Cryptic Cartography

Hey Hitters! Just a quick note to let you know I have a companion blog for my maps and cartography work. Its hugely inspired by Dyson Logos' work at Dysons Dodecahedron.

It's called Cryptic Cartography. enjoy. Its a simple format. All maps and illustrations all the time!

Here's some mandatory Dungeon Geomorphs. Cavern Style!

Banner is what its all about.

So I updated the banner with the 4 Old School Games that I love the most, then the 4 newest games that love as well. And since 3 of the 4 new ones are based on old ones, I can't lose. But seriously. I have loved every minute of playing Labrynth Lord and Mutant Future. Icons we have just strated on characters and background. Stars Without Number is the new wildcard. We shall see how it goes.

But since I am in full on painting miniatures mode right now, I don't know how many RPG games I will be enjoying in the near future.

A NEW BEGINNING

I have been more than neglectful of this blog. I started it a while back, when I was roleplaying a bunch, on top of wargamming. I am still wargamming an awful lot. But I'll be perfectly honest, my first love has always been roleplaying. It's what got me started in all of these hobbies, and its's what let me put down my plastic model kits and start having friends when I was a kid.

So I thought it was time for a reboot. No more A-Z challenge non-sense(although I had  acouple of good posts in there). I'm gonna treat this blog like my own person notepad for ideas for the games you see in the tabs.

My philosophy is sandbox play all the way. I am a professed Old Schooler, as you can tell by my banner, but I also love the retro clones, and some new, truly great games. Oh and there have been many in between as well. Too many to mention, really. So come by, take a look, steal an idea, leave a comment. Its a sandbox. enjoy it.

Lead Addict.

J is for Jump Pack

J is for Jump Pack!

Jump Packs are favorite of mine. I have loved them since the first days of seeing them used on Lost in Space! On TV. So what about them?

Well if you want to use them, what are they? Have they developed enough into a military tool. It it still a full rig and platform, or are you full rocketeer/iron man mode. Militarized and a staple of the civilian market.

My preference is the latter. I have always seen full peer armored soldiers in jump packs zooming over tortured landscapes to capture the objective ahead of the ground pounders.

So this fits a space opera game. Now simply decide on size and weight of the system. Does it take a fully armored and etched out suit to use one? Can it just be strapped to you back or your boots? How is it controlled? How would an adventurer use it, and of course fire a weapon from it?

The jet pack could add some nice technology quests, escort missions or full out combat missions with jet packs as a main player in the adventure. So use them. You characters will love soaring through the air.

I is for Interpreter!

I is for Interpreter!

It's a universally accepted fixture of sci fi, the ability to communicate fluently with alien, foreign and even terrestrial races and nations with losing nothing in the translation. Think about how big a thing this is. That every nation, race and life form that has a formal language can communicate with each other.Ethnologue list approximately 6800 languages right now on earth. It anticipates in the next century, approximately 3000 languages will go extinct. So even at about 4000 languages, can you imagine the kind of catlogueing, diagramming and computing that would need to be made to actully create an artificial interpreter.

now extrapolate that to a sci fi universe where instant and perfect communications occurs across the universe. We're not talking about on a planetary level where the dialects or or even sounds may be able to be made by the same life form. We're talking across systems and races and species. It's the stuff of space opera that only hard science could solve.

So this gives rise to a few options: a common trade language is adopted to be spoken by the major nations and races; a digital translator is wired into us, our clothes our watches, something, to have a mechanical way to translate instantaneously; a communication gap exists, how do get over it.

All three allow you a way to shape your world and communication in it. Think about how many wars would be started about bad communication. Or no communication. Or the differences between species trying to communicate(lips, mouths, teeth, face and eyes).

The typical space opera option is the common language. Easy, simple, no heavy lifting with hard science necessary. Star Trek and Star Wars mode.

Translating gear opens up more options for conflict, missed communication, and faulty tech. All creating plot seeds and a chance for adventure.

And finally, a communication gap exists. Alien races struggle to communicate without causing an incident. You want to land on that undocumented planet and start rousting the locals and you have no way of communicating? Better bring a lot of body bags for the away team.

You may not think about it, in your next space opera campaign or game, think about how language, communication, and the interpretation of language can create drama, tension and interest for the adventurers

H is for Halcyon Drive

H is for Halcyon Drive!

The Halcyon drive was the key that unlocked the Stars to Humanity. Based upon the research of Dr. Rudolfo Samuelsen, the Halcyon Drive was developed by the Tanhausser Corporation after a research accident caused Dr. Samuelsen, his entire research staff, and his laboratory to vaporize, without an explosion. Dr Samuelsen's research was not lost however, and was quickly bought up by the Tanhausser Corporation, which had enormous resources devoted to propulsion, communications, and the emerging study of psionics and psionic individuals. Tanhausser's research on Ozminium samples retreived from a near body asteroid completed the final bits of the puzzle, providing the enormous energy required to power the drive system.

The Halcyon Drive was born on the backs of Dr. Samuelsen's ground breaking work and is standard in all current FTL capable ships.

G is for Gyrojet!

