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Up until a few years ago, the Hero Games website hosted a wide variety of book excerpts, supplements, and game aids for free download. However, with the most recent website upgrade, most of those items were considered not resource cost-effective to maintain, and were discarded. As a result most new Hero gamers are unaware they ever existed; and even some of the veterans may have missed the treasures they contained, or have since lost something from the collection they once had. However, thanks to the magnificent Internet Archive Wayback Machine, virtually all those items are still obtainable if one knows where to look and what to look for. But since many people don't know, I thought it would be helpful to provide links to representative archived pages. These downloads cover many areas: maps (from published books or supplementary), book excerpts and introductions (including supplementary info about the published official settings), wallpapers, color covers to PDF books, character sheets and hex maps, items cut from books for space (including supplementary forms mentioned in various books), adventure modules, character outlines for illustrations (under "Character Sheets and Hex Maps" for some reason), illos for cardboard mini figures, apps and utilities, graphics and sounds, and more. Many of these were generously created by Hero fans. Because the website has gone through several revisions over the years since DOJ bought the Champions IP, and each version has made changes to the downloads it hosted, I'm including links to Free Stuff pages from different years to cover as many of the varied offerings as possible. https://web.archive.org/web/20061201152750/http://www.herogames.com:80/FreeStuff/freestuffherogames.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20071013030046/http://herogames.com:80/freeStuff.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20110516165152/http://www.herogames.com/freeStuff.htm NOTE: Sometimes a file linked to on one of those pages would not actually have been saved on the particular day that page was crawled by Internet Archive. At the top of each page you'll see a graphic representing how many times the page was crawled on various dates. Clicking on that to get to another date will bring up another page, on which the item you want may have been saved. I recommend exploring. There's much there to enjoy.

Heck, I had pretty much abandoned the system. It IS the system that I know the best. So when the players wanted to play Supers, it was the game I chose. We are running a beginning 6e Champions Game. Dex 18, SPD 5, DC10 (62 active), CV 7 as our averages. So Skill levels (yet) The PCs are the newest hosts for Beings that are Iconic for a character type. Developing I'm BACK!! LOL

In honor of the man's passing...

You know, after working in a scrutiny committee where we have spoken to government offices and private companies when something has gone wrong or not accomplished its goals, I have had a MUCH easier time tracking responsibilities and money through the government offices than through private companies. And when things go wrong with government offices, we could suggest changes to the way they accounted for things or made decisions and those suggestions usually resulted in changes to make scrutiny better. There are a number of big private companies that have lost billions of pounds (many of them banks) where we end up not only failing to hold any individuals responsible for losing the money but throwing them wodges of public money to ensure they do not go out of business. We get lots of businesses asking the government to make policy to support their industry (usually at the expense of what their products cost the public) and then fail to pay their workers a living wage or withdrawing their healthcare as a way to force an end to a strike. It is trendy to say Government cannot run anything, that private businesses are a better model for government services. However, for businesses to thrive there needs to be a credible possibility for them to fail (efficiency is not driven by a desire to be the best but a fear of what will happen when a more efficient business cuts your grass). The problem is that you do not actually want a hospital, a school or even a prison to fail. It is rare for such businesses to fail in a clean way where the patients, pupils or prisoners do not suffer in some way. It is also rare for the owners of such businesses to suffer in anything like the same way - the CEO is often out and into another well-paid job as are the board and others. The failure of the organisation seems to stick to them less prominently than it does to the shop-floor workers who may find it MUCH more difficult to find new jobs. I am not saying government run is good by default, indeed there is much that government organisations should take from private businesses in achieving efficient business practice but I think that if a private company wants to dip into the public trough, or commit to providing a public service, then they need to be prepared for a much closer scrutiny of their finances than they would otherwise be prepared to do. A rant, sorry, but the casual use of government-run equating to bad is one of my triggers... Doc

The July 6, 2019 issue of The Economist had a feature article on "The Global Crisi in Conservatism." By which they mean the conservatism of gradualism tradition and social cohesion, not the deranged nationalism that seems to be pushing it aside. Might interest people as a reminder of what "conservative" once meant. Still, it also reminds me that while I appreciate cautious and gradual change, recognizing that people are not infinitely flexible; and I appreciate the need for multiple institutional channels instead of focusing exclusively on the State as a medium for getting things done; I cannot ever consider myself "a conservative." Too often even the mildest and most superficially reasonable, Edmund Burke-style conservatism seems to act as an apology or figleaf for established wealth, power, and irrational prejudice. The same arguments used for "Why we must not disrupt the Traditional Family" or "Why we must accept wealth disparities" have so much the same form as "Why we must preserve slavery" or "Why we must burn heretics." It's like a Mad-Lib where you just plug in different words for whatever institution you don't want to change. Dean Shomshak

