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Topics - JP Dogberry

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31
Everything Else / Structured Debate
« on: May 25, 2004, 09:11:35 AM »
We have a massive number of people awesomly good at arguments here. Just look at some of the debate we get into. Step in with an argument and no facts to back it up, and you'll be torn to threads in seconds.

Thus, I propse a series of structured debates. It'd work just like a normla debate, with rules for forum. That is, a time limit not of minutes but of 24 hours and of what fits into a single forum post. The other rules would still apply - an afformative and negative team, each of three members (or possibly four)   a topic open to interpretation, and an odd number of Judges (One or three most likely).

For this to work, we'd need at least six people other than me interested, three for each team. If there's more,  people can rotate between debates (which would take about a week each) or have more judges.

Since I'm organising this, I elect that I could Judge the first, unless someone else particualrly wants to, and I have a good idea for the first topic.

On the subject of topics, these could be anything from both serious debates, or more likely important stuff - we can decide once and for all weather Eowyn or Arwen is hotter, or if Spiderman would beat the Hulk in a fight, and backed up with conclusive evidance.

So, anyone interested, or is it a stupid idea?

32
Writing Group / Getting Published
« on: May 25, 2004, 08:48:53 AM »
Ok, this may sound very n00bish from me (hopefully not) but it is quite relevent I think.

This question is basically addressed to those on the board who are in fact published.

What path does one take to getting from being an amateur writer to having multiple published books? Especially if, hypothetically spekaing of course, one was an 18 year old amateur speculative fiction writer just starting to get serious about it and trying to get in the habit of writing every day?

33
Role-Playing Games / Character Designing
« on: May 18, 2004, 06:52:02 AM »
Yesterday, I rolled up a character for a Cyberpunk 2020 game. It took about an hour for me and one other player to do this.

I went home and spent three hours writing up details about this character. I ended up with 2325 words, all written in one go. I hadn't actually noticed I was writing that long.

My question, then, is how much time and effort do people put into designing characters? Do you just build stats, or do you write fully fleshed out histories and do those "100 question's you should answer" lists (Which I'm tempted do do to round out my character.)

34
Everything Else / Ramen
« on: May 10, 2004, 04:44:54 AM »
Having eaten Ramen most lunches for a couple of months now, i dedicate a thread to it. Here's some tips I picked up:

The better quality ramen will sink.  The worse uality ramen will float. Better wuality ramne can cost up to 25c instead of fifteen, but it's worth it.

For Ramen al Dente, simply cook it for less time so it's a bit firmer when you take it out.

Anyone else with any tips?

35
Everything Else / My Dad!!!!
« on: May 10, 2004, 04:34:39 AM »
I am right now talking to my dad over some wierd IM program.

I haven't heard from him in years...

My dad!!!

36
Rants and Stuff / Hard Drive Crash
« on: April 13, 2004, 07:57:27 AM »
My hard drive just died. Suddenly, boom, it's gone. I had a chance to back up my assignment, and that's it.

My computer is old enough it's not worth replacing, so it looked like I'll have to buy a new system. Using the same savings I'm living off. (Which means I need to start looking for a job.)

If I'm not around often for the next while, this is why. I'll probably put in an order for 1.5K $ worth of parts tomorrow.

Why do I feel like my best friend just died?

This was the computer that I first had the internet on. The one I became a PC gamer on, the one I found my first message board on, the one I first formatted myslef, the one I first changed the hardware of myself.

Now, it's gone....

37
Table-Top Games / Heroclix Tourney Teambuilding
« on: April 06, 2004, 11:35:32 PM »
Well, it seems like I've figured something out with the buses, so I will be able to get to this convention. One of the things there is a Heroclix tourney. I really don't expect to win or do well even, I just plan to have fun. I'm rather inexperienced with the game and only own a few figs (and I'm not paying $30 for the sealed tourney.)

