Author Archives: Mark
I write likeArthur Clarke I Write Like. Analyze your writing!
One Page Rules: Faster Than Light
Star Noir operates under the fiction that an FTL drive works. To be specific, Sonny White’s implementation of the Alcubierre Drive works. In Starships, it makes very little impact, except to limit the places from which a ship may escape. … Continue reading
I’ve added a bunch of new sections to Star Noir: Xìngyùn, along with adding some (presumably bad) Chinese place names.
The Battle of Luna, or the Protractor Scenario
Back in Scenario One (the Battle of Ascension) I talked about how ship rotation was short enough to be ignored by Starships. In this scenario, I make the opposite assumption: ship rotation takes a whole turn.
Star Noir: Xìngyùn
Overview Xìngyùn (Fortune) was a Chinese mining colony, built to take advantage of an enormous precious metals deposit. It earned its independence from Earth-side China during the Market Revolution, which otherwise saw the Communist rulers suppress the Capitalist reformers. Xìngyùn … Continue reading
Star Noir: The Significant
So far as humanity can tell, the universe is full of habitable worlds. They’ve found them in every system they’ve been to, and settled them all. Five are what you’d call, “significant”. In alphabetic order, they are:
Normally, PFM is supposed to be about games that I’m working on, but the following article about a possible propellantless drive may lead to a different method in Star Noir. Strange thrust: the unproven science that could propel our children … Continue reading
State of the Purple Fuzzy Monster
Those of you who’ve followed this site for a while have probably noticed that the number of “workbench” articles have declined somewhat. Okay, stopped completely. The reason for that is that I’ve been bitten by the game-writing bug. I’ve currently … Continue reading
Space Pirate
The latest entry in my series of beta scenarios is the “ship’s systems” scenario. In designing Starships, I made the decision to simplify the ships’ systems to focus on the movement mechanics. In this scenario, I add more complicated damage … Continue reading
The Battle of Moultrie
While Starships is a great game, it does have a flaw. It’s best played with six-to-ten squadrons, no matter the number of players. This scenario provides the rules to allow you to get together with a bunch of friends for a … Continue reading
Leanne
Mark