World Generator Spreadsheet Update Oct 31, Helping Out

 

1. so I removed the javascript dice script because it was tedious. This means if there was a problem it would be tedious to fix. 
2. I replaced it with Randbetweens AND a javascript that Copy pasted the column data to dice value cells. Randbetween will always change on edit of the sheet, but if you Copy Values only to another cell with Javascript - this stops the value from changing. 
3. I fixed up all Planetary Systems - the Type of Star (OBAFGKM) determines how many Planetary Systems: Circumstellar Disks to Gass Worlds and their Mass.  
4. UPDATED: removed all the OPTIMISTIC HABITABLE ZONE as it is a Class of Zones. they are replaced with COLD ZONE. 

Remaining Tasks

1. All the Column Copying Scripts will be Triggered by the Master Function "pRollStellar"
2. Get the Menu to Work (It will make testing Faster)
3. Habitation Calculation for the Other Terrestrial Planets. 
4. Habitation for Dwarf Worlds
5. Fix Position for the Planetary Systems. 
6. Update the Change Log

This script would be required for every CELL! this is not practical, and if I adjust the Rows I would need to adjust the script. 

This copied a Column of Data to another Column. Hence the new layout. 

I need to study how this works. 

Helping Out

So I got in contact with Other small time publishers like Game in the Brain. We don't mind sharing our procedures or asking us why we have these procedures and methods. Actually we're hungry for feedback (constructive of course).  When your also a small time publisher, you learn a lot from other Small Time publishers who are willing to talk about their experiences. 

Blender - I don't know if I mentioned this: We've trained Students to use Blender, Students and we tried Teaching Staff Blender. Typically they are IT: Graphic Design students. But we are learning to teach others like Engineering and Industrial Design and Architecture. Our Product: World Generator, has blender files which I don't mind walking through it for buyers - they get to meet the regular individual who made it and help them understand it. 

We share and help  out others, our self-interest is in improving our skills rapidly by understanding more problems than our own circumstances. This is how I got good in my regular job - helping others gave me more problem sample sets which gave me more context for my skills - and thus accelerated its practice - instead of being stuck on just my problem. 

But that's Us, its not applicable to everyone. As I mentioned to one of the people we were trying to help out: I'll show you how to use LibreOffice to layout, optimize the Use of Drivethru RPG's sales analysis and marketing reach, and of course share our knowledge of Blender. 

Whats strange is that - Only one person took us on our offer so far. Which is interesting. So typically people POST their previews, there is NO INTENT on feedback. Because Feedback and SETBACKS add to the work. That's TRUE: it adds to the work BUT... and this is where my experience from work is that - it can reflect in SALES - every problem you FIX is a Potential Selling point for your product to Increase Sales. The question is - Do you have the Ability to Connect Potential Sales and Problems - do you have the Framework of Requirements Analysis and Scope Management to Customer Satisfaction/Demand? 

Every problem is ADVERTISING you fixed that problem. Every problem you fixed is TRACK RECORD of you ability to fix and address Problems. Its the XP to Level 5, every goblin killed or every dungeon explored.  I'm always struck by the INABILITY of people to imagine or understand the context of their actions AT WORK - how they create or remove bottlenecks, setbacks, simplicity or complexity. 

Of course, We're the weirdos who have Game in the Brain and think in this way 😅 (finding 2000 other weirdos who would like to check out our products is the journey). 

Mneme World Generator Docx File Now Included in Purchase

I dont know how many of you get frustrated when you are copy-pasting text, tables, or want to make notes and changes for your campaign given the material. Game in the Brain will make sure you get the writer/word file of the product so you can easily make those edits or upload those notes. 

Frustrated changing and organizing Equipment Lists and Table Materials for your game, We will include our spreadsheet notes. 

For Future Inclusions

after we cleaning it up and make it presentable. Help us sell more and so we can afford the math and astrophysics consulting services I'll need to clean it up. 

1. 211221 Asteroids to Super Earths   
2. 
   Science and Math Notes - basically what I used because sadly my day job doesn't have this much math and science. Its all Social Problem solving and Diplomacy and Admin rolls, these are very neglected skills. 
3. 211007 CE Ships All the standard ships in CE SRD are here with double checking of its math (found some problems). We will convert them TL7 to TL8 with Reaction Engines and Nuclear Fission ( Notes from World Nuclear) 
   
   
   

MNeme World Generator https://tinyurl.com/mtecbrwj   

MNeme variant Combat Rules https://tinyurl.com/3v3kcr76 

Pay What you want 6 Combat Career Cards https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/413465/Cepheus-Engine-6-Combat-Career-Cards  

Cepheus Engine 24 Career Cards https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/413475/Cepheus-Engine-24-Career-Cards 

1. 
   

Thank you for this Weeks (Week 43) Sales

 I'll try to post these more regularly. I plan to post a Stakeholders Report if we get silver. Particularly how I do my sales analysis (Pivot Table), and why we have a particular strategy. 

The journey to make enough money to do this full time (44,000usd/year in royalties). 

Uploaded the LibreOffice Files and Spreadsheet in Mneme Variant Combat Rules.

 Frustration with some books. So My GM got to using Swords and Wizardry and I found it such a waste of time to re-encode all the Equipment for the Loadout of our Characters. 

