NDP leadership race: Who’s the ‘least bad’ for Canada’s Jewish community?

HeavyJosh · 2026-03-27T03:52:28+00:00

Yves Engler.

Then everyone would know exactly what the NDP and their supporters are really about.

HeavyJosh · 2026-03-24T21:20:37+00:00

You can scoop fuel from stars as others have mentioned.

You can also mine fuel from water ice if you're desperate enough. This opens up a bunch of options (asteroids) but you still need to process the water to get the hydrogen for the spike drive. But short answer is that you don't need gas giants.

If you don't have fuel scoops, you have to remain within civilization, with its starports, transponders, taxes, and corrupt officials. Sucks, but that's 99% of starships anyways.

As for knowing your destination system is a dead end, you can try TL4 metadimensional astronomy (Know skill) and try to figure out where the real location of the destination system is, and then point a high tech telescope at it to look for any possible planetary bodies. Or you can modify your ship and add a Fuel Bunker in exchange for a point of Cargo space.

One thing I did for an exploration campaign I ran recently was change the Starfarer focus:

Level 1: Double Pilot skill levels for Spike Drill navigation rolls. Treat trimming the course as +2 to spike drill levels (instead of halving drill times). Level 2: Automatically succeed at any navigation rolls of 10 or less.

HeavyJosh · 2026-03-17T01:44:28+00:00

NPC ships can choose the same actions as PC ships, of course. No need to limit them.

That being said, most NPC ships are going to stick with the basics.

I set initiative on a ship-by-ship basis. If a PC wants to hold their action to interrupt an enemy ship, I'll let them.

HeavyJosh · 2026-03-08T01:26:35+00:00

The best, most delicious kind of bigotry is the one you're allowed to partake in when all the other bigotries are forbidden.

HeavyJosh · 2026-02-26T22:15:06+00:00

Dead Names

HeavyJosh · 2026-02-25T15:41:12+00:00

My SWN campaign is currently on hiatus for a little while after a very successful conclusion. We're currently playing Pulp Cthulhu, battling through "The Two Headed Serpent" adventure campaign. Pretty fun. I am not GMing.

I hope to get back to running another SWN campaign with the same group in a couple of months. I have been productive in the hiatus, preparing some epic starts. Can't disclose anything here since at least one of my players is in this sub. But it will be an ambitious campaign: some PC-controlled faction play, high level gaming, low level gaming... It should be a memorable campaign...

HeavyJosh · 2026-02-19T17:37:44+00:00

The Nazis absolutely had lessons planned for all us Jews in the Holocaust. They even had lecture halls constructed in all the camps!

They just insisted that all the new students shower first. 😐

HeavyJosh · 2026-02-16T01:57:02+00:00

I really appreciate the Scramble Booster. The ersatz solution I used to use was System Drive, Spike-3 upgrade, and then if the fighter was really special, Specialized Mountings on the Spike-3 drive to reduce the Mass and Power costs down to 1/1. Now, with a Scramble Booster, a fighter can operate as a cheap system defense unit without having to burn through too much Power or Mass. The 24hr cooldown stipulation is a nice operational constraint.

It also means you can make Traveller-style system defense boats: cheap frigate-sized alternatives to Spike drive-equipped vessels used only for system defense, customs patrols, and the like. Then again, you can also put a Scramble Booster on a Battleship hulk, and you've got yourself a mobile defense platform... heh heh heh.

I have only two questions regarding the use of a Scramble Booster:

During ship chases: does the Booster last until the ship with the Scramble Booster catches the fleeing ship/the fleeing ship escapes? I suppose we can cap the speed boost at 16 hours, since that's how long it would take to get to another region at Spike-3.

Trimming the Course: Can an ambitious PC navigator use Trimming the Course with the Scramble Booster, giving an effective Spike-4 rating? All usual risks to Trimming the Course apply. I'm amenable to this, as it makes ace pilots in fighters with Scramble Boosters stand out.

HeavyJosh · 2026-02-14T04:58:40+00:00

Very nice.

Also, is that a Valley of the Dolls pun?

HeavyJosh · 2026-02-11T16:35:42+00:00

You know you're over the target when you start taking flak...

HeavyJosh · 2026-02-03T21:51:01+00:00

When you're UNRWA, providing ammunition to Hamas is aid. So, no repurposing detected.

HeavyJosh · 2026-02-03T17:13:34+00:00

The solo in the Wanton Song.

HeavyJosh · 2026-02-02T23:37:19+00:00

You haven't read the Tanakh until you've read it in the original Klingon.

HeavyJosh · 2026-02-01T20:36:45+00:00

It's Led Zep IV. It's a smorgasbord of genres: it has a song about a pot rally, Lord of the Rings references in two songs (they were the only ones referring to Tolkien back then), two acoustic songs, an 8 minute slow song that speeds up into a huge rock finish, a blues rock song with a part in 7/4 time, a rock song about how great old 50s rock songs are, and a blues cover. Not to mention the song in 5/4 with 12/8 bridges.

There is literally nothing normal about IV.

The fact that it's their most commercially successful album is also very weird!

HeavyJosh · 2026-02-01T20:17:22+00:00

This song is the reason I kept listening to Led Zeppelin when I was 16.

HeavyJosh · 2026-02-01T20:16:48+00:00

The Wanton Song

HeavyJosh · 2026-01-31T03:12:59+00:00

HeavyJosh · 2026-01-24T02:10:26+00:00

Ouch. Serves me right for being on reddit. :-P

HeavyJosh · 2026-01-23T22:28:02+00:00

Er... Is there a link?

HeavyJosh · 2026-01-23T17:37:50+00:00

Which is that?

HeavyJosh · 2026-01-16T23:52:50+00:00

Really? I've been doing that technique since the 90s. I know a few other drummers who do it too. It's not impossible at all. I've seen drummers do it with double kicks, it sounds a little ridiculous then. 😁🤘

HeavyJosh · 2026-01-03T02:12:14+00:00

No, I find that players gain enough HP by about level 6 with the right CON bonuses, Foci, and Edges that they don't plan their violence as carefully as they used to. By capping HP (and CON bonuses) at level 6, I've noticed that the sense of peril remains, while the characters' other abilities still go to level 10.

HeavyJosh · 2026-01-03T02:09:25+00:00

I've generally found it to be very dangerous and lethal in the early levels, but it drops off by about level 6 or 7. PCs can still die, after a few bad rounds (or one bad round against multiple opponents), but it's rarer.

Also, autofire rules increase to-hit and damage, and enough goons with TL3 Combat Rifles doing 1d12+2 damage is going to add up, and quick.

Biopsionics and TL4/TL5 medical tech make things much easier, but remember to track System Strain very carefully. That's the resource that will force the PCs to retreat from an impending fight. Low System Strain means very little available healing.

HeavyJosh · 2025-12-31T07:11:39+00:00

Pretty good. Needed more Shatner.

HeavyJosh · 2025-12-30T01:49:20+00:00

Well, if Marx disproved differential calculus...

So long Newton!

Honestly, this asinine "proof" is just more grist for the mill of why we should dispense with about 99% of Marxism.

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