Yansuf

Re: Las Vegas 5E

Fanfiction' date=' Nightfly. You can find the main site at http://www.fanfiction.net.[/quote']

 

Considering that there are very many pages of stories about Buffy there, can you be more specific please?

Re: GM Question: Social Equity

You've got overt and apparently socially acceptable violence against the mutant population

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Riders

 

In Anniston, the original bus carrying the Freedom Riders was fire bombed. As they struggled to get out of the bus, the group was beaten. They and riders on another bus were attacked by men armed with clubs, bricks, iron pipes, and knives. Still, the group continued on.

 

You've got a rotating set of proposed laws that make Jim Crow laws look comic

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots

 

Prior to 1965, the police would sometimes record the identities of all those present at the raids, which on some occasions was published in the newspaper. At the time, the police used any number of reasons they could think of to justify an arrest on indecency charges including: kissing, holding hands, wearing clothing traditionally of the opposite gender, or even being in the bar during the raid.

 

You've got people preaching and actively working towards genocide.

 

So do we. Sure they have more. They also have more violent criminals, more corruption in government, more conspiracies, more corporations willing to kill for their interests, more people willing to risk their lives for little or no reward, more major organised crime syndicates, and bigger breasts.

 

The notion that people would go from "Hooray, the glowing pink chick saved my life, I love her" to "Oh God, the stinking mutie touched me, I'd rather die in the fire" makes no sense.

 

I've also never seen it happen with mutants. But I have seen Spiderman rescue a baby only to have the mother hit him with her purse to try to "save" it from him. I've seen the Fantastic Four save the world on one day and six months later have demonstrators demanding they get out of the city.

 

In short, I've seen that it isn't an issue of how Marvel handles mutants apart from anyone else. Yes, that may mean that Marvel's United States is perhaps more corrupt, more violent, less stable, less reasonable than the real one. Perhaps more like the Weimar Republic than it is the real United States. Is there really a problem with that if it makes for more of the stuff which is the lifeblood of the genre?

Being old enough to remember those things personally, I can tell you that the US is a VERY Different place today.

Yes, we have wackos who want to expell/kill all the (fill in the blank.) But none of these wackos have widespread popular support, and the US and state governments will move in fast to close down any that actually do anything. (40+ years ago that was not true.)

I can accept that Marvel's universe has more bigots and wackos than ours, but not that major portions of the population and government support them.

A fear of super powered beings is quite believable, but I cannot "suspend my disbelief" at people being utterly respectfull of Thor but feeling hatred of Kitty Pride.

Re: GM Question: Social Equity

Please. The nature of mutant prejudice in the Marvel universe is just plain goofy. It's not that people wouldn't be prejudiced in some way against mutants. Sure, some would. What makes the mutant hysteria so silly is the way it's handled. You've got overt and apparently socially acceptable violence against the mutant population. You've got a rotating set of proposed laws that make Jim Crow laws look comic. You've got people preaching and actively working towards genocide. All of this is happening not with the castes of pre-industrial India or feudal Japan or authoritarian Nazi Germany. It's happening in an open, democratic U.S. society. That's what makes it loopy. A few gay-bashing religious loonies aside (Fred Phelps, call on line one, Fred Phelps, call on line one), that sort of extremism is not even vaguely characteristic of modern, democratic, capitalistic societies.

 

The notion that people would go from "Hooray, the glowing pink chick saved my life, I love her" to "Oh God, the stinking mutie touched me, I'd rather die in the fire" makes no sense. What makes even less sense is a society that at least implicitly if not overtly supports Genosha, the Sentinel Program, and other initiatives. Apparently Marvel is now moving into some kind of Superpower Registration Act, but for years it talked about a Mutant Registration Act specifically. I would argue that people would have always wanted to know which of their neighbors was capable of firing an eye beam capable of blowing through the side of a battleship, regardless of how that power showed up.

Bravo!

Re: WWYCD my hero a villian?

Alas the Books are at home but this was a while ago it had to be the 4th edition CU probably in the timeline somewhere

 

As for the conspiracy / hiding the loss of an SSBN. The two crews was something I had overlooked. I was thinking that at the time that:

It would be alot easier in 1968 for the US Govt. pull it off.

Using the real world events of the USS Scorpion and the Tet offensive and their proximity on the calandar was to neat to pass up.

Not that the U.S. sweats alot in the face of global opinion but Vietnam was a very unpopular war, and deploying a Boomer aganst a little nation would cause a big backlash in the world view.

I used to have a book that outlined US military power and had the statistics of the sub But I cannot recall the class of sub it was. Pre Ohio class I think it started with an "L" 16 missiles with mirvs sounds right I figured over time that Undertow would only be able to maintain 40 or so of the warheads.