This is the pivot table of our Spreadsheet

I got pissed off having to Re-encode a bunch of things, AND I HAVE TO FIX THE WORLD GEN Spreadsheet. Here is the sheet I have to ready for our game.  Imagine having to ENCODE all of that crap to be ready for a game. No fucking way. 

Anyway, I'm going native and not have a Loadout ready, I'm fucking too busy for that. Game in the Brain will make sure you get our spreadsheets and tools, and make tutorials how it is used. When you buy our stuff, all the conveniences.

I need to fix it up though: the spreadsheet which has all the Planets in SOL and their mass and relative sizes, the calculations, my math notes, etc... I'll fucking share it. Know that we're not the smartest guys in the industry - but you really see what it really takes us to make our product. By seeing what you get, you can decide if we are worth the dollars.  

So Basically I said: FUCK IT - I want to be the Louis Rossman of TRPG publishing. Nothing shady, and you get what you should with the product.  

Why not share: People will get the Book and make their own RPG out of it, making minor edits. Go ahead, edit it and publish a Better Product its Creative Commons share alike: Give us IDEAS, help us improve our product.

Its just Me and Nicco - 2 Filipinos in a 3rd world country. The impact is just us. 

Feel free to Copy. I realize there are GMs like Seth Skorkowsky that make a lot of handouts and sheets. and some GMs need to access his material to help in their game. 

World Gen Spreadsheet Under Maintenance

 Spreadsheet Under Maintenance

1. Everything Above Row 82 is still usable. 
2. Removed all the appscript dice after Row 82. Will use Appscript to Cut and Paste the Randbetween instead. This is easier to fix in the long run instead of troubleshooting every cell. I can fix entire columns of random values this way. 
1. the macros are in, I just need to test them - up to 15+ of them. 
2. then I have to fix the tables. 
3. Turned off OnEdit
4. I need to fix all the broken References. 
5. 221029 Roll Keep with Functions instead of Javascript
   
1. 
   
   
   

This is how I spent my Friday night 😅😅😅

Design Intent in Game Mechanics - Objective Based Design

 One of the Interesting things about Matt Easton Analysis is converting the Strengths (and Weaknesses) of Spears into Game mechanics. 

Did you encounter a Game System that was Hard to understand - because it didn't seem to have a Goal or It Failed to State a goal? (Goals are Criteria to test if the Actions OR Conditions still met the intent - when actions or conditions failed the criteria - we select other courses of action). 

Typically when designing Game mechanics we start with reasonable assumptions:  

   2 Parties of Equal level and then to begin Detailing the Factors and Deciding "Nah that's too complicated, and lets handwave that" or "We want this Advantage/Disadvantage so the players have this option". 

What for me is strange is when there is no System in designing Mechanics. In writing Mneme Variant Combat rules (MVC) for Cepheus I had a Workflow, Impact Analysis of current Cepheus Engine Combat, and outcomes I wanted. This comes from the experience of having Tried one of the most detailed and Trying to be realistic Combat Systems - GURPS and learning from its Problems when just because its Realistic it proceeded to apply the Modifiers - failing to take into account Scope and Option and Power Creep - as well as the greater Learning Curve (that comes with Option Creep). 

In Mneme Variant Combat rules - the goal is to Simplify with:  

1. Superiority who had the best Conditions (Numbers of Forces, Terrain, Position). 
2. Advantage and Disadvantages were based on the Options the Player Took and of course Their Skill and Abilities as the Base.  

Players feel Rewarded if they were Strategic -- Getting Superiority in Position, Numbers, or Timing OR they Get rewarded with Adv if they take certain options ON top of their Skills and Equipment.

The MVC tries to emphasize: "Breathe, now simplify who has Superiority and by how much, and does the PC have Adv/Dis?* Then proceed to roll" Let your Mental Resources focus on making this ROUND engaging to the Players - Dont let the dice and rules get in the way! You only have to roll one resolution (you still roll its damage and consequences). You should have more ability to tell if your storytelling is working or if you need to change your approach. 

*who has the advantage. If PC, PC rolls with advantage. if the Opposing forces have an advantage the PC rolls at a disadvantage. 

Mnemosyne  the Muse of MEMORY is the main theme of our Product Line. The tools, the arrangement, the entire Strategy is to make sure: you can run games because you have a smaller mental load with the less valuable things (the rules and mechanics) - to be able to use more of your mental resources to engage the players. 

The book waxes into a lot of lessons in tactics in the APPENDIX from 9 years of airsoft, fps with my same airsoft team, and of course my background in kali and limited tournament experience; I still do a tactical and strategic analysis of our MechWarrior Online games which we have a channel of Tier 5 MWO player ; the critical thinking skills should work in Airsoft, HEMA battles, FPS shooters which require 20-40ping and 0.2 second reaction time, Nebulous Fleet Command or Children of the Dead Earth, OR marshaling resources for Projects or Operations - like a knife being so versatile it can be used for anything or create suitable tools to do anything. 

Academy of Historical Fencing

  

Biomechanics Qualities

1. Reach 
2. Speed of Pivot vs having more arm movement.  
3. its Length Leverage
4. Ability to be used as an Effective Ranged Weapon, allowing for the secondary weapon and shield to be used offensively (An Opportunity attack)

Price increase as the cost increase, only after milestone.

