The last few weeks have been busy, in part because I’ve got two cons coming up in the next three weeks. This weekend, I’ll be running games at #SalukiCon in Carbondale, Illinois. Two weeks later is Archon in Collinsville, Illinois, where Hex Games will be officially celebrating its 20th anniversary (more on that in two weeks). The rush to get everything ready for the cons meant I skipped last week’s blog, so I wanted to do something this week. Inspired by a super-secret project I’m working on (some of you may be able to guess what it is based on the rest of the post) and the “10 Things About The Herrick Agency” post a couple weeks ago, I decided to do a quick list of 10 fun facts about The Hex Ficton. As most of you know, that’s the world where Hobomancer, M-Force, Weird Times at Charles Fort High, and numerous other games published by Hex take place. We always talk about it being a weird place. This list provides some insight into how weird it is. 

1. There are technically 51 states in the Hex Ficton’s version of America, but most people don’t count Middle Dakota because it occupies an unstable patch of reality and can never be trusted to exist at any given time. Some scholars speculate that there is either another “hidden” state or that the U.S. is destined to add another state in the future. The main “evidence” for this theory is that Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” contains 52 numbered sections. Proponents of the theory argue that since Whitman wrote the poem specifically to preserve the union from the machinations of British agents, he must have had some prophetic knowledge that the most perfect Union would contain 52 states. A few have also tried to draw a connection to the number of cards in a standard poker deck, but these theories are considerably less reasonable. 
2. In the Hex Ficton, Kevin Bacon is a powerful demon. The lower a person’s Bacon Number, the harder it is for them to resist his mind control powers. This fact was instrumental in his decision to take a role in JFK. 
3. There’s an animated statue of Bruce Willis from the movie In Country that travels along the river bottoms of the Ohio, Mississippi, Cumberland, and Tennessee rivers, mostly in western Kentucky and Tennessee. Occasionally it will surface to terrorize a town or city. Before the statue came to life, it stood in Paducah, Kentucky, near where parts of the movie were filmed. 
4. The Hex Ficton is home to a gang of world-travelling, crime-fighting street racers who serve the obscure St. Kathleen, “Our Lady of Blessed Acceleration.” Members of “the family” and the cars they drive appear to be completely resistant to the generally accepted laws of physics and causality. 
5. Discordians believe that Andy Kaufman was whisked away from our reality by Eris and taken to “a big farm where he can run around and be weird and eat all the cheese he wants.” Discordians with knowledge of the other dimensions connected to our own believe that this “farm” is Qerth. Some claim that Kaufman is being groomed to take over for The Old Man when he retires. 
6. Martians and Venusians have existed on Earth since the early 20th Century, when secret agents for the two planets used our world as a staging ground in their ages-old war against one another. When the two civilizations were destroyed, those left on earth were stranded here. For years they hid their true nature, but both races went public in the late 1960s and those born here are now recognized as full American citizens. Despite the generations of bitter warfare between the two cultures, many younger Martians and Venusians now often see one another as allies in their struggle against human bigotry. 
7. There’s a persistent rumor that legendary Old West bounty hunter Jake “Six-Gun” Sawyer is still alive, though comatose, in an undisclosed location. According to the stories, Sawyer bears the scars of the werewolf attack that supposedly killed him, but otherwise looks much the same as he does in the famous photograph that hangs in the study of General Grant’s estate. 
8. It’s common knowledge that William Faulkner was a time traveler, but few know that after he died he was selected as the Assistant Conductor on The Platonic Ideal of A Train, which Jesus uses to travel between dimensions. He has already heard the “So that means you’re Jesus’s co-pilot?” line and has never found it amusing. 
9. One day, Stardust the Super Wizard will tear the planet Venus in half. 
10. Although costumed crime fighting and parahumans using their powers to fight evil has gone in and out of fashion over the decades, one American city has fully embraced the idea of costumed crime fighters with super-powers. Ultra City, Minnesota, is home to The Ultra Squad, costumed heroes who have protected the city from the forces of evil--particularly their nemesis, Dr. Malevolent--for nearly half a century.  

