tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30456055779638589132011-08-10T12:57:10.098-07:00I enjoy Anime, Technology, and Role-playing games and sometimes have something to say about them.Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.comBlogger751100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-12601502267296374512011-08-10T12:57:00.001-07:002011-08-10T12:57:10.111-07:00

Enforcer Wade frowned as he entered the main security center for the Ark Tunnel Reactor. The room was dark except for the computer screens which cast strange shadows all around the room. The room shouldn’t have been empty. Even if the guard was stronger elsewhere there should still be people in this room. It was where all the security camera footage was and it contained the entire alarm system.

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-52998997642828761862011-08-10T12:54:00.001-07:002011-08-10T12:54:26.227-07:00

“Is this really going to work?” Asked Emiray. She felt that she was looking kind of silly in the black and blue uniform that the student council wore. The entire uniform made her uncomfortable, plus the silly armband which showed her supposed low rank in the student council made it all worse. What if somebody realized that she wasn’t an Esper, that could ruin everything.“How should I know, it was

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-4820307619228971092011-08-08T12:34:00.001-07:002011-08-08T12:34:02.681-07:00

Inspector Grim had just been informed about the capture of Phantom Thief Rose. Now he was being escorted through the complex to see the prisoner. He found it hard to believe that they had captured Phantom Thief Rose with only a handful of men and a boy but it seemed to have happened. Still, if the boy had been an Esper on the Student Council like the officer had said then it might have been

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-69305054618329369542011-07-27T09:55:00.001-07:002011-07-27T09:55:49.653-07:00

Three Hours AgoRose was wearing her Phantom Thief outfit. It really was the be set of clothing that she owned. Practical, comfortable, and stylish. She tapped her watch and the door into her workshop slide closed making the entrance invisible again. There there was a grating sound, she knew her entire workshop was lowering into a lower apartment floor. It would be bad in the University Security

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-91722658403431252172011-02-11T09:17:00.001-08:002011-02-11T09:17:35.492-08:00

Rose eventually woke up and crawled out of bed. She was still tired but when she looked at her bedside clock and saw that it was already eleven. She yawned and began putting on her clothes. Finally she managed to stumble into the living room still yawning. “Oh Lynn, Emiray, I see you are both already up. Did you have a good nights sleep, where you able to find something to eat this morning.”

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-49847865928840706922011-02-10T09:58:00.001-08:002011-02-10T09:58:18.786-08:00

I've been playing Starblazer Adventures recently and a post over on the FATE blog got me thinking about how the different Fractals interact with each other. In particular I wanted to be able to describe the different organizations in the game in a manner which provides rules for their interaction with characters. I'll try to provide updates as I add Trappings and Stunts.Arms (Type)Many

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-51524012011085435252011-01-21T15:40:00.001-08:002011-01-21T15:40:33.088-08:00

Lynn woke to find herself lying on the couch in Rose’s living room. She still remembered the dream about her past. It had been a turning point in her life. The new discovery the she had uncovered was quickly incorporated into the standard teleporter training plan. Once it was explained to a teleporter that was a least level 3 they would be able to use the trick themselves. However the thing that

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-5475504576004804642011-01-20T14:33:00.001-08:002011-01-20T14:33:12.082-08:00

Yeah, I know it has taken me forever to finally get around to posting these again. I managed to finish my 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo and now I'm going to start posting them again.The Past“Again.” The voice through the speaker system blared down at Lynn. She closed her eyes again and concentrated. She shifted the ball in her hands toward the slot for it a few hundred meters away. There was a blare

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-68750816342503996132010-11-12T09:43:00.001-08:002010-11-12T09:43:45.617-08:00

After the moment of recovery was over Emiray said, “I see, I guess that would be why the Euclidian Key would not be useful for you. I tank would hardly have need of a pistol. Since it appears that I believe you now, I guess I will tell you what I know about what happened. It all started down in the Belly when I found the corpse of a man…”Emiray told the story about what happened to her to the

