Douglas E. Berry

Some sad news from Traveller.

Fri, 22 Dec 2023 07:24:00 GMT

Longtime Traveller Grognard and the driving force behind TravellerCon, Keith Frye, has lost his battle with cancer. To help the family with bills, a Bundle of Holding has been put up on Drive-Thru RPG.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/430303/Keith-Frye-Memorial-Bundle-BUNDLE

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Prepare for Ludicrous Speed!

Fri, 22 Dec 2023 07:04:12 GMT

Part of my sparse posting has been my work schedule, dealing with Kirsten's cancer, and not having enough hours in the day. As is typical for a writer, complete ideas spring into my head just as I fall asleep. My muse is a jerk.

But I have a pile of notes for future posts, including more about the K'kree, wrapping up my series on HarnMaster, and more on my work in progress. I'll be writing about Traveller, Ars Magica, and why the San Francisco Giants might be why I need a pacemaker.

My job as a Crossing Guard goes on hiatus for the summer as of June 1st. I'll have plenty of time to write content for all y'all. As a reminder, I crave feedback. Tell me it's good, point out my errors, tell me I've screwed up, and I accept it all.

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This is hard.

Fri, 22 Dec 2023 06:55:12 GMT

My wife has breast cancer.

Those words are still unreal to me. We've been married for 32 years, and she has always been the rock while I've dealt with ongoing health issues. Now I'm the one sitting in the corner, watching as my world fights for her life against an enemy I know too well.

My battle with cancer is very different from Kirsten's, thankfully. I was staged at IV-B; hers was caught early. She has an incredible medical and social support team in place. She has a port installed, reducing trauma tenfold from the start.

But it's still hard. Her energy levels are terrible, and she's dealing with horrible, predictable side effects. Her hair is started to fall out, and if you know Kirsten at all, her hair has always been her one point of vanity. She got it buzzed down to make clean-up more accessible, but we now see the reality of hair loss.

I'm terrified for her. And for myself. We have months of this ahead of us, and with cancer, there is never an easy or clear path forward. Damn, it was much easier being the patient; all I had to do was lie there and do what the doctor said to do.

Still, I'll find the strength somewhere. She was there for me. I have to be there for her.

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Europe in the Central Middle Ages, 962-1154. My review.

Fri, 22 Dec 2023 06:42:54 GMT

https://a.co/d/84L804L

3.5 stars out of 5.

The book is quite enjoyable and written in a friendly style that draws the reader in. The problem is in the first half; there is an incredible lack of focus as author Christopher Brooke tries to address broad aspects of life in the period covered. He wanders into digressions, fails to provide critical information, and for the most part, were just confusing. The best example comes in the "Travel" chapter, which never addresses many facts about travel in the Central Middle Ages. What were the roads like? How were caravans organized, and what tolls and hazards did they face? How many miles a day could you expect to make, and what would a weary traveler do at night? Sea travel? OK, describe the ships of the era, how they navigated, and what they could carry. What were the major trading ports?

Instead, we get a ten-page divergence into the Crusades and the Song of Roland.

The style settled down a bit in the second half, which is a more chronological examination of Europe that focuses on the Holy Roman Empire and the Italian states, which I'll admit is a decent focus to have.

In total, it was an interesting book, but as a proper history, it falls short.

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Why you should be playing Hârnmaster 3.5 - Religion

Fri, 22 Dec 2023 06:29:06 GMT

Yeah, I fell off the posting wagon; it's been a rough start to summer. But back to HârnMaster! We've covered character generation, how skills work, and the sheer joy of the combat system. Today, religion.

Designed as a deliberately low-magic, skill-focused system and setting, the gods of Hârn are real but distant. They do provide rituals to their priests, which can be quite powerful, but for the most part, the various churches are more shepherds and institutions. The Gods of Hârn are:

Agrik: the god of bloody war and fire. He believes that might makes right, only the strongest should rule, and that the uncertainty of conflict brings necessary improvement. War and tumult are the great threshing floor that separates the worthy from the unworthy. Agrik is in direct opposition to Larani and her rigid adherence to order. His worship is proscribed through much of Hârn, except in Rethem where it is the state religion.
Halea: the Maker of Bargains, the immoral goddess of beauty, wealth, and hedonistic pleasures. Halea usually appears to humans as a beautiful youth. For Halea, greed is good; power is better. There is no sin, only pleasure matters. She shrewdly maintains her position in the courts of the gods and wishes stability, so she may continue to enjoy her pleasures. She has temples in most trading cities but is most worshiped in the Thardic Republic.
Ilvir: known as the “Ochre Womb" and the “Brooder in the Blasted Plains”, Ilivir creates strange beings known as Ivashu. The purpose of the Ivashu are a mystery known only to Ilvir. Ilvir’s adherents are drawn to him by the promise that after death their souls will be reincarnated into Ivashu, which they believe is a higher form of life.
Larani: the Lady of Paladins, the good goddess who represents order and the chivalric ideals of faith, piety, honor, righteousness, truth, justice, courage, and strength. She teaches perfection through order and faith. Larani directly opposes Agrik and his followers in their savage and chaotic attempts to achieve perfection through strength, mean survival, and brutal and unnecessary conflict. Larani is most popular amongst the nobility. Being found to be an adherent of Larani in Rethem gets you a spot at the next heretic burning.
Morgath: the god of death, retribution, and revenge. Lord of the undead, suffering, and chaos. Morgath gathers souls to feed the Shadow of Bukrai and upend the order of the universe; he offers those in service to him eternal life, of a sort, with the offer to become Amorvis (free-willed undead). Proscribed almost everywhere but Rethem (sigh).
Naveh: the god of nightmares, thieves, and assassins. He rules the night and is the silent death. Seemingly Nihilistic, Naveh's purposes are obscured in shadow, seemingly with no discernable aims. Every state on Hârn suppresses this religion. Or so they think.
Peoni: the good goddess of peace forgiveness, love, life, and healing. She believes in achieving perfection through teaching peace and forgiveness. She nurtures with love, feeding the hungry, bringing hope to the hopeless, healing the sick, and forgiving sinners. She rewards patience, virtue, chastity, temperance, and forgiveness. She is the most popular 'goddess', especially amongst the lower classes. (Except in Rethem, of course.) Peonian clerics seeking martyrdom often sneak into Rethm to establish covert churches.
Sarajin: the god of courage, strength, prowess in combat, fame, clever tactics, battlelust, and the “sport” of war. He loves Kelestia as it is. His followers seek his favor by gaining fame with acts of bravery in combat, canny gambits, and martial skill. Sarajin is said to most often appear as a giant, yellow-haired warrior in leather and furs, carrying Fakang, his massive double-bladed axe. He is the god of the Invinians, the Viking analogs in the setting.
Save-K'Nor: the god of intellect, learning, and true knowledge. Save-K'nor seeks to guide his adherents by perfecting their intellect and knowledge of moral philosophy so that they may understand the true nature of Kelestia and thereby select the righteous path of their own free will. The church of Save-K'nor has few adherents because of its focus on scholarship; however, their level of education puts many in place to be of singular influence on events.
Siem: the benign god of magic, mysteries, and dreams. Siem is the oldest of the 'gods'. He chose to withdraw from the other ‘gods’ to his own idyllic domain within Kelestia, 'the Blessed Realm', where all remains preserved in a pristine state, and there is almost no passage of time. He is most associated with the Faerie folk, Elves, and Dwarves, though some Men worship him too.

HârnMaster allows a player to create a newly-consecrated priest of any of these faiths, subject to the character's place of birth and the campaign's focus. Clerics start with many skills, but they have obligations to their church and order.

A Laranian Matakea (Temple Priest) might be ordered by his Rekela (Bishop) to accompany a young noble on his journeys. (Yes, this is a campaign seed.) A Peonian Reslava (Mendicant Priest, similar to the wandering friars of the Franciscans) would be constantly nagging his companions to show mercy, stopping to help every hamlet and cotter hold and healing the enemy. In short, the system encourages you to roleplay a genuine representative of your deity, not just be a walking first-aid kit and backup combatant.

Then there are the Invocations. These are rituals or prayers the clerics can use. For example, Laranian priests have access to Bandage of St. Pereline, which can stop bloodloss and heal an injury level from a single wound. A critical success heals the wound entirely in one day, while a critical failure causes the wound to develop an infection.

Every religion has these, some in the HârnMaster rule book, with more in the HârnMaster - Religion tome. More about that: do you want to know where the Amansurif of the Agrikian church lives? Want more details on church politics? Planning a campaign based around a mostly Laranian party campaign against the vile Agrikians? This book is for you. But there is more than enough in the basic HârnMaster rulebook to get started.

One final thought. As in most settings, there is a compact that keeps the gods from meddling too much in the mortal world. So if you want to run a mini-campaign where the PCs have to expose and oust the evil Sulapyn (Peonian bishop) who has been embezzling funds, go for it.

Tomorrow, I swear, Magic.

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Why you should be playing HârnMaster 3.5 - Combat

Wed, 25 Oct 2023 05:59:54 GMT

Combat in HarnMaster is pretty fast once you get it down, and it generates real injuries as opposed to arbitrary hit points that have no real effect on the character. So you can leave a fight with a broken arm, a nasty gash on your face, and limping from when that mace hit your knee. Each wound heals separately, and while there are no hit points, each has injury points that act as a universal negative on skill rolls.

There are also immediate effects of being wounded. You might go into shock and be out of the fight. A hit to your arm might cause you to drop what you hold in that hand, or an impact on your legs might cause you to stumble and fall. In the end, a lucky swing of a sword or axe could decapitate an enemy in one stroke.

The actual mechanic is simple. You declare you are striking at a foe with a weapon. Your target chooses to Block, Counterstrike, Dodge, or Ignore. Each side rolls against the appropriate skill (except for Ignore) and compares their result (Critical or Moderates success or failure) to see the result. Every weapon has three aspects, Blunt, Edge, and Point, with a number describing their impact. For example, a spear has 4/-/7 meaning it is best used as a thrusting weapon, although you could use it as a quarterstaff in a pinch.

Armor is also rated for its defense against B/E/P, can be layered (within reason), and covers specific hit areas. So let us assume that a person wielding a spear gets moderate success against an enemy who rolls a mild failure to block. The result on the chart is A*1, meaning the attacker rolls 1d6 and adds it to the point aspect of his spear. I roll a 5 for 7+5=12—12 impact. A d100 roll for hit location yields a 42 for the right elbow. The target is wearing a long-sleeved leather jerkin, which gives 3 points of protection against Point attacks. So nine injury points go through.

Consulting the Injury Table, nine injury points to the elbow is a Serious 3 stab. This has several effects. Three Injury levels immediately incur a -3 on all attribute rolls and a -15% on skill rolls (-5% per injury level.) In addition, the wounded combatant must roll 1d6 for every point of his Universal Penalty, including all injury points, fatigue levels, encumbrance penalties, etc. This roll is compared to the Constitution of the combatant, and if it is higher, the wounded man goes into shock and falls unconscious. There is also a 3d6 Fumble roll against Dexterity; fail that, and the combatant drops whatever is in his right hand.

It sounds complex, but with practice, it flows very well. Many HM players roll two sets of d100s for both their to-hit and hit location rolls simultaneously to save time. As you can see, getting wounded has severe and immediate consequences, and you can be knocked out of combat by the first wound you take. Edged weapons can amputate limbs and even heads with a lucky strike, some injuries leave you bleeding to death, and you may find yourself crawling from the battlefield, dragging your useless leg behind you.

The system is fast and brutal, leaving PCs with real consequences for drawing swords. Did I mention the rules for wound infection? Yeah, you can die from that. Probably the best realistic combat system around. I like to take new players and have them do a few combats with pre-generated characters to emphasize that this is not D&D.

There are also rules for mounted combat, missile combat, and jousting. What is missing are rules for fighting in a shield wall, which is a glaring omission, as it was the most common infantry formation of the era for most nations. With the pseudo-Roman Thardic Republic and its legions as part of the setting, you would think that this would be an essential inclusion.

