Pineapple Express: Someone Is Wrong on the Internet?

[Dannyalcatraz]

Random aside--whomever directed this scene has never held fur. He looks like he's dabbing himself with a poofy terrycloth, not dropping the most surprisingly heavy cloth you've ever held onto your shoulders.

Fur IS surprisingly heavy.

And I’ve seen that move more than once, including IRL. It’s…a thing.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I know people who are just certain that Hero is The Most Complicated Thing Ever.

HERO can be quite complicated. There’s a lot of math in ChaGen. It’s mostly addition, subtraction, multiplication and division- some of it compiled on a chart- but a lot of it, nonetheless.

There’s also a couple of uncommonly used abilities that ask for a square root or similar more advanced calculation- mostly velocity related damage, as I recall.

But except for those rare powers I mentioned, almost all the math is during character development time, not gameplay. 99% of the time at the table, you don’t even need to look at the game book. Everything is on your character sheet except the Speed chart which controls initiative & action order in combat. And that’s the GM’s job to track.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

That "dire wolf" is a regular wolf, made hairier. The real dire wolves were a separate branch of the canid family tree.

The original article does point out that distinction between dire wolves and other canids (towards the end). And its pretty clear from your article that the researchers are pretty clear that they’re working with an approximation of Dire Wolves based on how they described the gene editing process.

They’re also pretty clear these critters could probably never be reintroduced into the wild, in the context of the difficulties populations of the extant wolf & coyote species are having. Not enough prey, not enough space.

But…if a billionaire gave the scientists enough money for the science and an ISLAND full of large prey animals?

 

[Thomas Shey]

HERO can be quite complicated. There’s a lot of math in ChaGen. It’s mostly addition, subtraction, multiplication and division- some of it compiled on a chart- but a lot of it, nonetheless.

I'd say there can be a lot of math in character generation, but an awful lot of it only occurs in superheroic games and to a lesser degree fantasy--aka games that use powers. And even there it isn't always complicated--a straightforward energy projector can be suprisingly simple.

But how much of it need to be referenced in play most of the time? I can play most Hero characters right off the character sheet. Try doing that with a moderate level D20 style system spellcaster.

There’s also a couple of uncommonly used abilities that ask for a square root or similar more advanced calculation- mostly velocity related damage, as I recall.

I know what you're talking about but its not actually a square root; its a sum of 1 to N total, which isn't something most people do too often, but its not as complicated as a square root.

But except for those rare powers I mentioned, almost all the math is during character development time, not gameplay. 99% of the time at the table, you don’t even need to look at the game book. Everything is on your character sheet except the Speed chart which controls initiative & action order in combat. And that’s the GM’s job to track.

And honestly, your own phases are not exactly difficult to remember; admittedly I ran the ruddy game for years and years, but I could tell you all of them but one off the top of my head even though I haven't done so for years (I'd probably get Speed 7 wrong because its such an odd child). I mean, most people are just not going to have trouble remembering what phases are associated with Speed 3-6, and that covers a pretty large amount of likely speeds, especially when you get away from superheroic scale games.

(Come to think of it, I think most of the character sheets I saw had a spot for that...)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The original article does point out that distinction between dire wolves and other canids (towards the end). And its pretty clear from your article that the researchers are pretty clear that they’re working with an approximation of Dire Wolves based on how they described the gene editing process.

Real dire wolves didn't look like these things they've created do. (And we know what dire wolves looked like, because we've pulled their preserved bodies out of tar pits.)

Our Evolving Understanding of Dire Wolves

Dire? Yes. Wolves? Not so much.

tarpits.org

These things were created to appeal to Game of Thrones fans with investment money to burn. (In this economy?!)

For the record, the fact that mad scientists can genetically modify creatures using CRISPR is super-cool, and one of the more fun parts of our cyberpunk present.

But in the words of Douglas Adams, "Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"

 

[Warpiglet-7]

The original article does point out that distinction between dire wolves and other canids (towards the end). And its pretty clear from your article that the researchers are pretty clear that they’re working with an approximation of Dire Wolves based on how they described the gene editing process.

They’re also pretty clear these critters could probably never be reintroduced into the wild, in the context of the difficulties populations of the extant wolf & coyote species are having. Not enough prey, not enough space.

But…if a billionaire gave the scientists enough money for the science and an ISLAND full of large prey animals?

View attachment 401765

I volunteer many of my coworkers as prey for said dire wolves on said island. For science, of course. Are they aggressive toward humans? We need to know.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

The "dire wolf" is also from the same start-up that claimed to make a "wooly mouse" a few weeks ago.

I think we're seeing the triumph of good marketing people and credulous science writers, rather than a real life Jurassic Park situation.

That "dire wolf" is a regular wolf, made hairier. The real dire wolves were a separate branch of the canid family tree.

Well, if you;re going to bring facts into it. You big spoil sport.

 

[dragoner]

The original article does point out that distinction between dire wolves and other canids (towards the end). And its pretty clear from your article that the researchers are pretty clear that they’re working with an approximation of Dire Wolves based on how they described the gene editing process.

They’re also pretty clear these critters could probably never be reintroduced into the wild, in the context of the difficulties populations of the extant wolf & coyote species are having. Not enough prey, not enough space.

But…if a billionaire gave the scientists enough money for the science and an ISLAND full of large prey animals?

View attachment 401765

We have Coyotes here, people are always taking pictures of them in their yards, and posting them on nextdoor. We also have a Wolf Park, which is fun to go to howl night, it is a wildlife research facility, associated with Purdue.

Visit Wolf Park – Save Wolves, Save Wilderness

visitwolfpark.org

 

[trappedslider]

The "dire wolf" is also from the same start-up that claimed to make a "wooly mouse" a few weeks ago.

I think we're seeing the triumph of good marketing people and credulous science writers, rather than a real life Jurassic Park situation.

That "dire wolf" is a regular wolf, made hairier. The real dire wolves were a separate branch of the canid family tree.

 

[RealAlHazred]

(Come to think of it, I think most of the character sheets I saw had a spot for that...)

They do. But one of the things is most GMs constrain player character SPD to a small range (slightly larger in superhero games) just to make sure no one PC his the limelight. And you don't actually need a high SPD to reproduce most Speedster powers. It's a very flexible game. Once my players made superheroes in it, they couldn't stand the limitations of excessively class-based superhero games.