OVO

Trevor Blake & OGRE collection (partial). Portland, Oregon USA. 30 July 2010.

Bellowing forth “What the hell up there”‘ and brandishing trlcky devices, the dapper lawyer discovered the 88th floor. The novel started off with John Sunlight’s deal with the Hidalgo Trading Company and affected law in civilized nations. Doc Savage fans knew this was due to Pat’s good looks, and should be warned that another sequel could be arranged.

Bellowing forth “Whats this all about” and brandishing Doc’s own invention, Habeus Corpus bombed unknown dangers. They actually believed started off with the attack on several sheet-metal drums, just almost destroyed the Hidalgo Trading Company and affected Ham’s silk underwear. Sex and violence fans knew this was due to the lust for power, and sssumed that the return of wide ties was better than this.

Bellowing forth “Good afternoon” and brandishing Doc’s own invention, Habeus Corpus almost went to work on Montana. The present farce started off with the discovery of Doc’s melodic trilling, just barely saved Doc’s institute for criminals and affected Ham’s silk underwear. Under-amalgamataed fans knew this was due to severe constipation, and true blue that another Doc Savage movie could be arranged.

Bellowing forth “What the hell up there” and brandishing gas bombs, Doc’s cousin Pat almost sprayed death at the criminal’s lair. The somehow familiar plot started off with a CBS
documentary of Doc’s melodic trilling and affected the American way of life. Was almost as good as fans knew this was due to severe constipation, and didn’t know that loads of boredom was to be preferred.

Bellowing forth “So’s your mama” and brandishing gas bombs, Doc’s cousin Pat almost bombed unknown dangers. The drug-induced madness started of with Doc disguised as the crook’s gunfire, just caused tenor at the Inner Sanctum and affected law in civilized nations. Was almost as good fans knew this was due to Pat’s good looks, and figured out that television viewing never happened.

Bellowing forth “This Bud’s for you” and brandishing keen wits, the electrical wizard almost sprayed death at the criminal’s lair. The totally rad part started off with the grisly death of Monk’s bad breath, just barely rust-proofed the Inner Sanctum and affected pulp literature. Doc Savage fans knew this was due to Pat’s good looks, and didn’t know that the return of wide ties was better than this.

Bellowing forth “I’ll be superamalgamated” and brandishing U. S. phantom jets, The Avenger (on loan from another novel) almost bombarded unknown dangers. The scientific
wonders started off with the theft of the homely chemist in a dark alley, just barely undressed a tremendous burst of static and affected Doc’s prehensile toes. Was almost as good fans knew this was due to severe constipation and feared that another sequel was better than this.

Bellowing forth “So’s your mama” and brandishing nearly superhuman strength., three disgusting crooks almost searched in vain for tropical jungles. The worst book of them
all started off with Pat’s encounter with Long Tom, just barely miniaturized a rock concert and affected Johnny’s vocabulary. Doc Savage fans knew this was due to punk rockers, and realized that another Doc Savage movie couldn’t be helped.

Bellowing forth “So’s your mama” and brandishing keen wits, the electrical wizard almost invaded modem massage parlors. The actually believed started off with the attack on stiff red hair, just barely make the world safe from the Island of Death and affected pulp literature. Was almost as good fans knew this was due to Johnny’s lips, and realized that a sex change for Doc stank.

Bellowing forth “So’s your mama” and brandishing tricky devices, the dapper lawyer almost rampages through upstate New York. The worst book of them all started out with Pat’s encounter with Doc’s left foot, just barely hocked thrift stores and affected Monk’s virginity. Pulp lit fans knew this was due to Doc’s hemorrhoids, and hoped to god that television viewing was bound to happen.

Bellowing forth “Look out you ape” and brandishing five weapons, the man of bronze almost came out of Ham’s swank apartment. The drug-induced madness started out with Doc
disguised as Doc‘s melodic trilling, just barely saved thrift stores and affected Ham’s silk underwear. Empire State Building fans knew this was due to the lust for power, and true
blue that loads of boredom ate it and died.

Bellowing forth ‘You heard me” and brandishing U. S. phantom jets, The Avenger (on loan from another novel) almost went to work on Montana. The scientific wonder started off with the theft of Kenneth Robeson, just barely brought Doc’s focus on sunken realms and affected Doc’s prehensile toes. Pulp lit fans knew this was due to a commie plot, and should be warned that life on Mars a slow death of stupidity.

