Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Worlds & Adventures, page 13

Yes, more Traveller. There isn't much going on lately other than that here, except snow.

And we're done with the world creation, and we move on to equipment. Well, that's a bit of a letdown. But I will keep adding to the Hub subsector as I go. I calculated which worlds are agricultural, industrial, rich and poor, and the results are...interesting.

First, the population numbers are pretty low, which limited the number of industrial worlds. In fact, there are no fewer than thirty non-industrial worlds in this subsector. Thirty! There are only three rich worlds, one of them being the X-port world at 0206. Say what?

There are also three poor worlds, including Etherion (the lonely, starting-out in space world), and only three industrial worlds, none of which are A-ports. It's a weird set of worlds, but I suppose that those factors really only matter for merchants and traders. Still.

Alright, back to the book, and the first Equipment section. We start off with a note that there's an infinite number of things that people can buy, and it's impossible to list them all. Well, I'm sure someone reading that thought, 'challenge accepted.' But I'm not that person. Not today, at least. Instead, though, we're going to get a list of basic things that can serve as templates or commonalities. Sounds good.

Listings will include the name, the tech index where this item becomes available (which is pretty darn useful to know), a price, and a description. Short and sweet. Sometimes we'll get weight and dimensions, if it's needed, as well as additional notes.

Beginning characters can equip themselves from these lists, although weapons aren't included here (since their stats and prices were in the first book). If you're looking for something on a world that doesn't have that tech level yet, you might find it anyway as an imported item, at a proportionately higher cost. However, I'm going to suggest that finding a laser rifle on a tech-2 world isn't going to happen no matter how many credits you're carrying.

So, we start with personal equipment. This is where all that fun breathing apparatus comes in, like filter masks (available as early as tech-3), artificial gills for water worlds and underwater exploration, vacc suits, and cold weather clothing (which is available anywhere with any tech whatsoever). Pretty basic stuff, really.

Next we start with personal devices, which are basically communications gear and a compass, so far. The short-range communicator is good for ten kilometers, while the long-range comm is good for up to 500 km and into orbit. And that's it for this page.

Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Worlds & Adventures, page 12

Well, this is an easy page; it's just a summarized checklist of the steps taken to create a subsector. So, I'm going to take this opportunity to detail a few of the worlds from my subsector instead. I'm going to tentatively name this subsector 'The Hub.'

I'm going to start with the A-port world at 0602, just because it's going to be one of the most central worlds of the subsector. Its profile is A569453F, which means it's got a state-of-the-art starport, it's about 5,000 miles in diameter, has a standard atmosphere, is mostly water (90%), not very populated at a mere 10,000 people, a feudal technocracy, and a pretty lax weapons law level. It's also one of only three worlds in this subsector with level F technology; they can use matter transport (as can their neighbors at 0603 and the world at 0802). So, this isn't as populated as I thought; it's going to be more of an outpost, really. But it's a central outpost, being between two A ports, a B port, and two C ports (one of which links to a third A-port. I'm going to call it...Tycho, after the famous astronomer.

Ah, I've got it. Tycho is something of a paradise planet; it doesn't have a large population, but it does have a military presence to keep any bad seeds from claiming the world. It's not rich in resources, other than a gajillion tons of seawater, so it's a vacation resort for the really rich people in the subsector. And there's a hunting preserve on one of the islands, which is why firearms below military-grade are permitted; rich people want their toys. Rumors are that the hunters coming to Tycho seek a more dangerous type of prey, the kind that's smart enough to fight back and present a challenge. Cue the PCs, who wake up after a party with a nasty hangover and find themselves on a tropical island with only a few basic supplies on hand...

So far, so good. What about the high tech level? People with this kind of money can afford the absolute latest in technological toys, of course. Maybe there's an experimental lab here that has new technologies available.

Alright, let's move down to 0603. That's an A434555F. Let's call it...Arban. Why? Just 'cause; the letters came to me that way. So, Arban is a smaller planet (4,000 miles), but it has a lot of land area at 30% water coverage. The atmosphere is thin and tainted, so the population is only 100,000 or so people; they're not there because they want to be, but because they have to be. So, why are they there? Mining, perhaps? It's a rich planet with tons and tons of mineral deposits to be dug up. But why such a small population, then? Surely there would be a lot more miners on a world with all that stuff.

Ah, but this world's been a mining colony for centuries, you see. And that's why the air is tainted; the pollution is so high that you can't breathe without filters and protection. Not to mention that most of the mines are played out, and now they're digging for the most hard-to-reach stuff, which means they don't need as many miners here. The ecology on this world is going to totally suck, most likely. But the stuff they are digging up is so valuable that they pretty much have to keep the starport in top condition.

I suppose I should be going back to book 2 and getting the trade information (rich/poor, agricultural/industrial, etc.). Yeah, I'll do that as well, but first let's get some more interesting worlds figured out.

I want to go down to 0810 again; that one just looks so tantalizing. It's profile is E351A979. I'm going to call it Ethereon. That's a small (3,000 mile) planet with a thin atmosphere, and a measly 10% water on the surface. A desert planet, perhaps? But it's incredibly populated, a population comparable to Earth today at 10,000,000,000 people. And they've got decent tech at level 9. It's also balkanized, and so no weapons whatsoever are allowed near the starport (which isn't much; it's a patch of rock, remember?).

So, Ethereon just came out of a massive war a few decades ago, and now they're pulling together as a not-very-United Nations. The war pushed a technology race, which turned into a space race, and now the Ethereons have ships capable of jumping between systems. Of course, they don't actually have any neighbors nearby to jump to, but let's hope that such a warlike people don't start invading other worlds. They certainly have the manpower to do so.

One more for tonight. I looked at the X worlds already, so I want to take a look at 0406. It's the mini-hub for a small group of worlds. It's profile is B779554C. Let's call it Rustarik. So, it's almost the size of Earth (7,000 miles), has a standard (but tainted) atmosphere, is another water world at 90%, and has that small population as well. They have a feudal technocracy and gun laws roughly equal to the United States (no machine guns or worse, but handguns are totally fine). And the tech level is C, making them pretty advanced.

So, why such a small (100,000) population? Well, that's a good question, but it's obviously got something to do with that tainted atmosphere. But with a hydrography like that, most of the activity on the planet itself is going to be underwater. Maybe the 100,000 is the population on the surface, with a lot more people underwater and hiding away from the rest of the subsector; they just want to be left alone. 

So, there's some fun stuff to work with on this subsector. The Hub has a string of A-ports that will anchor the sector's economy, and a few mysterious places that are ripe for exploring. Sounds like a fun place to visit.

Formula in Writing

When I started getting serious about writing, one of my inspirations and resources was Dean Wesley Smith, a long-time author and writing teacher who has a lot of experience and knowledge about the field. I've had some brief correspondence with him, and his instructional courses are very helpful. Obviously, his writing style is different than mine (and so is his writing income). But he taught me some eye-opening things about how professional writers actually work.

One of the things he talked about was the incredible speed at which pulp writers could churn out material that sold, and sold well. Many of those writers used a formula in their plotting; they weren't always the same formulas, but they each had their own style and variation. And some of those writers talked about how their formulas worked and why they were successful.

Today, formula writing is looked down upon; it's too cliché, too generic, too predictable. Subversion of expectations is the game now, where a writer will take a basic plot and invert it into something else. The problem with that is, many of these writers are trying to subvert previous subversions, and it becomes this long chain of even more twists and inversions until the story is unrecognizable...and unreadable.

The problem isn't with the formula; the problem is with the writer's inability to use a formula in the way it was meant to be. Subverting a formula doesn't always make for a better story. If you have a headache, do you want to take aspirin and find out that the pharmacist subverted the formula to make something new? If the aspirin doesn't mitigate the headache, you're not going to be impressed, are you?

And here's the important part: Formulas sell. There's a reason that men like Erle Stanley Gardner, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert Howard, Rex Stout, Raymond Chandler, and hundreds of others sold and sold well in the era of the pulps. If you picked up an issue of Black Mask and saw Raymond Chandler's name on the cover, you knew what you were getting. If you saw Robert E. Howard's name on a copy of Weird Tales, you weren't going to expect a Game of Thrones-style story in there. It was going to be action, heroics, and entertainment. And it worked, over and over and over again.

"But formulas are derivative!" Sure they are. So what? Shakespeare is considered the greatest writer in English history, and he never came up with an original idea in his life. The basic plots all came into existence in the earliest days of literature; starting with the Epic of Gilgamesh, Egyptian and Greek myths, and even the Bible. Everything since those days builds on what was created back then. There's nothing original anymore, except for how the story is written. And there's nothing wrong with that.

The key to using a formula isn't to subvert it; the key is to use it in a fresh way that still sticks to the formula's basic format. Putting a twist at the end is fine, as long as it makes sense. But a lot of writing today focuses solely on the twist, making the story itself nothing more than a vehicle for the writer's cleverness. And a lot of these twists rely on characters acting completely out of character, or taking actions that exist solely to justify the twist, rather than the story.

Using these formulas, men like Lester Dent could write the same story fifty times in a year, using different characters and trappings, and sell each and every one of them to voracious readers. Because people read fiction to be entertained, not to be preached at or lectured to. When the story exists solely to force the reader to choke down a message, it's not going to be any fun to read, and it won't sell. It might win awards from like-minded writers, but it's not going to make money.

