Go to Part 1

MORE WORLDS OF THE CONCORDAT

Altrua is also known as the “Homeworld of the Anima”. Much persecuted during the time of the Second Republic, the Anima discovered a jumpgate code to an uncolonized world. For nearly a hundred years it served as a secret gathering point for them – a place of safety and acceptance. Then, during the Fall, violence against Anima forced many to flee to Altrua. As their planet was threatened by discovery they sealed their jumpgate. Eventually contact was made with the Human Concordat, and the culture of universal acceptance and emancipation was extremely attractive to the historically oppressed Anima.

For unknown reasons the terraforming engines on this planet were calibrated to create massive equatorial hurricano storms. These storms, constricted by the terraforming engines, do not effect the northern and southern hemispheres, who have formed separate governments, each of which is represented in the Concordat.

This alien homeworld was undiscovered at the time of the Fall. Later discovered by the Human Concordat, the complete and unadulterated freedom the Entreri have enjoyed as members of the republic is an excellent example of the Concordat’s tolerance. The Entreri themselves are extremely intelligent, telepathic, over-sized rodents with opposable thumbs. Famed for their curiousity they have popularly been nicknamed “raccoons”, a name which they seem to embrace wholeheartedly.

Established at the very end of the Second Republic, the terraforming engine on Colony was never finished. Largely desert the planet’s population is centered in a huge biosphere near the equator. The planet has become a center for the study into terraforming technology – the one true secret which remains, as yet, unmastered by the Concordat scientists.

The world of Binary, as the name implies, orbits two stars. This notable feature meant that Binary managed to establish itself quite successfully as a tourist trap. From these roots Binary quickly grew, and is now considered the entertainment capital of the Concordat.

Also known as “The Chain”, the seven worlds of the Seven Pearls are most notable for their arrangement in jumpgate travel – strung out, one after the other. They are Lyonesse, Leicester, New Salisbury, Exeter, Cambridge, Suffolk, and Carlisle. The Seven Pearls have developed a certain homogeneity of image, despite the fact that they are politically quite separate. Since they have joined the Concordat, they have become known for their financial and political power.

Like the Empire, the Concordat has also been forced to deal with barbarian worlds whose jumpgates have reopened onto their space. The four worlds Norjken, Rampart, Bastion, and Owre are collectively known as the “Hinterlands”, providing a military buffer between the various barbarian powers and the Concordat. This was the acknowledged “frontier”, and is popularly known as a rough, dangerous place with a slightly uncivilized edge.

Centuries after Sartra’s reforms brought the Concordat out of the Dark Ages contact was again made with the Vau when the planet Geneva was rediscovered. Today Geneva has lived up to its namesake by being the primary seat of the diplomatic efforts between the Concordat and the Vau. Although the Vau are still withdrawn from human affairs, their relationship with the Concordat is far more cordial and refined than it has ever been before in human history.

Go to Part 5: The Concordat as Campaign Setting

Go to Part 1

In considering Richard II and Richard II: Thomas of Woodstock we continue to struggle with the question: Which came first?

In the case of Richard II we know that the play was definitely written by August 29^th, 1597, when it was entered into the Stationers’ Registry. (It was first published later that year.) Internal evidence has suggested dates ranging anywhere from 1592 to 1596 for its composition, but common consensus is that Shakespeare used The First Fowre Bookes of the Civil Warres by Samuel Daniels (written in 1594 and published in 1595) as one of his sources and conclude that the play was most likely written in 1595 or 1596.

For R2: Woodstock, we have no external evidence of a date. The style, genre, form, and even politics of the play have all been used to suggest a date in the late 1580’s or early 1590’s. (If you see a movie featuring primitive video games and the threat of nuclear war in a “ripped from the headlines of today” style, chances are you’re watching a movie from the early 1980’s.) More recently, however, a great deal of interest has been given to stylometric studies which attempt to pinpoint the play’s use of language in relation to general linguistic trends. (If you see a movie with people talking about bumping off the big cheese because he’s all wet, you’re probably watching a movie from before 1960.)

