T. Kurt Bond's µBlog
2024-02-28T12:11:51-05:00
T. Kurt Bond
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Copyright © 2024 T. Kurt Bond
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The Fantasy Trip Bestiary
http://consp.org/blog/2024/2024-02-28-the-fantasy-trip-bestiary.html
2024-02-28T12:11:51-05:00
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<h1>2024-02-28 12:11:51-05:00 - The Fantasy Trip Bestiary</h1>
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<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2024/images/tft-bestiary-cover.jpg" alt="TFT Bestiary Cover"></img><p>I downloaded the PDF of The Fantasy Trip Bestiary today. After a quick scan up to page 79 I like what what I've seen. Lots of natural animals and unnatural creatures. TFT stat blocks are tiny (4 stats, armor, attacks, and special abilities), so seeing that each generally has up to a page or more of information, including a description of the creature and sections labeled "Habitat", "Behavior", "Natural Enemies", and "Economic and Cultural Significance" is wonderful, with lots of things to spark ideas</p>
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<p>More details when the physical book arrives.</p>
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<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sjgames/the-fantasy-trip-bestiary-and-foes-2-stl-miniatures">The Fantasy Trip Bestiary AND Foes 2 STL Miniatures</a></p> </main>
Don't want the first line of a git commit COMMIT_EDITMSG buffer in Emacs to wrap?
http://consp.org/blog/2024/2024-02-14-dont-want-the-first-line-of-a-git-commit-commit-editmsg-buffer-in-emacs-to-wrap.html
2024-02-14T13:10:38-05:00
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<h1>2024-02-14 13:10:38-05:00 - Don't want the first line of a git commit COMMIT_EDITMSG buffer in emacs to wrap?</h1>
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<p>Again, the trick is to use the Emacs variable fill-nobreak-predicate, but it's a bit trickier than my earlier example.</p>
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<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://consp.org/blog/2024/2024-01-21-dont-want-a-line-to-break-in-emacs-even-in-auto-fill-mode.html">Don't want a line to break in emacs even in auto-fill-mode?</a></p><br/>
<p>The code is very similar to the earlier code:</p>
<pre aria-label="">
(defun tkb-magit-commit-fill-nobreak-p ()
"Don't fill on the first line of a magit commit message."
(= 1 (line-number-at-pos)))
(defun tkb-magit-commit-find-file-hook ()
(interactive)
(when (string-match "COMMIT_EDITMSG\\'" (buffer-file-name))
(make-local-variable 'fill-nobreak-predicate)
(add-to-list 'fill-nobreak-predicate #'tkb-magit-commit-fill-nobreak-p)))
(add-to-list 'find-file-hook #'tkb-magit-commit-find-file-hook t)
</pre>
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<p>The problem is that, depending on where the new hook ends up in the list find-file-hook, it may run after the git-commit-setup-check-buffer find file hook. This is a problem because git-commit-setup-check-buffer runs git-commit-setup which runs normal-mode which runs kill-all-local-variables, which wipes out what our code was trying to do. Sigh.</p>
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<p>Instead, just specify the APPEND parameter to add-to-list as t:</p>
<pre aria-label="">
(add-to-list 'find-file-hook #'tkb-magit-commit-find-file-hook t)
</pre>
<p>This adds our hook function at the end of the list, hopefully after git-commit-setup-check-buffer.</p>
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<p>I've put this in a gist:</p>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://gist.github.com/tkurtbond/bf8c1b3dff4a1c56aeb43271726d276b">git-commit-fill-nobreak-predicate.el </a></p> </main>
Absolute Power Superhero RPG: Seasons One and Two + Anthology arrived
http://consp.org/blog/2024/2024-02-12-absolute-power-superhero-rpg-seasons-one-and-two-anthology-arrived.html
2024-02-12T22:35:16-05:00
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<h1>2024-02-12 22:35:16-05:00 - Absolute Power Superhero RPG: Seasons One and Two + Anthology arrived</h1>
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<p>My copies from the Absolute Power Superhero RPG: Seasons One and Two + Anthology Backerkit campaign came today.</p>
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<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2024/images/Absolute-Power-Seasons-1-and-2.jpeg" alt="Seasons 1 and 2"></img><img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2024/images/Absolute-Power-Character-Folio-and-Anthology.jpeg" alt="Character Folio and Anthology"></img><img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2024/images/Absolute-Power-Heroes-and-Villians-Deck.jpeg" alt="Heroes and Villians Deck"></img> </main>
Generating random TFT labyrinths using the drop chart in the bottom of the TFT Legacy Edition box
http://consp.org/blog/2024/2024-02-10-generating-random-tft-labyrinths-using-the-drop-chart-in-the-bottom-of-the-tft-legacy-edition-box.html
2024-02-10T18:06:31-05:00
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<h1>2024-02-10 18:06:31-05:00 - Generating random TFT labyrinths using the drop chart in the bottom of the TFT Legacy Edition box</h1>
<p>Updated: 2024-02-17 21:42:50-05:00</p>
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<p>So, today I spent part of my day generating (part of) a labyrinth for The Fantasy Trip using the die drop chart in the bottom of the TFT Legacy Edition Box. Here's a picture:</p>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2024/images/TFT-Legacy-Edition-Box-Bottom.jpeg" alt="TFT Legacy Edition Box Bottom Drop Chart"></img><br/>
<p>Here's an article at thefantasytrip.game that runs through an example:</p>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://thefantasytrip.game/news/2019/february/using-the-random-labyrinth-drop-table/">Using the Random Labyrinth Drop Table</a></p><br/>
<p>TL;DR for the above: thow a d6 in the box and the shape it lands on or nearest to is the next room, and the number on the die is which labeled face of the shape that exits to the next room.</p>
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<p>Right. This morning I spent about 45 minutes working on randomly generating a labyrinth for The Fantasy Trip. As you can see, if you scroll in on the hex graph paper, I didn't get very far. I rolled a die in the box bottom and whatever megahex shape (or other shape) it lands on is the next tile to draw, and the number on the d6 tells what numbered face of the tile to connect the next tile to. Throwing the die is fun, but drawing the tile is not, because I’m very slow at that.</p>
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<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2024/images/Random-Labyrinth-early-progress.jpeg" alt="Random TFT labyrinth early progress "></img><br/>
<p>I suppose I’d get faster with practice, but of course I started thinking this would be ideal as a program that does the random generation and displays the result and then lets you interactively move things around to fine tune things. Then of course it should be able to save and reload the map and be able to export a SVG and/or PDF of the map.</p>
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<p>So I went away for a while to read a book about a GUI toolkit I might use to implement such a program. After I read 53 pages I needed to let my brain recover, so it was back to random labyrinth generation.</p>
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<p>Now, I must be hexagonally challenged, because drawing the six basic megahex from the box bottom shapes is very difficult for me, making me very slow at drawing. So I printed out some more hex paper, on card stock this time, drew out the shapes, and proceeded to cut them out to use as patterns when drawing. It will be interesting to see how that works for tracing the outlines.</p>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2024/images/TFT-box-bottom-and-megahex-shapes-to-cut-out.jpeg" alt="TFT box bottom and megahex shapes traced on hex paper to cut out"></img><br/>
<p>I used hex paper that is 5 hexes to the inch from Incompetech, which has lots of graph paper. The hex paper requires you to do a little calculation go get 5 hexes per inch, but the info you need is on the web page.</p>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://incompetech.com/graphpaper/hexagonal/">Incompetech Hexagonal Graph Paper PDF Generator</a></p><br/>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2024/images/SO-FIDDLY.jpeg" alt="SO FIDDLY!"></img><br/>
<p>That took a surprisingly long time! It was easier to see to make the cuts if I took off my glasses and put my nose close to the paper.</p>
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<p>So, back to randomly generating that labyrinth…</p>
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<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2024/images/Random-Labyrinth-later-progress.jpeg" alt="More progress!"></img><br/>
<p>This time I got a lot more done in a shorter time. It was easier and faster using the cut out shapes to trace the megahex shapes. Still takes time.</p>
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<p>I tend to roll a d6 to tell how long a corridor to put between the rooms, rather than put the rooms always together. And I sometime move things around a little to fit the paper better.</p>
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<p>Fun, and a little easier now. Still want that program, though.</p>
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<p>Here's what the map looks like once I've finally finished it:</p>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2024/images/Random-Labyrinth-map-finished.jpeg" alt="Finished Map"></img><br/>
<p>As I worked on this, I found myself doing a mixture of random selection of shapes using the box bottom and non-random placement of shapes that would fit into areas I wanted to fill up. I often added short passages between rooms when that make things fit better, and generally randomly determined if there was going to be a corridor (on an odd roll there was a corridor) and how long it was going to be (1d3). And I added hexagons of natural stairs when I decided I didn't want it all to be on the same level.</p>
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<p>I think the map turned out pretty good.</p>
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<p>I think the next time I try this, I'll just use the hex map tool Shamat at ShadeKeep.com and enter the maps directly into Shamat as I roll them up, and see if that's easier.</p>
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<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://shadekeep.com/">ShadeKeep.com</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://shadekeep.com/shamat.html">Shamat</a></p><br/>
<p>Here's how it looks after I've entered it using Shamat:</p>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2024/images/Random-Labyrinth-in-shamat.png" alt="Shamat Version"></img><br/>
<p>I'll probably use the Random Stocking section on page 48 of In the Labyrinth to stock this map.</p>
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Sandbox Generator by Atelier Clandestin
http://consp.org/blog/2024/2024-02-03-sandbox-generator-by-atelier-clandestin.html
2024-02-03T13:22:18-05:00
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<h1>2024-02-03 13:22:18-05:00 - Sandbox Generator by Atelier Clandestin </h1>
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<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2024/images/Sandbox-Generator.png" alt="Sandbox Generator front cover"></img><br/>
<p>I really like this hexcrawl sandbox generator. It's very approachable, clearly written, and straight forward — something that will be easy to use. It describes a complete procedure for generating a sandbox, using lots of dice rolling and tables. It is system neutral, having no stats for anything, expecting you to get that from your specific system's lists of opponents. It also assumes that you want dungeons (and megadungeons) in your hexcrawl. It includes several examples showing how it works, including an example of generating a megadungeon that shows how multiple levels are constructed and linked together and how to generate an individual level.</p>
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<p>I have two very minor quibbles. First, I'd have liked to see a little more discussion of hexes and hex sizes. It uses 2-mile hexes as the smallest unit and a collection of hexes 5 hexes wide as the largest. (Gygax in his article “HOW TO SET UP YOUR DUNGEONS & DRAGONS CAMPAIGN — AND BE STUCK REFEREEING IT SEVEN DAYS PER WEEK UNTIL THE WEE HOURS OF THE MORNING!” in Europa 6-8 uses 1-mile hexes.) Although you could just use 1-mile or 5-mile hexes as the smallest unit and go from there, it would have been useful to see what the author of this generator thought would need adjusted for the smaller or larger size hexes. (Perhaps nothing.) Secondly, a few of the tables seem like they'd be enhanced by having a few more entries, like the biome table.</p>
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<p>In any case, I'm planning on using this to generate a hexcrawl for The Fantasy Trip (TFT). There are a few things I'll have to change, mostly a few items dealing with gods, since TFT's default setting doesn't have any active gods, but that will take very little effort.</p>
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<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/430675/sandbox-generator">Sandbox Generator at DriveThruRPG</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://thefantasytrip.game/">The Fantasy Trip from Steve Jackson Games</a></p> </main>
My Copy of Knock #4 Arrived!
http://consp.org/blog/2024/2024-02-02-my-copy-of-knock-4-arrived.html
2024-02-02T21:48:12-05:00
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<h1>2024-02-02 21:48:12-05:00 - My Copy of Knock #4 Arrived!</h1>
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<p>The inside of the dust jacket is an adventure inspired by the module B4 The Lost City, The Lost City Sandbox. There are locations, a perspective map, location descriptions, lists of appropriate names, and several useful random tables including encounters outside the city, two tables for random buildings (random rooms in buildings, random occupants of rooms), a table of random rumors, random drugs, and a master table with events, outsiders, citizens, factions, atmosphere, and lucky finds.</p>
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<p>That's just the inside of the dust jacket!</p>
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<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2024/images/Knock-issue-4.jpeg" alt="Knock #4"></img> </main>
Dyskami Owns Tri-Stat/BESM Outright
http://consp.org/blog/2024/2024-02-02-dyskami-owns-tri-stat-besm-outright.html
2024-02-02T09:00:42-05:00
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<h1>2024-02-02 09:00:42-05:00 - Dyskami Owns Tri-Stat/BESM Outright</h1>
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<p>Listening to an interview with Mark MacKinnon about Dyskami's current kickstarter I found out that Dyskami owns the Tri-Stat/BESM system outright again, having bought it back from Paradox Interactive. I was glad to see that.</p>
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<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS6jgH9a6KA">Interview with Mark MacKinnon on BESM Retro Second Edition</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dyskami/besm-retro-second-edition-rpg-plus-besm-4e-expansions">BESM Retro Second Edition RPG plus BESM 4E Expansions</a></p> </main>
OpenQuest Dungeons
http://consp.org/blog/2024/2024-01-29-openquest-dungeons.html
2024-01-29T18:53:20-05:00
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<h1>2024-01-29 18:53:20-05:00 - OpenQuest Dungeons</h1>
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<p>My copy of OpenQuest Dungeons arrived yesterday.</p>
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<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2024/images/OpenQuest-Dungeons.jpeg" alt="OpenQuest Dungeons"></img><br/>
<p>The current version of OpenQuest is probably a little more stripped down than I prefer for my D100 systems, but it's a good system, of the Mongoose RuneQuest lineage. OpenQuest Dungeons is designed to ease a DM and players of “The World's Favorite Fantasy Game” to the different pace and approach of dungeons in a D100 game. It contains a general introduction to OpenQuest for those used to the other games dungeons, some stock NPCs, a list of 26 traps expressed in OpenQuest mechanics, and three short dungeons. The adventures made me want to run them, so that's a plus.</p>
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Folstavia - Anime 5E RPG World Setting & Monster Expansions
http://consp.org/blog/2024/2024-01-26-folstavia-anime-5e-rpg-world-setting-and-monster-expansions.html
2024-01-26T17:37:26-05:00
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<h1>2024-01-26 17:37:26-05:00 - Folstavia - Anime 5E RPG World Setting & Monster Expansions</h1>
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<p>Warning: This post is under construction. Check back later.</p>
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<p>My shipment of stuff from Dyskami Publishing's Folstavia - Anime 5E RPG World Setting & Monster Expansions came on 11 December 2023, but I'm only now doing a post about it.</p>
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<p>This post is based on me reading things, rather than playing them.</p>
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<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2024/images/anime-5e-1-everything.jpeg" alt="Everything in Folstavia"></img><ul><li> The top row shows the fronts of several of the Creature Cards, the back of one, and the top of the box of Creature Cards (except you can't see for the glare; sigh).</li>
<li> The second row shows Origin Story — Character Background Generator, Monstrum Libri — Woodlands and Mountains, and Folstavia: The Infinite Crossroads.</li>
<li> The third row shows Fostivia: The Infinite Crossroads Map Pack, Character Folio — Fantasy Role-Playing Expansion, and Adventures — Volume 1: Shadow Threats.</li>
</ul><img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2024/images/anime-5e-2-one-map.jpeg" alt="Mizibia — One map of several"></img><br/>
<p>Here's some slightly better pictures of the Woodlands and Mountains Creature Cards.</p>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2024/images/anime-5e-cards-top.jpeg" alt="Anime 5E Creature Cards — Woodlands and Mountains (top)"></img><img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2024/images/anime-5e-cards-side.jpeg" alt="Anime 5E Creature Cards — Woodlands and Mountains (side)"></img><br/>
<h2>Anime 5E</h2>
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<h2>Folstavia: The Infinite Crossroads</h2>
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<h2>Monstrum Libri & Creature Cards — Woodlands and Mountains</h2>
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<h2>Character Background Generator</h2>
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<h2>Fostivia: The Infinite Crossroads Map Pack</h2>
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<h2>Adventures — Volume 1: Shadow Threats</h2>
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<h2>Character Folio — Fantasy Role-Playing Expansion</h2>
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<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dyskami/folstavia-anime-5e-rpg-world-setting-and-monster-expansions/rewards">Folstavia – Anime 5E RPG World Setting & Monster Expansions</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://dyskami.ca/">Dyskami Publishing</a></p><br/>
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Why Is Gnome So Annoyingly Useless?
