DShomshak

Update on my other project, The Sylvestri Family Reunion. HERO Patreon backers had their chance for a few months to comment on the manuscript, but Jason says they pretty much didn't. I choose to interpret that as the book being so good that no one thought of anything to add or change.  Our colleague Lord Liaden also gave it a test read and offered suggestions, but please don't pester him for spoilers. He's sworn to secrecy by dreadful oaths. ("Don't talk about it, okay?" "Sure, whatever.")
 
The manuscript and illustrations have gone to Jason, who will see to it that it will be assembled using actual pagemaking software, not just a simple pdf conversion. He also promises cover art. I'm thinking maybe just the Sylvestri achievement of arms, but there may be time for people to offer suggestions.
 
There will be a disclaimer for people who have difficulty telling reality from fantasy:
 
Dean Shomshak

Update on my other project, The Sylvestri Family Reunion. HERO Patreon backers had their chance for a few months to comment on the manuscript, but Jason says they pretty much didn't. I choose to interpret that as the book being so good that no one thought of anything to add or change.  Our colleague Lord Liaden also gave it a test read and offered suggestions, but please don't pester him for spoilers. He's sworn to secrecy by dreadful oaths. ("Don't talk about it, okay?" "Sure, whatever.")
 
The manuscript and illustrations have gone to Jason, who will see to it that it will be assembled using actual pagemaking software, not just a simple pdf conversion. He also promises cover art. I'm thinking maybe just the Sylvestri achievement of arms, but there may be time for people to offer suggestions.
 
There will be a disclaimer for people who have difficulty telling reality from fantasy:
 
Dean Shomshak

I've come to some grudging acceptance of the "hush money" label simply because large swaths of the electorate wouldn't pay attention at all if it were a "mere" election fraud trial.  I know my fellow Americans well enough to know that high treason isn't nearly as interesting as a porn star.

I sometimes chide people for ragging on D&D in ways I think are unfair. Nevertheless...
 
For me, magic in D&D feels utterly un-magical. One reason is that despite multiple sources and modes of magic, it all works exactly the same way. Another is that while great effort is made to describe the tactical effects of every spell, the game remains sketchy and incoherent about what magic is and why it works. (Maybe setting books go into this. I've only read the Forgotten Realms Gazetteer, which has some blither about a "Weave" that left me unimpressed.) Maybe I'm unusual, but I don't find resource management enhancing my sense of wonder. Well, what do you expect. D&D began as a wargame, and that remains written into thre game's DNA.
 
I hope I have at times achieved sense of wonder in my own D&D games, but it came from my work, not that of the game designers.
 
For me, at least, part of what makes magic feel magical is the context. Like, let's take Incantations. Fine: It's a -1/4 Limitation, because if something prevents you from talking you can't use the Power. But what are the incantations? For an example, let's say the mage is conjuring that stereotypical fireball.
 
The Hermetic or Kabbalistic magus uses secret names of God to invokes Gabriel, angel of fire, and Phaleg, angel of the fiery planet Mars, to burn his enemies.
 
The Satanic sorcerer calls on Xaphan, who fans the flames of Hell, commanding him by Lucifer and Beelzebub as well as divine names such as Elohim Sabaoth and the Tetragrammaton -- blasphemously treating names of God as arbitrary tokens of power that don't actually mean anything. Or he just uses "barbarous words" -- pure gibberish, void of meaning, but you have to speak it all letter-perfect anyway because you're embracing pure superstition.
 
The Hindu sadhu chants a short mantra that distills both a prayer to Agni,m god of fire, down to a few sacred syllables. He has told the prayer 100,000 times, and the force of his ascetic meditation and ritual is such that even a god cannot deny his will.
 
The shaman has met a spirit of fire in his visionary journeys and made a treaty with it. Tapping his drum, he chants an appeal to the spirit and reminds it of their bargain.
 
The Taoist mystic writes the name of Yan Di, the Blazing Lord and Minister of Fire, on a spip of paper and stamps it with his seal of authority. As he holds it up, he demands that a lesser spirit of fire work his will: "By imperial order, in accordance with the statutes and the protocols!"
 
The Finnish sorcerer sings the story of how fire came to be. Knowing its origin asserts his power to command it.
 
In Earthsea, the graduate of Roke knows the true name of fire. In fact, he knows the specific true name for an explosive ball of fire, and by saying that name he calls it into existence.
 
