Remember the Golden Age

Perspective

I'm sure when the history of Earth is condensed for transport in the Colonial Authority archives to be taken to Jorune, they will talk bout the Plague of 2020/21. It will have been a game changer for how we deal with disease, each other, animals, and business.

It has not caused great changes for me - I'm an old man stuck in the house all the time anyway. But as other people learn to live in my reality, I am examining that reality to see where I can make changes.

An appreciation of this period of history seems required. I'm old. I remember before terrorism was a common part of the American experience. I remember when world travel was something only rich people could do. I remember when "rush hour" was just an hour. I remember when comic books were just ten-cents and an alternative to television was radio - for stories, not just music.

My mind drifts to Jorune and I have to actively try to not start new projects. I have a few to finish and have come up with a way to bring them together.

It occurs to me that the "Gomo Guide: Tan Iricid" could be a special, extra thick, issue of SHOLARI MAGAZINE with article after article on the Thriddle island and culture. Maybe something extra.

The "Children of Bomoveris" could also be a special, extra thick, issue SHOLARI MAGAZINE. Article would include the plot line, the details of the major settings of the campaign, ORFA NPCs for the campaign, and maybe a couple of little bits of Jorune interests that are beyond those specifics.

The Problem of Art

So what is the big hold up? ART! I have COLLECTED DANSTEAD TRAVELLER ready to go except for the cover. I know what I want for the cover. I tried to draw it. And it needs to be ART, not what Joe could do.

So if you are an artist who likes Jorune but are not part of the solution, feel guilty. One piece of art, I have specs for it - and they're pretty flexible.

And ONE piece for THE COLLECTED BORKELBY'S FOLLY.

And ONE piece for THE COLLECTED SHO COPRA JOE.

Really.

That's the hang up. I do maps, I do collages. I tweak existing art, color black and white.

But, really - I'm not an illustrator.

Who is?

You Can't Keep a Good Gire Down

The original Ponteer Map. (Autocorrect
keeps changing it to Pioneer)

Back at work on ORFA:Jorune. 

I wanted to add glossary, came up with a 1 page introductory glossary, but got back and where I wanted to do a glossary project a while back, I had a rough glossary from several sources. They are a bit of a mess. Conflicting formats, duplications... and this is only sources who cataloged words from the Primary Canon... mostly 2nd Edition.

The original goal was to add all of the words from all of the fanzines into a real lexicon. All of the Sholari James, the three Borkelby's Follies, four Danstead Travellers, four Sholaris, Annals of the Tan Soor Historical Society, and Gomo Guide: Thoneport. Maybe even Gomo Guide: Tan Iricid. And there is a lot of that stuff. I suspect the new total would have been well over 3,000 words. 

But that didn't happen, although one person volunteered. I didn't set up the online database for the project, but neither did anybody else. 

So I took the raw list and spent today working on the programmed PDF to generate characters (a different sheet for each race, with modifiers programmed in) and the inclusion of the raw combined glossary.

There was a problem with some sources having words in all caps and others not. I opted for not. Some of the sources had pronunciation keys and I'm tempted to go through and put pronunciation keys on all of it.

It could be Isho.

It is about 1,500 words. So far.

The plan is to include it with ORFA: Jorune, which will go to the subscribers (less than 2 dozen) and the Pateron patrons (less than ten, with some duplicates between the two groups). The PDF will include programmed sheets for each of the races, with each filled out with a fully generated character. Each sheet will be blankable with one button to reset the form, and another to email it to me. These will be templates so you will still have a blank racial sheet with all of the modifiers. I want to see what you come up with for your game.

Yeah, I haven't worked on it for a while, but I just spent the whole day working on it. And a good deal of progress was made. 

Generation has been modified to include base values that vary by race. Your points will be added to that base so you can make exactly the kind of character you want (within racial restrictions). Isho is complex during character generation, but doable. Once you set up your Isho, during game play it will be as easy to throw a dysha as it is to pick up a rock and throw it.

It was Andrew's goal to find a system that could reflect all the different races and have simple combat with Isho. ORFA has it.

And I am also building the pulp version of ORFA - Heroes for Hard Times. I've pulled the "Weird Powers" from a previous version and it plugs in to replace Isho on Earth, 1937, quite well.

I haven't abandoned Jorune. And I just got word the Jorune 5th Edition OGL D20 (iD20) is not dead, merely slumbering. It should be back on track after the chaos of the Coronavirus tones down.

