discussion with gpt4 on death and setbacks

Death vs. Setbacks

Model: GPT-4

You are a fellow game designer analyzing a better way of going about enjoying table top rpgs. We are talking about traveller TRPG and Cepheus engine. What is the purpose of death in character? What is the purpose of enjoying the game? It's to give the stakes? My thesis is it better to have set backs? Because with set backs the story keeps going and we avoid the rework of a new character and integration? Can you make a table comparing the death vs setbacks and their pros and cons?

ChatGPT

Absolutely, I'd be glad to help! Your thesis brings an interesting perspective to the table. Below is a comparison table exploring the pros and cons of character death versus setbacks in table top RPGs such as Traveller and the Cepheus Engine.

	Character Death	Character Setbacks
Pros	- Brings high stakes and tension to the game.	- Allows continuous character development.
	- Makes actions and decisions more impactful.	- Encourages creative problem-solving.
	- Enhances the realism and immersiveness of the game world.	- Keeps the party dynamics and chemistry intact.
	- Can lead to powerful storytelling and emotional moments.	- Makes the narrative more coherent and continuous.
Cons	- Can disrupt party dynamics.	- May not provide enough tension or risk.
	- May lead to frustration and disappointment for players.	- Players may become complacent or reckless.
	- Can interrupt narrative continuity.	- Doesn't allow for the dramatic impact of a character death.
	- Requires introduction and integration of a new character.	- May lead to the feeling of a game without real consequences.

Considering these points, it's clear that both approaches have their own merits and challenges. Character death can serve to create a high stakes environment where each decision is crucial, and can lead to compelling and emotional narratives. However, it also poses challenges, as it can disrupt the party dynamics, interrupt the narrative flow, and possibly lead to player frustration.

On the other hand, using character setbacks as a consequence ensures continuity of both narrative and character development, retains party dynamics, and encourages creativity and problem-solving. But this approach can risk lowering the perceived stakes and tension in the game, potentially leading to reckless behavior from players or a game that seems to lack real consequences.

So, the choice between character death and setbacks largely depends on the kind of gaming experience you want to create. In some cases, a combination of both could provide the right balance of tension, continuity, and stakes.

Is it harder to formulate setbacks than character death? Does it require more life experience of kinds of set backs? Can we give a younger gm or player with less experience am example of life setbacks? Examples you can add and elaborate. Debt Financial obligations Relationships and duties Additional responsibilities Punishments like a reduction of social status (a penalty to ones credit score and othe examples?) Tragedy - the psychological burdens. Trauma - an internal mental minefield.

ChatGPT

Certainly! Creating meaningful setbacks may require a deeper understanding of character development, narrative crafting, and life experiences compared to character death, which is a rather definitive outcome. Below are some elaborations on the types of setbacks you mentioned:

1. Debt/Financial Obligations: A character may acquire debt due to a failed business venture, gambling losses, or even being tricked by a cunning adversary. This creates tension as the character needs to find a way to repay the debt, leading to quests or tasks they wouldn't otherwise undertake. This could even lead to moral quandaries if the means of repaying the debt conflict with the character's values.

2. Relationships and Duties: A character's duties to their family, kingdom, or organization can serve as a setback. They may be called away to deal with a family matter or required to perform a duty that conflicts with the group's plans. Relationships too can create conflicts of interest, leading to dramatic character moments.

3. Additional Responsibilities: The character may be thrust into a position of power or responsibility unexpectedly. This could be as grand as being named the heir to a kingdom or as personal as taking care of an orphaned child. These responsibilities can create logistical challenges, emotional stress, and narrative complications.

4. Reduction of Social Status: The character could lose their status, reputation, or rank due to a scandal, false accusations, or political machinations. This can affect their interactions with NPCs, restrict access to resources, and require them to work to clear their name or regain their status.

5. Tragedy: The loss of a loved one, destruction of a cherished place, or failure of a personal project can have deep psychological impacts on a character. This can affect their motivations, change their attitude, and even alter their alignment or worldview. The character would need to process their grief while continuing their adventure.

6. Trauma: This could be a result of a near-death experience, witnessing a horrifying event, or surviving a disaster. Trauma can manifest as phobias, flashbacks, or other mental health struggles. It can affect the character's ability to function in certain situations and require them to seek healing or therapy.

In using setbacks, it's important to remember that these should be meaningful to the character and their story. They should create opportunities for growth and character development rather than just being obstacles. Also, it's crucial to handle sensitive topics like trauma with care and respect.

What would be the most likely problem of someone who doesn't have the introspection or life experience of setbacks as to incorporate it in stories? Off the bat I can think of integrating into the story. Wouldn't an AI large language model help in that? How about modeling scenarios? Like how would other characters behave and the risks and issues of introducing the set back? But wouldn't AI help elaborate risks and problems? Avenues of attack and strategies and actions to move the story forward? Would it be crippling to also the player thinking through setbacks? If they lack the life experience overcoming it they may favor death over dealing with consequences and nuance.

ChatGPT

Certainly, there are some challenges in implementing setbacks, especially for those lacking in life experience or introspective ability. Here are a few of those challenges:

1. Creating Believable Scenarios: Lack of life experience might make it difficult to create believable and engaging setback scenarios that resonate with players. If the setbacks don't feel real, they may not provide the intended tension or spur character growth.

