Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Quick Morning Gesture Sketch


I try to get in at least some drawing each day.  It's a nice refuge from my recent overload at work.  Art is pretty solitary, though, so I need my gaming too - you know - so I can remember what it's like to interact with people not telling me what to do all day long. :)

- Ark

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Let's Put A Throne Into Perspective


Okay - done.  Two hours.  This is why AutoCAD killed conventional drafting. :)

- Ark

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Grand Prize

The Boy made this for me last night on his old Crayola Color Explosion Glow Board.

I am very honored to receive such prestigious award.

For a while now, I think the Boy hasn't been having the best of times gaming.  I mean, he's there and he interacts and he has some fun - but beyond that - not much.  But he's been interacting a lot less than he used to - you know - he's been in that kind of 'spectating' zone.

Our gaming group has some big personalities.  I mean big.  When The Boy was younger, his self awareness was much lower - so he blasted out his personality for all to see.  That pre-pubescent hormone rush stage has gripped him lately, so he's a lot more self-conscious and cautious in social situations.  Trying to find your place in a pack of loud ne'er-do-wells can be difficult.

Add to that the fact that his characters just haven't been working out.  He's been crafting warriors and assassin types, while the group has been moving away from combat-centric play into more cerebral stuff.  Despite his and my efforts, his character concepts haven't meshed will with the other characters or the adventures.

I've tried giving him advice and pep talks.  Nothing I could think of was really helping.   But then I took a look at his shotgun cop Traveller character using the Traveller Skill Matrix.  In comparison with the other characters, none of his abilities stood out except his abilities with a shotgun - and the last session had contained exactly 6 seconds of combat - the session before that 12 seconds.

But the matrix showed that the party was missing things like stealth and recon and generally sneaky kinds of stuff.  I sat down with the Boy and mentioned that if he shelved shotgun cop and made some sort of thief-type, he might enjoy that better.

The Boy was resistant, but I explained my reasoning, and then I think it clicked and he began to smile.  We began rolling up his Traveller thief.  One term, two terms, three terms - his character was looking good and then suddenly - WHAM - he was betrayed and had to leave the thieves' world.  I became somewhat worried, but he changed tact and became a secret service agent.

He was brimming with excitement.  "I'm just like Slippery Jim DiGriz!"  I smiled.  Yup - he was turning out to be quite a stainless steel rat.  But his character dug too deep in the wrong place and was kicked out of the service.  Both of us became worried.  What was he to do?

I thought for a bit.

"Well, he's had quite a run.  Perhaps he should take all of his experience and figure out how to take advantage of it," I said.

"How?" he replied.

"There is a Merchant path called a Broker.  They sell stuff - directly.  If you are running around stealing stuff, knowing how to sell it might not be a bad idea."

He got it and smiled.

Last night, The Boy's new character was a tour de force.  In a sale of illicit anagathics, his character not only rolled well, but Tim, Adelaide, Merwyn, and Kaye taught him how to role play bargaining techniques to squeeze out as much money as he could from me.  He - even with a low computer score - hacked the recipe computer in the kitchen of a mansion and acquired unexpected secret blueprints.  His fast talking to security guards saved half the party from incarceration and torture, and he even convinced the security guards that they were in the wrong for starting trouble.  And he pro-actively swept a concert area for potential dangers, providing security for the group's Legendary Singing Idol.

I think that was the most fun he's had role-playing in a while - and he didn't fire a single shot.

So, I'm very happy with my prize. Not necessarily the flashing glowboard - though that is very nice.  My prize is his ear-to-ear smile.

- Ark

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Traveller Skill Matrix

Below is a skill matrix for the current characters in the Traveller campaign - in the same format as I had set up in the past for Stars Without Number.

There are a lot more skills in Traveller, though, creating quite a list.  That has it's positives and negatives.  But since, typically, the player does not have to agonize over which skills to pick - they come out pretty randomly in character creation - it's not too bad.