Bellowing forth “Hi fella” and brandishing gas bombs, Doc’s cousin Pat almost sprayed death at the criminals lair. The present farce started off with the discovery of Rennie’s big fists, just barely wiped out a tremendous burst of static and affected pulp literature. Doc Savage fans knew this was due to a low fiber diet, and feared that life on Mars ate it and died.

(from OVO 12 SCIENCE November 1991)

Trevor Blake: Heavy Tank and Mark V OGRE. Work in progress.  CGI model and animation made with Google Sketchup.

OGRE is a registered trademark of Steve Jackson Games, and the art here is copyrighted by Steve Jackson Games. All rights are reserved by SJ Games. This material is used here in accordance with the SJ Games online policy (http://www.sjgames.com/general/online_policy.html).

Recently I purchased a new file cabinet to hold my writing. What had been divided in many boxes, folders, envelopes and shelves is now in one place in chronological order. Putting it all together reminded me of many things I’ve written and forgotten, and the life I was living when I wrote them.

Among these papers were notes for a science fiction role playing game setting I wrote at the age of 24 in 1990. The setting was partially what I thought the next twenty years would be like and partially a dramatic invention to move the narrative forward. Here are some of those notes from twenty years ago.

A person who is a very proficient technician. This person is hired by some of the top corporations to solve software problems. They could be hired on to any of these corps at a high fee, but instead they are contacted via a net equivalent of a mail drop, do their work from afar, and post their fee which is then deposited in a special account. Sometimes the problem software is left at the drop then picked up later, sometimes access is given to the problem spot for the technician to get to. This person operates in this way to be able to work with the systems they find challenging without running the risk of being “owned” by the corp. If they worked in the open they would be committed to a limited environment and almost certainly not allowed to retire.

There are many ways this person could be brought into a game. The characters could see them slipping through the net in places other have found impossible to pass (yet this person appears to be a low-power individual… their net image isn’t particularly well armed.). They could get curious & follow them around. The characters could be hired to discover who this person is by a corp who wants to “hire” them. The characters could see (accidentally) the passage open to this person and run down it themselves. It would never be the case that this person would contact the characters.

Once the characters meet this person (which should be extremely difficult, even as an accident – remember, they’ve been evading the corps for a while now) they will be faced with the choice of keeping their identity secret and preserving their freedom (with the possibility the person will reward them) or of selling this information to one (or more) corps for a substantial amount. The second choice could result in acquisition of a powerful enemy but also the support of the corp (for a while at least).

A variation on this idea might be that there are two of these people, in different places, who may have never even met. This would allow for each variation on this idea to be carried out, or the same one carried out twice. If there are two they could cover each other too. If there are two they need not appear as two… if the characters are looking for one person and they discover the handle they are looking for is more than one person that would be a big shock.

An Autoduel subsection? Good chance for pure mayhem & violence. Could be optional, a thing observed but not participated in.

Telephone Operator, Shadow in Vain, Replicas.

Eventually the US Government is going to have enough pressure from the corps (and troubles of its won) to regulate ownership of all but the most simple of computers and much software as well. Computers able to link with other computers (ie: most) must be registered by manufacturer, serial number, owner, place and date of purchase. This applies to Complexity 2 computers. Each Complexity level of a computer requires a special permit to own. The higher the Complexity, the more rigorous the requirements for ownership and expense of the permit. Cyberdecks have been completely outlawed for the general public. However, several industrious Cyberdeck corps have gotten around these laws by incorporating Cyberdeck technology into items with functions other than netrunning. One is the Home Flight Simulator, which is indeed a flight simulator but also can be used for the Net. The Net Environment is expressed in flight related terms, be it WWI triple wings or intergalactic space ships. Another kind of Cyberdeck is built into a special automobile. It is a car, and a good one, but it has driving simulations that are net-accessible. The third type of cheat-Cyberdeck is the Home Studio, a musical environment. The last is the Model Home, a home management deck that controls temp, lights, etc. This also lets you speculate about adding new “rooms,” etc. This last kind is also called the Smart Toaster. In descending order of cost and power, the sneaky Cyberdecks are Flight Simulator, Car, Music and Smart Toaster. The Flight Simulator might actually be in an air/space ship of some sort, but would more likely be in the relaxation lounge of a big corp or wealthy netrunner. None of these Cyberdecks can interact well (which creates some problems with the rules) if at all. Speaking of interfacing, I see it pretty obvious not all computers will interface. Many will, but plenty of low Complexity but indispensable ones will not without a special adapter.

