And... this person is banned.

Sorry, people, I somehow missed this spambot during my previous purge.

On Sat, Oct 24, 2009 at 11:21 PM, saraaepchick <saraaepchick@...> wrote:
> LOL, I found a very funny picture and wanna know your opinion. Do u think this
picture is funny? Check the funny picture here:
> http://funnyoopic.zoomshare.com/files/funny.htm
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>



--
Kirt "Loki" Dankmyer -- http://ivanhoeunbound.com -- xiomBRAG on AIM
cats * hats * RPGs * love * Eris * Agent Patriot * anime * Dada * poetry
"Only ONE MAN can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me!" -Death

LOL, I found a very funny picture and wanna know your opinion. Do u think this
picture is funny? Check the funny picture here:
http://funnyoopic.zoomshare.com/files/funny.htm

You have received an important Message! Check your message here:
http://ladyalex.zoomshare.com/files/message.htm

You're Invited to join my friends network, check my profile here:
http://oliviar.zoomshare.com/files/chicks.htm

You're Invited to join my friends network, check my profile here:
http://oliviar.zoomshare.com/files/chicks.htm

In a long-overdue move, I've deleted the spambots from this group and
made it so I have to approve new members.

-Kirt

On 7/29/09, newgpfriend <newgpfriend@...> wrote:
> I created this cool friends network and added you to my friends network.
> Hit-up now:
> http://emonium.zoomshare.com/files/girlfriend.htm
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

--
Sent from my mobile device

Kirt "Loki" Dankmyer -- http://ivanhoeunbound.com -- xiomBRAG on AIM
cats * hats * RPGs * love * Eris * Agent Patriot * anime * Dada * poetry
"Only ONE MAN can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me!" -Death

At this point, if you slip me a couple of bucks in PayPal I'll send
you the PDF of the whole No Press Anthology, including Pretender. A
new version is in the offing in the long term, but I have no idea how
long that will be.

On Sun, Oct 8, 2006 at 8:22 AM, John <longspeak@...> wrote:
> Kirt,
>
> Over on Everway-L, we've been discussing Pretender, and ways to apply
> Pretender back to Everway.  At least one person is interested in
> learning more.  I only have the copy in no-press, but we wondered if
> the online copy was still hiding somewhere?
>
> Also, when I visited, I noticed a hint at doing something superheroic
> with Pretender.  I've done it, and it works, though mine was a pretty
> quick & dirty modification.
>
> Thanks,
>
> LT
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>



--
Kirt "Loki" Dankmyer -- http://ivanhoeunbound.com -- xiomBRAG on AIM
cats * hats * RPGs * love * Eris * Agent Patriot * anime * Dada * poetry
"Only ONE MAN can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me!" -Death

Thought this might interest some of y'all. This article very much
talks about the downward moral spiral under the stress of war that
Unsung is meant to evoke.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Daniel Levine <dikaiosunh@...>
Date: May 3, 2007 12:08 PM
Subject: Fodder for Unsung
To: Kirt Dankmyer <xiombarg@...>


Kirt,

Thought you might find this article interesting.  Sorry for the
cut-n-paste job; it came to me through my USIP news clips, so I don't
have a link handy to the original.

Daniel

San Diego Union-Tribune
May 3, 2007
Pg. 1

Military Report Shows Ethics Of Troops In Iraq

Expert says findings reflect stress of war

By Rick Rogers, Staff Writer

Only 40 percent of Marines would report a member of their unit for
killing or wounding an innocent civilian, according to the military's
first report on the ethics of U.S. troops in Iraq.

One-third of the Marines surveyed would turn in someone for stealing,
and 30 percent would report a unit member for unnecessarily destroying
property.

The figures for the Army were roughly 15 percent higher in those three
categories, but even those were described by the report's authors as
in clear need of improvement.

"People are going to be surprised and disturbed by this, and then they
are going to understand that this is war," said John Pike, director of
the military think tank GlobalSecurity.org.

The San Diego Union-Tribune obtained a copy of the 30-page report from
an anonymous source and asked Pike to comment on it. The Pentagon had
not authorized the release of the document, which was prepared by the
Army's Mental Health Advisory Team and sent to the commandant of the
Marine Corps on April 18. The military is using the report to
prioritize training and other needs.

"Troops are sent to fight for their country, but when they get to the
battlefield, they are fighting for their buddies," Pike said. "I
suspect that combat in Iraq is more stressful than is understood. This
list of behaviors shows classic symptoms of combat stress."

The report indeed showed that longer deployments and multiple tours of
duty were increasing troops' rates of marital and mental-health
problems, including post traumatic stress disorder. An even bigger
factor was each service member's exposure to combat: More fighting
typically led to a greater likelihood of mental difficulties.

Strong leadership by enlisted officers, such as sergeants and staff
sergeants, greatly reduced a unit's psychological strain – and vice
versa, the report's authors concluded. They recommended more
aggressive and consistent training in ethics and leadership skills for
these officers, as well as chaplains and mental-health professionals
working in war zones.

The document was based on focus groups and surveys of 1,320 soldiers
and 447 Marines from August to October. The service members' responses
were kept anonymous because the interviewers wanted to get the most
honest answers possible.

Combat veterans said the report accurately portrays troop behavior in
Iraq, which they depicted as a frustrating and soul-sapping place
where the enemy seems to lurk everywhere.

"When you deal with a loss in a unit, you have to fight the anger and
feeling of inhumanity you feel toward the people," said Patrick
Alvarez of Chula Vista, a staff sergeant in the California National
Guard. His unit lost a soldier during a convoy attack about three
years ago in Baghdad.

"When something like that happens, you start to lose the desire to do
what is right," said Alvarez, who received the Bronze Star for valor.
"I know of it first-hand. I was looking at 10-year-olds and under the
right circumstances, I would have wasted those kids in a heartbeat."

Then he added: "An innocent civilian? I don't think I ever met one over there."

Some military personnel said a unit's sense of loyalty and camaraderie
can overpower the obligation to report wrongdoing, especially when its
members have banded together to survive in combat.

"You are protecting their lives and they are protecting your life,"
said Rey Uy, a retired Marine staff sergeant who lives in Chula Vista.

Urban combat can cause intense frustration, he said.

"You don't know who your enemy is. You don't know if it is the
10-year-old with the cell phone or the old man sitting on the corner
watching you," said Uy, who served with the 3rd Battalion, 11th Marine
Regiment, 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton. "You can't find them,
yet every day you have a Humvee blown up and people hurt or killed.
And then back at base camp you are getting rocketed and mortared."

The more brutal the war and the longer that troops are exposed to it,
the more difficult it is for them to follow the military's rules of
engagement, said Jean Bethke Elshtain, a professor of social and
political ethics at the University of Chicago.

But not all service branches react the same way to combat stress, said
Kateri Carmola, who teaches political science and war ethics at
Middlebury College in Vermont.