To me, Gyrojet pistols and rifles are as much a part of sci-fi rpg's as Lasers and FTL travel. A gyro jet pistol/rifle is basically a personal hand held rapid firing rocket launcher. It fires large caliber shells, propelled by an internal rocket motor that exhausts through 4ports on the bottom of the shell. The ports exhaust the thrust putting a gyroscopic spin on the shell, stabilizing it for flight. If a micro processor is in the shell, the shell could be guided as well.

Gyrojet weapons were actually created in the 1960's. A picture of the real pistol is above. The classic Star Frontiers Gyrojet pistol is shown above as well.

Because of the enlarged shell size, many different warheads could be put in a Gyrojet shell. Use the following chart for random determination of round type:

01-35 Dumb-regular explosive
36-40 Guided-regular explosive
41-50 Dumb -armor piercing
51-53Guided-armor piercing
54-56 Dumb-incendiary
57-59 Guided-incendiary
60-62 Dumb-tracker
63-65 Guided-tracker
66-68 Guided-Personal EMP
69-71 Dumb-tranquilizer
72-74 Guided-tranquilizer
75-77 Dumb-poison
78-80 Guided-poison
81-85 Dumb-overload
86-90 Guided-overload
91-95 Dumb-super explosive
96-99 Guided-super explosive
100 Guided-mini-nuke

Definitions:
Dumb-no internal guidance. Aimed rounds.
Guided/Smart-internal guidance. Fire and forget.
Explosive-standard explosive round
Armor Piercing-standard AP round
Incendiary-tracer/fire starter rounds. Phosphorus.
Tracker-gps tracking round. No damage.
Personal EMP-knock out round for electronics on target.
Tranquilizer-knock out drug round
Poison-sick/kill round from poison.
Overload-electrical stun round
Super explosive-super dense and powerful explosive round, usually for busting doors,buildings
Mini-nuke-super rare mini nuclear explosive round

So, when you need a special round or just some rare ammo to buy at the gun shop, think of adding some variety to your Gyrojet ammo.

F is for Fail!

Well I failed the challenge. I was travelling all around Colorado yesterday and just couldn't get a post. And Not sure that I will have time for a G post today. I will make them up over the weekend, but this is tough with all that's going on right now. But never fear. I will soldier on.

E is for Elevator to the Stars

E is for Elevator to the Stars!

What is the Elevator to the Stars? It's also known as a space elevator. It represents
one of the most economical ways to heavy lift materials into orbit for orbital shipyards, defense and research stations, and to reprovision space ships with supplies and personnel.

Basically, a space elevator is a platform/station/dock anchored to a planet, tethered in a gravitationally, or rotationally neutral spot above the planet by a cable, typically a carbon nanotube cable. Freight, materiel, and personnel is ferried up to the station in orbit by platforms, containers or passenger cars along the cable on one side, as platforms are lowered on the other side to the planet surface. Once the initial cost of the system is spent, the operational cost is much lower than the cost of fuel and landing facilities for conventional heavy lifting operations from the planet surface to orbit. However on a technologically advanced (stellar) planet, the elevators would only be used for hauling bulk material to and from space, and the transport of bulk passengers(refugees, off world colonists, relocation programs, penal programs, and occasionally, militia or bulk recruitment forces.

Passenger costs are considered reasonable compared to Interface Craft and Shuttles. Freight costs are reasonable as well, considering no other real economic way to lift substantial weights of bulk goods from and to a planet's surface. Bulk materials manufactured in space are transported mainly in this way, as are unprocessed or processed ores farmed from asteroids, that are needed on a planet's surface.

Elevators can and have been targets of espionage, terrorism, and outright war acts. The carbon nano tube construction has proved amazingly resilient, and it takes a very determined effort to damage just one strand of tube and as each cable is a bundle of hundreds of tubes, wound with other cables.

Like all transportation, economics come with a trade off. Time. The speed of the elevator varies with payload, but interface craft and shuttles beat the time it takes to get to or from the surface by up to 10 times, as the elevator must allow for long docking, loading, safety checks, run ups, switch overs, acceleration and deceleration of the platforms.

D is for Dungeon Crawl...In Space!

D is for Dungeon Crawl…In Space      

A staple for the Fantasy RPG genre, the Dungeon Crawl is a fall back position for the harried DM, with little time to prepare. Get a few Geomorphs (I would recommend Dyson’s highly), a few random charts (Kelri’s are tough to beat), and make a couple of Wandering Monster Charts and you are done.

So where can the SF GM go for his fall back. Well if you have a sandbox style game, then learn from your fantasy brethren, use the Dungeon Crawl model for quick successful, and fun adventures.

