14 hours ago, drunkonduty said:

I agree that using Danger Sense in that way is a huge issue. Unfortunately, it's allowed by the (very vague and general) write up of the talent. 

You do not get to simulate existing game constructs with other powers.

Killing Attack already exists. So you do not get to simulate it using "Transform: To Dead Person".

"Disarm: Time Machine" as a Skill exists (or a corresponding equivalent). So you do not get to simulate it with Danger Sense.

Of course in that scenario the GM (Author) somewhat ignored it, because he just wanted the time machine turned off somehow.

It was a one of adventure in the same setting, but with different Characters. Characters that would not be re-used anytime soon.

So he decided to "let 5 be a even number".

17 hours ago, Toxxus said:

That seems like a way to go bat !@#$ crazy almost immediately.  Over 150,000 people die each day.  Now add in all the people in non-lethal danger and that sense would be going off every single phase until the Hero lost his mind or it went numb. 

The raw perception of your Eyes, Nose, Tongue, Ears and Skin are already filtered and interpreted 24/7.

We do perception Checks so we do not miss something important.

I have issues with my Interpreter breaking down/needing adjustment every time I put on 3D glasses in front of my normal glasses. Or when I put on new/repaired glasses.

The exact same thing happens with Danger Sense. You got an interpreter running, that filters out the irelevant stuff.

Plus even if you do have that information, do you actually have the ability to act on it? You need enough movement to actually do it.

Interesting there is one stuff I have to buy online: Shoes.

US 13, UK 12 or EUR 47.5 is what my feets require.

Indeed my mother used to call my shoes "baby coffins", because they are so large. Especially compared to hers.

Unfortunately the stores all seem to stop stocking shoes one size shy of that. Unless I am willing to drive an hour or so.

11 hours ago, Bazza said:

Since when did this become Creepy Pics II? 

But it is neat that the bear defends them in their sleep!

On 2/25/2019 at 5:34 PM, Sundog said:

It would seem to me that the draft is unconstitutional anyway.  The Thirteenth Amendment bans slavery and involuntary servitude.

On 2/26/2019 at 2:41 AM, Pattern Ghost said:

 

It was already challenged on those grounds. I don't know if it was tried or if it was just rejected. 

The same should apply to any country with a Anti Slavery clause in teh constitution. But germany had the draft way longer then America. Indeed it was only abolished this century.

And I had not been level 4 viability, I would have rejected on reasons of conscience.

That the state has to have some degree of right to infrige on personal freedom is self explaining. Otherwise every prision would be run by Kidnappers.

Usually the infringement is something we accept, so other people do not bash our heads in. If those other people live in our Country (Police is there for this) or another country (Military is there for that) is a trivial detail.

12 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

It was driving me nuts, as I had been under the impression that handguns were outright illegal in Australia, and the character that had the gun was clearly not law enforcement.  Later there were some military or swat types with handguns; that made much more sense.

11 hours ago, Pattern Ghost said:

 If an Australian has a handgun as a member of a shooting club, does the gun need to be stored at the club, or may they keep it at home?

You are allowed to keep guns at home in Britain and Germany. Both countries known for pretty strict gun laws.

Now China is a country with really strict gun laws. For obvious reasons.

13 hours ago, Christougher said:

I deliberately avoided describing the race for two reasons.  First being the name of the race carries some connotations that aren't relevant to the discussion, and second, the race is still a work in progress itself.  I'm open to stealing from the suggested ideas, though they will remain humanoid and a PC-playable race, so the four arms and whiptailsword probably won't make it, I can save those details for an appropriate monster. 

Knowing that they are "Rubber Forehead aliens" does help a lot and was the one thing we really needed to know.

On 2/25/2019 at 8:41 AM, archer said:

Security guards are usually hirelings of some kind rather than bank officials.

In the age of outsourcing, we do outsource security.

In pre-outsourcing eras, a fixed employee was often more beneficial. Especially for a security relevant position like guarding, loyality is fundamentally important. A fixed emplyoee is just one way to get that loyality.

I mean "Knights" and "Nobles" evolved from professional warriors that were bound to their lord via land as a "Loyality building measure".

And way before that, we had the post marian reforms Roman army, wich used a similar cosntruct. Wich unfortunately ended up with armies more loyal to their general, rather then the roman state. Wich lead to ample Civil wars.

20 hours ago, Doc Democracy said:

I have an instinctive dislike of the combat luck in play.  It is effectively indistinguishable from normal armour under all but the odd occasion and players are likely not to play it as if they could be hurt in a combat.  They play to the defence they can rely on whether that is "luck" or "tin plate". 

I asumed that was it's point. Providing a defense that was really hard to take away in Heroic games, but at the cost of Character points.

And additional GM scrutiny for the totals, of course.

18 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

This kind of discussion probably wouldn't ever take place had it not been built into an official power that now everyone wants to have an excuse to take.  If it was never in the rulers and was just a player who said "my character just really good at avoiding damage that they're aware of" the discussion would be a completely different sort.

Actually this might have started way earlier. Look at the D&D monk:
Can not use armors. But do get their Wisdom modifier to AC.
Rather then just buffing the DEX derived AC bonus, they inveted a totally new mechanic to more closely resemble armor.

If I wanted to translate a monk to Hero with the differences in how armor works, I would use combat luck for that part.

6 hours ago, tkdguy said:

"Far out, man!"

 

"No, it's FarFarOut!"

Ah, so that is where all the "in a Land far, far away" stories take place?

On 2/25/2019 at 8:01 AM, tkdguy said:

Remember this toy? Good video overall, despite a few stupid comments.

 

 

I had some experience with MILES gear when I tried ROTC. My M-16 kept jamming.

To quote the Alien from "Humans are Space Orcs" on Youtube:
"WHAT IS IT WITH HUMANS AND LASERS???"

20 hours ago, Toxxus said:

 

The issue really comes down to timing.  Being able to break out of the entangle isn't the issue since it will be re-applied the next round - or at least is likely to be.

 

The boss being DCV 0 while most of the characters take a phase to bash it senseless isn't alleviated by the boss breaking loose and then being paralyzed again for a 2nd phase of bashing.

I often consider Entangle to be a form to "detached Grab". They pretty simialr rules. There is however one diffference:
You get a instant, free Casual STR roll to defend against a Grab (same way you get your DCV). You do not get the same against entangle.

Wich is why the APG part mentions the option to allow said instant, casual STR/EGO rolls against entangles as well, should the players abuse it like that

Nevermind. Was answered.

On 2/25/2019 at 7:16 AM, Jhaierr said:

I've been buying more board games lately. Unfortunately, the difference in price between online stores and my local board game store are pretty wide: a $10 difference or even $25 on the bigger, higher-priced games. The local store appears to just have everything set at standard retail price. Meanwhile, I can easily find a lower price online with free shipping. I'm not even referring to Amazon. I mean like CoolStuffInc and other places online.

The local store has additional Operating Costs. Most likely rent, for having a "store friendly location". Those prices have to be translated into sell prices. Also if you do sell less, you have to increase the prices. If you do not do that, your business will fail.

I got enough additional economics teachings to understand the reasons behind it and how it is unavoidable. I can even do the math for it. The actuall ratio at wich Operating cost is put on each item is a mater of experience data from previous years, however.

That online retailers negatively affect local stores is simply a unavoidable nature of progress. Local farming was hurt badly by refrigeration and transport improovements as well.

The difference of course is that not enough new (local) jobs are created with this latest transition of work. It is uncertain if the demographic change will counter this.

3 hours ago, Sundog said:

It's difficult but not impossible to legally buy a handgun here. You have to show need (which can be joining a shooting club) and jump through a lot of bureaucratic hoops and background checks. That said, it's a lot easier to get a rifle, especially a bolt-action or lever action. Semi-autos are hard. 

Considering that part of the Education Sytem runs over the Radio (because some children just live that remote), it is udnerstandable that Australians in some parts of the country need a high degree of Autonomy.

I still remember a tidbit where some households used washing machines as mailboxes. Because they needed to drive to the next road and needed the capacity to store weeks worth of mail.

Owning a firearm because the police would need a hour to reach you just makes sense. And Australian gun laws do seem "common sense".

20 minutes ago, archer said:

 

That's exactly what I was afraid of when they reinstated Selective Service in 1980. There's no particular reason to exempt women except that "it's the way we've always done it" and I thought it was clearly unconstitutional even at that point in time. 

 

I don't mind women joining the military voluntarily. I don't mind women serving in combat roles. But I'll admit that I'm a dinosaur enough to mind women getting drafted then thrust into combat roles when they don't want to be there. I'm not thrilled about men being drafted then thrust into combat roles when they don't want to be there (though I can see some scenarios where the country might need more men than volunteerism could quickly provide). I much prefer an all-volunteer force of professionals who've been well-trained to a perhaps larger force of people who don't particularly want to be there and who've been half-trained.

 

I don't see how you can keep women indefinitely out of being drafted for infantry combat roles. Eventually the disparity in treatment between men and women will come up in the courts and some judge at some point will rule that unwilling girls have to be slogging through the jungles of Vietnam alongside the boys.

I only see a general issue with Draft, not with drafting women.

That specific laws like this differentiate between the genders is simply a form of "leftover sexism".

And it does take out one big argument of the anti-feminist/sexist groups.

On 2/18/2019 at 4:09 PM, Hermit said:

 

I think this should count for a severe reduction in sentence time.

They were already low security prisioners on work detail.

Any more reduction of the sentence could end up with them going scot free, potentially disrupting the whole "learning not to do crimes" part.

On 2/21/2019 at 6:07 PM, Starlord said:

Jussie Smollett arrested, charged with felony

 

First of all, innocent until proven guilty, of course. 

 

This is pretty awful.  Damages REAL victims, many of whom already have problems getting people to believe them, wastes valuable taxpayer money and police time/resources, and anti-LGBTQ and race-baiters something to crow about. 

On 2/21/2019 at 7:17 PM, Hermit said:

 

Yeah, hard to remember that "innocent until proven guilty" bit sometimes, our nation seems very quick to judge and eager for blood these days.

 

But if he did do this, yup, a lot of harm.

There is a huge gulf between "the presumed perpetrator not being charged" and "you getting charged for making up a crime".

On 2/21/2019 at 7:47 PM, archer said:

Back when I used to do political activism and blogging, I advocated, at the very least, that the agency which confiscated the money should NEVER get any of the money. Law enforcement agencies shouldn't have a profit motive for going after real crime, much less have a profit motive for going after innocent people. 

Personally I am unsure what the german law says on that mater. Prior to 2017, it was often to hard to take the money from Criminals at all. It aactually required a seperate process. But in 2017 we reformed the law, thus we have limited information about abuses.

16 hours ago, Cygnia said:

Scientists Have Proven That The 'Disputed' Female Viking Warrior Really Did Exist

Warrior Women already existed in Mythology and where somewhat of a know viking fact outside of sexism circles.

And this despite (or because?) the Vikings seeming to love abducting women from every place they raided.

On 2/23/2019 at 7:15 AM, Badger said:

Yeah, I didn't like the first few episodes.  Though, I don't know if I didn't like the early storylines or the fact I still had a very negative attitude towards the idea of CGI cartoons at the time.  (CGI still felt extremely clunky and uncanny valley like to me at the time) 

 

Edit: And I maintained a hatred of Enzo until his adulthood. (though adult Enzo's brooding could get occasionally insufferable, although understandable due to circumstances)

I am unsure if "uncanny valley" is the proper term here. It specifies a specific case where something is too lifelike to be seen as artificial. And thus all the parts where it appears artificial are magnified/highly noticeable:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K1Kd9mZL8g

ReBOOT was too clearly artificial to truly be fall into that valley. It was too far up on one of the hills to be in the valley.

On 2/22/2019 at 3:46 AM, assault said:

Incidentally, while (pre-modern) Tuaregs had bows and javelins, their main military weapons were lances and swords. 

The lances we think off usually (for knights) and general Heavy Cavalry are a rather modern development. It required the Stirrup. Before it, the only cavalry we had was light.

And there could be huge quality differences between Roman or average Greek Cavalry and stuff like Numidian or Macedonia cavalry. Battle and war deciding differences.

On 2/22/2019 at 9:32 PM, Spence said:

What is the new race?  Are they humans in a rubber mask ( i.e. Dwarves, Elves, etc.) or something else.  

 

If they were a kind of lizardman then their vicious and deadly "tail sword" with its needle sharp stabbing point a vicious slashing edge. 

 

The deadly tribal desert warriors engage with their hide sheild and assagai, dazzling the inexperienced foe with their fast and fluid probing attacks. Only to strike suddenly with their long whip like tail with its deadly tail sword.  Many an unsuspecting warrior has died with torn throat or by being disembowled from below their sight line.

 

Two factors in this era of warfare are often ignored:

Stealth/Scouting (wich includes communications) and Logistcs.

Trible Warriors tend towards winning more on the Stealth/Scouting game.

Meanwhile roman and greek armies were comparatively not as good at those games. But their logistics was leagues above the Tribals.

