Ian Mackinder

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

How to terrify your enemies; Rogue Trader Style.

 

After limping around with only one ship for the better part of a year, the D'Stayn Family finally gets two new ships online, a fast Havoc-Class raider well armed, and a Transport, less well armed but with all kinds of Archeotech. Both have shady pasts as pirate vessels (one an old D'Stayn ship, another not ours...)

 

The best way to christen a newly repaired ship is to take it into battle. Facing a Tyrant-Class Cruiser (The Storm And Fury) and another Raider (The Intimidator). We figure this might be a tough fight, but doable.

 

The Salamder (the raider) charges forward, apparently the machine spirit has a disposition somewhere around "Kill! Kill! Kill!" on the scale. The first salvo blows through the heavily armored Tyrant Cruiser's reinforced prow blowing out both the Augers (sensors), Engines, and a port-side macro-battery array, and lighting it on fire. In the next round (after every other ship on the field of battle either missed or was ineffective) turns its sites on the other Raider and immediately blows the bridge off of it in a single hit.

 

Player: We should rechristen that the "Vorpal Bunny."

Yep, THAT ship is a keeper.

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

A little personal . . .

 

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The Sitch:

The GM and the players are discussing what kind of characters we want to run in the upcoming Kazei5 game. I have run female characters more often than not in this GM's games.

 

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GM: What kind of character do you want to play?

 

Me:​ (Perusing the book, I see the Puma and automatically think of Dominion Tank Police): A Puma!

 

GM: OK, what gender?

 

Me (Still thinking of Ana and Una Puma): Female.

GM: Is there some reason you like to play females?

Me: It's because I like the ladies --

 

GM: And you secretly want to be one?

 

Me: What can I say? I'm a lesbian trapped inside a man's body.

 

GM:​ . . .

Reminds me of a memorable exchange I saw once, on 'Friends' of all things. The group, for some reason, is talking about lesbians and then Chandler (who has been quiet during all this) suddenly muses: "You know. Sometimes I wish I was a lesbian ..... (PAUSE, LOOKS AROUND) .... Did I say that out loud?:

Re: Creepy Pics.

Da-amn!

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

Die with flame shooting out of their ears' date=' probably. Certain Looney Toons cartoons spring to mind, involving Black Bart iirc, and small glasses poured with tongs.[/quote']

 

Heheh. Thinking now that the size / muscle differential between Black Bart and Daffy Duck would be roughly the same as between a Space Marine and a regular human.

 

One of the reasons I like the Guard Ordinary men in a Galaxy of superhumans

 

Line I recall from a long-ago comic strip in White Dwarf: "He lives by the gun .... and they die by the thousand."

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

*grins* alth9ough the Space Wolf generally encourage that sort of thing - indeed' date=' they've invented a brew that will actually get a Space Marine runk, at least for a few minutes. The Storm Wardens are supposed to be sober of mind AND habit [/quote']

 

Find myself very interested in what that Space Wolf brew would do to a normal person. Not that there are so many normals in WH40K, so I'll amend that last to 'someone NOT a Space Marine'.

Re: Creepy Pics.

I'm shocked an appalled that you've uncovered a WBC practice that actually sounds sensible to me. Then again' date=' are there any single male members of the church over 65?[/quote']

 

Always thought being a complete and utter wanker was one of the prerequisites for WBC membership.

Re: Creepy Pics.

The real weird thing why they thought its two male dinosaurs in the picture..

The really REALLY weird thing is that they think their religion tells them to distribute dinosaur-porn on the Net.

Re: "Neat" Pictures

Yeah... all the parts I've been through are desert... but there's whole coastal region I've never visited.

 

Sometimes it's hard to remember some states are more than one environmental zone.

Not only states.

Still people around whose knowledge of Australia is limited to scenes from Crocodile Dundee. I daresay we are all guilty of that sort of thing to some extent.

Re: Creepy Pics.

Too many images to post' date=' so I'll just post the link here.

Once again, showing the need for an emoticon that expresses the desire to gouge out one's own eyes.

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

Unlikely.

Given your group's track record as regards handling dangerous substances, don't discount the possibility TOO soon.

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

With his powers pemanently gone, maybe Goliad will get REALLY lucky and fall into a vat of mutagenic compounds.

......

Now, w-a-i-t a minute.

Re: Looking for landmines in teleportation

The Lawrence Watt-Evans book is 'With A Single Spell'.

Re: Looking for landmines in teleportation

One thing about this is that Trumps are mostly used for extra dimensional Movement. Corwin does use a trump to travel while he was on shadow Earth, but that was more rare. Remember that when you use a trump that you open yourself up to psychic attack. It's considered rude to do so, and it can be quite dangerous to do it esp if you don't have the mental wattage that your target does.

 

One reason that noone tries to send bombs using trumps is that you have no idea if the "Shadow" (AKA Dimension) that your target is in allows the substances in your bomb to actually explode. Technology doesn't work everywhere in the multiverse. Guns that work here on Earth don't work near the dimension that is the Prime Dimension of Amber. This is due to the fact that what we make gunpowder out of doesn't burn quite as energetically in the dimension of Amber.

 

Moving via Trump does remove all velocity or at least sync's the destination trumps velocity with the person coming through it. So you could use a trump to get your cousin into your car that you are using to shadowwalk. They can see what they are stepping into, so you can't really use it to ambush someone.

 

I admit it's been years since I read the Amber series. The last time I did so was when I played in a Amber Diceless RPG game. It is really a great source of information on the Amber multiverse. After reading both books, I recommend rereading the series (both Corwin's story and Merlin's). You will notice more of the background mechanics of things. No matter what system you use, it is a fun universe to play in.

Remember? Haven't read any of those stories, so I'll take your word for it.

*****

We can infer that there is something about this t-port process that kills velocities above a certain threshold. So people can "jump" through or toss objects through without problem, but a relatively high-speed projectile (arrow or bullet) either loses most of its velocity or otherwise becomes harmless/useless.

Does occur to me that if one can communicate through this t-port, then sound waves (faster than arrows or many bullets) must be OK for some reason.

Hmmm, if one can send sound waves through this t-port, what about sonic-based attacks? Or laser beams or EM signals?

Also, from the movie 'Jumper' there is a t-port stunt which I am sure one or other of the PCs might try to emulate at some point. If our t-porter's carry capacity is limited primarily by strength, then one trick would be to immerse in a body of water (bath tub, hot tub, pool) right before t-porting. That way, they can carry a respectable amount of water with them. Could be handy if t-porting into a room that is on fire or full of hostiles, or if the t-porter just wants to cause serious property damage (Hello? PCs?). The extremely sudden (and probably unexpected) arrival of even a mere 40-50 kilograms of water would be a pretty fair distraction AND make a hell of a mess.

Re: Looking for landmines in teleportation

Something else to consider - conservation of motion, or lack thereof.

In simplest terms, if the t-port is falling at terminal velocity and uses this ability, does s/he retain that same velocity upon arrival?

OR (for argument's sake), if the t-porter is moving between, say, a jet airliner and the ground?

My assumption is that the character's vectors all sort of disappear upon t-port, But, this should be thoroughly addressed early on. Particularly for extreme cases - we KNOW the PCs will find ways to ramp things up.

*****

As an aside, one "teleporter" book I think pretty good is 'Jumper' by Steven Gould, which does have interesting stuff as regards the main character trying to explore his new-found ability and finding ways to use it. The movie and movie-related material is so-so, by comparison. I am quite certain, however, THAT style of t-port is probably too high-powered for your liking.

Re: Looking for landmines in teleportation

Unfamiliar with the Zelazny story, but I am a HUGE 7th Sea fan. Here goes.

What size / weight limits exist for this?

What happens when I try to teleport PART of something (like a section of a building or vehicle)?

What happens when I try to teleport myself or somebody else - while tied/chained to something that is fixed or simply too big to teleport as well?

Can a trump be teleported via another trump to somewhere else?

Is there any limit on how many trumps can be usable at once in a given area?

What happens if two or more people in different locales try to use the same trump more or less simultaneously?

Re: "Neat" Pictures

I'm not gonna post it here, but if anyone wants to see the ultimately gory/hilarious "safety" video, go to youTube and search for "forklift driver klaus."

 

I don't usually laugh at stuff like that, but having worked as a forklift type-dude, this one had me ROFLing.

Gory stuff is not my speed either, but that was awesome. Best workplace safety video ever.

Re: "Neat" Pictures

What did Mythbusters say? Because I've been active duty for 15 years' date=' and I've seen a lot of people pass out in a lot of ceremonies that shouldn't be happening on such a hot day, and they all fell forward.[/quote']

 

I think dmjalund is referring to the Mythbusters coverage of bullet impacts.

 

Specifically, the standard Hollywood thing where a bullet impact will typically lift a person right off their feet and throw them at least a couple of yards. As I recall, the Mythbusters found that simply doesn't happen in reality. A bullet "might" have some influence on which way a person falls, but not much.

Re: "Neat" Pictures

Up close and personal they are... well, I think they're the single most amazing plane we've ever built.

 

The SR-71 wasn't nearly as impressive up close as the B-52.

In size and presence, maybe not. But I always had a special regard for the SR-71 and what it could DO.

Re: Creepy Pics.

Dafuq did I just see?

I'd say it is a VERY fore-shortened pic (poosibly taken in the dark, with flash) of a bottlenose dolphin with its snout pressed up against the glass. Took me a while to figure it out.

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

I predict incomprehensible Scottish accents

Is there any other kind?

Re: Earhart’s Final Resting Place Found?

TIGHAR's Home Page - http://tighar.org/

Re: "Neat" Pictures

A possible explanation is that the animal in the foreground is a caribou' date=' not an elk, and the planes look somewhat like P-39 Airacobras, which were known as Caribou in the British service. I think it likely that the photo was a Photoshop or some other sort of manipulation, but they could have appeared together in the Aleutian campaign in WWII.[/quote']

 

I'm almost positive that the aircraft are early model Hawker Hurricanes.

I have no idea what the mammal in the foreground is, but if it were a reindeer, it could be a photo from the Norwiegan Campaign in 1940.

Or it could be totally photoshopped.

 

I'm dern sure the aircraft are Hawker Hurricanes. The canopies aren't far enough forward for Airacobras, and Airacobras had a tricycle landing gear (hence, no tail wheel). Certain that neither ever served in the Aleutians but, interestingly, both types were lend-leased to the Soviets.

 

Also suspect Photoshop as the culprit, but that is just guessing.

Re: Creepy Pics.

What we REALLY need is an emoticon to express the desire to gouge out one's own eyes.

Re: Creepy Pics.

My wife, when I asked her if she had heard about these snakes.

 

"Yeah, I just hope no one shows the Japanese."

 

I'm shocked that her mind went there, because mine most certainly did NOT!

... And, with that said, it's now kind of difficult for one's mind to go anywhere else.

Re: Zeppelins

I'd guess that the efficiency of the propulsion and the strength to weight ratio of the structure itself would be a major deciding factor.

Another might be just how big it could get before becoming inherently uncontrollable in even the lightest breeze. Ground-handling was always a tricky business, with more than a few airships being damaged or even wrecked not in flight, but while being moved between moorings and hangars.