Amidst The Void 3rd Edition

Started noodling around with my old Amidst The Void ruleset. Trying to bring it more in line with modern RPGs -- throwing out random chargen, simplifying damage. Thinking about keeping Stun/Nonlethal damage old-school crunchy but having lethal damage less so, a la WEG Star Wars/7 Seas.

Adding more worlds, a new faction - The Mercantile League, and folding in concepts from the Mythic Rowaer and Hyboris/Karphis fantasy campaigns. Posts will cover a single part of the new edition/campaign.

I was pleasantly surprised to read my last VOID campaign notes; it was very "Song of Ice and Fire", even though I had not read the series at the time. Of course, Dune was a big influence, and a lot of "Ice and Fire" feels like Dune without the environmentalist stuff.

Big Robot Dinosaur

"Big Robot Dinosaur"
by Darkest of the Hillside Thickets

Dad's working on something special
Down in the basement
I yelled goodbye as I headed out
To wait for the bus

At school it's the usual tortures
Pushed and tripped in the hall
Hit in the head with a half-eaten orange
Face washed in the snow

Got home so fed-up and angry
My dad came to me
Took me down to the basement and said
"It's finally ready, son!"

My senses reeled, my heart stood still
Before me glowed a glory
Fruit of my father's laborious weekend
Towering three to four stories

We're on the rampage in a robot dinosaur
Me and my dad in his robot dinosaur
We're in the cab of a robot dinosaur
Stop on society, robot dinosaur
My tool of vengeance is a robot dinosaur
Talons ripping, robot dinosaur...

Midnight Shrike

Since I can't draw for shit, I've taken to doing Photoshop logos for some of my Champions characters. Format so far tends to be a base insignia for each super-team, with the individual logo and hero name overlaid.

This one turned out the best.

Hyboris

This is the most ambitious campaign I have in the pipeline; it's based around Nikan's old RoleMaster campaign, but with everything changed to fit my esthetic.

The Aethyr came from beyond the celestial sphere to Hyboris, fleeing the evil which destroyed their world. The Silver Aethyr Akkar left his insular people to explore the new planet and study its peoples. He made allies and aided the young races of Man in building great empires, so that when Tya finally came, the people of Hyboris were ready to fight. This epic battle is called the Sundering, as it ended in the destruction of one of the Hyborian moons, which is now a rocky ring circling the world. The release of mana caused by the Sundering elevated Akkar and his allies to godhood, and led by the great warrior Mardok they fought the Destroyer Dragon on equal footing. Their battles lasted centuries, and resulted in the Dragon being rendered into several weaker, but still godlike, Aspects.

The war ended after both sides suffered grievously; Akkar was slain by the traitorous Devash, Aethyr who served the Aspects of Shadow and Whisper; the Aspects of Corruption and Cataclysm were slain by Mardok, who was poisoned by Corruption in the fight and himself killed.

It is over a thousand years later; the High Men rule over great Empires, while the more fecund Common Men make up the bulk of those ruled. A young race of Amazons--the Mante-- bring gifts of technology, civilization, and philosophy to the world. The Aethyr withdraw from the doings of man.

Within the dark and decadent Dragon Kingdoms of the Devash and Sargothans grows a darker threat still. The heretics of the Reunifier Cult strive to resurrect the slain Aspects of Corruption and Cataclysm in hopes of restoring the Seven Aspects back into the Great Destroyer of Worlds. Reviled by both followers of the Hyborian Gods AND the Dragon Aspects (who quite enjoy their autonomy, thank you), the Reunifier Cult delves into deeper, fouler magics than any diabolist or necromancer.

Characters will be pregenned from Player requests after a brief overview of the RM system, what classes are actually used, new classes of my design, etc. It's a complex system that I've played for over a decade, and I'm barely confident I can run it. I hate this kind of system normally, but since I've played it so long am sort of used to it--at least moreso than any flavour of D&D.

XP will have to be really simplified. Looking at standard 1K-2K awards plus 250-800 bonus points for conspicuous valor, roleplaying, etc.

HI-ZERO

This RPG Campaign uses the Unisystem, specifically All Flesh Must Be Eaten.