2. Character Reactions: It could be challenging to predict how a character would react to a given setback, especially if it's a situation the game master (GM) or player has never personally experienced. This could lead to unrealistic or inconsistent character behavior.

3. Moving the Story Forward: Without enough understanding of how setbacks can be overcome, it may be difficult for a GM or player to guide the story beyond the setback. This could lead to a stalled narrative, player frustration, or a premature end to the storyline.

4. Handling Consequences: In the real world, setbacks often have far-reaching consequences that can be complex and nuanced. A less experienced person might struggle to fully represent these consequences in a game, leading to oversimplified scenarios that don't capture the full impact of the setback.

AI tools like GPT-4 can indeed be helpful in addressing some of these challenges. They can suggest plausible setback scenarios, help predict character reactions, propose strategies for overcoming the setback, and explore possible consequences. They can draw on a vast amount of data and information to generate these suggestions, making up for a person's lack of life experience to some extent.

However, AI has its limitations too. While it can provide suggestions based on patterns and examples in its training data, it lacks the personal understanding and emotional depth that comes from real-life experience. It also lacks the ability to understand the specific context of a game, the nuances of player dynamics, or the long-term narrative arcs that a human GM may have in mind. Thus, while AI can be a useful tool for generating ideas and solutions, it should be used in conjunction with human judgment and creativity.

Ultimately, the most effective way for a less experienced person to get better at using setbacks in their games may be to gain more experience—both by playing and running more games, and by seeking out diverse life experiences outside of gaming. Reading widely, exploring different genres of fiction, and engaging in empathetic conversations can also broaden their understanding of different types of setbacks and how people respond to them.

Sky's End by Niccolo Salonga

If you follow this Blog, you will know Niccolo Salonga as the Artist of Game in the Brain. He finally launched his decades old system Sky's End. He's been working on this system back in college in 2000 and have had scores of play tests over the years. The system is a Ship of Theseus. 

I'm very happy he published and took that bold step. I dont know if you noticed how OPEN we are here in game in the brain given how much of our material can easily be reorganized and repurposed for others to self-publish - to get their foot out the door and to realize "Its not so bad" and to begin the learning process. 

Its pay what you want, and encouraged at 2usd. 

If you dont have the time to invest in 90 pages, you can try the quick starter. 

Have a start and grow. 

Self publishing means having a lot of blindsided. So typically its rough and needs feedback. Nicco is easy to talk to about his product and a worthwhile investment in a game that will grow. 

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)

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 

OSR 3 attack dart vs 2 attack bow vs 1d8 dmge melee

Preamble on Game Mechanics and Design

if a mechanic in the game system works a particular way it affects behavior. Thats why simulationists like myself are obsessed with getting the mechanics and Statistics just right (Check out the Mneme Variant Combat Rules). Because if I make a bunch of mechanic decisions and players behave differently from my understanding of the world - I should "are we modeling the reality where I live in or the reality of the Setting" 

So in OSR Darts are statistically more effective and if you follow history then you will notice biomechanical patterns of 4,000-6,000 years of human warfare (4000BCE to 1800 CE) our world has a different set of Principles (Like Spears, Shields, and Bows being very dominant for a very long time).  Humans have such a finite range of motion, strength, and in large numbers - averages and minimums that certain patterns tend to form.   

I don't want to make darts suck (Check out the Mneme Variant Combat Rules) - but remember the decisions of why Thiefs became rogues and Rogues because what they are NOW was because of all the experience people had with thieves and the corrections they applied. The Rogue and the Thief are different - backstab became sneak-attack and movement rules were rationalized in 3e. 

What does the world builder want? (check out https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/ ) What does he or she want to reflect? 

This reminds me of my work - when I analyze why people use spreadsheets without functions, why there are really odd behaviors (hiding the fact time logs are done manually, problems arise in certain processes, etc...) in our Plant and Operations. I'm the guy who is in charge of fixing these things and I owe it to TRPGs that I am very much aware and focused about these matters. To the point that I can discuss the system objectives and solutions. 

Do we discard that? Do we discard 20+ years of changes 3E began? 

What do you want? (As the world builder).

GURPS did a wonderful job for spears - Indian and Chinese history buffs would have compliments to say about how much spears mattered more in their culture than swords. LuBu and note that Longsword making was in chines culture hundreds of years earlier compared to most cultures.  

Darts are Marginally better to bows. 1.69 damage/turn as compared to Bows with 1.57 and Swords with 1./turn (against AC15-20). but bows and darts are 50% or relatively 30% better than 1d8 weapons.  It really depends. what do you want? 

So when looking at the OSR Statistics - its effed up. Particularly the survival rates of characters, and humans. I think given how things work, it gives me a statistical and demographic impression that humans should be extinct. Again we had 20+ years of 3e making D&D more open source with the open gaming license (and you know I'm an Open Source advocate and find Open source the place where most Innovation comes form these days -excluding the most expensive types of R&D). If you compare to AC in 3e - OSR is weird. remember its more inconvenient for Players to LOSE characters than the GM to Lose Mooks. 

Given how bad survival rates for PCS, if Darts increases that - then the race that first figures that out will overwhelm the other races 😅😅😅

Darts vs Bows vs 1d8 weapons

it kinda makes sense they raised the damage die, making swords 1d10, 2d6, 1d12 and 3d6 in 3e. if Bows are 1d6 then it made sense to raise the damage of melee weapons. Of course they kept the sacred cows with Rapid Attack for Bows.

