Dauntless

Re: STARFIRE the Roleplaying Game The whole issue about firing arcs makes me think about StarCruiser (the space naval game for Traveller 2300). What I liked about StarCruiser was that you didn't just have firing arcs, you had a facing or bearing. If your ship was designed as a long object with a narrow facing, you couldn't mount that many weapons for or aft. On the up side, it was harder for someone to hit you because you presented less of a target. On the other hand, if you wanted to bring your weapons to bear, then you gave them your "broadsides". The downside to this was that now you were an easier target. It was a nice little touch that made you think about tactics more. On the other hand, I'm not all that concerned about firing arcs. It should be quite possible for a weapon (in a 2d sense) to be mounted on turrets that give it a good 300+ degree arc of fire. And why would engines make anything a blind spot? Mount the engines on pylons away from the coaxial line of the ship and you've got your 6 covered. Or send out a targeting drone that act as your eyes that can see the battlefield from a different angle (sort of like an AWACS). Personally, I think space combat will be much different than it's portrayed. If naval battles of today occur scores of miles away (farther even than the horizon), imagine what it will be like in space. Sensors will be able to detect ships coming in from hundreds if not thousands of miles away (spaceships will be HOT...the biggest issue in designing space vehicles is heat management since all heat dissipation has to be done via radiation rather than convection or conduction). Maneuvering, in my opinion, will not be trying to outflank or bear in on your opponents weakest side, rather, it will be maneuvering your ship to present it's most advantageous side at the moment. Weapons like lasers in space will have for all practical purposes infinite range and be the most practical. Missles or drones would have to be fired at near point blank range to do any good since they will be easily shot down. Fighters will be very vulnerable as it will take them a long to close in. Even railguns which might have a velocity upwards of 10km a second could be shot down if the range was great enough (imagine...a battle taking place at 100km would take 10 seconds for that projectile to arrive..and the targeted ship will know the hostile ship fired from EM signatures, so it could quite easily make a course correction or simply shoot the slug to deflect it). In short, I seriously think future naval warfare will not resemble WWII naval battles. People like to essentially imagine Aircraft Carrier or Submarine style warfare visualizations because it's familiar, and it seems cool. Furthermore, I think a realistic space navy would probably be uncrewed and manned by AI instead. Assuming Strong AI that has consciousness (and therefore imagination), it would be far more efficient than a human crew could hope to be. The savings in volume by not requiring crew quarters or galleys would be immense. The only reason I could see why you wouldn't want to do this is fear. Would you really want a warship commandeered by AI...even if the ship had more than one AI aboard? Of course if we're talking a race of AI's...well, then that's not an issue

Re: STARFIRE the Roleplaying Game Interesting info. Many moons ago I bought (I think) the 2nd edition Starfire rules (since it wasn't ziplocked, nor was it boxed), and found the rules to be interesting. I never did have a chance to play it though since the rest of the group were all die-hard SFB'ers. I just recently (2 weeks ago as a matter of fact) bought the Ultra Edition of Starfire to check it out. I've been itching for a grand strategic space game, and this seemed to fit the bill. Another game I've been looking at is Victory By Any Means (which I've also just purchased). However, it seems that the VBAM stuff is quite a bit more expensive than Ultra Starfire. For just $21, Ultra Starfire seems like a good deal to me. There's lots of good rule systems for Tactical Starship combat...Full Thrust, Starmada, SFB, for example. But there's not too many that do strategic or even operational combat (Empires at War coming to mind). You have to think differently in strategic battles and you have to plan your battles carefully. Me personally, I'm tired of the "you get X amount of points to build your fleet/army, and I get X amount of points to build mine....and we duke it out". That's just not the way battles work in the real world. Strategic games which can scale down to operational and tactical combat will take this into consideration, but tactical only systems leave it up to the players to design interesting scenarios. In that sense, I agree with Jon Tuffley who did not wish to create a point cost system for his game Stargrunt II. He thought such a design only reinforced the notion of the "line em up and march forward" mentality not to mention excite all the munchkins and power gamers. In some sense, I'm starting to move away from the whole point cost mentality even in the Hero System. Wargames are more formalized and were designed to have "winners". Thus, I can see the usefulness for having a value calculus. But the older I get, the more I see such a value calculus for roleplaying to be detrimental. But I'm straying way too far off topic now. It would be interesting to see the Starfire universe adapted to the roleplaying level, even though I can no longer remember the various factions involved. In Ultra Starfire, there are no pre-built races, you have to roll your own. Thus, there's no background or history involved.

Re: SpaceCraft Miniatures... For all things Space Game miniature related....here's your one stop portal: http://www.star-ranger.com/Home.htm From here, you can find tons of links to games as well as companies that make starship minis. I just found out from this site that Ground Zero Games (maker of the very nice Full Thrust line of minis and game) is having a one-week 20% off sale. Definitely worth a look (though they don't really have any curvy kind of space ships other than the organic Sa'Vasku ships....for curvy ships, I'd recommend the Cold Navy line)

Re: post-apocalyptic genre book I wish I had time. Right now with all my other projects (my own homebrew game, and loads of programming stuff amongst others) I don't even have time for gaming at the moment But I'm sure some others would love too, wouldn't they??

Re: Jedi and evil actions Living in the present means exactly that...that you act in the now. If someone is about to cause harm, then you do your best to prevent that harm. If however you failed to prevent that harm, don't beat yourself up over it. In other words, this does not cause inaction, or to allow evil to triumph because good men do nothing. If you fail in your action, then make a correction only as the context allows. In other words, don't "make up" for a failure because you failed, but because an imbalance still exists in the present. Let me relate a little Buddhist parable to help illustrate: Two monks are walking across a creek when they see a woman trying to figure out how to cross the stream without getting wet. One of the monks courteously lifted her up and carried her across to the other side, despite having broken one of the vows of not touching a woman. Later after much walking, the two monks finally get to their destination in town when the other monk finally breaks his silence in angry condemnation. "Brother, why did you break your vow by carrying that woman?" To which the other monk replied, "Brother, I stopped carrying her at the other side of the creek...why are you still carrying her?" In other words, the second monk was dwelling on the past and was in essence committing the greater error. He was not mindful of the now. He was focused on dogmatic consequences rather than the present. You do not ignore the past, you simply don't dwell on it. Obi-Wan for all intents and purposes was privy to causing the destruction of the Republic by failing in his teaching of Anakin. Did he dwell on that? No, he spent the rest of his life watching over Luke. Did Yoda vow to destroy Palpatine even if it cost him his life to make up for his failure? No, he went into seclusion to keep the Jedi order alive. So remember Qui Gonn's advice to the padawan Obi-Wan to always be mindful of the present.

Re: post-apocalyptic genre book I look at it like this: if Hero Games doesn't satisfy my Post-Apocalyptic craving, then I'll just have to have my itch scratched by Timeline Ltd with The Morrow Project 4th Ed, and 93 Studios with the 3rd Edition of Twilight 2000 (ne 2013).

Re: Jedi and evil actions I agree with Jhamin. There is no external judge or enforcer of correct action. But the jedi is both his own judge, and yet not at a judge at all. Seeing as how the Jedi "code" is largely an import of eastern philosophies, I think the true moral compass is internal rather than external. Remember how Palpatine exchanged some words basically saying that the Jedi were selfless and the Sith were totally selfish? This indicates that one of the goals of a Jedi is to forget the idea of the self. In another revealing tidbit of JEdi philosophy, Anakin asks Yoda how he is to deal with the images of a "friend" dying. Yoda tells Anakin that he must train himself to let go of the things he desires. What does this say? The Jedi have but one judge...themselves. Would a jedi blame himself for failing to prevent the killing? No. Remember another piece of Jedi advice...live in the moment and be mindful of the present, do not dwell on the past (yet another philosophical rip straight from Buddhism). But how does a jedi judge his own actions? When do his actions become actions of the Dark Side? Simple...when they are selfish or act based out of emotion. There's a whole section in philosophy that deals with these ethical questions. Look up Deontological arguments or Consequential arguments. But to put things in an oversimplified nutshell, a Jedi would not believe that the Ends Justifies the Means. Or in this case, that the Ends Justifies the Rewards/Punishment. To the Jedi, only the now is important and how one acts accordingly. The outcome is irrelevant. Jedi Code There is no emotion; there is peace. There is no ignorance; there is knowledge. There is no passion; there is serenity. There is no death; there is the Force. A true jedi would not dwell on guilt, regret, shame or self-pity anymore than he would anger, jealousy, hate and rage. Equanimity is one of the truest signs of a Jedi master. The Dark Side is not necessarily evil, merely selfish and enslaved to passions and emotion. Just my take on the Jedi philosophy. But if you're curious about this sort of stuff, you might be interested in reading a book called, "The Dharma of Star Wars" by Matthew Bortolin.

