The Crusades

Star Wars Convention Under Assault by Star Trek Crusaders


The Los Angeles Convention Center before yesterday's attack.

LOS ANGELES - It was an otherwise bright and balmy day at the Los Angeles Convention Center in downtown Los Angeles yesterday. However, underneath the calm exterior, a far more sinister and brutal scene was taking place. At noon a group of extremist Star Trek fans assaulted the building in the middle of the largest official Star Wars convention, Star Wars Celebration V.

In a matter of hours, the combined force of cosplaying Klingon, Federation and Romulan fans had secured a little over half the premises. They had soon erected a 12' tall statue to Gene Roddenberry, also consecrating the convention center as holy ground in his name. Despite the fierce Trekkie assault, the Star Wars fans have managed to secure their own ground within the center due to an unprecedented truce between the imperials and the jedi.

Fighting continued throughout the night with many of the taller Trekkies donning Jar Jar Binks costumes for brave suicide raids on enemy defenses. Not to be outdone the Star Wars fans managed to erect a pair of large projection screens on the front lines, playing so called "reset" episodes of Star Trek: Voyager in an endless loop to break the enemy's spirit. Despite the efforts of both sides, neither has yet managed any sort of conclusive offense and the stalemate is expected to continue for some time to come.


The crack imperial cosplay 501st unit prepares to join the fray.

In the hopes of breaking the deadly stalemate, both sides have sent ambassadors to Los Angeles' anime community and online anime forums hoping to strike an alliance with the remaining fandom super power. So far there has been no word from the anime community, supposedly the gift boxes of Star Wars: Clone Wars have not been well received, while the 3 foot scale models of the Enterprise A may have won the Trekkies a critical diplomatic victory with the model makers.

The decision, however, largely hinges on the currently split demographic of Yaoi slash fic fans. A recent surge in high quality Kirk/Spock and Luke/Han doujins has completely divided the already fractured community. Proposals for an updated Chekov/Sulu pair, using the actors from the new J.J. Abrams movie as models, have become a popular hope for breaking the deadlock.

So I've Been Taking Time Off

I haven't been posting here frequently. I know how good that is for my readership numbers... but I still felt the silence somewhat necessary. There is probably a feeling that I must not have had much to say, but that is entirely contrary to reality. In fact, there was a whole lot I wanted to say, but most of it was general life whinery and wanting to chew certain people out. The rest was that there were a lot of issues I wanted to take a wait and see approach to.

Now I'm planning on being back, so let's get down to business.

Latest Stuffins
I just uninstalled all the games on my computer. The truth is, I've been having this overwhelming feeling of ennui towards games lately. I look at my game list and just feel bored with it all. That sucks, and it gets me constantly wasting precious dollars on new, to me, games to relieve the boredom. Worst of all, I still wind up playing games rather than doing any of the things I really should be doing... especially the things that could actually result in my getting paid.

So here is my answer to the universe, I want to make games more than I want to play them, and it's just the temptation that gets to me. Temptation removed.

On My Mind
Dear MMO developers... WTF. I've been having high hopes for ya'll for a while now. Figured just give you some time and you'll really get around to wowing me at some point. Uggh, total failure. It's all more of the same crap. RPG trappings for no other reason than to have RPG trappings. Seriously, it's like making a spacecraft with wings for no other reason than aircraft have wings. You can make all the crap you want, but if you hold onto all the useless bits you'll never actually arrive at great design.


Vis a vis Cuppy vs. Game Designers and MMO Bloggers, what exactly is the point of all this? Okay, so some of the people who don't like Facebook games go a little too far in it, but can we drop the innuendo that people who don't see Facebook games as the second coming of Christ are all myopic dinosaurs begging for their own extinction. Facebook games are just another iteration of web games, and hey I liked web games. In fact one of my all time favorite games that I seldom shut up about, Neveron, was a web game. Still, it's just another iteration of an older concept, this time with a new audience. Some of that audience will stick, some of it won't. People who can't personally respect that audience and their taste in games really shouldn't be making games for them anyways.

Personally, I have some doubts as to the value of Facebook as a medium. Between the different monetization models and the extreme stratification between the winners and everyone else, it's hard for me to believe that a small company can really turn enough of a profit to stay in business. Doesn't mean I'd turn down an offer to work on one in exchange for fair payment though.


Otherwise, not much is really up. I still hate programming with a passion, and am still trying to program a game in XNA. The combination isn't working out very well for me, but I've had 3-4 different programmers up and disappear on me. The whole run around of not knowing whether their still working on my project or not, and my own timidity leading to my not busting down their doors looking for answers, is just too much for me. So I'm giving this a try on my own steam, which I expect to run out soon if it hasn't already.

Desperate Plea
I am really, completely, stupidly broke. I know nobody has ever used the Tip Jar over there, but really.. if you could spare a buck... or fifty cents or you know two bits, anything at freaking all, I wouldn't be above accepting it. In fact, I'll gladly grovel for it. And I know it says it's for Thetagamerz, that was a business I tried setting up a while back... it didn't work out.

If there is something within my skill set that someone would like to pay me to do, by all means throw me a comment or an email (sara.pickell at gmail dot com).

Just a Thought

I'm thinking about trying out something new here in a bit. I've been thinking for a while that I would like to work with creating my own miniatures, but I haven't really been all that up on peweter and greenstuff modeling. So I was just thinking I could create a 3d model in Maya, print out the UVs and create a paper model using the UV layout.

Chase and Retreat

The sound of the TV drowned out the muted chatting of the cafe's occupants. "KAT7 News covering this thrilling chase through downtown Las Vegas, the suspect in a black Camaro..." A diner who had been absorbed in a book looked up for a few seconds but soon returned their attention to their book. Sheila sighed as she leaned on the counter, staring out at the peaceful swaying of the bushes outside the cafe's large windows.

"I've been thinking about paying a visit to my sister up in Reno. Haven't seen her in a while..." She said without looking at anyone in particular.

"... In another strange turn of events it has launched off the overpass and is now taking the side streets."

"Heh, it's not like you're heading out of state, what's the big deal?" The waitress next to her asks.

"Well, we weren't exactly on good terms you know. I have no idea how she would react to my just suddenly showing up." An awkward silence began between the two women, while the tv continued chattering away. The sudden ring of the phone on her belt made Sheila jump.

"Jack, what's up, haven't heard from you in a while..."

"... Once again, the suspect Nathan Langer is wanted for a shooting in Henderson at a local dance school..."

"I thought you guys were in Reno..." Her gaze at the window in front of her changed from one of boredom to shock.

"... It looks like the police are about to take drastic measures. A spike strip has been set up."

A distant sound of sirens began to penetrate the small establishment. "Jack stay right where you are, I'm coming over there right now."

"What's up?"

"Janey... My sister..." despite her expression not changing tears began to roll down Sheila's cheeks. "Was killed." The final statement came out flat, but her legs seemed to give way and she sunk down to her knees. "Listen I need to go now, can you watch the shop?"

"Sure thing boss. You go and do whatever you need to do. We'll be fine here!"

"... Tires are blown but the suspect hasn't been stopped!"

Sheila grabbed her coat and walked towards the door, the sound of sirens outside was becoming deafening.

"The suspect is loosing control of their car, spinning out of control!"

Sheila reached out to grab the handle on the door and noticed movement out the corner of her eye. As though in slow motion her head turned to see a black Camero sliding across pavement and sidewalk towards her. The signal to move passed throughout her whole body, but too late, between second and the next the side of the car smashed through the door frame picking her up and pushing her in front of it into the small cafe.

"... Smashed into the front of a store bringing this terrifying chase to a brutal close. Word from the ground is that there may be casualties in the building it ran into. Our prayers are with their families tonight..."

Jack sat in shock in front of the hospital barely sparring a glance for the detective questioning him.

"And what happened then?"

"Then he ran out the front door. I saw him get into a car, a Camaro maybe, black. After that I was too busy with Janey to really notice anything else."

"Well, LVPD should have the bastard in custody now. Do you have anyone coming for you?"

"Janey's sister. She owns a cafe downtown..."

"I see, well take care then." The detectives final words were drowned out by the sirens of arriving ambulances.

Belated announcement

This is coming a bit late, but with the problems I've been having on the other blog's comment's section, I'm canceling the current play test for Twin Rivers. I'm going to have to find another venue anyways at this rate, since I'm having a hard time explaining everything in twitter and skype anyways.

My Top 5 games of the last decade.

Props to The Escapist's feature on the Bioware founder's top 5 games of the decade for getting me thinking about this. I've been wanting to stretch out and do something a little less serious for a while.

5. Morrowind (2002)
In all honesty, I think Oblivion has the clearly superior combat style, but Morrowind wins for shear openness of world. Oblivion's world always felt somewhat homogeneous and confined for my taste. Morrowind also has more after market mods than you can shake a stick at, while it's graphics, with the horrible exception of faces which seems to be Bethesda's kryptonite, have aged well enough that you can still stand to look at them.

