Divergent Replica

... and my lesser apologies to Zachary Levi.

So it's about 6 weeks into the fall TV season and they're starting to talk about cancelling various shows.  Nashville has already gotten the axe and there are rumors various shows are going to tank.

This season I have grown to love Journeyman and Chuck.  This is a sure sign that both shows are to be cancelled, their tapes deleted or burned, and no mention of them will be allowed again.  This is how it goes for me and Firefly, Space Rangers, Space Above and Beyond, John From Cincinnati, etc.

So sorry.  If you're ever in Kansas City, look me up.  I'll buy you a coffee.

I am writing this blog entry to proclaim that Chris Perrin am America's Computer Programmer.

I've been considering submitting several articles for Palladium's Rifter magazine(?)/supplement/do-hickie and it got me thinking. A few of my more obvious ideas were snatched up, but I've got one idea that I find absolutely compelling. I want to write up expanded rules for social conflict, roleplaying and interaction to add to the Palladium game system.

Off the bat, I will say that Palladium does a much better job of adding social elements than a lot of other traditional roleplaying games. With the exception of the largely meaningless Charisma stat in D&D, most of the D&D games have basically ignored good social interaction. I think there was a Sense Motive-type skill in D&D 3rd Edition and if I remember correctly Star Wars D20 added some political intrigue-like rules in one class: the Noble for those people who wanted to play Princess Leia. Where I feel all D&D editions and the Storyteller System (which has pheonominal social combat rules) fail is rewarding good role- while being about roll-.

However, this got me thinking about why I want to undertake this endeavor and why I find it so compelling. I started to think about the nature of role- versus roll- along with other story game concepts such as scene framing and collaborative storytelling and what it is that I want out of a game.

A Note on My Thought Process

Throughout this post, I will talk about wanting to add Social Combat and role- vs. roll-. My ultimate goal is to add role- to supplant, but not entirely replace roll-. That means creating mechanics to support getting into three dimensional characters (I have goals, I have desires, I have emotions, I have beliefs) rather than the typical archetypical character who exists only to kill stuff

However, I honestly feel that such mechanics without skills/Talents/Knowledge to go along with them are going to leave players feeling ultimately unfulfilled. The reasons for this were not apparent to me at first until I really considered what social conflict adds to the roleplaying experience. Then it hit me. Role- based games rather than roll- based games generate conflict via interpersonal drama rather than from bad guys who can be shot, stabbed, and killed. Thus, if players suddenly start using their role- skills to put themselves into social conflict, they need to have mechanics to resolve those issues or they will face the frustration of having worked themselves into a situation they cannot work themselves out of. Bad, bad, bad.

My Life with Traditional Roleplaying Games

To start off, let me describe why I started thinking about adding greater role- elements to Palladium. First, I should say that I started off my roleplaying career several very traditional systems. I am struggling hard to determine what the first RPG I ever played was: Marvel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (a Palladium game), or Mechwarrior First Edition. TMNT soon gave way to Robotech because I love big robots. I also played Palladium fantasy (no S.D.C. what?) and Rifts. In fact, I swear I saw Rifts on the shelves at my local game store a year before it was released. My interest in Palladium waned through the years as I played a GURPS, D20, Storyteller system, etc. However, I still love big robots.

Recent GMing of Traditional Games

When I heard that the Palladium Open House needed GMs, I dusted off my old books. I ran three games, each with their own set of pregens. One was a Robotech game which was based heavily around the idea of intraparty combat. The delimma was that four memebers of the team hated Zentradi, four were okay with them. The idea was that they were supposed to fight over the criminality of the Zentradi. In the game, there were only four characters, but they were four of the more interesting characters including the commander of the squadron who was described as being unable to stand up for himself and the bully he always bowed down to. The problem was that there was no bullying. The lieutenant lead the squadron and everyone followed him.

