Xavier Onassiss

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Tom Waits -- Step Right Up http://popup.lala.com/popup/360569453762805425

Re: Announcing Kazei 5, Second Edition Hope you get well soon! I've finally got K5 in pdf format (my FLGS didn't come through) so I can finally get serious about a demo game for GenCon. But I don't have much time. Sounds like you've got a full plate so I'll see what I can do with the adventure seed you posted.

Re: The Non Sequitor Thread Hurt me. Please.

Re: Announcing Kazei 5, Second Edition I like it. The question is, will it play in Indianapolis?

Re: Announcing Kazei 5, Second Edition I'm checking on my order at the FLGS later today; it might be in, finally. In which case I'll be driving about 80 miles (one way) to pick it up. If they still don't have it, I'm not waiting any longer, it's pdf time. I've got less than a week to submit events for GenCon, and K5 will be among them. Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

Re: Jokes So there was this trucker who made a habit of passing the time on long hauls by knitting. This kept his hands full, so he steered the truck with his knees. A highway patrolman noticed what he was doing, rolled down his window and yelled "Pull over!" To which the trucker replied by holding up his knitting, and yelling back "No, cardigan!"

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Ride -- Leave Them All Behind Eight minutes of pure sonic awesomeness. :bounce:

Re: The Non Sequitor Thread Wisconsin! Arf arf!

Re: The Non Sequitor Thread If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding!

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Thievery Corporation, Lebanese Blonde This thread must never die.

Re: Neomen Or...we could activate the lysine contingency. (Yes, it's another movie reference. Yes, it's relevant to the discussion.)

Re: The Non Sequitor Thread If you don't have any sprinkles for your chocolate-flavored frozen yogurt, you can substitute froot loops.

Re: The Non Sequitor Thread My cat just horked up a humongous hairball.

Re: Forget about flying cars... The really twisted kind. I'll skip those pix -- already seen the real thing, live and in-person, back when I was doing highway work. That was more than enough.... Don't look at me, (watch the road!) Xavier Onassiss

Re: Forget about flying cars... If you're not planning on carrying a passenger, the guns are a possibility. Don't know about the missiles.

Re: Neomen These are all good points: you don't want your 'slaves' (I don't like that word one bit, BTW.) to have disadvantages which get in the way of their work. Nor do want them getting out of control. My suggestion would be a Susceptibility; something which will not be encountered accidentally, but can easily be deployed against them if they get out of line. And it's best if the actual nature of the susceptibility is kept secret until needed. (unknown complication!) Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

Re: Neomen Four year life-span? Sorry, couldn't resist.

...I got your flying motorcycle right here.

Re: The Non Sequitor Thread It's a shame about Ray.

Re: Interesting entry at Rocketpunk Manifesto (and a question for Star Hero GM's) Heinlein's original 'torchship' concept was an anti-matter rocket. However, since then other authors have applied the term to a variety of ultra-tech rocket engines, including various types of fusion drives. For purposes of this thread, if it's powerful enough to ignore the tedium of launch windows and hohmann transfers, using brachistochrone trajectories instead, it's a torchship.

This week it's torchships! And as always the comments are as interesting as the main article at RM. I've always considered torchships the way to go in SF rpg design -- reactionless drives are a Bad Idea (apologies to Traveller) and lower-tech rockets tend to bore the players: "Okay...how many months is it to Mars? And if we're attacked, what's left for maneuvering? Wait... what do you mean, nothing!!??" So... torchships. Big, bad, terawatt-output, ultra-tech fusion drives, with exhaust velocities measured in % of C. Anti-matter drives with photon exhaust. Total conversion drives powered by a miniaturized Big Bang in a bottle. Of course they're horribly dangerous. Jon's Law for SF authors states "Any interesting space drive is a weapon of mass destruction. Interesting is equal to 'whatever keeps the readers from getting bored'". (From Nyrath's page) So, what type of 'interesting' space drives have you used in your Star Hero games, and how did you deal with "Jon's Law"? (aside from ignoring it) Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? I LOVE Hyperactive! And I'm glad I'm not the only person on the planet who realizes Thomas Dolby had more than one song. Repped. Oh, and right now I'm listening to Shona Laing, Migrant and Refugee. Check it out on LastFM Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

Re: Predators vs. Military provided that the soldiers had sensors that could reliably detect and target the predators That's a very difficult "provided" I think. and the predators weaponry is no better than what was shown in the movies. And this is a complete unknown, but I'll hazard a guess that they do. It should be noted that the Predators in the first two movies (I'll skip the AvP films.) were hunting parties. From what little I've seen of their mentality, they wouldn't likely use their 'best' weapons on a hunt -- they'd use weapons that required more skill, to demonstrate their prowess. Does that make sense? Given that they've got the technology to travel between stars, they should have weaponry far in advance of what they used in the films. And in an all-out fight for survival (as opposed to a hunting expedition), they'd be less inclined to hold back. It's like deer hunting. Bow-hunting is popular because it's challenging, but if the deer start shooting back with assault rifles and RPG's, never mind the 'challenge', it's time to call in an air strike. Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I just finished The Revolution Business, book five of The Merchant Princes series by Charles Stross. Overall, I'm enjoying the series. It's been a while since I read books 1-4, so I found the lack of a synopsis at the beginning more than a little jarring. I considered re-reading the whole series, but I really don't have time right now. Fortunately there's just enough exposition to remind readers without eidetic memories what happened in the previous installments, without slowing things down. Nicely done, that! And of course, the *&^%$#@! thing ends with yet another cliff-hanger, so I'll be waiting to scoop up book 6 as soon as I can. Warning -- if cliff-hanger endings annoy you, don't start reading this until the whole series is out! I'll have a review of the whole series once it's concluded. So far, I like it. Next up, Coyote Horizon, the fourth in Allen Steele's series about a colony on an alien world. Fortunately, they're all pretty much 'stand-alone' novels. Interesting characters, pretty good writing; but I give the man an F-minus in planetology. Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

Re: Physics of space battles - gizmodo article The other side of the equation is that launching a large missile will reduce the fighter's mass, improving its performance to a degree.