Ranxerox

Re: "The Mercury Men" -- Trailer For Upcoming Webseries The first nine episodes are available on Hulu now, and with each of them lasting about about 7 minutes, together they comprise the first story of the series. It's a very well told story. Each episode is structured like the Republic movie serials with each episode ending in either cliffhanger of at a dramatic junction in the story. Even in those moments of the episodes where not much is happening, you want to go on watching because you know that something exciting is about to happen. However, while the style is impeccable the substance (like the serials that it patterns itself after) is pretty light weight. Still, its got a satisfying ending and I recommend checking it out.

Re: Sentients native to low-gravity worlds operating on "normal" gravity worlds? Maybe not even that problem if they are moved to less dense liquid very gradually. The problem that deep sea creatures tend to have when they are dragged to the surface is that their internal pressure is much greater than the external pressure and this results in cells and organs rupturing. If they were brought to a more near the surface pressure over a period of days their bodies could potentially bleed off their excess internal pressure in a way that doesn't damage them. There would likely be other barriers for them to overcome and requirement to be met. The salinity of their home water would very likely be quite different from any terrestrial water bodies, their temperature requirements are likely to be different, and they would likely find the sun rays as encountered on Earth to be damaging.

Re: How To Build: Gibbon Boy, we primates are an annoying bunch!

Re: Champions BYOB - Character Review Yeah, very nice looking write-up, guy. Not sure if I would classify Inertia as a brick, but I'm sure that you know what you are doing.

Re: Mars Colony? I'm going to agree with Sundog. Going with what we (more or less) know to do now, a nice large space barge in a Hohmann transfer orbit is the way to go. First you just take prefabs, then robots and humans last. If you are willing to put fusion on the table, it is worth considering putting Mars on hold and instead focusing on the moon. You can set up a helium-3 mining operation on the moon. Once that is up and running then you can move on to Mars in style using fusion power and lunar dust propellant. However, even in this scenario you are going want to set up your Hohmann transfer orbit barge to move large cargo.

Re: Retro-Future Art Great find. I would like to slide show it and make it my screen saver.

Re: Captain Cambodia Wow. That is a great piece of work! I would rep you if I could! However, while that is a great Captain Cambodia, he doesn't look anything like the Captain Cambodia that I described. If one of the artist who frequent the site would make a picture of the Captain Cambodia that from my description, I would be willing to give more than rep. I would be willing to pay a commission. Anyone interested in taking me up this offer, please drop me pm so we can arrange terms.

Re: Captain Cambodia What Bloodstone said. I would like to add that this "poor guy" is studying with a grandmaster. Indeed he is studying with the sole surviving grandmaster of his style. A more normal situation (at least here in the US) is for your sensei's sensei to have studied with a grandmaster. Sometimes the connection isn't even that close. So you can take comfort in the knowledge that there is a good chance that one day the guy being thrown around in the video will have one day have a school of his own, and have students of his own to throw around.

Re: Captain Cambodia Yes, bokator was a major find in researching this character. It was the martial art of the Angkor empire which once ruled the South Asain peninsula. Both the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese did there best to eradicate it and I'm sure huge amounts of knowledge was lost. Still, even in its current diminished form it is a broad style that covers kicks, punches, knee and elbow strikes, grappling, ground fighting and weapons use.

Re: Captain Cambodia That is just because we never see him tie a knot at the end and move on. There isn't anything stopping him from doing so though.

Re: Captain Cambodia More a non-political spirit of the nation character. He has no direct ties to the government though they do try to keep an eye on him. I didn't want to add more complication to his already long background, but he isn't usually called Captain Cambodia inside of Cambodia. At home he has a name that translates roughly as "Righteous Ghost". It is mostly abroad that he is referred to as Captain Cambodia. Still, as Righteous Ghost he is much admire at home and a Captain Cambodia he is respected abroad, so elements of the Cambodian government could conceivably want to harness this good reputation through an imposter Captain Cambodia. There is no reason that storyline couldn't be done.

