Melkire

For a pittance you can still get Knights of the Old Republic, Jedi Academy, and Dark Forces, all of which are excellent games. Hell, you can pay pennies if you like. Greatest thing about Humble Bundles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9PlxtZu0pc

I call dibs. Been in love with this since I saw Inglorious Basterds. video

Does it have Rebel Assault, Rebel Assault II, Dark Forces, Jedi Knight, X-Wing, TIE Figher, or X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter? If it has any of the above, GET IT. GET IT NOW. YOU WON'T REGRET IT. EDIT: Oh fuck it's also got Republic Commando, Outcast, and Empire at War GET IT GET IT SO WORTH $12

I see your magic fire and raise you one mega-ton bomb. . .your move bro.

Not always true. This. Some authority figures are little more than officially-sanctioned Joe Schmoes who don't always have that luxury. See: run-of-the-mill swordsman vs. thaumaturge. "Mr. Mage, please cooperate. Uh, pardon, ser, I didn't catch that. You'll set me on fire and kill me where I stand if I interfere? Uh...."

Take to the streets? Unless you're out in the boonies and there's not but a single road headed in the direction you need... :frustrated:

Hate me all you like. You cannot hate the bibimbap.

Sorrynotsorry.

Obligatory reminder to coordinate OoC with the organizers of whatever events / tavern nights that B.E.E.F. plans to crash. They might want to shoot you down.

I can see it now. Someone walks into the Coffer and Coffin and asks, "Do you have BEEF?"

Yeah, this is why I usually use the normal word because I can't bring myself to even consciously misspell such a common word. Interesting factoid: 'gaol' is a real word. It's archaic which is why you don't see it often in modern usage. It's not even pronounced with the English hard "G" sound. It's pronounced exactly like the modern word it evolved into, "jail." That's why jail has that "O that sounds like E" sound in it: jay-ol / jay-el. "Gaol" is Middle English btw, and originated from the French "gaole", which WAS pronounced with the hard "G" sound. Gah-ol.

Randy Orton. Now there's a S.O.B. whom I love to hate. On-topic, I'm still waiting for the day when someone in the Quicksand gives someone else the chair. I've seen bottles, glasses, fists... no chairs.

As long as it's not insect.

I ninja edit every post I make, what's your point? And by point I don't mean your sword, or your other sword.

I feel that Lominsan authorities would be freest (yes that's a word) in this regard, considering that the Admiralty is the undisputed and uncontested authority. If a Yellowjacket is on patrol and someone starts to get rough with him or her, no one's going to be surprised or object much if the jack tries to bash the bastard's brains in. But then, this comes from my view of Limsa as a borderline piratical environment. Maelstrom, Twin Adders, and Immortal Flames are going to feel very restricted. Unless there's a clear foreign threat to the Alliance (see: Garleans, etc.) they're not going to readily resort to lethal force, or so I'd think. Sultansworn only need a perceived threat to the sultanate in order to take whatever means necessary to deal with said threat. Brass Blades... well, they're corrupt cops, most of them. Take that as you will. I've no clue on how Wood Wailers or the Gods' Quiver would behave.

First off, obligatory "Flames are not law enforcement but we will still break up your brawls if need be" statement. Second, do not start a brawl in such a populated and well-patrolled area as the Quicksand unless you are willing to accept any IC consequences that come your way short of dictated-character-maiming-or-death. Third, be mindful of what level of authority any particular governmental branch has. I'm not sure how it would work in Limsa or Gridania (though I have ideas), but in Ul'dah any Flame, Sultansworn, or Brass Blade can break up your fight, and technically speaking any of those three can have you temporarily incarcerated, but barring a threat to the Sultanate, only Blades can hold you for more than a short stay, and only Blades can levy criminal charges at you... and thankfully, as previously mentioned, you can bribe your way out of consequences if you get taken in by the Blades. Fourth, be prepared to be drowned out by chat spam, regardless of whether those people decide to get involved or not. I think that about covers everything that's already been said better by others. Whoops. :blush:

Gridanians live under the sufferance of the elementals, whose wishes are interpreted through Hearers (and Padjal? I'm not too clear on the specifics). Basically, if they say you're out, you're out. It's like being exiled. Everyone turns their backs on you. Gods help you if you committed woodsin and incurred Greenwrath. I think how far an authority figure could step before a civilian/citizen would object also depends on the city-state/region in question. I'd imagine there's a lot more leeway on both sides of the fence with Yellowjackets: the civilian is more free to resist authority, and the Yellowjacket more free to exert it. Compare the Blades and 'sworn of Thanalan, who have to constantly be mindful of the more complex political realities of Ul'dah. As for imposters, well, "as long as you're not caught".

