Posts made by Killer Klown

I wouldn't doubt it; but by the same token I've seen enough to know that people will go to extreme lengths for no other reason than to be terrible human beings to one another (especially online), so I'm pretty sure there's going to be a subset of the population that would twink themselves towards these rules as well; and thereby elevate (deprecate?) their behavior to epic levels - and that's not counting the people who learn the system specifically to use it against other people who might not know it that well themselves (Take what you said but flip it - I'm going to seduce your character, so as per the rules on page xx I do this, modified by the rules on page xx in book y, coupled with the activation from splat z...)

Yeah, there's mental/social combat rules - and nWoD 2 does a pretty good representation of it <That was what I was trying to imply in the 'merits that are built around those statistics' line>; however, putting in a more robust system doesn't really resolve the initial issue - that being what and how the endgame will be. Vis a vis: Roll Manipulation+Subterfuge=You will sleep with me! vs figure out guile, nerve, dominance modifier; roll off for initiative, roll against subtracting guile, damage targets nerve, keep going until=You will sleep with me!

The biggest argument I tend to see is that there's no real restriction on using physical stats against other pcs - like you could beat someone into submission if you were stronger, but couldn't use Charisma/Presence/whatever to convince them to submit.

It might be tired, but I do think it's valid. Social stats and skills don't cost any less than physical ones, so they should at least have a comparable effect. I suppose there's a difference between 'hard' and 'soft' social stats - hard ones, like intimidate or subterfuge (in terms of lying), could actually change the flow of rp because you're effectively beating someone with a stat stick just as if you were doing so with a real stick. 'Soft' ones like persuasion or socialize are fuzzier; you're not so much forcing an issue as adjusting the flow of the scene. I'd equate it to the way Diplomacy worked in D&D 3; making the roll would not take an enemy and make them into your minion, but it would improve their general reaction towards you (They might go from outright hostile to at least willing to listen to what you have to say - even if they're under no obligation to take action).
The problem is, that's extremely hard to represent in a MU setting - especially if the person with the social stats misrepresents it or misunderstands how they work himself. The other problem as I see it is ,if you reduce the application of social stats (Even on a passive level) it likewise reduces the attraction to play social based characters when the points could be better or more efficiently spent elsewhere - and I'm not talking just about the attributes and abilities, but also all the merits that are built around those statistics.

For the most part, once you're registered you're registered - unless, as was mentioned, you don't vote for an extended period of time. You also need to update/re-register if you move, but that's a bit more finicky.
The way American voting works is kind of weird; on the smaller scale, a vote is a vote and whoever gets the most cookies wins. As you move higher and higher along the political food chain, though, individual votes become more and more akin to suggestions rather than a direct influence - and rather than being a flaw in the system, that's actually the way the system was designed. It's why you see these cases where a president gets elected because he carried the electoral votes despite losing out on the popular count - each state has a set number of Electoral votes which are supposed to align with what the popular numbers say (Though they don't always have to, and individual states further complicate things by their own rules - such as some states saying that whichever candidate wins the popular election gets all the electorate votes; and others having rules to split the votes based on percentages). The system basically dates back to a time before telephones, electricity, or the ability to count higher than ten without taking your shoes off - so the short answer is there's no sensical short answer as to why it's that way, beyond no one having proposed a workable replacement that everyone can accept yet.

EDIT Forgot to mention; to further complicate the soup, the final result between electoral and popular numbers per state do not always make sense, since electoral votes are based on population but many states follow the 'all or nothing' method when tallying. So, for example, you could have California with a population of about 40 million and 55 electoral votes - which is far and away the most due to it being the most populated state; conversely, because Alaska (The physically largest state) only has a population of about 750k it gets 3. There's no exact figure as to when a state 'levels up' as it were, but it's generally calculated by the number of representatives in Congress (2+1/~700k people or so, give or take). In states that follow all or nothing, the minority party vote effectively does not count once a winner is decided - so in the example of California, if it were a close race between Party A and B where A received 21 million and B received 19 million votes, the electoral (55 points) would go to A - which is why members of Party B begin to feel disenfranchised. Conversely, if one large state like California is compared with, say, even half a dozen smaller states (like New England, where the normal number of Electors runs from 3-6 per state), you could have a single state outweighing the vote of an entire region of the country. The other side of the coin, and what we've seen in some recent elections, is that - because the minority votes do get counted into the popular votes even though it's only the Electoral that counts, you could get a large state like California contributing millions to the losing side, even though they provided the important votes to the Electoral. As a theoretical example, if you put California up against Florida and New York (29 Electors each, ~20 million residents per) and each one had a sort of even split in voters; California 21A/19B, Fl and NY 11B/9A for the other side, you would end up with totals of 55 Electorals to A, 58 total for B - meaning a win for B. The popular vote, in this case, bears this out with a ratio of 37A:41B. If the split was not so even, however, say California 35A/5B vs FL and NY 15B/5A, the Electoral would remain the same, but the popular would result in 45Mil for A, vs 35Mil for B - despite B having won the election. That's an extreme example, of course; but it's only a small sampling of states and the splits are more likely to be broad than close in general. I mostly am trying to illustrate that the greater a divide in votes go, the more and more the electoral votes diverge from what the people actually vote for.