Re: Captain Cambodia This video of Bokator grandmaster San Kim Sean was the inspiration for Captain Cambodia's Quick Tie power. And this for those of you who aren't familiar with it (like me before I started researching this character) is the Cambodian flag upon which his costume is based. And finally his hero designer file

Re: Captain Cambodia

Re: Captain Cambodia Appearance:Captain Cambodia is tall and lithely musceled. His costume is patterned after the Cambodian flag. He wears a short-sleeved red shirt with a picture of the famous Angkor Wat temple in white on it's chest. His pants are royal blue. He sports a gold belt sash and a checkered blue and white head scarf called a krama. In combat he usually ties his head scarf so as to completely cover his face including his eyes. When amongst friends, the krama is worn on the top of his head or removed altogether revealing his friendly dark eyes and smiling, handsome medium brown face, and his short black hair. Captain Cambodia's original costume was made for him by an old woman in the village in which he grew up. After this costume was torn in a fight over an apparent misunderstanding with China's Tiger Squad member Technocrat, the Chinese government provided him with a replacement costume made of special bullet proof silk. Captain Cambodia thanked them for the fine costume they made him, but removed its hidden tracking devices before taking it home with him. Powers/Tactics:Captain Cambodia believes in using no more violence than the situation requires (though he doesn't actually have a CvK) and his first option is usually to either tie his opponents up either with his belt or arm sashes or other convenient cloths and cords including sometimes the opponents own clothes though that usually requires a successful disarm move first. If entanglement is not feasible he will to try to stun them with nerve strikes. Captain Cambodia's jhāna, equivalent to zen, allows him to perform nerve strikes on individual who possess resistant defenses. If he finds it necessary to use attacks that can potentially hurt his opponents he is capable of bypassing half of his opponents PD by striking their weak points. Captain Cambodia's jhāna also allows him to fight in the dark, blindfolded (which is how he normally fights!) and to perceive opponents and dangers behind barriers with a defense of 4 or less. Background:Corporal Duong Savonn of Royal Cambodian Army was part of a company sent to secure a Viper nest that had been cleaned out (without diplomatic permission) by the Tokyo Super Squad. Savon overheard the leader of the Tokyo Super Squad, Tō, telling his commander that not to let any of his men go to level B2 because it was unsafe. Duong Savonn's squad was sent to investigate level B2. When Corporal Duong mentioned what he overheard to his commander, the commander barked at him, "Who do you take orders from? The Japanese or me?" Level B2 was like something out of sci-fi novel or some sort of drug trip. Fabulously complex machines lay about the place mostly in ruin, ripples of light shimmered in the air and neither time nor space seemed to work as they were suppose to. Still, Duong Savonn did his best follow his orders, taking many pictures and writing notes on what he saw, heard and felt. Then one of his squad mates had a seizure and Duong and the other members of the team evacuated him to the surface. However, leaving the strange environment of level B2 was not the end of it. Savonn and everyone else who had been down there got sick ... very sick. The days that follow were a blur of pain and brief snippets of awareness. A doctor telling a nurse that it was not radiation poisoning but that he didn't know what it was. Being given strange drugs that did not seem to help at all. Overhearing, "Two-thirds of them are dead and those that still live will be dead soon." Waking, still in pain in the back of his uncle's bike cart. "It's alright boy, I'm taking you home," his uncle said. Coughing up bitter liquid and having an old women slap his face. "Drink it! It is medicine! It will make you better!" Then, one day, Savonn woke up and he felt better ... weak and very hungry, but better. When he called out, a monk came to answer his call. Asking questions of the monk, Savonn learned that he was at the Buddhist monastery just outside his home village and that he had been there for just under a month. The monk brought him food and then more food as Savonn's appetite seemed to know no bounds. The monks at the monastery encouraged Savonn to eat, meditate and when he felt ready to work and exercise. As he recovered, Savonn's uncle visited him often. It was during one of these visits that Savonn told his uncle that he felt well indeed he felt great and that it was time for him to go back to the army. His