TRPG General Chat

BESW

8:01 AM

Woot!

doppelgreener

I'm gonna make a small modification to my drawer tabs too.

They're going to have tiny titles beneath their icons:

like what tabs on mobile apps often have.

BESW

[approve]

doppelgreener

I was not content with just leaving them as icons-only: it's hard work to find the right icon and there's usually just not an icon that fits.

BESW

doppelgreener

@BESW that is quite impressive. What is it?

BESW

8:09 AM

An astronomical clock in Prague, from the 1500s.

doppelgreener

oh wow

Prague astronomical clock

The Prague astronomical clock, or Prague orloj ( ), is a medieval astronomical clock located in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. The clock was first installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still working. Description The Orloj is mounted on the southern wall of Old Town City Hall in the Old Town Square. The clock mechanism itself is composed of three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position of the Sun and Moon in the sky and displaying various astronomical details; "The Walk of the Apostles", a clo...

A clock for astronomy.

BESW

Hey, that's what Stonehenge was.

doppelgreener

[develops conspiracy theory]

@BESW i did not know this

BESW

At certain times of the year (or at intervals even further apart), various astronomical bodies lined up with different stones and combinations of stones.

When the sun rises between these two pillars, it's time to plant a certain kind of crop.

doppelgreener

Oh! asdlkjadglkjasglkjadsg

I was thinking astrology

now I like this much more.

BESW

8:13 AM

Yes, well, they may have been confused on the issue too.

lisardggY

Here's one from the 1st century BC.

Antikythera mechanism

The Antikythera mechanism ( or ) is an ancient analog computer designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was recovered in 1900–1901 from the Antikythera wreck, but its significance and complexity were not understood until a century later. Jacques Cousteau visited the wreck in 1978 but, although he found new dating evidence, he did not find any additional remains of the Antikythera mechanism. The construction has been dated to the early 1st century BC. Technological artifacts approaching its complexity and workmanship did not appear again until the 14th century AD, when mechanica...

BESW

And here is a Polynesian chart of the winds, waves, and islands.

doppelgreener

@BESW How is that used?

BESW

Largely unknown. The art is partly lost.

But it lets you look at the currents and wind while you're on open blue ocean without a dot of land in site, and know exactly how to get where you're going.

doppelgreener

@BESW that is pretty amazing. :I

<div id="h-scroll" role="scrollbar" aria-controls="tabletop" aria-orientation="horizontal" aria-valuemin="0" aria-valuemax="100" aria-valuenow="0">
<div id="v-scroll" role="scrollbar" aria-controls="tabletop" aria-orientation="vertical" aria-valuemin="0" aria-valuemax="100" aria-valuenow="0">

I'm just going to take a moment to say I love the fact there is now actual support for programming your own scrollbars in HTML5 (if you use ARIA)

BESW

8:21 AM

@JonathanHobbs It's not even a proper map in any way we understand them. The relationship of map elements to each other aren't primarily based on distance and geographic location

doppelgreener

meanwhile my inner programmer and inner experience designer are battling it out over whether the scrollbars should go from 0-99, 1-100, or 0-100.

@BESW sounds like it's meant to be used like a sextant or something.

BESW

But for currents and wind.

And because it's tactile, it can be used at night without light.

doppelgreener

@BESW what

BESW

You can feel the winds and the currents without seeing them, and you can feel the sticks and the shells.

doppelgreener

I think it needs to go to 100 because ending at 99 just feels incomplete. And I think it needs to start at 0 because 0 is where you are at nothing, the beginning, no scroll distance from the edge.

I guess that means scrolling goes from 0% to 100%, too!

neat. ok, I'm going with that.

BESW

8:24 AM

Sounds good to me.

doppelgreener

@BESW you can feel the currents?

BESW

Put your paddle in the water, feel the tug on the boat...

doppelgreener

@BESW I see... :)

BESW

Of course, it's easier if you have light to see them.

doppelgreener

naturally

@BESW Have you boated much? (whatever the verb or term is)

BESW

8:28 AM

I have not.

