Atomic Rocket Games

Dave Arneson, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons, is no longer with us.

Dave brought us the concept of individual characters, interacting with their environments, and was the driving force behind the Chainmail miniatures game. Among so many other things he did, these elements were critical in bringing you and I the world of roleplaying games we all love so very much.

We'll miss you, Dave. Godspeed.

Mike, will you be bringing character sheets?

I've checked my stashes, and I have none that I can find easily. I'll check again when I get home, in case I missed them.

I can't really talk about it, because frankly, I have no particulars - but I (Jim) have been approached by Mike at RTG to work on upcoming Mekton Zero projects.

In the event that I am able to speak on what's coming up, I will do so. If I cannot, please understand that I'll do my best to give you good product and good material.

In the meanwhile, I've been working on a console RPG style Magic System for Mekton, using Z+ weapons construction rules, 50-Hit kills, and grossly simplified range rules.

So far it seems to be working well. I'll make it available when I can.

How're things out there in Mekton Fandom land?

E. Gary Gygax, viewed widely as the father of Roleplaying Games, has passed away. His son has released a statement, and it can be found in various places around the web and other gaming sources. ARG would like to extend our deepest sympathies to his family and friends, and say from the bottom of our hearts - he will be sorely missed.

So, I'm working on The Wild Frontier, and trying to figure out the real disposition of Quicksilver Blues with RTG. As soon as I know, I'll make sure people know.

I need art. But I can't pay. Which means it's back to me and Chris. I want to try and get Gary Washington's work into TWF, but frankly I can't pay him, which means zero incentive from my part where his wallet is concern. If anyone can convince him to work pro-bono until I can get a moderately positive cash flow for ARG, I'll happily take it.

I'm working with Brian and Chris to get Martian Eagles finalized. Again, issues with life and editing. It's almost 100% ready, I swear. Just issues with the mecha sheets and the text editing left to hack out.

I've been playing a lot of Mass Effect the last two days. linuxpete was telling me that he found it similar in many ways to where I want to go with The Wild Frontier, so I had to get my hands on it and check it out.

I hate to say it, but my FTL science is more firm than theirs is, as it a lot of my general space science. They focus a lot on heat - which is a viable thing to focus on, mind you - but I wonder if they're cutting science too little slack. If you can propel a ship to superluminal velocities, you can dissipate heat in a harmless fashion. But they talk so much about it, I wonder if I'm going to have a mission somewhere in there where the Normandy is suddenly unable to vent waste heat and my crew starts to roast if I don't move fast enough.

For what it's worth, heat dissipation isn't much of an issue in TWF. FTL travel is done by way of punching a hole in the fabric of space, inserting a packet of normal space into a Hyperspace "conduit," and letting that travel at 12.7K AU/day to its destination (of course, the speed is different for intra-system HS travel). Yes, heat builds up, but it is also redirected into other systems and used internally before being radiated.

All in all, Mass Effect seems to be a very solidly grounded science fiction game - but there is so much emphasis on "Heat Bad!" that I can't help but feel I'm getting set up for something roasty.

Terminal Interrupt: d.07.sub_sub_delta Interdiction
Terminal Interrupt:user login sent to background Failure to understand
Interdiction


Sometimes I wonder if you truly understand what it is we do for you.

There are times when all is misunderstanding, nonlinear comprehension, circular observations not exactly as it seems.

This is one of those Your incursion has been logged and countermeasures are being deployed times.

I give you this time to consider our actions.

You have had far too long to consider yours, and done nothing.

Query, desire to understand, attention to detail

Terminating Incursion.

Okay, true believers, it's time to kill some sacred cows.

Name one Sacred Cow... one Gaming Trope... that you absolutely can't stand, and tell me why.

Consider this an impromptu poll, sparked by wanting to make sure that several of the decisions I'm making on a project are founded in reality, and not my own interestingly odd sense of design.

I'll start.

Initiative. I can't stand the fact that in nine out of ten games, Initiative in combat is determined by a solely physical characteristic. D&D is the worst of the bunch, where a Rogue who can't spell, but can balance on the broken second leg of a three legged chair, always goes before the Wizard who learned to spell in the womb.

