For your reading pleasure:

Happy Birthday, Harry: We Have A Target

and

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheDresdenFiles

(That latter link will keep you reading for HOURS.)

ALSO, because I am a tres geeky fanboi, I was thinking today that if I saw a story where Harry Dresden and Vlad Taltos teamed-up, I'd probably plotz.

(Then, I thought about Vlad teaming up with Locke Lamora and Jean Tannen, and I DID plotz. Then, I thought about the Three Musketeers teaming up with Cyrano and Captain Alatriste, and plotzed halfway through the thought. We shall not speak of the Kirk and Sheridan team up, or the Matthew Gideon and Malcolm Reynolds team up.)

Since I'm home sick today (coughhackwheeze), I figured I'd spend some time talking about the PDQ# Space Opera Hack (which I'm using for pick-up games at cons) I ran for animadversio and ladylyonesse at DC Gameday this past weekend, while I wait for the Q to kick in. (Guys, if you wanna post your character write-ups in comments, I won't complain.)

Part of the fun of PDQ# SpOp is the creation of the list of "Facts" about the setting that develops through Setting the Dials and Character Creation (both of which only take about 30 to 45 minutes tops per three players) and the course of play.

Let's step through it...

SETTING THE DIALS
This phase is for laying down the basics of the setting, so that folks can make up characters for that setting.

Thumbnail: Firefly-esque galactic exploration.
Aliens/Robots?: Aliens.
Psi?: Weak and rare.
Ships?: Group ship -- 2-person scout.
Travel?: FTL via Star Wars-style hyperspace.
Raygun Power?: Normal weapon (use MOD as usual), with a 1-shot kill (drains battery).
Why Together?: Odd-couple scout team, randomly assigned (unresolved sexual tension).
Liz's One Thing?: "Uninhabited" inhabited world.
Tom's One Thing?: Running against the Doom Clock.
Givens?: Free Good [+2] Galactic Scout Forte.

CHARACTER GENERATION
Most starting Facts come form here, especially from the Planet (at least 3 Facts per) and Past Fortes of each character. (See below.)

PLAY
Subsequent Facts come from actions in play and table-talk. (See below.)

FACTS
This is what the setting is like, what's there, who's there, that sort of jazz. The first two Facts
are givens (and have held true in all PDQ# SpOp game I've run so far).

(character generation)

1. Swords & Rayguns.
2. Planets are named after elements.
3. TELLURIUM (Tellarites):
* Gas Giant.
* Cloud cities (suspended from below on repulsor platforms).
* Smuggler's haven.
4. RHODIUM (Rodians):
* High-powered business.
* Corporate aristocracy.
* Xenophobic (other human planets inclusive).
5. Gas can, apparently, be "mined." (Extraction of fractional layers.)
6. GOLD/AURUM (Aurites):
* Jungle planet.
* Huge cave networks.
* Money means nothing.
7. Division between plant and animal on Aurum is fuzzy.
8. Aurite "cave people" are a mysterious threat.
9. Jungle folk go into the caves for 24 hrs as a rite of passage; some do not return. There is a Guardian of the Light and Dark to help them enter the caves, turn those back before the day is up, and repel cave people.
10. Guardians of the Light and Dark are Amazonian and have vague telepathic powers.
11. Aurites can be exiled by "forcible volunteerism" into the Galactic Scouts.
12. Mining concerns have their own "peace forces" (akin to Military Police) somehwere between unionized labor and management.
13. A Rhodian corporation took over a Tellarite mining concern... and started to do bad things.
14. Meteorball is the most popular sport in the galaxy. (Zero-G football.)
15. Most common retirement-injury for meteorball is "blowing out your pancreas."

(play begins)

16. INDIUM (Indites):
* New planet on long-range scans.
* Far away.
* Plenty of radioactives (used for FTL drives) and -- regular structures?
(*) Structures have regular/sharp-edged Superman Fortress of Solitude exterior and irregular/gem-studded cave system interior.
17. Galactic Patrol only have bi-corders -- the tri-corders don't come out until next year.
18. Apparently, sexual innuendo is a galactic constant.
19. "What can I say, it's a sexist galaxy.."
20. "...but Amazonians don't even notice!"
21. Indites eat metal (especially gold, yum; alloys, plastics, and organics, yuck!) and poo uranium.
22. "Successful negotiating with the Indites to trade metals for their poo will DEFINITELY make us Tier B Scouts, now!"
23. "What, we made it up to Tier C already? Go us!"
24. Indites have a hive-mind.
25. There are Gorilla-men (alternately, "Gorillalilla-mens")from... some other planet in the galaxy.
26. The primary melee weapon of Tellurium is the "skimatar."

