Things that go on in a library

     So, for this week's bit of curiosity: Today we received a book donation from a student. The book was nothing exciting, an ethnographic work on Eastern Europe. The reason I mention this is that when I opened the book to take a look at its content, I noticed that the book had library markings. Our library's markings, in fact. I checked the back and sure enough, there was the card pocket with the old checkout card still in it. Then I went and checked our catalog records from the back end where I do most of my work, and found that this book was declared lost in an inventory conducted back in 2000. This book's record, and others declared lost in 2000, was just sitting on our server for all this time, and it even survived a transition to a new library catalog system in 2003. Curiously, this very week I made arrangements for these orphan records to be finally withdrawn from the system. In another week, the catalogers would have found it necessary to completely re-create the record to put this book back in. 
     Now, some might argue that this is an example of why libraries should not discard the catalog records of items that go missing. Well, I think the other 1200 records in that set for which the books have not reappeared undercut that argument. Thirteen years is too long a time to have orphan records cluttering up the system. What purpose do they serve except to uselessly inflate our holding records? The orphan records have been suppressed from the OPAC for years now, so if they're gone, the students will not ever notice it. It's stealth weeding! No, the weeding happened years ago, when the books departed the library never to return. Now, with this one exception, we're just cleaning out their lockers. I will be glad to be rid of these, so I can put more of my attention toward getting books on the shelves that the students want and need.

The Art of War - Kasserine Pass

     My older son and I are playing a new game of GDW's Bloody Kasserine wargame. I'm playing the Allied side this time so for eleven days of game time, I have to hold back the Germans & Italians in their drive to hold Kasserine Pass and capture my airfields.

      The game sets victory conditions upon the holding of important towns at the end of the game. Unit losses are not counted, only holding territory. There are three airfields: I hold Tebessa and Le Kef and the Axis holds Kairouan. Five towns are strategically important for victory: Kasserine, Thala, Sbiba, Faid and Feriana. I hold all but Faid at the start.

Photo from http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2431604

     The red ovals are the strategic towns, the black rectangles are the Axis setup areas.

       I've played this game before, but this time I'd like to do something a little different. I've been reading Sun Tzu's The Art of War, and I am going to attempt fighting this battle as Sun Tzu would have done, taking what instructions I can from his book. The Art of War is arranged by chapter-and-verse, if you will, so when quoting from the text I will note it as such: Chapter II, verse 4, or (II, 4).

      In chapter one, Sun Tzu establishes five factors that must be considered in planning. They are the Moral Law, Heaven, Earth, the Commander, Method & Discipline (I,4). I think that all five have some representation in the game.

      The Moral Law relates to the soldier's willingness to fight; in game terms, unit morale. This comes least into the game, and is all in the realm of the player.

      Heaven relates to weather. We are using the optional rule for weather this time. Rain affects tactical air support and heavy rain grounds all aircraft, slows movement and affects supply.

      Earth relates to distance and terrain. The Allies start in the hill-and-wadi region and can easily use the terrain to their defensive advantage. The Axis must in the south cross a lot of open ground, and then run into restrictive ground with fewer options for movement.

      The Commander is the player. How clever and daring he is determines how well the armies will move. Knowing when to fight and when not to is critical.

      Method & Discipline relates to supply and the effective use of specialized units such as engineers, air power and artillery.

      As it stands at the beginning, the Allies will win a victory if I give up no Victory Point (VP) cities. The Axis must take at least a few to avoid defeat. This means I will be fighting a defensive battle. Offensive moves should be limited to relief of Allied forces or re-taking of a VP city.

      Sun Tzu said, “The highest form of Generalship is to balk the enemy's plans” (III, 4). So my goal is to prevent the loss of the VP cities. I can cede any other ground or town to the Axis if it will allow me to continue defending the critical locations.

      Sun Tzu said,"all warfare is based on deception" (I,18). Of course, the deception part is harder to do in a tabletop game that has all of the units face-up on the table. To simulate this, I will insist that neither side can pick up and examine enemy counters. So I'd better keep track of what units are stacked where. If I lose track of his flak units, my air support will be in trouble.

