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The RPGPundit's Own Forum / Re: Greta is at it..AGAIN
« Last post by jhkim on March 27, 2024, 01:25:29 PM »
We use alternatives all the time - it's around 40% of our electricity nationally, and in many other countries it's the majority - like France or Sweden. You keep speaking as if either we use zero fossil fuels or nothing matters, but that's obviously hyperbole. There are lots of in-between steps.

Well, IF it's not ZERO fossil fuels then what is it? For electricity generation you don't have a more reliable, cheaper and cleaner option.

For transport you DON'T have any other option:

No country is 100% off fossil fuels, but many countries that use *less* fossil fuels have overall more reliable, cheaper, and cleaner power. France and Sweden generate less than 20% of their energy from fossil fuels, and their energy is cheaper than average in Western Europe - thanks in part to early investment in nuclear power. (Germany and Denmark which have no nuclear are doing much worse.)

In particular, about the "cleaner" part... Fossil fuels are considered cleaner only because air pollution is given a free pass, even though it has clearly documented health effects, causing 5 million or so early deaths every year worldwide. If there was even the slightest health effect from a nuclear accident, a city would be shut down and evacuated. But we've been conditioned to think that air pollution is acceptable because it's just "normal". As Brad put it "Breathing in diesel exhaust will kill you from carbon monoxide poisoning a billion times sooner than anything else in there." -- as if that is some sort of reassurance that really diesel is safe.


Batteries weight the same full than empty, which limits the cargo and range of ANY vehicle, which in turn impacts prices. EVs aren't good even for commuting, as proven by Commiefornia asking their ressidents to NOT charge them because the grid can't service them. In winter EVs often can't start.

For what it's worth, my stepson is driving an eGolf that he got from his father. I think in your charging comment, you're referring to the record-heat week back in August 2022 when California asked everyone to reduce electricity use. Is that right? California does have below-average electricity reliability, but it's #35 out of 50. The three lowest are Oregon, Texas, and Louisiana.

https://generatordecision.com/states-with-the-most-least-reliable-power-grids/

I wouldn't dismiss all problems with EVs, but you're claiming that they don't even exist as an alternative.

You said before that there are no easy answers. I agree about that. EVs exist and are currently being used as an alternative to gasoline cars. Gasoline cars have greater range and weigh less, but they also spit out harmful pollutants into the air that are proven to damage lungs and reduce lifespan. There isn't a simple metric for how these trade off with each other.
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If a character has enough compensating power and skills, then they are still an asset to the group and will be taken along even if they sometimes need help. David Johansen gave an example of the GURPS mage who was towed on a string. I've seen many weakling PCs, who would be a liability were it not for their magic. But if their magic (or other talents) are important enough, then the rest of the party will want them along - even if they have to be carried or minded. In real-world history, military teams would carry along a 300-pound cannon with them through very difficult terrain because of the importance of it.

Every occupation has a certain basic requirements where if you don't fill them, then no matter what your other merits are, you can't do that job. A fantasy adventurer needs to be able to run, climb, swim, sneak, fight and probably ride a horse. They don't need to be the best at any of those things, but if they can't do them at all, they're not qualified to be an adventurer. If they can't do those things physically, they need to be able to reliably produce an equivalent result magically.

You might say "Wait a minute! Lots of D&D characters can't do all those things". Yeah, I think it stretches plausibility that anyone would take a 1st level wizard with 6 strength, 3 HP, no armor and one spell per day with them into a dungeon. The chances are just too high of him either forcing the expedition to stall because he can't traverse the dungeon, or getting his companions killed trying to defend him. The only reason that happens is game convention.

Even if you think that a 1st level wizard is too unplausibly weak for other 1st level characters, and thus AD&D as written doesn't work -- that's a matter of game balance. There is a level of magical power at which you'd think it *is* plausible that the party would take them. If, say, they had 5th level wizard casting then would that balance their weakness? I would think that to be overpowered, if anything.

I don't put much stock in game balance - at best, it's an art rather than a science. But in general, weaknesses are compensated for by strengths. In 3rd edition, they balanced races with "effective character level" (ECL). For example, if a starting 1st level party had the option to bring along a 12th level wizard who used a wheelchair, then the wheelchair-using character would overshadow everyone else. Even though they can't walk, they can summon monsters to carry them or similar. Regardless of how one assesses the wheelchair, that degree of magical power more than compensates.

