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I've been playing around with an idea for a game for a while now, and I want to see if there's enough people who'd be interested. I want to run a game where each player is a recently ascended demigod, ala Hercules. I don't want it to be one of the PDQ godgames I see; I really want the players to feel like the low man on the totem pole, at least for a while. Starting as minor heroes, they would build up a power base and become minor deities, like Hephaestus, Coyote, or Gabriel. If they're lucky, they'll survive the politics and become major deities like Zeus or Odin. If they're really lucky, they'll acquire a near monopoly on power like Yahweh/Allah. The central currency of the game would be belief. The realm of the gods is marked by pillars of light containing each god's realm surrounded by a sea of darkness/doubt/unbelief. Initially, players might carve out their own realm by slaying the demons lurking in the darkness, forcing it back. They can continue to do this over the course of the game, increasing in power each time. Alternatively, they might associate themselves with another god, becoming an angel or servant. With time, they may take a position within the god's pantheon. Of course, they can always return to the mortal world to garner more belief by performing miracles, solving problems, or just slaying and conquering. But affecting the mortal world costs belief each time. I was thinking of using Reign because I really like the company rules. I feel like, by the time you're a major player, the company rules (suitaby flavored for gods) would be a better way to resolve god-god, god-civilization, and pantheon-pantheon conflict. If any of you have suggestions for a better set of mechanics, do let me know. I would have to alter some skills to use Reign, but it's a system I know well enough.
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Feb 14, 2011 21:38
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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gregstolze/grab-bag new ransomquote:Enemies of Awful Scale -- A set of rules that bridges the scales between a REIGN Company (like, say, the US Army) and the epic individual threats that could go toe-to-toe with them (such as Godzilla, the Incredible Hulk or that monster from Cloverfield). Where's a scrappy band of misfit heroes when you need...? Oh wait, they're stuck between its teeth. Never mind. Send in the Marines. 2,586 words. YOU FUND THIS NOW
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Mar 8, 2011 20:25
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I love UA so much, ive owned the book for years have Hush Hush and want to get Lawyers Guns and Money. But I really have no idea how to approach running it. I feel like I need to watch or be in a game to learn how to present the world as it presents itself in the book. The tone and style of the book is what captured my heart with the setting.
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Mar 8, 2011 21:16
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clockworkjoe posted:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gregstolze/grab-bag new ransom The 10 dollar backer gift is kind of amazing, but I don't know if I really want a Greg Stolze ringtone.
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Mar 8, 2011 22:35
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Here, I'll do your voicemail instead: Now go donate.
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Mar 8, 2011 22:50
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Squizzle posted:Here, I'll do your voicemail instead: Thank you, Squizzle.
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Mar 8, 2011 22:54
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And if you wanted Stolze to do a ringtone: And a longer version, which is just the above, but repeating five times before the track ends:  If you use either, please donate to the Kickstarter. Also, you're weird. Edit: And, seriously, if you donate to the Kickstarter (any amount) and don't like Stolze's voice, I'll upload myself saying goddamn near anything you like into my laptop's embedded microphone. And you can use it, for purposes.
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Mar 8, 2011 23:08
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After briefly toying with the idea of using Burning Wheel, I'm working on a Blade Runner game using the Dirty World rules for ORE for a pbp game. Anyone have advice for running that system as pbp?
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Mar 15, 2011 08:29
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New teaser for the Reign grab bag https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gregstolze/grab-bag/posts/64532
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Mar 29, 2011 03:06
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Decided to go with a noir game set in 20s Florida using ORE: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3400122
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Mar 29, 2011 03:43
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clockworkjoe posted:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gregstolze/grab-bag new ransom
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Mar 29, 2011 15:13
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Splicer posted:Ok, so this has convinced me to shell out for my own copy of Reign (or at least the cheapo rules only version), but before I leap into starting a game, does anyone have a good houserule for the combat hit location thing? I mentioned earlier in this thread that I wasn't too fond of it, so are there any alternatives people can suggest? You could try this: http://www.nemesis-system.com/alternate-combat-rules-2.html I been wanting to pick up Monsters and Other Childish Things and was wondering if there are any other books beside the core I should pick up while I'm at it? (I've been eyeing Candlewick Manor). Also I picked up the eCOLLAPSE sourcebook for Wild Talents and it looks to be a pretty fun setting, anyone have any experience with it?
