Monday, November 29, 2010

Mutant Future Characters Named.pdf - Powered by Google Docs

Mutant Future Characters Named.pdf - Powered by Google Docs

these are my Characters for Spiel Meister's Mutant Future Game, all randomly rolled. I made them part of a crew of roving "problem solvers". Since there is not much of a skill system , which would eat up character creation time, I'm ok with using player knowledge.


Old School Books I Gave away recently

I till have my GURPS and HARN books. In the baby prep, I read you can't just have junk lying around because they gather dust. So I got rid of all my old school books. I don't think I'll be using them and the earliest I'll ever play with my kid-to-be would be freeform anyway.

Planes Scape: Planes of Conflict
Freedom in the Galaxy: The Star Rebellions
Space Master RPG
AD&D revised Night Below
L5R 1E: City of Lies
L5R 1E: Game Master's Pack
D&D DMG 3E Very Damaged Original
D&D Phb 3E Photocopy
AD&D 2nd Ed Revised: PHB
Dragon 155, 157, 154, 158, 152
Heavy Metal Nov 2005
Battle Tech: House Steiner
DnD 3E: Magic of Faerun
OSRIC x2
AD&D Paladin's Handbook 2e Revised
AD&D 2nd E R. Ravenloft: Van Richten's Monster Hunter Compendium Volume 2
Terry Brooks Knight of the Word
Forgotten Realms: Return of the Archwizard Series 1 to 3
D&D: The Death Ray
A Man Betrayed J.V. Jones
Druid of Shannara
Elfsong
Trek the unauthorized behind the scenes story of the Next Generation
Lord of the Rings: the two Towers Creatures

Friday, November 26, 2010

Small Mutant Future Character Sheet

update: changed the google docs link to "anyone with this link" to "public on the web" and updated the link. Just comment if errors continue.

Spiel Meister is running mutant future in the Local monday holiday. Since the game system is very light, I decided to save some paper and ink by making my own smaller character sheet. The previous version was made with Open office, but saved as MS Office Doc, Here is a PDF version. Of course you can type and cut/paste text with the MS Doc version.

I made characters using pbegames website. I heard its going to be lethal, and having spent no effort on these characters means less attatchment and more objectivity when RPing them. Less of those Cognitive Biases.

Character One
Name: Bel
Method: 4d6 drop lowest, in order
STR: 15 DEX: 9 CON: 14 INT: 14 WIS: 17 CHA: 12
Appearance: middle-aged, unkempt
Sanity: normal
Traits: moody, contrary
Personality: diplomatic
Piety: average
Morals: lusty
Intellect: average
Interests: athletics


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Character Two
Name: Rick
Method: 4d6 drop lowest, in order
STR: 15 DEX: 6 CON: 15 INT: 15 WIS: 11 CHA: 7
Appearance: mature, non-descript
Sanity: normal
Traits: kindly, curious, warlike, foul
Personality: friendly
Honesty: honorable
Intellect: active
Energy: normal
Interests: altruism

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Character Three
Name: Noel
Method: 4d6 drop lowest, in order
STR: 11 DEX: 14 CON: 11 INT: 8 WIS: 10 CHA: 10
Appearance: mature, non-descript
Sanity: very stable
Traits: studious, fanatical, helpful
Personality: modest
Nature: hard-hearted
Bravery: normal
Piety: zealot
Interests: hunting


--------------------------------------------------
Character Four
Name: Fatie
Method: 4d6 drop lowest, in order
STR: 9 DEX: 12 CON: 14 INT: 14 WIS: 13 CHA: 11
Appearance: mature, rough
Sanity: normal
Traits: studious, servile, foul
Personality: diplomatic
Energy: normal
Bravery: cowardly
Disposition: unfeeling
Interests: collector of coins & tokens

--------------------------------------------------
Character Five
Name: Felian
Method: 4d6 drop lowest, in order
STR: 12 DEX: 13 CON: 10 INT: 9 WIS: 10 CHA: 14
Appearance: mature, non-descript
Sanity: normal
Traits: obsequious, trusting, suspicious
Personality: quiet
Materialism: intellectualist
Thrift: wastrel
Nature: jealous
Interests: wine & spirits


Friday, November 19, 2010

Combat Leader's Field Guide as a GMing tool

This is how I see using this field manual as a Gaming tool. Of course it would be helpful to at least read the first few chapters which deal with organization, leadership and analysis.