In 2001, Macd. P. Jackson published “Shakespeare’s Richard II and the Anonymous Thomas of Woodstock”, presenting a fresh stylometric study of the play which suggested that the play must have been written after 1600.

For example, Jackson looks at the number of feminine endings in the play (verse lines with 11 instead of 10 syllables):

Moreover, the percentage of feminine endings within blank verse lines would be thoroughly anomalous in a play composed around 1592 or 1593. Some basic data was meticulously accumulated by Philip W. Timberlake for his study entitled The Feminine Ending in English Blank Verse (1991), which covers plays 1580-95. […]

Timberlake shows that George Peele’s The Old Wives’ Tale is the only undoubted play by Robert Greene, Thomas Kyd, Thomas Lodge, John Lyly, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, or George Peele, in which the percentage of feminine endings, on a strict count, rises about four, and in The Old Wives’ Tale it is only five. […] Most of the many anonymous plays yield single-figure percentages. Those with 10 percent or more are A Larum for London (10), Soliman and Perseda (10), King Leir (11), Alphonsus Emperor of Germany (11.5), John a Kent and John a Cumber (14), Jeronimo, Part 1 (19), Sir Thomas More (21), and Woodstock (21). […]

The high proportion of feminine endings in Woodstock — and the play is remarkably homogeneous in this regard — strongly suggests that the verse belongs to the seventeenth century, when many dramatists were making quite liberal use of this metrical variation.

Such arguments are meticulous. Unfortunately, many of Jackson’s conclusions are based on excluding Shakespeare’s work during the 1590’s specifically because his was the style which would later be widely imitated:

Only one play considered by Timberlake, namely Sir Thomas More, employs feminine endings as frequently as Woodstock, and only five others approach this rate, with percentages of fourteen or more. Three of the five are by Shakespeare, who is obviously not a candidate for the authorship of Woodstock.

In other words, 4 out of the 6 plays which contain such a high percentage of feminine endings pre-1600 were either contributed to or written by Shakespeare. Shakespeare was leading the pack, and if one considers Shakespeare to be a viable candidate for writing R2: Woodstock, then not only is the confidence of Jackson’s thesis badly damaged, but his research actually contributes substantially to a very different picture which is being painted by all of the evidence we’ve considered:

The Two Truths of the authorship of Richard II: Thomas of Woodstock.

Go to Part 4

Originally posted on September 17th, 2010.

Over the years I’ve written a number of essays about roleplaying games here which people seem to find nifty. These include stuff like:

• D&D: Calibrating Your Expectations
• Three Clue Rule
• Node-Based Scenario Design
• Don’t Prep Plots
• Xandering the Dungeon
• Dissociated Mechanics: A Brief Primer
• Opening Your Game Table
• Rules vs. Rulings
• The Art of Rulings
• The Art of Pacing
• Hexcrawls: A Guide
• Game Structures in RPG Design
• 101 Curious Items

As I stare into the dusk of 2014, however, I’ve come to the realization that due to changes in my professional life over the past year my ability to commit time to creating this kind of niftiness has dwindled away. I’ve tried to keep the Alexandrian active with a combination of reviews and archival material and briefer posts that I refer to as “Thoughts of the Day”, but it’s not quite the same.

The absence of the nifty has also not gone unremarked. I’ve received a lot of e-mails and comments from people wondering why they’re not seeing the longer, more insightful articles on the Alexandrian. The answer, unfortunately, boils down to time as a resource: I work as a freelance writer and editor and, over the past couple of years, I’ve had to scrabble a lot harder to find that work.

Some of the stuff I’d like to have the time to show you:

• Thinking About Urbancrawls
• Art of Rulings 2
• The Railroading Manifesto
• Factions in the Dungeon
• So You Want to Be a Dungeon Master?

But I’ve been working on “Thinking About Urbancrawls” since the beginning of 2013 and I’m still not sure when I’ll be able to finish it under my current model.

