Ternaugh

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? "Big Wedge" by Fish JoeG

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? "Photograph" by Def Leppard JoeG

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? "Strange Magic", going into "Livin' Thing" by ELO JoeG

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? "Hackett to Bits", going into "Imagining", from GTR JoeG

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Just finished Thud!, by Terry Pratchett, and the related book, Where's My Cow?, also by Terry Pratchett. The latest in the series of books to deal with Commander Vimes, and the City Watch. Thud! deals with unrest on the Discworld concerning the ancient battle of Koom Valley, and its modern echoes in the dwarven and troll communities. As always, Pratchett echoes real-world concerns with his fantasy characters. A good read. Where's My Cow? is a bit of a departure from the normal Discworld book. It is an illustrated children's book, which is read to Commander Vimes to his young son, Sam. The book figures prominently within the plot of Thud!, and is a delightful bit of background for Discworld. The version that we read is almost identical to the well-chewed version that Vimes pulls from a shelf in one of the illustrations, but it also includes Vimes' act of reading the book (within the book) to his child, including a wonderful take on law enforcement, as it relates to missing farm animals, and a children's view of Vimes' world as it relates to some of the more colorful figures:

Re: Magic... but not Magic Let's analyse how you want the power to manifest. Using the example of a "Ghost Fence", there are a number of possibilities: 1. The barrier is really there, for the Tribal. It is something that only they can see, and therefore believe in implicitly. This could be modeled with the Entangle, with suitable advantages and limitations. 2. The Tribal can see the barrier, though it's all in his head. You could use Mind Control, or even a form of Mental Images, once again, only visible to Tribals. 3. The Tribal knows that the magic is potent, and, although the only visible markers for it are a few bones, and other items of power, he knows the great consequences for violating the barrier. This makes use of the beliefs common to all Tribals, and makes it an extreme sacrifice for the character to willingly violate the warding (read: Ego rolls at substantial penalties plus roleplaying required to break the "Ghost Fence"). Of these systems, I feel that #3 is perhaps the most elegant. It has definite roleplaying hooks, and creates a moody and mysterious system of "magic". It also covers the duality inherent in the system: that it only seems to affect Tribals. To enforce the "bad effects" of ignoring the magic, I'd probably use an Unluck dice system, by which Tribals would gain extra dice of Unluck for each violation, until an "atonement" ritual could be performed. Of course, YMMV, JoeG

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Witchcraft by Frank Sinatra JoeG

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? 7333 songs. Just about 20 minutes shy of 22 1/2 days. 39.92 GB*. And I'm only at about half-way with reloading the hard drive with my CD collection after a reformat. Maybe Itunes is slowing you down. Now up: "Dead Man's Party" by Oingo Boingo JoeG *Mainly MP3 192kbps, with a few 128s and a few vbr recordings.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? "Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors" by Fish. JoeG

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? "Tomb 19" from Kansas' Power album. JoeG

Re: Nanotech! I blame it on the Monolith. 1 x 4 x 9, indeed! JoeG

I just picked up this gem from my local Barnes and Noble, for $12.95, less member discount. It's a hardcover reprint of a book published in '97, and consists of page after page of the paintings that made up the pulp covers, along with photos of some of the magazines, and descriptions of the various categories. All in all, a book that is bound to give some ideas. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=1402730357&itm=1 JoeG

Re: Nanotech! So, wear a respirator, don't snort the nanotubes or buckyballs, and wash your hands before touching your food or your face. To be honest, just about any substance can be dangerous if handled improperly. Most likely, any precautions required for the nanosheets would include using respirators while creating or shaping the products. JoeG

Re: Nanotech! Like carbon black, only more toxic: http://www.i-sis.org.uk/nanotubestoxic.php and http://subscript.bna.com/SAMPLES/osh.nsf/0/139287144bbd257385256fc0000032f8?OpenDocument Of course, these were for the nanotubes, not a nanosheet. JoeG

Re: Magic Items Thread And for those with a need to talk to their opponents before killing them, presenting: St. Roddenberry's Ring of Parallel Development Working on the theory that every humanoid species is somehow related (and probably interfertile), St. Roddenberry developed this magic item so that the various species could communicate more freely (that is, without the use of subtitles). St. Roddenberry's Ring of Parallel Development: Universal Translator 16- (25 Active Points); Independent (-2), OIF-Ring (-1/2), Only to translate spoken language between humanoids (-1/4) Real Cost: 7 points. JoeG

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles JoeG

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? "The Flower King", by Roine Stolt JoeG

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? "Ghosts", from Kansas' In the Spirit of Things. A great concept album that was buried by an inept record label. JoeG

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? I'll see your "obscure" and raise you: "Automanipulator" by Crispin Hellion Glover*, from the album, Big Problem Does Not Equal the Solution. The Solution = Let It Be. Spoken: Women are sweet, and girls are honey, but beat your meat and save your money. And then the rap starts. JoeG *You know him. He's the dad from "Back to the Future". And this track is by no means the weirdest on the album.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? "Chrysalis, Part 1", by Christopher Franke (Babylon 5 soundtrack) JoeG

Re: Orc fall down, go BOOM! Not really. Since a character is only really dead when he takes more damage than 2x Body characteristic or more, that first hit would have to be quite beefy. 3d6 RKA would typically not be enough, since maximum damage is only 18 points before defenses (and average would be about 11). The transform would avoid the target's defenses (except for Power Defense), but would still need a lot of dice to succeed (I wouldn't allow cumulative for this one). Transform would also give the proper feeling for the spell. Effectively, it makes the target already "marked for death", without killing the character prematurely (before poking him). It would also give a pc who was targeted with this nasty a chance to have the Transform reversed, before he blew up. As always, YMMV, JoeG

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? "Shadow of a Lonely Man" by Alan Parsons Project.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? "Mutant Generations" by Bob Kanefsky. Filk lamenting the "sameness in a Federation Crew", aka Roddenberry's Rule of Parallel Development. JoeG

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Gladys Knight singing "License to Kill" off of Best of Bond, James Bond Currently ripping Phil Collins albums onto the hard drive, as part of the "Great Reload Project". JoeG

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Beyond the Storm, disc 1 by Edgar Froese