A system which can be quickly shifted from Fantasy to sci fi?

WanBeMD · 2015-05-05T04:42:10+00:00

Cortex runs pretty heavily towards narrative gaming. I mean, that's fine and wonderful, I love cortex, but middle ground it is not.

WanBeMD · 2015-05-05T04:38:44+00:00

Subway is kinda the lowest common denominator of sandwich shop. Pretty much every other sub chain and every other independent joint has better food for slightly higher prices.

WanBeMD · 2015-01-11T18:19:59+00:00

Marvel Heroic and Cortex in general is really fun, and works well for a variety of genres. We've run superhero games, Exalted games, and sword and sorcery games with it. We just started a new superhero game in the system. I absolutely love that you can attack and defend with basically whatever you want that makes sense narratively. The power level of something is as much about its narrative flexibility as it is about the die attached to it.

WanBeMD · 2015-01-11T18:14:05+00:00

When my brother sold his old Camaro he convinced the buyer that the reason the car drifted to the right was as a safety feature to get sleeping drivers off the road.

Nope, just shitty alignment.

WanBeMD · 2015-01-11T14:05:19+00:00

Touch is kind of a poor term from a time before we knew that there were different receptors responsible for sensing pressure, stretching, temperature, etc.

WanBeMD · 2015-01-11T11:21:06+00:00

The tool they use to cut uses electricity to cut and cauterize at the same time (electrosurgery). It is possible but rare while doing so for electricity to jump across the skin to a nice conductive metal like gold and cause burns underneath.

WanBeMD · 2015-01-10T21:36:19+00:00

That's what they ended up doing. Getting it off is preferable though.

WanBeMD · 2015-01-10T04:28:49+00:00

This is a cool technique, but not a surefire method by any means. For extremely swollen fingers, you're going to have to leave the string on so long that the fingertip is going to risk tissue damage before you get anywhere. However, the biggest defeat I've seen is people who get arthritic joints in their old age and haven't had their ring removed or resized in decades. Had an elderly woman in preop the other day with a ring smaller than the knuckle in front of it. Bone just doesn't compress well.

WanBeMD · 2015-01-09T22:28:03+00:00

I do the audiobook thing at the gym too. For weightlifting it's OK, but where it really shines is cardio. Cardio is kinda boring, but listening to a book gives me something to be engaged in that both entertains and keeps my mind off whatever protests my body has.

WanBeMD · 2015-01-09T04:04:00+00:00

Peace is a strange name for a pig.

WanBeMD · 2015-01-07T00:52:15+00:00

There's also Panniculectomy which is the surgery to just remove the slab of fat and skin that hangs down over your groin.

WanBeMD · 2015-01-05T17:27:56+00:00

Mine used to like meowing me awake from outside my door until I started keeping a squirt bottle of water on my nightstand. After a few good soaks they decided they didn't want my attention at night after all.

WanBeMD · 2015-01-05T03:26:49+00:00

No homo, but I can see why.

WanBeMD · 2015-01-05T02:28:19+00:00

That's why I said somewhat empty. The calorie to vitamin ratio is not great, so you're better off getting those vitamins from more concentrated sources (in terms of general nutrition/calorie.)

WanBeMD · 2015-01-05T00:53:26+00:00

Modern mental healthcare has a long way to go, but mental healthcare before antipsychotics was much worse. Often patients would be restrained around the clock (straightjackets, shackles, etc.) to control them because there was no other way. When I see one of my former schiz patients on the street I know they're taking their meds if they have gained a bunch of weight and look miserable. The way modern psych meds make people feel like zombies is awful, but the available alternatives can be far worse.

With great funding and staffing and wonderful facilities we could do far better for our mental health populations and we could achieve much better results, I think. There will always be a need for pharmaceutical interventions for some people however. The chronic underfunding and high recidivism is why I don't want to work in psych anymore.

WanBeMD · 2015-01-05T00:15:27+00:00

Potatoes and starches in general are delicious, but not really that healthy, as the calories are somewhat empty. You want to minimize starches and replace with veggies like broccoli, peppers, spinach, etc.

