The Real Monstrous Matters: Japanese scientists get us one step closer to Greenskins...or maybe just solar-powered humans...

This is one that was covered by a lot of mainstream news outlets, so you might have already seen it (you MSM zombie, you)...in a cool little biological trick that I'm honestly surprised hasn't been achieved before, researchers anchored by a group at the University of Tokyo have gotten chloroplasts to carry out photosynthesis in hamster cells.  Mammalian cells making food from light...pretty cool if you ask me.  You can check out the paper (from the Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series B) at this link, and the university's press release can be found here.

Fluorescence microscopy image from the press release.  The chloroplasts are magenta, while cell nuclei are light blue.

This is one of those things that really gets the imagination firing, and most of us who are drawn to science fiction and/or fantasy have probably already thought about this possibility at some point.  And obviously, it brings to mind the green-skinned characters of fantasy lore, like Warhammer's...er, Greenskins...

It's also a fairly well-known "rule" of biology that mammals aren't green.  When those who craft fantasy fiction feel the need to justify green pigmentation in a humanoid species, the likely explanations are reptilian ancestry or some sort of photosynthetic machinery.  In Warhammer, for example, I believe the lore is that Greenskins, already an assemblage of fungal species, also have a symbiotic relationship with algae.  It's unclear, as far as I know, exactly what the mechanics of this symbiosis may be, but I don't think there's ever been an implication that the algae are inside the creature's cells (but please do correct me if I'm wrong!).

This new paper takes things a step further, with chloroplasts (the site of photosynthesis in plants and algae) being isolated from red algae and incorporated directly into the animal cells, where they kept on working away like all those other organelles you remember from high school biology...the mitochondria and Golgi apparatuses and all.  It's a very different result from the researchers' expectation that the little algae bits would be digested by the hamster cells.  Which, y'know, when in doubt, is probably a good idea for an animal cell to do when it finds it has taken up a random foreign organelle that resembles bacteria.

Also kind of fun: It appears that these hybrid creations are often referred to as "planimal" cells.  It sounds like a failed '80s toyline.

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As far as fantasy species go, orcs and goblins are probably the most commonly green characters, but elves occasionally get this treatment as well.  In Magic: The Gathering, for example, the well-known elf Glissa Sunseeker has been portrayed with green skin.

Image from here

I also think it's interesting to look back at the green elves in the group of MTG sets known as the Onslaught Block.  Over the course of those sets, various creatures were mutated to become purer expressions of the color of mana they represented.  The blue wizards, for example, basically turned into water.  Elves, meanwhile, came to resemble plants more and more.  In the second set, Legions, we see some green (or at least greenish) elves...

Card images from Scryfall

(This included at least one creature that arguably looks, to an outsider, more goblin than elf...)

And then by the third set, Scourge, the elves were even more plant-like:

Something tells me there are chloroplasts in those elves' cells.

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Now, a species for gaming...

Emeraldkin

Attribute Points: 12

Min/Max:

Strength 1-5
Dexterity 1-6
Knowledge 1-5
Presence 1-5

Skill Distribution: 3/2/1

Special Skills: Can use Nature Magic without allocating any skill points to it; if this skill isn't chosen, it is treated as +0, and Nature Magic skill rolls use the character's Knowledge value.

Abilities: Able to see in low-light conditions; resistant to hunger

Emeraldkin are found in many realms among the multiverse.  They appear very similar to Humans but are identified by their pointed ears and the greenish hue of their skin (due to the chloroplasts found in their skin cells).  On some worlds, they are referred to as Elves, while residents of others will call them Orcs or even Goblins.  They identify with none of these terms, however, and refer to themselves as Unliavel, broadly translated as Emeraldkin.  It is thus far unknown what species they are closest to genetically; in general, though, they will associate with all other groups who maintain a similar connection to nature.

The photosynthetic skin cells of Emeraldkin allow them to go much longer than other humanoid species without food.  While they cannot wholly abandon eating, in conditions of sufficient light and water, they can easily go up to 10 days in between meals.  This is rarely necessary; Emeraldkin are usually very knowledgeable about the natural environment and are capable of obtaining food in almost any situation, although the vast majority rely on vegetarian sustenance only.  Overall, their connection to the natural world and low need for resources make them ideal adventuring companions.

The Real Monstrous Matters: A Saber-Toothed Kitten in Siberia

I mean, poor kitty...but man is this cool.  A formal description and analysis has just been published for the frozen mummy of a saber-toothed cat cub that was found in Siberia in 2020.  The paper appeared in Scientific Reports on November 14 (open access, so it's free to check out!); the Science homepage also ran a nice summary article here.

Compared to a modern lion cub; from the paper

Radiocarbon dating places it at about 35,000 years old.  The fact that scientists are actually able to write, with experience, on the softness of the fur of an animal that lived that long ago is mind-blowing.

The coolest discovery?  Actually, no, I bet there are cooler ones here; this one just really struck me as something very basic and neat that can only be seen when you have soft tissue preserved like this.  This specific saber-toothed cat is missing a carpal pad (that fifth "toe bean" on your cat's front paws).

See there at the top?  It's missing a toe bean (#2 at the bottom)!  Although I do love that the authors describe the ancient cat's metacarpal pad as "bean-shaped"...so maybe it isn't missing one...?  Anyway...from the paper.

The authors chalk this up (along with the wide paws and the shape of their pads) to adaptation to walking on snow...which makes a ton of sense considering the cat's home, both geographically and temporally.

In case you're wondering, this isn't the famous Smilodon, the icon widely known as a "saber-toothed tiger."  This little tyke is actually from the genus Homotherium, which are more specifically designated "scimitar-toothed cats" (vs. the "dirk-toothed cats" of Smilodon).  Still freaking cool and I dare you to argue otherwise!

