[Gaming][RPG] Macro-Mini-game in the Works-

I am currently writing up a fairly complex mini-game that has three stages of competition:

1). Mapping, Navigating, and Utilising a randomly determined Marketplace, including micro-quests and random events (attacks, happen-stance, etc.), toward the goal of completing a list of items/ingredients/invitations.
:: During this stage, as Wins are accumulated, Power increases, making Tests easier to pass as well as earning spending coin. At each graduation to a higher Power score, a Test to gain employment with an Adventurer is offered. Declining or failing a Hire Test instead rewards the character with a Booster Die, used to slightly improve one's odds in any Test by substituting its result, if better, with any one die in the normal pool.
:: Since the Hire Test can be refused, it is possible for some characters to voluntarily remain at that stage.

2). Hired On-
:: Winning the Hire Test results in the second stage of the game, in which the character acts as either a Hireling, or a more-trusted Hench, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, and a possibility to switch types during play.
:: Exposure to traps, creatures, and environmental hazards has treasure and continued personal development (prowess and skill) toward the goal of the Graduate Challenge as its reward.

3). Graduate Challenge-
:: In this final stage of the game, the character has gone from a simple errand-runner to an Adventurer, if terribly naive about the scale of dangers and riches that await those good enough to live by their wits. Now, they must face-off in a true combat to rank the Graduates and determine what grade of Adventuring Party each is hired by. Ranking low can dramatically reduce the PC's chances of survival, but that will have to wait for RPG sessions, because, by this time, a fully-formed RPG character has been created, ready to get the chosen system's (by default, UWoM) scores converted and standard count (coin) determined toward equipping.

I'd say more, but I'd better get back to writing.
--I'll blog around the next few days, but may be otherwise silent.
See you in a few.

[RPG] Weapons of the Ancients: 06-

:: Painting costs 3 shots
:: Rotary/Long costs 2
:: Pulse costs 1 shots

KVadrXveim ('Artifice - Specialist - LASER')
* Type: Multi-Frequency Multi-Beam Painting LASER Rifle
* Effect: Explosive/Heat 5d6x5 Painted; Explosive/Heat 3d6x5 Rotary-only; Explosive/Heat 2d8x5 Pulsed
* Range: 2,000 Yards Optimal Terrestrial Environment; 200 Yards Realistic
* Ammo.: 10-shot (5d6 Shot-Life, ea.) Cyclode with 10-Round recharge-rate (1/Round offline)
* Weight: 10 Lbs.
* Frequency: R

:: Following the development of the low-power energetics project to a fieldable weapon system, designers sought to replicate the light and elegant found Grand Ancient beam weapons in a contemporary manner. The Xveim is the result of that broad period of global development, and stands not as an individual weapon, but a host of national and factional standards and their hoards of sub-variants and mission-specialised versions. Resembling the basic pattern of the KMH rifles, their ergonomics proved intuitive for anyone familiar with the KMH class of arms, and they are able to work the essential controls, including eject/load new cylinder and basic diagnostics. This purposeful move insured a swift adoption of this class of weapon, and furthered the depth and breadth of the global human arsenal.
:: Painting comes from putting multiple laser beams onto the same point on a surface. The early rifles were not painters, nor pulsers, but 'long beamers' of a single frequency. This proved inefficient, and the projects around the world were stymied. Groups of dispersed civilians solved the problem through a variety of solutions, one of which is the 'Rainbow Painter' which sets multiple and diverse single frequency laser beams on a spinning cylinder mounted on a track manually positioned by the firer to overlap in one spot on their target, and then powering-up to full intensity and fire all of the beams in unison, or pulses of the same multi-chromatic energy frequency. LASER wounds are explosive internal steam catastrophes, and not the simple tiny hole drilled through one's body-scenario often imagined.


KVadrXveimum ('Artifice - Specialist - LASER Pistol')
* Type: Multi-Frequency Multi-Beam Painting LASER Pistol
* Effect: Explosive/Heat 3d6x5 Painted; Explosive/Heat 1d10x5 Long-beam; Explosive/Heat 1d8x5 Pulsed
* Range: 1,000 Yards Optimal Terrestrial Environment; 100 Yards Realistic Outdoor Dry Maximum
* Ammo.: 15-shot (4d6 Shot-Life, ea.) Cyclode with 03-Round recharge-rate (5/Round offline)
* Weight: 7 Lbs.
* Frequency: S

:: The pistol version of the painting LASER is a sonar/radar-ranging auto-painter, although the rotary feature is absent, and the number of frequencies is reduced to three (low-mid-high) beams. Their wounds tend to blister and disrupt unevenly due to the trinary beam pairing two frequencies with wave overlap.
:: The higher fire to recharge ratio was a primary goal in the development of this class of weapons, and as a result, the shot-lifetime of each cylinder is lower. Subsequently, only officers and independent specialists tended to be issued these sidearms. Rifle and Pistol cyclode cylinders are not usually interchangeable, although some examples of field conversions and prototype adapter units exist.

