The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

Probably around 2:00 CST, because that is the time I arbitrarily chose. Watch this space!

~Neshomeh

But I JUST went through fixing all the old Freewebs links on the wiki, and now it'll have to be done again. Siiigh. This is why I hesitate to move my own stuff. {= P

Seriously, though, how is Neocities, usage-wise? Does it feel good over there?

The parts of the site I've looked at so far appear to be in working order. All the banners and things are showing up, links seem to be correct. I'd go with a less lurid shade of green for the background, though. Not more than #00B000 or so.

Like this.


Sort of. The Board's rendering of my margin is wonky. But the point is, on full monitor brightness, it'll be easier to look at while still being a pure green. {= )

~Neshomeh

The new website looks nice, but the layout seems to be broken on mobile devices. Additionally, the only way to access the In Life's Name stories is through an imagemap, which I *strongly* advice you to reconsider. I know it looks pretty, but there are a lot of accessibility issues with doing it that way.

It's been over a year in the doing, but I guess it's time to bite the bullet and just announce it... Huinesoron's Webplex has officially moved over to Neocities, and can now be found here:

Huinesoron's Webplex

The move - the first time I've left [Free]Webs since the launch of Bonsaimallorn back in '03 - comes because Webs have been getting slower and slower, and I wanted something that I could actually update without a struggle. There's a lot of out-of-date backlinks which I'll need to sort out, but everything should now be linked from the new site.

There's even a few new things scattered throughout there, though not as many as my original idealistic plans. One that might interest a fair number of you, though, is the official hub for In Life's Name, the PPC/Young Wizards stories some of us wrote a while back. Included in there is something I don't think I've shared before: a short piece by Kaitlyn entitled Mars.

So there it is! If you find a dead link or any images that don't work, I'd appreciate a heads-up; there's a lot of stuff on there, and I'm positive I've missed at least a few things.

hS

"Are dinosaurs real?"

Kaitlyn swatted away the hand that had lifted her headphone away and span her chair to face the intruder. "I don't think you understand how this works," she said over the cheery chords of the Shire theme. "When I sneak up on you and ask bizarre questions, it's funny. When you do it to me, it's the worst thing ever."

Agent Huinesoron looked briefly mortified, but then he seemed to take in the smile on her face and relaxed. He said something that Kaitlyn couldn't hear over the music, then looked immediately guilty.

Kaitlyn tugged off the headphones and dropped them onto her console. "I'm going to assume that was a grovelling apology," she said, then regretted it immediately as the elf's obvious guilt deepened. "Sorry, that was meant to be a joke," she assured him. "I didn't mean to upset you."

"It's... it's fine." The elf shook his head in bewilderment. "I'm sorry, too."

"No need." Kaitlyn pursed her lips in thought. "Unless you broke the lock to get in here," she corrected herself. "Selene gets kinda antsy about her privacy."

"No, she let me in," Huinesoron said hastily. "I know her from back in DOGA, remember."

"Ohhhh, that makes sense." Kaitlyn beamed, then reached down and fiddled with the controls on the side of her chair. With a hiss, the seat rose up, adding about a foot to her height, bringing her that much closer to eye level. "Well, it's good to see you! What brings you here?"

"Er." Huinesoron coughed. "Dinosaurs?"

"Yes! Right." Kaitlyn tugged at her waistcoat, straightening it. "In what canon? Because I'm sure you know as well as I do that there's a Triceratops in Mary Sues and a T. rex in Internal Affairs. I'm told there's a Velociraptor or something here in Floaters, too, though I've never met him."

"We've got a Quetzalcoatlus in Analytical Science," Huinesoron supplied. "But I meant your world." He frowned. "Or mine? Because Middle-earth is the history of World One, correct?"

"I mean... maybe?" Kaitlyn wobbled her hand in what she intended to be an illustrative gesture. "I think World One is the future of Middle-earth, without the reverse necessarily being true." She frowned. "Something about chiral history, I think? You'd have to ask one of your DAS lot."

"I asked Norlossë from Multiversal Physics," Huinesoron said, his lip twitching in an involuntary smile. "Her answer was about as coherent-or-otherwise as yours."

"That actually makes me feel pretty good," Kaitlyn mused. "If no-one understands this stuff... anyway, sorry! You were saying?"