Seasickness is embarrassing for an islander. [sigh]

Also, sailing safely is expensive.

doppelgreener

@BESW oh right. bitey fish to worry about and etc.

BESW

Inspections, berthing, flotatiom foam...

My dad had a small craft in the back yard for a while, but since he'd salvaged it off the bottom of the harbor my mother didn't let him go out in it unless he used flotation foam on it first.

He never did.

I did a little bit of inflatable-raft rowing with him on the Talofofo River and in the Talofofo Bay, though.

doppelgreener

@BESW ... that is an understandable reason to be concerned about someone using a boat

BESW

If I'd been in my mom's place, I don't think I would've allowed it with floatation foam.

For years he also wore a watch he'd found on the bottom of the harbor... because it was glowing enough that he noticed it.

Radium dials

Radium dials are watch, clock and other instrument dials painted with radioluminescent paint containing radium. The 1900s (decade) were the peak of radium dial production, as radiation poisoning was then unknown; subsequently, radium dials have largely been replaced by phosphorescent- or occasionally tritium-based light sources. Brands *Undark produced by the United States Radium Corporation *Luna produced by the Radium Dial Company *Marvelite produced by the Cold Light Manufacturing Company (a subsidiary of the Radium Company of Colorado) History Radium dials were almost always painted...

lisardggY

So you're saying there's radioactive waste at the bottom of your harbor?

BESW

8:42 AM

Psh, that's nothing new.

lisardggY

And you're in the pacific ocean, not far from Japan.

It's like the conversation is leading us back to Godzilla.

doppelgreener

@lisardggY I think he might be very very far from japan though

BESW

The Army did uncontrolled dumping both on land and in the sea for several decades here.

doppelgreener

@BESW wow.

lisardggY

@JonathanHobbs Nonsense. They're both on the other side of the world, so it stands to reason they're close to each other. :)

BESW

8:43 AM

Our main dump is always on fire, and sometimes a farmer digs up a can of mustard gas.

doppelgreener

@BESW what

BESW

@JonathanHobbs Or an unexploded bomb from WWII.

doppelgreener

@BESW in a pile that is always on fire

how many times has this pile exploded?

BESW

@JonathanHobbs No, the bombs and mustard gas are just buried around, under roads or farmland.

@JonathanHobbs Most of the time it's not visibly on fire. It smolders deep down, until the rain cuts paths for oxygen to reach the fire.

doppelgreener

oh goodness.

lisardggY

8:46 AM

I remember a school trip where a not-particularly-intelligent classmate wanted to take a leak and walked over to a convenient tree, inside a mine field.

BESW

Then it leaps to the surface and everyone living nearby gets to spend the weekend in a hotel at the government's expense.

lisardggY

Still quite a few of those scattered near the north border, leftovers from the 1973 war.

BESW

Because when the military ceded control of the island to the local government, they "gave" us the dump and now we're responsible for it.

@lisardggY ...... did he survive?

lisardggY

@BESW Sure. 95% of the mines have long since rusted to inactivity, and there probably weren't that many there to begin with. But it's quicker and cheaper for the government to just put signs saying "Minefield, do not enter", rather than dig around for all the mines, most of which aren't even documented.

BESW

Yeah.

We've got Japanese boltholes in the cliffline at the heart of our capitol city, which still aren't fully explored.

Every now and then a homeless guy or a reckless teenager finds a grenade or something.

lisardggY

8:50 AM

I remember a few years ago someone was renovating his house in Tel Aviv and uncovered a munitions stash left behind by the Resistance movement against the British in the 40's.

BESW

Sigh.

I just got a really sarcastic response to a comment asking that an answer to a "is there canon?" question provide canon citation instead of independent speculation.

lisardggY

Which one?

BESW

0

A: Why are Dragons "Always X" alignment?