[RPG] Weapons of the Ancients: 05-

Weapons of the Ancients-

KVadrXtsayukd ('Artifice - Specialist - Low-power Particle Gun')
* Type: Low-energy Particle Beam
* Effect: Lethal 3d6x10, Fire/Heat 2d10x2 10'x20x10' VoE behind target
* Range: 0-85 Yards at Full Effect, 86-267 Yards at Half Effect/VoE
* Ammo.: 15-shot Cyclode with 5-Round recharge-rate (3/Round offline)
* Weight: 18 Lbs.
* Frequency: T

:: A 48" hard-chromed cylinder connected by a single large cable to a hip or backpack mounted cyclode generator. The generator is fuelled by Eiadu (Aether-infused clay) vapour mixed with purified antimony, tin, and other metals. This mixture comes in a slender cylinder roughly 7" in length, and each contains enough breeder material to donate one shot's-worth of matter for the cyclode. There are fifteen such cylinders in a hip-mounted cyclode.
:: When a shot is available and fired, a quantum-plasma of neutrons is created as the relatively dense matter sheds its electrons and protons within the target. The effect is essentially the same as large-calibre ballistic damage, minus the entry and exit wounds, and carries a fair amount of imparted physical impact at the reaction site/wound-path. Figures nearby a target will suffer flash effects from the flare-up of light particles, and this can easily affect electronics in the 2,000 cubic feet Volume of Effect behind the target.
:: Backpack mounted cyclodes have twice the number of shots, and can fire a quick follow-up shot at +2d6 (Lethal 5d6x10, Fire/Heat 2d10+2d6x2), but this also adds 15 Lbs. to the weight. Generally, anyone armed with this weapon had only a knife and sidearm with them due to the weight and bulk of this unit.

* Hip: 15 shot battery, regenerating 3-shots per Round of inactivity (for a full recharge in 5 Rounds of inactivity).

* Backpack: Twice the number (30) & 6-Shot regen. per Round of inactivity (still 5-Rounds for full recharge).

:: Each cylinder has a 10d6-shot-lifetime.

[RPG] Weapons of the Ancients: ##-

The grenade-rifle-

KMerThayk ('Artifice - Standard Issue - Throwing Device')
* Type: Grenade Rifle
* Effect: Varies by Grenade-type, but grants a +01 Combat Bonus to use
* Range: 675 Yards on level ground
* Ammo.: 25-Stick, 72-Drum
* Weight: 3 Lbs.
* Frequency: K

:: This stand-alone weapon duplicates the capabilities of under-barrel grenade-launcher systems common to the Yaeshani ranks of the Far East, but is set into a stout and utilitarian wood or synthetic stock-set, making a rifle-length grenade-launcher of incredible utility and precision both in Direct and Indirect (arced) Fire modes.
:: It is a magazine- (stick or drum) fed system with an additional single-feed port for spur-of-the-moment opportunity shots with a particular grenade type not loaded into the magazine. Some heavy Arctic versions found are dual- or multi-feed magazine systems and are built for sustained rapid-fire in -120*F weather. Those particular weapons were found smashed or slashed open.
:: Skilled Grenadiers were the bane of enemy units, and were a frequent high-priority target, which necessitated of the Grenadier to quickly adopt the best scout tactics and skills. Heavy Urban units consisted of an equal mix of Grenadiers to Riflemen, so effective their support capability compounded by their precision as a primary shooting unit.

