181. The probe is the site of worship by a pre-warp civilisation, and the Enterprise must reverse the violation of the Prime Directive without violating it themselves.

"11001001": A binary signal sent across the cosmos has been received by the Argos Array on the border of The Triangle. It turns out to be sent by a species called the Bynars. Their planet has suffered a climate catastrophe. It transpires that the Renki have accidentally triggered an ice age. Troi has to draw upon her experiences from her childhood as the daughter of an Ambassador to negotiate with the Renki. At the end of the episode, a second Renki ship arrives with a diplomat and a team of climatologists to reverse the deterioration of the planet's climate, and to offer reparations when the Enterprise succeed in reversing the damage with no aid from the interlopers. The Renki diplomat expresses her admiration for Troi's diplomatic skills. At the end of the episode, she puts in a private subspace call to her mother.

"Too Short a Season": Admiral Mark Jameson is on a pilgrimage to Lerodis, a site of high holy pilgrimage for members of a group called The Foundation. Jameson is dying, and wishes to complete his pilgrimage before he dies. Some scientists from The Foundation scan Jameson's brain and copy his engrams and memory patterns before the Admiral's death: despite misgivings from Riker, they take the mind pattern of the Admiral to store it with millions of worthy souls, recorded in memory banks for posterity. Data connects with the collective, and learns some vital information from Admiral Jameson's personality about The Renki - it turns out that he may have initiated First Contact with them more than forty years before, but due to an error of judgment on the Admiral's part, that encounter did not go well.

"When the Bough Breaks": Beverly's sister Jennifer drops in, with Beverly's nephew Wesley in tow. Wesley is headstrong at first, but finds his true calling in medicine when he helps an Away Team to rescue trapped crew on a stricken Federation ship.

"Home Soil": A dying Romulan is rescued from a ship drifting on the Federation side of the Neutral Zone. She reveals the extent of the takeover of the Romulan Star Empire by the Renki. A Renki ship turns up, demanding the Romulan's return. The Romulan dies, however, and all the Renki et back in a corpse. The Renki tell Picard that it is practically "the Renki Star Empire" now.

"Coming of Age": Worf is disconsolate as he receives news that his brother Kurn has received the nentay, a Klingon coming of age ceremony which Worf never went through. Captain Mogh offers to help his firstborn to grow up, but there is a price - Worf must return to Qo'noS to stay.

"Heart of Glory": The Klingons turn up again - this time, fighting the Renki, who have now commandeered Romulan ships.

"The Arsenal of Freedom": Almost identical to the aired episode, only with a "Captain Logan" whose ship was crippled by the Echo Papa space probe. "Symbiosis": The first time The Trill turn up in the Star Trek universe. Dr Crusher has to call upon the assistance of a Trill medic, Doctor Felias Odan, to help a young Trill host whose symbiote is rejecting her. Odan and Crusher develop a passionate relationship. Dr Odan comes up with an ingenious solution - they swap symbiotes. The Odan symbiote begins their new life in the new host, but at seventeen years of age she is now way too young for relationships, and Felias Anax (the new name of the host with the symbiote) must look for a new career, since her medical credentials went with the Odan symbiote.

"Skin of Evil": An odd alien species is enountered, which sheds its darker emotions and impulses each time it moults. One of the crew comes into contact with a piece of shed skin, and is infected by its dark, murderous impulses.

"We'll Always Have Paris": Picard in the holodeck, living out a Forties fantasy. Riker and Troi join him. Data expresses his desire to explore the various genres of literature, and comes up with a bizarre AI-generated "detective novel" with hilarious results.

"Conspiracy": The Renki are a threat. A rogue cabal of Federation citizens team up with an old skool Romulan to develop a biogenic weapon.

"The Neutral Zone": The Renki, Klingon, and what remains of the Romulan fleets mass on the borders of The Triangle. The Enterprise arrives - and so does Q, to announce that the Federation is "to be judged."

2017-03-22

DriveThruRPG Banners

The following banners all point to DriveThruRPG, a favourite website of mine.

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com

Huge Discounts on your Favorite RPGs @ DriveThruRPG.com"

LARPs RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com



2017-03-03

Roleplaying Games List - Entanglements


The next few weeks, I will be publishing lists of the roleplaying games I have bought from DrivethruRPG, along with some sort of brief comment. Possibly a review, once I have used it a few times.

I will start with today, and the short indie book Entanglements from Yaruki Zero Games.

Entanglements

Entanglements is a story-mapping tool for use with most any role-playing game. Over the course of a few hours you will build up a complex relationship map that can enrich and inform a campaign. The PDF includes a reference sheet and tips for using Entanglements with D&D, Fate, Fudge, GURPS, Apocalypse World, and more.

