yellowdingo's page

Sociological: Keeping Women happy

Civilization is about that moment when some Sociological or Technological Development propells us forward. If you spot a you tube video with an example post a link here.

Technological: Milking the First Cow

Do what Mr. Fishy did stop having birthday's...They come for you near the end and take you to the....Death Star.

I've been ignoring birthdays since I turned 20...now I just count decades.

PS - I always wanted Darth Vader to win...until he turned into a whiny petulant child.

WHAT! Shoot them, the crime rate will drop or the population will, win win.

Air Breather Genocide stage one near completion.

This is Why I support Deportation for Life to Antartica for all you fringe dwelling serial killers...you know who you are.

Scary stuff. I've heard estimates from 1% to 5% of population. What's the current world population? How many psychopaths does that give us? Yeah.

And once bereft of authority and the right to live amongst the rest of you they migrate into the fringe raising the serial killer populations outside cities to 50%.

I think not having public insane asylums might have something to do with it as well where they do not lock people up for life anymore.

We can only do that if you are guilty of Treason...and shoot you only if you resist arrest under charge of treason.

In what can only be described as a very scary and disturbing way, I sympathize with YD on this one. I'm not 40 yet (next May), but today I was driving past Villanova and realized that I was in college before the latest batch of freshmen were even born.

And we will go away realizing that they will be half as good.

Bad news...the morning you turn 40 you wake up with a neck pain and the tast of peanut butter in your mouth. Must be an ulcer.

Callous Jack wrote:

Sieglord wrote:

Why...specifically... were you expecting to be dead?

The aliens were coming to take his brain.

They left empty handed.

Had my midlife crisis at twenty ergo 2 x 20 = 40.

And they only left empty handed because I told them where they could find your brain...

Kinda makes you wish whoring was a Perform skill, doesn't it?

Maybe it has synergy with Prostitution check?

1 rank= street corner

4 ranks= high class call girl

8 ranks= Imperial court.

of course, this gets into the whole problem where you can't get more ranks without increasing in level, so that high class hooker with the fan has more hit points, fire power, and ass kicking ability than a 1st level fighter in full plate...

Damn right she does...

Tomorrow (9-Sept) I turn 40. I was expecting to be dead by now. Sure That whole people die eventually crap is a scam to draw your attention from the fact they are exposing you to a singularity to off you...but still I was really invested in the Lies that prop up our 'civilization'.

yellowdingo wrote:

How far back do you want to go for Keep on the Borderlands? D&D Rules Cyclopedia?

I'm honestly not fussed. I've no idea what modules belong to what edition, and the lines between the editions themselves are pretty blurry. I'm in dire need of a history lesson, by the sounds of things.

Well back around 1980 D&D diverged into AD&D and BECMI/Rules Cyclopedia D&D. This results in the Gygax AD&D version and the Mentzer D&D boxed sets.

The Mentzer version of the Game System is greatly reduced in complexity.

THACO (To Hit Armor Class Zero)
AC (natural 9) reduced by armor types, and dexterity bonuses...
Leather Armour (AC7), Chainmail (AC5) ,Plate Mail (AC3)...
HP (HD per level: d4 - Thief, Halfling, Wizard; d6 - Elf, Cleric; d8 - Fighter, Dwarf, and Monster Hit Dice)

ML (Morale is a measure against which 2d6 are rolled to test if the Monster/NPC breaks and runs from combat)

My group are avid 3.5 and Pathfinder players, and we keep crawling back to the system.

That said, a good friend of mine has some old D&D books, what I believe are the old 2E Players Handbook, a Monster Manual and FR setting, a module or two and possibly the GM guide.

Now, I've tried to thumb through the books and throw together a character and have just found them absolutely impenetrable. I'd love to run one of the classic modules such as ToEE, Against the Giants or Keep on the Borderlands, but have no idea how to get a grip on the system.

What would you reccomend for a whippersnapper like me trying to get abreast of the old system? How does it compare to Pathfinder? What about running a game with it? What are some of the pitfalls a brand new group should avoid? How compatible are the different editions? What's the simplest iteration of the rules I could run with? ... and lastly are their any online resources I could use?

I've plenty of questions, but we'll see where this thread takes me, as I'm not even certain I've posted this in the right place. :P

How far back do you want to go for Keep on the Borderlands? D&D Rules Cyclopedia?

