I was out for most of the day. I have five minutes now, to write something for "today's" blog. Coincidentally, from my G+ stream it seems that people are registering for Gencon.
Another year, another Gencon missed. One of these days, I'll be there.
And oh what a year that will be. I half-expect the Earth will shake.
Anyways, my best wishes and eternal envy to those who are going.
RPGPundit
Currently Smoking: Lorenzetti Solitario Egg + Gawith's Navy Flake
Sunday, 17 May 2015
Saturday, 16 May 2015
DCC Campaign Update: Birth of the Cyber-Redneck
In this adventure, the PCs were caught up in the midst of:
-The Cleric Ack'Basha falling deeper and deeper into the rabbit-hole of his implausible revenge-fantasy against Sezrekan.
-the new Warrior in the party, Byfeld, turning out to be pretty much based on this guy:
-discussing whether someone could "Forest Walk" through a Necrotreant; and deciding to err on the side of caution
-a minor incident when the Warrior Redneck claims that "all purple mutants look alike".
-A series of other George-W-Bushisms from said Redneck Warrior
-coming to the realization that Schul, the party's rogue, is a really terrible liar. As in, really bad at it.
-Encountering the dreaded Necrotreant, and learning that among his various statements of religious-policy, he has declared hats an abomination.
-meeting the Purple Mutant Chief, who is desperate to prove that he's still totally relevant, and has not at all been completely marginalized into obscurity by the Necrotreant and his religious cult of shaman-wizards.
-Bush-related paranoia. Not as in George W., but as in literal bushes. It's scary to try to sneak up on the Necrotreant in the middle of a forest when the dude can apparently turn any foliage into a horrific vegetable-undead monstrosity.
-A near-interminable rambling and pointless anecdote from the King of Elfland, who is very clearly the Grandpa Simpson of Daemon-Patrons
-realizing that to the Necrotreant, it's not just hats; pretty much EVERYTHING is an "abomination".
-finding that the whole of the Purple Mutant Tribe is just in denial. Caught up in their best chance ever to destroy their hated enemies, the Smug Elves of the Silver Dome, they've managed to convince themselves that when the NecroTreant says that "mutants are an abomination", he obviously must mean all those OTHER mutants, not them. Surely this won't come back to bite them in the ass.
-Realizing that for the moment it's probably better to join them rather than try to beat them; though joining them might mean having to eat a delicious-looking stew made out of Green Mutant Princesses.
-reluctantly joining the cause of the NecroTreant in exchange for Queen Priscilla of the Grey People being liberated, rather than added to the stew. And immediately regretting it, because now they have to put up with Queen Priscilla again. Queen Priscilla, on the other hand, is very pleased with the death of her fellow princesses, since she was pretty sure they were all "skanks" who "probably had STDs".
-Discovering new boundaries to just how badass Sandy the Bikini-Chainmail Barbarian is, when she manages to be terrifyingly threatening while armed with nothing more than a sharpened carrot.
-Figuring out that casting Sleep while floating sixty feet in the air might not be such a good idea, if you misfire and end up dozing off in mid-flight and plummeting to your near-death.
-the clear confirmation that the Purple Mutant Chief is definitely no longer in any way relevant.
-Finding that the Purple Mutants like the worship hard, sacrifice hard, and then party hard with a post-cannibalism rave dance. It's pretty much like that with all barbarians, as the party's willingness to party is pretty evenly split along barbarian/civilized lines.
-waking up the next morning with a variety of levels of hangover; the best case being very mild, the worst cases being Redneck Warrior who got into a drunken knife-fight, and Queen Priscilla who accidentally killed a Purple Mutant during some heavy necking when she forgot that she was poisonous to humanoids. Fortunately, Schul the Rogue might be a really bad liar, but he is a fully-trained former grave-digger.
-getting that Queen Priscilla may be the most annoying entity in the multiverse, when she can manage to get Ack'Basha the normally placid party cleric to mock-drown her in a bucket of water. Though he was still nice enough to give her a potion of water-breathing first. Predictably, Queen Priscilla thinks Ack'Basha is the 'perviest cleric ever' and that he's obviously doing it because he 'fancies' her.
