Valentine

Re: A question of genetics... Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from the Bill Murray movie Stripes where he is giving a pep talk to his unit on the eve of their graduation from boot camp. "We're all very different people. We're not Watusi, we're not Spartans, we're Americans. With a capital "A", huh? And you know what that means? Do you? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We're the underdog. We're mutts....So we're all dogfaces, we're all very, very different. But, there is one thing that we all have in common: we were all stupid-enough to enlist in the army."

Re: A question of genetics... Yoinks.........I have a feeling this would lead to some accusations involving mailmen, milkmen, UPS man, etc. I remember having to study one course in genetics in high school biology. That's why I ran the other direction and got an engineering degree. Well that and the lab where we had to prick our fingers to look at blood samples under a microscope. Cutting up frogs and starfish, no problem. Stabbing my innocent finger, I don't think so . My avatar is obviously repressed trauma from this event.

I've been reading through a bunch of Dream Pod 9 sourcebooks/rulebooks from their Heavy Gear line that I picked up with the thoughts of browsing for Star Hero ideas. It mentions an future "short" ice age on earth sending humanity into shelters to weather it. This event is used for many plot reasons but the one I was curious about regards the racial genetics of the survivors over a time frame of some 2-4000 years becoming so mixed that race ceased to be an easy method of identity or prejudice. I know that this game falls in the anime genre and so they are obviously giving a nod to how people are often drawn in them having many racial features mixed together. Is this idea plausible in that time frame? I always figured some racial traits were more dominant than others and would remain apparent in a "forced breeding" situation. I remember one sample character that was singled out because she actually still showed highly asian features making here stand out among the population. Anyone else familiar with this game and backstory or genetics and how they are portrayed?

Re: Help: Need some resources / advice for my SH Campaign... Well you can use THIS MAP as it has both a 2d graphic representation and the 3d coordinates they are based on in a single pdf file. To save you the time of trying to find it, our local star (SOL) is located in the middle of the map on page 5 of 13. If your not fond of those try THIS SITE for maps that are a little less cluttered. These are both from the GDW Near Star Map data that came with Traveller:2300. At the time it was probably the most realistic star map assembled for a game. If you want something better they certainly exist but they are a little tougher to sort through since they are written from a non-gaming perspective.

On page 512 of FReD the sample character Darien the Bold has a listed skill roll for Stealth of 13-. Under the cost on his sheet for the skill it says 3 points which I thought meant it would be a 9+(DEX/5) default roll. For him that would be a 12- since he has a Dex of 15. Is there some aspect of the character that gives him an enhanced skill roll that I am not seeing or is it just a misprint? The same can be said for his Trading skill being listed as an 8- and costing 1 instead of being a 12- and costing 3 from his PRE stat.

I've seen a few folks say some good things about this book http://www.warehouse23.com/item.html?id=SJG6505 and seeing as how The Ultimate Vehicle is MIA in print and pdf I was wondering how useful people thought this book is. I've got Transhuman Space by the same author and it has some decent design rules, for the limited setting, in it. I'm more of a fan of 'pick your component' vehicle design like Battletech/Heavy Gear, but using HERO to work 'backwards' from the end effects means it might be helpful to have alot of info to draw from. It might be easier to build vehicle components from the GURPS examples than to pull them from thin air. I'd like to end up with vehicle components in HERO that could be used to 'player assemble' sort of like in Battletech but for more than just a mecha setting. So any opinions on the info on the book? Since it is $10 it is kind of easy to chance but if it is not very helpful unless you are using GURPS then I'll pass on it.

Re: Starships Outsider have you ever read Orwell's 1984? He wrote a splendid explanation of why modern man must eventually be involved in a never-ending war. It solves the unbalanced equation you bring up where fewer and fewer people are required to work in order to meet the needs of everyone else. When I first read that section of the book I was like," holy smokes, that makes sense!" I was reminded of it when I saw the 5th Element and heard Gary Oldman's lecture about destruction making all the engineers families be able to eat. Taken to an extreme it makes Warhammer 40k 'realistic' War is required to balance the equation. I would also like to second the recommendation for the GURPS:Far Trader for an excellent treatment of future speculative trade. It is well worth a read for anyone who intends to tackle any sort of economics in sci-fi.