Straw Man wrote:

So, um, hello.

There goes that theory. I gotta stop believing every soothsayer I hear. At least one of them is wrong.

They were right at the time...possibility manipulation by BBEGs resulted in changes to the outcome.

Why is it that threads with an OP that is flagrantly silly and aggressive are more likely to spur polite conversation than do OPs that are coherent and polite?

The friendly guy is trying to lul you into a false sense of security?

3d6 ability..............spread................%
3........................1/216.................0.46
4........................3/216.................1.38
5........................6/216.................2.77
6........................10/216................4.63
7........................15/216................6.94
8........................21/216................9.72
9........................25/216................11.57
10.......................27/216................12.5
11.......................27/216................12.5
12.......................25/216................11.57
13.......................21/216................9.72
14.......................15/216................6.94
15.......................10/216................4.63
16.......................6/216.................2.77
17.......................3/216.................1.38
18.......................1/216.................0.46

As a few of you probably know, I live in Darwin (in the Northern Territory of Terra Australis). Yesterday I hear that they had two attempted child abductions and some guy stole his neighbours dog and took his child out bush and killed the dog in front of him.

WTF is wrong with people?

I was taught to put a bullet through an eye from half a mile when I was 16. I can damn well see why my father chose to teach me how to kill if this is the sort of behaviour that is going to start happening. Its like we have had an upsurge of 'animals' that need to be put down.

yellowdingo wrote:

Are you seriously suggesting that Wizards be once again restricted to the use of the Dagger alone? My NPC Wizard uses ninja stars and blowguns with a Ninja Cultural Template. What will he do? Class them as a thrown object like a rock?

You're right. Wizards should be forced to memorize their spells, then scribe them on scrolls, then use each scroll to Craft Paper Airplane, and throw it at the target.

In close combat, he can use a paper scroll to do 2d6-12 dmg paper cuts. Just beware his arch nemesis, a cranky housecat.

I was going to go with Wizard uses wish to create moon sized roll of sticktape so that when the tape is pulled from the roll - x-rays are unleashed bathing the planet in a life killing energy burst but what ever...

Avatar - The Last Airbender series may be the great Scifi we were looking for

You realize that the world of Avatar the Last Airbender is unusual the instant the 'inuit' girl of the Southern Water Tribe named Katara shatters an iceberg with her anger at having to wash her brother's dirty laundry. It soon becomes apparent that while she is she is no anomaly with the emergence of Aang and his 'bison' from the ice and the arrival of Zuko and his ship from the fire nation.
Between these three factions we realize that Telekinesis covers what they can do.

The Haves
The 'Benders' we learn over the course of the series are broken up into four 'elemental' manipulating factions - water, earth, fire, and air - though there are unusual groups like the sand benders (who could be earth or air benders) who seem to be borderline in their talents. Passing through each of these groups is one individual. They have their own creation myths: the earth benders learned from the badgermoles, the water benders from the push and pull of the tides and the moon, and the fire benders from the Sun.
These Benders are the ruling caste for pretty much every society except the Southern Water Tribe which has been thoroughly depopulated of its Water benders.

The Avatar
While there have always been 'benders' - the most powerful is a single entity who is reborn in a cycle taking him or her through the cycle of Air, Water, Earth, Fire for longer than anyone would care to specify. This lineage seems to go back to the beginings of this world to a point when the benders were energy benders. Its obvious that the power is 'genetic' and the Lineage of the Avatar is the source of every bender - despite their creation myths. Genetically the Avatar is the parent of all these benders - The majority of Avatars having families over the many thousands of years.

The Have Nots
Not every one had the bending ability. Katara's brother Sokka doesnt. Though this may be either through loss of the southern water tribe benders able to teach them as children, because Sokka's Chakkra's are blocked - Fear being a psycological padlock on the mind (likely a result of the death of his mother during hish childhood), or genetic chance. In a world ruled by benders the have nots are considered permanently disadvantaged peasants by those who have the power.
There are non-benders who dont see it that way:

The Chi Blockers have the ability to attack key points on the physical body of a bender and simply take their powers away and leave their bodies paralyzed.
The Kyoshi Warriors - women trained in martial arts by Avatar would be another warrior caste standing against the benders where possible.
In the end you percieve The Lineage to be at the centre of it all. A bloodline from which all telekinetics in this 'world' are descended.

