Duke Bushido

This d9es br8ng up an,interesting question (I have been sitting in the truck for nearly an hour now waiting for Noisy. We were supposed,to leave at noon to go to the coast and get her a new helmet. Haven't left yet, so I thought I would check in): Does this add to your character's recoverable charges? I know most people don't charge CP for equipment and such, but there is always that one guy who wants to use CP on one prticular item so that it becomes a "can't ever really lose it" item, hence the question. Does he know have ten of his 'eight charges, revoverable'? If so, does he have to allocate future EP to cover the cost, refundable upon failing to recover them next time? Does the guy from whom he recovered the arrows now find himself unable to whittle and sketch new arrows for some mysterious reason, at least until the guy who has the missing arrows breaks or loses them? Certainly, none of these queations are important, and can be hand waived as trivial and "it will al work out in the end." They are completely irrelevant if no one is using CP to buy bows or arrows. (Should arrows be built as separate END Reserves of charges that are useable by bows, and bows built as "ranged Attack enablers, arrows required" instead of a complete bow-and-arrow package?) Again, not important. I ask then only because ultimately, the lead to questioning some basic game concepts, and they relate more directly than it at first seems,to the age-old debate of how one does or does not go into the business of manufacturing magical items he then sells, or otherwise diatributes for use amongst people he may never see again...

It brings me great comfort to know that some things never change.

N-B, I wish I could offer you something from experience, but like a great day at work, it is something I have never experienced personally. No: not a brag or condescension; give me a moment to tie this together: It is because I have never had this problem and because, back when I had time, I used to read _constantly_. Not just fiction, but non-fiction, even technical manuals. I used to read cheap adventure modules for games I didn't even play! Today, my reading is xonfined mostly to whatever strikes my fancy on the net. I like will entries on almost any subject, mainly,because most od them can be read in ten minutes or less, which suits the amount of "me" time I have available typically, and of,course, conversations on websites such as this one. So, I think there may be something to the reading suggestion. I also used to write constantly,as well, especially when I was younger: you can't just get bored and read a book in class, but if your pencil,was wiggling furiously, you were assumed to hard at work! oddly, most of what I wrote was written specifically because I wanted something to read. Nothing like do_it_yourself, I suppose. Ha! I wanted to add, though, that getting in the habbit of just writing- without thinking about it; just write. I van't say for sure, but that might help as well. I say "might" because I still can't draw, and,I have been practicing that for fifty-some,years.

This comes off as one od those "luchadores do double damage against monsters" / "vampires on holy ground" things. That is to say, this seems like the end result of how your campaign world works. You can take a complicated, time-charted Reflection "time,chart to indicate that you might not 'redicet" this particular arrow for a couple od months), amd that couls concievably work without any serious hitches. However, ithink another, simpler solution is to require that bows be built with Recoverable Charges. It is _assumed_ that the bowman will be the person recoering them, but it is not _mandated_ that no one else may do so. After That, it is a matter of what you requure to catch the arrow: DEX roll? Catch Arrow Skill deck? Deflection? Random chance? I would think an OCV against OCV roll as the basic mechanic, maybe applying skill leves specifically,for arrow catching, somthing like +4 OCV when attemptong to catch arrows fired directly at him. You xould even make it a martial maneuver, if that's your particular bag.

I like Hugh's suggestion, personally, but if it is important to you that it be modeled as specifically getring power from this one place, the simplest build for that (not as simple as Hugh' s, and not as clean, and there is the added problem that the characters aren't paying for this, if that is indeed a problem for you) is to build your fountain. Give it lots of aid and a heavily-pushed-down fade rate. You may have to hand wave the "fades all at once;" I am not terribly 6e-savvy.

Thanks, but at this point, I think I have seen enough memes to rebuild the plot, and I have already been rols (without roon for discussion) that I will hate how it ends.

Yep. Found me an honest typo that comes off as a possible insult. Just about the time I start working on correxting it, I get a notification that someone quoted it. :rofl: Let"s go see what else I can goof up today....

There was a trio of books way back when called Central Casting (I had the sci-to one and the fantasy one once upon a time). I believe they are still available in PDF form,somewhere. Yes, they are lengthy series of "roll on chart X" books, and kind of random. However, clicking a button on someone's web-based character generator is kind of random, too, but I find the dice /charts / take notes approach to be a lot more fun than "click here; receive bacon." Warning: the age of these books kind of shows. Depending on what and where your path takes you, you may have to either ignore or apply judicious use of the Ignomious Black Highlighter in order to not get worked up over some random (and bizarre) scattered bits of homophobia. Really wierd considering that the name Paul Jaquays is attached to them.... _really_ wierd. Granted, she may have still been in denial then; I dont know. Still, they are lots of fun, and they fill me with old-school nostalgia. I never used them to build actual character backstories, but I could spend am hour or two just rolling up backgrounds on a rainy afternoon...

Nope. To be fair, it had nothing to do with material itself; it is more a matyer of lifestyle: I work between sixty and eighty hours a week, and amongst other things, I game and het ready to game. I dont watch much television at all. I nvere really did, though, having grown up without television, I never for indoctrinated into the habit like most people in my age group, and now that I sit here thinking about it, I dont think I have watched _anything_ regularly since Futuarama got canned the last time.

I'll bite. Without any facetiousness; because I am interested in what you have been saying thus far: Why not?

Thanks!

Not sure why, but this entire thread reminds me of an old comic- I wish I could remember where I saw it, but I truly can't. I was a kid then, and didnt get it. A WW2 soldier pulls down a Nazi flag from some place he and his soldiers have won a victory. He folds up the flag, more as a "never forget" thing- it wasn't a drawn out respectful folding, but a gathering in / rolling up of a large bunch of fabric. He comes home and sticks it in a trunk with other wartime items and outs it in the attic (barn? I dont remember). Time passes. His now-grown son is clesning out the house, finds the flag, hangs it up outside, and starts saluting it- the high-hand salute we associate with Nazis. There are No word balloons, so we are left to figure out what happened. Did son learn it from Dad? Dad seemed relieved to have defeated the Nazis, and took the flag as a trophy and a reminder- more like a "never forget" sort of thing. Is son saluting because he found it in dad's stuff, and thinks it is something dad would be proud of? Has the world changed so much that nazis are again in the open and he went looking specifically for the flag? We will never know, as the comic never explained itself. M.A.R. Barker is dead. Like the comic, we will get no words to explain this. We won't even get actions after the discovery. Was this extremely intelligent and educated non-Aryan man a Nazi? Was he a white supremacist? All we know is that he did this under a psedludonym, and was so proud of it that he spent his entire life not talking about it, so far as I can find. I won't pretend there is some "other" beyond "yep. Brown Nazi. Happens more than you think." But i won't pretend that there can be no reason other than he was a Nazi, either, simply because unlike Bledsaw 2 and 3, the Magats, and other alive and thriving, openly-nazi filth that oozes around today, there is no way to ask, to find a "why." I know good and well that while reading this some super-clever individual- a troll? An SJW? Maybe just a knee-jerk reactionist who knows he has a safe bet to demonstrate his moral superiority won't make it this far before posting "oh yeah? What other kind if reason could there be, smart guy?" Let me cut that off right now by saying 'i have no idea. I can't think of a single one.' What I can think of, though, is a long list of awful things I have done in the past as I grew to become,my own person-- Hell, I admitted right here on this board not too terribly long ago that I was raised _by_ and _to be_ a racist. I am not now (thank you, Mr. T and my dear Siobhan. Thank you both- one for opening my eyes and the other for knowing who I became instead of who I was). I can also think of a prerty lengthy list of truly awful things I have done to get by. Did I ever tell you guys that in '79 I helped a small,motorcycle gang knock off a shipment of weed from a private air field in Liberty County? That we made a crap ton of cash selling it to another "distributor?' That this was how I met Pop? He was an undercover narc- went by the name "Booger." He rolled up right as we were closing the deal, accused me of setting up a double-cross and I got my a$$ beat bloody heading out the door. Pop chased me outside with a pool cue. When we got out, he grabbed me up, handed me a set of keys and said "they won't f%*! with you on my bike, now get the f%×& out of here!" I stood there like a particulalry stupid post and he slapped me, shoved me toward his bike, and screamed some,obscenities. I jumoed on and left while he fired a pistol behind me. I passed over a dozen State patrol cars as I roared away. Pop did a lot to change who I was, too. See, he knew I was taking care of two of my younger siblings, my job had pushed me to part time, my brother J and sister S were staying with me to go to high school and college-- he knew I was in it because I needed money, bad. We were going to lose our home, and they both had tuition coming up. So I helped devise a plan to knock off a drug shipment. I helped find contacts to turn it to cash. I had no idea that we had gotten in the middle of a three year investigation that - well, it doesn't matter. I did it, and it is not even the worst thing I have ever done. I do _not_ tell you this because I am proud of it. I am incredibly ashamed of a lot of things I have done to get by. I am not that person anymore. If it wasn't for Pop deciding to spare me that one arrest, I couldn't have kept it hidden, and I could not have become the person I am today. Am I saying that Barker wasn't a raging Nazi at heart? No. What I _am_ saying is that the biggest differenve between me,and him right now is that I am still alive to give you the _whole_ story. If I died yesterday and some,enterprising person got really lucky and found out about all this tomorrow, would the big reveal be "affable RPG grognard and all-purpose moron actually a drug runner!"? If it wasn't one in the moring and I wasnt positively _goofy_ with sleep deprivation, I probably wouldnt have bothered posting this at all. Good night.

