archermoo

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

Isn't that "weller"?

I believe "more goodlier" is the proper construction...

Re: Musings on Random Musings

Ruddy Apple users......

Yup. It at least used to be considerably more difficult than a simple "format c:" command to do a clean wipe and reinstall of MacOS. Though that has presumably changed with the Unix-like current version...

Re: The cranky thread

Ever been in a situation where the cure is worse than the disease? I've got a sinus infection' date=' got some antibiotics prescribed, and I feel worse now than I did when I just had the sinus infection. [/quote']

 

On the bright side' date=' afterwards, no sinus infection.[/quote']

 

Though it is important to keep in mind that even if the antibiotics make you feel bad in and of themselves it is important to keep taking them until the prescription is finished. Not doing so helps create even more antibiotic resistant little buggers...

Re: Rolling for initiative

Not that I'm interested in initiative type systems myself, but you could always just have everyone make a Dex roll, whoever makes it by the most goes first. Ties get resolved in Dex order.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

Thanks. I won't be looking too much at data for a bit until after the surgery. From what I've looked at' date=' she's got good odds since it does seem to be early. They'll be taking some lymph node samples while they are in, so we'll know more right before and after Christmas if the surgery happens on the 21st.[/quote']

 

Wow. At this distance about the best I can offer is my sympathy and well wishes, which you and your wife have in abundance.

 

If there is anything I can do, let me know.

Re: Foods for those that just don't care anymore

The white balance looked off.

Agreed, and the batter might just be a light coloured batter.

Re: The cranky thread

Many thanks. The burial was yesterday. It'll take time for the grieving' date=' but her pain is over, anyway.[/quote']

 

The loss of my mother 6 years ago still creeps up on me and hits me like a ton of bricks sometimes. This post had me in tears, in part in sympathy for your loss, and in part because it reminded me of my own. This is, at least to me, not a bad thing, BTW. Oddly the usually brief bouts of sadness generally leave me feeling actually pretty good.

 

I don't know if I had a point. This just felt more useful to me than the standard "you have my sympathy". You do have it, but now you also have my incoherent rambling as well.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

I guess it depends on the type of job. I'm glad my job doesn't require that' date=' but again, that's just me.[/quote']

 

The need to be constantly available is one of the downsides of working with technology. To me at least it is worth it to be doing something that I enjoy. And hey, I spent the first several years in my current position without even having a pager, since I was supporting stuff that was only used during normal business hours, and for that matter wasn't patient care critical. The job has shifted so now I've got one, but the labs I support don't generally operate outside of normal business hours. Even if they do, it would be for an emergency case and they have downtime procedures if the systems I support aren't working. Generally if they've got a problem off hours, they use the downtime procedures and just let me know the next day that they had a problem.

 

Fortunately we are currently working on replacing the system that gives me most of my headaches. Started looking at demos from vendors this week. There are some really cool systems out there.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

I don't mind technology changing; ultimately it is nice to be able to contact someone almost any time of the day no matter where I am. I am not tied to my house waiting for a call or message from a friend. I do get frustrated that manners don't keep up with changing technology' date=' so people will answer phones at the most inopportune times, most meetings consists of continually hearing blackberries buzz with new messages, and last time I ran a meeting I noted that there were more computers than participants. Next time I running a similar meeting I will likely get snarkier and say, "alright children, close your computers, we're starting."[/quote']

 

I both agree and disagree with you.

 

Valuing the incoming call over the person that you are talking to face-to-face is certainly annoying. Particularly if you are that face-to-face person. Personally I don't generally do that unless I have good reason to assume that the call is an emergency.

 

And I do put my phone on vibrate when I'm in meetings, but e-mail is a fairly standard way I get notified of emergencies, so again I'll generally check what at least the subject of the e-mail was, though delaying it until I can do so with the least amount of disruption. I also use my phone for note taking. As to bringing my laptop to meetings, I generally only do that if there is something on the laptop that I need to demonstrate at the meeting.