uncle laughed. When asked what was funny, his uncle replied, " You can't go back to the army, they have you listed as dead! And anyway no one would believe that you are same man that I carted away from the hospital." Duong Savonn's uncle reached into his satchel and pulled out a mirror and presented it to his nephew. Savonn gasped. He was so much bigger than he used to be. He had thought that the monks were simply smaller than he had remembered them, but now he could see that it was he who had grown. He looked enough like his old self that someone might be able to believe that he was a larger, hardier brother or cousin of the man that he had been, but no one would ever mistake him for that man. In the days that followed Savonn, who had stopped using his family name Duong since no one would believe he was Duong Savonn, divided his time between the monastery and helping out at his uncle's farm. In addition to having grown following his illness, Savonn discover that he seemed to have almost limitless energy and it was easy for him to put in a full days worth of work at both places each day. Savonn also noticed that his focus and awareness both while meditating and living his life was much better than it had ever been before. Savonn thought about joining the monastery as a monk, but wasn't quite sure that he was ready to make that step. In any event, there did not seem to be any rush to figure out what he wished to do with his life. Then something happened that would be as life changing for Savonn as the strange things he encountered in level B2. While on trip to the province capital of Prey Veng to get supplies for his uncle's farm, Savonn saw poor woman with two children beset by a gang of robbers intent on taking the woman's few possessions and maybe more. Without even thinking about it Savonn confronted the gang of bandits and told them to leave the woman alone. The robbers drew weapons and attacked Savonn, but Savonn amazed himself with the ease with which he defeated the criminals. The last bandit went down on his knees and begged Savonn not hurt claiming to be even poorer than the woman who he had been mugging and that was the only reason that he had joined the gang. Savonn tied the man up and told the woman to go get the police to arrest the robber and his fellow gang members. On his way back to his village and in the days to follow, Savonn thought deeply about his encounter with the muggers and what sort of country poor prey upon one another. He thought about the corruption that he had witnessed while in the army and among merchants and government workers in everyday life. He also thought about the Khmer Rouge and the atrocities that they once committed. None of these things seemed to square with the goodness that he saw normal Cambodians all the time. Eventually, he decided that Cambodia was a nation that had gotten confused amidst the pull for modernization and all the strange competing ideologies, and that it just needed an example to remind it of its own goodness and own greatness. He would be that example. Personality/Motivation:Captain Cambodia has mastered the art of hunting monsters without becoming one himself, or for that matter losing his idealism and innocence. In many ways he is a Silver Age hero living in a frequently Iron Age world, but somehow he makes it work for himself. Despite all the horror that he has seen and its been a lot, he remains friendly and even playful. In a fight he is likely to pull a table cloth off of a table (without disturbing the dishes and glasses on top of the table), use it to tie his opponents ankle to their elbow and then use a dab of plum sauce from the meal to draw a happy face on his opponent. Captain Cambodia's swashbuckling ways don't prevent him from taking those things are important to him very seriously. He is strongly committed to being a role model, to the greatness and the goodness of Cambodia , and to his religion (though he is never preachy about it). However, his religious nature does not exclude him from taking an interest in females or them from taking an interest in him, and he has been in a number of (mostly) chaste romantic relationships. Quote: "Don't just do something. Sit there." Campaign Use: Captain Cambodia is most likely to be encountered in southeast Asia and can make a useful guide or adventure catalyst for PCs that venture there. However, Captain Cambodia is not exclusively limited to southeast Asia and has many adventures in exotic locals (for Cambodians) such as Japan, Europe and even the United States, so he can really be encountered anywhere. As a representative of a third world country he makes a different sort of flag suit than the PCs are probably use to, and as a devout Budhist he can act as a counterpoint to Christian and Muslim characters.

