Jessie's Prints - Episode 27 - Greeblies for my Mega City Miniature Storage Case

 

This week, I are mostly been printing...  Greeblies!

I've been working on my Mega City Miniatures Storage Case for a few weeks now and part of this project has involved me creating an printing accessories to stick on the side. Whilst these have been designed with my 15mm Judge Dredd games in mind, they are sufficiently dystopian to be used in any cyberpunk or shadowrun games.

Apartment Facades - Thingiverse 6001311

I needed a montonous series of identical facades for the front of the block.  So i quickly knocked these up in sketchup.  I made a left ahand and a right hand version for a little bit of variety and they print out in about 8 minutes on the Photon Mono X. 

Air Con Units - Thingiverse 4974429 

I didn't even bother scaling down these 28mm air conditioning units as they fit my needs perfectly and come in 4 different models including battle damaged versions.

Block Light Enclosures - Thingiverse 6012356

These simple shapes help to diffuse the light from the rice grain fairy lights I used to provide cheap and simple lighting to the block.  There is a small triangular detail at each should you wish to make these into futuristic street lamps.

Block Sign Box - Thingiverse

I cranked up the SLA printer for the first time in like forever with the express intention of printing out an enclosure which could house a string of the supercheap fairy lights I have used as lighting on my block.  The corners include recesses for magnets so that you can add different signs to represent different blocks in the Mega City.  

I keyed the mating surfaces to make gluing them together much easier  The box is self contained so you can mount it on the Top or sides of the block using magnets to add that little bit of variety.  I recommend covering the inside of the box with tinfoil to bounce the light around and give that extra punch.

Block Signs - Thingiverse: 6034749

My games mostly take place in Sector 55 and so I wanted block signs to reflect my little corner of Mega City One.  I made a blank lid which could be printed in transparent resin and either paper signs glued on top or if you want to go real fancy you can make individual models for each block with raised lettering.

These are split in half to fit on the bed of my Photon Mono 4K and I have included keyed edges to make it easy to glue them together.   

Another way to create your block signs would be to print them onto acetate or OHP paper and fix them with magnets on the outside using the alternative frame I modelled.  I've included a GIMP file in the download which you can use as a template for your block signs.

Happy Birthday William Gibson

Today is author, William Gibson's birthday.

William Gibson

If you have never read one of his cyberpunk novels then you are really missing out.  He is an uncompromising author whose creations span the divide between contemporary literature and science-fiction.  

Gibson does not so much describe a near future world but rather puches you in the face with the sights, smells and sounds blending pop culture and contemporary history together into words with visceral meaning.

"The sky above the port was the color of television tuned to a dead channel."

The Cyberpunk Genre

I encountered Gibson through the Cyberpunk roleplaying game and during the late 80s early 90s and  this was my go-to obsession for many years.  I voraciously consumed anything remotely cyberpunk and this unlocked the door to many other passions such as Anime and the internet which was barely a thing 20 something years ago.  

In fact I made my first cyberpunk RPG website featuring a clumsy netrunning simalcrum back in 1995 using the long discontinued AOLpress before gravitating to Dreamweaver.

Gibson's first novel Neuromancer was allegedly written on an outdated mechanical typewriter, a fact that just added to his mystique.  Of course he has since fully embraced the internet and can be found  @GreatDismal on twitter.

Max Headroom and Blank Reg - The Original Cyberpunk

When I blogged about Hawk the Slayer I highlighted the always amazing William Morgan Sheppard and I just wanted to share my favourite role that he ever played:

Blank Reg

The owner and anchorman of the pirate TV Station "Big Time TV" Reg is an old punk.  He never gave up the punk DIY ethos and this has extended to everything he does.  His pirate radio station is run out of an old airstream caravan and it is not until he acquires a strange box and hooks it into his station that he hits on something big...  Max Headroom. 