And so on. Whatever the system of magic, the magic words mean something. Not that the player and GM have to come up with anything. It's enough to extablish that that the mage character is indeed calling on some special knowledge to access something deep and powerful in the world.
 
Dean Shomshak

Crew size = # of Players you can competently handle. Everything else is fairly arbitrary.

A ship can run with a captain or a group of likeminded crew members. It can run with a Ship's Engineer or an entire Engineering team including a Chief Engineer, a Propulsion Expert, an Electrician, and more.
The ship may have a single Pilot, or operation of the ship can be broken down into an entire bridge crew including a Captain, a Helmsman, a Navigator, a Stellar Cartographer, Sensor Operations, Science Officer, Weapons Specialist, Gunner, etc, etc...etc.

Premade templates in 6th Edition are limited, but one look at all the 5E products (Terran Empire, Aliens Wars, Spacer's Toolkit, and secondary publications like Star Trek HERO – Unofficial Resource Guide and Battlestar Galactica Hero By Richard Littles - all of which are easily adaptable to 6E) and you'll find dozens of crew templates and package deals.

Mostly, it's whatever you think is fun!
 
 
In our current game we have a Captain, Helmsman, Navigator, Engineer, Sensor Operations, Ships Weapons Chief and 2 utility NPC; another engineer and a gambling, streetwise, appraisal and trade expert.

You do notice I said, "might"...
 
I was being kind.
 
Perhaps little Barron has not yet been warped too badly.
 
Dean Shomshak

I enjoy them. Welcome to advertise them on my Tiger Paw Press Facebook page if you like

The Daily reviews Donald Trump's success in getting his trials delayed until after the election. At this point, it looks like onlhy the hush money case -- which legal experts deem the weakest -- has a trial date.
 
The Staggering Success of Trump’s Trial Delay Tactics - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
 
As noted, his lawyers have figured out how to game all the defenses developed to prevent rogue prosecutors and judges from railroading the innocent. The host and guest shrug and say, Well, we're stuck. I say, this shows why our legal system *does* need the capacity to railroad defendants -- not easily, Glod forbid, but when it really, really matters -- the state needs to be able to put a case before a judge who knows and accepts that his job is to deliver a swift and guilty verdict. Yes, a political show trial.
 
I could go on, discussing conditions of extremis, but I think that's enough unpleasantness for one post. And the argument does lead into some nasty territory. For now, I'll just repeat the suggestion that the Constitution is not a suicide pact.
 
Dean Shomshak

You know, if we poured in enough soapy water...

The physicist Peter Higgs dies aged 94
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68774195

"The Truth Teller is wise to keep one foot in the stirrup."
-- Mongol proverb
 
Dean Shomshak

Chinese and Japanese ghosts often seem solid. Until they don't. See Chinese Ghost Story or Kwaidan (both excellent movies!)
 
Dean Shomshak

Watch rare pink volcanic vortex bubbles spew out of Italy's Mount Etna

Well, I've designed her if anyone wants to give her a peek or so...
 
 

NOOO! Alas! He falls asleep and doesn't return it for a half billion years!
 
Dean Shomshak

NOOO! Alas! He falls asleep and doesn't return it for a half billion years!
 
Dean Shomshak

Writing that last post reminded me: In many RL magical traditions, the powers are also persons. The magician isn't a scientist or engineer, confident that if they use the right tools on the right materials in the right way, the desired result must inevitably happen. Magicians deal with forces that have wills of their own. They negotiate, cajole, bribe, browbeat, bully, grovel, or outright lie to get their way. This is most explicit in dealing with spirits, of course, but may be implied in other cases.
 
In HERO terms, this might supply alternate Skill Rolls for magic. Like, the Chinese sorcerer needs a Bureaucratics roll to make his magic work. (Or Bribery -- spells often involve burning an offering of gold-paper. As with mortal bureaucrats, the spirits are supposed to do their duty to you when appealed "according to the statutes and the protocols," but act with greater alacrity when you grease their palms.) A Hermetic summoning a demon to extort a service threatens dire consequences for failure to appear and obey, delivered not merely by himself but by Almighty God -- Interrogation, perhaps (if seen as intimidation or outright torture rather than shrewd questioning). Shamanic negotiations might suggest Trading. If not a Magic Roll itself, such Skills might be complementary; or perhaps be called upon when the Magic Roll fails, in hopes of mitigating or redirecting the Side Effect of an angry spirit's appearance.
 