I was thinking about what sort of foreign reception Captain America:The First Avenger was likely to get, and I decided that it is not really important to me how the movie makes foreign audiences feel about the U.S. What I wanted some kid watching it in Phnom Penh to walk away thinking what would Captain Cambodia be like and how could he be more like Captain Cambodia. Then I thought, "Hey, Captain Cambodia has a ring it. I should do a write-up of Captain Cambodia." So here he is: [b]Captain Cambodia - Duong Savonn[/b] [b][u]VAL[/u] [u]CHA[/u] [u]Cost[/u] [u]Total[/u] [u]Roll[/u] [u]Notes[/u][/b] 25 STR 15 25 14- HTH Damage 5d6 END [2] 25 DEX 30 25 14- 25 CON 15 25 14- 20 BODY 10 20 18 INT 8 18 13- PER Roll 13- 23 EGO 13 23 14- 20 PRE 10 20 13- PRE Attack: 4d6 9 OCV 30 9 9 DCV 30 9 8 OMCV 15 8 8 DMCV 15 8 14 PD 12 14/19 14/19 PD (0/5 rPD) 14 ED 12 14/18 14/18 ED (0/4 rED) 6 SPD 40 6 Phases: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 12 REC 8 12 55 END 7 55 55 STUN 18 55 24 RUN 6 24m END [3] 8 SWIM 2 8m END [1] 10 LEAP 0 10m 10m forward, 5m upward [b]CHA Cost: 296[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]POWERS[/u][/b] 20 [b][i]Quick Tie[/i][/b]: Entangle 5d6, 5 PD/5 ED (50 Active Points); No Range (-1/2), Entangle Has 1 BODY (-1/2), OIF (Ropes, cords, clothes and other objects of opportunity ; -1/2) - END=5 33 [b][i]Jhāna Nerve Strike[/i][/b]: Blast 5d6, Attack Versus Alternate Defense (Power Defense; +1) (50 Active Points); No Range (-1/2) - END=5 7 [b][i]Healing Through Meditation[/i][/b]: Healing BODY 3d6 (30 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Hour, -3), Concentration, Must Concentrate throughout use of Constant Power (1/2 DCV; -1/2) - END=3 11 [b][i]Jhāna Blow[/i][/b]: Armor Piercing (+1/4) for up to 55 Active Points of Hant to Hand Attacks (14 Active Points); Requires A Roll (13- roll; -1/4) - END=1 10 [b][i]Disciplined Mind[/i][/b]: Mental Defense (10 points total) - END=0 30 [b][i]Evasive[/i][/b]: Deflection, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (30 Active Points) - END=0 27 [b][i]Jhāna Awareness[/i][/b]: Detect Physical Objects A Large Class Of Things 13- (Unusual Group), Partially Penetrative, Sense, Targeting - END=0 8 [b][i]Agile[/i][/b]: Leaping +6m (10m forward, 5m upward) (Accurate) - END=1 6 [b][i]Fast[/i][/b]: Running +6m (24m total) - END=1 7 [b][i]Climbs Like a Monkey[/i][/b]: Clinging (normal STR) (10 Active Points); Requires A Roll (Climbing Skill; -1/2) - END=0 - END= 10 Resistant Protection (5 PD/4 ED) (15 Active Points); OIF (Bullet-proof Silk Costume; -1/2) - END=0 [b]POWERS Cost: 169[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]MARTIAL ARTS[/u][/b] Martial Art: Bokator 4 1) Block: 1/2 Phase, +2 OCV, +2 DCV, Block, Abort 5 2) Roundhouse Kick/Knee Strike: 1/2 Phase, -2 OCV, +1 DCV, 11d6 Strike 4 3) Punch/Elbow Strike: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, +2 DCV, 9d6 Strike 3 4) Leg hook: 1/2 Phase, +1 OCV, +1 DCV, Block, Target Falls 4 5) Lion fang strike: 1/2 Phase, -2 OCV, +0 DCV, HKA 3d6 3 6) Monkey Wrap: 1/2 Phase, -1 OCV, -1 DCV, Grab Two Limbs, 45 STR for holding on 4 7) Nerve Strike: 1/2 Phase, -1 OCV, +1 DCV, 3d6 NND 3 8) Dragon Tail Sweep: 1/2 Phase, +2 OCV, -1 DCV, 8d6 Strike, Target Falls 4 9) Escape: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, +0 DCV, 50 STR vs. Grabs 4 10) Disarm: 1/2 Phase, -1 OCV, +1 DCV, Disarm; 45 STR to Disarm 8 