Drejk, I really hope things get better. You and your family will be in my prayers.
EDIT: I'm clothed, though *gets dressed*
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T-lion post dump!
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Well, I mean, I wasn't gonna talk about my bowel movements, but, yeah, this morning I... oh! I see what you mean, now.
@Tac & Kjeldorn, I'm curious which parts of my ramblings you don't agree with? At the risk of fritzy, WHAT ABOUT MY GENIUS COULD YOU POSSIBLY OBJECT TO?! ;)
In Which I Smash the PHB Classes to Pieces, and Ramble About Rebuilding Those Worthy
(Begin at page 6 for the class-smashing.)
** spoiler omitted **
I'm quoting this mostly so I can find it later. Likely gonna be a few days before I can talk about anything like this (or even read it).
>insert road runner noises<
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Well, I mean, I wasn't gonna talk about my bowel movements, but, yeah, this morning I... oh! I see what you mean, now.
o_O!
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NH - we'll be leaving Hi in his hotel to recuperate. He's got a rather big blister and he still needs to walk in Japan. And there are a lot of stairs in Japan.I was constantly complaining why does it have to be stairs, but did it anyway.
He doesn't handle stairs well.
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Stairs!?! Why'd it have to be stairs!!
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Looking at the forecast for the week, and we're expecting up to a foot of snow in the next four or five days.
Which is about right for this time of year.
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Looking at the forecast for the week, and we're expecting up to a foot of snow in the next four or five days.
Which is about right for this time of year.
So...beautiful...
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Mom called that the brother responded with a mail that was much more reasonable than the Thursday's ones. He thanked for the proposal of buying mu food, claimed that he haven't heard any knocking on the door.
He wanted money for paying off the debt, though, saying that either we do what he asked (immediate payment of sum we don't have) or we shouldn't bother.
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NH - we'll be leaving Hi in his hotel to recuperate. He's got a rather big blister and he still needs to walk in Japan. And there are a lot of stairs in Japan.I was constantly complaining why does it have to be stairs, but did it anyway.
He doesn't handle stairs well.
On the bright side, now I'm sure it's Hi and not some random stranger!
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Drejk - Is your brother having split personality?
Also NH, for this quote:
I was constantly complaining why does it have to be stairs, but did it anyway
Was referring to myself in Japan. It's like Japan is....ok you can use the stairs down here, or walk 500 m away, deal with whole bunch of people, if you want to use the elevator.
I made whiny noises.
My aunts house on the 19th Floor - well once the lift broke down and it was not funny climbing down and up 19 floors for lunch...
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Mom called that the brother responded with a mail that was much more reasonable than the Thursday's ones. He thanked for the proposal of buying mu food, claimed that he haven't heard any knocking on the door.
He wanted money for paying off the debt, though, saying that either we do what he asked (immediate payment of sum we don't have) or we shouldn't bother.
You need some time to raise money even if you were to help him - could the debt be paid in installments?
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On the other hand...there were lots of fluffy(and not so fluffy) critters spotted:
1)Pea Hen and Chicks
2)Caterpillars
3)Spiders
4)Snail
5)Monkeys
6)Beetles
7)Monitor Lizard (even walked right by us)
8)Skink
9)Tiger Barbs
10)Tilapia
11)Carp
12)Needlefish
13)Merry Widows
14)Fiddler Crab
15)Snake in the water(only saw head sticking out of the water)
16)Mudskippers
17)Archer Fish
18)Crocodiles
19)Egrets
20)Squirrel
21)Dragonflies
22)Butterflies
23)Terrapin (Caught sunbathing on a rock)
Hi's actually pretty good at the spot the critter thing. Again I uh...dumped...wis.
And hey, we may be a city but we DO have wildlife around!
Hi also got to look at the Singapore port from car and Jurong Hill - when we load and unload cargo from ships - it's BIG business.A ship can come into our port - and get its business done - ready to set sail - in 24 hours.
For that - we have the support structures in place - Container storage (where container trucks can drive all the way up), up to 5-10 stories high.
