Best posts made by Killer Klown

Spelling and grammar. Typos are fine and easily overlooked, but I grew up in the days when diagramming sentences was actually required, and language has a science all its own. I don't care so much about proper breaking of paragraphs, or if you used a colon instead of a semicolon - but punctuation, capitalization and making the tense and voice of your statements agree with themselves isn't too much to ask in my book.

Detail, detail, detail. I have been accused of posing in George R.R. Martin levels of detail as far back as the opening days of Haunted Memories (In fact, it was Sullivan's comment to me to that effect that got me interested in GRRM to begin with. Yes, I do care about how well done the carrots were and if the capon was killed too old or roasted too long, thank you very much). We're playing in an environment where the only canvas we have is words, and as such the words need to paint a picture. This can be done with sufficient application of adjectives or adverbs, or it could be done as simply as a short meta-statement adjoining a pose. Vis a vis:
Sam looks at Max with the same sort of expression that he might have were she currently in the process of growing a second head.
It doesn't require much excess verbage, but still gets the point across that someone is looking at someone else strangely. A lot of context gets conveyed in expression and body language, and lacking that there needs to be something to indicate if the person's reaction/demeanor is positive, negative, perplexed or what have you. Something needs to indicate if an object in question is new, old, well used or well cared for. At the same time, a pose should be long enough to say what it needs to say; but it need not be longer. If all someone is doing is lurking in the background, wrapped in a burlap sack and making occasional sniffing noises that can easily and fairly be conveyed in a sentence or two.

@Paris - Thanks I re-created a Corvian there, but I've just been lacking for inspiration OOC

@VulgarKitten - No, I still have my bit there; I just haven't really logged in/played there in... months. Many months. The place and people are great, but I sort of lost my place and haven't really found a group or way to get re-involved again; so I've just been kind of floundering.

Here's the thing I've noticed about nWoD that a lot of people seem to forget - You can require a minimum number of successes, as an ST, for even a simple action. Yes, 1 is listed in the rules as a 'marginal' success, but as an ST you can determine that marginal is just not good enough and you need an average or better. Or you can rule that what the player is attempting is so complicated (and in too short a timeframe for an Extended roll to be applicable) that only an Exceptional would achieve it.
It doesn't really help with the initial problem of skills vs. stats, since the WoD system is and always has been built on pools rather than actual skill levels. Other systems do this considerably better (such as those that limit the level of a skill by the skills governing attribute - which will never work in WoD because any skill can theoretically be rolled with any attribute). This system has always been more about the numbers being a guideline rather than a structure.

Prommie reminds me a lot of oWoD Wraith in theme - in that it requires a lot of staff attention. I don't mean this in a bad way <like how stuff in Mage requires staff oversight>; but rather, Promethean is a more personal game than most other WoD splats. There are your usual suspects of antagonists out there, but unlike Werewolf or Vampire the antagonism isn't the focus of the game. It's an internal, dedicated story rather than one with world-shaking consequences and history-making powers.
Another way to think of it, I suppose, is that every Prommie is a Vampire attempting to reach Golconda. There's stuff going on around them, certainly - but their personal focus is something separate that involves others only peripherally in most cases.
At least, that's my take on it. Vampires can afford to be patient and put off their clan or covenant interests for a few decades to do other things or while they wait for things to develop. Werewolves are technically supposed to always be on the hunt <Some more than others>, but it's burned into the system that they have to balance their human sides too. Prommies are on a journey of self-improvement; and if they don't follow that, they're stagnating.

Here's the thing. Cloud is pretty widely used in the technology side of things too - not because it's meaningless, but because the general usage of the term has given it a meaning. It can get irritating to some of us old hats (Don't get me started on people using the word 'drone'), but that doesn't make it less accepted or specifically incorrect. Short of technical absolutes <basically, ANSI or ISA related code words> most anything else has as much to do with what people know it as as official names - remember TWAIN, the standard interface for scanners back in the late 90s? Originally it was just there as a thing to interface two devices (twain, as in the old world for two); over time, though, it became commonly referred to as 'Technology Without An Interesting Name' and that stuck.

