Local and Long Range Masking Equipment

There have been a few questions reguarding "Cloaking" lately. In MOAG Cloaking is refered to as three different things.
First there is something called Light Warp Gear, wich would be similar to the picture above. Usualy this equipment is installed on armor or very small vehichles. The technology simply projects a copy of the incomeing light out the other side of the object. Often an individual wearing Light Warp Gear (LWG) can be seen by a skilled eye if they come too close. The following chart shows the probablilities that LWG could be noticed for different perceptions and at what range.
Perception 10; 20ft=5%; 15ft=20%; 10ft=50%; 5ft=90%
Perception 15; 30ft=5%; 20ft=20%; 15ft=50%; 10ft=90%
Perception 20; 40ft=5%; 30ft=20%; 20ft=50%; 15ft=90%
This list is subjective and could change. Also the manufacturer of the LWG also affects the visibility.
LWG has nothing to do with Masking Equipment.
Local Masking Equipment Is what makes a Starship or Fighter or AGCV invisible to Radar, Lydar, Teraherts Scans or even the visible light spectrum. Local Masking Equipment is a shield Modification and adds about double to the weight and space of the crafts shield projectors. as well as costing between double and tripple the cost of the craft that it is installed on, depending on what type of radiation the Masking equipment is to nullify.
Long Range Masking Equipment is similar to Local Mask in that it is also a "Shield Type System". Long Range Masking equipment masks the Trasiton radiation output, or "Transiton Wake" that is emitted by all craft as they exit Hyperspace. However the Long Range Mask requires its own "Shield Projector". I put shield projector in quotes because it is technicly a shield projector and works on the same principals, however this device could never be used as a shield without heavy modification, which would render it useless as a Long Range Mask.
The use of a Long Range Mask is to prevent other craft from detecting your Transiton Wake as you enter a system, therefore making it easier to "sneak" into a system. As with all equipment these devices are not infalible, and have a 95% success rate.
Long Range Masking Equipment has a cost similar to Local Mask and Has approximately the same weight and space as the Hyperdrive.
I have only briefly touched on Masking Equipment, and will write more on the subject in the MOAG book.

Just for Bot...

Hope you enjoy.

Apologies

Sorry, I've been on vacation for a few days. Heres a photo of the runway. As you can see, we had some trouble getting home. We had to tether two sea Turtles together and... Well you know the rest. Unfortunately my post was lost along the way and will take some time to find. (Pacific Ocean is a big place)

Also, I must apoligise for my blatant disreguard for Bot's feelings. I hope he will forgive me for being such a heel.

However, I will move on to ripping on Pablo Diablo.

By the way Pablo, the reason you havnt seen any new posts is because we all left and went to annother blog without telling you.

Ha ha ha...

Hmm it's Wensday... and no new posts....

Everybody still here?
Yes, no, maybe so?
Good here is something to think about.

Skill - Intimidate
Strength + Charisma Modifiers
Klisks +3
Sargonian, Conar, Gargonan +2
Gorloch +1
Human, Naresken?, Macaneon, Cylonquin +0
Motiquee?, Ucasi -1

I think thats everyone.
Tell me what you think.

Thank You Mountain Dew

Well getting done with a good night of Moaging can be a lot like a high after using drugs (as if i really knew). Last night in a great night of play, not much happened but A LOT did...

Let me explain for those not there, not much exciting happened to me because I just began a new character but he did end up getting everything organized and modified (and a lot of money)... along with the group that was seriously modified to now be known as the KMS (I think that is what we settled on... I can't really remember so let me know if it isn't a.s.a.p.)

... Because of the serious reorganization, a extreme longing to play more, and much consumed Mountain Dew (during the Moaging session) when I got home around 2am I could not sleep... so what did I do? Well first of I decided to imitate Salvaggio's "Monday Moag Art" and begin posting some of my art once a week... and that is what I did till about 6am!

... Well just a brief explanation of each. The first one is the humanoid beast that many of us fought in a campaign created by Pablo Diablo a while ago, in his dark tunnel with the glowie-brick-things. The other one is my first Moag character, Siliska, a Macaneon on some desert wasteland planet of Doooooooom (or Moab, UT). Well I hope you all enjoy. And remember if you want to sleep don't drink a liter of Mountain Dew before bed.

