bigdamnhero

Re: Nuclear Physics Made Fun!

although my personal favorite song in this vein is Tom Lehrers "The Elements" to the tune of Modern Major General

Believe it or not, I once memorized and could sing "The Elements" all the way through. "There's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium/ And hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium..."

Eventually, I got a life.

bigdamnhero

"Will someone get this walking carpet out of my way?"

Re: Firefly

Another quote was "ships travel between worlds at the speed of plot." in response to why no detailed star maps with precision distances and times for travel.

I think that line originally comes from Rodenberry or one of his Trek successors, but it still cracks me up. As a writer (unpublished so far) I think that answer makes perfect sense, and it certainly matches the feel of the show.

But as a gamer, I like to have a little more detail so the players understand WHY they can/can't get to Persephone in time. Especially since I tend to game with a lot of engineers who want hard answers to things (especially in sci-fi, as opposed to fantasy or supers) and don't like being told "because I said so, that's why."

Different strokes, folks, etc. Personally, I think Star Hero goes a little overboard in some areas. But that's the beauty of it - just cuz the details are there doesn't mean you have to use them.

Thanks for the review - I definitely plan to buy the first copy I see, `tho probably just for source material.

bigdamnhero

"If people see you are unarmed, they'll never hurt you...nine times out of ten."

Re: Feints

That's not really a feint though. That's just plain distraction' date=' kinda like throwing sand in his eyes.[/quote']

OK, call it something else if you like. Distraction? Ruse? Bluff? The point is to reward creativity and give players a way to use non-combat skills to enhance their combat abiilties.

 

 

bigdamnhero

"Life is like a sewer: what you get out of it depends on what you put into it."

Re: Firefly

I'm (hopefully) playing in a demo game this Thursday' date=' so I'll let y'all know. [/quote']

Missed the Serenity demo game Thursday. Had to bail to finish prepping the games I was running on Friday. The folks I talked to who did make it said the game mechanics were weak, but great source material. Which is exactly what I'm looking for.

 

 

bigdamnhero

"...and that’s when I shot him, your honor."

Re: Feints

Classic example of a real-world feint: two of my friends are sparring in the dojo. We'll call them Sensei and Student. Student is clearly outclassed and getting his butt kicked, when he looks past Senei's shoulder towards the door and says "Hi Trish Ann!" (Sensei's wife.) Sensei turns to look in spite of himself... Pop!

...and combat skill had nothing to do with it.

bigdamnhero

"Rasputin, bring in the bucket of soapy frogs and remove his trousers."

Re: Feints

I agree that, in general, feints are part of the OCV/CSL package. But I also like to reward players who think of ways to use non-combat skills (sleight of hand, acting, or just PRE) to augment their combat skills. Plus, it's another way to prompt players to embellish their attacks, rather than just "I hit him" over and over.

Personally, I'd prefer to see feint as a maneuver, rather than a skill or talent. I've normally run it much as others have described: come up with a clever idea, roll some appropriate skill, quick PER roll for attacker, bonuses or penalties handed out based on who rolled what.

Actually, now that I'm writing it down, didn't there used to be a feint maneuver in the original Fantasy Hero? Have to check my book when I get home. (Unless someone beats me to it, of course...)

bigdamnhero

"Holy mother of God and all her wacky Nephews!"

Re: Broad category skills

At the risk of jumping on an already crowded bandwagon, I'm another one who allows fairly broad uses of PS & KS. I have sometimes allowed mid-game skill additions, but try to avoid it as it can easily become a "squeaky wheel gets the grease" thing. (My players are already squeaky and greasy enough, thank you!) But I really like the Retro Skill concept [Repped!] as it makes it a game mechanic rather than an exception.

I suppose my problem with using PS more than I do is that PS is cheap. I feel better giving added utility if a few more points have been paid.

Point taken: a 2-point PS should not serve as a substitute for 10 points worth of skills. But then, 2 points is only the base cost, right? If a player feels that his pilot "should've taken" navigation skill, you can always reply that "with a PS of only 11- you must not be a very well-rounded professional pilot; you just know how to fly a plane." Or the other fallback: “You remember taking that class at the Academy, but you haven’t practiced it in awhile…â€

On the other end of things, I have seen GMs allow characters to buy skills at reduced (or no) cost if it's something that is pertinent to character background, but not likely to get much actual play. One example was a game where we played historical characters transported into a sci-fi future; the GM let each of us pick 10 points of “useless†skills – horseback riding, archaic weapon familiarities, lock-picking (mechanical), etc. – for free. Some of them wound up getting used once of twice, but mostly they were just for color.