In a sci-fi setting, a dungeon could be even more things than it could be in a fantasy setting. A dungeon is really just a closed environment, on a human scale (meaning it can be bitten off in chewable chunks), so that the DM can limit the amount of inputs affecting change in the environment. So in the sci-fi genre this could be (I feel a table coming on):

Random Crawl Location (roll 1d100)

01-05 Abandoned Floating Hulk in Space

06-10 Crashed Ship on a Planet

11-15 Creature Lair

16-20 Sewer System

21-25 Secret Remote Laboratory

26-30 Ruins of an Ancient Civilization

31-35 Alien Ship or Base

36-40 Military Complex or Outpost

41-50 Space Station

51-55 Asteroid Mines

56-60 Manufacturing Complex

61-65 Arena Complex

66-70 Office/Government Building (or any other building type)

71-75 Alien Tunnel Complex

76-80 Natural Cave Systems

81-85 Any Space Ship

86-90 Junkyard or Scrap Yard

91-95 Space Docks

96-100 Pick any one

I would also utilize the excellent 5 Room Dungeon model that John Four at Roleplaying Tips developed for a quick way to organize a crawl. http://www.roleplayingtips.com/readissue.php?number=372#tips

Basically, a 5 Room Dungeon has 5 rooms, literally or figuratively, to set up discovery, challenge, conflict, and resolution. The format is:

Room 1: Entrance and Guardian Feature

Room 2: Puzzle or Role Playing Challenge

Room 3: Trick or Setback

Room 4: Climax, Big Battle, or Major Conflict

Room 5: Reward, Revelation, Plot Twist

Used Effectively, this method can have you rolling on an Crawl in no time flat. And remember, the five rooms can also represent 5 areas. It does not need to be five rooms literally.

For example:

Pirate Lair of the Madman MacCarrin(Pirate Base)

Room 1: Entrance and Guardian Feature – How do you get into the base? Through the Dock or Hanger? How about from over the ridge? Is the guardian an assault robot or gun turret, or maybe a security system? This could be a whole series of rooms, with some minor encounters with guards, robots, etc.

Room 2: Puzzle or Role Playing Challenge – How do you enter the enter sanctum of the Madman? What are the Clues? The sound of running water for the sewer system, the maintenance tunnel entrance that needs to be hacked? Maybe it’s a negotiation, bluff or intimidation you need to do with a toady or a protocol droid?

Room 3:Trick or Setback – Traps, wrong way or dead ends, a bad map, or bad information, poisoned, drugged or kidnapped team members all can lead to a problem that slows progress down. Add some drama. Maybe the Madman’s knows you are there. Maybe he wants you to be there so he can capture you and sell you to slavers, so the lower level you conveniently found a way in with leads to a maze of corridors, patrolled by security bots set on full stun, or ravenous guard dogs.

Room 4: Climax, Big Battle, or Major Conflict - You got into the base, you navigated your way through the sewer system, you got out of the underbasement maze, and now you are in the private suite of the Madman Himself. You know of his atrocities. You have heard of his wealth, and he has captured one of your team members. You want both. Time for the fight with his personal guard and then him.

Room 5: Reward, Revelation, and Plot Twist – You have dispatched the Madman and captured his personal guard, they will fetch a nice bounty. You found his personal stash of wealth, but you have found something more. A scan of his records indicate the payoff lists for the captains of several corporate operators, and some regional governments as well. And he was sending payments to OXXON Corporation for all sales of slaves and stolen goods? Seems like some blackmail may be in order for the crew, or revelation to the NewsVid folks. And you had your eye on that new Sorillium Industries Corvette docked in the hanger on the way in. It would look good in your colors.  Possibilities….. 

So remember, a good fantasy dungeon crawl is always fun, exciting, and packed with adventure and reward. There is no reason the same model can’t be used for a good Crawl in a Sci Fi setting. Just take it out of the Dungeon and into the universe!  

C is for Character Background Generator

C is for Character Background Generator!

I have always tended to enjoy the more random nature of some RPGs that generated a character completely randomly. To me it was the most exciting way to generate a character. No archetypes, no point pools, no character theme. This was especially true in classics like Villains &Vigilantes, but also in Traveller (a real revelation) and in the new Warhammer 40k RPG as well. So to go along with my posts on cobbling ideas together for a sic fi campaign, I thought I would write a completely random character background generator to put some umpff in each characters story. It doesn't take the burden off the player and the GM from working together on the players background, but it does fill in some high level background of where the character came from, and its a jumping off point for the player to fill in some of the grey areas of the distant past of a character. And it will help the younger players grasp on to the fact that there is a background to every character that lead them to the point of their first adventures.

Birthplace (roll d100)

01-75 Planetary

76-98 Space

99-100 Other

Planetary

World Type (d100 roll)

01-60 Terran(earth like)

61-65 Aquan (water planet, less than 2% land)

66-70 Semi Arid (less than 50% surface water)

71-75 Arid ( less than 25% surface water)

76-81 Frozen (water at surface is frozen)

82-85 Tropical/Jungle (high water,humidity, temp, and fertility, lots of jungle/forest vegetation)

86-90 Islands/archipelagos (>75% water, no continental sized land masses, many islands)

90-91 Techno/Archology (extreme population has covered over 50% of land surface in heavily built up cities/archologies, nature is an oddity)

92-96 Moon or Atmosphereless (only fully enclosed habitation is possible)

97-100 Heavy Gravity (mineral rich, higher temperature, higher water content in atmosphere)

Civilization Level/Type( d100 roll)

01-05 Nomadic hunter/gatherer (pre history, pre permanent dwellings, pre metal)