Anyway, here's a saber-toothed cat for Monstrous6.  I'm gonna try to convert directly from a 5e critter and see if it makes sense, as one goal with the system is to be able to do that pretty easily.  So here goes.  (Also, I find it a little odd that D&D hasn't changed to calling the Saber-Toothed Tiger a Saber-Toothed Cat...although I think it might have been called a Smilodon in 2e...?  At any rate, I'm going to take that liberty...)

From Pixabay

Saber-toothed Cat

Scale: --

Handling Difficulty: 14

35 HP, 12 Defense

Strength 5

Dexterity 4

Knowledge 1

Presence 2

Skills: Detect (smell) +3

Attacks: Bite (+6, 1d6+6 piercing damage) or Claw (+6, 2d6+5 slashing damage)

Special: If a saber-toothed cat hits with a claw attack after moving at least 20 feet straight in the direction of the target, the target must save [STR (Balance) 14] or fall prone.  If the target falls, the cat may immediately take a free bite.

Brainstorming on monster training

In revisiting Pokémon Concierge...and thinking more about monsters in this "Monstrous6" set of rules I've somehow managed to not get distracted away from (despite that being my ADHDGMO*)...I've realized how little rules space has ever been devoted to mediating the interactions between player characters and monsters in pretty much any tabletop RPG I've ever played.

I guess the earliest application of this idea would be the monster Reaction Table introduced in 1974's original Dungeons & Dragons and carried through at least the full run of "old school" D&D rules.  Keith Hann, over at the blog Simulacrum: Exploring OSR Design, put together a nice overview of its changes through the editions.  The classic D&D approach is pretty...broad, I guess.  There's a lot for the DM to process and rule on.

In more modern editions of D&D (3rd forward), are there even official Reaction Tables to be used?  Seems to me that the closest analogue would probably be the use of a skill like Animal Handling (or, depending upon the monster, maybe Insight or Persuasion).  Even with these, it isn't clear how difficult to set a check.  Maybe there are just too many factors to take into account...the specific circumstances, the creature's intelligence, its history of interaction with PC-type beings, the intentions of the PCs, etc.  It might just not be worth it trying to nail down a precise procedure for "handling" a monster when that could have so many different looks.

Personally, I like what we see in West End Games' Star Wars Miniatures Battles: the Orneriness Code (which I have started to implement as Handling Difficulty).  I'm pretty sure I'll continue on this path.  I just have to figure out some pretty basic questions around it.  Like...who do I give this score to?  Is it just beings that lack intelligence of a human scale and variety?  What about something as smart (in a human way) as a chimpanzee, for whom the terms handling and training could even be interpreted as a bit insulting?  Surely Pokémon should get one (that's part of what prompted this post)...but the meaning of "handling" seems very different for a Mewtwo compared to, say, a Growlithe.

Images from Bulbapedia

I guess I need to do some thinking on this.  I don't doubt that there's going to be a great deal of DM fiat involved, and that's okay.  I dunno, is there something I'm missing here that needs to be taken into account?  Have I somehow, in my years of roleplaying, managed to avoid something crucial to inform my approach with this?

At any rate, here's Psyduck's evolved form, Golduck...who must be just a little more difficult to handle than its younger self, since as we all know, most Pokémon get tougher and angrier as they evolve...

Golduck

Also from Bulbapedia

5' 7" (1.7 m), 168.9 lbs (76.6 kg), Scale: --

Handling Difficulty (wild): 9

20 HP, 11 Defense

Movement: Swims at 3x walking speed

Type: Mind, Water

Weakness: Electric, Mind

Strength 2

Dexterity 3

Knowledge 1

Presence 3

Skills: Swim +6, Psychic Powers +3, Toughness +2

Attack: Headache (mental attack, 1D6 Mind damage; when hit, the target must make a Presence save or lose their next action) or 2x Claws (1D6 Slashing damage)

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* The G is for gamer.  You probably already know what ADHD and MO stand for.  It only seemed appropriate to initialize the whole thing...

The Real Monstrous Matters: Oliphaunts in India

So this is pretty cool.  A pair of papers recently dropped giving a detailed analysis of a huge elephant skull that was found in India way back in 2000 (alongside a bunch of human tools).  And no, it isn't an Oliphaunt (or Mûmak)...but it is pretty darn big.

One of the papers focuses on the morphology and phylogeny of the skull (and thus the animal), placing it in the genus Palaeoloxodon, which has some of the largest elephants that ever walked the planet.  (There's a really good summary of this paper over at Discover Wildlife.)  It appears that this individual is a second example of a species previously named Palaeoloxodon turkmenicus, which in the range of 4 meters/13 feet at the shoulder (and around 10 tons) was certainly...well, mammoth:

P. turkmenicus and a human silhouette.  Image by Chen Yu; swiped from Discover Wildlife.

It's worth mentioning, though, that there's another species in the genus, Palaeoloxodon namadicus, that some estimates would place as the largest land animal ever at over 5 meters/17 feet, and up to 22 tons in weight!  Here's a nice little video on that one:

(The other paper, meanwhile, has more information on human interaction with the elephant, based upon marks on the bones and tools found nearby.  Both articles point to an age in the range of 300,000 to 400,000 years, which will never stop blowing my mind.)

Of course, even a 22-ton behemoth doesn't measure up to what we saw in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films:

From here

I'm not familiar enough with Tolkien's original works to know if that's the size we should expect based upon the books themselves, but man are they fantastic animals.  (What is it Sam tells Frodo?  "No one at home will believe this...")  They've got to be at least...what, 40 feet tall?  So if we assume, at the high end of Palaeoloxodon, a beast that's 17 feet tall and 22 tons...something roughly the same shape but about 2.35 times the height would probably give us an animal weighing about 13 times as much.  So...around 286 tons?  Did I do that right?  Impressive!  (The Mûmak, not my work...)

