Hit the link, and it is about a petrified likely mosasaur egg that is really big and lizard like that the finder called the thing (paleos give lots of weird names in the field which sometimes stick: see "Lucy" and others). Not frozen (Antarctica wasn't frozen then), and actually 5 year old news.

Handguns for non-killing purposes (animal or human) are a consideration (professional sport shooting type). Trainers for the police and military are sometimes not police or military and could use them. Protection against polar bears for scientific exploration (44 mag or sawed off in my camps)

Coin toss is generous. If half the ttrpg adaptations were good for playing something like the source material it would be a huge improvement

For sure. The other part of the design, which fits somewhat into the Dread mechanical space, is the use of atypical resolution mechanics, creating alternate statistical models.

I was close to pitching a puzzle pirates like for a one shop larp 15 years ago (doing basically adult activity boards). Never did because a) I moved away, b) probably a bit of a hard sell to our parlour community of the time, c) variables would require too much testing. Probably is something there

The ratio of the surface area between a ping pong ball and a tennis ball is very similar to ratio between the continents and the entire surface of the Earth.

The description overall makes me think more of Tibet than Boreal areas. And there is always the mixing in of mammoth steppe organisms as well. Or I always like original mundane organisms

This makes me think they are two genera, with one being a spectrum, and the yeren are a different genus. Species spectra/continua are interesting

Weird thought: how about galloping crocs instead of bears? Crocs are often used as palaeoclimate support because they don't hibernate (which this would be irony), and these sound more like pure carnivores than terrestrial bears are

I would note this historical painting of wheat which points to 1500s wheat being taller than people: first heard of it in ethnobotany so seems to be accurate of the plants
www.pubhist.com/works/21/lar...

This makes me think a bit of the very rare sphagnum moss on Axel Heiberg Island. It living in puddles makes me think of moss. There is also a type of algae (lake weed) eaten in Tibet that it makes me think of possibly

(This is a terrible medium to do this... riffing in longer form is much nicer)

...or spinning more, the magic part of the ecosystem could be more like the plantanimal concepts, where the things both do more biological consuming but also generation from magical energy. Maybe they are also partially eating mostly unaspected beings because it is not un- but full spectrum instead

... The purified essence would probably be actually something like waste oxygen from photosynthesizers, that things become adapted to needing in the environment. That, and maybe conceptually something like essential amino-acids/original paradigm vitamins...

... shape might be fan like or tubes or the like. Usually greatest surface area is best, which is leaf/fan. Nodes likely with these producers surrounding... the leylines in general would be mapped out by the organisms...

Node-Leyline Aspected energy type situation. This I can easily riff off. Primary producers use magical energy of a flavour. Shape would be based on maximum exposure to the energy flow but also other materials. So if still organic, this would be things like carbon, oxygen and hydrogen...

How about an artifact that does it? Like a cornucopia?

But as well, is the magic creating matter, or just an energy source for making the chemical bonds? Because making matter out of energy instead of just turning CO2 and Water into organic compounds is a different thing going on

The seep chemoautotrophic trophic are extreme and weird to us, but follow the systems. I think we need to get down into bigger questions. Is the magic just an energy source or also a matter source? Is the life all organic? Like does create food/water makes wizards thaumatoautotrophs?

Autotrophs convert non-organic energy into organic energy. They are sometimes called producers. This trophic web has 2: photoautotrophs and thaumatoautotrophs. Once this is recognized, the rest of the trophic web works the same: primary consumers eat the producers etc.

Chengdu

The timing was wrong so I didn't get one, and it was pricey, but before I started my travels 15 years ago I was offered it when I went to the travel clinic. So you could consider trying that route (though it also counts as a private option I guess, with what that implies)

Earlier editions of Pendragon had the Book of the Manor and Book of the Estate presenting 2 different economies, though maybe not mercantile? Ryuutama has a tiny subsystem (mostly for merchant class): generic goods buy/sell for a price if moved, merchant can get % better on test for 4+ goods

You inspired a touch of research that led to these pictures Chinese ancestors of the box elder bug family from the Mesozoic... the Jehol Formation is really cool www.researchgate.net/profile/Yunz...

DVDs are physical media, but are also still digital media

Root has travel moves. The rest are more arguable, especially community building (it does have faction moves though those might be interpersonal instead, its action-adventure moves are fantasy adjacent but maybe not fantasy, as no one is magical)

Far Roofs includes scrabble or equivalent tiles (besides playing cards). I made a (probably unplayed... I never put together a playtest of it) system that used clue pawns in a bag. Microscope arguably uses index cards (though that is mostly a form factor thing)

One thing to remember with the Chinese movie market is that they have no ratings: therefore, sensibly, actual R movies don't tend to get released, or get an edit. The edits to Deadpool and Wolverine were interesting (mostly trimmed out vulgarity and not violence)

Arthropod (especially decapod thing): might as well say last long enough to become tree. Not sure what equivalent bauplan for verts would be: maybe dolphin, anteater, croc, cat, turtle or bird

You will need to care about hockey during the winter olympics (and must care about Canada alone), sometimes if a Canadian team makes it far in the playoffs, and traditionally if Vancouver does fairly well, when it is done be prepared for riots win or lose: see 1994, 2011

In part, it I think that is part of why I bounced off your ideas of black box the 20 years ago (not that we ever actually played together, somehow, though I know we crossed over extensively in groups): going method to reach a deeper state wanted props and costumes as foci, looking back on it.