| Welcome, Guest |
You have to register before you can post on our site.
|
| Forum Statistics |
» Members: 189
» Latest member: Annie-nee
» Forum threads: 14,152
» Forum posts: 221,591
Full Statistics
|
| Online Users |
There are currently 872 online users. » 1 Member(s) | 867 Guest(s) Applebot, Baidu, Bing, Yandex, classicdrogn
|
| Latest Threads |
Fic Updates 61: LuXurIous...
Forum: Other People's Fanfiction
Last Post: batzulger
8 hours ago
» Replies: 188
» Views: 9,569
|
Advice, tools, and other ...
Forum: Other People's Fanfiction
Last Post: batzulger
8 hours ago
» Replies: 125
» Views: 96,482
|
Politics Video Madness II...
Forum: Politics and Other Fun
Last Post: classicdrogn
9 hours ago
» Replies: 275
» Views: 105,212
|
I stumped Perplexity. Can...
Forum: My Apartment Manager is not an Isekai Character
Last Post: Bob Schroeck
9 hours ago
» Replies: 1
» Views: 20
|
Possible 3D resources thr...
Forum: My Apartment Manager is not an Isekai Character
Last Post: robkelk
Yesterday, 03:50 PM
» Replies: 181
» Views: 46,400
|
Complaining about the wea...
Forum: General Chatter
Last Post: classicdrogn
Yesterday, 03:04 PM
» Replies: 45
» Views: 6,551
|
Video Madness XII
Forum: General Chatter
Last Post: classicdrogn
Yesterday, 03:01 PM
» Replies: 108
» Views: 14,145
|
Meta notes
Forum: My Apartment Manager is not an Isekai Character
Last Post: robkelk
Yesterday, 12:03 PM
» Replies: 14
» Views: 1,742
|
Political Images thread t...
Forum: Politics and Other Fun
Last Post: Norgarth
Yesterday, 11:51 AM
» Replies: 103
» Views: 6,620
|
Image dump thread XXXI
Forum: General Chatter
Last Post: Norgarth
Yesterday, 11:49 AM
» Replies: 163
» Views: 12,636
|
|
|
| [Fluff] The Ravenmoon Tarot Deck |
|
Posted by: robkelk - 04-17-2012, 05:46 AM - Forum: Fenspace
- Replies (105)
|
 |
Just for fun, and to give Ravenmoon Station a bit of color... Please pardon the wiki markup.
I'm stuck on four of the twenty-two Major Arcana, though. Anybody want to fill in these blanks? And did I pick the best choices for the eighteen that I did name?
Both a socio-political statement and a fortune-telling prop, the '''Ravenmoon Tarot Deck''' first came to the public's notice a few months after the Interdimensional Incursion Incident. (It's older than that event, but people just don't visit Ravenmoon very often.) It follows the Rider-Waite deck in most respects, but the Major Arcana has been updated for Fenspace.
;0 - The Fool
:The Fool is both the beginning and the end, and the one who both makes the journey through the Tarot and the one who shows newcomers the way along that journey. The creator of the Ravenmoon Tarot chose to depict the First Fan in Space, Katz Schrödinger, as the Fool.
;1 - The Magician
:The Rider-Waite deck uses The Magician to denote scholarly knowledge. The Ravenmoon deck depicts Fenspace's first well-known scholar, Jonathon Helscher, as the Fen Magician.
;2 - The High Priestess
:Many interpertations of the High Priestess have her representing "the female indwelling presence of the divine." The Ravenmoon Tarot depicts the three-into-one AI of Fate and her sister-selves (as they present themselves in video feeds from The Fateful Lightning) as the High Priestess.
;3 - The Empress
:The Empress is both the Earthly Paradise and the Feminine principle. Ravenmoon's artist chose two intelligences to represent The Empress: Kat Avins and Gaia, both of Grover's Corners.
;4 - The Emperor
:Some interpret The Emperor as the desire to rule over one's surroundings, while others see it as the embodiment of the Masculine principle. Either way, the Ravenmoon deck depicts the Transrationality Science Assessment Bureau's ranking off-planet officer, Col. Stephen Caldwell, as The Emperor.
;5 - The Hierophant
:(The first of the four I'm having trouble with. The Hierophant is religion, orthodox theology, traditional education, or a “Man of high social standing” - any ideas?)
;6 - The Lovers
:In the Rider-Waite deck, The Lovers represents the impulse that drives one out of the Garden of Eden, towards adulthood. The Ravenmoon deck deviates from this and takes the card more literally, depicting Ben and Gina Rhodes as The Lovers - although some claim Gina represents both a lover and the drive toward adulthood.
;7 - The Chariot
:The Chariot represents struggle and eventual hard-won victory. It is also the only Tarot card associated with a vehicle. The Ravenmoon deck shows one who has struggled and won against herself, gaining the victory of being able to travel through space under her own power at the cost of being merged with her vehicle: Jet Jaguar.
;8 - Strength
:(The second of the four I'm having trouble with. Discipline and control are the watch-words of Strength...)
;9 - The Hermit
:Rider-Waite interprets The Hermit in two ways: the need to withdraw from society to become comfortable with oneself, and the return from isolation to share one's knowledge. The Ravenmoon deck depicts Fenspace's most famous recluse, Paidrag O'Niell, as the Hermit, but leaves the card's illustration incomplete - perhaps the artist is waiting for Mr. O'Niell to end his self-imposed exile from society.
;10 - Wheel of Fortune
:The Wheel of Fortune represents an element of change in the querant's life. While the most obvious image for this card would have been handwavium itself, the Ravenmoon Tarot's creator instead chose a person well-known to have gone through a change because of handwavium: "That Poor Sod," A.C. Peters.
;11 - Justice
:The easiest of the Tarot to interpret, Justice represents Justice. The Ravenmoon card is illustrated with a uniformed Space Patrol officer of indeterminate race and gender. (There are rumors of early Ravenmoon decks that show Justice as Great Justice, depicting Haruhi and her inner circle on the card. Nobody has ever displayed an example of such a card.)
;12 - The Hanged Man
:(The third of the four I'm having trouble with. Most interpertations of the Hanged Man mark him as an indication of sacrifice, letting go, surrendering, and passivity...)
;13 - Death
:Most fortune-tellers are quick to say that Death is not always Death; it is also an ending, a change, or an increased sense of self-awareness because of change. But that ending can also be the ending of dreams and lives. Ravenmoon's artist chose for Death a First Fan who is known to be quick to violence, who was avoided like the plague for years, and who changed because of an increased self-awareness of his place in early Fen society: Noah Scott.
;14 - Temperance
:The Rider-Waite interpretation of Temperance is moderation, synthesis, and compromise. Ravenmoon depicts the first leader to embrace synthesis and compromise for the good of her faction, Serenity I, as the embodiment of Temperance.
;15 - The Devil
:In most traditional decks, The Devil represents an obsession or addiction to fulfilling earthly base desires. The Ravenmoon deck gives the (dis)honor of the role of The Devil to Asmodeus Grey.
;16 - The Tower
:Failure, ruin and catastrophe are the hallmarks of The Tower, and this is reflected in the Ravenmoon deck by its depiction of the failed station Over The Rainbow on this card.
;17 - The Star
:Many interpretations of The Star have it representing inspiration and discovery. Ravenmoon's deck chooses to represent this as scientific inspiration and discovery, depicting The Professor in his laboratory.
;18 - The Moon
:Rider-Waite uses the Moon to denote life of the imagination separated from life of the spirit - a focus on a wide-ranging worldly life instead of a spiritual life. This role has been given to Buckaroo in the Ravenmoon Tarot.
;19 - The Sun
:(And here's the last of the four I'm having trouble with. The Sun is "attained knowledge"... but the obvious candidates fit better on other cards.)
;20 - Judgement
:Judgement symbolizes resurrection and the promise of life after death. That promise was fulfilled in the earliest days of the Fenspace diaspora, embodied in Fenspace and depicted in the Ravenmoon deck by Wave Convoy.
