One of my favorite forums is Lead Adventure, which while somewhat specialized in Pulp/Back of Beyond/Swashbuckling, has a level of project excellence amongst its membership which is unequaled, and for that reason alone is worth visiting. One of the delightful aspects of the site, is that it runs a contest called "Lead Painter League" where the weekly regiment/team/squad entries of painters complete against one another for 10 rounds, and points are accrued to generate an overall winner (paint off in event of a score tie). Rules for Season Seven have just been released here. (Season 6 entries are here, for reference)
This year's round bonus points are for a Command Team (round one), Civil War (historical, round 5), and Sci Fi (round 10).
Here are some thoughts on how to win, or at least do well in the competition by Captain Blood, multiple winner of the LPL and clearly excellent painter (or is he just trying to throw readers off the game?).
While painting 50+ figures during the duration of the League would be pretty heroic for me (in stark comparison to my anemic output these last few years), it would also decrease the ol'lead/plastic pile a bit... something to ponder.
So get painting!
Friday, March 29, 2013
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Rationality in the year 40,000
There has been some discussion lately on Ammobunker about the nature of "civilians" in the 40k universe, inspired by Exokan's WIP civilian figures. Some argued that there are no civilians in the traditional sense in the far off year of 40,000, and that all are subsumed into guilds and factories to the extent that all form a part of the military machine. Others point to the irrationality of having a workforce comprised of workers dedicated to mindless task repetition, and how this does not allow for population growth or change, even with the constraints of a universe at constant total war.
In short, is a hive populated by generational guilds of skull-faced-lion-maned-mono-task-drill-armed-stiletto-heeled maniacs, or is it populated by sober serfs who work very hard for little reward, but are otherwise fairly familiar members of humanity?
Here is a quote from Thistle, who has an official and public hand in the look and development of 40k: ...they cannot be considered civilians - the very term itself is something i would not weave into the 40k canon a bit like money or latin they just do not exist in the far flung future... [sic] Civilians as we conceive of it do not exist, just like money [!] seems a bit much for me.
Here is an opposing quote from MarcoSkoll: And, I feel that even as dsytopian as the setting might be, the fact it has sustained itself for the last ten thousand years must mean that huge swathes of its population remain capable of reproduction and parenting.
As delightfully morbid as a butcher with huge hydraulic cleaver for his arm might be, grafting the entire labour force to their tools does mean they're going to find themselves somewhat limited in their ability to raise children. Seems more on the money, where the strange and colorful aspects of the universe are in fact strange and colorful because the rest of the universe is more mundane, and rational.
Rationality in the blurb-official 40k has always been lacking, as when it is mentioned that the Adeptus Mechanicus and similar only can run and produce machines with the appropriate blessings for the machine spirit, sacred oils, and so on, while at the same time we have hive worlds with populations in the billions, toiling in factories uncountable, which would mean that either every factory has thousands of Tech Priests, and production is staggeringly inefficient, or that in fact machine worship is just a surface gloss, and that workers toiling at machine tools uncounted produce weapons and goods without necessitating any intervention by holy water sprinklers. Priests of Mars has characters impressed into service on the Techno-Ark as plasma engine serfs, slaving away at cleaning plasma chambers, even unto death, but even those were impressed into service from a world where they worked for wages at normal (if difficult) jobs.
Irrational repetition of tasks also produces non-rational actors, which means that you can not create an effective population of officers, engineers, supervisors, and (importantly) Inquisitors from it. As these are demonstrably a part of the 40k universe, they must therefore be produced by rational means from rational people, so there must exist at least a portion of the population which is not given over to unthinking total military production.
Another way to look at this question is total number of military effectives of a population. We could look at the historical example of the Soviet Union in the Second World War, which had a population of approximately 140 million, and 34 million under arms during that period. (~24%). If one reduces that number slightly to account for the fact that such a high number under arms and so many killed during the war caused a post war population crash, and that the Western Allies produced some of the material used by the Soviet war machine, you could say that 20% of a population under arms is close to a sustainable maximum. So indeed, there must be civilians in the other 80%, as they could not all be children.
