The Spider God's Bride (for Legend)

Morten Braten's The Spider God's Bride is a compilation of sword-and-sorcery mini-adventures for the Mongoose Legend role-playing game. Originally released as The Spider God's Bride and Other Tales of Sword and Sorcery for the d20 system, the new edition is available as a pdf (and presumably POD). It starts out with an explanation of the tropes associated with the sword-and-sorcery genre, noting in particular, how it differs from the high fantasy genre more typically associated with fantasy role-playing games. Next there are sections on player races (all various humans), magic and cults. There is only one type of magic in The Spider God's Bride (sorcery, of course) and in keeping with the style of sword-and-sorcery, the use of magic is subtle, sinister and self-destructive. Although players are allowed to employ sorcery, they must always be on guard to avoid becoming too tainted by it. Also, many spells we associate with fantasy rpgs are not permitted, although this restriction is probably more noticeable in the d20 version since sorcery in MRQII/Legend/RuneQuest 6 tends to be similar to sword-and-sorcery type magic anyway.

The adventures themselves are quite good, though some appear very challenging and potentially quite lethal if the players aren't extremely clever and at least a little bit lucky. All the tropes you would expect from a work inspired by Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith are present in abundance, palace intrigue, snake-worshipping cultists, ancient tombs and steaming jungles. There are muscle-bound barbarians and seductive sorceresses, and naked steel awaits in every alleyway. All of this takes place against the backdrop of the world of Xoth, the author's own campaign world. Additional information, including a map (unfortunately not provided in The Spider God's Bride) may be found on xoth.net. This additional online content greatly enhances the published material, allowing for more sandbox play.  I hope two later d20 Xoth products, Song of the Beast-Gods and The Citadel Beyond the North Wind will also be released in the future as Legend publications.

-Rognar-

Rippin' on....adventure hooks

Something different from the guys this week, Steve's Adventure Toolkit: Wicked Encounter Generator. I'd really describe it as a random generator of encounters and adventure hooks and it's awesome. My favourite so far:

A mother is afraid her son has been eaten by a giant toad, but the giant toad is actually protecting the child from his emotionally abusive stepfather.

-Rognar-

Dragon Age on TableTop

I've always wanted to watch a group of top tier players run a tabletop rpg, to see how a game goes when it's not being played by a bunch of average nerds like us. So I anxiously watched last night's episode of TableTop on geekandsundry.com because instead of playing a card or board game as they usually do, Wil Wheaton and his friends were playing Dragon Age by Green Ronin. A group of professional actors and the DM was the game designer, himself. I was expecting flourishes of Shakespeare-inspired role-playing and a rapier-sharp repartee between the players and DM. Imagine my dismay when instead I got to watch a bunch of dudes playing a game pretty much just like we do. The DM was just another doughy, bearded geek trying to keep a group of jackasses focused on the game. One guy created a wizard who was modelled on "The Fonz" from the 70s sitcom, Happy Days, while another one created an elvish rogue who spent most of the game smelling things. Obviously, they were playing it up for laughs and there were a few moments of humour, but I guess if I'm ever going to see the superstars play, I'm going to have get myself to GenCon.

-Rognar-

Rippin' on...Nightbane

After wasting everyone's time with another look at Street Fighter (what is it with that obscure game that fascinates them so much?), Zack and Steve are back with the funny. No company is a more inviting target for ridicule than Palladium, hence:

Nightbane

-Rognar-

Gygax Magazine - Holy Shipping Costs, Batman!

I have a few rules I live by, I don't vote for any candidate just because he or she seems like someone who would be fun to have a drink with, I don't eat invertebrates and I don't buy anything which costs less than the shipping. With this in mind, I was quite excited about the release of Gygax Magazine this month. With some pretty high profile contributors like Cory Doctorow, James Ward, Rich Burlew and Lenard Lakofka, it looks to bring back the glory of the old Dragon Magazine. I dutifully started my online order for the first year of the new magazine...$35 for four issues, ok!...shipping to Canada, $49.40, yikes! It would be cheaper to get a PO Box in Great Falls, MT and take a drive down every three months. Sorry folks, that works out to over $21 per issue, too steep for me.

-Rognar-

Update: There may be hope yet for international customers. Gygax Magazine is offering to hold, free of charge, a copy of the first issue for each international customer while they explore other options for shipping. If they can find a way to get the per issue shipping cost down to about $5 or less, I'm subscribing.

Movie Review: Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

So a bit of a warning first: I don't get out much. It was our seventh wedding anniversary  We had the baby sitter lined up and everything was a go. My wife wanted to do dinner and a movie since we had a hard remembering the last time we went out and did both. We looked at what's available and we both met up with a list of movies that we wanted to see.

My wife looked at my list (containing such films as the Hobbit and Skyfall) and said : NO. So I looked at hers. She's got the hots for Jason Statham so we considered going to Parker until my wife learned that Jennifer Lopez was in the movie and since she hates Jennifer Lopez so that was out.

Next on the list was Hansel & Gretel. It had almost universally terrible reviews but it was R rated which suggested there might be nudity to go along with the violence and there wasn't anything else we could agree upon. So with that background in mind we went to the theatre with very low expectations.

We saw it in the new UltraAVX theatre which is a fancy trick to get you to part with an extra 2 dollars on top of the already $3 3D fee. The screen is big, the sound loud and you get to pre pick your seats which I guess is a nice perk. Oh, and the seats were leather, recline, and the aisles were wider then a normal theatre (so you can recline without being in the person behind you's lap). Actually maybe it was worth the $2 after all.

The movie itself was dumb but fun. Aside from the obviously prochronistic weapons, the movie was pretty internally consistent. Sure it was also predictible in many spots but at least the movie winks at the cliches and just keeps going. The action is pretty good. The sets were probably the best thing about this movie. This film really nailed the whole Grim fairy tale feeling. They make use of the 3D a few times but it wasn't anything awesome. I'm still not sold on 3D in most movies. The film tries to have a sense of humor and most of its jokes hit home although there wasn't anything that had me ROFL.

There is lots of violence and gore, much of it over the top graphic although it could have been worse. The troll scene is played for laughs and worked quite well. My wife seemed to think it was among the funniest in the movie. There wasn't much in terms of sex. For the guys, you get a very brief boob shot and Gemma Arterton can really rock a pair of leather pants. For the ladies, Jeremy Renner strips down but my wife thought he needed to spend more time in the gym (bare chest).

So overall it was a fun movie with a nice D&D vibe to it.  You will enjoy the movie if you go in with low expectations and can turn your brain off for the 110 minute run time. We don't get out much so just about any night out is automatically really good.

Final mea culpa from Wizards of the Coast

It is hard to miss the news that Wizards of the Coast is once again allowing the sale of pdfs for older editions of D&D. Good for them. It never made much sense to remove the older editions from circulation. The move certainly didn't help D&D 4e, it generated a lot of ill will towards the company and cost them a modest, but still significant revenue stream. This represents the culmination of the Great Wizards of the Coast Apology tour that began with the reprint of the original AD&D core books. I can't say any of this really matters to me. I am probably never going back to old-school D&D unless age catches up with me and, in my dotage, I am rendered intellectually incapable of handling rules-heavy games like Pathfinder or RuneQuest. Nonetheless, I applaud WotC for coming to its senses.

Oh, and if you don't mind, how about a reprint of the Rules Cyclopedia, you know, just in case.

-Rognar-

Update: DrivethruRPG is overloaded right now. I wonder why.

Fortress America, f*#& yeah!

