Get it done

Getting it done. 

As I close on Mars, my first major RPG product, and with the relatively recent release of Cosmic Tales #1, I have a thing or two to say about getting it done. 

ART

Okay, first things first. You need to decide on an art budget right away. Start saving that money up. 

That’s commitment. Relying on clip art or hoping to provide “exposure” for an artist isn’t going to do it. Maybe you have another way to generate commitment. Use that, but you still need to budget for art and start saving that money. (Just to be clear as far as my motivations go here, I am not currently accepting commissions). 

Yeah, that’s easy for me to say. If I had to pay for BX Mars art we’d be over 4k at this point- if I lowballed it. You’re not really in competition with people who can do both, however, there are only a few of us in the scene- and I’m not even there yet.  

That’s out of the way, except for the part where you pay a guy and he doesn’t deliver. That one goes both ways. Find out who delivers and who doesn’t. Find out who pays up and who does not 

Research is also commitment. 

We have now successfully placed one horse in front of the carriage. 

WORKFLOW

First Draft:

You can make an outline or not at the beginning. It won’t mater later. I suggest making an outline between your first and second drafts.

You need to write your first draft from end to end without going back and revising. It doesn’t matter if it’s garbage. It is a natural resource. Think of your first draft as mining the ore. Subsequent drafts draw out the METAL!

Never go back mid draft, no matter how fundamental the change. Make a note- and proceed from there as if you have already made the change. Fix it on your next pass. Frequently- you will want something very different by the time you make your next pass. Any time spent going back is time waisted. Get to the end; go back to the beginning. Rinse and repeat until you cry. Then do it some more. If you think you can do it all in one, tell me about it; I can always use a good chuckle.

Alternately, you can engage of an endless loops of pointless revision within the incomplete first draft. You’ll never finish this way. How can you finish something if you don’t get to the end? You fucking can’t. Have you been sailing for years and never seem to get any closer to the shore? That’s because you’re doing it wrong. 

That’s out second horse. Sometimes, however, it’s also the elephant in the room. 

MINIMAL CONTENT GENERATION  

Two Sentences.

You need to write a thing about a thing, but the well is dry. Write two sentences. Come back on your next draft. The second you put those ideas down they start to cook. Even if they are barely ideas. Expand and refine on your next pass. This is especially useful for list items like spells, monsters. or geographic details. 

Honestly, I suggest following the two sentence rule from end to end on your first draft. When you’re done, you’ll have an outline. Won’t that be swell? 

That’s our third horse. 

Don’t get ahead of yourself. Don’t start planning your KS or fucking around with layout until you have a complete document. I made the mistake of doing the latter. The dwarf kick starter guy did the former. I lost some time. He lost his house. Be careful! And for the love of god, if you can afford it, find some poor bastard to do your layout. 

Four horses. 

You can get ready to roll. 

Additional advice. GTFO social media. Checking to see if someone has upvoted your clever comment 5000 times a day isn’t going to get you there. 

You need a strategy for this. I turn off the wifi, or leave my tablet on another floor of the house. I keep books and comics near where I work on my stuff, so if I need a distraction I don’t drift into  e-fugue. 

Limit how much you share along the way. Previews and such often provide some necessary affirmation. But in the long term, short term gratification is an icky self-indulgent distraction. Further, showing incomplete content, especially if it hasn’t gone through drafts, makes your abilities look like less than they are. 

DO IT NOW!

Initial impressions- the Six Million dollar Man

Six Million Dollar Man

Initial Impressions

Every week or as often as I can manage it, I’m going to blog about Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man (SMDM). I’m going to take a look at the stories; some of the actors that show up; discuss the social relevance of the show- and some of the surprising differences between TV then and now.  

The most important and shocking is that the show is not dumbed down even a little. Yeah that’s right, a 70’s show aimed at ten year olds asks more from you than GOT or even the Expanse. Way more. 

One of the things that struck me immediately as I watched an assortment of episodes scattered throughout the series, were the similarities between Steve’s arrangement with the OSI and the third Doctor’s arrangement with UNIT. 

However, in contrast to Doctor Who and most other science fiction franchises; SMDM skews more towards science fiction than it does science fantasy. Star Trek and Dr who level technobabble are in surprisingly short supply- really they’re absent altogether. 

What you can expect: Discussions of things like planetary conditions on Venus; cogent explanations of plate tectonics; speculation on robotics and space flight-  and not to mention the protagonist himself: Steve is a science fictional artifact, a fantasy projection of what prosthetics might someday be able to do- and in many cases, today, can. The original pilot was made in conjunction with a UC prosthetic research institute. 

