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Topics - Gorkamorka

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1
Is the world of Pokémon post apocaliptical of Post Scarcity ?

Apocalypse: There seem to be no roads or public transport. In fact there is almost no infrastructure. Further more gangs of teens are roaming the wilderness without any supervision and find almost no one except each other.  When they do encounter each other the make their slaves battle each other to establish social dominance.

On the other hand there seems to be no need for money, no one goes hungry or needy.  And violent encounters are solved any permanent damage to anyone by making invulnerable slaves battle for you. 

So I can't tell if it's post apocalyptic or post scarcity. my currently theory is: Society being post scarcity has changed it so much that I'm getting culture shock from viewing it.

2
RPGs / Where to find building blueprints for games.
« on: May 14, 2016, 04:52:51 PM »
So I was listening to Technical Difficulties RedMarket campaign (reformers ep9) and the DM was lamenting the difficulties of finding factory floor plans.

And that sounded strange to me...Because around here (Iceland) blueprints are public records.  All I have to do to get them is to go into the cities interactive map, pick the building and ask the browser to give me the blueprints.  (Browser: http://borgarvefsja.reykjavik.is/borgarvefsja/  Just click on "teikningar" and then select the building, then "teikningar")

So as example, for you to use in your game, here is...
A big ars church http://teikningar.reykjavik.is/fotoweb/Grid.fwx?SF_GROUP1_BOOLEAN=and&SF_FIELD1_MATCHTYPE=exact&SF_FIELD1=102542&SF_GROUP1_FIELD=IPTC202
A multi functional music hall http://teikningar.reykjavik.is/fotoweb/Grid.fwx?SF_GROUP1_BOOLEAN=and&SF_FIELD1_MATCHTYPE=exact&SF_FIELD1=209357&SF_GROUP1_FIELD=IPTC202
A bottling plant  http://teikningar.reykjavik.is/fotoweb/Grid.fwx?SF_GROUP1_BOOLEAN=and&SF_FIELD1_MATCHTYPE=exact&SF_FIELD1=111019&SF_GROUP1_FIELD=IPTC202

And that brings me to the point.  How do I get blueprints/floor plans for buildings where you are from?  I figure if we pool our resources we will never want for floor plans again.

3
This thread is for ideas I want to jot down while listening to the actual play podcasts of Redmarket.  It will be story hooks, equipment ideas, NPC and location ideas.  It will probably also include a lot of unapologetic backseat game design.

---
FEEL FREE TO ADD YOUR OWN.
---

1.
This game needs bore spears. Every latent should have one.  Boar spear is a long strong spear with a crossbar just after the blade.  So once you stick something you can hold it in place.  Like say, hold a vector 7 feet away from you while your buddies shoot it.

4
RPGs / Geeks and Sundery do Paranoia
« on: February 10, 2016, 11:18:07 AM »
Has anyone seen Geeks and Sundery do Paranoia ?

What did people think?

I thought they captured the spirit of it.  But it's still my dream to have RPPR do this game with Caleb as Friend Computer.

! No longer available

5
General Chaos / Cool things on the internet that people don't know about.
« on: November 07, 2015, 04:46:49 PM »
I'll Start

Here is NASA life satellite image stream of our planet ( https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/ ) . It's two images of every spot on earth every day.   Want to see what the view over Iceland on the 12th of Augustus 2013 ?  It was like this ( http://go.nasa.gov/1NiTQk6 ).  DO you want more detail ?  Then go here ( http://lance-modis.eosdis.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/imagery/realtime.cgi )

It's also free to use for most purposes ( http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html )

What else is out there on the internet that I need to see ?

6
RPGs / Hacking Red Market question.
« on: September 25, 2015, 04:24:12 AM »
Hi.

Im lacking a group and time at the moment so I  haven't been apart of the playtest.  But I have been keeping an eye on it though the podcast and the forum.  Now, I just had an idea, and I was hoping the people who have played the game can answer me.

The question:  Can this system be easily hacked to play cyberpunk?

It sounds like it can.  It sounds like it would make a great system for cyberpunk gaming. Cyberpunk has so many of the same elements as Red Market. 
- The apocalypse happened, but the game is not about that at it's core.  The zombies took over VS the Corporations took over is not a great leap in game mechanics. The only thing that changes is the opposition.  You drop the infection mechanic and add cyber, but cyber stuff is just another tool that require maintenance and you the game already has rules for shooting non infected.
- The game revolves around poor, but competent people, doing dodgy jobs for doggy clients. While trying to make enough money to retire. Doing these jobs saps at your humanity as you get crushed by capitalism.

Would it work?  Does it fit?  What am I missing?

What do you think?

P.S.  I know the game is not out, so questions about hacking it are a bit premature, but that is just how my brain works.

7
RPGs / What system to play "How to train your dragon"
« on: September 06, 2015, 07:12:56 AM »
I was giving some thought to what system to run "How to train your dragon" in.

I had more or less come to the conclusion that it would be best to do it in FATE, until I heard Dans Monster and other childish things game.  Now I have started to wonder if that's not the system of choose for that franchise. 

The viking kids are not all that powerful by them self, but they a monster of a Dragon at their disposal.  A monster that adults will try to kill/run away from I they encounter them.

What other systems might be a good match?

8
Tom and Ross where talking about the Iron Edda RPG and how it needed an good Viking metal soundtrack.

Being from that part of the world I thought I'd provide one.

Here is Skálmöld,

https://youtu.be/yAyFyEFoZvs

They are an Iceland Viking themed metal band.  Solid metal with all the lyrics in Icelandic Viking style rhyme.

Here is the whole concert for those interested
https://youtu.be/5yHsmZy-YS8

So what other metal can RPPR listeners suggest for the Viking versus Steampunk game

9
RPGs / Vote on the best Eclipse Phase space whale scenario.
« on: May 01, 2015, 03:34:37 AM »
Voting open until 15th of May.

Aletheas "Space whales develop accurate sun weather forecasting system. Hypercorp try steal it."
Hippy space whales develop a very accurate sun weather forecasting system. Hypercorp black ops incoming to steal it for hypercorp's personal use - maneuver rival corp's assets into place to be damaged by a solar flare maybe? Easier exploitation of exoplanet resources, if you can worry less about getting caught in a CME? Firewall sentinels dispatched to prevent theft and transmit to the argonauts.

Review Cultist "Space whales "space beaching" themselves into the sun itself."
Yeah, honestly my main idea for this (and this is only excusing my nigh ignorance of thorough details on the space whale situation save the morph info I recently read) but I would think some one could do a game involving the space whales "space beaching" themselves into the sun itself or on mercury and just going inactive for mysterious reason... or becoming horrifying meance in the inner system because of the follow suggestions:
- A TITAN Virus
- Anti-Space whale faction that is exploiting some morph glitch or flaw.

Applewoods "Space whales used the exsurgent virus to engineering a new breed of krill for food."
A: A group of space hippy blue whales used the exsurgent virus to engineering a new breed of krill for food.  Extreme radiation from solar flares is used to neutralize the exsurgent virus before feeding.  Firewall is called in to eliminate the research and the whales.

Tadanori Oyama "The PCs ego hunt the great white spaced whale"
An extreme bioconservative eccentric who nearly died in the fall due to an uplift stealing his ship, which left his leg badly damaged, hires the PCs onto his crew as ego hunters. He long ago burned all of the uplift's backups and forks and thought the creature was dead. However, he's received news that that uplift is still alive, living in a white Surya morph...

PaulyMuttonchops "Free space Willy"
The players are maladjusted orphans that vandalized a traveling exhibit on the Surya.  As punishment, they are placed with foster parents in Surya morphs and must work with the Surya to make amends. There they meet Willy, a young Surya whale who left his family to become a Surya, but has now realized that being a Surya is pretty fucking stupid. Sensing kinship, the players and Willy form a bond and, with the help of kindly Firewall sentinel Rae Lindley, develop a plan to help Willy escape and find his family. However, greedy Surya leader Dial soon catches wind of the plot, and will relentlessly defend the Surya status quo.  Once a Surya, always a Surya. . . even if that means dying and being "reborn" as a Surya.

trinite "The supernova bomb will be blown if Akaja Lacuna is not set free"
The sun powers the entire solar system. Any threat to it is automatically an X-threat. But who, besides maybe the TITANS or some other alien species, would try to destroy the sun? Well, maybe with a viable threat, you could hold the solar system hostage, dictating terms to every planet and habitat from Mercury to the Oort cloud. But that's just crazy. It's a comic book supervillain plot; real people don't think like that. And that's true, real people don't. But what about a memetic virus that thinks of itself as a supervillain?