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-59350210417722265812010-11-11T09:30:00.001-08:002010-11-11T09:30:07.323-08:00

“Ok, that is unusual but can you get to the point.” Responded Lynn grumpily. It was more then unusual for a Belly Engineer to be attacked. Custom dictated that you she treat them like your own family since they were the people who kept the city afloat. Even criminals treated them with respect, Lynn didn’t know who would want to attack one.“Well, they asked her what happened to her. She is still

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-246868941842219692010-11-10T10:42:00.001-08:002010-11-10T10:42:14.157-08:00

I also finished the first half of part seven. That and part eight should be up late tonight or tomorrow“No,” Said Emiray who couldn’t see Gray’s growing frown. “I’ll need to give the report to them myself. I’ve come all this way after all and the head engineer would be upset if I passed my duty off to somebody else. I can’t let something little like this stop me or I would be a disgrace to the

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-10215321223319592362010-11-09T13:23:00.001-08:002010-11-09T13:23:28.986-08:00

Since I'm behind several days I'm posting by parts now. Part Five should have been done on the 5th but didn't get done then.Part FiveThere was one long moment where time seemed to stretch for Emiray as she strained every sense that she had. Gray was opening his mouth as if to ask a question to her but she blocked it out keeping everything tuned for that one instant. Gray’s hand set down on her

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-23569408993451009842010-11-05T00:08:00.001-07:002010-11-05T00:08:45.415-07:00

Emiray looked over at Professor Gray and then back at Omar. “I suppose we should get going soon. Keep up the good work Omar.” Omar beamed at the praise and gave her what might have been a salute before motioning to his robot and head off in another direction.“Professor Gray, do you want to rest a little longer before we start heading back up to the surface.”“What, now?” He glanced at his watch

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-21050272820064454202010-11-04T09:14:00.001-07:002010-11-04T09:14:12.590-07:00

“Not that that I know about.” Responded Ivan. He noticed her worried expression before asking, “Is there some reason for you to think that anything would be…. missing” He paused for a second before the last word because just before he had said it Lynn was gone. She hadn’t left through the doorway or anything mundane like, she had just ceased to be there anymore.After around a minute for swearing

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-81339765122138700442010-11-03T09:10:00.001-07:002010-11-03T09:14:06.818-07:00

I finished writing late last night and went to sleep right after that so I am posting the story in the morning.Six Years AgoThe Belly, Sector 75The last piece slide into position with a click and Emiray placed the small backplate on and screwed it tight. She picked up the small watch in her equally small hands and turned it around a couple of times. It seemed alright, though she didn’t know for

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-27380146916534944462010-11-02T00:07:00.001-07:002010-11-02T00:08:30.838-07:00

June 5thThe Belly, Sector 38Emiray was deep in the Belly, far below the University District. Sector 38 was about as deep and derelict as a place could get. Several times Emiray has to wade and deep as her chest and twice she had to swim though flooded portions. Three of Sector 38’s seven water pumps had been busted and there had been numerous faulty electronics and broken doors. It was Emiray’s

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-63757876589721081772010-10-22T12:07:00.001-07:002010-10-22T12:07:25.222-07:00

I know I never really post here, but this November is will be different. I'm participating in NaNoWriMo for the third time and this year I'm planning on showing everything. Everyday (Or most of them) I will be posting all my writing to my blog for the entire world to see. My NaNoWriMo profile is there for anyone interested in my initial idea and I will be keeping an up to date word count there.I

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-89898064703804312322010-06-01T15:33:00.001-07:002010-06-01T15:33:16.219-07:00

I got to play a game of Tales of Arabian Nights during Conduit and I must say that it is an awesome game.My character started out by being sold into slavery by her siblings. She escaped and began to try and find her fortune in the world. However the fates looked down on her, as she traveled back to her home she become lost in india and in attempting to get back she tried to make a deal with a

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-6496643146824036222010-05-04T21:56:00.001-07:002010-05-04T21:56:27.062-07:00