-An assessment of their present choices: Night the Elf is fighting a one-woman guerrilla war against the NecroTreant, while everyone else in the party has decided to join him in his assault on the Silver Dome. No one is sure if either is really a good idea.
-Deciding to get the heck out of Dodge (or rather, of the Purple Mutant town of Cordallen) while the getting is good; but pausing briefly so Redneck Warrior can pick up some wild carrots to make up for the one he lost in the drunken knife-fight.
-later deciding to tie Queen Priscilla to a tree and abandon her in the woods while going to see how the Purple-Mutant/Smug-Elf battle-royale goes down.
-Watching as the Elven lightning-gun defenses cause a near-immediate rout among the panicky purple mutants. But things get interesting when the NecroTreant apparently sacrifices all of his undead treants to drive roots up against the foundations of the Dome, cracking it open.
-Continuing to watch from the security of a hiding place as the Purple mutants rally, only to flee again when their shamans accidentally botch their Choking Cloud spell and cause a lethal poison-gas attack on their own ranks. Things get worse when the Elves release their hunter-killer droids; but the NecroTreant still has some tricks up his sleeve, as he entangles them in fungal vines until the robots are crushed.
-Finally deciding to join the fray, or at least try to make a dash-and-grab for some quick loot, when they see the Purple Mutant elite warriors sneaking their way toward the crack in the dome while carrying a mysterious and elaborate box that just screams 'secret weapon'.
-Managing to get through the crack under a spell of darkness only to get pinned down under a hail of blaster fire from Elven and Android troops.
-attempting to hold against the barrage; all except Night, who flies off to keep an eye on the NecroTreant, and Byfeld the Redneck Warrior, who tries to hide inside the Secret-Weapon-Box even though it's clearly not large enough for him to fit in.
-Discovering that the Secret-Weapon box is filled with hideous writhing fungal-undead seeds. Not sure what else to do, and seeing his team-mates on the verge of getting slaughtered, Redneck Warrior decides to do what he does best and smash the living shit out of the weird seed-pods.
-observing the shattering of the NecroTreant's dreams of purity, as the seeds he planned to germinate in an explosion of the Silver Dome's powersphere (an explosion that would have utterly annihilated all life within a radius of a thousand miles) to create a new race of Mutant NecroTreants are destroyed by a human yokel with an oversized mace.
-running like hell from the super-efficient Smug Elves and their Android soldiers, abandoning the critically-injured Redneck Warrior to his fate.
-an act of blatant opportunism as Night the Elf takes advantage of the NecroTreant's distracted grief to hit him with every spell he's got. As it turns out, the King of Elfland's modified 'haste' spell provides Night with ALMOST enough power to kill the already-wounded NecroTreant; fortunately for Night, good old-fashioned fire manages to finish the job before the NecroTreant can retaliate with his death ray.
-groaning as the King of Elfland, who just maybe, maybe, is not quite as senile as he lets on, cannot resist the pun of saying that the NecroTreant's "bark" was worse than his bite.
-a denoument, as Byfeld the Redneck Warrior wakes up in the middle of the Tangled Forest, finding that instead of being elf-food, he's been set loose in the forest, and his horrific laser-injuries repaired in the form of a cybernetic lower-body... and possibly a mind-controlling brain-implant.
RPGPundit
Currently Smoking: Mastro De Paja Bent Billiard + Rattray's Marlin Flake
Friday, 15 May 2015
10th Anniversary Classic Rant: What Levels Do
Let's start, before anything else, by separating the concept of "level" from the concept of "class". Because of D&D, where both these concepts came up and are intertwined intrinsically, there is the idea that you can't have "Level" without having "class". Even in D20, this isn't true. D20 Cthulhu, for example, is essentially a classless system, but has levels.
A debate pro or con for class could be handled at a different time, but today is "level"'s turn.
So what exactly does "level" mean in RPG context? At its basic, it is a concept for representing character advancement, by which a player, over time, improves at his abilities. It is most notable, and listen carefully because a lot of people don't get this, for its limiting qualities, rather than its permissive qualities.
That is, a Level isn't there to tell you what stuff you are getting so much as to tell you what limit there is to the stuff you get.