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Mar 29, 2011 16:21
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Robotic Folksinger posted:You could try this: That's perfect, cheers. Alternate Rules posted:pick one die in your die pool that is a different color or size than the rest. Whatever it rolls is the hit location. Edit: Except their called shot suggestion Splicer fucked around with this message at 17:59 on Mar 29, 2011 |
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Mar 29, 2011 17:55
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Robotic Folksinger posted:I been wanting to pick up Monsters and Other Childish Things and was wondering if there are any other books beside the core I should pick up while I'm at it? (I've been eyeing Candlewick Manor). Candlewick Manor is, without exaggeration, the best campaign setting supplement I have ever read. It's Series of Unfortunate Events meets X-Men, and Edmund Gorey meets Alan Moore. I like the ideas and rules in Bigger Bads a lot, but it fits more with the gonzo zaniness of "vanilla" MaOCT.
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Mar 29, 2011 17:58
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Robotic Folksinger posted:You could try this: Candlewick Manor is great but I would like to recommend the two books I wrote for MAOCT: A Curriculum of Conspiracy and Road Trip. Curriculum is a campaign sourcebook that sets up a school where the teachers are trying to find and enslave all monsters - so a kids vs adults kinda campaign. Road Trip is a MAOCT take on Masks on Nyarlathtoep - go on a road trip around the USA to save the world from an evil cult. If you have any questions about them, I can answer them here or about MAOCT in general.
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Mar 29, 2011 22:03
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Well, I bought the corebook and Candlewick Manor. Think I'll buy Roadtrip some time next month. it seems like a solid adventure. I do have some questions about Curriculum of Conspiracy. Is it like a full campaign or a setting book? And is it straight up adults vs. kids or is there some playground politics involved?
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Mar 30, 2011 02:48
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Robotic Folksinger posted:Well, I bought the corebook and Candlewick Manor. Think I'll buy Roadtrip some time next month. it seems like a solid adventure. I do have some questions about Curriculum of Conspiracy. Is it like a full campaign or a setting book? And is it straight up adults vs. kids or is there some playground politics involved? It's a setting book with 1 intro adventure. It's more of a toolbox than a single setting though. It describes the school history, important NPCs and how the conspiracy finds and enslaves monsters. Among other things, it has magic wards that can detect and counteract monster powers so monsters can't just run rampant through the school. I pictured it as a more of a cat and mouse kinda thing - the teachers are trying to find out which kids have monsters and then how to break them while the kids are trying to figure out what's going on. It presents several campaign models - a light hearted scooby doo kinda game, a straight up kids vs adult rebellion or a Call of Cthulhu type investigation/mystery campaign and so on. You don't have to run it as a conspiracy. You can do it as a straight up wacky hijinx thing or whatever take you want to use. If you want to use kids vs adults in a school with MAOCT - curriculum can help you.
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Mar 30, 2011 04:56
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New Kickstarter: The Grab-bagThe Stolzemeister posted:In case you missed it, I sent out an all-call for REIGN fans to suggest what they wanted to see in the next supplement. They answered, I wrote it, and now it's time for you to put your money where my mouth is. Supplement #16's Grab Bag contains the following articles to delight your imagination and spur players to new heights of prompt attendance. Looking forward to seeing the Company v. Monsters ideas and using them with Monsters and Other Childish Things + Bigger Bads.
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Apr 8, 2011 19:30
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 This explains so much. Somebody needs to write a magical school based around fezzes, tiny cars, and architecture.
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Apr 9, 2011 07:54
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What the hell is an "amason?"
