Random Questions Thread

What level of fragility would a glass object have to have before breaking it over someone's head would be unlikely to cause a concussion? Would a fancy wine glass or a decanter be too sturdy?

Glass ok, decanter no.

Ok, I'll go with that, then, thanks!

How big would a humanoid giant have to be in order for them to swallow humans whole to be physically possible? From what I've gathered, the human oropharynx is about 2.5 cm wide on average, so logically the giant should be at least ~30 meters tall for the scaled-up dimensions of the oropharynx to be big enough that the average human (with a shoulder breadth of ~50 cm) would be able to slide through with minimal difficulty. Are my calculations correct?

edited 19th Feb '17 4:00:46 AM by MarqFJA

Keeping in mind that oropharynx consists mostly of soft tissue and, therefore, can stretch a little, I'd say that the giant could be a bit smaller than 30 meters tall. Since it's scaled up, that also means its oropharynx has more tissue in it and more room for stretching, so my guess is the giant would be about 22-25 meters tall, if the Square-Cube Law is not taken into consideration. Otherwise the giant must have different body proportions, and can be even smaller.

Yeah, I'm completely ignoring the Square-Cube Law for the purposes of my question.

I have no idea much can the human pharynx stretch (or contract, incidentally), so I focused purely on its normal dimensions.

edited 19th Feb '17 4:37:17 AM by MarqFJA

What is the difference between a review or a critique? What makes for a good review of any kind of media?

Critiques usually go into a detailed analysis of the work in question and is usually written by someone expert in that particular field.

Reviews are generally written by those with an interest in a topic and are usually meant to give information about a work, such as genre, it's overall quality and the reviewers personal experience.

there is no fundamental difference. Critique just is attached more often to formal literature and things seen as intellectual and reviews are attached to reviewing lotions u bought on amazons, movies, etc

Alright, this question may look a little too complex, but I think I need a starting point so I know better what to research and think about.

The question is: which factors can lead to a very sharp rise of organized crime after a war? More specifically, in the winning side, although it wasn't a war of conquest, but a silencing of rebellion(s).

I think am already aware of some (weapons left from it entering the black market, less efficient police and fiscalization, more helpless or desperate people), but I wanted something solid to think of, as all I have are vague ideas.

The main factor would be the devastating effect that war has on country's economy and infrastructure, regardless of the outcome of the war. There's also the fact that after a war there would be the deficit of law-abiding male population (if the criminals that were before the war were not conscripted or otherewise participated in it, on either side) that could help law enforcement in their job. And, if they were not eliminated by the government, there still could be rebel sympathizers left in the country, that are not happy with the regime, and the whole crappy situation after the war, who could join the crime organizations.

edited 21st Feb '17 11:40:29 PM by Millership

And, as was the case in RL, the winning gov't may simply have tolerated them, because they were helpful in keeping the docks quiet and therefore, helping win the war.

Would it be reasonable to find cocaine at a Wild Teen Party and/or similarly wild club? If it helps, the person throwing the party is extraordinarily rich.

I'm pretty sure this would be Truth in Television, at least in the western world.

edited 22nd Feb '17 1:07:50 AM by C105

Consider the following cosmological scenario:

A Cosmic Being decides to create a Universe from the available "mass" of primordial, formless void-stuff, with said Universe being innately alive and with a mind and heart of its own, though on a scale so beyond mortals that it's practically incomprehensible.

However, just like how getting +1 from 0 necessarily leaves -1, creating the Universe out of the primordial void-stuff necessarily creates an antithesis to that Universe as a byproduct.

The result: This "Anti-Universe" is the dissonant chaos (in the common sense of the word) to the Universe's harmonious order, utterly anathema to the latter's logic, and unconditionally inimical to anything that is "natural" (including life as we know it). And it has a life and mind of its own as well... only its mind is inherently broken from the get-go. Essentially, the Anti-Universe's entire existence is nothing but agony on every level. It demands from its Creator a reason for this... and is bluntly told that its existence is merely an unwanted side-effect of creating the Universe, and at most the only purpose the Creator could find for it is to serve as an example to the Universe for what not to be. Obviously, this didn't go well with the Anti-Universe, which spent aeons in an And I Must Scream state (courtesy of the Creator not wanting to listen to it "whining"), before it eventually decided to actually fulfill the Creator's stated "purpose" of its existence, starting off with killing off said Creator. From there, it got locked in an eternal Divine Conflict with the Universe (as the God of Evil to its God of Good) as it seeks one of two outcomes: Either it manages to forcibly merge the two of them together back into the formless and lifeless void-stuff that they used to be (Oblivion), or it cripples the Universe once and for all and spend the rest of eternity subjecting it to an orgy of sanity-shattering torment upon it and all the beings within it (imagine the most heinous and gruesome rape-murder ever, only on a universe-on-universe scale and the victim[s] are immortal).

Now, does this Anti-Universe seem like a Tragic Villain to you, since it didn't actually have a real choice in it what it was?

If anything, it's a STEREOTYPE that [Iinsert Famous Millionaire]'s parties are all Hookers and Blow. You're good.

EXTREMELY tragic. It's basically an adult child asking their parent "What happened to screw up the family so much while we were growing up?" And the parent replies that they were an accident, but not in a compassionate or tactful way like "We had you by mistake and it really messed everyone up," but more like "Nothing happened, we just didn't want you." Really, I'd be surprised if the Anti-Verse DIDN'T go berserk after getting that answer.

edited 22nd Feb '17 7:04:54 PM by Sharysa

When starting your writing career, do you have to use your real name first or can you get to using a pen name?

