megaplayboy

1 hour ago, unclevlad said:

 

No, Piercing is.  The key point on a Hero killing attack is that nonresistant defenses don't apply for the BODY.  That's what Piercing does.  Destructive is for unusual, nasty damage...think lye or lab-grade nitric acid.  Some burning materials like napalm.  Many poisons...certainly a necrotic like brown recluse venom, probably hemotoxins too (rattlesnake venom).  Hard radiation damage.  Appropriate to now...lung scarring from TB or serious coronavirus infection, or for that matter, from long-term smoking.  

 

Piercing should be pretty common;  anything you'd define as a killing attack.  3 DCs of killing attack -> 2 dice + Piercing in Champs Now.  Destructive, OTOH, should be pretty rare.

Makes sense.  I just skimmed the 290 pages this evening.  

I think the "destructive" advantage is supposed to emulate killing attacks.  

31 minutes ago, Iuz the Evil said:

Me too!

As long as they're not making the vaccine...

3 minutes ago, Old Man said:

What Everyone's Getting Wrong About the Toilet Paper Shortage

 

Tl;dr: You're not pooping at the office any more.

Nor are your kids pooping at school.  

45 is a painfully stupid person.  Not painful for himself, but for everyone else.  Unfit for the job in every possible way and on every level.  

I do worry a bit about the fate of brick-and-mortar "nerd" specialty shops--comics, video games, fantasy/sci-fi bookstores, tabletop gaming stores, etc.  If they're shut down for 2-6 months, some of them, already operating at very marginal profits, may never reopen. 

When this is all over, many many thousands of totally avoidable and unnecessary deaths later, I hope that one of the questions Americans ask themselves is "Why, oh why, did we ever suffer fools so gladly?"

3 hours ago, Old Man said:

The U.S. is rocketing away from the rest of the world in total case count, though the trajectory is going linear rather than exponential.  The U.S. has already surpassed China in reported deaths, as has France.  None of these yet approach the Spanish death toll, at nearly three 9/11s, or Italy, at four.

the linear trajectory may be misleading because we are limited by the number of tests available.  The death trajectory, sadly, will be likely the most accurate measure of pace.  The next 3 months will be a combination of boredom, depression and terror.  

Can someone tuned into Trumpville explain to me how 100 to 200 thousand completely avoidable deaths of American citizens equates to a "very good job"?  

8 hours ago, Sociotard said:

I would like to see verification of what Trump or his campaign actually did to block that video. The last rumor I heard was some sort of legal action, which should be easy enough to verify if true.

 

I mean, the soundbites are real enough and the exponential curve looks about right. I just think the caption of him trying to block it might lack basis.

AIUI, they objected to the part where he called it a "hoax" as deceptive/false advertising.  He kinda did call the concern over it a hoax, though.  

We are heading into a month(or two, or even three) of perhaps some of the most tremendous losses our country has ever faced.  While it may seem "partisan" to some to point out failures of preparedness and heel-dragging by 45, the grave import of these errors will be apparent to even the willfully blind soon enough.  

Our lives are in the hands of fools and idiots.   Thank God (some of) the governors have some semblance of prudence and sanity.  

29 minutes ago, sinanju said:

My girlfriend, an RN, sent me a Marco Polo video last night. As of last night, she's officially caring for Covid patients--so she's quarantined. She won't be able to visit for a while. Bummer. At least we can send videos back and forth.

 

Meanwhile, I am now officially under house arrest by Governor Brown, so my Hudson City Wild Cards campaign is on hiatus for a while. Unless we figure out how to play online....

Google hangouts works pretty well for that.  

This whole thing is just taking post-apocalyptic LARPing a bit too far, methinks.  

Plane with 5 passengers on board: Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Angela Merkel, The Pope and a 10-year-old schoolboy. The plane is about to crash and there are only 4 parachutes.

Trump says I need one: “I’m the smartest man in the USA and am needed to make America great again.” Takes one and jumps.

Johnson says, ‘I’m needed to sort out Britain’. He takes one and jumps.

The Pope says, ‘I need one as the world needs the Catholic Church.’ He takes one and jumps.

Angela says to the ten year old: “You can have the last parachute. I’ve lived my life, yours is only just starting.”

The 10-year-old replies: “Don’t worry, there are 2 parachutes left. The smartest man in the USA took my school bag.”

3 hours ago, Old Man said:

2800 new U.S. cases today, putting us on track to exceed Italy's trajectory.

 

Great Again™!

We're on track to pass China in the next two weeks, we might even be on track to have as many cases as the rest of the world combined within the next 4-6 weeks.  

Bernie Sanders is going to be more than 300 delegates behind Biden after tonight, with roughly half the total delegates selected.  It's nearly impossible for Sanders to catch up, and we all remember how messy, fractured and contentious the extended primary was, and how that poisonous atmosphere continued into the Democratic convention.  Only 75% of the Sanders primary voters supported Clinton in the general election, and half of those who didn't voted for Trump.  I don't want a repeat of ANY of that.  Bernie needs to quit, and soon.  

Dry cough, fever of 102-104, and shortness of breath are the major symptoms.  If you have a persistent fever(lasts more than a day), see a doctor.  Shortness of breath and high fever are definitely "red flag" symptoms in any event, even if it's not COVID.  

13 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

Still, I'll be interested to see whether this is the evidence of incompetence that finally undoes Trump, or whether he'll manage to weasel out of this too.

I think a pile of dead parents and grandparents is a bit harder to weasel out of, politically and otherwise.  

All gatherings larger than 250 people banned in Maryland.  We're a couple weeks away from Italy, which has about 10x our official case count right now, but 25x our fatalities(yikes).  

I'm getting ever closer to the "shake them and slap them" stage of "dealing" with people who aren't the least bit concerned about the pandemic.  

SXSW Festival canceled.  Most hotels and airports are going to look like outtakes from 28 Days Later.  

Montgomery County, MD just reported 3 cases.  They're one county over from me and adjacent to DC.  So this is about to impact the document review/e-discovery industry big time.  I expect there's a lot of discussion with clients about remote review(i.e., letting reviewers work from home).  

18 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

The fat lady hasn't sung yet, Doc. The caucuses are just the first stage. Next comes the convention, and then the election. Not until that's over will we know what America, as a whole, really wants.

 

Personally I would like the Democratic candidate to be Sanders, not just because I like his stated policies, but because he's articulated a clear vision of where he wants to lead his country, one diametrically opposed to Trump's. That would give Americans a meaningful choice, not just for President, but for what they want their country to stand for going forward.

Sanders' failure so far to put together a broader, winning coalition within the Democratic party is a "sneak preview" of the problems he would have doing so in a general election.  My politics are pretty leftward, but I recognize the importance of coalition-building.  

Given how the incumbent is running the country, even a challenger running as a moderate Republican(which Biden is not doing) would be offering the country a meaningful alternative.  

15 hours ago, Starlord said:

 

Just to add to this

 

CEO compensation has risen 940% since 1978, while typical worker compensation has risen only 12%

My theory is that subversion of the upper middle class enables this kind of thievery.  So long as the more affluent members of the bourgeoisie/working class identify more strongly with the Executive/Investor class, they will support and defend them against what ought to be coming to them.  They may even come to believe that they are better off than their middle middle class and lower middle class brethren because they "work harder" or "work smarter" or some such meritocratic delusions.  Pish tosh!  In reality the 1% still won't invite you to their coolest parties, just the beat ones.  And they'll give you raises just good enough to keep you "loyal".  Without that (purchased) loyalty, that 1% would be extremely susceptible to turns in public sentiment.  My .02.  😜