J6, the miniatures game...

Well...it's Presidents' Day.  Or...Washington's Birthday as I guess the federal government actually recognizes it, but also a day to remember the contributions of other past American presidents.  So, it's the perfect time to point out this interesting little pursuit out there in the world.

NPR ran a story yesterday about a pretty cool collision of art and gaming: Fight for America! is a wargame hosted by a Brooklyn-based art nonprofit called the american vicarious.  It is a reenactment/gamificaton of the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol, in seemingly amazing 1:64 scale detail.  (I'm stealing all the pics here from the NPR article, which used images provided by the american vicarious.)

Participants are divided up into the Red Team...

...and, of course, the Blue Team...

...and a GM dressed like Uncle Sam guides them through the day...

The NPR article does a really good job of leading the reader through one person's experience as they attempted to find Vice President Mike Pence with the rest of their team.  A slight spoiler alert: They do find him, and then the fact that they vote on whether or not to hang him to close out the game is...well, a little chilling.

I'd like to believe that there's power in gaming that really could help us recognize what it's like to be in the shoes of those with whom we disagree.  That chance for empathy is one of the (many) really cool things about RPGs in general.  There has to be a LOT of unexplored space to use games like this.  I'm a little bummed I missed the test runs in NYC last month, but I hope to catch it when it returns to the States sometime after a run in London starting June 8.  You can check out the Fight for America! website here.

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Have I really put two political posts on here in less than a week?  Is this even a political post?  I was tempted to tie it into the gaming I usually talk about by writing out some sort of feat or item that helps a character wield a flag as an improvised weapon.  But...for obvious reasons...nah.  (Plus, why not take the "high road" while also artfully taking credit for such a horrendous idea by mentioning it...?  It's my blog, I'll take the win/win whenever I can...)

Y'know what, it's Presidents' Day, so I'll just end with a quote from George Washington, from his farewell address written to the American people in 1796.  It sure seems to fit today's topic; he's writing about political parties here...

However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

Geeky SKAturday: "Ride This Wave" by MAYSON's PARTY

Happy weekend everyone!  Thanks for joining me on this Geeky SKAturday (or whenever you're reading), as I play around with new ska, time travel, and saving the multiverse.

After looking at Japan's Oi-SKALL Mates last week (in addition to Spain's Les Testarudes), I want to take the time today to listen to another ska squad from the Land of the Rising Sun.  MAYSON's PARTY are a fairly poppy ska-punk outfit who released a punchy album called GO at the end of January.  It's 11 songs in less than 24 minutes, so if it's up your alley, you can hear the whole thing in no time at all.

Image from here

Today's song is the album's seventh track, "Ride This Wave"...or as I should probably be stylizing it to stay consistent with the band, "RIDE THIS WAVE."  Here's the video!  (The exclamation point seemed justified.)

Pretty catchy stuff, no?

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Now...to make this into part of a universe where ska bands are made up of heroic agents keeping our timestream in proper order...let's talk about this song and time travel!  There are...oh, I guess three main reasons I keep thinking ska is the perfect genre to pair with time travel stories...

First, ska is essentially defined by its rhythm.  Across all subgenres, the main unifying detail is the upbeat (or offbeat) repetition on one or more instruments...usually guitar, but any number of other instruments, vocalizations, and nonvocal mouth sounds have been used to keep up that rhythm that makes you wanna...to dive into the stereotype...pick it up pick it up pick it up.  Additionally, some of the very best ska has incredible syncopation that you can really feel.  And I don't mean odd-number-of-beats-in-a-measure, prog/math rock geekery (although some of that is awesome too).  I'm thinking more along the lines of influential Skatalites drummer Lloyd Knibb, who had a way of drumming that never forces you out of the rhythm, but still somehow surprises with the beats he chose to emphasize.

So...yeah, ska is all about timing.

The second reason is that ska musicians have always been aware of and respectful of the history of their genre, perhaps more so than in any other type of music.  This goes all the way back to very early in the ska timeline, when songs were sometimes updated mento or calypso tunes.  And then, during the so-called ska revival of the late '70s and early '80s in the UK, many of most popular songs were just classics with dashes of pop, rock, and punk added in.  Not to mention the fact that many of the genre's Jamaican pioneers gained new waves of fans through this UK revival and the worldwide spread of the beat that followed it.

