MEST 2.x :: New Character Record

Printable Cards

This is what I'm thinking the new print-and-play character record card should look like.

It's 4x6-inches and two can fit upon an 8.5x11 sheet of paper. I'm not sure what that would be upon an A4 at this time, but I remember that it should also fit well.

4 by 6 inches. Printed in red to allow other inks to pop. Print this in grayscale and the red will become gray and less contrasty, which is good as well.

Designer's Notes for Barbarian Suns v2

The Avausim. The memetic representation of the Milky Way galaxy.

Preface :: These are my designer's notes for Barbarian Suns version 2. I think that BSv4 will have a better chance of getting published but it may take a while. Therefore I present my designer's notes here as a way to prelude the thinking behind the game design. Please note that both versions of the game (v2 and v4) play on a grid; v2 is on a square-grid and v4 is on a hex-grid.

Additionally, any mentions of SH2156 is in regards to my Superhero '44 Campaign.

There's a blog post describing what that means.

Designer Notes

A. Conception

It was a cold night in that cellar at Dan Pellerino’s house. Just myself, Dan and Damon Williams. None of us had any money to spend, and we were a bit hungry. In order to bide the time, we decided to create something a piece of graph paper. We didn’t have dice, so we modified our pencils into “Egyptian dice” by adding pips to each of the six sides. That was back in 1987. We didn’t have a name for it at the time, but we knew that the idea didn’t yet exist any where else in the gaming industry.

The basic game concept was actually formulated during my military years in 1983-86 in order to

support a strategic view of the SH2156 RPG game universe. As a science-fiction super-hero

role-playing game, SH2156 tried to meld the worlds of military gaming (a la Marc Miller’s

Traveller) and fantasy gaming (a la Hero Games’ Champions) into something more tangible.

This is understandable since it grew from the game I created in 1977 as a child to something

much larger when I revisited it after the USMC.

The adult that revisited the game needed to make it a bit “more”. So the background had to expand, and had to focus on events external to just interstellar warfare and comic-book heroes. Part of the background was to show that the events within the RPG were a small but critical part of a larger intragalactic war.

So, that night in the basement was something that we all hoped would be fun to play as well as

something we could continue to develop over time. What started from simple rules on scratch

paper and make-shift “pencil dice” has now grown into a comprehensive gaming experience.

B. Design Choices

All of us involved with refining the concept of an intragalactic conflict simulation game were

unsatisfied with the take of existing games like Stellar Conquest or Cosmic Encounters. Each

seemed to be on the opposite extremes of accounting practice or over-simplification. What we

wanted was something that could capture the sense of an RPG with all of its attention to detail,

but with enough martial constraint as to make it seem like a serious wargame.

We didn’t want a parlor game but we also didn’t want to have to learn a lot rules. We did want

something that was light, but could be played with seriousness between experienced players –

like a chess game but with spaceships and dice.

• First. The first design choice was the board. It could have been a hexagonal board, or even a grid like it is now – but with more cells. What we decided was to have a small board such that any military movement would have a great impact, without having to resort to a large number of markers. In this way, any military movement became critical because the number of potential bottlenecks increased dramatically.
• Second. The second design choice was the concept of movement. We realized that if we were to use a square grid, units would need to account for diagonal movement. Normally this is done by forcing a 1.5 movement point cost across diagonals. However, we decided that it would be too much math and also problematic in order to track which units had fractional movement points remaining.
  
  So a solution was to devise Movement Technologies” and to limit diagonal movement to an advanced form of intragalactic drive. Since the SH2156 RPG already had the concept of “Tunnel Drives” which would allow units to create worm-holes for unprecedented movement ability, we opted to allow diagonal movement under that guise.
• Third. The third design choice was the concept of accounting. We didn’t want to have to track all of the improvements that we associated to each player in a large matrix or note pad. Other games of the time allowed for such, but we felt that it would be too much information.
  
  When our system sectors received improvements, we decided to instead show that information on the mapboard itself. At Dan’s, it was just a special symbol drawn on the mapboard, but soon there were too many symbols to draw. This necessitated the creation of System Improvement Markers. It’s one of the unique things about Barbarian Suns that makes it fun to play; look at the mapboard and you can instantly assess your worth. When it came to creating the military units, we encountered the very same problem all military conflict simulation games have to address; too many markers.
  
  Some existing wargames had thousands of markers to account for specific variations or order-of-battle appearance. We had to drop the concept of an Order-of-Battle tree; too limiting. We also didn’t want to have three variants of the galactic equivalent of the Panzer III. We did want to have units that could be improved; but how to do so without adding more markers into the game?
• Fourth. Our fourth design choice addressed this by allowing nearly all technological changes to be accounted for via “technology” cards[4]. Each card would represent a specific rules alteration that could account for the addition of either new units onto the mapboard, or the modification of an existing rule or unit. In this way, if we wanted to improve a Dreadnaught[1] unit into an Ultradreadnaught[1] unit, it was only a matter of possessing the card indicating such.
• Fifth. The fifth design choice we made was the System Ownership cards. Again, we didn’t want to have to do a lot of paper work; we wanted a game in which the pieces and the statuses could be displayed via some other mechanism. The System Ownership cards allowed us to identify and account for what we owned much like the “Title” cards in Monopoly. An added benefit was like the Technology cards; any system-specific rules could be written upon the face of the System cards.
• Last. The last design choice came about after play testing. We had to create the Turn Order cards in order to offset the advantage a player had by going first each time. Initially we randomized this with a die roll, but we found ourselves re-rolling several times in order to beat ties that would occur.
  
  Additionally, once the dice were cast we were expected to memorize our order of play or else write them down. Since we wanted to avoid accounting work, we brought in the cards. A very large amount of play-testing went into the game to help refine its balance and the abilities of each unit and technology.
  
  For a game of this scale, it is really impossible to balance every aspect, but we tried to focus on three primary aspects; economic warfare, martial warfare and technological warfare. What I’ve discovered after several hundred hours of play-testing is that its best to capture a “feel” than to use numbers.

So, each Frigate[1] matters. 

One Minor System can support the creation of a Frigate. One Frigate can conquer a Minor System or control a Sector of the game board. The economy should be able to be grown via territorial conquest, as well as infrastructure development (“Boost”) and also via technology (“Economy II”, “Merchantry”). In this way, the player that sits by himself will also be able to compete with the player that aggressively conquers territory. This bodes well for that third player in a 3-player game.

For the aggressive player, we decided to allow numerous fleet units to be built and of a variety of form. Many of the variations would not be available unless technology for them was first had, but the pay off would be to provide capabilities that would make a great impact. An example of this is the Dreadnaught[1] unit. As a basic fleet unit, it would be available at any Shipyard[2] or Capital[2]. By itself, it is quite formidable. But when upgraded to a “Deathmoon”[1], it acquires just that “extra bit more” which makes it a unit worth employing in the place of dreadnaught. The best thing about it is that once “Deathmoon”[1] technology is achieved, ALL dreadnaughts become “Deathmoons”…

As for the System sectors, I wanted them to be able to be built into huge resources over time –

and so we created stages of advancement; Province, Minor, Major, Mega and Nexus. In this way, the player that can dig-in would be able to upgrade their few systems into something a bit more formidable.

As for the Technology trees, I wanted this to be completely different from existing games[4]. I

wanted technology to make an impact in the game. I didn’t want long technology trees because I didn’t view revolutionary technology to behave in that manner. Each step of technology research had to generate a definite edge in game play. In that way, a non-aggressive player could force the game to be one of “technological warfare” if the other players weren’t aggressive enough.

In order to help add more flavor to the game, I created four different kinds of Nexii to suit the

playing-style of each player. This theme we carried to even the Basic Fleet units and to the

Color cards. The premise works well in play – align the playing style with the proper Nexii, fleet

types and Color cards and the player will acquire a distinct advantage over those that don’t do

the same.

C. Artwork Choices

The first real complete set of playing pieces created for Barbarian Suns was done in 2-day

frenzy by myself while working the weekend as a physical security guard in late 1987. There

really wasn’t any artwork and nearly all of the original pieces were cannibalized from existing

games like SPI’s Starsoldier and Outreach. The game board was drawn within a 30-minute

flurry that next day with lack of sleep; using Prismacolors, acrylic line-tape for the grid and axis

labels; acrylic paint and a toothbrush in order to draw a simulated shape of the galaxy. This

was all done while my date was sitting in the car in front of Ray Wisneski’s apartment when I

gave the excuse to go and “use the bathroom”.

Since then, the game has gone through at least five redesigns of the artwork and pieces.

Raymond, Robert Curtis, Richard Frausto each of created one compete set of the game by

painstakingly gluing the laser printouts of my vector art to poster-board and carving them out

with a matt-knife. I think Richard created three sets and Robert two. Regardless; I lost them or

“accidentally” cannibalized them each time.

In this last iteration, the actual art itself is heavily influenced by a “meta-concept” I conceived to

tie in the SH2156 and the Barbarian Suns game. I call that the “Ovodium Cosmogos”. Using

the basic concepts of “memetics”, I fused fractals, art nouveau and baroque into a design basis

for all of the artwork. The result of which looks like the popular, “edgy” gothic tattoo work

employed by today’s youth. It wasn’t intentional, but there it is.

The single item where this comes together well is the mapboard which shows the four

metamemes by their colors (red, blue, green, yellow) overlaid upon a fractal “mandragora”

pattern of the galaxy, overlaid upon a digitally quarter-mirrored galaxy (actually M51), overlaid

upon some symbols representing the inner circuitry of the galaxy.

D. Pseudo History

The story of the “Ovodium Cosmogos” is the background for the game of “Barbarian Suns”. It’s

a lot more comprehensive than what is shown here, but the simple outline shown below pretty

much captures it. 

The fundamental reasoning for all of this is as follows:

1. IF Man is special
2. IF there exists other intelligent life in the universe
3. IF super-science exists
4. IF there exists a Great Force which control the behavior of the universe
5. THEN what would happen when Man begins to conquer the universe?

My take on this is that the Great Force would either want to enhance Man’s ability to conquer

the universe, or hinder Man. Unfortunately for Man, a vote had already been cast, and action

has already been taken to shut the Milky Way galaxy off from the rest of the universe so that

Man can’t spread any further. What remains within the galaxy are sub-sets of that Great Force,

each striving to collect absolute control so that they can then focus on re-connecting the Milky

Way galaxy back to the rest of the universe.

In game terms, each player assumes a sub-set of the Great Force (here, “Dios Primin”) known

as the “Colors” and are identified by a color (red, blue, green, yellow). The Standard Victory

Condition for each game scenario is then assumed to be the goal of achieving absolute control

of the galaxy. The victor in this case would then be able to – as a choice - reconnect the Milky

Way galaxy (here, “Spermanova Lucifix” or “The Solidness”) to the rest of the universe (here,

“The Eventine”) according to a common ideology (“metameme”).

The only thing preventing them would then be the multi-forking time hysteresis loop known as the “Codon Barrier” put in place by the Dios Primin which prevents all information from escaping back into a single time stream (hence “even tine” – a single tine of a fork utensil). In story terms, this is handled by the having the Lesser Magellenic Cloud (here, “The Visitor”)[3] interrupt the Codon Barrier and thereby provide an escape route for information (“codons”) from our galaxy to the next and beyond.

Barbarians Suns then is a game about the personification of the natural forces and events

surrounding this galaxy and the beings within.

Footnotes:

[1] These are all military vessels ranging from the smallest and fastest to the largest and slowest in this order; Frigate, Destroyer, Cruiser, Dreadnaught, Deathmoon.

[2] These are build centers which allow construction of military vessels.
[3] I now think that a better choice would be the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy.
[4] This was before the arrival of a game which did something similar named Twilight Imperium.

Superhero '44 Second-edition Revised

I've been working on a fan-revision of Superhero '44.

I'm naming it "Superhero '44 Second Edition Revised" or SH44SER. It combines my home brew rules from twenty-thirty-and-forty years ago with most of the original writings of both the first and second edition rules. After closely scouring those early writings, I can see why I became a software engineer and why Superhero '44 in its tone is very different than most other superhero role-playing games today. I think the only one that comes close to capturing the tone (actually surpassing it) is Arc Dream's God-like RPG.

