Old Man

Re: Spells in MUltipowers? Granularity is definitely a problem, and it's the reason why I favored using elemental controls instead of multipowers for FH. (I guess that would be Unified Power now.) I've expounded at length on this subject in other threads, but ECs give almost a 50% cost break to spells, whereas multipowers work out to an 80-90% cost break. The unimportance of limitations is a result of that huge cost break. That said, limitations do matter in multipowers when applied to the MP itself. Unfortunately what you get then is homogenization where every spell in the framework has almost exactly the same limitations, which may or may not be desirable.

Re: Musings on Random Musings Well it can't be the beef. The beef is good. Mmm. Now I'm hungry.

Re: Kazei 5 I second this and eagerly await reports from the campaign.

Re: LOTR thoughts Sauron was a Maiar, and the most powerful of them, so if you want enemies of that order you need to start looking for other Maiar. We already know one other bad Maiar escaped the destruction of Angband--the Balrog in Moria. There may be others. And we know of the existence of three other Maiar--the remaining Istari: Radagast, Alatar and Pallando. Radagast seems to have disappeared shortly before the events of FOTR. The latter two went East and we have no clue what happened to them, but it's not hard to imagine at least one of them embracing the Dark Side and then turning up after his best buddy Sauron got whacked. Or if you want to get really crazy, you could have another one of the Valar break away and come to Middle-Earth, and then you have a Melkor-level epic bad guy to contend with.

Re: LOTR thoughts There's still lots of places to come up with more epic antagonists. Angband is presumably sunk but the Tol Fuin isn't, and it was under the control of the Shadow when it was the Taur-nu-Fuin. All sorts of baddies could be roaming around the far north. There are still infestations of wights in Arnor and goblins and giants in the Misty Mountains, and Sauron is thought to have had a hideout east of Rhun, from whence he originally came.

Re: Quote of the Week From My Life. Text conversation, trying to arrange a game of Shadowfist (CCG): When are you going to get to [FLGS]? After lunch. You? Later. I am in town but do not have any cards I have cards But your cards suck Yes. I win through sheer personal awesome. You would not.

Re: Cryostasis Don't forget to link some kind of STUN drain to the off switch. "Hey Hicks! Man, you look just like I feel."

Re: Historical Late Medieval Period RPG I've only read the Medieval City book out of those, but it was very good. It should be required reading for any fantasy gamer. Who would have guessed that there was more to medieval city life than poor sanitation?

Re: The "Nice Happy" Thread Now no country is safe from the teeny little adorable flaming eyed fuzzy!

Re: Why We Should Go Into Space

Re: What would you do as GM when our intrepid . . . . . . Wow, instant cripplement or fatality? That's harsh.

Re: Why We Should Go Into Space Actual mining of the asteroids isn't just an engineering problem, it's an economics problem. If that $20T asteroid costs $30T to return safely to Earth then the business model needs some help. Not that I am against space exploration--quite the opposite. I support it as a means of directing more resources to scientific research in general. I perceive science as being deeply neglected worldwide. It's very annoying to me that the only science that gets any significant government support is related to either killing people or keeping them alive long enough to empty their wallets. There is so much fundamental science that we don't understand. Also, space elevator.

Re: My Tank Is Fight! I have my doubts, if only because the fastest method I know for melting ice is to put it in flowing water.

Re: A Game Of Questions Somebody asked a question?

Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer What if you use the neutrinos as a catalyst for some other sort of stored energy? Analogous to fast neutrons hitting enriched uranium? Your collector could be a lens that focuses the neutrinos on a small but ultradense matrix of heavy elements, thus making it possible for the neutrinos to actually interact with it, and releasing energy as... heat? Loose protons?

Re: I have a dream. (and MAN was it wierd!) I don't remember the beginning part of this dream, but I wound up on a tour bus with the rest of the college kids on our way to try out a new Star Wars themed resort. We pulled up at a beautiful Caribbean beach. Piling out of the bus, we could see the resort out ahead of us, about 1/4 of a mile out across the water. We put on our scuba gear, wondering if we were supposed to swim all that way. The bus driver/tour guide/lifeguard had us all line up along the water, then dive in on cue. Immediately we were all pushed by the Force across that 1/4 mile of water. It was such a powerful and exciting rush that as we landed I locked eyes with the pretty girl next to me and knew that I was wearing the same silly grin she was. In an instant she was gone, up the ramp to grab some of the Star Wars themed toys that awaited us--innertubes, rafts, kayaks, even jet skis. I picked out a set of Anakin scuba gear--mainly because it was scuba gear, not because I cared for the dark-gray-and-purple color scheme--and put it on. I flapped down to the bottom of the ramp and rolled into the crystal clear, sandy-bottomed water. I picked a random direction and started swimming. Some guy surfed over the top of me on an A-wing colored board; I grabbed its edge and playfully flipped him into the water. It was going to be an incredible vacation.

Re: The "Nice Happy" Thread Wait--they gave the Fellowship award to Saruman?

Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer Windup spring? Rubber band? I'm being half serious here; you might have some kind of nanotech-enhanced rubber band that makes it feasible. Of course these are more like batteries than actual energy sources.

Re: Zero-Point Energy Field Manipulator Do you even need to buy the specific RKA and EB throw attacks? Don't you kind of already get that with the TK?

Re: What would you do as GM when our intrepid . . . . . . He could turn out to have hunted successfully in the wrong forest. Seriously, in medieval times poaching in some prince's hunting ground was a really bad idea.

Re: The cranky thread So does being sick.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings Could anything be worse than watching a desperate sales rep having a run of bad luck? Especially when my fate is linked to his?

Re: A Thread for Random Musings If anyone is looking for a job in southern Michigan, apparently there are quite a few to be had: http://webkit.dailykos.com/stories/2011/2/11/942749/-.html

Re: Space fightercraft in RPGs. Relevant link: http://josephshoer.com/blog/2009/12/thoughts-on-space-battles/

Re: Barring weaponry, what's in a slightly futuristic [30+ years] APC? Doesn't everyone?