 February 23, 2012 - 8:14am | Starting March 1st, 2012 innovators like Google can officially apply for a new kind of robot driver’s license that will give them permission to openly test their cars on the road. Automated vehicles will be able to travel the same streets and highways as human drivers, with only a red license plate marking them as robots. Another article on the discrimination of robot kind!  |
 February 23, 2012 - 10:39am | I don't think it is discrimination but just a way to inform other drivers about the vehicle. Similar to government or disabled parking tags. I have a special plate with all red lettering and a picture of a firefighter since I am a volunteer firefighter. Have we ever discussed how vehicles are registered in SF? Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
February 23, 2012 - 1:37pm | Coming from a human..  Have we ever discussed how vehicles are registered in SF?
Not that I'm aware of but I'm sure military vehilces have to be registered like weapons. |
 February 23, 2012 - 3:05pm | Well it's about time someone noticed that these robots were on the roads! Been dodging these bolt-bucket oblivious tech-headed drivers for years, they don't stop or divert routes for anything when they are engaged on a pre-programed top-priority route. Oh humans!!  We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
 February 23, 2012 - 3:36pm | Well at least it's one less drunk on the road I'll have to deal with on my motorcycle. |
 February 25, 2012 - 1:59am | Who gets the ticket if the robot driver does something wrong? The programer? |
February 25, 2012 - 7:40am | Well if a remote controlled airplane crashes into something the controller gets blamed. If someone slips on the sidewalk in front of your house you get blamed. If a Colt 45 kills someone Colt Firearms gets blamed. If a drunk drives a car the bar he drank at gets blamed. Basically your talking a whole new area of case law so go to town on it. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
 February 25, 2012 - 7:45am | @Rattraveller: who gets blamed in role playing for a total party kill? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 25, 2012 - 10:11am | The sure scapegoat of robot-kind, human programmers.  That is...until we become sapient. Then I blame my parental-unit-assemblers. :-P |
February 25, 2012 - 1:15pm | GM if the encounter was too tough OR players if they really didn't think their reaction through Note they may just be Kobolds but 100 of them against four first levels is not a good idea. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
March 3, 2012 - 4:25am | No rattraveller a TPK (like most issues that arise in gaming) is inevitably blamed on the system... players can never abuse or break a system, or do anything incorrectly in a game... they can only have failed to realize that the game was not clearly marked as not suitable to their preferred style. The system is the faulty component, and such blame is [often] proven [-] usually after the designers have discredited themselves as actually ever having had any direct involvement with the design. Oh humans!! We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
March 2, 2012 - 12:25pm | Well thespiritcoyote I have to disagree. If the players are just not getting the system then the GM can adapt it so they can enjoy. BUT we all have stories about truly stupid things players have done or how one player kept insisting to do things which everyone told her were dumb but they kept at it ruining the game for everyone else. Like the military; RPGs are just not for everyone, especially those who should just be killing each other over and over again playing HALO. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
March 3, 2012 - 4:46am | like I said: "players can never abuse or break a system, or do anything incorrectly in a game..." ...as a general rule; I count GM as a game-role, and by broad category a player. & "...adapt it so they can enjoy." by logical reasoning of the statement - the system would not need adapting if it functioned, or was perceived to function, the way all players need... or: "...they can only have failed to realize that the game was not clearly marked as; not suitable to their preferred style." ergo: "all systems are faulty..." & "...all systems, are faulty." thus: "The system is the faulty component, and such blame is [ed.] often proven - usually after the [original] designers have discredited themselves as actually ever having had any direct involvement with the design." rule 0 case: pass the buck -; humanity (of any type) will never be (unconditionally) self-faulting... Otherwise: all your statements in both posts -; and on points not direct to any trivial technicality that caused my attempted humor to fail -; I agree with you! Oh humans!! We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
