Anyway...

mytholder @ 2008-05-14T08:45:00

2008-05-13T23:46:51Z

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.

Now We Are Here, Feedback

2008-04-26T02:08:37Z

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

2008-04-25T01:13:13Z

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.

A moment later, a figure staggers out and blindly sprays a hail of inaccurate fire from an automatic pistol before collapsing to the deck, unconscious. The security team quickly seize the crashed pod and secure the prisoner. A quick scan of his face reveals that he is Mattas, one of the Flight Crew. He's got more guns strapped to him than he can carry, and the pod appears to be filled with weapons of various kinds, along with the bodies of two more Flighters, who were killed by the impact. The pod appears to have been hastily packed with equipment, and is beginning to sink. The security team salvage what they can before bringing Mattas back to the shuttle.

The triped alien got a lungful (or lung-analogue-full) of the gas, and toppled into the water. It landed on top of a trio of what look like wormballs, but there are vegetable-fibre fastenings wrapped around them. The alien walked across the water from the catamaran by strapping wormballs to its three feet.

The catamaran is sailing north-west towards an archipelago of islands, and has abandoned this triped to your mercy. What do you do?

View Poll: #1176632

Bloodlines & magic

2008-04-22T23:51:21Z

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

2008-04-16T23:39:30Z

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

Now We Are Here, General Transmission #29

2008-04-16T13:02:23Z

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.

(Science officer zarkia c/links a more detailed analysis of that data. The image shows six individual creatures. They each have three spindly legs, and it looks like their 'arms' are actually a single limb that sprouts from the chest, then bifurcates. They are taller than a human, approximately 2.5 metres on average, but are so thin and spindly that you would guess they are considerably lighter. Their hide is a greenish tan colour. None of them are wearing any garments or coverings, but two of them are carrying spears or sticks, and another two are dragging a net between them. Something large and whitish is wriggling in the net. There is one smaller member in the group, possibly a juvenile. It's lagging behind as the rest drag the net along the sandbar.

The way they move reminds you of water strider insects on a pond.)

The catamaran halts a short distance from the floating shuttle, and two of the creatures make obscure preparations before stepping out of the boat and walking over the water. They clamber awkwardly on board, pausing to remove something from their feet before investigating.

(The rescue shuttle informs the pursuit shuttle that its ETA is only another few minutes, and urges them to hold position.)

One of the creatures stabs the hull of the downed vessel repeatedly with a stick or spear, then turns and gestures to the catamaran. The other pulls at various protrusions, and by chance happens across an access hatch. He pulls it open...

...and his head jerks back and sprays alien ichor, and his lifeless body falls backwards into the ocean. The other alien is startled, and the catamaran crew raise a sail and turn to flee just as the ready shuttle flies into view.

The triped alien is cowering on the prow of the downed craft, out of the line of fire from the hatch. Someone inside that shuttle is armed and still alive. The catamaran is turning to catch the wind, and looks like it's ready to run and leave the triped behind. The body of the second triped bobs up and down in the midst of other debris from the crash.

The rescue shuttle crew need consensus guidance.

View Poll: #1171998

mytholder @ 2008-04-09T11:33:00

2008-04-09T10:33:52Z

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

Now We Are Here, General Transmission #28

2008-04-09T00:19:58Z

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.

The smaller rogue craft skewers crazily down towards Serendipity, trying to outrun the larger shuttle. It's a small shuttle-like vehicle, probably with half a dozen crew on board. The g-forces must be punishing inside as it skims the upper atmosphere.

It's on a trajectory towards the northern jungles, roughly where the cargo pod that contained the mysterious woman was found, but something goes wrong. The reddish trail of the insurgent shuttle flares white as a braking thruster explodes, and it veers off course. It plummets into the atmosphere, flaking skin tiles and burning thruster fragments. The ready shuttle follows at a safe distance on a safer course.

Whoever's at the controls of the small craft must be an absolute virtuoso of flight, as it nearly manages to pull out of its doomed path. It ends up making a relatively soft splashdown in shallow waters off the coast. It bobs back to the surface, its position marked by a plume of steam from the hot surface.

It's possible - though unlikely - that some of the crew may have survived. The ready shuttle is approaching the crash site, but the crew on board have minimal weapons or medical gear. What should they do?

View Poll: #1168048

Now We Are Here, General Transmission #27

2008-04-03T11:38:12Z

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

2008-04-03T11:16:56Z

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

2008-03-28T11:12:49Z

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.

A writer's brain

2008-03-17T19:07:03Z

Discussing the time I crashed a car...
Mytholder: Anyway the car was a rewrite.
Mytholder: I mean, write-off.

mytholder @ 2008-03-15T21:35:00

2008-03-15T21:38:11Z

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

2008-03-14T12:44:24Z

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

2008-03-10T02:16:01Z

...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?

mytholder @ 2008-03-07T10:38:00

2008-03-07T10:39:44Z

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

Now We Are Here, General Transmission #26

2008-03-04T22:01:53Z

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...
The St. Andrew shakes for a moment with the shock of a hot launch.

