Sudanna
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Advance: Added Hard to Kill.
፨ Audrey Martel
Race: Goblin
Occupation: Hedge Witch, Sheriff, Former Pirate
Alignment: Bitter
Rank: Veteran
XP: 45
Attributes
Agility: d4
Smarts: d12
Spirit: d8
Strength: d4
Vigor: d8
Derived Statistics
Charisma: -4
Pace: 4
Parry: 3
Toughness: 6
Power Points: 15
Skills
Boating: d4
Climbing: d4
Intimidation: d6
Knowledge(Arcana): d4
Knowledge(Alchemy): d4
Knowledge(History): d4
Notice: d6
Riding: d4
Spellcasting (Smarts): d12
Streetwise: d6
Swimming: d4
Taunt: d6
Hindrances
One Leg (Major): With a prosthetic, One Leg acts exactly like the Lame Hindrance, reducing Pace by 2 and running rolls are now a d4. Without a prosthetic, the character’s Pace is 2 and she can never run. She also suffers –2 to Traits that require mobility, such as Climbing and Fighting. A character with one leg also suffers a –2 penalty to her Swimming skill (and Pace).
Mean (Minor): This woman is ill-tempered and disagreeable. No one really likes her, and she has trouble doing anything kind for anyone else. She must be paid for her troubles and doesn’t even accept awards graciously. Your character suffers –2 to her Charisma.
Ugly (Minor): Unfortunately, this individual hit more than a few ugly sticks on her way down the tree of life. Her Charisma is lowered by 2, and she is generally shunned by members of the opposite sex.
Edges
Resilient: +2 bonus to Vigor rolls to endure environmental hazards such as severe heat, cold, exhaustion, hunger, thirst, natural poisons and diseases.
Keen Nose +2 bonus to Notice, Tracking or Survival checks where a sense of smell could help.
Arcane Background (Smarts): This is the Edge your character must purchase to have any sort of magical, psionic, or other supernatural ability. See Chapter Five for a complete description of Arcane Backgrounds.
Strong Willed: Characters with strong willpower use their voice, steely stares, or quick wits to unnerve their opponents. Strong Willed adds +2 to a character’s Intimidation and Taunt rolls, as well as her Spirit and Smarts rolls when resisting Test of Wills attacks.
New Power x1: An arcane character may learn a new power by choosing this Edge (which may be taken multiple times). She may choose from any powers normally available to her particular Arcane Background.
Power Points x1: Wizards, weird scientists, and other arcane types always want more power. This Edge grants them an additional 5 Power Points. Power Points may be selected more than once, but only once per Rank.
Hard to Kill: This adventurer has more lives than a truckload of cats. When forced to make Vigor rolls due to Incapacitation, she may ignore her wound modifiers. This only applies to Vigor rolls called for to resist Incapacitation or death. She still suffers from wound modifiers for other Trait rolls normally.
Powers:
Mind Reading
Rank: Novice
Power Points: 3
Range: Smarts
Duration: 1
Trappings: Mental invasion.
Audrey forcefully enters another person's mind, looking for something. This is an opposed roll versus the target’s Smarts. A success allows her to gain one truthful answer from the subject. The target is aware of the mental intrusion unless Audrey gets a raise. The GM may apply modifiers based on the subject’s mental Hindrances or current state of mind.
Burrow
Rank: Novice
Power Points: 3
Range: Smarts x 2
Duration: 3 (2/round)
Trappings: Rapid tunnelling.
Audrey stomps her foot and shatters the earth, rapidly tunnelling to wherever she wants. She can remain underground or burrow to anywhere with a Pace equal to the power’s Range. When she emerges, it is in an explosion of dust and debris that gives a -4 penalty to trait rolls in a Small Burst Template centered on her for one turn, unless the target passes an Agility roll at -2.
Additional Targets: The power may affect an additional target for every additional Power Point spent, up to a maximum of five targets.
Concussion
Rank: Novice
Power Points: 2
Range: 10/20/40
Duration: Instant
Trappings: Telekinetic, sonic.
