His Orders - a short

His Orders - a short
----
Tadeo looked up and was surprised to see Asun back. His brother was a frightening sight in the moonlight. His long straight hair covered his fair and hansome face, you could not recognize it was a living man sitting bent over on that horse merely by his siluoette. He moved jerkily, a wound that could not heal since their childhood but despite this fragility Asun was always determined and purpouseful in his actions and especially his words.

"We found them. they took the road from san sebastian to san isidiro. They thought they could flank us, but they pushed their horses too hard and crippled one of them. They had to stop and rest them. " Asun was tone was enegetic despite his posture.

"They gained a day... ." Tiras voice seemed to come from no where.

"...but lost the night". Tadeo finished

"this night." Asuns voice interrupted

Tadeo looked at his men, well hidden in darkness. He can only sense them by their familiar presence. Countless hours of working together and an intense their familiarity made them predictable to each other.

"Kinao is the most familiar with the terrain." tadeo stated. He was sure not everyone could hear him, but knew they would clarify with each other later. he then motioned Kinao to speak.
".. It is like the path to Villa Alta Mercado's from Casa Amargo, but heading south west. There are jagged hills on the roads east, and the woods are thicker and unclensed.
Those who will ambush will need push through the woods to cut them off farther down to san isidro, one has to approach from the north of the camp and the other force..."

Sweat was pouring all over him and his feet was aching and very hot from his run. He took off his shirt to cool himself and pulled a long drink from the goatskin bladder. "Asun should be in position soon..." it sounded like a statement even if it was actually a question. Asun was always sure of himself and tended to overpromise, despite being crippled he sometimes found a way. Tadeo and Tiras have learned not to argue with their younger brother in these matters.

Tadeo wanted to check the sky for the time, but the weather had not changed much since the morning. The July rains were here, and tonight their gentle touch made even keeping an ember for light difficult, but not impossible.

He blew into the thimble lamp and fed the ember with more gas. He did this behind an earthy overgrown mound and checked his time piece. It was bright enough to see the time, but dim enough to let his eyes easily adjust back to the dark. It was time, and it looked like Asun was late.

The wind blew stronger and the smell of rain filled them with anxiety. Fighting in the rain was messier and more dangerous. Even if their greatly numbered foes disadvantage would be worsened the option of retreat and regrouping.

They were inching closer to the camp, they had to hedge their bets. If asun could not be in position before the end of this hour they will have to begin this with their prey having the option to take the north for cover. Tadeo was making the effort to stop himself cursing his brother when one of the camps men suddenly thrust a knife up another mans jaw and through one eye. The knife's edge peaked out of the mans skull, and held the whole weight of the mans limp body. The body was laid carefully down, appearing at rest and asleep.

The whole north side of camp was silent, and the killer was limping his way up. Another man was following the him, arranging the bodies in a calm and unhurried manner. It appears asun has begun, but my the looks of it not long.

Asuns had to move slowly, forced to give a calm gait or his limping would show. His next target was a bit of a walk farther. He wore someone else's shirt and straw hat.

But it was just too far, his knife was in the mans eye but the dead man had quick drawn his revolver and pulled the trigger shooting the earth.

Tadeo cursed and ran, behind him was Lantok with revolver and sword.

The camp was about to wake up, when tadeo threw at them burning oil. The fire lit the camp and one unfortunate soul. The phosphorus mixture caused the light to blaze. In that opportunity the thunder of Tiras rifle crashed through the camp. He shot men as they crossed each others path, a pair of men fell with a third man stumbled with a limp arm. Another terrible shot rang and four men went down.

Tadeo could barely distinguish who he fought in the darkness, the bright light ruining his ability to detaiks in the darkness. He felt his way around, and cut every man within sword reach. He was searching for the war party's headman, Don Gaitano's younger son Hermano.

It was easy for Tadeos men to slaughter the other side, their practiced efficiency made it all the more one sided. Nonetheless they were on their guard for anything, hence the conservative tactics they employed. He saw Asun with the horses, stabbing into another mans thigh cutting meat and harness. The man fell, but few other horsemen came loose.

