gaming

Current writing projects

Posted by

0

As promised, I’ve decided to briefly write about my current writing projects. Unfortunately, being a full-time student and working part-time interferes with my productivity, though doing one or the other would probably be manageable. Of course, if I didn’t work I’d have to find some other way to pay my bills, and that might be an issue from a financial standpoint.

Crusader Kings 2: After the End mod

I’ve written here before about Crusader Kings 2 and the After the End mod, which takes the feudal mechanics and gameplay of Crusader Kings 2 from medieval Eurasia and North Africa and throws them into North and Central America and the Caribbean, starting in July 2666. At present, I have a couple projects related to this setting, as well as ideas for more.

The Americanists, who worship the Founding Fathers and other important figures from Old America (i.e., the United States before civilization as we know it ended about 600 years before the game starts [somewhere between 1945 and 2077]), have believers scattered around America, including near Mount Rushmore, in Texas, and are the predominant religion of Central Florida, Virginia, Maryland, south New Jersey, and parts of Pennsylvania.

The project I may have made the most progress on thus far (even if only in terms of game progress) is my as-yet unnamed game as Elias Waltney, who is Chief of the Mouse in central Florida when the game starts, and (soon) his successors. I have yet to actually start writing the “history”, but in-game Elias Waltney is in his mid-60s, and so probably within a few years of passing away.

The other After the End project I’ve been working on lately is a game as the ruler of Springfield, Missouri. This is, admittedly, primarily because I’ve lived here for a couple years, and I’ve already played a game as the ruler of where I’m originally from (a few versions ago, I admit, but that game is the Chariton game I post about here on occasion). A slight difference from “the Florida game”, as I’ve referred to it, is that I’m trying to write this as a narrative, from the perspective of various characters, as opposed to a more historical and scholarly perspective.

Europa Universalis IV: Super States mod

I don’t have many projects currently going for this game and mod. My current project is as California, which (as of the 1460s) has annexed Baja California and quashed a Baja Californian rebellion, in addition to various other entertaining oddities such as Washington conquering Oregon, New York conquering Vermont and northern New Jersey and northern Pennsylvania, and Minnesota losing land to Iowa, Manitoba, and South Dakota. I’m not sure if I’ve firmly decided on an end for this one, but I think, and have thought, that a history of North America between 1444 (when the game starts, shortly after the American, Mexican, and Australian states and Canadian provinces found themselves thrown back in time) and European contact (1494? probably the 1490s, anyway, assuming a roughly historical timeline).

As with the After the End mod for Crusader Kings 2, ideas here are fairly easy to come by. I’m a Missouri native, so I think playing Missouri at some point would be interesting, though unfortunately in-game Missouri is rather boring and only produces Grain (while California, for example, produces Wine, Naval Stores, Grain, and possibly a few other goods). My current idea is that I might try Missouri in either the next version of the mod or after I’ve made some significant headway on California – maybe after a halfway point is reached or something.

Deeds of the Dukes of Chariton, part V

Posted by

0

(I sort of forgot about this, honestly.)

Deeds of the Dukes of Chariton

V: The Regency
July 2680 – January 2686

In December 2680 Pamela, the wife of Regent Lavon of Chariton, gave birth to a girl, who was named Theodora. When pressed, Pamela claimed that the girl’s father was Count Zedkiah of Prairie Rapids, but he did not acknowledge the girl as his child.

In February 2681 the seat of the Queen of Lakotah fell to an Iowan army. Queen Lacotawin evaded capture, but Iowan armies were laying siege to her lands.

On May 1 2681, Duke Lyman gave the order for a summer fair to be held at Maryville, and it ended on the last day of June.

In July 2682, the self-proclaimed State of Missouri (also known as the Boonslick Republic) declared war on Duke Carl of Kansas.

After King Franklin had begun his war for Rock Rapids, various lesser rulers took advantage of the Iowan-Lakotah war to try conquering various parts of Lakotah ruled by Queen Lacotawin, including Count Daniel of Freeborn and Chief Stuart of Black Hills.

