Heinlein's Rules

Robert Heinlein is recognized as one of the Holy Trinity of science fiction writers, alongside Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. Myself, I've only read one of Heinlein's books, Starship Troopers. It's one of my favorites, but I've just never gotten around to reading anything else of his. I'm not sure why. I like science fiction, and Starship Troopers is a seminal work, but Heinlein's work has never been on my radar.

But he is known for giving the best and most valuable advice for aspiring professional writers, advice that was condensed into five rules that were first published in an obscure volume, 1947's Of Worlds Beyond. This was a book about how to write science fiction, with contributions from several big names of the day: E.E. "Doc" Smith, A.E. van Vogt, Jack Williamson, and John W. Campbell Jr. himself, the godfather of the 'men with screwdrivers' style of science fiction that came to dominate the pulps in the late 1930s through to the 1960s.

But the most important part of the entire book was contained in an essay Heinlein contributed to the collection, "On the Writing of Speculative Fiction." Some people consider these rules out of date, or just flat-out wrong. But for decades, writers who have followed those rules have had more success than those who did not.

So, the rules are simple enough:

1. You must write. Insanely obvious, and yet it shuts a lot of aspiring writers down; it's very easy to think about writing a book, but actually sitting down at the computer and doing it is something else. And a lot of people simply stop right there and just keep dreaming.

2. You must finish what you write. Again, obvious, but even more difficult to follow than the first rule. I myself have about seven unfinished things sitting on my hard drive, whether it's because I lost interest, or because the idea didn't work as well as I thought, or I just plain forgot about it. I'm going to get these finished at some point, the sooner the better. But finishing a book is a terrifying thing for a lot of people; it's easy to keep writing and adding to the book, but at some point you have to actually type 'The End' at the end. Not necessarily literally, but the book does have to finally be finished if you want to publish it.

3. You must not rewrite except to editorial demand. Harlan Ellison, the great science fiction writer, added a line to this rule: And then, only if  you agree. This is the most controversial of the rules, without question. There are those who swear that editors are absolutely crucial to the writing process. There are others, such as Dean Wesley Smith, who flat-out ignores editorial advice outside of typos and grammar corrections. To him, an editor's job is to proof-read, not mess with the writer's vision.

I've had some experience with that, in a non-professional capacity. Years ago when I was an 'aspiring' writer, I was part of a local writer's group. Basically, it was anywhere from eight to twenty people sitting around and reading bits of what they'd written, then accepting criticism and editorial advice before going home, redoing the piece, and never finishing it. I was working on a series of books, a fantasy series that may yet see the light of day. And it was a fantastic series. Not 'fantastic' as in Lord of the Rings-quality work, but fantastic in the literal sense, where incredible, imaginative things were happening. At the time, I planned to write these long epic stories in three stages: a one-page outline of the book, then a one-chapter-on-a-page skeleton, then fleshing it out to full chapters. I was on the second stage of this particular book, and I had a scene which took place underwater with a lot of crazy action. A few people in the group protested that it was unrealistic, and urged me to tone down the ridiculously outlandish elements. To my shame, I listened, and the story was diminished. I lost interest in it, and while I still remember the basic outline, I haven't even thought about writing it in years.

I'm not saying that an editor would do that kind of a hatchet job on a book, but the most important part of a book is the author's vision; if it doesn't feel like you wrote it, the audience will sense that, and something important will be lost.

4. You must send your work to publishers. Once the book is written, trust it and get it to the markets. Today, there's indie publishing through Amazon and others to make this step very easy, but not everyone wants to go that way; some people are chasing that big publishing contract. Well, you can have written the most magnificent sequel to Gone With the Wind or War and Peace, but if it just sits on your hard drive, you're not going to make any money for your hard work. But this is a terrifying step for a lot of people, one that can shatter them. But without it, there's no money to be made, and no audience to read it.

