Markdoc

Re: nations with royal families Not any more. She's visible overseas, because of her charity work, but in Jordan has been pushed out of the unofficial role of queen mother (Princess Muna al-Hussein, who's actually English, has that title), her son was pushed out of the line of succession and then stripped of his royal offices. The politicians of her faction are largely gone after the 2009 dissolution of parliment - even the foundations she started have largely been replaced by Queen Rania's and Princess Alia's ones in the Middle East. These days, Dowager Queen Noor rarely visits Jordan - she lives in London. Abdullah II in contrast, beams down on his subjects from damn near every surface available, and his son - the new heir - is almost as common: pictures of the current royal family are everywhere, pictures of the old king are pretty common ... but old queen Noor? Invisible. cheers, Mark

Re: nations with royal families Thailand: the laws there are very protective of the monarchy. cheers, Mark

Re: nations with royal families The kings of Monaco and Lichtenstein are still heads of state and wield real power ... in their very small states. The latter is the official head of state, the latter is not. Monaco has a parliament and constitution limiting the king's power: but they both wield power due mostly to economic advantages. Otherwise, no. As the UK Queen's representative in Australia found out, European royal families retain some power and privileges - but that's only on paper, and only at the tolerance of the elected politicians. If they try to use them, they will be taken away. In Asia, the Thai kings wield significant power - but it's soft power, due only to respect. Legal power rests with the government. With the abolition of the Nepalse monarchy 2 years ago, and the various Middle Eastern countries (Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Jordan) that's about it. cheers, Mark

Re: Fantasy City-Ship? Comic relief/straight man. The major characters (Don Lope de Villalobos y Sangrin - a spanish hildalo ... and wolf) and Armand Raynal de Maupertuis (a French courtier, philosopher ... and fox) are heroic wandering swordsmen and as such, a bit prone to histrionics - especially Don Lope. The rabbit - Eusebio - is sensible and pragmatic - bit also small, weak and slightly cowardly. He does apparently however have an "evil brother" who used to work for cardinal Richelieu's guard cheers, Mark

Re: "Ode to Tito" - songs to play Star Hero to. For Star Hero? What could be better than this? Cheers, Mark

Re: Fantasy City-Ship? Heh, I'm just kidding - the word "bestest" should have been a tip off. I don't actually have " favourites" per se, but Cloak and Fang is just really, really good - as are all the other strips we have mentioned. cheers, Mark

Re: Fantasy City-Ship? Bone's good, no question, but in the fantasy genre, it has to line up behind Cloak and Fang, Sandman and maybe wrestle Stardust for 3rd spot. In the superhero genre, I loves me some Busiek - and own all of Astro City so far, but it lags behind Watchmen, and - just barely - Planetary. It probably has to wrestle for 3rd spot, too, only this time with The Dark Knight. That's still pretty good company to be in, though! Not that I'm being dogmatic or anything! cheers, Mark

Re: Fantasy Hero vs Pulp Hero Yeah, lots of people do. It causes me geek rage Basically if it's about vikings being mean to each other, it's almost certainly from a saga. If it's about Odin, some of the other Norse gods, or weird rules for poetry, it's likely the Eddas. If it's tales about old Danish kings or coherent stories about Norse gods, it's likely Saxo cheers, Mark

Re: Fantasy City-Ship? I'm actually collecting the series, but in Danish (I have the newer ones in French, just .... cos. I'll replace 'em with Danish as the latter come out). The comic itself is apparently based on a D&D game in which the writer played with Gary Gygax. It's epic, epic, fantasy - gods, demons, elves, dwarves, giants, armies of millions with divisions of dragon-riders, opening the gate to hell, dimensional portals, you name it. It blows me away that nobody has tried to get the rights to many of these series for English language publication, because the French put out some of the coolest comics on the planet - and not just the Gore n' Sex ones that end up in Heavy Metal. Right now the bestest comic series in the entire world - "Cloak and Blade"* isn't available in English. If you imagine a full colour, painted version of Usagi Yojimbo set in late renaissance Europe, crossed with Jules Verne, but much, much funnier, you've pretty much got it. But don't take my word for it - watch this: cheers, Mark *Edit: without thinking, I translated the Danish title. The original title translates as "cloak and fang" - a play on "cloak and dagger" since our two main heroes are an anthropomorphic fox and wolf.

