C.J. Moseley's Blog, page 176

be-nice-sometimes:straightfoward:We’ve come a long…

be-nice-sometimes:

straightfoward:

We’ve come a long way

this is beautiful :’) 

seriously though, where is Super Mario?

Exciting

Exciting

Ironmaster Session 1/11/13

Okay, this is a bit of an unusual post as I'm writing a lot of it before the event.
I thought I'd show you how I use T13's Plot-Dæmons to create a little narrative for the players of the world-building game.

Currently I'm not thinking about any long term arcs (the players are going to help me with that later), but I do need a nice story to get their feet wet and get them thinking.
The Characters
The characters are:

Stephen Smith - a trained Blacksmith and engineer
Mercurio - a mad scientist who has just got himself a cushy research job
Annie - a Fæ-blooded noble in hiding who wants to become a Judge
Jack- Annie's older and less legally inclined brother

Currently Annie and Jack's work is driving a wedge between their family connection and they are drifting apart. Jack is trying to place himself with London's criminal fraternity, while Annie is trying to get herself appointed as a high court judge (and eventually a Law Lord of the Autumn Court [who deal with mortal law]). For both of them their Ambitions (in the form of the acquisition of Alliance/Guild memberships and Annie's Ambitious x13 Handicap) are starting to interfere with Jack's Devotion to Annie (x16).

This makes an obvious Liberty vs Dominion Conflict (at the moment Jack's Devotion is dominant).
It might also hints at a Liberty vs Quiet Conflict later, when Jack's Devotion meets Annie's Dependance (Ambition) head on.

Jack will embody the conflict internally, but to draw in the others I will need to add additional embodiments to the mix. So lets go and have a look at the Dominion and Liberty pages, did anything catch your eye? Well, embedded in the newly formed mythology of the world of “Ironmaster” (which is also known as Regina Venefica) there is actually a Liberty-Dominion Descendant of some power (The Summer Court or Parliament of Dreams), which seems tailor-made to explore with this plot, but we'll put that aside for the moment and examine the other PCs in light of Liberty and Dominion.

For Annie Dominion is her Guild and her brother is Liberty. Both are calling on her time.

For Stephen Smith the obvious choice is that his Guild will embody the Dominion side of the Conflict (although we can think about Madnesses, swarms, and a control quest) and he the Liberty, but to make it a little less obvious we can add a Rake, a Liberate quest, a Nightmarish monster or a Prevailer…

For Mercurio he has a Madness Handicap ("Touched by Madness") so he may embody that, we can use the same embodiments we choose for Steve as well if need be).
Tones
Liberty has a Surreal Tone which we can use, Dominion has a Political Tone (which I could use but the Characters are a little too young and under-powered to play at politics in Regina Venefica so it'll have to be done carefully).
Hooks
We next need to investigate possible hooks for the Characters. Which means a closer view at those Character sheets and look for some probable Hooks.

Annie- is a Deviant - she needs someone to lie to. I think I'll have her reconnect with an old friend who I intend to use in the novel. Detective Inspector Hoxton (actually he may have been promoted by now).

Jack- is a Sleuth - he needs defences to penetrate… and has a Devotion.

Mercurio- is a Sphinx - he needs someone to confuse… and he is Touched by Madness, a Handicap we can trigger.

Steve- is a Smith, but also a 9 geometry, he needs to hinder another or build something…

Which means we have someone who needs to be confused, hindered and lied to (not all necessarily the same person), while Jack needs to break into something.
The Story
Since I want to explore the Summer Court (and the relationship with the other Temporal Courts) I decide that I need to use it in the story as an external embodiment of both sides of the Conflict (and is a major L-D Alliance that they may consider joining).

I'll also look at the Card Ordeals page and see what sort of Ordeals we may want to deal with. Dominion is a Clubs Facet and so we're looking at: Barter, Control, Corrupt, Emotional Intensity, Guard, Magic, Might, Politics, Power, Self-Defence, Socializing and Trade for it. Liberty is a Hearts Facet and favours: Blending-in, Cooking, Escaping, Healing, Hiding, Hunting, Insulting, Joke-telling, Lying, Mimicry, Riddling, Spinning a tale, Surgery and Survivalism. Which gives me some ideas about the Ordeals that I might want to run.
Frame


Beginnings
Gains
Losses
Ordeal (Motion / Obstacle / Fight)
Revelation

First we need to gather the characters, ideally Jack will do this following his Hook. Then the action can begin… the hook needs to reveal the Conflict (although not directly but in a narrative metaphor) as Liberty vs Dominion. We'll assign some cards for random events to those Scenes we have no event for.

