Supreme

Re: light saber color signification

I always though red was a low battery indicator.

 

People have talked about that for years. AFAIK there is on "official" word on it.

The special features for Ep II has Sam Jackson talking to Lucas about it. Lucas said that the general rule was evil gets red, good gets green or blue. Jackson asked for a purple one and got it. Just one more reason to envy that man.

Re: Aahz

No Concious Control?

Nope. NCC means that the spells would go off, just not when he intended. I also vote for the copious knowledge skills.

Re: What do you do onboard a starship?

Nothing to do with role playing, just want to get people's opinion.

 

Imagine a STL multigeneration ship. One thousand humans will start out from Earth, their descendants will reach another star system in a century. Population will increase to 25,000 during the trip. Ship can support 50,000 safely and comfortably. It is possible arriving at the new star system they will discover a planet with a breathable atmosphere. It is possible they will discover no usable resources (in which case they will use a gravity slingshot around the star to head to a different system. It is most likely they will find an Oort Cloud, and asteroid belt, and planets that can be terraformed in 100 to 1000 years. Communications will be maintained with Earth, and through Earth any sister ships, but speed of light lag insures these will be monologues rather than conversations.

 

Let us now assume that of the original 1000, 10% are needed to run the machinery (engines, navigation, communication, etc), and another 10% work in life support (air, water, sewage recycling, food production & preparation).

 

What is the job of the other initial 800? What specialities would you want to be sure to include?

Man does not live by bread alone. Entertainment will something of an industry. I imagine those folks will get bored. That means entertainers, and engineers to support the holo-decks or whatever medium of choise they use (even theaters require engineering). You also didn't mention anything about medicine or education (as others have mentioned). Then there's the fact that those 100+ engineers and 100+ life support people will want more time off of work.

Re: Balancing of the Green Lantern

The difference between a Green Lantern character and any other VPP-using character is that he is ALL power pool. A Batman character has a small power pool (maybe) and then some other stuff, but GL is almost all VPP (after a modicum of points for stats and skills). Thus, whatever level a regular VPP character unbalances a game goes up by an order of magnitude for a GL character.

Re: Jack-Jack Parr

You forgot Clinging . . .

Unless he's just flying against the ceiling.

Yeah, so obviously a VPP. Personally, I thought they overdid Jack-Jack, but then they weren't originally planning on doing any more films (when they were wrapping up on this one, they thought they were going to sever all ties with Disney which would have left the Incredi-rights with them.

Re: Here on Earth-2: your evil counterpart!

All evil twins should have the same powers and skills, but reversed psychological limitations. The only exceptions should be where a power is undeniably good. Let's face it a healing spell looks plenty evil when used to help Dr. Destroyer.

Re: [Newbie] My first character

I don't see any figured stats, so I hope you didn't take them at base level (especially SPD, PD and ED). There's no Armor for your powered armor, so no resistant defenses. Ouch. There's also no mode of travel which isn't crucial, but darned useful (you could try swinging defined as a projected strand of glue). It's hard to judge this character for all the info that's missing. Is this for a super-heroic game? Is it of a particular period? Right now, I'd say if you added some kind of bullet-proof vest, you'd have a great pulp-era or Golden Age character (except for all the references to cybernetics).

Re: Strength at Range vs. Stretching

...STR at range doesn't add 'velocity' damage (Stretching does)...

OK, now I am (re-)sold on Stretching. Thanks!

Re: Picture if You Will...

That would hang my disbelief' date=' rather than suspend it. Oxygen and nitrogen, [u']sans ammonia and water[/u] would have a vanishingly small chance of accumulating in moon-sized chunks. Absent organic processes---forget it.

Well, other substances, such a ethly alcohol, can accumulate in large, nearly pure clouds. If an accretion disk spins fast enough, can't it act as a sort of centrifuge? Maybe not oxygen (O2), but Carbon Dioxide which would be enough to keep the inhabitants of Haven warm and not-exploding from decompression. They can incorporate plants to get O2 from the CO2.

It is not mere closeness that would cause this (*), but an elliptical orbit, which requires explaining. Another moon? The planet's own orbit is highly elliptical, and the sun perturbs the moon? A "lock" with another (probably larger) planet? Only the first strikes me as at all likely.

I don't have a problem with the presense of other moons. I based this idea upon Io, which has gravitational-force-based vulcanism.

Wouldn't need to reach boiling point at all---once the liquid is expelled into space (**), it will boil off rapidly.

Well, it turns to gas, but iss too cold for biological processes, right?

As has been pointed out, this requires losing a good deal of kinetic energy. However, mutual collisions within the ring of gas will lead to this happening, slowly but surely. Though the term "stream" wouldn't fit.

But would the people of Haven be able to breathe without space-suits?

If you had the technology, you certainly could do that and more.

However, parking "Haven" at the L4 or L5 point would be much simpler.

Unfamiliar with L4 or L5, but it sounds like you are referring to Lagrange points between the two gravities?

(*) Closeness could cause the whole moon to break up (if it's within the Roche Limit), but I don't think that's what you want.

(**) There's the problem of getting the liquid off the moon; this requires enough energy to accelerate a useful fraction of the liquid to the escape velocity. Despite the increadable power of Io's volcanoes, only a minute fraction gets off of Io.

Of course, in my example, the material being expelled is less dense, isn't it?

Re: Picture if You Will...

You are aware, are you not, that "super-hot" is relative?

Molten nitrogen is still so cold that it would freeze you solid. I'm sure you've seen that trick where the chemist dips a rose into liquid nitrogen. Then they tap the rose on the table and it shatters.

 

The same goes for molten oxygen.

 

If you heated both to, say, red-hot temperatures, they would of course turn into hot gas.

I'm aware. I was thinking, "heated well past the boiling point."

Just wondering... Any reason why I can't use the Ranged advantage on STR to simulate stretching, instead of buying it by the inch?

Re: Flying through an asteroid belt.

A true space-faring society would just go around a dangerous asteroid field' date=' but that's no fun. [/quote']

Maybe, maybe not. There's mining to be done in Asteroids and other things that might call for you to go through it. It may be so wide that the fuel cost of going around it would be prohibitive.

Imagine that there is a large planet with a moon that are reasonably far from their sun. The moon is made of mostly elements like Oxygen and Nitrogen, but frozen solid. However, the moon is so close that the gravitational forces continuously knead the moon causing it to:

a. liquify then boil the core of the Nitrogen/Oxygen moon, the resulting vulcanism expels massive amounts of super-hot nitrogen and oxygen

b. said super-hot gases are then sucked down in a continuous stream to the larger planet below

Obviously, the moon wouldn't last long. However, by human standards a million years (let's say the moon was recently acquired) is quite long. Could you, if you had the technology, set up some kind of floating city in that stream of cooling nitrogen and oxygen?

I call it "Haven".

Re: Star Wars "Science"

SF author Larry Niven called this the 'It Was Raining On Mongo That Afternoon' syndrome. The way most authors write' date=' you get the impression that most planets are the size of Baltimore.[/quote']

Now I've got an image of John Waters dressed up as Ming the Merciless stuck in my head...

Re: "So, Thor hits Superman with Mjolnir..."

JLA/Avengers #2 I belive

The conclusion of which was Superman barely defeating Thor and saying, "He may just be the toughest person I've ever fought..." before passing out. Great fight, but I suspect Superman's victory was as much a nod to Supes being the First. I'd have had Superman win too, but after being forced to resort to some trickery (i.e., getting Mjolnir away from him for a minute).

Re: "So, Thor hits Superman with Mjolnir..."

Incredibly precise comments from Keith aside...

The way Superman's vulnerability is phrased in the dialogue is not how it gets played out in any of the battles. In the dialogue Superman has only normal human resistances to magic. In battle, Superman has reduced resistance to normal magic attacks, and normal human resistance to non-normal attacks (mental powers, power drains, etc.). The way, I'd write it up would be that Superman has whopping high defenses and 75% Damage Reduction which doesn't work vs magical attacks. He also has all the extra defenses (Life Support, Power Defense, Flash Defense, etc.) which don't work against magic at all. Also, it seems that Superman's CON is never reduced under any circumstances (including deprivation of Solar Energy).

Re: Moonquakes

David Weber is the famous SF author of the Honor Harrington series of "Hornblower in Outer Space" books.

 

The first book in the series, "On Basilisk Station" is available as a free download at http://www.baen.com/library/

If you like space navy combat books, you'll love Honor Harrington.

 

However, the reference above is to the "Dahak" series: "Mutineer's Moon" and "The Armageddon Inheritance". These are space operas with a vague similarity to the Perry Rhodan books. The main point is that it turns out our moon is actually a disgused alien super dreadnaught which has been in orbit since about 50,000 BC.

Then what the hell are we paying all those astronomers and lunar geologists good money for???

Re: Star Wars "Science"

There's another one: In a society of quadrillions of people, widely scattered, and with independent collections of records, separate educational institutions, and trained technicians all over the place etc. etc. technological knowledge can be lost.

 

Well spotted! No telephone, either.

 

And here's another: droid torture.

Yeah, the droid torture struck me as odd, even as an eight year-old. But then my dad was a computer programmer.

As for the technological loss from the Clone Wars, it's not just about knowledge, but infrastructure. Lose too many Questonite processing plants and there's no more Questonite and all the gizmos that require it to function. And as tgrandjean points out, if you're spending too much on the military, you won't have enough left over for rebuilding. And no, not even for military technology. Pig-headed generals who now have too much authority are going to short-sightedly feather their nests just as much as anyone else.

Has anyone brought up mono-climates yet? I can sort of buy an all-arctic planet, and maybe even an all desert planet, but an all forest planet? An all swamp planet? Ummm... no... And Star Trek was more guilty of this than SW, but cultures where everyone is of one vocation (i.e., Klingons are all warriors, Ferengi are all merchants, etc.).

Re: Flying through an asteroid belt.

It occurs to me that space-faring societies would, at some point, develop formulas and what-not for dealing with asteroid belts. Plug all the values for variables like cluster density, materials present (being hit by a chunk of lead is very different than a chunk of ice the same size), and the computer spits back the maximum recommended speed for getting through the belt.

BTW, age of the belt itself should be a factor in how many micro-asteroids you'll find. The older the belt, the more likely those little chunks will have gotten sucked up into the larger ones.

Re: Moonquakes

What makes you say that? I grant you it won't fling mountains into space' date=' but there have been volcanic eruptions on Earth that tossed rocks halfway to the moon. And the moon has, what, a fifth the escape velocity, not even counting the Earth's own pull? I'm no seismologist, but I suspect a moonquake of decameter-order displacement could easily give Earth a pretty spectacular meteor bombardment.[/quote']

Except that these aren't quakes caused by volcanism (sp?) which is a big build up of energy. These are quakes caused by the settling of material. I don't see anything other than a few pebbles coming to Earth (which would still cause a visible, but not destructive light-show).

 

Wouldn't this settling cause the Moon's rotation to change? The Moon suddenly becomes more compact with the same rotational energy. We'd finally start to see the dark side of the Moon from Earth.

Re: Star Wars "Science"

- All planets have standard Earth gravity

And type "M" atmospheres -- AND normal temperature ranges (excepting Hoth).

Also, those ships with artificial gravity never have seat-belts.

Re: Flying through an asteroid belt.

I just wanted to add that the biggest danger in flying through an asteroid belt could be in the smallest bits. Asteroids the size of marbles don't sound like much, but hitting your hull at the relative speed of 100,000 kph, or whatever your sub-light speed is, could be pretty dangerous. Especially if you don't have force-fields or methods of detecting them in time.

Re: Astronomy/Physics question

...The Jewish Calender will be screwed...

As would the Buddhist, but that's OK because everything ends.

Re: Star Wars "Science"

Not to apologize for the bad science of the Star Wars universe, but one thing that should be kept in mind is that episodes 4-6 take place after the Clone Wars in which a lot of technological knowledge was lost.

One of the things that struck me watching Ep 4 for the first time as an adult was how the blasters mounted on the Millenium Falcon had targetting systems well behind where we are now. The Walkers in Ep 6 couldn't target Ewoks hiding inside of hedges, unfortunately.

Then there's the complete lack of any biological or chemical warfare agents.

Also, was it just me, or did there seem to be no media whatsoever in the movies? No one goes to the movies, or sees plays, or listens to the news on the radio.

Re: Setting up super-prisons

Ridiculously high defenses and heavily armed guards can't stop most shape-shifters or mentalists. The only super-prison I ever did was a converted missile silo. Individual cells could be prepped to block various powers that were good for escaping. The big, nasty shape-shifter, Anarchy (think Odo's powers with the Joker's insanity) was kept in an air-tight cell. Cells also had various "kill-switches" meaning that as soon as something went south, someone would hit a switch and the cell would be flood with nerve-toxins or claymores would be set off or whatever was sufficient to instantly kill the villain. None of my villains were ever powerful enough to totally unkillable by some existing ordnance.