Teachers with AR-15s

When ever there is a mass shooting in the States a lot gets said over and over again.  But this last one, in a school in Parkland Florida there has been a lot more.  Probably because the President suggested that teachers should be armed.  Also, the AR-15.  I know all of you have been reading this stuff too but there are a few things that a learned that are a little shocking.  

The AR-15 is a high velocity gun, the bullets are three times faster than other guns, but what does that mean.  When a bullet enters a body it makes a hole and the hole continues through the body and out of the body.  Obviously.  If the bullet hits the Heart or the head, you are dead, but anywhere else and you have good odds of living, because the damage is restricted to the path of the bullet.  The AR-15 and other high velocity guns the bullet has a wake in the body.   That means that the damage is a larger radius, several times the size of the entry point.  Instead of a spike of damage to the body, it would be like shoving a fist through a body.  The effect on an organ is even more profound.  Rather than a hole in an organ, the organ would be obliterated.  People who get hit with a bullet from an AR-15 tend to die.  

Another fact that I gleaned from the news reports was a research report that said that increasing the number of gun owners by one percent would result in a 0.9 percent in the homicide rate.  Which suggested that if you reduced the ownership of guns to zero present, the murder rate would drop by 90%.  I recall talking to an American who came up to see the pope in Big Smoke a decade or so ago.  I told him that half way through the year, we were at about 30-40 homicides, his home city was much smaller and had more than double that figure.  

Another figure was 3.1%.  That is the percentage of mass shootings that have been stopped by people with guns.  That number is also likely including the gunmen that stopped shooting, and we're then shot.  It also includes the times that law enforcement stopped mass shootings after they had begun.  It would also include the time at the Draw the Prophet Mohammed cartoon contest when after instigating a response from the Texas Muslims, they had several guards on hand with guns.

Trump stunned the world just yesterday by saying that if he was at the school and there was a shooter inside, he would not hesitate to charge in with a gun or not.  No one thinks that that statement is anything but pure bullshit, but he was saying it because the armed guard at the school did not charge in.  Because he is sane.  I am serious.  Only an insane person with a death wish would charge an active shooter.  When you join the military you go through basic training which is where they teach you to work as a unit and to shoot a gun and more importantly run at someone shooting a gun at you.  Anyone who has not had that training and is willing to charge into battle, probably should not own a gun.  

As for arming teachers, so in addition to class plans and marking, they need to practice their marksmanship, so they can shoot some kid.  You need teachers to shoot kids.  Hey Billy, I taught you geography, now I have to shoot you.  Think about all those teachers that would get shot, because they entered a store with a gun and there was a nervous cop in the same store?  Think about a crowded hallway with panicking kids because one kid is shooting other kids and a teacher starts shooting too.  And they hit, maybe kill a student who doesn't have a gun.  Think about the same scenario only it is a dumbass with some caps or Chinese firecrackers.  Then you have a couple dead teenagers and a ruined teacher, even if he is not convicted.  

The other interesting thing was that the NRA got major discounts in businesses.  They could get premium packages for 75% off and discounts while flying, except now Delta Airlines is putting a stop to these deals.  Really though with the cost of flying for airlines, it mig just be smart to stop those deals anyways, it's not like you could bring your gun on a plane anyways.

Ten days from Violence

It has been ten days since the Valentine's Day school Shooting in Florida.  It was very interesting, because of the reaction to it from everyone.  The meme was that everyone would be shocked, and everyone would grieve.  Politicians would offer their thoughts and prayers, and promise change.  They would suggest that the shooter had a mental illness.  Then nothing would happen.  It was a checklist about what has happened at every other shooting.

And then the news reports came in and I started checking off each thing on the list.  Then something else happened.  The commenters started talking as if they had seen the list too.  They said that this is what happens in every other shooting and apparently nothing will change. We heard about the heroes, there is always a hero, someone who steps in front of the shooter and saves people.  This time it was a geography teacher who saved people by getting shot instead.  

And then something else changed, the survivors stepped forward and told the press that they are not going to take it anymore and they would do something about it if their parents and grand parents, great grand parents could not do it, they would.  People said after Sandy Hook, where a mentally ill person started shooting kindergarten students, if they could not change the laws then, nothing would do it.

President Trump interviewed the student survivors with his notes, telling him to pause and nod and say, I hear you.  His solution is to talk.  He said that he would ensure that mentally ill people can't get guns, and that he will reduce magazine sizes.  Meanwhile, he has already made it easier for mentally ill people to get guns.  He said the solution is to make the teachers wear guns, because if that Geography teacher had a gun, he would have killed the shooter.  Never mind that no person has ever killed a mass shooter while they were shooting people.  After they were done, yes, but not during.  Because it takes a special person to be able to do that, we call them soldiers.  Not policemen.  There were four policemen outside the school waiting for more police to show up while the shooter was killing people.  I am saying arming teachers won't work.  Putting armed guards in a school won't work.  Either, a guy with a hand gun facing off against an AR-15.  Its not like if you were planning a mass shooting you would not make the guard your first victim.  

There has only been one solution to mass shootings and that is getting rid of the guns.  They need to make owning a hand gun illegal, and owning any type of military gun a mailable offense.  Make it so using a hand gun in any criminal activity tacks on ten years for every offense.  Murder, life, murder with a gun, life plus ten.  Manslaughter ten years, manslaughter with a gun twenty.  Break and enter, 2 years, break and enter with a gun 12

DNA reliant

Have we become too dependent on modern forensics evidence?  When they killed Tina Fontaine they wrapped her body up in a duvet and weighed it down with rocks and dumped it into the Red River.  All the hairs that came off the duvet did not match the suspect and this was part of the reason why he was exonerated of charges.  Never mind that he had been reported saying that he did not know she was 15.  That is below the age of consensual sex.  And that he might have been mad about that fact.  Which is circumstantial evidence.  