5. You must keep it on the market until it sells. If you get rejected by the first publisher, don't throw your work away in despair; send it to someone else. In indie terms, just keep it available for sale. I'll admit that my books aren't tearing up the sales charts, but I'm not taking them down unless it's to make a change of some sort (usually fixing typos that I or someone else finds). Eventually, the market will be there for them. For those who prefer the traditional model, keep sending it out. There are plenty of authors who were rejected by dozens or scores of publishers before someone finally bought the book and made insane money on it. Ever hear of The Hunt for Red October?

So, those are Heinlein's Rules in a nutshell. And, according to Heinlein (and Smith), every successful writer follows them. Why not join them?

Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Worlds & Adventures, page 32

More information on animals; we've had almost as much information on alien animals as we have on alien worlds so far. 12 pages on world/sector design, and 9 on animals. This page gives us a table on animal sizes and weaponry, as well as an additional one for the extreme critters. Let's take a look.

Basically, you roll 2D and consult the table to find out how big the animal is, how hard it hits, what its weapons are, and whether it has any natural armor or not. The second table just expands those categories for rare circumstances.

There are modifiers to this table from previous sections, like terrain and planetary size, as well as major modifiers for herbivores (-6) and carnivores (+6). Those mods only apply to the weaponry and armor, though.

Each category is rolled separately, so you could end up with a 100 kg animal that hits for 2D, has claws and teeth, and thick skin like jack armor. There is a lot of variety to be found with all those rolls.

The thing I like about this system is that it reminds me of the Hero System method, where powers and such are split into two parts: the mechanics, and the effect. It allows for a lot of creativity, while keeping the animals reasonable and logical, as befits a science fiction game. In fact, I think I'll come up with three different alien animals using these tables, all from the same ecosystem. Let's see what we get.

First, the world. I'm going to pick Tycho from my Hub subsector, since it's literally a hunting reserve. To refresh, its world profile is A569453F. Very high-tech, not too big, and lots and lots of water. Since its a hunting reserve, I'm going to say that it's generally a tropical world, with the equator being the hottest part but also being a straight water-band around the planet. The few land masses are closer to the poles, where they are still warm, but not boiling hot.

Good. Now, the main hunting preserve is going to be similar to sub-Saharan Africa, with lots of tropical forest and jungle to tromp around in hunting for trophies. That's going to limit the creature sizes, since jungles get a -3 to the size roll. That's okay, though; creatures don't have to be big to be dangerous.

So, let's roll up critter number one. I'm going to create one herbivore, one carnivore, and one omnivore. We'll start with the prey. A roll of 7 with a -4 DM for jungle gives us a 3, which is an intermittent herbivore. It has no special attributes (a roll of 3 on the 'other' table), so let's get to the size and weaponry table and see what we get. Again, there's a -3 to the size roll. A roll of '4' is modded to a 1, which means on a scale of chipmunk to elephant, we're looking at a chipmunk. It weighs about 1 kg. It can only take 1D of damage before going down, and it does -2D when it attacks. So it's probably not going to be doing that very often. It's a herbivore, so its weapons take a -6 DM. And I rolled a 4. Which takes us down to -2, except the table only goes down to 1, which means...a roll on the special table below. That's a 1D roll, giving me a 3, which equates to...blade. This helpless, tiny chipmunk has claws like a blade. Sure, it's not going to do much damage with its -2DM size modifier, but still. For armor, I rolled an 8, which reduces to a 2 (herbivore), which means no armor.

So, while I had 'chipmunk' in mind, the razor-sharp claws have me thinking of the Vorpal Bunny from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. But that would be silly. Let's see...

Okay, so this little creature is arboreal, which explains the claws. It actually eats the bark off the trees that it lives in, which means that the trunks will tend to be smoother. So, it developed these wicked talons to assist in climbing, which happen to help it fend off predators as well. Of course, it's still got the brains of a chipmunk, so it tends to run from trouble. Just don't corner it. It's called...a rastinet. It's got four legs and two 'arms' to help it with the climbing, and it collects fruit and nuts. It's got a thin, whip-like tail that helps with climbing and balancing, but is useless in a fight. It's got a thin layer of gray fur over its body, but the tail is bare. And it moves like a squirrel on a coffee bender.