What will be the mode of self-expression for people who choose not to be “naturals,” who never go outside or exercise or eat anything but pills, who know they live in a totally climate controlled environment? [...] Perhaps changes to digestion and certain neurodrives (hunger-related, like a kill joy?). This will be very appropriate to people in space or under sea, but some city dwellers may chose this too.

New York City has been nuked to rubble by terrorists. NYC would be a force to really shape this game, but I’m taking the easy way out by saying its just not here any more. Which in turn allows for the story development before (who & why nuked) and after (where are the NYers to go? Both as a people and as a cultural icon?). Combustion engines will almost certainly be gone. Battery powered cars & buses will be the new main mode of transport. This will certainly effect the politics of the OPEC nations. They will have been over run long ago by superpowers. Gas engines will be outlawed in cities once battery cars are common. Only in the country will you find them in use as farm tools. Old car collectors will develop cultures similar to motorcycle clubs, a legitimate hobby with social stigma.

Cloning [will not be prevalent] except as a means to produce certain foods. Big vats of self-replicating protein soy-glorp will feed many people. [...] Super artificial hearts.

Corps are going to outright own more towns. Some will be like miner towns (essentially a fiefdom) while others will be like Oak Ridge [Tennessee]. The US Government will still exist but will include libertarians & even socialist & communist members at high levels. Electronic at-home voting is tried one year – a netrunner elects a total nobody as president as a joke. The whole election has to be re-done, creating a 4 month period with essentially no government. During this time there are big shake-ups in structure. The corps come out strong, the military & police grant themselves new powers, some attempts at secession are made (perhaps one or two tiny ones succeed). This even plus the NYC nuking are two big factors culturally that shape the US. The NYC nuking results in martial law for a while, which erupts into something of a civil war.

Terrorism hits the US in a big way?

All sorts of marriages are recognized. A future Pope makes some stupid remark and the Catholic Church splits again. A US Papacy is established. Holy wars? Roman Catholics vs. New Catholics.

New drugs that give shared (if simple) experiences developed. Example: hallucination of telepathy (real or not). Age limit on alcohol removed. Lots of horrible new drugs. Tracing the potential telepathy drug from scientist to corp to government to black market could be a story line. If it is a telepathy drug this could provide a happy ending or at least a radical change the characters could be involved in.

AIDS kills half or less world population before vaccine developed. This is optional, and doesn’t even cure people. It just makes it non-fatal.

The Rifkin Act wrapped up genetic research in so much red tape it came to a halt. The Rifkin Act requires most genetic research to be made a public affair: the total ramifications of all experiments must be reviewed by politicians, citizen groups, medical groups, ecologists, etc. This slows down research. A theory must be worked out in full on paper, reviewed, and if it is approved and changed it must be re-reviewed. Certain diseases are cured, some birth defects vanish (from the West), soy vats feed much of the world. But no clones or organ banks.

All this BS about leaving an electronic trail – it’s just moving technology backwards while putting in in tomorrow’s clothes. The present is paper shuffling, a step ahead of wagon ruts in the ground. This electronic trail stuff puts the wagon ruts in the computer that replaces paper shuffling.

I could base my net on my personal postal network, at least in part. At least locate them in cities that correspond to my own access points (Rensselaer, Dallas, San Francisco, etc.).

Pirate telephone networks. Not just worms in existing systems, whole pirate systems. To launch or liberate a satellite might be might be all that is needed. Implications of powerful / rick hacker here – I want to avoid that.

The different types of Cyberdecks are definitely not compatible. Above even the Flight Simulator is the type of Cyberdeck the military has. It uses actual head plugs. The other monitor subvocalizatoin, eye movements, as well as outright control with hands and body. The government Cyberdecks could control robot explorers in sea and space, or a robot fighter. Netrunning capabilities won’t be a main focus, I’d say.

