DShomshak

In my grumpier moments, I would say: No, they aren't. There is no hypocrisy in politics, because there are no principles. It's only about who has power over whom. Dean Shomshak

Wow, that's a straight line for some really crude jokes. But I shall resist the temptation. Dean Shomshak

The April, 2019 issue of Scientific American has an article about experiments to detect quantum gravitational effects. The great difficulty here is that quantum gravity is expected to operate on the Planck scale, which is so small that a particle accelerator would need to be the size of the Milky Way to access the necessary energies. But some physicists think there might be clever ways to detect quantum gravity effects propagating up to larger scales. (The analogy given is how Brownian motion of tiny particles in water reveals the jiggling of the much smaller atoms.) So these physicists are working on experiments to measure very, very small gravitational effects -- like, the gravity between millimeter-sized spheres of gold or diamond. (Why these substances? The way they conduct heat prevents theremal variations from swamping the gravitational effects.) With sufficient precision, it might be possible to measure gravitational versions of quantum superposition and entanglement between the teeny-weeny test objects. Instead of an apparatus the size of a galaxy, the whole experiment might fit on a table top. It's a long shot, but nobody has anything better. The article notes that there are actually several theories of quantum gravity. Playing with math is relatively easy. The greater challenge is coming up with experiments to test the theories. Dean Shomshak

The March 30, 2019 issue of The Economist has an article about camera systems for photographing and tracking meteors. A system based in the Czech Republic has been operating for decades: It's now good enough to project the impact point of a likely meteorite within 100 meters. There are other meteor observatories in the US and elsewhere. So, why keep cameras running all night to spot meteors? Detailed observation can reveal clues about their composition, velocity, likely impact site and -- perhaps most important -- their orbits before they run into Earth. Knowing the directions space junk is most likely to come from matters for positioning satellites and launching rockets. Oh, and a radar system tracks meteors day and night by bouncing radio waves off the ionized trails they leave behind. Because I'm me, I immediately thought of a high-tech version of ancient divination by meteors, clouds, etc. Portents from paths in various configurations, etc. When five trails form a pentagram, the way is open for Hell to invade Heaven. Dean Shomshak

Today the BBC aired a story about transparent wood. Here are a couple links on the subject, to explain how wood can be made transparent and why one might want to do so. (Apart from just to be weird.) This transparent wood could be used to build windows | WIRED UK https://www.wired.co.uk/article/transparent-wood-building-walls-solar-cells Cached Mar 31, 2016 - Windows could be made from transparent, renewable 'wood', according to Swedish researchers. A team from the KTH Royal Institute of ... Transparent wood composites - Wikipedia

Sounds good to me. In my group, we also try to end campaigns with a big story when we decide we've played them enough, though it isn't necessarily a Big Sacrifice. Just... We enjoyed these characters, now it's time to do something else. I don't think the original question has a "right" answer, or that there's a "right" range of power levels for heroes or villains. But I like seeing how other groups do things -- and their reasons -- as a way to improve my own games. What matters is to know what you're doing, to create the kind of story and campaign that your players will enjoy. Dean Shomshak

Heard on the radio a few days ago that the upgraded LIGO is returning to service. I wonder what it'll discover next? Dean Shomshak

Well, the published character sheets generally stick to the core rulebook, so I am too. The Universal [X] talents would be highly appropriate, and I have long wondered why they weren't in the core rules along with Universal Translator. Dean Shomshak

That's excellent suggestions from Massey. The "Campaign Use" section in 6e character write-ups is a start -- notably, suggestions on ramping a character's power level up or down -- but for major, campaign-defining villains there could be more. The CU's villains have certainly seen power creep. It isn't just the dice of attacks, either: The character sheets have bloated. Much of this is to assure that a villain has an attack versus every possible defense, and a defense against every possible attack, and every possible skill that might be used. I admit I did it too when I invented Skarn. But my experience in actual play is that villains with Swiss Army Knife power options usually end up using just 3-4 attack modes. There's rarely a more effective choice than Just Do Damage. (Which goes for the heroes, too.) Listing all of Doctor Destroyer's Knowledge Skills (for instance) may make a statement about what a genius is, but OTOH paper costs money and column inches cost reader attention. Better perhaps just to follow the example for his Bases/Followers/Vehicles, etc. and just say he has whatever Skill he needs to make a story work. Or if it's a significant weakness for a master villain that he/she-it doesn't have particular skills, that's probably more important to spell out than to list a bunch of skills and hope readers notice the omission. Dean Shomshak

I am... of two minds on this. On the one hand, I've recently been reading about vigilante militias in Colombia and how they formed extremely destructive political partnerships that gave them quasi-legitimacy. OTOH I have a strong attraction to anything that turns conventional wisdom on its head. So if it can be proven as a reliable way of de-fanging gangs rather than a sellout by the state for an illusion of peace... I'm interested. Dean Shomshak