And the coolest part is that they're using them as war machines.  I'm sure there have been plenty of takes on Oliphaunts in RPGs over the years, but I think I'll just stat one out for Monstrous Matters purposes on the premise that it's a REALLY big elephant.  It looks like the flagship proboscidean has about 8 or 9 hit dice in a typical d20-based system.  Do I really want to make a Mûmak a monster with like 80 HD, or as I would play it in Monstrous Matters gaming, a Strength value of around 80?  (Rhetorical question...)

Considering the D6-based system I've been playing with, it probably makes the most sense to pull ideas from Mini Six (which includes elephant stats and some nice, simple scaling rules) and WEG's Star Wars Miniatures Battles (which has a nice way of handling creatures by not worrying so much about what humans consider intelligence, and instead giving them an Orneriness Code that's used to test how difficult they are to work with).

From here

Oliphaunt

Scale: +4

Handling Difficulty (trained): 7

20 HP, 11 Defense

Strength 4

Dexterity 1

Knowledge 1

Presence 1

Attacks: 2x Tusk (1D6+4 damage) or Trample (2D6+4 damage plus target is knocked prone)

EDIT:  And I realized I posted this without mentioning the most basic of courtesies...a Happy Halloween to everyone!

The first/new look of Monstrous Matters

I'm too stoked about this piece of art to sit on it anymore!  Just had to share...

One of my innumerable ongoing nerd projects is to finally put together the bits and pieces I've gathered to play a campaign based upon the paranormal research and protection organization known as Monstrous Matters, whose members investigate the intrusion of extraplanar creatures upon our world.  It's sort of my take on Ghostbusters meets D&D...maybe my own version of a fantasy heartbreaker...and I'm hoping to have a rules-lite yet suitably evocative document to share with the world by...well, I guess I should just say the end of the year at this point, since I move so slowly on everything hobby-related.

I knew that the incomparable Kelvin Green would have some excellent ideas for representing this type of adventure in a single picture, so I hit him up for it, and he did not disappoint.  Quite the opposite, actually...I kind of can't believe how much I enjoy looking over the details he put into this piece!  Without further ado, here is the first official image for Monstrous Matters, the organization:

I'm probably gonna have to make some version of this into a header for the blog eventually.  Until then, I'll keep fighting through my gamer ADHD* to chip away at the game, while undoubtedly getting distracted by a variety of similarly inconsequential projects along the way...!

(Thanks Kelvin!!)

* FWIW, I'm not ashamed to mention that I have received this actual diagnosis...not "gamer ADHD," that would be weird...but regular old ADHD.  I say this not to brag (ha!) but to make sure it doesn't look like I'm taking a legitimate hindrance on others' lives and turning it into a joke.  For some reason, people seem really comfortable making jokes about having some of these alphabet soup disorders -- ADHD, OCD, PTSD, probably more -- and while I threw in a flippant mention of one of them, I figured:  Why not pull the mood down a bit by making something into a more serious issue than it has to be?  But hey, that's probably just the OCD at work, eh?

Comparing task resolution difficulties across RPG systems (D6 + d20 + more)

I'm hoping someone out there might find it useful to see the side-by-side comparison of skill resolution target numbers/difficulty classes for a small variety of RPGs that are of interest to me right now.

If you just want to see the tables, you can skip on ahead to the figures so you don't get bored by my introductory rambling.  If you want more detail, possibly along with a small word salad, read on.  Either way, please let me know if you see any errors on these charts.

So...when I was beginning my deep dive into RPGs around 20 years ago, I was really intrigued by mechanical systems that lent themselves to covering modes of gaming outside of just crunchy campaign play, like miniatures, card games, or even just more casual roleplaying.  The D6 System from West End Games (WEG) really caught my eye, especially once I realized that it was implemented in such diverse forms as Ghostbusters (its genesis), Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game (perhaps its best-known form), DC Universe (altered to handle superpowers), and Star Wars Miniatures Battles and Live-Action Adventures.

These last two might have been the most intriguing, as they shifted the typical WEG D6 mechanics from a dice pool to [D6 + Attribute + Skill].  And somehow, using pretty much the same values as the standard WEG Star Wars RPG, that shift seemed to work in play.  It almost felt like I didn't know at the time that this kind of adjustment was even allowed in RPGs. :)

As I've looked around lately for a system that I might be able to use for a variety of gaming projects, I found myself looking really hard at Ghostbusters...and liking what I saw, a lot.  Also remembering a message board post where someone pointed out the similarity between the target numbers of the D6 System and one of the major iterations of d20 (I think it was already 5E at the time), I decided to take a look at how some of these systems stacked up in terms of difficulty classes for skill rolls.  Here are the systems included:

1.  Ghostbusters -- The point of the exercise and maybe the greatest RPG ever written

2.  Spooktacular -- A retro-clone of Ghostbusters with an associated OGL-friendly SRD (Sixtacular)

3.  FIE, I SAY! -- A traditional fantasy take on the Ghostbusters core rules, from Tim Snider; clearly constructed with love, humor, and an eye toward old school cachet

4.  The D6 System -- A generic toolkit for RPG system construction, published by WEG in 1996 and often called "the Cookbook" by fans

5.  Mini Six -- The clever and concise universal D6 ruleset released by AntiPaladin Games under the OGL

6.  Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, Second Edition -- The WEG one, not the WotC one...although the numbers are probably pretty similar considering...