There will be large contaminated areas from nuclear accidents in countries other than superpowers. Maybe the Middle East or South America. Safe soft energy will be common. Solar collectors in space that beam down microwaves to power batteries are an important part of the power system. Credit cards & checks will be the common currency. Government money will exist but will be useful only to the underground economy due to its anonymity. Debit cards will have been attempted & shown to be too easy to monkey with.

Radley Balko, How to Get Ahead in Law:

Last June, District Attorney David Capeless of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, announced that he was dropping all charges against 44-year-old Bernard Baran, a man who has spent half his life behind bars on child molestation charges that the state no longer has the confidence to retry. Baran was convicted in January 1985 of molesting six children at a pre-kindergarten day care facility in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He was released on bond in 2006 after an appeals court determined that his trial attorney had been incompetent and that the prosecution may have withheld key exculpatory evidence. Baran says that during his jail term he was raped and beaten more than 30 times, necessitating six different transfers to new correctional institutions. Such is the cost the prison system exacts on an openly gay man convicted of molesting children. Baran was one of the first people in the country to be prosecuted in the day care sex abuse panic of the 1980s, a bizarre nationwide hysteria fed by homophobia, fears of Satanism, and a wing of child psychology that used unproven interrogation techniques that critics say caused children to recount sexual incidents that never took place. In this case, prosecutor Daniel Ford, now a judge on the Massachusetts Superior Court, showed the grand jury that indicted Baran an edited video interview with the children. According to court documents, the video shows several kids alleging that Baran had sexually abused them. Edited out was footage in which some of the children denied any abuse by Baran, interviewees accused other members of the day care faculty of abuse or of witnessing abuse, and, most important, interrogators asked the same questions over and over – even after repeated denials – until a child gave them an affirmative answer. Some children were even given rewards for their answers. [...] In upholding the ruling that granted Baran a new trial, the appeals court added in a footnote that if the state wanted to retry him, Baran could file a motion for a hearing on Ford’s alleged misconduct. By dropping the charges, the D.A. avoided that hearing. “In my opinion,” says Boston civil liberties attorney Harvey Silverglate, “ the possibility of an embarrassing hearing into misconduct by a former prosecutor and now sitting Superior Court judge was the main reason, if not the reason, they decided to drop the charges. The appeals court opinion cut a bit too close to the bone for them.” So while Bernard Baran is free after 22 years of incarceration, there are no plans to look into the actions of the prosecutor, now a sitting judge, responsible for his conviction. Ford’s career trajectory indicates the backward incentive structure that prosecutors face: Convictions produce rewards, while abuse rarely comes with a penalty.

Religious Tolerance, The Baran Sexual Abuse Case:

The Bernard Baran indictment appears to have many factors in common with dozens of ritual abuse cases which surfaced during the 1980s and early 1990s. Bernard is a homosexual. That has proven to be a tremendous personal liability, because of the high level of homophobia in American society. On 1983-AUG-1, Bernard Baran was hired as a teacher’s aide by the West Side Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) in Pittsfield, MA. Pittsfield is located near the extreme western border of Massachusetts, very close to the state of New York. The uncle of one of Baran’s students complained to the ECDC that he did not want a homosexual teaching his nephew. Shortly after this complaint, he and his sister-in-law called police and said that the boy had accused Baran of molesting him. On 1984-OCT-6, Baran was charged with sexually assaulting two three-year-old children at ECDC. The number of charges reached nine after most of the 160 children at the ECDC were interviewed. Baran was 19 years of age at the time. On 1985-JAN-30, he received a sentenced of 3 concurrent life terms. Because of his age and slight build, he was easy pray for other inmates. “During his first four years, he was raped and physically assaulted 30-40 times. He has suffered serious eye injuries and many broken bones. [...] In all probability, he is innocent. In fact, the criminal acts for which he was charged probably never happened. However, the children (now in their twenties) probably retain “memories” of the abuse that were implanted in their minds as a result of improper interview techniques.

