in terms of taste and healthiness (is that a word?)
It's a word, but the word you're looking for is healthfulness.
A person will become healthy by eating healthful food.
If your food is healthy, then it's still frolicking in the meadows somewhere. (Actually, in the case of probiotic foods, maybe healthiness and healthfulness are both concerns...)
Raising the taxes on gas is probably the worst solution. The rich show offs who buy the gas-guzzling SUVs and H2s are still going to be able to afford gas, while the poorer folk who whose wallets are already stretched by high gas prices are going to suffer all the more, and likely they can't afford a newer, more fuel efficient car.
Not only that, but the US economy is dependent on cheap fuel. Think about where all of our food comes from? Does that steak you buy in the grocery store come from a farm down the road? What about those ears of corn or those potatoes? If you've ever driven in Pennsylvania, then you know how many trucks take to the road every day to supply our country with food (and other goods) from the breadbasket of our country. If you raise the price of fuel, you raise the price of food, and when the price of food goes up, everything will soon follow.
If you want to add a tax, then maybe a very steep tax on vehicles that don't meet a certain fuel-efficiency requirement. Since there's nothing that rich, SUV-driving folk hate more than taxes, maybe they'll think twice when they see they'll have to pay an extra thousand or so dollars to the federal government to buy that H2.
Are the US press making up the stories about Tibetan monks and nuns who are starved and beaten in jail cells for nothing other than being a Tibetan monk or nun, only to be released days before dying of their wounds so that the Chinese government doesn't have to take responsibility?
Maybe internet censorship isn't as bad as we make it out to be in China, maybe it is... but it's not fair to the people who are dying by the government's hand to gloss over the atrocities committed by the Chinese government.
I don't think that the Chinese government is pure evil, but it certainly is not very nice if you're not one of the right people. It's foolish for Western journalists to jump on a story like this and assume that the government was behind it, but it's just as foolish to assume that just because the West overreacts about something in China, there is nothing actually there to be infuriated about.
This reminds me of something I heard about an plan by the allied military in WW2 to strap small bombs to hundreds of bats, which they would release over Germany cities. The bats would fly into roofs and the bombs would detonate, causing fires and damage all over the cities.
I don't remember why exactly the idea was scrapped (other than being totally pointless and stupid). I think I read that there was fear of the bats prematurely detonating or something like that.
In any case, this controlling sharks thing is just as stupid as the bat bombs plan. This seems like a case of someone saying, "Hot damn, that's a cool idea. Let's do it!" rather than, "OK, we need stealth underwater spies... what's the best possibly way we can accomplish this?"
I wish I had formatted that post better -- it was my first Slashdot post. I'll do better next time.
Anyway, at the risk of going a little OT, that's the beauty of d20. It's completely transformed the RP industry, which prior to 3rd Edition D&D (and d20), was vanishing fast. D20 offered a simplified and streamlined set of rules, and an open license to edit, reprint, modify, to the heart's content. It's why you now see d20 versions of many games that once used game systems that bared no resemblance to eachother whatsoever. Now you have Conan, Warcraft, Middle Earth, Dungeons and Dragons, Star Wars, World of Darkness, and many other popular game systems that use an underlying set of Core rules. It was a brilliant move by Wizards of the Coast to introduce d20, and the proof is the now thriving RP business.
Back to Iron Heroes -- despite what a lot of people here (who admit to not having played the game) are saying, Iron Heroes is a pretty big change to the rules. Most of the big d20 successes in the past have been basically d20 versions of pre-existing game worlds: d20 LotR, d20 Conan, d20L5R, Ravenloft, Call of Cthulhu, and of course D&D's standard Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk settings (both of which use Dungeons and Dragons rules, with slight differences). Arcana Unearthed (by Monte Cook) was one of the first very successful alternate rules systems that competed with D&D. Where many of the earlier books required use of the D&D Player's Handbook, AU was marketed as an "alternate player's handbook." It didn't just present a new world, but an entirely new rules set. Iron Heroes follows in the same tradition.
There have been other "low magic" solutions, but for the most part they just removed magic from the game entirely and presented a couple of alternates to the spellcasting classes (i.e. Paladins, Rangers, and Bards without spells). They changed the rules a bit, but they were still D&D.
Iron Heroes is *not* D&D, yet remains compatible with it. It feels a lot like a video game with the token pools system, but it finally offers a mechanics-based reason to run cinematic combat scenes, rather than just "because it would be cool if my character could do this." I've seen lots of d20 books on how to run cinematic combat scenes, but until Iron Heroes I hadn't found a system that seemed to built specifically for it.