The first season of the show is comprised of three television movies; each of the movies is self-contained, but also plays into a combined story. The second two movies are more espionage oriented and the third is the best of the three. The first pilot is a slow burn- I had expectations of action when I went in and was disappointed. I watched it again (i don’t know ) why, and I really enjoyed it.  

I found it absolutely impossible to dislike Steve. i want him to come over for dinner and bong hits. 

I’ll talk about the first of these movies next week.

We have the technology, if you’d like to watch along. The entire series is available to stream for free  NBC dot com or, alternately, the DVD’s are really cheap. 

Star Wars: it’s not a dungeon crawl- it’s a ship sprint.

Alas as all good things must, my Star Wars game has ended. Sooner than I would have liked, but that’s how it goes.

However, in the last few weeks, as missed play sessions stacked up, I did a shit ton of prep, and I created a system for infiltrating a functioning imperial facility.
We’re not looking to map or explore methodically. It’s Star Wars you run around fro awhile, take some lifts, talk to your droid and find the Falcon.
Your player need a Droid for this kind of thing. It’s like a space smart phone and gen x hacker kid rolled into one. Also I am convinced that R2 D2 is a minor god of mischief.
If you give them a droid it should be the one with a bad motivator from IV, R5 D4, because that’s how SW works.

Here we go. This station below is a product of budget cuts in the wake of the demise of the original Death Star. It is a mash of Imperial and Separatists (The enemy of the republic during the Clone Wars) technologies. It lies at the center of a great ship’s graveyard hidden in a cloud of interstellar dust and infested with giant catfish like space monsters.

Now that we have our simple cutaway, or schematic if you want to do something a little more in depth- although I don’t advise it. .
Next I created two decks of cards.

One deck is for architectural features and gets reshuffled every time you draw from it.  The other deck is encounters and locations.  I have as yet to come up with a scheme for how frequently to draw cards. But i’m thinking really frequently

Once a card from the second deck is drawn , the list of encounters is consulted. Eh after this, the card is  replaced in the deck or discarded. If it’s location/encounter that is singular, discard; if it’s Storm Troopers, put it back in the deck. You should have multiple ST cards in the deck, btw.  Here are the card  listings. 

Ship invasion rules 

Two card decks

Architecture. Some basic architectural features 

Encounters and rooms (often with encounters too)

Some listings get more cards because they are more likely to occur. Some encounters are one time things and can be removed from the deck once they occur. 

Start

Floating in space the characters do not have enough mass to pass through the air barrier and bounce back into space. The only way in is through an EVA access door. Two techs are near the door fixing something or other;  door is sealed. And requires a key code. There are two doors one has tech s the other does not. 

Once inside the characters are confronted by a lift. 

The lift comes out in the  scrap yard. 

Assume that two troopers stand guard over anything even minimally important. 

Access Tube I

Drunk technician. Apologetic. Thinks the PC’s are officers on an inspections. Belligerent.

Tube is just for climate control system maintenance. Shaped like a cheeto, shorth ladder leads to anotehr access tune with a long adder. Mostly conduity and pipes ends with a right angle crwl space, opens on Wampa Pens.

Access tube 2

Unoccupied leads to core shaft. Mostly conduits and utility boxes. A few computer stations  here and there, but all engaged in local functions. 

Armory [restricted. Difficulty 15]

Storm trooper weapons and armor. 10 dormant battle droids. 10 thermal detonators. 2 troopers inside playing cards on thermal detonator box. If the alert has been given they will be outside the door, and demad that anyone approaching identify themselves. 

Remove from deck.

Barracks

Off duty men having a raucous party. They give no fucks about the alert! If the PCs are dressed as Storm Troopers they will invite them inside. And hand them drinks. Some are in armor others are wearing pod racing paraphernalia.   Some drunk dude will stat shit with them, and demand to know who they are. He’ll accept any answer. Or forget he asked the question. Oh have a laugh. 

If the PCs leave someone will try to get them to stay- the big race game is about to start.  

“Get back in here, it’s started”

“Now that’s what I all pod racing!

Battle Droids

Patrol of 10 marching down the hall.

20 Boarding Pods 

Long, narrow tech- crowded and ring shaped passage. Crammed with 20 boarding pod docks. A3 M4, Grumpy belligerent astromech doing repairs.  Wearing a restraingin belt. Will ignore characters unless they get in his way. Will attempt follow them out of the room but is blocked by the restraining bolt. If they take it off he will follow and commence to assist them. 

