Good Content vs Light Content

Getting organized, i realized that it takes me about 4 hours to accomplish a satisfactory piece. Especially when it contributes something that may be new, or formalizes something that was before purely intuitive.

Because of such economies, I have to break down my content and my focus.

Once a Month, something worthwhile.
Formalized GM tools and methods. Currently, I'm writing an article of a methodology of organizing play in a fun way (to the detail oriented person). Of course the leaning is to optimise time usage and maximize satisfaction.
Formalizing Character Descriptors. See Character Descriptors

Twice a month.
Commentary and Relfections. I'm listenting to some RPG podcasts; will check out some open platform podcasts 2GMs1mic, Pulp gamer out of Character, and Fear the Boot. I get a lot of inspiration, particularly when I add my own lense in terms of where the common points are when viewing certain challenges and skills. Also, expect me to comment a lot about how it applies to the real world :P

At least Once to Thrice a week.
Character Descriptions, a running list. Lessons in observation and perception applied. I will write down all the interesting quirks, descriptions, conditions, etc.. I observe everyday. I will compile them in a Gdocs-spreadsheet and formalize them in a Gdoc about once a month.
I want to build a random character generator, that can be used for modern and historical games. It also allows me to build up material for my open system, while practicing my observation skills.

Finished my First RPG Podcast; Trying out other History Podcasts

Finished Happy Jacks RPG Podcast se01ep01,
I was honestly pessimistic, but it was a GURPS GM so I had to try. And I was not disappointed, i could relate and they remind me of my favorite GMs of years gone by. I even found myself laughing out loud. sigh... and we all grew up.

I tried the Ancient Warfare Magazine Podcast, and it

Open Mass Combat System
Bascially its made up of a standard of a "professional soldier"; the professional soldier is set as an arbitrary no. Over time and technology, the cost to quality of the soldier improves as better institutions and infra allow better economies of scale training and indoctrination to the warrior profession.

Now; what makes this system generic is how modular it is. Certain parameters will be abstracted: formation (open vs closed), encumbrance (light vs heavy), and descriptors of the weapons (sword and board, pike, bows). The descriptors is where I have to organize it a bit, so that I can group and make certain aspects interchangeable.

A big advancement in the concept of open and closed formations. being a scout, I have a better grasp of open formation. It is versatile, loose, while being highly coordinated. It takes a lot of familiarization and doctrine to develop open formations. A great example of open formations are in cavlary and particularly mongols. Mongols can't hold a rigid formation, and they frequently serve a scouts. Despite that they are highly independent and autonomous, they are organized. thats the thing about scouts; you gotta have great comm skills to keep organized. you can't just stealthy and perceptive.

Closed formation is discipline and trained structure; open formation is versatility and familiarity. they have much in common, but those mentioned are what stick out.

So what how does that relate to this system? There is no Light or Heavy infantry; there are A LOT of warriors that don't fit that standard. one is the macedonian phalanx, they are Closed Formation but Light Encumbrance. Breaking up the force into its economic components is something that will be different and intuitive in certain approaches. I hope that it can be considered an open system, and having pegged this approach no one can copy right it and anyone can use such a methodology.

Another project I have to get around to... once I finish my quota. Ugg,

After seeing World War Z Trailer, I want to run a survival game again. It also helps that we've been on a airsoft high doing much better in the games. This is an arm-chair general doing scouting actions. HAHA! nothing like implementing a plan and seeing all your assumptions go out the window. I really have this sado-masochistic relationship with reality - using sound reason to assess and predict, while getting excited when the plan falls terribly short and I have to improvise...

Improvisation, an RPG staple. The ability to improvise depends on the ability to prepare and analyze, while at the same time maintaining a cool level of calculation and detachment to one's plan. (something some claim as sociopathic... sigh).

Adventuring Utility vs Real World Utility

GURPS looks at relationships of point cost to Adventuring Utility, and not Real World Utility. If you are familiar with gurps and like observing humans overcomming challenges, then you will notice a lot of things are far cheaper in the adventuring mindset than in the RW utility.

