A Miscellany of Projects - Gaming, SCA Combat, Arts & Sciences, and Travel

 I have recently acquired Tom Leoni's translation of Capoferro's Gran Simulacro  and a historical survey of Chinese martial arts manuals.  I'll be reviewing these soon enough, but Capoferro specifically helped to crystallize a thought that's been brewing for a while. The thought is this: there are two schools of thought on how to train for combat in general.  One of these starts from first principles then works down to specific examples, the other trains specific examples and the student is expected, via practice, to derive first principles.  Perhaps the greatest historical example of this divide is the argument between Carranza and Pacheco on one side, and Godinho on the other - Carranza being of the opinion that fencing can be distilled to principles and the exacting application of these principles through practice being the key to victory, while Godinho believes that knowledge of the principles is revealed by the practice itself.  I am, of course, using Godinho to s

 Previously , I discussed both an alternate "modern world" and its background, and how I would interpret portions of this in Savage Worlds.  Today, having dealt with an extreme case in " magic Chernobyl ," I will discuss an intermediate state, roughly equivalent to the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, and another industrial disaster. Picatinny Arsenal has been involved in armaments production in one form or another since the Revolutionary War; tradition has it that there was a cannon forge on the site in the 1770s and the Arsenal proper was established in the 1880s as a powder storehouse and later manufacturer.  Today it is perhaps best known as the place where mounting rails for firearms were standardized in the 1990s, but at one time it was the primary repository for ammunition on the east coast of the United States, a major center of manufacture and research in artillery propellant, payload, and fuzes, a role it continues to this day.  In the 1920s, a large p

  Therefore, I posit the following propositions: First, that no elemental source may be created, nor destroyed, save by the action of elemental or physical forces in exponential proportion to the strength of the source created. Second, that the force created upon an elemental source is inversely proportional to the distance of the actor. Third, that the force exerted by an elemental source is exponentially proportional to the degree of purity of the source. Fourth, that the force exerted by an elemental source is exponentially proportional to the degree of difference in kind between sources. - Newton, Systema Mundi --- Previously , I discussed the evolution of a system parallel to modern science, of alchemical transformation based on the classical elements, up to Newton's publication of the Principia . What practical differences does such a system make? First, some terminology.  I've already discussed "binding" and "sources" without defining such elements. 

    Note, then, that for each Effect, there is a Cause, and that the Cause must be proportional to the Effect, and that Causes can be compounded by their increase in both magnitude and type; however, an imbalance in Causes must of necessity create an imbalance of Effects.  Further, the compounded Causes are such that no lesser Cause may produce a greater Effect, nor even shall be equal to the Effect, save by proportion, for in all matter there is resistance to action in proportion to its mass.     - Isaac Newton, "Principles of Alchemy," 1686 --- For about a year, I've been trying to figure out how to create what I think of as "magic Chernobyl," or rather a magical equivalent to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster without resorting to it as simply "big explosion, deal with it."  Finally, two days ago, it came to me pretty much fully-formed. The basis of diversion is that the classical Greek elements - earth, fire, air, and water - are expressions of universal