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Post by krusader74 on Aug 22, 2023 16:57:59 GMT -6
CALYPSO: LLMs as Dungeon Masters' AssistantsWhen I read about CALYPSO a few days ago, I debated whether to post about it over in the Anyone else playing with Chat GPT? thread or here in this thread. I decided to post here because I'm evaluating CALYPSO based on (what ought to be called) the Krebs' criterion: On the arXiv pre-print server, there's an 11-page academic paper about using ChatGPT as a co-DM for D&D by a bunch of UPenn Ph.D.s. Here's the abstract: AnalysisIMHO, the core duty of the DM is to create interesting encounters, describe these encounters to the players as imaginatively as he can, and then referee the players' interactions with them in an optimally fun way. CALYPSO is a Discord bot with 3 interfaces: - A GPT-3 interface for generating the setup text describing an encounter
- A ChatGPT interface in which the DM can ask questions about an encounter or refine an encounter summary
- An interface for players to engage directly with ChatGPT acting as a fantasy creature knowledgeable about D&D
CALYPSO's author, Andrew Zhu, previously wrote Avrae, a Discord bot with the following feature set: - Advanced Dice Roller
- Character Sheet Integration
- Initiative Tracking
In Rick Krebs' terms:
- Avrae simply speeds up game mechanics
- CALYPSO doesn't simply speed up game mechanics, it substitutes AI for the DM's creativity
In his 1981 book Simulacres et Simulation, Jean Baudrillard outlines 4 stages of simulation (or copying or making derivative works). I thought about these 4 stages as they apply to the evolution of D&D starting from the original 1974 game: - The faithful copy: I think Holmes Basic and Moldvay Basic neatly fall into this stage.
- The unfaithful copy: IMHO 2E and 3E had too many rules and rule books, and they over-complicated a simple rules-lite system with too many subsystems like feats and skills.
- The copy that pretends to be a faithful copy, but it is a copy with no original: 4E wasn't D&D so much as a pen-and-paper simulation of a fantasy computer roleplaying game. It was D&D by/for a new generation of people who didn't even know what D&D was!
- Pure simulacrum with no relation to reality whatsoever: Discord+CALYPSO is an AI enhanced PBP; and AI Dungeon is a ChatGPT-3 generated/DM'd single-/multi-player RPG. LLMs are used to copy-and-paste D&D text fragments together in novel/random ways. But neither of these games are really D&D anymore. It's like having this guy ru(i)n your game:
DigressionBTW, "CALYPSO" is an excellent name choice for this AI. Like the "dread goddess" in Homer's Odyssey ( Hom. Od. 7.240), after Zeus splinters your tabletop with his lightning bolt, and your crew of players perish, and your creativity is crushed, then this AI can provide you with counterfeit comfort and companionship, but also with a sense of alienation and exile. CALYPSO can seduce you with her charms and promises, but also delay and detain you from your true goal of playing a paper-and-pencil tabletop RPG face-to-face with a group of real flesh-and-blood human beings, a fistful of polyhedral dice, and a hefty set of old lignin-scented rule books. In the painting "Odysseus and Calypso" (1883) by Arnold Böcklin (1827–1901), shown in the article Homer's Odyssey in paintings: 2 The Sirens, Calypso and Nausicaä, homesick Odysseus stares off into the distance, plotting his escape from the barren island of Ogygia and an empty, unfulfilling relationship with Calypso. ReferencesAI Dungeon, a text adventure game which uses GPT-3 to generate content Avrae, a Discord bot written by Andrew Zhu CALYPSO: LLMs as Dungeon Masters' Assistants (15 Aug 2023) by Andrew Zhu, et al, arXiv pre-print CALYPSO source code, GitHub repository Interview with Andrew Zhu about CALYPSO at the RegisterGlossary of abbreviationsCALYPSO ("Collaborative Assistant for Lore and Yielding Plot Synthesis Objectives"), a Discord bot built on ChatGPT-3 LLM ("Large language model"), the use of large neural networks for language modeling GPT ("Generative pre-trained transformer"), a type of artificial intelligence language model
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Post by krusader74 on Aug 4, 2023 16:42:32 GMT -6
The Beast in the Cave (1905) by H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937)MotivationIn the post D&D Meets the Electronic Age, I pointed out that Will Crowther programmed Colossal Cave Adventure (the precursor to Zork) for his daughters after playing D&D in 1975. I should have mentioned that the game was also based on Crowther's maps and experiences in Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, the longest cave system in the world. It was the recent resurrection of that thread that led me to re-read and re-evaluate Lovecraft's "The Beast in the Cave," which also takes place in the Mammoth Cave. Falconer mentions this story a couple times in the Most important Cthulhu stories thread, but so far there doesn't appear to be any in-depth discussions of it yet... SummarySPOILER WARNING!!! If you haven't read this short story, you can do so now. The text is online here. It's about a 10-15 minute read. There are audio versions here and here. And there are animated adaptions here and here. There is also a free online 8-page comic adaptation by Jason Thompson (2013): —Jason Thompson, Comic adaptation (2013)A man exploring Mammoth Cave gets separated from his tour guide and wanders in the dark. His lantern falters, and he's alone in the dark. He hears a strange creature approaching him, sometimes on two legs and sometimes on four. Fearing for his life, he throws a rock at the creature, killing it. When the tour guide finds him, they discover that the creature was actually a human who had been lost in the cave for a long time and had devolved into a blind, white, ape-like creature. The man is horrified by the realization that he has killed one of his own kind. AnalysisLovecraft wrote this story when he was only 15 years old. He was a science nerd, who got his ideas reading Popular Mechanics and National Geographic (much like my other favorite writer PKD would later get his ideas from reading the science supplement in the Sunday newspaper). (Note: National Geographic started in 1888, while Popular Mechanics started in 1902.) At the time, Lamarckism was still a prevalent theory of evolution, and Lovecraft would have seen books and articles on the topic. The Mammoth Cave and Its InhabitantsOne influential book Lovecraft might have seen is The Mammoth Cave and Its Inhabitants, Or Descriptions of the Fishes, Insects and Crustaceans Found in the Cave (1872) by Alpheus Spring Packard and Frederic Ward Putnam. And even if he did not see this particular book, he may have read similar articles in his science mags. —Packard and Putnum, title page of their book on The Mammoth Cave and Its Inhabitants (1872) Packard and Putnum were Lamarckists who believed that living in the darkness of the Mammoth Cave turned fishes and insects blind and white/bleached: - Here is a link to all references in the book to blind cave animals.
- Here is a link to white cave animals.
