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#1
RPG Ghetto / Re: Working on a setting, and ...
Last post by Pergamos - Today at 06:55:53 AMwell, maybe, if your job is biosphere engineering, or political organizing, or adjusting air chemistry. I'm also planning on including beehive as a playable character type.
#2
RPG Ghetto / Re: Working on a setting, and ...
Last post by Doktor Howl - Yesterday at 06:51:39 PMQuote from: Pergamos on Yesterday at 05:23:47 PMTTRPG, and yeah, basically skill check theater, making something other than combat crunchy in the way that combat usually is.
So this is "Going to Work, the RPG?"
I'm not saying it can't work. I'm saying good luck.
#3
RPG Ghetto / Re: Working on a setting, and ...
Last post by Pergamos - Yesterday at 05:23:47 PMTTRPG, and yeah, basically skill check theater, making something other than combat crunchy in the way that combat usually is.
#4
Featured / Re: The Subtitle Says This Is ...
Last post by Abbot Mythos - Yesterday at 06:09:06 AMReading the news about how our newest USN aircraft carriers are designed, and currently operated by the POSOTUS and his Turd Reich henchmen, has jogged my memories back to my old seafaring days. And, thankfully, not all of my memories from that time in my life are bad.
And so, while thinking about the issues the USS Gerald R. Ford has with something as basic as sanitary plumbing, I remembered what Jake the Plumber taught me aboard my old boat. Now, Jake was an "Airedale." ("Airedale" was slang for a sailor attached to an aviation unit, as opposed to ordinary "sea dogs" attached to a ship. Although, if alcohol was available when titles were discussed, we "ship's company" sailors preferred to be called "mighty seafaring men.") Anyway, Jake's family was in the plumbing business, and he intended to return to the family business at the end of his hitch in the Navy. And, Jake got his nickname from that, and the fact that he actually did look like, and often acted like a stereotypical plumber right out of central casting. (There was more, of course, to Jake than that, as it was he who was the first to recommend that I try the food at Los Caracoles, down near the harbor, in Barcelona. And so, I figured, if Jake the Plumber liked their food, then I would probably like it too. But, it was only later, after dining there several times, that I learned Los Caracoles was a world famous restaurant.) Anyway, it was also Jake the Plumber who taught me:
A plumber only needs to know two things:
1. Shit flows downhill.
2. Payday's on Friday.
Now, he never taught me:
3. Don't lick your fingers. (But, neither Jake, nor anyone else, needed to spell that one out for me.)
But, getting back to the USS Gerald R. Ford, it appears the ship's designers never learned basic plumping, because:
As per this article:
"The world's largest aircraft carrier is experiencing difficulties with a service that is an integral part of every sailor's life — the bathroom.
The USS Gerald R. Ford, which cost roughly $13 billion to manufacture and most recently played a part in U.S. strikes against Venezuela that saw the capture of its sitting President Nicolás Maduro, is facing consistent plumbing issues with the nearly 650 toilets aboard the vessel.
The complications primarily involve the Ford's vacuum collection, holding and transfer system, or VCHT, which transports and disposes wastewater by sucking fecal matter through pipes using pressure."
And, further along in this same article:
"Carter confirmed to Military Times in an emailed statement that the Ford averaged about one maintenance call per day and that those calls were often the result of "improper materials being introduced to the system.""
I'm suspecting that "improper materials being introduced to the system" is a Navy euphemism for "sabotage," similar to how "Racial Unrest" was once a euphemism for mutiny.
Now, from the little research I've done, it appears that VCHT systems utilize fresh water for flushing, rather than saltwater, and are usually found on civilian cruise ships. And, that's nice, but aircraft carriers are NOT civilian cruise ships. And so, this looks likes a costly, problem-some case of overenginnering, because, at sea on my old WWII Era boat, gravity did what now requires a vacuum pump. And, saltwater, pumped directly from the sea, simply flushed sewage downhill into the sea. But, when docked in port, the ship's sewer pipes were connected to a land-based sewer system having a waste treatment plant. And, I have no reason to believe the USS Gerald R. Ford does anything different when it's docked in port.