On August 12, 2682, Queen Lacotawin and King Franklin made peace. Queen Lacotawin ceded Rock Rapids (formerly ruled in her name by Duke Yahto Ingyang of Siouxland) and the surrounding lands to King Franklin.

The next month, King Franklin took Estherville from the heathen priest who had been ruling it and granted it to Gerald, who became Abbot Gerald of Estherville and would later serve as King Franklin’s court chaplain.

In February 2683 there were rumors that King Franklin sought to take Icaria from Countess Diana, Duke Lyman’s betrothed.

King Franklin of Iowa was first called Stonewall in July 2683, after a singer sang of his deeds in the war for Rock Rapids. Continue reading →

Deeds of the Dukes of Chariton, part IV

Posted by

0

(It’s been 4.5 months since my last post in this series. Oops.)

Deeds of the Dukes of Chariton

IV: Victory and Succession
April 2676 – July 2680

In early April 2676, Duke Truman mustered his levies and became known as a skilled fighter.

Prince Salathiel of Iowa, King Franklin’s fourth son, was born on May 15, 2676.

Duke Truman’s friend and chancellor Lavon began to speak in tongues, so he was replaced as chancellor by Milo Trenton, a knight in Duke Truman’s service. Lavon was given overall command of Duke Truman’s 1400 men once they had all gathered at Kirksville, and the army began marching south to Moberly in early May.

In early June the improvements to Maryville’s walls were complete and, a few days later, Duke Truman’s 1400 men met Count Napoleon’s 600 men near Carrollton.

After some initial skirmishing saw Lavon Graham’s 700 men put the Thompson pickets to flight, Theophile Lucerne and Lavon Graham, commanding the Chariton right and left respectively, advanced in support of the Chariton center as Lavon and his 500 men charged Count Napoleon’s 500 men.

Some 200 men of Duke Truman’s army were killed and wounded, while 500 of Count Napoleon’s men were killed and wounded. Only a few of Count Napoleon’s light horse and light infantry managed to flee East, and Duke Truman’s men began to lay siege to Moberly.

Count Napoleon’s surviving men raided near Hannibal and Kirksville, but Duke Truman decided that Count Napoleon’s 80 men were not going to cause any real threat and taking Moberly would bring about a faster end to the rebellion.

In January 2677, Duke Truman’s daughter Evanora was betrothed to Roquat, the eldest son and heir of Duke Poynter of Driftless. After Phineas resigned as spymaster, Duke Truman made his friend Lavon spymaster.

In March 2677, Moberly and Count Napoleon surrendered to Duke Truman. Count Napoleon was taken into custody and imprisoned in Maryville.

In June 2677 King Franklin created the Duchy of the Quad Cities. In August, Duke Eustace of Iowa’s ambition to become King of Iowa was discouraged by a visit from King Franklin, and in September King Franklin inherited the barony of Moline from Baron Otis of Moline, who died of a sudden illness at the age of 39 years. Duke Truman sent Milo Trenton to improve relations with King Franklin, but this failed to have the desired result when Milo Trenton accidentally insulted King Franklin.

On Christmas Day 2677 King Franklin of Iowa summoned his vassals and declared his intent to return Rock Rapids and the surrounding lands to Iowan rule as opposed to its current rule by the 15-year-old Queen Lacotawin of Lakotah, the granddaughter and successor of Tasinagi the Lame. Continue reading →

anniversaries and aggression

Posted by

0

As of July 16, I’ve been working for my current employer for three years, and as of July 19/20 I’ve been living in my current city for 2 years. After working every day from the 15th to the 19th, I had Monday off, which was nice after a busy weekend. Sleeping in and being frustrated about that was less nice, but skipping class Monday has thrown off my perception of time. Yesterday I kept thinking it didn’t seem like Tuesday, and I still think today doesn’t seem like Wednesday. The good news is that, after tonight, I have three days off.

In other news, yesterday I had an excellent start to my day due to developments in an online game I’ve been playing recently. One of the guys involved with the Game of Thrones Diplomacy game I’ve been playing via Facebook message (actually, now that I think about it, it may have been the moderator of said game) invited people to play this science fiction strategy game online, and I joined both the game that was just the Game of Thrones Diplomacy players (one friend of mine and several friends of his – people I may have played RISK against a few times, at most, during my freshman year of college or while visiting my first university) and another game that was supposed to be random Internet people as well as friends of my friend.