Dean Shomshak

Writing that last post reminded me: In many RL magical traditions, the powers are also persons. The magician isn't a scientist or engineer, confident that if they use the right tools on the right materials in the right way, the desired result must inevitably happen. Magicians deal with forces that have wills of their own. They negotiate, cajole, bribe, browbeat, bully, grovel, or outright lie to get their way. This is most explicit in dealing with spirits, of course, but may be implied in other cases.
 
In HERO terms, this might supply alternate Skill Rolls for magic. Like, the Chinese sorcerer needs a Bureaucratics roll to make his magic work. (Or Bribery -- spells often involve burning an offering of gold-paper. As with mortal bureaucrats, the spirits are supposed to do their duty to you when appealed "according to the statutes and the protocols," but act with greater alacrity when you grease their palms.) A Hermetic summoning a demon to extort a service threatens dire consequences for failure to appear and obey, delivered not merely by himself but by Almighty God -- Interrogation, perhaps (if seen as intimidation or outright torture rather than shrewd questioning). Shamanic negotiations might suggest Trading. If not a Magic Roll itself, such Skills might be complementary; or perhaps be called upon when the Magic Roll fails, in hopes of mitigating or redirecting the Side Effect of an angry spirit's appearance.
 
Dean Shomshak

I sometimes chide people for ragging on D&D in ways I think are unfair. Nevertheless...
 
For me, magic in D&D feels utterly un-magical. One reason is that despite multiple sources and modes of magic, it all works exactly the same way. Another is that while great effort is made to describe the tactical effects of every spell, the game remains sketchy and incoherent about what magic is and why it works. (Maybe setting books go into this. I've only read the Forgotten Realms Gazetteer, which has some blither about a "Weave" that left me unimpressed.) Maybe I'm unusual, but I don't find resource management enhancing my sense of wonder. Well, what do you expect. D&D began as a wargame, and that remains written into thre game's DNA.
 
I hope I have at times achieved sense of wonder in my own D&D games, but it came from my work, not that of the game designers.
 
For me, at least, part of what makes magic feel magical is the context. Like, let's take Incantations. Fine: It's a -1/4 Limitation, because if something prevents you from talking you can't use the Power. But what are the incantations? For an example, let's say the mage is conjuring that stereotypical fireball.
 
The Hermetic or Kabbalistic magus uses secret names of God to invokes Gabriel, angel of fire, and Phaleg, angel of the fiery planet Mars, to burn his enemies.
 
The Satanic sorcerer calls on Xaphan, who fans the flames of Hell, commanding him by Lucifer and Beelzebub as well as divine names such as Elohim Sabaoth and the Tetragrammaton -- blasphemously treating names of God as arbitrary tokens of power that don't actually mean anything. Or he just uses "barbarous words" -- pure gibberish, void of meaning, but you have to speak it all letter-perfect anyway because you're embracing pure superstition.
 
The Hindu sadhu chants a short mantra that distills both a prayer to Agni,m god of fire, down to a few sacred syllables. He has told the prayer 100,000 times, and the force of his ascetic meditation and ritual is such that even a god cannot deny his will.
 
The shaman has met a spirit of fire in his visionary journeys and made a treaty with it. Tapping his drum, he chants an appeal to the spirit and reminds it of their bargain.
 
The Taoist mystic writes the name of Yan Di, the Blazing Lord and Minister of Fire, on a spip of paper and stamps it with his seal of authority. As he holds it up, he demands that a lesser spirit of fire work his will: "By imperial order, in accordance with the statutes and the protocols!"
 
The Finnish sorcerer sings the story of how fire came to be. Knowing its origin asserts his power to command it.
 
In Earthsea, the graduate of Roke knows the true name of fire. In fact, he knows the specific true name for an explosive ball of fire, and by saying that name he calls it into existence.
 
And so on. Whatever the system of magic, the magic words mean something. Not that the player and GM have to come up with anything. It's enough to extablish that that the mage character is indeed calling on some special knowledge to access something deep and powerful in the world.
 
Dean Shomshak

Writing that last post reminded me: In many RL magical traditions, the powers are also persons. The magician isn't a scientist or engineer, confident that if they use the right tools on the right materials in the right way, the desired result must inevitably happen. Magicians deal with forces that have wills of their own. They negotiate, cajole, bribe, browbeat, bully, grovel, or outright lie to get their way. This is most explicit in dealing with spirits, of course, but may be implied in other cases.
 