;21 - The World
:Rider-Waite says The World is fulfillment, accomplishment, and success. While this could apply to all of the Big-Name Fen, the most public and outspoken BNF, Mal Fnord, is the one Ravenmoon's artist chose to depict. The card has also been renamed to "The Worlds," and many of the planets that the Soviets were first to explore are shown in this card's background.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
|
|
|
| I Think It's Time I Walked Quietly Away from TVTropes |
|
Posted by: Bob Schroeck - 04-17-2012, 03:35 AM - Forum: All The Tropes Wiki Archive
- Replies (307)
|
 |
Long story short: some repressed twit stumbled over the Naughty Tentacles page, complained to Google, and for the second time Google yanked all the advertising on the wiki and sent the management into a tizzy. Naughty Tentacles (a page of some 8 years' standing, IIRC) is now on permanent redlink and goes to a petulant "We don't want pages like this" message. And Fast Eddie and his coterie have sprung into action -- they took the entire Fanfic Recommendations section down to sanitize it (it's back, but is full of broken markup), and are proceeding to censor the rest of the wiki of anything that Fast Eddie finds squicky.
I'm taking the time to slowly think out my reactions to this; I may end up posting a bit of an essay here when I'm done.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
|
|
|
| Spoiler: Magisterium Trial Primer |
|
Posted by: dark seraph - 04-17-2012, 02:43 AM - Forum: The Legendary
- No Replies
|
 |
Saw this on another board, so ninjaed it for our use. 
Magisterium Trial: Sic Semper Tyrannis
Requirments: Lore and Destiny slots unlocked. The trial will not queue otherwise.
Recommended: All Three Level Shifts. Rebirth, Barrier.
iXP: Advanced Psychic XP
Phase 0: The Calm Before The Storm
The league will be dropped into a very pretty map that also serves as the hospital. Gather up, listen to the pigtails, buff, and then run through the Dream Doctor's Rune to teleport to Nova Praetoria
Phase 1: Defeat ALL THE IDF
This is the Faceroll portion of the trial. 250 IDF stand between you and Tyrant. DEFEAT THEM ALL.
I am not entirely certain, but I believe that this fight uses the same spawns as the TPN Trial. Thus, no Seers or Warworks are present.
Phase 2:Battle Royale
Three AVs will spawn! Chimera, Shadowhunter, and Pendragon, each with their own gimmicks
Shadowhunter grows stronger when not in combat. When reduced to 40% health, he'll transform into a giant jackal like hound. Upon death, he infuses his allies with negative energy.
Pendragon is a Brute, and grows stronger with each attack. He also has a shield that can absorb damage. When defeated, Excalibur will fight on its own for a short time.
Chimera will target people with Rain of Arrows. If you see a target over your head, he's about to turn you into a pincushion. One won't kill you, but if a bunch of targeted people stand together the combined damage will wipe you out. He also frequently teleports around the map. Upon death, he activates a Dead man's trigger that... Does something. Never seen it in action.
Recommended order of defeat is Shadowhunter > Pendragon > Chimera.
Badge Challenge: Triple Threat
Defeat all three archvillains within 5 seconds(?!).
Phase 3: The Quills of Jocas
Black Swan will attack next. She has a few rather nasty tricks.
The most notable are the Quills of Jocas, which will randomly shutdown your incarnate abilities (Including Level shifts!) for a short time.
Black Swan will periodically teleport the league to her before using the Quills. She also has access to a Void Judgement.
The other deadly ability of Black Swan is her ability to open rifts to Shadow Earth that spawn adds and heal her. Destroy them as soon as they spawn.
Badge Challenge: Shadow Master
Never let six rifts to open at once during the entire fight. This is pretty easy. Just have some people set up to shut the portals.
Badge Challenge: Ready to Rumble
Defeat Black Swan within 8 minutes of starting the trial. This one requires a blend of strong DPS and builds that don't hinge on Incarnate Powers, as Black Swan can shut those off.
Phase 4: The Well's Champion
As soon as Black Swan goes down, a very spectacular cutscene will play. When it ends, you'll be on a new map, and your hitpoints will be critically low. A Rebirth will help heal the league to full.
During this phase, Tyrant will take control of the Hospital. If you die, you will be trapped inside until the Dream Doctor defeats the glowing red portal. He can pretty much solo it though.
During this Trial, Tyrant will be surrounded by Lights of the Well, that buff him. Fortunately, you have a new power: The Quills of Jocas. Stand near a light and press the power (On a convenient popup power tray) to stop Tyrant from drawing on the power of the well!
