I spent most of August on the first tranche of writing and cartography forFourth Millennium, and ended up with about 10,000 words of new material (and a snazzy master map for the setting). That all went out to my patrons on 31 August, so that hit my marks for the month. Which means several of my “front burner” items for August have actually been completed.
September is going to be a bit different. I have an obligation to run two events at Travellercon 2024 in October, so I need to focus on preparing for those.
One is going to be an Architect of Worlds “world-building workshop.” Up to six Traveller players and I are going to take four hours to work out a complete, Traveller-compatible planetary system using the Architect rules. I’ll need to do some prep work to make sure that runs smoothly and keeps the participants engaged, considering I won’t have a full-on computer on hand. After the convention is over, I’ll be writing up that planetary system in detail and sharing that with the workshop participants.
The other event will be a GURPS Traveller: The Interstellar Wars scenario . . . which will be the first time I’ve run any RPG for strangers in over twenty years. Yeah, that’s going to call for plenty of prep time too.
So I suspect most of my creative time in September will be taken up getting ready for the convention. My patrons can expect there to be no charged release for the month of September, although at some point after the con I may share my results of the two events as patron rewards.
Meanwhile, I’m working on a project to rescue a lot of my old fiction and republish it in forms that I can sell on my Kofi shop, once that opens up. As of today I’ve finished polishing up one novelette, incidentally working out the workflow for future items. This will be an “as time permits” project throughout the next 2-3 months, most likely.
So here’s the formal list for September:
Front Burner:
Travellercon: Finish designing the scenario for the adventure “Raid on Markidu.”
Travellercon: Complete setup work for the Architect of Worlds world-building workshop.
Back Burner:
Fourth Millennium: Write a gazetteer of major regions in the setting, tied to the master map.
Architect of Worlds: Finish setting up the page(s) for the book on this site.
Architect of Worlds: Start making at least one post per month (errata, edge cases, new material) supporting the book.
Publishing: Continue polishing and reformatting legacy fiction for publication via Kofi, as time permits.
More news as the month unwinds, no doubt. I hope to get back to Fourth Millennium as my primary project after the convention, in mid-October.
For general interest, here’s a first cut at an outline for the Fourth Millennium core book. This is going to be my working outline while I start writing sections of the rough draft. Naturally, this outline will be subject to change while I develop the project.
As a review: this is planned to be a Basic Roleplaying (BRP) sourcebook, relying on the BRP Universal Game Engine book under the ORC license. It will be the first of (possibly) several sourcebooks detailing the Fourth Millennium setting. Fourth Millennium is a universe centered on the Mediterranean region of Earth’s classical antiquity, but with an alternate history and fantastic elements built into the setting.
I spent most of July building out the alternate-historical timeline for Fourth Millennium, by playing through several of my tabletop historical-simulation games and compiling logs of the results. That effort is basically complete, although it didn’t generate much finished material so I didn’t have a patron release for July.
August is going to be a different matter!
I plan to spend most of this month on Fourth Millennium again, and this time I have a specific plan in mind, which will likely result in some solid material for my patrons and readers. I also need to do some maintenance work for Architect of Worlds, and get started on some prep work for Travellercon in early October. All that is more than enough for the next few weeks, so some of my other projects are going to be pushed off the raft for the time being.
So here’s the list for the coming month:
Front Burner:
Fourth Millennium: Produce an initial outline for the setting bible (BRP sourcebook).
Fourth Millennium: Write a summary of the alternate history.
Fourth Millennium: Produce a master map for the setting, covering the Mediterranean world with terrain features, political borders, and the most significant cities all marked.
Fourth Millennium: Write a gazetteer of major regions in the setting, tied to the master map.
Architect of Worlds: Finish setting up the page(s) for the book on this site.
Architect of Worlds: Start making at least one post per month (errata, edge cases, new material) supporting the book.
Back Burner:
Travellercon: Begin designing the scenario for the adventure “Raid on Markidu.”
Travellercon: Begin setup work for the Architect of Worlds world-building workshop.
All this work for Fourth Millennium is very likely to amount to more than enough new material for me to consider making a charged release for my patrons, so look out for that at the end of August. Meanwhile, the material I produce for Travellercon will also be a patron release at some point, whether part of a free or charged release remains to be seen.