I'll be raising the prices when we hit silver because the add-on is pretty huge.

Every system will have the following 

1) 1 map 

2) 2 locations equal to renders and models of planet's and/or habitats. 

3) 2 hooks/adventures per system - prepared according to Seth Skorkowsky standard: PC stakes to push/pull them, set up, conflict, escalation, etc. And timeline 

4) 6 NPC that push/pull the PCs through the story and the system. User instruction how to have active NPCs. 

EDIT

5) Player Map 

6) Player Handout 

This costs more than much as a month's salary here and it's not something I can advance (since I'm family I'm a discounted IT plant Director, Quality Management Head, Safety Officer, and Project Manager, I live in a 79sqm unit) I pay for all my services in advance and take all the risk (which is uncommon everywhere) even if I earn Philippine rates.

The product will have the following. 

1) Booklet pdf (made with LibreOffice it's fully featured; map, gm info)  

2) Npc tokens  

3) Player map  (less gm information)  

4) LibreOffice file of the booklet  

5) Npc psd/gimp files  

6) Map psd/gimp files (for easy changes)  

7) blender files of rendered assets (planets and stations. In case the GM has to make changes and rerender).

edit:

8) player handout

I did the costing and I will run GITB to the ground if the cost to produce an add-on is far far less than the cost of additional sales. 

The tablet was a huge cost (wiped out a lot) but necessary. You can guess 300usd tablets and Addon against 50 sales at 6.5 usd royalty was negative. 

You Will notice we build planet generators, spreadsheets, and tools to better automate and improve the consistent quality to the art and product. We make a style guide and a standard for writing. We Invest in tools to make the product better - of course isntead of an R&D team a company would have its me guessing using occams razor and various heuristics of cost-benefit analysis. 

Silver add on will be add about half to a third of its stand alone cost. So the Mneme world generator will increase to about 13 usd after the 3 system because the 3 system is going to cost around 6usd and the stand alone pay what you want will have only one system and is 2usd (Pwyw, 10% actually tip) but the Dtrpg algorithms are more generous with those who give free bees. 

That means in the 7 system add on it's going to add 7 usd for 20usd when or if we hit electrum. 

Basically, those who got us to the next tier get a discount, since they are not paying the additional cost of that material. 

Right now at copper. 

We release the add-on. As the 3 system is for the copper. 

When we hit silver The price increases to 13usd. All those who got us to silver get it at the 10usd they initially bought it. 

When we hit electrum. The price rises to 20 as 7 more systems and other add ons are included. All those who got it to bring us to electrum got the add-on at 13usd. 

This rewards the earliest people who bought in, and the people who joined helps pay for the add on costs.

So the sales are just Break even 😅😅😅 for the next tier. The more than break even is the people tipping and buying the stand alone. 

I have to give offerings to the Stand alone and Pwyw! I'll come out with my sales figure and pivot tabling and analysis as a youtube video in the future. 

The long march towards getting to 44,000usd/year of royalties (2000 people need to like our stuff to have invested in to Cepheus Engine, spend 34usd per year on our material, and come back). 

I realize at 20usd it would be difficult to hit Gold. Why would you spend 20usd on the Mneme World generator? Because of the 10 systems above is eaisier to use? It's not as pretty as Mgt stuff - our stuff has to be made with LibreOffice in mind and you can have our writer files. I honestly don't know. 

Heck, why would 40 people pay 10usd for Mneme world generator now? 

Will I cap it at 20usd? Will I include ships to Mneme World Generator and spin it off as a PWYW and stand-alone? I don't know. 

This is not my full-time job, although I would love it to be... 

Would you support a publisher who makes their models available, the raw files, the psd files, already prepared for VTT upload in mind, spreadsheet tools, and pays upfront, makes tutorials (of course in paying Philippines rates 😅). 2 guys with occasional freelancing (typically for the codes). 

Would 2000 people care about that? Unlikely - do you see people caring about that now? No. So the value is in the product? Do you see anyone giving spreadsheet tools, blender tools, and models? No. 

What do the most of people who buy traveller? They want to be taken to far off worlds - the fluff - but who is going to make that fluff actionable as game prep in a very organized way? Who is going to make sure you have an easy time uploading to VTT and can visualize the flow or text? 

Buy fluff and get game in the brain products. 

Concept - Mneme Ships Book and Blender Files.

the dream is GODOT to automate this fully and make it visual (would probably cost couple of thousands USD to plan and 20x as much to execute). Imagine if you play Children of the Dead Earth or Nebulous Fleet Command and you get to Export the Ships into Blender and Create Scenes OR better the Ship Creation Program can Create Scenes for the GM to create Screen shots. 

BUT I'm prepared to make a Spreadsheet Ship Builder. I noticed there are more Developer TRPGers than guys who are in between - guys who use a lot of Spreadsheets. 

The Product is a 5% Ship Building Rules, 10% the Spreadsheet to automate this, the REST are Ships in Blender, Ship Maps, and 5% Scenarios Referees can just RUN.  