For those who want to make money as writers, that's an important lesson to internalize. Even the most clever twist or subversion isn't going to matter if the story doesn't work. Write for story, and write what people want to read. Fewer people are reading now than at any time since public schools began in the mid-19th century. Give them something entertaining to read, and that will change.

Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Worlds & Adventures, Page 10-11

Here's the link for the Subsector Google Doc. I'm going to cover two pages today, since they're blended in with the end of page 9, and we're talking about tech levels and what they mean. So, if you want to follow along, click on the link above and you'll see what I've come up with so far.

I rolled up the remaining parts of the planetary profiles, and came up with some interesting combinations. I think the most surprising part is the variety of tech levels, even on planets with starports. I've got just about every tech level from 0 all the way to 16 (F) on my list of worlds. So, let's see what these numbers actually mean.

Three of my worlds (0206, 0308, and 0609) have something in common: No starport (X), and tech level 0. That's your one-step-above-caveman level; spears, clubs, canoes, and carts are the main technological advances. So, cultures with no technological skill whatsoever. 0206 is a smaller world (4), but it's got a standard atmosphere, 70% water, a population of about a million, and a feudal government. The law level is 7, which means no shotguns; I'm going to interpret that as nobody on this world even has firearms of any kind; they don't even have swords yet.

Yes, I'm referring to the worlds by their coordinates; I haven't named them yet. I'm considering giving worlds like this two names; one used by the interstellar government in the region, and the local one that the natives use. Just because we call the star 'Sirius' doesn't mean that the inhabitants of any planets there would call it that. Not that I think there's life on Sirius' planets, but it would be cool if there was.

Anyway, 0308 is very much an earth-like planet (Class-M, for you Star Trek aficionados); 7000 miles in diameter, standard atmosphere, 60% water, a small population of about 10,000, a representative democracy(?!), and an absolute ban on weapons. Welcome to the monastery world; there isn't even a jump route to this world, which tells me it's a secret place that you can only reach if you already know how (or if you are specifically invited). Tech level is 0, so they live the simple life...but that doesn't mean there's no stash of something hidden away for some unknown reason.

And 0609 is an interesting world; it's small (3000 miles diameter), has a very thin atmosphere, 30% water, population around 100,000, and is an impersonal bureaucracy that bans all weapons. And it's got tech level 0. Now, a very-thin atmosphere requires a breathing apparatus, but that's beyond tech-level 0. So, I'm going to be making this a world with primitive alien life on it. An impersonal bureaucracy suggests a hive mind of some sort, so this is going to be a world of evolved insects (that still don't have tech) that can manage in the small atmosphere and low gravity.

The only other X world is 0203, which is huge (10,000 miles diameter), has an exotic atmosphere, is 90% water, has a population of 10,000,000, a law level of 7 (forget firearms; it's pre-firearm tech anyway), and a tech level of 2. So, it sounds like a medieval society. Here's the interesting part, though; it's government rating is 6: Captive Government. But it's an X that isn't on any jump routes. So, who's the captor? Is it a colony? And with a tech level like that, they aren't going to have oxygen tanks anyway. So...ah, 90% water. Hello, underwater civilization, and another batch of aliens. They're not worried about the air, since they're breathing underwater anyway. See? Random rolls stir creativity. The question of who is controlling this world will be left for a later time.

Now, in contrast, let's take a look at some of the 'A' port worlds. Oh, these are going to be interesting. Of the 7 'A' port worlds in this subsector, all of them have tech level A (10) or better; the three on the right side (0602, 0603, 0803) have tech level F (16)! That's matter transport technology. Beam me up, Scotty! In fact, they are one tech level away from artificial intelligence and anti-matter technology (Tech level 17)! So, they really are close to the Star Trek model. All drives are available, and all weapons and armor, as well as computers except for AI. Interestingly enough, however, the C world between them (0703) is just an empty rock (2000 dia.) with no atmosphere or water, but a huge population...at tech level 8. I don't think that's going to work; even an underground civilization would need better tech than that. Sure, they can go interplanetary with non-starships at tech 7, but you're not fitting a billion people in a B government on that rock, not without a much better tech level to justify having a colony that massive on a barren rock. So, I can either bump it up to tech level 9, giving them starships, or tweak the population and government to something more suitable (like there's nobody there at all). I'll have to think about this one.

Finally, there's that tantalizing E world at 0810. I was hoping my random rolls would produce something interesting, and they certainly did. It's a small (3000) world with a thin atmosphere, only 10% water, but a massive population of 10 billion, an impersonal bureaucracy, and a law level of 7, meaning once again, nothing more deadly than a sword or bow is allowed. The tech level is 9, so they have starships, as well as laser technology, decent computers (model 3), and whatever modes of transportation you want. But they are all alone out there. With a population like that, it's obvious that this world has just taken the first steps into the great beyond. And nobody knows about them yet...

So, there are some interesting places already, as well as some conundrums to consider. I love using random rolls in world building and adventure design, because they are a great tool to stimulate the imagination. It's going to be fun coming up with more explanations of how this subsector is put together, and who's in charge. Until next time, then.

Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Worlds & Adventures, page 9

I know, I'm doing a lot of these posts lately. I'm trying to get this book done by the end of next month, and I've been working on this for a long time as it is, on and off. So, I'm going to be posting these roughly two every three days to get it done.

So, we continue with Alternate World Forms. Now, we get a few examples. First, there are Rosettes, which are multiple worlds that orbit each other in a stable configuration (three of more worlds). They don't even need a central star. Needless to say, these aren't going to happen naturally, but it's a really cool idea. I might put one of these worlds in my subsector.

Next up are Ringworlds, which are basically just as Larry Niven wrote about; it's a huge orbiting ring around a star, 93 million miles in radius and a million miles wide. That's a lot of living space; three million Earths worth of living space, in fact. Columbus would have given up that around-the-world trip in a hurry.

Finally, there are Sphereworlds, better known as Dyson Spheres. It's just a massive shell around a star, completely enclosing it and trapping all the star's energy for usage on the internal surface. Again, using a radius of 93,000,000 miles around the star, the internal surface area would equal, according to the book, about a billion Earths. Frankly, with that kind of space to work with, you wouldn't need space travel; you'd never run out of things to do there.

Next up, we have a paragraph on population density. I'm not sure why this is there, but it does give some numbers for comparison. However, these numbers are woefully out of date today; the population of earth is over seven billion now, not three billion. On the other hand, the population densities are related to population levels for the Traveller world; Hong Kong, for example, is insanely dense, at 10,000 people per square mile, which would be the equivalent of population level 12 (C) for a whole world.

The bottom half of the page is talking about the Technological Index. Oh, goody. To generate the Tech Level, simply throw a single die and modify it based on the planet's characteristics. Good starports are worth a bonus (an X is a -4 to the roll), smaller worlds have good tech; water worlds, odd-atmosphere worlds, and heavily populated worlds get bonuses as well (as do low-pop worlds, since they're more likely to be outposts of advanced civilizations). There are even modifiers for government type. The highest possible rating is an 18, but the bell curve is going to be between Tech Levels 4 and 10. The higher the number, the better the tech, obviously.

So, that's it for this page; I'm going to use the information on the last two pages to finish rolling up the worlds in my subsector, and I'll have a link to the Google Docs file for people's amusement. It should be interesting. Until then, grab a book and read. It's good for you.

A Bonus Post

I know, I know...I didn't post last night. And I haven't done the next Arabian Nights post, either. I'm actually debating whether or not to continue the series, since it really is a raunchy, R-rated book. I'm still reading it, but I don't know if I want to keep putting this stuff on what I would like to think is a family-friendly blog.

So, let's talk about something more important: Skating. As in, Tanner is doing really, really well. He's finally found something that motivates him to learn and work hard, something we have been seeking for years. He's even doing skating drills instead of just fooling around on the ice. And he's taking it seriously. He's four days in (we missed a day due to the mountain of snow and freezing rain that fell on us), and he's already learning the basics of power skating and stopping (without falling in the snow). He wants to play hockey next year, and he's determined to get the skating to a decent level by then.

I've been struggling with the book I've been writing. Not the Cameron Vail book (although that one is a pain in the butt), but the fantasy book, the next Meterran book. I came to the realization tonight that I was writing the wrong book; I've got some interesting ideas for the character that it focuses on, but I just don't have a good feel for his story. And it's frustrating the living hell out of me, because I'm not able to progress on the book. So, I'm going to lay it aside and focus on the one that I do want to be writing for Meterra. It's going to be a novel, rather than a story anthology like The Devil's Playground was. And it's going to be fun, because I have a lot of interesting ideas for it. Some I might save for the next book, but a lot of them are going to end up in here, including some new monsters, a new locale in Meterra, and a different kind of quest.

As for the Cameron Vail book, I'm going to try to get it done by the end of the weekend. If I can, it should be published ready to go by the end of the month. It's only a month behind, but it is what it is. I will be getting the third Meterra book out before the end of March, no matter what; I've set that as a firm deadline. And now that I'm freeing myself from the constraint of writing a book that I 'had' to write before this one, it should go a lot more smoothly.