I started this game in the north-western part of the galaxy, in a decently dense star cluster, so my carriers didn’t have to travel too far in order to capture unoccupied stars. Over the course of the game, several players were taken over by the AI due to inactivity, and I had begun taking AI-occupied worlds from my northern AI-controlled neighbor. I noticed my eastern neighbor had begun to do the same thing, so I opened diplomatic communications by sending him a message asking if he would be interested in negotiating partition of the AI-controlled planets in order to avoid an unfortunate diplomatic incident.

He didn’t reply, but apparently hadn’t seen the message before launching an invasion fleet at my stars. I had a large fleet at a star next to the one he was heading toward, so I moved those ships into position in order to retain control of the star. His invasion was defeated, but a battle of some 400 ships total is slightly too large to be considered a “skirmish”, in my book. Anyway, I logged on to this game yesterday morning to learn that my eastern neighbor had conceded defeat (despite being only slightly weaker than me, and I think I was in 2nd place overall) and his empire had been taken over by the AI, which leaves 3 human players – the guy who has been in 1st place (if I remember correctly, for essentially the entire game) on the southern end of the galaxy, me, now a solid 2nd place on the northwestern edge of the galaxy, and the new 3rd place player roughly in the center of the galaxy. In order to win, a player has to control 85 (if I remember correctly) of 192 stars. The 1st place player has 37, while I have 31 (or something like that). I’ve thought about messaging both the 1st and 3rd place players and asking if they want to split the other stars between us, but doing both would probably be difficult, particularly since the 1st place player is on the opposite end of the galaxy. I would have to backstab someone eventually.

Long story short, diplomacy is much simpler when you only have 1 human neighbor. The AI may be aggressive if you attack it, but you can’t really negotiate with it (yet, anyway – maybe in a few years online games will have decent AI).

I thought I had more to write about, but I’m suddenly drawing a blank (and should probably get ready for work anyway). 600-odd words seems like a good length for now, and I can always write more later (while procrastinating instead of writing this stupid paper that’s due tomorrow, for example).

summer and strategy

Posted by

0

Apparently I haven’t written any posts here for almost two weeks. I suppose I should change that, shouldn’t I?

I don’t know that I can think of anything recently that’s particularly exciting, since I’m still working, taking a writing class, and corresponding with F (the young woman I’ve been texting since late February).

The night of the 4th of July wasn’t as busy as I had expected it to be, but of course the next day, when I had the kitchen to myself, was the day that more people decided they wanted pizza. I managed, and I’ve heard that my hard work is appreciated, so that’s always good to hear. Days off are always nice, particularly this week – I had last Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday off work, worked Friday and Saturday night, and then I have three days off this week, which I just realized are about half over, since I had Sunday (for once), Monday, and Tuesday night off.

Last Tuesday I drove to campus and sat outside the classroom for several minutes before one of my classmates pointed out, as he was leaving, that there was a sign posted that class had been canceled. I had received a wake-up call from my mother that morning, which meant I was awake 45 minutes to an hour earlier than usual, and I later saw that the teacher had sent the e-mail canceling class around 8:30 that morning. Driving to campus only to find out that class was canceled was slightly frustrating, but it was nice having class canceled on a day off (even if I had trouble imagining being ill in July, as the teacher apparently was).

I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned Europa Universalis 4 or the Super States mod here before, but I’ve been thinking about it lately. Europa Universalis 4 is a game from Paradox Interactive (the company that makes Crusader Kings 2) that allows one to play as any country between roughly 1444 and 1820. About a year ago, I discovered that someone had made a mod (the Super States mod) that allows you to play as a US, Mexican, or Australian state or Canadian province that somehow wound up in 1444. Now, of course, there are a few additional scenarios, but playing as a US state thrown back in time has appealed to me. I’ve thought before that it would be interesting to play a game with that mod and then write a history from “the beginning” (1444) to European contact in the late 1400s/early 1500s. European interaction with the new world would be very different if there are equally advanced states of European descent occupying the New World.

