Suriel

In that case, I guess you're right. To pick a pocket ("don't you want to dance?") or lay an ambush ("Let's go somewhere more private?"), it would work.

I think the target should always be allowed some rolls or just say no, depending on background, if he can clearly see the situation will be dangerous. Seduction should be subtle.

Beautiful! Just beautiful...

As with torture, I think seduction is a long term project.

I mean, of course we men talk in bed (especially if the girl doesn't stop talking), but most of us have some brains left even after orgasm. And the other way around. (Women talking a lot in bed, too...)

A real seduction includes making contact with the target, a flirting phase, sex (although to be "best friends" could work in the context, too.), a lot of faked interest, care and love.

Until you got someone so far as to trust you. (Don't have to marry them, many men visit 'their' regular whore and many women have affairs, too, and trust them.)

To limit the whole process to some die mechanic. ("Yes, I just met you in the disco, I'm pretty, now I gotta roll seduction and get your secrets...") would be to reduce "New Rose Hotel" movie from 2 hours to 2 minutes.

Seduction roll should be made (if really needed) to see if the target catches interest and to see if the target keeps being interested later... Actual information retrieval could involve rolls totally different.

"I'm in her house now, found the safe... Wish me luck, dudes."

(Electr. Security)

"Oh, I'm sorry you got so much trouble at work."

(Human Perception)

etc...

The red room actually is in the book. They never truly reveal how it works, just that it fucks up the victims perception big style. But they hint at the results through the memories of police characters who tried it out for a few minutes only.

They probably have a strobo, heavy metal disco in there, too AND play a lot of Scooter!

Besides,"Noble House" it's a real great book when it comes to corporates, too.

I would advise you not to do it, without informing the FBI in advance. No-one knows what a moron like this does next and I don't think the FBI does like being phoned/mailed/snail-mailed by a fictional security firm and/or Mr Million-missing-brain-cells without knowing why. They might try to find out...

Then, depending on just who sits at the desk at the given time, they might be pissed or amused.

Damn funny this far, though. I enjoy reading this exchange pretty much.

I wonder about the actual success rate of this kind of scam.

Brute force ain't the concept of torturing. Torture is more than just threat/application of physical violence, at least in modern times.

A victim prepared for the eventuality of torture - and properly instructed - will be able to resist for a long time, even with the help of drugs.

One of the best torture scenes I read in novels so far is from James Clavell's "Noble House". A high-ranking police inspector turns out to be a double agent for Red China. And even though he knows what will be coming (he worked for the same department, after all...), he breaks in the famous "Red Room".

Another good novel is "Grass Soup" (Can't remember the chinese author's name. He was imprisoned in a communist re-education camp. Good book in any case, but also a great example of how people's personalities actually can be re-constructed, given time. Emotional, psychological and physical torture at it's worst.)

So, back to example one: The prisoner is isolated, without any way to tell the passing of time. The food he receives is drugged, as is the water, making him confused and sleepy, with the additional side benefit of making him hungry/thirsty faster again than he normally would be.

The only way way to figure out time for him was keeping track of urine and fecals in the bucket.

While he was sleeping, they came in to either lower the contents or add to them, but even the reader doesn't find out about this until much later.

Then there is the red room itself... And the constant interviews by his former partner. They break the poor inspector in about three days, though he himself thinks that more than three weeks have passed.

Well, I read through their points, too. And as much as I'd like to have White Wolf win against Goliath Sony,...

If they win I sue them immediately afterwards:

1. Lucita is an assassin with super-human abilities, as is Carmen, a character from my copyrighted short story "Die Anklage".

2. Lucita has the ability to fade into the dark, as has Carmen.

3. Lucita is spanish AND beautiful, as is Carmen!

4. Both have spanish names.

5. JUST GIMME THE 150.000 BUCKS!!!

Wrote that short story before WW was in existance... So...

No, really, I think they have a point in 10 out of their 136.

The rest is bullshit.

If it's a police interrogation or a law suit, I play it out life.

Takes only three minutes to turn a room into an interrogation room, the other players can be police NPCs...

A desk lamp, low lights... And the interrogation can start. Makes for great scenes.

Real torture is harder to play out in a life scene without it being silly. I rely on description in such scenes. With an expert torturer, you break, sooner or later... Or you die, if he's not so expert.

Even if your players aren't LARP fans (mine aren't... and I ain't much of a LARPer myself), some few scenes can be just incredible if played out life. Interrogations belong to those scenes.

The only Heinlein book I read was Starship Troopers, but I read that one at least four times.

I bought it out of sheer necessity for something to read. I had fallen very ill, high fever, lying in bed in the student's dormitory. I asked a friend to get me something to read and - knowing I was helpless - he brought me ten "Landser".

(Cheap magazines with WW2 experiences of our glorious Wehrmacht soldiers...)

I gave up after "Paratroopers above Malta"... I dragged myself out of bed and went to the supermarket.

