Joe Walsh

In Republican state legislatures, the people can have someone speak for them, as long as they say what Republicans want to hear.
 
This should be definitive proof that Ron DeSantis is not smarter than Donald Trump. He's just more boring.

Project update:
- I've completed the tables pass
- My very kind wife is doing the "Make sure it's accurate to the original" pass. I'm not gonna lie, this step's going to take a while because it's very tedious.
- While she's doing that, I'm working on getting Merchants of Terror into text format.
 

More great advice:
 
 

Well, WOTC just lost any future business of mine they may have had:
 
Wizards Of The Coast Raids YouTuber’s House To Take Back Magic: The Gathering Cards
 
Sending Pinkertons to intimidate someone for accidentally getting product early instead of just giving them a call or sending an email first? Classy.
 
Edit: Changed "rough up" to "intimidate," misspoke there. Nobody was touched. Just Pinkertons tossing around threats and being general bungholes.
 

No problem! I think we all know your current computer situation, and of course you're not obligated to respond to anything...but thank you for coming back to this.
 
 
 
Oh, man, that's so true! The more you know, the harder it is to enjoy gameable (or watchable) levels of it in entertainment. When they make computers into magic boxes I just have to let it go. I can't imagine what watching TV must be like for most doctors, cops, and lawyers.
 
 
 
That sounds like a good way to house rule it!
 
 
 
And then we could add the GURPS defaults system (or maybe a good old fashioned skill web) and have a fun time.
 
Thank goodness we have the Espionage! approach to the Languages skill. That works for me, but then I'm not a linguist!

Yeah, actually HGN vol 1 no 1 mentions the availability of some dinged-up stock including copies of Espionage!, so it was definitely after the release of that game.

Sorry, Joe; I missed this question when it first went up.
 
No, Sir; I did not.
 
I waffled a bit over "civilian vehicles" and "light duty vehicles"  which upset one player in particular who could not accept that his F350 was legally a "light duty truck."
 
My own sticking point was the fact that it is harder to drive a 40' straight truck than a semi (well, it was at the time: semi trailers were limited to 40' back then (53' now) and spread axles hadn't even been invented yet) because of the  typically lower frame clearance and up to 12' of tailswing, bur then I though about buses and RVs etc, and finally just ledr it at cars ans lumped RVs in with cars and straight trucks in with heavy trucks....
 
Then there was the problem of what makes X different from Y, and realistically, the biggest difference between a bus and a straight truck is cargo capacity and a stick shifr (back then), so probably anyone who could drive could drive an empty truck and a simple car licence lets you pull a 40' camper trailer, which are typically 6" wider than a semi trailer and the whole thing just fell apart. 
 
Dinally I looked up the licence classes in my state, asked the pkayers to pick one, and they could drive that vehicle or under with that one skill.  Pay a point to handle a trailer, and one more to deive a stick (these are more modern add-ons to our real-world heroic stuff) and called it good.
 
We had a member here a long rime back who complained about nuclear-related stuff and the way it was versus should be handled in games.  Why?  He was stationed on a nuclear sub for years (dint remember what he did, though) and was way more familiar with the subject than is the typical game author.  By his own admission, he "knew too much about it" to actually _game_ it.
 
I have a similar problem related to driving:
 
I grew up farming, meaning I grew up operating tractors and what the game calls "equipment."  (For the record, if you can drive a stick, you can figure out a tractor in ten minutes if the controls are still marked.  Well, certain controls: drive is a combination of stickshift and forklift (attention memelords: I was forklift certified before it was sexy!), excper you generally only shift _once_.  Generally.  In my cottage, a small part of my work life is still equipment operator (though I am a bit rusty on a high-hoe, not having used one in a couple of decades.  Everything else?  No problem).
 
When I ledt home, I started driving truck, and I spent my first ten years in GA (well, 10 of the first 12) moving houses (yes, actual houses; not mobile homes)  and mobile homes (what most people assume you mean when you say houses.  I did both: I was an oversize-certified shanty shaker).
 
And as I think everyone here knows, I have been riding motorcycles since I was 9.  I own 5 right now.
 
Nothing there is meant to be brqggartly-- considering most people here are academics or solidly white-collar, it _couldn't_ be bragging; I am the hillbilly in this group.   It is meant to explain that, like our lost friend the submarine guy, I know too much about the hands-on of the subject to _ever_ find a good gameable representation of it.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
I get it.  The problem is that any category is arbitrary.  For example: 
 
 
I peomise there is less,similarity from one type of equipment to another than most people realize.  Beinf able to run a panloader is entirelt different from being able to run a roller compactor, which is difgerent from a backhoe, which is not like a crane, etc, etc.  In reality, there is no such catch-all for construction equipment.
 
