Health, and Death... again...

 So, The Human body, as I understand it, does not 'die' as instantly as we think it does

How Does Actual Death change the rules

On a cellular level, most of the body lives on for hours and even days after 'death'. This means many, many things for roleplay. 

Firstly, lets look at Health. 

When the human body takes an amount of damage too much for the consciousness to handle, the body shuts down the consciousness. This might not reboot the system, and we refer to that as a coma.

For the longest time, I used 'fate' and 'luck' to be this factor. The body takes damage beyond the 'death' score, and the player determines, ok. I'll spend a fate. If the party manages to best the monster, they revive their friends from their unconscious state, and begin the healing process. preferably in a nice warm tavern.

BUT if the whole party is 'killed' they all 'wake' in a witches home, or a wizards tower, or some place 'nearby' enough that makes enough logical sense that someone had rescued them, possibly including the party members themselves that were 'less' damaged.

The GM has a nice 'out' for the group, it often introduces a NPC for the players to rely on in the future, as they obviously owe a boon/debt to, and can introduce new plot hooks, or provide higher level access to information or goods.

But beyond that, we also allow for death to actually occur, and yet be rolled back. If the players can retrieve their friends body, and get to a healer within a few hours to days, they might still be brought back. The consciousness is shut down by the body, and once healing applied, is re-awoken by the spell casters or priests.

IF and only IF we have gone past the point of no return, do we now need actual resurrection spells.

This adds the benefit, plot wise, that our players are not 100% lost to us, and plot paths can continue beyond death. provided the resurrection is made cheap enough by plot economics. 

That's the TL;DR of my notes on death. 

Coins Currency and Genies

 Genies? wait what?

When the economy of your world can be messed up with wishes

Ok, gave the plot away with the header, but hey, lets just make it clear and simple:

TL;DR; A Wish, can ruin your game. 

I Wish for a room filled with gold coins. for arguments sake, its 10,000 coins.

So, now, the Kingdom that used to have 10,000 gold coins in circulation, has 20,000.

The King used to be the richest with approx. 5,000 in storage, but he's not a stupid king, or at least the people in his city are not, so they mine gold, silver, copper, tin, and maybe some rarer platinum, zircon, etc, at an approximate rate that keeps the currency values around a 10:1 ratio,

except now, the gold in total has just flooded the market.

Are the players going to not spend it? um, no.. So there will be some very large purchases, which will put handfuls of the currency into the hands of a myriad of merchants. they in turn will buy more goods to replenish stock, but also some of their own purchases of personal reasons, and the trickle down happens, as it would / should in a medieval society. 

But it also means people are less likely to haggle, why bother wasting time over a 5% price difference, you can afford it, so you pay more, the shop keep gets used to this and doesn't need to sell his goods at a discount to feed his family, so his prices stay high, and his other customers seek cheaper goods elsewhere, or must raise their own prices to compensate for the rise of costs.

If you follow it along, ALL prices will, over the course of a few weeks and months, go up. people are greedy. Without some kind of agent to sweep in and force prices to stabilize, they'll always go up.

In comes the wizard. He casts a spell, and determines the price that a good should be, "mirror mirror on the wall, what was the price of fish last week?"

With some threats, or a charm spell, the prices are forced back to normal for this elite class, and people will come to grips with the ability of magi, thaumists and priests to divine more realistic prices. The Magi know.. if this gets out of hand, spell ingredients will go up in price, and master magi will be forced out into the forests to procure the weeds and flowers they need to create their potions and spells. Magi don't usually sell their goods to lowly folk. they sell once-off items, to the big fish.

Mid to low level adventurers buy healing potions, and sure that's come a little mainstream as a result, but all other magic rings, swords, gems, scrolls, these things are all once-off bespoke items and the magi only sells one every so often, usually for a years salary. So he's not used to having to deal with day to day price increases, no.. he comes to the little shop that has a boy that goes off into the forest once a year and pick the elderflower from the tall oak, that blooms only on 2nd winters solstice, and he pays 100 pewter for it, no more, no less. and if the boy didn't make it.. the magi will weight the costs of a teleport spell to go get it himself this year.. 

