Zombieneighbours's page

Okay, so for her birthday, i am about to give my other half a bottle of two year old slow Gin I made with her. Its label will have upon it the following

image

The text and images contain a coded message. I would appreciate it if you would have a go at cracking it, just so that I can be sure that it is possible to solve.

Hi guys.

I thought you might be interest in this.

I have started up a Podcast called Geeksourcing, to spot lighting cool Kick starter initiative such as Mobile Frame Zero: Rapid Attack and The Monolith from beyond Space and Time plus The God that Crawls.

We already have interviews with both of the above mentioned projects, and hope to have a bunch more in for you in short order.

We should as of next week also start to bring you computer game, music, film and comic projects, for you other varieties of geekery.

The waters of the river Reik swirl and churn in great eddies around the bough of the ‘Harlot of Mordenheim’. The forces of wind and river battle one another, across the barge’s rotten hull, drawing out groans from the wood. The damp of the river has permeated ship, crew, and cargo. A cargo of men and woman crammed into the hold, so tightly they can scarcely move. They clutch at a few possession like seamen holding to the mast of their shattered ship. To the aft, two of the passengers, a married couple, lay covered with furs, breathing in wet, ragged gasps, occasionally coughing up phlegm and blood. There is a clear space around them, where other passengers will not sit, even the couple’s own daughter does not approach them, leaving them to what is likely to be a slow death.

On shore, lights blaze in the hundred taverns, brothels and pot shops of Nuln’s wharfs. The twinkling luminescence guiding the barge in to the land, like a wreckers fire. The crew can be heard, hard at work on the deck above, though they keep quiet as they guide the harlot towards her birth.

The doors of the nearest of the wharf pub burst open, and muffled shouts followed by the crack drift out across the water. Moments later, a loud splosh echos out to the barge.

All the PCs are currently in the cargo hold. You have been on the river for days. You are cold, wet, tired, and very likely hungry too. There is also a good chance fear dwells in your heart too, thanks to the outbreak of river cough. You are in Nuln hoping to find employment. The eastern empire is suffering both a recession and significant hardships thanks to several locally bad winters, which has led you to seek pastures new.

This is the discussion thread for The Enemy Within and other tales of mud, blood and mutation.

Here you will find character creation guidelines, links media such as hand outs and music, as well as all sort of discussion about the campaign. enjoy, and please use responsibly.

"And at the appointed time we shall rise from our secret
places and throw down the towns and cities of The Empire.
Our brethren shall pour forth from the forests to slay
and burn. Chaos will cover the land and we, the chosen
servants, shall be exalted in HIS eyes

Hail to Tzeentch, Changer of the Ways
- Njawrrthakh 'Lzimbarr Tzeentch."

Excerpt from The Book of transmutation

Welcome to the recruitment thread for my run through of The Enemy Within campaign.

One of the greatest campaigns of all time(it is so good that even the french like it! Casus Belli Magazine having voted it the best campaign ever). The Enemy Within is a richly written and entertaining journey across the Old World setting of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. It mixes dark humour, horror, intrigue, investigation and bloody combat to produce a story that has something for every one.

Originally written for the first edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and in a setting that has changed a great deal over the years, I will be running a version convert for second edition and with some updated setting elements. I have also included a number of excellent first and second edition adventures to muddy the waters, and to provide interesting red hearing and side treks. However, the spirit of the original is alive and kicking.

A word about books:
While it will not be necessary to own any of the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay books to take part, I would advise getting at least a PDF of the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition Core Rulebook.

I also heartily recommend Sigmar's Heirs, if you wish to learn a little more about The Empire.

Sign Up
Sign up in this thread if your interested in playing.

Christopher Hitchens dies aged 62.

I hope you will all all join me in raising a glass(preferably johnny walker black label), to one of the great jounralists and writers of our time.

To Hitch.

So I got my first look inside "the magic of reality" written by Richard Dawkins and illustrated by Dave McKean.

