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12:00 AM
2450 AD
Give or take a few days extra
 
Moderate case?
 
Moderate case.....hm......195-250 years, but it could be less than either numbers depending on how things go in terms if people put aside their differences and work together.
I'm leaning towards the best case scenario numbers as I figure that people would do everything possible to rebuild civilization and work together.
I tend to believe that there's good in all of us.
 
And if humanity is still cruel to itself?
Which it will be?
 
Try the year............
4545 AD, and no I'm not trying to get that song '2525' stuck in people's heads.
 
So, in other words: humanity in the short-term may never fully recover, but in the long-term, it could technologically recover?
But culturally speaking, man is forever scarred.
 
12:07 AM
All three cases are correct.
 
So, by 2017, how far is humanity into recovery?
 
Hm.......Most likely it's got a long road to go, but it's getting there. People are regrowing crops and new cities have been built, although people live in towns and communities and people are more conservative.
 
12:22 AM
I wonder....would Martian colonists consider Mars the Fatherland or Motherland?
 
@SCPilot depends on where they were originally from
 
Wonder if they would want to use such an Earth idea, ha. Though don't those terms refer to nations and not the planet, is Mars just one unified nation now, heh.
 
Hm.....I'm not sure. Those are both good questions.
 
(also, does anyone other than the germans refer to the fatherland?)
 
..........I'm not sure.
 
12:27 AM
"The Parentland" ;p
 
The Uncleland and Auntland
 
"The thrice distant grand-aunt-land"
 
Homeland or native land, family is for the weak, only connect with the nation or land of birth
 
@SCPilot though, for some reason, it ought to be the same gender they use for their ships
@FerretCivilization family can build strength
 
Same gender they use for their ships? Aren't ships usually called she?
 
12:30 AM
Pff family can also cause some rash decisions that go against the State.
 
and chances are that early martians are going to be stuck underground a lot so groupings of the sort would be a very important stabilising force
@SCPilot pretty sure germans use he
hm
Russians call most ships he, but have the Rodina
so my theory is full of holes
 
whazzup @JourneymanGeek longtimenosee!
 
I lurk ;p
I however only really stick my nose in when its a topic I find I want to weigh in on ;p
 
:D
 
Apparently according to all knowing Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatherland there are multiple groups that refer to their land as the fatherland, lack of citations, I trust it, ha.
 
12:44 AM
A homeland (rel. country of origin and native land) is the concept of the place (cultural geography) with which an ethnic group holds a long history and a deep cultural association – the country in which a particular national identity began. As a common noun, homeland, it simply connotes the country of one's origin. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often have ethnic nationalist connotations. A homeland may also be referred to as a fatherland, a motherland, or a mother country, depending on the culture and language of the nationality in question...
 
1:33 AM
Well it's getting late, and I have to go now. Y'all have a good night now! Nice talking with all of you!
 
 
1 hour later…
2:40 AM
Howdy
Are you're teeth hurting, Looking to schedule a dentist appointment after you go to school?

Go to www.ToothHurt-Y.com
 
hey there @TrEs-2b
 
Anything interesting happen in the [look at calender] 6 months I was gone?
 
@TrEs-2b not a whole lot. still slowly grinding my way to 5k rep out here
 
I was kind of disappointed that my inactivity has only downed me two places in the ranks. Is the site dying or something?
 
no, changing in tenor though I think.
 
 
2 hours later…
4:32 AM
@TrEs-2b you've still gained 5k this year. That's not bad.
 
True, that's the hidden trick of mass asking, when you have 350+ questions, you almost always get some rep
 
I've never asked a question on the main site.
Every now and again I get upvotes on random questions I'd answered like 5 months ago.
 
I feel like the inverse, I feel like I almost never answer questions. What's worse is looking back at some of the questions that were asked while I was gone, if I had been there earlier, I could have given a great answer
 
Most of my rep gain has been having decent answers on questions that hit HNQ. Then I hit rep cap for a day or two
What frustrates me is since I'm normally waiting for a question I have a good answer to when too such questions happen at once, they both hit HNQ but I'm still capped at the same 200 reputation.
 