No, no no.. If a Priest was to enter the markets and found out he needed to pay double for all the candles and saffron and gold leaf and statues and marble, he might start flipping tables, and calling his god to come down and smite these greedy heathens. 

We, poor saps in the modern world can only grumble at the price of milk going up every year, We look at the real price increases on our expenditure and hope we can ask for an equal pay increase to match it.. just so we can 'stay still', but if we could summon a demon or a god or just the force of the universe to stop it in its tracks, I'm sure we would.

So, this gold.. since its got less ability to create inflation of prices.. the opposite happens.. its own worth changes. After the few months of prices going up and back down.. the gold is still so much more commonly about. more people have it, so people start to say, 'hey, I know I should give you 10:1 ratio on your gold, but I don't have as many pewter, so how about I give you 9:1, and since I kind-of don't 'need'  as much, as I got paid in more gold last week, I don't need more, then you make the choice, 9:1 for my goods, or go find a money lender, who'll exchange money, and take his cut.. greedy bastards.

That's right, you probably don't know. people didn't carry around large sums of cash in markets. they'd get robbed. the 'till' we have today would be emptied by thieves in moments. No, they had mobile bankers.. or moneylenders, who'd roam about with a couple of thugs for protection. thugs cost money, so the lender would charge a fee on exchanges and loans. If the going rate was 10:1, you might get 9.5:1 from the lender, or vice versa 1:10.5 if you wanted a lighter purse. You could call him over when a customer had currency you couldn't deal with, 

Now, lenders are more aware of the current flow of cash, so if they know there is a bucket or barrel of gold flowing into the purses, they're not going to stick with a 9:1 ratio. no, no.. they'll want to be ahead of the game, and have some street urchin go find out how much gold the heroes are accompanying themselves with. 

So, GMs, have you got that? Players enter town with chests or bags of goods. The Urchins should come up and ask, lots of questions, make them seem interested in what the heroes are brining home, what monster was killed and how much gold they've procured. As soon as the number is given, have the younger/dumber kids run off straight away, have the older kids ask more serious questions, make like they're not actually interested, maybe offer services or information on the town, have them very curious to look inside the adventurers purses..

Players will think they're going to be pick pocketed. Instead have all the money-lenders change their exchanges right away. No-body brings money into a city without 'paying' some kind of tax.

Which reminds me.. if your hero walks into a city with the same wealth of the city.. the king and his tax-man are going to want their share. if nothing less than to protect their currency rates.  Just another money lender really, with bigger guards and bigger pockets.   

Advanced Combat Rules

 A LOT of players are going to experience Standard Combat, But the reason they take on combat is to do all the cool things they saw great Warriors do when they were growing up. And like the characters see the cool actions, the players want to 'see' the cool combat.

Awesome Advanced Attacks

As a refresher, you have an Attack score, approx. 12 for Warriors, with a Modifier, lets say 'Melee' of 4, and you're going into your first dungeon. You have no special skills, your opponent, likely a goblin, has a dodge score of 1, over a defence of 0. So you have a 15 or less. which is 60% chance to hit. After One to Three attempts you've likely hit the poor creature, and the damage you roll is enough to kill it. 

Nothing Special.

But then later, when fighting, maybe an Orc, you manage to roll a 1 in combat, and what does it give you? Well if you failed to hit, but within 6 of hitting, you roll a d6, minus from the Attack total, and now maybe you DID hit. The GM or the PLAYER makes a description of HOW that played out, to make it more interesting.. The Orc raised its shield, but in the wrong direction, pushing the blade into (roll location on d12) its shoulder, a HIT!

OR, if you already hit, realizing you did, you take the split second decision to push the blade deeper, causing a further 2 points of damage.

That's about it for a low level character.. except, you might have already noticed on some monsters sheets, their 'fumbles' and your 'fumbles' against them.

In an effort to help GMs, each creature typically has a few obvious fumbles.. goblins dropping their weapons, or just freezing in spot, panic'd, Orcs overswinging, leaving themselves open to a follow up attack. Or smashing their weapons into walls or furniture, leaving them disarmed for a round. This is the early stages of Advanced Combat.