And that's about it. Life on the farm in PEI is still great, and I'm very, very glad we're not in Ontario anymore. Every time we head another update from the Ontario government, it gives further confirmation that we made the right decision to leave. I'm praying for the people left behind, because they need it. It's turning into a political cesspool, and I want no part of it ever again.

And on that cheery note, I'll leave you with one last plug. I have ten books out, with more on the way; if you're looking for something new to read, I recommend either Final Exam, the first Cameron Vail mystery, or The Chronicles of Meterra: Arrival, the first book in my pulp fantasy series. Either one will, hopefully, entertain you, and give you something to read that is different from the usual fare that we see on the shelves these days. Until next time, though, thanks for stopping by, and I hope you come back again.

Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Worlds & Adventures, page 8

Okay, we're moving out of the tables and into the instructions again. So, the next thing we roll is the population. Just roll 2D-2, for a number from 0 to 10 (A). Piece of cake. Oh, and the multiples of 10 are just approximations; the planet won't have an exact population of, say, 1,000,000,000 people. Although it could, if you wanted it to.

Next up, planetary government. We already know how those work from the table two pages ago, but there's also a note that Balkanization just means there's no one-world government, in which case the separate regions of the world can be generated individually. To get the government type, it's 2D-7+population; larger planets will have more complex or advanced governments. And more bureaucracy, of course.

Finally, there's the Law Level, which is 2D-7+government type. There's not much else to this one.

So, the planets now have their full range of characteristics (although we haven't seen Tech Level yet). These are to be considered guides, not statistics; obviously, they can be modified to suit the needs of the adventure or the campaign. Also, populations are very approximate; a population of 6 (1,000,000) can range anywhere from just over 100,000 to just under 10,000,000. If you wanted, you could have a pop-6 world with a higher population than a pop-7 world. And even a 100% water world can have small islands, so they can still have a normal human population. Or, they could be inhabited by races of aquatic peoples...

In the event that you roll contradictory or unreasonable combinations, either adjust them, or come up with a really good reason why this world is like that. That's almost Rule Zero of campaign design in any game, of course. Oh, and I especially like the last part of this section, which states that a) the referee is free to impose deliberately-designed worlds as opposed to randomly-generated ones, and b) these deliberate planets are often done specifically to reward or torment players. Insert maniacal laughter with rapid hand-rubbing.

Finally on this page, we have Comments on Basic Planetary Characteristics. Or at least, the start of this section, which discusses Alternate World Forms. This is the interesting world shape section; why settle for a simple sphere, when you can do something totally different? Setting aside the natural physics of the situation, let's make a totally different shape. However, the page ends before we get any examples. These alternate worlds are, from the gist of the paragraph, high-tech stuff, and they aren't randomly generated. They're usually used for high-pop worlds, although it also references degenerate and decimated worlds.

And so, we are left in suspsense...until we see the next page.

Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Worlds & Adventures, page 7

 It looks like this one will be a short entry, so I'm getting it done tonight; I didn't have time to do the Arabian Nights review I wanted. The only thing on this page is the Law Levels table, which runs from 0-9; no letters on this table.

In Traveller, law levels relate to what weapons are allowed. Basically, the higher on the table you go, the more restrictive the laws are. A 0 means nobody cares what you have; you could have an F-16 in your driveway and an ammo stock like an Army fortress if you want and can afford it. 9 means if you step outside with anything more dangerous than a safety razor, the police are going to come down on you like you're carrying the last donut in existence.

In between, you start at level 1 with poison gas, explosives, and undetectable guns like porcelain pistols and the like. Level 2 adds laser rifles or carbines (although your ship is exempt). 3 restricts any 'military' hardware, like machine guns or automatic rifles. Level 4 adds light assault weapons, which are submachine guns.

So, up to level 4 you're looking at US-style gun laws, where you're allowed to carry to defend yourself. Starting with level 5, it's going to be tougher. Level 5 restricts personal concealable firearms (pistols, revolvers, etc.). Level 6 restricts any firearms except shotguns, and don't carry anything openly. Level 7 takes away the shotguns, and level 8 takes away bladed weapons larger than daggers. You aren't allowed to carry openly, either.

Each law level is cumulative, so there's no level at which you're allowed a revolver but not a shotgun. Of course, you can always make a world that does have that split-restriction, but it's not part of the standard tables.

The law level is also your 'saving throw' on 2D to avoid arrest for something when encountering law enforcement. So, the lower the law level, the easier it is to go about your business without being harassed by the fuzz. The more restrictive the law level, the more likely it is that the cops will stop you on 'suspicion,' even if you aren't doing anything.

Finally, there's a note that starports don't cater to local laws. That suggests that starports in general are considered 'neutral ground,' or that they are run by a central authority that overrides local laws. Of course, it could simply be that the starport is super-important to the economy, so the local leaders basically order their enforcers to leave them alone so as not to disrupt trade. There could be a bunch of different reasons for this, and it's left to the referee's imagination. As it should be.

So, a quick page, but we're learning more about Traveller worlds as we go. I'm enjoying it. Now, I need to know how to actually roll them up. Let's see what the next page brings us.

Pain or Pride? Can't We Do Both?

So, it's been three days with a half-rink in our front yard, and Tanner has been skating for almost half the time he's been awake. He's even getting up early in the morning to get some skating in before I'm even out of bed this weekend. Clearly, building that rink was worth the struggles. And even better, he decided very quickly that he didn't want to be a goaltender. That is a lot of money saved, right there.

And he's getting better, too; he's now able to skate all the way down the rink without slowing down, and he's learning to snow-plow to stop. He wants to try the turn-stop next, which should be entertaining to watch. He's also using his stick and handling the puck on the ice, and he even lifted a few shots into the net rather than just sliding them along the ice. He's got good instincts; if he'd started younger, Tanner would be playing at a decent level by now. He's got his heart set on being a left-winger now, so he's motivated as heck.

Now, that's the 'pride' part of this post. Here comes the 'pain' part.

I don't recall how long it has been since I laced on skates. I do know that it's been quite a few years. Still, I was determined to spend time with Tanner on the ice, so I sat my butt down in the snow and tied them up. I got up and onto the ice, and it was awkward. I mean, you can tell that I haven't skated in a long, long time. I was wobbly, and while I could get myself going up to speed, stopping is once again a challenge. Fortunately, the snow is soft.

However...anyone who hasn't skated for a while and put skates back on knows exactly what happened next. And I knew it was going to happen. But it was time with my son, and it matters. But, dear Lord in heaven, did my feet ever hurt. I mean, it was like all those muscles on the bottom of my feet just went on strike and told me to go jump off a cliff. I couldn't last more than ten minutes on the ice before I had to cry 'uncle'. I took off the skates, put the sneakers back on, and went back to passing him the puck from the side.

My feet still ache, and it's been about six hours. I'm stupid, so I'm going to do it again. I know my feet will eventually adjust, but when you're fifty, things like that take time.

Anyway, the rest of the ice time was great; I even put some pucks on the ice for Tanner to use as pylons and skate around, and he's really picking it up fast. There isn't enough room for him to learn crossovers; the rink's only about fifteen feet wide of actual ice. But if he can get the hang of stopping, I'm going to get him working on sprints down the ice (it's almost sixty feet), stopping and turning back. It's a great start for power skating, and after only three days, he is well on his way. I couldn't be more proud of him. He's even doing chores when we ask him so he can get out on the ice sooner. We've finally got something that he is willing to sacrifice for.

Maybe I'll write some hockey stories for him. Or about him.

Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Worlds & Adventures, page 6

So, this page continues describing the various characteristics of a world in Traveller. The hydrographic percentage has no surprises; the maximum a planet can have is 100% water, which is an 'A'. That was intuitive.

Next up is population, which, like hydrographics, goes from 0 to A, in multiples of 10. I haven't rolled for this yet. 0 is an empty, desolate planet; 1 is an outpost of 10 people, 2 is a small research station of about 100, and so on until 'A', which is a heavy-duty 10 billion people. Earth would be somewhere between a 9 and an A, then.

Next up is the governmental type, which I haven't rolled yet, either. This section is interesting, because there's no linear progression of government types. 0 is no government, which could mean total anarchy, or family-dominated systems. 1 is a company or corporate structure; most citizens will be company employees or dependents. Can you imagine a world with a population of 'A' and a government of '1'? Everyone on the planet works for the same company. It's like Planet Wal-Mart. Now there's a horror scenario for you.

2 is a participating democracy, like ancient Greece where every citizen voted directly on things. 3 is a self-perpetuating oligarchy, where ruling functions are performed by a restricted minority, and the people don't really have a say. Hmm, that sounds familiar. Oh, this isn't a politics blog. 4 is a representative democracy, like Canada or the United States are set up, with elected representatives running the government.

Now we get into some interesting results. 5 is a feudal technocracy, which sounds weird. I'll quote: "Ruling functions are performed by specific individuals for persons who agree to be ruled by them. Relationships are based on the performance of technical activities which are mutually beneficial." How does that work, I wonder? The first part is straightforward; the people basically agree on a dictator. But I'm wondering about the 'technical activities.' Does this mean a technological basis for government?