      Sun Tzu said, “If equally matched, we can offer battle; if slightly inferior in numbers we can avoid the enemy” (III,9) I will avoid whenever possible fighting at 1:1 odds, where I am least likely to get a Defender Retreat or Defender Eliminated result. Also, I will retreat from 3:1 or worse odds except when defending a VP city.

      Sun Tzu said, “there are five essentials for victory: 1, he will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight” and “4, he will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared (III,17). I will ignore none of my units, even if I do not move them, and look for when the Axis has ignored them. Then I will attack where he does not expect an attack.

     Sun Tzu said, “The skillful fighter puts himself into a position which makes defeat impossible” (IV,14). I will make maximal use of rugged crests and cliff hexsides – I can attack down a cliff, but the enemy cannot attack up, nor does his Zone of Control extend up a cliff face. The heaviest Axis units cannot cross rugged crests either, so I will use them to channel Axis forces.

      Sun Tzu said, “The clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy but does not allow the enemy's will to be imposed on him” (VI,2). In turn two, I used my engineers to sever most of the bridges across the wadis. This does not prevent the Axis from crossing but it does slow them down. I will tie him down with delaying attacks well short of the VP cities.

     I'll write up a gaming report once the battle is over, with observations on how well I applied those lessons, and what I missed.

Race Results - Coleman's Run

      Coleman's Run is an annual fundraiser race in our area. from the website: Coleman’s Run is a benefit 5k event with the intention to increase autism awareness and support local charities. The eponymous Coleman was there, and he ran, and while I did not get to meet him personally, I did meet some nice dogs that also joined in the run.
   I was encouraged by a friend to get involved and as it happens I have a nephew who is autistic. Besides, I don't need much encouragement to run in a race. Unlike some I've participated in, this was not a very competitive race, as its primary purpose is fundraising.Check out the links above, and consider how you might be able to support autism research.
     So on a sunny and breezy Saturday morning I and about 150 other people ran, walked and rode in strollers along a country lane and over some wooden train bridges. I must make a point of going back and walking along that road, so I can appreciate the scenery, which was beautiful from what I glimpsed while panting along. I finished 25th out of the pack, with a time of 25:12. For my first race of the year, and coming off a long cold wet winter, I'm very pleased. As a bonus I won a pair of "compression leg sleeves" which are a new running 'technology' to me. They're patterned with American flags.


     Now, how to apply this to gaming? In many RPG's the profit motive is the most common motivation for adventuring, but what about charities? There are enough examples of real-world charities that adapting them to a game world should not be hard. 

• A player character may have or gain some connection to an NPC who is part of a charity organization, or is afflicted with a malady that the charity is trying to cure. 
• A player character may have a religious Duty or Oath to donate a portion of his earnings to a specific charity. If the PC gets in trouble, the GM can raise the percentage owed to the charity as penance.
• A charity organization may ask the PC group for help:

1. The charity needs protection while it transports its collected goods to the home office.
2. The charity has already been robbed, and asks the PCs to recover the donations
3. The charity needs help in locating a Macguffin that will help advance the charity's cause
4.  Competing charities are causing strife in the community, and the officials ask the PCs to mediate
5. Charity A may suspect Charity B of fraudulent activity and asks the PCs to investigate

• A Charity group may be a front for some other activity - espionage, secret society, revolutionaries. Whatever it is, they will accomplish Big Badness if not stopped. Local citizens or the local officials ask the PCs to find out the truth.
• And of course, there's the possibility of setting up challenges like races, obstacle courses or duels for the PCs to take part in directly as a public spectacle to raise money.

Happy charitable gaming!
    

76 Patrons - The Fighting Sullivans and Others

     As I watched the movie last night it was obvious to me that if one took the Sullivan brothers out of history and into an RPG world, they would be the cause of many adventures. Here are a few ideas that I came up with:

Adventure hooks/plots based on The Fighting Sullivans

Honestly, just about any scenario can be livened up by a group of five capable, loyal and organized brothers as allies or antagonists.

