Many gamers started out their RPG careers with a box set, be it the legendary Brown Box of Original Dungeons & Dragons' fame or Paizo's Beginner Box forPathfinder. (In fact, one of yr. humble editor's earliest RPG purchases was the Dragonlance Fith Age Saga System box set from TSR.) Indeed, Wizards of the Coast has called back to the old Brown Box (and Red Box, White Box, etc.) with its recent D&D Starter Set for Fifth Edition.
The Newsletter reached out to Rogue Comet with some questions about this ambitious approach to launching a new RPG line and received a very quick and thorough response from Stan Shinn of Rogue Comet, a long-time RPG gamer and professional digital and print design specialist. We've edited some of Mr. Shinn's answers (and some of our questions) for length.
Newsletter: Is your primary goal here to provide a nostalgia product for existing gamers, or an outreach project for them to use with new gamers, or somewhere in between?
Rogue Comet: The product targets both old and new gamers, but has the side effect of providing a great shot of nostalgia!
If you look at the Mentzer Red Box, it did an amazing job of teaching folks who'd never heard of roleplaying how to play the game.
In the Dungonesque RPG, I do spend time on giving folks an introduction to roleplaying (for example, we have a solo adventure which I think you'll find great fun). However, people learn differently in today's world than they did back in the 80s. In Dungeonesque I'm assuming that if you really want a lot of tutorials on roleplaying that you'll pick it up by playing games or watching Youtube. So I tend to be brief and to the point with the rules, acknowledging that most of my customers will be veteran gamemasters.
So is the booklets and boxes format just for nostalgia? Surprisingly, no. The starting point for me was the ergonomics of what game format many people want during the game. Our box sets were designed for function, but have the added benefit of invoking nostalgia for those original box set games. For me, there's something special about opening up a box set and pulling out slim booklets to run [a] game.
Newsletter: Why did you choose 5E for this quasi-OSR project instead of using the already-streamlined BD&D or similar ruleset?
Rogue Comet: I love the old D&D games! I started playing the White Box D&D version back in 1978, and I've played all the versions of D&D at some point. In the last decade I've also enjoyed playing retroclones like Swords & Wizardry White Box.
The early D&D games are great fun, but I really appreciate the innovations of recent years like Ascending Armor Class and Advantage as well as the story mechanics that 5th Edition D&D introduced such as Backgrounds and Inspiration. I started playing 5th Edition D&D the first weekend it was in beta (back when they called it ëD&D Next') and it is my favorite edition of them all!
For me, some flavor of D&D 5e is the game I most want to play. I'm making the Dungeonesque products because I want the 5e rules and adventures optimized for old-school play.
Newsletter: Along those lines, how have you streamlined the 5E rules?
Rogue Comet: There were a few frustrations I had at my game table I wanted to solve.
The 5e Dungeon Master's Guide is 320 pages. An amazing book, but the content was a mix of things you'd use in between games, things you might never use, and some content you'd want to reference during the game. Pausing an RPG game I'm running to wade through 320 pages took too much time. I wanted something optimized for in-game use. The Dungeonesque Gamemaster's Guide will be under 50 pages, and the content is laser-focused on tools you can quickly reference and use during the game.
Another issue is cost. I know a lot of gamemasters are like me, where you end up buying most of the game books for your players. This is one of the things I've always loved about Savage Worlds — you can buy their basic gamebook for around $10, cheap enough to buy several copies without breaking the bank. Likewise, I've designed the Dungeonesque Player's Guide to be inexpensive (buy several and hand them out like candy!) and approachable (simple, short booklets give you all you need to play).
Compatibility is also very important to me. You can mix and match Dungeonesque products at the same table with D&D 5e products. The rules are the same and they all work together.
Overall, the Dungeonesque Red & White Box Sets represent an interesting fusion of the advantages of modern game design, crowd-funding, and direct-to-consumer sales in the form of a product that is explicitly designed to help bring new RPG players into the hobby. Rogue Comet's campaign runs through July 20.
Spell Formatting — We need a few tweaks like adding Icons for the concentration spells.
Spell Listing — We've include all levels 1-8 spells, but some of these aren't needed for our four classes. We'll be removing some spells. Also, we had feedback that you might like the spells grouped by level — usually I see spells simply alphabetized so we'll see what you think of this new format (and we can change it back to the way most people list spells).
Standard Treasure — We're leveraging some OGL White Box era retroclone content and some of these treasure items need better 5e stats, need to refer to the proper 5e spells, etc.
We'll be sending out a survey in the next two weeks to get your feedback. You can also email stan@roguecomet.com if you'd like to chat with me directly.
A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure dungeon (released as a separate product since it won't fit in the 44 page limit for DriveThurRPG booklets).
An OpenOffice Cover Kit to hack different covers for your PDFs for do-it-yourself printing.
We're also thinking about what to put on the back of the book covers for those who get the physical products. Maybe things like a Table of Contents and Frequently Used Tables. We've love your feedback on this!
We'll give you another update on progress around mid-June after the survey on when we expect to have the final PDF and print copies ready for distribution.
Thank you for your feedback and support! Let me know if you have questions.
Here is the survey for the 2nd Playtest packet that went out on April 29th. Would love to get your feedback!
The 3rd playtest packet will drop later this week to seek feedback on a few specific items before we release the final PDFs. We're targeting May 31 (next Tuesday) to release the final PDFs. We'll then have another couple of weeks to get additional feedback before we lock down the files for the print-at-cost versions. We're targeting to deliver the print-at-cost versions by the end of June.
Above is an example of some of the new art we've commissioned for the final product. We're looking forward to completing layout and showing you the final products very soon!