Players, having reached certain levels of proficiency can start triggering bonuses with certain weapons. Players can assign a 'bonus' to a 1+[die value] for extra bonuses, ontop of the 1s bonus.

A Player with an Axe might nominate 'twist' causing 2 extra bleed damage, spraying themselves with blood, and giving them 'grim visage' effect to all opponents. A Players with a shortsword, nominating any 'miss by 1' as a 'feint' attack, allowing them to 'draw back' 2 initiative for a 2nd attack, where the opponent loses 1/3rd their defence as they attempted to dodge or parry the first attack.

Then the ultimate, where players start taking on known combat manuevers from famous swordsmasters, then the counter manuevers to their opponents famous moves, and in retort the counter-counter moves, especially if he is left-handed and a leaper..

[Game Idea] R=cks that Fall

 I was watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LkYEfn3Cwo and was thinking about the last few moments when the satellite was told to just 'crash land' on the comet.

A Game about controlled abstinence?

Imagine this 'robot' is on the surface of a comet. the comet releases gasses from time to time, its made up of varied rock, and has some level of gravity. Imagine if when the comet passes the sun, the solar panels charge up, and begin to work, but the commands from earth are not in range, so the programming of the device, to not lose any opportunity, is to perform tasks it decides are important.

You are the program. 

You have a limited array of choices to begin with. soil drill, sample retriver, sample crusher, sample melter, sample chemical mix, a small 3D printer, and a loader to load in one of the materials. All of which are also in the 3D printers memory banks.

So, to start, you have limited power per 'run' and have to decide, and decide quickly, (because thinking costs power too) to choose what tasks to perform.

The game starts off with a few buttons and maybe sliders. a battery value, (in binary) maybe datetime stamps, also in binary. and you can send data to earth, if you think you are lined up for it.

Your first few 'runs' you'll gather some resources, crush them, melt them or chem mix them and report those value to earth. you won't know if earth got them or not. 

after some time, once one of your material storage areas is full, you'll be instructed that you can create a new storage for the resources. AND the ability to dump the resources when it gets too full. You'll be unaware of your maximum capacity, until its filled, and then you'll unlock instructions where to store the new ones.

The Aim is to explore options. there will be instructions to do things that will be counter productive to the game. the earth team don't want /expect you to do anything else except gather samples, study samples and report back to earth what was found. 

The Reality is, Earth is not getting your signals. Your solar array is misaligned and damaged. Your samples are just dropping to the ground when you finish, because the storage is not full. 

Exploration, means you discover to fill one container with one material til its full to unlock the 3D plans for a 2nd container.

you 'ping' space at each possible interval, to determine where the sun is. and then use what little power you have to turn your solar array in that direction.

This increases the amount of power you'll get, which means turning on earlier in the sequence, and lasting longer while IN sunlight.

creation of more batteries is possible, once its understood that the batteries are maxing out, because one battery is dead. and another is slowly failing. so, using the 'release' valve, the dead batteries can be dropped, and new ones inserted via the 'arm' 

There is also the smaller unit, once enough power is established to ping for the local unit. it can be guided to come back to the main unit by extending its legs and needle in the right pattern, and the signal becomes slightly stronger (and needs less power), until it 'bumps' into the main. and now it can have an arm attached to it, at each of its leg joints, and they in turn can be used to un-attach the original arm and improve it with a better arm, with more joints, giving access to repair the solar panels that were broken. 

Once this happens, the power allows to turn on the internal heaters, to access the other functions of the unit, (the melter was being used to provide enough internal heat to run the functions. note if the heater is not run, some parts might not work..

Its an incremental game, but has a logical flow to it. 

The eventual goal is to re-launch the unit back into space, to return to earth, and submit its findings, BUT the game should allow for varied styles of play. maybe even improving the drills, and reconfiguring the 3D plans to make more effective machinery to unlock other aspects. Maybe even replicating the whole rocket system and converting the comet into a rocket.

No Aliens needed. just what's available in 2023.  

[Adventures] The Cabinet

 I got the most interesting client this week. Certainly the most interesting for my whole career. Before I even attended the first lesson I had to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement, I remember it had a 10 year clause, for the generics, but a lifetime on specifics. So in interest of that NDA, I'll be light on some details.