How Technology rose and fell with the Tide
Watching the series you realize that bending has shut down technology. While the Fire nation seems the most advanced - making use of it in the hundred years war it has been running for the last century, this is an aberation. Technology is kept low and thus when it is available it is to the elite few. The childhood toys of the Avatar have amongst their collection what looks like a basis of a helicopter. Machines such as warships, dirigables, submarines, vehicles, and technologies such as siege engines and explosives are all available to those who will develop them but they exist at the whim of the Benders.
What we see is that technology seems to rise and fall with the emergence and fall of tyrants willing to make use of it or control it.

The Wildlife is a tidal wave of Genetic Aberations
The natural world is dominated by weird animals like a Gargantuan sentient Lion Turtle, Penguin-seals, Flying bison, Flying Lemur, Platapus Bears, Koala Otters, and livestock like Riding Birds, and food animals like Pig-Chickens, Sheep-Pigs, and Cow-pigs. So our world is one of genetic modification where an actual Bear named Bosco in the hands of the Earth King of Ba-Sing-Sei is exotic and a one-off.

The Geography is no longer like the Earth we know
The world is changed. The map tells us it is as big as Earth but the Geography is altered. Land exists at the North and South Pole. In a world where every Avatar had the ability to raise an island or sink or divide a continent with telekinetic power is it any wonder.

Religion: Where did God Go?
While Religion as we have known it fell by the wayside - the Avatar - despite the fact he is as human as the rest has access to a superconciousness state known as the Avatar State. This is as much a God like figure as anything. There are temples in each of these regions devoted to the Avatar - and the Priest class associated with these temples have struggled to build a religion in which they have power from the Avatar. The Avatar has a wife or husband and children seems to be the big muddy secret that is kept by the priests from even the ordinary benders. The Idea that there is a Lineage from which all benders are the descendants of the Avatars is a church secret.

A World of Ruins
There are ruins everywhere. Aang, Sokka, and Katara take shelter in a ruined citadel after Sokka falls ill - followed by Katara. In Book of Earth there is a library in the desert filled with as much knowledge as the Avatar Temples seem filled with Avatar generations. Appa the flying bison shelters in a rock shelter that is overgrown by centuries of forest during 'Appa's lost days'. Civilizations have risen and fallen and vanished.

A Scifi tale?
Yes. It has all the aspects of one. A world so far in the future it has changed. A World of Genetic Aberations, Telekinetics, built on the remains of our humanity.

As an additional means of controlling these out-of-control wizards, I propose that none of them understand the proper manner of wearing armor. In addition, they should only have skills with a few sub-par, rudimentary weapons. Say, no more than five or so. Coupled with a feeble hit die and all of the other adjustments above, that should rein them in quite well.

Now, having said that, I think we may have overdone things a bit. So let's throw them a bone. Every so often they should gain a bonus ability that reflects their increased understanding of magic. We'll start them off at first level with an ability to force magic into fragile parchment for later use. Then, let's say around the time they can finally comprehend dispel magic, we'll let them gain another ability of similar nature. To avoid going too far, they can only pick certain abilities, which are called 'feats', that continue in this trend. They can learn to place magic into other objects, or to modify their spells in limited ways. That's it. Hmm, let's also add the option to be able to prepare an extremely limited number of spells without that heavy tome they're forced to carry, but they've got to choose exactly which spells they can do this with, and it's got to be a small number. Say, equal to their ability score modifier?

Not quite right. Let them get to make that same choice again every, oh, five levels after that. Not too often, we don't want to have to go through this nerfing process again. How's that sound?

Are you seriously suggesting that Wizards be once again restricted to the use of the Dagger alone? My NPC Wizard uses ninja stars and blowguns with a Ninja Cultural Template. What will he do? Class them as a thrown object like a rock?

Ninja is also a culture centric class where as the rogue covers street urchins and beggars and pirates as well as pretty much any light infantry and scout from any culture.

Frankly they need to ditch the term Ninja...

yellowdingo wrote:

I just realized I have read modern scifi...

1980s: Bester's 'Stars my Destination'
1990s: I read the Battletech & Mechwarrior series (many were written by Stackpole) and various Starwars novels by Zahn.

