Power Rangers The Campaign; Season 2

I’ve been thinking a bit more about that Power Rangers setting and playing with a few concepts since the last time I posted about it. I looked into a couple of systems, a few mechanics, and some narrative structures that I could use for it. Here’s the fruit of that labor.

First off I’d want to use the West End Games D6 Adventure system. It’s a versatile and easy to learn system with the mechanical crunchiness that such a setting would require. I’ll have to design each piece of equipment myself and that’ll take some balancing work, but in the end it won’t be that hard because even if things turn out to be overpowered or even underpowered it can easily be dealt with in a Power Rangers style fashion. Which is of course to say that it ends up never used again, only used against specific enemies, or the enemies get some type of immunity or strength boost from that point on.

I really like the Charge Point economy concept I came up with and will definitely be using that for this idea, I just have to come up with the specific costs and a table for the players/GM to follow. The actual Morphing and power-up structure is going to be a little bit tricky to initially build but should be easy to follow in game. Rangers usually follow a pretty standard pattern for the escalation of their fights in an episode/series: Pure Human, In-between form (think of the Ninja forms they got in MMPR), Morphed, Power Weapons, other special power-ups or vehicles, Zords, summon allies, Megazord/s, and finally the Ultrazord. This pattern makes it easy to setup the escalating costs and what power-ups will be available with certain amounts of charge once I figure out how much that charge may cost.

Character creation should be relatively easy. You make a teenager with attitude, or 20-something with attitude, whatever. You get the standard pool of resources for character creation and make a person. Each character should have a unique set of skills and everyone’s characters should know each other in some way. When they morph into their Ranger forms the characters will get various automatic boosts to their abilities depending upon their ranger color. Some will be generic boosts and some will be specific to their role on the team. Remember, each Ranger is specifically selected for their role based upon compatibility with the color they wear. Oh, and there must be 5 players. That’s a requirement

Now as for how the Narrative will play out, this one is easy. Treat every single session as a single episode of the series, including Theme Music and an introduction of the cast at the start every play session. If the plot of the episode isn’t resolved before the end of game session the GM is required to end the session on a cliffhanger and give a recap at the start of the next session before playing the theme music. The game is based off of a TV show for kids so the sessions will kept lighthearted and cartoony in some ways. Evil is evil, the only gray area villains will be the ones who can change sides or who are under the influence of a spell/plot device. There will always be something that has some type of moral lesson about teamwork that the rangers must overcome.

This shit writes itself!

Villains and monsters are going to be a little bit difficult to visualize without me being an artist, but I can probably find a way to photoshop some things together or find good visuals on the internet.

Now, what would the plot be based around? Each generation of Rangers has a command center and a theme they follow. I’m thinking of reaching back into the Power Rangers lore vaults and pull out some of the unused ideas for the TV show, specifically the Hexagon concept.

The Hexagon was an idea that was being built up to while Power Rangers was still under the control of Saban. It was a new type of command center that was publicly funded and well-defended. The idea was that Tommy Oliver (the former Green, White, and Red-Zeo Ranger) helped to found an organized resistance to the evil in the universe that kept finding its way to Earth. The Hexagon would be the command center for multiple Ranger teams and would be modeled after the Pentagon. Except, y’know, full of giant supertech/magic research departments. It was really going to be a way that they could just use multiple series at the same time, sell more toys, and not worry too much about a constantly consistent plot with a single season of stock footage. It was never used because they decided to go a completely different direction with the series because they were under the assumption they were ending the series.

For me, the Hexagon represents a great alternate timeline option that allows me a stepping off point for the “series” I’d be running. It can be its own thing without running into dealing with canon issues and all that crap. Plus, Tommy Oliver as the equivalent of a Chief of Operations for a military branch.

Of course I could also go with the ultra-realistic interpretation of everything including what access to that tech means for humanity, the death and destruction of such battles taking their toll on the world economy, and all the fun stuff that goes along with that stuff. I’d rather keep it a light-hearted and campy romp with people abusing the shit out of the word “Morph” in more exotic and unlikely ways though. We have enough darkness in all the other settings I pay attention to that this one should be allowed to be enjoyed for what it is.

Space Opera: Planets of Random 2; The Randoming

Okay more randomly generated planets for the Star Cluster.

Planet 5:

Planet 5 is part of a 9 planet system; Has 2 moons; Atmosphere is harmful to humans over a long term; moderate amount of oceans (earth-like); 0.9 Earth gravity; 20 Hour day; 390 Day year; Primarily an Ocean and Jungle environment (Primitive Earth-like); Abandoned Colony; Criminal Government; Intolerant regulations w/ restricted Tech/Weapons; Mid-High tech level; Imports Natural Resources and Finished Goods. Exports 2 Major types of manufactured goods. Population of 50,000,000. Considered a Trade backwater and has a Minor spaceport.