Before the horses could find their gait, Tadeo sprang on one of them. His speed, a rare sight, powerful legs thundering and his special shoes digging deep into the moist earth. He caught up the rear most man. With a simple and powerful motion he grabs the mans belt and uses it to pull himself up.

The man falls to the ground, his center of balance shifting radically above him and causing him to land neck breaking first. Tadeo quickly hooks his sword on his back and uses that newly freed arm to pull himself ungracefully over the horse.

When he got himself sitting correctly, he pulls out his pistol from his shoulder holster and took aim. His eyes have not adjusted yet from the darkness, much of the contrast has not returned. He infers the largest target and the angle of the terrain, he needs a hostage and ransom not a new reason for war.

The pistol was heavy, and its barrel a large .44. Tadeo perfered to shoot the small cannon with the stock his brother made but precision must take a backseat to speed and mobility. The hand canon thundered and it whipped his thick arms back, jarring his bone and punished his wrist. It crippled the horse and its rider crashed.

At speed they galloped and the distance, he passed them but swooped down to brain the rider struggling to get up. "was that hermano?" he wondered. Righting himself he bussied to have the horse catch up. He could feel the horse quivering and smell its ragged breath from the long march of the other day. There was a turn, and Tadeo's horse slipped. Tadeo was able to dismount before it crashed and landed sliding on his feet.

He was running and catching up. The horses... More accurately the ponies, were ragged and were supposed to be resting. He needed to only catch up to 40 meters and he gained a meter a second. His legs were building heat and felt tighter. His body leaning forward, and his stride grew greater as he continued to accelerate. His eyes were on the road, and while 20 meters off the horse stumbles and its rider crashes as well... Riding in the dark never ends well.

The rider didnt get to his senses when tadeo already saw it was hermano, it figured he was certainly a better rider than his men. He quickly pulled out his binding leathers when he ignored the sound of hammers cocking loudly in the night. Before he could bend over to tie him a voice called out "Stop!" tadeos eyes has finally adjusted and he was at the edge of san isidro, and its a score of its guardia civil.

----
This is set in my 19C historical philippine setting titled Mahadlika: the people under heaven. tadeos and his brothers boss is Don Sabus, who is cunningly and ruthlessly siezing the estates around him by an unbridled use of force and politics. A cathartic exercise of how dark and messed up that period is in phil history.

LibreOffice User

Sent from my iPad

I missed creative writing - the freedom of being non-professional

I used to be an artist, it sucked to live and die by the quality of art. Now, being full time in technology and management, I find more inspiration to write than ever.

My wife and I were talking about it, and she pointed out that it was hard focusing all energies in just one creative pursuit. I have a mental model for that: Input is always greater in proportion to output. Working, Living, and Playing are kinds of Input. If 90% of you day is doing WLP then you have that to write about.

My other mental model/ hypothesis is WLP is distracting, and distractions add variety to our experience. The variety of task and fields is helpful in learning because of the advantage of having to master different and what may be unrelated fields (In other words: doing stuff you don't like or does not favor your strong suits). Work has the advantage of allowing one to exercise: Variable Priority Training which is great for cognitive health (i will explain how I try to exercise this in my work blog). Variety also allow me to try to exercise Mindfulness Meditation. (is another multitasking exercise. I should discuss the two in detail in my work blog). 


So work, life, and a variety of hobbies has helped. Work allows me to meet more people, that "Library" of personalities everyone draws on gets more interesting and more life-like when we have a better sampling to populate it. Instead of going by labels and archetyping, my process for that has gotten more complicated (I still have a process; I don't know if I should post this one given that it opens my hand too much). 


Dealing, since business and money is at stake brings out a unique dimension in human behavior. As geeks are motivated by the intrinisc value of their pursuits there is a radical paradox change when there are elements of money, cost of living (loss aversion to a standard of living one has been accustomed), the variety of ambitions and risks in the professional world. In such occasions, the GM in me takes a back seat and loves watching what goes down and would keep careful notes about how to use the material in the next game. That GM is always modeling what is observed into complex rules to accommodate the credible data. Random number variables allow me to categorize some exceptions to the rule into my general understanding. 


