Schrodinger's Review

So, Endzeitgeist posted his review of Sexual Predators over on his blog.

There's a few things to say about it, so I'll just dive right in...

Apparently, not having the numbers on a map is a big deal to virtual tabletop gamers.  I knew about secret doors, labels saying "this is a trap right here", and obvious icons like the nuclear hazard symbol, but didn't know that an unnumbered map was even more useful to those folks.

But now I do thanks to Thilo's review and Sexual Predators has an unnumbered Crimson Dwarf map as of last night.  FYI, I'm not so high up in my emerald tower of tentacles that I won't listen to fans of my work.  If you guys want something, first ask me if I can provide it before cursing at the darkness.

Next, I'd like to discuss the title.  Yes, Alpha Blue is a sexual game, Predators is the name of the movie I was referencing and showing in the cover image, so Sexual Predators seemed like the perfect fit.  Indeed, I was also trying to be provocative... but not actually offensive.

For one, the main adventure's antagonist actually is a sexual predator, and the PCs struggle against him and what he represents.  Any RPG title that mentions dungeons or lairs or keeps is inevitably about entering someone else's home, slaughtering them, and stealing their belongings.  I get it, there's a reason we don't title scenarios "Home Invasion Butchery & Theft."  That's an ugly thing to dwell on and we have a host of rationalizations to assuage any negative view of our selves or our characters' actions.  Nevertheless, that darkness is in there.

Sure, there's some deeply unpleasant, not to mention morally repugnant, things associated with "sexual predators;" however, like most English words and phrases, there are a variety of meanings.

Here's the "sexual predators" wiki page and it mentions the really bad stuff like human trafficking.  But it also mentions having to hunt for your sex partners or habitually seeking sexual situations that are self-serving or exploitative.  And it's not always "toxic masculinity" displaying "problematic" behavior towards women.  As we all know, the female of the species can be deadlier than the male.  So, the title is apt in several regards.

I just want to make it clear that when I titled that Alpha Blue scenario Sexual Predators, I wasn't trying to pull off a Tournament of Rapists.  That's a line even I don't want to cross.

Lastly, Endzeitgeist posted his review of Sexual Predators on rpg.net yesterday morning.  Since then, the listing on rpg.net has disappeared, reappeared, and occasionally disappeared with no explanation. When I check the review page (like just now), it shows up.  But the main page shows there are no reviews for Friday, that OSR reviews will resume on Monday.  Likewise, there's no thread in the review board of their forum.

So, it's like the Sexual Predators review both exists and doesn't really exist on rpg.net.  Hence the title of this blog post, Schrodinger's Review.

I'll end by mentioning the continued polarization of the entire world that seems to increase every single day.  It's gone far beyond politics.  It's in everything, and I don't think we can ignore it any longer.  It's gone from existential crisis to palpable atmosphere of fear and hatred and irreconcilable differences.

While I'm fucking sick and tired of it, I can't simply pretend that it'll go away on its own.  Deep, foundational divisions don't get better over time, they only get worse until substantive repairs are made.  And I don't see that happening anytime soon.

VS

The Last Alpha Blue Supplement (softcover walk-through)

I'm in full-Dad mode, but the twins are sleeping and my other dozen and a half children are having their swimming lessons and whatnot.  So, here's a peek at what's inside The Last Alpha Blue Supplement...

You can only get this little baby on Amazon.com!

Enjoy,

VS

p.s. Here's some bonus content just in case you're one of those spacers who likes free stuff.

Sexual Predators PDF

I'm pleased to announce Sexual Predators is live on DriveThruRPG!!!

I put everything I had into this one (uh, I mean... Zoltar Khan Delgado put everything he had into it).

It's what you've come to expect from an Alpha Blue publication... advice, options, artwork, random tables, and a plethora of scenarios (including a real space dungeon)!

In a couple weeks, Sexual Predators will combine with Kobayashi Maroon to form The Last Alpha Blue Supplement softcover over on Amazon.com.

And then it's onto the next chapter in my RPG life... Cha'alt.  However, there will always be a special place in my heart for sleazy scifi.

If you get a chance, please write and post a review!

VS

p.s. Speaking of sleazy scifi, remember this?

Last Piece of the Puzzle

I don't know what other creators do, but these days I like the last thing I write for a big project to be the introduction. 

That might sound counter-intuitive, yet there's method to my madness!  Saving the intro for last allows me to encapsulate the whole in a snapshot.  If I wrote the introduction at the beginning, it would not be a true reflection because all my writing is organic, evolving as it goes.  Whatever I planned on day 1 is not what happens by day 35.

Without further ado, here's a sneak peek at the introduction for the Sexual Predators PDF (available next week) that will soon be included in The Last Alpha Blue Supplement softcover (available just after Thanksgiving)...

