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This campaign is about Human beings, Democracy, UNHCR, Refugees, The Iraqis,
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http://home.graffiti.net/lebanon1/
  http://www.unhcr.us

This campaign is about Human beings, Democracy, UNHCR, Refugees, The Iraqis,
Islam, Kurds, Human rights, Respect, Money, Donations, Angelina Jolie,
Pavarotti, Giorgio Armani, Donors, Peace, History, Campaigns and about you if
you care about these words.

Hi there,

I am SAM, an Iraqi refugee living in Lebanon at the moment; I have spent the
last 10 years of my life as a refugee registered with the UNHCR in Beirut. The
last 4 years, I have spent as an activist for peace and human rights (especially
refugees and asylum seekers) on the Internet; I'm also books author and ebooks
publisher. I have launched many campaigns to improve our situation as refugees
in Lebanon and hopefully bring more understanding to our problems worldwide. I
helped make many changes and improvements at the UNHCR office in Beirut; I used
the Internet as the field for my activities (you can read more about that in my
free ebook 'MY CAMPAIGNS'). All my ebooks are free and could be download from my
sites.

This is my newest campaign, it's about the illegal and humiliating actions of
the UNHCR, who using photos of refugees as banners and human-buttons to collect
money. This is an abuse of the dignity and humanity of the refugees and must
stop immediately and a clear public apology present by The United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees. My friends, I am talking about the pictures you can
see here: http://499angels.net/unews/human-buttons.htm

Also you can read my new campaign 'Urgent, we need smile' here:
http://lebanon.batcave.net/smile.html

For more info about UNHCR and life of refugees you can read my free ebooks. I
invite you as fellow humans and members of the world community to support my
campaign by reading my article on my site and see the human-buttons. The
campaign is to support and improve the UNHCR http://www.unhcr.org especially
after the last scandals in the UN and UNHCR, just for example:
http://www.mizzima.com/archives/news-in-2005/news-in-april/12-April05-22.htm

"We make demonstration and fast because the UNHCR office in Cairo did nothing
for our problem..." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4440730.stm

Together we will build better world.

You could reach me fast via this form: http://lebanon1.biz.ly/email_me.htm
  and if you like to know more about me, you can google for my name 'osam
altaee'.

Thanks
THE TRUTH WARRIOR
http://home.graffiti.net/lebanon1/
  http://www.unhcr.us

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Bob Jacobs said:

> I would like any info on where I can get a copy of this game. Please
> reply. Thanks.

Unfortunately, the Ad Astra project is stalled again. There have just
been other things going on in my life that have been more urgent,
especially as I no longer play RPGs. I imagine that one day I'll find
time to work on it some more though.

Rich

I would like any info on where I can get a copy of this game. Please
reply. Thanks.  BOB JACOBS

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Here's that other link:

 
http://www.planetit.com/techcenters/docs/desktop_computing/technology/PIT2000072\
1S0027?printDoc=1

Angus

Whoooohoooo!!!

Spent a day at the Olympics and had a whale of a time!!! My wife and I managed
to get free tickets to the Athletics on the 28th and we got to sit in Row 4 just
in front of the 200m starting blocks, next to the long jump sand pit and
straight behind the pole vault for the decathlon. It was a great (but long: 12
hours) day and we saw great Aussie results and the Greek guy win the men's 200m
(the pommie guy came second too!).

Anyway, I've been thinking about Ad Astra some more and had some thoughts about
some sci-fi stuff that either parrallels Ad Astra or could add to it.

=/\= The Spoils of War by Alan Dean Foster (part 3 of The Damned) =/\=
I've never read the other books in this series but he proposes an interesting
idea. There is a galactic civilization, calles the Weave, made up of civilized
races, opposed by your usual monomaniacal bad guys called the Amplitur, who use
mind powers to force other races into their great Purpose (whatever that is,
unthinking slavery basically). Humans are discovered by the Weave some centuries
ito this galactic war. Amazingly humankind turns out to be the baddest,
toughest, nastiest most homicidal "civilized" people around. Every other race
comes from worlds relatively peaceful and homogenous compared to Earth. The
Weave asks humans to become the warriors for everyone else and osme centuries
later we're doing a pretty good job of defeating the Amplitur.

