Ian Mackinder

Re: .600 Nitro Express Revolver Link worked for me. "...Be v-e-w-y vewy quiet. I'm hunting wabbits. Hahahahaha..."

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

Re: Under the Agony Star: a sword and planet campaign A jumble of religions would seem the way to go, considering the circumstances outlined. There were various races and subsets thereof to start with and, given time and all the stuff that has happened , all of their belief systems would have undoubtedly changed, schismed and merged several times over.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Good luck to him. But, I always thought the whole idea in CoC was to build up one's collection of mental disorders during actual play ("... I got this one when we found that Byakhee nest, and this one I got after fighting those Deep Ones, and THIS one ...") . A character with pre-existing mental problems joining the campaign seems kind of like cheating.

Re: Under the Agony Star: a sword and planet campaign Dude, most of them would have that.

Re: Under the Agony Star: a sword and planet campaign

Re: Jokes Works for me.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

Re: Under the Agony Star: a sword and planet campaign Certainly. Just occurs to me that seers would find lucrative employment of some kind with conquerors in any environment - either by telling the boss what he wants to hear, or by telling OTHER people what the boss wants them to hear.

Re: Under the Agony Star: a sword and planet campaign

Re: Adventurers' Club Update Plenty, as it turned out, but we made quite a mess of that island. Even managed a few minor derailments - stuff that the GMs had not expected, so it was all good. Sneaked onto the island then ... Subdivided their telegraph cable - they weren't getting any messages out without first doing a LOT of splicing. Mr Atkins acquired a katana and got just a little over-enthusiastic for that part. Trashed their Radio Room, and generally scared the bejesus out of ttheir radioman. Faced off against the Bad Guys' pet demons - that was nasty. Father O'Malley got messed up pretty bad. Ferguson and Doctor Hawke had to do some EXTREMELY fast surgery to extract a ... little gift the Padre got from one of the demons. Sent a cable car (primed with several drums of gasoline ) hurtling down its cable into the lower station, right next door to the fuel refinery. Took advantage of the ensuing confusion to seize control of a coastal defense battery overlooking the harbour. Used that to blow up everything that the refinery fire didn't get. Stole a plane (piloted by Mr Atkins) and left with alacrity. We are now homeward bound on the 'Antares' (Captain Ferguson's ship). Been a week or so since leaving Japan, long enough for most of us to make some degree of recovery, though Father O'Malley is still not the best. NOW, one of those scientists we rescued and are getting back to the USA has discovered a scroll amongst the Ancient Chinese artifacts onboard. Apparently, that Dragon Emperor dude isn't dead yet - or if he was, he got better. He should be coming to visit us VERY soon - like in mid-ocean. Great. Just frackin' great. We get to fight him again. My enthusiasm knows no bounds.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Actually, I'm reminded of a favourite exchange from 'Frasier'. In refererence to Frasier's really really Evil agent, a friend says "Oh, come on, it's not like she worships the Devil." To which Frasier heatedly replies, "She doesn't have to. He worships her." Seems to me that McGinty has something of the same quality. Maybe he's really a fledgling Elder God, he just doesn't know it yet.

Re: Kill the Dude with the Thing Well, reference is made to The Dude With "The" Thing - and that Dudes without "The" Thing are of no importance. Absolutely nothing about a possibility of multiple Things (hence, "a" Thing). I'm guessing some kind of Universal Constant or Natural Law is happening here. Just like with The Dude, there is "The" Thing. and maybe some lesser things of no importance.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Gee. All these years, I avoided CoC because of how it chews up Characters, Silly me.

Re: Under the Agony Star: a sword and planet campaign Sounds interesting. Reminds me just a little of Edgar Rice Burroughs's Barsoom.

Re: Weird Animal Species for Your Games I dunno. Some humans in a similar situation would probably make that mistake. Suggesting that mantis shrimp are arguably smarter than some humans.

Re: Weird Animal Species for Your Games

Re: How to create alien language? I disagree, since I think certain languages may leave English for dead in this particular respect. But the main point stands. There could be an awful lot of "stuff" involved in a language that cannot be adequately expressed via a dictionary or thesaurus.

Re: How to create alien language? Plus stance, gestures, tone and expressions may be of more or less significance. English might be less expressive than some other languages in this respect, but think of all the subtext one can provide in a normal conversation with certain gestures - to indicate things like sarcasm, "Help me, this dude is nuts", etc.. The old, politically incorrect joke - "How do you get [insert ethnic groupmember here] to shut up? Break both his arms."

Re: "Neat" Pictures Hope he at least got to keep the bat.

Re: Mongol Ninjas!

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Reminds me of another recent thing in my '7th Sea' campaign. Some of the PCs are visiting an isolated Cathayan monastery. One that has been containing a Great Evil for centuries - though naturally the PCs do not find this out until they arrive in the middle of it all going seriously sideways. Rumours of monsters in the countryside, mysterious disappearances, the monastery itself seemingly deserted, dark clouds and lightning, loads of bad vibes and general foreboding, you name it. Anyhow, whilst putting all the pieces togather, they capture the Evil Cultist mostly responsible for starting this mess, and try to interrogate him. One of the characters has Sidhe Blood (with some Glamour magic) and her Player stacks up a whole bunch of effects and modifiers to be EXTRA intimidating. Rolls an absurdly high figure. I roll behind my screen for the Evil Cultist.... Yep, you guessed it. I roll an absurdly LOW figure. Have to think on it for a few seconds. Final result: The EC immediately loses all control of certain bodily functions, and starts screaming very loudly and continuously (kind of a 'circular breathing' thing, like when playing the bagpipes or the didgeridoo). Obviously, the intimidation effect was a little too effective, because all the prisoner will do now is just scream. (Fortunately for the PCs, if just from a Kharmic point of view, he totally deserved this and more.) Says the PC responsible (mingled regret, surprise and just a little pride) - "I BROKE him...". They eventually have to knock the prisoner unconscious just to shut him up, and leave him while they check things out. Along come a couple of OTHER PCs. These Characters arrived later and were trying to catch up with their friends. So, they stealthily enter this deserted monastery, find a tied-up unconscious stranger, and naturally try to wake him for questioning. The immediate response is screams, screams and more screams (the short sleep had NOT helped the prisoner's mind at all). Very disconcerting for the new arrivals, but it did serve to reunite the party very quickly, since all that noise alerted the other PCs (and a few other people besides :evilgrin: ) .

Re: "Neat" Pictures Because they are Postage Stamps - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postage_stamp

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From a recent bout of my '7th Sea' campaign. It is said that one picture is worth a thousand words, and a GM's summing up comes close: GM (Me): "Ohhhkay then. You infiltrate the Evil Overlord's fortress, and just happen to desecrate his Sacred Firepit with a barrel of ultra-rancid lard you had handy. In the middle of the ensuing confrontation, you body-check the OL into said Firepit. On the way out, you blow up part of his fortress and steal his personal yacht. So the answers to both of your questions are Yes. He does remember you guys, and he does bear a grudge."

Re: "Neat" Pictures Their (?) facial expression(s) say it all.