Jack's hook, a criminal gang wants to get Jack to break into the Summer Court and Liberate something. So what is it? It is a painting called "The Dream of Duke Huffington". This is an Artefact and may be important later... there is also a Lore on the Guardians of the Summer Court which should be told at this point (The Guardians are a Huge Pack of 100 Cu Sith, or Goblin-hounds. Huge, dark-green, demon-dogs with red ears and eyes that glow with bale-fire, if you hear three barks from a Cu-Sith you are doomed!).
Embodiment: Internal Jack, but also External Liberty Quest vs Party (Dominion)
Tone: Dark
Location: A Dingy corner in a London Pub (The Magpie) (5 Yarn)
Characters: Jack and A Grunt gang member (7 Yarn)
Motif: Magpie (+1)
Descendants: Grants the Guardians a Lore (2d4+1) (cost 23 Chi)
Total Yarn: 13
Chi-Halved: 9
Scene Dice: d4+d2 / d5+1
Mercurio's hook, who should he confuse and why? His boss so he can help Jack? (10 ♥ - Beginning: Ask or answer a Question). Mercurio's boss states simply that he has been sleeping badly, he wonders if there is a technological way of getting better sleep as he rather distrusts the “Parliament of Dreams”.
Embodiment: Tension Mercurio's Boss L Mercurio D
Tone: Investigative
Location: His bosses office (6 Yarn)
Characters: Mercurio (4 Yarn) (and Jack +1) and his Boss (+6 Yarn) (10/11 Yarn)
Total Yarn: 16/17
Chi Halved: 11
Scene Dice: 2d4/2d6-2
Steve's Hook- he could be asked to build something, perhaps one by Jack and one by his new Guild (Tesla corporation). It also suggests a Dream metal (Somnadium) - which should have the properties of being light, quite ductile and not very strong, but does promote sleep and dreams. However, it does become harder and stronger if placed near someone who is having bad dreams. Perhaps the Tesla Corporation may feel that Steve should not still be working with a known Darby Metal employee...
Embodiment: Tension Steve L vs Guild D
Tone: Political (hey what do you know I managed to use it)
Location: James Thomas' Forge (8 Yarn)
Characters: Steve (4 Yarn) + JT (3 Yarn) + Mr Githam (Tesla Corp Manager)(+1) + Jack and Mercurio for free(+0) (8)
Total Yarn: 16/17
Chi-Halved: 11
Scene Dice: 2d4/2d6-2
Annie's hook- (5 ♥ Revelation - Mentor (Hoxton) reveals the plot) Hoxton is going to act as Annie's Mentor. He wants Annie to get in with the other Judges, he believes that she can make it. But she'll need help, if its known that her brother is trying to get in to a Criminal gang that would not go well for her. Although Hoxton hopes that Jack makes it and feeds information to Annie and him, as there is no connection between Hoxton and the Crime lords (the magical criminals are not known to exist to the police and Hoxton wants the information, Annie can use this connection and Devotion of Jack to get the information for Hoxton and that he will let her make her name with the case, but Jack can't know about it).
Embodiment: Internal (Annie)
Tone: Conversational
Location: Annie's Office (6 Yarn)
Characters: Annie, Hoxton (5 Yarn)
Total Yarn: 11
Chi-Halved: 7
Scene Dice: d3+d2/d4+1
A trodding (magickal travel) ordeal for Jack to gather the party (may be split between these Scenes). This starts out as a Low Stakes Ordeal.

Trip to the Pub - Easy (4)
Meet a Magpie (Broccen Bulmäs) - King's Cross (10)
- What happens when he meets that Broccen (using the name Marquessa Margot Pica, if it comes up) depends on what Jack does. He could learn something incredible about Trodding (such as the ancient Trods have tones of the same name stem along them, or are connected by other things, the connections are important-not the places or distance), or get himself eaten, he might just decide to run, which would delight the Broccen with a real hunt.
Gather the Party Trip 1 - Moderate (6) / Running away (10)
Trip 2 - Moderate (7) / Running away (Jump 10 )
Trip 3 - Moderate (8) / Running away (Dangerous Stunt 10)
Trip to the Summer Court (Dangerous Stunt 10)/ Running away Easy route(3)

