Laser Cutter Update

I took some time to knock out a few projects this weekend. I created two different-sized boxes using an online template, finished a couple more bowls, and my wife added two requests for her plaque holder. 

It's really cool to have a laser cutter, but it is difficult to pick out which items to spend time on. 

The boxes are 9x5x2 1/4 and 6x4 3/4x1 1/4. They don't really suit any particular project I have in mind, but I will use these to practice staining and painting. Once have the finishing bit down, I will scale them up to hold figures and models.

What size would be best for figures? I'd really like to stop storing my Battlemechs in a terrium to protect them from my evil cats.  

The lids are totally plain, so I might add some designs to them. I don't really have the knack of double burning, where I cut out one lid and then burn an image on it, so I need to work on that process. 

Also, this particular type of wood is very "pitchy". The brown streaks in the images aren't an imperfection in the wood; it is the tar-like material that comes out of the wood when I cut with the laser. 

You can really see this substance in the images of the bowls. The small hexagon bowls are 5 3/4 by 1 1/2, while the larger ones are 6 1/2 x 2 inches. These examples highlight my lack of skill in finishing items. I tried painting some and finished the others with beeswax. I do like the beeswax finish. 

I can sand that brown stuff off, but with each layer of the bowl being 3/8 inch wide, sanding this one project is difficult. Sanding the boxes is a snap. This also highlights a couple of problems with these types of projects. I will hit on this last*. 

I don't know what the last two items are called. My wife purchased some home decor from 15 Monkeys. These included door hangers, signs, and these "plaques", for lack of a better word. Beth, the owner of 15 Monkeys, does a couple of subscription packages which we really enjoy. However, there are only so many Disney-themed items you can have in one home. My wife tends to switch up the subscriptions. 

You should check out 15 Monkeys on FB and on the website above. We have so many cool things designed by Beth. 

Jen asked me to make a couple of Dave Matthews Band-themed plaques to go in the holder she got from Beth. They are really easy to make if you have the measurements and a good idea of what you want. In the first image, you can see the DMB Coffee Rings, and a fire dancer in the second. 

What makes a good design is all in the finishing. Beth's 15 Monkey's designs are perfect, every time. These, not so much. My wife likes the natural wood, but that style doesn't match the holder. I might simply place hooks on my designs to be used as wall hangings. 

The last issue is, I'm happy to make my wife or myself something quick and kitchy. However, I have this vision of actually selling items. I don't have a storefront; I am just an online digital retailer. While one of my outlets does support physical goods, I am stuck with the twin dilemma of what style/size at what price? 

Costing out materials is easy. All of the items in this post cost less than $3 in materials. 

The machinery cost is higher. I have two computers, a laser cutter, a tablesaw, 3d printer, and a host of other tools I need to produce these items. As I use each tool, the price per item goes down. That is weird.  

Costing time is something else. Worse, getting good at something takes more time than the actual production of a finished good. My time is worth something. 

For this example post, I ended up creating 12 bowls (6 unseen), 6 boxes (4 unseen), and 2 plaques. All of these are non-saleable items. I think I need to think in terms of projects, as opposed to time to create and assemble a single item. 

I am not sure how to proceed, but you can be sure to see some new and unique items on my websites. 

 

Building a World of Magic

If you are running a fantastic, magical campaign, this places some limitations on what your world is like. I see many campaigns being played in a gritty, realistic fashion to avoid magical consequences. Magic is mysterious, and the sword is mightier than the magic scroll. I like this style, but most of my players don't like it at all. It's a step away from a wargame or a video game. 

As a consequence, magic is real and common in my campaign. In fact, it is a consumer product. Characters are often running around with fire beads and magic lamps. They have access to all kinds of magic at the get-go. There are mysteries to the magic, but the sort of mysteries that people think of after a six-pack of beer at 3 am. 

"Gee... Vorpal Swords are a really specific type of magic. Why would anyone do that?" 

This sort of twist creates all kinds of weird issues in my campaign. For example, no one is really surprised by clerics and magic users casting spells. In fact, even the lowliest turnip farmer knows if a spell caster starts waving their hands, grabbing their thumb or nose stops the spell. It's fun but also ridiculous. 

This means I have some house rules to cover these scenarios. 

In the aforementioned scenario, it only takes a to-hit roll against armor class 9 to grab someone's nose or thumb. It stops the spell, not injures the caster. Since it is so unexpected and simple, I also have a follow-up rule for foiled spells. If you get hit BEFORE the spell is ready, it's like you never cast. The caster doesn't lose that spell. 

However, getting hit AFTER the spell is prepared but before the caster can do something with it does cause them to lose the spell's effect and the memory of the spell. I like this because the caster got tagged at the exact wrong moment. It's a magical fumble. 

I leverage this against the ever-stupid "called shot". I don't impose penalties for called shots. If you are in a fight, it is customary and normal to try and smash someone's head in, stab them in the heart, or lop off a hand. Why impose a penalty for something that is totally expected? 

Speaking of fumbles, I don't do them unless someone is completely untrained. And the worst effect is that the fumble results in the weapon being dropped or thrown. This is something a noob does, not a professional warrior or assassin. I have several pairs of nunchucks. I've seen this a million times. I do not permit players to injure their characters with poor rolls, but comedy may ensue. I will even throw experience points at someone who roleplays a fumble.   

So, what do I do with fumbles for professionals? That's easy. If 1 is the worst that you can do, and the worst that a knight can do is miss, then they swung and missed. They look bad, but didn't drop their weapon. 

My house rule for missing the target on all odd numbers, 1 to whatever, you tried and missed. This tells me when someone hits a shield or completely wiffs. It's handy to know which is which without much math and record-keeping. 

Alright, what are even number misses? That's even easier. Since the person is highly skilled, an even number failures represents a case where they didn't even swing or attack. They knew they would miss and didn't bother. This is more important for missile weapons, because they never throw. The user still has the missile weapon, and it is ready for the next round of action. 

One of these days, I will sit down and unpack all of these fun house rules and share them all in a coherent fashion. 

Let Me Off, This Is My Stop

I have a lot of hobbying going on, so the blog will go off the rails for a while. I haven't felt like doing reviews or a post series lately. I have a stack of games ready to go, and I'll be spending time enjoying them. For example, I have X-Wing and the new Marvel game collecting dust. I don't want them to end up next to the Myst RPG, Unwritten, I always meant to play. 

Speaking of Myst, this blog started as a Myst fan site, and it changed into something better because I started writing about other stuff I also enjoy. I don't plan to go too far afield on the blog. If you like oddball stuff, please follow me on MeWe. I post about music, gardening, and giant rabbits in addition to games. 