Back in the day when the lads and I would get together for a game, it was usually D&D, but sometimes when the urge to lay a beatdown on each other would take over, we would turn to Milton Bradley. Of course, the most popular MB game at the time was Axis and Allies and we played the heck out of that game (I always enjoyed the sheer desperation of playing the UK, not sure if that provides any insight into my psyche). We also tried Shogun a few times and one time, a buddy got his hands on Fortress America. It was only the one time. I played the US and got totally destroyed, but it was a blast. Since then, of course, Axis and Allies has been expanded to multiple versions and Shogun, later rereleased as Samurai Swords and later still as Ikusa has also been available. But I never again saw Fortress America, until today. I dropped in to my FLGS and what do I see, but a new edition of the game. Unlike A&A and Ikusa which are now published under the Avalon Hill branding, Fortress America is published by Fantasy Flight Games with all that implies (FFG quality, FFG pricing). Though I don't have much time for boardgames these days, I am sorely tempted to lay down my hard-earned coin on this piece of my misspent youth.

-Rognar-

Muskets in RQ6 - crunching the numbers

The guys at The Design Machanism have released a pdf on introducing firearms into RuneQuest 6th Edition. I don't care much for modern or high-tech weapons in a quasi-medieval setting, but I like black powder weapons, so this free rules supplement is of interest to me. In it, they include a suggestion on how to make black powder firearms attractive to players, give them armour penetration. Interestingly, however, they don't indicate how much penetration is appropriate for each type of firearm. I don't know if this was an oversight or intentional, but if it's the latter, it's a brilliant idea because it allows DMs to decide for themselves how powerful guns are in their games. So, I took it upon myself to crunch the numbers. I wanted to compare a flintlock musket, a longbow and a heavy crossbow with the goal of making each one ideal under certain conditions. Now assuming a typical character with two actions per round, a musketeer will get off a single shot in 9 actions (four rounds of loading and one more action to fire). During that same time, a heavy crossbowman will get two shots and a longbowman will get three. A flintlock musket does 1D10 points of damage as does a heavy crossbow, while a longbow does 1D8 points. So assuming no armour penetration, the crossbow will always be superior to the musket and the longbow will be superior to both except against very heavily-armoured opponents.

I then compared each weapon assuming the musket had penetration of 1, 2 and 3 points. In all three cases, the longbow was still superior for lightly armoured opponents (AP 3 or less). That is good, it means the longbow is not rendered obsolete by the other weapons and it allowed me to concentrate on the musket vs. the crossbow.

Assuming one point of penetration, the average damage of the musket was 5.5/3.6/1.5/0.6 against opponents with AP of 0/3/6/8 respectively. At twice the rate of fire, the crossbow rendered 11/5.6/2/0.6 points of damage across the same range of APs. The crossbow is equal to or, in most cases, superior to the musket across the entire range, so obviously more penetration is called for. For two points of penetration, the following damage results were calculated:
musket - 5.5/4.5/2.1/1
and for three points of penetration, it was:
musket - 5.5/5.5/2.5/1.5

Comparing these results to those of the crossbow, which of course, are unchanged, we can see that in the latter case, the musket is equal to or better than the crossbow at most APs except for the most lightly-armoured and that is the range where the longbow is superior to both. However, for a penetration of two, we see a nice balance. The longbow is best for the low APs, the crossbow is a bit better than the musket in the middle range and the musket is best for the walking tanks.

-Rognar-

Gold fever!

I am a geologist and I must confess, I got into it for the gold. I never found any, mind you, and I spend my time in a lab these days instead of the bush, but I still have a bit of gold fever. So you can imagine I found this story about an Australian prospector finding a gold nugget weighing an astonishing 177 oz. to be more than a little bit exciting. It's so...beautiful!

-Rognar-

Kickstarter and other non-related topics

As Rognar mentioned in the comments of his last post, the gaming world has been rather calm for the last while and there doesn't seem to be much to discuss. Pathfinder has taken a bit of backseat to other interests lately (although I swear, I thought our last gaming session was Saturday, not Friday). I've been doing tons of reading and have started playing Civ5 again.

We're in the middle of a campaign that I can't see ending for 6-12 months, I like my active character and I have a back-up decided upon and ready to go. I don't see any reason to spend hour messing around around with HeroLab since Paizo hasn't released any new splat books with any notable amount of Crunch lately. The Prestige class book had some great concepts but most of the classes were either mechanically weak or insufficiently different from things that already exist. I still flip through it from time to time looking for something that really appeals to me but nothing has so far.

Even Paizo's AP haven't really made me enthusiastic lately. I love pirates but Skulls and Shackles was a bit disappointing for me. I liked the first part but the rest just seemed a bit cliched. Cliches can be fun but you have to put unique twists on them and throw in some surprises. Most of the adventures seemed a bit too paint by number.

The current AP, Shattered Star seems a bit bland as well. The AP is about recovering the 6 pieces of an artifact. Each one is hidden in a different dungeon and each piece leads to the next. Now I have to admit that I haven't read this AP in great detail. I usually skim them to try to get a feel for the story and sometimes an Adventure Path's potential greatness fails to shine through unless you really dig into and think about how you can work the story and make it better. Maybe this is one of those. Maybe you just really have to like doing dungeons.

Over last summer a number of Kickstarter projects came up that interested me. The first was Slumbering Tsar by Frog God games. This is massive tome contains a site based adventure in 3 parts: the wilderness surrounding the city, the haunted City of Tsar itself, and lastly the huge temple of Orcus (basically a megadungeon). There is something of a meta plot but it unravels so slowly it is unlike the PCs could ever follow it but it really doesn't matter anyway. Each section gets progressively harder and is filled with nasty traps and some truly interesting monsters/encounters.

Next I threw too many bucks in for Rappan Athuk. Another megadungeons, this book chronicles the megadungeon and some of the wilderness around it. It has a very old school feel to it as encounter danger can vary quite a bit and PCs will have to wary they don't mess with something way beyond what they can handle.

Lastly I bought into the Reaper Kickstarter. At some point in the next couple months I have more minis coming to me than I will ever be able to paint. They were just so many, so cool, and so cheap I could not help myself but load up. perhaps Derobane and I will hold a painting party one day and everyone can come and share in my bounty.

There have been a couple notable Kickstarters lately as well. The first is the Pathfinder MMO. While I am something of a computergame junky and have played lots of MMORPGs in the past this one just doesn't appeal to me. MMOs rarely hold my attention for more than a few months (just like any other computer game) and since this game will not even be open to the beta testers for a couple years I just can't find any enthusiasm for it. I guess it comes down to the fact that I believe Paizo can make great RPG stuff and I support them. I haven't seen anything to make me think this game is going to be anything special and I don't see any reason to support it. Just because it is set in Golarion doesn't make that big of a deal to me and it just doesn't seem like a good deal. For Slumbering Tsar, I got a giant book and some swag. With Rappan Athuk, I got a giant book, lots of soft cover add-on dungeon levels and swag. And Reaper, I'm getting a metric crap ton of plastic minatures, some of which are freaking huge! What do I get for $100 with Pathfinder Online? 3 free months playing the beta and then I would have to pay. What? Pay for beta testing? I have beta tested many games and I've never once paid to Beta Test (ok, once for Star Wars Galaxy, but I'm still bitter about that and will pretend it didn't happen). I wish them well with this kickstarter (although it doesn't look like it is going to get funded) but it is just not for me.

The other kickstarter I've been following is Razor Coast. Now this is a book I've been following for years. I thought I'd done a post about it years ago but after digging through the archives, I can't seem to find it. The book itself has an interesting history. The author Nicolas Logue wrote great adventures, came up with osme great ideas on his own and decided to self publish. He posted a bunch of sneak previews, some great art, and started taking pre-orders. Then he vanished. The book sat in purgatory for a few years until some other authors got involved got what existed of the manuscript and continued its development. Now after more time has passed, Logue has reappeared and been forgiven, the book is now finished and is going to be published by Frog God Games (same publishers as Rappan Athuk and Slumbering Tsar). I have read the previews and  there it looks like there is lots of goodness here. I just wish the timing was different. Things are always a bit tighter in January but I love me a good adventure book and Logue is known for his awesome twisted adventures. I will probably bit the bullet and pledge closer to the end. The PDFs are nice (and cheaper) but they are harder to read in bed and its tough to beat the tactile experience of a real book, even if I just read it a couple times and then add it to my RPG bookshelf.