Previous ideas for writing this “history” have included Missouri (because I’m a life-long native of Missouri) and California (because it offers more interesting opportunities, like the possibility of having a navy and Pacific colonization and exploration). The creator of the mod, however, has been busy with vague “real life” issues, and has not been able to keep the mod updated for the current version of EU4, since several expansions had been released since the last mod update. However, an update for the mod was released on July 4, which unfortunately wasn’t working but did get me thinking about the interesting possibilty of a strategy game, like RISK or Diplomacy, set in the United States. Or perhaps I should say the Divided States.

Initially I thought it would be interesting to have the players playing as different states, and that led to the idea of having the players start by fighting over a particular state, uniting it, and then moving on to try uniting the States in their image. I drew a few rough maps of Midwestern states (Missouri by hand, Iowa and Nebraska on the computer) for this game, but it’s somewhat hard to do that when you’re not familiar with an area of a state and there’s not much in a region. It’s fairly easy to designate a metropolitan area as a “territory”, or to draw a shape around a town that’s obviously going to dominate an area due to having the largest population in a particular area, but beyond a certain point I feel like it would be difficult for aspiring governments to hold on to territory beyond a certain distance if they’re limited to pre-modern technology.

I’ve also been thinking about the After the End mod for Crusader Kings 2, probably because thinking about the Divided States and pre-modern technology reminded me of it. Lately, for some reason, I’ve been thinking it would be interesting to play in the southern US – I’ve never been east of Chicago, but lately I’ve been thinking Florida, the Carolinas, or Virginia (among other places) might be interesting to play because of the possibility of naval combat. Who doesn’t like ships, right? At the moment I’m considering a project, similar to my Chariton after-action report, for somewhere in Florida, but I don’t think I’ll start that until some time after the Horse Lords expansion is released tomorrow and the After the End mod is updated with whatever new mechanics they decide to integrate.

Master of Magic

Posted by

0

Master of Magic is a single-player turn-based strategy game originally released in September 1994 for MS-DOS. The player is a powerful wizard whose goal, along with their computer-controlled counterparts, is to dominate the two worlds of Arcanus (similar to Earth) and Myrror (more magical and with various flora, fauna, and minerals that aren’t present on Arcanus) through military or magical might. In this game, magic is (like Magic: The Gathering) divided into six schools of magic: Arcane (available to everyone), Life, Death, Nature, Sorcery, and Chaos. Instead of the technology tree available in most strategy games that requires you to research technology in order to advance, you spend turns researching various magical spells, until (if the game lasts long enough) you can research the Spell of Mastery and win the game.

You begin the game in January 1400 with a small town populated by one of the races. If you start on Arcanus, you can choose from the Orcs, three flavors of human (High Men, Barbarians, or Nomads), High Elves, Halflings, Lizardmen, Gnolls (like the D&D race, basically humanoid hyenas) or Klackons (insectoid, basically giant ants), while Myrror is populated by Dark Elves, Beastmen, Trolls, and Dwarves. Not all of these races are necessarily present in any particular game, and each one has its differences. While the Orcs can build any building, the High Men (for example) can’t build Fantastic Stables, so they aren’t able to build a unit like the Nomad griffin cavalry. Other differences include population growth (slower or faster than “normal”) and diplomatic relations – some races get bonuses to “unrest” if their city is occupied by another race that they don’t get along with. Additionally, a few races (High and Dark Elves, and possibly Beastmen if I remember correctly) have magical populations that generate “mana” (i.e., power that can be used by the ruling wizard) directly, without requiring construction of religious buildings. Additionally, various roaming heroes may offer you (or your opponents) their services or be summoned via spells that can lead your armies to victory with their various abilities and skills.

I don’t remember now when I first heard of Master of Magic, but it was probably at some point within the last five years or so while reading about strategy games and/or fantasy strategy games. At some point in the last three or four years, I found it via Good Old Games (gog.com), which has (or used to have) the most recently patched (March 1995!) version available bundled with DOSBox, which I’ve played on my Linux computer with the aid of Wine (software that allows Windows programs to be run on Linux, not the alcoholic beverage).