I had to attend a meeting with an official at the Russian DUMA to get signed off. I approached this imposing building. All squares in shape for my recollection. big columns outside. I approached the front 'desk' which was a cabinet of soldiers? wood. slots for papers & passports. They wanted mine, but I was in a quandry.

Australians are instructed not to let out passports out of our hands. Its our only 'link' to the outside world. If we lose it, or its stolen, we are stuck in the country for months, and if your visa expires in that time, you are doubly stuck that you MUST leave, its  a catch 22 you do NOT want to get stuck in. I have once, and I never want to again.

So when asked to hand over my passport, I could not, without it, they could not let me enter. catch 22 again.

Russians all have this 'internal passport' like a licence really, you hand it over, show it off. its a pain in the ass to get a replacement, so its LIKE a passport, but at the same time, not such a hassle, so people hand them over to these goons at the desk, and they get a 'pass' to go in.

I ring my student contact. I can't get in. they ring back, wait there. For a small time I'm staring at the ceiling, the stairs, watching officials come and go, its fascinating. Eventually a small demure girl of 20 comes to talk to the goons,. long story short I left them with a photocopy of my passport.

I go up the stairs in some side wall, then through some corridors to another building, whose floor is not aligned with the first, so the doors are all skewed by a few feet, and some steps. 

Then I walk down this beige + orange corridor, passing wooden doors. its strange, like in those 70s movies, but this is real life. 

We come to a door. she has one of those old lock&key style keys, a slot in the door, the turn of this 3 inch metal rod, and the door puckers, as the leather 'seal' inside gives way. We enter this tiny little office. a desk, a laptop, a cupboard, a chair. none of it quite fits. its not meant to be a secretary room, or wait room, its only meant to be a cupboard for your coats. I'm sitting on a chair, INSIDE a cupboard, with a secretary, and her desk and chair, and laptop. inside a cupboard for coats. insane.

Soon enough, the door to the next room opens, and my student stands there, motions me in. I'm a little in shock, I was not told the position of this man, but I recognize him. I know who he is. BUT I'm a good teacher, it doesn't matter. I teach movie stars and ministers of finance, I can teach anyone, and ignore their position in life. I'm there to teach English.

He knows enough English, we discuss his needs, his level his practice. He's heard of me from some of the cabinet, and I'm unknown enough to be anyone. I signed an NDA remember. its all good.

For the next 6 months, I entered that chamber and spoke to him about a wide range of topics, and at one point, he advised me that it'd be in my best interests to return to Australia. that was 2011. I know now what he meant.

I'll go into more detail in my book, but I wanted to start writing some small parts out as marketing. get some interest and then publish.

I did alot of strange and interesting things in Russia. many of them far stranger than the above, 100x stranger. living in sheds in the snow, to 'test' my resolve. Digging ice tunnels. drinking Vodka with a man about to kill me. watching Explosions in Chechniya, and being told by my govt I needed to leave, after 80+ foreigners were bombed in a theatre. OH and I got to see paul McCartney Live in moscow. 

I did alot. and I think its time to write it all down, before I forget and so my kids can read it when they're old enough. 

Three lives

 A throwback to Nostalgia, a concept I was playing with, but recently with my neck injury, came to a focus point:

The Three Lives System:

Maybe you're a bit young for this, and you've not experienced it in computer games, but back in the day when we paid a coin to play a game. it gave us 3 lives. 3 attempts. Three Strikes your Out! You could learn enough in a life or two on how to play, and then attempt to complete the level with the last life. It allowed for simple mistakes, something out of the ordinary or a misstep.

The FATE system, gives a player a single one of these. death cheat code. Something extreme happened, you died, and you can 'wake up' on a beach nearby, having escaped the entire ordeal to return at a later time.

The LUCK system, gives you micro changes. You botched a single dice roll, or you want to buff that damage roll, or you just need better odds at something.

But it always worried me about the middle ground. What if you copped a blow of some decent damage, something harrowing, a broken arm, or leg or spleen. The damage dice modifier from luck is only 1 dice, its usually enough, but what if you fell 12 metres for a 6d6 damage roll. game wise, you can burn through your luck, to survive the roll, but story wise, maybe it doesn't make much sense, or character wise, you've now used up all your luck. its too expensive to spend fate. 