Audrey snaps her fingers, and a sudden explosion of invisible (but very loud) force occurs around her target's body. The damage of the spell is 3d6, and it applies a level of Bumps and Bruises.
Additional Damage: The caster may instead create a single 4d6 explosion for 3 Power Points. The more focused blast does not apply Bumps and Bruises.
Havoc
Rank: Seasoned
Power Points: 3
Range: Smarts x 2
Duration: Instant
Trappings: Telekinetic.
Audrey waves her arm, and invisible hands drag and throw people in random directions. With a success, she places a Medium Burst Template anywhere within range. Any character touched by the template must make a Strength roll (at –2 if the caster gets a raise). Any target that fails is knocked 2d6” in a random direction (roll a d12 and read the result as a clock facing) and becomes prone. If the target strikes an inanimate object, they are Shaken as well. Targets with cover may subtract the cover modifier from the total distance moved (to a minimum of 0), and flying targets suffer an additional –2 to their Strength roll. Additionally, roll a d6 to see if the flyer is moved toward the ground (1–2), stays level (3–4), or is moved away from the ground (5–6).
Additional Effects: For double the Power Points, Havoc affects a Large Burst Template.
Gear
$95
Peg Leg (Reduces One Leg penalties)
Cane (Parry +1, Str+d4)
Knife (Str+d4)
Horse
Saddle
Manacles
Lantern
20' Rope
Backstory
Audrey was born in Dilegad, to a carpenter and a boatmaker, and had a decent upbringing. With two working professionals, her family was able to afford a small bit of education for their children, which Audrey in particular excelled at. Not that Audrey ever took much interest in learning, preferring to hang around the docks and with the shady alchemist's kids. When she became an adult, maybe unsurprisingly, she decided that honest work was for fools and joined a privateer ship as their mage's apprentice, managing to impress the older witch with her intellect and the few bits of alchemy she'd picked up. She and her mistress sailed with various pirate or privateer crews for a long while, and Audrey eventually became a formidable witch in her own right.
However, the seas of Mote are always dangerous, and it's only a matter of time before any sailor has to face a horrible ship-eating monster. In the middle of the open ocean, a colossal shrimp attacked their vessel, and was driven off only after a desperate battle. Audrey survived, at least, though with one fewer leg and a lot more scars and burns. Her mistress had covered the shrimp in a grease fire, which became a lot less helpful when it got Audrey in its burning jaws. Her left leg had to be amputated at the knee, and most of her body, including her face, is covered in burns and scars from the monster's teeth and poisonous feelers. Better-off than most of the crew, maybe, including her mistress and the captain, but more than bad enough for Audrey to swear off piracy forever. She returned to Laessos and made a living as a wandering witch for a while, until her fearsome reputation got her a job as a sheriff in Wireld, where her hideous disfigurement is both an occasional asset and a perfect representation of her cruelty in her exercise of power. Her reputation for petty tyranny might have something to do with why Eshi is sending her away with the party as a representative of Wireld.
Audrey is almost forty, and is a relatively tall, thick, tough-looking goblin woman. She has many serious scars over all parts of her body, including withered skin from the giant shrimp's poison and burns around her left leg, arm, and side of her face. Her left eye is permanently bloodshot, she's missing a chunk of her nose, and her mouth is permanently twisted and scowling. A portion of her greying black hair no longer grows, due to her burns, and the rest is wild and frizzy, held back by a simple headscarf. She wears heavy black clothing and thick, well-worn robes open at the front. To compensate for her missing leg, she wears a simple peg-leg and uses a cane.
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Just putting my character sheet out there.