As a tangential thought, how do most of you handle “untrained†skill checks? For example, even if Climbing isn’t an everyman skill, most any character (physical limitations permitting) can attempt to climb something. My usual method is to give a non-proficiency penalty of -3, for a base roll of 5-. Yes, I know that’s less than a 5% chance of success, but it allows them to attempt easy tasks (which might give bonuses of +3 or better, which a skilled individual could do in his sleep) with a reasonable chance of success.

bigdamnhero

"Zathras is used to being beast of burden to other people's needs. Very sad life. Probably have very sad death, but at least there is symmetry."

Re: Genetically engineered humans

And for "IIF: Nanotech" remind him that he now has given you permission to have a Science Villian who happened upon the Codes required to Shut Down His Body. Focus' can be taken away in more ways than just removing them from the characters possession...

Now that's just...evil!

I'm looking for a way to play devil's advocate here and think of some way I might allow this, but I really don't see it. At most I might waive the normal characteristic maximums, but if you're already in a supers game you're probably not using them anyway.

The way I normally handle players who want to get something for nothing is to remind them that "a limitation that doesn't limit the character isn't worth any points." Your player has thought up a plausible explanation for how his character has a 30 STR, but it's just SFX unless it limits him in some way compared to another character who just really works out a lot.

As far as "genie" package deals, some thoughts on disads:

- Vulnerability/Susceptibility to _______: especially if the technology is new, and they haven't quite got all the bugs worked out yet. The player may not even know what the ____ is at first.

- Dependance: if some kind of regular "supplements" are required to keep the enhancements working.

- Enraged/berserk: if the technology screws with a character's head.

- Psych Lims: ditto.

- Physical Limitation: if the technology screws with the character's body in some way. This could be anything from colorblindness or loss of sense of smell, to selling back some inches of running, to more severe limitations.

- Social Lim, subject to discrimination: if there's prejudice against genies in your world.

- Distincitve Looks: if there's something obvious about all genies, like bulging foreheads, green hair, or whatever.

- Hunted/Watched: if there's some society, gov't or otherwise, that specifically monitors or hunts down genies.

Obviously, I don't know what would fit in your campaign, but it seems like there are plenty of ways you could run with this.

bigdamnhero

"We're gonna die!"

"Think positive!"

"We're gonna die quickly!"

Re: Astrogator's Handbook

I do have a copy. It's not bad' date=' but I think the Astrogator's Handbook is better.[/quote']

I'll cross it off my list then. Thanks!

 

bigdamnhero

“I have a cunning plan, which cannot fail...â€

Re: Dinosaur Planet

From what I've read the arrival of homo sapiens into North America helped to eliminate most of the large animals. They were so efficient at hunting that during an extreme climate change the other mammals weren't able to compete

Another consideration: notice how basically all of the surviving big mammels are in Africa? The theory is that as early man got better and better at hunting, African mammels had generations to learn to stay away from us. But when our ancestors crossed into N. Am the bison, et. al. underestimated us -- "Aw, it's just some little monkey with a stick - Aaagh!" -- and we hunted them into extinction before they could adapt.

Savinien' date=' you should also remember that meat eaters are generally smarter than plant eaters. I can't remember why but there was some reason behind it.[/quote']

At least part of it is because their food moves. Doesn't take a whole lotta brains to catch a blade of grass.

 

(Or does it have to do with absorbing the intelligence of the creatures you kill - no wait, that's Highlander. I always get those mixed up!)

 

We're talking about including different species from different eras.

I'm not clear what you mean by this. All the existing species will presumably be from the current era by definition, right? If you mean some evolved earlier than others, I'm not sure how much that matters to anyone but a biologist. For example, sharks evolved to their current form ages ago, whereas horses have changed dramatically in ~recent millenia. But to the guy on the ground, what matters is that I can ride one while the other will try and eat me.

 

So' date=' any thought on the land masses that may support the series of creatures we've been discussing?[/quote']

Using Earth's precedent, you could justify having one continent where all the giant beasties live, and another where sapients got there late and killed all the giants off. Or if Mogg IV's continents are further apart than Earth's, there would be no Bering land bridge when the water levels drop, which means early "man" might not have reached "the New World" until their early modern era. That could have some interesting implications. You might even be able to get away with one continent where reptiles are dominant and another where mammels rule. But that could be the insomnia talking.

Certina creature types could be stuck in the Lowgrounds. Their physiology doesn't allow them to make it past the land ridges separating the vastly different ecologies.