Re: Post-Apocolyptic Hero Setting I put this up in the other PA thread, but thought I should reference it here too. 93studios is planning on making the third edition of Twilight 2000 to be named Twilight 2013. It will take today's events and timeline to construct a new WWIII setting. Expected release date isn't until 2007 though. But it looks like you can have a chance to have your character be a part of the timeline, and may even be looking for other creative submissions. So with the vaporware of the 4th Edition Morrow Project and now Twilight 2013, I think it's just one more candle under Hero Games butt to get going on a new genrebook

Re: post-apocalyptic genre book Just to let people know if they don't already, 93 studios is planning to make the 3rd edition of Twilight 2000, which amusingly will be called Twilight 2013. It won't be a sequel but rather will use today's events and timeline to craft a new rationale for WWIII. Unfortunately, the release date isn't until 2007. But it appears as if the company is looking for creative submissions.

Re: Military genre stuff I dipped my feet into Vietnam roleplaying with the original Recon game. I had the Haiphong Halo supplement and the Hearts and Minds supplement (didnt know about the Sayeret one though). I really wish I remember what I did with that game though. I only played maybe 4-5 games with that system. I never really liked the Palladium version of Recon though, but fortunately the Phoenix Command system came out not much afterwards. I ran my own Vietnam campaign using Phoenix Command as the rules end, and doing my own research for the setting. I remember using some Osprey books (which I still have) and some digest sized books (I think from Time-Life, but I could be mistaken) for other material. When I was 16, I knew more about the Vietnam conflict than I do now. I even read part of the Bright Shining Lie, not to mention Chickenhawk (the author of whom I met since he lived very close to my town), The Killing Zone, Warrior Kings, LRRP, and probably another 3-4 books I can no longer recall. And of course Twillight 2000 both 1st and 2nd (though not 3rd edition, where they changed it to a d20 system). I actually only had the first 5 modules, the RDF sourcebook, and the Nato and Warsaw Pact vehicle guides. Once they moved the action back to the United States, I sort of lost interest. I also remember thumbing through Behind Enemy Lines, but I never actually got it. I also bought but never played Freedom Fighters and Merc both by Fantasy Games Unlimited. I also had Task Force Games Delta Force and the Delta Force companion, but again never played it (though it looked like a really good system). I also have the Gurps 3rd Ed. WWII world book (1st edition softcover), but none of the supplements. I also remember playing a few games in one guy's Boot Hill campaign, but he ran it as a campaign against the Nez Perce and Chief Joseph. I've been itching to do either a WWII or Forgotten War campaign (Korean Conflict campaign). But unlike current computer games, which would seem to allow young players to believe that the war was fought almost totally by paratroopers and Rangers in Normandy alone, I'd want to cover some of the far and offbeat places. Like maybe Merril's Marauders in China or the Chindits in Burma, or the campaigns in North Africa or the Mediterranean. And the Korean War would be intense...how would you like facing literally hundreds of thousands of troops coming at you en masse, even if maybe only a tenth of them actually had weapons. Heck, I'd love to do an American Civil War, French and Indian War, English Civil War, or American Revolution period game. For some reason, RPG designers have never touched on any game period before the Victorian/Edwardian era or after the Crusades (and always neglecting from the 1st century through the 11th). Strange considering the great wealth of setting these periods could provide. Then again, history has never been a great inspirer for RPG games or gamers unfortunately.

Re: post-apocalyptic genre book I actually choose the handle Dauntless when I decided to teach myself how to program in c++ Really though the Phoenix Command Combat System wasn't as bad as a lot of people at the time made it out to be. Just before playing the Vietnam campaigns using PCCS, I had run a Justice Inc. campaign, and I thought the two played roughly the same (though I did use all the optional rules like bleeding and stuff). And honestly, no one complained about combat being too slow. Then again, our group, though made up mostly of teens (this was the late 80's) were probably 80% wargamers too. In fact, I started my gaming career playing 15mm American Civil War, followed by 15mm Napoleonics. The other guys did some ACW and microarmor stuff too. So we weren't scared of big charts But getting back to the PA stuff, I really do hope Steve or someone writes a genre book on it. I actually think it's a more popular genre than Dark Champions. And look at all the source material there is to do research on. Thank god I never threw away my Aftermath, pocket box versions of Car Wars, GEV or OGRE, or Twillight 2000 first or second editions. Now, if I could only find my Skyrealms of Jorune, After the Bomb (Palladium), Recon (a small pamphlet game before it was redone by Palladium), the pocket box version of Battlesuit (a SJ game set in the same world as GEV and OGRE), or 1st edition of The Morrow Project (mine is a 3rd edition currently), I'd be happier than a Republican who isn't associated with Abramoff.