Which is why I’m asking for your patronage on Patreon: With your support, I’m hoping to be able to spend less time scrabbling and more time bringing the nifty back to the Alexandrian.

MILESTONE GOALS

For those of you unfamiliar with Patreon, the way it works is that individuals pledge small, micro-payments to support creators. Individually these pledges may not represent a lot of cash: Maybe you’re only contributing $0.25 per blog post here at the Alexandrian. Collectively, however, this support can make a big difference: If, say, 100 people all donate $0.25 each, then I’m making $25 per blog post and for a 1,200 word post I’m suddenly making enough that I don’t have to make a decision between editing another magazine article or writing something awesome for the Alexandrian. I can do the awesome thing every single time.

As a creator at Patreon, you can also set Milestone Goals that show what you can do with certain levels support. Remember, these are collective levels of support: Even a tiny contribution from you can add to a pile that makes a huge difference for everybody. Here are the goals I’ve currently set:

THE BARE MINIMUM ($10 per post): It may not seem like a lot, but this is the point where I would be able to focus a lot more of my creative time on the Alexandrian. It’s the point where we all get a lot more nifty stuff each month!

NO MORE ADS! ($25 per post): I would dearly love to de-clutter the Alexandrian. If we can hit this goal, I’ll remove all of the Amazon and Google ads from the site. The only ads that will remain are the ones advertising my own books.

SO YOU WANT TO BE A DUNGEON MASTER? ($50 per post): This extensive series would consolidate a lot of the GMing advice I’ve written over the years and add to it. The result would be a step-by-step practical guide that focuses not on world-building or character creation or any of that ancillary stuff that often gets discussed in GM how-to guides. It would be all about the core skills of being a Game Master. To do it properly, though, there are some literal expenses (like maps for the tutorial adventures). At $50 per post, I’ll be able to pay for the maps and other graphics that will make this series a reality.

ALEXANDRIAN RPG SCENARIOS ($100 per post): At this level, I’ll be able to spend more time developing full-fledged RPG scenarios and posting them to the Alexandrian. (These wouldn’t be fully-polished professional products. It would be stuff like The Egyptian Incursion and The Ruined Temple of Illhan: Fully developed adventures presented in a more casual style.)

PLEDGE REWARDS

The other thing I can do at Patreon, however, is offer specific rewards for people pledging certain amounts: As I say, every little bit counts… but nobody can deny that larger bits are even better.

PLEDGE $0.25 (THANKS!): You are amazing! Thank you! With your permission, your name will be added to the Patron page at the Alexandrian.

PLEDGE $1.00 (EARLY ACCESS): Not only do you have my enduring thanks, but you’ll get early access to everything posted at the Alexandrian. How early? A full month or as soon as I finish writing it, whichever comes later. (It will probably end up being the latter more often than not.)

PLEDGE $2.00 (CURIOUS ITEM CLUB): Thanks + Early Access and you become part of the Curious Item Club. I’ll send everyone in the club the description of a custom magic item, cypher, artifact of the ancients, or other curiosity each month.

PLEDGE $3.00 (HANGOUT CLUB): Thanks + Early Access + Curious Item Club and you’re part of the Hangout Club. Once each month, I’ll hold a Q&A session via Google Hangouts (at a time of my choosing). What will we talk about? I have no idea. You’re the ones asking the questions! (The session will last 1 hour or until it gets awkward, which ever comes first.)

PLEDGE $5.00 (ARTICLE REQUEST): Thanks + Early Access + Curious Item Club + Hangout Club and I’ll write an article or review about a specific topic or subject you choose. (Subject to approval.)

PLEDGE $10.00 (WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY A GAME?): Thanks + Early Access + Curious Item Club + Hangout Club + Article Request and I’ll run a 4-hour RPG adventure in my current open table campaign for you after your first 3 months of sponsorship and once per year thereafter. (Expect groups of 3-6 made up of other players at this sponsorship level. Games will be played via Google Hangouts. If you set a monthly maximum, the frequency of this reward will be prorated accordingly. Reasonable efforts will be made to accommodate your schedule.)