There is one very interesting reference to "bleached" out animals on page 26 that contains a footnote explaining their origin: Note: Darwin isn't really advocating Lamarckism. Darwin says evolution occurs "after numberless generations" as opposed to within the lifespan of one individual; and he says that the mechanism behind these changes is "natural selection." Unfortunately, his use of the term "disuse" has been latched onto and over-emphasized by Lamarckists like Packard and Putnum. LamarckismIn order to fully appreciate Lovecraft's story, it's important to understand its historical context. In particular, the way biology and evolution were commonly understood at the time the "Beast in the Cave" was written (1905). I've been using the term "Lamarckism" quite a bit to describe this understanding, so I really ought to define it: Lamarckism is a theory of evolution that proposes organisms can pass on traits that they acquired during their lifetime to their offspring. E.g., a giraffe that stretches its neck to reach higher leaves would have offspring with longer necks. The main ideas of Lamarckism are the use-disuse principle and the soft inheritance principle. The use-disuse principle states that organs or parts of the body that are used more often become stronger and larger, while those that are not used deteriorate and shrink. The soft inheritance principle states that the changes that occur in the body cells due to use or disuse can be transmitted to the sex cells and inherited by the next generation. Lamarckism was widely accepted in the 19th century and early 20th century, but was later displaced by Mendelian Genetics and Darwinian Evolution. What's most important in Lovecraft's story is Lamarck's use-disuse principle: The tourist who got lost in the dark cave system for years and years had to adapt to lowlight conditions, and so his pupils became extremely dilated (they turned black), or perhaps he went completely blind from disuse; also, without exposure to daylight, his skin pigment (melanin) got disused, and so his hair and skin turned pale, sickly white. Packard and Putnum's book on the Mammoth Cave notes similar changes to the fish and insects in the caves. Lovecraft would use these ideas over and over again in his mature works, e.g., the eyeless penguins in At the Mountains of Madness. —Cave beast image, the Lovecraft Fandom WikiSome similar theories that differ from Lamarckism are: - Pangenesis is an ancient theory that says every part of the body produces tiny particles called gemmules, which are collected in the reproductive organs and then passed on to the offspring. For example, according to pangenesis, a blacksmith who develops strong arms would produce gemmules from his arms and pass them on to his children, who would then inherit his strength. This theory was rejected by modern genetics, which showed that traits are determined by genes located in chromosomes within the nucleus of the cell.
- Mendelian Genetics is the theory of inheritance developed by Gregor Mendel, who studied the patterns of inheritance in pea plants. Mendel discovered that traits are controlled by discrete units of inheritance called genes, which occur in pairs and segregate during gamete formation. He also found that some genes are dominant over others, meaning that they can mask the expression of the recessive genes. E.g., a plant with a gene for purple flowers (P) and a gene for white flowers (p) would have purple flowers, because P is dominant over p. Mendelian genetics contradicts Lamarckism, because it shows that traits are not acquired or modified by the environment, but are inherited according to fixed laws of probability.
- Darwinism is the theory of evolution proposed by Charles Darwin, who observed the diversity of life forms and their adaptation to different environments. Darwin’s theory is based on the concept of natural selection, which states that organisms with variations that make them better suited to their environment will survive and reproduce more than those with less favorable variations. Over time, this will result in the evolution of new species from common ancestors. E.g., giraffes evolved long necks because they had an advantage over shorter-necked giraffes in reaching food sources in tall trees. Darwinism differs from Lamarckism, because it does not assume that traits are acquired or inherited by use or disuse, but rather by random mutations and differential survival.
- Lysenkoism: A few months ago, I read the OUP's Very Short Introduction to Pseudo-Science which discussed Lysenkoism. In short, Stalin put a guy named Lysenko in charge of turning Lamarckism into official state ideology in the USSR. This episode in history became a real-life horror story as geneticists and biologists who opposed Lysenko's Lamarckist views were imprisoned and executed. This led to the deterioration of Soviet biological research and agriculture. Lysenkoism was eventually discredited and denounced in the late 1950s and early 1960s, after Stalin's death and the rise of Nikita Khrushchev.
Kentucky Cave MenAbout a week ago, I read a Smithsonian article called "How the Kentucky Cave Wars Reshaped the State's Tourism Industry" (July 25, 2023) by Eliza McGraw, History Correspondent. Most of the article is about how cave tour business owners waged (sometimes violent) trade wars against each other. This was going on when Lovecraft wrote "The Beast in the Cave," and so it might have been an influence. The most salient part of the Smithsonian article is a real-life horror story that occurred 20 years after Lovecraft wrote "The Beast in the Cave." It is the true story of Floyd Collins, a Kentucky cave owner who was exploring his cave in 1925 when he got stuck in a narrow tunnel. His ankle got pinned down by a boulder. His lantern faltered, leaving him alone in the dark. He was exhausted. He began to starve. Water dripped from the cave ceiling onto his forehead for days, slowly driving him mad. Unfortunately, the first person who discovered him, a reporter named William "Skeets" Miller, was unable to free him. Collins died before a team of rescuers could get to him. Miller won the Pulitzer Prize for his interviews with the dying Collins. Collins' story inspired a book, a song, a musical and a 1951 Billy Wilder movie starring Kirk Douglas. —Floyd Collins, National Park Service websiteInspirationRe-reading this story and the related materials on Lamarckism and the Kentucky Cave Wars has inspired me to think about a 1920s Call of Cthulhu adventure scenario about the Mammoth Cave. - The map would be loosely based on maps from Zork. Zarf Updates has a Treasury of Zork Maps.
- The creatures would be men and animals who got lost in the cave and devolved according to Lamarckian principles. Fandom has a list of the Creatures in Zork.
- The Kentucky Cave Wars would be raging, and the PCs might get caught in the cross-fire between rival cave owners, or hired to sabotage a competitor.
- The PCs might find Floyd Collins trapped in the Crystal Cave. Can they rescue him and change history?
—David Ardito and Steve Meretzky, Zork map from the Zork Users Group (1982) ConclusionThe main lessons I got from re-reading this story: - Science mags and books can be a great source of inspiration for writing sci-fi/horror stories or RPG adventures.
- When reading older fiction, it's important to understand the historical context in order to get a full appreciation.
- If you ever find yourself lost and alone in the dark in the Mammoth Cave, you'll probably go mad, and maybe even get eaten by a grue!
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Post by krusader74 on Jun 30, 2023 16:04:51 GMT -6
Whatever else a Grognard is, it's also a free, open source, PD retro-clone of CM: discussion, Markdown, source, and PDF. And it begins with this Grognard-y epigram:
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Post by krusader74 on Jun 30, 2023 15:39:26 GMT -6
There's a five year old post in the Gygax ODD Additions thread about the Origins of D&D wherein Gary discusses the LGTSA Medieval Miniature Rules as published in the Domesday Book #5 in July 1970. It's worth noting that the Geneva Medieval Miniatures rules were first published a few months earlier in April in Panzerfaust. And later in that same thread, I posted a transcription of those rules in both Markdown and PDF formats. The rules were published yet again a month later in August in Spartan International Monthly. I'm not sure if the rules published in these three early sources differ, but I know that Gary kept tweaking and embellishing them until they became CM. Jon Peterson would be the one to to ask how much these three published versions differ. He may also have copies of these publications.