Leighton Connor just released his newest story, Hello From Junction City, which you can download for FREE on Amazon (or buy, if you read this after the low introductory price of "nothing" expires). The protagonists of the story are members of The Herrick Agency, a private detective agency in New York City that specializes in strange and unusual cases. If that name sounds familiar to you, it’s because The Herrick Agency has appeared in several Hex Games products, most prominently Mars & Venus at War, where the PCs work for the agency. We’ve also run a lot of convention games featuring Herrick Agency detectives. One day we may even release a Herrick Agency sourcebook, but until then you’ll have to make due with these 10 tidbits of Herrick Agency trivia. This list contains a few pieces of information that are revealed in Hello For Junction City, so you should read the story first in order to avoid spoilers.

1. The Herrick Agency was founded in the 1920s by Mr. Herrick. Mr. Herrick presumably has a first name, but nobody knows it. Mr. Herrick (also known, rarely to his face, as “The Old Man”) is still alive and actively running the agency in 2018, and doesn’t look a day over 70. It’s unclear to what Mr. Herrick owes his longevity and (relative) youth and vigor, but there are a lot of theories. Mr. Herrick is hard-working, demanding, and a legendary cheapskate.
2. Joe Thursday started working for the Herrick Agency after he returned from World War 2 with a newfound knowledge of magic and a leg injury that prevented him from returning to his old job as a New York City beat cop. In the late 50s, he was magically frozen by a voodoo priest working for the Gorilla Gangsters. Joe was rediscovered and released from the spell in the 90s, and has been trying to collect back pay ever since. Joe claims that since he was working a case when he was frozen, his time in the freezer (literally, the gorillas left him in a walk-in freezer for nearly 50 years) should count as billable hours. Mr. Herrick disagrees. Strongly.
3. Most of the notable information about Harry Ping is covered in Hello from Junction City. He is a sandwich artist who works part-time as a Herrick Agency detective. As we see in the story, Harry occasionally has visions of the future. Unfortunately, every time Harry has a vision, he loses some of his memory, with the amount of memory loss corresponding to the intensity and importance of the vision. Although he was (I believe) created before QAGS, Harry’s precognition and its cost is a perfect Gimmick and Weakness pairing.
4. You may recognize Daniel Warren Prescott V from Leighton’s Ross Fulton novella, The MarmiCon Conundrum. His incredibly wealthy great-grandfather (who appears as a sample PC in Mars & Venus at War) was a Herrick detective who stipulated in his will that his heirs had to work for the agency in order to claim their inheritance. Danny is not exactly thrilled with the requirement, but he’s a good detective.
5. Trinket, the girl with the magic coat and the unconventional vocabulary, appeared as a sample character in QAGS Second Edition. When she’s not working for the Herrick Agency, she’s out having wacky adventures with her friend Gremlin, an electrokinetic who works as a test driver for her father’s spy car company. There’s a lovely illustration of Trinket and Gremlin by Gary Bedell on page 54 or Q2E. We’ve also got a script for issue #1 of the comic if any publishers are reading this.
6. Other notable Herrick Agency detectives include a young Mike Mulligan (who fought Galaxikhan and was Director of M-Force during the disastrous “War on Slugs” era), Batboy (they call him “Frank”), Sindbad the Sailor during a brief episode of time displacement, a similarly time-displaced Civil War soldier named Tancred Beauregard, a hyper-intelligent cat from another dimension named Mr. Fluffy, a demon name Manny, Synthia Courage (a robot girl), and assorted crime-fighters, witches, wizards, mad geniuses, and luchadores. There are even a few Herrick Agency detectives with backgrounds in things like police work and forensic science.
7. In The MarmiCon Conundrum, Danny Prescott spoke on the phone to someone named “Niles.” Dr. Niles Veroshilef, sometimes called “Dr. V,” is the Herrick Agency’s staff researcher, who has an amazing knack for finding unexpected connections everywhere. Dr. V wears roller skates, is very highly caffeinated, and goes through a truly stunning amount of yarn (much to Mr. Herrick’s displeasure).
8. The Herrick Agency owns a zeppelin, but it is very expensive to operate and Mr. Herrick will only approve its use if he can be convinced it is absolutely necessary. It’s happened exactly 4 times in the 10 years since the agency acquired the air machine.
9. The top floor of The Herrick Building, which Herrick employees call “The Attic,” contains old case files and items that the agency has acquired over the years. It’s very likely that at least a few of the items described in the American Artifacts series can be found there.
10. Quilipth, the antagonist of Hello From Junction City has previously appeared in a Hex product. Leighton’s illustration of him can be found on page 87 of Spooky: The Definitive Guide to Horror Gaming.

