Moe Lane's Blog, page 879
July 7, 2020
The ‘Children’s Illustrated Clausewitz’ Kickstarter.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, let me get out my damned wallet.
The Children’s Illustrated Clausewitz is just what it says on the tin. It’s a Kickstarter for an illustrated version of On War. There are rabbits. And badgers, apparently. We all know how this was going to end.
Via @RobinDLaws.
From the FERMI RESOLUTION RPG Worldbook: NPCs.
Although I’m wondering whether I should have a contemporary NPC section: these folks are all pretty ‘historical.’ Hrm.
Patreon!Benjamin Henderson (2065-2147)
Archmage of the Mages’ Alliance after the Virginia War of 2120 (and posthumously proclaimed the first ‘true’ Supreme Archmage of the Universal Dominion in 2351 AD). Under his at-first clandestine leadership the Mage’s Alliance came within a hair’s-breath of taking over the remnants of the United States; Henderson would later lead the remnants of the Alliance to new conquests across the Mississippi. Archmage Henderson’s style of spellcrafting would define the Dominion’s: elegant, pragmatic, and brutally vicious. On the other hand, his personal life was apparently blameless, and life for non-mages under Henderson’s rule could have been much worse. Certainly it never improved, after his death.
Mark Smith (2435-2489)
Born the heir to the Deseret throne, Mark Smith led a life of amiable dissolution until the disastrous First Deseret War. He disappeared after the fall of Salt Lake City; five years later, the first stories of the soon notorious guerrilla-warlord ‘Rex Fang-Blade’ began cropping up. Mark/Rex spent three decades simultaneously fighting Dominion occupation patrols, bandit gangs, and the more vicious barbie kingdoms while building a new power base in California; when he died stopping the destruction of the ancient Hoover Dam in 2489, many breathed a sigh of relief. Rex’s granddaughter Tabetha took control of his forces, and went on to create the force that would eventually liberate Salt Lake City in 2803.
Nora Alfafor Salvager (2927-2990[?])
The first halfling commander of the Alliance Scout Rangers, Nora Salvager began working in Cursed Jersey before being tapped for officer training; she ended up spending most of her career clearing out Dominion beast spawn-points in the Mississippi valley. Most of her techniques for killing, neutralizing, and in some cases domesticating Dominion-created monsters are still in use. Her last expedition was lost in the Louisiana bayou, hunting down escaped feral methgators; local legends insist that some of her party did survive, at least for a time, but no explanation as to why they simply didn’t return then has been forthcoming.
The WAIT FOR ME Time travel RPG Kickstarter.
WAIT FOR ME isn’t really the sort of thing that I’d play; I’m not all that fond of solitary tabletop gaming. But that’s a personal choice of mine, not an inescapable moral conclusion. If this is your bag, Kevin Kulp’s a good dude and game designer. Check it out.
Title of the Day, Words Fail Me On How Disappointed I Am Right Now edition.
I’m actually mad at Newsweek. How dare they raise my hopes, then crush them like that.
I’m sorry, but Jim Carrey writing his first novel where he pretends to be Charlie Kaufman writing his first novel about a movie that doesn’t even exist sounds like it’d would be much more interesting than either one of the no doubt respectable tomes that either author would come up with on their own. Particularly if Carrey used that shot from the movie for his author photo.
Ach, well.
Moe Lane
PS: Blame @SonnyBunch for this one.
July 6, 2020
‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia.’
RIP, Charlie.
Welp, Dragon Con’s going virtual. (But you can still vote in the Dragon Awards!)
I can’t say that I’m surprised.
After an exhaustive attempt to consider and uncover every possible option to hosting a safe and much-needed #DragonCon this year, it has become apparent that we cannot, in good faith, move forward with our 2020 event. pic.twitter.com/U9Vv0BHLvE
— Dragon Con is getting virtual for 2020! (@DragonCon) July 6, 2020
Heck, I was expecting this announcement weeks ago. All the other conventions, SCA events, and other assorted geekeries have canceled by now; if there was another holdout of equal size, I don’t remember what it was. Still kind of sucks; I had a plan to shill FROZEN DREAMS there, after all. Well, there’s always next year, although the hotel situation’s gonna be even MORE insane than usual.
In the meantime: the Dragon Awards are still a go! You can sign up here. And, hey, I even have a book to nominate. Fancy that*.
Moe Lane
*Uphill battle to win, but you don’t win if you don’t even try.
New adaptation of VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED in the works.
David Farr, the writer behind films such as The Night Manager and Hanna, is set to develop an adaptation of John Wyndham’s sci-fi novel The Midwich Cuckoos. If that novel doesn’t sound familiar, this is the novel that inspired the Village of the Damned movies.
Deadline reports that the series is being produced by the broadcast network Sky, and it will be an eight-part series.
Having read the book and seen both movie versions (made in 1960 and 1995): I’m OK with this. The 1960 movie was good, but it couldn’t really tackle all of the stuff in the book. The 1995 movie… well, even when John Carpenter doesn’t succeed with a film it’s at least interesting to see. Which is my polite way of saying that I think we could get a good flick out of this. Besides, twenty-five years between versions isn’t actually too bad, for Hollywood. Especially when it’s really sixty.
07/04/2020 Progress Report, FERMI RESOLUTION RPG: 28,800/37,800.
Today was half rules, half world-building. Guess which guy forgot to put it anything about armor? This guy! Dear Lord, but this is gonna need some serious playtesting — and before anybody says anything: that’s a discussion for August. I gotta get this draft finished first.
Still, things are not actually going badly. I’ve got time to work on this; the game production doesn’t have a hard deadline. In fact, after a certain point I’m going to need to wait until other people are done working on it, which means I can work on other stuff then. Marathon, not a sprint.
In the Mail: Delta Green: LABYRINTH.
My early copy of LABYRINTH is from the Delta Green Kickstarter, and it will be just the thing for an afternoon’s idle diversion. It’s a collection of Mythos-tainted or about to be tainted groups that can be inserted into campaigns, and as usual I find the tone relaxing, in a ‘Horror at Red Hook’ sort of way. I find that I like a layer of separation between me and my horror*. It keeps it all nice and tidy.
Still, if the stuff that does scare John Scott Tynes also scares you then by all means: check it out. Labyrinth is quite well written.
Moe Lane
*I don’t really write about the things that scare me, do I? I guess that’s why my horror seems determined to always become fantasy. Interesting.
From the Fermi Resolution Worldbook: parts from the Gazetteer.
Trying to spread this around to get maximum eyeballs. This is going to be from the updated Gazetteer section.
Patreon!Name: Imperium Orci
General Location: Texas and northern Mexico
Type of Government: Constitutional Empire
Capital: Saint Anthony (San Antonio, Texas)
Dominant Species: Orcish, Human
Grand Alliance: Yes (core member)
The Universal Dominion wanted orc slave armies, and they got them. Then the Dominion wanted those armies to look just like Roman legions, and they got those, too. At some point, a Dominion Supreme Archmage decided that her pet legions should ape Roman customs – while failing to realize that those customs at various times included things like civics, ethics, and Christianity. When the orcs changed sides in 2835, it permanently ended the Dominion’s dreams of perpetual conquest.
The Imperium Orci, ruled from the city of Saint Anthony (more popularly known as the City of Seven Flags), is probably now the single most powerful individual state in North America. It is a constitutional monarchy in the Imperium itself, and a benign imperial overlord in its southern client states: ‘Emperor’ is a lifetime position chosen from a member of the Imperial family, but the Senate is democratically elected and powerful. Politics is organized around the great gens, or families, while the Catholic Church (only recently reunited with Ancient Rome) enjoys patronage that is just one step below that of a state church.
Humans are a minority in the Imperium, but not by much. The Imperial dynasty is orcish, but humans are well-represented in the nobility and the upper classes. Humans also provide the Imperial legions with most of its cavalry and mages; orcs make for superb infantry, but have little inherent talent for horsemanship.
The current Emperor has sworn by God and Saint Antonio Margil de Jesús that he will grind the Universal Dominion’s jeweled Throne Of The World underneath his sandaled feet.
Name: Imperium Orci client states and minor allies
General Location: Southern Mexico
Type of Government: Varies
Capital: Varies
Dominant Species: Human
Grand Alliance: Yes
Once the Imperium Orci joined the Grand Alliance, it smoothly shifted from conquering outright southern Mexico to merely dominating it. Most of the remaining independent warlords were happy enough to come to an accommodation with the Imperium; those few that did not were typically swiftly toppled, and replaced with someone with more sense. Their descendants are now mostly kings who largely squabble with each other, to the extent that they think that they can get away with it. Unlike Deseret, the Imperium frowns on violent squabbling, but the Pax Orci provides enough stability and prosperity to permit the dubious luxuries of assassinations, thievery, and general skulduggery.
While the Imperium’s allies and clients have joined it in the War, their contribution is mostly in the form of well-paid specialized units (cavalry and mages). The real value of these states in the war is that they are far from the front lines and can provide reliable war materials, at a reasonable price. And while the client states may readily enough fulfill their obligation to send troops to fight a war somewhere in the frozen North, they are otherwise indifferent to the course of that War.
Name: Kentucky Free State
General Location: Kentucky
Type of Government: Democracy
Capital: Old Louisville
Dominant Species: Human
Grand Alliance: Yes (Core Member)
The Kentucky Free State made a stab at claiming the mantle of the First Republic, but that claim was never taken seriously even inside its borders. It does retain the quirk of being a democracy without an executive: Kentucky’s politics can be perplexing, as traditionally the country is run by the Congressman shouting the loudest during any one particular session. This has not stopped the Free State from expanding eastward to the Atlantic, or generally prospering. The population is still mostly human, but it has always had a noteworthy elvish population and is now attracting increasing numbers of dwarves.
Every politician in the Free State is absolutely committed to two things: destroying the Universal Dominion, and annexing as much land as Kentucky can grab. They are already starting the process of formally taking over Dominion territory.
Name: New California
General Location: Baja
Type of Government: Monarchy
Capital: Cinderella (San Felipe)
Dominant Species: Human
Grand Alliance: No
The ruling class of New California can almost-accurately trace its ancestry directly from the luckiest and strongest of the Southern California refugees fleeing southward away from the chaos of the Discovery, taking over the old Baja states in the process. It is today a enlightened hereditary monarchy with a strong feudal component. The local culture is remarkably archaic, with a fascination for the trappings of the Old Americans that borders on the obsessional.
New California is typically called ‘the Magic Kingdom’ for its strong reliance on mages: the country attracts an increasing number of elves and dwarves interested in ‘unconventional’ forms of magic. The magic-worshiping religion of Agni found its first adherents here; the magical iceberg Mt. Jeannie is Agni’s holiest fane.
New California is officially neutral in the war against the Universal Dominion, but most of its nobility and virtually all of its mages have served at least one hitch in the Grand Alliance.
