Friendship is Dragons
Updates Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays
Page 529 - High Horse
Author Notes:
Newbiespud
13th Dec 2014, 5:00 AM
edit
delete
Notice: Guest comic submissions are still open until this arc is finished! Guidelines here.
(Pop-out)
47 Comments:
Agreed. TNG didn't get good until season 3+ when you started getting into the interesting stuff. Interstellar giant crystal monsters, cyborg alien hives, sub-dimensional fish, fracturing political landscapes of foreign powers. That's the good stuff. :D
And that is why DS9 was the best Star Trek.
*sees advancing horde of angry TOS and TNG fans*
Damn, not again.
*sees advancing horde of angry TOS and TNG fans*
Damn, not again.
Bruh. Voyager exists. Yeah, DS9 is much better than TOS and TNG. But best? Nah.
TNG is the next best thing.
Voyager had the best theme tune and some potentially great characters they had no frickin' clue how to write for. DS9 was better :p
Voyager was good, I'd probably give it second place, but you can't beat DS9. It had a far more interesting cast (Gul Dukat and Garak are two of the best character's in all Star Trek), some of the best stories (In the Pale Moonlight), some of the best action (the whole dominion war) and some of the best comedy (The House of Quark). My only real issue was the rather annoying plot of Sisko being the Emissary, but even that wasn't too bad.
That said, Boris is right. Voyager had the best theme.
That said, Boris is right. Voyager had the best theme.
First, we have Kirk. Kirk was prone to cheating in dire situations, and could be considered an ideal choice for the extremely dangerous early series, and his brand of cowboy diplomacy was entirely needed when the federation was young. He faced social issues with the sensibilities of a thinking man. He was no philosopher, but he understood right and wrong, and used his quick wits to pull through.
Next was Picard. Picard was a more civilized captain, representing a more civilized age of the federation. He preferred to use diplomacy whenever possible. He was a scholar, not a soldier.
Then came Benjamin Sisco. Sisco was a soldier, and his no nonsense attitude was needed in the politically unstable environment of DS9.
Now let's look at Janeway. Janeway was, well, poorly written. Intended to be a no nonsense badass like Sisco, she instead came across as a tyrant, often contradicting herself throughout the series. All in all, however, she was not by any stretch of the imagination, a pleasant person, or a kind captain. But she was certainly better than what was to come.
Solomon "Duchess" Archer is a secret agent with a group called Isis. His mother, tired of his shenanigans, volunteered him for a time travel program. He ended up in the future and joined Starfleet, where he eventually became captain of the USS Enterprise. In the course of his duties, he committed genocide, harbored racist opinions against Earth's closest allies, the Vulcans, and generally proceeded to ruin the federation's reputation, including endangering the entirety of the human race. For his actions, the name archer became synonymous with incompetence and was completely taboo.
A friend of mine joked that Archer was actually Sam Beckett trying to portray the role until the next leap. And failing. XD
Spock was cold, unemotional, and a stickler for the truth and the letter of the law in a manner very similar to Picards Command Style.
Ryker was a young tough action ready commander better suited for war than exploration much like Sisco.
Kira Nerisse was a bossy Psyco B#(*h with no resptect for other cultures who resorted to violence as her first option in almost all situations, Paralells to Janeway may be made at your leisure.
Chicokatay was a spineless characterless ex pirate chosen to be first officer because of political expedience and the fact that there was nobody else qualified on such short notice.
Though I will argue that Duchess had character. It was just all bad character.
"My God, Shamilan himself has never exceeded 13,000. Our critic shields can't hold. Abandon review!"
One thing I like about playing Shadowrun is that it's fairly easy to take today's world and forward it to the 2070s. Which is... I guess scary in a way.
And I have a half done conversion of Shadowrun for Pony. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I did that. XD No longer is Equestria the land of the magic of friendship, but the metropolis science of industry. I still have to work on it, but the concept is that the dystopian world of Equestria I wrote was based on an incident hundreds of years ago when magic simply vanished from the land. Eventually even pegasi and unicorn species disappeared and everyone was an earth pony. And then when magic returned, the land saw sudden resurgence of magical effects and large parts of the population suddenly transforming back into pegasi and unicorns. Basically a parallel of Shadowrun's history.
And I have a half done conversion of Shadowrun for Pony. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I did that. XD No longer is Equestria the land of the magic of friendship, but the metropolis science of industry. I still have to work on it, but the concept is that the dystopian world of Equestria I wrote was based on an incident hundreds of years ago when magic simply vanished from the land. Eventually even pegasi and unicorn species disappeared and everyone was an earth pony. And then when magic returned, the land saw sudden resurgence of magical effects and large parts of the population suddenly transforming back into pegasi and unicorns. Basically a parallel of Shadowrun's history.
