Lit Apropos of Nothing - ACKBAR IN CAPITALS - The Lit Forum Social Thread, v2.0.15

Lost is the only show I watch fresh on TV. How can I pass up a show with a quantum physicist as one of the main characters?

 

Just be very careful not to let your higher-level NPC overshadow the other characters. That's one problem one of my GMs has - he sometimes has difficulty remembering that the game is about the PCs, and that his uber-leet "mentor" and "support" NPCs should stay in the background unless there's a PC-related reason for them not to.

Some good rules of thumb:

If it's something one of the PCs can do, let the PC do it, even if the NPC is technically better.

If there's a main villain or villains, they should be engaged by the PCs, not the NPC, unless the villain is good enough to take them all on at once.

If a plan is needed, the players should always have at least half a Mountain Dew* worth of time to figure one out before the NPC chimes in with something.

Whenever appropriate, send the NPC off Obi-Wan style to accomplish a different part of the mission; that way, they can't interfere with the PCs' immediate situation, but can still show up in a reasonable amount of time to do rescuing. If the players need advice, you can always arrange a comlink call at an opportune moment.

These are rules of thumb; there will be times when ignoring them will be what's best for the story you folks are telling, and as you gather experience as a GM and get to know your players as players, you'll learn when those times are. But, for now, it's probably best to follow them to the letter.

*1 Mountain Dew = the time it takes to drink one 355 mL can of soda, which, since you are playing an RPG, will almost assuredly be Mountain Dew. Note that if you do the smart thing and save money by buying two-liter bottles and drinking from glasses, telling time will become more difficult.

 

355ml? Our MD come in 375ml cans.

I watched the first Lost season, no more. The glacial pace wasn't engaging. I wanted to know what the monster was. There was a tv promo saying it would be revealed. I waited eagerly--

They lied!

Hood take them. It didn't show the monster. I was deceived. Tricked. My trust battered, but I phoenixed smarter, wiser. And when they showed the inexplicity that was Smokey I threw in the towel, so long honey. I've watched bits and bytes, but just not interested.

 

Over here, they worry about metric as an afterthought; the cans are 12 fluid ounces, which rounds to 355 mL.

Yet, for some reason, soda comes in two-leader bottles instead of half gallon bottles. Never understood why large soda bottles are the one exception to the "metric as an afterthought" rule.

 

There are actually some really good shows on TV right now. Usually I'll stick to about 1 or 2, but there are at least 5-6 I watch regularly: Battlestar Galactica, Sarah Connor Chronicles, Fringe, Damages, House, Burn Notice, The Beast, Dollhouse, Lost (eh, I'm off and on with this one) and Life on Mars, to name a few. Unfortunately I work nearly every night until 11, so with most I have to catch up on Hulu or whatever.

 

Blame whoever makes your regional promos - the producers have stated they aren't revealing that secret until the end of the series...

 

Back in the 70's, Congress tried to force a conversion to metric. The soda industry was the only one to actually comply before the whole thing fell flat on its face. That's why milk and orange juice and such still generally come in gallon or quart jugs, while soda comes in one or two liter bottles.

 

I caught two episodes of the American Life on Mars after Lost... however, ABC just announced they are cancelling the show.

 

I figured it was related to that, though it still leaves me wondering why the bottles are in liters but the cans are in ounces.

 

Saw the second episode of Life on Mars. People's bias to "queer" gay folk. It's okay but once I start watching I have to keep watching. Doesn't really catch my interest.

What?

Knight Rider? What Knight Rider? Voltron's green bicep, why do you get all the exciting shows we're stuck with dancing auditions?

 

To everyone in #eu last night:

Sorry, and thanks for putting up with my drama. Everything worked out okay.

 

*huggles*

Anytime, deary, and you don't need to apologize. You were entertaining and you know us, we like entertainment.

 

Dave has been talking me though GMing when I get on the hat everynow and then, which isn't that often as it used to be. It's actually great to have people to go to for inane questions about obvious things that the manual doesn't explain, like about skill checks.

From what I gather, the last edition of SW RPG was somewhat like KOTOR, is this true?

BTW, I tested out doing a space battle and it was FUN! But I could not stop humming "Here they Come" during it and for almost two days afterwards.

Da da da da Da Da!

 

They're cancelling Life on Mars?? Whatever for? I thought that was a great show, a good plot and great actors - Michael Imperioli especially. Didn't think I'd ever see him on another tv show after Sopranos..

Also, another really good series is Showtime's Dexter. I don't have Showtime right now, but I did buy the first 2 season box sets and was completely enamored by it. I watched them both in 2 nights - awesome show.

Burn Notice is also a good one - in fact, the season finale is on tonight. I never truly got into the 4400 myself, although it was getting pretty awesome toward the end, I guess there wasn't enough viewers to keep it alive.

BSG is, hands down, my favorite show on right now. Nothing really beats it. Too bad there are only what? 3 episodes left? But I'm also excited for Caprica, as well...

 

The UK show was supposed to be better where as the US one just had him living in the 70's.

And yes, I like The Skyhooks

 

I spend one day out of town, and everything happens while I'm gone.

 

There is only one Life on Mars you nonces and it isn't in America!

[image=http://kjohn.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/gene-hunt-sam-tyler.jpg]

Seriously, watch the original. Like Yojimbo is better than A Fistful of Dollars, so is it here.

 

I've never watched either version of Life on Mars, so I can't say. But I do know this: Fistful of Dollars is in every way better than Yojimbo.

 

I demand Knight Rider for Aust.

 

Never started watching Life On Mars. I think I probably should get round to it.

I didn't know you were an #eu frequenter, Jose. Do you use a different handle?

 

So, I'm a Mac owner that recently ran Bootcamp to install Windows XP, as I was getting sick of not being able to play video games. Suffice to say, it's awesome just to have that ability back, but I've gone and made my Windows side absolutely awesome over the last few days with some freeware programs, so I figured I'd write a post about it here detailing what I've added and what it does.

-Objectdock. A handier alternative to the Start/All Program menu. I keep the programs I use regularly on it. It's available for download here:

Object Dock


-VirtuaWin. This is what really made my Windows side awesome; it's a program that creates a virtual window for each individual program you've got running. I absolutely hate how cluttered the basic windows desktop & taskbar can get, so this program was a Godsend for me, particularly as I usually have five or six programs running at any given time. It's available for download here:

VirtuaWin

-Jing. This is the best freeware screen-capture software I've ever used. It even makes an automatic url if you want to upload a pic of your screen. You can download it here:

Jing

-Avira AntiVir. This is a pretty darn good antivirus/spyware program. My old antispyware took a few hours to screen my entire system; this takes about twenty minutes and runs quietly in the background. It's available here:

Antivir

I also unlocked my taskbar and kicked it to the top of the screen.

This is how my desktop looks now:




screenshot

 

Nope, I just generally lurk.

 

I think you're the only other person I know who does that.