Earth with Coronavirus is not fun. I'd rather be in my little villa overlooking the Ponteer Trail. Tropical winds and travelers from many lands to meet.

Join me when you're in the neighborhood.

Return of the APA

The mid-20th Century saw a revolution in communications with a small circulation, a very personal form of expression called "the fanzine." The fan-generated magazine with between 20 and 1,000 copies. A second wave brought APA - Amateur Press Association where individuals produced their micro-zines (usually 4-16 pages), which they reproduced with Mimeograph, ditto, xerox, multi-lith, and/or photo-offset printing.

It occurred to me that we could do the same thing where someone produces their own document, exported it to PDF format, and send that to a central mailer, who either emailed or set up a download link the collection of everyone's personal PDF (say, from 4 to 10 pages) into an "issue." Make this APA stand for Amateur PDF Association.

People contributing zines get them at a ration of 2:3 - two actives personal zines for every three issues (so you could miss an issue when necessary). Non-contributors could "subscriber" for $10 a year and get the zines, just for the fun of it.

I'm in the middle of some long-
form idea molding notes for a
Pulp Era game setting. Think
pulp magazines, serials, comics.

The nebula of individual writers, artists, and editors who create and develop worlds for RPG seem a likely community to benefit from such a thing. My own work on Jorune is the kind of creation and development I'm talking about. PDF gives a lot of flexibility to include forms programming, links to media or downloads, and similar options. I have guidelines to protect your intellectual properties with copyright, Creative Commons, and public domain statements.

I'm thinking NEW WORLD BUILDERS NEWS, but also think the group mind could come up with a better, more appropriate title, descriptive of itself. Something that ends with an L, like APA-L.

I have an Issue #0 put together as an example of a basic personal zine. Send me a private email (not a group posting) and I'll share that with you.

It would be nice to have five or six people committed to a zine in April to see if we can get a group conversation going new ideas, products, games, or personal ruminations (love that cud). Two to ten pages, maybe? By April 15. You choose how complex your zine will be, content (within some handy guidelines), and appearance.

Just like the old APAs. but with modern folk.

This was posted to my More Damn Joe Stuff blog, where is where I do most of my online pronouncements these days. Thiought it might find a reception crew here, too.

I've been having obsessive thoughts of late. The are about winding down my Jorune involvement within a very narrow range of final products.

But there is a possible defect in my brain that is part Boston Terrior that will not let go of a slipper it has bitten until the last tatter is gone.

These "final products" include the "Collected" anthologies, Gomo Guide: Tan Iricid, ORFA: Jorune, and Children of Bomoveris.

The "Collected" series, including the Cofllected Danstead Traveller (ready to go except for a cover), Collected Borkelby's Folly (about 80% there, but not even in layout yet), the Collected Sho Copra Joe (all of my work from the various zines), and I'm still trying to get permission to do the Collected Sholari James. Maybe when he sees how the other Collected antholgoies come out, he'll relent or, better, collaborate with me.

There there is the ORFA:Jorune conversion, which will include a Sholari's source book to move players to our shared world.

Children of Bomoveris, the campaign I ran for many years in the SF Bay Area, is the other big farewell -- going out with a bang.Gloriously, I hope.

But my Jorunish thoughts will not stop. And i have decided to channel them into ORFA: Jorune. ORFA itself will be an open-source system allowed four stats and a fifth game-specific "special effect." ORFA: Jorune has has the most development with Isho as a special effect. ORFA: Pulp is the channel that I've spent the most time developing and it will have several volumes - Heroes for Hard Times, The Hangchow Flight, Three Suitcases, The World Congress of Justice, and a fun thing involving a detective agency in Hollywood (1937 Hollywood) where all of the members of the agency "graduated" from a mail order detective school. Advertised in the back of pulp magazines. Just for fun.

One of the things I can finally get back to is the roster of NPCs for ORFA: Jorune, which will take on a very old project structure called "What the (blank) Knows. The blank might include a city, or  race, or a culture, or an occupation. What the Trarch Know, What the Tauther Know, What the Vologiri Know, What the Klade Members Know, etc. Things like that. Each one would have 2-4 pages of group knowledge, plus a couple of NPCs for that area in ORFA to illustrate game play for the different races, cultures, and occupations.

Joruni's will be sure to think that is awful. Particularly since the fully generated NPCs will be from the previous publications - All of the characters from the Slam Desti, Scars of Far Temauntro, and Somar cycle;

So I get to be involved in my Jorune addiciton without changing the last few restrictions on my involvement. Maybe 18 months to complete instead of the original six month projection.

