Atomic Rocket Communications Core (original) (raw)
Mon, Aug. 9th, 2010, 11:31 am
They call 'em "Scarecrows." Ancient machines - weapons, really - left over from the fall or decline of dead civilizations on forgotten worlds. They sit there, waiting in the dust, until someone stupid enough to think that "it's just a dead world" lands and starts poking around in the bones of the past, looking for a quick buck and a mention in a history book. Pottery shards, maybe, or the next Rosetta Drive. Then, they come to life, and if you're lucky, they chase you off and you have nightmares for the rest of your life. And if you're not lucky... well... the other name for 'em is "Gravediggers."
- Lt. Cmdr Anatoli Lang, InterSOL
Mon, May. 10th, 2010, 05:06 pm
arg1: Essays on Gaming - May 10th 2010 - Syncrhonicity in world building
First...
Lest you think that everyone here at ARG is dead, let me assure you that is simply not the case. The last months of 2009 and the first months of 2010 have been ridiculously busy, fraught with family issues (deaths included), and financial worries for the ARG team. All of that has led to a very long silence from us, as we have dealt with our day-job and real-life issues. Thankfully, although we wish it were otherwise, as ARG is our side-line, we have been keeping afloat. Even if we're quiet as mice sometimes.
Now, on to the meat of this post...
( Let's talk about synchronicity in world building...Collapse )
Thu, Sep. 24th, 2009, 10:39 am
ARG is still alive. Once again, real life has come up to bite us in the ass.
Trust me, we're still working on things. It's just slow going. Our day jobs are super busy, and our evenings are taken up with family matters and seeking that elusive thing known as "rest."
Brian's sister just got married, though! Congratulations to them!
Wed, Jul. 23rd, 2008, 01:48 pm
I can't really talk about it, because frankly, I have no particulars - but I (Jim) have been approached by Mike at RTG to work on upcoming Mekton Zero projects.
In the event that I am able to speak on what's coming up, I will do so. If I cannot, please understand that I'll do my best to give you good product and good material.
In the meanwhile, I've been working on a console RPG style Magic System for Mekton, using Z+ weapons construction rules, 50-Hit kills, and grossly simplified range rules.
So far it seems to be working well. I'll make it available when I can.
How're things out there in Mekton Fandom land?
Tue, Mar. 4th, 2008, 11:26 am
E. Gary Gygax, viewed widely as the father of Roleplaying Games, has passed away. His son has released a statement, and it can be found in various places around the web and other gaming sources. ARG would like to extend our deepest sympathies to his family and friends, and say from the bottom of our hearts - he will be sorely missed.
Mon, Feb. 11th, 2008, 02:41 pm
So, I'm working on The Wild Frontier, and trying to figure out the real disposition of Quicksilver Blues with RTG. As soon as I know, I'll make sure people know.
I need art. But I can't pay. Which means it's back to me and Chris. I want to try and get Gary Washington's work into TWF, but frankly I can't pay him, which means zero incentive from my part where his wallet is concern. If anyone can convince him to work pro-bono until I can get a moderately positive cash flow for ARG, I'll happily take it.
I'm working with Brian and Chris to get Martian Eagles finalized. Again, issues with life and editing. It's almost 100% ready, I swear. Just issues with the mecha sheets and the text editing left to hack out.
I've been playing a lot of Mass Effect the last two days. linuxpete was telling me that he found it similar in many ways to where I want to go with The Wild Frontier, so I had to get my hands on it and check it out.
I hate to say it, but my FTL science is more firm than theirs is, as it a lot of my general space science. They focus a lot on heat - which is a viable thing to focus on, mind you - but I wonder if they're cutting science too little slack. If you can propel a ship to superluminal velocities, you can dissipate heat in a harmless fashion. But they talk so much about it, I wonder if I'm going to have a mission somewhere in there where the Normandy is suddenly unable to vent waste heat and my crew starts to roast if I don't move fast enough.
For what it's worth, heat dissipation isn't much of an issue in TWF. FTL travel is done by way of punching a hole in the fabric of space, inserting a packet of normal space into a Hyperspace "conduit," and letting that travel at 12.7K AU/day to its destination (of course, the speed is different for intra-system HS travel). Yes, heat builds up, but it is also redirected into other systems and used internally before being radiated.
All in all, Mass Effect seems to be a very solidly grounded science fiction game - but there is so much emphasis on "Heat Bad!" that I can't help but feel I'm getting set up for something roasty.
Sun, Oct. 7th, 2007, 10:09 am
arg1: (no subject)
Terminal Interrupt: d.07.sub_sub_delta Interdiction
Terminal Interrupt:user login sent to background Failure to understand
Interdiction
Sometimes I wonder if you truly understand what it is we do for you.
There are times when all is
misunderstanding, nonlinear comprehension, circular observations not exactly as it seems.
This is one of those
Your incursion has been logged and countermeasures are being deployed times.
I give you this time to consider our actions.
You have had far too long to consider yours, and done nothing.
Query, desire to understand, attention to detail
Terminating Incursion.
Wed, Sep. 12th, 2007, 09:56 am
Okay, true believers, it's time to kill some sacred cows.
Name one Sacred Cow... one Gaming Trope... that you absolutely can't stand, and tell me why.
Consider this an impromptu poll, sparked by wanting to make sure that several of the decisions I'm making on a project are founded in reality, and not my own interestingly odd sense of design.
I'll start.
Initiative. I can't stand the fact that in nine out of ten games, Initiative in combat is determined by a solely physical characteristic. D&D is the worst of the bunch, where a Rogue who can't spell, but can balance on the broken second leg of a three legged chair, always goes before the Wizard who learned to spell in the womb.
Brainpower has nothing to do with "who goes first" in most games. White Wolf really hit on something in Storyteller with their "Wits + Alertness" method - your brains or common sense, plus your overall awareness of the world, gave you the odd leg up in combat, not whether or not you can tie your shoes upside down in the dark while also chewing gum and patting your head.
Initiative should have nothing to do with your physical grace, and more with the speed of your reactions to the situation, which is a far more "mental acuity" type task. It can reflect hand-eye coordination or something, but it shouldn't be solely reliant on it.
That's one of mine.
What are yours?
Sun, Aug. 19th, 2007, 04:32 pm
arg1: Compare/Contrast/Review - Star Wars Fleet Battles vs. Star Wars Pocketmodel TCG
It's the battle of the Star Wars collectible games, this year, it seems.
Now, I don't know who has what license, or who will be doing future sets of what. I've been unable to find any evidence to show that either WizKids or WoTC will be ceasing production of their respective fleet battle miniatures any time soon, so it looks as though for the time being, there will be two (count them!) options available for people who want to play around with capital ships, stunt fighters, droid brains, and clone pilots.
So let's do a little compare/contrast, shall we?
( 4: Expandability and continuance costCollapse )
( 5: Collectable FactorCollapse )
( 6: Playability and SupportCollapse )
So, tallying this up, we're looking at -1 SWPM and +2 SWFB as our totals, which is of course meaningless to anyone who has a preferred style of play. The numbers I give here are merely an indication of what I expect from a game, and what I want to see when I play it. SWPM is coming out with more expansions, and none are as yet announced that I can find for SWFB, which is a definite point in SWPM's favor. However, given the higher cost of entry for SWPM if you want a deck and models worth playing, you're looking at a really tricky comparison when you start getting in to higher fleets. Overall, the way I play and the amount I'm willing to spend leans me toward SWFB, but for a simple, fast game, SWPM may be just what you want.
Your conclusions, of course, may be different than my own.
Thu, Aug. 9th, 2007, 05:16 pm
arg1: Not enough naked people!
I want to make a short-ish rant about artists.
Being something of an illustrator myself (even though I do my best to keep my personal and professional lives separate, anyone who really does their homework can find my DeviantArt and Livejournal accounts fairly simply... so I won't even try to pretend that I don't draw and ink and paint and things), I see a lot of other people's work. I love looking at what other people are doing. I draw encouragement and inspiration from seeing what other people come up with. It's really a good source of reference, and reminds me that there are all kinds of styles and methods out there, and motivates me to keep working on my own stuff.
Part of the reason that I have the artist's guidelines up on the ARG site is because I want to get these other artists exposure in the field - I have contacts in the RPG industry, and even if I can't pay them, I want to get these fledgeling artists some work if I can. People send me links to their stuff, and if I think I know someone who can use it, I forward it over to them. So far, it's worked a few times, and not worked others... some people get the work, some don't.
The effect of the guidelines, beyond that, is that I get to see a lot of potentials.
And when I say a lot, I mean just that.
And let me tell you, it's an interesting sight. Oh, I'm not going to bag on people for being amateurish - that's why they're contacting ARG - of course they're amateurs (although, Andrew FREAKING Probert wants to do work for ARG when we get the money to pay him... MY GOD). It's not about the quality of their work - no, it's about the content.
Honestly, it's like no one draws nudes any more.
It's like there's some kind of belief scrolling around the artists community that drawing nudes - basic figure drawing - is somehow bad, or will be looked down on.
Which is ridiculous, really. Without a basic knowledge of human anatomy, you can't draw a realistic figure. You also can't distort, distend, and alter that figure to your whim and do so believably. I get a lot of folks who send me mails saying "I've looked over the suggestions you give on the ARG site, and I've included everything but a nude. I hope you don't mind, but I'm not comfortable drawing nudes."
Well, honestly, how the heck did you get through art class? Or, if you haven't taken it, how do you plan on getting through it when the time comes?
Life Drawing was my most formative and beneficial class ever. More than Perspective. More than Basic Illustration. I learned how bones work, how to bend a wing, how to fit tab a into slot b. Granted, I'm still not perfect, far from it, but when I draw people, you can see their hips, their thighs - they have recognizable features and all their parts join up right.
Some of the things I see show a marked talent, but no practical learning to go along with it. I sometimes get images that are technically astounding - and by that I mean ridiculously great - mechanically. But when you get to anatomical drawings, what you get is... well, lacking. Women with no hips. Bodies that don't bend right. Hands with no articulation, or palms that bend in the middle instead of at the knuckle.
My point here isn't to bag on the folks that send their work to ARG.
My point is to encourage every single artist reading this to grab yourself some Pose File books, or sign up for a life drawing class (or, heck, be a model for the class, you'll get to see a lot of folks impressions of you). Draw naked people.
Nudity does not equal sex. It does not have to be sexy, or suggestive, or full of come-hither looks and innuendo - although we all know those things are fun. Heck, I draw a metric ton of cheesecake. So does coolerking, one of the maintainers of this community. We enjoy it.
But nudity just is. There's nothing wrong with it. Give it a shot, it might just help you out in the long run.