What is a Blank

Reg is a Blank, someone who operates off the grid and outside the corporate identity system.  The off-grid unmentionable rebellious archetype is a popular trope featured in many sci-fi shows.  Reg plays the trope to a tee, doing things in his own maverick way despite the protestations of his long suffering wife Dominique who just wants to be able to pay the bills.  They make a classic odd couple like Stan & Hilda Ogden (Coronation Street) or George & Mildred.

Blank Reg and Dominique - Max Headroom

The Meteoric Rise of Max Headroom

Max Headroom (Matt Frewer)

Max Headroom is most famously remembered as the titular glitching digital host who popped up at the end of videos on MTV.  The character had a meteoric rise and at one point in the 80s you couldn't move without seeing Max advertising this that and the other.  He certainly tapped into the zeitgeist that was the nu wave of TV shows like MTV and Sunday morning experimental yoof programming like Network 7.

This was of course entirely the result of Matt Frewer's amazing acting chops and as Mr. Tyrell says "The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long" and Max burned ever so brightly.

He had two TV Shows (one in the UK and one in the US) and this UK made for TV movie.

Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future tells the story of 24 hour news reported Edison Carter (Matt Frewer) and how he stumbles upon the deadly Blip Verts.  These hyper condensed adverts are an extremely effective way to blast commercials into the brain with the unfortunate side effect that particularly sedantary viewers spontaneously combust.  

This scandalous discovery puts Carter directly in the spotlight of the evil Network 23 TV exec trying to sell the Blip Verts to unsuspecting companies.  The exec orders a hit on Carter and as a result of a motorcycle accident evading the comedy hitmen he is killed.  The teenage genius behind Blip Verts Bryce Lynch downloads Carters brain into a simulation in a box inadvertently creating Max Headroom.  

It's certainly a must watch if you are into Cyberpunk or Judge Dredd.  

Inspired by Swedish Dicks?

A bit of a click-bait title I admit, but if you haven't seen the Netflix detective comedy Swedish Dicks then you are missing out.

Specifically I am referring to the plot of the episode "Floyd Cal Who" in which Ingmar (Peter Stomare) and Alex (Johan Glans) are hired by internet dating app millionaire Dave (Haley Joel Osment) to find the hitman he hired to kill him.  

Years earlier, before his dating app went viral, Dave was depressed and decided to end it all but couldn't face doing it himself, so he hired a hitman.  Now a succsessful tech entrepreneur he has millions of reasons to live so he wants the hit called off.

I thought this was a really interesting plot line and one particularly well suited to the sci-fi genre.  It would easily convert to any cyberpunk / modern game and promises interesting play on a number of fronts:

• Potential "hit attempt" encounters.
• Investigatory encounters
• Chase encounters 
• Lots of tension

Oh and I nearly forgot to mention that Swedish Dicks features both Peter Stormare and Keanu Reeves who were last seen together in John Wick 2 (2017) and one of my favourite movies Constantine (2005).

Ingmar (Peter Stormare) and Tex (Keanu Reeves)

2020 - the Dark Future is here

A random post on twitter reminded me that we are now living in the year of one of the greatest genres roleplaying has ever known.  Cyberpunk 2020.

I have been a fan of the genre since discovering it in the early 80s through the literary works of Gibson, Sterling, Williams and Effinger. Visual stimulation came in the forms of films such as Bladerunner, Akira, Bubblegum Crash, Black Magic M66 and Ghost in the Shell.

It changed the way I looked at technology and society and changed my future career choices.  I was never much of a punk but I immersed myself deeply in the dark gritty disposable future of a new breed of heroes.

The new 20s sees the cyberpunk alive and kicking in the form of the much anticipated video game Cyberpunk 2077 and a new version of the RPG from R.Talsorian.

Salut my friend

Dragonmeet 2014 Review - The changing face of gaming?

A bit late in the day, but here never the less here's my review of Dragonmeet 2014.

My christmas wish list for Dragonmeet 2014 like the best laid plans of mice and men... went to hell in a handbasket, meaning I didn't get to play half as many games as I would like, but did get to experience:

Castellan (Steve Jackson Games) - A 2 player abstract area control game, which is a bit pricey, but the gorgeous plastic castle pieces make it total eye candy on top of what is a solid fun game.  I also witnessed their Mars Attacks Dice Game which looked like a lot of fun for all ages.  I hope SJG make iOS/Android implementations of both these games soon as they are a lot of fun and more people need to play them.