Wow, long post.

More on gun control

The rhetoric on both sides of the gun control issue in the US is, not surprisingly, heating up to a pitch I do not recall seeing in recent memory. I don't think even the Columbine shooting generated this kind of momentum. Where it will ultimately lead is still an open question, of course. With shots like this coming from guns rights advocates, however, it looks like the pro-gun forces might just prevail.

To quote:

The position of pro-Second Amendment Americans is that gun ownership is part of the fundamental human right to self-defense, explicitly stated in the Constitution by the Founding Fathers due to an overarching political philosophy regarding the balance of power between the individual and the state.

The position of the anti-gun activists in the Obama administration is “guns are icky.”

The media consider them the intellectuals in this debate.

Ouch!

Some of the gun control proposals I have heard are quite extreme, not only exceeding the regulations of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban which expired in 2004, but even going beyond the legal restrictions in Canada and some other western countries. Admittedly, the most extreme proposals are being made by some liberal state senators in blue states and aren't likely to gain much traction at the federal level, but they do gain media attention far in excess of what is warranted. Inevitably this filters down to the voting public as something seriously being considered and there is a run on sales of AR-15s. Such is the perversity of this debate.

Now, personally, I tend to lean toward the gun rights side, but I'm not convinced by some of the arguments of the pro-gun lobby. The framers of the US Constitution may indeed have envisioned the right to bear arms as a necessary counterweight to power of the state, but the simple fact is, that balance does not exist anymore regardless of the Second Amendment. Semi-automatic rifles are highly-effective at slaughtering civilians and even give local police forces trouble, but against armoured fighting vehicles and Predator drones, they are useless. If the US government wishes to oppress its people and the US military is on side with that, civilian small arms are not going to make much of a difference.

-Rognar-

My favourite things from the last year

The following is a list of the stuff I liked best from 2012. In some cases, the "thing" might be have been released earlier than 2012, but I only discovered it within the last year. Feel free to provide your own lists in the comments.

Favourite book: Anathem by Neil Stephenson. Awesome read, check out my review from back in August.

Favourite movie: The Avengers. Tough call, as I really enjoyed The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey as well.

Favourite game: RuneQuest 6th edition. An odd choice I suppose, since my group plays Pathfinder almost exclusively, but I just think RQ6 is a better game.

Favourite intoxicant: Highland Park single malt scotch...ok, that's the same as 2011...2010...2009...

Favourite news event of 2012: the landing of the Curiosity mars rover. In a year of god-awful news, Curiosity was a beacon of light, a marvel of human ingenuity.

Favourite music: Carolus Rex by Sabaton. Following their usual trend of writing about military history, Sabaton turned their attention to their home country of Sweden. Carolus Rex covers the rise of the Swedish Empire in the 17th century under Gustavus Adolphus, the peak of its power under Charles XII, the devastating defeat against the Russians at the Battle of Poltava in 1709 and the eventual death of Charles XII in battle in 1718.

Favourite sports event of 2012: The Habs are tied for first in the league at the end of the year.

-Rognar-

More of what I'm looking forward to in 2013

The most recent Pathfinder hardcovers from Paizo, Ultimate Equipment and NPC Codex, have not particularly interested me much and quite honestly, all of the rulebooks after Advanced Player's Guide have been pretty underwhelming. For this reason, I rarely look forward with much anticipation to whatever the next release will be. However, that could be about to change as Ultimate Campaign is due for release in April. It appears Ultimate Campaign will incorporate the excellent kingdom-building and mass combat rules first introduced in the Kingmaker AP. That, combined with the new rule systems for expanding the scope of the campaign such as story feats, makes this the first rulebook in some time that doesn't feel like more of the same.

-Rognar-

What I'm looking forward to in 2013

As I write this, our friends in Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania have already wrung in the New Year. Hopefully, if the US government can come to some kind of compromise over the fiscal cliff (sadly, not looking promising at the moment), we may start to see some signs of improvement in the global economy in 2013. Hope springs eternal.

On the gaming front, most of what I'm looking forward to is coming from The Design Mechanism and Mongoose. First from Peter Nash at the Design Mechanism, there is Monster Island for RuneQuest 6. Due for release early in 2013, Monster Island combines the features of a setting, a sourcebook and a bestiary in one book. Looks like a solid first supplement for RQ6. Following up later in the spring will be Book of Quests, a loose campaign of seven scenarios with a sword-and-sorcery feel.

From Mongoose, I'm mainly interested in the 2300 AD product line. I've been patiently awaiting the long-promised releases of French Arm Adventures and Tools for Frontier Living for several months now. Hopefully, my patience will be rewarded in the coming months.

-Rognar-

Rippin' on...Maid: the RPG

Zack and Steve are very busy all of a sudden and they've decided to poke around in one of the darker corners of the tabletop rpg world, Maid: The Roleplaying Game.

Maid

-Rognar-

Skill use and combat in RuneQuest 6

Skills in RQ6 are based on percentiles. A roll equal to or less than the skill is a success, higher is a failure. However, 01-05 is always a success, while 96-00 is always a failure. Furthermore, a roll equal to or less than 1/10th the skill is a critical success, while a roll of 99-00 is a fumble. The implications of critical successes and fumbles depend on the skill being used, the circumstances and the will of the DM.  Skills can also be modified to account for the difficulty of the task being performed, with difficulty grades ranging from Very Easy to Herculean. There are two ways these modifiers can be applied, either a straight modifier (the easy way) or a multiplier (the hard way, but scales with skill level).

Opposed rolls are handled by first comparing the relative degree of success. For example, a critical success beats a standard success, regardless of the rolls. For two identical types of success, the higher roll wins. In some cases, both opponents may be successful, in which case the DM must adjudicate the result. For example, a critically successful Stealth check will beat a successful Perception check, but the guard is alerted and may get a bonus to notice anyone else following up.

Combat uses the same game mechanic as other skills, although the results of critical successes are more strictly defined and typically lethal. Each character has a set number of action points based on INT + DEX, with two being the most common number (although three is possible). These action points represent the number of actions the character can perform in a round. Actions include casting spells, attacking, parrying, moving, evading and outmaneuvering. Players have to decide how to allocate their precious action points and may God help the poor soul facing off against a heavily-armed combatant without an action left to attempt an Evade roll.

-Rognar-

Merry Christmas!

Best wishes to all for this holiday season.

-Rognar-

Rippin' on...Warhammer and...Synnibarr?!

Zack and Steve slipped a couple past me when I wasn't looking. The over-the-top artwork of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is always good for a laugh. As an added bonus, the guys have thrown their weight behind an effort to reboot the famously awful game The World of Synnibarr. The Kickstarter project has almost achieved its goal. May God have mercy on us all.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
Synnibarr

-Rognar-

Magic in RuneQuest 6

There are five different types of magic in RuneQuest 6th Edition, each involving a different approach to spellcasting and drawing upon different sources of power. The most common of these is Folk Magic, as it is potentially available to any character with a relatively modest expenditure of skill points. This type of spellcasting is governed by the Folk Magic skill, which is rolled to determine whether a spell is successfully cast and also to provide the opposed roll to any resistance roll made by the target of the spell. Folk Magic spells are generally weaker than spells from other magic traditions, being associated with hedge wizards and wise women.

The other magic traditions, Mysticism, Animism, Sorcery and Theism, are each governed by two skills and apply magical effects in different ways. Sorcery and Theism will be familiar to gamers with experience with D&D as they represent arcane and divine spellcasting. Sorcery is spellcasting in its most scholarly form. The two skills associated with this form of spellcasting are Invocation and Shaping. The former skill works much like the Folk Magic skill, it determines the degree of success or failure and also serves to oppose the resistance roll of the target. The Shaping skill determines how adept the sorcerer is at modifying spells. Spells can be modified or "shaped" in several ways, such as increased range, number of targets, duration or magnitude (a measure of spell effect). Multiple spells can also be combined into one casting. The degree to which such modifications can be applied is governed by the Shaping skill. There is no actual roll involved, but rather, the percentage of the skill determines the number of shaping points the sorcerer may apply.

