sinanju

If it were up to me, I'd do it this way:

Non-magical powers, innate or technological, are more or less fixed. Spider-Man is fast, strong, sticks to walls and can spin webs. And has a Spidey-sense. That's it. He can't suddenly fly or throw lightning bolts.

Iron Man has a suit of armor that gives him heavy armor, some superstrength, flight, and various weapons. He can swap them out at times, but that's more or less it. He can't stick to walls or become intangible.

Dr. Mystic, on the other hand, has no fixed powers. He has a Magic Pool. From which, given time and/or sufficient other limitations (incantations, gestures, concentration, foci, and so forth) he can produce a vast array of effects. If he wants to have standing powers, he can--but they tie up part of his Magic Pool as long as they're in use. He's not going to have the biggest blast, or the most defense, or be best at anything, really, as long as there's a specialist about. What he is, is FLEXIBLE. He's a utility infielder, who can fill a bunch of different roles depending on what's needed. If the team needs a mind read, he can do it eventually, but if there's a telepath on the team, he's probably better off filling some other niche.

That's my take on it, anyhow. YMMV.

Meanwhile in the DNC...

"We've analyzed the attack, ma'am, and there is a danger. Shall I have your personal shuttle standing by?"

"Evacuate? In our moment of triumph? I think you severely overestimate their chances!"

I have no idea who's going to win in November. None. But I'm reminded of the line: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you, then you win."

Agreed, that was very stupid and annoying.

Seriously. It took Wells/Thawne killing Flash's mother (in front of adult Barry) to help motivate him to stop Reverse Flash. It (apparently) will take Zoom killing Flash's father (in front of adult Barry) to help motivate him to stop Zoom. JFC on a pogo stick! How much convincing does Barry need to actually try to, you know, STOP Zoom? To stop with the half measures and DO IT. Countless people killed on Earth-2. A large number of people killed on Barry's earth...and he still isn't taking this seriously enough. But Now. It's. Personal!

What the heck are the writers gonna do to motivate Barry to stop the major villain next time? He's all out of parents. Well, except foster-dad Joe. It will suck to be him, I'm guessing.

Well, I think Barry has a whole lot more to feel guilty about than Peter Parker, assuming you are referring to Uncle Ben. In Peter's case, his guilt is acquired rather indirectly through the law of unintended consequences. In Barry's case, when he went back in time he actively chose to let his mother die rather than save her. Now, I happen to agree with the speed force when it suggests (Socratically) that Barry's mother would not have wanted him to die in her place, but his guilt is of a much higher order than Peter's.

He should feel guilty about not wrapping his father in duct tape like a mummy in the fraction of a second it would have taken him. The police would have had a hard time convicting him of murder when he was clearly unable to move. I'm just sayin'....(It was literally the FIRST thing I thought of when he got to the past and was unable to save him mom. "Well, at least Dad won't go to prison!")

Yeah, for the most part the good guy characters on the show have gel'd pretty nicely. It's been the villains that have been the weak link (in terms of being uninteresting and/or lame) most of the time. Hopefully we'll get a better caliber of villains in season two.

Mostly. I really live Livewire, though. I know I've said it before, but every time I see her I think she's Holly Hunter (or a relative) at first look. And she's fun to watch. I'd like to see her continue to recur as a villain.

I'm pretty sure he says they have no way at all to get there. Much as I enjoy the show, that episode had some big writing problems.

 

If he thought it wasn't a reliable way, but he had been to other earths by running, he absolutely puts no effort into getting help working out a way to do it. But really, the entire tone of the episode was that he thought he couldn't get there at all. The Supergirl crossover is like a nonexistent blip. We assume that's where he was, but his insistence that without the portals, there's no way to get to Earth-2 are a bit at odds with our knowledge that he was probably just on another Earth.

 

That said, if writing problems could kill the Flash, the comic book would have died years ago.

The answer is intuitively obvious!

THIS Flash, OUR Flash, the one we watch each week on the CW, didn't visit Supergirl's earth. That was ANOTHER Flash from another earth, very closely aligned with the one we see, but not the same one.

See? Easy!

I gotta say, I was siding with Wells in this last episode. "What more do you need!?" 

