Old Man

Re: The cranky thread What if that is all? What if this is as good as it gets?

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? I'm listening to the high-pitched whine of the data center. We have the door wedged open because the A/C in there is still broken.

Re: Musings on Random Musings Yeah, I glimpsed the headline to that article and instantly closed the window. Fry 'em.

Re: Home-made Castles I built a castle just the other day. But then the tide came in.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings My desk is a mess. This isn't exactly a new or infrequent occurrence either.

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER What did Cancer do to earn such a terrible insult?

Re: The cranky thread I'll put you out of your misery if you put me out of mine. We have dual redundant internet connections, for fck's sake, but of course both Time Warner and Sprint have internal issues right now that have taken us down with them. And when does this occur? Half an hour into Thanksgiving, of course. Tell you what, don't put me out of my misery, just kill everyone at Time Warner and Sprint. Please. Oh, and Cookie Monster rocks.

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER No, these are scientific images so each is B/W, usually taken through a filter so that you know you're catching photons of a particular wavelength. Typical filters when I was crunching comet data were violet, red, and infrared. (I used to know what the specific wavelengths were, but hey, I can't remember what I ate for lunch yesterday either.) Good for science, less so for spectacular imagery.

Re: The cranky thread And speaking of crap breaking, I am now going to head back to the office to find out why its internet connection has gone away. Not like I have better things to do on thanksgiving eve. Someone at sprint is going to die a very painful death. A death involving... severed connections.

Re: The cranky thread This being the year 2007 A.D., well into the twenty-first century, you'd think we'd have mastered the technology of air conditioning. What is air conditioning anyway, a pipe, a pump, and a fan? So why does it break down with such alarming regularity? I don't like coming to the office at 10pm on a weekend to find that it's 103 degrees in the server room.

Re: Whats your view of PC expiry? What's your in-game mortality rate? I like to use two PCs per player, so that the player isn't out of the game when a PC takes a bad hit. And there is no resurrection, ever. Wear a helmet.

Re: The cranky thread "Burned wire"? How the hell?

Re: The cranky thread Ah, yes, that would be like the time I spent three days troubleshooting a COBOL program only to discover that the version I was using was case-sensitive. And then for a really good laugh, try doing intensive string handling in C, especially at 3 in the morning. Star star ampersand ampersand!

Re: The cranky thread Insidious, eh? Like in Christine?

Re: The cranky thread Did the face-splash cause your eyes to stop flaming?

Re: Stun/knock outs, overwhelming the combats We always treated mook KO=dead (and mook impaired/disabled = KO), not for heroic reasons but for bookkeeping ones. Nothing drags out a fight longer than mooks who recover consciousness. How dare they?

Re: The cranky thread Or calls from nonprofits. I have my landline (which is a cordless phone) plugged into a power strip with the switch in easy reach. So I can look at the caller ID and, if necessary, switch off the phone. It'd still be better if it didn't ring in the first place though.

Re: Working Up The Spell Create Food & Water Just off the top of my head, you could conceivably create useful matter out of nothing (or nearly nothing) with Transform, Change Environment, Entangle, Summon, or Aid. But my latest favorite is Duplication. "Hold still, I need to clone you." "Clone me? What for?" "I'm hungry."