Always / Never / Now is Will Hindmarch's hack of the one shot Lady Blackbird game by John Harper, set in a non-specific cyberpunk future.  It's got a very simple rules light system which rewards cinematic play and is perfect for a convention session.  Our awesome GM (a member of the London Indie RPG group) taught us the system basics and we were up and running very quickly, hacking, cracking and generally blowing things up in a style which John Woo and Michael Bay can only dream off.  It was hands down the most fun I've had at a con in years.

Drooling over the Sons of Anarchy boardgame at the 247 Toys stand, I played a few rounds of the UK edition of the Firefly boardgame (The one with the extra "Artful Dodger" ship).  It's definitely a long game with plenty of complexity and variety and whilst not as impressive as their demo tabletop (See photo) it will still end up on my BGG wishlist.

Firefly The Boardgame (UK Edition) includes 5th player ship "The Artful Dodger"

Chessex brought their usual truckload of dice (and a big jug to scoop them up with).

I love dice but they sometimes don't love me, they key...
...change them regularly and discipline the naughty ones

Small indie publishers were in evidence all over the show, along with a crop of new micro armour sci-fi miniature wargames fresh from their dropships like Firestorm Planetfall.

Smallcu.be travelled across the channel from belgium to show off their beautiful crokinole boards (I'll own one one day)

YAY Games UK put on a fine show with their fabulously grisly Frankenstein's Bodies game funded via Kickstarter and Chief Creative Andrew Harman was suitably kitted out in his blood stained butcher's apron.

Oakbound Games were showing off their War of the Worlds homage Tripods! in which players try to escape the Martian invasion of London and avoid the encroaching "Red Weed" which begins to cover the board.

Money is always in short supply and so my purchases were limited to a copy of Housing Crisis by Rack & Pinion Games, a tiny 2 player micro game about placing tenants in different sized housing developments.  It was reminiscent of some of my first games from the 70s/80s which also came in small zip-lock bags and I fell in love.

Housing Crisis Rack and Pinion Games, This much fun in a little bag is usually illegal!!

A couple of friends bought some of the award winning and wonderful All Rolled Up dice bags, a beauty to behold especially with the little hand grenade toggles. 

Free swag was minimal (Curse you global recession!) but I did get a promo Munchkin silver coin and "Official cheesy promotional bookmark of power!" from the SJG demo table.  Thumbing through the very glossy Dragonmeet programme you will also find "The Star Fish" a creature for use in Modiphius's WW2 Achtung! Cthulhu setting and "Ornery Octal" a magic item for Cubicle 7s The Laundry RPG.

Overall it was an enjoyable day but there were a few organisational snags, namely:

• Travel around the trade hall and more importantly between trade hall and gaming rooms felt more of a struggle than usual with what seemed like narrower aisles.  Attendance also seemed higher than at previous years events but this might have just been my perception as the venue felt smaller and more cramped than previous years.  (Organiser Chris Birch has confirmed that attendance was 1600 twice that of previous years)
• Locating the bring and buy stall and signup boards so close to the entrance/reception may have been a logistical necessity but it caused a bottleneck for people trying to get into/out of the trade hall all day long.
• Whilst I applaud the sentiment behind the charitable pre-booking of game seats, in reality it just meant lots of game sheets going up on the board were all pre-booked before the show opened its doors.  With seats in such short supply anyway, I'm not sure how much extra this raised for CLIC Sergeant and Vision Rescue, it didn't paint a very inclusive or open picture which is something that I've always liked about Dragonmeet.  Perhaps next year just take a £1 of the ticket price as a donation for these worthy causes and go back to the old system of first come first served, or at least limit the number of pre-bookings per game to 50%.
• Cloakroom facility was a neat idea which I wish I had used as the venue got hotter and hotter requiring frequent trips outdoors to cool off.
• A lack of game information in the days leading up to the event makes it harder to plan your day and you end up missing the seminars you want to attend.
• I didn't see any cosplayers, were they put off by the cold weather?  This may have been a blessing in disguise as they really need their own display space so people can fully appreciate the hard work that they put into their outfits, and space was at most definitely at a premium this year. 

As for the "Changing Face of Gaming" you can see some more photos from the show and attendees tell me "What it means to be a gamer" in this short video.

Using Node Maps to Figure out your Criminal Network

Yesterday caught me reading Reality Refracted, and thinking about his observation that games which focus on the criminal underground always rely on the interconnectedness of people and locations.

I'd also come to this conclusion from watching movies like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and TV shows like Sons of Anarchy.

If you're going to run a crime/cyberpunk style scenarioyou might like to try mapping these relationships out as a node network to help you visualise where your plot might end up.  Fans of the indie RPG FIASCO will be familiar with this concept as the basis for character generation albeit on a much simpler level.  Taking my favourite crime TV show "Sons of Anarchy" as my inspiration I made this relationship map to illustrate my point.

Sons of Anarchy Relationships Map
(Click to embiggen)

Whilst far from accurate, it demonstrates that often overlooked minor characters can have unexpected or glossed over connections with otherwise unconnected groups.

For example in the Sons of Anarchy universe:

Chuckie Marstein is an often overlooked minor character often seen hanging around TM, working behind the scenes at TM, in the bar at the clubhouse, serving at the ice-cream parlor or running errands for Gemma.  However, his backstory also reveals he was Otto's cellmate and friend in Stockton County Jail, and that he was the Bookkeeper for the Lin Triad who'd stolen two of their counterfeit money printing plates.  He's also done his fair share of work for SAMCRO such as wanting to be an amputee porn star so the gang could gain access to Georgie Caruso's porn studio when he was working for Otto's wife Duanne Laney as the Cara Cara bookkeeper. There's also the unrequited love angle, as he holds a torch for Gemma after she bought him new prostethic hands.

Brooke Putner is another minor character who joined the show as a crazy teenager who blamed SAMCRO for her mother's death.  In fact it was Jax's father John Teller who collided with their car killing both himself and Brooke's mother Emily, although the show hints heavily that her mother is in fact alive and living on the streets as we see her picking through dumpsters every now and then.  Brooke has since fallen in love with Ratboy, helped out at the clubhouse and now works for Gemma as Abel and Thomas' nanny.  This close proximity to the centre of the SAMCRO empire means that it's only a matter of time before she gets hit by some of the club crossfire.

Visualising your crime network in this way makes it easier for you to write convincing plots.  You can see what the effect of an NPC death might be.  If Gemma were to be killed would Chuckie take out his own type of vengence on her killer or if Ratboy were killed in some accident would Brooke hire Happy to hunt them down?  The consequences for larger characters tend to be more obvious, say if August Marks is taken out of the game someone will fill the vacuum, but who?

One of the things I love about the show is that when SAMCRO try to get themselves out of a bad situation, their actions always have unforseen consequences which almost end up burying them.  Your game should be no different the PCs should always be making a hobson's choice with the information they have at their disposal, it's not their fault that the guy they killed in revenge is actually a key player in an even bigger, more powerful crime syndicate.  It doesn't rain.... it pours!

Dazzle Camoflague for the Future

Back in WW1 artist and Naval Reservist Norman Wilkinson came up with the idea of covering ships in bizarre geometric paint schemes to make it harder enemy submarines to target them.

HMS Kildwick in Dazzle Camoflauge

Fast forward a hundred years and we are fast approaching a minority report scenario where we are all subjected to face recognition scanning to some degree as we pass through public spaces.  We even carry these devices with us every day (it's in the software of most digital cameras in our smartphones). 

Thankfully we're not at the stage where you are scanned by GAP as you walk past their billboard at the tube station, but I'm sure that I'm not alone in thinking that things like facebook's face recognition software are a bit creepy, So here's a free app idea for some enterprising mobile developer.
 