And so, while thinking about the issues the USS Gerald R. Ford has with something as basic as sanitary plumbing, I remembered what Jake the Plumber taught me aboard my old boat. Now, Jake was an "Airedale." ("Airedale" was slang for a sailor attached to an aviation unit, as opposed to ordinary "sea dogs" attached to a ship. Although, if alcohol was available when titles were discussed, we "ship's company" sailors preferred to be called "mighty seafaring men.") Anyway, Jake's family was in the plumbing business, and he intended to return to the family business at the end of his hitch in the Navy. And, Jake got his nickname from that, and the fact that he actually did look like, and often acted like a stereotypical plumber right out of central casting. (There was more, of course, to Jake than that, as it was he who was the first to recommend that I try the food at Los Caracoles, down near the harbor, in Barcelona. And so, I figured, if Jake the Plumber liked their food, then I would probably like it too. But, it was only later, after dining there several times, that I learned Los Caracoles was a world famous restaurant.) Anyway, it was also Jake the Plumber who taught me:
A plumber only needs to know two things:
1. Shit flows downhill.
2. Payday's on Friday.
Now, he never taught me:
3. Don't lick your fingers. (But, neither Jake, nor anyone else, needed to spell that one out for me.)
But, getting back to the USS Gerald R. Ford, it appears the ship's designers never learned basic plumping, because:
As per this article:
"The world's largest aircraft carrier is experiencing difficulties with a service that is an integral part of every sailor's life — the bathroom.
The USS Gerald R. Ford, which cost roughly $13 billion to manufacture and most recently played a part in U.S. strikes against Venezuela that saw the capture of its sitting President Nicolás Maduro, is facing consistent plumbing issues with the nearly 650 toilets aboard the vessel.
The complications primarily involve the Ford's vacuum collection, holding and transfer system, or VCHT, which transports and disposes wastewater by sucking fecal matter through pipes using pressure."
And, further along in this same article:
"Carter confirmed to Military Times in an emailed statement that the Ford averaged about one maintenance call per day and that those calls were often the result of "improper materials being introduced to the system.""
I'm suspecting that "improper materials being introduced to the system" is a Navy euphemism for "sabotage," similar to how "Racial Unrest" was once a euphemism for mutiny.
Now, from the little research I've done, it appears that VCHT systems utilize fresh water for flushing, rather than saltwater, and are usually found on civilian cruise ships. And, that's nice, but aircraft carriers are NOT civilian cruise ships. And so, this looks likes a costly, problem-some case of overenginnering, because, at sea on my old WWII Era boat, gravity did what now requires a vacuum pump. And, saltwater, pumped directly from the sea, simply flushed sewage downhill into the sea. But, when docked in port, the ship's sewer pipes were connected to a land-based sewer system having a waste treatment plant. And, I have no reason to believe the USS Gerald R. Ford does anything different when it's docked in port.
#5
Techmology and Scientism / Re: I forgot how to physics an...
Last post by chaotic neutral observer - Yesterday at 04:18:26 AMQuote from: Doktor Howl on July 17, 2026, 04:20:18 AMQuote from: chaotic neutral observer on August 04, 2018, 05:17:18 PMQuote from: Doktor Howl on August 04, 2018, 06:54:46 AMI can't argue with this sort of superior logic.When you spend six months designing and building a 200-ton robot monster, only to discover that a roomba with a salad fork duct-taped to it would have worked just as well, you think about these things.
I would still do it. For the aesthetic.
I have now reached the point in my career where I don't mind if the customer is asking for something entirely unnecessary, unprofitable, and even unsaleable, as long as it's fun for me to make.
