SSgt Baloo

Re: First Contact Could Be Tomorrow! I suspect that they're talking about catastrophic damage to the Earth and its environments. I suspect that any object that size (smaller but certainly more massive than an F-4 fighter plane) would be pretty catastrophic if you were standing at the point of impact. A mile or so away? Not so much.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Inside Cocaine Submarines and Ancient Voices / Modern World: Australia.

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares ...and here's rather lopsided college score: MIT: π, California Polytechnic √∞

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares

Re: How can you make the stone age cool? I'm not seeing it.

Re: A Thread for Random Videos Robert Wuhl Assume the Position

Re: A Thread for Random Videos Walt Disney Cartoon - Hitler's Children Education For Death

Re: Waking up with not-so-super powers You know how some mornings you need "just five more minutes"? How about the ability to stop time solely for the purpose of taking a refreshing nap? Now that's a power I can get behind!

Re: A couple of brain cells connected... The Koreans were pretty inventive. Witness the Turtle Ship, possibly the first ironclad vessel.

Re: A couple of brain cells connected... Yeah, but those are just SFX. Game mechanics may differ.

Re: Firearms in fantasy? That cossack is a great find. Repped. ISTR that the earliest bayonets were essentially big knives with handles that could be jammed into the end of one's musket barrel, turning it into a makeshift pike. Swords as backup weapons makes sense, both militarily and otherwise, as hunters/soldiers without the luxury of reloading before the boar/enemy soldier charges will have to use something lethal very quickly if they want to remain alive and unharmed. If you rule that firearms are "armor-piercing" (however you define it) against normal armor, it should also be armor piercing against normal animals with "natural armor". Dragons and the like might be exempt, so you might want to reconsider sending the musketeers without a lot of extra soldiers, some sort of anti-dragon magic, or a(n extremely) clever plan.

Re: How can you make the stone age cool? Other useful links: Control of fire by early humans Stone tools Copper Age The History and Primitive Technology Page If anyone can find more useful links, please post 'em!

Re: How can you make the stone age cool? Homo floresiensis Trolls? Dunno what hominid is implied, however. Same for the dwarf-equivalents. Elves? Of Rivendell? Again, I dunno which hominid would serve (or I suppose we can invent ones that never existed). Now Piltdown man was just a hoax, but I suppose if we're inventing other hominids it could fly. Baptist University of the Americas? Easy! That's Li'l Abner's family name. No Clue, although I found a link to an Eastern European botanist with that name. Men made of this dirt-derived pigment?

Re: A couple of brain cells connected...

Re: Strangest Perk you've seen? Perk: everybody just assumes he's someone else's guest. Evil cult member: "I don't remember seeing you before. Did Ed recuit you?" You: "Er... yes. Yes he did."

Re: Balls of Steel You wanted that special effect just so you could use that name, didn't you? I'd probably do it as a physical energy blast with recoverable charges. How many similar objects is he likely to be finding laying on the ground. Besides, a properly-thrown spheroid is balanced and aerodynamic.

Re: Firearms in fantasy?

Re: How can you make the stone age cool? I think we've pinned down the origin of the confidence man/used car salesman. I gotta spread rep before I can get you, though.

Re: Firearms in fantasy?

Re: Firearms in fantasy? Excerpted from something I posted in another thread: In general, there are three methods of ignition prior to the invention of percussion ignition: You light the powder charge with a smoldering wick (matchlock). You light the powder charge with a mechanism that has to be wound with a key and strikes sparks from a mineral (iron pyrite) when the striker wheel turns (wheellock). You light the powder charge with sparks struck from a flint against a rough surface (flintlock or similar mechanism). For most people, that's all the complexity they need (at least when creating firearms for a fantasy campaign). Of course, magical "gunpowder substitutes" might have different means of actuation. Maybe there's a small speaker-tube on the weapon so the shooter's voice can give the command for the powder to do it's thing. Maybe a different chemical is introduced to the charge to set it off. Perhaps no powder is involved, but bullets are magically empowered to fling themselves from the confines of the weapon's barrel under the right circumstances. Maybe a tiny (but very, very tough) imp sits in the breech of the barrel with a box of even tinier matches and lights the powder charge when commanded to? Relevant wikipedia links: Fire Lance Early Thermal Weapons Gunpowder Warfare Greek Fire Grenade The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch

Re: Super Zeroes Pigeon-Man: Villain. Has the powers and abilities of a pigeon (magnetic navigation, ability to fly at 30 mph, etc). Wanted for cr@pping on people's cars. Captain Canine: has all the abilities of a dog. Including the ability to scratch behind his ears with his foot.

Re: Waking up with not-so-super powers Whatever floats yer boat. The ability to command animals. Not to attack, but to do other things like "Don't bite me." or "Help me find food" or "Help me find other people."

Re: "Neat" Pictures Spoilered because it's kind of freaky. I've always been intrigued by how the human mind fills in the blanks, often improperly. It isn't really moving, is it? It's floating! Concentric circles?

Re: A Thread for Random Videos

Re: "Neat" Pictures Two-Dollar Jacket Washing Machine/Toilet Combo Saves Water 8,923 MPG!!! Cool Sleep Mask Relax, it's just a painting.