Not too bad. Next up, the carnivore. It's a killer (roll of 8, modified by -4 for terrain). And it's a mini-pack animal, with 1D for number encountered. A '4' for special abilities gives it nothing. The size roll is a 10, modified to 7, which means a 100-kg critter that can take a few hits: 5D/2D. No wound modifier for its size, so we move on to natural weaponry and armor. This roll is a 4, which is bumped to 10 because it's a carnivore, and that means claws and teeth. Armor is a 3, modified to 9, which is no special armor.

This is basically a land-shark the size of a panther. It's a mindless eating machine that will attack anything that comes near it. And it's fast, moving at double the normal speed. Like the rastinet, it's going to be arboreal, although that will be more for moving quickly around the jungle. It can also move rapidly along the ground on its six legs, four of which it uses when attacking, leaving the back two for balance. It's a hairless beast, allowing it to stay cooler in the tropical heat. Rastinets are a light snack for this beast; it prefers bigger prey. No wonder the rastinets are so fast and small; they can scamper up to the high tree branches where this thing can't get to.

I should name this, shouldn't I? Let's call it... an agreeta. That sounds carnivorish, doesn't it? Sure. So, the agreeta is probably the big prize for the hunters. It's tough, it's fast, and it's always eager and ready to rip your intestines out and munch on them in front of you.

Finally, the omnivore. I'm going to move this one to the ocean instead of the jungle, since the planet is 90% water. There are no terrain modifiers for the ocean, so we get clean rolls. The first roll for type is a '4', which is an eater (2D). So, it's a small herd. For special abilities, we get an 11, which is a flyer, with a size mod of -6. It moves at ordinary speeds. A flying herd creature that doesn't go too fast, and eats anything in its path. For size, I rolled an 8, which modifies to a 2. It's not a lot bigger than a rastinet, and it can take 1D/1D of damage, doing -2D on its own. Its weapon roll is a 6, meaning 'teeth,' and flyers don't get armor rolls.

So...we've got some sort of bird. Let's call this a beriteen; it's got a beak, but it also filters its food when it dips into the ocean, straining out the plant and animal life. It's like a duck, in that it can land on the water and swim around, or it can float above it all gracefully while swooping down to grab a mouthful of seawater. It might have some natural enemies in the ocean, like Tycho's version of a shark. They don't fly in huge flocks, sticking to smaller family groups. Their plumage is mottled white and blue to camouflage them against the bright sky. They are named after the funny sound they make.

So, that's a good starting point for some native Tycho creatures. Let me know what you think in the comments.

If science fiction is your thing, take a look at my first science fiction publication, Bard Conley's Adventures Across the Solar System, which is a collection of ten linked short stories. It's available in paperback and e-book formats on Amazon right now!

Another Teenager in the House...

Yesterday was Tanner's thirteenth birthday. We now have two teenagers and one autistic child in the house. Pray for us.

It's a challenge, no question, but we've been through it once already. Of course, the first teenager was definitely less challenging than the new one. I'm told that girls are far more challenging than boys, and that we've gotten off light compared to others.

Yeah, right.

It was a fun birthday for him; he actually woke up with his alarm at 6:30 in the morning, a miraculous feat on its own. He then demanded to be identified as 'Teenager'. He even got ready for school without fighting with me, and was quiet enough to let Mom sleep. At school, his French class threw an impromptu party, and he had his regular horseback lessons after school. He then had a friend over for a mini-party at home.

His friend gave him quite the birthday present: A wood-carved Baby Yoda from The Mandalorian. I wish I had a picture of it handy; it was very well done. He also got a basketball net and NHL21, which he's been asking for for quite a while. At least it's better than Call of Duty...

His cake was themed; it was that 'Among Us' game that is super-popular that I've never heard of in my life. Honestly, the cake reminded me more of the old Simon Says electronic game than anything else. I guess I'm just old and out of touch with the hip stuff today.

So, Happy Birthday to my favorite middle child, and congratulations on surviving this long. It was touch-and-go there a few times, but you made it. next, let's see if you get to sixteen.

Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Worlds & Adventures, page 31

Another page? Sure; we're coming to the end, and I'd like to get it done at some point. We continue with animal definitions, and the carnivores. There are two left to learn about: The sirens, and the killers. Here we go.

The sirens are, as I surmised earlier, the Venus fly-trap creatures. Instead of just trapping their prey, they lure them in before trapping them. Whether it's by smell or some other sense, they attract their prey and capture them before making a light snack of them. We also get a tease about a 'psionic' lure, although we haven't seen psionics yet. Methinks that subject will appear later in the book.

Finally, the killers. These are, as you might guess, straight-up killers that don't care what they're trying to eat, as long as they can chew it. Sharks are the example, to my complete lack of surprise. I suppose man-eating lions might fall under this category as well, different from regular lions. Ever see that movie Ghost and the Darkness with Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer? Maybe not. But those lions were definitely killers. Blood lust, mindless ferocity...yeah.

Our fourth animal category is the scavengers. There are intimidators, hijackers, carrion-eaters, and reducers. They either steal other animals' prey, or wait for the leftovers.

The intimidators are sneaky buggers who wait until someone else does all the work of catching food, then try to frighten them off and steal the kill. They're practically parasites. Coyotes are the example given, although one might be tempted to add 'politicians' to the list.

Next are hijackers. These are also kill-stealers, but instead of sneaking in and scaring the hunters by surprising them, they just bully them into leaving the food for them. The only terrestrial example they give is 'lion in a bad mood.' You would think that these would be intimidators, since they literally intimidate through size and strength. But I didn't write the book, so we'll just go with it.

Carrion-eaters. Vultures, obviously; they wait for something to die on its own, or they feast on the remains of another animal's meal. I wonder if hyenas would fit in this one, or in one of the other two categories.

Not the fourth one, though, which is the reducers. These are like bacteria and some vermin, critters that wait until even the carrion-eaters are finished before moving in. They'll even reduce the bones of a carcass.

And that's the animals. But, that's only half of this page. The second half of the page is devoted to 'events,' which also appear on the encounter tables. These could be animals, or they could be natural events, geographic or geologic in nature. The ones listed are just examples, though. Let's see what we have.

Ravines and precipices start us off. This is an obstacle to overland travel, which slow you down by a full day. If it's a close encounter (no pun intended), the lead character has a chance to go over said ravine or precipice on a 6+ roll, taking 1-6 dice of damage in the process. Ouch. If the characters are in a vehicle, there's an 8+ chance to go over. The driver's skill level is a DM, but if you're speeding, you take a -5 to the roll as well, which means you're screwed unless your driver is NASCAR-trained. Everyone in the vehicle takes 0-5 dice of damage on the way down. Also ouch.

Next up is a seismic quake, which is going to knock you off your feet unless you roll your strength or lower on two dice. If you can't stay upright, then you roll again; a 12 means you take 2D of damage. So, the odds of actually getting hurt during one of these isn't very high.

Meteor shower! Well, that's an interesting one. It's best used on airless worlds, since the odds of a meteor coming through a thicker atmosphere and hitting someone is very small; either it's going to be a tiny one that gets burned up in the air, or it's going to be a Deep Impact event. These showers have a chance of penetrating vacc suits, which would seriously wreck your day.

Chameleons are next; these are actually animals, camouflaging animals that are basically just rolled as normal, except you can't see them very well. It's a straightforward deal, but it can apply to any animal type. A camouflaged shark... there's a frightening thought.

Psionic assaulters? Man, they're really dropping the hints on psi-stuff, aren't they? Like the chameleon, these are otherwise rolled up normally, but you skip straight to the 'carnivores' section for these guys. Can you imagine a pack of telepathic wolves? That's worse than the sharkameleon. If your characters aren't ready for psionic attacks, they're automatically knocked out and take 2D+6 damage, which is going to scramble your brains. And these guys always attack with surprise, so you're screwed unless you've got some way to fight back against psionics.

Lastly, we have 'storms,' which are your typical thunder-and-lightning rain storms. Nothing special here, although it might be interesting to make these storms a bit more flavorful. Maybe it's acid rain as well as thunder and lightning.