(I'm not picking on California, I'm just using it because it throws the most weight around in the current system by far - I think the next highest number of Electors comes in on Texas, with 38; nor am I defending the way things are - rather, pointing out the flaws in it). For relevance, this is why it's important for them to keep track of where people live and maintain the registration lists - it's not just about the votes, it's also about determining how many Electors your state gets.

@lisse24 I generally follow the same line of thinking - or, more simply, I tend to believe that if you can't think of a reason or role for a splat to be included, then that splat should not be included. I don't mean constant, 24/7 shepherding of every little detail; but rather why that group - and consequently the players - are in the area and what their interests are. Is it Werewolves hanging around because of a influx of wounds? Vampires trying to bring law to the lawless social structure that exists there? Mages fleeing from a Seer takeover two towns over and trying to re-establish their status quo? These require occasional staff input/storytelling <since this is, after all, a Storyteller system>, but I don't mean to imply that staff needs to run everything. Players can and should be fully encouraged to pick up a ball and run with it for a while - but first they need to be given a ball to run with.
And, you know, make sure they're informed they're playing a game that involves a ball, and not curling.

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.

I'd want late 1800's/early 1900's. Maybe even Old West
With the caveat that the 'transplanted' people weren't modern themselves, but rather maintained the outlook and mentality of whatever medieval tech level they came from. Why? Because they'll still look at everything as 'sorcery!', but technology of the day is both durable enough to endure a few barbarian-smashes, and ignorant enough of anything resembling 'safety' to hit back when struck in creative ways.

@tinuviel said in Ganymede's Playlist:

@aerianyx Aaand now I have to go watch Izzard again. Thanks.

This is also the bi-monthly reminder for all to download and install Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines.

@tinuviel Given that Jeanette/Therese Voerman are now not only canon for the lore in Vampire 5th, but also a freaking faction-type-thing you can gain status and stuff with...
I see that happening a lot more.

I loved the toys, but they were fragile as all heck. I remember having the dune buggy that turned into a flying thing, and the egg-shaped robot that turned into ... a ... scooter... that was also egg-shaped.

@ganymede said in Anyone else want Beast Wars back?:

@killer-klown said in Anyone else want Beast Wars back?:

I remember there was some meta that MASK (The tv show that involved vehicles converting into other vehicles) had ties to the TF/Joe universe; in that the MASK operatives were retired/detached Joes using Transformer technology in their vehicles, and VENOM was some offshoot or evolution of Cobra.

Recently, there was a Hasbro crossover event into the IDW universe, which publishes the new Transformer comics. It's not really an 80s thing, as far as I can tell.

There was a GI Joe / Transformers comic series published by Marvel back in the day. And I'm not ashamed to say that I have the full series in my basement.

Yeah, I meant more that the entire concept behind MASK was 80's weirdness - not the crossover. Between Transformers meta, GI Joe meta and the idea that MASK is some kind of non-organic bastard offspring of the two... the last one actually makes the most sense.

M2e did do a hell of a lot to fix what was broken in the system, it's true. The mechanics of casting was twisted just enough on it's axis to still be familiar in process to 1e players, but tone down the dumbfuckery you usually saw in the original system.
They made things like Rotes relevant not by making them more powerful, but by helping them mitigate those basic power reductions in specific ways.
The way spells work now, trying to buff your dice hacks is far less useful - vis a vis, in the old system dropping 9/8/rote could drastically increase your power since successes directly translated to one of your spell factors. In 2e you 'bid' ahead of time as to what your spell factors are (Which all start at the lowest level except for the primary factor; which starts at the primary arcana for the spell), and after a certain number of reaches you start losing dice from your pool. Once you've set your factors, successes only really factor in to how difficult it is to dispel your effect. Increasing your casting pool can give you more dice to play around with, but improving the reroll effects doesn't count for much since that happens after the factors are set.
Also, even though Paradigm really isn't a thing in nMage, I still think Paradigm is a thing in nMage. What I mean is I tend to focus on specific themes rather than just beefing dice/power. In oMage, that meant by necessity gaining mastery in certain arcana because that was the only way to improve the spellcasting - but that's not so much of an issue in 2e (See above re: Rotes); you can buy the arcana up to what you want, then buy a rote for the ability and usually not have to worry about going further in the Arcana unless you want to. This fits my gaming style nicely; I usually only have a handful of spells that I use regularly on any given character; while the pc can do all the other crap listed per arcana, I usually don't bother with it. That both helps in planning spends and keeps the options of what to do round by round to a manageable degree.