 

On to the Lemurians. I got the impression that the Lemurians were more or less a tribal society, and were quite primitive. They had fallen from a once great tech level though. Undertow feels that he is their sole protection from the dangers of the surface dwellers, but he had become, because of his transformation so much more advanced. What form could negotiations take? What reperations could the US govt offer that would seem to be right, but not a corrupting influence?

 

Undertow is happy to leave things the way they are.

The Super Soldier lost several friends on the seal team, and sees Undertow as a threat to his country.

The fact that the missiles are sitting in the mouth of an American river can't be good for the Governments collective blood pressure either. (Undertow Had revealed this to the team leader, who blabbed it to everyone.)

 

I'm curious to find out how, if your character was on this team they would react? If you were running this campaign how you would have the govt. handle the situation?

Please understand I am NOT trying to be insulting, or start a flame war.

But, you sound like you are not old enough to remember the 1960's. Am I right?

Back then many USN warships carried nuclear weapons. Putting a SSBN in the South China Sea would have nothing to do with Viet Nam, if the US wanted to nuke Viet Nam any of the CVs off the coast could do it, as could the missile cruisers. The US still had bases on Luzon within easy range, and nukes were stored there. Etc.

In any event, I believe SSBNs in the Pacific did operate in the South China Sea routinely.

Even without the two crews, a commisioned USN ship cannot disappear without it being noticed and questioned. The only way to make it disappear is to say that it was lost at sea. There are MANY other reasons why the "cover-up" you discribed would not work, BTW.

To answer your question: If Undertow would not (could not?) get us or the US Government in contact with a Lemurian government for talks, my character(s) would help the US Government recover (or destroy) the sub and weapons. I would try to talk Undertow into accepting this, but if he wouldn't (seems likely from your discription) my character(s) would use force.

If I was running the US Government in that campaign, same answer. We would try to negotiate, but if that failed we would use (overwhelming) force.

Regarding your question: "What form could negotiations take? What reperations could the US govt offer that would seem to be right, but not a corrupting influence?"; I don't know. It would depend on what Undertow/the Lemurians do. Reparations are normally money, but I am sure the government would be willing to offer the equivalent in almost any kind of supplies or raw materials. What would the Lemurians value that the surface world has?

Re: 1d6 1/2 vs. 2d6-1; your thoughts

It's certainly possible to be m,ore granular. For example, we could use:

 

+1 3 points

 

+1/3d6 6 points

 

+1/2d6 9 points

 

+1d6-1 12 points

 

+1d6 15 points

 

And divide points by 3 for normal attacks, PRE attacks, etc. I've considered this in the past to make stats more granular, so every point of STR or PRE does something, but expanding it to all attacks would work.

 

For 3 point per DC, I'd go back to +1 for 1 point, +1/2d6 for 2 points and +1d6 for 3 points, but we'd then still have the argument over 2 points buying 1d6-1 instead.

For low level games (normal characteristic maxima applied) I like to make every point of STR count.

For normal damage, 10 STR is 2d6, and 15 STR is 3d6; so I use

STR=12 -->1d6+1

STR=13 -->1.5d6

STR=14 -->2d6-1

STR=15 -->3d6

STR=16 -->3d6+1

STR=18 -->3.5d6

STR=19 -->4d6-1

STR=20 -->4d6

STR=11 gives an extra point of stun over STR=10, as does STR=17 vs 16.

For superhero games I generally don't bother though.

Re: Casual Survey: Age of players and Hero's utility vs. other games

I started wargaming in the late 50's early 60's with Avalon Hill's games: Tactics II, Gettysburg, D-Day, etc. I started RPGing in 1973 or 74, while I was in the army. That was D&D, the 3 small booklets. I started playing Champions in 1981 or 82, first edition.

Oh, I'm 57.

Maybe I should call myself "the old man"?

Re: WWYCD my hero a villian?

Interesting.

Before answering your questions, I must make a few points.

First, I have looked through Champions Universe a few minutes ago, and cannot find any reference to the Bikini test hurting a Lemurian City. Can you provide a page reference? (And which edition.)

Second, it would be impossible for the US Governement to hide the loss of a commisioned USN vessel for more than a few months, even if it wasn't an SSBN, which have two crews which switch off. For your backstory to make sense, it should be that the sub was "lost at sea". It is possible the USN might say its patrol area was not in the South China Sea, but that is about as far as a coverup could go. (Why they would do this is beyond me, in that time period SSBNs routinely patrolled within range of the USSR, in the North Sea, the Med, and even the Artic Ocean, and everyone knew it.)

Minor quibble: in 1968 such a sub would have had 16 missiles, although one or two might have been satellite launchers (to replensh commo and spy satellites during a war); the posidon missiles were MIRV'd, I think 14 warheads each, but my memory might be faulty. In any event, it would have many more than 40 nukes aboard, even assuming it didn't carry any Subroc's or Mk45's. But that is not important.

Your questions are:

Where does your character come down on this. Is Undertow a villian, or Hero?

Yes (What happens next will determine what he will be in the future, but to date he has been a hero whose country was in conflict with the US.)

Does he have a right to keep the missiles?

Depends. Is he acting for the Lemurian governement? (Do the Lemurians even have a government?) If so, then there is another nuclear power in the world. My character(s) would insist that Undertow get the US Government in touch with the Lemurian government to open talks.

If the answer is no, would explain to him that individuals with nukes make everyone very nervous. Would expect discussion to be extended.

How would your character try to resolve the situation?

With negotiations, unless Undertow initiated violence.

How would the Government in your campaign respond?

Since I am not currently GMing, I have no clue.

If this was in the old campaigns I used to GM, they would try negotiations. If the talks were with a Lemurian government, the US would apoligize for the loss of life, explaining that we didn't know they existed. If we had known that they were there, we wouldn't have done the test there. Offer reparitions, but try to get the sub back. If the negotiations go nowhere, eventually force might be used, but I would do a bunch of die rolls for the government leaders to check their reactions. (I might also consider the nature of who were the national leaders at the time, or I might just say there were different ones in my universe, I really don't know. It might depend on my mood.)

If Undertow does not put us in touch with a Lemurian government, the first step would be trying to talk, but it would probably (eventually) lead to use of force to recover (or destroy) the weapons.

Re: An Avengers Campaign

The New England Avengers' date=' based in New York City, cover Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and parts of Canada.[/quote']

 

So, New Hampshire has managed to seceed?

Re: Classic Sci-Fi Novels for Scenario Ideas

Wow!

I can't believe he has a copy of "The Runaway Skyscraper!"

Looks like some good stuff, thanks.

Re: Different Militaries working together; Alien Wars

Special operations is the most likely to have multi-service, except for higher HQ which are often "joint" but probably wouldn't be much fun to play.

If all but one are in the same sevice, the other could be either a liason officer or on an "exchange" program. For example, the Navy player could be a naval gunfire control officer attached to either an army or marine unit. I don't know how well that will play in the game however.

It largely depends on what kind of "missions" you plan on running. If they are a special ops team to be inserted "behind enemy lines" they could easily be multi-service. While in recent generations the US has tended to go with single service teams, in WWII this was not always the case.

Re: Battlestar galactica pistols.

BTW Barret arms has developed a new 25mm round and weapon callled the XM109. It looks just like the M107 but it fires a 25mm round (owie!).

Did Barret make the new round, or are they just using the 25mm round that the US Army used in the last trial of the new "individual weapon system?"

That one is a controlled fragmentation munition.

I have always felt that having the "only one hex" modifier the same as the "explosive" modifier wasn't right.

I think that +1/4 would be a more appropriate modifier.

Anyone agree with me?

Re: UV vision

Just a little note for you to think of on this topic.

 

Infrared: Does not pick up heat or cold or any thing like it. What Infrared does is allow detection a very broad spectrum of electromagnetic radiation emitted from the transfer or energy from one source to another. IR is incredibly useful in things like inspecting metals, structures and dark areas. As a structure with a flaw in it will have different impedance zones and the heat of things going through and near them will change IR radiation will be emitted. This means you can see very well in perfect darkness. I have done quite a bit of MSHA work (Mine Safety and Hazard Awareness). You will also be able to see little flaws. However there are limits to perception. As in if you are at a sensitivity (gain) level to be able to see flaws in structures and in caves then a source like fire (with tons of heat transfer to the air) will potentially blind you and damage your eyes (equipment). In our society we use IR technology for inspecting Electrical wiring, in the air, buried and behind walls. We also use it for looking at concrete pylons for fishers and breaks. IR runs from ~10,000,000 – 7,000 Angstroms

IR vision is defined as seeing heat, it is therefore equivalent to "thermal imagery" sensors.

Yes, very hot sources can blind such sensors, just like a bright light in your eyes can dazzle you. Flares are used to dazzle night vision gear, for example.

Re: UV vision

So how do those nocturnal hunting animals like cats and owls see well enough at night to chase and catch prey? Is it UV' date=' or greater light sensitivity, or both?[/quote']

 

While the details of how nocturnal animals sense at night may not be completely known (or it may be, not my field) they do not do it by UV vision. There is less UV available at night than there is normal light, unless you have an artificial source.

Re: Superconductors

I';ve known about this for a while' date=' and am amazed that no one is doing anything about it. I mean, they ought to be drilling thousands of oil well type shafts into it to relieve pressure on it to prevent an explosion, but no one's doing a damn thing.[/quote']

 

I do not believe there is anything that we can do about it.

Drilling well shafts won't work, the pressure is building up far below the level we can reach.

Of course, the odds are that it won't blow for thousands of years. I'm actually more worried by the fault line in MO, it is much more likely to have a quake in this century. The last one there (1812 or 1813) was felt in Boston.

BTW, I am a PE with a PhD in Civil Engineering. I have seen discussions of this in the technical literature, no one has any idea of how to try and prevent this.

Re: Rubber science or revolutions in physics?

Here's some other possible new revelations to relativity from the European Space Agency.(Side note: I'm not sure if someone else posted this in another thread, but I couldn't find it.)

Quantum Gravity?

There is a post on this in the superconductor thread.

BTW, the most important point from that, IMHO, is showing one of the places where quantum theory and general relativity give radically different results. Since, it is relativity that predicts causality problems with FTL, I find this encouraging.

Re: Superconductors

A spinning low temp supercondictor has recently been used to create artificial gravity for the first time' date=' [/quote']

 

Reference please?

Re: question about Israle soldier character.

Doesn't Isreal also have the Shin Bet? A secret police type organization?

Shin Bet is roughly equivalent to the FBI.

Re: Making a Post-Apoc "logical"

On the subject of gun powder- does modern gunpowder have any other ingredients to make it better than the gunpowder of yesteryear?

 

Suppose a person was to take a .22 shell and hand-load it with old-time gunpowder (what else do i call it) what would be the effect? I guess i am asking if modern bullets were shot using 17th century gunpowder would it's effectiveness be greatly diminished?

-----------------

Yes. Modern "smokeless" powder is very different from old time "black" powder.

Re: question about Israle soldier character.

You might check out the following site:

http://www.isayeret.com

Re: Martial Arts in the Pulp era

The artcle also points out that until a relatively late date' date=' fighters who learned savate also learned boxing and wrestling - maybe catch wrestling. So it seems you could have had Texan martial arts masters as early the the late 19th century! .[/quote']

 

As I recall my reading, many savate schools in the late 18th or early 19th century started teaching "Le Boxe Francis" (I probably mis-spelled that) which was a combination of savate and British boxing.

Re: What I learned playing a fighter...

As an SCA fighter of 12+ years, here's what I learned.

 

Block, always block.

Make sure you have a good shield.

Make sure your swords and other weapons have your strength level in mind.

Keep moving. It sets up openings.

Wear armor that fits.

Your helmet is your friend.

As a retired SCA fighter (with more than 12 years) I endorse the above.

As a seperate lesson: find some friends and train together.

A shield wall (even a short one) backed by long spears is deadly, just make sure they cannot turn your flank.

Re: Weapon of war vs. Weapon of terror

An example of this was Tom miming holding up a plasma staff and saying "This is a weapon of terror." The he mimed holding up a SG team gun and said "This is a weapon of war."

Actually, that is a direct quote from Col O'Neil in one episode.

For infantry combat in atmosphere, projectile weapons have many advantages over DEW. Any Directed Energy Weapon with a high enough energy density to be deadly will leave a visible trace in an earth type atmosphere.

It may interest some of you to know that most of the devices of the original Buck Rogers (actually he was originally named Anthony Rogers) are currently obsolete. The gyrojet corporation had weapons very similar to the ones he (and his friends) used available in the 1960's, they went out of business because standard firearms were more efficient.

Actually, in the TV series Stargate SG-1 the Air Farce is shown as having no clue about how to run ground operations. Against modern American or NATO troops with normal heavy weapons (mortars particularly) the Jaffa would have no chance at all unless they have orbital support.

Re: What I learned playing a fighter...

The first rule of the gunfighter: Be sure you have a gun.

With you.

Re: Making a Post-Apoc "logical"

The old FGU game "Aftermath" had a nice section on different ways "the world" (or civilization) could end.

However, to get to a "Gamma World" status, you need centuries or even millenium after the fall if you are trying to be "realistic" or logical. The death rate would have to be so high that the survivors would not include enough people with technical skills and knowledge to restart civilization in the short term (a generation or three) and so the knowledge is lost. If you have read "Earth Abides" that is a reasonable scenario.

If the game is set 500 years or more after the fall, some "mutated" or genetically engineered critters could be there, but to get many varieties you either need a "someone was doing a massive genetic engineering project" that released its results just after the fall; or you have to ignore conventional reality and use comic book type logic.

BTW, the nuclear winter theory was totally false. They took two data points and put a non-linear curve through them to get their results.