Sorry about the "offense" thing, perhaps I misunderstood you.
About WW's merits and flaws system, it can also be abused, I once guest-ran a party where ALL the characters had "Dark Secret" as a Flaw... It was considered a "cheap" way of getting an extra freebie point...
Most had other "soft" flaws as well... "Evil Mentor" "Notoriety" etc... social flaws that didnt have any effect in their game since they were a "dungeon-crawling" kind of group, they were supposedly a hit-squad for a Justicar...
I blame their original Storyteller actually, if a player wanted to choose a flaw for their character, I would squeeze at least some juice out of it to make it worth the extra points given.
My point is that any role-playing system can be abused, and that every system can be used to make a good story based game, driven by heartfelt dialogue, credible NPC's and action that's challenging, without being impossible to beat... Well, except for Toon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toon_(role-playing_ga me)
Yup, Guardians of Order was about release a RPG based in George R. R. Martin's series "A Song of Ice and Fire", which is currently my favorite fantasy series... They decided to go bankrupt instead of paying the authors and GRRM... And in the meantime the crippled the chance that I would be playing a Knight in Westeros...
I think White Wolf is doing quite well, for an RPG publisher.
And I take offence at the idea that all D&D players are min/maxing powermunchkins... In my game, I dont allow characters that are not well rounded, or that have implausible backstories.
And I find that the powergamers are usually the ones who come from a videogame background... You know them, those who whine about not being able to play their "15th level Necromancer/8th level Blademaster/9th level Assassin/10th level Dark Priest of Yog-Sothoth with all ability scores being 18, except for 25 STR and 8 CHA, and weilding Mjolnir in his left hand and Stormbringer in the right"
Of course I have seen the same type of unbalanced characters in White Wolf Games as well (anyone remembers Samuel Haight?). So it basically means that there are jerks in all hobbies, but you dont have to invite them to your game again if you dont want to...
When my group gets together to play D&D, we do it to immerse ourselves in collaborative story... I have seen players sacrifice beloved characters for the sake of the team, characters giving up magical items because of their beliefs... A lot of things that are greatly enriching to the story, but incompatible with the min-maxing viewpoint.
As a college student about to enter this Corporate America, the thought or such an environment terrifies me. I would rather throw away my degree and work in an honest, low-profile blue-collar job than sacrifice my freedoms and rights. This attitude may change, but I really hope I can maintain my ideals in the face of such low integrity.
Now now, lets not exagerate... you are surely not goint to throw away a college education for a low profile blue-collar job, but even if you do, in many blue-collar jobs you have the supervisor breathing on your neck making sure youre not slacking.
Cheaper than building a subway line, and it reduced my commute by half...
It works with articulated buses on dedicated lanes on Insurgentes Avenue, which is possibly still the longest urban avenue in the world. It is paid by proximity smartcard, the cost of a one-way ride is aprox. $0.33USD
I agree it is a matter of perception, since I certainly havent made a test with a light-meter. I am annoyed, since it has been a few years since I replaced all the lights in the house (except the lights in the kitchen) for compact flourescents. I did this out of a desire to do "the right thing", but I am starting to feel annoyed about these lamps.
... or compact fluorescents are just not bright enough?
Nevermind what the labels say, I have found that a 15watt compact fluorescent is
not
equivalent to a 60watt bulb!
And if you wait a month after you first installed them, they lose 10-20% of their brightness, so you need 2-3 15watt lamps to replace a single 60watt bulb.
And I am not talking cheap chinese lamps, I am talking GE, Sylvania, etc...
A lot of restaurants do this (specially fancy ones)... Caviar and other expensive foodstuffs in small containers can be easily stolen by employees, and if youre going to get an order or two a month of those, its easier to send somebody over to the delicatessen store 3 blocks away for a can of elvers or abalone, than having a 10-12 cans in storage, waiting to be stolen.
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry about the "offense" thing, perhaps I misunderstood you.
a me)
About WW's merits and flaws system, it can also be abused, I once guest-ran a party where ALL the characters had "Dark Secret" as a Flaw... It was considered a "cheap" way of getting an extra freebie point...
Most had other "soft" flaws as well... "Evil Mentor" "Notoriety" etc... social flaws that didnt have any effect in their game since they were a "dungeon-crawling" kind of group, they were supposedly a hit-squad for a Justicar...
I blame their original Storyteller actually, if a player wanted to choose a flaw for their character, I would squeeze at least some juice out of it to make it worth the extra points given.
My point is that any role-playing system can be abused, and that every system can be used to make a good story based game, driven by heartfelt dialogue, credible NPC's and action that's challenging, without being impossible to beat... Well, except for Toon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toon_(role-playing_g
Yup, Guardians of Order was about release a RPG based in George R. R. Martin's series "A Song of Ice and Fire", which is currently my favorite fantasy series... They decided to go bankrupt instead of paying the authors and GRRM... And in the meantime the crippled the chance that I would be playing a Knight in Westeros...
