Vondy

When we were playing 4e every member of my group (seven people) had a copy and regularly made characters. Two of them also ran games once in a while so that I could take a break. When 5e came out only myself and one other member of our group bought copies. One of the alternate game-masters stopped running, and only the two of us with books routinely made characters (and had to start leaning in to get everyone else's characters made). It wasn't a money issue. It was a density, complexity, and presentation issue. They had a very real aversion to 5e and, ultimately, washed their hands of it. This is anecdotal, of corae, but it's what happened with my group. I have heard similar stories from other gamers. I suspect a not insignificant number of 4E players stuck with 4e or went looking for entirely different systems.

I lived in the West Bank for eight years. I don't go to Spokane. Those people are crazy.

The Seattle Times has always been a rag.

The X-Men are lucky Wolverine allows them supporting roles in his films. Case in point... Wolverine: Apocalypse.

My wife absolutely loved Deadpool. I found it "watchable."

Which, I think, are a fine introductory books. Anything fancy can go into APG style works.

An alternative approach would be to divide one rule book into three sections: 1) the basic rules / player section, 2) a GM's vault with in-depth explanations / advice, 3) and examples. You could get started with section one and then expand with the others.

I'm with Tasha on the level of complexity issue. These characters should be super simple and streamlined. Look at the example characters in the BBB for a guideline. As for the Vulcan gender issue, aside from the name and art, I don't see the issue. Yes, the god was male in the myths and it's fine to default to that for the name and art (art costs money!). But... how onerous is it to drop in a line saying "female players may want to rename the character Vulcana and draw a new pucture"? Nothing in the build is gender specific. We aren't classical literature critics and purists. It's just aethetics.

I'll catch it on video. I love cap, I'm sure it will be watchable, but the current direction and tone of the MCU (movies, not TV) runs counter to what I look for in superhero stories. I've found the entire Tony Stark, Who Watches the Watchman?, Big Brother Will Protect You thrust depressing.

One issue I have with 5e and 6e is "bean-counterism." 4e did have some imbalances that needed to be adjusted for. But, 5e went to far. I found the near obsessive-compulsive way in which talents were broken down into power builds, and in which senses were re-costed and made increasingly granular, introduced some imbalances of its own. Consistent internal costing and actual utility at the game table are not always one and the same thing. Getting costs right, especially in a toolkit system, are as much an art as they are a science / mathematical exercise. Some examples of what I'm talking about are Instant Change, Never Look Mussed (Pulp), HRRP, rebuilding Regeneration as a convoluted Healing construct, and the inflationary adders for Detect. While not universally true, a lot of the resulting costs were disproportionately high for what often amounts to a genre appropriate trope or something that could other-wise be hand-waived. I don't mind all the examples, but presenting talents (shorthand items) with what looks like an arcane formula instead of "Instant Change (5)" is off-putting, potentially intimidating, clutters character sheets, and is bad presentation. Now, with all that said, I found the clarifications and examples in 5e great. I find it eminently playable and don't mind using it. But, it is also a much harder-sell for new players than 4e (warts and all) and introduces costing taxes that neuters the utility (like Detect), or overprices others (HRRP), or renders them necessarily complex (regeneration, instant change, etc). For me, its a case of logic being taken to an unreasonable extreme. 4e did need a good bit of work, and 5e brought a lot of good to the table and did fix some things, but it also introduced its own set of problems. Its a question of which set of problems you prefer to deal with - and that is a personal, subjective, amoral proposition. For me, I have moved to a "stripped down" 5e with old-school regeneration added back in.

"I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." Abraham Lincoln. 4 March 1861.

Burnt (2015) Starring: Sydney Bristow's dead guy friend. Its like an eighties martial arts film, but without martial arts. Instead, its got... cooking. Because, chefs are the closest thing foodies have to action heroes. It even has the epic failure and retrain for ultimate victory trope / arc at the heart of its plot. And the assemblage of a team of "the best of the best." He even says, "That's what I want my chefs to be, the Seven Samurai." Except, you know, real victory is a three-star Michelin rating. Dear lord, this film gave me the recipe for entertainment indigestion. An championship cook-off with The Best Of The Best theme playing would have been more intense.And less campy. But, no. Instead, this is about a one-man kitchen's road to... culinary redemption. I'm not kidding. This movie is about... making dinner. And is peppered with scathing one liners like... "A heat lamp?!" Let alone, like edgy ironies like world-class chef's writing their recipes while gnoshing at Burger King. Because, you know, product placement makes good art. Or, my favorite, slicing vegetables and frying / seasoning an egg to intense, building action scene background music. Distillation: It was like watching bonobos copulate; you want to look away, but just can't quite turn it off. Oh, and the "Michelin Men" are the MIB / Boogey Men of the cuisine-velt. The phrase: "They're coming for us" is even used.

