Bay 12 Games Forum

It's a uh... interesting read.  AFAIK all but a coupe of them have been completely declassified and they are relentlessly documented so we know exactly what happened when and where.

The most interesting seem to be "a few" which contained information that was "marked classified".  There were two such and they have been declassified.

On August 2, 2012, she replied to an email containing this from her aide.  This reply included the text of the previous email, typed by Monica Hanley.

(C) Purpose of Call: Joint Special Envoy (JSE) Kofi Annan has requested to speak with you. On August 2, UN Secretary- General Ban announced that Annan has decided not to renew his mandate after it expires August 31.

On Aplril 8, 2012, she replied to an email containing this from her aide.  This reply included the text of the previous email typed by Monica Hanley as well.

(C) Purpose of Call: To offer condolences on the passing of President Mutharika and congratulate President Banda on her recent swearing in.

I put "scare quotes" around "marked classified" because marked classified has an exact legal definition which you are free to see here: http://www.archives.gov/isoo/training/marking-booklet.pdf
I quoted the part with the "(C)" however marking something classified also means putting a header at the start of the document saying classified and putting a footer that says the declassification date.

So that's two.  That leaves about 105 less interesting emails plus the two or three that haven't been declassified yet.  Anyone got the skinny on any other juicy bits as good as this?  I hope they're all this good!

I am GMing a game of Stars Without Number and am looking to add a replacement player for someone who dropped out due to computer problems.  The current players have been playing for two or three sessions but I want one more to round out the group.  The current players are experienced enough that I think someone completely new to SWN could be added without any disruption.  I've had good experiences with players found through these forums so I thought I'd see if there are any more takers here.

Stars Without Number is a science fiction setting, a bit like DnD in space.  It's much more freeform however, you are free to explore and plot instead of going through dungeons or fighting BBEGs.  It's possible to avoid or minimize combat.  For instance the last session of this game the players managed to completely bypass a space battle with preparation and luck.  If you want to save up credits and book passage to the opposite side of the sector, you are free to do so.  If you want to try and become space traders, you can do that.  If you want to become psychic queen of a planet, you can do that (although it will take a while!).  The basic rules are available for free online: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/86467/Stars-Without-Number-Free-Edition.  You dont need to understand every rule.  Basically you just need to know how to make a character, the basic setting and how to make skillchecks and attack rolls.  The rest you can pick up as you go.

The game takes place in the year 3200, hundreds of years after the Terran Mandate spread humanity through the stars, grew corrupt under it's own power and collapsed.  The inhabitants of one of the worlds in the sector have started traveling among the stars and setting up their own petty empires in between waging wars on each other.  Wealth and power await those who bravely go forth to civilize the uncivilized and the long lost technologies of the mandate are rumored to be out there.

Right now the game is scheduled for Friday at 11 AM EST.  We play using roll20 and use discord for chat and VoIP.  Anyone interested?

Way back when, being the boss was an old mans game.  It was a fairly simple matter, you'd blackmail your way into a strongarm position, loot the pension fund for all it was worth and walk away with other people's savings while someone else stepped forward for their turn.  These days, it takes a bit of a more hands on approach.  You aint nobody until someone tries to kill you, like they say.  See this scar here?  Deal gone right, cost me three toes too but no pain no gain.  See that one?  Deal gone wrong.  Or have I got them mixed up again?  Hm... but what was I saying?  I wasn't supposed to be talking about myself.  Who was I supposed to be talking about?  You asked me about one of the scrappy kids I crossed paths with way back when...

Name: (Whatever you feel is appropriate for the 23rd century)
Age: (Somewhere in the 20s and 30s)
Gender: (Yes please is not an answer)
Hometown: (Presumably on earth?  There's no hyperdrive or FTL in this setting)
Starting investments: (One of these: Hydroponics / Nuclear materials / Armaments / Energy / Metals / Polymers / Finance / Real Estate / Recreation and Media / Private Security)

((I thought it would be neat to make a suggestion game to play around with a futuristic setting and the intrigues that money will inspire when the technologies people use are very different.   After the starting five questions are answered I'll provide information more information about the setting, I just want you guys to answer these questions while you are still in the dark.  After all... we are all in the dark to some extent when we start any venture.))

So I'm pondering the idea of running a PBP game of DnD 3.5 but set in the real world with no magic classes or equipment.  Crazy I know but it might just work.  The science fiction behind the setting would be that a plague sweeps through the world in the middle 21st century that induces aphasia in the written language center of the brain.  Because this disease doesn't kill people it spreads to nearly everyone and almost the entire population of the world is rendered illiterate.  Technology is steadily lost with too few literate people able to maintain it.  By the mid 22nd century governments and old social structures are collapsing and the world is getting divided between warlords and petty tyrants.  The campaign would start soon after the dissolution of the US government in a world where people scavange and work to scrape by while still surrounded by the legacy of the past golden age.

While DnD is balanced around the fighter classes using magical weapons and armor to keep up with the difficulty curve, that wont be an issue with this setting.  There wont be spellcasters or magical monsters, just mundane enemies that will face a similar power curve.  That isn't ruling out the possibility of fighting exotic stuff like a tank or mutant beasts but the power of encounters will take into account the lack of magic.

Available equipment will be more crude then in DnD or D20 modern.  While modern weapons like assault rifles exist they are rare and expensive so players should be thinking more in terms of single shot zip guns at the start at least.  While it would be possible to use a Greatsword or a Katana those would be rare compared to easily made weapons like one handed axes or spears.  Cars are expensive relics of the past so expect to walk or use beasts or burden.