Giving up his powers to Zoom was beyond stupid. Playing Hamlet for most of this episode, while Zoom (and his minion) ran around terrorizing and murdering people, was even worse. I fast-forwarded through most of the relationship dreck and heartfelt talks between Barry and Joe and Barry and his dad. I. Just. Didn't. Care. This whole plot was just too dumb for me to get invested.

The only character who seemed to have a clue--besides Wells--was Zoom. Ain't no flies on him. He saw lightning flaring over Star Labs and he knew IMMEDIATELY what they were up to and ran off to stop them.

So, Barry's

 

speed goes to Jesse Quick and Wally West, and Barry becomes a Speed Wraith trying to grab onto any passing time-traveler to get back?

 

 

Y'know this would be a really cool time for a

Supergirl return-the-favor crossover

 

Yeah, that would be great. But...good luck with that.

Pretty sure we're getting one.

Baron Helmut Zemo's confirmed for this movie, played by Daniel Bruhl.

 

 

I still don't expect that to make everything okay again. This whole film seems to be predicated on the principle that actions have consequences.

Those ideas are not mutually exclusive.

There's an excellent fantasy novel by Steven Brust, TO REIGN IN HELL. It's probably my favorite fantasy novel. It's about how Lucifer rebelled against God, and why. I won't spoil it, except to say that there IS someone to blame for the split between Lucifer and God (Yahweh) in the novel, someone pursuing his own selfish agenda and putting these two long-time friends and allies at odds.

The thing is, they're all proud individuals, and by the time the real culprit is exposed, too much has been said and done--by everyone--for everything to go back to the way it was, no matter how much everyone would like it to.

So if, for instance, someone IS behind the conflict in Civil War, even if he/she gets exposed, too much betrayal, violence and death may have occurred for things ever to be the way they were before, even if both sides were doing what they thought right and wish it could be forgotten and forgiven.

Avatar Masks? When you put on the mask, you become the avatar of...whatever. Your "true" self, or your "idealized" self or however you want to look at it.

Nah, I've been of the opinion that ain't nobody gonna turn this ship around, no matter who they are.  We're past the point of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, its almost vertical.

Yeah, I...kinda feel the same way sometimes. I'm constantly reminded of something I read a long time ago about how democracies have a lifespan of about two centuries, historically, before they devolve into anarchy and/or a dictatorship. Or first one and then the other. And then there's the quote I can't quite remember about how democracies last until the public learns that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury....

By either measure, the USA as we know it is living on borrowed time (and trillions of borrowed dollars that we'll never be able to pay back).

On the other hand, there's the argument that life for the average human being has never been longer, happier or safer in human history, thanks to free markets (which can be but aren't necessarily the same as capitalism) and the explosion of wealth (and thus of improved technology and infrastructure) we enjoy. So maybe it's race between those two impulses.

Sometimes I feel optimistic and wish I could live for centuries to see what the future holds. Other days, I suspect that centuries from now, they'll look back on a golden age of freedom and wealth before the world slid back down into the endless squabbling for scraps that occupied most of human history.

I've played in a game where one player bought an attack with the Trigger (Instant Reset, etc) effect so that, basically, he got an Attack of Opportunity (as in D&D) on any and every foe who passed by him in combat. It was ridiculously overpowered and game-balance breaking, but I wasn't the GM....

It left a bad taste in my mouth and I doubt I'd allow much of anything with a Trigger effect any more.

Yeah, Barry was exceptionally stupid in this episode. But so were the writers.

How did Flash and company know Zoom would leap through the wormhole ASAP? How did they know he could detect them? How DOES Zoom obviously know when they appear? The first one didn't open right in front of him--he ran to where it was just beginning to open.

What was Barry's endgame? Was he going to kill Zoom (the only way to really stop him for good)? No, of course not. Imprison him? Zoom can vibrate through solid objects better than Barry does. And that assumes Barry can capture him. So, yeah, Barry is finally as fast as Zoom, or maybe even faster. So what? Speed isn't everything--unless your advantage is so overwhelming that the other guy doesn't have a chance (and Barry isn't that much faster). Strength, combat experience and ruthlessness (helloooo, PSYCHOPATH!) matter as much or more. For that matter, Zoom isn't nearly as deadly as he could/should be. One flickering pass and everyone would be dead before they hit the floor (well, everyone except Barry, since dead speedsters apparently have no more speed force in them...though I'm not sure why).