Reptiles are largely instinct driven creatures. Dragons to are somewhat like reptiles (see Wikipedia quote), and while they seem intelligent (in a free choice kind of way), it is possible that their instincts are just much more complicated thus giving the appearance of that, when the biological p...

lisardggY

I also see people still digging into the whole Tasha Lem/River Song thing, which really surprised me because I saw absolutely no indication for this whatsoever.

BESW

Yeah, but if you like River Song it's a seductive theory.

Moffat isn't helping matters by regularly turning random coincidence into major plot-driving contrivances.

Also, if a person is "not familiar enough with the D&D universe, not even their primary sources" to talk informedly about dragon alignments, why is the same person doing a self-answer question about dragon alignments?

lisardggY

9:09 AM

@BESW It wasn't even a particularly coherent answer to a badly phrased question.

BESW

One skill some writers struggle with (myself included) is being able to tell whether what you've written effectively communicates what you're thinking, or if you're just so familiar with your intent that you read between the lines without knowing it.

lisardggY

Writing workshops are very useful in developing that skill.

BESW

Yes.

It's also one of the secondary purposes of SE, originally, or so I'm told.

doppelgreener

@Julix I... strongly advise against being caustic here. We try to be good-natured and appreciate the same. There's good reason to be cautious about speculation. An answer based on canon (and not venturing too far from it) can be quite reasonably agreed upon by players around a table, whilst speculation that wanders far from canon or has little to do with it is in a danger zone: it could end up contradicted by the canon itself, and since it's entirely speculation, the players have no neutral reason to accept it as anything beyond stuff any of them could equally make up and contend. — Jonathan Hobbs 1 min ago

BESW

Thanks. I'm not sure that's the real issue, though.

doppelgreener

9:21 AM

ok the chat server is caching my comment

BESW

The question asked for "the in-canon reason," and Julix's answer (while partly inspired by canon) is not that.

If the question were different, the answer might be fine.

Anything else is probably just distracting from the actual issue, and putting the argument into fuzzier territory where there's no real constructive answer.

doppelgreener

I looked up "caustic" and "found sarcastic in a scathing and bitter way" -- I really didn't mean to be! I honestly appreciated the feedback that my post was too speculative, so I went ahead and backed it up as good as I could. — Julix 29 secs ago

BESW

...that's nice.

lisardggY

9:42 AM

I was actually considering answering the second, newer Dragon and Alignment question, but now it's closed.

Because I think the focus there on the buffs the bard has imply that the question was actually about whether a high enough Diplomacy roll can cause someone to act outside their alignment.

BESW

Yeah... it's a deep, deep hole with alignment debates at the bottom.

And alignment debates are very, very dangerous.

lisardggY

@BESW Indeed. And we know that we Don't Want To Go There(tm)

BESW

People get really bent out of shape when I prove that 3.5 alignment is objective.

lisardggY

That's not even the fundamental issue, the way I see it. It's the question of whether your actions dictate your alignment or your alignment dictates your actions. Which often boils down to the No True Scotsman fallacy.

BESW

Actually, the real cause of tension is that people try to equate an RPG's alignment mechanic with their own real-world beliefs about morality.

It's impossible to map the four-alignment axis to real-world morality paradigms in any useful way, but it's easy to think you've managed to do it... until challenged.

And then it's not a game-mechanic debate, it's a challenge to your personal ethics and morality.

lisardggY

9:48 AM

And digging even deeper is that Alignment in 3.5 isn't a well-thought out mechanic, but a historical remnant. Alignment mechanics aren't a bad thing when they serve an explicit purpose in a game. D&D doesn't really know what it wants to do with it.

BESW

3.5 alignment is simultaneously impossible to root out of the system, and impossible to define usefully.

lisardggY

I liked old Redbox D&D, where alignments (the one axis Moorcock-inspired Lawful/Chaotic alignments) actually all had their own languages

BESW

Alas, I have no practical experience with any D&D edition prior to 3.0.

(And precious little 3.0: I taught myself on 3.0, and was then handed the 3.5 books to GM by before my first game.)

lisardggY

1e and oD&D treated alignments as metaphysical but very palpable entities.

