Live Free or Die
For those of you who like you elves to be multi-classed and your coins to weight 1oz each, you probably are already playing Chris Gonnerman’s homage to Tom Moldvay and the “red box” D&D game, the Basic Fantasy RPG.
My friend Pete wanted to generate lots of “Morgan Ironwolf” PCs for this game. I went to work and a few days later I have created the Basic Fantasy RPG Character Generator!
Chet Hendrickson also said:
Ron sums up the situation very accurately. Let me add a little
background. The XP C3 project was the fourth attempt to replace the
legacy payroll system. At least two prior projects were defeated by
political/nontechnical forces.A project to implement a package solution had been previously killed
by a manager who had been involved in the creation of the legacy
system. Among other things, he had imposed the requirement that the
package be adapted to only accept unit-record input and not allow any
direct input from the user interface.This fellow rotated back to run payroll and subsequently helped
terminate C3. The Peoplesoft effort only began in earnest after his
retirement.My understanding is that the Peoplesoft payroll effort will complete
its roll out to the salaried population this month. Or, approximately
seven years after the C3 team was poised to do so.
Critics use the “failure” of a Chrysler payroll software initiative “C3″ as evidence that eXtreme Programming is flawed and not of serious value. Was it really a failure? Ron Jeffries says:
From the beginning of the project to the end, the C3 project
delivered exactly what they said they could, iteration in and
iteration out. The code worked with higher accuracy than the
existing program and was deployed against one large target
population and one or two smaller ones.At the time the project was terminated, the system was correctly
calculating the payroll for the next target population, and
performance was good enough but only barely. Things had certainly
taken longer than people wanted … but also exactly as long as the
team’s velocity and Release Plans predicted.At the time of project termination, all of the projects original
sponsors had moved on. There was no one involved other than the
technical team, including the XP customer, who had been part of the
original thinking or sponsorship.The termination of the project brought no approbation of any kind on
any member of either the technical side nor the business side of the
project. It was an economic decision made primarily because the
project had been internally funded, and IT was under pressure to
find “synergy savings”.It is interesting to note that since then, DC has spent many
millions of dollars trying to adapt PeopleSoft payroll to do the
things that C3 already did.So, was the project a success, or a failure? It is hard to say.
Certainly it didn’t last as long or deploy as widely as one would
have liked. On the other hand, it delivered working software on an
incredibly predictable basis. A business decision was made to
terminate it, for business reasons.C3 showed, for those who care to pay attention, that the XP
practices can work, and produce highly reliable software on a very
predictable schedule. XP is not the only way to do that. It is,
however, the best way I have seen in nearly a half century of doing
software.
Reliable production of software that solves the problem it was intended for, within budget and under control of the customer - these elements are all elusive to even the best software development teams around the world. I would not call that a failure.
My current employer decided to “try” Agile development for all software groups. My group joined the company as part of a purchase in December 2006. My coworkers resist XP/Agile with a great deal of energy. In one assessment, the group bristled at identification as people who cannot improve measurably by any means, including adopting, at any scale, Agile methods.
There is a difference between adopting a way of doing things and merely following orders to go through the motions. It’s very close to malicious compliance. No one really wants to get better, just left alone so they can do “real” work.
A rough draft of the barbarian invasion scenario is now up. Obviously, both scenarios need playtesting.
Rather than use the standard Triplanetary planet positions, which are static, there are variants that allow for orbital motion. Of course, since each turn is a day in the standard rules, the movement is not drastic.
Rather that use the same orientation for the planets, I found a useful solar system mapping tool. Now, we can really see what the solar system will look like when the barbarians begin their coreward invasion!
New Hampshire is poised to reject a proposed national ID system. Not that our Dear Leaders will pay any attention to such arrogant display of free thinking.
It appears that the Free State movement had a hand in this:
The bill had several co-sponsors in both major parties; among them was Rep. Winters, himself a Free-Stater! New Hampshire’s bill appears to be the strongest among the states that have passed similar legislation. It flatly refuses Real-ID. No amount of Federal dollars will fix the problem. Moreover, New Hampshire will not comply with any national identification card, period.
Will we see Federal troops sent into New Hampshire to enforce Federal law?
I’ve completed a rough draft of the first of 2 scenarios I want to play on the MegaPlanetary map.