Next up, Gods and Magic!

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Douglas E. Berry, 1966-2023

Wed, 25 Oct 2023 02:35:51 GMT

(posted by kshandra)

Douglas “Uncle Bullhorn” Berry passed away Saturday, September 30, from complications of long COVID. If love alone could have saved him, he would be as immortal as we always believed him to be.

As for the future of this blog, it is my intention to import all of the content from his erstwhile Patreon so it will remain available as long as this site exists (I've taken the time to unlock all of his posts so they are public there, and will remove his membership tiers so nobody is being charged any longer, but I realize that's not the purpose of the site). This may take some time to complete, however, as I am still managing my own medical treatment AND moving back in with my mother.

Doug's life will be celebrated Saturday, October 28, from 1-5 p.m. at the Doubletree by Hilton, 2050 Gateway Place, San Jose CA. Dress code is "fannish formal" (the venue was chosen as it was home to the conventions where we began our life together) or "whatever makes you think of Doug," be that Burning Man attire, heavy metal t-shirts, SF Giants or 49ers gear, etc. Please be prepared to mask unless you are actively drinking or at the podium to speak. N95, KN95, KF94, or reusable cloth masks with disposable PM2.5 filters will all be acceptable. (We will have a limited supply of masks on hand.) For those of you who cannot attend in person, we will be streaming at least part of the memorial on Facebook Live.

Donations in his memory can be made to the SF Giants Community Fund, the All Within My Hands Foundation, or Mission 22.

I already miss him more than I will ever be able to tell you.

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I know more than when i started reading this. That's a win. "Enemy Coast Ahead" - my review

Wed, 08 Feb 2023 02:35:50 GMT

Enemy Coast Ahead - Uncensored: The Real Guy Gibson by Guy Gibson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was recommended by a friend, and I will be forever grateful. The story of Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson, VC, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar isn't just his story, but of the evolution of the RAF and Bomber Command from the last fleeting days of peace in 1939 through fumbling with inadequate aircraft and a bombing technique best described as "fly under the clouds until you see your target and hope you hit something" to a highly-effective, thoroughly modern force that had made night bombing into a science and an art form.

We follow Gibson from his early days flying the HP.52 Hampden in early raids against German forces and industrial targets, through his brief time as the pilot of the night-fighter variant of the Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter, and back to bombers in the new Avro Lancaster. Throughout the book, we see both the strategic and personal effects of the war. Gibson is careful to note deaths, and how they occured if known. We see the crews celebrating, breaking regulations, dodging official sanctions, and how they dealt with the stress of upcoming missions.

As this is the Uncensored version, it contains Gibson's unfiltered opinions of of his commanders, Bomber Command, and the Government in general. Which is to be expected of an officer leading men in combat and seeing them die. There is always room for complaints! We meet the people he served with and knew, and he shows a great skill in describing people with a few broad strokes.

Near the end of the book there is a brilliant narrative that shows just how far the RAF had come in night bombing. Staring with AVM Harris picking the night's target, it follows the chain of events on all sides, including how the German response worked, how the Lancasters navigated, and how the use of diversionary streams of bombers diluted the Luftwaffe's night-fighter response. Finally, the role of Pathfinder planes, flying ahead of the main body and dropping coded flares to mark distance to the target and dropping a flaring marker bomb to indicate the exact center of the raid. Then the mainstream, flying straight and level despite flak, enemy fighters, and seeing bombers bursting into flame and crash to Earth as the bomb-aimer keeps calling for the pilot to stay on course until the call of "bomb away!" is heard. Then, the giant four-engine bombers claw for altitude and speed, maintaining group, as they exit occupied Europe.

It takes your breath away reading it.

The final chapters concern the Dambusters raid carried out on the night of 16/17 May 1943 by 617 Squadron RAF Bomber Command, commanded by Gibson. His writing about the utter secrecy surrounding the project, the cloak-and-dagger aspects of just learning even the basics of the mission, and training his hand-picked crews according to orders that made little sense is riveting. The actual raid is a story of heroism and loss. They accomplished their mission at a terrible cost.

Wing Commander Gibson died on 19 September 1944 when the Mosquito he was piloting - possibly against orders - crashed in the Netherlands after a failed raid. He never lived to see Germany brought low, not to see his predictions of peace through massive strategic bombing f0rce take form in nuclear weapons and MAD. But he left this chronicle of this singular aspect of WWII, and I learned a great deal.

My one complaint is I could have used a guide to the various rank and other contractions used in the book.

"For some men of great courage and adventure, inactivity was a slow death. Would a man like Gibson ever have adjusted back to peacetime life? One can imagine it would have been a somewhat empty existence after all he had been through. Facing death had become his drug. He had seen countless friends and comrades perish in the great crusade. Perhaps something in him even welcomed the inevitability he had always felt that before the war ended he would join them in their Bomber Command Valhalla. He had pushed his luck beyond all limits and he knew it. But that was the kind of man he was…a man of great courage, inspiration and leadership. A man born for war…but born to fall in war." - Barnes Wallis

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Gaunt's Ghosts - The Victory, Volume 1, my review

Sat, 04 Feb 2023 03:32:23 GMT

The Victory by Dan Abnett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I will admit that when at the end of the last omnibus, having Colonel-Commissar Gaunt rescued kind of disappointed me. I thought the series had reached an appropriate ending, with the 1st Tanith entering a new phase of existence, beyond the legacy of being Gaunt's Ghosts.

I was wrong.

We pick up two years after the events in Only in Death, the Tanith 1st has finally been sent for rest and refit, But two years of inactivity are wearing on them. The planet Balhaut was the site of the Famous Victory some fifteen years prior, and Gaunt gained fame as the Commissar of Hyrkan 8th, rallying them to a crushing victory in the final battle. in the city of Balopolis. Gaunt is ready to be redeployed, ready to get back in the war. . . then a very special prisoner arrives, and he will on;y speak to Gaunt. A prisoner that the Archenemy will do anything to silence.

