Moe Lane's Blog, page 783
February 25, 2021
Beginning of DUNGEON CLEANING.
Just to show that I’m actually working on this for the Baen contest thing.
Patreon!You could tell right away that this kobold was civilized; he was wearing glasses and his hair was clean. Cleaner than a lot of people in the tavern, but most paid him no mind. Believe it or not, most people go to taverns to drink, not brawl.
And the few assholes who might have felt rambunctious about one of them popping in, just like they were people or something? Well, that was probably what the kobold’s two guards were for. That’s the other way you could tell the kobold was civilized.
It didn’t surprise me that he came up to my table. Kobold, human, orc, elf, shark-man, bug-lord: they all act the same when they’ve got a job needing the sweet caress of an adventurer. And I was the highest-rated one drinking at the Fair Share right then. You always start from the top when you’re looking from freelancers. There’s no shame in being told ‘no’ and sometimes you get lucky.
Tweet of the Day, I’m Seriously Thinking About This Baen.com Contest edition.
It’d have to be an original story in an original world, though. The first is a requirement, the second is just a good idea. Lemme think about a story idea…
@Ogiel23 This might just be right up your alley, and has the potential for serious elevation of your writer profile:https://t.co/xBPekrySak
— More Evil Bill Lumbergh (@Jeff_Weimer) February 25, 2021
Original Avatar: The Last Airbender creators make a fighting retreat to Nickelodeon.
Honestly, it is probably a bad idea to try to make a live-action version of Avatar: The Last Airbender. And by that I don’t think there’s a movie studio out there that’s quite up to the job. But since Nickelodeon’s going to set up Avatar Studios to start with a new animated movie, well: the problem has largely now solved itself.
Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who were the original creators and executive producers of the shows, will lead the new studio as co-chief creative officers, months after the duo left Netflix’s planned Avatar: The Last Airbender film citing creative differences. In a statement to EW, DiMartino and Konietzko promised to expand the world of the original series in new and exciting ways.
Unless you watch whatever it is Netflix eventually coughs up. In that case, you may end up having a problem after all. An avoidable one, too.
February 24, 2021
LOKI airing in June.
June 11th. Which is… a little weird? FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER is coming right after WANDAVISION, and LOKI is apparently coming right after that. Are they trying to get people in the habit of not canceling Disney+?
Okay, when I put it that way it makes more sense. Never mind…
Movie of the Week: CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR.
Watching CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR now, in fact. It’s as much fun to watch as I remember.
02/24/21 Snippet, GHOSTS ON AN ALIEN WIND.
Almost done!
Patreon!Despite my best efforts, I’m just not cut out to be a spy. Syad probably figured it out a couple of days before he said anything, though. We were doing a survey run through the upper atmosphere for his calibration project (which would also get him enough hours for his pilot’s ticket) when he said, “You don’t think the thing with the Redacted is settled, do you?”
The fuzz was a little different that day. More… fuzzy. I’m sorry, it’s hard to describe how it sounded to me. I must have sounded a little distracted then as I replied, “Nope, Syad. Not that it matters: they’re going away anyway. They’ve got their space-happy maniac, so off they go to Earth. Mission accomplished! Hurray!”
“Sorry. I know he was a friend of yours.” Syad looked at me. “What are they gonna do with him?”
“Well, it’s Earth, so they’ll probably take his mind apart, then put it back together.” I scowled at the screens. We were pretty far away from all the bases at this point, and I didn’t have the same feel for the upper air here. Anybody who tells you that a planetary atmosphere is completely inchoate doesn’t fly in the Tomb Worlds. There’s a sense of finality here, like everything has stopped and it’s never starting up again. “They still think you can cure the space-happy. Hell, maybe they can. Either way, Nur’s never coming back here. Oh, hey, we’re coming up on a node that’d suit you.”
The TALES FROM THE FERMI RESOLUTION books are away!
Wrapped, enveloped, labeled, sealed, and mailed. I had good timing, too: the post office was pretty much empty (I let the one person behind me go first, since I had an entire cart of envelopes with me). People who did the Kickstarter should start getting their copies in a few days. If you don’t, let me know.
Now it’s just the sampler, and I am done with the Kickstarter. Huzzah!
