A Beatnik Heat Pic

Heat shimmers rise from the desert sun baked pavement, lending everything a wavering and surreal appearance. The normally ever-present soldiers are gone from the boiling roads, nothing but dust devils and parked APCs from one end of the strip to the other. All you can hear is the hum of power lines and the occasional click of a door followed by rapid foot steps as someone tries to minimize their exposure.

Inside, its not much louder. Everyone's played the games of chance a hundred times, everyone has developed their on system for finding a winning streak, and everyone knows its futile - even if they make a fortune, what is there to spend it on? Almost every story has been told, the veterans tired of rehashing the Southern Drone War and the new recruits too awake to let BS just slip by.

Lights still pop and flash, electric music jingles, and wheels spin on automatic, beckoning someone to put down a couple of chips. But most of the card tables are covered with springs and gun oil or magnets and solder. Troops field stripping their weapons for the tenth time that week, dislodging sand and keeping busy, ready for the next run down the road to Barstow, Saint George, Paradise or Hurricane.

Civvies just scuttle by, like over-caffeinated crabs. There are a lot of bored people with guns who would be willing to start a civil war for a simple break from monotony, ideology be damned.

"Red Irish" Drinks whiskey sours in back. Not his real name by a long shot - its one of those old country words that has twelve extra letters in the original tongue - but he has the shock of hair and other characteristics that would make him the dictionary definition image of a Gaelic stereotype. Even has an amazing accent so thick you need to beat it down with a Shaleighleigh to understand - doubly amazing since all his kin were through Ellis island by 1908. He's a "ranger" which is a dangerous thing to admit to in Vegas. Most of the military types think you shouldn't co-opt the name of a special forces group and claim to uphold the ideals of the army, when you could actually be in the army - even if service mostly consists of pointless patrols and the occasional midnight tank drag race down route 66.

Least he's quite this morning. Sometimes things just explode. Someones got a bit of peyote growing in one of the rooftop greenhouses, and some mighty fine hash indeed. Usually these harm no one - but synesthesia and rumors of undead in the sewers don't always mix.

Even without the drugs, that seems to be the word of the year. Synesthesia. It all seems to blend together - after a while you taste the strip, you hear the camouflage, and smell the boredom.

They all know the country they swore to protect doesn't really exist. Its city states and new frontier now, with tenuous UHF contact between the Rockies and Alleghenies. Guns and tanks can unite the lot - the question is how and who. A military campaign isn't going to last long without factories, and factories aren't going to exist without a campaign. Should the aliens be the first target, or an ally against the others? Is it the open hand or closed fist that will restore the republic? How about those angry fission bombs growling in their silos - unchain the atomic dogs or neuter those puppies before they flash on American soil?

In another casino more whiskey sours are being lifted to dry lips. One general has the control codes in his breast pocket, the other half a mind to shoot the first.

Just another day.

Another Unseemly Presence in Daley Plaza

Gotta-catch-my-breath. Some of those half mechanical monsters are near by. Hawk like vision, adsorb Gauss slugs like a sponge, and just smash through concrete barriers without noticing. Fortunately, they can't see through walls. At leas not yet I don't think... well, they didn't follow after I lost them in that hall way and ducked up two flights of stairs.

I guess this is why Chicago seems to be unofficially off limits. Lots of advanced reanimates, coupled with old ramshackle restored buildings lacking sphere based maps. Yeah, they say anyone not born in the windy city will pick up the grid pattern of the roads real quick. But when most of them are chocked with old cars, rubble, even some tanks and crashed helicopters - ducking in and out of buildings throws off your sense of place real quick.

So where am I? Oh hey - thats a good landmark. I guess god is on my side for once - I couldn't ask for a more famous marker.

 The Chicago Picasso.

What is that thing supposed to be anyway? A woman with pony tails? A cross-eyed Aardvark? Though you know, from this angle it kind of looks like one of the aliens. Yeah, definitely one of the aliens. The kind of snout like head, and the antennas bent backward, the compound eye like structures on either side of the snout. Even the color is kind of right, though the ones I've seen were a bit more mottled green and pink, with darker plates - a bit like armor. Don't think it was armor - since it was under those smocks they wore.

Head on top, with a pair of antennae, neck, shoulders, chest, the odd part is when the abdomen curves backwards and kind of curves back up for the lower torso and two sets of legs. I know they're not insects or crabs at all - but they do kind of skitter about like them. Course, I'd be full of nervous energy when talking to a gun wielding person twice my size too. Really squeaky voice, like a cartoon character or someone breathing helium. Still, nice enough when they want to talk to you.

Huh - that the reanimates out there?