It's the early days of the Global Outbreak, and the few states with active ZERO (Zombie Emergency Reaction Organization) teams have been folded into the reorganized Hangar-18, the Federal Department in charge of Supernatural Phenomena.

During the Bush administration, H-18 was corrupted by the PNSC-Project for the New Satanic Century- a group of hard-line America firsters willing to sell our national soul to the devil for power. The new administration appointed a reformer--the mysterious Simon Abraxas-- to head up the department and ferret out what infernalists still remain.

That's all abstract and far away, though. The players are members of the newly formed ZERO-HI team, tasked to contain zombie outbreaks throughout the State of Hawaii. In spite of the state's tiny size, it's a very critical task -- the state's international nature and ties to Asia make it a key entry point for infected, and any outbreak could easily overrun one or more of the islands in a matter of days.

If you're in the ZERO Team, expect things to be brutal. The dead hate the living, and ZERO...hates the dead.

Campaign Ideas

These are all Hero System. Talking options over with folks here, I had to be reminded that I run World of Darkness. Guess I've gamed too long with a buncha WoD Haters. Anyway, I'd prefer doing old Mage or nu-Vampire, but have no idea what you actually DO in nu-Vamp. LOVED the Mekhet book though.

- Space Marines: Military SF, no relation to 40K. More akin to Aliens or Starship Troopers.
- INSID: The Intelligence wing of the Space Marines uni. Think of it as NCIS in space.
- Hangar 18: Modern-day occult investigation by a shadowy government conspiracy. In development, links to the EADC, Victoriana and Paragon City campaigns.
- Paragon City: Champions Supers
- EADC/Paradise Lost:  Superagents a la James Bond, with high-tech in the modern era.
- Victoriana: 1890s Steampunk with a bit of Theosophy and space gods. I had pregens for Maui ready to go, but don't know how compatible they'll be with another group.

All above will use the Space Marines eco system or a variant, save for Champions. Champions will have PCs designed by me with input from the players, so I can keep point totals a bit flexi; I like complex, rare-use powers, and strict point totals will discourage it.

Returned to Honolulu

I was laid off by Pacific Wings, and could no longer make rent. Therefore I have returned to Honolulu to stay with my folks for awhile. Hopefully, once I'm gainfully employed here I can find my own place. Reconnecting with old HNL friends is difficult; many seem to have moved on and others are so different I barely recognize them. Others just never answer their goddamn phone.

Only one has remained the same as he always was, and that's not completely a good thing.

Happier note: since moving in with the 'rents, I have gotten to start cooking again! I love to cook, but when it's just myself it's a bit expensive to buy things like veggies because even the smallest lot spoils too quickly.

Best dishes have been an onion and beef soup which turned out great - I've only done it once before, and didn't have a beer to use this time so I was happy it turned out as good as it did and a portugese soup called Calo Verde which I got from Brian Lambert's great foodblog Forkbastard.

Jasen has mentioned that his gaming group may need a new GM. They sound really picky about what they'll play, though. If I can't find some compatability I'd rather walk. Hard and firm is no D&D. Posting campaign ideas next. Met two other game groups; Dennis seems to run a very cerebral and awesome Call of Cthulhu game, but he has such strict player limits it seems I may have to knock someone off for their spot; the Vampire group I met through Torin is great and a really easy to talk with bunch. They didn't even hold my being Torin's friend against me! Problem with them is they live in BFE and there's a real, totally insurmountable, levelling differential that more or less guarantees I'll be a third-rater forever. More on the oddness of MET LARP later.

Better Pix

Darn Picasa only makes it LOOK like I rotated the pix. Didn't ACTUALLY
rotate the pix.

I Was In An Accident

So, I left for work an hour early so I could grab lunch and hang out
with the Q&A guys before my shift. Along South Kihei, in front of Maui
Lu, I got rear-ended by a black truck John Hughes estimated as going at
about 50 MPH from the impact pattern. I threw me into an SUV which
managed to wipe out my radiator whilst leaving the SUV totally unharmed.
The baby inside didn't even wake up.

Three people got the bastard what hit me's license, so they'll probably
get him on felony hit-and-run, which is pretty bad. John thought I
should get checked out, so I dropped by the hospital and got looked at.
Nothing's broke, and soft tissue damage won't show up for a day or so. I
have a two-day sick note and some party favors--valium and vicodin-- YAY!