Tonight's topic is obviously about railroading players in RPGs. Typically, I post about D&D, but refusing to railroad players is good form for all RPGs. 

I think that railroading comes from a couple of places:

A. The DM provides a setting for players to engage in storytelling. Having created that setting, the DM wants to tell their story. Sometimes it's hard to break the setting from a story, and painful for the author to let their setting free to have different stories. Obviously, this comes from all the time the DM invested in creating it. But there is a difference between setting and story. 

B. The next reason is shock and awe. EVERY player on the planet can flabbergast the DM with a wild and unique set of choices that defy all coping because it is so correct for the scenario. Get used to it. Even the best improvisationalist will get caught out by a wily player who says something smart and correct. 

3. Sometimes, railroading is good, but it is rarely "this time". In this scenario, the players and their characters choose a path, do or die. As a DM, this is the time to railroad. The scenario becomes a one-trick pony show. The players laid out the parameters, you have to perform. Make sure you have all of your ducks and dice in a row and let them have it. 

Part D. There are many ways to "win" and the players always decide what winning is to them. Sometimes it is simple survival, and other times it is obtaining something they want. The DM picked the presentation events; they don't get to pick what is viewed as valuable to the players or characters. The players may value defeating the dragon more than taking the treasure. 

Now that I have spelled out why railroading happens, here are 4 options to avoid it. 

1. and 2. If the players don't like your setting and scenario, or come up with something else, let the characters out. The easiest way to snap the players out of a specific set of circumstances is to forget the players and listen to the characters' voices. This is an important distinction. The characters are the participants in your setting, not the players. If the players say, "Aw, not pirates again," forget it. If the character says, "I'm never getting on a ship again," run with it. What the player says is an observation; what the character says is an instruction. 

The opposite of pirates is a dungeon. Don't try, just do it. Again, without railroading. Let the party explore other options. 

The obvious problem with a change, or when you get caught flatfooted, is what happens to the original story you set out for the players?

Personally, I like the slow fade. You don't need to express how surprised you are by the change. "Stay cool, man." The story happens without the players. Make sure they get news about it; it keeps your setting intact without overshadowing the players' activities. In the pirate vs. dungeon example, the players may return to town after slaying the orcs to witness an epic battle in the harbor.  

The outcome of a massive battle in the harbor will have to conform to reasonable expectations, but doesn't need to impact the players except to provide a simple point of interest. Your setting is still there and intact. 

"Yup, that was too dangerous." Let the players be right. This also covers Option C, when you are forced to perform a desirable railroad. Let the players have fun being right. 

You may have to tool up or down to hit the right notes, but it can work. If the characters demand a massive set piece battle, don't be surprised if they outperform you in every way. It is 4 or more brains against just you. You are going to have to tweak things to get it right. You might be shocked to find the 15 giants you threw against the players aren't enough because the two major traps the players overcame at the start of the adventure are now being used against the giants. Just remember, when the characters do things to the giants, they aren't doing anything to you. Celebrate the madness and creativity. 

Part 4 is the easy part. There is no "winning" in an RPG, except for the continuation of the game. Run with that and keep it coming. 

Stolen Ideas from the Krynn Series of Gold Box Games

In the Dragonlance lore, there are 3 moons named Solinari, Lunitari, and Nuitari. They were aligned with Good, Neutral, and Evil, and they share their names with gods. As each moon waxed and waned, a spellcaster aligned with that god gained or lost magical spells.  

The Krynn-based SSI games did an excellent job tracking this. When you have the brain of a machine, such things are trivial. It can become a basic design element for your interface. 

The white, red, and blue orbs note the moons and their phases. The game even allowed bonus magical spells when this happened. I never bothered to figure out when more spells were available, availing myself of the advantage whenever they became available. 

I thought it was a neat system, but unfortunately, bringing it to the tabletop proved intractable. How would one track the changing of phases and rising of moons in a game world? It was too hard. 

For me and my players, there was a strong belief that magic users were squishy, and I always dreamed up new and utterly intractable ways of empowering spell casters. Invariably, most of these ideas were panned by my players and shit-canned by me. But this idea of bonus spells stuck with me. It was already hardcoded for Clerics in AD&D and appeared on our character sheet.  

Having a formal character sheet is very handy, and I was super cool for being able to print a character sheet at will instead of using notebook paper, graph paper, or purchasing a handful of bright orange character sheets. 

The magic system in Krynn is not a great mechanic for an RPG. But it does make an incredibly realistic world. Welcome to Black Monday when you are at 75% while your nemesis is at 150%. And it ain't getting better any time soon enough to matter. That is a very real-world mechanic. 

As neat as it was, presenting this lunar influence in a tabletop game is both impractical and not very fun for a variety of reasons, such as making squishy spell-casters even more squishy. However, what we did do was simplistic and fun. Magic Users and Illusions got bonus spells like Clerics and Druids, except the deciding factor was Intelligence. 

I recall one of my players pointing to the character sheet and mentioning how close the lines for Bonus Spells were to Intelligence. "Wisdom is only one box down. We don't even need to redesign our character sheet!" 

We had no mechanic for losing spells, nor did I track the phases of the moon(s). That made everyone happy. We did discuss it at length, but could come up with no practical way of using it without being a rolling disaster. 

This one change was so ingrained into my mind that I forgot this was even a house rule or where I got it from. It was from the Krynn series of Gold Box games. 

You can check out my character sheet on DrivethruRPG or from my store on Ko-Fi. Or you could pick up all of the e1 modules on DTRPG. 

A Non-review of Champions of Krynn

I was told I would love Baldur's Gate. And from what I have heard and read, it is great. However, I need a new hard drive in my laptop before I can play. Me, being me, I got a copy of the SSI Gold box from Steam while I wait for this hard drive to arrive. 

So, here we are: 

This is nothing like Baldur's Gate. But it does bring back memories. The SSI games were the greatest implementation of the AD&D rules as a tactical game. 10 of 10 for that. It is a very strict version of AD&D, but they did it very well. 

I am not reviewing Champions today, even though I played it when it came out. The issue is time compression. I've got all of the Gold Box games jammed in my head. I remember what happened the last time I was in Krynn, and it didn't go well. 

I got my hands on DL-1 Dragons of Despair, and my player didn't get it. By 1988, I had Champions and tried again. The gang still hated it. The reason is that my normal free-form play is very fairytale-like, complete with voice. That is the opposite of Dragonlance. This was amplified by my getting the setting in my head from the SSI game. I was simply confusing them by not understanding what they failed to understand. 