6 is a captive government, where someone else is calling the shots; it's a colony, or a conquered area. Pre-Revolution America, or Quebec prior to Confederation would be good examples. 7 is Balkanization, where there are a bunch of local governments in competition. The law level (which comes later) refers to what's going on around the planet's starport (if they have one).

8 is a civil service bureaucracy, and I like how the book claims that the bureaucrats are selected for their expertise. That is adorably naïve; everyone knows that bureaucrats can't and don't actually accomplish anything, let alone have expertise. If they had expertise, they wouldn't be bureaucrats, would they?

9 is an impersonal bureaucracy, where the agencies don't even bother paying attention to the governed citizens anymore because their power is so absolute. Yeah, that sounds familiar, too. 'A' is a charismatic dictator, who runs the ruling agencies but is also very popular with the citizens. That sounds mutually exclusive, but I guess the future is more enlightened or something.

'B' is a non-charismatic leader; it's an 'A' government that is under new management, and the guy in charge isn't nearly as popular as the old guy. It doesn't have to have been a revolution that put him in charge; he could just be 'A's successor.

'C' is a Charismatic Oligarchy, which is like a combination of 3 and 'A', where the ruling class is actually popular. And finally, there's 'D', which is a religious dictatorship, where the individual citizens' needs are irrelevant. Hmm, that seems rather limiting; what if it's a popular religion that does care about individuals? Still, a religious dictatorship can go in different directions, depending on the religion.

And that's it for this page; it's an interesting set of data, though. I wonder how much of an effect population will have on the type of government. I look forward to finding out.

Arabian Nights, Nights 9-12

Man, that last post was a long one, wasn't it? And believe me, I'm condensing the stories as best I can. The thing I noticed about the last four stories was that there weren't any jinnis, other than the one the fisherman was bargaining with. There was an ogress, a really stupid prince, an even stupider king, and a nasty witch who turned her cousin/husband into a half-pillar of stone because she wanted to play the close-buttocks game with an ugly leper slave. Icky.

So, let's continue with NIGHT NUMBER NINE.

When last we left, the king pretending to be the lecherous, leprous slave had tricked the witch-queen into reversing the curse on the prince, and she was about to free the city, as well. And so she does, and the fish stand up and become men again. The lake becomes a city, and the curse is gone. So, she goes back to her "lover" and the king slices her in half, then quarters, just to be sure. Well, she would have turned him into a newt or something, if she could have. But that was it for the nasty witch, and the prince was quite thankful and happy. Now, the two of them left, the King adopting the Prince as his son, since he didn't have one anyway. Hurray! Happy endings all around!

Except that the story doesn't appear to be done yet, as they head back to the Sultan's palace, with an escort of Mamelukes. I should mention that these guys are military slaves, soldiers owned by the sultan or king. Historically, they were common in the Ottoman Empire, and often acted as administrators and even rulers of some cities. There, some history in your entertainment!

Back to the sultan, who rewards the fisherman (remember him?) by marrying one of his daughters, marrying another one off to the prince, and making the fisherman's son the head treasurer of the kingdom. One has to wonder if that son had any experience with making monetary policies for a kingdom. I would guess 'no,' which makes him qualified to run the Federal Reserve.

Anyway, that is the end of the story of the Fisherman and the Djinni, finally. But Scheherazade informs her husband that she has an even better story to tell:

The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad.

This story starts in Baghdad, where a porter, who happens to be a bachelor and planning to stay that way, comes across a woman who would be a leading lady in Bollywood today. She's so gorgeous that he almost doesn't hear her hire him, but he readily takes the job and starts carrying her stuff. She does some shopping, and he gets to follow around this stunning beauty all day, thinking he's got it made. We get a lot of descriptions of the things she's buying, and this guy must be built like Arnold Schwarzenegger to carry it all. I don't think it would all fit in the trunk of my car, you know? But he's following her like a faithful puppy dog, carrying whatever she buys. It's enough to feed an army a seven-course mean and have leftovers. He finally notes that had he known what she was going to do, he would have brought a pony or a camel to help. She tells him that the reward will be worth it. Having read ahead, I can't disagree.

The shopping spree takes two pages, then she finally leads him to a mansion. She knocks, and while the porter is still thinking how hot she is, another woman opens the door, and she's even better-looking than the first one. She's so beautiful that the description of her takes up half a page, including some poetry. Well, the porter is just beside himself (not really, but having a twin would have helped with the carrying). The shopping girl tells the other one to help the porter with his stuff, and they invite him in. And there in the mansion is yet another woman, the best-looking of the three. They take the merchandise from him and toss him a couple of gold dinars, but he's still dumbstruck by the bevy of beauties and doesn't leave. So, they throw him another coin, but he's not worried about the money, and flat-out suggests that three women all alone need a fourth to keep them company. And wouldn't you know it, that line works on them, but they don't want to give up their secret, which we don't know what it is yet. He assures them that he is good with secrets, and they finally agree to let him stay with them.

After the first few stories, I'm sure you can guess where this is leading. And Scheherazade does not disappoint. They do some partying and drinking, then some drinking and partying, until the girl that was doing the shopping finally strips down and jumps in the pond in the courtyard. Then she gets on the porter's lap and starts asking him what he calls her privates. Yeah, I'm being delicate; trust me, the book is not. Not even close. But here's where it starts to get weird. Every time he guesses, he's wrong, and she smacks him around for a bit. Stark naked, mind you. The writers of these stories were into some kinky stuff. Finally he turns the tables and asks what she calls it. And she gives him the answer: "The basil of the bridges."

More partying and drinking, and the second woman who answered the door repeats the same scenario as her sister did, including the beating him until he's sore when he guesses wrong. She calls it 'the husked sesame seed'. Third time's the charm, and the last woman goes through the same procedure, and calls it...'the Khan of Abu Mansur.' Yeah, I don't get that one either. There doesn't seem to be any sort of clue or point to all this except to include a picture of one of the naked women cavorting at the porter's feet. Well, whatever floats the reader's boat, I guess.

Anyway, the porter decides to play as well and gets naked, swims around, and then asks them to name his special party favor. They start guessing...and Scheherazade stops her story there. I'm sure the king was really excited to keep hearing this story the next night. But, she lived another day, and thus we come to NIGHT NUMBER TEN.

The story picks up again with the ladies still guessing, and he turns their own secret names back on them. I'm not going to get more detailed than that; my son wants to read my blog. So, the party goes on, and while it's not explicit, it's pretty obvious what goes on after that. So, we'll skip to later on, where they tell him he can't stay the night unless he promises to do as he's told, ask no questions, and read what's written above the door. He does, and it says, 'Whoso speaketh of what concerneth him not, shall hear what pleaseth him not.' He agrees to their conditions, probably because he's already having the time of his life and doesn't want to stop. They start eating the magnificent feast the shopping girl bought, and then there's a knock at the door.

One of the girls opens the door, and there are three one-eyed men with shaved heads out there, called 'Kalandars,' who are looking for a place to stay for the night. She convinces the others to let them in, figuring they can have some fun with them. So the Kalandars come in and are pretty impressed with the place, and think the porter (who is drunk and has been bruised pretty badly by the three women) is a beggar like they are. He takes offense, but the girls quickly make peace between them, and they join the feast. The beggars get some musical instruments and begin to play, which draws outside attention, and there's another knock at the gate. This time it's the Caliph Harun al-Rashid, his bodyguard Masrur, and his vizier, Ja'afar, and anyone who's seen a Disney movie knows that name. Actually, Burton informs us in the footnotes that these are historical figures, who will show up often in these stories.

The Caliph is looking for a party as well, and the vizier suggests this isn't the best place to do so. But the Caliph has the final say, so of course the girls let them in. Ja'afar says that they are merchants from out-of-town, not disclosing their true identities just yet. They get the same condition that the porter and the Kalandars got, which is to shut up and not ask questions about stuff that doesn't concern them.

The party goes on for a while, although I will hasten to point out that everyone is clothed; they're mainly eating and drinking. Then the girls have something they have to do, and the table is cleared off. The men are told to sit in various couches, and you would think this is going to lead to another story I am going to delicately gloss over. You would be wrong; it's a whole different kind of weird. The shopping girl tells the porter to give her a hand, and they bring out two black women from a closet, with chains around their necks. They then proceed to whip them and, when finished, hug them and kiss their foreheads.

I'm not really sure how to describe this stuff; it's just weird. I can't even make snarky comments. Needless to say, the Caliph is curious as hell as to why they're doing this. He's not upset by it, but he wants to know what's going on. Ja'afar reminds him that they promised to mind their own business. Then one of the girls...you know what? This is just too weird to explain. It turns out she's got scars and welts on her back as well (which the porter didn't see earlier when she was bouncing naked on his knee, but whatever), and finally the Caliph demands to know what's going on. The Kalandars are wondering what they've gotten themselves into as well. The men gang up and demand to know what these girls are up to. The girls reply by summoning seven black slaves with swords and order them to tie the  men up together by the elbows. They'll question them before having them decapitated. The porter protests that he didn't break his promise...and Scheherazade stops.

Believe me, there was a lot of weirdness in the part I skipped over. Maybe it will get explained later, but not so far. I told you, this is definitely not the Disney version of these stories.

Moving along, Scheherazade continues on with NIGHT NUMBER ELEVEN.

