CorpCommander

Re: Cool Guns for your Games Oh but there is... :-) http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2009/01/26/at-14-the-410-ar-15-shotgun/ The AT-14, AR-15 lower, custom follower and upper. .410 shells - a good room sweeper when you are concerned about penetrating walls and keeping collateral damage down.

Re: Cool Guns for your Games I fired one. Absolutely worthless gun. You might as well carry a rifle if you are going to lug that much weight. You get the added benefit of accuracy.

Re: Cool Guns for your Games I see they also have a "Nancy Pad" to absorb the recoil...

Re: Space Warfare II - Stealth Reconsidered What other civilizations are detecting about us: http://abstrusegoose.com/strips/electromagnetic_leak.PNG

Re: Space Warfare II - Stealth Reconsidered I was under the impression Governments were much more active in things like Sky Guard after the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet strike on Jupiter. Perhaps that interest was short lived. How long does it take to do a whole sky survey? My question here is aimed at determining how "instant" detection would be for various energy outputs. The earlier post about there being a lot of junk in space was something I had been thinking about. How do we know some of the asteroids AREN'T alien space stations watching over us? How often are we looking? Apparently not very often at all. At what point does a world suddenly decide to start looking and watching? Maybe not until after it's first pearl harbor in space! At which point it is too late, their planet is enslaved. So maybe you only need to be stealthy once per system, early enough. How much energy would it take to move an asteroid into Earth orbit? Once it makes it's run how much energy would it take to prevent a collision (would that even be possible?)

Re: How to handle healing The Iron Kingdoms world has an interesting take on Healing - it is very close to necromancy and healing always has negative side effects. Mainly injury to the healer! I find that concept really interesting in it certainly limits what can happen. I think there are many ways in which you can limit healing. Too much healing can be quite bad as the heroes always emerge unscathed. It is a pretty awesome ability.

Re: Space Warfare III – 'Warships' in Space? The article is good and so is the discussion on your website. There seems to be a bit of talk about all-eggs-in-one basket vs. having a dispersed fleet of drones. The problem with the drone concept in my mind is that it is fairly easy to ruin the communication spectrum. The drones would have to be autonomous and make life or death decisions in order to compensate.

Re: Space Warfare II - Stealth Reconsidered .sig worthy!

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares You're baking me crazy!

Re: Space Warfare II - Stealth Reconsidered My first thought is you don't have to get rid of all your waste heat. Just enough to satisfy 1/r^2 such that your level of heat less than the level that can be detected at that range. The more efficient you are the closer you can get to your less stealthy opponent. Stealth is simply a defense and a weak one at that. Once you are seen all of its value goes away. So perhaps a better use of time, energy and equipment space on your ship is to find a way to use that heat defensively. Turn a problem into an asset. Especially since it is pretty damn hard to mask anyway. That said here is my Perpetual Motion Story. Totally True. Back around 1960 or so my Dad was called out to his Uncle's house to help with something. When he got there his other Uncles were there too and so was a big truck which had a large iron wheel. They needed to get this down into the basement. Everyone was breaking their back trying to move this incredibly heavy wheel when my Dad asked Sal, "so are you going to use this as the foundation for a waterheater or something?" Sal's eyes lit up and said "No." He became professor for a moment and explained, "this wheel will change history for I have figured out a way to make limitless energy." All work came to an instant stop. The sweaty men and the perplexed truck driver all looked on. "You see, we shall mount this wheel on a special bracket I have set up in the basement. We shall spin the wheel. It shall turn so fast that eventually it will be impossible to stop and we will draw energy from it." "Oh for Christ's Sake!" said the 5 Italians and the truck driver. What the truck driver didn't know was the long standing rivalry between Sal and his brothers. You see they were all in the heating oil business. Sal was environmentally conscious long before it became fasionable. He wanted to create perpetual motion and put the Oil Industry out of business. My father and his brother were both chemical engineers. Sal was the smartest of the old school Italians, having gone all the way through the 6th grade before getting a job (back in the old days school was looked down upon as a luxury and a waste of time.) He and my Uncle tried to explain to Sal a concept called friction and offered to take him to either Northeastern University or MIT to discuss his theory with engineers of repute. Sal is still looking to put the Oil Industry out of business. He later won awards for improving the efficiency of heaters for homes. Ultimately we are all ignorant, but the difference between us is degrees of ignorance. I think for me the lesson is that enthusiasm for the subject matter and a willingness to accept the truth as you discover it will go a long way in helping build your understanding and perhaps lead you to find an application of knowlege no one else has developed.

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares Necromancing the Stone

Re: 12 of the Deadliest Unmanned Killing Machines in Our Arsenal Great article. I had not realized it was canceled or the circumstances of that. It is interesting that the environment has become so hostile to central control. It raises some very interesting questions about autonomous control. I am sure there is a solution - there must be frequencies that aren't poluted How would all the flying drones work if there weren't?

Re: Mottos for use in games Actually it is "Rangers Lead the Way" which comes from the command given at D-Day: "Rangers, lead the way off this beach!" on the assault of Point du Hoc. "Follow Me" is a sort of standard order given by an NCO to lead men into battle. It is also the name of the first war game rules I ever played. Pete

Re: 12 of the Deadliest Unmanned Killing Machines in Our Arsenal Most of those weapons suck. Plus where is the iRobot with the MetalStorm weapon system on it? That would be the one to watch. Plenty of the others are still in the development stage so why not that one? The robotic Bradley will have all the major failings of the actual Bradley (too loud, too big) and none of the benefits (hard for me to think of any...) The Navy submersible drones which are near actual deployment are much more interesting than the RC chopper and flying wing this guy has in his list. The Talon is cool and operational for EOD. The Reaper is operational and great. I've not heard of the Predator C. I'd be interested in knowing more.

Re: Steampunk / Iron Kingdoms Conversion? I converted the Witchfire trilogy back when it came out. I don't have any of the material anymore - the laptop it was on is long gone. My suggestion is to convert on an as needed basis. It makes it acheivable and keeps you on track. Converting everything... is a bit much.

Re: Star Frontiers Conversion and if I had googled I would have found... http://www.starfrontiers.com/rules/ everything in free PDF form...

Re: Star Frontiers Conversion Sounds like a fun gaming concept. Is the fluff for Star Frontiers online anywhere?

Re: Steampunk - Source Material YES. An absolute Must Read book for the period. Not only does it have a good story. Not only is said story deeply immersed in the idea of steampunk - it has the language of the period enhanced for the genre, it has the history tweeked just right, the motivations tweeked right... all in all it is the best Steampunk book out there. For a move watch Time After Time with Malcolm McDowell as H.G. Wells chases Jack the Ripper through time. NetFlix online will be your best bet to quickly find all of the Victorian Era set films that might be useful. The Great Race comes to mind as set at the End of the Victorian period and containing machines. Good luck. Sounds like you have a fun project ahead of you. Pete

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far I didn't read the whole thread but I got the jist reading a dozen plus pages. Steve is Hero to some and a witch in need of lit tinder to others. I missed where he suggested all primary characteristics be based upon a 3d6 roll but given some of the hatin' it seems he must have suggested that at one point! Well I am excited for 6th edition. I think the changes are needed and while they will pose some new issues in the end I think we'll find they give us granularity that we've been missing and reasons for trying new things.

http://corpcommander.blogspot.com/2009/06/ninja-revenge-aar.html The above is a link to my after action report on my Ninja revenge game. I mentioned it before when I was preparing for it but this was how it came out. Lots of pictures (miniatures heavy because that is how I "role"!) Give it a read. It was a ton of fun.

Re: Mottos for use in games "There is no Justice. Just Us..." A dark motto if there ever was one.

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares Sampson and Daleks

Re: Ninja Hero - Samurai vs. Ninja blood bath Ok finally finished painting up the Ninjas. You will notice two are not in black outfits. One is posing as a Sumo Wrestler. In fact all Ninjas have an assumed identity and job, usually of a lower class so as to avoid detection. The Sumo is atypical - hence even more surprising! How did he pass fighting atop bamboo shoots tests? Obviously the stuff of legend! The leader is in red. This isn't atypical at all. He is such a bad ass he doesn't need to hide. The robe is quite visible but it is pretty much the last thing you are going to see. Here is the album: http://picasaweb.google.com/peter.mancini/NinjaRevenge?feat=directlink I've blogged about the game here: http://corpcommander.blogspot.com/2009/06/ninja-revenge.html I am going with a system I've been working on for months that will allow the enemy to be run by a system instead of a GM. This allows me to "look forward to killing you soon!"

Re: Mottos for use in games Not everything may be a motto but may lend itself to a a motto. "Those who dare, win" is a motto of the SAS. "Molon Labe" is sort of a motto, most 2nd amendment supporters know what it means. Mottos are short, and illustrate some virtue or defining feature of a group.

Re: Ninja Hero - Samurai vs. Ninja blood bath Ninja vs. Pirates (aka Wako) I actually have some Wako figures that need painting. I'll dig them up. I am pretty sure I know where they are. I have a ton of unpainted lead. Someday when I am rich I'll need to figure out what I am painting and ship the rest off. I just finished the Ninja today. I have a little bit of work to do on the bases and that should be done tonight. I'll include pictures. The game won't be this weekend but probably next since the gaming store is moving (just down the street thankfully).