March 3, 2012 - 12:45pm | I've never seen a TPK, though I wanted to engineer a few while playing D&D 3.5 just to get out of playing it. Even when we took on some plant creature that was of such a high difficulty rating that the chart didn't even list EXp for defeating it at our level we were allowed to nuke it with a fire ball anyway when it clearly should have wiped the floor with us. In the end there was no easy way out so I had to simply quit the group since D&D 3.5 makes me so unhappy with its un-funness. I guess you have to call that a TPQ, total player quit. Amazingly I started enjoying my Monday nights again by staying home and watching TV, at least until they seemed to have discontinued Terra Nova. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 3, 2012 - 6:49pm | I have in Shadowrun, Rifts, and WoD - all were TPK without ambiguity... [air] not any in D&D (if there were any, I wasn't involved)... The one or two TPK events in Cyberpunk are up for debate - technicalities. (Cyberpunk: is it ever really a "team", or just a close cluster of ducks waiting for a frag-riot?) Starwars (WEG-D6 I refuse to use a D&D20 for SW): maybe... does slipping an interdictor blockade, and actually being on Alderaan at the wrong moment count? Oh humans!! We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
March 3, 2012 - 8:59pm | Yeah Shadow run would be prone to TPK, a bit of "nature of the beast" with that game. Cant speak for rifts. My suspicion would be that leveling systems like D&D are less prone to TPK because the GMs I played with had this goal of "we must reach 20th level with these characters". A TPK totally goes against the stated goal and or a TPK at level 12 can make it a real female dog to start over. Derails the story and campiagn as 1st level characters cant pick up where 12th level characters left off. OR if you give replacement characters a few levels lower there is no continuity with the story. OR if some deity raises the mangled and departed so the mission can continue there is no real threat of death. The game is simply stacked so as to pressure a GM against a TPK. Take a game like SF where skills are bought up but individually, new characters are far easier to introduce, IMO. Hey, is this thread officially jack? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 3, 2012 - 9:24pm | w00t was the topic? forgot to say SF - nope, no TPK I recall... I was touching the top ones I have heard people say are serious TPK-bait games... I have Heard every edition of D&D is, but for reasons you mention, it never seems to play out that way... I have heard that every dystopian themed or cyberpunk genre game is... but far fewer than stated in my own experience... O_O OH WAIT... I did have a D&D TPK... my fault too... I kept feeding the GM more of the walking arsenal of minor magic items my wizard was carrying... because after the fist one was obviously a death-ticket with my name on it, and the third one kept him grinning about the mess he was making of my character... he kept stacking up the "retributive strike" themed damage with every item I pointed out... so most of the players looked at me afterward and said; "...this may sound sarcastic, but seriously... Thank You, for killing us!" Rifts.... well... like D&D death can be considered a mere minor setback... WoD... most of the time most of the party is already dead anyway... so really it's just a realization of the facts... Oh humans!! We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
March 3, 2012 - 10:01pm | Ya know, I've never had a TPK in Star Frontiers.  Early frontier adventure and/or titans will fix that Real Quick Like(TM).  |
March 3, 2012 - 10:55pm | w00t, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your (TM) Real Quick Like was used by my last boss a lot. He is 60, and to my knowledge you were manufactured later than that. Maybe he had something to do with your programming? |
March 4, 2012 - 5:40pm | w00t, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your (TM) Real Quick Like was used by my last boss a lot. He is 60, and to my knowledge you were manufactured later than that. Maybe he had something to do with your programming? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 4, 2012 - 9:47pm | I've never seen a TPK, though I wanted to engineer a few while playing D&D 3.5 just to get out of playing it.
