What are you reading?

[Darth Fluffy 302]

I just finished Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams. It was good, I'd recommend it if you like HHGttG; it has the same weirdness.

Starting Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain. So far I've read the intro, which is the motivation for the trip. I think it's going to be well written, with dated concepts.

[mlooney 3,417]

I've been reading 
1) The new facsimile printing of the original  3 Traveller books (dead trees)
2) Tractics, a 2nd edition of a 70's war game (dead trees)
3) Datasheets of various items of military hardware. (PDF files)
4) To End in Fire the latest Honorverse book. (eBook)

[Darth Fluffy 302]

1 hour ago, mlooney said:

I've been reading 
1) The new facsimile printing of the original  3 Traveller books (dead trees)
2) Tractics, a 2nd edition of a 70's war game (dead trees)
3) Datasheets of various items of military hardware. (PDF files)
4) To End in Fire the latest Honorverse book. (eBook)

I think I still have the early edition three Traveller books in the small format. I don't think it's the original, but close. I have a bunch of the additional rules, but I think I'm missing High Guard. I had Snapshot and Mayday, but they were in a garage and got badly mildewed, so I tossed them.

I gave away my bulky stack of AD&D books to a guy that was still playing AD&D a couple of moves ago. I like the newer editions, would not prefer to play AD&D.

I am going through my books, reading them, and needing to let go of many. It is the most difficult thing to part with, but I am making some progress.

[mlooney 3,417]

The version I got is this.  Right now it's on sale for $12 for a printed version.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/355200/Classic-Traveller-Facsimile-Edition

[Darth Fluffy 302]

13 hours ago, mlooney said:

The version I got is this.  Right now it's on sale for $12 for a printed version.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/355200/Classic-Traveller-Facsimile-Edition

That is a good price, I don't recall what it cost back in the day, but ballpark, around that. Even if I find mine, I'll probably order the PDF.

Did you see Starship Geomorphs is a free PDF?

FFE seems to have all editions, which must have been an effort to get the rights.

2300 AD is a nice setting. it is based on gaming the fallout of Twilight 2000, and expansion into space. The science is toward the harder side, although they do have FTL of a sort. 

[mlooney 3,417]

5 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Did you see Starship Geomorphs is a free PDF?

I've got a copy of it, I didn't know it was also on the FFE site.  It's pretty cool.

5 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

FFE seems to have all editions, which must have been an effort to get the rights.

No, the licenses expired for the other versions (everybody but Mongoose Publishing, which has released 2 versions) and FFE hold the rights to Traveller, so when the licnses expired they got the rights to the older products.  At least that is what I think they did.  Marc got the rights to Traveller when GDW went out of business. 

[mlooney 3,417]

7 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

2300 AD is a nice setting. it is based on gaming the fallout of Twilight 2000,

If you like Twilight:2000 and were not impressed there is a 4th edition of it out now.  Unlike 3rd edition it's set in Poland (or Sweden) like 1st and 2nd edition were.  (The less said about 3rd edition the better)

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/358090/Twilight-2000-4th-Edition-Core-Set

 

[The Old Hack 2,448]

Just now, mlooney said:

If you like Twilight:2000 and were not impressed there is a 4th edition of it out now.  Unlike 3rd edition it's set in Poland (or Sweden) like 1st and 2nd edition were.  (The less said about 3rd edition the better)

I played the first edition of it and really liked it. It did have certain balance issues, mind you. I recall being charged by ten Russian mercenaries and throwing a WP grenade at them in desperation. Nine of them went down and the tenth looked like he was reconsidering his options.

[mlooney 3,417]

9 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

I played the first edition of it and really liked it. It did have certain balance issues, mind you. I recall being charged by ten Russian mercenaries and throwing a WP grenade at them in desperation. Nine of them went down and the tenth looked like he was reconsidering his options.

To be fair, if you are in the burst radius of a WP grenade you are about to have A Bad Day. 

[The Old Hack 2,448]

Just now, mlooney said:

To be fair, if you are in the burst radius of a WP grenade you are about to have A Bad Day. 