In the end, I guess it all runs down to who you play with. If your players or your Game Master suck, the game might very well suck too. But I and my players are thoroughly enjoying this new take on roleplaying, happy that it still uses the same basic d20 mechanics so it was easy to learn for us... and we're especially glad that our old D&D and d20 books are not obsolete just because we changed to a new system, like they would have been before d20.
I play Iron Heroes regularly now, having switched over from regular D&D in the fall.
In short, Iron Heroes is fantastic! The lack of magic everywhere makes for a game that feels more like Conan or Willow as far as cinematic action goes.
Someone asked about classes... The classes are not divided among social roles anymore either; they are divided up among combat styles. Off the top of my head, there is an Archer, Armiger (gets huge bonuses in heavy armor, acts as a tank), Berserker, Executioner (assassin-like character), Harrier (speed, moving through combat, and dodging), Hunter, Man at Arms, Weapon Master (specializes in a single weapon and kicks ass with it), Thief (great at diplomacy and manipulation), and an optional Arcanist class (which is much weaker than a standard "mage," but much more flexible in terms of spell effects). I think I may have left one or two out, but basically you can play any type of hero you want using this system without being bound by "Bards all sing songs" and "Fighters all wear plate and swing swords."
The characters get really powerful on their own, without the need for powerful magic items and spells to buff them up. So the players in my game have not been fighting eachother over who gets the best treasure. It makes the game a lot more about adventuring than about the reward at the end of the adventure. It's allowed me to create a more story-driven than reward-driven game for my players.
As for magic, it's there, but very weak. The arcanist can shape spells to the area, shape, and range that he wants. You can also cast more spells than in standard D&D, and more powerful spells... but if you cast a spell that is too difficult for you, you risk taking abilit damage.
The main game mechanic is based on "tokens" that the PCs get, which allow them to do more powerful things. If you play WoW, think of this like a Warrior's rage. Archers get tokens for spending time aiming, berserkers gain tokens whenever they get hit or when a friend takes damage, armigers get tokens for using their armor well, thieves can get manipulation tokens against NPCs... all these tokens replace the extra power that magic items once gave to PCs, and it gives the PCs more control over the special moves that they can do.
The system also changes combat to become more cinematic by inventing ways to combine skill checks into combat. So if you want to run up the huge ogre's club to stab him in the face, you can... if you want to use a knife to slide down a tapestry and avoid falling damage, you can... stuff like that, that you've seen in the movies. So players get a lot more into combat as well.
I was really getting jaded from playing the same old D&D, and then countless d20 custom rules just to keep the game from getting stale. IH has really changed the scene by putting the game back in the hands of the characters and not the gear that they carry around.
I hope this answers some of the questions you guys posted about the system. I'll check again tonight for more answers.
Slashdot Mirror
Wouldn't you know it -- the laptops in 2015 are still running Windows XP!
It's a word, but the word you're looking for is healthfulness.
A person will become healthy by eating healthful food.
If your food is healthy, then it's still frolicking in the meadows somewhere. (Actually, in the case of probiotic foods, maybe healthiness and healthfulness are both concerns...)
Not only that, but the US economy is dependent on cheap fuel. Think about where all of our food comes from? Does that steak you buy in the grocery store come from a farm down the road? What about those ears of corn or those potatoes? If you've ever driven in Pennsylvania, then you know how many trucks take to the road every day to supply our country with food (and other goods) from the breadbasket of our country. If you raise the price of fuel, you raise the price of food, and when the price of food goes up, everything will soon follow.
If you want to add a tax, then maybe a very steep tax on vehicles that don't meet a certain fuel-efficiency requirement. Since there's nothing that rich, SUV-driving folk hate more than taxes, maybe they'll think twice when they see they'll have to pay an extra thousand or so dollars to the federal government to buy that H2.
Maybe internet censorship isn't as bad as we make it out to be in China, maybe it is... but it's not fair to the people who are dying by the government's hand to gloss over the atrocities committed by the Chinese government.
I don't think that the Chinese government is pure evil, but it certainly is not very nice if you're not one of the right people. It's foolish for Western journalists to jump on a story like this and assume that the government was behind it, but it's just as foolish to assume that just because the West overreacts about something in China, there is nothing actually there to be infuriated about.
As long as I can get chickencordon.bl.eu
I don't remember why exactly the idea was scrapped (other than being totally pointless and stupid). I think I read that there was fear of the bats prematurely detonating or something like that.
In any case, this controlling sharks thing is just as stupid as the bat bombs plan. This seems like a case of someone saying, "Hot damn, that's a cool idea. Let's do it!" rather than, "OK, we need stealth underwater spies... what's the best possibly way we can accomplish this?"