So it got me thinking, 

As a young man, I have been in a scrape or two, and survived. Things that now, as an older man, I have some more pressing issues. how is it that my body can take the same damage, the same severity, and then I was ok within a few days, and now, I'm laid up in bed for 2 weeks.

DNA and all that aside, I don't want to have some kind of 'age system' where you need to track time and then consult tables (Dungeon World does that) It needed a simpler system.

So, the Three lives, popped into my head. How about if all players have 3 'lives'. When they take some serious injury, they can negate the permanent effects by spending a life.

1. Players become aware of the possibility of permanent damage, and how it will, in effect, knock a few levels worth of points from their character.

2. It allows for logical progression of the story, allows for some cool story telling points. rather than retroactively taking back the event, it just allows the event to exist without ruining game play.

3. It gives players a micro sense of dread. Gaining or Losing extra lives becomes a way for players to identify their characters fallibility, it creates tension.

4. The character, in effect, has a lifespan. Certain mechanics such as resurrections might rely on lives too. Players can only 'rev' their character so many times before that character is dust. Making it all the harder to actually rise to legendary levels, giving players that do, a real sense of accomplishment.

This, would be the DD12 simple format for the Age & Health rules. Using actual Age rules would likely negate this, as it already uses a permanent damage rules and negation system. though I might tweak that to somewhat match this.  

ORCs, Evil or just Opposition?

You may remember this discussion from a while ago, and in an effort to not disrupt things I held back my thoughts, now that its all settled (agree to disagree) The underlying issue with the Orc question seems to be, can evil be normal, or is it something else?

How can Evil Exist?

If Evil is a thing, a force, it is surely destruction. the desire to destroy for no other reason. there can be justified reasons when the need for one thing is greater than the need for a second thing and the first cannot exist without the destruction of the second, yet is that evil?

Laziness, maybe.

If there is a plot of land. 10m x 10m in Soviet Russia known as a sotka. It can cope with a house, a garden enough to grow food for one person for a year, and nothing else. if you need some of that land for a driveway and a carport for your car, you will need to destroy the garden. but do you?

You can move some of the soil needed for the garden into raised beds, ones that use 'vertical space' so the garden 'space' is not destroyed, just moved. 

When You want to replace a very old house that has started to rot, you could take it apart plank by plank, discover all the reusable parts and store them for later use, maybe even in this new house, but the time cost to do that is greater than you can afford, so you employ a demolisher who rips down the house quickly, and throws away all the old wood. Destruction yes.. evil? hmm

If someone has not been trained to understand the cost of both sides, the benefit to store and keep the old wood, and the cost of time to take it apart, they have been trained only to demolish, this is not evil, its just a lack of choice. they know no other.

As a result, often, cultures that understand the choice, and come to other cultures that know no other choices, will likely expect them to learn of the choice, understand that destruction is evil, and creation is good. and so, choose creation.

Yet, if that culture, understanding that loss occurs with destruction, but instead of wanting to grow, wants all others to shrink, through destruction.. is that evil? well surely yes.

Orks are Evil.

This is my world is the evil of the Ork. They may wear armour they have scavenged from their enemies dead, as it afford them more time to destroy more of their enemy, and this is a good idea, but to take the time to create the armour? the cost for them is the time that could have been more destruction, would 10 years of creating armour create more destruction, no, because ultimately, the armour itself must also be destroyed, 

even the destruction of themselves, through scarring, tattoos, piercings is considered a good way to participate in destruction. Old age is not considered good, If the amount of food they consume equates to 100kg of destruction, yet a younger man with the same food produces 200kg of destruction, and there is only one serve of food. the younger will get it, they will use the energy to destroy and the net output of destruction is served. as such, elderly orcs will often sacrifice themselves to the horde. their knowledge will only lead to more creation, 

Humans have both capacities, can be trained in both capacities, and the path of creation leads to more creation, while the path to destruction always ends somewhere. the benefit of destruction is only to an evil god who wants more 'destruction', the 'food' they live on is destruction. So while some humans left with little choice, understanding, or training will resolve to destroy, as they know, no other way, or are too stubborn to change, the orc even when presented with the opportunity to learn it all, will only choose destruction. 