As far as IPv6 security vulnerabilities? Yes. All of our firewalls have 'block ipv6' enabled by default for just that reason. That's not something we set, that's manufacturer default (And before you ask, this is corporate level stuff - Cisco, Palo Alto, Symantec/Sygate, etc - not exactly Zone Alarm here.) It's gaining traction, but not nearly as quickly as predicted - and the fact is that lack of familiarity is more dangerous than any inherent security flaw - people don't know what to protect themselves against or how best to go about it. Therefore, most people take the airgap route - nothing can attack the device if the device is not plugged in - and that's perfectly viable, especially if it's not being utilized by more than a small percentage.

***=Think a thought about a thunk***

KillerKlown was my handle from way back in the BBS days - round about 1988 or so. I couldn't think of anything, but idly saw an ad for 'Killer Klowns from Outer Space' and was like 'yeah, what the hell'.

So, short answer; laziness.

@Lotherio said in Game of Thrones:

@Roz said in Game of Thrones:

@Killer-Klown said in Game of Thrones:

So, yeah. I've been considering a few things - some of which have already been mentioned:
***=Stuff and things and whatnot***

click to show

2- Arya. Arya's ending was not great, but at least it felt more earned than Brans. After Ned's death, she became somewhat rootless and bounced from thing to thing; first in Essos, then Westeros. She started with a list, ammended that list, then eventually just dropped that list. She's a character in progress, so her moving on made more sense than not.

***thar be spoilers ofc***

click to show

I didn't like Arya's ending, tbh. Like yeah, it'd be cool to see her running off and having adventures. BUT. I felt like so much of her arc over the course of the show was trying to get back to family, trying to find her pack once more. And then she got back and they helped each other and now she is...leaving to go be alone again? The lone wolf dies, the pack survives, so now I guess it's time for Arya to go off solo??? Idk, I disagree that it made more sense than not.

***=Agreed and maybe the writers broke her ending some***

click to show

The going west was odd, its like reading LotR. Valyrian Doom was mentioned, but this is like the final nail in the coffin. Bran doesn't join the roots and become some weirwood in the massive network of weirwood roots under Westeros (the druidic database). So its like magic ended, so someone had to sail west in the tradition of 'this is the end of this age'.

I think they ended there because the choose not to include her pack. Nymeria and the wolf pack is still around in the south. For all we know, if the books end up with closed north (North Kingdom and Jon's North North), she may end up more hanging out with the wolves than the people, or any number of other endings that isn't Bilbo sailing off to chronicle more of his life with the elves.

***=Yah. I do tend to agree***

There's one huge change (among a large number of less-huge ones) between 1e and CoD Mage:
Successes don't automatically equate to power.
It's simple, but it has a massive effect. To put it in other terms, in 1e you would establish your spell factors like range, power (damage/armor/et cetera), duration and whatnot then make your roll with whatever dice you had. You could buff those dice with boosted stats, 8-agains, Rote actions, cooperative casting or what have you... and get some pretty impressive pool numbers. The way 1e Mechanics worked was that every success above what you needed, at least for a good number of spells, would be applied to the primary spell factor. If that factor was damage, rolling 4 succs meant 4 points of damage. Rolling 40 succs meant, yes, 40 points of damage.
In 2e, that doesn't happen. All your factors start at tier one except for the Primary, which starts at your Arcana rating <1-5>. Improving any given factor costs a Reach; you get a couple of these free based on a few things, but usually no more than one or two. Anything past the free ones docks 2 dice from your casting pool. Once you set the factors, they're set. Multiple successes only apply to how difficult it is to dispel or the flat 'Exceptional Success' bonus. This means things like 8-again or Rote Actions are far less impactful when casting.
Another fairly important change is you no longer need Mastery to be good at a level 1 or 2 spells. In 1e, the more levels in an Arcana you had the better you could improve your lower level spells. That's still the case in CoD, but if all you want is a Life 2 effect, you can buy Life 2 and then a Rote for the effect you want - which provides many of the same benefits of a higher Arcana for that specific effect. It cuts down on the need for people to push towards multi-mastery just to maximize their bread and butter powers.