Embodiment: External Liberty Quest Dominion party
Tone:: Odyssey
Location: Large Island Province(Britain) (+23 Yarn)
Characters: The Party (5 Yarn) + Bulmäs/Magpie/ Mqsa. Margot Pica (+9 Yarn)(+1 Yarn)
Total Yarn: 37
Chi Halved: 25
Scene Dice: d10+3/d12+2
any other characters (who may be confused, lied to etc) technically one for each but we only really need one for the story (Ace ♣ - Starting a new Job / Trigger Devotion) - This is a reminder scene. The Mobster's Leader remind Jack that they think of their gang as a family. People get very protective of family, don't they? I hear you have a sister... So you'll understand.
Embodiment: Tension Liberty (Jack) vs Dominion (Sir Geoffrey)
Tone: Dark
Location: The Magpie Pub (+9 Yarn)
Characters: Jack (4 Yarn) (or the Party 5 Yarn), Sir Geoffrey Voleur (Solo) (+6 Yarn), Some Thugs (20 Chorus +5 Yarn)
Total Yarn: 24/25
Chi-Halved: 16/17
Scene Dice: d12/d10+1

The Act therefore has...
Locations: Britain (all locations are within Britain) (23 Yarn)
Characters: 20 Chorus (5 Yarn), 2 Grunts (4 Yarn), 6 Mercari (6 Yarn), 2 Solos (7 Yarn), 1 Broccen Bulmas (9 Yarn). (22 Yarn)
Motif: Magpie (1 Yarn)
Total Yarn: 46
Chi Halved: 32
Up paid Sway: 13+16/17+16/17+11+37+24/25 = 117-120 Sway
Act Dice: 4d4/2d6+3/2d8+1
Frame Archetype NPC

Facets: All the same Boon (15)
Handicaps: As Facets. Up to 5.
Personality Boon: 51 (2d10)[11][3]
Skills

Number: max 5
Boon: 24 (d12)[6][2]


Talents: 30 (d8+3)[8][3]
Powers: 44 (d10+4/d12+3)[9][3] with up to 5 Nimbeds

Loom
Warp Dæmon Scenes

Uncertainty
Unbalanced
Ordeal (Test / Motion / Obstacle / Fight)
Loss

Weft Dæmon Scenes

Uncertainty
Gain
Revelation
Balanced
Rest

We work the conflict with Liberty pressing the advantage on Dominion. Mercurio as the Madness embodiment should experience some madness and is also on a comedic fall to the rest of the party's tragic rise. They are trying to liberate the painting… this should require planning, preparation and some dreams.

Warp: (10 ♣ Uncertainty - Dream) They dream the Summer Court. Very odd stuff, Magpie turns up, they see the Guardians of Summer, Liberty vs Dominion emphasis, embodied as Swarms and Nightmarish versions of Annie and Jack. This dream is probably an Ordeal.

The Gallery - where the painting is held is where the dream begins (8 ♥)
Main Staircase - (6 ♠)
Main Hall - (6 ♥)
The Main Doors - Obstacle (a locked door A ♦ (diff 17)) (Q ♣)
The Gardens - Where the Hounds are... (8 ♠) Low stakes Fight if injured you wake up
The Gates - pursued by Hounds? (a locked door A ♦ (diff 7)) (Q ♣)

Embodiment: External Quest vs Party, Tension (Jack vs Mercurio), Internal Annie
Tone: Surreal
Location: The Summer Court (Large Building Province) (11 Yarn)
Characters: 100 Goblins (The Guardians) (9 Yarn)
Descendants: Artefact painting (6 Yarn)
Total Yarn: 26
Chi Halved: 18
Scene Dice: 2d6
Weft: (8 ♦ Revelation- Not what it seemed - They realise what they have been asked to Liberate is not what they are getting... The Painting is no Portrait...)
Embodiment: Tension (Jack vs the Party)
Tone: Conversational
Location: Could be anywhere... Probably a room (6 Yarn)
Characters: The Party (5 Yarn)
Total Yarn: 11 (ish)
Chi Halved: 7 (ish)
Scene Dice: d3+d2/d4+1
Warp: (K ♠ Battle Villain and henchman (20 Chorus))
The Guardians or the Mobsters attack depending upon what they are going to do.
Embodiment: Rational Jack vs. Sir Geoffrey or Hounds vs Party
Tone: Combative
Location: Could be the pub, could be elsewhere (9/8 Yarn)
Characters: The Party (5 Yarn) and one of

100 Goblins (9 Yarn)
Sir Geoffrey Voleur (Solo) (+6 Yarn), Some Thugs (20 Chorus +5 Yarn) (11 Yarn),

Total Yarn: 22-25
Chi Halved: 15-17
Scene Dice: 2d6-1/1d10+1
Weft: (Queen ♦ Revelation - Discovery reveals plot)
Embodiment: Internal Jack and Annie
Tone: Investigation
Location: Could be anywhere (8 Yarn)
Characters: The Party (5 Yarn)
Total Yarn: 13 (ish)
Chi Halved: 9 (ish)
Scene Dice: d4+d2/d5+1