Page 17, How to make Combat Orders. Spend as much as 4 hours tops.
(There is a good rule of thumb here, only spend 1/3 of your budgeted time planning; around 1 hour writing what you need to download and search, and the rough outline; 2-3hours writing, downloading and searching).

  • Maps, prepare a few maps needed for the occasion. Typically this would the general area map (where the whole story arc takes place), key strategic locations (side encounters), and the tactical map(s) of the GM.
  • Persons. Operatives, Objectives, Targets, and Contacts can be randomly chosen from the internet. 4chan's weapons thread /k/ has a lot of "operator" pix, airsoft sites and facebook airsoft groups have a lot of operators shots as well.
  • Write up the outline and the general story so far, independent of the PCs. Each piece working towards its goal aware of obstacles and prepared for reasonable danger. make sure they are not created in a Vacuum. Recommend search Combat Mission examples and those found online and rehash them.


Page 11 Command and Control. Resolves in 6-12hours ONLINE or in casual face to face spread out in multiple sessions.
This is an 8 step processes of mission planning outline in the book. Players and GM are basically ironing out the details of the adventure. This halves the job of the GM in prep. Note that it is a GM's job to throw curve balls and to highlight the weaknesses of the PCs plans.

In a face to face meet, printers and a good internet access will help expedite a lot of things. Print out the maps using Poster Print options, then tape them together and put over it a layer of book cover plastic so that everyone can make erasable pen marks.

GM facilitates and role-plays various NPCs contacts, Leader organizes and focuses on most key tasks (leaving busy), other players support by handling all supporting and necessary details.

The Game Session. (Time variable, 6-10hour game
The game session proceeds much more quickly because the CC has been done. This is now an exercise of Adaptive Problem solving. Players will begin to use their Problem Solving skills and execution skills in this session. Note that there is a very strong independence from PC competence and a higher reliance on Player problem solving abilities.

Key skills emphasized are Intuition (Benner, From Novice to Expert), Making sense of Ambiguous Situations (Weick, Sensemaking in Organizations), Framing (Kahneman and Tversky, Choices, Values, and Frames), Decisiveness (Gerstner, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? Schein, DEC Is Dead, Long Live DEC.), Small wins (Ambrose, The Supreme Commander), Diplomacy and Communication.

If I had the resources, i'd make this live action in airsoft and a small town, and sell it as a Adventure service. Probably get a whole town to play along.



Monday, November 15, 2010

Orders of Magnitude (Computing) a way to measure INT?

Stumbled on Orders of Magnitude (Computing) because of the latest news China Officially Overtakes US in Supercomputer Performance. So how would this work as to measure Intelligence?

More importantly, it can be used to measure or to gauge Mental Tasks for rolls.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Gaming as a Business; factors that make it possible

Right now Philippine Tourism has a interesting problem, how to draw more revenue by getting more Tourists. One interesting thing about the Philippines compared to its neighbors is the legality of airsoft and milsim activities. there is very little ambiguity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_issues_in_airsoft

So the Philippines can have Adventure Tourism at the intensity of allowing Simulative equipment like Airsoft guns. Whats that got to do with GMing and RPGs?

Well, LARPs and RPGs all work on real principles of Player Management. A GM who takes his craft seriously enough knows the amount of diplomacy, social engineering, and story telling craft necessary for a successful game are really do exist. Creativity, Innovation and Application of personnel management are already a science, they being used in large corporations and marketing.