06-10 Tribal (community groups, gathered for mutual reasons, riding animals, rudimentary          farming, both seasonal and permanent dwellings)

11-20 Ancient/Medieval (villages, towns, cities, metal working, stone etc buildings, armies, government, religion)

21-35 Low Tech (industrialized, dense population centers, transportation systems, high quality   agriculture, high output resource gathering)

36-50 Mid Tech (tech level for basic computers, micro technology, high end ballistic weapons, instant cellular communications, medical advancement)

51-70 High Tech (tech level for solar travel, instant planetary communications, fire and forget weapons, robotics, nano technology, biotechnology, computer environment emersion, energy weapons, artificial intelligence)

71-100 Stellar Tech (tech level for interstellar travel and colonization)

Region Type (roll 1d100)

01-40 Temperate

41-50 Tropical

51-60 Coastal

61-65 Mountains

66-70 Desert

71-80 Grasslands

81-85 Forest

86-95 Jungle

96-100 Snow/Ice

Community Type (roll 1d100)

01-40 Traditional Mixed Community

41-50 Farming Community

51-60 Mining Community

61-65 Technology Center

66-70 Manufacturing Center

71-75 Higher Education Center

76-85 Governmental Center

86-90 Transportation Center

91-100 Military Center

Community Size(roll d100)

01-20 Nomad/Solitary

21-30 Village

31-50 Town

51-80 City

81-100Archology

Governmental system (roll 1d100)

01-35 Democratic (citizens have rights and vote for their leadership and laws)

36-50 Oligarchy (religious institution(s) are the outright rulers and law makers)

51-60 Republic (elected senate representatives make law and rule for their people)

61-70 Dictatorship (supreme control rests in hands of singular ruler, board, etc)

71-80 Feudal (Lords, barons, princes, family lineage rules, most are not a part of the ruling class)

81-90 Collective (everybody equal, everyone works for state, state owns everything for people)

91-100 Corporate (Corporations rule, employer is the government, company policy is law)

Space

Location Type (roll 1d100 for birth location, roll 2^nd 1d100 for where you were raised)

01-50 Spaceship

51-60 Space Station

61-75 Asteroid Farming Base

76-90 Manufacturing Base

91-100 Military Outpost

Spaceship Type (roll 1d100) (roll 2^nd and 3rd 1d100 for mother and father position on ship)

01-05 Luxury Liner (cruise ship for vacations or travelling in luxury, could be crew (01-75) or passenger (76-100))

06-10 Slave Ship (slave haulers to sell people to far off worlds, crew (01-10) or slave (11-100))

11-15 Penal Ship (prison ships idling around galaxy, no destination, crew(01-10) administration (11-20) or prisoners (21-100))

16-35 Research/Explorer (science and exploration ships, highly educated,well rounded crew, crew (01-25), admin(26-35) scientists(36-85), marines/security/away teams(86-100)

36-45 Military Ship (Frigate(01-10), Destroyer(11-20), Cruiser (21-30), Dreadnaught (31-35), Battleship (36-40), Carrier (41-50), Flagship (51-55), Support Ship (56-100))

45-55 Freighter (Bulk Freighter (01-25), Hospital Ship(26-35), Trader (36-75), Passenger Hauler(76-100))

56-75 Colony Ship (crew (01-10), admin(11-20) scientists(21-35), marines/security/away teams(36-50), engineers and constructors (51-75), other colonists(76-100)

76-92 Corporate Ship (crew (1-10), admin (11-30), security personnel (31-60), specialized personnel (61-100))

93-97 Refugee Fleet (crew (1-10), specialists (11-15), refugees (16-100))

98-100 Pirate/Raider Ship (crew (1-35), raiders/assault teams (36-60), specialists (61-80), labor crews (81-100))

Space Station (roll 1d100) (roll 2^nd 1d100 for type, if needed)

01-35 Trading Hub (crossroads for travel, trading, etc.)

36-60 Research Station (Private stations paid for by national (01-35), corporate (36-75), or military interests (76-100))

61-75 Customs/Diplomatic Station (control points for legal immigration, goods traffic, diplomatic relations, etc.)

76-80 Military Station (forward operations station (01-10), system station (11-35), major operations station (36-60), support station (61-97), top secret station(98-100))

81-90 Mining Station (processing station (01-35), mining operations station (36-60), transportation/hauling hub (61-75), material storage station (76-90), entertainment station (91-100)

91-100 Agricultural Station

Asteroid Farming Base (roll 1d100)(see previous post A is for Asteroid Farm)

01-30 Family Farm

31-75 Corporate Farm

75-90 National Farm

91-100 Bandit Lord/Pirate Farm

Manufacturing Base (roll 1d100)

01-25 Processing Base

26-40 Shipyard

41-60 Storage/Hauling/Transportation Hub

61-70 Arms Manufacturing Hub

71-80 High Tech Manufacturing Hub

81-95 Corporate R&D base

96-100 Secret R&D base

Military Outpost (roll 1d100)