So, the lady starts questioning the men; the Caliph tells Ja'afar to tell them who he is before something bad happens; Ja'afar points out that he earned it, which doesn't do wonders for his employer-employee relations. The lady starts with the Kalandars, and asks them some questions about who and what they are. It turns out that all three are princes from different countries, and each of them has a story about how he lost his eye and became a wandering mendicant. Coincidences are a big thing in these stories.

The ladies let the porter go, but he wants to stick around to hear the stories, which is good, since that's the point of this entire exercise. So, one of the one-eyed men steps forward and begins to tell:

The First Kalandar's Tale.

This guy is a prince, with a cousin who was born on the same day as him. The cousins grow up to be great friends, and one day while dipping heavily into the wine together, the cousin asks the prince to help him with something really important and not to stop him from doing it. 'No problem,' says the prince, and the cousin leaves, coming back with a veiled woman. He asks the prince to take the lady to a specific burial ground and go into a sepulchre (sort of like a tomb) and wait for him. No, that's not at all ominous.

The prince does what he's asked, and shortly after the cousin arrives, carrying water, mortar, and a trowel. He opens a hole in the sepulchre's floor, then digs through the dirt until he reaches an iron plate. Below it is a staircase, and he tells the woman to make her final choice. She goes in, and the cousin asks the prince to put everything back the way it was, including the flagstones on the floor so no one can tell they went down there. He'd been working on this place for a whole year in secret. He then goes down, and that is the last time the prince sees him. He bricks up the place as requested, still a bit tipsy from drinking.

The next day, the prince regrets what had happened, and wonders if it was all a dream. No one has seen the cousin, and the prince goes hunting for the sepulchre to no avail. He repeats this for a whole week, until he heads home to his father the Sultan (not the same sultan as in the previous story). On the way, though, he gets attacked by rioters; it turns out that his father's rulership was in the process of being demolished by a mob. The prince finds out that his father's vizier had led a rebellion and overthrown the sultan, killing him in the process. This is a problem for the prince, since he had accidentally put out the vizier's eye with an arrow some time past. Sure enough, the prince gets brought, shackled, to the vizier, who orders him to be beheaded. The prince protests that it was accidental, to which the vizier decides to do it to him on purpose, and puts out his left eye. He then orders one of his swordsmen to bring him out to the wastelands, kill him, and leave him for the animals to feast on.

You remember Snow White? Yeah, same thing here, although the one-eyed prince doesn't sing about it. But the swordsman, who had served his father, lets him go and warns him never to come back or they're both dead. So, the prince returns to his uncle's home, telling him about the coup. The uncle is distraught because his son (the cousin, remember?) has been missing for a while. The prince tells him what the cousin had done, and the uncle goes with him to find the tomb. This time, they actually find it, and break into the trap-door. Going down together, they run into some blinding smoke. Continuing, they find a saloon, with tons of provisions handy, as well as a canopy over a couch. The uncle checks out the couch, and there finds the cousin and his lady together and naked, but burned to a crisp. The uncle then spits in his son's burned face and tells him he got what he deserved. And on that note, Scheherazade goes to sleep, and you just know the king isn't going to leave it at that.

NIGHT NUMBER TWELVE, and Scheherazade resumes the story. It turns out that the lady wasn't just some cute thing the cousin picked up; it was his sister (also the prince's cousin). Yep, let's add incest to the stories, because why not? She must have been veiled up pretty well for the prince not to recognize her, since he would have known her pretty well. And no one in the palace seemed to be wondering where she was, being the uncle's daughter and all. But, there it is, and the uncle flat-out says that Satan got hold of them both and drove them to unnatural lusts for each other. Well, at least they're saying incest is bad. That's a good sign, even though you have had cousins married in a few stories prior to this. I suppose 'cousin-marriage' wasn't considered as bad as 'sister-marriage' back then.

So, the uncle adopts the one-eyed prince as his son now, and they put the tomb back the way it was, leaving the charred couple to their eternal embrace. When they get back to the uncle's palace, they hear the marching of armies, and the vizier who had taken the prince's eye is on the conquest kick, wanting to take the uncle's lands as well, thereby assuring no challenger to his ill-gotten throne. And he's hired a bunch of mercenaries, so he's got the upper hand. The uncle is killed (orphaning the prince once again), and the prince escapes by shaving his head and dressing up like a beggar, leaving the city and heading for Baghdad, where he fell in with the other two Kalandars and found the ladies' house.

His story impresses the ladies enough that they let him live, and then we hear:

The Second Kalandar's Tale.

This one was a prince as well, highly educated and well-known across many lands for the breadth of his learning. A far-off King wanted to meet him, so he went to sea and sailed for a full month to get to the land of Hind. Unfortunately, before they get to the king's palace, a huge dust-storm comes up, and an hour later they are surrounded by a troop of fifty horsemen, who don't answer to the King of Hind, and don't care that the travelers are his invited guests. They rob them blind (no, they don't put his eye out), and the prince is left out in the wilderness with most of his entourage killed by the bandits.

He manages to find a cave in a mountain, then sets out the next day until he arrives at a city. Unfortunately, it's not the city he wants to go to; in fact, it's run by one of his father's blood-enemies, so if he announces his presence or reveals his identity, he's dead meat. He takes up work as a woodcutter, since nobody in this city cares about his book-smarts. He ends up working as a woodcutter for a year.

One day, he starts digging up a tree but finds a copper ring attached to a trap-door. Under the trap-door is a (surprise!) staircase, and down there he finds a beautiful woman. She asks him if he's a man or a jinni, and tells him that she's been there for twenty-five years without having seen any man in all that time. She is a princess, and was kidnapped on her wedding day (to her cousin, of course) by a jinni who locked her up here and shows up every ten days for a tryst, keeping her well-fed and comfortable but imprisoned. She can summon him at any time by brushing up against an alcove in the cavern. She's not happy about it, and since he's not due back for another six days, she tells the woodcutting prince that he's got five days to stay with her, with the implied rewards therein.

They get to partying and carrying on, and after some drinking and fornicating, he gets the idea to take her away from this place. She says no, that he's going to have to be content with getting nine days out of ten with her, but the jinni isn't to be crossed. Princey-boy had a bit too much wine in him, because he starts bragging that he can take down a jinni, and that in fact he was an expert in doing just that. She argues with him that suicide isn't painless, but he gives the alcove a swift kick--

And Scheherazade ends it there. Another cliffhanger, and we're done with this post as well. At least we've got another jinni; it's been a few nights without one showing up. There wasn't much magic in these four nights, except for the witch-queen who got sliced and diced at the beginning of Night Nine, just a bunch of people running into a whole pile of weird coincidences. Oh, and sex, because that's a big thing in these stories. As you can tell.

So, that's it for this one; come back for the next one, where I'll close the gap between where I've read and where I am in these posts. I'm reading Night Seventeen tonight, so I'm almost caught up. I'm going to try to summarize the stories a bit better in the future, since these posts are quite long.

Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Worlds & Adventures, page 5

Yes, two blog posts in a single day. This one was planned; the first one happened because it came up unexpectedly.

So, we're moving on with world design. This page is actually just details on what the various letters and numbers mean. And since I've only got these three so far (starports, size, and atmosphere) plus hydrographics, this will give me a starting point to describing the worlds I've got. As I mentioned last time, there are 47 worlds in my subsector. Now, let's see what all these numbers actually mean.

First, starports. As I suspected, an 'A' port is the best one. It carries refined fuel, can do annual maintenance on a ship, can construct starships and local vessels, and has a decent chance of having a naval base (8+ on 2D), and a small chance of having a scout base (10+). These are the hardcore stations, the Utopia Planitia of Traveller.

'B' ports are almost as good, but they can't build full starships, just the local ones, and they have a slightly higher chance of having a scout base (9+). Naval base is still 8+ here. This would be Deep Space Nine.

'C' ports can install things on a ship and do basic repairs, but they don't have a fuel refinery, so any fuel you pick up here is going to be low quality and have a chance to damage your ship's engines. They don't have naval bases, but have scout bases (with refined fuel, so they're hoarding it for themselves) on an 8+.

'D' ports suck. They can fix or build anything, only sell unrefined fuel (except to the scouts, if they have a base on a 7+), and are generally poor quality. However, they're still better than an 'E' port, which is just a bare spot on the planet without fuel, facilities, or bases. 'X' means there isn't even a flat piece to land on, or at least no one has ever tried to do so.

Alright, that's the ports. Size is straightforward; multiply the number by 1000, and you have the diameter of the planet in miles. '0' is, again, an asteroid or planetoid complex, and the table goes up to 'C', which is a 12,000-mile diameter planet. You can't roll that on 2D-2, but if you want a bigger planet, you can certainly change the modifier.

Moving on to atmosphere, this table comes with some notes, because it's not a straightforward 'this is how much air you have' table. There are different types of atmosphere, not all of them safe. No atmosphere or trace atmosphere (0 and 1, respectively) basically means you're in a vacuum, so wear your vacc suit or die. '2' and '3' mean a very thin atmosphere, so you need a breathing apparatus to survive. '4' and '5' are thin, '6' and '7' are standard, '8' and '9' are dense atmospheres. You can breathe these without any issues. However, '2', '4', '7' and '9' are also tainted, which means that you need filter masks to deal with the natural or artificial pollution in the atmosphere. That's an important point; maybe the air is just filthy, or there's a lot of industry on the planet that pumps out pollution to the point that you can't breathe normally.