3.x tried to mellow it because (I think) it felt too simplistic/cartoonish, but they ended up not going far enough.

BESW

They also seem to have not had a setting bible.

doppelgreener

9:55 AM

I just became a Defender of the Realm

BESW

That's a big responsibility. Do you think you can handle it?

lisardggY

@BESW True. For settings like Dragonlance, for instance, good and evil are also distinct polar opposites with this distinction important for mechanics. Other settings? Less so.

doppelgreener

@BESW I think so, I seem to do an awful lot of it already!

lisardggY

Order of the Defender of the Realm

The Most Esteemed Order of the Defender of the Realm (Darjah Yang Mulia Pangkuan Negara) is a Malaysian federal award presented for meritous service to the country. The Order Motto are 'Dipeliharakan Allah-Pangkuan Negara' (Lit:Protected by God-Defender of the Realm,By the Grace of God-Defender of the Realm). The order was instituted on 6 August 1958 and initially had the five highest ranks. The medal was added on 19 August 1960. Order ranks {|align=center class=wikitable width=50% ! colspan=3 | Ribbon pattern of the ranks |- |width=33% valign=top align=center|S.M.N. |width=33% vali...

?

BESW

@lisardggY winterbash2013.stackexchange.com/defender-of-the-realm

lisardggY

9:57 AM

Ooh, it seems I have it on Programmers.SE.

doppelgreener

lisardggY

Must be the flood of prostitution spam I flagged last week.

BESW

@lisardggY Phrases I never thought I'd encounter #7352: "the flood of prostitution spam."

lisardggY

"Wait, did he mean prosciutto ham"

BESW

Trogdor's over, afk

doppelgreener

10:17 AM

@CatLord King Wolf's source book just got added to this question, just fyi. I flagged as obsolete your comment requesting the source book and the asker's reply perhaps a bit too soon! So if you don't get a notification, here's one!

Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology - Anonymous — Bobson Apr 19 at 17:47

... I really like what this person did there.

BESW

> Any sufficiently advanced society will mistakenly believe all magic to be unknown technology.

doppelgreener

@BESW hahaha

Cat

11:45 AM

Hey @ProfessorLokiCaprion

Professor Loki Caprion

Hellu! :D

Cat

How have the holidays been treating you?

Professor Loki Caprion

So far, lots of stress!

But that's typical, I guess.

How about you?

Cat

Uh oh! I guess I've been lucky to dodge that bullet so far this year.

Though I guess there's still new year's...

Watch any Sci-Fi marathons or do any gaming over the past week?

Professor Loki Caprion

We did board gaming!

Cat

11:50 AM

Nice! Any new games/

?

BESW

Trogdor and I are playing Butcher Bay.

Cat

Never heard of it @BESW

Professor Loki Caprion

Did my Pathfinder game and my Torg game, too!

BESW

It's a Riddick franchise video game.

Cat

Sounds like fun

Professor Loki Caprion

11:51 AM

And yes! We played A Study in Emerald, Shadows Over Camelot and Rampage!

Cat

Ugh, I have to find my Pathfinder MM so I can get one of those games started

Sounds like a regular cavalcade!

Professor Loki Caprion

We have a Battlestar Galactica game, this afternoon!

Cat

Jealous!

Professor Loki Caprion

I had a problem, previously, of finding players for it. Now i have to worry about having too many people, since it only accomidates up to 6.

Cat

That seems to be my problem as well. Rarely more than 2 players, which eliminates a lot of games, but then when I have people, I have tonnes...

Professor Loki Caprion

11:57 AM

@BESW I... know nothing about Riddick, either. ;(

I bought my wife Le Fantôme de l'Opéra for Christmas, which is only for two players. We haven't had a chance to try it, but it's apparently like a step up from Mr. Jack, which I greatly enjoyed.

Cat

I really enjoy playing Lost Cities with 2 people.

Professor Loki Caprion

Haven't played that one!

Cat

It's a card game.

Simple to learn, fun to play.