At some point within the past month, I had the idea of writing a story set in a game where my actions, as the game player, were in the background of the story. I decided to do this with Master of Magic, so instead of writing from the perspective of the ruling wizard I would write from the perspective of his subjects. After some “random” generation with a list of heights, Myers-Briggs types, hair colors, and possibly a few other characteristics I can’t remember offhand, I’ve concocted (so far) 4 viewpoint characters, including an ENTJ soldier, an INFP scholar, and an ISTP merchant. Due to my playing the High Men, intending to base their religion on medieval Catholicism, and having a variety of viewpoint characters, I feel like I owe George R.R. Martin (author of A Song of Ice and Fire, also known as the Game of Thrones series) some kind of apology. Since I really enjoy his work, maybe no apology is necessary. At any rate, so far I have vague ideas for how I plan to start the story and I’ve played the game for 16 years (1 month per turn). I should probably start writing soon, but I feel like I need a better title than “the Master of Magic story”.

Deeds of the Dukes of Chariton, part III

Posted by

0

(I played and wrote about these events more than a week ago. As of this morning, I’ve played this game as the Duke of Chariton to 2701, so there’s plenty more to come.)

Deeds of the Dukes of Chariton

III: War and Rebellion
January 2670 – April 2676

In April 2670, Duke Truman purchased an indulgence from the Pope, and news of the pope granting absolution reached Duke Truman near Des Moines mere days before King Franklin summoned his vassals to war, announcing his intent to return Rock Island to Iowan rule.

In late April 2670, Rose, the young wife of Duke Truman’s marshal, was the subject of salacious rumors after she was supposedly seen in a compromising position with the Count of Thompson, who was 22 years her elder. In early June, Rose died after a brief illness.

In June 2670, heathens from Michigan raided the country near Hannibal.

In July of that year, Count Napoleon requested to be allowed to duel his rival, Duke Truman’s marshal, over affronts to his honor. Duke Truman allowed the duel.

Duke Truman’s marshal, a man named Phineas, would later marry Maisy, a woman from the Canonate of Boone, part of the Boonslick Republic (also known as the self-styled State of Missouri).

In September, the heathens from Michigan who had pillaged Count Hamilcar’s lands were raiding near Ottumwa, so Duke Truman sent orders to muster men from his lands around Kirksville in order to defeat the pagans. 600 Chariton men under the command of Count Hamilcar and Lavon Graham marched north from Kirksville to Ottumwa and met the 500 Northmen near Ottumwa, where they were also joined by 500 men led by the Canon of Shoquoquon.

The 1000 Iowans met the Northlanders south-east of Ottumwa in early November. Count Hamilcar commanded the Duke of Chariton’s men on the Iowan left, while Canon Flint of Shoquoquon commanded his men in the Iowan center. After putting the Northlander scouts to flight by his vastly superior numbers, Count Hamilcar joined the Canon of Shoquoquon in attacking the Northlander center.

On November 24, His Holiness Praised-Be died in battle against the heathen King Louis of Louisiana at the age of 48. The College of Cardinals quickly elected Pleasant Cottonclad, the Abbot of Doniphan (a vassal of the Duke of Lead Belt, in southern Missouri).

Upon his hasty election, the 31-year-old new Pope, who had been commanding troops near Rapides in Louisiana, assumed the name of Cruxipher. Continue reading →

Pathfinder character contemplation

Posted by

0

Since moving to my current city in August 2013, most of my offline social interaction has come in the form of playing Pathfinder, a tabletop roleplaying game which has its origins in the revised 3rd edition of Dungeons and Dragons, with friends and acquaintances every week or so.

In the last month or so, our progress through the Skulls and Shackles adventure path (in which the players are pirates), as we near the end of the first book, prompted the group’s Game Master to ask what the group wants to do next- continue the Skulls and Shackles adventure path, or possibly do something else entirely. This also prompted the other campaign I’m participating in, in which the first group’s Game Master and I play a campaign in the world of Eberron with Pathfinder rules, to consider what we’d like to do next. It was decided that the Skulls and Shackles campaign would continue and the other group would add another member (possibly two) and begin the Rise of the Runelords adventure path.