Ambidexterity, Photographic Memory, and a ton of the advantages and disadvantages all can be measured as respect to adventuring utility. To argue on the side of Adventuring Utility, its easier to measure things... as compared to RW utility, it is much much harder.

Real World Utility takes into consider economic realities, and economic repercussions. RW-utility is not static, its dynamic and fickle. A piece of technology can reshape an entire economic landscape and thus change the "market price" of an advantage. Details become more important; and sadly it becomes a very long shopping and check list to track when you move into RWutility.

Its just too much work... but thats not exactly a problem. You buy a product because somoene did the work for you, and is trying to get rewarded and compensated for their trouble, effort, talent and inspiration. So I guess its up to someone to make a RW-utility Book of all things of the human condition.

GURPS Magic or Magic Game Systems
This is where RWU and AdU butt heads really badly. We suspend our disbelief, if we have trained ourselves to see RWU; we look through AdU as part of our RPing exercise. But lets talk about that elephant in the room...
... what happens with RWU of how magic systems of various game systems are set up...
Chaos and an unimagined and alien world. The power of magic will affect market forces because it makes Many many things that have a cost in Infrastructure (soft and hard) and Market to be ignored.

What happens is an alien and strange world; far stranger than the world we live in. When you remove the fundamental problems we have everyday: mortality, suffering, hardship, waste, the diversity and intensity of human beliefs and capabilities - the world with magic is something so alien because these elements we take forgranted is how our human psyche deals with things. its like how even infants have an instinctual grasp of gravity; we have some fundamental hard wiring about the world that get screwed at this level.

Example is if your Social Survival Skills vs the typical RPG set up.
I'm in the BPO world, in a fast growing industry with a lot of corruption. I have to be on guard and always reliant in multiple sources of information and continuous looking for weaknesses in the logical consistency (to a point my wife remarks I can be a bit robotic) all these dangers are due to the cognitive and economic environment. In a fast growing industry; more "pretenders" will be around, because there is a demand for talent but not the resources to vett and evaluate it. Fast growing industries has an emphasis in timely delivery instead of risk management. Opportunities are plenty so; there are the cognitive factors that sets things up like the viscous cycle found in Gambling.
So there are the fundamental laws of cognition and economics allowing for all this... and to remove economics or cognition from the equation is a world that is alien to me; i will be spoon fed information... I cannot ask questions... which is a big problem.

I say I cannot ask questions is because; that scientific principle is just thrown out the door. If there is no rationalization; or pretending rationalization that cannot be infused into a world then the most fundamental survival skill: analysis is gone and thrown out the window.

I guess I'm pretty biased to some forms of art; where it falls under whim vs reality. To base something in reality is to base something on what I can strongly disagree with but have to accept. With whim, I cannot exercise the mental flexibility of disagreement while being able to live or accept what contradicts my vision of ideas.

I guess the contradiction is what I look for in a game. When the players give me an opposing view of the world. I can disagree with the players with a vision or idea of how things are going to work out; but I can work within the confines of my players own expectations.

Personal Comments
I get tired of work; but I can never let people be exposed and vulnerable the way I have been made so by all the crap I've gone through. :P Too bad players look for escape; I look for people who want to be inoculated.

Aw shit; I finally got why Bob left for Canada. I guess there is an amount of crap one can take; even if they are not part of the corruption, it just gets so complicated you don't know where up is anymore and your afraid for your own morals - you don't want to be those guys. Well if my mom and dad can live with all this crap and thrive I better be able to. After all those history lectures; what we have in the Philippines is small fish when compared living in india and china.  If i don't survive and thrive in this; what happens when these two dictate how biz is done in the future?

World of History Podcasts

I listen to Laszlo Montgomerys china history podcast, Lars brownsworth 12 Byzantine rulers, Robin Piersons the history of Byzantium and I will be download a whole ton more of history audio books.

What we all have in common with some of these guys is the very very long commutes in our lives. 2 hours of my day is lost to traffic, even in the least traffic of times. I gobble all these up easily.