In 2192, a horde of “barbarians” have smashed the approaches to the rich industrial Sol system! This barbarian fleet of FTL-capable ships slowly consumed the best worlds from the technologically advanced peoples. Despite desperate defenses the horde defeated all who stood in there way, darkening skies with their legion of invasion barges.
Finally, a battle-tested fleet has gathered at Sol. Here, the line is drawn. Here the United Defense Command (UDC) promises to break the invasion or die trying. There is no retreat! Victory or death!
The barbarian player has a large pool of resources to build the invasion force (IFOR). The barbarians are barely capable of FTL travel and their ships are rudimentary. What they lack in technological prowess they make up for with numbers. Essentially, the IFOR is made up of ships out of the Triplanetary rules booklet.
UDC ships are the last, best hope for the technologically advanced worlds coreward. They are capable of multi-fuel burns (borrowing from the “wear” concept), and are considered “torch” ships (they do not have to refuel, but they DO have to resupply). They are also very expensive. UDC gets one orbital fortress for free (probably in orbit above Terra).
The barbarian player can approach from any vector, using the FTL rules in “Endgame”. The UDC player may elect a vector as “coreward”, and that cannot be used for barbarian arrival. The UDC player then places its units as desired.
IFOR’s goal is to take as many worlds as possible by landing their invasion barges (use a liner or packet). Each invasion barge that lands deposits a ground unit. I’m going to have to have a very simple ground combat resolution system. Ships in orbit can suppress hex sides and enemy units, but cannot destroy those units. Besieged UDC units can hold out, but not forever. If enough units are landed, the fight will be brutal, but the outcome all but certain. UDC player may have options for purchasing ground units, but I’m not sure yet.
Terra is worth more points than, say, Mars. If IFOR takes Terra, that is a huge loss for the UDC. The UDC player must inflict enough damage to prevent this, but cannot afford to lose the fleet in the process.
Also, the IFOR will not use nuclear weapons on the planets they intend to invade. They will use them on extra-terrestrial targets, however.
Attacking Terra with a goal of destroying hex side bases (also known as “suppressing”) alone isn’t a compelling scenario. Instead, let’s assume that the attacking force (I’ll call them the Strike Force) can make one of 2 tactical choices:
Hitting Terra yields the greatest rewards, but losing the Strike Force costs points. Sol Fleet gains a decisive victory if no hex side is hit, but can salvage a Pyrrhic victory by destroying the Strike Force. If all hex sides are hit but Strike Force is eliminated then the scenario is a draw.
I would like to have some interesting options for each side. Let’s assume that in order for their interstellar engines to function, each ship has to have a minimum velocity, say 5-10 hexes per turn. Strike Force ships may decide to maintain a a high velocity vector, and use Terra’s gravity to slingshot toward an escape. Otherwise they will have to maneuver and then rendevous with a tanker to refuel as needed.
Before the game starts, Sol Fleet will select 2 valid escape vectors. Strike Fleet picks a third vector. Strike Fleet ships may approach the system from any of these vectors. Sol Fleet has to guess which approach Strike Force will take on entry and exit. Once Sol Fleet has deployed their ships, Strike Fleets selects their approach for each ship.
Strike Fleet ships drop from interstellar travel at the minimum velocity toward Sol. The order of appearance depends on a slight randomization. Let’s say that for every ship, Strike Force rolls a die, and any “1″ means that ship is delayed 1 turn. This means that some ships may never make the trip in time for the raid, but it’s unlikely.
Sol Fleet must prioritize which ships to investigate (all ships are unknown until they enter detection range) or to commit as targets for their ships and ordinance. Sol Fleet will not know which tactic the Strike Force has chosen, or which route they intend to take. They only know that Terra is the target.
It’s possible that Sol Fleet will remain close to Terra and try to intercept as the Strike Force converges. I don’t know if this strategy will work. I’d like to playtest it!
As far as starting fleets, I’m leaning towards Strike Force having a 20-30% edge in resources. Each side must decide between firepower and flexibility. Neither side will have prior knowledge of the other’s fleet until the game starts.
I found ChrisW’s Triplanetary Map Variants page. It’s not as slick as Winchell’s, but it is full of descriptions on how to setup things like “pocket” editions of the game.