http://consp.org/blog/2024/2024-01-21-why-is-gnome-so-annoyingly-useless.html
2024-01-21T20:28:24-05:00
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<h1>2024-01-21 20:28:24-05:00 - Why Is Gnome So Annoyingly Useless?</h1>
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<p>The Gnome desktop seems to be removing more and more functionality, apparently in the name of “aesthetics” and simplicity. Unfortunately, they constantly make choices that are completely WRONG for the way I use computers. It's gotten so bad that in 2023 I switched to using KDE Plasma for my desktop on all my computers, after having gotten used to it on my Pinebook Pro, which comes with Manjaro ARM Linux with KDE Plasma. This improved my aggravation factor tremendously.</p>
<br/>
<p>But why is Gnome moving away from the functionality that computer developers want, a group that you'd think would be their prime target group?</p>
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<p>Well, I have heard it speculated that it's because Gnome is primarily developed by Redhat developers, and THEIR target group is not computer developers, but rather the users on government contracts where Gnome runs on machines that are used basically as specialized applications with some access to a few other minor applications. That target group, which may not use Gnome for anything else, would certainly benefit from simplicity.</p>
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<p>I don't think that Gnome should be the captive of a specific subset of users; it is, or should be, a general purpose desktop. If this isn't why Gnome has gone in this direction, I'll note that if they ARE doing it for some sort of aesthetic minimalism, similar to that which Apple vainly struggles for sometimes in macOS, it's still doing the wrong thing. I switched from an Apple laptop to a Linux laptop at work in 2023 as well, and find KDE Plasma and Linux a more pleasant environment in most ways. (If only the NVIDIA drivers were less flaky with multiple monitors. Sigh.)</p>
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<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://kde.org/plasma-desktop/">KDE Plasma Desktop</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://pine64.org/devices/pinebook_pro/">Pinebook Pro</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://manjaro.org/">Manjaro Linux</a></p> </main>
Sudden Interest in Wargames?
http://consp.org/blog/2024/2024-01-21-sudden-interest-in-wargames.html
2024-01-21T19:53:30-05:00
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<h1>2024-01-21 19:53:30-05:00 - Sudden Interest in Wargames?</h1>
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<p>I've always had an interest in mass combat in tabletop games, but previously it's mostly been limited to abstract systems like GURPS Mass Combat, or mass combat in Savage Worlds. Recently, probably due to playing Melee and Wizard, and buying the Metagaming board/hex and chits wargame The Lords of Underearth, I've gotten interest in actual wargames of both the board/hex-and-chits and miniatures varieties.</p>
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<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/masscombat/">GURPS Mass Combat</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://peginc.com/savage-settings/savage-worlds/">Savage Worlds</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://thefantasytrip.game/products/core-games/melee/">Melee</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://thefantasytrip.game/products/core-games/wizard/">Wizard</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lords_of_Underearth">Lords of Underearth at Wikipedia</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5199/lords-underearth">The Lords of Underearth at BoardGameGeek</a></p><br/>
<p>I'm still not interested in painting miniatures, so amassing a collection of metal or plastic miniatures for wargaming is probably not part of my future — I've got no room in my house for all the books I current own, much less a collection of wargames miniatures — but I think I can work something minimalist out with cardboard miniatures. I'm planning on printing out a free PDF that recreates the counters and map of The Lords of Underearth and gluing them to something stiff to make them easy to use. (I'd rather not play with the original counters and board because my set is already missing some counters.) I've also gotten a copy of Hordes of the Things to try out a miniatures wargame. I'd like to combine HotT with a RPG campaign…</p>
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<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hordes_of_the_Things_(wargame)">Hordes of the Things at Wikipedia</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0244820139">Hordes of the Things 2.1 at Amazon</a></p> </main>
Putting all your emacs backups and autosaves in two directories has security implications
http://consp.org/blog/2024/2024-01-21-putting-all-your-emacs-backups-and-autosaves-in-two-directories-has-security-implications.html
2024-01-21T18:53:41-05:00
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<h1>2024-01-21 18:53:41-05:00 - Putting all your emacs backups and autosaves in two directories has security implications</h1>
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<p>Recently, I noticed someone talking about putting all their emacs backups and autosaves in two directories, no matter where the file they are editing is located.</p>
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<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="gemini://idiomdrottning.org/bad-emacs-defaults">Bad Emacs defaults</a></p><br/>
<p>Their solution was:</p>
<pre aria-label="">
(setq auto-save-file-name-transforms '((".*" "~/.emacs_autosave/" t)))
(setq backup-directory-alist '(("." . "~/.emacs_backups/")))
</pre>
<br/>
<p>This has security implications when you are working with some filesystems that are encrypted and some that are not. If you are editing a file on a filesystem that is encrypted or removable (the secured filesystem), but the the autosave and backup directories are NOT on the secured filesystem, you've suddenly leaked information. Anybody who is working with their financial information or with their own or other folks' Personal Identifiable Information needs to consider this issue.</p>
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<p>If it IS a problem for you, I suggest something like this</p>
<pre aria-label="">
(setq backup-directory-alist '(("." . ".~/")))
(setq auto-save-file-name-transforms `((".*" ".~/" t)))
</pre>
<p>which collects those files for one directory into one sub-directory. This does mean you'll have multiple directories for those all over your drive, but its better than having then end up on unsecured media.</p>
<br/>
<p>If that doesn't work for your situation, and you REALLY need only one backup directory for the secured filesystem, you can use something like the following. Assume that the secured filesystem in mounted on /d1, and you have write permissions for the whole drive. (If you don't have write permissions for the whole drive, choose a directory that you do have write permissions for.) Then do the following:</p>
<pre aria-label="">
(setq backup-directory-alist '(("/d1/.*/." . "/d1/.~/")
("." . "~/.~/")))
</pre>
<p>The first item in backup-directory-alist makes all the backup files for files on /d1 end up in /d1/.~/, and the second item in that list the makes the backup files for other files end up in ~/.~/.</p>
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Don't want a line to break in emacs even in auto-fill-mode?
http://consp.org/blog/2024/2024-01-21-dont-want-a-line-to-break-in-emacs-even-in-auto-fill-mode.html
2024-01-21T15:03:08-05:00
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<h1>2024-01-21 15:03:08-05:00 - Don't want a line to break in emacs even in auto-fill-mode?</h1>
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<p>Have you ever been editing a file in emacs where there a specific lines that should not be wrapped, but you are using auto-fill-mode and they accidently get wrapped? The emacs variable fill-nobreak-predicate is your friend!</p>
<pre aria-label="">
;; Nikola metadata lines start like this:
;; .. keyword:
;; They shouldn't tbe wrapped.
(defvar tkb-nikola-metadata-regexp "\\.\\. [a-z]+:")
(defun tkb-nikola-rest-fill-nobreak-p ()
"Don't fill on metadata lines in nikola reST posts."
(save-excursion
(beginning-of-line)
(looking-at tkb-nikola-metadata-regexp)))
(defun tkb-nikola-rest-hook ()
(interactive)
(when (and (string-match "\\.rst\\'" (buffer-file-name))
(looking-at tkb-nikola-metadata-regexp))
(make-local-variable 'fill-nobreak-predicate)
(setq fill-nobreak-predicate (list #'tkb-nikola-rest-fill-nobreak-p))))
(add-to-list 'find-file-hook #'tkb-nikola-rest-hook)
</pre>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://gist.github.com/tkurtbond/c4aa39ee5649688a34b10dc400cc858c">Here's a gist where you can comment on it.</a></p> </main>
Finished Reading The Hero System Basic Rulebook for Hero System Sixth Edition
http://consp.org/blog/2024/2024-01-19-finished-reading-the-hero-system-basic-rulebook-for-hero-system-sixth-edition.html
2024-01-19T16:00:31-05:00
<main>
<h1>2024-01-19 16:00:31-05:00 - Finished Reading The Hero System Basic Rulebook for Hero System Sixth Edition</h1>
<br/>
<p>Yay! Finally. That's not a knock on The Hero System — all technical books, whether computer science or RPG rule systems, take me so much more time to read compared to fiction, that I always feel making it to the end is a real accomplishment. That may have something to do with my absurd reading speed when it comes to fiction: in 2023 my books-per-day average over the whole year was .931 books per day, a sad drop from 2022 when it was 1.556 books per day.</p>
<br/>
<p>Anyway, the Hero System Basic Rulebook (BR hereafter) is the Sixth Edition version of Fifth Edition's Sidekick, which was the first thing that really got me thinking I could actually run a Hero System game. The BR carries on that tradition very well, showing that Steven S. Long CAN be terse if needed. It's an admirable, UNDERSTANDABLE, distillation of the Hero System to its essentials. Anyway, I'd definitely make this the first thing I'd give someone who wanted to learn the Hero System.</p>
<br/>
<p>I have long had an intermittent interest in the Hero System, starting with 4th edition. I suppose if I'd hadn't already picked up the the Second Edition GURPS Basic Set before the the Fourth Edition Hero System Rulebook (not Champions; I wasn't interested in superheros in my RPGs at that point) came out. I do have a few Third Edition Hero books, but they were all picked up after I got that first Fourth Edition rulebook.</p>
<br/>
<p>I have to admit I bounced off the Hero System several times, as it was just different enough from anything that I'd seen so far to take extra effort, despite the similarities to GURPS. It was actually BESM Second Edition that showed me how effect-based systems work, and when I returned to Hero after reading and understanding BESM I had a much easier time figuring out how things worked in Hero.</p>
<br/>
<p>At some point I got at least three copies of Sidekick for Fifth Edition Hero System as unexpected gifts in various orders of RPG books from online RPG vendors, which was a happy serendipity. I read it, and liked it, and it got me interested in Fifth Edition, so I got a bunch of other Fifth Edition stuff at the end of Fifth Edition's run, and had a lot of lonely fun reading them. (The gaming group I run games for was not, at that point, ready for the Hero System, even in Sidekick's slim form.)</p>
<br/>
<p>Anyway, I got interested in the last 6 months of 2023 in Hero Sixth Edition, and picked up a bunch of those books, and have been slowly skimming them. Now that I've read BR completely I'm ready to to read them more completely.</p>
<br/>
<p>Also by happy coincidence, I recently ran across a copy of the Hero treatment of The Day after Ragnarok, and am thinking that might make a good place to start a game. Amusingly, while listening to “Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff” (perhaps the most erudite RPG podcast), I heard Ken Hite, the author of Day After Ragnarok (I have the original Savage Worlds version), say that despite playing Champions for many decades he has never created a Champions character, depending on his friends with a mastery of the Hero System to do the job for him!</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.herogames.com/">Hero Games, fine proprietors of The Hero System and Champions RPGs!</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/64058/the-day-after-ragnarok-hero-edition">The Day After Ragnarok: Hero Edition</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/62543/the-day-after-ragnarok">The Day After Ragnarok: Savage Worlds Edition</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com/">Ken And Robin Talk About Stuff</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://princeofcairo.livejournal.com/">Ken Hite</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://robin-d-laws.blogspot.com/">Robin D. Laws</a></p> </main>
L. Sprague de Camp vs. Lin Carter
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-12-31-l.sprague-de-camp-vs.lin-carter.html
2023-12-31T17:42:16-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-12-31 17:42:16-05:00 - L. Sprague de Camp vs. Lin Carter</h1>
<br/>
<p>I finished L. Sprague de Camp's "The Fallible Fiend" on the 27th, and Lin Carter's "Down to a Sunless Sea" on the 28th, and I've been reflecting on the impression that each book gives of its author. When I read de Camp I get the sense of a very smart man enjoying showing how smart he is. When I read Lin Carter I get impression of a man who loves fantasy and science fiction and is overjoyed to be sharing them with his friends.</p>
</main>
Adept Press, Adept Play, Ron Edwards in 2023
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-12-13-adept-press-adept-play-ron-edwards-in-2023.html
2023-12-13T23:16:28-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-12-13 23:16:28-05:00 - Adept Press, Adept Play, Ron Edwards in 2023</h1>
<br/>
<p>I was happy to find that Ron Edwards has a current web site:</p>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://adeptplay.com/">Adept Play</a></p><p>(When did he move to Sweden?)</p>
<br/>
<p>He also has an online store selling PDFs of his RPGs:</p>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://payhip.com/AdeptPlay">Adept Play Store</a></p><br/>
<p>I've got the physical books Sorcerer, Sorcerer & Sword, The Sorcerer's Soul, and Sex and Sorcery, but I completely missed out on getting the newer edition of Sorcerer, and didn't have PDFs of any of them. Now I've at least got PDFs of all of them, and now have the opportunity to get his other books.</p>
</main>
Getting Emacs to Beep/Ding/Ring-the-Bell Again!
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-12-09-getting-emacs-to-beep-ding-ring-the-bell-again.html
2023-12-09T18:42:57-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-12-09 18:42:57-05:00 - Getting Emacs to Beep/Ding/Ring-the-Bell Again!</h1>
<br/>
<p>Here's what I had to do to get Emacs to ring the bell again, under Fedora 39 and KDE:</p>
<pre aria-label="">
(defvar tkb-beep-sound "/usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/stereo/bell.oga")
(defvar tkb-beep-program "ogg123")
(defun tkb-bell ()
(interactive)
(start-process "Beep" nil tkb-beep-program
tkb-beep-sound))
(setq ring-bell-function #'tkb-bell)
(unless (file-exists-p tkb-beep-sound)
(yes-or-no-p (format "Error: tkb-beep-sound is set to \"%s\", which does \
not exist!\nUnderstand? "
tkb-beep-sound)))
(let ((path (split-string (getenv "PATH") ":")))
(unless (file-installed-p tkb-beep-program path)
(yes-or-no-p (format "Error: tkb-beep-sound is set to \"%s\", which does \
not exist!\nUnderstand? "
tkb-beep-program))))
</pre>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://gist.github.com/tkurtbond/a79580b1a8a94e2f1f2c407efa1b0777">Here's a gist, where you can comment on it.</a></p><br/>
</main>
Programming Fonts
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-11-29-programming-fonts.html
2023-11-29T10:29:56-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-11-29 10:29:56-05:00 - Programming Fonts</h1>
<br/>
<p>This is Emacs, displaying an enriched text file with text that I find useful for comparing fonts.</p>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/emacs-ibm-plex-mono.png" alt="Emacs using the IBM Plex Mono font"></img><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriched_text">Enriched text</a></p><br/>
<p>There are just an AMAZING way that fonts can be illegible or ugly. You owe it to yourself to go to the Programming Fonts website, put the characters that you care about in the second line of the code sample, which is empty, and work through the list until you find a font that delights and pleases the inner you! Download from there, unpack them, and put them in ~/.fonts/ on Linux, or some crazy place on macOS (~/Library/Fonts/? /Library/Fonts/?), and your life will improve too! Oh, you MS Windows users should do the appropriate thing on your … OS, as well.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.programmingfonts.org/">Programming Fonts</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://programmingfonts.tumblr.com/">Programming Fonts on Tumblr</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://github.com/braver/programmingfonts">Programming Fonts on GitHub</a></p> </main>
Pasting images into org-mode files from the clipboard
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-11-04-pasting-images-into-org-mode-files-from-the-clipboard.html
2023-11-04T16:01:12-04:00
<main>
<h1>2023-11-04 16:01:12-04:00 - Pasting images into org-mode files from the clipboard</h1>
<br/>
<p>I've long wanted to paste images into org-mode files as easy as one does with WYSIWYG editors. And today I figured out that you can do that with the org-download package and it's org-download-screenshot function! There was a helpful post at zzamboni.org that told how to do it on macOS. I adapted it to X and Wayland.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://github.com/abo-abo/org-download">org-download</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://zzamboni.org/post/how-to-insert-screenshots-in-org-documents-on-macos/">How to insert screenshots in Org documents on macOS </a></p><br/>
<p>If you are using Wayland, install the wl-clipboard package. If you are using X, install the xclip page.</p>
<br/>
<p>Then Install org-download and then use this config:</p>
<br/>
<pre aria-label="">
(use-package org-download
:after org
:defer nil
:custom
(org-download-method 'directory)
(org-download-image-dir "Images")
(org-download-heading-lvl nil)
(org-download-timestamp "%Y%m%d-%H%M%S_")
(org-image-actual-width 300)
:bind
("C-c k o d s" . org-download-screenshot)
:config
(require 'org-download)
(cond ((getenv "WAYLAND_DISPLAY")
;; check for Wayland first because of X on Wayland
(message "Wayland is here!")
