BlackSword

Re: Star Wars: Technological Stagnation?

Not hiding his love drove him there. Fear of losing her lead to frustration and anger. That anger lead him to the dark side. So to 100% percent his love drove him to the dark side.

Part of that is because he had to keep it hidden and had no one to talk to about the relationship and his fears.

In some of the Old Republic comics the Jedi were still in contact with their families and some even raised children. So the policy of "no marriage" is one that was introduced over the time between the Old Republic and the rise of the Empire.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings

It wasn't a very Good Friday in St. Louis.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/lsx/?n=04_22_2011

While I live and was having dinner in the region of the supercell, the tornado skipped over my part of the region. Driving to work Monday and going past the destruction was surreal.

Re: Ideas for a trip on Black Forest

Have a Faerie turn them into something. E.g. people who are six inches high and have to fight beetles and spiders and rats bigger than them to survive. A tree root becomes a wall' date=' the tree itself is an immense cliff, a stray breeze can fling them across the forest floor. Even getting around becomes difficult.[/quote']

You could use this and combine some of the other aspects. The players walk into a fairy grove, or a mushroom ring and are shrunk down and have to cross the grove as part of a quest. They are given the ability to talk to the creatures of the forest. All of this as a way for the fairies to teach them a lesson about understanding and respecting the forest.

 

On the way they meet an intelligent spider; up to them how they want to deal with it, but have to maintain the edge of not being prey, but not being a threat and scaring the spider away. Romeo and Juliet could be two competing ant colonies. Swamp monster could be a lizard in a puddle of water.

 

They could have to climb up and over a fallen tree, have some obstacle on the branches which they have to puzzle their way around or fight.

 

When they cross they are returned to normal and can finish the Black Forest quest without a problem. The bulk of the Black Forest adventure takes place in a grove a hundred feet in diameter.

Re: Ideas for a trip on Black Forest

- encounter with a nymph or a forest spirit

One idea I had that I wanted to implement was a spirit of the forest that would give the players some advice/premonition or direction. The idea was based on tree colonies which can be quite old:

A colony of 47' date='000 quaking aspen trees (nicknamed "Pando") covering 106 acres (43 ha) in Fishlake National Forest, United States is considered one of the oldest and largest organisms in the world. It has been estimated to be 800,000 to a million years old, although tree ring samples determine individual, above-ground, trees to only average 130 years[/quote']

Was thinking about giving something that old a bit if intelligence and wisdom for helping the players. Could provide a chance to interact with a unique Oracle.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

They fight about the Freemasons in the Decoded forum.

I watched two episodes of Decoded because I was home due to snow, and thought it may be a good source of conspiracy theories. It was so bad, it was physically painful to watch. I think I will find other ways to discover conspiracy theories.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

Welcome to the internet. You must be new here.

It happened before the internet. Civil War buffs would scoff at you if you used thread similar to that of 1862 to attach buttons from 1863.

Re: Super Heroic Behavior

I can understand the interest in having a strict rule for enforcing superheroic conventions. I have had difficulty in the past with people not understanding, or not wanting to play/act in the superheroic ways after agreeing to play in a superhero game. It can be frustrating, especially when there is no strong way to enforce the convention. In one instance I used XP penalties, in-game consequences, and out-of-game discussions over dinner; I still had players murdering NPCs in cold blood.

I think the list earlier in the thread is a good starting place for a discussion with players. If there are movies or cartoons that fit in how you conceive the campaign, sit down with players and watch those together and have a frank discussion of the campaign you want to run.

Re: HSMA: A combat test

A kali eskrima practicer habitually uses one stick in each hand. Why does your character ony one ?

Escrima can use a mix of weapons, from two sticks (dobleteros), stick and knife (espada y daga), and single stick with empty hand.

Re: Estimated date for affordable and portable Augmented Reality?

What does "HUD" stand for here? Sorry' date=' all I think of is the federal government department....[/quote']

 

Heads-up Display

Re: Estimated date for affordable and portable Augmented Reality?

When do you think people will start walking around with their own HUDs?

Current hang up is the HUD. They are developing HUD contact lenses, but they are in very preliminary state and being tested on bunnies. Not sure how long it will take to develop glasses that are fashionable, but most of the technology is available now. Small accurate accelerometers for determining position of the head, current smartphones can already determine location and heading, and have limited augmented reality capability. Tying it together is a software and hardware problem, but with how tech progress, I think Sundog's approximation of 5 years is good.

I'd say a bit longer than that. Maybe in ten years certain types of professional will use them on the job' date=' but it'll be a while before they're useful for everyone.[/quote']

They are already prototyping the use of augmented reality for military maintenance personnel.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

See? That's my point exactly. Is it really necessary to be that connected all the time? We got along just fine without all that. Sure' date=' all this stuff makes a lot of things easier, but we don't need to use it every waking hour. There's more more to life than all this.[/quote']

Its not really a matter of being connected all the time, its actually nice. This weekend I was meeting a friend at a park, he called me just as I arrived to let me know we were meeting somewhere else. Without cellphones I would have been sitting there in the cold until he drove to the park, and then both of us would have had to drive to the second location. My main complaint is with people learning to use the constant connectedness in a polite way. We are still in the infancy of it and there is some trial and error.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

Fixed.

Not that bad, but one time one of my co-workers brought his computer to a meeting because, "I've got a lot to do, so I'll try to pay attention but have some other work I have to do." As I was sitting behind him, I got to see that he apparently had a lot of Facebook statuses to update, because that was what he was doing.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

I tend to not mind changes in technology if only because technology is the only thing about humanity that seems to progress and stay progressed. Politics' date=' male-female relations, economics, culture, and so on haven't advanced greatly for a thousand years, except where technology forced them to.[/quote']

I don't mind technology changing; ultimately it is nice to be able to contact someone almost any time of the day no matter where I am. I am not tied to my house waiting for a call or message from a friend. I do get frustrated that manners don't keep up with changing technology, so people will answer phones at the most inopportune times, most meetings consists of continually hearing blackberries buzz with new messages, and last time I ran a meeting I noted that there were more computers than participants. Next time I running a similar meeting I will likely get snarkier and say, "alright children, close your computers, we're starting."

Re: Order of the Stick

"If I win I get to be a king. If I lose I get to be a legend."

Re: Order of the Stick

Nope' date=' you're right. I just don't see Rich doing that without dropping more hints. We've seen major character work done with all of the Order, and I agree that it's more than time for a Durkon arc (though I did like his time with Loki girl). I just think Rich would give us more build up for that.[/quote']

He has been playing up the 'Lawful' aspect of Durkon's alignment, so I expect that to be a part of Durkon's story.

Re: Foods for those that just don't care anymore

While I'm no longer a vegetarian' date=' I was one for 15-odd years, so I can eat veggie pizza. My friends won't even try. When we order pizza, we order one with pepperoni, sausage, and mushroom. Of course, I dubbed this combo "two pigs and a fungus."[/quote']

There used to be a place near me that had a Mediterranean pizza, no sauce, the dough was brushed with olive oil. Cheese was mozzarella and feta, and the toppings were artichoke hearts, tomatoes, and kalamata olives. It was very good. They also had a chicken, spinach and caramelized onion calzone. They chicken was often a little dry, but the onions and spinach made up for it. It went out of business a few years ago and was replaced by a little ceasers.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

Batman&Superman: Apocalypse. Another enjoyable direct to video animated adventure from DC. The Green Arrow short was enjoyable as well. Of the ones that have come out so far, I think this one moved up to my favorite. There were a few things I thought could have been done better to make the movie go together better. Overall though it was a lot of fun, and the final fight was awesome.

Re: Revisit: Doc savage vs Batman. I changed my mind.

The bustier has all the support it needs. It's super-glued to her boobs!

Well that's what happens when Superman gets excited.

Re: New DC Adventures/M&M 3rd Ed into Hero System 5th Ed

For the old stats, the attribute bonuses were calculated as:

Bonus = (Attribute - 10)/2 (round down).

So to determine the 2nd Edition attributes from the 3rd Edition/DC Adventures, Attribute = (Bonus * 2) +10

Re: Rules of thumb for the "challenge level" of bad guy creation?

Sorry for the length of this post. This is an extraordinarily complex subject for Hero and there is probably no answer that is "just right." I have provided no more than a suggestion on how to start.

An excellent summary. That is close to how I build my encounters and organize the types of threats the PCs may face. I will add one thing I often do is adjust on the fly. If an NPC is giving the PCs too much trouble I will sometimes adjust the values down in play (and can play it off as the villain getting tired). If an NPC is ineffective they get a little power boost (no reason to hold back anymore).

Re: Foods for those that just don't care anymore

Or better yet:

THREE DOG NIGHT 3 hot dogs, wrapped in a giant tortilla, 3 slices of cheese, 3 slices of bacon, chili & onions

Why does everything have to include bacon now? I mean its a simple way to add flavor, but perhaps the superchefs could, I don't innovate something. In the meanwhile I have perfected the request of "no bacon."

Re: Alternatives to the internet?

In one episode of the Outer Limts called "The Stream" all humanity has a small computer with wifi and and OCR software built into their tempels. It allowed them to instant message anyone on the planet, download ALL public knowledge, and could read (through their eyes) anything and input that knoweldge into their brains. No one in this world even knew how to read, as the computer would scan a sign or a book for them and input what it said directly into their heads. Resaurants had no menus, as it was just broadcast to you as you were on your way there, and you would instant message in your orders and ETA, so it would be waiting for you. There was no cash, just electronic transfers. Everything controlled by a remote was controlled by your implant.

 

The story of this episode centered around a young man who had been in a car accident as a child, and his brain was damaged in the spot where the implant would go. He was completely normal, in fact very intelligent, but he couldn't get the "Stream" implant. He had to survive by letting someone order for him, pay for him, etc. He had to teach himself to read, horde the last books that hadn't been destroyed, to find knoweldge, etc. It was a very good episode.

 

A setting like this would allow entry into the stream by default. ANyone who didn't have access to it would have a good sized physical limitation.

Never saw the episode, but I had a similar thought for a short story. Thinking about an extraterrestrial colony and everyone has implanted computers, in particular communication devices. All communication is passed through the ship, and it retransmits everything back to all devices. The devices also have a slight buzz of a thousands of people talking, but quiet enough that to most people its just background noise. One day the ship stops transmitting and all the devices go quiet. In the further conversation, its an example of a problem with a centralized communication network. The main node goes down and everyone is isolated.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

Ick. I can't stand coconut. I think it is a sin to waste perfectly good chocolate on coconut.

qfmft.

Awesome, more German Chocolate Cake for me.

Re: FANTASY HERO Sneak Peek #1: The Cover!

That is a great cover.

Re: Foods for those that just don't care anymore

Beef twinkies sound funny' date=' but sausages wrapped in batter and served on a stick are real food. Beef hotdogs in cake would be a slight improvement.[/quote']

Sonic Drive-In used to have pancake on a stick which was a pancake wrapped around a breakfast sausage served like a corn dog.