And giving up his speed to pacify Zoom? Stupidest thing he's ever done, bar none. Let's make the only person on the planet with a prayer of stopping Zoom give up his powers to make Zoom even faster. Yeah, there's a good idea. NOW what's your plan, Barry? What if Zoom forces Cisco to open another portal back to his earth, then vanishes through it, TAKING CISCO WITH HIM. Good job breaking it, hero. Zoom can continue terrorizing his earth, Barry is left permanently powerless, and Cisco is a hostage or dead. Plus, fast as he is now, Zoom can go bedevil Supergirl and who knows how many other heroes in how many other universes. HE doesn't need Cisco to open portals for him now.

Next week looks to be the "Barry tries to be a hero despite his lack of powers" episode, and I probably won't bother with it. The stupid, it burns. Plus, as I said somewhere (here or the AOS or Supergirl threads), I watch this show to see the FLASH fight crime, not Barry Allen, Mere Mortal. Do the writers really think he needs another lesson in how important The Flash is to Central City and/or the world? Apparently so. And, you know, maybe they're right. He threw that away pretty darn quick to appease a psychopath who might well murder all the hostages (and Barry) afterward just because he can.

Edited to add:  Oh yeah, what was ZOOM's endgame? How, exactly, did he intend to steal Flash's speed all along, given that it required the (grudging) assistance of Harrison Wells and his magic-tech to do it? How had Zoom planned to do it?

I really want to like this show. Really, I want to LOVE it. Melissa Benoist is really charming (and cute) and fun to watch. I even like Cat (though I hated the idea of the character in the beginning). And nobody can convince me that Cat doesn't know Kara and Supergirl are one and the same; she just backed off and pretended to be convinced otherwise when she realize just how desperate Kara was to keep her secret.

But...I find myself fast-forwarding through more and more of this show. It's just painful how badly written so much of it is. Kara can't catch three falling people? Iron Man caught eleven (yeah, they started higher up, but he doesn't have superspeed). Kara's sister Alex with a Kryptonite sword should be no challenge whatsoever. Do we remember when the Flash visited only a few episodes back, and they were pretty much on a par when it came to superspeed? Kara should be able to slap that sword out of her hand (using a telephone pole or a street sign if she doesn't want to get too close) before Alex can blink. Or throw something at it with super-accuracy. Or eye-laser it until it's too hot to hold. Or....any number of things. There are SO MANY things Kara should be able to handle without breaking a sweat, but can't because the writers are idiots. Or think we're idiots. Or both.

The nonsense about Kara not being able to fly in outer space is just...it may be the straw that broke the camel's back. Clearly they desperately wanted Alex to be able to rescue Kara, so they had to come up with some idiotic reason why it would be necessary. Plus, the villains have been hiding out in Fort Rozz all along?

When the government knew about it? Because, clearly, there's no possibility that the US government wouldn't be ALL OVER that 100,000,000 ton chunk of ALIEN ULTRA TECH like stink on a monkey from day one.

I'm still watching, but (assuming it gets picked up for a second season), I don't know how longer that will be true.

"You won't be able to generate thrust or to breathe."

"Alex...I don't think you really understand how I fly."

"How DO you fly?"

"Uh...I'm not actually sure of that myself. All I know is that I'm violating Newtonian physics when I do it. I don't need air to push against. And as for breathing--I can hold my breath for a long, long time. Long enough for sure to [REDACTED] and save the world."

I believe stealing another speedster's Speed Force is a pretty established shtick in the Flash comics.

 

I think it's usually done by direct manipulation over the Speed Force by the more powerful speedster, vs. using a device as on the show.

 

Speed Force users don't seem to have innate on their powers, just varying levels of power defense.

Yeah, I forgot to add that I know this is in keeping with the Flash comics, but I still hate it. And Flash isn't the only movie/tv show to do this. Almost ALL superhero/SF with powers shows do it too, at some point.

Yeah, the DC universe deserves better than what the Berlanti crew is producing. It's sad, really.