Technology took up where magic ended, no immortality in the alicorns, discords giant end by unique explosive.
The rift left behind of pure chaos that drives any magical being mad trying to explore.
The more elvish nations likely unicorns that stepped away to found their (Superior!) nation. The german freestate originally sorta started by the diamond dogs?
Though I have two questions, is that did you aim changelings as more the vampire, ghoul, or those spirits?
the other, is where you are placing the gryphons in wondering?
(I wish i could get my muse to write about that kinda setting more, or at all, i loved the dystopic.) with magic returning too, you can do arcanotech devices, built from unicorns that convert magical energy into uses, and capable of much more power for unique options and cyberware.
The rift left behind of pure chaos that drives any magical being mad trying to explore.
The more elvish nations likely unicorns that stepped away to found their (Superior!) nation. The german freestate originally sorta started by the diamond dogs?
Though I have two questions, is that did you aim changelings as more the vampire, ghoul, or those spirits?
the other, is where you are placing the gryphons in wondering?
(I wish i could get my muse to write about that kinda setting more, or at all, i loved the dystopic.) with magic returning too, you can do arcanotech devices, built from unicorns that convert magical energy into uses, and capable of much more power for unique options and cyberware.
I haven't gotten far with thinking of non-pony species and how they translate, but it might be interesting if Changelings are a type of vampire/ghoul in the setting. Meaning regular ponies could get infected or transformed in some way to become a changeling.
*Ponders*
*Ponders*
You probably need to clarify the kinds of magic that disappear. There are a lot of magic-based creatures in Equestria and the Earth ponies seem to have a magic that allows them to work the land.
Well, it's either that or you work with the fallout of that, ie, species are dying, the Earth ponies need to retreat to somewhere like the Everfree Forest where the land lives on its own.
Well, it's either that or you work with the fallout of that, ie, species are dying, the Earth ponies need to retreat to somewhere like the Everfree Forest where the land lives on its own.
The buffalo would be an easy analogy to the natives. Though if they did the great ghost dance or not would be another thing to ask. Given the prevalence of the japanese, thats another aspect to do, though if you wanted to do the neiponse, or however its spelled as the ones to do what they did.
The spirits, well, you have the option of the six tenets/virtues as great spirits alongside the elemental ones for shamans guiding spirits.
Looking through the Bestiary for Shadowrun 4e, a lot of magical critters seem to have become normal mundane critters. Then when magic came back, so did the magical critters.
There seem to be magical variations of bears, large cats, several species of plant... and it's scary that none of them are nice and cuddly. XD
There seem to be magical variations of bears, large cats, several species of plant... and it's scary that none of them are nice and cuddly. XD
I hope you finish this, cause I would love to play it. It sounds like a more weary and dangerous version of Jurassic park (what with magical sentient species and many technological advances).
Although, in hind sight, if I was to play, I think I would end up as an earth pony anyway. I'm just the kind of person who plays normality, and gets the more unique the same rights as myself, instead of the opposite historical roman way, and enslave anything that isn't like me.
Anyway, I look forward to looking at the complete product. If only so I can put it on my list of rpg systems I wish to play (Alongside a Fallout: Equestria d100 system I found a while back and DnD 4E).
I certainly plan on completing this.
Also never got to play D&D 4e. A friend has all the books and showed interest in running a basic game so I could get the idea of it. ...and then he vanished.
Also never got to play D&D 4e. A friend has all the books and showed interest in running a basic game so I could get the idea of it. ...and then he vanished.
As a aside to the whole Shadowrun thing, I think it's always a good idea to point out that this is a official product that happened.
http://i.imgur.com/5H4GGLU.jpg
(If I remember the story correctly, one of the developers lost a bet and had to put it out in a extremely limited run.)
http://i.imgur.com/5H4GGLU.jpg
(If I remember the story correctly, one of the developers lost a bet and had to put it out in a extremely limited run.)
I always thought that they only made the one book cover. Never heard of anyone actually having this book.
I suppose story time today is about a world that you played in or GMed for players that was different from our world in a very unique or funny way. Alternatively, a story about how the differences in the campaign world from RL resulted in a funny or notable situation.
As an example, we once - only once! - traveled through the Warp, aboard a Rogue Trader's vessel. Our eldest party member noticed some of the naval ratings, the expendable rank-and-file that do the phenomenal amount of grunt work on an Imperial vessel, were squabbling, reducing efficiency, and decided to mediate. After getting permission from their supervising bosun, who, misunderstanding the ex-Guardsman's intentions, passed him a spare beatstick, he strolled over to mediate.