The planet itself resembles a primordial earth with a similarly composed atmosphere. The hypersaturation of O2 in the atmosphere causes many medical complications in humans exposed to the atmosphere over a long period of time. The planet was once a sort of biological preserve and natural world observation project in addition to being a pretty solid trade port. The site was abandoned a long time ago by the company/group that originally owned it after their funding ran out. Criminals moved in to fill the power void left by the government’s departure. The criminal enterprises set about using the land available to them to put up assembly factories that keep the current population employed. Most of what they produce are chemicals and weapons components for use in items that are known to be illegal. The population is pretty tolerant of the Criminal rulers because they viciously protect the planet and bring in plenty of money. They rule in a relatively fair fashion too, it just isn’t exactly a representative government with the population’s best interests at heart (think more of a Mafia type family).

Planet 6

7 Planet System; Has a Ring or many small moons; Earth-like atmosphere, Moderate hydrosphere; 1.1 Earth Gravity, 22 hour day; 390 day year; Primarily Volcanic and mountainous terrain (Very Primordial Earth-like); Abandoned settlement; Criminal Government; Informal Regulations, Tech/Weapons restrictions; Mid-High tech; Imports Luxury Goods/Natural Resources; Exports processed materials and Services; population ~6,000,000; Minor Spaceport; Major Trade Route.

Planet 6 was part of a young mining corporation’s attempts to expand into the Cluster. This planet was to be used as a processing and storage facility for various ores in preparation for shipping. Unfortunately the company was plagued by poor management and bad luck. It had to abandon Planet 6 many years ago and, as is wont to happen in the area, the criminal elements moved in to take what they could. Most of the processing facilities warehouses and mines still exist on this planet and are still worked by various individual crime lords and their gangs. The planet is well known to be a great place to buy pretty much anything you could ever want. The lack of a real government lets people do what they want, when they want, and where they want. Unfortunately this also means that there’s slave trades and lots of smuggling operations that base themselves out of this area. There is a single marketplace in the inhabited area of this planet that is used as basically a 100% free-trade area. The crimelord who runs it is notoriously brutal to anyone who violates his simple rules, but is otherwise fair and keeps his cut of things very low.

The planet itself is in a Primodial Earth-like state. It is very similar in size, shape, and rotation to the Earth as well as having a very similar hydrosphere. It is still extremely volcanically active and most of the planet just has very primitive lifeforms across it. Really only one area about the size of an American State is inhabited.

Planet 7

11 Planets, 1 Asteroid Belt; 2 moons; Hazardous atmosphere, enviro-suits required; Arid Hydrosphere; Earth-like gravity; 23 hour day; 120 day year; Desert/Glacier terrain (Little-to-no atmosphere, frozen gas glaciers, corrosive soil); Important military outpost; Military Government; Intollerent regulations, Tech/Weapon restrictions; High tech level; Imports Services and Entertainment; Exports natural resources and services; Population 30,000; Major Spaceport; Trade Hub

Planet 7 is a frozen desert planet covered in various frozen gasses and rare rocky elements. The planet itself is of very little interest to most people, but the location of this solar system in the cluster is very important. Multiple orbital and asteroid based space stations exist here and it is a very popular marketplace and it is also the only connection to half of the cluster. Everyone must travel through this system at some point. Unfortunately Planet 7 is the single most habitable planet in the system so it has never become a truly influential system in the Cluster’s politics. A relatively small mercenary company calls this planet home. They are a very skilled and specialized guard force for merchants and are the primary force defending and patrolling this entire system. They finance themselves with exports of the rare materials on the planet and with general mercenary work. They are officially the “ruling power” of the system and enforce their regulations with extreme prejudice directly in line with the letter of the law. They always have the absolute top of the line ships, weapons, tech and training. There are rumors about some type of unknown bypass to this system that smugglers and pirates have been using to get around the heavily regulated and patrolled system.

Halloween

So it's October once again. Probably my favorite month of the year. Why you may ask? Well most people probably know why. I'm originally from the town of Half Moon Bay and it's famous for its pumpkins. Every year they hold the Pumpkin Festival and it is the single biggest tourist draw for the area for most of the year.

Obviously most people in the town get in on the action. Lots of arts, crafts, pumpkin flavored items, and Halloween colors/themes are seen. The town takes its Halloweens very seriously and people setup some of the most elaborate haunted houses and decorative displays in their own yards.

In our little hamlet known as Montara, a very small community north of Half Moon Bay proper, a block near the elementary school setup barriers and went super insane decorating and preparing their area for Halloween. Massive displays, tons of candy, jello shots for the adults. Amazing stuff. I got the joy of taking my daughter around there during my short time back in my hometown after I was discharged from the navy.

It was stupendous.

It's a very magical and wonderful time of year for people from the Coastside. I never realized how much I would miss it either after I moved away by joining the navy.

