Tuesday, August 30, 2022

Creating 2D Maps with the Blender Files that come with Mneme World Generator


Planet-Map-Template.pptx  https://tinyurl.com/bddr55s2 

Mneme World Generator  https://tinyurl.com/mtecbrwj 

Blender Procedural World Generator  https://tinyurl.com/2p94k979 

If you like our work, consider supporting us and also get Mneme Variant Combat Rules https://tinyurl.com/2s4c9p5n

Monday, August 29, 2022

High Technical Debt - Ends doesnt justify the means - too much Game in the Brain.

 To a Gamer - Ends Doesnt Justify the Means = High Technical DEBT means. 

Sustainable Means (Low or No Tech Debt methods and principles) means I CAN KEEP ROLLING THE DICE - with lower critical failure. (minor setbacks and opportunity costs are acceptable risks). 

A gamer with a grasp of statistics realizes that - ethical means - means no critical failure consequence. Then every roll without Critical Failure can move the needle a little bit more to a WIN with every roll. 

the Min-maxer who will pursue OPTIMAL goals will pursue Low Tech Debt Actions (Ethical and moral actions) they can Afford to Do - creating as many opportunities to ROLL. 


  • Getting to Know people. 
  • Helping out, within their limits
  • navigating ethics and doing no harm or minimizing harm. 
  • Learning and experimenting within our means.  

Whats interesting is that this kind of life - is Playing the Game - engaging, mindful and present, planning, and REVELLING in the small wins and LAUGHING at the failures (along with friends and loved ones). Enjoying the Journey - we play not to win but to experience. Too much Game in the Brain. 

Sunday, August 28, 2022

Mutant Chronicles - First Adventure

 Mutant Chronicles 3rd Edition FREE Quickstart
We had the game Last night, run by our GM beng (who also happens to be my gastroenterologist). I found the adventure well written. Very well written as I noticed its Clues (I love mysteries) were well placed. Of course the only problem was that we were 3rd Worlders (From the Philippines) and DYSTOPIC Police ABUSE is a well-known phenomenon. So well known with the Drug War in the philippines that all the abuses are formulaic ("nanlaban"  is when the Police would say the victim "tried to fight" and they killed them. in the Philippine drug the International Criminal Court found so many red flags that the current president has decided to make the Philippines leave the ICC). 

Suffice to say we played ourselves like Philippine Policemen (the Philippine National Police aka PNP). the lack of checks and balances, the lack of civilian oversight, etc... I'm sure Indian and African or any 3rd Worlder would relate. Which made several CLUES be prematurely revealed. When your police force act like THUGS and gangsters the adventure becomes different. 

Still very well written, and even if we were thugs. there was a mystery - knowing there was no chain of custody, no paperwork, we had the excuse to act like Murder Hobos - able to kill and loot. Knowing that we all "watched each others back" - we got our story straight. 

Even the GM - knows all these abuses and know what whats going to happen. 

SPOILER. 

There was a VERY one-sided encounter in the game. One that could result in the TPK which was a RED HERRING. Knowing it was a one-sided encounter - we all agreed given the type of policemen we were - We'd just turn a Blind Eye. Heck even if the VICTIMS were actually THERE, we'd still turn a blind eye - like many 3rd world Policemen and some in corrupt police forces in developed worlds.

 We were all laughing as we imagined writing our "Police Reports." you can imagine the entire group rehearsing their lines and stories. 

Laughing so hard about police corruption, incompetence, and abuse in a Dystopic Setting. They forget that "Dude some places in the Philippines are WORSE than this, imagine how much of the world is WORSE than the police in this Book."

My personal experience AUDITING a branch company and the abuses they did - plus the criminals it was involved with fuels a lot of my game and writing inspiration. 

I'm aware of police abuses in the US but wait till you hear about the ones happening in the Philippines, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc... 90% of the world. 

Irony - in the Philippines a LONG running TV show based on a Movie "Ang Probinsyano" is about a Idealized Cop doing good deeds. Its hilarious because people would give death threats to the Villain Actors. its So crazy - in light of Philippine Politics (where we elected our Martial law Dictators Son as a new president and we have billions of govt funding for Propaganda).  

So Playing Cops in a Dystopic Setting resonates strongly to 90% of the world where this is NOT FICTION but a fact of life. It ends up not being scary - because culturally so many MEMES have come out in their own cultures - Philippines have a lot of Police abuse memes - that it has become funny. 

Would I play a Dystopic Policeman again? 

Yes 

Why? It's hilarious - roleplaying how they get away with everything - having second or third homes, wives and mistresses, and many illegitimate children (this is a Trope in the Philippines, i wouldn't be surprised if this is true in other developing countries). When You play as a Dystopic Policeman - you are playing someone who can get away with anything.  Many cultures have processed such HORRIFIC things into comedy and humor. 

It makes you realize that maybe Call of Cthulhu - existential dread and dark depressing settings - got it wrong. People are not in Asylums going crazy - they are hard drinking and hard laughing sorts of people who have accepted terminal human corruption and abuse. That human trafficking and sacrifice in Dark Noir Settings fail to capture the Memes that emerge - to make so many Jokes about it. 

corruption and debauchery that becomes so predictable. 

Given that the Philippines can charge people for Libel even if the statement is factually true - we would never share the recorded session. But a bunch of friends roleplaying Corrupt Policemen and their shenanigans is truly horrifyingly hilarious. 

I want to know the Memes in other cultures about police abuses. It would be a source of "Holy Shit REALLY!?!" It would be a mix of horror and surprise and seeing the various flavors of resigned "We're fucked" 

maybe developed countries may have good policemen, and some in developing countries. but definitely those in developing countries spend more of their time avoiding doing evil and minimizing doing evil - which itself is hillarious. Imagine your forced to keep choosing the lesser evil. 

Friday, August 26, 2022

Reflections - What makes it easier for me to run games?

I'm a fan of Seth Skorkowsky, and really like being prepared while being very much open to what the PCs have in store.

What I would like to happen when I run a game is the following.  