Just curious if you have read any of Dan Abinet's WH 40K novels if you liked the Mechwarrior ones?

I really am surprised you don't like Gene Wolfe if you like Lovecraft.

Do you include any of the concepts in your D&D games?

Generate a Haunted Spaceship

The Spaceship
Where is the location of this encounter?

1D10.......Spaceship
1..........Spaceship (Adrift in space, the ocean, Or wrecked on the land)
2...........Steamship out of time (a big iron hulled steamship from the future or past).
3...........Isolated Village (one of those annoying points of light you seem to never find until it is too late).
4...........Abandoned City (This is like the village only really, really big).
5...........Engine of the Gods (a giant crushing wheel of Doom).
6...........Isolated Manor House (a Huge Manor out on a hill, lonely moors, etc.)
7...........Deep Mines (forgotten to the past by the current miners).
8...........The Fae Realm (The PCs are pulled into a new reality overlaying the regular one).
9...........Nautilus (Captain’ Nemo’s Submarine beneath the sea)
10..........The Graf Zeppelin (similar to the Nautilus but sails the sky)

The Haunter
In this case the remains of the crew are wandering the ship. This is pretty much the minion.

1D10.........Haunter

1............Zombies
2............Ghosts
3............Robots
4............Aliens – monsters that are truly different from the regular encounter
5............Mirror Reality PC’s
6............Doppelgangers
7............Wraith
8............Dimensionally displaced Crew
9............Parasitic Infestation
10...........Killer Plant

Krell Technology
An Alternate Reality Generator working off the Victim’s mind. This is the Source of the problem.

1D10...........Source

1..............Telepathic Brain in a Jar
2..............Professor in the Brain Booster 10000
3..............Alien Artefact of Awesome Irresponsibility
4..............Psi-capable Predator (also known as the PSIREN)
5..............Artificial intelligence – Literally a Machine Brain.
6..............Active Dimensional Distortion
7..............Elder Squid god (also known as the Despair Squid)
8..............Downloaded Consciousness
9..............Hallucinogenic Psychotropic Substance
10.............Networked Parasitic Nanotech

Example of a Haunted Spaceship
Spaceship-10 (Zeppelin)
Haunter-2 (Ghosts)
Krell Technology-10 (Networked Parasitic Nanotech)

The Aeria Gloris
The PCs encounter a Great Airship (The Aeria Gloris) travelling through the clouds. Once on board they begin to be attacked by ghosts as they search through the superstructure. Of course there are no ghosts as they are infected by a nano-machine network so they see a common reality (in this case we will call it ‘The Dreaming’-a psi-plague that pops up now and then).
There isn’t a cure – you just have to survive 24 hours of freaking out and live the rest of your life with a psi-connection.

What we need is an awesome adventure arc where a Dragon who likes to watch everyone using a crystal ball developes a fascination for a level 1 female PC and begins interacting with her...like having her arranged marriage assassinated...romance her by sending her the heads of her childhood enemies on a silver platter...with a plan to claim her as his fifteenth wife and spawn half dragon offspring.

I just realized I have read modern scifi...

1980s: Bester's 'Stars my Destination'
1990s: I read the Battletech & Mechwarrior series (many were written by Stackpole) and various Starwars novels by Zahn.

Leia called it. Han Solo really was a Nerf Herding piece of Bantha Fodder

yellowdingo wrote:

...1/218..................0.46

Shouldn't it be 6^3 = 216 or am I missing something?

dang it!

THE BELL CURVE AND POPULATION

Given that when this was created 8 intelligence meant you had trouble reading and writing. I think they made your stats comparable to your IQ - 18 Int being 180 IQ.

I dont see the problem with thinking that the population of any community will conform to the bell curve with regards to stats. about 20% have some minor dificulty with reading and writing, about 4% cant read or write at all and <1/2% are the equivelent of a smart animal.

As Elves required an intelligence minimum of 9 (assumedly they are knocked on the head or abandoned in the wild in their childhood if they dont) I have no problem putting their percentage of the population in the 9 Int or above category putting them in the upper social castes.

table to be posted when repaired

H.P. Lovecraft - At the mountains of madness was an interesting read though the conclusions that must be drawn about why the experiences of those in the tale are not real, but are a collective psychosis are going to put it firmly in the high IQ reader shelf.

