Xavier Onassiss

Re: Lessons from Byzantium I'll say this much for the Ottomans: nobody in history has ever made a better foot-stool. ... What?

Re: Lessons from Byzantium Aside from the number of star systems in a given volume, all of the important variables above can be tailored to the SF setting you want. The game I'm working on has FTL, but it's nowhere near 1LY / day: 100c is the best it can do, approximately 2LY / week. And earth-like worlds are assumed to be extremely rare -- the only ones found so far require extensive terraforming. My point is, with a little tweaking, I think it would be possible to fit the Byzantine history model to an FTL setting -- just not necessarily with the 'defaults' of 1LY / day FTL, and earth-like worlds 10LY apart. Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

Re: What would you build challenge Extra-dimensional travel: to dimension where everything works right, mega-scaled, immobile OAF, 1 charge w/no recovery, extra activation time. Done. I don't have Hero Designer (or my books) at hand, but I'm fairly sure I could do this on 25 real points. Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

Re: Solar Systems Like Ours in the Minority Given a typical distribution of stars, what would the average distance between "Sol-type" systems be, with this result? Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

Re: Guns, guns, and more guns Have you considered using Resource Points? A resource point pool with the limitation "only for firearms" might do the trick here. Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ??? <--- I always wanted to use that one! If you don't want to consult a physics teacher, perhaps you'll find what you're after on crank.net's 'einstein was wrong' page. I'd skip the stuff labeled 'illucid' or merely 'cranky' and 'crankier.' Go straight for the 'crankiest' entries for the very best (or worst!) de-bunking of Einstein the internet has to offer. You're welcome! Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ??? The important connection is in the paragraph labelled Synchronization Procedures. From the linked article: When you look at it this way, it's easier to see the similarity to the differing reference frames in the 'train experiment.' Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

Re: What's in YOUR future history? Yeah, well...when I started working on this thing, someone said to me "You can't do a SF setting w/no cat girls" so I put in some cat girls. I think it was you, Susano. Or maybe it was Brain-Child. I keep forgetting. Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

Re: Your "2010" Pet Gaming Projects In the coming year I'll continue working on the Terracide sourcebook for Star Hero. I'm eagerly waiting to find out when 6e Star Hero comes out; I'd like Terracide to be 100% 6th edition-ready when it's finished. For the curious, some early draft material can be found at Susano's site, but it's all due to be replaced as soon as I get around to it. Playtesting Terracide is also on my to-do list, but I'm going to be in the middle of nowhere-ville USA, 40min from Evansville, IN and 90min from Carbondale, IL. So finding other Hero players will involve some driving.... Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

Re: Quote of the Week From My Life. So I'm getting ready to move back home, and someone says to me "Everyone's going to be glad you're back." My reply: "Great, let's start a pool on when they all change their minds." Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

Re: How can you make the stone age cool? The original Land of the Lost, only with PC's instead of lame actors. Coolest thing ever. (I mean the old 70's Saturday morning show, not that Will Ferrel crap.) Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

...and SF RPG designers and game-masters, from AintItCoolNews. Copernicus’ Law of Science Fiction: Bending the laws of physics out of service to the story is fine, doing it out of ignorance is unconscionable. That one's a keeper! Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???

Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???

Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???

Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???

Re: Is "ether" real? JP has no idea what he's talking about? Well, that never stopped him before. Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???

Re: What's in YOUR future history? I tend to follow the rule of 'write what you know', and when it comes to religion, as a devout 8th Day Agnostic, I don't know much. I'm a current events junkie, so I get a lot of ideas for adventures involving religion from various news feeds. But those tend to be focused on political rather than theological issues. Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???

Re: What's in YOUR future history? Oh yeah, there will be religion, due to the nature of the setting. It's hard to mistake a genocidal relativistic assault for 'the rapture' but of course, someone will insist that's exactly what it was. Others will use it as an excuse to launch a 'jihad' against their least-favorite aliens. (Who will most likely respond by finishing the job on humanity's few survivors.) And a few will simply feel that they must complete 'god's work' and finish wiping out humanity themselves. (Don't drink the kool-aid!) If it seems I'm being unfair, no, I don't think religion always leads to irrational, counterproductive, violent behavior. But that's when it gets noticed, and also where the best 'plot hooks' for rpg's can be found. I've also got another adventure seed about Buddhist monks in search of the next incarnation of the Dalai Lama. That's right. Buddhist monks. And kung-fu. In spaaace! Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

Re: The cranky thread Yelling back works for me. I like the fact that 'Happy Holidays' covers every denomination, plus New Years' Eve/Day. I tried 'Happy RamaHanuKwanzaMas' but somebody told me it discriminated against Pagans 'cuz I'd forgotten the Solstice. What am I gonna do? Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

Re: An interesting article on the Physics of Space Combat The latest entry at Rocketpunk Manifesto offers up some good insights on orbital engagements. It's the eighth in a series on space combat, and they're all well worth the read, IMHO. And as always, the comments at Rocketpunk Manifesto are every bit as good as the main entry, so check them out too if you've got time. Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ??? Spoiler tags are just like quote tags. Example: (spoiler) 'your spoiler here' (/spoiler) Replace the parentheses with brackets and you get this: Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss

Re: A Thread for Random Videos I hope this hasn't already been posted: my favorite Red Dwarf scene. "Step up to red alert." "Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb." Don't look at me, Xavier Onassiss