{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1", "title": "Michael Selsky", "icon": "https://micro.blog/selsky/avatar.jpg", "home_page_url": "https://selsky.micro.blog/", "feed_url": "https://selsky.micro.blog/feed.json", "items": [ { "id": "http://selsky.micro.blog/2022/03/15/custom-domain-setup.html", "title": "Custom Domain Setup", "content_html": "

This site is now hosted at blog.selsky.me.

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I wonder if adding a new sub level will update the RSS

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Adding SSL has been troublesome. I’ll figure that out later

\n", "date_published": "2022-03-14T21:08:11-04:00", "url": "https://selsky.micro.blog/2022/03/14/custom-domain-setup.html" }, { "id": "http://selsky.micro.blog/2022/03/15/header-image.html", "title": "Header Image", "content_html": "

The default image on Drummer and Old School is of an oldtimey baseball game. That’s not really me so I’ve replaced it with a random Unsplash image

\n", "date_published": "2022-03-14T21:06:14-04:00", "url": "https://selsky.micro.blog/2022/03/14/header-image.html" }, { "id": "http://selsky.micro.blog/2022/03/14/stars-without-number.html", "title": "Stars Without Number - Part 1", "content_html": "

My big creative “project” right now is prepping a Stars Without Number (SWN) sandbox campaign for a couple of friends. SWN is a sci-fi space-faring TTRPG built around sandbox play.

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This’ll be my second time running SWN game but the first time I’m really diving into the sandbox tools that the game provides. I’ve filled out a sector map and have built out a little wiki for myself in Obsidian with all the planets and a map.

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One part of the process that I’ve really enjoyed but is not necessary and probably a waste of time and effort is building some scripts for generating markdown templates and running the generators in the book. So far it’s mostly been to help me from typing in a bunch of YAML front matter for all of the planet docs. The next piece will be to take those pages and build adventures from the planet tags.

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One of the main issues on my mind is figuring out how to deal with aliens as characters. I don’t want to create a bunch of Rubber Forehead Aliens. I want each of the different species to be unique and really inhuman. Anything that’s “human but different” really can be a genetically modified human. So far I’ve stolen from a member of the SWN Discord that has some good ideas:

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The Engi

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A mechanical, sentient cloud of nanobots

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The Mantis

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Insectoid conquerors whose empire has fallen

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The Rockmen

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Living, breathing, deeply religious mountains

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The Zoltan

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Creatures of pure energy born of a dying star

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The Slugs

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Amphibious creatures who evolved on a planet with no other animal life

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The Lanius

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Ancient creatures of liquid metal

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I think these are a really good starting point but I have a few problems.

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The first is that I don’t want any true AI in this game. Androids sure, but post-singularity artificial intelligence is off-limits. The Engi being cybernetic creatures kinda breaks with that.

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I also don’t know how I feel about “beings of pure energy” and “liquid metal”.

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Finally, I don’t know how I feel about having player characters be Alien. I think it is much easier to have aliens be bizarre and inhuman if they aren’t the “stars” of the show. If they can “hide” behind not being fully-formed.

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These of course are all things I need to discuss with my players

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I’ve got a few more weeks before we really dive into this game. So I’ve got some time to work through these problems and I’m sure discover a whole new host of things to think about.

\n", "date_published": "2022-03-14T18:18:19-04:00", "url": "https://selsky.micro.blog/2022/03/14/stars-without-number.html" }, { "id": "http://selsky.micro.blog/2022/03/14/so-what-is.html", "title": "So what is this?", "content_html": "

Inspired by my buddy Jack starting a small blog this week I thought I’d also give it a shot. I liked the outline structure of Scripting News and discovered that Dave had made the infrastructure for it available for free. So this is me giving that a shot also.

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One other site I hope to emulate is Take on Rules which is a great E/N-style site that I really enjoy.

\n", "date_published": "2022-03-14T17:57:21-04:00", "url": "https://selsky.micro.blog/2022/03/14/so-what-is.html" }, { "id": "http://selsky.micro.blog/2022/03/14/hello-world.html", "content_html": "

Hello World

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