And that's it for this page. But we're not done with the animals just yet.

Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Worlds & Adventures, page 30

Ah, finally! Definitions for the different categories of animals. This is going to be a useful section; hopefully, it includes examples from real-life animals to make it easier to visualize them.

First up, as always, the prey...I mean, herbivores. Now, we all know that an herbivore is an animal that eats plants. Well, Traveller extends that definition to include anything that eats 'unresisting food.' Including unresisting animals. As examples, anteaters and humpback whales (which eat ants and krill, respectively, and I'm having Finding Nemo flashbacks already) are included as herbivores because they eat 'unresisting animals'. Well, I'm sure the krill would resist if they could, but they are at a slight size disadvantage in that fight.

Subtypes come next, and we've got the grazers. These spend most of their time eating, and they're best defense is fleet feet. Some travel in herds, some are solitary. They can stampede, which can really wreck your day, and when they are forced to fight they get medieval on your butt. Examples are the antelope and the moose, although the aforementioned whale gets a nod as well, since it just swims around slurping up those helpless krill as it goes.

Intermittent. This is the one I wasn't sure about before. All it means, though, is that eating is not their full-time job. They're usually solitary, but not always. They'll run from bigger threats, or freeze if they're surprised. They might get violent to protect their territory or their babies. Examples are the chipmunk and the elephant. Well, that's a broad category. Although the elephant will run from smaller things, since nothing is bigger. On land. On Earth. Maybe elsewhere the rules are different.

Finally, there are the 'filters.' These guys don't move; the food comes to them. This is a long description, but it basically boils down to 'this eats whatever comes into its range.' The example they give is a barnacle, and note that most filtering herbivores that we know of are aquatic; they strain the water as it passes through them, sucking out the nutrition they require. They aren't going to be moving very often, if at all. The sucky part (sorry) for adventurers is that if they catch you, you're taking automatic 1D damage per 50 kg of the critter. They latch on to their adventurous prey on a 6+, requiring a 7+ to pull free. These are actually pretty deadly; imagine an elephant-sized barnacle. That would be horrifying. And awesome.

Next, we look at the omnivores. These are animals that don't care if the food resists them or not; they're like Mikey in those old Life Cereal commercials: They'll eat anything. The most obvious example is the bear, which will eat fruit and berries while hunting for fish and other small animals.

Gatherers are like the herbivores of the omnivore kingdom; they're a lot like intermittents, but they eat more meat. Raccoons and chimpanzees are given as examples. So, garbage counts as omnivore food. Yuck.

Hunters are the opposite of gatherers, being closer to the carnivore side of the animal equation. Baboons and humans are the examples given. I thought we were hunter-gatherers. We're just that versatile. I lean toward the 'carnivore' side of the argument, myself.

Then there are 'eaters.' These are the true omnivores, who will eat anything that has the misfortune of crossing their path, and they don't care what it is. They are Tom Petty fans who won't back down from anything. The example given? Army ants. Yeah, that's a scary thought right there. A swarm of insects that will turn a jungle into a desert. Now, make them bigger, and you've got a truly terrifying threat for your players to wet themselves over.

Let's move on to something less frightening: Carnivores. These are, simply enough, animals that eat other animals, almost exclusively. There are five types, three of which we'll cover on this page.

First up, the pouncers. Hiding, stalking and springing are the key components of this animal's style.  Obviously, cats are the example given. They're solitary, since it's tough to coordinate that sort of action. If they surprise their prey, it's an automatic attack; if the prey knows they're coming, they'll still go on a 9+. They're jumpy, though, and if they're surprised will take off like a cat out of hell.

Chasers tend to be pack animals, and will run down their prey in order to catch it. Wolves are the example here. Much safer than army ants.

Third is the trapper. They just sit back and wait for their prey to walk into their trap, then start dining. Most of them prefer their food dead first, which is a small consolation to the person who gets stuck. They're not fast, and they work alone, but they will go after anything that gets trapped, no matter its size. If the prey is surprised, they are trapped on a 5+ roll; it's a 9+ to escape, costing an endurance point each time you try. There's a DM of +1 for anyone helping the escape, but they can be trapped, too. Traps generally don't hurt; they just keep you in one place. The example given should be obvious enough: Spiders. Oh, and ant lions, but we don't see them nearly as often.