I know I mentioned on Facebook that I would make a post a while ago. Alas that didn't happen and I never got around to it until now. On the plus side I am now using MarsEdit 3.Underground cities which are connected by a subway system. With huge stretches of uninhabitable land between cities the only way to get between them is the ancient subway system. Small stores have been constructed around

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-87328095292104271092010-04-12T09:53:00.001-07:002010-04-12T09:53:58.288-07:00

During my daily life I occasionally see something interesting that inspires the seeds of a story inside me. Some of these seeds catch hold inside me and begin to grow into a tree of ideas. Some of them I decide to turn into stories or use in a roleplaying game that I am playing. Others sit in my mind or in a small note on my computer. Those are the ones I want to share, the Untold Stories.The

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-91562180150502393612010-03-11T13:01:00.001-08:002010-03-11T13:01:49.291-08:00

Due to a friend's request I decided to create a hacking mini-game which works the same way as it does in Fallout 3. So I spent a few hours today throwing together an implementation of it using HTML and Javascript. It is currently working quite well, although I plan on adding a more difficult version which uses longer words.Please enjoy!http://www.apopheniaevolved.com/awesome/hacking.htmlThis

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-48179569972532349582010-02-17T14:06:00.001-08:002010-02-17T14:09:17.784-08:00

One of the issues I've come across in various games is the disuse of average skills. Players generally prefer to use their best skills. The reason is fairly obvious, players want to succeed at what they are doing and so they attempt to solve problems using the skills they are good at. This habit can lead to a bunch of unused or rarely used skills. While this might lead to a good simulation of a

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-83053293764777554312010-02-12T22:53:00.001-08:002010-02-12T22:53:54.227-08:00

PTA has caused me to think of all sorts of season ideas, it has really started a fire in my creativity. I'm probably going to continue post my different campaign ideas to help me remember them and maybe somebody else will like them too.A new human colony on a new planet is the beginning of a new chapter in human history. However this momentous occasion is shattered when the colony suddenly loses

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-51493514974455234482010-02-12T18:54:00.001-08:002010-02-12T18:54:09.577-08:00

As I play my current campaign I continue to notice problems with how I am GMing. One of them I already mentioned. However there are plenty of others. I am noting them down in hopes that will help prevent me from doing them again.I'll add more reasons as I think of them.Name The CampaignFrom the start and even after a few session I don't really know what to call the campaign. While I don't think

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-34191418285280815612010-02-10T14:55:00.001-08:002010-02-10T14:57:11.489-08:00

Out of all the things in in Primetime Adventures the rotating player determined scenes are my favorite. It is something that seems so simple, you just go around the table calling out scenes, but it is very powerful. Out of everything in PTA it is the mechanic that I am most likely to port to other games that I play. It puts in the hands of the players the decision of what happens next. This sort

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-8132985626430039432010-02-09T12:11:00.001-08:002010-02-10T14:56:31.373-08:00

Reading through Prime Time Adventures is a strange experience for me. My mind is still deconstructing it but ideas come unbidden to the top of my mind. These are stories that I never would have thought to tell. Yet somehow PTA makes me want to play them. Again, I'll post more thoughts about PTA as they come to me.---------The ancient Chinese martial artist Wei has finally taken on new pupils.

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-82925784637283469992010-02-08T19:15:00.001-08:002010-02-08T19:15:33.144-08:00

In the last couple of games I played the main problem that I was having was game pacing. One session was mostly undirected with the players not having any idea of where to go. The second session had the same sort of problem, the players were faced with a puzzle that they didn't know how to solve. This lead to a long discussion between players and took a very long time because they even tried to

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-42359123777221035022010-02-01T11:14:00.001-08:002010-02-01T11:22:24.264-08:00

No comment about the iPad name. Now onto the things I actually care about....Contractless $30 3GThis is awesome! This is probably the #1 reason that I am going to buy an iPad. Sure is doesn't support all carriers but I really have never had that much of a problem with AT&T so that really doesn't matter to me.My Mom things it is awesomeThe iPad is the layman's computer. There are lots and lots of