Buy the magic as Requires A Skill Based Roll. Buy the corresponding skill. Buy two levels in the skill, Usable Only During Daylight. This achieves the two point difficulty swing without any fancy business on the Requires A Roll modifier, since it offloads the variability to the skill itself.

Tom Hiddleston: The choices we make have a lasting impact. Not just on ourselves, but on those around us. On our communities. Even on the world. When considering the question before us, we must take into account-- Clerk, interrupting: Sir, I just need to know whether you want paper or plastic.

Hero has had MANY rewrites and rulebooks. In addition to the big core books they had the Sidekicks and Basic Rulebooks which were streamlined books of 128 or 138 pages. Champions Complete is yet ANOTHER basic rewrite for only minor changes. The reason that hero is on basic life support and giving up the ghost fast is that it was decided in the past (4th or 5th?) to not provide any kind of campaigns or adventures. Real gamers don't use them and similar tripe. Sure, I still believe the 5th edition and 6th edition genre books are fantastic sources for designing worlds/campaigns. As are the setting books. But none of those products address the HUGE massively glaring missing part of the game. Literally every successful RPG on the market has it, except Hero. PLAYABLE Adventures and Campaigns. Yes, I know. The microscopically tiny remaining gamers that are even aware of Hero insist they "would never use prebuilt". But it is 2019 and the vast majority of gamers simply do not have time to built stuff. That is why D&D packs the house. Many of the people I know that play it don't even like D&D. But it is one of the only games that they can actually play, as in sit at a table and actually chunk dice. Hero has never been hard to play. It has never been overly hard to design characters providing the person doing it has a basic imagination. What has been made into a overwhelmingly daunting task is the requirement for the GM to design everything from practically scratch. Hero does not need Champions Now, Champions Later or Champions Counter Clockwise. What it needs is the minimum support for the existing line. Champions Complete is the current version. Now we need a few STARTER adventures suitable for initial build characters and at least one campaign to help new GM's with a practical and PLAYABLE example of a superworld. The myth that people do not buy or play adventures or campaigns may have been true years ago. But they are majority of product that moves in the here and now. I feel like we are a group of old curmudgeons out in the stable hammering out horse shoes because "Dag-nab-it, them there horseless carriages will never catch on".

They could get Bill Shatner to play it. He has experience.

It is somewhat understandable to immediately equate Nazis only with the atrocities that occurred from 1939-45, but that happened because they were allowed to get to that horrible endgame. Not enough people spoke up in the 20s when they were formed, nor in the 30s when they came to power. The Nazi party was probably dismissed as extremists. They had a measure of popularity because of a strong economy, a narrative that sparked a beaten down populace with calls similar to 'Make Germany Great Again', and a leader that knew just what to say to the lowest common denominator.

Been following this thread for a while now. Nearly posted a few times. Wrote long posts that never got submitted because threads like this are why I left these boards for over a year and now I am back only really post in "Non-gaming" and "General roleplaying" forums. Still, here goes: "Mechanically best" - no idea what that means and care even less. From my point of view 6e changed loads of things in Champions that gave it its flavour; To solve problems I never experienced; Which when explained to me made me wonder if those games had a GM? Worst still, those problems were placed ahead of the real problems that Hero System suffered from, which was all about getting people to play the game. If you spend any time in other gaming forums you will know that the "consensus" is that Hero is Complex, Hero is Slow, GURPS is better. Did we do anything to change that? We produced a big, enourmous, blue book. ? At a time when the market direction was for small and simple and quick and old skool. Great job! Finally I think "The Story of COM" is very representative of where its all gone wrong imo. No new player ever had to ask what COM was. It was a dirt-cheap points sink. It provided 10 minutes of fun at the start of every campaign while we worked out who was the prettiest. Now we have "Striking Appearance" ? I think we built a game that was perfect for a small group of people on this forum, which is unsellable to the general gaming public. Harsh, but I think true. At least we have some pretty covers again.