The Army has emphasized battlefield ethics training since the Vietnam
War, she said, while the Navy and Marine Corps have concentrated on
internal ethics since the early 1990s.

What Carmola, Elshtain, Pike and the combat veterans all agreed on was
that strong, competent leadership can address nearly every ethical
problem in the war zone.

A firm hand will keep troops in line while reducing stress levels,
Alvarez and Uy said. The ethics report showed that units with enlisted
officers who were highly rated had less than half the rates of post
traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression compared with those
that had poorly rated leaders.

"One time, we captured two insurgents with rocket-propelled grenades
and improvised explosive devices. . . . A few weeks earlier, we had
taken a loss from an IED," Alvarez said. "So we have these guys and we
are law. We know that if we turn them in, there is a good chance
they'll be out of jail in a few weeks. Do you kill them? No, because
it is wrong. Leadership calls right from wrong. Leadership was the
answer. Leadership is the answer."

Among the report's other findings:

The length of combat exposure is the main factor influencing a service
member's mental health.

Ten percent of respondents said they had mistreated an Iraqi. The
number was an average of all responses for behaviors such as
assaulting a noncombatant and unnecessarily damaging an Iraqi's
property.

Troops diagnosed with mental-health problems were much more likely to
engage in unethical behavior on the battlefield than those with no
psychological ills.

Only 42 percent of soldiers who screened positive for a mental-health
problem went on to seek help from a chaplain, primary-care doctor or
behavioral specialist. That's because the Army's mental-health
treatment system is largely voluntary.

Nearly 66 percent of respondents personally knew a service member who
was killed in combat in Iraq.

Besides seeking greater leadership and more psychological training for
various military personnel, the Mental Health Advisory Team
recommended that the Pentagon create a joint system for all service
branches to monitor and report mental-health needs. It also encouraged
commanders to establish a training program devoted solely to
battlefield ethics for soldiers and Marines.

At the end of its list, the team suggested that the Pentagon extend
the interval between deployments to 18 to 36 months so troops could
mentally "reset." In contrast, the Army recently lengthened its
standard tour of duty to 15 months, with at least a year of rest
between each deployment. The length of a standard Marine deployment is
still seven months.

Yesterday, a spokesman at Marine Corps headquarters characterized the
report as "one instructive item in a series."

Lt. Col. Scott Fazekas said the Corps understands "it represents an
honest and faithful attempt to capture what frontline Marines are
experiencing and we will continue to examine the study and its
recommendations closely."


--
Kirt "Loki" Dankmyer -- http://ivanhoeunbound.com -- xiomBRAG on AIM
cats * hats * RPGs * love * Eris * Agent Patriot * anime * Dada * poetry
"Only ONE MAN can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me!" -Death

So, kids, in celebration of my loan and tax day, not to mention
because the kids at RPG.NET don't seem to be taking advantage of this
offer, I'm offering super-cheap copies of Unsung to y'all. You can get
the PDF version for $3, and the print edition for $3 -- that's $10 for
the whole package.

http://ivanhoeunbound.com/sale.html

This sale only lasts until 2007-04-17.

--
Kirt "Loki" Dankmyer -- http://ivanhoeunbound.com -- xiomBRAG on AIM
cats * hats * RPGs * love * Eris * Agent Patriot * anime * Dada * poetry
"Only ONE MAN can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me!" -Death

Just wanted to drop everyone a message that the playtest campaign of
Skyfall Blade, the anime/mecha supplement for Unsung, is going well.

We've had a lot of melodrama, and the Eyes -- the transforming
archetypes of the Skyfall Blade extension to the basic Unsung system
-- have contributed well to what's been going on. For example, we've
had one character fall in love with a sworn enemy, find out she's not
an enemy at all, and then become jilted when he finally revealed his
love. Each stage of this storyline was represented by a different Eye,
with defined game-mechanical effects. We've also had characters
defined by their starting Eyes, from the character who lost a loved
one due to alien attack to the character whose all-consuming hatred
for the invading aliens has informed -- and deformed -- his every
action in the game.

If anyone wants to get a playtest game of Skyfall Blade together,
please let me know.

--
Kirt "Loki" Dankmyer -- http://ivanhoeunbound.com -- xiomBRAG on AIM
cats * hats * RPGs * love * Eris * Agent Patriot * anime * Dada * poetry
"Only ONE MAN can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me!" -Death

>From: "Kirt Dankmyer" <xiombarg@...>
>
...
>If anyone has a group together that they can playtest with, please let
>me know. :)

Looks like it might be closed down now, but check this out:
http://www.story-games.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=1457&page=1#Item_0

Mike

_________________________________________________________________
Valentine’s Day -- Shop for gifts that spell L-O-V-E at MSN Shopping
http://shopping.msn.com/content/shp/?ctId=8323,ptnrid=37,ptnrdata=24095&tcode=wl\
mtagline

Just wanted to drop everyone a little note to let y'all know that the
playtesting for Skyfall Blade, the anime supplement for Unsung, is
going very, very well so far, and I've gotten some decent feedback.

If anyone has a group together that they can playtest with, please let
me know. :)

--
Kirt "Loki" Dankmyer -- http://ivanhoeunbound.com -- xiomBRAG on AIM
cats * hats * RPGs * love * Eris * Agent Patriot * anime * Dada * poetry
"Only ONE MAN can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me!" -Death

Kirt,

Over on Everway-L, we've been discussing Pretender, and ways to apply
Pretender back to Everway.  At least one person is interested in
learning more.  I only have the copy in no-press, but we wondered if
the online copy was still hiding somewhere?

Also, when I visited, I noticed a hint at doing something superheroic
with Pretender.  I've done it, and it works, though mine was a pretty
quick & dirty modification.

Thanks,

LT

So, I have a playtest document of Skyfall Blade, my anime/manga mecha
supplement for Unsung, available. As a special bonus, it has
illustrations of the mecha, though none of the other chapters are
illustrated (yet).

http://ivanhoeunbound.com/playtest.pdf

Let me know what y'all think! Special bonus points if you know where
the pictures come from.

--
Kirt "Loki" Dankmyer -- http://ivanhoeunbound.com -- xiomBRAG on AIM
cats * hats * RPGs * love * Eris * Agent Patriot * anime * Dada * poetry
"Only ONE MAN can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me!" -Death

This is the final chapter. I'll be producing a playtest document soon.

APPENDIX: Notes, Inspiration, and Credits

In my dream, things went differently.

It was what the humans termed as the early twenty-first century. Our
advanced mecha slipped past their primitive radar without a problem, a
battalion of giant robots in every city before anyone noticed.
Antimatter bombs took care of their military installations readily
enough.

Quelling the population didn't take long. I mean, what human is
capable of dealing with a secret police that can read his thoughts?

So began the Karan Empire, with a boot against the face of humanity.