  1. I'd download the adventure and go through the Outline and Preparation. The Prep is in a Bullet form, like a Recipe. It has all the basic ingredients there available so I can start making preparations. 
  2. It comes with Images - Ideally the Vistas the PCs will visit. It will save me the 0.5 to 2-3 mins of researching and downloading or god-forbid making them. While my players dont mind really ugly drawings in Roll20 I want something to put them in the mood. 
    1. Thats why Nicco and I are studying Procedural Cities and Worlds with Geometery Nodes. (Eventually procedural Ships that follow the ship building rules we set out)
    2. I want it that I have a bunch of Images, I upload it to Roll20 and done. I can have a scene a picture. 
  3. It comes with Handouts. Players can read it. What happens is Mike or one of the players read the hand out to the rest of us. The GM catches a break and everyone starts getting info from the Hand outs. 
    1. The GM notes talks about what is hidden or obfuscated in the clues of the handouts. Like if the gov't of the world is not what it appears to be, instead of One faction being in power its actually a puppet. 
    2. There are Handouts and Information DESIGNED so that the GM can have it open per scene.
  4. I will read the outline - I get the bullet points in case I missed anything. Details are in bullets - explanations are in Pros. I will not embed information Items that cannot be summarized as bullets (this is from my work in Quality management Systems - make it super EASY because GMs and Players are Juggling Work and Responsibilities to play - they PAY you to save them time and  make it easy). 
  5.  Character Portraits are ready - I still do People sketches (Ipad 9 and apple-pen 1 procreate, Nicco hopefully the XPpen 16 15") and I still love doing character sketches. Of course given its hard scifi I want some fairly detailed Vacc Suits (which Nicco and I made). A combination of "Thispersondoesntexist" + Themes + random character traits + Tracing over our 3D models to make the Vacc Suits and Tech clear and distinict. (I want a level of detail that a fellow geek will debunk and will say - It should have this and that so that we make a BETTER suit - like how Andy Weir wrote the martian).
  6. Warm ups - the problem with Hard Scifi - given how niche it is - we need warm ups. Stuff that is Familiar but we can control 1 or 2 elements that is different. We dont want to overwhelm. The adventure is written with WARM UPS - side quests to demonstrate how the setting is different. 
    1. Mneme World Generator - means Travelling around the solar system. Finding an Asteroid or Planetoid or Minor World. 
    2. Mneme Variant Combat Rules - a sample combat - which is shocking in how different the process flow is (Referee/GM doesnt roll).
  7. Open Ended Hooks - Who done its and Mystery games where anyone can have different key challenges can be embedded in the adventure. Its like when Seth starts talking about how differently the adventure can be run - All these possibilities can be noted - and written with some key priorities or risks - things the GM has to keep in mind when making modifications. 
    1. This allows Players never to be able to fully anticipate the adventure EVEN if they read the material. Options that make someone who read this book Trapped by making Optimal decisions that create further complications. 
    2. This MEANS other GMS can watch the video or play through and never be spoiled. This means understanding the STRUCTURE of how the challenges play out, things escalate, and players find catharsis. 
  8. Project Based Adventure Hooks. I doesnt have to involve killing and unethical activity, but its just HARD MODE when the players apply conflict management, EQ, problem solving and their technical abilities when it applies to Anti-Patterns. 
     

Its hard to Write a project management type adventure - and not do it or be involved with it everyday.  

I like doing this (Writing about Project management type adventures), but I also like teaching OJTs from many different schools and all the many courses to test how adaptable I can be (and fall on my face). I like doing my job - despite the ambiguous complex social conflicts and the incredibly scarce resources - I think I cannot write without these really hard problems plaguing me.


What! I want to push this kind of adventure AND make it hardish scifi. Crazy right? Why cant the adventure be "Set up a Mining Facility in the Brown dwarf found between the gulf of space between Sol and this system." - Freaking RPGs made many assumptions on how Fleets, Armys and KINGDOMS are run - what is the Operations of a Mining Facility in a Point in time that can change and may have different SOPs from different Corporations? 

I guess you have to be so practiced in Writing Problem Statements and Summarizing Challenges and the Chief resource Constraints (Theory of Constraints) its not a terrible chore - but like a normal bodily function.

I want that someone reads another persons' problem statement or report and sees it as an adventure and can imagine the feelings people were going through (How to write non-Fiction from the great courses). They see - they feel the problem, the stakes, and the weight - and know the risks and odds. They know the scarcity of attention and resources - and how much its rolling the dice - but you cant see the dice results.

Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Micro Data Centers - Scifi in my Real Life.

 My family biz is mostly construction and furniture, BUT my dad got his start around the time my younger brother was born in 1981 - with an electronics company making transformers for the emerging data centers and mainframes that began to be used in the Philippines. He got a bunch of Electronics and Electrical engineers and with the Middle-class money of my grandfather who sold Roast Pig (called lechon) borrowed, traveled, and unembarrassed got the technology from America to bring it to the Philippines. Dad was basically like a traveller character, going to a High Tech world and trying to sell it to a Low tech world. (dad was in his late 20s). 

Now the family biz eventually became a Data Center Designer company - a strange BASTARD of IT and Construction. Mom was an accountant set aside proper fiscal management of my dad's selling - and technology. Strangely we were geeks and science nerds because my moms father was a Hacienderos (Plantation Owner) son who was a Total nerd - where we got our nerd trait from. 

Dad's company had heights and falls, its still a kind of a big deal because most IT professionals who are over 50 had to rely on the UPS, power protection, and services to set up Data Centers. Track record and Gov't experience (Admin and Streetwise Rolls) 

most Gamers I know are in IT or have a strong IT background. I cant help but notice Rottenlead is using a rasberry Pi in his video and Mark Knights and many of the gamers who were playing in 2013 in Google Hangouts were IT. 

While I'm a scifi nerd - I like applying what I learned and one of the things I realized is that we are in the cusp of Micro Data Centers. If you have assembled your PC -then you realized the modularization of the components. The CPU, GPU, storage, Cooling,  RAM, cards etc... NOW Micro Data Centers have scaled it up. 

Now you have a Cabinet - imagine your PC Case - which has Slots for PCs/Servers, Networking, Power, Airconditioning, HVAC, Batteries, UPS, Sensors, etc... With Hypervisors and Orchestrators - now able to run many "Bare metal" PCs as part of 1 unit or a unit that can be divided by its smallest CPU+RAM+Storage unit. 

So basically whats happening in my real life is that I'm trying to partner with schools so that we can solve the Precision Airconditioning Unit (PACU) problem of the Philippines - that the Philippines uses 60Hz and needs to import the components that are needed for the construction of Data Centers. From 90-120 Days its now 180+ days to Import PACU - guess how are you going to SUPPORT that if the supply chain makes it that difficult!!! especially now that Regional Conflict has made it ideal to be the back up of Taiwan's data centers if things dont work out with China. 

Whats funny is that its NOT Impossible, its very hard, but not anymore Impossible. The main problem was the Plastic Circuit boards to Consolidate all the Sensors and Control the Airconditioners Performance - so that it will maintain its targetted climate control conditions (my mentor was the Mech Eng Manager before he retired and we talked at length about this) - Andruino, Single Board Computers (Rasberry Pi and the many SBCS that arose), and of course, Indian microcontroller vendors are now available for us to make a Prototype. 

