tkdguy

Last week I bought a liter of tequila and two liters of margarita mix, sensing a latent unspoken desire for such things in the household.  Sure enough, there's a fingertip of tequila left, but the mix was finished off yesterday.  A couple of people were having the mix with orange juice rather than tequila.  I will speak harshly about such lassitude once everyone is out of bed.

More swords! More swords for everybody!

Go for it! Take the class -- it's a pretty big investment in both time and money, so make sure it's right for you. My old Kendo club has as a policy that the first month of training in the beginners' course are free, and I always found that sensible.

I've started running a "Victoriana" campaign, and Widening Gyre is of of my minor sources.  It's a good book.
I'd love to see a Victorian Hero or Steampunk Hero the size of Pulp Hero, but that won't happen.  In my campaign I'm combining pieces from Cowboy Hero, Horror Hero, Widening Gyre, GURPS Steampunk, Victoriana, Castle Falkenstein, and several others just to get the pieces of all the things happening in a magictech world of 1866. Lots of stuff!  And since mine is based in the San Francisco, not London, there are different assumptions about the goings on.
But I digress. Bill Keyes did a great job with his Widening Gyre. 

Then the teacher should speak more clearly.
 
Back in my Circuit City days, I had a co-worker tell a customer that I'd be able to answer all of his questions. The customer looked at me, and said, "Oh, yeah? How high the moon?"
 
To which I immediately replied, "about one and a third light-seconds or around 400,000 kilometers, give or take."
 
He looked at me with very wide eyes, and said, "Oh." After a moment, he then asked me about a laptop.

She found them.  *whew*

Having trouble coming up with an adventure for your next Star Hero game? Here's a list of plot hooks.

This is the theme from Misomer Murders and is decidedly creepy
 

Zerped

The Zerped are a race of gigantic wormhole constructors. A mix of ultra-tech cyberware and vacuum-adapted alien flesh, the Zerped number only a few thousand. They enter an area of space, shoot it full of wormhole networks and depart. Bloody conflicts follow as races who wouldn’t mix for hundreds of years are suddenly neighbors.

Currently these spatial engineers are engaged in perforating the Mylax Cluster near Phong, in Cephei Sector. Corporate interests, the Xenohuman Alliance and the Union Military are poised to dive in when the first wormhole activates. For now, the enormous Engineer/Ships are still laboring away on the project, seemingly oblivious to the swarm of travel-hungry vessels nearby.

Zerpeds do not communicate with those who gather around them. They merely toil away in silence.  

It seems that the penchant for "creative naming" of children will never go out of style.   

Went to St. John in London during my vacation, which has been on my bucket list for over a decade.  It was bliss.
 

I once tried to start a science fantasy campaign where futuristic knights wielded energy swords (lightsabers with the serial numbers filed off) and rode robotic horses. That never happened, but I put in a few battle reports in my Flickr account. A couple are in comic book form; the other is a series of photos. Unfortunately, I didn't leave any commentary; I should do that someday.
 
 

Sorry you had to go through all that. At least it's working now.

You ask why not? I'll tell you why not.
 
Behold, the Jester's Staff!
Behold, the Jester's Staff!:  (Total: 9 Active Cost, 1 Real Cost) Summon 2 5-point gag writers, Friendly (x2 as many tasks; +1/2) (9 Active Points); Increased Endurance Cost (x10 END; -4), 1 Charge which Recovers every 1 Week (-2 1/2), Extra Time (1 Turn (Post-Segment 12), Only to Activate, -3/4), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4), Only In Alternate Identity (Must be in fool's motley; -1/4), Concentration (1/2 DCV; -1/4), Costs Endurance (Only Costs END to Activate; -1/4) (Real Cost: 1)
 
Your majesty, are your court fool's japes and antics getting stale? Think he could use some new materiel? Bestow upon him the Jester's Staff! This miraculous item looks like a common fool's bauble, but once we teach him the magical incantation, he can use it to summon up a pair of gag writers who can invent jests suitable for any audience. With a little time to prepare and practice he will be fit to perform for anyone, from the delicate eared princes and princesses to a delegation of crude and unsophsticated barbarians. Your court can be famous for the quality of its entertainment!
 
 
Behold, the Vessel of Endless Life!
Behold, the Vessel of Eternal Youth!:  (Total: 5 Active Cost, 1 Real Cost) Life Support  (Longevity: Immortal) (5 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Season, Only to Activate, -2 3/4), IIF Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -1/2), 1 Continuing Charge lasting 1 Year which Recovers every 1 Season (-1/4) (Real Cost: 1)
 
Your majesty, although it is gracefully formed, its aesthetic value is the least of this miraculous vessel's virtues. If filled with spring water and certain herbs, the secret of which we will gladly impart upon purchase of the vessel, it will after a season's steeping pour forth a brew with the property of halting the very process of age, rendering one immune to the wear of time for an entire year! As the effect lasts a year and the vessel may recharge each season, you would hold the power to grant eternal youth not only to yourself but to up to three companions!
 
 
Note that each of the above costs only a single Real Point. I do not think there is a king in history or even in fiction who would offer the same price in gold for either item, or offer to trade the Vessel for the Staff. Nor do I think anyone possessing either item would part with them for a mere ten golden coins.
 
Any attempt to set up a consistent "exchange rate" of gold to Character Points is sure to fail.
 
Lucius Alexander
 
The palindromedary says if you still don't believe it we can tell you the story of the broadsword....
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

When I adapted TA to my own use, I expanded the role of various non-humans, giving them a more prominent "footprint" in the setting. For example, I made more explicit the economic and political ties between the score of named Dwarven kingdoms and their human neighbors, as well as their role as trade middlemen between the surface world and the Sunless Realms. I also tried to individualize each kingdom as done with the human nations in TA. I inserted more Elven forest realms into several areas where there was space on the map without much else happening in their vicinity. I also gave more independence to various Gnome and Halfling communities. I added communities of Drakine driven from their original homes by the wars with Men who had adapted to new living arrangements, e.g. "barbaric" clans living within the Ulimar Jungle; and boat-dwelling Drakine "gypsies" roving the coasts of Lake Beralka and the Sea of Mhorec. I also established a couple of underwater kingdoms of Merfolk in places I thought they would logically fit, and expanded the presence of aquatic races like the Uthosa in Mhorec and Beralka.

Zervoids
The Zervoids are a race of callous, scheming worms with mismatched legs, jumbled “facial” features, questionable morals and nowhere-to-be-seen table manners.
Each Zervoid seems a cobbled-together jumble of bits of different bugs. Their overall form is that of a short, stumpy, disgruntled Myriapoda.
They favor darkness, having evolved under the crustal plates of their home world, Dank. Crawling around in the dark and cold for millions of years forged the Zervoids into many forms and functions.
My latest encounter with this surly race was thankfully in deep space. We sent out a White Radio Signal 7 hoping for a rescue attempt after a disastrous experiment left half our ship in the Astral and the other half in dire peril.  
Our savior’s ship precipitated out of hyperspace looking as if it had stopped too suddenly and the drive section had shoved itself into the cargo bay, forcing the living quarters up under where the bridge should have been and that bit was forced forward on some kind of boom. It outgassed for a moment, contracting slightly before communications were opened.
The slavering captain and his crew of arthropod asshats began by asking a fee for the rescue. We explained that any of our liquid assets were now floating through etherical non-space.
It was true. We had like 2,126 standard liters of whiskey back there.
After negotiating an almost reasonable price, they boarded us and checked the wounded, analyzed damage, and queried credit scores. Satisfied that we could pay, the first officer met me on the bridge.
In its hissing, slobbering tongue, the thing requested his payment up front. I struggled to understand him, my knowledge of Zervoid deservedly limited.
“Athtachlasss’huf.” It garbled.
“I’ll have it for you when we make port at Skrapyard Farms,” for once, this was true, “I have nothing on board.”
"Eesthlaa’a uac naaaass.” at least I think that’s how you spell “Then we take the ship.” in Zervoid.  
“I’d prefer a tow.” I strongly demanded with the same boldness and confidence you’d ask your grandmother for a second cookie.
It wasn’t having it. It kind of spit into its comm-unit and a moist reply came back, wet, crackling, and raspy.
“Usk…Nhal…Vrap…Gha-“
I handed over the mag-cards to the spare drive coil storage and the ship’s locker. It spat again and the countdown stopped.
“Pleasure doing business with you.” It intoned in perfect Standard.
----------------------------
Like Hex-Wolf, the Zervoids have a weapon listed. They should pay points or not depending on your campaign. 
 
Zervoid.hdc

Still one of the best TV themes:
 
 

I don't know if someone already said it, but if I remember correctly there was a series of sci-fi novels called Deathstalker in which swords where still used because the energy weapons they had would self-recharge at such a slow rate that the only options left were to stare at each other until it did recharge and try again or fist-fight, thus they always carried blades w/ them and used the often.

Basically what you need is a justification why modern guns aren't used anymore.  For whatever reason, this justification does not apply to science fiction swords.
 
Suppose you get body armor that can stop a 21st century rifle.  That white plastic Storm Trooper crap just bounces a bullet no problem.  Alternatively, maybe there's an alien race that's too tough to put down with modern guns, at least the convenient ones.  Most people can't run around holding a .50 cal.  So anyway, as a result you go to plasma rifles, or some other futuristic tech.  But... plasma rifles have drawbacks that modern guns don't.  Maybe they take a couple of seconds to charge up.  Pull the trigger and it makes a "woop woop woop" charging sound before it fires.  Or the blast moves slow enough you can see it (like on TV).
 
As a result, specialized energy swords become useful if you're fast enough.  A really skilled person is more lethal with his energy sword than with a plasma rifle.  He doesn't have to wait for it to charge up, he can swat blaster bolts out of the air, or whatever.  There you go, that's enough of a reason.

Yes. in the Deathstalker series hand blasters fired once, then their power crystals would take two minutes to recharge. And personal deflection fields that made conventional firearms useless were common (they also protected against blasters, though combined fire could burn them down). Swords went through the fields without noticing them, being too heavy to deflect.
Dune, of course, had the Holzmann shield, which would deflect fast projectiles, and kill both the shield wearer and the gunner if hit with a laser. Again, swords and knives became the weapons of choice.
 

True. My next campaign, which was supposed to start today until a migraine decided to join the group will start on Argos (the one in Ophiuchus). Had to cancel with 2 hours notice.
But that's the syntax. Most other references read "Sector/Planet" but no one ever says "Ophiuchus/Argos" they say Argos (the one in [Sector]). 
 
Maybe worlds are just "Argos" until they are something else, as you suggest?