Now that I'm a homeowner in a small New England town though I have an opportunity. The community I'm in has a bit of the Halloween spirit, but they don't really have the same type of spirit coastsiders have.

Maybe I can do something small to change that.

Since this blog is supposed to be about nerdom and my creative pursuits it seems fitting to talk about this here.

I'm wanting to start trying to encourage a Montara style block party where I now live. The only way to start doing that though is to start by decorating our house properly and encouraging the neighbors to do the same by do so.

I don't have that much time left this year to do much, if anything. Plus money can be a factor here, but I'm willing to put in some effort for this and am planning on making most of the props myself. This will help keep the costs down and help make it a memorable event.

If I start doing any projects I'll catalogue them and the process I'm using on here.

Power Rangers, the Campaign

I’ve always had a typical for my age and gender reaction to the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers; I watched the episodes religiously, I wanted all of the toys, and thought the entire concept was really freaking cool. I’m a boy who loves his cheesy, Japanese inspired (okay, stolen footage from Japan), shows and movies with people in ridiculous outfits fighting people in rubber suits with their own rubber suited beasts and models.

If you look at the original show while ignoring the extremely cheesy… um… everything… about it, you can see the makings of a really deep setting begging to be exploited by the creative. The original Power Rangers were just some kids with some exceptional talents recruited by a powerful interdimensional being. The Interdimensional being grants these teens access to their Power Coins and Morphers. Each of the 5 members receives a power coin with a totem that complements/is complimented by their own abilities. Each Ranger also has a “DinoZord” of their totem animal for when they have to face down gigantic threats.

The Power Coins seem to have some type of mysticism in their origin while the Morphers, Zords, and other bits and pieces of the command center seem to be based around alien/super tech. The command center has faster than light communications, matter-to-energy teleportation, interstellar starships, advanced sensor technology, and many other examples of super-tech. The Rangers themselves use a combination of technology and mysticism in their weapons and abilities as well. None of it is specifically explained as to why these things appear to be a combination of magic and technology, but who cares. It sold toys.

The lack of explanation was probably really done for the ease of writing convenient plot devices that appear out of nowhere from the original Japanese footage and to pad episodes with unnecessary drama. You would hear references to things like “The Morphin Grid” (Yes, the proper spelling is without a “g”, did you expect any different?) or the Rangers would go on a quest for some weapon they might only use once.

So anyways, the point of this rambling is that I’ve been convinced for a very long time that the Power Rangers would make a wonderful RPG setting. You have a team of people thrust into greatness by powers greater than themselves. They have to struggle against the seemingly endless forces of evil while protecting the innocent. Evil is constantly growing in power and ability which requires the rangers to go on quests for more powerful artifacts or abilities to fight the forces of evil. They also have magic powers and giant super-tech robots. What else do you really need for an RPG?

I’ve been playing around with this concept for quite a while and the biggest thing stopping me from running it was the lack of a way to effectively engage players during a megazord fight sequence. What would you do? Just give the controls of the megazord to a lone player while the others watched? Do you have each of them coordinate a different limb? Do they all have their own turn? Do they have to vote on each move before they perform it? The answer to the question escaped me until yesterday (or a few days ago depending on when this gets published.

The idea is to give a specific role to each of the Rangers when they’re in the cockpit. One ranger controls one of the following stations; sensors, defensive/power, ranged weapons, melee, and the pilot. Each Ranger gets to make a control roll/skill challenge or something similar and depending upon their success or failure can generate what I’m calling a “Charge point”. The charge points can be kept in a pool until the team decides to use them for one of their many uses. Maybe calling the Power Sword requires 15 Charge Points or they can spend a few points for extra attacks and a free ranged attack with some extra damage. Maybe it allows the Dino-Megazord to call up its Shield, or allows them to summon an ally like Ninjor, Titanus, or the Dragonzord. I’m still working out the specifics, but the general concept is sound and now it’s just a matter of refining it.

These charge points can be added to every aspect of a Power Rangers episodic adventure. It helps maintain the pacing of the show and forces the players to mechanically follow the stages of escalation the rangers would have to follow in a story. Why don’t the rangers immediately whip out the Zords against the regular sized opponent? Because they don’t have the Charge points built up yet of course! Fighting the monster with blade blasters first? Not enough points to summon up the power weapons yet. Why is the red ranger not using the Dragon Armor? Lack of Points! Why are Bulk and Skull here? Because your GM hates you. I also think that the Rangers should be able to tap into the Morphin Grid if the need emergency charge points, but it should carry some level of danger and it should be a limited pool.

This pool wouldn’t just be limited to the Rangers though. Obviously the villains have their own pool as well. I was thinking that each of the different levels of villains would have their own ways to gain these points and use them.