So I'm wondering if anyone has anya dvice for my team? It's a 300 point game. My entire fig list is:

Dr. Strange (R), Sandman (R), Daredevil (R) AIM Agent (E) Black Panthar (E) Nebula (E) SHIELD Agent (E) Kang (R) Vulture (V) Human Torch (E) Avalanche (E) Elektra (V) Ulik(E) Skrull Agent(E) Hydra Operative(V) Moloid (E)

The very first fig I want in ym team is Ulik as a tank, mainyl because my only other choice is Sandman. In a 300 point game, I think I can handle Uliks high cost, so long as I don't use Kang (who costs even more). Now, I want to back that up with a ranged attacker. I could use Kang, but then I have pretty much no points left. If I use Dr. Strange or Torch though, I get a bonus flyer so I can save some move actions. Strange is a little better I think, but also costs more, and I'm not sure if I want to spend that much.

As a secondary flyer I want to use Vulture. He's handy, not too bad in Melee, and has a charge attack, so he's a great taxi (even though Taxis aren't as important in the new rules). I still question if I even need him though, but I also question if one flyer is enough, and I can't afford torch and Strange. (without getting rid of enough figures that I'll only have a six member team. In a 300 point game, 7 or eight sounds better).

As basic fighters, Daredevil is simply too weak for me to care. Avalanche is a half decent ranged fighter, but am i better just subdtituting a no-name guy like the SHIELD agent? Not quite as effective, but a lot cheaper and I might save some points for other good chars (maybe afofrd to replace Vulture with Strange)

Elektra and Black Panter are too evry good fighters, what with the Blades. I'd really love to use both, but I don't kbnow if I can afford it. At the moment I'mthinkign Elektra, but I'd rather trade soemthign out and get Panther instead. it's only two more points for Outwit, and given I haev NO support, Probability Control or Perplex anywhere, I'd like some control over the game.  Panther has no range however.

Which basically leave shalf my team composed of no names. I can use Moloid to fill in the gaps, but he can't do much except run and hide. I could always hope for a lucky hit, or use him to force breakaway rolls (Without plasticity though, not a good tactic) but really I'm better off using ranged grunts for that.

So what do soem more experienced players reckon? Shoud I try to fix it to get my best flyers and fighters on the field in a small team? Or replace a good char witha  couple of no names to ahev a better sized team.

38
Movies and TV / Thunderbirds
« on: April 06, 2004, 06:29:00 AM »
The 13 meg trailer is here: http://www.thunderbirdsmovie.com/media/thunderbirds_tsr1_700k.mov

Personally, even though they're going for the Alan Tracy feels left out storyline (I'd just prefer a single epic rescure mission, where the disaster was caused by the Hood) it looks pretty cool.

Seeing Thunderbird 2 in Live action like that was like seeing a piece of myself I forgot long ago in front of me. Now, they better put in the full getting into the vehicle scenes (especially Virgil's, who is, as we all know, the best character.) Oh, and the use of the Vehicles better be acurate. In the trailer it looks like we see Thunderbird 2 keeping pace with Thunderbird 1 - That would never happen, 1 is about three times faster, that's the *whole point*.

Oh, and Brains actually looks ten years old.

39
Rants and Stuff / Bus Timetables
« on: April 05, 2004, 09:41:39 AM »
I normally do not have much of a problem with Brisbane's public transport system. It is afforable, comfortable, and not too slow. The buses are usually frequent enough.

In a months time, I have a convention I am looking forward to attending (and have already paid for). This convention will involve mucho roleplaying goodness (I have soemthing booked in every slot, which is way too many, and I'll be all Roleplayed out. But so mnay good things to try!)

Except on the Sunday and Monday (a public Holiday) the buses don't run early or late enough to get me there, or back. I think I can figure out something with my friend who lives a reasonably long walk away from the venue, but grrr....

I need to get there before 9:00 on the two days (That's game start, registration and breakfast starts at 8) and leace at 11:00. First bus there leaves at 8:00 (and it's an hour trip, plus walking to the venue after I get to the city). Last bus to leave is 8, a full three hours to early. The website suggested I catch the bus at 5 pm the previous day to get there on time.