Theism is the magic of priests. Like sorcery, there are two skills associated with this form of magic, Exhortion and Devotion. The former skill is the one rolled to determine success or failure and represents the skill of the spellcaster in convincing his god to grant his request for magical aid. Devotion is a measure of the priest's conduit to the source of his divine power. The higher his Devotion skill, the greater the intensity of his miracles. For example, an Intensity 1 Earthquake miracle would rattle the dishes in a large room, while an Intensity 10 Earthquake would level a city block.

The other two types of magic deal with the spirit world (Animism) and personal enlightenment through meditation (Mysticism). Like Sorcery and Theism, each are governed by two skills, although the way these magical traditions function is somewhat different from the more traditional spellcasting embodied in Folk Magic, Sorcery and Theism. The broad range of magical options for characters in RQ6 allows for a lot of experimentation, although it is important not to spread oneself too widely as it requires a lot of investment in a given magical tradition to achieve really awesome levels of power.

-Rognar-

Gun control in Canada

Sadly, we are once again confronted with the horror of a school shooting. This one is particularly painful for me as I have two small children, one of whom is the age of those slaughtered in Connecticut. Inevitably, talk of gun control in America begins anew. I know the issue is different in the US than most other countries because gun rights are constitutionally-protected. Here in Canada and in most other western countries, gun control is a political issue. Governments establish gun laws according to the whims of the electorate with little concern for possible legal challenges. For this reason, it is difficult for Americans to draw much insight from the gun control laws in other countries. Still, for what it's worth, I offer my thoughts as someone who has recently begun the process of exercising my legal gun ownership priviledges in Canada.

Americans would probably find some things about Canada's gun control laws surprising. Gun rights advocates in the US often exaggerate the severity of Canada's gun laws. We have three categories of firearms, non-restricted, restricted and prohibited. Non-restricted firearms include most rifles and shotguns, including semi-automatic rifles. To own a non-restricted firearm, you must get a non-restricted Possession and Acquisition License (PAL). To do this, you must be 18 years of age or older, take a certified firearm safety course and pass both a written and practical exam, provide two references as well as your spouse or conjugal partner, provide contact information for any previous conjugal partners within the last two years and reveal any criminal offences or diagnoses of mental illnesses. You then submit this information to the RCMP so that background checks may be performed. If you pass the background checks, then and only then may you purchase your firearm or ammunition. Restricted firearms include most handguns as well as certain short-barrelled long guns and any rifles with telescoping or folding stocks like the AR-15 used in the recent school shooting. The process for getting a restricted PAL is similar although an additional exam is required. The major difference is that every restricted firearm must be registered. Some of you Americans may, at this point, notice that despite what you may have heard, handguns are not illegal in Canada. I must confess, even I was a bit surprised by how easy it is to legally acquire a handgun in Canada and I live here. Still, most Canadians don't own handguns. It is, I think, a bit of a cultural thing. Handguns are associated with police or criminals. So, if you're not a cop, Canadians tend to wonder why you would want a handgun. The third category is prohibited and it includes all firearms not covered in the previous categories. This includes certain types of small, concealable handguns, "sawed-off" shotguns and rifles and, of course, automatic weapons. Despite the terminology, it is possible to own some of these weapons, although the criteria for qualification is so extreme, it is virtually impossible for private citizens to own such guns, unless you own a firing range. One important caveat should be noted at this time. As I mentioned, military-style, semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15 are legal in Canada, but the large-capacity magazines like those used in the Connecticut school shooting are not. Semi-autos in Canada are limited to 5-rd. magazines regardless of the type of magazine they employ. If a particular rifle doesn't have the option of a 5-rd. magazine, a larger capacity mag may be modified by a gunsmith to limit it to five rounds. This regulation will not, of course, stop a mass shooting, but it can reduce the death toll.

In researching for my gun license application, I was surprised to notice how rates of firearm ownership vary from country to country. The US is, of course, far ahead of the rest of the developed world with around 90 firearms for every 100 citizens. After that, the frequently-cited Switzerland and Finland come in at around 45 guns per 100 citizens. Canada, along with France, Germany, Austria and most of the Nordic countries have around 30 guns per 100 citizens and the UK, which has some of the strictest gun laws in the free world, has around six guns per 100 citizens. Given its draconian gun control laws and stifling level of domestic surveillance, I fear the UK is, for all intents and purposes, a benign police state.

I don't really know how Americans will square the circle on gun control. Any measures, even if broadly-supported by the electorate, will be subject to legal challenge on constitutional grounds. Throw states rights and partisan gridlock into the equation and you have a real mountain to climb. I'm not at all confident President Obama is the man to climb it. It may be that only a Republican president could manage it, like only Nixon could go to China. Still, I hope for the best. Atrocities like those we witnessed this past week in Connecticut erode the soul of a nation. They make us fearful and paranoid. They chip away at the foundations of civilization. They must be stopped.

-Rognar-

What I'm reading. Part... whatever

I spend most bus trips to and from work reading form the kindle app on my iPhone. I've been doing it for years and actually quite like it now and in some ways prefer it over a real book. (mostly because of portability). Having finished off whatever I was reading before I flipped through what kindle books I had around and look them up trying to decide what to read next.

I had the first book of Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files" series and it seemed to have pretty good reviews. I'm not especially big on detective novels but I thought having a wizard as the protagonist could be an interesting twist so I gave it a try. I was pleasantly surprised. The first book Storm Front, does a good job introducing the protagonist and many of the secondary characters that occupy Harry Dresden's world. Harry is a wise-ass who's mouth frequently gets him into trouble - lots of it. In fact I am amazed that he manages to survive every book since it seems like just about everyone is out to get him. There is lots of great action and the dialogue is very well written. Several times each book I have a good laugh out loud and something someone says or does.

The first book is a bit low key and sets the template for the books to follow. Plot one is established. Plot two is set up which twists plot one somewhat, a time limit is put in place and Harry frantically tries to figure out the mystery before time runs out and he ends up dead. Book two ramps up the action and violence. Book three is the only book of the series so far that had some missteps. I felt it had too many plot twists and was overly long. The ending was a big bummer as well. Things moved the other way for books Four and Five which were both EPIC! So much action, great mysteries and both had excellent plots.

I just finished book Six yesterday and although it was a very enjoyable read, revealing more of Harry's past, and giving lots of insight into the White Court, it lacked the awesomeness of its two predecessors  Maybe I just don't like the books with the sadder endings as much.

Anyway, if you are looking for a new series to read, I recommend this one. It's got gangsters, fairies, vampires (several kinds - no sparkles), cops, paladins, wizards, fallen angels, demons, werewolves, and even a dragon. Lots of great action, dialogue, and character development.

Go read it!

Remember when we were awesome? pt.5

Throughout its history, the Royal Canadian Navy has deployed British-designed and built ships, from the HMCS Rainbow, which entered Canadian service in 1910 to HMCS Bonaventure and even today, with our less-than-stellar Victoria-class submarines. However, Canada really began to come into its own during the Cold War, relying less on the UK for military procurement. The first Canadian-designed warship was the St.Laurent-class destroyer escort. Seven were commissioned between 1955-57, HMCS St.Laurent, HMCS Skeena, HMCS Ottawa, HMCS Fraser, HMCS Assiniboine, HMCS Saguenay and HMCS Margaree. Though based on the British Whitby-class frigate, the St.Laurent-class incorporated some distinctly Canadian features, notably the rounded deck edge to prevent ice buildup on the foredeck. The St.Laurent-class ships also included several design features for dealing with nuclear, chemical and biological attack, including sealed crew quarters and a pre-wetting system to wash away contaminants. The later Restigouche-, Mackenzie- and Annapolis-class destroyer escorts were modified versions of the St.Laurent-class design. The seven St.Laurent-class ships underwent DDH conversion in 1963-66, allowing them to take advantage of the newly-developed 'beartrap' helicopter retrieval technology and all were equipped with a CHSS-2 Sea King helicopter. The last St.Laurent-class destroyer escort, HMCS Fraser, was decommissioned in 1994.