4. Dragon Age (2009)
I still have some reservations in the ways in which Bioware has decided to attach a bottle rocket to the difficulty curve of their toolset, but in all other ways Dragon Age is the consummate Bioware game. A great story with segmented storyline bits to tackle at your discretion, a decent but not overbearing character customization routine, character backgrounds that have in game effects, and combat that makes you simultaneously reminisce about tabletop D&D and want to kill every member of your party personally. Add to that the full spectrum of romance options, and I find myself a wee bit giddy to be honest.

3. Dwarf Fortress (2006)
They may be @ signs, but they're your @ signs... kinda. Dwarf Fortress is probably one of the best management sims ever made, if you don't mind things actually being difficult for a change. It's obvious from the first time you play DF, and have to wait as it runs a world building simulation, that these guys are serious about good, detailed, simulation. It's not perfect, but it is a refreshing change of pace from some of the more shallow simulations, like Spore.

2. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 (2006)
I think I summed up my thoughts earlier on here at SoaGCure. I don't have much to add to that, other than I think it's a little tragic that Western RPG developers seem to have completely missed what it could have taught them.

1. Portal (2007)
Portal is about as close to perfection as any game could possibly be. They refined down their core mechanics into a heavily distilled package of fun. Then in complete understanding of just how far outside the norm they were they made sure to give the players a significant tutorial. That the tutorial was entertaining in it's own right sets it apart from the many, many, terrifically boring tutorials littering gaming culture. It's only knock is that it is short, but then that could just be a byproduct of the distillation process.

Discuss.

Cyber Goth

Twin Rivers Play Testing Sign Ups

Well, I'm all ready to get this show on the road and start some testing. Mmmmm, testing.

All right, so here is what you need to know before hand:
We'll be playing by blog (I have another one set up just for this), every round-half will be it's own post as I'll be manually updating the map to reflect the movements during the turn. Turns will be taken by leaving a comment, keeping to turn order, with your actions. Questions for myself or others can be asked at any time in the comments section. I highly recommend that you come up with some form of relatively synchronous communication for use in diplomacy negotiations.

As a final thought, testing isn't like regular play. It's slow, and things aren't always going to work out. On the other hand, you'll be right there helping to not only explore the rules, but to refine them and create them. Testing is more about the feeling of reward at the end when something you had intimate involvement in is finally ready for the world at large, then any moment to moment fun. (Though hopefully there will be some of the latter as well.)

What You'll Need:
Print out a few of these minimaps, they should fit on 8.5x11 landscape or a sheet of a4. You'll need to form a shorthand to mark them with, but they will be invaluable in keeping up between official board updates.
A notebook, a stack of lined paper, or a word document, whatever the format may be keep a journal of how the game strikes you. It's best to keep this on hand while making turns so you can immediately jot down anything that stands out, positive or negative.
A gaggle of ten sided dice... okay you don't actually need them but they're great stress relievers when your entire army gets bludgeoned out of existence.

Stuff to make your journaling more useful and my life much easier:
Whenever you deal with a unit for the first time, record in your journal the unit and a numbered ranking from 1 to 5. 1 being completely useless, 3 being perfectly balanced, 5 being overpowered to godlike proportions. Then a few rounds later revisit this ranking and update it with your current opinion on how it's ranked.
At the beginning of a round, write down what you expect to accomplish during that round. At the end of the round, write down how your prediction differed, what you think caused it to differ, and how you feel about the differences.
We're going to be moving slowly, especially as it's play by blog, so just take your time and write things out as they occur to you. There is no such thing as too much information at this stage in development.

We'll need six players to start a game, if you want to participate just leave a comment with e-mail address and preferably an im handle below. If you want to participate but aren't comfortable leaving your email in a public place, just send me an email at sara.pickell@gmail.com

Wargame Usable Pieces

With the addition of the ruleset, 'this wall of text', this is almost everything you need to play. All that's missing is a turn order, and the exact pre-game setup which is relatively simple. (Place one village within 4 hexes of your castle.)

When Night Fell

Context:
Wintertime Soldier
Greatness
A Grave of Red and Black

A poem broadcast throughout the Twilight fleet before embarking on a mission. Also oft recited by human mercenaries before embarking on their own missions.

When Night Fell
The dawn is furthest, and the night seems darkest just after twilight.
The sentinels stand at watch, the certainty of danger keeping rest at bay.
In the corners and behind closed doors is muffled weeping.
Family all, departing into night's sweet fold, mourning those they leave at twilight.
The trappings of empire, the artifice of ancient hubris, now touching in their defiant stands.
As though to reassure, that though hard to see, dawn comes always after night.
Light remains even when we can't see it.