Don't hear anything. But these ones can move all quite like, it just the basic ones that sound like elephants tripping down a flight of stairs. Course, just running isn't going to help much if they are close. Need a plan. There are supposed to be laser towers at Northerly Island on the lake front. That's about two and a half miles from here, south east - along the water front, near the historic buildings. I can do that. Wont be easy to make through all the old traffic remains, but they won't be going so directly either. OK, can do. The aliens hate the reanimates as much as we do - I just hope the defenses can tell a live human from a type three.

Supplement One Alpha

"The best is the enemy of good enough" - a common Russian saying, often used by Mikhail Kalashnikov when discussing his famous invention.

After more delays than I should have allowed, this is a draft update to the basic game D&B. Actually, its not so much a declared up date as a few clarifications, some ideas about bringing Players together and managing NPCs, along with a large chunk of information about the Planetary citizens.

I hope this give you a feeling for where I want to take the game in its next version. Elements of the setting should become one with the rules, rather then separate addendum. Unclear rules should be updated to easier to read forms, and the glossary expanded. A few major overhauls (new way of reading attack dice/changed stat range) may be in order if I get some feedback.

D&B Suplemental Alpha

Ambush Predator

Shchuka. An ambush predator carnivorous fish - known in English as the Pike, because it resembles a pole-arm. In every generation a Russian submarine has carried the name, from the 5th sub to enter Russian under the tsar service in 1905, an 88 boat strong type in world war two, and both the the project 671 and 971 attack boats (NATO Victor and Akula respectively)

Today, that proud tradition Hull number 409, GRU Designation 9K0108, known to NATO as the "Nikta Class" Submarine Cruiser. Nominally a very large attack boat for hunting other subs, it also carried a dozen anti-ship cruise missile conformal launchers, and four intermediate range ballistic missiles - more firepower than some 20th century navies. All under the watchful eyes of 83 crew, and the head of that compliment - one Yuri Deatalov.

"Surface Contact Sir. Range is 15,000 meters, probably a cargo vessel."
"Is it the one we've been trying to track?"
"Yes captain - definitely has the banging pistons of a fuel burner."
"Must be something good if they're risking something that old and large in the Baltic winter. Yes. But a bit too good - clear tube four to launch an airborne reconnaissance drone."
"Aye sir."

A few English sub-hunters were still out there, and an old piston cargo vessel would go a long way to mask their pump-jets. They usually kept themselves to the channel and north sea - but this was excellent weather for a chase - clear yet cold enough to cut down on thermal layers that could distort sonar. Certainly, a rare combination around here, and no good captain would miss this chance.

"Unit telemetry confirmed - it should get a fly over in a few minutes."
"I know your not much of a gambler Mr. Chuikov, but do you care to wager on what the drone might find?"
"Uh, not really sir."
"Why not?"
"Not in my religion to do that Captain."
"Ah, yes - we've been over that. However, I have no interest in debating Islamic dogma - I just wanted a guess about what vessels are out there."
"Sergi is better at this than I."
"All the more reason you need the practice. Its bad enough I needed to take a sonar man from a surface ship - an incompetent and un-cross trained one would be unbearable. I can ask the others to leave the bridge if you would be embarrassed by your answers."
"Well then, captain Deatalov, I'd say its safe - just the freighter. Prior to this, they've been mostly milk runs encountering smaller vessels. Something this large is operating out of a different port - which may not be allied, and would take a lot of resources and manpower to get working. The military bases are covered by our surface combatants and its unlikely they'd store arms at a commercial facility. It takes a certain level of expertise to move a multi-tone explosive tipped weapon from its stores to a train, and cranes positioned just right and trained to load them."
"Not a question of should it be escorted, but are they able to?"
"Right. Most of the coastal fuel bunkers are drained, and the ones further inland probably not known to or unfriendly with the English."
"I don't know how you're so sure of that, but you at least have a point."
"And what would be the captain's stance?"
"It doesn't really matter. Fortune favors the bold after all. If there is a warship, then we shouldn't be bringing our other precious fleet units into harms way. If there isn't - then we get the glory of this capture all to ourselves. Set Condition Red! Intercept course! WE're going to eat well when we return to port."

Happy Thankgiving

If there is one thing I'm thankful for, its the ability to appreciate irony.

I remember food shortages. During the 30s and 40s when we were supposedly at the height of our civilization. To say we were starving would be a horrid over reaction, but there were times when certain foods fifteen or twenty times more than they had a few years prior, and it was damn scary.

