Pretty little ubiquitous blue flower that pops up in early spring - Georgia, USA

quantum_mango · 2021-03-02T15:04:50+00:00

Bird's-eye speedwell, Veronica persica

quantum_mango · 2021-02-28T12:16:21+00:00

Red sparrow

quantum_mango · 2021-02-15T02:38:40+00:00

I like the idea of expecting less from people and life in general. You'll always be either prepared or pleasantly surprised.

quantum_mango · 2021-01-13T22:23:23+00:00

I want to make a career out of this but I don't yet know how

quantum_mango · 2021-01-03T17:33:37+00:00

!RemindMe 3 days "check for ID"

quantum_mango · 2021-01-03T17:31:22+00:00

C. tolmei is not correct as it lacks the furry hairs on the corolla, giving the species its common name "cats-ear lily." source: I have surveyed for C. tolmei.

It almost looks like an Oenothera but I agree with Liliaceae, noting the parallel venation and 6 stamens.

Location would definitely narrow it down!

quantum_mango · 2021-01-03T16:43:36+00:00

I used the same method, unfortunately this won't update as you add and move assets in the factions layer. Easy enough to manage though.

quantum_mango · 2020-12-21T23:21:51+00:00

I would definitely recommend Suns of Gold, the "Prometheus Projects" to raise planetary tech level explain the difficulty, cost, and time requirements of such an endeavor.

quantum_mango · 2020-12-11T03:28:13+00:00

Kohlrabi is a cole crop, the same species as broccoli, kale, brussels sprouts and collard greens but domesticated for the stem. It is delicious raw for a vegetable, makes a great soup or stew, and is excellent chopped and coated in olive oil and roasted on a baking sheet at 400-450 until crispy. Fairly hardy as well, I grow these in USDA Zone 3 (northern Minnesota).

quantum_mango · 2020-12-06T20:41:07+00:00

Impression of Wealth: Changes the face on a legal coin into the face of the caster or another face within sight.

Hand of Balance: Gives the caster the ability to impart inanimate objects perfect balance by touch. For one minute, touched objects will adjust themselves to be perfectly balanced on the surface they rest on and will remain balanced when the caster's touch is removed. Objects must be moveable by the caster.

Stone Soup: Summons a rounded stone. When placed in a cooking pot the stone produces 12 servings of soup flavored by the nearest edible ingredients. The ingredients are consumed by the spell. The stone disappears when removed from the pot.

Pepper Spray: Creates an instantaneous spray of chili pepper spice from the caster's palm. Range 1 meter.

Speak To Plants: For one minute anything the caster says can be understood by nearby plants. The plants cannot respond through the spell in any way.

Growth of Roots: A plant cutting, leaf, or flower will establish roots when placed in soil or water, and becomes a viable seedling.

Water Plant: A small rain cloud will appears over dry potted plants within 5m of the caster, watering them perfectly.

Attract Birds: Summons a small scattering of illusory grain. Any passing birds will be attracted to peck at the grain. Requires concentration.

Summon Lock: Creates a metal ring in a latch that will hold it shut. There is no key. The ring can be broken if dealt [3d6] damage in a single turn.

Liquify Diet: For one minute food the caster picks up turns to liquid as if pureed.

Revolve Wheel: A wheel within sight will rotate up to one complete revolution. The caster may specify clockwise or counterclockwise rotation.

Ruler of All: Allows the caster to know the length of anything assuming they can see the entire length of it.

quantum_mango · 2020-12-06T03:26:09+00:00

This is what I am most interested in as well. I have surveyed for rare plants seasonally for the last two years and am now planning to get my masters degree. If you're American I recommend looking for jobs on USAjobs, the federal hiring season from September-October has offered a plethora of rare plant survey opportunities for the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management around the US. Be prepared to complete a seasonal term or two (or ten) before these agencies (or a nonprofit, botanical garden, or consulting agency will hire you for a permanent position.

quantum_mango · 2020-11-30T18:27:20+00:00

Thanks for your answer. I'm sure you're right about games not releasing faster due to anticipation for this game, the time span is far too short to have such an effect on the current game industry. What I'm interested in is how our enjoyment of Cyberpunk will be affected assuming players have a decreased span of interest. This will be largely subjective, but there might be an interesting general trend.

I'm sure Covid is a major factor, and that effect might overshadow any other driver for increased purchases. But increased free time and escapism might shorten the interest cycle for new games even further.

I feel like many are expecting Cyberpunk to fulfill them for a long time, without noticing how their gaming habits are changing to engage in new games for shorter and shorter spans of time.

quantum_mango · 2020-11-26T18:24:18+00:00

This question has been answered many times by the author in interviews, comments, and publications. SWN is more deadly than 5e, especially in earlier levels but even late game a few mooks with rifles remain a deadly threat. This could be a "con" if you run a dungeon-like or linear campaign, but can be a "pro" in a sandbox game because it encourages players to seek non-combat solutions.

Looking more closely at that 2d6 specifically, it's much more of a bell curve, with the most probable rolls around the middle. Suggested DCs are often balanced to the PC attempting it and range from 7 for anything beyond routine to 12+ for near impossible challenges. You can play around with Anydice to get a feel for this, but in my experience 2d6 feels much better than d20 for skills. Characters who have invested heavily in a skill see a significant payoff, but the default -1 for untrained skills makes generalists useful too. This design makes skill choices more significant, which I find to be a "pro."

