Arizona

So here I am in the state of controversy and I love it. The state is getting a pretty bad rap from the media here and abroad. Its also very hot. I have only been away from the family for two days and I miss them already. I talk to the family while I work and its ok but its not being home. Arizona is hot (did I mention that?) and pretty the cacti is aplenty here.

I am working on some ideas to put into the Rifter and cleaning up the material that I have finished. I have been talking to my cousin Jayson and others and have been working on some fantastic ideas that just need to be fleshed out.

Among some of the ideas up in the air right now is some new mutants for After the Bomb and adventure ideas for Palladium FRPG. We have been tossing around ideas and I will post them soon as I write them.

Jungle Elves

In preparation for your campaign coming in November, I have been creating a mess of characters. Getting the old creative juices flowing feels good, but has its costs. Sometimes I feel TOTALLY unproductive.

Anyway, I started to create a certain character that you may find interesting. In his creation, other ideas of his past and culture became quite interesting. Let me know what you think.

I started with the idea of giving this character some awesome armor. I began to think, what would be uniquely awesome about armor. I have always been intrigued in nature, organisms that share a commensal or a mutualism relationship. That was it! I wanted this character to have armor that was actually a living creature! I began to draw some armor that resembled the quills of a porcupine, while thinking about how this character came across this armor and what exactly was it. I named it Quill Dragon Armor. Lets discuss this organism in detail.

The Quill Dragon is not a dragon at all, nor does it even resemble a dragon. The Quill Dragon is a mutualistic organism found in the Yin Sloth jungles. It needs a host in order to survive. Anciently Quill Dragons could be found residing on the skin and body of true dragons. This mutual relationship was once thought to be one organism and a new species of dragon. The secrets of the Quill Dragon were discovered by the Elven people of the Yin Sloth jungle, whose relationship with creatures like the Quill Dragon, set them apart from other Elven cultures.

The Quill Dragon by itself has a very flat, flexible, yet durable body. On the top side of the organism the Quill Dragon has developed long, thin spikes or quills. These quills grow much like hair. Tiny muscles in the follicle of the quill provide movement of the quill. The outside of the quill, when examined closely, is composed of a series of chitin-like rings that overlap. The inside of the quill contains many fibers that are attached to the internal surface of these rings at various lengths of the quill. These fibers provide exquisite mobility and dexterity of each quill, much like a tentacle of an octopus.

The underside of the Quill Dragon are micro-tentacles that are used to attach itself to its host. These tentacle serve as the organisms means of feeding from the host. Microrrhiza extend and connect to the blood vessels and the neuro bundles of the host drawing nourishment back to the organism. The Quill Dragon not only collects physical nutrients (i.e. glucose, oxygen, etc.) from its host, but also feeds off of the surge of P.P.E. and I.S.P. emitted by its host at moments of emotional response. As such the Quill Dragon becomes connected to its host on an emotional level as well.

The Jungle Elves of the Yin Sloth jungle utilize mutualistic organisms as an integral part of their culture. The Quill Dragon is one of the most revered of these mutualistic organisms. Jungle Elves, or Taure Huri as they call themselves, have strong beliefs about nature and the interconnect relationships between all living creatures. As a rite of passage, young Taure Huri go through what is called the Vehi'i Atu, "The Union" or the "Coming Together". This is a sacred ceremony where the young elf is matched up to his/her "Life Bringer", one of the various mutualistic organisms found through the Yin Sloth Jungle.

Other Elven races/cultures look on the Taure Huri with disdain. Many eras back the Taure Huri were enslaved by the other Elven races and kept as servants. Since that time, the Taure Huri with the aid of abolitionists freed the Jungle Elves. Yet, still in high circles of mainstream elven culture, the Taure Huri are not respected. A derogatory term sometimes used by aristocrats and high class for the Taure Huri is "Muck Elf", referring to their place of origin and the sometimes appearance of their "Life Bringer" in their skin.

I have a little secret

I have a couple of secrets. Some I can tell and some... well not so much so. First secret I am changing the script for Cyberspace. I want to broaden it a bit similar to what was done in Rifter #2. I thought about it and said within myself, there is a war of the megaverse with demons and devils that is ever expanding, why not cyberspace? No I am not writing a book for the demon/devil war but my Cyberspace script is now getting too big for just the Nightbane. I want to include Heroes Unlimited and every modern civilization across the magaverse. Crazy huh?