"Dinosaurs," Huinesoron reminded her. "Are they real?"

"Why do you want to know?" Kaitlyn leant back, her office chair issuing a deep rumbling sound as it tilted. "Is this for a mission, or just a new hobby?"

"An old one," the elf said. "You know I'm in the geology division at DAS? Well, I found some rocks in the White Mountains during a recent survey that could be dinosaur fossils - except I'm not even sure that's possible." He frowned slightly, head tilting to one side. "So I suppose it was a mission, too, in a way."

"Not just 'a way'," Kaitlyn corrected. "Infrastructure - or whatever Analytical Science counts as - missions are still just as mission-y as Action missions! Don't put yourself down."

"I'll remember that," Huinesoron murmured. "So... dinosaurs?"

"I know, I know, I'm getting to it." Kaitlyn drummed her fingers on the arm of her chair and sat up straight. "Previous caveats about chiral history aside, there are two schools of thought on the matter," she explained. "The first is that yes, dinosaurs totally existed."

"Okay..." Huinesoron eyed her warily. "And the second?"

"The same," Kaitlyn said, grinning widely, "but with a big argument about feathers. Does that answer your question?"

"I think it does." Huinesoron returned her smile, pairing it with a nod of thanks. "You've been," he considered for a moment, "very helpful."

"Nah; but I'll accept the 'helpful' part." Tugging at the console, Kaitlyn swung herself back round and picked up her headphones. "After all," she said, slipping them on and letting the music wash over her again, "that's what friends are for."

---

There's kind of far more prehistoric animals in the PPC than I realised; it's fun!

As for why hS didn't just ask the archaeologists at DAS-AWAY: Durand has trouble separating the concepts of 'dinosaur' and 'dragon', and Joan doesn't like to deal with anything pre-industrial if she can help it.

hS

I assume documentaries are included, yes? 'Cuz I'd like to take this moment for some minor pluggage related to the topic in question, especially since prehistory documentaries have been dear to my heart since childhood - seriously, if you haven't watched the original Walking With Dinosaurs TV miniseries, please do! All episodes are, as of this writing, available on Dailymotion. Of course, the series is quite dated science-wise, so of course more recent docu-series are trying to go for the All Yesterdays style, with varying degrees of success. In particular, there are three of these I wish to highlight which also deserve mention.

BBC's Planet Dinosaur, narrated by John Hurt, takes the more scientific approach to the subject matter, transitioning between CGI renditions of the critters themselves and paleontology findings corresponding to the topic at hand. It should be noted that this series is quite carnivore-centric, and some of the depictions aren't entirely consistent with what we know of today (long-legged Spinosaurus, Troodon without wing feathers on the arms, that venomous Sinornithosaurus hypothesis that got debunked not long after it was suggested...), but the visuals look wonderful, and even my nitpicky self very much enjoyed the series as a whole, with every single episode having its own appeal. I'm most fond of pterosaurs, sure, but Hatzegopteryx sadly got too little screentime and other pterosaurs ended up being canon fodder. Oh well. The Predator X/Pliosaurus segments were definitely my favorite part, and it's nice to see a more sensible depiction than that kaiju-sized Liopleurodon from WWD.

Next on the list is Discovery Channel's Dinosaur Revolution, which has its own set of issues and could stand to be less sensationalist in particular, but hey, properly feathered dromaeosaurs! In general, this has to be the best set of dinosaur depictions on television, and there was clearly a lot of work put into them with proper feathering and even scale patterns based on whatever skin impressions were available. Plus the animals themselves are colorful, lively, entertaining to watch, and most importantly, as accurate as we can imply from the most current evidence. You may even find yourself rooting for a good number of them as the show progresses. This series opted for separating the segments with the creatures themselves with "talking heads" i.e. paleontologists commenting on the critters featured, which is a bit of hit-or-miss for me since we all know what I care for lol. Still, it's a visual treat that certainly lived up to its hype, and is leagues ahead of a number of documentaries which either didn't know better or simply didn't care. I mean, one of them freaking quote-mined one of the people the makers consulted. Eesh.