Both of those heavily affect how warriors are clothed, both during marching and combat.

On 1/26/2019 at 1:16 PM, Christopher said:

Something I like for Prophecies is the Uncertainty Principle:

the uncertainty principle, a way of dealing with Predictions and Prophecies in RPG's that no amount of player activity or inactivity can break

 

Use it as the base rule, and I doubt any player can break it.

Dangit, apparently that Post of mine was hit by the Database purge. Luckily it seems to be the only one and I do remember it well enough to re-create it.

On 2/22/2019 at 7:24 PM, Chris Goodwin said:

I think the disconnect with is in how we're reading it, and in whether "missing" in this case is a mechanical effect or special effect.  I've all along been reading "you just missed" as a special effect.  Also I always read the emphasis on "just" as in "you just (barely) missed", not as in "ha ha, missed me!"

If a bullet bounces off your armor without even dealing stun Damage, effectively the enemy "missed" you.

Unless Ablative or "Endurance Cost based on damage blocked" Armor is in effect, it is the same end result mechanically.

But even a bouncing/stopped shoot can still do STUN. People in Movies nowadays remark how they still feel the bullet being stopped by the "bullet proof vest".

On 2/22/2019 at 3:10 PM, Toxxus said:

This rant has inspired me to alter Combat Luck to not work against the first point of BODY damage like a build option that was posted earlier. 

 

I like the idea that it is more rolling with the punch or "almost" dodging the attack better than outright immunity.

So a sort of inverted Impenetrable? Easily penetrable?

On 2/23/2019 at 9:49 PM, archer said:

My impression was that Templars only lent money to the nobility, large merchants, and the famous rather than the little fellow who is trying to get ahead in this world.

Well yes, but that applied to all pre-modern banks. All the banking and lending that came before Fiat Currencies and Fractional Reserve Banking.

I mean banking does receive a lot of flak these days for both Fiat Currencies and Fractional Reserve Banking. But the distribution of wealth was horrendously worse before they were invented.

Maybe taking a look into the History of Paper money is worth it for this part? As luck would have it, Extra History did a few Videos on that mater:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nZkP2b-4vo&list=PLmKXQuG1OdOyGI0ZyjgiqMQW9r03Fs60k

On 2/22/2019 at 7:44 PM, DShomshak said:

I'm not sure how big a problem the radio blackout period is in practice, and I'm not sure I'd want to be on a spaceship with x-rays beamed at it, but it's an innovative proposal.

You are on a Space Ship that is subject to cosmic radiation in much higher doses then people on the ground. And also the only thing protecting you from "Death by Vacuum" while in space and "death by plasma" during reentry.

X-Rays for Communication do not seem particulary dangerous in those circumstance.

On 2/23/2019 at 5:07 PM, Hugh Neilson said:

If, however, you want the ultimate litmus test of any power's acceptability in any campaign, use it against the players and then ask if they think that is a power which should be allowed in this game.

That is definitely the ultimative test.

However there might still be scenarios where this breaks down. See this thread:

Allowing Healing in a Superheroic Game accidentally lead to killing attacks/dealing damage past defenses becomming acceptable. Wich affected the entire game negatively for the GM.

On 2/23/2019 at 5:07 PM, Hugh Neilson said:

There is no requirement that it transition neatly to an RPG.

There is also no reason it does not translate.

And this was about the reason why it did not translate in this case. Heroes "no absolutes" rule can get in the way a bit here, for the beginner GM.

On 2/21/2019 at 11:53 PM, Sean Waters said:

We play a game on Monday nights over Discord.  There are six of us and we usually notice pretty quickly if someone drops and we have not heard from them for a couple of minutes.  You don't get any information about the person on the other end of the line other than what they say or "hear".  I'd treat it like a landline conversation where the other party has hit the mute button, probably.

Fun fact:
Analog Transmissions were prone to always have a slight "noise" effect. It was a physical limitation, based on electric noise along the wires.

Digital Transmissions (like Mobile Phones) are not affected by noise the same way. Noise reduces the Bandwidth. But you do not hear it, like with Analog Transmissions. Noise only worked on first and last few "Analog centimeters" (the microphone and speaker cables). Wich was usually laughable compared to the noise of kilometers of transmission wire.

That was a huge issue as people would ask "Hello, are you still there?" all the time when testing digital communications. So right now we end up adding Noise to the Audio Signal:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_noise

Just so people still know the channel is open.