This places the Loom as having
Location: The Summercourt (11 Yarn), Some rooms (9 Yarn)
Characters: The Party (5 Yarn), Sir Geoffrey Voleur (6 Yarn), 20 Thugs (5 Yarn), 100 Goblins (9 Yarn)
Descendant: Artefact Painting (6 Yarn)
Total Yarn:51
Chi Halved: 36
Up payed sway:26+11+22/25+13 = 72-75 Sway
Total Sway: (72-75 + 111-114)= 183-189 Sway
Act Dice: 2d10
Loom Archetype NPC

Facets: All the same Boon (17)
Handicaps: As Facets. Up to 6
Personality Boon: 59 (2d10+1)[12][4]
Skills

Number: up to 6
Boon: 28 (d4+5)[7][2]


Talents: 35 (d6+5/d8+3)[7][2]
Powers: Boon 51 with upto 6 Nimbeds

Zenith
The Final Ordeal
The actual break in to the Summer Court and liberation of the painting (or this might turn into a very different event depending on what they choose to do).

The Gates - enter the Palace Gardens (a locked door A ♦ (diff 8)) (Q ♣)
The Gardens - Where the Hounds are... (8 ♠) - Stakes go up to Medium Fight begins.
The Main Doors - Potentially followed by hounds. Obstacle (a locked door A ♦ diff 18) (Q ♣)
Main Hall - Ditto on the Hounds... (6 ♥)
Main Staircase - Ditto on the Hounds... (6 ♠)
The Gallery - and the Painting (8 ♥)

Embodiment: Quest vs Party
Tone: Action
Location: The Summer Court (11 Yarn)
Characters: The Party (5 Yarn), 100 Goblin-Hounds (Cu Sith) (9 Yarn) / 1000-1999 Extras (9 Yarn)
Descendant: Artefact painting (6 Yarn)
Motif: Magpie (1 Yarn)
Total Yarn: 32
Chi Halved: 22
Scene Dice: 2d6+1
Completion Event
Depending on how things go the Completion Event may vary, but the Plot Daemon would like to achieve this particular Completion Event (Ace ♣ - Happy Hollywood [Dominion victorious]).
While this is a good thing for the party, Guilds and the players with Madnesses, those with Devotions should also suffer through this ending slightly (it should be at best bitter sweet for Jack and Annie).
Embodiment: Internal Jack and Annie, Tension Devotions vs Guilds.
Tone: Dark or Conversational
Location: A room somewhere (4 Yarn)
Characters: The Party (5 Yarn)
Total Yarn: 9
Chi Halved: 6
Scene Dice: d5
Resolutions
Depending upon what happens we have differing results.


Revolution
If all goes well and the party succeed, they all secure their Guild memberships. Mercurio should come out on top somehow (his Madness may become a Leader Personality or Dominator Core). This plot revolts and becomes a new Dominion vs Liberty story.

Revelation
The problem isn't really dealt with, but is revealed. This may happen if they decide not to go forward with the plot once they realise what is actually at stake. There will be another Liberty vs Dominion story, perhaps a deeply political tale with Annie needing help.

Rejection
Doesn't pay-out! If all goes pear-shaped and they avoid the conflict then they all risk/lose their jobs and this plot increases a rank. Liberty in terms of dreams may overtake them as they lose connections to their guilds.

Reversion
Doesn't pay-out! The situation returns to its original set up. We'll need to run this plot again with different dressing. Plot increases a rank.

Reconciliation
We hates this choice remember. An accord is reached, Liberty grants concessions to Dominion. They get to join their respective guilds but restrictions are placed on how often they can call each other in, or under what circumstances the Guilds get priority. The plot can come back, but only as an Act in some later story.

Resolution
In a true resolution of this plot we will pay off the Devotion Handicaps (turning into a Prevailer Core or Rake Personality/ Dominator Core or Leader Personality), and can create a "Dream Control" [L-D] or "Political Games" [D-L] Skill Descendant for the other players, or the PCs may join the Summer Court using the Gain to buy membership and level.

