Test Run - Sentinel Comics the Roleplaying Game - The Random Method

Time to go back to Greater Than Games' Sentinel Comics the Roleplaying Game.  A few weeks ago, I modelled Ringette using the game.  This time around, I want to try the random character creation method.  I finally figured out what they game meant by rolling dice now that I wasn't focused on modelling a specific character.  Both methods are viable in the game, which is a strength.  Since this will get long, everything starts after the break.

Test Run - MechWarrior Destiny - The Clans

Last outing with Catalist Game Labs' MechWarrior Destiny went well.  This time around, I want to try out the character creation system for a Clanner PC.  As usual, everything will be after the break.

Starfighter Thoughts

I had a thought strike me, when then expanded for a possible setting detail, involving the use of starfighters in science fiction.  Starfighters tend to fill in the role of air superiority fighter planes in the real world, but the ranges involved in space are far greater than on a planet.  Even now, ranges in dogfight or in naval battles are beyond visual, sometimes beyond the horizon.  Radar can provide targeting for missiles, and the use of cannons on a jet fighter is getting rarer.

In space, barring a large body to hide behind such as a moon, radar contact will be made long before visual contact.  Missiles and other weapons will cross the distance faster than any starfighter, leaving launched pilots either verifying hits or wondering if there's a home to return to.  The only reason to launch starfighters is to provide a screen against the opposition's starfighter screen.

At shorter ranges, where there are bodies like a moon blocking sensors, starfighters become a bit more useful.  Bodies that block sensors also block direct fire weapons like lasers and rail guns, and missiles need a target lock before homing.  Starfighters can get in the way of a proper lock depending on the abilties of the gunner and sensor operator of the opposition, and they can make strafing runs in the hopes of taking out weapons and sensors.  Countering the smaller, more maneuverable ships require smaller, more maneuverable ships, so starfighter vs starfighter again happens.

Part of the problem, at least in film and television, is that screen space is the limitation.  Long range attacks, the hundreds and thousands of kilometres between ships, doesn't look impressive on screen.  When that long a range is involved, the focus is on the crew on board the ship, not on what's happening outside.  A good example is the Star Trek episode "Balance of Terror", which was, essentially, a naval battle between a cruiser and a submarine in space.  The episode never showed the Enterprise and the Bird-of-Prey on screen at the same time.

Why have starfighters when starfighters are almost superfluous?  In fiction, drama and conflict.  The focus comes down to something more personal, with the audience ideally on the side of the protagonist fighter pilots.  The next question is, who are these pilots.

This is where the spark happened.  I connected starfighter pilots to feudal knights, the cavalry that charged forward while the raised rabble looked on nervously before being sent into the breach.  The knightly charge would hit the opposition knightly charge first, then as units sorted themselves out, the survivors would look for another noble unit to go after, charge towards the enemy's troops with the goal of getting to the support wagons for looting, or go after the Poor, Bloody Infantry.

Now to translate this into a SF setting.  Societies are going to need a feudal background, even if they have gone democratic at some point.  The knights that used to make up the cavalry become starfighter pilots, much like cavalry in our world became aerial fighters in World War I when trench warfare turned out to be deadly for horse-mounted troops.  In democracies, starfighter pilots will have the cachet that fighter pilots have today.  In a future feudal system, lower ranking nobles will go into the starfighter program, but higher levels, like the offspring of counts and dukes, will get into the command line of the space navy.  Survival is more important and the potential prestige of commanding a warship is greater than the immediate prestige of being a starfighter pilot.

Now that I have this setting tidbit, what will I do with it?  No idea.  While I can incorporate some of the ideas into Mecha Academy, and thus Rhiannon is very unusual being in the infantry, but the concept deserves a greater look on its own.  However, getting the idea worked out in words does help.

Friday, Lost in Translation continues at Psycho Drive-In.

Saturday, Lost in Translation can be found at The Seventh Sanctum.

Test Run - MechWarrior Destiny

Going to try keeping this going for another week.  This time out, Catalyst Game Labs' MechWarrior Destiny, one of the BattleTech RPGs.  BattleTech is on a renaissance right now, with a popular video game, a successful Kickstarter campaign to get a new edition with new miniatures, and an extensive fandom.  And, yes, one of the RPGs.  Prior to Destiny was A Time of War, which had an extensive and involved character creation method.  Destiny kept the lifepath setup from A Time of War but simplified character creation by reducing the number of points to spend on drastically.

MechWarrior Destiny uses the Cue System, the same system used in the Valiant Universe Roleplaying Game, as seen with Nasty and Ringette.  There are differences between the games, reflecting the source material.  But the system does make character creation easier and faster.  Since this will get long, the meat will appear after the break.

Test Run - Sentinel Comics the Roleplaying Game

 Arise from the dead, blog!  Arise!

