This is an old revision of the document!
Table of Contents
Welcome to James Kemp's Wiki
This is a collaborative web platform that allows people to edit1) the web pages to provide additional content for some of the stories I have written and the roleplaying games that I am involved in, whether as a player or GM.
There are several namespaces operating slightly different wiki subjects. These are, in no particular order:
- Skyss - Story Background - a fantasy novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2016.
- Perfects - background for the near future story and some police roleplaying that I ran in that universe
- Theocracy of Daprav - A D&D campaign that I ran with Glasgow University Games Society around 2002-3.
- Jim Wallman's Universe - a roleplaying by e-mail campaign that I play in, this is an unofficial wiki and none of it is canon unless Jim says it is.
- Interstellar Freelance Unlimited - subset of the Universe pages covering the activities of a mercenary company that we are currently roleplaying every Full Moon.
- Earth Imperium pages. These cover the activities of the Government of the Solar republic (aka Earth Empire) in Jim's Humanity Will Prevail campaign, including the Earth Imperium News Items.
- Free Worlds Alliance - covering the activities of another emerging polity in the Humanity Will Prevail campaign. Mostly contributed by Eric Moroney.
- Universe Background - page collecting the various bits of background info that have come up in various e-mail discussions for the campaigns set in Jim Wallman's Universe.
- Master map of the Universe (6Mb PDF, as at 3212).
- Delta Green - some roleplaying campaigns about horror and conspiracy. The main one was set in Berlin in 1953.
- Free games rules - a collection of free rules for wargames and other sorts of face to face games that I have designed or run.
- Wargames rules - I'm not just a player of games, I also do rules for them from time to time as well as one-off games. A primary outlet for this is through Chestnut Lodge Wargames Group.
- Other free rules - at the moment just those for the 1689 (Orange or Lemon? and Bonnie Dundee, respectively about the debates in the Scots Parliament and then the military campaign of Viscount Dundee during 1689) and coin (about what makes people become insurgents). All games that I have have produced for Chestnut Lodge Wargames Group.
- Background for a near future universe where I have written some fiction and also run some roleplaying games in.
Comments and complaints to me at webmaster@full-moon.info please.
James Kemp
Tag Cloud
Recent Additions
Learning for Scotlad Wiki
This is a collaborative web platform that allows people to edit2) the web pages to provide landing pages and additional content for some of our Learning & Development events.
The upcoming events for 2025 are:
- 2 September in QEH, Edinburgh
- 18 September in 1AS, Glasgow
Comments and complaints to team@learn.scot please.
James Kemp
Tag Cloud
Lit By Another Sun
Date | 22nd November 2025 |
---|---|
Venue | Quaker Meeting Hall, Edinburgh |
Designer | James Kemp |
Booking | not yet! |
A realistic Sci-Fi game about establishing a new human Colony in the 23rd century. The game has 4x elements related to exploring this new world, and surviving long enough to establish this new outpost ahead of the next wave of Colonists. Political tensions from earth however are rife amongst the Colonists, with a number of factions aiming to be paramount on this new world.
Game Structure
The players will represent the team leaders of the initial colony wave of 100 intrepid volunteers. Each player will have 2-4 characters that they can choose to play as, and allocate the others to one of the game tasks that doesn't need interactive playing. The more characters you control the more actions you can do. It will be up to players where they personally want to play in the sub-games, and if they want to switch that up between turns. The sub-games are:
- Colony Council - presided over by the Chief Executive, ably assisted by omniscient AI TN-9000, the colony council will set direction for the colony's expansion, deal with disputes, make local rules, and anything else the players present deem it competent to do. You can rely on TN-9000 to provide impartial advice and stop you from doing anything that would contravene the Earth Colonial Office instructions for new colonies. Like almost all megagame council games this will be one for roleplaying and debating enthusiasts.
- Exploration - a map based game with some roleplaying elements, players can explore the map and take samples of potentially useful flora, fauna, minerals and other things. They can also name geographical features and lay claim to areas for future exploitation. Collected samples will feed into the science game, and potentially also into the colony management game. It's likely the direction and extent of exploration will also come up in the Colony Council.
- Colony Management - someone needs to mine the minerals, collect raw materials and process them into things that can either be used to expand the colony, add to its capabilities, or export back to Earth to make a return on the rather considerable investment that the Colony on Piraxis represents. There are likely to be mishaps and natural events along the way that need dealt with. This is a more mechanical game that is probably where you put your spare characters in a worker placement with mechanics similar to Battlestar Galactica for resolving the events.
- Science - all the samples need to be analysed before they can be named and used. Those first to publish their results will get all the credit for the discovery and the bulk of the profits from its use.
The objectives for the players are to put as many of their characters in the successful parts of the colony so that when the colony ship returns (around Turn 5 or Turn 6) they will be allocated more of the 200 people coming in on the ship to exploit their success further, and so that they get the biggest share of the profit from the goods exported back to Earth.
Factions
This is a game that is all about secret roles. Most people are not who they may seem to be. Outwardly everyone is a loyal citizen of the Solar Republic who has bravely volunteered for a hazardous role establishing new human colonies on other planets. In reality the reason you've volunteered is that the utopia of a united humanity on Earth is more forced social control and avoiding being visited by the Republican Auditors.
About two thirds of the players will belong to one of eight factions, and the remaining third will be genuinely independent. Faction roles will be hidden, although players on the same faction will know who the others are. Those on the same faction will share the same set of secret objectives, which will be shown on the character badges in symbols. Each secret objective will have three factions that share it, and three that have the opposite objective. So there's space to find allies that you can work with, and there will be factions that directly oppose you. You may also be able to recruit some of the independents to support you.
True North Policies
There are a few policies that we have to help people understand how we intend to act in certain circumstances.
Note that at this time none of these policies have been formally endorsed by the committee.
True North Endorses Derby House Principles
Even though we create megagames for fun rather than serious purposes, we are strongly committed to diversity and inclusion, and so we think that the Derby House Principles are worth adopting by any organisation that wants to be fully inclusive (as a minimum standard).
THE DERBY HOUSE PRINCIPLES
We believe that promoting diversity and inclusion is the right thing to do.
Diversity and inclusion are more than just words for us. They are the hard-and-fast principles guiding how we will build our teams, cultivate leaders and create a community that supports everyone in it. No one should ever feel excluded or less welcome because of gender, ethnicity, religion, disability, or background. Experience and social science have shown that diversity can generate better results, in analysis, insight, and professional decision-making.
As professional gamers we are committed to the Derby House Principles:
- Promoting inclusion and diversity in professional wargaming, through the standards we set, the opportunities we offer, and access to activities we organise.
- Making clear our opposition to sexism, racism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination across the board, as well as in wargaming.
- Encouraging a greater role and higher profile for colleagues from under-represented groups in our professional activities.
- Seeking out and listening to the concerns and suggestions of our colleagues as to how our commitment to diversity and inclusion could be enhanced.
- Demonstrating our commitment to diversity and inclusion through ongoing assessment of progress made and discussion of future steps.
Application to True North Megagames
True North looks to ensure that everyone that wants to be involved can be involved, whether as a player, control/facilitator, game host, or designer. You are all very welcome, and we encourage you to join in.