፨ Audrey Martel
Race: Goblin
Occupation: Hedge Witch, Sheriff, Former Pirate
Alignment: Bitter
Rank: Veteran
XP: 44
Attributes
Agility: d4
Smarts: d12
Spirit: d8
Strength: d4
Vigor: d8
Derived Statistics
Charisma: -4
Pace: 4
Parry: 3
Toughness: 6
Power Points: 15
Skills
Boating: d4
Climbing: d4
Intimidation: d6
Knowledge(Arcana): d4
Knowledge(Alchemy): d4
Knowledge(History): d4
Notice: d6
Riding: d4
Spellcasting (Smarts): d12
Streetwise: d6
Swimming: d4
Taunt: d6
Hindrances
One Leg (Major): With a prosthetic, One Leg acts exactly like the Lame Hindrance, reducing Pace by 2 and running rolls are now a d4. Without a prosthetic, the character’s Pace is 2 and she can never run. She also suffers –2 to Traits that require mobility, such as Climbing and Fighting. A character with one leg also suffers a –2 penalty to her Swimming skill (and Pace).
Mean (Minor): This woman is ill-tempered and disagreeable. No one really likes her, and she has trouble doing anything kind for anyone else. She must be paid for her troubles and doesn’t even accept awards graciously. Your character suffers –2 to her Charisma.
Ugly (Minor): Unfortunately, this individual hit more than a few ugly sticks on her way down the tree of life. Her Charisma is lowered by 2, and she is generally shunned by members of the opposite sex.
Edges
Resilient: +2 bonus to Vigor rolls to endure environmental hazards such as severe heat, cold, exhaustion, hunger, thirst, natural poisons and diseases.
Keen Nose +2 bonus to Notice, Tracking or Survival checks where a sense of smell could help.
Arcane Background (Smarts): This is the Edge your character must purchase to have any sort of magical, psionic, or other supernatural ability. See Chapter Five for a complete description of Arcane Backgrounds.
Strong Willed: Characters with strong willpower use their voice, steely stares, or quick wits to unnerve their opponents. Strong Willed adds +2 to a character’s Intimidation and Taunt rolls, as well as her Spirit and Smarts rolls when resisting Test of Wills attacks.
New Power x1: An arcane character may learn a new power by choosing this Edge (which may be taken multiple times). She may choose from any powers normally available to her particular Arcane Background.
Power Points x1: Wizards, weird scientists, and other arcane types always want more power. This Edge grants them an additional 5 Power Points. Power Points may be selected more than once, but only once per Rank.
Powers:
Mind Reading
Rank: Novice
Power Points: 3
Range: Smarts
Duration: 1
Trappings: Mental invasion.
Audrey forcefully enters another person's mind, looking for something. This is an opposed roll versus the target’s Smarts. A success allows her to gain one truthful answer from the subject. The target is aware of the mental intrusion unless Audrey gets a raise. The GM may apply modifiers based on the subject’s mental Hindrances or current state of mind.
Burrow
Rank: Novice
Power Points: 3
Range: Smarts x 2
Duration: 3 (2/round)
Trappings: Rapid tunnelling.
Audrey stomps her foot and shatters the earth, rapidly tunnelling to wherever she wants. She can remain underground or burrow to anywhere with a Pace equal to the power’s Range. When she emerges, it is in an explosion of dust and debris that gives a -4 penalty to trait rolls in a Small Burst Template centered on her for one turn, unless the target passes an Agility roll at -2.
Additional Targets: The power may affect an additional target for every additional Power Point spent, up to a maximum of five targets.
Concussion
Rank: Novice
Power Points: 2
Range: 10/20/40
Duration: Instant
Trappings: Telekinetic, sonic.
Audrey snaps her fingers, and a sudden explosion of invisible (but very loud) force occurs around her target's body. The damage of the spell is 3d6, and it applies a level of Bumps and Bruises.
Additional Damage: The caster may instead create a single 4d6 explosion for 3 Power Points. The more focused blast does not apply Bumps and Bruises.
Havoc
Rank: Seasoned
Power Points: 3
Range: Smarts x 2
Duration: Instant
Trappings: Telekinetic.
Audrey waves her arm, and invisible hands drag and throw people in random directions. With a success, she places a Medium Burst Template anywhere within range. Any character touched by the template must make a Strength roll (at –2 if the caster gets a raise). Any target that fails is knocked 2d6” in a random direction (roll a d12 and read the result as a clock facing) and becomes prone. If the target strikes an inanimate object, they are Shaken as well. Targets with cover may subtract the cover modifier from the total distance moved (to a minimum of 0), and flying targets suffer an additional –2 to their Strength roll. Additionally, roll a d6 to see if the flyer is moved toward the ground (1–2), stays level (3–4), or is moved away from the ground (5–6).
