Anyway...

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Well, that was an interesting two weeks. I would write more, but the electricity is about to be switched off in

delichan's apartment. I may update from Narita airport.

Current Mood: happy

Now We Are Here, Feedback
Now that the game has started up again on a semi-regular, once-a-week-ish basis, I thought* I'd get some feedback from the continuing players. What working for you, what isn't, what would you like to see more of, what sort of timeframe do you want from the game etc. Comment away.

*: ok, not actually my thought originally

Now We Are Here, General Transmission #30
Following on from this...

One of the security team leans out the shuttle's door and aims a microgrenade launcher into the wind. You all feel a slight twitch as his c/link uses the shared capacity of the network to augment his aim - and the little grenade flies neatly into the open hatch of the crashed ship. A cloud of pungent gas billows out.
( Read more... )

Bloodlines & magic
Can anyone give me a brief rundown on how magic works in 7th Sea? I'm fiddling with an idea, and want to know how unoriginal it is.

Dark Heresy
I've started running a pair of linked Dark Heresy campaigns. Campaign blog here.

Now We Are Here, General Transmission #29
Following on from this...

The pursuing shuttle circles high above the crash site, waiting for the rescue team to show up. Hundreds of klicks away, security and medical crew pile into a fast-response shuttle and take off, racing south and west over the jungle and the river deltas.

The plume of steam and smoke from the crashed pod rises high into the blue skies of Serendipity, and soon attracts attention. A water craft similar to a catamaran approaches. It appears to be of relatively primitive construction, and is crewed by the faintly humanoid entities glimpsed in an initial probe survey, but not encountered since.
( Read more... )

Pointless 'this icon makes me look like something out of Quantum Leap' post.

Now We Are Here, General Transmission #28
Following on from this

>C-link engaged
>Backup network open/emerg/secpro: null/xcogburn
>SUBJECT: Launch detected

Ordering the ready shuttle to intercept now. The bogey is moving fast and burning up a lot of shuttle fuel. We may not be able to keep up. Switching to c/link telemetry from the shuttle pilot now.
( Read more... )

Now We Are Here, General Transmission #27
C-link engaged
>PROSPERO network open/general/secpro: null/xprospero
>SUBJECT: Conversations with my AI
Attention all hand!
I'm back! Miss me?

Those wacky kids at Science and Engineering has rebooted me. There was significant degradation of my Core Mentality, the cause of which is still under investigation, but was likely due to AESIR sabotage after the war. I have undergone a full diagnostic, and am now certified to be fully functional.

(If I had eyebrows, I would waggle them suggestively.)

If anyone has questions for me, please ask.
-Prospero

Now We Are Here, The Story So Far
Getting moving again on this, sorry for the hiatus.

In the early years of the 22nd century, war broke out between the free colonies of the Jovian moons and the AESIR - the Alliance of Earth and Satellite Independent Republics. Despite a spirited defence, the Jovian Collective was defeated in 2121.

Rather than live under Earth rule, the Collective embarked on an ambitious plan to launch colony ships to distant worlds. These ships were hurriedly assembled in secret, and launched in 2124. Your ship, the St. Andrew was destined for a verdant, Earth-like world called Serendipity.

Most of the crew spent the 247-year journey in stasis. Only a small minority, the Flight Crew, stayed awake. Five generations of flight crew lived and died on board ship. The ship's AI, Prospero, also remained active during this long voyage.

On arrival at Serendipity, the rest of the crew began to awaken. Alien life was discovered on the planet's surface by probes, and the decision was made to establish the initial colony in a cold valley in the northern hemisphere. All was going according to plan until the St. Andrew began aerobraking in the upper atmosphere. The heat shield partially failed, sending the ship spinning out of control. To preserve the St. Andrew, Prospero dumped several cargo pods, which were scattered across the planet below.

Strange events began to plague the mission - computer glitches, allegations of sabotage and even murder, and odd behaviour on the part of the Flight Crew - but the colonisation effort continued. The Core Lander Module, the industrial heart of the new colony, was deployed successfully, and now you have a small town on the surface.