-Rognar-

RuneQuest 6 - chargen

I will illustrate the process of character generation in RuneQuest 6 by going through it step-by-step. Anyone who has played Mongoose's RuneQuest II will recognize the procedure is pretty similar. My character is Kassar, an infantry soldier from Polmaro, a city-state with a culture similar to Late Imperial Rome. Deciding on these sorts of details early helps later on when making decisions regarding skill selection.

The first step is generating attributes. There are several ways suggested, but I will go with point-buy since that is the approach we typically use in our games. There are seven attributes: Strength (STR), Constitution (CON), Size (SIZ), Dexterity (DEX), Intelligence (INT), Power (POW) and Charisma (CHA). Most of these are pretty self-explanatory except POW, which represents a character's magical potential and luck. Anyone interested in playing a spellcasting character will want to have a high POW score. Each attribute will have a minimum and maximum value to begin. For humans, the maximum for each is 18. The minimum varies depending on the attribute. INT and SIZ have a minimum of 8, all others have a minimum of 3. You have 80 points to spend on a one for one basis including the points necessary to buy up all the attribute scores to their racial minimums. So, in the case of humans, 31 out of the 80 are already encumbered buying up to the minimum for each attribute. At this point, I should talk about optimization. My gaming group includes a couple of notorious min-maxers (you know who you are), and all of us engage in it to some degree, so we're all cool with it. RuneQuest is not a game that provides a lot of opportunity for min-maxing, but point-buy attribute generation is one place where you can optimize. This is because there are a lot of secondary characteristics that are generated from attributes. Typically, these result from the sum of a couple of attributes which are then compared to a table of brackets. For example, action points (in effect, the maximum number of actions possible in a round) are derived by adding INT and DEX. If the total is less than 12, the character gets one action point, 13-24 provides two, 25-36 provides three and so on. So, an optimizer would try to set his INT + DEX near the bottom of one of the brackets to ensure few points are wasted. Adding to the potential for optimization, SIZ + STR determines damage modifier, while SIZ + CON determines hit points, so some manipulation of the numbers is needed to get the best use of your attribute points. After crunching the numbers, I came up with the following set of attributes for Kassar:
STR 18 CON 13 SIZ 18 DEX 9 INT 8 POW 7 CHA 7

Now, to generate the secondary characteristics: INT + DEX = 17, giving me 2 action points. STR + SIZ = 36, good for a +1D6 damage modifier. CHA = 7, giving me a zero for my experience modifier. This means when it comes time to make experience rolls, Kassar will get no bonus rolls for high CHA, but won't be penalized for having an especially low CHA either. CON = 15, giving Kassar an impressive healing rate of 3, which he will need in his chosen profession. Strike Rank is the average of DEX and INT. It is a modifier that is added to one's initiative roll. Kassar's strike rank is 9. Kassar also receives magic points equal to POW. This is important because even though Kassar is not a dedicated spellcaster, all characters are able to utilize some minor magic in this game. Hit points are provided for each hit location based on SIZ + CON. Kassar ends up with:
Head = 7, Chest = 9, Abdomen = 8, Each Arm = 6, Each Leg = 7.

The next step is the selection of skills. All skills are defined by a percentile. The base value is equal to two relevent attribute scores added together or a single attribute score doubled. There are a subset of standard skills that all characters have. These include physical skills such as Brawn or Swim, social skills such as Deceit or Influence, knowledge skills such as First Aid or Customs and combat skills such as Unarmed or Combat Style. Combat Styles are a bit more involved than mere weapon proficiencies. They usually incorporate a couple of weapons and are, to a certain degree, defined by the culture from which the character derives. There are also other skills, professional skills and magic skills that may be acquired at this stage based upon character background and concept. Starting with standard skills, even though every character gets all the skills, he or she can only add starting skill points to a select few of them based on the character's cultural background. Being from a city-state, Kassar is civilized. I will assume also that he is of the default Freeman social class. The standard skills for a civilized character are Conceal, Deceit, Drive, Influence, Insight, Locale and Willpower. He may also select three professional skills from a list of suitable choices. Kassar will have Streetwise, Lore (Monsters) and Craft (leatherworking). He will also take Combat Style (Polmaro Militia), which allows him to use the shortspear and target shield combination typical of his home city's militia. Finally, all characters get a base +40% to Native Language and Customs. 100 points may then be distributed among this list of skills with each point equal to one percentage point.

Next, the character profession is selected. Kassar is a Warrior. As such, he gets a second list of standard and professional skills from which to choose and another 100 points to distribute among them. In most cases, there will be some overlap in the lists of cultural and professional skills. Finally, there is a pool of bonus skill points based on age. They can be used to top up any skills already on the character's list and/or add one new professional skill representing a personal hobby of the character. For Kassar, this bonus skill will be Folk Magic. So, applying the base values, plus 100 cultural skill points, 100 professional skill points and 150 bonus skill points, here is Kassar's final skill selection:

Standard Skills: Athletics - 32% Boating - 31% Brawn - 51% Conceal - 15% Customs - 56% Dance - 16% Deceit - 15% Drive - 16% Endurance - 71% Evade - 63% First Aid - 17% Influence - 24% Insight - 25% Locale - 16% Native Tongue - 55% Perception - 35% Ride - 16% Sing - 14% Stealth - 17% Swim - 31% unarmed - 37% Willpower - 49% Combat Style (Polmaro Militia) - 82% Combat Style (Polmaro Archers) - 62%
Professional Skills: Lore (Monsters) - 26% Lore (Strategy and Tactics) - 21% Craft (Leatherworking) - 27% Streetwise - 34% Survival - 25% Folk Magic - 29%

More to come...

-Rognar-

RuneQuest 6th ed. - first thoughts

I thought for sometime on whether to invest in RuneQuest 6th Edition, before deciding to buy it. I already own Mongoose's RuneQuest II, a similar iteration of the classic game written by the same authors, Peter Nash and Lawrence "Loz" Whitaker. Even after reading several positive reviews and interviews explaining what improvements have been included in RQ6, I remained skeptical that the differences were sufficient enough to justify the purchase. What finally changed my mind was the apparent lack of interest in tabletop rpgs being demonstrated by Mongoose. That's not to say they've abandoned rpgs, but their publication frequency has dropped considerably in recent months and with so many properties to support, it seems unlikely there will be much coming out for the Legend and Elric of Melniboné product lines any time soon. The guys at The Design Mechanism, however, seem committed to enthusiastic support of RQ6.

It's a massive tome, weighing it at 456 pages. At over $60, I would have liked to see it in hardcover, but it's a small company and so, I'm a little more forgiving. I can't say I'm overjoyed with matte finish of the cover, however. It really shows fingerprints and they don't just wipe of like they would on a glossy finish. The cover art is nice. It shows a female warrior named Anathaym battling a reptilian humanoid called a slargr. Sidebars throughout the book describe the story of Anathaym in order to illustrate many game concepts. As one can deduce from the style of Anathaym's equipment, the default setting for RQ6 is more of an Ancient Greece/Rome style than the typical medieval Europe we're accustomed to. Nonetheless, the rules are flexible enough to play in any setting from ancient times to the renaissance. The interior art is sparse and without colour, but what is there is decent and appropriate. It should be noted that there is little in RQ6 that ties directly to Glorantha. There are no Ducks or Dwarfs made of metal in the bestiary. Although future Glorantha supplements for RQ6 are planned, the basic rules are intended to be generic. There is so much to discuss about this game, I will have to spread it out over several postings. Stay tuned for more thoughts in the weeks to come.