So the GM has a ton of notes every end of the day. Sometimes there is much data it is really part of my work day compressing and summarizing that data externally, like in blogging and my personal doctrine of strategies. When I write about what I learned, I cannot help but be inspired by the new approach I could take writing or playing out a scene. 


Writing has its own rules and structure. Listening to a Ton of Audiobooks allowed me to digest data more than I've ever done in my life. So now I have more writers to compare to and more patterns by which i can approach a narrative. 


There is such a wealth of information, that I may be stumped where to begin... but most imporantly: I'm not a professional. I'm a GM who is too busy with WLP (other hobbies) that no one can fault me for crappy writing... which gives in to the best Writing Mental Release Valves: "Lower Your STANDARD!" Being a working stiff has made me free to try, to play, to fail.

When i started writing again, I got sucked in. I promised myself One Hour a day... and only during walks to offices, waiting for stuff to load, or meetings to start. Only "dead" time which could not have been spent any other productive way. I'm happy with what I made so far and self editing had the reassuring voice of: Your not a professional you are a GM and you can be a crap writer and no one can fault you for that.

If I could go back in time... I guess i'll leave things as they are. Experience and the suffering helps reinforce lessons for those of us with predisposed poor self control.

Hard Sci-Fi Ship Combat - Go Abstract or Go Computerized

Related to the previous discussion, I'm in the inclination to Computer Simulation or to Go Abstract via Card Game... This is kind of a solution mixing both.

The structure of the Card Game I have is relatively simple and strangely it a is a different funding model compared to Collectible Card Game. Funding is not through the cards, but from the service of maintaining a balanced card game system where players are registered commanders in the living setting. All cards can be DIY or made by another printing service that meets the CGG parameters.

Only Official cards and registered decks can be "balanced". Players are limited to the budget of their registered commander. This is saved in the web based API database. The web based tool allows for online tournaments. Commanders can advance in position, allowing them to control and lead fleets and operations. 

People can play and build decks for free; they can build homebrew decks easily. 

Each Ship is a card. Ship Cards are always face down. On the back of the card is its lowest resolution. Each Ship can be generated by a web based program, that determines its stats and special abilities. There is a pregenerated set of Official ships, but players are free to make their own ships and fleets for their own settings and games. Same goes for the Shuffled Deck of Opportunities.

There are positions on the playing surface of each player that determine relative position of ships to the opposing player. These special arrangement carries into the a multi-player game. Practicality limits no. of players.

a Shuffled Deck of Opportunities: These are special actions and circumstances. There is a limit to the type of card can be in a deck. Some Cards can only be in once or thrice. Decks cannot be reshuffled and have a card cap. There are filler cards are missile pods, drones, and other cards that give slight bonuses.

Some cards need certain circumstances to be played giving a bonus, creating an exception to the rules, or creating a special circumstance. Some circumstances that trigger can be related to the other cards in the players hand, in reaction to a card played by another player, or the arrangement of the ship cards.

Die Rolls, 2 six sided dice. resolve some engagements. The system uses target nos.

Other Assumptions:

• Settings and background.
• Factions and their Core Strengths.     

Each faction has a no. of fleets and commanders. The web tools allow to simulate economies and the military they support.

Other Uses.
Quick Building ones' own Sci-Fi Setting. A dedicated hobbyist can use the tools to make his own sci-fi setting for story purposes, asking his Players to role-play various scenarios: from naval engagements to conducting operations. The tools takes care of many economic assumptions for the hobbyist, allowing him or her to incredibly detail his/her setting and have fun.

Information Symetry - Challenges of Hard Sci-Fi Ship Combat

Edits from a discussion with Ken Burnside and Nyranth.

In the back of my mind this problem has been percolating and I've just recently gained some insight and I'm wondering if anyone has already thought of it?

Will try to limit sci-fi breakthrough assumptions.