I think the players had fun, so it was a good game, but I was disappointed that the social interaction was not on the level I had hoped. Part of the problem I believe was the addition of the conspiracy in which the players found themselves embroiled (it's easier to get the bad guy than fight internally.) Still, I never once saw the bully try to countermand the lieutenant and even the character who idolized the bully rarely showed it.

In the Heroes Unlimited game I ran, there was a lot more getting into character, but in that game, there was nothing to do but be in character. That game was a total farce about playing bumbling super heroes in a bumbling world plus I had good players. I also ran a Rifts game. There was no characterization there. I think part of that was because it was the last slot of the con (read: we were all tired) but the storyline of a published Palladium supplement seemed to de-emphasize the need for role- in favor of roll-.

I know I am extrapolating here and I find that as I point one finger at the system, there are four pointing back at me as the GM for not doing more to encourage good roleplaying. But I feel that mechanically, if there was a reward system for acting in character, the stage would have been set for it and it would have happened more organically. I also should point I played in a game at the Open House with a ton of roleplaying between several characters, but I think that's because we all made the decision to follow what was written on the back of the character sheet. No one told me that I had to bully the civil engineer, I just did.

My Initial Thoughts

So as I am thinking about how to add more role- aspects to the system, I first want to survey the landscape a bit. I don't think that a lot of traditinal gamers want collaborative, shared narration, GMless games at least not while they're playing traditional games. I feel honor bound at this point to say that's not a criticism at all, it's just my read on things. Traditional game war stories involve making characters with bigger armor, more stats, and larger explosions. And frankly, I play traditional games, too. I recently played in a game where we went out hunting a baddie (that was the whole point of the scenario) and it was a ton of fun. So if I seem to be pointing fingers at power creep or power gaming, I'm just as guilty as anyone else. (C'mon, I'll be the first to admit I'll take the 2D6x10 laser rifle over the 1D4 laser rifle even if it fits my character's backstory.)

So, that lead me rather quickly to Aspects. While my understanding of Aspects is not wholly complete, what I do know is that they seem to provide a carrot for good roleplaying in the form of bonus dice. I remember from my 7th Sea days, the possibility of drama dice kept me in character so that my rockin' swordsman could have a pool of dice to use when he bit of more than he could chew (read: always.) I think that sort of mechanic grafted on to any power system provides the carrot for role- but at the same time gives people who are used to dice pools what they want.

The Question I Forgot to Ask

The question I forgot to ask was is this exercise is of any value. Do traditional power gamers want mechanics to support role- style games? Part of me says yes due to a combination of equal parts that's what I'm interested in and therefore others will be interested plus the fact there is a vocal niche of players very interested in these types of mechanics plus personal experience answering an open submission for D20 Social Combat rules. Another part of me says that a lot my players, even the ones in the Heroes games, didn't seem to want to be "in character." They wanted to beat things up.

I think that many players who are power games will always be power games. I have seen some indie/story game literature refer to those players as being young or inexperienced, but I prefer to look at them as cathardic. What is RPG if not a journey away from this reality into a place where I can be a knight, a princess, or a gene-spliced half elf with a bionic eye and a suit of power armor? There's nothing wrong with players wanting to have their journey filled with roll-. Nothing.

So, in the end, I am going to carry on with my experiment because I think there's a lot of value there for me as a designer and for players who are looking to add a new dimension to the game within the familiar confines of the system and the worlds they have known. I feel it is important that players not need switch systems just for a mechanic they like. In the end, if a system leads to players having fun, that system is basically good (my diatribe on the D6 system being a personal opinion of my lack of desire to play the game more than a true critique of the system.)

In the end, I think the question of why is because I want to see it. I can only hope others do, too.

The Proposal

As it stands now, my proposal will feature a two pronged attack. The first is to provide a carrot for roleplaying. I know this is not foolproof and can lead to all sorts of problems, such as GM favoritism, players feeling slighted, etc. etc. It also provides PC-only bonuses (NPCs don't get bonus dice for good roleplaying) and it can upset game balance.

