Welcome to Pioneer

News Net Nine

"Good Morning Cappers!  Abby Longren - News Net Nine and I'm here with your Mid Morning Info Dump."

"The market closed lower yesterday, continuing it's recent slide.  Hardest hit were the industrials, but investors also seemed skittish on Agra and Chem.  Losses were slightly offset by soft rally in the financial sectors, fueled by rumors that the Council will once more be pushing back the final voting deadline on Prop 14, the insurance reformation bill.

Joloca/Beta Tarsus president Sheel Augustine met again this week with members of the pheromone manufacturing industry from across the Bleed to draft formal submissions addressing the controversial Olfactory Regulatory Agenda Bill, more commonly called the Sniffer Law.  Should the ORA bill gain traction in the Conference, use of pheromone based personal enhancement products will be subject to tighter regulation and higher liability.  Augustine has stated publicly that should this bill  pass it would cripple not only the highly controversial Stimulust market, but all phero based industries.  She cautions that the bill is a slippery slope that could cause far reaching impacts through out all scent based businesses, from perfume and to food preparation - even your morning coffee.  Yikes! Better savor that sweet morning cuppa while you can folks."

"And now on to our top story:
Recovery teams from Knossos are still working to gather the remains of passengers and crew of the Princess Beatrix, the luxury liner that was horrifically wrecked en route to the Aldebaran system.  Eighty-eight bodies were recovered from the wreckage, confirming that almost all hands were lost in the accident.  The Lazer crew first on the scene managed to rescue three passengers but immediately left the scene in pursuit of the single lifeboat that launched.  Why no other lifeboats were launched and why the Lazer crew left the scene so rapidly is still not yet clear.  Family members were quick to condemn the actions of the rescue crew and are demanding an explanation why no attempt was made to recover the remains.  Salvage crews arriving quickly after the accident report that they have not seen such devastation since the wa-- incident.  I have with me Lloyd Thornside, owner and operator of Lloyds Lazers.  Good morning Lloyd."

"Why thank you Abby, and top of the morning to you and yours."

"Thank you Lloyd.  As a Laser yourself, can you perhaps pop a spot on these events for our viewers?"

"Well Abby, I think what we're dealing with here is a new crew and you know they gotta be looking to prove themselves.  I mean I'm not condoning sloppy work but I've been there, and when the money is tight it's hard to have the patience to really hit all the marks.  Not everyone can follow that hard path like I did. Now you might expect everyone to provide top notch professional like you get with Lloyd's - you know Lazers with that personal touch.  But I have to tell you that kind of service only comes after years of experience.

"But Lloyd, why would they leave the wreckage so quickly, and with only a short broadcast beforehand?  Was this because of the SVC?"

"Right you are Abby.  A SVC or Standard Vengeance Clause is a very attractive incentive.  That is why some shipping lines still use them.  However in my opinion these type of contracts only serve to encourage people to get into the effectuator business.  People who might not be dedicated to Law and Order or those looking for a quick payoff.  I think that the industry needs to work towards a licencing model rather than these kind of open ended incentives.  I don't blame these fellows for putting their thrusters before their processors, but I also think we can do better.  The public deserves better."

"Indeed they do.  Thank you Lloyd.  We've been speaking with Lloyd Thornside, founder and owner of Lloyds Lazers, about the recent wreck of the Princess Beatrix.  Stay tuned to News Net Nine for all the details on this terrible tragedy.

Star Wars

My bounty hunter was down, shot by the foul slaver Trex.  My partner, the smuggler, patched me up with a stim pack while my other partner, the wookie, rushed the gangplank. 

I managed to get off a shot from a crouch position and take out one of the battle droids.  The smuggler nailed the other droid.

Trex backpedaled up into the ship but the wookie was right behind him delivering a savage blow.

I ran up the gangplank and landed the final shot on Trex.  We fired up the engines and launched just as the garrison of storm troopers rushed the hanger.  Then we had to shoot down a quartet of tie fighters.  It was a close dogfight and we were down to just two hull points before we were able to make the jump to lightspeed.  Glad I brought my tool kit.

And so that's how you play Star Wars: Edge of the Empire.

The Many-Colored Land

One series of books that I think would make a really fun RPG, or a setting source book for an existing game, is the Saga of Pliocene Exile, aka The Many-Colored Land series by Julian May.  The blurb goes something like this:

There is a one way gate discovered that leads back in time from the early 22 century to the Pliocene epoch some 3 million years in the ago.  Naturally people go through it, it in fact becomes a social safety valve for the discontented and the criminal to escape the overly ordered society that earth has become.  And way back in the past there are strange, wondrous and terrible things afoot.  One group of misfits goes through the gate and finds themselves in the middle of it all.

