The Liquid Computer

Sadly, I didn’t get much done last week. Over the weekend, however, I went to visit family and the long road trip gave me some time to think about the new supplement. Actually, the Wife kept asking “Are you listening to me?”, but thankfully I was able to drown that out.

I’ve mentioned how the Dahl accumulate knowledge and store the info in a liquid computer called the Pool of Memory. The question remained: how do the Dahl accomplish this and how do they “upload” it into the pool?

In the Basic Rules book, there’s a practice adventure about a monastery where a group of Dahl live and perfect their psionics. During my car trip, I started building on that idea and came up with another monastery of “mind monks” who go about collecting news from across the Imperium. They are divided into two groups: scribes and seers. The scribes spend their time using a form of astral projection to visit other worlds, learning about whatever is happening on that planet at that time. At the end of the day, the scribes visit the Pool of Memory where they begin chanting (think Gregorian Chants). Using their voices (and telepathy), they “record” data onto the surface of the water (think ripples) that then becomes part of the collective knowledge stored there. The pool serves as the home of the Oracle, a water nymph that acts as the computer’s main interface. Whenever the Dahl need guidance, the group of monks called the seers, go to the pool and ask advice from the Oracle.

Interestingly, I did a Google search last night about liquid computers and in fact they do exist (at least in the experimental stages). It’s not exactly what I had in mind, but basically it’s a bunch of designer molecules (with atoms that turn on and off, creating ones and zeros) dissolved in a solvent. Of course, the Pool of Memory is more about storage than computing power, but at least today’s research suggests that my idea isn’t completely beyond the realm of possibility. And isn’t that what Sci-Fi is all about??

Btw, here’s the Dahl national flag and their home planet, Gwlad Ard'un:

Outpost Alpha on Sale

Outpost Alpha, my new 2D terrain supplement, is now available to buy. It allows GMs to quickly (and cheaply) create rooms and corridors; perfect for most sci-fi “dungeon crawls.” Outpost Alpha can be used with my 3D miniatures, including the next batch I plan to release in a month or two.

Meanwhile, I’ve been writing about the Magna home world in my new sourcebook Pool of Memory. Called Diavol (Romanian for devil), the home planet of Imperium’s enemy is a volcanic hell world with vast tracks of land covered in free flowing lava. Since the Magna, with their horns and reddish eyes, are demonic-looking, I wanted to carry on that theme throughout my design of their home world.

I also talk about the Magna caste system. I started by using the traditional Indian castes as a guide, and then changed things around a bit. In the Indian system, for example, the Kshatriyas (warriors) are second to the Brahmins (teachers and scholars). In the Magna system, the warrior caste (Regatul) is first while the teachers (Preda caste) are relegated to the bottom (since they don’t “contribute” to society according to Magna values). Of course, those who reject the caste system (or run afoul of the government) are exiled from their social group, becoming Outcasts. In my graphic novel Alexander the Prince, the character Maal-Bok was an example of this.

Scent of Decay Now Available!

Scent of Decay, my first adventure module for the Imperium Chronicles, is now available. It took a little longer than I had hoped, but I’m happy with how it came out.

Sorry it’s been so long since my last blog post. Besides putting the finishing touches on the module, I’ve been working on my next project, a supplement I’m tentatively calling Pool of Memory. It’s a source book for my game featuring lore for the six non-Human races. The name comes from part of the lore I’ve written so far. Basically, the Dahl, who specialize in chronicling all knowledge in the universe, store this information in a “liquid” computer called the Pool of Memory. A water nymph called the Oracle rises from the pool and acts as an interface to the computer. I like this because it mixes fantasy and sci-fi, which has been my goal for the Imperium Chronicles since the beginning.

I’ve also been creating maps and flags for the home worlds of the six non-Human races. I’ve been fascinated with heraldry and different flags, so I’ve really had a blast making the flags for each race. The one below is for the Gordians. I picture them as hard drinking Scotsmen who swear a lot and have poor personal hygiene (FYI: I’m part Scot). For the flag, however, I was having a lot of trouble deciding how it should look. Then I came across the image of the Celtic Knot. This fit perfectly because the Gordians get their name from the Gordian Knot, due to their stubborn and often obnoxious behavior (which is probably why I like them so much). Anyway, I put the Celtic Knot in the middle of the flag and gave it a Celtic border around the edges. I also used the color gray because their home world is called Grarfell (Old Norse for Gray Mountain).

Dark Psi

Scent of Decay is now with the Editor who, with a Mai Tai (with a little paper umbrella) in hand, is sitting in our comfy chair scanning the pages for mistakes. She should be done soon enough, but I probably won’t publish the module until next week.

Meanwhile, I’ve been working on my next project which is currently untitled. It’s a source book with information about some of the playable races (and their home worlds). I’m also including weapon modifications (i.e. adding a grenade launcher to your blaster rifle) and some new psionics. The latter ties into what I plan to write about the Dahls, namely an off-shoot group called the Forgotten. Basically, the Dahls are a mostly non-violent, studious people who chronicle everything that goes on so it can be remembered forever. Ironically, the so-called Forgotten are Dahls who’ve turned away from that lifestyle, preferring to seek fame and fortune in any way possible. This has led them to research a new form of psionics called “Dark Psi.”

Dark Psi are psionics with a more sinister nature than the kind introduced in the Basic Rules. For the new source book I’ve created over a dozen psionics in two basic varieties: disease and biomorphism. The first kind revolves around Necromancy spells typical in many fantasy games. These include psionics that require the victim to make a DISEASE resistance roll to avoid damage. The other kind allows the caster to mutate his body at the molecular level, changing his hands for example into animal claws or making his skin as hard as stone.

Again, I don’t have a name yet for the new source book and I’m not even sure what it’ll include, but I have about 3-4 months before I plan to release it so hopefully I’ll come up with something by then. ;-)

Outpost Alpha

As it stands now, Scent of Decay is about 90-95% done. I’ve got a little more writing to do before I can hand it over to the Editor (aka Mrs. Big Shot). Today I worked on the cover art as you can see here:

I also wanted to update everyone on the other projects I’ve been working on (all paper miniatures related), including one I haven’t mentioned yet:

• Landscapes. This is on hold for now. I wasn’t happy with how it was coming out and I’m not even sure it’s a viable product to sell. I’ll revisit it sometime later, after I’ve thought about what I want to do with it (if anything).
• Cardboard Citizens II. This is still in progress. I looked at what I’d done already and realized I’m going to need a lot more renders before I’m satisfied with it. Each render takes quite a while and I need a lot of them, so it’s going to take me awhile to finish apparently. I’m really trying to improve the quality of each render over what I accomplished with Citizens I.
• Outpost Alpha. This is a new product I started only a few days ago, but it’s nearly done already. It’s a 2D product (unlike Dark Corridors I & II) that’ll have flat “building blocks” of rooms and hallways. You can combine the different blocks to form large complexes for use with your miniatures. Here’s a low rez example: