System Found for Orpheus

Some months ago, I made a post about a little game called Orpheus, and my desire to run it. And, I pondered what system would be a good fit for it, as I didn't want to use the rules as presented in the actual game books. I ended up going with Fate, creating rules for the characters and their myriad powers and ran it for more than 9 months, and more than half of the adventure with those rules.

Boy, was that the wrong call! I admit, we had fun with the game! Some great stories were told and we all enjoyed the time we spent at the table. But, it started to feel flat after that long. The system didn't support the length of play, or the growth we wanted. I eventually mentioned to the group that I wished we had gone with another system, and they enthusiastically suggested we just use the core rules.

So, we did. I scrapped the session, last minute, and we sat down to create characters using the old World of Darkness rules, as they are presented in the core book.

That, was the right call! All of a sudden, everyone was re-energized at the table. The game started to feel like what I remembered Orpheus should be (since I'd been through it as a player once before), and there was more nuance and depth to the system. More options opened up in combat, and we all enjoyed the added strategy and tactical options. The Horrors started to feel different from each other. Everyone agreed that we were happy with the change.

Also, I found myself honestly enjoying the rules. I'd spent years bad-mouthing them, publicly disliking them, and now I can't get enough of them. Are they perfect? Of course not; no system is. But, they work and work well for the game we are playing!

This adventure helped me solidify my feelings on Fate: I love the system and the game. I love how well it's put together. I love the focus on narrative. I don't love the reliance on fiat. Aspects are great tools, but when they drive everything, it's always a discussion of "Does this aspect apply? To what degree? Is it true or does it only give a +2?" Fate is FANTASTIC for shorter games, but in this long-term game, it fell very flat for me.

I don't expect everyone to agree with me. There are lots of Orpheus fans online who speak out against the core rules. They don't like multiple actions, or that Appearance seems to be useless, or what-have-you. That's fine. They can play the game how they want to, with the rules they want. There are no perfect rules. Me and my table? We're having fun with the rules as they're presented in the books. A lot of fun. And, we had fun with Fate. But, ultimately, it wasn't a good match for us, or the story we were trying to play.

I suppose, if there's any moral or purpose to this post, it's this: Don't be afraid to switch systems in the middle of a game. It might just make it better!

New Year's Thoughts

It’s the morning of the first day of the year. The house is silent; my family is sleeping. I am up early to contemplate my life and what I want to do with this year that stretches out before me, like a field covered in untouched snow. It’s a curious question. I feel like this is a chance to reinvent myself, to be all the things that I’ve always wanted to be! And, yet, why must I wait for an opportunity like this, a new calendar year, to be who I want to be? I should strive for that each and every day.

Life is short. Too short. You never know when it will come to an end. It doesn’t matter how healthy or ill you are; the end could come at any moment. Of course, we can’t let that rule the way we live. We still must plan and act as if we will be around for years to come. But, do we? We know we won’t be around forever.

Carpe diem, the saying goes. How will I seize the day? How will I live my life this year to maximize the time I have? It’s not a question that has an easy answer, at least, not for me. I see lots of people who seem to have it all figured out. I recognize that, as an external audience, I know very little about who they are and what they want for themselves. And, in the end, how “together” they are has little influence on me and my life.

I must be my own person. I must work towards what I want. I must work for my goals, because no one else will.

That begs the question: What is it that I want? It’s a question that has plagued me for awhile.

I grew up in a very religious family. I was raised to look forward to the afterlife, not this life. This life was something to be endured, to be lived according to a strict set of rules, so I could receive the greatest gifts after my death, and live then according to someone else’s idea of paradise.

I’m certain my tone reflects the disdain I now hold for that idea. Being raised that way left me inadequately prepared to actually live this life, for this life. And I’ve struggled to figure out what I want out of my time on this Earth. I’m already 40, likely more than half-way through the time alloted to me.

