So Size 8 Arial is "Readable"

Tried to print out a Statement Sized Gdoc with my default Arial 11. With Lorem ipsum to check how it looks and various font sizes. This is set to be 0.5" but it seems to be still shrunk. I just eyeballed it to which was closer. My near-sight has been getting worse.

1. Gdoc and my printer problems. I can't seem to Print out Gdoc statement properly with my 5275 HP printer. I need to use Word to print it out close to its actual size. 
1. This gave me a problem, ideally what ever I use should be print-friendly. I don't know how to make sure it prints well without trial and error during the Enhanced Community Quarantine where I cannot get my hand on more paper and ink.  
2. I have a cautious relationship with WORD. I prefer using Writer (Libreoffice) but that means calibrating my settings to writer which I haven't done in a while. 
2. What is readable small print? The Fantasy Trip is equal to Size 8 Arial font, roughly 2mm. I don't know the TFT font or size but I just wanted to check what is a readable size of font.
1. Font was relative in size to each other. Size 8 seems to be 2mm, the next size is less than 2.5mm, and it seems to be 2.5 in Size 10, and about size 3mm at size 12. 
2. I wanted to do some Quick Game Systems during the Enhanced Community Quarantine (whats its legally called here in the Philippines; lockdown up to April 30, extended last week April 6)
3. No option to save as a template. Had to Create a 200410 GITB Statement Template, in the free Google account, there is no option to save Templates. 
1. Made the normal font Size 8 Arial. 
2. Removed the extra space above and below the paragraphs. 
3. Moved my docs little by little to my Game in the Brain suites. 
4. Gaming Ideas Log in Game in the Brain

Comfort in a system. Dice + 2-3 modifiers, or Adj-Stat + 2-3 Modifiers.

last 2019 Xmas I bought a The Fantasy Trip Legacy Edition, Dungeon Fantasy Boxed Starter Set, Essentials Kit and the D&D5E starter set. So it was pretty obvious I was trying to fill a void left by trying to fix the family business and self-improvement and trying to be a good family man.

I look at these books and I'm not happy. I have many complaints, which I don't mind home-brewing to correct. Its hard to be objective - its really about personal tastes and my tastes are unreasonable. But then I bought these books hoping I don't have to homebrew, that I can just rely on the books. There is no perfect system - there are very good systems - D&D5E's attempts to simplify creating a simple Dice + 2-3 modifiers vs DC as compared to The Fantasy Trips or GURPS Dice + >5 modifiers to Track. Mental Bandwidth I used for System-Mechanics Processing I migrated to Storytelling and Sandbox-Simulation.   At 41 I am too old to have a list of Unstructured Modifiers in my Head, I would rather Dice + 2-3 modifiers. I'm too old for unstructured data when everyday I use ANKI and cannibalize old mental artifacts for javascript, mandarin, pmbok, ERPnext, Biz process mgt, etc...

I want a system to make sense and it makes sense whether I'm dealing with traditional fiipino organizational behavior, best practices of the developed world, or emerging practices of bleeding edge organizations. The way I can talk about Finance, Inventory systems and Management science - but still talk about it in Narrative - like when funding for an Expedition, the Complexities of a Fief's stocks and inventory and how thieves game the systems, or how Feudalism is alive in Patronage Systems in modern times. the Knowledge to run immersive games are alive here in the present - the way 19C propaganda is used in Social Media.

When Ancient Concepts evoke Fantasy and History: When the narrative in social media paralleled the Friars Propaganda in 19C Philippines it felt like someone using Dark and Ancient magics of a forgotten age.  When racist slurs of old were used - if felt like acolytes and cultists evoking times of lynching - and calling forth their dark gods. 

Some Fantasy Trip Notes

1. Core Mechanic: Determine Adjusted-Dexterity (AdjDex)
1. Melee page 10.  
2. Succeed if you roll 3d6 Equal or Less-than (<)AdjDex
3. AdjDex = Dexterity + Modifiers
2. Key Category of Modifiers. It would be simpler to just describe the modifiers in 3 categories. 
1. (Character) Condition. From -1 to -6. Check the character’s condition. 
1. Equipment: Armor and Shields give penalties 
2. Battle-Condition: taking 5 or more damage gives a -2 penalty. 
3. Training. 
2. (Character) Position. From +2 to -4. GM can simplify by asking “How is the Character’s Position?”
1. Braced. This is when the character has traded mobility to be in a better position to attack.
2. Range. Missile and Thrown Range penalties. 
3. Cover.  
4. Footing.
3. (Character) Target or Objective. Various bonuses and Penalties.
1. Attacking an angle the Target cannot defend effectively against. Attacking the Rear or Odd-Angles/Flanks grant. 
2. Attacking specific areas on the Enemy is harder than whatever is available to strike.
3. Hand to Hand Rules in page 18. 
1. Defender rolls a d6 when attacked (by the wording, even if its an unsuccessful attack)
2. Relative Strength determined Damage in Barehands attacks. Stronger vs Weaker. 
4. Engaged and Disengaging is Confusing.  Page 19.
1. The use of “may” in the wording. Disengaged is not an Option, it is the process you have to perform if you want to move away from a Threat. 