Next up: more animal definitions.

Life as an Island Writer

Living on Prince Edward Island is very different from life back in Ontario. For the better, in almost every respect. It's peaceful, friendly, relaxed...and there are some things you just don't see here that are, sadly, far more common on the mainland.

When helping a friend unpack at her new place, she mentioned that her boss had told her not to come in the next morning since he was taking some personal time. The reason? Because his cousin had been murdered in Charlottetown.

Now, obviously, murder isn't a good thing. I write about them in my mysteries, because it's always satisfying to find and arrest someone who is so black-hearted that they would commit murder. But it's not something anyone wants to encounter in real life. In entertainment, sure. But the real thing is not at all pleasant.

So unpleasant, in fact, that it's almost unheard of here. Thus far in 2021, this is the only murder on the Island. Last year, there was one in all of 2020. In comparison, 2019 was a crime wave of epic proportions, with two murders all year. I'm just saying, it doesn't happen often, you know?

In fact, PEI has the lowest crime rate of any province in the country. I looked up some stats on violent crime on PEI, and it's quite eye-opening. There were 1,071 victims of violent crime and criminal traffic offences causing death or bodily harm reported by police in Prince Edward Island in 2016. That's all year. Toronto can do that in a week. Hell, that's a Saturday in Chicago. But here? Peace, quiet, and relaxation. It's a great environment for writing.

Anyone who's read my Cameron Vail mysteries knows that they aren't set in a specific city. The first one was, originally, set in a major North American city, but I took those references out to make it more generic. Why? I don't know; it seemed like a good idea at the time. Cameron and Bill could be anywhere; the city isn't the main character to me.

But one thing is for sure: If I ever do identify the city they live in, it won't be Charlottetown. Otherwise, Cameron would be out of a job.

The Merry Month of May

One-third of the way through 2021, and it's been an interesting four months. No books published unfortunately; school was an absolute grind this term. Couple that with working in a bookkeeping/tax office at the same time, coming up to the April 30th deadline, and it's understandable but frustrating.

So, I haven't even come close to my writing goals this year. But tax season is done, I've got two courses left to finish my degree, and I'm over losing the last book that I was working on to a missing flash drive. I forgot about the back-up rule, so I'm paying for it. Oh, well. Life goes on.

Now, it's time to buckle down and get back to what I really love to do. There's just something about writing that feels totally amazing. It's that creativity, the knowledge that you're coming as close as we can to what God did in six days. Sure, it takes longer to write a book (although if I really pushed it, I could match that time frame), but the idea is the same. The writer is creating a whole new world, maybe not a gigantic, universe-spanning world, but a world nonetheless. And when it comes together, it's a great feeling.

I read a blog post from a site that I respect that talked about outlining a book. He stated that even writers who just fly by the seat of their pants need to outline at some point. I can see the argument, but I have to disagree with the idea that if you don't outline, your book won't be very good. The closest I would want to get to 'outlining' a book is to use a formula, the kind that has been successful for hundreds of writers from the pulps. The basic beats are the same in many of these writers' books, but it's how they present them that makes the books special. Lester Dent even wrote an article on how to write a 6000-word story using a consistent formula. It can be found here; it's a very useful and interesting article. Mind you, for me, 6,000 words is a really short story; I prefer longer types. Even my short stories tend to be closer to 10,000 words. But that's just my style.

But as for outlining, I've tried it before. And the thing I learned about doing outlines is that it takes away the creativity of actually writing the book. Now, for my books, Final Exam and The Chronicles of Meterra: Arrival, those did have a rough outline, the first because I started writing it back when I was about twenty, and the second because it was based on a gaming project I was working on, and I had specific points I wanted to get in there. But even then, the outline was only in my head, and it wasn't fixed in stone.

In the Beginning has an outline, too; it's the first eleven chapters of the Book of Genesis, from the Bible. There wasn't a lot of room to modify the plot there.