---

It's the same game balance logic as when I had a wheelchair-using character in my superpowers game. The superpowered PCs still had to do things like move, sneak, and so forth -- but they could and did use their abilities to compensate.

Saying "all adventurers must be able to do XYZ" sounds like 4E D&D style balance - where all characters do the same things, just by different methods. And if one likes 4E, then that's fine. But it is also possible and playable to have characters that are more differentiated.

Like, your comment about riding reminded me of an old 1E Rolemaster character who was too big to ride a horse. He also was an avowed pacifist, masochistic, and simple-minded. So he was quite limited. But he was also insanely tough and was a powerful sympathetic healer who could take on the wounds of others, and was if anything a dominant character for the group.
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  As for using homicide as a metric...you do understand we are about 3-4 times better at saving people in life threatening distress now than we were in the 90's right? 
I attribute it to poor shot placement.
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Pen and Paper Roleplaying Games (RPGs) Discussion / Re: Orcs vs goblins
« Last post by Zenoguy3 on March 27, 2024, 12:42:43 PM »
I've never had orcs and goblins related in any way.  Until Warhammer 40k decided to have only one "essence" to explain their greenskins (that's more realistic for a science fiction campaign), I'd never heard of anyone making them the same things at all.  I'd argue that anyone doing that has derived it from WH40k.

Tolkien's orcs were also called goblins.

Quote from: J.R.R. Tolkien, Preface to The Hobbit
Orc is not an English word. It occurs in one or two places [in The Hobbit] but is usually translated goblin (or hobgoblin for the larger kinds).
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Pen and Paper Roleplaying Games (RPGs) Discussion / Re: Orcs vs goblins
« Last post by Banjo Destructo on March 27, 2024, 12:07:54 PM »
Of course they're different, and hobgoblins are different from goblins, at least in the MM and whatnot.
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The game I am writing was using "roll all your HD at level up, increase your HP if higher, keep old HP if you roll lower", and I may keep some element of that, but I am now using a system closer to gamma world 1e.   I guess I just intuitively came to that method myself over time as being more interesting than just rolling one more HD to add on top.
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Pen and Paper Roleplaying Games (RPGs) Discussion / Re: Orcs vs goblins
« Last post by Venka on March 27, 2024, 11:56:26 AM »
I've never had orcs and goblins related in any way.  Until Warhammer 40k decided to have only one "essence" to explain their greenskins (that's more realistic for a science fiction campaign), I'd never heard of anyone making them the same things at all.  I'd argue that anyone doing that has derived it from WH40k.

I will point out that orc-goblin crossbreeds are referenced in AD&D, but I'm not sure that they are statted out anywhere.  In any event, they are clearly a crossbreed in the same vein of the familiar half-orc in human territories.
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The RPGPundit's Own Forum / Re: Greta is at it..AGAIN
« Last post by GeekyBugle on March 27, 2024, 11:51:28 AM »
This is the "nut picking argument":

The  mainstream "green movement", the bulk of whatever "enviromentalist" movement is, is composed of anti-nuclear, anti-human, marxist fearmongerers.

But I guess you would call them "no true scotssman".

GeekyBugle, you specifically asked to name ONE prominent personality who didn't fit your parameters. I named Michael Shellenberger -- and then you came back that naming one person doesn't count because the mainstream isn't like that. You specifically asked about one person outside the mainstream -- you can't dismiss it because he's not like the rest.

The majority of any political movement these days are ignorant fearmongers -- hyped up on social media and outrage, and going on about how we're all doomed because the other side are pure evil.


As for "drill baby drill" what's the option? One that doesn't neccesitate millions of your countrymen to go into poverty or die from hunger, cold, heat?

Again, we don't have a REAL alternative for fossil fuels, thanks to the "enviromentalists".

We use alternatives all the time - it's around 40% of our electricity nationally, and in many other countries it's the majority - like France or Sweden. You keep speaking as if either we use zero fossil fuels or nothing matters, but that's obviously hyperbole. There are lots of in-between steps. As yosemitemike noted,

In 1900, when the global human population was 1.5 billion, almost three million people – roughly one in 500 – died each year from air pollution, mostly from wretched indoor air. Today, the risk has receded to one death per 2,000 people. While pollution still kills more people than malaria does, the mortality rate is falling, not rising.