(setq org-download-screenshot-method
"wl-paste > %s"))
((getenv "DISPLAY")
(message "X is here!")
(setq org-download-screenshot-method
"xclip -selection clipboard -t image/png -o > %s"))
(t
(message "Neither X nor Wayland are available."))))
</pre>
<br/>
<p>Here's an org-mode file I've just pasted some images into:</p>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/paste-images-into-org-mode-files.png" alt="pasting into org-mode files screenshot"></img> </main>
Pages that are often missing in used copies of Metagaming's Advanced Melee, Advanced Wizard, and In The Labyrinth
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-10-22-pages-that-are-often-missing-in-used-copies-of-metagamings-advanced-melee-advanced-wizard-and-in-the-labyrinth.html
2023-10-22T22:11:12-04:00
<main>
<h1>2023-10-22 22:11:12-04:00 - Pages that are often missing in used copies of Metagaming's Advanced Melee, Advanced Wizard, and In The Labyrinth</h1>
<br/>
<p>I never got to play The Fantasy Trip back in the day, and at some point a few years ago (this was before Steve Jackson Games' Legacy Edition was kickstarted) I got curious and bought used copies of Metagaming's Advanced Melee, Advanced Wizard, and In The Labyrinth. I was appalled to find that each book was MISSING some of the pages from the very center of the book. I figured that some of those pages probably contained megahexes (later confirmed) and the careless owners had pulled them out of the books instead of photocopying them. This immediately put me off reading them, which was probably NOT the right reaction. Sigh.</p>
<br/>
<p>After I got Steve Jackson Games' Legacy Edition of The Fantasy Trip, I was interested in comparing the original TFT to the new TFT, so I went looking again. I eventually found copies of Advanced Melee and Advanced Wizard that were complete, but I have never found a copy of Metagaming's In the Labyrinth that was complete.</p>
<br/>
<p>However, it turns out that only Advanced Melee has rules on the pages that usually go missing: </p>
<br/>
<ul><li> Advanced Melee is usually missing pages 15 through 18, including 2 pages of rules. OUCH!</li>
<li> Advanced Wizard is usually missing pages 19 through 22, but is NOT missing any rules, just megahexes.</li>
<li> In the Labyrinth is usually missing pages 39 through 42, but is NOT missing any rules, just megahexes. (Although the complicated labyrinth map that is the centerfold would certainly be useful in figuring out what a TFT labyrinth looks like.)</li>
</ul><br/>
<p>If you are not looking for copies of the original TFT, it's much easier to just buy Steve Jackson Games' In the Labyrinth, which contains the equivalent of all of these books. If I understand correctly, the paperback on sale as print-on-demand at Amazon has the errata fixed.</p>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1556348878/">The Fantasy Trip: In the Labyrinth at Amazon</a></p> </main>
The Lords of Underearth & Dragons of Underearth
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-10-20-the-lords-of-underearth-and-dragons-of-underearth.html
2023-10-20T19:14:41-04:00
<main>
<h1>2023-10-20 19:14:41-04:00 - The Lords of Underearth & Dragons of Underearth</h1>
<p>Updated: 2023-11-27 00:18:08-05:00</p>
<br/>
<p>Warning: this post is still being revised. Come back later to see if it has been finished.</p>
<br/>
<p>I'm running an intermittent game with Steve Jackson Games' Melee and Wizard to get my players used to the TFT rules, and have plans to run a TFT campaign using Steve Jackson Games' In the Labyrinth, hopefully in the near future.</p>
<br/>
<p>Someone on the Internet mentioned these games from Metagaming as relevant to TFT, so of course I wanted to read them. They are remarkably expensive now, for games that sold for $3.95 and $6.95 in 1980 and 1981. I wouldn't suggest buying them unless you have a really good reason, or you find them at a reasonable price. I found them interesting, and possibly useful, but not essential.</p>
<br/>
<p>I've read a few board war games, and own a few, but haven't really played any, alas. (I really should do something about that.)</p>
<br/>
<h2>The Lords of Underearth</h2>
<br/>
<p>The Lords of Underearth (TLoU) is a Microgame from Metagaming and is copyright 1980. Its designer is Keith Gross. It comes in a box containing a 4 inch by 7 inch pamphlet of 24 pages, 22 pages of which are the rules to the game and the other 2 pages are advertising for other Metagaming games, three geomorph map strips (mine are separate, but I gather that they were originally one sheet with perforations for separating them) which make up a 12 inch by 14 inch battle map with ⁹/₁₆ inch hexes, and a bunch of ½ inch square counters. It includes 5 scenarios. Since the map is made of three strips that are geomorphs you can increase variety by arranging the strips in a different configuration.</p>
<br/>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/TLoU-cover-front.jpeg" alt="The Lords of Underearth, front cover"></img><img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/TLoU-cover-back.jpeg" alt="The Lords of Underearth, back cover"></img><img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/TLoU-counters.jpeg" alt="The Lords of Underearth, counters"></img><img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/TLoU-map.jpeg" alt="The Lords of Underearth, map"></img><br/>
<p>This board war game (also called a hex & chits war game) is about warfare in a subterranean environment, a dwarven city. Underearth is the human translation for Chalasi, the name of a dwarven city located underneath Mount Iskabad in the Red Mountains of Cidri. (Cidri is the default setting of The Fantasy Trip.) Unfortunately, Underearth is declining and is plagued by humans, orcs, goblins, and — eventually — a dragon.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lords_of_Underearth">Lords of Underearth at Wikipedia</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5199/lords-underearth">The Lords of Underearth at BoardGameGeek</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.blackgate.com/2013/09/04/vintage-treasures-the-lords-of-underearth/">Vintage Treasures: The Lords of Underearth by John ONeill</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metagaming_Concepts">Metagaming at Wikipedia</a></p><br/>
<p>I found the rules quite understandable, and simple enough so that I'm likely to try a game. The rules have a section on combining TLoU with In The Labyrinth, which might be interesting.</p>
<br/>
<p>Half of the counters in the copy I got had already been punched, so I wasn't sure if there were counters missing, but when it came time to photograph the counters I put them back in the piece of cardboard from which they were cut, so I could tell that there was only one counter missing. No idea which. (So fiddly.) </p>
<br/>
<p>I think, for me, this is probably going to be the most useful of these two. (Although what I REALLY want is for TFT battle to be finished and come out.)</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=167609">TFT: Battle - Playtesters Sought </a></p><br/>
<p>The Board Game Geek page for this game links to some supplements for TLoU and some recreations of the counters, if you need a set. They're all in color. Rather than risk loosing the original chits or damaging the original map, I printed these revised versions in black and white (because I was out of color ink for my printer), with the map on regular paper and the counters on cardstock. I taped each map strip's pieces together.</p>
<br/>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/TLoU-revised-maps-and-counters.jpeg" alt="TLoU Picture of Revised Maps and Counters by cowpercoles, printed in black and white."></img><p>For this picture I put all the counters on the board so they call can be seen, but it is not set up in the correct organization for starting a game.</p>
<br/>
<p>I'll probably print these out in color and glue them to some sort of backing — foam board? chipboard? — which will make playing it a lot nicer. </p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/86157/lords-underearth-revised-maps-and-counters-v10">Lords of Underearth Revised Maps and Counters v1.0 by cowpercoles</a></p><br/>
<br/>
<h2>Dragons of Underearth </h2>
<br/>
<p>Dragons of Underearth (DoU) is a Metagame from Metagaming. (So not a Microgame?) Its designer is Keith Gross, but most of its mechanics come from Metagaming's earlier game series, The Fantasy Trip. DoU comes in a box containing a 5½ inch by 8½ inch pamphlet of 32 pages (NOT 16, as some online source indicate — the pamphlet actually contains two parts, the Character Generate Module and the Combat Module, each with page numbers from 1 to 16), along with a 12 inch by 16½ inch battle map with ¹⁵/₁₆ hexes, and a 5½ inch by 8½ inch sheet of counters. The human sized counters are ¾ of an inch square. (Is this is the same size as the original TFT Melee/Wizard counters? I've never seen them.)</p>
<br/>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/DoU-cover-front.jpeg" alt="Dragons of Underearth, front cover"></img><img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/DoU-cover-back.jpeg" alt="Dragons of Underearth, back cover"></img><img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/DoU-counters.jpeg" alt="Dragons of Underearth, counters"></img><img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/DoU-map.jpeg" alt="Dragons of Underearth, map"></img><br/>
<p>It seems that Howard Thompson was unhappy with how Steve Jackson had completed The Fantasy Trip: it was too long and too complicated. He wrote about it in a letter that has ended up on the Internet:</p>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/howard-thompson-letter.jpg" alt="Howard Thompson on The Fantasy Trip"></img><img loading="lazy" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20210909175948/https://micro.brainiac.com/htletter.jpg" alt="Howard Thompson on The Fantasy Trip at Archive.org"></img><p>I found that via a blog interview with George Dew.</p>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://jeffro.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/exclusive-interview-with-george-dew-of-dark-city-games/">George Dew interview at Jeffro's Space Gaming Blog</a></p><br/>
<p>DoU appears to be an attempt to produce a game with the same basic mechanics as TFT, but simpler. It is separated into two parts: The Character Generation Module and the Combat Module. It says it's a complete roleplaying game, but unfortunately to fit it into 32 pages they had to leave a lot out, like the explanations of most Talents, and many non-Combat spells. It also refers to Conquerors of Underearth for other parts of the game, but unfortunately that was never released. This also adds some quirks to organization. So, for instance and as far as I can tell, the few talents that are explained are not explained in the list of talents, but inline in other text in the Combat Module. The spells that are explained are not in the list of spells, but in another list in the Combat Module, also. And there is no equivalent to the campaign advice from In the Labyrinth; one presumes it was meant for Conquerors of Underearth.</p>
<br/>
<p>Now, there are a few interesting things about it, primarily how it simplifies and speeds up combat. It reduces Melee's list of 22 combat options, which each character must be select from at the beginning of each combat round, to 9 combat options. It simplifies TFT's “rolling to miss”, where if you roll to see if you miss any friendly figures in hexes that a missile or thrown weapon passes through before and after the hex the target occupies, replacing it by saying you can fire around a friendly figure in an adjacent hex, but no others. It drops the rule that a figure taking 5+ hits in a round has a −2 to DX for its next attack. There is no equivalent of the Brawling and Unarmed Combat I–V.</p>
<br/>
<p>While combat in DoU is simpler than Melee/Wizard, much less Advanced Melee/Advance Wizard, I don't think it is as satisfying. DoU is much terser, but to my mind it is not explained anywhere as clearly as in Melee/Wizard. It also feels like it just needed some more development, and some more proofreading. There is at least one place where something in the Character Generation module says “See Character Generation Module”.</p>
<br/>
<p>It would have been interesting to see what Metagaming would have come up with if DoU had been further developed and the missing Conquerors of Underearth had been released.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragons_of_Underearth">Dragons of Underearth at Wikipedia</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5610/dragons-underearth">Dragons of Underearth at BoardGameGeek</a></p><br/>
<p>Some other people talking about DoU: </p>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://swordandshieldrpg.blogspot.com/2011/04/tft-basic-set-that-never-was-and-wasnt.html">TFT Basic Set that was and wasn't: Dragons of Underearth at Sword & Shield</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://whiteboxandbeyond.blogspot.com/2017/07/dragons-of-underearth.html">Dragons of Underearth at White Box and Beyond</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://thoulsparadise.blogspot.com/2018/08/dragons-of-underearth.html">http://thoulsparadise.blogspot.com/2018/08/dragons-of-underearth.html</a></p><p>Dragons of Underearth at Thoul's Paradise</p>
<br/>
<h2>General References</h2>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metagaming_Concepts">Metagaming Concepts at Wikipedia</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://tft.brainiac.com/metagameindex.html">Metagaming Game Index And Descriptions</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://swordandshieldrpg.blogspot.com/2010/12/strange-fascination-melee-wizard-and.html">Strange Fascination: Melee, Wizard, and TFT at Sword & Shield</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fantasy_Trip">The Fantasy Trip at Wikipedia</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melee_(game)">Melee/Advanced Melee at Wikipedia</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard_(board_game)">Wizard/Advanced Wizard at Wikipedia</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Labyrinth_(supplement)">In the Labyrinth at Wikipedia</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://thefantasytrip.game/">The Fantasy Trip at Steve Jackson Games</a></p> </main>
How do the Dolmenwood Core Rules differ from B/X or OSE?
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-10-13-how-do-the-dolmenwood-core-rules-differ-from-b-x-or-ose.html
2023-10-13T15:13:52-04:00
<main>
<h1>2023-10-13 15:13:52-04:00 - How do the Dolmenwood Core Rules differ from B/X or OSE?</h1>
<br/>
<p>I'm a backer of the Dolmenwood Tabletop RPG Kickstarter, and I have liked what I've seen of it so far.</p>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/exaltedfuneral/dolmenwood-tabletop-rpg">Dolmenwood Tabletop RPG</a></p><br/>
<p>One common question is how different are the Dolmenwood Core Rules going to be from B/X D&D or Old School Essentials? There's a useful blog post at Necrotic Gnome that discusses this, and I'm linking it here so it will be easy for me to reference:</p>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://necroticgnome.com/blogs/news/dolmenwood-core-rules">Dolmenwood Core Rules</a></p><p>There is also slightly order archived copy at archive.org:</p>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20230401194232/https://necroticgnome.com/blogs/news/dolmenwood-core-rules">Dolmenwood Core Rules at Archive.org</a></p><br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_retro-clones#Old_School_Essentials">Old School Essentials</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_Basic_Set#1981_revision">B/X D&D aka Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set, 1981 revision</a></p> </main>
Palm Leaf Biodegradable and Compostable Plates and Bowls
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-10-13-palm-leaf-biodegradable-and-compostable-plates-and-bowls.html
2023-10-13T14:20:23-04:00
<main>
<h1>2023-10-13 14:20:23-04:00 - Palm Leaf Biodegradable and Compostable Plates and Bowls</h1>
<br/>
<p>So, there are plates and bowls made out of pressed palm leaves, that are biodegradable and compostable. I bought some to find out what they are like.</p>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KVVRN1S">10 inch square plates</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BJC4F96X">6 inch round bowls</a></p><br/>
<p>I like the fact that they are all patterned differently. They are easy to wash (and the dark colored bottoms are hydrophobic -- most of the water beads up and rolls off), but they will warp unless you put them on something flat and put a weight on top of them. All in all, I like them. However, they are expensive compared to the Dixie Ultra paper plates and bowls. To get something like the same cost you'd have to use each plate 4 times or so, which is probably more washing than I want to do.</p>
<br/>
<p>They are much stiffer and sturdier than even the Dixie Ultra plates and bowls I normally use.</p>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B099BWGZBP">Dixie Ultra Paper Plates, 10 1/16 inch</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DQSGQ1K">Dixie Ultra Paper Bowls, 20 oz</a></p><br/>
<br/>
<p>I like the fact that they are all patterned differently. They are easy to wash (and the dark colored bottoms are hydrophobic -- most of the water beads up and rolls off), but they will warp unless you put them on something flat and put a weight on top of them. All in all, I like them. However, they are expensive compared to the Dixie Ultra paper plates and bowls. To get something like the same cost you'd have to use each plate 4 times or so, which is probably more washing than I want to do.</p>
<br/>
<p>So, I'm not sure they make sense for my use case. Perhaps they'd make sense for gatherings where you want something stronger and classier than paper plates, but still disposable. Or if you have strong views about biodegradable and compostable items. </p>
<br/>
<p>I'd love to see these become popular enough to reduce their price-point to something closer to the Dixie Ultra stuff. Also, I can't find the bowls in the 20 oz size of the Dixie Ultra paper bowls.</p>
</main>
Are C and C++ easier to learn than the Ada programming language?