What I realize is that the barrier of running historical games should be much lower than ever. History is now a more accessible interest. Although, like historical fiction novels, they are an acquired taste.

I've only checked out happy jacks podcast, because it's pro GURPS. But what would be nice is an rpg podcast sounds like a history podcast. What I mean is that, players and gms in their long commute can learn more about the setting and the rules as they wait in their long commute.

Typically these podcast give me ideas while I drive, where I whip out my e63 and press the record shortcut and dictate my notes while driving.

This rpg setting podcast helps gm learn the materials, especially Gm links me who are audio biased than reading biased.

The world of history podcasts help me learn in the idle time on the road. Because of how hard life is, it's a welcome distraction. I'm the type to ruminate and it has done wonders for my depression when I don't think to much and can learn - a coping mechanism to move forward.

Edit:
Recommended Podcasts
History of World War II Podcast - heavy ww2 history podcast, great for those long drives.
Twilight Histories - alternate histories
The memory palace - history in 6-7mins, award winning
Russian Rulers History podcast
Project History podcasts - notable is "When diplomacy fails" and British history
The History of Rome by mike duncan

Is there a bias against ak? Scientific damage

Ok GURPS calculates damage based on barrel length, diameter and mass of the bullet. The ak101 is an ak that uses the same rounds as an M4/m16.

In GURPS high tech ak101's 410mm barrel deals a little less damage than the m16 508mm and more than the m4's 370mm barrel. At least 5d-1 (average of 16.5), vs 17.5 of m16 or 16 of the m4. Just a .5 better damage.

Anyway it seems that GURPS is not using joules or kinetic energy for damage so I hope I can claim this and make it open - meaning anyone can use joules * area of impact/effect * mechanical efficiency as an open method of calculating damage.

By this method an ak47 does more damage at 2100 joules. I don't know where that bias is coming from, although I've never touched a real ak I can from thinking about it see how 2100 joules will screw you with recoil.

Waiting for my dad to get back from south Africa so he can transfer his gun to me, so I can learn to shoot real steel. Mulling the grey area of Philippine gun ownership, regarding assault weapons - sigh- some weapons are cheaper than the airsoft version.

Some Notes on Crisis Game

Crisis games are what I call games where things get really really bad but its not the end of the world. A coup d'état, a war, a large scale terrorist plot, a natural disaster, a market crash, a persecutive martial law, etc. etc. Its not the end of the world, but its pretty devastating to the people around it. 

Anyway, to me the plot or the set up in nearly interchangeable  Basically shit hits the fan and players are individuals have to make best of a situation. The situation or cause has some nuances, but pretty much, its almost an apocalypse. 

I would always cater the game around the Philippines. Its just weird for me when people run games in places they have barely visited  like the US. I can understand my brother running a game set in Jersey, having lived there for almost 10 years. Its no different as running a game based on fictional setting, unfortunately details are what changes the tide of survival, and there are a ton of local knowledge that is wasted and makes the game all the more "immersive". 

Subject Matters or Topics that come from Local Knowledge

Zoning Laws - actually play a part, because you know where you can find unusual concentrations of certain businesses and buildings.  
Building Codes - helps because it allows me to quickly map and narrate structures. I ran a game set in the UP-Ayala Techno park as i was still under construction, since we do BPO fit outs I could draw from the floor plans we have of many BPOs. 
Nuances of Firearms Laws and Environment- Local Expertise help a lot in determining arms and armament found in the game. It helps that my uncle is a gov't contractor of firearms and I have two other friends who's family are military families.   
Market and Economic Local Knowledge - what Groceries, Shopping Malls, etc. Stock. What kind of goods can be found in the locations, what is unlikely and where to find hard to find goods. Friends who are in Commodity Supply and Distribution give a very good picture of how things work. I guess it helps to be curious and the GM side of me likes to find out more about these things.  
Maps - I use Gmaps a lot, and its easier to use when you have a good internet. I love researching with it, and often it pays off so well that it reinforces my dependence on it. I've made some local expertise maps and try to contribute to google maps' map editor site... although I can vaguely understand how it works and I can't understand their verification method. 