Some scholarly magi, imprisoned some Orks and only gave them the choice to create, with magic, all destroyed items healed and destruction was no a choice, the Orcs slowly grew into what seemed like 'normal' intelligent beings, yet the minute they left the confines of the magical box that always healed everything, and destruction became a choice once more, they reverted almost instantly, and within months were not just savage, but moreso, their knowledge on how to destroy more effectively lead to entire tribes of Orks wiping out civilisations, until such time the chieftains died, their knowledge gone with them, the squabbling tribes after fell into old ways and were soon, destroyed, but not before wiping out continents of humans. 

The Orks are not evil? well, I beg to differ. 

Playing as an Ork, expect your campaign to end violently

If a Player wants to play as an Ork. Sure, it'll be an interesting thought experiment, as long as they, at every choice, can destroy something. it'll be true to the Ork nature.

Arrive at a door, smash it down, enter a house, any furniture? smash it out of the way, fireplace? chuck everything in the fire so the place burns. people? kill them, why not? oh because my friends will block me? can I kill them? so I can kill the others? yes? ok, do it. no? oh, then I need to get more muscle, steal a deadlier weapon, then kill them, anyone who blocks an Ork from being able to destroy something needs to be so obviously stronger else the Ork will try to kill them. the only blocker is 'fear' that the other Ork wants to destroy it first, and by killing them, less destruction will happen.

An Ork player will need to always be 3rd in rank or lower, always seeking a way to survive long enough to eventually overthrow the leader, and make the choices.

A female Ork, giving birth to an Ork will know that their child will destroy more, will raise their little carnage beast with the expectation to destroy others. 

A Half Ork female will likely kill their offspring, as the capacity for any other race to destroy is less than an Ork, instinctively, so the child will not live. Only human females, having been forced, by an Ork that satiates its lust, and failed to kill the mother, will be born. Human females, unable to destroy that which they have themselves created, even if it is less than it should/could be, will raise the child as best they can. 

Players should determine how much 'destruction' they have in them based on their wisdom, charisma and Peity.

The Ork Gods won't like half Orks running around, and the more Pious the half breed is, the god will get their 'claws' into them. The GM can just 'influence' all Ork related encounters to be a little harder, deadlier or more often when a Half Ork becomes Pious.

Playing as an ORC on the other hand...

Remember that DD12 allows for races of other worlds to bleed through, so Orcs (note the spelling) might come through from another dimension. As I am to understand, these Orcs might have some form of hair growing from their skulls, they might communicate rather than decimate. They might not even BE Evil?! 

Players be warned

A non-evil Orc is not easy to play, while your in game friends may not communicate outright hatred or distrust, the GM should always be feeding your lines about how people will glance in your direction nervously, your comrades should accidentally make racist remarks, or concepts the might hurt your feelings are actually meant to, Orks are not Orcs.

But, this is ROLEPLAY, you're meant to be dealing with other worldly situations that put you in discomfort, so you as a player can expand your mind and abilities in the real world.

Have at it. Smash, Bash, Crunch and Grind, an Ork Life is full of FUN!   

PAX AUS 2022 - Cataclyzm

 This year I went to PAX, I was invited to run my game (as an Indie Australian Designer) and so I went.

Running Cataclyzm, for Strangers

This is a mini document on how, after running 5 sessions, I felt that running Catacylzm works best.

First, Lets discuss how I went into this, I had an idea of an approximate session length, PAX Aus was 2 hours, so I planned for 3 phases. The first being an Introductionary sequence, such as a mini combat, because almost all RPGs have some kind of combat system. Second I wanted to show off one of the three other variants of the game, Social conflict, Trade or the Powers that be. Lastly, I wanted a final showdown, the players now using their gained knowledge to take on something bigger, maybe something too big, so I could show off the 'size' rules.

This didn't go according to plan, of course.

PAX 2 hours, is more like 90 minutes. Players don't always turn up on time, so you kinda need to give players 10 minutes to get to your table. so you end up explaining the game 2-3 times as each player(s) arrived. holding off, means your existing players are bored. 