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-10-10-are-c-and-c-easier-to-learn-than-the-ada-programming-language.html
2023-10-10T22:02:22-04:00
<main>
<h1>2023-10-10 22:02:22-04:00 - Are C and C++ easier to learn than the Ada programming language?</h1>
<br/>
<p>I often read people on the Internet opining that the Ada programming language is harder to learn that C and C++. I do not think that is true. I think learning to write incorrect programs in C and C++ is easier than learning Ada in general, but it is much easier to learn to write a correct program in Ada than in C and C++!</p>
<br/>
<p>Ada is a much more carefully designed and specified language and its design makes it a much safer programming language to learn to use correctly. An Ada programming writing a program will encounter more compile time errors, and need to think more about types, but in return will end up with a safer and easier to understand program.</p>
<br/>
<p>C and C++, on the other hand, have so many ways that the programming can shoot themselves in the foot, that it is very, very hard to ensure that all of a program is written correctly. Many things that would be caught at compile time in Ada are missed in C and C++. Easy to write an incorrect program, but incredibly difficult to ensure that a program is correct.</p>
<br/>
<p>I suspect that essentially all C and C++ are essentially incorrect. Certainly the prevalence of security problems and other bugs in C and C++ seems to support that.</p>
<br/>
<p>I think Ada is one programming language that more people should be exposed to. It is very well suited as a general purpose programming langauge, and a number of properties that also make it very well suited to mission critical and safety critical programs, with interesting features for formal definition and analysis, concurrent programming, real-time programming, and embedded programming.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_(programming_language)">Ada at Wikipedia</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNAT">GNAT, a free software Ada compiler</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.adacore.com/gnatpro">GNAT Pro, a commercially supported version of GNAT, from Adacore</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://alire.ada.dev/">Alire Ada source package manager</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://learn.adacore.com/">Adacore's resources for learning Ada</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARK_(programming_language)">SPARK, the formally defined subset of Ada</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://learn.adacore.com/courses/Ada_For_The_Embedded_C_Developer/chapters/05_SPARK.html">Adacore learning resource on Enhancing Verification with SPARK and Ada</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://learn.adacore.com/courses/Ada_For_The_Embedded_C_Developer/chapters/03_Concurrency.html">Adacore learning resource on Concurrency and Real-Time</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://learn.adacore.com/courses/Ada_For_The_Embedded_C_Developer/chapters/04_Embedded.html">Adacore learning resource for Embedded Programming</a></p> </main>
How I Organize My Virtual Workspaces On My Desktop At Work
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-09-21-how-i-organize-my-virtual-workspaces-on-my-desktop-at-work.html
2023-09-21T10:57:07-04:00
<main>
<h1>2023-09-21 10:57:07-04:00 - How I Organize My Virtual Workspaces On My Desktop At Work</h1>
<br/>
<p>My primary virtual workspace on my desktop box at work running Fedora with the KDE Plasma desktop:</p>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/oone-virtual-workspace-1.png" alt="Virtual Workspace 1: Work"></img><p>I have to overlap things a lot to fit everything on one screen.</p>
<br/>
<p>So, starting at the left top, (1) the first titlebar is gtimer, my tea timer program, and below that (2) is the titlebar of a 150x60 telnet logged into the VAX as user TKB running emacs. Below that (3) is my emacs on the Linux box, with a wheat background. Below that (2 again) is the bottom of that 150x60 telnet with user TKB running emacs, which is white on black, and actually has 3 frames open. Moving to the right (4) the white text on black window is an obsolete 150x60 telnet session to the VAX. (I just closed that one before sending this message). Next to the right (5) is a 150x60 telnet session to the VAX logged in as user TKBTEST and running emacs, which is black on white. (The TKBTEST account is used for developing and testing WEBMAIL_COMMUNICATOR, which is the system I'm currently trying to figure out.) Finally, moving to the right top, the window whose titlebar is showing (6) is a telnet session to the VAX for user TKB for running commands. Under that (7) is a black on white telnet session to the VAX as TKBTEST for running commands. Below that (6 again) is the white on black telnet session for TKB, then another (8) telnet for TKBTEST in black on white for running commands, then below that (9) is another white on black telnet session for TKB.</p>
<br/>
<p>I've got my telnet login sessions mirrored for TKB and TKBTEST because there are things I can't do in TKB that I can in TKBTEST and vice-versa: the application that I'm working on can only be edited and built using TKBTEST, but can only be installed to production using TKB. This particular set of windows is so I can work on that particular application. Normally, I'd just have the three windows for TKB.</p>
<br/>
<p>And yes, the VAX is an emulated VAX running in Charon-VAX and running VMS 5.5-2 (for hysterical raisins). I work with it almost every day, doing systems administration, software development, and providing support for customers.</p>
<br/>
<p>Usually I also have some terminal windows for working on the local machine, usually each with a couple of tabs. It was just chance that I didn't have any open today. And there is a hidden Virt Manager window along with a hidden window for the virtual machine console of the MS Windows 10 virtual machine it is running. I do most of my non VAX work using Unix machines, either macOS or Linux (though I've used and liked each of FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD in the past, and have a couple of 32 bit NetBSD machines still), with the occasional unavoidable MS Windows work done in virtual machines.</p>
<br/>
<p>Then, if you look at the taskbar at the bottom, I've got 5 virtual workspaces. The first is the primary one for which I've shown the screenshot above, where I do most of my work.</p>
<br/>
<p>The second has Discord, Spotify, and some monitoring programs.</p>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/oone-virtual-workspace-2.png" alt="Virtual Workspace 2: Instant Communications, Monitoring, Music"></img><br/>
<p>The third is where I have my Google Workspace windows in Chrome for work and in Firefox for my personal email.</p>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/oone-virtual-workspace-3.png" alt="Virtual Workspace 3: Work and Personal Email"></img><p>Chrome has four tabs: (1) my HTML page of the links I commonly use, (2) Gmail, (3) Chat, and (4) Google Contacts. Firefox has six tabs: (1) my HTML page of links again, (2) Gmail, (3) Chat, (4) Google Contacts, (5) Google Calendar, and (6) Google Voice.</p>
<br/>
<p>The fourth is for transitory stuff and it doesn't have a standard list of windows, so I haven't taken a screenshot.</p>
<br/>
<p>The fifth has zuluCrypt, a couple of Dolphin (KDE's file manager) windows, and a Konsole (KDE's terminal app) window where I mount a directory from our NAS over SMB3, all used for copying the VAX backup tape files from the NAS to my external encrypted traveling drive.</p>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/oone-virtual-workspace-5.png" alt="Virtual Workspace 5: Working with External Disks"></img><p>KeePassXC gets moved to this virtual workspace when I am mounting the external disk, because its password is stored in KeePassXC.</p>
<p>I do this every Monday through Friday, and then when I am at home I copy the tape files from the external traveling drive to another external encrypted drive on my desktop Fedora KDE Plasma machine there. The traveling external drive is encrypted with zuluCrypt, while the one at one is encrypted with LUKS. I use zuluCrypt on Linux because VeraCrypt on my macOS work laptop was not reliable for me; it crashed macOS a couple of times so I stopped using it.</p>
<br/>
<p>Anyhow, that's how I organize my virtual workspaces on oone, my Fedora KDE Plasma box at work. My setup on my Fedora KDE Plasma box at home is different because the screen is so much larger, but is similar. On my work macOS laptop I've got 21 virtual workspaces spread out over three monitors, and that's too much to go over right now.</p>
<br/>
</main>
Monks in Swords & Wizardry Complete Revised
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-09-02-monks-in-swords-and-wizardry-complete-revised.html
2023-09-02T14:50:17-04:00
<main>
<h1>2023-09-02 14:50:17-04:00 - Monks in Swords & Wizardry Complete Revised</h1>
<br/>
<p>I got my print copy of the Swords & Wizardry Complete Revised Rulebook from the recent Kickstarter a little while ago, and I was reading it and noticed that they made some of the most unbalancing monk abilities available only if the monk has has 15+ DEX or 15+ WIS, depending on which ability is in question. I was amused, because the Original D&D monk had to have a 15 in DEX and WIS just to be a monk. And the AD&D 1E monk had to have a 15 in STR, DEX, and WIS!</p>
<br/>
<p>The result is that in S&WCR you don't have attribute requirements to be a monk, but you DO have attribute requirements for Weapon Damage Bonus, Multiple Attacks, Alertness, Deflect Missles, and Slow Falling; in other words, the fun stuff. So if your DEX and WIS are less than 15 you can still play a monk, but you're nowhere near as powerful as the classic monk.</p>
<br/>
<p>I'll note in passing that none of the other classes in S&WCR has attribute requirements.</p>
<br/>
<p>I'm not really sure I like putting the fun monk abilities behind at attribute level requirement, but I also recognize the original monk in OD&D and AD&D 1E can be pretty overpowering.</p>
<br/>
<p>Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy, which takes almost all the races and classes from AD&D1E and adapts them to the rules and scales of B/X D&D, doesn't include a monk class.</p>
<br/>
<p>Advanced Edition Companion for Labyrinth Lord, on the other hand, which adapts AD&D1E's classes and races to Revised Labyrinth Lord (which is also based on B/X D&D), DOES provide the monk class. It has the attribute requirements, though more closely matching OD&D rather than AD&D1E.</p>
<br/>
<p>I'll note in passing that OSRIC, the AD&D 1E retro-clone, does not have monks either, much to my dismay. I think people that are cloning AD&D 1E should include monks, despite the cries of some folks that they are not genre appropriate for the mishmash of European medieval culture and legends that D&D started with, because D&D is essentially it's OWN genre, and monks were a big part of that.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/adventuredesigntome/swords-and-wizardry-complete-revised-rulebook">Swords & Wizardry Complete Revised Rulebook Kickstarter</a></p> </main>
Dungeon Fantasy: Monster Seeds
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-08-18-dungeon-fantasy-monster-seeds.html
2023-08-18T19:25:58-04:00
<main>
<h1>2023-08-18 19:25:58-04:00 - Dungeon Fantasy: Monster Seeds</h1>
<br/>
<p>I was glad to get my physical copy a while ago. Having now looked over it, I think it did exactly what it set out to do, gather the various Monster Seeds for the original Dungeon Fantasy Monsters developed and published in various places during the Kickstarter for Dungeon Fantasy 2 in one place, something that hadn't been done before. So far, so good.</p>
<br/>
<p>However, I think they missed an opportunity. As well as gathering the existing Monster Seeds they should have taken the chance to add more. As it is the book is very small, with very large type. Adding new monster seeds would have given the book more substance.</p>
</main>
BESM Multiverse and Uresia: Grave of Heavan arrived!
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-07-10-besm-multiverse-and-uresia-grave-of-heavan-arrived.html
2023-07-10T20:10:31-04:00
<main>
<h1>2023-07-10 20:10:31-04:00 - BESM Multiverse and Uresia: Grave of Heavan arrived!</h1>
<br/>
<p>Squee!</p>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/BESM-Multiverse-and-Uresia.jpg" alt="Picture of BESM Multiverse Maps, BESM Multiverse, BESM Uresia: Grave of Heavan, and Ikarion Gate, the BESM Multiverse LitRPG novel"></img><br/>
<p>My physical copies of the BESM Multiverse Maps, BESM Multiverse, BESM Uresia: Grave of Heavan, and Ikarion Gate, the BESM Multiverse LitRPG novel arrived today. I really like having physical books for things that are information dense: settings or rules; I find it helps my comprehension when learning the material. (I'm this way about technical material as well: I try to get computer books in print as well.)</p>
<br/>
<p>I am really glad Uresia got a new edition for BESM4E, and I'm to see more detail on the main worlds of the BESM Multiverse.</p>
</main>
I got STOIC running under CP/M using the RunCPM emulator!
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-07-09-i-got-stoic-running-under-cp-m-using-the-runcpm-emulator.html
2023-07-09T20:50:59-04:00
<main>
<h1>2023-07-09 20:50:59-04:00 - I got STOIC running under CP/M using the RunCPM emulator!</h1>
<br/>
<p>I'm using the RunCPM CP/M emulator.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://github.com/MockbaTheBorg/RunCPM">RunCPM CP/M Emulator</a></p><br/>
<p>Ok, I've got STOIC.COM built with the basic and miscellaneous words loaded. To do this, I assembled KERNEL.ASM to produce KERNEL.COM, ran KERNEL.COM, loaded the STOICBAS.STC and STOICMIS.STC files for the basic and miscellaneous words, used the SZSTOIC command to find out the number of 256 byte pages used by STOIC, exited STOIC with the RETCPM command, and then used the CP/M SAVE command to save the memory that STOIC was using to STOIC.COM, and then ran STOIC.COM to issue some STOIC commands. The "[" and "]" words are from the miscellaneous words from STOICMIS.STC, and count the number of items that are pushed on the stack between them.</p>
<br/>
<p>It went something like this:</p>
<br/>
<pre aria-label="">
RunCPM Version 6.1 (CP/M 60K)
A10>ASM KERNEL
CP/M ASSEMBLER - VER 2.0
1A98
00DH USE FACTOR
END OF ASSEMBLY
RunCPM Version 6.1 (CP/M 60K)
A10> KERNEL
0> 'STOICBAS CPMLD
0> 'STOICMIS CPMLD
0> SZSTOIC
STOIC IS 53 DECIMAL PAGES LONG
0> RETCPM
RunCPM Version 6.1 (CP/M 60K)
A10>SAVE 53 STOIC.COM
..........................................................................................................
A10>STOIC.COM
0> [ 1 2 3 4 ] = = = = =
4 4 3 2 1
0>
</pre>
<p>It seems this version of STOIC was never fully adapted to CP/M: apparently the file I/O and the editor weren't ported completely. I'll have to look into that.</p>
<br/>
<p>Whee! Isn't retrocomputing archaeology fun!</p>
<br/>
<p>I started with Volume 23 of the CP/M User Group disk archives, “STOIC (STACK ORIENTED INTERACTIVE COMPILER)”. Unfortunately, I could not find Volume 23B, which had other STOIC stuff.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://www.retroarchive.org/cpm/cdrom/SIMTEL/CPMUG/CPMUG023.ARK">CPMUG023.ARK</a></p><br/>
<p>I'm interested in STOIC because I used the VAX/VMS version back in the day.</p>
</main>
Getting the width of the current monitor in Emacs
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-06-27-getting-the-width-of-the-current-monitor-in-emacs.html
2023-06-27T13:02:39-04:00
<main>
<h1>2023-06-27 13:02:39-04:00 - Getting the width of the current monitor in Emacs</h1>
<br/>
<p>If you have virtual workspaces on macOS and you use the emacs function display-pixel-width it will give the combined with of ALL the monitors you are using. You are better off using (caddr (frame-monitor-attribute 'geometry)), since frame-monitor-attribute gets the specified attribute from the monitor which the current frame is actually on. BTW: The function frame-monitor-attributes returns all the monitor attributes. The function display-monitor-attributes-list returns the attributes for ALL the monitors you are using.</p>
<br/>
<p>I figured this out when I was debugging a couple of emacs functions to move the current frame left or right on the screen.</p>
<pre aria-label="">
(defun tkb-move-frame-left ()
"Move the current frame left by 1/10th the width of the physical montor."
(interactive)
(let* ((left (frame-parameter nil 'left))
(monitor-display-width (caddr (frame-monitor-attribute 'geometry)))
(tenth-width (/ monitor-display-width 10))
(new-left (- left tenth-width)))
(set-frame-parameter nil 'left new-left)))
(defun tkb-move-frame-right ()
"Move the current frame right by 1/10th the width of the physical montor."