I'm glad that I wasn't off the mark. I've been trying to come up with a good backstory for the duelling Sentient Cosmic Forces (namely Cosmos and Khaos^note That's pronounced KAH-os like the original Greek and in Japanese, not KAY-ahs like in modern English.) in a Mega Crossover story of mine (which involves a major case of cataclysmic Merged Reality as part of the backstory), in which I'm trying to make Khaos a Composite Character of the eponymous entities from Sailor Moon, Warhammer 40,000, and other non-eponymous examples of "Primordial Chaos meets Chaos Is Evil" (e.g. Gooyan from Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star, Amatsu-Mikaboshi AKA the Chaos King from the Marvel Universe).^note A possible justification for the variances between the manifestations — assuming that I don't employ Darker and Edgier on my version of those crossed-over plots' events — it that Khaos is, simply put, completely batshit insane; His mind was born broken from the very beginning, to the point that most of the time it's more of a Mind Hive than a singular mind (which is fortunate, because the few times it manages to pull its mind together into a singular whole, very bad things happened that Cosmos still bears unhealing scars from even after countless aeons).

The one thing that I was stumped at was that I wanted Cosmos to have a reason to pity Khaos, and to genuinely want to reconcile with the Eldritch Abomination that is pretty much Her twin brother, yet also angst over the fact that it's impossible for such a reconciliation to happen, because it would require Her to do something that is utterly anathema to Her (either willingly seek Cessation of Existence for both of Them, or give up Herself and Her children [i.e. all of Creation within Her] to be rape-tortured in every possible and impossible way for eternity).

Oh, one last thing that I forgot: Khaos wasn't born like Cosmos, He was stillborn. The Archiurge (the creator of both entities) deliberately killed the remaining half of the Primordial Chaos that Cosmos was born from to ensure that it did not become a mere Mirror Universe to Cosmos. That's why Khaos's existence is a state of constant agony: His whole being is inherently a paradox. Think the Neverborn Primordials from Exalted, only Khaos never had a chance to live. Yes, Khaos is basically an Undead Child version of a universe that was killed while still in the "womb". And the Archiurge not only wouldn't be able to fix that even if He wanted to, he bluntly admitted to Khaos that He knew that before He did what He did and deemed it irrelevant, because there's no benefit to His plans from doing so. Is it any wonder that Khaos completely hates Cosmos just because She exists? (And yet He loves Her too. The fact makes Him even crazier than "normal", if that's even possible.)

edited 23rd Feb '17 9:19:16 AM by MarqFJA

Hallow Hawk: You can do anything you want regarding stage/pen-names. You just need to put your real name on checks and legal documents.

edited 23rd Feb '17 9:03:30 AM by Sharysa

How to make sure the crappy artifacts a minor character in my story is selling isn't plot breaking?

For instance he sells a lamp with a master linguist genie, who uses etymology, homophones, etc to make sure your wishes always turn out badly. And a magnetic invisibility cloak which easily covers you in dust. Should I be worried if these comic relief subplot items could destroy my main plot?

Is there any series with a bunch of magical items, which doesn't have critics asking,"Why didn't he use item X to solve Y?"

I'd say those are good reasons for people to think twice about going to that guy's shop. The Fair Folk in Europe are famous for being comparable to gods in terms of power, but they have a 50/50 chance of being antagonists within a given story because of their propensity to rules-lawyering, Loophole Abuse, and interpreting things VERY literally.

As for "why doesn't X just do this?" questions, you can't really avoid people thinking about that. Just try and close as many loopholes (ha) as you can, and most people should be fine with the story.

edited 24th Feb '17 7:06:15 PM by Sharysa

Having some liguistic difficulties:

1. What is an appropriate pronoun for a person whose biological sex is either unknown, unidentifiable, or unconventional (say, a Hermaphrodite)? Can I use "they"?
2. Can a word "figure" be used as a synonym for "body type"? "She is of average figure", for example.

If there is a wish-granting anything with enough power to its wishes, it WILL destroy your campaign when used, whether it does what users want or uses wording to destroy them.

Secondly, attempt at word-screwing is going to only be arguing linguistics with your players OOC. It is also unrecommended.

The only possible scenario that doesn't fuck up your group is if you sharply limit the genie's power, so that both good and bad wishes only have minor effects.

Unknown/unidentifiable: they is fine. Hermaphrodite: whatever the person/species prefers. I've seen examples of characters with any variant, although in most cases it just mapped to whether it looked closer to feminine or masculine human.

Also consider the fact that for alien species it's going to be going through linguistics barrier and that can vary perception of genders.
For example if they always posses both reproductive sets then the society may not have concepts of gender (but any alien acclimating to our society is going to learn them) - but still may have concepts of father and mother, as applicable to a specific child, even if the child's siblings are going to have swapped father and mother - so a genderless "parent" is also going to be in use, and likely also have some diminutive forms in their language.
If the species is gender-switching, then they will have concept of individual genders and thus may have regular gendered pronouns - they just switch from one to another. So in contact with the languages of rigidly gendered, the alien will easily adapt. And may ask everybody else to switch pronouns they use for them when they flip the switch.

2. Yes?

Thanks Sharysa and Adannor

@Lambent Soul: The genie could easily be plot breaking, but if at any point you wanted to use a genie in your game you could just roll a dice or draw a card or something else and see how the wish effectively turns out.

@Millership: You can use "they," but the character can choose to be refered to as any pronoun they wish. Similarly, other characters can choose to refer to that character however they want to disregarding their opinion.

I'm pretty sure figure can be used that way. Link to an online dictionary.