A lot of people who have issues with the concepts of "Level", in reality have issues with the D&D concept of level. In the latter, when you go up in level, you gain more hit points, skill points, possibly a new feat, and your combat and saving throws all go up.
For some people, there is an issue of "realism" at play with that idea, of across the board advances. Even if a wizard's combat bonus will be lower than a warrior's at 20th level, why is it necessary at all for the wizard's combat bonus to go up, they ask? To them, the idea that spending more time being a better thief makes your hit points go up, or that spending time being a better wizard makes your combat abilities go up, seems ludicrous.
And there's certainly some validity in that. Someone could provide the counterargument that a wizard spending a lot of time around warriors will, even if he never gets in a single fight himself, pick up a few pointers about combat that he could in theory use; but that counterargument is imperfect at best. It doesn't explain why, for example, an NPC wizard who lives in Wizardopolis where no warriors are allowed, and never gets into fights, would get better at combat as he goes up in level.
However, these are not really issues with the concept of "Level" so much as issues with how D&D in particular combines "level" and "class".
Now, if we remember that fundamentally, the mechanical raison d'être of Levels is limiting, rather than permissive, we grasp that Levels aren't really there to "give" you stuff, they're there to give you a LIMIT to where your current "stuff" can be.
In terms of game playability, this is why levels are so incredibly useful. Levels serve to say: "after x number of adventures you can only do +y maximum with ability Z". Whether "x" is reflected through experience points, raw point awards, or some other weirder mechanic is irrelevant. But what is important is that it prevents you from raising ability Z any HIGHER than value "y".
So a Level is really a limit. Its saying that a 7th level fighter can't have better than +7 to fight; or that a 12th level wizard can't cast higher than 12th level spells.
What happens if you don't use levels? Then suddenly, you are left with a system where there is no "y" maximum.
Systems without levels are usually point-buy systems, though not always. In a point-buy system, your only "Limits" are the concept of your own character and the number of "advancement points" you have to spend.
And inevitably, in any unlimited point-buy system I have seen, you will end up with people minimizing-maximizing their skills, abilities, stats in general in order to end up with one or two stats that are radically greater than they should be, and a number that are probably less than they ought to be.
This is a very serious problem, and the disease that leveling intends to avoid.
Because, let's face it, "character concept" is usually a very very frail system of limiting abuse, even in the most dedicated of immersion players. If you see the mechanical value of pumping all 25 of your advancement points into the "shortbow" ability, and therefore ending up grossly overbalanced with the shortbow, you will come up with some "character concept" excuse to justify it.
This is just human nature.
(point buy also generally takes a lot longer, without any grand equivalent in creativity from a well-crafted leveling system, as far as I'm concerned)
And the very proof is in D&D. Of all those people I see complaining about "why would a 20th level wizard have a +7 to hit?", I have never seen one say "I don't think it fits MY concept, so thanks for the offer but I will just keep my wizard at +0 to hit even though I get nothing in exchange for that".
Yes, they'd probably willingly trade that +7 for a bonus in some other thing (maybe spellcasting), but they'd never just choose not to advance. So basically, they'd willingly choose to min-max, but they wouldn't actually choose to play a character that they knew would be weaker at something they admit is outside their character concept, just because of principle.
And that's human nature too, because if you know that every other 20th level wizard is going to have +7, you don't want to feel inferior or more vulnerable.
Meanwhile, without the structure of level-based advancement, in a point buy system that wizard would be min-maxing his powers just like everyone else.
Now, there are some point-buy systems that impose caps on how many points you can put in a single stat. This is outside the argument, however, because by default the moment you create any kind of cap for advancement you are creating levels! The system in question might not call it levels, but if it quacks like a duck...
Thus, the question isn't really about "are Levels good things"? So much as the question is "what kind of level system do you want"? Do you want the simplicity of across-the-board advancement, or do you want a point-allotment advancement where you can choose what advances, but every stat has its cap?
This ends up being a question of taste, and of what kind of play you want your system to emulate.
But any system that doesn't impose a Level concept of some kind, be it across-the-board-non-exchangeable or points-with-caps, is going to end up being far too vulnerable to min-maxing and thus to game imbalances.