You know what OPPORTUNITY opened up to make it more real - Right to Repair, Privacy Violations (De-google and De-Apple you tech), FUTO and Next Cloud 

Google is now raising prices for the 3rd world users and doing the math - Creating a Distributed (through MicroData centers) of NextCloud - complete Office Suite Instances that is open source is one of the largest types of data center deployments for Small-Medium Enterprises. A project where we can USE the Prototype PACU and Micro Data Center - until the technology Matures in the Philippines (and the Developing world - I'm an Open source advocate in my stuff and in my projects). 

When i talked to nextcloud and studied it - It cannot work ALONE as a solution - Collocation in the Philippines cannot work with prices of 3,000usd a year. They need a CHEAPER data center option. Why can't people just make a Micro-Data Center - because very few people have the Integrated disciplines of Mechanical and Electrical and Electronics engineering to understand why Data Centers are Built in a certain way. 

So Cepheus Engine TL 8 and Early GURPS TL9 or 8.5 is this transition - where you have Commercial Space Flight (Private Companies make a lot of money from the Tech they develop for Space) - and Macro Computers or Micro Data Centers are basically a Larger Computer where you install Servers-Racks or PCS to array them - for easy transport and support. 

Dont forget the Hardened ones - the ones with Water or beryllium shielding and MULTIPLE parallel computing to compensate for Radiation knocking Ions and turning 0s to 1s or 1s to 0s. 

Imagining micro data centers as the PCs most Ships and Buildings will have. Right along with the Power breaker and Main Water Tank - Decentralized Internet in the form of the Server Room or Node or Micro Data center would be ubiquitous as technology advances. 

I'm the guy you would See in Linkedin with my head in the Stars and Worlds - trying to figure out how all these makes sense. How Work-from-home, Hybrid Work, Co-working spaces - will work with an Urban Sprawled, incredibly corrupt and dystopic gov't. 

I'm the guy Rolling Admin and Laison Checks to get Win-Win with schools, my company, end-users needlessly suffering, to get Funding, to make Profitable small wins, and rolling Media or Writing to communicate my ideas to hopefully like-minded people who would be better than me at this (and hopefully take it off my hands). 

Running Cepheus Engine in a way that pours all my frustrations and anti-patterns in an environment people are free to try and fail. (You should see how smart people are when they dont fear failure and know the budget they have to work with; how ingenious they are with scarcity and constraints). 

I like projects as an adventure - I like teaching students and those who would listen to see it that way. I hope such a weird trait will be discovered to be not just normal, just one of the MANY different ways to approach life that just happen to work (in a world that is always surprising us). 

So there is this thing That will make people save money, control their privacy (with Distributed Micro Data Centers you can run Mastadon, Nextcloud, ERpnext, Jitsi, etc... - Find the IT support you want ) and take back power they lost to factions and powers that have become more brazen. 

I think of all this - I got Game in the Brain - Like a GM or Players who Play TRPGS - this is a WIN-WIN game. Table top RPGS are Win-Win games - an alien and strange sort of games people are learning that THIS EXIST!  

One day I'll witness another Louis Rossman Closer to home (probably Indian or African), someone who can empower a lot of people who thought they were powerless in my part of the world. Their work will make our world a little more Scifi- IN THE NON-DYSTOPIAN way 😅

If only Investors were scifi nerds Lolz - then they wouldnt be investors - theyd be professionals not getting caught up with power plays and high finance issues (or they would be like the Founders of FUTO which is super rare. Altruist millionaires on a technology bent). 

To do Scifi TRPG Fulltime In need 15000 sales per year from 3-6 products - not impossible but very unlikely. Like me taking 10/12 kills in a Mechwarrior Quick match - even with my best mech.   

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

50 Copies Sold for Mneme World Generator

Today our book (with Nicco Salonga) qualifies for Copper Tier (Selling 50 copies)! 250/5 = 50 copies sold. (my brain cannot believe it I think i did the math wrong or I failed to understand the metal tier list). 





As a Milestone - will be adding 3 Systems - Bernard's Star, HSC 1110 and Proxima Centauri. 3 Systems 1-2 Jumps away from Sol (get Near Space from Stellagama Publishing as it is Pay what you want) with Procedurally generated content but detailed and formatted for ease of running.   

We hope to release it by Mid September at the latest. As a free addition to the book. 

  • A Visual Icon System (Instead of the Pure Hex code) to know the Stats of the System. The world is not as important as the system itself in a Harder scifi setting as there are many points of interests inside a system. Icons will be provided for your own usage (Or you can commission using our sample files as style gides)
    • No need to learn the Hexcode for the Systems - the visual icon system is design to need very little memorization. 
    • Its also meant to be placed in the VTT background as well as Handouts. 
  • a Visual icon for the World's Qualities. 
  • All the details the World Generator will provide but polished.  

Future Milestones

  • it will take about 85 copies sold for Nicco and I to afford the XPen Tablet to augment his tools. The milestone for this is an Improved Proceedural Planet generator. ( 270usd / 3.25usd = 83 copies and up). 
    • We're going to apply the lessons in Daniel Groves Tutorial to detail our Planet Generator Template so that we can produce more detailed Splash Pages of the Planet.  

    •  we want those who can invest 20-30mins to try our tutorials and use our template files to be able to prepare these kinds of splash pages (According to the wiki Rigil Kent made this, Not including the GIMP and the Rendering time). We want anyone can make this for their games. When you set the scene for your procedurally generated Star system - Players will find it memorable. 

  • 100 Copies Silver is more systems and an update of the Gdoc of Scifi Notes this is an Create Commons hard scifi setting that can be used to easily set up any story. These notes LINK the technology and the Projects - and how it shapes the setting so the GM can set constraints and limits to whats available - and players have material to work with. 


  • These are my scifi notes when ever some new interesting technology arises as well as demographic shifts. Like population declining as a country becomes developed, and India and Africa being the largest economies in the 2100. Basically when I learn something new I adjust my assumptions - and change my mind. Eventually I will grow too old to update it and Keep it Open source so that someone who can reuse all the work put it as a way to build their Fiction, their Game or their Setting. 

Game in the Brain - making games in a way that makes it easier to make games. Learn from our mistakes or help us learn from our mistakes. Help us improve the tools that make it easier for people to produce more quality material cheaply. *

Thanks for your support! 


*My background is in Quality Management, standardizing and systematizing is just an extention of what we do as Game designers - but scaling it in Game prep, material development, and presentation to players and other gamers would be really nice to do good in. 



Saturday, August 20, 2022

Fixing the Spreadsheet. Fixed NA population with Dwarf World.

h

 Dwarf Worlds should have Habitability and population Values. 