Y'all know that trope about kids acting out to be different from their parents just for the sake of being different from their parents? My family for uncountable generations back are Hindu.
So, of course I honor the sacred cow with a side of fries whenever I can. I'll eat most anything you put in front of me, and I'll likely try it a second time just in case the first sampling was not a good representation. About the only thing I can't do are eggs - due to an allergy more than personal choice <which makes other aspects of life, like vaccinations and anesthetic, tricky>

I've argued with myself on this many times over the years; usually beginning with the question of 'why am I still doing this'. Like I do with most things, I've gone through internalized rants of self-justification and reasoning/denial and what have you; but only within the last year or so have I managed to distill it down to a simple and, at least for me, undeniable form

There are exactly two types of things in life - the things you do because you have to, and the things you do because you want to. Sometimes a thing can be both of these, but the distinction is only one way. That is, it's fine if it's something that you have to do, which you also want to do <like a job that you love>. There is never any good reason for something that you want to do turning into something that you have to do; gaming is, always has been, and never should be otherwise a thing that you want to do. If it - any aspect of it - becomes something that you feel you have to do, then it's time to re-evaluate.

So I finally got the last piece of cast iron I could possibly have/use <a wok>.
I love it. Made a couple of awesome stirfries in it. Just made a killer steak and cheese <basically, treat it like a stir fry - shaved steak, onions, peppers instead of your normal meat and veg, Worcestershire sauce instead of soy, A1 instead of whatever finishing sauce you use>
And now... now we just dropped close to 2000 dollars on a new induction-top stove. Because induction works better with cast iron. Because it has a linked double burner that I can put a long griddle pan on.
I did not have a griddle pan before because our old electric coil stove didn't heat evenly across even an individual coil, much less two.
I... I now have a griddle pan.

Someone help me.

@Goldfish said in What's your nerd origin story?:

Looking back, my uncle and I, were kinda blazing a trail for nerdy black people. Like, I was a weirdo outcast so the kids can do the same today and be appreciated for it.

I actually said almost this same thing to a friend of mine a couple of months back; don't look at the younger generation and think they're less into the fandom because they didn't have to endure the ridicule and ostracism that we did, or having to look high and low for a store that sold the kind of books we wanted, scrimping and saving on the odd chance we would find the gaming materials we needed, or what have you; look at it in the light of us having to go through all that so future generations wouldn't have to.

Yeah, down in New Orleans <And I would imagine a number of other places> alcoholic slushies are a big thing - and they actually sell them out of the rotating, clear-front slurpee-style dispensers.

@Derp Yes; and the other thing to remember is that not all staff are going to be the movers/shakers/shapers/npc runners. There's always going to be a number of folks who's sole purpose is to keep the game running under the hood - handling xp spends, build requests, general player questions and what have you. These people are responsible for making sure the game remains up and running but don't really have any decision making capabilities for the game as a whole. They're providing a necessary service, usually for nothing in return.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - back in the days when MUSHing was new <early 90s> and WoD Larps weren't really a thing yet, a friend of mine made the comment that if tabletop games were like Mushes, then all the players would lie around all day having sex with one another until the GM jumped out of a closet and yelled for them to roll initiative.

Nothing I've seen in the last 25+ years has disproved this in the slightest; so... why not?

I've had exactly one idea for a child character, and that was mostly npcs. Basically, Victorian theme game, bunch of kids who were actually Patchwork People <WoD Immortals> in the style of Oliver Twist street kids; except with the personality/mentality of Doctor Who Cybermen.

That said, remember Changeling: The Dreaming, where children were not just a viable character option, but one of the promoted ones?

I've been on a couple of games (Star Wars and otherwise) that tried to incorporate multiple planets. Invariably, most of them just seem to stagnate unless there was a specific plot that required them. Setting things that far back, though, does open up a number of interesting possiblities - like how 'Sith' are just natives of Korriban and not associated with the 'Dark Jedi' yet. It might be interesting to have a cabal of them on a planet or moon representing study of the literal 'left hand' path of the Force.

@Ganymede said in Rate A Concept:

@Killer-Klown said in Rate A Concept:

@tragedyjones I actually think there's a canon Bloodline based around that kind of thing.

I'm pretty sure he's played that concept before too.

Found it - Players, from Bloodlines: The Legendary. (Following from the unofficial White Wolf Wiki)

... They are comprised of members of the Mekhet clan who seek to be like the vampires of popular media. They love attention, and this is reflected by their use of the Majesty Discipline. They are one of the newest bloodlines, as well as one of the most mocked and scorned.

I'm not staff or associated with the game - just your average Star Wars nerd. If I remember, though, there was no 'falling' in this period - all aspects of the Force were allowable to be studied, with a preference towards a balanced view. If you started showing too much of a preference towards one side or another, you were put in detention on the moon opposing whatever side you were leaning towards to meditate and get back into synch. I never got that there was some sort of horror or taboo against any kind of study though.