I think White Wolf is doing quite well, for an RPG publisher.
And I take offence at the idea that all D&D players are min/maxing powermunchkins... In my game, I dont allow characters that are not well rounded, or that have implausible backstories.
And I find that the powergamers are usually the ones who come from a videogame background... You know them, those who whine about not being able to play their "15th level Necromancer/8th level Blademaster/9th level Assassin/10th level Dark Priest of Yog-Sothoth with all ability scores being 18, except for 25 STR and 8 CHA, and weilding Mjolnir in his left hand and Stormbringer in the right"
Of course I have seen the same type of unbalanced characters in White Wolf Games as well (anyone remembers Samuel Haight?). So it basically means that there are jerks in all hobbies, but you dont have to invite them to your game again if you dont want to...
When my group gets together to play D&D, we do it to immerse ourselves in collaborative story... I have seen players sacrifice beloved characters for the sake of the team, characters giving up magical items because of their beliefs... A lot of things that are greatly enriching to the story, but incompatible with the min-maxing viewpoint.
I have a list of about 7 or 8 airport codes that are also recognizable as tech acronyms... However Slashdot only allows me 3 for space constraints...
Hear, Hear!
I would definitely pay for a Mini-ITX system with MythTV pre-installed and pre-configured
I work at an all-girls secondary school
Must... avoid.. making... comment...
As a college student about to enter this Corporate America, the thought or such an environment terrifies me. I would rather throw away my degree and work in an honest, low-profile blue-collar job than sacrifice my freedoms and rights. This attitude may change, but I really hope I can maintain my ideals in the face of such low integrity.
Now now, lets not exagerate... you are surely not goint to throw away a college education for a low profile blue-collar job, but even if you do, in many blue-collar jobs you have the supervisor breathing on your neck making sure youre not slacking.
Your city might want to use a system like this one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrob%C3%BAs
Cheaper than building a subway line, and it reduced my commute by half...
It works with articulated buses on dedicated lanes on Insurgentes Avenue, which is possibly still the longest urban avenue in the world. It is paid by proximity smartcard, the cost of a one-way ride is aprox. $0.33USD
3 terabytes of data is quite outside "normal home usage" dont you think?
If you need a backup of 3 terabytes of data there are several professional options available
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!
Although Omnianism hasnt been the same since prophet Brutha...
I agree it is a matter of perception, since I certainly havent made a test with a light-meter.
I am annoyed, since it has been a few years since I replaced all the lights in the house (except the lights in the kitchen) for compact flourescents. I did this out of a desire to do "the right thing", but I am starting to feel annoyed about these lamps.
damn! I though the <ul> tag was "underline", not "unordered list"
Nevermind what the labels say, I have found that a 15watt compact fluorescent is
- not
equivalent to a 60watt bulb!And if you wait a month after you first installed them, they lose 10-20% of their brightness, so you need 2-3 15watt lamps to replace a single 60watt bulb.
And I am not talking cheap chinese lamps, I am talking GE, Sylvania, etc...
Well, ever since world war two it is well known that you can't win a 2 front war...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-front_war
This is interesting since at this moment we have 4 stories in Slashdot about corporate IP issues.
/ 24/1325214/ 01432580 1237/ 1918246
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/24
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/24/0
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/23
Surely a company could spend more in R&D and less in lawyers if the patent system was reviewed.
Or, how all these patents are belong to us
Hindsight is always 20/20
Sony TVs "made in Mexico" were only assembled in Mexico, from low quality chinese components... The blame lies in China, not across the Rio Grande.
Well, I would take "more convenient" over "more advanced" any day of the week
I cant read TFA, probably slashdotted already...
Does it stop spinning once it tastes human blood?
Does it stop spinning once it encounters less resistance?
And what about slasher films? Are Jason, Freddie et al, going to have to look for vintage saws for their work?
I dont get it, please somebody explain
Carpe Jugulum
1 020397?v=glance
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/006
I did see that, btw, I was trying to make a joke, in the best Slashdot tradition of first posts... BTW, this is my first first post, yay!
One is a person, the other an ill conceived business plan...
Here is one vendor of said automatic blending systems, there must be others, I didnt search too hard for it.
o ductID=1
http://www.wunderbar.com/products-product.aspx?Pr
A lot of restaurants do this (specially fancy ones)... Caviar and other expensive foodstuffs in small containers can be easily stolen by employees, and if youre going to get an order or two a month of those, its easier to send somebody over to the delicatessen store 3 blocks away for a can of elvers or abalone, than having a 10-12 cans in storage, waiting to be stolen.