-Rognar-

Remember when we were awesome? pt.4

Canada is, in many ways, a unique country with unique national security concerns. We are in the advantageous position of sharing our only land border with a strong and friendly neighbour, but we have a ridiculous amount of ocean to patrol and a fairly modest population. Furthermore, much of our territory is remote and frozen, so we have few options for land-based military resources to aid in protecting our sovereignty in the far north. Without the option of massive aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and numerous coastal airbases to patrol our seas, the Canadian navy has been forced to use ingenuity to deal with its security challenges. One example of that ingenuity is the Beartrap, a Helicopter Hauldown and Rapid Securing Device (HHRSD) developed in collaboration with Fairey Aviation of Canada. Designed to allow helicopters to land on small ships in rough seas, the beartrap consists of a heavy winch system that can rapidly pull a cable suspended from the helicopter to haul it down and hold it securely to the landing pad. The helicopter can then be pulled into the hangar and secured. The technology has been refined and is currently used by several other countries, including the United States, Australia, Spain and Japan. As well, all of Canada's larger naval vessels, the three Iroquois-class guided missile destroyers, twelve Halifax-class patrol frigates and two Protecteur-class supply ships are equipped with the technology, giving much needed air support to our modest fleet.

-Rognar-

Our evolving blog

Anyone who is still regularly reading this blog may have noticed there haven't been many posts about gaming of late. We have recently lost one of our contributors and my other blogging partner has been somewhat quiescent of late. In addition to these personnel developments, I have noticed a recent lack of activity in the tabletop rpg publishing business. With the new edition of D&D still more than a year away and Paizo just quietly going about its business of producing APs and an occasional rulebook of ever-decreasing significance, not much is going on of particular interest to me. I've been trying to keep up with what Mongoose is doing, since I am interested in their 2300AD and Legend product lines, but they seem to be scaling back on their publishing activities as far as tabletop rpgs are concerned, concentrating more and more of their energies on miniatures games.

For these reasons, I have been blogging more about my other interests that are at least tangentially related to gaming, sci-fi novels, military history, space exploration, etc. I hope you, my loyal readers, will continue to find some reason to drop in from time to time and I promise I will have more to say about gaming in the near future. I have recently purchased RuneQuest 6 and I will have a lot to talk about once I have fully absorbed this impressive work. Game on.

-Rognar-

Remember when we were awesome? pt.3

At its peak in 1958, Avro Canada was the third largest company in Canada, with about 50,000 employees. It is best known today as the company that designed the Avro CF-105 Arrow, one of the most advanced fighters of its day, intended to achieve speeds in excess of Mach 2 and operate at altitudes exceeding 50,000 ft. Only five were built before the project was cancelled in 1959. All materials and prototypes were destroyed. To this day, many Canadians see the Arrow as Canada's Apollo project and its cancellation still rankles.

The Arrow was not the only audacious design to come from the Avro Canada braintrust. One of the crazier ideas was the VZ-9 Avrocar, a VTOL aircraft designed as part of a classified US military project. Resembling a flying saucer with a single large turborotor in the center, it was hoped the Avrocar would function like a high-performance attack helicopter, but it never performed satisfactorily and was ultimately cancelled in 1961. Only two prototypes were built.

Though not as impressive or cool as the Arrow or the Avrocar, the most successful design to come out of Avro Canada was the CF-100 Canuck, the only Canadian-designed jet fighter to ever reach mass production. First entering service in 1953, 692 CF-100 variants were built. Most were used by the RCAF/CAF, but 53 were purchased for the Belgian air force. Though not as maneuverable or glamourous as Canada's top day fighter at the time, the Canadair Sabre, the Canuck was a solid night and all-weather interceptor and served the Canadian air force well for decades.

-Rognar-

Remember when we were awesome? pt.2

Most Canadians have heard of the Avro Arrow, Canada's most famous (or perhaps infamous) foray into advanced military research during the Cold War. Much less well-known, unless, like me, you were born in Halifax in the 1960s, was the HMCS Bras d'Or, Canada's military hydrofoil project. I remember seeing the sleek little ship in the harbour when I was just a wee lad and even though she never got up to speed anywhere within sight of land, she was beautiful. Fifty metres long and displacing 240t, she had a ship's complement of 25. Being an experimental vessel, she was never equipped with armaments. Bras d'Or was built for speed and boy, could she go. Nicknamed the "Flying 400", she reached a maximum foilborne speed in sea trials of 63 knots and was described as highly-stable in rough seas at speeds of up to 40 knots. The project was cancelled in 1971, but the Bras d'Or remains on display at the Musée Maritime du Québec.

-Rognar-

Remember when we were awesome? pt.1

Does anyone recognize the ship in this picture? It is the HMCS Bonaventure, Canada's last aircraft carrier. I'm betting some of you are surprised to learn Canada ever had any aircraft carriers. In fact, we've had three. In 1946, the RCN took possession of HMCS Warrior from the Royal Navy. In 1948, we gave her back and replaced her with HMCS Magnificent. Finally, in 1957, the Magnificent was decommissioned and replaced with HMCS Bonaventure, which served in the RCN until her decommissioning in 1970.

The "Bonnie" was initially equipped with McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee fighters, as well as Grumman CS2F Tracker aircraft for anti-submarine warfare and Sikorsky HO4S helicopters. In 1962, the Banshees were retired and in 1964, the newer Sikorsky CHSS-2 Sea King helicopters were added. In 1967, she underwent a major refit which included improved radar and upgrades to her 76mm antiaircraft guns. The Bonaventure had a displacement of 16,000t and was 192m in length. She had a crew of 1200 and a top speed of 24.5 knots.

-Rognar-

What I'm reading...Darkship Thieves

My reading time is precious, so typically, when I decide on my next book, I will choose something based on word of mouth from a trusted source or select an old classic that I'd always intended to read, but just never got around to it. However, when I picked up my latest book, Darkship Thieves, by Sarah A. Hoyt, it was for an entirely different reason. Ms. Hoyt is a Portuguese-American science-fiction/fantasy writer and outspoken libertarian who contributes to a couple of political blogs I frequent. I became interested in her fiction by reading her online political musings and though most of her books might be described as historical fantasy, Darkship Thieves and her soon-to-be-released sequel, Darkship Renegades are pure space opera in its finest tradition.

Darkship Thieves is best described as a sci-fi romance. Settle down, you guys, there are no heaving bosoms and I do not recall a single use of the word "bodice". It is the story of Athena Hera Sinistra, the wayward daughter of a member of the ruling class in a far future Earth, centuries after a vicious pogrom cleansed the planet of genetically-modified humans including the dreaded rulers, the Biolords. Following a mutiny on her father's spaceship, Athena is forced to flee in an escape pod, only to be captured by a darkship thief. Darkship thieves are mysterious pirates who steal energy pods in their technologically-advanced and stealthy darkships. Athena's captor turns out to be a genetically-enhanced human with cat-like vision and reflexes named Kit Klaavil, a descendent of exiles who escaped Earth during the uprising against the Biolords. Though no match for Kit's superhuman reflexes, Athena had always been unusually adept in a variety of ways and her fighting prowess was no exception. Kit senses something unusual about her and decides to take her back to the hidden base of his people. What follows is a story of growing love between Kit and Athena and growing dread for the future of Kit's people. The climactic confrontation is action-packed and the big reveal is awesome.

Overall, Darkship Thieves has a distinct "golden-age" feel. There is little in the way of technical jargon, even though the main character is something of a gearhead. Although the budding romance between Athena and Kit is central to the novel, it doesn't read like chick-lit. There's plenty of action, interesting world-building and a smattering of Heinleinesque political commentary thrown in for good measure. Indeed, Darkship Thieves won the Prometheus Award for the best novel of 2011, from the Libertarian Futurist Society. Well worth a look.