When I wake upfrom these dreams, I quake in fear at how much I enjoy
these dreams. It could easily have been us. It could easily have been
us.

Notes

I shouldn't have to say it, but experience has shown that I do. This
book is yours to do with as you please. In fact, if you want to
cannibalize this book for parts, you are more than encouraged to do
so. You'll be engaging in a fine and ancient role-playing game
tradition.

Stripping away the Skyfall Blade background, the Eyes work perfectly
well in any sort of cinematic Unsung game where there is an "enemy"
for the characters to fight. Trim away some of the more
combat-oriented Eyes, and one can run a straight shojo story set in a
high school in Japan, or any other setting filled with melodramatic
social conflict.

Similarly, the mecha rules, such as they are, work well as a cinematic
vehicle combat system, and could be used for a game based on The Road
Warrior as much as a game based on anime.

You could, in theory, use a version of the Skyfall Blade background
without the Eyes mechanics in a straight Unsung game. One could even
eliminate the mecha, making it more a conventional but futuristic
guerilla war. But try out the Eyes before you discard them; they add a
new layer of drama to the game.

Inspiration

This list is hardly complete, but it lists some of the media that I
found inspirational when writing Skyfall Blade. First I list the
English title (if any) and then, in parentheses, the Japanese title
(if different).

Anime
I mix all forms of animation freely here: TV series, movies, and
straight-to-video fare (Original Animation Videos -- OAVs), which have
a better reputation in Japan than elsewhere.

Big O. This show, which was more popular in the US than in Japan, is
best described as "Batman with mecha", in a retro-futuristic city
where everyone has amnesia. Though it takes a while to really get
going beyond a "mecha fight of the week" format, once it does, it
provides a level of melodrama and moral issues worthy of any
anime-based Unsung game.

Giant Robo: The Animation - The Day the Earth Stood Still. With a
retro-future pulpfeel and a huge mecha, this OAV series would make an
excellent archetype for a less-gritty, but still-melodramatic Unsung
saga.

Mobile Police Patlabor (Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor). This series is best
described as "Hill Street Blues with mecha", which might explain why
it makes excellent fodder for Unsung. If you consider "criminals" to
be the Enemy, you can use the Eyes and the mecha rules in this book
pretty much intact to run a game set in the Patlabor world.

Mobile Suit Gundam. This series is considered to be one of the
pioneers of the mecha genre, and features a very nuanced and
interesting political background for the time, involving a war between
Earth and its space colonies. The protagonist, the teenaged pilot of
an experimental mecha suit, is, in Skyfall Blade terms, the original
Prodigy/Reluctant Warrior.

Project A-ko. This movie, featuring a superpowered girl (A-ko) and a
mecha-creating genius (B-ko) fighting for the affection of one whiny
girl, C-ko, is actually a parody of several different anime series.
Even if you don't get the references, it's still funny, and B-ko is an
interesting example, in Skyfall Blade terms, of a Prodigy who is also
Jilted.

Revolutionary Girl Utena (Shoujo Kakumei Utena). This series features
a very strange school, and a very strange heroine, a girl who wants to
be a prince. The protagonist gets embroiled in a series of unusual
duels with another woman, the "Rose Bride", as the prize. While not
for people who cannot handle the surreal or people who dislike a
homosexual subtext, this series is shojo melodrama at its very finest.
See if you can pick out Eyes for every character. There's no mecha,
but mecha would just distract from its pure, disturbing tone. I cannot
correctly describe this series; it must literally be seen to be
believed.

Robotech (Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry
Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada). Okay, so it hacked
apart its source material, stitching three unrelated Japanese series
into one. Get over it. This was many people's first exposure to anime,
and contains classic Skyfall Blade tropes, including Rick Hunter, the
major inspiration for two of the Eyes: Prodigy and Triangle.

Science Ninja Team Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets/G-Force (Kagaku
Ninja tai Gatchaman). This classic anime series, while it shows its
age (especially in the watered-down American versions), contains some
classic Skyfall Blade tropes, including a Lunk and Kid. It also
features an Ultimate Weapon in the form of the Fiery Phoenix.

Star Blazers/Space Cruiser Yamato (Uchu Senkan Yamato). This series is
another classic, which features a crew of humans trying to save an
Earth despoiled by aliens by finding a planet controlled by an alien
savior. The series is notable for what many would consider to be THE
example of an Ultimate Weapon, the Wave Motion Gun.

Super Dimension Century Orguss (Cho Jiku Seiki Orguss). This
oft-overlooked classic from the same people who brought you Super
Dimension Fortress Macross features a human in a strange world filled
with mecha, danger, and love. The humanoid-but-alien Emaan would make
a good prototype for a karan culture.

No Need for Tenchi! (Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki). This series, featuring an
Earth boy embroiled in a potpourri of interplanetary strangeness, is
very popular. I actually dislike it a lot, but the main character,
Tenchi, is perhaps the most well-known example of what Skyfall Blade
would call a Strange Attractor.

Voltron: Defender of the Universe (Hyakujuu-ou GoLion and Armored
Fleet Dairugger XV). Another classic made from multiple
hacked-together Japanese series, tho one I admit I'm not a big fan of,
this series featured several mecha which join together to form one
giant mecha, Voltron. Most notable for another example of an Ultimate
Weapon: FORM BLAZING SWORD!

Manga
Manga are Japanese comics. None of these manga series feature mecha.
Instead, they either display the sort of shojo melodrama that Skyfall
Blade aspires to, or themes that fit Unsung in general.

B.O.D.Y. This is well-drawn, pure shojo soapopera at this nuanced
finest. The faces of the characters are much more expressive than in
other manga I've read. The story features a young girl who falls in
love with a classmate who turns out to moonlight as a "host", a sort
of male escort, with all the attendant complications that such a life
implies. Not for everyone, but the plot twists should be inspirational
for anyone going for the full-out shojo mode of melodrama in Skyfall
Blade.

Death Note. This is, by far, the best manga I have ever read. It
features Light, a young Japanese high school student, who finds a
supernaturally-empowered notebook which allows him to kill anyone, so
long as he knows the person's name and face and writes the name in the
book. The moral questions this raises are obvious; the book reads, in
Unsung terms, like one Gift after the other.

Hot Gimmick. This is shojo manga in its purest form: High school
soapopera. It's not for everyone, but the main character is the
primary inspiration for three Eyes: Nice, Strange Attractor, and
Blackmailed. There's love, betrayal, and revenge enough in a single
apartment complex to fill an entire Imperial court, and, in Skyfall
Blade terms, you can often watch the Eyes Transform as the manga goes
on.

Lone Wolf and Cub. A samurai takes to the assassin's road in an
attempt to redeem his clan, taking his young son with him. This comic
features duty, honor, sacrifice, and royal ass-kicking, all
beautifully drawn. It's a little slowly-paced at times, but it's
excellent Unsung fodder, filled with moral and religious questions in
a very Japanese historical frame.

Mahou Sensei Negima. I hate myself for loving this manga. A young,
underage wizard from the UK (a Prodigy/Strange Attractor in Skyfall
Blade terms), for his final test upon graduating from wizard school,
is sent to teach English at a Japanese school for junior high girls.
It's filled with all sorts of anime and manga clichés, and it
gleefully mocks itself for those clichés. Inspirational, but don't
take it too seriously unless you really want to run a comedy game.
It's total trash, but it's fun trash.

Marmalade Boy. A strange family melodrama, featuring a young girl
whose parents meet another couple and decide to swappartners, forcing
her to deal with a highly unusual household and her new "step-brother"
of sorts. This manga is tough to describe, but it's filled with
classic shojo soap-operatic tropes.

Credits

[to be added after playtest and art procurement]

--
Kirt "Loki" Dankmyer -- http://ivanhoeunbound.com -- xiomBRAG on AIM
cats * hats * RPGs * love * Eris * Agent Patriot * anime * Dada * poetry
"Only ONE MAN can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me!" -Death

Here's another preview chapter for Skyfall Blade. Keep in mind that in
the final version, the mecha will be illustrated, and therefore
clearer.

CHAPTER FIVE: Mecha

I had it in my sights. It was four-legged, but its legs were hinged
strangely, more like an insect, and it had claws like a crab and one
of those twisted, human cannons mounted on top.
There was a lock-on, and I frantically pushed the big red button. But
at the last minute, the thing scuttled out of the way and rolled
against a building, and my shot went wide.
I cursed. I would have to wait for the cannon to power up again. Hands
dancing in my datagloves, I dodged the acidic spoo the other humans
were lobbing at me, and then suddenly there was a distinct snap. The
HUD and all controls went dark.
I cursed louder. I'd gone too far, and pulled out the electrical cord
that connected my experimental combot to the nuclear reactor.

What is a Mecha?

In anime, a mecha is any sort of vehicle. In America, and in this
text, we'll generally be talking about the giant robots that anime is
well-known for, though these rules could work for other sorts of
vehicles.
If you've honestly never seen an anime with mecha or read a manga
featuring such a thing, I suggest a quick Google search on "Robotech"
before continuing with this chapter.

Mecha Combat

Mecha combat (a fight between two or more mecha) works exactly like
normal combat in Unsung, with some small, but key differences. But in
general, it's the same. The pilot of the mecha makes a Guts Check to
shoot other people, and a Meat Check when hit to see if the mecha goes
Down or is Tagged. And so on.
This may seem counterintuitive, but keep in mind that in anime, a
mecha is usually an extension of the pilot. In many ways, the mecha is
a surrogate for the pilot, or the pilot's closest friend. So it makes
sense to use the pilot's Meat to see how tough the mecha is, as the
mecha is in many ways only as tough as its pilot. (Plus, Eyes like
Prodigy allow you to make rolls that would normally be difficult or
impossible…)
The main difference is when the mecha is Tagged or Down, the pilot is
usually better off. In many ways, the mecha make Unsung combat
slightly less lethal, which fits the anime/manga genre quite well.
It works like this. When the mecha is Tagged, the pilot is technically
fine, and only has the Tagged penalty while using the Mecha. When the
mecha goes Down, the pilot is Tagged, due to the damage to the mecha,
but can still crawl out of the mecha if he wants to.
At the end of the combat, the character makes separate Meat Checks as
needed for himself and the mecha; a "dead" mecha is damaged beyond
repair. (Similarly, "first aid" and healing for a mecha is done the
same way as on a person, as far as game mechanics, only it's a repair
rather than first aid and time in the hanger rather than time in the
hospital, as it were, which may affect relevant Descriptors. Medical
skills can also be relevant for mecha with organic components, like
most human-built mecha in the Skyfall Blade setting.)
The other major difference between mecha combat and a normal battle is
that the mecha may grant a bonus (or penalty) to certain kind of
Checks made in it, like Meat Checks for a heavily armored mecha or
firing-based Guts Checks for a mecha with an unusually good targeting
computer. Similarly, just like normal weapons, mecha weapons grant a
certain penalty to the Meat Check made when a protagonist-controlled
mecha are hit by said weapon. These bonuses and penalties, plus any
other additional notes about the mecha, make up the game "statistics"
of the mecha.
These statistics can be as detailed or bare-bones as the players and
GM want. Statistic blocks assume a protagonist is driving the mecha;
if the mecha is being driven by a GMC, bonuses will often translate
into penalties and vice-versa as common sense dictates. (For example,
a bonus to Guts Checks needed to hit would translate into an
equal-sized penalty for the Sense Check for the protagonist mecha to
dodge.)
The final difference between normal battle and a mecha fight is scale.
These rules assume mecha fighting other mecha. In the case of a mecha
fighting someone who doesn't have a mecha, or vice-versa, there's a
+10 bonus to all Checks made by the mecha pilot or a -10 penalty to
all Checks made by the person without a mecha, whichever makes more
sense. The only exception are Guts Checks by a mecha pilot to hit
someone who is not in a mecha, or a Sense Check by a person without a
mecha to dodge mecha fire; such Checks are made with no bonus or
penalty (other than those normally granted by the mecha, Descriptors,
and the GM).

Your Mecha

As mentioned in Chapter 1, the Insurgency cell that the player
characters are a member of has at least one mecha, and probably one
mecha for each character. The nature of the mecha is up to the
players, and the statistics are determined as mentioned below. The
arsenals of all nations were raided, so really anything you can
imagine is possible. The mecha might even have been stolen from the
human invaders. The only important thing to keep in mind is that karan
mecha are usually very mechanical, while human mecha are often organic
or pseudo-organic. The important thing is that your mecha be cool, and
provide interesting opportunities for the story.
Usually, the statistics for a mecha owned by a protagonist will be
either created as a group or by the player of the protagonist who will
usually use the mecha. Any player, or the GM, may veto a given
player-produced statistic block; a mecha "design" is not considered to
be official until all participants agree the statistics are kosher.
For examples of statistic blocks, see below.

Sample Mecha

These are examples of various human and karan mecha, and the
statistical benefits each would provide. They are only examples; they
do not have to actually exist in a given game of Skyfall Blade. Your
own game could be more (or less) wild than this; this just provides an
interesting baseline to work from.

Harrituta Cycle. This karan mass-produced mecha saw lots of use in the
last karan conflict before the Great Peace and the human invasion, so
many Insurgency cells have several. The single-wheel design may seem
awkward, but the cycle is designed to tap into the psionic potential
of the user, allowing it to perform amazing stunts.
The cycle gives a +4 to all Sense Checks due to its intuitive
connection with the user, and a +4 to any Check related to
maneuvering. This assumes the pilot is karan; humans have an equal
penalty to use the cycle under such conditions. The open cockpit is a
problem, giving a -2 to all Meat Checks. The mounted energy blasters
give a -2 penalty to another mecha's Meat Check.
There is a legend that, for some reason, the Harrituta Cycle performs
better for women. This is actually true; there's a +1 to all Checks if
the pilot is female. This is because the original psionic circuits
were calibrated with a female test pilot.