Last time, I talked about the the problems with the way the d20 for Character Concept was looking broken to me in playtesting, and how I fixed that. But the fix got rid of the d20 entirely, which I didn’t like. So I added a new trait called Trademarks (and renamed the old Trademarks to Edges). The new Trademark fits a lot better with how most people use the word when talking about fictional characters. It’s kind of a schtick or gimmick, and does have some things in common with Gimmicks in the QAGS sense. Tony Stark’s trademark is “Scientific Genius,” Buffy’s is “Vampire Slayer,” and Zorro is a “Swashbuckler.” 

Most Trademarks aren’t really about the character’s training or knowledge. They’re more about methods and style and are frequently based on the character’s natural talents and strong suits. Trademarks are typically broader than Edges/The Artist Previously Known As Trademarks/ Skills, but there is a point where they’re too broad. “Smart”, for example, is too broad. The character needs to be smart in a more specific way: Book Smart, Resourceful, Quick-Thinking, or whatever. 

I’m still kind of working out exactly how to best describe Trademarks. Of the ones I’ve come up with so far, it seems like as a general rule the more clearly applicable the Trademark is to a certain thing the less wiggle room there is for applying it to situations outside of its niche. “Combat Reflexes” lets you roll a d20 for all combat rolls, but only for combat rolls. Something like “Swashbuckler” only lets you roll for certain types of combat rolls (specifically, combat rolls when you’re showing off), but would also let you roll a d20 in any situation when you’re showing off your physical abilities: swinging dramatically across the courtyard on a curtain, juggling geese, or owning your opponent in a dance-off, for instance. I especially like the idea of Trademarks that could potentially be used in different kinds of scenes. A good example is “[Blank] Slayer.” If you’re a Werewolf Slayer, you get to roll a d20 for knowledge rolls about werewolves, investigation rolls involving werewolf activity, and combat rolls against werewolves. 

In a departure from the way we usually do things here at Hex (or a throwback to Spooky and M-Force, if you prefer) I think the best way to describe Trademarks is by providing a fairly comprehensive list of them, complete with descriptions, in the rulebook. The core rulebook would have Trademarks that can work in almost any game and books for specific settings would include at least a few “new” Trademarks for that setting: Magical Aptitude (though hopefully with a better name that fits the setting) for a fantasy game, The Force Is Strong In This One for Star Wars, [Blank] Slayer for M-Force, etc. There would still be room for players to create their own Trademarks, but I want to make sure to include all the most common possibilities. 

I’ve written up quite a few sample Trademarks, which I’ll include here so you have a better idea of the kinds of things I’m talking about. A few of them break the normal rules slightly or add Special Effects in addition to the d20, but they tend to be tied to things that don’t generally require die rolls so I think that’s acceptable. 

[Blank] Hunter/Slayer 

The character is an expert at stalking and/or fighting a particular kind of creature and rolls a d20 on rolls associated with that kind of creature.

Sample Trademark Rolls:

• Attack and Defense rolls against creatures of the chosen type
• Detecting the presence of or tracking down the chosen creature
• Interaction rolls with the chosen creature 
• Knowledge rolls about the creature 

Common [Blank]s: Alien, Big Game, Bigfoot, Demon, Dinosaur, Dragon, Ghost, Giant, Kaiju, Nazi, Orc, Robot, Vampire, Werewolf, Zombie  

A Very Particular Set of Skills 

Instead of using a d20 on all rolls that play to a particular strength or natural talent, characters with A Very Particular Set of Skills roll a d20 for a number of specific skills equal to their Hero Factor. These skills should be thematically connected in some way. Below are some sample themes with a list of possible skills. 

