Nerdlife Five: Just Here For the Catgirls.
Sort of rushing this one but I have enough links for a post and I’m too caffeinated to sleep.
Quick fictional interlude: No idea where I’m going with this…
Zeps or (zeproru in Codteki) were difficult to describe in Terran biology terms. Seiko kept thinking of them as horse-dog-lizard-things. The nekoites had never figured out what planet the zeps came from or even if they were a natural creature at all or perhaps rather a genetically engineered animal creation of a distant alien race still completely unknown to the clans. The strange mammal-like reptiles had quickly become the low tech mount of choice on the rare niche occasions that such animals were called for. Zeps were intelligent, easily trainable and able to eat plants from a half dozen protein profiles. In addition they were tough, loyal to their handlers and had a nasty enough bite to fend off most local predators but their best trait (from the nekoite perspective) was that unlike Earth-horses, they responded well to being cryogenically frozen and could safely be put in storage aboard starships until needed planetside.
Of course getting them off the spaceship wasn’t always easy.
“Come on Fluffy. Easy does it,” Seiko crooned as he tried to lead the confused creature down the offramp.
World Building: Gas giants and habitable moons
Lot of heavy geek math here but still a fun watch for us soft scifi plebs.
Yakov Merkin on why the Pulp Revolution will win.
https://yakovmerkin.com/2017/06/16/why-the-pulprevolution-will-win/
Important piece of history
Here… fishy, fishy.
It’s big beautiful world full of wonder and surprise.
Treas… errr… Reason Magazine goes over Gary Gygax’s FBI records.
https://reason.com/blog/2017/06/15/dd-creator-gary-gygaxs-fbi-records-make
Skiltron Bagpipes of War
Starts a little slow but this one’s worth the wait.
Bradford Walker discusses the principle of simplicity in gaming. He uses WoW as his main example but then applies the same principles to tabletop gaming.
https://bradfordcwalker.blogspot.ca/2017/06/revealed-preferences-in-gaming.html?spref=tw
I do see some of this while say playing Aurora 4x (which is about as complicated a game as there is.) Fighters in Aurora are very effective, and extremely cost efficient but I don’t use them because it’s too much micromanagement and I’d rather focus my efforts elsewhere. Player attention span is also a resource in 4x games.
Steampunk Author and airship mechanic Jon Del Arroz on character voices and dialogue.
JimFear138 makes an compiling argument that Manowar is THE band of the Pulp Revolution.
http://jimfear138.blogspot.com/2017/04/manowar-is-pulp.html
“In much the same fashion, Manowar came out with a specific mission. They were going to play HEAVY METAL, they were going to sing about whatever the fuck they wanted, they were going to play fast and loud, and anyone who had shit to say about it could get fucked.”
Electric Cars bad for the environment?
https://theoldcontinent.eu/electric-cars/
Seems legit.
Of Wolves and Men 