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Apr 9, 2011 11:25
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Lemon Curdistan posted:What the hell is an "amason?" I think it's 4mason. Presumably some bastardization of freemason. I working with a sci-fi idea that I would like to be somewhat like Your Life Sucks 3, if anyone remembers that. I want to use Reign rules, but I'm not sure how to handle Wealth and Treasure. I'd like there to be more detailed accounting than the system allows (trying to make payroll, etc), but I would hate to give up the Treasure abstraction that is used in conflict resolution between companies. Suggestions?
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Apr 9, 2011 23:50
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Just so's everyone knows: the REIGN Grab-Bag kickstarter has 9 days left, and is but $400 away from its goal.
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Apr 13, 2011 17:21
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For those of you who haven't gotten Progenitor or Grim War yet:Shane Ivey posted:Help us spread the word!
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Apr 19, 2011 17:53
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I didn't even know Grim War existed, and now I own it. Thanks thread.
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Apr 19, 2011 20:26
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I've never liked systems where you go from linear to additive costs after character creation. Are there any decent write-ups of alternative skill costs that won't accidentally turn my players into supermen and/or useless hobos while not screwing up the lifepath character gen method?
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May 4, 2011 13:37
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Splicer posted:I've never liked systems where you go from linear to additive costs after character creation. Are there any decent write-ups of alternative skill costs that won't accidentally turn my players into supermen and/or useless hobos while not screwing up the lifepath character gen method?
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May 4, 2011 17:43
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Evil Mastermind posted:In which game? In ORE special dice cost the same after character creation as they do during. After character creation it costs 10XP to raise a stat, (new level)XP to raise a skill, and unchanged for special stuff. So if you make a dude with 5 in skill A for 5 points, when you grab some XP later it will cost you 3XP to buy a cost 3 special ability, for a total of 8 points. Alternatively you can get level 2 in the skill and the cost 3 special ability at character creation for 5 points, and then you have to save up 12XP to get up to 5 in skill A, for a total of 17 points.
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May 4, 2011 18:01
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Splicer posted:Reign. During character creation it costs 1 character creation point to raise a skill a level, and 5 character creation points to raise a stat, and the various special abilities cost variable amounts. What I found with my players is that post character creation, the XP would tend to be spend on expert or master dice in the areas the players have already focused on because those costs stay the same, which tends to lead to stagnant character progression. Nobody branches out to buy new skills. Ultimately, because we play so infrequently, I said gently caress it and made the XP costs the same post-character creation as they were during it. It's just too slow otherwise, and the pre-post split leads to weird characters with few skills and high stats made just to make improvement easier later.
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May 8, 2011 22:05
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Cantorsdust posted:Ultimately, because we play so infrequently, I said gently caress it and made the XP costs the same post-character creation as they were during it. It's just too slow otherwise, and the pre-post split leads to weird characters with few skills and high stats made just to make improvement easier later. See, I did the opposite. I handed out an XP pool at character creation instead of special build points. Decided to multiply the "build point" totals by 2.5 to get a reasonably equivalent XP pool. (the idea being that if they fully optimzed their build points and bought all their skills up to rank 5, their build points would have an average value of 2.5 XP) I let people create their characters as if they were "leveling up" from nothing. End result: characters tended to be a bit broader than normal (more low-ranked skills, fewer high ranked skills) with more special abilities than the normal character generation would normally yield. Bonus Result: People were already thinking in XP terms when they built the characters, so the first few level ups went VERY smoothly. People remembered what they were short on for character creation, and knew the costs already, so they jumped right in.
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May 11, 2011 22:27
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I got Grim War in the mail a couple days ago, and read through it. It's... not great, honestly. The setting material is super bland and the rule content is pretty mediocre. The concept of Demons and Angels not being bad/good but instead against/for concepts is interesting, but that's the only standout part of the whole thing. I thought it would be cool to have "reign in wild talents" guidelines, but they aren't actually guidelines at all, just examples. I should've seen that coming considering the abstractness of the Reign company rules, I thought there might be something like new company qualities to represent talents or something like that but it's the standard stuff. I'd only buy it if you're a completist, otherwise either Progenitors or the standard Wild Talents setting is better for most games.