On a final note, there are a couple of other approaches besides point-buy that try to create balanced advancement systems without using levels. Most of these end up being either too byzantine or too simplistic to be really playable.
One in particular, however, does seem to provide a viable alternative: that would be the BRP/Chaosium/Cthulhu system; wherein you only advance in skills you have used in-game, and you only advance via an advancement check. In BRP, this is done by rolling percentiles and getting the percentage value of the skill or higher, and gaining a die's worth of advancement in that skill.
This sort of system is eminently playable, but it does create two new complications that do not appear in level-based systems:
1. there is no simple way to reflect study for the gaining of new skills. In Cthulhu, someone can go through training (usually college courses) to gain advancement in a new skill he does not already have. However, with certain skills this doesn't seem very logical (what exactly would constitute a six-month course in "dodge"?) and it also leads to people potentially trying to maximize their "study" time in order to abuse the system.
2. This system creates a tendency to try to "use" as many skills as humanly possible in each session, again to maximize the number of checks you get. This was at its worst in systems like Runequest, where players would literally go around with wheelbarrows of weapons and try to hit with each weapon once, in order to go up in each different weapon skill.
This second problem can be moderated by making skills more generalized and less specified (so that the players don't feel pushed to use a different weapon each time, since they'll gain in a "weapon class" rather than a "weapon type"), and by judicious GM standards of what constitutes a "Valid" skill check that warrants an advancement at the end of the session.
The first problem is resolved mostly by time constraints and GM use of common sense to limit how many "courses" a player can take to gain new skills.
Despite these problems, a BRP-style "use only" advancement scheme is still usually far more balanced than a no-limits point-buy level-less system.
So there you have it. The conclusion is that Levels are not just good, they are practically essential to a balanced system, with very few exceptions. The real issue is in finding a Level mechanic that actually suits your likes and needs.
RPGPundit
(Originally posted January 13 2006)
A debate pro or con for class could be handled at a different time, but today is "level"'s turn.
So what exactly does "level" mean in RPG context? At its basic, it is a concept for representing character advancement, by which a player, over time, improves at his abilities. It is most notable, and listen carefully because a lot of people don't get this, for its limiting qualities, rather than its permissive qualities.
That is, a Level isn't there to tell you what stuff you are getting so much as to tell you what limit there is to the stuff you get.
A lot of people who have issues with the concepts of "Level", in reality have issues with the D&D concept of level. In the latter, when you go up in level, you gain more hit points, skill points, possibly a new feat, and your combat and saving throws all go up.
For some people, there is an issue of "realism" at play with that idea, of across the board advances. Even if a wizard's combat bonus will be lower than a warrior's at 20th level, why is it necessary at all for the wizard's combat bonus to go up, they ask? To them, the idea that spending more time being a better thief makes your hit points go up, or that spending time being a better wizard makes your combat abilities go up, seems ludicrous.
And there's certainly some validity in that. Someone could provide the counterargument that a wizard spending a lot of time around warriors will, even if he never gets in a single fight himself, pick up a few pointers about combat that he could in theory use; but that counterargument is imperfect at best. It doesn't explain why, for example, an NPC wizard who lives in Wizardopolis where no warriors are allowed, and never gets into fights, would get better at combat as he goes up in level.
However, these are not really issues with the concept of "Level" so much as issues with how D&D in particular combines "level" and "class".
Now, if we remember that fundamentally, the mechanical raison d'être of Levels is limiting, rather than permissive, we grasp that Levels aren't really there to "give" you stuff, they're there to give you a LIMIT to where your current "stuff" can be.
In terms of game playability, this is why levels are so incredibly useful. Levels serve to say: "after x number of adventures you can only do +y maximum with ability Z". Whether "x" is reflected through experience points, raw point awards, or some other weirder mechanic is irrelevant. But what is important is that it prevents you from raising ability Z any HIGHER than value "y".
So a Level is really a limit. Its saying that a 7th level fighter can't have better than +7 to fight; or that a 12th level wizard can't cast higher than 12th level spells.
What happens if you don't use levels? Then suddenly, you are left with a system where there is no "y" maximum.