So, you purchased this book.  What now?  Well, ideally, you'll use what's in here to create your own simulated reality of starships, lasers, and alien droids with spectacular boobs - far, far away from the mundane world we all know and hope to escape.  

Immersion is key, after all.  However, don't be fooled into thinking that an immersive experience has to be serious or boring and tedious.  We should take immersion seriously, yes.  But experiencing a different reality can be done while ad-riffing off the seat of our pants, quick and dirty hot-takes on what it's like to walk into a nightclub with space disco blaring and reptilian bounty hunters trying to fill out TPS reports before their Zith Lord master comes back from the restroom.

What's new in this PDF (or softcover book combined with Kobayashi Maroon)?  As always, the solar winds of change keep me on my toes.  Just when I think I have the geo-political and social construct models of the entire universe figured out, a Ta'arakian monkey-lizard alters the time-lines, crosses the space-lane streams, and poops in the Purple Prizm punch-bowl.  

The Federation is cracking down on all manner of sexual activity in hopes of creating an egalitarian socialist utopia as inclusive, diverse, and harmless as possible.  The Federation is recruiting hundreds of new planets, and they've learned you'll catch more flies with honey than vinegar.  Rather than threatening to destroy their world if they refuse to join, it's just so much easier to simply promise them free education, health care, and emotional support animals.  I mean, who wouldn't want a college degree, trips to the doctor, and cuddly kittens with zero personal responsibility?  

The economic plan behind all of this?  Tax the rich, tax the dwindling middle class, and redistribute all the wealth to these newly-established worlds.  Of course, after several years of prosperity, those new planets become old planets which have to pay for newer planets joining the Federation.  And so it goes...

Where was I?  Oh yeah, it's a lack of sex bringing everyone down.  Federation scholars believe that decades of sexual freedom has led to unhealthy levels of filthy klorians, which, in turn, give rise to independent thought, anti-authoritarianism, individualism, free-speech, and slack (self-serving, rather than merely lazy).  Clamp down on the free love and what do you get?  Social scientists have run extensive studies and the data reveals that sex-starved citizens are more docile, trusting, obedient, prone to outrage, and self-censor themselves so as not to offend anyone else in the Federation (comprising sextillions of lifeforms).

That means there's a random hooking-up tax, casually dating tax, booty call tax, glory hole tax, random strangers meeting in a bar tax, ordering a pizza for the sole purpose of getting it on tax, the boss wants his secretary to come into his office for a private chat tax, and so on and so forth.  Ten standard months of sex-based taxation have caused sexual relations among non-committed lifeforms to plummet.  And what little government-approved sex is doled out goes to either long-term relationships or is divided between marginalized groups like the 17th Gender Coalition and citizens who are only interested in sex with Zepe the cyber-prawn.  

It's harder to get a piece of ass in Galaxy 5 than templars worshiping the blue god Viagra!  

And yet, there are points of light in the darkness... Open rebellion against the Federation has caught fire with the outer rim territories.  The Ta'andor galaxy formed its own Deplorable Republic.  The space station of lust Alpha Blue just told the Federation to go fuck itself.  

Unfortunately, the rest of the known universe is still very much under the Federation's thumb.  Everyone is being monitored constantly, and not only monitored but graded on loyalty to the Federation's ever-changing standards and practices.  Those wanting to do their own thing are considered dangerous pseudo-intellectuals, infidels (depending on how much the Federation is cozying up to the Interstellar Caliphate this week), and even space Nazis by those without any sense of history or decency.

If you can stomach the betrayal of everything our forefathers fought and died for, as well as, yet another cold shower (also taxed), then keep shuffling along with your head down and gray bowl of NPC conformity porridge outstretched so the Federation can reward your unwavering devotion with three brand-new fruit-tastic flavors... bubblegum peach, watermelon cherry, and grape prism plus!

Yeah, totally worth it.

______

The Last Alpha Blue Supplement

I'm Kickstarting yet another Alpha Blue project so I can afford to put in tons of original full-color artwork and have dynamite layout and cartography by none other than Gold ENnie winner Glynn Seal of MonkeyBlood Design.

The first PDF is already out - that's Kobayashi Maroon (the one that includes the Blue Balls Tracker).  The second PDF I'm working on now, that's going to be called Sexual Predators.  Combined they will eventually be published as a single softcover called The Last Alpha Blue Supplement.

There's a discount for ordering the softcover if you back the PDFs.

What's it going to have?  All the usual suspects - prose, advice, optional rules, campaign setting, scenarios, random tables, and fantastic artwork (maps too, if we hit the stretch goal).

This is the final supplement I'm releasing, so I'm pulling out all the stops.  Check out the Kickstarter and be sure to tell your friends about it.

VS

p.s. That's a work-in-progress of the cover for Sexual Predators.