Imagine a Referee uploading a number of renders and pictures of ships to their VTT account. Setting up the MAPs, and then planning the encounters in 30 mins. Running ship-centric scenarios. 

I want a product - where people can really build their 
 

Be more Organized - learning from others

I need to be really organized. This video of the challenges of Cyberpunk red is reminding me of the technical debt we were incurring. 

I guess what happened in cyberpunk red rules is what happening now: When I switch guears to do marketing and the biz planning and having to delegate the editing and the designing. Where it takes a week or two to switch brain mode - marketing analysis and salesman mode to editor and game designer mode (not just a designer for me but with nicco so I have to be very visual and have reference checklists that is convenient for his access). 

This will slow us down by months UNTIL I make a standard process for it. 

Anecdote - we had audits 2-4x a year (2016 to 2020, the directors didn't want to perform audits so to exempt themselves they had to exempt me also because I used my auditing to push them to be be more systematic) - what I did was I detailed and recorded all my audits - talking and taking minutes as I went and then converting a past audit as a standard operating proceedure. Coloring text of my questions and the actions I have to perform, and clarifying deliverables per Phase of the audit. 

Risks of de-prioritizing Marketing and Biz Planning. 

• Lost Sales
• Lost Sales Opportunity, being there to Join in the Free Advertising of DTRPG events
• Slower Growth - less income, DIYing some of the solutions myself instead of commissioning and delegating it. Adding weeks. 

Activities 

Do these Progressively - check the list, and decide. Cross out done and closed, open new items as needed. 

1. Update the Project spreadsheet, 
1. Separate Freecad and blender training projects of my day job with Nicco and the GITB. 
2. fix the weekly schedule to be more structured. Target Dates, Include ME and my responsibilities (because I am Inputs to Nicco, and Nicco cannot start unless I hand over the inputs) Applying  Sequence Activities, Critical Path, and Critical Chain. 
3. Include Weekly Royalties as this determines if I can afford to delegate it. A simple Pivot table of seeing if I exceed my budget in a GIVEN phase.  
4. Include the Change Log Actions. 
5. Have a day where all I do is a plan and remove or add activities, or set the importance of the activities. If I dont there is so much bias and un-formed information that influence what should or should not be in the activities. I should filter things in my head - but have a log of what I decided and why. 
6. Track Time. When have we been working on this milestone? 
2. Create Styles and Standards in LibreOffice
1. Keep a Problem or Issue Log of what the Current Layouts are in the Industry and what GITB is doing to address it (applying my Day job skills). 
2. Create a Document and Drawings of how the Layout is going to Work. 
1. System Locations or Locations. 
2. Hooks and Issues and Problems - the Conflicts that arise. 
3. NPCs 
3. Create Libre Office Templates of these. Links and use Update Version to preserve the links. 
4. Document all the Strategies in one Doc including the costs in advance (how much per Portrait, per Model, - the expected output)
3. Create Procedures and Schedules- 
1. like the Folder KANBAN.  Since we are not using Google Doc, and using Libreoffice we have to have a Folder Kanban method to see if we picked up the next account. (hyperlink it in the tasks). 
2. Use the Change Log to coordinate changes and activities. 
3. Which time of the week we do Planning (this means me correcting my self and of course there is a risk I made nicco do stuff unnecessary - but that's what the sponsor of the project do - accept the risk), and which day we do handovers and task monitoring. 

Put the weekly profits as an entry, becuase that sets the budget. 

Of course actions, all have costs (as a former artist I pay per activity, I take the risk - you would be surprised by royalty-based or "exposure" offers to freelancers) 

I am hitting that problem now, the sales data from Dtrpg makes me hopeful, but I have to update my critical path - a list of activity sequences that have to happen (typically starting at the end and moving backward in time) and don't limit it to activities, fill in the problems that have to be addressed. 

One problem is addressing the tedium of preparing a game on VTT. 

The designs and diagrams are for Players and GM. We make a system we have the GMs copy and a blank for the players. 

Impact

• 1 month delay (4 weeks) - if you saw 1 and 2 in Activities than you realize that will take part-timers like us about 4 weeks to set up. Dont worry Nicco will still be making stuff - he will be working on the Planet and System models (I render and Polish it since I have the more powerful computer). 
• MORE STABLE release date. If you have what we set up above then our release dates should be more predictable and correct - at least the deviation from Estimates should be smaller over time in the course of Year. We are buying Down Technical Debt incurred of having NO SYSTEM - no organization, and a ton of rework - which Causes any project to be Over Budget. 
• to do what we are good at more often. With the Processes, and problems that will definitely arise - DOCUMENTING the processes and activities allows us to determine - which tasks we want to be good at and makes us happier. Minimizing the waste. 

The cost of being able to for GITB Full time is 2,200usd in royalties (or 3,300) sales in per week (40 weeks instead of 52 weeks). That would mean of the ~2000 views I would get of people seeing my product - about 22usd per year of sales. 

That means 2000 or so people spend 22usd because GITB Mneme saves them a lot in Prep, Inspires them because they can make renders for their game, they liked and contributed to our writing structure (example pertinent NPC information is how they PUSH/PULL the story forward. and various other stuch requirements for information and fluff in Locations and Hooks; as well as What does the GM show players, what should the GM only see?).