I can only imagine how that sucks, I only have one sad tale on this site.
The dreaded lightsaber question; I foolishly commented what I thought was a good resource, but not good enough for an answer, then samuel took the link [gave me credit at least], posted it and good 65 upvotes.
still haunts me
 
4:44 AM
I don't recall that question.
It's a bummer but I've made it a personal goal to try to improve my average number of upvotes per question I answer.
Even if they aren't counted towards my arbitrary internet points they still show that the quality of my answers is improving.
 
my big Stack bugbear is DIY.SE -- I can't tell in the tags I'm active in there if my problem is my answer style (tends to be more "how you do this" then "why things are this way") or just a lack of voting activity in the tag in general
that, and I feel like I'm not getting enough bronze badges there given my activity there
 
@Shalvenay 20k is nothing to sniff at.
 
@sphennings yeah, but I'm like taking twice or more the expected number of posts to get the rep for tag badges
 
Another thing that kind off sucks about SE badges: tag badges are only for answers. WHY?! I could have so many gold tag badges if only I didn't need to make a specific number of answers.
 
@Shalvenay This site is uniquely suited for creating HNQ. It's common to have 2-3 HNQ from this site at any given time.
 
4:52 AM
@sphennings ah, yeah. DIY.SE is not very nice from a HNQ perspective, although I have hit a few HNQ repcaps there
 
It's probably inflating the scores more than sites with less sensational questions.
 
@sphennings although my hottest blockbuster answer came off Aviation of all places
 
@Shalvenay Aviation seems to be a one of the healthier exchanges from what I've seen.
Good questions and quality answers.
 
@sphennings aye, Aviation does well, and so does RPG.SE
Travel's rather nice, too
WB's a bit of an odd duck
EE.SE would be good if not for the LQ deluge (I can't stomach running close votes on that site, its just as bad as SO queues are)
 
@Shalvenay RPG questions can go both ways. Some of the questions seem to be people who obviously haven't read the rules. Or aren't used to precise and formal language.
 
4:58 AM
@sphennings I'm willing to cut people who haven't read rules some slack in sprawling systems like the D&D 3.x family
not everyone has every tome in that system handy/indexed
 
@Shalvenay Most of it is in the core books. And at least for 3.x + pathfinder most of the rules are online, making them searchable.
 
@sphennings the core books aren't usually what draw the really awkward questions though
the thing with precise and formal language is that not all RPers approach systems from a formalistic background
many, many RPers are used to the more malleable nature of literary language
and actually, many of the more modern RPG systems keep this in mind
 
Funny thing is 2nd ed was my first exposure to formal systems. Now I write code for a living.
 
@sphennings haha, I'm a software dev as well
 
That's how I found this site. Too much time lurking around SO
 
5:04 AM
but yeah, a system like the PbtA engine or Fate Accelerated deals with things totally differently than your traditional systems do
 
PbtA?
 
@sphennings Powered by the Apocalypse. it's the system used by Apocalypse World, Dungeon World, Monsterhearts, etal
 
I mean ostensibly we're there to roleplay not discuss rules systems so this trend to rules light systems is for the better.
I'm quite interested in rpg.stackexchange.com/tags/roll-for-shoes/info Because of how light it's mechanics are.
 
@sphennings ah. RFS can be a pretty fun game. I'm personally not quite comfortable running it because I'm not sure how to direct the game in such an uncabined system if you will
but I have played it on a couple of occasions
 
@Shalvenay You really need the right group for that.
 
5:10 AM
@sphennings that's really true for any RPG
my problem tends to be that I have trouble with the narrative aspects of RP -- trying to wrap my head around sort of "story flow" and how genre and whatnot influences that is very hard, particularly because I have trouble understanding how fictional characters operate (which also is why I don't read much fiction at all, aggravating the issue)
on a more worldbuild-y note: I also have trouble with fictional maps and mapmaking for fictional universes, because I'm hyper-spoiled by all the GIS-type stuff I've used at school and work
it makes me have way too high expectations of the precision and accuracy of fictional maps
 
in Logic, 1 min ago, by David Reed
What is "empirically stable phenomenon"
in Logic, 1 min ago, by user21820
You have to believe that there is some kind of order in the world, namely laws that govern everything.
 