@bossmek said in Anyone else want Beast Wars back?:

Well, for a G1 game, there's Transformers Universe, it combos G1 Marvel Transformers and the Marvel G.I. Joe storyline in tandem
tfuniverse.mudhosting.net 1976

I exist there as Alley-Viper 301 (Hail Cobra!!)

I remember there was some meta that MASK (The tv show that involved vehicles converting into other vehicles) had ties to the TF/Joe universe; in that the MASK operatives were retired/detached Joes using Transformer technology in their vehicles, and VENOM was some offshoot or evolution of Cobra.
The 80s were weird, man.

@thenomain said in Changeling the Lost: 2nd Edition --

Beaten Down (CtL2e, p.327)
Personal

• Description: The character has had the fight knocked out of him.
• Effect: The character cannot take active part in the fight without extra effort. The player must spend a point of Willpower each time he wants the character to take a violent action in the fight. He can still run, Dodge, and apply Defense.
• Causing the Tilt: The character suffers bashing damage in excess of his Stamina or any amount of lethal damage.
• Ending the Tilt: The character surrenders and gives the aggressor what he wants. At this point the character regains a point of Willpower and takes a Beat, but can take no further action in the fight.

That's it. No mention of the aggressor needing to spend Willpower to keep attacking the victim.

I'm finding text closer to what you're quoting on p. 183 with the header "Optional Rules".

Yeah, from the RAW it's basically what happens when you get full up on Bashing damage - previously you were potentially unconscious (if I recall you had to roll stamina to stay up, but otherwise took wound penalties for being at zero health); in this case you're still conscious, but need to spend WP to continue acting.
That says nothing about anyone attacking you; and in truth, the ease of kicking people when they're down is something that anyone in this hobby should be familiar with on one side or the other.

No need to duck; 2e is better - and there are precious few 2e places out there.

Oh yeah. I have this one-pot roast potato dish I make in my dutch oven; potatos, bacon, cheese, garlic, first cooked on the stovetop then baked... you can imagine the kind of mess that leaves. Even with that, though, I think the cleanup is easier than with some of my nonsticks.

Yeah, cleaning cast iron takes a different mindset. For me, it was basically unlearning all the stuff that I was told to never do to a pan; so all those scouring powders, steel wool and whatnot that you can't use on stainless, aluminum or non-stick? Go to town. The key is you can't actually hurt the pan short of taking a grinder to it; so do whatever it takes to get stuff off of it.
The 'accepted' method I found was to heat it up, dump salt on it, then scrub it with a towel held in a pair of tongs; but I found this to be somewhat messy, what with all the scummy salt flying all over the place. Best option I found was something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/AMAGABELI-GARDEN-HOME-UTENSIL-CLEANER/dp/B01A51S9Y2/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1532009552&sr=8-2-spons&keywords=chainmail+scrubber+for+cast+iron+pans&psc=1

The thing works awesome. Put a little water and dish soap in the pan, scrub it down with the chainmail then rinse it out. I'm sure there are other manufacturers of this sort of thing, but make sure to get one that's stainless <not aluminum> and that the rings are welded closed - it's going to take a beating, what with being used to scrub cast iron, so if they're not sealed you risk them warping; which might cause the links to break, or at the very least drive sharp metal bits into the palm of your hand.

When you're done; dry the pan thoroughly, then bunch up a paper towel, smear some vegetable oil on it and use that to rub down the inside of the pan.

I...
I went on Amazon yesterday to check Instapot prices and availability.
I have a 10.5" square cast iron grillpan coming in tomorrow.
... help me...

I've been considering an instant pot; but first something's going to have to pry my hands away from my cast iron. Every time I start thinking about getting a new or different food preparation vessel, I just end up buying another Lodge.

No, really. I might have a problem. I was looking at barbecue skewers and some new silicon brushes - ended up coming away with this instead:
https://shop.lodgemfg.com/specialty/cast-iron-melting-pot.asp?gclid=CjwKCAjwyrvaBRACEiwAcyuzRGBghjPp-phwemOja9XTQlavS6EcDnRlAH_MvhEcvkoyuhcfKqy1KhoCtd0QAvD_BwE

@auspice Gotta show 'em who's boss. Bunnies - and apparantly this is a thing - love to do their exercises at like 5 in the morning. So mine get thrown in indoor hutches overnight. There, they can bounce off the walls all they want and I don't have to worry about someone finding out that fluffy paws+hardwood floors+darting around at mach 9 and turning in a manner that would give a Lightcycle whiplash don't necessarily mix.

@arkandel Hee. I've used Carnil for a number of video games and MMO's over the years. That, at least, still seems to be obscure enough.