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-43790285252942344242010-01-25T07:21:00.001-08:002010-01-25T07:21:56.002-08:00

Blood. Blood strained the otherwise white pants like a Roastank blot.“Come out come out wherever you are.” The sing-song voice drifted closer and closer.“I’m growing tired of this.” Came the second voice. Bright blinding light filled the dark alley and Rhett was forced to scrambled away, knocking over a garbage can as he went.Rhett shivered and adjusted the glove on his hand again, his projector

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-63806274776468034462010-01-21T15:22:00.001-08:002010-01-22T08:43:20.434-08:00

There has been a lot of talk recently about the tablet that Apple may or may not be releasing on Jan 27th. One of the things that is speculated to be on the tablet is digital books which can be purchased like apps and music can be now. However I'm not here to speculate over what features the tablet might have, (others are doing a fine job of that) I just wanted to make a comment about benefits

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-16064280879044200192010-01-20T12:17:00.001-08:002010-01-22T08:42:47.971-08:00

One of the questions I have continually thought about is what I want a roleplaying game to be like. What are the optimal features that I imagine in the "Hypothetical Favorite RPG"?Non-binary successAfter the players roll the dice is isn't just one of them succeeds and the other fails. Wagers from Houses of the BloodedArbitrary Character ElementsYour character should have things about them that

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-76594900764662132372010-01-14T23:10:00.001-08:002010-01-22T08:42:38.227-08:00

A recent post over at The Harping Monkey talked about characters and the fact that good characters are based around a question. I thought that was interested and decided that it would be interesting if the character questions went on the character sheet, sort of like the character concept. However I didn't want it to just sit on the character sheet, forgotten like the character's eye color. To

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-15966768863392776832010-01-12T18:17:00.001-08:002010-01-22T08:54:10.098-08:00

Sometimes something just catches your eye and you suddenly become a fan. While browsing the iTunes Store I just happened to run across Falsie the Pseudo-Science Girl. I immediately purchased the album and listened to it, but the thing that sold me was Falsie. Something about being the Pseudo-Science Girl appealed the geek in me. I'm a bit of an amateur skeptic so that might have been one of the

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-64369543254941910992009-12-04T09:16:00.001-08:002009-12-04T09:16:03.235-08:00

When I went to Neoncon I got to play a game of Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies. I really enjoyed it and decided to get a copy of the book because of that. I am really liking the PDQ# system and I think that it and FATE are two of my favorite systems.Now I am going to start running a new campaign using an adaption of PDQ#. Earlier I posted my City in the Darkness setting idea and now I am going to

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-85102015646383900762009-10-14T17:15:00.001-07:002009-10-14T17:17:53.460-07:00

A court cases is a conflict between two lawyers. This is still really rough, one of the players in my game is a lawyer and I wanted to make sure there would be an interesting Court Case for him to take part in.They lawyers take turns presenting their arguments and then refuting their opponent’s argument.The lawyer declares the difficulty of his argument and described the argument he is making. He

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-30311435254772181702009-10-06T16:53:00.001-07:002009-10-06T16:56:44.374-07:00

I often have different setting ideas floating around in my head and I decided I should give them a little bit of fleshing out and then post some of them. Maybe they can give somebody else some inspiration.As a setting idea it is just a rough outline, a little bit of detail. It should be just enough to get a feel for what the setting should be like while leaving enough space to fill in whatever

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-8840429906392883782009-09-08T09:29:00.001-07:002009-09-08T09:29:44.460-07:00

When using Xcode 3.2 the first thing that I noticed that changed was the text font, the second thing I noticed was that the search was inline, just like it is in Safari. It really makes things much easier.