• Beach Bum: Area Knowledge, Bartending, Boating, Clam Digging, Fishing, Guitar, Maritime Lore, Parasailing, Pearl Diving, Sailing, SCUBA Diving, Snorkeling, Surfing, Swimming, Volleyball, Water Rescue, Water Skiing  
• Bounty Hunter: Breaking & Entering, Bullshit Detector, Interrogation, Investigation, Perception, Running, Stealth, Surveillance, Tracking, Unarmed Combat, Weapon*
• Cat Burglar:  Acrobatics, Breaking & Entering, Climbing, Countersurveillance, Electronics, Parkour, Perception, Safecracking, Security Systems, Sleight of Hand, Stealth
• Extreme Athlete: Base Jumping, BMX, Climbing, Extreme Ironing, Flamedancing, Hang Gliding, Jumping, Motocross, Paragliding, Parkour, Roller Derby, Rollerblading, Running,  Skateboarding, Skydiving, Snowboarding, Surfing, Swimming, Wakeboarding, White Water Rafting, Windsuit, Windsurfing, Zorbing
• Government Agent: Breaking & Entering, Computers, Criminology, Forensics, Firearms, Hostage Negotiation, Interrogation, Investigation, Law, Perception, Read People, Stealth, Surveillance, Unarmed Combat
• Getaway Driver: Area Knowledge, Evade Pursuit, Find A Shortcut, Grand Theft Auto, Mechanic, Smuggling, Stealth Driving, Stunt Driving, Traffic Whisperer, Vehicular Assault  
• Grifter: Acting, Disguise, Fast Talking, Forgery, Read People, Research, Perception, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand, Social Engineering   
• Hacker: Computer Programming, Cracking, Crash the System, Data Collection, Dumpster Diving, Electronics, Jailbreaking, Phishing, Remote Control, Research, Social Engineering  
• Hero Cop: Area Knowledge, Breaking & Entering, Bullshit Detector, Firearms, Interrogation, Intimidation, Investigation, Running, Stakeout, Streetwise, Stunt Driving, Unarmed Combat 
• Navy SEAL: Boating, Climbing, Combat Diving, Demolitions, First Aid, Knife Fighting, Firearms, Naval History, Orienteering, Perception, Running, Skydiving, Swimming, Tactics, Unarmed Combat, Wilderness Survival 
• Ninja: Acrobatics, Blowgun, Climbing, Create A Distraction, Disguise, Jumping, Katana, Knife, Kusarigama, Martial Arts, Parkour, Poisons, Sleight of Hand, Staff, Stealth, Throwing Star  
• Outdoorsman: Animal Handling, Astronomy, ATV Riding, Bird Watching, Boating, Camping, Climbing, Cooking, Fishing, Foraging, Horseback Riding, Hunting, Orienteering, Paintball, Nature Lore, Wilderness Survival, Swimming, Tracking, Trapping  

Air of Authority 

The character seems like somebody important, even if he’s not. As a result, people have a tendency to do what he asks and follow his instructions. 

Sample Trademark Rolls:

• Convincing a gatekeeper to give you access to a location despite lack of credentials
• Getting special treatment by insisting that a person of your status deserves better
• Commanding minions to do your bidding through sheer force of perceived importance 
• Calming down or firing up a crowd by playing the role of the adult in the room

Brainiac (Book Smarts)

The character is extremely intelligent, well-educated, and good at solving complex problems. He gets to roll a d20 for all knowledge rolls and for any roll that involves solving a problem using reason and logic.  

Sample Trademark Rolls: 

• All knowledge rolls
• Conducting academic research or lab work
• Deciphering a coded message  

Bruiser

You are mighty. Maybe it’s because you’re a hulking brute, maybe you’re just really wiry. Whatever the case, you are very strong and kind of menacing. Roll a d20 whenever you do something that requires brute strength. 

Sample Trademark Rolls:

• Attack rolls that involve bashing, crushing, punching, or throwing heavy things 
• Breaking things
• Picking up heavy things

Combat Reflexes

You were born to fight. Roll a d20 for all attack and defense rolls. 

Dramatic Flair

You’re a born performer. Roll a d20 on any roll that involves performing, acting, or making a scene. 

Sample Trademark Rolls:

• Creating a distraction or making an entrance
• Convincingly playing a role 
• Winning over an audience 

Hardboiled

The world is a cesspool, and you’ve seen the worst of it. Some would say it’s made you cynical, but you say it’s made you realistic. Roll a d20 whenever your cynicism and street smarts give you an edge. 

Sample Trademark Rolls:

• Perception rolls to sense potential danger
• Dealing with the seedier side of humanity
• Trying to determine if someone is lying or has an ulterior motive

Home Turf

You’re extremely familiar with the area in which you normally operate. When you take this Trademark, you should define your home turf. It’s usually a single city, but can range from a larger region (West Texas) to a single neighborhood (Harlem). You get to roll a d20 for any roll that involves knowledge of or connection to your Home Turf. 