I’ve dabbled in a lot of things, over the years. At this point, I am certain that I want to be a writer. I’d love to be able to support myself and my family doing it full-time, but I don’t know how realistic that is. Still, I believe it’s a worthwhile goal. It’s something that I can work towards while feeling good about the path I take. While I may never reach that point, and the rational part of me knows that, I think I would be cheating myself to shoot for anything less.

So, my overarching goal is set. Now, the hard work of breaking that into managable pieces awaits, as does taking the steps necessary towards reaching that goal. It’s not a process I’m very good at, but I won’t get any better until I practice.

As my brother-in-law reminded me last month, “[Life] is a journey of discovery.” I am excited to take these first tentative steps on that yellow-brick road, setting one foot in front of the other, pointing myself inexhorably towards the Emerald City. I’m sure the path is winding, with many detours and dead-ends. But, as long as I follow where those yellow bricks take me, I’ll be farther towards my goals than I would be had I stood still. 

Image from Pixabay

 

The End (of Twitter) is Nigh?

 Social media started out as a novelty and became something that a good many people can't imagine living without. I use Twitter a lot. I love it. My wife is on Facebook and Instagram constantly, keeping in contact with family and friends, and for her business. My son spends so much time on Instagram and TikTok, that it's a wonder he gets anything else done.

Every platform has its issues. They are bad with privacy, or made some changes that suck, or are owned by The Devil™. Everyone has their preferred site, and trash talks the ones they don't like. Yes, I'm generalizing and exaggerating. It's fun. But, the fact remains that no site is perfect.

I'm on Twitter. I have been for over a decade. I love that site, I love the people I've met and connected with there. And now, all signs point to its inevitable demise. In my circles, the question of 'Where to Go Next' is being thrown around left and right. People say Mastadon is the place to go. Or Hive. Or… there are so many others, I can't keep them straight.

And, honestly, it is from lack of trying.

It's not that hard for me to pick up new technology and make it work for me. I grew up wanting to be a programmer for video games. I spent way too much money on programming and computing books, and spent many hours of my formative years immersed, trying to get a computer to follow my commands. It didn't make for a great childhood, but it gave me a base to understand quite a bit of how things work.

But, I don't want to. I found Twitter, I figured out how to use it. It was nice! I'm in love with the written word, and that's what Twitter did. Small chunks of words that I could read, share, comment on, etc. And, it was easy! Sign up, follow people, Tweet, and I was done.

So, I don't know where I will go if Twitter dies. Maybe nowhere? I have resurrected my Instagram and I'm playing around with that. But, the pressure to take photos of everything I do is already exhausting. If Twitter goes away, I may just retreat to my little corner of the internet, here, and on the sites where I'm selling my books.

The only bad thing, is that social media is pretty much required for self-published authors. That's how we advertise and find readers!

Maybe Twitter will suffer some growing pains and come out of this trial for the better? Let's hope for that.

The Ocean Door

 I have been obsessed with the ocean for… a very long time. "Save The Whales" and "Dolphin Safe" campaigns likely started that love when I was in elementary school, and "Shark Week" fanned the flames, along with making me fall in love with the animals.

When I was working the phones in a claims office and trying to decide what I wanted to study and do as a career, marine biology was a serious contender, for awhile. The ocean, its animals, its effects on the Earth, have fascinated me and been of great import to me.

However, I'd never made it out to even see the ocean until four years ago. It wasn't until yesterday that I got into the ocean and swam in the surf. It was a lot of fun. Feeling the power of the waves, watching and listening to them come in and out, feeling the ebb and flow of it around me legs, it was wonderful.

However… as I was driving back home and marveling at all the sights I'd seen, I realized that this experience has closed a door inside me. I've realized that being in the water is not something I love. The ocean is something that I have loved from afar, and I will continue to do so. But, it feels like that's enough. That part of me, that stage of my life, is complete.

That's a really weird feeling! I'm satisfied. Now, my mind turns to other things I want to see, to experience, to learn of. And, that's very, very exciting!

Reading Review - Claim the Sky

 This post contains affiliate links for DriveThruRPG. If you use one and make a purchase, I will earn a small percentage of that sale, and it will cost you nothing extra. Thank you for your support!

For the TLDR rating, click here!

It’s no secret that I am a big fan of tabletop role playing games. Also, I’m pretty sure I’ve written that exact sentence on this blog at least once before. I play a lot of games. I read a lot of game books. I think that my reading time is likely evenly split between game books and fiction books. Non-fiction is thrown in there, too, but I read a lot fewer non-fiction books than I do fiction and game books.

Okay, getting out of the weeds, there: I recently picked up Claim the Sky, which is a superhero supplement for the Cypher System by Monte Cook Games. I read through the book, slowly and bit by bit and… I gotta say that I really love it.

The Book

Image from MonteCookGames.com

Like all of the Cypher System books I have, it’s a beautiful book. The layout is clean and colorful. The text is easy to read, and has loads of references on the sidebar. Honestly, I ignore these the first time I read through such a book, because there’s just so much. But, when I go back and am reading for review and reference, these sidebars are invaluable. And, they’re just so good! It seems like very page has the sidebar full of references, pointing you to other places in the book, or pages in other books, giving you everything you need to understand what’s being discussed in the text.

Some of the art in the book has been recycled; I recognize it from the Cypher System core book. Other pieces, I don’t recognize, but I don’t know if they were made specifically for this book, or were reused from something else. There are some pieces that I can say with certainly are new to this book, because they are of characters and locations created for the setting section. But, wherever the individual art pieces come from, they all look really nice and fit the superhero theme of it all.

The book is divided into two sections: “Gaming With Superpowers”, and the setting “Boundless”. To tell the truth, I really appreciate them splitting it out like that. Cypher System is a generic system and this division supports that. They understand that, yes, you might love their setting and want to play in it, but then again, maybe you want to create your own world! Or play in a different world, already published by someone else, that has dozens of movies in it, with endearing cameos and such!

Ahem…

Rules Section

The first bit with the rules is my favorite. I’m a sucker for rules. Whenever I buy a new game book, the new rules are the first things that I look at, and if there aren’t many, or if they don’t have much substance, I’m disappointed. The new rules in Claim The Sky are pretty good! The rules are mixed in with a lot of discussion on how to make the Cypher System rules work with superhero stories, but they’re easy to find. There are 5 new character Descriptors and 7 new Foci. Along with the options in the core book, and all the other Cypher System games out there, I think those are good numbers of new material. And, the options look like fun! My favorite of them is the ‘Sensational’ descriptor. A character with that one gets more points for their Pools, more skills and is Popular! Yes, with a capital ‘P’!

Power Shifts are also expanded on in the rules section. I played with Power Shifts once during a solitaire game while I was podcasting and I thought it worked really well for superheroes. I think that this presentation of Power Shifts shows how the Cypher System has matured over the years. They’re all specific in what they affect, and all of them are very powerful. There is further discussion on changing powers on the fly and doing off-the-wall things with a character’s abilities, which is also very superhero-y.

The final bit about rules is just two pages dealing with Cyphers and Artifacts. Given how important cyphers are in the Cypher System, I expected this section to be bigger. The material given is fine, and I honestly couldn’t tell you how to make it bigger, but it was a let-down the first time I read it. Honestly, were I to run a superhero campaign, cyphers might not even make up a big part of the story. With Power Shifts, the characters are already extremely powerful, in their individual wheelhouses. Having zero cyphers might not break the game.

Setting Section

The Boundless setting is the next section, and is a lot of fun. Their world is a lot like ours, but there are some changes. The authors quickly go through the history of the world, and how major world events looked with superheroes involved. Then, they get into the major factions and NPCs of the world, and finish up the book with three different adventures.

All of the individual hero and villain NPC write-ups are in the first part of the book, and are referenced in this section with those amazing sidebars.