PROBLEMESTIMATE DATEDONESTATUS
Mistakes in the Fomula preventing M type stars from being Created.DONEI just had to check formula, mistyped. It was supposed to be formatting = 1 and not negative 1.
Dwarf Planets generate Hability NA, it should haveHabitality score (but it happens to be a low score) - This affected the gravity Calculations.11.002022-08-312022-08-20DONEI just had to change the -
- Tech level affects Population.
- Resources have a Different Base modifier.
- If the World is uninhabitable, but the World Builder wants inhabitants then We just use the rolls and apply to Habitat.


Friday, August 19, 2022

From 3 Return Customers to 11! Thankyou!

 Pivoted the Sales Report to find out if we had any Customers who liked the product enough to try the Variant Combat Rules! Thank you (I don't know who you are since its anonymized) 

Feel free to contact us for Support. 


Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Imperfect Product - hope we can fix it in time

 

So I’m keeping a Issue Log on the World Generator Sheet. 
This way I can keep track of the problems. 
Nicco found some problems - I need an afternoon to study the spreadsheet as I delegated its development as well as did not think of those problems when I was checking the work. 
Anyway people who check the sheet should be able to notice the resolution of the problems. 

We are 3 copies away from copper. I hope to fix this by the target dates. 
That’s the problem of offering software tools, the software tools need support. BUT i believe this is the future- people will understand the system but will want the use of it to be MUCH easier. So spreadsheets and software tools will be a huge quality of life improvement. 

Lolz 2000 5usd copies (or 1000 10usd copies). 

I’m excited by the Milestone project. 
  1. A visual way to illustrate the STATS of Star System - a prototype it will not be perfect but we hope feedback will be given. It’s meant so that the GM can hand this information out and very little legend-information is need to understand the system stats. I don’t know if you found the Hex-code system very difficult for Worlds and it really just talked about the World and not the System. 
  2. The system - Mneme World Generation system is unlike the the old Traveller which focuses on the world. MWG focuses on the System. When you see its stats you think of places to visit.  
Water. 

I found that the Aliens are here for our Water funny learning more of what I learned in making this book. Jupiter is 317 earth masses. 0.0025 or .25% of Jupiter is Water = 0.79 earth masses  while earth has 0.05% of its mass (0.0005 earth mass) is water. There is more water on Jupiter and Saturn and the Ice Worlds of Neptune and Uranus than on Earth! 

Also that Water is a powerful greenhouse gas - that Jupiter may have pockets of heat that allows for life. I’m on the camp that puts life on Jupiter (jelly fish like, micro organisms like flying water bears, or manta rays who can fly above its crushing atmosphere) at 90%. It’s not a matter of if it has life but how much. 

That Jupiter and human mining for metallic hydrogen and super dense ice will have creatures that will prey on our mining ships. Not only is finding the orbit and deltaV to handle its gravity so difficult - there is a chance the equipment sent down will be PULLED along with its ship. A great premise is that 100 years passes and people later discover the giants of Jupiter. 

Our part of the galaxy will have a lot of a kind of life. That our Gas worlds with sufficient conditions will have certain amounts of life. 

Gas world mining - extracting metallic hydrogen as it is the Primary Fuel for Interstellar Travel in MNEME ship designing book. I hoping my Networking Skills (as I partner up with schools) Help me find Physics Graduates who can help me do the Math for the Energy density and help me go through Atomic Rockets (winchel Chung). Like Kerbal, Simple Rockets, and Various other games - these are theoretical values that are known and its a matter of applying them to the game and “packaging” them to be easy to handle for the players. The way in Mechwarrior an AutoCannon 20 is a Class of Autocannons that for all intents and purposes deals 20 damage - here the engines Game stats are a particular kind - and some Quirks individualize the models. 

Hydrogen and Methane and of course Oxygen is still key for most logistics. Well keep it simple - one of the things I learned in my Job is to Compartmentalize the systems. Adapt to the end users - not all the things - but the main thing that makes them like the change process. 


Costs reflection

The kind of company who can Afford the software development to accompany their products - is a company that sells 20,000 5usd copies per year IN PHILIPPINE wages (that’s about 3 million pesos a year). Developed world equivalent would be 5-10x the cost. This is with GODOT and training Fresh Grad IT who dream of Game development from scratch with GODOT for the next 3 years. (None of these factor any compensation to myself, I’ll still be handling the family biz but I’ll be more SANE as some dreams are proven to come true. 500 employees are affected by the family biz in a market as callous and corrupt as the Philippines - I don’t mind dying from the stress to help these people hoping that one day someone smarter and better comes along to take this burden away from me - for that person to only buy time for the next sacrificial lamb comes along, until social progress improves enough that these sacrifices are unecessary). (What ever price mentioned assume 5% inflation annually. So in 5 years 25,000 copies of 5usd per year) 

 2,000 at 5usd copies per year would pay 6,500usd = at 57php per usd = 28,500-30,875php/mo. Taxes would consume about 10-20% and that is barely at a salary of an employee who has 15 years of experience or a supervisor. Enough to hire 10 such would not hire 10 such, it would get freelance services because its a business that is not guaranteed to survive. 

Nicco and I both want to make a GODOT software that makes GMing easier. The smallest would be automating our world generations and map generation. Next is ships and Stations. And then refining and polishing this so that people can generate Assets to SELL - create the platform to sell assets - create the tools to make products.  Remove the more and more of the overhead - that even WE become obsolete. That a kid will build a game for his friends with assets and tools we could have only dreamed of growing up. That the STRENGTH of the community determines the success of the game and not tied to a Corporation - that the Community transforms into an Institution - and talent and output and good comes from the Community.   


Monday, August 15, 2022

Projects by Feb or March, worse is same time again May to August.

 I need to sell 110 copies per month to at 5usd per copy to have the ability to get someone nearly fulltime on this. That's just 1 aspect: there is marketing and product management and development. For this person to really really do well in this I have to sell 1500 copies of various Products per year. 

1500 copies = 6-7 Electrum Tier Products. Why Electrum tier? Because we believe we have a niche and that we need to produce more stuff for our Niche. 

To make something to sell every 2 months. Nicco and I have to produce a lot of tools and products every two months. 

Right now I'm investing in better gear for Nicco. Particularly drawing tablet and a more powerful computer. A friend lent me his gaming desktop, left it in my house, and let me use it and we will use Anydesk so nicco can render stuff his Laptop cannot. So we have a tools we need to be ingenious about - Nicco remote desktop a PC to render complex scenes and I plan and project management the goods. 