With care towards the coming night, the prayers of all are united in sorrowful discord.
With hope of meeting again in those sweet fields of promised youth.
Of the rest from care, and weariness to which they shall depart before dawn may shine.
Filled in peace as they prepare for one final moment of strife.
Greatest and final moment of beautiful glory, in it's terrible repulsion.
Such sorrow their duty, so painful their honor, inconsolable their sacrifice.
Death's debt assuredley paid.

Go we now before them, from twilight into the dark.
And from the night we seek the dawn, in our honor resting their memory.
In our hearts, their souls, in our souls their beauty, our cup filled.
We know not from whence our roads may travel, or if our paths cross again with twilight.
Yet fear shall not o'ercome us, nor anxieties overtake us, fears shall lay to rest.
Though the weight of worlds may rest on our shoulders, their courage shall give us strength.
Strength to tread towards the light.

Sharing a video.

An impressive bit of CG work with great musical composition.

The Third & Seventh

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

via Abduzeedo

Wargame First Draft Ruleset

Victory Conditions
When no more than 2 mutually allied City States remain.

Defeat
A player who is destroyed is defeated.
A player who surrenders to another power is defeated.
A player who surrenders may be allowed, at the decision of the player they surrender to, to maintain control of their City State and forces as a subject of their conqueror.
Subjects are considered to have a permanant alliance to their ruler, but are not counted towards victory conditions.
Subjects may be deposed of command at the whim of their ruler.

Round
The game is played in rounds.
Within a single round every player has 2 turns.
A round is split into halves.
During the first half, a player's turn consists of the first two phases, 1st Management and Movement.
During the second half, a player's turn consists of the last two phases, Attack and 2nd Management.
At the end of a round, the turn order is rolled to the right, in other words the last becomes first, first becomes second, etc...

Phases
-1st Half-
1st Management
Movement
-2nd Half-
Attack
2nd Management

1st Management
If resource or population loss from last round dropped the amount of resources or population available below that needed for army upkeep, the player must disband units of their choice until their balance is restored.
If any unit you own is within 3 passable hexes of water, an allied village or allied castle, it's dehydration counters will be removed if necessary.
After those two actions, the following actions may be performed in any order.
Diplomacy
Trade
Hiring units up to the maximum capacity allowed by your current resources.
Upgrading towns up to the maximum capacity allowed by your current resources.
Placing any unused collection tokens.

Diplomacy
Diplomatic States:
May/May not allow negotation of trade routes.
May/May not allow passing through ZOC.
May/May not allow attacking each other's units.
May/May not allow using each other's villages and towns as water sources.
If player's have given full allowance to each other, players may then choose to formally ally allowing them to have joint victory.
Players may make any agreements they wish, pertaining only to in game concerns, but they must explicitely define in their agreements if they wish to change between diplomatic states.
Diplomatic agreements can only be broken during the 1st management phase.

Trade
After you have agreed to allow trade with another player, you may establish trade routes.
Trade routes may be established between towns of different owners that are at most 8 passable hexes from each other, are connected by a contiguous body of water, or are connected directly by roads.
A trade route may only be 1 resource for 1 other resource, even mutliples of the same resource require multiple trade routes.
A village may maintain 1 trade route per level.

Movement
A unit may move as many hexes as they have MA.
A unit may move only once per turn.
A unit may attack an enemy unit so long as it is within it's MA.
A unit cannot end it's move on top of another unit.
A unit may not enter an enemy zoc without stopping on that hex.
A unit that starts it's turn in an enemy zoc may move so long as it's first unit of movement takes it out of enemy zoc.
A unit can cross one unit of water per turn like a normal hex so long as it's move does not end in water.
A unit that, for any reason, does end it's move on water is destroyed at the end of the player's turn.
A unit that, for any reason, does end it's turn on another unit is destroyed immediately at end of move.

Attacking
The attacking player declares an attack by a unit.
The attacking player then declares which special abilities they may have that require declaration.
The defending player may then declare any special abilities being used by the defending unit that require declaration.
The defending unit then takes wounds equal to the attacker's attack score.
If the denfending unit takes wounds equal to it's defense score it is destroyed.
If not the defending unit deals wounds equal to it's remaining defense score to the attacker.
At the end of a full round, all wounds are removed.

2nd Management
The player may hire more units.
The player may establish more trade routes if possible.
As the final action of their turn, players add dehydration counters to any unit more than 3 passable hexes from a water source, and remove any unit with 3 or more dehydration counters.