archer

People do variations on orcs for a variety of reasons. The main reason in my opinion is that the orcish motivations are simple: they can use the stuff the humans make. They need clothes, humans have clothes. They need jewelry, humans have jewelry. They need a sword, humans have swords. Their needs overlap with human needs very neatly so it provides easy motivation for conflict. The main problem with giants, they don't need the clothes or weapons which humans use. They can't live in human housing. They can't use human vehicles. They couldn't wear most human jewelry. They can't use horses except maybe for food. I guess if the giants supported themselves through farming, they could compete for land. Or if they just raided for food, but it's less exciting to rescue the king's wagon load of wheat than it is bringing back rarer treasures. It'd be rare for the PC's to kill a giant and find usable equipment. The clothes, rings, weapons, belts, shields just aren't going to be interchangable between the species. If you're introducing giants as the main opponents but denying the PC's the opportunity to get usable stuff when they win a fight, that's something which could make a party restless unless they knew in advance that the campaign treasure was going to be sucky. Sure, a smith can always melt down oversized metal goods but the bulk rate return on selling scrap iron to a smith has got to be pretty crappy. 2 cents

OMG just the best new band evar!!!

Sanders open to SALT cap changes focused on middle class https://thehill.com/policy/finance/559922-sanders-open-to-salt-cap-changes-focused-on-middle-class As much as I would have enjoyed owning my own Strategic Arms when I was younger, I think those days are behind me. I'm kind of split on what I think as a tax policy though.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/559918-florida-teen-repeatedly-tased-in-girlfriends-backyard-by-trooper-who Kid walks into his girlfriend's backyard. A policeman follows him there and tells the kid he's under arrest because walking through the neighborhood then into her back yard is suspicious behavior. The kid has his phone already in hand so he starts to call his girlfriend to come outside to vouch for him. The policeman tazes the kid who drops and hits his head on the patio. The policeman then tazes the kid again while he's rolling on the ground. The house's video surveillance seconds later shows an adult woman (presumably the girlfriend's mom) coming out of the house to see what the noise is about. There's no way the officer could have felt threatened in any manner. The kid spent at least one night in jail, not sure how much beyond that. The policeman is still on the job while the incident is under review. ===== When I was a kid, the policeman would have told me to knock on the door. Then we would have seen who come to the door and whether they'd vouch for me or not. But I guess escalating directly to arrest and being tazed is equally valid?

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210623-pope-francis-meets-spider-man-at-weekly-audience Pope Francis meets Spider-Man at weekly audience

We used to have large weekly family gatherings at my grandparents' house. In the summer afternoons, we'd have watermelon and salt. And salt. And salt. There weren't health concerns about salt at the time but I remember being horrified at how much salt everyone was putting on their watermelon. So much so that I quit using salt on watermelon at all. A distinct improvement, if the watermelon is fully ripened.

There's no logic in participating at all. I knew going in that describing how I deal with it would generate at least one obnoxious judgy comment. And it came on schedule. Fortunately, I'm participating in hopes of being helpful to others rather than logically protecting myself from obnoxious commentary directed toward myself.

Sure, in theory. But I've never lived in a place where I've had my pick of people to play. It's always been "do you want to have enough people to play a game or not?"

I'll have you know I'm NOT senile. I've fathered at least two children that I know of.

Most foods do. My childhood treat: Freeze a Ding Dong. Cut it in half. Slather the tops of each half with peanut butter.

You wouldn't want to know how many times per day I flub a name or term.

Tactical Studies Rules

I've heard a persuasive case that there's kilotons of gold at the Earth core. But since we can't access the Earth's core, we can't access the value. Not arguing there's nothing of value on Venus. I'm arguing that we can't use it because we can't get to it. Now is there information? Sure. But there's information literally everywhere we might go.

Umm...no thanks. I'll stick to MSNBC....

Yeah, taverns and wenches with "rooms for rent" upstairs seems to be an inescapable part of the landscape after decades of gaming (even if I insist on euphemisms and the back-and-forth intercourse of the involved parties taking place off-scene when I'm GMing, non-juvenile players seem to expect their PC's to behave in certain ways when they go to a tavern). But taverns with slave girls whose masters have "rooms for rent" upstairs...that treads way too heavily upon my sensibilities.

Then the only questions I'd be asking myself is if I didn't fill the space with an increased population, what would I put there? And would it be more interesting than people?

Maybe I need to watch better "expert" commentators on the boob tube.

In New York, the only think worse than raining cats and dogs is hailing cabs!

Venus is a hellhole. Even if we find out everything about it, it's not like we could use the information for anything given our current level of technology and likely advances. Jupiter's moons on the other hand, could give us usable valuable information.

The US Congress can grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal. Basically this allows a person or organization to act as a privateer in service of the US government. You will not be prosecuted for crimes in the US while acting in your capacity of going after the nation's enemies (usually as defined in the Letter). And you can keep any loot you gain while going after the nation's enemies. You are also shielded by the US government from extradition to other countries for prosecution for your activities. So for example, you could go after the hackers who did the ransomware attack on that pipeline. You could take and keep all the ransom money plus all the money you find from other ransoms. You could hack into their personal bank accounts and keep everything you find. Your operatives could find and execute the hackers and seize any physical property they find. You could keep their computer code for help in your future endeavors as a privateer.

I accidentally erased a long post a few days ago and haven't had the heart to fully recreate it. But taking a half-hearted stab at it.... Population density of humans depends on a lot of factors including how efficient agriculture is and what food crops they have available, how recent the last epidemic was, and how often there are major wars. And in fantasy worlds, how dense the population of non-humans is and how aggressive they are plus the population density of aggressive creatures which might want to snack on humans. Out of those factors, war is probably the most important. It directly reduces the population while disrupting food production (which directly and indirectly reduces the population) plus displacing people so diseases spread more rapidly from one community to the next...and continue to spread rather then burning out (which directly reduces the population). The more recent the last war, the smaller the population in the warring kingdoms AND in the surrounding kingdoms (reduced food availability and refugees spreading disease). In a typical fantasy setting, you aren't going to find a lot of lone pioneers out in the middle of nowhere with just himself and his family because it's much too dangerous. So the next question is how safe would it be to live in a small village of say 20-35 people? There could be a hell of a lot of villages of that size in the area you're talking about. But if that's too dangerous, there won't be any. The larger the town, the more amenities are available (tavern, temple, mill) but the more opportunities for disease and crime. And the larger the town, the fewer farmers per capita since farmers would have to walk out to their fields then return and there's only so far a person can walk and still put in a meaningful day of work. So if tiny villages are plentiful and farmers turn out way more food than their own families can eat, towns and cities could be huge. But if you assume fewer but larger villages and relatively unproductive farms, cities would be smaller since there would be enough food available for import to maintain their population. Personally I prefer GMing with large villages and small people per square mile. Lots of ruins ranging from abandoned small villages to more profitable ruins. Lots of monsters. Cities which are the size of a large modern town and no cities which are the size of a modern small city. But I dislike GMing political intrigue campaigning and like the players being able to get their PC's out away from a lord if I screw up things and GM myself into a corner.

The Trump team is required to wear a stylized "T" on their belt buckle. The bottom stroke on the T is shaped so it looks like an arrow pointed downward.

Durg at' Morakh in the Wild Cards Universe has a union card which allows him to work as a forklift operator without using an actual forklift in his work.

Sesame Street is introducing a family with two gay dads as recurring characters. Inspired, the executives at HBO have announced a spin-off series about a couple on Sesame Street who have an open marriage. The new series is tentatively titled: Open Sesame.

https://www.axios.com/uganda-olympian-covid-positive-tokyo-6bbb9fed-fdd4-406d-9873-073934dbb2e0.html Olympian tests positive at Japanese airport and is detained. All of her traveling companions (the coaches and other athletes) were allowed to continue on to Osaka.