Hmm. I had to do a mashup of Dragonlance, Fritz Lieber, and Dungeonland before my players would even engage with the wonderful world of Krynn. Click that link to read more. 

Anyway, now that I have both the SSI Gold Box games and paper copies of the Dragonlance modules, I want to revisit and review them all. You can check out copies of Dragonlance here on DTRPG. 

One of the failings of Dragonlace is that it came out as both e1 and second edition, which was a nightmare for DMs and players alike. D&D, AD&D e1, AD&D e1 Unearthed Arcane, and AD&D 2nd edition are wildly different beasts, and having a single setting title hit shelves in this period was a rotten deal.  

Pavonis Sector Sessions - A New Place - Day 1

We may not be in the Pavonis sector anymore. Or Kanas, for that matter. 

Emily, Hem, Merci, Avery, and Garrison were hurled toward the hole in the Antelope's hull—but never made it. Avery swore he saw a golden, glittering beam hit them, like a C-Beam. Then, all five of our heroes found themselves hurtling through a very dark space.

Thankfully, they landed somewhere carpeted. There was a bit of carpet burn, along with an odd violet flame. Emily, Merci, and Avery all landed on their feet. Garrison hit a chair, and Hem.... Hem ended up next to a pile of debris, partially under a skimmer. Under the suit lights, they began to sort out their surroundings.

They stood to the right of a double row of tables. Two skimmers rested in the room, surrounded by shredded carpet, smashed tables, and broken chairs. It was clear they had taken the same trip from the Antelope as the crew had. Mixed into the debris were bits of inner wall and insulation from the ship.

One of the skimmers was damaged. Parts of it were completely missing, as if it were a drawing from a cutaway diagram or schematic. Hem was partially trapped beneath the damaged skimmer. The others worked quickly to free him.

"Captain!" shouted Bill. "Hem is alive!" Both of Bill’s eyes flashed green, then yellow, as he picked up Merci’s telemetry readings.

"Where?" asked Duke.

"I don’t know," Bill replied.

As medics, Bill and Merci had advanced training and sensory tools that allowed them to share medical diagnostic information. Direction-finding, unfortunately, wasn’t among those capabilities.

"Em, Hem broke an ankle," Merci said to Emily. "He’ll be fine if we can find some medical supplies."

Emily, Garrison, and Avery began pushing through the debris. They found six cargo cases from the bay, a fully functioning GM-bot and Ubot, and a second Ubot suffering from the same kind of damage the skimmer had sustained.

They dug through the cases and uncovered eight heavy sidearms, a case of ten regular sidearms, four LSU units, and four repair units. In the skimmers, they found two fuel units. Emily took one heavy weapon and gave one each to Avery and Garrison. The rest she dragged over to Hem. Everyone was issued two regular sidearms. Including Merci, who looked askance at them. The final two sidearms were hung on the back of the GM-bot, which was busy examining the damaged Ubot.

Rules Part I: Each of the map boxes is 5 feet, making the center room massive. 

The Star Smuggler rules don't exactly explain how big a CU is, other than about human size and weight. I have decided that it is a combination of size and weight. If 10 handguns can fit in a box 2 CU in size, then 4 heavy sidearms can fit in the same. 4 Repair units, LSU, or fuel units can fit into a similar-sized box, but are unusable in this form. The box must be broken down to get at the contents. 

Next, what exactly is a RU, LSU, or FU? A repair unit holds material and various small tools. It is not as good as what an engineer would have, but they get some jobs done. A fuel unit is a massive battery bank, which comes with several cables, connectors, and a light. An LSU has enough high-capacity, high-pressure air bottles, water, and food for 5 to 6 people for one day. Each one also has a small medical kit.  

The team searched the room.

In the northwest corner, they found a kitchen area that had clearly been ransacked. All that remained were tables and sink units. The sinks had integrated stovetops and refrigerators. Hem begged the team to check if the power was still on. Merci quietly confirmed that they had both power and running water. Unable to fully test it, she instead made Hem drink from one of the LSU canteens.

Garrison and Avery examined the massive wooden crates, while Emily stepped out into the hallway.

She managed to peek into three rooms before noticing a staircase labeled “Stairs – 1065.”

The three rooms appeared to be dormitories or hotel units. Each had a bathroom, a kitchenette, a bedroom, and a small sitting area. They were as spartan and gray-green as the larger room she’d come from. The quarters were so compact that they made her cabin on the Antelope seem massive. By all appearances, up to four people had lived in a 20-by-10-foot space. There were no personal effects. No pictures, books, or computers. Even the walls looked temporary, except the 5-by-10 bathroom walls. The bathrooms had sliding doors or partitions that could be drawn between the sink and the cooking area. It felt a little too close to eating in a bathroom for her comfort, but she didn’t know these people well enough to judge.

“Well, good-ish news, gang,” Emily announced. “I found human writing.”

With a crinkle, Garrison held up a small bag. “Me too,” he said.

“Coco Sugar Gloppos,” he read aloud.

“Are you eating that?” Emily asked, shocked.

“Crunch-crunch. I think it’s cereal,” still chewing. "I'm just glad we won't die of starvation on an alien world." 

Merci glared at him, while Hem picked up a bag and tucked it into his pouch.

“Jesus. Nobody said anything about aliens,” Emily sighed. “Alright, let’s pack up and get out of here. We have to find who is in charge of this place.”

Theoretically, they could have driven the working skimmer through the double doors, but Emily decided stealth was the better option. Besides, there were stairs in one corner of the floor.

It struck her as strange that there were no windows. If this really was the 1065th floor... why weren’t there any?

They found a second undamaged Ubot behind a skimmer. As they loaded the Ubots with gear, Hem tinkered with the damaged one. Its central processing unit and sensors were gone, but he managed to salvage a controller and wiring from the damaged skimmer. He could sit on it, backwards, and drive it like an R/C car. It worked well enough, but Emily was concerned with the squeaking it made. 

They managed to silence the noise with some hammering and grease. Satisfied, they were ready. 

Or not. 

The north door thudded open, and two men burst through. The door struck a crate and rebounded into the face of a third man with a heavy weapon. It went off with a deafening boom, blood spattering from Garrison's leg.

Everyone opens fire on the man with the gun. 

Rules Part II: Star Smuggler uses a 5-minute combat round and zone combat. Since I have a grid, that won't work. I am assuming each round is 15 seconds, 4 per minute. You can take a 5-foot step and shoot, take a 10-foot jog to enter melee with an attack, or walk 15 feet per round. Alternatively, you run one square per point of current endurance. 

People can fire guns at people in melee range at +1. Firing into a melee runs the risk of hitting your friends on a miss. If you don't move, you can fire two sidearms at the same time at the same target. No splitting fire and absolutely no double firing heavy hand weapons. 

The rules have a funny discrepancy about heavy-handed weapons. They have no effect on combat or damage, but then the damage rule immediately mentions explosive rounds. In the event booklet, armor-piercing ammo is also mentioned. It's just a suspicion, but I believe the rules are meant to have automatic weapons, explosive weapons, and armor-piercing weapons, but this did not entirely pan out due to space or editing. I am treating all heavy weapons as explosive. A heavy sidearm is 5 times bigger than a sidearm. I am picturing a shotgun. 

The Set Up: Here are the team's stats. 

Emily: M:5, H:6, E:11 HSA-TL4, 2 SA TL-5.
Avery: M:5, H:4, E5   HSA-TL4, 2 SA TL-5.
Garrison: M:5, H:4, E:5 HSA-TL4, 2 SA TL-5.
Hem: M:4, H:3, E:6 (injured for 1 point.) 2 SA TL-5.
Merci: M:0, H:1, E:6 2 SA TL-5, but she won't use them. She is carrying them for others. 

Round one: Emily hit the man with the gun for 1 point of damage. Avery dropped a critical on him for 7 points of damage. Hem hit for 2 points of damage. Shocked at the volume of fire the man has taken and survived, Garrison gets a critical that puts him down. The other two men flee the room. 

Checking the man, he was down but breathing. He also had gray-green skin, red eyes, pointed teeth, and ears. 

"Mutants!" he declared. Before anyone could act, the door burst open and 4 more mutants burst through, lugging a tripod-mounted gun. 

Emily and Garrison were between the mutants and the rest of the team. They open fire while the rest of the team takes cover. Emily scored a single hit, and Garrison landed a critical downing one of the mutants. The remaining three struggle to get the gun set up while the defenders back up. 

All luck remains the same, and one more mutant goes down while the fourth was hit for one point of damage. The mutants get the gun seat up to fire. Emily and Garrison can't get out of the firelines of their team. The tripod mount gun was obviously an old set of skimmer guns. It was slower than the high-powered TL-4 heavy sidearms. The last two mutants go down. 

The team finally got its act together. Emily and Garrison slammed the doors while Merci pushed a crate over to block the door. Avery awkwardly turned the skimmer gun around. 

This is turning into a dense wall of text, so this is where this session ends. I wanted to have better maps, but didn't like the results from Worldographer. It is too colorful for this flight of fancy. In the next session, we will probably see automatic weapons and crazier combat. 

There is a website I wanted to mention. Shawn is playing Five Parsecs From Home 1st Edition. While the rules are different, solo game play is similar theme. Shawn also has way better terrain and images. Give it a look here. 

Pavonis Sector Sessions - A Bend Out of Time

In last week's session, our heroes were preparing for a double jump to Imperia. I said that I would do "a bend" and decide what happens this time instead of committing to a specific set of actions during that session. The Antelope II should have made it to the Imperia system. 

But I decided they didn't, as per the following: 

"In fact, Gamemasters of science fiction role-playing systems may wish to use this as an adventure or campaign guideline (with appropriate rules adjustments to suit their own RPG system). However, this game can be played many time, with many different results."

So here we go, awkwardly around the horn. 

Duke and Emily are in pilotage, while Fred mans the light turret. Bill is in the medical bay. Zev is in one shuttle, while Avery and Garrison are in the heavily armed shuttle. Hem monitors systems in the garage, and Merci is in the suit room. The rest of the crew are in engineering, manning their stations and turrets.

Duke commits to the jump, deploying the first hypercharge. A singularity spins up ahead of the ship. Soon, it distorts into a ring. The Antelope surges forward. As the ship crosses the center of the ring, alarms blare. There's an explosion and a savage vibration.

Emily runs to check on the crew. 

The misjump fractures the ship. Hem, Merci, and Emily make it to the hatch of the starboard boat bay. A crack forms in the wall as the outer boat bay hatch blows. 5 of the crew are sucked into the nothing of hyperspace as the Antelope flounders. 

Duke and the remaining crew fight for their lives as Emily finds herself in a dark gray space, lit by violet fires. 

As if this isn't different enough, the session will be very strange, indeed. 

A Case for AI - Tracking Notes

I've been messing with AI for about 2 ½ years. The first thing I produced using AI was a t-shirt that read:

"I have limited knowledge of the world and events after January 17th, 1972. I may occasionally produce incorrect or biased information."

My wife was annoyed by this, and it has since disappeared. But AI is still a problem waiting for a solution*. Oh, the asterisks spell out the problem. ChatGPT’s original disclaimers had clunky grammar, which I corrected myself before putting it on a $10.00 t-shirt. Why would a language model have clunky grammar? Don't know, that is not good. 

Let me share one of my daily pains with AI. I work in tech support. At least once a day, I receive a ticket clearly written by AI. The first issue I have is that the user has self-diagnosed the problem and maybe wrongly. That’s neither here nor there, but if they understood the issue and the AI’s response, it shouldn’t still be a problem. If only they had tried what the AI told them. But they didn’t, because they couldn’t understand the words, instructions, or concepts.

Don’t do this.

It’s incredibly obvious when AI writes something for you. AI isn’t particularly good at mimicking your style and tone, so it doesn’t sound like you at all. Also, AI is extraordinarily good at punctuation. It will happily use the Oxford comma, or worse, the semicolon. Most people don’t use semicolons; they can’t. I do use the Oxford comma because I am weird. 

<Rant mode off.>

This weekend, I found a good use for AI. 

While working on my Pavonis Sector posts, I noticed that AI was really good at tracking characters. It told me where they were and sometimes what they were doing. It wasn’t just good, it was great. If I mixed up character names or professions, it would let me know. For example, if I wanted a medic on an away team and another back on the ship, it would warn me that Bill and Merci were in the same group or that I mixed up a name and profession. If I needed two engineers to stay on the ship, AI would remove them from the away roster. It understood that only certain crew members could engage in specific RRR activities.

When I write the Pavonis Sector sessions, I keep digital notes. The first time I blogged about Star Smuggler, I played for about 15 minutes and posted immediately, Mistakes still crept in. This time, I can run through a week’s worth of digital notes, and the AI will track characters, locations, money, inventory, etc.

This means I can be more concise and clear when writing. AI is not writing for me; the AI is just keeping track of the major items. 

I will be back with more Pavonis Sector sessions later this week.

Pavonis Sector Sessions - Week Two

We left Duke and the Gang trapped in the Ruins on Regari. This state of affairs came about because I decided that the event e84 could happen to any vehicle. The Antelope II entered the ruins, set down and a building collapsed. Amusingly, on the 10th day, the same thing happened. 

How I handled this was everyone got out of the ship and cleared the debris while the Engineers, Ratchet and Hem patched up the ship. Twice. 

For solo play that sucks. It eats resources and time. However, I'm imagining Star Smuggler as a multiplayer game where things like this are moments for character exposition. This scenario would work. 

Now let's dig into week 2 in the ruins. We have run through e84, the second main event here is a room in the ruins. In event e88, 2/3rds of the outcomes are bad. I decided not to bite with my party. 

How I picture traveling the ruins is that the ship moves then I select who will participate in the next roll. Those left behind on the ship are doing RRR tasks. If the event is a surprise, it occurs right outside the ship and involves everyone. If the event is something else, only the selected characters experience it. 

A damaged Utility Suit is no fun.

Day 1: They found a GM bot intact and decided not to participate in e88. 

Day 2: Another building collapsed on the ship ending events for the day. Repairs were made. 

Day 3: They found a boat with 4 points of damage and the ship moved to recover it. They also find an undamaged skimmer. 

Day 4: The crew on the ship began repairs on the damaged boat. Since there are two engineers, they repair one point each. The explorers found a sidearm and an intact skimmer. 

Day 5: The found boat is completely repaired and move it to the empty boat bay. Explorers found a second boat with one point of damage and a bunch of damaged Utility Suits. Hint: the damaged Usuits eat time and resources so they leave them behind. 

Day 6: They find a Utility Suit and then knock down another building onto the Antelope II. Damn. 

On the 7th Day, they find an intact skimmer and cannibalize an RU from a damaged skimmer. The second boat is repaired and moved to the cargo bay. 

On day 8, the stress gets to be too much. They decide to count this as a win and return to the spaceport. The crew has 2 hoppers, a GM bot, a Sidearm TL-1, 3 skimmers, and a Usuit. They expended 7 RU and found one. 

An old but nice skimmer.

Days 8 and 9 are used to purchase some bots and RU. They make a payment of 300 secs. against the grant on the ship and the crew is paid. They have about 1500 secs. to their name. On the last day of the week, the break for orbit and do a double jump to Imperia. This leaves them with 3 hypercharges and just enough money to replace them. 

They enter the Imperia system with little fanfare, e93 results in no contact. At this point, I will do what I call "a bend". They spend the last 4 hours landing. The flexi-bendy bit is, I won't declare where they land. I will do this next week. Their choices are limited to Rough Terrain, Spaceport, or Station if they mean to take the ship. They will probably hit the Spaceport and look around before picking a new location. 

See you later!

Pavonis Sector Sessions - Week One

In my last post, I included some new rules and omitted a few thoughts. In running through a week of play, I have a few items to add. 

My first omission is how to get an advanced hopper, beyond the one that comes with the ship. They are available everywhere regular hoppers are so long as the planet has a tech level 30 or better. Their cost is three times the cost of a regular hopper. There is a twist, you can sell an advanced hopper anywhere regardless of the tech level. 

Second, I did not create improved versions of skimmers or robots. I will correct that now. 

All skimmers are now dual-powered electric vehicles and therefore can be gassed up with a fuel unit OR charged at any location with banking facilities. I am picturing more Car Wars than Teslas. The cost to recharge is the same as a fuel unit. Remember, if you drive into an area that doesn't have banking facilities, you will need a fuel unit for the next day or you are walking.

Robots are trickier. I hate the per-week cost as it adds to tracking so it is now gone. Robots are also electrically powered, run for a week, and can be recharged at night from a starship, hopper, or skimmer for no cost. The robots handle this themselves. If you let them run out of power, they will break down. It costs a repair unit and a fuel unit plus the time of an Engineer to get them going again. Don't let that happen. This seems to be a better tradeoff than a weekly price. 

I have also decided that medics can drive skimmers because they would drive ambulances. Duh. They still can't use guns of any kind. 

Additionally, Ubots can ride on the exterior of any skimmer. That is kind of handy. PS bots are small and can ride on the exterior pack of a utility suit, taking up no space. You still need to carry a life support unit. 

One official rule I would like to point out is r216d. 10 sidearms can be packed into a 2 CU crate in cargo. Since we have this rule, I would add that 5 heavy sidearms can be packed into a 2 CU crate. Makes sense. One modification to this rule is that holstered weapons take no space on a person, but you can only carry 2 regular sidearms like this. A heavy sidearm is twice as big, so you can holster only one. There is zero utility in this unless you play a game where you can lose a sidearm. 

 

Let's run down the first week in a snapshot. Duke started with 5,000 secs. He took 5 days to assemble his crew of 2 medics (Merci and Bill), 2 engineers (Hem and Ratchet), 4 gunners (Zap, Fred, Garrison, and Kal), and 3 pilots (Emily, Zev, and Avery). Emily has the same stats as Duke per the last time I played. She is the second in command. Their weekly pay totals 195, which is a steal. 

During this 5-day shopping excursion, Duke got creative with buying and selling RU and robots. The GM bots at the spaceport have a 1-in-6 chance of selling for 1.5x. Since the buying price is 120 and the potential sale price could be 1.5x of 100, you could score 30 secs by savvy selling.  

The dice note 20 LSU, 20 FU, 50 RU, white blocks
are crates of sidearms and black are HSA.

That does come in handy, but there is an easier way to make money. RU, LSU, and FU have a buy-and-sell price of 1. If you buy at 1 but sell at 1.5, that is a 50% return each time. You can do this right out of the gate at Regari. Since they are just 1 CU each you can do this quickly and easily. You just need to accept fractional accounting, which I do. 

One warning, I have noticed that you can't sell LSU easily if at all. I will keep an eye out for this event if it exists. 

Back to gameplay. Duke also bought 2 ship guns (TL-3), 2 hopper guns (TL-5), and 12 utility suits. Next, the crew flew to the colony to buy weapons. Surprisingly, this didn't take long and they bought 100 sidearms (TL-4) and 24 heavy sidearms (TL-5). At this point, all of the utility suits were given to the crew, along with 10 sidearms and 6 heavy sidearms. 

In cargo, we have: 20 fuel units, 20 LSU, 50 RU, a hopper with 2 sets of guns, 90 sidearms (TL-4), 18 heavy sidearms (TL-5), one TL-1 sidearm, 10 Ubots, and 1 GM bot. Duke has 2645 secs. 

With a couple of days left, Duke decided to head to the Ruins. This did not go well because of a decision I made. 

You can travel to the Ruins in your ship and the ruins have e084, Building Collapse. Everything is spelled out as if you have only two options, walking or driving a skimmer. Why can't you have a building collapse on the ship or a hopper? I decided this could happen because I watched Robotech many times as a kid. 

You can see it too, can't you? 

Because of this choice, Duke and the gang had very little to show for the remainder of the week. But it was interesting. 

Welcome Back to the Pavonis Sector!

I have set up a permanent space for my Star Smuggler game. This is a single-player game that I have played many, many times. For this run, I have decided to take the advice on page 1 of the rules and adapt this into a campaign. I am captaining a new ship class, the Antelope II. 

When designing this ship, I asked myself what made something better. Fewer dependencies came to mind. Shuttles are now like mini-ships and need no fuel or life support. The Antelope II has dedicated crew spaces and a garage for skimmers and suits. 

I decided not to muck with ANY of the combat rules, with one exception. Crew Quarters and Medical are protected by armor. Simply put, they are harder to destroy than other areas.  

I also took a swipe at some of the not-so-nice aspects of the game. In this run-through, slaves are important. You can rescue them. 

To that end, I need to change several rules starting with e001. 

e001+

The sector is at war. You are the captain of the Antelope II, a new type of privateer vessel. You have received a letter of marque and reprisal from the world of Regari enabling you to act as a privateer within the sector. In addition, you have received a small grant to obtain weapons and a crew. You are authorized to act in every part of the sector, except New Karma and Regari where one must behave like a normal civilian. 

To pay off your grant of the ship, you must make a payment to the Regari system weekly. You may do this at any banking facility anywhere in the sector. The amount per week doesn't matter, but you must pay 1,000,000 secs. within 10 years. The Antelope II is 5 times the ship that an Antelope was, so this is a deal. 

The grant allows for hiring a crew and equipping them. Roll 1d6*1000. You do not have to pay this back. You can keep anything you don't spend. 

In the Regari system, you are not subject to search or seizure. Ignore these events. 

The Antelope II is built to tech level 1 specs and is outfitted with 2 advanced hopper class ships boats, and a single set of tech level one guns and two empty turrets. Advanced hoppers have a fusion power pack built into the hull (e153, item 11) and produce life support like a regular starship. There is a brand-new skimmer in the ship's garage, also tech level 1. The ship has a medical bay/infirmary with a regrowth tank (e153, item 4). There is a suit room and crew airlock for utility suits.  Additionally, there is a ready room for planning. You have 6 hypercharges. This ship does not have secret hiding spaces. 

The letter of marque is your ship's papers. You personally own a utility suit, and a tech level 1 sidearm, plus have 10 repair units, 10 life support units, and 10 fuel units in one of the cargo bays.  

Be on the lookout for slavers, found in r332. If offered slaves, you are obligated to purchase as many as possible, constrained by funds and crew space, for a base price of 100 secs. each. Once they are in your custody, you must do your utmost to protect them until they reach freedom. This means you must make for New Karma or Regari as fast as possible (double jumps are not required). Note: in any other system, you may be mistaken for a slaver. 

If they are returned safely to the Colony on New Karma or the Port on Regari, the government will pay you a base price of 100 secs. per rescued slave and shave off 200 secs. from the amount you owe on your grant. 

You are currently at the sole planet in the Regari system (r207a) of the Pavonis sector, at the spaceport (r205o). You check over your starship guns and personal sidearm and prepare to find targets for Regari. See r203 for the activities available to you. You need to hire a crew immediately. It is suggested that you have 1 engineer, 1 medic, 1 gunner, and 2 pilots, however, the ultimate decisions are yours. 

You may opt not to make contact rolls until you have hired your whole crew. Also, you may skip over rolls of 3, no more rolls during this time due to government intervention. This is a one-time benefit and can be extended for as many days as you deem necessary. You may not leave the spaceport. Once your crew is assembled, you must make contact rolls for the rest of the game.  

Hit locations need an update, too.  

The Antelope II has a modification for hits and hit locations. This appears in many events (like e413 or e113), you may use this list. The ship can take 15 hits. It also has 2 heavily armored areas, medical and crew quarters. 

2. Medical* or suit room (Odd is medical and even is the suit room.)
3. Pilotage
4. One of the turrets - roll 1-2 first turret (top), 3-4 second turret and 5-6 is the last.  
5. Shuttle - 1-3 port side, 4-6 starboard side 
6. Engineering 
7. Garage
8-9. Port Cargo Bay
10-11 Starboard Cargo Bay
12. Crew Quarters* or Ready Room. (Odd is the quarters and even is the ready room.)

*Indicates a 50-50 chance of armor hit. An armor hit prevents damage to the protected section by turning it into a regular hit. 

Radiation does not pass through the armor and does nothing to the crew in these areas, (e413 mostly). 

To accommodate your new Advanced Hoppers, we need to update e214 with e214c. 

Advanced Hopper (e214c) 

The Advanced Hopper is an improved version of the basic Hopper. It is the same size as other Hoppers but has advanced fusion engines. The fusion engines do not require refueling (at least not for decades) and provide life support to the crew while in operation. 

Fusion engines allow the Advanced Hopper to accelerate the same as Starships while also making it possible to escape high-gravity planets. While Advanced Hoppers do not have wings, they make use of a lifting body design and can glide just like a regular Hopper. 

The crew compartment is divided into a 5 CU pilot area and a 6 CU passenger area. Hopper or boat guns can only be mounted in the 14 CU cargo area. Two sets of guns can be mounted. This is standard for military Hoppers. 

The price for an advanced hopper is three times the base price of a regular hopper and is available wherever hoppers are found. 

Since the Antelope II has armored areas, we need to address that with a new rule: r217d. 

Antelope II Damage (r217d)

The Antelope II takes 15 hits to destroy. Sidearms and heavy hand weapons have no effect on starships unless an event paragraph indicates otherwise. Individual points of damage simply increase the risk factor when hyperjumping. 

Some areas of the hull are protected by heavy armor: medical and crew quarters. When these areas are hit, there is a 50-50 chance of striking the armor instead. An armor hit redirects damage to one of the hull points. The armor includes radiation shielding, so characters in those areas are not killed by radiation damage of any kind. 

Due to the changes to the Antelope II, r229d is used for old-school Antelopes while r229e is used for the Antelope II. 