Professor Loki Caprion

I do like simple!

I like Smallworld, but don't know how well it holds up for 2 players.

Professor Loki Caprion

12:57 PM

I don't know what Adobe Air is or what it does, but it updates all the time.

lisardggY

What it's for? It's for the birds, that's what it's for.

Professor Loki Caprion

I concur.

I also conquer. [Dons a viking helmet]

doppelgreener

@ProfessorLokiCaprion think of it like Flash, but for desktop programs.

The League of Legends lobby (i.e.: everything prior to you actually being in a game) is developed using it.

lisardggY

My Twitter client (TweetDeck) uses it as well. Or used to.

These days the client actually works quite well, so I suspect they stopped using it. :)

Professor Loki Caprion

I need to get back into League of Legends! I really, really want to play as Jinx.

She's my new favourite, without even playing her!

BESW

1:10 PM

@ProfessorLokiCaprion Are you aware of the actor Vin Diesel?

Professor Loki Caprion

@BESW I am!

BESW

Riddick is a character he plays in a series of films, video games, and animated features.

Professor Loki Caprion

@BESW Is this the one based on his D&D character?

lisardggY

I'm generally fond of Diesel, mostly from some public appearances and statements he made (and his enthusiastic and public embrace of D&D). However, I can't remember what movies of his I actually saw.

xXx, I think. Didn't make much of an impression.

BESW

@ProfessorLokiCaprion I don't know of any character he plays that's based on his D&D character--his character in xXx had a tattoo of his D&D PC's name.

@lisardggY xXx was not particularly impression-making, no.

Professor Loki Caprion

1:14 PM

I remember xXx. Sadly.

doppelgreener

@ProfessorLokiCaprion ... Vin Diesel is a D&D player?

lisardggY

Oh, I also saw Find Me Guilty. My friends liked it, I thought it was terrible.

BESW

I strongly recommend Pitch Black (his first appearance as Riddick), or the animated film The Iron Giant (he gives his voice to the giant).

@JonathanHobbs Vin Diesel is a massive geek.

doppelgreener

@BESW Pitch Black is a beautiful film

(and my first exposure to Riddick)

lisardggY

I've been meaning to watch Pitch Black for a while. Originally because Claudia Black is in it.

doppelgreener

1:15 PM

and jeepers I need to see the iron giant. I'd forgotten about that one!

BESW

For me Claudia Black is a major black mark against anything she appears in, but she doesn't get in the way of Pitch Black too much.

Professor Loki Caprion

Vin Diesel is a very enthusiastic D&D player! He's publicly gone on nerd rants about his characters. Only he doesn't get mocked for it, because he's Vin Diesel and could probably turn you into a smoothie.

I think I saw him do it on Conan, once? I can't remember.

lisardggY

I only saw her in Farscape, and loved her there.

doppelgreener

@ProfessorLokiCaprion that is wonderful ;_;

Professor Loki Caprion

I only know her from Dragon Age

BESW

1:16 PM

This is a guy who not only knows that video games based on films usually suck, and didn't want that to happen to the game based on Pitch Black... he actually put his money into making sure it was a decent game.

One of the problems with the second Riddick film is that it's basically a murderhobo PC plot.

Seems like he got a bit too much creative involvement there. [grin]

It'd make an awesome campaign story, though.

doppelgreener

@BESW which one is that, escape from butcher bay?

Aaron

Morning

BESW

@JonathanHobbs Butcher Bay's the video game.

doppelgreener

Oh.

The... the prison escape one though

BESW

Chronicles of Riddick is the second film.

(Though it's confusing because all the other franchise publications are now re-labeled Chronicles of Riddick: Title of Iteration.)

doppelgreener

1:19 PM

@BESW yes I am evidently confused

@BESW aha, yes, I have seen this murderhobo spree movie. :D

I liked it a lot XD

BESW

(The other main problem is that the second film just doesn't mesh very well with the rest of the franchise. Riddick is an anti-hero grey-morality survivalist and suddenly in Chronicles the story goes ARGHBLARGLE WARHAMMER 40K!)

