Fyraltari's Fiercely Friendly Random Banter Thread #226

[The Fury]

I did a bad. I left home to quarantine with my parents. All three of us have accepted the risk and hopefully I didn't endanger anyone else.

Since my friends stopped talking to me again, I haven't been well and I think I need this. I'm already feeling a bit better, and hopefully I'll eventually be OK with only existing in a virtual capacity.

[Peelee]

I did a bad. I left home to quarantine with my parents. All three of us have accepted the risk and hopefully I didn't endanger anyone else.

Since my friends stopped talking to me again, I haven't been well and I think I need this. I'm already feeling a bit better, and hopefully I'll eventually be OK with only existing in a virtual capacity.

I haven't stopped taking to your at all!

I know what you meant, but that's the best I can offer.

[The Fury]

I haven't stopped taking to your at all!

Yeah, sorry. That was probably unfair to everyone here.

I still feel like my friends are getting rid of me one by one. At least being around my parents is making me less lonely. Even if they don't understand me that well. And their dog hates me.

[LaZodiac]

If it helps any, I personally believe that if they are abandoning you they were bad friends and you've lost nothing. The scars will linger still, I get that, but you can take that small comfort and make use of it.

[The Fury]

If it helps any, I personally believe that if they are abandoning you they were bad friends and you've lost nothing. The scars will linger still, I get that, but you can take that small comfort and make use of it.

I appreciate you saying that, though I'm still pretty resistant to the idea. This kind of thing happens to me a lot, it seems. You might be right though.

In any case, I'll take some time to get over it. I might be better as a work acquaintance, (or internet person,) than a friend anyway.

[Rynjin]

If it helps any, I personally believe that if they are abandoning you they were bad friends and you've lost nothing. The scars will linger still, I get that, but you can take that small comfort and make use of it.

Alternatively, accept that it may not be so much that they're bad friends, but that you've all outgrown each other. People just stop being compatible sometimes; it's nobody's fault exactly.

And there's a compatible group out there for EVERYONE, which is just about the truest fact I know.

[Anonymouswizard]

I did a bad. I left home to quarantine with my parents. All three of us have accepted the risk and hopefully I didn't endanger anyone else.

Since my friends stopped talking to me again, I haven't been well and I think I need this. I'm already feeling a bit better, and hopefully I'll eventually be OK with only existing in a virtual capacity.

Eh, if you weren't living with anybody else, didn't bump into anyone on your way, and follow all the rules then mental health is a valid reason to do such a thing.

Also I hear existing virtually is great! You don't have to deal with these inefficient meat bodies we have to cart around. Can't believe we haven't traded those in for new models yet.


So next week I'm going to be calling around my various friends to see who's interested in a game, placing either Star finder, Traveller, or Doctor What.

[Aotrs Commander]

The way I do it (if you are using Aristole's 4 elements) is state that Fire, Air, Earth, and Water are poetic name of the 4 states of matter.

Stuff like Lightning is Air dealing with Fire's influence (high energy states). It chucks it at the Earth because Fire opposes Earth, so that's the easiest way to get it out of the way.

This may break down at some edge cases for you, but it works for me.

ION, once you switch to an ergonomic setup, that's hen you notice how much pain yo were in before all this.

Might as well dump it here, for the sake of arguement, so see what I did in the end...

Spoiler

Show

General Note on Planes and planets: Planes are found in cosmologies, which may though of (incorrectly, but illustratively) as akin to planets in solar systems. A cosmology is a cluster of planes “local” to one or more solar systems. Some solar systems (despite being disparate in material space) share a “local” set of planes (e.g. Toril and Faerun), where as others (e.g. Golarion or Dreemaenhyll) have a different set of “local” planes. A given cosmology may have a different composition of planes, not unlike a planetary systems have different planets.

Despite what is popularly believed (often even by the gods themselves), most planes are not actually infinite, but merely extremely large. The “true” physical size of an “infinite” plane is usually no more than about half a light-year radius at most (often smaller, though nearly incomprehensibly still massive), before they peter out into the void. In the case of some planes (e.g. elemental planes), it is theorhetically possible to travel through the void to another “local” cluster of planes in the same way as travelling between star-systems in regular space. (I..e, if one took a starship into the Elemental Plane of Fire in Faerun’s Great Wheel cosmology, one might be able to travel via FTL methods to the Elemental Plane of Fire in Golarion’s Great Beyond.)

Note that while the Ethereal and Astral planes are truly coterminous with all points of the prime material plane (and as massively finite in size), they are still subject to the limitations of intersystem distances and thus descriptions of “anywhere on the plane” should be treated as “anywhere on the ‘local’ plane.”



DREEMEANHYLL COSMOLOGY

During the late 28th century, the planar scholars of Dreemaenhyll depicted the cosmology as something they termed the Great Pillar. The following is taken from Introduction to the Planes, 37th edition, a technical manual widely available in the Dark Lands.

THE GREAT PILLAR

In this current model of the universe, the Great Pillar is thought of as a akin to a tree-trunk, where the inner, Elemental planes are nested together like the rings of the wood, each ring being of a lower density and phase of matter the further from the core. Classical studies only considered the planes of Earth, Water and Air (more correctly, Solid, Liquid and Gas), but later scholars determined the existence of planes of Plasma – formerly incorrectly known as Lightning (”above” the Plane of Air) – and even more recently, Nether (“below” the Plane of Earth). It is now understood that the true “core” of this model is the Nether Plane, hidden “within/beneath” the deepest depths of the Plane of Earth, and “outside/above” the Plane of Air lays the Plane of Plasma. These five planes are coterminous with their inner and outer neighbours, but there are places where the borders extend between non-neighbouring planes. Notably, however, the Nether plane is particularly difficult to access due to its nature (being comprised predominantly of “Dark Matter.”)

The planes of Fire and Ice are conterminous to all of the places on the pillar. The former is typically depicted as being located to the “left” of the pillar and the Plane of Entropy to the “right.” Strictly speaking, these common names are inaccurate; they are more correctly the Planes of Enthalpy (heat) and Entropy (cold), though they take their names from the most common materials which comprise the make-up of the areas of these planes closest to the Prime material plane and the inner planes.

The Astral (psychic) Plane surrounds and permeates the Great Pillar and is thought of as a “sea” which surrounds are encompasses all the remaining planes.

The Prime material plane is thought off as being situated out from the Pillar (in the “sea”, but close to the Pillar). The view point of the Great Pillar depicted (and shown in basic form below) is seen as if the viewer is looking at the pillar from a distance, where all the planes can be seen. This is where the material plane is located, looking as it were, into the page. The existence of alternate dimensions similar to the prime are assumed to be located here. Alternate Realities (as opposed to just other dimensions) are usually only accessible from the prime.

The Ethereal Plane is closely coexistent with the elemental planes and the Prime.

The aligned outer planes tend to be depicted surrounding the great pillar. At “top” of the Pillar, lie the Good aligned planes; at the “bottom” lie the Evil planes. As entropy is the reduction of disorder, the Planes of Law are usually shown to the right, and chaotic to the left of the Pillar. This is a subjective but illustrative viewpoint.

Further to the “left” of the Plane of Fire is the Positive Energy Plane, and to the “right” of the Plane of Cold the Negative Energy Plane is located.

The theoretical planes of Time and Creation are not usually depicted, but when they are, they are situated further outside and surrounding the aligned planes. Time is placed at the lower right, because of its attributed lawful (entropic) and evil (i.e. destructive) traits; Creation is placed in the upper left, as it is attributed chaotic (enthalpic) and good (i.e. new life) traits.



From the elemental planes come the elemental energies: the central physical elements: Air, Earth, Water; the positive elements Electricity, Fire (more accurately heat) and Light (a coherent form of heat) and the privative elements Cold and Shadow (a coherent from of cold) and the relatively new and poorly understood Nether. Finally, there is Sonic (more properly vibration, and related to heat) and Acid (more properly corrosion).

Acid is a difficult element to entirely quantify, since the effect of strong acids from chemical forms and magical corrosion are extremely similar and largely interchangeable.

Nether is a form of “dark energy” found on the Nether plane amid the “dark matter.” Its properties are not understood well, and it has been known by several different names (including “darkning” or “vovcity” both proposed names following the (not strictly accurate) idea that nether is antithesis to electricity), but “nether” has become the most commonly excepted usage. One of the major discoveries is that Nether energy, when applied as a current or stream through dense matter such as stone produces gravitic effects like electricity through metal produces magnetic effects.


It is theorised by some sages that the prevalence of the positive, enthalpic energies (heat, light) in nature and the fact their antithesis only occur in their absence (cold, shadow) without the presence of magic suggests there is another ‘prime’ plane, on the opposite side of the Pillar. In this ‘prime’ everything would not tend to entropy as it our universe, but to enthalpy. Thus, their ‘suns’ would throw out cold and darkness into a brightly-lit and superheated void
¹.

