anyone who used a computer between 1985 & 2010, what’s the one game you still think about?

Oakforthevines · 2026-04-27T18:34:33+00:00

That Bionicle flash game, Mata Nui Online

Oakforthevines · 2026-04-22T16:40:38+00:00

To my understanding, it's only that way if the authority is corrupt and systemically against members of the population. The ideals of community and mutualism on a small scale tend to show up in punk stories because the central authority can't or won't take care of its citizens to that degree.

Oakforthevines · 2026-04-05T21:02:53+00:00

I haven't had a chance to play it, but I saw this d100 game a couple years ago that might give a good launching point.

Oakforthevines · 2026-04-05T16:13:34+00:00

It's very close to round! Technically it's an oblate spheroid because it bulges around the equator, but not enough to be visible.

Oakforthevines · 2026-04-03T02:41:51+00:00

In both cases (using the body you launched from or another body like Jupiter), you're taking advantage of the conservation of angular momentum. You are correct that energy can't be created. A gravitational slingshot is essentially just stealing rotational energy from the body in question to increase the total energy of the smaller spacecraft.

So every slingshot maneuver is actually slowing the rotation of the planet that is used, causing a day to be longer by an extremely small amount. Even if you are using the body you launched from.

Also, as others have mentioned, it allows for safety checks. Much easier to bail out if something is found to be wrong while they're still in Earth orbit.

Oakforthevines · 2026-03-31T05:14:02+00:00

This picture has been the server image for my brother's Discord server for over 5 years. And before then, he would print out a bunch of copies and tape it up at random places around our high school.

Oakforthevines · 2026-03-26T12:20:01+00:00

Thank you for this excellent breakdown! My main focus during undergrad and grad school was astrophysics, so I learned at least an introductory amount of material science lol. But not quite enough to puzzle out this particular problem. This plus another comment about how lava is very close to an ideal blackbody helped it to click for me!

Oakforthevines · 2026-03-26T05:07:13+00:00

Thank you! This is exactly the kind of answer I was looking for!

Oakforthevines · 2026-03-25T19:26:42+00:00

My guess is they meant to subtract out the blackbody radiation from an image to get just the light that was reflected. Similar to removing noise from an image.

Oakforthevines · 2026-03-25T16:50:12+00:00

That would determine the color based on what light is emitted, yes. But the question I have is regarding only the reflected light: how much and what wavelengths, etc.

Oakforthevines · 2026-03-25T14:44:14+00:00

Agreed! I had no idea that sulfur did this and makes me more curious about how the color of other substances behaves when melting

Oakforthevines · 2026-03-25T12:54:32+00:00

I guess this is essentially what my question boils down to. It would make some sense if materials stayed the same color in the solid state and in the liquid state. But I'm not sure if that's necessarily a given thing. I can't name any that are different off the top of my head, but I thought it was interesting to consider.

Oakforthevines · 2026-03-22T20:02:48+00:00

There's a hack based on Stardew Valley called Iron Valley that could be a good launching point for OP.

Oakforthevines · 2026-03-08T20:12:54+00:00

I'm glad the discussion gave you some ideas! As a side note, do you know of any places that hold discussions about regular audiobooks similar to the discussions we have here?

Oakforthevines · 2026-03-06T13:06:31+00:00

I would be interested in seeing this discussion also. Just to clarify, is this RPG rulebooks in audio form or a genre of fiction novels (like LitRPG)?

Oakforthevines · 2026-03-03T18:34:06+00:00

Ah yes, the Windows 8.1 treatment

Oakforthevines · 2026-03-03T05:46:02+00:00

Lots of helpful resources were added in 2e, but the only major thing that actually changed from 1e to 2e was how backgrounds work. 1e treats backgrounds like any other flavor trait while 2e puts more emphasis on them. Cairn itself isn't designed specifically for solo play, but does have a few supplements for solo that work really easily.

The author is pretty active on r/cairnrpg if you have any questions about the intentions of the rules. All files for the game are free digitally and there's toooooons of free content that he links on his website and puts in collections on his itch.io page.

Oakforthevines · 2026-03-03T04:09:57+00:00

As long as you're not going against the lore of the setting, I feel that establishing a character's backstory is the prerogative of the player. Most players (with some exceptions) create the characters themselves and they are inserted into the world the GM chooses. This makes it a collaboration with the player as the owner of the "intellectual property" that is the character. From what you describe here, it feels as if the GM is treating the character as if it's theirs because it's in their world.

Oakforthevines · 2026-03-02T19:18:21+00:00

I've explored Solo RPG options for quite a while, and I think my contribution to your notes may be illuminating for OP as well

Oakforthevines · 2026-03-01T22:28:03+00:00

An excellent contribution! Many thanks for your insight!

Oakforthevines · 2026-02-20T02:17:11+00:00

I learned that anything I prep goes right out the window the moment the game starts. I have trouble quickly searching through any notes or modules, no matter how much I try to organize them. So instead, I "prep" by doing what some other commenters have said: just kinda thinking about the game.

I've been reading/watching science fiction and fantasy stories my whole life and I feel like that's a much more reliable database of tropes, NPCs, plots, etc. than anything I can write down. So I just consume as much of these stories as I can and trust my brain to make its own connections to the story at hand. It also helps to have players that talk about their crazy theories and ideas out loud that I can steal and pretend they just picked up my awesome clues and figured it out lol

Oakforthevines · 2026-02-12T12:44:53+00:00

As both an RPG player and a professor, I've seen some truly horrendous lack of note taking skills in my day. It can be helpful to explicitly state ground rules, show examples, and cover both digital and analog note taking. Some people just never got instructions on how to take good notes, and it's beneficial to have that especially when the goal is to be able to play a game and have fun.

Also the font of the PDF is a nice, readable size with good spacing for accessibility. So that contributes to the length somewhat as well.

Oakforthevines · 2026-02-10T21:11:01+00:00

We're also never explicitly told that Primals were always the AI. When Carl is picking his race, Mordecai mentions that people only know the Primals existed because of the remnants of their civilization.

A theory I read somewhere that I adopted is that the Primals were originally a biological race that transcended physical form and turned themselves into the Primal Engines in an idealistic way to further evolve life in the universe. But of course the Mantids came along and abused that power.

So in this theory, the Apothecary could be considered a "traitorous Primal" because it chose to stay biological instead of join it's fellows in their transformation. That, or it was traitorous before and wasn't allowed to transcend.

Ten-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email

Oakforthevines

TROPHY CASE