It is one of the most beautiful books I have seen in ages, and the little snatches I read tickled me pink.

Has anyone actually gotten a copy yet? What did you think? Are you getting a copy for a young family member? I am giving serious thought to get it for my Nephew, though I might look after it for him. Not quiet one is about the right age to start explaining how the sun works, and why their are earthquakes, and where matter came from, right?

I've been thinking about this a bit recently, and I thought I would get your opinions on it.

What do you think makes for a good adventure in Pathfinder?

Please don't just say "stop playing with him" or call him names. Despite his flaws, he is a friend, and I have no desire to see him slagged off. Constructive advice on how to improve the situation only please.

We are about to dive into exalted again. I love exalted, more than most games combined, only mage, wraith and call of cthulhu sit higher on the totem pole for me.

However the guy we have Storytelling, who always seems to story tell our exalted games, cannot/will not hold back from spoilers.

We have just played through much of Carrion Crown, and at every step of the way, we have had spoilers heaped on us from on high.

Now we are going to be digging into return of the scarlet empress for exalted, and one member of our group as already revieved over an hours worth of spoiler.

What can we do to stop this?

Okay, I am working on an idea for Lantern Lodge pathfinder based on Edo period blind minstrel, called Goze.

Does any one have any advice on how to make a bard/Oracle mystic Theurge work well.

Additionally, it would be very cool if you could suggest a way to make using a spear effective with such a character.

It is one of the oldest and most played call of cthulhu investigations going. The haunting, has been around for close to as long than I have been alive, and this afternoon I ran it for the second time ever, as part of my newly started Tatters of the King campaign.

I am running it, but with slight change of setting(London 1922) and premise (Checking out a friends newly inherited property, after he heard some rum rumours about the place)

It's a really cool little scenario.

The very best moment of the night for me moment was when Gilbert Colegrove and Ruth Bradstock (who have been long term romantic partners), arranged to meet early at Corbitt's house early, believing the whole haunting thing to be a lot of old piffle, and started to have a 'picnic' in corbitts former bedroom, without the slightest hint of guidance from me.

Midway through their "activities", it seemed only right to conform with the rules of the great british summertime. If their is a picnic, it must rain. Nothing like a three large heavy drops of blood to change the mood, I always say.

Oh, and I drew one of the PCs to the window with the scratching noice.

Bet session in a long time.

So, developments in the social sciences over the last few years provide a fairly solid theoretical frame work for understanding the causes of the London riots.

Individuals and groups of individuals stealing high value goods for personal use, or resale. These individuals largely coming from the poorest segments of society. It fits the model of engaging in criminality to release pressure of stress caused by social evaluative threat. It was an activity undertaken largely by those most likely to be effected by social evaluative threat related stress, at a time of record income inequality between the richest and poorest in society.

But, according to David Cameron biological/economic drivers are not to blame. Rather he sees it as an issue of a break down in morals.

"The greed and thuggery we saw during the riots did not come out of nowhere, there are deep problems in our society that have been growing for a long time: a decline in responsibility, a rise in selfishness, a growing sense that individual rights come before anything else."

Other conservative politicians have laughed of the idea that the behaviour of the rioters might be caused by the rioters economic circumstance. (As a side note Cameron has suggested a shopping list of changes to the law that any dictator would be happy to have...curfew powers, bans on masks and hoods, powers to block social media )

Cameron and his cronies offer no cogent explanation for the cause of this break down, or for why the break down led to riots

Yet...

Those few attempts to seriously talk to those involved with rioting list economic pressures and social disenfranchisement as the reasons for their behaviour. Or as one rioter put it, when challenged that rioting was unacceptable, "You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you?"

Such concerns are also rife in the media being generated by young people in london.

So Mr Cameron, why should I believe you when the evidence controdicts your, and your hypothesis provides no causative link between cause and effect and agree to give up my Guy Fawkes mask, and twitter account?