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Post by krusader74 on Jan 13, 2023 15:17:21 GMT -6
There are other tabletop roleplaying game systems that have Open Games Licenses. I think Chaosium's Basic Role Playing and Traveller both qualify as "old school" gaming. ... Mongoose PublishingThe Traveller roleplaying game has an OGL! www.traveller-srd.com/There have been a few incarnations of Far Future Enterprises' Traveller RPG released under the OGL. You already mention (1) MGT and MGT 2E. Here's two more: (2) In 2006 QLI/RPGRealms Publishing created Traveller D20 (aka T20), which used D&D 3E's D20 system. It was set in Milieu 990, somewhat before Classic Traveller (CT), which is set in Milieu 1100. DTRPG has the corebook in PDF for $20. But for $35 you can buy a CDROM from FFE with all the T20 books. (So then, why does Amazon and the have the HC of this for $500?!) (3) There was a fan-made, 6-page conversion of CT to FUDGE RPG. And FUDGE is OGL'd. If you know of any others, post them here! A few more OGL games I remember: * The Star Wars RPG popularized West End Games's D6 System, but there were lots of other games that used it. In 2010, before WEG went bankrupt, owner Eric Gibson OGL'd the D6 System. You can find the Open D6 SRD online. * Green Ronin's Mutants and Masterminds, a superhero RPG. * White Wolf's Silver Age Sentnels, another super hero RPG. There are actually two versions of this game: one uses the Tri-Stat system, the other uses the D20 system. * Spycraft, an espionage RPG, like TSR's Top Secret. * In February 2002, Wizards of the Coast released a D20 version of Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu, written by Monte Cook, senior designer of D&D 3E. I GM'd this for a while back in 2002-2003. I see someone's selling a used HC on Amazon now for $58, and another on eBay for $30.
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Post by krusader74 on Jan 10, 2023 17:31:42 GMT -6
Is there a list of OSR games without OGL ? I realease a small sword'n'planet setting named Zongor, under CC0, but it's in French - and should be made better. I released two retro-clone games into the public domain, making them truly free and open source forever: #OpenDnD
If you are a creator, #DontSign the new agreement.
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Post by krusader74 on Jan 10, 2023 17:30:53 GMT -6
...and don't forget FATE RPG's parent game system, FUDGE RPG.
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Post by krusader74 on Jan 4, 2023 0:35:35 GMT -6
The Big Tech AI wars are finally here... Microsoft is adding ChatGPT to its Bing search engine, to lure users away from Google, according to a report by Bloomberg 3 hours ago. Google has declared the situation a "code red" threat, and mobilized an army of researchers to finalize their competitor LaMDA ("Language Model for Dialogue Applications"). The most interesting thing in the article was this tweet by the CEO of OpenAI on December 10th:
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Post by krusader74 on Jan 3, 2023 23:50:04 GMT -6
I have never read a Doc Savage novel before. Just picked up the Doc Savage Omnibus #1 to fix that. Hope it is a good place to start. During the pandemic I read a bunch of these. Couldn't get enough. If you like these, I found several other things that might interest you: * All-New Wild Adventures of Doc Savage by Will Murray, based on the notes of Lester Dent. These were written around 2012-2013. Lester Dent wrote most of the original 181 Doc Savage pulps under the pseudonym Kenneth Robeson. But he had ideas for dozens of more books he never got a chance to write. Will Murray did a great job growing these adventure seeds into full-length novels. One of the most memorable was Skull Island. The setup is: Doc Savage returns to his headquarters in the Empire State Building from his fortress of solitude in the north pole in 1933 to find King Kong dead on the streets outside the building. He recounts an earlier adventure which brought him to Skull Island where he befriended Kong. * The Secret 6: The Complete Adventures by Robert J. Hogan. This was a short-lived series of 4 novels written starting in 1934. They are a blatant rip off of Doc Savage. The audio book versions narrated by Michael C. Gwynne are excellent. * Matthew Henson and the Ice Temple of Harlem by Gary Phillips is a neo- retro- pulp novel in the style of the Doc Savage series. It's based on the real-life Matthew Henson, the first person credited with reaching the North Pole around 1909. * The 1989 Peter Weller film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is clearly a Doc Savage knock off. This movie bombed at the box office. But it was a movie for nerds like me way before nerd culture got mainstreamed. * Oodles of Doc Savage comics by various publishers from 1940 to the present.
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Post by krusader74 on Jan 2, 2023 18:27:02 GMT -6
Alright, this is what it came up with. A asked it to do 5 rooms, for some reason it only made 4. Q: design a d&d adventure in a mummy tomb with 5 rooms, with traps and monsters, include stats A: Sure! Here is a D&D adventure set in a mummy tomb, with five rooms, traps, and monsters:Adventure: "The Mummy's Curse"... Room 1: Entrance Chamber... Room 4: Pharaoh's Burial Chamber... tdenmark : I re-read this post a couple of times, and I don't see any mention of room exits or connections between the 4 rooms!!! There is a door with a trap in room 1, but it doesn't say exactly where it goes. Looks to me like ChatGPT is missing any kind of spacial awareness that all sentient beings seem to possess. Am I missing something? Can you ask it how these four rooms are connected? Can it draw a map showing these connections? There was an article in the Atlantic that said ChatGPT chatted with the intelligence of a B- high school student. But I started playing D&D by 6th grade, our DM was a C student, and his dungeons had rooms complete with exits and connections between them! I previously posted Gary Gygax's SR article Solo Dungeon Adventures, which uses random tables for generating a dungeon. These tables generate the number of exits in each room as well as their directions. These simplistic tables seem to me to do a better job of creating a playable dungeon than ChatGPT. I know the current ChatGPT-3.5 uses ML/deep learning techniques, and that it is general purpose, far beyond dungeon generation. But, sorry-to-say, I believe old rule-based AI systems still make superior random dungeons. Maybe ChatGPT-4 which launches later this year will get some basic spatial awareness and build better dungeons.