To combat this, the first players get their character templates first, and based on what they choose, I start to explain the world from THEIR perspective. 

Templates? 

Yes, at a Convention, you do not have the time to go through swathes of choices, even if a player knows exactly what they want, there are choices on HOW they want it. 

Sorry players, not happening. 

So instead I have pre-written characters that has the generic sets of skills & stats based on what they are likely to be doing.

For Catacylzm, I had Warrior, Ranger (with knives), Scout (with sling) and Shaman (with Herbs.. more on this later)

The rest might likely have spoiled the game. The Shaman was a mix of Mage, Priest, Academic and Trader, which took care of those roles where needed. The Scout was both Rogue, Trader and Ranger, while the Ranger was actually less about Range, and tad more about combat, while the Warrior was a Barbarian. just hit things.

So there wasn't really a need for Healer, Smith, Noble or the dedicated Priest, Monk, Mage or Academic, and Trader was only a subset for this world.. (for the moment)

I had intended to make up laminated level up cards, and let players start with one of them, I wish I had in the end, It would have saved a chunk of time, less need for specific character sheets, oh, white board markers would have been better too.. I have them somewhere..

So also, Games kinda needed to end 5-10 minutes early so players could get to their next event. Some players actually left after an hour, we had to 'poetically' write them out of the quest.

So, As often as not, I'd explain Cataclyzm from the lifestyle chosen, then a new player would arrive, I'd explain it further from their point of view, and so on, until I had a player count max, or it was 10 minutes in and we should start. 

Once the players were settled, I'd explain the flood, the situation and how, as young teenagers they were sneaking off, as a group, properly for the first time. (Their Parents knew what was going on, but sadly, they also knew this world was harsh, food was scarce, either they'd return with food, or not return and less mouths to feed)

being a Con, I didn't want to go down all the political choices of Cannibalism, or Cremation, 

The Players would choose a direction, as each session changed the 'known' map, each subsequent group had more information to choose a different direction. 

I rolled dice against the chart of things, modified by the distance from the village, and IF it was travelled before, and got some interesting things.

There were some small creatures to fight, or remains of other adventurers, or a crazy trader who was dangerous, til eventually the players crossed..

The Threshold

At a distance, beyond the collective dreams of the village, nightmares latch onto the thoughts of travelers. I asked my players questions.

If you were to think of a creature, what part would make it more :

Fearsome, Scary, Comical, Dangerous

What defines its:

Strengths, Weaknesses, strangeness.

The Players would give answers, I'd write them down, and formulate a creature from this.

Our Creature for these 5 session? The Jabber-wocky-cat? kinda?

Between the descriptions of Teeth, Spines, Claws, Spittle, were also, Hairless cat, Blue purple Fur Shoulders, Two Heads, Laser Beam eyes, extreme Long Leg bones, impervious to steel, but vulnerable to fire, it was a calm creature, yet vicious when damaged. 

Reminder, the first group described only 4 of these traits, the next, added 2 more, and then a further 2, then the last two groups, added 7 each (larger groups on Sunday)

The reason to do it this was, is to have survivors, return to the Village and 'describe' what they saw, how it fought, and while the later traits might be as obvious, they were not noticed 'at the time'

If players defeat the creature, they skin it there on the field, bring back key items, the creature was too large to bring it all home, so they choose a 'part' each.

Had we more time, I would have focused the last 15 minutes on improving the village each time, crafting something from the returned materials, improving the game for the next group.

Surprisingly to me, we had no TPKs, the groups managed to figure out enough of what was going on, fast enough to take down the creature. We had some losses, an arm here, some legs there,

The Last group went way of track, and I had to reinvent everything over for them, so we ended up in a limestone spillway, with glow in the dark fish, a huge barracuda and some dimension warp bats. 

What next..

I'll likely draw up the map for that Village, add it to my documents, their region being a plain of stone for the Jabber-cat, and some caves of timewarp bats. It'll create a new 'encounter' list, for some future session. 

What I'd like to do next, is somehow make it a live document, and allow those players to return, make some choices, guide the village further, then at a future con, we come back for an Ultimate showdown. 

