Tanager's Flight

 Cedar Sanderson's new book is available now!

All her stories are delightful.  Give her imagination a try.  I think you'll like it.

Game review: Weirdos

This is a review of the two related miniature skirmish war games: Space Weirdos and Sword Weirdos.  I have not played them yet (it's winter flu season here), but I have read the rules and watched several complete play videos by OldHammered.

Space Weirdos was published by Casey Garske in 2021, and clocks in at a mere 16 pages of concentrated goodness.  Sword Weirdos followed in 2023 due to popular demand and more play testing.  In addition to the different theme, Sword weirdos has a more mature, longer rule set, a whopping 24 pages!  This includes the front cover, back summary, FAQ, and play example.

Both games are intended for "skirmish" play.  That means you can play with as few as three or as many as a dozen figures on a side, and still have a good time on a small table in a reasonable amount of time.  They are slightly more complicated than a beer-and-pretzels games - perhaps cheese and sausage on crackers with a nice micro brew or a glass of wine.

Space Weirdos, as you may guess, uses a science fiction setting.  There is no built in setting, and you are encouraged to use existing models to mimic more expensive games.  It is also quite possible to mix and match genres, playing totally-not-colonial-marines against totally-not-space-marines, or not-that-xenomorph versus brown-coated-smugglers.  They're your playthings.  Use them however you want.

The basic system gives three actions to each figure, with each player activating one figure at a time, so there is very little down time.  Statistics are very general, such as move, shoot, melee, defense.  Each stat is rated in the size of dice to throw - 2d4, 2d6, 2d8, 2d10, or 2d12.  Buffs raise the size of the dice, banes lower it.  All rolls are opposed, with the game rolling 2d6 against skill checks.  This means there is always a chance, but higher skills generally win.

The more you out roll your opponent, the better, because the "to hit" roll is followed by a 2d6 damage roll.  If you double your opponent's score, you get a +1 to the damage roll.  Tripling it gives you a +2.  A low roll on the damage chart results in a counterattack, and only a 10+ results in a kill, so these bonuses really matter!

Movement and range are handled by 5" sticks, marked in the middle.  All movement is in a straight line, up to one stick per action.  You figure's movement rating tells how many actions can be used to move.  Very simple, very easy.  Ranges for weapons fire are line of sight, with some bonuses or penalties for over or under one stick distance.  Again, very simple, very easy.

Each player gets a number of command points based on the size of their force (75-125 points).  You use these tokens to activate special abilities, like dodging away from gunfire or counterattacking a charging enemy.  You don't have to designate a figure to be on overwatch - you just keep a command point handy, just in case.  An unused command point grants you a bonus to initiative for the following turn.

Equipment is very limited and very generic.  Generally speaking, your figure should be statted out for what it is actually carrying.

Here is where Sword Weirdos really differs - it has a much larger, less generic set of weapons, armor, and equipment to choose from, and all weapons have "maneuvers".  These abilities require the use of a precious maneuver point, which are also used for the generic abilities of all figures, just like Space Weirdos' command points.

Did I mention the psionic/magic system?  They're just skill checks like everything else.  There are also special leadership abilities available only to your leader figure.  There are special abilities you can choose for your whole force.  Normal figure can have up to 20 points of abilities and equipment, while the leader can have 25.

Sword Weirdos also fixes the one major problem in Space Weirdos - undead.  In Space Weirdos, undead are only killed on a 10+ damage roll.  In Sword Weirdos, they can be killed by accumulated damage, just like everybody else.  They just recover from damage (the staggered condition) automatically, unlike everybody else.  This is much more balanced.

If I write any more about this, you won't need to buy the game.  Go check them out - they're only $4.99 each.  Throw some money at this guy - he's produced a very fun little pair of games for you.

The fish story

I can't remember if I told this story here before, so here it is (again).

So there I was, West Berlin, January/February 1991. The Gulf War is on, and we’re out patrolling the site in 40 below (true reading, not wind chill) weather. Monday morning shift change comes along, and we have to inspect all the cars coming in. “Step out, open the hood and the trunk.” Inspect with mirrors and flashlights.

This one car comes up, and on the engine block I find… a fish. A rather large, whole fish. Just lying there, looking slightly surprised, as fish often do.

“Excuse me, sir. Is this your fish?” No.

“Have you ever seen this fish before?” No?

“Do you have any idea where this fish came from?” No!

So we called EOD (explosive ordnance disposal), and they came and blew up the fish.

Turns out, the guy’s buddy had gone fishing over the weekend. Having caught too many fish for their freezer, he thought it would be a hoot to put one on this guy’s engine block, so it would stink on his way to work. Except, at 40 below, the fish never thawed out.

Debugging code

This is a pretty good summary of the process of working on a large, legacy code project.  Even if it's one your past self wrote.  That guy's an idiot.  What was he thinking?

Pouring fuel on the fire

No not that one.  The serious one.

So, after thousands of girls reported being gang raped, the British police and government officials responded by raping the girls some more.

"The Venn intersection of Bezmenov and Orwell"

“As I mentioned before, exposure to true information does not matter anymore,” said Bezmenov. “A person who was demoralized is unable to assess true information. The facts tell nothing to him. Even if I shower him with information, with authentic proof, with documents, with pictures; even if I take him by force to the Soviet Union and show him [a] concentration camp, he will refuse to believe it, until he [receives] a kick in his fan-bottom."

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”  ―George Orwell,1984

I'm boosting the signal.  Bad Cattitude has the right of it.

A crisis of competence

“yes, the emperor has no clothes, but clotheslessness is a lifestyle choice and we should be welcoming and accommodating and tell him how stunning and brave he is and if you don’t you’re a sartorialist oppressor and need struggle sessions to show you the light now move over the emperor has some kindergarteners to read to”

Quantum Zoo

Here is a handy diagram I made of the quantum zoo from the Standard Model.  It doesn't include the two heavier "generations" of the massive particles (quarks, electrons, neutrinos).

e: electron (electromagnetism) (-90°)
v: neutrino (weak force)
y: photon (electromagnetism)
g: gluon (strong force) (holds quarks together)
u: up quark (nucleus, strong force, electromagnetism) (+60°)
d: down quark (nucleus, strong force, electromagnetism) (-30°)
W: W boson (electroweak force) (nuclear decay) (translates charge rotation) (± 90°)
Z: Z boson (weak force) (repels neutrinos)
H: Higgs boson (mass)

blue: matter
red: antimatter
green: force carrier

Note that particle decay involves a 90 degree shift (along with a spin reversal), and anti-particles are 180 degrees apart.

Pions are a type of composite particle made of a quark and its antiquark.  They don't last long, but transmit the strong nuclear force to hold the nucleus together.

In this chart, "Q" is electric charge and "T" is my designation for what I call "chrono charge".  Positive is matter, negative is antimatter, zero is neutral.  Chrono charge replaces both lepton number and baryon number, and works better for most purposes.  Chrono charge, like electric charge, is conserved, and must be an integer in a composite particle.  Note that T + Q is always an integer - the definition of quantization.