Or should I go with the well formed theory, which describes cause and effect, and is supported by evidence, and defend my self from your authoritarian wish list, especially when fighting to improve levels of income equality, should also improve many of the issues of broken homes and the like, that you consider to be to blame.

Okay, we have just completed trail of the beast with a three person team. Evoker, sword and board fighter and gunslinger.

Following the advice of NPCs and OOC advice from our DM, we wimped out and took advantage of

However, both I and the fighter where curious, so we also kept track of the combat. The result would have been the same either way.

After such a build up, it feels a little anticlimactic that we took it down in tree rounds. There are a few possible explinations. We are a level higher than expected thanks to being short a party member, and we are built with 25 points rather than 15. The DM is also not hugely experienced and might be that he wasn't playing the BBEG well.

However, I can't help feel that it wasn't really that tough. What where your experiences fighting this thing, or running it.

Brooks is gone.
Gotcha!!!

So, we all get that faux news doesn't really get reality right?

Well it seems that Bill O rly, has taken another step of the deep end into utter stupidity, asking on air "F~@#in' Tides, how do they work?" (warning)

My dad often tells a story of how, when I was 5, he was reading to me in the bath. Being unable to read, there was nothing I loved more than being read too. It almost didn't matter what it was that was being read. On this occasion, my father was reading me the newspaper, and had read ahead and found an article about bemoaning the state of science education in this country, which said a sizeable minority of 12 year old couldn't explain why their is a night and a day, why their are tides and why their are seasons.

My father asked me if I knew these things, and sure enough, stark b@@&!%&s naked, I stand up and in my incredibly posh and precocious little voice declare "daddy, imagine this bar of soup is the earth and the light bulb is the sun..."

What followed was a accurate, if somewhat basic description of the cause of each of the phenomena listed.

What does it say about O rly that he does not really grasp a concept that very young children can learn by nothing more than watching the odd science documentary.

Even after gravitation effects on water have been explained to him, rather than saying, damn, sorry guys it was stupid, he says "F~@#in' Cosmology, how does that work?"

It is utterly hilarious that a faux news considers this guy fit to be a news achor, even by faux's low standards.

Oh, and O rly, Mars has two moons; Phobos and Deimos.

Venus probably lost its moon because of a destabilisation of their orbit, which caused venus' moon to impact into Venus, much like phobos is currently in the process of doing with mars.

I wonder if anyone is actually going to try to defend him on this ;)

News international is getting rid of the news of the world, as a result of this weeks events.

To say that I am excited about the Skull and shackles AP would be an understatement. The prospect of swashbuckling heroism, tempestuous sea witches, evil Sahuagin, weird spirit ridden shaman, and terrible ghost ships.

But...I'm scared.

I think that the unpleasantness and moral ambiguity which should go hand in with such an AP is being pushed out of the concept. As such I want ask that you resist making the PCs the Good guys in this AP.

Without doubt they should be the heroes of the story. They should achieve great things, perhapes save the shackles( maybe even the world) from something terrible(chellish invasion or extra dimensional horrors or whatever). They should undertake acts of bravery, daring do, and passion, writing their story large upon the world.

But they don't need to be nice people to do such things. Or if they are, their is nothing that says they should find staying nice an easy thing.

We have a host of APs about being the Good guys, or atleast the neutral guys, lets have this AP be drowned in rum, sex, violence and wealth beyond the dreams of averice. Let it have freedom for the self at the expence of others, and freedom for others at the expense of the self. Let it be hard to be good, and rewarding to be bad. Let it be possible to be a murdering raider and a good husband. Let it be possible to be a mutiner and a man of principle, a slaver and a hero of you people.

Let this be the AP it should be, and don't let the draw of the safe suck the life out of it.

Okay, I am starting to feel like the only person who likes a wide range of themes to their fantasy.