It tends to boil down to mastery of your surroundings and how one's world works. GMing for such a setting and crisis, actually makes me want to know more and more about my surroundings. Interestingly its a useful skill, it allows me to source hard to find and necessary goods, as well understanding the local market better. 

Despite having no game to run currently, (there is no market for my games in my location - most role-players are the escapist type) its nice that the GMing habit keeps me looking for data and asking questions. 

Reflections on GMing after Simulations; Random Generating Flaws and Perks

There are a lot of ideas that come to me from converting my airsoft experience into GMing. One thing that just came up was, how Perception Checks should be handled.

My Captain has excellent perception, everyone else has average. from his description of how his perception works in GURPS its Tactics+Perception roll. He tells me that he uses a process of elimination going through all the best hiding spots in his field of vision. I've tried it and it really needs practice to get good at, but also it makes more sense than a raw perception roll.

My first time to play airsoft, and as we bring in newbies, confirms that there is a BIG default penalty. There is a -4 to -6 default penalty in seeing opponents in cover and concealment. Tactics+Per (or Soldier+Per -1) roll is not an option, its the only way to make sense of information overload. A high perception is not enough, you need to efficiently go through your field of vision as quickly as possible.

A person having at least 1CP or a familiarty will be much better than someone who doesn't know what to look for.

How to resolve Perception Checks with Group effort. 
- first players have to declare what they are doing, what they are paying attention to.
- the GM can roll the average of everyone's Per. The margin of failure tolerance is equal to the highest relevant skill+per. Its like having one roll and checking who would have made that roll.
- Filter who would have made it, by the relevance of their current activity. GM adjudicates, adding bonus or penalty based on their current actions - by how specific the character is looking for it. The more specific the better; the more general the more ambiguous the threat or data.
- This allows Van and Flank guards are able to react better; people busy with logistics worse; and fatigue penalty affects mental performance (unless one is a believer of substance dualism; then why does alcohol change one's behavior?).

These set of rules/guidelines allows me to fit what I have observed and experience, to in the game. Of course, players who don't clearly and definitely focus on what they should be focus would be a more unaware and flatfooted group.

Which brings me to why was a group of soldiers so easily ambushed in this show i was watching. EASILY ambushed.

I actually got "killed" in a game taking the time to tell allies to cross their vision and firing arcs. Talking and command is an action, I was in 90% cover BTW.

When covering 35' angle I notice I can catch anything that occurs within a second, any wider and my mental FPS is much slower than a second. at 90' i can be easily ambushed by a quick pop-up attack. at 180' even easier. This basic FPS rule, emphasizes the economics of mental resources. Unfortunately it takes practice for a pair or a group to optimize their alertness. If only there was a way to practice it without looking to weird.

In a GURPS second by second game, this would be an awful amount of detail. I run my gurps in 6 second rounds, like DND. In a narrative combat, as opposed to tactical combat, a perk should cover this, otherwise I'll throw penalites. When this mode of activity (room clearing) is on, players should be allowed to dodge or wait-attack.

Here is a funny side note about Keen vision in real life, it may be 2cp but if your asian it might as well be 5cp advantage. 70-90% of ethnic asians are near sighted. At least if your asian Bad Sight (mitigation glasses) is definitely easy to justify. What is weird is that in the Philippine Mil. Academy, you need unaided 20/20 vision (since Lasik is best taken in your mid 20s, when vision changes less)... that removes up to 90% of potential candidates(its modeled after the US, funny how it fails to take into consideration ethnic biological circumstance). 

Murphy's Rule makes me biased for Randomly Generated Characters. 

I see my RPGs as problem solving exercises more and more. It comes to the point that my bias towards some randomly generated characters are a necessity for the game. People really need to have the expectation MOST of the time they screwed by circumstance  but with in that situation their choices matter a whole lot more.

Its a head ache making a table for random disadvantages and advantages. That should be my first python exercise if I get around to it. a program that allows me to randomly generate a list of flaws and advantages for my open system.