Moe Lane's Blog, page 76
March 4, 2025
Guy Ritchie’s MOBLAND trailer.
Guy Ritchie made a crime show starring Pierce Brosnan, Hellen Mirren, and Tom Hardy. Crud. Is MOBLAND gonna be what tips me over on Paramount+? Because I’m not gonna lie: it’s a temptation.
The Mages’ Alliance, Part 1 (Fermi Resolution).
Gonna need this for the stretch goal adventure.
The Mages’ Alliance
(2130-2350 AD)
Core Area: upper western bank of the Mississippi River, centered on Iowa
Type of government: oligarchical (magical) collectivism
Capital: Grand Moingoana (Des Moines, Iowa)
Modern society sees few differences between the Mages’ Alliance (MA) and its successor state the Universal Dominion, which is understandable. In practical terms both regimes routinely engaged in slavery, oppression, mundane and magical torture, involuntary breeding programs, and virtually every other atrocity ever conceived of by the mind of man. The primary differences were in scale; the Mages’ Alliance had fewer resources at its disposal, and less forbidden knowledge to fuel their horrible goals.
What modern society (and scholars) overlook is that the Mages’ Alliance was not considered a serious threat to anyone except its neighbors for most of its existence. In the year 2250 AD (the chosen time period for this supplement) the country was effectively checked by the Kingdom of Nebraska and the Kingdom of the Lakes. While it was probably the most powerful of the three, the MA did not have either the resources or internal cohesion to stand against both kingdoms at once. A determined campaign of conquest by them would have succeeded, if at terrible cost. It is a matter of great regret that Nebraska and Lakes missed their chance.
Political Structure
The MA operated on a recognizable feudal system. Towns were ruled directly by Initiates in vassalage to Journeymen (roughly equivalent to a baron), who offered their allegiance to Masters (a duke-equivalent). The Masters met regularly in a Council, presided over by the First Mage (picked from their number). Masters were mostly independent of the Council, but the First Mage had the right to command them in war, when necessary (it was often necessary).
The interesting wrinkle in all of this was that the rulers of the MA, from top to bottom, did not recognize the concept of personal property. All resources belonged to the MA collectively, and no one mage had any inherent right to any of it. If another mage could take something away from you, you didn’t deserve to have it in the first place. While there were practical restrictions to ‘keep what you can grab,’ in theory a new Initiate could rapidly become First Mage simply by beating every superior in his or her way. It happened three times in the MA’s history, and one of those ambitious prodigies even managed to survive long enough to eventually retire, and die of old age. The others did not.
Another complication in all of this was that the MA had an unbreakable custom: mages always ruled. He or she could have mundane subordinates, attendants, and even advisors, but a mage always had to be in charge, all the way down to the village level. Theoretically, a mundane could be a vassal to a mage, holding territory directly, but all attempts to circumvent this policy were ruthlessly if informally suppressed. This very much included attempts by mages to install their mundane children in positions of authority, which happened often enough that the Universal Dominion later felt the need to set up the Circle/Sepithoth system, and eliminate individual fiefdoms.
The Terraforming Mars TTRPG Backerkit.
Warning: the Terraforming Mars project will be very expensive, if you let it.
This is a Ken Hite project, so it’ll be good. As for ethical concerns: they’re not using AI at all, and it’s a European country which is using (I think) a Lithuanian publisher. I think we’re good, here. Just be mindful, because the price scales up quick. I’m getting the basic digital, myself. For now.
Tweet of the Day, I Think We Can Risk Meddling In God’s Domain This ONE Time edition.
I’m seeing this tweet going around…
They've spliced woolly mammoth genes into mice.
— Isley (@IsleyResistance) March 4, 2025
There are now… WOOLLY MICE.
If you don’t wanna talk about this, we have nothing to discuss. pic.twitter.com/xRmumlJfqw
…and now that I’ve decided that it’s not AI – if it is, it fooled the BBC, so we’re good here when it comes to being embarrassed about it – I’m of several minds of this. On the one hand, there’s the entire ‘meddling in God’s domain’ thing. On the other hand, aren’t those just the cutest little things you’ve ever seen? Do they breed true? Because if they make good pets, there’s cash in breeding woolly mice. I’m telling you that, right now. People with more money than sense are going to want these.
And, on the gripping hand… the next step is woolly mammoth. I imagine that woolly mammoth tastes delicious. Delicious enough that our ancestors hunted them to extinction, in fact.
So what the heck. It’s not like they’ll be immune to high-caliber weaponry.
These are the last days of the Fermi Resolution Worldbook Backerkit!
Less than forty eight hours to go on my tabletop roleplaying game project! The Fermi Resolution Worldbook is useful for both gamers and my fiction readers, as it doubles as a reference for the Fermi Resolution series. Plus, there’s art, maps, and even hints about future stories! I’m not saying you have to get it, but it’ll be useful.
Check it out today!
March 3, 2025
‘Liquor Store.’
It’s March, so it’s time for Irish music! …Sorta. I mean, this is Celtic-American-punk from Nebraska. Which still counts!
#commissionearned
The Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight Netflix trailer.
Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight is somehow so bad I want to watch it. Or maybe ‘bizarre’ is a better term. I mean, it made me laugh, so it’s not really bad. Besides, it’s not like people read Asterix comics for actual history.
Huddles, Part 2 (Fermi Resolution)
I don’t know if I’m going to need this, but better to have something written ahead of time.
Huddles in the War
It took the Dominion longer than it should have to realize that huddles were a strategic resource for them, particularly in what quickly had become a defensive war. More than one Dominion military campaign ended in failure because their strategists operated under the assumption that any losses among their mind-dulled soldiery would be routinely made up by captured military and civilians. It took them a while to switch to a model where huddles were allocated sufficient resources to survive, and possibly even increase, and even then the decentralized nature of the Dominion meant that directives from Supreme Archmages to be more ‘efficient’ did not always have the effect they desired. Many Sephiroths did not take the Grand Alliance seriously as an enemy, right up to the moment where their towers caught fire.
Captured huddles proved to be an interesting problem for Alliance forces. The general living conditions typically conditioned huddlers over the age of twelve into being utterly servile to anyone bearing armor and arms. Attempts to break them of this conditioning proved only variably successful, although their children at least would prove to be more independent-minded. Many huddles were simply evacuated en masse, and brought to new homesteads far from the front lines, ‘ruled’ by retired soldiers that could be trusted not to take advantage of their situations. Many of these settlements still exist. Even after years or decades of assimilation, their inhabitants can be a bit… anomalous.
Reasons for Visiting Abandoned Huddles
Unfortunately, the primary reason is that abandoned structures in Dominion territory make excellent monster lairs. The Dominion has always designed its monsters that way; every ruined town full of ravenous, flightless geese is one less town that can be used contrary to the wishes of the Universal Dominion. Cleaning out abandoned huddles is remunerative, if mildly risky work, well suited for Adventurer companies and other freelancers. There won’t be any loot from the original inhabitants, but fresher victims might have had valuable things in their pockets.
A second reason is that while the Mississippi valley during the Old American period might not have been as built up as the East and West Coasts, it was still home to a thriving industrialized civilization. Many huddles ended up being within walking distance of promising archeological sites. A few can even be found over those sites; the original inhabitants invariably at least attempted to mine them for useful metal or plastic. Sometimes the makeshift mining operation is the reason why there are no longer any original inhabitants.
The third reason is considered a delicate topic. Dominion huddles are places of deliberate, careful misery, applied over centuries without relief or reprieve. This makes them prime candidates to be haunted. Huddle ghosts are angry, distrustful, and thankfully very rare — and where there’s one, there’s usually another twenty. In that state, they’re also dangerous to travelers.The Alliance is divided in how to handle this problem — or, rather, the Second Republic disagrees with everybody else.
Most of the Alliance takes the position that these ghosts need to be counseled, relieved of their anger, and carefully, peacefully, and gently encouraged to Move On to the afterlife. The Second Republic instead favors a policy of lighting up a ghost-beacon, and leading the ghosts to the nearest Dominion encampment. Second Republic necromancers justify this on the grounds that spectral retribution can be very cathartic, really. And as for the targets of said retribution? Well, to quote the Old American folk hero: they were all bad.
72 hours left on the Lead & Chrome Backerkit!
Lead & Chrome is of course the Fermi Resolution Worldbook‘s cross-collaboration partner in Backerkit, and they’re having a great crowdfunding, too. But every little bit helps, right? Like mine, Lead & Chrome is a post-apocalyptic TTRPG, only with more guns and mutants. I was gonna say that if you were the kind of person who remembers Hell Comes To Frogtown fondly, you’d probably enjoy it – but apparently saying this dates me, because HCTF DVDs are going for insane prices on Amazon. Like, almost two hundred dollars a pop.
…I backed Lead & Chrome, okay? I would’ve even if we weren’t partnering up on this. Check ’em out.
#commissionearned
PS: I’d tell you that Hell Comes To Frogtown was one of the greatest movies ever made, except it would be a damn lie. Still: say what you like about Rowdy Roddy Piper, but the man was a trouper. Actually… you cannot say what you like about Rowdy Roddy Piper. He was a good dude.
Sorry, going off on a tangent, here. Back Lead & Chrome!
Paramount is doing a Star Trek… radio play?
I mean, they’re calling it something else.
Star Trek: Khan, the scripted audio series first announced in 2022, is coming this year as Paramount announces Lost actor Naveen Andrews as the title role.
Joining Andrews as Marla McGivers, the Enterprise crew member who joined Khan and his crew at the end of the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “Space Seed,” is Wrenn Schmidt — known for For All Mankind.
“How did Khan go from a beneficent tyrant and superhuman visionary with a new world at his fingertips to the monster we think we know so well? Recently unearthed, the rest of Khan’s story will finally be told in Star Trek: Khan,” says Paramount’s formal announcement.
And that doesn’t… sound so horrible, actually? I like radio plays. A suitably scene-chewing Khan Noonian Singh would translate well to that format. God knows it won’t be a budget-buster. It Might Not Suck.