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Stairs!?! Why'd it have to be stairs!!
Ah, my old nemesis: stairs.
I'm feeling a bit better, today, Tac.
Glad to hear it!
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Drejk - Is your brother having split personality?
Also NH, for this quote:
I was constantly complaining why does it have to be stairs, but did it anywayWas referring to myself in Japan. It's like Japan is....ok you can use the stairs down here, or walk 500 m away, deal with whole bunch of people, if you want to use the elevator.
I made whiny noises.
My aunts house on the 19th Floor - well once the lift broke down and it was not funny climbing down and up 19 floors for lunch...
LOL. I always horrified my co-workers and co-students because I hate elevators; they tend to be slow, smelly, and crowded. So I work on leg strength by taking 2-3 steps at a time, and easily outpace the elevator both up and down.
And when your office is on the 6th floor, it's a really nice little workout to break up the day.
I learned that doing the same thing for the 14th floor is a little more aerobic...
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Hi's actually pretty good at the spot the critter thing. Again I uh...dumped...wis.
And hey, we may be a city but we DO have wildlife around!
Yeah, the man has an amazing eye, and takes really good photos.
But after knowing him for nearly 20 years, I personally think he dump statted WIS and took Skill Focus: Spot Critters.
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I am embarrassed to admit that my office is on the 7th floor but I do no such thing. Again Ibelieveknow for a fact that guys shoes are more comfortable then ladies shoes...
FIFY
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I'm somewhat the same way myself - but I have photographer friends so I know that there are better critter spotters then me. My brother spots critters better then me too. For me is more like I hear something rustling behind me, I sense something is there - then I start looking for critter in question. I can't spot birds because my light sensitivity prevents me from looking overhead (too much light).
Most animals you won't be able to see until they move - but their movement will attract your eye and you'll be able to see them.
Like if you're walking outdoors you hear rustling or water splashing - look for source of movement/ripples, then start examining the area. Big ripples = big something.
Hi did snap a lot of photos of that monitor lizard that ambled past us. He said he should have brought some *dunno what specification lens* for better pictures.
The problem with taking pictures of animals is there's usually only so close you can get to them, so you need a good camera, and often its a spot, and they're gone thing.
Another way is to follow someone who knows what they're doing, then look in the direction they're looking. Like if you see someone point a tripod with a camera mounted at something, you probably should have a look - they might be seeing something you don't.
There was this old granny with a walking stick happily pointing out mudskippers and snails...
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You know, I was thinking that you could find cockles in that mudflat...but again after spotting that crocodile, I'll give it a pass...Hi's estimation is that it's around 1.5 m long. Bad idea. Very bad idea.
Nah, really wouldn't. If you attempted to walk on a mudflat you'd just sink up to your knees in. I hope you were wearing rubber boots...
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Re:Reboot reboot
Megabyte got away with his cheesy monologues because he was played by Tony Jay. He could read a shopping list and still be intimidating.
Hexadecimal didn't have that quite as much (though her actress was still exceptional, no doubt about it), but made up for it by being legit creepy and insane and, most of all, inhuman. Her weird thing with her emotion-based masks and shifting personalities played into her utter alienness and made her all the more terrifying.
Megabyte was the evil we know and can expect and mostly understand, but Hex was something no one could really predict or comprehend. Which in a lot of ways made her creepier.
But daaaaaang, Tony Freakin' Jay.
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...Another way is to follow someone who knows what they're doing, then look in the direction they're looking. Like if you see someone point a tripod with a camera mounted at something, you probably should have a look - they might be seeing something you don't.
There was this old granny with a walking stick happily pointing out mudskippers and snails...
Ugh. When NobodysWife and I were touring Europe in 1998 I had a "German Tourist Problem".
I was carrying my full camera kit, which was around 8 kilos of lenses and gear. I'd see a shot, pull out my camera, aim, and a German tourist would inevitably see me lining up my shot, figure I must know what I was doing, and hence step in front of me and ruin my line of sight so they could get the same picture.
It was always Germans, and it was always annoying...