You could have minions like the Putty Patrollers sent in to soften the rangers up in the first place be capable of earning charge points, but they can’t use them. They would create the initial pool of points for the Episode Monster to use. The Episode Monster would generate a certain number of Charge Points every turn based upon how powerful a creation it is. Minor Villains (like Goldar or Scorpina) would earn a certain number of points per round and be able to generate/use them in similar ways to the Rangers. Main Villains (Rita or Zedd) would generate their own points and/or suck off the power of the Villain Pool in order to generate their own energy for casting spells, using magic items, sending in minions, monsters, and etc to generally make life far more difficult for the Rangers.

I’m envisioning 3 Charge Point pools, the Ranger Pool, the Monster Pool, and the Villain Pool. The Rangers fill and draw from their own pool. Minions, the Episode Monster, and Minor Villains add to/willingly contribute to the Monster Pool which can be used by the Episode Monster to unleash hell upon the Rangers. The Villain pool is held by the Major Villain and is essentially a tax upon the Episode Monster’s pool, maybe a MV has a Siphon rate or some other specific rate at which their pool increases. The Villain Pool is used by the Main Villain to bring in more minions, monsters, magic items, etc into the battle.

Man, this system sounds awesome… okay, now I need to work on the charts for the things charge points can be spent on.

This charge point system is just a secondary system though. It can really be slapped onto any game system out there to allow a power rangers campaign to be run. The next question is, what system do I use to run the game? This is something I’m going to have to think about. Two immediately come to mind though, FATE and D6 Adventure. Before I can choose though I need to look into a few more systems.

Space Opera:The First 3 Planets of Random!

So I’ve been semi-randomly generating some worlds for this Space Opera star cluster. Nothing has a name yet and they’re only being referred to as “Planet #” with the # sign being replaced by the order it was created in. So the super-tourist planet I’ve mentioned is Planet 1, the next one will be Planet 2, followed by #3, and so on. I will profile Planet 1 at a later time, meanwhile here are the first 3 planets made through semi-randomness. (Semi-random means I may have altered or added something based on it making thematic sense or based off of inspiration striking me after seeing the dice fall) These are all the primary planets in their respective solar systems, there may be more inhabited in each system and there may be other deep space habitats (like colonized moons/asteroids or space stations) that I haven’t decided on creating yet.

Remember, these are the primary planets of 3 separate solar systems within the star cluster, not 3 planets in a single system.

Planet 2:
10 Planet solar system with 2 asteroid belts; The planet has 1 moon; The atmosphere is harmful to human life over a short period of time (This planet has a high concentration of CO2 and O2); The hydrosphere is super saturated making it almost entirely an ocean planet; 0.5 Earth Gravity; Most common terrain features are Jungles and Ocean; 36 hour day; 360 day year; established as a dependent colony and ruled by some type of monarchy-like system; Strict/Intolerant Regulations with specific weapon/tech restrictions; Imports some type of services and R&D; Exports a banking service and natural resources; Approximate population of 60,000; has a “minor” spaceport and is considered a trade backwater.

Planet 2 is almost entirely covered by liquid water with next to no landmasses poking up from its massive oceans. The world is absolutely covered by a kelp-like plant that is capable of growing out of the water and farming Mangrove-like jungles in the shallower waters. The atmosphere is harmful to humans in a matter of minutes due to the high concentrations of Oxygen and CO2 in the atmosphere. The planet is essentially setup as tax haven, with Banking and currency exchange being its primary industries outside of the planet’s vast ocean-based resources. It is ruled by the head of the Bank in a corporate monarchy. It has a decently well-equipped spaceport and is out of the way enough to make attacking it extremely difficult (especially considering how close the Bank’s mercenary support is to the travel routes.

Planet 3:
15 planet solar system with 2 dense asteroid belts; 3 moons orbit the planet; Earth-like atmosphere with an extremely arid hydrosphere; Gravity is 5x Earth; 26 hour day; 225 day year; Common terrain includes Glaciers, Forests, and Volcanoes; Established as an independent colony by a major business conglomerate; Moderate regulations with a strong alien prejudice; Imports Services and processed raw materials. Exports education and finished goods. Has a population in the 600-700 range; Basic spaceport on planet; considered a trade hub.

Planet 3’s arid environment is kind of a misnomer. It has a lot of water, but it is all frozen except directly around its very active volcanoes. Around these volcanoes individually developing forest eco-systems exist in steamy, tropical rain forests. There is a large trading station in orbit where the Conglomerate maintains a major trade outpost for selling the goods they produce on the surface. The manufacturing processes they are using work extremely well in such a high-g environment and enhance the quality of the products they make. The fact that they can use geothermal power and don’t have to worry too much about environmental impacts to the planet also helps a lot. Access to the planet is restricted to the factory workers and other conglomerate personnel as required for maintenance, inspections and such. The factory’s non-manufacturing spaces are maintained at about a 1.2 Earth Gravity environment with artificial gravity generators/compensators.

