The Robots of Rome

Middle school World History really left out some crucial bits--like say, the robot building expertise of ancient Rome!

The Lokapannatti (an 11th-12th Century Pali cosmological text) tells the story of Ashoka obtaining Buddhist relics from the underground vault of King Ajatasatru. Like all good dungeon treasures, this one is guarded--by robots; bhuta vahana yanta, literally "spirit movement machines."  What's more, these robots are based on stolen Roman technology!

The thoroughness of this ancient text is such that it just doesn't drop a bomb like "Roman robots" and leave it at that. No, we get an origin story. See, Roma-visaya ("The Kingdom of Rome") has a class of skilled bahulayantakara ("machine-makers") who build these wonders for "commerce, agriculture, capturing, and executions."  These engineers are kept under close watch so that Roman technological secrets don't fall into the wrong hands. If they leave the city, they're chased down by a flying beheading machine!

An Indian entrepreneur from Pataliputra wants to get ahold of these marvels so bad he vows on his deathbed to get reincarnated as a Roman. Amazingly, that is exactly what happens! He then marries the daughter of a Roman inventor and when the time is right, snags some blueprints from his father-in-law. This is where his plan gets really complicated: he writes the secrets down and has the paper sewn into his thigh. Then, he tells his son to have him buried back in India when he dies. He leaves Rome and the robot executioner gets him.

His son takes his body (and the stolen secrets) back to Pataliputra and goes into the robot-making business for the king. The robots are still active a hundred years later when Ashoka shows up to reclaim the lost treasure. Lucky for Ashoka, the Roman that built them is somehow still alive and tells him how they can be disabled.

I got this story from Relics of the Buddha by John S. Strong, and with further details from here. Not that something so rife with gaming potential needs solid academic sourcing! It's just one step from this legend to a robot arms race between India and Rome and mecha battles across Afghanistan! 

Bhuta vahana yanta, go!

Space Fiends: Marauders from Hyperspace!

Some time ago, I did a post about using AD&D Fiend Folio monsters in a science fiction context. This post is a follow-up. it's not set in any particular sci-fi universe I've presented, any more than the write-up of the monster that inspired it was.

No. Appearing:1-4
AC: 4
Hit Dice: 1 (or better)
Saving Throw: as per class and level
Attack Bonus: +2
Damage: 2d8+2 mag rifle, 1d8+1 monoblade
Movement: 30'
Skill Bonus: +1
Morale: 9

Gathyengi are a xenophobic humanoid species who act as pirates, striking from hidden bases within hyperspace. They are theorized to be descended from humans abducted by the psionic Masters from Earth millennia ago to serve as both labor and food source.

Gathyengi (sing. gathyen) are ectomorphic, almost skeletal in appearance. Their skin is dusty yellow to the color of parchment, and leathery. Their skull-like faces, solid black eyes, and pointed teeth (likely ritually sharpened) give them a fearsome appearance in keeping with their reputation for violence.

A gathyengi raider will have a crew compliment of various classes, similar to any human vessel. A raid will be led by a captain of 4-7th level, depending on the size of the ship. It is likely there will be at least one combat psychic among them.

All gathyengi can shift back into hyperspace at will. Whether this is an innate ability or technological is unclear. Dead gathyengi shift back into hyperspace as well, thwarting attempts at close examination.

Warlord Wednesday: Then...Now...

Here's another installment of my examination of  the adventures DC Comics' Travis Morgan--The Warlord.  The earlier installments can be found here...

"Then...Now..."

Warlord (vol. 4) #9 (February 2010) Story & Art by Mike Grell

Synopsis: Morgan and Shakira are pursuing the remaining brigands that ambushed Morgan and his men last issue. Morgan believes they are under the command of Kate Archer. The brigands have fled into a swamp, where it's likely they're laying a trap.

Shakira says that "only a fool would go in there."  Morgan agrees. She hops off the horse and tells him she'll meet him on the other side.

There is indeed a trap waiting, but the brigands live to regret their ambush--at least briefly. Morgan cuts down a number of them, while Shakira leads others into an encounter with a tyrannosaur.

Kate Archer sees all this as she makes her escape. Morgan and Shakira head on back to Shamballah.

When they arrive, Ewan McBane greets them with his video camera. He's still in journalist mode. Tara punches Morgan for running of (as usual) but then kisses him, and the two head off to bed. [Actually, much of this issue is various characters--uh, finding romance. While not as explicit as cable tv even, Grell takes advantage of the lack of the Comics Code.]