(interactive)
(let* ((left (frame-parameter nil 'left))
(monitor-display-width (caddr (frame-monitor-attribute 'geometry)))
(tenth-width (/ monitor-display-width 10))
(new-left (+ left tenth-width)))
(set-frame-parameter nil 'left new-left)))
</pre>
</main>
Old School Stylish
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-06-25-old-school-stylish.html
2023-06-25T10:56:37-04:00
<main>
<h1>2023-06-25 10:56:37-04:00 - Old School Stylish</h1>
<br/>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/Cover-Old-School-Stylish.jpg" alt="Cover of Old School Stylish"></img><br/>
<p>Old School Stylish (OSS) is an interesting zine supplement of 28 pages (counting both covers) for Old School Essentials (OSE). OSS drops the class system and instead lets characters pick up “styles”, which are small collections of capabilities. As they adventure they can find and acquire (with suitable effort) more styles. Everything, from hit points to spells to thief capabilities to Armour Class, are part of styles. Characters can have multiple styles active, and can switch out styles for other ones they have learned. By default characters still have levels, but there is a option for dropping levels as well. As you might guess from the cover image this zine takes inspiration from martial arts and cultivation media. OSS offers a lot of ideas for how to acquire styles in play, from petitioning masters to learning a style by observing special circumstances. It provides several tables to help you come up with interesting ways for characters to learn styles. It also suggests that the players NOT use the book to select styles for their character, but leave it up to the DM to place styles to be found in the world, which I thought was interesting.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.exaltedfuneral.com/products/old-school-stylish">Old School Stylish at Exalted Funeral</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://heavy-pepper.itch.io/old-school-stylish">Old School Stylish at itch.io</a></p><br/>
<p>The physical zine is of nice quality, with a sturdy cover and pages. The design and layout are very clear, and every page is used, except for the cover page. In the pages describing styles I liked the letters in boxes in the outer margins at the bottom of the pages showing the which starting characters of the names of the styles on the page, which helps in finding the style you want. The simplicity of the Starting Styles sets them apart from the Advanced Styles, which are more mechanically complicated (and if you follow the suggestion from the author can't be picked at character creation). The change from a white background to a black background when going from Advanced Styles to Secret Styles makes the difference obvious there too.</p>
<br/>
<p>All in all, this is a useful tool for a game that is compatible with all the normal OSE elements (spells, monsters, etc.) but which will have a different flavor.</p>
<br/>
<p>I'm glad I got this!</p>
</main>
Reducing Scope Creep
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-06-24-reducing-scope-creep.html
2023-06-24T13:07:18-04:00
<main>
<h1>2023-06-24 13:07:18-04:00 - Reducing Scope Creep</h1>
<br/>
<p>One of the reasons I created this blog/capsule (other than the opportunity to work with the Gemini protocol, text format, and Geminispace) was to encourage me to write more often. I started off well, but slowed down considerably three months or so ago. While there are several reasons for that, I've decided to I concentrate on writing short articles for this blog/capsule and relegate the longer articles for my other blog. I hope this will encourage me to write more. We'll see.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://tkurtbond.github.io/">Lacking Natural Simplicity</a></p> </main>
Things Better Left Alone and the Adventurer RPG arrived
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-06-23-things-better-left-alone-and-the-adventurer-rpg-arrived.html
2023-06-23T10:47:45-04:00
<main>
<h1>2023-06-23 10:47:45-04:00 - Things Better Left Alone and the Adventurer RPG arrived</h1>
<p>Updated: 2023-06-27 16:22:03-04:00</p>
<br/>
<p>My copies of “Things Better Left Alone” and the “Adventurer RPG” Player Guide and Dungeon Guide arrived today from Pacesetter Games.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://pacesettergames.com/collections/pacesetter-x-holmes-d-d">Holmes-inspired products at Pacesetter Games</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://pacesettergames.com/">Pacesetter Games</a></p><br/>
<h2>Things Better Left Alone</h2>
<br/>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/Cover_of_Things_Better_Left_Alone.jpg" alt="Cover of Things Better Left Alone"></img><br/>
<p>“Things Better Left Alone” (TBLA) is an adventure for characters level 4–6, written by Bill Barsh of Pacesetter Games based on a dungeon designed by J. Eric Holmes, the author of the original Dungeons and Dragons Basic Set from 1977. (That was the first RPG I owned.) The dungeon is an expansion of the sample dungeon from the Holmes Basic D&D rulebook. It includes scans of J. Eric Holmes's original maps. It looks interesting. I wish the maps had been created at a higher resolution: the overview maps, which are rendered at a small size to fit more on the page, are slightly fuzzy and the room numbers are a little hard to read, both in print and in the PDF. The detailed maps are much easier to read, without the annoying fuzziness. But the complete maps (black or blue, to suit your taste) in the free map Pacesetter offers have a better resolution, though not high enough for Virtual Tabletop use. I found it somewhat hard to put the separate maps in the print product into the correct order in my mind at first; I wish Pacesetter has labeled their maps like Holmes had his, with notes on each side for which map connected to what. But the complete maps show you how things fit together, with a little effort on your part. I also wish the section ‘ENTERING THE DUNGEON’ had mentioned the other entrances, but those are only talked about in their numbered sections. The PDF includes a PDF outline/table of contents/bookmarks which includes entries for each numbered room, which is convenient. I've only had time to quickly skim over this, but it looks reasonable.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090602124815/www.wizards.com/dnd/files/Basic_1977.pdf">PDF of the sample dungeon from Holmes Basic from wizards.com at archive.org</a></p><br/>
<h2>Adventurer RPG Player & Dungeon Guides</h2>
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<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/Cover_of_Adventurer_RPG_Dungeon_Guide.jpg" alt="Cover of Adventurer RPG Dungeon Guide"></img><br/>
<p>The “Adventurer RPG” is a retro-clone that is compatible with Holmes Basic and extends it to cover through level 10, written specifically for the “Things Better Left Alone” adventure. It comes in two volumes, the “Player Guide" and the “Dungeon Guide”. The covers say “Beta Release”, and the edition information on the title/credits pages of both say “First Edition Beta Print, June 2023", so they've just come out. The covers for both are the same image, other than the fact they are titled differently. Despite that these both look good. There are no hyperlinks that I've found, and no PDF outline/table of contents/bookmarks, alas. I'll have to get out my copy of Holmes Basic and do a comparison at some point. Again, I've only skimmed this, but these look reasonable, also.</p>
<br/>
<p>I hope to write more about these later on my other blog.</p>
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<h2>Alas, not as Holmesian as I'd hoped</h2>
<br/>
<p>DHBoggs at Hidden in Shadows has had time for a more thorough look than I have and finds its not as Holmesian as I'd hoped. I still think I can make use of it. </p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://boggswood.blogspot.com">Hidden in Shadows</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://boggswood.blogspot.com/2023/06/things-better-left-alone-sad-review.html">Alas, not as Holmesian as I'd hoped</a></p> </main>
The Lair of the Leopard Empresses
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-06-22-the-lair-of-the-leopard-empresses.html
2023-06-22T21:04:20-04:00
<main>
<h1>2023-06-22 21:04:20-04:00 - The Lair of the Leopard Empresses</h1>
<p>Updated: 2023-11-26 11:03:08-05:00</p>
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<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/Cover_of_The_Lair_of_the_Leopard_Empresses.jpg" alt="The Lair of the Leopard Empresses"></img><br/>
<p>My copy of The Lair of the Leopard Empresses came two days ago, and I have really enjoying reading it. It is based on the Monsters! Monsters! rules, which are basically the Tunnels & Trolls rules, and is a great example of how to use those rules and how to add to them in a way that makes the best use of the existing rules. It also presents an interesting setting. I'll write more on my regular blog, since it's likely to be a long article and will take some more time.</p>
</main>
The Fantasy Trip
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-06-11-the-fantasy-trip.html
2023-06-11T22:36:57-04:00
<main>
<h1>2023-06-11 22:36:57-04:00 - The Fantasy Trip</h1>
<br/>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/Cover_of_Melee_Legacy_Edition.jpg" alt="Melee"></img><br/>
<p>I recently got to play Melee from Steve Jackson Games online and had fun. Melee is a person-to-person combat board game. Melee, its companion game Wizard, and In the Labyrinth (which turns Melee and Wizard into a complete RPG and has all the rules) it makes up The Fantasy Trip (TFT). And the PDF of Melee is available from Steve Jackson Games for free!</p>
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<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melee_(game)">Melee</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://www.sjgames.com/">Steve Jackson Games</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard_(board_game)">Wizard</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fantasy_Trip">The Fantasy Trip at Wikipedia</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://thefantasytrip.game/">The Fantasy Trip at Steve Jackson Games</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://warehouse23.com/products/the-fantasy-trip-melee">Melee PDF for Free!</a></p><br/>
<p>It took a while for everybody to get used to the way combat works — it's a hex-based tactical combat system that strives for verisimilitude, and is quite different from anything that the others were used to. This group has been playing Mini Six from Antipaladin Games mostly of late, with some of Deep7's 1PGs thrown in; previously we've played a lot of Labyrinth Lord from Goblinoid Games and Savage Worlds from Pinnacle Entertainment Group, and while Savage Worlds is played on a square grid battle map, it's still not tactical in the same way as TFT, DragonQuest from SPI, or GURPS from Steve Jackson Games. I played a lot of DragonQuest and GURPS (TFT's younger relative) in the 80s and 90s, which both have hex-grid based tactical combat, and enjoyed them a lot, so TFT's system wasn't such a shock to me.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/144558/Mini-Six-Bare-Bones-Edition">Mini Six</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://www.antipaladingames.com/">AntiPaladin Games</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://github.com/tkurtbond/Minimal-OpenD6">Minimal OpenD6 SRD</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://deep7.com/">Deep7 Press</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://deep7.com/?page_id=664">1PG - 1 Page Games</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/78524/Advanced-Edition-Companion-Labyrinth-Lord-noart-version">Labyrinth Lord (free no-art version)</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/64331/Labyrinth-Lord-Revised-Edition-noart-version">Advanced Edition Companion for Labyrinth Lord (free no-art version)</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/259983/Advanced-Labyrinth-Lord-Dragon-Cover">Advanced Labyrinth Lord</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://www.goblinoidgames.com/">Goblinoid Games</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://peginc.com/">Pinnacle Entertainment Group</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savage_Worlds">Savage Worlds at Wikipedia</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DragonQuest">DragonQuest at Wikipedia</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulations_Publications%2C_Inc.">SPI</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/">GURPS</a></p><br/>
<p>Anyway, it started out as a three way free-for-all, and turned into a two-on-one battle near the end. Each of the characters we created were very different. By the end of our time slot we had pretty much figured out how the rules worked, and realized that characters in plate can be really hard to kill. Combat is simpler than GURPS, but still has a lot of interesting tactical choices. I had a lot of fun.</p>
<br/>
<p>I'm planning to play more Melee, add in Wizard, and eventually run a TFT campaign.</p>
</main>
Into the Odd
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-05-23-into-the-odd.html
2023-05-23T15:16:25-04:00
<main>
<h1>2023-05-23 15:16:25-04:00 - Into the Odd</h1>
<p>Updated: 2023-06-27 10:48:04-04:00</p>
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<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/Into-the-Odd-Remastered-cover.png" alt="Into the Odd Remastered Front Cover"></img><br/>
<p>Into the Odd Remastered by Chris McDowall, published in 2022, is horror dungeon- and hex- crawling with swords, guns, and strange magical artifacts, stripped down to the minimum of rules, set in an unmappably large weird world full of strangeness and inconsistent technology (an abandoned pier of amusement rides is mentioned, but weapons are single shot), and dominated by one huge city, Bastion. It is a complete game full of weirdness and danger in 144 pages. There are no elves, dwarves, halflings, orcs, goblins, etc., but the world is full of strange sapient beings.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://freeleaguepublishing.com/en/store/?product_id=7749919539458">Into the Odd Remastered</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.bastionland.com/">Chris McDowall's Bastionland</a></p><br/>
<p>Firstly, the physical quality of the hardbound book published by Free League Publishing (Fria Ligan) is very good. The art by Johan Nohr has a consistent aesthetic suitable for the weird world it depicts. The graphic design, also by Johan Nohr, is clear and easy to read, with reasonably sized text and margins, and good use of color in ways that have meaning. (Monsters and tables to roll on are always blue, for instance.)</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://freeleaguepublishing.com/">Free League Publishing (Fria Ligan)</a></p><br/>
<p>Character creation takes four to five rolls: 3d6 for the three Ability Scores, 1d6 for Hit Points, and possibly a roll for Arcana (magic items) if the character's starting package (select by indexing their highest attribute and their Hit Points on a able) contains one.</p>
<br/>
<p>Most things except combat are done by rolling under the character's Ability Scores. Nobody rolls to hit: the player characters act first and apply their damage rolls and then the opponents apply their damage. Once a character has no HP left they save to avoid Critical Damage, which if taken renders them unable to take action until treated. If they are not treated they die after an hour. Ability Scores can also be reduced. Characters advance to the next Experience Level after they have been on a specific number of expeditions. Each time they advance they roll for Hit Points and have a chance to increase each Ability Score.</p>
<br/>
<p>There are also minimal rules for running businesses and military groups.</p>
<br/>
<p>There is a very specific but reasonably simple format used for monsters, which is explained on two pages, and followed by two pages containing seven example monsters. You'll have to depend on your creativity to come up with monsters or adapt them from other games, but the minimal stats required look to make this very easy. </p>
<br/>
<p>There is an example dungeon, The Iron Coral, of three levels and 61 locations. Each level has its own wandering encounters table, but the entrance area can change how it connects to the rest of the dungeon in 6 interesting ways. I was very impressed by the simplicity, outstanding clarity, and minimalist completeness of the format for locations — it is stripped down even further than the format used in Necrotic Gnome's Old School Essentials adventures. It uses bullet lists with simple icons for the bullets that tell what the item is about: description of the area, unusual things, and connections to other areas, which use ↑, ↓, →, ← for connections on the same level, and double chevrons up and double chevrons down for connections to the levels above and below. The maps of the levels are hand drawn in a minimalist style without being shackled to a grid, but still provide relative size, connections, and additional useful information without the complicated stylized icons used on traditional dungeon maps. And the dungeon contains several unique monsters as well.</p>
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<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://necroticgnome.com/">Necrotic Gnome</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://necroticgnome.com/collections/adventures">Necrotic Gnome OSE Adventures</a></p><br/>
<p>There is an example hex-crawl of 24 hexes with a random encounters table and four small dungeon locations. The myths that people encountered in the hex-crawl tell the characters add significantly to backstory of the area.</p>
<br/>
<p>There is also a small town provided as an example with a few interesting places and people detailed, a wandering encounters table, and a random table of arrivals from the settings dominant city, Bastion, which includes the things that drive the arrivals.</p>
<br/>
<p>Following this are 20 pages of random tables that usefully demonstrate the oracular powers of dice (exploring Bastion, creating weird creatures and cults, stuff to find in the darkness, freaky islands, creepy items that might be magic), then several pages of alternate types of starting characters (mutants, benighted rustics, and unhumans), an alternate starter package table, and a small but useful index.</p>
<br/>
<p>Into the Odd is definitely on the very light end of rules light games, being much lighter than Black Sword Hack, which I'm also reading at the moment. I think it makes a very attractive option for those who like rules light games and dungeon- and hex- crawling.</p>
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<p>I like it.</p>
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<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.themerrymushmen.com/product/black-sword-hack-ultimate-chaos-edition/">Black Sword Hack</a></p> </main>
The Chaos Crier, Issue #0
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-04-14-the-chaos-crier-issue-0.html
2023-04-14T20:41:48-04:00
<main>
<h1>2023-04-14 20:41:48-04:00 - The Chaos Crier, Issue #0</h1>
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<p>My copies of Black Sword Hack: Ultimate Chaos Edition and The Chaos Crier, Issue #0 arrived. Naturally, I read the later first. It describes a creepy seaside town, the horrible monsters that are subverting it, the cult that foolishly enables it, the town's inhabitants, and those who struggle against the coming apocalypse. Excellently written, though I take fault with the layout. Overflowing with great ideas.</p>
</main>
My physical copy of “Ends of the Earth” arrived
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-04-08-my-physical-copy-of-ends-of-the-earth-arrived.html
2023-04-08T18:40:11-04:00
<main>
<h1>2023-04-08 18:40:11-04:00 - My physical copy of “Ends of the Earth” arrived</h1>
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<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/Cover_of_Ends_of_the_Earth.jpg" alt="Ends of the Earth cover"></img><br/>