I know it is sort of a cop out, but I find that if GMs are having problems with favoritism or slighted players, they are going to feel that way if there bonus dice or not. As for upsetting game balance, that's a real danger. However, I have found that as players start to realize the value (and reward) in interpersonal tension, they start to play in character even more which reduces the stress on game balance because characters begin to play for the advancement of their character via the story rather than for bigger toys. It ain't foolproof, but then again, it we wanted harder to break rules, we'd play WOW.

Along with the carrot will be a new type of skill I am roughly calling (get ready for it...) Social. This skillset will contain skills like Sense Motive (perhaps Read Body Language or something), Lie, Etiquette, Negotiation, and the like. That will require some work to really think through, but that's a good start. Some of those may be there, but I didn't see them.

Together...I have the outline for what I would like to see added to the system. In the future, I could add additional rules for Duels of Wits (thanks Luke!), Oration, etc. We'll see.

And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life.  Matthew 6:27

I've been thinking a lot about the nature of worry.  It occurs to me that worry, for Christians, happens for three distinct reasons.

1.  We don't trust in God.  That may seem like an overly simplistic answer, but I think there's a lot of truth in this statement.  For those who believe in a loving Almighty, worrying is simply an expression that we do not trust God to do what is best for His plan.  As Christians, we need to realize that part of faith and having the Word live inside is that God is going to use us to further His plan and at the same time God has a plan for us.  Worry is an expression that there is no plan or that it is not very good.

2.  We trust in God, we're just not happy about it.  I think this is a bit more reasonable.  While the Book of Job teaches that yes, God will test us and that testing is going to suck.  But if we keep our faith, if we use our tests as the hammer and the anvil to hone our faith, we'll come out better in the end.

3.  Worry Gives Us Control.  There are a lot of situations that are out of our hands.  We all put ourslves into or our find ourselves in situations where we have no control and if we worry we feel that we are somehow exerting control over our problems.  However, it is always tough, but in these situations it is doubly important that we remember to give up our lives up to God and have faith that we will come out of the situation.  Perhaps we won't come out unscatched, but if we keep faith, we can come out a better person in the end.  It's also important in these times to realize that the answer to our problems may not be one we were hoping for, but that's no reason not to keep going.  God doesn't close a door without opening a window or another door in a different room.

I've always been lucky and I attribute that to God.  Anytime I had a tough choice or entered a time when I was facing a difficult struggle, I came out ahead.  Definitely not always in the way I had hoped, but I came out ahead.

Good luck, God bless.  Amen.

There's been a lot going on in the past while since I wrote about Miss Lacy Chabert.  I am focusing a lot more on my writing now and I have to say the results are mixed.  Very, very mixed.

I have decided that goal #1 should be to finish Havo Tonin, the novel which has not a name currently.  I am banging out about 2 pages a night and I am finding that to be an acceptable pace.  I actually wonder how that compares to NaNoWriMo numbers.  I feel like it's comparable, but I haven't actually looked at the word count.  Kind of strange actually that I would voluntarily do something which freaked me out so much before.

Goal number two is to start writing magazine articles.  I've been doing a lot of New Media writing.  I am now a staff writer/delegate on three sites: ProFootballNet, the United Nations of Beer, and MopSquad.  And I am looking to do more.  I figure I have several more areas of talent: cooking, business, computers, man issues (ie women), etc.  I should be able to find something to write about, shouldn't I?

Goal number three is to keep doing fiction.  I need to get more disciplined about going to my writer's group and about doing critiques.  I remember how helpful it was to think on other's work.  However, I have decided to not submit too many more stories.  I have one contest I want to enter and two Flash articles that I want to see if anyone will publish.  I have set it as my goal to win the Writer's of the Future contest and get published in that.  Because of that, I am going to continue to hone my craft and produce a (hopefully) prodigous (sp?) amount of short stories, one of which will be good enough to make it.  I am also hoping (still) to attend Viable Paradise where my writing will get mega-super-awesome.  Or at least I'll get some good tips.

