Old Man

Re: A Thread for Random Musings So despite our repeated pleas, this customer persistently refused to develop or sign a contract specifying what he expected out of us in terms of off hours response time, scope of work, overtime, even contract length. But we wanted to help him out so we hired a guy out to him anyway based on a handshake. We gave him and inch and, lo and behold, the sonuvabitch tried to take a thousand miles. And now he's pissed at us? That workplace literally works its employees to death; what makes him think I'm going to let him do the same to my guys? Unbelievable.

Re: Where to send the scientific expedition Yeah, yeah. Planet formation. How long will that take?

Re: A Thread for Random Musings Look, man, we are on your side. Selling your products. So don't lie to us.

Re: The cranky thread I AM AN ENGINEER DAMMIT! NOT A THERAPIST! NOT A CONTRACTS LAWYER! NOT AN HR EXPERT! NOT A BABYSITTER FOR YOUR FRIEND'S NEIGHBOR'S HIGH SCHOOL KID!!!! AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHH!!! But then again, at least I don't need dialysis. Hope that gets better, dude. Or no worse. Or something.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... So I just finished David Brin's Heaven's Reach, which is to say that I finished the Uplift trilogy that includes Brightness Reef and Infinity's Shore. I'd give it a 4.5 out of 5. Brin is not afraid to think big--really, really, megascale epic big--and he's got the chops to pull it off. The one problem, if you can call it that, is that the viewpoint characters and scale change so much that the books are almost standalone. The series begins on a low-tech backwater world and by the end dimensions are being destroyed left and right. In order to do this Brin has to basically leave large parts of his background and story behind--necessary, but disorienting, because you're gradually introduce to more and more viewpoint characters. He does pull it off, though, and I pretty much had to read the last half of the last book in as few sittings as possible.

Re: Where to send the scientific expedition How about the fridge in the break room?

Re: A Thread for Random Musings Your software wasn't Working before we showed up, Clown. So don't blame us.

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs I wouldn't have a problem with certain races except that they tend to attract the worst kinds of munchkin for some reason. Right, Legolas?

Re: A Thread for Random Musings Drive past the jail. Squad cars on the shoulder. Cops Peer into the trees.

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane? You could have the sun be stationary, and night and day are caused by the rotation of the plane. The further out you get, the more the plane seems to 'tilt' as characters are subjected to stronger centripetal forces. And what's on the other side of the plane?

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs To lower the campaign learning curve for new players. It's much easier to tell a prospective player "you can play a high elf, a wood elf, a dwarf or a hobbit" than it is to explain the peculiar cosmology and physiognomy that drives a five-limbed Qarzha'ni to seek the rarest pebbles for his Dowry of War.

Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor Did somebody say something?

Re: Musings on Random Musings I'd excuse him from work for that. Permanently.

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs Execution matters more than mere presence, IMO. Example: Halflings? Fine. Kender? Not fine.

Re: The cranky thread Cat musta eaten its owner then ditched its ID trying to get away. You caught him dead to rights, though. Good job.

Re: Musings on Random Musings I would, but everyone else has it too, so I use the crickets one.

Re: Musings on Random Musings Thought that was your primary.

Re: The cranky thread And any minute now we'll pull off your top and drink your innards.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings I'm really glad I updated my iPhone yesterday. And the coolest app so far? Rotary dial, baby!

Re: Peasent Campaign Warn them to fight conservatively. Players learn a certain level of invulnerability playing D&D or even 125pt. FH; near-normals with no armor could die quite suddenly if they are not more careful.

Re: Help about rules on a Dark Sun campaign Dark Sun was one of the best FH campaigns I've ever played in, if only because the primitive armor and weapons brought tank fighters more into line. That said we ran character creation pretty loosely, and didn't bother statting everything out beforehand. IIRC we defined magic with no framework and forcing a side effect AE RKA vs. plants--some kind of END reserve with a plant BODY transfer would have been more accurate, but less fun and way too expensive. Most characters could have one psionic power with a low active point limit, I think 15 or 20, and the available powers were restricted (i.e. no force field). We handwaved weapon breakage too, saying that they broke on 17+ or 18+ depending on the material; weapons broke all the time with that feature. I think that's about it. There's tons of FH Dark Sun stuff out on the web, I think, try googling for it.

Re: The cranky thread I can barely hear him. Speak up, kids! This hearing aid isn't that good!

Re: Musings on Random Musings I don't mind being overtipped. Far from it.

Re: Musings on Random Musings That's true, we have such a problem with feral cows hereabouts. :|

Re: Musings on Random Musings Hmm, where can I get steak for lunch around here?