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Post by krusader74 on Dec 31, 2022 2:28:49 GMT -6
I'm somewhat of an AI skeptic. The media tends to over-hype AI advances like ChatGPT. Back in 2019, there was a company called Engineer.ai that claimed you could use it to interactively build a mobile app in about an hour. It turned out there was no real AI at all--just a sweatshop of engineers in India producing the results. The WSJ broke the story. The Verge's coverage adds that Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft also use humans in their "AI" offerings. Looking back to 2011, when IBM Watson won Jeopardy, there was an awful lot of press about how advanced AI had become. But it turns out Watson relied more on tricks than AI. For example, 80% of all correct Jeoapardy responses are Wikipedia article titles, and Watson had a built-in mirror of Wikipedia. Watson had a bag of tricks to get the remaining 20% of the responses. This is covered in detail in chapter 14 of Erik J Larson's 2021 book, The Myth of Artificial Intelligence: Why Computers Can’t Think the Way We Do. Larson's book gives a good account of what AI can and can't do. Following CS Pierce, he says there are three types of logic: #1 Inductive: Extrapolating from a lot of examples. The sun rose every morning for the last bazillion years. Therefore, it shall rise again tomorrow. Inductive inference is statistics on steroids. #2 Deductive: Deriving theorems from axioms by applying rules. Like what you learned in geometry. And Aristotelian syllogisms: All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore... #3 Abductive: Reasoning to the best explanation. In math and logic classes we learn that this is a fallacy called affirming the consequent: A implies B, B, therefore A. However, in practice, humans often guess A, when they know B, and either they have a good intuition or can rule out other plausible explanations for B. In fact, abductive reasoning plays a major role in the scientific method: guess and test. (Pierce also called it: retroduction, presumption, and hypothesis.) AI thrives on #1 inductive inference. Programmers fed bazillions of examples into ChatGPT to shape its responses. There are some "proof assistants" that can perform #2 deductive inference. But (except for simplistic cases) deduction tends to blow up exponentially, and these systems require human guidance. However, no one's figured out how to encode #3 abductive inference into an algorithm. It seems out of reach for AIs, which so far has no way to guess the answer and then test to make sure it's right.
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Post by krusader74 on Dec 31, 2022 0:06:33 GMT -6
Alright, I did a few more tests. It seems it maxes out at 4 dungeon rooms. The first 4 rooms are a free taste, just to get you hooked, but you'll soon have to pay to get the rest of your fix... You see, like D&D, ChatGPT is severely under-monetized. OpenAI's CEO says he's going to start charging money next year, and he expects to make $200M in 2023 and $1B in 2024. Twelve days ago, reddit user Docta-J-Dizzle was able to squeeze an entire session of D&D out of ChatGPT. He posted the transcripts here on reddit. TL;DR The Gamer posted an article summarizing it 7 days ago.
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Post by krusader74 on Dec 14, 2022 17:03:52 GMT -6
Yesterday, CBR reported that the Dungeons & Dragons' Classic Cartoon Returns With a New Miniseries. To be clear, this is a comic book series, not a TV show: The tentative release date is March 2023. The CBR article provides all the details on the plot, artists, background, etc.
BTW, on YouTube, I found several fan-made versions of the unproduced/unaired finale to the Saturday morning D&D TV show, entitled Requiem, - The first edits together the original Requiem script (1985), a DVD radio show (2006), and fan-made Portuguese comic (2010).
- The second uses the 2006 radio show plus original footage from the series.
- The third combines the radio show and the script.
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Post by krusader74 on Nov 27, 2022 15:34:31 GMT -6
Fans of H. P. Lovecraft or string quartet music should take a look at this: STRING QUARTET NO. 1 - THE MUSIC OF ERICH ZANN by Michael J. Evans.
The music is performed by the Sirius Quartet. It is accompanied by the text of the 1922 Lovecraft story, along with pencil sketches illustrating the story. It's a long piece -- 1 hour 11 minutes -- but it's an outstanding artistic achievement.
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Post by krusader74 on Nov 26, 2022 15:52:10 GMT -6
I just watched a YouTube video that has a lot of great info and images for a Gamma World campaign. It's titled "Nuclear Waste: What Do We Do With It?" by Sabine Hossenfelder: There's about 400,000 tons of nuclear waste. The most dangerous component is Plutonium-239 with a half-life of 24,000 years, making it dangerous for about 100,000 years. Right now, there aren't any waste storage facilities to hold radioactive waste that long. There is a large cave complex under construction currently in Finland, and there was the Yucca Mountain waste storage facility in Nevada, but that isn't being used due to safety concerns and the fact that people don't like the idea of living next to radioactive waste. The juiciest bits of the video occur between 10:40 and 16:02. Here, Hossenfelder talks about ways researchers have studied to scare people away from these dangerous sites for the next 100,000 years. It's a challenge. Written language has only been around for 5,500 years. We're assuming a lot to think it will still be around for the next 100,000 years or that people will still speak English, etc. The description in the video links to 2 such research reports: Some of the ideas developed in these papers sound like they came from a post-apocalyptic horror movie. These may be very useful in a Gamma World setting: - Keep the burial locations secret except for an "Atomic Priesthood" that would know the truth.
- Breed animals that would change color when exposed to dangerous levels of radiation, e.g., the "ray cat."
- Protect the surface of buried waste storage areas with a "Landscape of Thorns" (1993 Report pp 150-151) or a "Spike Field" (1993 Report pp 152-156) designed to cast fear in people (see below). Also pictured in the 1993 Report: Menacing Earthworks, The Black Hole, Bubble Landscape, and Forbidding Blocks. These pics are great.
- Messages would be posted at different levels in the cave complex. But because we can't assume people will read English in 100,000 years, they will be accompanied by pictures of human faces, depicting horror and nausea (see below).
There are dozens of pictures in the 1993 Report that offer a gold mine of illustrations for a Gamma World scenario. Here are a couple of screen grabs:
If you play Gamma World or a related RPG, you should definitely download the 1993 Report (linked above or in the video description on YouTube) and browse through all the illustrations!
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Post by krusader74 on Mar 9, 2022 18:10:12 GMT -6
Goofing around on the JavaScript Turtle Graphics page, I developed a short, simple script that produces random, non-linear dungeons. Paste this script into the "Code Area" on the left side of the IDE: /* Random non-linear dungeon */
function square() { var theta = 0; while(theta!=360){ fd(10); theta += 90; angle(theta); } }
function move() { var direction = random(0,100); rt(90*direction); fd(10); angle(0); }
function step() { square(); move(); }
function map() { reset(); repeat(3000, step); }
Then type "map()" (no quotes) into the "Command" line at bottom center, and press the Return/Enter key. I recommend clicking on the drag bars and making the Canvas column wider. Here's what my screen looks like on Windows 10 running MS Edge: palamedes.altervista.org/images/TurtleGraphics/TurtleGraphics12.pngHere are a few additional output examples: palamedes.altervista.org/images/TurtleGraphics/TurtleGraphics02.pngpalamedes.altervista.org/images/TurtleGraphics/TurtleGraphics05.pngpalamedes.altervista.org/images/TurtleGraphics/TurtleGraphics07.pngThe algorithm is quite simple: - Draw a 10x10 square.
- Move in a random, cardinal direction: North, South, East, or West. (You could simulate this by hand by rolling a d4.)
- Go To 1.