Looks like it’s going to be a very busy month. Not a problem I mind having, as long as I can keep up with my other commitments at the same time.
As of today, I’m suddenly enjoying an outbreak of freedom. I’ve finished my work on university courses for this academic year, and all my major creative projects with deadlines are done too. I still have a pile of work to do for the office, but other than that I’m remarkably uncommitted for the next few months.
So this evening I decided to let my muse pester me a bit, and sat down to tinker with the John Carter of Mars RPG from Modiphius. What follows is a character who appeared unbidden in the back of my mind a few days ago. I’m still trying to decide what to do with him. Some Edgar Rice Burroughs fan-fiction? Probably not, but we’ll see if my muse will let me leave this Verginian on the shelf . . .
Marcus Verginius
Disciplined Earthborn Soldier
Marcus Verginius is a very old man, although he does not know how old he is, for he remembers no childhood and has not aged as other men do. His earliest memories are of a farm in the Latin hills, in the time of the last war against Carthage. Whether he was born there or simply remembers living there long ago, he cannot be certain.
For as long as he can remember, Marcus has been a soldier, serving in the legions of the Roman Republic in war after war. Most recently, he was primus pilus and then praefectus castrorum in Legio XXVII, one of the legions raised by C. Julius Caesar for his war against the Pompeian faction. After Caesar left Egypt, the legion remained behind to support the rule of Rome’s ally, Queen Cleopatra VII.
A few months later, while leading a punitive expedition against Egyptian brigands, Marcus vanished and was never seen again (at least on Earth). Instead, after a bizarre adventure, Marcus found himself naked and alone on a strange world: on Barsoom, over 1900 Earth-years before the arrival of John Carter.
Attributes
Daring: 7
Cunning: 4
Empathy: 3
Might: 8
Passion: 6
Reason: 6
Stress Trackers
Confusion: 6
Fear: 7
Injury: 8
Talents
Battle Valor (Grade 1)
You are a true warrior and steadfast soldier, at home in the chaos and carnage of war and always willing to meet your fate with sword and pistol in hand.
Circumstance: When suffering Fear damage in combat.
Effect: You may ignore the first 2 points of stress inflicted to your Fear stress track taken during combat. You suffer Fear damage normally after this during a combat scene or from other situations.
Break the Line (Grade 2)
Your skill with a sword is such that no lesser foe can hope to stand against you. In past battles, you have often been the first to break through an enemy’s line or shield-wall.
Circumstance: When wielding a sword.
Effect: You automatically defeat 2 minions as part of your action. You may spend additional Momentum to defeat more at the cost of 1 Momentum per additional minion.
Earthborn Strength (Grade 3)
You are tenacious and your Earthborn strength and years of experience give you a substantial edge in battle.
Circumstance: In melee combat.
Effect: You can always use Might for melee attack and defense and you do an additional 1 die of damage with melee attacks.
Leaps and Bounds (Grade 2)
Your Earthborn muscles allow you to leap great distances and perform great feats of strength while on Barsoom.
Circumstance: When moving on Barsoom and planets with similar gravity.
Effect: You may close one range category automatically, ignoring any obstacles or intervening terrain as long as you have clearance and space to leap between your starting point and destination. You may spend 1 Momentum to move an additional range category.
Logical Orator (Grade 2)
You have the benefits of a top-notch Greek education, and are accomplished at using both reason and rhetoric to convince others.
Circumstance: When attempting to persuade or convince an audience.
Effect: You can always use Reason to aid in a persuasive attempt. In addition, you can roll 1 bonus d20 on the test.
Flaw
Code of Honor
You lose 3 Momentum if you break your word, refuse to defend the innocent form harm, or otherwise act dishonorably.
As of today, the initial layout of Architect of Worlds is finished – all of the final-draft text has been dropped into InDesign and laid out on the pages. In fact, given that there are a couple more days before the end of October, I’ve gone ahead and dropped the “Fine-Tuning World Climate” material into the book as well. I’m going to try to get that laid out before I produce an end-of-month PDF for my patrons.
This is a really big milestone. My planning message for November will detail the work that remains to be done, but the bulk of the final editorial work is finished. From here to the release version is a short distance, relatively speaking.