      The PC's owe the five brothers a debt of honor, which entails providing for their dependents after they're dead. This includes one very attractive widow.

      The five have been hired for a mission directly in opposition to the PC's mission.

      The five have been hired for a mission in competition with the PC's mission.

      The five brothers have a Destiny upon them and all five must survive long enough to fulfill it, to prevent Big Badness. The PC's are responsible for their survival during the big mission leading up to the Fulfilling of the Destiny.

      One of the five is lost/missing/kidnapped/captured and the remaining four hire the PC's to help recover the fifth.

      A Patron hires the PC's to eliminate the five brothers, as they stand between the patron and a large inheritance.

      The five brothers are a super-hero or secret agent team, and the PC's have discovered their identities.

     

Gender flip: it is a family of five fighting women. Gender split: a family of 3 men 2 women or 3 women 2 men that all operate together.

    

My wife is a big fan of audio books. We love Librivox! Also we love borrowing books on CD from the public library to listen to in the kitchen or in the car on long trips. My wife is a big fan of Agatha Christie and Elizabeth Peters, so:

Adventure based on Agatha Christie's Cat Among the Pigeons:

  The PC's have been hired to be covert security for a student at a private academy, and must take civilian jobs on the academy campus. No heavy weaponry is going to be allowed. This should be a brains not brawn assignment. 

Adventure based on the Amelia Peabody series:

     The PC's get involved in an archaeological expedition, either as security, as the dig leaders, or even as porters/staff. During the dig, rare and valuable macguffins are uncovered, stolen and in need of recovery. There may be international forces involved in the thefts. Murder of the archaeologists is not out of the question. A war may start up during the dig, which may or may not have anything to do with the dig itself. Depending on the genre, the macguffins could be magical or mystical.

Off the Cuff Movie Review The Fighting Sullivans

   This biographical film was produced during World War II, and inspired by events that took place earlier in the war. The five Sullivan brothers, George, Frank, Joe, Matt and Al, grew up in the town of Waterloo, Iowa. When the war broke out, they all enlisted in the Navy, and managed to get themselves all assigned to the light cruiser USS Juneau. The Juneau was sunk with all hands on 13 November 1942. During the war, a Fletcher-class destroyer, DD537 was launched bearing the name The Sullivans. The Navy changes its policy on assignments as a result of the Sullivan's family's loss, and siblings no longer serve together aboard ship.
     The film spends most of its two-hour run time on the childhood and early adulthood of the Sullivan brothers. As a slice of American life, it is a delightful, funny and touching movie about a big family of boys (with one long-suffering sister) and all their adventures. They get into fights (right outside the church even) with other boys, fight with each other, make up, find and (sort of) repair a rowboat, decide to cut a hole in the kitchen wall for a woodbox and try to smoke corn silk in the shed. Their railroad conductor father takes a firm loving hand in dealing with them, but even he gets pushed too far after one of the boys' escapades. As young adults, living in the late 30's their worries are the same as everyone's: getting and keeping jobs, having enough money, and for the youngest, Al, known as "Small Change", getting a date with a swell girl. Al gets married, despite a sabotage attempt by his brothers, and the whole family takes the new Mrs. Sullivan in as one of their own. When the war breaks out, the older brothers dissuade Al from joining up with them, but his wife convinces him he should go, because all their lives the Sullivans have "stuck together".
     The last we see of the Sullivan boys, four of them are lifting their wounded fifth brother off of his bed, hoping to get him to safety when the abandon ship order is given. Sadly, out of a crew of over 600, only 10 men survived the sinking of the Juneau. The film's final act digresses a little from published history, but not in a way that detracts from the powerful punch of the story. 
       We laughed our way through the Sullivans' childhood and cried a little at the end. This is a movie that is worth watching because it's funny, because it is moving, and because it is simple and true. Thanks be to God for all the men and women who have served in our country's military both in war and in peace. 

Now go rent this movie. That is all.