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Topics - Kurt Christ

#1
Roger, are you responsible for the wind that accompanies rain, or is that another department? Right now, my school's campus is littered with insulation and ceiling tiles from god knows where, and 40 or 50 people have died in the state, 3 in the area of my hometown (I'm not sure if it was anyone I know, but I know was not family), and we had a tornado touch down a couple miles north of here. So yeah, I'd like to file a request to whatever deity is responsible to chill the fuck out.

PS: My school canceled classes today- which was a make up day for classes previously canceled due to weather.
#2
RPG Ghetto / Kurt's Homebrew Shitfest
January 29, 2011, 06:43:39 PM
I wasn't sure whether to put this here or Bring and Brag, so admins please move it back and forth repeatedly to piss each other off.
I made this for a timed RPG creation contest on /tg/, which had the stipulation that the core mechanic must use 2d6. Note that, due to time constraints, this didn't include everything I wanted to put in it (it's a very barebones system, and I wanted to throw in some examples for use or inspiration), but this is the version that was submitted at deadline. Also, the setting seeds were written by a collaborator, not me, but I wanted to present the entire submission to you spags.
QuoteStar Sopranos

Star Sopranos is a tabletop roleplaying game of space opera. To play this game, you will need two six-sided dice, some paper and a writing utensil. But, if you're here, it's safe to assume you know what a tabletop RPG is and generally how to play, so let's get down to the nitty-gritty.

Character Creation

Star Sopranos is designed to have a very simple character generation system, to facilitate creation of characters on the fly for impromptu games.
Step 1- Character concept
Space pirate with a heart of gold, rebellious half-breed son of an alien warlord, hotshot pilot looking to make his name in the space fleet. You fuckos know what a character concept is. Moving on.
Step 2- Attributes
This game has only two attributes for player characters- Body and Mind. Body rates your character's physical prowess, mind their mental and social aptitude. You have four points to spend on these attributes- you do not automatically start with points in either, but you are allowed to have a 0 in an attribute- you can still make rolls based upon it, you just do so without the positive modifier an attribute gives you.
Step 3- Skills
Skills in this game are very broad, both to make character creation and bookkeeping easier and to line up more with character archetypes than a real person's aptitudes are likely to. The skills are Nature (how well you can get along with animals, survive in wilderness unaided, etc.), Piloting (operating starships and other crafts), Astrography (knowledge of the places in the known universe and their associated cultures), Ranged Combat (shooting stuff), Close Combat (punching/chopping stuff), Science (technobabble), Socialize (smooth-talkery), and Crafts(making shit that doesn't qualify as technobabble). You have seven points to split between these.
Step 4- Equipment
The name of this section, while it describes the most common use of these points, is somewhat of a misnomer. Equipment points are also use to buy mutations, cybernetic implants, and psi powers. To represent the ubiquitous technology present in most space opera settings, players are given twenty-four points to spend on equipment.
Systems