Anyway, at the risk of going a little OT, that's the beauty of d20. It's completely transformed the RP industry, which prior to 3rd Edition D&D (and d20), was vanishing fast. D20 offered a simplified and streamlined set of rules, and an open license to edit, reprint, modify, to the heart's content. It's why you now see d20 versions of many games that once used game systems that bared no resemblance to eachother whatsoever. Now you have Conan, Warcraft, Middle Earth, Dungeons and Dragons, Star Wars, World of Darkness, and many other popular game systems that use an underlying set of Core rules. It was a brilliant move by Wizards of the Coast to introduce d20, and the proof is the now thriving RP business.
Back to Iron Heroes -- despite what a lot of people here (who admit to not having played the game) are saying, Iron Heroes is a pretty big change to the rules. Most of the big d20 successes in the past have been basically d20 versions of pre-existing game worlds: d20 LotR, d20 Conan, d20L5R, Ravenloft, Call of Cthulhu, and of course D&D's standard Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk settings (both of which use Dungeons and Dragons rules, with slight differences). Arcana Unearthed (by Monte Cook) was one of the first very successful alternate rules systems that competed with D&D. Where many of the earlier books required use of the D&D Player's Handbook, AU was marketed as an "alternate player's handbook." It didn't just present a new world, but an entirely new rules set. Iron Heroes follows in the same tradition.
There have been other "low magic" solutions, but for the most part they just removed magic from the game entirely and presented a couple of alternates to the spellcasting classes (i.e. Paladins, Rangers, and Bards without spells). They changed the rules a bit, but they were still D&D.
Iron Heroes is *not* D&D, yet remains compatible with it. It feels a lot like a video game with the token pools system, but it finally offers a mechanics-based reason to run cinematic combat scenes, rather than just "because it would be cool if my character could do this." I've seen lots of d20 books on how to run cinematic combat scenes, but until Iron Heroes I hadn't found a system that seemed to built specifically for it.
In the end, I guess it all runs down to who you play with. If your players or your Game Master suck, the game might very well suck too. But I and my players are thoroughly enjoying this new take on roleplaying, happy that it still uses the same basic d20 mechanics so it was easy to learn for us... and we're especially glad that our old D&D and d20 books are not obsolete just because we changed to a new system, like they would have been before d20.
I play Iron Heroes regularly now, having switched over from regular D&D in the fall. In short, Iron Heroes is fantastic! The lack of magic everywhere makes for a game that feels more like Conan or Willow as far as cinematic action goes. Someone asked about classes... The classes are not divided among social roles anymore either; they are divided up among combat styles. Off the top of my head, there is an Archer, Armiger (gets huge bonuses in heavy armor, acts as a tank), Berserker, Executioner (assassin-like character), Harrier (speed, moving through combat, and dodging), Hunter, Man at Arms, Weapon Master (specializes in a single weapon and kicks ass with it), Thief (great at diplomacy and manipulation), and an optional Arcanist class (which is much weaker than a standard "mage," but much more flexible in terms of spell effects). I think I may have left one or two out, but basically you can play any type of hero you want using this system without being bound by "Bards all sing songs" and "Fighters all wear plate and swing swords." The characters get really powerful on their own, without the need for powerful magic items and spells to buff them up. So the players in my game have not been fighting eachother over who gets the best treasure. It makes the game a lot more about adventuring than about the reward at the end of the adventure. It's allowed me to create a more story-driven than reward-driven game for my players. As for magic, it's there, but very weak. The arcanist can shape spells to the area, shape, and range that he wants. You can also cast more spells than in standard D&D, and more powerful spells... but if you cast a spell that is too difficult for you, you risk taking abilit damage. The main game mechanic is based on "tokens" that the PCs get, which allow them to do more powerful things. If you play WoW, think of this like a Warrior's rage. Archers get tokens for spending time aiming, berserkers gain tokens whenever they get hit or when a friend takes damage, armigers get tokens for using their armor well, thieves can get manipulation tokens against NPCs... all these tokens replace the extra power that magic items once gave to PCs, and it gives the PCs more control over the special moves that they can do. The system also changes combat to become more cinematic by inventing ways to combine skill checks into combat. So if you want to run up the huge ogre's club to stab him in the face, you can... if you want to use a knife to slide down a tapestry and avoid falling damage, you can... stuff like that, that you've seen in the movies. So players get a lot more into combat as well. I was really getting jaded from playing the same old D&D, and then countless d20 custom rules just to keep the game from getting stale. IH has really changed the scene by putting the game back in the hands of the characters and not the gear that they carry around. I hope this answers some of the questions you guys posted about the system. I'll check again tonight for more answers.