Harrituta Cycle – Type H. Designed for officers, this variation on the
Harrituta Cycle could transform into a humanoid suit of armor,
protecting the pilot a little better. Statistics are above, except
that when transformed, the bonus to Sense Checks and maneuvering is
only +2, but the mecha provides a +1 bonus to the wearer's Meat Check
rather than a penalty. The handgun is the same as the cycle's
blasters.
Interestingly, the Type H was calibrated with a male test pilot, so
that when transformed, the +1 bonus to all Checks only apply if the
user is male, while returning to normal (i.e. female-oriented) once
the machine is in cycle mode.
When using a Type H, transforming requires a successful Savvy check on
the part of the pilot.
Both versions of the Cycle were designed by the CEO of the tiny but
profitable Harrituta corporation: Aita Harrituta, son of the legendary
and infamous Hiro Harrituta.

Harrituta Jetfire. During the human invasion, the Harrituta family,
owners of the highly successful Harrituta corporation, rushed into
production a mecha based on old plans drawn up during the last armed
conflict before the Great Peace, but never implemented. The mecha had
been designed by a mad genius, the founder of the clan, old Hiro
Harrituta. It is said after designing the Jetfire, he had plans for an
even more devastating weapon, but by that point Aita had had Hiro put
into the asylum for trying to eat his own daughter, Aita's favorite
sister, alive. Some tried to psionically pry the plans for the "lost
Harrituta weapon" out of the old man's head during the human invasion,
but instead only went mad and cannibalistic themselves. The asylum was
destroyed during the final days of the invasion, and neither Hiro
Harrituta, nor his son Aita, who was visiting at the time, have been
seen ever since.
Very few of the Jetfire mecha were made before the main Harrituta plan
was swarmed by human Runts and razed to the ground. It is said the
humans later salted the earth the plant once rested on, so the land
could never be used for anything ever again.
The mecha is capable of transforming between two modes, a jet and a
robot. In both modes, it gives a +6 to all Sense Checks. In jet mode,
it is capable of long-range missile fire, which gives a -4 penalty to
all Meat Checks by the enemy when hit. In robot mode, it can punch
(with a +1 bonus to the enemy mecha's Meat Check), or it can use its
vibrosledge, which is only usuable at short range but is devastating,
giving a -6 penalty to enemy Meat Checks. However, in robot mode the
mecha must be at close range in order to attack.
As with the Type H, transforming requires a successful Savvy Check on
the part of the pilot.

Mitsubishi Krab. This four-legged techno-organic mecha, with its
powerful energy cannon and large claws, is favored by the elite human
soldier. It gives a +2 to hit with the cannon, and +3 to hit with the
claws, assuming the mecha is in range. The cannon gives a -3 to
appropriate Meat Checks, and the claws a -2.
Like nearly all human mecha, the Krab must be fed nutrients every so
often, in the form of pails of a substance that looks not unlike baby
food. The Krab makes a disturbing, hollow slurping noise when
"feeding."

Pinpilinpauxa Lineman. This is a mecha designed by the Pinpilinpauxa
megacorporation right before the human invasion. As such, while it was
designed as a military mecha, it had a dual use as a construction
mecha, with the handgun and missile pods being optional.
This mecha has a +4 to all Meat Checks due to its heavy-duty
construction. The handgun gives a -3 penalty to enemy Meat Checks, as
do the missile pods. There's no Meat Check penalty to the enemy if the
mecha punches another mecha.

Tong Shen Lobber. These four-legged techno-organic mecha are designed
to stay behind other mecha, lobbing canisters of chemical and
biological weapons with its twin howitzers. The Lobber has a +3 bonus
to any Check to hit with one of its cannons, and the Meat Check
penalty varies by payload, though the average explosive playload gives
a -6 penalty. On the other hand, the Lobber is very fragile, with a -2
to any of its own Meat Checks.
The Lobber uses an experimental nutrient pack, which injects fluids
into it using several hundred needles on the underside of the pack,
which humans call the "Tong Shen Centipede". Every time the Lobber is
"fed", it cries out in pain, with an inhuman screech that some humans
describe as being like a lobster being boiled.

Mitsubishi Runt. This tiny, two-legged mecha is the standard issue for
a human grunt, linking into its user with techno-organic tendrils.
This is why it's two-legged, with two claws, and two guns that track
where the pilot looks, and fire when the pilot blinks.
The link with the pilot is perhaps too good, given the fact the thing
is not exactly human-shaped. There's a -2 penalty to any Guts Check
involved with attacking, and -2 to Sense Checks to dodge. The claws
give a -1 penalty to Meat Checks, and the guns, which spit globules of
acid, give a -2 penalty to the Meat Checks of an enemy hit by it.
Like nearly all human mecha, the Runt must be fed nutrients every so
often, in the form of pails of a substance that looks not unlike baby
food. The Runt makes a sort of crunching, munching noise, like a
million maggots, when "feeding."

Tong Shen Tallman. This fully-humanoid techno-organic mecha most
commonly sees use by human officers, and is feared by most karans for
its booming "voice", a techno-organic public address system often used
to taunt the enemies of the humans. The voice has a peculiar, sexless
quality to it, and sounds sort of wet, as if the pilot is speaking
through mud, yet with crystal clarity of pronunciation. Most karans
find it disturbing, and so do those humans with the fewest livetech
implants.
The techno-organic integration with the pilot is so extensive that all
Checks, of all kinds, are at a +4. The mecha can punch (with a -1 Meat
Check penalty to the mecha so hit), or it can squirt poisonous acids
from its arm gun which burst into flame on contact with the air, with
a -5 penalty to any Meat Checks made by a mecha hit by the organic
napalm stream.
However, because of how extensive the techno-organic integration is,
only one pilot can ever use a Tallman during its lifetime. When that
pilot dies, the Tallman pines away, refusing to "eat" the nutrient
mush which is normally fed to it in the Mitsubishi style rather than
by the experimental method used in the Tong Shen Lobber.


--
Kirt "Loki" Dankmyer -- http://ivanhoeunbound.com -- xiomBRAG on AIM
cats * hats * RPGs * love * Eris * Agent Patriot * anime * Dada * poetry
"Only ONE MAN can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me!" -Death

So, here are three more Eyes inspired by my recent reading. See also
my LJ. http://xiombarg.livejournal.com

Blackmailed
Description: Another character has a coercive pull over your
character. Perhaps the other character knows a secret of the
Blackmailed character and threatens to expose it, or perhaps the other
character has a relative of the Blackmailed character hostage, or is
in a position to do violence to those the Blackmailed character cares
about. [When this Eye is chosen, one must choose the nature of the
coercion, and who is exerting the coercion.]

