Barwickian

Re: "Neat" Pictures How do I make this full size? [ATTACH=CONFIG]44268[/ATTACH]

Re: I hate naming villages/Kingdoms Hells yeah. And all the rules of Story dictate that either the PCs must Fish the Middle to resolve the conflict, or the boss will be the Middle Fisher, who must be defeated ro restore harmony. Or both. That's a kind of Zen Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg.

Re: I hate naming villages/Kingdoms Then it's time to mention the Angelsey village Llanfair PG - in full, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (here's an .ogg file demonstrating how to say it) Like other places, its name has a meaning: St Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near the rapid whirlpool of Llandysilio of the red cave.

Re: I hate naming villages/Kingdoms

Re: Announcement: The Monster Hunter International RPG! Not heard of Larry Correia or MHI before this (not easy to keep current in the desert). But I followed the links and found one of his short stories and the first seven chapters of the first MHI novel and devoured them. Yeah, this is cool, really cool, and very close to an Urban Fantasy Hero campaign idea I've been toying with. Love what I've read so far. I'll have to see if I can find Larry's books when I'm in the UK next week; I'll Amazon order them if I don't find them - Baen books aren't always easy to find on the old side of the Pond. So tell Larry the cross-fertilisation works both ways. And count me in for the Kickstarter when it's ready. I'll go printed book for this one, spare cash permitting.

Re: I hate naming villages/Kingdoms Lots of inspiration in modern place names if you have a smattering of knowledge about the process. Many Old World place names have very mundane meanings once you decipher them. But they're weathered with age. The ageing process is what makes them sound cool and unusual. This method will require you to invent some name elements in your fictional language, or borrow some from an existing or dead one. I grew up in a village called Barwick-in-Elmet, known as Barwick for short (and pronounced Barrick, not Bar-wick). Barwick derives from the Old English bere-wic, which means beer farm or beer village. A thousand years ago it was an outlying settlement of what was then a larger village, Kippax (Chipesch, or place of the ash trees in Old English). The "in Elmet" part of the name distinguishes it from other 'beer farms'. Elmet was an ancient British (as opposed to Saxon) kingdom, one of the last surviving kingdoms of Yr Hen Ogledd (Welsh: The Old North), the post-Roman British lands that fell, one by one, to the Saxons in the 6th & 7th centuries. Yr Hen Ogledd is long forgotten, though one of its kings, Hen Cwl ('Old Cole') is remembered in a nursery rhyme. Barwick lies between Leeds (old name Loidis, origin uncertain) and York. York has an interesting place-name history. It started life (we think) as Ebarakon, place of the yew trees in a northern Brythonic dialect. When the Romans came, they Latinised it to Eboracum. There's then a bit of a linguistic disjoint. To the Saxons it was Eoforwic (boar-town), which morphed into Jorvik (horse-bay or horse-port) under the Vikings. The modern name derives from Jorvik (pronounced Yor-wik). That introduces us to an English/Norse place-name element: -wic. In Old English it could mean either farm/village or, later, river port/trading place. In the latter sense it's probably (ie, I believe but don't know) etymologically related to the Old Norse vik, bay or river mouth, which is one possible etymology for the word Viking. Place-name elements in old languages. This is what gives your fantasy place names a sense of age and consistency. Usually these elements are attached to the name of a person or natural feature. Here are some English ones (with examples of how they're used). I'm not going to be too worried if I mix some Norse or even Welsh elemets in, but I'll point some obvious ones out. -ley (and variants -leigh, -lay, -ly): natural clearing in woodland -thorpe (Norse): hamlet -ham: village -ey: island -hay: enclosure -inga- (usually a middle element): people of, usually in the sense of tribe or clan (Nottingham, old name Snotingaham - village where Snota's people live) -den: valley -don: hill -cester (and variants -chester, caster): camp, castle or fortress, usually applied to old Roman towns. caer- (Welsh): Castle, fortification (Caernarfon, Caerleon, Caer Paravel) dun or -dun (Ancient British, Gaelic): fort, stronghold (London). -burh (and variants -burgh, -borough, -brough): town, walled town -ville (Norman French): village, township -scire: country, area (bigger shires became administrative counties) Does that help? The basic idea I'm trying to get across is to make up some short personal names, make up some element names, and combine them. Let's look at some fictional examples: Language one - Glorantha Heortling, generated from EBON, the Everchanging Book of Names - one of the best RPG utils out there. Personal names Taind, Bonjard, Gritrumar, Eran Elements (I generate some random Heortling elements and assign meanings) horri - clearing arsi- marsh mer - people of gall - village rerth - farm gand - field Let's mix and match for place names: Taindorri, Bonjardmergall, Arsgall, Bonjammerreth, Erangand, Eranorri, Gritrumarrerth Those are kind of gutteral, but they're consistent, and a good start for further 'weathering'. Language 2 (French I, from Ebon) Personal names: Ermond, Cele, Herve, Arne Elements gand - clearing deric- marsh yrne - people of rielle - village ynis - farm jelie - field Mix & match: Celyrnerielle, Hervynis, Celegand, Arnegand, Ermondrielle, Ermonderic, Hervyrnejelie Totally different flavour, And again consistent.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I read that in hardback not long after it came out. I think it's a great book. There are three basic groups of Guy Gavriel Kay books. The Fionavar Tapestry (trilogy) - fairly standard crossworlds fantasy. Couple of nice touches in the magic system, but on the whole nothing special. Tigana (standalone) - Very nice standalone fantasy. Two rival evil wizards rule the lands of the Hand, and one has wiped all memory of the land of Tigana from everyone who wasn't born there. Our heroes are the rebels fighting him. I really like this book; read it several times. Song for Arbonne, Lions of Al-Rassan, Under Heaven - beautiful non-magic fantasies, inspired by Earth history. These are Kay's finest works, and I highly recommend them. Song for Arbonne is Provence of the troubadours/Cathars; Al-Rassan is Spain of the Reconquista *(and one of the heroes is most definietly El Cid), Under Heaven is Imperial China.

