Bay 12 Games Forum

No, skills are important. Carpentry may be similar to masonry, but they don't have that much in common. Changing the skill system might be useful, but not destroying it altogether. Why should a dwarf need to learn masonry-related skills like engraving or mining or stonecrafting to make masterful statues or thrones?

Notice how I said almost any animals. Giant worms have no brains and animals like deer and rabbits that are skittish by nature would be useless anyways, but a legendary animal trainer should be able to train them anyways, because he's legendary. I mainly meant that predatory animals, like lions, wolverines, and crocodiles should be trainable. In real life, once large animals taste human flesh it isn't unheard of for them to start attacking lone women and children, and that's without being trained.

Well, a majority of animals (individuals, certainly, and probably also species) have intelligences and/or temperaments unsuited to war training. The predators and some vicious herbivores? Sure, although that category includes critters that no one in their right mind would train for war. Most animals? No.

Quote from: GreatWyrmGold on January 01, 2013, 05:52:58 pm

Again, temperament is a huge obstacle. It's easier to get hippies to kill something than to get rabbits to kill something.

So why is, again, 'easier' defined as a switch and a block instead of a skill and time-based chance of success?
It is easier to train some animals to kill than others. That does not exclude the possibility of the vorpal bunny.

Barring extensive modification to the base psychology, it kinda does.
I can see three or four groups being created--animals easy to train for war, animals impossible to train for war, and a group or two of animals difficult to train for war--and perhaps a lengthy process allowing a population to become easier to war-train, but there should always be animals which you can't train for war.

Aren't "we" a technically bodiless program?

((Something's bugging me about those rivers...how wide are hexes?))

Waljan Woodsman thought long and hard about what he should do.
The first problem is, he has no money...well, close to it. Effectively no money. He's got enough to maintain his little home in Fjallhalr¹ and keep some food on the table for a while, especially given Luch's weaving. Still, that's not much. Waljan doesn't feel like sitting idle, but he doesn't really want to go back to a boring profession like woodcutting again². There were tales of some raiders attacking the bay area...rumors, more like. A ducat on the head of the head raiders, or maybe on each raider--the man he heard it from said the latter, but was drunk and could easily have meant the former. There was also a war of those clans just to the north, surely Lord Hvítr cared about that?
Lord³ Hvítr, of course. There is no better way to make a decision quickly than to allow a noble to make it for you. They always have things needing to be done. (There are also few worse ways to make a decision well, but part of his mind was trying to get Waljan on the road before the rest of it caught up to that inconvenient fact.)
He walked to the central keep and told the guard, "I wish to pledge my services to Lord³ Gragrar Hvítr. Might I ask for a chance to meet with him?"



1: Or near it, if that makes more sense.
2: In part because he's still on an "adventure high" from being a soldier/officer. This little component of personality is going to drive Waljan's more...dangerous decisions.
3: Or whatever his official title is. He didn't go for the crown that I saw, so he's no Pretender (not that it's polite to call someone Pretender).

Convergent evolution doesn't apply to the exact chemicals used in genetic makeup, only to structure which affects function; the Prophecy of Us doesn't sound a lot different than RL religious/spiritual beliefs, and if we didn't know the sci-fi setting we wouldn't jump to that conclusion; it's entirely plausible that chamicals from Terran organisms would have some effect on other organisms, even without significant chemical similarities small-scale (metabolic and similar chemistry, maybe, but convergent evolution has a good argument there); and we really don't know what those four sigils are. Maybe it's just a designation, or maybe our PC is mistaking I for l or something. If they really were the same nucleic acids, why would the four letters be arranged differently?

Locate Shelter

Quote from: GreatWyrmGold on January 02, 2013, 10:07:34 am

I find it amusing that the king barely remembers us, despite having saved his life.

You're uplifted peasant, he's the king. People die for him all day.

Still amusing.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Sir Stone."
"...Stone...Stone..."
"I saved your life."
"Gonna have to be more specific."
"There was a battle..."
"Keep going."
[insert how we saved him]
"A score of times a year. More specific."
"It was last month."
"..."
"A Wednesday."
"Oh, Stone! That's right. How's the wife?"
"I'm not married."
"...What did you come here for again?"

-----

Let's not destroy any inhabited houses. Instead, find someone who looks strong and unemployed and have him jack some lumber.

Are gods opposed to clear messages on some sort of religious message? Not IC, just a general comment. Although I must say that you've really captured the vagueness of the gods of real-world religions pretty well. Maybe a bit too specific for them, but this god is presumably real.

...
Oops.

Anyway.
Tell them all I know of my god and His teachings.