Here is my link to Anydice based on  Don't stop Thinking

https://anydice.com/program/2b74b 

Basically: The Mean puts the darts as the most damage when there are no modifiers. 

Above Don't stop Thinking of how the anydice link works. 

You can see Darts have the highest mean average damage. So in 30 or so rounds of combat (90 darts thrown) the average damage will lean towards this. You will also notice the SIGNIFICANT bump  in odds. Given AC15 targets (which most goblins in OSR is) you can see that Darts with 3 attacks increases the survival likeliness. 

Left values is the potential damage per round. 

\**** Damage calculator ****\

function: attackroll ROLL:n vs AC:n {

 if ROLL >= CRITROLL { result: CRITDAMAGE } 

 if ROLL = 1 { result: 0 }

 if ROLL + PROFICIENCY + ATTACKMOD + ACCBONUS >= AC { result: DAMAGE }

 result: 0

}

\looped against enemy AC from 15-20\

ENEMYAC: d{15..20}

ATTACKMOD: 0

DMGBONUS: 0

PROFICIENCY: 0

ACCBONUS: 0

CRITROLL: 20

ATTACKTIMES: 1

DAMAGE: 1d8 + ATTACKMOD + DMGBONUS

CRITDAMAGE: 2d8 + ATTACKMOD + DMGBONUS

output ATTACKTIMESd[attackroll d20 vs ENEMYAC] named "1d8 Melee with No Modifier"

ATTACKMOD: 0

DMGBONUS: 0

PROFICIENCY: 0

ACCBONUS: 0

CRITROLL: 20

ATTACKTIMES: 2

DAMAGE: 1d6 + ATTACKMOD + DMGBONUS

CRITDAMAGE: 2d6 + ATTACKMOD + DMGBONUS

output ATTACKTIMESd[attackroll d20 vs ENEMYAC] named "Bow with No Modifier"

ATTACKMOD: 0

DMGBONUS: 0

PROFICIENCY: 0

ACCBONUS: 0

CRITROLL: 20

ATTACKTIMES: 3

DAMAGE: 1d4 + ATTACKMOD + DMGBONUS

CRITDAMAGE: 2d4 + ATTACKMOD + DMGBONUS

output ATTACKTIMESd[attackroll d20 vs ENEMYAC] named "Dart with No Modifier"

information Design and Data Arrays for games : loadout mechanics and scene planning

Osr Notes Spreadsheet

What I take pride in as a special ability is thinking in pivot tables and data arrays. (see link, solving the problem - how to organize gear in a way that characters can have a certain amount of slots and those slots are linked to containers and their gear)

I got a lot of practice in TRPGs, creating traveler ship spreadsheets as well as making a lot of spreadsheets for games.

Some people find this tedious but I find it fun because it is not purely a logic problem but a visual spatial problem for artists with strong logic like me. 

So basically the World Generator Spreadsheet, SHIP generator Spreadsheetd and many other tools are part of the products we make for Mneme.

In Mneme Variant Combat Rules I made a special load-out generator Spreadsheet so you guys who do detailed load-outs can generate them quickly. (Mneme Variant Combat Rules, everything is reviewable prior to purchase). 

I sadly didn't do the marketing to showcase it, which I will correct. 

But I have a new and better mechanic for GMs who want to make this fun and easy. 

What is in your Gear is a function of Time to Prepare, load and Intelligence/charisma/wisdom. Let's draw from index card rpg (see drivethrurpg) 

1) You have a number of slots equal to your strength. X2 strength is a disadvantage and half speed of stuff. Set what amount of Load the character will be taking. 

2) So in downtime, every scene (a scene one roll challenge worth of interactions using the mental ability ) the player can fill a number of slots with "stuff". The player notes down the kind of stuff they will get.

Example:

Rolling mental abilities to Source/Find Stuff. Rolling mental abilities to make stuff. Rolling mental abilities to negotiate for stuff.  

3) Opportunities (Time) to do these Downtime scenes is up to the GM and players' OPPORTUNITY costs.

Load + Ability + Time = stuff the characters Carry. 

4) Each stuff has a load value. You can only call on stuff you've had the opportunity to acquire. Every time you need the stuff the GM and players note how much of the load has been occupied. Until the total Load out is reached. 

 I need bandages, crowbar, etc... mark it off and deduct it from the Load. Until you reach the maximum load that character can hold. 

No more long lists of stuff up Upfront. You Can detail it as you go. 

Anecodote: 

So we had one session of shopping. That's not a bad thing as it shows off the town. Of course, after the session will do homework on detailed shopping lists and spreadsheets.

OBJECTIVE: To remove that burden the proposed method will make everyone's job easier. At the end of the day key words are collected and the players just check if they made or they acquired it. every time they pull out stuff from their Loadout mark if off.

I recommend the anime trope of flashbacks and how they got the stuff If they have a strong story influence or shifts alot of the plot.

You can use Lbs/Kg or Encumbrance Slots - it doesn't matter with this system. What matters is that you deal with the details WHEN you need the details. going into World Building vs Players getting engagement is the conflict we seek to  address. GM wants to world build but players want to get to the action. BOTH can be achieved. the same way Taking Minutes during the meeting on a Shared Doc in Clear ACTION statements means no more minutes AFTER the meeting, kanban (the action of moving items is itself a Signaling System) and Andon Systems (the safeguards are built in, when constraints kick in it signals downstream errors outside control ranges) are all about actions that are very efficient (doing more with less motion)

These skills I use and developed in gaming are how I fix the Accounting Collection billing, the Sales reports, the analysis of salaries etc... And automate a lot of the ticketing.I train ojts in these skills (creating Tables, identifying which information goes into ROWs and Columns) hoping they will use it to stand out from the others because they can master data tables.  We've trained engineers, psychology grads, and IT in this. We hope to train accounting and biz admin students in the future. 