I had watched "Starship Troopers" in cinema and liked it, and besides, the novel was the only book they had...

It was a great. I was almost happy being ill, equipped with that novel.

You belong in the Cat Who Walks Through Walls.  You are creative and cunning.  Your works often feel empty to you, though others love them. You suspect that the universe and everyone in it are just characters in someone else's story.

Hmmm... Perhaps I should read it... Does anyone know it?  

If you get to the russian page, just keep an eye on your browser's status bar...

Hm... But wasn't there something like subtlety associated with irony?  

Anyway, I'm not taking this serious, in case you thought I would.

Just my avatar frowning all the time...

There's a new russian player at Chromechilds, he recommended two russian Photoshop artists to me, I think you should check them out:

http://www.anry.ru

http://www.leoarts.irk.ru

Both have english versions of the text on their sites. Have fun!

Actually, several of my works in archaeology were based on that topic. So forgive me if I say that this is only half the truth.

France, England and Germany (and of course Italy...), they didn't get it all out to protect it, you know... That's a myth we'd all like to uphold.

They did save some major sites and destroyed others. They also did much damage by "restoring" pieces they brought to Europe. But I sure don't wanna bore you with archaeology.

I like Woody Allen films... Sexual deviant... Hm. He is with a woman as far as I remember, so you can't mean he is gay. She once was his stepdaughter, but I can't see how this could make him a sexual deviant either. They aren't blood related after all.

(btw, I don't have anything against homosexuals...)

Well, deviant always depends on one's own point of view of course.

Just why are we getting at each other's throat here? Oh, yeah, cause it's fun!

I guess the best looking money I ever saw were the old Costa Rican banknotes.

Also: I like Magritte's artistry, I think Meunier was an architect, but I'm not sure and what would Woody Allen be without his saxophone.

Although I'm ready to admit that the best thing I ever saw in belgium was the African Museum (NEVER saw that much stolen stuff in one place... Oh, aside from London...)

And the Comic Museum of course.

Languages I can speak and/or write: English, Latin, Old Greek and a bit of italian. I had french in school, too, but I chose to forget most of the stuff I learned. Now I must re-learn it and if I find the time, I'll also learn arabic and japanese.

I must say I like this netbook. The descriptions of the guns are just as accurate as those on pages like cybersniper.com and other review pages PLUS they don't actually include any gaming stats in the descriptions.

Too many homepages just assume: "Ah, 9mm autopistol, must be a bit weaker than the Militech... So I reduce a point here and a point there..." and you end up with a table that says nothing about the actual gun AND derives you of the pleasure to think up stats yourself based on actual description.

Great find!

Well, to set that right: My girl friend is belgian and so I at least care. And: Only 3 million "Wallonen" there, speaking french, more than 7 million "Flamen" speaking dutch and 66000 germans not speaking real german...

The french speaking belgians are frowned upon by the french for their dialect.

(My girl friend is from the dutch speaking part, btw.)

<conspiracy mode>

The money from actually selling the oil ain't the main factor in this. Passing out contracts solely to american companies to get it all up running again is looking a bit suspicious, if this war was motivated by such selfless ideals as to safe the Iraqis from their dictator. (HM... Does putting economic chains into place here sound ridiculous?)

Plus, one could be so bold as to say: Securing resources getting scarce in a few decades could be a motivation.

I don't blame the US for it either. Smart course of action.

</conspiracy mode>

Ha! They'll just find another Joan of Arc and kick you out!

Actually, I did ask myself the same...

Then I found a worthy opponent on RavenShield online named SnowDog and I really hope it was him I busted with that PSG-1 several times...

I mean LAN/Internet party... Nearly as good as a stripper!

Ehem! We don't have to invade them, we made them our friends, english scoundrel!

(Well Friend as in French... We'll change it to "Our Freedom" soon, I guess...)

No, really! Can't you leave us in peace paying for all of Europe and getting the bad publicity?  

You know, somehow I often get the feeling that whenever I look away from the screen, a fat ugly EVIL smilie appears...

Computers are like pets: You love them most of the times, but often enough, they give you nothing but troubles.

Anyway, good luck with your comp.

French radio stations must play a certain percentage of french songs in their program. I don't know the actual percentage, but I do know it's not a small one.

And I just love the term "le baladeur"... Think my discman has a new name.

Good luck to your and your bride.

http://www.darpa.mil/darpate...._v4.pdf

http://www.darpa.mil/darpate....adt.pdf

http://www.newsinsider.org/seal/frankensteins_in_the_pentagon.html

http://www.vancouver.indymedia.org/news/2003/08/60751.php

Happy birthday, NightFlyer. Couldn't catch you on ICQ, but I sure hope the new year will spice up your life even more than the last one did.  

Reference to shotguns:

http://www.winchester-guns.com/sx2_practical.htm

As for speedy grenade launchers see H&K homepage.

More likely shotguns and grenade launchers are dubbed too slow.