PLEDGE $25.00 (MONTHLY GAMES): Thanks + Early Access + Curious Item Club + Hangout Club + Article Request and I’ll run a 4-hour RPG adventure in my current open table campaign for you every single month. (Expect groups of 3-6 made up of other players at this sponsorship level. Games will be played via Google Hangouts. If you set a monthly maximum, the frequency of this reward will be prorated accordingly. Reasonable efforts will be made to accommodate your schedule.)

As a final note for those unfamiliar with Patreon: In addition to setting your contribution level, you can also set a monthly maximum. You’ll never be charged more than that monthly maximum.

THE FINAL PITCH

Is stuff like the Three Clue Rule and Node-Based Scenario Design worth $0.10 to you? $0.25? $1.00? Even the smallest of pledges can add up to a patronage that will allow for the creation of wondrous things.

BECOME A PATRON FOR THE ALEXANDRIAN

The appreciation I feel for the belief and support you have in my work is beyond my ability to express. Thank you.

(And to quickly allay some fears: Features like “Thoughts of the Day”, “Check This Out”, and the like aren’t going to be disappearing from the Alexandrian. You’ll still get to hear me blather on about Star Trek’s Prime Directive or ponder the application of Three Point Plotting to RPG scenario design. But that kind of interstitial content won’t be paid content at Patreon: What our patrons will be supporting are the long-form essays, the in-depth reviews, and the awesome game resources.)

Go to Part 1

WORLDS OF THE CONCORDAT

Although the Concordat sprung up out of the seed of the Ten Worlds it has since expanded far beyond that, encompassing in its modern form a total of thirty-three systems and thiry-one planetary governments. They are a widely varied lot, but all are bound together by their ideological commitment to the virtues of the Concordat.

Originally known as Alhera this world was the brightest and best of the original Ten Worlds. Under the leadership of House Britannia it was one of the first worlds to join the Concordat and became the capital of the new government. Following Sartra’s disappearance and assumed death it was renamed in honor of him. Today it remains the shining star of the Concordat – it’s communities are ergonomically designed and architecturally splendid, with plentiful parks.

The technological hub of the Concordat, Cyberna has earned the nickname of “Chrome World”. Its politics are dominated by the massive interstellar conglomerates which control the vast majority of business throughout. The vast majority of this world is rocky wasteland, and so its cities are tightly compacted bunches of skyscrapers and apartment complexes with the occasional archipelago, all built around technologically-assisted agricultural hubs.

In many ways a showpiece of the justice and idealism which the Concordat represents, Kyreen was originally the homeworld of the K’i’Reen, an insectoid race who was displaced onto reservations during the time of the Second Republic. Few of these reservations were located in the worlds which are now the Empire of Known Space, but in the Concordat they were much more numerous. The more liberal ideals of the Concordat restored their homeworld to them in 4615. The K’i’Reen opted to remain members of the Concordat and share their planet with the humans already living there. Since the K’i’Reen live primarily below the surface an interesting relationship has developed between their revitalized civilization and culture and the human settlements which still dot the surface.

 Unan is a generally unremarkable place. With a fairly even division between industry and agriculture it is one of those rare planets which moved beyond the specialization of its early colonial days and became a largely self-subsisting community. Despite this, however, Unan has distinguished itself as a major tourist attraction as a result of the daily meteor showers. The entire Unan system is full of debris which is constantly peppering the upper atmosphere, creating impressive light shows in the night sky. These displays are particularly impressive near the equator and this fact, combined with the large, peaceful, equatorial seas of Unan, has lead to several booming resort towns and floating gambling complexes in that area.

When it was first explored during the early years of the Second Republic, Mecca was known as Milton – a minor colonial world with poor resources. About two centuries before the Republic collapsed, however, vast archaeological discoveries began to be made on the planet. Many, if not most, of these discoveries were prominently Anunnaki gargoyles. As the fame of these gargoyles spread their religious significance turned Milton into a major pilgrimage site. Eventually Milton changed its name to Mecca and became a major center of Church politics.

After the beginning of the Dark Ages, a council of clergyman formed an organization known as the Cathedrals of Mecca. Although this group recognized that the true center of Church power rested elsewhere, they also recognized the practicality of their current situation. The Cathredals of Mecca became the de facto leaders of the Orthodox Church for the Ten Worlds. They were one of the loudest and most influential of the anti-Sartrans, but eventually lost their conservative battle. Today Mecca remains the last true bastion for religious fundamentalism. The Cathedrals of Mecca still maintain control of the Orthodox Church in Concordat space (although how this will change now that the gates to Holy Terra have been reopened remains to be seen), and the vast majority of Meccans still adhere to the Orthodox faith.

Poa’pal and Tua’kal are two planets which circle a single star in an identical, but opposite, orbit. When they were discovered during the Second Republic it was widely believed that they were artificially placed in their orbit by the Ur races, for reasons unknown. They were each home to an identical species, one of which referred to themselves as the Poa’pal and the other as the Tua’kal according to archaeological records. When they independently discovered spaceflight they also discovered their other half. Religious doctrine apparently convinced the two species that the other was the source of evil and war ensued. By the time humans arrived on the scene, the two species had already wiped each other out. Poa’pal and Tua’kal became colony worlds. Today they are proud members of the Concordat, under the rule of a single, joint government.

The three worlds of Barre, Jandi, and Ayto are collectively referred to as the “Heartland”. The Heartland is the source of the majority of the agricultural output for the Concordat, and is also one of the more conservative regions of the republic, with a particular focus on traditional (or “Sartran”) virtues. Surprisingly, however, this conservatism does not spread to their religious convictions – which are generally nonexistent, and usually non-Orthodox even when they are.

Progenitor, like Mecca, once was possessed of a different name: Lonbette. Once a fairly successful colonial world of the Second Republic, Lonbette fell into backwater savagery during the Dark Ages after its jumpgate was sealed. Then a generation ship from the time of the First Republic appeared in the system and colonized the world. Their civilizing presence restored not only the technological foundations of the world, but formed a strong central government for the world. Eventually their jumpgate reopened, and they found themselves in direct contact with the Concordat, which they quickly joined.

During the Dark Ages four planets (Adde, Polyani, Hannal, and Jelen) bound themselves together and sealed off the rest of the universe. Unlike many worlds which followed their course these four managed to maintain a high level of technology and pushed towards not only maintaining, but improving the technology they had inherited from the Second Republic. Unfortunately, this zeal for progress was ultimately their downfall. Using their own terraforming engines as a basis for experiment they made leaps of massive discovery, but eventually their experiments caught up with them. The terraforming engines on three of the planets began to seriously malfunction. Adde, Polyani, and Hannal became known as the Fallen Worlds as their populations were driven into exodus on Jelen. Billions died, but those who survived renamed their new homeworld Haven.

 Go to Part 4: More Worlds of the Concordat

Tagline: Very clever? Indeed.

The first question which must be addressed here is: Why is The Very Clever Pipe Game so expensive?

Those of you unfamiliar with Cheapass Games are probably doing a double-take. Expensive? But, Justin, you listed a price of $7.50! Did you leave a couple digits out or something?

Nope. Cheapass Games has earned itself a cult following in this little industry by producing highly intriguing game concepts on cheap materials. Instead of packaging their game in cardboard boxes, with glossy cardstock, and customized playing pieces, they present it in a handsomely decorated white envelope, with playable cardstock, and expect you to provide your own playing pieces (haul out that Monopoly or Sorry box from the closet and use the pieces from that). As a result they can charge a fraction of what other companies would for the same games, while still maintaining a level of professional quality (crisp artwork, clear presentation) which many others in this industry should aspire to.