Re: Post your characters 1001 fantasy characters Aleister Carloss Once a minor lordling in the city, Aleister had everything a man could want--a well-appointed mansion, high standing in society, and plenty of money to keep them both. But there was something his money could not buy--eternal life. Over the years he withdrew from society, snapping up every piece of information he could find on the subject, focused only on cheating death. Soon his quest drove him to begin dabbling in the forbidden arts. His practice of necromancy quickly drove away any remaining tutors and friends he might have had, and one day he found himself relatively penniless, with no one in high society willing even to be seen with him. Today Aleister possesses only the remnants of his once considerable fortune--a small room in the city where he stores the books, scrolls, and other paraphernalia of his obsession, and enough finery to keep up at least the appearance of wealth. Shunned by society, and having exhausted all repositories of magical knowledge in the city, he rides out into the wilderness, hunting for the lost secrets of magic in the ruins beyond. Carloss is relatively tall and well built, though his practice of necromancy have left his eyes sunken and his hair prematurely white. He is clean-shaven and keeps his hair neatly groomed. His usual adventuring garb includes fine leather riding clothes, as though he were on a hunt, and a bone-handled cane sword, which he is competent with as a result of dimly remembered fencing instruction. ### disads ### 5 age 40+ 15 obsessed with becoming immortal (cmn/str) 15 contemptuous of anyone less intelligent than himself (vc/mod) 10 competitive with other sorcerers (unc/str) 5 reputation: evil necromancer (8-) 50 total ### stats ### str 10 - dex 14 12 con 13 6 body 13 6 int 20 20 ego 11 2 pre 15 5 com 10 - pd 2 - ed 3 - speed 4 6 rec 5 - end 24 - stun 23 - 57 ### skills ### 3 scholar 1 ks: the undead 1 ks: demons and hell 1 ks: necromantic magic 1 ks: methods of achieving immortality 1 ks: anatomy 1 ks: methods of inflicting pain 1 ks: legends and history of wizards and magic 3 forensic medicine 6 combat luck 3 high society 2 familiarity with common melee weapons 13 magic skill 18- 3 riding 43 total ### magic ### 13 40pt. sorcery multipower (-0.5) requires a skill roll (-0.25) incantations (-0.25) gestures (-0.25) concentrate 1/2 DCV (-0.5) full phase to cast (-0.25) not on holy ground 1u 37 weaken: 3d6 suppress str, continuous, 0 end 1u 37 strike blind: 5d6 flash, 1 hex area 1u 39 poltergeist: 26 str. telekinesis, affects whole object 1u 37 theft of life: 1.5d6 xfr body to end (25), usable at range (+1/2) 1u 30 detect magic: discriminatory, analyze, ranged, targeting 1u 38 animate dead: summon 1x 85-point zombie (17), expanded class: based on corpse (+1/4) slavishly loyal (+1) 1u 40 unlife regeneration: 4d6 simplified healing 1u 40 summon: 4x 50-point demon, slavishly loyal (+1) 1u 37 feeblemind: 5d6 suppress int, 0 end 1u 32 sense life: detect living creatures (10), discriminatory (5) analyze (5) ranged (5) targeting (10) 1u 37 strength of the damned: 5d6 succor str, 0 end 1u 5 shadow walk: teleport 1" (2) safe blind (+1/4) megascale 1" = 1000 km (+1) full turn to cast (-1/2) 1u 37 glimpse of the abyss: aid 3d6 to end, fade 1/turn 1u 40 foul gust: 35" leaping, accurate (40) 1u 40 spirit form: desolid 1u 40 shadow form: invisibility to sight and hearing (25) simultaneously usable by others (+1/2) only in areas with relatively low lighting, such as shadows or moonlight (-1/2) 1u 40 waking nightmare: 8d6 mental illusions 1u 37 cursed gloom: change environment (shadow and chill) -1 OCV (5) -4 PER (12), -1 temperature level (3), 8" radius (15), personal immunity (+1/4), not in direct sunlight (-whatever) 1u 37 mastery of venom and corruption: 10d6 dispel (30) vs. any venom or disease, one at a time (+1/4) 15 total 57 stats 43 skills 28 magic 125 absolute total

Re: Stun/knock outs, overwhelming the combats Note that hit locations work both ways, so if your PCs aren't wearing helmets, they'd better start now.

Re: Working Up The Spell Create Food & Water It'd look a lot like the sheets for a wild pig and an angry bull. That's right, you gotta work for your food in this campaign.

Re: Working Up The Spell Create Food & Water I'd use Summoning, myself. Guarantees the freshest food possible.

Re: Stun/knock outs, overwhelming the combats 1. Hit Locations. 2. Bleeding. 3. Hit Locations. 4. Sectional Armor. 5. Hit Locations. I think that about covers it.

Re: The cranky thread You just described my entire job.

Re: The "Nice Happy" Thread My boy likes cars and fire. I am proud.