Tom Carman

Re: A clockwork solar system? Given that Dr. Song has a time travel device, what would that prove?

Re: Few questions about point costs

Re: Force Wall base size (5E) So in 5th, a 2" by 1" Forcewall can completely "bubble" a single hex by surrounding it (6 hex sides) and the top and bottom come "free" by long-standing convention.

Re: Woman in the Moon

Re: A real laser pistol? Power from vacuum? Photons affecting more than one electro

Re: Teleport an Object to me "Limited Range" does not make sense to me, when the power defines the range. But I think the "Ranged" advantage should be added to this power; I always use it for Teleportation powers acting at a distance, like when a base TP pulls you in from a remote location. TP is a travel power, UOO lets others travel (voluntarily) with you, and UAA moves them even if they don't want to go. But acting on an object at a distance is a ranged ability.

Re: 'Mars by 1965, Saturn by 1970' I don't think the blast-in-the-bunker was intended as one-shot-to-orbit. It was probably intended to eliminate the initial ground-burst and ensure that all of the open-air blasts are the much-lower-fallout aerial bursts.

Re: Megascale costs

Re: 'Mars by 1965, Saturn by 1970' Chernobyl is a good example of the differences. The Soviets used that reactor type for power generation, but it was designed for plutonium production. It was moderated by graphite but cooled by water. Consequently, the nuclear chain reaction DID NOT shut down when it lost coolant. Think of how catastrophic Fukashima Daiichi could have been if the reactors were still going full blast instead of just dealing with the residual heat from decaying isotopes.

Re: Megascale costs Don't forget some adders or advantages on Teleport that don't get too much play at tactical ranges, but can have lethal consequences at planetary ranges: Position Shift, Velocity Cancellation and Safe Blind. A velocity-conserving 'port from one side of the planet to the other would leave you moving at about 1000 mph relative to the ground (and upside-down).

Re: 'Mars by 1965, Saturn by 1970' Actually, we had controlled fission reactors before we had bombs. Very few bombs used purified U235; most use plutonium which is produced in reactors. Water is only one of several reactor moderators. We use it in power plants because our plants are basically steam generators, and it's convenient that water does double-duty as both coolant and moderator.

Re: NASA Unveils New Spaceship Plans How long does it take to travel 100 ft? (Depends on whether you are on foot, on a bike, in a car, or riding a rocket sled.) By minimum-energy Hohman transfer orbit, figure 7-9 months. If your matter-energy-conversion engine lets you boost at a constant 1 g, I think you can get there in under a week.

Re: A real laser pistol? Power from vacuum? Photons affecting more than one electro

Re: Superhumans and their families In My Super Ex-Girlfriend, the solution was to get a suit of armor... and she still put them through the wall.

Re: Star (Trek) Hero Racial Templates In WinXP, you can just select a folder, right-click and select Send To Compressed Folder. This makes it a .zip file, then you can go into Properties and select compression. This probably doesn't compress as much as a proper zip program, but it's simple and part of the OS. I'm sure it works in Win7 too.

Re: What sort of technology do you use in yiour games? I maintain my character sheet in Hero Designer on my laptop. Since the character is a mage with a VPP, the "spellbook" is also open in HD for quick reference and redesign. I also keep Alter Ego's Metacreator program open for the dice roller.

Re: Using a D20 That doesn't quite convey the real difference because the numbers are clustered around the middle range. The ends of the bell curve are where it gets extreme. A d20 is always a 5% chance (1 in 20) for any given number. By contrast, a 3 or an 18 on 3d6 is a 1:216 chance IIRC.

Re: Star Trek: How dangerous are phasers? Are you talking about those times in TOS when Scotty used a phaser pistol as a cutting torch on some Enterprise bulkheads? That seemed to me more like precision cuts through the outer shell with care to avoid damaging the inner circuitry.

Re: Star Trek: How dangerous are phasers? Combat phaser settings in TOS were either stun or disintegrate, at least on screen. In The Omega Glory, Spock mentioned finding depleted phaser powerpacks among the remains of several hundred Yang bodies. So the phaser was being used at a reduced (but still very lethal) setting to extend its use.

Re: I need cheap(-ish) liftoff. Hmmm, I think the Sea Dragon could have handled it. No, just checked: it would only lift a "mere" 550 mtons.

Re: 2 Planets found in same orbit With a bit of planetary engineering, you could have 6 planets sharing an orbit 60 degrees apart. Each world would in the L3, L4 and L5 points of 3 of the others.

Re: Zeppelins It was quite flammable enough to bring down the World Trade Center.

Re: Zeppelins Think of it as trading the flammability of jet fuel (which falls down as it burns) for the flammability of hydrogen (which flies up as it burns).

Re: A Newbie's first power I never got 6th and don't have 5th on hand at work, so I looked it up in my trusty 4th edition PDF: -1/4 • Beam Attack (for EBs only) Cannot spread or bounce, must attack at maximum damage

Re: A Newbie's first power I haven't looked it up, but I seem to recall that 'beam' also includes 'cannot be bounced' in the package.