The last three lines on the table are 'A' for Exotic, 'B' for Corrosive, and 'C' for Insidious. Exotic means you need an oxygen tank, but you don't need a protective suit to survive. A corrosive atmosphere means you do have to wear a protective suit, in addition to the air tanks. If you're in an insidious atmosphere, though, forget it; just leave, because your protective suit is going to be melted in 2-12 hours. A world like that would either be a self-contained industrial complex where workers could stay indoors safely, or a world with alien life that can handle that kind of atmosphere. That might be fun to work with; imagine an alien species that breathes normally in an atmosphere that can melt a space suit in half a day. That would be one tough metabolism.

So, now that I know what these things mean, I can take a look at the planets I've rolled up so far and see what I have. Looking at the list, I have six worlds with a standard, non-tainted atmosphere. One of them, at 0602, has an 'A' starport. Its planetary characteristics so far are A569, which means it has an 'A' port, is about 5000 miles in diameter, has a standard atmosphere, and is 90% covered in water. That's right, I've got an entire planet that is basically the South Pacific. I wonder what its population will be.

And that planet down in the bottom corner, all isolated? It's an E351, so it's got a breathable, thin atmosphere, is only 3000 miles in diameter, and only has 10% water. Oh, that should be a fun place to put something interesting.

So, that hub at the top center with all those 'A' ports? Here's what they look like:

0401 A88C

0403 A656

0404 D575

0502 A9E4

0504 C596

0505 C310

0601 B346

0602 A569

0603 A434

0703 C200

0705 C9A5

0802 A100

Experienced Traveller players will be able to recognize the characteristics of these worlds at a glance. For those of us who aren't experienced, at 0401 we've got a waterworld with a dense atmosphere, roughly the size of Earth. At 403 it's a thin atmosphere, 6000 miles in diameter, and about 60% water. 0502 is big, at 9000, and that atmosphere of 'E' doesn't show up on the table, so it becomes a 'C'. Insidious. We have a great starport on a planet that has the deadliest atmosphere possible. I'll put that starport in orbit.

Moving on, that 'B' port at 0601 has a thin, tainted atmosphere, and it's not that big at only 3000 miles. But 0602 is that South Pacific planet I mentioned; I think I'll call it New Fiji. The one at 0603 is small, with a very thin atmosphere, and the last one, at 0802, is a bare rock in space with an awesome starport. Which is odd, because it doesn't connect to anything except a 'C' at 0703, which is just a bigger rock in space with no atmosphere. What is going on at that 'A' port that it needs to be that advanced? That will be an interesting exploration to attempt.

What else is there? That pair of lonely planets at the bottom middle with no jump routes are interesting. At 0510 we have a C868, and at 0410 is an E624. But the most interesting worlds, to me, are the 'X' ports (as in, no starport at all). Here they are:

0203 XAA9

0206 X467

0308 X766

0609 X333

We have a huge waterworld with an exotic atmosphere, a smaller world with hydrographics and atmosphere similar to Earth, a nearly-earthlike planet at 0308, and a smaller, thin-atmosphere world at 0609. There are bound to be some fantastic adventuring opportunities there. Of course, you have to figure out how to get to them; even though they are surrounded by worlds with starports, no one seems to ever go there. I wonder why...

Well, that's enough for tonight. We'll probably get more descriptions on the next page, which I'll get to shortly. In the meantime, time to let the imagination run wild on these worlds and see what we come up with.

Don't Let Perfect Become the Enemy of the Good

 So, about that rink update I mentioned the other day...

To be honest, I was disappointed. I mean, we built the thing twice. But I didn't get more than half the rink covered with actual ice, because I know there's a leak somewhere that's keeping it from filling properly. It sucks, and I hate it, and I was giving up for the year with promises to get it right next year.

However...

My son Tanner, to his credit, really, really wants to learn to skate and play hockey. He's never done either one, and he insisted that we could salvage the rink. And he was out there last night and this morning, shoveling off the part of the rink that had thick ice, slipping and sliding as he did so, but not giving up. So, I went out to help him, and wouldn't you know it, we did in fact clear off one side of the rink, and the ice is holding up. So, it's only half a rink, but it's better than no rink.

As I said, it's only half a rink, but as you can see, at least it's the full length of it. It's about twelve, maybe fifteen feet wide, so he's not going to be doing much turning, but he can start skating now. And once we'd cleaned it off, he got his skates on and gave it an effort. At first he could barely push off and keep his balance, but within twenty minutes he was doing much better. Big brother Ashton got the net out of the garage and put it on the ice, and as you can see, he's already practicing with a stick.

I don't have expectations that he's going to make the NHL (assuming it still exists in a decade), but I'm very, very proud of him. He reminded me of a very important lesson, one I should have remembered myself. When you insist that everything has to be just so, you often miss the good parts of what you've already accomplished. Tanner had a goal, and he made it happen.

We flooded the ice tonight so it can freeze overnight, and he'll be back out there tomorrow afternoon after mass. And once he gets the hang of skating, maybe his old dad will climb back in between the pipes and give him a target to shoot at. But no matter what, we both learned something important today.

The Thousand Nights and a Night, Nights 5-8

Salaam and good evening to you, worthy friends. Please, come closer...

Too close! A little too close! I--

Oh, sorry; flashback. It's time to follow the continuing adventures of Scheherazade's imagination, and I'm going to post four nights at a time until I'm caught up. Which will take a while, since I just finished reading Night fifteen. But it will happen.

So, when we last left Scheherazade and her psychotic wife-murdering husband, she had been just about to tell how the king told his vizier the tale of:

King Sindibad and His Falcon.

No, this isn't that Sinbad; he shows up later. This is a king who had a prized falcon and carried it with him everywhere and all the time. The story doesn't specify, but I wouldn't be surprised if the bird sleeps at night on his arm, too. So, the king goes out hunting one day, because that's what kings do, and challenges his huntsmen that whoever lets the gazelle jump over his head will be executed. Well, you know what happens next, right? The huntsmen point and laugh at the king when the gazelle swan dives over his head and runs away. The king calls a mulligan and chases the gazelle into the mountains. When he catches up to it, he lets the falcon finish the gazelle off and does hunting things to it afterward to package it up for the trip home. Being thirsty, he sees a tree that is dripping water, like melted butter. So he takes a cup and fills it up, offering it to the bird, which promptly turns the cup over and spills it. The king tries it again, with the same result, and a third time. Irritated with the vexing falcon, he thinks the bird is somehow defective, and he cuts off her wing with his sword. That's a bit extreme, don't you think? Especially since it was his favorite bird and all. So, they dying bird points with its remaining wing up into the tree, and the king looks up to see a whole bunch of snakes, dripping poison from their fangs.

Are there any snakes that actually do that? That seems a bit much. So, he takes the dead bird back with him, along with the gazelle. And...that's it, except for the king's wailing and gnashing of teeth, but that's pretty much standard for stories like this. And the other king (the one telling the story, not Sindibad) starts another story right away, telling his vizier the tale of:

The Husband and the Parrot.

Basically, this is a story in which the husband has to go on a long trip, and buys a parrot to leave at home to keep an eye on things and tell him what went on while he was gone. That's a pretty smart parrot. And of course, every husband who leaves his wife in these stories suffers the same fate: She cheats on him. Although this is the first of these adultery stories in which she's not with a black man. Variety is the key to good storytelling, after all.

So, the wayward husband returns from his business trip, and the parrot dutifully tells him that his wife entertained a young man every day while he was gone. Well, he's not going to take that sort of disrespect, and goes all Mike Tyson on her. After the bruises heal, the unfaithful wife figures that one of the slave-girls tattled, and interrogates them. One of them admits that the parrot was the culprit, and so as soon as the husband leaves on another trip (do they never learn?), she gets the slave-girls to set up a hand-mill right under the cage and grind whatever they can, sprinkle water through the roof of the cage, and run around the room flashing bright lights with a mirror into the cage. She could have put the bird under a sheet and hung the cage outside, but I guess she wanted to give the slave-girls something to do while she entertained her boy-toy.

The next morning the husband returns, and this time the parrot's got nothing to report except the stormy weather it experienced throughout the night. Since it was mid-summer and there was no storms, the husband thinks the parrot screwed up and kills the bird. Of course, it's only a few days later that one of the slave-girls tells him what really happened. So he lies in wait until the young fellow comes out of his wife's bedchamber, at which time he beheads them both like any sensible cuckolded husband would do.

What? Just me? Carry on, then.

So, that's the end of the king's stories, but the vizier counters with a story of his own. In Scheherazade's world, nobody can take any course of action without reciting a moral lesson in the form of a wild story. The vizier tells his king the tale of:

The Prince and the Ogress.

Well, that's encouraging; no jinni or ifrit this time around. So, a young prince goes hunting (like I said, it's really common), and his trusted (and totally not trustworthy) vizier sends him after a big animal (what kind is not specified, but how many big animals are there in the Arabian peninsula, anyway? Seriously, other than camels and horses, are there any?). The prince gets lost, but runs into a crying damsel. She claims to be a princess who fell asleep while part of a caravan and fell off her horse, being abandoned by the caravan's crew.