Ok, I have your attention, more secrets are coming down the turnpike at Palladium Books that I was privy to know and cannot tell because of the slowness of things and I am not exactly sure if its going to come to pass. To say the least, its going to be cool if it comes out. I will be especially excited if I get published in some of the work that comes out .

Cyberspace

I was thinking, Wayne when he wrote the article about Cyberspace in Rifter #2, he covered every world. I have decided to change some of the idea that I am working on from just being Nightbane to expanding it to reflect what he was working on (bless his soul). So, now I am writing like crazy and i need more time and energy. Man this is cool!!

Kevin and Me

I got to meet Kevin Siembieda and it was awesome!! I talked to him personally for about 10 to 15 minutes. I know that its not much time but man it was awesome! I got to meet some of the staff too and I got encouraged to write some new stuff and write I did. I spent the next few days writing tons of new stuff. I aim to submit my stuff by the end of the month of July. I am working on some great ideas. Its amazing how meeting someone would inspire me and get me revved. I have been writing for hours this weekend and I need to get back on this project some more; so I'll talk to you later. Peace!

Pictures say 1000

I have been looking on the magical land of the internet to see pictures for inspiration. Man people are inspired and that is keeping me going. There are tons of ideas now spilling in my mind. Its just a matter of keeping up with it. Most of it now are short stories and NPC's. Now its a matter of time before I can find a place where the wow factor is. The structure of the world is vague without a real fixture.

Still all in all, its awesome.

Podcasting

I know that I have not been writing for a while but I have not really had the mood for the such. I love to write but I am a bit of a show off and with no audience I tend to veer off and attempt to discover myself in the mean time.
Recently I acquired an iPod and have been listening to the podcasts of several Palladium Fans. One of these days I want to be part of one and actually talk to Matthew Daye the author of Gateway of the Megaverse. I know that I have only been published twice but I would like to converse with someone that actually writes for Palladium. They have been talking about the 2010 gaming session gathering (times like this I wish that I could spend more time at home and have time for that kind of vacation). At any rate, I am writing again and hope that I blog more too. I have put some ideas on the back burner until the fire for them kicks in again and am working on some other projects. Wish me luck.

Girls and Gaming

I was talking to my pal today and the subject of women and gaming came up. Now girls don't do much gaming but in Utah there is one group that is a all girl group that play. My pal got the chance to GM the group and the funny thing was that he said that they are as bad as guys. They are as much as hackers as guys (at least so he says). They are fighters and not investigators.
Now when I was a GM that there were two gals in my group and they were the lead thinkers in my team. The guys were a bit impulsive (and played into my stories); it was fun but the girls who were the thinkers bailed out their bacon. Now it didn't happen all the time.
I got to thinking what is the difference between the girls that game and the guys?
I don't just want to mention sex as that is a bit bias and perhaps sexist too; so again lets examine it. My first and only thought on the matter is a woman gamer is more inclined to think before cutting into the action. This is not to say that they will not hack the villain to pieces, just they will take their time considering the consequences. That's it. Oh sure there is that time of the month but I would not count that in as gaming occurs so often during the month that its almost irrelevant. Some would like to say that they get more emotionally involved but again they are gamers so that is unpredictable.
Ok I did think of one other thing, now that I think about it. When men play (at least for me) I want men to play men and women to play women, that way when I picture the heroine in rune bikini armor there is not a goatee burning my imagination and ruining that pleasant image. Heaven knows that I love a woman's physique and I just believe that men should not play that roll.
At any rate, that's today's rant.

This gamer lately

I thought that going to work here in the North West, I would be getting more dice action. Well, I was wrong. Its true that I have had two games in the last four months but I was hoping that it would be monthly. So much for thinking.

On the plus side, I am planing a game for the New Years season. I hope that I have a lott of players for Dead Reign. I plan on writing all the characters and just getting in the game when they all get here. I really want a good game that s all.

Zombies

I just got my Rifts 41-43. It was awesome. I haven't read them all but it has sparked some work in the old noodle. I just need to work on getting some time. Any suggestions on getting some work done would be appreciated.