Christopher

What better sport then racing like in "Ready Player one"? Thanks to it being a virtual world, death is not permanent. However thanks to the rule that you loose all money for others to pick up if you die, it is also not without consequences. There is a lot of room to tailor consequences if it is a virtual world.

Wich brings us back to Australia, because they do it for years. As if people fleeing from literal death to war or starvation would be detered by that.

I think the same rule as Arachnophobia applies: "It was not supposed to be a Comedy!"

It was their database of "everything in the Universe". Curated over 1000 generations. And she was the Bibliothecary. Even the Notion that someone might have deleted it was foreign for the Jedi:

So, how is it built? Entangle? Blast? Mind Control? What modifiers?

This is how they explained that in SGA: Especially where Ronon ask "How many do you need?" indicates he has a lot of them. Way past the 5 point doubling rule and propably into IIF territory. Inobvious because they are hidden. Inaccesible because you need around 1 minute of search and take to "get them all".

My point was that my brother was simply a power gamer. Someone that wanted the powers of a Paladin, but none of the responsbility. This case was not he only instance where he showed this. He showed that tendency over years, but it took way longer then I want to admit it to realize it. There are simply players that are unable to follow even simple rules, because it is not their thing. CvK. Paladin Code. For them are both more or less the same.

Actually lawfull is not about following the law. That my brother ever inpreted it such, was simply him not getting the good part. You are not supposed to go out of your way to destabilze the government/status quo. But sometimes toppling the evil government is the only way. My lawfull dwarfs and monks broke their fair share of laws. There is propably a law (or equal level rule) against outsiders comming into the Ork Warcamp, but you still go there anyway to stop their raiding. The only crime was comitted against the Paladin and his group. And the rest of the group was willing to "forgive and forget". Where no accuser, there no judge. And thus no executioner. The punishment for stealing was not injustice, but it was not good either. The good thing would have been to help them. Personally I think the law/order thing is mostly a modifier about how you got about the other axis. Good/Evil is the major axis. Chaotic Good and Lawfull Good would both help the children. Delivering them was neutral at best. A "evil he could get away with" at worst.

The Study seems to have been about "Impact in Hollywood". So impact on Filmmakers, rather then Audience. By audience Star Wars should have a few leg's up. While not a proper game developer, I did develop a bit of a "Game designers eye" so I can learn something even from a terrible game. So such a game has a "impact" on me. Despite being nothing the users would like to remember.

Unless we are talking about Dark Champions, a KA for me is there to kill Foci and break barriers. Maybe the odd "not sentient" enemy defined with "Takes no STUN". Or designated save enemies like Demons. The issue is that computer games - like D&D - use a single bar to track damage. Hero does not have this flaw. Normal Damage exists to have some way to track damage (STUN damage) without having to track hard to heal body damage. I only know of Hero, Shadowrun and Open Legend to have a dedicated STUN mechanic. Westend Games D6 Star Wars might count too, in a maner of speaking. Most other games have some way to track stun damage against the main HP bar for the odd fistfight, but no actually STUN like damage. My brother once played a Paladin. And he simply did not get the Good part of Lawfull Good. There was this classical scene: Helpless children have to steal to make a living. He caught them. He was supposed to take pity. Adventure hook right there. He instead delivered them onto justice, wich - in line with the setting - cut off their hand. Despite the GM warning him of this. So as a result, the GM took away the Paladin powers. And nope, it was not that my brother wanted to make a redemption storyline. He continued to violate any law of good behavior or human decency in his interactions with NPC's. He simply did not get playing a good person.

The programmer in me views that thinking with disgust. "Databases represent the reality." That is one of the things in DB 101 I learned. That is litterally the arogance of the Jedi. "If it is not in our Library database, it does not exist!"

Ah, the one kind of Nazi not even Hitler likes!

"How to make everything" is a youtube channel. The goal is to make stuff from scratch. It started 3 years ago, with him making a modern sandwitch. It only cost 1500 Dollar and took 6 months. Most of the cost was getting the salt and most of the time is waiting for the plants to grow. He touches a lot of everyday objects: Soap. Paper/Papyrus/Pergament. Refrigation by cutting ice. Of wich most would be classical adventuring gear. He even recently started a sub-series on "making weapons". Indeed "casting a Bronze Sword" just came out yesterday. I thought this might be a interesting resource for GM's. If you ever need to figure out how a smithy should look like, there is a lot of information in there.

It can help to know a guy who might be interested in it. And then just inform that person. I know it would be better if I personally acted on it, but this is the next best thing. At least it is off my mind, and people who are better suited them me can try to make something out of it. I recently learned something interesting about Matchmaking Systems. I am not deeply into game mechanics to use the information. But I watch a certain youtube channel, wich also dealt the ELO matchmaking mechanic. So I dropped him an information on Facebook. If he makes something out of it, I did more then I ever could. If he does not, then I did all I ever could do.

But maybe the island really exists, can shift out of alignment with the real world and the cloaking device was simply not installed/working back in those days?

How about a island that may or may not exist at all? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Island,_New_Caledonia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8pplKAm4Ds

I finally got to see "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" aka Fantastic Beasts 2. Nr .1 was a good standalone film. Something you can follow without knowing more then "mages exist and they are kept secret from the normal world". Nr. 2 is nothing like that. It throws you head first into the complicated lore. It also starts way too many subplots. While I could figure the final twist the moment a certain bird was mentioned, we spend the entire credits just figuring out: "HOW?" I will propably have to read the wiki just to make sense of this.