Recent works by Dan Abnett in particular, and the Black Library novelists in general, paint a universe where war is constant, but not ever present, as there are sectors where life is, for want of a better word, normal, and there are battle lines, well away from the day to day life of most of the population. Indeed, Ravnor, Eisenhorn, and Gaunt confront the difficulties of the imperial bureaucracy, guilds, and, but still see civilians and humanity as separate from the war machine, and civilians as separate from their jobs.
So just how rational is that far off year where there is only war? I suggest to you that the rationality of that distant time is alive and well, despite and perhaps because of the irrational times in which humanity lives. While irrational elements persist, they are a coloration on the drab grey workaday world of the rest of humanity. Our aforementioned augmented guild worker is part of the reality of the world, but there are masses of rational (but constrained) civilians to support them in their work, by undertaking the less specialized and standard tasks of existence.
Anyway, provided you made it through this, what do you think?
In short, is a hive populated by generational guilds of skull-faced-lion-maned-mono-task-drill-armed-stiletto-heeled maniacs, or is it populated by sober serfs who work very hard for little reward, but are otherwise fairly familiar members of humanity?
Here is a quote from Thistle, who has an official and public hand in the look and development of 40k: ...they cannot be considered civilians - the very term itself is something i would not weave into the 40k canon a bit like money or latin they just do not exist in the far flung future... [sic] Civilians as we conceive of it do not exist, just like money [!] seems a bit much for me.
Here is an opposing quote from MarcoSkoll: And, I feel that even as dsytopian as the setting might be, the fact it has sustained itself for the last ten thousand years must mean that huge swathes of its population remain capable of reproduction and parenting.
As delightfully morbid as a butcher with huge hydraulic cleaver for his arm might be, grafting the entire labour force to their tools does mean they're going to find themselves somewhat limited in their ability to raise children. Seems more on the money, where the strange and colorful aspects of the universe are in fact strange and colorful because the rest of the universe is more mundane, and rational.
Rationality in the blurb-official 40k has always been lacking, as when it is mentioned that the Adeptus Mechanicus and similar only can run and produce machines with the appropriate blessings for the machine spirit, sacred oils, and so on, while at the same time we have hive worlds with populations in the billions, toiling in factories uncountable, which would mean that either every factory has thousands of Tech Priests, and production is staggeringly inefficient, or that in fact machine worship is just a surface gloss, and that workers toiling at machine tools uncounted produce weapons and goods without necessitating any intervention by holy water sprinklers. Priests of Mars has characters impressed into service on the Techno-Ark as plasma engine serfs, slaving away at cleaning plasma chambers, even unto death, but even those were impressed into service from a world where they worked for wages at normal (if difficult) jobs.
Irrational repetition of tasks also produces non-rational actors, which means that you can not create an effective population of officers, engineers, supervisors, and (importantly) Inquisitors from it. As these are demonstrably a part of the 40k universe, they must therefore be produced by rational means from rational people, so there must exist at least a portion of the population which is not given over to unthinking total military production.
Another way to look at this question is total number of military effectives of a population. We could look at the historical example of the Soviet Union in the Second World War, which had a population of approximately 140 million, and 34 million under arms during that period. (~24%). If one reduces that number slightly to account for the fact that such a high number under arms and so many killed during the war caused a post war population crash, and that the Western Allies produced some of the material used by the Soviet war machine, you could say that 20% of a population under arms is close to a sustainable maximum. So indeed, there must be civilians in the other 80%, as they could not all be children.
Recent works by Dan Abnett in particular, and the Black Library novelists in general, paint a universe where war is constant, but not ever present, as there are sectors where life is, for want of a better word, normal, and there are battle lines, well away from the day to day life of most of the population. Indeed, Ravnor, Eisenhorn, and Gaunt confront the difficulties of the imperial bureaucracy, guilds, and, but still see civilians and humanity as separate from the war machine, and civilians as separate from their jobs.
So just how rational is that far off year where there is only war? I suggest to you that the rationality of that distant time is alive and well, despite and perhaps because of the irrational times in which humanity lives. While irrational elements persist, they are a coloration on the drab grey workaday world of the rest of humanity. Our aforementioned augmented guild worker is part of the reality of the world, but there are masses of rational (but constrained) civilians to support them in their work, by undertaking the less specialized and standard tasks of existence.
Anyway, provided you made it through this, what do you think?
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Priests of Mars
I just finished reading the relatively new book Priests of Mars by Graham McNeill. Published July of 2012, This book is about an explorator fleet of the Adeptus Mechanicus, which is going to go beyond the "Halo Scar" in search of similar fleet that was lost long ago. The object of the original fleet was to find various artifacts of the Golden Age of humanity, which supposedly have the power to terraform dead worlds, drain stars for power, and so on. Various parties are connected to this search, such as a Cadian regiment, Titans, Black Templars, and a Rogue Trader. They are opposed in their quest by a shipful of Eldar, and various elements from within the Mechanicus itself.
The really interesting part of this book for me was the variety of Tech Priests and Magos on parade. You have "brain in many separate jars" guy, and "body given over to combat" guy, and a few recognizably female members too, which is in and of itself interesting as well. This sort of description is useful beyond the confines of this story for those of you interested in making Adeptus Mechanicus armies, or INQ28 skirmish bands. It also reminds you how being press ganged as a serf on a ship would not be the life of adventure that you might expect.
Unfortunately, just as the action is really getting started, the book ends, so one has to wait for the sequel to get anywhere in this story. (the story ends with a few cliff hanger elements as well) Fortunately for me, I got this book from the local library, so did not have to pay $25 for what is ultimately only part of a story. Recommend that you wait for the inevitable omnibus edition, unless you need to read about the various morphology of the Tech Priests.
The really interesting part of this book for me was the variety of Tech Priests and Magos on parade. You have "brain in many separate jars" guy, and "body given over to combat" guy, and a few recognizably female members too, which is in and of itself interesting as well. This sort of description is useful beyond the confines of this story for those of you interested in making Adeptus Mechanicus armies, or INQ28 skirmish bands. It also reminds you how being press ganged as a serf on a ship would not be the life of adventure that you might expect.
Unfortunately, just as the action is really getting started, the book ends, so one has to wait for the sequel to get anywhere in this story. (the story ends with a few cliff hanger elements as well) Fortunately for me, I got this book from the local library, so did not have to pay $25 for what is ultimately only part of a story. Recommend that you wait for the inevitable omnibus edition, unless you need to read about the various morphology of the Tech Priests.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Inquisitor d1000 Part 6 - Equipment
Here is a d200 table of Equipment as part of the d1000 inquisitor attributes project. Go back and read that post if you want to know what this is about.
I tried to think of mostly smaller items that an Inquisitor would have in his/her pocket, on a belt hook, or similar, rather than larger items. Larger items, like heavier weapons, are carried by subordinates, that is part of their job. (aside from acting as meat shields when needed).
Anyway, there we have 200 items that an Inquisitor might carry. Let me know what you think.
I tried to think of mostly smaller items that an Inquisitor would have in his/her pocket, on a belt hook, or similar, rather than larger items. Larger items, like heavier weapons, are carried by subordinates, that is part of their job. (aside from acting as meat shields when needed).