Yup.

Remember that both move-throughs and move-bys incurs fractional damage on the attacker as well. If you do 300d6 you will incur 60d6 or 100d6 damage yourself. This is generally not a good idea. However, that said, I agree that there should be a rational / mechanically workable maximum for added velocity damage. And, the terminal velocity cap is a consistent, rational, and workable measure to use for that. So, using that assumption, you would do Base DC + v/10 with the added velocity damage reaching a cap at 30d6. A Strength 80 villain moving at Mach 1 on a move through would do 16d6 +30d6 = 46d6. Even so, how big are the to hit penalties on that attack?

Clarifications were needed and provided. What I'm talking about is more than that. Steve has a certain design aesthetic that, while brilliant, also tends to be over-built, IMO, and is only one way of doing things irrespective of clariry. It's also comprehensive enough that it ads it's own inertia to how the system is presented that, implicitly, becomes the "official" way of using the rules. Also, there is a difference between clarifying a rule and issuing a ruling where a 4e stop sign belongs. None of this is huge criticism, but unless you were around prior to 5e you might miss the difference between "the Steve way" (which is totally valid) and "the right way," which is a broader and more varied path that accommodates other styles of design and play.

Honestly, the main difference between 4e and 5e didn't exist on a system level. For me, the primary difference was stylistic: granularity, lawyerly-prose, and sheer verbosity. It felt less open because of how it was presented, and the amount of additional options and ways of doing things it suggested, but it was, to a great extent, the same game.

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!

I agree with this element of it. I'm not a fan of being PC for its own sake. That's stupid and mildly fascistic. At the same time, I don't have much patience for reactionary ultra-orthodox fans, either. If an actor (or actress) has the chops for the role, let them at it. My case in point for this is TV Elektra. Elodie Yung rocked it. She is eloquent, educated, (hot), has a black belt, and really respects her character. She brought a lot of other actresses who looked more the part would not have.I don't like flashback story-telling, but she also has a wild that suits the Elektra who always gets Matt into trouble. It can be done, and done well. As for Heimdall, Marvel's Asgardians are space-aliens the ancient Norse worshiped as gods. At that point, Black Asgardian is not so far fetched. Besides, maybe the Vikings erroneously assumed it was like being Black Irish.

I mean, how can this go wrong...

Look, anyone who hates Idris Elba... oh, never mind. I give up. What we really need is Eminem cast as Othello in a re-skinned rap-tempo Shakespearean extravaganza! Baby, I'm on a roll tonight.

Not for me. Its just a second string make-believe character. Who bloody cares? Black Hamlet doesn't bother me one iota. White chick ancient one doesn't bother me, either. Unless, of course, she's a crystal-loving, granola lifestyle, anti-vaxxer, vegan in yoga pants. Well, unless she looks great in yoga pants and works as a tantra instructor and doula. I could overlook a lot for that. On the other hand, some people will be very grim if he's not a true to source Fu Manchu Ripoff. Their loss.

Mighty Whitey. Scroll down to comic books and you'll find... Iron Fist.

Dude, what are you smoking? Who in the 80's ever heard of a Japanese Ninja? That's utter crazy talk and disinformation. For your future reference: REAL Ninjas are white, American, and wear camouflage pants... The 80's was the golden era of the white boy ninjas! Betsy as a white girl Ninja would have almost been the norm in the eighties. Except, well... girl power and a British accent. Not that normal and eighties go together, mind you. But still...

I was going to go with She-Hulk, but... Kirk's her type.

I'm not even sure how many people would notice. I didn't hear any fan complaints that Elodie Yung was cast as Elektra. The woman doesn't have a drop of Greek in her. Or Italian, Turkish, or Romanian (neighbors). She's French and Cambodian! I'm a big DD fan and have been back to the 80's, and Elektra is a huge part of that mythos, and yet... It didn't bother me in the slightest. They gave her Greek heritage an adoptive nod and a wink without breaking stride and made it work. In fact, the only complaint I recall was from Mark Miller, who is a notoriously cranky stick-in-the-mud. Screw'im.