Dale A. Ward

Re: Dyson Sphere (shell) - Dysonica Anyone?

Re: Planet Template I'm trying to write up a planet for the online game I'm playing, run by Nolgroth... and I was wondering if anyone could provide some clarification on some of these terms. Specifically, I'm wondering what "classification" and "affiliation" refer to and what options are available. The others are pretty obvious.

Re: Making colonization attractive? Very true... and the really large ones may actually control governments. However, they are doing so in secrecy. I predict that there will come a time when they no longer feel the need for such secrecy. Welcome to the United States of Phillips Petroleum... a wholly owned subsidiary of OPEC.

Re: Making colonization attractive? What makes you think it was supposed to be...? I foresee a future where corporations ARE governments... we're not too far off now!

Re: Star Hero versions of Fantasy Hero races?

Re: Alignment Issues

Re: Bizarre Spell Ideas Hey?!? When did you meet my father?

Re: Making colonization attractive? No no... I'm fairly certain that the Microsoft ID number will be branded on their foreheads or their right hands.

Re: ORCS! What makes them our favourite enemies??? ~malicious grin~ Give me an average tribe of kobolds and I'll make sure they dine well on any party of up to six 250-300 pt. PCs.

Re: Bizarre Spell Ideas ~eyes the instruments of healing suspiciously~ Ummm... no thanks... I'll just bleed.

Re: ORCS! What makes them our favourite enemies??? Speaking as a person who has played orcs (not half-orcs, but full-blooded orcs) as PCs, I would like to voice my dissent with this entire premise. Orcs are no more inherently evil than humans are inherently good. The same can be said for practically any creature with average intelligence. In fact, in one of my older game worlds, I had entire cities populated primarily by highly civilized and benevolent orcs. I'll admit that most of them are not aesthetically appealing to the eye, but is ugliness an excuse to kill someone?!? Won't someone please give the orcs an even chance? P.S.- I gotta read Grunts! one of these days.

Re: Spaceship/Starship Volume I may be wrong, but isn't Equipage the expendable supplies carried aboard ship... like food and fuel? I think it's something like that. Anyway, Wolfie... you and Shadowcat's answers gave me all I needed to know. My thanks to you two... and to everyone else that added their two cents.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

Re: Spaceship/Starship Volume ~shrugs~ Okay... so I was wrong. Probably too early on a Sunday for folks to be reading these forums anyway. I'll keep checking.

Re: Daily Art Findings While this pic shows great potential, it is severely lacking in a sense of the dramatic. The man's posture and body language are saying "Excuse me... did someone lose an axe and a sword?"

Hi, Gang! I know this has been discussed before, but I can't remember what conclusions we came to nor where the thread went... so I'm bringing it up again. I'm getting ready to sit down with all of my 2D & 3D drawing software and hardware and create a starship design... complete with deckplans and a nice 3/4 view. I want the ship to be scaled properly in all three dimensions, so I need to know the third dimensional measurements of a hex in SH. If a single hex holds 1 ton of cargo, how far is it from the floor to the ceiling? This one measurement will tell me all I need to know. I'm betting I'll have the correct answer within 15 minutes of submitting this message... you people are just that good.

Re: Making colonization attractive? The word "bad" is highly subjective. In the situation you have described, I don't think anything could make colonization attractive... to anyone! On the other hand, if you're a man with a large family, working in a dirty factory, making subsistence wages and just barely making ends meet, you might easily be tempted to pack your family aboard a colonization ship if the prospects include fresh air, a parcel of land to call your own, and a modest amount of starting equipment. Even if the conditions for this include that 50% of your produce from the first 5 years belong to the owners of the colony ship, you'll probably go for it with a glad heart.

Re: Making colonization attractive? Colonization has always been a case of people looking for a better life than what they left behind. If you've got a cushy life here, why go there? On the other hand, if you can't get what you want here, maybe there is your best bet.

Re: Bizarre Spell Ideas Oy Gevalt!

Re: Ships of the Dark Ages and Medieval Period I just watched a History Channel show about contemporary machines and devices and their ancient ancestors. One of the segments was about modern cargo ships and their ancient Greek forerunners. They mentioned a ship named "Syracusea" that was supposedly an amazing vessel designed by Archimedes for the king of Syracuse. It was hailed as the largest cargo ship of its day, being 5 times as long as the ships it was replacing, and could carry enough grain to feed the entire city of Athens for a year. I've tried googling it, but got nothing. Someone else may have better luck.

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

Re: [Cosmology] The ur-Stone. (Thoughts wanted.) Consider it taken care of, Captain.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... I can't wait to see the quotes when someone uses a Drain on Saurin.

Re: Making a Swarm Effective You guys are missing the point about swarms. When you see someone attacked by a swarm of creatures, what is it that they ALWAYS do first? They run... wildly and haphazardly, usually with their heads down and their arms flapping in the air. It seems obvious that swarms have a very powerful PRE attack... one that causes the victim to damage himself by tripping or running headfirst into a tree (or worse). The actual physical damage that a swarm can do to you is usually quite small, unless you happen to have a vulnerability to their particular attack (i.e. an allergy to bee venom). It's the fear element that is the real danger. That's why nobody ever thinks of a huge number of butterflies as a swarm... they're just not scary enough. You wanna make your swarms an effective attack... provide plenty of sharp, pointy obstacles to dodge while running from them!

Re: Future submarine warfare? Also, the main reason subs were invented was for the stealth factor. Very few commercial vessels require stealth, and the few that do are armed and armored enough to qualify as military vessels.