cyst13

Re: Gaming advice for 24/CTU? Actually, that's a pretty good idea. Then I could have the players controlling two characters a piece (field agent & techie), which would eliminate the downtime prob of switching tween player groups. Thanx. Sometimes solutions are so obvious you have to ask some one else to joggle your brain in order to see them.

Is anyone gaming the TV show 24? I have a specific question in regards to a counter-terrorism campaign. As a GM, how should I deal with the tech support at CTU headquarters? Here's the conundrum that I see: If I run the tech guys as NPCs, it would be nearly impossible to include any of the interpersonal rivalries, betrayals and double-crosses that are rife within the headquarters on the show. I'd be reduced to periodically informing the field agents that someone's been replaced or a double-agent has just been exposed -- borrring! Other hand, if I make the techies PCs, I'd essentially be running two separate games simultaneously throughout the entire campaign -- Aaagh! Does anyone have a viable solution to this quandry?

Re: How long does tech last after The End? Toadmaster, I buy everything in your last post. Even if more advanced communities absorb the less advanced, though, there will still be a window of time before the absorption takes place. I think that window will provide an ideal space for drama. I hadn't earlier considered this, but the time of King Arthur was a small window between the retreat of Rome and the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons. Socio-political transition points make for excellent story opportunities.

Re: How long does tech last after The End? I think Ian raises an extremely cogent point about transmitting info to the next generation. Consider the psychology of the people who survive a cataclysmic virus. They would have watched most/all of their loved ones die. Indeed, this virus is of the encephalitic variety, so it causes violent rages in its victims. Having gone through a major trauma like that, how sociable would they be feeling? Would they have they requisite patience and empathy necessary to be good teachers? Also, their own children would likely be dead, so they'd be passing their skills onto strangers for little/no pay. Education would suffer.

Re: How long does tech last after The End? My thinking on humanity's ability to produce technology is that it requires a critical mass of population. If human population is reduced to a few million worldwide, there simply won't be enough people left to operate and manage all the extraction, production, distribution, and retail organizations necessary to maintain a high level of tech in society. Could be wrong about this, tho. Any thoughts?

This may be a stupid question, but I honestly do not know the answer. Will the municipal water reservoir continue to be replenished by rain and run through the city's pipes after govt. stops functioning. My game is set in Portland, OR, 40 yrs PA. The apoc was a virus which, of course, did no physical damage to the infrastructure. The water mains would have received no maintenance for 4 decades. Would water still flow through the taps?

Re: How many crops to support one adult? Wyrm, Thanx for the tip. I've never heard of this guy. I chose Portland cuz I live here. Before I ever considered a PA game, I used to walk around my neighborhood (downtown) and wonder, "what if I were the only one left? What would I do?" It definitely makes you pay closer attention to your surroundings when you are considering how to convert everything to PA utility. I'll definitely check-out this trilogy. Closely researched "realism" is exactly what I'm looking for. Thanx again.

Re: STRONGHOLD -- What Do You Want To See? I'd like to see a section on the social life of the inmates. The U.S. Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment does not allow prisons to hold all prisoners in permanent isolation because social contact is a basic human need. Given that, if the prisoners are allowed some time during the day to mingle, what do they do? Do they form gangs or cliques? Do they make contacts and hatch plots for when they return to the outside? How do their superpowers affect their social interactions? If there is some sort of superpower suppressor device in operation, how does the loss of superpowers affect the psychology/morale of former demi-gods?

This question is specific to my campaign but should be of interest to most GMs of PA games. My setting is Portland, OR, 40 years post-apocalypse (PA). The apoc came in the form of a virus that killed off 99.9% of the human population over the course of the year 2015 AD. My primary concern is whether any wind turbines or solar panels would still be functional. Assume it is at least possible that some one could have been doing the sort of regular maintenance spelled out in the owner's manual, but nothing more. Spare parts would be unavailable. Would any of these devices be capable of producing electricity in the year 2055? Corrolary: would it be possible for fully electric cars (like the ones currently in production) to survive 40 yrs, assuming some electricity generation is still available. How long can an electric car's battery last if it is used everyday? How long would it last if were sitting unused in a protected garage? How long can an electric car in operation be used before it begins to require parts replacement? Third: Some mention of how long contemporary firearms would survive in usuable condition would also help.

Re: How many crops to support one adult? Thanx all for replying so quickly to this thread. Much appreciated. Unfortunately, you've given me an overabundance of information. The most useful inormation was in the form of a rule of thumb (3 acres/person). However, this is only truly useful if it is accurate. I wish I had thought to include a polling option for this thread. In lieu of that, I ask you to indulge me once more. Would everyone who considers themselves to be knowledgeable on this subject please leave a brief reply to the following question: Is 3 acres to feed one person per year an accurate rule of thumb? If so, answer yes. If not, answer either "too high" or "too low". I thank you for your help. And for the record, I was assuming the climate to be the same as present day Portland, OR and the farming method to be the three field rotation system possibly with oxen-drawn plows.