During a solar storm, most of the surya population gathers in Ukko Jylina to wait it out. A very strange sound reverberates through the station, unlike anything they've ever heard before. They feel it in their sonar receptors, something loud but complex, like music. It's brief, the storm passes, and the pods swim back out and resume their normal carefree lives. But after a while they start trying to remember something: did they ever meet someone named Akaja Lacuna?

They say that there are no secrets among dolphins, and the same goes for Solarian Suryas. They ask each other the question. Does anyone know Akaja? Is she a surya? Maybe in one of the other pods? The name sounds vaguely familiar at first, but soon it becomes a common subject of conversation, then a hobby, then an obsession. Surely, Akaja must be in one of the pods. They all remember meeting her somewhere. And she was so charming and brilliant, a wonderful friend, unforgettable, a genius, the greatest Solarian to ever swim, our natural leader. Where did she go? Where did they take her?

The rest of the solar system notices nothing, until the first broadcast. A wide-spectrum radio message from Ukko Jylina declares that the Solarians have constructed an iron insertion bomb hidden deep inside the sun's surface. If their list of demands are not met, they will blow up the sun.

Demand #1 is that their leader, Akaja Lacuna, be freed from her imprisonment and returned to her solar home within 48 hours. It's a name that means nothing to anyone, except for a few insane Neosynergists and a couple of ex-Firewall proxies...

Better get a team together.

Zombieneighbours "Space whales with exergent STD"
"Worshipful", a sexually transmitted version of the exergent virus has made its way into a surya pod, thanks to the intimate nature of Surya culture. The virus is causing a slow and distinctive change in their behaviour. The subtle effect of the virus changes their mental state, driving them to become increasing insular and paranoid, as well as increasingly developing a complex religion around the concept of the suns destructive power. As a result, the surya pod has build a string of horrendous WMD in the form of solar lasers, capable of devastating the planets of the inner system.

The sentinels need to identify the infected, prevent the virus spreading further through the population, and deal with the infected surya, as well as track down their allies amongst the titanians autonomists who are providing tech support on the project, to prove it can be done. Meanwhile, an argonaut leaks the existence of the weapons, causing a race by inner system power groups to try an take possession of the group.

To complicate matters further still, firewall servers schism in an epic flame war, as they try to decide what to do with the weapons, either destroy them, or co-opt them for use against the titans should they return.

RadioactiveBeer "The egg is an Iron Bomb"
The one that spring to mind for me involves The Egg, a mysterious metallic object the size of a skyscraper orbiting the Sun (or at least near to Mercury). It's one of the mysteries of the setting - TITAN relic? Factor trap? The idea for this session would be that The Egg is an iron-bomb (or if not iron a hyper-dense-metal-bomb) that stands ready to skewer the heart of Old Shiny and royally screw the solar system.

Zombieneighbours "Space whales aren't possible, must be TITAN tech"
Space whale super-science biology could also be an interesting plot. One day a firewall scientists suddenly realizes that they don't understand how Surya biology works, and that every hypothesis he comes up with either contradicts observable data or is off the walls craze balls and requires tech no one has, then he notices that all the published research and material on their biology is the scientific equivalent of a imaginative five year old doodling on paper and submitting it for peer review.

Then most worrying of all, he realizes that no one else is asking questions about them, that no one else even seems to think it is weird!

TMayesing78 "Space Whale poachers filming snuff XPs."
Space Whale poachers filming snuff XPs.  No one knows why they're doing it, but the stacks are disappearing, leaving dead whale carcasses drifting in space.  Now a major solar researcher has been one of the victims.

Ravenswar "EvilCorp testing exsurgent virus that function in the corona on Space whales"
Firewall scanners have detected an unusual spike in chatter in Solarian space. The team is to ego cast into Hooverman-Geischecker posing as a group of Argonauts. The group they are replacing is not in on the conspiracy, just simply easily bribed with a hedonistic trip to Pavarti. The sentinels were selected because their skill set somewhat matches that of the Argonauts. They will have to maintain the ruse while on Hooverman.

