There's a contingent of sci-fi-related tropes where it gets firmly decried that melee weapons of any kind (specifically focused on swords) could not possibly see any use in a world with firearms of any kind. It's silly, since melee weapons still get used, regularly, in today's society when there aren't any concerns about punching holes in life-critical systems or atmosphere-retaining walls. That said, knives and other short blades are far more likely than the anime-style super-greatsword, which is where a fair chunk of the protest comes from. People don't think of knife-fighting SEALs, they think of Cloud Strife and his more-massive-than-him Buster Sword.

In an autonomist habitat, nobody except maybe the resident low-rep asshole is going to bust your chops or ping your rep for doing something they consider weird. If you want to put on a vac-suit and practice zero-g tai chi poses for days on end in the biowaste tank to test your stamina and resistance to absurd environs, nobody's going to call you a freak or try to have you exiled. And if you want to play around with great fuckoff-huge daiklaives, so be it. You'll wind up getting reputation bumps for doing something visually awesome, even if the local fighty-types roll their eyes and think it's absurd.

ORCACommander wrote:

mmmmm I think it may be more of a meta gaming issue creeping. For example down in this forum shadowdragon posted a character which i love but i would find incredibly awkward to rollplay with

Who, Angela? I wouldn't think so. Her only really impressive stats are her @-Rep and the numbers relating to doing things to morphs with a healing tank. Rollplaying with her shouldn't be awkward, she shouldn't wind up stepping on anybody's toes. Or did you mean roleplaying with her? :) And if so, whysat?

Steel Accord wrote:

It's not something that's really made out in canon, it's just a behavior I've noticed here. Specifically, myself and others have been challenged on our interest in pursuing the martial arts in this setting. It just seems odd that a society that finds suicide x-casts acceptable would find the ones doing Katas as the weird ones.

I have definitely participated in that behaviour, and I will happily distinguish my thoughts on martial arts and melee weapons in EP and other hardish sf settings. Personally, I practiced Tae Kwon Do on a weekly basis for twelve years from 6 to 18, two years of mediaeval martial arts (grappling, dagger and sword) and 'renaissance' fencing (Italian, Spanish and currently French) for the past three years until present. Two weeks ago I started sport fencing epee. Martial arts has always been a part of my life. That being said, if I had to choose between a sword and a pistol for a one on one to the pain, I'd pick the pistol. Across the EP setting, as previously expressed, no free ego would be exiled or negged for practicing martial arts—perhaps 'fork-fu' and 'synergist tai-chi' would be discouraged in the Consortium. Hobbiests and enthusiasts of all types abound in the Solar system, martial arts would be no different. I imagine entire enclaves would flock together to invent or practice various styles to show off at the Scum Olympics. Ultimates would be eager to become the best at and perfect whatever martial arts they attempted. Martial art skillsofts would be on every street corner. Maritan Wuxai films and other martial arts vids (The Raid XI: Shackleton) would be super popular. Practial martial arts and melee fighting skills would be learned or trained into soldiers, mercenaries and those who employ fisticuffs for their trade. Exploring microgravity martial arts and anti-synth martials arts have been particular intrests of mine. But they would utilise weapons and techniques that fit the situation. Short blades, claws, shock gloves and the like would be excellent for cramped micrograv or low-g fights. There are definitely reasons why a stealthy character would want a covert melee weapon. But claymores, katanas and talwars have been vacant from professional warfare for a century, and in the projected future of EP they would remain moot. In short, pursuing any type of martial arts in the setting is entirely within the parametres of the setting but practical martial arts would maintain their hold over actual conflicts when necessary.

Steel Accord wrote:

Is such a character, with superior strength, reflexes, and agility really anymore out of place than a surya with an anti-capital ship plasma cannon on his back or a heavy synth morph that's able to soak up bullets and pound his foe into the ground with fists the size of refrigerators? I would just contest that what's "practical" or even just feasible may have changed a great deal with the presence of different morphs, mods, and implants. Is carrying around a baton that extends into a full size staff really that bad a weapon to have?

Melee combat is limited by its range. Its practicality, as I mentioned, is determined by specific circumstances. The ability for a laser to fire multiple times while a solely melee combatant attempts to close vastly outweighs the melee weapon. Even closing using cover would be tedious. Yes, spend the points, rep or creds to shove enough 'ware into your morph for it to clear the distance with enough fight left in it to deal damage, but look at the costs. For a fraction of the augs required, your opponent could pick up a seeker rifle with smart-HEAP or thermobaric rounds and call it a day. The melee monster has more actions? So what, you can still only close your total movement (generally 20) in one round. That is why, in modern warfare, tanks are not given an assortment of diamond/tungsten chainsaws as their primary weapons. Even though they have all that armour, other combatants can dish out a 105 mm shell from 3 km away and call it a day. That is besides the point, because melee combat is not useless. In confined spaces CQC is essential. It also has the ability to be less lethal than ranged weapons and more controlled (as Erlusant says about protecting hardware). Many characters in the EP setting will be rather unskilled in melee combat, so engaging in melee will catch opponents off guard. Stealthily neutralizing opponents is also under melee's umbrella. Carrying around a baton-staff is not a bad idea, it could be a great idea and have cool implications in micrograv combat like using the extension mechanism to propel around.

