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Combat in Dangerous Journeys

Mythusmage Today Posted on by

Introduction

Before I do anything else I must first confess that I’ve decided to remove the chapter on combat in DJ. Instead, the rules on fighting in DJ are being included in the chapter on encounters, which chapter will include mechanics on violent and non-violent ones.

And Now.

D&D’s Role in DJ Fighting

Much of DJ’s mechanics on fighting—especially in the rules on the number of attacks—originally came from D&D, and those were of Gary’s doing. I don’t think that Gary really understood how fast 3 seconds goes by. Then you add the “beat” which takes 0.1 seconds. A tad slower than the blink of an eye, but just a tad.

So I’ve decided to just get rid of the mechanics on the number of attacks a Persona gets based on skill. Instead all Personas get the same number of attacks regardless of skill, and based on the initiative roll, Attribute Speed, and weapon speed. Though the roll can vary according injury or to drugs and magick be there such that allows for the hastening or slowing of the Persona.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU

It means that you can ignore the rules for the number of attacks based on your Persona’s skill with a weapon or fighting style. Though I may devise quirks that allows the HP more attacks or fewer depending on which quirk the player takes. Just remember that 0.1 seconds really won’t allow your HP to take multiple actions, unless you’re playing a superpower DJ guide.

It’s Necessary?

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People say we need immigration laws. I must ask, “We do?” Let’s be honest here, our immigration laws were originally enacted to keep undesirables out. Undesirables being those who are not white western Europeans.

Since then we have made changes, and now the rationale is to keep too many people from moving here. But now I have to ask, do we need to? Last I’ve heard, we’re not replacing our losses, fewer people are being born than dying. In short, we need immigration to replace our fatalities.

So they’re not real Americans. By who’s definition? I grew up in the 50s and 60s, back then we wouldn’t really qualify as Americans. How Americans are seen has changed over the years, and now a person from 1965 would be somewhat aghast at how we’ve changed.

As for not being able to handle a mass influx, we need a mass influx. We need more immigrants to make up for the people we lose. As for changing the nature of our society; it has changed and it will keep on changing. This is not the America of 1850, thank God.

And what if the whole world moves here? Well then, we’ve got an empty world outside of the United States to colonize. As a matter of fact, if everybody decides to migrate here, what say we forestall them and annex the planet. Just tell the world that instead of them having to move here to become Americans, America will be coming to you. From now one you are all citizens of the United States, with all the rights and privileges thereof. Of course, you are now all subject to U.S. law, which will mean changes.

But I rather doubt everybody’s going to want to become a citizen of the United States, or even want to move here. As a matter of fact, as far as I can see we can handle the influx, we just need to show some smarts in how we do it.

As for the fussy, new neighbors won’t kill you.

Making Babies

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In the latest issue of MIT Technology Review is a list of ten tech breakthroughs; one item mentioned is that we are now producing embryos from stem cells. This includes human.

It does mention that the embryos can be brought to maturity, which means we could soon have babies grown from stem cells instead of zygotes, and as you could expect some people are having conniptions about that. Their complaint amounts to, “How are we going to tell the difference?” My question is, “Why would we want to?”

They wouldn’t be true humans?

Why?

As far as I can see there wouldn’t be a damn difference other than how the chap got his start. All the genetic say “human”, so let’s call them human. Folks, a difference that makes no difference is no difference.

So I have to proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Congress shall make no law allowing for any way of marking a person as being in any way artificial.

Let’s block the sort of discrimination some fussbudgets are insisting on.

My opinion and I’m sticking to it.

Disappointment

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Today I learned that the fellow who was supposed to move out of his apartment as he promised to changed his mind. Steps are being taken to persuade him to follow through on his promise, but at the moment it looks like he’s going to get evicted, and that’s going to take a couple of months.

Keep in mind that he likely has a place to move to, and that it’s likely his family and his doctor are urging him to. But it sounds to me as if he’s gotten scared and wants to stay where he feels safe.

In the meantime I’m feeling unsafe and I really do need a place of my own. Or at least a room in a home with a stable environment and the landlord has some knowledge of the autistic and how we tend to behave.

To add to that I really do need to start using a cpap, I don’t think a delay of close to 60 days is going to do me any good.

Guess What this Means

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Introduction

In New England Might… author Erik Klemetti writes about the possibility of volcanoes popping up in New England in a million years or so. But—I can hear you protest—New England is in the wrong place for volcanoes.

Here’s the thing, we make mistakes.

Something We’ve Overlooked

When we first started dividing the planet into tectonic plates we went by the obvious. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge was obvious. So the MAR was named as the eastern edge of the North American Plate and is considered as such to this day. Trouble is, the floor of the western North Atlantic is basaltic, while the continent is North America is granitic. Last I heard, granite and basalt just don’t mix. That is, they don’t blend or merge in any real sense. Basaltic rock will always be distinct from granitic rock, in any great extent.

What Does this Mean?

What it means when you get right down to it is that the Western North Atlantic plate and the North American plate are separate tectonic plates, with the WNA subducting under the eastern NA. And as happens with plates sinking into the mantle as they subduct melting. In the case of the newly discovered plume it would appear that that location in the WNA plate just happens to have a lower melting point for some reason, or it’s right above a mantle hot spot and so is melting.

And the Volcanism?

And the million years or so just happens to be the guess we’re most comfortable with. As far as I know it could be tomorrow. For that matter, there is already volcanism in northern New York state near the border with Vermont. And for your information hot springs are volcanic activity.

There’s Potential Here

Think of it, lava and ash burying New England and the Mid-Atlantic states. Naturally some editors are going to have conniptions should you mention it in a story, and there will be a lot of bitching and moaning about it on social sites should it start happening in the near future. But I’ll bet the first persons to start taking the possibility seriously—and they’re right—are going to be talked about for a very long time.

Then again, it’ll probably be our distant descendants who’ll have volcanoes where we now have New Hampshire.

Warning

Just remember, we don’t know everything and what we do now can be wrong.