• Power Generation is x5 to x25 more efficient and productive. added^ Than what we currently have in 2012. that means a 1MW Power Plant of about 5tons and about 10m^3 today can produce 5MW at the start of the space era and moving towards 25MW by the time its interestallar era. 
• Engineering can make sufficiently large ship, station and colony structures that are cost effective. 
• Life Support Allows for Space Stations to only 90% of all resources for self sustenance. Lower for locations which have more resources available. 
• There is one form of FTL travel: Jumps that can only occur when passing beyond the farthest edge of the system. This occurs instantaneously, the draw back is getting the the jump point takes forever.  
• No Gravity Manipulation - all gravity is by rotation based or linear acceleration. This basically makes all shipping cylindrical. 
• No FTL Systems. 

Before any War, there was already a Arms race for Modeling Systems. Information has been thoroughly modeled, and even before the first professional military interstellar conflict.

Warships try to Appear like Commercial Ships. The extents of the octupi-like deception goes as far as your Q-ship, "transforming" ships, combining multiple vessels to appear as one larger vessel.  This goes both ways, commercial ships will try to appear like Q-ships and various other pretend ships. You never know what is a warship. the most powerful pretenders are the Carriers, which appear like mega-freighters.

It is all about Range. Combat is at a couple Light Minutes Seconds, warships have to accurately predict where a ship will be Minutes before they can hit it. At Light minute Ranges it is matter of processing power and gestalt numbers.

Missile Pods, and Missiles are Traps. These deployed weapons are meant to allow ships to be more than one place at a time, allows them to cover more "ground".

Tactical Officers are Wizards, Commanders are Psychics. Tactical Officers are an augmented Statisticians and Game-Theory Experts. The Commanders are augmented experts in cognition, game theory and psychology: trying to Predict the actions/moves of the other Commander.

Drone Warfare tries to achieve the ff:

• All Warships can be converted into Drones
• exploiting Lanchesters law as much as possible. 
• Has more capability to pretend to be commercial shipping.
• Drones are the primary AI of missile pods and missiles. 

Card Game System. This is too complex to be made into a piece vs piece game. Its better made to a level of abstraction similar to CCGs. I have one in mind, that is for another post.

Problem based Learning - Learning Programing for your GM tools

An Awesome Find for GMs who are willing to learn to do some programming late in life :P http://developer.ubuntu.com/ This is an application builder with a lower complexity barrier. Personnally I'm considering moving my spreadsheet projects to these kind of apps, although it would prevent non Ubuntu Users to use them.

Other Helpful tools:
Open Courseware of MITX's Opencourse Scholarship (automated scholarship)
Introduction to Computer Science and Programming.
Introduction to Computer Science and Electronic Engineering.

Relative Link: Ubuntu App Showdown Thread in the Ubuntu Forums.

I've talked to my Programmer friends, what my IT staff calls: Hardcore Programmers. They told me learning something like Java and Python is like 3 months. Not exactly someone who is picking up the pieces of someones managerial catastrophe can do, not to mention there is no more "me" time when you have a 16mo. baby boy who appears language delayed and needs more story time :p. Those links above is the lowest obstacles to learning programming I can get.

Some personal history - My first course was BS Math in de la salle university, but I didn't have the math chops to stay. Khan Academy's math program and the bandwidth to use it back in 1998 would have been a big help for me. No one was big with math where I'm from, heck no one was big with science and technology in general where I came from. So when it came down to the crunch, the math books was another language to me plus the distractions of being an 18. the internet changed all that now.

Learning something new and the strategy and economics of it:
I'm using my mental model of skill systems where there is an economy of skills, we only get skills that have a high utilization when compared to our circumstance. High Value skills are great, like learning Java, German, Chinese etc.. but circumstance forces us to balance the opportunity cost of what you need now to what you may need in the future. Thus there is an economic and strategic element of balance when picking up a new skill. I'm reflecting this in the article I was going to post on my blog if so many deadlines weren't breathing down my neck.

As an Open Source Nut Job, I'm the equivalent of the Tech Dumpster Diver always digging for something free and open to play around. (if you can recommend a Access Control and Time keeping program for Locks). This is the equivalent of my Mom's "bargain hunting" where she goes all the way to Divisoria, a place near Old historical manila 19C chinese suburbia where straight-from-the-port and "gray" area goods can be found, if you're willing to suffer the incredible heat, humidity, humanity, pollution, risk of thieves, and muddy streets.