Finally...and I alluded to it in that last paragraph...ska is known for its waves.  The original Jamaican ska scene was the first wave.  The British 2 Tone movement kicked off what we know as the second wave.  And then...with exact origins probably differing widely depending upon who you ask for the history...the third wave brought an unbelievable variety of sounds into the genre from all around the world.  ChatGPT seems to think the United States was the epicenter, but viewing it that way really wouldn't be fair to all the other nations that have produced incredible ska from the '80s till now.  (I'm guessing ChatGPT may have been swayed by the internet writings of some Americentric ska fans.  Or, maybe ChatGPT just really digs Fishbone, Operation Ivy, and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones...)

Oh, and now maybe we're in the midst of a fourth wave...?  It seems reasonably likely that at some point in the future, the young bands gaining fans today will be referred to as the fourth wave.  YTBD, but sounds good to me.

Anyway, these waves seem like a pretty perfect metaphor for time travel.  (Obviously I'm pretty heavily influenced by superhero fiction, and -- in the Arrowverse anyway -- Rip Hunter's timeship is known as the Waverider...!)  So...I figure that's what the Agents of SKA are doing when they jump around a timeline...riding the waves of history, with an appreciation for what's come before and an ear for peculiarities of timing.

And today's song...it's "Ride This Wave."  That's where I started this whole thing, isn't it? ;)  Well...I guess at this point, I don't need to go into too much more detail as to why I chose it.  I actually meant to go more into other aspects of the setting today...maybe filling in some details for trumpet player Haruto Suzuki (who I met last week), or talking about character classes, or how Rude Magic might power a time travel vessel like the helm of a Spelljammer.  I think I'll just end with some perfect lyrics from today's song:

Right on time!!

Ride this wave!!

Ride on now!!

Hope to see you next week!

There's a "last straw" joke here...

I generally try to avoid making this a political blog.  I think most people who know me know how I stand on political actions that systematize the harm, belittlement, or marginalization of other people (Americans or otherwise), especially those who are most vulnerable.  It's simply(?) not what we should be doing as humans, and we have the resources in the United States to behave in a way that considers both the implied purpose of the government (to act in the interests of Americans) and affirm the humanity in all others.  And that's why I'm so depressed about political stuff at the moment.

That is to say...I do recognize that there are bigger concerns at play right now.  However, this thing I'm gonna point out today is just a good old WTF phenomenon.  For those outside the States, or those within that understandably haven't caught everything in the whirlwind of actions and orders we've seen over the past few weeks, this is currently a page at the White House website:

It is admittedly a cliché, but I actually had to double-check to make sure this wasn't satire.  You can read the full fact sheet for the executive order here.  And another cliché...yeah, it is hard to believe this is the timeline we live in.

It isn't clear yet how sweeping this declaration will prove to be (although it sure sounds pretty sweeping), so I can't really comment on that.  And overall, I'm not looking to get a bunch of comments that are either pro- or anti-Donald (not that I have a tendency to get a bunch of comments on anything🤣).  I certainly have people very close to me who support pretty much every decision this guy makes, and they probably have an argument for why this was necessary.  I mean...hey, maybe Joe did go too far in his persecution of plastic straws.  But this is a real government document...😅

I'm sure there's a productive discussion to be had about the best approach to our straw use and its environmental implications.  I don't think this is it.

Anyway, I made this item so the characters in your games never have to deal with the indignities we've faced drinking fast food soda here in the US:

+1 Paper Straw of Drinking

This item appears to be a typical paper straw made of thin cardboard.  However, it is enchanted such that its user gets a +1 bonus to all drinking checks (even better than plastic!).  In addition, it won't dissolve or get soggy in liquids intended for drinking (not even hot ones) no matter how long it soaks.

If lost or discarded, it will decompose naturally in 6d6 days.  (For comparison in your game, plastic straws take 15d20 years for similar decomposition.)

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Ugh.  I feel dirty writing about anything this "political," even something so...silly.  Who knows if I'll even keep it up here on the blog...?  I don't know, but surely there are others out there who will similarly appreciate the absurdity here...