So I got my latest copy of Maxim in today and on the cover it had Lacy Chabert: America's Sweetheart as the cover story.

It struck me as odd, that headline.  When did American sweethearts start posing in their underwear for Maxim?  That always struck me as America's heart throb or America's hottie or something.  Isn't America's Sweetheart supposed to be more "girl-next-doorish", and not in a Penthouse kind of way?

One way or the other, all I can say Lacy is that you are so fetch.

Within the last day or so, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, had release a statement saying that Iraqis had it better under dictator Saddam Hussein than they do now.

Read MSNBC's write up of the story here.

The gist of Secretary-General Annan's statement is that under Hussein they lived under a repressive, "brutal" dictator who made personal freedoms non-existant, but they lived without the terror of daily violence.  Now, Iraqis fear to walk the streets due to what can only be titled a civil war in the country.

This is truly unfortunate news.  The United States could always justify the war in Iraq by saying they were making the country a better place.  Even after no evidence of WMDs was found (at least not the nuclear kind and certainly no effective delivery system) we always said we were there to help the people of Iraq.  The only problem is that the new Shiite goverment is more than happy to take out their aggressions on the once-ruling Suni party and regularly releases Shiite prisoners that the US has captured.

One way or the other, it's a mess out there.

I've made it my goal to get down to 270lbs which for me represents a weight loss of 80-90lbs.  I am not sure which right now seeing as how most scales don't go above 350 and I am above that by 4-8 lbs.  Maybe I should drop by the doctor's office and see for sure.

Anyway, yesterday was my first day on the quest and, it didn't go off with a bang.  I stayed home with this lingering cold that has invaded my lungs and my wife took me to WJ McBrides for their lunch buffet.  I had a little too much shepherd's pie.  The good news is that what I had wasn't terrible, there was just a lot of it.  I did go to the gym and do some strength training.  My upper body has stayed fairly strong, which is a good thing.

Weight: 360
Stomach: ?? Inches
Biceps: ?? Inches
Food: D-
Cardio: 0 minutes
Weights:
10x135, 10x155,10x165,10x175,10x185 Bench
3x20x30 Incline Press
3x20x30 Flys
3x20x20 Incline Flys
20x50,2x20x150 Pecs
4x25x150 Abs

Elections could leave Bush lame duck

I was reading this article about how should the Democrats win back one or both seats in Congress, which at this points seems fairly likely, it will significantly hamper Bush's ability to get things done in the White House.  Such talk gives my liberal (I guess since I am left of hardcore right, that makes me a liberal) heart some feeling of warmth.  Like maybe this country is heading back into times where we have leadership that respects the Geneva Conventions and the dignity of human life, that we will have a limit of foreign interests' power in our government, and that we will have leaders who don't fear science because they think God hates it.

Still, all in all, I highly, highly doubt it.  For this to happen, the Democratic party is going to have to do what I refer to as "growing a pair."  Yes, I realize that's a bit crass, but seriously the Democratic part has been pretty much laying around and taking whatever the Republicans throw at them and not really putting up a fight.  Could it be that the Democrats serve the same corporate masters that the Republicans do?  Yes.  Could it be that the Democrats in Congress are still extremely wealthy and benefit from the richmongering that Bush has set forth?  You betcha.

I just don't think that the next two years are going to significantly change anything.  These democrats who are supposed to hobble Bush are the same ones that can't agree to impeach or censure him now with the exception of one brave Democrat.  The Democratic leadership must all be John Mayer fans because they seem to be waiting for the world on the world to change or something.

I hope I'm wrong.  I really hope I'm wrong.