A nice, basic system, useful for solo play or group play. Available as a Pay What You Want title from DriveThru.

The Introduction states:-

This is a set of rules for use with most any role-playing game to help you build up a deeply interconnected set of characters. It is essentially instructions for making a “story map” that shows relationships between characters, places, events, and objects that will hopefully help provide the basis of an exciting campaign. It doesn’t replace the character creation system of whatever game you’re playing, but it will definitely influence the choices players make in creating their characters. Using Entanglements is fairly time-consuming, and it’s best to set aside an entire session for it, possibly with character creation included. This in turn means it’s best for when you’re intending to commit to a long-term campaign.

As usual, I only buy a thing from DriveThruRPG if I have a feeling that I will be needing it - and by the look of the preview, this is an item that I very much need.

2015-08-11

Censorious ISP

My ISP has been giving me grief today, blocking access to websites containing "content unsuitable for 18 year olds."

I'm the bill payer, I am an adult, and I'm the only resident. No kids or vulnerable adults here.

ISPs are being told to crack down on content that is dangerous to this government, in the guise of censoring pornography. It doesn't take any effort at all to tick off violence, gambling, crime, blogging, protests and legitimate activities to promote democracy and weaken corrupt tyrannies from taking over the government as "extremism" and "pornography" and block access to them.

In the long term, it means that my blog might suddenly stop because I won't be able to access the thing at all - not, at least, through my ISP, which is TalkTalk. I doubt any of the others are going to be any different. I can't access half of these sites from public terminals these days because it's the same in town.

So if I seem to vanish, and my posts dry up, you know why. And if I do go dark and quiet, I do apologise in advance. You'll be able to email me to correspond with me directly - at least, until the day they cut me off from there, too.

Crossposting to everywhere else.

2015-07-04

The Maypole Song [video] - The Wicker Man

Here is the "Maypole Song" from The Wicker Man, 1973.


In the woods there grew a tree
A fine, fine tree was he

On that tree there was a limb
And on that limb there was a branch
On that branch there was a nest
And in that nest there was an egg
In that egg there was a bird
And from that bird a feather came
Of that feather was a bed

On that bed there was a girl
And on that girl there was a man
From that man there was a seed
And from that seed there was a boy
From that boy there was a man
And for that man there was a grave
From that grave there grew a tree

In Sumerisle, Sumerisle, Sumerisle, Sumerisle, Sumerisle

On that tree there was a limb
And on that limb there was a branch
On that branch there was a nest
And in that nest there was an egg
In that egg there was a bird
And from that bird a feather came
Of that feather was a bed

In Sumerisle, Sumerisle, Sumerisle, Sumerisle, Sumerisle

On that bed there was a girl (Sumerisle, Sumerisle)
And on that girl there was a man (Sumerisle, Sumerisle)
From that man there was a seed (Sumerisle, Sumerisle)
And from that seed there was a boy (Sumerisle, Sumerisle)
From that boy there was a man (Sumerisle, Sumerisle)
And for that man there was a grave
From that grave there grew a tree

Read more: Mediaeval Baebes - Summerisle (The Maypole Song) Lyrics | MetroLyrics

2015-07-03

Willow's Song [video] - The Wicker Man

And now "Willow's Song," from that 1973 cult film The Wicker Man.


Heigh ho! Who is there?
No one but me, my dear.
Please come say, How do?
The things I'll give to you.

By stroke as gentle as a feather
I'll catch a rainbow from the sky
And tie the ends together.

Heigh ho! I am here
Am I not young and fair?
Please come say, How do?
The things I'll show to you.

Would you have a wond'rous sight
The midday sun at midnight?

Fair maid, white and red,
Comb you smooth and stroke your head
How a maid can milk a bull!
And every stroke a bucketful.

More lyrics http://www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/paul_giovanni/willows_song-lyrics-471628.html#ixzz3eUgx1a3i

2015-07-02

Gently Johnny [video] - The Wicker Man

And now "Gently Johnny" by Paul Giovanni, from the soundtrack of the 1973 cult movie The Wicker Man.


I put my hand o-on her knee
And she says, do you want to see?
I put my hand o-on her breast
And she says, do you want a kiss?

(Chorus)
Gently, gently,
Gently Johnny,
Gently Johnny,
My giggalo.
Gently, gently,
Gently Johnny,
Gently Johnny,
My giggalo.

I put my hand o-on her thigh
And she says, do you want to try?
I put my hand o-on her belly
And she says, do you want to fill me?