AIUI he recorded way more than that. Meanwhile,

If we elect produce, we can make America grape again!

(Continued, rough draft so errors will abound. comments still welcome) People assume that if you have a Southern accent you must have grown on a farm. The truth of the matter is while I have family with farms, I am hardly an expert on poultry. Chicken coops stink, I know that much, so after I grasped the immensity of this things size, I then became illuminated to the intensity of the stench that wafted from it as feathers flew. "Oh," I made a face after getting the big man back inside a building, "You are one foul fowl. Now let's calm down, and not eat anyone okay? Nice rooster, good rooster, rather rank rooster" I continued in a voice I hoped sounded soothing while still getting the attention of the Brobdingnagian bird. Not respecting my extensive vocabulary, the damn thing kicked me a good sixty feet in the air and smashed me through the window of a second-floor apartment. There was the shattering of glass, a woman's scream, and I looked up to see an open bathroom door and a woman desperately reaching for a towel. I averted my eyes from her and apologized, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, giant chicken!" I pointed to the window! "That is no excuse! Chanel 3 always said heroes were menaces and I always thought they were too rough on you guys, but I'm starting to have serious," Her eyes drifted to follow where I was pointing "It's a giant chicken!" Her eyes widened as an angry avian approached. "What I said!" I reminded, "Get back in the bathroom, close the door, and lay low." "The size of that pecker is huge," She gaped. I was being so good right now, I thought before saying "Bathroom, lay low. Thanks." And I leapt from the window projecting myself with superstrong legs to punch the chicken right in the head! I hoped to line up the trajectory, so it fell on the street and not the buildings. I didn't quite get the English on it right, and the thing staggered back into a street light! This thing wasn't just big and strong, it could take a punch that would go through steel! And yes, I'm aware some animal lovers would be appalled that I just risked what might have been a killing blow on a chicken. To which I ask if you've ever eaten out of a bucket? If you have, then you have no moral high ground. Zero. Zip. "Cock-a-doodle-do!" I said and made scratching motions as I tried to lead it away. An area with warehouses would be best. Some of those are empty half the year. It's why villains often squat there. I needed to get this thing away from the heavier populated area. Apparently megachicken did not like my scratching the ground, miming a rooster. In fact he really, really, looked quite pissed. "Buh-Ka!" it bellowed and charged. "And here we go," I said breaking into a full run of my own. In the past I've often lamented my lack of mobility compared to some other heroes who can run at superspeed, fly, or even teleport. To compensate for this, I've been practicing my sprinting. Unlike my swimming speed I won't be breaking any records for that. Have you ever tried outrunning a fifty-foot tall anything? Talk about a wide stride, that damn chicken was on me much faster than I intended. I'd barely gotten another quarter of a block. From the window of another building I could see someone using their phone to record me. Well, if I had any dignity in this before, and I'm not sure how I could. Fish Guy runs from Fowl Giant- Film at Eleven. I leaped, hoping to get some more distance. Superstrength in the legs means you can really hop when you have to; but the damn thing caught me in mid air! One moment I was hitting Olympic high jump levels of altitude, and then SNAP there was pain. A lot of pain. The beck hadn't just clamped down on me, it was actually cutting through the skin of the right leg it had trapped and was squeezing harder. What the hell had empowered this thing? I could only imagine what the spurs would do. If I wasn't hurting and embarrassed both, I might have had the presence of mind to joke about getting a leg up in the world, and certainly threats about eleven secret herbs and spices in the fowl's future would surely have flowed. As it was, I wasn't on top of my quip game. Heck, I didn't even think to call the giant rooster 'Chicken not so little' "Let go!" I said and reared my free leg up and plowed it in the side of the face with the force of a wrecking ball. And when it didn't work the first time, I did it again, and again. Third time being the charm the chicken cried out in pain and dropped me. The bird was really at the multiple shots to its head. And I? I plummeted to the ground from nearly fifty in the air, slamming into the street below with all the grace of a bean bag with dreams of flight. I rolled to my feet feeling more than a bit tender. I needed to keep pulling this thing away from the populated areas. Protecting innocents is priority one for the New Samaritans. Even if those innocents are idiots. The news van's lights caught Megachicken's attention right away. That, combined with the movement, really drew its attention away from me. And that was something nobody could afford. Megachicken charged towards this new target and the driver of the van got a panicked look in his face and tried to turn despite the reporter screaming in his ear that they couldn't leave without the story- Smart Driver. I needed its attention again. And to save whatever members of the fourth estate that didn't have the sense to stay away from Poultry that could quite literally bite their heads