May the 4th Be With You, But I Need a Fifth

I know that I wrote a post only a few days ago that was basically a link dump, but here I go again.  I wish I had time for more today, but this is going to be one of those weeks where time is at a premium for me and I'm choosing to spend a good chunk of what little writing time I have this week working on the crunchy bits for the still-untitled tabletop rpg I'm developing.

My starting point for those rules is a framework called Fudge (which used to be called FUDGE, but is now "new and improved" with fewer capital letters - by "new" I mean about 10 years ago).  You can follow the link above to see what Fudge is all about.  I'll be using the Fudge SRD as my jumping off point (actually, I'm using this PDF of the SRD) and completely customizing Fudge, a bit like the guys over at Evil Hat did for the excellent looking new Dresden Files RPG, but I'll be going in a much different direction (they created a new system based on Fudge called FATE).  You can do that with Fudge, since it's more like a framework than an actual ruleset.  It allows you to build a ruleset out of that basic framework without tying you down.  A huge bonus is that it is royalty-free and completely OGL compatible, thus easy to license and customize.

As far as the game goes, I am still sans title, but otherwise, things are rolling along rather smoothly (other than my huge lack of time to write - damn that day job!)  Yesterday, I received some awesome fan art from someone I've been gaming with for a long time.  I also exchanged emails with someone about potentially doing the art for the game (I know that's a long way down the road, but it felt right).  Hopefully it will work out because she's really good, likes where I'm going with this game, and I'm giving her a free plug right here.

Since art really has the power to set the mood for a story, or even a game, I went looking for some art that I could share here that captured my "shift-world" of Morior.  Here is one to get you in the mood (wink, wink):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/subzeroconsciousness/ / CC BY 2.0

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo, which I think is Spanish for "get really drunk" and is somehow in direct competition with St. Patrick's Day, which is Irish code for "get really drunk."  That means today is that very special holiday known as Intergalactic Star Wars Day. So, "May the 4th be with you."  Which, coincidentally is Geek code for "get really drunk."  Happy holidays, everyone!  Please check out the posts on my game development and keep the feedback coming!

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Welcome To My World - Building an RPG, pt. 2

Imagine waking up one day and realizing that the world has suddenly, drastically, changed.  It is no longer the world you knew.  The world seems dim, less colorful.  Maybe something is wrong with your eyes.  After all, you've been meaning to schedule an appointment with your eye doctor for months now, but just haven't gotten around to it.



Still, you have to go to work.  The eye appointment will have to wait.  Maybe you can call the eye doctor on your lunch break.  Hopefully he can see you next week.  You chuckle at the irony of that, but it just sounds dull in the confined space of your bathroom.  The fluorescent above the sink is slow in coming on.  It's done that flickery dance before as it warms up, but today it seems to take almost a minute to decide to produce some reliable light.  When it stops dancing and settles into a mostly even glow, the light seems to be more greenish-yellow than normal.  The mirror and tiles reflect this sickly hue and make you look distinctly unwell when you glance at your reflection.  You turn on the water in the shower and wait what seems like eons in the sickly light of the surely-dying fluorescent tube for the water to get hot.  You make a mental note to replace that damn bulb, as if you needed something else to worry about.  It's getting late.  The shower is taking forever to heat up, so you just climb into the barely lukewarm stream that's sputtering out of the shower-head.  Everything in this god-forsaken building seems to have picked today to give up.


After you turn the shower water off, you grab the towel off the bar and start drying off.  Hell, even the towel feels scratchy this morning.  You used the same fabric softener you always use, so maybe it's just the combination of everything else sliding down the shitter so far today.  Or maybe the not quite warm enough water has your skin hypersensitive.  Because even your favorite shirt feels rough.


As you climb the steps to the Green Line platform, you see some of the same fellow commuters you see every day.  It looks like everybody is having the same shitty day you're having.  They all look deep in thought, yet a little... vacant.  Like they're trying to focus on something in the distance, but can't quite make it happen.  You must look the same way.  The air in this damn city must be bad this morning.  It's stagnant.  You walk up beside one of your fellow travelers, you think her name is Carla... or Darla... or something like that.  Not too talkative, but usually good for a smile and a quick hello.  She looks at you and you're sure, for just about a second, that she's about to growl at you.  Growl?  That's an odd thought.  Then, she cracks a wordless half-smile and turns to stare at the approaching train.  It would've almost been less creepy if she had growled instead of that smirk she gave you.  What the hell is wrong with this place today?