Moe Lane
Phreak [GURPS 4e]
Haven’t done of THESE in a while.
Phreak [GURPS 4e]
Name: Toni Lee
Race: Human
Attributes [140]: ST 10, DX 12 [40], IQ 15 [100], HT 10
Social Background: TL: 8 [0], Cultural Familiarities: Western [0], Languages: English (Native) [0], Chinese (Native) [6].
Advantages [418]: Appearance (Attractive) [4], Artificer (1) [10], Charisma (2) [10], Combat Reflexes [15], Common Sense [10], Compartmentalized Mind (1) [50], Data Retrieval (Psi) (4) [26], Eidetic Memory (Photographic) [10], Ergokinesis Talent (4) [20], Fit [5], I/O Tap (Psi) (4) [27], Intuition [15], Luck [15], Mathematical Ability (3) [30], Netrunning (Psi) (7) [100], Serendipity (1) [15], Smooth Operator (2) [30], Wealth (Wealthy) [20]
Perks [1]: Interface [1]
Disadvantages [-50]: Bad Sight (Nearsighted) (Glasses) [-10], Code of Honor (Professional) [-5], Curious (12 or less) [-5], Enemy (Various groups Phreak’s tangled with) (medium-sized group, some formidable or super-human) (6 or less) [-15], Secret Identity (Serious Embarrassment) [-5], Sense of Duty (Regular folks) (Large Group) [-10]
Quirks [-5]: Attentive [-1], Careful [-1], Dislikes Energy drinks [-1], Distinctive Feature (Scans as a mutant.) [-1], Imaginative [-1]
Skills [96]: Accounting IQ/H – IQ+1 16 [1]*, Acting IQ/A – IQ+1 16 [1]**, Adaptability (Netrunning) Tech/H – 18 [4], Administration IQ/A – IQ+0 15 [2], Binary Translation (Data Retrieval) Tech/H – 15 [2], Binary Translation (I/O Tap) Tech/H – 15 [2], Climbing DX/A – DX+0 12 [2], Computer Hacking/TL8 IQ/VH – IQ+0 15 [8], Computer Operation/TL8 IQ/E – IQ+0 15 [1], Computer Programming/TL8 IQ/H – IQ+0 15 [4], Data Retrieval IQ/H – IQ+4 19 [4]***, Detect Lies Per/H – Per+0 15 [1]**, Diplomacy IQ/H – IQ+0 15 [1]**, Electronics Operation/TL8 (Security) IQ/A – IQ-1 14 [1], Electronics Repair/TL8 (Computers) IQ/A – IQ+1 16 [2]****, Electronics Repair/TL8 (Security) IQ/A – IQ+1 16 [2]****, Engineer/TL8 (Electronics) IQ/H – IQ+3 18 [2] */****, Fast-Talk IQ/A – IQ+1 16 [1]**, Finance IQ/H – IQ+1 16 [1]*, Forced Entry DX/E – DX+0 12 [1], Guns/TL8 (Pistol) DX/E – DX+1 13 [2], I/O Tap IQ/H – IQ+4 19 [4]***, Karate DX/H – DX+1 13 [8], Market Analysis IQ/H – IQ+1 16 [1]*, Mathematics/TL8 (Applied) IQ/H – IQ+1 16 [1]*, Mirror (Data Retrieval) Tech/H – 16 [8], Netrunning IQ/H – IQ+5 20 [8]***, Observation Per/A – Per-1 14 [1], Remote Control IQ/H – IQ+4 19 [4]***, Reprogramming (Remote Control) Tech/H – 15 [2], Research/TL8 IQ/A – IQ+1 16 [4], Savoir-Faire (High Society) IQ/E – IQ+2 17 [1]**, Search Per/A – Per-1 14 [1], Secondary Senses (Netrunning) Tech/H – 16 [2], Sex Appeal (Human) HT/A – HT+2 12 [1]*****/**, Stealth DX/A – DX+0 12 [2], Wireless (Netrunning) Tech/H – 18 [3]
*Includes: +3 from ‘Mathematical Ability’
**Includes: +2 from ‘Smooth Operator’
***Includes: +4 from ‘Ergokinesis Talent’
****Includes: +1 from ‘Artificer’
*****Includes: +1 from ‘Appearance’
Stats [140] Ads [418] Disads [-50] Quirks [-5] Skills [96] = Total [600]
Toni doesn’t need to be Phreak. If her mutant psionic abilities hadn’t manifested, she’d be a mid-level corporate freelancer still building a reputation as an investigator and consultant — which is to say, the same thing as she is now, only about three steps behind in the process. But her core competencies would still be identical: walk into a situation, find out who’s causing it, then work out the best way to get them to stop doing it. Toni was and is good at it. That hasn’t changed. She will concede that her sudden and growing ability to manipulate computers remotely isn’t hurting her career right now, either. It’s definitely a mutation, and definitely psionic in nature: whatever triggered this also seems to have boosted her mind generally, giving her a remarkable ability to judge probabilities and likely outcomes.