Additional Effects: For double the Power Points, Havoc affects a Large Burst Template.
Gear
$95
Peg Leg (Reduces One Leg penalties)
Cane (Parry +1, Str+d4)
Knife (Str+d4)
Horse
Saddle
Manacles
Lantern
20' Rope
Backstory
Audrey was born in Dilegad, to a carpenter and a boatmaker, and had a decent upbringing. With two working professionals, her family was able to afford a small bit of education for their children, which Audrey in particular excelled at. Not that Audrey ever took much interest in learning, preferring to hang around the docks and with the shady alchemist's kids. When she became an adult, maybe unsurprisingly, she decided that honest work was for fools and joined a privateer ship as their mage's apprentice, managing to impress the older witch with her intellect and the few bits of alchemy she'd picked up. She and her mistress sailed with various pirate or privateer crews for a long while, and Audrey eventually became a formidable witch in her own right.
However, the seas of Mote are always dangerous, and it's only a matter of time before any sailor has to face a horrible ship-eating monster. In the middle of the open ocean, a colossal shrimp attacked their vessel, and was driven off only after a desperate battle. Audrey survived, at least, though with one fewer leg and a lot more scars and burns. Her mistress had covered the shrimp in a grease fire, which became a lot less helpful when it got Audrey in its burning jaws. Her left leg had to be amputated at the knee, and most of her body, including her face, is covered in burns and scars from the monster's teeth and poisonous feelers. Better-off than most of the crew, maybe, including her mistress and the captain, but more than bad enough for Audrey to swear off piracy forever. She returned to Laessos and made a living as a wandering witch for a while, until her fearsome reputation got her a job as a sheriff in Wireld, where her hideous disfigurement is both an occasional asset and a perfect representation of her cruelty in her exercise of power. Her reputation for petty tyranny might have something to do with why Eshi is sending her away with the party as a representative of Wireld.
Audrey is almost forty, and is a relatively tall, thick, tough-looking goblin woman. She has many serious scars over all parts of her body, including withered skin from the giant shrimp's poison and burns around her left leg, arm, and side of her face. Her left eye is permanently bloodshot, she's missing a chunk of her nose, and her mouth is permanently twisted and scowling. A portion of her greying black hair no longer grows, due to her burns, and the rest is wild and frizzy, held back by a simple headscarf. She wears heavy black clothing and thick, well-worn robes open at the front. To compensate for her missing leg, she wears a simple peg-leg and uses a cane.
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The slith are actually pretty magically formidable, apparently, just not in the infrastructure-building way that humans are.
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My computer is currently out of commission on account of catching on fire, so I'll have to get back to you when it's fixed.
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The first two Geneforge games really do have spectacular art. G1 has that stark, heavy ink pen stuff with such beautiful detail work, and it so perfectly embodies the tone of the game. I get a really lovely Japanese vibe(like, historical japanese paintings, not anime [censored]) from G2, with all the soft shading and some of the posing. Unfortunately, it's all downhill from there. G3's art is cartoonish and just not very good, and G4's isn't bad but not really notable either, except for this one. And then G5 went with the 3D art, and while some of that hits, most of it misses.
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That's unfortunate. It's in my pile of books to read right now.
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The cultists have actually been associated with the Takers since G1. They have a little monastery-thing adjacent to the main Taker town in both G1 and G2, and it's mentioned that they work together. There are also independent cultists, though.
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As far as accessing fans goes, taking apart a laptop should be pretty simple. Fans are large and require easy access between the inside and outside of the case. Even with Apple laptops, it's simply a matter of removing the bottom plate of the case. You shouldn't need to remove any internal components. I would recommend looking for simple teardown guides for your model of laptop. See what you're getting yourself into. If it looks too much, then pass.
Lies.
