Old Man

We got the offspring signed up for a swimming class this summer, and they are kicking ass. Soon I will be able to bring them along and resume some of my aquatic hobbies, such as snorkeling, surfing, and piracy. Also the recent forum outage was not due to catastrophic system failure, but Simon putting in version 5.0.3. Doesn't quite fix the last-unread button, but almost. Hopefully people will start trickling back in now; there are quite a few that I miss.

Did it catch the mouse? Did it catch the mouse?!!!

Or, go to wolframalpha.com and type in 'orbital velocity 100km'. You'll be able to play with the numbers in the ensuing page.

You don't have to put all the units into your calculator, just the 6.7x10^-11. As long as you make sure masses are in (many) kilos and distances are in (many) meters, the velocity will come out in meters per second. I don't even know what that (80) is in there, that makes no sense.

Then wouldn't your post be kind of pointless? Even by NGD standards?

Here? In the NGD? Are you kidding?

Irony. I like it thick. If it were a beer it would be Guinness. If it were a milkshake, you could leave the spoon sticking straight up out of it. If it were a fog, it'd cause a sixty car pileup. That kind of irony.

As a matter of fact, I did...I happen to like CCR myself. That's an impressive pic, alright, but...can you really see the differences in ocean depth like is shown in the pic? I don't recall ever seeing anything like that in other pics, though I admit I haven't been looking. For that matter, I see a definite lack of cloud cover, as well. I'm not trying to "pick apart" the pic or say it's bad or anything, just commenting it seems a tad unusual and was wondering if anyone knew for sure... Has to be digitally created, because of cloud cover and the fact that the day side of the shot would wash out the night side for any camera I know of.

There's only one way to get an accurate answer to this question. To the Thunderdome!

Fascinated by Western culture and medicine, Doctor Shanghai cashed out of his profitable position in the opium trade and moved to London, where he combined his knowledge of traditional Chinese herbalism and alchemy with new concepts like electricity and radium therapy. Publicly, he distributes a profitable line of tinctures and other medicines purported to cure everyday ailments. Privately, he maintains an estate where he tests new compounds and treatments on human subjects, some of whom are willing. Recently he has been in talks to merge his operation with multinational pharmaceutical conglomerate GlaxineProcsmith. Dr. Shanghai is a tall man of slim build, who appears to be in his thirties despite his impossible age. It is assumed that some of his most closely guarded formulas are the reason for his continued youth and good health. His laugh is disquieting, not only because it is high and tittering, but because he doesn't smile when he does so.

Okay, new superteam... Team name: The Street Beat Members: 5 Description: Not everyone who gets a superpower gets to lift cars, fly, or be bulletproof. Members of The Street Beat have powers that, while clearly outside the realm of possibility for mundanes, are not powerful enough to let them go toe-to-toe with full powered supervillains and superheroes either. Still, they make up for their lack of raw power with teamwork, tight relationships with the inner city community, and a positive attitude.

Speedster The Rush was a natural fit for the Narcolas, given his energetic, high-speed power set. What the public (and even Narcola) don't know is that The Rush must constantly consume caffeine and high fructose corn syrup. Without them, not only will he lose his powers of super speed and limitless endurance--he'll also die.

Disney Warrior Princesses In Spaaaace - spoilered for NSFW, extreme sexist misogyny, nudity, and NSFW.

No one knows exactly how old Master Zhong really is. He appears to be a slow-moving man of about eighty, but he has clearly been practicing kung fu and tai chi for many decades, and on occasion he seems to talk about events from past Chinese dynasties as though he were there. Despite his slow appearance, when someone attacks him they always seem to miss, and he has a habit of appearing and disappearing when you take your eyes off him, literally even if you just blink. And he knows a lot about acupressure. It's not exactly clear why he hangs out at Tranquility Acres, but he enjoys leading the other residents in tai chi every other morning.

So along with American Protector, Captain Zeo, Diablo, and Pscanner, we have... The Foementor. Arising from one of the CIA's numerous experiments into psychic phenomena, The Foementor's powers are very subtle, but very wide-reaching. This makes him extremely useful from a plausible deniability standpoint, but his effects tend to be very wide ranging and nonspecific. Cultured and well-dressed, The Foementor will set himself up in the target city, coolly sipping expensive coffees in hotel cafes while allowing his power to work. Over the next few weeks, the populace will rise up in rebellion, explode into pointless street violence, fanatically support a puppet dictator's declaration of war, or passively submit to his abuses and purges, depending on the desired outcome. Once his assignment is complete, he will fold up his newspaper, accept a fat envelope full of cash, and move on to the next city. So gradual are his powers that they are nearly undetectable by any means, making it next to impossible for anyone to know he is working a particular city until it's too late. While The Foementor continues to work for the CIA, he also insists on being paid quite handsomely for his services. Of greater concern is that he is starting to freelance more. So far his "side jobs" have not worked directly in opposition to the government's policies, his handlers are getting increasingly worried that that day is coming sooner rather than later. (Someone else please jump in with the next team concept, please.)

Just 356 mortgage payments left. I can't wait until 2043!

Sure, boss, I'll go ahead and pass that certification exam in a week. I mean, normally it would take a month of preparation, and I wouldn't also have to keep up with the other 50-60 hours of work I have to do each week. But how hard could it be?

Then quit hacking websites!

That reminds me, we always played with a house rule that if an attack missed by less than or equal to the DCV bonus of the shield, the shield took the hit and the attack's damage was inflicted against the shield's DEF and BODY. That way, when fighting against, like, frost giants, the shield bearer would be much more likely to spend a phase actively blocking with the shield (or dodging like hell) so as to prevent their shield from getting smashed to flinders in one hit.

Agent 24, Jane "Jenny" Craig, is a small cheerful young woman known for her boundless energy and stamina. Fit as a fiddle, she never gets tired and can always outrun trouble. Unfortunately, she can't stop moving or talking, and what she talks about is usually meaningless, except for when she lets crucial details slip. Like the fact that she's an agent.

You're right of course, but at the same time, just having small/medium/large shields is kind of boring. One characteristic of many fantasy campaigns (and martial arts in general) is the fetishization of weapons and armor. FH has plenty to offer with the weapons table and sectional armor, but shields have never received the same attention to detail. Of course the flip side to all this is balance. I'd like to encourage different shield types that actually play differently in the system, but I don't want one shield type to be clearly superior to another. In AD&Dv1, for example, you'd be a fool to use any weapon other than a longsword or bastard sword.

It figures that Mother Nature would be from Australia.

Dear Oklahoma, What did you do to piss off mother nature so badly? With sympathy, Old Man.

I guess what I'm ultimately after with this would be a shield table similar to the melee weapon table, only balanced. It would involve breaking out DCV bonuses for ranged and melee attacks, +OCV for blocking, attack modes for spikes or edges, whether the off hand is free, DEF/Body, and so on. Basically all the stuff Christougher listed.