Toni’s using all of it in pursuit of the ancient and honorable goal of making a lot of money. In a world where most people flamboyantly use their newly-discovered powers for either the ultimate in self-sacrifice or self-indulgence, she’s trying to be as sensible as she can. Superheroes and supervillains both seem to have fairly over-the-top lives. Why get caught up in all that drama?
Which is not to say that Toni hasn’t done anything consequential yet. Her abilities easily let her find out secrets, and some of those secrets are extremely unsavory, being kept by unsavory people themselves, or both. She’s developing an online identity (‘Phreak’) to properly exploit those secrets; with the right cutouts and firewalls, she can do quite a bit of financial or reputational damage to her chosen targets. At least three people are in jail now because of her, to the displeasure of their associates. There’s always somebody trying to track Phreak down, particularly because Toni takes the position that stealing money from crooks doesn’t really count as stealing.
As the above suggests, Toni/Phreak has not yet decided where she fits on the superhero-supervillain spectrum. She’s never going to be a full-fledged sociopathic schemer, and is just as unlikely to become a four-color Defender Of Cyberspace; how Phreak gets defined in the end will probably depend on what stories about her surface. She’s not likely to become truly evil, though; if she goes villainous, it’ll be as a ‘rogue with principles’ who’ll be happy to prey on predators. They got money, right?
Nobody’s actually fought Phreak, yet: the first person who does will probably assume she’s no physical threat, very possibly to their terminal surprise. Toni’s not a combat monster, but she knows how to use a gun, is working on her black belt in karate, and is competent in both sneaking around and getting into places. Her psionic abilities will make it almost impossible to ambush Phreak, and she can use her powers pretty much freely in combat. And note: Phreak does not have any particular code against killing. Try to hurt her, and she’ll absolutely lock your doors and send your car straight into a brick wall.
Although Toni’s not bloodthirsty, either. She’s quite personable, in fact. Being surly and rude isn’t actually a smart long-term life plan, really; and her mundane job is much easier when you know how to talk to people. Her mutant powers activating didn’t make her any less nice, either.
Note: Toni is fairly open about the fact that she’s a mutant, although she cheerfully lies about the extent of her abilities. As far as the world knows, she merely now has a photographic memory and vague ‘hunches.’ Nothing very alarming, surely?
700 point version: +1 to IQ [20], +1 to Perception [5], +1 to Fatigue [3], +1 to Hit Points [2], increase Base Speed to 6 [10]. Upgrade Wealth to Multimillionaire 1 [+55], boost Netrunning to 8 [7], and add the EVP [1], Phreaker [1], and Universal Remote [1] perks. Add the following disadvantages: a heroic Phreak will upgrade Sense of Duty to ‘humanity’ [-5], while a villainous one will switch the Code of Honor to Gentleman’s [-5]. Points above that should be spent on things like Contacts, Allies, Ally Groups, Status, and Patrons.
The material presented here is my original creation, intended for use with the In Nomine and GURPS systems from Steve Jackson Games . This material is not official and is not endorsed by Steve Jackson Games .
In Nomine and GURPS are registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games, and the art here is copyrighted by Steve Jackson Games. All rights are reserved by SJ Games. This material is used here in accordance with the SJ Games online policy .
February 23, 2021
‘1952 Vincent Black Lightning.’
It was a lost year. But spring is coming.
1952 Vincent Black Lightning, Sean Rowe