When your character takes an action, roll 2d6 to determine the result. On unopposed checks, the result of the die roll is compared to a target number to evaluate success or failure. On opposed checks, if the defender rolls seven or more lower than the initiator, the action is successful. If the defender rolls lower than the initiator, but by six or less, the action fails, but the defender takes a cumulative -1 modifier on further attempts to resist the action until they have had time to recover. If the defender wins, the action fails outright- ties are considered wins for the defender. This type of check most frequently occurs in combat, in which a failure on the defender's part results in death or unconsciousness. Most rolls will be made using the following formula:
2d6 + Attribute + Skill + Equipment +(-) Situational Modifiers
Some rolls do not have a related skill, and only add an attribute. Some examples of what kinds of how rolls for each skill are handled:
Nature
Most Nature checks will use Mind as the attribute, such as foraging for food or calming an animal. Surving harsh weather conditions could be done with either Mind or Body, depending on how one's character goes about it.
Piloting
Any maneuver made while in a vehicle uses Piloting as the relevant skill, with Body or Mind being chosen as the attribute based on the GM's felling of which best suits the situation (manual dexterity or fast-thinking). When piloting a ship with an advanced computer system, it's System ranking can be substituted for the pilot's Attribute. Piloting is used when operating a ship's weapons, rather that either normal combat skill.
Astrography
This skill will almost never be used with Body. Astrography checks are used in plotting starship courses, recognizing alien species as what they are, and determining knowledge of the culture of far-away planets. For example, a failed Astrography check when encountering an exotic culture for the first time could lead to social a faux pas that causes a substantial penalty on Socialize rolls with members of the culture, while a failed check when navigating could throw your ship into the wrong sector of space entirely.
Ranged Combat
You use this to shoot lasers at people. You can also use it to shoot other things, too, but why would you want to? A ranged attack is made with 2d6+Body+Ranged Combat+your Equipment bonus. The defender rolls 2d6+Body+Equipment- there is no relevant skill for resisting ranged combat, unless the weapon is fired point blank, in which case Close Combat can be added to the resisting roll.
Close Combat
Punching people or swinging swords at them fall into this category. Attacks are resolved as 2d6+Body+Close Combat+ Equipment (if any), versus the defender's 2d6+Body+Close Combat+ Armor (if any). Close combat also add to a character's roll to avoid damage from point-blank ranged weapons.
Science
Science can be used to work on space ships and robotics, to perform medical procedures, and various other applications of knowledge. In starship combat, Science rolls can be used to boost the power of shields or weapons temporarily, at the cost of depowering other features. Roll 2d6+Mind+Science+Equipment- difficulty 10 to give a +1 to one feature, 11 to give a + 2, etc. to a maximum of +10.Success either reroutes power from another feature, giving it a penalty equal to the bonus for the duration of the bonus (such as rerouting power from the thrusters into the main cannon- maximum duration of a day, but it can be ended early if desired), or overloads the piece of equipment, giving it a bonus for a day, then a penalty until it is repaired (with a difficulty of 5+the penalty on a Science roll). To perform medical procedures with a Science roll, you must succeed on a roll with a difficulty of (2 + accumulated damage penalties) to remove one point of the penalty. Rolls for this can only be made once per hour per subject.
Socialize
This skill covers social interaction, especially trying to sway others in your favor. Its primary function is the seduction of green-skinned space babes, but rumors abound of it being used for other, arcane purposes, such as "diplomacy." If your character is using true arguments to attempt to sway others, it is treated as unopposed with a difficulty set by the other party's hostility (9 for friendly, 12 for neutral, 15 for negatively predisposed, 18 for hostile). If your character is lying, whether the other party believes the lie is settled by opposing rolls of 2d6+Mind+Socialize. Unlike in combat, the defender only has to fail by one for the lie to be believed.
Crafts
This skill is used to create and repair more low-tech items, as well as technology that has become extremely commonplace. Repairing damaged equipment can be done with a roll of 2d6+Mind+Crafts+Equipment with a difficulty of (4+the accumulated penalty on the equipment due to damage). I couldn't begin to cover all of the random shit people might decide to make here, so I'm not going to try. GM's discretion for the difficulty of crafting non-bonus giving items- items that give bonuses should be made at a difficulty of (4+2*the bonus given).