Democrats, this is your wake your call.  We are now in an era where this blog post can be considered a violation of the Patriot Act.  Which can land me in a prison for treason, labeled a terriorist, and it would then be illegal for my lawyer to inquire after me.

Hurry up and do something.

I am trying to do something.  Let's see what happens

Hrmm.

For those of you wondering what I am doing, I am trying to make blank lines appear between my paragraphs, but this seems well beyond Serendipity's abilities.

It actually stripped out
tags I put in the code.

I recently ran across a forum post on a website that slammed liberals.  I wanted to post this, but I felt like I was being mean.  So I decided to post it here so that no one in particular will feel upset.

Wow Chieftan, that could be the single most offensive post I've ever seen on a football related site that didn't contain a single swear word.  So good job on that.

Second of all, you should probably put down the Ann Coulter book, turn off Rush Lumbaugh and not tape Bill O'Reilly tonight since you're dangeroulsy close to make some serious overgeneralizations.  I believe the definition of a liberal is someone who wants to see the country better and proposes change to do it.  A conservative is someone who thinks the country is okay or needs only a slight change.

The fact that we can have an opinion that not everything is okay with this country actually means that we have the intelligence, guts, and manhood to think for ourselves.  It is our duty as Americans to think things through and determine what is right and what is wrong for ourselves.

To refute your specific points, Clinton himself said that he didn't do enough to get Osama.  I'm not going to argue with Clinton about his own policies.

I do refuse to accept he put UN and European (was Euro-trash really necessary?  Are you really that bigoted?) interests ahead of our own.  I fail to see how he did that UNLESS you're talking about putting troops in Somalia and the Baltics.  And you can't be talking about that since George HW Bush has toppled two governments without sanctioning from any international body.  Also, the worst claim I've heard about Clinton is that he was more concerned about other women then other countries.

Clinton's economy was great.  However, most intelligent people know that domestic policy is largely outside the hands of the president.  However, I do know that the instances of Clinton using scare tactics and picking fights with other countries (Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, etc.) were pretty low and he helped to stablize many of those regions by not acting like a cowboy in international matterns.  You'll notice that the stock market (ie a major indicator of how we're doing ecnomically tends to plummet during times of instability.)

Reagan's trickle down economy lead to the recession of the early 90's which Clinton got us out of.  Oh my!

I think we're pretty full of alternatives in a lot of situations.  However, in the one major area or contention, such as Iraq, there's not a lot we can do.  If we pull out, we show the world we're cowards.  If we stay in a lot of men and women are going to die.  A lot more I should say.

Now, if I've been pretty evenhanded on Clinton.  Can you say the same for George HW Bush?  Can you admit that Iraq had limited if any weapons of mass destruction?  Can you see that going into Iraq was pointless, especially considering his own father felt we couldn't hold the country?  Can you find anyone outside of Bush's cabinet and Fox News that believes that Iraq was training al'Qaeda?  Can you see that it looks a little fishy that the Taliban was invited to visit Texas when Bush was a governor and that we turned a blind eye as the Taliban committed atrocities on its people?

Also, one of the criticisms of the author were that liberals have no morals, yet he/she was the one being rude on the Internet.  Doesn't that point to a lack of morals?

I was looking around lulu.com the other day when I happened on the Blooker contest.  If you're not familiar with lulu.com, it's a great site for those who want to self-publish their writing, be it fiction, non-fiction, how-to, comics and music.  Very cool.

I don't self-publish yet, but it's because I have yet to undergo the ordeal of fashioning a novel.  I do have some short stories, but that doesn't count.  I am, however, always open to writing contests and I was really interested in this Blooker contest since I had no idea what in the world a Blooker was.  Well I found out pretty quick that I'm not really qualified to enter a Blooker contest as it is a contest to make the best book possible from one's blog entries.  Somehow, I felt that generating a bunch of blog entries just to win a contest was a) sort of a crappy thing to do and b) there's no way my entries could match the real passion and intensity of someone actually blogging.