These are an excellent read and manage to tie folklore into sci-fi in a way that is satisfying and consistent.  It's is almost the inverse of something like Shadow Run, instead of having magic mixing in with the near future world, it is near future science mixing in with historical fable.  I'd hate to spoil anything for you by revealing too much.  It's got fine characters, intrigue, humour and some pretty sweet battles.  It also has a pretty decent world that would be pretty easy to stage a campaign in.  I'm actually very surprised that there isn't a Gurps or Savage Worlds supplement for this setting simply because it is so robust and well designed and sometimes reads like someones very excellent extended RP campaign.  If I was going to run it I would have to figure out how the 'magic' and tech could work together which is why one of the generic systems might be easiest to use.  It would be a good setting for a more narrative game as well, Fate or Dungeon World maybe, perhaps even re-skin the Marvel Heroic Cortex system.

The whole series runs for 4 books, The Many-Colored Land, The Golden Torc, The Nonborn King and The Adversary.  It's a good read with an expansive cast of interesting characters and a satisfying conclusion.  The story also leads into a second trilogy about the future world called The Galactic Milieu series.  This series is pretty good as well and contains a lot of related material although it isn't required reading. The Galactic Milieu is not quite as strong as the Pliocene books in my opinion, but it is still a decent read and if you like the first books you can't go wrong reading both series really.

Bode's story

I wanted to get this taken down and I hope that you write what I said because I’m going to have someone else read it to me and so it better be right.  
My name is Bode Pförtner which means porter or doorman and my family were fetch and carry men for the coach lines.  I grew up poor but not as bad as some folks. I would have been a porter too but my papi was a lucky man and once found a nobleman’s bag that had walked away on him.   It must have been an important bag because that man said now he owed Pa a debt and so Pa said you take my sons to the army to be soldiers, and not two penny men nor diggers neither.  And so my brother Cole and me we went off and became soldiers.
I had steady hands and was a real good shot, better than most, and so I went into the Crossbowmen and then the Handgunners.  My brother Cole was better than me even, and smarter too, and he made a scout and even got taught to read and do sums.  I caught on that he wasn't just a normal scout either because he knew things and the guys he ran with were not regular soldiers.  One time we were up in the Fallow Hills and Cole told me I should be sick that morning and when I told him no I’d stick by my crew he threw a punch or two and got us both in the stocks.  So in the morning I missed my post and sure enough there were gobs that had got past the lines and killed 9 guys in my unit.  Cole knew it was coming, but what makes me cold sometimes is that the brass must have knew too, and they sent us there anyhow.  Cole never said what he did and I never asked.  A soldier knows how to keep their mouth shut though and I’m saying too much, even if I’m not in the army anymore.
It was pretty good being a Handgunner and we got early mess and dry beds because the guns.  I’m glad I had good hand and eye because I never had to try to sleep squatting in a bog with my sword across my knees like I sometimes saw infantry doing.   Then again, I knew lots of infantry who’d rather kit out in a bog than sleep beside the powder.  We sometimes got overrun and had to get in with sword and board, or had to form up to break a charge, but mostly we were out of the boil and somewhere high up spotting and taking shots.  I think those were the best days of my life, back before the Third, making the Silvers and getting my Hochland.  I’d kill a man for a Hochland, but then most people would likely.  I wouldn't sell it though so that's different.
I don’t remember a lot of the actual war, just a flash here and there.  I know I was covering the Greatswords and it was going our way until they just left position.  I remember feeling that something wasn't going right and wondering where Baerfaust had gone and seeing the Mad Count’s banners flapping alone on an empty field.  Well not empty because there were suddenly gobs and squigs everywhere and we couldn't load fast enough or pull back before they hit us.  I took an axe to the head and that was all I remember until I woke up in the Shallyan temple and couldn't understand why couldn't talk or move my arms or legs.  So that’s how I found out had been knocked out for some eight months and so all my muscles were soft and also that I had a piece of brass in my head to keep my brain covered up.  Thats also how I found out I was out of the army and all my wages had gone for my care and to pay the chirurgeon and healers.  I likely would have wound up in a hole as well when the money ran out except for Gravin Clothhilde who kept a fund going for some of the more pitiful cases.  She came to the hospice too, she didn't just pay for our bread like she was buying off a lively past, she came to the temple and she helped bring us our meals and she helped us eat them.  She read books to us.
I got better fast once I woke up.  It took me another month to get my strength back after being in bed so long and I spent that helping feed and care for those ones worse off than me.  There was a man there who had lost both legs at the knees and an arm and he was the most cheerful fellow in the place and always said he was just happy he still had his prick and one good hand to hold it.   So I felt I was a lucky man like my papi. I had lost a lot of things though, and not just my trade and my money. Most of the Third was just a blur to me and I had a hard time with names of guys I used to know or remembering faces. I asked about Cole and someone said he’d been to see me while I was asleep. He had said he was doing a job down by the docks and I should look him up if I woke up. But I hadn't woke up and when I finally did he wasn't anywhere around the dock anymore.  At least I think he wasn't, I’m kind of worried that I don’t remember his face anymore either...