So today, I’m taking a break from Architect to consider some of the projects I might take up afterward. In particular, the possibility of producing one or more RPG sourcebooks tied to my personal literary settings. These include:
The Human Destiny: Interstellar science fiction, positioned somewhere between moderately hard SF and conservative space opera, essentially a pastiche of Star Trek in a universe where human beings are decidedly not the dominant culture.
Fourth Millennium: Alternate-historical fantasy set in and around the ancient Mediterranean, a world in which Hellenistic civilization is dominant and (at least some of) the gods are real and active in human affairs.
The Great Lands: Iron-Age fantasy reminiscent of Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories, in which heroic demigods struggle for glory and the survival of their people.
Of the three, I suspect The Human Destiny and Fourth Millennium are most likely to come to fruition. I do want to do more with The Great Lands, but that setting has been getting a lot less interest from the potential audience, so I’m a bit less motivated to push it forward.
One question that keeps coming up is how these settings might best be translated into tabletop RPG material – in particular, what game system might be the best choice for me to work with and publish under?
My first choice, of course, would be GURPS. I’ve got plenty of experience writing for various editions of GURPS – no fewer than 17 full-length books for which I was sole author, co-author, contributor, or editor would argue for that. To this day I’m fond of the system, and I’m quite convinced that any of my personal settings would translate well into it. Not least because I suspect a lot of GURPS idioms have embedded themselves into my personal world-building style.
The problem is that GURPS doesn’t have any form of open license. It’s certainly possible to write and sell third-party GURPS material. Douglas Cole of Gaming Ballistic, for example, has managed a small but successful product line tied to Dungeon Fantasy. As someone with a long track record of both freelance and on-the-payroll work for SJG, I could probably do the same. The barrier to entry would be steep, though, and probably not something at which a one-man development shop working around the constraints of a day job could succeed.
A few years back, I briefly considered writing my own RPG system. You can probably find a few references to the Eidolon system in old posts here. I eventually set that idea aside, because frankly the market is already absolutely glutted with RPG game systems. Anything I publish along these lines is going to be very marginal to begin with; tying it to an idiosyncratic game system would reduce the audience size from “few” to “none.”
I considered the new Cortex Prime system, and even wrote up a bunch of Human Destiny material for it. I still like that system, but the promised creator-friendly licensing scheme never materialized, so I had to set that aside too.
I thought about publishing Human Destiny under the OGL, possibly by way of Cepheus Engine, but the blowup over the OGL at the beginning of this calendar year kind of scotched that notion. I have absolutely no interest in building a dependency into any of my work that Wizards of the Coast could yank out from under me at any time. There was some talk of placing Cepheus Engine on a different licensing basis, possibly with cooperation from Mongoose Publishing, but I’m not sure how that shook out. I’m still kind of leery. Besides, I’m not entirely convinced that the Traveller-like mechanics of Cepheus Engine would quite fit the Human Destiny setting.
More recently I’ve been looking at Monte Cook’s Cypher, and Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying (BRP), both of which are available under very creator-friendly licensing terms.
Cypher is perhaps a little more streamlined than I like in a tabletop system, but it seems to have a bigger and growing audience. Monte Cook Games has been pushing it hard this year, especially after the OGL debacle. Cypher is available under its own open license, and the System Reference Document (SRD) is pretty extensive.
On the other hand, Basic Role Playing is an established and very solid system, more GURPS-like than most of the others. It’s been applied to a variety of settings over the years, and I think some of its mechanics would fit my settings very nicely. It’s not clear how much of an audience it has outside the very popular Pendragon, Runequest and Call of Cthulhu games. BRP used to be under a fairly restrictive open license – the SRD included almost nothing but the core task-resolution mechanic – but the most recent release of the engine includes more mechanics, and is apparently going to be placed under the much broader ORC license.
None of this is urgent yet; it’s going to be a while yet before Architect is finally out the door and I can turn to the next big project. Still, that seems to be the current state of play. I need a tabletop game system that will be a good fit for the settings I want to write, which has at least some established audience, and which exists under a licensing scheme for which I won’t have to be a full-time developer and marketer to succeed. It’s encouraging that the intersection of those three sets doesn’t appear to be quite empty . . .
