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AmadanNaBriona

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  3. What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished?

    in Non-Gaming Discussion

    Posted

    Re: What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished?

     

    Rebels:The Irish Rising of 1916 by Peter DeRosa

     

    Good, accurate well researched and well documented chronological account of the Rising.

    Simultaneously inspiring and depressing as hell, reading about just how f-ed the whole situation was, and how my personal suite of heroes spent the time before they faced the firing squads' guns.

  11. Future Guns: Projectile Obsolete?

    in Star Hero

    Posted

    Re: Future Guns: Projectile Obsolete?

     

    Lots of David Drake books have projectile weapons. The Lt. Leary setting comes to mind as does the book: Redliners which has some really neat weapons all around as well as being a really good book in general.

     

    Yeah, Drake is pretty good with weapons design. He even came up with a good solid background for his unobtanium that made Powerguns work, which is the right way to do it... design up from base assumptions.

  12. The cranky thread

    in Non-Gaming Discussion

    Posted

    Re: The cranky thread

     

    Just got back from my preliminary termination meeting.

    My Union rep rocked. The Assistant Department head had a pretty good pokerface, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't what she expected (she's new, and I don't think she realized that I've been there longer than any of the current management). The HR rep seemed to like me tho.

    I'm generally optimistic that we might come to a resolution, but I'm prepared for the worst.

     

    Being free of my day job would increase both my mobility and my motive to make money, I guess

  13. Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities

    in Non-Gaming Discussion

    Posted

    Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities

     

    You aren't alone in thinking that Omega Male is too cool a term for the wolf that all the other wolves pick on. The people at Urban Dictionary agree. However' date=' I was interested in the animal behaviorist definition not the sorority girl definition.[/quote']

     

    LOL, totally. I'm big into behavioral psyche, so yeah, it's the right term.

    And... I don't think I said that...

  14. What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

    in Non-Gaming Discussion

    Posted

    Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

     

    Finished "The Man Who Never Missed" by Steve Perry.

     

    This book may be the first "Matador" novel in published order, but it is not the first book of the series in chronological order. That honor belongs to "The 97th Step".

     

    I read "The 97th Step" approximately 10 years ago. The fact that it took me 10 years to get around to the sequel ("The Man Who Never Missed") should speak volumes.

     

    I wanted to like both of these books. The title of "The Man Who Never Missed" seems to offer a promise of lots of action. Titles such as this draw action junkies (such as moi) like a flame draws a moth. Like the aforementioned moth...I feel a little singed having finished this book.

     

    There is very little action in this book. There are more pages devoted to becoming/being a bartender. The entire book feels like a buildup...which might have been appropriate if I hadn't ALREADY read a book in this series ("The 97th Step") that was all buildup!

     

    Will I go on to book number three, "Matadora"? Probably not. If that book turned out to be all buildup and no payout, I might start banging my head on the nearest piece of furniture. My head, being rather hard, might hurt the furniture. This would get me in trouble with the Wife...since she is rather fond of said furniture.

     

    At this point in time, I will not pursue this series further. 10 years down the road, who knows? Kinda depends on what is sitting on my "To Read" shelf and how my memory has degraded.

     

    I love the series, OTOH, but I suspect that reading them in chronological order might have colored your perceptions a bit. The 97th Step is really a prequel, and is best read that way (Edit: that is to say, after the main series)... otherwise, yeah, like you said, lots of buildup, followed by more, because The Man Who Never Missed is basically the first act of the story of the Rebellion

  15. Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities

    in Non-Gaming Discussion

    Posted

    Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities

     

    Early socialization is a big part of it, as well as changing the basic way we generally educate.

    Humans are clannish (fractally so), social pack animals with a dominance hierarchy.

    We can't alter that basic fact, but with what we know we can subvert the programs to more socially functional ends.

    A lot of the core paradigms in our school systems are still firmly rooted in producing Industrial Age citizens

    The ones I've looked at that are working along more modern theory, such as some of the private schools (Waldorf comes to mind) and many of the Scandinavian countries seem to be doing a much better job at producing more broadly socialized children. Promoting subcultures rather than suppressing them would be a good start. Sub-cultures form so like minded people can find each other, and new orders can form. It's a (generally) healthy expression of tribalism as surely as the fans of your local sports franchise are.

    Step down hard on bullying, and generally make a point of focusing on individualism, reasoning, personal responsibility, and respect, without regard to how a person is put together or wired, and we might be on the right path.

  17. Future Guns: Projectile Obsolete?

    in Star Hero

    Posted

    Re: Future Guns: Projectile Obsolete?

     

    That being said, a ultra high tech projectile weapon is gonna probably have several beam type functions built in. a boresight laser can act as a target designator, a rangefinger, can paint a target to achieve a computer target lock for guided munitions, and can be used to burn a collapsing vacuum tunnel through atmosphere that could be used to greatly increase the maximum effective velocity a projectile can reach, while the same burn through pulse could also be used in a secondary role to direct an electron discharge as a sub-lethal attack. Using a plasma reaction to provide constant high pressure thrust down the length of the barrel would allow for some WICKED high velocities in this fashion. Hypersonic iridium penetrators would be no joke.

    Edit: Note, that to have the plasma chamber, you're already gonna be packing some serious laser wattage, so the accessory functions are almost trivial design additions

  18. Future Guns: Projectile Obsolete?

    in Star Hero

    Posted

    Re: Future Guns: Projectile Obsolete?

     

    Any hard SF setting will likely continue to feature projectile weapons, as they have a lot of significant advantages concerning kinetic energy transfer, penetration, and the like, to counteract the problems they suffer with range (at ship to ship levels, anyway).

    As power density capabilities increase with technical advances, either projectile weapons will follow the materials tech curve or will move to using energy directly to shove the projectiles (Railguns & plasma-fired projectiles are a couple examples of this)

     

    Improved technology will mean higher energy density propellants/explosives (said improved chemistry also improves the ability for projectiles to carry other payloads, like functional explosive warheads, ALA Aliens or modern BSG) which could lead to similar results with much smaller rounds, or similar sized rounds with a lot more punch, as well as better barrels and actions to handle higher pressure loads.

     

    Projectile weapons get more and more impressive as you improve the velocity. Relativistic kinetic kill weapons are about the scariest WMD we've managed to dream up, at the upper end equal in power density to it's own weight in anti-matter

  20. A Thread for Random Musings

    in Non-Gaming Discussion

    Posted

    Re: A Thread for Random Musings

     

    Just posted this on FB:

    "I wish I had a clue when it comes to this whole "meeting interesting members of the opposite sex" thing. I can carry on conversations just fine, but can't seem to step over the line into flirting. In review, I've generally been the prize, the party that is pursued and won. No one seems to be interested this time around tho and I'm afraid I'm gonna do exactly what I've done the last time and fall hard for the first mostly compatible girl I meet who decided I'm worth chasing.

     

    Oh, yeah, if it wasn't obvious by the context: I am available for romance.

    Pros: Genius. Polymath. Artist. Generous. Good in bed. Hung like a Circus pony. Voted "Best to have on your side in an Apocalypse". Good Singer.

    Cons: Insane. Bent as a Pewter ducat. Kinda a Jerk (Like an a$$h*le, but nice about it) on occasion. Occasionally stumbles across social circumstances I just don't grok, because I kinda have to study human interactions from the outside before I can mimic them properly. And I'm about halfway to being the male version of a crazy cat lady.

     

    I am just so sick of going to events and feeling like Tantalus in Tartarus"

  22. Silver Bullets - Ballistic Effectiveness

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    Re: Silver Bullets - Ballistic Effectiveness

     

    I haven't heard about that' date=' but what I read dealt with silver jacketed on the inside.[/quote']

    The last page from the linked article gave the results from someone boring out Hp's & creating silver cores. First try separated pretty much at impact, with the second try holding together better once the problem was known and he attempted to counter it.

     

    You could probably make a nasty glasier style round using a bored out HP, small silver shot, and epoxy that'd work pretty well, I'd expect

  23. Resource Pools in Star Hero

    in Star Hero

    Posted

    Re: Resource Pools in Star Hero

     

    I tried the tier'ed tech level thing when we were putting our SH campaign, because it was a popular idea in RPG's at the time (Palladium had recently introduced the SDC MDC thing, and Mekton worked with a similar system) and I decided I HATED the way it interacted in HERO. Throws all the real world benchmarks out the window, and doesn't convey the physical realities of higher joule attacks. Aformentioned needle beam? Instant thermal burnthrough on something made mostly of water equals a fairly epic quantity of water being instantly transformed into vapour. Not something I'd enjoy having hit me.

     

    But I'm also a Hard Science geek, and a lot of this comes down to campaign intent. Xavier and I are looking at this from a realistic standpoint, using established benchmarks to arrange the power levels we want. You're building the attacks first then rebenchmarking the rest of the universe to match your weapon performance. I tend to find that fit's better with less realistic genres like Supers

  25. Musings on Random Musings

    in Non-Gaming Discussion

    Posted

    Re: Musings on Random Musings

     

    I was seriously thinking of dressing up like Sonny Crockett for Halloween.

     

    Woulda fit right in at the party I went to Saturday night in Twin Peaks. Among many other geek costumes there, there was an Arthur Dent, a Chris Knight, a Runner in Red (complete with blinking Lifecrystal) and a couple done up as a Higgs Boson

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