So $7.50 is a little bit out of their normal price range (which seems to average in the $4-5 range). The reason is simple: The Very Clever Pipe Game features some highly detailed, computer-rendered art. They need a glossier cardstock for the images to be effective. Plus there are 120 cards in the deck (more than normal), so that adds to the cost as well.

But what is this game? I’m glad you asked. Let’s take a peek at the caption text: “Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’ve seen pipe games before. But not like this one.”

What’s different? Again, I’m glad you asked. The Very Clever Pipe Game, at its first level, is like every other pipe game you’ve ever played: Each card is marked with white and black pipes. One player is “white” and the other player is “black”. They play cards in an alternating sequence, with each player attempting to “close off” a pipe sequence of their color (while, obviously, preventing the other player from closing off pipes of their color). They do this by connecting the pictures of pipe on each card end-to-end (by matching color) until they can apply an end-cap or loop the pipe around on itself. In other words, if you imagine water flowing through these two-dimensional pipes, and that water has no place to escape, then the pipe is closed off. Closed off pipes are removed from the game, and the player with the most cards at the end of the game is the winner.

That’s Level One: “Basic Pipes”. But then The Very Clever Pipe Game adds three more levels. (Excited yet?)

Level Two is known as “Basic Fields”. In the background of each card (behind the pipes) is a field – think of it kind of like the floor of the factory through which these pipes are installed. There are “light” fields and “dark” fields, and once again the players take one of each. Playing in alternating turns they attempt to form closed sets of fields by surrounding one of their fields (which can, of course, spread across multiple cards), completely with fields of the other color. A closed field is removed, and like with the Level One game, the player with the most cards at the end of the game wins.

Moving on to Level Three: “Pipes & Fields”. Basically you follow all the old rules, but you mix-and-match players between playing pipes and fields (you can now have up to four players in toto).

(At this point there is also a Level 3.5, which is basically a team variant for Level 3.)

Finally, Level Four: “Deck Tuning.” In the first three versions each player was dealt a hand of 20 cards from the 120 card deck. These are shuffled and hands of five cards are dealt off the top of each individual deck (and its from this hand that you play your cards). At this level, you are dealt a much larger deck at the beginning of the game (depending on how many players are playing). You then strip this deck down into the 20 card version you will finally play from.

(And, actually, there’s a Level 4.5 as well: “Playing for Keeps”. Which is exactly what is sounds like. This version has my favorite line in the entire rulebook: “Players have all the time in the world to assemble their decks. They pick from whichever cards they own, even duplicates, and bring their pre-built decks to the game. If they’re particularly clever, they will pick a single extra-powerful card, use 20 copies of it, and win every time. Particularly clever, in our opinion, because it means someone had to buy 20 copies of this game.”)

And that’s the game. How does it play? Addictively… like so many other Cheapass Games. The first weekend I cracked this game open, my family just kept cycling back to the gaming bar in various pair-ups to play it over and over and over again (my deck is looking a little ragged). Honestly, most of us found the basic pipe game to be the most fun (but the mix of fields and pipes made for some absolutely fascinating diplomatic relations in four player games). It was easy to learn the additional levels, because each tends to add only a single layer of complexity (while adhering to all the rules of the levels before it). Even if you don’t like the advanced options at all, this is probably the finest pipe game you’re going to find. The artwork, computer-generated as I mentioned, is simply wonderful.

Even if The Very Clever Pipe Game is a slightly more expensive Cheapass Game, it is still worth every penny and more.

Style: 5
Substance: 5

Author: James Ernest
Company/Publisher: Cheapass Games
Cost: $7.50
Page Count: n/a
ISBN: n/a

Originally Posted: 1999/10/23

Fifteen years later, this game still periodically cycles into my rotation as a very pleasant diversion. Its primary limitation is that it’s best with only two players, which somewhat limits its utility for me. (I frequently have difficulty getting as much play out of 2-player games as I would like.) If you can find a copy, though, I still recommend it.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.