Oh, and I was just playing a MUD (I fell to the darkside again) and spent forty minutes pressing the up arrow followed by the enter key to reel in a fish. And I didn't even get the fish at the end of it.

40
Rants and Stuff / The Official Koala Whacking FAQ
« on: March 29, 2004, 07:11:25 AM »
The Official Koala Whacking FAQ

1)      General Questions
a)      What is Koala Whacking?
b)      How do you Koala Whack?
c)      What are the risks associated with Koala Whacking?
d)      Is Koala Whacking Legal?
e)      I plan to visit Australia? How do I try out Koala Whacking?
f)      Why do you Koala Whack?
g)      What type of Equipment does a Koala Whacker carry?
h)      What are the qualifications required for recreational or sporting Koala Whacking?
i)      Is Koala Whacking done for sport?
j)      Who is the Current World Champion?
k)      Does the RSPCA/environmentalists ever try to stop Koala Whacking?

2)      Employment Questions
a)      Can I get paid for Koala Whacking?
b)      How do I get a job Koala Whacking?
c)      What about these "Well-respected" Koala Whackers I keep hearing about"?
d)      How do I get a degree in Koala Whacking?
e)      What are the employment possibilities for a qualified Koala Whacker?
f)      Does the degree give any transferable skills?
g)      What is the job like? Will I enjoy it? Will it suit me?
h)      What are the job perks? The bad parts?

3)      Koala Questions
a)      What is a Koala?
b)      What do they eat?
c)      Where do they live?
d)      Do they swim?
e)      What is the temperament like? Are they dangerous?
f)      Does Koala Whacking put Koalas at risk?


41
Writing Group / Systemless
« on: March 12, 2004, 11:47:07 PM »
Ok, my story.

This is the third in a series (But independant) of five short stories, after which I'm going to try my hand at a novel. This story is set in the sixth and final era, long after all the other events have occured. Hence the ruined world. This was originally a dream before I worked it into the system universe, so I intended the tone to be a little surreal, and a little dreamlike.

Overall though, something seems not quite right about this; it's not yet finished and I ca't put my finger on why,

Specific concerns though:

1) Length and pacing. Too long?

2) The Chacracter of Lita, and Mia to a lesser extent is causing me problems. I'm a geek who's never had  a date trying to write a romance, so anything that can help em get into the heads of these characters would help.

3) The religious themes. Overdone? Trite? On the same subject, does Freeman's last line work? That's a new line, since he's orignial was rather cliched.

4) If anyone has heard Smauel Barbar's Adagio for Strings, does the final scenes with the jail evoke the same feeling? I listened to it while writing the scene, and want it to feel the same.

5) Anything else you can comment on, mostly I'm asking because I'm not sure what eneds to be done.

42
Movies and TV / Eva Director's Cut
« on: February 26, 2004, 11:02:36 PM »
First off, it's kind of old news.

Secondly, you can already get the scripts off www.evaotaku.com. They've been there for a while.

Thirdly, it will make sense just like the rest of Eva did. (Which it did. It's not that complex). Don't get me started.

Fourthly, I will have to buy it immediately, even though i just bought the original DVDs.

43
Suggestions Box / Spotlight?
« on: February 18, 2004, 07:18:55 PM »
I think somehow we need to change how we display articles. You see, our main fare is, of course, reviews, which are interesting, and should be shown on the front page when new. That said, though, anyone who wnats to read a particular review can easily search for it and find it.

Now, we also have non-review artcles. Stuff like the Gaming Chef series, or my free Butcher! game( or modern ninja artcle) or that fantastic one a while back about roleplaying being a mythological experience. Now, these sorts of articles appear for a day, then disappear into the archive. The problem is, this is our unique content, and so no-one knows it's there unless there go looking for random stuff in that section.  Therefore, I think we need some way to showcase or spotlight this sort of article. Kind of like how Criticl Miss puts their review son one page, and their articles on the main page type thing.  (although we are far more review based than them).