Control

One of the few places with complete computer access to ships systems. Usually two guards two tech. 

Bio-Weapons [Restricted]

The domain of Doctor Ogmus Kryne. 

Door open on a lobby like space. Reception droid (protocol droid; two ultimate Battle Droids.  lobby like space.

Two lifts one up, one down. 

The upper lift leads to the wampa, rancor pens. 

Down lift leads to:

White, creepy sterile lab. Drains cut into floor, slightly stained with blue. Lined with tanks and transparent plastic jars full of murky fluids and familiar unsettling shapes and masses. One of the jars has a rancor head in it. 

Glass door leada out to a room lined with compurers and hooked into jars of fluid and huge bacta tanks. Quit droids scuttle over the machines like spider.

The doctor is in, before anyone can properly identify the occupants of the tanks, he steps out from the shadows. The warbest follows behind. 

It is a rancor with a machine-like attachment to it skull. 

The doctor laughs and welcomes them to his lab. He is mildly curious before the alert, but will attack on site after the alert. 

He’s hella creepy.

Carrier Deck One 

Main deck. Lots of techs and roughly 40 troopers on guard. Another 100 are marching around the bay in formation.work crews are everywhere fixing things and putting other things back together. 

A dozen imperial shuttles; 50 tie fighters. The Distant Hope in the process of being dismantled and searched. The dead body of the original pilot is on a repulser lift stretcher in front of the ship. Several men in sickly green lab coats and filters masks built into their faces. 

Storm troopers mill around the outside of the ship. 

High chance of discovery. 

Carrier Deck Two

Mezzanine above the landing bay. Twenty meters up; runs all the way around the landing bay, except the space side. Multiple lifts and stairs. At least two control rooms. 

Lots of troopers and techs. Officers too. 

High chance of discovery. 

Command Station

Officer controlled security kiosk. One officer 10 troopers.  Unusual behavior is likely to lead to discovery. 

Control Room

Ship wide computer, system and facilities access. 1-3 empty. All sealed. 

Detention Block

Security kiosk with corridors lined with cells branching off it. 

Discovery 

Someone recognizes that their armor is damaged

An officer asks for papers.

Darth Quell

The sith lord shows up.  

Droids 

Separatist battle droids patrolling the hallway.  

Droid Rm

Storage and recycling. 10 imperial astromechs in wall rack. Lots of droid components.  

Sleeping guard. 

Engine room

Noise wall! Cavernous open space. Hundreds of trooper and techs. Catlwals and sup decks and control pits everywhere. Allkinds of building and reparing and welding. Noisy as fuck. 

Immediate confrontation. This is a high security area. 

Escape Pods [10]

See boarding pods.

Farm

A full level filled with farming fields and artificial light. Ag droids everywhere. Speeders near the lift. 

Gunnery

The ion cannon control room. 

Dozens of techs. Grimon Pitt, Military Archeologist. Darth Quell, reptilian lord of the Sith.

Med Bay

Several Too one b med droids. State of the med bay depends on what has been going down.  

Meat farm 

Rows and rows of meat vats. Droids tending the vats pay no mind to the pcs. 

Security Kiosk 

Octagonal kiosks in the  center of a 4 way intersection/lift bank.  It’s presence indicates on or the other. 

. 

Storm Troopers

4-24 (4d6)

Behavior dependent on intruder alert status. 

Torpedo Room

 Racks of Torpedos

Torture 

Empty awaiting clients

Two men in green robes with mandoid attachments working on a horrible looking machine

. 

From the mists of time; the Dwarf Thing revisted

Long ago, in the mists of 2014, I started a project that I found myself unable to finish; except I did finish it- but I suck at figuring that out- as I’ve recently been informed. The good news is I am going to put it together and re draw all the art and maps- and you’ll get some of my fancy new shit  with all the arrows and text clutter we’ve all grown to love.

Here is a link to everything I remembed to tag. There is more I’m sure. There is a
mega dungeon map at the very least.

The bad news is I’ll need to do like 100 illustrations. Because.
2014 was an exceeding bad art year. Brace yourself, youngling:

http://themetalearth.blogspot.com/search/label/Dwarfs

BX mars, final update

Mars went to the copy editor a few days ago layout is 8/10ths done and the cover art is below. The next time we’ll see anything about it here will be when we look at the proof in a month or so.