Unlike in my campaign where I eventually evolved the setting into an intra-galactic hero story, I'm trying to narrow things down in this current effort to the roots; the world of 2044. Maybe this will inspire a new generation of gamers to start where I did, but with the better tools; go further than I did.

Here's my take on the seminal event of the background provided within the first edition rules. It becomes the foundation of the psyche of the survivors of the world in 2044. I'm at about 130 pages right now of mostly rules. I'll illustrate it myself where I can. I've also been working on maps and play-aides.

WORLD HISTORY

The Great Conflagration

Nobody was quite sure how this started; it could have been the USA, Russia, China, or any of the other larger countries. Some suspect it was a flawed electronic signal at a submarine near the Pacific shores of Los Angeles. Others think it was anarchists. Still others believe it was coordinated by networks of, maybe poorly programmed, rogue computer algorithms.

A bit of insanity occurred for a while for the first few minutes as witnesses in the controlling government bodies saw the military reports of swarms of inbound and ICBMs (inter-continental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads) came their way. It didn’t matter how the war started because the solution from the humans was apparent; take out your enemies before your nation is too disrupted to respond. So devastation was set loose into the skies in the hopes that retribution would occur. Some of the smaller countries in flawed rapid-fire decision-making chose to join into the fray and pre-emptively launch their own attacks against their legacy enemies before they themselves became annihilated.

This continued for six days. At least one frothing clergyman got it right and predicted this as The Great Conflagration. Hell on Earth.

The Six Day War unleashed megatons of radioactive horror upon each of the major cities, control centers, and military bases of the world. Energy production, business centers, and agricultural centers were also hit with bombs falling from the sky. Electronic circuits were fried, people and other living things were blasted into atomic dust, and cities were leveled into rubble. Hardest hit was the Mainlands; the member nations of the UNSC. Most of the smaller island nations were spared, but at least one missile struck each capital of those with the largest populations. Modern society collapsed as their infrastructure became degenerated through the destruction and radiation.

Out of seven billion souls, two hundred million were lost in the Great Conflagration. The worst was yet to come.

The Fallout

After the Six Day War, the fallout both literally and figuratively completed the awful devastation. It took 5 additional years of turmoil as people scrambled for food, shelter, medicine, and some semblance of structure. Paramilitary groups formed, some aligning with the previous governments but most running amok as gangs of bandits. All during this time, deaths from radiation overexposure rose and birth defects and premature births increased. Many groups of people fled to the wilderness and began to hoard resources such as water, wood, and access rights to hunting in the wild. Some of the governments, with help of the remaining military, and in collusion with the paramilitary groups; these began to restructure society through violence in order to quell the amazing mayhem and disorder each society was experiencing. Despite their best efforts, it is estimated that nearly 2 billion lives perished in the war’s aftermath as the radiation took it's toll. Disease, illness, and famine was ever present and greedy.

Some of the remaining smaller nations were able to quickly secure their borders with surges in volunteerism, but many of those began to form dictatorships and took this period of disorder as a license to conquer their less organized neighboring nations. The madness was a bit less in the larger nations of the world as they were distracted with influxes of survivors desperate for refuge. Members of the original powerful nations did their best to mitigate problems by sharing resources, information, and manpower. Short-wave radio and foot-messenger networks during these years became very critical to coordinating information. There were several large clashes between strongholds lead by ideological cult societies, and then things calmed down for what it seemed a very long time; months, maybe because the records aren’t clear nor intact from these dark days. The economies of some of the countries began to rebuild, but the distribution of wealth, access to medical help, and access to simpler things like clean water, nutrition, or clothing was still disparate and unequal.

The Purge

Even though a decade has since passed; the deaths still rose, as did the birth defects and miscarriages. Mothers and fathers prefered to dash their deformed newborns against the floor than to allow these short-lived mutations to join them in the squalor of a post-apocalyptic earth. And then many of the parents voluntarily joined their beloveds as well, such was the despair. Indeed, there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth.

A large majority of the paramilitary groups became less communicative, and in the middle of the larger countries where the groups had the most power there began a series of increasing tension with blow-out battles lasting a few short days each. The newly reformed secular government agencies with spokespersons pulled from the variously affected communities would try to calm the population. And each time this would be a ruse, or a poorly executed delivery on promises because only time can heal the ravages of war.

Soon, everywhere at once, this anger against the prevailing tattered institutions sprung up in surprise culminating with a violent Purge. It was bloodshed against the poor and deformed, and against the privileged and wealthy. Dissidents across the world sprung up with organized rebellions against their governments. Heroes were born and traitorous villains were recognized. Everybody cowered but nobody was safe. Fame was present but short-lived; names became recognized and etched in tribal memories as these groups tried to establish recognition before their bright-burning candles became subject to the winds of change. What little structure left in society, that which was scraped together from the ashes, seemed to being falling apart again under massive fires and the scattered piles of the dead. This took weeks and it seemed to be again the end of civilization.

The Agreement

The extreme violence only ended after many dozens of missives distributed through foot, road, and short-wave networks reached all parties. It was desperate, timely, and wonderful. People listened and learn, clearly recognizing the situation at hand. Soon enough, organized self-titled Adherents chanting, holding arms, with bullhorns and signs formed walking through each war-torn community risking their lives to deliver a single coherent message in all languages.

The message was peace on Earth.

In Terra Pax. 
el salam ala arad. 
yehi shalom al ha-aretz.
dharatee par shaanti.
Shìjiè hépíng.

This was the beginning of the Agreement lead by the Catholic Church and the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia. Other religious groups, depending on the regions of the world, also joined though the strong presence of the Church was the most felt. The Agreement was a long-term plan begun after the first bombs dropped; a contingency plan that should have never needed to be written or executed, first drafted in the late 1950s after several Jesuits became convinced that Nuclear War was not an option, and that mankind's whims would surely end the World. The message of the Agreement is that without Earth there is no future for the incubator of Man; that mankind could not prove itself worthy to God. The authors realized that they, with the great religious institutions combined, have the largest communication infrastructure upon the entire planet. In case something bad happened they would combine their efforts and help bring reason and hope back to the peoples of Earth. It was a long-shot plan, but the message was clear; no nation of man could hope to do this by itself without the steady strong hand guidance of God through His representatives. The goal was set; to rebuild the Earth with a new vision.