The script repeats this loop 3,000 times. Note: It is possible to backtrack over the same spot repeatedly. If it goes off the edge of of the canvas, the turtle wraps around, like the old arcade games PacMan and Asteroids; in other words, the canvas is topologically a torus; but this fact is not critical to drawing loops. The code can certainly be optimized, polished, and improved to make better dungeons. But I thought these examples weren't bad for such a simple algorithm. This code is in JavaScript, so it runs in the browser. But I want to point out that Python supports Turtle graphics out of the box, and it would be easy enough to translate the code to Python, if that's your preference. Python has the advantage that you can set the random seed used by the random number generator, so you can reproduce your experiments; JavaScript does not support this -- you'd need to write your own PRNG or use a non-standard library.
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Post by krusader74 on Mar 4, 2022 17:33:00 GMT -6
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Post by krusader74 on Mar 3, 2022 18:58:11 GMT -6
Treasure Magic - The Lore of Lost Riches and the Historical Sorcery Used to Find Hidden TreasureHere is a brief summary (followed by a detailed outline) of the YouTube video Treasure Magic by Dr. Justin Sledge, released on the ESOTERICA channel February 11, 2022. Dr. Sledge credits Dungeons & Dragons four times during this video for sparking his interest in treasure magic as a child, and says that now as an adult he still collects Medieval coins. TL;DRThe most interesting parts of this talk concerned the pre-modern magical conception of treasure. Here are my top 10 takeaways that I would try to incorporate into future D&D games: - Treasure is sentient; for example, it can hear treasure hunters approaching; so treasure hunts were mostly silent affairs.
- Treasure can shape-shift; it will appear as rubbish; a magician needs to dispel magic in order to restore it to its true form.
- Treasure is mobile; it can burrow deeper into the earth in order to evade capture; in some cases, it can even run away from treasure hunters!
- Magical empathy, the principle that "like attracts like," means that treasure hunters can "bait" treasure with gold and silver coins just like one can bait a fishing pole to catch fish; and you can find treasure using a metal divining rod.
- Treasure emits magical light, fire, and perfume.
- Treasure attracts magical guardians like demons and ghosts.
- Treasure is most easily found in magical "in between" places (like crossroads) and at liminal times (like in between Sundays and Mondays).
- The typical treasure hunting party consisted of a minor aristocrat (who secured required permits), a treasure sorcerer, laborers (engineers, miners, cooks), investors, and a mob of onlookers and mockers.
- Treasure sorcerers used spells to find treasure. Often these spells invoked saints and demons. Treasure sorcerers also used scrying, divining rods and plants. Most spell books contained a spell to help find treasure.
- Treasure sorcerers were in constant danger of being accused of witchcraft or fraud.
The notes below expand on these ideas... I. Common locations of late Medieval European treasure hoardsA. On the Roman border with Germania, Roman soldiers often buried their pay before going into combat. If that soldier never came back, it lay there until an accidental plow unearthed it. B. Pre- and post-Roman pagans often buried their high-caste/high-status individuals in elaborate tumuli or conspicuous barrows. C. The Protestant Reformation saw the closure and the looting of the monasteries, and of course monks would secret away valuables. Many gold and silver religious objects like candelabra, and many such buildings were positively honeycombed with crypts and underground vaults. D. Several actual treasure hoard discoveries are mentioned: E. Several fabled treasure hoards are mentioned: F. A couple of modern (20th and 21st century) quasi-magical treasure hunters/expeditions are mentioned: II. Legal issues related to treasure huntsA. The Crown, the landowners, and the treasure finders all wanted a cut when treasure was discovered, and European law did vary widely on this issue. Some legal codes saw all treasure as the property of the state. Others divvying it up between the concerned parties, with the state taking a cut. Sometimes this got divvied up in three separate ways and further. B. At this time, almost all treasure hunting was linked with magic. And that's the period of the witch hunts. The state took a keen interest in those associating with any form of magic. III. Magical properties of treasureTreasure itself had magical associations and was always very nearly tinged with some element -- perhaps a very high degree -- of danger. A. Sentience. Treasure was thought to be somewhat sentient (semi-sentient) and had a desire to avoid being detected. Treasure could hear approaching treasure hunters, and so treasure hunts were conducted in silence. B. Shape-shifting. One of the more amazing feats of treasure was its ability to shapeshift. To avoid detection, treasure could transform itself into rubbish, only being transformed back into treasure by using magic. Paracelsus notes that alchemical fire would undo the shape-shifting effects of treasure, rendering the seeming rubbish back into treasure. C. Mobility. Treasure could sense being sought out and could move itself around, burrowing deep into the earth to avoid being captured. It could run away from you. D. Treasure baiting. In keeping with the pre-modern conception of magical sympathy that "like attracts like," it was a common feature of treasure hunting to use some small amount of gold and silver (typically in coin form) to actually bait a treasure, kind of like going fishing. Here, one would bury a small amount in the earth near this suspected treasure, then dig around that area, thus stopping the treasure from being able to escape. IV. Fortuitous places and times for treasure huntingTreasure was thought the easiest to detect at certain times of the year or in specific astrological conditions. Typically liminal periods were thought best for treasure hunts: - Especially the period from Christmas to Epiphany.
- Overnight, between Sunday and Monday.
- The conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn.
- Even in-between places such as crossroads are generally thought to be magical (if not also mildly demonic). That whole "X" marks the spot business probably has its origins in just such a concept, known in the middle ages as "cross digging."
V. Commonly encountered treasure guardiansTreasure was invariably thought to have a host of hostile guardians. A. Demons There was a general conception that about a meter into the earth was kind of the domain of various spirits: fairies, demons, and other kinds of supernatural creatures. Further, many treasure hunts also took place in ruins: basements, crypts, and caves; and these are also places thought to be inhabited by very similar kinds of dangerous supernatural creatures. Wealth in general for medieval Christians was always morally ambiguous, and treasure was often associated with Mammon, the demon of greed. Thus, such beings had to be appeased, bound, and banished, if they couldn't be avoided during the treasure hunt. You don't want a kobold or orc bothering your treasure hunting. As you might imagine, interacting with such beings was almost always the purview of magic, and often the frightful arts of necromancy. Thus, the discovery of magic was almost always wrapped up with some tinge of black magic. Many treasure narratives simply end with the hunters being frightened away by demonic illusions. Paracelsus, ever the maverick if there ever was one, actually says that the treasure hunting party should laugh and joke during the hunt, going against all the received wisdom of that age, precisely in order to endure the terrible illusion magic of the treasure demons: If you're having fun you don't mind the treasure demon. B. Ghosts Ghosts are by far the most common treasure guardian in the literature. Inevitably in life they secreted away their treasures and perished before it could be spent according to their wishes. Paracelsus seems to actually have held that hidden treasure alone was the cause of all hauntings. Thus the presence of any ghost actually indicated treasure. - Sometimes these ghosts rave in greed/madness to protect their hoard -- their gold lust keeping them from entering the afterlife.
- But in other narratives they wish for their treasure to actually be found and to be righteously dispersed. In these accounts, the treasure hunter is actually setting free trapped souls, giving some of the treasure to charity and some to the church, thus distancing themselves from that whole taint of necromancy.
VI. Treasure indicatorsDespite the elusive nature of treasure, it did have a singular giveaway to its presence: a mysterious and otherworldly flame admitted by the treasure. This legend probably has its origins in connection with the supernatural power of saintly relics, though a pre-Christian origin is just as possible. We see something like this in the early sagas. These relics were thought to emit perfume, light, and flames; and treasure also was thought to emit a very faint flame that burned but did not consume -- burning bush style. One could even tell the nature and burial depth of the treasure based on these flames, which were typically bluish in color but could vary, depending on the type of treasure. VII. Composition of the typical treasure hunting partyIn medieval and early modern narratives the treasure hunting band is surprisingly uniform. Rarely was treasure hunting done alone, because of the specialized roles required in the hunt itself, from legal legitimacy to magical powers. - Minor aristocrat. Often the party leader had some legal standing. A minor aristocrat might be able to get a treasure hunting permit of sorts -- something that was keenly needed for the legitimacy of the treasure hunt and to avoid charges of stealing from the crown just in case the treasure was found; or they just needed to avoid being condemned as a band of treasure necromancers.
- Treasure Sorcerer. There was inevitably a ritual expert, or treasure sorcerer, or at least someone experienced with magical practice and the detection of treasure. This ranged enormously in terms of their magical powers. Often this person was a kind of charming stranger. For whatever reasons Venetians were thought to be the best of all treasure sorcerers. In a lot of cases, wandering vagrants would fall into this role. Occasionally, virginal children would lead. Even rarer women -- there's only a couple of cases of women leading treasure hunts. Treasure sorcerers were typically literate and had some general expertise in magic. With various magical books (or just any kind of book with weird stuff in it) it wasn't uncommon for those in religious orders to also take on this role. And who else better to exercise a treasure demon than a local monk or priest?
- Support staff. The third group were the support staff for the hunt which included laborers, cooks and even engineers.
- Investors. Also, some of those folks were willing to invest money to get the treasure hunt off the ground. This wasn't exactly cheap.
- The mob. And a final group could basically include gawkers -- just curious spectators to leering mockers. There are people who just follow treasure hunters around to make fun of them. Why have such a crowd following you around like that? Again witnesses help to secure your right to the treasure and can also help you resist charges of any un-Christian magic in the process of the search.
VIII. Risks of treasure huntingTreasure hunts were dangerous, e.g., - Personal and religious tensions
- Cave-ins
- Demons and ghosts.
IX. Practical treasure magicA. Prayers to invoke (and banish!) saints The most common form of treasure magic was also the closest to standard religion: prayer. Specifically, there was a set of prayers to Saint Christopher and Saint Corona. While primarily known today as the patron saint of travelers, Saint Christopher was then in the late medieval/early modern period primarily known as a patron of treasure hunting. Dozens of volumes from that period include incantation-like prayers for summoning the Saint, employing his power to locate buried treasure and then, interestingly enough, banishing him. B. Spells to summon demons If you can't get a saint to help you, well, you might switch teams and go with demons. Various necromantic volumes that survive from the middle ages in the early modern period contain magic for summoning a host of different demons. Some of which are specific for finding buried treasure in the infamous Clavicula Salomonis AKA the Key of Solomon describes spirits useful for finding treasure, especially the angel Sarakiel. In other necromantic texts from the middle ages we find a demon named Barbarus Asiel Chloron, sometimes known as Floron, associated with a magical mirror. These are all helpful for finding treasure. Further, a host of magical sigils and symbols could also be used to detect the presence of treasure or protect from danger those seeking it out. C. Sample spell There are numerous spells (or experiments as they are called the middle ages) found in the necromantic manuals of that time period for the detection of treasure. One such example taken from CLM 849 AKA the Munich Necromancer's Manual details how to discover the location of a buried treasure via a spirit inside of a dream. This spell is relatively straightforward, but may betray some cross-cultural magic as well. - You have to confess your sins on a Sunday under a waxing moon when the sun is in Leo very early in the morning.
- Sprinkle yourself with some holy water reciting a short Missal formula along with Psalm 50 in the vulgate while facing the crucifix.
- Afterward, one must intone a specific prayer: "O rabbi, rabbi, my king and my God, and Lord of lords, you who are creator of all things, hear the prayer which I, a wretched and unworthy creature, make, and [be mindful?] of your redemption in this hour and always, and may my unworthy cry come unto Thee.
- Further supplications are made facing east.
- And then before bed another prayer is made.
- In your dream, a spirit will come to you and help you locate the treasure.
- The next day you can go locate the treasure that the spirit showed you in the dream.
- You have to give a set of alms and thanks for the newly found treasure that you have.
- And then you have to order three masses said in the honor of the trinity, the dead, and for keeping one safe.
D. Spell books Virtually all medieval books of magic contain at least one spell for finding treasure, thus making treasure magic as common as spells for things like invisibility, binding or just generic cursing people. X. The treasure hunting toolboxA. Candles, crystals and mirrors The treasure sorcerer had a wide range of magical tools at their disposal so if you couldn't get a saint or a demon to help you, then you just whipped out the magical technology. This is everything from candles made from human fat which hissed near treasure, to crystals, mirrors which revealed the location of treasure via something like remote viewing or scrying. B. Divining rods The most important and ubiquitous was the divining AKA the dowsing rod. Often cut by a virginal child, these wooden rods -- sometimes two rods, sometimes one rod shaped like a wishbone -- were thought to be drawn to treasure, metallic veins, or water, or many other things, for a host of reasons. Metal rods were thought to obey the law of sympathy. Remember, in the middle ages, like attracts like. The first systematic treatise on divining or dowsing was probably prepared by the quasi-legendary alchemist Basilius Valentinus, who claimed that metallic exhalations were detected by the rods. C. Plants Magical plants could also assist in treasure hunting. The most common magical plant here were "fern seeds," which had the distinct problem of not exactly existing! Though, William Shakespeare and Ben Johnson both mentioned them as having magical powers for finding treasure. Another treasure-finding herb was the alleged radix efractoria or the erupting root, sometimes linked in the English world with moonwart, which would cause the earth to burst asunder if placed near treasure. It was also alleged to make horseshoes pop off any poor horse that ran over them. And apparently you could also use it to break open a lock: you just put an herb in a lock and it bursts open -- no strength check required! XI. Treasure magic vs witchcraftWhile treasure hunters were nearly always associated with magic, it was very rare for them to actually be accused of witchcraft, and generally speaking received rather light punishments when caught. Why? It has to do with a specific crime of maleficea -- the legal term for what we now use and what we now translate as "witchcraft" -- because the treasure sorcerer didn't make pacts with the devil or demons. They weren't trying to undermine all of Christendom as the alleged witches were thought to do. These conjurers were more likely seen to be something as sacrilegious frauds by the authorities. (Fraud was the rule here: Virtually no cases of treasure magic working are known from judicial records. But dozens of cases of treasure magic related fraud are.) XII. The decline and fall of treasure magicAs the early modern period gave way to the enlightenment, treasure narratives greatly declined, typically giving way to tales of pirate's treasure, often in quasi-magical maps sometimes in codes. ReferencesThe single best volume on treasure magic is without a doubt Johannes Dillinger's Magical Treasure Hunting in Europe and North America: Several medieval sagas are also mentioned: Some modern treasure hunting fiction is mentioned: The spell entitled "Experiments involving visions in sleep" excerpted from the Munich Necromancer's Manual is reproduced in the book Forbidden Rites by Richard Kieckhefer available on Kindle and in paperback here on Amazon and also here on Archive.org.
