Midas

Re: Astrophysics question Yes. In effect, the photon pays a price in energy to crawl out of the gravity well. That energy loss results in a change of the photon's frequency/wavelength to lower frequencies/longer wavelengths, which is a red shift. It doesn't take a black hole to get that, BTW; any/all gravity sources cause such a thing. In principle, that includes even the photon itself. And if you think about that too hard, you'll hurt your brain and start raving about quantum gravity. Why not? I have a tendency to rave anyway. In this size gravity well, wouldn't the energy drop take the -"vision" for want of a better word- quickly into infrared and sub infrared? What I'm thinking of is the vision of "glittery" black holes. Without stuff eventually seeming to cross the event horizon, you wouldn't have a "black" hole, you'd have a disco ball; showing every object that fell in appearing on the surface of the event horizon. 'sOK. It's been bugging me for years, I can wait a few more. Special Relativity I had no problem with: 1) Only applies to near lightspeed math & 2) No matter what you do the answer is "=c" or "=c {squared}". Never quite got general relativity though, couldn't quite wrap my mind around the concept. Midas

Re: Astrophysics question

Re: Democratic Republics in Fantasy Worlds? Interesting thread. As I interpret the original question(in light of the responses to the OP), "How can a Democratic society develop in a medieval or standard fantasy setting?" Close? The Swiss seem to be an answer to that. I don't know much European history, but I do know that the question "How could a bunch of farmers destroy an army of knights?" Was asked by thinkers of the time. Had it been just a one time fluke, Switzerland would have fallen in the next campaign season, right? Midas

Re: Astrophysics question OK, I've had a question about this for years, and another that just occured to me (and maybe the answer). Isn't there a tremendous red shift in this event? And second, where do the photons "come from." While the McGuffin fell into the gravity pit, from an outside observer's POV, the McGuffin is still hovering on the event horizon. How does the light energy continue to broadcast? Hope I'm making sense with the question, Cancer's post doesn't *quite* answer it. Midas Who is still trying to figure out how an energy packet -light- can travel at the speed of light)

Re: Post-Apoc Adventures Try looking for Morrow Project stuff. MP was a more gritty "realistic" work than say Gamma World. The background plot was that someone from the PA future travelled back in time to recruit Viet Nam vets, mercenaries, do gooder's etc, and set them up in cryogenic vaults. When they awake, they have a Damnation Alley Mobile and a mission to restore civilization. Midas

Re: Matriarchial Societies Men will not be obsolete as long as there is furniture to be moved, things stored on high shelves, or bugs to squish. Midas

Re: Golden Age Superheroes as Pulp Heroes My Name is Eel? Most of Batman's villains are also talented normals, even Rhas Al Ghul is more of a pulp villain than a supervillain. The only off the cuff character in the Bat stable that would be hard to do would be Poisen Ivy. A fanatic Greeny with a few character driven gadgets/talents (poisen kiss, immunity to poisen) would work. Be a bit harder for some of her more "mystic" powers, though. Iron Man could be retroed, but his suit would have to be modified for pulpyness. It would look more like Titanium Man's armor, I suspect. Care would have to be taken for PC's not to make "Professor Klankenhissen" jokes. Just had a bothersome idea. Didn't Tony Stark loan out his suit to a black friend/employee a few years back? How would a black super react in the pulp era? Suppose that for every lynching, seven Klansmen were found the next day hanging from lamp posts on main street? Would lynchings become rarer, or would a full blown helter skelter race war break out? Even a non powered hero like Bats could (and has) clean the clocks of a hoard of talented normals. Give Storm nothing but a small "wind powers" multipower, and then tick her off , for example. And her origin is almost sterling pulp: Lost Tribe Jungle Goddess, brought back from deep Africa... Midas

Re: CHAMPIONS REVISED -- If We Do It, What Would You Like To See? Cut back the lawyerese. 5th ed is a huge improvement in layout, editing, and rules coherence. However, the writing would make Jim Dunnigan green with envy. Whatever you can say about the early editions of Champions, they were readable without that "textbook" MEGO effect. 2cents from the hoard of, Midas

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... That the one in Lousy Anna? Yep, still a lot of racial avoidence in the Old South. Not so much institutionalized, but a lot of "would you let *your* kids play with one of them?" Stuff. I just finished Echoes of the Well of Souls. Finally getting around to reading the second Well series. Was...unimpressed. Continuety suffered, characters forgot things they had known earlier in the book (not as in plot point forgetting, but as in "Last chapter I knew this person's background, now I am wondering what their secret is" kind of forgetting. Lots of exposition for the reader, where some character reads a travel guide to the protagonists/readers. Chalker is a good enough writer not to have to do that. Also, the usual Chalker themes pop up: Slavery, transgenderism, you know. Chalker is a good writer, and the story was gripping, but I still felt he's told better stories. Midas

Re: Beam vs. Walls and Entangles I always thought it was misnamed: Beam to me implies a kind of very short continous advantage, which can be used for sweeps, aiming the bounce etc. I call it "Pulse" rather than "Beam." A pulse is a small discrete packet. While a pulse attack must go only where it is pointed (as opposed to aimed), cannot sweep, always does the same dice of effect, etc. I always took the limitation to mean that the character *couldn't* use it to do Captain America & Shield tricks, no matter how many CSLs the characters had. While without the limitation, it *could* be done, but requires CSLs to be effective. Midas

Re: COM - What does it mean?