It turns out that other civilized races can't even _imagine_ hurting another
intelligent being, let alone tearing them limb from limb or firing weapons to
kill them. This book considers the question of what happens when the Weave wins?
Other races each have their special niche, the Wais are the most cultured and
polite, the S'van are cunning and fun, the Hivistahm are great designers, the
O'o'yan are great manufacturers, the Masood are farmers (I think) and can be OK
warriors when they try really hard and the dumb Lepar are willing to be the best
servants around. One Wais scholar has a theory that Humans won't be able to stop
being warriors so easily and worries about what could happen.

It's an interesting book because it challenges our typical mindset of ourselves
amidst aliens, that we are the weak, helpless ones and they have to be careful
around us. It also challenges the reader to find the best aspects of Humanity,
to find what would make us a worthy part of the Weave. At the moment one idea
that seems very obvious right now is that Humans could become the galaxy's
sportsmen, willing and able to play sports that other races find far too hard or
dangerous and entertaining them all ...

=/\= Hardwired Supplement for CyberPunk 2020 =/\=
One of the really interesting supplements for CP2020, this threw out the
existing background material/technology and gave you an insight into playing in
the world of Hardwired, the cyberpunk novel by Walter John Williams (himself a
gamer). He had a much more advanced level of general technology and a lower tech
level in cyberspace, hence giving a much more hard sci-fi feel to his work. The
really interesting idea he had was that people would have their own CAD/CAM
facilities at home, basically able to download whatever CAD design they wanted
and then have a mini-factory create it for them, with each piece coming out
completely different. I forgot about this nifty idea until I came across an
interesting reference in Good Morning Silicon Valley (www.gmsv.com) to the
following article about '3D printing':

http://www.newscientist.com/features/features.jsp?id=ns225821

Now is that wild or what? There was another article but I haven't got the
reference here.

=/\= Voice of the Whirlwind by Walter John Williams =/\=
This book by Williams is set some time in the future of Hardwired and is a great
story. The two things that are relevant for Ad Astra are firstly the fact that
the hero is actually a 'copy', resurrected because of an old life insurance
policy of his original, but with no memories of the last 30 years and a body
that is 30 years younger too. The second interesting point is the aliens he
brings into the story. Called "The Powers" by humans, they have an interesting
relationship to mainstream humanity . . . part ignored, part kept apart, they
relate on the fringes of human society and yet are central to the political
climate of the current world. They also have nasty agendas of their own . . .

Anyway I though I'd mention these and see if anyone else sees some these novels
being relevant to Ad Astra . . . I'm particularly interested in the what and how
of humans meeting aliens. Does it provide a unique opportunity or advantage for
the people that do meet them first? What do they think of us?

Angus

[Burst transmit message packet]
[Maximal Quicksilver encryption]
[Linear English rendering]
[Full semantic array and context frame attached]
[Higher criticism mode activated]
[Timestamp: 2286 Sep 19, 21:52:58]
[To: Ishtar Autonomous Subnode, Astarte Collective]
[From: Field Agent, New Botany, Ganymede]

> [Burst transmit message packet]
> [Maximal Quicksilver encryption]
> [Linear English rendering]
> [Full semantic array and context frame attached]
> [Timestamp: 2286 Sep 17, 22:39:22]
> [To: Ishtar Autonomous Subnode, Astarte Collective]
> [From: Richard Baker, Astartan Embassy, Alpha Ring, Glaser-Sarkisyan
> PCR]
>
> I find the attached message intercept worrying. We're going to have to
> improve the security protocols of our operation in the BP. I think
> they're onto us...

Of course they're onto us . . .didn't you read the collective's analysis of
the web presence effect on disinforming Earthbound agents?

<chop>

> I keep finding the focus of my interest drifting all over the place. I
> certainly never imagined that I'd end up writing so much about the early
> 21st century, or the political situation on Mars between the Hellas
> Revolt and the First Pansolar War. In fact, I've sometimes considered
> dropping all the plans I have to run a campaign in the 23rd century to
> go back and focus on Mars during the first Earth-Belt Cold War.

Not a bad idea . . . even if it was just to test some of these ideas along
the way to the future.

<chop>

> That was my original intention. An early incarnation of the site had
> pictures for almost all the planets and moons, but the quality of the
> images was so variable that I decided to remove them all. In the end I
> decided that I liked the Neptune image so much that I left it up.