I liked this part of the book. It was a fun read and there are a lot of interesting ideas on how to change our world into a world with superheroes. There are a ton of ideas that I found to be wonderfully inspiring. Several times during my reading, I stopped after reading a detail, lost in my imaginings of how awesome a game campaign would be, based on that idea.

The adventures look like fun, too. They vary in length and complexity, and I honestly did not give them a very detailed read. If I ever decide to run them, one day, I will, but I didn’t feel like they’d add much to my reading of the additional rules or the game setting.

All in all, I really enjoy this book and I’m glad I picked it up. I’m already planning on pitching this game to one of my game groups as soon as we finish the games we’ve already got planned.

Addendum: As I was wrapping up the writing on this review, my son wandered down to the kitchen, rubbing sleep from his eyes. He asked what I was doing, and I gave him the rundown of the book. He expressed interest and started to flip through the book. With every page he flipped, his excitement grew and he ended up saying he really, really wants to play this game.

Re-Addendum: While putting this post together, I saw that the wonderful folks at Monte Cook Games have put together a free preview of the book!

TLDR

Rules Section: 4/5

Setting Section: 5/5

Flash Fiction - Lighthouse

 This is a short piece I wrote for submission to a zine last month. They passed on it. I'm very proud of it, and I like it a lot. I hope you enjoy it, as well.

--//--

The ship bucked, throwing Captain Opa into the console where he'd been writing a letter to his family. The console's edge slammed into his gut and hip, drawing a surprised and pained grunt from him. He managed to catch hold of the console's edge before the violent shaking threw him into another surface in his cabin.

With calm but hurried motions, he saved the letter to his partition where it joined the others waiting to be given to his family when they returned to their home stellar system and planet, then hit the key and opened the ship's intercom. "Bridge, this is the Captain. What's going on?" He modulated his voice to radiate calm. If he panicked, so would everyone else, and panicked people couldn't do their jobs. A strained voice answered as if the person speaking were facing away from the intercom's pickup, "It's... pressure wave... -where."

"Bridge, this is Captain Opa. I didn't catch that. Say that again, what is going on?" The only response was a strange, fluting whine that came through the speaker. The sound scratched at his eardrums and made him wince and pull away from the intercom speaker. With a frown, he let go of the button and turned to the door.

The first step went fine, the second missed the deck somehow, then he floated up from the floor to bump uncomfortably against the ceiling as the ship's thrust, which created the perception of gravity, was cut off. Now he was worried. Quickly, he pushed off the ceiling, made his way through the door and floated up to the bridge, using the handholds installed in the corridor for that exact purpose.

The sight that greeted him as the hatch slid open was baffling. The on-duty members of his crew sat at their stations, strapped into their seats as required by the rules, but their eyes were wide and unseeing and their mouths hung open in slack surprise. Opa shoved off the hatch frame towards Lieutenant Rogers, who had command of the bridge during this shift. The young woman didn't react as he pushed her shoulder while catching an armrest to arrest his micro-gravity flight.

"Rogers, report," he said in a tight voice. What was going on? Rogers didn't respond to his words, or the gentle slaps he laid on her cheek in a vain attempt to bring her back to reality. "Rogers, what is going—"

The ship heaved, ripping his grip from the armrest. The deck and bulkhead plates surrounding the bridge started to sing. The noise was high-pitched, fluting and... wonderful! The sound, the sweetest music! Colors splashed in front of his eyes as his ears tasted his favorite smells and his skin tingled in the most pleasurable sensations and his hair stood and vibrated—

Opa shook his head, alarmed, snapping himself out of that... whatever that was. He looked around, the noise still clamored in his brain, telling him to give in, to enjoy it, to let it transport him to happiness. He could taste the pollen that filled the air around his home during the spring. It seemed that the sound, somehow, brought out every memory and experience that had ever made him happy.

