Dungeons and Dreamboats VIII: Bulletproof Nudity

[hymer]

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[Arbane]

Spoiler: I have a GREAT idea for my animal companion!

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[Leon]

well you'll learn fast to feed it on time

[Potato_Priest]

Spoiler: I have a GREAT idea for my animal companion!

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Spoiler: Realism Nitpicks

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That seems like a poor trigger mechanism for the cat. Is the intent that you have to pick the cat up and point it in the right direction to shoot?

Also, the cat's going to have to get human assistance to reload.

That's pretty awesome. Also, it's a cat's dream come true. Finally it has the secret of the humans' loud noise death ray.

[Keltest]

Spoiler: Realism Nitpicks

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That seems like a poor trigger mechanism for the cat. Is the intent that you have to pick the cat up and point it in the right direction to shoot?

Also, the cat's going to have to get human assistance to reload.

That's pretty awesome. Also, it's a cat's dream come true. Finally it has the secret of the humans' loud noise death ray.

Maybe its a psychic cat. It can telekinetically reload and press the trigger.

[JMS]

Can I have some help with a character portrait? I need a picture of someone who is equally at home digging through accounts and interrogating syndicate members about where loaned money has gone, possibly after knocking them unconscious with a quarterstaff.
Some magic is fine, nothing major or offensive, a D&D Prestidigitation or Mage Hand is the limit.
Quarterstaff would be nice, but not needed
1880s Chicago is the setting
Suit or coat would be nice.
Human Male.
Thank you for your time and effort.

[DeTess]

Can I have some help with a character portrait? I need a picture of someone who is equally at home digging through accounts and interrogating syndicate members about where loaned money has gone, possibly after knocking them unconscious with a quarterstaff.
Some magic is fine, nothing major or offensive, a D&D Prestidigitation or Mage Hand is the limit.
Quarterstaff would be nice, but not needed
1880s Chicago is the setting
Suit or coat would be nice.
Human Male.
Thank you for your time and effort.

Okay, let's see. This sounds like a mixup of Wax and Wayne from the second Mistborn series, with a personality trending towards Wax, and a general fighting style trending towards wayne.

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edit: those should be three images. If any don't show up, please do tell.

[JMS]

Thanks! Found one from the suggestions, but I'm not sure it fits entirely. Also, cool books, looking now.
Edit: My charecter also has some of Wayne's methods, given +12 bluff, +8 disguise at level 1

[Hawksteel]

I need a picture of tanks fighting monsters, or a dragon fighting aircraft, or just anything modern fighting a fantasy army. Even a superhero fighting them would work. I havent been able to find much so Im hoping someone here has something.

[PhoenixPhyre]

I need a picture of tanks fighting monsters, or a dragon fighting aircraft, or just anything modern fighting a fantasy army. Even a superhero fighting them would work. I havent been able to find much so Im hoping someone here has something.

The recent anime GATE might help. That was basically its entire premise.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

I need a picture of tanks fighting monsters, or a dragon fighting aircraft, or just anything modern fighting a fantasy army. Even a superhero fighting them would work. I havent been able to find much so Im hoping someone here has something.

The recent anime GATE might help. That was basically its entire premise.

There's also stuff from the movie Reign of Fire:

Spoiler: Fairly crap film, in all honesty, but it had some fairly decent imagery.

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Spoiler: I also happened to find this image from GURPS on TVTropes

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Spoiler: And this from the Korean disaster movie D-War

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Beyond that, the TVTropes pages for "Weird Historical War" and "Magic Versus Technology War" might also lead you to other stuff you could use.

[Knaight]

But it's better than a cotton sweatshirt is what I'm saying.

It's a bad design. But a badly designed piece of steel is better than no steel at protecting you.

And swords are not baseball bats. The blunt impact is pretty low, the blade is light(ish) and balanced near the hand to be agile, not near the point of impact like a hammer. It relies on the edge or point to do most of the damage.

There's also the matter of how swords are a lot more flexible, in terms of a stab.

[LordCdrMilitant]

I need a picture of tanks fighting monsters, or a dragon fighting aircraft, or just anything modern fighting a fantasy army. Even a superhero fighting them would work. I havent been able to find much so Im hoping someone here has something.

