Kristopher
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Posts posted by Kristopher
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Re: "Tightening the Curve" on damage
Oddly, the huge handfuls of dice in a superheroic campaign tend to reduce the (IMO) real issue* here -- the more dice you have, the more the damage rolls seem to cluster around the average.
* I don't want the weapons to randomly be a minor wound or a one-shot on a regular basis -- it makes managing lethality hard.
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Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type
I have to agree with those who are saying that a page-length limit on character sheets isn't going to get the OP what he seems to want.
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Re: Power Skill with No Power
Putting Power Skill on a character sheet as-is would be a lot like putting Professional Skill on, with no actual profession listed.
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Has anyone put any thought into ways to reduce the variability of damage on weapons for a heroic campaign?
(OK, I know people have, that's just the easiest way to ask.)
Example -- a weapon that does 2d6 RKA could do anywhere from 2 to 12 BODY to a target with no Resistant Defenses. That makes balancing weapons, armor, and average lethality a little hard.
I don't want to make all the weapons Standard Effect, however -- I want some variability.
My first thought is to make the weapons Standard Effect for some of the Dice, and then rolled for 1 or 2 dice.
So for a 2d6 RKA, you'd actually roll 1d6+3 for the weapon, for a range of 4 to 9 BODY to an unprotected target.
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Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???
True' date=' the wiki article doesn't discuss the frequency shift of the light, but yes, that's also another effect of relativity. As I understand it, the stationary observer would see the light on board the train 'blue shift' as it's approaching, and 'red shift' as it's receding. The observer on board the train, however, wouldn't observe this effect.[/quote']Unless I'm mistaken, the Doppler shift in light isn't an effect of relativity.
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Re: A couple of brain cells connected...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology#Definition_and_usage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology#Paleolithic_.282.5_million_.E2.80.93_10.2C000_BC.29
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/technology
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/technology
Banging two rocks togther can easily be technology.
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Re: Terran Empire changes
At that size, you might be right.
On the other hand, look at how long it took our one planet to go from 1 billion to 6.5 billion people.
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Re: Escape From Terra
Probably not.
So far, a nice comic.
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Re: The next District 9 about Alien Invasion?
The Rule of Kewl makes me want to bang my head on my desk.
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Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???
Actually it's exactly the same phenomenon. If we were discussing light' date=' then the viewers would perceive light of different colors (assuming a really fast train). What color is the light in "reality"?[/quote']If you'd read the linked Wiki article, you'd see that we're not talking about Doppler shift in light.
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Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???
Ummmm' date=' I'm confused. The person on the train hears one frequency, the person on the platform hears a different frequency. So what frequency is it? How can it be two different frequencies simultaneously?[/quote']I suspect you know the answer, and that the Doppler effect is not the same class of phenomenon as what's being suggested in the "train example" for light.
(For those who don't know, the person on the train doesn't experience the Doppler effect that the person on the platform does because he's moving with the train and the horn.)
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Re: Possible Future Salvage
Nice find, Nyrath.
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Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???
I surrender. At this point' date=' reviewing the thread, I have to conclude that you understand what we're saying, but you don't want to accept it. That's fine. Let me just say that special relativity is not a matter of perception or personal philosophy or even common sense. It's a scientific framework that has been challenged, and confirmed, over the course of a hundred years by lots of very smart people who are fully aware of how crazy it sounds. I urge you to research it further using whatever scientific sources you trust. Hopefully it'll click one day, because it's pretty cool, mind-expanding stuff.[/quote']As far as I'm concerned, there has to be a solution that doesn't involve mutliple realities of the same event. I had no problem with relativity as a concept until I read the train example, and then the whole thing fell apart for me.
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Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???
Think of it as akin to the Doppler effect. If I'm on the train, the pitch of the horn is constant. If I'm on the platform, the pitch of the horn changes as it passes.Question: What's the pitch of the horn?
Answer: It depends on your frame of reference.
Is that two different actual realities of the same event? No, it's one reality as it affects two different frames of reference. The "reality" is the horn vibrates the air at a certain frequency in its reference frame. Its effect changes in different reference frames.
Same with the simultaneity scenario. The reality is "two beams of light are emitted in opposite directions in the train car." The effect changes in different reference frames.
Anyway.
The Doppler effect is an actual change in the frequency of the sound or other wave.
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Re: What are the chances of multiple sentient races to evolve/be created on one world
There's some confusion in terminology, with "race" used in a lot of fantasy gaming where "species" would be more appropriate.
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Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???
Well, not to put too fine a point on it, but engineers who design high tech equipment have to take it seriously.If you do not take into account Einstein's relativity, things like GPS devices will not work. They have to make corrections for relativistic effects.
From a practical standpoint, it does not matter if it seems to be impossible, it is just the way the universe works.
Experimental and engineering confirmation of relativity, sure.
Two different actual realities of the same event? Not a chance.
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Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???
That's the weird thing. It's not an optical illusion. It is reality. That's where the time dilation comes from. The reason the engineer sees the light beam moving away from the train faster than I do is because time is moving slower for the engineer. Time is moving much slower for the rocket camera, due to its speed.(Incidentally we tend to simplify the thought experiments by anthropomorphizing them with humans, cameras, etc. But when I say "observer," I don't mean there has to be some intelligence or perception mechanism. Anything that has any kind of contact with the object can be called an "observer.")
Which I admit keeps tripping me up; it's one of those unfortunate terms of art.
But I think I'm just going to drop it. That there can be two different realities of the same event is just too impossible to take seriously.
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Re: The next District 9 about Alien Invasion?
In other words, yet another victory for "kewl".
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Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???
So there's a difference between perception and reality, then, or something.
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Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???
I'm not suggesting an absolute frame of reference.
It's just that:
A) two mutually exclusive things cannot be true, and
if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, it still makes the same noise -- the observer is unnecessary to the continuance of reality. -
Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???
None of which changes the fact that the train is either moving in relationship to the photons from the flash, or it isn't. It cannot be both.
If it is, then the photons reach the back before they reach the front. If it is not, then the photons reach both ends at the same time. It doesn't matter what the guy on the train sees, or the guy on the platform sees.
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Re: What are the chances of multiple sentient races to evolve/be created on one world
Look at the range of environments people lived in across the Americas, though, and the level of technology they did (or did not) have.
Of course, it does depend on what you meant by "large numbers".
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Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type
The HERO system has been heading towards a longer sheet over time because of the way more and more powers are built from fewer Powers with more and more modifiers.
In 5th, you had Regeneration turned into a heavily modified Healing.
In 6th, Force Field is now Armor (or whatever that's being called now) with modifiers heaped on.
Etc.
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Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???
Well' date=' you see, there's this guy named Einstein who had a few thoughts on that very subject....[/quote']OK, so how does the light do both? I don't mean appear to do one or the other depending on where you're standing, I mean actually do both?
if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, it still makes the same noise -- the observer is unnecessary to the continuance of reality.
"Tightening the Curve" on damage
in HERO System Discussion
Posted
Re: "Tightening the Curve" on damage
This is for my upper-heroic-level science fiction game. I'm looking for fairly realistic, but with PC lethality based more on their choices than on random factors. Offsetting the realism is the access to future equipment, cybernetics, bioenhancement, etc.