---

RULESY THOUGHTS FROM SESSION

A. Liz took "Fearless" as her SpaceOperatic Forte (in S7S, Swashbuckling Forte). I thought that was neat, so I did something similar with the antagonist character I was creating alongside of them (Judson Dok,Rhodian Corporate Aristocrat), taking "Relentless."

This was neat. It kind of made the SpOpForte into a bigass unchained Technique (with MOD bonuses) applicable to other Fortes. It also made the selection of actual Techniques under it slightly easier/quicker, at the expense of really needing to identify what you wanted this sort of SpOp Forte to really enhance.

The benefit-stacking (MODs, +1/re-rolls) for particular Forte and situation combos got interesting. For Dok, he was Relentless (bought up to Expert [+4]), Technique of Foe: Tom's PC, Technique of Situation: Chasing, and had a separate Expert [+4] Pilot skill: all of which meant that he was constantly on Tom's PC's tail, chasing him through space... and often shooting him down. WHICH MATCHED PERFECTLY with Tom's character's Foible of "On the Run.")

B. PDQ# states that adding a Minor Fact to the game costs no Style Dice. As I've been running PDQ# SpOp, I've found myself AWARDING Style Dice for generation of Minor Facts that make it onto the Fact list. No one has as yet tried to create anything I've considered a Significant or Major Fact -- and that could be a function of these being pick-up, one-shot games -- makes me wonder if I should codify this.

C. PDQ# SpOp has thus far always generated humor, often silly -- but it's mostly played straight. This is very nice. The best media examples I can think of are Big Trouble in Little China, Firefly, and Buckaroo Banzai. (Flash Gordon and Star Wars are within the scope, but on the straighter-faced end of the spectrum; Ice Pirates is probably the far end of the silly spectrum.)

---

So, yeah: that was fun!

Once again, I would like to point out the S7S wiki, here:

http://s7s.wikidot.com/

Please add to the 7 Skies -- whatever thrills you, buckles your swash, makes you happy.

That is what is it there for.

After some discussion in the comments on the previous post on Space Opera Dogfighting, and some discussion on the S7S Yahoogroup, I am in the middle of rethinkery on SpOp Dogfighting.

Your comments desired; genre/media analysis and game design behind the cut...

---

Space Opera Space Combat

This post is mostly to help me go back to square one on rethinking SpOp combat. It's me thinking out loud, which I choose to do on this LJ rather than junk up the S7S yahoogroup any further.

From my reading and especially viewing (since PDQ# is a cinematic game), space combat in the Space Opera breaks down into common categories across three scales.

The three scales are: Fighter, Corvette, and Capital Ship.


The obvious common categories are:
1. Fighter vs. Fighter: *-wings vs. TIEs (SW), Starfuries vs. Raiders/*-Fighters (B5), Vipers vs. Cylon Raiders (BG). (Capital Ships are mostly background.)

2. Capital Ship vs. Capital Ship: Constellation/Galaxy Class vs. other Ships of the Line (ST), Ships of the Line vs. Shadow Battlecrabs (B5), Battlestar vs. Basestar (BG). (Fighters are mostly background.)

3. Fighters vs. Capital Ship: The snarl around the second Death Star in RotJ (SW), Vipers vs. Basestar and Raiders vs. Battlestar (BG), several examples (B5).


The obvious but more uncommon categories:
A. Corvette vs. Fighters: Millenium Falcon vs. TIEs (SW), possibly War Rocket Ajax vs. Hawkmen (FG).

B. Corvette vs. Capital Ship: Possibly the Defiant from DS9 (BG), White Stars vs. Battlecrabs (B5).

C. Corvette vs. Corvette: I'm lacking an example here. Possibly something from B5?

D. Major Battle (All Scales at Once): B5 is the exemplar here, I think.


I think that surrounds most of the popular match-ups. In general, I think it's safe to say that in the majority of SpOp combat, ships stay within their scale -- it's either Fighter vs. Fighter (FvF; SW model) or Capital Ship vs. Capital Ship (CSvCS; ST model). Some thought, however, will have to be paid to the FvCS option -- but that's down the road. (Ideas below on how to mechanize these two basic interactions under PDQ#.)