What would be sustainable is Product Development 2 (Nicco + 1) + Marketing 1 (who makes the marketing and documentation materials. Keeping a wiki and dealing with customer support. ) - I end up being an investor for start up capital and get a good return (better than inflation) after a few years.  

3 people would mean 4,500 copies of 5usd products per year at the very least. But most probably it would mean 10,000 for the freelancers at breakeven: programmers and software development services that we will need. 20,000 would be ideal - but as of now I cant see as realistic. TO be realistic is having forums of customers going "we like your product and this is what we want to see in the future." "This saves me X amount of time and my players enjoy Y so much. We'd like to see more of Z." 

20,000 sales of 5usd - where products are continuously updated and milestones means polishing the product even more. 

Near Term success right now is the following: Our Milestone Deliverables in 1 month. Mneme world generator took about 6 months, 8 months was SMASHING MY HEAD on the SHIPS problem. NO ONE WILL BUY A SHIP BOOK if there was NO place to adventure. Sure they get a Ship book but having no place to go - means people wont USE THE MATERIAL. I know I can get away with a PICTURE book of ships - that's easy - its easy to Kitbash a Ship. 

BUT kitbashing a ship - without reason or logic of how its supposed to work will not differentiate us from the many ship products already existing. Polish MNEME world generator - Detail Near Space by Stellagama with procedurally generated worlds for a 2300-2500 timeline setting. Have up to 6 to 7 hex radius from SOL with sufficient detail. More detail than the current adventure books out there - a detail that GMs need to be ready to change direction when the players change their minds. 

Then Produce the Ship Spreadsheets, Blender Model of Ships and SCENES - star port + down port, and the various Worlds we generated. Let the people who BUY the book HAVE THE MODELS - let them know how to render them, modify them, HOST sessions where we walk through fixing it up for a game. have a Ready Scene for rendering. 

Nicco + Me can produce the milestone addon products, and the Ship generator. I need one more person in product development and maybe  I can be marketing for  a couple of years till it can afford a dedicated marketing. 

Maybe the ship generator will take 6 months now that World Generator exists. Hopefully the Addons will get us to 250 - that means 15+ systems detailed and mapped for games. Then after the 15 star systems + we spend 6 months on the Ship generator. 

I can Restudy Javascript and remember enough to teach someone then FORGET IT* as I get back to focus on my day job. I just need the Other Product Development person to be inclined to spreadsheets and javascript so that we will continue to make tools to go with our Books. 

*At 40s to 50s skills are forgotten - I'm a project manager for IT and the Plant - these skills - my love for all this science is sustained by my scifi Hobby - I cant find others who enjoy it outside the hobby. Ive been focusing in having relationships with schools for my various open source projects. 

If Nicco and I can make the ship generator we can make a LOT of detailed Cepheus Engine TL7-9 Ships. Ships with no Gravity manipulation - spin grav, ion engine, reaction drives, radiators... 

We can make DRONE swarms, bomb pumped lasers, 100mm point defense chain guns, food vats - from bug vats, protein vats, to textured algae vats, etc... we can make many different modules - 5usd of exhaustive elements - from TL7-9 and how the practice and doctrine evolved. 

We can make the gear, the Vacc Suits, with rigged models of the vacc suits. the firearms. 

I want Ni No Kuni, Breath of the Wild, Genshin Impact, Ghiblesque shaders and styling for the gear and characters. that Miyazaki artistry of grand scenes and slice of life - Cozy world-building. 2500 setting where several economic and technological collapses have occurred - with Ghibly orchestra playing in the back of my mind as the ship travels to strange and distance parts. 

I want gigaton asteroid Homestead Innertia-Bank (spin tether) bases, families centuries old, hundreds of billions of humans, all the technological and cultural landscapes that can be imagined (see our d66x6 cultural table) - imagine designing habitats with Miyazaki whispering "tell a story with that machine, give it Life?" 

all while make the science Accessible, people can pick and choose, and as peoples tastes change, so does the setting.    As they GROW the systems grows with them. 

Whats funny is that in a Setting so far in the future - its alien and familiar - the rockets that are so new to us - decades old will now be centuries old and so much will stay the same.  

Sunday, August 14, 2022

Encode your own Worlds.


 Darren Bulmer asked if we can just encode our own worlds.

Answer: Yes. 

The yellow cells are where the Dice Values go. The dice values are created by the javascript RollKeep function. You can overwrite this and Index match will pull the corresponding values. 

I think there is a problem with some of the cells, I honestly forgot so much of this as this was made around May and its already August and I was juggling so much work at the time. Honestly I forgot so much of how everything works and I have to rely on my project documents to find my way. 
the advantage is that I can afford to fail and sell it cheaply, the drawback is that I'm juggling a lot and cannot remember so much of this system. 

Still we will fix it and we Keep meticulous notes - the whole book was written in google docs. It would have been published from google docs if our computers and google docs could handle it. 

Saturday, August 13, 2022

Uploaded the Zip file for all the Map SVG and Adobe Premier files

We'll try to include all the tools and raw files. Things that will allow the buyer to reuse and recycle the material to customize for their game. So we added the Map Files. 

 





Friday, August 12, 2022

Update: Preview is now Working - Milestones

UPDATES

  1.  So Thanks to Kari Jo Freudigmann of one bookshelf emailed back and helped with the problem. I overlooked the manage preview of my titles entry. You can now preview ALL 47 Pages to make sure you know what you're getting with the product.
  2. Nicco and I have started on the 50 copy milestone goal as we are now at 42. As discussed we will make some material - Sample Procedurally Generated Solar Systems using Mneme World Generator - using Stars featured in Near Space by Stellagama Games for this we will feature 3 star systems (M class stars). There will be some minor world building as it assumes the TL is about Cepheus Engine TL 9-10 at the very least. 
    1. There will be ICONS and a recommended new table for quickly scanning Systems visually. (we will give all the materials so that everyone who buys the product can produce similar documents for their games). 
    2. We hope to have it ready by end of August or Start of Sept. We will add it to the Downloads of Additional material will be found in the Mneme World Generator Drivethru RPG Link https://tinyurl.com/2a9h4zfa 
    3. We have additional Material Every Milestone. There will be 7 Additional systems in Silver (100 copies), 5 additional in Electrium (250 copies), and 4 for Gold (500 copies). 
    4. We will not provide a stellar map - you can just use Near Space by Stellagama Games  as well as use the other material in the product. 
    5. What is Included in the Additional Material 
      1. Procedurally Generated Cultures and Inhabitants. 
      2. 3d Renders of Planets and splash screens for introducing the worlds. 
      3. 2D maps of the Worlds
      4. You will have locations and distances of the zones and areas. 
      5. We wont make 2D Solar System Maps yet - havented talked to anyone who needed it. Although i personally use both - depending what the players have an easier time grasping. 