Could also be limited by climate: tropical creatures simply aren't going to migrate to the frozen tundra. IIRC from Guns, Germs & Steel, flora & fauna both tend to spread much faster on land masses that are oriented horizontally (ie - Eurasia) than on landmasses oriented vertically (ie - North America). That's one reason why almost all of the domesticatable plant species evolved on Eurasia - more variety, more cross-breeding.

 

If the plates aren't shifting that much over a few thousand years' date=' the Saurial could have gone from their first tools to Atlantis and back again in a couple million years.[/quote']

Remember that continental drift happens on geologic time, not human time. Or even Saurial time. When our ancestors crossed the Beiring Straight into North America 14,000 years ago, the continents were pretty-much right where they are now.

 

Sorry for another monster post. Man we're a long-winded bunch, ain't we?

 

 

bigdamnhero

"...and that’s when I shot him, your honor."

Re: Dinosaur Planet

Now' date=' back on to the subject at hand. Since you are going with reptiles/dinos being the most intelligent animals on the planet why don't you use therapsids (fur covered reptiles that came 50 millions before the dinosaurs) as the largest predators. I think it would be cool to use them instead of traditional dinosaurs to give your world a more mixed up feeling.[/quote']

Excellent suggestions! I hadn't even thought about the pre-dinos, et al. Also, thanks for the evolutionary clarifications. I was going to mention the feathers thing, but wasn't sure how widely accepted the theory was yet. What's the "early mammels were dumber than dinos" theory based on? Not disputing you, just curious.

 

Okay... Where do carnivorous plants fit into this ecology?

 

Wherever you want them to?

 

Hmm...now we're getting further into the realms of fantasy. Not saying that's a bad thing, just saying. In our world, carniverous plants are rare, small, and harmless to anything bigger than a housefly. I can't imagine how to "realistically" make any kind of man-eating Venus fly trap on an Earth-like planet. For one thing, scaling up to that size would make the plant far too heavy to move itself under any moving-plant mechanism I know of.

 

But then, who says we need to be constrained by reality?

 

In many ways your carniverous plants are going to end up closer to animals than to any terrestrial plant. But that's okay too - there's no reason to assume that Terran taxonomic divisions would be meaningful on Planet X anyway. So give them some sort of muscule system to control the movement. Maybe some kind of segmented bark, like an insect's exoskeleton, to allow movement. Something fulfilling the function of a mouth, `tho it needn't look like one, with some digestive juices. Then the only question is how it senses it's food. Vision might be taking it too far (for me, anyway); maybe they sense air displacement?

 

As far as what role they fulfill, even with everything we've postulated I still hve a hard time seeing such plant monsters competing with dinosaurs for food. Most animals will simply learn to avoid them. (Maybe they impersonate more common, non-carniverous plants?) So I would see them as primarily carrion eaters, which means they wouldn't normally be much of a threat to active people. Until your hero unknowingly camps too close to one and wakes up to find himself half-wrapped in tentacles...

 

That's all I've got for now. Anyone else?

 

 

bigdamnhero

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the road less traveled by and they CANCELLED MY FRIKKIN' SHOW. I totally shoulda took the road that had all those people on it. Damn." --Joss Whedon

Re: Comics are getting too steamy...

I've got no problem with sex when it advances the plot or character development; I'm opposed to it when it's just shameless pandering. Actually I feel that way about a lot of things: violence, death, resurrections, political/religious commentary, cross-overs...

The other thing to remember is that comics aren't really marketed at kids anymore, and haven't been since... well, since most of us were kids. Didn't I see something the other day that the average (maybe it was mean) age of comic readers is pushing 40?

bigdamnhero

"Is this the human value you call friendship?"

"Don't give me any of that 'Star Trek' crap. It's too early in the morning."

Re: Dinosaur Planet

At any rate' date=' the theories I learned umpteen years ago posited the idea that it was both competition amongst other mammals (already better thinkers and users of energy than the reptiles) that lead our ancestors to think. After all, of all the land mammals, apes really do have the beggar's share of natural armaments, and humans got gypped out of a great chunk of what little the apes still retain. So we were left with thinking. No more details here; I'm reasonably certain that you can see where this lead.[/quote']

I'm not sure about the energy use thing -- I'm no biologist either, nor do I play one on TV. But my understanding is that you're basically correct about how/why we learned to think. In short, T-Rex could get by on muscle. Us puny mammels had to play smart in order to survive. I believe there is also some thought that because apes lived mostly in trees their varied environment gave their brains more stimulation.

 

The only wrench I can throw in your post is that, as I understand it, current theory is that dinosaurs were warm-blooded after all. I don't think that's been proven, but I think it's the dominant theory these days.

