R∈R⟺R∉R – Page 4

Gribus and Ghiarren Awaken Something

The xenophilia Discord, (full of my Patreon krewe, talking about science, science fiction, archaeology, roleplaying games, model building, archictecture, and pretty much everything else that’s cool) recently hosted an early playtest of Eyes Wide to the Stars, which is just barely starting to take shape.

To Be a Mote in God’s Eye

This is the middle of the story. You probably want to start at the beginning!

Gribus’ voice broke the silent search. “I see it, inside that sinkhole!”

Indeed, now they all could. The lake ahead of them held no water at all. Instead, the hole plunged deep into the surface of the planet — how deep, they could not know. The craft brought itself to a hover over the center of the hole. “Shall we?” Came the voice of Taiuuai.

The Skyrays of Olumai (a study in composition)

Gribus, Ghiaren, and Tiauuai — the alien artist/art/spaceship/pilot that carries them — are approaching the liminal planet of Olumai, trying to find the psychic beacon that calls to them. They descend through a herd of flying creatures.

Protected: Mobile Frame Zero: Sticky Goo, Landmines, and Outer Space

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

Mobile Frame Zero: Dance, Magic Dance

There aren’t a whole lot of shady exploits in Mobile Frame Zero, but this article is about one of them: the Station Dance. For the second edition of Mobile Frame Zero: Rapid Attack, I’ll be rewording the rule that the Station Dance rocks and rolls to and I’ll explain why I’m changing it according to the game’s design principles.

(Thanks to Mantisking for the photo above from the Mobile Frame Garage, with Occam’s Spork green frame trying to steal two stations from Tom’s frame at the bottom)

Restoring an ARP 2600 Synthesizer

I recently received a truly resplendent gift from my friend Kate: an ARP 2600 synthesizer, owned by their dad, who died recently. It’s in OK shape, but parts of it don’t work, and I’m doing some research to figure out when it was built and what has happened to it since!

And I’m going to get it back in working condition so I can make R2-D2 say whatever I want.

The Fouriesolator: a speculative additive synth module

There’s a really neat feature of “signal” in the universe. Which is that, for any signal, any shape, any wave, can be described with the right number of sine waves played over each other.

Any signal.

If a million flutists play each sustain a single, exactly correct note over each other, the sine waves — the oooooooooo sound of their flutes, each at a different pitch and volume — then, when you listened to the million flutists, you could hear an entire Star Wars Rebel March, complete with brass, drums, and the tapping baton at the beginning.

Anatomical Study of the Flying Herds of Olumai

I posted an image of these guys a couple weeks ago, but I’m not happy with that illustration. I need a better, more dynamic composition to express the ideas in it, and to do that I need to take a closer look at the flying creatures’ anatomy.

Oblique Industry: Modular Synthesis aesthetic design principles

I’ve started a new endeavor with my frequent creative collaborator, Septic Snake: Oblique Industry. After years of making weird electronic music together, we’ve started designing sound synthesis modules to Open Source and manufacture.

Mobile Frame Zero: The Ionian Calendar

The satellites of Jupiter have dominated the Sol system for over two centuries now, and it is from this moment that the calendar draws its name. The Ionian Calendar now tells us that it is the year 0243.

I‘ve started writing down new material for the second edition of Mobile Frame Zero! These writings are drafts and ideas, rather than complete game texts that will come from them.
Please support xenophilia to help MFØ:2.0 come into reality, then read and discuss setting lore and rule changes as they come into existence on the xenophilia Discord!