I'm sure I've seen decent ones of the other planets (surfing NASA I think).

> Oh, you're right. I'd just always known that the "present" was 2286 and
> I guess I forgot to mention it (although it is the date of the last
> entry in the timeline). Everything except the history applies to the
> 2280s, but big things (including a Second Pansolar War) happen at the
> end of that decade.

Ok, that explains a fair bit. The issue then becomes one of finding a well
documented waypoint along the way to 2286. I think your period summaries
(2040 etc.) do this quite well (when they exist).

> Partly that section is secret because it's not very good (although I
> like the Tiles, especially as I invented them before I read Vernor
> Vinge's _A Fire Upon the Deep_ or knew anything about Brin's
> Jophur/Traeki). How on Earth did you find it?

I really liked "A Fire Upon the Deep", even thought about how cool it would
be to write another novel in that universe, just set in a different time and
place. As far as secrets go I found it because the automated site grabbing
tool I used to store the site on my hard disk happened to follow the
not-so-well-hidden link. I discovered it by looking up the pages with
'secret' in their filename. Truly 'secret' areas don't have links to them!!!
(don't you Astartan bureaucrats read those field manuals you produce?)

<chop>

> > 5. I disagree with some ideas either factually or philosophically, but
> > that said, it is VERY hard to please everyone when looking 300 years
> > into the future!!!
>
> What do you agree with philosophically? And, more importantly, what do
> you disagree with factually?
>
> Actually, I don't really think that the future will look much like AA,
> because a major factor on the design of the history was the need to
> produce a useful game setting. I imagine that in three hundred years
> time we'll either be somewhere far beyond the Singularity or else be
> looking back on the Era of Failed Dreams.

<LOL>, yeah there isn't much I would want to hold onto philosophically. In
the last four years I've come to hold pretty serious religious (Christian)
views myself, therefore I would personally hope the world does not choose to
go that way.

In terms of facts the only one that sprung to mind is the idea of a decline
in religions. The figures I've seen show a pretty marked increase in
Christian beliefs alone in most countries outside the first world. For us in
America, Britain and Australia this can seem hard to believe, after all we
were all pretty hot for Christianity at the start of the 20th century and
pretty cold towards it a century later, but growth in South America, Africa
and Asia has pretty much dented that. For example, something like 40% of
South Korea are Christians now compared with 1% in 1900 (they also have the
world's largest church, with ~700,000 attendees, and about 65% of their army
is Christian). They have no intention of changing their beliefs away from
Christianity and have the American example of what issues and temptations to
avoid with prosperity, success etc. [As a side note wasn't it great seeing
the two Koreas march in together at the opening ceremony - it could be a
great moment for peace on that peninsula.]

Of course I am using a very loose definition of 'Christian' here, but the
facts become even more confirming when you include the rates of growth of
Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and minor religions such as Mormons, Ba'hai, etc.
If anything the rise of so-called new age spiritual beliefs, and the
interest in paganism will probably give rise to more self-proclaimed gurus,
prophets and spiritual teachers rather than less. IMHO science is wonderful
at answering the 'how' and 'what' questions but it still draws a blank with
regard to 'why'. Therefore expect an increase in religions rather than a
decrease . . . but don't expect the same old staid sandstone buildings,
boring hymns and irrelevant/trivial sermons. These guys are competing with
MP3 (sounds hipper than MTV <sg>), ultra-modern entertainment, and a
thousand other voices into our lives.

Having said that I really enjoy this sort of a universe as a gaming
environment. It challenges our own beliefs and can get the players to think
about things they might otherwise just take for granted. It also is very
much in line with most modern sci-fi (Alexander Besher's "Rim" being an
exception perhaps).

> > Is anyone already running a campaign/scenario in Ad Astra?
>
> Not as far as I know. I'm certainly not, because I think that it needs
> more work (and in any case I'd find it hard to gather good enough
> players to really match what I hope the game will be: the story of
> humanity's transition to a truly interstellar civilisation, and the
> exploration of the greater galaxy).

Finding good players . . . now that's like turning lead to gold! I've got
some great guys down here, but I'll need to make the game PBEM in order to
draw any of them together. Even then the game will still leave something to
be desired, but that's the price you pay for working with other people. I
just hope to get them interested enough that I can play every now and again!