I have to take every single thing out of this laptop to get at the fan. Hard drive, CD drive, all of the casing, the keyboard, the RAM, the graphics cards, half of the motherboard, both racks of external connectors, and if I don't take out the monitor too, I have to fiddle a lot to get it out. It's a nightmare and I always end up with unused screws afterwards. Dell hates clean fans.
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—Alorael, who will bite. Nalyd, how do you act as though you don't have free will?
Because there is literally no other way to behave.
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Acting as though at least you have free will is critical, though. But trivial, too; you can't, after all, behave as though you don't. That's not a behavior you can undertake.
Exactly the opposite approach, over here.
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It used to be that two armies would meet up in a field or some other decently out of the way location. Heck, even castles were usually just self-contained forts rather than major urban centers. They would duke it out and then the winner would be declared, including a formal surrender (or else retreat).
And then the winner would siege the loser's city, storm it, kill everyone they saw and take everything worth taking, and either occupy it or go home. Civilized! Unless, of course, they had a personal grudge to settle, then they would lay waste to every piece of infrastructure around and make the entire area uninhabitable for decades. Cordial, minimally destructive warfare is mostly a myth, and when it's not, it's only because what's being fought over just isn't worth that much.
In that case, we have a historical record that no two countries with nuclear armaments have gone to war with each other. Nuclear weaponry is a certain means of guaranteeing sovereignty, and in great enough proportion, even of establishing hegemony.For the absolutely worthless timeframe of less than a century. Sixty-ish years of relative, nominal peace between major powers is not exactly notable, especially after major, world-shaking conflict like the World Wars. If the choice was between, I dunno, the annexation of a region or the deployment of nuclear weapons, I would fully expect nuclear warfare from any state capable of it. It's absolute lunacy to say "Hey! Now that war is potentially more terrible than ever before, we'll never have war again! Every state will respect the sovereignty of every other, behave rationally and with humanitarian interests, and stop wanting things that other states have." This has been disproven many times.
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I'm always surprised by people painting this as a choice between an amphibious invasion of Japan and the use of the atomic bombs. Japan's an island. Its navy was in shambles. Its air force was in shambles. Its industrial capacity to replace these assets was in shambles. Extracting a formal surrender from the government seems, frankly, unnecessary.
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"The selected zone of attack covered six important industrial targets, and numerous smaller factories, railyards, home industries and cable plants. But is also included one of the most densely-populated areas of the world, Osakasaku, with a population of more than 135,000 people per square mile. Before Operation Meetinghouse was over, between 90,000 and 100,000 people had been killed. Most died horribly, as intense heat from the firestorm consumed the oxygen, boiled the water in canals, and sent liquid glass rolling down the streets. Thousands suffocated in shelters or parks. Panicked crowds crushed victims who had fallen in the streets as they surged towards waterways to escape the flames. Perhaps the most terrible incident came when one B-29 dropped seven tons of incendiaries on or around the crowded Kokotoi Bridge. Hundred of people were turned into fiery torches and splashed into the river below in sizzling hisses. One writer described the falling bodies as resembling 'tent caterpillars that had been burned out of a tree.' Tailgunners were sickened by the sight of hundreds of people burning to death in flaming napalm on the surface of the Sumida River. A doctor who observed the carnage there later said 'you couldn't even tell if the objects floating by were arms and legs or pieces of burnt wood.' B-29 crews fought superheated updrafts that destroyed at least ten aircraft and wore oxygen masks to avoid vomiting from the stench of burning flesh. By the time the attack had ended, almost sixteen square miles of Tokyo were burned out, and over one million people were homeless."
That wasn't an atomic bomb attack. That was a fire raid. Those are the sorts of bombings that were going on all the time over Japan before the atomic bombs were dropped. More than sixty Japanese cities had already been burnt off the map.
That's the context of the war where the atomic bombs were dropped. Unspeakable atrocity was the norm - it's how this war was fought, and the atomic bomb was just one more atrocity. "Conventional" warfare, "conventional" bombings, was not doing anyone any favors, least of all the Japanese. Did it constitute a war crime? Of [censored]ing course it did! Hundreds of thousands of people were destroyed! The atomic bombs are not morally unique just for being the worst single physical devices used.