7-8.  Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 and 5E SRDs -- Probably the two most-referenced RPG System Reference Documents

9-10.  Mörk Borg and Shadowdark -- Some darlings of the old school RPG crowd over the past few years (well-deserved reputations, I believe); both d20-based, with toned-down expectations for stat bonuses

11.  Star Wars: Live-Action Adventures -- A system for LARPing in that galaxy far, far away; uses essentially the same stats as the tabletop game but relies on a single D6 for task resolution (same scale as the WEG Star Wars minis game)

12-14.  Live-Action Adventures, +4 and +4/adjusted -- Having found 1D6 resolution to give a narrower range of results than I would like (relative to the possible spread of attributes and skills in the system), I'm looking at using 2D6 instead; +4 accounts for the added die, and the "adjusted" values shift the typically 2-point difficulty bands for 1D6 rolls to 3-point or 4-point bands (shifting "Moderate" downward in order to move toward a standard of 10 as the target number when attacking an average, unarmed human)

Here's the full table:

Here's a quick reference on how closely Ghostbusters and the WEG Star Wars RPG actually line up with target numbers in the d20 System (which would come along around the turn of the millennium and dominate roleplaying for years):

And finally, here are the tracks for FIE, I SAY! and Shadowdark, along with the table that I'm leaning toward as the eventual model for my ongoing Monstrous Matters campaign and its associated endeavors.  I like this scale quite a bit, and it's interesting to me that a dice-pool approach (FIE!) might match up so closely with both 1D20 (Shadowdark) and 2D6 resolution mechanics in terms of skill difficulties.

Thanks for checking these out, and please let me know if you have any thoughts on improving or adjusting these!

The Monstrous Matters Campaign, Part 2: So this is how goblin genocide starts.

A little while back, Father Josh threw me another tabletop bone by playing as the sole PC (with a supervisory role over the other protagonist) in Session 2 of the Monstrous Matters campaign.  (For my Session 1 ramblings, check out the post HERE.)

The high points of this session:

    1.  The first pieces were planted to tie into what might turn out to be a meta-narrative that makes its way through multiple adventures.  I say "might" because I'm committed to not railroading this thing...BUT I can have the overarching story in the back of my mind that MAY become obvious to the game's player(s) over time.

    2.  We returned to a more "standard" dice pool resolution mechanic for the D6-based system we're playing with.  I see this being The Way going forward, but I've honestly never determined what I find to be the optimal approach to the Wild Die/Ghost Die in these games, so I'll probably still play with that over the coming sessions.

    3.  The importance of player motivations with respect to the goals of the game itself came to the forefront, as one of the characters shifted into murder-hobo mode in a game that is, ostensibly, very much not about murder hobos.  The thing is, it really worked narratively, so it's drawing our attention to the value of determining the PCs' ethical views of creatures that have made their way to our world via connections to magical fantasy realms.  I'm sure there's also some political commentary that could be dropped into this exploration, but I'm going to do all I can to avoid that because (1) it seems cheap and exploitative, and (2) this is very much meant to be escapist entertainment.

So, here we go...

To begin the session, the team (Fingers Watson and Bobby Flech) move down the staircase from Level 1 to Level 2.

From the free and excellent Dyson's Delve mega-ish-dungeon...check out this level HERE.

Moving east, they peer into a room with six goblins; none notice them outside the cracked door. Five of the goblins are dressed in tattered rags, while one is in much nicer attire (including some fancy brass-ish goggles). He seems to be in the middle of a chemistry experiment. (When questioned, he says that he is “just trying to make it explode.”) He looks something like this:

On his wrist, there is a striking signet:

When asked, the goblin says that the signet is the symbol of his guild, the Izzet.

It doesn’t take long now for Watson’s long-harbored hatred of planar outsiders to show itself. He first tricks a few of them into falling into a carefully deployed portable hole. As they attempt to recover, he kills one with a dagger thrown into its eye. He then pulls out his sidearm and shoots four more dead. Finally, the chemist – by now the dozing victim of a scroll of Sleep – is strangled by Flech at Watson’s direction.

The protagonists have now shut themselves in the goblin den. There are other dungeon inhabitants outside, alerted by the noise and trying to get in. It doesn’t look great for the Monstrous Matters pair. There is a wildcard here, though: Fingers would happily kill every last one of them...

5 tips for running the Ghostbusters RPG (AKA another lazy post!)

Inspired by Adam Dickstein's killer Chapter 2 writeup of his awesome Ghostbusters + Tokyo Ghost Research idea in action over at his Barking Alien blog (seriously, check it out), I really wanted to get another Ghostbusters RPG post out into the world. BUT...I have to focus on real life a little too much today. Aha...BUT(!!!)...I did finally write up a little list of things I've learned along the way as I've run the classic West End Games RPG myself. I said I might get around to it, and then I finally did so in...another Reddit thread.

So here we go. Written to a first-time Ghostmaster, and with pretty minimal editing here (like I said, another lazy post!). Maybe someone will find it helpful...? [This is where I shrug, but I'm not sure if I should put an emoji or just write *shrug* or what...]

5 Tips for Running the Ghostbusters RPG

1.  The more you set things in locations you're familiar with or can easily imagine, the easier it will be to improvise over the course of the adventure.  (I guess this really applies to any RPG...)

2.  Have a list of potential complications to turn to if nothing comes to you after the roll of a ghost on the Ghost Die. I have had a session before with so many ghosts rolled that by the end I was just like, "Okay, you miss hitting the demon and...uh...you fall down. Yes, you step on a well-placed banana peel!" (This may or may not be a precise example, but it ultimately helped me realize that you can put ridiculous stuff on a complication/fumble list, and it somehow seems to hold more weight among players if you randomly generate it from a list rather than just making it up in the moment. [NOTE: That's probably just my own assumptions showing through.] Although...I'm sure there's an effective GMing style that involves ridiculous ad hoc complication creation as well!)

