Battles with Integrity

I've submitted a Star Wars game (d6) for 3dbCon (http://www.threedollarbill.com/3dbcon)


EPISODE K: A CRITICAL PATH


After striking the heart
of the rebellion at their secret
headquarters on Hoth, it is a time of
triumph for the Empire. With the loss of
their command and control network, and many
alliance cells left leaderless and without support, the
remnants of the Rebel Alliance have scattered to the winds.
At great cost, rebel sympathizers have placed information vital to
the survival of the Rebellion into the memory systems of an R2 unit. This
time they encrypted it, preventing just any farmboy with a can-opener from uncovering
their plans. The encryption key, safely hidden elsewhere while en route to Alliance leadership,
has disappeared. without the key, the information is useless. Somewhere in the galaxy, an alliance cell risks all
to seek the last hope for the Rebellion.

What think ye? Sound like fun?

P.S. Like my icon? Courtesy of muskrat_john. It's Master Yoga!

I'm really looking forward to DunDraCon. It's been a year since I got an actual weekend of full convention gaming. Last year I ended up staffing at KublaCon instead of gaming, and then in September Conquest was, well, underwhelming.

After DunDraCon, I did a lot of thinking about what worked and what didn't, and decided that part of what didn't work was the fact that I wasn't running a game there. Last month I tested the game, and tonight after the gallery opening, I will print out the adjusted character sheets
and notes, pack my things, and prep for the con before a nice rest in my own bed. I'll get up bright and early Saturday morning, pack a lunch, and pop away to lovely, lively San Ramon. Woo! I'll be staying at the con on Saturday and Sunday nights, alas sans snowflake, but I look forward to having a good time anyways.

Plans for DDC:

• Saturday - Looks to be pickups, with the possibility of maybe Greg Stafford's Pendragon game in the afternoon.
• Sunday - Run the Short Way Home Ars Magica game, and then we'll see. Nothing calls out to me quite yet.
• Monday - breakfast with Japji and KC staff meeting. Home.

Very much looking forward to seeing some of y'all this weekend.

Ok. Lunch now.

Ta ta.

~B

...in my local gaming group. We meet Sundays. Below is the ad we're posting at local gaming stores. If you are interested, feel free to comment or follow instructions below. Even if you aren't interested, I'm interested to know what you think about our recruitment strategies, as evidenced by the ad below:

MATURE ROLEPLAYER WANTED
Five college-educated professionals, mid-20s-to-late-30s, w/backgrounds in humanities and non-gaming interests & commitments (i.e. lives), looking for 1 mature roleplayer to round out our weekly RPG group.

Current games include: Delta Green (modern Call of Cthulhu, run with GURPS), Earthdawn, L5R

We've also played: Ars Magica, GURPS Traveller, Pendragon, Star Wars (d6), TORG

Also interested in: Castle Falkenstein, Space 1889, 7th Sea

We do NOT play: D&D/d20, Palladium, World of Darkness, homebrews

We play Sundays, ~3-8PM, in SF or Oakland. We GM in rotation for ~2-3 months. Experience is not as important as attitude. We want people who:

• Can describe their character w/o referring to a statistic or goodie on their character sheet, but don't try to "be" their character.
• Learn & follow rules, w/o abusing them.
• Do not dress up and pretend they're vampires.
• Are looking for a creative outlet, but aren't "artistes."
• Enjoy politics, drama, literature, art, and history for their own sake.
• Don't take gaming (or themselves) too seriously, but aren't goofy.
• Will commit to regular attendance.

More info: http://home.covad.net/~spankyg/Gaming/MrGamesAd.html

Contact:

* screened comments will get you an email address or contact info *

We'll want to meet with you at least once in person before we invite you to play, to get to know you and make sure our styles are compatible. If you're the kind of person we want, you'll probably want the same.

In today's Space Review, Taylor Dinerman's article entitled Low-cost access to orbit: space Marines to the rescue includes the following:

In July 2002, the Marine Corps released a Universal Needs Statement that defined the Small Unit Space Transport and Insertion (SUSTAIN) concept that, if successful, will give the US a “…heretofore unimaginable assault support speed, range, altitude and strategic surprise” capability. SUSTAIN is an RLV that will carry a squad (13 men) into space and land it anywhere on Earth within two hours with, among other requirements, “flexible launch on demand… to any orbital inclination.”

The article goes on to describe how the V-22 tilt-rotor plane is a direct result of Marine lobbying for a VTOL transport mechanism that had better speed and range than a helicopter. It would seem that using a similar timeline, the USMC could in theory, be dropping screaming Marines anywhere on the earth from space by 2045.

Military applications aside, it also opens doors to developement of commercial Reusable Launch Vehichles. Welcome to the future.* * *On an unrelated note, I took a look inside the new Cyberpunk 3rd Edition book yesterday when I visited my FLGS. It was... dissapointing. I think we can all agree that no matter how they are dressed, Barbies are not very cyberpunk. Alas, Babylon. Dear Mike Pondsmith, next time please splurge and hire some original art. It doesn't matter that digital shots of dolls with mirrorshades are practically free. It brings the production values down to close to the same value. Just my opinion, though. Others mileage may vary.

With thanks to Kingdaddy for the original link.

System: Ars Magica 4th Edition
Sunday 8AM in room 164 for 8 hours
GM: Brian E Williams
Power Level: Characters provided by GM
Variations: one magus maximum, mostly grogs
Type: RPG
All characters provided by GM

After a trip to the Midsummer Faire, you escort the Magus' return through the Forest to the Covenant, but a simple walk home is rarely simple in Mythic Europe.

Alas, I would have preferred not to be running at the crack of dawn on Sunday morning, but since I said that running a game was an important part of making the con worthwhile, I guess I just have to bite the bullet. I suppose I should get to finishing the actual adventure material, now that I'm confirmed. Perhaps next time I'll come up with a game BEFORE november and submit it on the first day submissions are taken in order to get a timeslot I want. Maybe Orkworld... We'll see. Ok. Off to eat lunch.

No time for elaboration, but the IGSS Mnemosyne launched on its two-year exploratory mission of the outer solar system on 13 November 1997. This was a great PBEM game, the best in which I ever played. Thanks to John Prins, Prabal Nandy and the rest.

Gotta go. Food awaits.

Endgame, the game store with the good stock, nice employees, and decent gaming space has moved. They used to be way out on Lakeshore, far from BART and easily accesible only by car. Now they've moved to new digs in downtown Oakland.

The new store promises much more space, better traffic, and larger stock. It should be grand. Good luck, guys.

~B