I mean most women are murdered by men.  Most murdered people were killed by people they knew.  And by that I mean over ninety percent.  If she was killed because she was 15 and was assumed to be 16 well that is a shame.  No really.  I mean look at all those young women out there that look older than they are and they are just asking to be fucked.  Except they aren't.  I mean if you are looking for young women to have sex with it is on you to make sure what age they are.  If you are twenty and you see a girl about your ageist is one thing.  If you are thirty then you have to practice some restraint. 

I know.  I worked in a middle school with 12-14 year olds.  I know what they look like.  I know there are a lot of young women that look … older.  But, that is no excuse and you don't kill them if you sleep with them.  

It took them months to find her body, when they found her they could not tell how she died.  They could not find any DNA evidence.  But.  But they knew who was associated with her.  They knew stuff about him, but they did not have DNA evidence.  Before there was such a thing as DNA evidence, he would likely be going away.  But no DNA evidence to put him with the body.

D&D 2 first adventure idea and character creation new

D&D2

The back story is simple enough, any demihumans in the group will have memories of the attack and the destruction of the mountain city to the South and East.  Otherwise the sack of the city would have entered the folklore of the nation and such.  There is an uneasy feeling because everyone in the nation can see the mountain every day.  Appropriate characters will remember the assault, and have family members that were devoured.  In recent months the mountain began to erupt, something that has not happened since before the lands were settled.  The thick plumes climb high into the sky and every one is feeling on edge.  But it is over a hundred kilometers away, so it is mostly just a curiosity.  Because dragons this size are not that common and no one remembers what happened the last time. 

The idea for the start is to through the players into the adventure with only a few things chosen from their chosen character careers. Their race, their background and their stats; basic stats and by that I mean really basic: 4 12s a 10 and a 8, plus their racial stats.  I would ask them to pick one or two gods that they venerate.  I would pepper the story with weapons and objects that would confer bonuses to their stats at the end of the adventure.  And that would be their new class and such.  They would have the minimal amounts of things that their background had, but most of that stuff would have been lost when the adventure starts.  

There would be a book of cantrips, a collection of holy symbols, a bunch of weapons, some armour and a bunch of miscellaneous bits of stuff.  I would give them twelve stat bonuses at the end of the adventure.  Then they would have higher stats and could decide on that basis, what class they want to take.  There would be additional effects like if they picked some item that gave them a couple cantrips, they would be able to hose a different class and still have the couple of cantrips to use, even if they are not normally open to their class.  They might chose a paladin, but could sing cantrips like a bard, or preach them like a cleric.

Weapons +3 

weapons add 1 strength each, finess weapons add 1 dexterity each

Two handed weapons add 2 strength 

Every one can have a weapon for each hand and a ranged weapon

Thrown weapons add to strength, others to Dex.

Armour +3

heavy armour adds 2 strength And 1 constitution

medium armour adds 1 to strength, dexterity and constitution

light armour adds 2 to dexterity and one constitution

Cloak adds 2to dexterity, constitution 1

Spell book adds 2 to intelligence, and 1 to constitution

Crystal ball adds 2 to charisma and 1 to constitution 

Lyre adds 2 to charisma and 1 to intelligence

Shields +2 no Dex or Str

Tower constitution

Metal  wisdom and constitution

Wood wisdom

Buckler intelligence and wisdom

None Charisma or intelligence

Helmets +2

Leather skull cap intelligence or charisma

Chain coif constitution

Helm with holy symbol constitution and wisdom

Silver Dragon helm charisma

No helm constitution

Miscellaneous +2

A belt of pouches, adds 2 to the lowest of Charisma or Intelligence.

A song book of cantrips adds charisma 2

Prayer book of cantrips adds to wisdom 2

Tabard white with shield covering with coat of arms Charisma 2

The adventure is simple the characters wake up in an inn that has a whole bunch of wounded people in it.  The town was attacked the previous night and you know that the town is surrounded by a force of kobolds.  There were a group of adventurers in the town and that is the only reason why the kobolds did not over run the town last night.  The characters were all in the fight too, but through a series of tragedies, they were knocked unconscious when the buildings they were in collapsed.  You have just regained consciousness in the Jolly Red Wyrm the sole remaining Inn here, the other two, the ones you were staying in were burnt to the ground with all your possessions.  Why the kobolds did not finish off the town last night is not known, perhaps the bright sunshine was the reason, and the strong defense last night.  There are only twenty farmers and towns golf left alive in the town and they are all here with you.  

The Jolly Red Wyrm is an old inn that has the reputation of being here for hundreds of years.  After the first hundred years it became lucky for great adventurers passing through to leave a token of their passing.  They left weapons, armour, books, and many other things.  All these items have been lovingly taken care of.  There is a dedicated staff member whose only job is to maintain the collection.  Many of the heroes of centuries past left their first swords and armour as a testament of their greater deeds.  

All is not lost, you have an assortment of equipment before you and you must now gear up for the coming night, you only have an hour or so before the sun sets, and maybe and hour after that before full dark, you know the kobolds will attack then.  

(Characters that want to play a specific class in the game will be allowed to arm up how they wish, but characters that don't know what they want to play will be allowed an more organic form of character development.)