Combined with Nicco information design abilities we hope Mneme will get enough people to like it and afford to grow.

Oh the fact that we are artists, animators, science geeks, and Jack of all trades jumping into every skill needed. Do people like Game designers who apply LEAN/TPS and AGILE in game design? I guess they wont care except for the results. As a veteran of Process Improvement - the ritual can be very comforting even if Inefficient - helping people seeing past their Ritual to look at how they Impact Players and GMs (ALL STAKEHOLDERS) requires a lot of marketing and STORYTELLING. 

Telling the story - I love your world building but lets squeeze in a Quick combat in the session? And the GM breaking into Scenes they plan to have - to budget their time

Seth Skorkowsky touches on this specifically in Long Social Interactions (video on the 15 min mark) - to in effect he says "real conversation is actually meandering and unfocused BUT in stories they have to be to the point and efficient in the scene" that's the thing - if you budget your time (pomodoro technique) to a Single Roll per scene - then you have to master getting to the Point and what engages the players.

His examples are GREAT - and are techniques for GMs and Regular people can have in their arsenal. In the REAL world this gives you a strategy when communicating to stakeholders - Do you meander or do you Focus OR how do you smoothly transition to your desired topic. 

TRPS are always a great way to HONE thinking and speaking skills in the real world - play is designed to make humans safely try till they master skills. feeling good when we master small feats is part of the enjoyment of TRPs. 

First Time to do Customer Support - Taught a buyer how to use Blender

 

So i dont mind helping people learn Blender or GIMP (or ERPNext, GCP, and various other things). If people know how to use open source tools they will use it, the learning part is the biggest accessibility challenge. My main problem is really the schedule - If I can schedule it on time. Sadly I won't be able to support many people because of time zones. If we grow big enough maybe 😅

So we recorded the sessions so no need to take notes. Although here is the manual and its also included in the book.

I realize we need to clarify the following:

1. How to make thicker and thinner clouds.
2. Bigger or Smaller Continents 
3. and with the new Tutorial how to make new Rings. 
4. performance expectations - how long it will take to render. Example at 2x1 k pixels it took 20 seconds on my RX550, doubling the dimensions increases the time by x4 to 80 seconds. 
1. He wanted to know how much time it will take to prepare for a game. Which is something we considered in the planning. 
2. If it was Just making it different from the last planet then it will be easy. But trying to follow Flavor text for how the planet should look is going to be hard. 
3. We will need to give tips how to use the files, like using GIMP or Slides (Nicco uses Slides because its so easy to just add icons and just download as JPG or PDF or PNG. 

update : day job emergency over, starting up again.

Nicco has finished his day job duties and proceeding to update the Mneme world generator with the changes we implemented upon discovering some problems with the system (with spreadsheets we can test the system faster and make finer adjustments)

I on the other hand I'm juggling the structured cabling a home. While I'm done with my dept reports for my day job, I'm now coordinating the repairs of our Condominum unit - structured cabling to the auxiliary room.

So mentally I'm not all there 😅. 

I'm aware I have a strong urge to lose myself writing, designing and planning. 

I'm considering training a third member of our team so that we can delegate some day job duties to them. Training a new person is not as tedious as people Think, for me it's a review of what I know and what I forgot to do.

Of course that means I have to budget their cost in Google workspace (50usd per year) and of course look for a non existent budget for them.

I've advanced all the payments since the family biz was late to pay nicco (so he's getting paid by the family biz for his day job work) - so I've already paid for all the improvements for Mneme world generator to electrum milestone.

I don't know if people will like it. Well Iike it and I'll be offering to run it - cepheus delux + Mneme combat. The ships will be temoriarily Orbital 2100 (since nicco and i will make more detailed cepheus engine TL 6 to 9 ships which is Mneme TL 6 to 16 - inspired by children of a dead earth, nebulous fleet command, Delta-v, Andy Weir books, and the expanse). 

Anyway I'll be reverting the prices to their full price (10usd) and then create the discounts based on the monthly or quarterly promotions of Drivethru rpg (who give free marketing for those who align their discounts with their events).

Mneme will specialized in cepheus engine TL 6 to 9 and a future speculated by the demographics of HANS rossling's gap minder ( the open database of demographic data). so africa and south Asia will be the largest economies very far from America, China, Asia Pacific economies, South America and EU. 

Adventures set in 2100 to 2500 common era. Where around 2300 early extra sol adventures begin with risky and unreliable drives like amerigo and Magellan type risks. You can still have 200 years of extra sol adventures even if you have age of sail risks. 

Around 2500 you have drives comparable to the reliability of flights and shipping of the 21st century. Most traveller is in the end of the second millenium. 

Of course making the contents of the Near Sol procedural means we can make a spreadsheet that can create a detailed system on a click. 

If we get enough sales nicco and I can explore making a Godot or javascript app to procedurally generate all this. Ships and system to be heavily visualized so that the GM can easily set the mood and theme. 