Why would 2000 people spend >22usd per year on GITB?

Also, how can a 2-man Filipino team make that much money when larger Companies have such a large staff, brilliant writing, endorsements, etc...  and so many resources? Our only advantage is that 3rd World Cost of living 😅😅😅 - getting someone like me is Nice-to-Have in Publishing (PM, QA and who has devoted his Teens to present in Game and Systems Design). 

I promised myself If I believe I can make the Family Biz the Next Ikea but in South East Asia IF i had the basic support (management making end-users SHOW UP weekly instead of chasing them down and ending up seeing them 1-2x a month) I could set up our ERP modules faster than Industry (which is 14+ months; we are currently 6 months, target 8 months for Inventory Implementation assuming we chase them all down) 

If I really believed that - Make GITB pay Nicco and me  half of the median income of non-family per year in royalties (that's 13.75usd/hour assuming 40 working weeks and 22,000usd/year/man).  

 

Ideas from Traveller RPG Memes - 3D Maps with Blender - Why not?

Blender is really useful with this in the future. The trick I guess is using the internal measuring tools to plan System Jumps in 3d. A GM opening Blender and knowing where to go would probably be a 10-minute youtube tutorial.

Measuring in a blender is making a line with Dimensions and then adjusting the line to the origin and destination.

 

 

BLENDER FILE OF THE PICTURE

It will take a month or so to research and make a product (remember we are part-timers with other full time jobs). if people want it we will make it an Add-on to Mneme World Generator and make a PWYW and a small solo. 

MNeme World Generator   (includes Blender Planet Generator Files)

MNeme variant Combat Rules  

Pay What you want 6 Combat Career Cards 

Cepheus Engine 24 Career Cards 

The dynamics of Nicco and our work. Who does what. Migrating to Libreoffice

Typically I get the project off the ground: writing Mneme Variant Combat rules and the World Generation Book. After that Nicco does most of the content writing and art. Of course I design the structure - typically strategy what information is first presented and what I need Nicco's Visuals need to achieve. 

I set the criteria: This has to convey the SCALE of space, the Zones and their relationship to the Star, that People have to visualize and think of swirling gas that form planets and material as they clump together - a crucial mental model to make sense (for me) star system formation and when we start thinking in Stellar Mass and Luminosity - its impact on formations - as well that this swirling disk of gas travels the galaxy's own swirling disk of material. 

Other than that I'm doing the peddling and marketing, and the Videos. The videos are really me doing Quality Inspection and Correcting our notions as we produce the output. Nicco and I have similar skills back in the day and we can check each other work and people mistake our drawing styles (back in the day). 

I'm more inclined to be the one to make the selling spiel as well as record walking through the product and why it was designed the way it is. 

Most products in TRPGs don't have a designer walk-through - gurps had some Designer's Notes because of paper printing limitations (now we have RAM limitations of Doc/Gdoc). I like talking about the Design - because if someone listens and tells me its a bad idea and why - it allows me to correct. I don't like getting thought as SMART - I'm just a working schmuck trying to write games - I'm as fallible as the next guy and I need help seeing my mistakes (when average intelligence do ambitious tasks - the lack of working memory shows in our work). 

Reading manuals and using a product as designed is rare - more often people jump in and use it. We designed it for the latter - people jumping in to use it. TLDR spiels up front, Bullets, Flowcharts of Structures and LONG paragraph narratives pushed to the back with hyperlinks to make it optional and easily findable (Which has problems because MS word is not as good as Gdrive in these matters). 

Migrating to LibreOffice

Background

Around 2014 I had a reject booklet in SJGames. It was for GURPS Low Tech Lite - a series of Lite Low Tech Books set in SPECIFIC eras. I thought it would be a great money making thing for SJ Games because 

1. it allowed SJGames to reuse a lot of material. no cost to them. 
2. the changes were SPECIFIC to eras to be played - a challenging amount of Preparation for GMS who did historical or Setting specific which I did and GURPS mostly did. For Every setting GURPS had in Low Tech, High Tech, Ultra Tech they could have made a GURPS LITE just for that setting - that allowed the GM to BUY it and hand it out to NEW players. 
1. It helped put a DENT on GURPS very difficult learning CURVE. 
2. GMS can COLLECT it
3. They can use it to Probe popular settings and quickly revive their older material. Nothing like Version 3 of Roman Republic set in the 4C BC or Imperial - or an Imperial Rome, or A book for Each Dynasty of China, or each Middle Kingdom era of India, or medieval Vietnam etc... 

This project taught me do layouting, indexing, page referencing, hyperlinking, etc... all in Libreoffice (don't save as .doc, always stay ODT). 

