DShomshak

Of marginal relevance, for a lark I once tried using Mage: the Ascension to build superheroes, with powers ranging from energy blasts to running in high heels. I found... yeah, not too difficult. Other aspects of the ruleset also mapped easily onto superhero tropes and comic-book melodrama, from Secret Identities to "My entire life is a lie!" The game was specifically designed for magic, and tried to make the magic feel magical, but I think it could capture the superhero "feel" with less bending than I expected. I'm not sure what that proves, but I suspect it proves something. Dean Shomshak

Among the various possible ways to run ARGENT, GMs might consider its decline and fall. I am inspired here by Boeing's recent troubles: a once world-class tech company that lately seems to have become inept. Some people attribute this to a change in corporate culture: For decades, engineers dominated the management, but in the last few decades it's been dominated by money men who don't actually know or care about airplanes, as such. (At least that's an account I once read.) So the engineering standards have slipped, resulting in problems like an autopilot that tries to crash the plane (twice successfully), or optional door locations whose plugs blow out in midflight. For ARGENT, this would be a new corporate elite that just wants to push more product out the door, even if it's buggy. Heroes notice that the tech used by villains malfunctions more often -- sometimes catastrophically. For super-tech, the malfunctions might even be more dangerous to the world than the intended use! Villains notice, too. As ARGENT tech gets glitchier, and more customers become exasperated, heroes have a chance to penetrate ARGENT's secrecy and security. Even the governments that protect ARGENT might become leery of the partnership. If the company starts betraying customers and allies for quick profits, the end is surely near. Dean Shomshak

I guessed, from the reference. Thank you for working them in. Jarnvoldir doesn't like the Vale, but shrugs and grants it is certainly Rethormathe's right to declare such a place. After all, there's not much natural deep in the World Machine, so a balancing location is only fair. Dean Shomshak

Well, he k. In my last update, I forgot to include Jarnvoldir's Interference -- right after I wrote it! (Correction made to post.) Anyway, DT, in brief Jarnvoldir gave the World a principle he called The Crucible of God. When people suffer greatly, there is always a possibility -- not certain, but possible -- they can use that hardship to change and grow in some manner, and become a greater being than they were before. Sometimes the growth is purely mental/spiritual, but people who suffered much have become some of the World's greatest mortal heroes... or villains. The God of the Forge does not decide outcomes, except in one special case. The Crawling One interfered with the hecatoncheires by ordaining that each of these great taloi contains 100 prisons whose mortal occupants power them with their lives. Jarnvoldir can't just unmake this Interference, but he can redefine it. The mortals suffer and eventually die, but their souls are smelted and alloyed to forge a new god-spirit for each hecatoncheire. That process is very nearly complete, at which point the hecatoncheires need no more mortal sacrifices, and the World gets three new gods to oversee the World Machine. When Jarnvoldir is confident the project is a success, he submits himself to the Crucible of God by walking into the main furnace of the World Machine, hot enough that even a God might not survive. Perhaps he will ascend to some new plane of reality beyond the present comprehension of Gods. Perhaps he will be destroyed. Perhaps something will happen that he cannot imagine. That's why he's doing it. Dean Shomshak

What's in a name? Quite a lot, perhaps, as code for whom you respect (or think deserves respect). I notice that we are all writing "Harris," or even "VP Harris." Republicans... not so much. Or even pronouncing her name right. https://www.npr.org/2024/07/24/nx-s1-5049773/powerful-women-tend-to-be-called-by-their-first-name-its-not-an-accident When the debates happen, if Trump calls Harris "Kamala" instead of "Ms. Harris" or "Vice-President Harris," I would be delighted if she replied by addressing him as "Donniekins." Though one can also say "Mister <Name> in a tone that turns the faux-respect into mockery. Dean Shomshak

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/physicists-finally-know-how-the-strong-force-gets-its-strength/ I don't know how many people here are interested in particle physics, but the article ends in a conclusion I find rather gobsmacking. In brief, the "Strong Force" is one of the four fundamental forces of the Universe. It holds quarks together into protons and neutrons, and those particles into atomic nuclei. It is also difficult to study because it only operates on very short ranges. Mathematically, it is also incredibly difficult because it interacts with itself. In contrast, for instance, electromagnetism is relatively easy to handle mathematically because photons, which carry the EM force between charged particles, do not themselves have charge. But th whimsically named glueons -- the particles that convey the strong force -- themselves have the charges that they mediate, so while a gluon passes between two quarks, it also exchanges gluons with other gluons, which exchange gluons with even more gluons, and so one forever. By a mix of good luck and hard work, the authors found a way to measure the strength of strong force interactions, and some mathematical hacks with which to interpret the resulting data. One consequence is that quantum chromodynamics -- the quantum theory describing the strong force -- now generates only finite values. Others (notably quantum electrodynamics, the theory describing the EM force) can generate infinities, which are mathematically awkward. Second, physicists now can say how much of the mass of ordinary matter (ot dark matter, which remains unidentified) comes from the strong force interactions within protons and neutrons. (Resmember your Einstein: All energy has a mass equivalence.) It's 99%. The remaining 1% -- the mass of electrons and the quarks themselves -- comes from the Higgs field. So, yeah. The strong force is a big deal. It's most of what we are. Dean Shomshak