Re: Fantasy Hero vs Pulp Hero That's from one of the sagas (specifically, Thorgrim the Norwegian's death from Njal's saga), not the Eddas, which are pretty thin on quotable quotes: the Eddas are pretty short and mostly consist of rather odd poetry and advice for skalds. The sagas, on the other hand are full of quotable quotes. I like the one you gave here and I also like Atli's last words in a similar situation. In Grettis saga, Þorbjörn knocks on the door at Atli's farm. When Atli opens the door, Þorbjörn runs him through. Atli looks down, says, "Broad-bladed spears are in fashion these days," and dies. Going to the door of the house was clearly pretty dang dangerous back then cheers, Mark

Re: Saltmarsh Continued OK, sounds like a winner right there cheers, Mark

Re: Nazi's with Jet Packs

Re: How to run a Running battle? What I'd do - what I've done in fact - for this sort of thing is set up a few locations in advance and then move the players through location by location. Start off by throwing a small force at them. Let the players try to deal with it. If anyone gets away, then the hunt will be more directed. Forces they meet will be reinforced, forces on their tail will get closer. Let the players know (via tactics rolls, or simply evidence) that the longer they take the closer the pursuing force gets, and the more roadblocks will be put in their way. So - to take an example - one such evening's play involved a map showing the terrain the players had to cross to reach "safety" with certain set-piece points like (for example): Forest path - roving patrol. 2 samurai, 10 ashigaru, mounted. D6 encounters. Plenty of cover: can move cross country at half speed, reduce encounters by D3 River - crossable by bridge (4 samurai +1 leader, 20 ashigaru, with signal beacon in tower) river is icemelt, causes X damage, requires swimming roll at -2 to bypass Paddy fields - roving patrol. 2 samurai, 10 ashigaru mounted. Little or no cover, can move cross country at half speed, reduce encounters by 1. Mountain gateway - cliff road. (2 samurai, 10 ashigaru, with gated fort and signal beacon in tower), requires stealth and climbing rolls to bypass. Mountain path - 2 samurai, 10 ashigaru, on foot. D3 encounters. Plenty of cover, can move cross country at half speed, reduce encounters by D3. Each escapee from an encounter will add d2 encounters to next stage of the escape, or double size of next encounter. Every 5 turns that an encounter lasts will also d2 encounters to next stage of the escape, or allow another patrol to enter the fray. Basically the pursuing force should be large enough that a "stand and fight" approach will inevitably lead to more and more enemies until the PCs are overwhelmed. Their goal should be to bypass enemies or deal swiftly and completely with any enemy they come across: any delays will be punished! Encounters can be varied to fit the general sort of locations - they can be simple "walk into each other" affairs, or one side can perceive the other first and set up an ambush, or try to evade, etc. cheers, Mark

Re: Character: Heinleins Renaissance Man My take on it is .... ah ... somewhat different. A human being should be able to: Change a diaper. Everyman skill. I've done this with zero training and zero problems. It's kind of disgusting, but it's not in the slightest bit hard. Plan an invasion. Hoo Boy. Talk about unrealistic! This is way, way harder than he imagines. I've had to plan to move small teams (less than 20 people) into a different country, including military personnel and that was a major effort. A real invasion? Even professional military do this in large teams. Still, Logistics 11-, Military History 11-, PS: Staff officer 11- at a minimum. Butcher a hog. I'd be inclined to go everyman on this too, though at a stretch FAM: Butcher 8- would do it. I've never butchered hogs, but I have butchered sheep and deer. Like changing a diaper it merely requires some tolerance for icky stuff and (practically speaking) a bit of strength. Conn a ship TF: Ships. Design a building. Hoo boy again. Unrealistic much? OK, if all you are talking about is a shack, that's one thing. But an actual building? PS: Architect 11- at a minimum. Probably, need Civil engineering 11- too. Write a sonnet Write a sonnet? Everyman skill. Write a good sonnet? PS: Poet 11- Balance accounts Again - everyman (if you are talking about your personal accounts: I've done it easily with oh .... about no training whatsoever). If you are talking about a global corporation, or even a medium sized company, that's a whole different kettle of fish. PS: Accountant 11- (again, at a minimum) Build a wall How big of a wall are we talking about? Garden wall? Everyman. I did this as a pre-teen with no training. Just requires patience and sweat. A large, load-bearing wall? Requires specialist tools and probably at least FAM: engineering or FAM: Architect. Set a bone Paramedics 11- Comfort the dying. Again, everyman. I've seen kids do this. Hell, I've seen a dog do this. Take orders. Again, everyman. You don't need any skills to take orders, just a willingness to follow orders Give orders. Again, everyman. You don't need any skills to give orders - any skill involved is deciding what is a sensible order to give, in the circumstances. Cooperate Again, everyman. You don't need any skills to cooperate - just a willingness to do so. Act alone Again, everyman. You don't need any skills to take act alone - just the resolution to do so. Of course what skills you do have will determine how effectively you can act - but I've known plenty of people who decided to act alone, even though clearly they lacked the skills to do so! Solve equations KS: Math 11- Analyze a new problem As a consultant, I get paid to do this. One thing is overwhelmingly clear - it ain't a skill. Again, what skills you have will affect how effectively you can do this, but so do your existing prejudices. Like so many of the things in this list all it requires is the determination to make the effort. Pitch manure Everyman. Seriously, how hard is it to use a pitchfork or spade. I've done this - a lot. It requires no training, not even verbal instruction - just a spade and a pointed finger. Program a computer KS: Computer programming 11- Cook a tasty meal Pretty close to everyman, but IMHO FAM: cooking 8- (since I know too many people who are apparently helpless when it comes to the kitchen). We're talking tasty, here, not 5 star gourmet Fight efficiently This is a hard one. Clearly not everyman, but what does he mean "fight efficiently"? As a squad? In a bar? At the company level? I'd actually simply translate this as "Stay cool in combat" which is probably best modeled by PRE defence - say 5 points worth. Alternatively, Tactics 11-. Die gallantly. Again, everyman. You don't need any skills to die - in fact, that is the most everyman of all everyman skills. Everybody gets to do it. The gallant part is simply a decision not to embarrass yourself or others on the way out. Much of what is in this list - things like "die gallantly" "change a diaper" or "pitch manure" have nothing to do with skill or training and everything to do with attitude. I've known people who felt they were above "sordid tasks" like pitching manure or the more mundane jobs we usually encounter, and all too many who had the skills to carry out an order given .... but chose not to anyway. A lot of it is simply unrealistic. Plan an invasion? Why? Why spend years learning to do something highly specialised, you will never ever be called on to do - unless you actually want to? You might, one day, be called on to fight in an invasion (not very likely, but still) but it's certain you won't be called on to plan one, unless that's what you do for a living. Likewise "design a building". We stopped letting people design their own buildings a while back because of the tendency of such buildings to fall down or catch fire and kill people in the process. Specialization isn't just for insects. That said, I do like the idea of the Renaissance man or woman and genuinely believe that people who seek out new tests, opportunities and challenges tend to be happier and stronger than those who don't. So what would you put on your list? cheers, Mark

Re: Nazi's with Jet Packs Actually, the articles says jumps of 180 feet - which sounds much more impressive. You'd need good reflexes, though - the results of dropping 50 feet with all your combat gear plus a giant rocket on your back wouldn't be pretty. Anyway, just damn. How come the nazis get all the best toys? cheers, Mark

Re: Fantasy City-Ship? If you have patience, you can try searching for images under "Chroniques de la Lune Noire". It's a french fantasy comic - very D&D, over-the-top - which features a very D&D, over-the-top fantasy city ship. There's a squillion images from it on line, which is why I can't point you at any specific one, but if you have the patience to sift them ... cheers, Mark

Re: Top 10 Insupportable Premises in Comic Book Universes Assuming he even bothered to catch her..... Heh. Tony's got along way to go before living down Civil War cheers, Mark

Re: Top 10 Insupportable Premises in Comic Book Universes Ah - so like .... say, Somalia? Yep, that's a pretty free state - you can do whatever you can get away with. But it's more or less the diametric opposite of good. OK, I know that's not what you meant, but in reality, it is literally impossible to have a state where everyone has complete freedom - unless there is only one citizen. As soon as you have two or more, you reach a point where there will be conflict over certain choices of action. The point of having a state (and laws) is to try to minimize that lingering discontent - and as far as I can see, that part's still a work in progress. cheers, Mark

Re: Top 10 Insupportable Premises in Comic Book Universes

Re: Top 10 Insupportable Premises in Comic Book Universes

Re: BioFix - We're here to help! But what? Restrict their movement? Unlawful without a compelling public safety issue. Require them to wear protective suits? Under what statute? The 'Flu is highly infectious - and yet we have no laws that would allow us to restrict the movement or require the wearing of protective gear for people with 'Flu, without declaring a public emergency and/or martial law. If the organism is ruled harmless, I can guarantee attempts to apply legal restraints to the people carrying it would fold like tissue paper at the first legal challenge. There is no legal right "to not get infected". To apply some sort of restrictions, you'd need to posit major changes in law enforcement, new laws and also create a new monitoring agency: the CDC has neither the interest, the personnel, the budget or the infrastructure to do something like this, and I doubt the regular cops would be much interested. cheers, Mark

Re: Saltmarsh Continued In addition, they could take on passengers - with complications. Look at River in Firefly, or Luke and Ob-wan in Star Wars ("Can you sail us to Kessel in that wreck?" "Kid, this is the ship that made the Kessel run in 3 weeks!"). Or they can take a normal, profitable cargo that has something - a vampire's coffin? (Evil grin) or simply a valuable McGuffin hidden in it. As merchants, they could be recruited as privateers, or spies ... there's a lot to work with here. cheers, Mark

Re: Some basics of trade and the town/city of Saltmarsh The biggest expenses for medieval ships were (as you note) taxes and port fees, plus maintenance (wooden ships require a lot of maintenance to keep them seaworthy) and the cost of a crew. Typically crew served for a share of the profits (usually 50%, split among them) rather than a fixed wage, but not always. The biggest brake on medieval style sea commerce was risk. Sailors were paid well - but that's because on long voyages, the rate of loss could be as high as 30% - in other words two ships would come home out of every three you sent - and for crew the death rate could be as high as 50%. You needed high profits to carry that sort of loss! Sailors knew the odds were poor - but a couple of successful voyages could set you up with enough cash to retire to a safer job. Losses were mostly due to shipwreck, and disease and only occasionally to pirates. In a fantasy world, add monsters, and de-emphasise disease if you have healers. To take an example, Cape Town (in South Africa) was established by the Dutch, because the sea voyage from Europe to the East Indies (Indonesia) was killing roughly half their crews. They discovered that about 2 months was the limit for a crew to sail safely: after that they started to die at an accelerating rate. It was vitamin deficiency, but they didn't know that. So what they did was put a crew on a ship, sail it to South Africa and then drop the crew off for a couple of months R&R (with plenty of fresh veggies!). They'd pick up a rested crew there and then sail to their destination. When the crew had rested up, they'd take on the next ship arriving and sail it to its destination, whatever that was. cheers, Mark

Re: Simplified Endurance Management? I dropped regular END use because tracking it bugged my players who are/were all Hero newbies. I intended to reintroduce it later but the game rums well without it, so never have. My house rules are: 1. All powers take 0 END as a (free) default. Powers may still take "costs END", or "Increased END" or even "Reduced END" (see below for why they might want to.) 2. Pushing costs END as normal 3. Post-12 recoveries do not recover END. If you wish to recover END, you need to actually "take a breather" ie: take a recovery 4. Long Term Endurance loss is calculated normally (ie: not including the free "0 END as default"). If a character wants to be literally tireless, they need to buy reduced END. The effects of these changes are: A) Combat is a little faster and simpler. Most characters can afford to push at least 1 or 2 times per combat C) Combat takes place over very short periods, However, the use of LTE means that characters are still limited when it comes to non-combat activities. D) It makes effects that use END differently (like autofire) slightly more useful. I don't mind that, since autofire has never been overly powerful and with these house rules still isn't. cheers, Mark

Re: BioFix - We're here to help! This, however, is not. There are a few live vaccines in use today that are infectious and can be (and sometimes are) passed from the vacinee to other people. However, they have also been tested and shown to be safe, so the reaction of the authorities is "Who cares?". Transmission is not tracked. This is a little different, since it's not a vaccine, but if it's been passed as safe to give to people, then it's ... well, safe to give to people. I doubt that any restrictions would be put in place, or - if mooted - survive legal challenge. Hell, it's hard enough to restrict the movement of people who have dangerous infectious conditions. As far as restricting infection, a far simpler way than tailoring them to their host genetically (probably going to be far too expensive, and also unlikely to be legally permitted since each treatment would be a new modified organism) would simply to engineer them to require a supplement - which the host can then take. People not taking the supplement, would not have it in circulation and would be immune to infection, people who had the bacteria could get rid of them by stopping taking the supplement, and the requirement would also mean the bacteria would die if released into the wild. As a further bonus, BioFix would get an extra revenue stream, selling supplement. Not science fiction: this concept is already used for engineered organisms. Cheers, Mark