Go to Part 1

The Empire of the Known Worlds, the established setting of the Fading Suns game, is described by HDI as “a futuristic passion play”. As they say, it is primarily a science fiction game, but one indelibly painted with broad strokes of fantasy, sociopolitical feudalism, horror, and ancient mystery. It is a world in which stories of “varied and exotic themes” can be told, but those stories are – by the very nature of the setting – of a dark tone. It deals with “grand themes of the human experience” with a main theme of “Seeking”, the “mythological role all heroes play: the knight on quest, seeking power to vanquish his enemies or the secrets of self-discovery. Success or failure on this quest is not as important as the insights learned while on it.”

In expanding the setting to include the Human Concordat I have been careful to maintain that central theme of “Seeking”, but I have also been reticent of the fact that the Concordat shifts the way in which that theme is conveyed. It is a brighter, better place than the Empire. Where the Empire operates in shadow, the Concordat is a place of light.

But both share the exploratory spirit. Where Emperor Alexius is dragging his feudal empire into a new age of renaissance and exploration, the Human Concordat is engaged in its pacifistic mission to reunite humanity (and using that term to not only include humans, but all intelligent species). The exploration of the Empire is a renewal, the exploration of the Concordat is a cleansing. The exploration of the Empire is focused on the individual and self-improvement; the exploration of the Concordat is focused on society as a whole and unified improvement. There is a difference of means, but not ends.

In choosing to add the Human Concordat to an existing campaign, or starting a new campaign using the setting, it is important to remember that you are shifting the focus and feel of the Fading Suns game. In doing so you will find that the Concordat, although changing the feel of the setting, also complements the Empire. Use not only the thematic similarities, but also the thematic dissonances between the Concordat and the Empire to your advantage in designing and supplementing your campaign.

Reflections on the Human Concordat

When I launched my Patreon campaign a couple days ago, I was overjoyed when it took less than three hours to hit our first milestone goal of $10 per blog post. I immediately sat down and started work on an article discussing what I refer to as the Principles of RPG Villainy. I said that $10 per post was the point where I could start dedicating more time to the Alexandrian and it was an absolute truth.

By the time I finished writing that essay, we were just $0.50 away from hitting our second milestone goal and banishing advertising from the Alexandrian forever.

I really can’t tell you how excited I am about what this means for the Alexandrian. We are on the road to nifty, and everybody reading this will benefit from that whether you can afford to become my patron or not.

Patrons pledging $1 or more per post already have early access to the Principles of RPG Villainy. The rest of you will see it on January 5th following the conclusion of the Human Concordat series.

$0.10? $0.25? $1.00?

… even the smallest of pledges can add up to wondrous things.

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.)