Skills Discussion

So I was playing an awesome game called Mass Effect today and the thought came to me... Why can't I charm or intimidate someone in M.O.A.G. I thought about it and realized that I could con someone but I couldn't charm or more importantly intimidate.

Now I'm not trying to start anything but a nice discussion. So give me opinions. I Demand It!

And maybe Shadowwire could explain some of the skills to people who might not understand them completely. Say for instance archery? WTF? And who knows maybe we could come up with some new or revised skills.

Chapter 1
A New Man

James Edward Thomas worked at the Pentagon. His job was simply to analyze computer data from satellites and turn it into something the government could use. He was not a particularly handsome individual. He didn’t live in a big house, or drive a nice car. James wasn’t married, nor had he dated for several years. James, or Jim, as he assumed his friends would have called him if he had had any, wasn’t good at any sport or did he know anyone famous. Once when he was a young college boy he was engaged to a farm girl from New Mexico. Their relationship ended before they were to wed. Shortly thereafter James joined the Marine Corps, and worked 20 long years of his life to the rank of Sergeant. James’ Mother died only weeks after he joined the military, however he decided not to attend the funeral. His father had left when James was too young to remember. James never tried to contact him. James retired from the military at age 39 and began pursuing a degree in physics at MIT.
Frank Borgam met James in an elevator in Chicago, IL. They were the only two in the elevator when a terrorist bomb on the 10th floor exploded, sending the elevator and its two passengers plummeting from the third floor to the basement. Both of James’ legs were broken and his neck fractured. James Performed CPR on Frank and saved his life. Impressed by James, and after an extensive background check, Frank offered James a place in the CIA.
At age 46 and after a short recovery, James began his employment at the Pentagon. Every morning James woke up at 5:30. He dressed in a dress shirt and some nice slacks, combed his hair, ate his oatmeal, and drove 14 miles from his home in the suburbs to the Pentagon. Day in and day out he performed the same routine. Sometimes he would drive a different route just for a change of scenery. No one came to visit him at home or at work. Every morning he would walk through the same checkpoints, and every morning he would say his name the same. “Thomas, James E.” The guard would let him in and he would perform his scheduled duties. On his way home at night, James would stop at a local grocery store or super market and collect the items he would require for the next few days, or he would stop at the local bar. Sometimes he would drive to a Park and eat fast food on a bench. On occasion he would rent a movie or walk through a mall. James limited his contact with others. He rarely spoke unless spoken to and was very even tempered. Some might say he was out of touch with reality, or just a loner, however no one knew him well enough to make even an educated guess on what might be going on in his head. Truth be told, James was a thoughtful individual. His ideas pushed him along and made him as good at his job as anyone ever is. He was an enigma, an oddity. No family, friends, acquaintances, or even pets. He never did anything out of the ordinary. He was as nobody as anyone working in the Pentagon could ever be. He was perfect.
James went to work that day and did the things that were natural to him. He hung up his jacket in the same spot he always had. He ate his lunch at noon. He drank his apple juice, and even went to the bathroom at what could have been his scheduled time. He left work at 5:00 and drove to the store. He bought just the necessities and traveled home.
James exited his Nissan Sentra with his plastic grocery bag and walked to the front door of his two bedroom one bath, half of the duplex he lived in. He inserted the key and turned the lock. To his amusement the door was ajar. He wondered if he had left it this way that morning. He doubted it. He stepped into the living room and closed the door behind him. The TV was still there, as were the few other things that he owned. He walked into the kitchen and placed the bag on the counter. He put his keys on a hook next to the fridge and continued to his computer room. A quick glance revealed nothing out of the ordinary. Next, to his bedroom he discovered the same. He removed his jacket and hung it on a hook in the closet. Just as he began to turn around James noticed that two hangers were in the wrong spot. A shirt and a pair of slacks were absent. “Strange items to steal” he thought. Further inspection showed that a pair of shoes were also gone. James didn’t own a gun. Even if he had, it probably wouldn’t have crossed his mind. He walked slowly to the bathroom, the door was closed and the light was on. Someone must be in here, he thought. Curiously he opened the door. He was right, there was someone there, and he was looking him straight in the eye. A five foot ten inch man with brown hair, brown eyes and a slender face stared back at him. The man looked to be 48 years old and at first James thought he was looking into a mirror. He was even wearing his clothes. Although this was not a normal occurrence, James was not surprised, he was however, quite perplexed.
“Who are you?” James finally stammered.
“Who do I look like you idiot.” The man more stated than asked. James’ mind raced. Who was this and why did he look just like him?