The other character can make the Blackmailed character do things
because of this. Maybe he has to pay her money, or maybe she is
forcing him to be her "practice boyfriend". Regardless, the character
must obey.

Effect: Whenever the character that is blackmailing the character with
this Eye forces the character to do something horrible or seriously
inconvenient (in the opinion of the GM), the player of the Blackmailed
character gets a Gift Point.

In addition, if the character Lapses as the result of something he's
being forced to do due to this Eye, the character gains an additional
Retirement Point.

Also, any player may spend 1 Gift Point and contrive a reason for the
character that is engaging in the coercion to appear in a scene that
contains the Blackmailed character, and that becomes a fact in the
shared imagined space of the game, causing the blackmailer to appear
in the scene.

Transformation:
At any point, the character can turn to the bottle, and become an Addict.

If the character who is blackmailing the character is an Enemy,
whenever the character pressures the Blackmailed character, this Eye
may transform into a Burning Hatred.

Also, if, in a strange twist of fate, the Blackmailed character falls
in love with his blackmailer, this Eye can be Transformed into the
Lover, unless the beloved is an Enemy, in which case if the Eye is
Transformed at all, it must be into a Fatal Attraction. Alternately,
if the character falls for another person and his blackmailer all at
once, a Triangle can result.


Nice
Description: Your character isn't just a nice person; she's too nice,
and too polite for her own good. This means she ends up volunteering
for things she doesn't want to do, or getting put upon by other people
all the time, because she can't say no to a polite – or even
not-so-polite – request.

Effect: By spending one Gift Point, the player may describe a GMC
showing up and making some sort of onerous request to the character,
which the character must then accept. The player may even invent a
new, heretofore-unseen GMC for this purpose.

Similarly, whenever (in the opinion of the GM), the character is
seriously put out by being too nice or too polite, the player earns a
Gift Point. Yes, this can cause a player to earn back the Gift Point
she spent to have a GMC show up and make a request, though the GM is
only obligated to give the Gift Point if she feels that the request
called a real, tangible problem for the character in fulfilling it, or
attempting to fulfill it.

Transformations:
If the Nice character falls in love with someone, she can finally find
a higher calling allowing her to be rude, and this Eye can be
Transformed into the Lover. If the object of affection is an Enemy, if
the Eye is Transformed at all, it must be into a Fatal Attraction. If
the love is not immediately returned, or the character is too shy to
express said love, this Eye can be Transformed directly into Jilted.

In addition, immediately upon the death of any character of the
appropriate gender, the Nice character can realize that she loved that
character and now has lost them, becoming rude in her depression, and
becoming Widowed.

Similarly, upon the death of any character that the Nice character
previously helped, if the death was at the hands of the Enemy, the
character may cease to be Nice and develop a Burning Hatred.
After earning a Gift Point via this Eye, the character can turn to the
bottle to deal with her problems, and Transform into an Addict.

If at any point a character turns a favor she is doing for another to
her advantage, she may Transform from someone who is actually Nice
into a Manipulator.

If anything horrible happens to the character (in the opinion of the
player), it can blast the Nice out of her, resulting in a Traumatized
character.

It is easy for a Nice character to find herself in a bad situation. If
she refuses to help someone, and the character reacts by upping the
ante by threatening the character or otherwise using coercion against
her, this Eye may Transform into Blackmailed.

Similarly, Nice characters are often very attractive to nasty people.
If any character falls in love with the Nice character (determined by
the GM in the case of GMCs, and indicated by an Eye such as Lover,
Jilted, or Fatal Attraction directed at the Nice character for player
characters), and the character does not return that love, this Eye may
be Transformed into Strange Attractor.


Strange Attractor
Description: People, and sometimes even things that aren't people,
fall in love with your character at the drop of a hat, for no
discernable reason.

Unfortunately, it is rarely anyone normal. And sometimes it's not
love, so much as lust, or some sort of nasty desire to possess the
character. Regardless, it's guaranteed that any would-be lover is at
least obsessive, and may have other, nastier habits as well.

Effect: Any player may spend 1 Gift Point to have any GMC develop an
attraction for the Strange Attractor. The character may be in love, or
may just lust after the Strange Attractor; the manifestation of the
attraction is up to the GM, though Suggestions should always be
welcome.

In addition, whenever the character has a Lapse due to the actions of
someone attracted to her (as determined by the GM in the case of GMCs
and by the individual player in the case of a Protagonist), the
character earns an additional Retirement Point. Also, whenever the
character is harmed or humiliated by someone attracted to her (as
determined by the GM in the case of GMCs and by the individual player
in the case of a Protagonist), the player earns a Gift Point.

Transformations:
If the Strange Attractor falls in love with someone, this can
sometimes make all others give up, and this Eye can be Transformed
into the Lover. If the object of affection is an Enemy, if the Eye is
Transformed at all, it must be into a Fatal Attraction.

At any point, the Strange Attractor can turn to the bottle to deal
with her problems, and this can make her less attractive, Transforming
her into an Addict.

In addition, immediately upon the death of any character of the
appropriate gender, the Nice character can realize that she loved that
character and now has lost them, becoming Widowed.

Similarly, upon the death of anyone who was attracted to the character
(as determined by the GM in the case of GMCs and by the individual
player in the case of a Protagonist) at the hands of the Enemy, the
character can develop a Burning Hatred.

If at any point a character somehow turns another's attraction to her
to her advantage, she may Transform into a Manipulator, or suddenly
become much more Cool. In addition, when such a situation happens,
instead of becoming a Manipulator or Cool, this may just indicated the
character has become more Lucky.

It is easy for a Strange Attractor to find herself in a bad situation.
If anyone who is attracted to the character (as determined by the GM
in the case of GMCs and by the individual player in the case of a
Protagonist) threatens the character of otherwise uses coercion
against her in the name of love or lust, this Eye may Transform into
Blackmailed.

--
Kirt "Loki" Dankmyer -- http://ivanhoeunbound.com -- xiomBRAG on AIM
cats * hats * RPGs * love * Eris * Agent Patriot * anime * Dada * poetry
"Only ONE MAN can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me!" -Death

Hey, all. Just wanted to let y'all know that I'm making slow but sure
progress on the Skyfall Blade front. I've finished Chapter Four, which
contains the heart of the supplment, in form of the Eyes, and should
be moving on to the actual mecha chapter soon...

>From: "Kirt Dankmyer" <xiombarg@...>
>
>It's a little more serial. That's the shojo anime thing. More soap
>operatic, which, if you recall from the SWAT game, Unsung supports
>fairly well.

Ah sure. The "ultimate weapon" thing seems to be part and parcel of the
rising tension in episodic shows, so I'm not sure it's important to what
you're doing then. I shoulda realized that with the Macross references.