What follows is a game of one mouse and many cats, with suspicions on all sides. There is unexpected heroism, a stunning betrayal, and a satisfying conclusion. A very different entry in the series, and a very good novel. That's my view of Blood Pact, the first novel.

The second novel is Salavation's Reach and is a more traditional Ghosts story, but with a twist or five. The regiment is packed on a frigate centuries past the day when she should have been scrapped and sent on a raid that could tip the balance in the stalled Sabbat Worlds Crusade. Along for the ride are three Space Marines, and hidden among the regiment and crew is an assassin.

Abnett normally avoids big themes in his books, or rather he hides them very well, but here the theme is family. We have a woman from the previous book who is now adjusting to life as an officer's lady. Reunions both welcome and unexpected, and how close family ties can both help and hinder a unit. One thing I really like was how he showed the regiment preparing for the raid. They had floorplans of the target, and these were laid out in empty hanger spaces so the troops could rehearse every expected step, train on room-clearing, and learn the other guy's job as well as their own. This is what real units do. It was a nice touch.

There are the usual roadblocks, some quite threatening, and we do get a massive space battle, but the raid goes off as planned, and the regiment escapes, except we've lost some long-standing characters. Such is war.

After this, there are several short stories that both deepen mysteries and imply greater threats while showing different aspects of shipboard life. All in all, this is a great addition to the canon, and I shall be ordering Volume 2 of The Victory as soon as I have some spare cash.

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Eversion by Alastair Reynolds, my review.

Wed, 25 Jan 2023 22:05:35 GMT

Eversion by Alastair Reynolds

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In the 1820s, a sailing ship crashes off the coast of Norway. In the 1880s, a steamship is destroyed exploring Antarctica. In the 1900s, a Zepellin explores an icy canyon in Antarctica. In the far future, a spaceship sets out for an alien artifact. Each excursion goes horribly wrong. And on every journey, Dr. Silas Coade is the physician, but only Silas seems to realize that these events keep repeating themselves. And it's up to him to figure out why and how. And how to stop it all from happening again.

Reynolds hits it out of the park. Normally known for galaxy-spanning space opera, Eversion is a taught. a first-person, mystery wrapped in horror, as events keep repeated in different eras, always with the mysterious Edifice as the goal of the expedition. The same characters appear in similar roles, but only Dr. Coade seems to see the changes.

This story kept me guessing. The clues are subtle, but there. The characters, all of them over time, are interesting. This is a locked room mystery where the murder keeps happening over and over. The revelation, when it comes, is shocking but totally makes sense. It's tragic and fulfilling. The finale is gripping. One thing is because the book is told entirely from the p[ersp[ective of Silas Coade, the ending leaves some loose ends, but still works.

Great book. Alastair Reynolds has become my favorite Hard SF/Space Opera writer.

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More fiddling with Barsaive. We have a slight problem on the map.

Sun, 22 Jan 2023 21:28:20 GMT

As I pointed out in my last post, the Earthdawn Barsaive setting is a close match to modern Ukraine. The designers have made it clear this was their intent. I approve because it gives a huge area for exploration and sweeping grand campaigns.

But there is a major issue. On the campaign map, the Black Sea has been replaced by a gigantic volcanic caldera. It is explicitly stated that this Death Sea fills the Black Sea's basin. Which creates huge problems when doing worldbuilding. Look, I'm as ready as anyone to accept huge magical effects in this setting, but this is just too much!

The Black Sea has a surface area of 436,400 km² (168,500 sq mi) (not including the Sea of Azov.) Lava, the proper term for liquid magma that reaches the surface, has a temperature that runs from 800 to 1,200° C (1,470 to 2,190° F). Normally, lava quickly cools into various fun forms of igneous rock. But here we're told the liquid state is constant. This is going to have extraordinary effects on every land that borders the Death Sea.

For starters, there is going to be a dead zone extending many miles from the coast. The heat, poisonous gasses, and just the ground being baked into fired clay pottery will kill everything. But that's minor compared to the climatic nightmare this would cause. As we all know, hot air rises. The air over this huge area will become superheated and rise quickly, creating an ungodly low-pressure system over the entire area. A book on climatology I read described Earth's atmosphere as desperately seeking to achieve equal pressure across the globe, but being constantly foiled by uneven heating and terrain.

Imagine the massive, constant hurricane-force winds rushing to the Death Sea. The collision of this relatively cool air and the already-heated air over the lava we'll create endless storm fronts that spiral off spawning tornados and world-shattering dry thunderstorms. The near-vacuum at the center of the sea will be a fountain of superheated air that will spread out and fall as it cools, creating storms hundreds if not thousands of miles from the sea.

Seen from space, the Death Sea would be akin to Jupiter's Great Red Spot, a never-ending cyclonic storm covering a huge area. Oh, did I mention that? Cloud cover that blots out the sun for years at a time. Given all this, most Kaers in Barsaive would open their gates, take three steps outside, and say "Well, this sucks" before resealing the gates and going back to work on 101 Ways To Spice Up Your Mushroom Stew.

Later retcons reduced the lava area to a few hundred miles around the Crimean Peninsula. But still, you have the same issues. Kīlauea showed an impact on the weather of the Big Island during its decades-long eruption. So we need a better fix.

I, of course, have one.

Let's put a Kaer on the Crimea right where Sevastopol exists. During the Time of Horrors, the Sorcerors maintaining the defenses also developed a doomsday device, a magical retribution strike that brought E=mc² into play. When a Horror did breach the defenses, the spell was triggered. Kaer, Horror, and a huge amount of territory vanished in an instant. What was left was a massive volcanic rift system that has grown to Mt. Doom proportions. The seabed cracked for hundreds of miles, releasing natural gases that ignite when they reach the surface.

So the Sea of Death becomes the Sea of Blue Fire. Life along the shoreline is still stunted and twisted, and the entire area stinks of rotten eggs and death. Sailing the affected areas is dangerous, not just because of the constant threat of fire (remember, these flames are still magical even if they come from a natural source) but because every so often a huge bubble of gas comes to the surface and explodes. Just being caught by the bubble can break your keel.