It did get me thinking, though.  First, I need to blog more.  As a writer, I should blog every day just like I should write every day and like I should write in my journal every day.  So I am relaunching divergentreplica.com and it's going to be new and improved as you can see... I now have categories.  Isn't that rad?

Well ladies and gentlemen, I am GRUMPY.

I was opening my trust Internet Explorer this morning and what should I see?  SciFi has decided to kick Stargate SG-1 to the curb and I can hardly believe it.  When Stargate hit the air, I thought it was cool because I liked the movie.  But I didn't have Showtime and I was sunk.

Then SG-1 hit SciFi and decided I really didn't need to watch it because I didn't really know what was going on and it was kind of silly.

Then I got hooked.  In no small part due to watching Battlestar Galactica on SciFi, suddenly I got VERY hooked on watching Stargate SG-1.  And now they are going to cancel it.  I can't believe it.

So I am going to write SciFi a letter and I urge all of you to do so as well.  I am also going to have a petition on a petition site (I'll tell you which one after it gets approved) to save the show.  Please stop by and sign it.  I'd love to get a 100,000 or more signers to show SciFi that they're making a mistake by cancelling SG-1.

You know, on a side note, I just don't get it.  How can they renew Atlantis and have professional wrestling on SciFi and kill SG-1??

Being a parent gives one terrific insight into the way Things Really Work.  Living with a teething 8-month old has given me the final, definitive cause of greed and anger and most of the negative emotions we experience as adults.  See, King Ethan I has life pretty good, though some days from the volume of screaming he emits, you wouldn't know it.  He has two doting servants...er parents... that accede to his every demand.

Waaa.  Food.

Waaa.  Pick me up.

Waaa.  Hold me.

Waaa.  I want that shiny, breakable, heavy object.

Waaa.  You won't let me have that shiny, breakable, heavy object.

As my wife and I walked to the car from the farmer's market with a screaming child, I again was struck by the thought of how nice it would be if someone carried me around all day, fed me when I wanted, and my biggest worry was whether I could open the glass door to the curio cabinet before hands pulled me back to the middle of the living room.  And it became clear.

I don't think any of us really grow up.  In the end, we're all still babies deep inside hoping someone will come along and pick us up when we need to cry, needing a dry, clean place to sleep, and a few meals.  Maybe even a bottle or two.  But isn't the need for companionship that leads people into doomed relationships (or good relationships in some cases) just the baby wanting someone to hold them when they cry?  Isn't someone who spends all his money on shiny cars trying to keep the baby happy with toys when no one will coddle the inner baby.

It's like as we get older and receive the gift of maturity, we're not supposed to act like children anymore.  It's like "Oooh, language.  Now I get to find a job."  But the basic human needs of my little baby are the same needs I have and frankly, I'm not able to meet all my own needs just like he's not able to meet all of his.  (In fact, we tend to spill the same amount of food down our shirts when we eat.)

I'm not sure there's a lesson in all this, but I am pretty sure, at the very least, the world needs more hugs.

I would say that in any given day, something goes a little wrong.  I forget my wallet, Ethan does a face plant and starts howling, my software generates a nice little error that costs some peope some money.  Then there are other days when my life starts to look a lot like The Perfect Storm.  All the crap things that could go wrong do wrong all at once and in such a sequence that Problem A keeps my from solving Problem B.  Like the time we needed to restart a webserver, but when we called the host, they were being hacked at the same time the fire alarm was going off and forcing everyone to evacuate the building.  That kind of day.

During those times, I tell myself that I am an adult and I need to act like one.  And it hits me, I didn't ask to be an adult!  I had adulthood thrust upon me.  Simply because I am older, now I have responsibilities.  Bleck.

Of course, all the time I'm thinking about how I never asked for anything, I am doing work for the company I helped to start and built from nothing for a client I helped to win.  And then I realize I need to shut up and get back to work.