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Fever broke last night. I'm going to be okay.

My school is providing box lunches (and breakfasts). Student comes in, gives their code, takes the box and leaves. In and out in under a minute. It's not ideal, but it's better than kids not eating.

Proof that Bernie Sanders is actually Sith Lord.

This doormat is going viral, or so I hear.

Dude, if there was a sudden epidemic of a diarrhea virus, they'd start hoarding shampoo and mustache wax.

This is important: It’s COVID-19, not CORVID-19. A corvid is of the crow family. 19 crows are not gathering to kill you. But if they are...it’s a murder.

Well, I suppose such an epic battle deserves appropriate musical accompaniment:

You can't have a complete lockdown. That's not even happening in Italy; essential stores are still open, like grocery stores. You also have to deal with public reaction. The hammer blow we're feeling in the US is that...this bloody well feels like an Infinity Gauntlet finger snap. Wednesay noon...normal-ish. at least in many places. Wednesday night...20 foot waves crashing onshore. Thursday noon...tidal wave hits. It was that fast, that sudden, and that complete a change. We couldn't, and still in many places, shouldn't go to a complete lockdown yet. There are some serious consequences...shutting down public schools creates a BIG problem for kids who rely on that school lunch, and for working parents, for example. The goal, BTW, isn't to stop new cases. It's to keep the case load from spiking past the point where health care can deal with it. That's when death rates start rising rather higher. Plus, it offers more time for research for a vaccine or drug to take the virus out. Because...figure. With this many cases known, even if things quiet down as the weather warms...the risk of round 2, come November or December, is significant.

Option: Hercule Poirot Title: Murder on the Seussical Express

From everything I've been hearing about the coronavirus, these announced policies sound wrong-headed. Banning overseas foreign visitors while allowing free traffic from the United States is like trying to bail out a leaking boat with a sieve. Screening at airports for symptoms won't catch the majority of infected who are asymptomatic. This isn't science, it's a PR stunt to try to calm the stock market.

I'm good.

Unlike certain national leaders, the leaders at local levels tend to do that. AND care about trying to find a workable solution.

That's what we're doing here as well. Coordination will improve over the next few weeks.

With regular Sunday night gaming cancelled due to COVID-19 based social distancing, I've decided to re-read the Adventures of Fish Guy. With outside activities canceled for the near future, I may decide to use my now-free time to throw together Book 2.

Straight up Ranger DM< with maps, See?

Spence, Brennall on the Hero Discord server is finalizing a phase one release of a Hero System skin for Tabletop Simulator. TTS costs about $20 on Steam, but the Herosystem module will be free, and handles 5th and 6th editions. It’s one way of running a game without having to deal with Roll20 and Roll20’s monthly rent for Hero GMs, while Corona-Chan from Wuhan is out and about.

Was just talking about this with a friend. This is really on the money. Most small businesses don't have the two month's of capital they will need to stay alive. This is going to kill so many businesses out there. Looks like Amazon is going to be the biggest winner in all this.

Yeah, I saw a similar headline...very high number of first-time gun buyers. And I had a thought just now. There will be another set of indirect victims. Fear. Stress. Sense of Isolation. Disconnection from social networks, such as one's workgroup. These are big risk factors for suicide. I doubt it's a factor in the US just yet, but I am very much afraid it will become more significant within a few weeks. Especially, for example, high school seniors. Unable to finish...no graduation in sight. Missing friends from school.

It's not just toilet paper: People line up to buy guns, ammo over coronavirus concerns This makes me nervous. The only thing worse than a fool with a gun, is a panicked fool with a gun.

"You can fly?" "Sometimes," said the little girl. She smiled as she floated lazily in the air. "If I have fairy dust." Hermione scrunched her face in disapproval. Fairies were bad business as far as she was concerned. "That's amazing," said Violet. "Indeed," said the cat as he flew in a loop up to meet Wendy's face. "I never met a flying girl before. Do you like tea?" "I adore tea!" she said happily as she bounced in the air. "Too bad we don't have any tea," said Frodo, not for the first time, or the last. "Oh," said Wendy sadly as she sank to the ground. ------- I wasn't going to go this direction, but with my last option pick she's still here, so I select Wendy Darling from Peter Pan. Title forthcoming.

*A truck carrying Worcestershire sauce crashes* Deputy: What's the situation? Sheriff: It's hard to say.

I did not know whether to like that or not. I have, but because I like the attitude, not the necessity to find a silver lining!