The spaceport services available to non-company affiliated ships are some of the most basic, just enough that they don’t fear reprisal by travelers. Company affiliated ships have access to a cutting edge facility with all the latest tech and reasonable pricing. Anyone caught using it who isn’t part of the company faces harsh punishments and fines.

Planet 4:
14 planet system, 1 asteroid belt; Planet has 12 small moons; Earth-like atmosphere, dry hydrosphere with some standing water; Earth-like gravity; 23 hour day, 135 day year; Artificial and mountainous terrain dominates the world; established as an important military installation, ruled by a bureaucracy; Intolerant regulations that punish “unbelievers”; Imports Luxury goods and entertainment; Exports2 types of services; estimated 4 Billion population; Major spaceport; Trade Hub

Planet 4 is a heavily populated world. It has quite a large number of cities dotting its surface. It was once a major military installation for the Terrans during the second to last major war with the Confederation. It was sold off to a Security/Mercenary corporation founded by veterans of that war who now maintain the government and infrastructure of the system. Most of the population are or are decedents of Refugees from major conflicts around the galaxy. The Mercs seem to take a very serious stance on protecting these refugees. This company is the most hired company in the known galaxy and most everyone in it appears to be volunteers from the refugee population. The world has very little natural resources and making a living on the surface can be hard without access to modern tech which easily makes its way into the system because of its close proximity to Planet 1.

I like where this stuff is going.

Space Opera 33 and 1/3

So this Sci-Fi thing won’t leave my head. So I found a ton of D6 Star Wars Resources free on the web that I can peruse at my leisure now. That’ll make the possibilities for personal gear, weapons/armor, and starships much easier to get a baseline to use. (Unrelated tangent: I find it really interesting how humans are typically the ones depicted as the individual classes in these WEG books while different species are typically represented as their species and not as a class. Humans are depicted in the entries like “Smuggler”, “Bountry Hunter”, and “Diplomat”. Meanwhile aliens are depicted as “Wookie” or “Mon Calamari”. Just an odd way to do things in my eyes. /Tangent)

I started thinking about the way this star cluster could be setup and how things would run more. First off we should have an idea of how many Stars are in the cluster and how many are inhabitable. [Rolls a D20 + 10] So 27 stars in this cluster, we’ll make half of them habitable which puts us at 13 or 14 systems with habitable planets. Let’s go with 13 because that number is far cooler than 14. The other 14 stars may or may not have planets or useful resources and they may even quite possibly have some people living in stations or other such things, but they will be few in number and living/trade will be hard for them. We’ll keep those areas uncharted and mysterious for the time being because no one in the habitable worlds are really going to give much of a damn about them.
Okay, so 13 solar systems in the cluster with habitable worlds. One of these systems will have a world that is a stop for Star liners and will be the primary trading hub/consumer of goods/tourist destination in this particular star cluster. Every other star cluster is going to primarily be exporting their goods and services to this system to be able to fetch the best price they can from their labor. I think I’ll use the Guild Council/Mercantile Republic style government I came up with for the Geinrich setting to run this main planet. The planet should be earth-like for the most part, nothing to make it difficult to adapt to over long periods of time for people who are visiting. What might make this a desirable tourist spot? Well, let’s see… how about vast, untouched swaths of natural Earth-like biomes, a very strong (for the area) and poorly regulated economy, and a unique set of rings surrounding the planet that make the night sky amazingly beautiful.

Every other system I’ll generate randomly using the planet generation charts included in the D6 Ships book and write them up separately.

How does this cluster deal with the two neighboring interstellar governments? What is their relationship to them both? Does either side give a rat’s ass about these systems? Does the cluster actively fight against annexation, incorporation, or any other versions of adding the planets into their government structures? What does each side call the area? Is it under any type of political contention?

These are all questions that need to be answered at some point. Maybe after fleshing out these new planets it will become super obvious how some of these will be answered. Here’s to hoping…

Weird objects with weird names

The wife and I were sitting around watching the Science Channel show “Oddities” this past weekend. I enjoy watching the show for the same reason I enjoy any of these Pawn Stars/American Pickers-esque shows, the stuff being shown. It’s almost always very neat stuff to look at. (I’m not a fan of the absurd fake drama or annoying commercial break suspense in these shows. The tension doesn’t translate well into a Netflix based medium) This particular episode was from the 3rd season and the big item the owners are looking at and researching is this sinister looking cauldron with its lid sealed, covered in black feathers and very thick, padlocked chains.

Apparently the guy who brought it in does the Storage Wars thing and buys storage unit contents at auction (only for real, not like the show Storage Wars…). They guy bought the contents of a unit in New Jersey and found this in a box in it:

What I saw...

