The Gaming Den

Actually, L5R 4E has had some changes that address Frank's concerns in both this thread and the L5R 3E thread. I've never played 3E and didn't plan to, so I didn't comment in the 3E thread. Its 4 AM where I am so my comments may be all over the fucking place, so I beg your indulgence if I come off a...

Is there any reason that each time we roll initiative, it has to be linked to a set amount of time? The only reason to roll initiative multiple times in a combat is to input some kind of randomization of action sequence, right? What is the argument against a mechanic where each initiative pass is 2 ...

There's a difference between a neurotoxin that causes nerve cell death and one that impedes neuronal activity such that death of the organism occurs, especially if you are looking at chronic vs. acute exposure. If nothing else, the effects of one cannot be reversed while the effects of the other ca...

So if it is shown that lead poisoning is a neurotoxin that inhibits IQ and causes poor impulse control, why should we believe that there's something special about lead as opposed to chemical neurotoxins in general ? There's a difference between a neurotoxin that causes nerve cell death and one that...

This is a load of horseshit. Its one thing to keep an orphan drug going; that's commendable and I would actually give a pharma a subsidy or tax break for doing so. But the addition of it 'contains other substances from the pig pituitary glands that account for some of its effectiveness' is a total ...

Assuming you didn't have the 2nd amendment (so pesky, that), you could do the following: 1) Require all would-be firearm users to complete a safety course and test. 2) Require background checks (something that I'm fairly sure is already being done.) 3) Require a psych check of some sort, and have t...

You can play DA:O as a non mage? Huh... Not sure why you'd want to. Because I love slow-mo shots of me stabbing a dragon in the eyes to kill it. And the pink shower effect of using flurry with assassinate and introducing elites to Critty McCritty. I played it on Nightmare and mage is no fun on that...

If there was no obvious minimum, the psychological factor of 'we're paying minimum wage because it's the lowest we're allowed to pay and therefore we're doing right by the shareholders' would vanish, and the only factor in wages would be actual worker value. If the workers and the shareholders were...

The commentary in the SSC was the best part. My SR1/SR2 group still throws out comments like 'Great, now I can flatten light ammo against body armor faster than ever before' even though its been 15 years since we played Shadowrun.

The Carrots and Broccoli was made by cutting some carrots into short strips and boiling them. When they were becoming soft, I dumped some broccoli tops into the same water for a short period (broc takes much less time to cook). Then I drained the water out and threw a bit of olive oil on them as we...

I made turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, potato salad, tossed salad, lemon grass carrots & broccoli, ginger & garlic cabbage, cranberry sauce, nachos, pecan pie, rice krispy treats, rootbeer floats, and horchata. My wife made pumpkin pie and peanut butter cups. We have a lot of leftovers a...

I would like to subscribe to this newsletter and learn more. I have just asked my SR group if they want to make a decker group to address the side-bar-experience of decking in the game.

http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/ ... ama-sandy/

One metric for 'effectiveness of natural disaster response' could be mortality. Lets rate Bush vs. Obama, shall we?

I hear the former heads of Bioware are looking for jobs, O Disney Overlords.

But it's also bad because it enables butthurt American working class conservatives to live in a state of denial about the need for a safety net. The keyword there is 'butthurt'. This implies, and I think correctly, that they don't have a well reasoned, coherent argument against either a social safe...

Atlas Shrugged

Who wants to be a spider farmer when they grow up?

The trick is not to be discouraged if it doesn't look 'professional', or if it took an ass-long amount of time to do. Practice is the key to both those issues.

To be fair, I think this is the first time I've heard of industrial specialization being linked to the downfall of Rome. Possibly cause other economic problems, like debased coinage and generations of civil wars draining the treasury seem more likely and less ridiculous than the fact that some villa...

Read Ready Player One. Many nerdgasms were induced. Its not the best writing but its entertaining as hell.

I live and farm in a part of Ohio that is constantly being teased by the weather channel by having large storms coming over the horizon, disappear while above us, and reappear once the front has moved past us. We're at less than half our average rainfall for the last few months, but the crazy weathe...

"Irony" is one of the pillars that reporters considered when determining whether a story is newsworthy, and people find it ironic when people who they expect to be very good (rich whites) act like people they think act very bad (poor minorities). This is why a shootout in a hip hop club w...

Why is it that people who snap and go on shooting rampages are usually upper-middle-class white dudes with college degrees and reliable safety nets while poor people who struggle to pay the bills and are under generally under far more stress with far less to loose pretty much never do? Poor people ...

So you don't consider the minimum average cost of $4 billion it takes to get a drug approved in the US by the Federal Government (Which is pretty essential if your business plan doesn't include "we get arrested and sent to prison. The end.") to be a significant barrier of entry? I don't t...

The best part is JH's reply to the gear comment: "It’s a different environment, and it calls for different balancing of your skills, attributes, and gear. Remember that the NPCs you face will be functioning with the same limits." Yeah, you didn't screw up JH, it's just the other person is...