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May 12, 2011 09:37
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artfulshrapnel posted:Build like XP Cantorsdust posted:XP like Build I'll probably go with XP like Build but buff the costs of abilities and skills, maybe make buying above level 4 a bit pricer too, and fiddle the randomroll tables to match. In other news of things I plan to do that you almost certainly don't care about, I'm thinking stir-fry for dinner. Thoughts?
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May 12, 2011 12:27
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Splicer posted:The problem with this is that it ballses up the fairness of the random character generator. If someone gets 3 in 4 stats and someone else ends up with 1 each in 12 the former guy has rolled up twice as much XP as the latter. True that. If you're gonna use the random generator table, doing Build like XP doesn't work at all. That said, I've never used the random table or had any player ask to use it. If you actually intend to use random tables, doing it the other way round makes more sense, and really either is fine as long as it works for your group. Seems like trying to fiddle with the costs in a less systematic way and balance everything in the random tables is going to be a lot of work...
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May 12, 2011 22:44
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Ok. I had to post this. If UA were real CM Punk would've Ascended to the Archetype of the Wrestler or some poo poo, tonight on Monday Night Raw. Final match was a tag team involving Bret "The Hitman" Hart as a referee. CM Punk paid tribute to the recently deceased Macho Man by wearing matching ring attire. Then during the match he performed a bunch of Bret Hart's signature moves in front of the legend himself. He then lost the match after being put into the Sharpshooter by Bret Hart himself ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF BRET'S BROTHER, OWEN HART'S, DEATH. The best part is that CM Punk looks dirty enough to actually be a part of the occult underground. Free Gratis fucked around with this message at 04:24 on May 24, 2011 |
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May 24, 2011 04:21
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Bosushi! posted:Ok. I had to post this. If UA were real CM Punk would've Ascended to the Archetype of the Wrestler or some poo poo, tonight on Monday Night Raw. Final match was a tag team involving Bret "The Hitman" Hart as a referee. CM Punk paid tribute to the recently deceased Macho Man by wearing matching ring attire. Then during the match he performed a bunch of Bret Hart's signature moves in front of the legend himself. He then lost the match after being put into the Sharpshooter by Bret Hart himself ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF BRET'S BROTHER, OWEN HART'S, DEATH. Why would you do this.
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May 24, 2011 06:27
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Save Russian Jews posted:Why would you do this. He's an Adept.
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May 24, 2011 06:37
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The best game I've ever run was UA. It was my first time running it, so I figured the easiest way to get my players to work together was to make them a TNI team, and give them various assignments that tied in to the overall campaign world I had going on. One of their first assignments was to help the secretary general of the UN, whose child had been abducted - a certain friendly, well-known ambassador from a tiny Balkan state happened to know Abel, and also knew that children had been vanishing in New York for months, but not much of a fuss had been raised as they were all from low-income areas - all very tragic and whatnot. Anyway, in the course of investigating one of the abduction sites, they spot a very suspicious, very tall individual in a long coat with a hat covering his face, who runs when they notice him. Players being players they give chase and corner him in a dead end alley, guns trained on him. He raise his arms, turns around... "Make a rank seven self check. You've always liked to think that you were pretty good people, trying to make the world a better place. Where did it go so wrong for you that you're in a sleazy back alley in the bronx, up to your knees in human refuse and pointing a gun... at Big Bird?" Y'see, they were going to take Sesame Street off the air, and the Muppets were unhappy - their sole reason for existence was going to be taken away from them, and their dad wasn't around to tell them what to do anymore. So they were taking children from unhappy homes, children whose parents didn't pay them any attention, and taking them to live in Sesame Street, hoping that they could harness the energy of happy children to bring their father back to life so he could help them. I'm sure they'd deny it, but I saw some tears when they reached the headquarters of Sesame Street and found a permanently-crumplefaced Kermit sitting vigil next to the perfectly-preserved body of Jim Henson.