After finishing a battle on Sunday of this week, the Game Master and the two of us who are definitely playing Rise of the Runelords discussed the campaign, some character ideas, and various housekeeping matters (ability score generation, hit point calculations, etc.). From the sound of it, it sounds like our party of 3 so far is going to have a half-orc fighter, an inquisitor (apparently a spontaneous divine caster, like a divine equivalent to the bard), and I decided to assume the mantle of arcane caster by choosing a half-elf sorceror. I’ve thought a sorceror sounded interesting, but most of my characters to date have been skilled (a rogue, a couple bards, a cleric, a ranger, a barbarian, a fighter, and a rogue/wizard multiclass) and not very magical. I also typically play humans, but the player’s guide for the Rise of the Runelords adventure path said low-light vision or darkvision would be helpful. My next major decision is deciding on my sorceror’s bloodline (though I might eventually need to pick sex/gender too).

One thing that I find very intriguing about sorcerors in Pathfinder are the bloodlines, which grant various abilities and options to the character as a result of the strong magical source in their ancestry, whether this is an ancestor who was an accomplished wizard, a dragon or elemental outsider who contributed to their heritage, or the result of an ancestor’s pact with a devil (among various other options). I haven’t decided yet which to choose, because there are several that seem potentially useful. I’ve been wanting to play a sorceror with the Undead bloodline for a long time, but I’m not sure if that would be the best choice, and I’ve decided I need to read about the various bloodline options and the player’s guide for the adventure path again.

At least for now, I have plenty of time to decide – next Sunday I believe we have a cave system to finish exploring in Skulls and Shackles, and we’ll probably be meeting to begin Rise of the Runelords the Sunday after that.

Spring break has been enjoyable so far, and it’ll be even more enjoyable once I get off work at 8 tonight and have three consecutive days off (!) for the first time in a while.

Draft: Deeds of the Dukes of Chariton, part 2

Posted by

0

(This is almost everything I’ve written in the past few days, after restarting my post-apocalyptic North America Crusader Kings 2 game as Duke Truman Still of Chariton earlier this week.)

Part II:

War, Peace, and Succession
July 2666 – January 2669

After swearing fealty to King Franklin in 2664, Duke Truman served as his Lord Treasurer, usually spending a part of each year in Des Moines and in his own lands near the kingdom’s southern borders when he wasn’t traveling in either direction or on His Majesty’s business. Continue reading →

Draft: The Deeds of the Dukes of Chariton, part I

Posted by

0

written 28th of February, AD 2015

Truman Still was born in the Year of Our Lord 2635, the second year of Franklin Greysnow’s reign as King of Iowa. Unfortunately, very little is known of his early life, and several possible tales are widely known. The most popular story begins with Truman’s birth in Independence (or St. Louis, Jefferson City, or Kirksville) and continues with his apprenticeship to either a merchant or the steward of a minor lord. The various tales tend to differ on his life between roughly the beginning of his apprenticeship and before his oath of fealty to King Franklin. Depending on the tale, in the early 2660s he either established himself as the independent ruler of the lands formerly known as northern Missouri or he spent some time at the court of King Franklin in Des Moines. Whatever the truth, it is known with some certainty that on the first of January in the Year of Our Lord 2664 Truman Still swore an oath of fealty to King Franklin of Iowa near the headwaters of the Chariton River in southern Iowa, and in return for his oath received the title Duke of Chariton and the counties of Nodaway and Paho. The source of Duke Truman’s standard of a red horseman on a black field is not recorded, but it is believed to date to a time before the Deluge. After his oath, Duke Truman is believed to have established his seat in Maryville, though most of the surviving records begin in 2666, the second year of his reign and the 33rd year of King Franklin’s rule.

Author’s note: I wrote about a page before going to bed this morning, and this is the result of my combining revision and editing with typing. More revision and compilation to come.