Need This

Need this

Second stage complete! Now featuring all systems out to 15 ly from Sol.

Additional notes:

The green-colored rogue planet, Murray-Callahan, is the only unbound interstellar object (UIO) known to harbor life.

The blue links in the network are systems and routes that are claimed by the United Nations of Humanity.

The yellow links in the network are systems and routes that are claimed by the Ra'na InterGlobal Council.

The turquoise links in the network are systems and routes that are claimed by the Worldtribe.

Grey links are neutral and under jurisdiction of the United Spacefaring Sophonts Coalition, usually either crucial hub systems or systems with carefully managed native life.

I'm in the process of giving the Diaspora star map a much-needed aesthetic overhaul. It's turning out pretty well so far! Here's the first stage: up to 10 ly from Sol.

Some notes:

all stars (four and eight points) signify an individual star, colored according to its spectral type.

eight-pointed stars are the homesuns of sapient species.

stars with rings have at least one planet. green rings indicate native life present; red rings indicate prior terraformation by the extinct Hemeran civilization.

the two other markers, one white dot and one white dot with an angled ring, indicate rogue interstellar planets.

the map is arranged by right ascension (celestial X coordinate) and distance, so the +/- number above each system is its declination (celestial Y coordinate).

the arrows at the center indicate the directions of the galactic core and rim, using the symbols of Sagittarius and Orion, respectively (although this map is aligned to right ascension which means the plane we're viewing is actually almost perpendicular to the galactic disk)

@valantwynn DUDE

it makes me a little bit of sad to think that nintendo themselves will never look at CD-I Zelda with as much love as literally fucking everyone else on the planet

this is what happens when you name your pokemon before you know what it evolves into.

she still baby tho…

Send me to Mars with party supplies before next august 5th

Homebrew Mechanic: Earlybird Initiative

Because folks seemed to like my last write up for a combat systems, I figure I'd share one of my most enduring game mods.

I've tried SO MANY different initiative systems over the years, enough that I have pretty strong opinions on what makes a good one. My primary goal was to cut down on time that players spend waiting for their turns, as slow combat is one of the primary things that bleeds fun out of the sessions: Players who are bored waiting for their turn check out, which makes them slower and less decisive when the spotlight swings back around to them, this makes it longer for imitative to circle around and creates a feedback loop where player's attention becomes further and further taxed. I needed a system that did the opposite, kept everyone on their toes, engaged, and cooperative, as well as something that was exceptionally light weight.

Step 1: DM says "roll initiative", all players roll as normal, add their modifiers, but keep the number to themselves.

Step 2: The DM Calls out " twenty and above", and then every player who got 20 or above in imitative can take their turn in whatever order they wish, splitting up actions however they wish around each other in order to coordinate.

Step 3: Enemies who got 20 or above on their initiative go. Lair actions trigger.

Sep 4: DM says "Ten and Above", Repeat steps 2 and 3 with players followed by monsters, then again saying " Everyone else" for everyone who hasn't gone.

Step 5: If combat is still going DM says "Initiative resets" and everyone rolls their initiative shuffling combat positions , repeat until "how do you want to do this?" moment.

That's pretty much it. There's a bunch of little things you can do to speed things up (like only rolling initiative for important enemies while the rank and file have static initiative based on whether they're fast, medium, or slow) but largely this simplifies the logistics of having to keep up with combat to a few lighting fast beats. Everyone's engaged because they know their turn is only one or two steps away rather than forgetting where they sit in an ever shifting round-robin.

Literally every group I've introduced this to over the past three years has loved it to the point where they find combat run by other DMs painfully slow by comparison. I don't know what's a greater endorsement than that.