Geeky SKAturday: Oi-SKALL Mates and Les Testarudes

Today I continue exploring the best new ska and ska-adjacent music of 2025 and ways of connecting what I find to an RPG setting in which ska bands are time-traveling protectors of multiversal order.  If this is your first time joining me, welcome(!) and I hope you won't click away upon rereading that last sentence.

I have two songs I want to listen to today!  The first is "Terra de Secà" by Les Testarudes, an all-female trad band from Spain (specifically Catalonia).  They followed this one up with an EP (La Prèvia) with this plus five more songs that hit just as hard...

And the second is "Truly Madly Deeply" by Oi-SKALL Mates...a cover of the Savage Garden classic(?) performed by a really tight Japanese ska band that has apparently been around since at least the '90s...

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Now, what shall I pull from this for the adventures of the Agents of SKA?

Low-hanging fruit:  Ska is an international phenomenon.  I need to make sure that the time-traveling guardians are representing the world!

So, let's start creating the first official member of the team.  I like the idea of random generation for this, and since I don't have a d1000 Random International Ska Musician Generator, I'm going to turn to humanity's new overlord-in-waiting: AI.  Hey, ChatGPT...!!

Please give me a random selection from all of the countries that have produced ska bands.

Here's one way to approach it. Ska originated in Jamaica, but over the decades many countries have produced ska bands. For example, notable ska scenes have emerged in:

• Jamaica (the birthplace of ska)
• United Kingdom (home of the 2 Tone movement)
• United States (notably the third wave of ska)
• Canada
• Japan
• Spain
• Italy
• Australia
• Germany
• France
• New Zealand

Using this representative list, a random selection yields:

Japan

Japan has developed a vibrant ska scene with bands that mix traditional ska rhythms with local influences.

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Alright, cool, I like it.  It might be giving the US a little more credit than we deserve for the third wave, but...eh, who is there to argue with?  And, I didn't even prompt it to pick a country I was already focusing on!

Now, for a bit about the character...

Please randomly select female, male, or nonbinary, then give me a full name for someone of that gender at random from among the common names of Japan.

Haruto Suzuki

"Haruto" has been one of the most popular given names for boys in Japan in recent years, and "Suzuki" is one of the most common surnames.

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And then two more prompts to find out more about Haruto's musicality:

List all of the instruments (including vocals) commonly found on ska recordings.

+

Now, please choose one of those instruments (including vocals) at random.

And with that, I learn that Haruto plays...

The trumpet!

(Not sure why I shouted that.)

Okay, thanks for playing along, all!  Now I've got to figure out exactly how characters will be made for this game and give Haruto some stats.  Hopefully next Skaturday...!?  Have a great week out there in the world!

MTG's Aetherdrift...I gotta say, it looks pretty rad.

This past Saturday, Pun posted some info on the Patreon project known as Planeshifted over at the Halls of the Nephilim.  This creator (Gabe Rodriguez, aka /u/letterephesus on Reddit) produces incredibly detailed and really high-quality 5e D&D supplements based on Magic: The Gathering lore, typically focusing each release on one of the planes of reality in which the MTG story takes place (hence the moniker, which also echoes the name of a series of unofficial D&D supplements based on MTG worlds that WotC released on their website).

One of the upcoming projects that I'm definitely looking forward to is a supplement based on the new MTG set coming out next weekend (with prereleases in just a couple of days, although I don't think I'll be able to make one): Aetherdrift.  For years now, I think the Magic story team has just been killing it (in a good way, in case that isn't obvious) with some aspects of the lore, mainly as they've started taking risks that seemed impossible when I started playing the game 25 years ago.  To me, Aetherdrift kind of seems like a culmination of those efforts; it's a set based upon a freaking road race that spans multiple planes in the MTG multiverse.  And it looks awesome!

From here.

The Aetherdrift story is certainly not without its detractors.  And...I do understand why.  Some of the most legitimate criticisms I've seen of the Magic story in recent years have been concerns that elements of the lore just didn't feel like the more traditional "magepunk" fantasy of earlier sets.  And yeah, when there's a Western-themed set, and we see that a known character is now wearing a sort-of-cowboy hat...well, it's easy to think that seems a little silly.