No, I don't have a solution, I'm just suggesting we should do something like this.

44
Rants and Stuff / A Cool Day
« on: February 09, 2004, 07:44:48 AM »
Well, today was rather interesting. As some of you may know, with school finished and Uni starting I have now moved to the city of Brisbane! I love this place, so I'm glad to be here, and pretty soon I start studying to earn my Bacholer of Teaching (Secondary) in English and Computers.

Anyway, for the first time since I moved up (I only arrived two days ago) myself and my friend whose family I'm currently living with went into the city.

The first bit of good news was before that actually. I figured out the times on the Uni website for the two classes that didn't seem to be on the timetable (They were there, just not on the allocations table.)

Anyway, in the city we bummed around and stuff. The walk down to the nearby bus stop was pretty long (like yesterday) and by the end of this year, I'll be fit. The buses were reasonably priced and fast.

In borders, apart from some dude just sitting reading stuff without buying it, I saw translated Mangas for Evangelion. Since it's my fabvourite series of all time, I wantad them just to have them. 35$ though. Each. Bordors also had some cool RPG books (I have previously not had a lot to do with most commercial systems, being the price and how hard they are to get in rural areas.) including Mage: The Acension, which sounds interesting and has been reccommendod to me. At 80$ I'll have to consider it carefully.

Lunch was a Sausage roll and a really cheap, really fresh bottle of orange juice. The juice plac eis came from is my new favourite drink place in the world.

I was disappointed to see my favourite arcade had closed down, but happy to see that the cheap video game store is still around (I thought it had gone). I tried a demo of Mario Kart: Double Dash and now want a Gamecube.

Shortly after that I saw a Japanese schoolgirl. Ok, it was just a japanese girl in a uniform with a long skirt and colours similar to the Japanese Schoolgirl uniform, but it was still the highlight of my day, thinking I was in Tokyo for a moment. (Technically, though, it was a school uniform...)

The best part though was finding a comic book shop I didn't know existed. Great RPGs. The same Eva mangas for half the price (and a few action figures) A guy running it who looks just like Comic Book Shop Guy from The Simpsons. Best of all, they had half a wall of Critical Mass Heroclix figures. (Clix of any sort are really hard to find here). Since I wanted a pack, I bought one, and was surprised when the price came up three dollars cheaper than everywhere else. I commented on this, and CBSG says "Yeah, well that's because we rock!" He was right. They did indeed rock.

On my way out I grabbed a flyer for a thing in a couple of weeks demonstrating a new cool looking CCG based on Kung Fu movies called Shadowfist.  To paraphrase: "Dueling and Multi-player games - with Give-Aways." More importantly: ""Shadowfist is the fast-paced trading card game based on Hong Kong action movies and more! Kung Fu masters, good-hearted cops, shadowy assassins, evil sorcerors with high-pitched voices, demons, and lots of guns. What more could you want? Flying Cybernetic Monkeys, you say? It's got those too!"

I opened my pack and home and pulled Ulik ( Great figure, and pretty cool, I needed a tank) some wierd 8 point figure who looked and acted just like Gollem, a hot chick named Nebula, (whose stats on every webiste on the net are entirely different from what my model shows, hmm.) and a daredevil figure.

I ordered a new monitor, since mine's, um, purple. 17 inch, 219$.

The only bad part of the day was the catch 22. I need to get address changes and cards from several different organisations (mostly government) yet to get one, it appears I need to get the other first. Which I can't, because I need the other one first.

Sigh. And my computer doesn't have sound yet. Don't ask.

45
Suggestions Box / Spelling Errors
« on: December 30, 2003, 10:56:01 PM »
Whenever I go to the "Other" page, it's bad enough seeing the "Gameing Chef", but it's right next door to "bordgames". Could someone maybe change it to "Gaming Chef" and "Boardgames"?

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