---

The world is pretty much the same as the normal, real world we live in today.  We're in the infancy of the 21st century.  Yet, it is not.  The colors, contrast and textures of the world just seem a little bit off.  Light seems to be dimmer.  Everybody around you seems to be more drawn into themselves, a bit more on-edge than normal.  Tempers are quick and trust seems lacking.  During the day, there seems to be a perpetual haze, like smog, making the sun seem both dimmer and more harsh at the same time.  At night, the fog usually settles closer to the ground, muffling and distorting even normal sounds.  The news is as depressing as ever and all of our incredible technology seems to be intermittently on the fritz.  Lights flicker, traffic lights shift into safety mode, cell phone reception is erratic, and even the radio and television are prone to fits of static and white noise.  Batteries don't last as long, metal rusts more quickly, even beer and soda seem to turn flat more quickly than before.  Before what?  You have no idea.

And that is before the shift...

In this world, things sometimes seem to shift occasionally.  It's a gut-wrenching sensation and difficult to describe.  It's almost like the scene in front of you slides out of the way and everything you see starts to look like cheap B-movie props.  Like a backlot facade.  Visibility is poor, day or night.  Everything seems to age in an instant.  Buildings creak and groan audibly.  Decay is everywhere.  And worst of all, most of the people are gone.  You could be walking down a crowded city street in the middle of rush hour.  Vendors are half-heartedly hawking their wares to the weary masses.  Then, the television screens in the coffee shop next to you fill with static.  You cell phone turns itself off.  You feel a dagger of pain behind your eyes, and everybody is gone.  The bus that was driving by may sit abandoned and rusted in the middle of the street, the tires dry-rotted to uselessness.  A yellowed and faded newspaper that was printed this morning flutters in a warm, stale breeze.  Your watch may have a cracked crystal.  The battery in your cell phone is dead.  And the entire street is eerily quiet and deserted.  Except for the sounds.  There is a scratching, scuttling sound coming from the alley beside the coffee shop.  A wet slithering issues from the entrance to the subway station on the corner as you hurry past.  Sometimes you see things in the seemingly ever-present fog.  Things you wish you didn't remember.

Everybody who has experienced the shift describes it in a slightly different way.  Some report an attack of nausea, sometimes vomiting on their shoes when the shift happens.  Some claim it feels like a curtain slid open behind their eyes, leaving them dizzy and disoriented for a few moments.  Some have terrible headaches.  Some people even pass out.  A few people have described a sort of mental static that occurs around the shift, like a radio in the brain with poor reception squelching out until the moment passes.  Nobody knows exactly what causes it, or what causes the world to, just as unexpectedly, shift back.  It has always shifted back to normal.  At least the new normal.  So far.  People reappear.  The bus starts rolling.  The televisions come back on.  Your cell phone powers back up.  It's as if it never happened, other than your cracked watch.  If you're lucky.  If you're not lucky, you may encounter one of the things that are out there scuttling and slithering in the fog of that shifted world.  Then, when things shift back, someone finds your body... or at least part of it.

---

Such is the world of my as-yet-unnamed game.  There are a few terms I want to include that cover some key concepts:

• The Shift - Sometimes the world just changes.  The screen of "normalcy" slides to one side and an utterly bleak and decaying world is revealed.  Most of the people who exist in the "real world" are not present in this sinister "shift world."  There are things that inhabit this world.  And most of these strange, twisted creatures seem hungry for the flesh, souls, life-force, or something that only those who make the transition into this bizarre world can provide.

• Anchors - Anchors are people, and sometimes animals or even objects, who can make the transition into the "shift world."  The player characters are Anchors.  No one knows why Anchors make "The Shift", what it really is, or what causes it.  There are several theories on the matter, but none have been proven any more valid than many others.

• Morior - Some Anchors refer to the "shift world" as Morior.  Nobody is sure who started calling it this, or when, but the name has spread.  There are Anchors who carve or otherwise mark prominent locations in the "shift world" with the word Morior, so that disoriented Anchors will see it and realize that they "aren't in Kansas anymore" as some Anchors say.  Interestingly enough, these markings do not seem to appear in the corresponding "real world" locations.

So, there is my synopsis.  What do you think?  I'm putting on my chest waders, helmet, and goggles now.  I'm thickening up my skin in preparation for your thoughts and comments.  Please let me know.  I'm sure that there will be many revisions along the road between here and a finished product, so consider this Draft 1 of my synopsis.

