Story gaming in the context of time travel

I read an interesting article about time travel from Discovery Magazine.

The Real Rules for Time Travelers

So Zack and I talked about time travel a while ago in the context of trying to develop a reasonable time travel system for a role playing game. And I after reading this article I think I have one. Though I’m not sure it what you might be thinking but bear with me. Also I’m writing this based on reading the article so you might have to read it for this to make sense.

To have consistent stories involving time travel you also must have “closed time-like loops” in the physics of the universe and this implies a couple of interesting things. One, the physics are not deterministic (that is you cannot predict the next instant based on the previous instant) however oddly, two, you also have to give up the idea of free-will. This is because for a story to be consistent once an event is observed it CANNOT be changed. So if you go to the future and see yourself kill someone you are now ordained (if you will) to kill that person. You cannot choose not to.

This may seem like it would not work as the basis for a role playing game (because people like to choose what there player does) however I think if you look at role play a bit different it works just fine. First view the game universe as a 4-dimensional blank canvas. Now the players and the DM choose a setting; this fills in some of the canvas, basically a short period of time directly before the “start” of the game and a reasonable area surrounding the start in space. Now the players begin to make choices as to what there characters do and this starts to fill in this 4D canvas. However once a part of the canvas has been filled it can never be changed. So if a player or the DM says that they see themselves do something in the past of the future they cannot choose not to do it later. It is fixed. All they can do is write the story that lead them to that point that they have already set.

This lead the play style to a very “fiction first”, story gaming type of play. The players (including the DM) are writing a story, however they are not necessarily doing it in chronological order. It would be reasonable to say that a player plays all versions of themselves, in all times. So they will never be forced to do anything in any time. This style of play also has the interesting implication that if the players become board with an event they could just jump forward or backwards in time (as players not characters) and fill in a different part of the story that has not yet been “written”.

In the end one of the most important rule would be that if something has been observed it cannot be changed. So if you go forward in time and see something happen you cannot change it. However you could change it’s context or meaning. So if you go forward in time and see a bloody knife with your finger prints on it. Then that knife must be there and it must have your finger prints on it. However if it has not been stated whose blood it is than that could be decided later. It could even be your own. So as a player your goal will be to create an interesting story based on what has already been observed or written on the 4D canvas.

Chocolate pecan cookies!!!

So I made cookies! I was trying to use this recipe:

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

But I didn’t have some of the ingredients. So I changed it almost entirely. Here was the result. They came out really well. Kinda cakey. Like most cookies that do not have eggs they tend to break up and fall all over while you eat them. But they are really tasty.

They could probably be easily done with margarine and some sort of vegan chips (carob or very dark chocolate) and be vegan (the dry milk is unimportant I think).

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup White All-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup Whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 T dry milk
• 1 3/4 cup butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1 cup slightly crushed pecans
• 1 tsp vanilla

Instructions:

1. Sift together dries (flours, soda, baking powder, dry milk and cloves) and set aside.
2. Soften butter and cream in the sugars then mix in the juice, chocolate chips, nuts and vanilla. Stir well.
3. Mix in the flour mixture. It should be fairly stiff by the end so I sifted in the flour mixer slowly stirring as I went.

Happy New Year!

It’s 2010. I think this year will be a good one. My resolution is to apply to grad schools.

Thanksgiving in the Adirondacks

At Beaver Meadow Falls

Today (Thanksgiving day) Lena and I walked 9 miles. It was super pretty and nice although a bit cold and gray. I’m putting up a few pictures here just so I can brag more easily to other people about it. I will post more later; including video and GPS tracking data. (yes I’m a giant nerd)

Us at the half way point and lunch time

Beaver Meadow Falls

Eggnog

I made a very successful batch of eggnog last night. I was really happy with it and it seems a lot of other people were too (there were many complements).

I based my recipe on the recipe at: http://256.com/gray/recipes/eggnog/. However I’ve made some significant changes I think so I’m gonna describe my recipe here.

Ingredients:

Instructions:

1. Separate egg whites from yokes into 2 bowls.
2. Add half the sugar (1/2 cup) and then beat egg whites until they make soft mounds. Or beat the eggs and then add the sugar if you prefer.
3. Add half the sugar (1/2 cup + 1/8 cup) and then beat egg yokes or just mix them if you prefer.
4. Gently fold the yokes into the whites again. The direction is important. Add the yokes to the whites.
5. Fold the rum slowly into the eggs. Don’t stir too much as it can make the egg collapse.
6. Fold the milk in.
7. Fold half the cream (1 1/2 cup) into the mix.
8. Whip the other half of the cream so it makes soft mounds.
9. Fold the whipped cream into the mix.
10. Serve in small-ish mugs or glasses with a dash of nutmeg (fresh ground if possible) on top.

Notes:

The rum I used this year is Sailor Jerry Rum (92 proof). Last year I used Captain Morgan (70 proof), but I think the Sailor Jerry is better. Also there is only 1 cup of rum so the increased proof doesn’t increase the alcohol content of the result very much.

Other recipes for eggnog I have seen say to beat the egg whites and cream to make peaks but I think it’s easier and produces better results to just go for mounds because it mixes better with the other ingredients.

Userfriendly is suddenly quite serious

So one of the web comics I read is suddenly really serious. It’s usually a very flipant and humorous, but it is current doing a story arc about, of all things, cancer. It really surprised me. I actually like it. It’s well written and feels heartfelt. Also it’s not nearly as tech/geek oriented as the comic usually is.

If you want to look at it you can start here: http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20091021

The first few strips after this point are cancer humor with I like because it’s really black, but then it just gets serious.

Running The Shadows of Yesterday

So I ran a session of The Shadows of Yesterday tonight (using the Solar System rule book). It was tricky. I really haven’t gotten the knack for it yet. But overall the session was a success; my players agreed to play another session.

I need to learn the rules better (I think I’m gonna read the rule book cover to cover again). But more specifically I think I need to get better at handling “Extended Combat” (aka Bringing Down the Pain). It’s a really clunky rule in some ways. I love the idea of it, but it doesn’t run naturally for me. I need practice I think.

Also I need to call for fewer rolls. I asked for too many this session. And I think it made the system feel more crunch heavy (rule heavy, dice heavy) than it really is.

But regardless the session did go fairly well for my second session using this system. So I’m happy and relieved.

Fixing the mode switch on a Canon SD600

So my family has a SD600. It works great. But the mode switch broke so you could not switch between photo, video and viewer mode. I guessed that it would be fixable and I was right!

The camera in parts. Most of the parts are obvious, but the little metal piece and screw in the upper right of the image is the clip that connects the part that the user slides with the internal switch mechanism.

It was relatively easy to take off the case of the camera to access the switch. I read this page by Arnoud and it has decent directions and great pictures. I only did the first step (taking off the case) and there was one catch (literally). The instructions did not mention that there is an internal clip just above the view finder (sorry I forgot to photograph it). Once you take out all 6 screws you will need to work a small screw driver in between the front half of the case and the rear half and bend the front half away from the body of the camera and pull the from half off. It should pop off. The rear should then come off easily.

The actual internal switch turned out to point sideways and be connected to the external part that the user moves by a little metal plate on the inside of the case that interlocks with the switch and is screwed to the external switch throw a hole in the case.

The switch is outlined in red. The little metal plate and screw is above.

I was able to screw the screw throw the plate and the case into an external piece as it was designed. However the external piece I used was just a little white nylon stub (one of the ones used to hold IC in tubes). I had to put a hole in it so that the screw could catch in the plastic and cut it’s own threads. I did not have a small enough drill bit (it would have needed to be like 1/32″ or less) so I used a sowing needle. It was too small for the chuck of the drill so I used some masking tape to give it more bulk. Since the needle doesn’t actually remove any material (it just compresses it out of the way) I needed to use a larger needle than I expected and it took some time and fiddling to get the screw to catch.

Once I had my external “switch” finished I screwed the screw through the plate and the case into the nylon stub. I made it to tight at first; it just needs to be tight enough to hold everything in place and loose enough to slide easily and to avoid bending the metal plate (it’s really thin).

The new switch works. But is sticky and feels really weird. But I was able to take and import pictures and video which is more than I could do before, so I’m happy. Also I think I could get a longer tiny screw and add a piece of flat plastic between the nylon stub and the case. This would stop the stub from sticking against the case.

Note the new "switch" in the upper right.

Firefly rocks

Firefly is a truely awesome show. I’m watching through it with some friends. Good people. Good content to watch. Chocolate fondue.

It was a good evening.

An Android phone I want: The Motorola Droid

I’m a big fan of Android. I have been for a while. However I have yet to get an Android phone because I have not seen one that seems worth it. However the advertising for the Droid is so good that it hooked me. I really want one now. Which is impressive since advertising doesn’t usually draw me in.

However I have a bad feeling that the rumored release date of Nov 1st may actually be just an official announcement date. I think this may be the case for a couple of reasons.

1. All the pictures of the device appear to come from one place (Boy Genius Report).
2. Android 2.0 has not even been released yet in any form. And all the pictures of that are also from Boy Genius Report. Not that I distrust them (I don’t know anything about that site), but single points of information are always iffy.

Well, we’ll see.