A companion piece to my 30 Pocket Dimensions

After the horrors of the Scranja war, Humanity found itself in a predicament that it had not faced since well before the birth of civilization. Scattered to the solar winds, and very nearly the victim of genocide, many of the isolated pockets of mankind faced population bottlenecks, and the possibility of failure from inbreeding. The Synthmen were a part of the solution.

Direct Neural Programming had been the dream of many education 'reformists' and technocrats. The perfect way to teach skills, divorced almost completely from the requirement that human teach human. One single avatar of a skill could be used to propagate that skill until it became obsolete. Billions were poured into its development and marketing, thirsted for by corporations, the military, and politicians, each group wanting the surface and the sinister. But it was not to be.

An ancient weapon, forged by the First Ones, the terrible power of Order's Reach is as much a consequence of the nature of reality as it is blessed by the Divine.

Portraying artificial intelligence as NPCs in a game

'So, my sisters.' I gazed out the clerestory window at the tableau in Court Square, and I made no doubt my gaze was as stony as were the rest of the Conclave. 'I see what you see. Is there truly no doubt?'

'None,' said Mother Arathena, with a bitter hiss. 'That jackal bitch has the true Sword. Captain Noran saw her hack through half the enemy cohort to reach the postern gate, and I know Noran to be a reliable man.' She swallowed hard, tearing her gaze away from the spectacle outside. 'But – but how? How was It found, after so long?'

'Lady's Grace, who cares? Dueled with dragons or bought it from a peddler, what boots it? The question is this: what do we do?' Arathena's mouth was set, at my query; she didn't know. Neither did the others.

Neither did I.

Someone complained that orcs, in the campaigns he knew, were just cannon fodder -- there was nothing horrible, or terrifying, about them. This was the answer I gave. It proved a controversial one, and some may think it takes a stronger stomach to contemplate than they appreciate. This is your content warning: if you're easily revolted, I won't mind if you give this one a miss.

I had someone ask me, recently, why I not only allowed such characters in my campaign, but didn't seem to care that anyone wanted to do so. Parts of my response seemed worth sharing.

1. Please comment and vote

2. Seriously, please comment and vote

They appear to be very dark, overly large worms - perhaps a handspan in length and half as thick as a finger. That and their matt, dull skin marks them as something other than a typical earthworm.

Ildran is a cold blooded murderer who prefers fire over all other methods. He immolates his victims by trapping them inside wooden structures and then torching them. He is also meticulous about eliminating witnesses quickly and finally.

A set of character responses to situations or questions (or anything else :D), trying to create an outline to understand what type of an answer or response your character (or an NPC for that matter) can give.

Just in case, and because some others have put these up.

KiKi is a common type of synthetic intelligence program found in the Cosmic Era. KiKi is considered malware.

They're coming out of the ground, they're coming out of the damn ground, game over man, game over man!!!!

This could have made Johnny Appleseed's job that much easier!

Carry-All's are the go to military transports in the Cosmic Era

'All matter is made of six elements. The seventh element, work, fulfills the potential of the other six' – Liang Huou, Grandmaster

'Absent gods, here's another bunch of them,' Chav drawled, irritation in her voice.

'I hear them,' I grunted, shifting my back against the tree to find a more comfortable angle. Well, I'd heard the horses' clopping, any how. I opened a single eye, and sure enough, Chav was right. Four of them this time, green as grass. You wonder if they really thought wearing brown homespun tunics and trousers were going to fool anyone into thinking they were Just Folks ... while riding Sadasian stallions and those gorgeous tooled Mithlantri saddles.

Unfortunately, they also heard us. The chickling at their head spurred over to us, and raised her arm in salute to me. 'Captain? My name is Amberstar. We heard in Redwave that one of the orc columns were headed this way.' She grinned at me with her cheeks puffed out like a bleeding squirrel. 'We want to help!'

Joy and rapture unbounded.

A sword made of demon blood to fight demons.