What was formerly believed to be the plane of Shadow, later reclassified and the elemental Plane of Gloom is now confirmed to be a region of the Plane of Ice (more strictly accurately, a region of the Plane of Enthalpy where ice is not the prevalent factor) by the borders of the Negative Energy Plane. This is now believed to be an entropic echo of the Prime Material plane. It has been described not inaccurately – but also not strictly correctly - as a shadow of the Prime material plane, though exactly what is causing the Prime to cast a “shadow” remains unknown.




¹This theory has been disproved by the more technological advanced civilisations of the modern era. The lack of functional ‘opposites’ save for magical or technological intervention is more to do with the laws of the universe. Each element has its own rules and in the same way that two chemical elements next to each other in the periodic table do not always react the same way or even in similar ways, so do the elements.

Still debating on whether to go through and replace "Negative Energy" with "necrotic" and least in terms of damage; already plannign to change Sonic damage to Thunder damage (I'll admit, that was one thing I first heard of in 4E and went... "hmm..." but until now, could not be ARSED to change, but as I'm doing this; likely will change Light (laser) damage to Radient, and I need to come up with something else to change Positive Energy too (since as laser is its own damage type, "radient" would not be opposite to "necrotic" if I change Negative Energy.

[The Fury]

Alternatively, accept that it may not be so much that they're bad friends, but that you've all outgrown each other. People just stop being compatible sometimes; it's nobody's fault exactly.

And there's a compatible group out there for EVERYONE, which is just about the truest fact I know.

Maybe. Though the last thing that happened between us was... weird. I'll spoiler it, since it might be upsetting depending on what kind of relationships folks have with their parents.

Spoiler: parental units!

Show

One of my friends got really upset one night and it made me sort of worried. Later someone else said that they were on a call with them which ended suddenly and stopped responding to messages. This actually got me scared, so I started leaving texts and voice mails asking my friend to call me. Later on, they were confirmed to be fine but I found out second hand. I was told they purposefully didn't call me because leaving messages like the ones I did reminded them too much of their mother. Their mother is also controlling and emotionally manipulative, so I can't exactly blame anyone for not wanting to talk to me. The only difference is that if I turn out to be a toxic influence, I'm pretty easy to cut out of their life and it wouldn't be fair for me to blame them if they did.

On the plus side, I was able to open up to my mother about my own mental health issues. In the past she's expressed some views on mental health that are... not awesome. So I didn't think it would got as well as it did.

[Mith]

Might as well dump it here, for the sake of arguement, so see what I did in the end...

Spoiler

Show

General Note on Planes and planets: Planes are found in cosmologies, which may though of (incorrectly, but illustratively) as akin to planets in solar systems. A cosmology is a cluster of planes “local” to one or more solar systems. Some solar systems (despite being disparate in material space) share a “local” set of planes (e.g. Toril and Faerun), where as others (e.g. Golarion or Dreemaenhyll) have a different set of “local” planes. A given cosmology may have a different composition of planes, not unlike a planetary systems have different planets.

Despite what is popularly believed (often even by the gods themselves), most planes are not actually infinite, but merely extremely large. The “true” physical size of an “infinite” plane is usually no more than about half a light-year radius at most (often smaller, though nearly incomprehensibly still massive), before they peter out into the void. In the case of some planes (e.g. elemental planes), it is theorhetically possible to travel through the void to another “local” cluster of planes in the same way as travelling between star-systems in regular space. (I..e, if one took a starship into the Elemental Plane of Fire in Faerun’s Great Wheel cosmology, one might be able to travel via FTL methods to the Elemental Plane of Fire in Golarion’s Great Beyond.)

Note that while the Ethereal and Astral planes are truly coterminous with all points of the prime material plane (and as massively finite in size), they are still subject to the limitations of intersystem distances and thus descriptions of “anywhere on the plane” should be treated as “anywhere on the ‘local’ plane.”



DREEMEANHYLL COSMOLOGY

During the late 28th century, the planar scholars of Dreemaenhyll depicted the cosmology as something they termed the Great Pillar. The following is taken from Introduction to the Planes, 37th edition, a technical manual widely available in the Dark Lands.