Re: COM - What does it mean? Re a character with a COM of 70.

Re: COM - What does it mean? slightly different topic. In the superheroic genre, there is no NCM, and several stats have no maximum except for campaign limits. You can have a 70 STR, or 70 DEX, even 70 INT or EGO, GM permitting. In the Strikeforce campaign book, there is an "everybody's kid sister" character with a COM of 70. Granted, we're talking about second or third edition here, but... I can't even visualize a COM of 70, I doubt that any comic book artist in history could draw her. But that aside, what would the game effects of that kind of COM be? Midas

Re: Fantasy Travel Question Well, If I recall my early California history correctly, the reason the Missions were spaced 30 miles apart was because a travelling friar -presumably on foot, with a pack burro- could leave one mission in the morning and arrive at the next by that evening. So yeah, that sounds about right. You also need to figure in size of the party. The larger the group the more time it takes for something to get done. For a modern example, one car can travel 100 mph down a freeway. One million cars can do about ten mph, if they are lucky. Midas

Re: Fantasy Travel Question Y'know, in context that honestly makes sense. Midas

Re: Fantasy Travel Question

Re: Imperialize it! Thanks. For a cornier effort, try this: When said Unseen Creature Roaming the Jungle is nearby, the robot will wave its arms and alert everyone within five kilometers of "DANGER! DANGER!" (Beware of animated vegitable-men! ) Midas (Yes I know the request was for non SF, but I couldn't resist)

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares I don't know Horse Tamer's Daughter, but it scans pretty well to Lemon Tree. Similar tune? Midas

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares Nickolas Van Ring. The Polysotechnic League would never have collapsed if not for the meddling of a couple of hairy footed midgets... Near Darkover: a band of vampires tries to survive on Cottman IV. Night of the Living Iguana: A band of teenagers must take refuge in a deserted house when their kegger is interrupted by reanimated giant iguanas. Midas

Re: Traveller=Pulp Hero+Star Hero http://www.andre-norton.org/index.html Wrote mostly juvenile science fiction, and a somewhat more mature fantasy series. In the last few years of her life, she co wrote in depth sequels to her earlier work, with younger co authors. She is another author who found one story and repeated it several times. In this case: Marginallized adolescent (either smaller, plainer, or too smart for his or her own good, or all three) lives crappy life until getting a chance to go off planet where protagonist discovers place in life, and happyness. If you like that plot line you'll like Norton, which explains why she was popular with teenage geeks and nerds. Yep, the Mote stories are very in the spirit of Traveller. Don't think Niven's STL stories work, though. Could never finish the Foundation series, Asimov bored me. Rama? That was STL too, or at least the first two were, never bothered with the third. Midas

Re: Imperialize it! Gilligan's Planet (Yes I know it was a Sat Morn spinnoff) The six PC's and their indestructable robot are stranded on a garden planet. Every attemt to get away or contact help is accidently foiled by the robot. (which is why he is indestructable). For a grittier feel, feel free to introduce a string of "evil" numbers, The Others, etc. Midas

Re: Questions about my Castle Dracula Nice effect, however you do it. Or buy it as an odd type of Change Environment. Or just use Transform. (Ducking and running for cover) Midas

Re: Best ever Reason to NOT be a superVillian!! Some darn fool always gets the idea into his head that the villains should form a super syndicate or "Legion of Duck Doom" or some such idiocy, and it *never* works. ***** Whenever your daughter goes into her rebellious phase, she always betrays you to whatever hero she thinks daddy will find most galling. Once I could deal with, but the monthly basis thing... Midas

Re: Traveller=Pulp Hero+Star Hero [Q Yep, I always thought Space 1889 was kind of Traveller, the Prequel. The "You're on the frontier, in an exotic locale even for the frontier, and there is a fortune to be made, if you can avoid everybody else willing to kill for it" was a strong theme in both settings. I always got a Norton vibe out of Traveller; Free Traders, people existing on the margin, Forerunner ruins...very Nortonesque, even if she wasn't an original influence. Midas

Re: Best superhero titles of the 70's Threadjack Try this one: http://www.marveldatabase.com/Uncanny_X-Men_101 Yes, that was '76, and she immediatly came back as Phoenix according to the Database. IIRC, back when they all wore yellow and black, and before these fakes from around the world took over, Marvel killed her off at least once. I would say the Marvel Db has incorporated the Xmen Retcons, so there are inconsistancies with what I was reading back in the '60s. OTOH, we're really strolling down memory lane here. This was way back in the days before comics were collectables. Midas