Equipment- this is the real meat of the game. Rather than attempt to stat every possible piece of futuristic hardware you could imagine, this game provides you with a generic set of bonuses and tags with which to construct equipment. Personal-scale equipment cannot exceed a +5 bonus; however, starships behave by a different set of rules than other equipment, given after the personal equipment rules.
Functions:
Range weapons cost two equipment points per each point of bonus they add to attack rolls.
Close combat weapons cost one equipment point per each point of bonus they add to attack rolls.
Armor costs one equipment point per point of bonus it gives to rolls to resist damage.
Non-combat tools cost one equipment point per point of bonus they give to relevant rolls (generally, a tool should only be able to add to one skill, and bonuses it gives to other skills should be payed for separately).
Tags (tags are applied on top of basic the functions listed above):
Mutation/Obvious Cybernetic Enhancement: +1 Cost, cannot be disarmed, but the feature is easily noticeable by others as abnormal.
Psi power/Discrete Cybernetic Enhancement- +2 cost, cannot be disarmed, not easily detectable.
Ablative- this tag can only be applied to armor. Ablative armor gives two points of protection for each equipment point spent on it, and can be bought up to +10 on a personal scale, in exception to the normal rules governing personal scale armor; however, ablative armor accrues a -1 every time it adds to a roll, regardless of success or failure, and when the penalty to rolls exceeds the original bonus offered by the armor, it is destroyed completely. Ablative armor can be repaired before destruction by a Crafts roll as normal.
Obvious- this piece of equipment is nearly impossible to hide (probably due to size, but it might make noise instead). -2 cost for tools and close combat weapons, -1 cost for ranged weapons.
Nonlethal- your weapons knocks an opponent out instead of killing. +1 if you can choose between nonlethal and lethal damage for the weapon, -1 if it only deals nonlethal.
Multi-tool- items with this tag combine multiple Functions in a single item. You only need the one thing, but if you lose it, you lose all of the functions, and damage causes penalties to all functions. Cost +0
Multi-targeting- The weapon can target multiple enemies. Cost +3 for each additional target possible.
Vehicles
Vehicles, such a starships and mecha, are built somewhat similarly to characters. They have two attributes and their own features; however, they lack skills, and and have a slightly different set of attributes- System and Structure.
Equipment points can be pooled among a party to construct shared vehicles.
System can be bought at a rate of 3 per equipment point spent- vehicles without any computer can use the pilot's Mind or Body (whichever is more appropriate to the circumstances) in place of their system of 0 for rolls. System is added to rolls for attacking with ship weapons and to rolls for maneuvering.
Structure can be bought at a rate of 5 per equipment point spent. Structure is added to rolls to resist damage.
Features for a starship are equivalent to equipment, and some equipment tags can be used for them. Penetrating and Multi-targeting can be bought for starship weapons- starships have their own variant of ablative armor.
Weaponry for ships can be bought at a rate of +5 per equipment point spent, but weapons of +10 or higher bonuses, a round must be spent cooling down before the weapon can be fired again. At +20 it becomes two rounds, and so on at every increment of 10. It is therefor advised to have alternating weapons on ships expecting to see much combat.
Shielding can be bought at a rate of +10 per equipment point spent. Shields must be brought down before firing weapons, and it takes a turn's action to reactivate them.
Ablative armor for starships is bought at the same rate as shielding, but does not need to be removed before firing weapons. It has the same drawback as personal scale ablative armor.
Points in thrusters are bought with equipment points at a one for one basis. One point in thrusters enables travel at 10% lightspeed, two points in thrusters enabled travel at 25% lightspeed, three points in thrusters enables travel at 50% lightspeed, four points in thrusters enables travel at 75% lightspeed, fige points in thrusters enables travel at lightspeed, and six points in thrusters enables arbitrarily fast FTL travel.

Combat
Personal combat
At the start of combat, all participants roll 2d6+Body+Mind top determine initiative . Highest results goes first, then the order proceeds down until you reach the lowest result, and the highest rolle rthen goes again. Reroll to sort out ties.
Attacks are resolved by the attacker rolling 2d6+Body+(Close Combat or Ranged combat)+Weapon Bonuses and the defender rolling 2d6+Body+(Close combat if applicable)+Armor Bonuses. If the the defender wins (tie go to the defender), nothing happens and it moves on the the next character's turn. If the attacker wins by less than seven, the defender takes a -1 penalty to all rolls to resist damage until they have healed (naturally at a rate of eliminating one point of penalty per day). If the attacker wins by seven or more, the defender dies or drops unconscious, as appropriate to the damage type.