Check the grisly pix below.

Focalin Day 1

So I'm seeing someone about my array of mental problems. We've decided to treat my concentration/focus issues with a drug called Focalin. Hopefully, it will accomplish the wonderful things crystal meth did for me without the drawbacks of being addictive and having to hang out with people I wouldn't normally like.

Anyway, working on day one. It advises not to drive under the influence. And lasts all day. Hope they're not serious. I am noticing some changes. Told Lisa about the treatment, mainly because I'll need someone else to tell me if I'm having some of the listed side effects, such as, oh, psychosis.

Given that I never got that on crystal meth, I highly doubt the Focalin will make me psychotic. Still, don't want to lose my job because I thought I was a cherry tomato all of a sudden.

Pasta with Browned Butter and Myzithra Cheese

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
1 cup Mizithra cheese
pasta of choice

Directions:
There is a terrific dish served by The Old Spaghetti Factory chain,
called Spaghetti with Browned Butter,. It is served topped with shredded
Mizithra cheese (a Greek hard cheese). If mizithra is not available (I
am able to easily locate it St. Louis at cheese shops and some
supermarkets), a blend of ricotta salata and romano is suggested

Browned Butter Procedure: Cut 2 sticks of butter into 8 pieces and place
in a 2-quart sauce pan. Place the pan of butter on a burner on medium
heat. Bring butter to a slow boil (about 5 minutes).

Once the butter begins to boil, stir constantly to prevent residue from
sticking to the bottom of the pan. As the butter cooks, it will start to
foam and rise. Continue stirring, otherwise the butter foam could
overflow (about 5 minutes) and catch fire.

Once the butter stops foaming and rising, cook until amber in color
(about 1 to 2 minutes). It will have a pleasant caramel aroma.

Turn off the heat and remove pan from burner. Let the sediment settle to
the bottom of the pan for a few minutes.

Pour the brown butter through a strainer into a small bowl. Do not
disturb the residue at the bottom of the pan.

The brown butter can be stored in the refrigerator and reheated in a
microwave as needed.

Boil the pasta of choice until Al Dente. Drain pasta and divide into
four servings. Spread 1/4 cup of Mizithra over each pasta serving. Top
with 1/4 cup of hot brown butter.

Recipe Location:
http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/23/Spaghetti_with_Burnt_Butter38272.shtml
Recipe ID: 28580

This recipe is from CDKitchen http://www.cdkitchen.com/
© 1995-2006 CDKitchen, Inc.

Pasta Salad

I felt like making a pasta salad this week. Originally, I more felt like Browned Butter and Myzithra Cheese Pasta, but this craving sort of mutated. Anyway:

-Rotini, chilled.
-Black Olives
-Mushrooms
-1/4 Round Onion
-2 Roma Tomatoes
-3 Strips crumbled bacon
-3 good slices of Myzithra Cheese, crumbled.

drizzle over pasta a dressing of Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar.
Chill for about an hour.

We Are Not Fish. I Am Sad.

Well, they turned on the big physics machine called the Large Hadron
Collider today. Some people thought there was a possibility of the
device doing something odd, most likely creating a black hole capable of
eating either France (if Hawking Radiation exists) or Earth (if not).
There was also an outside chance of something super-cool called a
"Critical Existence Failure" which basically means the Universe throws a
BSOD.

The problem comes from the fact that scientists often suck at PR. You
see, according to quantum theory, you can't actually rule out the above
possibilities. ANY GIVEN SECOND, there is a non-zero, but really, really
low chance that we all turn into fish, for instance. This is the
probability level of the LHC making a black hole that eats us all. It's
really, really low. I mean REALLY low, not win-the-lottery low, but
accidentally-walking-through-walls-instead-of-into-them low.

I can live with that.

Really, I could live with everyone dying from black hole annihilation
too. You see, according to most theory, there's actually time
compression as we collapse into the black hole, so while the folks on
Arcturus or what not can watch it happen in realtime and upload it to
the Universal Darwin Awards, from where we're standing, it feels like it
takes ten million years for the world to collapse in on itself. I
presume throughout that time, we'd just live our lives normally, but it
would really suck to get to that end point.