Abstract Combat based on Adaptive Cycles

Basically, this is my idea of how abstract combat can work. This focuses a lot on storytelling and working towards a "minimum viable product" or the negotiation we typically have with an End User when we do the Requirements Analysis. 

As I get older, and having the disillusion regarding the Law, and Certainty, and how its this Feedback loop with people that really makes small wins snowball into big changes I find myself streamlining my mental models into these kinds of concepts. 

I realize there is a STRONG similarity between the Ideation of a Minimum-Viable-Product (MVP) or Agile Output/Deliverable and the Feedback loop of Players before a Roll. In Good-Faith we settle on an Outcome - having negotiated Trade-offs given the Circumstance, so much like what has happened in an Agile Project - we work out an MVP. If a GM or Player (in a GMless Game) can harness this you can have a very "Light" but satisfying system.

I'll try to make it "Qualitative" So that its more "Any Game System". 

200329 FASTER Combat 16.5" x 11.7"

The Fantasy Trip - melee flow chart WIP

200329 Fantasy Trip - Flow Chart 16.5" x 11.7" (A3)
I didn't detail it so much because I just needed to explain the flow visually.
Particularly the combat flow.

Speedier Combat - Roll to Overcome vs Attacks, Defense, HP, etc...

It was in the lesson about American law where I learned about the use of leading questions "breaking down" the action and expanding the time. The narrative trick of describing each discrete element slows time. I realize that it's the same in combat - rolling to hit, to defend, damage, etc...

We came from D&D and have broken combat into these discrete elements, but Wargames and Boardgames have done these abstractions for a long time already. So if I want speedier combat, then I will have to go for more abstraction.

Its all-time and place, what is appropriate given the game and the story. If the story doesn't stress combat then we can abstract the combat more. We look at the 3-4 hours and ask what do we want to be doing? This is where imagining the Story as a Flow Chart - and that Combat is not a binary outcome - but one of many processes that open many possibilities. In Activity On Node, or Precedence Diagraming, or in Flow Charting its Diverging Paths and Converging Paths.

We can imagine the games as a flow chart with a line that begins to enter a Process (Square), that later diverges to decisions/options (diamonds) that diverge into more other Processes. Visually we want to have very unique branching possibilities. I want to imagine the "Inertia" of the Situation as the Main Trunk of Possibilities and the PC's are experiencing the Extremes - if you're visualizing from left to right, imagine a complicated branching trunk that follows a particular path of highest probability - now the PCs are diverging from that path. Either imagining in 3d as a Tree trunk and its many branching possibilities of adventure - or in 2d where it branches out into a thick web of possibilities.

The visual cues that make the outliers special   - are Control Limits/Color Bands of Probability and Information. The more Information the PCs have their Branch of Probabilities are farther out the main trunk.  At the same time - the farther from the trunk the more they are going into unknown territory. More risks and dangers happen far outside the trunk.

After imagining the game as these probabilities - I can't imagine rolling that many dice or having the bandwidth to think of stories in dice to dice. I'd rather it be shaped by decisions and behaviors. In 3-4 hours - what kind of story would the players have had? Given the Expectation, Conflict, and Resolution curve of emotion and storytelling - what branching decisions got Players into the story?

I guess for me I'm imagining 40% of time establishing the baseline knowledge and decisions, world-building and the setting. 40% resolving the many conflicts in the setting with the PCs and their own goals and expectations. then the 20% of guessing and reshaping the world with unlikely rolls, setbacks, and change of strategy and path.

That means of that the second 40% and the last 20% Players will work with the GM to figure out what kind of world this is. What kind of timeline and history we are making, with our decisions?

Processing Games Emotionally oops I mean Processing Emotions with Games

If you notice the title of the Blog - Game in the Brain, then it may come to no surprise that gaming is how I process things. 

I got depressed last year, I saw the futility of my circumstance, and I just wanted to quit work. Every problem was preventable, but it required me to have extraordinary authority and resources to correct. It needed me to be above a regular person in some way. As the son of the owner, I felt that I had to fix every problem. I felt guilty and frustrated in the politics and the maneuvering that I had to do. 

Around that time, I was listening to the Late Ronald Siegel's The Science of Mindfulness, which was damaging my mental architecture. I was so used to multi-tasking and finding specific ways to get my dopamine hits that what the lecture was asking me was to give it up. 