Gain
The final payout from this story (which reflects the Resolution). This particular story favours this particular Gain: (9 ♥ - Warning: The characters are warned about the plot and the Internal embodiment) This is the final payout of the Story and pays out: All Yarn (64) , Chi (155 ish) and Sway (235 ish) there are 4 characters so...
Each: 16 Yarn (184 Sway), 38 Chi (76 Sway), 58 Sway, which is 318 Sway or 159 Chi / (22 Yarn +6 Chi)
Embodiment: Internal Jack and Annie, Tension Annie+Jack vs Mercurio
Tone: Conversational or Dark
Location: Some room somewhere (6 Yarn)
Characters: The Party (5 Yarn)
Total Yarn: 11
Chi Halved: 7
Scene Dice: d4+1
Overall Zenith…
Location: The Summer Court (11 Yarn), a couple of rooms (7 Yarn)
Characters: The Party (5 Yarn), 100 Goblin-Hounds (Cu Sith) (9 Yarn) / 1000-1999 Extras (9 Yarn)
Descendant: Artefact painting (6 Yarn)
Motif: Magpie (1 Yarn)
Total Yarn: 39
Chi Halved: 27
Up paid Sway: (32+9+11+)=52
Total Sway: (183-189)+52 = 235-241
Act Dice: 2d4+4
Zenith Archetype NPC

Facets: All the same Boon (13)
Handicaps: As Facets. (4)
Personality Boon: 46 (4d4/2d6+3)[10][3]
Skills

Number: 4
Boon: 22 (2d6-1)[6][2]


Talents:27 (2d4+2)
Powers: 39 with 5 Nimbeds

Story Total
Locations: Britain (all locations are within Britain) (23 Yarn)
Characters: The Party +other Mercari (6 Yarn), Sir Geoffrey Voleur + Mercurio's Boss(7 Yarn), 20 Thugs (5 Yarn), 100 Goblins (9 Yarn) 1 Broccen Bulmas (9 Yarn).
Descendant: Artefact Painting (6 Yarn)
Motif: Magpie (1 Yarn)
Total Yarn: 66
Chi-Halved: 46
Story Dice: 2d12/2d10+2/2d8+4
Story Archetype NPC

Facets: All the same Boon: (22)
Handicaps: As Facets. Up to 7
Personality Boon: 74 (4d6)[14][4]
Skills

Number: 4
Boon: 34 (d6+4)[8][3]


Talents: 45 (4d4/2d6+3/2d8+1)[10][3]
Powers: 64 (d20+2) with up to 7 Nimbeds

Conclusion
That's pretty much it, there are other things I could do...
I could create a Character Sheet for all the NPCs that I have noted in the plot. But I don't have to. Their Dice pools and so on are fairly easily judged from the Scenes, and their power levels (The Mercari are roughly equal to individual members of Party in power, the Solos are about the power level of the whole party, so they should draw about the same number of cards as all of them).

I could treat them as an Extra, but instead I'll give them a bit more of a work over and assume they have all Facets at 12 as they are pretty important to the Conflict, but I don't want them to be too hard. So I decided that they are a Dominion Monster, a swarm of a Wyrd Monster (They can play cards as they are Fae, although they shouldn't in the dream) (and yes, you can do that if you want to make your Monsters more complex, but I wouldn't do it too often or with too many different types) and they will also have extra Handicaps (for the Twists)

Offensive (Smells of rotten meat)x12 (a 2/2 Rook Handicap);
Defensive (Hypervigilance)x12 (a 2/2 Trial Handicap)
and Duty (Duty to guard the Summer Court)x12 (a 2/2 Inertia Handicap).

For each Handicap that's 1 Proficiency (Guard, Blind-fighting, Fast), and an Umbral penalty and a -12 to rolls and -1 Proficiency Die when invoked. Each time one is activated grants 1 Chi (or 1 Twist if I go Daemonic on that Handicap).

They can store 3 Twists, which they probably start with. Because I'm treating them as a Swarm this actually means the Pack can store and spend more (Store 300, but spend up to 8 (3+5 from the Sway table for Skills of Boon (19) (d10 [5][2])

Nose
Ears
Paws
Teeth (+2 success levels when biting)

Talents of Boon 24 (d12) [6][2]

Senses- Always on -
Prowl - Never completely accurate
Bite - Halved against Earth, Water, Fire, Air (+2 success levels when biting)

Power - Baying of the Cu Sith - Boon 24, (d12) [6][2]
Root: S, U: Loud Noise (Fury); N: Target is aged 5 years; N: Affect 303 cubic metres (+4 pips for extra targets), Channel: T;- Creates a Curse on those who hear it

Note that because this is a Swarm of these creatures they use the swarm rules for Combat etc.

I'll summarize the scenes and available Dice-pools.



