Vondy

Re: Blasters: why? I don't even think you need to go to the extreme of FTL travel to make the argument. A lot of "hard" science fiction without FTL has theoretical technological leaps like Particle Combustion Chambers, Laser Lift Elevators (or the popular beanstalk concept), self-replicating nano, artificial intelligence, and the like. None of these things are less improbable than a working energy weapon. I do think durability is going to be an issue due to lenses and alignment, but not necessarily an issue that can't be overcome.

Re: Blasters: why? You might also be able to plug it into a standard wall outlet for recharge.

Re: Just saw 6th Edition and got a chance to leaf through it... I think 6E looks great. I also like most of the changes. But Hero has gotten increasingly massive and granular with each subsequent edition and has reached my tipping point. Hero has become the system I admire meditatively as a Platonic form, but never use due to the amount of work involved. It has a grandiose conceptual glory to it. But for heroic genres, which is what holds my interest, there are generally other systems model what I want (often quite well or in rare cases better) with a far less blood, sweat, and toil. Its painful to admit, but Hero has become too much for me.

Re: Fantasy Economies: How closely should we examine them? Game settings can have fridge logic, IMO. They cannot, however, have plot holes you can drive your suspension of disbelief through.

Re: Fantasy Economies: How closely should we examine them? Is that a universal characteristic of every religion in every fantasy setting? I think its a rather broad assumption. The Haleans from Harn come to mind. Sure, they might "do it" for free, but a ritual - especially a miracle - that's going to cost you! The initiated will understand.

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares Enough said...

Re: What If? Fertility Control One major point of concern is how ubiquitous and affordable fertility related magic is? If it requires difficult to obtain components, is exhausting for the caster, or is expensive for whatever reason you will see a stratification in society. The wealthy, influential, and powerful will be able to avail themselves of it, while the poor will be churning out babies. This will favor more modern (or roman) style armies that don't rely on mounted nobility for its elite striking power. Indeed, I would think money and land ownership - plutocrats - would supplant the traditional spurs and swords aristocracy.

Re: Younger PCs; Older Players It occurs to me that another way of introducing inexperienced heroes is to introduce older, experienced people whose developed expertise isn't traditional "heroing" expertise. It could still be useful, but they wouldn't necessarily be hardened heroes at the outset.

Re: Once Were Minions Is a wereminion an upright citizen who is only a minion under the full moon?

Re: A galaxy of humans

Re: John Carter (of Mars) Trailer Which is a far cry from 'exclusive.'

Re: John Carter (of Mars) Trailer I like Frazetta as much as the next pulp fan, but Burroughs wrote these stories before Frazetta was even born. Frazetta's work is just one artist's vision of the Barsoom. It is admittedly very popular, but it is not even remotely sacred gospel. I'm willing to consider alternate visions of Barsoom's aesthetic insofar as they work with, rather than against, the prose and contain sufficient "cool."

For the more engineering inclined.... I'm working up a futuristic submarine based on this piece of concept art. I know its not a lot to work from, but using the dolphins as a reference, can anyone provide some numbers? Length, Height, Beam, Draft? Estimated tonnage? Edit: I found the artists site and he says its 144ft/44meters. Can anyone extrapolate the other dimensions/tonnage?

Re: John Carter (of Mars) Trailer

Re: Earth Goes Poof, Wherefore Art Thou Luna? Of course, I can see the inhabitants of the moon, now sitting in earth's orbit, having discovered they now share quantum bi-location with the Earth, saying... "Maybe we'd better leave it where it is."

Re: Earth Goes Poof, Wherefore Art Thou Luna? Thank you! Of course, I'm not sure I want a science fiction setting predicated on "whoops!"

Re: Earth Goes Poof, Wherefore Art Thou Luna? Just to throw in another factor: would colonies on the moon survive the tidal forces of the adjustment? And, if the moon has colonies in its own orbit, would they simply follow its path, or fall away or be ripped apart?

I'm working on a moderately hard science-fiction setting set in the solar system with the caveat that the earth is suddenly not a major player and its colonies are left to survive with their umbilical to the sustaining mother-world cut. This period would be called "the great silence" or "the birthing." I haven't decided exactly why the earth has fallen silent, yet. I'm pondering apocalyptic scenarios to consider which serves my purposes best. But, I did run across a bizarre, out-there scenario that made me laugh and consider impact all at once. I'm 99% certain I won't use this one, but... So, here's what I'm wondering about. Let's assume we have a localized quantum vacuum collapse that causes the earth, but not the rest of the solar system, to go "poof" and disappear? I know that means the lagrange points are no longer stable points of gravity and the colonies there would float away. Maybe, in theory, if they have positioning thrusters, they could reorient a slow course into a distant orbit, but most would probably be toast. But what about the moon. Is it going to fall into earth's old orbit? Is it going to become a satellite of a larger planet? Or is it going to spin wildly out of the solar system?

Re: Star Wars: Technological Stagnation?

Re: Cybernetics and Bioengineering: what are YOUR limits? Yes. You miss the entire point of the bekenstein bound. Using material engineering physics, your something that performs the functions of a neuron that is smaller than a neuron doesn't exist. Based on mass to size level for information storage you have numerous theoretical leaps to jump through to get where you need to be and we don't even know if some of them are possible.. This is the entire reason theoretical computer engineering models so frequently depart from traditional computer material engineering models and look at other mediums, like biological computers or light based computers manipulating protons. In the case of the latter there is a great deal of money being spent because it is - in theory - radically more efficient, significantly faster, and doesn't require as many mcguffin leaps of science to accomplish. It relies on accepted theories we would have to apply. And, a light based computer could, based on size to mass, process and store information faster and with greater quantity than the human brain.

Re: Star Wars: Technological Stagnation?

Re: Star Wars: Technological Stagnation?

Re: Cybernetics and Bioengineering: what are YOUR limits? Without several theoretical technological hurdles computers will not rival the brain in terms of the relationship of mass to computing power or density of information storage. This does not take in the sophistication of the mechanism. I am not saying its impossible, but unless we overcome several successive theoretical hurdles we will not be able to push the Bekenstein bound that far. On the other hand, computers several orders of magnitude larger than a human being might be able mimic human intelligence. As for the sophistication, however, material engineering may never be able to pull that off. In fact, I don't think it will. To really match the human brain on a pound for pound level, let alone match the sophistication of the brain, we'll have to either be able to manipulate information on the proton level in light-based computers, or engineer bio-computers with denser cell structures than our own brains (interconnected super-brains in a vat!). But that won't happen if we're researching computers. It will only happen if we research our brains. Because we don't really understand what makes them such a powerful and unique tool. Only when we understand the brain can we really determine whether we can duplicate or improve upon it.

Re: Star Wars: Technological Stagnation? Similar?

Re: Star Wars: Technological Stagnation?