off. Seizing the bent streetlamp, I tore it all the way out and whipped it around with what I hoped was a challenging bellow and throw it like a drunken Scottish American on steroids at a highland games contest. It struck the back of the chicken where it bent and warped before sliding off the dirty feathers of the beast. I don't know how much the throw hurt it, if at all, but it did cast one baleful eye my way and the chicken chase was on again. I was going slower than before, of course. A wounded leg will do that to you, but at least we were almost at the warehouses and, praise the lord, the news crew wasn't closing in again. They can be taught. I also noticed the chicken was shaken a little, maybe not as quick as it was before after all. That was gratifying. When I kick something in the head, it keeps the old ego bolstered to know said kick is having an effect. That said, it was still gaining again. Possibly because I was challenging it. "Hey, Buhkaw!" I said over shoulder and held up my hands over my head in what I hoped looked like a bristling comb mimicry. "BuhKaw!" Megachicken thundered back. No, he did not like this challenge at all. I made another jump, well, hop, towards the warehouse avoiding falling under another talon lash. One more jump and we were in the warehouse parking lot. Not a car was in sight, no lights in the building were on. I was safe to cut loose and then some. I turned around and this time when the damn bird tried to kick me, I ran under its legs and took a shot at the right drumstick while the left was upraised. Tough this thing was, but it still needed support and balance. So Roostersaurus came a tumbling down. I nearly got pinned underneath it. Wouldn't that be a hoot? But I had room to move now. I could cut loose, and let me tell you something, aching leg or not? It felt good! Another leap, another punch to the creature's head and this it felt! Only feathers were really masking the massive bruises I was now inflicting on this thing. It began to stand up, I tore feathers on my way to prevent myself from falling. They were slick, stinky, and gross and I was going to need a shower after this. I gave him a belly shot on my way down and it staggered again even as I landed. "That's right, big guy, I've been going easy on you up till now," I grabbed a leg, braced, and exerted myself. I was about to lift something heavier than a post office building. I should know, I had a basis for comparison. I lifted megachicken up off its feet! And was already to flip it on its back again! What happened next, I did not expect. I should have, but I didn't. There was an intense rush of wind, a foul-smelling torrent of air, accompanied by sounds akin to muffled thunder, and I? I was rising off the ground. There was a good reason for that. The now panicking chicken was trying to fly! I don't know if whatever had increased its wing size had made it possible, but by the Spirit of the Colonel himself, the damn thing was taking off. And taking me with it. This is my life. "Oh, come on!" I called out as we took to the air together. We were going up, up, and over the warehouse I had worked so hard to lead it to. Then we began to go down again. I don't know. Maybe the chicken got tired. Maybe the forces of science finally noticed and said: This is just too much. No. Just no. So here we were about to nest on a warehouse. There was no way that roof was going to hold her weight. I guess it wouldn't be superheroing if there wasn't some property damage. Still, I winced as I dropped down to the warehouse, not because my leg was pounding already and landing from that height stung, but because I knew what was happening next. Well, I thought I knew what was happening next. Yes, Megachicken fell down on the warehouse roof. Yes, the roof began almost immediately to buckle and break under it. It flapped furiously and fell through. I could see all that happening. What I didn't see coming was the woman levitating over the chicken, and then suddenly plummeting down like a human cannonball. Once it began, I had quite the show. There was a horrendous crack, and I think said lady gave the rooster a concussion. Its huge eyes widened, and then it went out. The costumed woman slid rapidly at first, then suddenly slowed and drifted through the air like a ghost towards me. Just as quickly she dropped before me, grabbed me to bring my head down, and decided she wanted to steal a good chunk of the oxygen in my lungs as she laid one hell of a kiss on me. "Hi," She said when she parted. I grinned down at her, "Nice costume." What wasn't to like? The costume was green and red, with a few gold touches to break things up. Her emerald top had a V cut edged in gold which showed a tasteful and appealing flash of cleavage but not anything you'd worry about coming part at the first time she got knocked end over end. The red leggings under a gold belt also worked out nicely and, as she wasn't stupid, the boots did not have high heels. It was form fitting and functional, and she even had gloves of gold and green to keep those pesky finger prints from betraying her. The Mask went down to bottom of the nose level. "Thanks I," She made a face at something, "What's that smell?" "That would be the giant chicken you just clambered all over," I said, "And that I was fighting before that." I started to pull her in for another kiss, but she was having none of it. "No, no, sorry, not until we've both had a shower or bath, ugh," a firm shake of the head no. "Are you telling I can't kiss or touch you again because of filthy fifty foot tall rooster?" I raised a brow. "that's what I'm saying," Ariana nodded. Ariana is not a tall woman, and she's pretty, so much to her annoyance sometimes every little thing she does is adorable. Combine that with what I said and, I couldn't help what slipped out of my mouth next. "Gives a whole new definition to cock-blocked" I grinned. She groaned "Okay, you just blocked yourself, I'll decide how long." I grinned at that "Now, you're being mean, miss…" A thought occurred to me, "Wait, what's your superhero name? I mean, I hope you already picked one?" "I sure did," She grinned, "Say hello to the newest member of the New Samaritans, Valorosa!" Ariana, that is, Valorosa, struck an exaggerated heroic pose. "Valarosa? I-" Then the metaphorical lightbulb came on over my head. I had learned some more Spanish words since dating Ariana "Wait, isn't that Spanish for Valorous?" "Si," She dimpled, "Your Spanish is really coming along. Though to be fair that is an easy one. Valorosa is indeed the feminine form of Valorous. I kind of stole his name. It’s a good one, and that jerk certainly didn't deserve it." "Kind of?" I raised a brow, "Does Arctic Fox know about this?" "Know about it?" Valorosa replied, "Who do you think suggested it?" "Of course, she did," I said, shook my head, and began to chuckle. Trust the men girl for justice to get a bit of her own back. You know, normally I don't believe in stealing a superhero's name, but in the end? Valorous had been no hero. He had broken Ariana's arm, in fact, and might have killed her if he felt he had to for his "mission". There are a lot of things I regret in this life. Beating the holy snot out of Valorous and taking his amplifier tech off him? Not even close. And the more I remembered, the more I wanted to punch him again. I could only imagine how rightfully ticked Arctic Fox felt. Yeah, Valorous didn't deserve that name. The Authorities began to come in, firemen, police, and animal control. Exactly what they were going to do with a fifty-foot-tall chicken? I don't know. But the news tonight was going to be interesting. Valorosa was frowning her chocolate eyes intent. I followed the gaze and realized she was looking at the wounds on my leg. "I'll heal up in the shower" I promised. "Mmph," She said, "Another reason for you to take one." "Wash my back?" I grinned broadly. "Eww, no," Then a slip of a smile escaped, "But once you've got the first layer off, I might let you wash mine? Would that be too daunting a task for the mighty Eel?" "It's a tough job," my grin widened, "But a man's got to do what a man's got to do." "My hero" She said dramatically. We left before the press could be allowed closer by the Authorities. Ariana believed, and I had to agree, that fighting a fifty-foot-tall rooster should not be your first act on record as a superhero. The media would get the word on Valorosa another day. The shower was wonderful, thank you, and obviously for reasons that went well beyond getting clean or even regeneration. Ariana likes to complain I rushed the first kiss between us all because we defeated a bad guy together. But she kissed back! About two months into our relationship, we got serious, as in, all the way serious. It was a more mature relationship than I'd been in in, well, perhaps ever, and rather than getting scared about where this was going, I found myself kind of thoughtful about that very thing. Then again, I've been burned by romance as much as anyone else. Don't rush things, Caleb. We had gone to the base, so Mabel chiming in on the wall did not surprise me, "Hey there you two, I'm assuming it's two?" Ariana blush prettily at that, and said "Yes, and you know that. Is the team back from their diplomatic meeting?" "Yes, and speaking of meetings," Mabel hinted, "There's one up in the next ten minutes. All Sammies expected." "We'll be there," I assured "Thanks, Mabel." The light that was active whenever Mabel was 'in' a room went off, and I smiled at Ariana, "Lot can be done in ten minutes." "yes," She agreed, "But can it be done well? Let's get dressed. What we can do? We can get fully dressed in clean clothes," A light pat and it looked like that was the plan despite my hopes. Oh well, can't blame a guy for trying for a round two right? What could I say, I'm flesh and blood, young and male, and I maybe in love with her. This is a combination that leads to romantic poetry or at least bawdy hip hop. But here I was hiking on clothes and making sure I was respectable enough for our little group talk. The base was built into an old mall. At first I was surprised, but after I got over that, I started to realize how brilliant that was. A lot of old malls are dying, but the size is huge, and for those that were closed, they have an area of parking space nowhere near a house or private business. In short, innocents won't be endangered unless we have guests, and most folks don't know about the place. Add to that super tech and this is a really nice set up. And the rooms here are so much nicer than my apartment it is hard not using this place as my main residence instead of the secondary one. The others were waiting in what had once been a food court. Everyone was there, though not everyone was in costume. Lady Obsidian, for example, was dressed in her usual professional classy casual combo. The oldest member of our team, Doctor Vivian Vernon was also our leader. She'd been at this longer than any of us. But even she could be surprised. "A fifty-foot-tall chicken is all over the news, the square cube law has been repealed so often I think it's merely a guideline now" She sighed.

Krypton is NOT in danger, and the council will not hear anyone raising such baseless concerns. Someone one kindly tell Citizen Jor-El to please sit down.

Arepo Is the Goddess of Death and Rebirth. Her geography is Jurmunganger the Long Land, a single narrow twisting continent that encircles the entire Torus - or would if at any given moment 30 to 59% of it were not underwater. Which is sea and which is land shifts according to complex interlocking cycles of varying lengths. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary says now we need to go eat a donut.

There is "role playing", a foreign concept to many new to the hobby. And there is "game", which tends to mean "win or lose". Aligning the game to the role playing so that success is achieved by good role playing is good game design, whether embedded into the system or applied by the GM. If following the genre conventions and playing a heroic character means a lack of success in the game, then the game is a failure. Those heroes who embrace the heroic code, in genre, emerge victorious in the source material. One old article on the Star Trek RPG of the day made two excellent points. First, when offered the chance to embrace certain death in order to save a member of his crew, the Captain will always accept without hesitation. To do otherwise is a failure by the player to role play within the genre. Second, when that offer has been accepted, there will always be a way out, with a successful end to the scenario. To have no such way out is a far greater failure by the GM to role play within the genre. Too often, the GM who cannot understand why his players will not "play within the genre", or "play heroic characters" or whatever terms one wished to adopt, is the problem - his game and GM style penalizes playing within the genre, so his players resist, wishing to "win", and the GM cannot see that the failure to embrace the genre is as much, or more, with his GM style.

Hey guys, my little brother just got his first Music Video made for his song, "The way she says my name." I'd be real pleased if any of you gave it a view

I loved Endgame for what it was: an almost perfectly executed resolution to an epic superhero story arc that included one of the darkest cliffhangers in movie history. And I know it was almost perfect because of how hard people have to work to find something to complain about. Mantis and Shuri didn’t get enough frames in a film that included literally every major character in the MCU? Thor was overweight? Paradoxes resulting from time travel? This was a superhero movie that literally made people weep with joy!

https://ffn.nodwick.com/?p=1897

Of course, the monster I'd most like to be is a dragon. However, I'm not really greedy and all dragons are greedy. So, I'm somewhat slow and methodical, I stay confined to a set area, I'm generally open and honest which leads to a lot of transparency in my life, the people closest to me often say I'm amazingly silent and sneaky for my size, and I've collected a rather large, odd assortment of weapons throughout my life. The monster I'm probably closest to is: Gelatinous Cube

Hi all. I've just updated my primer designed to introduce players (especially D&D players) to Fantasy Hero. You can find it here: https://www.herogames.com/forums/files/file/367-fantasy-hero-primer/ I would have just bumped the old thread where we originally hashed it out, but the fabulous archive feature prevents this. I don't intend to keep updating it on any sort of schedule, but if anyone finds any errors or has any suggestions that don't require too much page count / rewriting I'd be happy to consider them (for instance, I was going through the previous thread and saw someone talking about shield bashing, and added that in).