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May 24, 2011 11:22
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Save Russian Jews posted:Why would you do this. I fully admit how nerdy that post is and that it's deserving of your mockery. I thought it was a cool real world example of how something might go down in UA and that fans of UA and/or wrestling might get a kick out of it. Apparently not too many people crossover into both worlds of nerdom. My bad. Glad you got a laugh out of it! Khoryos posted:Muppets. This is pretty wild. What was the eventual outcome or resolution? Free Gratis fucked around with this message at 16:11 on May 24, 2011 |
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May 24, 2011 16:01
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I had two potential outcomes planned - one in which they turn a blind eye and just get the Secretary General's kid back, and one codenamed "Waco" which, if they went for, I would never have spoken to them again. However, they came up with a third option, and now Abel Industries owns all the licensing rights to Sesame Street, a chain of orphanages, and has somewhere to send its agents when they need to de-stress. (It turns out Abel met Snuffy as a kid, and there was NO WAY he was leaving a muppet in distress.)
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May 24, 2011 16:21
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homerlaw posted:Every so often I delve into terrible places, and sometimes I find wonderful things, like these rumors. RPGNET_forums_UA_rumours.txt >You're not supposed to use cellphones while up in the air, right? They tell you it's because they want your full attention in a crisis or someshit, but there's another reason, too. When used thousands of miles above the earth, cellphones pick up certain kinds of... emanations. Call a number-- any number-- and just listen to the background noise. I swear to God, I heard my mother. She died when I was thirteen. >Due to a sinister plot by occultists at the US Mint, tarot cards are no longer an effective divination tool. They've been replaced by the issuing of the commemorative states quarters--one simply empties out one's pockets onto a hard, clean surface. Each coin is common and yet rife with symbolism, and their order, location and proximity to each other and other denominations of coin provide an intricate chart of your past, present and future. >Ever wonder why celebrities always seem to have such extreme, mercurial personalities? Its because they're natural magnets for demonic possession. Think about it: lots more people desire fame than actually achieve it. Many of those people are obsessed with the prospect of living the movie or rock star life. Those that actually do achieve that level of fame immediately become targets of the ones who died obsessing over it. Demonic possession is (mostly) to blame for all of the celebrity drug and sex scandals you hear about every day--even the more bizarre rumors about bulimia, anorexia, etc. That's also why so many celebrities run to the arms of quack religious fads--they're just trying to make it stop and trust the folks who say they can. >There's bank somewhere in Oregon where you can deposit memories, keeping them safe until you need them again. Someone is planning to rob this bank. >If you kill and eat a swan, you gain part of the Queen of England's power. >Picasso's Guernica is a powerful artifact which caused the US to lose the Vietnam War, as it channeled the psychic energies of protestors from its temporary home at MOMA. The cover-up of the UN reproduction during Powell speech about Iraq was an attempt to counter its powers - but since the original was now in Madrid, it backlashed on their Spanish allies instead. >Some religions write down prayers to their gods on small pieces of paper and burn them as offerings. If you unroll a cigarette made by a certain large American corporation, and carefully examine the underside of the paper, you will find a prayer written in sanskrit. Do I need to spell it out for you? >"Warning: Every year, the equivalent of a small town of people dies from smoking." So, which town is it that's shunting their deaths onto smokers? >Y'know those Tibetan prayer wheels? The ones you spin to say the prayer? Well, have you ever looked at the edge of a Windows install CD? Its the same principle; each iteration of Windows has a more refined version of it. What does the ritual do? I don't know Ancient tibetan Bon pictograms. But I do know AOL has the counterspell.
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May 26, 2011 19:27
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Wow, those are all really, really awesome.
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May 26, 2011 21:19
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