Fighting master villains is the whole premise of my currently-on-hiatus Champions campaign. Each of the heroes of Avant Guard was pulled from a future in which one of the current master villains won, leading to the eventual destruction of humanity. They fight other villains too, but their particular purpose is to make sure those futures don't happen. So far, they have definitely killed the Atomic Brahmin, Professor Proton, greatest master villain of India. The alien robot hive-mind called the Monad seems gone too, though more because of Doctor Thane, who terrifies even other master villains. Doctor Thane is currently gone, apparently destroyed in thwarting his attempt to destroy the Universe. (Just to see if it was possible. He didn't know if he'd survive success. Yeah, Thane was nuts.) The ecoterrorist master villain Baron Frost apparently blew up too, but there's no body so nobody thinks he's really dead. They've clashed with the primordial chaos-goddess Tiamat a couple times, and survived a couple meetings with the mad biologist Helix. They actually teamed up with the mutant uber-mentalist Contessa in an attempt to kill Helix -- she can't rule humanity if Helix exterminates it, and her -- but that did not go well. I carefully design my master villains to present a hard fight for the team, especially if they have ally/minion backup, and to be good at getting away if the heroes are winning. In the case of Professor Proton, the heroes spotted his Psych Lims and played on them to enrage him, preventing him from teleporting away. If you want to learn more, search the forum for my "Millennium Universe" thread. It was some years ago, though. Dean Shomshak

I was thinking explosive decompression. Power failure means no hull. Dean Shomshak

Well, the dictum comes from sociologist Max Weber. I've never read his original explanation, but I assume he meant the former most of the time, with the latter included for special cases. Hence the inclusion of the word "legitimate." The former alone would be merely a monopoly of violence. Adding "legitimate" means the state can permit private violence -- but only in the modes and for purposes that it defines. The monopoly on the legitimate use of violence is not sufficient for a decent society. (As per your sig, states can abuse that monopoly -- and too often do so.) But it is necessary, in that very few other social benefits are possible if other people can decide to kill you without fear of consequence. Dean Shomshak

One of the most important requirements for a decent society is a central authority that is willing and able to assert its monopoly on the legitimate use of violence. Some very nice people don't like to hear that, but it's true. Because when you lack such a monopoly, you don't get peace and harmony. You get entrepreneurs of violence: gangs, bandits, warlords, clan vendettas, etc. For evidence, there are plenty of Third World hellholes and a lot of history. And so, emotionally satisfying though it might be to see Richard Spence get punched in the face, I must regretfully condemn it as wrong. But I hope the FBI watches him like a hawk, ready to swoop down and nab him the moment he can be linked to a specific violent act. Dean Shomshak

Heck I'm stealing this.* It's one of the best bits of quasi-Hermetic associations I've ever seen. Dean Shomshak * For personal use only in my games. I don't plagiarize.

Flying might be cool, but yeah, the incredibly cold hydrocarbon environment raises safety concerns. (Though for "extreme athletes" that might be another selling point. Like skiing on the great peak of Miranda.) I had a Traveller character who came from a frozen hydrocarbon world like an Earth-sized version of Titan. They made just about everything out of plastic: Metals scarce, but a whole world of organic precursors. Big plastic bubble habitats covered with ice for protection. For pets, people had plastic robot animals. Standard punishment for minor violations of safety rules was to send the perp out-dome with a space suit for a few hours to reflect about the hard necessities of life on their world. For major violations, you didn't get the spacesuit. Dean Shomshak

Western occult tradition tends to associate Air with intelligence and Fire with passion, but this is not universal. Whatever characteristics you link to each element, I agree that something like this could help make the four styles of magic more distinctive. Water is associated with the unconscious mind. If attacked, it yields, then closes back, unharmed. But when it moves, it overwhelms anything in its way -- whether washing away a town or drowning the mind in madness. EGO seems more appropriate than PRE: The quiet strength of personality rather than the overt influence of Presence. Dean Shomshak

My condolences as well. When I was a lad, I read an article about Bruce Lee in a children's magazine called Dynamite. In it, Lee said that one of the lessons of kung fu is that (I paraphrase) when you're really tough, you don't need to brag about how tough you are or try to prove it to other people. Because you know, and you are not afraid. Dean Shomshak

Incidentally, the latest episode centered on the red haired idiot pilot friend being faced with a test of competing loyalties that was Not Funny At All. Dean Shomshak

I wrote and developed a fair number of Exalted 2nd ed supplements. (Whether I did them well... Um, let's move on.) The core mechanics are extremely unlike Hero, to the extent that I do not think any systematic conversion is possible. I suspect that any conversion would be so complicated that you'd effectively be creating a new game system that happened to use similar world-concepts and character-concepts. Let me give an example. Basic task resolution is by rolling a number of 10-sided dice. Every die that rolls a 7 or better counts as a success; 10s count as two successes. If you roll enough successes, you succeed at the task; if you roll more successes beyond that minimum number, you succeed especially well. So far, so simple. Every type of Exalted character (there are several) has some way to expend a resource to increase the chance of success. One way is to add dice to the pool. Another is to add successes directly to the dice roll result. Another is her is to add successes directly. Another is to get a reroll. And one kind of character, the Sidereal Exalted, can change the target number to 6-or-higher, or 5-or-higher, etc., becomes a success. And there are still others, specialized for various Exalted types. Each of them gives various tactical options and is more advantageous in some circumstances than others. But in the Hero system it's all just a 3d6 roll. You can give a bonus or penalty to the roll, but that's it. Maybe this doesn't matter to players; the result, after all, is still "increase chance of success." But it's not a simple translation. And this is one of the simpler aspects of Exalted. Like I said: You'll be building a whole new game, virtually from scratch. Maybe someone has done this; I don't know. It might be worth it, because the Exalted game mechanics has severe problems that amount to both Instant Win buttons and Campaign Self-Destruct buttons. But I'm sure it would be a lot of work. Dean Shomshak