 

Compare the latest episode of Flash to the latest episode of SHIELD, and you can see that both of them are setting up the final episodes of the season. Both needed for bad stuff to happen, to that end. But in the case of SHIELD, you see a competent team outmaneuvered by an unfamiliar enemy and his covert agent. In the case of Flash, you see a bunch of dummies doing dumb things so the writers have something to write about for the next episode.

 

Neither show is perfect, but the contrast is just so stark sometimes. It's very sad. Because, again, the DC universe deserves better.

Yeah...I was very disappointed by the most recent Flash episode. It doesn't help that the recurring theme on this show for two seasons now has been the relentless efforts by Flash's enemies to "steal his speed". It plays directly into the trope I hate ever so much in so many comics and genre tv shows--the idea that superpowers are like a liquid that can be quickly and easily poured from one vessel into another. Ditto for "oh noes--the hero has lost his powers! how will he ever defeat the villain du jour?"

I don't care. I don't watch The Flash to see Barry Allen, Mere Mortal fighting supervillains. I watch it to see THE FLASH fight supervillains.

And did I mention how much I hate the "superpowers can be quickly and easily transferred" trope? I HATES it, I does. In my mind, your superpowers are every bit as much a part of you as the color of your eyes or your skin the number of fingers and toes you have, and just as impossible to steal. Yes, those *can* be damaged or even destroyed, but it doesn't mean someone else can suddenly acquire them (except, perhaps, as grisly trophies). 

Gah....

So there's this game, Crossfire. It's a WWII skirmish game. But it has a really interesting rule I think would be loads of fun to play with. Alas, my minatures wargaming days are sadly few and far between these days.

Anyhow, the rule in question really makes this game different from most wargames. It works like this:

One side is chosen to act first (either at random or based on the scenario). Player A can move any one of his units up to it's full move. If the enemy doesn't react, he can move that unit or another one (his choice) again. And again, and again, until the enemy reacts*. At which point, IF the enemy's fire is effective, it stops that unit at the point in their movement where the reaction fire occurred, and may cause casualties or morale effects and so forth and the initiative passes to Player B. HE may now move a unit, or units, until and unless Player A reacts effectively. If the reaction fire is ineffective, the reacting unit may not act again this turn, and the initiative stays with Player A.

Initiative passes back and forth in this fashion until one side or the other accomplishes their objective. It keeps both players engaged through the whole game; the active player is trying to maneuver and accomplish his mission, the reacting player is watching for opportunities to seize the initiative (with EFFECTIVE fire) and pursue his objectives.

I keep wondering it's possible to adapt some variant of this rule for Champions. So Villain A is terrorizing the people of Townsville when Hero A flies in and lobs an energy blast him. If he hits, and stuns the villain or does knockback (or whatever criterion counts as "effective" fire), then he can strike again. And possibly again and again. Until he misses, or his attack is ineffective, at which point Villain A can strike back, or move and hold the initiative as long as possible. If they're evenly matched, they may just trade blows pretty regularly.

Throw some allies in on either side, or armed minions, and it becomes really chaotic. Any given character who makes an ineffective attack is out of action until the initiative has passed back and forth at least once. So having teammates helps a lot, especially if you're facing several opponents (who could otherwise pour concentrated fire you unopposed, which isn't necessarily unrealistic even if it's not much fun). It also means an army of minions has some use. It would certainly make combat more fluid. It would also make OCV/DCV disparities more potent. If you almost always hit (or almost always avoid being hit) you can hold (or seize) the initiative pretty easily, which, again, may not be unrealistic, but may not be much fun for the other side.

I dunno. What do you all think?

*If Player B has arrayed his forces poorly, it is sometime possible for Player A to accomplish his objective uncontested because Player B's forces are never able to spot or effectively fire on his troops. Fortunes of war.

Singing

 

"Oh Twinkie, your so fine, your so fine you blow my diet, oh Twinkie, Oh Twinkie..."

"A twinkie thirty-five feet long, weighing approxmately eight hundred pounds."

"That's a big twinkie."