Re: "Neat" Pictures Not only do I want to drink here, I think I know where I'd like to be 'buried'. Does anybody know which tavern this is? [ATTACH=CONFIG]44065[/ATTACH]

Re: Hero System Sixth Edition Concise Sign me up!

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities And that, in a nutshell, is what the whole issue of privilege is about: feeling safe, secure and confident. Or not. Of course, no one is quite so insecure as someone who feels entitled to their privilege and fears it's threatened. You find a lot of them on other forums. Does this thread stand any chance of getting off rape and back onto making girl geeks feel welcome in our hobby?

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities

Re: Quote of the Week From My Life. Me: Hey, I lost 5kg. Without even trying. Only 5 more to go. My wife, looking at me strangely: That's good. I go into the bedroom to get ready. I pause and come back. Me: Crap. We're getting ready for an all-you-can-eat, all-you-want-to-drink brunch. My wife, relieved the penny has dropped: Yes. We are. (Technically, the brunch is also billed as all-you-can-drink; that is, of course, far too perilous - we just want a little peril!)

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities A trauma trigger is ssomething that triggers a memory of a traumatic event. They are highly personal and extremely varied. It's diffficult to know what may trigger someone's particular trauma. I'm not sure what can be done other than be aware they exist. Exercise some sensitivity - for example, many members of ethnic minorities have experienced racism; it's tasteless to bring a racist attack into your game, even if you intend to show it as a bad thing. Likewise, an alarming number of women have suffered sexual molestation. Think before you include that rape scene. It boils down to tact, sensitivity and politeness.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities Sounds like a great comic shop, but this last line has me chuckling at the totally OT idea of a mash-up between your comic shop and your tattooist. "Can Spidey defeat the Green Goblin? Find out on the next exciting bicep!"

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities As I read this, I had the growing conviction that I'd read it somewhere before. An old piece you'd just found, but still vald and relevant. It wasn't until I clicked the link to the Anita Sarkeesian story that I realised it was a new piece, that I couldn't have read it before. And yet I have. Another geek woman facing exactly the same situation in a different shop. What will it take? More female staff in FLGS/FLCBSes would be a start - and a good one. Accessibility - not just for people with disabilities (though wheelchair access would be great), but a sense of open-ness and encouragement of fresh blood in the geek world, a chance to share and explain why we love what we love to others, no matter their sex, colour, creed or orientation. Some more open content in our source material would be better too, both comics and games. Lesbian characters who don't feel like they've been dreamed up by a 15-year-old with a box of Kleenex close to hand (ew), or introduced with some great song and dance in a cynical attempt to garner column inches and get free advertising by masquerading as inclusive (I'm looking right at you, DC). Gay characters, bisexual (male, as well as female - give me more Captain Jack Harkness, please!). Give us all the colours of the rainbow. Tasha, thank you for posting this. I'm WASP, cis, straight and male, and the kind of crud this article talks about goes on all the time in our geek culture. It's wrong, and there is no valid justification for it.

Re: Characters from Autoduel Champions Looks like a good start. I think I'd be inclined to use the Car Wars design system and translate the end result into Hero terms, rather than attempt to come up with a full design system that allows for mass and volume to play a role.

Re: Characters from Autoduel Champions I have both Autoduel editions and the complete run of AADA Road Atlas and Survival Guides. I've several editions of Car Wars and expansions. I keep toying with the idea of Autoduel Hero. I don't have Autoduel Champions. Curses.

Re: GM vs Player narrative authority Good grief. 17+ pages on this at rpg.net. 7 pages here. The answer seems obvious to me: refer to your social contract. If the group has agreed that GM interpretation carries stronger weight than player interpretation in this particular game, then the GM is in the right. If not, I'd give then benefit if the doubt to the player. If you game without discussing the social contract, this is the kind of mess you get yourself into (long-established groups tend to develop their own social contracts over the years, even without explicit discussion).

Re: Weapon Familiarity and Futuristic Weapons in a Modern Setting It's a supers game. Don't buy weapon familiarity, buy the weapons as a power.

Re: Camouflage?