(Chorus)
Gently, gently,
Gently Johnny,
Gently Johnny,
My giggalo.
Gently, gently,
Gently Johnny,
Gently Johnny,
My giggalo.

Gently, gently,
Gently Johnny,
Gently Johnny,
My giggalo.
Gently, gently,
Gently Johnny,
Gently Johnny,
My giggalo.

More lyrics http://www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/paul_giovanni/gently_johnny-lyrics-471632.html#ixzz3eUfJYZeH

2015-07-01

The Landlord's Daughter [video] - The Wicker Man Soundtrack

The series continues ...


Much has been said of the strumpets of yore
Of wenches and bawdy house queens by the score
But I sing of the baggage that we all adore
The Landlord's Daughter

(Oh, her lips are as rose as her wine is a treat
Her whisky is good and her figure is neat
And while she is serving her bitter she's sweet
The landlord's daughter.)

You'll never love another
Although she's not the kind of girl
To take home to your mother

Her ale it is lively and strong to the taste
It is brewed with discretion and never with haste
You can have all you like If you swear not to waste
The Landlord's Daughter

And when her name is mentioned
The parts of every gentleman
Do stand up at attention

Now there's Jane of the Blossom and Doll of the Crown
Pretty Kate of the Garter and Star down in town
Fat Dolly who keeps the Red Heart of renown
But I'll take the landlord's daughter.

Oh, nothing can delight so
As does the part that lies between
Her left toe and her right toe

More lyrics http://www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/paul_giovanni/the_landlords_daughter-lyrics-471630.html#ixzz3eUdN2qKJ

2015-06-30

Corn Rigs [Youtube video] - The Wicker Man

Beginning today, I'll be posting these video clips of songs taken from the soundtrack of the 1973 Robin Hardy cult film The Wicker Man.

The first is the opening theme, "Corn Rigs" - by Paul Giovanni


It was upon a Lammas night
When corn rigs are bonnie
Beneath the moon's unclouded light
I held awhile to Annie
The time went by with careless heed
'Till 'tween the late and early
With small persuasion she agreed
To see me through the barley

Corn rigs and barley rigs and
Corn rigs are bonnie
I'll not forget that happy night
Among the rigs with Annie

The sky was blue, the wind was still
The moon was shining clearly
I set her down with right goodwill
Among the rigs o' barley
I kent her heart was my own
I loved her most sincerely
I kissed her o'er and e'er again
Among the rigs of barley

Corn rigs and barley rigs and
Corn rigs are bonnie
I'll not forget that happy night
Among the rigs with Annie

2015-04-05

April Hiatus

I'm taking a break for the month of April 2015, while I get Project A done.

Back on 2015 05 03.

2015-03-17

GNU Terry Pratchett

"You know they'll never really die while the Trunk is alive[...]
It lives while the code is shifted, and they live with it, always Going Home."

- Lipwig von Moist, Going Postal, Chapter 13
In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, the clacks are a series of semaphore towers loosely based on the concept of the telegraph. Invented by an artificer named Robert Dearheart, the towers could send messages "at the speed of light" using standardized codes. Three of these codes are of particular import:

G: send the message on
N: do not log the message
U: turn the message around at the end of the line and send it back again
When Dearheart died, his name was inserted into the overhead of the clacks with a "GNU" in front of it to memorialize him forever (or for at least as long as the clacks are standing.)

"A man is not dead while his name is still spoken."
- Going Postal, Chapter 4 prologue
Keeping the legacy of Sir Terry Pratchett alive forever.
For as long as his name is still passed along the Clacks1,
Death can't have him.

You can find out how you can contribute to keeping Terry Pratchett's name spoken
by visiting the link here.

http://www.gnuterrypratchett.com/

On a personal note, all of my blogs now carry a meta tag in the heading. Opening any page of my blogs, including my tumblr ones, invokes the meta tag and keeps the name bouncing around the internet.

I've also taken the liberty of including another meta tag invoking the same protocol, but this one dedicated to "GNU Leonard Nimoy."

"He's really not dead, as long as we remember him."
- Dr McCoy, Leonard H, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

     

2015-01-29

Oldest Solar System Discovered - Yahoo News


Picture: Yahoo News

This article, posted to Yahoo News, is exciting and terrifying at the same time. In short, the Kepler planet hunting probe has discovered a star that is 11 billion years old, with five small rocky planets orbiting it.

An international team of astronomers announced Tuesday that this extrasolar system is 11.2 billion years old. With the age of the universe pegged at 13.8 billion years, this is the oldest star with close-to-Earth-size planets ever found ... Read more