01-20 Fueling/Armament Base

21-40 Training Base

41-45 Repair Depot

46-60 Minor Outpost

61-75 Major Outpost

76-95 HQ Base

96-100 Specialty Service Branch Base

Other

01-25 Unknown – you just don’t know anything

26-30 Alien and Human mixed race

31-35 Found floating in a capsule in space

36-40 Found on an abandoned/destroyed ship

41-45 Found on an abandoned /destroyed outpost

46-50 Raised feral with animals

51-55 You have no knowledge of your birth except for a series of strange tattoos

56-60 Vat grown by a National Power

61-65 Lab created by a Corporate Power

66-70 You may be a synthetic organism

71-75 You have amnesia and a sack full of random objects for clues of your past

76-80 You are the only surviving member of your race

81-85 You are the surviving member of a failed colonization

86-90 Pick any Planetary Background

91-95 Pick any Space Background

96-100 Pick Any Background

Please excuse the formating

B is for BAR!

B is for Bar!


Everyone needs to get some R&R when getting done with that difficult run/mission/assignment/orders and needs to blow off some steam. Or a place to blow that card full of credits you just got. Or needs to get some intel on that local hightech gunner. Just head to your local bar. So here's a chart to help the DM let you know what kind of joint is available outside of that scrap yard you just sold that boosted trawler to.


What Kind of Joint Is It? (D100 roll)

01-17 Dive

18-25 Local Joint

26-30 Dance Club

31-45 Ethnic Bar

46-50 Racial Bar

51-60 Street Joint

61-65 Supper Club

66-68 Sex Club

69-72 Holoclub

73-82 Cantina

83-92. Nightclub

92-95. Luxury Club

96-97 Gangster/Organized Crime Bar

98-99 Fight Club/Gladiator Club/Animal Fights

100 Mega Club

Dive – A Dive is a low rent, lower class, dangerous place. Usually found in the back alleys, under basements, lower levels and in the seedier parts of town. Most dives are under 100sf big (avg 15'x 50'), a single owner/bartender, no waitresses, a long bar the whole length of the building with 3-4 small tables, and rudimentary menu of light (crappy) food and snacks. Dives are intimate and are good places to meet contacts, plan jobs, and gather local info. Dives also tend to be filled with dangerous drunks, drug addicts, and end of the roaders. Almost anything is available here for a price. But the quality and reliability leaves a little to be desired.


Local Joint – Local Joints are typical bars catering to the neighborhood where it is. Filled with patrons on most nights from the neighborhood, local joints are good places to gather info on local goings on and people. Ranging in size from about 600 sf to 3000sf, local joints usually have ample room to sit, booths, a long bar, a bartender, and a couple of overworked waitresses. They also serve local drink favorites and food.

Dance Club (sorry gang its late. I will finish tomorrow)
Ethnic Bar

Racial Bar

Street Joint

Supper Club

Sex Club

Holoclub

Cantina

Nightclub

Luxury Club

Gangster/Organized Crime Bar

Fight Club

Mega Club

A is For Asteroid Farmers!

A is for Asteroid Farmers

Asteroid Farmers live a secluded existence, farming the rocks, minerals and precious metals out of asteroids and dead comets across the galaxy. Sometimes families will have been asteroid farming for centuries, others are corporate farmers, working the asteroid fields for their employers, and trying to eek out whatever else they can from their life in the far reaches of the solar systems.

Asteroids – Asteroid farming became important when planetary resources of minerals and precious metals became depleted and no terrestrial sources could be easily obtained.

During the formation and subsequent cooling of a planet, the internal gravitational would pull heavy and precious metals into the interior of the planet, thus locking those resources deep into the planet. As the crust solidified, and when and if the planet was subjected to bombardment from planetoids, meteors, asteroids and comets, the mineral and precious metal components of those bodies would embed their contents in the crust of the planet. These resources were the typically available minerals and metals that could be easily extracted for use. Once those resources were used up, the cost of burrowing deep into a planet to extract resources would not be cost effective. Alternatives were sought. It was quickly realized that the resources locked into asteroid bodies could be many times over the available resources of entire planets. The challenge was how to get the material from the field to use.

Enter the

Inter-System Drive

. The Inter-System Drive allowed the rapid transit, with  either freighters filled with raw or refined material, or in some cases, embedded directly into an asteroid, of asteroid material to orbital or terrestrial manufacturing facilities, storage yards or processing plants within an asteroid rich system. Minerals mined include gold, cobalt, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhenium, rhodium and ruthenium.

Asteroid mining was turned into a race when Ozminium was found during a routine extraction operation. Ozminium, is the key element to FTL travel, and is the most precious of all elements in the known galaxy. A family operation that finds 10 kg of Ozminium will be wealthy beyond even their wildest dreams.

Operations – Asteroid mining operations are either Family or Individual Farming operations, Corporate Operations, or National operations.

Family or Individual Operations are typically stationed out in the asteroid fields themselves, with home bases on repurposed freighters, cruisers, mothballed military, or luxury liner ships, or even on purpose built platforms to house the crew, administration, workshops, storage, materials, and fueling operations. Some are also based on mined out husks of asteroids. These home bases bristle with domes, spires, defense turrets and buildings. Virtual fortresses to guard the buried treasure that is mined out of the fields.