@Shalvenay My dad's a land surveyor. I grew up around maps. Most fictional maps don't understand geology.
 
New lead in thinking about how to formulate magic in our worldbuilding
 
@Secret I stay away from there like the plague. There's more than enough naval gazing on WB.
 
Reddit Worldbuilding likes their "Split River" meme.
 
5:24 AM
@Secret My advice: Don't formulate magic.
 
nah, I am not saying that chat room is a new lead for thinking magic, but that magic might be related to the notion of Empirically unstable phenomenon
 
@FerretCivilization What's that?
 
not saying magic follows rules
 
@sphennings hydrology in particular is why I'm interested in some of the water-simulator approaches to creating rivers, lakes, whatnot
 
To elaborate, magic might be something that does not follow any rules at all
what that means I have to think about it later...
 
5:25 AM
@Secret There's a good subplot in the second Magicians book about a bunch of wizards wanting to do for magic what quantum mechanics has done for physics.
 
@sphennings When a river splits into two for no other reason than having it split into two. Sometimes repeat a few more times.
 
They devise a whole bunch of repeatable experiments yet still don't get any results.
 
@sphennings I've found errors in USGS topo maps before; however, those issues are with man-made features :P (they'll put the main and siding in at a railroad location, but leave the back/house track off altogether, for instance)
 
well, I think for a magical phenomenon they will need to go a bit more beyond that. Not only do they need to not able to get results, but they have to be unable to even get a statistics on the results they have (the latter quantum fulfill that with no issues)
 
@sphennings do you think that generated terrain is the best bet then? or how should I get from 0 to having a DEM of my fictional land?
 
5:29 AM
@FerretCivilization If you haven't read The Magicians by Lev Grossman I'd strongly recommend it.
@Shalvenay I'd lean on the fact that you don't need a high level of fidelity to run a campaign, or tell a story.
 
@sphennings that weighs towards generated terrain then, and I can sort of make the rest of the geological and hydrological cues follow the terrain then no?
 
@Shalvenay Sure you can reverse it like that. I think that might be a lot of unneeded effort depending on what your end goal is.
 
@sphennings what I want is terrain and hydrology I can put in a GIS and then start building atop from there
 
@Shalvenay That actually sounds really cool.
What are you building on top of it?
 
got a couple different fictional worlds floating around in my head for various RPG campaign ideas that are in various stages of congealing
 
5:40 AM
One trick I learned from my larping days is that if you throw a lot of references to things early. You don't need to have them all fleshed our right away. Players will investigate the leads that are most important to them. Those you can flesh out between sessions. So you're only really designing the critical path but the players had real choice and feel like they live in a much more deeply created world.
 
@sphennings yeah, part of the thing with that is I want a way to do that without losing consistency if the players are backtracking
@sphennings which is where I think the GIS will help
 
@Shalvenay The person running the LARP I was in kept obsessive notes. By the time I started the game had been going on for 14 seasons.
There were times we were chasing down people who had stopped playing because they were there when something important was discussed.
 
@sphennings basically, it'll provide a spatially aware note-taking medium :)
 
They had some plans from the beginning. There were two 10 year plots back to back and an overarching 20 year plot.
Plus whatever happened to interest that years playerbase.
 
the other issues I see are with fleshing out the legal system of my world in the process of dealing with a law-centric plotline
but that's going to depend very heavily on what zoom level, if you will, the players wish to engage with that plotline at
that's also long-term :)
 
5:58 AM
Running a campaign that relies on jurisprudence. That sounds like a challenge. I'd probably have the players so their actions in the abstract. You ask them what they do before lunch, for lunch, after noon, dinner and evening. Actions could be things like "I research how the judge has ruled in the past", "I coach a witness", "I dig through case-law for cases supporting our position" "I dig through the subpoenaed documents for something specific"
 
 
4 hours later…
10:10 AM
Imagine if the police could not trace projectiles back to the firing weapon because there were too many projectiles and the tracing algorithms broke down - that's a series I would watch
 
Isn't that just a war zone?
 