Again, it's been a while.  I don't have any serials prepped for posting, so it's been quiet.  However, I've been able to buy a couple of new RPGs.  I want to test out Sentinel Comics the Roleplaying Game from Greater Than Games.  To do so, instead of creating Nasty from Subject 13, I'll use a different character, one who is not under-powered.  I'll be using Ringette, who I've created using Superbabes and the Valiant Universe Roleplaying Game.

Remember her?  It has been six years.

Sentinel Comics is adapted from Sentinels of the Multiverse, a cooperative fixed deck card game where each player takes on the role of a superhero, saving the day against villains foul.  The RPG comes in four colours, is split into logical sections, with an intro with the mechanics that includes examples, character creation, a GM section, and a campaign section for the Sentinels setting.  I ordered directly from the company and got a bonus.

Jewel loves the box I ordered for her.  (photo by author)

This is going to get long, so things will continue after the break.

The Return

Hello, world!

Yes, it has been some time.  Even Lost in Translation fell by the wayside.  The reason?  I caught COVID-19, confirmed with a test.  Best reckoning is that I caught the virus second week of January.  I felt run down, then as the virus wreaked havoc in me, I called in sick to work.  I tried to get in, but when you wake up tired and run down, it makes a full day difficult, even when that day is normally slow.  When I realized that I may have to keep calling in, I called the COVID hotline for Quebec to make an appointment for testing.

The test was easy enough, but the nurse administering it noticed something else.  I was having problems breathing.  She could hear it.  She gave me another number to call, but that will be later.  After the test, I came back home and, after catching my breath, I went to bed to nap.  I really don't remember much of the last two weeks of January, seeing I was in bed for most of it.  I will say that being in bed napping is far better than being in the hospital hooked up to oxygen.

The day after the test, almost 24 hours after, I got the results.  I tested positive and was ordered to quarantine.  Easy enough, I didn't have the energy to go anywhere.  I called into work afterwards to keep them in the loop, then napped yet again.  Quarantine ended at the end of day of January 31.  I still didn't go out.  The closest to going out was to get a package that had been delivered to my front door.

Another problem came up after the diagnosis.  I lost my appetite.  The last thing I ate for the duration of the worst of it was a grilled chicken salad from Harvey's.  I tried a second one later in the week and was able to finish the chicken but not the entire salad.  Breaded chicken didn't work; the breading made me nauseous.  Bread made me nauseous.  Toast, though, didn't.  I made it through the last week of January on toast.  I also had to work to stay hydrated.  I just couldn't drink that much water.  February, though, I started drinking tea again, and that helped.  I then started eating more solid foods and drinking two litres of water/liquid per day.  I lost a good percentage of the weight I picked up since lockdown last March, but I do not recommend this method.

Feeling more energetic at the end of the first week of February, I went back to work.  The Friday, I wound up leaving a couple of hours early having tired myself.  Saturday, though, was quiet even for a Saturday and make through the full day.  The next week, I'm back to regular hours, plus some changes in work duties in the works.

My breathing, though, wasn't so great.  I also had a heavy, persistant cough that would wake me up at night.  Having asthma, I have an inhaler, though I hadn't been using it in the latter half of January.  I get back on it, and the cough lessens but still persisted.  Remember the number the testing nurse gave me?  I did, and called it to make an appointment.  I get one, go in, and get the prognosis - pneumonia.  I left the doctor's appointment with a prescription for a heavy-duty, hospital grade antibiotic.  They worked.  After three days, I was able to sleep through the night without waking up due to coughing.  I'm breathing better, though I need to get a lung specialist again.

The doctor at the clinic also ordered x-rays for me.  I figured it was to just confirm where the infection and its detritus was.  Which it did, but it also revealed something else.  I have a pneumothorax.  There is a small air bubble between my left lung, the one that the pneumonia hit, and my chest wall.  The good news is that it's a small bubble, not worth the intervention, which would involve surgery.

One thing I will say - pneumonia is not as bad as COVID-19.  While not being able to breathe isn't a good thing, it only left me winded.  COVID laid me out, tired, unable to focus.  Lost in Translation fell to the wayside with half a review written.  Hard to write when focus doesn't exist.  Even my routine of working on scenes for stories while falling asleep failed; I either kept repeating a short part of the start of the scene, like a skipping record, or had other problems in life intrude.  Not fun.

So that's been the past five weeks or so.  I'm still getting into the swing of things again.  Something should appear here in the next couple of weeks, but I have no idea what.  Thanks for your patience if you're a regular and thanks if you read through all this.

Today, over at Psycho Drive-In, X-Men the Anime.

Saturday, over at The Seventh Sanctum, taking the week off.  Still getting myself put back together.  I am working on the next review.

Hello 2021, Good Riddance 2020

Welcome 2021.  May you be a damned sight better than the past year.  2020 can now be relegated as hindsight, a lesson in what not to do.

Happy New Years!