I used to have this 16 inch hunting knife. It was probably larger than the knife that Crocodile Dundee carries. It was also balanced for throwing. In other words, it was perfect for juggling. I taught myself to juggle that knife. I had been doing it for 10 years, and in 10 years, had never once dropped it. I was trying to impress a new girlfriend with this skill, and I dropped it. It hit her in the wrist. The way she was sitting, if it had hit her a quarter of an inch one way, it would have punctured her femoral artery and she would have bled to death in seconds, a quarter of an inch the other way, she would have permanently lost the use of her hand. The way it hit her, she wasn't in much pain. (In fact, I think I realized it before she did) and she only has a large scar which pretty closely blends into the lines already on her wrist. In other words, an amazingly good GE roll. I just like applying Multiverser game rules to real life.
EDIT: Believe it or not, she didn't break up with me, and we stayed together for months after that. We are talking about getting back together now.
I got a very good GE roll on the whole thing, actually. What was I thinking flipping a knife that size in front of her face, anyway? At the very least I should have been facing a different direction. I called 911 immediately, and said on the phone "I just threw a knife at my girlfriend" Needless to say, 4 police cruisers and an ambulance showed up within about 3-4 minutes. I ran out to get them, after administering what first aid I could in the time alloted. I ran out to get the paramedics. The police did not try to arrest me on the spot, they just followed me inside. (I think one of them told me later that abusive boyfriends don't usually call 911) Janie (The girlfriend) was very adamant when she told them that it was an accident. (Which it was) She never even got upset about it. So, I made a good roll on a difficult charisma check with her. That would be a 3 GE roll, in my opinion.
Ya know, this gives me an idea for a new game mechanic. A "Stupidity Clause" In a case of a botch, like this one, caused by sheer stupidity, you get a chance to plead your case with someone before the GE roll is made. If this being grants that you realize your own stupidity, you get a bonused GE roll on the results.
And I think I cashed in my Stupidity Clause there. I firmly believe that God was guiding that knife to the one spot on her body where it would not do permanent or life-threatening damage. She didn't really even bleed that much.
Severe enough damage to wake me up though.
And no, I'm not trying to use this as my personal blog. I was just applying Multiverser mechanics to real life, in an attempt to better understand the game.
There is an optional rule in Multiverser for GE rolls for botching...if you roll a '3' its a good botch.
Like...you're trying to summon a fireball...you botch...GM decides to use the GE roll method to determine effect....you roll a '3'....you summon a miniature fire dragon named "Bob" who is friendly and helpful. You now have the skill 1@1 Summon "Bob".
In your case, raise Intuition by @1 might be the result.
Ya know, I just had a thought. Something MJ said a while ago about how God set up the universe. When this happened, Janie was sitting on the bed, the knife slipped out of my hand, hit the mattress, and then bounced up and hit her wrist. I recall MJ saying a while ago about a woman who prayed that her son come home safe from WW2. That God set it up from the beginning of creation so that the wind would be blowing just right to deflect incoming bullets. The thought that I had is that God knew exactly what metal ore was going to be used in the springs on that mattress, and gave them exactly the right amount of minerals so that their elasticity would be exactly right to bounce the knife to a relatively "safe" place of impact. Thoughts?
And also that God knew what metal ore would be used in making the knife, and designed it so that its weight would be exactly right to bounce off of the perfectly designed springs in exactly the right way.
Some people say God is so big that he can't be concerned with us. An answer to this is God is so big that He can be concerned with us....thats what in part the word 'omniscient' means.
If the NSA can tap into every phone conversation across foreign borders listening for certain keywords then God who is infinitely smarter and faster than the really powerful supercomputers in the NSA basement can do better than them.
Or in other words, yes, John.
I'm not objecting to anything said except to two minor nuances attributed to me.
The first is the statement that a woman in World War II actually made that prayer and had it answered. As far as I know, that was a hypothetical example put forward by C. S. Lewis, probably in Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer (although I think that mostly because I have looked in every other place I thought it might have been without finding it). This is not to say that there is no such case in reality, but only that I cannot attest to such a case.
The second is that I said that this was how God actually did it. What I hope I said was that God might well have done it this way.
To clarify, Lewis' point was that it was perfectly possible to be a determinist and believe in the power of prayer. The determinist position would maintain that whether or not that bullet hit that soldier--or John's knife injured his girlfriend--depended on a chain of causes and effects stretching back to the foundation of the world. However, it was perfectly possible, as Lewis suggested, for God to know before the foundation of the world that that woman would pray that prayer, and thus as He set the first wind in motion and put the earth on its rotation He calculated the equivalent of an incredibly complex pool shot to make it such that no bullets hit that boy and the knife did not cause serious injury. The point is that God could answer the prayer without interfering in the present with the events on the battlefield or in the bedroom; he could have controled those events preemptively.
I bring in that I wish to clarify because I do not think that Lewis was espousing the view that God was necessarily limited thus. That is to say, it is incredibly amazing to think of God having ordered the world with these little points in view and being able to watch it all play out exactly as He knew it would when He gave everything the first push, but that does not mean that Lewis (or I) believes that God could not have acted immediately in the present, shifting the wind or turning the knife in ways that are outside the ordinary physics of the situations. That is, neither Lewis nor I will say that God could not work a miracle in the immediate present--only that even if you believe He could not or would not do so, it is still quite possible for Him to answer prayers by taking them into account "before" they have been prayed.
Otherwise, yes, I would say God had a hand in that. He seems to have a hand in everything.
--M. J. Young
Sorry for misquoting you MJ. I really like that idea though. That God set the world up from the beginning so that things would happen exactly right. I think it's a really cool idea.
I have been corrected. It seems that the specific example was used on an essay entitled The Grand Miracle which is preserved in God in the Dock (an excellent book which I highly recommend). I am embarrassed that I did not realize it, as I've read that book at least twice since I've had a copy of the other available, and failed to make the mental connection on the location.
--M. J. Young