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

Attention all hands,
something just launched from the rear of the drive spine! Sensor profile looks like a small shuttle or a fat missile... it's vectoring to enter the atmosphere, heading for the jungles south of the landing site.

The ship isn't supposed to have anything like that on board. Another... surprise left for us by the insurgents.

We have one shuttle docked with the ship right now, and it's fully fuelled. I recommend we pursue the insurgent vessel and capture it. No doubt their leaders are on board. If we don't act now, it could vanish into the intermittent gaps in our satellite network. We could track it with the ready shuttle, but that thing's moving quickly and could evade.

View Poll: #1148910

mytholder @ 2008-03-03T16:19:00

2008-03-03T16:19:59Z

I am Captain Ego.

An actual blog entry

2008-03-03T12:05:51Z

Birthday
That was definitely a weekend.

Or, in fact, a tridecadend.

Thanks to all who came to the party, who didn't but sent apologies, or who sent good thoughts and best wishes from across the intertubes. Especial thanks to the advance party, who got us back into the Voodoo Lounge instead of the absolute hell of Bar Bucha.

There was wine, which appeared neverending. There was cake, which was quite finite in size but infinite in richness. There was quite absurd generosity on the part of you all, and I feel quite humbled.

(There was also a HaloClix Scarab and Guitar Hero at 4am, but we won't go into that.)

It's no secret that I was apprehensive - no, terrified - about turning 30. I seem to have survived, and it's thanks to you lot.

AQA
I've started doing some part-time work for Any Questions Answered (thanks to serpentstar). It's tremendous fun if you like teasing answers out of Google. Ìt's also a window into the collective psyche of the nation (we're doomed. Srsly. The kids are not all right). My favourite question so far was 'could you suck up all the sand in the world with all the hoover bags ever made?' (no, you're off by at least five orders of magnitude).

I'm an artiste now
At last, I'm now officially an Artist, at least within the bounds of Irish tax law. Yep, I'm now tax-free, having produced 'works of cultural or artistic merit'.

(I applied for this before, and was rejected. Apparently, Glorantha and Paranoia books _are_ Art, but d20 supplements and Dark Inheritence aren't.)

You may all now commence hating me as you would a dole-scum. Personally, I plan to use my new-found status to critique everything and everyone around me, and be right in my assessment 'cos I'm an artist now, and I have the tax cert to prove it. (The letter came on Friday - even the government remembered my birthday.)

Right, back to work. So much to do - I was convinced Itzacon was in two weeks' time, not next weekend...

Typo of the Day

2008-02-26T12:28:49Z

Spacecraft do not evade incoming attacks by 'wodging and deaving'.

Now We Are Here, General Transmission #25

2008-02-21T01:22:38Z

Following on from this...
The consensus is to negotiate, and Cogburn reluctantly agrees. A shuttle carries Captain Jacobs up from the surface. It's the first time the captain has appeared in public in some time - he's been busy overseeing the deployment of the Core Landing Module and the development of your still-unnamed settlement - and he looks tired and worn.

A new C-link network is established to hold the negotiations. The captain's the first to address you all.

>C-link engaged
>Backup network open/accord/secpro: null/xjacobsr
>SUBJECT: An Amicable Accord
My friends... I fear that this crisis is largely the result of my negligence. I should have provided more leadership to the consensus in this critical time, and held us together in a common purpose. We have been divided by a series of crises - the failure of the aerobraking shield, the strange creatures on the surface, mistrust and confusion on board the St Andrew - and this division has been allowed to fester, when we should have focussed on our shared mission.

We are the only humans within several light-years. An unimaginable gulf separates us from Sol, from the Jovian moons, and yes, from Earth and the AESIR. We are here to start again, to build a just and free society on a new verdant world. We left Sol not simply because we were defeated in war, but because the stultifying control and hatred of the AESIR was intolerable to us. We are here to do it better.

The mission plan calls for the ship to be broken down, and for the majority of the crew to transfer to the surface while a skeleton crew maintains this loyal old vessel as a communications hub. I understand that the ship has been your charge and your home for many generations, but you have a new home now, with us, down on Serendipity.

This current crisis is born of misunderstanding. Security were too aggressive - but with the recent problems on the surface, their tension is perhaps understandable. The flight crew were too secretive - but I have failed to integrate you into the crew. Please, let us put down arms and return to the mission plan. We are here, on the threshold of our new home. The ship has served its purpose. Come home with us.

As a gesture of good faith, I offer to atone for the problems on board ship by stepping down as captain. Further, I propose that one of the flight crew be my successor in the post.

Cogburn transmits a brief message.
>C-link engaged
>Backup network open/accord/secpro: null/xcogburn
>SUBJECT: The Insurrection
The Flight Crew mutinied against the lawful command of this ship. We've had problems since day one on board - Eugenie Kale's murder, the sabotage of the heat shield, Prospero's bizarre behaviour - which add up to deliberate attempts to doom this mission. I am not accusing the whole Flight Crew of being involved, but I am convinced there are dangerous elements within them.