Obviously the Pic has nothing to do with the story, I just thought it was cool.

The Salvaggio School of Painting and Photoshop...

Okay, in my last art post, Juanito asked how I went about painting the image. So, today my young padawans... I'll go over the steps I've used to get the Klisk image to it's current state (which unfortunately due to time constraints at work and some other issues, is still where it was last week...). I'm going to refer to Photoshop alot, because I use that for most of my starting work, and then move on to Painter. But for ease of this post, when I refer to Photoshop, just insert your favorite Painting/Drawing software.

Anyway, I usually try to work at 300 dpi. And my image size usually stays around 8 x 10 inches, but it varies with the shape and project. I start off in Photoshop with a blank, colored canvas. Usually dark green to help me get some green and yellow into my skin tones, seeing as I have a habit of painting a little too warm. I'm going to have images of each stage I talk about, so you can see what I'm doing, but I figure you've all seen a blank sheet of green paper, or a green canvas in any one of your photo manipulation/painting programs, so you don't need to see one again to know what I'm talking about.

I then come to the sketch portion of the drawing. I do this in one of two ways. The first being your traditional pencil and paper route, which I then take the sketch when finished, scan it in and move on to the next step. Or the Second route, in which I draw directly in Photoshop. This is the path I took with the picture in question. I was staying late after work one night, waiting for a ride home, and just started sketching in Photoshop and came up with the image. I must admit, that while I've done lots of drawings on the computer using my mouse, I am quite glad to be using a 6X9 Wacom Tablet for all of my digital painting. If you don't have a tablet, and aren't a savant with the mouse, then I suggest the traditional pen and paper route at this stage. Anyway, after my sketch was finished, I was left with this:


Now, whether I sketch directly in Photoshop or scan in a sketch, I like to keep my sketch on a different layer from my background/canvas and the color layer, or layer that I do my painting on. If you've scanned in a sketch, turn the sketch layer into a multiply layer, which enables the underlying layers to show through (but beware this will darken your colors and whatnot, so if you plan on deleting the sketch layer when you're finished, your underlying color layers will be brighter than what you were looking at when the multiply layer was there). If you've sketched directly into Photoshop, then simply sketch on a different layer than the background and you're set.

Okay, now that the sketch is in, it's time to start working on the background. I was taught to work from the back forward, but you don't have to do it that way. I'm doing a lunch-time painting session with an artist friend at work, and we've been trying to increase our speed in Photoshop, so I've started trying to lay down all the base colors I'll use and then go in for the finish work, but in this current piece, I've started at the back. So I start on the sky and clouds on a separate layer from the background, and end up with this:


Next, we move on to the mountains. I wanted to give the hint that while the foreground had a warm, summer feel to it, I wanted the mountains to be cold, and rugged. Anyway, I put the mountains on a separate layer just on top of the layer with the Clouds. Here's what I got next:


Next, I start to add in the trees. Again, on a separate layer from the rest of the image. Here it is:


Now as you can see, the trees are pretty bright. I wanted to give the image a sense of depth, so I needed to tone down the trees and bring down the contrast, so that the foliage doesn't blow out your retinas and also so as to not compete with the contrast that will be in the subject of the painting. While I'm toning down the trees, I wanted to start blocking in the trees above the Klisk, basically the mid-ground area. So I ended up with this: (which is the current state of the image)


So there you have it. The next step will be painting in the Trees that I've just blocked in, and adding the ground underneath the big, dog/bear thing (I wish it was the man/bear/pig from South Park, but unfortunately, it's not. Besides, Al Gore killed it). Then add the ground and shrubbery underneath and behind the Klisk, and then the klisk and the killed game next, followed by the bushes in the foreground.

To finish it all off, I'll probably take it in to Painter and give it all a once over in there, just because I'm like that.

Now, I didn't want to put this up as the rule on how to draw and paint in Photoshop. There are far better artists than me who can teach you how to do that. I just wanted to answer Jaunito's question. Hopefully I did, and hopefully Juanito and anyone else out there who wants to do some art will submit their work, so we can all enjoy it.