All of the calculating and rolling on this thread strikes me as missing the forest for the trees. In my experience, anyhow, we ditched the SPD chart to simplify combat and for no other reason. And I thought that was the reasoning behind the question in the original post. Adding a randomizing element, even if it's only one D12 roll at the start of combat to determine the segment on which combat begins (to say nothing of everyone rolling every segment to see if they act) would add to the complexity.

And for some people, that's a feature, I understand. For us, it would be a bug. If I'm going to use the SPD chart (and in some games I will), I'll just use the SPD chart as written, with no house rules.

As it becomes less and less likely that Trump will reach 1237, we're starting to hear more about the truly Byzantine rules of the GOP convention.* The latest is that the eventual nominee must have won at least eight states--a condition which only Trump has met so far. I'm unclear as to how many states Cruz has won, but he's definitely not up to eight yet, and I'm not sure if he's likely to win any of the remaining contests.

 

* Seriously these guys make the rules to Star Fleet Battles look like pickup sticks by comparison.

Yeah, I heard about that. I also heard that the Republican Party will be having a meeting prior to the convention...at which they could change the convention rules. And they very well might. If Trump is the only candidate who's won eight states, they could drop that requirement so as to make it kosher* to choose another nominee.

*For certain values of 'kosher' of course. The Trump crowd are likely to see that as a huge FU to their candidate, and to them. And they wouldn't necessarily be wrong. But quite aside from the overt desire of the GOPe to nominate anybody but Trump, logistically if Trump doesn't win on the first ballot and other candidates are offered, they wouldn't technically be viable under the current rules.

My most recent CHAMPIONS game was run without the speed chart. Everyone (including normals) had a SPD 4 for purposes of determining the Post-Segment 12 recovery time.

Characters acted in order of DEX, breaking ties by alphabetical character names. I thought it worked quite well. There was no confusion about who moves when, and combat moved pretty quickly. Admittedly, I had no Speedsters in the game, but I don't think that would have been a problem. Instead of buying up your SPD, buy a high DEX (so can go first) and spend those points on powers that simulate superspeed (AOE punches, very high running or teleport, Change Environment, and so forth).

For Flash effects and the like, characters bought the dice as normal, but we counted the BODY like a killing attack to determine duration (i.e., 3d6 of Flash would average 3 turns, max 6).

He's already backed out of the RNC loyalty pledge during CNN's Town Hall on Tuesday.

Given that the Republican Party has made it pretty clear that many of them would prefer a Hillary victory over Trump, and that they're doing everything in their power to derail his campaign and/or to deny him the nomination at the convention, I see no reason why he should feel bound by that pledge. 

Whip out a knife, grab my ear, put the knife up to it and shout, "This is a job for...VAN GOGH!"

Then look at my teammates and say, "What? I can't paint. We need a painter. Who do you know?"

The sudden change of heart the "public" showed at the end was rather forced and I didn't buy it any more than I bought the sudden anti-Supergirl attitude they adopted previous to it. I'm glad they can just move past that whole clumsy plotline and (hopefully) forget about it. I also didn't buy that Supergirl would just shrug her shoulders at Alex (and Hank) being missing. Especially knowing what she knows about Cadmus.

 

I also thought Banshee's costume looked pretty silly. Mostly because it came out of nowhere. I wasn't expecting a "supervillain makeover montage" or anything, but her entire look was one of the most over-the-top gimmicky looks I've seen on the show, and it just made her look like a joke. Oh, and did they switch actresses for Livewire?

 

But other than that the episode was great. If anything, it made me wish Barry could have stayed there for a few more episodes.

No, I'm sure it's the same actress playing Livewire--because every time I see her, I think, "Holly Hunter?" She resembles Hunter (imho--yours may vary) in appearance, mannerisms and voice. So much so that the first time she appeared I wondered if she were a relative. But apparently not.

I liked the crossover a lot. Didn't love it. The "Bonk bonk bad grup!" plotline (Jimmy is jealous of Kara and Barry) was way too heavy-handed. And they made a big deal of Kara's team would help Barry get home--but all it took was Kara running really fast and throwing him....

Silver Banshee's costume...yeah, it really didn't work.

But all the interactions between Kara and Barry...that was gold. (Clearly, Melissa and Grant are good friends in real life too.)