Question The Interesting Ideas Thread

A companion to the Bad Ideas Thread, this is for those who have interesting ideas who wish to share them. The difference between a bad idea and interesting one is for the poster to decide.

To start it off, here is an idea based on an image I found here: Sverfneblin Gemcaster by Prodigyduck A kid who plays P&P RPGs and loves sverfneblin, also known as deep gnomes. When he manifest ratings are exemplar 1 with BIT that changes him into current appearance, Manifestor 1 who can create red and blue gemstones and even merge them together, and Wizard 4. But to cast spells he must imbue the spell into one of his gemstones first, which takes time, using them like spell scrolls.

We've seen elves and dragons, and a pack stalker, so, where are the Dwarves, there should be some somewhere in the Whateley verse....

A dwarf could be any short person. So Dr. Heavy could count.

Heavy is a dwarf in the medical sense. And so is Rack. But that doesn't make them a separate species in the D&D/LotR sense.

I might be misremembering, but aren't dwarves just a variant of sidhe in the whateleyverse ? Wasn't the big bad king at the end of Elle's origin story a "dwarf" ?

I think you are right that in the Whateley verse dwarves are part of the sidhe. But that is sort of like saying the Pixies (ala Absynthe) are part of the Sidhe. That may be true, but they are very distinct from the elves, such as Fey, or the Drow (if such exist other than Jobe's creations) or other possible creatures.... I mean is Oak an ent?

From what we have seen, they don't seem really different from the elves in the WU. it's just that they are mountain elves instead of forest elves. And they are the original dark elves in fact. Elrodw took inspiration from the Norse mythology. (Well, I assume that's what he did because the character him/herself drew the parallel)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svart%C3%A1lfar

What's survived of Norse religion and cultural beliefs has been well muddled, to say the least.

If by "dwarf" you mean "a humanoid of markedly shorter stature, and a cultural affinity for metalworking bordering on the magical", you could just as easily be describing a metahuman species of old or a Scandinavian folk memory of first contact with the Celtic, Germanic and/or Slavic peoples taking a northerly route into Europe from the Caspian steppes. That such people would have taken to the mountains in search of ores, and jealously guarded their smelting, refining, and metalworking secrets could be filed under "Ya think?"

"Svartalfar", given how the Norse named people, could be nothing more than "person from Svartalfheim, wherever that is", or if descriptive meant the people were dark haired, no matter how much modern people want to retrofit 20th c. connotations of "the Black" into writings dating a thousand years earlier. FWIW, the highest frequency of blond haired people centers around the Baltic Sea, so yes, they would have noticed an outsider with dark hair without mistaking them for the love-child of Ororo Munroe and Drzzt Do'Urden.

The combat sim instructors are always going on about how they're trying to impress on students the messy realities of combat in The Real World, so this could be an interesting scenario: a Red vs. Blue exercise pitting Team Phoenix or the Grunts, against The Red Boer (Ebola's OC), Metro & Valravn (mine), Eldritch, and either Counterpont and Judicator (self-styled deities of Combat and Strategy) or Jericho, Razorback, and Diamondback (who've seen honest-to-god combat themselves). Team PTSD?

null0trooper wrote: The combat sim instructors are always going on about how they're trying to impress on students the messy realities of combat in The Real World, so this could be an interesting scenario: a Red vs. Blue exercise pitting Team Phoenix or the Grunts, against The Red Boer (Ebola's OC), Metro & Valravn (mine), Eldritch, and either Counterpont and Judicator (self-styled deities of Combat and Strategy) or Jericho, Razorback, and Diamondback (who've seen honest-to-god combat themselves). Team PTSD?

While The Outcasts may have seen the most combat, I would point out that before Fall 07:
Ayla has been in combat at least four off campus battles.
Toni, 5
Jade, 7
Fey, 5
Chou, 9
Hank 4 (another may have happened Christmas 06)
Rip 1
Anna 2
Marty 3
The rest of Ayla's party except for Bugs, Mobius, and Lily 1
Jadis 7
Gloriana 4
Super Chick 4
Belphoebe 4
The rest of the shopping parties from 1 to 4
Most of the rest of the Bad Seeds 2
Nacht 4

The numbers may be off by a few (more likely lower) and I've left off a bunch. These are from stories only.

Aside from Bladedancer (skipped because it just wouldn't be fair), Generator, and Fey (who had Aunghadhail buffering her mind from the worst she'd seen), how many of those kids have seen combat. Not "oh gosh, someone's insurance premiums are about to go up" superfights, but "A few hours ago, this was a healthy person you considered a friend; how they're a casualty cooling in the mud next to you that you are going to have to put in a body bag and ship to wherever they called home. And there's dozens or hundreds more on - both sides - taking the same dirt nap."

