Wake up! You're on Accidental Survivors.

Back in the day (yes, several months ago was "the day"), I appeared in a few episodes of the Accidental Survivors podcast. For those of you who haven't heard of this, Accidental Survivors is a podcast dedicated to modern gaming. Being a sucker for modern gaming, I love it. It's hosted by Fraser Ronald of Sword's Edge Publishing and features some of the best commentary and funniest bloopers of all the podcasts on my listening list. I haven't been on the show in quite a while, and I stopped listening for a while due to a lack of time. But now, with an hour-long commute to work and an MP3-playing phone in my pocket, I've been catching up on podcasts like no tomorrow.

So today I finally managed to catch up to Episode 16 of Accidental Survivors, all about game design (and featuring Charles Rice as a guest, who spoke about Modern 2.0 [now Modern20] and game design in general). During their News & Views portion of the show, I was very surprised to hear Fraser talk about this very blog! Both he and Charles seemed excited to know I am still alive and kicking. It was a great treat on a Monday morning to that kind of attention shone in my direction.


Oh, and Fraser, Charles is right. You did get my name wrong. And I won't hurt you. Yet... ;)

Yarr.

Ahoy! Today I be celebratin' my scurrilous heritage on this, the annual International Talk Like a Pirate day. 'Tis a fine day t'be a scurvy-ridden sea dog.

I love TheLe

TheLe Games is the unsung P.T. Barnum of our time. I love the way he promotes his products, usually using imagery that has little to do with the actual subject matter of the products in question. I find this refreshing - a lot of RPG products use imagery that is either too clichéd or too reliant on knowledge of the material to make any sense. This image is perfect. The lovely but frustrated stock photo women, the glowing title, the casual violence implied by the tagline, the d20 STL watermark in the pillow... I love it.

I can't wait for folks to see this book.

Life Goal Achieved

It's old news, but I just got a print copy of the True20 Companion, so this is my first time seeing it for myself.

My name is in print. Not self-published, but featured in a work by one of the major publishers.

Next life goal: do it again.

I love LOLcats. And I love geek references. This image was inspired by GEEKcats on M. Jason Parent's site, Dread Gazebo. A more direct link is forthcoming.

Ammo & Mecha Weapons

My mind wandered back to mecha some weeks ago; specifically, it went back to a mecha system that I've been dragging my heels on (at least with 4e and Modern 2.0, I know have an excuse to procrastinate). A few months prior, I had hammered out the beginnings of a point-based weapon designer meant to be part of a mech construction system. I hit a wall when I came upon the question of ammunition.

The problem I encountered is that everything is relative. A single shot of a 1d4 weapon does not have the same objective "value" as a 20d6 weapon. I could not take a simple route with ammunition - it wouldn't be fair to allow readers to buy a static number of shots for a static price regardless of actual damage values. I had begun writing a table outlying how many shots of ammunition could be purchased for a single point, based on the type of damage dice and number of dice. It made my head hurt, and it was several steps down the slippery slope of abstraction. So, when this idea hit me recently, I was so damn relieved to be free of having to pull values and numbers out of my ass. I managed to come to a fast, adaptable mechanic for ammunition in mecha weapons that reduces bookkeeping and speeds up play.

While solving my point-buy problem was my big concern, making mechs play faster in a d20-ish environment was my other goal. In my limited experience, the big thing that bogs down combat (and play in general) is the bookkeeping - keeping track of stats as they change, gear that gets used and consumed, and just watching the numbers in general. In my first D&D campaign, there were a lot of bottomless quivers... both I and my players would forget to keep track of expended ammunition, leading to frantic recollections and retcons as we realized the party would have been completely out of arrows three encounters ago. When dealing with mechs, machines that can range in size from a person to a skyscraper, you are dealing with weapons whose ammunition counts can range into the hundred thousands. It isn't enjoyable to keep track of amounts that large, at least for me and many people I know. The following mechanic provided a great solution.

The idea for this mechanic came from a throwaway suggestion in the original Star Wars d20 Roleplaying Game, 1st Edition. It's not an OGC source, but it'll be cited anyways in this blog's OGL.

OUT

When making an attack role with a mecha weapon that consumes ammunition, a natural role of 1 indicates the weapon has run out of ammo. The weapon is considered "Out" and cannot fire again until it is Reloaded.

This rule is entirely at the Gamemaster's discretion. If the GM feels that a role of 1 occurs at an inappropriate time (such as the first time that weapon is fired after reloading), he may rule the 1 represents merely a weapon jam (requiring a move action or full round to clear) or a missed shot instead.

Reloading is something that typically happens between encounters, at locations equipped to reload the mech. The GM decides what locations and times are appropriate for Reloads. Reloads can also be purchased while designing the mech weapon; these reloads represent internal reserves of ammunition.

The following Features (think Gadgets in d20 Modern) can be added to weapons. They interact with the Out mechanic.

Reload
A Reload is an internal store of ammunition which allows it to fire again after running Out. A weapon with a Reload may expend it to overcome the Out condition and be able to fire again. Reloads come in three varieties, each ones restocking the weapon at faster speeds. Standard Reloads take a full-round action, Quick Reloads take a move action, and Instant Reloads take a mere free action. Any number of Reloads may be added to a weapon.
Cost Mod: Standard, +1/5 of base cost. Quick, +1/4 of base cost. Instant, +1/2 of base cost.

Low Ammo Capacity
All weapons have a default Out range of 1 (meaning that a weapon using ammunition will be Out on a natural roll of one). This feature represents weapons with a lower than average store of ammo. Each time this feature is applied, the Out range of the weapon increases by one. For example, a weapon with this feature applied once will be out on a roll of 1 or 2. This feature can only increase a weapon's Out range to 1-5.
Cost Mod: -1/5 of base cost (each time feature is applied)

One Shot
Weapons with this feature are expended after one shot. Once fired, the weapon is considered Out regardless of the result of the attack roll.
Cost Mod: -3/4 of base cost


So you see... take a weapon with thousands of rounds of ammunition, and only worry about how much left in its reserves until you make a bad roll. It isn't very realistic, but it is more cinematic, and it's a lot less bookkeeping (at least during play). It's not your standard d20, but it could definitely could be made to work within it. Maybe I'll finish the rest of this system one day... or at least post what I have to date.

The Out, Reload, Low Ammo Capacity, and One Shot mechanics are open game content under the terms of the OGL.

Fixing Canada's Wireless Problem

Wireless Communications in Canada (by which I mean hoser cell phones) is in a pathetic state. There are three names for this problem, which are Rogers, Bell, and Telus. Most Canadians know these three as the big players in our wireless industry. And they suck.

Before I explain, let me first state what the Big Three have done right. Number one, they exist; wireless technology is becoming more essential to humanity's technological development, and without a company providing wireless communication services to the masses, Canada would lag behind in general in this field. Second, they have decent coverage in most of Canada's heavily-populated areas. Providing cell phone coverage is always a cost/profit thing for wireless companies: if they erect a tower to cover an area, will they be able to get enough subscribers to cover their construction and maintenance costs? So, if you live in a poorly-populated area (like many parts of Northern Ontario) and feel like shooting me a snide comment about cell phone coverage in "most of Canada," shut up and realize that you probably don't represent enough of a profit margin to the Big Three to be worth bringing you coverage. Honestly.

What follows is my list of what the Big Three can do to improve the state of wireless communications in Canada. These come from my experience as both a Canadian wireless customer and as a customer service provider for American cell phone companies.

1. Give Us Minutes
The average American cell phone user gets 500-1000 anytime minutes a month. That's their overall pool of minutes, not counting any free calling periods like nights and weekends. In Canada, 500 monthly minutes is considered a "premium" amount meant for high-end users. Minutes into the thousands amount are typically reserved for business plans. The hell? Why would Canadians need to talk less than their American counterparts? That's hardly the implication. Fact is, two of the big three in Canada also provide landline services, and routinely encourage customers to "bundle their services" together. They'd rather encourage their customers to purchase both services - smart from a business standpoint, but bad for the growing number of Canadians for whom a landline is impractical.

Giving Canadians less minutes for their dollar helps no one. It may mean that customers get hit with overage charges more often, but that's temporary profit - customers who see their bills soar due to overages either change their talking habits, switch services, or stop using their cell phones altogether.