In HERO terms, this might supply alternate Skill Rolls for magic. Like, the Chinese sorcerer needs a Bureaucratics roll to make his magic work. (Or Bribery -- spells often involve burning an offering of gold-paper. As with mortal bureaucrats, the spirits are supposed to do their duty to you when appealed "according to the statutes and the protocols," but act with greater alacrity when you grease their palms.) A Hermetic summoning a demon to extort a service threatens dire consequences for failure to appear and obey, delivered not merely by himself but by Almighty God -- Interrogation, perhaps (if seen as intimidation or outright torture rather than shrewd questioning). Shamanic negotiations might suggest Trading. If not a Magic Roll itself, such Skills might be complementary; or perhaps be called upon when the Magic Roll fails, in hopes of mitigating or redirecting the Side Effect of an angry spirit's appearance.
 
Dean Shomshak

I sometimes chide people for ragging on D&D in ways I think are unfair. Nevertheless...
 
For me, magic in D&D feels utterly un-magical. One reason is that despite multiple sources and modes of magic, it all works exactly the same way. Another is that while great effort is made to describe the tactical effects of every spell, the game remains sketchy and incoherent about what magic is and why it works. (Maybe setting books go into this. I've only read the Forgotten Realms Gazetteer, which has some blither about a "Weave" that left me unimpressed.) Maybe I'm unusual, but I don't find resource management enhancing my sense of wonder. Well, what do you expect. D&D began as a wargame, and that remains written into thre game's DNA.
 
I hope I have at times achieved sense of wonder in my own D&D games, but it came from my work, not that of the game designers.
 
For me, at least, part of what makes magic feel magical is the context. Like, let's take Incantations. Fine: It's a -1/4 Limitation, because if something prevents you from talking you can't use the Power. But what are the incantations? For an example, let's say the mage is conjuring that stereotypical fireball.
 
The Hermetic or Kabbalistic magus uses secret names of God to invokes Gabriel, angel of fire, and Phaleg, angel of the fiery planet Mars, to burn his enemies.
 
The Satanic sorcerer calls on Xaphan, who fans the flames of Hell, commanding him by Lucifer and Beelzebub as well as divine names such as Elohim Sabaoth and the Tetragrammaton -- blasphemously treating names of God as arbitrary tokens of power that don't actually mean anything. Or he just uses "barbarous words" -- pure gibberish, void of meaning, but you have to speak it all letter-perfect anyway because you're embracing pure superstition.
 
The Hindu sadhu chants a short mantra that distills both a prayer to Agni,m god of fire, down to a few sacred syllables. He has told the prayer 100,000 times, and the force of his ascetic meditation and ritual is such that even a god cannot deny his will.
 
The shaman has met a spirit of fire in his visionary journeys and made a treaty with it. Tapping his drum, he chants an appeal to the spirit and reminds it of their bargain.
 
The Taoist mystic writes the name of Yan Di, the Blazing Lord and Minister of Fire, on a spip of paper and stamps it with his seal of authority. As he holds it up, he demands that a lesser spirit of fire work his will: "By imperial order, in accordance with the statutes and the protocols!"
 
The Finnish sorcerer sings the story of how fire came to be. Knowing its origin asserts his power to command it.
 
In Earthsea, the graduate of Roke knows the true name of fire. In fact, he knows the specific true name for an explosive ball of fire, and by saying that name he calls it into existence.
 
And so on. Whatever the system of magic, the magic words mean something. Not that the player and GM have to come up with anything. It's enough to extablish that that the mage character is indeed calling on some special knowledge to access something deep and powerful in the world.
 
Dean Shomshak

I sometimes chide people for ragging on D&D in ways I think are unfair. Nevertheless...
 
For me, magic in D&D feels utterly un-magical. One reason is that despite multiple sources and modes of magic, it all works exactly the same way. Another is that while great effort is made to describe the tactical effects of every spell, the game remains sketchy and incoherent about what magic is and why it works. (Maybe setting books go into this. I've only read the Forgotten Realms Gazetteer, which has some blither about a "Weave" that left me unimpressed.) Maybe I'm unusual, but I don't find resource management enhancing my sense of wonder. Well, what do you expect. D&D began as a wargame, and that remains written into thre game's DNA.
 
I hope I have at times achieved sense of wonder in my own D&D games, but it came from my work, not that of the game designers.
 
For me, at least, part of what makes magic feel magical is the context. Like, let's take Incantations. Fine: It's a -1/4 Limitation, because if something prevents you from talking you can't use the Power. But what are the incantations? For an example, let's say the mage is conjuring that stereotypical fireball.
 
