Bamboo Biscotti

"The following is a true story. The events described took place on Tatooine, in and around Mos Eisley in the year (redacted). At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed.  Out of respect for the deceased, everything else has been told exactly as it occurred." ...because Fargo, Fiasco, Apocalypse World, and Star Wars are like sodium, bleach, ammonia, and dihydrate monoxide...mix very carefully ...

More Uncharted Worlds faction musing today, because outside it is cold and wet and icky and pretty much normal for an Emerald City December. (And an idle thought, even as I glance over AARs for Ed's newest addition to his 5150 sci fi minis gaming line: Two Hour Wargames is to traditional miniatures gaming as Anything PbtA is to traditional tabletop roleplaying.  They're both streamlined, emergent, organic...which may well be why I like both of them so much, as opposed to spending eleven hours to complete nine turns' worth of a Napoleonic meeting engagement.  Some folks like their crunch and their dictionary-thick rulebooks full of painstakingly crafted simulations.  I'm in it for the story, the fun, and the creative vibe.) A couple more factions, following up a bit of table-chat with my regular gaming group last night in lieu of an actual session due to our GM's present holidaze-inspired fatigue and distraction.  UW is not likely to be our next project, but many...

Some days I really feel the need to cut down on the coffee consumption, especially when it results in little plot bunnies like the following.  To understand where my noggin was going with this, we can take the sane route or the full gonzo fanboy moment route...so of course I'm taking the latter. I have a growing desire to put Uncharted Worlds to the test which, right at the beginning of the holiday season, qualifies as extremely poor timing .  At the same time, as is usual, I have a zillion irons in the fire which means that nothing gets my full concentration much, and in turn it means that I tend to mash-up and cross-attach things with ridiculous abandon.  So with that as a little explanation for why this particular bit of whimsy hit so indelicately, I was mulling over Factions whilst on my commute and hit upon a couple of stark visual differences for rival factions.  Not so much in the black hats versus white hats sort of way, since my default is at least four ...

Slowly but surely, HeroForge is coming up to speed and adding new functions and new options!  So here's Octavia yet again, this time a little more stylishly dressed and with a more accurate hairdo. Also, with my last post in mind, I did a little extra tinkering about and came up with this...a happy little Equine-blooded Halfer with an avid interest in premeditated self-defense and a burning desire for fiscal improvement, ready to hire on to any passing ship that needs a spare hand.  Say hello, Mieko! If I ever figure out her stats, I'll post 'em.  If  I were to play the pre-gens, I'd probably shoot for the Drifter (Impoverished Scoundrel Explorer) or the Wrecker (Rustic Clandestine Industrial). Uncharted Worlds Downloads

This is a work in progress, initially inspired by the old-school sandbox science fiction role playing game Stars Without Number, published by Sine Nomine.  Some of the material was drawn from Other Dust, also by Sine Nomine.  I've recycled it a few times for various projects, and when the new char-gen stuff for Uncharted Worlds is available I'm probably going to try adapting it more fully for that game as well. Long story short, I'm a furry fan (but not entirely a furvert and definitely not a fursuiter).  This was my attempt to bring Teh Furry into something like SWN...with a little help from the Highshine project detailed in OD.  I also found a way to get anime-style Catgirls into this, just for laughs. I apologize for my truly rotten application of Japanese.  Denizens of Nakano are not hengeyokai, but that's as close as my limited grasp of the language comes to a proper term for them. NAKANO Atmosphere: Breathable Temperature: Temperate Biosphere: Hu...

I owe, I owe, I owe an update to this!  And Aledys is probably sick and tired of being stuck at sea by now. A bit of news, though--I recently backed a thing called Uncharted Worlds, which is  a space opera game that uses Vince Baker's Apocalypse World system.  About five minutes in, I was reminded of one of Ed's many, many projects...and so I'm also now looking over my copy of 5150: Urban Renewal because New Hope City is a perfect setting for something like UW. (Another fifteen microseconds of fame...here I am in the credits along with all the other Kickstarters: (Credit where it's due--my current fanboyish blather about Apocalypse World is at least a little bit due to a fellow named Delos who writes stuff like this:   Ramblings of Jacob and Delos     Just don't ask him about Sin and her tendency to make heads explode!  The special memories of that first game may not yet have faded.) Also, the good folks at Hero Forge have been adding to thei...

More steampunk swashbuckling goodness that Bishrook would have loved to bits.  It's still under development and playtesting, but rest assured that when it IS published, it's joining my library.  (I've got a couple of Mr. Roby's other games, like Full Light Full Steam, and I backed his supplement for Houses of the Blooded, so I admit a certain positive inclination toward his work.) Steampunk has a problem, although the degree to which it impacts your game depends on a number of factors such as which rule-set and setting you are using, the composition of your play group, and whether the GM is prone to pettifoggery on certain historical details.  Namely that the 'default' group is generally European (thus white) and tends to be middle-upper or upper class to one degree or another.  To be fair, there are exceptions!  In my (somewhat limited) experience, that's how things turn out--diversity, should it arise, is more likely in settings where you have Elves and ...

One of the things I lament the most about Bishrook's passing is that I have come across soooooo many cool games that she would have loved, or that I think would have been majorly fun were she involved.  (We never did agree on S7S, used a Wushu derivative for most of our projects, but our last one was indeed PDQ#.  She liked Yesterday's Tomorrow by John Wick, and we had a sort of homebrew mashup with that and Wushu in the works.) One of the little things I think she might have really liked, and one which I really enjoy as a concept is Anima Prime from Berengad Games.  (Not to be confused with Anima from Fantasy Flight Games, which is a whole 'nother ball of wax.)  Two of the things I enjoy most about AP are its flexibility (the core rules include material on building your own settings, after all) and the emphasis on an evocative setting rather than a comprehensive one.  In that, it's rather like Story Now or any of Ed's miniatures games, where book-keeping is m...

Horribly so. Incredibly, horribly, terribly so. But one of the projects I helped kickstart has finally gotten off their feet and started beta production, so I can share. Hero Forge dot com does custom 3D printed miniatures (check em out! https://www.heroforge.com/ ).  Needless to say, I jumped on that bandwagon tout de suite in hopes of finally getting something a little closer to what's in my noggin for certain characters.  And as it turns out, one of the miniatures I've designed (eventually to be shipped--I'm waiting for some additional features to be ready to complete the build) was deliberately and with homage aforethought one of bishrook's characters. I give you one private investigator Octavia Blake, ready to wander the mean streets of a modernish or sci-fi city in search of mischief and miscreants: https://www.heroforge.com/load_config=49840 Regrettably, her hair just wouldn't work out right, so I went with a tight braid (if I remember Steph...