Most family operations are small ventures, eeking out a living on the frontier, with all members of the family pitching in on all aspects of the operation. Maintenance, equipment failures, protection of resources, shipping, and survival are real challenges to surviving as a family operation. Some family operations have grown quite large and prosperous through cooperative agreements with other small operations. Some large family operations have turned into the most successful Corporate Operations. Verskool  Enterprises is a good example of a successful family operation that went corporate.

Some Individual operations have become famous or infamous for their more piratical nature, and some fields have become ripe for hasty set ups of bandit kingdoms and pirate lords in abandoned corporate asteroid operations bases.

Corporate Operations are governed by one thing – profit. Corporate farmers move in, extract, process, haul, and move on. Most operations are based out of purpose built bases and ships, especially after the lesson learned in the so called ‘Blackbeard Skirmishes’. Most corporate operations are run by a board of directors on-site who direct the day to day operations of the venture. Additionally, there is an overall Manager of Operations who is the corporate authority in all issues, and who has the final say as they see fit on operational issues. The Sendai Conglomerate, CGF Exploration, and OXXON are all examples of corporate operations that may be encountered.

National Operations may also be encountered in the fields. National operations tend to be more like forced labor or penal operations. National operations are notoriously brutal, under supplied, and one step from rebellion at any time. And in fact on several occasions, full scale rebellion has occurred and led to the loss of thousands of people and billions of credits in loss of equipment and material. Most National operations have ceased, unable to successfully compete with the family or corporate operations.

Most farmers work in isolation when in the fields. They will work from a type of universal/mining/extracting/blasting/sampling vehicle fitted with plasma cutting/laser cutting tools, drills, graspers, and explosives. The operators will, once they have created enough loose material will call in remote robotic diggers and haulers. Once a fissure has been opened up, remote controlled extractors are set up on the surface of the asteroid to begin the extraction in earnest. These extractors burrow deep worm-like holes in throughout the asteroid, testing as they go, as they deplete the asteroid of its precious cargo. Once completed, a new asteroid is targeted, and the process starts again.

Some highly valuable (based on testing) or large asteroids are fitted with their own Inter-System Drive, cockpit and quarters, and are flown to a processing station or orbiting manufatcturing plant somewhere else in the system. the drives, cockpit and quarters assemblies are then removed, shipped and refitted to another asteroid in the system.

Daily Life – Daily life on the fields can be difficult. Long hours are spent every cycle mining, processing, loading, hauling and storing materials. Most work cycles are 12 hours long. And a typical week of cycles is 10 days long before a 2 cycle break. Most workers are trained on multiple operations so they may be rotated to reduce the fatigue and dementia associated with long farming operations.

Off time during a cycle is spent sleeping, exercising, eating and whatever else can be found to do. Some operations are known for their offwork entertainment, and in fact, some farming operations are followed by a train of pleasure ships, gambling and entertainment ships and the like to meet the needs of the farmers. Drugs, illegal implants, and other illicit things are rampant through some seedier operations, as the Manager of Operations knows a happy farmer is a busy farmer.

Family operations tend to be more sedate, as they focus on survival and how they will keep their equipment operating to hit the next score.

Challenges – Challenges for the different operations vary. Family operations are challenged with struggles in keeping operating, delivering material and finding someone to buy their material, and with defense of their bases and their claims. Many a skirmish or full out war has erupted between family, corporate, or national operations based on claim rights, claim jumping and assassination for the rights to farm individual asteroids or whole fields. Many family operations wind up on the short end of the stick in these skirmishes, because of their smaller size and limited resources. Mercenaries, protection fleets, even navies have interjected in some of these occurances to defend the rights (just or not) of their family, employers or nation.

Equipment failure, fatigue, supplies, health, and psychology, are but a few of the significant challenges that face every farming operation. Equipment failure, metal fatigue, electronic or propulsion issues all can bring an operation to its knees. The most important facility in any operation, next to the bar, is the maintenance shed and workshops. Without these mechanics and engineers constantly ensuring that the equipment is running, the operation will make no money.

Worker fatigue, health and psychological issues run rampant through a mining operation. It’s a dirty, grimy, hard life for anyone. Most family operations deal with this issue better than any other. Their life is in the fields, so they aren’t concerned with returning home or to a space port to spend their R&R time. Corporate operations rely heavily on providing entertainment to their farmers during their down time, to curb the long term effects of isolation, fatigue, and deteriorating health. Most corporate farmers only farm for a few years, before they give it up for an easier lifestyle.  

Some Real Facts:

(At 1997 prices, a relatively small metallic asteroid with a diameter of 1 mile (1.6 km) contains more than $20 trillion US dollars worth of industrial and precious metals.[1] …gold, cobalt, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhenium, rhodium and ruthenium… In 2004, the world production of iron ore exceeded a billion metric tons.[4] In comparison, a comparatively small M-type asteroid with a mean diameter of 1 km could contain more than two billion metric tons of iron-nickel ore,[5] or two to three times the annual production for 2004.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining)

April A to Z

Welcome to the A to Z Blog a day first day for April, 2011. I am going to focus my efforts on Roll 2 Hit on creating background, places and random tables for an upcoming Sci Fi campaign I want to start with our group. Our group consists of me, and my best friend (42 and 41) our kids (12,11,10,9) and some of the guys from our normal wargamming group (young and grognard alike). We like sandboxes, and most of our games are that way. Wind them and let them go! No railroading here. So what better sandbox than the stars?