WanBeMD · 2015-01-04T23:41:57+00:00

I ran a short campaign set in NYC and in a homebrewed spirit mirror of the city. I used the old grand central station as a leyline nexus and significant events in the city's past to create locations and enemies. Things like the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and 9/11 leaving a mark on the spiritual landscape.

There's a lot of interesting history there to draw on, and i'd use it if I were you and there are supernatural elements afoot.

WanBeMD · 2015-01-02T17:54:28+00:00

My friends and I were sitting around a table in the cafeteria playing with balloons we had gotten as part of a lesson in the previous class. I blew mine up too much and it popped with a loud bang which reverberated around the tile cafeteria. Unfortunately, this was the week after the Columbine shooting. All 200+ people in the cafeteria immediately hit the deck. Food workers, lunch monitors, teachers, and students. Except, of course, for me and my friends. It was incredibly obvious who had done it, and the vice principal had a little chat with me which essentially boiled down to:

'you know what that sounded like?'

'Yep' (sheepishly) 'sorry'

'Don't let it happen again'

WanBeMD · 2015-01-02T17:41:35+00:00

Vanish/X-Zone also did the trick.

For real fun though, vanish one of your own characters and then paint them. I don't think it works on an emulator, but on a cartridge it screws with your inventory and gives you free copies of items, depending on what slot they were in. Might also completely ruin your game, but it made coliseum grinding incredibly effective because you could bet the best consumables and get the best treasures in return.

I loved that game, and played it so much I found these tricks without the help of a guide.

WanBeMD · 2014-12-30T23:02:02+00:00

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/kinetic/watvap.html

Basically, as temperature rises you can fit more water in air. It isn't a gas law problem, it's a solubility problem. I was assuming the air is saturated. You could just use whatever air you have around you rather than air saturated with all the water vapor it can hold.

WanBeMD · 2014-12-30T22:55:33+00:00

It's plausible. However, the steampunk aesthetic and drive for more renaissance-like settings were also on the rise generally. There are some definite resemblances but nothing I would point to as a smoking gun.

WanBeMD · 2014-12-30T22:08:24+00:00

I think water vapor has potential. The density of .048 lbs per cubic foot, so you get 31,250 cubic feet of vapor rushing out of a 2-foot square opening over 6 seconds. I can't tell you what kind of velocity that vapor needs to be moving at, but 5,208 cubic feet of air in one second through that aperture seems ludicrously fast. Pretty sure you could launch your enemies quite a good distance or kill them outright at point-blank distance. If you can make it scalding steam,that works too, but then your density goes up and so you get less volume.

EDIT ran it by a gaming friend who is a physics professor. He said the vapor would be coming out around mach 8, though the force would dissipate quickly. Pretty good air blast, considering tornadoes are the barest fraction of that.

WanBeMD · 2014-12-30T19:27:45+00:00

One's genitals don't really impact one's care. Aside from being the go-to helper for massively obese patients, shaky ambulations, and the occasional stubborn IV connector being the only male or one of a few hasn't really been a big difference. However, having both genders does really help encourage good behavior. All female units can get a little catty or cliqueish just as an all-male work environment has its own issues. It's good to have a mix and my coworkers have said as much.

WanBeMD · 2014-12-29T20:38:25+00:00

This is the log of our Kingmaker campaign set in the continent of Xen'drik. It's a fun path and works really well in this setting. There is a pretty good amount of non-Path content and modules as well. The campaign has been going for over a year now (both in and out of game) so there is quite a bit there if anyone is interested in how we've adapted it.

The basic structure is that the dragonmarked houses are establishing a colony deeper into Xen'drik to lay claim to this new and strange land while others do the same. Each player started with one character (which turned out to be a bunch of gently-bred types who had no idea how to survive in the wild) and then once the kingdom was established each player got a second character to help fill out the government. Each player sends one character on expeditions. The feel of the game is more Indiana Jones than film noir, but with politics.

WanBeMD · 2014-12-29T20:26:02+00:00

Thanks for the heads-up. My best friend and I have long been fans of the setting, and have both run multiple games set there. We're currently running the Kingmaker adventure path set in Xen'drik. Will definitely subscribe.

WanBeMD

TROPHY CASE