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-33863956965464788972009-08-26T13:35:00.001-07:002009-08-26T13:35:05.465-07:00

My Spirit of the Code campaign is on hold for the moment because school is starting up and one of my players is far too busy to do anything.So instead I'm going to try to run a modern fantasy with two players using the Mutants and Masterminds rules. I'm going to sit my players down and explain to them the setting and what to expect during the game. The story is about the battle for the King of

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-90382587331154994662009-08-13T15:00:00.000-07:002009-08-13T15:02:47.070-07:00

Recently I have created another website called Apophenia Evolved. Please take a look at it. I'm still not certain how I'm going to divide my posts between here and there, however I'm probably still going to post some role-playing things here for a while along with any other tidbits.

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-55132614597202674212009-05-19T22:28:00.001-07:002009-05-19T22:28:48.743-07:00

I don't know if this will go anywhere. Maybe this will turn into a story or a role-playing setting. However right now I just had the idea so I'm writing it and people can use it how they will.-----Humans once had wings. They used to fly through the sky as free as birds. Everything their hearts desired was theirs and a great civilization flourished. Yet they were not content but they knew not what

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-66718906833732238022009-05-05T16:25:00.001-07:002009-05-05T16:30:57.111-07:00

I know it has been a while, but I have just finished by finals and by the end of this week I will be a completely free man with a Bachelors of Computer Science. My freedom will last just as long as it takes me to find a full time job. However that has absolutely nothing to do with FATE.Now for the topic I am actually talking about. I have been having thoughts about a fairly different style of

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-5980835324911196922009-04-19T11:43:00.001-07:002009-04-19T11:43:43.613-07:00

I've finished the fourth session of my Spirit of the Code game and have come to some conclusion about how the conflict system is working for me. First, I'm having trouble finding good ways do give compels in the middle of a conflict and since this is when the character needs FATE points the most My second problem is that I want to give consequences when characters aren't in a conflict. I tied

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-72874709764999767062009-03-25T08:49:00.001-07:002009-03-25T08:49:26.697-07:00

My first session of Spirit of the Code happened three weeks ago and the second session is tomorrow. Since I made a recording of the session I finally decided to finish transcribing the recording.(??:??) Outside SchoolA Lovely Monday Afternoon. School has just gotten out and Ariel receives a call from Lieutenant Carter from the Department of Digital Mysteries. They request her assistance in a

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-47587173066879052822009-03-14T08:21:00.001-07:002009-03-14T08:23:42.275-07:00

These are the three characters that are in my game. They run the gambit of strangeness but I think they generally play off each other fairly well.Rostan YamazakiAspects Avatar of Organic Corruption First Life Flower Child Debt of the Firm Virus TamerFirst Life is the name of his plant shop.The Firm is a Mafia like organization.Skills Superb Hacking Great Science Good Athletics, Rapport, Stealth

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-67159779961667846862009-03-09T08:46:00.001-07:002009-03-09T08:46:10.615-07:00

The metagame rules are just some of the table rules I want my players to follow. One has to do with character creation and the other is a rule of play. Player’s Aren’t the Bad-GuysThe player characters are the protagonists of the mystery and should not be murderers or other morally bankrupt characters. That doesn’t preclude the character from having been (past tense) a bad-guy but they shouldn't

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-68731076114258046492009-02-25T08:48:00.001-08:002009-02-25T08:48:39.788-08:00

An important part of a story is how the world works, especially if the story is a mystery. So before I actually started I wanted to get a few ground rules down about how the Digital World Works.I do want to take my players opinions into account and get there opinions about how they think the world should work. However there needed to be some core setting assumptions, a few of which are listed

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-39919950657757305052009-02-22T15:34:00.001-08:002009-02-25T08:49:29.585-08:00

Phase One - ConceptConcept Phase is the creation of the character’s core aspects. This is who your character is on the base level. You choose two aspects. The first is your Digital Aspect, who your character is in the digital worlds, the second is your Real Aspect which is who your character is in the real world. Together they create a dichotomy for your character.Choose Two Aspects: Digital

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-10860655678847992772009-02-20T16:41:00.001-08:002009-02-25T08:50:36.267-08:00

