Nolgroth

I have used default campaign speeds before. They work fine. If you want a faster character, buy extra Speed with Costs Endurance, Charges, or some other limiting factor. On the average, the Speedster will move faster but not more often. If they want to move more often, buy the extra Speed or use things like Autofire on Strength to simulate punching really fast or something. It's the Gamist in me that has seen far too many Shadowrun combats get boring from people with Wired Reflexes XXIV going time after time, while the unaugmented guy goes once or maybe twice. Hero allows for each to go the exact same number of times, but with vastly different special effects. Speedster does a Move By w/Autofire on a bunch of targets, Brick pummels one or (maybe) two bad guys, Energy Blast guy lobs an AoE at a group of mooks, etc. That's not to say that variable Speed is bad, just that universal Speed is just as viable.

Then there should have been more consumer protections built into Obamacare to begin with. Crossing state lines has worked for auto insurance and it can work for health insurance. What protections do those consumers have where insurance providers are pulling out? None. So, to me, it looks more like a poorly written, implemented and realized alternative to the healthcare system we had before. It could have worked. It could have worked well. It should have worked. It didn't; not as intended anyway. Now, in the meantime, those states with strong consumer protection laws still have citizens with jacked up premiums because there is a very small pool of competitors.

For me, opening up the insurance market across state borders would have been a sufficient reform to Obamacare. I keep hearing that all of the insurance companies are pulling out of the program. If that is true, then Obamacare may well collapse under its own weight. I think if there were more options and a larger pool of competing insurance companies, the consumer would have better options. It's sort of like when auto insurance became mandatory. A lot of policies got real expensive until competition brought prices back down. In some case, probably lower than before the mandate. Bah. Healthcare. Who would have thought healthcare could be so complicated?

I wish we had tasers for forced cell moves. We had a plastic shield backed up by five annoyed brutes who were torn between irritation at having to the FCM in the first place, yet looking forward to the adrenaline high once it started. Usually not a good outcome for any of the inmates we moved. A taser might have saved some pulled muscles and bruises. I'm not going to comment on the Seattle shooting. As for the article about the police trainer, on its face it looks horrible. Heck, the whole thing about video games training an entire generation to be killers is so absurd as to make me chuckle at the levels of close-minded stupidity involved in that opinion forming process. On the other hand, the article is filled with histrionic tone and seemingly cherry picked quotes used to support the opinion of the author. On the balance, it sounds to me like a professional speaker who knows how to wind up his audience by using inflammatory remarks, opinions and whatnot. He also is probably, in part, in need of some counseling or perhaps a moderate dose of Haldol.

The echoing sound of my inner psyche screaming in futile, frustrated rage. "Long As I Can See the Light" by Creedence Clearwater Revival, but only in my head.

Congrats!

When I got home from work, my dog kept "hugging" me (leaning with all of her might into my legs). She's such a sweet, loving animal that adores me. Very few things in this world bring me that sense of joy.

Not from me it ain't. Then again, Discovery is pretty much a no-starter as well. Too bad really, because I really thought it was time for a new Trek to hit the small screen. Guess I'll watch it when the season is over on Netflix.

As to gaming, I haven't had the pleasure since '09. I would love to be in a game and I would also love to play as opposed to my assumed roll as GM. That said, my own inspiration towards gaming is going through a low point. I blame the hellish conditions outside my front door. Yes, I'm sure somebody is in a warmer place on Earth, but 105° F is frickin' demoralizingly hot. I hate summer and all it stands for. Tomorrow is supposed to be even more hot. Stupid heat. Stupid sun. Stupid...everything.

I find that people who pursue any ideological utopia fail to consider their place within that Utopia. Personally, I don't think any form of Utopia is good. The very concept deprives us of the drive to be better. Stagnation follows. No. I would rather have something to strive for than to be swaddled in the blanket of complacence.

I'm working on a day off. One of my job functions is to monitor the news. Too much stupid going on. Why, after all the news coverage, do people think it's okay to lock kids and pets in cars on a hot day?

I actually have more fantasies about being the Grandfather of Assassins. Or was the Grandmaster? Either way, not interested in ruling a mass of bleating sheep who are never satisfied. Better to be an agent of Chaotic Nihilism.

And I finally gave that up. It lasted 8 episodes, but I am clearly not the target audience. At least it lasted three more than my typical 5 episode trial. The teen drama was just too much for me to handle.

Unfortunate is a good word. The economic downturn was pretty horrific, especially to small press games like Hero. Equally unfortunate was the decision, on Hero Games part, to just give up. E-publishing is a much less desirable alternative to traditional methods, but it was something that may have kept Hero Games a little healthier than it currently is. Of course, this is "Monday morning quarterbacking" at its finest.

Final Girl on Netflix. Solidly in the Grade C- category. Poor acting, poor choreography, poor story, well poor everything. Riverdale, also on Netflix. Too much teen drama but somewhere in there is a decent story. I think I actually preferred Scream the TV Series better. Riverdale needs to step up the body count.

Not really. Many different types of lawyers around. He may be seeking the services of somebody with more knowledge/training/experience in this area of the law. Then there is also the old saw about representing yourself.

Mind Link allows for communication. Oh wait! Clever idea. With the crow Mind Linked to the character, I would totally rule that Telepathy would allow the crow to act as the facilitator of communication. Write-up looks good. Multiple crows connecting might be a distraction. You can ignore that, require link with one crow at a time, limit the number of discrete links to INT/5, or require Concentration to speak to all of them at once.

I hear they are adding Necromancy to the list of offenses so this may have already been done. Does anybody else notice how pale the White House staffers look now?

I was wrong. So yeah, 1 point to Summon a crow.

Don't worry about "being slow." Hero has many ways to do the same thing. In regards to making the crows you summon get powers granted to them, buy them for yourself and then add Usable By Other. In that respect, you buy the Mind Link and then buy Transmit, Usable by Other. I'd have to be at home to verify the costs. It might, in that regard, make sense to switch back to Clairsentience with a Limitation Only What the Crow Can See. As far as the cost to Summon, I was under the impression that it was based on the Base Cost, not the Real Cost. Again, no reference materials here to verify that. I'll follow up later this evening.

Naw, if you are going to go with summon, buy the crow with Transmit for its senses and Mind Link. Don't even worry about Clairsentience. For the messenger part, you might buy Animal Handling (Corvids) for your character and Mimicry for the Crow. That way you train it to take the message. Alternately, you can still use Images to transmit your message. The only thing is that the more exotic powers are not going to be as easily possible with a summoned crow as a special effect crow (or crows). Your summoned crow would be very versatile. You may even want to define it as a Follower. That's a more cosmetic choice though.

So Tasha, you want to actually have a full game built upon the foundation of Hero, sans the part of Hero that is supposedly the big draw to the system? That is both bold and, coincidentally, sort of like the project I am working on. I admit that I never envisioned keeping the Power building rules out completely. I always figured a sort of mini-rules presentation, methods of pre-generating characters with a very D&D-esque Race/Class system (mechanically done for my project), and the support material to tweak interest in the system. After that, I thought about tutorials on how to do it yourself by starting simple and increasing complexity. The idea of expanding that idea to an entire product line and omitting the "here's how YOU do it" aspect did not occur to me. Interesting. I really need to get some more information of Savage World's Plot Points. What book(s) would be a good place to start looking?

Hopefully not tearing the topic away too much, but that is actually kind of a nifty idea. I never had the money to buy the Amazing Engine stuff, but always wanted Bug Hunt (because Aliens of course). I used a similar conceit in one of my one-offs when running a campaign. I designed Pulp Hero equivalents to the main characters and we had a nice Indiana Jones-eque adventure in the Andes mountains. Worked out really well. An entire game dedicated to the concept of different variations on the theme sound really interesting to me.

Okay, I have had more time to clarify my thoughts. Besides pecking on one of those cell phone keyboards is murder. (See what I did there? "Pecking" as in beaks and "murder" as in a murder of crows! Get it!?) Ahem... Most of these ideas can be done just by having a Summoned or Follower corvid. I'm just playing with the concept. The Messenger Crow power could also be Usable By Other and Extra Time to represent transit time between the Corvid Mage and his intended recipient. The recipient could then, in turn, send back another message. I would probably use Time Limit or perhaps a Continuing Charge or something to limit how many trips back and forth the crow would make. In the case of a Summoned crow, I believe there is a maximum number of services rendered and each message would be a service. Carrier Crow could also be Telekinesis. It would take some tweaking, but would work. A couple of others. Some most are silly and some one not. Hopefully all useful. Murder of Crows (not just great for puns and bad, bad jokes): 1/2d6 RKA, AoE: Radius, Constant, Penetrating. The Physical Limitation, in this case, represents an entire murder of crows pecking at somebody. I'd be willing to accept, were it my campaign, Difficult to Dispel purchases as extra Body to represent the number of individual birds within the murder. Eat Crow: 1/2d6 RKA, AVAD (Resistant Protection Covering Mouth or not having a Mouth orifice), All or Nothing, Constant, plus Change Environment: Suffocation (season Power Modifiers to taste). Inspired by...NSFW or anybody squeamish . Yes, the exact orifice is different. I am aware of that. That doesn't work as well with the cheesy name though. And finally (thankfully).... Crow Magnon: Summons a huge crow upon which the Corvid Mage and his companions can safely ride. Flight, Usable Simultaneously, Time Limit (or Continuing Charge) blah blah blah Storm Crow: Creates a storm (Change Environment and a whole slew of complimentary powers) I had fun tinkering with the concepts in my head anyways. Usually I am not silly or full of puns when I design stuff. The mood just hit me. Other (non-named) suggestions: Darkness (could added to Murder of Crows) to represent all of the flapping wings. Flash vs Sight (same basic effect, but just a single crow and only for a second). Of course, Corvid Mages have to be on the lookout for....wait for it.....Scarecrows (Striking Appearance to cause fear coupled with PRE drain)! OK. I'm done here.

Agreed. No matter the rhetoric spewed, senseless murder is still just senseless murder. At least in this case, we didn't quite get to the murder part yet.