Holy crap! That thing doesn’t look like it was built with “good” things in mind. They go about trying to do some more research into the object and bring it to a woman practitioner (who I’ve found out is not liked in the meta-physical community for a myriad of reasons) who wouldn’t let them bring it into her store and told them what it was. She called it an Nganga (pronounced: ing-gong-ga) and claimed that it was a vessel for holding an evil spirit and that the feathers were from all-black chickens that were sacrificed during its creation. She claimed that such a spirit could have the power to destroy the whole of 9th Ave in Manhattan (hmmmm… skeptic senses are tingling…), and that it originates with the practices of the Palo religion of the Kongo region.

The store owners then decide to go to an industrial imaging center to take a look inside without disturbing the vessel. They get X-Rays of various angles and take inventory of what they can see inside. It appeared that there were railroad spikes, bullets, an impenetrable to x-rays sphere, dirt, and possibly some type of liquid inside of it. They took it back to the store and returned it to the guy who brought it in and decided that they did not want to buy it, a rare thing for these two to do.

I was very interested in this object though. Not because I wanted it, the storytelling part of my brain kicked in immediately upon hearing the woman’s description of the vessel. A very sinister looking prison or vessel for a strong spirit was left abandoned in a random storage unit in New Jersey and bought by a random unlucky man. The only warnings he’s had is that it potentially has some powerful spirit in it, but the warning is from some woman who most people already have trouble believing and is maligned by her own community for being an attention whore and exploiter of her peers. He doesn’t want it, can’t sell it off, and doesn’t believe in the magic and other such nonsense people were warning him about. How many story hooks do you see in that for any modern fantasy story/setting? I see an entire campaign, comic book arc, or novel that could be written about this thing.

So because my curiosity was piqued and that female practitioner threw off the overdramatic “I’m doing this for attention” vibe, I did a little bit more research into the item in question. Apparently Nganga is a term for multiple things in African-descended slave religions. In multiple religions this is just the term for the Shaman/Witch-doctor. In Bantu it means Herbalist or Spiritual Healer. In others it is just the term used for a vessel to allow a priest/practictioner to have some type of control over the spirit connected to the vessel. These spirits (known as Nkishi/Nkisi) aren’t necessarily evil. The religions that these vessels originate from are based on spirit-worship, which means that they believe that spirits inhabit everything. They perform rituals to invoke the powers of the nature spirits, the spirits of the Dead, and the power of Man.

An Nganga vessel is typically going to be filled with some type of spiritually charged soil, sticks, bones, and other items that represent the spirit to be contained. This allows the practitioner to have control over the spirit. The vessel seen in the show appears to be of the Palo Mayombe sect/cult and is likely of Caribbean origin. If it is a vessel used to contain an evil spirit it could be used for evil or could wreak untold havoc if released, at least according to practitioners and dabblers on the internet. What kinds of awful things could be in store for the world when the uninitiated gets their hands on this powerful evil spirit? (The episode first Aired in Feb 2012 and Hurricane Sandy hit in October 2012. Coincidence? Probably)

Who was the owner of the storage unit? Why was it up for auction? What spirit is contained within the nganga? What was it being used for? Why did the rent on the storage unit lapse? Why would you keep it in a storage unit? Is someone or something out there looking for it? Was it left for some poor sap to find there on purpose? Was the spirit released? So many questions, so many story possibilities!

Space Opera Part Deux

So I’ve been running this Space Opera campaign idea around a bit more in my head and have a few more random thoughts to add to it.

So this star cluster (a group of stars near each other and grouped together) is a remote region that is not resource rich, it doesn’t have any real strategic value, and isn’t claimed by either major government surrounding it. So why the hell would anyone live there? Well, being not claimed by either government is exactly the type of place people who want to be left alone would go. There are always humans who will flee from civilization to be where they can just be left alone and I’m sure there are species of aliens that would do the same.

There are bound to be enough resources and such in the area to seem at least attractive enough to people to move out to there, so it isn’t going to be devoid of an economy. It’ll just be smaller than other areas. Maybe there’s a nice planet that people will fly to as a tourism destination, possibly on the way to another destination. So one planet in the entire cluster will have a larger economy and population than the rest of it, but it will be more of a tourism/consumer based economy than anywhere else in the cluster. Most of the cluster’s economy would be based around feeding raw materials and supplies to the largest consumer in the area because that’s how economies tend to work.

This means that interstellar shipping will be important. Great time and place to be a trader… or a pirate.

With the lack of a central government, each system is going to be policing their own territory and not caring about what other places are doing. Coupling this with how much shipping is going to the same location you’re going to see a decently large pirate presence throughout the cluster. The area being poorly patrolled by civilized society means that privateers, security companies, and bounty hunter types exist in droves to help provide the law and order. Most of them are even pretty decent folk.

