6 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

I’d relook at that again. Elves are tied to Adra. They are not consumed but if they died through fault or accident they go to their own version of Heaven. They can reincarnate if they wish however the the pain and misery of Adra marred is enough that almost none have done it.

Well, Tolkien wasn't known for being internally consistent, especially when it came to his unpublished thoughts.

On 3/22/2022 at 2:57 PM, Christopher R Taylor said:

Like I said in the elf discussion, I don't like Hobbits outside Tolkien's writing.  They were created by Tolkien specifically for his story for a particular role in that story.  They just don't work anywhere else for me.

Well, hobbits are, by nature, the ultimate "stay at home" race of literature.

Kender, on the other hand, I could see showing up in any setting.

They'd be telling wild tales of their race originating on a world which had three moons, one of which was invisible (of all things) so that no one could see it. And how that the source of magic is wizards praying to one of the moons.

In any case, Kender are afflicted with an insatiable, and often fatal, wanderlust. And a curiosity to meddle with things even things which any sane person would leave alone. So they have a built-in excuse for showing up in any setting imaginable, if a GM wants them to show up there. 

Surprise, surprise.

Putin says 'unfriendly countries' must buy Russian oil and gas in rubles.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/03/23/business/stocks-oil-inflation-ukraine#putin-russian-oil-gas-rubles

On Wednesday President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia came up with a way to get his opponents to help prop up his currency, by demanding that “unfriendly countries” use rubles to buy the Russian oil and gas that is still flowing.

“I have made a decision to implement in the shortest possible time a set of measures to switch payments for … our natural gas supplied to the so-called unfriendly countries to Russian rubles,” Mr. Putin said on Wednesday.

Sanctions aimed at the Russian central bank effectively froze hundreds of billions of dollars of assets. The actions immediately drove down the value of the ruble as people frantically rushed to turn their rubles into a more stable currency, like the dollar or the euro.

Claus Vistesen, chief eurozone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the action means that every time a Western country buys a barrel of oil it would be “propping up his domestic currency.”
“If you’re invoiced in rubles, you’ve got to go out and buy rubles,” he said. “I don’t know if there is workaround.”

====

That might have been a good idea at the beginning of the sanctions (like I'd speculated on).

But now, the EU has barred countries from transferring Euros into Russia and the US has barred dollar transfers.

It's not going to have as strong of an effect for countries to go out and buy the Turkish lira or the Mexican peso and use that to buy rubles.

In fact, buying the Turkish lira might be a good idea. They're scrambling to stabilize their currency by bringing in foreign currency after having 73% inflation last year.

Use Turkish lira to buy rubles. Use rubles to buy gas and oil products.

Russia at the end of it is still stuck with a currency that'll lost a large chunk of it's value by the end of the year.

13 minutes ago, Starlord said:

Hey now, the Thing was showing more skin in his pic....

The Thing rocks.

The Wasp had a pretty sexy orange costume at one point.

She also had a pretty sexy white one with blue trim.

https://www.t-mobile.com/mlb -April 5 through 11, T-mobile Customers (also Sprint and Metro by T-Mobile customers) can claim a free season-long subscription to MLB.TV.

If anyone picks this up because they read about it here, let us all know.

I never know if posting a freebie here actually helps anyone or whether it's just a waste of everyone's time. 

With this freebie being worth $130, if it helps out one or two people here (or one or two of someone's friends), that'd make it seem like I was accomplishing something.  

I'd rather play a Kender than a Hobbit. More interesting character traits.

The main complaint I've seen is players who prioritize the "lack of respecting property rights" but completely ignore the "interesting trumps valuable every time" aspect...and instead act like the only interesting things are valuable things.

Doors are locked not because they're protecting valuables but because people don't want you to see the wonderful things on the other side. And once you get inside, you're much more interested in looking around to find the majesty and wonder of the hidden and forbidden place than in finding valuables to pocket.

In HERO terms, Kender have the complication of Kleptomania - the recurrent inability to resist urges to steal items that you generally don't really need and that usually have little value. And because of that, they have to take at least Watched by City Guards. And Watched by Merchants. And Reputation: Kender.

If the GM explains to the would-be Kender player that his character is going to be in constant trouble with the law from stealing buttons, useless rocks, paperclips, and hairbrushes to the point that the law will strip them of whatever valuables which they intentionally steal, that ought to cool the jets of most players who aren't wanting to have some innocent fun with the character concept.

Well, with the real-life hobbits, scholars agree that they were a subspecies of humanity.

I think it's probably best to think of them like that for gaming purposes since they, as a culture in fiction, behave more like human civilians than like dwarves or elves.

That film clip certainly taught me something: Don't bring a rowboat to a buzz-saw fight.

1 hour ago, Tjack said:

      Not to mention what Mr. Barnes went through.

In the famous words of someone famous: "I regret I have but one life to give for my country...."

5 hours ago, Cygnia said:

Russia's Elite Want Putin Out, Successor in Mind: Ukraine Intel Chief

From my experience with birthday wishes: don't tell who it is or it won't come true.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, 73, has been hospitalized with flu-like symptoms since Friday.

Tests showed he had an infection, and he has been receiving intravenous antibiotics. They apparently waited to notify the public until they figured out he was going to get better.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/supreme-court-justice-clarence-thomas-hospitalized-flu-symptoms-rcna20806

15 hours ago, Cygnia said:

*facepalms*

 

Boogaloo Boi's attempt to fight in Ukraine ends in disaster and him fleeing: report

C'mon, he's a Trump fan going over to fight to keep Ukraine safe from Russia while Trump is busy gushing over how Putin is smart and how he loves his country enough to go out and conquer another country to add to the collection?

This guy's attempt didn't end in disaster but in a complete propaganda victory for Russia, as intended.

He even scammed other people into paying for his plane ticket.

9 hours ago, Logan.1179 said:

I'm glad the owner of my first apartment didn't see that ad.

On 3/19/2022 at 11:16 PM, tkdguy said:

 

That Star Wars miniatures game looks like fun. 

But after watching several of this guy's videos, I question how much experience he has at small group tactics games.

He doesn't seem to have a feel for when to take out the enemy "archers" vs when to take the enemy tank(s) seriously. I think I'd have decent odds of taking him twenty games in a row, even without being familiar with the rules.

6 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

 

 

Now be completely honest with yourself:  when someone says "Tolien' Elves," which do you instinctively think of?

When I think of his elves, I think of the Siege of Angband where the power of the elves alone was enough to contain Morgoth, who was basically a god. And the siege actually worked until he created dragons.

When someone else mentions his elves, I assume they're talking about immortal tree-huggers who are as obsessed with lineage and the belief that "worthiness comes through having the right bloodlines" as the most snobby British aristocrat of fiction.

5 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

 

 

I get it; it is a sacred cow.  But it is not _my_ sacred cow; my religion doesn't involve cows (other than shoving a pair od them,into a really big boat some time back) and I have no interest in converting.

 

 

I believe if you look that you'll find they included fourteen cows rather than only two.  

On 3/19/2022 at 11:43 AM, Old Man said:

 

Turkey is also in talks to lend their S-400s to Ukraine.

Turkey buys a lot of war material from Russia. If they take Moscow's side on this, I'd expect Putin to cut off their weapons access.

Turkey's leader, fairly openly, talks about wanting to restore a Muslim Caliphate across the Middle East using Jerusalem as its most holy city rather than Mecca. And with Turkey and himself being the center of power.

So most other NATO nations have been somewhat reluctant to sell them weapons. And the US removed at least part of its nuclear weapons from Turkey because it was concerned that Turkey would seize the weapons for themselves.

Maybe the S-400 deal will come together. But if it does, I'd expect NATO to have to give up far more than they're comfortable with.

I'm watching Servant of the People.

It's the sitcom which gave Ukrainian President Zelenskyy his start as an actor.

He plays the part of a history teacher who is unexpectedly elected President of Ukraine.

It's free on YouTube with subtitles at the moment but I don't know how much longer that will last. Netflix just announced that they were going to be showing it (I assume dubbed but maybe not).

I'm only a few episodes in right now but I can see why it was popular. 

After this series, I plan to watch him on Dancing with the Stars (Ukrainian edition). I saw a clip of him doing a samba and he looked to be of comparable talent to the actors who go on the US version of the show.

Following NATO’s request, Germany and the Netherlands will deliver MIM-104 Patriot PAC-3 air defense systems to Slovakia.

Prior, Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad said that his country would transfer the Soviet-made S-300PMU air defense systems to Ukraine if the country receives a replacement.

.

.

.

That's nice but the two systems aren't remotely interchangeable. The Patriots is a point-defense weapon (like defending a military base or perhaps something as large as a city) and only works against ballistic missiles.

The S-300PMU is a "reach out and touch someone" weapon that protects a large area (a 93 mile range, so a 186 mile diameter). It works against ballistic missiles or aircraft. It's considered to be one of the best anti-craft systems that's ever been developed by anyone, anywhere. (The US doesn't depend on anti-aircraft systems as much as it develops great fighter aircraft and use them for air defense.)

You could set that system down quite a ways south of Kiev (maybe 40 miles) and it could shoot down aircraft all the way to the Belarus border. One such system can engage up to 12 targets at a time.

Either Slovakia agreed to a severe downgrade in order to help out Ukraine or other NATO countries promised them speedy fighter cover at a moment's notice.

In any case, the bad news: Slovakia only has 45 missiles to use in that S300.

Ukraine has owned that series of anti-aircraft system and might have some missiles left to use in it.

NATO countries that could help:

Greece has one S300 launcher and maybe as many as 175 missiles.

Bulgaria has 10 S300 launchers with an unknown number of missiles. But is likely scared to death of a Russian invasion.

Armenia is not in NATO but does participate in joint exercises with NATO. It has some number of S300's and an unknown amount of missiles for them.

Egypt, Venezuela, and Vietnam each have S300's and some number of missiles for them. They might be open to some kind of sale or trade from a NATO country or sale directly to Ukraine.

And there's eleven other countries, including Russia, which use S300's and who are either neutral or are taking Russia's side.

If any company or country has ever made missiles for the S300 other than the two Russian firms which originally developed them, I'm not aware of it.

12 minutes ago, Old Man said:

The test solution does not go in your eyes or nose, people! 

< angry anti-vaxxers impersonation >

"You can't tell me what to do!"

37 minutes ago, Cygnia said:

Right.  Time to nuke the front office from orbit.  It's the only way to be sure.

Can you wait until they're shaking hands with him in front of the cameras?

Two birds with one stone, and all that....

I watched the first five episodes of the Station Eleven miniseries.

The first episode was great. After that...

I probably would have stopped watching if it had been an ongoing series. But with it being a miniseries, I feel like I can go ahead and finish it out (as opposed to dedicating the next few years of my life watching a regular series that's stopped being engaging).

The main flaw to me is the time jump forward to deal with several things a few years later. My favorite part of the series is the young actress. Taking screen time from her to deal with less interesting things.... 😕