Give a shout if he does that for the Traveller LBBs or The Traveller Book. I need that information. For.....reasons.....

Seriously, NB: I am,exremely interested in seeing this explored! Care to elaborate a bit?

While I agree with you, we newd to remeber that this thread grew out of one (out of three) current threads about solving the "not enough people have the time, experience, or resources to make their own thing."

I dont know how far it evolved, but most of what I saw evoked fairy tales and nonsensical fun, with vieled danger beneath. Which makes sense, since the enite world of Tekumel was something he had concieved of as a child and built on throughout his life. Nobody is born a racist; they have to be trained that way.

Sorry- accidentally,cropped too much. You put me in mind of the saying that you will always regret meeting your heroes. I tend to agree. Except Mr. T. If I ever get that lucky, I am sure it will be great. And if you have a genuine moral objection to financially supporting them, do what I do, and comb the used market. Some stuff- Like Emoire of the Petal Throne, you will likely pay more, but not one cent of it is going to support a person or company you find objectionable. Plus: you still have acces to their stuff! And it is legal! And it is moral (with some exceptions, like buying from scalpers, who go right back to the source and spend your money to replenish their supply). Anyway, it is a favored option. Granted, with Tekumel, it is the only option (so far as I know).

Wierd. I have heaed of the novel and the allegations that he wrote it for several years (I can never understand how ethnic non-whites get caught up in white supremacy, _particularly_ when said people are educated.) But this is how I leanred that Barker is dead. Wierd day.

That's a new one for this particular topic! Tell us more!

That"s the thing, Dean: at the store level, you can asknfor red or blue. They will direct you to a million swatches, but you can ask for blue! At the supply level, you have to know the name or code for the paint, and the names all sound like what the allegedged AI came up with! What the heck color is Spring Frog or Imperial Reckoning?! I want orange! Can I get thirty gallons of orange? We don't have orange. How about Outraged Blushing Tangello? I cheat. I made nice with one of the guys who runs the Sherwin Wilkiams store locally, and tell _him_ what I want, and he gives me the paint code (and does not bother telling me the "proper name" unless it amuses him- like Blanket of Sailcloth, and I call the corporate distribution and request that color code. I am embarrased to admit just how many tines that conversation wnds with "what sort of desgner drugs were you people smoking to come up with a name like that?!"