I’ll post the first entry up next….

A is for.....?

Wow its been a long time.

Way too long.

I have been doing things. Playing RPG's , Wargamming, painting, living and working. Life is a busy thing. Embrace it.

So I have decided that I will participate in the A to Z Blog a Day challenge for April, on both this blog and my wargamming blog at http://leadaddict.blogspot.com/.

Should be fun. Blog a day starting April 1st with A, each day is a different letter. No posts on sunday. At the end you will have 26 posts of some substance.

So I intend to focus this blog on woring through a new Sci Fi campaign, and a Mutant Future campaign. I am going to limit myself to those two subjects. Enjoy.

StarLord

StarLord-that's what I am going to call it. I have decided to port D&D B/X, Labyrinth Lord, and Advanced Edition Companion, and do a Sci Fi game with it.

I have written the first 5 pages on ability generation, I have character classes, and am working on those next. We shall see how that goes next.

X-Plorers

So I was trolling around at lunch yesterday and got more curious about the X-Plorers game that Eli at I See Lead People http://leadpeople.blogspot.com/ has been making characters.

So who knew it had gotten such good reviews from everyone. Could this be what I was looking for? A SciFi game that is based on ODD or Red Box?

I read the majority of the rules and I would say it seems a good game. The Yahoo group has a bunch of members and a good group of downloads. The rules have been turned over to Brave Halfling Publishing to make a revised edition, so I have big hopes.

Does it do what I want? I don't know yet. It is definately rules lite. which is good for OSR. Some good stuff here, simplicity, skills, character classes, weapon options, space combat. Overall a good set.



But it is missing a few things that would have been nice, like ground vehicles, and a few more weapons and monsters. I did have a few issues. But they are preference really. It goes back to the whole skill system issues with games. I hate the micromanaging of skills in D&D3+. Classes should come with a set of skills that they have regardless. And attribute tests should do the rest. thats why Basic D&D does it right in regards to the thief skills. And thats how it is incorporated here. Character classes have a set of skills the give them a skill roll chance on a d20 to succeed. Scientists for example have medical, computers, psychosocial, and one other I can't remember. The target number gets easier as you level. GReat, just how I like it. Except that every scientist has the same skills at the same level. Every 3rd level scientist is as good at medical as every other. It takes some of the specialization out. So in Star Trek parlence, even though Spock and Bones are both in the Science category, they have very different skills. And that cant be represented here. I don't want a Trek game, but I would like to model a planetary geologist/scientist character who can't do squat about a shotgun blast to the gut. Easy enough to fix, and the author encourages tweaking as a part of the game.

Overall I like it. Is it my holy grail for Sci Fi Space Opera. Probably not, but neither is Star Frontiers or Traveller. Please don't make me write my own.

I would like to see a direct port of B/X or Labrynth Lord (and maybe Advacnced Companion) to a sci fi game. That may be what I do.

Here's the cover of the printout that I made for the free rules. In order to get the free rules, join the X-Plorers Yahoo group.

Battle Lore!

Battle Lore!

I have a posting up on the Lead Addict page of our Battle Lore with Miniatures game last night. It was great fun. and nice to see my legions on the field for a test run.

Check it out at : http://leadaddict.blogspot.com/2010/04/battle-lore.html

Good post of it as well at the Barons blog: http://baronvonj.blogspot.com/2010/04/battlelore-wednesday.html

Not much time to post this week so the terrain generation stuff is coming. Just gotta find time.

Star Frontiers!

Star Frontiers was a favorite of mine when it came out. I bought it right after I got my Red Box.

"Wait a minute, I can fight dragons and be a hero with this one and then I can fight Star Wars battles with this one? Mom, pay the man."

Well, I still have only fought about 3 dragons in all my years of gaming. Huge, Fearsome, Smaug like, Oppressive, and Intelligent beasties everytime. And super-rare. As they should be.

And we never played Star Frontiers like Star Wars. It was far better than that. Although all the same tropes were there. Pirate and rogue infested star bars, dangerous space ports, smugglers and evil merchants, an omnipresent government you always seemed to be running from.

Ah, I love space opera. It wasn't all great. I never liked the background so much, and I always liked my Space Opera with a lot more Alien types. But I did really like the idea that heroes didn't have to have 2 legs and 2 arms.

So I stumbled onto the Star Frontiersman site about 6 months ago. Its a shrine and so much more for my beloved Star Frontiers. http://www.starfrontiersman.com/ . Its a really good and faithful reproduction and reworking of the SF rules. Made with a ot of love and sweat and lots of time. Its great and the magazine is great as well. and its all free. If you want to play a great game and don't have the resources or your old copies, this is the place. I had downloaded all the rules, but had put it on the back burner while I immersed myself in LL fully. Then I read Eli's 'I See Lead People' blog post from last week and I have the fever again. http://leadpeople.blogspot.com/2010/04/visit-frontier.html . Also included on the site is the Knight Hawks Rules, the kinda rare Zebulons Guide, and the great Star Forntiersman online zine that is up to 14 issues now. All great stuff. Thanks Star Frontiersman for the hard work.