-Rognar-

More on Election 2012 and the bright future

Seems I may have been a bit hasty in suggesting the Obama administration is uninterested in manned space exploration. NASA has unveiled ambitious new plans for future missions in light of the election result. Manned deep space missions, visits to near-earth asteroids, even a possible manned mission to Mars by 2030, that's some pretty exciting stuff. Admittedly, it will require a commitment from future administrations, but any momentum is encouraging.

-Rognar-

Election 2012 and the bright future

I can't say the final result is unexpected. Outside of the partisan bubble, most sources were predicting a fairly convincing win for Obama. I was surprised by the vote, however. The final tally isn't quite in yet, but Obama looks to be down about nine million votes from 2008. Clearly, the enthusiasm has ebbed dramatically in four years. Yet, Romney got about two million votes less than McCain. The Republicans definitely own this defeat. Either they couldn't bring themselves to vote for their guy, in which case, shame on them. Or, there just aren't as many of them as there were even four years ago. If the Republican party is declining at a rate of half a million voters per year, they definitely have to redefine what they represent. I wish them well as many of the best values of America seem to be Republican values.

So what does it mean for the bright future? Sadly, I don't think it's at all good. In general, Democrats do seem to be a bit more pro-science. They certainly don't adhere to some of the strange views of the religious Right. However, I don't think they're all that interested in space exploration. Democrats tend to think small. They see America as smaller than Republicans do. Sure, America is exceptional, they say, in the same way Greece or Brazil is exceptional. Grand visions of humans in space seems like fantasy to them, especially when there are so many social issues down here on earth that require immediate attention. Money that could go to space science will more likely be directed to green energy and you can bet the military will not have a lot of discretionary spending capability to direct toward establishing strategic assets in the high frontier. President Obama has done a decent job of encouraging private industry to participate in space exploration and, for that, he should be applauded, but for the most part, I think over the next four years little will be accomplished in the effort to hasten the arrival of the bright future.

-Rognar-

Government and the bright future

On the verge of an historical US election, it seems an appropriate time to discuss the role of government in the "bright future". I identify politically as a blue Tory. In the lexicon of Canadian politics, that means fiscal conservatism and relative indifference to social conservatism. As such, I prefer free markets with, at best, a light touch of government to ensure everyone plays fair. However, I do not share the antagonistic view of government of American conservatives. Government, as I see it, is inefficient and large. For this reason, it should stay out of anything in which size is unimportant. We don't need, for example, government broadcasters or oil companies or airlines (all things which we in Canada currently have or have had in the recent past). The private sector has proven amply capable of providing these services. However, I think really big things are beyond the purview of the private sector and space programs seem to be a good example. Sure, big companies like Apple or Exxon Mobil could probably afford to bankroll a project like the Apollo program. A modern version of the Apollo missions would cost about $10 billion per year for about 15 years. Apple, for example, had net profits over the last year of about $40 billion. So theoretically, the largest corporation in the world could afford to fund something like the Apollo program assuming all of its shareholders could be convinced to relinquish a portion of their dividends. However, the mandate of corporations is not to invest in projects which can pretty much guarantee not to be profitable. That is not to say there isn't any money to be made in space. Energy and resources are in glorious abundance in the Solar System and eventually, fortunes will be made, but not on timescales that good capitalists can abide. A long-term investor is someone planning for his retirement in 40 years, not his great-great-grandson's in 140 years. Of course, I don't mean to suggest that governments take a long view either. Most can't see beyond the next election. However, they can commit to projects that aren't profitable as long as enough of the citizenry is inspired by the effort to represent an attractive voting bloc. Now, it might be a bit mercenary of me to say so, but when it comes to motivating governments, a small, but vocal group can often have influence far in excess of its size. In 2004, George W. Bush beat John Kerry by only about three million votes out of over 120 million votes cast. The presidential election of 2008 was one of the more one-sided in recent memory, yet Barack Obama beat John McCain by less than ten million votes. Imagine how much influence a solid block of five million Americans who are committed to space exploration and willing to vote that way could have on the US political landscape. It is certainly more likely to succeed than trying to get that same five million to fund a private space program at $2,000 per person per year for 15 years with no hope of a return.

The real trick and one I don’t know how to overcome is to convince politicians on both sides of the political spectrum that those five million votes really are available to the guys with the best offer for future space exploration. In the recent Republican primary race, Newt Gingrich made a rather surprising pledge to establish a lunar base within eight years of his presidency. Not surprisingly, he was widely-ridiculed within his own party. Setting aside the question of affordability in tough economic times, Republicans are likely to be wary of chasing votes within the scientifically-literate community of space exploration enthusiasts. Their sometimes bizarre views on evolution and climate change and, more recently, human reproduction make many of them seem to be a bunch of ignorant hicks or conspiracy theorists. In order to influence them to embrace space exploration, they need to know that space enthusiasts would be willing to overlook the occasional weirdness from the fringes of the party in exchange for a firm commitment to the bright future. Too bad Newt didn’t win.

-Rognar-

The bright future

Lately I find myself thinking a lot about what I tend to call the "bright future", the future I thought I'd be living in today when I was a kid. I was a space-crazy introvert with visions of Star Wars and Star Trek in my head. The Americans had already sent men to the moon, there was Skylab and Viking and Voyager.  Then there was the space shuttle and Marc Garneau, the first Canadian in space. We in the West had bested fascism and outlasted communism. Infectious diseases were becoming a thing of the past and despite our ever increasing global population, we always seemed to find a way to feed most of them and when we couldn't, it was invariably because of bad governments, not inadequate food supply. As I entered adulthood in the mid-80s, it seemed obvious that the awesomeness would continue. I wasn't naive enough to believe I would be moving to Mars someday, but I certainly would have imagined there'd have been a manned Mars mission by now.

Well, it hasn't quite worked out that way. It isn't all bad, of course. NASA still sends those marvelous little rovers to Mars and the International Space Station still passes overhead 16 times a day. But we don't send people to the Moon anymore, Marc Garneau is a politician (a Liberal MP, no less...talk about destroying my adolescent hero worship) and a manned Mars mission seems more like science-fiction now than it ever has. As for things down here on Earth, we still can't cure cancer or AIDS or the common cold. Nuclear fusion remains stubbornly elusive. We may (or may not) be facing a climate catastrophe unless we wean ourselves off fossil fuels, which we won't without embracing nuclear energy, which we won't because...well, I don't know...radiation scary! We have declining birthrates because we're rich and spoiled and children tend to get in the way of our jet setting lifestyles, so we're aging quickly. Soon, nobody will be able to go to space because our osteoporosis-ridden skeletons won't be able to handle the Gs. Besides, there's no internet on Mars and cellphone reception on the Moon is terrible. How are people supposed to follow their twitter feeds under circumstances like that?

This post is an introduction, of sorts, to a series of future postings in which I will share my thoughts and observations on getting back to the spirit of '69. Feel free to disagree, but be civil about it, if you please.

-Rognar-

I know, let's throw in a mega-hurricane...

I don't mean to make light of a serious situation, but if the events of the last month were plot points in a political thriller, most people would consider it a bit over the top. First, we have what is probably the most important presidential election in decades. The global economy is in a malaise it can't seem to pull itself out of, Iran is building nuclear weapons and Israel is rattling its sabre, China is bullying its neighbours and the Eurozone is fracturing. The president has an eleventh hour crisis in Libya. The ambassador is dead. Rumours circulate, leaked memos are released. Did the administration ignore requests for more security? Probably. The Secretary of State falls on her sword. Worse, did the president have realtime intel of the attacks and choose to ignore it for political purposes? Seems hard to believe, but the opposition smells blood. At this point, we have all the makings of a decent Tom Clancy novel and that's where I would have stopped. But Mother Nature decides to up the ante and toss in a massive hurricane on the eve of the election. Dozens are killed and millions are without power. Several swing states are affected by the storm. Now it's starting to read like a contrived start to a future history for a post-apocalyptic rpg. All we need now is for the president to declare martial law and cancel the election "until order is restored".