Story
Act
Scenes




d20+2/5d4
Frame: d10+4/d12+3
Scene 1: The Magpie pub: d4+d2 / d5+1


Scene 2: Mercurio's Hook: 2d4/2d6-2


Scene 3: Steve's Hook: 2d4/2d6-


Scene 4: Annie's Hook: d3+d2/d4+1


Scene 5*: Trodding: d10+3/d12+2


Scene 6: Reminder: d12/d10+1


Loom: 2d10
Warp 1: Midsummer's Night Dream: 2d6


Weft 1: It isn't just a painting: d3+d2/d4+1


Warp 2:The Attack: 2d6-1/1d10+1


Weft 2: Discovery reveals the plot: d4+d2/d5+1


Zenith: 2d4+4
Final Ordeal: 2d6+1


Completion: d5


Final Gain: d4+1



*Scene 5 runs concurrently with the other Hooks, with Jack taking a Stage for each of the scenes... I probably should rename it Scene 0 to make that more obvious, but it's done now.

So that's the sketched out Plot (with some flesh applied to its bones). As I intended it to go. The details of how it actually played out are slightly different, but Margot Pics will definitely be back as Jack rather successfully charmed her into Mentoring him, and due to player brilliance I rearranged the order of the Loom's warps and wefts. All of which I will detail later.
Although one semi off topic note is that the size of the Wyrd Tarot Hand is going to change from a maximum of 7 cards down to a more arithmetically friendly 5 cards, for Mercari and go up to 10 for Solos.

stayforthecredits:From the Autumn 1979 issue of…

stayforthecredits:

From the Autumn 1979 issue of Cinefantastique magazine:

The Alien you don’t get to see in ALIEN was played by 6″10, 26-year-old Nigerian Bolaji Badejo. Bolaji is a student of graphic arts in London, and has travelled extensively with his parents: to Ethiopia where he studied fine arts; and to the United States, including a three year stay in San Francisco. He landed the role of “The Alien” purely by accident, a turn of events that reads like a publicity agent’s tall tale. The production had apparently put out a casting call for a very tall, very thin actor. Bolaji bumped into agent Peter Archer while having a drink in a London West End pub. Archer thought of ALIEN as soon as he spotted Bolaji, and offered him the chance to try out for the part.

“As soon as I walked in,” said Bolaji, “Ridley Scott knew he’d found the right person.” Scott had been looking at basketball players, and had tested Peter Mayhew [Star Wars' Chewbacca] for the Alien, but it was Badejo’s combination of height, slimness and an erect posture that cinched him the part. Bolaji was signed for the part in May, manufacture of the suit began, and the filming of the Alien scenes started in August at Shepperton.

Ridley Scott originally intended Bolaji to be part of a team of three artists needed to play the Alien, including a mime specialist and a karate expert. When other experts of Bolaji’s unique proportions could not be found, a stuntman was substituted for the dangerous and physically grueling action and Bolaji began to take miming lessons. Most of the footage shot of the Alien didn’t work, but there is one brief cut of Bolaji going through one of his miming routines in the suit, in the sequence where he attacks Veronica Cartwright. ”The idea,” says Bolaji, “was that the creature was supposed to be graceful as well as vicious, requiring slow, deliberate movements. But there was some action I had to do pretty quick. I remember having to kick Yaphet Kotto, throw him against the wall, and rush up to him. Veronica Cartwright was really terrified. After I fling Yaphet Kotto back with my tail, I turn to go after her, there’s blood in my mouth, and she was incredible. It wasn’t acting. She was scared.” (via)

Science in Science-Fiction: Neural Jacks and Cyborgs

The previous posts in this series have dealt with a number of topics that are bordering upon the far-realms of science-fiction, technologies that are far removed from our time and knowledge.[caption id="attachment_8146" align="alignleft" width="260"] The future of indie authoring?[/caption]This post brings us back down to earth with a bump. The furthest ahead we need to look in these technologies is "twenty minutes in the future".
Prostheses

The idea of replacing body parts that have been lost, injured or were simply missing is quite an ancient dream. The Peg-leg, hook-hand and glass-eye are recognisable pirate tropes, but are actually far older than any tales of the Spanish Main, (or Caribbean) for that matter.

Ancient Myths and Fairy Tales abound with artificial limbs and organs including Nuada of the Silver Arm and Pelops Ivory shoulder. Ancient history also turns up the occasional artificial hand, leg or —in the case of one Egyptian Mummy— an artificial toe.

Most prosthetics in history are little more than cosmetic (Johnny Depp's original idea for Captain Jack Sparrow had an artificial nose - he was talked out of it) simply a way for a knight on horseback to not reveal he is actually missing an arm or leg, a peg leg may let someone walk around, a hook may let them pull an oar or rope, but just like in myths, science-fiction sees a future where prosthetics are better than the real thing, perhaps even desirable.
Current replacement tech
Right now we are on the brink of science-fiction becoming fact. Modern light-weight composite materials and a better understanding of the energies and forces involved has lead to the modern prosthetic 'blade' allowing Paralympic athletes to run with greater efficiency than flesh and blood limbs can manage, although these are little more than an evolution of the peg-leg they can run at record-breaking speeds.