There will be series of out buildings and a series of spaces.  There will be a store close by and untouched.  There will be a bunch of mounts and two wagons and one cart.  Three barrels of thick pitch, and a small barrel of lamp oil in the inn.  There is a barrel of fifty torches in the store, a bin of mails, and a rack of boards out back.  There are five sacks of flour. Anything else that makes sense.  If the players ask about something, get them to roll a d6 on a 6 there is none, on a 4-5 there is something else like it, on a 2-3 there is some, on a 1 there is a lot of it for some reason.  If it is a cool on item roll at -1 each search takes ten minutes.  But they have twenty people to put their plans into action.  The planks, the nails, the oil, and the torches are what's on hand right away.  The other stuff in the store must be search for.

The inn is a two story affair with a larger ground floor and a balcony in two of the upper windows. The roof is made of clay tiles and the walls are stone, so it did not burn in the previous night.  The store had a thatch roof and it burned but the stone walls meant there was salvage.  The other buildings near the inn were stone or wood and were destroyed, but have a nearly intact wall

They have two hours to gear up and fight

There are ten kobolds for every player, but they can arm the villagers too, but they won't be as effective.  They are all wounded or infirm, but kobolds don't care.  

If they handle the kobolds too easily, then add another wave, just ten kobolds. There will be one last wave of kobolds with a dragon born leader, a ranger in scale-mail with a bow.

If the characters win, then the way is open for them to take the survivors to the next town or the city.  There they will get initiated into the class they have chosen and they will have already met.  

The next steps of the group will be plentiful.

This was an isolated attack, deep into the empire's under belly, but there have been many attacks closer to the mountain.  The emperor wants information on the dragon and the city.  They will have to get closer to make observations and they will need to find a map of the city too.  This will mean going to the city to look at the dragon and do some quick measurements and going to look for a place that had the city maps either in the city or if they can find someone who survived the attack and get them to recreate one.  They may have to go to the Mountains and seek an audience with the Dwarven Emperor.  And do a side quest.  Learn about the Orb of Dragonkind and the Dragon Slayer sword.  

The dragon just for starters is equal to a 20th level sorcerer with a few clerical powers as well.  It can grant spells to followers like a god, it's cleric can choose light or war domains.  It has a legendary domain effect that stretches hit dice kilometers away growing one kilometer a day. 

Races:

The Elves:  +2 Dex

High Elves +1 int

Wild Elves +1 wis

Mountain Elves. Where Mountain Dwarves prefer to mine and construct magnificent large halls in side the mountains, the Grey Elves nurture the rock and prune it to their desired shapes.  The sculpt the mountain to their desired form and chisel the rock perfection.  The mountain dwarf uses a pick where the Grey Elf uses a fine chisel.  Instead of +2 dexterity, they get +2 intelligence and +1 dexterity.  They all have proficiency in stone Masonry and a free cantrip.  Additionally they are able to work stone with their barehanded with a a free cantrip that softens the stone just under their hands until they release the stone.  They are exceptionally long lived and do not consider an elf an adult until after 200, when they are expected to have built a house that suits their taste from the mountain of their home.  Grey elves live on the surface of the mountain, another difference from their Dwarven neighbours.

Yellow Elves do not build permanent structures.  Anything that they build, they can take apart and move it when they leave the area.  They breed animals as their lasting legacy, but not for food, these elves are vegetarian gatherers and range widely with their herds.  They receive the standard elf improvements, but additionally a movement of 40 and natural stealth in grasslands.  They receive animal husbandry for free and they can use all elf weapons while mounted, longbow, scimitar and lance.  Lastly they add their proficiency bonus to their AC, when wearing light armour, while mounted.  

The Dwarves: +2 con

Hill Dwarves +1 wis

Empire Dwarves add +1 intelligence and can learn any artisan trade.  And they add double the proficiency bonus in that trade, due to the excellent schools in the empire.  They are also know for the shrewdness in trade and have advantage on persuasion rolls when dealing with their trade.  Many guilds in cities near the mountains do well when they have an Empire Dwarf in control.  

Lowlander Dwarves are the second class citizens of the Dwarven world.  Often called a Half Dwarf, they are true dwarves, they do not get the standard ability traits of other dwarves, +1 in constitution, dexterity and wisdom.  They often wear their beards short.  As a bonus proficiency they get Athletics and can chose any trade and any background.  As sailors they double their proficiency bonus in athletics and perception, but only when sailing.

River +1 cha 

water breathing, Truesight 30' underwater, bonus proficiency persuasion, water weapons

Hobbit: +2 Dex

Hairfoot +1 cha

Stout +1 con

Urban: feat-Scrounger, advantage on sleight of hand checks, 50% chance of having basic item on person (string, chalk, candle, feather, purse or nobleman from over there etc,) proficency sleight of hand

Human

Gnome +2int

Forest+1dex

Rock+1con

Half Orcs

Dragon born and teiflings are very rare as they are mutants in a stable region.

This region has two common trade tongues, most people i the cities know both. The first is the River Trade tongue and the second is the High trade Tongue.  River is also River Elf common, and is spoken from the Jungles in the North to the Swampy delta in the Deep South and along the Main tributaries through the plains.  High is Dwarven Common of the Empire and it is spoken through the mountains with little change.  Dwarves often refuse to teach any other language.  Only the half dwarves learn River as well as High Trade.  Notably, the river elves learn both, as well as their racial dialect.

