The Scratch Pad

Stephen Michael Kellat

This is a futile attempt in 2e at recording information. The source for this is maintained on GitHub at https://github.com/skellat/new-blog-post-tweety. Sponsorship can be made at https://ko-fi.com/smkellat and https://liberapay.com/smkellat.

1 Continuity of Operations

Much of this will need to relocate soon. As the war in the Middle East continues to heat up we will be seeing the cyberwarfare actions by Iran take off. Utilizing store and forward tech such as NNCP (see http://www.nncpgo.org/) could allow for disconnected off-line transfers of data. It is as if somebody updated UUCP for the 21st century and had enough sense to follow Tannenbaum’s Dicta about high-latency high-bandwidth situations involving data tapes in the back of overloaded station wagons.

2 Character Generation: Solar Winds

Solar Winds by Stellagama Publishing is available at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/508413/solar-winds. The item is available under CC BY 4.0 license and was written by Omer Golan-Joel. Excerpts are utilized below to highlight character creation steps I have taken. I very strongly urge you to buy a copy or five of this in print.

2.1 Character Creation

Use the following steps to create a Solar Winds character.

  1. 1.

    Think of a character concept. Do you want to play an intrepid interstellar explorer, an infamous rogue, a mad scientist, or someone else?

  2. 2.

    Allocate 5 points among the 7 skills, maximum 3 points in any given skill.

  3. 3.

    Choose an archetype (see below).

  4. 4.

    The Referee will determine what equipment your character can access. Gear depends on the game universe and the starting adventure.

  5. 5.

    Name your character.

2.2 My Concept

  1. 1.

    Space Trucker

  2. 2.

    Heart of Gold

  3. 3.

    Mysterious Past

2.3 Skills

Solar Winds has seven skills:

  • •

    Combat: fighting on ground and in space. Includes attacking foes but also other martial skills, such as taking cover under fire.

  • •

    Knowledge: general education and cognitive capabilities.

  • •

    Physical: brute strength and stamina, also including resistance to toxins and diseases and pain tolerance.

  • •

    Social: persuasion, deception, collecting information from humans and aliens, interrogation, and so on.

  • •

    Space: operating spacecraft and spacesuits; coping with micro-gravity conditions; and other matters pertaining to space exploration.

  • •

    Stealth: sneaking, hiding, picking pockets, and other acts of subterfuge.

  • •

    Tech: technological knowledge, from picking locks, to driving, to hacking sophisticated computer systems to repairing technological systems.

Skill ratings range from 0 (an inexperienced character) to 3 (a first-rate professional). In rare cases, certain characters will have a skill of 4 or 5, denoting world-class or even galactic-level professionalism!

2.4 My Skill Score Distribtion

Combat

1

Knowledge

1

Physical

1

Social

1

Space

1

Stealth

0

Tech

0

2.5 Archetype, Equipment, Name

Archetype

Nomad/Pilot

Name

Flash "Gary" Branningan

Equipment

Armed Merchant Cruiser Lollipop

3 What to do with the character

The plan with this character is to begin to trek in solo roleplay potentially. I have some ideas in that regard as to what I might do. I just have to find a good time to stop and get started.