I too have wondered if Biden actually meant to withdraw all along and the fumbling, panic, and eventuqal withdrawal were actually a Fiendishly Cunning Plan to put the Pubs off balance... But no. These are Democrats. When have they ever been this devious? I mean, successfully and on purpose? I tend to discount all conspiracy theories on the grounds that eighr the "conspiracy" is completely open (as Pubs' long maneuvering to overturn Roe v Wade or dismantle the administrative state) or they're absurd because people just aren't that competent. Especially in large groups. People misunderstand, get in each other's way, blab because they want atention... Nope. No secret Master Plans. The most parsimonious explanation is virtually always that things are what they seem. Dean Shomshak

I assume something got deleted. I, too, would not like to see this thread shut down. Perhaps the thread title should be amended to include, "No Politics." Dean Shomshak

Not without a bit of work on presentation, certainly. It is, after all, the whole point of Hero: One set of mechanics for everything, precisely (and perhaps even concisely) describing what a character can do. But that's not a problem unique to Hero. Mage: the Ascension and Mage: the Awakening IMO had similar issues, in that while the systems were specificially for magic, they were still systems, and it was easy to get hung up on fiddling with the nechanics. (Which were, if possible, even fiddlier than Hero.) There was another thread on this in which I proposed some thoughts on making magic magical: Dean Shomshak

"Out there" VP pick: Mitt Romney, for a Stop Donald Trump Unity ticket. Mister "Severely Conservative" might have to eat some former words, but that's nothing strange (or difficult) for a politiican. Ifg he has any genuine principles against Trump, he can give Republicans and independents who don't like Trump the assurance that the Dems aren't as freaky and radical as they are portrayed (including by some Democrats). And if he has any personal dislike, he can indulge it. In a nice, Mormon, smile-while-heaping-coals-of-fire sort of way. Dean Shomshak

Jarnvoldir is no longer available to bid. He has moved on. Dean Shomshak

Or the Stymphalian birds, from Greek myth. Dean Shomshak

One good-ish thing... Biden just pushed Trump off the (literal or metaphorical) front page. That matters. Trump thrives on visibility, no matter what he's visible for. As I said before, I wish Biden had ruled out a second term before the primary season began, just to keep the media focused on who would replace him. A more exciting story than Trump's revenge epic rematch, better for attracting eyeballs and chatter. Chaos before and during the Dems'; convention can still doom the campaign and the party, so I hope the party unites behind Harris quickly. But they can still get some useful drama over who becomes VP nominee. And there's the race card. Republicans *must* attack Harris. Those attacks cannot avoid a racist aspect. That may remind Black voters who were considering Trump because gas and eggs cost less in his term to remember why they never voted Republican before. Dean Shomshak

Reviewing LL's summary of ARGENT info, I see that while most attention gets paid to its hardtech products, it's involved in biotech as well. If you want some profitable but EW, THAT'S JUST WROOOONG! "products" for ARGENT, you could draw inspiration from the planet of Jackson's Hole in Lois McMaster Bujold's "Vorkosigan" series. One of the companies on the planet deals in a maximally nasty form of life extension: clone a person, grow the clone to young adulthood, then transplant the (very rich) old person's brain into the young body. Discard the clone's brain. No tissue rejection problems. Takes a long time to prepare, of course, ending in an extremely premeditated murder, but the Jacksonian company had no shortage of clients and I suspect neither would ARGENT. It might even be offered as a perk for the highest corporate officers. Another Jacksonian company specialized in tissue engineering for, ah, how to put this delicately, "fantasies made flesh." As in Rule 34. The damnedest pimps in the Galaxy. Even more than the clone brain transplant, this is one where a GM is advised to know players' limits. But they are both advanced enough biotech to suit ARGENT's story niche, without being so advanced as to be the sort of indistinguishable-from-magic biotech of Teleios. If you're going to steal, steal from the best, and Bujold is one of the best. Dean Shomshak

I remember Michael Dunn as Alexander, from the ST: TOS episode, "Plato's Stepchildren." Not a great episode, but Alexander was an interestin g character: not just the only dwarf among the normal human-sized Platonians, but the only one who didn't have their telekinetic powers. Which means that since Platonians are near-immortal, Alexander survived more than 2,000 years among people who could kill him with a thought. That means someone with enormous self-control, to withstand millennia of humiliation, and pretty impressive social chops as well. I would like to have seen what became of Alexander after Kirk took him away from the Platonians. I suspect he would have done well.\ and become a notably powerful person in the Federation. Oh -- and the icy contempt with which Alexander finally rebukes the casually sadistic, self-pampering Platonians. I suspect Mr Dunn did not have to dig very deep for that scene. Dean Shomshak