Walsingham

You've heard of the IMF and World Bank, right? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> According to UNICEF the sanctions before the war were killing 4,000 iraqis a month. Which I admit has nothing to do with this topic. *ducks a thrown ban +10* ahem. I liked the old warhammer rpg rules. You had classes, but movement between them was more to do with opportunity AND exp rather than just exp. You had to have some catalyst to turn your experience into a change in state of mind. It was also practically impossible to get uber characters without blatantly cheating.

As someone who has served their time in customer service I know damn well that insults get the letter shuffled away. But no self-respecting company just bins them. I was simply referring to the fact that sometimes one must admit that a good insult is the most satisfaction you are going to get out of a company. My bottom line is that a company that hires monkeys and pays them peanuts so they have ill-educated ill-tempered monkeys neither deserves nor gets my business. It does not cost much in time or effort to create a good customer service team, compared with the benefits to the customer.

You just focused the whole being of modern rpg-gaming into one post. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You mean everyone treats a social encounter as a possible division level engagement circa 1943? Wow. Groovy.

Because I was reading it. Nothing sinister. oh no. And you will now look THAT way as my elves move a few things around.

Yup. Sounds like a bunch of shysters. For the record I had a pretty OK time in a similar situation with AOL. I decided they weren't worth the money, and they refunded me time when I hadn't been actively using their service, even though I had been signed up with them. Damn fine. Just a shame they're so fething useless as a product. this is, however, a very long and tedious series of letters. Where are the imaginative insults? Eh EH? I will now cry.

Hah! Man knows his stuff. :D - I don't agree about the block of soap deal. I mean, i agree humans aren't made of soap (after extensive shower testing). But the fact that 5.56 kills is not a matter for debate. Nobody goes into the field asking "Ooh, I hope they're firing 5.56mm, tehn I won't get hurt." Because 5.56 will fething well kill you! - It's true that the 5.56 round is not so great as 7.62 for shooting up buildings for precisely the same reasons that it is good for killing people. But if I was going into a built up area I'd still take a 5.56 weapon, because I am going to be missing more often, and need more ammo. In fact, I'd rather take a shotgun, but they're against the Geneva convention.

I have chef +10 !!!

Like I said earlier, I agree that personal quality doesn't come in D&D stats. Personal quality to me is stuff like consistency, and tact, and grit and determination. The more I think about it, the more I see the D&D stats as like guns. "Oh, I'm in a social situation. Good thing I have a charisma of 18! The most powerful charisma in the world. Ka-POW KaPOW! Hah! You love me now, don't you bitches?" I also think we've highlighted another problem. People don't know their own characteristics. Why should our characters? I always maintain that my fighting PCs are world class bongo players, but have never seen a a bongo. I think that games, particularly computer games, could have the stats be secret, and then you just have some pointers from past history (perhaps modified by good or bad wisdom) and then part of the game is finding out.

I agree with senor metall1x. Fanboy he may be, but come on. Torment had better characterisation, but the characters themselves in BG were fantastic. And the range of things you got exposed to, from the planar sphere to the underdark [exploding slaves!] to elven refugee camps [wot no cholera?] were superb. And the finest comedy I have ever seen on a PC. Signed, Walsingham T. Fanboy

Mixed. In Syndicate wars I used so much razor wire I can still remember the voice saying 'razor wire', and the creepy spooling noise it made. Lay about forty feet of razor wire in a dense mass a long way off, lure all enemies in mobs into wirefield. Drink margarita while admiring explosions. Never used traps in BG, except on those creepy dwarf suckers in Durlag's basement. Because firstly they were really hard, and secondly and more importantly I did it the minute I saw their names. I think your man should be excused using traps like he did. I mean, a thinking fighter has hard time in the BG system. The bad guys is always in the same place, and always ready. A rogue is not a 'big showdown like a paladin' guy. True roleplaying would mean at the very least trying to lure him into a trap, or attacking him when on the toilet/infernal equivalent. I have to admit that what I do whenever I get the chance is use the old wizardly field artillery to chuck in an opening salvo of fireballs. Get the fancy pants wizard to raise his spell shields, then scarper. Rinse and repeat until he runs out of spells. Then send in me main character with a sharp short sword to poke the dickens out of them.