 

 

bigdamnhero

"Alright you primitive screw heads, listen up. See this? This is my BOOM stick."

Re: Astrogator's Handbook

By the way, has anyone heard of a book called "Proximity Zero, A Writer's Guide to the Nearest 200 Stars" by Terry Kepner? It's out of print, and I've been hunting the local used bookstores for a copy. But now that I've got all the freebies this thread's handed out, I'm wondering if it's worth the effort.

bigdamnhero

"In a sense, this is really *your* movie. So if it sucks, it's *your* fault." - Joss Whedon

Serenity premieres September 30th

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

For those interested, the US govt has a number of declassified nuke videos for sale at $10 a pop:

https://www.osti.gov/opennet/forms.jsp?formurl=films/histfilms.html

The only one I've personally seen is "Exercise Desert Rock," which is one of the above-ground tests they did in the 50s involving US soldiers. The video is essentially an Army training film made after the exercise. The only problem with it (apart from the obvious problem!) is that they don't give any actual numbers for yield, dose rates, etc.

The only Nuke I wouldn't plot device are the mini-nukes that were designed to be mounted on the back of a jeep and fired out to a couple km at a target - usually a building or emplacement.

Was it the "Davy Crockett" back in the 60s that was sortof a nuclear bazooka whose range was considerably less than its blast radius?

Only time I ever actually used a nuke in a game, it was a plot device. Heroes shoved it through a dimensional portal to nuke the big demon. It did [exactly-as-many-as-it-needs-to]d6.

bigdamnhero

"They tell you never to strike a man with a closed fist, but it is on occasion hillarious."

Re: Firefly

according to stuff i've read on the browncoats forum the RPG will mention events and characters from the show' date=' it just won't identify them as being from the TV show.[/quote']

Sounds about right. I'm (hopefully) playing in a demo game this Thursday, so I'll let y'all know.

 

 

bigdamnhero

"What the hell are we supposed to use, man? Harsh language?"

Re: Firefly

IIRC most of the serious prudishness came about in the Late 1800s' date=' the Victorian era. Prior to that it wasn't as bizarre, but in that period it was determined that the legs of FURNITURE were too "stimulating" to be uncovered. [/quote']

The Puritans were also pretty...well, I guess puritanical is the word I'm looking for. There's one story of a woman who kissed her husband on the front porch as he was returning home from a year at sea, and was stoned to death for the affront. Even if that specific story may be apocryphal (I've heard the story repeated a bunch, but haven't properly researched it), it's not very far out from Puritan attitudes in general. "Left England...'cause it wasn't prudish enough" is a pretty accurate description.

 

 

bigdamnhero

You must be like wolf pack, not six-pack."

Re: Firefly

SciFi has been playing Firefly before Stargate on Fridays. Have they gotten the TV rights from Fox or are they limited to just reruns?

To the best of my knowledge, SciFi only has syndication rites; Fox still owns the original rights to the show. (The new Serenity RPG, as I understand it, only contains material from the movie, not the show, because they didn't want to have to get approval from both Universal AND Fox in prder to print anything.)

So don't expect new episodes any time soon.

bigdamnhero

Zathras is used to being beast of burden to other people's needs. Very sad life. Probably have very sad death, but at least there is symmetry."

Re: Astrogator's Handbook

distance = SQUARE ROOT[ (x1 - x2)^2 + (y1 - y2)^2 + (z1 - z2)^2 ]

Nyrath, didn't you used to have a Excel spreadsheet for the Tuffleyverse (the "official" but optional background for Full Thrust, for those unfamiliar) that calculated the distances between all stars within something like 15 parsecs of Earth? I can't find it on your website.

bigdamnhero

"Have you ever considered piracy? You'd make a wonderful Dred Pirate Roberts."

Re: Earth's core

Best case: We have to repaint the needles in the compases.

 

Worse case: End of citilization as we know it.

Well, I'm glad we've got *that* bracketed.

bigdamnhero

“Your brain is like the four-headed man-eating haddock-fish-beast of Aberdeen.â€

“In what way?â€

“It doesn’t exist.â€

Re: Book suggestions?

I second most of Nyrath's suggestions. (The one's I've read so far.)

I hesitate to recommend Stephen Donaldson's "Gap" series. Like everything Donaldson writes, it's beyond dark -- rape, torture, general nastiness. But it also has a very interesting and original vision of space travel and combat. First book is called "The Real Story."

I'm not a big fan of Saberhagen's Berzerker Wars, but I know a lot of people who swear by it.

And though it's mostly about the ground pounders, definitely give Heinlein's Starship Troopers a read if you haven't already.

bigdamnhero

“I use the word “man†in its broadest possible sense. For as we all know, God made man in his own image. It’d be a sad lookout for Christians throughout the globe if God looked anything like you.â€

Re: Dinosaur Planet

The Sauriel have a witch-doctor capable of mystic powers' date=' not the PC. He's just a regular human.[/quote']

Ah, misread your post. OK.

 

The first civilizations of the Saurial that evolved were same-species tribes. In the ancient past though, there society grew and they evolved enough that the species interbred and created larger communities. A long time ago, some cataclysm destoryed that civilization and the Sauriel that remained coexist interspecially.

 

That might have taken away the distinct versions of Saurial, though. Do you think it is a good or bad idea?

Either would work, but IMO more variety is always better. Maybe by the time the cataclysm came, the differences between the different species was enough that they could no longer interbreed?

 

Just as a thought' date=' if your dominant species (Saurial) is derived from dinosaurs, then perhaps you shouldn't have the traditional dinosaurs roaming the land. Maybe it's giant mammals and the like.[/quote']

Excellent suggestion!

 

I'm not too knowledgable about why our planet has mammals being dominant' date=' though.[/quote']

 

Well remember the Age Of Lizards lasted far longer than the Age Of Mammels has so far. But the currently accepted theory (highly abridged version) is that a large meteor impact changed the climate dramatically for a long period, and mammels were better able to adapt to the new conditions. By contrast, most of the now-extinct large mammels -- mastodons, etc -- were hunted to extinction by early humans. (There's a fantastic book called "Guns, Germ & Steel" by Jared Diamond if you want the details.)

 

Anyway, I'm not a biologist (nor do I play one on TV), but I'm sure if we tried hard enough we could work up some justification why large mammels evolved on your world instead, but the smaller lizards were the ones that acheived sentience for some reason. Could even have happened on different continents.

 

 

Glancing through the Bestiary I noticed some creatures built for the Xenovores... They seem to be created by a warm blooded lizard like species. Where can I find information on them? Terran Empires? It looks like my Sauriel aren't so very different than the Mon'dabi.

The Xenovores are mostly in Alien Wars, `tho there's some material on them in Terran Empire. The Mon'dabi are in Terran Empire.

 

 

 

bigdamnhero

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the road less traveled by and they CANCELLED MY FRIKKIN' SHOW. I totally shoulda took the road that had all those people on it. Damn." --Joss Whedon

Re: Dinosaur Planet

Glad I could help!

Just curious: if you want him to have "magic-seeming powers" via psionics, why so fussed about giving him technology? Seems like you could accomplish much the same things either way. Or is it just a style thing?

Just don't forget the shotgun and the chainsaw...

bigdamnhero

"Alright you primitive screw heads, listen up. See this? This is my BOOM stick."

Re: Atmosphere

In my games, terraforming is normally for worlds you want to colonize (ie - have people live and raise families on). Domes are mostly for:

1. A relatively quick and cheap interim step to terraforming, or

2. Worlds unsuittable for terraforming -- too small, too far/close to sun, etc -- but that still have some good reason for people to live there (scientific outposts, small mining settlements, covert military bases, etc).

Of course as with most such things, a lot depends on your assumptions about how many Earth-like and/or life-bearing planets are out there. If there are a lot of worlds that can sustain human life without terraforming, then there won't be much need to terraform any more.

I was thinking about the view available from the surface' date=' not necessarily safety. You know, the same thing that make rich people in California live on the edge of a cliff instead of in a flat area not prone to mudslides. [/quote']

Yeah, if past human history is any indication most people will choose scenic over safe any day. Besides, people in general just don't like living underground for long stretches of time. We were born in the trees and we like to see the sky...

 

Of course, that assumes the decision is up to them, not the corporation that built (or insures) the place.

 

Of course on a planet with 1/15 Earth gravity...A reasonably strong person will be able to bench press a modern car.

`Tho don't forget that that he can still be crushed if he drops the car: 1/15 gravity doesn't reduce its mass.

 

 

bigdamnhero

“I use the word “man†in its broadest possible sense. For as we all know, God made man in his own image. It’d be a sad lookout for Christians throughout the globe if God looked anything like you.â€

Re: Firefly

The site makes it unclear now. Is Sheppard Book in the movie?

Book *is* in the movie, `tho his part is a little smaller than I might've hoped for.

bigdamnhero

“I’m a busy man and I can’t be bothered to punch you at the moment. Here is my fist; kindly run towards it as fast as you can.â€