Voices of the Adherents

With the intervention of the two largest religious institutions in the history of world, even the criminals had something in common with the privileged; the goal of making the world better than in it was in the eyes of God. And this was the right time as no other time in known history. The Conflagration may have been God’s Lesson, or it may have been a mistake on the infant-like minds of Men; but it is an opportunity to rebuild. Therefore, for a time everybody tried to do better, and the pain experienced in life was a little less and the amount of hope and pride in works began to rise. The Agreement saw to it that the clergy had greater influence on the decisions of the newly reformed governments and their militaries.

Nearly four decades after the Conflagration every significant nation, even secular ones, has at least one subdivision of advisors, “Voices”; speakers the clergy of the Catholic or Islamic faiths. Critical decisions are made in deferment to those persons whenever it involves violence, punishment, media presentation, or social mores. Like all things before it; in many places this works absolutely well, and in others it causes more strife and friction than necessary.

The Agreement holds that all adherents will be treated fairly, and this is true; those places where the laws are severe and punishing to the peoples are visited with the greatest of all priorities. Soon, perhaps too soon or too frequently; there is often a regime change, an abdication, or a public apology offered to the peoples issued by whichever political entity is in power. Outsiders to these nations, those persons and observers which are not Adherents; they see nothing but the same problems as before the Six Day War. To them, having too much power concentrated in so few hands - the religious leaders - is bound to get the world broken yet again. For now, though; it is too early to tell. Society has begun to rebuild itself despite these worries.

Giant Robots of the Absolution War

UPDATE: Yeah. I've only recently recovered from nearly 9 months with a sinus infection and I'm so happy to have received some anti-biotics! The stress from my job didn't help either. My only solace is cups of coffee and maybe some white-noise.

Latest News

So, I've been getting more energy now that I've been feeling better and so I've been putting some effort into a couple of new designs. There's actually two designs; "Giant Robots of the Absolution War" [ GRoAW ] is the primary design and where these settings notes come from, and then there's "Mech, Beast, and Infantry" which uses a different design but is spiritually a sub-set of the first design.

What's been inspiring me is that I've got about 30 or 50 MechwarriorClix figures that are in the 1:160 or about 10MM scale that I wanted to use. I've been lurking in the forums for Dropzone Commander and thought that maybe I could do a MEST-flavored "improvement" over the basic concept; something within the Ovoidium Cosmogos universe, similar to my Web-published boardgame "Giant Robots of World War II."

These two new systems have been in development for about maybe three months; perhaps 20 hours a week. Still very rough, but my hope is that beyond the new genre and setting I can get a different take on how skirmish games could play out. Maybe some of this will help me improve the MEST 2.0 design that I've still got in the works.

I'll post up "Mech, Beast, and Infantry" once I wrap up the fundamentals; I'll probably post on Delta Vector forums first to get some (hopefully) positive feedback. It's currently v.0.25 and relatively short at 8 pages, and may grow to 12 pages when I'll be done. The main game GRoAW I'll probably keep improving in the backdrop; it may not see the light because I think it is more of a tinker's toolset akin GDW's Striker and GZG's Dirtside II.

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Introduction

Giant Robots of the Absolution War (GRoAW) is a tabletop skirmish miniatures game played between two opposing forces with 1 or 2 players managing each force. The play area is a modern or futuristic city which serves as the battlefield where these forces compete for supremacy.

Each Player represents an aspiring Little Wars Commander at the War Event of 2588 AD. They have been selected to resolve an Argument (a scale of battle) as a literal Player voted to serve as the Face of a particular Diction which collectively are known as Stages of Conduct which can be any of the arcologies within the Solscept. The Players are responsible for selecting the best warriors, mechs, vat-grown beasts, and machinery, from a cadre of Practitioners of the Ritual of Absolution and the best Catalogs of Destruction. Failure or victory; either guarantees penitence in the Eyes of the Lord. But that is in the Spiritual Realm. Upon the material plane, upon this cursed Earth; the victor wins the adherents of the false philosophies to become initiates and converts into the One True Diction and eventually bring about the Correct Coherence of the Final Absolution.

Help fight the decisive battles of the Utmost Age within the Demesnes of Solscept! Prove your worthiness! Show your righteousness! Choose your holy weapons and machines of war, and demonstrate your tactical skills through proper maneuvering of those forces upon the battlefield. There may be death. There might be destruction. But indeed there will, by God; be redemption! Amen.

The Absolution War

The arrival of fusion power enabled the rapid access to the planets around Sol. Artificial General Intelligence, mini-macro-printing, and advanced robotics helped with the construction of vast arcologies here on Earth, at the Trojan Points, to the Moon, and beyond. Genetics assisted in populating the many worlds now known as Demesnes of the Solscept. Mastery of biomimetics transformed man and beast into malleable vessels for technology and increased each species' hardiness for survival in harsh environments. Virtual and augmented reality, the foundation of what is known as the Sensual Realms, allowed society to become entertained and informed. With the creation of the Cyberkhyber, a multi-planetary world-spanning network-distributed fortress with the Sensual Realms, death itself has been conquered and fear of it deters very few. No member of society has needs or wants within the actual reality of the Physical Realm.  It has been this way for nearly 300 years and nearly every biome, planet, and rock has become a fully-inhabited domain. The entirety of all settlements has flourished without conventional war nearly all these centuries. As a result, Reason and philosophy became the endeavors of the majority of all populations across all habitations, virtual or real.

Great societies arrived and flourished under the guidance of the Quiet Voice; that singular expression of all inter-connected artificials intelligences. All leaders speak factually, reasonably, succinctly, and emphatically their well-substantiated decisions. The people vote using similar informed reasoning. Many of the populations as a result turned from their studies within their virtual worlds to see the World as it is just to take note. Imdwellers, the peoples of the Demesnes, sometimes disconnect and wander outside their underground crypts to see their beautiful but nearly empty cities, transformed landscapes, and strange lab-grown animals managed and minded by robot caretakers of various forms. Some remain outside to live simpler lives and to guide the tremendous shaping processes brought by technology, and these became known as the Raucous Few.

