Starwolf

I got the idea for this thread from the thread on favorite Sci-Fi weapons started by Alhazred. So what is your favorite fantasy weapon? I'll start by throwing out the Tri-Sword used by Talon in "The Sword and the Sorceror". It was a 3 bladed hand and a half sword that could cut through most anything, and the wielder could fire the two outer blades with enough force to skewer an armored man and pin him to a stone wall. It also held a hidden dagger in the pommel of the sword.

Re: Favorite Sci-Fi Weapon I liked the original Type II hand phaser from Star Trek TOS.... No bloody movies, TNG, DS9, Voyager, or Enterprise. It had several settings including stun, heavy stun, kill, and disrupt. It could be fired on wide beam or narrow beam. It could be used to heat things, or as a cutting torch, and finally it could be set to overload and used as a very powerful explosive device.

Re: Revisit: Starship Flight Models / Sublight Speeds / Acceleration I am not sure where your calculations are off but this is not that fast and no where near 50 G's. 1800 km/hour is only slightlty faster than mach 1. Even at standard x2 non-combat speed it only comes to slightly faster than mach 2. At sea level and at 80 degrees mach 1 is approx 779 mph. There are 2.2 km to a mile so your 1800 kmh comes out to Approx 818 mph. For a real world comparison the F-14 Super D had a top flight speed around mach 2.4 or about 4113 kmh. Naval Aviators are tested to about 7 G's before black out. The US Military has a spy plane called the Aurora that is capable of mach 6 which comes out to an astounding 10283 kmh... very fast indeed. There is a really cool Speed of Sound calculator here Hope this helps

Re: [Deck Plans] Merc / Independent Cruiser Depending on weaponry I would call it a Cutter in the sense of like a coast guard cutter - fast, small crew, combat capable against light vessels (pirates and such), and suitable forblack ops...

Re: [Deck Plans] Merc / Independent Cruiser Main deck just aft of the crew quarters... and presumably in the captains stateroom also...

Re: [Deck Plans] Merc / Independent Cruiser If you e-mail me a copy of the ships character sheet and the graphic for the map I can convert it to a PDF and send it back to you.

Re: Supernatural Special Forces You could use those Forest Fire fighting aircraft and helicopters with buckets to "bomb" an area with holy water... assuming that much water could be blessed.

Re: New US Navy Uniforms Heh... I agree, blue/gray would tend to make you hard to spot if you fell overboard. There is also a sort of working dress uniform that will be a Khaki shirt with black trousers. One of the things that many people... and apparently the uniform designers/politicians did not understand was that the old bell bottom design actually served a useful purpose. If a sailor fell overboard the bell made getting the trousers off easier so that they could be used as a floatation device.

As a Navy retiree I was interested to see this and thought it might apply to modern military campaigns.... Basically the US Navy is getting away from the Dungaree's of old and issueing blue and gray camo BDU's with a matching marine style cap and blue t-shirt, with silver collar rank insignia for enlisted. Navy combat type's like SEALS will get both the standard marine style BDU's in green and desert tan plus an issue of the blue and gray. Here is the link While this article is from back in 2004 it was announced yesterday that the changes had been approved.

Re: Military Size Or you could model the culture after the Spartans.... where every male was required to be a soldier, those that did not server we not considered Spartan. Those born with deformities were either killed at birth or left to die. Most women did not serve, but there was a female force that the idea/legend of the Amazon Warrior is based on. For them I would put the total at close to 50% of Adult population (almost all of the males).

Re: US Army Insignia LOL Glad to help chop it if you wish.... I was posting a very generic "Black shoe" TOE, but just to give a little more background on myself, I spent my first 3 years as a blackshoe (ships company aboard the USS Saratoga) then I changed rates and spent the rest of my career as an "Airdale" in the aviation community. Spence makes a good point individual commands can have wideley varying duty/watch assignements. In my last squardon as a Chief, I stood duty as a SDO (Squadron Duty Officer) and only had 1 watch every 30 days. The lower ranked watch duty section members had duty twice per month (This is the only command I was ever in that had duty this seldom). For a good reference concerning Naval stuff see if you can find a copy of "The BlueJackets Manual", it is the handbook issued to every sailor when they go through boot camp.

Re: If Dark Champions were a movie... I think Sin City was a dang close approximation...

Re: US Army Insignia

Re: [Package Deal] Scouting (Boy Scouts) As an IRL Eagle, Order of the Arrow, and currently ScoutMaster, I would posit that any given merit badge would translate into a Familiarity skill level. So for instance Horsmanship would equal Fam: KS Horses 8- and possibly Fam: Riding 8-, another example would be Camping which would equal Fam: Survival 8-. Most ranks would be window dressing but at the Eagle Rank I could see it as a 1 point perk, as being an Eagle has opened several doors for me as an adult.

Re: Hero Universe Fourth Millennium: My Take Fantasy Flight Games (FGU) published a short lived campaign system for D20 called Dragonstar, that was IMHO probably the best star faring fantasy setting I have seen. It was a much more believable backdrop than Spelljammer. I don't know where one would get the books now though.

