5 hours ago, Cygnia said:

Watch rare pink volcanic vortex bubbles spew out of Italy's Mount Etna

You know, if we poured in enough soapy water...

1 hour ago, Lord Liaden said:

Trump is used to dragging out law suits against himself, making them so costly and time-consuming that the other party eventually drops the case, while also trying to intimidate them. He doesn't seem to understand that the "other party" in this case has far more resources than he does, and is beyond his power to intimidate.

Wake me up when Trump is put in jail, removed from a ballot, or pays a significant fine with his own money.

Zeropoint Energy

NT: Disadvantages and complications  (not necessarily your own)

29 minutes ago, Starlord said:

Reynolds sold Aviation Gin for $600 million - profited over $100 million from that.

See?  He's got plenty of spare time now.  Hell, he's probably bored!

Time Traveling Terminators

36 minutes ago, wcw43921 said:

 

I was actually considering live action, with someone like Jeremy Renner for Crusader and someone like Ryan Reynolds for Starburst, only not costing so much.  I hope to get the actual Giancarlo Esposito for the VIPER Nest Leader (assuming his new series Parish doesn't become the new Breaking Bad.)  I'm sure I can find a place for you as a scientist in the high-energy physics lab where Tom Adams works, or the VIPER lab engineer who designs and builds Crusader's gadgets.  

 

I hope that's not too disappointing.  (Also, I'm thinking of someone like Ryan Gosling for Pulsar--"And then Margot Robbie will be mine!")

Ryan Reynolds is like a billionaire and hardly needs the money, he might do it for free if you ask real nice.

What sort of idiot doesn't routinely delete his websearch history?

On 4/6/2024 at 1:11 PM, Lord Liaden said:

And finally exchanging Jolene Blalock's ridiculous body stocking for a proper uniform.

 

Sad that it got cut off so soon.

Phrasing?

8 hours ago, Pariah said:

( And let's not forget how much better Deanna Troi looked in a proper uniform than in her three rotating catsuits.  )

Such as this S1 classic?

It’s not the length, it’s the width

Infinite improbability drives

45 minutes ago, Starlord said:

This one is from "Thing Explainer", a book by Randall Munroe, creator of xkcd.  It's worth the $24.

Impacts of lid closure during toilet flushing and of toilet bowl cleaning on viral contamination of surfaces in United States restrooms  (American Journal of Infection Control)

Quote

Conclusions

 

These results demonstrate that closing the toilet lid prior to flushing does not mitigate the risk of contaminating bathroom surfaces and that disinfection of all restroom surfaces (ie, toilet rim, floors) may be necessary after flushing or after toilet brush used for the reduction of virus cross-contamination.

4 hours ago, Tom Cowan said:

uh, 2029? 

Yeah, we didn't want to wake you

I forgot to include in my novel: if you want to maintain magical mysteriousness in-game, you can also force spells to be bought with invisible power effects.  You may also have to ban certain powers (e.g. Flight), but this change takes you from high fantasy video game magic to low fantasy plausibly-deniable magic.  I already do this with clerical magic in my campaign.

On 4/3/2024 at 12:57 AM, Doc Democracy said:

Ah!  I want a bit of wonder in the application of magic, I want it to be distinct from technology, which means less reproducibility, more variability and a little bit of a need to dive into the "mythology" the PC is seeking to exploit for superhuman power and abilities.

 

I really do think I am aiming at varying the ruleset a bit to deliver something the current ruleset cannot. I understand the bureaucratic drag I am ranking about here and wondering if there is a simpler way to deliver this stuff or whether it is possible to get it to deliver more.

 

The original post was quite lengthy, I thought I could get away with not duplicating it!  🙂  I also failed to find a way to quote a post from a different forum...

Man, I could write a thesis on what makes fictional magic systems 'feel' like magic.  It comes up all the time in fantasy fiction discussions.  There, it boils down to whether magic is repeatable, whether it is known, and whether it is knowable.  At some point, alchemy became chemistry; where your magic system is on that continuum determines how 'soft' or 'hard it is, IMO.

Keeping magic magical is even harder in RPGs where it needs to be systematized for playability and balance.  Fortunately, as Steve mentioned, we're already throwing dice, so that helps.  Drastically increasing the complexity of spellcasting is absolutely required--I've spent decades fighting this battle with Hero critics who whine that magic 'feels like superpowers'.  Not if your spell requires a skill roll, incantations, gestures, concentration, thirty seconds, and multiple foci, it doesn't.  I use Doctor Strange as the minimum example here.  At least in the comics Strange has to contort his fingers, sit crosslegged, recite various invocations, and carry several magical artifacts, and even then he's still a borderline superhero.  MCU Strange drops the incantations and is basically wuxia.  Conversely, in literature it takes three witches chanting while they drop all kinds of weird and creepy ingredients into a cauldron to cast a precog spell.  It takes three days of fasting and concentration while painting a single room-sized rune for Elric to summon Arioch for the first time.  Potterverse wizards can be like unto gods but must use a wand.  Magic circles.  Pointy hats.  Staves and wands.  All these accoutrements are what flavors the magic. 

And for unpredictability, as I see it there are three ways for a wizard to screw up: magnitude, control, and effect. 

• Power: Usually this manifests as a failure to generate enough magical power.  Luke can't lift the X-Wing.  Ron can't leviosa.  It's also possible to overpower a spell--this might not matter if you're trying to kill a dragon, but could be bad if you're casting a love charm.  Some Hero powers already have dice rolls here, but not all.
• Control: Power is nothing without control.  Ron casts a slug curse with a busted wand and it backfires on him.  He later Disapparates without a license and leaves an arm behind.  Hermione successfully transforms herself... into a cat.  Ged summons Elfarran, but also summons a shadow creature that almost kills him on multiple occasions.  To-hit rolls cover some of these instances but not all.
• Effect: Sometimes magical mistakes have completely unrelated results.  The Potterverse almost has a monopoly on this trope.  Harry loses his temper while casting a spell and... accidentally inflates Aunt Marge into a balloon.  Neville accidentally transplanted his ears onto a cactus.  Luna Lovegood's mother cast an experimental spell and simply blew herself up.  This is the hardest thing to randomize without just having the GM make something up.

This really cried out for a much more fleshed-out Side Effects system.  As it stands Side Effects is entirely situational--in fact without GM intervention it's possible for the Side Effect to be better than the original spell.  But using the above it should be possible to set up a system to randomize spell failure without leaving it to the GM to make something up.

"Is there no one on this planet to even challenge me?!"

cuts to Lois Lane

"What is dead may never die"

2 hours ago, Cancer said:

Needs "who stole everything he had" appended to the closing line.

Unnecessarily redundant at that level of wealth.

Oddly enough I never read Messiah or Children.  For reasons I can't remember I skipped from the first book to God Emperor, which was... a little weird.

6 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

 

I'll believe it when it happens...not before.

Same.  Dude really is above the law.

2 hours ago, slikmar said:

Third half? This doesn't end the first book?

It does, but Villenueve plans to make a third film based on Dune Messiah.  This second film clearly leaves some openings for that.

13 hours ago, tkdguy said:

"You meet at an in...."

 

 

And a follow-up:

 

 

I see you have the same youtube feed as me.

5 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

I'll just point out that he became powerless when people stopped being afraid of him.

Don't tell me, tell our criminal justice system.