Update: I'm going into this in a bit of depth, cracking the books and so on. To a certain extent, it looks like it could be impossible. The bloke sat at the console/keyboard is processing the information, and we can't do much to him. The best we might do is act on the perceptual level, as I mentioned. Several psychology books I've got back this up in theory. I'm also wondering if making pure fighting characters see the world differently might be both an interesting comment, and a good way to encourage the player to explore other lines of play, so they see more of the game. But that is probably marketing suicide. I would REALLY like to keep this thread going if possible. My instinct tells me there must be some way we could either model the effects in the game, or something we can learn about how to set up decision making in standard game terms. In obsidian terms, perhaps we could alter the options a character is capable of choosing in dialogue according to their stress levels? This links into teh notion of affecting their 'brainward' skillset with stress fear and so on.

So, the fact that we're discussing guns on the pen and paper section of a computer RPG website during the wee small hours of our respective timezones didn't tell you we were geeks? And the 5.56 versus 7.62 thing? Like the man says this is just bloody silly. It is like the theory that the ww2 Japanese rifles wouldn't kill a full grown white man because the bullets were too little. A 5.56 round at most combat ranges will tear into you, become unstable and whip around as it travels through your body. In addition, if it hits any bones on the way fragments will go off in all directions, lacerating nearby soft tissue. Finally, if the round exits near somewhere soft, bit of you can get sucked out after it. 5.56 is plenty of bullet. The only bullets you really should worry about needing to shoot the guy several times are dinky .22 or .32. Interesting story from your friend, but with all respect (and I mean it) I would suggest that either the guy they were shooting was high as a kite (very common in militias across africa) or they simply didn't hit him as many times as they thought.

I kinda like Bob, in a 'invite him round to lunch way'. You've got to love him telling the Eritreans to 'grow up' when they tried the same old bullsh*t about the deaths going on there. As for the new anti-terrorism laws in the UK I should say for the record that i think they go too far. We don't need new laws. We need to permit and encourage the Uk police to apply the laws they already have. But, since that doesn't seem to work (and they may be some very good reason for this), we need to be able to remove and constrain certain key individuals. You can bitch all you like about what the government may do, but for all their faults they have not made a formal commitment to killing us. Unlike the revolutionary/apocalyptic salafist terrorist groups, and those who recruit for them. I should also like to point out that it was our 'farty old' House of Lords that stayed awake until 6 a.m., and got back up again for ten a.m. the next day to stop the Home Secretary having the power of detention, and there being no sunset clause. They did so with remarkable conviction, and considerable passion and coherence. Yet again they prove that they have a lot to offer, if only we'd give them some public support, instead of knocking them all the time.

The toy is, but that's a scaling issue. In comic/cartoon Shockwave is a giant mounted gun. :cool: <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The point is, gentlemen, is that if you got a cool pistol for a present you were happier than getting a dumb tank. Plus you got a robot as well. Nice. In what way is the XM8 the same price as an M16? 25,000 dollars is the list price. Reveilled, would these be the same 'real men' wearing the frilly shirts and the long girly hair?

It's eay to say that about pasty white babies. But how does a nice sun-reared fruit-fed plump carribean baby sound? Glazed with a habanero and molasses sauce?

Good points there, gentlemen. I shall have to ponder them, although in my opinion revolutions - however well intended - end in tears. I certainly agree with the idea that excessive order can be a stagnating factor, resulting in energy loss and decay. Perhaps... perhaps... perhaps I should go to bed.

I agree it looks odd, but that's because everything you need is inside the box. Another good feature is that you've got less to snag on your kit, bits of tree, or collect mud. And, so I don't seem unsympathetic to you Big Bang heads: A grenade machine gun. Fully auto grenade fire. The idea dates back to the Soviets in the 80s (I think). They asked around and decided that in a small group fire fight, the side who fired first with the most would win, so they gave spetsnaz teams these crazy suckers. H&K just loved the idea, I guess... BTW, I read just now that the XM8 will be about 25,000 dollars per item. I'd rather have that money myself and make do with a czech rifle. Hell, most of the countries we end up in, you'd be better off taking the cash and bribing the opposition to go away!