Vehicle Combat
At the start of combat all participants roll 2d6+System+Piloting (of primary operator if the ship has a multiple person crew) to determine initiative. Aside from the roll involved, this behaves the same as initiative in personal combat.
Attacks are resolved by the attacker rolling 2d6+System+Piloting+Weapon Bonuses and the defender rolling 2d6+Structure+Armor Bonuses+Shielding Bonuses. A defending ship is destroyed if it fails its roll by more than seven- if it fails by less than seven, it takes a cumulative -1 penalty on future rolls as defender until it is repaired.
I may update this thread with other homebrew projects, guaranteed to be (mostly) free of methanol.
#3
Or Kill Me / The thrill is gone
December 06, 2010, 05:18:37 AM
The passion seems to have gone out of my relationship.
That is, my relationship with the government and the world. I find myself incapable of the depth and breadth of hatred I used to have. It's been too long since I felt a fire in my chest like I wanted to vomit magma at somebody. The recent issues with suppression of Wikileaks and the TSA have made me realize how cold and hollow my hatred of authoritarians has become. I used to want to eat their hearts and dance in the ashes of their empires- now I can't really stir much more concern than hoping that they at least leave me alone. Abuse of power has become pretty routine, and it normally doesn't affect me directly, but I even seem to have trouble stirring a fire in my belly against personal enemies. PD, this is a sincere request- teach me how hate with fire again.
#4
RPG Ghetto / Exalted discussion
November 23, 2010, 02:19:20 AM
I'm pretty sure that at least Epi has played it (I seem to remember you being on the WW boards). I don't have anything particularly inspiring for his post, just wondering who here has played it and what their thoughts are. A friend and I are working on a couple homebrew projects of varying scale, though I don't have very much substantial to show for them yet (a few charms into a Celestial Martial Art, a few Malfean charm concepts, and some fluff of a Primordial). Do you have any favorite houserules/fixes in your games?
#5
Techmology and Scientism / Spiders: How do they work?
August 05, 2010, 07:18:53 PM
Over this summer, I've found three wolf spiders in my house. All of them were found in either my sink or bathtub, so at first I thought they might be crawling up the drain, but a Google search seemed to indicate that it is more likely they fell in from above and couldn't get out. This most likely means there are more wolf spiders that have not been retarded enough to get stuck in a porcelain tomb. I have never seen them inside here before (they're not an indoor spider, really), and I don't think there have been any significant changes in anything around the house. Is there anything anyone (Kai) can think of that would make them more likely to come inside this summer than others?
#6
RPG Ghetto / ATTN: Kai and others
June 24, 2010, 04:40:57 AM
I thought of Kai when I saw this, which prompted me to come back here to share it. I thought that the good folks of peedee might get a kick out of this.
http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/the-gentlemens-entomology-club
Edited to fix link
#7
Aneristic Illusions / KAI, THEY'RE ON TO YOU!
February 08, 2010, 06:12:13 AM
RUN WHILE YOU CAN!
http://rawstory.com/2010/02/south-carolinas-subversive-activities-registration-act-force/
(you do live in South Carolina, right, or am I horribly confused?)
#8
Techmology and Scientism / Small success in AIDS fight
September 25, 2009, 07:49:55 AM
http://www.webmd.com/hiv-aids/news/20090924/aids-vaccine-success-modest

If anyone has more detailed information, I'd really like information on how the test was set up.
#9
Not sure if this is the right forum for this question, but, what is it about certain religions (specifically Christianity and Islam) that makes them so much more contagious than other, fairly similar religons (say, Judaism and Zoroastrianism)? Any thoughts, and any ideas on how to use it?
#10
Discordian Recipes / Golden Apples
April 19, 2008, 07:31:47 PM
I'm not sure whather to put this in OM or here, so move it if there's an issue.

I want to pull a stunt handing out Golden Apples of Discord to random people. So far, I've got this plan:
Step One: Buy a bag of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Delicious
Step Two: Eat about half of them, becuase I love those fuckers.
Step Three: Write Kallisti on the remainder.
Step Four: Go to a place with a decent amount of pedestrian traffic and hand out apples to random people.

My question is, what is non-toxic, non-bad tasting, easily obtainable, and easily readable that I can use to write on the apples?
#11
Principia Discussion / Saints
April 15, 2008, 02:48:49 AM
Sorry if this has been done to death, but I didn't see a topic on it on the front page and I'm too lazy to look beyond that.

Who, other than those mentioned in the PD itself, do you think is deserving of the status of Discordian Saint (Second-class or otherwise)?
#12
Literate Chaotic / A Question on Situationism
February 12, 2008, 10:25:25 PM
What I've read of the Situationist International has been interesting, but, for any of you who may have read any Situationist works, is it worth it? Are the ideas presented useful, or at least interesting? I know that Situationism was born out of Marxism, so would its ideas be sound if one does not believe Marx's historical theories are correct? If they are worth reading, what is a good book to start with? Include some of the more dense and in-depth stuff as well as lighter, introductory books.