Tinder shows Alysha the streets of Shamballah where he grew up. A young pickpocket reminds himself as a youth, so he gives the boy a few pointers and let's him keep some of the gold. Tinder gets around to kissing Alysha as well (finally), and when next McBane finds them they're lying naked on the palace grounds, Tinder strumming his lute.

Tinder relates to McBane why people originally followed the Warlord, and how Morgan seemed to change and give up on his dreams. McBane wonders what happened. Tinder suggests that McBane will have to ask Morgan.

McBane has already had his own romantic interlude. He visited Jennifer in her sanctum and she told him how her and her father came to be in Skartaris. With that exposition out of the way:

Morgan, in bed with Tara, wonders if he's getting old. He asks her if she remembers the bracelet he gave her when they met: his old watch, broken in the crash. 'Why would anyone build a device so they can know when to be old?" Tara asks. Here is Skartaris there is only "then, now, and next."

Tara suggests that, if he's not too busy being old, there are better ways to take a measure of a man. Morgan accepts that challenge.

Later, McBane interviews Tara, asking her about her and Morgan's son. She tells of his birth and how Deimos took him and how she never saw him again. But Morgan did. McBane asks what happened? She says he'll have to ask Morgan.

Meanwhile, Kate Archer comes to an ancient underground ruin. She seems to be following instructions from a small box. When she opens it, there is a symbol-inscribed skull inside. The skull apparently leads her to a crystal container with a body inside. She breaks it open and out falls:

Deimos!

Things to Notice:

• Deimos seems to have a limitless number of resurrections by a limitless array of means. 

Where it comes from: 
This issue is deals with a lot of past issues: Morgan's first arrival in Skataris, his relationship with Tara, the kidnapping of their son and his apparent death in issue #21. The skull of Deimos goes back to the 1992 limited series.

Star Hunters

The djägga (or djaegga) are humanoids with feline characteristics. Though they are most on the Rim (where perhaps their native habitats can be found), they're encountered in most lawless areas of the Strange Stars. Djägga are hunters by nature, by instinct, and many choose to hunt nothing less challenging than other sophonts as bounty hunters or assassins.

Appearance and Biology: Djägga have been described as looking like a cross between a sphynx cat and a human. The have a basically baseline human body form (including a plantigrade stance), except for a felinoid tail. Their faces have a vaguely feline cast, as do their large eyes and large, somewhat high-placed ears. Though their skin is no more hirsute than the average humans, they are pigmented in patterns like cats. Many different pigmentation patterns are found among them. 

Djägga senses are keener than those of baseline humans, particularly hearing and smell. These are so acute that they are often taken as possessing psi-sensitives, but in fact powers of the mind are virtually unknown among them.

Psychology: Djägga are typically solitary beings, suspicious of others. Mating pairs may stay together for a time, but it's almost as common for pregnant females to become distrustful and secretive and males to become bored and drift away. Djägga encountered as a group are most often siblings of the same sex or a mother and her children.

Djägga tend to speak very little and are not particularly social, but they're loyal. They're also keen to avenge any perceived betrayal. Competitions can trigger their predator instincts, so it's prudent to avoid games with djägga,  particularly ones with a physical component.

Stats: Stars Without Number: Djägga require a Strength and Dexterity of 12. They don't have psionics. Traveller: Notable Dexterity (+1), but replace Social Standing with Charisma (where they have a -1).

Smaug and his Desolation in 48 fps and 3-D

I saw The Hobbit II: The Legend of Smaug's Gold this weekend (in faux-IMAX, high frame frate, and 3-D for the full Jackson). There are no doubt a number of negative reviews out there and a number of positive ones, so you can mix and match or pick what goes with your preconceptions. Rather than trying to persuade you one way or another from an overall perspective, I'll just say: 1) it is not (as you're already aware if you saw the first one) Tolkein's Hobbit, particularly; and 2) it's got  swashbuckling action set-pieces in the Pirates of the Caribbean or Lone Ranger (2013) vein.

That out of the way, I'm going to talk about things I like about the movie that might be worth stealing for gaming.

Overall, Mirkwood and the fortress of the wood elves made me wish that Guillermo del Toro had directed, as I think he would have given them both a fairy tale-ish feel that would have been visual interesting and perhaps more in keeping with the book. However, Lee Pace's haughty and fay King Thranduil is pretty much spot on. There's a part where he let's his glamour slip and allows Thorin to see the scars he bears from fighting a dragon that does evoke elves of fairy tales or legendry that was a really good bit.