Plans

1. We will Migrate all the Books: Combat and World Generation into LibreOffice. This will cost money - but will bring down our technical debt. If Nicco is the only one who can edit it - then when he gets sick or busy I can't sub for him. Being in Libreoffice makes GITB scalable - other freelancers can be trained in Libreoffice and help us with the work. 
1. note that Blender, ShotCUT, OBS and various other tools are open source and easy to train others to use it. 
2. We will INCLUDE the LibreOffice ODT files of the works in the DTRPG Downloads. (we will upload it regularly as well. We are continuously using it and discovering our mistakes and improvements)
1. This will allow GMS print out specific sections for their use. 
3. Templating - We will Do what I planned for GURPS - using a similar template - all the rules you need to run Cepheus Engine for various settings. The GURPS lite taught me what content is the minimum needed.  
1. The templating I planned in GURPS is not just for GITB. with the LibreOffice Files included people can make their own setting Specific Cepheus Engine game by only changing the Setting Elements (I recommend changing the Page or Section Theme and Colors when in the Setting Specific Areas for VISUAL Cue that this part changes per setting). 
2. The thing about these Ideas is that with Open Source I can try and fail. the ability to Try given the kinds of audiences that can give the product a chance and feedback means a better chance Ideas improve and discover their full potential (instead of being in my Folder since 2014). 
4. Tutorial Marketing. I will make Videos of Using Libreoffice for Book production. How we made the Page references, Internal and External Hyperlinking. Change Controls and Document Comparisons. So that anyone can also build their own Open Source TRPG with cepheus engine and quickly output the files. 
1. Demonstrating Products and processes through Tutorials is an interesting kind of marketing. Instead of Spiels and Talking about the product at length - just Demonstrating is so effective. Show vs Tell. has now become Try vs Show
5. We will add on the main books and create these small projects as advertising. It seems that New material instead of improving the current material is the best way to get people to check out your product. So we will have the our Key products have the really nice add ons, spin off the add-ons as their own products (it cant beat the value of the main packages), and create free stuff. 

Why keep adding value to the Main Products? Theory and I can be wrong - so that people who like the tertiary product will buy the main product. They wont buy the other add ons with price and that's ok. Getting more EYES on our product is the goal - if we sell MVC or MWG to lets say 70 each - then 70 people discovered us to want to pay money. I need a larger sample size to know what I need to do to get more. Scattering them with my different add ons doesn't create a path for me to figure out - what works. 

Thats just me. Like the Hard Scifi I like - the puzzle of Game in the Brain marketing is FUN! I get to play with it and look for patterns and trends. I read enough marketing and sales books to know how the smartest minds know their limits in marketing but Id like to experience to understand solving it. Marketing, science, project management, design, freecad, erps etc... engineering, etc.. so much stuff to learn and check out and they follow some key principles that re-occur. 

Pay what you Want for the 6 Combat Career Cards, buy the 24 Career Cards, or just get the Mneme Variant Combat Rules (which has them)

 Link to the Career Cards (Up Today October 18)

These are Flow Chart Cards for creating characters for the Combat Careers in Cepheus Engine SRD. The Objectives are: 

• You will just need this two-page spread card and no need to move back and forth between pages in the CE SRD. 
• Clear FLOW for New Players. Since everything regarding the Career is one page. 
• Rules Clarifications are included. 
• Prep Includes sending these all to the Players 

These goals are meant that the Referee or Game Master can issue these, walk through the instructions with the Players in the session - and everyone can prepare their character during the session. This is intended to make Character Creation easy for new players to help promote Cepheus Engine. 
If you want the Complete List of 24 Careers you can buy it at Cepheus Engine 24 Career Cards or Mneme Variant Combat Rules.

These are Flow Chart Cards for creating characters for the 24 Careers in Cepheus Engine SRD. The Objectives are: 

• You will just need this two-page spread card and no need to move back and forth between pages in the CE SRD. 
• Clear FLOW for New Players. Since everything regarding the Career is one page. 
• Rules Clarifications are included. 
• Prep Includes sending these all to the Players 

These goals are meant that the Referee or Game Master can issue these, walk through the instructions with the Players in the session - and everyone can prepare their character during the session. This is intended to make Character Creation easy for new players to help promote Cepheus Engine.

The Pay What you want version Can be found in the Cepheus Engine 6 Combat Career Cards.

This product is part of the Mneme Variant Combat Rules but was separated for those who are interested only in this. 

Finds: Easy Settlements Cepheus Engine

Easy Settlements Cepheus Engine I find this complimentary to mneme. If I buy this - I will feel compelled to make a Spreadsheet for this to automate it like the Mneme World Generator Spreadsheet. 

You may need Watabou's Fantasy City Generator

and his other Builders https://watabou.itch.io/  

OSR travel problems - Process Based approach

As a filipino my income for books reflects the formerly 6usd per day minimum wage back in 2010s and corresponding income - at this time I think I earned 600usd/mo as an IT Manager around the time I bought this book. I had to be really strategic in buying them and I had to accept that I will NOT KNOW SO MUCH. (note that because our incomes were small and technology goods were 2-3x more expensive cheap hobbies like TRPGs were how I got by). 

When It came time to give away my books (moving out of my parents) i had to just keep electronic copies of these books. 