Closer to the site of the destroyed Kaer, the threat of volcanic activities rises. Plus, vengeful ghosts, Horror-touched monsters drawn to the inherent magical aura of the area, and a dragon. Because I need at least one Greater Wyrm in this place. What might be really fun is to drop clues that the Sorceror-Kings of that Kaer also built the magical equivalent of an aircraft's flight data box, holding their greatest secrets, including how to replicate the spell that destroyed the Kaer.

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I hate feeling this helpless.

Sat, 21 Jan 2023 00:24:48 GMT

It never ends. Last spring I had a procedure to biopsy some nodules in my lungs. We cleared it with the insurance. Paid co-pays. Moved on.

Now we're being told the insurance never paid. Kirsten is drafting an appeal letter, we've been making phone calls, but yet another blade has been added to Damocles' Sword Emporium.

Anything helps. Spreading the word is possibly the best thing you can do if you're tapped out. A lot of little donations can make a mountain.

Anything helps, a hundred small donations can work wonders. Sharing this brings more hands to the effort. Thank you all so much.

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A Desolation Called Peace - My review

Tue, 17 Jan 2023 20:50:41 GMT

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A few months after A Memory Called Empire, alien forces massacre an industrial colony of the Teixcalaanli Empire. The Teixcalaanli admiral Nine Hibiscus, tasked with confronting the threat, requests an Information Ministry specialist to attempt to communicate with the inscrutable enemy. That specialist is Three Seagrass, now a senior Imperial official, who smuggles herself to the frontlines by way of Lsel Station. There, she convinces her former associate and still nominal ambassador to the Empire, Mahit Dzmare, to accompany her. Mahit seizes on the chance to escape the increasing danger from factional conflicts on Lsel, and she is tasked by one of Lsel's leaders to sabotage first-contact efforts in order to prolong the Empire's war with the aliens. (from Wikipedia)

Wow. Once again Martine shows an amazing range as the action shifts from place intrigue to a growing war against an unfathomable enemy. Three Seagrass and Mahit must not only learn how to communicate with these aliens, but they also have to resolve how they feel about each other. The tension, intrigue, and potentially lethal factionalism inside the Teixcalaanli fleet come through clearly.

One amazing character is Eight Antidote, the Imperial heir and despite being only 11, a vital part of the story. Like all the characters in the book, he's believable, a kid who wishes he was older while retreating into childhood. He really comes into his own and shows his mettle.

Along with being a ripping good space opera, there are some really deep themes here on language, personhood, and the crushing weight of command, be it of a fleet or the empire or just the assumed authority of an 11-year-old kid. The plot concerning how to talk to the aliens is just fascinating.

I want more. Teixcalaan is a fascinating universe on the brink of wonderful changes. Three Seagrass and Mahit Dzmare are people who deserve more attention, even as they part ways, for now. There is so much more to be seen here, and Arkady Martine is doing a master's job in presenting it. No wonder both this novel and Memory won the Hugo Award for Best Novel.

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A Return to Barsaive.

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 22:37:07 GMT

I've written about Earthdawn before, as one of the great examples of what I called FASA Syndrome - great settings, mediocre rules. But in this case, FASA also managed to fumble the setting in my opinion. It all goes back to how some worldbuilders can't stand an empty space on the map. They have this need to fill every space and detail everything.

This brings me back to my concept of The Edge in settings. Adventures can only take place on the Edge. The Edge is a setting where civilization is either absent, an active threat, or simply unaware of the campaign setting because civilizations impose order. With my eyes, I have seen the oldest fragment of a legal code we know of, The Code of Ur-Nammu. It is from Mesopotamia and is written on tablets in the Sumerian language c. 2100–2050 BCE. Civilizations also make safe areas and expand those safe areas. This includes wars and genocides, of course, but also destroying predatory animals, taming rivers, improving communications and roads, patrolling those roads, and so on.

Edges are by nature unstable. The classic Wild West era lasted about 40-50 years. There was a period of about twenty years in China where things like pulp adventures would thrive. Both of these eras ended with the spread of effective law enforcement for good or bad, and social disapproval of typical "adventurer" activities. I think the longest edge I can think of in a nominally civilized area would be France during the Hundred Years' War when bands of unemployed knights rampaged around looting and blackmailing cities.

The point is that an Edge requires some absence of oversight. This brings me back to Barsaive. The default setting for Earthdawn and roughly in the same area as Ukraine. Let's review the main conceptual theme of the game.

Magic is cyclical. At the low end, magic ceases to work. The problem comes at the peak of the sine wave. when our world starts to reach that level, barriers drop and things known as Horrors can enter our world. Immensely powerful, amoral, and hungry for new victims. Cenobites meet Lovecraftian nightmares. But as the world began reaching this level a few centuries ago, a great wizard or team of wizards learned how to build a magical barrier to the Horrors. String physical defenses would be needed as well. All across the civilized world, men and dwarves began digging Kaers, deep fortified cities. There are real examples of these you can tour in Turkey.

Stores were stocked, subterranean farms started, and everyone was safely inside, the great gates of the Kaers were sealed with iron and magic across Barsaive. Well, not everyone. The immortal Obsidimen melted into their Life Stones to sleep, and the T'skrang made Kaers in deep lakes and hibernated. Many elves worked a great ritual to leave the Earth, while the few who refused paid a great price for their survival. No one knows where the Windlings hid. Then the Horrors came.

The siege lasted centuries. Every Kaer faced attacks that ranged from the brutal force of an angry god beating on the gates to subtle attempts to poison the minds of Kaerfolk. When the attacks finally ceased, when the Sorceror-Kings determined it was safe, the gates were opened. . .

. . .and the world was changed.

This is where the game should start, a recently opened Kaer that has established its first villages outside the gates and is ready to start sending out scouting parties. How has the world changed? Where are the other survivors? What Kaers failed, and why? Are there any signs of Horrors remaining? Do our old maps mean anything? Go forth and find out!

That would have been a great game. Instead, FASA gave us not only a Barsaive that was already up and running, with trade and flying ships, and all that, there was a pseudo-Mycenean empire already on the march! The Edge was already gone!