Outstanding Questions to Ponder

Again, your thoughts are welcome in the comments -- I'm especially looking for illustrations of resolutions for the below questions in SF&F media, if you can think of any.

* Combat between different scales (especially FvCS).

* Combat involving all 3 scales at once.

* How to integrate Corvettes? (How do they work in interacting with the higher and lower scales? Are they more big Fighters, small Capital Ships, or something else? This question is especially problematic, since Corvettes are mostly likely to be the right size for a bunch of PCs to work together in.)

* Examples of CVvCV combat in the source genre? (All I'm coming up with is White Star vs. Drakh ships from B5.)

---

PDQ# SpOp Space Combat Rules Thots

Determining the "basic" scale (F, CV, CS) for a PDQ# SpOp game should absolutely be part of Setting the Dials. Once that's done, many of the other tributary concerns should be easy to resolve, since the majority of space combat will happen in that basic scale.

I think that common cases #1 and #2, from above, are pretty clear-cut under PDQ# -- #1 is a slightly modified Duel [1] and #2 is a slightly reskinned-to-fit-the-genre version of Vehicle Combat from S7S. (#3 will require thought on combat across scales before anything can be done on that; once #3 is figured out, the CV question can be broached.)

[1] In the discussions thus far on SpOp Dogfighting, I have been reminded of the importance of position/advantage (p/a). So, I went back and looked at GURPS Lensmen for its Space Opera Combat System (SOCS) simply for inspiration -- because even it (light by GURPS standards) is way too complicated for the abstraction of PDQ#. However, this review did bear fruit.

The slight modification of the Duel rules for Dogfighting is this: before every Turn, the opposing Pilots have a Flashy Challenge, which represents gaining p/a over their foe. Per the FC rules, the loser takes a Failure Rank and the winner gains a Style Die -- but here's the modification: the winner also gains initiative for the Turn. Duels play out as usual (including the Volte-Face).

I think that this helps give the flavor of the value of p/a without making the benefits of winning or the penalties for losing it overwhelming, or making the system overly complex.

Here are two further ideas to beef up the benefits of p/a, but they might be too crippling, and do not look like they can be used together:

* No Volte-Face: The defender does not get any chance to attack during the Turn. This means that a defender will essentially always be All-Out Defending (3d), and has a good chance at evading damage... but even given that, the Failure Ranks accrued from the FCs for p/a at the top of each Turn will grind down on both fighters.

* Limited Combat Options: After position/advantage is determined, attackers can only All-Out Attack or Strongly Attack; defenders can only Strongly Defend or All-Out Defend.

---

Thoughts, questions, comments, examples?

Some continuing thoughts on tweaks and adjustments for PDQ# Space Opera (which, as noted previously) will probably be my go-to concept for convention and pick-up games)...

While most of Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies can easily be reskinned from swashbuckling to space opera (Nationality to Planet, Mystical Gifts to Psychic Powers, mild adjustments to Setting the Dials, etc.), there is one element that is very different between these related genres: Vehicle Combat.

In a word: Dogfighting.

Here's a first assay -- in outline/bullet point format -- at handling that issue; I'd love your thoughts on the topic.

---

PDQ# SpOp Dogfighting

Ship Size
* Fighter (Starfury): A single pilot.
* Corvette (Millenium Falcon): A pilot and a couple gunners. [1]
* Capital Ship (the Enterprise): A crew of officers.

PC Ships vs. NPC Ships
(PC vs. NPC is intentionally assymetrical; these options will preferably be laid-out in a matrix/table; the idea is to preserve both the feel of space opera ship combat and value of PC actions in such.)

Page Refs: The Duel (S7S, p. 209*) and Vehicular Duels (S7S, p. 229*).

* PC Fighter vs. NPC Fighter: The Duel (Pilot vs. Pilot).
* PC Fighter vs. NPC Corvette: The Duel; NPC Ship has 5 dice to divvy and keep; PCs get +2 to attack and defense rolls per additional ship in their squadron.
* PC Fighter vs. NPC Capital Ship: The Duel; NPC Ship has 7 dice to divvy and keep; PCs get +4 to attack and defense rolls per additional ship in their squadron.

* PC Corvette vs. NPC Fighter: The Duel (each Gunner vs. NPC Pilot); NPC Fighters = Minions.
* PC Corvette vs. NPC Corvette: The Duel.
* PC Corvette vs. NPC Capital Ship: The Duel; NPC Ship has 5 dice to divvy and keep; PCs get +2 to attack and defense rolls per additional ship in their squadron. [2]

* PC Capital Ship vs. NPC Fighter: S7S Vehicular Duel, with Fighter Squadrons = Minion Squads.
* PC Capital Ship vs. NPC Corvette: S7S Vehicular Duel, with Duel damage (reducing Wound Ranks) rather than Vehicular Duel Damage (targeted Wound Ranks). [3]
* PC Capital Ship vs. NPC Capital Ship: S7S Vehicular Duels as normal.

NOTES
[1] Non-pilot/non-gunner crewmembers use the "PCs Ganging Up" rules (S7S, p. 214) to directly aid the pilot or gunners, or can perform non-combat actions (damage control, scanning, etc.; see S7S, p. 227*, for ideas based on Vehicle Challenges).

[2] Or should this be a Vehicular Duel, with the NPC Ship having some bonuses?

[3] This may be a bit fiddly. Will definitely have to test it in play.

---

These rules might even be back-portable into S7S. Hmmm.

Thoughts?

(Additional info on the PDQ# SpOp game played at Camp Nerdly 3 in this thread on Story-Games.)

With the completion of my initial work on the Small Favor matrix and some freelance editing, I am taking a short break.

Of course, for me, "break" means I only work on one project, because I iz insaneymans.

But which. One. Spock? Which. One?



Lemme know, f-list. Taking you advice until tomorrow evening.

But for tonight: comicable books and wine, oh yes.

Latah!

Just a quick update... all of my current projects are still live, I've tried to service them all a bit this past week... and it's sucking the juice out of me.

Here's what I'm gonna do with them, so as not to go insane.


1. Local gamma playtests of Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies: One down, at least three or four more to go, switching in different players and characters. Try to set next session up for late April. Rewrite handout.

2. Gamma draft revision of the S7S manuscript: Can't be done until local gammas are done. Stop thinking about it until after playtests to free up headspace.

3. Research and analysis on Small Favor: Finished re-read of book. Starting the actual note-taking tonight.

4. Zorcerer of Zo-based fairy tales: Stalled in mid-tale, most due to fatigue. Stop thinking about it until after I can get back to novel; free up headspace. (EXCEPTION: Must write one as present for somebody's birthday.)

5. Incipient novel: One chapter written. (Stop thinking about it until after Small Favor work is done to free up headspace.)

6. Script Collaboration: First draft done. Awaiting comments from trusted readers. Revise/Edit/Trim/Tighten for upcoming contests.

7. Providing feedback to authors/game designers: Reducing this, unless one or more of three things is involved -- friendship, a PDQ licensee, or cold hard cash.

8. Freelance editing work: Do one more night's worth of work on prep docs beginning of next week, then ignore until the document to be edited hits my inbox.

9. Other low-impact projects I can't remember: If I can't remember them, they're unimportant, so I'm erasing the vague bookmarks point into mystery that are squatting in my skullmeats.

Thus, the actual To Do List becomes, in rough order:
A. SmF notes: Start tonight.
B. Get feedback on script; revise: As it happens.
C. Get info for a Zo Tale for present: This weekend.
D. Finish editing prep docs: Monday or Tuesday.
E. S7S Gamma Playtests: Revise handout late next week, start nosing around for interest in an end-of-month session.



Well, that almost cut it in half.

Also: Find time to sleep, somewhere in there.

To aid my own sanity and time-management, here's the list of freelance projects I'm currently juggling (note, please, I am not including day-job stuff or social stuff):

1. Gearing up to run several local gamma playtest sessions of Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies, to test out rules changes made through the beta playtests. After I get feedback and testing on that...

2. ...moving onto the gamma draft revision of the S7S manuscript with lessons learned and general text-tightening/awesomifying. This will be sent out to peer reviewers for comment and gamma playtesters for testing.

3. I am still contributing to The Dresden Files RPG; the most important element of this will be my research and analysis on Small Favor, once I actually buy the book later this month.