From Detective Story to Combat Meat Grinder - Mutant Chronicles - SPOILERS

 https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/126929/Mutant-Chronicles-3rd-Edition-FREE-Quickstart 

The GM had to fudge the rules to prevent a TPK. I reviewed my notes and remember each of the scenes and the combat session was designed to force us to kill the Big Bad guy and Jumping out of the Building. 

OK. Umm... 

• Once you get to the 4th floor its a Locked Area and you have to fight the Big Bad guy to escape. 
• The NPCs had 1 combat monster, all the characters were STATed to be good technically and as detectives. We could all detect any clue, the problem is that None-of the clues CHANGED the lethality of the 4th floor encounter. 
• None of the clues were foreshadowing that it was a Brawling monster and that we would have to lose lights.
• The monster reduced our "sanity" or mental reserves so that we needed D2 to succeed and we were NON-Combat characters. Basically, it was a foregone TPK, the GM decided to make a Difficulty 1 scenario and had to fudge the stats.  Its not fun with 5 PCs rolling to hit a monster that had so much armor and we were NON-COMBAT characters. 
• Where is the MOTIVE? sorry its just that I would have developed one if I prepared written adventure. 
• There are no "DEFENSE" rolls like Conan. so you just took damage till your dead. Not many options to do. 

How I would have Changed It. 

1. If we want to be a Call of Cthulhu and combat was LETHAL then allow to ESCAPE. that's pretty much it. I was tempted to not go to the 4th floor and just already with the clues say "We saw nothing". But it would have wasted the GM's time and effort. 
1. I used the broken furniture to Create an Escape route - but the adventure called to remove it. Aw cmon that's TERRIBLE planning. Even I would plan escape routes (its a requirement for BUILDINGS in construction and of any OSHA-trained practitioner).
2. If you had Foreshadowing I feel dumb for missing it. But if there is NO FORESHADOWING or clue I get angry as it would be BAD WRITING. 
3. I expected the BIG BAD to be mind control - as that was the foreshadowing and clues. PCs rolling against mental reserve. 
4. MISSED opportunity to EXPLAIN how the abilities that gave CLUE finding (Vents and Vance) and the fighting were supposed to be used. 
2. IF you wanted a FIGHT, then 1st Follow GUMSHOE rules and just hand the clues - no more rolls. make the PCs more equipped to fight and with armor. AND FUCKING FORESHADOW being attacked by a clawed monster. This would be tedious to prepare and reconfigure the Pregens. 
   
   

Hopefully Seth will make a better job of this. 

Uploaded the Zip file for all the Map SVG and Adobe Premier files

We'll try to include all the tools and raw files. Things that will allow the buyer to reuse and recycle the material to customize for their game. So we added the Map Files. 

 

Update: Preview is now Working - Milestones

UPDATES

1.  So Thanks to Kari Jo Freudigmann of one bookshelf emailed back and helped with the problem. I overlooked the manage preview of my titles entry. You can now preview ALL 47 Pages to make sure you know what you're getting with the product.
2. Nicco and I have started on the 50 copy milestone goal as we are now at 42. As discussed we will make some material - Sample Procedurally Generated Solar Systems using Mneme World Generator - using Stars featured in Near Space by Stellagama Games for this we will feature 3 star systems (M class stars). There will be some minor world building as it assumes the TL is about Cepheus Engine TL 9-10 at the very least. 
1. There will be ICONS and a recommended new table for quickly scanning Systems visually. (we will give all the materials so that everyone who buys the product can produce similar documents for their games). 
2. We hope to have it ready by end of August or Start of Sept. We will add it to the Downloads of Additional material will be found in the Mneme World Generator Drivethru RPG Link https://tinyurl.com/2a9h4zfa 
3. We have additional Material Every Milestone. There will be 7 Additional systems in Silver (100 copies), 5 additional in Electrium (250 copies), and 4 for Gold (500 copies). 
4. We will not provide a stellar map - you can just use Near Space by Stellagama Games  as well as use the other material in the product. 
5. What is Included in the Additional Material 
1. Procedurally Generated Cultures and Inhabitants. 
2. 3d Renders of Planets and splash screens for introducing the worlds. 
3. 2D maps of the Worlds
4. You will have locations and distances of the zones and areas. 
5. We wont make 2D Solar System Maps yet - havented talked to anyone who needed it. Although i personally use both - depending what the players have an easier time grasping. 

 

We hope to offer 2D maps maybe in Gold. And maybe create Delta-V maps as well. 

Target Audience - when making something that is not going to be popular.

Target audience for my book:

1. people who want to make a solar system, not just a world. Chapter 12 features mostly a Key world  
2. they dont want to read a number of books without having to go through the analysis "Which book should I follow"
1. GURPS Space
2. Traveller ISW world generation
3. Wikipedia
4. Traveller World Generations 
5. https://donjon.bin.sh/scifi/system/ (I don't know the tables behind this and if I want to disagree, you can edit the Spreadsheets tables so you can change the outcomes)
3. They want to make a solar system with a few Clicks. Only https://donjon.bin.sh/scifi/system/ has one click - create a solar system all others has to co through a 30-60 step process - It may be "FAST" but Total Cost of Ownership - includes LEARNING TIME and improvement time. 
1. the people who naturally are smart and figure things out are OUTLIERS, they're not most gamers. Writing gaming material for OUTLIERS is not the goal. I like writing game material for PEOPLE LIKE ME: people who are just average but LOVE learning and want education and science to be accessible (Like the Vlog brothers hank and john green, and many other science communicators that have become very critical in our society to fight misinformation and anti-science views). 
2. Making INACCESSIBLE material is part of a LARGER problem - especially where I come from where there is active historical revisionism going on.  
4. They want to KNOW the limits of the game mechanics vs the real science so they can know what to ignore, workaround, and change.  
1. I walked through it when I made a Space Ship Generator Spreadsheet back in 2013 when youtube was not yet catching on, now I will go through the documents and allow people to make make their own decisions or work with the compromises I made. There is more of an audience that don't mind someone explaining a Spreadsheet to them and how the code works NOW than almost 10 years ago.
5.  If you want to Commission the Artists and Students that made it for Additional material - specific for your game - they can use the work and the audience goes like "I can have a more detailed world generator". 
6. My writing - where I took creative liberties tries to Answer the Questions: 
1. I WANT TO USE DELTA V budgets, the Rocket Formula (in a spreadsheet), etc... I can only use this in a Solar System with ORBITS, gravity, and FEATURES (like disks and zone). I want the PCs to decide where to go in the solar system based on the features and their resource budgets. 
2. I want a more sophisticated INHABITANT generation tool that factors some of the same tools my favorite writers already use: power structure, power source, cultural aspects and lenses, conflict, etc... From someone who Travelled and Studied other cultures in the real world - someone who is from a 3rd World country but grew up with an Western Education and media consumption. Someone who works with different nationalities regularly. So the Cultures feel different and some of the Gray Areas are pretty much can be attributed to the forces of Market, Environment, Culture, and Politics. I can't travel so much (Budget and Health wise, but I want to feel like I visited the countries I want to visit - and no not Comfy Developed Countries where many Rights and Privilages are a given - but working with people where these are scarce). 
3. Figuring out How to make a Hex Map for people who need some 2d Refences for travel. 
4. (later on) showing how to use the Delta-V budget map and a simple Spreadsheet subsheet in the provided Spreadsheet. (A Kingdom for Want of a Nail, - the ability of reality and the ref to RAISE the stakes of the game with anything - and the players working with the uncertainty that anything can raise the stakes of the game). 
5. I WANT pictures of my Planets but I'm not a 3d graphics person. I want many of them cheaply, as well as the option to easily commission them. I want someone to make a 3d Model of my solar system so that I can WORLD BUILD to my hearts content. Later on Take Pictures of my starship making orbit etc... 
6.  

My audience is probably

1) my age or older 40s at the very youngest. The audience is much younger, most of them like something more artistically sophisticated - I dont have that budget and I am Definitely TOO OLD with obsolete tastes - even if I am trained in aesthetics. I'm weak with colors and Typography - the new works are more mastery of kerning, use of space and Color theory - the priming of emotions through color. I'm very weak at that - my aesthetic was always on the Technical and Practical - I grew up trying to imagine the internals of spaceships and Mecha - and working on construction and manufacturing - I like working with biomechanics of motion and human behavior. Whenever its Color Theory - I've worked with too many projects when I was a graphic designer to stop caring about aesthetic because the client's is the only thing that matters and my aesthetic taste should only mirror the client and never my own. Be in a profession where it requires A LOT OF TRAINING only to be ignored and blamed if something goes wrong. As well as one of the WORSE paid professions in the Philippines, relative to the cost of education and Practice. 

2) their TRPG hobbies overlap with their Science and History and Politics interests 

3) they want accessible stuff, not the stuff that requires someone who is more sophisticated to understand. They'd rather watch youtube video of people explaining it step by step - where they can scrub the timeline or get to the parts they want than have to go through the whole thing. 

4) Probably highly skeptical of authority (not going to sell among my fellow Filipinos. specially now that the Tiktok algorithm is being used in the most FB embedded population in the world with 96% usage
5) DIYer and is a NOVICE in many things, and completely comfortable with it and celebrates it.   

6) Small social groups, tiny and shrinking (see Age). 

Somoene will go - hey for 10usd this is not bad and has so much stuff. Hey I can write a novel with this. I can make more believable cultures and peoples with this. At the same time: I only want 20-40mins prep - click click click DONE!!! I made a solar system and my Players can do what ever they want, and I dont care if they "Break" the world. 

Its ALMOST DONE! gave the second milestone payment.

Almost DONE, by done:
1) Nicco is Wrapping up the Book 
2) the Ojts (Lloyd, Ranz, and Michael) are on the last milestone of the Google Sheet. The harder part is the Planetary System. When the system generates additional planets and samples. It can be tedious but otherwise its the same core mechanics as the Star and Main World. 

Then when fully wrapped up - 
1) Publish. 
2) youtube Video of me and Nicco going through how to use it. 
... 
3) If I'm handling customer complaints then I guess the project is "alive" lolz. indifference is the killer. 

Will it reach people who will like it? I doubt it, I'm a 43 year old man - I'm as uncool as people get in TRPGs, so many of my fellow gamers are unhappy with the state of the gaming community. Someone who did all this work so that a slightly better world-building system that incorporates harder scifi. 

With the trend for Super Simple games - my gamble of a Complicated System simplified with a spreadsheet has long odds. 

anyway my open source advocacy keeps me busy - like my Multip Media Project with the Philippine 1861 - I tried and learned. I don't have the finances to gamble again or more, but at least I can say when It came to spending money on a Hobby I tried to write a book. And to think of how bad I write and how much correction It took to get what I have - small miracles. 