Re: post-apocalyptic genre book I ran both a Vietnam campaign using Phoenix Command (for well over a year..I ran it with three different units in three different zones) as well as a Living Steel campaign, which regrettably lasted much shorter. I not only played Living Steel, but Dragonstar Rising too. One of the things I liked about the Living Steel setting was the focus not just on the combat with the Ringer teams, but also the Alpha teams that helped in rebuilding society. There were a couple pages in the data charts devoted just towards seeing what kinds of tools you needed to build what sort of items. You're right though, the game mechanics were actually quite easy once you played it about 3-4 times. I don't know why people complained about it so much. And I think it still has the best action phase resolution system of any game if you used the Advanced Supplement (where each action cost a certain number of actions, modified by the character's abilities, and you simply counted up till the combat was over). It required a bit of record keeping, and players had to think about what they did, but I hardly think it slowed the game down to the point where the realism didn't more than compensate for the brevity.

Re: Post-Apocolyptic Hero Setting I noticed that quite a few of these games and backgrounds come from the 80's period when the Cold War was still going strong (Car Wars, The Morrow Project, Aftermath, Twillight 2000, Rogue 417, Battletech, any game from FGU, Gamma World IIRC, and Living Steel all came from the 80's). Sure, there are some exceptions, but I'd say the lion's share of PA genre's stem from this time period, and hence share a similar zeitgeist. And of the ones which came after the 90's, the overriding theme seems to either be zombification of some sort, or more generically some sort of magical catastrophe. Now I'm wondering about any post 2nd millennia settings? As I mentioned before, I think there's a new idea about what could cause some sort of cataclysmic change. There's even been a return of a favorite from the 70's...an energy crisis. Environmental disaster has changed from the fear of a rogue space traveler to climatalogical extremes. A new idea has emerged that our own technology will be our destruction, either actively (via the cliche of Frankenstein's monster destroying us), or passively (by technology reaching a singularity and creating havoc or chaos in the fabric of society). How society is interested in apocalyptic scenarios can tell you alot about underlying concerns of that society. As for my fave memory, I think it was playing at a convention in a Twillight 2000 game where the GM was Frank Frey (author of a couple modules). To my 15 yr old mind, it was quite an honor to have a military-based game run by an actual combat veteran (Frank served as an infantryman in Vietnam). Frank definitely knew how to get the atmosphere of war and survival across very well.

Re: Post-Apocolyptic Hero Setting Actually, I think the fun of the city-state utopia is trying to escape and seeing what's on the outside. Part of the appeal is that these utopida's usually don't want to let the citizens know what's really on the outside. In Logan's Run, the protagonist finds out that you die at 30 and that there's life (if a bit primitive) outside the city. In Grey, it's sort of the same thing, the soldiers never become citizens and instead get killed off. In Appleseed, it's more about the question of "how do you have a city of pacifists who have to defend themselves against aggressors"? As for zombies, I'm not sure how it ties in with the city-state idea. The wasteland idea I can see though. I guess I've never been a big fan of "non-realistic" post-apocalypse settings, although they have some imaginative appeal (like Rifts for example). Even mutants stretches my tolerance for plausable deniability. Now technologically altered beings via genetic engineering or viral changes (sort of like 28 Days premise) are more up my alley. That's why my own setting takes place in the (not too far) future. But, to each their own. That's just my own personal taste.