I'm thinking maybe I should make an OJT convert the Spreadsheet Building tools I made into these Ubuntu Apps.

One of those Common Plots for Traveller Game

I just finished watching Prometheus. Its nice that most of the equipment I saw can be found in your basic sci-fi setting, especially considering GURPS Ultra-Tech. Breaking down the formula and structure of it for a game, I think the story would have a different ending.

Spoiler-ish

The Gamers I know are healthy paranoid, they would have kept military discipline and would be crazy organized. Watching the move I would often mutter "that Idiot!", to many of the characters who took unnecessary risks. 

My brothers was telling me, he watched it with me and the wife, he would have definitely brought along a battle android, and at least two. I realized, given the discipline needed in a mission like theirs, or the possibility of insubordination any wealthy heiress would have taken an Android loyal only to her and would allow her to fly the ship with the minimalist crew, should ever the need arise.

Hubris is the theme of all these sci-fi movies, and it seems Holywood seem to like casting scientists as ender of worlds. Save for the movie written by scientists, and a rare few other movies where scientists are not so myopic as to fail to see their own flaws and their own humanity. I get annoyed by that, but not a lot of sci-fi movies that is about a science or discovery going around these days.

It would be best broken down into its components and made into a plot more close to home. The Mcguffin, would have been tied to the Plot Moving Character's (Scientist/Entrepreneurs/Financiers/Nobles) story and is precisely made to require him/her to push the story to the very end. The answer must always be a story of its own, written by the GM and torn into little pieces with bits of it scattered all around "the Set".  

The problem with Seasoned Gamers is that they are Cautious to a near-superhuman level (IMO). Gamers who are so cautious and OCD as to have planned and prepared are rare min-maxers that tends to be the safety net of the gaming group. They provide a great balance to the GM's voice since they work in keeping the characters all alive. In an adventure like this, they are overwhelmed by the massive work it is to anticipate all dangers, while the GM employs Murphy to push things forward. 

Even super min-maxers bow to and co-tow to Murphy, walking the path of the story and the drama. The harder the min-maxers fight Murphy, the greater the Drama they can build up. 

I realize that there are so many dangers and hazards the GM has to plant along the course of story. That's the problem of the GM, being one person, and trying to remember all these traps while keeping all the drama and adrenaline in check. Thats why I always wish a second mind, a GM's assistant, would always be useful as the game stresses out the GM switching emotional gears and super charging problem solving ability to map out what next to do. 

6 hour emotional roller coaster, designed in about 10 hours solo, and cooperatively another 10 hours. Gaming is such difficult mental feat, only those who intrinsically value it can ever achieve such climax.    

Prometheus

• Probably 1000dtons 
• Triple the Living Areas to account for the wide common areas and passageways.
• Borderline TL10 ship
• 100dton cargo bay
• Vehicle Bay with 100dton Ship 

Modular Games within the Game

Continuing from my previous post I thought of various gamification of certain GM tasks.

Mind Maping Game. Basically its like a mind map version of the Sims. The Game or the GM can generate a Mind map of various characters using certain descriptors. Now there is a timeline that clicks along and the GM juggles and assigns the resources and priorities of a number of characters. The game is to try to achieve as many of the characters goals and juggling as many characters as possible. There are elements of chance and various curve ball events that can occur, so the GM has to be very strategic regarding how he or she will meet certain goals. The random events can be scaled to happen more frequently for tragedies and less frequently for more heroic stories.

You can even create a Drama System that allow players to "build up" drama through various obstacles and random events and how the characters trade or sacrifice for what gains.

At the end of a period, the Timeline can be replayable so the GM or a player can write up the elements into a story.

>> More elaboration.

What I had in mind for the Timeline Moving mind maps is that there are various events that occur over time, Seasons or Months will be changing per turn, and there would be various random events occurring directly on the Characters Juggled by the player or indirectly that affect relationship lines or status. Every turn, the player has a no. of resources to spend on various relationships and goals. 

the way imagine it is, imagining a mind map of Game of Thrones and the characters of the stories. Every Turn there is an Event, and Characters like John, Tyrion, daenerys, etc.. have elements in their Web change. Their relationships with various characters improve or get worse, and their activities toward various goals progress or falter.