Things I learned:
1) Enough Javascript to make my OWN character building spreadsheet. 

2) Enough about Blender to make Ships and a Kitbash kit for Ship Making. 

3) Enough about Spreadsheets to make a Ship Building Spreadsheet. 

FUTURE projects. 
1) IF I'm going to build ships I better do it in GODOT. A ship builder in GODOT that can EXPORT the ship and its stats would be best. 
2) GM tools in GODOT. 

World Generator Update: First Milestone Star and Companion Stars and Transpose.

This is how the World Generator looked based on "Learn Google Spreadsheets" Tutorials by John Karol. John had other matters to attend to so I enlisted the IT Ojts as a recommendation by the ReactJS developer.   This was around April ( a month or so earlier). 

We tried first to simply have a Function then Index Match the Results. Feeling our way around. 

Then I realized to Color CODE what is a ROLL and what is a REFERENCE (index match). 

The OJTS made it much nicer. 

A lot of Corners were cut because we were all learning Javascript and was supplemented by my knowledge of Google Sheets. Last time the OJTs had Javascript use was 1st year college, 3+ years ago. 

• The End Users Can DUPLICATE the sheet to save the information because the JAVASCRIPT/APPSCRIPT only targets a particular sheet. so once they roll an entire system they can duplicate the sheet and possibly export it. 
• We have a Transpose command which will happen AFTER I use an elaborate Joint Text function in Google sheet. There will be an IF function to say if the LINE will be exported to the RIght most area, the system generates a lot of extra Worlds and because its easier to cut and paste lines of code then to create a VARIABLE row. We can always GROUP the rows to make it more human readable. 
• Jupiter has about a hundred moons, the system doesn't generate that many - after a certain size it leaves it to the GM's Fiat. It would make the document TOO unmanageable with too many variables if it generates the thousands of Minor Planets in OUR solar system. 
• Once this is DONE, which means I can generate sample solar systems - Nicco can wrap it up and I can relax. I'm already around the 800usd mark of this project and I doubt there will be  160 people who will find this that interesting Based on what is already Free Hard Scifi stuff in Drivethru RPG. 

I just want this out there to hopefully fuel the inspiration that - Hey our solar system is Freaking Awesome and Adventure worthy and even the many smaller K-M class Stars nearby and Brown dwarfs are probably as well. By the Time we can travel in Light years of our star the level of Technology and Materiality will bend our concepts of economics. 

In Hindsight - I can do Project Management for Book + Software and Games, after work. Its just that the INCH pace of it leaves me looking for another source of Wins and Validation. I was able to get published last year, and hopefully this year with a more complex product. 

My skill set in organization and problem solving - as a Project Manager - is pretty much realized as now I have software project on top of projects like Migration, Construction, and Implementation.  

As I learn more about the new wave of RPGs, I realize the niche of simulation/case study may get smaller or bigger. Both want Simpler RPGs, less crunchy are somethings all want. 

As for RPGs that try to structure Hard Scifi in an OPEN manner that can be easily updated so that we GAMIFY many new Science Concepts for accessibility like DeltaV budget, Orbital Mechanics, Economic and Demographic Data etc... that is going to be definitely be RARE, but as Games become more accessible - as the PIE gets bigger the tiny slice is going to be a bit bigger. 

if 0.0001% of gamers are hankering for a way to SLOWLY ease themselves to harder and harder scifi as they realize "Wouldnt it be cool if I understood how this work?" "Wouldnt it be Cool? That the scifi caught up to what we NOW KNOW"

you can measure them by the people who bought the similar DriveThru RPG books and those who admit that "I'm not really smart but I want to learn." I'm not the smartest of my class or the nerdiest but I like it and I don't know where I'm allowed to be regular intelligence and understand this. 

The days where my friends could read 600+ words per minute and I had a dismal 100 words per minute. That they finished novels every week and I struggled for 1 month with one novel. I liked it - but I had a hard time reading. That people would be in forums lording their understanding over others and turning off (tens of ) THOUSANDS if not more people to Scifi and Historical games. One of these thousands of people don't mind the trolling or too naive to notice got to learn and like the harder scifi. 

its the super clueless and naive people who like it despite the people who ruin it for all 😅. 

While misinformation and degeneration is so powerful that it can subvert nations and democracy - it is interesting when people can still science this shit out and come to conclusions despite dis-mis-information. 

Definitely like Micro-plastics, radiation, viruses - misinformation and the crippling of science education will rewrite our entire idea of the future  - that it will be filled with the forces we underestimated that scar the civilization - creating so many wounds that will take forever to heal and limit its progress. Even with crash courses lowering the barrier for education and so many other Social Progress efforts and remarkable movements come in to play - us being human - being fragile and easily misinformed - primed and manipulated by powerful well funded forces - will create a future where gaming with this will be a die roll where critical failure exists. that in the spectrum of possibility the hobby can be untenable - despite the WIN-WIN of the hobby. 

To write Game Material that makes it easier to have Fun

When I wrote my tools in conducting Narrative Combat, Adrian (My editor) taught me to put under Designers notes. One of the things I think about is that this writing has to give the reader Tools - tools they may or may not pick up, but Tools they can run something I'm confident in running. 