While I continue to make incremental progress on Architect of Worlds and Twice-Crowned, I also keep thinking about what’s likely to be my next big tabletop RPG project, beginning later this year. That’s a full-fledged historical-fantasy game, probably published under the Cypher System, with the working title of Fourth Millennium.
The premise is that this is the ancient Western world, centered around the Mediterranean basin, but it’s not exactly the world we see in our history books. There are fantastic elements: spirits that can be bargained with, gods who may or may not be kindly disposed toward mortals, magic that works more often than not, strange creatures that lurk in the wilderness beyond the borders of civilization. It’s also an alternate history, with several points of divergence: a survival of Minoan civilization, a Hellenic world that didn’t commit suicide in the fifth century BCE with quite so much short-sighted enthusiasm, an Alexandrian οἰκουμένη that managed to survive its founder’s death. The setting is divided between two incipient world-empires and a whole host of minor kingdoms and barbarian peoples, each with their own distinctive flavor.
One thing I’ve been thinking about is the “canonical adventure” for the setting. My past experience with RPG design tells me that this is really important. Potential players and game-masters need to be clear as to what they can expect to do in a setting. Dungeons & Dragons centers around the dungeon crawl. Traveller centers around doing odd jobs to survive on the fringes of interstellar society. Transhuman Space, when we first developed it, was a lovely rich setting that didn’t have a clear answer for “what do the characters do?” and that handicapped it for a long time.
So what will player characters in Fourth Millennium be doing? I think that boils down to the motto for the setting – something that may end up being the core book’s subtitle:
The future is in your hands.
The idea is that player characters will be thoroughly involved in history as it unfolds in this alternative world. They’ll start out as agents for powerful people – an ambitious Roman senator, a powerful post-Minoan priestess-queen, a provincial governor in the Alexandrian empire, that sort of setup. At first they’ll be carrying out missions for their patron – accumulating rewards of wealth and treasure, sure, but also gathering social standing and authority. Eventually they’ll become more independent, becoming movers and shakers in their own right. They’ll feel as if they’re making a mark on the future of the world – although, to be sure, Fate and the gods will have their own say.
So yeah, fighting monsters, but more often human foes: cutpurses and assassins, pirates, brigands, barbarian raiders. Exploring the uncivilized wilderness, traveling in strange foreign lands. Solving mysteries, making scientific discoveries, writing books that everyone wants to read. Making brilliant speeches, intriguing to discredit or eliminate political rivals, persuading people to vote one way or another. Making a fortune in trade or loot, or just collecting the revenue from big land-holdings. Fighting in wars, even commanding armies. Winning elections, holding political office, governing whole provinces. Eventually reaching the top of the social pyramid in whatever republic, kingdom, or empire you call your own. The end-point of a successful long-term campaign might be to gather such fame and glory that people will still be talking about you at the end of the Fourth Millennium.
One major inspiration here might be games like Pendragon or Paladin – games that aren’t just richly imagined settings, but structured campaigns that encourage play across years and even generations.
I know, I know. Ambitious as all hell, especially for a one-person development shop. Well, a man’s reach should exceed his grasp. And you never know, maybe the Muses are thinking kindly of me.
Alexandros III of Makedon, called “The Great,” first Great King of the Argead dynasty (2702-2735 EK) (Image by Arienne King, original found here)
By the reckoning of years used in the Danassan Hegemony, the date is 3000 Ἔτος Κόσμου, the three thousandth year since the creation of the world. A new millennium is at hand, an age of prosperous cities and growing empires, new gods and ancient mysteries, science and darkest magic. It seems likely to be an age of conflict as well. Ambitious generals and kings struggle for power, and barbarian peoples look with envy on the wealth and sophistication of civilized lands. What history will reveal next, not even the gods can know for sure.
Fourth Millennium has been conceived as a game setting, derived from some of my own fiction: short stories set in the Greek “Heroic Age” as well as the novel-in-progress Twice-Crowned and its eventual sequels. It’s grown past its literary beginnings, though, taking on shape as a rich alternate-historical fantasy world.
Fourth Millennium echoes the Mediterranean world of our own history, in the first century before the Common Era . . . but fate has taken its own turns here. An offshoot of Minoan civilization survived, creating a neo-Hellenic culture in which women hold religious and political power. The Peloponnesian War may have taken place, but its outcome was less viciously harmful to the Hellenic civilization at its peak. Alexander the Great may have died young, but his son survived and came out on top of the civil wars that followed his death. The Roman Republic is on the rise, but it faces tough competition in the East, in the form of an Hellenistic world that is stronger and more unified.
Adventurers can come from a variety of origins: Greeks of several varieties, Romans and other Latins, Celts, Germans, Berbers, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Judeans, Persians, and many more. They may be warriors and soldiers, oracles and seers, legates and senators, or philosophers and scientists. There will be a variety of possible campaign structures: military stories, politics and intrigue, high-stakes commercial ventures, mysteries, exploration, possibly all of these at once.
The concept in my head is for a Cypher System game, published under the Monte Cook Games open license. I can already see the broad outlines of the game, and a lot of details that will fit the setting. I’m still debating whether to write one book or two here – there may be so much setting detail, so much to suggest a variety of structures for campaigns and adventures, that it won’t all fit in one volume.
Best guess is that I’ll be pulling together notes for Fourth Millennium while I work on getting Architect of Worlds out the door in the first half of this year. I might post a few fragments and notes here, or push them to my patrons as small freebies. Once Architect is finished, assuming my muse is still engaged by then, serious work on this project is likely to get under way.
Have to say, the more I think about this project the more excited I am for it. The ancient Mediterranean world has been a personal fascination for over half my life; it will be nice to get back to it as a game designer. Not to mention I’ve learned a lot since I wrote GURPS Greece, coming up on thirty years ago . . .
I’ve been rather badly under the weather for the past few days, and not inclined to work too hard. Today, to take a break from outstanding projects, I decided to sit down and tinker with a recent purchase: the second edition of The One Ring, possibly the best tabletop RPG ever published set in Tolkien’s Middle-earth.
The four starting heroes I drew up this afternoon are based on characters I ran in the Lord of the Rings Online MMO years ago. Leonore and Morlindiel are taken almost directly from the online game, Reinald is a looser adaptation of another online character, whereas Náli is more or less original to today’s effort. In any case, I think this group would make a pretty decent starting party for the tabletop game.
I don’t know what, if anything, I’m going to do with these characters. I’ve been known to write some Tolkien fan-fiction in the past, but in recent years I’ve been trying to get away from fan-fic in favor of original work. Still, the new edition of The One Ring has certainly attracted my interest. I may even go looking for a group to play the new game with . . . in my copious free time.
Anyway, without further ado, here’s a small band of adventurers, ready to set out into the wilds of Eriador in the decades leading up to the War of the Ring.
Leonore Rushlight
Leonore is the daughter and only child of an alderman of Bree. Her parents took the unusual step of educating her as best they could, even acquiring books for her to read. She grew up rather quiet and thoughtful, and the other Bree-folk think her a bit strange, but she has already learned as much about the true history of Middle-earth as any of her people. Recently she met Gandalf the Grey at the Prancing Pony. Her long conversations with the wizard have encouraged her to seek out knowledge wherever she can find it, even if it means leaving the safety of Bree far behind.
Culture – Men of Bree
Blessing – Bree-blood (+1 Fellowship Rating)
Calling – Scholar
Standard of Living – Common
Distinctive Features – Fair-spoken, Subtle, and Rhymes of Lore
Travelling Gear, balm to soothe pain (Healing), book of history (Lore)
Pony (Vigour 1)
Morlindiel
Morlindiel is a latter-day Elf, descended from Sindar who survived the fall of Thingol’s kingdom in the Elder Days. She has many years of experience as a ranger in the wilderness, protecting the Grey Havens and the borders of the dwindling Elf-realm of Lindon. In recent years she has taken to wandering far and wide across the lands of Eriador, sensing that great events are stirring and there may yet be a part for Elves to play. She has just arrived in Bree, only to meet Gandalf the Grey and a young woman named Leonore, soon becoming snarled in an adventure.