 



We hope to offer 2D maps maybe in Gold. And maybe create Delta-V maps as well. 




Tuesday, August 9, 2022

Business Model: Core is perpetually updated - things you can produce with core pays for Core's support.

 What would 5 years of doing this success look like (we would both be 48, by the 5th year, many of our friends would be pushing 60)? Anything can happen - nicco and i can just get sick and wont have the time and attention to do this. 

  • Nicco at 8,000usd/yr from the sales and commissions.
  • I can spend about 6,000-8,000usd a year on freelancers for the output.  
  • that's 2500 sales of 10usd/book per year (we bring our products to their full price as everyone who bought it at half gets updates and free stuff attached to the core products). 
    • Success is 25,000 sales of Assets created by people using our tools or building those tools are generated (we don't get any monetary thing from it except the permission to BUILD ontop of what they have built ontop of; and they can build over and on top of what we build - and a virtuous cycle is sustained). 
  • 1000 people buying 5 materials per year. 
  • A youtube channel with the thousand people following and getting videos about the products and how better to use it. Youtube Live of Q&A. 
  • We do have Product Upgrades - especially when serious rules or usability issues arrises. We have version updates every 6-8 months. The product they initially bought is Upgraded. 
    • Complimentary products -  Lets say we create a Core set of Rules and a set of Tools. We upgrade that in the next 5 years continuously. There is no additional revenue because everyone who bought it is getting an Update. How does the game in the brain make money?: Game Assets and packages.   Core Rules updates are forever free - and open Sourced - but specialty products - like additional ship models created using the Core Rules will be new materials that help pay for everything else. 

Core Rules and Tools - will be perpetually updated - and Assets and products - PRODUCED with the core rules and tools will help pay for everything. 

Why would you pay for something when you can produce it all yourself? Because you CAN AFFORD to pay money for TIME. Those who cannot afford money for time - don't need the assets because they can produce it with the core rules.  

I'd probably burn through 3k USD as an investment to make this work as a business model as my "hobby". The way Erpnext, Open Source, Teaching Blender, FreeCad and later on NextCloud, PMBOK, and Ojts/Interns are my hobby. 

The way Open Source projects become virtuous cycles that pay for itself is time and effort until it starts to work - growing and learning.

Also I don't think we will get it right, Someone will get it right - the way each Success is paved by many of those who tried. We will be one of the MANY who tried to make this work till someone will make this work. 

What will I be doing: I'll be in the family business using what I learned from failing or succeeding how to do it in Philippines or Developing world markets. I'll probably want to know Who is going to make the dream work - Open Source RPG where anyone can easily produce a TRPG and have a Large market to access and they can easily convey to their Niche the value of their contribution. 


Whats funny is that this is not much of a success - its not enough to pay for the medical bills someone in their late 40s and 50s would be experiencing. The amount of time in a week they lose for health upkeep, adulting taxes and regulatory obligations, losing tens of hours a week to exercise, therapy, and mental health. Like many Manga Artists who die or live a short life dedicated to their passion - i think the life of someone who designs games - here in the developing world would not be as fortunate. 

It is unfortunate - and These are details I like incorporating in games - how much things really cost - and how much work things really need. Because in the Game I can try over and over again to make it work, to make a better world and learn a little each time of one more weakness or challenge to overcome - even if I cannot afford to take the risks of someone far wealthier than me.

The way we ran that Ship business to the Ground in Traveller and I get to see it in real life - running a business negative as the son of a business owner who can afford to lose those amounts of money. I already saw it in the game - i just got to see it in real life and things that haunt me about what real people do to other people. (when I witnessed a business unit was plundered by its management causing retrenched employees and the officer illiciting sexual favors from one of them, the stealing of employee bonuses). Someone who writes games as the impotent 32 year old person who didn't know what to do when faced with these problems. I am the person who grew in experience and ability in light of that point of my life and how I could have tried to fix it with what I know now. Doing everything to avoid the situation that put us in that. I think in Mark Knights game i felt so strongly about that so when i got to play an Administrative Accounting character I enjoyed it because that was where I was weak and this character was strong at. I saw what the skills were used for - in auditing the problems of the company and investigating the plundering.  The Adventurer or Hero character I had in mind was the guy who could have prevented or repaired that huge problem.  

 

Late Bronze Age Fantasy Setting - Against all Gods by Miles Cameron

 https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/59348054 


Against all the Gods Is an audiobook I'm currently listening to which is set in a FANTASY setting similar to the late Bronze age Collapse (1200 and 1150 BCE).  Like Hard Scifi - the core skills in running such a game is understanding the framework of society and building the details. 

I like it because it covers the earlier practices due to their material access and climate. That humans can still create sophistication and incredible techniques even with a smaller set of materials. This is a kind of setting I would like to run or play, or write about. 

Sunday, August 7, 2022

Lessons Learned: 2 man operation

Discussing with Nicco about our milestones. Particularly making a Complimentary product to Near Space by Stellagama Publishing. Which are Detailed Solar Systems (ideally everything within 3 hexes from Sol). 

One of the reasons I feel inspired by Hard Scifi is Andy Weir's Books. The Martian read by Wil Wheaton got me laughing so hard. Project Hail Mary also got me laughing and chuckling. Delta-V and my own experience at Work, and Gaming with friends in our own Projects as an Airsoft Team and now a MWO Team - showed the difference between cooperation in a work environment and a group of friends. So when we played Traveller, having a lot of fun, I wondered why not just play a bit harder scifi?

The way someone who has a loved book or material, converted to another medium: movie or show, and there were Layers or Details edited out - or a Professional seeing something important in their profession discarding in the fiction. The Opposite is that - a Book, Show, Movie or TRPG - Portrays an important detail in our profession, culture, and perspective and WE FEEL SO validated, seen, understood, and connected - the Idea that someone understands us and we understand them - this is the reason niches in TRPGs will exist and develop - as we all get to understand more about each other and the universe and we discover people understanding things the same way as us.   

So I planned to make some material to add at Mneme World Generator, basically, Nicco and I will give a detailed example of creating the detailed solar system for Near Space. This means I'll be using the other features in Drivethrurpg ( Send Complimentary Copies and Send Email to Customers under Promotions; warning - we are figuring this out and will probably make mistakes). 