<chop>

> > P.S. We're doing just fine down here with the Olympics (thanks for
> > asking) . . . needless to say we're all very chuffed with the number
> > of medals Australia's winning, but I'll understand if you don't feel
> > like cheering us on. <eg>
>
> Oh, it's the Olympics, is it? I just knew that the BBC had once again
> taken off Buffy to show some damn sporting event...

". . . can you hear, can you hear the thunder?" Oops, caught myself singing
along with the world record breaking, gold medal winning, 4 x 200m freestyle
Australian swimming team. <eg>

Of course the Olympics are really gonna suck when we start playing all that
track and field stuff and the medal tally starts to swing away from us
<sigh>. Still it's a great way to start! (I wonder who thought to put all
our best events first? <sg>)

Angus McDonald

[Burst transmit message packet]
[Maximal Quicksilver encryption]
[Linear English rendering]
[Full semantic array and context frame attached]
[Timestamp: 2286 Sep 17, 22:39:22]
[To: Ishtar Autonomous Subnode, Astarte Collective]
[From: Richard Baker, Astartan Embassy, Alpha Ring, Glaser-Sarkisyan
PCR]

I find the attached message intercept worrying. We're going to have to
improve the security protocols of our operation in the BP. I think
they're onto us...

> 1. There is a HUGE amount of information alreay online about the Ad
> Astra game world - I am very impressed.

Thanks. I sometimes think, though, that the amount on the page is
completely dwarfed by the stuff that's still in my head. Unfortunately,
those parts are so hopelessly tangled and unfocused that I sometimes
despair of every sorting them into some kind of order and writing them
down.

<snip>

> 4. Having such a great resource online encourages me to use it as a
> reference site for players in any hard sci-fi game set in the next 300
> years . . . I could easily imagine a gritty near-future space
> exploration game, a cold-war in space or even the early steps of alien
> encounters (first contact).

I keep finding the focus of my interest drifting all over the place. I
certainly never imagined that I'd end up writing so much about the early
21st century, or the political situation on Mars between the Hellas
Revolt and the First Pansolar War. In fact, I've sometimes considered
dropping all the plans I have to run a campaign in the 23rd century to
go back and focus on Mars during the first Earth-Belt Cold War.

<snip>

> 6. I actually found Ad Astra whilst searching for info on GDW's
> (Traveller) 2300 AD game . . . this setting meets the need for a
> similar hard sci-fi background, but incorporates the advances made in
> the last 10 years in technology and sci-fi thinking.

As I say in the Designers' Notes, we started with the intention of just
modifying parts of 2300AD to update it and remove some of the problems
that we saw in its structure, but then decided that we were changing so
many things that we might as well start from scratch. Another way that I
sometimes describe the setting is "how Larry Niven's Known Space would
have turned out if he'd written the stories during the 90s".

> Criticisms:

Aha. This is the bit I always like most...

> 1. Giving planet pictures for the Sol System would be nice (as you've
> done for Neptune).

That was my original intention. An early incarnation of the site had
pictures for almost all the planets and moons, but the quality of the
images was so variable that I decided to remove them all. In the end I
decided that I liked the Neptune image so much that I left it up.

> 2. Because the history is written over time it is unclear whether much
> of the other stuff (Sol System, technology etc.) applies to which age
> (e.g. humanity pre-alien encounters or post them).

Oh, you're right. I'd just always known that the "present" was 2286 and
I guess I forgot to mention it (although it is the date of the last
entry in the timeline). Everything except the history applies to the
2280s, but big things (including a Second Pansolar War) happen at the
end of that decade.

> I may also be a tad confused because I discovered and read most of the
> 'secret' portions of the site. <eg>

Partly that section is secret because it's not very good (although I
like the Tiles, especially as I invented them before I read Vernor
Vinge's _A Fire Upon the Deep_ or knew anything about Brin's
Jophur/Traeki). How on Earth did you find it?

> 3. There are a number of missing images, notably system schematics and
> the History button on the home page.

I'm well aware of that. The guy who produced most of the best images was
a friend of a friend with whom I've since lost contact (although I
made the Sol System and Archipelago pictures). I certainly don't have
the artistic ability to draw a History button (it annoys me every time
I look at the page), and it's very hard to produce nice system
schematics, because its difficult to fit the inner and outer systems on
the same image.