The rest of my books, though, were written on the fly, or 'into the dark,' as Dean Wesley Smith puts it. The best example of that was The Missing Magnate. I was inspired to write that the day I sold my first copy of Final Exam; one of the girls I worked with found out I had published it, and immediately grabbed her phone and ordered it in front of me. That was an indescribably awesome feeling, and I sat back down at my desk, and in between calls I started another book starring Bill and Cameron. I had no idea what was going to happen; I had no plot in mind, I had no concept of any kind. I literally just wrote the first thing that came to me: "So, you have an office now", and just went from there. I finished it in eleven days, no rewriting. The only change I made was to add another chapter in the middle to give more screen time to one of the suspects; otherwise, it was one draft, clean and ready to go. I just sent it off to my first reader (Hi, Mom!) and cleaned up a few typos and mistakes, and put it up on Amazon.

That's how the great masters did it back in the day (minus the Amazon part), and that's how others are doing it today. It's a fun way to write, and it's incredible to just let your subconscious, creative mind loose and see what it comes up with. Is it always perfect? No; I've scrapped a couple of books because they ended up being way over the top or just didn't work. But I've got seven books that were written on the fly, which is a pretty good ratio.

Anyway, that's enough of this rambling; this doesn't count as writing. It's time to get to work, so I'll sign off and see what my brain has in mind.

Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Worlds & Adventures, page 29

Oh, goody! A table of Basic Animal Characteristics! Yes, this is where we get more details on what these animals can actually do once you're run into them. The table gives us the four basic types and their subtypes, the chance that they will attack, the chance they will run, and how fast they move. Herbivores check their chance to flee first, then their chance to attack; everyone else gets the attack roll first. And they aren't likely to run anyway.

So, as mentioned before, herbivores are split between filters, intermittent, and grazers. We still don't have definitions for these types beyond what we can figure out from our own experience. Filters run on an 8+, intermittents on a 9+, and grazers are the skittish ones, running on a 5 or more on the 2D roll. Filters are only going to attack under certain circumstances; intermittents are quite unlikely to attack (10+), while grazers that stand their ground have a decent chance of fighting back (8+). Filters are slow, while the other two have double the normal movement rate.

Omnivores are gatherers, hunters, and eaters. Gatherers attack on a 9+, or run on an 8+. Hunters will attack on a 6+, but only if there's smaller prey (at least one member of the encountered party is smaller than the hunter); otherwise, they run on an 8 or more (at double speed). Eaters, to no one's surprise, attack on a 5+, and run on a 10+; their speed is either ordinary or double normal.

Next up, the carnivores: Pouncers, chasers, trappers, sirens, and killers. Pouncers, trappers and sirens will attack only if they have the element of surprise on their side. Chasers will only attack if they outnumber their prey. Killers will attack on a 6+. None are likely to run; pouncers will, if they themselves are surprised. Chasers and trappers flee on a 9+, sirens on a 10+, and killers on 11+. The speeds are interesting; pouncers are double, chasers are triple or double speed, trappers and sirens are either moving at a normal pace or don't move at all, and killers can double their speed.

Finally, the scavengers. They are hijackers, intimidators, carrion-eaters, and reducers. Carrion eaters will attack on a roll of 1 or more on 2D. Which is interesting, because they'll attack absolutely anything. I'm assuming there are some modifiers to the roll, because otherwise Traveller's vultures will be as aggressive as sharks. If by some miracle the carrion-eater doesn't attack, it flees on an 8+, as do the hijackers and reducers. The latter two attack on a 7+ and 10+, respectively. Intimidators attack on an 8+ and run on a 7+. All but the carrion-eaters move at double speed.

The way the varied speeds work isn't quite clear. The note at the bottom states that when an animal subtype has two possible speeds, roll 2D; on a 7+, the first speed applies; lower rolls get the second speed. But does that apply to the species in its entirety, or is it situational? I'm inclined to go with the species in its entirety, because of how the trapper and siren predators work. I'm thinking in particular of carnivorous plants like the Venus fly-trap; no die roll is going to get it to hike up its roots and high-tail it to safer ground.