Erle Cox - Out of the Silence is dated in its 1919 setting but has modern relevence. While the 'hero' is racist and the central tale being about racism - it is a consequence of the world he lives in and his experiences but also a warning about where we might wind up. It looks like his only book - being a journalist.

Odd that. Both are pre wwii works of fiction. I guess I'm a contrary.

I have life down as superpositional. Dimensions dont come into it.

where the old tower was held up by its shell, the new one will be held up by its central core. So that means it will be vulnerable at the base.

and from Anonymous:

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo."

"A rigged demo is sufficiently indistinguishable from an insufficient youtube video."-Me

yellowdingo wrote:

Is it wrong to include Scifi in your D&D?

No, and Fred Saberhagen, Stephen King, Gene Wolfe, and others encourage you to read some of their works to see examples.

But they suck. Got any who dont?

Because a bunch of people less smart than Eienstien said so

At superposition all life is the same life so my dog created D&D and owns Pathfinder...

I think that after they used up the Name: 'The Skyrealms of Journe' that all the cool ones were done.

Is it wrong to include Scifi in your D&D?

Kolokotroni wrote:

Lilivati wrote:

A friend of mine swears up and down he ran a Planescape campaign where the BBEG was a sandwich.

I remember in highschool, in one adventure we faced a giant pizza monster...

The calzone golem?

Go to your room!

Villain:

Ratiocinatrix

I stumbled across a fun technicality in another thread (about paladins of Asmodeus) that shows a flawed aspect of the alignment system's wording. So long as you do not "debase", "destroy", or "kill" an innocent... it is perfectly fine to corrupt them and not an evil act. By that same token, it is not good/evil to purify that corruption. it's a shame that I can't edit this into the original post now...

Wrong.

Debase (alt. abase, degrade, disgrace, dishonour, humble, humiliate, lower, reduce, shame, adulterate, contaminate, corrupt, defile, impair, pollute, taint): To lower in value.

yellowdingo wrote:

Fox really didnt commit to this series properly.

FYI My brother and i are concieving an Exoskeleton that can be locked into a certain position with motor cycle tyres and an electric motor and lithium electric battery pack making the wearer into his or her own motorcycle.

It will be frikin awesome if we get it to work.

You mean a Cyclone?

I wish - the prototype design is to be unarmoured. so it will lock in a shape where the front wheel locks into position near the hands - the rear wheel near the knees - if that is even achievable.

We will find out eventually. :)

Fox really didnt commit to this series properly.

FYI My brother and i are concieving an Exoskeleton that can be locked into a certain position with motor cycle tyres and an electric motor and lithium electric battery pack making the wearer into his or her own motorcycle.

It will be frikin awesome if we get it to work.

So I was just forced to watch the entire single season of the 1994 Scifi known as M.A.N.T.I.S.

Basically a Scientist is shot and paralyzed during a riot. The Pilot is heavy in the 'its a white conspiracy' idea as the Cop who shot him turns out to be a sockpuppet of nasty Corporation called BOXX. Oddly enough the African American Mayor and Chief of Police are also in on the conspiracy to increase the social problems in the Poor (mostly African American Suburbs) so its really a story about corruption and How Corporations have a hell of a lot of influence over local Government.

The pilot stars the ever awesome Gina Torres as the local CSI lady though she isnt in the Series that follows.

The Series itself is renegotiated twice from this initial. Its hard to do a story about rampant anti African American Racism when the series is being filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia and being subsidized by Canadian Film Grants.

It begins with a tale early on where the Hero is an old friend of a tinpot African Dictator whose nation is divided into tribes who hate the crap out of each other to the point of being the next Rowanda- somehow we are expected to think this is a good person (despite the fact she is of one particular faction who seems to have monstrous wealth and power despite the rival tribe's Objections and the Undemocratic inequality) and by comparison the Corrupt African Americans at in Port Columbia are bad.

It evolves into a crappy Post Modern tale of a Paraplegic Scientist who builds an Artificial nervous system wired Exoskeleton powered by brain impulse data from his Helmet. We get to see a slower development of the conspiracy dumped on us in the Pilot.

Halfway into the series it is promptly dumped in favour of an Alien infiltration story where other dimensional Men in Black begin an invasion mixed with time travel and monsters.