<p>Ends of the Earth: A Weird Fantasy Hexcrawl Setting for your Favorite Fantasy RPG by Chris Longhurst is a wonderful zine bursting with ideas. It is system neutral, but I can see how to easily adapt it for pretty much any fantasy system. The only things I would change would be to have a thicker cover stock and to have the coordinates (this row of hexes is 1, this diagonal of hexes is A) on the full map on page 4. Lots of interesting powerful entities, factions, and NPCs.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/potatocubed/ends-of-the-earth">Ends of the Earth</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://potatocubed.itch.io/ends-of-the-earth">Ends of the Earth at itch.io</a></p> </main>
US Paper Sizes Rant
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-03-28-us-paper-sizes-rant.html
2023-03-28T11:53:26-04:00
<main>
<h1>2023-03-28 11:53:26-04:00 - US Paper Sizes Rant</h1>
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<p>Why don’t we US folks use paper sizes that are sensible, like the ISO 216 standard?</p>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_216">ISO 216 International Standard for Paper Sizes</a></p><br/>
<p>Instead we use a weird mix of sizes that have no relation to any other. The ISO sizes are consistent, so that, for instance, an A5 page is the same size as half an A4 page, but has the same aspect ratio, so if you reduce an A4 page down to A5 size, it fits perfectly. Reduce an 8 ½ ×11 inch page to 5½ ×8 and you leave a large part of the page empty! So stupid!</p>
<br/>
<p>I have a tendency to print stuff on 5½ ×8 size pages (that’s an almost standard US size, sometimes called Statement, Digest, Halfletter, etc.) as pamphlets, and resizing 8½×11 pages to do that just looks ugly. It's maybe enough to make me pay the extra cost for A4 paper…</p>
<br/>
<p>Sigh. We really should just switch over to metric in general.</p>
</main>
Story Engine RPG
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-03-21-story-engine-rpg.html
2023-03-21T03:37:27-04:00
<main>
<h1>2023-03-21 03:37:27-04:00 - Story Engine RPG</h1>
<br/>
<p>The Story Engine RPG popped into my head the other day, for apparently no reason. As I've mentioned elsewhere, I have long been interested in this game, original published by Hubris Games as Maelstrom Storytelling and then as Story Engine. It is now published by Precis Intermedia Gaming, and in 2011 they published a revised version, Story Engine Plus. They have in beta a further development of the system, Story Max, which I should really look at. Anyway, I really enjoyed Story Engine, the few times I got to play it.</p>
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<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://www.pigames.net/">Precis Intermedia Gaming</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.pigames.net/store/default.php?cPath=62">Story Engine</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.pigames.net/store/default.php?cPath=118">Story Engine Plus</a></p><br/>
<p>It's a narrative game. Characters are described with adjectives and phrases, which determine the size of a dice pool. The odd numbers rolled are successes. It uses scene resolution (rather than task or round resolution, as is more common) and has an interesting recursive scene within a scene mechanism called Quick Takes that can affect the outer scene. There can easily be multiple sides in a scene, and even on one side there might be multiple goals.</p>
<br/>
<p>And the default setting, the world of the titular Maelstrom, described in the original book, Maelstom Storytelling, was also interesting. To quote the introduction to that book:</p>
<blockquote><p>In a different place, in another reality, there is a world that once knew the glory of an empire that is now only known in stories. It’s a world that shifts and changes. A place where dreams are sometimes real. A reality where magic is science. Where alien cultures live next to humankind. A place for war, for mystery, for romance. And through it all rages a storm so strong it can change the world, a storm they call the Maelstrom.</p></blockquote><br/>
<p>This was the Thousand Realms, and here were skyships and airships, and the marsupials the rossials, some of whom can speak, and intelligent ravens, and Newcomers plucked from other worlds. Diodet is an old city, the inheritor of the Empire, the Queen's city, a city of theatre, opera, jazz, and swashbuckling. Dacartha is its opposite, a city of a new industrial age, political ferment and populist movements, the middle class, churches and cults, philosophy, and their music is “the blue”, what we would call the blues.</p>
<br/>
<p>The setting as a whole was best described in Maelstrom Storytelling, but the rules were significantly cleaned up and explained much more clearly in Story Engine (now published as Story Engine Classic), as well as generalized to be useful in other settings. Tales from the Empire describes the city of Diodet, while Dacartha Prime describes its rival, as different as night and day. And I found the 5 issues of The Tempest, the zine from Hubris Games, worthwhile as well. All of these, except for Tales from the Empire, are available as PDFs now. While I prefer to read and understand RPGs by reading printed books, for reference I much prefer PDFs, so I can only hope that a PDF of Tales from the Empire is published at some point…</p>
<br/>
<p>Anyway, having reminisced about Maelstrom Storytelling and Story Engine, I definitely need to run some Story Engine games. It would be perfect for the times when some of my regular gaming group can't make it: character creation is very quick: come up with a concept, choose species and gender, choose three Descriptors (adjectives or phrases describing the character) choose a Quirk (a negative descriptor), choose three Trait Affinities (which give you automatic successes in your dice pool in some situations, and a Prime Affinity (Cultures or Gifts — magic or stranger powers). And improvising opponents is very easy as well.</p>
</main>
Mini Six Middle Sea Game, session 9: A Giant, a Tomb, Mirrors, and Skeletons
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-03-12-mini-six-middle-sea-game-session-9-a-giant-a-tomb-mirrors-and-skeletons.html
2023-03-12T01:54:45-04:00
<main>
<h1>2023-03-12 01:54:45-04:00 - Mini Six Middle Sea Game, session 9: A Giant, a Tomb, Mirrors, and Skeletons</h1>
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<p>The PCs leave Korianthor, heading into the Presaris Mountains to find Mount Wasarey and the Tomb of Torgoth, the Sorcerer-Smith, looking for the Hammer of Torgoth, rumored to be buried with him. After about four days of travel, in the mountains, they are traveling through a rocky ravine when a a pile of boulders stands up — it is a stone giant! He wants a toll — someone to eat! But crafty Bersaba casts Earthquake and the giant is affected by the Earthquake and falls into the fissure that results, and breaks up into many pieces, leaving his head unbroken, perhaps for his grieving family to find? The unperturbed PCs continue their journey.</p>
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<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/rocky-ravine-with-giant.jpg" alt="Rocky Ravine with Giant"></img><br/>
<p>They arrive at Mount Wasaray and find a ledge that winds up and around a cliff face to what they think is the tomb, but rather than climb along the narrow ledge in the rain, Anaoc and Bersaba use the spell Fly to ferry the other PCs to the end of the ledge. There they find there is very little room to stand on the ledge, except directly in front of the door, so they hammer spikes into the cliff face and rope themselves together and to the cliff spikes, except for Morwin, Iria, and Treave, who stand in front of the door and try to open it. They fail. Bersaba determines the door is held shut magically, and someone casts Dispel Magic. The door still doesn't open, so they try brute strength again, and eventually with a horrible scraping noise the door slides sideways into a pocket in the cliff, revealing a passageway 10 feet wide and 25 feet tall.</p>
<br/>
<p>They enter, and run into a small room with four mirrors. Iria looks into one, and out comes a figure armed to the (sharpened) teeth, a female warrior with a horrible smile. She doesn't last long. Treave tries to smash the mirror, and fails since it is not glass, resulting in another (male) warrior emerging. Bersaba casts Dispel Magic on two of the mirrors, but not before a third (female) warrior appears, and then Bersaba casts Dispel Magic on the last two mirrors. They kill all the warriors, look into the now non-magical mirrors, and continue.</p>
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<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/mirror-room.png" alt="Mirror Room"></img><br/>
<p>They pass two alcoves with two giant statues, the first a beautiful female and the second a considerably shorter male. They also pass a tapestry that seems to depict the same two getting married.</p>
<br/>
<p>They discover a library, but the books are all behind a magical barrier, including the one open on the table, which describes in archaic language some tragic event, possibly past, possibly impending. From there they continue and find a dining room with skeletons around the table, dining with no sound but the occasional click of their very fancy tableware or their own bones, and paying no attention to the intruders, who wisely avoid poking the skeletons.</p>
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<p>One of them continues north into the kitchen,and then, without trying the door north, goes out the second door there into a wide hall they crossed to enter the dining room. Looking north there is a more to explore.</p>
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<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/revealed-so-far.png" alt="Revealed So Far"></img><br/>
<p>[This description was based on notes taken by MA.]</p>
</main>
Al-mi'raj - I'd forgotten bunnicorns were in the Fiend Folio
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-03-07-al-miraj-id-forgotten-bunnicorns-were-in-the-fiend-folio.html
2023-03-07T14:22:03-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-03-07 14:22:03-05:00 - Al-mi'raj - I'd forgotten bunnicorns were in the Fiend Folio...</h1>
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<p>I was reminded of them by Update #3 on Goodman Games' Dungeon Denizens Kickstarter, which takes about their top 10 Fiend Folio Monsters. I never looked into the origins of the Al-mi'raj, but today I read the TV Tropes page about them, which was interesting. I've run across them a few times in some of the ebooks I've read in the past few years, so I guess they're fairly popular.</p>
<br/>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/devillich/dungeon-denizens/posts/3741732">Update #3: Top 10 Fiend Folio Monsters</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/devillich/dungeon-denizens/">Dungeon Denizens Kickstarter</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Miraj">Mi'raj at TV Tropes</a></p> </main>
Now available via gemini!
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-03-01-now-available-via-gemini.html
2023-03-01T23:01:40-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-03-01 23:01:40-05:00 - Now available via gemini!</h1>
<br/>
<p>Previously this site has only been available as a blog on the World Wide Web.[1] But now it is also available as a gemini capsule![2]</p>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://consp.org">[1] consp.org on the WWW</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="gemini://consp.org">[2] consp.org in geminispace!</a></p> </main>
Finished rereading OVA: the Anime Role-Playing Game
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-02-21-finished-rereading-ova-the-anime-role-playing-game.html
2023-02-21T10:45:37-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-02-21 10:45:37-05:00 - Finished rereading OVA: the Anime Role-Playing Game</h1>
<br/>
<p>Well, I finished rereading OVA: the Anime Role-Playing Game. I takes me longer to read technical writing, like computer books and RPGs, than fiction (my current books-read-per-day score is 1.294, down from my 2022 high of 1.663) but OVA is short, only 165 pages including index, the thanks page, and the two page character sheet. It is written by Clay Gardner, illustrated by Niko Geyer (whose art also appeared in many BESM books), and published by Wise Turtle.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.wiseturtle.com/games.html">OVA: The Anime Role-Playing Game</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://www.dyskami.ca/besm.html">Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM)</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.wiseturtle.com/">Wise Turtle</a></p><br/>
<p>Here is the front cover:</p>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/ova-front-cover.png" alt="ova-front-cover.png"></img><br/>
<p>And here is the back cover:</p>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/ova-back-cover.png" alt="ova-back-cover.png"></img><br/>
<p>It's well and clearly written, with a conversational tone of voice. The art is well done and appropriate for the Anime theme.</p>
<br/>
<p>The mechanics are fairly simple. Allocate positive Levels to Abilities (Attack, Barrier, Cute!, Fly, Knowledge, …), which give your character bonuses to rolls in certain situations and allow them to do things, and negative Levels to Weaknesses (Amnesia, Arrogant, Code of Conduct, Frail, Jittery, …), which give your character penalties to rolls in certain situations. You can customize them with Perks, which make them more effective but cost Endurance, or Flaws, which make them less effective, but which give back Endurance costs. (Abilities without Perks generally don't have an Endurance cost.) Levels are either allocated directly, in which case the characters are limited by the Base Zero Rule, which says the total of a character's Levels of Abilities and Weaknesses should not be above or below zero by more than five, or the Power Ceiling rule, where the GM gives the characters a number of free Levels and a Power Ceiling, and a character can gain more Ability Levels by adding Weaknesses, but the character can't have more levels in Weaknesses than the Power Ceiling minus the number of free Levels. The third way of limiting characters is the Scaled Cost rule, in which each Level of Abilities and Weaknesses costs increasingly more points: a Level 1 Ability costs one point, 2 costs two, 3 costs four, 4 costs eight, and 5 costs fifteen points.</p>
<br/>
<p>Characters have Defense, Health, and Endurance ratings. Defense is two dice plus Levels from relevant Abilities and minus Levels from relevant Weaknesses. Health and Endurance both start at 40, but can be increased or decreased by Abilities and Weaknesses. To perform an action you take two dice, add dice to the number of bonuses you have and subtract dice to the number of penalties you have, and roll them and the result is either the value of highest die or the highest sum of matching dice. So, for instance, if you rolled a 6, 3, 3, 3, 4, and a 4, the result is 9, the highest sum of the matching dice that rolled 3s. You are rolling against either a GM set Difficulty Number (DN) or an Opposed Roll. Combat is an Attack Roll versus a Defense Roll, and on a successful attack the Damage is the difference in the two rolls times the Attack's Damage Multiplier (DX). There are various elaborations, and each character has attacks based on their Level in the Attack ability, modified by Perks and Flaws.</p>
<br/>
<p>There are 12 sample characters. Here's the character sheet for one, Karis, and her companion, Arasuni:</p>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/karis-character-sheet.png" alt="karis-character-sheet.png"></img><br/>
<p>NPCs are categorized as:</p>
<ul><li> Extras, which might not need Abilities and Weaknesses at all.</li>
<li> Secondary, which have a few Abilities and Weaknesses at modest Levels, and start with 20 Health and Endurance.</li>
<li> Bosses, which are of comparable power to PCs, and have access to special Boss Abilities to give them an extra edge.</li>
</ul><br/>
<p>There are 8 sample NPCs, 6 Heroic (suitable as Bosses or less antagonistic NPCs), and 2 Secondary. There are 22 NPC fragments, which are minimally detailed and can be used as is or elaborated further.</p>
<br/>
<p>It is less detailed and crunchy than BESM, but character generation and game play looks easier.</p>
<br/>
<p>I think it takes its place as a valuable tool in the RPG toolbox. I like it a lot. I'm glad I was reminded of it!</p>
<br/>
<p>Now I just have to come up with a setting and some adventures to run…</p>
</main>
Using the Emacs Web Wowser to open URLs in Emacs
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-02-19-using-the-emacs-web-wowser-to-open-urls-in-emacs.html
2023-02-19T23:56:08-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-02-19 23:56:08-05:00 - Using the Emacs Web Wowser to open URLs in Emacs</h1>
<br/>
<p>A couple of the computers I use have limited RAM (4 GiB), and Chrome and Firefox use up a lot of memory. So, sometimes I don't want to fire up an entire separate web browser, and since I'm almost always in Emacs anyway, I just use the Emacs Web Wowser, the web browser written in Emacs Lisp.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/eww.html">EWW, the Emacs Web Wowser</a></p><br/>
<p>Here are the functions I use to switch Emacs to using EWW by default to open URLs:</p>
<pre aria-label="">
(defun tkb-browse-url-eww (url &optional args)
"Invoke the eww browser (inside emacs) on URL. It the optional second
argument ARGS is true open in a new buffer."
(message "args: %S" args)
(eww url (and args 4)))
(defun tkb-toggle-eww ()
(interactive)
(cond ((eq browse-url-browser-function 'browse-url-default-browser)
(message "Switching to EWW for opening URLs.")
(setq browse-url-browser-function #'tkb-browse-url-eww))
(t
(message "Switching to browser-url-default-browser for opening URLs.")
(setq browse-url-browser-function #'browse-url-default-browser))))
</pre>
<p>You could do something similar using w3m.el, which uses the external text mode web browser w3m to render the HTML, but that doesn't (as far as I know) support images, and EWW does.</p>
</main>
Mini Six Middle Sea Game, session 8
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-02-19-mini-six-middle-sea-game-session-8.html
2023-02-19T22:21:10-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-02-19 22:21:10-05:00 - Mini Six Middle Sea Game, session 8</h1>
<br/>
<p>The PCs made it back to Korianthor, with two of them flying the others over a flooded ravine with a rushing river using an ingenious arrangement of rope to spread the weight of an individual between the two flyers. They reported to Nessa and Maeloc about their journey, including the ambush by the Sanguine Sons. Then they decided to poke the bear, and visited “The First Pepper”, the tavern/restaurant where people go to discuss subversive politics, in hopes of seeing Nikos Pamboridis. While he was not there, apparently a Sanguine Son or sympathizer was, because on their way back to the “Green Dragon Inn” they were ambushed yet again!</p>
<br/>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/middle-sea-session-8-ambush.png" alt="Ambush after eating at the First Pepper"></img><br/>
<p>There were 33 opponents, all arranged out of reach behind barricades (carts and wagons pre-placed or hastily rolled up behind) or on rooftops. </p>
<br/>
<p>While some of the PCs wanted to kill all 33 attackers, after the first round of combat, which left several of the PCs wounded, they decided to flee instead and concentrated on breaking through the most weakly defended barricade. They broke out and escaped, leaving Greeth, Ruan, Brannok, and Locryn wounded.</p>
<br/>
<p>The next day they visited Nessa, who told them a little about Torgoth: smith, sorcerer, possible maker of magic items, maybe a giant, maybe a dwarf.</p>
</main>
Why use Scheme instead of Forth for creating Atom feeds?