Culture – Elves of Lindon
Blessing – Elven-skill (Spend 1 Hope to gain a Magical success on a skill roll)
Calling – Champion
Standard of Living – Frugal
Distinctive Features – Keen-eyed, Swift, and Orc-lore
Shadow Path – Curse of Vengeance
Flaws – The Long Defeat (Lose maximum 1 Shadow during Fellowship Phase)
Travelling Gear, knife for skinning and cleaning game (Hunting)
Náli Silvertongue
Náli was born in the Iron Hills, moving to the renewed kingdom of Erebor after the death of the Dragon. There he has prospered, serving as an envoy and trade representative for King Dáin Ironfoot. Náli left Erebor early this year, traveling with a company of Dwarves on their way to the old mines in the Blue Mountains. On the journey, he met and befriended Reinald of Dale. Now that the Dwarf-caravan has reached Bree safely, Náli seems prepared to join Reinald on any adventures he might find.
Culture – Dwarves of Durin’s Folk
Blessing – Redoubtable (Halve the Load of any armor or helm, rounded up)
Calling – Messenger
Standard of Living – Prosperous
Distinctive Features – Fierce, Proud, and Folk-lore
Shadow Path – Wandering-madness
Flaws – Naugrim (Cannot use great bow, great spear, or great shield)
Rewards – Grievous (Great Axe)
Virtues – Hardiness
Strength 7 (TN 13)
Endurance 31
Valour 1
Heart 3 (TN 17)
Hope 11
Wisdom 1
Wits 4 (TN 16)
Parry 14
Skills
Awe 2
Enhearten 1
Persuade 1
Athletics 1
Travel 3 (Favored)
Stealth 1
Awareness 0
Insight 0
Scan 3
Hunting 0
Healing 0
Explore 2
Song 1 (Favored)
Courtesy 3 (Favored)
Riddle 2
Craft 2
Battle 2
Lore 1
Combat Proficiencies
Axes 2
Bows 0
Spears 1
Swords 0
Gear
Treasure – 90
Great Axe (Damage 8, Injury 20, 4 Load, Grievous)
Short Spear (Damage 3, Injury 14, 2 Load, can be thrown)
Coat of Mail (Protection 4d, 6 Load)
Helm (Protection +1d, 2 Load)
Travelling Gear, fiddle (Song), fine tools for personal grooming (Courtesy), magnifying glass (Scan)
Pony (Vigour 2)
Reinald of Dale
Reinald comes from a prosperous trading family in Dale. As a younger son, he was never likely to inherit a big share in the family trade, so he sought out a position as one of King Bard’s huscarls instead. He served the king for several years, earning experience as a warrior and war-captain. Early this year, he (apparently) left the king’s service to join a band of Dwarves traveling to their old dwellings in the far-off Blue Mountains. During the journey, he met and befriended Náli Silvertongue. Now that the Dwarves have arrived safely in Bree, Reinald has left their company, and intends to seek adventure in the lands of Eriador.
Culture – Bardings
Blessing – Stout-hearted (Valour rolls are Favored)
Calling – Captain
Standard of Living – Prosperous
Distinctive Features – Bold, Generous, and Leadership
Shadow Path – Lure of Power
Flaws –
Rewards – Fell (Sword)
Virtues – Dour-handed (+1 damage on a Heavy Blow)
Strength 6 (TN 14)
Endurance 26
Valour 1
Heart 6 (TN 14)
Hope 14
Wisdom 1
Wits 2 (TN 18)
Parry 14
Skills
Awe 1
Enhearten 2 (Favored)
Persuade 3
Athletics 1 (Favored)
Travel 1
Stealth 0
Awareness 1
Insight 2
Scan 1
Hunting 2
Healing 0
Explore 1
Song 1
Courtesy 2
Riddle 0
Craft 1
Battle 3 (Favored)
Lore 1
Combat Proficiencies
Axes 0
Bows 1
Spears 0
Swords 3
Gear
Treasure – 90
Sword (Damage 4, Injury 18, 2 Load, Fell)
Bow (Damage 3, Injury 14, 2 Load)
Mail-shirt (Protection 3d, 9 Load)
Shield (Parry +2, 4 Load)
Travelling Gear, coil of rope for climbing (Athletics), lodestone (Travel), fine pipe for relaxation (Insight)
A quick post to update things, as we’re moving into the last week of the month. My day job has been insanely busy so far this month, with two major projects coming to a conclusion more or less at the same time. Still, I’ve survived the critical few days and still gotten some creative work done. Fingers crossed that I’ll hit my major milestones by next Monday.