Player Tim Adel Merwyn Kaye The Boy
Name Elias Neva John Guenhwyvar Cade
Strength 6 3 4
F
7
Dexterity 6
B
A
6
A
Endurance 6 6 4
C
6
Intelligence 9
E
8 7 9
Education
B
8 6 6 6
Social
D
D
6 6 5
Admin 0 - - 1 -
Advocate 0 - 0 - -
Animals - - - - -
Animals (Farming)  - - - - -
Animals (Riding) - - - - -
Animals (Training)  - - - - -
Animals (Veterinary)  - - - - -
Art 0 - - - -
Art (Acting)  - 1 - - -
Art (Dance)  - 1 - - -
Art (Holography)  - - - - -
Art (Instrument)  - 4 - - -
Art (Sculpting)  - - - - -
Art (Writing)  - - - - -
Astrogation  1 - - - -
Athletics - 0 0 0 -
Athletics (Co-ordination)  - - - - 2
Athletics (Endurance)  - - - - -
Athletics (Flying)  - - - - -
Athletics (Strength)  - - - - -
Battle Dress  - - - 1 -
Broker  - - - - 3
Carouse  3 3 0 - -
Comms  0 0 - 1 -
Computers  - - 0 - 0
Deception 3 1 0 - 0
Diplomat 0 - - - -
Drive - - - 0 -
Drive (Mole)  - - - - -
Drive (Tracked)  - - 1 - -
Drive (Wheeled) - - - - -
Engineer - - - - -
Engineer (Electronics)  - - - - -
Engineer (J-Drive)  - - 1 - -
Engineer (Life Support)  - - - - -
Engineer (M-Drive)  - - - - -
Engineer (Power)  - - - - -
Explosives  - - - - -
Flyer 0 - - - -
Flyer (Grav)  - - - - -
Flyer (Rotor)  - - - - -
Flyer (Wing)  - - - - -
Gambler - - - 0 1
Gun Combat - - - - -
Gun Combat (EnergyPistol)  - - - - -
Gun Combat (Energy Rifle)  - - - 1 -
Gun Combat (Shotgun)  - - - - -
Gun Combat (Slug Pistol)  - - 4 - 1
Gun Combat (Slug Rifle)  - - - 2 -
Gunner - - 0 - -
Gunner (Capital Weapons) - - - - -
Gunner (Ortillery) - - - - -
Gunner (Screens) - - - - -
Gunner (Turrets) - - - - 1
Heavy Weapons - - - 0 -
Heavy Weapons (Field Artillery)  - - - - -
Heavy Weapons (Launchers)  - - - - -
Heavy Weapons (Man Portable Artillery)  - - - - -
Investigate  0 0 1 1 0
Jack of All Trades 1 - - - -
Language 0 - - 0 0
Language (Anglic)  - - - - -
Language (Aslan) - - - - -
Language (Oynprith)  - - - - -
Language (Vilani)  - - - - -
Language (Zdetl)  - - - - -
Leadership - - - 1 -
Life Sciences - - - - -
Life Sciences (Biology) - - - - -
Life Sciences (Cybernetics) - - - - -
Life Sciences (Genetics) - - - - -
Life Sciences (Psionicology) - - - - -
Mechanic  - - 1 - -
Medic  - - - - -
Melee 0 - 0 - 0
Melee (Blade)  - - - - -
Melee (Bludgeon)  - - - - -
Melee (Natural Weapons)  - - - 2 -
Melee (Unarmed Combat)  - - - 1 -
Navigation  - - - - -
Persuade  3 1 1 - 0
Physical Sciences - - - - -
Physical Sciences(Chemistry) - - - - -
Physical Sciences(Electronics) - - - - -
Physical Sciences (Physics)  - - - - -
Pilot - - - - -
Pilot (Capital Ships)  - - - - -
Pilot (Small Craft)  - - - - -
Pilot (Spacecraft)  1 - - - 1
Recon  - - 1 1 2
Remote Operations  - - - - 0
Seafarer - - - - -
Seafarer (Motorboats)  - - - - -
Seafarer (Ocean Ships)  - - - - -
Seafarer (Sail)  - - - - -
Seafarer (Submarine)  - - - - -
Sensors  - - - 1 -
Social Sciences 0 - - - -
Social Sciences (Archeology)  - - - - -
Social Sciences (Economics)  - - - - -
Social Sciences (History)  - - - - -
Social Sciences (Linguistics)  - - - - -
Social Sciences (Philosophy)  - - - - -
Social Sciences (Psychology)  - - - - -
Social Sciences(Sophontology)  - - - - -
Space Sciences - - - - -
Space Sciences (Planetology) - - - - -
Space Sciences (Robotics)  - - - - -
Space Sciences (Xenology)  - - - - -
Stealth  - - 1 - 1
Steward  - 2 1 - -
Streetwise  1 0 1 - 3
Survival  - - - - -
Tactics - - - - -
Tactics (Military Tactics)  - - - - -
Tactics (Naval Tactics)  - - - - -
Trade - - - 0 -
Trade (Biologicals)  - - - - -
Trade (Civil Engineering)  - - - - -
Trade (Hydroponics)  - - - - -
Trade (Polymers)  - - - - -
Trade (Space Construction)  - - - - -
Vacc Suit  - - - 0 -
Zero-G - - - - 0

- Ark