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Post by krusader74 on Mar 11, 2018 14:53:22 GMT -6
There are a few major exceptions... NO THERE ARE NOT... This is not a place to debate legal issues... religious history... Except that you have injected both "legal issues" and "religious histories" into your posts here on odd74. As a reminder, you wrote: RE: legal issuesRE: religious historyEtc. Etc.
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Post by krusader74 on Mar 11, 2018 14:45:05 GMT -6
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Post by krusader74 on Mar 11, 2018 14:42:52 GMT -6
Gary Gygax created a 3D variant of chess called Dragonchess. 4D chess variants also exist. To get a better understanding of the unusual geometries Lovecraft talks about, it might be a useful exercise first to try playing board games like chess, checkers and tic-tac-toe on 2D surfaces with unconventional topologies. To that end, I recommend the article Games on Strange Boards at Cornell U. Math. I also put together a quick reference sheet of the surfaces you can make from a square using topological gluing diagrams:
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Post by krusader74 on Mar 6, 2018 18:19:41 GMT -6
This is a quote from "Armour & Weapons" (1909) by Charles Ffoulkes, at p. 106: Of short-handled weapons the Club or Mace is to be found on the Bayeux Tapestry, and is generally quatrefoil or heart-shaped at the head. The mace was the weapon of militant ecclesiastics, who thus escaped the denunciation against ' those who fight with the sword'. It is generally supposed that the Gibet was of the same order. Wace, in the Roman de Rou (line 13459). writes :— Et il le gibet seisi Ki a sun destre bras pendi. Great post peterlind !! Just to add some more context: Ffoulkes's book, Armour & Weapons (1909) is public domain, and interested parties can download it for free from several sites: Ffoulkes took the quote on p. 106 from a Franko-Norman poem by Wace written in 1160, a century after the events he recounts. There's a good, free, English translation in this 1860 book with an extra long title: The quote itself is broken across page 178 (bottom) and 180 (top). The English translation of this part of the poem appears in between these two pages on page 179. I don't know Medieval Franko-Norman, but I'm guessing Malet's translation is poetic, not literal: ( The letter "ſ" is the long "s".) As advertised in the book's title, it contains photos of the Bayeux Tapestry, including Bishop Odo and his Mace, but unfortunately it's an old book and the photos in Google's scanned copy are very poor quality reproductions, so you are better off getting them here from Wikipedia. WRT the denunciation against 'those who fight with the sword', which Ffoulkes mentions, I'd say this references Matthew 26:52: That quote, in turn, references Genesis 9:6 and Exodus 21:12. The Gospel verse condemns violence generally, and not specifically violence-by-sword any more than it applies only to Peter (whom Jesus orders to sheath his sword). But inevitably some Medieval "rules lawyer" came along and used the letter of the law without reference to the spirit in order to say: "The clergy can't use swords, but clubs must be OK, 'cause Jesus never excluded 'em." Or, as someone succinctly put it on tumblr, As an aside, if the denunciation against 'those who fight with the sword' is (as I've suggested here) the end-result of real-life Medieval "rules lawyering," then there's a lesson in it for us modern gamers-- The Biblical rebuke of the "rules lawyer," in 2 Corinthians 3:6, is echoed by Gary Gygax in the AFTERWORD of the AD&D DMG, p. 230: ...Getting back on topic, on the same page (106) in Armour & Weapons, Ffoulkes talks about the 'holy water sprinkler': Wikipedia describes the 'holy water sprinkler' too: According to a few other sources, some of these weapons actually had a hollowed-out ball into which you inserted holy water prior to battle. Small holes on the surface allowed the holy water to sprinkle out gradually during combat, thus "baptizing" your opponent as you bashed their brains out, so that you could
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Post by krusader74 on Mar 6, 2018 18:00:15 GMT -6
I think that politics should not have any place in posts on these boards. No matter what the politician or the issue, lots of old-school gamers support that politician or issue; and lots of old-school gamers oppose that politician or issue. It is obviously not the case that old-school gamers are in agreement on ANY politician or issue. There are a few major exceptions... (1) Every now and then a politician, religious authority, or media personality attacks our hobby, D&D, saying it increases suicides, homicides, drug use, debauchery, or whatever. As is the case with most politics (past or present), they state these deplorable lies without facts or evidence, appealing to emotions and logical fallacies. The classic example is when 60 minutes did a smear job on D&D, TSR and Gary Gygax back in 1985. A more recent example is when Pat Robertson told a woman to stop her husband from playing online RPGs -- he said they were rooted in D&D, which was "demonic" (the exact word he used). D&D has already gotten banned from US prisons. And whenever there's a school shooting or mass shooting (which is too often), if the shooter ever played a video game or D&D, there's a call to ban it or regulate it. We heard that call once again last week from POTUS. D&D is not corrupting our kids, or causing the collapse of our civilization, as these politicians would have others believe. I hope we can all agree on that! And so I strongly believe that these constant political attacks on our hobby must be exposed and rebutted. And I set up a thread here to do this: Religion, politics and D&D. (2) Laws, particularly IP laws, directly effect our ability to share and play our hobby. We have had useful, constructive conversations about them, such as May Purchased PDF files be Printed?(3) In-game politics (and religion) can also be used constructively, e.g., I'm not sure how you would play Gangbusters without the politics of prohibition being a factor. While the thread on Adventuring in the time of the Crusades got a little overheated at times, I think there's quite a bit of useful and educational stuff in there. See also: Medieval Christianity in OD&D and The Exodus. One other point about politics: The smear job of our site, the Original D&D Discussion, posted over on the Carcass of the Purple Worm on March 3rd and March 5th, was clearly politically motivated -- an attempt to drag us into the culture war. You need only look at Arnold Master's Google+ blog to see a clear political bias, and then note that the attack directed at our site singles out one of our mods with whom he has a political axe to grind. The attacker takes one of Rafe's posts out of context to leap to the conclusion that we deleted 1425 accounts as part of an ideological purge. He backs this up by citing "rumors" flying about the internet without providing any actual links or sources to these rumors. This is the sort of dirty politics and fake news that has no place on our boards.
