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It uses the same math. It took me a few sessions to get the hang of the system.

I think the big challenge of figuring out the mass marketing of Hero is that you have a market that prefers simplicity and ease of play, and an entrenched player base that leans towards the grognard/curmudgeon side(i.e., resistant to change, often actually demaning more options(which leads to greater complexity). We had Fuzion, which was poorly received. We had various attempts at "Instant Hero", "Hero Sidekick", "Hero System Basic Rules", none of which seemed to really expand the market. Adding pre-build powers, archetypes and templates of various sorts didn't do much either, imo. "I want a system that allows me to have any kind of character, power etc, but that I can learn completely in the first play session" is a pretty tall order. We could simplify the math, maybe provide some basic examples. Or we could have a bimodal system: "Basic" and "Advanced". I have no easy answers on this. Just spitballing.

Sure, people get full time jobs, move away, have night classes, and/or a wife and kids. A session per week gets challenging. I've had games-by-video-chat that couldn't meet once a month due to scheduling issues! I guess hypothetically, if one did 2 sessions per week, 50 weeks a year, for 30+ years(say, from the release of 4th ed to now), and played the same PCs, you'd have a squad of greater gods running around.

Sort of curious what Wales does if Scotland and NI leave the union, and the UK economy goes down the drain due to Brexit. Imagine being Elizabeth II and seeing your "kingdom" on the brink of collapse. Well, I suppose she's seen that before about 80 years ago.

I agree that there was rules bloat going from 4th-5th-6th, BUT, dear Lord, 3rd edition over 4th?! I played Champions back in those days, and 4th is a HUGE improvement over 3rd. One of the biggest reasons for the increasingly "lawyerly" descriptions is that the rules as written back in the day were often clear as mud. And there were new powers in 4th because a lot of kludges were needed to cover new instances. Plus a lot of mechanics were reworked to be more workable and balanced, like: mental powers, presence attacks, martial arts, etc. "3rd Edition Hero System" is comprised not just of Champions 1/2/3, but also Justice, Inc, Espionage and Fantasy Hero 1st Ed, IIRC. Lots of rules and abilities different between those games, so not universal or consistent. Less than a couple dozen skills for Champions players to buy. End Reserves were a mess. The vehicle rules... 3rd Edition Hero System basically is non-existent. And 3rd Edition Champions is an inferior product, in presentation, consistency, options and flexibility compared to 4th. It's like comparing MS-DOS to Win95. Yes, some people preferred MS Dos, but it was problematic for similar reasons.

There's not a clean division between the end of the pulp era and the beginning of the Golden Age. Doc Savage didn't make his appearance until 1933, and Superman debuted in 1938. But there were masked men with extraordinary abilities introduced during the Pulp Era. So it could be fun to run a campaign in the late Pulp Era/Early Golden Age, where you play with that overlap.

She was my preferred candidate, so this is disappointing. More disappointing--the only major American party with more than token demographic diversity(imo), the Democratic Party, will have, as of today, 6 white candidates on stage at the next debate in December. Including one candidate who effectively bought his way onto the stage. The only candidate of color who qualified just dropped out, and two other appealing candidates of color, Castro and Booker, are struggling to get any traction. There's only one female candidate with a meaningful chance of winning out there as well. And the progressive candidates' relative appeal triggered a backlash from the wealthy donor class, including having a multibillionaire parachute in at the last minute to try to buy his way to victory like the other guy who is trying it. And the base electorate seems to have bought the media-promoted notion that only a moderate white guy stands any chance of beating Trump this time, which I think is going to lead to a spectacularly wrong-footed general election strategy. So I'm a bit depressed at the moment.

There's a rule of 7 with respect to radiation levels, IIRC. After 7 hours the outside radiation level is halved, halved again after 49 hours, halved again after 2 weeks, and again at around 100 days. Usually the advice is to wait in your shelter at least two weeks before exiting to seek more supplies or assistance.

This begs the question: how much money? I know that Steve Long's Kickstarter for Mythic Hero needed around 30-40k...and was unable to hit that number. But assuming 10-15k as a baseline per product, 100k per year could generate 6 books. 250k and maybe you get one book a month. Half a million gets you an output similar to peak Hero System days. A million a year gets you into major player territory, back into game stores everywhere, maybe even a few bookstores. But even 50k a year would keep the system going. There are potential funding models besides the HoC idea--Kickstarter or Patreon are the first that come to mind. You'd need about 1000 patrons at $5 a month to have a de minimis funding level. 10k at $10 each per month would get you to top-tier non-D&D game company status, imo.