text:
/*
$Revision: 1.3 $
$Date: 2007-07-18 21:42:48 $

*/

package org.rti.webgenome.analysis;

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

import org.rti.webgenome.core.WebGenomeSystemException;

/**
 * Factory for AnalyticOperation objects.
 * @author dhall
 *
 */
public class AnalyticOperationFactory {

	/** Index of keys to analytic operation classes. */
	private static final Map<String, Class> OPERATION_INDEX =
		new HashMap<String, Class>();

	/** Indexof analytic operation classes to keys. */
	private static final Map<Class, String> REVERSE_OPERATION_INDEX =
		new HashMap<Class, String>();

	static {
		OPERATION_INDEX.put("1", AcghAnalyticOperation.class);
		REVERSE_OPERATION_INDEX.put(AcghAnalyticOperation.class, "1");
		OPERATION_INDEX.put("2", Averager.class);
		REVERSE_OPERATION_INDEX.put(Averager.class, "2");
		OPERATION_INDEX.put("3", RangeBasedFilterer.class);
		REVERSE_OPERATION_INDEX.put(RangeBasedFilterer.class, "3");
		OPERATION_INDEX.put("4", SimpleBioAssayNormalizer.class);
		REVERSE_OPERATION_INDEX.put(SimpleBioAssayNormalizer.class, "4");
		OPERATION_INDEX.put("5", SimpleExperimentNormalizer.class);
		REVERSE_OPERATION_INDEX.put(SimpleExperimentNormalizer.class, "5");
		OPERATION_INDEX.put("6", SlidingWindowSmoother.class);
		REVERSE_OPERATION_INDEX.put(SlidingWindowSmoother.class, "6");
		OPERATION_INDEX.put("7",
				MinimumCommonAlteredRegionOperation.class);
		REVERSE_OPERATION_INDEX.put(
				MinimumCommonAlteredRegionOperation.class, "7");
		OPERATION_INDEX.put("8", LinearRegressionAnalyticOperation.class);
		REVERSE_OPERATION_INDEX.put(
				LinearRegressionAnalyticOperation.class, "8");
		OPERATION_INDEX.put("9", LoessRegressionAnalyticOperation.class);
		REVERSE_OPERATION_INDEX.put(
				LoessRegressionAnalyticOperation.class, "9");
	}

	/**
	 * Constructor.
	 */
	public AnalyticOperationFactory() {

	}

	/**
	 * Get map of analytic operation keys and names.
	 * @return Map of analytic operation keys and names.
	 */
	public final Map<String, String> getOperationKeysAndNames() {
		Map<String, String> map = new HashMap<String, String>();
		for (String key : OPERATION_INDEX.keySet()) {
			AnalyticOperation op = this.newAnalyticOperation(key);
			String name = op.getName();
			map.put(key, name);
		}
		return map;
	}

	/**
	 * Create new analytic operation whose key matches the given key.
	 * @param key Key of analytic operation.
	 * @return An analytic operation.
	 */
	public final AnalyticOperation newAnalyticOperation(final String key) {
		Class c = OPERATION_INDEX.get(key);
		if (c == null) {
			throw new WebGenomeSystemException(
					"Analytic operation with key '" + key + "' not found");
		}
		AnalyticOperation op = null;
		try {
			op = (AnalyticOperation) c.newInstance();
		} catch (Exception e) {
			throw new WebGenomeSystemException(
					"Error instantiating analytic operation", e);
		}
		return op;
	}

	/**
	 * Get key associated with given analytic operation class.
	 * @param clazz Analytic operation class
	 * @return Key associated with given class or
	 * {@code null} if class is not registered.
	 */
	public static final String getKey(final Class clazz) {
		return REVERSE_OPERATION_INDEX.get(clazz);
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


To further the conservation of the natural resources of South Gippsland, including our marine environment, through education, on ground works, and working with governments and other conservation groups.
•	To further the conservation of Australia's natural resources, in particular in the South Gippsland region.
•	To encourage and promote education about the local environment.
•	To preserve and promote the conservation and public knowledge of the local marine environment.
•	To preserve and promote natural indigenous flora and fauna, particularly within the South Gippsland region.
•	To inform members of the public about the various natural attractions in the South Gippsland region and the conservation of these areas.
•	To affiliate with peak and other conservation groups as appropriate.
•	To take such action as may be from time to time decided necessary to achieve the general aims of the Association.


text:
Let's have some real ambition, please
Building an additional 10GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 is an important piece of the jigsaw puzzle that makes up Scotland's plans to try to reach Net Zero. ScotWind will be ground-breaking both in terms of size and opportunity.
By Dick Winchester
© Supplied by Vestas
Denmark's Vestas has annual revenues of £12.5bn.
That one of the contractual conditions being imposed on prospective developers by Crown Estates Scotland is a requirement to submit a "Supply Chain Development Statement" (SCDS) to ensure projects are developed in a way that supports the "sustainability of offshore wind development" in Scotland is also ground-breaking in that it could and should lead to a much larger and higher value Scottish supply chain. We need this if we're ever to achieve that so-called "Just Transition".
The consequence of a developer not achieving the aims set out in their SCDS by the end of the development phase are a set of financial penalties ranging from £50k to £250k with the additional risk that if they achieve less than 25% of their aims then they may not be granted a lease at all.
Interestingly, we are already seeing some developers beginning to lay out their stalls on supply chain development.
For example, BP says it would build two vessels for crew transfers and two for offshore support, which it estimates will create about 500 local jobs in Scotland although I'm sure that's for the duration of the build not long term. That said whilst I'm pretty certain that Scotland can handle the metal bashing side of ship building, supplying most of the essential internals is now beyond us since our civil shipbuilding industry went into free fall. So determining the value of this particular attempt at creating local content could be interesting.
That said, given BP has to my knowledge never built a ship before in Scotland, it is a significant move and suggests the SCDS might actually have some impact.
It was also announced recently that a new fabrication plant was being built at Nigg on the Cromarty Firth to produce steel towers for wind turbines. The intention here is to produce 135 towers every year and generate around 400 jobs.
However – and it's a big however – it would be foolish to get too carried away by these announcements. Whilst they get the politicians all excited because it is positive news and so they'll play them for all their worth, the reality of what they represent in terms of industrial benefit and their real importance when it comes to developing the long ignored wind technology manufacturing supply chain is perhaps somewhat less clear.
The Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult which is an organisation that claims to be the "UK's leading technology innovation centre for offshore wind, wave and tidal energy" has generously spent some of its money on a piece of research that amongst other things, neatly breaks down the costs of an offshore wind farm in a way that we can identify each element that a country like Scotland might be able to manufacture or provide as a service.
What this research suggests is that the towers being produced at Nigg will make up slightly less than 2% of the overall cost of an offshore wind farm and that their individual cost will be in the order of £60,000 excluding all the internals such as ladders, lifting equipment and so on.
These are 2019 figures and based on the use of a 10Mw turbine in 30m of water.
So, assuming the Nigg plant reaches its target of producing 315 towers per annum and also assuming the ORE Catapult has done its sums properly that would suggest an annual revenue of somewhere around £20m.
Compare that with the annual revenue of the Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas which is now over £12.5bn.
These examples are ringing alarm bells for me because there is a danger here of repeating two fatal errors from the oil and gas era. The first is setting our sights far too low and the second is hyping up what little we are doing to try to make it appear more significant which, to be clear, I don't think is the case.
But these are not the only examples of overhyping we're experiencing. I still do not understand exactly what benefit we're going to be getting from the proposed Energy Transition Zone (ETZ) in Aberdeen.
The most valuable and exportable parts of a wind turbine are the turbine itself and the blades. ORE Catapult values them at around £1.2m. Are we aiming to manufacture those on the ETZ? I don't think so.
Let's have some real ambition, please.
Dick Winchester is a former subsea engineer and an adviser to the Scottish government on the energy transition.
Dick Winchester
Energy Transition Zone (ETZ)
ORE Catapult
Scotwind
turbine towers
Radical changes proposed to the EU Carbon Border Adjustment mechanism
Why energy efficiency jobs are a tough sell in ASEAN?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