We could call it Team Football, because everyone on it can stare a 1,000 yards away. It would be fun to play around with.

One question about the sims though. I don't think I've seen it anywhere in other stories, but what about the uncanny valley ? Since it is different between people what might be 'real' to one person might be a walking corpse to another? Or are the sims devisor grade. So that is kinda brushed over and the experience is tailored to each person

Valentine wrote:

null0trooper wrote: The combat sim instructors are always going on about how they're trying to impress on students the messy realities of combat in The Real World, so this could be an interesting scenario: a Red vs. Blue exercise pitting Team Phoenix or the Grunts, against The Red Boer (Ebola's OC), Metro & Valravn (mine), Eldritch, and either Counterpont and Judicator (self-styled deities of Combat and Strategy) or Jericho, Razorback, and Diamondback (who've seen honest-to-god combat themselves). Team PTSD?

While The Outcasts may have seen the most combat, I would point out that before Fall 07:
Ayla has been in combat at least four off campus battles.
Toni, 5
Jade, 7
Fey, 5
Chou, 9
Hank 4 (another may have happened Christmas 06)
Rip 1
Anna 2
Marty 3
The rest of Ayla's party except for Bugs, Mobius, and Lily 1
Jadis 7
Gloriana 4
Super Chick 4
Belphoebe 4
The rest of the shopping parties from 1 to 4
Most of the rest of the Bad Seeds 2
Nacht 4

The numbers may be off by a few (more likely lower) and I've left off a bunch. These are from stories only.

I don't think it need be limited to off-campus.

Some, Like Pristine, the Grunts, Fae, and the outcasts have had some pretty harrowing combats ON campus grounds, be it from the voodoo-wolves, or the Halloween invasion.

A devisor who can only build things out of parts cannibalised from other devises.

Valentine wrote:

null0trooper wrote: The combat sim instructors are always going on about how they're trying to impress on students the messy realities of combat in The Real World, so this could be an interesting scenario: a Red vs. Blue exercise pitting Team Phoenix or the Grunts, against The Red Boer (Ebola's OC), Metro & Valravn (mine), Eldritch, and either Counterpont and Judicator (self-styled deities of Combat and Strategy) or Jericho, Razorback, and Diamondback (who've seen honest-to-god combat themselves). Team PTSD?

While The Outcasts may have seen the most combat, I would point out that before Fall 07:
Ayla has been in combat at least four off campus battles.
Toni, 5
Jade, 7
Fey, 5
Chou, 9
Hank 4 (another may have happened Christmas 06)
Rip 1
Anna 2
Marty 3
The rest of Ayla's party except for Bugs, Mobius, and Lily 1
Jadis 7
Gloriana 4
Super Chick 4
Belphoebe 4
The rest of the shopping parties from 1 to 4
Most of the rest of the Bad Seeds 2
Nacht 4

The numbers may be off by a few (more likely lower) and I've left off a bunch. These are from stories only.

I haven't kept count for Kayda.
Do the two attacks on manifesting count? That's 2
Unhcegila's son in dream space (while at motel)
Water Panther
Unhcy's son in Dunwich
Bully/rapist kids in hometown on spring break
Canotila (spring break)
French Museum
Unhcegila's #2 son
Tribal attack on hometown

I probably forgot one or two. Yeah, she's been busy, like many of the others.

Well the stories wouldn't be near as interesting if we didn't have to wonder if the main characters were going to survive the next episode...

For that matter, Ayla had 5, not 4 fights. Two in California (Firebitch, Vowelless), three in Boston (zombies in the sewer, Matterhorn-baloon, and Prison Break).

Huh. Ya know I had suggested a good ideas thread and was told to just put them in the bad ideas thread thread. Was my idea to specific or what?

NJM1564 wrote: Huh. Ya know I had suggested a good ideas thread and was told to just put them in the bad ideas thread thread. Was my idea to specific or what?

No I suspect that some people were worried that what you might (and that's a generic you nor a specific person indicated) consider a good idea, others would consider a bad idea.

So, back to the difference between a 'dwarf' and say Fey, or Whisper or the other 'light' elves we've seen as characters. Would we expect that a 'dwarf' would have an affinity to the tunnels and possibly end up on the tech track since they would be either a miner, a mine engineer, or a smith, or a gadgeteer?

NJM1564 wrote: Huh. Ya know I had suggested a good ideas thread and was told to just put them in the bad ideas thread thread. Was my idea to specific or what?

It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission.