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This month, Mike and Roger contemplate long-term campaigns with gaps,
travel in gaming time, and consider tech levels: threat or menace?
We mentioned
the Cyberpunk 2020 bundle of holding
(until 4 July),
the old Pendragon bundle of holding and
the new Pendragon bundle of holding
(both until 11 July),
the Cthulhu Breakfast Club,
in Nomine
the city book,
Nephilim,
GURPS Horsesclans
Microscope,
RuneQuest,
GURPS Goblins,
Lee Gold,
En Garde,
Slobbovia,
the Dungeon Master computer game,
Traveller,
Universe,
GURPS Banestorm,
Honest Achmed's Used Cars and Certificates,
the Kardashev scale,
Farflung,
recent Schlock Mercenary,
The Munchkin's Guide to Power Gaming, and
Dr Pinero's machine.
Music by Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com.
(Roger would like to point out that since this session he's bought an
anti-shock mount for the recorder – and a better dead cat. We did seem
to get an awful lot of aircraft, though.)
(We do get free access to the Bundle of Holding contents, but this
happens whether or not we plug them.)
- Posted by Tim Soholt at
06:51pm on
01 July 2017
I think it's inaccurate to condemn Shadowrun's UK for being written by non-Brits. The first look at the UK for Shadowrun, at least, was written by Carl Sargent and Marc Gascoigne, both of whom were long-term UK residents if not natives. They both have writing credits at GW if Wikipedia is to be believed, and Sargent was at TSR UK, although I can't find anything he himself wrote.
- Posted by RogerBW at
10:35pm on
01 July 2017
Fair enough - maybe it was terrible editing, or maybe I remembered a different book. I certainly recall it having a terribly Americanised view of Britain, where the Cyberpunk Rough Guide to the UK did a rather better job.
- Posted by Jon Hancock at
10:01am on
03 July 2017
The tech level discussion reminded me of something Greg Porter once wrote, the idea that the Romans had the technical capabilities to make bicycles and sub-machine guns but never did (much to the chagrin of historical wargamers, I imagine). Tech levels inevitably struggle to simplify a way of distinguishing between the possible and the actual.
- Posted by RogerBW at
10:11am on
03 July 2017
And the Great War-era laser (well, if you can make a neon tube…). I think there's at least a three-way split:
- here's what we make for our own use
- here's what we can work out how to make if given some information
- here's what we can readily import but not make for ourselves
and then replace "make" with "repair" for potentially three more distinct tech levels in a single culture.
- Posted by David cantrell at
09:20pm on
05 July 2017
On the subject of twisting tech levels around I'm reminded of the story I once wrote about maxwells presentation of his paper announcing GR. it was easily possible. In it he speculated on whether Newton could have done it based on Tycho Brahe's observations of the orbit of mercury.
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