The Hermetic or Kabbalistic magus uses secret names of God to invokes Gabriel, angel of fire, and Phaleg, angel of the fiery planet Mars, to burn his enemies.
 
The Satanic sorcerer calls on Xaphan, who fans the flames of Hell, commanding him by Lucifer and Beelzebub as well as divine names such as Elohim Sabaoth and the Tetragrammaton -- blasphemously treating names of God as arbitrary tokens of power that don't actually mean anything. Or he just uses "barbarous words" -- pure gibberish, void of meaning, but you have to speak it all letter-perfect anyway because you're embracing pure superstition.
 
The Hindu sadhu chants a short mantra that distills both a prayer to Agni,m god of fire, down to a few sacred syllables. He has told the prayer 100,000 times, and the force of his ascetic meditation and ritual is such that even a god cannot deny his will.
 
The shaman has met a spirit of fire in his visionary journeys and made a treaty with it. Tapping his drum, he chants an appeal to the spirit and reminds it of their bargain.
 
The Taoist mystic writes the name of Yan Di, the Blazing Lord and Minister of Fire, on a spip of paper and stamps it with his seal of authority. As he holds it up, he demands that a lesser spirit of fire work his will: "By imperial order, in accordance with the statutes and the protocols!"
 
The Finnish sorcerer sings the story of how fire came to be. Knowing its origin asserts his power to command it.
 
In Earthsea, the graduate of Roke knows the true name of fire. In fact, he knows the specific true name for an explosive ball of fire, and by saying that name he calls it into existence.
 
And so on. Whatever the system of magic, the magic words mean something. Not that the player and GM have to come up with anything. It's enough to extablish that that the mage character is indeed calling on some special knowledge to access something deep and powerful in the world.
 
Dean Shomshak

I sometimes chide people for ragging on D&D in ways I think are unfair. Nevertheless...
 
For me, magic in D&D feels utterly un-magical. One reason is that despite multiple sources and modes of magic, it all works exactly the same way. Another is that while great effort is made to describe the tactical effects of every spell, the game remains sketchy and incoherent about what magic is and why it works. (Maybe setting books go into this. I've only read the Forgotten Realms Gazetteer, which has some blither about a "Weave" that left me unimpressed.) Maybe I'm unusual, but I don't find resource management enhancing my sense of wonder. Well, what do you expect. D&D began as a wargame, and that remains written into thre game's DNA.
 
I hope I have at times achieved sense of wonder in my own D&D games, but it came from my work, not that of the game designers.
 
For me, at least, part of what makes magic feel magical is the context. Like, let's take Incantations. Fine: It's a -1/4 Limitation, because if something prevents you from talking you can't use the Power. But what are the incantations? For an example, let's say the mage is conjuring that stereotypical fireball.
 
The Hermetic or Kabbalistic magus uses secret names of God to invokes Gabriel, angel of fire, and Phaleg, angel of the fiery planet Mars, to burn his enemies.
 
The Satanic sorcerer calls on Xaphan, who fans the flames of Hell, commanding him by Lucifer and Beelzebub as well as divine names such as Elohim Sabaoth and the Tetragrammaton -- blasphemously treating names of God as arbitrary tokens of power that don't actually mean anything. Or he just uses "barbarous words" -- pure gibberish, void of meaning, but you have to speak it all letter-perfect anyway because you're embracing pure superstition.
 
The Hindu sadhu chants a short mantra that distills both a prayer to Agni,m god of fire, down to a few sacred syllables. He has told the prayer 100,000 times, and the force of his ascetic meditation and ritual is such that even a god cannot deny his will.
 
The shaman has met a spirit of fire in his visionary journeys and made a treaty with it. Tapping his drum, he chants an appeal to the spirit and reminds it of their bargain.
 
The Taoist mystic writes the name of Yan Di, the Blazing Lord and Minister of Fire, on a spip of paper and stamps it with his seal of authority. As he holds it up, he demands that a lesser spirit of fire work his will: "By imperial order, in accordance with the statutes and the protocols!"
 
The Finnish sorcerer sings the story of how fire came to be. Knowing its origin asserts his power to command it.
 
In Earthsea, the graduate of Roke knows the true name of fire. In fact, he knows the specific true name for an explosive ball of fire, and by saying that name he calls it into existence.
 
And so on. Whatever the system of magic, the magic words mean something. Not that the player and GM have to come up with anything. It's enough to extablish that that the mage character is indeed calling on some special knowledge to access something deep and powerful in the world.
 
Dean Shomshak