I agree. Since 1900, we've taken many steps to limit air pollution - like the 1963 Clear Air Act. And we can do more. It's not hypothetical - many countries can and have reduced pollution. One of the best ways is through nuclear power, but there are many options.

Well, IF it's not ZERO fossil fuels then what is it? For electricity generation you don't have a more reliable, cheaper and cleaner option.

For transport you DON'T have any other option:

Batteries weight the same full than empty, which limits the cargo and range of ANY vehicle, which in turn impacts prices. EVs aren't good even for commuting, as proven by Commiefornia asking their ressidents to NOT charge them because the grid can't service them. In winter EVs often can't start.

Let's go with the lightest EV the Nissan Leaf: 3,516 lbs https://www.recurrentauto.com/research/how-much-does-an-electric-car-weigh $25,675

The closest in size is the Nissan Sentra 3,038 lbs $23,325

And that's for cars.

In trucks you're out of luck, to be able to carry ANY payload to any interesting distance you need a lot of batteries, which, since they weight the same full as empty the range is reduced, also the cargo is reduced and since you CAN'T charge the batteries in the same time you can fill the tank your time to deliver is increased. What about refrigerated goods?

Don't get me started on planes and cargo ships.

IF you're serious about reducing air pollution you MUST be 100% behind Nuclear.

If you're not an anti-human authoritarian murderer you MUST be in favor of fossil fuels for transport.

IF you're serious about the environment you CAN'T be for wind, solar or EVs because their manufacture still uses fossil fuels AND their waste is toxic AND they aren't reliable, AND the mining for minerals is environmental suicide.

ANY other question?

Every energy source has low returns and quantity. Even if we put every source online we won't be able to meet even the basic needs of the world population.

That means there's no way that we will stop using fossil fuels, and what's affecting fossil fuels will also affect what we need to replace them, like uranium.

One has to live in a fantasy to think that people are resourceful enough to innovate their way out of simple physics. That's not going to happen.

So the "Final Solution" is to reduce the human population, I agree Fritz, you first.

(You're either scientifically illiterate/idiot or so ideologically possesed you lie by reflex, good bye and have a good life.
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The RPGPundit's Own Forum / Re: Greta is at it..AGAIN
« Last post by blackstone on March 27, 2024, 11:16:08 AM »
The core of the Club of Rome and associated’s doom and gloom and desire to exterminate somewhere between 50-90% of humanity can be summed up as “Got mine! Pull up the ladder and fuck anyone trying reach for it!”

The idea that others might not have to look up to them fills them with wrath (“How DARE You!”).

Any tool that might help others have better lives (i.e. abundant and affordable food and energy) relative to their privilege must be stopped.

They demand a return of Sumptuary Laws (you will eat bugs while we shall eat steak, you will be confined to 15 minute cities while they are free to jet around the world) to preserve their elite status.

They want to be gods and every reminder they aren’t must be destroyed (they oppose any religion and reality itself for opposing their delusions).

The Environment is just their weapon and justification for these generational Narcissistic Sociopaths to try and get their serfs/slaves back.

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The RPGPundit's Own Forum / Re: Biden's Cascade of Failure!
« Last post by Chris24601 on March 27, 2024, 11:14:27 AM »
Why get Harris in? Because if destruction is your goal, putting bonafide idiots in charge is a great way to achieve it and because the best way to ensure you’re not impeached or removed is make the alternative even worse.

Biden’s people have pretty much rigged the game so that nothing short of his death will keep him off the ticket. The majority of the insiders at the DNC are Biden cronies and the next in line is someone even more hated than him and that is politically unremovable by the DNC because she’s a black woman.

Meanwhile, RFK Jr. has gone and nuked the Dems’ hope of him splitting the vote enough to throw the 2024 election into Congress by picking a hard Left Soros/WEF-backed nutjob meant to appeal to the Bernie-Bros instead of on-the-fence Trump supporters.

This is what is to be expected of late-stage Cronyism where loyalty to the grift is rewarded over competence. The house of cards is in the process of collapsing and all they know how to do is double-down on stupid.
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