| Roll | Equipment |
| 1 | Abacus |
| 2 | Adamantium Manacles |
| 3 | Adhesive tape |
| 4 | Anywhere ink pen |
| 5 | Aqua breather |
| 6 | Astartes Power Armor finger |
| 7 | Auspex |
| 8 | Baklava |
| 9 | Bacon Butty |
| 10 | bag of ball bearings |
| 11 | Bag of Jelly babies |
| 12 | Bag of sweets (d10) |
| 13 | Balance scales |
| 14 | Bang putty and igniter |
| 15 | Baton (d4 wood/brass/lead/Ceramite) |
| 16 | Binders, plastic |
| 17 | Binoculars, electro |
| 18 | Binoculars, pocket |
| 19 | Bio Spoor collection kit |
| 20 | Blessed machine unguents |
| 21 | Blessed purity seals |
| 22 | Blessed water, vial |
| 23 | Book of vile things (d3 chaos/pornographic/anti-religious) |
| 24 | bottle of hot sauce |
| 25 | Bottle of rotgut in paper bag |
| 26 | Brass chased knuckles |
| 27 | caltrops (d6) |
| 28 | Candles, light (d6) |
| 29 | Candles, religious (d12) |
| 30 | Cane, fancy |
| 31 | Canine whistle |
| 32 | Canister of snuff |
| 33 | Chalk |
| 34 | Change of clothes |
| 35 | Collapsing quarterstaff |
| 36 | Colostomy bag |
| 37 | Combat drugs (d2 uses) |
| 38 | Concentrated ration pills (d6 meal equivalents) |
| 39 | Conversion Field Generator, Rosarius (d6 charges) |
| 40 | Credit stick (d1000 Thrones) |
| 41 | Curiously carved horn |
| 42 | Data key |
| 43 | Data slate |
| 44 | Day old news printout |
| 45 | Deck of cards |
| 46 | Deck of Emperor's Tarot |
| 47 | Decoder ring |
| 48 | Dehydrated water flask |
| 49 | Dialect phrase book |
| 50 | Dice, obscure |
| 51 | Dice, standard |
| 52 | Disguise kit |
| 53 | Displacer field generator, amulet (d3 charges) |
| 54 | Doll, child's |
| 55 | Dust mask |
| 56 | Earplugs |
| 57 | Elbow length impermeable gloves |
| 58 | Electro Lantern (d100 hours) |
| 59 | Emperor's Tears, vial |
| 60 | Encrypter/Decrypter, electronic |
| 61 | Enhanced interrogation tool kit |
| 62 | Field shave kit |
| 63 | Fingernail paint |
| 64 | Fire starter |
| 65 | First aid kit |
| 66 | fishing hooks and line |
| 67 | Flare (d6x10 minute duration) |
| 68 | Flute |
| 69 | folding pocket fan, lacquered |
| 70 | Folding razor blade |
| 71 | Gag |
| 72 | Gas mask |
| 73 | Glass cutter |
| 74 | Gloves, fancy |
| 75 | Grav Chute, One use |
| 76 | Hand cogitator |
| 77 | Hand lux (d20 hours) |
| 78 | Hand puppet |
| 79 | Hand bell, middle C |
| 80 | Handcuffs |
| 81 | Handful of teeth |
| 82 | Headband mounted lux (d10 hours) |
| 83 | Hearing Enhancing earplugs |
| 84 | High strength cord, 20m |
| 85 | Holo field generator, eldar (d20 charges) |
| 86 | Hunting Horn |
| 87 | Ident card(s) (d6) |
| 88 | Ink Cartridge quill and paper |
| 89 | Knockout Gas Grenades (d3) |
| 90 | Las pointer, green |
| 91 | Leash (animal/psyker) |
| 92 | Letter Seal and sealing wax |
| 93 | Lighter |
| 94 | Lo sticks (d20 remaining) |
| 95 | Local Patrolman's Badge (not yours) |
| 96 | Lock pick set |
| 97 | Lock pick, automatic |
| 98 | Lock pick, electronic |
| 99 | Loud Hailer |
| 100 | Lucky Lagomorf's foot |
| 101 | Machine spirit pleasing incense |
| 102 | Magnifying ocular array |
| 103 | Makeup kit |
| 104 | Man grabber |
| 105 | Maps, Local continental |