So I printed the Alpha Dawn rules and started reading again. In this day of hyper complicated, hyper realism, the simplicity of the system is a refreshing change. Its not 3:16 Battle for the Stars refreshing. Thats like a blast of super cooled air up the ol wazoo, but is great simple with a lot of room for playing. And a sandbox as big as the stars. and with the great products fron the Star Frontiersman, a whole bunch of aloen race add ons gets this even closer to my dream ideal for a Space Opera game - Alien Legion.

The old comic that would be so great to roleplay. So thats what I am gonna do, junk the SF background, kinda, and add the alien Legion stuff, and more races and bad guys. The Sathar, while they had a cool name, were never very intimidating. I always struggled with a super villain race that was a giant earthworm. I liked the race, hated that they had arms so they could hold conventional guns, just never thought they cut the mustard for a super menacing bad guy race. I must admit, the bugs from Starship Troopers, and their wargaming form, the Tyranids from 40k, and the hive from Aliens, always seemed much more manacing than earthworms with guns.

I was never a Traveller guy, but recently picked up a great rules book compendium that has book 0-9 compiled into one. I always loved the character generation system. 'You mean I could die in character generation, cool. Give me the dice." I will cob what I can from them. I also grabbed the fre Traveller Intro set pdf's that are available on RPG Now. And the Animal encounters book and the Patrons? book. Tons of great stuff in there. Just too much detail for me for a full time game. I will reserve judgement and will give it a shot, but I want a game, not a simulation. This is the death nell for me in an RPG or wargame. Too many rules and I quickly lose all interest. I don't want it to devolve into chart searcing. Play the game, not the rules.

As I gear up for SF, I will be working on my random generators. there has been so much good stuff written abou this lately, I thought I would add my noise to the discussion. I want to have a hex terrain generator (with fixed encounter and areas of interest) for my games and world building, that I think will be informed by real climate, elevation and environmental issues.

So next week(maybe more) is Wilderness Week. Thoughts on terrain and wilderness design.

First Post-Why?

Hullo fellow readers. Another first post on another blog. Well, I don't have that many really. This is a companion blog to my wargaming/miniatures blog 'leadaddict'. http://leadaddict.blogspot.com/

I have been a hardcore wargamer for years. Somehow, painting toy soldiers seemed more sophisticated than roleplaying. I do love toy soldiers, but first I was a roleplayer. That was 30 years ago when I first got my hands on a Red Box of D&D Basic (my first real love), then AD&D, then every RPG TSR made, and a whole bunch more. We stopped playing at about 17yrs old. Girls, footbal, cars, and drinking. Fast forward through high school, college, single life, marriage, and 3 kids and a career. And lots of painting, miniatures collecting and wargaming. No wonder I was ready for some nostalgia.

It actually started with being nostalgic about music, iTunes, and getting any song I wanted for $.99. How cool was that. Hey look Rush and Pink Floyd, and Yes songs and albums. I remember when I listened to thi stuff. That was when I roleplayed. So thank you you internet and one search later I found a site called RPGNow. On demand pdf's of all my favorite old and new games, for a 1/3 of the price. Are you kidding? Wave of nostalgia. I wonder if my kids will ever be interested in playing...

So I have been focused more RPGing lately than Wargaming, and I have been obsessed with revisiting D&D Basic (Basic/Red Box/B/X or whatever you want to call it) and the Retroclones, especially Labrynth Lord, struck a chord with me. So I have been scouring the interwebs for nostalgia, info and more info. And what did I stumble onto? A whole subculture/industry focused on an Old-School Revival, be it OD&D, B/X, 1st Ed AD&D, even Gamma World and Star Frontiers. I was hooked. I have hundereds of bookmarks and  downloads.

So here I am. I am fully immersed now. I have created a new campaign. I have learned about the Old School Revival, I have gotten the retroclones, I have started gaming with my kids and my friends kids, I have a game blog for an LL campaign I am running with my best friend, blogger Baron Von J, called HRothgars Folly. http://hrothgarsfolly.blogspot.com/ . I started another one for 2nd Edition Gamma World called the Burning Wastes. http://hrothgarsfolly.blogspot.com/ . It has sputtered to a halt. A good lesson. And I am in a sandbox campaign the the Baron is running called Beyond the Wall. http://walllandbeyond.blogspot.com/ . I am also playing in the mysterious Chgowiz's online Google Wave game in his Dark Ages game.

Im in it man. and I love it.

So I have a lot of ideas and thoughts about RPGing the way I like it and what I want, and a whole heap of nostalgia too. I also wanted to talk about RPGing as a game, and a social event, and a personal thing rather than just a specific campaign, so here you go. So I hope you enjoy this blog, gentle readers, I have no idea what it will be about.

I am also a great starter of projects. So we shall see how this one goes.