Okay, so let’s talk about technology. Since this is my personal setting it has its own set of tech. Most of it is pretty straightforward.

Let’s start with propulsion and interstellar travel. Keep in mind that we’re going to go with the cinematic approach to speeds similar to how Star Wars or space flight sim games like Wing Commander use. It isn’t realistic and is explained by the “Rule of Awesome” as to why this is even practical. So you have 3 speeds of travel; Local/Combat, In-System Navigation, and Interstellar.

Local/Combat speeds are the slowest and are based upon the speeds required to safely maneuver near gravity wells of certain strength or around other ships. It also enables ships to operate weapons safely and accurately. This propulsion system is based off of Fusion/Plasma Engines generating thrust.

In-System Navigation (I-SN, ISN Drive) is kind of like Warp Speed, but it only works while within a certain distance of a star’s gravity well, the further away it is from the star the slower it goes. Once you pass the Interstellar space threshold the I-SN is about as useful as the engines for Local speeds. This is a separate type of engine that is essentially a field generator that manipulate space-time/gravity around it similar to the familiar warp-drive but interstellar space doesn’t have enough gravity generating matter available to provide the “wave/bubble” effect.

Interstellar navigation was a difficult thing for the various species to master. The true key to making a functioning interstellar drive was to design a system that didn’t interact with the physics of our universe. The Sub-Space Drive (SSD, sub-drive, subspace field generator, SFG) is the interstellar drive of this setting. It basically covers its parent ship with an energy field that allows it to travel into another reality that exists partially within our own. These drives more or less open a shortcut between two points in reality using subspace as the path because subspace doesn’t work the same as our universe and allows for quicker travel. The Navigation of subspace is dangerous and difficult. It must be plotted carefully or else you could end up very off course very quickly. Navigation Computers make it easier but they can take a while to put together a course. Auto-pilots can also help to handle the dangers of subspace, but leaving them entirely in charge without oversight has led to some spectacular disasters over the years. (There’s a lot more about the subspace field generators bouncing around in my head but I’m just going to call this much a good starting point for most people) Oh, one last thing about them, don’t use one that’s broken. It’s bad news. What they find is messy to say the least.

Weapons Technology is based around the classic trio of Projectiles, Missiles/Torpedoes, and Energy Beams. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses. Energy Beams/Weapons are based around Plasma technology. Projectiles are based around rail-guns. Missiles/Torpedoes come in various shapes and sizes and each have a different mission to fulfill. Defensive measures generally are energy shields, but there are anti-missile systems and armor plating as well.

The newest type of torpedo that is driving military planners crazy is the “Skipper” torpedo. Typically attached to a very large warhead and designed to take down the most heavily armored starships, the skipper torpedo has a small subspace field generator on it that allows it to briefly enter subspace. This essentially allows it to increase its speed and range with the same fuel load and makes it harder to target with anti-missile weaponry. The skipper’s targeting system can also time the shifts to subspace to bypass the defenses and come back inside of its target. These systems are extremely limited in distribution, expensive, and heavily controlled by the various governments of the galaxy.

The one time pirates got a hold of a cache of these weapons the cost and damage was catastrophic. The pirates didn’t survive, not a single one. There has been a big push to adapt this technology to fighters and ships, but each time they activate the test ships’ drives all organic matter disappears from the ship within the first few skips through subspace.

Stealth technology is essentially unheard of. Most everything that is able to circumvent a certain type of sensor is easily going to be able to be detected by another type of sensor. Most of the known types of stealth craft are extremely expensive, ridiculously short range, and extremely underpowered. They will usually be deployed by a different ship that acts as their support ship/carrier. Typically they will be used for Spec-Op insertion planetside. Most reconnaissance work is conducted by spies in civilian ships and cheap probes that only escape detection most of the time due to their small size.

One relatively common tactic in full-scale warfare is the use of boarding ships/pods on the target. The targets in these cases are going to be Starships, Space Stations, Planets, etc. There are two types of boarding ships, Breachers and Cutters. Cutters fly their way onto the hull of an enemy ship, using plasma beams it cuts open a section of the hull and allows its occupants to enter into an enemy ship and later be able to escape with ease just by reboarding the ship and flying away. Cutters are great for  Spec-Ops teams with precise missions to accomplish. Breachers on the other hand tend to be more brutal and direct in their approach.

These heavily armored and very fast ships act like missiles filled with troops. They slam through the enemy hull and anchor themselves to it, making it extremely difficult to remove the ship. Once the hull is breached the hull on the Breacher opens to allow all the troops inside to rapidly board the ship. These are typically used in large numbers when the controlling fleet knows it has a good chance of capturing an enemy’s vessel with those troops.

On the ground, limited stealth field generators can give some semblance of cloak to unaided vision, but most security systems and vision enhancement equipment is able to see through these devices. People will carry around man sized versions of the energy/projectile/missile variety and wear armors of various types. Robots, super-medicine, bionic/cybernetic implants, cloned body parts, and other such things will end up existing as well.