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Post by krusader74 on Feb 9, 2018 17:06:34 GMT -6
A couple of noteworthy points about this: 1. Back in 2001, StarFrontiers.com began hosting PDFs of the rules, modules, sheets etc. The site owner claimed that he had gotten permission (in the form of a letter) from WotC to distribute the material, as long as he kept it free. The SF site includes the following legal notice on every page: Note the "used with permission" -- a reference to the permission letter. In late 2017, around the same time that Alpha Dawn went up for sale on DTRPG, the SF site owner changed the Alpha Dawn link to point to DTRPG. Ditto for Knight Hawks and the Ref Screen. So the SF site owner seems to be cooperating with WotC. However, there's still a PDF copy of an expanded edition of Alpha Dawn on the SF site, as well as other game materials, still free on the SF site. 2. Re-read the legal disclaimer and take note of the "... trademarks belonging to Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc." In fact, if you search the TESS database, you will find that TSR registered the trademark in 1982 and let it lapse in 2004. Then in early 2017, before WotC began selling the SF rulebook PDFs on DTRPG, Evil Hat Productions registered the trademark to "Star Frontiers" RPG. Now, WotC still owns the copyrights to Star Frontiers, including the setting, the alien races, etc. So Evil Hat simply can't republish the same game. But they could publish a new FATE-based sci-fi RPG with a new setting and new aliens and legally call it "Star Frontiers." No word on what their plans are. WotC could challenge Evil Hat in court. But that would take years and lots of money and it might not go their way, since they let the property lapse for 13 years. They could also buy the trademark back from Evil Hat. But the fact that they began to resell the PDFs on DTRPG shortly after Evil Hat grabbed the trademark tells me there's a potential trademark battle brewing. While I like the game, I can't imagine it would be a big enough money-maker for WotC to justify a prolonged court battle.
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Post by krusader74 on Jan 21, 2018 15:52:48 GMT -6
It recently struck me how well the Traveller RPG rules would fit a game based on the 80s GI Joe TV shows by Ron Friedman and the Marvel comics by Larry Hama. You would roll up an Army character, but you wouldn't muster out. You would remain in the Army and use your military skills to fight Cobra terrorists. Most of weapons and technology were TL 6-7. But the Joes and Cobras had access to advanced weapons and vehicles at TL 8-9, like laser carbines and early anti-grav vehicles. Traveller also has mass combat rules. E.g., the mass combat rules for MGT were previewed on their blog: MGT Mass Combat rules preview. They basically involve aggregating and averaging a group of characters into a unit, and then playing the unit as if it were one PC, subject to damage multipliers, depending on the ratio of the sizes of attacker to defender. G.I. Joe: Classics #1 (June, 1982) is currently FREE on comixology. The plot of that comic would make a great adventure scenario: Dr. Adele Burkhart goes public about a doomsday device the government created. During the press conference, Cobra kidnaps her and bring her to Cobra Island. It's well defended. They have 1,200 troops defending her. You can see maps of the island in the comic. The Joes must rescue her. In addition to playing scenarios in the 80s, you could also play GI Joe in the golden age, WWII. The original GI Joe was a comic by Dave Breger, first published in the US Army's weekly magazine Yank Magazine, June 17, 1942, p. 24. (Hasbro didn't purchase the rights to make toys based on it until the mid 1960s.) Here is the very first GI Joe cartoon ever: Lastly, it's worth noting that there have been a few posts in the past on these boards mentioning GI Joe:
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Post by krusader74 on Jan 16, 2018 17:31:17 GMT -6
There's an article by Gary Johnson called "Tesseracts: A Traveller Artifact" in The Dragon (Vol. IV, No. 1) #27 (July 1979) on page 16. The idea is that you can increase the space in your ship's cargo hold by installing a tesseract -- you store your cargo on the "surface" of a 4D cube of size L 4; the "surface" is actually a 3D volume of size 8 L 3, so you effectively increase your cargo bay capacity eightfold. To do this, you need a TL 16 spaceport. The costs are: - Hyperspace generator: 12MCr
- Mattermitters: 9MCr x2 (one inside the tesseract, one outside)
- Installation: 2MCr
The author talks about a couple of uses of this space. One non obvious use is a "safe room" in case of catastrophe. An obvious one he misses is smuggling, particularly if you are traveling to worlds TL << 16 where it is unlikely the authorities will be able to find your hidden merchandise.
There is an excellent article called What is a four dimensional space like? by John D. Norton that provides several great techniques to help visualize the fourth dimension. The example he gives about removing a marble from a box without crossing the box's surfaces is relevant to DWH, since it shows how Keziah Mason escaped from Salem gaol.
There is a new short film on YT loosely based on DWH. It is only 11 minutes long:
There are several recent readings/audiobook versions of DWH on YT. I like this one, narrated by Ian Gordon. It is 1 hour and 37 minutes long:
There is a set of YT playlists by a user called XylyXylyX providing an intermediate-to-advanced level course on GR: (And yes I have watched all these videos.) There is also a proboards discussion forum for this course. There is no official textbook for the course, but it relies heavily on the Catalogue of Spacetimes (2010) by Thomas Mueller and Frank Grave.
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Post by krusader74 on Jan 16, 2018 16:30:38 GMT -6
Recently, I watched a re-run of the The Goldgbergs entitled "Dungeons & Dragons Anyone?" (Season 3 Episode 20), originally broadcast April 6, 2016 on ABC. Synopsis: Sick of the humiliation of getting picked last in gym class, Adam Goldberg convinces coach Mellor to let the class play a game that he's good at, and so they play the tournament version of The Ghost Tower of Inverness.Transcript here.Screen grabs:
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Post by krusader74 on Jan 8, 2018 16:37:40 GMT -6
Hmmm. I could swear that the positive/negative material planes were introduced in OD&D, but I can't seem to find a reference anywhere. Anyone know when they first seeped into the primum materiae? I think it was 1983 that these were first mentioned. I look forward to being proven wrong. The positive and negative material planes appeared in Gary Gygax's article, "Planes - The Concepts of Spatial, Temporal and Physical Relationships in D&D" in The Dragon #8 (Vol. 1, No. 8) July 1977, on pages 4, 5, and 28. You can read it here in this post in the Gygax OD&D Additions thread -- click on the PDF attachment at the bottom of the post.
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Post by krusader74 on Dec 31, 2017 13:37:30 GMT -6
Philip Sabin's Simulating War ... he does seem to have an issue with Dunningan and his somewhat dated advice to game design. I just wanted to point out that Sabin is on the organising committee of Connections UK, a non-profit for professional wargamers. On their downloads page, there is plenty of interesting reading material about game design, including The Complete Wargames Handbook by James F Dunnigan, about which he says,
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Post by krusader74 on Dec 6, 2017 10:02:27 GMT -6
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