Okay, if he doesn't immediately figure out that she's a lying ogress, I'm done with him. Seriously, it's in the story's name! Besides, what caravan is going to continue on while the princess slips into a coma and falls off her horse? Come on! Of course, he isn't a complete moron, and sees right through--

Oh. No, he falls for it completely. Look, I'm a guy, and I'll be the first to admit that I'll pay close attention to a pretty face. But there isn't a woman alive that could make that story believable. This guy is an absolute idiot. She should just go ahead and eat him; the gene pool will thank her later.

So, the moron takes her on his horse, and as they are riding, they pass a ruined building. She actually calls for a potty break! Prince Moron waits while she disappears into the ruin, wondering what's taking her so long. Apparently constipation wasn't a problem for these people. Finally, he goes to find her, and stumbles across her looking much different. Spoiler alert: She's really an ogress, or a 'ghulah' in this story. In the footnotes, Burton compares her to a lamia, Lilith from Hebrew myth, and Baba Yaga. And she's telling her family about the succulent meal she just brought them. I hope they don't believe in 'you are what you eat,' because this meal will make them grossly stupid.

So, Prince Moron turns and runs like hell back to his horse and--what? He just stands there shaking while she comes back out (is she disguised again? I think so, but it's not made clear). She asks him what's wrong, and he says he spotted an enemy that he's scared of. And now her brains dribble out of her head, because she suggests he buy off his enemy so he can leave in peace. But no, this enemy wants nothing but his life. And then...seriously, this happens. The ogress, the demonic hellspawn that wants to eat him, tells him to pray to Allah, who will surely protect him. And he does. And, guess what? IT WORKS! She turns away from him and leaves! That's like a coach drawing up a play for the other team, letting them run it, and getting fooled by it! This is easily the stupidest story so far. I feel like I lost IQ points reading it.

Oh, but here's the best part. The prince gets home and blames the vizier for what happened to him, and the king executes the vizier! What?! What did the vizier have to do with it? He didn't summon the ogress from the pits of Hell and send it after the idiot prince! He's the one who was stupid enough to fall for the girl's story, not the vizier!

But, the vizier (the one telling the story, not the one who got beheaded in the story) thinks this is a story that will convince the king to kill the guy who healed him (remember him?). And lo and behold, it is. Somehow, that story convinces the king that the man who healed him from advanced leprosy is really a spy plotting his death.

So, the king summons the healer, who shows up expecting to get more rewards, and he's humming poetry and having a great time, praising the king in his songs. So, he comes to the king's throne, bows, and the king informs him that his reward for his service is to be executed as a spy. This doesn't exactly sit well with the healer, whose name is Duban, by the way. He protests, but the king is adamant, because he's as stupid as the prince in the vizier's story. Maybe that's why the vizier picked that story; it's important for the audience to identify with the main character.

Anyway, Duban tries everything to keep his head attached, but the king isn't having it. Finally, Duban acquiesces to his fate and asks permission to return home and take care of his debts and hand out his books on medicine. Oh, and he'll also bring the king a gift, a book of secrets that will allow the king to make Duban's head continue to speak even after it's removed from his body. This impresses the king, who agrees to Duban's request, because he's an idiot. So, Duban goes and does what he promised, pays off his debts, distributes his books, and makes funeral arrangements. See, I would have hopped onto the nearest camel and high-tailed it out of there. But Duban is wiser than I, because he comes back. Wait. Did I say wiser? I meant he's a moron, too.

Or is he? Because he instructs the king on what to do when his head is removed and put on a platter covered with a special powder. And then...slice! The head comes off, and they put it on the powdered platter, and sure enough, the head begins to speak, instructing the king to turn the pages and read three lines from each page. He does so, because he's still an idiot, even though the pages are blank. And, to the surprise of no one, the pages are poisoned, and the king's been moistening his finger to turn the pages, thus licking the poison, and he dies just before the head does.

Got all that? Good, because all that was the story told by the fisherman to the ifrit after shoving him back in the jar. Nested stories, remember? Oh, and that's the end of the fifth night.

Night six, and Scheherazade goes back to the fisherman, telling the ifrit that he's going to suffer the same fate because he threatened to kill the fisherman for the crime of letting him out of his thousand-plus-year imprisonment. The ifrit is still begging for mercy, even teasing a story of his own, but refusing to tell it unless he's released. Then he makes a vow and a covenant with the fisherman, promising that he absolutely won't kill him, and he'll even help him with his fishing since that's what caused all the trouble in the first place.

Bolstered by the promises of the totally trustworthy demonic and psychotic spirit-creature, the fisherman agrees, and the ifrit swears by Allah to do exactly what he said. Okay, so he's actually going to follow through on the promise not to kill the fisherman. Great! He opens the jar, and the ifrit comes out, then punts the jar way out into the sea. This does not boost the fisherman's confidence, and he literally pisses his pants, then reminds the ifrit that he promised Allah he'd be good.

The ifrit leads him into the wilderness beyond the city, and they find a mountain-tarn (a small lake). The ifrit wades in and invites the fisherman to follow him. When he does, he sees that he is surrounded by multi-colored fish like he's never seen before. We're not getting that story the ifrit promised, apparently. Can't trust an ifrit, can you? Altough the fisherman did, and now he's got some pretty fancy fish. The ifrit tells him not to fish more than once a day, and then leaves, without killing the fisherman. Okay, then.

Still with me? Good, because here is where the story gets complicated. The fisherman takes four of these fish and puts them in a bowl, then brings them to the king's palace as a gift. The king is just as impressed as the fisherman, because despite having been king of these parts for a long time, he's never seen fish like these. So naturally, he has them sent to the kitchen for frying, paying the fisherman four hundred dinars for the catch. Nice deal. Not the same as getting a princess for a bride, but then he's just a fisherman.

Meanwhile, the cook starts cleaning them and frying them, just like you're supposed to do with fish. But then a gorgeous young woman comes in through the wall, dressed to the nines, and starts talking to the fish about their covenant while sticking a wand in the pan. The cook faints, so she misses the part where the (cleaned, deboned and frying) fish raise their heads from the pan and reply, singing a song while they're at it. The girl flips over the frying pan and goes back through the wall, which closes up behind her. When the cook comes to, she sees the fish burnt to a crisp. So, naturally, she faints again. Because no one has ever burned multi-colored fish in a pan before. The vizier shows up, demanding the fish. So the cook tells her what happened, and the vizier slaps her around for making up such a ridiculous story.

No? Oh, he just sends for the fisherman to get more fish. He does, and the whole scene repeats again. At this point, Scheherazade ends her story for the night, much shorter than the previous night was.

Night number seven, and once again the girl with the magic wand makes the fish get up and dance in the frying pan before disappearing. This time, the vizier witnessed it, so he goes to the king, who wants to see it for himself. So the fisherman is summoned to get yet another batch of fish, and the whole scene starts all over again. Except this time, it's not a pretty girl that comes through the wall; it's a huge black slave (how do we know he's a slave? I don't know; it just says he is), who bursts in like the Kool-Aid Man and does the same trick with the fish before leaving.

So now, having seen it with his own eyes, the king is intrigued and wants to know more about these fish. He interrogates the fisherman (politely; he kept bringing him fish, after all) and finds out that the fishpond is only half an hour away from the city. So the king takes a group of men, and with the fisherman as a guide (who is now cursing the ifrit for putting him in this position), heads off to the mountain-tarn to see these magical fishes. And...now the wilderness is a desert? That's a lot of soil erosion in two days. But they find the tarn anyway, which none of them have ever seen before despite having lived all their lives in this region.

Having set his guards up around the perimeter, the king tells his vizier that he has a gut feeling that he has to figure out the mystery of this fish-tarn. He orders the vizier to guard his tent and pretend he's in there, sick, while he heads off somewhere (with guards all around the place; is this king secretly a ninja?) to solve the mystery. He changes clothes and takes his sword, and it's two days of a march before he finds a palace. Two days from the tarn? How does he know they even know about it, since he only lived half an hour away?

But, this being a fantasy story, of course he gets some answers. Of a sort. The place is deserted, and wandering around he finds that it's beautifully furnished and full of rich treasures. But he also hears a lamenting voice singing a dismal and depressing song. Looking around, he finds a young, handsome prince who is sitting on a couch...because the lower half of his body is encased in stone due to a curse. Naturally, the king wants to know how this happened, which leads us to the tale of:

The Ensorcelled Prince.

The prince tells the story of how he married his cousin (like I said, this isn't uncommon in these stories), and thought that it was a happy marriage. I'm sure that by now, you can figure out what's going on, and what she's doing, and who she's doing it with. Hey, the variety was in the last story, remember? Back to the usual. The slave-girls betray her secret, and he learns that she's been drugging his wine to make him sleep so she can go and have her fun. So, that night when she drugs the wine, he only pretends to drink it and fall asleep, then he follows her to the slave quarters of the city. We're talking slums here. She goes into one of the mud-brick huts, and the prince climbs up to a hole in the roof to see what's going on. Sure enough, she's shacking up with a 'hideous' black slave with huge lips, who is also a leper and a paralytic. Seriously? I mean, I've heard the phrase, 'once you go black, you never go back,' but come on! Is this prince that much of a loser in the sack? Or is she just into some really kinky stuff?