08/02/2018 – Ephemeris – Has liquid water been found on Mars?
Ephemeris for Thursday, August 2nd. The Sun rises at 6:30. It'll be up for 14 hours and 37 minutes, setting at 9:07. The Moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 12:09 tomorrow morning.
The European Space Agency has announced the possible discovery of liquid water beneath Mars' southern polar cap. Perhaps it's like the lakes found under Earth's Antarctic ice sheet. The discovery was made by the Mars Express orbiter's ground penetrating radar. Mars south polar cap is primarily made of water ice up to 3.7 kilometers thick, covered in winter by a meter, give or take, thickness of carbon dioxide ice, what we call dry ice. Mars elliptical orbit happens to make southern hemisphere summers short and hot, and winters long and especially cold. Liquid water could exist several kilometers below the martian surface. Mars' internal heat flow is what NASA's InSight lander, now en route to Mars is going to tell us.


Recently we decided to narrow the target audience of our church website hugely to perhaps surprisingly the un-churched communities that surround our venues in South East London.
Depending on your church context this is either a wildly refreshing or completely ridiculous thing to do but for us it has enabled us perhaps for the first time to be very deliberate in every decision we make. By removing the 'catch-all' mentality we adopted for years we can now be much more confident that the language, tone of voice and visuals we use are appropriate for our audience.
Which brings me to launch of The Attic.
The Attic is a very deliberate attempt to create a very different kind of church welcome video. It doesn't try to paint a perfect picture of what to expect on a Sunday, it doesn't try to express a snapshot of how diverse the church or fit all of vision and values into less than two minutes. It's not trying to convince you that this church is better than the one down the road.
It doesn't do those things because what we are finding is that not everyone that lands on our pages is in that place. Not everyone is ready or is even thinking about coming to church on a Sunday. And to be honest the purpose of our website isn't to convince someone they should come on a Sunday at all. The purpose of our site is to move on in their journey of discovering who Jesus is.
The heart behind The Attic is to do just that. To help the user know, whoever they are, however they ended up on our pages that before they explore any further, there is a Father who already loves them and invites them to be apart of the story.


The classic Edgekeeper construction from Maison by Sabatier is given a dramatic aesthetic with this 8" chef knife featuring Knife Armour technology. With a sleek matte black finish, this impressive knife has a MoV steel blade and boasts some of the latest advances in patented knife innovations, featuring both the Edgekeeper sharpening sheath and Knife Armour protection. The Edgekeeper sheath sharpens the blade every time it is pulled out, providing optimal performance and excellent results each time, while Knife Armour protection improves the durability of the blade and allows it to be used in the dishwasher. An ergonomically-shaped handle ensures a comfortable grip, while after use it can be safely stored away in a drawer with its protective sheath. A strong and beautiful knife that food enthusiasts can be proud of in their kitchen, the blade wears the prestigious Sabatier Griffin logo to finish this premium quality design.