10c for a pulp in, converted.

For the pulp grouping they will be released as The 10-Cent Crew for different groupings and priced as to what the 10-cents of 1937 is worth now (about $1.78 the last time I looked). The price of a pulp in the day will get those who are interested in the characters from that era - now. The crews will include a good variety of nations, groups and associated individuals from my whole ORFA: Pulp scenarios. The Hollywood Crew, the Hangchow Crew, The Weapon X Crew, The Radio City Crew, etc. Dreadful.

I'm thinking of a few other ORFA styles - hard core science fiction, expanded Children of Lost Earth (with Jorune as Colony One - I know of two more lost colonies, so far), a calcolithic pre-bronze age setting from the Indus River Valley, and more. Each would have a free ORFA core book and the settings-du-jour. Nothing huge, no big campaign books, referrals out to other books (from other publishers who will probably not object to being the target of new sales), and my usual scads of free downloads for those so inclined.

My Patreon supporters will have free access to all of it, but"Civilians" will have access to the core rule books for free, but all the color and flavors they will hve to pay. Possibly through their noses.
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All of this is just one of my six creative channels - fiction, non-fiction, RPG, 12-Step, media, and promotion.

And on the 7th day I rest.

Earth-Tec Beaten into Submission

Apple goes for blood.

I have been a victim of Earth-tec rampantly out of control because of the greed of the lab Iscins of Apple tech, who have decided that convenience or functionality for the consumer is second to the lupine idea of management. Wolf management - piss on it so it smells like you and you like it better. Kind of like Julie Schwartz putting a yellow circle around the emblem on Batman's chest to mark his time on that landmark title. Peeing on things to make them yours. Driving others away, like Mac has driven me away.

After being a loyal Macintosh user since 1985, I have left the platform because - I only use a computer to do my work. Writing, pre-press layout, correspondence. I don't use it to show off to friends, to be fashionable, to ensure the corporate quarterly report.

My Mac became a major problem with the release of Mojave (10.14). The spinning beachball of death dominated my day. Hours - literally hours - on the phone with Apple tech support resulted in such magnificent comments as "It shouldn't be doing that," or "I've never seen that happen before." Followed by "You should buy a new Mac. That's the problem. The operating system is designed to work on the new hardware.

Then why do you force the upgrade to the new system on an old machine?

In the 1950s people became outraged at the idea of "planned obsolescence" in automobiles. Why make the same solid car that ran for 20 years? People should have to buy a new car every three years - and if they were buying a new car every three years, why make cars that will last for four years? It carried over into household appliances and began to lower the quality of American made products across the board. We began to depend on overseas for our products - Japan (now other countries) for cheap crap that would die in a couple of years, Europe for high-priced, longer-lasting products (I'm thinking specifically of German electronics for audio products).

America's industrial capability declined, the world looked elsewhere and we whined because it was somehow our right to retain the customers we were no longer serving.

With the rise of the microcomputer industries - they went from the size of a building to smaller than the size of a wrist-watch. (We can make them even smaller, but then they are too easy to lose, and they are already easy to lose.)

I got involved with home computers with the Radio Shack TRS 80 Model 1, followed by two CPM computers I really liked - Kaypro // and Kaypro 10 (with a 10-megabyte internal hard disk - who would ever fill up ten whole megs!). I went to a demonstration for the IBM Spellbinder system and was looking at getting the buggy version of PageMaker when circumstances caused me to borrow a friend's little 512KE Macintosh (the Fat Mac) to get some documents ready for a conference (with very short notice). My Kaypro had died and I needed to get things done NOW!

It took him 10 minutes to teach me how to use the Mac, and maybe 5 minutes to show me how to use the page layout program (Ready, Set, Go! version 1). And then I spent two hours getting all of my emergency documents ready to go to the photocopier. I immediately made an arrangement to rent some time on his machine while I made a deal to get my first Mac. A guy had been after me to write a screenplay for a dubious project, so I told him "Buy me a Mac and I do the first draft of your script and one additional draft for changes.) He was getting a sweetheart deal, I got my hands on a Mac of my own - Summer of 1985.