Funny you should speak of it! I have a pencil sketch of a SAM launcher engaging dragons that I made when I was bored a few days ago.

It's not high quality art, but since it came up...

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There is a dearth of art of FlaK guns and missiles swatting dragons from the sky. I like to feature VT-fused quick-firing air-defense weapons mounted on castle towers and city walls in my D&D games; to explain why the kingdom isn't perpetually threatened by dragon raids, and why dragons live in mountain caves instead of the flaming ruins of cities and farms.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

There is a dearth of art of FlaK guns and missiles swatting dragons from the sky. I like to feature VT-fused quick-firing air-defense weapons mounted on castle towers and city walls in my D&D games; to explain why the kingdom isn't perpetually threatened by dragon raids, and why dragons live in mountain caves instead of the flaming ruins of cities and farms.

VT? What's VT, precioussss?

[Leon]

VT? What's VT, precioussss?

Variable Time

[LordCdrMilitant]

VT? What's VT, precioussss?

It stands for "Variable Time", which is a code word used to refer to proximity fuses.

Hitting fast moving aircraft with antitaircraft fire is very hard. Most AA was [and to some degree still is], conducted by firing lots of shells very quickly in the general direction of a flyer. However, this isn't very efficient, and a lot of small-caliber AA fire also isn't very lethal.

Heavy AA guns, like the 8.8cm FlaK gun, were much more destructive. They didn't need to score a direct hit; since the shells exploded, a near miss could still be lethal. The question is, how do you get the shell to explode near the target. At the beginning of WWII, this was accomplished by having rangefinders determine the altitude and bearing of the aircraft, and setting a altitude or time fuse to explode when the shell arrived at the height the airplane was flying. However, if the airplane was maneuvering, or your rangefinding was slightly off, your shells would explode too early or too late, and not threaten the plane. Late in the war, the allies invented a proximity fuse for the 5" DP guns, codenamed "Variable Time" fuses to hide their nature from Axis spies, which didn't need to predict how high the plane was. They had a miniature radar set that would tell the shell when the plane was close so it could explode. This increased the lethal area pretty drastically, reduced the rounds-per-kill by like half, and was generally a massive boost for allied AA.

The majority of kills was still accomplished via more dakka, but the VT fuses were a major breakthrough in AA warfare.



I imagine that this effect can be fairly easily accomplished with D&D magic; by enchanting a shell or bolt with a detection spell linked to whatever creates the explosion; since both detection and explosion magics are widely available [and at fairly low level]. Something salvoing large volumes of such projectiles into the sky should be reasonably sufficient to deter all but the most determined of dragon/airship/flying nasty assault, especially considering that most artillery options would fairly easily outrage most retalitory magic options.

There fundamentally must be some kind of anti-monster magic/technology mix reasonably available to kingdoms and cities for society to exist in a world where a random flying sky-lizard could swoop in and burn your wheat fields on tuesday. I chose to feature heavy defensive emplacements protecting cities, because I like artillery and have faith in engineering to overcome natural challenges. Theoretically, a dedicated rapid-response dragonslayer corps, or preemptive measures like hunting them down and killing them before they can grow, etc. could also serve to secure the cities and the countryside against monster threat.

[Hawksteel]

Thanks very much for all the pictures and the links.

[lightningcat]

I need a picture of tanks fighting monsters, or a dragon fighting aircraft, or just anything modern fighting a fantasy army. Even a superhero fighting them would work. I havent been able to find much so Im hoping someone here has something.

Might not be quite what you wanted, but here is a link to one of my favorite pictures.
https://goo.gl/images/ZeXLiw

[TheTeaMustFlow]

It stands for "Variable Time", which is a code word used to refer to proximity fuses.

*slaps own head*... I really should have recognised that. Spent enough time on military history, and I knew perfectly well about the introduction of proximity fuses, just had forgotten the codename. Thanks!

[dps]

But it's better than a cotton sweatshirt is what I'm saying.

It's a bad design. But a badly designed piece of steel is better than no steel at protecting you.

And swords are not baseball bats. The blunt impact is pretty low, the blade is light(ish) and balanced near the hand to be agile, not near the point of impact like a hammer. It relies on the edge or point to do most of the damage.

That's why we can do HEMA with realistic weighted swords with a blunt edge and not die all that often. I wouldn't do HEMA sparring with realistically weighted maces. Because those are just maces.