I'm asking this in relation to a post-apocalypse campaign, but it could be relevant for fantasy campaigns as well. How many crops (in acres) have to be harvested to support one adult human for a year? My campaign is going to take place in downtown Portland, OR post-apocalypse. No radiation will be involved. Portland has a number of city blocks given over to grass. I'm assuming survivors convert this area to farming and live in the neighboring apartment buildings. I need to know how many survivors this land will support. Any help will be much appreciated.

Re: Any advice for a CSI-style campaign? Lotsa good pointers. Thanx, gamers.

Re: Any advice for a CSI-style campaign? Many good suggestions, thanx. I don't believe anyone has yet addressed the question of how to describe the crime scene to the players, though. Let's say the crime scene is a family murdered in a home. How should I describe this to my players?

Re: Any advice for a CSI-style campaign? Yes, I do. Second question?

As per Steven Long's suggestion, I am re-posting this advice request on this board. It was originally on the Other Genres board. I'd like advice from anyone with experience at running a campaign in the style of the TV show, CSI: crime scene investigations. How do you design the adventures? How do you keep the players on track without railroading them or resorting to deus ex machinas? Also, I'd like to know how to verbally describe crime scenes in order to give the players all the necessary info and clues without creating an infodump which gives away the game at the start. How much detail should I offer when the PCs arrive on the scene? How much should I make them work for? How should perception rolls be used? How should PS: CSI skill be used? When would it be necessary to make rolls? The show relies heavily on indirection; the CSI guys often misinterpret the facts early in the investigation and have to reformulate their ideas as they proceed. Any advice on how to achieve this effect with players?

I'd like advice from anyone with experience at running a campaign in the style of the TV show, CSI: crime scene investigations. How do you design the adventures? How do you keep the players on track without railroading them or resorting to deus ex machinas? Also, I'd like to know how to verbally describe crime scenes in order to give the players all the necessary info and clues without creating an infodump which gives away the game at the start. How much detail should I offer when the PCs arrive on the scene? How much should I make them work for? How should perception rolls be used? How should PS: CSI skill be used? When would it be necessary to make rolls? The show relies heavily on indirection; the CSI guys often misinterpret the facts early in the investigation and have to reformulate their ideas as they proceed. Any advice on how to achieve this effect with players?

Re: Modelling jousts in Hero Thanks fellahs. You've given me much to mull.

This seems like it should have come up long ago, but I can't recall the topic being addressed. What is the best way to run a classic joust in which two knights with lance and shield charge at each other on horseback? Some of the concerns I have with running it as normal Hero combat are: 1. jousts are supposed to be simultaneous charges, but Hero uses alternating movement phases; 2. tournament lances are designed to unhorse opponents without doing much damage, but Hero rules necessitate doing significant damage before the target is knocked down; 3. jousting knights are expected to use their lance and shield together, but Hero doesn't allow simultaneous blocks & attacks; 4. the standard OCV vs. DCV mechanic doesn't evoke the subtle nuance of what jousting is. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

If character A has a force field with the adder "Covers personal gear" and character B attempts to Grab a pistol in A's belt, does the FF interfere, and if so, how?

Re: Modern Hero? Cyber/Transhuman Hero? should they publish these? Nexus, It's not that Hero would have to do a fine job with Transhuman Space, it's that they would have to do such a spectacularly awesome job of it that they could convince the gamers currently playing the GURPS version to switch over to Hero. Since GURPS TS is already one of the two or three best RPG lines I've read, EVER, I think it'd be a bit more than a mere challenge to pull that off. I mean, I love Hero. It's my favorite system of all time. And I hate the GURPS system, but I've already invested close to 300$ in GURPS TS. Am I really going to give that up now just to save myself the trouble of converting GURPS stats to Hero? Not likely.

Re: Modern Hero? Cyber/Transhuman Hero? should they publish these? I agree with everything Dauntless said about Transhuman Space, except the need for Hero to do a book of it. I just can't imagine Hero doing a better job of encapsulating the setting than SJG has done. Hero supplements tend to be rather broad and cartoony. That's good for most action genres, but it'd be death for Transhuman Space. TS is all about hard sci-fi. In my estimation, it's the most sophisticated game currently on the market. If Hero were to publish a version of it, they'd be doing a LOT of catch up. (There are already about 10 GURPS TS books out) And I don't think they'd be able to draw away many of the current GURPS TS fans. That wouldn't leave them with much of a customer base. Hero seems to do much better with broad genre books than with specific settings. There probably better off playing to their strengths.