However, the Raucous Few began to enjoy their freedoms of being Disconnected and began to shape the World by introducing Whispers of Dissent. These well-placed and well-disguised memes turned what had been seamless harmony within the Ocean of Words into mere stretches of Punctuated Equilibrium. Soon, the entirety of the Sensual Realm started to question their purposeless life and begun to seek meaning. Over time, the people and their leaders became belligerent. They had no vent except through their virtual games and this has become worrisome for many as those inclinations became Manifest as small chaotic exchanges of Death Without Reboot and unplanned property de-establishment. There must be more to life, the social network reasoned. Absolutely the style of living with all needs appeased dissatisfied too many. The resultant varieties of discourse within the Ocean of Words created a positive feedback loop especially among those Raucous Few.

Many of the Imdwellers turned to esoteric philosophies and others turned to specialization into religious studies for what better way is their to expend energy than to argue archaic writings? Competing ideologies raged across the universe of thoughts, each their own Diction in an Ocean of Words. A rare few persons, still numbering into the millions, specialize further into martial studies. These are the Practitioners who are enhanced with cybernetic dictionaries of kinesthetic verbs and forms, with codexes of warfare containing recipes for organized combat in all its forms. Flowery terms for each clade of thought abounded to mask the simplicity of these thoughts, these Dispensations.

The entire Solscept had been at peace for nearly three centuries, but the Dispensations became more limited and some transformed into binding Ordinances in order to curb extreme thoughts. The Raucous Few home these actions would limit virtual violence before it would escape towards the Physical World and affect even themselves. To Failure; no memes could stop their infectious ancestral idea; "To Be". Mankind has always had its braggarts, psychopaths, and visionaries. Each scheming or desirous of a better future shaped to their will whether it be wars of the body or spirit. In the ancient past these schemes were resolved with bloody aplomb upon far-ranging battlefields where upon thousands if not millions perished.

Soon, from the Quorum of Worlds formed by the Lead Voices of each arcology, a Resolution came into being. This Structure was designed to quell the stochastic outbreaks of violence which had become more frequent. It was made clear in these exact words issued to all of the Solscept; "Realm or Roe, Vec or Vulg; those who want to fight, fight. Those who want to stay, stay. We demonstrate our lessons and want them beg sway." This was 14 years ago, and it started what is now known as the Utmost Age; the age of warfare as a precise tool of argumentation. It has also become a channel for many who seek death but were too ashamed of their sensuous lives within the Ocean to merely end it at the hands of their semi-autonomous Minders.

Now is the Utmost Age when warfare is punctuated, refined, and focused into the Rituals fondly named "Little Wars". Only the participants, the Practitioners, are put at risk. Each school of thought or Diction has its voice here and the impact of a Ritual which has been decided affects the entire Ocean of Words. Hence now each nation has annual War Events comprised of Little Wars, in which they select among their best and brightest to demonstrate their righteousness through tragic plays of mayhem and madness.

Overview

I wanted to create something weird but familar. It needs be flexible enough concept, with some constraints, to allow players to bring their own ideas for units to the table.

Society

Many of the well-connected humans in society are utterly bored and live in virtual worlds.

• Some of these have decided to fetishize their beliefs and become an adherent of an extreme philosophy known as a Diction.
• The more arcane or religious the source of philosophy, the more adherents it will have.  Subjects range from Abrahamic religions, Scientology, Urantia, Wicca, New Ageism, UFO Conspiracy, Objectivism, or even Racism. 
• These people join Memeleagues where the other members have a common Diction but multiple forms of Expression.
• Some of these adherents have decided to change the world outside of their their virtual lives permanently. These are known as Practitioners.

Logos and Bios

• It is possible for the mind to exist independent of a body. This is the Logos (loh-goss) and Bios (bee-oss) separation. 
• It is also possible for a single mind to have copies of itself in different bodies. Each copy is registered as an Independent Member of a Logosbank and has rights just like any other human.
• Bodies are actually transhuman; they've each been genetically and cybernetically augmented and are known as "Techno-organic". 
• Most bodies, known as a Verum Corpus, are vat-printed on-demand without any memories to allow a Logos to control it.
• Some Practitioners have decided to have pure-human bodies with few if any cybernetic enhancements, and just base-line genetic modification for diseases and general health. These are known as "Purists".
• Most Practitioners switch out their bodies and when going to War can survive physical death through their Logos Devices which is stored within their skulls.
• Many Practitioners desire to have a Single Voice, and will enter in a battle with duplicated Logos serving in different biological forms. This is known as Shouting the Din, and is considered to be somewhat like cheating especially when the Practitioner is supposed to be of higher standing. Each copy of the Logos makes the Practitioner become referred to as "The Unswayed" because of their stronger conviction during battles.
• Some Practitioners, especially the wizened veterans of multiple wars, tend to become "Shut-ins". These have decided to destroy not to use a Logos Device when entering battle; death for them is permanent.
• Some very few Shut-ins have been known to go one step further download their Logos into a stylized android construct to increase their durability. These "Machinamaksim" Practitioners are somewhat extreme even when compared to the others.

On-demand Constructs

The technology available to the Practitioners is astounding and can fabricate, grow, and customize any design crafted in the virtual world to make them physical within the real world. There are entire networks of artists, engineers, and researchers dedicated to crafting the best possible designs for use in these Arguments of War.

• Retrodecofascii use designs from other eras including Gothic, Grimdark, Cosmic, Heavy Metal, Steampunk, Googie, Industrial, Atomik, etc.
• Weeaboodo is pure art designs inspired by toys and cartoon characters. Many of these designs hail back as far as the early 1900 and 2000 AD.
• Anachrocastrati employ sentimental designs of ancient eras of warfare such as Medieval, Pike & Shotte, Rifle Age, World War II, Vietnam War, Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and others. Nothing beyond 2100 AD

Design Goals

These were my targets for the design after several weeks of musing. Having little teevee time sort of helps here, as well as long commutes home from the office job.