Until next time...

THE ULTIMATE SOLUTION.

The solution to what? You may be wondering? Well, I've got it on good authority that the enhancements that Kang and Shadowwire are giving to the Humans are...

Wait for it...


That's right! We get weapons instead of LIMBS!

Actually, if you haven't figured it out yet, I don't have any idea what the ULTIMATE SOLUTION is, but I thought it would be fun to get your hopes up. And enough of the "I'm offended" comments. Frankly, I'm offended by them.

Starship Classes

To Clarify, In MOAG there are a lot of different starship designations. However, the deffinitions vary greatly between millitaries. Even today Ship classifications are not an exact science. There are lots of different types of ships, each with their own pourpose and designation.

To list a few,

Patrol vessels

Gunboats

Torpedo Boats

Corvettes

Friggates, or Destroyer Escorts

Destroyers

Cruisers

Carriers

Battleships

Battlecruisers

Cutters

MS Trawlers

AWS Trawlers

Flotilla Leaders

Escort Carriers

Minelayers

Destroyer Tenders

Sloops

Oilers

Anti Aircraft Cruisers

Vehichle Landing Ships

Coastal Defense Ships

Boom Defense Vessels

Depot Ships

Repair Ships

Salvage Vessels

Dock Landers

Net Tenders

High Speed Transports

Tugs

Rescue Tugs

Submarines

And even more!

Dreadnaughts, Capitol Ships, and even Merchant vessels, Not to mention the "heavy" or "Light" Description on many.

As you can see, many ships fit into more than one class, and some of these classes may not fit into MOAG. However you may say, "What the heck is a AWS Trawler and how does it fit into MOAG?".Well, a Trawler typicaly pulls a set of towed Sensors for one perpose or annother. Some Warships in MOAG have the capability to launch a sensor Beacon, or tow a Decoy, somewhat reminiscent of modern Trawlers.

Anyway, seems i've run on long enuph for one Post.

C-ya.

Oh, and Bot, Im offended.

Hey Look! It's the new guy!

Beware the Gorloch!

Hello all... well this is my first post. I am basically just doing this as a response post to Salvaggio's monday post to let him know who I am.

Juanito, me, is the nephew of Bot which lets you know how I got into MOAG, an it probably lets you know that I am a little wierd like my uncle. I have been MOAGing for over 2 months now and am loving it.

Not much more to say about myself... I love SciFi... I love sports, especially lacrosse... and I love, Love, LOVE art and drawing!!!!! (as you can see)

Oh and this is just a little drawing I did for eveyone... but mainly because I just made a Gorloch character for MOAG and I really like him. Also I was just goofing around with Photoshop, so sorry for the wierd art effects, if you don't like them you can talk to Lord Char Anvale! Muahahahahahaha!!!

P.S. Don't talk to Anvale... he WILL kill you!

Welcome back to the Pit of Despair. . . RUN AWAY!!!

All this debate over things in M.O.A.G. has got me thinking....... and that's not a good thing. Anyway, why did we start M.O.A.G. to begin with? I mean, even in the grand picture that is Moaging I am a newbie veteran (or as I like to call myself, a "neweran.") I came from California my Sophomore year to the thriving Metropolis of Panguitch! Before I moved to Utah I played D&D in secret with my friends because my parents hated the idea of RPG's. Anyway, I liked the game, but only because my friends played it. I never was much for the "breakfast cereal charts" and what nots. Too much control over the vast freedom, to truly be free. Anyway, I stray. The point I'm trying to make is that I came to Pangtown, met up with Savage, West, Joab and a few others and played D&D with them a bit, but it still wasn't for me. West then introduced me to a "new game" he had been working on. Without going into details, many sleepless weekends driven by Surge and Mountain Dew were had!!! The game was awesome. It was Sci-fi!!! Not just Fantasy. Again, I stray. The real point I'm trying to make is not everyone out there likes the Fantasy aspect of D&D. They are Sci-fi geeks like me. There is a whole new market out there that hasn't been tapped to its full potential and I think M.O.A.G. can do that.