My skill list for Spirit of the Code is currently as follows. There are currently 23 different skills. I'm still working through them so this is not a final list and any feedback (If anyone reads this) would be welcome.Academics [Knowledge]AlertnessArt [Knowledge]Athletics [Physical]ContactingDeceit [Social]Digital Warfare [Digital]Empathy [Social]Endurance [Physical]Engineering [Knowledge]

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-19135082731313746142009-02-19T11:16:00.001-08:002009-02-25T08:50:49.758-08:00

When I played Spirit of the Century I felt that the conflicts were too long because of the way that Stress and Consequences worked. Since I didn't want the conflicts to take most of the session in Spirit of the Code I decided to use some of the faster conflict rules. I decided to make stress work like minion stress and had consequences reduce the amount of stress taken. Since I pre-ordered

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-41431701328276480522009-02-19T08:04:00.001-08:002009-02-25T08:51:04.702-08:00

I've decided to run a FATE adaption with my local group, which I'm colloquially calling Spirit of the Code. It is a mystery genre conversion which is set in the near future when Augmented Reality has completely taken over the digital world to the point that anyone could be plugged in all 24/7. Right now I'm working on how character creation should work and I should have that done by next week

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-10836430437825199202009-02-18T13:48:00.001-08:002009-02-18T13:48:55.859-08:00

Recently I've been watching some RideBack, an Anime series that is starting to come out in Japan. The show is about a young Ballet dance who suffers a bad injury and is unable to dance anymore, she then goes to collage with her best friend and joins the motorcycle club. However, in the futuristic setting motorcycles have been replaced with humanoid like robots that can change between cycle and

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-58563990376759139152009-01-15T10:57:00.001-08:002009-01-15T11:03:04.891-08:00

There is a proposal at Change.gov (The website of The Barack Obama transition team) to Defund the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. I suggesting reading a little bit about it on this blog. You can vote to defund NCCAM and help save $225 million dollars that are wasted researching completely useless pseudoscience.

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-14433200176429064812009-01-09T13:30:00.001-08:002009-01-09T13:30:08.883-08:00

Recently I've been starting to get into the Skeptical movement. It started off in my interest with the Skeptoid podcast. I then spread out my interest by reading a bunch of different blogs such as Respectful Insolence and Science-Based Medicine.The various sites have helped improve my critical thinking skills and have shown me a bunch of ways I had already been mislead. I have also learned a

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-43283150951614447942008-12-03T21:50:00.001-08:002008-12-03T21:50:38.135-08:00

Because I have difficult to get right tastes in gifts, (i.e. People make mistakes when ordering for me) this year I am using the Amazon Wish Lists. I have looked at them several years ago and it could have been better then. Now however it have some really cool features.The one I like the most is the Universal Wish List which allows you to add items from other websites to your Amazon Wish List.

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-36539753521213893432008-11-30T01:24:00.001-08:002008-12-02T13:08:11.655-08:00

Wow, It is Nov 30 and I have finally hit the 50,000 word mark of my novel! That means I have won NaNoWriMo! It has been one of the most intense writing I have ever done and probably one of the most rewarding. It feels strange looking back at all the work I have done and realizing that I have made a novel, almost. While I have 50,000 words over 12 chapters I am still not done with the story. It

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-10206556147018638612008-11-13T13:09:00.001-08:002008-11-13T13:09:51.278-08:00

I can't really believe that I am 2/5ths done with my story. I'm astounded at how my story has grown in ways I never would have expected. It is really quite different then what I thought it would be when I started. However right now I have reached a point where I'm not certain what to do next. The current big plot thread has just managed to be wrapped up so I'm having to make up something new to

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-78573816245369364822008-11-09T22:17:00.001-08:002008-11-09T22:17:40.824-08:00