So, that's a pretty useful page of information, already offering some variety within the animal types. Next up...whatever is on the next page.

Oh, I Want to Cry...

Sometimes, we forget certain things. Things that turn out to be important. Things that can prove to be very costly. Why do I mention that? Well, by an incredible coincidence, I just got to experience (again) one of those certain things.

My new Cameron Vail mystery is on a flash drive. I hadn't gotten around to backing it up onto the computer yet, since the computer is starting to show its age and I hadn't switched things over to the second computer. Well, my beloved little Garrett decided that my flash drive was a toy, and he's made off with it somewhere. And the best part is, being autistic, he has no way of telling me where it is, no matter how much I beg and plead with him about how important it is.

Which means it's gone until we find it.

There's more on the drive besides that book, of course. There's stuff that was on our old computers that we managed to recover, pictures from old vacations and the like. And I hadn't transferred it over to the computer yet. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Now, I'm sure it isn't lost forever; it's somewhere in the house, and it's not that big of a house. So, we'll find it at some point. Unless one of the dogs happens to find it and use it as a Milk Bone. Which has happened before, too.

It's on me, not Garrett; I'm the one who carelessly left it out on my desk instead of hiding it away. But that really isn't any sort of comfort. I just know that I want it back. In the meantime, though, I'll have to put that book on hold; I'm not going to rewrite it. I'll just shift gears to something else instead. Actually, I have an idea from a workshop I did recently, which might be fun to try. It's another mystery, of course; Cameron Vail is a busy detective. And I've got some fantasy ideas to work with, too. There's lots to write, so I'd best get at it.

I'll have another Traveller page up tomorrow, assuming I get the chance at the end of tax season...

Paradigm Shift

It's incredible to think of how much our lives have changed in the past fourteen months. And I'm not talking about COVID. No, I'm talking about how our attitudes toward certain things have completely changed. Things like sports. And movies. Pop culture in general, really.

I mean, the Oscars were last night. I'm not really a movie buff, but I love lists. And I can name just about every Best Picture winner of the 20th century. Including the ones that really didn't deserve to win. But I couldn't even name a single nominated movie from the past year. More importantly, I don't care; I watched maybe two movies that came out last year, and both of them sucked. I can't even name them now; they made no positive impression on my mind whatsoever.

And I'm not an isolated case; the Oscars set a new futility record for apathy, producing the lowest rated show they've ever had. Nobody was watching. And this is in a time when people are being forced to stay home, with nothing to do but watch TV. Hollywood hasn't just lost its glitter, it's been tarnished to an ugly green mess.

Sports is another example of this. The sports leagues are trying to explain away the loss of viewers, but every major sports league is plummeting in the ratings. Again, this is at a time when people have been stuck at home for over a year. It's the most captive audience in television history...and nobody is watching. The Super Bowl's ratings were dreadful, the lowest they've been in fifteen years. The NBA Finals were the lowest rated Finals EVER. They were getting more people to tune in during the 1970s. Baseball is also seeing lower ratings, though not as bad as the other two leagues.

Why is this happening? In a time when the vast majority of people are desperate for something to do to escape the boredom of being locked in their homes by governmental decree, why aren't people watching movies and sports? It's not even that they're not gaining new viewers who previously had better things to do; they've lost a lot of people who DIDN'T have better things to do in the past.

Well, a lot of people have found better things to do. Spending more time with their families, for one thing. I used to follow football religiously on Sundays, but I haven't for quite some time now. And my family is better for it. And I've cut way back on my movie watching as we get ready for the planting season, not to mention tax season at work is reaching crunch time.

People are looking for better things to do, and a lot have found them. Frankly, I think it's for the better. Ironically, in a time where we are separated from our loved ones and friends, people are getting closer as a result. It's as if we've started to realize what we've been missing for so long as we chased bigger and better things, things that didn't provide us with the happiness we wanted so badly.

It's a very significant shift, a reversal of a trend that has been growing for decades. It will be interesting to see the end result of this shift. People are rediscovering old values. I just hope it's not too late for society.