The investigation into the cause of the increases communications will lead the players to a murder mystery. Someone is hunting the surya. A good source of information turns out to be the successor to Greenpeace, Voidpeace.

If the players are generally uninterested in social skill checks, you can simple jump to the conclusion that someone is killing the space whales. The key point of the plot is the question of why.

Eventually the sentinels will be pointed toward Aten and the rumors of weaponized exsurgent virus. Another line of inquiry will lead to a stealthed ship as the means of performing the killings. This alone is a worthy trophy as its stealth characteristics imply alien and/or TITAN tech. Firewall will want to acquire this technology or destroy it in order to maintain the balance of power.

Having eliminated the immediate threat, or not, the team still has a few threats. Who and how has been established. The why is indeed connected to an exsurgent virus strain. But from where? Why are leads starting to point to the Exoplanet Babylon?  Is there a connection to the Babylon Rascal?  Are the well meaning Voidpeace now a disease vector?  How does the exsurgent virus remain viable in a stellar corona? Serious implications for standard procedure of cleanse with fire if the heat of the sun is insufficient.

Also did they team flub their impersonation?  The team should be given an opportunity to make it right before the cleaners are brought to reset everyone to a backup prior to the teams arrival.

To fill in some of the blanks:
EvilCorp has determined that something of value is hidden on Babylon, and similarly concluded that it is the Rascal which is responsible for shooting up the place now and then. Determined to find a way to neutralize the Rascal, so as to secure the secrets of Babylon for the,selves, EvilCorp began looking into exsurgent virus strains that maintained virulence in a stellar corona. The murdered surya were killed before their symptoms could be noticed.

What if the vector is a whale song basilisk hack?
How do you keep a hippy space whale from singing?

EDIT: kindalas Late arrival - "Space whales are a scam set up by BBEG and don't actually exists".
Surya and the corresponding coronal infrastructure is a misdirection.

Everyone who ego casts to the location to sleeve into a Surya or a Salamander are just put into an advanced simulspace.

All of the money that was/is being spent on the habitat is used to a nasty secret project that is being run by Ozma/Firewall/Ultimates/Some guy

The Project nearly came undone when researchers on Babylon tried to secure some of the fictional Surya morphs.

However a gate accident caused the shipment to become lost in transit.

10
RPGs / Pitch a space whale scenario for Eclipse Phase.
« on: April 16, 2015, 09:07:46 AM »
I was listening to an interview with Ross on the Drunk and the Ugly. (LINK)
One of the things discussed in that interview is the impossibility to write an Eclipse Phase scenario featuring the hippy space whales orbiting the sun.

So lets proof them wrong.  ;D

The challenge I present to you is to write a one paragraph pitch for a scenario and post it on this thread.  At the first of May I'll make a poll and we can vote on witch one is best. 
Who is with me !

11
General Chaos / Shamelessly plugging an Icelandic Fantasy Author
« on: March 30, 2015, 11:53:27 AM »
So a member of my board game meetup has translated his novel into English and is selling digital copies.

Give it a look and let me know what you think. http://www.elifreysson.com/

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General Chaos / Should fantasy maps have projections?
« on: January 23, 2015, 06:17:32 AM »
I'm having a discussion on another about fantasy maps and real world projections.  Since I have already done all the work I think I'll share here as well.

It starter when I asked a hobby fantasy mapper what projection his map was in.

His/her map looked like this.



Now the reason I asked about the projection on his fantasy world is that different projections display information about place in radically different ways.

I then went on to visualize this point.  Lets assume that the fantasy map above is a world map made as a Mercator map.  That is a sailing map.  Then these are some other versions of that map that show different information about that fantasy world. (I mapped the original map on our planet, based on snowlines, and then changed the projection)

 - An equal are projection would look like this.



That is the shape is wrong but the areas have proportionately the right size comparative to each other.

 - A real shape projection looks like this.



Note how small the northern islands are in reality.  This is a common mistake about northern and southern islands on earth.  People think they are much larger then they are in reality because most projections overemphasise the polar regions.

 - And if that world would be reviewed in National Geographic it would be projected like this



Now were am I going with all of this.  A map made without forethought is one of those things bother me when I bump into it.  And I guess I'm just making a point to fantasy map makers that they should at least give thought to what projections their fantasy map is in.  Because different projections give a vastly different information on what the world is like.