A study in the early nineties showed that 60% of people thought they were of 'above average' intelligence. str: 8 (originally not so bad, but had a couple of injuries and got old) Dex: 8 (Lousy. Always have been) Con: 16 (surprisingly tough) Int: 16 (Going on achievement. Personally I think I'm just very efficient with what little brains I got) Wis: 15 (A couple of tomes might have had something to say in this. The Hagakure for one - "Always wear badger-skin pants when on campaign, to avoid lice") Cha: 15 (But probably lower, or I'd be out in a bar somewhere, not online) All round I don't think the D&D rules work that well for real people. They're more like a toolbox, giving you stuff you can do, not how you tend to do it. I also note that these stats wouldn't let me do the job I have... "

I'm just sorry we never got the H&K G11. Fascinating design from a great company, and most importantly I get 510 rounds and rifle for the same weight as you get 240 for an M16, or only 100 for the G3. Two main design features are caseless ammunition, which I'm told helps keep the parts clean and the system weight down, and a moving breech (which I don't fully understand) that permits variable ROF in either full auto or three round burst. In full auto it clocks at around 600 rpm, good for laying suppressing fire, or if you're just plain scared. The most cleevr thing is the three round burst. The chambering system allows all three rounds to be fired and leave the barrel _before the recoil from the first hits the shooter_. So you get very tight clusters of three rounds at decent ranges. Lots more damage to the target or three times the odds of hitting if your aim is off. Pricey though, and only limited numbers made so far.

White Wolf has recently thrown their entire universe aside, destroyed it with an apocalypse, and started anew. I haven't read over the new World of Darkness as much, though I keep hearing the rules are even more streamlined and balanced. I do believe the new system keeps the nature/demeanor and morality paths. www.white-wolf.com They may have quick-start rules, demos and the like there. Or just go to a Barnes and Noble and crack open a book. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> This system is also used in the Aeon Trinity game by G.A. Effinger. Anyway, I don't agree that good/evil is purely subjective. Lawful is one thing. Good is not. Good I would define as an emphasis on contributing to the health, stability and well being of others. Evil I would define as the reverse. Evil destroys the structure of things to revel in the energy given off. Good contributes to the order of a structure to benefit from the orderly functioning of the structure.

It's definitely one way to encourage peopel to play smarter characters and not tank. In my case the only good reason I might have for not tanking is that I get to see more interesting views on the story. Didn't Plansecape Torment have something like this?

When roleplaying I like to vent all my antisocial tendencies so I choose female warriors and beat up anyone I can. Then steal their boots and burn down their house.

I have met people both professionally and accidentally who I have no hesitation in describing as evil. Understanding how they arrived at where they were could not alter the fact that they were potentially extremely dangerous and a threat to essentially anyone who came near them. Just one of the fun parts of having worked as an investigative journalist! I can't remember what alignment I'd be. I have a fairly consistent code of ethics I try to stick to, but the hungrier and more scared I've been, the less attention I paid to it. I would suggest that this is true of most people.

Thanks for replying. I was beginning to think I had set off a damp quib. Both points I agree with. I particularly like the notion of having figures and shapes drift in and out while the character is intoxicated. Having watched 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' yesterday I can imagine some fantastic stuff going down. The question would have to be why the player would want to indulge in such behaviour. But then I guess you could ask the same about a real person! A further thought about drugs, it is possible that - particularly in a gritty setting - the use of the drug would temporarily make things look brighter and more sunny. However, it would naturally be the case that in the downer afterwards things would look darker. Perhaps the addition of objects and incerasing of light levels would be one way to do it, wth the adverse stae represented with the removal of all but critical objects, and darker light levels/a change to black and white. On the subject of fear and stress, one possible route could be to track the player's familiarity with a given situation. In the case of your dragon if they had met several before then they would have that degree of experience scale down the natural fear inherent in the encounter. They still get scared, but less so. By the same token, someone who has never had to fight a midget before may find it very unnerving, but (I assume) they would very quickly lose their fear. Killing of a creature type could assist in not being afraid of it. I include the notion of human murderers being less easily intimidated by other humans. Stress has really complex effects on cognition and reasoning. I really can't think how you'd model them in an RPG, like Obsidian has done in the past. Some simple approaches could be a decrement in social skills and intellectual skills as stress is accrued (either thorugh physical danger, fear, or lack of sleep). A slightly crude approach could be that certain plot items will not be visible while teh character is highly stressed, meaning that they may need to go sleep, eat a meal, go to the opera,or take some drugs to calm down during particularly trickly investigations. I am thinking here of Sherlock Holmes.

Walsingham was Queen Elizabeth the first's spymaster. And a very dubious chap.