When I was young and naive, I worked on a project that, as I found out later, contributed heavily to the bankruptcy of the customer. They asked for a thing they couldn't afford, and didn't have a transmission license for, and we gave it them. I believe there was a few million worth of telecoms equipment scrapped at the end of it. But, I learned a lot about signal processing along the way.
Now I am long of tooth and hideous of spirit, and over the next several weeks I will, by the Power of Science, transcend the limits of a certain obsolete and decrepit communications protocol, draining the blood of a poor guileless startup in the process.
I think I can succeed at what they're asking for, and it's sure as hell an interesting problem. But when they try to sell it, the response will invariably be, "That's pretty cool, but what would we do with it? It's ten years too late."
And I'm okay with that.
#6
Literate Chaotic / The Grinding
Last post by chaotic neutral observer - Yesterday at 01:13:23 AMThe squeaky wheel gets the grease, they say.
But neither upper management nor their flunkies understand the need for grease. Perhaps grease is not in the budget, or perhaps they think wheels are outdated, and no longer of use.
Yet the wheels continue to turn, and turn, and the squeaks are swelling into a horrid squealing chorus of failing bearings.
They don't like this sound. They don't understand it. It distresses them. But for me, it's a kind of revenge. They can only pretend reality doesn't matter for so long.
But neither upper management nor their flunkies understand the need for grease. Perhaps grease is not in the budget, or perhaps they think wheels are outdated, and no longer of use.
Yet the wheels continue to turn, and turn, and the squeaks are swelling into a horrid squealing chorus of failing bearings.
They don't like this sound. They don't understand it. It distresses them. But for me, it's a kind of revenge. They can only pretend reality doesn't matter for so long.
#7
Featured / Re: The Subtitle Says This Is ...
Last post by Doktor Howl - August 18, 2026, 05:30:52 PMNothing says "the next Belesaurius" quite like leaving your biggest supply dump 9 minutes flight time from your enemy, with 95% of his missiles able to make the reach.
We're fucking debil.
We're fucking debil.
#8
RPG Ghetto / Re: Working on a setting, and ...
Last post by Doktor Howl - August 18, 2026, 05:26:17 PMSo it's skill check theater?
Is this a video game or a TTRPG?
Is this a video game or a TTRPG?
#9
Discordian Recipes / Re: The Functionality of the B...
Last post by Abbot Mythos - August 17, 2026, 05:02:21 PMQuote from: Pergamos on August 17, 2026, 06:24:10 AMNow if I could just figure out the temperature and cooking time on this, we could have a vibrant forum once more.I can't offer you any help with temperature and cooking time. But, starting new metaphysical topics on the Discordian Recipes Board, rather than on the Principia Discussion Board, might be worth a shot. After all, it partially worked for this topic.
#10
RPG Ghetto / Working on a setting, and also...
Last post by Pergamos - August 17, 2026, 06:48:55 AMSo I am working on a system of mechanics. I want a game that decenters combat, and that centers biological engineering, social interactions, and plumbing. The setting is solar punk, on a space station. The aesthetic is weeds in the cracks. The setting diverges from our real world in the 90s, when the biosphere 2 experiments were being conducted, in the game world they were successful and biological science advanced enough to make constructed biosphere's in space practical. Africa ended up uniting and an international organization, with the US, Russia, China, the EU and the AU (African union) as members ended up constructing an international space station. Poop is an important resource, controlled by waste management, who are known as the shit lords. hoarding poop is a serious crime, and jenkem is a drug widely considered a scourge on society. Combat, if it occurs at all, is handled with a single roll and some free form roleplay. biosphere modification is a daily task, along with group politics such as propaganda, and crafting, on a more short term time scale there's mostly interpersional interactions, hacking, and plumbing, which includes atmosphere engineering. The rogue plumber in brazil is definitely an inspiration. Biospheres have varying degrees of biodiversity, and once they are diverse enough they start to alter their environment towards their ideal conditions. players can help or hinder that, and they can also work to change the biosphere so that it has different ideal conditions.