THE GREAT PILLAR

In this current model of the universe, the Great Pillar is thought of as a akin to a tree-trunk, where the inner, Elemental planes are nested together like the rings of the wood, each ring being of a lower density and phase of matter the further from the core. Classical studies only considered the planes of Earth, Water and Air (more correctly, Solid, Liquid and Gas), but later scholars determined the existence of planes of Plasma – formerly incorrectly known as Lightning (”above” the Plane of Air) – and even more recently, Nether (“below” the Plane of Earth). It is now understood that the true “core” of this model is the Nether Plane, hidden “within/beneath” the deepest depths of the Plane of Earth, and “outside/above” the Plane of Air lays the Plane of Plasma. These five planes are coterminous with their inner and outer neighbours, but there are places where the borders extend between non-neighbouring planes. Notably, however, the Nether plane is particularly difficult to access due to its nature (being comprised predominantly of “Dark Matter.”)

The planes of Fire and Ice are conterminous to all of the places on the pillar. The former is typically depicted as being located to the “left” of the pillar and the Plane of Entropy to the “right.” Strictly speaking, these common names are inaccurate; they are more correctly the Planes of Enthalpy (heat) and Entropy (cold), though they take their names from the most common materials which comprise the make-up of the areas of these planes closest to the Prime material plane and the inner planes.

The Astral (psychic) Plane surrounds and permeates the Great Pillar and is thought of as a “sea” which surrounds are encompasses all the remaining planes.

The Prime material plane is thought off as being situated out from the Pillar (in the “sea”, but close to the Pillar). The view point of the Great Pillar depicted (and shown in basic form below) is seen as if the viewer is looking at the pillar from a distance, where all the planes can be seen. This is where the material plane is located, looking as it were, into the page. The existence of alternate dimensions similar to the prime are assumed to be located here. Alternate Realities (as opposed to just other dimensions) are usually only accessible from the prime.

The Ethereal Plane is closely coexistent with the elemental planes and the Prime.

The aligned outer planes tend to be depicted surrounding the great pillar. At “top” of the Pillar, lie the Good aligned planes; at the “bottom” lie the Evil planes. As entropy is the reduction of disorder, the Planes of Law are usually shown to the right, and chaotic to the left of the Pillar. This is a subjective but illustrative viewpoint.

Further to the “left” of the Plane of Fire is the Positive Energy Plane, and to the “right” of the Plane of Cold the Negative Energy Plane is located.

The theoretical planes of Time and Creation are not usually depicted, but when they are, they are situated further outside and surrounding the aligned planes. Time is placed at the lower right, because of its attributed lawful (entropic) and evil (i.e. destructive) traits; Creation is placed in the upper left, as it is attributed chaotic (enthalpic) and good (i.e. new life) traits.



From the elemental planes come the elemental energies: the central physical elements: Air, Earth, Water; the positive elements Electricity, Fire (more accurately heat) and Light (a coherent form of heat) and the privative elements Cold and Shadow (a coherent from of cold) and the relatively new and poorly understood Nether. Finally, there is Sonic (more properly vibration, and related to heat) and Acid (more properly corrosion).

Acid is a difficult element to entirely quantify, since the effect of strong acids from chemical forms and magical corrosion are extremely similar and largely interchangeable.

Nether is a form of “dark energy” found on the Nether plane amid the “dark matter.” Its properties are not understood well, and it has been known by several different names (including “darkning” or “vovcity” both proposed names following the (not strictly accurate) idea that nether is antithesis to electricity), but “nether” has become the most commonly excepted usage. One of the major discoveries is that Nether energy, when applied as a current or stream through dense matter such as stone produces gravitic effects like electricity through metal produces magnetic effects.


It is theorised by some sages that the prevalence of the positive, enthalpic energies (heat, light) in nature and the fact their antithesis only occur in their absence (cold, shadow) without the presence of magic suggests there is another ‘prime’ plane, on the opposite side of the Pillar. In this ‘prime’ everything would not tend to entropy as it our universe, but to enthalpy. Thus, their ‘suns’ would throw out cold and darkness into a brightly-lit and superheated void
¹.

What was formerly believed to be the plane of Shadow, later reclassified and the elemental Plane of Gloom is now confirmed to be a region of the Plane of Ice (more strictly accurately, a region of the Plane of Enthalpy where ice is not the prevalent factor) by the borders of the Negative Energy Plane. This is now believed to be an entropic echo of the Prime Material plane. It has been described not inaccurately – but also not strictly correctly - as a shadow of the Prime material plane, though exactly what is causing the Prime to cast a “shadow” remains unknown.




¹This theory has been disproved by the more technological advanced civilisations of the modern era. The lack of functional ‘opposites’ save for magical or technological intervention is more to do with the laws of the universe. Each element has its own rules and in the same way that two chemical elements next to each other in the periodic table do not always react the same way or even in similar ways, so do the elements.

