Damn I Am Pretty Art Laboratories

Here's some quick bits from my current Notes on Fate Galactic.  I'm trying to organize these into a more coherent and logical sort of document, but if you are curious on some of ideas I've been chewing on, here yah go. Civilization Advancement Over time, things change.  Generations grow, get old and pass things onto the next generation.  Technology changes how civilizations used to function.  What they believe changes.  What the Civilization Is changes. In Fate Core, this change is measured through the passing of milestones.  Also in Fate Core, settings have Issues, threats that need to be taken care of, problems that plague the setting over the long term.  These serve as part of the long term measure of time for Fate Core, and in Fate Galactic we need something similar. You can take two approaches to this, you can choose to do this without a GM at all, and instead let things play out in a cooperative fashion until you are certain each Era h...

Haven't done one of these in awhile.  Might as well share something near and complex and somewhat close to what one might approximate as my heart: Webcomics.  Its a medium I love, and one of the main reasons I'm addicted to the internet. Praise be the Internet.  So say we all. Webcomics take what I like about comics and can use them to explore aspects of serial storytelling that you don't often get.  Comics in and of themselves are a meta-medium, where readers interact to a degree with the story.  The motion and movement of stories in comics often require the subtle and complicit help of the reader. Webcomics excel the best when they explore things the internet does that you can't do in traditional media.  Themes, or ideas that no mainstream publisher would push.  Character directions or actions that don't conform to the norms of media.  Things like Respect for Women, or even better, changing your perspective in creative ways. Also, they w...

Start of Story | Previous Part | Next Part "Necromancer, know thyself," Jesha retorted.  She chuckled at her own remark.  "Why are you here?  Curious about all the local monsters then?" "Well-" Noir stopped when Jesha pulled out a dark knife.  She also took a rag to it, cleaning it while watching him.  He tried to suppress a shudder.  He got the hint. "I do not make monsters." Noir began.  She thought he had been responsible for the trouble and the knife was a warning.  What she'd do to him if she thought he was lying to her. Jesha cocked an eyebrow.  "You just consort with the living dead then?" "What do you mean by consort?" Jesha leveled a look at him. "You mean Vickie?"  Noir asked. Jesha shrugged.  She didn't say a word, looking at him.  Like she expected something from him. "Vickie- er-, I mean, I helped her and she helped me."  Noir tried to size up Jesha.  He was pretty su...

40 years ago, in 1974, Dungeons & Dragons came into being.  It created a hobby that would be an important part of my life, Tabletop Roleplaying Games.  I think I learned to handle and get past most of my social angst and introversion with it.  And Roleplaying has made me a better storyteller. What is it about it that it I found so enlightening for me?  Before I found D&D I had spent a long time wanting a game that was immersive, where worlds could be build and people would create stories in them...  Then I found D&D and more or less, I found I could scratch that itch and have my mind blown, or however you want to expect a thirteen-year-old's mind to be blown. Back then, the local gathering of gamers, NEOGI, played Living Campaigns.  These campaigns were designed for organized play- that is, you always sat down and played four hour games with a different group of guys, each of them with their own characters and styles of playing.  You al...

Planets and Stars Now to continue on my whirlwind tour here.  Planets and Stars need stats too. Sorry if everything seems haphazard so far, I plan to make it all into a unified theory once I know what does what.  Fate Core does most of the heavy lifting, but I still need to get my thoughts all figured out. Planets have skills, a condition track, and resource tracks.  This isn't the first time you can see planets getting stats and being made part of a exploration mechanic, Disaporia does a very similiar mechanic, much in the vein of Traveler and other classic SciFi.  In Disaporia the three skills Planets get are Resources, Environment and Technology.  Thats part of the core of that game, really.  But since its Fate-ish, stealing at least part of them seems like good idea to me. At the beginning of play, Civilizations start on Planets.  You could figure out other sorts of arrangements, but I'm going to make a leap and assume here that the life req...