 
2 hours later…
12:15 PM
(as ADVENT propaganda voice) The ADVENT Adminsitration reminds you to report all suspicious activity to your nearest peacekeeper. Remember: only together can we build a better tomorrow!
Remember the Visitor series (which I should resume work on post-Cuban Missile War)?
ADVENT is basically one of the inspirations for the Global Prosperity Initiative established after the Invasion.
 
 
2 hours later…
2:32 PM
@sphennings first -- it's one plot thread out of several, so the party might be writing briefs in the morning, dungeon-delving in the afternoon, and meeting someone at the inn that night for a contract. second, the thing that makes this especially tricky is the legal issues in question are more issues of law than issues of fact (statutory interpretation vs. factual investigation)
 
3:28 PM
0
A: Sandbox for Proposed Questions

Shard martinWhy would a divine council want to curtail intimate relationships between gods and mortals? The gods have decided that their interactions with mortals need to be controlled. There have been a number of abuses of power in the past, and a divine council has been put in place to hold gods to a high...

 
hey there @sphennings
 
Hey@Shalvenay
 
how're things going?
 
3:44 PM
They're going well. I'm having a lazy weekend before the mania of the holidays kicks off.
 
@sphennings ah. did you catch my reply to your last post earlier?
 
I did. I think splitting up the day into blocks is probably a good idea. The players can choose what they do with the block. Each non combat block gets at least a flavorful description or a quick vignette.
 
@sphennings yeah, that could be worthwhile for all sorts of non-combat/adventuring scenes
 
Basically each time block lets them do something, to prepare for the case. You make sure that they have less time than they need to fully get it all. Unless they want to risk loosing some favor with the judge to petition for an extension.
 
@sphennings yeah, my concern is less with timespan and more with "how do I give them the sort of background information they'd need to make cogent arguments?"
 
3:59 PM
@Shalvenay You don't give them background. You say, after they make a research check something like "You found a case that looks useful, in the 1243 case of Brandonshire v. Duck the judge ruled that [some bit of minutia that will be advantageous to their case]"
The same way we don't have players describe their footwork in a fight, we don't make them actually obsess over the jurisprudence.
 
@sphennings ah. so make them roll to find tidbits instead of giving them a library and letting them fend for themselves
 
Think about how many law shows actually get into the thick of the legal system. A lot of it is about office affairs and impassioned speeches.
@Shalvenay Exactly.
@Shalvenay Give them tidbits that they can pursue, elaborate on and expand in later time blocks.
 
@sphennings yeah -- what I'm trying to avoid though is the "due process as obstacle to justice" attitude that many crime dramas take
 
@Shalvenay If you play with an alignment system either penalize players who act against alignment or change the alignment of players who do so.
 
@sphennings I don't hold alignment systems in very high regard myself
 
4:07 PM
@Shalvenay Many transgressions won't be caught and even more will never be punished. It's up to the players to be good people. If the players can't see the importance of due process have them deal with a DA who doesn't follow due process and has some problem with the players.
 
@sphennings recall that alignment was originally a justification for whacking orcs :P
@sphennings yeah, that's the idea behind the plot -- they're dealing with a villainous faction that is basically "screw due process"
 
@Shalvenay Players conversations get bugged, witnesses get intimidated, but there's not enough evidence to prove anything to a judge.
@Shalvenay If the players want to ignore it then they will face opposition that doesn't either.
@Shalvenay Perhaps it's the actions of the player that push the opposition to do so in the first place.
Player: "I can't believe that so and so recorded conversations without a warrant."
GM: "Well you'd bugged so and so's office, and broken into his car. They've learned from you that the only way to get ahead in this town is to cheat"
 
@sphennings not really, at least in this case
 
 
4 hours later…
7:47 PM
0
A: Sandbox for Proposed Questions

DubukayWhat could cause sugary rain? In a world very similar to ours, rain has a high concentration of simple carbohydrates in it, enough to sustain life on the surface. After a storm, the water evaporates and leaves behind a crust of nearly pure sugar that can then be consumed by organisms. Fungi, ani...

 

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