Legs aren't the only body parts that are starting to match or exceed the properties of biological body parts. Already artificial hands can have greater grip strength than any human arm, and soon we'll see increased lifting strength over a normal arm.

All manner of simple mechanical failures within the body can now be treated with technological
implants, whether we are talking about intestinal or intravenous valves or artificial hips and bones.
Artificial hearts are now reaching a level of technology where they may (within a decade or so) actually outlast natural hearts and extend the lives of those patients they are implanted in, new models are capable of adapting to the body's needs in a way almost identical to the natural feedback systems the heart itself uses, and as our understanding increases so does the sophistication of the hearts.

Although one troubling trend that has appeared recently, and should lend itself to future science-fiction stories (it already made an episode of "Homeland") very well are the possibilities that pace-makers and other implant technologies are lacking in security features and can be remotely hacked and reprogrammed, perhaps even allowing an assassin to kill. There are moves to rectify this trend, but we know that even the NSA makes cyber-security mistakes from time to time.

Artificial Livers, Kidneys, Pancreases and even Lungs are beginning to make an appearance now, with millions of medical dollars being spent on research in stem cell regrowth and external regeneration, where a framework or scaffolding is used to allow the patient's own cells to grow a replacement organ. The most successes so far have been with cartilage tissue structures such as outer ears, noses and even tracheae. With flesh-printers on the way, it will only be a matter of time before artificial flesh can replace almost any damaged muscle or cartilage including the lungs.

As for skin we (or at least the US Army) now has the ability to print skin cells directly onto a burn or wound. As this video shows.

Neural grafting
The biggest problem with all these devices, and especially artificial sense organs (eyes, ears, balance, etc) is that in order for them to work properly you require the prosthetic to communicate with the nervous system and the brain.

While we are getting success with reading the brain now and extracting information from the mind (or at least the motor and visual cortices) we are still making only baby steps with direct neural input.

[caption id="attachment_8149" align="alignright" width="300"] Retinal implants and how they work (so far)[/caption]Retinal implants exist that can tickle the optic nerve to indicate light and dark, but so far we haven't come close to matching the way the eye works, let alone surpassing it. At best the implants give a vague sense of light or dark, colour or blurry images, but this technology is accelerating fast and I wouldn't be too surprised to learn that the military have got some volunteers who have limited day and night-vision after losing their normal sight to an IUD.

Cochlea implants are a similar story, they may grant a deaf person partial recovery of some hearing, but they are not able to hear conversations across the street or listen to infrasound or ultra sound, yet. Although it could be argued that modern hearing aids with their "hearing loops" allow the partially hearing to hear radio waves.
Neural Jacks

One day it may be possible to plant not just sensory data, but conceptual data directly into the mind. In effect fixing our memories with digital precision, or granting us skills on a chip. But what about inputing data that is synthetic? This is the central premise of the 1999 movie epic " The Matrix ".
[caption id="attachment_8151" align="alignleft" width="300"] 14 years ago the neural jack looked like this... maybe...[/caption]
The original concept for this is the Neural Jack, as described by William Gibson in the novel “ Neuromancer ”. Although Gibson stood on the shoulders of giants as he wrote ‘Cyberspace’ into existence he helped define a genre, and may have inadvertently redirected the path of humanity. Would the Internet exist if the Cyberpunks had not branded their way across 80s science-fiction?


Directly communicating with a computer, a virtual reality, even allowing us to share sensory experiences or thoughts, may all one day become possible, with the ultimate goal being the upload of consciousness into a computer to grant us a limited form of immortality. All concepts that I weave together into the Cyberwraiths in the Paradox War trilogy.

Isaac Asimov's take on it is within the I, Robot universe, where humans are demanding robotic replacement parts and the robots start demanding more human replacements, the human race and robots are hybridising and the titular character is a “ Segregationist ” believing the two forms of intelligence should remain separate.

TV embraced the Cyborg quite well, literally in the case of Martin Caidin's novel “ Cyborg ” (1972) who became “ The Six Million Dollar Man ” and along with “ The Bionic Woman ” had kids in the 70s running slowly and shouting “tcha-tcha-tcha-tcha” as they did so. They also added the words bionic and cybernetic to the pop culture lexicon.

Cyborgs moved on through the 80s. With the Terminator representing a robot with an organic skin as its take on the Cybernetic-organism, and “ Robocop ” brought body horror, violence and comedy together for an interesting take on the Cyborg, adding programmed directives to the biological mind of it's subject.