Buyers of our existing Products (2 products only) will get the following - 

  • Some basic World building - Setting in Cepheus Engine TL 8.5 or Mneme TL11 at 2200 (2101 to 2200 common era, when Jump is still risky and unstable. The way Carracks of Columbus, and Magelan). Just enough so the GM can just send Materials to the Players if they want to Shop and immerse OR just some pregens for the players who just want to just jump into the setting. 
    • Optional political baggage - Timeline of Political Factions in a spreadsheet and tables (birth, death, rebirth, consolidation and fragmentation). 
    • Player Primer: Scifi Assumptions and Novel Inspirations - 1 page outline, with 3-4 page explanation (appendix of definitions with hyperlinks).
      • The biggest problem would probably the Economic Adjustment when 1 credit - 1000usd 2020 - that people think in a life that allows them to be in their 40s and 50s for decades - and that material quantities scale has changed. When a poor farmer thought about when he will go hungry today or tomorrow, we think of career, growth, and opportunity in our era of 2020s - the scale of material resources a person in 2200 onward will seem too much by our standards until we realize there is an entire economy where people are continuously getting materially better at such a rate when technology allows them to live for decades better - almost immortal pursuing dreams we couldn't in our era. When the entire economic activity of One year on earth is just a month in cis lunar space, or a day when factoring the entire solar system or an hour when factoring a Multi-Star Economy. That such economies are the type to shape worlds and stars. 
    • TL and equipment are available. 
    • Cepheus Engine Ship modifications (Reaction Drives and their fuel as well as Ion Drives). 
      • Assumptions and Rules for TL
      • Nicco and I created some Kit Bashing of various ships - basically, economically design diffuse structure ships. Complete with radiators, a lot of fuel, and specialty vessels (shuttles, orbiters, workshops, repair/maintenance pods and drones, etc).  Create an Asset library so people can create scenes. 


      • 2Km asteroid to scale how much material we are dealing with. 
    • Delta-V Budget Calculator (spreadsheet) for Ships and for Distances. 
  • 2 hexes from sol have 3 systems
    • 3 hexes from sol has 7 systems. 
    • 4 hexes adds another 15 systems (for 25 in all)
    • 5 hexes adds 7 systems (for 32 in all). 
  • Nicco and I making a small production with reference images and 3d Models and a Power point presentation run and recorded in Youtube in case the GM wants someone to explain the premises with images and in video. Probably a video with a 2 minute elevator pitch, and 4-6 min chunks of explaining the appendix and giving example images. (If you follow the blog, back in 2010 I broke down the entire Ultra Tech - what would be the dominant practice and how the practice would change based on emerging technology - how as a new technology becomes more effective and reliable strategies and doctrine changed)





Orbiters and Reusable Boosters technology that will be 200+ years old and normalized. Competing with space elevator prices, sky hooks, and other orbital infrastructure. 


TIL that I should be using a source link to track where people buy. it seems that DrivethruRPG is >50% of my sales and I have to create source links for social media, youtube, and various other sources. 
Giving MORE free stuff to people who already bought our stuff. So nicco and I just make stuff, tools we use and hopefully its made in a way others will like it too. I follow Seth Skarkowsky and really like how he likes the DETAILS organized and the Time and Motion or How the Game will be run - mentally rehearsed and dry-run. Hopefully our Open nature - people being able to see our notes or access us and discuss how we do things and correct us or we show how we work with our constraints for a better product will be the added value of our group. People buy our stuff because we have a quality management system aka we grow. 

Tech levels are modified in Mneme because its GROWING and learning. CE when written worked with a number of assumptions - particularly JUMP as a level of TL. TL in MNEME is how DIFFERENT the world is for a GM to explain. What it means when its an Era of Planetary Colonization vs Cis Lunar Development. Imagine colonies on mars, venus, jupiter system, saturn system, etc... what does it mean - what are the main economic drivers? the use of hundreds Kiloton gas-world mining ships as they evolve to million ton stations and space elevators. VS an era where there are massive Jump Fleets moving material to create Jump fueling stations in red dwarfs or rogue worlds. 


imagine a person who has the resources to be equal their 30, 40s, 50s or 60s physically or mentally for decades. With that much Capabilities where would they better be placed: Where there is a LOT of growth (frontiers ) or with slow growth (developed areas)? How boring things are for someone who has 50-80 years of experience in their physical or mental 30s, 40s, 50s? 

I'm caught between writing Fiction and world-building and creating Tools. I don't know what I'm doing., and I only go by the dreams and hopes, and which low hanging fruit (something that can be produced in 2-4 weeks) and submitted to people and if this will help them run games? 

I think the problem is - Making games Easier to run as everyone - gamers young and old have less and less time. The more details and immersion I can make more accessible means more people Playing in the future. Learning from Seth Skorkowsky and other gamers who make tools accessible is where I will work on.  Every attempt is a Roll of the dice. 



Saturday, August 6, 2022

What would be the minimum usable milestones of Ship Generation Tool?


 working with the ojts in making the World Generator back in May. 

Eventually, I will have to pay 10-40usd an hour for the skillset, every success of the trainees means they are at a new level and thus can command (and earn) more. 






Of course them being at a starting level, means I have to invest time and help them develop. Paying for professionals to teach us some basics (40 USD an hour) or being so lucky to have someone volunteer to train them. 

It was my first time handling a "Development Project" normally I'm on the client side. 

This project went through a few Iterations. 

Despite being Interns, since it was a personal project (even if Javascript helped the company because ERPNext uses javascript and the videos all helped us create more macros in Google Sheets) I paid for their services. 

Eventually when I make my Ideal SHIP generator - I think it would cost about a few thousand of dollars and about  10+ months. My ideal ship generator is in GODOT or in Blender, generating a CSV/XLS file of the ship and Players can VISUALLY "Kitbash" or assemble a Ship. Basically Players and GM.

Of course I wish I can get a small group of people who are interested in a Cepheus Engine 3D Modeling Ship Generator - basically helping me determine what would be the Milestones that have a USABLE product.

I want it that every 80-100 hours worth of work Stakeholders has a Minimum Usable Product. (Probably just a simple 3d model of the ship). Note that this shipbuilding will default in Realistic - similar to children of a dead earth or Expanse. 

Example: Lets say 80-100 hours each. what is the simplest usable tool? (This is wrong and i really need to talk to other GMs who have pain points in running hard scifi to be immersive). 

  1. Default Space Scene. The ability to IMPORT ships and celestial assets into Blender/GODOT and manage these assets. OUTCOME: gms can just assemble a scene by importing assets we create or help create to scenes for the game. 
  2. The ability to Set Distances and Relative Positions. So this will be a tool to give a sense of Scale. Having assets Light minutes or Hours or Days away without Losing these items. NOW people who use it can show in Blender/GODOT how to set items.  
  3. Learn to create Procedural Ship Components in GODOT or Blender meaning they are scalable. Cabins, Fuel, Engines, etc...  Develop a Workflow for Making these procedural/Geometery node systems. People can create a CABIN and fill it with occupants and render the image. 
    1.  