Aaron

If I had to give riddick a class I think it would definitely be an optimized monk.

BESW

@Aaron I think he's a monk-variant ranger.

Aaron

@BESW Hmmm I assume that is a cross between a monk and ranger without cross classing?

BESW

Yup. One moment, I can find it....

You give up some of your ranger class features in exchange for monk ones.

Aaron

1:23 PM

So what makes him a ranger though. He rarely uses ranged weapons if I remember correctly.

BESW

Mmm, can't find it right now.

lisardggY

I'm guessing it focuses more on the "survivalist" aspect of rangers.

BESW

He's a two-weapon fighter with wilderness affinity and animal empathy.

5

Q: How do I build Riddick?

Just came back from Riddick and I loved it. Less than Chronicles of Riddick, I am afraid, but enjoyable still. I would like a 20-level build for Riddick based on these criteria: Concept: Hardy survivalist who strikes from the shadows Night-optimized, okay to be at the expense of daytime abili...

A lot depends on which version you're talking about.

Pitch Black Riddick is very different from Chronicles Riddick, who again takes a major shift in Rule the Dark.

Pitch Black, he's probably a rogue.

Chronicles, a ranger.

Rule the Dark... maybe a scout?

Aaron

Riddick class = optimize all the things!!

BESW

And, of course, whenever you're trying to turn a film or novel character into an RPG character, keep this advice in mind.

When Rule the Dark came out, we talked about how to model him in Fate, too.

lisardggY

1:34 PM

What, with the High Concept aspect being "Like Riddick in the movies"?

BESW

The last Furyan is a good start for a high concept for post-Pitch Black-Riddick.

From Ursula Vernon's Riddick Rules:

> 14a. There are no herbivores in the Riddick-verse. Herbivores are not sufficiently manly. This works because apparently there are no plants in the Riddick-verse either. Plants are definitely not manly.

> 14b. It occurs to me, given that there are no plants, that everybody’s got to be seriously constipated, which explains a few things about the Necromongers.

> 10. Under no circumstances should you allow Riddick to become in any way fond of you. This guarantees that you will sacrifice yourself nobly AND get a protracted bleeding-out scene.

> 10a. Fortunately, Riddick only becomes attached to other creatures off-camera. If you suspect that you are between movies or trapped in a lengthy time-passing montage, RUN.

There are many things I like about Riddick and the Riddick franchise. One of them is that Riddick has a truly abysmal sense of humor, and knows it, but also knows that he's scary enough no one will call him out on it.

Aaron

@BESW High intimidate.

BESW

@Aaron I think Riddick has a passive Intimidate check.

Aaron

one thing I don't think they explained well. What exactly are the abilities of the furyian race?

BESW

Like 4e's passive Perception, he just automatically takes 10 on Intimidate all the time.

@Aaron Unknown/unclear/inconsistent.

Aaron

1:49 PM

@BESW and has like 30 ranks in it

so his intimidate is 40 at all times

@BESW I know he can do that blue energy burst thing.

and it did seem to do a lot of damage.

BESW

Most consistently, they're near-humans (descended from humans who settled a high-gravity world) with super-dense builds.

Aaron

@BESW So they are Saiyans

BESW

The "eyeshine" is either Riddick-specific, or a Furyan "unlockable" trait.

Aaron

If a bald saiyan goes super saiyan do they grow gold hair that then falls out?

BESW

I doubt it.

Aaron

1:51 PM

@BESW That was a surgery he got in prison so it's not a racial trait.

BESW

@Aaron One reason Furyan traits are inconsistent is that he originally wasn't a Furyan.

Aaron

@BESW x.x I was trying to make a funny

@BESW how so? He just didn't know he was Furyan until the second movie.

BESW

@Aaron Pitch Black's script didn't intend him to be inhuman.

It was decided later, and Butcher Bay retconned the eyeshine job.

Eyeshine was a "gift" from his spiritual guide who was helping him unlock his Furyan abilities.