After looking through the book for D6 Space I realize I’m going to have to design equipment myself and/or steal it from other settings because the core rulebook has pretty much nothing in it. Same thing goes for ships. At least there are extensive design rules for that. I’ll probably just steal already existing pictures of other settings ships and use them as filler and a template for the time being.

As far as aliens go, I’ve never actually populated this setting with specific species before. I just never got around to actually doing it, I was too busy with the sculpting of the Humans and their struggles to actually give them specific aliens to encounter and deal with. I’ve got ideas about what’s out there, but my sensibilities regarding alien races have changed themselves so many times over the years that nothing has survived a purging of Tropes and silliness. I really need to figure out a few of them now.

A recent tragedy and some thoughts

I know I said I’d keep my political hobbies off of this blog, but this story just touched some very deep seated and very emotional things in me and this is the only place where I can write them out in a competent manner. I will however make the promise that I will do my best to not talk about political opinions. A few may come out, but it is not my intent to talk politics on this entry. I do have a reason for this.

This story (Link!!! Do not read the link or this entry if you don't want to look at horrible things humans do to each other for stupid reasons, this is not a light subject. Go look at pictures of kittens instead, it'll help you keep you sanity.) is related to the recent terrorist massacre that occurred in a mall in Nairobi, Kenya. A very terrible and serious tragedy that just gets worse the more you read about it. It is an onion of awfulness that for some reason I can’t stop looking into and I don’t know why.

This particular story is about a conversation between one of the gunmen and a 4-year old child. The child, in the middle of the slaughter, looked the man dead in the eyes and said to him “You’re a very bad man.” That’s it. The boy spoke in an honesty that is only possible in the hands of a child my daughter’s age. He looked evil in the eye and called it what it was. The gunman looked back at the child and honestly said the following things: “Please forgive me, we are not monsters.” “Do you forgive us? Do you forgive us?”

He handed chocolate bars to the kid at some point during this. This particular group of gunmen was going through a supermarket in the store and allowed everyone with children to leave. Not every group of gunmen in this attack did this though.

Why am I speaking about this on a gaming/nerd culture blog? Because it touches on some things that are not only philosophically important, but also important in storytelling. I looked at this one story and was struck very hard by the gunman’s words. He doesn’t see himself as evil. He can’t see himself as evil, he is the hero of his story. Everyone is the hero of their own story.

Take a moment and start reading through that comment section. I’m a fan of The Blaze as a news source, but their commenters are some of the worst this side of YouTube. The contrast of the comments and the attitude of the shooter are fascinating to say the least. It is amazing to me that these people can’t see how their own attitudes are exactly the same as the gunman’s. Deep in their own narrative they think they are just as justified to make wild accusations and speculations about the fate of people’s souls and how “right” they’re living.

Then, in the middle of reading this stuff I realized something. Being a player of RPGs, a person who overanalyzes character motivations in fiction, self-identifies as a Mises/Hayek Libertarian, and being someone who understands major portions of his own craziness* I felt like I was able to have a brief glimpse into that gunman’s mind and motivations. Why was I able to catch a glimpse? Entirely because of gaming.

(*- An article series I read following the Sandy Hook shooting really helped me realize and think hard about some things. I understood how someone could get there because of my own issues and problems. I never got even close to the point that shooter got to, but I could see how I could have ended up going further down that path. It’s a touchy subject that I don’t want to go into on this blog any more than this. If you want to know more, ask me over a drink sometime.)

Gaming has always been a creative outlet for me. Over the years I’ve wanted to improve my roleplaying andwriting skills so I read a lot about character development, motivations, etc. In addition to this I read a lot of political and historical books while paying attention to current events because of my other hobbies. Understanding these things and implementing them in stories/characters/backgrounds has helped me out immensely in making my characters more realistic and have believable motivations.

What happened to me though during this story was that I applied the same logic and questions I normally do when I see a story or a character in a work of fiction, the difference here being this was a real world monster who suddenly showed a bit of his humanity underneath. Suddenly this all made sense. This doesn’t justify it, or his actions but I was briefly able to understand the motivations of such an individual. No one believes themselves to be evil unless they’re bat-shit crazy. The real world is full of people doing what they think is best for themselves or their families or their communities.

Briefly I was able to role-play as this gunman and suddenly I understood far more than I should be able to about the mind of such a person. I was immediately able to see the same mentality in the various commenters, or random political pundits.

My gaming helped me understand the world a bit more, and strengthened my resolve for my other passions. Gaming well is not only a release but when approached the right way, just like anything with complex characters and themes in fiction, it can teach you things about the world and allow you to explore reality in a new light.

Now, back to the regularly scheduled nothing new… maybe