I really hate getting the rules wrong, I hate misunderstanding them or they're more work than necessary. As someone who has experience training and setting up controlled processes - I agree with the System Design Philosophy of managing the Knowledge of the System to be digestible and prioritized. 

my younger self would think I'm giving up, but I have to explain to him that "How do you hope to control the uncontrollable? Is that a practical use of your resources and attention?" The idea of what we can manage is different and more nuanced as we get older. As we get older we don't see what we do has a Direct Relationship to our output we appreciate all the factors that can get in the way of controlling the outcome. Accepting the limitations of what we can control, to free up that mental resources to be Flexible, Improvise, and Seize Opportunities and Manage Risks. 

A different Strategy, doing something entirely Different to Achieve the Same Goal looks like Giving up. 

The difference between Scope Creep and Scope Management is when we check our Initial Objectives and rationalize the new information in the context of our Initial Assumptions and ideas. 

I had some re-alignment as I realized that my problem with running in a more Controlled Processes (by controlled, there are Factors that are being monitored to ensure CONTEXT can show us how to achieve our goals). 

Lessons Learned - Near Finish of work Meditations.

 Even if I've not published this close to publishing I've collected so much data on how hard it was to produce the book and its challenges that the Detailed Analysis of my work can streamline more work in the future. 

Types of PROBLEM - lessons Learned. How I would sort issues in the next work. 

1. For Future Material. Many of the SUB systems should be tackled in a future book or material. Its not necessary for the main topic of this book. Mostly because it would add weeks to the Publish time. FAIL FAST, LEARN and be Agile. 
2. CLARIFICATION. better way of conveying the idea requires so much nuance. 
3. Distraction. So many sentences that dont' make sense, incomplete sentences, or clearly overloaded Working memory that crashed and I lost my train of thought. 
4. OPTIONAL. hard to measure if this IMPROVES or WORSENS the system relative to its design goals. When its tied - Less is More. 

Its not UNIQUE but rarely are people like me - of any value to an organization. One of the weirdest traits I've observed is that I like Systematizing it Even if I have no clue to Categorize the errors of my work. The emotional labor to see errors and analyze them is crippling - and most of my hesitation and procrastination is exposing myself to my mistakes. 

I realize LISTENING to my Audio of running Games in 2014 to 2015 (ripped the audio from Hangouts recording of games) to listen to how I sound like and how I would be driving the car White knuckled at the amount of CRINGE I experience listening to how stupid I sounded prepared me for this. 

Ask me to listen to that again and I would say that the amount of emotional labor CAN RUIN A DAY, I can lose a day trying to tell myself its not that bad. 

I'm not good at meditating in being "Present" but I can irrationally "Take on" self harming and uncomfortable psychic damage - I cannot recover faster or better than anyone and actually may be more fragile than everyone. Its just that I can't "Not know" I need to know my flaws to put it in perspective. 

Simple Biz Analysis and benchmarking I did to understand Where my product exists in the Spectrum of the market and where its place. 

It makes me appreciate how hard it is to write. It will never pay for itself, even if my Cost of living Is 1/5-1/10 of the US (about 19k/ USD a year family of 4 with 2 maids) My job as the IT and Plant Director will pay more and is an inexhaustible source of XP to look at life and try to Gamify it in a way People behave more compassionately to each other in the prisoner's dilemma. 

Even if It doesn't sell - only friends and Family Bought (10? ) I guess I will be grateful to appreciate how hard it is and how lucky I can participate when I know so many can't. 

• My breakeven is Silver (100) of my own money
• If I calculated based on my hourly rate at work I'd need Gold (500). 
• I've put about 50 hours into it based on GDOC edit history. 

Well its better than buying STUFF to make me feel better. 

I'm in the third world country the Philippines, experiencing very incompetent and corrupt Gov't and when I reflect on how an idiot like me can make a good will effort to learn anything as compared to the corruption and plundering of scarce gov't funds - I'm reminded at how I have to keep telling people how important SKILLS, integrity, and Proficiency is. I inject it unconsciously in everything - how learning and study matters because I come from a place where it doesn't matter and the loudest, violence, and misinformation are more effective and diverting resources of the public to enrich oneself. 

It shapes how I approach competence, work, games, and people. How I know the world says "your skills and compassion doesn't matter" and to compensate I inject - how it matters in almost everything I do. My analysis, my study, my mistakes, my learning - it matters even if the world will be shaped by people who will pit people against each other to enrich themselves. Even if everyday it is harder to see eye to eye and understand each other - despite rapidly developing mediums of communication and AI able to play to our fears and outrage us. 

It hard to see anything without how everything connects to it in degrees we are better and better able to measure because of technology. 

I believe in NICHE TRPGS makers using Open Source (my next project is to make Creative Commons) to reduce the cost of making products and make highly compatible products - that smaller amounts of investment and risk will allow people to BUILD up complexity and synergy. A part time industry of Games thare more accessible - versatile - and complimentary to our human requirements. Someone will create a Hard Scifi module that will teach key Concepts of Science, Commerce, Trade, Sociology, Hindi, etc... in a GAME that can be run in 1-2 hours stand alone or as part of an adventure. We will spend 5-10usd for a week of fun with our friends and family in material that has so much replay value. There will be someone making a game FOR US - culturally or Culturally accessible. 

There is no one monolithic zero-sum entity that will contrive to control it - because the community will make the IP open. Im imagining at time my grand kids will have Open IP in interactive mediums of games as their primary media - they can Learn in their Pace and their Style and discover their voice.