The January, 2019 Scientific American has an article about various methods for carbon capture and storage, though it doesn't include this turn-back-into-coal method. In short, the viability of all proposed methods depends heavily on bringing the cost within a certain range, which is (as yet) unpredictable. But no single method can be scaled up enough to solve the problem by itself. Multiple methods will be needed to prevent catastrophe, becsause the atmosphere is just that big and the amount of CO@ we've added is just that large. But it must be done. We've already passed the point where zero new emissions would suffice. Or at least, any time frame for zero emissions that's even remotely plausible is already too long. Dean Shomshak

Heck, humor hasn't changed much since ancient Greece and Rome. Lysistrata is a wonderfully rude comedy. Or here's how my home encyclopedia summarizes the comedies of Plautus: "The plots were usually based on love affairs, with complications arising from deception or mistaken identity." 2000 years before Plautus, the Egyptian scribe Ipuwer lamented that the world was going to hell because children didn't respect their parents anymore, like they did in the good old days. (Ipuwer was serious. Looking back, he's unintentionally funny.) The Kaylons may have a point. Human institutions change. But people, as people, haven't and probably won't. So working a permanent change in human behavior requires building institutions that last indefinitely. A tall order. Though it might be easier if done in concert with people who (Isaac told us in Season 1) can live for millions of years and never forget why those institutions exist. Dean Shomshak

Possibly of interest: The March, 2019 Scientific American has an article on "Why We Believe Conspiriacy Theories." The title is not accurate: It's really about the conditions that predispose people to believe conspiracy theories, though the underlying psychology is implied. In brief, conspiranoia is triggered by anxiety and loss of control. Not a surpsie, that. I was more interested to learn that people tend to believe multiple conspiracy theories, in a worldview in which nothing is true and everything is possible: As one of the journal articles cited put it in its title, "NASA Faked the Moon Landing -- Therefore, (Climate) Science Is a Hoax." But apparently conspiranoids are not quite so immune to debunking as some studies showed: As long as you can avoid challenge to a person's self-respect, it is sometimes possible to nudge people into reasoning out that a conspiracy theory is hogwash. Dean Shomshak

well, I was thinking of Babylon 5's battles against the Shadows and Vorlons, but yeah, an excellent space battle! (I lost interest in DS9 areound season 5, along with the rest of the /Star Trek franchise. Perhaps I should go back and watch those last two seasons.) Throughout the episode, I was wondering if Seth McFarlane would "pull a Roddenberry" and it would turn out this was all a test, the Kaylons were using stunners and put the Orville in a really big holodeck so there was no real space battle, and then Our Heroes would improbably find some "clever" way to shut down the Kaylons completely, and would they press the button and so justify Kaylon suspicion? Or live up to the Union's ideals and prove that humanity (et al) really had changed from its savage past? And, having passed the test, get a pat on the head from the super-aliens. <retch> I prefer this outcome. There are still a few, um, inconsistencies. Like, why do the Kaylons care about planets? They should be building a Dyson sphere. No need even for gravity or atmosphere. And when they fill the sphere around their star, the Galaxy has plenty of red dwarf stars that apparently nobody else can use. Such questions aside, I like that the Kaylons don't realize they just created the threat they feared. If they'd joined the Union, they could have tried discreetly controlling organic sapients to make sure they never backslide to savagery and become a threat. Dean Shomshak

The March, 2019 Scientifiuc American feaures an article on "The Inner Life of Neutron Stars." It is known that the core of a supernova can collapse until nuclear forces halt the implosion, and that protons and electrons are squished together to leave neutrons; but what actually goes on inside a neutron star? The simplest theory is that it's just a big ball of neutrons, with a few leftover protons, like a miles-wide atomic nucleus. But there are stranger possibilities. For one, the neutronium might be superfluid despite its incredible density. Or, physical density also means energy density, perhaps enough to create "strange" quarks, coverting some of the neutrons into hyperons -- particles that otherwise exist only for gazillionths of a second when they are made in particle accelerators. Or the neutrons might dissolve into a soup of free quarks and gluons -- also superfluid. Specialized telescopes and observation programs are gathering information on neutron star size and mass that can constrain speculation. Neutron star collisions, such as the 2017 event, provide data of even greater value. Physicists are especially eager to learn what goes on in neutron stars because they are among the few places where gravity and nuclear forces are of comparable strength. Hence, a place where relativistic and quantum-mechanical effects are both of comparable strength, and the interaction between them might be inferred. All difficuylt to study from thousands or millions of light-years away, but still easier than creating such conditions here on Earth! Dean Shomshak