Lets wait and see

Red pill, $10mil, Blue Pill $10 a click - Meme Math

 

1 month to hit 10 mill.. I’ve done the math, Blue pill, every single instance, here’s why:

Google 200bpm playlist.

https://jog.fm/popular-workout-songs?bpm=200 as an example.

You’ll find hundreds of songs you can click your fingers to, and you’ll barely notice you’re doing it.

2 hands, 200bpm = 400 clicks. I just did one as a test and could click in the ‘off beat’ just as easy without any issue, but lets stick to average folk.

400 click = $4k 10 songs, 3 minutes each, 30mins of listening to the playlist and clicking, and you’re up $120k

do this in the morning as you get ready, and in the night before bed, and 20mins for lunch, and that $10mil? will only be a month.

A MONTH!

Hang on, that's a lot of clicking right?

Lets tone it down.. you get ready in the morning, put on one of these songs and just click away for an hour, but you’re not always clicking, and not to every song, so lets say you only clicked one hand, and for only half the songs.

85 days.. or 3 months.. and you’ve got 10 mil.

Lets be realistic, you don’t need 10 mil right now,

Ok, ok, lets be more realistic

the Taxman is going to catch onto your magic powers, and if you took $10mil, good luck trying to prove its yours. 

What do you need, a down payment on a home loan? proof of income for 2 months? a car to get around, and general bills

So, put on Black Eyed Peas Hey Mama, 3 minutes at 200 bpm, you've just pocketed $6 grand.

Pay off your bills, take your partner out for dinner, relax. 

Set up a cash business, you need to create a 'means' by which you're getting this money.

Something that will bring in a half mil a year, without blinking.

Something you can be 'clicking' along to a song, and no-one will care.

A "thrift" store. Antiques, curios, exotic object de art. 

Go buy a bunch of random $10 items from other thrift stores, just 'click' your fingers a few times to pay for them, bring them to your location as 'donated' items. 

Put 2 prices on everything, one in red, one in blue.

When people ask, the red price, at 1/3rd the blue price, is for 'members'. Membership is $1000, unless you are referred, then its $100, cash.

Nice people come in? offer them the referral price, but put it in the books at normal price, and click your fingers to a Beatles song while they fill in the books.

All your books are blue prices, All your customers pay red prices.

You can even set up the system, so employees will follow the rules, your books look correct, you pay tax correctly, you have a very decent income, no-one misses out (you even pay taxes on the 'full' amount. Why would the Taxman even come looking if it appears you're paying full tax on it all.  

All set! 

Monty Haul Paradox

 Something ha s been bothering me about the Monty haul Paradox, and maybe I'm still wrong yet, I think I figured it out.

The Monty Haul Paradox - Paradox?

What is the Monty Haul Problem:

A Man at a Game Show is presented with 3 doors, behind one is a car, and behind the other 2 are goats. The contestant wants the car. He is instructed to pick a door. Once chosen the presenter opens a door and shows a goat, and then gives the contestant the chance to change. Should he.

The Average non mathematician will consider that the choice is 50/50 as there are now 2 doors, one with a goat, one with a car. 

Mathematicians though, insist that the chance is now 66.6% to swap. The reasoning is, the original theorem of the 3 doors. having one revealed when you had a 1/3rd chance, means statistically the door you have chosen was likely a goat. 

The graphs makes it 'clearer' there are 3 red end points, vs 6 green end points, so 6 of 9 choices or 2/3rds chance you'll be getting the car. right?

Now I can follow the logic of this, you can google it yourself to see the logic, and I guess its kinda makes more sense from that point of view, if you change it to 10 doors, where you choose 1 door, the presenter reveals 8 goats, and now you have 2 doors, do you want to change, but I spotted a flaw.

The Presenter, chose a goat door. of 2 possible goat doors, If you HAD chosen the car, he has 2 choices of goats to choose from, and if you had NOT chosen the car, he can only choose the 'other' goat.

Negating the presenters choice from the math, of course shows it to skew towards 66%, but if you spread out all choices with the presenter included, we return to 50/50.

In the chart above, we looked at 3 red vs 6 green. but forgot, that each red shows 2 choices. include them, and we're back to 6 vs 6 = 50/50. I don't have 3 dimensional excel to show it, so I need to split it out like this: