A Minor Change to my Support Page

A lot of you viewing this blog are Patreons, and I want to thank  you for your support, and I'd like to continue creating content that rewards you for your support, and commissioning the art that will show you the world of Psi-Wars. 

However, not a year goes by when Patreon doesn't step into some controversy and scandal and they increasingly look like an unstable platform to me: they change their terms of use on a whim if they feel like it, they seem arbitrary, and they've somehow not managed to turn a profit the entire time they've been in existence (or so I understand it).  Some of these scandals have actually cost me patrons.  So, it seems foolish to rely exclusively on Patreon for this blog's income.

So, I've branched out.  I still have Patreon, and given its market presence, I don't see it disappearing soon, but if you don't like their approach to things, or just prefer a different platform to Patreon, I now have a SubscribeStar account you can also subscribe to.  You don't have to make the switch if you don't want to, but the option is there for those who do. If you are going to switch, I suggest quitting Patreon now, waiting until a new month begins, and then re-up via SubscribeStar.

I've also had requests to just give a one-time donation.  You can do so now through my paypal.me. If there's a specific special (or specials) you want, get in touch with me and we'll work something out.

Thank you as always for your support.  As stated before, nothing needs to change for you if you don't want it to, These are just new options for those who want them.

So you wanna support my blog?

It's no secret that a lot of bloggers, channels and other content creators rely on donations from people like you to keep going.  The truth is, I don't need a donation from you to keep going, though it makes it easier to justify to my wife, but I can take those donations and plow them right back into my work. The beautiful art you'll see popping up sometimes on this site are courtesy of donations from people like you.  The more donations I get, the more art I can commission and the sooner, and better, I can show this world to you.

In return for your fine donations, I have a collection of Patreon/Subscriber specials available for you here.

I also have a Discord Server, with various tiers available to all Patrons and Subscribers.  If you do want to subscribe, be sure to claim your Discord benefits and join us on the server.

There are three ways you can donate to me.

• I have a Patreon
• I have a SubscribeStar Account
• You can donate directly via a paypal/me link.
• I can accept and handle a variety of crypto currencies.

If you use the last one, be sure to get in touch with me over any specials you'd like access to, and I'll see if I can send them your way.

Whatever you want to chip in, I really appreciate.  You've helped bring my setting to life.

Patreon Preview: Trader Guildfleets

Quite some time ago (December 2019, I think), I created a poll for working out the technological infrastructure of the Poll-designed alien race, the Traders.  I've been busy with other things, but I managed to get a total of 5 ship designs out for the Traders:

• General Technological Considerations
• Their Interceptor
• Their Blockade Runner/Smuggler Corvette
• Their Defensive Frigate
• Their "Battleships"
• And, of course, their Arks.

This is an incomplete document and I offer it as a preview to my Companions ($5+) patrons.  Don't worry, Fellow Travelers, when it's done, it'll be available to you too, I promise.  It's just messy as of yet, and I wanted to get some feedback before I make it available to you.

It's available here

Vehicular Upgrades

Ranathim Mechanic
by Dan Smith

I wrote the post on vehicular extra effort so I could write this post.

I've been struggling for a long time as to how to handle people kitting out their rides.  Several people have pointed out that Han Solo flew a "modded" YT-1300 light freighter, and even if we set aside Star Wars, the whole point of series like the Fast and the Furious is to brag about how cool your vehicle is.  Technologically minded characters will want to roll back their sleeves and upgrade or modify their vehicle somehow, and fighter Aces and Smugglers will want to brag about how their signature ship is "the fastest in the Galaxy."

The problem here, though, is that GURPS Vehicles is awfully complicated.  For example, if you swap out one engine for another that's twice as powerful in output, that doesn't mean your vehicle is twice as fast as it was.  What if the engine is heavier? And even if it isn't, aerodynamics (or hyperspatial hyperdynamics) will have something to say about it, as you get diminishing returns.  Thus, we need to break out the spread sheets every time we mod a vehicle.  In a sense, the genius of GURPS Spaceships was to waive all that complexity away by creating a very modular system.  In GURPS Spaceship, you really can just swap out one engine for another! But we've discarded that system, as it creates some other issues.

So, I built Redjack vehicles to tackle this problem. If you want a modular vehicle, you don't get a Valiant or a Javelin, you get a Wildcat.  In creating them, I did several quick variations, streamlined some elements, and then gave you the modules you could load.  But that gives you a modular vehicle.  That lets you swap out one blaster cannon for another, or slot in some accessory, like a hyperdrive, cloaking system or force screen. What if all you want to do is tune up your vehicle?  What if you just want it to be faster or tougher?