3.  If you have the time, you can try prepping (to whatever extent you plan to do so) like three adventures, then have multiple calls come into Ghostbusters HQ in rapid succession. It gives a sense of agency to the players from the start. You'll just want to make sure they don't try to split up to cover all three at the same time, which would be pretty cumbersome. (Ghostbusters as a game lends itself to possibly humorous notes to players along the lines of: "Each of these calls seems really dangerous. You can just tell that you're going to need to take the full crew to whichever one you choose, for the sake of either Ghostbuster safety or Ghostmaster sanity...I'll let you know which in a little while.")

Obviously there's a good chance the players won't get through all of the adventures in one session, but then you're already prepped for a future game AND you have some security in case someone comes up with something that makes you think, "Yeah...that IS really smart and could potentially solve this case in about five minutes' time..."

4.  I've had good luck with the adventures written for the game Paranormal Investigators & Exterminators (P.I.E.), a Mini Six variant from Genius Loci games that works as a GB retro-clone. (Specifically, I've used versions of the adventures "Humble Pie" from the original P.I.E. release, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" from the Good-bye American P.I.E. supplement, and "Chocolate P.I.E." from its own individual module, all in the "three calls" setup above.)

(You can click HERE to head to the company's DriveThru page...)

5.  I'm sure this will vary by group, but I've always found it fun to zero in on a fairly specific time in the past to set things. Sharing some of the details of the world in general that you'll find with just a google search or two can help give the game a retro feel, which I think is often part of the appeal of playing as Ghostbusters. This can conflict with #1 a little bit -- you can set things in a location you're very familiar with, but you may not have much of an idea of what that place was like in, say, 1986 (not that it necessarily matters unless you have a player who will recognize and care about any inaccuracies) -- BUT a little touch like a certain song or sporting event playing on the radio is an easy way to add a little atmosphere.

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With the Monstrous Matters campaign in progress, I'm really interested in seeing everyone's approaches to the art of running a Ghostbusters-style paranormal RPG, so please hit me up with your own tricks and insights if you get the chance, here or elsewhere!

Mini Six vs. OpenD6 (vs. TinyD6, kinda)

Okay, a very low-effort post today...!

There was a recent Reddit thread on universal RPG systems, so I had to chime in and spread the love for the D6 System, my current mechanical obsession.  Another poster asked if I could explain the difference in OpenD6 and Mini Six (as well as TinyD6), and I ended up writing a bit more than I imagined I would.  Then I realized that there's a chance other people might google something like "OpenD6 vs. Mini Six," and that it might be helpful to have that same response as a blog post, especially for anyone who avoids Reddit threads when they search.

So, eliminating my opening and closing caveats and apologies, here's my from-memory take on the differences:

TinyD6 is the one I know the least about and have never played. As far as I know, it is its own system using one or more (I really don't know which) d6s and is pretty rules-lite. It seems to have a following of its own, and content in a variety of genres, so it is probably a good gateway to "univeral gaming" even though...AFAIK...it is not directly related to the other two.

OpenD6 and Mini Six, on the other hand, are very much connected. OpenD6 is the license/movement/set of games that came about when the owner of West End Games' D6 system (used in Star Wars and DC Universe, with a proto-version in Ghostbusters, among others) released it via the OGL. You can probably find a lot of the old WEG books...or versions of them with IP removed...for free on the net, although it's been a while since I've surveyed that availability. At its heart, the D6 System is more of a toolkit than a specific way to play, and there's even an old book simply called The D6 System (with the subtitle The Customizable Roleplaying Game) that is often called "the cookbook" and has a bunch of options laid out with the idea that you'll choose the ones most appropriate to your game (including stuff like which attributes you'll have for characters). There was a set of three books for Fantasy, Adventure, and Space that had rules specifically tailored to those genres. (Space, for example, was built heavily upon the old Star Wars rules.)

Once OpenD6 became a thing, the Mini Six system was one of the first to use the license. It is a very approachable, fairly stripped-down ruleset that is also available for free and that can be used for just about any genre. At the time it was released, I saw it as the authors (Ray Nolan and Phil Morris of AntiPaladin games) sort of reverse-engineering Ghostbusters (probably my favorite RPG ever) while bringing in some of the options and technology that had been innovated for the D6 System over its lifetime. I definitely recommend checking it out:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/144558/mini-six-bare-bones-edition

Overall, the potentially diverse application of the system was a plus for folks who really like to tweak their games, but some of the drastic differences in how the games end up playing out probably made it tough to gather as much of a unified community as there was for, say, the d20 System. It's typically pretty easy to convert from one "subsystem" to another, but I just don't think that feels as universal as systems that have a unified set of attributes (and skills, and even how to read the results of rolls, in the case of games like DC Universe that used a success/fail-based version called D6 Legend).

The D6 System has recently gotten some love with stuff like the Zorro RPG and a recent Kickstarter for a "D6 2e." I've gravitated to my own houseruled version as a sort of house system for my own games, and so I check out new developments when I think about it and have the time, in case there's something I can bolt onto the form of the game I'm running with.

And then I followed up quickly after to add this:

Also, just wanted to add that the owner of the system IP who released it into the wild was Eric Gibson of Purgatory Publishing. It was a really kind move that definitely helped keep the system alive. There are a few other folks who have been vital to it over the years, but I don't want to start naming them because I'm afraid I'll leave out someone important...!

If you happen upon this while investigating the system(s), please let me know if there's anything more to my opinions that may be helpful in your search!

The D6 2e Kickstarter is coming to a close!

I just have to throw this out there in case it tips anyone off to the existence of this Kickstarter campaign.  It's a little too convenient that funding for a "Second Edition" (in quotes because you could argue that there have already been more than two editions...) of West End Games' D6 System is funding while I'm in the process of getting a D6-based campaign up and running!  Everything about this points toward the view that Gallant Knight Games is putting together a framework that honors the game's legacy while including lessons and technologies learned in the years since West End Games last worked on the system.

You can find the Kickstarter HERE.  It closes late Thursday morning (my time).  I'm in mostly just to see how this new "official" take on one of my favorite systems turns out, but there are a number of campaign and setting extras that may also be the deciding feature for other backers.  And while I want to get my grubby mitts on a hardcover, that $20 digital pledge level that includes the core rules and a bunch of stretch goal additions looks like an especially good deal.  It is, after all, a proven system that could handle just about all of your RPG needs from here to eternity.

The Monstrous Matters Campaign #1

Life's a little weird right now.  I have to admit that the inescapable, fever-pitched, hyperbolic-yet-genuinely-worrisome media coverage of this year's presidential election is bringing me down a little.  Pretty much every day.  And I see it a little more than usual now that I'm spending more time at home, having declined to follow my previous employer to another state in order to keep that job.  So now I don't have that job.  (And it always seems to end up catching up with me psychologically when I'm "in between jobs.")

Luckily, I still have a love for losing myself in fantastic worlds (a passion that never really lets me down)...and so, a few weeks ago, my buddy Father Josh indulged my delusions of storytelling grandeur by playing in the first session of what will hopefully be a lengthy campaign, and one that is kind of important to me...

Because it is THE ONE™.  The Monstrous Matters campaign.  This is what it's all been building toward.  (All of what, you ask?  All of all of it.)

I mean...that is...until I get bored and move onto THE (NEXT) ONE™.  When it comes to dumping a lot of heart, soul, and brainpower into an obsession, this ain't my first time around the block.  But for now...

In this campaign, Monstrous Matters is an organization that investigates and facilitates protection from the fantastic forces that enter our earthly realm through portals leading to and from other regions of the multiverse.  We are familiar with many of these beings...from mythology, folklore, fairy tales, and games with weird dice.  The work of Monstrous Matters overlaps quite a bit with the operations of Department-7 in that "Ghostbusters + Urban Arcana" game that I ran with Josh about...oh man, four years ago...?  (The time.  It flies.)

Rules and Such

The system for the game is probably best described as just "houseruled Ghostbusters."  I went with a set of "Big 4" stats (Might-Dexterity-Knowledge-Presence) and am using +2 bonuses for all Skills/Talents.  Defense/armor value is static.  Health is tracked via Hit Points.

For the first session, we just used 1d6+Attribute+Skill (if appropriate) vs. target numbers (as seen in the old West End Games Star Wars miniatures and LARP rules), although I think I want to go back to the dice pool system.  Rolling a handful of dice is arguably a big part of the D6 System experience, and it was probably a mistake to move away from it so quickly.  (That initial choice was partially inspired by wanting to see how well the stripped-down, just-roll-a-humble-d6 approach works with stats at this scale.)  We also rolled for attributes (d6-1, minimum 1 for each stat [EDIT: We actually used 1d6, treat sixes as fives; my bad.])...which is how we ended up with some characters that are VERY capable stat-wise.  Here's Josh's guy...

I also wanted to have an extra character (controlled by me and/or Josh, doesn't really matter) to make the Monstrous Matters operatives into an actual team, as well as provide strategic options and an extra avenue for exposition.  Who would step up to this challenge?  Well...there's a slight chance that those who read this post will remember a character that was used in that earlier Department-7 game...a gentleman by the name of B.J. Flech, who moved on from a brief career as a Ghostbuster to defend the Earth from fantastic multiversal villains (and giant ants).

B.J. Flech is now retired...but his son Bobby is a new member of the MM team who is partnering with "Fingers" to pick up whatever...uh, pointers...he can.  (Harhar.)

For the opening adventure, Fingers and Bobby were dispatched to the Craggy Gardens area of western North Carolina to investigate a breach in our plane's veil.  The team began the operation with a single, fully charged Uncertainty Gun (to be detailed in a future post) and a selection of magical scrolls.  A level of connected caves and halls has been mapped using advanced radar and sonar (and some AI data compilation)...this gave me an in-story reason to go ahead and introduce the full, unkeyed map of the level, simplifying dungeon-crawling via Zoom.

For the dungeon itself, I'm using Dyson's Delve, which is an amazing free resource and one that you should absolutely consider using for your own dungeon-crawling needs. (Seriously, how many of our lives have been made both richer and simpler thanks to Dyson's work? He's one of the most luminary figures of the OSR, as far as I'm concerned.)

Check this level out HERE

And...well, I guess I should just summarize by saying that Session 1...was a success!  By my standards, anyway.  I had a blast!  Some rats and goblins and a ferret were sent packing with the Uncertainty Gun (yeah, it sends creatures back to their plane of origin; I really do need to write this up at some point...).  The session ended as Fingers and Bobby headed down some stairs to Level 2...

Hoping to have more to share on this soon, as the adventure continues and the specifics of the organization known as Monstrous Matters are established...

The BIG 4 of RPG attributes

It is possible that I would be a little embarrassed if most people knew how much time I spend thinking about character stats in roleplaying games.  And not in the sense of theorycrafting a perfectly minmaxed build...more about which attributes are the simplest or fastest or somehow the best for breaking down an RPG character.

I think my approach to it -- and probably that of many others, honestly -- is rooted as much in beauty as it is in usefulness.  Like a physicist drawn to supersymmetry, I don't know that I am ultimately being guided to the set of attributes that actually describe people most accurately.  I think I mostly want a set of stats that feels whole and balanced...which may or may not be the best approach, honestly.  I mean...that's subjective anyway, eh?