  4.  Integrating all the Ships Components together. Before you can just make a cabin and render them as a scene. Now they are all together as a Ship. 
  5.  









Friday, August 5, 2022

Milestones - Grateful for Any patronage

 Milestones. 



Currently 23 people bought it (as of August 4). Ive some milestones. 

  1.  I had planned on 20 I will start on the second part of Blender file usage, Exporting to a 2D map on youtube. As well as asking if people want us to show how to detail the 2D map. 2 weeks from now, target August 20. 
  2. On 50, Youtube Video of using Mneme World Generator along. side https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/192332/Near-Space so that I can detailing the worlds Watch me prepare the Solar System Details for running a game in Nearspace. I will share the System Stats and the Planet

  3. On 100, Video of Detailing the Planets using the tools for a Near-Space adventure. I will use Orbital 2100 and Mneme Variant Combat Rules. Edit: plus modeling the ships and scenes. 

  4. On 200, Delta V Map Creation? A simple spreadsheet to create Delta-V calculations given the distances. (Break Even for me). 
  5. On 500, poll for those who are interested - what kind of Hard Scifi Tools do you need next?

    Do you want Nicco and I to make Hard Scifi Ships and Orbiters (orbiters is the term for the ships that escapes orbit or lands like  the SpaceX starship, Lockheed X33 etc... ? We plan to release all the models and ships for kitbashing along with a spreadsheet to quickly generate ships in a few minutes and youtube tutorials of just making ships and Scifi Scenes. (this would pay for Nicco to have an upgrade from is I5-2018 laptop to a Desktop Replacement PC OR a Drawing Pad. ) 


What we want out of our "Publishing" is the following:
1) GMs and Artists and Players can get the material to Detail their World - with stats and 3d Models or Art. 
2) They have access to Hard Scifi material they can BUILD on, or take what they enjoy or like for their own games. 
3) That there will be a Lot of ART. GMs and Players can easily create scenes for their games. So much art that it gets easier to explain the science.


Nicco and I are currently Training OJTs Blender and FreeCAD and hopefully hire them if they like modeling (OJTs are currently Civil, Electrical, EC, M Engineers for their 240-500 hour internship https://youtu.be/eL463MIijN4). We hope that as we get better in training and sharing our Blender capabilities that there are more options to get for people to make more elaborate projects. 



I don't know what people want. I'm guess with our product and hoping its what I think it is. I'm using my pain points as a GM with very little time but who loves hard scifi is my guide.  

Thursday, August 4, 2022

Quick Preview Enabled, don't know how to set up full preview.

 We want people to really see everything before they buy. Self-interest wise its just easier to manage expectations when the buyer can fully inspect the product before any commitment. Anyone who can't afford it or would abuse it, is someone we cannot stop anyway and wont be happy paying for our wares. 

I use the same psychology when I buy Cepheus Engine products - Buy and even Pay for the "pay what you want" ones. Of course its more difficult to manage expectations if I cannot inspect the product. 

Uploading: 339296 of 339296 bytes uploaded.

As for the FUll Preview I don't know why it reports an error


You get to see everything, No surprises. We want to make sure you know what you're getting into and if you like how we do business and make our products. 



Wednesday, August 3, 2022

A different type of TRPG products. Including Software Tools. Thanks for your Support!

Now that I learned enough Javascript to make a Spreadsheet calculator for Character creation (instead of randomizing the stats, it will randomize the Order of the stats and allocation of the skills). After reading the TRPG material, the GM has to also prepare it. 

This is where I want to apply the IT, Design, and Project Management Skills. Make stuff that reduces the time for preparing for the game. I want a user experience where someone gets to view the entire book before they buy it, like in Book stores. When they buy it, the next 15-30 minutes of reading the parts they are particularly interested in - they can implement it in a few minutes. 

For the the Mneme World Generation and the products related to it, the NICHE is making harder scifi more accessible. Whats funny or a contradiction about this is UPDATING the science - its not NOT a lot of calculations. Its updating the rules of thumb - thinking in MASS, in delta-V, multiplying the idea of a ship to x3-x5 because of Fuel. Updating that like Gas Stations and Stops in a long drive we have Inertia Tethers (Buying and Selliing Inertia) and slinging and receiving packages (40ft container sized packages of many tons). Realizing we can live in 0G but with certain modifications. 

"I want a harder scifi, but I want to be comfortable with the amount of Technical Complexity that it may entail." This is a VERY Tiny niche of players and GMS who - I like science and technology, but I don't want to be overwhelmed. That there is no stigma for picking and choosing what I take to my setting. 

Particulary keeping a few key handwave - like Jump or FTL or None (% of light speed).  Gravity manipulation seems to be the most damaging handwave IMO. A particularly conservative Scifi where tens of tons of material are needed per individual for support, and these individuals are key in moving and creating hundreds of tons of material in an economy. 

1,000Cr = 1M 2020 USD. it can let you live a long time in a TL7 World with Gravity BUT it will barely pay for a Ship's upkeep. That people WANT to live in Space even if it costs Millions of 2020 USD more because you are part of an Economy more than a thousand times larger: This is what people in the Developing world do when they go to the Developed world. 

In the developing world our Cost of living is 1/10-1/20 of the Developed world but our Quality of life is much worse and ACCESS to technology and CHANGE and ADAPTATION. 

Spacers are Materially and Technologically "RICHER" than surface dwellers because they are part of an Economy that pays them 1000x more. 

 This ECONOMIC implications is mind breaking, Honestly I've not fully grasped it - with cousins living in the USA (my entire mothers side migrated to the US and my siblings) and working on BPO Adjacent Businesses - I'm am constantly reminded of Comparative Advantage.  But then again the Belters, the Poorest of the Spacers - may be poorer in health than Earthers - can be compared to the poor or economic underclass (EU, USA and Japan comes to mind) of developed nations.  

Imagining 0G graphite steel, space elevators, sky hooks, etc..  

 Imagining that the Elite population of Space would eventually be the economic Elite whose wealth and power would make our current elite trivial. with Microgravity/0G materials, the scale of materials being moved, etc.. imagining 2300 (like in the expanse) just the Jupiter region the economic Wealth and Technology as multiples of the Billions of Tons of material are moved daily (unlike yearly for earth). Of course the MANPOWER demand and of course the corruption. 

I'd love to populate that setting - with the GMs with ships that can be taken from Atomic Rockets. 

Thank You everyone! Nicco and I are definitely grateful for your support and will check our email and the page everyday for any support needed.