GMs and the Game Developers can add various events or use elements from encyclopedia dramatica and memes as events and kinds of status for the course of play. 

Its like a Sims Game, in a way, but made of a Mind Map. GMs, Writers and Players, can Rewind and Replay various events and change the story line. The basic tool does is make an outline, and Creatives just elaborate how certain events occur. 

The random variables allow some of us GMs who tend to tell stories a certain way to avoid our weaknesses and habits

Basic Civ for Civilization building. Like Civ, except all the data is exportable to Maps and can be zoomed into various levels of detail that can fill various needs for the GM. It starts off with a simple Hex Maps version but in later Iterations these get better and better. (Maybe Taking FreeCiv into a new graphic level).

The Technology Trees are determined by the GM, and continuous alternative Technology trees will arise. There will be Magic Path Trees for fantastic settings, but they practically affect as much as technology.

The fundamental aspect of this game is that it can be exported easily to create detailed worlds for Game Masters, Film Makers, World builders, etc... It doesnt need to be very sophisticated, it just need to be modular so that the Player can customize and randomize various elements which he/she exports for their story.

Interstellar System Builder. As masters of Orion was taking Civ into the Interstellar Realm, so does this Interstellar system builder. Again, it starts in a simple 3d system but small, but gets better and better. Exports a 3d Pdf starmaps. It can be used to simulate naval actions.

Ship Builder and Combat Simulator. Comes with a repository for various ships organized by themes and genres, much like Character Repositories. The Ship builder is a 3d program based of blender where ships can be built and played with. It plugs into the Interstellar builder for GMs who want to build ships test it out.

The Combat Simulator is also allows the GM to set up combat encounters turn-based or live, and all the players can perform ship actions via Apps that tie them to the ship. Characters who are in Navigation, Comms, Sensors, Engineering all have activities and the system allows for several characters to contribute. GMs play as the master controller, setting ships against the Players if it is one vs many. Each  Player have their own minigame that are 66% player skills and 33% character ability, on an app. The Game levels can shift, from handling one ships with multiple roles to handling many ships to fleets to allow for Naval Action RPGs and the combat that comes with that (like Lost Fleet).

Technology Assumptions
Note that it takes about 2-3 years to fully implement these technologies, and by that time the cost of computing will be even cheaper. the $500 tablet being more powerful than what we have currently. Allowing GMs to do more and more of the work on the tablet, and some on the phone.

Around this time, mini-projectors and their bulbs could be more cost efficient and the game company's service extends to making everything projected. Each player able to move their pieces and perform their actions from their Smart Phone, as the GM assigns them.

The technology is Open and has a 3-4 year exit, allowing other companies to take over some fields and specialize customizing the "server/cloud based system" for various Game Systems and try to provide better services. The model brings the barrier to Play much lower, because every part of learning to is game-ified. As an Open system, other specialize developers can use it to make Learning modules for education.

The Game as a Group Social Activity becomes a Facilitated/Guided Problem Based Group learning activity. Various specialized educational design groups customize it for companies to create Simulations where the Group role-plays. Case studies are built with the Mind Maping Game where Economic and Biz situations are Built into the system. Nerds and Geeks begin to multiply uncontrollably, they begin to over the world. They seize gov't and demand technocracy, they begin to affect all manners of policy. reproductive rates crashes, the last of the worlds population dies being preoccupied finishing their campaign.

Putting Ideas out There; Game Service Biz Plan on the Fly

These are projects I'd like to undertake if i had the time, capital and freedom. I'm putting my ideas out there, I don't care who does this kind of project as long as it meets my price requirement. In a project like this, a budget would go much farther in India, I do admit. There are just more programmers and IT over there. 

Finish that open RPG system. 
The target goal of the open RPG system is to create continous soft infra to create and prep games at a much faster rate. A rate that can be measured and outsourced to gaming assisitants. Its main source of revenu is Gaming Service model.

One of the design goals of ORPGS is to be playable with other systems by working on a realistic baseline that gets plug ins to have a particular game style feel. ORPGS will follow fair use protocols to make conversions for all game systems which have significant demand.