Re: Post-Apocolyptic Hero Setting Oh, one other idea that hasn't been mentioned, and only niche games have attempted....Eschatological settings. Huh? What's Eschatology? Eschatos is Greek for "Last word" and eschatology is basically the study of religious endtimes (usually judeo-christian, but other religions in general as well). I have another setting in mind which takes a pseudo Buddhist-Hindu end cycle where the 5 attainments are lost one by one. What interests me about this setting is that it's not just an apocalypse really, but The End. As I mentioned before, apocalypse is actually greek for "revelation" (which is why in the Bible, The Book of Revelations or just Revelations is also known as the Apocalypse). What's interesting is the revelation of how things are going to end...the decline and descent into chaos and turmoil. It's sort of like the Kobayshi Maru test. You can't win. What's important is how you deal with it. It's a rare gamer that can deal with a no-win situation, but I think that's what makes an eschatological setting all the more interesting.

Re: Post-Apocolyptic Hero Setting I made a big list in the other PA Hero thread, so I'll just touch a little on my faves. Because I was a child of the 80's I grew up on NBC style apocalypses so any setting with that in mind just feels right to me. Game-wise Twillight 2000, Aftermath, and The Morrow Project fit the bill. Car Wars also deserves attention for its Mad-Max like setting (and limited nukes + grain blight scenario for a limited apocalypse). For non-gaming fodder, I also liked the idea of the isolated city-utopia surrounded by desolate wasteland. Movies like Logan's Run, or anime like Appleseed or Grey are quite interesting. Even the Matrix's Zion would fall in this category. Paranoia is a game set in something like this environment (and is probably the most hilarious RPG ever made). Currently, I'm working on my own game setting with my own home grown game design, and it's a slow apocalypse setting. What do I mean by slow apocalypse? It's an environmental catastrophe coupled with runaway technology that was set into motion to try to stem the devestation (the singularity is basically on its way). Because the destruction is slow, it's mostly a panic-based atmosphere with lots of unrest and civil chaos. I think with the current mindset, ecological catastrophe might be the new "vogue" idea. The other vogue idea right now is the transhumanist idea of the singularity, which would be an apocalypse of a different sort (humanity and civilization will be transformed into something else, but there may not be devestation or destruction per se).

Re: Religion Hero?? There's approximately 4 million Jains, and 20 million Sikh's in the world. Perhaps small in comparison to the world's population, but that actually puts both religions in the top 15. In England, Sikhs are the 4th largest religious group (not counting non-religous or atheists) behind Christians, Muslims, and Hindus and comprise about 336,000 members. Go to any large city in the free world (5 million+ cities), and I'm sure you'll find at least a few score followers of virtually every religion in the world. One of the few cool things about monster cities in my opinion.

Re: post-apocalyptic genre book The Black Death also forced migrations of certain people which would have consequences later. There was a religious movement (a group that flagellated themselves in penance, for they believed the plague was God's punishment for their sinful society) which threatened the Pope himself, and it was this movement that compounded the misery by attacking non-Christians where they went. Because of this, many Jews would move out of parts of Western Europe and into Eastern Europe. Still though, there wasn't total collapse, but as The Question Man noted there were quite a bit of changes. So then the question becomes, how much change becomes chaos? When does the system become so chaotic or so new that for all intents and purposes, the old order is gone and replaced? I would suggest that a true post-apocalypse occurs when anarchy for long stretches of time (scores of years to centuries), as opposed to just a new order. One could argue by my suggestion that the Fall of the Roman Empire for Western Europe then was a post-apocalyptic period. Not until Charlemagne united the various franco-celtic-germanic tribes would there be semblance of a united order. I would actually say that Order is the natural inclination of human existence. When human societies go through a chaotic period, it desires order and stability. It may take awhile to achieve that, but that is our top goal. If it were not, and human's overriding tendency was towards chaos, then I don't think civilization would have gotten as far as it did. Yes, entropy is the natural order of the universe, but humans I think instinctively want to order the system. Why? Because an ordered system is safer and more predictable. Why do civilizations fail? Well, lots of reasons really. I'd say corruption is reason number one. I'd say reason number two is laziness/complacency/apathy. I can't remember if it was Hemingway or Twain who said, "The test that every civilization has faced and failed is the test of luxury". Maintaining order over chaos requires expenditure of energy. If the society gets lazy, then control can be taken away or usurped by something else. While internal forces are I think the greatest cause of collapse, you can't neglect external ones either. War of course is always a biggie. If the costs are too high, it can bankrupt the civilization. The other obvious war related cause is genocide or "total war" (like Sherman's burning of the south's entire infrastructure during the Civil War). Any external event which stresses resources is a candidate (like the weather changing or disease). Civilizations can help protect themselves from all of these. Internally, they can't become apathetic or lazy. They have to constantly strive to be better through education. Civilizations can protect themselves from external forces by having strong militaries and being as self-sufficient as possible (as few dependencies as possible). Civilizations which can adapt their economies and even their ideologies will have a huge benefit. Being open minded will allow new means of survival with a minimum of upheaval. An extreme example of this might be a country who is not against abortions/infanticide if they realize that girls are more important to repopulate a society than boys (if boys live, then they become an extra mouth to feed, and yet don't really do much to help repopulate society).