Sure I prefer pirates to ye heroic do gooder knight, but if we got a 'your a lucky farm hand, who save the world from an evil dragon' AP I wouldn't be on the boards saying "meh", rather I'd be looking for ways to get my headspace into it.

For from kingmaker to skull and shackles, we have seen people just saying it isn't their thing.
Yet, I don't think I have seen anyone actually explain why they don't like them.

If you don't like a specific theme, I.d love to know why. Why is it that you think everything is better with pirates, but that ninja can go dunk their heads? Or what ever combo applies to you? If you only like standard fair, what the.hell is it, and why do you like it, but not other things.

You beautiful, beautiful gits.

Thank you so much. That bestiary entry is the most awesome list of monsters in the last six months. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

PS. First.

PPS.
Ia. Ia. Fhtagn. Shub-niggurath, black goat of the woods with a thousand young.

Can anyone offer suggestions on the swords, daggers, and other weapons of renaissance, and their use.

Joshua Abraham Norton, I dismiss your belief that you were his Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I, emperor of the united states.

Flat earth society, I dismiss your belief that the earth is flat.

Citizens of the UK, I laugh at your percistant belief that this time around, England is going to win the work cup.

People who belief that it is aironamicially impossible for a be to fly, I dismiss your belief and point to the evidence and theory which point to the fact that they not only can, but that they do and do so by naturalistic means.

Okay so it is NSFW, but excellent and very funny.

Andrew Lansley Rap.

Are any of the sections of "The Haunting of
Harrowstone" player safe. I am meant to be playing it. I just bought the book for my collection however, and would like to know if there is any of it I am safe to read.

A New job means that I will be moving to London. Hopefully I will be in london for a while and as such, it would be awesome if I could find a gaming group in the capital.

Any advice?

Okay, so the bog striders are not my cup of tea. Does anyone have any suggestions for replacements?

The Announcement

Vampire is the definitive game of the 90's, encapsulating the Zeitgeist of the late eighties and mid nineties in a way no other game ever managed.It is also one of the great games of all times. And now, for the first time in close to a decade it will see a new release, in the form of the 20th anniversary edition.

To say I am excited by this prospect is a massive understatement, I hope you'll all join me is a massive cheer of celebration.

Well, there goes the bloody country. Jeremy C...I mean Hunt, has given the green light to the long on the books take over of BSkyB by Newscorp.

So much for media plurality.

Hey all. I am looking for some new stuff to read, and I was hoping you could make some suggestions.

My tastes run along the lines of sandman, transmetropolitan, the invisibles, preacher, hellblazer, global frequency and DMZ.

I just came across L.A. Noire, and form what I have seen so far, I am in love.

It looks awesome!

This thread is a responce to something Andrew R posted here.

Okay, to start with a disclaimer:

I am head over heels in love with the premise of this class. I want it to work out well more than any class that Paizo has released so far.

That all said there are some issues that stand out to me as problematic.

Firearms rules: While I think the firearms rules, including ammunition prices make a sort of sense for firearms when used by individuals other than gunslingers, they start to break down when you have a character who is dependant on them. Obviously, these rules are not changing so perhapes adding abilities that let the gunslinger break some of the rules.

Any gun slinger is going to burn through their wealth in no time. As such might I suggest that Grit be altered to allow gunslingers to shoot more often, without completely negating ammunition. So long as the gunslinger has atleast one point of grit, he doesn't expend powder or bullets when using his firearms.

This way he can shoot round after round, but if he runs out of grit, he starts using up ammo quickly and at great cost.

Damage and reload speed
While I don't think this is as bad as some of the optimisers are making out, there is an issue. Guns give up a lot, and while the ranged touch attack is awesome and does help, composite long bows are still cheaper and better. Again, the rules for firearms are already settled, so I would suggest a class feature that allowed the gunslinger to add damage to each attack equal to his current grit points. This means in general that he will start of hitting hard, but slowly loose strength as the day goes on.