Tyrant has a few big attacks: A beam sweep, and an AOE lightning burn patch. The beams hit people in front of him, but are not particularly notable. The lightning (announced by a message that the "Air Crackles Around Tyrant!") will surround him and kill anyone who spends too much time in it. Standard burn patch rules apply.
There are two more mechanics I don't fully understand. One is Favor of the Well. The other revolves around periodic swarms of Olympian Guards spawning and running towards him. Fight well and don't die, and you should be fine.
Badge Challenge: The Hard Way
Defeat Tyrant while destroying no more than 12 Lights of the Well.
Badge Challenge: The Really Hard Way
This badge isn't needed to master the trial. Which is good, because it's ridiculous. Defeat Tyrant WITHOUT DESTROYING A SINGLE LIGHT OF THE WELL. If you manage this... Wow. Go you.
Phase 5: The End?
Upon Tyrant's defeat, he will immediately respawn! ...As a level 54-8 AV. Please choose your most hilarious attack and then take him down.
VOILA! You have defeated Tyrant and proven yourself champions of the well! By clearing this trial, you'll earn the Enemy of the State badge, and you'll have some iXP to put toward your Hybrid Slot. It also drops Emp. Merits as normal.
|
|
|
| DS's fun trip to the dentist! |
|
Posted by: dark seraph - 04-16-2012, 02:37 AM - Forum: General Chatter
- Replies (32)
|
 |
Warning, this was written while the meds where strong, expect loopyness!
So last week, I had a tooth break, about 30% tooth, the rest was the filling. So I call my dentist to make an appointment to get it fixed, thinking it was nothing major.
I might of well said "How hard can it be?" in Clarksons' voice.
After getting in, the dentist has a poke around, does some x-rays and is shocked to discover instead of the 30% of the tooth that was missing, it was more like 70%.
Apparently on my last trip, the other dentist that worked there failed to notice the cavity creeping up under the tooth like some guerrillas commando, wreaking everything it found.
So 3 options where presented to me.
1: Add a filling, but that might fall out in a week or so.
2: root cannale and crowning, with the shiny price tag of $2,000 (As a student who is also unemployed, that would take a year to pay off.)
3: Rip it out for only $100
So I let them take it out.
This was highly unnerving as I saw a bunch of pliers that would of looked more at home in SAW get passed around before the dentist reaches in, gets a good grip and pulls.
CRACK!
Now, I have only heard a crack like this once before, while in Highschool PE, some idiot fell over some equipment and broke his arm. The sound of a bone breaking is a nasty one that will linger with you.
So I tried not to swollow my tounge in shock as that very noise eminates from my MOUTH!
Apparently the tooth was so far gone, the dentist had to take it out in little itty bitty chunks. yay.
But now we get to the fun part of the story. When this is all over and I pay the dentist, I have to walk home....
It took half an hour to walk into town... the return trip some how took an hour... I am not sure how that works, but I'm as high as a kite right now.
And that was DS's start to the Week! 
|
|
|
| Hnrgggg. Dialogue check needed. |
|
Posted by: Wiregeek - 04-15-2012, 08:44 AM - Forum: Other People's Fanfiction
- Replies (7)
|
 |
Halp!
I've got a chunk of dialogue being observed and commented on by the protagonist. I'm using a first-person narrative mode, heavy on the internal commentary. (It's a hack of an exposition tool, but it should serve to get the wheels turning and get this story the hell out of $Starting_Town, which I expected to have left in the dust in a couple thousand words... ).
I'm not happy with the structure of the call and response of this. I'd like someone to sanity-check this, if anyone has a free moment to tell me how to unscrew 500-1000 words (I'm at 450 words right now, I'd say this scene is ~50% finished).
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies
|
|
|
| So you want to be a Rock Star? |
|
Posted by: LynnInDenver - 04-14-2012, 09:22 PM - Forum: Fenspace
- Replies (12)
|
 |
Finally dug up the file with this in it, it's been sitting on a drive for a couple of years now. This is really just flavor. More setups have been put together since the initial "prototype", with the quirks varying slightly.
So you want to be a Rock Star?