Muppet face recognition

Enter the guys at CV Dazzle who are developing simple makeup and hair techniques to fool facial recognition software.  The only downside is that it makes you look like some uber futuristic cyberpunk cosplayer or Lady Gaga fan depending on your perspective (and age).

CV Dazzle Makeup and Hair Techniques

Which brings us back to Sci-Fi and RPGs in particular.  The most common party concept for Sci-Fi games is the band of misfits sticking it to the empire/corporation/man and engaging in lots of covert ops where your ability to hide your identity is crucial.  Unless there's been some sort of utopian revolution there is likely to be some form of mass surveillance at work. 


R Talsorian's Cyberpunk 2020 had a plethora of fashionware items such as light emitting tattoos, colour changing hair and contact lenses squarely pitched as mere character affectations.  The 2006 adaptation of Philip K Dick's "A Scanner Darkly" had undercover cop Keanu Reeves in his hi tech "Scramble Suit" to prevent his identity from being revealed.  Even Milla Jovovich got her identity fooling fashion camo together in the visually entertaining "Ultraviolet".

Put these all together and you've got a really sweet combo which should keep those algorithms busy.

Cyberpunk: Appendix N - Inspirational and Educational Material

In the Gygaxian tradition here is my Appendix N for Cyberpunk, a list of the books, movies and anime which have inspired my cyberpunk adventures since first encountering it in the very late 80s.  Also available on Pinterest. 

Please do not treat this an exhaustive list of what is and isn't considered cyberpunk, these are just the things which have inspired me, I will probably add to it when I get access to the deep recesses of my cortex.

Cyberpunk - APPENDIX N: Inspirational and Educational Material

BOOKS

• William Gibson - Sprawl trilogy (Neuromancer, Count Zero,  Mona Lisa Overdrive), Bridge trilogy (Virtual Light, Idoru, All Tomorrow's Parties)
• George Alec Effinger - Marid Audran series (When Gravity Fails, A Fire in the Sun, The Exile Kiss)
• Walter John Williams - Hardwired, Voice of the Whirlwind
• Bruce Sterling - Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology (Editor and contibuting author), Islands in the Net
• Ian Hamilton - Fallen Dragon
• Ian Mcdonald - River of Gods
• Cory Doctorow - Makers
• Justina Robson - Keeping it Real
• Charles Stross - Halting State
• John Brunner - The Shockwave Rider
• John Courtney Grimwood -  reMix, redRobe,  
• Jack Womack - Terraplane 
• Jeff Noon - Vurt, Pollen
• W.T. Quick - Dreams of Flesh and Sand

MOVIES

• Æon Flux (2005)
• A Scanner Darkly (2006)
• Blade Runner (1982)
• Dark City (1998)
• Equilibrium (2002)
• Escape From New York (1981)
• eXistenz (1999) 
• Gantz (2010)
• Gattaca (1997)
• Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
• Max Headroom (1985)
• Minority Report (2002)
• Priest (2011)
• Repo Men (2010)
• Returner (2002)
• Robocop (1987)
• Sleep Dealer (2008)
• Southland Tales (2006)
• Strange Days (1995)
• Surrogates (2009)
• Total Recall (1990)
• Ultraviolet (2006)
• Videodrome (1983)
• Virtuosity (1995)

ANIME

• AD Police (1999)
• Æon Flux (1991)
• Akira (1988)
• Appleseed (2004)
• Appleseed: Ex Machina (2007)
• Cowboy Bebop (Series) (1998)
• Ghost in the Shell (1995)
• Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004)
• Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2002)
• Vexille (2007)

Quadrotor Swarm: Evil? or am I just being paranoid

Don't you just hate it when someone invents something with the best of intentions and all you can think about are it's potential evil uses.

Scenario Timelines serious plot tool or DMs curse?

As a DM I've tried a number of different approaches to both writing and running adventures, but they've always fallen into one of two camps, the LINEAR or the TIMELINE based adventure.

