English: Jaquet-Droz automata, musée d’Art et d’Histoire de Neuchâtel  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

An Automata, sometimes called Automaton, is a self-operating machine. The word “automaton” is the latinization of the Greek,  αὐτόματον, automaton, or “acting of one’s own will”. It is normally used to describe non-eletrical moving machines that resemble people or animals that perform certain repeating tasks, such as writing or appearing to play chess.

Phillip DeMerch  was a french clock & toy-maker who specialised in automatons.  He lived around 150 years ago, in a small town south of Paris. His work was not really known outside of his hometown, but those in the trade would travel from across the country, sometimes even the world just to see his work.

His most famous piece was...

Called Away- SciFi Edition

What happens your characters need to leave?

There are many times in games & stories when a player or character can’t make it to a session or you need to have a certain character not present at the same location as others for a short time. Where did they go? What are they doing when not in play?

This is where “Called Away SciFi Edition” can help you to fill in the blanks and give a brief overview of where the character or even a npc has been. The actual details are left up to you, but they can be a good source of future adventures.

What’s been going on in the world of RPGs and gaming this week. Covers the latest posts from my favourite other rpg related blogs, comics and more

Blogs

Tales of the Dice 08: Celebrating

Happy International GM's Day! I had to do something special for March Fo(u)rth! Players everywhere, take a moment to thank your hard-working GM. I made a different offering for GM's day 2014. Issue 7, Reforging, can be found here. Happy Gaming [...]

Wed, Mar 04, 2015
Source: Tales Of A GM

Three Ring Circus: Camel on Camel Action

The Middle East has an incredible history that has been the inspiration for artists and designers for thousands of years. Take Egypt: I've never been there, if fact, the closest I have got is Filey on the Yorkshire coast. Like Egypt, it boasts the most fantastic sands, and a [...

Sphen by danieljoelnewman

(Click for full size image)

This week’s image is featured above and is called Sphen by danieljoelnewman.

The father-protector carries it’s eggling back to the nest. The weather has been pleasant for this arctic like wasteland, but the hunting has been poor, forcing the father-protector to hunt further and further from the nest, leaving his life-mate back to protect the village from the hunters.

• Who is the father-protector?
• Who , or what, are the hunters?
• What is he hunting for? How much does he require to feed and bring back to the nest?
• What is the name of the species of this beast?
• Why not leave the egg back at the nest?
• Where is the nest? Is it far from his current position?
• When will the father-protector have to return to the nest if at all?

Credit :  dani...

This chunk is the revised and updated version found in “Campaign Chunks Volume 1“. The original chunk can be found here.

Death of a Beauty Queen

Details
Relina Martez was both a beautiful woman and political activist. Born to Perez and Melinda Martez, who were both wealthy career politicians. Not long after Relinas birth, Melinda was diagnosed with lung cancer. Although she survived she was never able to bear children again, making Relina an only child. Her parents vowed not to spoil her and raised their daughter to be thankful for what she had and to help others where possible.

On her 16th birthday she entered her first beauty pageant and won an unprecedented perfect score from almost all the judges in all categories...