Take into account another point of view:

"I guess we should start with MOAG. MOAG stands for Mother Of All Games. Or Master Of All Galaxies. Or Midgets Operating Albanian Gondolas... or, well you get the drift. Anyway, MOAG was the brainchild of one Westly Harris. Having played copious amounts of MechWarrior and Dungeons and Dragons, we all came to the conclusion that these games were missing something. Or better yet, they had too much. Tired of referring to the various breakfast cereal charts and running tables, we simply wanted a base standard of game play in which the GM could expand and dictate at thier discretion. Now don't get me wrong. MechWarrior and Dungeons and Dragons are both excellent games, and we had no intention of coming up with something "Better", just different. Anyway to make a long story short, West came up with MOAG. A space exploration RPG set in the future, borrowing heavily from various subjects as The Predator to Star Wars to The Good The Bad and The Ugly. And possibly West Side Story. And The Abyss. Okay basically any work of science fiction."

We were looking for something better!!! This was taken directly from the first post of the M.O.A.G. Blog, by one Salvaggio. I hope you see in it what I see. Now onto the real point of my still straying post.

1) The humans are good. I think there might be something missing from them, but they are never going to be able to stand up to a Klisk mono e mono, but they can also knock a Ucasi flat on there butts with a swift slap to the back of their head. I do see that some of the species have certain things that make them what they are. Klisks are immune to poisons (and huge), Conar have some serious hops, Gargonan can endure a whole crap load of physical punishment, Ucasi are wicked smart, Macaneons have four arms..... etc. etc. etc. Maybe the humans need something like resistant to vapor poisons. I concede this, but I do not concede that the game needs balance. The universe is not balanced and if a person wants to play a character that isn't big and tough, they need to play to that characters strengths.

2) I agree with Salvaggio. West is the father of creation in the MOAG universe. What he says goes. If it's something that we don't like, DON'T WHINE!!!! Respect his authoritah.... I mean, authority. He knows whats best because it's mostly in his head.

3) Getting offended by whatever is said on this Blog is utter nonsense. Take everything with a grain of salt, a cup of sugar and a bottle of Zantac. If I have offended anyone, I want to make sure that you know that I probably meant it! But if you try to get back at me, pretty much everything rolls off of me like water off a ducks back. You should try it, it's easy and it's better than holding a grudge for something that really shouldn't hold much thought in your mind.

4) I like cake..... a lot!

I don't know if this is worth posting, but I'm going to hit the button anyway and you all will read it and I'll get comments on it and everything will go on as it has before me. End scene!

Next week I will start on something to do with the actual game.

The Monday MOAG Art update that was promised...

I told you, it's basically just background at the moment. I'm working on it and hope to have it done by the next Monday MOAG art post. So hopefully this will help satiate your desire for MOAG art.

More interesting suplemental stuff...

My second of these supplemental stuff posts deals with ships. I know Shadowwire has put countless hours in his ship list and I don't mean to tread on it so I have the Tel'Dabe Empire's ship classification list.

Enjoy or do not enjoy... the choice is yours.

Ships of the Imperial Navy

Since the beginning of naval history, warships have been classified into several broad groups according to size and role. At times some of these roles have been out of existence, and from time to time the classes evolve to adopt new roles as the technology and practice of war change. However in a given navy at a given date the sequence of labels always remains the same in terms of ascending size and power of vessels. A frigate is always something less than a destroyer; a destroyer is always less than a cruiser, and so on.

Fleets of the Imperial Navy are made up of multiple vessels that can be divided into eight categories:

Gunboat

A small, very fast vessel with anti-starfighter weapons, gunboats are primarily used to support corvettes and frigates in the escort duty of larger ships.

Corvette

A small, lightly armed, fast vessel, used mostly for convoy escort, ranging between a destroyer and a gunboat in size, corvettes can be instant death to fighters, bombers, and mechs.

Frigate

A naval escort vessel between a corvette and a destroyer in size, frigates are used to guard important convoys and other ships as well as being support for larger fleets.

Destroyer

A fast warship with guns and torpedoes used to protect other ships; destroyers are feared for their ability to destroy larger ships.

Cruiser

A warship of high speed and medium armament, cruisers can be found orbiting almost every inhabited system.

Carrier

A warship equipped with large decks for the launching and returning of starfighters and with facilities to carry, service, and arm them, carriers have moderate speed and are equal in tonnage to most battlecruisers and some battleships.