>That said, there's always the possibliity of linking it to the mission
>system... Hmmmm. Perhaps you can only use the weapon once a mission,
>and only if someone has changed an Eye during that mission?

Might work. Actually, as I recall, there is some ultimate weapon in Macross,
isn't there (singing or something)? Been a while. Hmmm.

Mike

It's a little more serial. That's the shojo anime thing. More soap
operatic, which, if you recall from the SWAT game, Unsung supports
fairly well.

That said, there's always the possibliity of linking it to the mission
system... Hmmmm. Perhaps you can only use the weapon once a mission,
and only if someone has changed an Eye during that mission?

On 5/1/06, Mike Holmes <mike_c_holmes@...> wrote:
>
> Sounds like good stuff. Still not sure about the ultimate weapon, though,
> seems like you may need to have something cyclical to allow it to be used
> often enough - though that may be because I'm expecting episodic nature of
> play like the shows. Will it have that, or be more serial?
>
> Mike
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


--
Kirt "Loki" Dankmyer -- http://ivanhoeunbound.com -- xiomBRAG on AIM
cats * hats * RPGs * love * Eris * Agent Patriot * anime * Dada * poetry
"Only ONE MAN can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me!" -Death

Sounds like good stuff. Still not sure about the ultimate weapon, though,
seems like you may need to have something cyclical to allow it to be used
often enough - though that may be because I'm expecting episodic nature of
play like the shows. Will it have that, or be more serial?

Mike

Actually, that might fit well into the Endgame mechanics, as well as
the Gift mechanics. And there's already going to be a mechanic
emphasizing dramatic death of PCs that it might fit into. A lot of
times, people don't use the ultimate weapon until someone important
has died at the hands of the enemy...

As far as personal issues go, the Eyes will be focusing on that. In
essence, you have two Eyes, which are like achetypes or important plot
elements, like "Young Prodigy" and "Inspired by Love". The Eyes change
over time, along certain directed paths. The "Young Prodigy" can
become the "Hardened Veteran", while someone who is "Inspired By Love"
can become the "Jilted Lover".

In essence, there's a sort of game-mechanical path for the way the
character grows, with different possibilities along the way, all of
which have a different game mechanical effect, like Feats or Keys. The
"Young Prodigy" can stay the Prodigy, or he can become the Hardened
Veteran, the Reluctant Warrior, or become Inspired By Love if he isn't
already, or burn out and become a Drunkard, or develop a cold Hatred
of the Enemy, or become the Bloodthirsty Bastard, or develop a Fatal
Attraction for someone on the other side

Plus, it can loop back on itself. Some Eyes, like the Young Prodigy,
can never be returned to, but the Drunkard can become Inspired By
Love, and then end up with a Dead Lover, which drives them to drink,
and they become the Drunkard again. Or they can take a totally
different path. All of the Eyes interlink to each other in a
complicated way.

The idea is to encourage melodrama by setting up a sort of "emotional"
lifepath system.

Each Eye has its own game mechanical effect, either in currency gained
(the Drunkard gains Gift Points when the other players give him Lapses
involving alcohol) or special things you can do (the Young Prodigy can
spend a Gift Point for a spectactular display of sheer talent, above
and beyond what you can normally do with Gift Points), or both (the
Mentor gains GPs when people succeed using his advice, and can spend
GP to help others, above and beyond the normal mechanic).

To fit back in with what you're talking about, moving beyond one's
personal problems is very much a part of the game, though one might
move into DIFFERENT problems. To fit in with your idea, perhaps there
can be a list of certain Eyes, like Drunkard or Traumatic Past, which
no one in the group can currently have active if they're going to do
an "ultimate weapon" sort of thing. That is, everyone has to be in
some of the more "mature" or at least "positive" or self-sufficient
parts of the path, such as "Inspired By Love" or, more cynically,
"Hardend Veteran".

Or, all that might be required is for you to move past problems you
started the game with. Sure, you've turned to drink as a way of
coping, but you're no longer mourning your Dead Lover.

Actually, for that serious Macross feel, perhaps one should require
that everyone be "Inspired by Love" before you can engage the ultimate
weapon. Because Love is the ultimate weapon. :)

Oh, and Gatchaman is defininately on the list that's showing up in the
Appendix, as well as Voltron. Classic shonen fare, that.

On 5/1/06, Mike Holmes <mike_c_holmes@...> wrote:
>
> >From: "Kirt Dankmyer" <xiombarg@...>
> >
> >(all
> >three of which were combined into a single American series known as
> >Robotech), as well as Space Battleship Yamato, which was released in
> >the US as Star Blazers.
>
> What about Battle of the Planets (AKA G-Force AKA Gatchaman)? :-)
>
> So...I'm thinking about this, and there's something about anime that nobody
> has ever touched in a RPG, that I think Unsung maybe could tackle. That is,
> there's this set of rules in Anime about escalation. Things always start at
> a personal level, and then get larger and larger. Till, ultimately, the
> ultimate weapon has to be unleashed. This rarely ever makes sense to the
> plot. Instead it's something ineffably Japanese that I only understand
> second-hand.
>
> For instance, why don't they just go to Firey Pheonix form in G-Force right
> off the bat? Why don't they always just fire the Yamato's spinal weapon? Why
> don't they always just form Voltron? And why, then, not immediately FORM
> BLAZING SWORD? (In fact the whole Sentai tradition seems to almost be based
> solely around this particular convention - power rangers have to start with
> martial arts, then they can escalate to ranger form, then they can pull
> melee weapons, then they can pull ranged weapons, then they can pull
> super-ranged weapons, then they can pull group super-ranged weapons - and
> all the while they can always leap forward to the Zord escalation track if
> and only if the opponent goes giant).
>
> It's because of the kewlness factor of these things, and the absolute
> dramatic requirement in the show for the team to have overcome their own
> personal problems before being able to come to the cataclysmic conclusion
> that these "laws" exist.
>
> So I'm looking at Unsung, and I'm thinking that somehow the Gift mechanics
> can be leveraged to mechanically deal with these conventions. Any chance
> you've done some work of that sort?
>
> Mike
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


--
Kirt "Loki" Dankmyer -- http://ivanhoeunbound.com -- xiomBRAG on AIM
cats * hats * RPGs * love * Eris * Agent Patriot * anime * Dada * poetry
"Only ONE MAN can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me!" -Death

>From: "Kirt Dankmyer" <xiombarg@...>
>
>(all
>three of which were combined into a single American series known as
>Robotech), as well as Space Battleship Yamato, which was released in
>the US as Star Blazers.

What about Battle of the Planets (AKA G-Force AKA Gatchaman)? :-)

So...I'm thinking about this, and there's something about anime that nobody
has ever touched in a RPG, that I think Unsung maybe could tackle. That is,
there's this set of rules in Anime about escalation. Things always start at
a personal level, and then get larger and larger. Till, ultimately, the
ultimate weapon has to be unleashed. This rarely ever makes sense to the
plot. Instead it's something ineffably Japanese that I only understand
second-hand.