As it happens, these particular ratings had a family feud spanning centuries, the whole history of which they tried to shout over each other when our old Guardsman demanded they explain themselves - how dare they insult the Emperor by not focusing on doing the best job they possibly could?! (He wasn't actually very pious, but he figured invoking the Immortal God-Emperor of Mankind ought to be pretty persuasive.)
Eventually, he threatened them with the beatstick, demanding that they get along and forcing them to hug. When they proved reluctant, he grabbed them and picked them up...
I should explain; this particular Guardsman character was our combat specialist in an already combat-oriented party. He'd had synthmuscle grafts enough to earn him the nickname Muscles McLargeHuge, and carried an Autocannon - a gun normally mounted on vehicles - as well as an axe and shield, with which he hit horrifically hard due to his strength modifier. So when he picked up these hapless gits and smushed then together like a pair of dolls, the GM ruled them dead, as his strength bonus alone would kill them with no save, even if a 1 were to be rolled for damage.
Tears of laughter were shed by all (OOC), as the burly man awkwardly dropped the corpses and shuffled away. Business as usual resumed in the belly of the ship's workings.
Judging by the sudden cutoff, I can only assume that that example would've been heretical.
Not heretical at all, actually! My character happily reverted to her Hiver upbringing on that trip, staying unseen and/or carefully locked up in her room, so no one noticed the xenotech in her golf bag of sniper rifles. What can I say? The Tau make excellent guns. The Techpriest was shunned by the Mechanicus for his deviant opinions, but not considered an outright heretic, while the combat specialist mentioned above kept his lost faith to himself. As for the other Guardsman, an ex-Inquisitorial Stormtrooper of the Ordo Malleus... He was even more pious than my Assassin, and just as eager to purge the unclean. We kept our heresy to a minimum, mainly the use of Tau tech provided by our employer. (Well, and I mixed a few Dark Muses of the dark Eldar in with my many saints in my personal chapel/bedroom after we became fabulously wealthy, but no one but the GM and I knew that.)
Its hard to try and roleplay a person living in an oppressive, Neo-Nazi-like empire but it is a refreshing shift away from the typical fantasy stuff I'm used to. Now if we can just get together to play more often, I'd be happy.
About six years ago in July when 4E had started, I had been in a freshly started world with "Keep on the Shadowfell" as the first adventure and so on the surface was typical DnD fair. Now my character was not the most normal of Tiefling warlocks (Looking a bit like hellboy, only darker, leaner and two flesh arms) but his origin was nothing as compared to the conversation six months later in real life when the party had gotten back to city of "Aust" to get parts for a new airship. The DM said rather casually that Aust was on the edge of what was in essence a flying continent the size of Australia. I replied with "Poule showed up on this material plane here, how could this not have been seen?"
At this point the rather large party was looking confused at the both of us. Me for hinting at some convoluted backstory that to this day I have yet to explain, and the DM for saying the material plane was not as solidly there as first thought since only four of the members had more than a year's experience in tabletop RPGs. The DM replied "Aust is a big city, the cliffside market is half a mile away from the entrance on the main road. This would have been explained when you got the airship, but the flying continents are at different heights around it's core. this is common history knowledge that the world ripped it self apart. How come your character doesn't know this?"
My reply was kind of munchkiny, "He's from Seattle originally, he arrived in this dimension here."
From there Sunder as the setting came to be known as never felt the same. and the campaign had enough material for another year.
At this point the rather large party was looking confused at the both of us. Me for hinting at some convoluted backstory that to this day I have yet to explain, and the DM for saying the material plane was not as solidly there as first thought since only four of the members had more than a year's experience in tabletop RPGs. The DM replied "Aust is a big city, the cliffside market is half a mile away from the entrance on the main road. This would have been explained when you got the airship, but the flying continents are at different heights around it's core. this is common history knowledge that the world ripped it self apart. How come your character doesn't know this?"
My reply was kind of munchkiny, "He's from Seattle originally, he arrived in this dimension here."
From there Sunder as the setting came to be known as never felt the same. and the campaign had enough material for another year.
"All I did was listen."
Listening is one of the most important things.
Listening is one of the most important things.
Especially when the GM tries to describe a trapped room.
Luna
But, whatever the needs of an adventurer is, the journey alone will influence how we end up, in the end.
Is it wrong that occasionally I just scroll through the comments looking for Raxon's avatar, and reading nothing else?
Damn straight. My posts are required reading and will go on to inspire several cults in the future.