Aaron

@BESW wait you are gaining Furyan abilities in the game?

I know nothing about the game soo.

BESW

Before Butcher Bay came out, though, there was another flashback to Riddick getting the eyeshine which contradicts this.

@Aaron Little bit, yeah.

So: Pitch Black says it's an operation.

Pitch Black website released a flash movie that showed it as surgery.

Then Butcher Bay shows it as a mystical gift of his race.

In Chronicles, Jack tells Riddick that she tried to get an eyeshine job and nobody'd ever heard of such a thing.

doppelgreener

1:56 PM

Aaron

@JonathanHobbs heheheheh.

BESW

@JonathanHobbs You're an awful person. Now photoshop the beard onto a screenshot of Riddick.

doppelgreener

@BESW i don't has photoshops

BESW

So it's clear that the eyeshine thing started out with the authors intending it to actually be as Riddick claimed: an illegal surgical procedure.

Aaron

Wait nappa didn't have a beard either did he? so that doesn't make sense either.

@BESW Hmm.

BESW

1:58 PM

But it's now firmly retconned into being a mystical gift of his people.

Aaron

@BESW so dark vision, energy surge. + to dex, str, and either int or wis.

BESW

The Wrath of the Furyans is also a spiritual power: it channels the wasted potential and choked-up rage of all the Furyans killed by the Necromongers.

It's not something every Furyan can do.

Aaron

@BESW Is that the blue surge?

BESW

@Aaron Yes.

> While not necessarily superhuman, Furyans themselves are impressive physical specimens; they are stronger, faster, tougher, more resistant to pain, more agile, possess acute senses, immense stamina, and recover quicker and with more finality than most of the other human races.

Riddick is an Alpha Furyan.

> Alpha Furyans' prowess, including near superhuman strength, speed, agility, reflexes, senses, healing, reactive adaptation, and durability far superior to normal Furyans, even at infancy. They have the ability to survive without oxygen for prolonged time, as Riddick was able to be strangled with his own umbilical cord without terminal harm.

His Alpha Furyan nature also seems connected to his ability to relate to and control animals.

(For the record, all this Furyan stuff makes Riddick less interesting to me, because his abilities say less about him as a character than they did when we thought they were Riddick's own traits, not traits of his people.)

Aaron

@BESW so they are near the perfect human with peak physical powers and potential for advanced spiritual powers.

BESW

2:02 PM

@Aaron Seems like.

Aaron

Not a bad concept.

BESW

For some reason "I had a convict surgeon perform a desperately dangerous operation on my eyes" is more interesting to me than "My fairy godmother gave me a present."

doppelgreener

@BESW I'd like to put "more than humans" into some perspective here:

teal-deer.tumblr.com/post/57910877901/…

This tumblr post is also amaizng ok?

Humans are scary motherfuckers.

BESW

You've linked it before, yes.

Aaron

@JonathanHobbs I love reading that every time.

And most of that is just talking about physical traits not the crazy shit we can make with inventive minds.

lisardggY

2:13 PM

Humans are a bit like that in Larry Niven's Known Space worlds.

BESW

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only guy who's read Campbell.

lisardggY

I remember the blurb from one Man-Kzin War novel - "The Kzin, a feline race of warriors, thought the peaceful and united Earth would be easy pickings. Then they discovered that the reason humankind no longer practiced warfare is because they were already very, very good at it".

BESW

Or, you know, The Jungle Book.

doppelgreener

@Aaron yes. this is the baseline 8)

BESW

The idea that humanity is basically Xenomorph-meets-Cthulhu is very common, and in fact overused in early science fiction.

I'm rather fond of They're Made out of Meat.

Aaron

2:18 PM

@BESW lol someone just linked me to that

doppelgreener

@BESW What is that one?

BESW

@JonathanHobbs It's a short story in which a couple of space explorers have discovered a new species.

It seems intelligent, but it's made out of meat. Not partly meat with mechanical bits, not meat in conjunction with energy constructs, just---meat.