Linear Plots

In a linear plot the PCs go from location to location (or scene to scene), the events happen solely within their timeline.  This is how most dungeon crawls are written, the party blunder into room 5 and trigger the goblin attack which they either deal with or don't, then it's off to the next room or location and so on until they end up defeating the evil archmage and rescuing the princess / orb of jozitzky (delete as applicable).  

From a DMs perspective these are easy to write and to run as the PCs don't do much choosing which path through the adventure they take.  However, depending on how immersed they are in the adventure, the PCs can sometimes detect the guiding hand of the DM which often led to player apathy and sometimes even rebellion.  They can also feel a little formulaic (not that there's anything wrong with dungeon bashing) if that's all the DM has in their arsenal.

 

Timeline Plots

In a timeline adventure the PCs wander from location to location but the events have a life of their own and can be triggered by the PCs, NPCs, the villain or even other events.  Often these are decided by an overarching game timeline, for example; at noon a fight breaks out in the marketplace, by 1pm the marketplace is cordoned off by the local sheriff, by 1:30 the aggrieved parties have been carted off to the local gaol, by dawn they are all executed.  

As DM you need to be aware of where the PCs are in relation to the EVENTS and any travelling time it might take them to get there, the time it takes for players to deal with an EVENT and argue about what to do next etc.  These are, on the whole, much more of a challenge to write and to DM but often more rewarding for players and DM alike for a number of reasons.

I find that some settings naturally lend themselves to timelines.  Of particular note are Judge Dredd and Cyberpunk, both of which are set in an urban sprawl:

Judge Dredd: The adventure timeline is usually crafted around a single perp's attempts at either committing a number of minor crimes escalating in scale and severity which (if the PCs follow the clues) will end up in a final showdown or one big crime and then the perp tries to cover their tracks.  

When I write my own adventures I pepper the timeline with lots of other events so the players have to decide which crimes are linked together in order to decide what to react to and which ones are set fressing or red herrings.  

The fact that the PCs are often street judges on patrol (but in constant communication with Justice Central) helps with the planning the events in a more linear way and allows you to communicate alerts and demand responses from the PCs to things that they hear on their radios.

Cyberpunk: The adventure timeline is usually crafted around the nefarious actions of a corporation or some other organisation.  The PCs interact with these events through various intermediaries or connections and may end up either working for or against the organisation at the heart of the plot. 

PCs are usually updated throughout the game with regular screamsheets and media broadcasts giving the players a sense of their insignificance in the world and (as I like to do) coverage of the effects of their actions from the opposite perspective.  The job for the PCs is to work out where they fit into all this and if they can or even should put a stop to it.

Communication is Key

One of the keys to running a timeline scenario is that the players need to be regularly made aware of events outside their immediate sphere.  In modern or sci-fi games this is usually not a problem as PCs usually have access to mobile phones or similar which you can use to appraise them of things happening in other locations.

In fantasy games this can be tricky as long distance communication is usually impossible unless the PCs have access to a magical artifact, spell or reliant on messenger birds.  In a city setting this is much easier due to the shorter distances involved.  You might get word of something happening on the other side of the city passed by word of mouth but this could suffer from Chinese Whispers and the actual details of the message get corrupted.  Alternatively you could have a fixer or a patron act as the party messenger using runners to get information to the PCs as swiftly and reliably as possible. 

Purity Test

The PCs are sent to a location by their corporation on the pretext of a mission when they intercept an SOS message from an unknown source.  Locating the source of the SOS the PCs discover that it has been sent by a group of ex-corporate troubleshooters who famously bought out their respective corporations contracts. These NPCs are the rolemodels the PCs look up to in their respective fields. The NPCs tell them that their former corporations want them dead... or worse.

The quandry for the PC's is do they join forces with these dissidents and face the wrath of the corporation or do they turn them in?

The scenario is in fact a corporate purity test and the PC's will be "retrained" if they support the refugees rather than alerting the corporation to their whereabouts.

Suitable Game Systems

Anything with a heavy corporate setting: CYBERPUNK / JUSTIFIERS RPG / PARANOIA