Additionally feats that allow faster reloads and or, weapons with highter rate(or two barrels for manyshot) will almost certainly be needed later on.

I work in sheltered housing, specifically for vulnerable elders, thought we do have some residents in late middle age.

It is a weird job. Almost to easy for words, and allowing me vast amounts of free time for other things. But it has a down side. We have residents who are in their final years.

This sometime last night or this morning, one of our residents had a fall. I was the one who found him.

Already very ill thanks to a combinations of compromised immune system and the side effects of the cocktail of anti retro-virals and other drugs, he died in the early afternoon.

As a result, I am not exactly doing so well, with irrational fear of HIV infection(despite no contact with the residents blood), and a heady mix of guilt(that I couldn't do more) and grief. Those of you who have gone through bereavement or who work in the care professions, I could really do with advice on how to stop my mind working away at this.

If any one has the cost and stats of a rifle to hand, i would be very greatful to know them.

I don't have my copy to hand so can't check for myself.

What is the name of the scar that jaggare didn't get during his university days.

So, carrion crown is comming, and i have had wonderful news, I get to play it, rather than run it. While it is still a little way of I am giving what character I would like to play some thought.

My current line of thought is pushing me towards an inquisitor of pharasma with the repose domain and a rifle, who is largely inspired by the protagonists of dracula, especially Quincey Morris and dr. van helsing.

All that is real set at the moment is that the character will be taking heirloom weapon to get access to a rifle.

So what feats do you guys think will support a Rifle wielding undead hunting inquisitor of pharasma?

Okay, I've been looking at the cauldron Hex all morning and I am getting my self in a real twist.

Cauldron (Ex): The witch receives Brew Potion as a bonus feat and a +4 insight bonus on Craft (alchemy) skill checks.

Am I right in thinking that that a character must qualify for the Brew potion feat, before they can take Cauldron, because the text ", even if he does not meet the prerequisites" is not included.

Am I right? Or have I missed something, and my dreams of potion creation are within my grasp.

4e has completely fallen of the radar for me. I sort of knew essentials was coming, and i heard about the red box light two week before release(i think) and generally have decided that I wasn't likely to be dealing with 4e any time soon.

Now some of Saturday my gaming group, who played 4e once, for three(?, maybe only two,i struggle to remember) sessions, are talking about doing 4e again. And worse still, they are talking about using essentials....so please, let me know, what is the deal with essentials?

I don't play MMO's anymore. WoW has lost its appeal and for the most part the rest are dull.

But two months ago, a game arrived that made me want to play online again. That game was All Points Bulletin. It was a game of cops and robbers, fighting it out in the living city of San Paro.

You played either an enforcer, one of the legalised vigilantes of San Paro, or one of the criminals, who blended Anti-corperate activists and street gangs in a destinctly cyber-punk manner.

Game play was a little like a cross between online first person shooter and grand theift auto, and while there where issues, it was a lot of fun.

Now the truely stand out feature was the character customistation. From face and body type, applications of scars, makeup and clothing, the game allowed unparelled avatar custimisation...and that is where character custimation began. Once in game you could design and apply tattoos, customise your cloths in minute detail, and do exactly the same with your cars.I knew before i even got the game that i would be able to spend weeks just playing with the customisation, let alone with the rest of the game.

And yet, my computer didn't run it. Well i had a new job, and some free cash, so, i saved and i bought a new PC specially for this game.

A few days later, my other half bought me the game as a treat.

I got two and a half days play.

Real time worlds the company that made the game wen't bust, and the administrators have not been able to sell the game as a going concern. So the game has be scrapped three month after launch.

But for those two and a half days, it was the most gratifying online gaming experience i have ever had. I managed to get video of my character, but had to go do IRL stuff. It is my hope that the server will still be up when i get home from work, so i can get a last blast, but i double it will be.

So, good bye APB, I will miss you.

LoLz, all ur spellz r belong to us. Make nu 1z like Expeditious Retweet, or be called Noobz!!!1!!!