11) +2 HTH Damage Class(es) 1 Weapon Element: Staffs [b]MARTIAL ARTS Cost: 47[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]SKILLS[/u][/b] 3 Acrobatics 14- 3 Breakfall 14- 3 Charm 13- 3 Persuasion 13- 3 Oratory 13- 3 Climbing 14- 3 Concealment 13- 3 Sleight Of Hand 14- 3 Stealth 14- 3 Contortionist 14- 3 Deduction 13- 3 Tracking 13- 2 Survival (Tropical) 13- 3 Paramedics 13- 3 Linguist 0 1) Language: Cambodian (Khmer) (idiomatic) (4 Active Points) 1 2) Language: Cantonese (basic conversation) 1 3) Language: English (fluent conversation) (2 Active Points) 1 4) Language: Japanese (fluent conversation) (2 Active Points) 1 5) Language: Mandarin (fluent conversation) (2 Active Points) 1 6) Language: Thai (fluent conversation) (2 Active Points) 2 7) Language: Vietnamese (completely fluent) (3 Active Points) 3 Traveler 2 1) AK: Cambodia (3 Active Points) 13- 2 2) AK: Phnom Penh (3 Active Points) 13- 1 3) AK: South-East Asia (2 Active Points) 11- 2 4) CuK: Cambodian Customs (3 Active Points) 13- 3 Scholar 1 1) KS: Bokator (2 Active Points) 11- 1 2) KS: Royal Cambodian Army (2 Active Points) 11- 1 3) KS: Super-villains of South-East Asia (2 Active Points) 11- 1 4) KS: Theravada Buddhism (2 Active Points) 11- 1 5) KS: Traditional Medicine (2 Active Points) 11- 2 PS: Soldier 11- 2 PS: Farmer 11- 3 PS: Meditation 14- 16 +2 with HTH Combat 10 Defense Maneuver I-IV 2 WF: Common Martial Arts Melee Weapons [b]SKILLS Cost: 104[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]PERKS[/u][/b] 6 Positive Reputation (A large group) 11-, +3/+3d6 3 Well-Connected 2 1) Contact: Chen Pich, petty thief and street hustler (Contact has useful Skills or resources) (3 Active Points) 11- 4 2) Contact: Police Detective Pok Chantrea (Contact has access to major institutions, Contact has useful Skills or resources, Good relationship with Contact) (5 Active Points) 11- 3 3) Contact: Sargent Kim Sovann (Contact has access to major institutions, Contact has useful Skills or resources) (4 Active Points) 11- 14 4) Contact: The Tiger Squad (Contact has access to major institutions, Contact has significant Contacts of his own, Contact has useful Skills or resources), Organization Contact (x3) (15 Active Points) 11- 17 5) Contact: Tokyo Super Squad (Contact has access to major institutions, Contact has significant Contacts of his own, Contact has useful Skills or resources, Good relationship with Contact), Organization Contact (x3) (18 Active Points) 11- [b]PERKS Cost: 49[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]TALENTS[/u][/b] 12 Combat Luck (6 PD/6 ED) 27 Danger Sense (immediate vicinity, out of combat, Function as a Sense) 13- 3 Simulate Death 3 +1/+1d6 Striking Appearance (vs. all characters) [b]TALENTS Cost: 45[/b] [b][u]Value[/u] [u]DISADVANTAGES[/u][/b] 15 Hunted: King Cobra crime cartel Frequently (As Pow; Harshly Punish) 15 Hunted: Cambodian government Frequently (Mo Pow; NCI; Watching) 20 Psychological Complication: Strives To Follow The Noble Eightfold Path (Very Common; Strong) 20 Psychological Complication: Protects the Innocent (Very Common; Strong) 15 Psychological Complication: Cambodian Patriot (Uncommon; Total) 5 Negative Reputation: Buddhist Superhero Who Avoids Killing and Unnecessaty Violence, Infrequently [b]DISADVANTAGES Points: 90[/b] Base Pts: 400 Exp Required: 310 Total Exp Available: 0 Exp Unspent: 0 Total Character Cost: 710 Background to follow.