If I were to run this, I'd rewind to the one known dot on an unreliable map. A game of exploration, diplomacy, horror, and mysteries. Most Kaers would have failed, leaving much of Barsaive a howling wilderness. Ruined Kaers make great Places of Mystery; yeah, Kizen fell, but why does it look like the gates were breached from the inside?

You can do so much with this setting, build something lasting, and never really lose the Edge needed for a great campaign. One thing I'd add. If you've ever seen the 1981 Heavy Metal movie, you'll recall that in the final segment, Taarna, The evil Loc-Nar smashes into a mountain, creating a wave of mud that overwhelms a near-by village and turns them into monstrous humanoid mutants. There's the second phase of the campaign, learning of this growing army of "changed men" who capture entire villages and march them off to an unknown fate.

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We are in dire need of help.

Fri, 13 Jan 2023 21:57:02 GMT

Back in November, I managed to get a Grade II ankle sprain which caused me to miss a ton of work. That healed, but on New Year's Eve, I had a nasty fall while clearing out our old storage unit. Long story short, I suffered a fractured elbow (no surgery needed, thankfully) and trauma-induced bursitis over the greater trochanter. Yes, football fans, I have a hip pointer.

I just have to let things heal, and I'm on Vicodin for pain management. But I'm missing another month of work and bills rejected by my pitiful insurance carrier are starting to show up. Right now, I can't get out of bed without help. It is slowly improving, but that doesn't help in the short term.

To that end, we're running a GoFundMe campaign. Anything helps, really, anything at all. What might be the best thing all y'all could do is share this campaign. Many hands make the burden lighter.

Thank you for anything you can do to help us out. All donations will be used for medical expenses only, you aren't paying for our Burning Man supplies.

More Medical Problems

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Ah, the time we accidentally loaded the truck. . .

Sat, 31 Dec 2022 03:03:25 GMT

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Istanbul: City of Majesty at the Crossroads of the World - my review

Wed, 21 Dec 2022 23:20:08 GMT

Istanbul: City of Majesty at the Crossroads of the World by Thomas F. Madden

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love Istanbul. I've been fascinated by the Queen of Cities for a very long time, and even got to visit in 2016 (just before the coup attempt, yikes!) and have read many books about this city, the empires it ruled, and the area.

This book was a good, fun read. Nothing really in-depth, but a nice walk through the history from the earliest founders through to the aforementioned coup. What I really enjoyed was the detours that Madden took into some of the more obscure moments, like how the transit of an Egyptian mummy through the city set off Ottoman fears of the legend that Constantine XI, the last Roman Emperor, was in fact lying in wait for the right time to return. To protect themselves, they beheaded the mummy, cut it in half, and sealed it up in the Theodosian Walls. (A Frenchman later stole the head.

Madden also goes into detail about the modern era of Istanbul, recounting in detail how directed hatred almost eliminated the Greek and Jewish populations of the city, and how the city grew explosively as shantytowns were quickly replaced by sometimes illegal apartment blocks.

As I said, a fun read, and I recommend it to anyone interested in this, the Queen of Cities.

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More on Jorina of Criamon

Sat, 17 Dec 2022 01:00:54 GMT

Let's go through her Characteristics, Abilities, and initial spells.

Characteristics. Ars Magica uses a loose -3 to +3 scale, although scores off that range are pretty common, but this is where we start.

Strength: -1
Stamina: 0
Dexterity: -1
Quickness: -2
Intelligence: +3
Perception: +2
Presence: 0
Communication: +2

That beating in the kitchen of the monastery so long ago still shows in Jorina's slowness to react. She can also be a touch fumble-fingered at times. On the other side, she's very smart, perceptive, and good at communicating (once you get past her speech issues.)

Generating Abilities (AM's name for skills) is done in three stages.

First is Early Childhood. I used the Mischievous Childhood template, although Crapsack Childhood better describes her life. All abilities come with a specialization, which is treated as one skill level higher.

Brawl: 2 (dodge)
Guile: 2 (lying to authority)
Native Language: 5 (Frisian)
Stealth: 2 (sneak)

Then comes later childhood, where you have a bit more latitude.

Folk Ken: 2 (clergy)
Awareness: 3 (alertness)
Living Language: (French)

At 10, a strange group visited the monastery and was forced to stay in one of the outbuildings. Since everyone hated her, Jorina was sent to serve them. Their leader, a terrifying man with leather-brown skin and his hair wrapped in a big cloth bundle seemed very interested in Jorina. The abbess told Jorina that the man had bought her and that she was no longer welcome. The leader introduced himself as Eutychus of Criamon and said that he was a Sorceror and that Jorina had the power to be a sorcerer as well. So began 15 years of apprenticeship.

Enigmatic Wisdom: 2
Latin: 4 (writing)
Magic Theory: 2
Parma Magica: 1 (Ignem)
Concentration: 2 (spells)
Penetration: 1 (Mentum)
Artes Liberales: 1 (logic)
Code of Hermes: 1
Finesse: 1 (Mentum)
Profession: 2 (scribe)

So much to learn! Parma Magica and Magic Theory are the two great discoveries made by Bonisagus the Founder in the 8th century. His unified theory of magic allowed magi from different traditions to share and learn spells from each other, and Parma Magica not only protects a magus from hostile spells but calms the negative feelings The Gift cause in all living things. Ignem (fire) and Mentum (mind) are two of the magical forms. Speaking of which. . . Jorina's scores in the Techniques of Magic are:

Creo (I create) 4
Intellego (I perceive) 6
Muto (I change) 4
Perdo (I destroy) 4
Rego (I control) 4

And in the Forms:

Animal (non-human animals) 1
Aquam (water) 2
Auram (air) 3
Corpus (the human body) 2
Herbam (plants) 0
Ignem (fire) 0 [and she's not good with this form at all]
Imaginem Sensation and illusion) 5
Mentum (mind) 5 [Jorina is skilled with mind magic]
Terram (earth) 1
Vim (raw magical power) 5

Having a zero in a Technique or Form doesn't mean you can't perform those spells, you just haven't spent a lot of time learning the basic theory around them.