Fourth, Sally Forth

Left for the game a little bit more prepared and a little less.  I forgot my notes.  But I had a note for the Druid prepared and before the game started I sent it to her.  It was about her power that she wanted to use but hadn't so far, so I thought I should remind her that she had the power and how she could use it.  She could change into animals. Any beast of one challenge rating and lower, so  any animal smaller than a polar bear, that she had seen.  And that had been the ticket, she was more focused in the game from that moment on.  

We left off last session in the Temple of Auristra, just finished fighting the cleric and the monks.  They were dead and there was a strange aura around the Dwarven Fighter.  There were four doors out of the main temple location and they decided to explore the ground floor with the intent to find the high priest and anyone else in the temple, than to loot the valuables.

The Druid decided that a white rat, might be best to help determine if there were people on the other side of the doors, as they have a good sense of smell.  She sniffed at all e doors before they were opened and determined which ones were sleeping quarters and which were not and which might have people inside.  They did that for each door on the lower level.  They systematically searched the lower level for the high priest and more people, but found it bare.  They discovered the kitchen, a sitting room, the Monk's cells, and the dining room.  There was a couple locked doors and they found the keys on the priest.  They were her rooms.  There was a hallway that contained ten treasures, golden statuary of the Goddesses purview.  They were detailed and made of solid gold and worth about 5000 gold coins apiece.  at the end of the hall they discovered a door and behind them a set of stairs leading up.  With another door beyond.

The white rat listened at the doors and smelled underneath.  She did not smell anyone underneath or hear a thing, but she did smell something, odd.  The bard pretending to be the younger Cleric poked his head into the room without speaking the password of the room.  Eight Skeletons moved off the wall and moved toward the door, intent on cutting the party up into tiny pieces.  Phil the Half-Orc Cleric of Stromida went into the room first proudly presenting his holy symbol and projecting the force of his goddess, "Begone, in the name of Stromida!" and half the skeletons ran as far away as the room would allow.  Four of the skeletons moved to engage the group.  The warriors in the group charged forth and fought them.  The archer fired his bow into them.  And the little rat charged them turning into a very large mastiff and she snapped at the undead bones.  After many lunges and feints the group managed to bring down the last of the four undead.  They ten moved to the four cowering in the corner and one by one they brought each of them down, only sustaining minor wounds, except for the druid who was cut down as a mastiff and reverted to her Elven form.  

The next room they entered was a Libray and they did not see anyone there.  The bard was getting frustrated and rushed into the next room and seeing there was nothing there he lead the party into the next room without searching the room at all, which it turned out was a mistake that he would soon learn to regret.  He passed into the next room and saw that it was a torture chamber with several pine boxes stacked in the corner.  He continued it not the room and that is when three Goblins jumped out and surprised the party.  They drew weapons and began to fight.  Three goblins vs six characters was going to be a short fight, even with a little surprise on the side of the goblins.  The second round they discovered that there was another three goblins right behind the others, so this was more of an even fight than they thought it might be.  And they discovered that the goblins had bottled the characters up in the corridor a bit.  With the noise of the battle the characters in the back did not here the door open behind them and the last goblins attacked from behind.  

There was one last surprise waiting for the group.  The High Priest, alerted by the battle with the skeletons, was waiting in the next room when the battle began.  He cast a silence spell on a coin and threw it amongst the party.  There was confusion in the ranks with the six then four goblins in the front and three then two goblins in the back.  One of the goblins hit the cleric and as an acolyte to the Storm goddess a thunderous rebuke blasted the goblin to smithereens.  As the last of the goblins were killed in the back that hidden cleric cast a Spiritual Weapon spell and a warhammer appeared in the air near e characters, but since he cleric could not see any of the party members, the weapon only hovered in the air menacingly.  The bard kneeled on the ground and stopped up the silenced coin and threw it against the far wall.  The goblins were eventually overwhelmed and two retreated away from the party to form a screen for the cleric.  The ranger skirted the Spiritual Weapon and fired his bow at e priest whom he now saw.  His arrow struck him on his upper body; he was surprised to see the high priest was a halfling!  The Paladin and the fighter moved up and fought the last goblins and the bard ducked into the room that the goblins were using to see if he could get behind the cleric.  The rest charged the Cleric.

The cleric in full retreat ran through a zig zag corridor and cast a Darkness spell on the corridor.  They proceeded into the darkness, in a corridor they did not know the demensions of, there was some bruising and some bumping before they found their way out of the darkness.  The first one through the darkness got a nice attack by the cleric with the spiritual warhammer.  It was the gnome and the attack went high.  The cleric crossed the room that was his apartment and entered the secret door that he had ajar.  The door closed and locked.  The halfling barred it from the other side.  

The characters, minus the Bard still looking for a way in behind the Cleric, not knowing there was no way, began looking for a way to open e secret door.  It did not take them long but they discovered that the door was stuck, so the quick witted Gnome told the others to use his hard head as a battering ram to knock the door open.  It succeeded!  The door opened the characters rushed into the room and found the High Priest trying to open a trap door in the floor to escape.  The room was filled with really bad rock statues and a large cage with a young listless girl in it.  She was pretty beneath the bruises and cuts on her face and body that showed through her rags.  When she saw the part coming to her rescue she reached out to the bad priest, who had abused her, and pulled him upright and tried to strangle him.  Some of the characters, I won't name ased if the girl was pretty and I told them that they thing she was fourteen.  The priest was killed shortly after that.  The girl was released and she kicked the halfling priest's corpse hard.  