Sample Trademark Rolls:

• General knowledge rolls about the area (history, current events, people, etc.)
• Interaction rolls with the locals 
• Rolls to find resources or information within your Home Turf
• Knowing the lay of the land (for example, rolling to find a shortcut) 

Keen Detective Mind

You’re extremely good at solving puzzles, making intuitive leaps, and noticing details others might miss. Roll a d20 whenever your sleuthing instincts come into play.

Sample Trademark Rolls:

• Perception rolls to find potential clues or notice minor but important details 
• Trying to determine if someone is lying or acting strangely
• Making connections between seemingly unrelated pieces of information, especially those that could indicate motive, means, or opportunity

Lucky

You were born lucky. In addition to rolling a d20 for all Luck Rolls (See Chapter XX), you get a Lucky Break whenever you roll a 12 on a d12 or a 20 on a d20 (regardless of what you roll on your other dice). 

Mechanically Inclined 

You understand how mechanical devices work and are good with tools. Roll a d20 on any roll that involves mechanical aptitude. 

Sample Trademark Rolls:

• Replacing a water pump on your car
• Picking a mechanical lock
• Disarming a trap that’s triggered through mechanical means 

That’s as far as I’ve gotten with the full descriptions, but I did write some very brief rules for the rest of my current list when I put together the character creation reference sheets for my convention games this year. Here those are: 

• Natural Linguist: Roll a d20 on all language-related rolls. You fluently speak a number of languages equal to your Hero Factor. 
• Nimble: Roll a d20 for any roll involving balance, agility, or coordination. 
• No Guts No Glory: Roll a d20 for any roll involving a dangerous stunt or high risk attack. 
• Quick: Roll a d20 for all rolls involving reflexes or speed; You can take 2 actions per round as long as they are both physical actions (movement, attacks, etc.)
• Savoir Faire: Roll a d20 on all social interaction rolls. 
• Scientific Genius: Roll a d20 for all science rolls. 
• Sneaky: Roll a d20 on all rolls involving stealth, subterfuge, or deception. 
• Swashbuckler: Roll a d20 for any roll involving displays of physical prowess, including attack rolls where you spend Effect for dramatic effect. 
• Superior Firepower: Roll a d20 on all rolls involving guns or military-grade hardware. 
• Survivor: Roll a d20 when rolling to resist the effects of exhaustion, exposure, disease, poison, torture, and other hostile stimuli.
• Tactician: Roll a d20 on any roll where you intend to spend Effect to create an advantage or put toward a Goal. If the roll succeeds, you must spend at least one point of Effect toward the Goal or creating the advantage. 
• Tech Savvy: Roll a d20 for any roll involving computers or electronics. 
• World Traveller: Roll a d20 on any roll involving travel or foreign locations and people. 

A few of those (like Swashbuckler and Tactician) make references to ideas that are kind of introduced in the most recent playtest draft but still need a lot of work. Don’t worry if they make no sense because it’s very likely the details will be changing. 

The collapsing of Character Concept and the introduction of Trademarks are the two biggest changes to how characters are defined in the as-yet-unwritten newest draft of the game, but there are some other changes, which I’ll talk about next week. 

Cinemechanix has gone through some changes since the beginning of the D&D review that wouldn’t die, so it seems like a good idea to use the first few post-insanity game blogs to talk about how the game has changed since the last time I posted about it here. For quite some time, I thought the most recent version of the rules (1.3) was very close to a final version. To some extent, I was right. The basic mechanics work how I want them to work, but between playtesting and writing something that bordered on a full supplement (The Six Gun Seven, a “mini-game” that I wrote for my Patreon followers that ended up being something like 40 pages), I’ve noticed a few things that bugged me, most of them related to character stats. So the character sheet has undergone some changes. 