Re: Implications of single-aspect magic on game worlds Outsider, Assuming your intuition is correct and gates do promote near-universal literacy, what effect would this have on politics and religion. Would this initiate the Rennaisance sooner? Would a literate society foster a greater rate of social and technological change? How dangerous would literate peasants be to the medieval hierarchy?

Re: What is Evil? As to how this all relates in to the thread's topic: I think unmotivated evil is a boring and unrealistic concept and it's best left in the RPG trashbin along with dungeoncrawls and gold pieces = Exp.

Re: What is Evil? See, Phil, we really do agree. I would vote for all 7 of the statements you listed. You were even right about my intending to write, "unmotivated or intrinsic" evil gets old. I never actually wrote anything in disagreement with statements 4, 6, & 7. I think you may have assumed that to be my position based on past experience with other people who held a position similar to mine. Whenever someone suggests in public that there are intelligible reasons why some people/societies do bad things, certain elements on the Right accuse them of wanting to let criminals roam free. I'm not accusing you of this, I'm just saying that this background may have played a role in your assumption that I disagreed with any of your listed statements. While I agree with all 7 statements, including the intent of #1, I still don't like the word 'evil'. I realize that you've said you are not using it in a supernatural way, but many people still do use it that way. And it's very difficult to tell in conversation whether some one means evil (def. 1 or 7). As an example, if you have kids, you might admonish them for doing something wrong by saying "You are a bad boy/girl." But I strongly doubt you would call your own child evil, even if you intend def. 1. There is just too much baggage that goes with that word to use it loosely in a rational debate. It's the kind of word that stirs people up to the point that they stop thinking and start shouting. Other than that, though, we seemed to have sorted out all our differences on this subject. Good job!

Re: Is "evil race" an intrinsically rascist concept? For my example, I'm going to choose the same one I've been using. First, though, I'm not talking about committing evil. I think that's a loaded term for the reasons I expressed in another thread. There are two distinct connotations for evil and people rarely bother to specifiy which they intend. Instead, this is an example of people allowing unconscious biases to influence their decisions: the juror example given above. Unconscious biases play important roles in the decidions of jurors, judges, politicians, and scientists. It is common practice for people in all these positions to excuse themselves from their duties in the interest of avoiding unconscious bias. The double-blind method of experimentation was designed specifically to counteract possible biases by the subjects and scientists involved in medical experiments. If evil races in games do predispose players towards stereotyping real life groups of people, I don't think this would likely manifest itself in violent acts. I don't believe even the most violent RPGs promote real life violence. However, this unconscious bias might manifest itself in the decisions jurors make, in voting decisions, and in the friends one chooses. I can't prove this, but that's my hypothesis. As far as consciously willing away one's biases, it's been shown repeatedly that even well educated professionals who are fully aware of the concept of observer biases continue to exhibit those biases. There is an extensive literature dealing with this in the sciences since it directly relates to the ability to do objective science. Perhaps I'll try to find some studies to cite at a later date. One of the reasons why I specifically do not like the intrinsic element of evil races is because it severely restricts PC options. I've harped on this before, but once more can't hurt. If an entire race is evil for the sake of evil and they pose a threat to you and yours, all that you can do is destroy them. Sometimes this is the case in real life, as when we fought the Nazis (which, BTW, I support). More often, though, there are other options than military force. With terrorism, for example, while military confrontation is an option and many times a necessity, this usually must be supplemented with non-violent forms of intervention. There is an excellent tome called The Other Path which describes how the govt. of Peru largely conquered the Sundero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerillas/terrorists through legal and economic means. They restructured the economy of the nation to allow the poor to start their own businesses and own their own homes. Once they were invested in the health of the Peruvian nation, the poor were no longer fertile recruiting ground for the Sunderos. Many Sunderos quit the rebel life and joined the civilian economy. That is one kind of intervention to stop an evil (def 1) group that would not be possible against an intrinsically evil race. You can't offer intrinsically evil beings any incentives to stop doing evil. You can only kill them, and then go kill some more of them. This may work for computer games, but in RPGs, it's a real yawn. I'm glad to hear you've enjoyed this debate, Phil. I'm really sick of it, but that's no reflection on you. I've been arguing this thing for 18 pages now. P.S: When you admitted to unconscious impulses to do things like tap your fingers, you allowed me to sneak in a reference to a great book about the emotional basis of decision making. Antonio Damasio, a highly respected neuroresearcher and physician, wrote a book entitled Descarte's Error. In it, he gives evidence from his own clinical practice and from experimental research that the state of one's body can influence one's thoughts. He shows how your body in effect creates your emotions. When you feel irritable when your body is tensed up, that affects your decision making process. I can't possibly do justice to the thesis of this book in this thread, but if you are interested in reading a non-hippie book about this topic, I highly recommend this one.