Vondy

Re: All ghosts evil? Wraith: The Oblivion. They might well bother you indeed....

Re: All ghosts evil? Who would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those darned kids!

Re: Younger PCs; Older Players Not really. I think its more of a theoretical simulationist/aesthetic question. Put another way, assume you are in a game simulating fiction that has teen heroes, or playing characters who are younger as a means of avoiding playing a "hardened veteran," but you, yourself are older - is it entirely dissonant or "squicky" for such characters to be put into stories with themes that will keep older players interested?

Re: STD carrier

Re: STD carrier I would probably go way higher. When you consider the need to seduce someone, and the time required to do so, find a suitable place, and perform the act itself, you are looking at the very least a skill-roll and a big extra-time limitation. I'd probably ball-park it at -3, but a more realistic 20 Minutes to 1 Hour on the Extra Time chart would push it higher, IIRC.

Re: STD carrier

Re: My Elves Are Different! I broke my fantasy teeth on Robert E Howard, Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock, and Robert Aspirin. And the Robin Hood Ballads, older King Arthur stories, and Sinbad from the 1001 Arabian Nights. It was only later I encountered Tolkein and learned I liked the source material he drew from far more than what he wrote himself. I feel much the same about most elfy writers I've read. People can say elves are whatever they want and it doesn't bother me one wit, but, overall, I've yet to meet an elf I could bothered to like.

Re: STD carrier

Re: STD carrier Without bantering about the aesthetics of the question, I'd probably go with a transform that gives the recipient a physical and social limitation. It would, obviously, not affect someone with immunity to disease, etc. The level of transform (cosmetic, etc) should probably be linked to the effects of the disease (from mildly annoying and uncomfortable to long-term lethal). It would heal back through medicine (or amazing healing powers) as apropos. That said, if a sniggering GM were to infect one of my PCs with an STD I'd just close my books, pack my bags, and walk out FOR GOOD. But that is another story...

Re: Younger PCs; Older Players

Re: Younger PCs; Older Players

I've noticed a lot of protagonists in fantasy fiction are in their teens. This, when I was a teen, was not such an issue, but even then I tended to play characters between 20 and 40. Perhaps not successfully, but I tried.... Now I'm older and the young protagonists are sometimes jarring. Their competence and stories often seem at odds with their age. This could, to some extent, be due to modern mores, but even in the medieval period the age of majority was generally 20. True, we see historical accounts of young noblewomen getting married at 14-16, but that was driven by politics and unique to their station. The average age of a common born girl getting married was often over 20 due to taxes, fees, and general mores. And a squire did not become a knight until much the same age. Nor did noble wards inherit their lands and titles until about that time in life. Sometimes things were different with monarchs and we see young kings, true, but they were monarchs! And they usually had grown ups running things for them. But, Conan emerges on the scene at 19 having been sung of at campfires for his bloody deeds at Venarium at 15. And George RR Martin? Aya is 11, Danerys 13, Sansa 14, John Snow 15, Robb Stark 17. And Robb Stark leads and army and is declared king of the north in that year. True, Alexander the Great conquered the world by the time he was 30, but he only got started at 20. I guess the point of this meandering post is how one simulates such characters without having your game turn into the fantasy version of teen champions, or getting squicky about modern mores, especially where teen love is concerned. Do you just pull an RR Martin and write them like adults (for the most part) and tell grown up tales? Such characters aren't even really adults by medieval standards (the most often simulated fantasy milieu), though more was often put upon them, and they don't have sufficient age for a great deal of sophistication. At the same time, for adults to enjoy the story it will have to have a certain adult sensibility. Not necessarily TV-MA or NC-17, but it has to reach the target demographic. The obvious answer is "just play older characters," but how does one use the trope for adults?

Re: Conan: The Current Movie in Progress..... Da' Bears!

Re: Shoule NASA be nixed?

Re: Shoule NASA be nixed? First, a massive portion of what NASA does is aeronautic R&D and not just the high-profile space mission. So, the real question is whether the "space" part should be shut down. I would answer no. We still need launch vehicles for satellites, even if they are rockets, balloons with boosters, or something truly revolutionary like a laser propulsion elevator. There is also the satellites themselves, some government research, some military, and some commercial, which form the backbone of modern, global information culture. I guess I'm saying nixing the "space" part of the mission isn't really the question. The REAL question is: should we kill the "exploration" part of the mission. I would answer no. BUT I do think we need to rethink and reorganize our goals. Why are we mounting the mission beyond symbolic boots on the ground? What is our goal? Because how we invest and organize the "exploration" part of the mission can only flow for that. We're done beating the soviets and have no propaganda fueled cold-war space race to win. Are we seeking resources (what and from where?), orbital research and manufacturing stations, an SPS array? Each requires something very different than Apollo 11 or the space shuttles. And, even if those missions are tenuous on an economic level, the long-term benefits of the space program are still there. Not just in expanding infrastructure, but in the R&D. I couldn't give a rodent's backside about an American flag on the moon and some inspirational words from Neil Armstrong. Those are attaboys. But all the technology and know-how we reaped from getting them there... THAT is a worthwhile investment. So, what new space mission do we have that has benefits in terms of what we learn and build from doing it - and maybe has a benefit in of itself? That is what the space program should be doing. Boots on Mars for its own sake? A nice sentiment - but a potentially wasteful one.

Re: Conan: The Current Movie in Progress.....

Re: Conan: The Current Movie in Progress.....

Re: If you Had to Pick, ONE (already) Setting, to Run in, What is it? Since I liked the Akira and wish it had gotten more screen time it didn't bother me so much. But, there's also the proposed Season 5 refit that was never used.... There's plenty of concept art and models of it online.

Re: If you Had to Pick, ONE (already) Setting, to Run in, What is it? And, at this point, you've got lots of graphics and full deck plans of the NX-01 to use.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

Re: Musings on Random Musings Not intentionally.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings I realized my cynicism is deep ingrained. I was writing a bit of dialog for a short story about a private military / intelligence contractor who takes off the books "private commissions" from people in need - or to obtain justice via extralegal means. Anyways, in this scene he's explaining to a client / romantic interest what it is he does - and why he does it. "I'm a contractor." "That's suitably vague." "Yes." "For whom?" "Do I contract?" "Yes, for whom do you you contract?" "People the State Department approves of, mostly." "Mostly?" "State isn't exactly a bastion of erudition or ideals." "Oh? What is it a bastion of?" "Interests." "You mean our national interests." "In as much as money and those who control it are interested in our nation, yes." "And when they aren't interested?" "I take a personal interest."

Re: If you Had to Pick, ONE (already) Setting, to Run in, What is it? Silcore is one of my (few) Hero alternate systems. I run it in the original system, esp. since its got a great vehicle system, which science fiction needs. But, as for the Exos, I'd agree. Its a great game for that too. It just feels either/or to me. If you're running an Exo based game the rest of the (very cool) setting is just background noise. And if you aren't, then the Exo's are extraneous.

Re: My Elves Are Different! I tend to run settings that either don't have non-humans, or which are geared to human cultures and PCs as the norm.

Re: My Elves Are Different! I run humans only games. For PCs, at least.