As I'm reading OSR - I keep kicking my ass how frustrating it is to LEARN because they dont make sense. ONE OF THE SIMPLEST rules of thumb is just giving a KPH/MPH to types of Movement. I dont understand why they had to REMAKE the wheel by having all these different calculations - they just had to start with the basic assumption: Walking Speed is X. And then start BUILDING over that - marching, jogging, running, terrain, duration, etc... 

even the Basic Logical foundations its an assumption I make as a Quality Management professional - Objective Based processes are its own Discipline (That's why Admin skills in TRPGs work differently in my experience. Even now when you look at my Role in our gaming group My analysis and Organization skills optimize the Options of the Players - you can even Go meta and Look at my Impact to the Gaming Groups options - what does a person with Admin Skill do? I AID the Players gaming rolls)

In the 1970s when this was written - the simplest way is to talk to a Soldier and ask what is their marching rate and base it off of that. Even around that time Small Wars manual and VEGITUS De Re military ( My copy with my notes)was available. from 4-6kph factoring terrain and people didn't travel straight lines - why is this all messed up? 

When I went to Baguio was spend the afternoon interviewing the Horsemen who gave rides to tourists. Trying to confirm and disprove what I read in the books. Even with the Mountain Pony baseline, I can INFER race horses, draft horses, and mules, etc... In Mneme Variant Combat rules its possible to infer Bison and Fantastical mounts and close analogues. I was obssessed about one of the MOST UBIQUITOUS transports and tools in the era Horses which affected the Decision making of anyone travelling and the economics and constraints. 

Whats funny is that when You learn that medieval people didn't have Visual Spatial Maps that - they had itineraries - list of places to encounter before they reached their destination -  this means more data on walking and marching rates. Especially now with Google maps to review historical places. 

Th

Small Wars Manual

https://www.amazon.com/Combat-Leaders-Field-Guide-13th/dp/0811731952

Public Domain Books List and Links 

Chekov's Gun in Details in the TRPG. Pull-System for Details and Elaboration

Checkov's Gun is a principle by which we can approach details that affect stakes (stakes are things that give set backs or gains to the character). This is using pull system when details come into play in a story. 

if the Player starts talking about their clothes, spending time in the game to elaborate about something that fills out the character like clothes and gives the character depth then the GM will or the Player will elaborate on the clothes when the Stakes are high. 

Basically a Player who spends the Opportunity in scenes to elaborate on details, gets to call on this detail when it is favorable. Calling on the details - if the GM gives hero dice  or bennies or any type of reroll or luck - this allows the roll to be called in a wider variety of circumstance. 

often, in my observation, the Bonus hero Roll just happens. No "Cause", the Players choose to use it and that's it. If the GM wants the story to be more effective you can make it more effective (like rolling a 1d4 or 1d6 with the 1d20 roll) depending on how the player ties in this detail. 

To prevent abuse and the Trope being over played, the gm can limit this to once per Story arc. 

In Christian Camerons Novels (Tom Swan and the Willam Gold Series) the characters Clothes get him into trouble and problems as well as get him out of these problems. 

Not just Clothes, relationships (being nice to the bartender, being an ass to the beggar, etc... ) when the Player choose a scene to elaborate where the detail fleshes out the character this detail will be used later in the Story arc. 

This is NOT a NEW technique. Many GMs use this, except that in my observations they dont use it following the Principles of Checkov's Gun where it will come into play. Checkov's gun exists in most GM's techniques, its just that many of us did not recognize it as a Checkovs Gun until we learn about checkovs gun (there is a Frequency Illusion once we learn something - we realize its been happening a lot and we failed to notice before we learned definitions and concepts)

This is not just for the Party's Gain, but also to the Party's detriment. Often we can make zero-sum choices in the game - Options that have other consequences. When the PC deals with this character instead of another, or chooses one path over another because of Personal reasons (Details) this can lead to how the GM will resolve Hooks (challenges that face the characters) as well as Fumbles (1s rolled). 

 PROBLEM STATEMENT: 

How do you justify Making time for Character detailing? My character likes making pies, and bakes a bunch of pies when he gets down time. How does that fit into my story? 

Stakes (gains or setbacks) modify a detail. if a Detail affects stakes then it becomes more important in the story and more engaging. 

OUTCOME:  

Opportunities to Flesh out the character becomes opportunities to create Details that will come in PLAY later in the game to determine a Hooks and Saves (when the stakes are high). 

face Value setting of session zero from 1 to real world

This applies to NPcs and PCs - and real life. In a game we make likeable or untrustworthy NPcs say agreeable or disagreeable things to PCs. 

In session zero we have to ask "how much face value so you want in a measure of 1 to 5. 1 being there is no other context and it's in plain words with no thinking on the players part or 5 real life ambiguity - we have to take context into account, 3 being the GM allowing some peeking through the veil"

===

When saying agreeable things to people who dislikes you and uses association bias to judge the merits of your output (words and actions) by how they like you (which also means that they judge you primarily by their usefulness to them) - lying vs deflection (Google deflection the verbal technique).

I find lying better than deflection becuase deflection - delays a confrontation while lying accelerates a confrontation (this is a conflict management strategy).

"I will lie to you to say agreeable things because I cannot say disagreeable things to you " triggers a Why? A lot of why's!

Deflection is you sparing them - technically you didn't lie. You changed focus and redirected attention.

Whats even more crucial is that this technique can be put in the mirror - who disagrees with me and lies about it. I like how this makes me more paranoid and more skilled in looking at context - he's lying - he's not really agreeing with me. And I learn tells.