With a grunt, he pushed himself away from Rogers' chair and soared through the air towards the helm. Miner, the helmsperson, sat there, strapped in, a vacant look on their face. He quickly unbuckled them and pulled them out of the seat, not-so-quickly maneuvering them to the wall where he quickly strapped them into an emergency restraint. He pushed off the wall to quickly fly back to the helm and strapped himself in and keyed the engines back on.

The ship shuddered and jerked as if it were pulling away from some physical restraint and gravity returned. Something clattered to the deck behind him and the singing in the bulkheads lessened. He had just enough time to sag with a sigh of relief before the ship bucked again and the music redoubled. This time, it clawed into his ears, and scratched at his brain with long, sharp talons. The images that the music drew up and flashed in front of his eyes were still happy, but there was pain, too.

Desperation welled up inside him as he hit the controls, sending the ship skirting to the side with the maneuvering thrusters. He heard the fallen object behind him roll across the deck, but the singing didn't lessen. Then, with a jerk, the ship bucked the other way, and the singing became a howl. His eyes watered with the effort of keeping hold of his mind, with his refusal to give into the feelings and images the song inspired.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light through the front viewscreens. His mind cleared, the song was pushed away. What was that? he wondered. A point of light in front of them, a— Another flash and his mind was filled with another image: a starfield. And there was a line, twisting, turning, weaving in and out and around signs he somehow knew meant rough space. And, outside the rough space, a point of light, the same point that he could see in front of the ship.

Another flash and he found his fingers dancing across the helm controls, laying in a course that matched the line he saw in the starfield inside his mind. It took mere seconds, and then he hit the 'Execute' button and the ship jerked and bucked as it pulled away from that binding force. The point of light in the viewscreen flashed again, and his mind cleared completely of the song. The ship, on autopilot and following the course his fingers had laid in, accelerated away and out of the 'shoals' that he now knew, somehow, lay in wait for passing ships. The point of light lay directly in front of them as they broke free of the shoals' pull and the haunting, attracting song they sang.

The crew around him began to stir, with sudden gasps and jerks as they returned to their bodies. Those sounds faded into the background for Opa as the light in front flashed again and he knew what it was: A pulsar, a spinning neutron star, somehow changed, instructed or given purpose, to guide ships out of the trap his ship had fallen into. But... how? He had no idea how something like that was possible.

The light grew bigger as the ship approached it. The crew, now talking amongst themselves, called around to make sure everyone was all right. Following the final section of the plotted course, the ship used the pulsar's gravity to slingshot around and boost away at a speed faster than its engines alone could manage.

Home. They were heading home. And all because a star told them how. It was... overwhelming. Opa keyed a command to show the pulsar on the helm's screen, watching as it slowly shrank behind them. He didn't understand it. He couldn't. But, somehow, it had saved him. Saved his ship. His crew. And, they were headed home, again.

With a quick few commands, he noted the location of the pulsar, and the shoals. They would need to study this phenomenon. But, later. For now, he laid his hand on his heart and gave a small bow to the pulsar in thanks as it shrank back into the black of space and they left it behind.

Flash Fiction - Finish Line

The neon lights flashed and flickered, giving the crowd surrounding the starting line the look of a rave. They were loud and staring, staring at the two machines crouched just behind the white line that had been hurriedly sprayed across the street. A light drizzle fell on the whole scene, making the dark pavement reflect the lights and faces, distorting them as the water trembled in time with the deafening music.

Laach gripped the steering wheel as his vehicle rumbled beneath him. Though the night was cool, sweat beaded his forehead and he nervously glanced to his left, to the vehicle sitting next to his, to the driver inside. The other driver caught his glance and smiled at him, a mocking, arrogant smile.

Kurt looked confident. Of course he did; he’d won every single ’scraper race he’d ever competed in. Laach jerked his head back around to face the front, nervously twisting his hands where they gripped the wheel. He had to win this match. If he did, the money he’d win would pay his sister’s trip up the gravity well to the habitats. There, she’d be able to go to school and have a better life.