| 106 | Maps, local street |
| 107 | Measuring tape |
| 108 | Mechanical Hand Calculator |
| 109 | Microbead transmitter/receiver |
| 110 | Monomolecular wire |
| 111 | Mono-scope |
| 112 | Moving pictogram maker |
| 113 | Multi fitting pocket power unit (d6 charges) |
| 114 | Music player, pocket |
| 115 | Noise maker |
| 116 | Noospheric identifier |
| 117 | Obscura (d4 preloaded pipes) |
| 118 | Orbital Range Pocket vox |
| 119 | Obscuring hood |
| 120 | Oxygen mask |
| 121 | Pad of Ether |
| 122 | Pain killer pills (d50) |
| 123 | Pendant electro lux (d20 hours) |
| 124 | Perfume, vial |
| 125 | Pict (d6 family/friend/enemy/yourself/target/canine) |
| 126 | Pictogram maker, pocket |
| 127 | Pocket Chron, multimode |
| 128 | Pocket electro stunner (d6 uses) |
| 129 | Pocket Emperor Triptych |
| 130 | Pocket endoscope |
| 131 | Pocket flask (d4 Amsec/rotgut/water/Caff) |
| 132 | pocket heater |
| 133 | Pocket knife |
| 134 | Pocket multi tool |
| 135 | Pocket notebook |
| 136 | Pocket Reference Guide |
| 137 | Pocket saint fetish |
| 138 | Police whistle |
| 139 | Prayer book, pocket |
| 140 | Prophylactics (d10) |
| 141 | Psyker limiter |
| 142 | Psyk-out grenade |
| 143 | Purse full of small change (d100 Thrones worth) |
| 144 | Purse full of small change, local currency |
| 145 | Rad grenade |
| 146 | Rat, Live |
| 147 | Ration pack (d4 meals) |
| 148 | Refractor Field Generator, Gorget (d12 charges) |
| 149 | Regency board and pieces |
| 150 | Rope (d3 plant fiber/synthetic fiber/metal) |
| 151 | Rosette (not yours) |
| 152 | Saint's bones (real) |
| 153 | Screw driver set |
| 154 | Servo Skull Controller |
| 155 | Servo Skull, assistant |
| 156 | Servo Skull, defender |
| 157 | Servo Skull, hunter |
| 158 | Servo Skull, scout |
| 159 | Sewing kit |
| 160 | Shock Collar |
| 161 | Shock Pole (d6 charges) |
| 162 | Signet Ring (d3 yours/Overlords/Not yours) |
| 163 | Skeleton Key set |
| 164 | Sketch book |
| 165 | Skinning knife |
| 166 | Small rubber ball, red |
| 167 | Smoke bombs (d6) |
| 168 | Smoked Glass lenses |
| 169 | Sonic Spanner |
| 170 | Splicer's kit |
| 171 | Stealth Field Generator, Tau |
| 172 | Stim Injector (d4 uses) |
| 173 | Stun grenades (d3) |
| 174 | Tabac pouch (d6 pipes full) |
| 175 | Teleport beacon |
| 176 | Throwing Knife, pocket (d6) |
| 177 | Tin of preserved Ichthyoid flesh |
| 178 | Towel |
| 179 | Tourniquet |
| 180 | Vial of blood (not yours) |
| 181 | Void scope |
| 182 | Vortex Grenade |
| 183 | Vox Caller, local |
| 184 | Vox Direction Finder |
| 185 | Vox Jammer |
| 186 | Vox receiver |
| 187 | Vox recorder, pocket (d10 hours capacity) |
| 188 | Vox scanner, multi band |
| 189 | Vox scrambler |
| 190 | Vox Thief |
| 191 | Walking stick |
| 192 | Whetstone |
| 193 | Whip |
| 194 | Windup toy titan |
| 195 | Wire Garrote |
| 196 | Wire Saw |
| 197 | Wire, small gauge, d100 m |
| 198 | Wraithbone Flute |
| 199 | Wraithbone signifier |
| 200 | Wrist Chron, dual dial |
Anyway, there we have 200 items that an Inquisitor might carry. Let me know what you think.
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