GURPS Action has a variant of this: they let you downgrade your vehicle for -10% price for some random problem, typically a -1 to something on your stat line.  Why can't we just do the reverse?  This doesn't represent do something like getting a fundamentally different engine, but doing some minor tinkering and gadgeteering, like tweaking the engine to be a bit more efficient, or rewiring the power system to be more resilient, or adding a turbo.  They're meant to be simple statline manipulations or a few minor tweaks to customize your experience, as an optional rule.

What follows is intended for Psi-Wars, but should work in any game with some modifications.

Emergency Power Allocation

While working on Trader Tech for my Patrons, I began to ponder the nature of "Cobbletech" and what possible bonuses I could use to represent it.  While researching and poking around, I came across the old idea of "Energy Reserve for Vehicles to allow Extra Effort."  It's an intriguing idea, but how do you handle extra-effort for a vehicle?

Then it hit me: we already had such a system in place in GURPS Spaceships.  I always liked the Engineering actions that GURPS Spaceships allows, especially since it gave Psi-Wars tech-bots a reason to hang out in your Starhawk.  With the shift to Vehicles though, and discarding of Power Points, this no longer served a purpose.  But what if we could bring it back in the form of Extra Effort?  Not all vehicles would have spare energy reserves, so for most vehicles it would be moot, but for some, it might be an option.  I propose the following rules:

Emergency Power Allocation

Some vehicles have Emergency Power Reserves, which can act as Energy Reserves for the purposes of "Vehicular Extra Effort." These represent more robust power-transfer systems, distributed energy capacitors and spare energy banks. Vehicles without Emergency Power Reserves can still "redline" and reduce their HT by one to gain the benefits of "Vehicular Extra Effort" (see "Machines and Fatigue," page B16); this represents overcharging certain systems, blowing out energy transfer systems, etc.  Allocating Emergency Power Reserves requires a Passenger Action, a roll against an appropriate skill and a single point of the  vehicle's Emergency Power Reserve (or one level of HT).

• All Power to the Engines:  Skills:  Electrician or Mechanic (Appropriate vehicular specialization). For a single Action Vehicular Combat turn, double the Move of the vehicle; as a simplified calculation, apply a +2 to its chase rolls.  This doubles fuel consumption for the turn (if that matters), and apply a cumulative -4 to the skill roll for this form of vehicular extra effort for each additional attempt to double your Move.  Critical failure on this roll disables your engines.
•  Emergency Evasive Maneuvers: Skills: Electrician or Mechanic (Appropriate vehicular specialization). Success grants a the vehicle a +2 to a single vehicular dodge; this //always// counts as a High-G dodge.
• Emergency Firepower: Skills: Electrician or Armoury (Vehicular Weapons). Success grants a single weapon +1 damage per die or +2 damage per die by the weapons Malf is reduced to 14.  A critical failure on your skill roll for this form of vehicular extra effort disables your weapons.
• Emergency Screen Recharge: Skills: Electrician or Armoury (Force Screen). Rather than wait until your next turn to restore your force screen to full DR, do so immediately.  This usually works best when a force screen is under a particularly intense barrage of lighter attacks.
•  Emergency System Purge: Skills: Electrician or Mechanic (Appropriate vehicular specialization). This allows a vehicle to ignore the effects of a failed HT roll due to a Surge attack, a roll to see if the vehicle remains operational, or a roll to see if a system was disabled, for the duration of one turn.  The GM may choose to limit the effects of this an emergency systems purge to temporarily restore the functions of the energy system or systems that draw power, such as weapons, force screens and some engines. This has no effect on Destroyed systems, nor can it prevent a ship's destruction.
•  Emergency Weapon Recharge: Skills: Electrician or Armoury (Vehicular Weapons). Success restores half of all shots to a single weapon.

Vehicular Updates

Redjack Fighters would gain the option of an emergency power reserve as an option slot

Valiants would simply gain 3 energy reserve points.

Valkyries would gain a psychotronic power module which allows the user to supply the energy directly from his own fatigue (likely with an exchange rate, probably 5 fatigue for 1 vehicular energy reserve), and replaces the roll with a Will roll.

How to run an RPG VII: Narrative Flourishes Part II - Bisociation, Twists and Symbolism

Last time, we talked about alternative narrative structures. This time, I want to talk about diving deeper into your narrative, and allowing your players to extract more meaning from it. These tricks can spice up any sort of narrative!

How to run an RPG VI: Narrative Flourishes part 1 - Alternate Narrative Structures

We've discussed a lot about narrative structures and the basics of storytelling, but "narrative" is a topic we could explore forever, as there are literally countless stories out there, all with different structures and motifs. This is an art, after all, not a science, so I wanted to expose you to a few different ideas to explore when spicing up your RPG narratives.