Things did take a turn for the cheesy when Jean-Claude Van Damme had a go at playing one in 1989's (“ Cyborg ”) which almost killed the concept off in Sci-Fi. Though it did lead the way for Angelina Jolie to play one in the totally unrelated (and should probably never have been made) " Cyborg 2" and may have had little or no bearing on the casting of Summer Glau in " Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles ".

Which is pretty much the state of the art.

Conclusion
Well, some transhumanists believe that we will inevitably blend ourselves with technology, and await the singularity with baited breath, but if history teaches us anything it says clearly that no futurists are ever completely accurate and so a future of blended people probably will not happen anything like the Cyberpunks imagined.

I think that we will probably augment ourselves eventually, but I'm thinking that these will be more like tattoos or piercings, rather than surgical procedures. Imagine programmable tattoos that you can hide or change as you like. Or subdermal communications technology, injected into the top of your jawbone. Simple procedures that could be performed like modern body modifications, and without fear of rejection or the fabled cyber-psychosis (which makes for neat stories and a good balancing mechanism in roleplaying games, but isn't actually real, as far as we can tell).

I can believe that one day we may have nanobots for medicine that destroy cancer cells, viruses or bacteria that they have been taught to destroy. This kind of augmented, programmable immune system makes sense, with a little nano factory buried in a bone somewhere churning out inoculations based on the latest virus definitions file downloaded from the internet (wonder what a yearly subscription to Bayer-McAfee will cost). Of course the cynical and paranoid will wonder whether the companies will produce viruses to keep their software competitive, something the computer virus companies are accused of from time to time.

With wearable PCs, devices like google glass and so on, we may see cyber-contacts, and perhaps something akin to lasik where the eye can be augmented, but the problem with these implants is always going to be upgrades. Our cyber-tech is obsolete within a few years (anything older than a five years is pretty much dead), would you really want to have upgrade surgery every year or two? Again if we get programmable nanobots of some sort then they will be more likely to be implanted as a simple upgrade could be broadcast to the 'bots. That said we better crack security properly first, as I for one would not welcome having my body functions hacked.
[caption id="attachment_8140" align="alignright" width="300"] Is this an image of our future selves?[/caption]
Eventually our far future may involve us as a trans-stellar species reliant on implants to allow us to live natively on planets that we were not naturally adapted to, and even to survive in space with more safety and comfort that we can currently manage. The ability to communicate wordlessly, record and broadcast memories (or imagination!), modify gravity, exert forcefields and radiant beams, and even assemble tools from atoms may be common eventually. I can't really guess what we'll look like then, but perhaps we'll be the Eusaiveans.

Goth Lobsters

Goth Lobsters

Terminal 13 character generator

This week I have been splitting my time between writing Ironmster first drafts and writing a T13 character generator plugin.

It's all been slightly mad as I didn't have much of a plan when I started, but it's coming together finally (although at the moment I still haven't implemented multiple Twists or finished Annexes and Descendants yet)

Meanwhile I have been using my new Kindle Fire HD to write a first draft of Ironmaster on Google drive (or docs? Google Don't seem to be able to decide). It works really well, but Amazon's predictive text is even worse than Apple's (I don't even know how that is possible) and doesn't seem to learn new words very easily (and seems to hate apostrophes with a vehemence bordering on the psychopathic), but I'm getting there with it now.My biggest problem is that the built in keyboard doesn't include a m-dash (&smash;) which isn't much of a problem, either that or the kids trying to hijack the Kindle to play "Empire 4 Kingdoms", either way not much of a problem.


Actually quick question to other bloggers, my Gravatar has become my LinkedIn picture because of one of the recent upgrades, but I can't find a control to change it back, weirder still all the graveyard options (retro/monster/etc have also turned into the same image, which is weird) any thoughts anyone?

Friday night is game night, so I'm going to focus on the character generator plugin for the next 48 hours or so... I have a plot dæmon all ready and waiting, which I'll post later.
Till then see us folks
(C:

laughingsquid:Night Photos of the International Car Forest of…

laughingsquid:

Night Photos of the International Car Forest of the Last Church in Nevada

Literature is my utopia Now this would look good on a mug…

Literature is my utopia

Now this would look good on a mug…

reference for writers: SYNONYMS FOR WORDS COMMONLY USED IN STUDENTS’ WRITINGS

reference for writers: SYNONYMS FOR WORDS COMMONLY USED IN STUDENTS' WRITINGS:

writeworld:

by larae.net

Amazing- incredible, unbelievable, improbable, fabulous, wonderful, fantastic, astonishing, astounding, extraordinary
Anger- enrage, infuriate, arouse, nettle, exasperate, inflame, madden
Angry- mad, furious, enraged, excited, wrathful, indignant,…

always useful…