Re: post-apocalyptic genre book One of the reasons the Black Death didn't plunge civilization is that civilization was still in a relatively primitive stage. As long as people still had enough manpower to give the basics of life, which as always is food, shelter and order, then pretty much everything went on. True, there were panics, but because society was primitive, there wasn't a whole lot of dependency going on. By contrast, all you have to do to destroy western (and some asian) civilization is to turn off the power everywhere for just a week or two. No travel (even cars need gas stations with power to pump the gas...a painful lesson learned here in South Florida during Hurricane Wilma; we had gas, just very few gas stations with power to actually pump the gas), no communication, no medical care beyond the most basic, no medecines, no work, no business transactions....society would go caput in a heartbeat. Because modern civilization is so interdependent, it would be very easy to push it over the edge. Look at what the SARS scare did a few years ago. Worldwide, a few hundred billion dollars was lost because people were scared to travel. When h5n1 (avian flu) morphs into something that humans can easily get, I'm going to hate to see how it impacts society. In 1918, the world was still relatively primitive compared to now. The Spanish influenza actually killed more people in 1/4th the time than were killed during the Black Plague. One notable scientist of the time even said that if it had lasted a few more months at the rate it was killing people, civilization would have collapsed. But we are even more susceptible to damage today. Tansatlantic flights, economies tied to international commerce, the need for foreign imports and the relative fragility and interdependence of our way of life means that if H5N1 is anything like the Spanish Influenza (and scarily, they are molecularly extremely similar) we could be in for an even rougher time than in 1918. So the threshold for a society is I think very much related to how interwoven and dependent the various sections of society are. The more one section of life is dependent on another, the more quickly it will unravel.

Re: post-apocalyptic genre book I've heard of Rogue 417, though I never played it myself. My favorite era of Battletech was in the 3025 era...where Battlemechs were supposed to be rare, and the people were still in a dark ages. Same thing with Car Wars in 2031 when it was basically "SJ's Mad Max" (before Computer Auto Gunners and Auto Pilots and Gauss Guns). And although many people detested Traveller: The New Era, I thought it was cool and it helped "reboot" the Imperium into something different. What's cool about PA setting's is that you can rework civilization and society into something new, and yet still have it be something familiar. It also appeals as a warning to what could pass if we are not careful. The idea of global annhilation and mass extinction is a relatively new concept to humanity. Although writers like HG Wells envisioned man having wars which would reduce them back to barbarism, it wasn't until A) the completion of the Atomic Bomb and the scientific theory of mass extinction via impacts that people all of a sudden took seriously the idea of the destruction of civilization. So only the last 60 years or so has this concept been kicked around. Fantasy is fantasy. Science fiction, though in the realm of possibility is just conjecture. Horror, if supernaturally based, are just plays on primordial fears. Supers are escapism with moral exploration. Cyberpunk, as a subgenre of science fiction, is simply "what if?" with cool toys. But post apocalypse touches a nerve I think precisely because it HAS happened in the past, and at any second of the day, could really happen. It is interesting I think that in greek, apocalypse doesn't really mean destruction but "Revelation". I think fundamentally, PA stories aren't about survival or reconstruction, but a revelation of some greater truth.

