Re: Urutsk: I've made some significant changes to character-centric rules, and I feel much better about the way the game feels in play. Weapons are getting a more modern, catalogue or article, description about their role in society and application, which draws upon my personal expertise and interests, which also feels more genuinely Urutsk. In short, this polish is on the 'chrome', bringing more of the distinctiveness of the setting, even if it is in the 'chassis' of the rules.
In other areas:
*Ramble about fiction I've read.*
Looking at Harlan Ellison's bibliography, I realise just how much of his work I had read. I was reading Poe, Lovecraft, and, Ellison, when my old AD&D group were reading all the sci-fi by which Traveller was inspired. I've never read any of that stuff: Flandry, Lensmen, Foundation... The closest to Clarke's stuff I got was a collection of short stories. I think that is why Gene Wolfe's Urth series made such a strong impression: it is closer to Poe, and perhaps even Lovecraft, in verbal texture and weirdness. Martian Chronicles. Wizard of Linn (I love Wizard of Linn), and part of the prequel, Atomic Empire (tedious).
Likewise, Fafhard & Grey Mouser: I think I must have read everything that was published back in the '80s, but never any Conan. Elric, yes. Corum in comic book form, but never Hawkmoon, etc.
Feminist fiction only in short story collections, and whatever you'd call Lee's Don't Bite the Sun.
Apart from fiction I had to read for school, this list may be very close to the complete, 'fiction I've read,' collection. Some of those, mainly sociological, 'other'-stories to broaden our 'whitebread' horizons, were really rather enjoyable: Inner city Chicago Black kid experiences; First Nations girl avoiding tribal traditions, but coming full circle; Second American Civil War urban snipers turned out to be brothers on opposite sides; etc.
Okay; I'm not sure what the point of that was, but i thought it was better served as a blog post than a G+ post.