Steel Accord wrote:

My point wasn't whether swordplay was feasible for a combat operation though. My point was would those on this forum who would call themselves Autonomists of any kind within the setting look down on those who would still practice it? Or any ancient tradition for that matter such as playing with a physical instrument. (Violin, piano, etc.) They talk about acceptance, but do they truly hold it in their hearts?

Of course they don't. We are all human, after all. Humans are biologically wired to be tribal. We will be well past transhuman, and deep into posthuman, before we delete that bit of our neural coding. As a go to example for the setting. Consider poker players, tournament level ones. A big part of the skill and strategy of poker is playing your opponent. Speaking from experience, a major portion of that is dealing with the tension. Wen you remove wealth from the equation, a lot of that tension evaporates. Poker played just to see who ends up with all the chips becomes very silly, very quickly. I cannot see poker tournaments having any real place in the A.A. AnCol, and AnSoc, habs would have no real place for it. I also suspect that tournament poker players would get dinged in the A.A. After all, their chosen identity clings to money, and thus to capitalism.

For poker being on existent in @ habs i would like to point to the good ship serenity. It has a collectivist attitude when it comes to the general chores of ship. When they played poker instead of money they wagered their responsibilities. I would think of this as being relatively common for the non vital and some of the more unpleasant activities required to keep a habitat spinning.

Steel Accord wrote:

You could always hop on over to Extropia. I'm sure there would be some casinos there. I'm not one for games of chance myself, but I do hate to see a "tribe" to use your analogy, go completely extinct; it devalues transhuman culture.

The preservation of high stakes poker tournaments (not casino play) is one of the big plusses of Extropia, IMHO.

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Hell if you were into the REALLY high stakes, there might be some casinos open on Mars or Consortium habitats. I wouldn't trust them to go easy on you and just throw you out though if you were winning too much.

hat would be blackjack or roulette. In Casino poker tables, the house doesn't have a player seat. The house deals, keeps the cards fair, and takes a percentage of everyone's stake. Sure, in some of the places that would have been referred to as "Sawdust" casinos back in the mid 20th, you would have a ringer screwing over the customers. But most established casinos would just rake in the 'off the top' fee as that is a more certain return on investment.

thebluespectre wrote:

Hmm, after thinking about my own prejudices for a while, I think I can see why someone might have trouble playing with Angela as a fellow PC. Angela is actually a fairly typical anarchist in the EP setting, and there's nothing particularly "crazy" about her in the context of where she lives. Her sexual openness is part of her culture rather than any overcompensation on her part, and while the character quiz made her come off as somewhat rant-y, I found from personal experience that being in-character while filling it out will inspire at least one rant from the PC.

Honestly, I'm disappointed that I haven't gotten [i]more[/i] rants in the questionnaires my players have given me. I [i]wrote[/i] that questionnaire with the [i]hope[/i] of getting in-character rants. There's no better way to get a measure of what motivates a character (or a person, for that matter,) than to learn (at length) what gets them [i]hopping[/i] mad, or otherwise fired-up.

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The problem comes from knowing that the sexually promiscuous hermaphrodite lesbian anarch is probably being controlled by a player who identifies as male. If I were playing at a table instead of over Skype, I would feel very awkward accepting advances from a guy acting as Angela.

For my part, I don't play at tables. Or even with voice chat. I'm kind of old-school, a text roleplayer. It divorces the in-character happenings from the voices of the player, which is all sorts of handy, because it means you can just describe (or, if ye want to be a wee bit fancy, type out,) someone's accent, rather than trying to mimic it. It also means that you can play whatever you want to play without the context of what you [i]are[/i] getting in the way. (Also it leaves a permanent record, which is handy for things like "How far from the target's apartment did you say that billboard with clean lines of sight was again?") Also, Angela would object (patiently, but at length) to being labeled as a lesbian.

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I also know that ShadowD is probably beyond petty wish fulfillment, yet I still get a sort of "lesbian stripper ninja" vibe from her. I would have to go through a practice session with this player/PC combo to make sure that there would not be problems.

Complex and grandiose wish fulfillment is so much more... Fulfilling. :P

I was honestly worried that you would be WAY more pissed than you were, so thank you. I actually like Angela as a character, and wouldn't mind her as an NPC. I might try showing you the questionnaire once I fill it out completely. I did one for Gomes, the Jovian I mint have mentioned before. Thing is, I'm sort of… allergic to google documents and other things that require a Google+ account. Is there another way I can host it somewhere, maybe just dump the text into a forum post?

So, about archaic things being kept, I got the feeling that's more accepted around the PC, and especially the LLA, as they cling to many old world concepts for government and economy. Also, Angela's a stand-up girl, even if I disagree with her on philosophical points.