In terms of classes the four stabby classes dont need much tweaking to fit in.

Barbarian: Fits the setting and doesn't need to be changed at all.  City brawler barbarian variant might also be neat for someone who grew up in the mean streets.

Fighter: Pretty much good to go out of the box and customizable anyway.  Add personal firearms proficiency to the list of fighter bonus feats.  Fighters are illiterate by default because of the mass illiteracy of the population.  Add knowledge (tactics) to class skills.

Ranger: Non magical setting so doesn't get spells starting at level 4.  Instead gains 2nd favored enemy at level 4, improved combat style at level 5 and +10 movement in medium armor or less at level 6.  If the ranger has an animal companion it has no special qualities beyond what a well trained animal can do.  An animal companion is not free and must be paid to acquire and take care of as normal but the ranger doesn't pay a premium price for it's training.  Rangers are illiterate by default because of the mass illiteracy of the population.  Ranger favored enemies cant be humans in general but should refer to some sort of organization, ideology, nemesis or the like.

Rouge: Non magical setting so Use Magic Device and Decipher Script aren't in the class skills.  Add knowledge (popular culture) and knowledge(streetwise) to class skills.  Rogues are illiterate by default because of the mass illiteracy of the population.

Monks: Having your fists count as magical weapons isn't too useful in this setting so monks receive the Literate feat for free at level 4.

If players are interested in playing a variant class from some other rulebook I'm open to suggestions.  I'm currently playing around with the idea of creating a homebrew class that takes non spell abilities from both Bard and Paladin but I'm still ironing out the details of that.  This class would represent the rare people who aren't affected by the illiteracy.

In this setting it is not possible to buy literacy with skill points.  Instead if a character wants to become literate they need to get a feat for it.

Literate: The forgetting disease doesn't affect you as strongly as most people.  With careful practice and iron will it is possible for you to master basic reading and writing.  You can read at a rate of thirty words a minute and can write at a rate of five words per minute.

So what do people think of this idea?  Could a non-magical game of DnD work?

So another thread got highjacked by a bunch of people saying they thought it would be cool to work on a economic simulation game over the forums.  So lets discuss this in a non-highjacked thread.

So I think three questions come first.
1) What language will the game be?
2) Who can do what specific parts of the programming?
3) What will be the genre/nature of the game?

1) Language
Most people seemed to be interested in C++ as a language.  The advantage to this is that it is common and can be adapted to most tasks.  I can't say much more because I don't know C++ very well.  Someone would need to take up a leadership mantle who does know C++ well.
I am personally a fan of python.  It does a lot of what C++ does but it's just a little more logical and easy to understand, IMHO.
Java seemed less popular but has the benefit of allowing things to be done through a browser/website layout which is a plus.

So please say what your programming strengths are.  For instance I am most experienced with python and Tkinter but can try to brush up on other languages.

2) Roles
If you are interested in doing this then please say the specific parts of the game that you would be interested in programming.  I think we need to figure this out at the same time as 1.
For instance I would be interested in doing purchase/selling logic and programming a consumer AI.  My strengths in this regard is that I have training in economics so know how to set these up so things wont get imbalanced.  I am not very good with interfaces and would like if someone else focused on that.

3) Genre of the game
There are a lot of different genres within economic simulation.  There's business sim style like the capitalism games or detriot, there could be a roguelike trader game, there could be a macro-economic sim like Victoria.  I think we can't really make any descisions here until we figure out step 2 but it's worth discussing.

So it's been 10 years since I've owned a modern desktop.  I need to do something about this.  I figure that I can throw 500 bucks at the problem and get something decent.  I don't really know what I'm doing though so I decided to just go to Logical Increments and go across the fair row.  I decided to go up a step on the cpu because 20 bucks seems like a cheap price for an extra two cores to waste on extra chrome tabs and alt tabbing my programs.  So I've got:

grafix, cpu,HD, RAM, power, case

This is good, right?  I'm not some graphics junkie who wants to max out all the settings on Crysis (or even play it tph) but I figure this should open my horizons.  I'll be able to try pretty much anything modern (I hope?)

Of course what's missing from my list right now is a motherboard.  The logical increments fair tier recommendation is sold out and this is something I have zero experience in buying.  I'm thinking that http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138366 looks pretty similar but am like crazy afraid I'll mess this choice up.  Should I just wait for logical increments to come up with a new recommendation?  Should I go for it?  Should I go for something completely different?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3vdHCmP0WVNZmJUYVNwTjJfUzg/edit?usp=sharing

So yeah I'm still working on this remake and progress is coming pretty steadily along.  Ask for features and I'll probably implement them!  Go on, ask.

Also, if anyone has any suggestions for graphical resources that are freely available, that would be very much appreciated at this juncture!

Spring Break!  Class of 2069!  Let's paint New Orleans red!

That was the plan anyway.  Sadly there's really bad radiation storms all along the gulf coast and the high atmosphere ash grounded all airplanes on the east coast.  So then one of you said "I dunno, let's go camping or some shit."  None of you had any better plan (what, were you drunk, stupid or both?) so you are currently headed east towards the closest camping ground you could find to University of Maryland.  You are at about the halfway point across the Chesapeake Bay, about an hour out from University.

Who came up with the idea to go camping?  I guess they must be your defacto leader right now because no one else had any ideas.  Care to let me know about their name/age/gender/major, etc?  And how many of you are there anyway?

-Your car is currently low on ethanol.
-Your drink coolers are well stocked.
-It's Thursday so the traffic is pretty bad but you are creeping along.