Brainpower has nothing to do with "who goes first" in most games. White Wolf really hit on something in Storyteller with their "Wits + Alertness" method - your brains or common sense, plus your overall awareness of the world, gave you the odd leg up in combat, not whether or not you can tie your shoes upside down in the dark while also chewing gum and patting your head.

Initiative should have nothing to do with your physical grace, and more with the speed of your reactions to the situation, which is a far more "mental acuity" type task. It can reflect hand-eye coordination or something, but it shouldn't be solely reliant on it.

That's one of mine.

What are yours?

It's the battle of the Star Wars collectible games, this year, it seems.

Now, I don't know who has what license, or who will be doing future sets of what. I've been unable to find any evidence to show that either WizKids or WoTC will be ceasing production of their respective fleet battle miniatures any time soon, so it looks as though for the time being, there will be two (count them!) options available for people who want to play around with capital ships, stunt fighters, droid brains, and clone pilots.

So let's do a little compare/contrast, shall we?

( 1: Price )

( 2: Build )

( 3: Rules )

( 4: Expandability and continuance cost )

( 5: Collectable Factor )

( 6: Playability and Support )

So, tallying this up, we're looking at -1 SWPM and +2 SWFB as our totals, which is of course meaningless to anyone who has a preferred style of play. The numbers I give here are merely an indication of what I expect from a game, and what I want to see when I play it. SWPM is coming out with more expansions, and none are as yet announced that I can find for SWFB, which is a definite point in SWPM's favor. However, given the higher cost of entry for SWPM if you want a deck and models worth playing, you're looking at a really tricky comparison when you start getting in to higher fleets. Overall, the way I play and the amount I'm willing to spend leans me toward SWFB, but for a simple, fast game, SWPM may be just what you want.

Your conclusions, of course, may be different than my own.

I want to make a short-ish rant about artists.

Being something of an illustrator myself (even though I do my best to keep my personal and professional lives separate, anyone who really does their homework can find my DeviantArt and Livejournal accounts fairly simply... so I won't even try to pretend that I don't draw and ink and paint and things), I see a lot of other people's work. I love looking at what other people are doing. I draw encouragement and inspiration from seeing what other people come up with. It's really a good source of reference, and reminds me that there are all kinds of styles and methods out there, and motivates me to keep working on my own stuff.

Part of the reason that I have the artist's guidelines up on the ARG site is because I want to get these other artists exposure in the field - I have contacts in the RPG industry, and even if I can't pay them, I want to get these fledgeling artists some work if I can. People send me links to their stuff, and if I think I know someone who can use it, I forward it over to them. So far, it's worked a few times, and not worked others... some people get the work, some don't.

The effect of the guidelines, beyond that, is that I get to see a lot of potentials.

And when I say a lot, I mean just that.

And let me tell you, it's an interesting sight. Oh, I'm not going to bag on people for being amateurish - that's why they're contacting ARG - of course they're amateurs (although, Andrew FREAKING Probert wants to do work for ARG when we get the money to pay him... MY GOD). It's not about the quality of their work - no, it's about the content.

Honestly, it's like no one draws nudes any more.

It's like there's some kind of belief scrolling around the artists community that drawing nudes - basic figure drawing - is somehow bad, or will be looked down on.

Which is ridiculous, really. Without a basic knowledge of human anatomy, you can't draw a realistic figure. You also can't distort, distend, and alter that figure to your whim and do so believably. I get a lot of folks who send me mails saying "I've looked over the suggestions you give on the ARG site, and I've included everything but a nude. I hope you don't mind, but I'm not comfortable drawing nudes."

Well, honestly, how the heck did you get through art class? Or, if you haven't taken it, how do you plan on getting through it when the time comes?

Life Drawing was my most formative and beneficial class ever. More than Perspective. More than Basic Illustration. I learned how bones work, how to bend a wing, how to fit tab a into slot b. Granted, I'm still not perfect, far from it, but when I draw people, you can see their hips, their thighs - they have recognizable features and all their parts join up right.

Some of the things I see show a marked talent, but no practical learning to go along with it. I sometimes get images that are technically astounding - and by that I mean ridiculously great - mechanically. But when you get to anatomical drawings, what you get is... well, lacking. Women with no hips. Bodies that don't bend right. Hands with no articulation, or palms that bend in the middle instead of at the knuckle.