I’ve just finished putting together a new partial draft of the Human Destiny setting bible and game sourcebook. This is the first draft under the assumption that the eventual product will be published as a Cepheus Engine book – the main block of new material is a complete draft of the character design rules, including all the lifepath tables. A PDF of the draft just went out to all of my patrons as a free update.
I’ve also finished polishing up the existing partial draft of a Human Destiny novelette, with the working title of “Remnants.” This is actually the first Human Destiny story I ever started writing, seven or eight years back, and I’m hoping to finish it over the next few days. If I can get that whipped into shape before the end of the month, it will be a charged release for my patrons.
In other news, I have an opportunity to write an article for the Cepheus Journal, the foremost fanzine for the Cepheus Engine family of games. The article will probably be a summary of the Human Destiny setting, with some designer’s notes about ways in which the eventual game book will be distinctive. Cepheus Journal isn’t a paying market, but that’s okay – I’ll bring in more attention for that particular project that way.
Meanwhile, I still need to finish reading a novel or two for review by the end of the month. I’ve got a couple of promising candidates, but we’ll see how that goes.
Eight days to go, and I think I’m ahead of the usual monthly curve. Hopefully nothing unexpected will get in the way.
Here’s another teaser for the Cepheus Engine hack I’m putting together, for the new version of the Human Destiny sourcebook. This is part of the character design rules – the draft list of available “careers” for characters to indulge in during the lifepath generation process.
Again, this list is kind of atypical for a Cepheus Engine game. A few of the careers here are somewhat analogous to the ones you’ll find in the classic space-opera RPG that the engine emulates. Others are not – again, Human Destiny stories are likely to be heavily social-interaction-oriented, in a context of post-scarcity economics and a strong interstellar state. That sets different parameters (and constraints) on the kind of “adventures” that are likely to happen.
Careers List
Activist – Individual who pursues a cause, agitating for social or political change.
Artist – Individual who pursues celebrity status and supplements the Citizen’s Allowance by producing and selling works of art or handicraft.
Athlete – Individual who pursues celebrity status and supplements the Citizen’s Allowance by taking part in one or more competitive sports.
Bureaucrat – Official in an organized bureaucracy, either under the Hegemony or in an éthnos, charged with following the details of administrative process.
Citizen – Individual who subsists almost entirely on the Citizen’s Allowance, and who spends most of their time on entertainment or socializing.
Colonist – Individual who has settled on a more-or-less Earthlike (or terraformed) world and works to support the human community there.
Counselor – Individual who provides psychological care or social services.
Dissident – Individual who has rejected Hegemony society, but still uses some technology and lives in a Free Zone.
Ecological Reclamation Service –Member of the Hegemony’s scientific corps, overseeing wilderness reserves to support and protect the natural ecology.
Entertainer – Individual who pursues celebrity status and supplements the Citizen’s Allowance by performing before an audience.
Feral – Individual who has escaped the Hegemony entirely, by rejecting all technology and living in the deep wilderness.
Guard Service – Member of the Hegemony’s paramilitary force, enforcing the Praxis on planetary surfaces, also (rarely) carrying out annexation against pre-stellar civilizations.
Influencer – Individual who advocates for ideas, products, or services, primarily on the global information grid.
Interstellar Service – Member of the Hegemony’s interstellar paramilitary force, carrying out missions involving peacekeeping, enforcement of the Praxis, and exploration of deep space.
Mediator – Individual who provides negotiation or conflict-resolution services.
Physician – Individual who provides medical care.
Rogue – Individual who frequently engages in deception and subterfuge, whether in violation of the Praxis or not.
Scholar – Individual who is engaged in and has expert knowledge of a science, or some similar formal body of organized knowledge. Also, anyone attending or teaching at an institution of higher learning.
Service Specialist – Individual who provides personal service to others, most often in the hospitality or leisure industries.
Spacer – Individual who works aboard a deep-space outpost or colony, usually on an asteroid or moon.
Technician – Individual who is skilled in designing, building, maintaining, or repairing complex technological systems.
Now that I’ve blocked this out, the rest of the character generation rules should follow without much trouble. We’ll see how much progress I’m able to make over the next week or two.
