Xavier Onassiss

Re: Valuable info for your Star Hero Campaign! Caption quoted directly from the webpage: The payload container pivots freely so that it is always facing 'down'. Having the lamp lying on its side wouldn't work at all, because 'down' is actually the vector sum of the artificial gravity from the centrifuge plus the earth's gravity. The pivot allows both to be taken into account.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings There was a 19th century pseudo-science called phrenology: the practice of divining an individual's personality from the bumps on their head. What we need now is applied retro-phrenology: the practice of improving an individual's personality by putting better bumps on their head. Getting a grant to develop this concept may turn out to be problematic....

Re: The Non Sequitor Thread What's it worth to you? I get time-and-a-half for impossible jobs.

Re: Martial Arts iiinnn ssspppaaaccceee!!! Which style is flexible enough? Actually, compression suits are pretty lightweight when considered as 'armor.' How much PD would you give a suit like this one? (w/o the helmet) It's designed to protect against vacuum, not blunt trauma. Edited to add: this is a present-day prototype. Science-fictional models will be even lighter, of course.

Re: Martial Arts iiinnn ssspppaaaccceee!!! Which style is flexible enough? A couple of points: If nothing else, you can grab your opponent with one hand and punch him with the other. Provided the knock-back isn't too great, you'll likely still have a grip on him afterwords, even if the activity starts both of you tumbling around a bit. Choke holds in zero-G combat aren't very popular for campaign-specific reasons. Compression suits are commonly worn aboard spacecraft, and they feature a helmet adapter which protects the wearer's neck. Of course, this means that shatterproof helmets are readily available as brawling weapons....

Re: Martial Arts iiinnn ssspppaaaccceee!!! Which style is flexible enough? Throws would more likely take the form of 'slams'; grab your opponent's head/limb/whatever and push it into something hard. (Hatch, bulkhead, etc.) Of course you'd be pushed in the other direction unless braced. If you're a spacer and you've taken Extra limbs: legs (only in zero-G) you can hold yourself in place with your feet/legs and use both hands. Otherwise, you'll have to brace yourself with one hand, and execute the 'throw/slam' with the other hand, which incurs a -5 STR / -1DC penalty. Don't mess with spacers!

Re: Martial Arts iiinnn ssspppaaaccceee!!! Which style is flexible enough? I find it very doubtful that an attacker could impart any amount of momentum throwing a victim without doing the same to himself (did I mention this is a highly realistic campaign?) however, with a good PS: Zero-G Operations roll, he could control his own momentum easily enough (-1 per 3m of KB?) to avoid damaging himself in the process. And yes, you're absolutely right -- Zero-G martial arts should have lots of Grab-based maneuvers, and others with the 'must follow grab' qualifier. This points up the need for some good Escape and Reversal moves, as well. Many of these will also work in other types of gravity conditions; others, not so much. Spacers who spend a lot of time in zero-G develop some strange habits.... "I woulda beat him, but I couldn't use my best choke hold!" "Why not?" "Needed my feet to stand up. *&^%$#@ gravity!"

Re: Martial Arts iiinnn ssspppaaaccceee!!! Which style is flexible enough? Also, I've got an original zero-g style written up here. The specialized forms of martial arts for the campaign are basically finished. It's coming up with some good versatile 'general purpose' styles that's giving me trouble.

Re: Martial Arts iiinnn ssspppaaaccceee!!! Which style is flexible enough? True. However, keep in mind I'm interested in styles versatile enough to work in micro-, spin-, and normal gravity... if possible. So, a style with both grapples and throws isn't out of the question.

Re: Martial Arts iiinnn ssspppaaaccceee!!! Which style is flexible enough? Laser katanas are better. Edited to add:

Re: The Non Sequitor Thread I like my women the way I like my pretzels -- salty and twisted!

Re: Martial Arts iiinnn ssspppaaaccceee!!! Which style is flexible enough? Regarding spin-gravity: The important thing to remember is that some spin-habs are going to be rather small. The smallest case would be a medium-sized spacecraft with a rotating hull, about 60m in diameter, spinning at three revs per minute, for about one-third of a G. (Any faster than that, and you'll have a rather dizzy crew.) The 'floor' moves at about 10m per second. Now put a couple of Hero characters in melee here; they're both SPD 3 and have 16m of running. (8m half-move; which is 2m per second given an average of 4 seconds per movement phase.) Let's say the Attacker makes a half-move with the spin to approach the Defender. He's adding his movement speed to the rotation; therefore he'll feel heavier; he goes from 1/3 to almost 1/2 G! He's going to hit lower and harder. (Assuming he knows what he's doing.) In the opposite case, the Attacker approaches a Defender against the spin, and his movement counters the spin-gravity; by the time he reaches his target, he feels slightly more than 1/5 of a G. He loses momentum but he can gain a lot of height, if he so chooses. Now let's turn things around again; what can the Defender do? Against an Attacker approaching from up-spin, he's at a disadvantage, but he can use the Attacker's extra weight to trip him up, and put him on the ground. Against an Attacker approaching from down-spin, the Defender has the advantage; the Attacker's footing is bad due to his reduced weight. He'll be easier to throw, but it probably won't do as much damage. (Disclaimer: the above is all written purely from a 'physics 101' viewpoint. I'm not a martial arts wonk.) A good spin-G martial art style should capitalize on these effects; with lots of passing/flying, and other moves that take advantage of movement. It will also have a good assortment of throws to use against opponents who aren't spin-G adapted and make the mistake of moving around too much. Note that larger spin-habs will be designed to simulate 1G at 1rpm. The above characters would feel gravity variations of +/- 10% (at most) when making full moves in combat. Much smaller effects than the first example, but still enough to make a difference in a fight. All calculations for spin gravity were made using this handy online utility.