Still debating on whether to go through and replace "Negative Energy" with "necrotic" and least in terms of damage; already plannign to change Sonic damage to Thunder damage (I'll admit, that was one thing I first heard of in 4E and went... "hmm..." but until now, could not be ARSED to change, but as I'm doing this; likely will change Light (laser) damage to Radient, and I need to come up with something else to change Positive Energy too (since as laser is its own damage type, "radient" would not be opposite to "necrotic" if I change Negative Energy.

Spoiler: Continued discussion

Show

My idea of Positive and Negative energy states is the idea of having an energy state akin to entropy on a more...mythic level. Common Western mythos has the past be better (probably due to the Dark Age after the collapse of the Bronze Age trade routes. I would make Positive Energy and Negative Energy be directions in this general direction of deterioration.
Perhaps it's not inevitable that all will slide to oblivion, but it takes concerted effort to avoid it. Positive Energy makes everything more. I would say that PCs would be exemplars of those that personally elevate themselves in this power.

Not sure how I would want to word this better, but it is telling that my very much WIP RPG setting has three Elder Gods of Stories (Dreams), Thought (Will), and Nihlism (Death) that can fit very well with the Positive, Astral, and Negative Plane. They Feywild and Shadowfell become extensions of the Prime in both directions. Some theorise that the distinction between the three is really a regeional effect.

However, based on what you have written, you and I are going for an entirely different feel of setting, so I am not sure what use this will be for you.

[Anonymouswizard]

I dusted my Dalek today. I forget I had it for ages, but I actually have one of the original remote control Time War Daleks from like 2006, still in pretty good nick (the plunger's handle is a little bit bent from bumping into things, and the batteries need replacing, but the circuits should still be functioning). I should get more batteries on my next shopping exodus, give it a little drive.

Anyway, trying to jot down a Starfinder campaign brief to propose to some friends to play during lockdown. I've rewritten how interstellar travel works (using modified Teleport traps instead of plane shifting into hyperspace), but I'm still trying to work out how much of the political situation I should give them first, and if I should allow legacy races or not.

[Aotrs Commander]

Spoiler: Continued discussion

Show

My idea of Positive and Negative energy states is the idea of having an energy state akin to entropy on a more...mythic level. Common Western mythos has the past be better (probably due to the Dark Age after the collapse of the Bronze Age trade routes. I would make Positive Energy and Negative Energy be directions in this general direction of deterioration.
Perhaps it's not inevitable that all will slide to oblivion, but it takes concerted effort to avoid it. Positive Energy makes everything more. I would say that PCs would be exemplars of those that personally elevate themselves in this power.

Not sure how I would want to word this better, but it is telling that my very much WIP RPG setting has three Elder Gods of Stories (Dreams), Thought (Will), and Nihlism (Death) that can fit very well with the Positive, Astral, and Negative Plane. They Feywild and Shadowfell become extensions of the Prime in both directions. Some theorise that the distinction between the three is really a regeional effect.

However, based on what you have written, you and I are going for an entirely different feel of setting, so I am not sure what use this will be for you.

Nah, universal decay is not really a thing I mentally hold with on any level.

(Especially not the tired old chestnut of "Things Used To Be More Powerful In The Old Days." Hell, the latter is usually the flat opposite in my games. Dreemaenhyll in question is progressing steadily up the tech tree as it were, driven by the Not-Roman Empire and the Dark Lord, a gentleman who worked out How To Magic from first principles (he used to be a Divine bein with 20 levels in fighter and stupid Int bonus, now he's at least Clr/Wiz (never statted him out) and he has a very vested personal interest in progressing. 'Cos it only takes the once when the gods nick all of civilisation to make you REALLY understand the value of how to write things down when you have to work out How To Paper all by yourself...

(And that's both technology and science, including the science of magic, magic is emphatically not an antithesis of technology. Says the magical space lich who has a space-station.)



Whelp, after, what 10-11 hours of graft, apparently (but, I mean, I had to go through ALL my documents to chase stuff down!), I'm about where I was before I decided I needed to re-write the entire energy system. Still, it has got rid of a lot of excess fiddly bits I thought was a good idea 10-15 years ago, but in practise was more trouble than it's worth.

Some people might question whether that was a good way to spend what I'd determined was going to be "holiday," because bugger it, we're not getting a day out or anything like normal over Easter, but sod it.