My point here isn't to bag on the folks that send their work to ARG.

My point is to encourage every single artist reading this to grab yourself some Pose File books, or sign up for a life drawing class (or, heck, be a model for the class, you'll get to see a lot of folks impressions of you). Draw naked people.

Nudity does not equal sex. It does not have to be sexy, or suggestive, or full of come-hither looks and innuendo - although we all know those things are fun. Heck, I draw a metric ton of cheesecake. So does coolerking, one of the maintainers of this community. We enjoy it.

But nudity just is. There's nothing wrong with it. Give it a shot, it might just help you out in the long run.

Reposted from my personal LJ.

Please comment here, not there, if at all.

***

So I've been watching Gerry Anderson's "UFO," set in the futuristic world of 1980, lately.

It's a stone gas, man.

However, I have some thoughts on this. ( Behind a cut tag for length )

First, I updated the Star Wars Saga Edition character sheet. For some obscure reason, I totally forgot to put the "Persuasion" skill on there. This is remedied, although you only get room for three Knowledge Skills now. I also added a list of which Characteristic Modifiers apply to each skill, and opened up some of the space between the various boxes on the sheet. I also added an XP box at the top of the sheet for tracking purposes.

Once again, the sheet is not an ARG product. It's a "Me" product - made by a player of the game for other players of the game.

Also, I've been working on a "Fuzion Redux" for a fantasy game I'm working on. I've done a lot of streamlining, and am planning on showing it to Mike Pondsmith at my first opportunity. My goal with this is to remove or reduce the tendency of players to use "dump stats" when playing a game. D&D has a prime example of this - Charisma. If you're not a Sorcerer, or a Bard, or playing a particularly potent Cleric, Charisma is where your low stat goes. More often than not, most groups have one character with a high Charisma, who then sticks most of their points in that, and does all the "face work" for the group. The rest of the group runs around min-maxed to the extreme. While this is good in combat situations, we're playing roleplaying games here - no one stat should be more important, or less important, than any other.

To this end, I've tuned the various characteristics to a point where not only is the number reduced, but each group (Combat, Mental, Physical) generates a very precise set of derived characteristics, each of which is useful to any character. In fact, slighting any one of the primary characteristics to too large a degree will end up with your character suffering tremendously in that area. "Average" characters are easier to make, allowing for an easier time balancing things out. I've also streamlined Complications - no more fiddling with individual point calculations - you have Minor, Moderate, or Major complications. End of story. Have a nice day, carry on.

I've also refined how Everyman skills are handled, essentially redoing them entirely.

The goal here is to have a game where you can literally go as crunchy or as quick and dirty as you want - I plan on doing this thing up to the "full detail" in the back, for the GM. The player, however, should be able to say "I want this from Column A, this from Column B, and this from Column C." The entry cost in time for a game should be fast, the game itself should be easy to understand, and most importantly, it should be fun. Players want a certain degree of control over their character during creation, whether that's simply more choices from a series of templates, or a complete and involved creation system.

My goal is to reach a happy medium between the two.

I'm planning on using this in my own personal fantasy game, and possibly in The Wild Frontier. I'm going to see if I can't manage a Fuzion license from RTG and produce the Atomic Rocket Fuzion Engine or something. I can't promise anything, but hey, it's worth a shot, right?

I threw together a character sheet for the new Star Wars Saga Edition RPG from Wizards Of The Coast.

The sheet given in the book is two sheets of 9x9 paper, of which roughly 6x6 is usable. This one is on one 8.5x11 sheet, fits everything on one page, and actually has more room for certain things (weapons, feats, talents, and skills) than the official sheet.

If you want it, you can get it here.

Go have fun!

(This sheet is not endorsed by WOTC, and is not an official ARG product - it's a player making a new sheet, for personal use only. Neither I, James Milligan, nor ARG have any claim to the Star Wars license, and this sheet is provided from my personal webspace, not the Atomic Rocket Games space. Further, all rights belong to their respective owners, creators, and licensors.)

Mark (iceberg3k) asked back in 2005, in this post if ARG was going to be looking at getting solicited or unsolicited submissions any time "in the next year."

The answer I gave then was very realistic and honest.

It remains so.