Re: Space Adventure: The Five Essentials Wing Commander (The novels, the games, or the saturday morning cartoon series... stay away from the movie it stank) Star Trek TOS Battlestar Galactica TOS Star Wars and I'm suprosed no one has mentioned this but .... Serenity

Re: Military genre stuff I recently (6 months ago) bought a copy from Noble Knight games. They are an online company that has a lot of old gaming material as well as new stuff. Here's the link if you want to check them out. Noble Knight Games

Re: The First Seal: The Turakian Age Well our game has resumed after the Holidays. Attached is a log of our session.

Re: A Dummy's Guide to the Turakian Age Make sure you download the Encyclopedia Turakiana from the free stuff section. It is a great glossary/index that helped me "process" TA easier. I know it is not exactly what you are looking for...but perhaps it will help.

Re: The First Seal: The Turakian Age We had a light group last night, but that wa understandable with the holiday. Our group of intrepid adventurers spent a night in town gathering supplies and equipment. In the morning they were contacted by a messenger from the king and told that a ship called the Sea Sparrow awaited them. They reported to the ship and were assigned bunks and stowed their gear. Then while waiting for the tide did some research on the Witches Crack. They surmised that the Witches Crack could actually be a place called the Witches Hollow in the country of Sitharia, in the land of Mitharia. The Witches Hollow is rumored to be an evil place where demons dwell and where witch covens are empowered and perform dark magics. The ship sail on the tide, after being blessed by Crystina. The Elven mage immediately set about being sea sick. Despite the blessing a monstrous storm blew up on in the pre-dawn hours of the fourth day. In the raging tempest the ship was severly damaged, the captain and over half her crew were lost at sea. If not for the valiant efforts of our heroes the ship would have sunk and all of her crew lost. After effecting what repairs they were able and juryrigging some sail, the crippled ship moved on, pushed onward by the sea currents and the wind but with no method of real steering. After another week land finally comes into sight, but so does the reef that finally dooms the brave ship. Our heroes and what remains of the brave crew transfer supplies and provisions to the shore from the wreckage. The white sandy beach bordered by verdant green jungle seem an inviting refuge after their harsh sea journey. And the towering steaming volcanoes in the distance make for a scenic back drop. As dusk settles over the survivors, the distant sound of jungle drums reaches the group...... To be continued. A complete log of the game is attached

Re: For you gun nuts, a question You are right, 2200 fps is very respectable. While I own and shoot the Desert Eagle, my personal favorite is my Ruger Vaquero .44 Mag. I am also just getting into Cowboy Action shooting competition. I use the Vaquero, a Marlin 336CS .30-30, and a 12 gage double barrel coach gun for the competitions.

Re: Space Opera redux: one year later Wow talk about great timing! I love Space Opera, but I lost all of my books years ago and just figured they were history.... Then this thread starts.... And yesterday my mom and dad brought me 6 cases of old books they had been storing for me for the last 15 years....AND you guessed it, there were all of my Space Opera books...the complete set (I owned every supplement published). So now I am really excited. I have downloaded your work and will provide feedback shortly...

Re: For you gun nuts, a question If you really like big bores you should try the Desert Eagle .50, with custom loads I have acheived a muzzle velocity of 2712 fps, almost double the .44 Mag. Of course mine is heavily modified. And if thats not enough the Thompson Contender can be setup to fire .50 BMGs.

Re: For you gun nuts, a question Here is a pic of the M89. The main difference between the M86 and the M89 is that the M89 has a detachable box mag. The rilfe is a .308 and the mags come in 5, 10, and 20 round capacity. The rifle retails for about $1700.00 and is sold by Harris Gunworks which broke off from McMillan in 1989. You can read about it here http://www.wapahani.com/addsniper.html Probably more info than you wanted but as a licensed gunsmith my head swims with gun trivia... Hope this helps..

Re: Some questions...... I run a Turakian Age IRC game, and my magic system (Taken from the TA book) runs like this... All spells are designed as individual powers. All spells must take the Spell and Requires a Skill Roll limitations. Other common limitations include incantations, Gestures, Foci, Concentration, and Extra Time. Most spells are cast through a Focus (End Reserve), when a mage is created he/she must specify whether his/her spells are cast through a Focus. If so they get to buy an END reserve, but if lost spells cast without it cost extra END. All spells are divided into Arcana or schools. Each arcana has its own skill roll. To cast spells from a given school the mage must first buy the appropriate arcana skill. Each spell is then purchased with character points (or XP) individually by the mage. The purchase cost for Turakian Age spells has three levels Active Cost (which is a good indicator of how powerful the spell is), Real Cost (which is the total cost of the spell with limitations added in), and Final Cost (which is Real Cost/3). Mages pay Final Cost for their spells. Finally there is a penalty to the magic roll based on the Active Cost of the spell. The penalty is either -1 per 10 active points, or for tough spells -1 per 5 active points. To cast a spell the mage announces (on his/her movement phase) which spell is being attempted. He/She makes a magic skill roll and expends the spells END (END is used even if the roll fails). At the appropriate time the spell goes off. When the spell goes off any required targeting rolls, damage rolls, hit location rolls, and other effects are roll/generated. Hope this helps...