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Dan Carlin's show has one of my favorite looks at the morality of the atomic bombs. WW2 was full of completely indiscriminate wide-area attacks and even attacks that clearly deliberately targeted civilians, from both sides. Military attacks on cities were okay by the rules of the game throughout WW2, again according to both sides. And it was a war of carpet-bombing and fire-bombing and wide-area artillery shelling and lines of tanks and massive troop movements. Attacks that were guaranteed to murder literally thousands of civilians were common. The atomic bombs were a difference of scale, not of kind, from the conduct that defined the entire war from beginning to end. You can argue whether that kind of warfare can be morally justified at all - and in fact, that show labels military attacks on cities as a categorical war crime - but the atomic bombs really cannot be differentiated from any other event in the war except maybe in the diplomatic context of trying to demand surrender.
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Okay, at risk of being flamed...
[soapbox]
No offense, but re abortion I'm more than a bit sickened by the idea of male-bodied people having any say in it at all. Our bodies cannot host a fetus, and we don't get to dictate anything to those whose bodies can.
[/soapbox]
And people who don't provide healthcare can't comment on the morality of it, and only interrogators can decide torture policy, and people who aren't executioners can't say whether the death penalty is okay or not, and people who don't personally have nuclear weapons don't get to choose how those who do use them. . .
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Healthcare, yes.
Education, yes.
Internet, yes.
Reproduction, yes.
Torture, prohibited always.
Suicide, yes always.
Death penalty, other. The death penalty should be applied not for any particular crime, but when its application would have positive effects on the future. I have no interest in purely punitive justice.
Abortion, on request.
Rights acquisition, other. People gain rights when they can be trusted with those rights. That's different times for everyone.
Nukes, yes. If you've decided to kill a lot of people anyways, the method doesn't really make it any more or less ethical.
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That has no bearing on free will, either way. The origin of my will is either randomness built into basic physical laws, or deterministic cause and effect stretching back to the beginning of the universe. Neither of those things are me making anything, let alone an impossible choice.
Never mind that we don't have to fully perceive everything, or anything, about the universe for it to function. The limits of statistics and measurements are not necessarily the limits of the universe. Could be, but could not be.
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Free will in that sense communicates nothing meaningful whatsoever. If you can only possibly make one choice, then you aren't making any choices at all. It is, by definition, impossible to make a choice - you have no original input on that process. Everything that feels like "making choices" to the conscious mind are just the effects of causes that lie outside of the self. You're a part of the universe and the product of the same physical forces as anything else - does Earth -choose- to orbit the sun, just because the physical laws that determine the chain of cause and effect have resulted in an outcome where it can do nothing but orbit the sun? Does my computer -choose- to operate in the specific way it is operating right now? No. It doesn't have choice. I am not fundamentally different, and the perception that I am is cognitive illusion. Why would you differentiate the mind - whatever that is - from this system? Where does free will - and the act of choosing that it requires - come from? Does only my brain have agency? Does all of it, or just specific structures? Do individual neurons have agency? Do the atoms making them up?
Anything that doesn't create itself with zero input from anything else - anything that is in any way bound by causality - cannot possibly have a choice. And I can't imagine what something unbound from causality would look like, so the discussion of such a thing is ultimately worthless. Free will is a completely meaningless idea. It is ill-defined in the first place and sets up inherent and irresolvable contradictions in the nature of the universe as we know it. It should be discarded as simply as the four elements are discarded.
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Since Kepling died, I guess I'll finally release his -super secret- character sheet that never really amounted to much.
፨ Kepling
Race: Lacewing
Occupation: Contractor
Alignment: Shifty
Rank: Seasoned
XP: 41
Attributes
Agility: d10
Smarts: d6
Spirit: d4
Strength: d8
Vigor: d6
Derived Statistics
Charisma: 0
Pace: 8
Parry: 8
Toughness: 8 (5+3 Armor)
Skills
Climbing: d6
Fighting: d8
Lockpicking: d6
Notice: d6
Persuasion: d4
Stealth: d8
Streetwise: d6
Edges
Limited Flight: vertical movement has twice the movement cost of horizontal movement; make a Vigor roll every round to stay in the air or be forced to land.
[secret] Connections (Broken Hands)
Assassin: +2 to any damage roll against an unaware enemy.
Thief: +2 to Climbing, Lockpick, and Stealth rolls. +2 to Notice or Repair rolls relating to traps. Stealth bonus only active in an urban environment.
Windows to the Soul: Once per session, you can look into a person's eyes and catch a glimpse of their mind, seeing their hopes and fears. When you do this, draw a single card from the Action Deck and consult the Portents Table (Horror Companion, Page 29).
[secret] Rubente Dextera: You can channel the force of your will through your sword-arm, inspiring awe and terror in lesser mortals with the force of your blows. The first time you inflict a Shaken result or better on a particular target in melee combat, they must immediately make a Fear check.
First Strike: Once per turn, the hero (if not Shaken) gets a free Fighting attack against a single foe who moves adjacent to him. This automatically interrupts the opponent's action and does not cost the hero his action or has not yet acted this round.
Acrobat: Adds +2 to all Agility rolls made to perform acrobatic maneuvers (including Trick maneuvers), and also adds +1 to a character’s Parry as long as he has no encumbrance penalty.
Extraction: When a character normally withdraws from a melee, his attacker gets a free attack before he does so - a very dangerous proposition for most. Your hero is adept at retreating from an engagement. Make an Agility roll. If successful, one opponent doesn't get a free attack anytime you disengage (See Page 87).
Improved Extraction: As above but if you succeed with a raise all opponents currently in melee with the character lose their free attack as your warrior withdraws.
Fleet-Footed: The hero's Pace is increased by +2 and he rolls a d10 instead of a d6 when running.
Hindrances
Wanted(Major): Kepling is a wanted bug, and avoids the law whenever possible. [secret] Member of the Broken Hands, an infamous crime family. Has killed and stolen for them.
Cautious
Doubting Thomas: -2 to supernatural Fear checks.
Gear
$0
Katana: Str+d6+2 damage, 6 weight, 1000 cost
Reinforced Leather Armor: +2(+1) Armor, 20 weight, 200 cost
Lockpicks: 1 weight, 100 cost
Grappling Hook: 2 weight, 50 cost
Basic Supplies: 10 weight
Silver and Onyx Circlet: +2 to Spirit rolls vs. mental effects
Cricket Cloak: +1 Armor. Can be activated for 2/2 PP to cause all creatures within a Small Burst Template centered on the wearer to make Vigor rolls at -2 or be Shaken. Creatures without hearing are unaffected: sonic trappings.
Cover Backstory: Kepling was born and raised in Port Jynt, but ran away from home early in his life. Stowing away on a ship to a far more populous city, Kepling found himself alone, with no money, no home, and nobody to help. He soon resorted to crime to survive. And, as, over the years, survival became a matter of course, for profit.
As his skills for discovering dangerous secrets and obtaining precious items became better-known in the right circles, the lacewing began to gain clients and contracts. It is one such client that wishes to know the secret of the bloodstained sky.
Real Backstory: Kepling's always been a bad sort. Though born in Port Jynt, he ran away from home at a young age, living on the streets for a brief time before stowing away on a ship to a far more populous city. A penniless, homeless street urchin with no connections, Kepling soon fell to thievery, and as he matured, thuggery. These were activities that he showed a unique talent for. Nimble and quiet, the small lacewing found as much success as a lone thief can. And this small success brought some small attention with it.
The Broken Hands are a powerful and widespread criminal organization, 'known' for their impenetrably secret inner workings. Legends speak of a truly crippled cabal of masters, with maimed hands - their organizations are their "hands" now. Legends may be true or false, though - and to anyone not a part of the family, the Broken Hands operate much as a criminal organization would be expected to.
At the base of their many and varied activities, they employ many thugs, thieves, merchants, informants, scam artists, and other criminals of any stripe. Though kept outside of the organization proper, these. . . contractors are paid and given some benefit of the resources of the Broken Hands. They are also the first place to look when there's a real position to fill. Kepling was one of those contractors for a while. And now Kepling is a part of the family - a Broken Hand.