I'm currently at around 12,600 words for NaNoWriMo and it is getting crazy. I want to write a couple of blog posts about some Spirit of the Century actual play but I am so busy with school and NaNoWriMo that when I am done with that day's writing I don't feel like writing anything else. Blah, NaNoWriMo is sure taking it out on me, though I am glad that I am doing it. I have a part of a novel I

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-8441491391280871702008-11-05T08:28:00.001-08:002008-11-05T08:28:11.839-08:00

It is a new day and it is snowing here in Utah. We have elected a new president and it is my birthday. Probably the best way to start a day that I have had. In other news I'm currently at 4,476 words for National Novel Writing Month. You can link to my profile here. I should hopefully end the day with more then 5,400 words which will keep my on schedule.After reading most of the Characters GURPS

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-65162505229955468282008-11-03T22:59:00.001-08:002008-11-03T22:59:07.601-08:00

I know it is probably a little bit crazy for me to attempt but I signed up for NaNoWriMo and have decided to try and write a 50,000 word novel during November. Given my remaining allotment of days I have to write an average of 1800 words a day. Today I somehow managed to complete that many words but I don't know how long I will manage to keep it up. I have having some fun writing one of the

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-63187729695385778942008-09-26T16:34:00.001-07:002008-09-26T16:34:44.794-07:00

I have been recently listening to several RPG podcasts like Master Plan, Have Games Will Travel, Narrative Control, Theory From The Closet, and The Voice of the Revolution. Doing so has fired up my design neurons and now I want to create Campaign Settings and RPG Systems. I have several different ideas, some of which I will outline here. The first is a School-Based Role-playing Game. Parts of

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-13247087570736215692008-09-12T19:00:00.000-07:002008-09-12T19:06:06.230-07:00

I recently got a copy out Houses of the Blooded and I can honestly say that I was stunned. I really had no idea of what I was getting myself into but the pdf was ONLY $5 so I decided to get a copy.I don't have words to describe how awesome it is. A game build about the tragedy of the Ven. You play Blooded Nobles who control land and power, fight betrayal, and fall in love. It is everything D&D is

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-6558902775637190152008-09-09T11:03:00.000-07:002008-09-09T11:05:35.138-07:00

I got spore this weekend and managed to get all the way to the space age in one day. Since then I have neglected far too much school work playing spore. You can find my spore page here.

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-90579939396304202012008-08-30T12:35:00.000-07:002008-08-30T12:36:17.715-07:00

A few weeks ago I had a realization after I got a copy of Mutants & Masterminds. I have considered myself a Role-player for a long time, but when I think about it the only real role-playing games that I have played are Dungeons & Dragons and White-Wolf. Sure Dungeons & Dragons and White-Wolf are both big names in the role-playing world but I realized that I was limiting my self by not trying

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-23767455241427010412008-07-01T21:38:00.001-07:002008-07-01T21:38:25.842-07:00

Once thing I wanted to do with The Land Between is I wanted to tie each race’s story into the war between the Eladrin and the Shadar-kai. It starts with those two races who have been fighting for dominance using The Land Between as a staging ground. The Warforged were easy to place in the world. They were created by the powerful Eladrin wizards to fight the Shadar-kai. Half-Orcs are interesting

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-31960982977882796332008-06-19T19:04:00.001-07:002008-06-19T19:04:56.828-07:00

A couple of days ago I read a blog post by Rob Heinsoo. While reading it I realized that the 100 Kingdoms is a fairly vanilla settings, not to say that is bad. It is just that The 100 Kingdoms follows all the basic assumptions which makes it easy for people to join and understand what is happening. While I enjoy thinking about The 100 Kingdoms I decided I needed to figure out another setting

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-41602918710653487422008-06-12T18:54:00.000-07:002008-06-12T19:00:16.154-07:00

While I am currently calling my Campaign setting the 100 Kingdoms, that is more of a place holder then the actual name. The 100 Kingdoms is only the default starting location for my campaign. To the East lies the Ocean of Stardust, a supposedly endless ocean that at times borders with the Feywild leading to a strange Fairy Pirate theme. To the West past The Edge lies the Wilds (Also a placeholder