Theming Goals

These goals are inspired by the Japanime stuff, even including something like Paprika. May old books as well, such as Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Keith Laumer's Bolo. I guess throw in some Metal Hurlant as well.

• Strange Futurism
• Heroic infantry
• Style personalization

Mechanical Goals

These particular goals are a bit more like a wish-list. 

• Faster game-play but more Rounds (pfft, shahright)
• Fewer units
• Allow models from any genre to be used
• Make mechs, mecha, walking tanks significant
• Make infantry survive unless against specialized weapons
• Make aircraft stay on the battlefield
• More tactics less luck (pfft, again because dice)
• Flexible build-your-own
• Integrated campaign system

Influences

Existing game designs and forums discussions always help influence me. 

• Dropzone Commander; terrain
• Wizkid's Mechwarrior; figurines and utility
• GZG's Dirtside II; customization
• Steve Jackson Game's Ogre; few big units versus many smaller ones

MEST 2.0 :: Recent updates Again

version 2.45 as of 2016.02.20 [link]

Overview

1. Expanded the Table of Contents into two columns to make room for more of the content. Missions are listed now.
2. Expanded the section on how to build an assembly.
3. Game sizes are "Small", "Medium", and "Large". The term "Standard" game is now a "Medium" size game.
4. Introduced Variant Common Archetypes. These are trait-based variations of the Common Archetypes which allow for quick comprehension because their stats don't vary from the base-line archetypes.
5. More properly craft the phrasing for how "hands" are used during game-play when assigning weapons or when using certain actions.
6. Rephrase the "Hindrance" entry yet again to make it explicitly more clear.
7. Break out the "Playing the Game" sequence into smaller digestible sections by adding headers to each section.

Actions

1. Made the new action "Overreach" be an Advanced Rule. It is still a very interesting action which will be used a lot during game-play but it has too many exceptions to be included as a Basic Game rule.
2. Clarified the use of Bonus Actions and detailed especially how the use of some Bonus Actions might affect multiple Passive characters beyond just the target model.

Advanced Rules

1. I began a small expansion of the Magic System so that I can begin to add some MEST-specific flavor text. This is in preparation for some of the genres which would use Magic and allows me to build out the spells lists a bit more.
2. Finally added Lighting to allow players more control of the environment depending on the Mission, and perhaps any Tactics cards brought into play. Lighting can be Atmospheric (external to the battlefield) or Point-light (via Torches or Lamps).
3. Introduced Gas and Fire rules.  Gas in general can be Smoke, Mustard, or Knock-out. The genre books will likely introduce new types of Gas ... Nerve, Acid, Sarin, etc. Fire itself is interesting but in the scope of the game, the time-scale is too small for Fire to spread unless it is a feature of a particular Scenario.

Optional Rules

1. The concept of "Optional Rules" is that they are interesting to use but probably more trouble than they are worth or that they are too-specific or limited in their application for most game-play session.  I scrubbed through my years of emails and notes to pull these out. I think the entries are about as complete as I can make it.  Once I bring in the rules for Factions, Champions, and Campaigns I may need to tweak the phrasing here but it probably is near final. I tried to make the phrasing as clear as possible.
2. Low-light Effects are an interesting addition for some Missions. These rules regulate movement within pitch-black and other night-time environments.
3. Shadow-casting is sort of a variation on Low-light Effects. Basically useful during Twilight lighting, or in Night environments with Point-lights. Essentially targets in the shadow-area behind an obstacle which blocks LOS to a light source should be treated with lower Visibility.
4. Facing. I buckled and added this, but it is very light-weight and much different that what other game-systems do because it relies upon the status effects; whether a character is Distracted, Disordered, or Outnumbered.
5. Wind. I'll be adding Wind as a factor for the Advanced Missions, and Wind can be introduced when using Tactics Cards.  I think it is an intuitive addition though it will probably be rare. It is mostly used to move around Gas markers.
6. I've added several new actions which will help me build out some Advanced Missions as follows:
7. "Drag-Carry" action is introduced to be able to move KO'd models about the field. I couldn't determine any way to write it simpler and still be able to be general enough for use by non-standard archetypes. So a Hero could carry a Horse, or four Dogs could drag a Human. 
8. "Disarm" action is useful for some Missions and for some genres.
9. "Take" action is useful for some Missions as well. Taking a Gas mask or a Grenade from your opponent for example.
10. "Grapple". This is also for some Missions to subdue instead of kill a character.
11. "Yield!". Again this is useful for some genres. This will also be beneficial during Campaign play as it will mess with Glory.
12. "Knock-back". Primarily used for some genres. I think it is more cinematic than realistic.

Traits

1. Keyword traits added; Fizzle, Electronic, and Energy. These will be referenced by certain Tactics cards and Missions.
2. Altered [Coward] and also [Beast] to prevent use of Overreach. Makes sense, right?
3. [Signature X]. This is an Optional Rule and is useful for Night fighting missions. Essentially it should be easier to target a model which used a Firearm with full-auto at night.
4. [Upgrade:Item] to assign behaviors to existing items. This is because I've added a generic Equipment list. An example would be to Upgrade:Ammo for armor-piercing bullets to a Firearm.
5. Boxer X. Added to round out the Fight trait. Used by a Variant Brawler archetype.
6. Burn X. Works with the Gas and Fire rules. 
7. Expendable. Used by some Variant archetypes, and as an optional trait for use by Custom Archetypes. Expendable characters don't count and are not used for determining Bottle Tests.
8. Fire X. Used with the Gas and Fire rules.
9. Flicker X. A variation on Light X. Assigned to Torches and Lanterns of Ye Olde Wurld to make Point-light sources not behave consistently.
10. Fume X > Type. Generates Gas:Type. So a Smoke Grenade will generate Gas:Smoke for example.
11. Gas:Mustard, Gas:Smoke, Gas:Knockout. These three basic Gas types I think cross most genres
12. Immune X:Trait. Primarily assigned to Gas masks, but this establishes a base-line for future traits.
13. Light X. For use by Point-light sources like Candles, Torches, Flashlights, etc.
14. Machine. For assignment to Cyber-kin or Constructs. Makes them ignore Morale for all purposes.
15. Radio. I added this for the Comm-link equipment item. Right now it is generic. I've also added the Radio traits to the Archaic Hardsuit so that Near Future genres can be prepped.