---

¹When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. ²And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.
 ³Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. ⁴The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand.⁵Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.
 ⁶Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them. ⁷The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
 ⁸The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, ⁹a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
 ¹⁰The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water— ¹¹the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.
 ¹²The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.
 ¹³As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: "Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!"
                    ~ Revelation 8 (NIV)

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Sheppard's Pie

Have you ever eaten shepherd's pie?  Unfortunately, I have.  From what I can tell, it's an unappetizing mish-mash of whatever happens to be leftover from previous meals.  At least it was when I was eating in school cafeterias.  Which wasn't all that long ago.  This post is the shepherd's pie of Geekcentricity.  These are odds and ends.  Leftovers that I covered in mashed potatoes and served up for your eating... enjoyment?  Or tolerance.  Yes, I know that some of you may like shepherd's pie.  Yes, I also know that I spelled it wrong in the title.  I promise I intended to spell it that way.  You'll understand in a few paragraphs.  Now, open wide...

I'm glad to see that things have picked up around here a little bit.  There are a few discussions that have originated on some of my most recent posts.  That gives me a clue about what you, my readers, find interesting.  Or at least care enough to comment on.  Which is actually easier to do now that I fixed my comment form.  Apparently the comment form was a victim of my redesign.  Anyway, it's all better now, so comment away.

Here are the posts that have been generating some comments:

• Laying the Cornerstone of Concept - Building an RPG, pt. 1:  The post in which I laid out the concept for a project that has been beckoning to me for a long time.
• Fear Itself:  A look at what scares us and why.  It is really more thoughts for the rpg I'm working on.

What those two seem to have in common is that they are the two posts about the survival horror rpg I'm working on.  With that in mind, look for the next installment sometime tomorrow.

I am now the proud owner of a shiny new (okay, so I've had it for a few weeks) Google Page Rank (cue the heavenly chorus of "Aaaahs").  It's only a "1" and I know it really means nothing at all, but still.  It's good to know that the Matrix has taken note of my existence.  Speaking of which, people are starting to come here from search engines.  The number one search term that people have used to get to my site?  Of course.  It's obviously "i4e for iPhone."  Something I've never written about.  Until now.  Here's a link to at least make your visit somewhat worthwhile.  I guess this means it'll continue to be my top search term.  Unless it get taken over by the ever popular "mi llamo es bob brent spiner."  At least I included Brent Spiner in my Geekcentric Guide to Twitter.  By the way, Mr. Bob Q. Googlesearcher, it should be "me llamo es bob."  I'm not sure why.  Actually, I know exactly why.  It should be that way because my wife said it should be that way and she's the Spanish speaker in the family.

Finally, I want to share another link that has been brought to me by the Great and Powerful Twitter.  Someone I should have included in my guide is Stephen Lea Sheppard.  You probably have no idea who that is.  Unless you've seen the excellent but short lived television show Freaks & Geeks.  Stephen played Harris Trinsky.  That's the guy who was Dungeon Master for the geeks on the show.  Yes, he's really a gamer.  He has actually written some gaming materials.  He also reviews video games.  I had the good fortune of participating in some great conversations with Stephen on the rec.games.frp.dnd newsgroup many years ago.  

Wait... I was saying something about a link...  Right?  Okay, right.

So, Stephen tweeted a link to the blog post he wrote today.  It involves something near and dear to my heart... horror gaming!  It turns out that Stephen is a fan of Dead Space, one of my favorite video games.  He too has read the interview regarding the upcoming Dead Space 2. I was disappointed to learn that Dead Space 2 would be more of an action game than a survival horror game.  Except that it won't be.  Yet, it will be.  Now I'm confused.  It will be everything!  It slices!  It Dices!  You can even make julienne fries with it while cutting through a tin can!!!  What???  I'll let you read the conflicting statements for yourself.  Visceral says they want to empower the protagonist.  But Stephen brings up an excellent point about horror gaming:

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't horror traditionally entail giving the audience the impression of a disempowered protagonist?"

That's exactly what I've been thinking since I first watched the interviews.  I agree.  That also sets the stage for tomorrow's (actually, now later today's) post.

EDIT:  Twitter brings me yet another example of a horror game being written with the "characters as ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances" theme in mind.  The game is Razed, by Will Hindmarch.  Today, he tweeted a link to his latest design diary about the game.  That entry contains a quote I'd like to use here:

"This creates a hybrid environment where the familiar is rendered strange, yet the people who inhabit it are immediately understandable. They are us. My goal is to make Razed about ordinary people rendered extraordinary by their circumstances."

That's Once again, that's exactly what my thoughts are about the game I'm working on.  The world is going to be strange and unfamiliar, so I want the characters to be easy to identify with and familiar.

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