> 4. Should Ad Astra be called a 'game world' rather than
> a 'science-fiction game'?

Yes, it probably should; especially as I don't have any rules.

> 5. I disagree with some ideas either factually or philosophically, but
> that said, it is VERY hard to please everyone when looking 300 years
> into the future!!!

What do you agree with philosophically? And, more importantly, what do
you disagree with factually?

Actually, I don't really think that the future will look much like AA,
because a major factor on the design of the history was the need to
produce a useful game setting. I imagine that in three hundred years
time we'll either be somewhere far beyond the Singularity or else be
looking back on the Era of Failed Dreams.

> Is anyone already running a campaign/scenario in Ad Astra?

Not as far as I know. I'm certainly not, because I think that it needs
more work (and in any case I'd find it hard to gather good enough
players to really match what I hope the game will be: the story of
humanity's transition to a truly interstellar civilisation, and the
exploration of the greater galaxy).

> I mentioned to Rich that I would like to use The Window game rules,
> mainly because their storytelling style suits any time period. But
> there would still need to be more discussion of daily life and the
> technologies used before that would be possible (I think).

I think so too. I keep promising to write about daily life and never
quite get around to it. I always want to look at the big picture
instead.

> Then again, the GM could just make that stuff up . . . is anyone doing
> it? <g>

Making stuff up in a hard-sf game is pretty hard. It's not like playing
D&D or Vampire or some other game where you can always use magic as a
get-out clause.

> P.S. We're doing just fine down here with the Olympics (thanks for
> asking) . . . needless to say we're all very chuffed with the number
> of medals Australia's winning, but I'll understand if you don't feel
> like cheering us on. <eg>

Oh, it's the Olympics, is it? I just knew that the BBC had once again
taken off Buffy to show some damn sporting event...

Rich

Greetings fellow Praesidium members,

This is a preview of the executive summary of PraeSec report #AA970201, into the 'Ad Astra' roleplaying game (see ref), believed to be a cover for revolutionary or espionage activities of extreme pro-Belt factions in the British Protectorate.

Compliments:
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1. There is a HUGE amount of information alreay online about the Ad Astra game world - I am very impressed.
2. The quality of what is online is also very good, the writing is suitably engaging and the ideas are great fun to play with.
3. I think I recognise most of my favourite sci-fi novels in the reference notes, and there are a few others which are also echoed if not used, it makes for a very rich tapestry of 'future history'.
4. Having such a great resource online encourages me to use it as a reference site for players in any hard sci-fi game set in the next 300 years . . . I could easily imagine a gritty near-future space exploration game, a cold-war in space or even the early steps of alien encounters (first contact).
5. I appreciate the designers being so up-front about there ideas and what they are working towards, it makes things easier to understand.
6. I actually found Ad Astra whilst searching for info on GDW's (Traveller) 2300 AD game . . . this setting meets the need for a similar hard sci-fi background, but incorporates the advances made in the last 10 years in technology and sci-fi thinking.

Criticisms:
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1. Giving planet pictures for the Sol System would be nice (as you've done for Neptune).
2. Because the history is written over time it is unclear whether much of the other stuff (Sol System, technology etc.) applies to which age (e.g. humanity pre-alien encounters or post them). I may also be a tad confused because I discovered and read most of the 'secret' portions of the site. <eg>
3. There are a number of missing images, notably system schematics and the History button on the home page.
4. Should Ad Astra be called a 'game world' rather than a 'science-fiction game'?
5. I disagree with some ideas either factually or philosophically, but that said, it is VERY hard to please everyone when looking 300 years into the future!!!

Is anyone already running a campaign/scenario in Ad Astra? I mentioned to Rich that I would like to use The Window game rules, mainly because their storytelling style suits any time period. But there would still need to be more discussion of daily life and the technologies used before that would be possible (I think). Then again, the GM could just make that stuff up . . . is anyone doing it? <g>

P.S. We're doing just fine down here with the Olympics (thanks for asking) . . . needless to say we're all very chuffed with the number of medals Australia's winning, but I'll understand if you don't feel like cheering us on. <eg>

Angus McDonald