Battlecruiser

A warship of maximum speed and fire power, but with lighter armor than a battleship, battlecruisers make up the majority of a fleet. Though not as powerful as a battleship, battlecruisers are much faster and can still deliver a deadly blow.

Battleship

A warship with the heaviest armor and the largest guns; battleships are huge starships, with enormous amounts of weapons and shields, and usually serve as the flagship for the Sector Group Commander, though this is not always necessarily the case. Although very powerful, battleships are slow to maneuver. Because they represent such a vast expenditure of resources and require a fairly advanced technical base, these are typically constructed only in the largest shipyards. These vessels are expensive assets and are usually employed in only larger fleet formations.

Command ship

Prestige vessel of immense size, durability and armament, used mainly as flagship, communications center and base of operations for fleets of fleets, these large ships are usually one of a kind and modified to serve the commander’s needs.

A note on Imperial Ships – most, if not all, Imperial ships are built by Tacitus Fleet Systems in their massive shipyards above countless planets. All ships are built exactly to specifications with no variants, even if built by another shipyard.

Never let your wallet fall out of a pocket...

Or you just might end up with over a thousand dollars in credit card fraud.

Don't ask why or how, that's not important.

Just a friendly reminder to watch your stuff.

This has been a public service announcement from *Pablo Diablo*

Please don't take away my license...

Okay, as you can see, there isn't any art today in the Monday MOAG art post. That's all my fault. I'm still working on the Klisk image, so bear with me. I'll see if I can post an update on it tomorrow (not that there's much to look at, it's mostly just background at the moment). I will really try to finish it this weekend, but then I made the same promise last week, so don't expect anything.

On a general note, we've all noticed the recent additions to our ranks on the MOAG blog. I'd like to welcome all of the newcomers, and ask a small favor: Please post a simple entry about who you are, you don't need to list specifics or anything (You don't need to post you're name or address), just how long you've been MOAGing for and who got you into it, as well as any amusing anecdote you'd like to pass on. Label them as "Hey Look! It's the new guy!", and that way they'll all be together for easy perusing. I only ask this because I'm stuck on the outer rim of the MOAG territories, and I don't have as much contact with the rest of the MOAG universe, so I'd like to get to know the members of the Blog somehow. And showing up uninvited on your doorstep is probably not the best solution. We should probably make the "old" guys do this too, but we're old. And lazy. So it may take some convincing.

Now onto a more serious note. We've all been having great ideas as to how to make the game better. I think this needs to continue. But in order for this to be successful, we need to have some order. I therefore propose that Shadowwire has the final say in all things MOAG. I know that there are a lot of us that feel that MOAG is our baby just as much as it is Shadowwire's, but the simple fact is, He's been involved in 100% of the dealings of the game. No one else can say that. I know that Kang has probably done more than the rest of us for the game, and Bot and Myself have contributed quite a lot, but none of us can claim to be involved as much as Shadowwire. That's why I think it should be his decision. Now having said that, here's some advice I have for Shadowwire: Let the rest of us help you. When we submit an idea and it's not exactly what you had in mind, work with us to find a solution. Don't just throw it away. Also, let others help in making decisions when possible. If you can get a majority to agree on something, then go with it. It's for this reason that I suggest Shadowwire have the final word, not so he can be an iron-handed dictator, but that when we get into a discussion on what something should or shouldn't be, he can provide direction and a cohesive vision of what MOAG should be. I see us gathering in the future to discuss the book and what should be in it, and having some good, healthy discussions on all sorts of topics, and the only way we'll get something done is if we all agree that someone is in charge.

Anyway, I'll climb down off my soapbox now. I promise to get more artwork done and up on the site as soon as possible. I hope to have another piece to show during the week, while it's not necessarily MOAG art, it is science-fiction, and I hope you'll like it.

Revised MOAG.

Here are the New revised MOAG rules.
First, We're abolishing Willpower.
Second, We're abolishing Humans. (Sorry they didnt survive the invasion.)
Third, We're abolishing slavery. Wait.... No that wasnt it.
Fourth, I mean Third... We're abolishing PCs. By PCs I mean Player Characters.
Sixth, We're Making all the species look like teddy bears.
And last, All NPCs will now be named "Greg".
and finally, If anyone wants to get together and write a new game loosly based on MOAG, let me know.