Starship Searches (r229e)

Some events require a search of the starship (by customs officials, a military patrol, quarantine officers, etc.). When this occurs, roll 2d6 and consult the results below to see which parts of the ship are searched. Anything in those compartments will be found. Items within activated stasis units are normally confiscated by authorities unless the event indicates otherwise:

Search Results:

2-false accusation (e058);
3- Ready Room and Suit Suit Room
4- Engineering, all gun turrets, quarters, and pilotage. 
5- Engineering, all gun turrets, and both cargo bays.
6- Quarters only. 
7- Both cargo bays
8- Both cargo bays and both ship's boats. 
9- Both ship's boats and the skimmer garage. 
10- Both boats, pilotage, and quarters. 
11- Medical/Infirmary and skimmer garage. 
12-searcher is an old acquaintance, you have no difficulties, and nothing is searched.

I know, the original book obscured the areas with strange letter codes. I didn't like that much so I just spelled it out. 

Additionally, e002 will be changed.

e002: 

Foreign agents are in your area. Ignore this event in the Regari or New Karma systems. If your crew is off the ship, proceed directly to e018. If the ship is landed, go straight to e003. 

If you are on your ship in space, roll on the following table: 

2. Paletk ships approach. (e108)
3. Ships from Imperia approach. (e114)
4. Byzantium Secret Police. (e189)
5. Imperian customs agents. (e019)*
6. Talitarian Scouts. (e118)
7. Nothing interesting. (e096)
8. Cubro customs shakedown. (e019)*
9. Urushop customs patrol. (e019)* 
10. Mynkurian attack (e095)
11. Nipna wardrone. (e098)
12. Roll again. 

Each event is themed to a particular system and may occur in any system except Regari or New Karma. 

When dealing with the three e019 results (*starred), the customs agents have 3 standard antelope ships with no weapon turrets. Your grant requires you to comply and pay all fines and duties. If you damage or destroy any customs ships or harm the crew, you will lose your grant and be wanted in every system.

As I play through this, I hope to expand the original events with a battle against the slavers and possibly an introduction of a second plot line about robots.  

I expect to post once a week as the last time I did this once a day was too much. 

(EDIT I have forgotten to add a link so you can download the original game.)

A Bit of the Pavonis Sector in My Basement

I have finally set up a permanent area in the basement for my Star Smuggler game. I fired up the laser and etched a ship diagram to use. The ship is creatively called the Antelope II. 

You can see I paired this with my White Box Set, so I have little dodads to count resources and Meeples for peoples. 

I also have old cardboard-mounted planetary tiles I made a few years back. I GIMP'ed the original files and flipped them so I don't have to mess with upside-down tiles. You can download them on Boardgame Geek. 

Zooming in a bit, you can see this poor man's map in green. Half of the map is for dispersed distances and the second half is for those in contact. The rules are super easy like that. Medics are white, pilots blue, engineers black, and gunners are yellow. The bad guys are red. 

You can see I have already gotten into trouble. 

The orange sheet is for common resource counting. I have fuel units, life support units, repair units, and two different types of robots, GM bots and Utility bots. The third kind of bots are Personal Bots which go on the character's sheets. 

This time through the game, I have a much improved Antelope II which requires changing the rules. A lot of rules. I shall share those tomorrow. 

I feel a disturbance...

I have 6 items on DriveThruRPG and 2 in my Ko-Fi Store. A very interesting thing has happened this week. My newest offering, The Hex Pack is closing the sales numbers for my oldest offering, Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners. Both just crossed 400 downloads. 

These are 2020 and 2018 titles. I'd like to refresh Zero to Hero and make it compliant with OSE. I can't really refresh The Hex Pack unless someone has a need or suggestion. 

Hint, hint, the comments below.

Swashbuckler Character Class for D&D and AD&D Swashbucklers for D&D and AD&D

Zero to Hero: Uncommon Heroes Zero to Hero

Character Sheet for AD&D Character Sheet for AD&D

Kobold’s Folly Mini Setting Kobold’s Folly

Compass Rose Inn Mini Setting Compass Rose Inn

The Hex Pack The Hex Pack

You can also find 2 of my titles on my store on Ko-Fi.  I posted items that will never change*, my AD&D Character Sheets for Unearthed Arcana and The Hex Pack. 

These items are pay-what-you-want and are IDENTICAL to those offered on DriveThruRPG. There is no need to duplicate your efforts if you have already received them from DTRPG. This is simply a different shopping option.  

As a general statement of why I have two outlets: 

1. People don't like creating accounts. If I give you two options, I double my chances of you simply having one of them.

2. DriveThruRPG is a community-supporting outlet. Every time you buy something here, 35% of your purchase supports DriveThru in all its endeavors. Being a good-sized company, they can run sales, promotions, bundles, and charity options. I can't do any of this as a single content producer. I really love what they offer. 

3. Ko-Fi has different options. I will soon be selling physical goods that are not a good match for DriveThruRPG: Artwork, coasters, maps, etc. that I make myself. You will notice that some of my digital works are on there, only because I can offer the same PWYW terms AND these products are unlikely to ever change*.  

*Yeah, I've made changes to both of these titles in the past. I will give you the reason why I did this in a post later this week. 

The Evil Ones

Back in 1980, Dragon magazine presented an Anti-Palidin. These guys were stereotypical black hat NPCs. The logic behind them was a Palidin pledged themselves to a dark god. The problem with the article was it presented a way to generate an Anti-Palidin. The same idea was repeated a year later with the Drow in Fiend Folio, character stats for monsters. 

The message was "These aren't exactly monsters, they are more like characters." 

People are going to generate evil characters for a lot of reasons. Giving them a tool to do so isn't always a great idea, but the genie is out of the bag. Having evil characters in the party is problematic. How can the party hold together if half the party is trying to kill the other half? 

I never exactly had this issue for a couple of reasons. I would allow mixed-alignment characters in the party. That is the players' problem to sort out. I have found that player characters tend to moderate themselves in a party. Somehow, people find an accord: 

"Out of the goodness of my heart, and 1,000 gold pieces, I can heal you."

"For a dirty thief, you keep good friends."  

The alignment system in D&D is wonky. It doesn't really mean anything. Good player characters can do bad things and evil player characters can do good things in the right circumstances. There aren't any consequences for being good... or evil. If you want to switch, there are even rules for changing alignment that in my opinion, suck. They are geared to a particular campaign in the mind of the author of the books. They don't make sense in every setting. 

I DO have a problem with inherently evil races in D&D and it's a problem you'd never expect. 

I do voices for NPCs. This creates memorable characters, monsters, and scenarios. The downside is it also conveys tone and information that might be a mismatch for players expectations:

Kobold: "I am going to cut your boots off and wear your feet like boots!" 

10th level Paladin: "Snicker. Just you? Or both of you?" 

Kobolds: "Shit." 