Last on the list is Sir David Attenborough's Flying Monsters 3D, which I had the pleasure of seeing on the big 3D screen at the local science center at my hometown! Unlike the previous two documentaries, which relegated pterosaurs to bit parts with only one or two segments focusing on them, this one explores them and their evolution in all of this family's glory. This is another relatively well-researched feature, though it's one cinematic film rather than a series of episodes, with Attenborough himself leading us through the whole thing and directly interacting with the paleontologists presented, discussing the evidence we have for what pterosaurs were like - and with their proper coating of pycnofibers (hair-like scales akin to birdy down, if you will) and vibrant colors, the animals presented look utterly glorious. As somewhat expected, there are still a number of minor and occasionally not-so-minor boo-boos that can be spotted by a sharp-eyed viewer. (Of particular note is a segment with Tupandactylus courting, but both males and females have the same tall crest that only the males have in reality. Think about what that means for a second...) For what it's worth, though, the film has impressive visuals, and when it does get something right, it demonstrates it beautifully. As someone who insists on more accurate pterosaurs in media (to the point where I disguised my PPC persona as a terrestrial ground-stalking Quetzalcoatlus on two separate missions), this film is a guilty pleasure for me and my inner paleo-nerd, and while best taken with an amount of salt that can vary between a grain and a whole darn shaker, it's an impressive piece of work nonetheless.

And there you have it, three of my favorite pieces of modern dinosaur media. If anyone has any works they'd like to recommend themselves, feel free to let us know and discuss them as well!

^{^{Like this}}

hS

...well, except in an in-universe or game setting, but that doesn't count because I'm in Insane Mode (TM)...

...I don't know how to put the TM above the letters.

Cass (the sorcerer/bard, current me) has short hair parted slightly left-to-right (yes that's a significant detail, don't ask), and she wears a green tunic with a high neck, a pair of dark grey leggings, a green stone amulet on a gold chain, and brown knee-high boots with the tops folded over. Over all of this is a long black hooded robe worn open and with the hood down, and over that is a brown belt. The robe has embroidery on the sleeves and lower hem that consists of a thin golden stripe on the edge and a green stripe (on the sleeves) or a green design of thorny vines braided together.

-Twistey

...in any context that also includes the Scapegraces, Cass from the Knights will be referred to by her full name, Cass Kingside.

I'm curious, would you mind explaining your choices of class, etc. for these characters, as well as the world they live in with the Ever-King and that stuff?

-Twistey

... I'm a decent chunk of the way through a digital version of Shiny Newbie already. ^_^ No promises that it'll go anywhere, but you never know your luck. I'll report back if it gets to a playable stage. (So far it's all been about Boarder names.)

I've actually already made one board game about a PPC mission, over here. That... should tell you why I'm not popping up to contribute ideas, because it's an awful game.

hS

What do you think of the Artificer now (the UA version), based on what's said in the PDF that got linked to?

-Twistey

The workaround is if I disrespected the oldbies so badly that even you don't feel respected via this analysis thing, and instead everyone is just really shocked and angry, and, uh... *siiiiiiigh*

-Twistey

Since, after all, you wrote the mission for "Woodsprite of the North", which kind of inspired the mass mission game.

Also, it really sounds to me like Shiny Newbie TM would work better as a visual novel rather than a board game. Since you made the original PPC computer game, would you be interested in this approach?

-Twistey

... you would be showing how much value you place in my analysis of the situation. So really, your disrespect would just be a form of respect.

^_^

hS

"In that case... thank you," she said. "Guess I've sort of forgotten just drinking for the sake of it."

"That... is so not the point."

She half-stood in her seat and flagged down the bartender. "Hey, Ren? Can we get two Uncle Elronds here? Thanks!"

"The point," she added to Erica, smiling, "is a nice gesture toward mutual conviviality. And this one is officially on me."

(( There is a surprising dearth of fictional beverages that aren't soda or beer and don't have stupid names. Therefore, I made up a sort of cross-continuum cocktail you could only get in the PPC. The Uncle Elrond is jasmine tea with a drop of miruvor [a bit expensive!], and will arrive in two to three minutes due to steeping time. ))

1/ Respect the Oldbies.
2/ Disrespect the Oldbies.
3/ Become an Oldbie.

^_^

Also, this game is now called Shiny Newbie^TM. The ^TM is silent. :D

hS

...that back when I was still a fresh-faced Shiny Newbie^TM you had to tell me to relax because I was pretty much hyperventilating the first time you responded to one of my posts? :P