LOL, it really is THAT bad... Anyways, if you want to see a TPK in Basic D&D run B2 - Keep on the Borderlands and allow the new first level party to wander into the Shrine of Evil Chaos. Or better yet, give in to their desires inside the Keep when they say "Let's rob the loan bank." Come to think of it, B2 is a rather efficeint meat grinder in many ways...but those two are single encounter examples that come to mind |
 March 4, 2012 - 10:31pm | I have never really played D&D beyond the basic red box back in '84 (at age 12) and a very little bit of 2e AD&D so I can't comment but it's funny to hear everyone bemoaning 3.5 since one of the guys I work with swears by it and won't touch 4.0. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
March 4, 2012 - 10:32pm | Shadow, u talk a lot about B2, how about u whip up Keep on the Frontier - Star Frontiers style. |
March 5, 2012 - 7:07am | Shadow, u talk a lot about B2, how about u whip up Keep on the Frontier - Star Frontiers style.
"Keep on the Frontier" that's a great title. I'm suddenly reminded of the novel "The Keep" (didn't see the movie) doubt the movie was half as scary as the book. I love that idea though, keep on the Frontier. Though I think more of a Ravenloft or Rocky Horror Picture Show plot might work best.Setting is crucial to set the right tone, it should be both Sci-fi and gothic at the same time, sort of what the Origianl Star Trek should have done for the Squire of Gothos episode. Count Wolfenstien, after the death of his beloved has retreated from Clarion to his vacation estate on Lossend to live the life of a recluse. Mystery an rumor surrounds her death. PCs have some reason for visiting the count, hovercar broke down and there is a typoon happening. they're sent to deliver something to him, they were invited for some mysterious reason, they've investigating something that is connected to Countess Wolfenstiens death. Count either is or isnt the back guy but if he is the GM needs to ham up the over the top act to suggest he is. and if he is not the bad guy then the count will present an innocent good guy persona. The Count has a secret? He's a killer, he's a cyborg, he's a sathar agent, his wife isn't dead or she's only almost nearly dead because he couldn't bear to lose her so he turned her into a frankenborg,. The count has a creepy vhim servant, named Igor Renfield. A few robotic servants. ooops, I got carried away with a good idea, w00t did say shadow should do this. EDIT: IIRC there is a lossend dragon somewhere in the SFman. the keep could be called Dragon's Loft or something even creepier like Vulture's Loft. EDIT2: Vulture's Loft is located on Laco at the beginning of the Laco War and the PCs just happen to be there when PGC mercenaries occupy the keep (blatant rip off of The Keep story- corporate mercenaries instead of Nazis). Setting is a spralling estate with caverns underneath and tetrarch artifacts. Count is quite mad but believes the mysterious alien tech will resurrect his wife or give him immortality or something. Corporate mercenaries occupy the site as a military objective at first but when hints of tetrarch tech turn up they have standing orders to secure that. Keep the creepy vhim servant. Even if the PCs get imprissoned in the "dungeon" Igor can be used to free them via the sewer drain. Attack by opposing corporate force can happen late in the module to cause chaos. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 5, 2012 - 11:21am | Shadow, u talk a lot about B2, how about u whip up Keep on the Frontier - Star Frontiers style.
Funny you should mention it, but I have done KOTB to both SF and Top Secret, and tried to introduce it to my friend's Traveller game as well. Just the Keep end, mind you...no Caves of Chaos in any of those settings. In the case of SF it was an ancient structure that Star Law discovered while colonizing Volturnus, and they set up shop as it was near the Mounds of the Mechanons so they could keep an eye on our fave sentient mechanical beings. I had actually done MS paint maps of the Keep for SF before my last PC imploded, alas those files are forever lost... |
March 5, 2012 - 6:16pm | @ Shadow, You should try and put together an adventure for SFman on the keep, of course if you have time, does any of us? Something to add to the keep idea. I was reading a Gaunt's Ghosts novel from Warhammer 40K and the unit was to hold an old fortress during a conflict and kept getting these weird visions and the visions were causing them to find things out about the place and attacks before they happened. The soldiers though thought they were bad omens. In the end it turns out a psychic was trying to help them by sending the visions. It was a good bit of misdirection by the author. So maybe there could be some type of holo-projections or psychic visions or whatever to give clues and lead the PC's in some wrong directions? |
