Three wins and a loss

The judge who ordered Wikileaks shut down now concedes that his ruling "might not have been constitutional." When you get groups from the ACLU to the Hearst Corp screaming in outrage, it's a good clue that there's a problem, dude. My favorite quote from the story comes from one of the plaintiff's lawyers whinging about an imagined "abdication of authority over the Internet" by the judicial system. "That means it's a frontier that's wide open." said William Briggs. Damn right!

In another court case, the judge handling the Barry Bonds perjury case sent back the indictment for improper charges. This is really the gang that couldn't shoot straight. A three year investigation, two complete grand juries, and after all that they forget that each count of an indictment can only cover one crime? Nice to see my tax dollars hard at work here. No wonder 1 in 100 adult Americans are in jail.

No courts needed for this one. The naming rights for the 49ers' home stadium have lapsed. The City has announced that, in a rare flash of understanding what the public wants, it will not seek a replacement for Monster Cable. Candlestick Park Lives Again!!!! Some cynics are saying this, plus naming the actual playing surface after the late Bill Walsh, are attempts by the City to keep the Niners from moving to Santa Clara.

And finally, a loss. Dr. George "Skip" Gay has died at 77. He was one of the founders of Rock Medicine, a fixture at Northern California concerts for decades. RockMed would take you in a treat you for free for anything from a splinter to a full-on acid freakout. Dr. Gay's work led to the creation of the Event Medicine field, sort of training for ER work on site in crowded, often dark, and noisy conditions.

The weekly nag.

As usual, click on one of the links to help build Crashlanding into a mighty metropolis!

Increase population: http://crashlanding.myminicity.com

Increase industry: http://crashlanding.myminicity.com/ind

Improve the transport network: http://crashlanding.myminicity.com/tra

Increase security: http://crashlanding.myminicity.com/sec

Leave me a message while you're there! Current needs are people and industry.

If you have a city, mention it here with links!

Review: Thousand Suns

The definitive version of Traveller has arrived. It's called Thousand Suns.

Disclaimer: I did do some work on this project. Specifically, I was involved in discussions on metagame issues, the feel of Imperial SF, art choices, and wrote a framework for the military. I did not have any input on the 12° system, actual rules, or the like. 95% of the book was new to me when I opened it.

OK, Thousand Suns, by James Maliszewski and Richard Iorio II, published by Rogue Games, Inc., 272 pages.

General impressions.

Thousand Suns is an attractive book, about the size of the old Little Black Books. The cover is engaging, with a blue-tinted starscape fading into some sort of reticle and a grid. The book is written in a conversational style, a welcome relief from the sterile blocks of rules seen in most systems. The book has more than a few editing errors, mostly in layout.. in many places, there are headers that are not highlighted, paragraphs that should have a line between them that run together. This caused me a few problems when I couldn't immediately see the header for one of the characteristics. Interior art is okay, and reflects the intended feel of the game well. The text is broken up with quotes from classic SF novels, starting with Bester's The Stars My Destination. All in all, the book is an easy read.

System

This is blisteringly simple. Called 12°, it can be boiled down to "Attribute + Skill = Target Number. Roll 2d12. Under the number equals success. Modifiers may be applied by the DM." That's it. Combat is equally simple, dispensing with detailed maps and movement rules for a clean system that focuses on action. My favorite touch is linking success with your to-hit roll to damage. Each weapons has a Base and Maximum damage. Each point of success acts as multiplier of the base damage. So if you fire a Blaster pistol (base damage: 5) and make you roll by four points, you do 20 points of damage. I like this because better shots are more likely to hit center mass and do more damage. One place where I had some confusion was in the rules for suppressive and covering fire... the way the rules are written, using these negates any chance to hit your opponent! Also included is a system for wearing away people's resolve, something needed for years in RPGs.

Space combat is a joy, especially for those of us who remember fighting off endless waves of pirates using Traveller's Book 2 system (I'm looking at you, isomeme) Again, a simple, fast system using cards to represent ships in a 3D environment. Ship descriptions are equally simple, reducing things to the important questions of How fast am I? What guns can I carry, and how much can I smuggle in my holds?

Character generation

There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth when the rumor broke that Thousand Suns was going to be a class and level system. The rumors were wrong. Once more, we see the game's roots in Classic Traveller. After splitting 25 points between five abilities (Body, Dexterity, Perception, Presence, and Will) you choose your species (if applicable to the particular setting), homeworld package (generic skill sets based on both the world location in the civilization and the chosen social class or planet population. A character from the upper class of a Core world is going to grow up with different skills than a farm kid from a Lo-Pop world in the Marches), and then the career packages.

I really love this part. Each career has three levels, Novice, Experienced, and Veteran. You choose three total packages. You can choose to spend all three in one career, and take the Veteran package, or split them up, even taking three Novice packages. This immediately appealed to me as not only a good design, but as a great tool for character story building. Just the order you pick the careers can suggest a background. For example, say I take three novice levels in Navy, Pirate, and Bounty Hunter. My character enlisted in the Navy, jumped ship to be a pirate, and after a betrayal vowed to hunt them down. Instant motivation! Each package gives you skills, and skills from different careers do stack so my pirate hunter would have the Skill "Shoot" at level 5 (1 from the Navy, 2 each from being a Pirate and Bounty Hunter.) Which leads into Hooks. For each of these steps you pick a hook, something good or ill from that stage of our life that can be a part of the character's ongoing story. There are also benefit points (more for characters who select a Veteran level career.)

Equipment

Hmm. I suppose it's inevitable, but I found the equipment list included to be rather pedestrian. Aside from the combat gear (which we need stats for) there was little here that really stood out. Of course, at this point you can put together a good equipment list with web searches. The list of vehicles and starships is also generic, but that is acceptable in the base rulebook.

Setting

Thousand Suns is a toolkit, and the Meta Setting chapter reflects that. While we do get a setting, it is vague and at every stage of descriptions alternates are given. Even the "official" history (which reminded me strongly of Dune) sketches in highlights only. Lots of room for your details, or scrap it altogether and write your own. To be honest, I'm probably going to chuck the whole thing in favor of my own setting.

Summation

Grand armadas sweeping across the stars... intrigues in imperial courts... ancient alien ruins brooding with forgotten evils, merchant princes buying entire worlds, and a time when one man, or one small group, can change the destiny of a thousand suns... if this is the kind of game you want, then Thousand Suns is for you. It lives up to its billing as a toolkit for Game Masters. Already I've started writing a new homeworld type (Spacer, for those who grew up on the family freighter or deep space station)

4 penguins out of 5.

For the TMLers reading this, feel free to comment, but I ask you sign your comment. Thanks!

Hell, me for President!

I still play Nation States, and currently have three nations, all in The Spinward Marches. Another person in our little group (seriously, we have like eight nations. Join up and have fun, people!) posted a link to a site that does the economic calculations for individual nations and regions

My three states are The Industrial State of Eodwaurd, The Strident Whateverocracy of Mad Prince Ludwig, and The Freewheeling Circus of Tour Heads. They are, in order, my attempt at a repressive industrial powerhouse, a general purpose libertarian state, and a look at what would happen if Deadheads got their own country.

But look at the economic data! Eodwaurd could buy most of the other states! I've got three of the four states that don't have total confiscation tax rates, and if you dig deeper, you'll see that Eodwaurd has a trade surplus!

Check out the exchange rates. I think Eodwaurdians take lots of overseas vacations.

When the Security Directorate allows them to leave the country, that is.