Lots of systems employ a physical/mental attribute split, including the one that probably introduced most of us to the idea of characters as numbers...the six stats of D&D.  Strength/Dexterity/Constitution and Intelligence/Wisdom/Charisma are a nice 1:1 divide between body and mind.  The other main approach to rational attribute assignment would probably be the one taken by games that break stats down into Mind-, Body-, and Soul-related attributes (e.g. the appropriately named Tri-Stat System).  That's a different symmetry that still "feels" good, I think.  (Conversely...the five stats of Savage Worlds?  They do not feel good.  I know, I'm weird.)

At any rate, I would guess most gamers who care to think very hard about attributes realize pretty quickly that there's an arbitrariness to the division.  And since gamers love nothing more than to fiddle with the games they already love, a lot of work has been done over the years to perfect the spread of stats.  I'm pretty sure that somewhere out there, there's a big list (maybe even called the "Big List of...") compiling a ton of the attribute options on display in various RPGs.  This post isn't about exploring that diversity, though; it's about expressing appreciation for what I consider a sort of Big 4 of RPG stats:

1. How strong and tough are you?

2. How quick and nimble are you?

3. How knowledgeable and logical are you?

4. How emotionally resilient and capable of manipulating others are you?

Or, as the Ghostbusters RPG introduced them to me:

MUSCLES

MOVES

BRAINS

COOL

Not necessarily in that order.

I just keep coming back to these as potentially the most succinct yet simultaneously satisfying way to describe a character...two physical, two mental; two based on power, two more about skill.  (I think one of my friends, when I first described the stat breakdown to him many years ago, just said, "Yeah, that pretty much covers it...")

I loved it when Mini Six came out and sort of codified this set of attributes for light hexahedral gaming (as Might, Agility, Wit, and Charm).  I enjoy spotting other games that follow in this tradition.  And I think it's kind of cool to see that even the West End Games Star Wars RPG -- probably the best known game to use the WEG D6 system that grew from Ghostbusters -- basically rehashes these four (as Strength, Dexterity, Knowledge, and Perception) then adds on a couple of extras by pulling out the otherwise Dexterity- or Knowledge-based skills which are technologically oriented into their own stats (Mechanical and Technical, which do give D6 Star Wars some of its space opera flare.)

If in doubt...I could probably stat out most RPG characters using these (with an established scale) and translate them to a ton of other systems without an excess of effort.  I'm not sure if it's best to try to figure out how to define them generically or if I should take on more of the D6/Mini Six spirit and pick my favorite names.  I kind of partial to Might, Dexterity, Knowledge, and Presence right now.  I've gotta let those settle a bit...but they feel pretty whole and balanced at the moment.

This is definitely worth obsessing about for a while.  I'll get back to you on it.

On the moral capacity of artificially intelligent beings

How about some more Science!?  This one comes courtesy of the research news out of my alma mater Georgia State University.  Psychology prof Eyal Aharoni and his students conducted a study in which folks compared the moral "reasoning" of other people with that of the AI language model GPT-4 (without knowing there was an AI behind those ideas).  And y'know what?  GPT-4 performed better than humans!

The authors hypothesized that this would be the case.  I'll admit that I was initially a little surprised by it...I guess I must have some human-centric bias leading me to believe that figuring out right vs. wrong is aided by a true human perspective.  I suppose I should have realized that, ultimately, it's just logic (just ask Mr. Spock!), and computers don't have all these silly emotions getting in the way of thinking through it.  (Yet.)  And indeed...it does appear that the rationality of the moral decision-making is what put GPT-4's ideas at the top.

Interestingly, once they were told that a computer came up with one of the responses from each pair, participants were pretty darn good at figuring out which one it was.  Maybe the dystopian cyberpunk future where we're all at the mercy of a supercomputer's ethical calculations won't be so bad after all?

At any rate, if you'd enjoy seeing what this study is all about, you can find the summary at GSU's website HERE and the full, open access article HERE.

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As for machines and decision-making...although I've never played one (except as an NPC while running a game), I've always enjoyed the idea of droid characters in Star Wars roleplaying.  It seems like a given that some people would want to play one, but I remember being unsure if it would be allowed when I first started exploring SW gaming...and pleased to see that they are character options in the major games I've looked at that are set in a galaxy far, far away.

The star of this blog post, GPT-4 itself, created this droid for me to use in WEG/D6 Star Wars (only edited a little...and adjusted to fit the four-attribute stats I'm making a habit of here):

From HERE

XR-7T

Species: Droid

Strength 2D
Dexterity 3D
Knowledge 5D
Perception 4D

Abilities: Multispectral Sensors (+2D to Perception for environmental awareness), Tactical Assessment (grants +1D to tactics-related rolls), Adaptive Combat Systems (proficient in various combat techniques)

XR-7T is a formidable droid standing at 1.5 meters tall, with a polished gunmetal gray alloy casing and piercing blue photoreceptors. Equipped with advanced multispectral sensors, rapid data processing capabilities, and tactical algorithms, XR-7T excels in reconnaissance, combat analysis, and strategic planning. Its arsenal includes retractable blasters, energy blades, and stealth systems, making it equally adept at covert operations and frontline combat.

I really don't want to use "Counting Crows" as the title of this post, but man it's hard to ignore...

While at some point I might return to This Day in Anthro History posts highlighting examples of fictional animals walking and talking like people, I wanted to take a moment today just to point out something fascinating in the realm of nonhuman animals' demonstrating arguably human capabilities.  (I think I might be especially keyed into this topic as I follow Pun at Halls of the Nephilim in his creation of a TMNT-inspired RPG...!)