Every federal attorney associated with this should be disbarred for life.

Not only was Trump seeking the assistance of a foreign country to cheat in the 2020 election, he was seeking "investigation" into the Russian-perpetrated "hoax" that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 elections, in order to get Russia off the hook and lift the sanctions on them. A newsweek article says that Trump wants to pull out of NATO ASAP. I wouldn't put it past him to not only do that, but then turn around and propose/announce an "Alliance" with Putin's Russia. We can't get rid of this corrupt maniac soon enough.

It would be nice if the fact that the hearings were broadcast on 6+ channels meant a larger than average share of the public was actually tuned in.

So, the public hearings are about to start. The Republicans want to call a bunch of witnesses who have nothing to do with the actual inquiry but instead seem directed at reupping the Hunter Biden "scandal". Schiff responded by saying that any witnesses must be able to address the following 3 questions:

Mayor Pete talks quite a bit about his faith, on the campaign trail. He presents an alternative to the evangelical/fundamentalist "version" of Christianity.

I think Congress has been effectively paralyzed from accomplishing major change, since about 1994. It feels like there was a sea change in the attitude of the parties, Republicans in particular, regarding the principle of "bipartisan cooperation and compromise". Specifically, Republicans decided that, when they were in the majority, it was politically expedient for them to just stonewall all Democratic legislative proposals (typically by abusing the filibuster) rather than try to seek consensus and compromise to solve societal problems. They could then campaign both on the Democrats "scary" proposals and also on their inability to get things done. It's a supremely amoral, cynical strategy, but it has definitely been effective for them, at least in 2010 and 2014. The only possible counters to this would either be to decisively defeat them at the polls in spite of this strategy, or alternatively to abolish the filibuster and just pass whatever it's possible to pass. The latter strategy seems more viable, imo.

The minute the removal vote happens, pretty sure Team Pence is gonna be all about getting a hold of that nuclear "football", first things first. Second, I seriously doubt anyone in the military or secret service is going to back his play if he doesn't wanna go.

House votes to proceed with formal public impeachment inquiry. We may get articles of impeachment sent to the Senate by Thanksgiving, or it may happen in December. Which would put the Senate trial in January, which could be problematic for the half dozen or so US Senators currently running for president.

The problem with this is that it presents a false dichotomy. Of course people can engage in real social activism to enact positive change, AND call out problematic statements and behavior of public figures and people in positions of authority.

Correct. Evidence in favor: 1) Frequent appearances on Fox News, on which she generally bashes Democrats or the Democratic party; 2) Favorable mention of Gabbard on Fox News, particularly in contrast to leading Democratic candidates; 3) Promotion of Gabbard by alt-right types online; 4) Heavy promotion of Gabbard and favorable coverage of her on English-language Russian media like RT/Russia Today. Being the "favorite Democratic candidate of Fox News(and Russian state tv)" is not a great strategy for winning the Democratic nomination for president, but if you're planning a 3rd party spoiler candidacy to undermine the Dem nominee, it's a pretty solid plan. Gabbard fits the profile for a 3rd party spoiler candidate, one who damages the Democratic nominee in two ways; first, by attacking the Dem nominee from the ostensible left(sometimes from the center, as "too extreme"); second, by siphoning away a few votes in key battleground states.

eah @leahtriss Going as Former Gifted Child for Halloween and the whole costume is just gonna be people asking “What are you supposed to be?” And me saying “I was supposed to be a lot of things.” 6:10 PM · Oct 26, 2019

I assume Amazon's lawyers are carefully scrutinizing the language of the decision. Given Trump's antipathy and that he reportedly asked Mattis to "screw them" out of the contract, I'd imagine they're chomping at the bit to sue over this.

The general criticism of the VAT is that it's regressive in effect, that is, it tends to have a disproportionate impact on the poor and lower middle class, since they have less discretionary income, savings and investments, and therefore almost all of their income winds up getting taxed since it's all spent.

I'd be willing to let millionaires, billionaires and large corporations off the hook for paying ANY taxes...provided they were willing to sign a waiver of their rights to contribute to political campaigns or PACs/political nonprofits, make public statements thereto, or hire lobbyists to push for specific legislation. Seems like a fair trade to me.

News program the other day reported that the Trump administration has had an 80% turnover rate for key positions (Cabinet secretaries and undersecretaries, key WH staff, etc.). All in less than three years. To say that's unprecedented would be an unprecedented understatement. It is indicative of a, well, something that rhymes with "hit show".