Note - there is actual game content at the end. Sometimes I just get oddly philosophical and throw things out there. Feel free to skip ahead!
I have a lot of strange thoughts, and often in the middle of doing something else so then lose those thoughts before I get a chance to write them down for later. For some reason, at the gym the other day between chest exercises, I started wandering around the concept of opinions. I think it was triggered by my constantly saying that developers such as myself are full of opinions. But also, yet another book coming out against the idea of free will. And then all that triggered me into wondering if I should get my readers' opinions as to what I should write about. All that while sitting on a bench press machine (I tend to cycle each chest day: barbells, dumbbells, machines. Figure get a bit of variety in, and this chest workout was back to the machines. But I, as usual, digress).
Anyway, part of this view on opinions is frameworks and software. Every time a developer solves a problem, there is a choice to which language, and increasingly, which framework, to use. And those choices last. Then I see the parallel with Traveller: Traveller has several frameworks: each version is a framework so to speak. Some are more inter-operational with others, but all can be used to play Traveller. Of course, this is not unique to Traveller as any TTRPG that lasts more than a few years ends up getting enough revisions to be a new version. Heck, even the OTU, if based on the rule set in place, has a different framework (and then Marc Miller writes Agent of the Imperium and changes even more of the framework).
And then I sprung full-bore into the idea of our universe being a computer simulation. Which does seem to preclude free will. And also makes it a clockwork universe, unless we throw in some truly random things that change things in unexpected ways. And then I brought in the oddity of quantum physics, a potentially self-aware universe that has its own opinions, then realized I read an awful lot of science fiction. And also see the connection between me preferring TTRPGs vs computer games: you can only do what is programmed in the system for a video game, even one with generative systems. TTRPGs have the infinite human mind backing the play. And if we're living in a computer simulation, it is way beyond anything we can currently even dream of doing. And then inception as we generate a computer simulation inside a computer simulation. Turtles all the way down for sure.
The initial choice of a game for instance has ramifications. Traveller, if using Classic, has characters that have few specific abilities and are pretty much the everyday person hopefully doing extraordinary things. As we move to MegaTraveller, we start to get skill creep, which tends to change how we play as well: do we have that skill vs we can do anything but are really good at a few specific things. And a subtle slide from role-playing to roll-playing.
Of course, this all really depends on the group playing. Of which they all have opinions on how to play. Some prefer a rules-light approach: just try to do things, and if necessary, let the dice adjudicate when things matter. Others prefer to roll for everything and have that roll defined on the character sheet. Though to be biased, I really think this is due to players coming from the video game RPG world versus us old people who have been playing for decades. And how did I get to be the same age as old people?! Though that theory falls short when some of my gaming buddies, as old as I am basically, rarely use the character sheet and just role play. And they play video game RPGs as well.
Though this also feeds into my grumpiness that we rarely go back to games and game systems. I've stopped getting more RPGs as I already have too many and I really want to get good at a few. Good at running and at playing. Others want to keep trying new things. Sometimes I get tired of trying new things and just want the comfort of things I know. I just know I am going to end up being a recluse...
And then I start to spiral down opinions and how politics feeds into that, and then I run away. There is a reason COTI sticks political discussions in the Pit, and even though as a Moot member I have access, I do not want to get mired into that mess!
And back to opinions: if anyone has any opinions on what they want me to write out, feel free to post comments. While I recognize this blog is mostly my blathering about a variety of perhaps tenuously linked things, I can try and write about specific things if some would like me to. And hey - 24 people actually following me which is both gratifying and silly to feel that gratification.
Game Content for the OSE game
And finally, as I needed 5 merchants that the group rescued, I decided (hmm, free will or as a result of some epiphenomenon interactions deep in my brain or my simulation of a brain [and now you know why I don't drink or do drugs - enough craziness already in my head!]) to create 5 merchants. I actually have a merchant character class for OSE, so let's just roll up 1 as the prototype, and the others will just get names.
Sady, there are actually some pretty high minimums for that class: INT 12, WIS 13 and CHAR 14. Normally I do roll and use the stats in order, then allow 1 extra roll to use wherever. Personally, I don't like the roll 4D and take the highest approach a lot of people use (hey, and opinion!) as I like, as previously mentioned, flawed characters that actually have characters instead of uber-characters. And interestingly, the current game few of the characters have any high stats, though there are a few exceptions. I took 2 tries to roll 6 stats that had at least 3 meeting the minimum, and allowed myself to re-arrange them.
STR: 11 INT: 14 WIS: 15 DEX: 6 CON: 10 CHA: 15
As he got caught pretty easily, I'll make him match our adventurers and be a level 2 merchant; the others are all level 1 as he is the leader of this small group. He is a member of the Sericulturist Guild, as they all are. Traveling as much as he has, he has a 1 in 6 chance to determine cardinal directions. He also, due to his intelligence and being a merchant, knows 3 languages: Common, Low Elven and Orc. There will be a story there for the Orc language and hopefully I'll both come up with that and remember next game session!
His skills, at level 2, include appraisal (AP) 25%, Bargaining (BR) 20%, Equivocate (EQ ) 10%, Lie Detection (LD) 10%, Open Locks (OL) 20% and find or remove traps (TR) 15%.
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| Samir Mitra |
Getting Samir, Ibn Tutullia, Borthelwort, Yin Lahoiu, and Ranno Grey back to town, the adventurers pick up that the wizard they killed, Quintis, was an aspiring necromancer who wanted to command an army of the undead. His spell backfired apparently: they were brought back to life but not under his control. His only bargaining chip was that he could give them flesh, he just needed victims. Which is where the merchants came in, captured a couple miles away at a campsite. While eager to return to Windemere Crossing, they would like to see if anything is left of their campsite.
Samir will note the game amulet Quinby is wearing and will recognize it as expensive. And he will also note that the adventurers have picked up quite the pile of gold.
And finally, as the adventurers leave the barrows, the two horses loaded up, Baldur notices a giant rat sitting at the entrance to the barrows, waving goodbye. And as they move off and the rat scurries back into the barrows, they may be able to hear a pixie screaming in anger as she finds her gold has been stolen.
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