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Showing posts from November, 2014

City of Curses: Oddfellow 2

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Page 2 of an experiment/practice run on a comic.  Mainly I'm trying to see how well I stick to producing these.  I want to aim for at least once a week. The Story: Oddfellow is a Android and a Paladin- he seeks Piscatore, in a cove of the City of Curses, Crux.  In a city where androids usually are slaves and vampires are protected citizens, how does a Paladin keep on the righteous path? Click Here For Page 1 Page 3 Going to get around to releasing a creative commons license for this: noncommercial sharealike.  Modify/color if you want, please don't sell and credit me.  And yes, I do commission work. Please comment if you enjoy, I'll try to think up a schedule if I feel like there is enough clamor for these.

City of Curses: Oddfellow 1

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Page 1 of a experiment, will probably watermark this or something later as Creative Commons Non-commercial license for the curious, but I haven't yet.  Enjoy. Page 2 can be found here. If you like this, please comment.  Feedback determines if I'm going to do more of these or not.

Random Musing: Stealing Mechanics

Using Pandemic for Political/Social Mechanics My first thought is to use Dread as a basic model.  This could also be useful for Severance as well.  Questions as setting up Replacing the Jenga Tower in Dread (an idea for a mechanic on the same principles).  Because a Jenga tower has inevitability built in: the tower is going to fall eventually, this same principle needs to be built into any mechanic trying to mirror it.  I want tension that crescendos: welp, my first thought is to look at other board games that have similar mechanics I could steal. In Pandemic, the tension comes from cubes that grow.  For Pandemic, this represents diseases growing and overflowing cities as the game goes on.  Mechanically: 3 cubes of the same color make a city "full."  Any more cubes of that color, and they "outbreak": a cube goes to each city connected to that city.  Well, that's the visual tension that affects players: they plan and work based on these cubes...

The Machines of Shiloh 23

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Previous (22) "Ideas do not die.  The memes that comprise them exist forever more.  But like everything else they can change.  You never kill an idea: you force it to adapt to what you want it to become.  An old idea, if mutated enough, looks nothing like the original." Dr. Hannah Maenad Studies of Shiloh CHARON The filtration system looked like a hellscape.  Something out of the divine comedy or something.  The drone body I'd swiped stopped, I realized I'd been using it to stare at the sight before me. "Really?  You have to be fekking with me." The water filtration system had been overrun with varmints.  The little bots had once looked like animals, but had altered themselves.  Burnt fur, twisted limbs and insane customizations ruled.  Each varmint had mutilated itself.  Their eyes glowed with a insane glimmer.  The filtration was just a mess of pipes, hoses and storage tanks. The little monsters had turned t...

The Machines of Shiloh 22

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Previous (21) "Automation of warfare rendered human participation moot.  It makes further sense to take the next step of eliminating violence altogether.  The idea of violence as a solution should be considered obsolete." Catherine 97801A Ethics of Autogov LI The door slid down hard behind us.  "Well, I didn't expect that." "A temple you've protected but know nothing about."  Garok snorted.  "So far, I haven't been surprised." Syren spoke some arcane phrase.  Blue light filled the ancient hall of the Temple of the Heart.  Pictograms of all kinds were illuminated before us.  Hanael took a step forward, muttering a prayer.  She closed her eyes, then reopened them. "I sense a evil presence here."  Hanael observed.  Her tone sounded grave.  "Something I can't pinpoint, its too powerful." "Great."  I added.  "So, there is something going on.  No wonder why the temple guardians were be...

The Machines of Shiloh 21

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Previous (20) "Without the crucible of danger, the fire cannot purify you.  Those who fear stepping into space, to risk radiation and the thousand deaths up there, you choose to be impure.  Those who dare the crucible of space, you are what we should all strive to be.  Stronger, Purer and Better than we first were." Splicer Rose Principles of the Last Renaissance SAM I don't know what tipped it off first.  But the green smoke started it. "What..."  I looked down below us.  The street was obscured, filling with green smoke.  "Kensha-" "I don't know what that is."  She looked worried.  Her black and green locks bobbed up and down as she was accessing the metanet.  "There is a live feed-" "Its gas."  I responded.  "And it isn't the nice kind of gas either...  Fek." I tore at my dress.  It was long enough that I didn't need the long fabric to go past my knees.  I ripped out two sections....

The Machines of Shiloh 20

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Previous (20) "Individuals don't make history.  That fact is hard for us to fathom as we are individuals, at some level, even hiveminds and spirits.  It is when we realize that the universe is fractal, that our small acts reflect on a larger level that we begin to comprehend how super-organisms behave." Catherine 97801A Ethics of Autogov KENSHA "That's a weird version of it."  I thought aloud.  "But wrong." "How so?"  Sam took off her shoes.  She stepped into the garden, seemingly happy to have dirt under her feet.  I tried to concentrate, but the image of Sam in her blue dress looking at the Wall Garden under the Cherry Trees fascinated me. "Um..."  I closed my eyes and considered my thoughts.  "It relies on a erroneous theory of history, Carlyle's hypothesis that history is shaped by significant individuals.  I think he came to it in a time of sexism and other biases, so he thought it made a perfect co...

The Machines of Shiloh 19

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Previous (18) "Souls are saved by story, song and art." Anonymous KENSHA I took Sam to a Gorish restaurant.  Part of me knew she would love it.  The Gor decorated everything with ferns, flowers and greenery.  Fruits.  The sticky sweet scent of melons and apples. The other part of me wanted to see her reaction to the Gor themselves.  The restaurant was entirely vegan, only serving food grown in the vertical gardens above.  If it surprised Sam, I wanted to see it. It was something new, and one gets to experience new once.  But showing someone something new got so close to that same feeling. "This is my favorite Gorish restaurant in all of Roosevelt."  I spun showing off the little jungle of the Fruit Stand.  Above us Gor climbed and lounged, eating and conversing in their own private spots. A server drone met us as we stepped in.  Sam didn't say a thing.  She just stared, her eyes full of amazement at everything ...

The Machines of Shiloh 18

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Previous (17) "Humans have capacities that no machine can replicate." Ada Malkav To Walk Free SAM Roosevelt took some getting used to.  It smelled different than Shiloh had.  The rainbow panoply of flowers were honey sweet, cinnamon and spicy.  The smell of dew seemed to permeate everything. Kensha and walked through the busy streets.  People would nod of say hello to her, as if it weren't a surprise to see her.  The people, too.  So many.  The diversity still astounded me. "Roosevelt is the largest of the central cities, because the main supply and trade lev goes through here."  Kensha sent me a image of a massive tube. It was the same tube I'd seen when I first came into Roosevelt.  The massive structure had pulsated like a vein. "Wait.  That Lev takes everything?"  I asked.  The idea seemed staggering.  I always had been used to thinking of everything as self sustaining.  "I mean, it doesn't bring...