Moe Lane's Blog, page 97

Annnnnd the Fermi Resolution Worldbook Backerkit is in the can.

A highly respectable showing, for me. Second-largest crowdfunding result since I started this; and, the since my biggest one (the one for FROZEN DREAMS) is also my first one, possibly the comparison is unfair. Thank you for everyone who backed, and don’t forget that our cross-collaborator Lead & Chrome still has a few hours left!

#commissionearned

‘Daybreak of the Airship.’

Daybreak of the Airship, Sheena

#commissionearned

Question: is there an interest in a Backerkit post-mortem?

I mean, it’s interesting to me. I’ve spent the last month analyzing the difference between the Kickstarter model and the Backerkit one (TL/DR: there’s a strong argument that Backerkit is going to get me more eyeballs for a hypothetical BANSHEE BEACH crowdfund*), and I’m always ready to pontificate about this sort of thing. But… do my blog readers actually care? Or should I instead inflict my thoughts on Patreon and/or Substack?

Opinions welcome. Even if it’s For the love of God, Moe, shut UP about all of this.

Moe Lane

*Hypothetical because between this Backerkit and, well, February, the money pools filled up a bit faster than normal. I might be able to get away by just paying for BANSHEE BEACH on my own.

Writers need to do weird research, Part XXIII.

This is… alarming. Or at least it was disconcerting. The idea that we need to categorize famous cannibals in history…

03/05/2025 Snippet, PICKMAN’S MODELS.

Got a solid two hours in to do work today.

“You will not dissuade him, Commander,” Reithner told him as soon as the door was closed, and blocked. “Karl has many reasons to hate the Euros. Reasons that date from before.”

Tobias turned to her. “I’m surprised he made it past the psych evaluators, then. Or was this something that happened to him after everything happened?”

“I do not know, Commander.” Reithner exhaled, and set herself like she was about to take a blow. “I have never met him before today. Or any of the other people here.”

“That’s… improbable, Lieutenant. They’re not from Heinlein Station.” Tobias snorted. “They’re certainly not Chinese. And the Euros have never let their civilians go wildcatting. What’s left?”

“I do not know, Commander. What I do know was that there have been people living here for some time, sir. Their living spaces feel old. Or old for the moon, at least.”

“Lost colonies are a legend, Lieutenant. Stories told to make the long lunar nights go faster.” Tobias managed a chuckle. “Which means absolutely nothing, now. Fine, they’re real. Do they have enough people to take out the Euro forces?”

Patreon!

We’ve hit the second Backerkit stretch goal! Also, it all ends tomorrow.

The second stretch goal means that the artist and layout artist both get a little tip. Nothing spectacular, but a little extra thank-you. In the meantime, the Fermi Resolution Worldbook has until tomorrow to hit the following stretch goals:

$4,000: Another PDF adventure! This will be available to for all backers at Senior Adventurer and above. This adventure will be set in the current campaign time period. A critical forward base in captured Dominion territory isn’t reporting in. There aren’t enough Alliance troops available to investigate, but that’s why there are Adventurers. There will be maps! (Based on my short story “Job Along the Borderlands.”)$6,000: A third PDF adventure! This will be available to for all backers at Senior Adventurer and above. This adventure will be set in the opening years of the Great War. There has been a mysterious murder in Boston’s fabled underground Antiquity. Who or what is the murderer, what are their plans, and what is to be done about it all? There will be maps! (Based on the yet-to-be-published-in-an-anthology short story “Never Return.”The good guys. No, really.

Again, the Backerkit ends tomorrow. Let’s end on a high note!

03/05/2025 Snippet, [Something something fantastical French Revolution]

I have no idea what the title is yet, sorry. I have an idea how it’s all going to go, the plot, and the twist – but not the title.

The lutin had fought to the death. This concerned Joseph only because she had taken three of the militia with her into the Void, and wounded another two. That was a bad tally for the Revolution, no matter what the detestable priests said.

Ministers, he reminded himself. Ministers. They all bristle at even the smallest hint that they might bow to Rome.

Citizen Commissioner Joseph Fouché was not a man who believed in superstition, religion, or other nonsense, so he did not see the approach of Citizen Reverend Kraemer as being somehow caused by his musings. Instead, he simply accepted it as being a mere annoyance in a day full of aggravations. From the look on Kraemer’s face, the feeling was mutual. “Why was this spawn of Satan not captured, Commissioner?” the witch-hunter puffed out, waving one somehow still-pudge hand at the scene. “Were your men not enough for a monster one-third their size?”

Joseph gave Kraemer a look that would have frozen the blood of any Jacobin or sans-culotte. Alas, it had the same effect against a German fanatic witch-hunter as water did on a duck. “First off, they are not my men, or yours, or the Committee’s. They were men of the Revolution. Second?” Joseph shrugged. “The monster had a grenade, and the willingness to wait until… what is the American phrase? …until she ‘could see the whites of their eyes’ before lighting the fuse. I expect she thought that preferable to one of your auto-de-fes.”

Patreon!

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.