Seriously though, stay safe, American friends (and Canadian friends back east who are also getting hit by Sandy).

-Rognar-

P.S. Hey, hurricane-naming people...Sandy? Really?

SpaceX Dragon - mission accomplished

This is awesome. I am of a certain age that I can remember a time when landing men on the moon was something the USA could do with some regularity. At the time, it was generally accepted that the Soviets could probably do it too and eventually would. We also had supersonic air travel. Admittedly, flying on the Concorde was a rich man's game, but it held the promise of a bright future. Then came the space shuttle. There was also nuclear fusion, which they assured us, was only twenty years away. Could lunar bases and manned missions to Mars be far off? Where the heck did all that go? It's been forty years since a human has visited the moon. There's no more shuttle program. No SSTs. Nuclear fusion, they assure us, is still twenty years away. Instead of moon bases, the height of our technological advancement is the Chevy Volt and the iPhone.

Thankfully, it appears we are crawling out of this new Dark Age. The Chinese are talking about sending a man to the moon. While I certainly don't relish the thought of the future belonging to Communist China, it will hopefully spur western countries to reinvest in space exploration if we see a successful Chinese moonshot. In the meantime, American industry seems ready to keep things going for now. I doubt I will see a manned Mars mission in my lifetime, but it's enough to know we haven't completely abandoned the future

-Rognar-

D-bane bids adieu

Some of you may have noticed that one of our longtime contributors has utterly disappeared from the blog. Derobane-bane has, for personal reasons, chosen to remove himself entirely from this site. Fear not, gentle readers, all is well. D-bane is still with us, still throwing dice and still lurking around. He has simple chosen to become an internet ninja.

-Rognar-

The Urth of the New Sun

Having completed The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe a few weeks back, I promptly turned my attention to the sequel, The Urth of the New Sun. Set ten years after the events of the original series, it tells the story Severian's effort to fulfil the prophecy of the New Sun and the ultimate fate of Urth.

[Spoilers ahead]:

The Urth of the New Sun begins with Severian onboard the spaceship, Tzadkiel, on a journey to Yesod, a higher universe, where he, like several Autarchs before him, will undergo a test to determine if the people of Urth are worthy to receive the New Sun. There are, of course, mishaps and even an attempted mutiny along the way, as there are many who do not wish Severian to succeed. After all, the arrival of the New Sun will bring with it, a great cataclysm and most people of Urth will not survive. Soon after his arrival, Severian learns that there is no test and that he is the one to bring the New Sun. He then returns to Urth to prepare it as best as he can. However, this where things start to get a bit chaotic. Severian finds that he can travel the "corridors of time", sometimes at will, other times unconsciously. Indeed, when he arrives back at Urth, he is in the past, during the reign of the Monarch Typhon. Later he arrives at a time a few decades after he left, his wife sits on the throne of the Commonwealth and the New Sun is just about to arrive. Still later, he returns to the distant past to the time of Apu-Punchau, an ancient ruler in prehistoric Urth and then, finally, to a future time, a few generations after the return of the New Sun.

I must confess, I found the latter third of this book a bit difficult to follow at times, largely because of the time travel. Some of the journey's through the corridors of time were not made immediately known to the reader. Still, once I realized what had happened, I was able, with an occasional bit of rereading, to clarify things. All, I can really say as far as a recommendation is, if you enjoyed The Book of the New Sun, you must read The Urth of the New Sun. It doesn't tie up many loose ends from the original series (my sense is that Wolfe is not the kind of writer who feels compelled to do so), but it will answer the one big unanswered question, namely, what would become of Urth and the prophecy of the New Sun.

-Rognar-

Rippin' on...Call of Cthulhu continued

The Cthulhuesque fun continues at SomethingAwful.com.

Mansions of Madness, pt.3

-Rognar-

GURPS New Sun

While reading The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe over the last month or so (currently reading the sequel, The Urth of the New Sun), I was impressed by the depth of the world Wolfe created. It seemed tailor-made for adaptation to a game setting. So I set out to see if it had ever been done and sure enough (and much to my dismay, as it turns out), it had. The source of my dismay, it was a GURPS setting. I played a lot of GURPS back in the 90s. I was a university student back then and all the cool kids were playing GURPS (at least around the campus gaming club). They say familiarity breeds contempt. Well, for me and GURPS, the saying is true. After a couple of years of almost exclusive GURPS, I was completely and irrevocably done with it. I still kept a few of my favourite sourcebooks, like GURPS Conan and GURPS Terradyne to mine for ideas, but I haven't played the game itself in nearly 20 years. Needless to say, I was somewhat ambivalent about investing in GURPS New Sun, but in the end, the pull of the setting proved stronger than my antipathy toward the game.

One point before I discuss the book, GURPS New Sun is one massive spoiler. It is unlikely anyone would even think to buy it if they hadn't already read The Book of the New Sun, but be forewarned, the entire plot of both The Book of the New Sun and The Urth of the New Sun are revealed.

GURPS New Sun is a quality work and quite an interesting sourcebook even for someone who may not wish to play GURPS. It starts out with a history of Urth, starting with the Age of Myth, which is basically all of history up until humanity's ascension to the stars and the creation of the First Empire. When the First Empire began is unclear, but its slow decline began about 72,000 years before the events of The Book of the New Sun. This era of interstellar empire and decline is known as the Age of the Monarch, named for the Monarch Typhon, the last great ruler of the age and a character who makes a brief appearance in The Sword of the Lictor. The Age of the Autarchs follows. It is the current era in The Book of the New Sun. Finally, there is The Next Age: Ushas or Ragnarok. The future of Urth is governed by the prophecy of the New Sun. If it comes to pass, Urth will go through a catastrophic upheaval, but will emerge on the other side as a vibrant, abundant world (Ushas). If the New Sun does not come, Urth will eventually turn into a frozen ball revolving about a burned-out sun for all eternity (Ragnarok). It is not an easy choice. Those alive in the present would not see Ragnarok, not would their children or even their grandchildren. However, the catastrophe that would mark the beginning of the rebirth of the world would be devastating and immediate. Most would not survive.

Next are chapters on the geography of Urth, especially the Commonwealth and its capital city, Nessus, although a few pages are dedicated to Ascia. There is a chapter on religion, mainly the Church of the Conciliator, with some description of Yesod included in this chapter as well. There is also a chapter on some of the unique aspects of space and time as described in The Urth of the New Sun and how they can be adapted to the GURPS system. Being a sourcebook, there is, of course, a chapter dedicated to character creation. For those unfamiliar with GURPS, chargen is a point-buy system for everything. You can buy attributes, skills, advantages. If you buy low attribute scores or disadvantages, you get points back that can be spent on other things. It is a pretty straightforward system, but one that is easily abused. Anyway, the character chapter includes some new skills and advantages/disadvantages as well as advice on how to adapt some existing ones to the setting. There are also an impressive array of character templates in keeping with the astounding depth of the setting. Of course, there are also the usual components of any game setting, weapon and equipment lists, a bestiary and a bunch of adventure hooks. Finally, there is a chapter on thaumaturgy. The lines dividing technology, magic and psionics are very blurry in The Book of the New Sun. The impression I got from reading it is that everything is actually technological, although some of that technology, especially some described in The Urth of the New Sun, stretches the limits of what I would consider possible within the constraints of the laws of physics. Having said that, GURPS New Sun treats a lot of the seemingly mystical effects as sorcery or psionics. It is up to individual GMs to decide the nature of the technology in their campaigns, but from a game mechanics perspective, it seems easier to treat it as magic.

Overall, GURPS New Sun is a pretty decent sourcebook. Even if the game system itself is not my thing, I have always felt the supplements were invariably excellent. At a modest $20 for a meaty, 128 pg. soft-cover, it's a good bargain and I would say it's a must for anyone interested in converting The Book of the New Sun to a tabletop rpg game setting.

-Rognar-