Re: post-apocalyptic genre book Now that I think about it, quite a few games have either had an apocalyptic past or are currently in the Aftermath period. To wit: Twillight 2000- GDW The Morrow Project- Timeline Ltd Aftermath- Fantasy Games Unlimited Gamma World- TSR Living Steel- Leading Edge Games Skyrealms of Jorune Fading Suns (a slow apocalypse)- Holistic Designs Traveller: The New Era- GDW Darwin's World- RPG Objects Car Wars- Steve Jackson Freedom Fighters- Fantasy Games Unlimited Year of the Phoenix - Fantasy Games Unlimited Rifts- Palladium (Early) Battletech- FASA/Fanpro Currently Battlestar Galactica is in vogue which is essentially a futuristic take on a post-apocalypse setting. Recent films like the remake of War of the Worlds and Independence Day are also basically apocalypse movies (not quite post-apocalypse). The Day After Tomorrow briefly looks at a PA setting. Of course The Matrix trilogy is also a PA setting. So if you think about it, PA is definitely a hot genre...no question about it. I definitely think it'd be a good idea to tap into the underlying fascination of the market and produce something to fit the bill.

Re: Religion Hero?? Well, I'd say Jains and Sikhs are relatively obscure outside their native countries. Granted even shintoists outside Japan are usually Japanese, but they still are around. For example take a gander here: http://www.tsubakishrine.com/test/home.asp I think it's good to know at least the basics of even obscure religions/philosophies. There's an old asian saying that says, "He who knows only one religion knows none". I really think having a comparative religious study would be a great boon to gamers. Religion is at the heart of many great game ideas. Religion provides conflict and mystery, two of the central ingredients in any story. Understanding the commonality and differences of religions can help provide building blocks for a campaign. It'd also be a good way to create your own religion for a fantasy or sci-fi game.

Re: Religion Hero?? I'm inclined to agree that religion hero is really a sub-genre (or meta-genre really), as you can implement it in any other genre. But that's not to say that you can't write a book on it. I think it'd also be fun, as well as educational, to write about a plethora of religions, philosophies and mythic archetypes. A book that discusses how religion affects social spheres as well as personal ones could be used as game ideas in a campaign. Having a guide, essentally a comparative religion section, could help the GM figure out if and what types of conflicts could occur between followers of various religious sects. For example, Buddhists get along with basically everyone...from shamans to monotheists to polytheists to atheists. I think religion is a sorely neglected topic in games. The TV show Battlestar Galactica put an interesting spin on religion for example. Even in fictitious settings, one rarely thinks about how followers of various religions will react to one another. Look at today's problems with fundamentalism and how it shapes world events. I think if it's done right, Religion Hero would be non-offensive....at least if you have a semi-open mind. A good place to get ideas for yourself until such a book comes out is http://www.religioustolerance.org. Lots of comparative articles and discussions of doctrine amongst various religions. Also covers obscure religions, like Jainism, Sikhism, Shintoism, Manicheasts, Bahai'ists and others.

Re: Ghost in the Shell resources? I found out there's a DVD/log book combo about the GITS:SAC series up through episode 18. It seems the neat stuff is in the log book. I've already been spending way too much money lately, but maybe I'll get this so I can understand the GITS world better. The other thing I like about GITS is the whole political intrigue on top of the question of what really constitutes consciousness. I've been slowly tackling some Quantum Computation material (some of the math is still beyond me, like Hilbert Spaces, and my abstract algebra is feeble) but it's implications in terms of brain/mind simulation are fascinating. The standard trope in most Cyberpunk settings is to allow some sort of "consciousness" or memory downloaded. But the fact is, we can't even find much less prove that memories are stored in our brain. To make it short and sweet, our mind(consciousness) is not our brain. As I saw it analogized, our brain is much like a radio. It intercepts and interprets sensory signals. We think that because if part of the brain is destroyed that our memories and consciousness must reside there is like saying that because my radio is broken and I can't get music anymore, the music must have been in the radio. I think following this line of scientific thought has more interesting game setting ramifications than the consciousness/memory downloading and non-QM computers with strong AI. And GITS I think follows this line of thought with a bit more mystery (at least in the two movies....in SAC, it's like the Major's "death" never happened...though in GITS:Innocence, the Major's survival of her "ghost" is never fully explained, leaving the mystery intact).

Re: Ghost in the Shell resources? Brain transplants I don't mind...it's consciousness transplants that I'm leery of. Though the whole cyber-brain thing did confuse me. I wasn't sure if they were augmented brains or AI brains or a combination of the two. I actually found an interesting non-game related site called http://www.kurzweilai.net after Ray Kurzweil, a technologist whose written a few books. Some interesting stuff, but I personally think he's a bit too optimistic not just about timelines, but about capabilities as well. Then again, I'm just a beginning grad student in Computer Science, so he probably knows more than I do....but I'm still doubtful.