I had a headache after listening to the audiobook while walking to work or doing a chore. It was because it was talking about being present in the moment. The lecture sent my brain to focus on my walking or the task. But then there was a conflicting command by being engaged with the lecture. 

I wrote a lot about it in my Work Blog and finally was able to process it all. To simplify Meditation is not continuous activity; the way Physical Exercise or diet is not a continuous activity. We diet and exercise at specific points of the day, but its effects are felt throughout the day.

I felt better after being able to realize the nuance of how it's supposed to work. 

Ronald Siegel's lecture led me to various other realizations and awareness of my behavior—mainly how I process my experience - and why I always Game. Or why I always have "Game in the Brain". 

When people think of mountains, animals, and nature to be calm, my safe and peaceful place is with friends and family gaming. I grew up with two other brothers with an hour's commute from school going home. Gaming is how we passed the time. Gaming is how we developed and became who we are. So it's natural that when I think problems at work, I believe it in terms of Game Mechanics and mental models that would be easy to run or play. 

So now I'm all grown up and have work—my work beyond my capacity and temperament. I'm a bit more fragile and sensitive than most people, and can easily fold up and get frustrated. My responsibilities are difficult with its Politics and Complexity, and scarcity that so many people don't understand. It doesn't help that my first experience in management was serious hustlers, scammers, and sharks. That we had to take over of our BPO's IT around 2011. That my first boss, who was hands-on, was not who he claimed to be. That the Plant where I had been later assigned had a ton of problems that I tried to fix solo and realized I needed everyone's cooperation. Every year a new challenge and a new terrible discovery of something wrong. Things became surreal and that I needed to process it, and I stopped gaming. 

I knew I had "game in the brain," but I didn't realize how much it figured into my ability to emotionally process everything I had witnessed and experienced. 

It is after the Mindfulness Lecture did I realize that I do like the work: the Analysis, System Building, Consensus Making, Active Listening, and Hacking systems to work with less and fewer costs. I realized that those fears and trauma could be separated from the Good and Rewarding Work. 

That Mindfulness aligned with the Gamer Mindset. That we look for Optimum strategies - not out of fear, anger, addiction to the dopamine, but because we See a System where we all affect each other, and this is how everything can be made to work. 

So the strategy of escapism takes a more nuanced approach in this kind of gaming. I'm technically escaping the factors of my job - the real costs and consequences if I pursue a particular course of action. But in a game, I can have the same situation and try to act on it and deal with the unintended consequences and additional complexity. In the Game I can feel all this in a safe place and come out of it stronger or more mature. 

So all the crap at work is now game material. I've accepted and acknowledge that I hate it, but usually I'd have more bad dreams about work and feel stressed about it. Now I've accepted it in a way that it doesn't bother me as much. It's hard to differentiate the nihilism of "I hate it, and it won't get better" as compared to the "I hate it, and it's ok." I think the difference is that I believe that "it will never get better" is a lie. I guess I've accepted that It can get better or worse, and no matter what, I'll be ok with that. That in all that pain, a massive chunk of it is just me magnifying it with my fears. My body can only take so much pain before any additional pain stops being sensed. 

I thought this is a Game Related Post, because some people are Wired to have Game in the Brain. 

GURPS Random Stats. Roll 12d6.

Step 1: Roll 12d6.
Step 2: Assign the 12 d6s to the 12 Attributes and Secondary Characteristics.

Attributes (4):
ST, DX, IQ, HT
1, 8
2-3, 9
4-5, 10
6, 11.

Secondary Characteristics (8):
Hit Points, Lifting Strength, Striking Strength, Speed, Move, Per, Will, Fatigue Points,
1, -1 to a Secondary Characteristic or -0.25 for Speed.
2-3, -0
4-5, +1 to a Secondary Characteristic  or 0.25 for Speed
6, +2 to a Secondary Characteristic  or 0.5 for Speed

With the Stats Rolled
 1s x3, 2s x1, 3s x1, 4s x4, 5s x1, 6s x2

Fighter.
ST 11(6), DX 10(5), IQ10 (4), HT10 (4)
HP10 (1), LSST12(4), SST13 (6), SPD 5.0 (2), Move 5(3), Per9 (1), Will9 (1), FP11 (4)

Rogue.
ST 10(4), DX 11(6), IQ11 (6), HT10 (4)
HP9 (1), LSST9(1), SST9 (1), SPD 5.5 (4), Move 5, Per12 (4), Will10 (2), FP10 (3)

Notes:
1) Trying to keep the Motions Simple. Grabbing a fist full of 12 d6s and rolling them and sorting them.
2) Aware that with the 8-11 stat range Players will try to use up all their 4 and ups for Attributes.
3) Aware that they will use their 1s on the other "dump stats".