With the help of the girl, they identified the treasure and began looking for more treasure.  They looted the High Priest's possessions and began to look for loot in the rest of the temple.  The girl told them that the treasure chest was just emptied and sent to the main Temple.  They then thought to take the ten gold Statues in the hallway, but then they thought that since the temple staff had not looted them, they might be trapped, so the left them be.  In the under priest's room they discovered a trap door leading into the basement and it lead to a door.  They opened the door and saw a group of corridors there and then they began to discuss whether they should continue, as they were all out of spells and heavily wounded.  They decided that since they had this girl with them they should leave.  As they were discussing this the monster was not going to have any of this.  The ogre had been starved and fed only occasionally, so it saw a chance of fresh an plentiful food so it rushed the party hoping to have some tastiness.  The party threw their javelins and the ranger fired his bow, the others launched their attacks and cut the beast down.  That was enough!

The next morning they had recovered from their ordeal and felt stronger for it.  They had an inpromptu meeting with the uncharmed village folk and they wer given a magic item that might help them with the next stage of the fight, a wand of Dispel Magic with four charges.  They resupplied the best they could and went out to the Temple where the Snake god lived.  The Rogue that they captured from before promised to give them a map of the temple, as much as he knew and of how to get there.  The maps that he gave them did not show where the captives were kept, not did it show where the treasure was kept.  It was not a complete map either, but it was better than nothing.

They headed out right away, as the journey would take a whole week, nine days.  * I got the players to each roll three d12s I told them that an 11 or a 12 was an encounter.  They all rolled low, the highest roll was a 10 and for me that means they had a near encounter.*  As they were moving thought the trail the ranger out in front scouting, the ranger noticed a bunch of tracks crossing their path.  He decided that he wanted to see how many orcs were there and where they were going, so he made a mark on the tree and went off after them. The party following behind missed the tracks and the mark that he made.  He caught up to the Orcs quickly and determined that they numbered 9.  He followed them until they camped for e night and he waited for them to go to sleep.  

Meanwhile, the rest of the party followed the trail and found a camp site around dark and could not see the Ranger.  So they turned around and went looking for him.  Looking more closely they found the tracks that they missed earlier and the sign that the ranger went to follow.  It was then they heard a horn blow a few times off to the East.  A minute later they heard three answering calls from three different directions, and they wondered if the Ranger had gotten them all killed.  

The ranger, climbed a tree and waited until there were only two sentries.  He then fired his bow, surprising them, hitting the first one and then the second one.  The first had and arrow in the side but the second had an arrow in the throat.  The first called an alarm, and the second spewed blood everywhere as it died.  The ranger fired a second arrow into the first sentry and skewered him as it raised a horn to his lips and used his last breath to sound it.  The other orcs were slow to rise and many of them suffered perforations before getting up.  Two others started firing randomly their bows into the forest hoping to hit something while others blew their horns.  They all died.  The ranger joined up with the others and only had a slight nick from a random arrow.  He also had a string of nine pairs of Orc ears for the bounty.  The others were not pleased and they went looking for another camp site far from the converging Orcs. 

When we left off they were outside the temple in the swamp.  The entrance in the centre of dyke complex holding back the water, the entrance heading into the ground.

The original High Priest was a human and he had magic chainmail, but since the gnome was not going to be getting any magic items for a while being so shot, I decided to change the race of the cleric so his magic armour was gnome sized.  

SciFi details

I was watching a SciFi production a little while ago and I noticed something, it was a night time scene with three moons and the three moos were all full.  And I realized that it was wrong.  One moon on the left and one on the left and one in the center.  That was wrong. It would not have mattered if it had been new for that matter, of half moons.  It was wrong.  The reason was because the were in different parts of the sky and therefore could not be the same phase.  A full moon is opposite the sun in the night sky and a waxing or waning moon when it is thin is close to the horizon.  New moons close to the setting sun and waning moons closer to the rising sun.  Half moons are half way between the full and the horizon depending on whether they are waxing or waning.  So if you see two moons in the sky and they look like the same shape. They had better be in the same part of the sky.

Which brings up another thing, in my setting world there are three moons.  There were six originally but I thought paring the number down might be easier for my players.  One has about the same orbital period as our own moon, which means that it is about the same distance, roughly.  The setting world is a lot larger and more mass, which means that the moon must be further away and going faster, but roughly the same in other ways.  The first moon is much closer and has an orbital period of about half of our moon, so that means as I said: it is closer.  The third moon has an orbital period three times as long as our moon, so it must be much further out.  Cool I think, but it adds a few things that I did not consider first.

The first moon is green, so that means it has a higher albedo than our moon.  It is habitable, the green is vegetation.  That means there must be clouds, so it is mostly green.  So the albedo is probably somewhere between 90-30 or 60.  That is about six times as bright as our moon, but it is closer too so that means, using the inverse square law, it is 4 times that, or 24x as bright Earth's moon. 

There is more. 

The full moon almost always is eclipsed by the planet.  Because the planet is bigger than Earth and the moon is much closer.  It will be passing into the shadow when it is full every time.  The planet is about ten times surface area.  The shadow of the planet is roughly ten times bigger too, the radius is only three times though.  That would mean that full moon would be in eclipse roughly 40x as frequent as our own moon.   That would mean it would always be in eclipse when it was full.  On the other hand, solar eclipses are a different thing altogether.  The moons appear the same size as each other, which means they would occur about as frequently as they do on Earth, except there are three suns.  So three times the chance, but only two times during the year would ere be a chance of a Earth style solar eclipse, unless all the moons were to eclipse the three suns simultaneously.  The two times are in the winter when e blue sun eclipses the other two suns and the high summer when the other two eclipse the blue sun, but only two days, as they eclipse each other.  Other times and eclipse would not reduce the light much. The eclipse would look like the one sun disappearing and the light not changing.  For a lunar eclipse the light of the Full moon would drop from 24x to only 2-3x or zero.  It would also turn a deep blood red too.  Cooler still because it is the moon of the evil god.