The arbiter-upon-request is a good, feasible concept of authority-in-RP. It requires that those who are asking for you to step in understand ahead of time that they are giving you a certain level of authority (arbitration, use of physical force if need be to enforce the final outcome, etc.) and that they need to respect that ICly when the time comes to face consequences. The example Warren cited was interesting because the attack was unprovoked following an intrusion of personal space (read: an FC house) and that a lethal attack was godmodded by said individual against a Flame who happened to be in the lobby. The follow-up at the Quicksand, thankfully, had everyone but this individual on the same page. The resolution was unfortunate, but at least there were no conflicting accounts on everyone else's parts as to how matters turned out. If you're after examples of folks "high enough up the chain" so as to be nearly untouchable, look no further than Jameson Taeros. Excellently crafted character in a position within several plotlines where everyone is in mutual OoC agreement that the character's unique position makes him very, very difficult to exert or enforce any authority on, and that that's the way it should be.

Therein lies the irony of the tale. Depending on the translation, David either brained Goliath with a heavy stone from his sling, or else the thrown stone caught in Goliath's greave, causing him to stumble to his knees in time for David to cut off his head. Either way, size had nothing to do with it. The most-frequently cited example of a small man felling a large man ultimately fails to assert that the small man can win in a direct conflict - instead, he changes the game, disabling his foe from afar before finishing him.

~Three Fortnights Later~ She was dressed simply in hemp and leather; she had left the garments bequeathed to her by the guild back at her room in Quarrymill, along with her tools. The woman hefted the rucksack by the strap, slipping it off her shoulder as she walked further into the clearing. She approached the water’s edge and stared out over the glistening surface, eyes lingering for a moment on the aetheryte before turning up to the night sky over Urth’s Font. “I am here.” The stars went out. From east to west, light vanished as those heavenly beacons went dark one by one, as if a curtain had been drawn over the land. Black as soot, the curtain swirled to a focal point far above, directly over the aetheryte, then spiraled down in a column of smoke, curling about the crystal as it came. Laughter emanated from that column, a low sinister chuckling, and as the last of the large cloud descended, light returned to the sky, the stars no longer smothered by foulness. As far as the woman knew, no soul yet living save hers had ever born witness to this process. The cloud settled about the aetheryte, then flowed toward her, gathering in a dense pool on the bank opposite her. Now most of that foulness roiled upward, ascending as slowly as it had descended swiftly, diminishing in substance as it went, and in its wake it left ash, a pile of ash that resembled feet… legs… a torso… arms... the ash figure that emerged from the smoke resembled a man sitting on his haunches, his arms resting on his knees, his head bowed. As this figure neared completion, a second, thinner column followed, and in its wake was left color, the red flush of flesh, pale tan of skin, and gray lines of hair. The woman stared, and thought about how easy it would have been to toss a lit torch into that mass of dust. What little was left of the black cloud now surged upward in what was the thinnest column yet, and behind it was left sabatons, a belt and buckle, a scabbard, a bastard sword, chainmail, and gauntlets. She wondered at this. Her observations from her previous meetings with this abomination had led her to a working theory with but a singular conclusion: that prolonged exposure to and possession by the monstrosity had bound these articles aetherically to their master. More black magic, no doubt. A man crouched now under Odin’s crystal, and with a heavy sigh he pushed a hand back through his gray hair and lifted his face to look upon the woman, the baleful red gaze of his right eye boring into her. “Where have you been? You were instructed not to leave this clearing.” “I’ve been here a fortnight. A fortnight, wasted here. I grew restless. So I wandered. Decided to risk it. Reached out. Risk proved worth taking. Message came to Quarrymill. Word from Thanalan.” She slung him the rucksack. “Someone was asking questions. Asking after the troublemakers.” He caught the bag. “Do go on.” “A messenger. Bearing a letter. Letter and… something else.” He lowered the rucksack to the dirt and rummaged through it. “Did you read this letter?” She glared at him. He raised an eyebrow up at her. “Sincerest apologies, mistress. Often times I forget that this is a land of savages without the good grace of an imperial education. The messenger?” “I went south. Hirelings often miss.” She smirked. “I do not miss.” His answering smile faded as his rummaging ceased. From the bag he drew metal. An intricate construction which appeared magitek in origin. Gold, black, silver. The woman regarded this with distaste. He merely stared at the prosthetic arm he was holding. Then the moment passed. He set it aside and reached for the letter, ripping the seal open and unfurling the parchment as he stood. She couldn’t help it; her own eyebrows climbed higher and higher as his countenance turned stern and his body language betrayed his agitation. With a guttural cry, he cast the letter into the air, dropped one hand to his scabbard, and with the other drew his sword and cut the parchment in twain. The two pieces fluttered to the dirt, burning as they fell with unnatural flames. “And so one son ends another,” he sneered as he sheathed his brass blade. “My suspicions are confirmed. Paranoid though it seemed, I chose wisely in recalling you.” “Explain. I did not appreciate that. We are behind schedule now.” “Rest assured, you will be handsomely compensated for your troubles.” He spat into the water. “Those of my ilk are connected. We feel each other across the distances the way you might feel your arm, or your leg, or your hand or your foot. When you are wounded, when aught pierces your skin or your flesh, you feel it. You know.” He dropped to his knees and stuffed the prosthetic back into the rucksack, which he flung over his left shoulder as he rose to his feet again. “Some time ago, I felt incredible pain that was not mine. Agony, as if I was being torn in half. Then, not so long ago, a sharper, harsher pain… and silence, as if I had lost the use of a limb. Silence followed by anguish from a completely different direction. So I brought you here, took you away from your work, and went after the others. Those who are mine answered the call through our connection, but the others… the others numbered a mere two individuals. After nearly a fortnight, I found him. I finally found him.” He drew in a deep breath, though he didn’t need it. “Oubliette Crow lives, if you can call it living, and that means that Atrium is no more. And this,” he exclaimed as he brought one foot down on the smoldering remains of the letter and ground it into the dirt, “this confirms it. The Void cannot hold Epinoch.” The woman tensed. “The albino you spoke of?” “The same. Now you understand?” Her face contorted, and there came the loud clack of a tongue pressed sharply against the roof of a mouth until it slid down past the teeth. “Yes. This is why.” “You will have to exercise caution. Resume your work. Be about your task. Do not return here until it is done. I am not ready for him. Not yet. Let him fixate on those others for now.” His eyes narrowed as he scrutinized her fidgeting. “You have questions?” “About the albino, no. About the giant, yes. You sent him to me. Why?” “I trust Renatus more than I trust you. So. If you need to reach me, send him here, and I will come find you when I can. Is that satisfactory, Miss Raske?” Thekla smiled. “Naturally.”

