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[Ragitsu]

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[Ragitsu]

This story starts off in junior high. I had a hard time in junior high school and one of the friends I had met at school had the same problem. We just didn’t fit in. The school was in a toxic waste part of town at the top of a giant hill that was impossible to climb when it snowed. The local working class immigrant population sent their dimwitted offspring up the hill to school everyday – with what seemed to be the sole intention of mistreating and abusing any students they could find.

My one friend was a skinny gawky kid with long curly hair. He walked funny and like me was a little too smart for the working class junior high we ended up at. He spoke perfect English, was well read, and got great grades. He had a good sense of humor and was really creative. Humor and intelligence have an odd way of attracting negative attention from less humorous and intelligent people. Needless to say we were tormented on a daily basis.

He took me on as a friend when he got food poisoning from some bad fish sticks in the cafeteria. I ran into the office to get a bin for him to throw up into. I got him the bin at the exact moment that the fish came back up. I saved him from barfing all over his clothes. In a moment of queasiness the friendship was sealed, with vomit, but sealed nonetheless.

A few days later I was shocked to find out he was changing schools. I felt deeply upset. Here was the only friend I had at the school and he was leaving. I didn’t know how I’d face two years of class at what seemed to be the worst junior high in the world.

To my surprise he invited me to come with him. He said he’d be going to a private school. I said I didn’t know if they would let me in or if my folks could afford it. He said it would be no problem because his father owned the school. I told my folks and they called the school. Everything was arranged and a few days later I was at the new school.

The school was the smallest and most beat up private school in the city. It filled a niche market by being the last stop on the way down for rich kids who had been kicked out of every other decent private school in the city. It was here that I met the creepiest role player ever.

The school was actually housed in an old Victorian mansion that was falling apart. The roof was crumbling and there was no lawn just a sea up interlocking brink in various stages of upheaval. The ceiling leaked, floors creaked, lead paint chipped, and the whole place smelled of mildew and rot. Still the place was pretty decent. It was a kind of refuge for losers - and I realized that I fit right in.

Since I’d been let in as a “favor” I was way younger than the rest of the student population. The school was meant for high school age students. I was taken on almost like a school mascot of sorts. Most of the girls thought I was cute and the older guys wanted to educate me on the best drugs, music, and ways to cheat on tests.

There were two groups of role players at the school. The first group consisted of my friend and his immediate circle of friends. We’d get together at this father’s mansion and play GURPS and eat pizza. This would lead to what would later be called the “Lord Of The Fries” incident. The other was a group of oddballs that were into D&D.

The D&D crew had one member who had more geek DNA than anyone else in the school. He was overweight, had horrible acne, spoke with a lisp, and was physically awkward. He dressed horribly and had coke bottle thick glasses.

The more “normal” kids at this school for screw ups would ridicule him by hitting him with things and screaming his first name in a shrill lisping voice at the top of their lungs. They would sometimes say the last name adding a twist to the pronunciation that made it horribly insulting.

Even amongst the gamers he was at the bottom of the totem pole. There were always stories about this guy. Including the time we had to force him to wash his feet because he stank so horribly. So he became known as “Smelly Feet.” He was a rule crazy spastic weirdo and I’m not sure how he got invited back session after session. He remains to this day one of the creepiest people I’ve ever met.

Time passed and eventually we all graduated from junior high and went on to other things. Over the years I’ve found out what happened to all the gamers I knew – including “Smelly Feet.”

I ran into the D&D crew a few years after graduation. I don’t remember exactly how it happened but I ended up at their place for some kind of party. They had all rented a place together and had dyed their hair black, gotten everything pierced, were on student welfare, and consuming large amounts of drugs.

The seemed surprised by how “normal” I turned out. They said “don’t you know the D&D phase is followed by a heavy dope smoking phase?” I asked what happened to the one person who was missing. What ever happened to “Mister Smelly Feet?” The creepy ultra geek gamer that even the geeks could barely tolerate.

They all got quiet and one of them related a story in a hushed tone. It was like some kind of unspeakable tale or legend was about to be told. I listened as they unfolded for me the most bizarre “post scholastic” story I’d ever heard about anyone.

A few years after school one of them called “Smelly Feet” up to ask what he was up to. “Smelly Feet” said that if they wanted to know what he was up to they would have to meet him. He insisted that they meet him on the roof of one of the tallest skyscrapers downtown. One friend told another and everyone was interested. They all got together and agreed to the meeting.

So there they were on the roof of an office tower overlooking the city. From behind a pillar “Smelly Feet” walked out wearing a martial arts uniform. Everyone looked at each other and shrugged. He then took off running towards one corner of the roof. When he got to the edge he jumped off.

Everyone freaked and ran over to look over the side. All they could see was a sheer drop hundreds of feet down. Then suddenly he appeared behind them from out of nowhere. They all jumped when they saw him since there was no way he could have jumped off and then appeared behind them. While they were questioning the laws of physics another person appeared.

The other figure on the roof was an older man wearing a martial arts uniform. This was apparently his martial arts “master” and the two of them walked over and stood side by side in silence. There was a long awkward moment where nothing happened except a weird stare down between the two groups. They gamer guys looked at each other and walked to the staircase and went back downstairs.

After hearing this I just sat there for a few seconds.

“So he’s a ninja now?”

“Yeah…”

“Uh… No really.”

“Yes really.”

I thought it must be a joke but they all looked at me and I could tell they were very serious. Even if it wasn’t true I could tell they all believed it was true. I left the party and never saw any of them including “Smell Feet” ever again.

Some years later I ran into another student from the school. This student was one of the more “normal” people at the school. When I asked if he had heard of anything about “Smelly Feet” he immediately said “you mean the martial arts rooftop thing?”

It’s funny how the guy who started out creepy changed for the better and the rest of the crew descended into a drug-fueled ball of nothingness. I goggled “Smelly Feet” and I found his blog. He’s actually writing role-playing games for a living now and lists martial arts as a big part of his life. I’m not sure if the rooftop thing is true but you never know.

[Certified]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/19/trey-radel-drug-testing_n_4305348.html

[Ragitsu]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Girl_Ai

[Ragitsu]

Ben Hur

[tkdguy]

lying

[Ragitsu]

"While it's true that certain methods have been developed that are better than what was available before, I'm of the opinion that our games are more like music. What was good in the 70's is still good today, even if most people's tastes are now different. Games don't grow obsolete any more than songs do."
Sage Genesis

[Certified]

Blast (Variable)

The Character's attack is capable of driving their foes back, even sending them flying huge distances. A Minor Blast Power knocks the Target prone. A Typical Blast Power Pushes the Target back 1 range Increment and knocks the target Prone. A Major Blast Power Pushes the Target back 2 Range Increments and knocks the Target Prone.

Active Defense reduces the distance by 1 Range Increment and prevents being knocked Prone.

The Target suffers 2 Wounds per Range Increment. This Damage if figured separately from the initial hit and represents the added strain of resisting the Blast complications of being knocked back.    

• Option: Boost Knock: Each additional Instance of Blast increases the distance by 2 Range Increments.

• Note: Blown Away: If the target is Blasted beyond the Edge of Conflict assume the target is out of the scene unless they possess a Power with New Movement and the Boost Speed Option. For these Characters assume additional Range Increments to allow the Character back into the action.

[tkdguy]

http://odd74.proboards.com/thread/10473/humor-rock-roll

[Ragitsu]

[Certified]

[tkdguy]

https://gma.yahoo.com/moment-world-tallest-man-meets-world-smallest-192500378--abc-news-entertainment.html

[Ragitsu]

http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2014/11/13/students-at-japan-high-school-switch-uniforms-with-opposite-sex/?mod=japanblog&mod=WSJ_Japan_JapanRealTime

[Ragitsu]

 

[Ragitsu]

All technology is not good. Nuclear weapons are technology and yet the moment we created them the majority of people have sought to find ways to prevent them ever being used. You simply cannot talk about technology and divorce it from the character of the people who develop and use it.

In the end you and I agree about a great deal from what you've said so far, but I merely feel that you are being too generalized in your argument. Technology is not a thing without the people who develop it. Very often the way we use technology is the source of our problems, not the solution. Its not so clear cut because there is as much peril in it as there is salvation.

Whats more, its going too far to say that when someone resists certain trends in our culture that he might as well try to live without bashing two rocks together. You suppose that the way most people live is the only way, but the way most people live is also wasteful and damaging to the environment. Those two statements are at odds. Whatever the potential technology holds it has on the whole done as much if not more damage to our world than it has done good, and its only in some perceived promise of the future that we see our salvation, not in the present, at least with respect to the global situation. Technology for the individual has improved a great deal, at least in certain parts of the world, but on the whole we still have yet to offset or even come up with a concrete plan for reversing the damage done in the first 150 years of human industry.

What technology can do for us means nothing without the will to use it for a positive end. That end is not guaranteed and on its current course it still serves more bad than good, at least to the end game which most people don't think about (I'll be dead, who care?).

[Ragitsu]

[Certified]

 

Peter Gabriel

 

[tkdguy]

http://online.wsj.com/articles/john-cleese-on-monty-python-and-the-state-of-comedy-1415991304?mod=trending_now_5

 

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[Certified]

[Ragitsu]

[Ragitsu]

Judo is a sport. As such, the sacrifice throws that tend to be used are of the normal (non-damaging) variant. The same is true of wrestling, which is why something like a suplex isn't used in the actual sport (professional wrestling is another matter). If you want to do a real suplex in GURPS, you're talking about a Sacrifice Throw that uses the rules for damaging throws (-1 to skill; can target hit locations; thr-1 cr damage). I would probably give it a damage bonus as though it were an All Out Attack (strong).

As for "both ending up on the ground," this generally either means one judoka used Sacrifice Throw, or his opponent used Sprawling. Heck, possibly both.

[Certified]

Instant Regeneration (Armor) MA

[Ragitsu]

[Ragitsu]

[Ragitsu]