The second moon is the Blue moon.  As said it is roughly where the moon is on Earth.  The albedo is 30, or it is three times as reflective as our moon.  It is also a place of life, but with oceans.  So there is also 50% cloud cover, so roughly 60 albedo for six times as bright.  Tone it down a little to make it bluer, make it 4x as bright.  Lunar eclipses would be ten times as likely, or about one of three full moons.  

The third moon is further away than the moon, about three times the distance, so with the inverse-square laws, 1/9 as bright as our own moon, but it is a white moon with snow and nearly 100% cloud cover, so an albedo of 90.  So the moon is just as bright as our moon.  

What is the night sky like then.  When the skies are clear, the night is brighter.  When the green moon is just off full, the light would count as dim light, the blue full moon would be three times as bright as our clear full moon.  Our full moon will cast a shadow with its light.  So count it in full moons of light.  The white moon would be 1 when full.  The blue moon was 3 when full and a half moon 1.5. New and old it would be .3.  The green moon, would never be 24, because of the full moon eclipse, but it would be 20 on the nights before and after.  When it is new or old, it would be a 2.  New and old moons are bright only at the start or end of nights.

So it would mean that on a typical night, if the skies are clear you would be able to see fairly well at night.  Those with Darkvision in the game would see as if it were bright light.

Yet another school shooting

It is funny that when there is a school shooting in the States the refrain is much the same.  The Liberals bring up Gun Control and increased mental health services.  The Conservatives offer thoughts and prayers and condemn the left for bringing out that tired trop again.  Which is funny, because thoughts and prayers is the absolute least that one could do for anyone.  I mean, as someone not at all connected to the States in any form, have thought about the victims.  So this means I have done as much as the President of the United States!  Ofcourse, it might be said that the left calling for Gun Control, is like offering their prayers and wishes to the victims as well, because nothing has ever happened because of this call.  There have been bills, attempts at laws, but the best they can manage is to outlaw large magazines.  Because it is every American's right to bear arms, because someone might invade them like in the movie Red Dawn.  But that was fiction.  Some might say that the heavily armed  populous is a deterrent to invasion, but really, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are the biggest detterant the US has, right after the biggest and most well armed military force and a whole wack of nuclear missiles.  So no.  

They need all those guns to protect themselves from all the gunweilding maniacs out there.  Because no one has ever shot and killed a gun man mowing people down until after they stopped shooting.  Most lone gunmen shoot themselves before anyone takes a shot at them.  So, what have American's learned nothing, except to ignore each other when people start shooting people.  

Maybe they should limit the number of people that are allowed to congregate at music concerts and clubs?  How about 50 and 10?  Reduce schools to single classrooms a hundred meters from each other, that way school shooters could not kill lots of children.  I bet that is what they want to do.  Maybe the wealthy send all their children to private schools in countries where there are gun controls, which seems to be almost anywhere else.

Kids, D&D and friends

Roleplaying with children is very different than with adults.  Apart from the obvious, children do not have the attention span to go into depths with the character details and the character developments; children have an idea and they want to do it right away and be damned with the complexities of how long something takes and finding the person who has to do it.  That is one difference.  The other is the difference faulty memories, the adults that is.  The adults forget what it was like to roleplay when they were kids.  I remember.  I remember being shocked that roleplaying was spelled that way and not roll-playing, because when you played it was all about rolling dice and killing monsters.  We would move from one room to the next killing monsters and then killing more and more and then we would loot the bodies after every group went down.  That was the fun.  But in a mixed group the adults forget that and the kids want to get on to the roll playing and rolling dice.  That is the other difference.

Yesterday, I got to play with my friend's kids again.  We started off in the keep and we spent the first bit doing stuff.  Like identifying magic items, resupplying and my idea, getting silvered arrows and bolts, for undead and werewolves, you never know and there was a troll after all.  I asked the young boy if he thought it would be cool to have the troll's head mounted on his shield.  He thought that would be cool but the guy said that it would take a while to get it done.  We next decided to wait until the next day so we could hit the Caves of Chaos early in the morning and have a full day clearing out the critters.

We got there just around dawn and we looked around and we had to decide whether we would hit the same cave as last time or go after a new cave.  I thought that the one cave with the dead troll in it and the barred secret door would be a bad idea because the occupants might be waiting for us, it had been two days after all.  They thought that was a good idea, plus to get in the way we did it last time we would have to cast knock again, unless they did not put the bar back on it, which I would think they would have done.  So we might find another cave entrance to get those critters.  So we looked for another entrance to go into.  

The kids decided that they would try one that was on the other side of the gorge and up part way the side.  I told them to hang back so I could scout it out, being a ranger.  I could also check to see what sort of tracks we're at the cave mouth and so know what was living there.  Moving up I saw that they had heads sitting in carved niches in the wall.  There was a kobold, a hobgoblin, a human, an elf, and an orc, but the orc looked odd, its eyes followed me around.  I cautioned everyone to ready their weapons, as I put an arrow in my bow and readied it.  Then I snapped my bow up and loosed the arrow directly into the orc head.  The Orc screamed and bellowed, its niche was a hole into the cave.  It yelled a warning before collapsing.  