Not changed negative energy over yet, nor had any idea of what to call positive (and I'll have to trawl through... Actually pretty much only SpC/PHBII and the PHB a little bit... To find and copy across and remaining "does sonic damage" spells (all the elemental stuff was done long, long ago, and half of the original points of compiling painstakingly a document with All the spells NOT in those three sources was that I wouldn't have to lug more books around, same as all the feat lists and stuff).

And I've re-written the Shadow Evocation/conjuration spells a bit because a) literally until I played Pathfinder Kingmaker, it never occurred to me (or anyone in our group) that the way they work is by basically just having the enemy make a Will svae first and b) putting a flat cap of the max % real you can make the spells (and I'm making that 90% and I feel that's overly generous.) (For some reason, we all seem to be on the AD&D mindset of "you can't know it's an illusion is you don't suspect," which is not how the rules are supposed to work. But I've re-written them to be even more unambiguous, because it looks like that's another lot of stuff that hasn't been touched in 3.5, if not 3.0.)

So, progress...! Still got to do one pass of the PF wizard for any nice-looking spells I fancy that haven't already been grabbed, then does the domains (that'll be a job in and of itself...) and we'll be getting close to being able to sort stuff.

[halfeye]

Nah, universal decay is not really a thing I mentally hold with on any level.

Decay is a much misunderstood process. In the real world, there's also Entropy, which is far less well understood than decay.

Decay is life re-establishing itself from death.

Entropy is very strange, it's partly the arrow of time, it's partly a tendancy toward peace, it's partly a tendancy to change for the simpler, it's kind of trancendent.

[Mith]

Nah, universal decay is not really a thing I mentally hold with on any level.

(Especially not the tired old chestnut of "Things Used To Be More Powerful In The Old Days." Hell, the latter is usually the flat opposite in my games. Dreemaenhyll in question is progressing steadily up the tech tree as it were, driven by the Not-Roman Empire and the Dark Lord, a gentleman who worked out How To Magic from first principles (he used to be a Divine bein with 20 levels in fighter and stupid Int bonus, now he's at least Clr/Wiz (never statted him out) and he has a very vested personal interest in progressing. 'Cos it only takes the once when the gods nick all of civilisation to make you REALLY understand the value of how to write things down when you have to work out How To Paper all by yourself...

(And that's both technology and science, including the science of magic, magic is emphatically not an antithesis of technology. Says the magical space lich who has a space-station.)



Whelp, after, what 10-11 hours of graft, apparently (but, I mean, I had to go through ALL my documents to chase stuff down!), I'm about where I was before I decided I needed to re-write the entire energy system. Still, it has got rid of a lot of excess fiddly bits I thought was a good idea 10-15 years ago, but in practise was more trouble than it's worth.

Some people might question whether that was a good way to spend what I'd determined was going to be "holiday," because bugger it, we're not getting a day out or anything like normal over Easter, but sod it.

Not changed negative energy over yet, nor had any idea of what to call positive (and I'll have to trawl through... Actually pretty much only SpC/PHBII and the PHB a little bit... To find and copy across and remaining "does sonic damage" spells (all the elemental stuff was done long, long ago, and half of the original points of compiling painstakingly a document with All the spells NOT in those three sources was that I wouldn't have to lug more books around, same as all the feat lists and stuff).

And I've re-written the Shadow Evocation/conjuration spells a bit because a) literally until I played Pathfinder Kingmaker, it never occurred to me (or anyone in our group) that the way they work is by basically just having the enemy make a Will svae first and b) putting a flat cap of the max % real you can make the spells (and I'm making that 90% and I feel that's overly generous.) (For some reason, we all seem to be on the AD&D mindset of "you can't know it's an illusion is you don't suspect," which is not how the rules are supposed to work. But I've re-written them to be even more unambiguous, because it looks like that's another lot of stuff that hasn't been touched in 3.5, if not 3.0.)

So, progress...! Still got to do one pass of the PF wizard for any nice-looking spells I fancy that haven't already been grabbed, then does the domains (that'll be a job in and of itself...) and we'll be getting close to being able to sort stuff.

To be clear, I was using that as an example. If I a decline in power over time, that's because a war broke down the local infrastructure. I was more thinking of defining "What is Positive and Negative Energy?" and putting them on a gradient makes it similar to the how thermal energy is really a scale from absolute zero up.

[Anonymouswizard]

I've been playing with metaphysics and technology, and would like feedback on how stupid this sounds.

Spoiler

Show

So I've been playing around with FTL travel in Starfinder, and while useful the Drift presents a few problems as a version of hyperspace, not least of which is 'what happens when it starts stealing parts of god's domains.

On the other hand there are still three teleport spells in the game, and what class gets them? The Technomancer, the class that's supposed to mix technology and magic, and what better class to try to brute force interstellar travel. Because spell traps used to exist, and surely didn't vanish into the vacuum of space.

So while drift engines do exist, they mostly aren't used. Instead ships include what are basically giant Interplanetary Teleport traps, designed to transport the vessel and it's occupants light years at a time, but require an engineer to set coordinates and at least an hour to charge. As a downside the space warp the traps generate is absolutely massive, designed to teleport ships with masses of gigakilos and terrakilos, and having significant additional mass nearby causes distortions that will throw the ship off course (requiring ships to take off before initiating jumps).

The side effect is that spells such as Dimensional Anchor can stop ships from jumping out, but a ship with a sufficiently powerful generator potentially becomes a lot faster, being able to travel multiple light years with an hour and a navigation roll. The enter system more closely resembles the early Foundation books, sure you can warp halfway across the galaxy but you'll probably be massively off course.

There are also, of course, items and spells designed to disrupt teleports within an area. Personal-scale teleportation can sometimes get through these due to the significantly smaller space warps generated, and you can in theory brute force your way through with a lot of power, but it at least solves the 'warping your fleet into an offensive orbit' problem.

At the same time I'm on the fence about using reactionless space drives compared to plasma rockets, while the former does give the Star Wars/Star Trek system the group consists of engineers who would be able to deal with reaction mass tracking and similar complications.

[LaZodiac]

Decay is a much misunderstood process. In the real world, there's also Entropy, which is far less well understood than decay.

Decay is life re-establishing itself from death.

Entropy is very strange, it's partly the arrow of time, it's partly a tendancy toward peace, it's partly a tendancy to change for the simpler, it's kind of trancendent.

Decay is an extant form of life, which is one of my favorite bits of trivia. It's why mushrooms cannot be killed in a way that matters.

[Insane Jeenyus]

This is you Saturday Public service announcement:
I had a case of corona once,but I drank it all.

[Aotrs Commander]

To be clear, I was using that as an example. If I a decline in power over time, that's because a war broke down the local infrastructure. I was more thinking of defining "What is Positive and Negative Energy?" and putting them on a gradient makes it similar to the how thermal energy is really a scale from absolute zero up.

I mean, they are already outside the boundaries of thermal energy, which is why the Negative plane is already the other side of the entropic plane, for example; and even the entropic plane is already full of privatives - Shadow and Cold energy (as opposed the the absense of light and the absense of heat) technically can't exist in reality without magic or high-level technology to make them work.

(Pre-revision, it went Positive => Light => Lightning || Heat => Air || Earth || Water => Darkning || Cold => Shadow => Negative, where every thing below the physical elemental planes are a priviative, but the new one is a bit better. The Shaodw plane wasn't the Shadow plane of D&D though, which required a lot of campaign-specifc spell school changes and in the end, I decided frack it, to bring that back and slap it on the entropic (Ice) plane and then fold that back in. Entropic does a bit of double duty now, but so does Fire (well, before Fire and Heat were seperare elements, with fire being Heat+Air) with Fire and Light, plasma has Electicity and Darkning, now Nether has a bit more useful traction (outside of Gravity) by being "Dark Matter/Dark Energy").

[Asmotherion]

I appreciate you saying that, though I'm still pretty resistant to the idea. This kind of thing happens to me a lot, it seems. You might be right though.

In any case, I'll take some time to get over it. I might be better as a work acquaintance, (or internet person,) than a friend anyway.

Eh, things change over time, people move on... Don't take it personally.

When I was in College, I had a lot of friends and a ton of aqentences. Today I've lost contact with most of them, have new friends. If someone really cares, they'll put the same amount of effort to keep in touch, or at least reconnect.

Experience has shown me that when you live on the edge, party hard, do lots of stuff, people start gravitating around you; they're not really your friends, they just want a piece of your life. They want to do what you do, but not take responsibility for their actions. When you're less on a suave mode, or if you get in troble, those same people will avoid you like the pleague, find some new "best friend" to suck up to, and even rationalise excusses for cutting you off.

Never trust a drunken "you're my best friend" the same way you wouldn't trust an "I'm in love with you" before or directly after sex. Both are superflus statements that refear to "how I feel right now" as opposed to "I feel this way about you". You can even have people who hang with you every day, who are not really your friends, and I learned that the hard way.

Be you, be confident in yourself as a person, and the right people will eventually show up.