For a while back there, fuel supplies were so low, international shipping was all but stopped. Fresh produce was all but impossible to find, in the winter, and even in the suffer, expensive. Nuclear powered naval ships we're used to transport a few extra necessary materials like lithium, titanium,platinum, and a few others.Environmental regulations and feed supply problems decimated the captive cattle herds - and that before you not the virulent cattle disease that sprang up in those decades.

You know, thats kind of funny. All those diseases are why live stock were bigger users of nano-vac than humans. Yet you never see reanimate cows. Or any cows really. I haven't had beef in five years.

Sorry about the aside, where was I oh yeah. Limited food supplies, even chicken and Turkey were a bit hard to find. Radio stabilized food packets became far more the norm than fresh food for a while. Pretty lucky for us right now, since those things last fifteen years or more.

With so many fewer people, there is a lot more food to go around. Coffee is damn hard to come by in the states, just like cinnamon and a few other spices - but the choicest farm land is up for grabs, and wildlife is extra plentiful for those with a good eye. Unless you're on the road and rationing your supplies, we eat pretty well and its not all that expensive. Well, when you consider time is money it takes a lot - but its not like I need to show up at the office at nine AM to manage patents - so I've got time. And I swear - without restaurants, people have learned to cook again. My son Calvin was a pretty picky eater, but now now he is a lot better about it, at least when we can find him. That boy always seems to be off in his own little world.

Urban Exploration

I try to stay away from cities. They taste broken. Even before you can see the place, the winds carry particles too you. Concrete dust, UV exposed plastic, flakes of rust and paint - without a filter mask you could get sick from just the decay, much less anything else that has been leached out from years of neglect.

Between abandoned meals, forgotten vending machines, and broken freezers - its a biohzard too. Make sure you're up to date with nano-vac injections. Speaking of refrigeration - keep some chem handling gear on your person at all times. Things like methylisocyanite need refrigeration and hermetic seals to be stored safely - and  that doesn't happen without people. Now chances are the toxic clouds have dispersed - but residues can abound on the undersides of protrusions.

When it comes to weapons in the city, you can't go wrong with a pistol. Light weight means more loot, small size leads to quick reaction and no getting caught in tight corridors. A silence will protect your hearing, because shots echo something fierce, and its hard to notice reanimates when your half-deaf. Besides, you don't need the power of a rifle - so long as you hit the head, it doesn't matter with what - and rifle bullets over-penetrating interior walls can be a hazard to your comrades.

Someone with a rifle to look down the concrete canyons and thin out the groups seems like a good idea, but its not the best practice. High-powered rifles are loud and tend to attract more attention than they eliminate. Reanimates are neither blind nor deaf, and it draws the attention of humans as well. There are few things people like less then snipers, and since its often hard to determine where the attack comes from until someone dies, they often take a proactive stance about hunting them down. So regardless of if you're seeking to attack other people or not - they're probably going to pick a fight.

Reanimate Tactics

One of the more distressing aspects of the reanimates, is that they are not as mindless and unfeeling as the ghouls seen in the movies. A sense of self-preservation seems to permeate each one, though in mass they can somehow make the choice to sacrifice a few for the good of the many. More advanced types can avoid the more obvious pitfalls, at least some of the time. They are unlikely to simply mob a fortified position, or even a well armed group - unless they have a notable advantage in numbers. Fire and water will hold them at bay if they recognize it as a an impediment between them and prey - but they will make their way through if its an escape route.

Alphas have been know to occasionally use weaponry or tools. Sometimes it seems to be simple mimicking - they will use weapons if they see other people or reanimates using them. Other times, they will go so far as to intentionally cripple humans or open new door ways to allow other reanimates in. What else they can do is often a matter of rumor - as they are strangely paranoid about displaying these behaviors. Indeed, they are quite often very cautious and will attempt to blend in with their lesser type one brethren to avoid preferential targeting. They are well aware of the confusion that ensues with an attack, and will wait until defenders are distracted by their other brethren to sneak past and ambush.

The intelligence seen in twos and betas focuses on the use of space, rather than the use of tools and distractions. They are worryingly adept at finding ambush sites, alternate entrances, or simply the higher ground. Betas have been cataloged hounding targets like wolves, and leading the prey to a seemingly safe place, that is in fact a nest of yet more reanimates. Failing this, they can follow a mark for days, or hide out near observed routes of travel.

Threes and Kappas are at the very least, aware of their impressive abilities, if not always putting it to the best use. Although the latter are often capable of throwing around small cars, they generally don't do so in a manner to block an exit or to cripple a human. A dissenting opinion states its a case of them choosing not too, as they prefer the target un-crushed. However, they fact that they will smash building supports even when they're still in the structure may argue against this - or at least that they can be provoked to berserk levels.