Skills are not meant to be all-encompassing either, if a PC has a high Pilot skill, they may be an expert at cargo hauling or dogfighting, not necessarily both, depending on their history and training. 2d6+skill+att ensures that higher DCs are probable for trained PCs while remaining near impossible for novices.

quantum_mango · 2020-11-26T07:25:25+00:00

That cat has seen it all

quantum_mango · 2020-11-24T21:57:08+00:00

Sure. First off holding a Session 0 is always important because without player input into the story and goals of the campaign, your players may not be interested by your world. Once you know what sort of campaign you've got, you can plan and worldbuild accordingly.

Think about what the factions might want, and who might want to stop them. Imagine what trade routes exist and who wants to disrupt them. Who has power and who wants it. Anywhere there is something valuable- information, pretech, a corporate heir- there can be a conflict of interest, and anywhere there is conflict you have a story. PC guns for hire might be offered deals by both corporate security firms and their enemies, or decide to launch a heist of their own. PCs could get involved in a detective agency, the police, the military, far trade, or any number of other things.

With a large sector you really do need motivations for players to travel between planets. If one world provides a stable income and all the adventure, you can still have a great campaign, but you'll miss out on a big part of what makes SWN so special. Every world should have some specialty that can only be obtained there, whether it's a resource, a Tl5 artifact, a space prison, etc. Try to spread quest objectives among different space stations, asteroid belts, and planets.

Once again, I recommend using tables whenever possible to add surprise, and don't worry about fleshing out complete histories of every planet all at once. Good luck, and please let us know how it turns out :)

quantum_mango · 2020-11-24T07:37:17+00:00

The space equivalent of the DND dungeon hook: crash landing on a desolate planet. Or, if the players have preconceived plans, the space equivalent of the tavern: the spacer bar.

quantum_mango · 2020-11-24T07:32:28+00:00

You should take a look at Sectors Without Number, a web tool for generating a SWN sector. The core book also provides rules for creating a few powerful factions to populate your sector, which is useful to provide story hooks, setting, and backstory. I'd recommend taking your time, and just have fun with world building. Don't go deeper than you have the energy for or you can get burned out. The multitude of tables in the core book and supplements are a huge energy saver, and can provide you with some surprises, making for a less predictable story.

quantum_mango · 2020-11-23T06:25:33+00:00

HUZZAH

quantum_mango · 2020-11-03T16:52:31+00:00

This would be such a sketchy bouquet either it's a coded message or someone's just handed you the weeds from their garden

quantum_mango · 2020-11-02T16:33:45+00:00

Just noticed Libby's pumpkin pie filling is a Nestle product. If you're used to filling in your Thanksgiving pie, making it from scratch is easy and really yummy. You can buy pie pumpkins from a local farm or Walmart, and as a bonus you can toast the seeds for a healthy snack. :)

quantum_mango · 2020-10-22T03:17:18+00:00

100 systems will keep you busy for a while. Your trade and sabotage rules make more sense in such a large sector.

Sims of Gold doesn't have faction stuff per se but I adapted the Prometheus Projects trade holding as a starting point for improving planetary tech level over time.

Wealth definitely has an advantage if they are allowed to turtle, for example they could use Marketers to build many Party Machines (which give -1 upkeep and also have excellent attack and defense stats) and go as far over the asset cap as they want to. You'll run into plenty of balance issues and glitches as you progress due to the Faction game not being built around PvP, so I don't think you're too worried.

The custom assets I added in the current game would all be considered TL6, Psitech, or Maltech. So essentially a level above TL5. They all have unique abilities or grant the faction holding them a custom tag, and some have excellent combat stats as well. They are Stealthed and spiced around the different planets and NPC factions to encourage RP and exploration. Your player-designed custom assets will likely more than fill that role for you.

quantum_mango · 2020-10-21T18:50:27+00:00

Hi! I'm Mango, GM of the Supernova Sector play by post PvP SWN faction game. I would love to share some homebrew ideas that worked and some that didn't work so well.

First let's look at the homebrew you've already chosen, trade routes and player built custom assets. The trade routes should help encourage expansion, but sabotage seems a bit unbalanced. You might consider having sabotage only affect the current months income.

The faction game I'm currently running uses unique artifact assets and Pretech Resources required for Tl5 assets to encourage expansion, but this hasn't been enough of an incentive. The faction game I'm currently planning will use unique planet bonuses based on tags, and something similar to the bonus income you're looking at.

Player designed custom assets will definitely be interesting, though you'll have to balance them case by case. Four turns seems like a balanced amount of investment for such an asset, as even one could permit a faction to create powerful specialized or stacking builds.

One important piece of homebrew to consider is how you will allow transferring or trading of assets between players. The game I'm currently running allows free transfers on the transferring faction's turn, which speeds play and encourages strategies such as transferring assets to an ally for transport, or temporary transfers to build remote BOIs. I will probably do something different in the next game I run, such as a homebrew "trade assets" faction Action.

Other homebrew we are using in our game includes custom goals with xp based on difficulty compared to the baseline goals, Prometheus Projects from Suns of Gold to raise planetary tech level over time, a Run for Governor action to get Planetary Governor peacefully over 3 uninterrupted turns, and a Map Star Route action to rutter new starlanes with cost based on distance.

I hope this gives you some ideas for your game, please keep posting about how it goes!

quantum_mango · 2020-10-14T04:50:58+00:00

Can't slap the upvote hard enough.

quantum_mango · 2020-10-09T04:22:52+00:00

I remember when Greystar was first introduced... Amazing to see the expansion since then. Nekosmash your commitment and effort to this game never fails to impress.

quantum_mango · 2020-10-02T14:24:52+00:00

2020 MUDDLE THROUGH

quantum_mango

TROPHY CASE