Next up, this guy:

Thanks. Hopefully it doesn't last more than a few weeks. On the bright side, I needed a vacation anyway.

The walls are Barriers to whatever you want barriered. TV/internet/whatever gets piped through the cable.

Ah Duke! You now have me wondering to what purpose people might put shampoo and moustache wax in a diarrhea epidemic. The images are..... disturbing!🤯

I've got to get to bed, so if you will accept it at least short term, I'll summarize: It's an intellectual distaste. I have no problems with separate worlds / separate universes / no; not a multiverse; it's just a whole different book now, and these two authors don't both write about the same universe-- None whatsoever. It's not really enjoyable for me when two distinctly different writers tell stories in the same world or with the same characters (might be part of why I never got into comic books; I don't know). It's somewhat bothersome when one guy steps in and just changes how the physics work. And of course, there are my own notions of building and progression. Supers isn't my bag, but I'm not exactly _opposed_ to it. I can enjoy it, but I'd rather enjoy something else, given the chance. Fantasy is a longing for an age that never ever was. Sci-fi is a wondering about what may someday be. Having to accept that it makes some sort of sense that what might someday be is built on a history of what never was makes me throw up just a little bit in the back of my mouth. And in the case of HERO-- there wasn't even any _reason_ to do it. None whatsoever. None. It wasn't relevant to _anything_ that had gone before, and nothing in the product line up depended on it happening. You in no way had to even accept the existence of other genres to play any sort of game you wanted, as they didn't step on each other's toes unless you wanted them to. In effect, Steve put an expiration date on the very birth certificate of every official setting-- every official game (all five or so? Lucha, Narosia, CC, FHC, MHI. Wait-- PS 238-- all six) that will ever be published. Why would my team of barbarians and wizards and dwarves clerics be motivated to adventure and improve the world? It's going to die and be replaced by pollutants, smog, cars, chain smoking, television advertisements, and people working two jobs just to pay their bills, wondering what the hell "savings" are. Which will suddenly give rise to superheroes, that will make everything that awesome Palladin ever did look like cold soup. Of course, that's going to die out too, and for no good reason, and after a bajillion years of magical realms and creatures and magical superheroes and super science all of a sudden we're going to fall back on hard science, real, people-busting-their-brains to make this a reality science--- without the aid of the super geniuses that just stopped existing all of a sudden-- and build these incredible machines that just a few years earlier were taken completely for granted yet have suddenly and instantly disappeared from our collective conscious along with superheroes, and then go off to have adventures among the stars.... Seriously. It's cringe-inducing. It's like when a six-year-old suddenly wishes all of his favorite book characters lived in the houses on his block. It's just..... It's bad, Dude. It's just really, really bad. I always feel like I should help him make excuses for how that accidentally got into the rules.....

This is actually covered in the Equipment Guide (in more general terms). Basically, if the transmissions are completely undetectable, you apply the Invisible Power Effect advantage to the sense ability tied to the radio receive/transmit. Season the special effect to taste. There is a second option discussed that gives a more "this is highly encrypted" feel to it, but I can't recall what it is. In short, yes. I was starting down an AoE-based Invisibility rabbit hole on this, but the KISS answer is, Selective (+1/4). Since Darkness is already AoE, you tack that advantage on and just simply choose to let anyone inside the AoE be immune to the effect. Which can include yourself. People outside of the Darkness are still affected in the same manner that they would be normally and that actually answers both questions. Unless you want a personal "can't read my aura" or "can't be tracked with scrying", then it might be better to use Invisibility with a "Mystic Senses" sense group, or some such. But it's after midnight and I'm not going to put more brain power into it ATT. Hope that helped!

Thanks, Spence; that helped a lot, actually. Though it did raise one question: If you view the ship as little more than a setting for an adventure, why are you opposed to maps of them upon which the scenario can be mapped? Or is it a general aversion to minis and maps? LL: It's rare, but I have to disagree with you. Yes; some of the aliens are really creative. _However_, the idea that the official sci-fi setting is directly descended from the superhero setting irks the piss out of me, and I have a similar problem with the fantasy settings all moving slowly one from another into modern day and supers. Likely why I invested in a black highlighter for the 5e "timeline" thing. Gah--- I don't really know what's lower than fan fiction, but that thing just smacks of precisely whatever is lower than even that.

Sure. But what good does that information do you, game-wise? Other than "can I lift it," I mean. What's the BODY? The Defense? At what point do those things change? If I cut it to 1/4 its height and spread it across four hexes, what have I done to it in game terms? It's just useless information. Decide what you need it to do, and it does that.

I did, thank you. But no fever was found. They diagnosed me instead with the good old-fashioned common cold. I'm still going to self-quarantine until Wednesday., when I am next scheduled to work. I am also wondering if I will actually be needed at my tax preparation office. I can;t help but think the company is going to get their heads together overnight and decide what to do with the sites and workers. The trained tax preparers can work mostly from home if they have to. That doesn't work for a front desk worker. I can get on the intranet from home, but I can't do anything there because my work is entirely different -- scheduling, getting people to answer questions, and greeting and tending to clients in the office itself. Still, I was already scheduled to take Monday and Tuesday off.I don't know how long I will have to stay isolated like this. It's lasted more than a week for Mom so far -- she's not quite locked into her room, but it's close.

Hmm… OK, I’ll try to…. I’ll start with a tavern in a fantasy game. Most people I know will draw out a rough floorplan and note any NPC’s that may be there. We don’t see anyone stat’ing out the bar, the doors, the building beams and the tables. That is because the tavern is a location that the PC’s move around in, not an actual character. A horse or a wagon may be given limited stat’s such as a speed and maybe a hit/damage point total. But most will just improvise if it becomes necessary. I’ve played a lot of naval and space wargames where extensive details were needed in order to fight the ships. But an RPG is not a wargame, it is a Roleplaying game. A ship in an RPG game is not much different than a tavern, an Inn or a village, it is just a location for the PC’s to interact with. A few rudimentary stats may be needed so the GM can more easily arbitrate any action, but in the end not having even a basic map of the ship while having two pages of games stat’s detailing point costs of 10 different laser modes is ludicrous for a game that is supposed to be about individual people doing stuff. Players will be able to get far more actual use with a general map/deckplan than they will ever get from a wall of text with point costs most of which are generally useless for any RPG session. Knowing how many points life support costs does zip for playing out a hull breach scenario. I’d rather have a basic map so I can point out logical places for airtight hatches. A good deckplan adds to the adventure by giving the players something to plan around, much like the floorplan of the tavern enhances the bar fight. And I think I should clarify. I do not and never have liked deckplans that are large enough to actually place mini’s on it. IMO mini’s turn the game from a free flowing RPG into a tactical wargame exercise. Hopefully this unorganized babble explains what I am thinking…..

From Pee-Wee's feed...

“I think Warren is right,” Kris said. “In my nightmare I saw two men. They reminded me of those thugs Mind Warp uses.” “Oh?” Ash stepped outside. “You mean those two that did that riff off Hans and Franz?” Warren asked. “'I'm Ahlo,” Ash said with a heavy accent. “'And I'm Alphonse,” Warren added. In tandem, Warren and Ash said, “And we're here to...” they clapped their hands, “f*** you up!”

I found a few xenomorph and yautja (under various names) Hero write-ups, for Fourth and Fifth Edition Hero System. Links below. Xenomorph: http://www.devermore.com/surbrook/adaptationscreatures/movies/alien.html http://surbrook.devermore.net/bigbrawl/movie/alien.html Yautja: http://surbrook.devermore.net/bigbrawl/movie/predator.html https://the-wild-hunt.org/villains/solo/predator.html http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/mathew/cspredator.html Nothing yet for Ripley, Dutch, or the marines. I may poke around again when I have more time.

To me, the GM review of the sheet is an important part of the process. If I am buying great interaction stats and skills, seven different languages and a few Linguistics skills, I am telling the GM that I want/expect this character to overcome challenges by being able to communicate broadly, effectively and persuasively. Maybe that is right in line with his plan for the game (he may even have said so, perhaps indicating this will be a globetrotting campaign where the PCs will interact with many different potential allies, as well as possible and definite allies). Great - character is easy to approve. Perhaps he is planning a game set in a single small town, where everyone speaks the local language. Either he decides to adjust the campaign, or he says "hey, keep the language skills, but they will not be more than backdrop in the game (like the Beast changing languages every page for an issue of Avengers to show off, but never actually needing to speak to someone in those languages) so you can zero out the point cost - but here's a couple of possible spends that would be useful and look consistent with your character design". Maybe he also plans to resolve all interaction based on "player role playing" (i.e. arbitrarily depending on GM assessment of player eloquence rather than character skill), so don't bother dropping all those points in interaction skills. Perhaps I misread the game, and it will focus largely around combat, not interaction, so the GM suggests reducing these investments to shore up combat stats, if he's not willing to add a bunch of interaction-based challenges. Ensuring the characters will fit the game and the game will fit the characters is not a problem, it's good game management. Where the problem arises is when he does not review the character for suitability for the game, and we end up with a Face PC in a game focused exclusively on hunting and killing alien xenomorphs, travelling in a spacecraft and never meeting a non-PC that's anything but a bug-eyed monster that wants to kill us all. The player spent a big chunk of points on abilities that are irrelevant to the game, he can't compete with PCs actually built for he game and he never gets to use the points he spent. THAT is a problem. The solution may be a GM modifying the game plan to incorporate the character better, it may be the player making a character more appropriate to the game ("no combat-incapable sages" is not a lot different from "no asshole loners" - both reject characters who will detract from the game rather than enhance it), or it may be a combination of the two. In extreme cases, the answer may be that one player does not want to play the game in question, and should bow out. I don't know that I've ever hit that extreme as a player, but I have shelved a concept that was not right for THIS game to dust it off later for a more appropriate game. Or it may be that the game the GM wants to run is not one that the players want to play, so he may need to run a different game, or they may need to find a different GM.