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-2652943163043757972008-06-08T12:09:00.000-07:002008-06-08T12:10:31.429-07:00

On Friday I got a copy of the 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook. I’m expected the rest of the books to arrive in the mail on Monday or Tuesday. Since I got the book, I’ve been seriously being to plan my next campaign. I wanted something that fit with the new idea of Point of Light and everything new in 4th Edition. So after a lot of thinking I came up with The 100 Kingdoms, a land

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-35997740475980015682008-03-25T16:38:00.001-07:002008-03-25T16:38:47.326-07:00

I have an early memory of getting my first Dungeons and Dragons game. It was a second edition box which contained everything you needed to play the game, included a scenario. I remember that the box looked so cool and I couldn't wait to play it. However I had no idea what I was getting into. At that time I didn't have a group of friends who would play this strange game with me so I had to

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-28267649477245252008-03-14T23:03:00.001-07:002008-03-14T23:03:32.786-07:00

Yesterday I downloaded D&D Manager. I played around with it and immediately began to find places where it could be improved. Instead of pestering the designer about my issues I decided to try and improve it myself. Being the programmer I am I went back to the site and downloaded the source code because it was licensed under GPL. I opened up the project and began trying to figure out what was

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-23727659451359371332008-03-04T15:54:00.001-08:002009-03-09T08:34:22.523-07:00

When I learn things about Cocoa I wish there had been some easy tutorial out there that explained in a simple way what I had just learned.So yesterday I wanted to figure out how to add custom toolbar item to a toolbar. I dug around and the best tutorial I found was at www.macdevcenter.com. I read it and after a while figured out how it was creating toolbars items.Yet I felt it was more complex

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-49067112865954283992008-03-01T14:55:00.000-08:002008-03-03T10:59:53.985-08:00

ExpanDrive for Mac is the way I always wanted to do FTP but never knew about. Before I mainly used the free FTP program Fugu. However FTP programs like Fugu and Transmit aren’t as simple as accessing your iDisk. ExpanDrive uses magic to make FTP that simple. Now ExpanDrive starts when I start my computer and it connects to the remote server as if were an external hard drive. Sure a program like

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-88771575203195767212008-02-26T08:17:00.000-08:002008-03-03T10:15:49.952-08:00

Sometimes you stumble across something that unexpectedly touches your heart in a way you didn’t think was possible. What I found was the old Manga “Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou”. It is a heartwarming yet lonely story about robots, old people, and children who grow up. Set in a nostalgic future Japan after civilization has fallen where the streetlights of old sunken cities still illuminate the night.

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-52981090963057164742008-02-20T09:55:00.000-08:002008-03-03T18:20:15.178-08:00

There are plenty of reviews out there for Spore so I won’t waste my breath trying to explain what the game is and why it is so cool. Instead I will point you to www.spore.com for anyone who doesn’t know what the game is about.Instead I want to explain how I currently plan to play the game when it comes out in September. Since the game allows you to record your gameplay I plan to record my entire

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-17650483502426502672008-02-13T21:21:00.000-08:002008-03-03T18:20:01.567-08:00

When I was younger I felt the allure of action flicks and my favorite genre was fantasy. Adrenaline filled, roller-coster like, combat sequences and chase screens can entice many people. However as I grow older I continually find myself enjoying both action flicks and fantasy less. I still enjoy an occasional action show or fantasy novel, but at the end of the day they aren’t what has left an

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045605577963858913.post-65334531285601032372008-01-26T23:54:00.001-08:002008-03-03T18:19:51.475-08:00

I am a large fan of anime, as well as graphic novels and books. However there a few storytelling methods that I dislike. One of which that I feel is unfortunately common in fantasy stories is the 'Return to Normalcy' ending. It happens after the hero finally manages to succeed with whatever task he or she was trying to accomplish only to find that everything has returned to how it was before the

Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09176071950708837850noreply@blogger.com0