Systems without levels are usually point-buy systems, though not always. In a point-buy system, your only "Limits" are the concept of your own character and the number of "advancement points" you have to spend.
And inevitably, in any unlimited point-buy system I have seen, you will end up with people minimizing-maximizing their skills, abilities, stats in general in order to end up with one or two stats that are radically greater than they should be, and a number that are probably less than they ought to be.
This is a very serious problem, and the disease that leveling intends to avoid.
Because, let's face it, "character concept" is usually a very very frail system of limiting abuse, even in the most dedicated of immersion players. If you see the mechanical value of pumping all 25 of your advancement points into the "shortbow" ability, and therefore ending up grossly overbalanced with the shortbow, you will come up with some "character concept" excuse to justify it.
This is just human nature.
And the very proof is in D&D. Of all those people I see complaining about "why would a 20th level wizard have a +7 to hit?", I have never seen one say "I don't think it fits MY concept, so thanks for the offer but I will just keep my wizard at +0 to hit even though I get nothing in exchange for that".
Yes, they'd probably willingly trade that +7 for a bonus in some other thing (maybe spellcasting), but they'd never just choose not to advance. So basically, they'd willingly choose to min-max, but they wouldn't actually choose to play a character that they knew would be weaker at something they admit is outside their character concept, just because of principle.
And that's human nature too, because if you know that every other 20th level wizard is going to have +7, you don't want to feel inferior or more vulnerable.
Meanwhile, without the structure of level-based advancement, in a point buy system that wizard would be min-maxing his powers just like everyone else.
Now, there are some point-buy systems that impose caps on how many points you can put in a single stat. This is outside the argument, however, because by default the moment you create any kind of cap for advancement you are creating levels! The system in question might not call it levels, but if it quacks like a duck...
Thus, the question isn't really about "are Levels good things"? So much as the question is "what kind of level system do you want"? Do you want the simplicity of across-the-board advancement, or do you want a point-allotment advancement where you can choose what advances, but every stat has its cap?
This ends up being a question of taste, and of what kind of play you want your system to emulate.
But any system that doesn't impose a Level concept of some kind, be it across-the-board-non-exchangeable or points-with-caps, is going to end up being far too vulnerable to min-maxing and thus to game imbalances.
On a final note, there are a couple of other approaches besides point-buy that try to create balanced advancement systems without using levels. Most of these end up being either too byzantine or too simplistic to be really playable.
One in particular, however, does seem to provide a viable alternative: that would be the BRP/Chaosium/Cthulhu system; wherein you only advance in skills you have used in-game, and you only advance via an advancement check. In BRP, this is done by rolling percentiles and getting the percentage value of the skill or higher, and gaining a die's worth of advancement in that skill.
This sort of system is eminently playable, but it does create two new complications that do not appear in level-based systems:
1. there is no simple way to reflect study for the gaining of new skills. In Cthulhu, someone can go through training (usually college courses) to gain advancement in a new skill he does not already have. However, with certain skills this doesn't seem very logical (what exactly would constitute a six-month course in "dodge"?) and it also leads to people potentially trying to maximize their "study" time in order to abuse the system.
2. This system creates a tendency to try to "use" as many skills as humanly possible in each session, again to maximize the number of checks you get. This was at its worst in systems like Runequest, where players would literally go around with wheelbarrows of weapons and try to hit with each weapon once, in order to go up in each different weapon skill.
This second problem can be moderated by making skills more generalized and less specified (so that the players don't feel pushed to use a different weapon each time, since they'll gain in a "weapon class" rather than a "weapon type"), and by judicious GM standards of what constitutes a "Valid" skill check that warrants an advancement at the end of the session.
The first problem is resolved mostly by time constraints and GM use of common sense to limit how many "courses" a player can take to gain new skills.
Despite these problems, a BRP-style "use only" advancement scheme is still usually far more balanced than a no-limits point-buy level-less system.
So there you have it. The conclusion is that Levels are not just good, they are practically essential to a balanced system, with very few exceptions. The real issue is in finding a Level mechanic that actually suits your likes and needs.