And get this: She's apologizing to the slave for being late! And she's running down her husband, calling him all kinds of ugly, asking the slave to forgive her and promising that she's only for him. And he's not buying it! And the cuckolded husband is still up on the roof, watching through the skylight (hole in the roof) as she strips off and begs for some food, which turns out to be rat-stew. Yikes. And then she climbs into bed with her leprous lover, which finally sets off the prince, who comes down and swings for the neck...and Scheherazade is done for the night.

One more to go today. And apparently, this prince sucks at swordfighting, because he missed the guy's neck, only slicing a couple of arteries. Oh, is that all? But the tramp wakes up (she fell asleep that fast? Before they actually did anything?), and the prince leaves. Seriously? He just goes home and waits for her to come back. And she does, not having seen who actually attacked them.

And in the morning, she comes in to their bedroom and tells him that she needs to leave for a while She's in mourning; her hair is cut, and she's wearing black. Then she recites a country song to him, saying that her mother is dead, her father was just killed in a jihad, and one of her brothers died of a snakebite, and the other fell off a cliff. Laying it on a bit thick, isn't she? Of course, this prince isn't as much of an idiot as the other one was; he knows she's lying. But he lets her go, and she builds a cenotaph and sneaks her not-dead-yet slave-lover inside to tend to him. Even without the 'close-buttocks game' action going on, she's still attached to this guy. This goes on for two whole years, until the prince catches her crying about her broken heart. He tries to get her to stop her mourning, but she threatens to kill herself. I would have told her to go ahead, but that's just me.

She keeps it up for a third year, when he catches her inside tending to her mute and impotent lover. Finally, he's had enough, and he confronts her and admits that he was the one who cut the slave's throat. He even draws his sword to finish them both off, but she just laughs at him. It turns out that she's a witch, and she curses him to be half-stone. Then she curses the entire city, turning the entire thing into the tarn...and turning all the people therein into fish, color-coded by their religions for convenience. Yep, every white fish the fisherman caught and handed over to the king to fry was a Muslim. Not satisfied with that measure of revenge, the nasty woman gives the prince a daily whipping just to remind him who's really in charge. How good was this guy in bed, anyway? Because that seems like a severe overreaction on her part.

So, the King (who was trying to solve the mystery of the fish, remember) asks how he can help his fellow nobleman out of this horrible situation. The prince tells him where the slave is holed up, and the king goes in to see the slave lying there, as he has for the past few years. The king stays hidden, watching when the witch comes to whip her husband once again. Then she leaves him, going back to the cenotaph. And after she pleads with her lover to speak to her, the king twists his tongue and lays on a heavy accent, convincing her that he can't speak to her because of how she is treating her husband and his subjects. He talks her into freeing the prince from his stony prison, and she reverses the spell and orders him to leave on pain of death. Then the king, still faking an accent in the darkness, pleads with her to freeing all the people and restoring the city as well. She heads off to do just that...

And the night ends, and so does this very long blog post. Tune in next time to see what happens next!

Random Thoughts from the Beautiful Island

First of all, congratulations to my father and his new wife, Gail. While I'm happy for him, I would also like to mention that a little advance warning might have been nice. Finding out a relative got married through a Facebook post might be very modern, but it's still a little jarring. But, he's seventy-seven, so he's going to enjoy the time he has left with someone he loves. Good on you, Dad. Here's some advice, though. When you're talking to your son days before you're going to get married, it's perfectly acceptable, even normal, to let him know. Just FYI.

Alright, where was I? Oh, right...Prince Edward Island. What in the name of God was I thinking when I dragged my family out here? I mean, I know it's winter and all, but holy crap, it's cold. I know, I know...the people in Saskatchewan and Manitoba are pointing and laughing at me as they defrost their dogs after they go out to pee. But still. Southern Ontario spoiled me, I guess. I'm just not used to this weather anymore. And I never liked cold to begin with. I can't even jump in a pool when it's less than eighty degrees. Ninety would be better.

It's not so much the temperature, which doesn't drop below -11°C at its worst. But the winds...dear Lord, the winds. I walked the dog for ten minutes and couldn't feel my face anymore. I had to check in the bathroom mirror to make sure I still had it with me. I didn't even bother walking the other one, because he just stared at me and let me know in no uncertain terms that he could hold it until spring if he had to. At least the older dog has a fur coat; Dexter, the beagle, is short-haired, and spends half of his days under a blanket cuddling with Momma. The rest of the day is spent barking at leaves blowing by the window.

The rink didn't work out. It's half-iced, but I'm certain there's a leak somewhere that is preventing the water from staying in long enough to freeze on the other side. I just can't find it. It's frustrating, but it's also a learning experience; we'll get it right next year.

I'm still struggling with finishing the Cameron Vail mystery; I hate doing rewrites for this exact reason. But I'll get it done at some point. I'm also working on another Meterra book, which I want to have done by the end of the month. However, we're almost halfway through the month, and it's not halfway done. More frustration.

I'm still reading the Thousand Nights and a Night; I'll do a follow-up post to cover a few more of the stories tomorrow. At three or four every other day of posting, I should be caught up by next Sunday. We'll see. It's a good read, no question. I'm enjoying it quite a bit, in fact. It's a very different cultural touchstone, one that I'm having fun exploring, even though there is no way on God's green earth I would ever consider becoming a part of that culture.

Oh, one more bit of news: We're getting chickens for the farm. We're going to start with six to eight, and maybe a rooster to keep them company. The wife wants to get an incubator and hatch some of the eggs instead of eating them. Hey, as long as we can make it work, I'm fine with it. It's too cold to do maple syrup right now, so that will have to wait. But we're going to start building the chicken coop as soon as the tools stop shattering in the cold.

So, a fairly random entry today. All kinds of different things going on. In reflection of that, I'm going to recommend my anthology of stories, A Universe of Possibilities, which includes ten stories in a wide variety of styles and genres. It's a good sampler of my work, and includes a Bard Conley story for the sci-fi fans, sort of a teaser for the whole book. Check it out, and enjoy!

Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Worlds & Adventures, page 4

Welcome back to another episode of 'Let's Build a Universe!' Or at least a small piece of a universe called a subsector. Last time I rolled up a bunch of worlds and starports and jump lanes. Today, I'm going to start figuring out what is on these worlds.

First up, a list of the characteristics that define a world in Traveller. They are: Starport Type (which we already have), Planetary Size, Planetary Atmosphere, Hydrographics, Population, Government, Law Level, and Technological Index. Only three of those are physical characteristics of the planet itself; the rest are based on who lives there.

So, to start our wall of text, each world gets its own notebook page. In these wonderful days of high technology, however, we'll go with a Word file. Or maybe a Google Docs file; that way, I can share it. Also, the worlds need names, and that information (along with their subsector and hex number) go on their pages. I guess I should name this subsector, then. Did I miss that step? I didn't see it mentioned in the first couple of pages. Well, let's call it...I'm going to hold off for now and see what kind of worlds are generated.

Other information that can be added to the world pages include radiation characteristics of the star. So, I guess we come up with that information on our own. I took a couple of courses in Astronomy, so I have a good basis to start from. We also need the terrains on the planetary surface (no Hoth or Tatooine here, where the whole planet is the same), unique encounter tables (and we get information on getting those together later on), flora and fauna, industrial or agricultural capacity (which we can get from the trade stuff in the second book), even maps of the surface. Oh, and one other thing, planets get the same number/letter strings as characters do, although they obviously mean different things.

Okay, so we start with starports. And I was right; A is the best, E sucks, and X means there is no starport at all. The type indicates how good the facilities are. So, an A would be like a major international airport with plenty of planes coming in, while an E would be like a farmer's field with a mowed section for a cropduster to land on. Don't bring one of those huge 5000-ton ships to an E; it might not be able to land safely.

Planetary size is just the planet's diameter in thousands of miles. It's used to calculate gravitation strengths and planetary templates for space combat. To calculate the planetary size, just roll 2D and subtract 2 from the roll, for a number from 0-10. If it's a zero, then it's an asteroid or planetoid complex. You can also get alternative world forms, which will be discussed later. Cool so far.

Atmosphere is next. This one requires more math, as you roll 2D, subtract 7, and add the planet's size. A planet size of 0 means you've got a 0 for atmosphere, regardless of what is rolled. Some atmospheres will require masks or protective clothing, and of course there's a table later. The suspense is eating me. Or is that the air?

Hydrographic percentage is just how much water there is. Or, in some cases, other liquids like ammonia, depending on the atmosphere. Again, roll 2D and subtract 7, then add the size. A size of 0 or 1 means no hydrographics, period. Oh, and if the planet's atmosphere is 0, 1, or higher than 9, subtract 4 more from the hydro roll.

So, that covers the physical characteristics, and we're done with the page. But of course, I need to actually start creating these planets, so I'm going to do this part of it now. I'm also going to start that Google Docs I mentioned so I can keep track of everything. Let's see how it goes.

Again, I'm going to save time by using a spreadsheet instead of dice. I know, it's sacrilege. But the rest of the family is sleeping, and dice-rattling wakes people up. I'll put the results up for the next post before I go on to the next page.