Miscellaneous

1. I refactored the ones I've used for the Retropocalypse scenario we did at the various gaming conventions. These revised ones use more of the Faction concepts that I've been working on. Basically if your Agenda matches the needs of your Faction, then it will reward more Resource Points.
2.  I added the Variant Common Archetypes. These are intended for Advanced game play.  There are about 50 of them. So, an Average Cultist is just an Average Common with the Insane trait added to it.  There are others and now I can purchase a Brawny Brawler, or Archer Marksman, or even a Mystic Cult Leader.
3. There are now two types of Dogs; "Hound" and "War". Hounds are smaller, cheaper, but have Detect 3 instead of Detect 2. With the introduction of "Dog, Hound" players can now field a huge pack of them.
4. The Weapons table introduces the new grenades (Knockout, Mustard, Smoke) and also a Fire-bomb ("Molotov Cocktail"). These can be used for many Modern, Post Modern, Near Future, or Ultra Modern genres.

Follow-up

I've got a bunch of more technical writing to accomplish to add the rules for Campaigns, Factions, and Champions. These will be done soon enough and I get to solidify all of my notes. I've reminded myself to generate some AARs and also posts for using many of the new features.

And then I need to paint and build.  This hobby sure requires a lot of effort. Whew!

MEST 2.0 :: Recent updates

NOTES: My sinus issues have been kicking my butt, and my new job has me wishing for more free-time. I'm finally getting my personal life managed a bit better. I'm no longer crashing into sleep after I get home. Anyhow, I've resumed my efforts on crafting the MEST 2.0 rules a bit better.

version 2.29 as of 2015.12.18

Overview

1. Identified Go Points and Group Actions as Advanced Game rules.
2. Identified Indirect Range Attack as Advanced Game rules
3. Identified Deflect, ROF, and Armor Rating traits as charted stats for the Armor and Weapons lists. These are now expressed just like the Impact, Accuracy, and Damage stats.
4. Added new condition "Snap" for when performing Tests during a React; penalty is -1 Wild die.
5. Added new condition "ROF" for when using ROF during a React; penalty is to lose 1 ROF point.
6. Allow Attributes to be dashed; these are essentially a value of zero but the character loses either one or both Base dice when performing tests if the attribute is a single (-) or double (=) dashed value.
7. Put a lot of effort into clarifying how LOS and how Cover is determined.
8. Specify that Cover can be "Intervening Cover", "Direct Cover", as well as "Hard Cover". This improves the survival chances of targets in properly defended positions.
9. Require that a character performing an Initiative Test should have at least half of its forces within LOS.

Actions

1. Introduce a new Simple Action "Swap" to allow models to switch position within congested areas such as corridors and rooms.
2. Allow Concentrate to apply to any Test a player desires.
3. Improve Concentrate to double the Visibility OR to better enforce realistic use of range.
4. Introduce a new Complex Action "Overreach" to allow models to attack over walls, through windows, and past other models. "Overreach" may also be used by passive characters to provide Assist and Outnumber bonuses at reduced benefit.
5. Put a lot of effort to clarify Group Actions, especially in regards to the Group Move and the Group Volley actions.
6. Put a lot of effort to clarify use Reacts. Again.
7. Clarify use of "Charge" and "Impetus".
8. Introduce "Running before Jumping" to allow models to improve their distance crossed when jumping after running.
9. Put a lot of effort to clarify the use of Indirect Range Attacks.
10. Cleaned-up Bonus Action wording where necessary.
11. Put a lot of effort to clarify Passive Player Options.
12. Introduced new Passive Player Option "Defend".
13. Clarified and worded more strongly the difference between Wound Damage and Stun Damage.
14. Clarified and worded more strongly the Compulsory Actions and Morale status section.

Advanced Rules

1. Revised the Fire-lane rules in the Advance Game section to be a bit more clear and to cover the 60-degree arc facing the Fire-lane marker. This is an improvement over the original phrasing which limited it to a narrow lane.
2. Put a lot of effort to correctly word the Custom Archetypes rules to show its use, its expressiveness, and its impacts to the game.

Traits

1. Clarify the Traits overview to show how traits stack when purchased multiple times.
2. Updated trait [Laden X] to be more effective and clear.
3. Updated trait AoE X to be more effective and clear. Removed a confusing clause in regards to Stun Damage. AoE X now has a base "kill radius" of X MU, and a "casualty radius" of double that.
4. Tweaked trait Grit X by allowing it to be taken more than once.
5. Adjusted phrasing on trait Leadership X to be more clear when dealing with Group Actions.
6. Adjusted phrasing on trait Pack Mentality to be more clear when dealing with Group Actions.
7. Tweaked trait Perimiter to allow it to work properly with Overreach. It is also now available for assignment directly to characters instead of being limited to weapons like the Spear.
8. Clarified the spell Beckon X.

Archetypes

1. Adjusted the Common Archetypes chart tremendously for Dog (War), Fiend, Predator, and Monster.  For example, each of those now have lower values for INT and RCA. Dog (War) and Fiend actually have dashed (-) attribute values for both.
2. Added to the bottom of the Common Archetypes chart some variations to allow certain archetypes to pick up the Leadership or Fight traits for a small BP cost adjustment.
3. Put a lot of effort to capture "design by effect" for Stick of Dynamite and Fragmentation Grenade. The biggest change is that Stick of Dynamite now has high Impact plus the Stun trait. Both munitions now have the [Discard] trait which brings their BP values down just a bit.
4. The Custom Archetypes build chart now supports "Finishing Upgrades", introduction of the "Perimeter" trait, and the relaxing of the Grit trait to allow stacked purchases.

Follow-up

I'm going to try to create some entries for the really interesting varieties of tactical situations which arise in Close Combat as a result of the introduction of the Overreach feature, combined with Reach, and Perimeter. Defend and Counter-strike are even more interesting now with how they work together with Fight.

Additionally, I'm dying to craft a nice tutorial on designing your own faction using the really nice Custom Archetypes rules.  It will be a good start on how to document that for within the MEST rules themselves.