While the larger conspiracy plot was a really interesting core of the early series the best episodes were the last two-

'Ancestral Evil' in which we have a D&D Reference (a minor character says: 'A Druid? Like Dungeons and Dragons?').

The final episode with the Invisible Dinosaur where the Hero MANTIS and the very interesting Police Detective Lt. Maxwell perish in a fiery explosion in the Canadian North West. This ending sucks as a rushed termination of the series but the story up to that point is more like Fox's X-Files with the Heroes downed in a crash of their flyer in the mountains and the supporting stars hike the mountain in search of them only to run into the same 'invisible dinosaur' just defrosted out of the glacier.

While they cant really bring the series back with the existing stars, I can see this return with a new MANTIS who inherits the technology. Given the mutually lawless horrors of the 'War on Terror' that have occured over the last ten years I could see this as an opportunity for an African American Vet injured by some conflict in Afghanistan winding up in a 'obscure and privatly funded medical program' to develop an Exoskeleton for parapelegic troops back from the war - at least as a one off Movie.

So maybe oneday the M.A.N.T.I.S. will return.

Tom Baker Married Romana 2

In traditional D&D fantasy, good, evil, law or chaos are not philosophical concepts. They are forces that define the multiverse/existence, so they are objective rather than subjective definitions of character behavior.

In other words, in Pathfinder, killing is not evil and dexter's is not a good example I think.

For a player, alignment should be a guideline and I don't feel it's an overly important aspect of the game anyway.

Another one wo plays Paladins like Serial killers...

Gygax invented the Alignment system. Lawful Good is down as harmelss and law abiding: Which is why real Paladins Dont Take a a life under any condition and post 9-11 Paladins kill anyone who get in their way of the 'greater good' which is just code for 'didnt ask the majority their opinion or bother with a trial'.

73. What the hell is that thing?

Sordi watched as the lights in the sky vanished as mysteriously as they had arrived.
"Sordi! Where are you? You must come and see this! The Sow by the gods there is this thing..." What could possibly be as interesting as what he had just seen in the sky over their little village?
"Its the Sow...she's given birth to this thing!" Trebol was a bit of an idiot but surly he knew wat a piglet was. He followed the farmhand into the barn and was greeted by something insane.
"What the hell is that thing?"

DM Briefing: The night lights are seen in the sky above a farming community a Piglet is born with an almost humanoid head.

Source: Link

LazarX wrote:

Given that he's in his second season, he's probably at most got one more in him.

Back in my day, Doctors got five to seven seasons.

Damn right...13 episodes a season? Tom Baker did that fighting the Daleks and stomping on a Dalek Brain in Davros's Lab.

Steven Purcell wrote:

Swatting Dengue: Queensland today, Vietnam coming soon

I hope there are no unintended consequences.

Like a more agressive Dengue fever reminiscent of the Black Death or Increased human activity in otherwise contaminated areas resulting in regional deforestation?

You may be replicating work that has already been done. I dont recall the actual website but there is a japanese D&D website with its own campaign setting (The Japanese Pathfinder). They seem to have a detailed D&D game with lots of Manga.

What? What do you mean you cant port over DBZ? Most of the multi attack stuff is a magic missile variant.

Krillin's Destructodisc is a just a flat fireball spell.

That big green dude Picollo is half elf-troll.

I keep my Leprecaun Gold disolved in Mercury. The same Mercury I keep for my Hollow Points.

Thats like comparing Ace to Leela. Leela has a knife, would kill the Ripper in a chance Alleyway encounter, and goes on to be Mother of Gallifreyan-Humans and Ace is a suicide bomber.

A random idea. Since we know that Paizo won't produce a Sci-fi adventure path perhaps we should work on converting one of the existing adventure paths to science fiction. Savage Tibe might be a great one to start with considering it deals with sea travel a good analogy for space tavel.

Salcor

So you sail from a port and out at sea the Maelstrom Priest casts a gate spell creating a Whirlpool in the sea into which the ship is apparently going to be drawn, however it instead sails further out of the Maelstrom out across the Khaos Sea to the Island of the Moon which would have been otherwise inaccesible but for the use of Gate to access the the Sea between worlds.

The ocean in which worlds are nothing more than islands would be home to the leviathan Tiamat that lurks beneath the surface.