I've been on Macs ever since. When I moved to Berkeley (1989) I stumbled into the BMUG and got more life-changing connections with some of the most incredible people I've known in my life. Apple had a few people who got NDA's (Non-Disclosure Agreements) to preview hardware and software for beta testing and regular presentations by members to present cool things they were working. My first exposure to MP3 music files was in a BMUG presentation, my first ride in an electric sedan was in a BMUG presentation. My first exposure to the Internet was through Ben Adoba, pushing a new browser called Netscape, intended to replace the text-based computer navigator called Lynx (Ideal for an old CPM user). I did a Rosetta Stone review for the newsletter, and other articles - and the newsletter was some little 16 or 24 page set of notes. They were 200-page VOLUMES of cool information on Macs, Software, Hardware, and computer-related topics. I did some substitute teaching for BMUG instructors who couldn't make a session - my favorite was the introduction to computers for computer-phobes.

Mac Mac Mac. The job I miss the most was with GBN (gbn.com) where I go to work as support for globe-trotting political scenario planners and such forward thinkers as Peter Schwartz, Peter Gabriel, Stewart Brand, Newt Gingrich, and projects like The Long Now. I was the Macintosh network support guy, plus audio-visual geek in residence for a weekly live presentation (which introduced me to my historian idol - J. S. Holliday).

Macs shaped and supported my life. I got iBooks, starting with Model 100 (130 was a good portable computer), and had the Luggable. I've had Mac II, Mac SE, SE30, 540, 630, Pismo, iMac (I still have one), iBook, MacBook, MacBook Pro (still have one), and MacMini.

Until System 10.14, Mojave and my love for Mac ended with System 10.15, Catalina.

After decades of reliability, flexibility, and functionality, my Mac began getting lost in registrations and authorization. The spinning beach ball of death was taking from 15 to 45-sections to respond to a single keystroke or mouse-click when starting working from a window. Freezing. Rebooting unexpectedly and losing my documents. Backups backed up the defects. The restoring system didn't work. Erasing the disk and installed fresh didn't work. Adobe and Apple constantly pissed on each other to see who was more important (lupine management) and I couldn't get my work done. I lost my work constantly.

That's where frustration drove me to end the Jorune commitment to SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL after issue 13. The remainings can actually get done on my new system, but I am so far behind on everything I can't commit to when those will appear.

And I love what happened with SSC. A bit of CPR for a dying love. But I have to move on.

From Jorune. From Mac. Thanks to a friend who has turned into a major cheerleader for me, I have a fresh box - an old HP  box in which a new 4-Core processor has been installed, a 400Gig SSD, 6 USB 3 ports and four USB 2 ports. Bluetooth and wireless. Three open PCIe slots for upgrades to come, and Ubuntu Studio 19.10, with all the programs that operating system includes. For free.

I'm writing on it now.

The keyboard is crappy, so I need to replace that. I am losing time while I learn how to tame the new monster through the command line. I'm setting up a working system and the speed is fabulous. I tell it to do something, it does it. Fast. The 4-Core and SSD are a dream.

And, as you can tell, even with the crappy keyboard I can write again.

I'm getting a few things done. Satisfying. My box is obedient and does not prevent me getting work done. I might be able to meet deadlines after I've reached the happy side of the learning curve.

My own Return o Jorune

So - after being almost silent for six months, I hope people are encouraged with the chance of me finishing some Jorune projects in the next few months - THE COLLECTED DANSTEAD TRAVELLER, THE COLLECTED BORKELBY'S FOLLY, GOMO GUIDE: TAN IRICID, and THE CHILDREN OF BOMOVERIS. ORFA is back on track, but I will have to do a dual boot Windows 10 to access the Adobe CC suite to use the programming features of Acrobat for the ORFA character sheet (and to get the dozens of fully generated NPCs together for the ORFA Jorune package. But that is forthcoming.

In my ongoing juggle, I am also back at work on LIGHT, the most political of my science fiction stories. There are other books in the offing - non-fiction for Propaganda (protection against), making your first kitchen homey, and how to GTFU. And I have fresh editions of my other books - RECOVERY READER, CLIMBING THE SPIRAL MOUNTAIN, SONG OF ORPHANS, THE TASTE OF FIRE, and others... all progressing.

Yay, Ubuntu!

It may not be at the speed I hoped to attain, but the progress, however glacial, is still progress.

After almost two years of problems with Apple - both Mojave (10.14) and Catalina (10.15) - I have migrated to Linux to get things done. It means I will have to spend time learning how to learn the new software after 35 years using Mac. I'm and old dog and learning new tricks takes some time.

But that is primarily with them document layout with Scribus. The shift from Pages to LibreOffice is not all that dynamic. From Photoshop to Kritta may take a bit. But I'm doing all that now.

I'm on Ubuntu Studio 19.10, which should last for a minute.

And I can get back into Jorune and my other projects.

2020 should be a good year.