12:36AM 3/13/06 - The first update of 2006 is a small one, unfortunately. I've been really busy so far this year with real life affairs, looking for work, working on several projects for the Rifter, working on the RRVGG newsletters, and also working on and off on Wa-Daisho. Very briefly, I considered actually attempting to have Wa-Daisho published. After careful consideration, however, I have decided against it. While it is true, Wa-Daisho is my BEST setting created yet. It is exciting, action packed, and extremely well detailed. It does NOT have a dire conflict facing it, however, which is necessary for any good setting to fit into the RIFTS genre. I had considered that the Vampire Wars book, the sequel to follow Wa-Daisho: 125PA, would add that conflict to the Republic. However, with Arzno already appearing as a setting with the Vampires as the villain, it would hardly make sense that the distant threat of the Vampires would become that significant of a threat to this island nation, by canon RIFTS material. Thus, Wa-Daisho will remain as a netbook, a favorite private creation of a writer-to-be. Desert Star AND Kyatashiro will appear in book form after Wa-Daisho is completed, just as planned. In my published works, you can expect a lot from me. I have several projects underway for the Rifter. I am planning a series of stories about heroic characters in the RIFTS setting, an article on Energy Weapon Maintenance, and a series of articles on two obscure races in the Three Galaxies that are about to serve as the crucible to a possible intergalactic war. While I have been encouraged to save this project for a canon dimension book by fellow freelancers, at this point I am still planning to write them as Rifter submissions. Perhaps, like those who came before me with the Arzno project, I will be asked to put this into book form after the fact. We'll see. Meanwhile, for the web site, I have put up two all new creations in the House Rules section! The first is a new way to advance characters skills. It is similar to the old system, but with an added twist; skills can now atrophy to near uselessness. I have also added by-level advancements for physical skills as well, making those old goldies a whole lot more interesting than they were before. Take a look and see. Beware the power creep, however. These skills could potentially make characters significant power-houses! I have also added a new combat system that the RRVGG is experimenting with, that entirely does away with mega-damage! It's a beauty that makes S.D.C. weapons actually semi-viable in a setting dominated by energy weapons. In some ways it makes more sense than the current RIFTS system, but it really does change the flavour of things, perhaps too much. We'll see once the play-testing gets further along. Back to the Wa-Daisho project though, I have created some new weapons for the Republic's armed forces, the Red Devils. These weapons will be appearing in the Wa-Daisho: 125PA book. Since our characters are currently operating in the January 121PA timeline, however, some of this material is pertinent to our current game, which is why I went into the effort to create them. The first one I created is the Type 7/20 'Scout' Variable Spectrum Pulse Laser Rifle. Essentially it is the old Type 7 VSPLR, but with an added feature in the form of a pump action charger, similar in design to the plunger on the NA-LB1 Laser Bow. It's a really neat looking weapon that gives the old beast a tech-evil look, from all the cuts they made in weight, to counter the weight of the pump action generator. Unlike the Laser Bow this weapon has the disadvantage of not being able to use an energy clip, so once the internal stores are drained, you have to manually recharge it. After completing that I went back and looked over the old Type 22 Blue-Green Spectrum Pulse Laser Rifle I sketched out late the year before last. It looked like crap, so I went on ahead and remade it, and I've got to say - it looks wicked! This is set to be a new classic, because of all it's optional attachments. The next additions I plan to make here is to HTMLize some of the monsters and animals I have created for the Wa-Daisho setting. Beyond that I hope to add far more of the book to various parts of that section of this site, before actually putting the finished pdf file up for download. I am aiming for an early summer release, but don't quote me on that. I said the same thing last year, and I've still got quite a ways to go on it. Silverstone is only partially described, and I still have to cover Taylorville yet, plus I have to complete the city maps, do the section on Midnight Blue, touch up the civilian equipment section, and include the encounter/adventuring tables. I figure this will encompass at the very least 50-100 more pages. If I buckle down though, I can have that done within two months.