Low-Information Voters

One of the big criticisms about Barack Obama during the primaries was that he did not appeal to "low-information voters". That's a pretty weird term.

What is a "low-information" voter? Apparently, it's someone who believes Obama is secretly Muslim, or that Saddam had something to do with 9/11, or is otherwise misinformed about the candidate. So, basically, MORONS.

I can see that you can't get morons to vote for you if you actually call them morons (well, you can--look at Republican rhetoric since 2000). But really? IDIOTS ARE A FUCKING VOTING BLOC NOW!????!

Wherein I Bringeth The Rock

Couple cool downloads this week:

-Betray My Secrets:
This is the first album by the guy who did Shiva in Exile and the
awesome Spi-Ritual and features the same blend of death metal and world
music found in Spi-Ritual. I actually like this one better than
Spi-Ritual as it has less of the 'cookie monster' type vocals that
almost completely put me off of death metal. A particular standout is
'From the Goddess', which is a musical adaptation of a Wiccan prayer by
noted occult author Z. Budapest.

-Falconer "Among Beggars and Thieves"
Everything by Falconer sounds like heavy metal by elves. Swedish elves.
Seriously, it's a hybrid of power metal and a sort of medieval folkish
sort of composition and vocals which I really like. It's fantasy-themed,
which is more or less required for me to make metal -- American metal
tend to focus on pussy and partying, which makes it TEH SUCK compared to
awesomeness like Hammerfall or Rhapsody.

An American band that doesn't suck is ICED EARTH, which has recently
displaced Nightwish as my favorite band. They're basically a heavier
Iron Maiden, and actually do focus on fantastic themes, specifically
this multi-album concept wherein they basically rewrite The Omen to make
Damien (or rather, their stand-in Set Abominae) the hero of a race wiped
out by Humanity 10,000 years ago. Their three-song, thirty-minute long
epic about the Battle of Gettysburg is both awesome and would have
really helped me back in High School, being well-researched enough to
stand in for a lecture on the subject.

Triple Chocolate

OMFG, I just saw an ad for triple chocolate M&Ms. They're apparently going for some upscale thing, and they SOUND like M&Ms that contain Milk Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, and White Chocolate all in the same candy.

I really hope it's not just a mixed bag of regular M&Ms, DC and WC M&M's. That would suck.
Cuz the other way sounds all kinds of awesome.

The Tiki Balloon

Here's a pic of the balloon Brenda got me.
There was a fundraiser last night at Life's a Beach, so after the game John H and Brett took me there to celebrate my birthday while helping out Tracy and her roller derby team. There was this whole 70's theme and I had way too many margaretas thanks to Brett.

There was a raffle and Brett won a Stella Blues gift card, which he gave me. Thanks Brett!

I think we're all gonna try to get out to HNL for Tracy's rollergirl tournament. They want to take the boat, but if I can fly in I'll more'n likely do that.

Fun fact: apparently Monster Brew sells a drink with 2.5 GRAMS of caffeine per can. It turned John Hughes giggly. I must try some.

Happy Birthday to Me

I'm a year closer to death! Hooray!
Posting the cute Tiki balloon Brenda got me later.

Chanan got me a nice Tiki bottle opener. It's of the god Ku, which makes it all the more better, although I totally realize I'm the only person at work who even knows who Ku is. (Except maybe Kris, who is a surprising repository of Hawaiiana now and then...)

I got myself a White Chocolate Haupia Cheesecake, which was every bit as fabulous as I remember. One of the passengers made me a little sad, though, when he expressed his dislike for Guinness. Oh well.

Getcher Free Obama Buttons!

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Thanks!

This story makes me sick.

Got off BoingBoing
DHS kills a dude.

One of the most disturbing things about post-9/11 America is this worship of authority. I've always had a problem with authority figures, which probably comes from being precocious and realizing my parents and teachers -- especially my teachers -- were wrong a LOT.

Not wrong in my opinion, but wrong as in factually, get-them-to-look-it-up-and-see-I'm-right WRONG. I've met adults who still can't concieve of authority figures ever being wrong, and they scare me. Most authority figures I'm aware of surprise me by getting out of bed and dressing themselves properly.