They are totally baffled at how meat could achieve sapience.

lisardggY

I'm trying to track down a short story I read over a decade ago along the same concept, but I'm hampered by ISFDB not responding and my own memory being vague.

BESW

They're so disgusted and confused that they decide to just pretend the whole thing never happened because it's icky and they can't explain it.

Asimov has also played with it.

He's got a short story about an alien who thinks sexual reproduction is dangerous enough that we should be wiped out, because such efficient genetic adaptability will threaten to overtake all other sapient life.

doppelgreener

@BESW i am baffled by their baffledness because octopuses are just meat

unless by energy constructs you mean a nervous system

BESW

2:25 PM

@JonathanHobbs In all their travels through the universe, they've never seen a meat brain achieve awareness.

Aaron

terrybisson.com/page6/page6.html

doppelgreener

@BESW but... does our brain count as meat?

BESW

Yes.

lisardggY

Ah, found it: variety-sf.blogspot.co.il/2008/07/…

Aaron

@JonathanHobbs meat = organic

BESW

2:25 PM

The space explorers are aliens who have stumbled across earth.

doppelgreener

@BESW oh my god XD

lisardggY

Hmm, that review doesn't actually say anything, but it's a good story about how humans were feared and reviled galactic dictators who were blasted into the stone age and confined to Earth millennia ago as retribution.

doppelgreener

@lisardggY ... neat C:

BESW

I've linked The Things here before, I think. (MAJOR spoilers for the film The Thing.)

We'll just say that in that short story, the Thing from outer space is at least as horrified by us as we are of it.

doppelgreener

@BESW oh my.

do i need to watch The Thing to understand The Things?

BESW

2:33 PM

You need to at least know the basic plot of it.

doppelgreener

I do!

BESW

Then you should be able to puzzle your way through it.

doppelgreener

yay :D

BESW

Oh, I forgot: in addition to the trigger warnings of the film, it's got another at the end.

The word is perfect, no other word could possibly be chosen without seriously maiming the story's impact, but it's still there.

MadMAxJr

Enders Game plays on that theory too. The antagonist wasn't aware that humanity was sentient, due to the lack of a unified mind.

BESW

2:49 PM

@MadMAxJr Nitpick: wasn't aware humans were sapient. It assumed humanity was sapient.

Valid nitpick.

@BESW "bollocks"

@JonathanHobbs Hm?

@BESW the word

Sure.

2:56 PM

:)

BESW

Okay, sleeps nao.

I hope you can sleep after reading The Things.

doppelgreener

@BESW Still fiddling with programming! Goodnight

unicode has an awful lot of symbols

🍃

this one is a leaf fluttering in the wind

🍄 this is a mushroom

🍆 this is an aubergine / eggplant

🍞 this is a loaf of bread

Aaron

3:16 PM

all I am seeing are boxes

wax eagle

@Aaron unicode support varies by font and OS :(

Aaron

I have windows... something

one sec

windows 7

Professor Loki Caprion

I'm only seeing boxes, too! :(

(Also Windows 7)

doppelgreener

your unicode support is somehow lacking

Professor Loki Caprion

It's my work PC, so it's lacking in many areas.

doppelgreener

3:19 PM

this is a pity because it would be lovely to use all those symbols in the fate tabletop system, but i can't guarantee people would be able to see them

Aaron

@ProfessorLokiCaprion same here

doppelgreener

3:43 PM

they're at least handy for developing with :)

doppelgreener

4:28 PM

@BrianBallsun-Stanton I'm curious, if a series of comments are all obsolete, would you rather one flag on one of them or a bunch of flags on all of them?

wax eagle

@JonathanHobbs can't speak for Brian, but from a pure mod tool standpoint, at this point it's just as easy with one flag as with multiple (used to be far easier with all of them flagged)

doppelgreener

@waxeagle oh yay c:

wax eagle

though might make it a custom one to make sure the mod knows to evaluate all the comments rather than just the one you flag as obsolete

doppelgreener

@waxeagle i left one custom one