The biggest problem was that the “Character Concept” section of the character sheet kept growing. In addition to Role, Backstory, Fatal Flaw, and Femoral Artery Integrity, most game-specific words were part of the Character Concept as well. Since the rule was that you roll a d20 for anything related to character concept, I noticed in actual play that characters ended up using a d20 for practically every roll. The whole setup caused several problems, which I listed in a doc that I posted to the playtest group.* 

• The whole “Character Concept as a group of traits” thing has always been weird and a little confusing/wonky/a pain in the ass to write rules about. 
• Rolling a d20 instead of a d12 is pretty big advantage when you look at the math, and the current system gives you a bunch of ways to get that bonus: if you don’t to roll a d20 on combat rolls because you’re a cop, you get it because you’re a Klingon, or because you paid your way through college as a pit fighter, or for some other reason. The d20 should be rarer and the generic “This is something the character should be good at” bonus should be less powerful.
• The current set-up creates the whole “If all Klingons roll a d20 for fighting, it’s dumb to choose “Warrior” as your Role if you’re a Klingon” thing. This is similar to the “Word overlap” problem we ran into in QAGS (and especially M-Force, which had two Jobs), where building a more focused character with related words didn’t necessarily give you better rolls in the area of expertise. 
• Backstory is either boring, redundant, or an invitation for power gamers to pick a backstory that lets them roll a d20 on a bunch of useful skills not covered by their Role. It’s also something that’s sometimes better to leave undefined since in fiction you usually learn about the character’s backstory as the story unfolds. Making the player define it from the outset can result in a less organic character than filling in the backstory as the character takes shape during actual play. Getting rid of Backstory as a trait supports the “nothing is real until it shows up on screen” rule that’s mentioned several times throughout the book. 
• Let’s face it, Fatal Flaw is a holdover from the QAGS Weakness. The more I tried to come up with Fatal Flaws for characters, the more it became clear to me that the vast majority of characters in fiction don’t have Fatal Flaws, at least in the way I was trying to define them here. Fatal Flaw is essential if you’re going to be playing Shakespearean Tragedy, but most characters, especially in genre fiction, just don’t have them. Their Weaknesses tend limitations and complications defined by the story and genre or personality traits that are best handled with role-playing.  

So, long story short, I decided to scrap the whole Character Concept block for a single trait called “Character Concept” (though I may go back to “Role”) which is more or less the same as a Job in QAGS. I’m about to have to write up a description more detailed than the generic “What you are or do” line I’ve been using at cons, and I think one idea I want to hit is that Character Concept isn’t how the character defines himself or even how other characters in the world would define him. It’s how the audience sees the character. Mechanically, Character Concept gives you a single Dice Bonus (which I think I’m going to use in place of “Boost” because I never really liked it). This has a couple of advantages: 

• Defining the Role/Concept from the audience’s point of view makes awarding the bonus less a matter of interpreting the descriptor and more about considering whether the roll in question is something the audience would expect the character to be good at. The descriptor is more a starting point than a definition, which means players don’t have to try to make the descriptor something that covers every aspect of the character. 
• Since the bonus for Role/Concept is relatively minor, there’s less of a gap between “useful” (Cop, Soldier) and “useless” Roles (Zeppo, Slacker). The Army Ranger gets 1 Boost for All The Rolls instead of the equivalent of 4. This will hopefully encourage players to choose more interesting/appropriate Roles instead of just trying to find the job with the most useful skill set. 

So, what happens to all those other words? 

• If you want to get bonuses for your character’s exciting Backstory, spend some points to buy the appropriate traits. Otherwise, he’s out of practice. 
• If you want your character to have a Fatal Flaw, by all means role-play it. Actually, we will be adding some rules later on to let players get some mechanical benefits for good role-playing, but none of its as epic as a Fatal Flaw. 
• All those game-specific concept traits become “Special Traits” and by default they have specific rules/templates attached to them (even if it’s just something as vague as  “You get a Boost for Dwarf Stuff”).

Some of you may be wondering if I’ve gone completely counter to QAGS here and dumped the d20 from the system entirely. After all, the “Concept Bump” was previously the only way to roll a d20, and now it’s just worth a measly dice bonus. Never fear! Now you get the d20 from something called a Trademark (the skill-like traits formerly called Trademarks go back to their old name, “Edges”), which I’ll explain next week. 

*Sorry, playtesters, but the next few blog posts are going to contain a lot of stuff that’s old news to you. 

*Also, full disclosure: A lot of the things that I say came from the playtest group are more accurately “inspired by actual posts and comments” from the playtest group. I’ve cleaned some things up for clarity, eliminated references to things that were later changed, and in some cases skipped over some mis-steps between my initial ideas and the current version f the game.