Last Thursday, an article dropped from the journal Science (one of the most reputable out there, so this is a reasonably notable study) in which researchers demonstrate that carrion crows - apparently already known to be able to count to 30 - can accurately vocalize counts up to four.  As in...these crows can see an Arabic numeral on a screen, or hear a sound that corresponds to a numeral, and caw the right number of times.

Four seems to be about the limit for this specific task.  According to the summary on Science.org:

But they did make mistakes, usually after performing numerous trials and when the target number was three or four. “They loved the number one and really disliked four,” [lead author Diana A.] Liao says. Sometimes, the crows displayed their dislike of four by refusing to utter a sound; instead, they simply pecked at the screen to end the trial.

While it's easy to think, "You just told me they can count to 30...why is it interesting that they're counting to 4?"...the accurate vocalization in a "one, two, three" manner is what is really catching people's attention.  It's hard not to see a similarity to the way humans often learn to count.  And one of the neatest details here is that researchers were ultimately able to predict a crow's final "answer" according to the first caw alone...an indication that the crow knows (before speaking) exactly what it plans to say.

If I can add an assumption that the crows are happy to find themselves in this situation, I absolutely love this research.  If it sounds like your style, you can check out the Science summary HERE, a summary from noted bird apologists the National Audubon Society HERE, and the original paper HERE.

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To celebrate this, here's an anthro crow character built using the online character generator for the Awfully Cheerful Engine (ACE)...an RPG from EN World's Morrus (Russ Morrissey) that acts as a huge tribute to the old Ghostbusters RPG and already includes some options for animal traits.  ACE is in the family of GB-inspired games I'm currently obsessed with statting stuff for...!

From HERE

Crowbar (seems a bit like a silly TMNT-villain-style name)

Trait/Role: Unlucky Crow

Health 4, Defense 9

Brawn 2 (Tough)
Moves 3 (Piloting)
Smarts 5 (Physics)
Style 2 (Public Speaking)

Ability: Flight

Monstrous Mini-Review: The Killer Shrews

Well...I guess I just feel like reviewing an old monster movie...

The Killer Shrews

1959, 1 h 9 min

Director: Ray Kellogg

Trailer:

The deal:  The Killer Shrews was made by the same director, around the same time, as The Giant Gila Monster, which I feel like I've seen referenced more than this one, but maybe that's just because I'm typically more drawn to the idea of a giant Gila monster than that of killer shrews.  At any rate, those two films formed a double feature back in the day, and currently it seems they both have some pull among fans of old lowbudgetscifihorror fare.  (They both got roasted on MST3K, which I think automatically lifts a B-movie to the next level of awareness among the public.)

It stars James Best, who I recognize only as Rosco P. Coltrane from The Dukes of Hazzard.  (He would go on to appear in a sequel to this in 2012!)

It's also in the public domain, so it's easy to find, and there's a good chance you've stumbled upon it before...

Image from HERE

The flick:  Best plays a ship captain who finds himself stranded on a remote island with his first mate and a team of scientists who are clearly keeping some secrets.  Piece by piece, the puzzle of their situation is put together (although there really aren't that many pieces, to be honest).  The menace they face?  This one's gonna shock you, but it's killer shrews.  The crew has to wait out a hurricane and survive the night for a chance to escape in the morning light.

This is a very good creature feature that provides all the basics folks look for in schlocky sci-fi.  It definitely moves slowly (the MST3K crew had some fun with the fact that the characters spend a lot of time standing around talking), but the next turn of the plot usually comes around before one can get too antsy.  The acting is vintage B-movie melodrama and includes an appropriately shallow love connection (and jealous suitor).  And...to probably annoy anyone reading this who insists they don't see race, I'll note the positive that there's even a Black character who...other than playing out that debated trope of horror movies (sorry, SPOILER)...could be a lot more cringeworthy for a 1959 film.

And then, of course, there are the shrews.

From HERE

Those beautiful, giant, killer shrews.  It's fun to see them as dogs-in-scruffy-jackets (and they actually seem pretty menacing moving like a pack of dogs), but those hand puppet closeups are worth the price of admission alone.

The rating:  I've gotta be careful not to fence myself in by giving the first movie I review like this (and maybe only, who knows with me) too high of a rating and then realizing that the things it does well can actually be done a lot more well.  The shrew effects carry a lot of weight, though.  This is a very watchable film that doesn't overstay its welcome.  I'm tempted to seek out the sequel but am held back mainly because I'm not sure I want to chance ruining the positive outlook I have on this one!

If you're a "throw a movie on" type with a tolerance for B-movie foibles, this is great background noise, and there's always the MST3K version if you want to check it out but would like the security of wry humor.  I don't think I can go any lower than 3/5 right now.

3 out of 5 shrews

The monsters:  I wouldn't change a thing about these creatures.  They are simple and effective.  I suppose you'd be disappointed if you went into it assuming they were going to be giant giant...but they are the size of dogs, which...I don't think I have to tell you, that's pretty darn giant for a shrew.

My current rules obsession is a slightly homebrewed take on the D6 system that powered the old West End Games Star Wars RPG (and miniatures game)...simplified to be more in line with its Ghostbusters RPG roots.  (It's a work perpetually in progress.)  Here's a shrew:

From HERE

Giant Killer Shrew

Might 2

Dexterity 5

Presence 2

Skills: Dig +2

HP: 7

Move: 18

Handling Difficulty: --- (you ain't handling these fellas)

Attacks: 2x Claw 5 (1D6-3 damage) or Bite 5 (1D6-1 damage plus poison; death within 3 minutes if not stabilized or successful on one difficult save)