MEST 1.60 Updates

MEST 1.60 I think is ready.

OK. This is for the current 1.x rules set.  I've updated that to version 1.60 and released it to the Google Sites location. This rules set is just the Basic Rules for which I will leave on the Web for ever; I hope to not make any more changes to it.

So here's what's been up with that rules set:

1. I got rid of one of the conditions that caused a character to be Distracted when fighting an opposing character with higher REF.  This was hard to enforce . Also gone in version 2.0.
2. I got rid of one of the conditions that allowed a character to be no Engaged when in a Scrum which outnumbers the opponent. This was hard to determine quickly. Also gone in version 2.0.
3. I excised most of the Sample Assemblies. It really was too much to keep up the Build Point [ BP ] costs of each of the entries.
4. I updated the dice labels for custom blank dice. Basically I added some green to make it easier to read carry-overs.
5. I updated the Resource Cards using feedback from the convention games.  
6. I updated the Reference Sheet. Just BP changes.
7. I updated the set of markers and tokens.  Labeled tokens for those people which do not have access to arts & crafts beads and baubles.

Here's the link:

Full-color rules

Concise rules

Booklet

MEST 2.0 Updates

Update! Update! Update!

I'm getting more time to myself again, and so I've been picking up on editing the draft MEST version 2.0 rules. It's been something like 8 months since I started this phase and about 4 months since I've had anytime to regard it in detail.  However, because I'm getting a fresh start I'm able to see a lot more places where I can clarify the rules, reorganize them, or streamline them.

So here's what's been up with the rules:

1. Table of Contents added.
2. Introduction and Overview section added describing what MEST does and why its a cool game system.
3. A "Learning the Game" section has been added to foster a kind of "programmed instruction" feature.  Once the version 2.0 rules get stable, I'll create a subset of this part of the full rules as a Quick Start Rules which will be handy for convention plays as well.
4. I added a simple paragraph on "running and jumping"; I figured I had to do it.  I stopped short of allowing characters to jump and shoot mid-air.  Maybe that will be a trait once I get into the more acrobatic "Spy/Ninja" genres.
5. I really focused on the React rules. A lot.  Clarified, re-organized, added proper exceptions and limitations.  It's getting better and better. 
6. I flip-flopped on the Group Leader and how it may perform Individual Actions.  I didn't allow this before but I think it is necessary, otherwise it won't be compelling nor thematic.
7. Added a section on "Performing Movement" just to make this critical game feature clear. It probably still needs some work.
8. I got Aggro's blessing to add a "Defend" bonus for Close Combat Defenders.  I needed to add limits on it but it works wonderfully.
9. I discovered that Fight X is over-powered and so I added some limits.
10.  I've created a section describing how missions will be presented so that I can easily add more in the future.
11. There are now five "Introductory Missions" and six "Standard Missions". I'm still finalizing the last two which are "Area Control" and "Escape!".  
12. I finally got the nerve to make entries for "Additional Materials" and brought in the Resource Cards and the Tactics Cards rules.  I'm still in progress with updating those cards to the version 2.0 context but its only a matter of time...
13. Glossary of Terms added. This is ported from the version 1.5 rules and I'll need to adjust the descriptions since I'm sure some of the contexts have changed.

The draft version has no illustrations, photos, or diagrams.  The full-color version will but I'm already thinking that I want more than what I have in the current 1.5x document; perhaps double the count so that every critical rule has a good visual demonstration of it. 

MEST 2.0 Draft Update

EDIT: 2015-02-11 ~ somehow I deleted the original post and so this

is a paste from feedly.com

Quick post.

I've updated the MEST 2.0 document; I added more friendly verbiage at the front pages detailing a strategy to learn the basic rules.  By doing so, this low-fidelity version of the rules is becoming more like the planned hi-fi version with its preface, intro, and other materials.

I cleaned up the phrasing for the Perform Range Combat section.  Essentially I have made Perform Direct Range Combat and Perform Indirect Range Combat two separate first-class sections. I tried my best to clarify the phrasing for Indirect attacks in regards to the scatter element. I introduced the concept of ROF markers to be the reverse-side of Suppression markers because it makes more sense mechanically and the phrasing becomes much more clear.

I brought in the Rate-of-Fire [ ROF ] and Fire-lane rules into a new section for Advanced Rules because the rules for them as traits was too complicated.

ROF is now a column on the Weapons List representing what had previously been the Rate-of-Fire [ ROF ] trait.  [Jitter] is removed an implicit Disability trait from the ROF rules and is now directly assigned to some weapons that have ROF +2 or higher; notably the Beam Carbine no longer has [Jitter] and neither does a Medium Revolver.

Another addition is that the Armors List now shows a D column to reflect what had been the Deflect trait associated with certain armors and shields.  The same goes with an AR column to represent what had been the Armor Rating trait.  Furthermore, I clarified the sections on resolving Damage tests by calling out how to use the various properties of weapons and armors; for the Accuracy, Deflect, Impact, and Armor Rating properties.

Custom Archetypes and the Magic System also fall under the Advanced Rules now. I added some more guidelines for recording Custom Archetypes.

There's numerous other but smaller fixes to the phrasings of various rules.  For example, any reference to an "interrupt" is now renamed to "Reacts".  And Sorcerers are kind of Spellcaster because I have plans to introduce other sorts of spellcasters in the future.

Anyhow, this latest build contains what I hope is much better readability and clarity.  I'm still puzzling over some smaller details on phrasing, but I think this new version is pretty close to final.

I'll need to run it against Aggro to get feedback on the edits; I think he'll agree it is improved.

Aggro's Scale Comp Shots

Here's a couple scale comparison shots. There's been some requests over at LAF.

Both shots are GW, Blue Moon, LAM, Westwind, Foundry, Old Glory.
Sadly all the base heights aren't quite the same height but you probably get the idea.

Scale Comparison

I took some comparison shots today of my "old tymey" cars I use in Pulp and Mythos games.
I thought these cars were Lledo, but they all sale "Models of Yesteryear" or "Matchbox Models of Yesteryear" on the bottoms of them. The models used were Foundry and Pulp Figures. I also took a scale shot photo of my Yeti/Voormis WIP.