Tag Archives: Eve Online

Paizo: Playing It Safe Is Not Fun

What’s This Safe Play About?

Be prepared and safeSafe spaces have invaded tabletop role-playing. I reject Paizo‘s “social contract” which pushes for a sensitivity that detracts from immersion.

Players beware, characters are not safe in my game. With the filter of fiction as my perpetual disclaimer, I will offend with glee and great satisfaction.

Prepare with spells, gear, and wit. Just don’t forget, political correctness doesn’t exist within my fantasy.

I game master a virtual tabletop role-playing campaign on Roll20. It takes place in the same setting as my novels, a symbiotic relationship necessary given the constraints of my day-to-day life with work, family, and writing.

Paizo, keep your politics out of my game

Socialism is not safe
My son asking the difference between socialism and democratic socialism.

I understand that the culture war is pervasive, but this doesn’t excuse the politicizing of Paizo’s Pathfinder 2.0 rule book playtest.

The following is copied from pages five and six of the text, with what triggers me highlighted in a bold purple:

Gaming is for all:
Whether you’re a player or a Game Master, participating in a tabletop roleplaying game involves an inherent social contract: everyone has gathered to have fun together, and the table is a safe space for everyone. Everyone has a right to play and enjoy Pathfinder regardless of their age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or any other identities and life experiences. Pathfinder is for everyone, and Pathfinder games should be as safe, inclusive, and fun as possible for all.

This declaration of a “safe space” implies a right to not be offended. I respect efforts to cater to the sensitivities of players, but there is a difference between striving towards equality of acceptance and enforcing an equality of experience.

Continue reading Paizo: Playing It Safe Is Not Fun

Sandbox for the future

Eve Online interceptor in stationIn Sandbox, Eve is King

Eve Online has been my main go to game for the last five years. It is arguably the biggest and best sandbox game ever.

It has evolved my gaming interest such that I compare everything else to it. To limit it with the label “game” seems a disservice, but that I think is just because it is at the cutting edge of where entertainment is headed.

Why should anyone really care about a game?

I would argue that Eve has the best virtual economy in the world. I think working within in it and studying it provides real world value. I feel like playing the Eve Market has taught me more about real world economics than any economics class I took in high-school or college.

Continue reading Sandbox for the future

Currency of a space village

Currency within my fictional worldTooth for money, open for business

Working on my book Destiny’s Hand I struggled with the concept of currency. I wondered if money was even necessary with only a thousand people isolated for fifty generations.

My son gets a dollar a week and five dollars a tooth. He doesn’t need money. We provide his basic necessities and many amenities.

He wants money. It gives him choices. He collects it and counts it. He brushes his teeth extra to improve their value for when it’s time to trade with the tooth fairy.

Continue reading Currency of a space village

Realistic Space Combat-does it tell a good story?

Excerpt from book concept beyond Destiny’s Hand‘s timeline.  It is intended to be entertaining before realistic.

Butterfly people, aren't peopleA man watches lines crisscross an angry dark like overlapping fireworks, while the hissing of escaping air is drowned out by nearby explosive decompression. A bright flash makes him push away with a pained gasp, and then the Rainbow Ships of the butterfly people suddenly swirl like a kaleidoscope viewed through the small porthole.

The following is from current Destiny’s Hand draft.

Before resting ten light seconds away, the Ship Of Destiny did a flyby just a few light seconds from Ortome. To launch their assault craft a couple days at craft speed from an asteroid around a quarter of Ortome’s mass. They approached from the far side, so the smaller potato would block line of sight, and blasted with dubam cannons when in range to create an actual cloud of debris. Just an innocent impact between two smaller neighboring potatoes.

I see value in both and do try to balance, but for Destiny’s Hand  I lean towards realistic before entertaining.  My hope is that this will ease consistency and ultimately be more immersive.

Continue reading Realistic Space Combat-does it tell a good story?