If he lost, he’d lose his machine. His machine was everything to him. He had to win this match.

The flagger stepped out in front of them, tight vinyl suit hugging his every curve. Flag went up. Flag went down.

Laach stomped on the accelerator and grunted as he was slammed back into his seat. His machine’s engine growled, then whined as the RPMs shot up and it leaped forward. He held on for dear life, keeping the wheel straight.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Kurt was right there, right next to him, his own machine howling as he kept pace. Laach gritted his teeth in frustration, an angry, desperate growl escaping his lips. The low buildings flanking either side of the street flashed by, a stream of multicolored neon lights that blended into a rainbow as they reached 150 kph.

Suddenly, there it was, the end of the road. Laach pushed harder on the accelerator, trying to coax just a little more power from his machine as they both flashed to the edge. Then, both vehicles shot out over the side of the skyscraper, leaving the support of the solid street and entering the floating mag-lane. The mag-generators at the front and rear of his machine flared and buzzed with arcing energy as they created the vehicle’s magnetic field to latch onto the mag-lane.

 His mag-gens had a little more lag than Kurt’s, and the other driver’s vehicle shot forward into the empty between scrapers. Laach watched Kurt pull away and something like panic bubbled up inside him, stealing his breath even as he wanted to scream and rail at Kurt, at his vehicle, at the mag-gens.

But, there wasn’t time for that. This was just the start; he still had time to catch Kurt, to pass him up. He focused on the arcing mag-gens at the back of Kurt’s machine. They arced with purple light, reaching out and snapping back as the vehicle screamed past the mag-buoys.

Laach’s own mag-gens crackled with blue light. The were slower to generate the field, but they were supposed to have a higher top speed. That might not matter so much, now, he thought, as Kurt’s vehicle started to pull away from his in the mag-lane. Not if I can’t catch him, anyway! With that thought, he stomped on the accelerator again, coaxing all the power he could from the reactor. He reached down and flipped a switch, turning off the restrictor built into the reactor, letting it run free.

His vehicle surged forward, his mag-gens flared and crackled blindingly, and the scream the vehicle had been making took on a note of agony. Laach gritted his teeth as he held onto the steering wheel, keeping the vehicle in the mag-lane, and swooping past Kurt.

“Hold together,” he prayed, glancing down at the displays on his dash. Most of them showed red or flashed warnings. “Hold together!”

He passed Kurt’s vehicle in a blink and rocketed towards the next skyscraper, where the race would end. With a grin, he flicked the restrictor back on, sighing with relief.

Nothing happened. The indicator next to the restrictor flashed yellow, then back to red. He flicked it off, then back on again. Again, the indicator flashed yellow, then back to red. It wouldn’t re-engage, and the agonized scream his vehicle made was turning desperate.

A mag-gen in the back of his vehicle exploded with a crack and bucked him to the side, sending his vehicle swerving down the mag-lane. “No. No!” he screamed as he fought the wheel for control. He could see the ’scraper approaching, he could see the last few mag-buoys between him and the edge. He had to make it!

The neon warning lights of the buoys flashed past him, one, then two as he fought for control. Another mag-gen sparked and arced and kicked him to the other side of the mag-lane, and he fought against that, too.

Third buoy. Fourth. The edge!

His vehicle crashed to the top of the ’scraper and slid across the spray-painted finish line just before Kurt’s vehicle flashed past him in a desperate attempt to win.

Laach climbed shakily out of his vehicle to the screams of the crowd. He’d done it. He’d beaten Kurt! And won the money to give his sister a new life. The crowd lifted him up, bouncing him on their shoulders as the organizer reached out and handed him his winnings.

As the crowd carried him around, he spotted Kurt, who was leaning against his own vehicle, watching. The other driver gave him a half-smile and saluted with one finger touching his brow. The arrogance was gone, replaced by an expression of grudging respect.

A laugh bubbled up from Laach’s chest and leaped out of his mouth.

“I did it!”