In Denmark, scientists extracted a full genome from a 5,700 year old wad of chewing gum. They could tell all kinds of things, from gender and blue eyes, to having eaten duck and hazelnuts recently. Also she had mono. https://gizmodo.com/scientists-reconstruct-lola-after-finding-her-dna-in-1840481633 I'm having fun imagining her looking down and seeing this happen. Having it published in a journal that you had mono has to be something that would torment the long-deceased.

When Steve put up a Kickstarter for this project years ago, the big stumbling block was raising enough for him to devote time to writing it instead of earning a living doing something else. By working on it in his spare time all these years, he has to have dramatically cut the margin needed to get it ready for publication.

Darkness with personal immunity could work. The immunity being those with access to a VPN of sorts to the radio communications. Security Systems could also work. Basically, you use the base's security systems skill roll to encrypt the transmissions. This has precedence in early Hero supplements. As unclevlad noted. Barrier can also be used. Any power which can prevent a sense can be used to block radio reception and personal immunity used as an exception. You could use Clairsentience to go outside the restricted area, but this might be limited to receiving, depending on the GM and special effects. It also could be blocked depending on the GM and special effects. You could by special effect make the walls lined with copper, or place the base under 6' of concrete. Communications would then be limited to wired retransmission. Again, it depends on your GM. You could suppress radio within the area of the base again with personal immunity. That's all I can think of right now. Probably, the cheapest would be the Security Systems route or using the special effect of the building location/materials.

I don't care for the flat amount either. It is a little simpler to just doll out a flat amount (I use 3d6 for Heroic), but it mechanically falls apart outside of the sweet spot. Weak attackers get a massive bonus and very powerful attackers get a bonus that is relatively small. In my Fantasy HERO campaign I do allow Haymaker for spells (but not spreading, bouncing, etc.), but the extra 1 segment on top of the usually 3s (or longer) cast time at -5 DCV makes the caster so vulnerable that the maneuver is rarely used. None of the casters want multiple arrows in their chest or to end up getting their spell off 1s after their enemy caster blasts them. It's further compounded by Concentration checks (Ego check at -1 per 5 stun taken or spell is lost). Loved your post. The idea of a scrappy teenage kid hitting harder than a world strongman champion by using a Haymaker cracks me up.

How about enhancing Personal Immunity to make it Selective Immunity

Probably better to work with the rules than try to work around them. I will almost never allow an advantage on an advantage; it's far, far too cheap, and this is just trying to ignore the power's fundamental limitation. Option 1: Very simply, they can't scry from within the area. So what? They go to some nearby secured location and scry from there. Or buy it with Personal Immunity for you, and *you* are the only one allowed to do so. That's perfectly fine in my book. Option 2: Create an advantage: +1, blocks in one direction only. EDIT: I'm thinking *for this application and this power* it's probably a +1 advantage. I'm assuming you're thinking permanent Non-Detection, warding a room. For other uses, and definitely for other powers, the size of the advantage could well be higher.

When the Coronavirus really hits the tech industry will we switch to UDP to avoid handshakes?

Hi Steve, I know you have Chinese mythology listed, but I urge you to consider the mythological beings (gods, creatures, etc.) and folklore of Taiwan. Taiwan folklore is different than that of the mainland since it incorporates native islanders (aboriginal) myths which are unique, and a fascinating mythology in itself. Here's one site that has maintained a repository of Taiwanese folktales and traditions. Thanks in advance for considering Taiwanese mythology.