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OK, so spheres of power/might is pretty extensive for a 3pp, and I'm finding myself just kinda getting lost in it. What do you find interesting/balanced/etc. about it?Link is broken. Is this accurate/comprehensive?That's the one!
Apologies for forgetting the http:// nonsense. lol
The page layout is, frankly, a mess. Funnily enough, though, it's formatted in a fashion that almost totally matches their hard-copy publications. It takes a great deal of effort to get used to it. If I had *my* way, it would be completely revised -- a more "nested" progression of pages, rather than a "wall-o'-links". But, anyhow.
What do I like about the system? Hoboy. That could take *days* of explanation. I'll try to condense it to a handful of talking points . . . .
"Hold on to your butts!"
1) The SoP magic system does away with schools, defined spells, casting components/restrictions, class-specific effects, and a handful of other "baggage" -- as its core premise. All of those things are now elective elements, and are usually determined on a per-character basis. No prepared casting. No somatic components. No corner-case spells. And I find that to be a good thing.
2) Rather than construct a massive pool of spell options (magic missile, create pit, remove disease, blade barrier, etc.), it breaks down magic to twenty magical "roots". (While this is similar to the 3.x/PF 'schools of magic', it feels different -- and better! -- to me because your preferred function of magic you employ defines your abilities, rather than a pre-imposed "arena of capability".) These twenty "roots" each provide one (or more!) at-will abilities (the biggest draw to the system, for me) that scale with your caster level. By selecting talents within a given sphere, you **can** build any of the more familiar effects that we 3.x fans associate with spellcasters (A personal favorite of mine: Destruction sphere, Explosive Orb talent, Orb Expert feat, [insert blast type talent of choice] -- and you effectively have an at-will fireball/scintillating sphere/whichever effect from level one! {Just a 5'-diameter one, mind you, but even *that* scales up!}), *or* you can completely DIY.
NOTE: "Blended" effects -- as in emulating a given 3.x spell -- are harder to come by here. To get a similar effect as the stunning barrier spell, you would need the Spellcrafting feat, the Protection sphere, and the Enhancement sphere (or maybe Fate). Spellcrafting lets you combine effects from multiple spheres and/or stack multiple intra-sphere effects onto a single casting. It's pretty technical, but it rewards creativity!
3) The Spheres of Might elements are those with which I am much less familiar, but they operate in a similar fashion to SoP. They allow most any character to choose a combat style and be effective from level one. The system was built with Vital Strike and the push to move away from "full attack all day" very much in mind, and so it drives characters toward "chaining" attack options in unusual ways. There *is* still the drudgery of 'spamming' a given attack option, but alas, #MartialLife.
4) The best part, overall, (apart from the at-will nature of every sphere across both systems) is that of the "drawbacks" [found in the 'Casting Traditions' link for SoP, and I forget where for SoM]. Drawbacks allow you to forfeit certain elements of a given sphere *or* the openness of spherecasting in general in order to gain additional talents in a given sphere, or to get extra spell points for sphere effects (the martial spheres don't have a pool of "combat points" per character, but rather a "martial focus" that can be regained throughout the day and 'expended' to enhance Mightsphere effects). For instance, I just built a warpriest conversion a few days ago, at 5th level. Normally, he would only have 5 magical spheres/talents, but since I took assorted drawbacks in the four spheres in his repertoire, he functionally has sixteen talents. And that doesn't account for the extra spell points he gained with his "generic" drawbacks -- cast in light armor, verbal components, focus item casting, etc.
This system allows for versatility *or* specialization, and everything scales by either your BAB or caster level, essentially (there *are* a few exceptions, of course).
. . . .
I think that's a decent-enough primer . . . . I think.
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You need some time to raise money even if you were to help him - could the debt be paid in installments?Mom called that the brother responded with a mail that was much more reasonable than the Thursday's ones. He thanked for the proposal of buying mu food, claimed that he haven't heard any knocking on the door.
He wanted money for paying off the debt, though, saying that either we do what he asked (immediate payment of sum we don't have) or we shouldn't bother.