The Skill Known as Equestrian

Okay I'm a new M.O.A.G. player so I don't know a whole lot about the game or its history but I can tell when some skills on the character sheet aren't being used. The skill I am refering to is called Equestrian. Ever since I started playing I have not seen it be used once. I'm not saying the the skill is lame....well I kind of am. The point is that this skill right now is not being used as much as it could be. It has a whole lot of potential though. Maybe redefining it would make it more usable and appealing. I've got a few ideas but they're not the greatest like maybe you could use the skill to get pets. You know like having a guard dog or Mutated Sea Bass.....now that would be cool. The point is that we either remake it or just toss the skill. My vote is on a remake cause I really want some highly irritable mutated sea bass.....or sharks with laserbeams attached to their heads.

Wait a Minute!

All this talk about balance in the game has got me thinking........ Why? What is really the point? So what if people favor certain species over others? Do we really have to balance everything out? AND why? So that M.O.A.G. can be Politically Correct?

Also not everyone favors the same characters. Like Shadowwire mentioned, I know someone that has two Ucasi characters and he probably will never have anything else. I favor Klisks and Gargonans for the sole reason that when the going gets tough, I'm usually the one that got it to that point and I need a character that can take the brunt of most combat.

The point I'm trying to make is M.O.A.G. doesn't need more balance. Diversity yes, but the balance comes from people figuring out what the strengths and weaknesses are for their characters and working them to their advantage.

MONDAY MOAG ART - Character Art...

I didn't have any time to finish the Klisk sketch I posted last monday, but I do have something new for you. I believe only Shadowwire has seen my new version of the Sargonan, so here in all of it's glory is the newest drawing. I say newest because Shadowwire will probably want to change it after seeing a mist tendril cthulu thingy in his bathroom mirror after he steps out of his morning shower.


Anyway, there it is. I hope you like it. I have to finish it, but I'm happy with where it's heading at the moment. Anyway, I think I speak for all of the MOAGers out there when I say, "I want to be a sargonan now..." Anyway, I'll try to finish the klisk image for next week.

Character Balance

I think that Mr. Shadowwire has done a great job balancing the different races and other character issues in MOAG. Whether he came up with them all or had help is immaterial.

However, last friday night, some players and I discussed the human race and Moag and noticed that they seem to be somewhat lacking. I understand why Shadowwire set them up the way he did, but I and others think they need to have something that embodies the human spirit or will.
The idea we came up with is giving the humans a higher add roll. The reasoning is that humans, to survive, would have to be really good at something. By giving them a higher add roll, they have the possibility of being higher than average. And that would make sense since only the strongest, smartest humans survived the nerve gas attack deployed by the Conar.

The other idea that has been discussed between Bot and Shadowwire was making comeliness rolls all the same for each race. This would of course make sense because the only appeal a characters looks would be with a member of its own race.
Another idea would be to remove comeliness altogether. Reasoning being that there isn't any skill rolls or abilities that calculate comeliness into the base.

So to recap.
1. Humans need higher add roll for better game balance.
2. Comeliness rolls same across all races.
3. Comeliness roll removed due to uselessness.

So discuss away.

Diversity With Balance

Ok, I know it's Friday and this post was supposed to be done yesterday.
I want to open up a discussion for the issue of Gaming Balance.

I know, I know, How do you create a logical balance between the species. I know it is hard, but I believe it is necessary if were going to market this thing successfully. As it sits right now, who in their right mind is going to play a human over any of the other species, particularly the Gargonan and Conar?

Ok, here's what I propose.

We create a BALANCED version, but again, how do you do this while still maintaining the current creation as we see it?

I know that technically we have the will power aptitude diferences, but this is not nearly enough to balance things. Even if we create a seperate "companion" manual for the will-power aspect, we still need to make the balance more complete.

It could be anything from giving humans a stronger aptitude for negotiation, thus giving them the ability to purchase equipment at a lesser cost or to sway the oposite party in any given situation.

We could give the Conar a penalty in that same ability. I don't know. I don't see any "logical" way to limit the physical attributes of any given species, so perhaps we need to think outside the box.

If we choose, we can later create an seperate resource for the game "as we see it."

In any case, People will never accept it as it sits.

Okay, I here by declare this topic *OPEN* for discussion.