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-02-19-why-use-scheme-instead-of-forth-for-creating-atom-feeds.html
2023-02-19T16:25:45-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-02-19 16:25:45-05:00 - Why use Scheme instead of Forth for creating Atom feeds?</h1>
<p>Updated: 2023-03-02 13:52:49-05:00</p>
<br/>
<p>Despite admiring Forth, and having written an Forth-like language in the dim past, I have to admit that using Forth to parse and translate text with a complicated structure would be difficult for me, and I am more productive using CHICKEN Scheme for that. Forth's concrete nature and small size, which makes it very appropriate and helpful for some things, especially if you are building something from scratch and control the design of everything involved, but when working with existing complicated designs imposed from outside I find it helpful to use tools with more libraries.</p>
<br/>
<p>Some people in the Forth world think that you should always start from scratch. This gives you the greatest control over the software you are designing and implementing, and allows you to throw out many of the complications that you don't really need. However, when some of that complication is imposed from outside (the Atom Syndication Format, for instance, or HTML) it is helpful to use already written software if it is available and easier to use than writing your own from scratch.</p>
<br/>
<p>Lichen, the CMS this blog/site uses to render its Gemtext into HTML, does that: parsing Gemtext is very simple, and generating HTML from it is pretty easy, so using Forth works well. However, to generate Atom feeds you have to follow the rules for Subscribing to Gemini pages, which are pretty simple, and at least four RFCs (4287, 8288, 3339, and 3987), which are somewhat complicated. While generating the text of an Atom feed is simple, once you've got all the necessary data, to get that data you have to be able to do things like parse dates and HTML, select the interesting parts of the HTML, and re-encode the HTML with the proper escaping. </p>
<br/>
<p>If you look at the list of packages available in theForthNet's package manager (the only package manager I've found for Forth) there are 36 packages available, and they don't include any to deal with RFC 3339 Timestamps, parse HTML, select the proper parts of the HTML structure, manipulate them, and generate the HTML. No regular expression library, etc. When you look at the list of eggs (what CHICKEN Scheme calls its packaged libraries), there are 564 of them and they include lots of things I used to write the Atom feed generator for this blog/site.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://theforth.net/packages">theForthNet Forth packages</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://eggs.call-cc.org/5/">Eggs (packages) for CHICKEN Scheme 5</a></p><br/>
<p>I know there are 564 because, instead of counting by hand, like I did for the Forth pages at theForthNet, I wrote a 12 line CHICKEN Scheme program using two built-in libraries and three eggs that downloaded the web page that lists the CHICKEN Scheme eggs, parsed it into a Scheme version of XML, selected the relevant parts of the web page, and counted them. It took me about 10 or 15 minutes, most of which was looking at the API for the libraries and looking at the intermediate results to make sure I was looking at the right things.</p>
<br/>
<p>Here is the program:</p>
<pre aria-label=" parse-eggs-list.scm">
(import (chicken io))
(import (chicken port))
(import (html-parser))
(import (sxpath))
(import (http-client))
(define url "http://eggs.call-cc.org/5/")
(define eggs-page (with-input-from-request url #f read-string))
(define eggs-sxml (with-input-from-string eggs-page html->sxml))
(define eggs-urls ((sxpath '(// td a @ href *text*)) eggs-sxml))
(display (length eggs-urls))
(newline)
</pre>
<p>If there had been easily available Forth packages for things I needed to do I would probably have written the Atom feed generator in Forth. There WERE easily available CHICKEN Scheme packages for those things, so I used it instead.</p>
</main>
Why this µBlog/Site?
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-02-19-why-this-blog-site.html
2023-02-19T16:09:01-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-02-19 16:09:01-05:00 - Why this µBlog/Site?</h1>
<br/>
<p>Why do I have this micro-blog/site, when I've got another blog and site? Because composing posts in Gemtext forces me to concentrate on writing and not get distracted by formatting the text.</p>
<br/>
<p>In writing I've moved from word processors (starting back on the the Apple ][+), to document formatting languages (Digital Standard Runoff, troff, TeX, LaTeX, eventually ConTexT), to SGML/XML/HTML markup languages, to lightweight markup languages (reStructuredText, Markdown), and finally to Gemtext. After my experience with SGML/XML/DocBook/HTML I began looking for things with less overhead, that take less work between my brain and my fingers when writing. I'm also easily distracted by tweaking the formatting of things I write. I'm hoping that the very low overhead way to write will encourage me to write more. (I know that when I abandoned XML/DocBook I was happier writing, and did more of it.)</p>
<br/>
<p>For some writing my main blog/site is more appropriate for the additional precision that the additional complexity of its implementation gives, but for a lot of things I don't need that additional complexity. So, the idea is to choose the appropriate tool for the requirements of the job at hand: troff or ConTexT for complicated output requirements, lightweight markup languages for simple output requirements, and Gemtext for things that have very simple output requirements.</p>
</main>
Almost got to play in an OVA game
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-02-14-almost-got-to-play-in-an-ova-game.html
2023-02-14T11:45:04-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-02-14 11:45:04-05:00 - Almost got to play in an OVA game</h1>
<br/>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/ova-cover.jpeg" alt="ova-cover.jpeg"></img><br/>
<p>So, the BESM 4E game I was playing in came to an unexpected stop, alas. It looked like it might be replaced with OVA: The Anime Role-Playing Game, but in the end we couldn't agree on an anime setting to play in, and we ended up playing Deathbringer instead.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.dyskami.ca/besm.html">BESM 4E</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Eyes%2C_Small_Mouth">BESM at Wikipedia</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.wiseturtle.com/games.html">OVA: The Anime Role-Playing Game</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/396879/Deathbringer-RPG">Deathbringer</a></p><br/>
<p>The Deathbringer game we played was fun, but I regret not getting to play OVA. So now I'm rereading OVA and wishing I had the time and a game to play in.</p>
</main>
And now the Atom feeds have the content of the posts in the entries
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-02-10-and-now-the-atom-feeds-have-the-content-of-the-posts-in-the-entries.html
2023-02-10T13:20:23-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-02-10 13:20:23-05:00 - And now the Atom feeds have the content of the posts in the entries</h1>
<p>Updated: 2023-02-21 12:55:54-05:00</p>
<br/>
<p>This way, when you look at an entry in a feed reader, it shows you the content of the blog post, instead of looking empty and requiring you to open the link to the content, however your feed reader does that. The content has a lot of vertical white space, which seems to be an unfortunate interaction between how I've been writing the gemtext of the blog and way the Lichen CMS, which I use to render the gemtext of the blog to HTML, does its conversion.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://lichen.sensorstation.co/">Lichen</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://gemini.circumlunar.space/docs/gemtext.html">gemtext </a></p><br/>
<p>Hmm. I'm beginning to think that its a idiosyncrasy of the way feed readers render the content, since web browsers render the HTML from which the content element is derived normally and without an unpleasant appearance. But why do ALL the feed readers I've tried have similar unpleasant renderings?</p>
<br/>
<p>Anyway, see the Colophon for how I did it.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://consp.org/Colophon.html">Colophon</a></p><br/>
</main>
Updated blog and Atom generator to use numeric time zone offsets
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-02-10-updated-blog-and-atom-generator-to-use-numeric-time-zone-offsets.html
2023-02-10T08:20:39-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-02-10 08:20:39-05:00 - Updated blog and Atom generator to use numeric time zone offsets</h1>
<br/>
<p>It turns out that multiple locations use, colloquially, the same time zone abbreviations for different time zones. For instance, apparently, EST is used for part of the Americas and also for part of Australia. So I decided to eliminate that ambiguity and just use the numeric time zone offset in the headers on this blog. It makes generating the Atom feeds simpler.</p>
<br/>
<p>Oh, that's right; I've updated the blog and sub-blogs to have Atom feeds.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_(web_standard)">Atom Syndication Format</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4287">RFC 4287 The Atom Syndication Format</a></p> </main>
Fuzzy Recollections of a Neat Capability of Unroff: file-insertions
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-02-07-fuzzy-recollections-of-a-neat-capability-of-unroff.html
2023-02-07T15:28:00-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-02-07 15:28:00-05:00 - Fuzzy Recollections of a Neat Capability of Unroff: file-insertions </h1>
<br/>
<p>TKB: So, you know how you sometimes need to output something before the data you need to do it has been read from the input? So normally you save the input data in memory until you’ve read it all, then you find the information you need to output the early bit, then process the input data from memory to produce the output?</p>
<br/>
<p>CPB: Yep, I have been there before!</p>
<br/>
<p>TKB: But that is pain if you have to deal with large files and don’t have enough memory. Usually you’ve got more disk space than memory, so there is an interesting trick you can do instead that I learned from how Unroff (the roff translator written in Elk Scheme) handled cross references and tables of contents when converting to HTML. You don’t have the section titles for the table of contents or the names of the HTML files they’ll be in (because you’re chucking the output into multiple files) until you have read the whole document. So, just record the position in the file where the table of contents would go, and has you encounter sections record the section title and the output file it is in and then at the end of generating the files copy the file up to the point where the table of contents is, then output the table of contents with all the correct section titles and links to the output html files, and then copy the rest of the file. In fact, Unroff generalized to multiple files in such a way that you could record positions to use later in any file and add the necessary information no matter where in the input and output you were. Very useful!</p>
<br/>
<p>TKB: Back to unroff, I downloaded the source and groffed the manual, and see it is a little more primitive than I remembered. You used a stream-position function to record the output positions you were interested in, and added the filename, position, and text to be inserted to a list, and at the end of the program you passed all those to the file-insertions procedure (probably as the result of an exit event handler), which did all the rewriting. This was supported by the streams functionality: “Input, output, and storage of text lines in unroff are centered around a new Scheme data type named stream and a set of primitives that work on streams. A stream can act as a source (input stream) or as a sink (output stream) for lines of text. Streams not only serve as the basis for input and output operations and for the exchange of text with shell commands, but can also be used to temporarily buffer lines of text (e.g. foot- notes or tables of contents) and to implement user-defined macros in a simple way.”</p>
<br/>
<p>Unroff was written in Elk Scheme, which was a neat early Scheme. The versions from the original pages are still available, but may not run on modern Unixen. </p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://www-rn.informatik.uni-bremen.de/software/unroff/">Unroff Home Page</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://www-rn.informatik.uni-bremen.de/software/unroff/dist/unroff-1.0.tar.gz">Unroff Source</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://www-rn.informatik.uni-bremen.de/software/elk/">Elk Scheme: The Extension Language Kit</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://www-rn.informatik.uni-bremen.de/software/elk/dist.html">Elk: Distribution and Source Page</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://www-rn.informatik.uni-bremen.de/software/elk/dist/elk-3.0.tar.gz">Elk Source</a></p><br/>
<p>There is a newer version of Elk Scheme that may run on modern Unixen.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://sam.zoy.org/elk/">Elk Scheme - the Extension Language Kit, from Sam Voy</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://sam.zoy.org/elk/elk-3.99.8.tar.bz2">Prerelease: Elk Scheme 3.99.8</a></p><br/>
<p>Here are the manuals that come with Unroff in PDF:</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://consp.org/files/unroff/unroff.1.pdf">unroff.1</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://consp.org/files/unroff/unroff-html-man.1.pdf">unroff-html-man.1</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://consp.org/files/unroff/manual.ms.pdf">manual.ms</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://consp.org/files/unroff/unroff-html.1.pdf">unroff-html.1</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="http://consp.org/files/unroff/unroff-html-ms.1.pdf">unroff-html-ms.1</a></p><br/>
</main>
Dynamic Powers vs. Power Flux in BESM 4E
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-02-07-dynamic-powers-vs.power-flux-in-besm-4e.html
2023-02-07T10:20:00-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-02-07 10:20:00-05:00 - Dynamic Powers vs. Power Flux in BESM 4E</h1>
<br/>
<p>I'm rereading this section in BESM 4E (pages 259–260) and think it is pretty good advice for using Dynamic Powers, Power Flux, and Power Variation. I found the Dynamic Sorcery difficult to get my mind around in BESM 2E, and as far as I can tell there wasn't equivalent advice in BESM 3E, although I think its versions of Dynamic Powers, Power Flux, and Power Variation are very similiar to those in BESM 4E.</p>
<br/>
<p>This section is also in Tri-Stat Core RPG (pages 157–158), as well.</p>
</main>
How I Edit This Blog
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-02-06-How-I-Edit-This-Blog.html
2023-02-06T22:16:00-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-02-06 22:16:00-05:00 - How I Edit This Blog</h1>
<p>Updated: 2023-06-27 10:00:24-04:00</p>
<br/>
<p>I use GNU Emacs, of course.</p>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/">GNU Emacs</a></p><p>The file tkb-microblog.el contains everything I wrote to support editing these blog posts:</p>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://github.com/tkurtbond/microblog/blob/main/emacs/tkb-microblog.el">tkb-microblog.el </a></p><p>When I execute the tkb-microblog function it prompts me for the blog post title, then asks what sub-blogs I want to add it to, if any. Then it adds a link to the new blog post file to the main blog index and each of the sub-blog indexes I specified, creating them if necessary.</p>
<br/>
<p>The function tkb-find-file-hook makes sure that I edit gemtext files (which end in .gmi) with visual-line-mode on and auto-fill-mode off, because gemini browsers wraps long lines, unless they are preformatted text, and paragraphs are indicated by newlines. (Blank lines add space between paragrahs.) I also have a minor mode that rebinds M-q (which is normally bound to fill-paragraph) to a function that tells the user not to do that, because the lines are not supposed to be filled.</p>
<br/>
<p>Anyway, I think it works well.</p>
<br/>
<p>Amusingly, right now tkb-microblog.el is 131 lines, about 26% the size of the Lichen CMS, at 494 lines, that I use to render the gemtext of this blog to HTML.</p>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://lichen.sensorstation.co/">Lichen</a></p> </main>
Mini Six Middle Sea Game, session 7
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-02-05-Mini-Six-Middle-Sea-Game-session-7.html
2023-02-05T23:15:00-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-02-05 14:19:00-05:00 - Mini Six Middle Sea Game, session 7</h1>
<br/>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/ambush-at-the-maple-tree-the-end.png" alt="The End of the Ambush at the Maple Tree"></img><br/>
<p>At the end of the combat {at the last session} there are 5 Sanguine Sons who are incapacitated and 3 that are paralyzed. The PCs tie them all up and decide to interrogate them. Ruan realizes doing it separately and out of the other Sons' sight and hearing will let the PCs confirm the individual stories against each other. Ruan and Treave take the Sons, one at a time, around the tree and interrogate them. The start with a Son who turns out to be the second in command of this ambush. (The leader was dead.) Initially resistant, after Ruan cuts off his finger he quickly capitulates and answers their questions. The Sons think that the prophecy is false and the PCs interest in it is because they are working against the Sons, hence the ambush. The Sons' aim is to gain enough power from possession of an artifact (perhaps the Eye of Zetha?) to take over Korianthor and take their proper place at the top. The Son thinks that their leader Nikos Pamboridis gets some of his intel from someone that the Sons don't know about. Ruan gives the severed finger back to its owner, as if he is mocking or emphasizing its loss, which terrifies the Son more than anything else. The other Sons basically confirm all this, and reveal their horses are picketed about 500 yards away.</p>
<br/>
<p>The PCs decide to kill all the Sons and disappear their bodies and their dogs. Bersaba flies up out of the maple forest, where she sees that the maple holding Saphira's temple is over 3000 feet tall and its branches spread over 1500 feet wide! She flies around looking for a lake they can dump the bodies in and finds one, where a rocky valley was blocked by a landslide and filled with water. When she returns Locryn uses the Beast Tongue spell to promise the horses freedom and food if they overcome their natural dislike of the smell of blood and carry the bodies of the Sons and their dogs to the lake. The horses agree. The PCs load the bodies and head off for the lake, about 4 hours away, leading the horses. On the way they pass through a valley with good grazing and the horses say this would be a fine place to eat after their chore is finished.</p>
<br/>
<p>Upon reaching the lake the rest of the PCs are surprised and a little worried when they find out Morwen knows all the best tricks for disposing of bodies in lakes — slash the bellies and stuff them full of rocks — as if she has done this before! They release the horses before starting the bloody work, and the horses immediately head back over the trail to their grazing. They keep some crossbows and all the remaining bolts, pry the gems out of the hilts of a number of the swords, and toss the bodies, still wearing their armor, the swords, and the horses tack into the lake.</p>
<br/>
<p>It was dark now, so they made camp for the night away from their body dump and washed off the signs of their grisly deeds.</p>
</main>
BESM 4E's Dimension Walk Attribute is exactly Shadow Shifting from Zelazny's Amber Chronicles
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-02-01.html
2023-02-01T12:00:00-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-02-01 12:00:00-05:00 - BESM 4E's Dimension Walk Attribute is EXACTLY Shadow Shifting from Zelazny's Amber Chronicles</h1>
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<p>Big Eyes, Small Mouth 4E's Dimension Walk Attribute is EXACTLY Shadow Shifting from Zelazny's Amber Chronicles!</p>
<br/>
<p>Squee!</p>
<br/>
<p>When I read the Dimension Walk attribute description a character concept came into my head and I HAD to write it down!</p>
<br/>
<p>Oh, looking back I see it first showed up in BESM 3E. Still, neat!</p>
</main>
If you get the message "Error: unbound variable: geiser#geiser-eval" when working with CHICKEN Scheme and geiser...