She also learned a nice set of starting spells. I'll explain what spells do if asked. Each spell has the Technique and Form listed at the end. I'm not bothering with the spell levels here unless asked.

Wizard's Sidestep Re/Im
True Sight of Air In/Au
Calm the Motion of the Heart Pe/Me
Jupiter's Resounding Blow Cr/Au
The Call to Slumber Re/Me
Moonbeam Cr/Ig
Comfort of the Drenched Traveler Pe/Aq (it dries the target's body and clothing. Useful!)
The Intuition of the Forest In/He
Aura of Ennobled Presence Mu/Im
Words of the Unbroken Silence Cr/Me
Confusion of the Numbed Will Re/Me

A nice start. Jorina has passed her Gauntlet, is 25, and while I could start her now, I'm going to run her year-by-year to build her up, gain magic goodies and a familiar, and even have her perform her longevity spell research. It's not uncommon for AM mages to start the game well into their sixties, appear to be in their early 40s, and be quite powerful.

One thing I do need is her Wizard's Sigil. Every magus has one, it's a personal touch, often created by the subconscious, that acts as a fingerprint. In the saga I played in so long ago, my magus was of House Bjornaer, and his heartbeast was a large raven. All his spells invoked ravens. If he cast Rain of Stones, the stones would be black and make little croaking sounds when they hit. His Wizard's Sidestep had him dissolve into a mass of ink black bird shapes that would reform where he stepped to. So I'm going to have to think about this.

As always, suggestions and comments welcome.

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Meet Jorina (Ars Magica)

Thu, 15 Dec 2022 21:58:09 GMT

Making Progress on Jorina, my Frisian mage. We'll start with her Virtues

The Gift, Hermetic Mage, The Enigma. These three free statuses establish her as magically talented, a member of the Order of Hermes, and an initiate into the Mystery House of Criamon. The last gives her a score of 1 in the Enigmatic Wisdom ability.

Premonitions (minor supernatural) Even as a child, Jorina could usually see danger coming. This got her denounced as a witch and sent to a local monetary to work in the kitchens.

Quiet Magic x2 (minor hermetic) Because of her speech problem (see below) her parens trained her to be able to cast spells without speaking.

Still Casting (minor hermetic) Jorina took things a step further and trained herself to minimize the arm and hand movements need to cast spells.

Cyclic Magic (positive, minor hermetic) Her magic is tied to the lunar cycle and is strongest under the full moon.

Puissant Ability (Enigmatic Wisdom, major general) This allows her to learn her House's mystery faster, and master her mind's ability to see the solution to puzzles and riddles.

Flexible Formulaic Magic (major hermetic) When casting a spell she knows, Jorina can expend a little extra effort to later the range, duration, or effect.

Affinity with Art (Mentum, minor hermetic) Jorina is especially skilled with spells that affect the mind.

Now, her Flaws.

Twilight Prone (major hermetic) Like most Criamon, she is more likely to be drawn into the madhouse that is Wizard's Twilight when she botches a spell. However, she is more likely to learn from the experience.

Afflicted Tongue (minor genera). Jorina couldn't predict every danger, and a beating for stealing food left her aphasic. Her speech is halting, she misplaced words, and sometimes just can speak at all.

Cyclic Magic (negative, minor hermetic) During the dark of the moon, her powers fade. Jorina is very interested in discovering why this happens.

Magic Addiction (major hermetic) The sheer joy of casting, the feel of magic flowing through her veins, Jorina has a hard time not casting that next spell.

Deficient Form (ignem, minor hermetic) Her dislike of destructive magic and probably something in her past has made mastering spells concerning fire and light difficult for her.

Poor Memory (minor personality) That beating in the monastery has left Jorina with a bad memory of places and names.

Jorina (I'll Latinize her name later) is a stealthy mage who eschews big showy effects in favor of illusion and deception. She has to time her most rigorous laboratory work with the lunar cycles and probably has acquired a Companion whose main job is to remind her of the things she's forgotten. She's probably a chronicler, carefully writing down not just her magical notes, but the events of the day.

Next up, her characteristics, childhood, and apprenticeship. In which, I'll write more of her story!

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Say my name.

Tue, 06 Dec 2022 21:37:48 GMT

My name is Douglas Edward Berry. Not at all exotic. In the Army, I got used to just being known by my last name, as my first name was my rank, "PFC Berry" was how people knew me.

Most people call me Doug, which I'm fine with. There is one variation of my name that one person on the planet is allowed to use. I've had various nicknames, user names, and of course Uncle Bullhorn, my name at Burning Man.

But Douglas E. Bery is what I go by. It's how I sign my name, it's the name I use when I publish things. It is a simple, uncomplicated name with a great family history.

So the the fuck are medical offices utterly incapable of getting my name right? I just got a call confirming an appointment for tomorrow. They asked for Edward. I have never gone by my middle name. I did contemplate it as a nom de plume for a while, something like Edward Karasu (the surname is Turkish for dark water, which is what Douglas means in Scottish Gaelic.)

The usual thing is reversing my name, and asking for Mr. Douglas. That has happened so many times over the past three decades I have to wonder if they bother reading the form where I filled out my name correctly. I know it seems like a minor thing, but it's bloody annoying and potentially dangerous as these places are handling my health care!

I will admit that I let my frustrations out today when the office asked for Edward. I didn't shout, and I wasn't profane, but I did let the office person know that they need to read the name correctly.

Because I have a name.

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Ive put out the begging bowl again.

Sun, 04 Dec 2022 20:47:53 GMT

Torn Ligaments, Torn Finances

I've suffered a Grade 3 ankle sprain, which is preventing me from working. I don't have near enough PTO accumulated to cover my losses.

In case you were wondering why this was so important at this time, why losing my income at the end of the year was so dire, here's why.

I take Xarelto to prevent blood clots. I have also fallen into the Medicare "donut hole" of prescription coverage. I need to refill my Xarelto.