[RPG] Gear of the Ancients 2-

KXem|K| ('Artifice - Portable Computer - Mechanical')
* Type: Hardened Mechanical (non-digital) Processing Unit
* Strength: H (81%)
* Power Requirement: 0 -- Accessories may require Power
* Weight: 22 Lbs.
* Frequency: D

:: A wonder of PicoEngineering, this entirely mechanical computer is capable of any equivalent digital-electronic computer programme, but is entirely hardened against electromagnetic burst attacks which would otherwise neutralise their circuits. Interface cables to powered peripheral devices require powered adaptors, each adding weight to the setup.
:: Ultra-thin metalloid plates Pico-Etched and magneto-scribed with hard-coded analogue processes allow the computer's configuration to be changed or upgraded with a minimum of effort, although upkeep and maintenance are more specialised.
:: When paired with a KSkermAm (Radio), its memory can be written to and accessed by the Xem|K|, even altering the computer's command plates programmes. When plates/units are found in the field, the most frequent data discovered is Operational and Map Data, with battle recordings a close third. Each region exhibits different keyboard and function key layouts, as well as particular variations ranging from brightness of electroluminescent backlighting to Interface Standards (making them incompatible with foreign Standards).

[RPG] Gear of the Ancients-

I am beginning to run low on standard hard-tech examples of Ancient technology without simply enhancing stuff we have in our present toolbox, while still preserving them in a 'useful to Player Characters' context.
--Unless I receive requests for specific types of gear, this is likely to be among the last of the HardTech doohickeys I'll present.

That said, here is the super-radio:

Gear of the Ancients-

KSkermAm ('Artifice - Radio - Portable')
* Type: High-power VLF Pulsed Laser-Phasic Radio Communications System
* Range: Line of Sight and over Horizon
* Power Requirement: 01 Unit per transmission to maximum range, less at shorter distances
* Weight: 4-6 Lbs.
* Frequency: M

:: Due to its Very Low Frequency waves and its pulsed nature, the carrier wave is capable of excellent transmission (wave propagation) over bodies of sea, brackish, and fresh water, while drier earth and dense jungles reduce the range to roughly 8.1 miles (at which point the curvature of Urutsk prevents LoS). However in such unfavourable terrain, other factors, such as the extensive and pervasive ionisation of the atmosphere can begin to degrade propagation as early as 4-6 miles.
:: While near instantaneous, there is a discernible delay at extreme ranges, such as from sea to sea transmissions which travel beyond the horizon. The data is compressed, with a multithread factor of 10, and on military models can utilise a ternary/trinary-qubit rough-equivalent of 16,384-bit encryption. Storage memory on most common models exceeds 100 Terabytes.

[Gaming] Praise of a Blank Planet v. Fear of Failure?-

The guys in the OSR are still feeling their way through the issue of legitimacy regarding 'Each Hexism' versus 'Grand Visionism', which still baffles me to a great deal.

Having thought it wiser a few times to not publish remarks to various blog posts on this subject, I have instead mulled it over and have this incomplete thought to offer for derision or consideration:

Urutsk started out as a single city, Kryssan, but by the end of that first discussion (not session, as the system hadn't even been created, let alone an existing game system chosen) with my players, everything else began to follow as links in a chain, until, very shortly thereafter, I had a nation, culture, and internal politics. This 'big picture thinking' was, and still is, one of the things I am most noted for in gaming, fiction, and analysis.

I am not entirely certain why the OS seems afraid to embrace the middle-path between philosophically-engineered settings and the pride of retaining ignorance about what is in the rest of the one hex on the map.
--Isn't it 'game how you like'? Why expound dogmatic philosophies; selectively cite the 'Elders'; and then reward likemindedness while deriding holistic vision as part of the dreaded Third Wave Railroading / 'Frustrared Writer' syndrome, when nothing about it is that absolute or soluble to a repeatable process, let alone a design philosophy (supposedly 'the FORGE'-istic in nature)?

I think (as in, the jury of my mind is still in deliberation, and this is not a dogmatic opinion from which I cannot be dissuaded) complete worlds make many folks fearful that they'll 'play it wrongly', and it is that rather than the case of their taking some sort of moral highground that randomised exploration of each hex is the superior path to gaming enjoyment.
--As such, it may be difficult for (mostly) men to admit that sort of fear/sour grapes, and instead meet in agreement of the clan's chosen method and proceed in happy perpetuation of the 'tradition', so as to reassure that theirs is the One True Way (even though some make a real effort to make clear that their words, however unintentionally weighty, are not imperial edicts, but rather merely their own opinions, based upon their careful investigations and interpretations of the source materials).

While I would be glad to host such a debate here, I offer [a] Middle Path, namely, knowing what one wants the world-setting to be like in general, while still employing the 'Hexploration' methods to detail one's individual conception of an established and well-documented setting.
--I, too, believe in the 'Oracular power of dice', but also believe that preparation makes for more effective and safer undertakings.

Just a few Monday-midday thoughts. Nothing absolute, dogmatic, nor intentionally inflammatory.

Thoughts?