Bay 12 Games Forum

Grab both gifts, distract Morpheus, rip open both gifts simultaneously while he's not looking.

Throw busted warbot at Die.

It was fixed. Thanks for catching that.

The Presence of Time and Space creates a lake of liquid hydrogen for his tetrahedron, drawing about 5 kilos of energy from the Cloud of Hydrogen and about 5 kilos from the various mad creatures on my temporal prison.
Take 40 kilo of Heat Energy, 10 of the diffused stuff and 30 from the Stable Sphere of Fire. Use 25 to reinforce space, 10 to create an avatar of a dragon with firey wings, and 5 to create a race of dragons with two foreclaws and half a dozen tail/tentacles. This race shall be called the Hydrakes and will be placed in the lake of liquid hydrogen.

It's been recently claimed that water is the base liquid. Wouldn't liquid hydrogen be a better base liquid?

Change disguise.
Cook up stronger poison.
Test it on a random PC who isn't me.
If it's toxic, say it's an antidote and give it to the king.
If it isn't, keep the non-poison on me.

I dispute the we need to get the fuck out point. Our population is set to stabilize at around 10 billion i think, though that doesn't disprove that by any means, but asteroid mining is a better proposition then mars is at the moment, given the costs. The argument for Mars i think is primarily a jumppad.

There's evidence that we might not be able to support our 7 billion or so people sustainably, certainly not at 1st World living standards and not without good world management. The problem is, we'll probably end up expanding our population to whatever limits we have--colonies on Mars and Luna and whatever growing acres of wheat and producing electricity and stuff isn't going to be more than a temporary solution, if that.

Tell that to the Dutch.

Moreover, raw surface is not a problem anytime soon. Itmight be eventually, but not this century, and space colonisation won't be a solution for centuries to come.

I agree with your conclusion but not your logic. We need more arable land, and to stop destroying the arable land we have. It all adds up to, "Space colonies wouldn't help too much," though. Sure, we could take a page from Heinlein and put wheat farms on Luna, but that's not too helpful...

Nah, the dutch are fine. They're already planning for it, and unlike say Bangladesh, they got the money and expertise to pull it off. Raising dikes by 10 m ain't that hard. What I'm more worried about (as a Belgian) is that they might give up some part as not worth the pain (I'm thinking about that small bit between the Escaut and Belgium) and force us to do the job.

Also, Belgium is pretty safe too. Since our whole coast look like this we just need to plug the hole in between the buildings and BAM!: Instant 20m-high dike!

I'm not sure why that's hilarious, but it is. I think water pressure might be a bit much for the windows on the first floor, though...

Anyways, as much as I'd like to see a Martian colony, there are some problems.
1. Technology--We can send manned craft around, we can send stuff to Mars, we can probably send manned craft to Mars, but we've never tried. And if something messes up out there, there's nothing they can do but try and fix it with what they brought or make peace with their god(s).
2. Money--We have it. We won't spend it. Luna is much closer, much safer, and actually superior for other reasons I'll discuss below.
3. Reason--There isn't much reason to make a full-fledged colony on Mars. Pretty much all you can do there that you can't do better and cheaper on Earth or Luna is boast that you colonized Mars.

Reasons for Lunar Superiority:
1. Power. Specifically, solar. Luna is closer to the sun, which increases the amount of energy available for power. Mars has a dusty atmosphere, which reduces energy and can damage the panels. The atmosphere isn't particularly dense, though, so there's still the risk of meteorite impacts.
2. Gravity. Luna has a gravity of about 1/6 of Earth's. Bad? Not for a geriatric colony! It also makes transport to Terra more feasible.
3. Crops. Sure, you need domes, but you'd need those on Mars, too. Same with soil. Plus sides of Luna: You can more easily ship the ingredients of soil or whatever up, two-week-long periods of sunshine, and easy electricity for lighting the two-week night.
4. H₃. I'm not sure how much Mars has, but it's harder to ship stuff to Earth from Mars. H₃ is pretty valuable, and what's more it could stimulate fusion research, which would be a good thing.

A lunar colony would be a great benefit. I once calculated that a $100 billion colony, plus solar panels in a band something like 5 meters wide around the equator, plus satellites to transfer power from Luna to Terra, would pay for itself in...I think a few months? if we could sell all the power at something like half or two-thirds the going rate. I didn't account for maintenance of the solar panels, but I accounted for about everything else. Granted, it was an absurd amount of electricity, so demand might beat supply, but still...it's impressive. And that's not counting H₃, geriatrics, or agriculture. Sadly, I can't imagine anyone investing in that project for a long while...

Again, I'm not sure if it works for weapons.

I've done that, and am ready for GM approval on my merits, flaws, and specialties.