My initial fund of options at my day job are vesting 100% shortly, and I intend on selling a large number of them off in the near future and using them to both eliminate my debt and sink a good amount into ARG, if possible.

Unfortunately, I am not nearly where I planned on being at this point in my life. I have had some serious upheavals in the last two years - I was nearly forced out of my job due to politics, members of my family and friends went through horrific health crises, including some mortalities... I ended a relationship of 15 years, began a pharmacological regimen to help me shake off a severe bout of depression, anxiety, and what can only be described as emotional post-traumatic stress disorder, and have been undergoing therapy and counseling for these things for some time.

The good news is that I'm really quite better, lately. It's a wonderful feeling.

ARG remains something that I do when I have time, between having a life and a job. I am committed to it, but it remains a moderate priority until such time as it can become a primary focus. I continue to plug time into The Wild Frontier, Anara, and my other projects as time allows. Nothing is stagnating, but similarly, progress is very slow on a lot of fronts.

I won't speak for Brian and Matt, but suffice to say, things have been rather hectic and unpredictable for them, too.

So, that said, let me give you some updates:

The Wild Frontier - This is proceeding glacially. I'm running into some very serious system problems. The worldbook writes itself, but the system itself is having some difficulties. As I get them sorted out, I'll be able to proceed faster.

Anara - Pretty much stalled out. I could do this in Fuzion easily, but, no, I want to make it both Fuzion and OGL. I just HAVE to make this more difficult for myself.

And on that note...

No Class/No Level OGL SRD - Also stalled out. Running into some problems with Magic and the like. This is what you get when you take the OGL and put the serial numbers back onto it so it's Fuzion again... (my own personal theory... ask me to explain it offline some time)

Martian Eagles - We're stalled waiting for the art. Layout's done, we're short a bit of art, and once that's in, we'll be done and Brian can put another credit on his list.

The other products, like those listed on Gold Line and White Line, are pretty much stalled. I can only work on so many things at once, and some things have to get back burnered.

So, anyway, there you go... Any questions?

So, Mekton Fans, I'm starting a series of "Would You Play It?"'s here on the old community board.

If it were written, would you play it?

So, to begin with our first offering...

( Dolls )

For those of you wondering, I did show the quickie review of V3 that I wrote to Mike Pondsmith.

To summarize his response, I got it in one.

So, now you know what the man was thinking, and if you have any further questions, you can refer to the review, and remind yourself that he knew what he was doing when he did it. Mike does nothing without reason.

I'm sure some of you wackos can come up with something to do with this.

So very alien!

So, someone on one of my forum communities said the following when I started looking around for folks local to me to play some Cyberpunk V3 with:

"Wait, we're talking the new version, right? With the Amphibious people? And the pictures in the book made with crappy action figure stuff? Yeah; game turned to a steaming pile of shite. They sold out. It's all part of the Seattle Conspiracy; the game went from "Fighting the Corporations" to "He who dies with the most toys wins". Give me Shadowrun any day. I've got a similar feel, and orcs to boot. What's not to love?"

To which I replied:

Actually, you're only half right. I'll come back when I'm not running my monday night WoW RPG game and tack some stuff on here. :)

He said he'd wait, and so when my WoW RPG game was done, I went back and wrote the following.

( Behind a cut because it's long )

Just uploaded the latest Mekton Mini Campaign, Freedom! to the ARG Homepage.

Go! Share and enjoy!

A few updates from the world of Atomic Rocket Games...

Freedom! is coming!

Yes, finally. We have had some, shall we say, interesting times, trying to get the art for this thing finished. But, we're in the home stretch. As soon as the colors for the front cover are done, we're going to give the thing one final edit, and post that sucker up to the site for you to get your greedy little mitts on. We hope you enjoy it!

Martian Eagles nearly complete!

The same issues with Freedom!'s art have given us hassles with TME, honestly. We're working on that.

ARG working on it's own OGL interpretation.

Yeah, the dreaded Home-Branded OGL. Curb your trepidation until you see it. We hate levels and classes, too. Bear that in mind before you get out the pitchforks and torches.

More as we get it!

The ARG Site has been updated.

There's currently a problem with the drop-down menus. We have a ticket in with SoftPress on this, and hopefully there will be a quick fix for the problem.

Enjoy the new Era^3 preview.

New stuff, there.