After thinking on somethings, I decided to up and alter a couple things, mainly to keep up with simplicity. Proxies: You can use a skill to create a proxy that fits its purviews.  Proxies can have ratings.  All proxies start with a resource cost of 1.  Each additional resource spent grants the proxy a rating, starting 1 for 1, but then doubling in cost past that. For a rating of 1: 2, for a rating of 2: 4, for a rating of 3: 6, for a rating of 4: 8 and so on.  The relevancy of Red, Green and Black kinds of proxies still stands.  Red and/or Black for starships, Green for people and places, Black/Red/Green for cities and things. You also should pick a skill the rating is applied to for the proxy.  Ratings are free bonus shifts that are added to the roll should you succeed.  They also subtract from the shifts generated by attacks when you are defending with a skill. Proxies have a stress track of their own: [_] [_].  Just 2 boxes.  They ...

Northern Asia (Modern Day Finland), 399 AD The giants dominated the valley.  Six or seven times the size of a fullgrown man, each giant's bronze and ice armor glittered in the sunlight.  From her spot on the ground they looked like they towered over the mountains.  A legion of Giants. The tallest, most scarred of the giants stepped out toward her.  He looked like their leader to her.  She scanned her thoughts, reaching back into the mask she wore.  The memories and ideas of a past generations of her bloodline didn't tell her anything about him. She tried not to let that discourage her. The leader pointed down at her.  His voice boomed, like a large drum slammed hard.  "We come for the one who took our brother.  Where is the monster who is called Lupis?" She stood a bit taller.  She regretted not having the others here.  But this was a thing she had to do by herself. "I am she." The giant blinked at her.  "You clai...

Another splat of thoughts on the subject, although now I'm starting to find limits and problems, but those are on my end.  I'm still going to post this one, though.  Partly because I try to post some sort of writing everyday.   And partly I want to see if anyone else has thoughts to add to it.  Here we go. Okay. Exploiting resources is a form of Creating an Advantage- Survival, Science, Industry, and Exploration are skills capable of taking resources from a planet (or star or whathaveyou).  Industry is better at acquiring Red or Black resources, and Survival is better at acquiring Green resources.  Stunts can change this, usually. Spending resources, well, thats a different matter.  You can spend resources to create extras that act for you.  State what the thing is- organization, corporation, fleet, machine, whatever- spend the resources needed, and there you've got that thing.  Its not important enough to get its own aspects, and it do...

Start of the Story | Previous Part | Next Part Noir and Bert drove around for the better part of four hours.  Noir didn't find any answers, just more questions from what they'd seen.  He found the echoes of more ghosts.  Those few ghosts he did find couldn't talk, or at least be, understandable to him. "I had hoped at least one would've learned how to communicate to me.  Its like all of them were drowned, and that's making it hard to get clues from them."  Noir shook his head. "At least we knew all them were killed the same way."  Bert patted him on the back as they started to prepare dinner for the Inn.  "Besides, you might be a little dependent on your abilities, you know?" Noir didn't respond.  He was already throwing something onto the stovetop.  "I... Maybe you're right.  But I think I need more clues about what's going on here.  I need to see more of the dead... maybe if I get one of them to possess me aga...

I didn't expect any real response to this, but the first post on the idea got enough attention I decided to write up something more based on some notes I had for it.   Resources . Planets, Stars and other phenomena have resources your civilization can acquire and use: Red, Black, Green and Blue.  Using these resources, you can create permanent things, using the Create Advantage action to turn resources into usable things.  I'm being vague here, but I intend to try and be clearer at some point.  Or not.  Sometimes vagueness helps.  Resources are extras, something your Civilization gets when it exploits, or rather, uses a its abilities to take resources out of a planet, star or other thing. Red Resources are volatile elements, the kind needed to create weapons and power machines.  Red resources aren't as bad for power as Green resources and it isn't as efficient as Black resources, but Red is more plentiful than either.  Red resources can be...

Previous Part | Start of the Story | Next Part Noir was cleaning up after lunch had been served. The only real takers were a few guests and Jesha, of course. Noir figured it had to be Jesha, because one plate had a napkin with lipstick on it. He shook his head, throwing the napkin away. He no interest in pursuing her, but she seemed interested in him. And he still didn't understand the predatory aura he sensed from her. That and how her mere presence annoyed Bert and Vickie. "And the drowned Ghosts too. She shows up the morning after they visit me, asking about hauntings? Did she sense what I could do?" Noir asked himself. Could she be the monster the ghost had seen? "You learned about the killing then?" Vickie asked. That made Noir jump. He hadn't seen her approach. She still unnerved Noir, and his body wasn't helping. He knew her, that she meant well. That had been the Vickie he'd known the last time he'd been here. ...

Here's an idea: using Fate Core to model out a RPG where you play Galactic Civilizations exploring the galaxy around them. Its a simple concept, and it means that players spend a part of the game playing civilizations making big actions, ones that take years, decades or centuries to complete.  So, Scenes are going to be the smallest unit of measure of time here.  When Civilizations embark on something, the difficulty roll takes place, and a scene is played to reflect that. Civilizations have skills: Aggression, Culture, Exploration, Faith, and Survival .  There are other skills too, but you need to have a stunt that enables or turns the skill on for you: Engineering, Industry, Warfare, Science, Art, Psionics, Covert Ops and Pacifism . Aggression means the willingness to cause harm and start conflicts.  Handy if its the only means to handle crises and threats.   Also means it can trigger wars, as your people are used to using violence to handle their prob...

Start of Story | Previous Part | Next Part Noir woke up sore the next morning.  After running into Bert, the undead man had been kind enough to point out the salty stench that followed Noir.  So he took a shower and returned, explaining the previous night to Bert. "Dang you stank to all hell."  Bert shook his head.  He wiped grease off his hands.  He'd been working on the cadillac.  Vickie had found a variety of odd jobs for Bert to perform since the previous day.  "Caddy is gassed up, Vickie paid us enough for that.  But I guess we're staying now that you found something worthwhile?" Noir shrugged.  "I still haven't had a meeting with the Dark Man since that crossroads months ago.  Besides... I want to try and help those... those ghosts.  It was so intense..." Noir trailed off, unable to think of the right words for it. "And you vomited all over the floor.  Who lets any old ghost in their home?  Hell, I'm still...

Too tired to get a decent full update tonight.  An outline also went missing for Dead Man Stew, but still, I did something rather than bitch about it.  Here is a quick flash fic of one kind or another.  Enjoy! Shanghai, 1900.  Days after the Boxers Rebellion. "I loved Shanghai.  But alas, even you damn Mortals can screw up anything, can't you?"  The dragon, disguised as he was in the form of a old fat man, still had the tone Ra had expected.  Maybe it was the only shape the greedy bastard could fit into, or maybe the dragon misunderstood it.  Ra still saw the irony in it. But Ra didn't time or the patience to make jokes with this creature.  "My king has sent me here on business.  You should have some more respect, he chooses to let you stay in his realm unchallenged, monster.  Watch what you say." Ra stood the height of a average man, and he looked British.  His accent was that of a street born londoner, but his clothes...

Start of Story | Next Part Noir's kitchen skills didn't go unrecognized.  Vickie managed to keep him busy most of that day.  And the for next two days.  Noir started to enjoy it, although he knew it couldn't last. It liked having a job again, something that people depended on him to do.  Well, something that living people depended on.  Noir still knew it couldn't last. That night his internal pessimism turned out to be correct. "Elle?"  Noir could hear her voice.  He could see her, far away and down the hall.  "Elle please... don't leave..." "Hwwp." He couldn't make out any of the words she had been saying.  It was just at the edge of his hearing.  At one moment, a murmur.  At another, a hint of the woman he knew and loved. Noir ran for her.  "Elle please!  I need to... help.  Help you... I'm sorry I failed you-" When Noir caught up to Elle, her back had been turned away from him.  He touched her ...

Hey.  Here is a new story, or the start of one.  Dead Man Stew is a tentative title, I need to think of something more clever than that.  This is the third story to feature Noir Bedarte, Necromancer with Heart of Gold.   In the first story, Noir did what he does, collecting bad people and helping out the deceased.   In the second, its Christmas Eve and Noir gets dragged (literally) into dealing with a house haunted by a hive of poltergeists.  Here, Noir and his dead buddy Bert get stuck.  Noir helps out a old friend, but will ghosts from the past throw off his plans? Anyway, comments welcomed.  This is a rough draft, which I have outlined to be seven parts.  If you enjoy it, let me know.  If you don't, let me know.  Either way, I learn from it.  Enjoy! * * * * * * * * * * Next Part of Story Bert shook his head in the negative.  "Nope.  She's dead, Jim." "Great.  At least we are near Newport."  Noi...