RPGPundit
(Originally posted January 13 2006)
Thursday, 14 May 2015
Tip Your Friendly Neighbourhood Pundit
So now that the Bundle for Nepal is wrapped up, having raised over $3300 for the CARE Nepal charity, I can get back to a charity a little bit closer to home: The Pundit's Coffee & Tobacco Fund.
If you like my work here, or what I do in general, and want me to keep it up, please consider putting some cash in my virtual tip jar over on the side, in the Paypal Donation button. Pick any category you want.
All money in this particular charity will be utterly squandered in order to help me achieve the particular altered states of consciousness that assist me to do my best writing.
Thanks!
RPGPundit
Currently Smoking: Lorenzetti Solitario Egg + Gawith's Navy Flake
If you like my work here, or what I do in general, and want me to keep it up, please consider putting some cash in my virtual tip jar over on the side, in the Paypal Donation button. Pick any category you want.
All money in this particular charity will be utterly squandered in order to help me achieve the particular altered states of consciousness that assist me to do my best writing.
Thanks!
RPGPundit
Currently Smoking: Lorenzetti Solitario Egg + Gawith's Navy Flake
Wednesday, 13 May 2015
Grant Morrison's "18 Days"
Today, just a short blog entry. I was recently given this book by Jong WK (RPGsite regular and former Shadowrun-writer and fellow Uruguayan gamer). It was a wonderful present, and I thought I'd mention that if you are into Arrows of Indra, you should probably check this book out for some serious inspiration. Particularly if you want to have more of Kirby-esque style to your Arrows of Indra campaign. It's a fantasy/sci-fi version of the Mahabharata war (the 18 days being how long the war at Kurukshetra lasted), which is to say the exact same period of time the setting of the Bharata Kingdoms is based on in Arrows. The story bible provides details for many of the exact same characters that are briefly mentioned in AoI.
Plus, check out some art:
The book is totally full of some truly amazing artwork. So, if you're an AoI fan, you should probably check out "18 Days".
RPGPundit
Currently Smoking: Stanwell Deluxe + Image Latakia
Plus, check out some art:
The book is totally full of some truly amazing artwork. So, if you're an AoI fan, you should probably check out "18 Days".
RPGPundit
Currently Smoking: Stanwell Deluxe + Image Latakia
Tuesday, 12 May 2015
Pictures From Uruguay (Part IV)
Time for another installment!
Today, just a few street-scenes from the Cordon.
This is one of several little streets in the Cordon that are only like, one or two blocks long. The spot with the little flags where the street ends is a a daycare of some kind. Again, you can see the big variety of architectural styles.
Probably my favorite of these micro-streets is "Arismendi" street. It's named after the founder of Uruguay's Communist Party; and it's a pointless street that goes nowhere. I think that's very fitting.
As you can see, Montevideo is a fairly green city, and the Cordon especially so. One of the boundary-areas of the neighbourhood is the Parque Rodo, which is a large urban park with a number of interesting spots and statuary (and even a little castle!). One of these days I'll go take some photos there to show y'all.
I can't remember if these shots were taken on a Sunday, or in the afternoon. either cases would explain why everything is closed. In pretty much all of Montevideo, most stores are closed on Sundays. In the Cordon, they have the curious habit (something that was once common all over the city, but is now very rare outside of this area) of having stores close during an extended lunch-time/siesta period in the middle of the day. You'll note that first store is a bookstore: Montevideo has more bookstores than just about any city I've ever seen. They're everywhere.
And for the last one today: here's a shot of a 'mini plaza'. Montevideo is marked by a number of very big plazas which often form the epicenter of a local neighbourhood . The big ones cover an entire city block. But it also has a variety of tiny plazas; and the Cordon in particular has a large number of these. They all have names (stuff like "Plaza Salvador Allende"), and usually but not always have at least one tree. Occasionally they have a statue or some other piece of art.
In this case, this one is basically just an island in the intersection of several streets; that spot to the left of the plaza is actually a monument, though, I think to political prisoners of fascist regimes or something like that. I'm not sure, because someone stole its sign the last time I looked.
Stay tuned for the next installment, where I'll be showing you a local delicacy of the city that is probably bound to make you jealous.
RPGPundit
Currently Smoking: Lorenzetti Oversize + H&H's Beverwyck
Today, just a few street-scenes from the Cordon.