We spread out taking cover and preparing for the onslaught.  The fighter was positioned just outside the entrance and the cleric on the other side.  The bard and the Mage on one side and I on the other.  The orcs came boiling out of the cave mouth in three waves, four, six, and two.  Positioned as they were, the fighter and the cleric attacked the orcs as they ran past, allowing me to try to finish off weakened orcs, I cast Hunter's Mark on the first one and loosed an arrow striking it dead.  The fighter struck two of the beasties, the cleric cast a Spiritual Weapon spell and attack two orcs, one with it and the other with his mace.  The bard used Vicious Mockery with impunity.  The Mage cast Flaming Sphere and moved it amongst the rest of the orcs as they came out.  The second round six orcs came out to join the one surviving Orc from the first wave.  Two of the orcs headed for the Mage but she moved the Flaming Sphere to burn them, blocking off that direction.  The two remaining headed for me, they charged.  I missed the first one this time and the next round he closed and hit me.  I could not use my bow so I dropped it and pulled out my hand axes and tried to hit the brute with them.  By the end of the fourth round of combat, eleven of the twelve orcs were dead and the last was running away.  The orcs in the cave were retreating.  We entered the cave looking for the rest.  

We turned down two passages that entered the same large cave which seemed to be a place where the orcs lived and cooked their meals.  The benches were overturned in the back of the cave as a barricade before three exits.  The bulk of the remaining orcs were there behind the barrier.  In the middle of the cave was a large pool of oil and the orcs had torches at the ready.  They thought they had a strong position, but they were mistaken.  The Cleric of Pelor and the Mage cast the same spell sending two Flaming Spheres in behind the barricades and burning almost all the Orcs.  They ran in terror.  Two thirds ran down two of the corridors into the living quarters and a third up a slope.  We grimly entered the living quarters where the wounded males and females made their last stand protecting the children and the orc babies.  It was flame sphere work with axes and arrows after a few minutes it was done, the vermin were dead and the spawn.  I said explaining that orcs are vermin, they breed like rabbits and mature quickly, by wiping out this nest we were saving lives.  They died quicker than any of their victims would have.  But at this point the smoke from the various fires was getting quite thick, so we decided to leave the caves while we could and wait for the smoke to clear.  We took that as an opportunity to see if the smoke came out any other openings.  If it had then there was another exit for the group of breeding females to escape with their chieftain, which we never encountered; there was only smoke coming from the entrance and the chimney.  We sat outside and took a breather and a small rest.

Next session, we will reenter the caves and hunt down the last of the orcs and more fully explore the cave, searched for secret doors and treasure.  I plan on cutting some of the trees down and piling it at the base of the cliff and throwing the bodies of the orcs on it along with the oil, from the cave floor and cremate the bodies before we leave the area for the day.  If we ever decide to spend the night in the gorge, this cave has some excellent defenses, like the watch post and the narrow approach.  With the elf and myself taking the majority of the watches, we could stay in the caves and identify the caves for future strikes.  Possibly setting the groups against the others.  Who knows maybe making a deal with one group to get information and to get their help exterminating the others.  Well possibly not, because I would not want to honour that deal.  But it might get us more information and a better strategy for taking out the caves.  Perhaps the kobolds, get them to deal, in exchange for temporary avoidance.  But then they have to clear out of the area or face extermination.  

Searching for Justice

There was a case in the news this past couple of weeks, a native kid, 22, was shot by a white person and the verdict is in, the murder was ruled an accident and the man let off.  Native groups are unhappy.  Calling it a travesty of justice.  But the problem is that it wasn't.  The real problem is that there is a lot of racism towards native people in this country and there are travesties all over the place, women being raped and murdered and tossed into rivers and thrown into the bushes off the highways.  These are real travesties.  But so would this case taken on its own, without circumstantial evidence.  

The facts that are in the case include, the boy was a man.  He was twenty-two, not thirteen or sixteen or even eighteen.  He was trespassing on the accused's property, which does not mean he should be shot.  The boy was joy riding vehicles on the accused's property, and he was driving the property of the accused.  There was some question of possible injury to the accused's relations.  There was mention that the owner tried to scare the victim off by firing the gun into the air, twice.  There was a physical confrontation where the rifle reportedly went off killing the man.  All these things together suggest that murder was not the goal of the accused.  Manslaughter for sure was a possible outcome as was aquital.  There were some reports that the jury was an all white jury, but at was never substantiated, and it shouldn't have mattered.  But it does.

There are protests about the results of this trial.  But it is clear that this trial was not firmly about race.  For one thing a rifle is not a close quarters weapon.  It can be used that way but in the confrontation it was not described as being used as one.  There are other charges that should have been laid, improper use of a firearm, careless use and manslaughter, it was an accident, but it was not murder.  

There should have been more native people on the jury.  The trial was happening in Saskachewan and native people make up a significant proportion of the population there.  In Canada there are almost 2 million native people, or about five percent.  This was not the case they should have been pining for justice with.  But still it was.

Math of D&D

The balancing of Dungeons and Dragons has meant that it is easier make encounters for players.  But the understanding is a little harder too.  Groups have been set to a four person standard.  Four players encounter their level challenges and it is a challenge, five player groups can defeat their level plus one challenges and six players their level plus two challenges.  Meaning that it is okay to throw larger groups against harder challenges and expect them to survive.  Like when five characters fought a troll and won and when a group of second levels took on an encounter that was two levels higher than them.  

The Dungeon Master's Guide, has some interesting tables for creating monsters.  They suggest that you start with hit points and move to armour class.  Then to look at maximum damage and then attack bonus.  

The defense side suggests how long the battle will last.  Mor hit points means more hits needed to defeat and this is a mathematical number.  If every character causes 7 points damage per hit that means that a creature with 70 hit points needs to be hit 10 times.  Armour class means how much percentage that they need to hit.  We assume that everyone has a +2 to hit because of stat, and +2 because of proficiency, so an AC of 11 is 70% likely to be hit.  Every AC point higher reduces the chance by 5%.  So when my players faced off against a foe with 42 hit points and and AC of 21, they were only 20% likely to hit and therefore, required 6x5 attacks to kill that one encounter character.  There were 6 characters so fighting this creature would require an average of 5 rounds of combat.  If it were just a sword fight.  And the fighter could use second wind to heal one and a half hits so, potentially 6 rounds of combat.  There was two other NPCs in that encounter, they had three hits worth of hit points and a 30% chance of being hit and could heal on hit worth of HPs so that means 4 hits.  One character got a lucky hit and killed one right away.  So that means there were expected to be in combat 8 rounds.  They were not, because that was just a rough count and did not include critical hits.  

If the NPCs AC was lower, say 15 then they would be hit 50% of the time and that would mean 14 hits would require 28 attacks, or five rounds of combat.  If they had a AC of 10, it would mean 75% success on hits so 18 attacks or three rounds of attack.  

There is the difference of armour class.

Offensive power is how likely is the monster likely to kill the characters.  The average it is measured in maximal damage and hit bonus.  In eight rounds the NPCs are going to do 8hp damage every hit.  The hit bonus was 5, this means that they had a 50% chance to hit AC 16, and in 8 rounds they would each get  nine attacks.  So an expected 9 hits for 72 points damage.  But the characters put the well armoured characters up first and that meant that the hitting chance dropped to about 25% so 18/4 or 4.5 hits or 36 points of damage.  

This is what happened.  

The def CR of the NPCs was 7 and 6, but the off CR was lower at about 1, so the average CR was 4 and 3 which means that it was a tough encounter.  

If there had been less players there, say 4, then the combat would have lasted longer, instead of 8, it would be 12.  So the NPCs would have got 13 hits apiece, and a 6.5 hits for 52 hp damage.  Likely two players would have died before the end of the combat and then maybe the other two.  Because less attacks mean less hits on them and more on them.

It was a tough encounter but with six players it was a lot easier.

5e D&D is about math

Ontario Politics; getting tired of it

Watching the conservative leadership secretly as it goes on.  There are three candidates, two of whomever are female, as predicted, but the third is a man.  The brother of Rob Ford, the former mayor of Big Smoke.  Which is difficult to imagine, because Rob Ford was Big Smoke's Donald Trump.  In all the same ways, only not as wealthy.  He was only in power three years ago, but it it were today in the #MeToo times, he would be out.  One wonders how Doug Ford is alike to his brother.  

The comments that I have read are also interesting.  A woman saying that she would never vote for a female politician.  Comments suggesting that the career woman politician lost two leadership campaigns and was thus a loser and should not compete in this campaign.  And that the last candidate was untried, an outsider with a father who was prime minister.  

The thing is the Conservatives are leading in the polls because the people dislike the current government.  They hate it.  Why because of high hydro bills.  As far as I can tell that is what people hate the most.  That's fine, but it is not a good reason.  A good reason would be is that you disagree with what they are doing in government.  But, let's face it, some people will hate the Liberals because they are Liberals.  I am not.  But I have a though time disagreeing with their policies on the whole.  

I am curious about the policies of their platforms.  The Mulroney is on the record of being a Progressive Conservative of old.  And the Ford as being a Reform style Conservative.  A Progressive Conservative was one of the funny idosyncracies of Canadian politics of the pre90s.  They were Center Right, as opposed to the Reform Conservatives which are Right of Center.  The differences were akin to the difference between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party in America.  Which is the interesting part.  When you add in the Liberal party.  

I would say that the Liberal Party is a Center party, it wobbles between Center Right and Center Left.  If the Progressive Conservative party wins the Leadership, then electing them in the province would essentially mean status quo in provincial policies.  If they chose a leader like Doug Ford, they would be selecting a leader that very likely could be compared to Donald Trump, and that would likely mean less support for the party.  Additionally, if he has any skeletons in his closet, they will come out during the election it shortly thereafter.  

So the real question is will they be stupid or smart.  And then are the people of Ontario stupid or smart?

One of the many policy differences between the hopeful leaders is their stance on a Carbon Tax, which I think is funny, because the Federal Government has already said that if the province doesn't have one of the two suggested policies, one will be imposed on them: Carbon Tax or Cap and Trade, so saying no to either is just a empty policy.  

Hydro bills.  The truth is that successive governments had been subsidizing Hydro for decades and increasing our provincial debt loads.  The funny thing is that if the Conservatives get into power, they would give the bill right back to the people, subsidies are a left wing thing after all.  So, does that mean that they will lower taxes and increase subsidies? Seems kind of impossible.  But, you know politicians will do stupid things just to get elected.  That is why everything is all fucked up.

We need electoral reform so that each party can just learn to say what they mean and and… who am I kidding.  

Milestone

Something different from my usual milestone post.  Some time soon I will hit 30,000 views and 666 posts.