 

Personally I'm somewhat amused that the trend seems to be that what I call a "laptop" anymore is just being called a "computer" by most people anymore. One of those ongoing things. I can remember when people would use the term "computer" to refer to the dumb terminal that they accessed the mainframe from. As microcomputers started making their way into use, they shifted to being called "computers" leaving the dumb terminals to be called "terminals". When laptops first started showing up, that is what they were called. Often so that executives (who frequently didn't really even need a computer, so could easily get by with the reduced functionality of a laptop) could stress to people that they rated getting one. Now we seem to be at the point where "computer" is most commonly used to refer to a portable computer of some kind, and if the person is talking about a fixed location system they'll call it a "desktop".

 

Note, this isn't a "darn people using words wrong" diatribe. I'm just amused at the shift of the language. It doesn't really surprise me that in dealing with technology the language should shift so quickly.

 

So how's that for a random musing on a random musing?

Re: The cranky thread

Zit on my nose. Call me Rudolf. Hurts' date=' too. [/quote']

 

I get those. They suck.

 

Yeah. Lots. Zits over cartilage in general suck. I particularly hate the ones I get occasionally inside my ear...

Re: Order of the Stick

"If I win I get to be a king. If I lose I get to be a legend."

Except that currently he is the power behind the throne. So if he were to get taken out now he wouldn't be remembered at all.

Just sayin...

Re: Foods for those that just don't care anymore

Bah! What is the risk of fire when compared to the glory that is bacon!

I'd rather cook it on my broiler pan in the oven. No problems with the house burning down, and I still get bacon.

Re: The move to FTP

Wow they want $300 for the lifetime sub. Good luck with that.

Cool, I hadn't realized that they'd started selling lifetime subs for CO again. Though I'll say I got mine for a mite less during the original offering...

Re: A level of confusion

My confusion is that "+1 with All Combat" is 10 points' date=' equivalent to buying [i']both OCV and DCV[/i] so my impression was that CSL's in 6E were +1 to OCV and DCV both unless otherwise specified:

 

+1 OCV with a single attack is not even an option under CSL's in HD6 - but it matches up to the cost of +1 OCV at a -2 "severely limited" limitation (5 / 3 = 1.666x rounds up to 2.) +1 with HTH is 5 points, however, which does not match up to "+1 (OCV or DCV) at a -1 "about half" limited power. Not exactly sure how CSL's are built "in the background" in 6E.

 

But again 10 points = +1 with all, and that seems to be exactly the same as just buying +1 OCV and DCV outright.

 

As to the conversation about the knife, I personally would rule that you only get the + to DCV when wielding the weapon not when fighting against said weapon if not yourself wielding one.

Last I checked not only was the +1 OCV only for a single attack available in HD, it is actually the default. And while a 10 point CSL in all combat costs the same as buying up both OCV and DCV by 1, the functionality isn't identical. For one, CSLs can be used for extra damage.

Re: The "Nice Happy" Thread

Suh-weet ...

 

Quote: "My granddaughter was pretty upset that they were going to blow grandpa up." ^^

Heh. They should've just said that grandpa was getting his very own, very special balloon. Though of course he didn't get to keep it...

Re: The "Nice Happy" Thread

We're saving that for the next term' date=' I think. It'll be even nicer to be one of ten med candidates in the hospital, rather than a thousand.[/quote']

 

Cool. The Cath and EP labs are what I support at the hospital I work at, so your mention of a PCI peaked my interest.

Re: The "Nice Happy" Thread

The cardiology department is stimulating. I was in on a PCI op. this morning -- fascinating stuff!

Indeed. You should wander on over to the Electrophysiology labs for some really nifty stuff.

Re: The cranky thread

My estimate was off. She passed last night' date=' between 4 and 6 AM.[/quote']

 

Heartfelt sympathies.

Re: A level of confusion

Are the two less related than a level with Strike' date=' Haymaker and Block (applicable to any attacks), which is a common example of a 3 point level?[/quote']

 

In my opinion? Yes.

Re: A level of confusion

I probably would. Some types of training might actually cause such a combo to make sense. Police training for example' date=' might include pistols, tonfa, and one type of HTH attack. Martial Arts could be similar.[/quote']

 

I agree that there could easily be people for whom it would be convenient and/or cost effective to be able to roll together several mixed ranged and HtH attacks into one CSL. I just can't think of any off the top of my head that would make sense to me as being similar enough to each other to allow one CSL to apply to them all. Even to the level of knives. Fighting in HtH with a knife is an entirely different skill than throwing a knife.

Re: Order of the Stick

Wow, it looks like someone might have finally managed to lay one on Elan with the cluex4. I suppose it makes some kind of sense that it would be someone who isn't actually TRYING to give him a clue.

Re: A level of confusion

Seems a reasonable interpretation.

I'm glad you agree.

I agree about the 3 point levels, but with 5 point levels you could certainly include both ranged and HtH attacks. Even ignoring the 'Musketeer Weapons', a lot of martial arts styles include unarmed and weapons elements as well as HtH and ranged attacks. It would seem to be legitimate to have (say) Kung Fu that included a strike, a block and a ranged strike, and included weapon elements. On the face of it that should be both a legitimate use for the level and allow you to use it in pretty much any situation.

 

The problem with that being that there is a potential utility gap depending on what you include in your level group.

To me, ranged and HtH weapons/attacks are dissimilar enough that I can think of few situations that it would seem reasonable for a single skill level to apply to both. And in the situations that I did, I have no problems with using limited 10 point levels instead of 5 point levels.

Of note, just because things can be put into logical groups does not of necessity mean that those groupings are also functional ones. You could divide bladed weapons into those with wire wrapped hilts and those without. Perfectly reasonable groupings. However I wouldn't say that it would be reasonable to buy a single skill level that would apply to bladed weapons with wire wrapped hilts, but not to ones that didn't.

I prefer to look at all CSLs as being based on the 10 point level, and the 2, 3 5, and 8 point varieties just commonly used "pre-built" limited versions. Most uses for CSLs will fall into one of those categories. For ones that don't you just build your own.

Re: A level of confusion

More good points' date=' but I'm not quite sure how it applies: first off the example at 6.1.69 mentions the possibility of using the knife skill for HtH DCV at the same time as the pistol level (used in this example for OCV). Now you COULD accomplish that, potentially, by making a multiple attack - but that forbids using skill levels unless they could apply to any of the attacks being used: I'm not sure how you could be considered using a knife and get to use the skill level.[/quote']

 

That is the purpose of the "Unless the GM permits otherwise" part of the rule. Obviously as far as Steve is concerned in that particular instance simply being armed with a knife is sufficient to allow the level to be used for DCV on that particular attack.

 

The other problem - well, problem of implementation - is this - looking at the example in the OP, a musketeer whose group of weapons includes both ranged and HtH weapons. If you are attacking with a rapier you are using a skill level which COULD apply to a ranged attack, so presumably you could use the level to increase DCV, and presumably that would increase DCV against both ranged and HtH attacks as the level can apply to both.

 

I'm not sure how to rule on that one.

 

I certainly wouldn't allow someone to purchase a 3 point level for a group of weapons that included both ranged and HtH weapons, and I don't see how they could be defined as "a tight group of weapons". And for that matter I doubt I'd allow a 5 point level defined that way in general either. If you want levels that can be used for either HtH or Ranged attacks, you generally need to buy 10 point levels. If you want those levels to be restricted to only being usable when you are armed appropriately, buy them with a Limitation.

Re: A level of confusion

This makes good sense too' date=' but does not necessarily explain who a skilled gunfighter can not use his gun skill levels whilst swordfighting (unless he can - that is part of my confusion).[/quote']

 

Because he bought levels that can only be used while he is using a gun. If he wants levels that can be used in more circumstances he needs to buy different levels.

Re: A level of confusion

Possible House Rule: Every 5 Points (or some other number set by the GM) total spent on a skill may be used as a +1 DCV without needing to be wielding anything. Sort of a general knowledge of how to evade such attacks.

 

Just An Idea

 

- Christopher Mullins (8^D)

I'd be more tempted to go with something like allowing 2 (or maybe more) levels that can normally be used for DCV in a limited way to be combined for a general +1 DCV. So if you have 4 3 points levels with all knives, even if you are unarmed you'd still be able to use those levels for +2 DCV. Easier to track that way if nothing else.

Though I'm not really sure that I think that kind of thing is needed at all.