 
 
We went over that one.
 
 
 
 
The closest I have ever xome to this is that set of plans from boys magazines in the late 69s and early 70s with the circle of plywood and the reversed-polarity vacuum cleaner motor (or 3; it was best with 3 motors).  Couldn't really steer it, but it stopped when the cords pulled out of the outlet, so....
 
 
I wonr go over the rest because I was only trying to make a point without belaboring it.  Aufdice it to say there are too many similarities between differing categories and too many difference within one category to allow attaining any kind of accurate simulation using categories.  You will end up with that accursed Language Chart everyone is so in love with, but for wheeled engines.
 
Best thing is to either find categories that work for you (I would suggest "skid steer" instead of "tanks," as there is a good bit of similarity between tracked vehicles and fixed-wheeled vehicles that steer by altering wheel speed from one side to the other, but they- it is your project).
 
Anyway, find categories that work well for your concept- however broad or narrow you want them to be-- or do what I did and mostly abandon them.  Though I do have skid steer (plus a point for tanks as the readout are more complex, the speeds faster, and the forward view is lacking) and I have airboats separate from boats, but other than that-  
 
 
 
 

The more closely I look at 2e and 3e, the better they appear.

I think in the mid-80s about 20% of the time my friends and I opened our mouths out would pop a Johnny Dangerously quote.

It's from Hero Games' Newsletter vol 1 no 2, which doesn't contain a publication date, but by taking clues from things mentioned within, can roughly be placed to late 1983 or early 1984.  (It mentions Gencon '83 in the past tense, and asks readers hold off on mailing in "orders for Champions III till June first.")

Oh, no argument there.
I realize I am rather prone to despair in the last few years and I need to work on that. But it's hard not to dwell on 'oh this could go bad if..' sometimes, but I still remember how many folks were so confident Trump would never be president and we know how that went. Roe Vs Wade would not be over turned, and we're seeing how that plays out. So on.
 
It feels like every time decent people drop their guard, they pay for it. Eternal Vigilance is the price of freedom and all that.

Back in the day, I was a die-hard metal minis guy. Yeah, nothing like spending your formative years handling lead figures! 😂
 
I only owned a few cardboard figures -- the ones that came with the original GURPS Basic Set and the ones that came with the 4e Champions GM Screen. Didn't use any of 'em in play.
 
Oh, wait -- there were the ones in TSR's Marvel Super Heroes, too. Those we used for a while. And same for Indiana Jones, too, I believe.
 
Anyway, these days I've come around on the subject. Partly because I'm not able to paint figures like I used to, and partly because I don't want to have to keep a billion metal minis on hand just in case we might need them.
 
I think it was around the time Savage Worlds came out that I switched. I went back and bought all the Cardboard Heroes I could get in PDF format and printed what we needed, eventually supplementing with printables made available on DTRPG. All of a sudden I had a use for the pennies in the coin jar!
 
(I may go back to dimensional minis if I ever get around to getting a resin printer (and accessories...). I've had decent results with my FDM printer, but I'm not sure it's worth it.)

The more closely I look at 2e and 3e, the better they appear.

The more closely I look at 2e and 3e, the better they appear.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1650536938951122949

In matrimonial news, Tucker Carlson and Fox News have agreed to go their separate ways.
https://deadline.com/2023/04/tucker-carlson-out-at-fox-news-1235334983/
 

In matrimonial news, Tucker Carlson and Fox News have agreed to go their separate ways.
https://deadline.com/2023/04/tucker-carlson-out-at-fox-news-1235334983/
 

Most of what turns up in my newsfeed is clickbait garbage, but this article reports some interesting academic research on regional differences in US gun vilence, and their deep historical roots.
 
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-surprising-geography-of-gun-violence/ar-AA1adq3s?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=388234b9276540efbe820e19775b6af7&ei=17
 
Dean Shomshak

I love Denis Loubet's work, especially his Fantasy Hero illustrations.  Him and Zircher were the top of the line, to me, of Hero art, akin to Trampier for D&D.

I know Dennis a little.  For the 40th Anniversary at Steve Petersen’s house, he brought photos and a portfolio of his work.  All of the cardboard heroes were generated new because they needed front and back views.  The colors were P. H. Martin’s vibrant watercolors.  They were done 150% scale and reduced for printing.  They were originally made for Steve Jackson’s The Fantasy Trip, but Aaron convinced Steve to make sets for Champions.  

Finally dipping my toes after all these years (since '07!) into a HERO game pbp...please wish me luck!

Just taking a moment to celebrate that my Tables pass is complete up to page 48. Just 20 pages to go!
(And then I can go back and start double-checking that what's in my text file matches what's in the book exactly...)