So Adventure Tourism is taking the Skills of a GM and transforming the experience, the same way Brand Managing uses Association Biases, and taking something familiar to a whole new level (ex. Coffee, from DD to Starbux; Luxury Products etc). The resources are spent by the GM/Entrepreneur are invested to create an entirely NEW experience. Elevated to a level where it is more sophisticated, and easier to appreciate universally.

There is a Business Plan and the Idea used for a country like the Philippines where Services are cheap because of labor and knowledge and expertise are all there, left only to the ingenuity of the person willing to learn.

Its not just about the Philippines but a plug for people who can see the core strengths that allow for GMing or RPGS (LARPS too) as a feasible business.

Affordable Services, the kind that allows people to focus on their fun, create an environment where in they stay in that experience. The tactile and kinesthetic involvement, is never to be underestimated (cerebral cortex, motor skills and kinesthetic intelligence is highest ratio in humans in brain comparison_idhmsources with me right now). Also the objective and critical GM skills that has an appreciation of Kaizen/Empirical methodology.

Milsim, Adventure Simulation, and its varying degrees of simulation, Cosplay and LARPs and their also broad variants, and Live action Adventure games like Races, Puzzles, Coops and Competitive play. Add some basic and very useful Game Theory skill in incentive, system analysis, and tools of theory one can design the game for optimum fun and sustainability.

Go on vacation, an adventure vacation with affordable rates or if not choose to be pampered, where skilled GM's and trained NPCs-players create a simulated and safe dynamic experience where core problem solving skills and the exhilaration of being able to apply them.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Planning to continue, but focus more on the science

I'm an avid fan of realism, and it was through games that I became more enamored with the science of how things really worked.

I couldn't stay away long, and having grown up writing about RPGs I guess I can't stay away forever.

Damage Theory. Right now, I'm collecting data about Damage. I got to enjoy and experience a lot of physics in air-soft. Reading up on books that deal with accuracy in air-soft guns, it was a natural progress when I began to look at books relating the physics of real guns.

What I found that any game designer could use is a Table of Forces, Mechanism (edge, piercing, weapon diameter etc.) as well as simple formulas of how much these forces diminish over distance. Information about Guns is not that hard to get. Information about ballistics is a bit harder, especially since there is trade craft involved.

Nat Geo's Fight Science is a great source for numbers, regarding forces certain bodies are capable of generating. Of course, I would be sure to keep this article in mind (Fight Science Bad Science). I'll try to get the Weight of the Performers or at least a making the assumptions clear if I can't find data on their weight, height and age. Also I will try to apply the Force to Weight Ratio the physics experts were asking for.

ARMA will also be a great source of information when performance moves to more and more weapons. After accumulating the data, it would be a simple task for any game designer to make their own abstractions based on the core principles they illustrate.

As for me, I still think Wound Saves (Aka Damage Saves) are still the fastest and illustrative way to handle it. Especially since HP systems are thoroughly debunk with this level of detail.

Practical Reason why i'm doing this? Other than the Ammo and Gun Debates I frequently see, understanding how fragile or resilient the human body helps in performance management. The more information I gain from this, the more I learn to be careful or what out for dangers. Like any physics lessons, understanding the principles gives some ability to act on the information not just idly sit by when certain things are happening.

From knowing what cover is best against an explosion, a hail of bullets, or from a racing automobile to knowing how much force is needed to/or avoid incapacitation or injury. How much damage throwing a piece of rock can deal, how much force can a tensed torso of Xlb male can take without injury etc. etc.

A collection of Rules of thumbs, and sources. Also a great way to exercise my very rusty math skills.

Other Things to Post.
Got Small Wars Manual and Combat Leader's Field guide. The best way I know to learn all of this is through an RPG where players will need the data of the book. At least understand why each procedure is important. Using Tactical and Management Manuals for RPGs is a great precedent for learning to learn anything useful through a very fun process.