But at least it is also very likely to be the last Bad Day you will ever have.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

49 minutes ago, mlooney said:

If you like Twilight:2000 and were not impressed there is a 4th edition of it out now.  Unlike 3rd edition it's set in Poland (or Sweden) like 1st and 2nd edition were.  (The less said about 3rd edition the better)

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/358090/Twilight-2000-4th-Edition-Core-Set

During the Cold War, and being in the military, there was interest in Twilight 2000; now potential players think it's dated. Putin may be reviving it for us.

I remember the 2nd edition coming out. I did not know about the 3rd. My impression is no one locally stocked it.

We've had a number of good game stores in our area. For the most part, none of them have lasted. There is one left, reasonably close, it may do better. It started as an online comics vendor, then expanded into a store and added games. Seems to have a better financial base.

[mlooney 3,417]

12 minutes ago, Darth Fluffy said:

During the Cold War, and being in the military, there was interest in Twilight 2000; now potential players think it's dated.

4th edition is explicitly an alternate history where the coup in the USSR was successful and the USSR never broke up. The Warsaw pact nations, as well as the Baltic states break free of Russian control.  Russia objects.  Invades the Baltic states, the USA reinforces Europe and Bad Things Happen.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

9 minutes ago, mlooney said:

4th edition is explicitly an alternate history where the coup in the USSR was successful and the USSR never broke up. The Warsaw pact nations, as well as the Baltic states break free of Russian control.  Russia objects.  Invades the Baltic states, the USA reinforces Europe and Bad Things Happen.

Not far off of current reality.

[mlooney 3,417]

46 minutes ago, Darth Fluffy said:

57 minutes ago, mlooney said:

4th edition is explicitly an alternate history where the coup in the USSR was successful and the USSR never broke up. The Warsaw pact nations, as well as the Baltic states break free of Russian control.  Russia objects.  Invades the Baltic states, the USA reinforces Europe and Bad Things Happen.

Not far off of current reality.

Yeah, except it's the whole of the USSR not just Russia and they didn't ever downsize their forces.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

8 minutes ago, mlooney said:

Yeah, except it's the whole of the USSR not just Russia and they didn't ever downsize their forces.

Gorbachev never did a Pizza Hut commercial ...

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

1 hour ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Gorbachev never did a Pizza Hut commercial ...

Yes it was that commercial that ended the Cold War and for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

 I still think that prize should have gone to the "Where's The Beef" lady

[mlooney 3,417]

20 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Yes it was that commercial that ended the Cold War and for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

In a way it was.  At least setting it up so there could be a Pizza Hut in Russia that he could make the commercial for.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

Just finished "Crazy is my superpower", autobio of pro wrestler AJ Mandez. It was a good read. She has life experiences that are at the very least 'interesting' and writes in an entertaining style. 

Am also reading Agatha Christie's autobio - it is interesting for reasons other than being her autobio. Almost everything about it is archaic, I often have to look up what she's talking about. It is thick, and it is work, so progress is slower.

Recently read an old copy of Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad. I did not know that he was known for his travel guides, apparently that was a thing, and the stuff we know him for came later. The book has wit, but honestly, it was a tough read, because our language has changed in the span since he wrote this in the 1800s; he uses unfamiliar words and uses words in unfamiliar ways.

 

 

[mlooney 3,417]

55 minutes ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Recently read an old copy of Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad. I did not know that he was known for his travel guides, apparently that was a thing, and the stuff we know him for came later.

Didn't he start as a journalist?  It's a small jump from that to travel writer.

[ijuin 572]

Travel writing really peaked during the early Steam era, where it had become theoretically possible for a person of means to go globetrotting, but international travel was still too pricey for the masses to experience personally.

[mlooney 3,417]

The last great travel writer was, in my opinion, Richard Halliburton, who wrote in the 20's and 30's.  I've read most of his books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Halliburton 

[Darth Fluffy 302]

10 hours ago, mlooney said:

Didn't he start as a journalist?  It's a small jump from that to travel writer.

He did indeed work as a journalist, he was an apprentice printer and later a typesetter, then contributed articles. He became a river boat pilot, then tried mining, then returned to journalism.

[mlooney 3,417]

[mlooney 3,417]

I'm not sleepy or in any major amounts of pain, but I want to read in bed for a while. I'm sorta liking the feel of the weighted blanket. Might get one for use while I'm on the computer. Of course I could move the one I've got around, but then I would end up making the bed more times than I like. I end up making it in the middle of the night several times a week.  Gonna read the WEG or Traveller rules until dinner time.