A three-month supply is about $450. I can't just stop taking it, so it has to happen.

I hate that I'm trapped in the nightmare that is the US healthcare system.

Please share this campaign far and wide. Thank you for any help you can give.

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Since I'm in a world-building mood, meet my Orcs.

Fri, 02 Dec 2022 19:13:20 GMT

This takes place after the destruction of the Empire of the Giants and the scattering of the Dragons during the Greater War of the Gods and shortly after the Races of the Tree were created. It was a Golden Age, where the Races of the Tree (humans, dwarfs, halflings, and gnomes) worked together in harmony. Some humans, however, were touched by the Corpus Infernus and roamed the lands as barbarian raiders.

The orcs were created when the demon-touched leader of the greatest barbarian horde was frustrated by his inability to break the defenses of one of the great cities of this legendary age. This leader, Grummish One-Eye, made a pact with Canarak, God of Slaughter to allow him to sack this city.

Overnight, his army was twisted into what we now know as orcs, and with their new-found ferocity, were able to destroy one of the last Golden Cities. But Grummish's triumph was short-lived, as almost immediately his army turned on itself. Grummish himself was killed and is now a demigod in the service of Canarak.

Orcs, being children of Canarak, are violent beings who kill for sport. They live in tribal groups where the strongest and most successful lead by right of force. Orc warbands raid more civilized lands as a way of proving their worth. Orcs don't care about the value of treasure beyond its value as a display of the martial prowess in stealing it.

Orc tribes tend to weed out their own weaklings through hazing and ritual combat. Some males are expelled and forced to find new bands to join. Sometimes, a tribe will grow too large and destroy itself in a frenzy of destruction. While not strictly nocturnal, orcs prefer to operate in dim light. Bands usually try to find a cave system or abandoned tomb complex as a stronghold. Since they crave combat, they will abandon an area if it lacks challenges.

Rarely, an orc will appear with the strength, charisma, and intelligence to unite the tribes into a horde. Such orcs are known as "Grummishning haqiqiy o'g'li" or a "True Son of Grummish." When a True Son appears, civilized nations tremble. The only way to end the threat is to kill the true son.

I use the D&D5e sourcebook The Book of the Righteous for my games, as it is an excellent and complete pantheon, and most of it is system-neutral. It's also fairly easy to add to in careful doses. I've added the giants as div, a variant of the first intelligent species created by the gods. Other div in the current age are the elves, fae, and other nature spirits. These specific div were touched by the primal gods of the elements to create servants. Which is why you have fire giants, storm giants, etc.

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I'll probably use Sprawlrunners for this.

Mon, 28 Nov 2022 03:44:39 GMT

While engaged in a discussion of Cyberpunk tropes everyone is tired of in TTRPGs, one person mentioned the pervasive Asian Chic feeling, with Japanese zaibatsu dominating the world, ninjas, and the entire manga/anime feel.

I agree heartily. What I want to see, and may have to write for the SWADE Cyberpunk system, is a setting where the African Renaissance is full speed ahead and the US and China have been greatly reduced in influence. African corporations are the big influences, African music is hot, and the current First World players like the US and China are collapsing.

Having a campaign set in Mombassa would be really cool, as you have a totally different feel and all of the Continent to play in. You could even ignore the US. Scandanavian mercenaries, Ukrainian bankers, Arab and Indian factors, and a dozen languages are spoken in the new Sprawl as Mombassa (and the space elevator just offshore) have made this city ground zero for intrigue.

What would make this setting unique is Mombassa is an old, old city. It dates back to at least the 14th century. It has ancient mosques mixed in with modern areas. I love the idea of Old Africa meeting New Africa.

And you have all of Africa to play in!

Yeah, I need to write this. I'll be using Sprawlrunners, a cyberpunk Savage Worlds rule set for this. Does anyone want to help?

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"War and Peace" a collection from the pages of Analog

Sun, 27 Nov 2022 18:55:42 GMT

War and Peace: Possible Futures from Analog by Stanley Schmidt

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

We picked this up on a buy-nothing group. It's a mixed-bag collection of military-relating science fiction, ranging from classics like "The Weapon Shop" by A.E. Van Vogt to lesser-known stories like "The Wabbler" by Murray Leinster.

It was fun to read, but so many of the stories feel dated and some were just odd. So if you're a completist for MillSF, seek this book. Otherwise, I'm glad we got it for free.

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The Closing of the Western Mind

Sun, 27 Nov 2022 18:44:40 GMT

The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason by Charles Freeman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was an utterly fascinating book.

Freeman takes us through the history of Greek philosophy and intellectual curiosity, spending time explaining how the open debate of ideas helped advance the greater understanding of human nature and the beginnings of natural philosophy.

The second main section addresses the religious and intellectual state of the Levant in the century before Jesus, showing how various groups would eventually influence Christian thought. We then meet Jesus, analyzed in light of the times and religious feelings of the era. Then comes Paul, and his weird hangups that sadly defined many aspects of early Christianity.

The endless debates and heresies swirling around the nature of Christ occupy a good chunk of the book. The main theme is that the arguments were driven not by real intellectual debate but by personal attacks and rigging church councils. Augustine is introduced, and his journey from Neoplatonist to his view of a harsh personal God is explained as part of his own history as a bit of a momma's boy and his seeming fear of women and sex. Brilliant writer, but he really was the man responsible for the end of the honest debate in the West for several centuries, writing that only faith is needed to explain the universe.

The last chapter introduces Thomas Aquinas, who finally successfully justified Aristotelian rational examination of the world into the church, stretching Aristotle's teachings out to encompass Church doctrine. Aquinas, more than any other westerner, jump-started what would become the Renaissance and the later Enlightenment. The contributions of Arabic scholars in translating and preserving Greek writing are mentioned, and a brief allusion to the Islamic Golden Age is made when pointing out that Islamic scholars accepted rational debate as essential to faith while the Christian west was mired in church doctrine.

This was a great book, and I learned a lot from it. I am now inspired to learn more about Ambrose of Milan, for example. A good history should create a desire to learn more in the reader, and this succeeds brilliantly.

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