That is understandable: point at Gygax; he made them familiar to people who had not read Tolkien. Tolkien made lots of elves. Fine; fair enough. Now be completely honest with yourself: when someone says "Tolien' Elves," which do you instinctively think of?

As someone Who has to work regularly with three different paint vendors, let me assure you that the the absolute _only_ clue here that this wasnt done by humans in a marketing meeting is the use of the word "butt." Other than that, this list is one-hundred-percent legitimate. I _hate_ having to source paint. Is it light blue or dark blue? It's Pettit Apron Sasquatch, of course. So... Brown? No-no; Pettitte Apr-- here, let me,read you the description: like the wishful,memories of granny's delicious fruit pies Blue! Do you have blue? Like, at all? Well, there's frog's sneezy knees; that is sort of a nod to the essence of memories of blue... I am not supposed to, but I will call directly to one od the stores: Buck, we need a medium blue. Give me a color code for a medium blue. Thanks! Then call the company: Okay, we need 89 gallons of 6201D1. Oh my! That is an awful lot of glistening kerchief..... Hate them. Hate them,all....

Yep. It's everywhere throughout the hobby, to varying degrees. It only bothers me when I see it here, though, considering how most folks here take great pleasure in analyzing things, approachinf things from multiple angles, and participating in group-sourced solutions, etc: lots of logic-driven and these-driven solutions or suggestions from some genuinely-interested and remarkably accepting individuals who are only too happy to work together dor solutions. Right up until "I am building a fantasy with no elves" or "the MA rules are unnecessary." There are a couple of other sacred cows, but those two are difficult to mention here because the reactions swing from "why do think that way?" to "The Ides of March." This thread spun from another thread in which multiple people explained their distaste for elves, and there have been threads before in which other people explained theur distaste for elves, yet in the first two or three posts in this thread, the distaste for elves is- get this- "inexplicable." Without any attempt to turn this into a religious discussion, I would like to offer a real-world example: I live in the very heart of the Bible Belt. If you are bored, go to google maps and take l look for Toombs County, Georgia. They are _everywhere! _ not only do w e habe more xhurches than gas stations, we have churches that are located in the buildings of failed gas stations! Yet I can walk out into any group of people around here and make blatantly offensive and derogatory comments about Christ himself and generate less ire than I can by coming here and saying "I don't like elves, and the MA rules are unnecessary." I get it; it is a sacred cow. But it is not _my_ sacred cow; my religion doesn't involve cows (other than shoving a pair od them,into a really big boat some time back) and I have no interest in converting. Yes! This is _exactly_ what I said! There is no difference between this and the painfully-typed (I think I may have left my readers at work, and I can only get to this board via phone lately; my dying computer now thinks the log-in page has been moved to place it can't find) lenghty ramble I made: No one should be forced to play a game in which they are not happy. I even offered the things I have typically sone to come to a workable, enjoyable experience when there are differences of opinion. Yeah I pointed that out, too, along with practical means of acieving it. What you see for the most part when compromise is suggested without any mention of assuring equitable gains for both sides is vieled "just give what I want and roll with it," the idea that if you don't make efforts at compromise and the agree to the suggestions of compromise, then it isbyoue fault and you are the bad person, period, bevause we said "compromise?" and you didn't accept all our demands or give up the one sacred cow that was important to you while agreeing that we got to keep all of our cows and most of their calves." Or, going with another real-world example: An F-550 is 40 grand. I have about 2 grand in a separate account awaiting the purchase of this truck to replace the venerable old Leviathan. (Yes; I am already aware that both of the engine choices for this truck _suck_, but I need the tray-on weight capacity, an Ford has the least expensive truck in this weight class). We could compromise, I suppose: the coupd sell me the truck for twenty grand! That's each of meeting halfway, and a fair compromise. The problems being I don't have twenty grand, and I am pretty sure they have fincial reasons beyond sales commissions that they can't sell the truck for twenty grand. But when you are the bad guy for not compromising,- ie, "well, you need to compromise, period." and no ackowledgemrnt is made that a compromise assumes everyone must find an acceptable degree of satisfaction, that is because they don't mean compromise. They mean "if you don't just let them have the truck for two grand, then it is one hundred percent your fault that they aren't driving the truck." I believe- and said as much- in trying to compromise, and I believe in making the meause the moment the disagreement is discovered, instaed of waiting for everyone to become more and more invested in the game before deciding to make changes. I not only said as much, I gave the means by which I typically do this. But at some point, we have to acknowledge that when some people say "compromise,' they mean "just give them Poland and it will all be fine."

Tangent: I always thought it odd that, given all the mergong and splitting and re-doing of powers in the last two editions that growth and ahrinking were not merged into "size change." I am not in favor of it (though I do think a matching PER /CV system would be interesting- not necessarily _good_, but valid enough to play test a few times. Tangential observation complete. I dont know what to tell you about the glider cape thing; it should have come,up in character generation: if you go with that, then X will apply. If it didn't come up until mid-game and there was a disagreement, the sensible thing would be either waive it or meet in the middle for that one session, and offer an opportunity to rework the character after the session. As to the shrinking- well, same thing. Did it xome up during character generation (or before)? Id not, that's on the GM, and the same solution applies: either waive,it oe come to an agreement _for this session_, and offer an opportunity to rework the character after the session. if this did come up before hand, and the players chose to ignore it, the game should stop and a discussion be had. Players _do_ routinely,decide that a GM may allow an exception or two, simply because.. Well, we sometimes do, id the exception is reasonable enough, justifiable enough, and it doesnt appear to adversly affect what the GM has in mind (on a second tangent: N-Ray vision, people. Think long and haed about the potential not just the ability, but the ramifications od the sfx. Though I should probably put that in the GM goof-ups thread, ). Just To point to an example already posted (of late I can only access this site by phone, and the tiny screen and drug-addled autocorrect make excessive typing miserable), if the GM says 'these are the only three sapient raves, and they are all playable, and 4/5 of your players take it upon themselves to just add a new race-- that is not really on the GM. If the premise of the game is "I just built these three races ans this world using an experimental system, and I would like to five as much of it as possible a good shake down so I can see what needs work," it is beyond- I think the word offered was "toxic;" it is beyond disrespectful. It is completely ignoring the agreement you made, and openly,insulting to the guy who told,you everything up front. Would I, after reviewing the submitted characters, say "okay, I think there was a misunderstanding. Let's go over the geound rules, and you guys tell me if you still want to help shake out this game"? I can't say with certainty, as I have never been in that position (at least, not that springs to mind). I would like to say that I probably would, once, but I can absolutely say at that point, I certainly wouldn't want to: I would rather have players who agreed to the premise, and honored their word. Of course, that last part goes without saying: id they don't respect their own word, they probably arent going to respect you or each other when things don't go the way they intended.

It's wierd how much pushback I get here when I mentioning standing ground on campaign rules. The general theory seems to be "but players are hard to find-" and I don't deny that. But are players so hard to find that I should play something that _I_ don't like, just so that I can play something? Or, put another way, it is interesting how many folks say "good for them!" when they hear some players disagreed enough to leave the game and also chide the GM for doing the exact same thing. No blame-tossing or name-calling, but the fact is that I tend to think "good for all of them!" no matter which leaves. No one should willingly enter and endure something he already doesn't like; this is a _recreational activity_, not a job! :😆 Spare everyone involved the hard feelings and say "thank you foe the chance, but I am going to ket this one pass. Call me for the next one, though; I would like the chance to try again." Nobody should put up with unhappy recreation. This is why I ignore all attempts to get me to include elves in my fantasy: I don't like it; I am not going to do it. You can't get mad about it because you aren't going to play in it anyway; there are no elves! See? Win /win! As To the arm and pkayers in your example? Good! Good for all of them! Though I am,anoyed that the plyers knew (if they knew) they were violating guidelines and wasted everyone's time anyway.