All the electronic tools begin are all web and subscription based service, that are mobile platform compatible. The target goal is less than $50 a year and with improving capabilities over time. These tools are: 

• vector based map maker  
• regional development tools  
• entity builders (for manors, houses, companies, organizations etc), 
• board game creation tools, 
• mass combat tools, 
• mind-map storytelling tools...etc. 

All of which follow the Solitaire Mini Game model. As a mobile tool, GMs can kill time making game prep. 


The tools all have a downloadable/offline version that have a basic offline capability that improves per quarterly development cycle. Every subscription updates offline/downloadable version. These capabilities of free vs paid will be clearly stated and people are free to comment.  

Other services, like communications and video are seperate and a package (currently i don't have an idea for the costing of this). 

At certain revenue and demand goals certain projects are triggered. Basically the service is to make a tool for a particular demand and sell subscription of that tool to fund continuous upgrades and improvements. All Stakeholders, subscription holders, have access to the project goals, progress and various tracking (basically run like a publicly company with all the typical checks and balances). The funding of a project itself is a game, with groups influencing the direction and providing guidance to provide more services. Goals are clearly stated and metrics are available. AGILE development cycle. 

One of the company goals is to gain credibility by providing the best possible value and transparency.

Byproducts that can be made into boardgames and home games, will have complete documentation for DIY at home or outsourced to a local specialist. All users have rights to all created material and are free to do what they want with them. Users who elect Creative Common arrangements will have their creations posted and accessible for comments and access. The company will make aggregate all creative common content as part of its services.

Since the system is open sourced people are free to make their own books to publish and sell it. The tools bring down the amount of time to make the crunch, and they just focus on fluff.

The Sci-fi gamers software toolkit.
A blender inspired program that builds 3d vehicles, ships, locations, characters and star maps. This is a semi-subscription based project which follows the same as the project above. The overall goal is to make enough material for one's sci-fi setting as to Run RPG, film a machinama or mixed media Sci-fi show. 


Tools all follow the Game in a Game model, allowing to be a fun process in itself. It also follows the realistic baseline moving to genre plug ins. This is a related project to the one above. Synergy with the programs above is always planned into the project at close to equal priority to speed.

Documentation of all projects will be as extensive as possible given budget limitation.

All good things come to an end.
All these projects have a duration, probably a 5 year life span where by the end of it, it should achieve its goals and opensource everything that remains. On its last throes it just completes all documentation and allows people to offer everything on a leased virtual server or at home.

During its life span it will track the userbase and the metrics regarding the gaming population. If there is a decline or steady then it is best to incubate to see if the project will influence the hobby and bring down barriers.

This is a spreadsheet with only 3 quarters planned out.

Game within a Game: modular and complete games and game systems.

Game within a Game: modular and complete games and game systems.

I was looking at the rules for world building in the old traveller games and in harn and gurps and i realized that every sub-system is better explained by its own mini game that can be played by itself. Every subs system is a modular game.

Basically why not build a sub game mechanic and system when you could make it fun and complete? That way people get to use it more and plan it i to the activity itenirary of a gaming group.

Example. GURPS and GURPS mass combat, city states, and Low Tech companions. These tools would have been better, IMO, if they were playable as their own mini game. you would have a MACRO game and the RPG game. The Macro game can have an oversimplified combat system where MASS Combat can be removed or plugged back in.
Something like Harn Mannor can be made into a kingdom building game, almost like a board game, allowing for a simple game among friends of populating an empty hex map and playing out macro political, territorial and economic histories playing out.

Some detail building games play out like solitaire: for building villages, manors, infra, and all the other gm tasks and prep. Even a game of Mindmapping, similar to using tarrot as a writing exercise. Where these activities are timed and can get faster and smoother with practice.

Anyway, thats what I've been trying to do with my open RPG system. Although im trying to make it as turn key as possible which is slowing me down. Trying to figure out inkscape and an easy way for a Linux User like me get away with open source all the way.

So i figure why cant this be the design philosophy other than the science based mental model for game rules.

Sent from my iPad
Pardon the mistakes