This is one of several little streets in the Cordon that are only like, one or two blocks long. The spot with the little flags where the street ends is a a daycare of some kind. Again, you can see the big variety of architectural styles.
Probably my favorite of these micro-streets is "Arismendi" street. It's named after the founder of Uruguay's Communist Party; and it's a pointless street that goes nowhere. I think that's very fitting.
As you can see, Montevideo is a fairly green city, and the Cordon especially so. One of the boundary-areas of the neighbourhood is the Parque Rodo, which is a large urban park with a number of interesting spots and statuary (and even a little castle!). One of these days I'll go take some photos there to show y'all.
I can't remember if these shots were taken on a Sunday, or in the afternoon. either cases would explain why everything is closed. In pretty much all of Montevideo, most stores are closed on Sundays. In the Cordon, they have the curious habit (something that was once common all over the city, but is now very rare outside of this area) of having stores close during an extended lunch-time/siesta period in the middle of the day. You'll note that first store is a bookstore: Montevideo has more bookstores than just about any city I've ever seen. They're everywhere.
And for the last one today: here's a shot of a 'mini plaza'. Montevideo is marked by a number of very big plazas which often form the epicenter of a local neighbourhood . The big ones cover an entire city block. But it also has a variety of tiny plazas; and the Cordon in particular has a large number of these. They all have names (stuff like "Plaza Salvador Allende"), and usually but not always have at least one tree. Occasionally they have a statue or some other piece of art.
In this case, this one is basically just an island in the intersection of several streets; that spot to the left of the plaza is actually a monument, though, I think to political prisoners of fascist regimes or something like that. I'm not sure, because someone stole its sign the last time I looked.
Stay tuned for the next installment, where I'll be showing you a local delicacy of the city that is probably bound to make you jealous.
RPGPundit
Currently Smoking: Lorenzetti Oversize + H&H's Beverwyck
Monday, 11 May 2015
Traveller Campaign Update: Monkeys Throwing Rocks Edition
So in our latest adventure, the PCs started out very carefully and meticulously trying to explore the freaking-huge Ancient Superstarship. At first. After a short while, of exploring crazy super-machines that they stood no chance of comprehending, that were at the very limits of their most theoretical science and logic, these prime examples of some of the greatest spacefarers and scientists and archeologists of the Third Imperium were basically acting like these guys:
I swear to christ, by about halfway through the session they were literally throwing rocks at some of these alien objects to see if anything happened!
Speaking of rocks, at one point they found a machine making apparently-useless cubes, and for no apparent reason decided to take one with them:
(so basically this, but without the love)
Finally they managed to figure out the internal teleportation system enough to get around, the professor found a universal translation rock in an alien coffin, and they got to what passes for the bridge, only to find out that the ship's computer is basically this guy:
They managed to get the ship out into space at long last, only to find that the Imperium's version of Inspector Javert was waiting for them with a capital ship. Even so, he was willing to forgive all and shower them with every reward the Imperial House can offer in exchange for the only functioning Ancient's starship ever found (hell, the only Ancient find ever that wasn't basically just garbage and ruins); and it looks like the PCs will finally be coming out winners. Then, suddenly, it's all snatched away from them as that same small space-column that had previously appeared to save their asses the last time the Imperium had caught them appears again, and promptly disintegrates the entire capital ship (thus erasing a guy who was in a lot of the PC's list of official enemies).
The PCs are ambivalent about this: on the one hand, they went in about 2.5 seconds from being the most wanted criminals in the subsector, to being Heroes of the Empire, to being the most wanted criminals in the Empire period. On the other, "Javert" was dead. Also, the guy piloting the other Ancient vessel claims to be the supposedly dead Uncle Roman. But now he wants the PCs to hand the Ancient starship over to him; and what's worse, he's apparently working for the Traveller universe's version of this guy:
He promises them power unlimited, naturally, and all their wildest dreams, but before half the party can agree, the other half tells their mentally-defective ship's computer to do an emergency jump.
The computer obeys, they get away, for now, and end up in some kind of starship-sized teleporter platform in the middle of nowhere, that takes them... somewhere...
RPGPundit
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