The Belgariad (and other books)

Well worn these books

I am think I was 13-14 when I first read Pawn of Prophecy, the first book in David Edding's Belgariad series.   I don't remember exactly when it was, but I do remember that I had to wait six long months towards the end for the last book to come out in paperback which places it in that time range.  I remember plowing through these books in long gulping weekends of reading and I remember they were just great fun.   I've read them a number of times since then and I've also read the follow ups and spin offs to the series which were way more formulaic and less interesting. The original run though, it was something.
I never knew that David Eddings was like 60 when he wrote this, I never would have guessed it.  For me it was exactly what 14 was meant to be and  re-reading it now makes me feel that way again.  I suppose if I was 60 I would take offense to this, 60 is probably closer to 14 than I suspect.

The Belgariad itself is a pretty straight forward journey quest, but it's well executed and the characters are fun to be around for the while you spend with them.  The writing is approachable and the world seems to hang together quite nicely.  Even the second trilogy, the Mallorean, is not a terrible read - and if you miss the characters and don't mind seeing them pace through the same character arcs again, it's not a total waste of time to read them.  It's not until the prequels that things fall into that dreaded protagonist hellbore that causes good worlds to revolve tighter and tighter around the actions of a specific group of heroes or an author driven purpose - like Heinlein's multiverse madly striving to mate with itself.  I'd stay away from the prequels.

I've been trying to get my oldest daughter to read the Belgariad series because she has been reading lots of these new tween adventure fantasy series.  She's having a grand time reading all that crap and I thought she might get a kick out of these as well.  She had her Harry Potter moment already -that  common milestone these days for kids that manage to read books.  Now that she's hooked on reading, I figured that she might like to see some of the books that blew my mind when I was young.

It's a long planned out trap actually - there are so many good books that hit me full on in the gut between 13 and 20 that I want to get her to read, and all of them had what people might consider 'Harry Potter' or 'Game of Thrones' levels of impact on me growing up.  I can't imagine being in a head space where I'd say that a single series of books was as influential as the popular opinion attributes the Hunger Games or Harry Potter - because in my experience there was a never ending stream of them.  Joel Rosenberg's Sleeping Dragon (the Guardians of the Flame series), Steven Kings's The Stand, Frank Herbert's Dune series, Asimov's Foundation series or oh my lord -  The Gods Themselves,  Robert Heinlein's Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Stranger in a Strange Land, Ursula La Guin's Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed, Pohl's Heechee Saga, Anne McCaffrey's Pern books, the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - oh just way way too many books and series to even list.  I have boxes of these books that I couldn't part with because they are associated with parts of my personality growing up.  These books defined me.  I have too many of these books. I had to take some and box them up for lack of shelf space.  So many of them come from those early years, and I have pull them out on occasion and re-read them - so I can remember who I am and who I wanted to be.

And people keep coming out with new ones.

Weekend painting update

I'm slowly making progress on the big pile of minis I have, those from before and those I was shamed into buying from the Reaper Bones kickstarter.  If nothing else having a huge pile of minis staring me down gives me something to use up the paint I bought a couple years ago.  I have to admit I do enjoy doing it, especially when I can also catch up on podcasts.  I can only listen to podcasts when driving or painting, any other activity and I can't focus on what people are saying.

I figured out a decent way to get the paint to mix, dropping in some hematite discs and fitting the paint into into my drill for a nice little spin really picked up a lot of the lumpy ones.  I also figured that painting on the Bones material is doable but you can't mix down the paint with water - just paint right from the bottle.  Also next round I'll probably paint all the shadow areas with some black when I'm doing the base coat, because unlike on the primed figures, the dark wash really beads up and away on any areas of Bones plastic you might have missed.  Nothing like having white peeking through to spoil the illusion.

Anyway the first two pictures are finished minis* that I posted before. 

Axe guy

Barcephalus the Elf.  His boots are not so very red in real life...

The second two are minis that are not quite finished but that are coming along pretty nicely.

You never call meeeee...

Yes those are purple hulk pants

*washed, drybrushed, based and sealed with dulcote.  Yes that is marjarom in with the rock dust.