I'm not saying everyone should be an expert cartographer, but I think people should be aware of all aspects of the craft they are engaging in.  I would say that making maps without knowing about the existence of map projection is like writing a story without knowing about story beats.  You might get it right by accident, but if you don't then people will notice.

For example the map above was done as photo realistic as the possible by the creator.  He/She even went as far making textures for the map out of satellite images (Or got them somewhere), but had no idea that what projection he/she was making it in and therefore was doing one of the following, without knowing. 

- He/She was making a Mercator maps without realising how much it altered the shape of the northern and southern parts.  Therefore not knowing the real size and shape of his/her own creation.

- He/she was making a real size/shape map without realising that the area covered can't physically fit on a globe and the world can't be on a round planet, or the whole of the planet.  So the author does not know the shape of his/her world. 

To me both of these are fundamental problems for a world creator.

Now having said all of that what is to be done.

One solution is to use real shape and size projection.   I prefer this one myself.   
There are a few types of these out there.  Such as butterfly projection, Goode homolosine projection, Dymaxion map projection, HEALPix projection.  Here is a whole list of projections.    It's good fun to have a brows.

Another solution is to draw maps as tech level appropriate.

Here for example is a map of Iceland from 1595


More old maps of Iceland

If we compare that to recent satellite image of Iceland



One can see that medieval maps tend to exaggerate peninsulas and fjords, because that's what the sailors can see from the sea.   Inland areas tend to get compacted and hard to reach areas even more so.  So if I was to make a map for my fantasy knight novel I would try to make my map look a bit like that Icelandic map.

Actually I would probably try to have it look like this world map from the 1300s, just clean it up and make it more readable.  But one can see how the maker exaggerates the ares he/she is familiar with (Italy and surrounding areas) and just sort of wings the rest.



The third solution and by far the most easy to achieve is to make sure your map doesn't represent an area bigger then the lower 48 stats of the US.  Once you are down to an area of that size or smaller, then projection errors stop mattering.  And if your game or novel cowers an area bigger then that then a series of maps might be in order.

And that's it for now.  I just thought I'd share.

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And money needs to be donated, lets not forget that.

<a href="" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win"></a>


On a personal note, Ross.

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Thug notes reviews The Mountains of Madness.  The circle is complete.

<a href="" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win"></a>

15
Ok RPPR fans.  It's time to give back to RPPR, do public relation work and participate in a social experiment.
Join the RPPR Social Media Army!   (RPPRSMA?)

The Mission:
Get Calebs 'No Soul Left Behind' Kickstarter on as many social media as possible? 

The reason I want us to do an organised push is that the more exposure the project gets the more likely it is to experience the exponential growth that some kickstarter projects manage to reach.  Having had all this free material from PRRP for years and I for one want to help them out as a thank you gesture.

So here is what we do:
Go to your social media of chose (where ever you hang out online when you are not here) and talk about the project, say something personal about your experience with No Soul Left Behind or other projects by Caleb and RPPR.  Leave a link to the kickstarter and a link to the current Bundle of Holding. 

Link to Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcdream/no-soul-left-behind
Link to the bundle of holding that is for the next week selling Better angels cheap: http://bundleofholding.com/index/current


And so that we don't all drown the same site in posts I'm going to try to keep a tap of where we have posted links.  As long as you tell me about it here.

So far we have posted a link on:
- the Steave Jackson Games forum (Kickstarter thread)
- the Fear the Boot forum (Kickstarter thread)
- the RPPR forum (Kickstarter thread)
- The Order Of The Stick Forum (Kickstarter thread)
- The Eclipse Phase forums (Of Topic section)
- the Reddit RPG page (http://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/2bl2km/no_soul_left_behind_cool_supplement_for_the/).  Go there, comment and up-wote.  Reddit is a popularity contest and threads without traffic disappear.


Places we should post but I haven't.
- There is a RPG kickstarter group on Facebook that is for authors to post about their own kickstarter (https://www.facebook.com/groups/430556803645272/).  Caleb, if you are interested you might want to have a look at that.
- the Reddit Kickstarter page (http://www.reddit.com/r/kickstarter/)
- Any gaming or geek forum you hang out on. (OOTS, 4chan, bordgame geek, The google+)


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