I suggest this - full control of the ship is returned to the rightful authorities. When Prospero's back online and fully checked out, we go in and we find out exactly what happened and who the traitors are. We root out the corruption, and then everyone who's really committed to the mission can live happily ever after on Serendipity.

I don't want power and I don't want to be in charge. I want us to be safe and secure, and the only way that's going to happen is if we find the saboteurs.

And if it comes down to it - we don't need this ship anymore, one way or the other.

Both Patmas and Romal of the flight crew transmit messages.

>C-link engaged
>Backup network open/accord/secpro: null/xpatmas
>SUBJECT: Emergency Repair
Shipmates all, xPatmas, we do not want conflict. This ship is our home, and will always be dear to us. Prospero, too, is a friend and should not be treated with such violence. Junior flight are mostly willing to disembark, senior flight have bone degredation, gravity is pain. Let junior flight go down, all. As captain says, follow mission plan, but edit, leave ship functional. I will watch it. Above all, no violence.

>C-link engaged
>Backup network open/accord/secpro: null/xromal
>SUBJECT: RE:Debate
Shipmates all, xRomal, mission plan is outdated. Flight crew are most comfortable on ship, let those who wish to go down go down and those who wish to stay stay. Leave the ship to us. If Prospero is damaged, let it be repaired. Repair and maintenance are good. Cogburn is violent, acts without consensus. He speaks of war, of conflict. Such things are fresh in his mind, because he was a sleeper. We are five, six, seven generations removed from such things. He sees cascade system errors when indicator lights only flicker. Remove Cogburn, let those who wish to remain remain, and we have consensus.

To summarise:
The captain advocates sticking to the mission plan, everyone shakes hands, and he steps down as a symbolic gesture. The majority of the Flight Crew transfer to the surface, the ship's gutted.
Cogburn suggests turning the ship upside down until he finds his 'saboteurs'.
Patmas agrees with the captain, but wants the St. Andrew to be kept as intact as possible. Not stripping the ship will slow the development of the colony.
Romal wants Cogburn gone. He wants the flight crew to be allowed to remain on the ship if they wish, but wants the rest of the crew to leave the ship eventually.

By the way, here's the last consensus on this issue.

View Poll: #1141739

mytholder @ 2008-02-14T01:39:00

2008-02-14T01:42:55Z

Just added two new company folders to documents/freelancing.

Now We Are Here, General Transmission #24

2008-02-07T21:22:16Z

Following on from this...
>C-link engaged
>BACKUP network open/emergency/secpro: null/xcogburn
>SUBJECT: ATTENTION ALL HANDS
Our repairs to Prospero are continuing. Science & Engineering sections are completing their work as I speak. Given the increasingly unstable situation on the planet below, a secure command post here on the ship is more important than ever.

Several members of the flight crew have locked themselves away in an engineering module towards the stern of the St. Andrew. They have refused to surrender to security and we--

>>>transmission override
>C-link override
>BACKUP network open/backdoor/secpro: null/xpatmas
>SUBJECT: Flight Crew allhands comm

I Patmas. I do not speak for all flight. Others, others, nospeak. Consensus maintenance noviolence please? Loss of Prospero alarming, routine broken, bad! But more, things not in original plan. I beg, noviolence, but others are angry. Others are--

>BACKUP network open/backdoor/secpro: null/xromal
>SUBJECT: Flight Crew allhands comm
This is our ship. Mission plan states that nonflight crew will leave ship on arrival. You will leave. Now. Or violence.

>C-link engaged
>BACKUP network open/emergency/secpro: null/xcogburn
>SUBJECT: ATTENTION ALL HANDS
This is Cogburn. The flight crew insurgents are attempting to hack into our ad-hoc c-link network. We may be able to stall them until Prospero is back up, but my gut tells me we should act now!

Are you with me?

View Poll: #1134835

Denial

2008-02-03T13:50:18Z

It's my 30th birthday on the 1st of March. If anyone's around Cork, there'll be drinks that evening. All are welcome.

Now We Are Here, General Transmission #23

2008-02-01T15:45:40Z

>C-link engaged
>BACKUP network open/general/secpro: null/xhigginsl
>SUBJECT: Expeditionary Force reporting in

We're pulling out now. Shuttle, prepare for evac. Ok, the stasis tube's prepped for transport. Let's go.

Hell, those things are a lot closer now. Braun, Val, take point. Don't fire unless they make hostile action! Move, move, move!

Nearly to the-
The c/link is flooded with the sound of automatic weapons fire and screaming. Half the links of the security team go dark. In the confusion, Higgins drags the stasis pod into the waiting shuttle. The shuttle takes off, seconds ahead of the lead creature's spinning saw-blade.

I don't know what happened. Those things kept coming closer...I think Val fired first. I don't know. God, no.

As the shuttle approaches the Core Landing Module, its onboard computer transmits data to the waiting medical staff. The stasis tube was damaged further in the hasty extraction, and life support is failing. You might be able to bring her back, but her wounds would be fatal. Alternatively, you can transfer her to another stasis tube, but that means safe revival would be impossible for weeks.
View Poll: #1131280