Cast: Jotunn Ironbeart; Dwarven Marine Ilumaris of House Silverness; Elvish mage taught in Altdorf. Don Philipe [add 4 more names I forgdt]; Estalian Diestory (think Spanish Fencer and minor Nobility) Ralf Bloem; Manaan Priest from Marienburg  Prince Arathion, House Emerald Sea; NPC. Elven mage, prince, explorer and oru contractor When last we talked about our heroes, they had just left a world. But before leaving they had a encoutner of the bad kind. See within the party, there was a certain room. On the door, there were a bunch of Symbols with one standing oddly out. The inside of the room was enticing for more revelry. The kind of enticing that needs a Willpower throw to resist. The symbol in this far off world, in the middle of a orgy, belonged to him. While literally everyone failed the check to see if they knew the Symbol, it did not put our team at ease. Even long after we had returned to the Warhammer world, it was goign through our Diestros head. And it does not help the the player is also a bit oblivious to the rules of the Warhammer wolrd Don Philipe (OOC): I go to the local University Scholar: Good day Sir. How can I help you? Don Philipe: I was wondering if you knew this Symbol Scholar: *Distressed* No sir, I would not know of such a symbol Don Philipe: How would know? It is rather important Scholar: Well, you could ask Dr. Satre about it. if it is really important to you. And yes he goes there. After explaining it where he saw the symbol to Dr. Satre, that one puts on his hat. His pointy hat. His Witchhunter Hat. Jotunn OOC: Did you seriously just call a Witchunters atention onto us? Ilumaris OOC: You know you could have just asked Arrathion, right? Don Philie OOC: Oh. My bad. All: ? GM: I think this is a good time for a cut. Don Philipe OOC: I guess now is a bad time to mention that I will not be here the next session?

Not correct: " If a Focus is Inobvious, it’s not immediately clear where the power comes from. Examples include disguised or concealed weapons (such as a cane-gun or a blaster hidden inside an ordinary-looking glove) or a magic ring that gives no indications of its powers (it looks completely normal, doesn’t glow when its powers are used, and so forth). A character who buys an Inobvious Focus must specify a certain power, Skill, or set of circumstances that allow an opponent to identify the Inobvious Focus (for example, a device built into clothing would be detectable by a search or Infrared Perception; anyone with magic abilities could identify a magic necklace)." the hidden weapon is literally mentioned in the paragraph after the one you read.

"Democracy is the worst government form - except for all the other ones we have tried so far." I do not say it was perfect. I do not say it was good. But it damn well beats any of the alternatives! Episode 4: A new Hope (to not see Porn at Starbucks by accident) Epsiode 5: The (porn) Empire strikes back Episode 6: Revenge of the Porn Admins? In reality it will propably not affect Starbuck that much. Their whole "shtick" is being a meeting place where they sell overpriced coffee. The coffee price is basically just an entry fee. So it is not like they had a choice on the mater.

Any ability that allows them to utterly and effortlessly sidestep the story you had planned is an issue. UBO is noted for it's problem potential. UAA even more so. And with Movement Powers, UAA it is ridiculously high. There is no shame in admitting it was a bad idea to allow that power. There is shame in not admitting it however. You got one cases on the Positive side of allowing healing. And literally this thread on the negative side of allowing healing. You yourself mentioned - again - that the avalibiltiy of healing might cause the lax attitude towards BODY damage. It is a solid asumption. Something I as a player can totally say "jupp, propably".

Is the city really the full base? Or is there city parts beyond the base part? Are there still people/machines in the base? How is the bulk of the city secured against intruders/able to detect intruders? What kind of setting are we talking about? Heroic? Superheroic? In Stargate Atlantis, only the central tower of atlantis was really the "base". The rest of the city was as much setting background, antagonist and adventure location. Not really fully controled by the earth-humans.

If powers like Heal and Teleport UAA are the issues, you have to talk with your players how they are - and then take them away. Or next time have the villain put explosive collars onto them, having heard of this. But of course, that is only another arms-race that you can not win without a "no, it would break the game" at some point. Of course that asumes them doing the "hold them over the edge" was instead of a serious combat challenge. I would feel pretty miffed (and would try to get out of it) if that would happen to me on top of a combat challenge. One of the biggest challenges as GM is to admit a mistake and correct it. But not correcting it will only add more stuff sunken to the "sunk cost falacy": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost#Loss_aversion_and_the_sunk_cost_fallacy In the end, the your time as a Roleplayer in general and your time with these Players in this campaign is a limited resource. Something neither side wants to squander. And we can not do more then tell you to "do it" from the sidelines.

My best answer to both: It depends on the GM. The GM decides how often any Limitation is invoked. Focus is no exception. If I feel he is over-invoking it, I will buy it off. Personally I try to avoid limitations nowadays. I am convinced that any limitation is a request to the GM to put it into play. That and I tend to stock up on too many limitations, because I can cram "a bit more power" into the sheet that way. That is really an issue with me and point buy Systems.

There are enough examples in cinematic and book fiction where a character sees the "bulge of a concealed gun" that most everyone else in the room misses. And equally many cases of "heroic stealth" to get it into such an area. Or "villanious stealth", wich result in only the hero being able to stop this assasin. Just think of Gandalf the White sneaking his staff and that he was a white mage into King Theodens Court. With superheroics I would have no issues with such a simple ruling. It is not like a gun is any more unexpected then someone being revealed to "be a super all along". And it is propably a whole lot less dangerous. Many people would not even take the limitation to begin with. But in heroic the conditions are different. The gun can change owner. Nobody propably paid points for the gun. Buying down a OAF to IAF via a Naked Buyoff" would propably be to expensive anyway. But concealment is a common skill. So we need some proper rules for that. And I think the existing "Obviousnes of power" rules are a good start.