[Comrade]

So a bit ago I decided to shave my beard-- I generally trim it every couple of weeks but once a year I just take the whole thing off and let it grow back fresh. In adherence to a sacred tradition among fellas, I got rid of the beard but kept the 'stache for a little bit before shaving it as well. This photo resulted.

(And no, I didn't get into costume, the hat is the only part of the get-up I don't pretty much always wear.)

[Peelee]

So a bit ago I decided to shave my beard-- I generally trim it every couple of weeks but once a year I just take the whole thing off and let it grow back fresh. In adherence to a sacred tradition among fellas, I got rid of the beard but kept the 'stache for a little bit before shaving it as well. This photo resulted.

(And no, I didn't get into costume, the hat is the only part of the get-up I don't pretty much always wear.)

... Burt Reynolds?

[Bartmanhomer]

Hey everybody. How are you handling the coronavirus crisis so far? I'm doing well. I feel much better in the past few days. Emotion-wise that is.

[The Fury]

Eh, things change over time, people move on... Don't take it personally.

When I was in College, I had a lot of friends and a ton of aqentences. Today I've lost contact with most of them, have new friends. If someone really cares, they'll put the same amount of effort to keep in touch, or at least reconnect.

Experience has shown me that when you live on the edge, party hard, do lots of stuff, people start gravitating around you; they're not really your friends, they just want a piece of your life. They want to do what you do, but not take responsibility for their actions. When you're less on a suave mode, or if you get in troble, those same people will avoid you like the pleague, find some new "best friend" to suck up to, and even rationalise excusses for cutting you off.

Never trust a drunken "you're my best friend" the same way you wouldn't trust an "I'm in love with you" before or directly after sex. Both are superflus statements that refear to "how I feel right now" as opposed to "I feel this way about you". You can even have people who hang with you every day, who are not really your friends, and I learned that the hard way.

Be you, be confident in yourself as a person, and the right people will eventually show up.

You might be right, though just to clear things up, I think you might be describing something different to what I had.

I never really had a "living on the edge" personality. I was never really "suave" either and we never had sex. I still feel bad about how it ended. I really thought we had something special.

... Burt Reynolds?

Dude... This guy totally needs to get a black Trans Am.

Hey everybody. How are you handling the coronavirus crisis so far? I'm doing well. I feel much better in the past few days. Emotion-wise that is.

I'm actually a lot better than I was, now that I'm in quarantine with my parents in rural Oregon. At least I'm not alone anymore.

[Comrade]

... Burt Reynolds?

That's a pretty flattering comparison, I'll take it.

[Peelee]

Dude... This guy totally needs to get a black Trans Am.

I vehemently agree.

That's a pretty flattering comparison, I'll take it.

Please tell us you got a Trans Am.

[Comrade]

Please tell us you got a Trans Am.

Sadly I'm gonna have to make do with my Toyota Solana, although if anybody wants to buy me a Trans Am in the interests of Burt Reynolds accuracy I ain't gonna complain.

[The Fury]

Sadly I'm gonna have to make do with my Toyota Solana, although if anybody wants to buy me a Trans Am in the interests of Burt Reynolds accuracy I ain't gonna complain.

I've never driven a Trans Am, but I did introduce The Playground to an old Camaro I have. Not quite the same car, but very similar-- sort of terrifying to drive but a lot of fun. Kind of like commuting by roller coaster.

So if you ever do get the chance to own a Trans Am or even test drive one, do it. If nothing else I think you'll find it memorable.

[Insane Jeenyus]

funny thing, I just read recently that the cannon ball run time record has been beat.

[LaZodiac]

What are the differences between the two car breeds brought up here? Cause I genuinely have no idea.

[The Fury]

What are the differences between the two car breeds brought up here? Cause I genuinely have no idea.

Both the Trans Am and Camaro are built on the same platform, what GM calls the "F-body." They're mostly different in the fact that a Trans Am is a Pontiac and the Camaro is a Chevrolet. (Though if you want to be nitpicky, a Trans Am is a high performance-trim version of a Firebird.) They'd use different engines (at least in the first and second generation models,) and have different styling. They're similar enough that they're hard to tell apart from a distance. I can only assume that a Trans Am has similar driving characteristics to a Camaro, but they might be different.

If it helps to have a visual comparison, Bumblebee's first disguise in the first Transformers movie-- That's a Camaro.

The car that Burt Reynolds drove in Smokey and the Bandit-- That's a Trans Am.

Spoiler: Caaaars.

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