4. I am writing Zorcerer of Zo-based fairy tales, with the aim of putting out a small fiction collection. Right now, I've written five -- "The Blue Tailor," "The Wooden Pirate," "The Witch Girl," "The Horse Prince," and "The Gingerbread Knight." I probably need at least five more (and art) to make a slim digest book.

5. I (apparently) have begun a novel, trading on two of my big interests: swashbuckling and mysticism. One chapter down.

6. I am collaborating on at least one (possibly three) movie scripts with a colleague.

7. I am providing feedback to other authors and game designers regarding their works on an ad hoc basis.

8. I will be picking up some freelance editing work for another Standards Developing Organization (SDO), in the interests of making money.

9. I am positive I have one or two other low-impact projects I cannot summon to mind right now.

That's the State of the Chad at the moment. I will be pondering how best to service all of these endeavors with regard to the limitations of time and attention.

If you are involved with any of the above listed projects, please take this as an explanation of why I may be a bit terse in responses.

Just a quick update: I ran another session with the Pirates alpha-playtest group today.

RESULTS

System:

* The reworked Duelling system is now stable and flavorful.

* The ship combat system is stable, but requires more niftiness (which should be added when it changes from bullet-point style to real prose).

* The re-do of the character write-ups working from draft 2 of the PDQ# Core DOC was (fairly) quick and easy and intuitive (though there was some cavilling over terminology and shades of meaning, which will be smoothed out when it changes from bullet point to prose).

* drivingblind is casting a weather eye over the setting info for jazzing-up and smoothing out, and we've already had a good convo on reorganization of the manuscript to maximize reader interest.

* Short form of reorg -- Intro, Setting, Setting Detail 1, Setting Detail 2, Basic PDQ# Rules (generic swashbuckling), S7S-Specific Rules, Chargen, Genre Discussion, GM Advice, Sample/Intro/Demo Scenarios (?), Adventure Seeds & NPCs, Handouts.

* If there's enough interest (from fans and the actual players), two possible short PDF-only (?) supplements: Musketeer alpha group material/Designer's Notes with Player Commentary and Pirates alpha group material/Designer's Notes with Player Commentary.

* I have an improved set of resources to add to the already extensive biblio.

Setting:

* Watching the Pirates alpha group pull a Count of Monte Cristo gambit is strictly awesome.

* From the last Pirates session, but a gift that keeps giving, a quote: "It's not a marriage of convenience, it's a marriage of revenge."

* Blowing the ventral- and the wing-masts on both sides (leaving only the dorsal masts intact) completely off a target skyship can affect the price when you resell it.

* Being a koldun (read: wizard) of decent skill, having time to prepare, and dropping a load of Style Points means that you can have someone help you perform elective open heart surgery on yourself when you really can't trust anyone to help you shove a powerful touch-activated artifact into your torso.

* Purchasing all of the goat cheese and weaponry that your family's farm has produced for a couple years is a great way to rub your personal success in your parents' faces show that you love your parents.

* Being the one left behind at your secret pirate base -- to throw all of the undead sailor remains out and repair/restock the cavern dock -- means that when your crewmates who are off gallivanting and a-pirating send a spare captured ship back to the base, you get to name it.

* It's one thing to take a Fencing Technique of "Semi-Clad" (meaning, you get a bonus in Duels when you're lacking a significant amount of clothing). But it's quite another when you recall this bonus immediately after initiating a boarding action. ("Maybe I should have taken off my pants first"?)

* It is entirely possible that if the Pirates achieve their long-term goals, they will utterly disrupt the politics of the Barathi Great Houses (possibly the Empire itself) and create a new, attractive heresy against the orthodox Church teachings and have a military force to do with what they will.



Good session!

Fred Hicks had me on his Butcher Block podcast recently, in my role as newly-minted scholar of Dresdenia...

BB008 - The Shape of Things to Come

Download the podcast here

(31min 45sec) Fred plugs in for a quick episode in a new format. He checks in with Butcher Block News Correspondant Priscellie for an update on everything that's happened since the last episode, and goes over to the grill with Chad Underkoffler to cook up some "butcher burgers", looking into discrepancies in the continuity of the novels.

It's always fun to chat with Fred about things Dresden-esque, and I hope folks enjoy my tedious and pedantic thoughts on this ep.