Sounsyy is everyone's lore-senpai.

Just to clarify, weapons aren't blunted at the Grindstone. We keep healers on stand-by to stop people from being killed, and the only rules are no killing and no magic. There's still plenty of blood spilled, you're just not allowed to try and decapitate someone. Wait, I thought the Grindstone had rules against other things, like contact poisons which induce paralysis, which can't be realistically and fairly represented in dice-rolling? Just checking to make sure. On the subject of relative advantages: A character like mine, who relies mainly on small weaponry, footwork, what measure of hand-to-hand prowess he has, and skullduggery, will always be at great disadvantage against, say, an armored knight who's bigger, weighs more, has a longer reach sans weapons, is armed with sword and shield, etc., in a "fair fight". Any sort of direct confrontation, i.e. a traditional exchange, is going to result, more often than not, in the less armored and less well-armed man (or woman) losing. Which is why those kinds of characters don't engage in "fair fights". Sand thrown in the eyes, a shove to knock the heavily armored man off the docks and into deep water, weapons coated with poisons as mentioned earlier, etc. A mage is going to blast a knight out of his boots from a distance. An assassin is going to look to get the drop on a mage. So on and so forth. You can't, and IMO there's no need, to "balance" anything because with the right application of thought (see: skullduggery) any character should, theoretically, be able to triumph over another in the absence of a sport setting. It's when you get into "fair fights" and regulated contests that things get murky. The trouble with dice isn't that it's random. The mere possibility of a David felling a Goliath goes to show that having a random element is actually more realistic than not having it. The trouble with dice is that, unless you implement a system such as Fate-14, pitting rolls against rolls without modifiers doesn't allow for a character's history or experience to impact the results as they should.

Ew, no. There are better places for that stuff. Let's see if we can get back on-topic. If not, and we're all done here, please feel free to let the thread die after having run its course (or I could lock it forcibly, mwuahahahaha).