After Action Report: Tall Tales of the Orochi Belt Part II: Welcome to the Belt

We join our heroes on the Heirophant, the Arcana-Pattern Carrier of the Grand Dame.  Lady Talia Sabine greets her new wingman, the Viscontess Shay Sabine and they walk together to the briefing.  They briefly discuss their philosophy of war, and Talia reveals that she fights this war out of a sense of duty to the people: that the Alliance was meant to protect the Galaxy and have hidden behind the protection of Caliban too long, and that she wants to finally step forward and do her duty as a noblewoman.

This has been important for me to establish.  Talia thus far hasn't had much of a chance to make an appearance or reveal herself as a character, and I wanted to let her breath a little.  More importantly, I want to lampshade one of the major themes of the campaign: how will you rule? Talia represents the idealism of noblesse oblige.  She believes that Maradonians like herself are a cut above the rest and have a right to rule, but this is a responsibility and a duty to use their gifts to rule well.  This will contrast with the Grand Dame, who has a more cynical view of power, Callister Lee, who doesn't believe in the nobility of the aristocracy, and Sawyer Septum, who both believes in the power of the common man and has a rather cynical view on power.

The Briefing 

Then they gather to attend the briefing, which Talia herself must give.  The plan is revealed as thus:

• The Alliance has reports of three imperial dreadnoughts (the Victor's Gambit, the Resolute and the Sovereign Triumphant) and 5 Dominion-Class heavy cruisers.  Their reports also indicate that the Victor's Gambit and an escort of 2 cruisers often go on patrols to other, nearby systems and might be cut-off by the hyperstorms.
• This garrison is focused on Beauregard Station, near the gas giant Goldstrike.
• The plan is for the fleet to fly to the third of the stars of the Orochi Belt.  They will use the star as cover from imperial sensors, thus arriving at its far side.  They will secure the area ("the Veridian Field")
• Once secure, they will branch off and try to infiltrate deeper into the system, acquiring allies and activating rebel cells, and then bring out their fleet from behind "Jolly Green" and reveal their presence in a coordinated effort with the rest to strike at the Imperial Fleet.
• They must do all of this before the Hyperstorms subside, so they can mount a proper defense against the inevitable retaliation of the 137th Imperial Fleet off of Zaine.

Nobody has any real questions, but the Orochi Belters mutter among one another that that's the part of the Orochi Belt most infested with the Orochi.  This means there will be less of an Imperial presence there, but that's because there will be lots of Orochi. This makes it a dangerous, desperate gamble.  Lynwood Voss comments that he likes it.

During this scene, we also introduce a few new characters and arrange for everyone's place in the organizational structure:

• Captain Tyro Pavonis (Played by Nemoricus) will command one wing of Harlquin Squadron, including Lieutenant Kobayahi "Femme Fatale" Zero, Lieutenant Lynwood "Belter's Brag" Voss, the feisty Flight Officer Sienna "Red" Sky and the regulation-driven Flight Officer Livius "Blue" Kyne. These latter two are introduced for the first time bickering about who won in a fighter simulator contest. Tyro's mechanic will be Arietta Lee.
• Shay Sabine (played by Shinanoki) will be Talia Sabine's wingman and her mechanic will be the Ranathim Kerin Kethim.
• Baron Mallus Grimshaw (Gentleman Gamer) will fly with Malachi Harrow and will have Tadashi "Prime" as his mechanic (though he was unable to attend).
• Sir Axton Kain, who commands a full Lancer, and whose highest ranked Regular is an irrascible old cus, Sergeant Wick Rayburn, is asked by Talia to integrate Sabine soldiers into his Lancer, including the handsome and naive parade-regular, Lieutenant Lance Highguard.  Axton makes sure Wick is willing to babysit Lance.  Callister Lee and Nubbins also join them aboard their ship as engineers.

One of my struggles with the campaign concept of Tall Tales is how to bring across the scale of their operation.  This is not a group of five heroes in a single corvette, but several high level officers in the part of a huge fleet.  How do we bring across the scale of that fleet?  To do this, I've introduced a lot of minor NPCs, little more than named mooks who have a name, a snippet of description, and a single RP quirk.  I can expand them if necessary, but the idea is just to have some characters I can pull up at the drop of a hat to give a sense of a huge community in the fleet.  The big risk here, though, is that by calling out a name, already overloaded players might feel like they can't remember all these names, but they don't need to remember these, unless they interest them.

I also felt like Tyro didn't get much chance to do anything last session; setting him up with his wing gave him more to do and play with.