Well, yeah, that's the thing--you don't bash away at plate armor with a sword. Ideally, if you're fighting an opponent wearing plate, you want to use a mace or war hammer or the like, not a sword. If you do have to use a sword to fight a plate armor-wearing opponent, you try to get the point of your blade into one of the gaps in the armor, not bash it against the plates (which is just a good way to damage the edge of your blade).

[Mike_G]

Well, yeah, that's the thing--you don't bash away at plate armor with a sword. Ideally, if you're fighting an opponent wearing plate, you want to use a mace or war hammer or the like, not a sword. If you do have to use a sword to fight a plate armor-wearing opponent, you try to get the point of your blade into one of the gaps in the armor, not bash it against the plates (which is just a good way to damage the edge of your blade).

Yeah. I know.

This was in response to somebody a million pages back who said that boob plate armor was worse than no armor at all, specifically referencing swords in the previous post.

To clarify, a piece of badly shaped but hardened steel is better to have on when hit by any pre-gunpowder weapon than no armor. Not as good as properly shaped piece of steel, but better than linen.

There will come a day when a reply on the internet does not focus on the least relevant detail of a lengthy post...

BUT IT IS NOT THIS DAY!!!!!

[Keltest]

Well, yeah, that's the thing--you don't bash away at plate armor with a sword. Ideally, if you're fighting an opponent wearing plate, you want to use a mace or war hammer or the like, not a sword. If you do have to use a sword to fight a plate armor-wearing opponent, you try to get the point of your blade into one of the gaps in the armor, not bash it against the plates (which is just a good way to damage the edge of your blade).

Actually, depending on the sword and quality of the plate, that's exactly what you would do. Beating somebody with a sword isn't great for the sword, but they still have mass, and will still disfigure the armor similar to an axe or mace if you hit them hard enough. It wasn't ideal, but penetrating plate was perfectly possible with a sword, if harder.

[Leon]

By all means have the discussion but try and post a picture with the text at the very least.

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[gkathellar]

Actually, depending on the sword and quality of the plate, that's exactly what you would do. Beating somebody with a sword isn't great for the sword, but they still have mass, and will still disfigure the armor similar to an axe or mace if you hit them hard enough. It wasn't ideal, but penetrating plate was perfectly possible with a sword, if harder.

Good plate (hell, good mail) will rarely, if ever, deform under the kind of weight you can put behind any slashing weapon lighter than a pole axe. We can see this reflected in how period European fighting systems dealt with armor - usually a combination of half-swording (a technique where one hand grasps the sword halfway up the blade, allowing for powerful and precise thrusts at extremely close range), so called “murder strokes” (blows delivered with the pommel or studs on the guard, sometimes while holding the sword by the blade like a long mace or warhammer), and wrestling (usually with the intent of immobilizing the opponent for a killing blow through the gaps in the armor). Similar doctrines can be found in surviving battlefield martial arts from Japan, where armor was slightly less robust - swordfighters were trained to attack the gaps found at an armored opponent’s joints.

Armor piercing weapons work by focusing a lot of energy in a small area, either by accelerating a heavy object around a pivot (maces), by presenting an extremely small striking point with strong mechanical support (estocs), or both (warhammers). Slashing weapons simply do not work these ways (although many can approximate the second on the thrust), instead distributing energy along a line.

[Leon]

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[hymer]

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[Leon]

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[Anti-Eagle]

I... don't have any offerings. But I was wondering if I could get some help. I've been having a bit of trouble looking so this seemed the place to check.

I'm looking for a picture of a middle aged gentleman in ragged clothing. Someone who looks like they live on the street. Not someone particularly old, or dirty, just someone that would blend into the background on the street.

Spoiler: example

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Someone like the topsy king from fallen london if that helps but with greying hair.

[hymer]

Spoiler: Captain Braxton the Vagrant

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[Agrippa]

I'm looking for a "powerhouse" style character. Basically a physical combatant that augments him/herself with supernatural power. In other words, a 3.5 or Pathfinder style psychic warrior. Preferably in the act of using their powers, maybe punching through a solid object, partially transforming them self or wreathing them self in some sort of energy. I'd appreciate it if someone could find this for me.