More directly for me...I loved that they returned to the plane of Ravnica -- my favorite in the MTG multiverse -- for the "murder mystery" themed set (I even picked up a copy of the Clue/Cluedo crossover release).  I think Ravnica represents a lot of what is great about Magic's lore, and it is apparently pretty popular, as that set (Murders at Karlov Manor) was essentially our fourth trip to the plane.  BUT...now there are a bunch of characters wearing detective-style garb, when we'd never seen that before in the city-plane of Ravnica.  And it can feel a little...eh, weird.  I don't think it's overdone, and it really is a minor detail, but I can understand why such things feel like a pebble in the shoes of devoted MTG lore fans as they explore a multiverse they've enjoyed for more than two decades.

(And by the way, it has not been overlooked by observers that -- especially when you also consider the Art Deco stylings of the set Streets of New Capenna, and the retro gangster archetypes many of those characters evoked -- maybe it's just that the Magic story team has a weakness for silly hats...)

SO...with Aetherdrift...yeah, the mixing of SF and fantasy is going to throw some people off.  At this point, though, we've seen with the cyberpunk-fantasy set Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty (which got a Planeshifted guide that I wrote a little about back here) that the team is very capable of pulling off a setting that infuses interesting bits of speculative fiction into the fantastical base you expect from a game called Magic.  I'll admit that there are a couple of things -- specifically the set symbol (a checkered racing flag) and a new mechanic called Start your engines! -- that didn't initially hit me as spectacular additions to the game's background...but as I've gotten used to them, they're starting to feel normal.  It has to be near-impossible to take the risks necessary to keep planes fresh and engaging without occasionally overstepping into bits that don't immediately mesh 100%.

This art is for the card Pedal to the Metal.  I'm certain that name won't please everyone... (From here.)

Additionally, similar to the 10 guilds of Ravnica that are defined by each two-color pairing in the game, Aetherdrift features 10 different racing teams with different goals and methods according to the colors of mana that they represent.  Since the five-color mana system is probably the coolest part of MTG to explore, I am there for this.  (I would say I'm along for the ride, but...I shouldn't.)  The fact that interplanar travel is a key part of the story is just icing on the cake!

If you're interested in looking into the set or its story more, the landing page for the new release is here.  The official story archive, with several installments of tales from the set (many of which have audio versions), can be found here.  I haven't even made my way through all that much of the actual story yet (although I have listened long enough to realize that I was apparently incorrect in believing those first two syllables to be pronounced EE-thur, as opposed to AY-thur...that's gonna be a tough habit to break).

I think I'll create a character connected to the setting soon.  Since I still need to get around to statting out Sergiu Pijha, who I brought up long ago in a post about Manaball...

...I think I'll also stat out a character inspired by this card, from the black/red racing team known as the Endriders...

Whatever system I use (ideally something that will morph into my Monstrous Heartbreaker), it might be cool to see how two Human Warriors repping red mana can be differentiated.

Alright...[insert racing pun meaning "thanks for reading, and goodbye" here]!

Geeky SKAturdays begin for 2025, and I'm shaking things up a bit!

So, I don't want to rock your reality too hard with a headline like that, especially during a week when we're already experiencing some...changes...here in the U.S. of A., but I'm going to try a slightly different approach to the Geeky SKAturday feature in 2025.  I still plan to post songs I like, along with some nerd content that fits a bizarre assumption I insist on maintaining, that people are out there playing a ska-themed RPG.  However, this year I'm also trying to do a better job of staying up on new music in the realm of ska and ska-adjacent genres (made easier by the efforts of those who make easily searchable Spotify playlists and regularly post updates on Reddit), so I'm going to focus each week on a new (or fairly new) release.

And the RPG content...for that, I'm going to try to take some themes from the music that I share and connect them to lore and mechanics from a specific ska-themed RPG campaign I'm building.  In this setting, many ska bands are also time-traveling protectors of multiversal order.  Please...just roll with it.  The hope is that by some number of weeks into this "project," there will be something kinda-sorta-playable put together.  (And, I will be continuing the trend of adding new sounds to the toolbox of the upbeat spellcasters known as Rudies...)