Obviously, 2 Kobolds mean nothing to a 10th-level party. Against first-level characters, they represent some sort of threat, but not for battle-hardened characters. This is villain decay large writ. It is inevitable.

In some respects, using voices and tone gives my campaigns a fairytale-like vibe. What was once fearsome has become childish. Kobolds, goblins, orcs, etc. all become not threatening no matter how evil they are. Yes, you can give them some punch by cranking up the number appearing, but that has nothing to do with evil. 1,000 rats, yaks, or kobolds are dangerous to anyone. Plus rats and yaks aren't evil regardless of their numbers. 

Once the player characters hit a certain level, things like "evil" become nuanced. One example is my character, Magarven. He is a Drow PC adapted to be an NPC. He is clearly evil, but he's also an excellent dinner companion. He (probably) won't try to kill you. But he is still evil. He is gunned up like crazy, but the thought of killing isn't the first thing on his mind. 

The same thing happens to the thieves' guild that harrassed the characters at a low level. Compared to a world-ending lich, exactly how evil are they in comparison? They represent a different threat that has nothing to do with what kind of evil they are.  

I think there is an impetus to conflate evil with competence or ability. There are a lot of evil things out there that simply can't be enacted because they are not well thought out. Selfish people sabotage themselves all the time. Sure, he is a go-getter, but what the heck is he go-getting? 

Why do I let "the evil races" like kobolds not behave evilly? Why do I let players play them? 

Really it is a combination of the fairytale aspect of my gaming plus I can't really force the players or the monsters to behave a certain way, despite labels. Honor is nuanced, just because someone does something "good" doesn't mean they are out for the betterment of others. 

The Great and Power Sauron once said, "Don't kill the hobbits! Bring them to me." 

Guess what? Orcs, goblins, and every other minion of his didn't try to kill the hobbits too often. Nice of them, isn't it? No. They are all still evil, no matter how much food and drink they provide Frodo and Sam.

Evil to me means someone isn't honoring the social compact and bonds between living creatures, but it doesn't mean blindly doing so. There is also a component of self-delusion, the idea that doing evil becomes normal and the actor honestly believes that it is totally normal to do evil things. They are going to say they aren't evil at every opportunity. That is yet another violation of the social compact, although this one is oddly internalized. Add in the fact that if the villain sucks at their life and you get a bit of comedy or tragedy. 

That is good storytelling without ramming the PC's into drawing your conclusions or messages. One player might find it funny, a second finds it tragic and the third simply wants to throw dice and fists and sees no problem with whatever these villains are doing so long as justice prevails. The DM has offered a situation to be considered without forcing a particular point of view. 

The same goes for good characters. Are Palidins expected to heal downed enemies because that is what they would do to be kind? Maybe, but probably not. The players may or may not think of it or have another response based on the situation. 

Brainless creatures are much easier to play as straight-up evil. Everyone gets that you shouldn't talk to zombies or skeletons. It's all about agency and the undead have none, but your average creature does have agency. 

If there is an Assassin and a Paladin in the party, and one is good and one is evil, what of it? The players have to decide what to do. It makes no difference if I say Half-Orc and Kobold. The players are in control of their actions, just as much as I am in control of the NPCs and monsters. If I decide to do something engaging and the players decide they don't want to fight, then maybe we have Tea with the Black Dragon. 

Which is a classic, BTW. 

Good Gothic Fun - Do Not Let Us Die In The Dark Night of This Cold Winter Review

Title: Do Not Let Us Die In The Dark Night of This Cold Winter
Publisher: Cone of Negative Energy
Author: Cecil Howe
Editor: Shasta Howe
Year: 2016
Pages: 53+ pages
Rating: 5 of 5 stars

I hope my publication date is wrong, I would hate to think I missed this lovely mini-game for 8 years. It makes me feel like I've been living under a rock in a secluded village in the middle of winter. 

No, wait. This is the premise of the game. 

Your characters arrive and are trapped in a secluded village. Being adventurers, they quickly rise to the level of decision-makers. The rules assume you play some sort of fantasy setting, probably a low-magic setting. 

You can transform your basic characters from D&D into the characters needed for this set with a quick chat with your players. Is your character a fighter, thief, or a magic user? Let the players know fighters provide firewood (fuel), thieves provide food, and magic users medicine. It's ok to get characters cross-type like a ranger counting as a magic user to make medicine or a cleric as a fighter because they do woodcraft. All you need to sort characters into the three types and be clear that these choices can't change during the game.  

Once you take off the sorting hat, you are ready to go with this resource management mini-game by setting up the village. The book or PDF comes with a map base and dozens of excellent pieces of artwork to create your village. The artwork alone is probably worth purchasing just to have as a resource for other games. It is very nice. 

Each village consists of a building per adventurer plus a storehouse. Each building houses 5 villagers and the storehouse contains resources. Place the pieces on the map and you are ready to go. 

With only 3 resources to manage the game mechanics are a snap. You roll 2d6 or 1d3 all game long, then make choices. It is surprising how complex a simple mechanic set can be. 

The number of turns determines how difficult the game will be. 

Each turn is broken down into steps: 

1. Count the dead, and determine the weather. Weather is your main antagonist. Like many games, this entry point is skipped on the first turn. 
2. Ration your supplies. Characters move supplies from the storehouse to the individual buildings: fuel, food, and medicine. You will need to use 1-3 fuel units per building, per turn. Everyone requires food. Sick villagers can be healed with medicine. Again skip this on the first turn. 
   *You have one hidden resource. Livestock can be converted to food. 
3. Gather supplies. In each turn, characters can gather one of the 3 main resources. Your character type determines what sort of bonus you receive to collect these resources. 
4. Occurrences. These are random positive and negative effects. 
5. Illness. Between 1-3 villagers will become sick per turn. 
6. Consolidation. If too many villagers die, you can consulate buildings. This reduces the amount of fuel units you need per turn. 

Winning is survival. The number of turns you play determines the difficulty of the game. Chapter 4 includes many ideas to change the difficulty and intensity of the game. 

Seeded throughout the book is descriptive text for the game master to read. This is just as good as the artwork and is excellent for those who don't like to improvise lines. I love the tone of these sections of text. With very little adaption they fit perfectly with the presentation of the game to new characters. The short duration of the game plus the copious amount of text and rule changes from Chapter Four allows for several games before players start hearing the same thing. 

The combination of simplistic yet integrated rules and great artwork for constructing villages gives this game some serious replayability. If you reskin food to water, cold for heat, etc. you could plug this into almost any scenario like a desert. 

You can pick this up at DriveThruRPG in either hardcover or PDF.