Sandman maybe?.

If this does happen, it could be truly amazing, but we'll see.

Anyway, here is who I would have play each of the endless.

Dream - an endless stream of unknowns seen through a filter similar to that applied to the characters in 'a scanner darkly'(2006) but consistantly voiced by idris elba(god I love his voice.)

Death - again no one actress can hope to play death. I would have a stable of 10 young and interesting looking unknowns who despite being of different races, roughly look like deaths depiction. I would change the actress used with each change of shot, though her costume would remain consistent. Death would be voiced by Tilda Swinton.

Desire - played by Noomi Rapace(Lisbeth Salander from the girl with the dragon tattoo ), but with a male voice actor(not sure who yet) doing desires voice. Noomi Rapace is pretty flat chested, but she'd still probably need to have her chest bound for it.

Dispair - Dispair never worked for me in visual form. I think I would use a child actress, bedraggle and made up to look beaten. I would use that actresses voice, layered with dame judi dench's

Destruction - sean pertwee....just sean pertwee.

Destiny - A very tall unknown, heavily robed so we never see him. voiced by Terence Stamp.

Delirium - Ellen Paige, but with a filter that makes her look animated, with everything she says swirling around her in animated visual aura of crazyness.

This video is a summing up of the evidence and arguments which are put forwards in 'The Spirit Level: Why Equality is better for everyone'

Talk - Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett - Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger.

It is damned interesting stuff, and I hope you'll all find it as invigerating as I am finding it

I just listened to the future of Paizo seminar.

I just wanted to say that I personally really would love the idea of a player companion either each of the classes, or for small groups of classes.

Also, I would soooooo be up for a Gnolls of golarion, in the style of goblins of golarion book :D

Okay, simple question.

The Free Action attack augmentation tricks open to the skirmisher alternate ranger, can a player use more than one on an attack.

I have just gotten the book, and am pretty tired, so i am not entirely trusting my eyes when i can't see any restriction on this, other that the tricks per day.

I couldn't be more happy about this news.

Given that the first one was really awesome, i can't wait to see what happens with this.

Hopefully we will see a better, more punkie and Aleph-like Aleph, and i wouldn't say no to a different choice for Miranda Zero either, but hopefully we will see a show which does justice to Warren Ellis's best work to date :D

Not sure this is the right place but...

I've been noticing something...something almost unthinkable...there does not seem to be a big release in preparation for gencon. Sure we have the start of a new A.P. but thats old news now in a way. The either side of gencon, we see three large releases, but nothing for august bank holiday weekend. Does this only seem strange to me? Have I missed something? What is going on?

So, we are getting fairly close to storm the charts here in the UK, and i am getting very excited about it.

For those of you who haven't heard about it, the aim is simple. To change for a week the entire make up of the chart. Back at christmas, after years of x-factor domination of the christmas charts, and internet campaign got rage against the machine's killing in the name of, to number one in place of the x-factor winner. It was a wonderful moment for a great many music lover in the uk, as it gave a very definate fingers up to the x-factor. Beyond snubbing our nose at the x-factor however it was a limited action, rage are after all a big label band, who have gotten to number one with that song before.

But it did act as proof of concept. Internet only sales can get to number one and organised purchase can shape the face of the charts.

And that brings us to storm the charts. The aim, fill the UKtop 40 from top to bottom with unsigned and small label acts. These artists come from across a broad spectrum of styles.

The music that gets radio play is such a small portion of what is out there, and yet, for many people the radio is their musical horizon. For one week, we aim to broaden that horizon. I hope those of you who are brits will listen to the music on the storm the charts list, and for the week ending the 4th of july will join us, by purchasing any of the tunes you like. And i hope the rest of you can find insperation and try something similar in your respective countries.

computer Virus infects human.

A suprisingly awesome turn of events.

Obviously, he has not in fact been infected, but his cybernetic implant has :D