Base Hardware: Handwaved Xbox 360, with handwaved media and controllers
The "Rock Star" system is the result of the dissatisfaction of Jeph and Myk in not being able to play their favorite songs in Rock Band without spending a lot of time programming them into the game. While the two of them have taken great pains to keep their game console collections free of 'wave, they decided that the risks were worth the potential payoff. After considering the three potential candidates for the project, they chose the Xbox 360 for the highest potential of 'livable' quirks. The system was revealed at the 2013 Convention at Serenity Valley, and has quickly become a late night party staple. It can take a CD, copy one or more songs from it, and create a game playable track inside of ten minutes, including graded difficulties for the songs. It also introduced the "Nightmare" difficulty above Expert, halving the effective grace for missing notes in the song.
In addition, it can accept additional instruments dipped in the same batch of goop. So far, Jeph and Myk have added a cowbell and accordion to the initial five instruments.
Quirks
Don't copy that floppy: The system won't take in songs that are not on factory stamped media. Jeph and Myk are attempting to make a rig to create one-off stamped audio media, but it's not clear if this will be a solution.
MOSH PIT!!: Stage antics will lower the effective difficulty of songs played. Simply 'moving to the beat' will drop it one level... Peter Townsend windmilling and lunatic dancing across the stage or other such amusements can drop a Nightmare difficulty down to easy in a real hurry. It also works in the opposite direction... any attempt to use the setup without having it set up on a stage or fascimile (even a one stair riser will do in a pinch) will force everyone to play at Nightmare difficulty regardless of their settings or attempted stage antics.
--
"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor
|
|
|
| [meta] FenWiki Stub Pages |
|
Posted by: robkelk - 04-14-2012, 08:28 PM - Forum: Fenspace
- Replies (4)
|
 |
Who wants to make a dent in the stub pages on the FenWiki?
Here's a list, as of when I made this post:
54 Open Stubs
6 Stubs about Blackaeronaut's part of Fenspace- 36 Atalante
- 37 Fides
- Andrew 'Ender' Langley-Rhodes
- Kyoko Langley-Rhodes
- Mayonaka Langley-Rhodes
- Mikhail Langley-Rhodes
18 Stubs about Bob's part of Fenspace- Alison Mee
- Attila Imre
- Benten
- Bossy
- Dave Viel
- Ed Viel
- Froth
- Grace
- Heather Panquelle
- Helen Imre
- Jim Viel
- John Freiler
- Nancy Ott
- Nancy Schroeck
- Rachel Zane
- Rachel's Van
- Salvage I
- Scott Pinkham
1 Stub about Catty's part of Fenspace
2 Stubs about Cobalt's part of Fenspace
1 Stub about Dartz's part of Fenspace
5 Stubs about Ebony's part of Fenspace- Buckaroo
- Chaos
- Hanoi Xan
- J.
- Nezumi
2 Stubs about ECSNorway's part of Fenspace
2 Stubs about Foxboy's part of Fenspace
4 Stubs about JFerio's part of Fenspace- Blue Midget
- Green Planetoidy
- Jupiter Mining Corporation
- Starbug 2
2 Stubs about KaiserDrgn's part of Fenspace
15 Stubs or Wanted Pages about Mal's part of Fenspace- Black Mesa
- Cal Renken
- Gagarin Crater Air Force Base
- Gallifrey
- Kat Stewart
- Korolev Air Force Base
- NOMAD
- Mary Wildman
- Shad Houben
- Shuttlepod
- Tannhauser Gate
- The South Is Rising (Someone Get A Hammer)
- Tomed Incident
- Type-7 shuttle
- Zib Stewart
1 Stub about manytales00's part of Fenspace
10 Stubs about Rob's part of Fenspace- Agatha Clay
- Crystal Titusville
- Handwavium Propulsion Laboratory
- Helium
- Interdimensional Incursion Incident
- La Mariposa
- Ley
- Mare Marginis
- Moon Kingdom Memorial Outpost
- Surprise
7 Stubs about Warringer's part of Fenspace- Arno Nym
- Fee Carmichael
- KA Preiswert
- Orbital Sled
- SENECA
- United Stars Organization
- Vario
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
|
|
|
|