The Gamblers, from their Facebook page.  (Facebook is still okay to use, right?  I can't keep up anymore...)

SO...for the first installment, I want to look at the UK band known as The Gamblers, an early reggae/trad ska outfit started by Mark RSK from the Oi! band Booze & Glory (who have also done some reggae stuff, I believe).  Earlier this month, they released a fun ode to classic reggae called "Boom! Boom!"  Enjoy...!

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So, how does this tie into rolling dice around a table and playing out a "ska story?"  I'm glad you let me ask!

I think the best place to look is in this song's unabashed faith in the power of reggae.  Here's the chorus:

And we don’t need here any noisy riffs
No screaming voices, push 'em off the cliff
We just want Laurel, Desmond and Toots
Heavy beat and the bovver boots
So shake your hips to this reggae tunes
Walkin' bass and the bam bam booms

I am, in general, a fan of the sentiment that there is a specific sort of power to be found in a genre of music.  And we see this for all sorts of styles...the idea of harnessing the power of funk, or of metal, or maybe most classically, of rawk.  It's silly but it's fun.  And that's something that would be nice to capture in a tabletop game...a hopeful (and arguably naïve, but I'm good with that) belief that a style of music can be a force for good in the world.  For our heroes, the dropbeat and the skank, and all of the history and hope they carry with them, power the "magic" they harness.

Oh, and maybe even their time travel capabilities...!  I'm still working that out, but I think the organization that protects the timestream will be called the Soundsystem Khrononaut All-Stars, maybe with a logo looking something like this...

I'm not completely sold on Soundsystem in the name yet; I like the sound (heh) of it and the nod to ska culture, but I'm trying to figure out how much it feels like cultural appropriation to be used in a silly RPG setting like this.  If not that, they'll probably be something like the Sentinel Khrononaut All-Stars, since they are the multiverse's protectors.

And then maybe smaller patches can be worn by each agent of SKA, with an icon indicating their department/specialty.  Like for Communications, it could look like this...

And the possibilities are pretty much endless.  I could see these being something like R&D, Intelligence, and Security.

And that's all for this SKAturday...have a great weekend, all!

A work-in-progress Elemental Color Wheel

I spend a fair amount of time...a lot more than anyone probably should, to be honest...thinking about elemental philosophies in games, beliefs, and esoteric pursuits.  I am certainly no expert (far from it!), but I think my history as a tabletop gamer has naturally led to this as a sort of obsession.  After all, I was pulled into gaming by the Pokémon TCG, have become a hopeless lifetime devotee of Magic: The Gathering (even during stretches where I don't get to play it at all), and lately have put a lot of thought into traveling around in a fantasy cosmology.

Plus, I'm a functional scientist myself.  It kind of feels like I'm meant to ponder such things.  In fact, the appeal of working out a sensible and symmetrical elemental system in my mind is probably similar to the drive a lot of physicists have in their search for a theory of everything.  If I were smart enough to fully comprehend both general relativity and quantum mechanics, I might spend my showers trying to merge them in my brain.  But I'm not, so that shower time is spent thinking about how MTG's colors interact with Pokémon's types.  And the result, so far, is this work in progress...

I'm thinking this is a broad overview of the Inner Planes, the sources of elements and energy that give rise to the physical world.  There are still Outer Planes of various philosophical persuasions that are filtered through these elements to create our experience of the universe.  On the wheel so far, you'll find the colors of MTG, some Pokémon types (video games and card game may be represented separately, since they do differ in a way that reduces the number of types for the TCG), most of the Duel Masters civilizations, a couple of World of Warcraft classes (using their Hearthstone icons), and one stray aspect from the Star Wars: Unlimited TCG.  The Ravnican guilds whose color combinations fit the wheel are also represented, in part because I think it's cool how the Boros logo echos Pokémon's Fighting symbol, and how Dimir and Psychic share an eye in their icons (plus the colors kind of work!).

Also, I stole that color wheel in the middle from here; let me know if it seems like gratuitous theft, please.  I do think I like the hexagonal RGB+CMY skeleton for the wheel!

Okay, enough blabbing.  If you have thoughts, criticisms, or suggestions, please throw 'em my way!

Look, Dad, all those philosophy classes are paying off!