Welcome to Holy Worlds!

Since you said you enjoy drawing, you might find the Arts Guild "room," which is devoted to discussions of music and the visual arts, to be of particular interest; it's a little bare right now, in the transition period (as explained in threads in the Announcements room), but it'll fill up again over the coming months.

You also said you enjoy "Science Fiction games"; what do you mean by that? (Video games? Board games?)

I enjoy Roleplaying Games. Like D&D, except I was attracted to a Space Opera type of game called Traveller. Since people and rigid blocks of time are scarce for me, I started playing on-line via Play by Post (PbP) games.

I am naturally wired to enjoy kicking the tires on ideas that are a little bit different. I guess it is what attracts me to the Sci-fi genre. So I spent some time working with small publishers drawing for their PDF and POD game books. It also allowed me to participate in a lot of 'think tanks' for coming up with ideas.

I have one of those file boxes of partial notes of ideas that popped into my head on different things in the Garage, and my wife is threatening to hurt me if I don't get that junk out of the garage. So I guess that in November, I will be converting notes to prose and storing it digitally.

Since I hate starting out meeting a group of strangers in a bar ... and this is my game ... I will start completely differently:


"Negative Jump. Negative Sensors." the Pilot shouts.

The pilot instinctively turns to look over his shoulder, as if he could actually see the ship chasing him, but all of the information he needed danced in front of his eyes in a holographic ballet of data.
Whatever it was, it was at extreme detection limit and it was closing on an intercept course.

"Dammit, gotta make a run for the planet."
His fingers dance across the holographic controls as invisible dials and buttons and slides respond to his virtual-touch.

"need Maneuver/Evade 6 and Return Fire online" he thinks.
Lights change colors on ignored corners of his display and text dances across his field of view in response to his unspoken commands.

Every fiber in his being screams to initiate a jump and go someplace safe ... but the briefing was clear. Success is imperative. Failure is not an option.

He is startled from his thoughts by another human voice ...

[Biter 1416.51.1550 IST (12:50 PM Local)] Diner, Nowhere

Nana had eventually talked Alda out of 'having a talk' with anyone else. A few people were concerned that Anthony hadn't been seen since Alda dragged him off, but most figured that he had ported away in self defense as a last resort. Nobody was brave enough to ask Alda about it and she was hovering over Delilah.

The red card orphans required all of about ten minutes to bond with the Firsters their age and when they all had eaten and Mikael could stand the racket no longer, everyone got chased outside to play in the fog.

Mooch and Haggler ended up eating and talking at a table with Jerry and Alda's whole family. They met Max and Katy (age 20), Wendy, Nikki and Babetta (age 19), Rute (age 18), Sammy (age 13) and Willie (age 10). Anthony's brothers and sisters immediately adopted the pair and treated them like two more siblings. Including alternating between sharing embarrassing stories about Anthony and Delilah and teasing Haggler and Mooch about having to do chores and earn their keep like everyone else. They asked Mooch for some more details about how De got hurt. "Did she really charge a machine gun?"

Mooch explained about the Cave and the two gangs fighting. About the Lacars and SMGs and the GLs shooting back and forth. About the shrapnel and trying to run for cover and the frightened children. "Then this grenade exploded and we were all going to be hurt or killed when Tony started to port us all away. Most of us were able to dodge the fragments cause they started moving slower as we started porting. De grabbed a three year old and shielded her with her body. That's how she got hurt."

"We better not tell momma that story" said Max. The others just nodded.

Marcie was eating lunch with her father and overheard the story and thought De was only 17 years old, she should not be using her body to stop grenades from killing babies. Then Marcie remembered the rumors about Tala. Tala was only 17 years old, as well. Marcie wasn't sure she liked the world outside of Nowhere.

One of the convoy drivers named Herman, the son of Lou, had a sister named Helen who was staying in town. Helen was sufficiently well endowed that her clothes fit Giselle and she was happy to provide something both warm and comfortable. Stewart had much less trouble locating boots in her size.

Tala and Giselle were enjoying lunch together. Giselle was sharing stories about Anthony asking her to dance like some lord at a state ball while Delilah was practicing shaking her money maker with the girls on the stage. At one point, Tala's drink came out her nose, and they both laughed hysterically. Tala's laughter quickly died down as she saw the expression on Giselle's face abruptly change. Tala turned to see Anthony and his father, Jerry, walk through the front door.

Anthony whispered something to his father and headed towards Giselle all alone. He stopped a few meters from the table. "Miss Tala, Miss Giselle. I'm real sorry to interrupt, but this is sort of important. Mama explained to me about those contract things. I just didn't understand. So here." Tony thrust out a piece of paper towards Giselle. When she hesitated, he placed it firmly in her hand. "This is for you."

"I don't understand. What is this?" asked Giselle.

"It's yer contract. I had Tyjon help me make it all legal like." said Anthony.

Giselle looked at the paper and her contract had been executed as paid in full. She was free. Glancing down at the bottom, it wasn't signed. There was just an 'X' for the signature and two other names. 'Tyjon' and 'Wren'. "You didn't sign it?" said Giselle.

"That's cause I can't write." said Tony "but Tyjon said it was still all legal."

"I don't have any money, but I can pay you back." said Giselle.

"No ma'am. You can't." said Tony "Like I said, I didn't understand. I thought it was like a labor contract when you hire someone to do a job. Now that I understand, It ain't right for one person to own another. Not now. Not never. That's not how the Creator says things are supposed to be. So I can't take your money. It wouldn't be right."

"Miss Tala. Miss Giselle." Tony smiled "Thank you for teaching me to dance. You dance real nice." He tipped his hat and turned to leave. Jerry placed his arm around his son's shoulders, whispered something just before they reached the door. Then Jerry left and Anthony ran over to join Haggler, Mooch and his siblings at the table.

Hello and welcome to Holy Worlds! It's good to have you here, especially with such an interest in science-fiction. We're a bit of a minority here.

Traveller always looked fun, I definitely have to admit. I just never had much of an opportunity to get involved with those when I lived back home.

"Are you a published author?"

I was hoping for some feedback and advice on answering this question. I have no ego boost and tend to be hyper literal about these sort of questions.

So when I graduated college I went to work for a land development company that was owned by a surgeon. He had a question about eye surgery and beam bending calculations. I had a brand new Architecture Degree from an Engineering University and a Math Minor, so the cowards sent me to deal with all of these doctors and their strange questions. I ended up as a contributing author in the credits based on a page of calculations and some statistical analysis in a book on surgically induced astigmatism (and a whole bunch more words that I don't remember).

Fast forward a decade and I get involved in creating artwork for small press publishers for the Traveller RPG. Mostly art, but some think tank work that lands me a few credits on a few products (often with strange titles for my position like 'Vice Admiral').

So personally, I think of published authors as people who write actual books, like novels, and I am not one of those. Yet the NaNoWriMo definitions are so bizarre that I am not sure that what I create (RPG Adventures, Equipment Guides and Rules with 25-50% artwork) even qualifies as a NaNoWriMo Rebel.

So am I a Published Author?
Should I check YES or NO?

Whichever I select, I feel dishonest.