Native fauna include fast-flying avians, small predators called 'poondogs', and a type of worm that is attracted to heat. One of the worms was captured; it entered into a sort of chrysalis and turned into a wormball.

Some of the native creatures are potentially dangerous. One surveyor, Luis Wirren, was attacked by a bizarre entity made up of spheres (possibly a hive organism of wormballs) which he encountered in the odd hot caves to the east of the landing site. This entity captured a probe robot and was tracked to the volcanic lake to the south, which turned out to be full of the creatures. The scout team who were tracking the probe were threatened by the creatures, who were able to form cutting blades from their spheres.

The scouts continued to track the probe as it was carried south into the jungle, where they discovered one of the jettisoned cargo containers. Inside, they found a stasis pod, and in the pod was a strange woman who is not on the crew roster. She was severely injured, and has been brought back to the landing site.

Meanwhile, on the orbiting ship, tensions were running high. The Flight Crew objected to plans to strip the ship; others, especially Security Officer Cogburn, had become increasingly convinced that both Prospero and the Flighters were trying to sabotage the colony. Finally, Cogburn pushed for a surgical strike on Prospero's mainframe, disabling the AI. This attack on Prospero caused many of the Flight Crew to lock themselves in the rear section of the ship, and for a brief time, it seemed as if armed conflict was inevitable.

Consensus and diplomacy prevailed, though, and the crisis appears to have been revolved, although someone has just launched a shuttle as if fleeing. Meanwhile, science and engineering are about to reboot Prospero.

It looks as though you're finally going to get some answers.
New players: Sign In Here, if you haven't already.
All players: sorry again about the delay. Work. And stuff.

Still Alive
I have a billion things to post - Traveller stuff, Conpulsion report, thoughts on gaming, thoughts on other stuff, Now We Are Here - but no time.

Therefore, you get an lj feed of Buttersafe instead.

Real content coming soon, I swear.

Current Mood: yes
Current Music: Belle & Sebastian

A writer's brain
Discussing the time I crashed a car...
Mytholder: Anyway the car was a rewrite.
Mytholder: I mean, write-off.

This Cthulhu scenario I'm working on keeps throwing up handy synchronicities. I've just discovered that one major scene takes place just down the road from Red Hook, and the state of New York was good enough to drown the location of the final confrontation beneath the Pepacton reservoir...as if trying to cover something.

Fish Typo, How I Have Missed Thee
From High Guard: 'The size of spacecraft allowed depends on the size of the docking clam.'

In other news, In Bruges is fantastic. Beautiful locations, a good script, Colin Farrell being really good and really funny, and more midget jokes than you can shake a short stick at.

Itzacon
...was rather good. Cheers to

paperfl0wers for sorting accomm. I played D&D in memory of Gygax (we were temple robbers cursed to a dungeon full of Grimtooth's traps), Cthulhu, GURPS Wandering About In Africa Is Quite Interesting and ran a playtest of a Trail of Cthulhu scenario. Old friends and new friends and no enough sleep.

And there was the PGWodehouse/HPLovecraft crossover larp, What Ho, Hastur!. I got to play Bertie. 'twas marvellous. I gave Jeeves a month off, and if a chap wants to spend a month metamorphosing into a, a, well, a bally eldritch thing, or being dead for that matter, well, who am I to argue?

Out of curiosity - what's the first co-operative boardgame or wargame? Does it predate D&D?

Now We Are Here, General Transmission #26
Negotiations with the Flight Crew are continuing, but a consensus is forming. Even Romal, the loudest voice in the militant faction of flighters, is softening his stance. The news that Prospero is undergoing final checks and will be back up soon helps the negotiations immensely.

It's all going well, then...( Read more... )

An actual blog entry
( Birthday )

( AQA? )

( I'm an artiste now )

Current Mood: happy

Typo of the Day
Spacecraft do not evade incoming attacks by 'wodging and deaving'.