Provisionally.
When rumors began to circulate that the Broken Hands showed interest in the strange happenings on Eressos, Kepling saw his chance. He told his contacts that he holds special knowledge of the island, which is true enough. He offered to apply this knowledge in the pursuit of that island's mystery. And, in return, he has been made a Broken Hand, at least in name. Whether that status remains or is rescinded depends on the secret of the bloodstained sky - and if Kepling can deliver it.
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1. Hard determinism. Free will is a meaningless phrase stemming from the cognitive illusions of our conscious minds. It signifies absolutely nothing. It is an empty altar.
2. Skepticism. Nothing can be trusted, everything is superstition. Speaking of altars.
3. What Alo said.
4. Nihilism. Right and wrong are human inventions, not features of the universe.
5. Evaluating the worth of actions and the worth of the person performing those actions are different questions. That said, strict consequentialism is the only way to determine whether an action is right or not.
6. Physicalism. I'm not a barbarian.
7. I take my nihilism black. No hedonist sugar or existentialist cream. Nihilism. Nothing else. Nothing at all, in fact.
I dunno why some people have trouble taking simple philosophical positions to their logical extremes.
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There's this cool Roman myth of this rich farmer named Cincinnatus*, who was selected to become the Dictator of the Roman Republic during a time of crisis. He dutifully led the Romans through war successfully, earning the admiration of his peers. He would have been able to be Rome's first emperor, most likely. However, after the war was over, he absolved power and restored the Republic. Because of that humility and lack of corruption, he was held by many to be the ideal Roman man.For some reason, Cincinnatus is held up as exceptional for this, when it was standard Roman policy. He was neither the first nor the last man appointed dictator of Rome (which was an actual job title) who stepped down after serving his term.
Not exactly a myth, he was a real guy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_dictators
Everyone on that list up to Julius Caesar either gave up their power or died in the middle of serving in the office and almost certainly -would- have given it up. Even Sulla, who was a bloodthirsty tyrant that emptied Rome of every conceivably threatening populari by posting lists of people he would pay you to kill in public squares and dismantled all legal development from the last 200 years of the republic, gave up the dictatorship. Him trying to do so much in so little time is probably why it all immediately fell apart, too. It's not exactly a mark against Caesar that he appointed himself dictator for life - the republic had just gone through two generations of full civil war and was effectively broken, and the attempted reforms of the last guy (who had a directly opposed ideology as well, but still) failed because Sulla didn't take his time. Caesar was actually a merciful and fair reformist autocrat.
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Yeah, that was not the elimination of a government, that was reform. Radical reform, sure, but nothing was destroyed. Also, I would remind you that there totally was an armed rebellion against the US under the Articles. People died and everything.
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1. 20
2. America. America. America. I've been to a lot of other places though.
3. English. I had German classes from kindergarten to eighth grade, which I remember nothing from.
4. Descended from immigrant Hungarian gypsies.
5. Hatred and surrender. Apathy and despair. In that order.
6. I believe there is no divinity.
7. Date me.
8. My mom's a retired teacher, my dad is a civil engineer. Is that still middle class? Anyways, I scorn family and will be a comfortable step down in class.
9. Nope.
10. I'm a machinist. I flunked out of college after a year.
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As time goes on, I'm more and more convinced that the broad ideological structure of a government is at best tangentially related to its quality.
Just finished Avadon. My thoughts and opinions...Obviously spoilers
in General
Posted
Really, if you're going for realism, any hit points-based system should be right out the window. . . if it helps, in my head I don't conceptualize hit points as "how many direct sword wounds can you take", but a sort of abstracted blend of general defense, minor wounds, and fatigue? Like, a character being at 13/40 hit points doesn't mean they've taken several arrows to the chest, but instead have taken a couple minor wounds(small lacerations, bruises, w/e), are tired, their attention is fraying, maybe some equipment damage, etc, and only the final blow is going to be a really serious one. Characters take a minute after fights to catch their breath and otherwise recover. Makes enough sense for me.