2. Quit Billing Us For What We Cannot Control
From what I hear of our British neighbours across the ocean, their cell providers have come to a realization: billing customers for their incoming calls doesn't make sense. A person may have a reasonable expectation of how many calls they receive, but most people have no clue. Incoming calls are something almost completely outside of a person's control. What sense is it to bill customers for minutes used when they cannot reasonably control the amount of people calling them (aside from turning off their phone)?

Consider this: you're flipping through the channels on your TV when you come across a movie - one you know is available to rent from your local video store. You watch about ten minutes of the movie before switching to something else. Does the video store now have the right to bill you for a movie rental? After all, you viewed the movie, at least in part; it is analogous to using a cell provider's network when you receive an incoming call. Since the video store would bill you for a rental if you actually went into the store and rented the movie yourself, does it then stand to reason that you should pay for the rental if you happen to accidentally view the movie at another time? This analogy isn't perfect, I know, but I hope it serves to illustrate my point.


3. Standardize Your Damn Plans
Right now in Canada (and in the US), most providers offer plan like this:
"The Stuporpendous Single Plan offers X anytime minutes, Y Night & Weekend Minutes, free calling on National Holidays, and z bonus text messages."
"The Crapalicious Single Plan offers X+10 anytime minutes, free Nights & Weekends, five free calling buddies, and Y kb of data usage"
"The OMGWTFBBQ plan offers X+20 anytime minutes, early Nights & Weekends for free, unlimited data usage and Z text messages."

Everything's a package deal. Want free nights & weekends? You've gotta go with Crapalicious or OMGWTFBBQ, even if they have way too many minutes. Want unlimited data access? OMGWTFBBQ is your only option. In some cases, some of these features will be available as add-ons. Of course, you will need to have a plan that's compatible with the add-on; and I mean this both for the customer level of things and for the back-end of whatever account system the providers use. During my time as a CSR for an American wireless provider, I encountered quite a few problems adding some of the newer, more popular add-ons to accounts whose plan conflicted with the add-on. Usually it was because the plan was a package that included a partial version of what the add-on was going to give. The customer couldn't "upgrade" from this partial service just by purchasing the add-on. They had to change their whole plan to make it work (and lock into a new contract in the process).

Cell phone plans should be designed by game designers. You should be able to make a cell phone plan the same way you create a character. Pick each element individually: number of minutes, free calling times, text messages, data access, whatever. Think of it as choosing skills and feats for a character, rather than being handed a stack of shitty pregenerated characters and having to choose.


4. Voice Mail Is Not A Luxury Item
In the United States, almost all plans come with voice mail as a standard feature. Voice mail is essential for two reasons: one, despite their portability, people do not have their phones on them at all times, nor are they able to answer calls at all times (such as when the phone is dead, out of service, or when answering the phone would be inappropriate). Two, more people are choosing to use cell phones as their only means of telephone contact, and thus can't rely on a landline and a good ol' fashioned answering machine to collect their messages for them. In the States, they recognize this. In Canada, it seems to be a hard concept for the Big Three to grasp.

Just adding voice mail onto a cell line in Canada costs, on average, $7 a month extra. On top of that, voice mail is administrated by a third party company, so you're billed airtime for checking your voice mail over your cell phone. It is possible to incur overage charges just for checking your messages too often.

5. Fuck the System Access Fee
In Canada, the Big Three each include an additional charge in their billing called a "system access fee." It's explained exactly as it sounds... it is meant to cover the cost of having your phone connect to the network and use airtime. However, what the hell is the other amount they keep charging a month, the one associated with your cell phone plan? Just to give an example, my fiancée and I are on a family plan shared between two phones. $35 a month gets us our meager airtime, unlimited local talk between each other, and free weekend calling. Each line gets billed an additional $7 to access the system (so an extra $14 total on our bills every month). Apparently that $35 monthly fee gives us our airtime, but doesn't cover the cost of connecting to the network to use that airtime. What the fuck?

In my frank opinion, the system access fee is either an artificial padding of charges, or is a technique used by the Big Three to avoid folding the cost into the price of the plan itself and, thus, make it appear cheaper in advertisement.