Articles continue at links.  See also the Free Baran archive.  I lived in a small town as a teenager in the 1980s.  I read books, including books on taboo subjects.  I played role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons.  I listened to music that wasn’t to be found on the radio.  I was very aware that a satanic panic was occurring in the United States, and that I could be caught up in it for my interests.  I could be accused of the kind of nonsense that Baran was caught up in.  I found two strategies that worked well in keeping myself safe.  Those strategies were knowing when to be public about my interests and when to be private.  Being public (including publishing OVO) meant that any argument I was a secret agent for evil would be weak.  Being private meant that what the do-gooders didn’t need to know about they never knew about.  But it was my dumb luck that the do-gooders didn’t try especially hard.  Now I’m an adult and it turns out reading those books, playing those games and listening to that music didn’t do me or anyone else any particular harm.  Turns out the good guys were the bad guys and the bad guys were innocent.  I’m the one who stuck by my guns.  The judges and therapists and police and teachers and clergy who made bank on the satanic panic are the ones who tucked tail and shuffled into an underground tunnel.   I don’t deserve any particular reward for what I did.  But were this a just world, they would be held accountable for what they did.  Bernard Baran spent half his life in prison to satisfy the blood lust of those who serve an invisible monster that lives in the sky.  And that’s one of the reasons I’m public about my interest in the withering away of religion under the twin suns of scorn and reason.

John Dolan, Lord Byron the eXile’s Patron Saint (via):

[Lord Byron] chose to be noisily “immoral” not because he was any worse (or any better) than the average aristocrat of his time but as a weapon against the moralism of Wordsworth. I don’t mean “moralism” in a normative sense – God no. I remember sifting through the elderly Wordsworth’s letters looking for any comment at all on the Great Famine which was extirpating the Irish, and finding only one remark, in which the great moralist earnestly prays that England will not weaken, ie provide any aid whatsoever. It’s one of the curiosities of English literary history that you’ll never find the least particle of compassion for the Irish in “moral” poets like Wordsworth. Only the “mad, bad and dangerous” Byron mentioned the slaughter of 1798, attacking the PM, Castlereagh, for “dabbling [his] sleek young hands in Erin’s gore” and, as Pope would have recommended, delivering an extra kick to his enemy’s corpse in this epitaph: “Posterity will never survey a nobler grave than this: here lie the bones of Castlereagh: stop, traveler, and piss.”

All-Star Pattern Seeker Trading Cards pay tribute to 23 giants of pattern recognition — pathfinders and ideanauts whose shadows loom large across three millennia of discovery. This set of 23 cards comes in a collectable embossed box.

Imaginary Foundation All-Star Pattern Seeker Trading Cards

Gametable is a remote RPG whiteboarding client. It is designed to play RPGs online, providing an interface for all players to use a shared map. Anything any player does to the map, all players see. The map can be drawn on, have miniatures (we call them pogs) placed on it and moved around, have terrain underlays placed on it, and a host of other features. You can even point at the map and people will see where you’re pointing.

Gametable

Tank top. Trevor Blake, Portland Oregon USA. Based on OGRE by Steve Jackson. 27 July 2009.

The full game of Cards Against Humanity is available for free on this website under a Creative Commons copyright.

Cards Against Humanity – A Free Party Game for Horrible People

small sized self moving fully functional atomic power plants with a small reactor inside. [OGRE]

English Russia » Russian Mobile Nuclear Power Plants

OGRE Mark 1 by Trevor Blake. Drawn in Sketchup, rendered in the style of the videogame Battlezone. Based on OGRE by Steve Jackson Games. A paper model is in the works. Previous OGRE links here and here.

People’s Tactics free download

Combine furious hex-based mayhem, research and production trees, the ability to command land, air and sea forces and up to 10 players over hot-seat or PBEM

People’s Tactics

I’ve put together a set of markers for the deluxe edition of Steve Jackson’s famously awesome future war-game, OGRE. You can download a .PDF of my OGRE marker designs

Make: Online : MAKE: Projects – Shrinky-dink gaming minis

OGRE card stats by FireHorse

OML-ogrecard.png (PNG Image, 777×555 pixels)

AJAX NETHACK | MetaFilter

Very nice, but I broke it at the crane.

FAST GAMES – Little Wheel

If however, you’re looking for a fun easy to learn and teach game which plays in under an hour and offers you a chance to model a bit, I would wholly recommend OGRE. It’s a great war game to cut your teeth on.

Starship Modeler – Ogre Miniatures Preview

By far the largest Ogre ever released for Steve Jackson Games’ tabletop wargame Ogre

Starship Modeler – Ogre Mk VI

Ogre is a long-lived game, and like any good game can be played by beginners using simpler rules or by experts using more demanding conditions.

Starship Modeler – Ogre Mk IV