A couple of weeks ago, I kicked off a new role-playing game. I decided I wanted to use the Savage Worlds game system (alongside the science fiction companion) to run a space-romp in the Orion arm of the galaxy. I was inspired to this after listening to the Openly Gamer Theatre’s production of Tower of the Ape, where they played Savage Worlds in the Conan universe (which introduced me to the Savage Worlds game system) and their even older Power of the Darkside which was a Star Wars Saga Edition game (which reminded me how much I love space romps)
While I’ve certainly role-played now and again over the years (either one-shots or short-term games), this is the first time in a while I’ve set out to play a long-term campaign. To make this work, though, I would need to solve a number of issues: Continue reading Kicking off a Role-Playing Game→
Whenever I start GMing again, my mind drifts to a simpler time when the following was a good enough hook:
Feeling brave tonight? How brave! Brave enough to do battle with hideous monsters, hmmm? Brave enough to sneak around dank castles in the dark and chance being the next victim? Of a dragon strike!
A couple weeks ago, I posted a math problem that I was playing around with. This problem was born of our some ideas for my new role-playing game, as well as the basic scanning mechanism of EVE Online.
In EVE Online, if you are trying to scan down an object in space, you launch some probes and they report back the distance from the probe to the anomaly, with some amount of error, up to some maximum range. Your ship’s computer then aggregates that information and renders it as an overlay on the scanning screen. If two of your probes received responses, you would get a circle where the two spheres intersect, with three you would get two points, and with four you would get a single point (with some degree of error). You then decrease the range of the probes (increasing their signal strength) to narrow in on your target – a pretty simple and fun min-game which tickles my imagination and makes me think I know something about how science fiction scanning might occur. Continue reading The Scanning and Location Problem→
Just as I looked back at 2015, I am also looking forward into 2016. I’m not really a goals-oriented person, but I wanted to write down some of the things that I want to do in 2016. Of course, life changes, so I’m not sure I can really levee these as expectations of my future self, but they are things that I plan to make time for this year.
Finish a Game Design Project
Last year, I started and completed Ticket to Ride: Iceland. This year, I want to complete another project and get it printed. I have a couple of smaller projects that I have designed from the ground up that I could finally get printed, or, alternately, I may make myself a copy of Dune. In either case, I want to create something cool this year. Continue reading Looking Forward into 2016→
Over the course of 2015, I feel like I have been able to improve my healthy habits better than I ever have. I’m exercising more, eating better, and generally taking better care of my body. While my habits and work are still mostly sedentary in nature (and I don’t expect that to change), I feel better about the time that I take to be healthier, even if it cuts into all those things.
As with most people my age, my job takes up most of my time, but I still love what I do. I work with great people, I get to do cool things, and I feel good about the work that I do at the end of the day. I don’t know that I have anything more to say here that I haven’t already said – it’s good. Continue reading Looking back at 2015: Part 2→
Thoughts are stripped of their texture to form words that they might be colored by the mind of another.