That's the plan but I am unable to contact the debt collector until the Tuesday - Easter is a close-everything holiday in Poland.
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...Another way is to follow someone who knows what they're doing, then look in the direction they're looking. Like if you see someone point a tripod with a camera mounted at something, you probably should have a look - they might be seeing something you don't.
There was this old granny with a walking stick happily pointing out mudskippers and snails...
Ugh. When NobodysWife and I were touring Europe in 1998 I had a "German Tourist Problem".
I was carrying my full camera kit, which was around 8 kilos of lenses and gear. I'd see a shot, pull out my camera, aim, and a German tourist would inevitably see me lining up my shot, figure I must know what I was doing, and hence step in front of me and ruin my line of sight so they could get the same picture.
It was always Germans, and it was always annoying...
It's easier if you strap a bunch of airsoft guns that look mostly real to you. They keep their distance.
I shouldn't have to look like the lovechild of Rambo and the Terminator just to keep a German out of my shots.
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NH - we'll be leaving Hi in his hotel to recuperate. He's got a rather big blister and he still needs to walk in Japan. And there are a lot of stairs in Japan.I was constantly complaining why does it have to be stairs, but did it anyway.
He doesn't handle stairs well.
A decade ago, myself and a couple woman friends spent 4 or 5 days at Universal Orlando. Our hotel had a spa, so one of them and I got pedicures. The next day, we walked all over the theme park. Fresh, tender skin + 6 hours or so of walking = horrifying bloody blisters. And those were my comfy flats.
Hi's feetsies (and yours too) have my deepest sympathies.
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Today, I went over to Actual Lady Longears (Diamond Edition)'s house, where:
1) I met her sister and her kids, and some of her friends and their kids
2) We had a very nice roast dinner
3) The kids had an Easter egg hunt, then played Pass The Parcel
4) I then played a game with ALL (DE)'s daughter which involved hurling balls of yarn at one another using tin foil trays.
I had fun, and ALL (DE) has promised me the chicken stock so I can make chicken soup with Matzo balls, hurrah.
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Bummer!
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I'm having a bit of nervousness about returning to a field I haven't been in in five years.
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Re:Reboot reboot
Megabyte got away with his cheesy monologues because he was played by Tony Jay. He could read a shopping list and still be intimidating.
Hexadecimal didn't have that quite as much (though her actress was still exceptional, no doubt about it), but made up for it by being legit creepy and insane and, most of all, inhuman. Her weird thing with her emotion-based masks and shifting personalities played into her utter alienness and made her all the more terrifying.
Megabyte was the evil we know and can expect and mostly understand, but Hex was something no one could really predict or comprehend. Which in a lot of ways made her creepier.
But daaaaaang, Tony Freakin' Jay.
Indeed.
Between him and Kieth David (Goliath of Gargoyles*) the VAs of my childhood could read a grocery list and make it one of the most amazing epic and dangerous things of all time.
But it helps that it was a cartoon - you can get away with exaggerations in a cartoon that you just can’t in real life.
But yeah, they were excellent VAs!
*
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T-lion post dump!We used to call those blitzes...
Why back in my day, we called them letters, or a manifesto! And they were delivered by postal carriers, or printed at home and anonymously stuffed into the library magazine rack.
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...Another way is to follow someone who knows what they're doing, then look in the direction they're looking. Like if you see someone point a tripod with a camera mounted at something, you probably should have a look - they might be seeing something you don't.
There was this old granny with a walking stick happily pointing out mudskippers and snails...
Ugh. When NobodysWife and I were touring Europe in 1998 I had a "German Tourist Problem".
I was carrying my full camera kit, which was around 8 kilos of lenses and gear. I'd see a shot, pull out my camera, aim, and a German tourist would inevitably see me lining up my shot, figure I must know what I was doing, and hence step in front of me and ruin my line of sight so they could get the same picture.
It was always Germans, and it was always annoying...
Hi told me about those guys too. Well, we're more polite and only look in the direction that the camera is pointed to.
John, that sux >.< My sympathies.