Re: Mass Effect Shields? It isn't perfect, but it is simple. Make a barrier as described by Gent and give it the Extra Time limitation (one turn should do). This way when it goes down you are forced to live without the barrier for a while. This will make characters want to hide behind cover like they do in Mass Effect so as not to wind up dead.

Re: Project WyrmStar: What have you pre-ordered? I've pre-ordered two of the books and would be totally down with buying a Wyrmstar Omnibus CD if one came available.

Re: What is MIGHTY I think it would just be "Young".

Re: John Carter (of Mars) Trailer Well, the Disney pedigree rules out us getting a decently indecent portrayal of Dejah Thoris.

Re: Earth Goes Poof, Wherefore Art Thou Luna? A cessation of title forces isn't going to go unnoticed. It is kind of like take taking a rubber band that you have been stretch and then relaxing a bit and suddenly letting go of it all together. There is going to be a snap. The moon is in orbit around the sun first and the earth second, but it is still in orbit around the moon. Say you were holding a ball and were spinning around while standing on the earth which of is itself spinning around also. If you let go of ball it will go right on spinning around the earth, but that does not mean that a bug sitting on the ball won't notice that you let go of ball.

Re: Earth Goes Poof, Wherefore Art Thou Luna? I'm not really one of the brainy people, but applying high school physics to it Centripetal Force = mass * velocity^2/ radius with the force being supplied by gravity with its formula of Gravitational Force = Gravitation constant * mass1 * mass2/ radius^2 Set these two equations equal to and the mass of the orbiting object cancels out, so it does not appear that changing the mass from that of the earth plus the moon to just that of the moon would mater with respect to the orbit.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Paul Simon's So Beautiful or So What

Re: Cybernetics and Bioengineering: what are YOUR limits? Redundancy is only inefficiency if you can reasonably sure that you are never going to need it. I work in a hospital lab and we have two (or more) of all our important instruments. This way when one of our instruments goes on the fritz, which happens frequently, we have a back-up in place and ready to go. This way when surgeon calls wanting CBC results on patients going south on the table, we don't ever have to say, "Sorry, can't help you man. Our CBC analyzer is down."

Re: Magic systems based on science? Well, how's this? Hundreds of year ago (let's make it 300 years, just as not to get too carried away), there was a war between the genetically modified and non-genetically modified humans. But it wasn't as simple as that. It was also a war between haves and have nots, and for many of it's participants a religious war as well. The non-genetically modified won ... if you considered brutish survival on a war blasted planet winning. Mankind slipped back into savagery (did it ever leave?). Now, from the edge of extinction, humanity has bounced back and pulled itself up to the iron age. However, while they are rare some marvels from before the war still exist. The most wondrous of these marvels are the machines and systems of genetically modified. Many of them were designed to be self-repairing and operate as well now as when they were new. However, one of the things that stoked the resentments that lead to the war was that the devices of genetically modified were often deliberately designed not to be user friendly. To operate one of their weather machines, nano-factories or jump portals you frequently have to be able to do math off the top of head that would give Einstein a nose bleed. Failure to give the machines the right instructions usually results in being ignored by the instrument but can result in disaster as the weather machine brings a hurricane, the nano-factory produces poison gas or the jump portal transports you somewhere which you can not survive. While the war was the end to the "pure" genetically genetically modified (unless the GM wants there to be a secret enclave somewhere), genetically modified genes are still present in the population, and there are still people who can operate the ancient devices. These people are often viewed with great distrust and even outright hostility, and frequently have health problems based on the genes that they carry. The people who originally sought to have their children modified usually did consider the possibility that the world would drop back into the stone age, and consequently did leave as much genetic versatility as they could have. So it is not uncommon for those with genetically modified heritage to require special diets for optimal health or to be naturally too tall to be anything but skin and bones on the meager diets available to them. Despite, these drawbacks men and women with genetically modified genes, the wizards if you will, are often valued by those in power. They are also often sent along with their hardier, non-wizard brethren on quest prove their worth before they are completely trusted.

Re: Rogues...and Soldiers...and Assassins...and...Gallery (Dark Champions Art)