Spoilered for language

Honestly, this Kavanaugh thing is ridiculous. This is not a sex assault trial. It's a hiring committee. You're looking at a candidate for one of the best, and most tenure-protected jobs on Earth. It's okay to red-flag a CV! that is, and I cannot emphasise this enough, how hiring committees work. . . . It was also so completely avoidable. The Federalist Society maintains a fully investigated, cleared a short list of 10 members of America's obscenely narrow list of papabile, conservative Supreme Court candidates for just this reason, and expanded it to 20 at the President's request. (I bet that it would be a much better list if they were allowed to include graduates from historically conservative schools, but t that's just my wild ass theorising.) Kavanaugh did not make the short list, or the long list, and while there might be other reasons for that, it was no secret that he was a hard-drinking 80s frat bro. If I were the Federalist Society, I'd have excluded him, too! So my advice to the Senate Judicial Committee is, "Do what any hiring committee would do." You had hearings. You found a problem with the candidate. It doesn't have to rise to "no reasonable doubt" standards, because you're not trying to decide whether Kavanaugh belongs in jail. You're trying to decide whether he would be better at the job than a member of the 20 person long short list that came in above him. The answer to that would seem to be, by definition, "No." At this point, the Committee is basically going to the country with the argument, that "We owe this guy a job." And, just to be clear, America does not. Owe. Him. A. Job. .

The flaw in the heroes plan was the failure to have a guy with a bow and arrow.

Invisible plane and all!

Once when my younger sister was in high school, the family went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant. For whatever reason, my sister was in quite a mood. Halfway through the meal she stormed out, only to come back in and yell at us that we better bring her fortune cookie home. Having brought her own car, she left. When the fortune cookies arrived, one of them was slightly open so you could see the paper. I pocketed in and took it to my parents' house. I very carefully peeled open the plastic packaging, then slid the little strip of paper out and examined it. Going to their computer and printer, I matched the font and the point size, printed out a fortune of my own, snipped the paper to fit, and carefully inserted it into the cookie. The cookie went back in the plastic wrapper (though it was still open). When my sister got home about an hour later, she stormed in and demanded her fortune cookie. I pointed to the kitchen table, where a single cookie waited for her. She grabbed it, ripped apart the plastic package, and opened her cookie. Her eyes got wide and her jaw dropped open as she read the cryptic words. "You need to quit being such a huge bitch to your family."

Honestly, they should beg Patty Jenkins to take over, because right now "From the Director who brought you Wonder Woman" is something that might have folks put money down for a DC movie

How's this for a Princess Bride remake?

It's a 5 minute walk from my house to the bar. It's a 45 minute walk from the bar to my house. The difference is staggering.

Confounding variables are the bane of social arguments based on statistical analysis. Do single-parent households cause poverty, incarceration, sexual abuse, etc? Or does poverty cause higher incarceration rates and incidentally make it harder for families to stay together? Or are these all epiphenomena of something else? The correlations do not necessarily show that you can solve these other problems by pressuring parents to stay together. Liberalism is a package deal. Poverty is declining worldwide along with homophobia, institutionalized misogyny, racism, and many other social evils. The connection between free markets and, say, religious tolerance is that it all begins with the liberal assumption that individuals matter more than traditional elites, taboos and social structures. Once you apply this idea in one part of society, it spreads. For instance, women freed from chattel status start their own businesses, increasing the society's net capacity to generate wealth. I will grant you, many contemporary American progressives seem to have forgotten that free markets are a liberal idea -- free people to seek their own benefit instead of locking them into traditional caste occupations, and give them access to property instead of elites locking up all the wealth -- but economic, political and social liberalism do go together and reinforce each other. On this I'll also recommend Acemoglu and Robinson's Why Nations Fail, which discusses this in detail. One of their major arguments is that attempts to combine free markets with social and political restrictions are doomed to fail: Either the authoritarian political system chokes the economy into eventual stagnation and decline, or the wealthier population demands social and political liberalization. The upshot is that when anyone seems to be defending Traditional Order, of any sort, I have my doubts. I think the evidence is pretty strong that breaking Traditional Orders usually produces more good than harm. Dean Shomshak

About 1 Bowie (new unit of measurement)

Another student suggested that we stop referring to a certain group of people as "anti-vaxxers" and start calling them "plague enthusiasts".