For instance, why don't they just go to Firey Pheonix form in G-Force right
off the bat? Why don't they always just fire the Yamato's spinal weapon? Why
don't they always just form Voltron? And why, then, not immediately FORM
BLAZING SWORD? (In fact the whole Sentai tradition seems to almost be based
solely around this particular convention - power rangers have to start with
martial arts, then they can escalate to ranger form, then they can pull
melee weapons, then they can pull ranged weapons, then they can pull
super-ranged weapons, then they can pull group super-ranged weapons - and
all the while they can always leap forward to the Zord escalation track if
and only if the opponent goes giant).

It's because of the kewlness factor of these things, and the absolute
dramatic requirement in the show for the team to have overcome their own
personal problems before being able to come to the cataclysmic conclusion
that these "laws" exist.

So I'm looking at Unsung, and I'm thinking that somehow the Gift mechanics
can be leveraged to mechanically deal with these conventions. Any chance
you've done some work of that sort?

Mike

You can also find a couple of the early chapters of the new book here:

http://xiombarg.livejournal.com/819269.html

So, it might please y'all to know that I've started work (finally) on
the anime/mecha supplement for Unsung, Skyfall Blade.

Here's an excerpt from the start of the book, from the first draft:

Opening

It was only in the last century that we finally got it together.

We had finally put an end to war. Not to conflict, but the fighting
was political and bloodless, and in the background. No one was
starving. Precious few were unhappy. It wasn't utopia, but it was close.

In celebration of fifty years of worldwide peace, we created the first
Sky Cities, cities which floated above the earth using cutting-edge
contragrav. Crystalline examples of perfection, sovereign states in
their own right, floating above the various nations below, granted
free access to the skies as part of a mutual spirit of co-operation
and peace. We got to enjoy their presence for five years, five years
of utter prosperity for those above and below.

And then the aliens came.

We first knew of their presence because of the Skyfall, when the Sky
Cities fell to the ground, crawling with insectoid, alien war machines.

From the crash sites, the invaders fanned out. The conventional part
of the war was over within hours, leaving only the scattered guerilla
activities known as the Insurgency.

The humans had come to our planet.

Introduction: Shojo in a Shonen Shell

Hello and welcome to the first supplement for Unsung. What you will
find here is an anime-style background for Unsung, with some
additional rules, the Eyes, to help enforce the genre, while keeping
everything as angst-filled and dramatic as you've come to expect from
Unsung.

This may seem to be a departure from the basics of Unsung, but it
really isn't. Unsung was originally written to produce a certain form
of drama, even melodrama, surrounding a violent conflict, from cops on
the streets to actual war. And what is more melodramatic than your
average anime saga?

If you don't know what anime is, I'm sort of surprised you picked up
this supplement. I suggest making use of Google, but in short anime is
the term used to refer to Japanese animation, which is a rather broad
term, but does have a certain number of tropes in common between
various movies and shows.

In particular, Skyfall Blade harkens back to the earliest forms of
anime to make it to America in translation, shonen mecha anime. Shonen
means 'young boy' or 'boy', and is used as a generic term for anime
and manga (Japanese comics) aimed at young males. Mecha refers to
anything of a mechanical nature, though in the US it is usually used
to refer to the giant robots many Americans associate with anime.
We're talking shows like Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super
Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada (all
three of which were combined into a single American series known as
Robotech), as well as Space Battleship Yamato, which was released in
the US as Star Blazers. (You'll find more suggested viewing material
in the Appendix.)

However, there is a twist. Instead of playing humans being invaded by
aliens, which is the gold standard for this sort of thing set by Super
Dimension Fortress Macross, you're playing aliens being invaded by
humans. Of course, in true anime fashion, the aliens are very
humanlike, but that's neither here not there.

More importantly, however, as is standard for Unsung, the game is not
about cool battle scenes so much as the way the war affects those
involved in it. It's about relationships, which is usually considered
more the realm of shojo anime. Shojo means 'Girl', and is used as a
generic term for anime and manga aimed at young females. This is what
I mean when I say that Skyfall Blade is "Shojo in a Shonen Shell" –
the outward-facing props are typical to shonen anime, but the heart of
the game is a shojo saga. (Again, for examples of shojo anime, see the
Appendix.)

All in all, the idea is to create a setting that is both very much
filled with the melodrama that I love in certain kinds of anime, and
the moral choices that make Unsung what it is.

Hey, all. Just wanted to let you know that work IS continuing on Ivanhoe
Unbound's various games.

If you're curious about what I'm working on at the moment, check this out:

http://xiombrag.tripod.com/TheFATEofGalaxies.doc

It's a ruleset designed for email play (tho it can easily be done as a
tabletop game), where rather than playing a character, you play an entire
civilization. I like to think it's unusual in more ways than one. Since
it's based on the (free) FATE engine, it's always going to be a free game,
though I might eventually release an at-cost (i.e. no profit to me, you
just pay the POD printing cost) print version at some point.

Also, I am working on the first supplement for Unsung. It's going to be an
anime supplement, based on those old shows, like Robotech, involving mecha
and alien invasion. Most notable, mechanically, is there will be a system
for moving between different archetypes, with different advantages for
each. Your character might start out inspired by the love of your life
(with attendant mechanical advantages), only to have her die (resulting in
another mechanical effect), causing you in turn to burn with hatred for
the enemy who killed her (with yet another mechanical effect).

I'm very excited about this supplement, and those of you on this list will
be the first people to have access to it, for playtest purposes. More on
that later.

--
Kirt "Loki" Dankmyer -- http://ivanhoeunbound.com -- xiomBRAG on AIM
cats * hats * RPGs * love * Eris * Agent Patriot * anime * Dada * poetry
"Only ONE MAN can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me!" -Death

> anyone else severly bored? lol. Anyway, im starting up a room on here
http://www.videopokerpays.info/xotap for this group (using
> the same group name for the room name). Everyone is welcome to come play
against me and others
> from here  . We can put real or fake cassh on the turns, it's up to whoever is
playing. Anyway, look
> forward to seein a couple of u on there.

What does this have to do with my games? This is your chance to prove
you're not a spammer before I ban you.

--
Kirt "Loki" Dankmyer -- http://ivanhoeunbound.com -- xiomBRAG on AIM
cats * hats * RPGs * love * Eris * Agent Patriot * anime * Dada * poetry
"Only ONE MAN can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me!" -Death

anyone else severly bored? lol. Anyway, im starting up a room on here
http://www.videopokerpays.info/xotap for this group (using
the same group name for the room name). Everyone is welcome to come play against
me and others
from here  . We can put real or fake cassh on the turns, it's up to whoever is
playing. Anyway, look
forward to seein a couple of u on there.