Re: Martial Arts iiinnn ssspppaaaccceee!!! Which style is flexible enough?

Another question about unarmed combat for a science-fiction campaign. The campaign I'm working on doesn't have artificial gravity, and most of the action takes place off-world. As a result, space habitats using spin-gravity will be very common in this setting, and zero-g will be equally common. I'm working on rules and martial arts styles specifically for zero-g and for spin-gravity, and that's going fairly well. But those styles are for specialists -- people who need to defend themselves in zero-gravity, or fight inside rotating space habs. (For the curious, I got the idea for a spin-g martial arts style from one of the stories in the Man-Kzin Wars series. There's a dramatic scene inside a rotating asteroid colony where a kzinti attacks a local; he uses the asteroid's spin to throw off his attacker's timing just enough to escape with his life.) However, I'd like to know if there's a more generally useful martial style, one flexible enough to be adapted to the wide variety of conditions in this campaign: "normal" gravity, spin gravity, and zero gravity. If you had to pick a martial art to be used in all these environments... 1) which style would it be? 2) how would it be adapted? Or is this whole question just complete nonsense?

Re: Working on Zero-G combat, again. There's an optional use for 'pulling a punch' which allows the maneuver to be used to reduce knock-back, at -1 OCV per -4m of KB, so that would do pretty much the same thing. However, I'm running a campaign with a strongly realistic tone, therefore: Less KB = Less Body damage due to lower impact. I'd rather not have melees with attacks doing full Body damage, and their momentum (knock-back) magically 'disappearing.' So the basic 'pulling a punch' for less Body maneuver is my first choice; it's just a question of whether to use CSL's or PSL's to counter the OCV mods.

It occurs to me one of the best ways for characters to avoid some of the worst effects of zero-G melee combat is to use the 'pulling a punch' maneuver; it'll reduce the amount knock-back considerably. Characters in my campaign who are considered experts in zero-G combat are naturally going to have some skill levels with this maneuver, but I'm not sure which way they should be purchased: 1) Penalty skill levels, vs. the OCV mods for pulling a punch; or 2) Combat skill levels, w/the limitation only vs. OCV penalty for pulling a punch. This represents the ability to hit an opponent where it hurts without imparting so much force that both parties go flying off in opposite directions. Or at least, they do so more slowly. And one other question: what other types of maneuvers can the 'pulling a punch' maneuver be used with? (Can a character pull a martial strike? Or a haymaker?!) Using this martial arts would be ideal, since MA attacks tend to do less knock-back to begin with. Thanks in advance for your input on this.

Re: SCIENCE!! One step closer to magnetic monopoles? Here's another article from last year which might be related. These 'monopoles' aren't exactly point-particles, but rather points within the material's magnetic field which behave like monopoles. Very weird, and I'm not sure what kinds of applications it might have. The quest for 'classical' monopoles goes on, as always.

Re: A Thread for Random Videos Muppets and Spike Milligan. We are now approaching maximum weirdness. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxtrn0QV8s4&feature=related

Re: Alien Contact For Dummies Originally, I'm not sure. I found it here.

Re: "Neat" Pictures I now realize that I don't need an E-reader. "Kindle" can flake off, I'm getting one of these so I can take my whole 'dead tree-ware' library with me everywhere!

Re: A Thread for Random Videos WARNING #1: Might Not Be Safe For Work WARNING #2: The Church of Scientology does NOT want you to see this!

Re: The Non Sequitor Thread As a matter of fact, I AM all that and a bag of chips!

Re: Weaponmaster of the Knife

Re: A Thread for Random Videos So...yeah. Snooker. Huge freakin' table, tiny little pockets, wierd scoring, way too many balls and some of 'em aren't even numbered. Truly a billiards game for masochists. But everything's better with BRIAN BLESSED!!!

Re: Possibilities! So instead of Thread Necromancy, we get Big Lifters! Discuss! I find it notable that the ISS will be boosted into a higher orbit after the shuttle fleet's retirement, as it will not longer be limited by the shuttle's height restrictions. No really, what are you trying to say here?