If these characters stayed wallowing, I would agree. They didn't. When the occasion called for them to be heroic, they rose to it. Characters who are never challenged in that way aren't heroes, they're cardboard cutouts. And they're the ones who make me yawn. Let's look at Thor for a moment. What led to his depressive period? He lost his lover. He lost his mother. He lost his father. He lost his brother. He lost his closest friends. He lost his home. He failed to protect half his people, and lost them. Through all of that, he kept moving forward, refusing to give up. What finally pushed him over the edge was what he saw as his personal failure to save half the people in the universe. Granted, it took him a long time to find his way back, and he needed help. But in the end when it mattered most, he stood up and fought again.

Some of my favorite moments: Professor Hulk, through the whole movie Geriatric Ant-Man, Baby Ant-Man The Portals opening for everyone who came back Tony meets his dad "Hail Hydra." Captain America with the Hammer The women of the MCU stand together and kick a$$ "And I...am Iron Man." "It's okay, Tony. We're going to be all right. You can rest now."

Quoting myself, simply because last night's game had a classic example of hit location making things fun. PCs were essentially set up to walk (knowingly) into a hard core, criminal, white supremacist biker bar... none of the PCs, for probably the first time ever, are white... things go south pretty quickly... bar fight ensues. The PCs are Jason Bourne level pros, who are on their best behavior and trying NOT to just kill these guys... so initially it is all fisticuffs. We are using modified multiple attack rules, so characters are encouraged to throw not just one attack, but a combo of shots that feels much more like fighting than the "one big swing" typical of HERO champs. Our Haida merc, Jackson Massett, rabbit punches the first guy in the chest as he grabs an outstretched hand and twists him to the ground, sidestepping his second attacker. As the first guy falls back and staggers to his feet, he turns to the second biker and drives a shot into his stomach so hard the guy doubles over, Massett's second punch missing contact over his head, the first guy lunges from a squat swinging wide, going right over Jackson's roll. As the second attacker swings again, Jackson slams his hand up into the man's throat, windpipe collapses and the biker drops like a wet sack. First biker thinks he has position and goes for a bear hug, trying to use his size to overwhelm Jackson, who slips to the side jamming the man's arms inside, then he turns and brings a hard left right at the guy's nose (High Shot). This is where it got really fun, because despiste the high shot roll, it hit the biker in the 7/forearm. The biker threw his arm up just in time... but Jackson's player rolled... and dice were crazy... 26 Stun on 5d6. The player cackled, "Oh man, I punched his arm right into his own face!" which was a perfect example of how an arm shot could end up doing enough damage (to an already woozy dude). And just created a perfect visual image the guy basically punching himself on to his back. That kind of visceral fight just doesn't exist in any other system I've played, with the simple, intuitive nature of the Hit Location chart. Best part of the game, IMO.

Nothing to solve the random mutant hair growth problem in this update though.

It doesn't "have to be" (those are your words and show up nowhere in the article) but it is certainly a reason to be considered. The merit of an artistic work is as much the message it is conveying as the technique and craftsmanship in producing the message as well sa the artfulness and effectiveness of presenting that message. How that art transforms (the whole point of art) is absolutely worth considering.

Clearly, some people are operating on very different narratives. I like to look at it this way: Is illegal immigration a home invasion or a parking violation? Both are violations of law, but most people would say they are of greatly different severity. When people park where they shouldn't, we charge them a fine but we don't revoke their license, confiscate their car and demand massive government expenditure to make sure nobody double-parks or parks in a fire zone again. Neither do we shrug and say that since we can't stop everyone from parking in the wrong place every time, we should just give up and abandon all parking regulations. To me, that describes illegal immigration. People haven't followed the rules, but it's no big deal. Levy a penalty, but give them a chance to re-park somewhere else. A report on All Things Considered claimed that more than half the "illegals" actually entered the country legally but overstayed their visas. So this is nothing more than letting the parking meter run out on your car. Pay your ticket, move on. But clearly, to many people illegal immigration is more home invasion. Strangers have violently entered a place that is theirs to rob them and do them harm. The problem I see with this emotional response is that the country is not your home. Your home is yours. Your country is not. You, individually, do not get to say who belongs and who doesn't. Moreover, you are not, personally, robbed or harmed by the mere act of someone crossing a border without permission. Any harm is likely diffuse and indirect. No matter how intense and visceral the sense of violation, feelings are not facts. Public policy should be carefully considered and made on the most objective grounds possible. Not just because some people are confused about personal boundaries. (Though the point about employers of the undocumented is another issue. Here, I think the harm is quite objective and measurable -- including to the undocumented.) Dean Shomshak