In fact it makes me less surprised, it makes a more mature voice in my head say "lolz why did you really believe they agreed with you without any action to demonstrate a commitment"

Of course crucial is non-zero sum thinking (anyone who disagrees with me is an enemy is zero sum thinking, non zero sum is people can disagree with me for reasons that has nothing to do with me) 

Sorry I have to explain commitment - this is in quality management this is proof of words attempting to meet actions - the most interesting is that in Game theory this is signaling of a coordination game - the other party have made their stakes match yours and thus as much proof as one can currently ask.

https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/deflection#:~:text=Deflection%20is%20a%20defense%20mechanism,young%20children%20to%20grown%20adults.

Reference Document for Milestones and Deliverables of Mneme

 221015 Milestones for Game in the Brain Mneme

😅😅😅 I had a hard time finding my Milestones Targets. (this is not binding. i will realize I bite off more than we can chew - while being conservative makes you Look smart because you didn't fail - I am for looking stupid. If I am conservative to look smart - that means I'm not taking enough risk. I will be ambitious and Look stupid and hopefully the audience is for people who don't the publisher looking stupid and amateur 😅😅😅 )

Cepheus Engine Mneme is pretty much open source creative commons share alike must attribute. The material here is designed to not just run games conveniently but world builds quickly for your games or writings. The materials - blender files and spreadsheets and information design and process design- is I believe our strengths (we are working on the mainstream strengths: marketing and of storytelling).
I dont mind Teaching users to use the spreadsheet and blender files - if I can make your game easier or allow you to make Blender Renders for your game - or a lot of procedurally made details - I will schedule to help you out. (teaching open Source, students, and employees new skills is my thing at work).

Metal Tier	Notes	Deliverables	Additional Notes
Copper (50 sales)		3 systems based on the Near Space by Stellagama publishing (2 parscs away). Set in 2500 Common Era in the Mneme TL which is Cepheus Engine TL9.5. At least 3 points of interest per system.  At least 2 story hooks per point of interest (6 story hooks, following Seth Skarkowsky approach which I will standardize the checklist of what should be included in  Hook)
Affording Nicco’s Tablet (XPpen-15.6)	14,000php	At least 3 NPCS per story hook (18 NPCs) using our Point Based Cepheus Engine Character creation from Mneme Variant Combat Rules for a quick creation.
Silver (100 sales, 50 additional)	325usd of royalty payments (6.5usd per 10usd sale for 50 additional sales)	7 Additional Systems (3 parsec from sol)
Electrum (250 sales, 150 additional)	975usd of royalty payments (6.5usd per 10usd sale for 50 additional sales) - We can only get here by word of mouth. Very unlikely within Justins capability to plug the product can make people want to buy this more than 5-6/month. -I will need to make the Point based character gen Spreadshet to be able to make a character in a few seconds.  -I will need to fix the Cepheus Engine TL8.1 to TL8.9 Tech - and convert the SRD ships into such ships and Nicco will model them with Daniel Grove’s Kitbash kits.	13+ additional systems (4 parsec from sol)	If this many people buy the product we probably will be swamped by support and correction tickets and we will have to hire people to help us improve it.  Dedicated Spreadsheet person.  An additional editor.  Some part time admin assistant helping consolidate this.  Profits go to paying for our Game in the Brain Google workspace annual fees.
Gold (500 sales, 250 additional sales)	1625usd of royalties. - word of mouth is the only way to get here in less than a year.  - we will publish a youtube stream of our game with the copper tier material and how I prepared the game - how i prepared the game in 30-90mins in a week (setting up my roll20).	6 additional systems (5 parsecs from sol) 2013-08-19 Sci-FI Notes will be updated with the improved Tech level set up and go through rounds of editing.	Probably paying down all our technical debt. Hopefully we can do it purely with the Royalties (which is paid out 30 days after they are made. I cannot out of pocket this as this amount of money is very significant for someone from the Philippines) If I get enough support I can probably make a video of me running a 5-6 session stream Preppeing and running a game. If not I’ll get a friend Arj’s Game Room
Platinum (1000 sales, 500 additional sales)	3,250usd of royalties Helping nicco afford something better than his 2015 i5 Laptop.	All the systems 6 parsecs from Sol	Probably paying down the debt and Marketing.  Marketing - while doesnt add more product - its necessary because you what ever people follow us - they wont grow in number unless they evangelize - and we can’t expect that. We have to evangelize our product. Creating cut scenes per System with planets, models and ships in Blender Evee in a “Production Setting” and having the files available for download (so the users can swap out the models for their own).
Mithril (2,000 sals, 1000 additional sales)	6,500 of royalties.	All the systems 7 parsecs from Sol.	Around this time - a lot of Youtube material, and cut scenes.  If other youtubers and reviewers are not talking about then probably we will not reach mithril in a year from the last milestone.
Adamantine	19,500 of royalties.	All the systems 8 parsecs from Sol.	If we make this much money we can probably afford to do a Job analysis of the Ship Builder program that will be made in GODOT. The goal is - You can make Cepheus Engine Hard Scifi ships (more similar to Expanse as hard scifi ships goes) and Export the Stats, model, and Maps. Then costing for the GODOT Cepheus Engine Ship generator. The objective of this is that Any Scifi geek can make ships for both their Games and Scifi Writings.