My another nice bit was Laketown. It evokes a very different feel from the Laketown of the book, but it's given a look sort of like a ramshackle Medieval Russian version of Venice. It's people are multi-ethnic and have clothing styles mixing the vaugely slavic, Tibetian, and even a bit of Mongol thrown in, but blended pretty well. It's Master is a rather Terry Gilliam-esque bumbling noble, equipped with a suitable obsequious assistant. The coldness, squalor, and police state ubiquitous informer culture the Master oversees, seems to be meant to evoke Soviet era Russia. The whole evoke is utterly un-Tolkeinian, but very interesting as a potential gaming locale.

After all of that, the movie finally arrives at Lonely Mountain and a solitary dragon. Smaug is menacingly portrayed (vocally) by Benedict Cumberbatch. The cgi design is nice, too; there's a little bit of Dragonslayer there, I think. Smaug's treasure horde is ridiculously large. There most be no more gold in all of Middle-Earth. As Dunsany would say: "Their hoard is beyond reason; avarice has no use for it." The encounter with Smaug in this treasure den does remind one how frightening dragons ought to be, something that has been lost a bit with their perfunctory appearance in fantasy games.

Desolation of Smaug isn't a book brought to life or even a great achievement in cinema, but there are things is in it to like and nice details to appreciate.

Charting the Stars

Some reason G+ discussion last week got into resources for real world star maps for science fiction gaming. Not everyone will find this necessary, and still fewer will be concerned with "accurate" habitable systems and planets, but for those that are here are some links I've found useful:

The Internet Stellar Database allows to to search for a star and find out its various catalog names, spectral data, coordinates, and distance from Sol. Very handy.

If you're interested in calculating the habitable zone around a star, this page is a quick and (relatively) easy reference. Sol Station has got that calculated for you for many stars and has some decent online star maps.

Maybe you want someone else to put in a lot of the work for you. Winchell Chung makes great real world star maps and you can purchase in print on demand a few varieties here at the aptly named 3-D Star Maps.

I haven't presented a map of the Strange Stars yet, but I intend to do so eventually. I will reveal a few of the modern designations of some of the locations I've already written about:

• The green ssraad, as mentioned in the post about them live around the white main sequence star Sirius A. The blue ssraad call the white dwarf Sirius B home.
• The Library of Atoz-Theln is in the Lalande 25372 system. Its primary is a red main sequence dwarf (M1.5 Ve).
• Gogmagog, the site of giant robot battles, orbits β Comae Berenices, a yellow main sequence dwarf some 9.13 parsecs from Sol.
• Aygo, the homeworld of the inverterbrate zhmun, and its co-orbital world of Erg are in the 82 Eridani system--which also has 3 super-earths we already know about.

Intoxicated in the Strange Stars

Within the borders of the Strange Stars there are a innumerable recreational substances available from the botanical relics of Old Earth to the ubiquitous, chemically facile ethanol and a whole galaxy (almost literally) of polychrome uppers, downers, screamers, and thinkers developed by across a million habitats. Here's a sampling of them:

aku: Also known as "ink." Aku is both the name of a small cephalopod-like creature whose native world or place of manufacture is lost and the pigmented mucoid substance it produces. The user places the live cephalod over there face and squeezes it to induce the creature to squirt its pigment into their mouth. The ink is a local anesthetic (causing "aku tongue"), but has central nervous system effects similar to cannabis. Long-term use permanently darkens the oral mucosa in idiosyncratic swirling patterns. 

alcohol: Though ethanol substitutes that produced comparable effects without end-organ damage are known, their use is not as widespread as might be expected. The most primitive civilizations only know the original, and the most advanced ones use their mastery of nanobiotechnology to fix any damage their indulgence might cause. Cheap bars use synthesizers that can dispense alcohol of any variety, while high-class ones pride themselves on having finely crafted varieties.

chroma: A white, iridescent crystalline powder typically insufflated or inhaled from exploding "bouncing balls", but it can be ingested or injected intravenously. The substance has psychedelic and mild euphorigenic properties. It's particularly known for producing illusions of color alteration. Druggie lore holds that some users have experienced new primary colors like jale or ulfire.

momentomori: A rare and expensive drug, produced by a spider-like bot that, when released, clamps itself on the forehead of a corpse and injects its nanite payload into the brain. Within 15-20 minutes, a teardrop black shape begins to form from an orifice in the bot. It condenses into an almond-sized jewel. When allowed to dissolve on the tongue, the jewel delivers a vivid experience of the departed's last minutes of life (no more than half an hour, depending on how long it's been since their death. Bodies dead longer than 24 hours yield only fragments, if anything).