On the Morality of AI (from an rPG net thread about Eclipse Phase “Their morality may seem alien because we may not want to grasp it but, at the end of the day, these will be our creations, our monsters. If they see us as annoying bugs, then it will be because we will have…
Category: Commentary
Gallifreyans do it in Time…
Wired writes about Gallifreyan incest: “Doctor Who star David Tennant is currently dating Georgia Moffett — the actress who portrayed The Doctor’s daughter in the Who episode of that same name. Moffett is the daughter of Peter Davison, who played The Doctor’s fifth incarnation. So, she’s a Doctor’s daughter playing The Doctor’s daughter. She’s also…
Erick Wujick has passed away
Kevin Siembieda writes: “Erick passed away as gentle as a snowflake.” That’s how Kay Kozora, Erick’s ‘Beautiful Kate’ of nearly 30 years put it when she called with the sad news. She and other loved ones were present when Erick passed away, Saturday evening, June 7, 2008. A Press Release with more details can be…
Questions about Frontier
Back in the day, Eamon, Colin and I did spend some time discussing the concepts a long time ago but it’s clear that we had divergent ideas. Some of these were because we knew too much (when you mix biologists and physicists and try to make a far-future sci-fi setting) and some of it was…
Citizen: a skill?
In our BRP-based Runequest game, Michael has asked a few times for rolls on ‘Gloranthan Lore’ and ‘Human Lore’ so that we can remember items from our own cultures. Because we’re all grotesque combat monsters (with the exception of Jim’s character), we’ve all spent maybe 10-20 points on these skills. Pretty feeble really but not…
COPS – Japan Stylee
Eamon, a technologist in the area of Cybernetics I know[1], posted this: “If you peruse Japanese foreign-resident forums you’ll read a depressing amount of stories about foreigners being told to sign kanji-laden papers ‘so you can go’, only to find they’ve signed a confession – which the courts accept as totally truthful. That acceptance of…
Transhumanism
In 1966, Transhuman was defined by F. M. Esfandiary (later, FM-2030) as: included physical and mental augmentations including prostheses, reconstructive surgery, intensive use of telecommunications, a cosmopolitan outlook and a globetrotting lifestyle, androgyny, mediated reproduction (such as in vitro fertilisation), absence of religious beliefs, and a rejection of traditional family values. (Source: Wikipedia The word…
War of the Worlds: Earth concept art
Which do people like more? (See the comments for more info)
D&D 4th Edition – A lazy blog post
I decided to just post verbatim an IM conversation between the two of us about D&D 4th Edition. I make no apologies for my laziness.
The 23rd Letter: in film?
Back in late 2006, I got a bit of a shock. Maybe you do as I do but I like to beachcomb through Google and see what people are saying about the things I have written. I pick up a few comments about The 23rd Letter and Zombi most often, usually through RPG.net which seems…
RPGnet whiners strike again
I loathe it when the RPGnet whiner crew crawl out of the woodwork and accuse people of being passive aggressive with the threat of bringing down the mods. You can’t even express an opinion without being asked to tone your language and the P-A finger is then pointed. That’s the absolute definition of the Ad…
Things like this inspire games
NASA media announcement I can think of a half-dozen things that would make a great game. It’s not going to be any of those things though. It’ll be something dull like a new source of some type of radiation.
Resolutions: Dealing with Canon and Context
Canon is the past in the play. It establishes facts which have gone before. It doesn’t mean it can’t be retconned afterwards but for the most part it is immutable (or at least it should have immutable facts and mutable descriptors, the latter of which may be changed due to Context. Context is the present…
Ransom
The idea of ransoming game material is definitely new and innovative. It’s being done rather successfully by Greg Stolze for his Reign supplements and there’s a Delta Green book ‘Targets of Opportunity’ which is being funded this way as well. Shane Ivey wrote: “If we collect enough “pledges” through Fundable.com to cover the various and…
23L Superhumans
Having some spare time yesterday evening I resurrected some of my notes for ‘superpowers’ in T23L. It wasn’t part of the plan to have 23L superhumans – though I was accused by Jeremy of writing my own ‘supers’ game when we published The 23rd Letter. We did have quasi-superhumans in the form of the Furies…
Hawt babes of Star Trek: The Original Series
Flickr link We will NOT be using these as guidelines for aliens represented in Refugee and Frontier.
Mutants and Masterminds.
Every now and then, someone asks on the RPG.net forums… What’s the best supers game? and every time the Mutants and Masterminds people come out of the woodwork to tell us that M&M is not a d20 game. It doesn’t have levels, hit points or attacks of opportunity. Now…this last one is a D&D specific…
Solo: The Hero’s Journey (Part 2)
mj: I do wonder how superheroes pay their way aidan: Ever see ‘Dead Like Me’ ? mj: one or two eps aidan:They addressed that a bit. mj: didn’t they all have to have full time jobs? aidan: Pretty much 🙂 mj: See, that would suck… aidan: shrug aidan: But it’s realistic aidan: In my character’s…