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-01-30.html
2023-01-30T13:39:00-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-01-30 13:39:00-05:00 - If you get the message "Error: unbound variable: geiser#geiser-eval" when working with CHICKEN Scheme and geiser...</h1>
<br/>
<p>... it means you need to go back and follow the instructions for CHICKEN support, and also update your geiser packages in emacs.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://wiki.call-cc.org/emacs#geiser">Using geiser with CHICKEN Scheme</a></p> </main>
Mini Six Middle Sea Game, session 6
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-01-29.html
2023-01-29T23:06:00-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-01-29 23:06:00-05:00 - Mini Six Middle Sea Game, session 6</h1>
<br/>
<p>This was mostly finishing a combat from the last session, since we spent time beforehand spending character points and updating characters. The PCs murdered many of a group of various second and succeeding sons of various noble houses who ambushed them because the PCs oppose their evil plan to take over, and killed their HUGE, VICIOUS DOGS TOO... Next session they plan to interrogate the survivors.</p>
</main>
Owlbear Rodeo 1.0 will be open-sourced
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-01-29a.html
2023-01-29T14:42:00-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-01-29 14:42:00-05:00 - Owlbear Rodeo 1.0 will be open-sourced</h1>
<br/>
<p>This is old news, but according to the Owlbear.Rodeo folks, Owlbear.Rodeo 1.0 will eventually be shut down, but it will also be open-sourced.</p>
<br/>
<p>I've found Owlbear.Rodeo to be an excellent simple virtual table top (VTT), easy to use and low overhead. Combined with Discord for audio and dice rolling it's a great way to play any RPG that doesn't have a dedicated VTT implementation. I put the character sheets and campaign notes in Google Drive, and sometimes use a Google Sheets spreadsheet for games with per-character initiative, like the one I use for Mini Six.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://blog.owlbear.rodeo/owlbear-rodeo-2-0-timeline-update/">Road to Owlbear Rodeo 2.0 - Timeline Updates and Owlbear Rodeo 1.0</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_tabletop_game#Virtual_tabletops">Virtual Table Top (VTT)</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rJwv0YSkGGTUc1WGUj_CvdeKYZ9W92_MPz-brMKR4AM/edit?usp=sharing">Mini Six Initiative Tracker Template</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://tkurtbond.github.io/posts/2020/11/29/looking-at-the-mini-six-rpg-and-related-games/">Mini Six</a></p> </main>
Mini Six Middle Sea Game, session 5
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-01-22.html
2023-01-22T15:34:00-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-01-22 15:34:00-05:00 - Mini Six Middle Sea Game, session 5</h1>
<br/>
<p>TIMEWARP: This entry brought to you by the power of TIME TRAVEL!</p>
<br/>
<p>This was another online game.</p>
<br/>
<p>Fifteen misty green female figures materialize from the surface of the pool on the lower level and wail! Locryn runs away. Iria, made of sterner stuff, tries to stay and explain the PCs mean no harm, but one of the figures floats over to her and attacks her psychically, almost incapacitating her! She runs away.</p>
<br/>
<p>While waiting for Iria to recover one of the characters mentions that they had noticed that one of the ghostly green figures was wearing an amulet. Thinking of the medallions they had discovered earlier they put them on and go back downstairs. The misty figures do not appear, and they continue exploring.</p>
<br/>
<p>After Ruan and Bersaba accidently set a table in an alchemy lab on fire and are badly burned they discover the pool on this level is also full of healing water. They interact with several items which give them various feelings. They find a staff carved as if it was a woman stretched disturbingly thin, which gave them feelings of dread. Iria foolishly put the staff in the pool, which resulted in an explosion, and clouds of steam!</p>
<br/>
<p>They find another secret door, leading to a steep stair going down into a room with a carving of Saphira on the north wall and an altar. They chant the ritual and summon the oracle and the carving of Saphira comes to life, and after convincing her that their aims were true, she reveals they can find the Hammer of Torgoth in the tomb of the Sorcerer-Smith Torgoth, located on Mount Wasarey in the Presaris Mountains, about a week's travel west from Korianthor, and says “Only the hammer of Torgoth can silence the Eye of Zetha. Beware the touch of the eye, since the evil is greater since the passing of Alekos Vasiliou.” Each of the characters is gifted with two small gourds with stoppers, and told “These will help you when you are wounded.”</p>
<br/>
<p>When they leave the temple, they are ambushed by well armed and dressed men and a pack of huge, fierce mastiff, also wearing armor! These must be some of the Sanguine Sons!</p>
<br/>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/sanguine-sons-ambush.png" alt="Ambush!"></img><br/>
<p>The PCs are stuck in the entryway of the temple, menaced by mastiffs close at hand, while the Sanguine Sons attack with crossbows from a distance!</p>
<br/>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/blog/2023/dogs-attack.png" alt="Dogs Attack!"></img> </main>
Mini Six Middle Sea Game, session 4
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-01-15.html
2023-01-15T16:03:00-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-01-15 23:03-05:00 - Mini Six Middle Sea Game, session 4</h1>
<br/>
<p>I got to run another session today of the Middle Sea Mini Six game I've been running for the kids, the fourth session, online. They've been taking an in-depth approach, so it's taking more time that I anticipated, in an enjoyable way. They travelled to the Votlem Range seeking the abandoned temple of Saphira, getting directions in a remote village. Along the way they see an albino stag and end up fighting the wolves that were following it. The next day they see the stag again, and it leads them more directly to the temple than their previous instructions would have taken them. The temple is in a maple tree that is over 100 feet in diameter! They figure out how to open the temple doors and explored it, finding a pool of healing water, a mysterious bumble bee, a room with remains of ritual robes and some silver medallions, secret passages, a throne with a secret compartment containing a book telling how to invoke the oracle, and a stairway to a deeper level, where they started to explore further but all but Locryn and Iria were driven back to the upper level by frightening misty green apparitions of women.</p>
</main>
A Banner Image
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-01-10.html
2023-01-10T10:40:00-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-01-10 10:40:00-05:00 - A Banner Image</h1>
<br/>
<p>A friend thought I should put a image on my micro site/blog, so I did. It is at the index page for the site, and in this post as well.</p>
<br/>
<img loading="lazy" src="http://consp.org/microblog-banner.jpg" alt="Early Morning Sun"></img> </main>
BESM Multiverse: Anime RPG World Expansions
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-01-07.html
2023-01-07T12:58:00-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-01-07 12:58:00-05:00 - BESM Multiverse: Anime RPG World Expansions</h1>
<br/>
<p>I just finished my Backerkit survey for this kickstarter, and I'm looking forward to getting it. I'm interested in more detail about BESM's multiverse, and I'm especially looking forward to the new edition of BESM Uresia. And I just picked up another copy of the rules and Dramatis Personae in print.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dyskami/besm-multiverse-anime-rpg-world-expansions">BESM Multiverse: Anime RPG World Expansions</a></p> </main>
The New Year is Here!
http://consp.org/blog/2023/2023-01-01.html
2023-01-01T01:01:01-05:00
<main>
<h1>2023-01-01 00:01:00-05:00 - The New Year is Here!</h1>
<br/>
<p>We've been investigating (and terrifying) smugglers, racing dinosaurs, and engaging in gladitorial combat (though not to the death)!</p>
<br/>
<h2>14:23-05:00 - Cults, Undead, and Ziggurats in Old Port Nyanzaru</h2>
<br/>
<p>After competing in the Arena, we continued looking for fragments of the artificat, being approached to deal with a cult of deranged Grungs, rescue a rescue party trying to retrieve kidnapped citizens, and in the process murdering cultists, sending undead to their final rest, and finding a person of evil magic intent on feeding their undead on us!</p>
<br/>
<h2>23:12-05:00 - Books Read in 2022</h2>
<br/>
<p>I read 568 books in 2022. My books read per day average was about 1.556.</p>
</main>
Spending New Year's Eve the Right Way!
http://consp.org/blog/2022/2022-12-31.html
2022-12-31T23:01:01-05:00
<main>
<h1>2022-12-31 23:45:00-05:00 - Spending New Year's Eve the Right Way!</h1>
<br/>
<p>I'm spending New Year's Eve playing D&D online with my regular Saturday group, the best way to spend the evening.</p>
<br/>
<p>Oh, and I've made the git repo I used to host this micro site and micro blog public, for no particular reason.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://github.com/tkurtbond/microblog">https://github.com/tkurtbond/microblog</a></p> </main>
New (micro) blog!
http://consp.org/blog/2022/2022-12-30.html
2022-12-30T23:01:01-05:00
<main>
<h1>2022-12-30 20:22:00-05:00 - New (micro) blog!</h1>
<br/>
<p>I ran across Lichen, a Content Management System written in Forth and which uses Gemtext (which reminded me of Gemini; something to look at again). Anyway, I decided to try out Lichen, which can statically render Gemtext to HTML, thinking its light cognitive overhead might encourage me to blog more.</p>
<br/>
<p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://lichen.sensorstation.co/">Lichen</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://gemini.circumlunar.space/">Gemini</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="gemini://gemini.circumlunar.space/">... in Geminispace</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="https://gemini.circumlunar.space/docs/gemtext.html">Gemtext</a></p><p><a rel="noreferrer" href="gemini://gemini.circumlunar.space/docs/gemtext.html">... in Geminispace</a></p><br/>
<p>I suppose it would be simpler if I just used Gemini, but then I'd have to figure out somewhere to host it, or run a server myself... </p>
</main>
Mini Six Middle Sea Game, session 3
http://consp.org/blog/2022/2022-12-23.html
2022-12-23T13:50:00-05:00
<main>
<h1>2022-12-23 13:50:00-05:00 - Mini Six Middle Sea Game, session 3</h1>
<br/>
<p>TIMEWARP: This entry brought to you by the power of TIME TRAVEL!</p>
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<p>After a hiatus of 1 year and 195 days I got to run another session of the Mini Six Middle Sea game I'm running for the “kids”, face to face! (They're all grown, but I still call them that.) Anyway, this time they continued following up information about the prophecy by being introduced by Maeloc to Nessa Vivyan, who looks at the scroll and tells them the it prophesies that the Eye of Zetha, a relic of the ancient malevolent goddess Zetha, will once again lead the land into darkness, unless someone uses the Hammer of Torgoth to defeat the Eye of Zetha, and says that the references to an oracle that rests beneath the boughs of of a maple tree probably refers to the temple of Saphira, an ancient goddess of harvest and growth, whose long abandoned temple is in a huge maple tree in a valley in the dangerous Votlem Range a week's travel south east of Korianthor.</p>
<br/>
<p>Then they investigating the Sanguine Sons and their leader Nikos Pamboridis and their involvement in the prophecy. They surveil Nikos's house, and discover that while normal visitors come to the front door a bunch of very unsavory, criminal looking, folks come to the back door. Investigating leads them to the headquarters of what turns out to be the headquarters of a criminal gang, the Ravens, who have been gaining influence. In the process of figuring this out they trade their promise to Cyprien Glafcou, the leader of another gang, to help that gang break into a hard target.</p>
<br/>
<p>On their way back to their lodgings they are ambushed by thugs, and murder them all easily. </p>
</main>
Mini Six Middle Sea Game, session 2
http://consp.org/blog/2021/2021-06-11.html
2021-06-11T16:23:00-05:00
<main>
<h1>2021-06-11 16:23:00-05:00 - Mini Six Middle Sea Game, session 2</h1>
<br/>
<p>The next day they split up to investigate.</p>
<br/>
<p>Anaoc, Brannok, Morwen, and Treave went to the First Pepper, to listen to the political discussion. Anaoc noticed some people seem to be conspiring, more than one group. Treave talked to several people and figures out there are at least four different known conspiracies, with one of them a conspiracy of a demagogue, a bunch of nobles, and surprising, perhaps a criminal gang. Anaoc used ESP on someone (Vaso Anastillis) and found out the Sanguine Sons are group of young, discontent, second-son or succeeding (only the first born inherits) noble scion who are supporting unpleasant political figures and are intimidating, beating, and murdering their opponents. Nikos Pamboridis is a noble, and Vaso thinks of someone he knew who was beaten to death when the PCs asked about him, but only said he lives by himself in small but impressive house near the house of his family, which is lead by Fotis Pamboridis. Treave asked about the blood symbol and Vaso said there is a group murdering people and leaving three stylized blood drops on a scrap of parchment on the bodies.</p>
<br/>
<p>Ryd, Locryn, Greeth, and Bersaba went to the forum to find out about the scroll and Nessa. Locryn found a scholar, Maeloc Minear, who is knowledgeable about languages, and treated him to drinks at the Friendly Owl, a scholar's bar (tea & herbal infusions). He told the PCs a little about the scroll, and turned out to have a friend Nessa Vivyan (**!**) who could tell them more. The PCs speculated that this is the Nessa of the note, and told Maeloc of the assassin and suggested that Nessa may also be in danger. Maeloc decided to accompany them to visit Nessa.</p>
<br/>
<p>It is mid-afternoon. The PCs are split up, and haven't gone anywhere yet.</p>
<br/>
<p>That's where it ended.</p>
</main>
Mini Six Middle Sea Game, session 1
http://consp.org/blog/2021/2021-06-04.html
2021-06-04T16:15:00-05:00
<main>
<h1>2021-06-04 16:15:00-05:00 - Mini Six Middle Sea Game, session 1</h1>
<br/>
<p>TIMEWARP: This entry brought to you by the power of TIME TRAVEL!</p>
<br/>
<p>The PCs stayed at a coaching in on the way to Korianthor, the Jewel of the Southern Continent. The PCs woke in the middle of the night to screaming and found another patron just being killed by an assassin. The PCs captured the assassin and Anaoc Rosewarne interrogated him using ESP. He turned out to be Mairi Vitalelli, sent by a wealthy noble with a smirk, associated in his mind somehow with three blood drops, and seeking a scroll case. Searching him they found a note signed NP (probably Nikos Pamboridis; see ESP!) with three stylized blood drops telling him where and when and who. The PCs searched, and found the scroll cached above a loose board in the ceiling. The scroll was covered in glyphs that nobody can read, but the scroll case has a note as well — “My dear fellow, can you have found it at last? Bring it to me in Korianthor and we will see if there is any way to escape the prophecy! — Nessa”. There is a quick trial and Mairi was hung with a short drop.</p>
<br/>
<p>They arrived in Korianthor during the Festival of Masks (like Mardi Gras or Carnival in Venice), when plain masks are worn during the day and elaborite masks are worn at night. Everybody bought two masks. They found lodging at The Green Dragon, then went to the forum to enjoy the Festival, observed a gang of thieves at work there. Ryd approached the leader of the gang, Cyprien Glafcou, and impressed him and found out Nikos Pamboridis was of a “political persuasion” and gave the name of the tavern which he said attracted like souls. In the forum they met Treave Carwithin, Bersaba Kitto, Morwen Polglaze, and Locryn Treglown, and suggested they also stay at the Green Dragon.</p>
</main>