novi

Yeah, and if Hornibrook could stop throwing so many interceptions... I'm not surprised Wisconsin couldn't beat Ohio, but I was kinda hoping they'd pull it out in the end. *sigh* Maybe next year. Speaking of which, Wisconsin's not done with BYU. They get to come to Madison next September. Hopefully it's not too painful for Pariah.

If I had to be somewhat serious about it, Michigan-Ohio State probably takes the top spot, as I don't believe any other rivalries rehash an actual shooting war. Though I will posit that Minnesota-Wisconsin deserves at least an honorable mention as the most played rivalry game, heading into the 127th edition on Saturday. Only missed one year, 1906, due to Presidential order canceling rivalry games that year for safety concerns.

Are we still allowed to mock Ohio State's goose egg vs Clemson last year?

And the Badgers are now up to 11-0 (8-0) for the first time in program history, with good odds at beating Minnesota next week for 12-0. Just wish I could say the same for the Big Ten Championship game against Ohio after that. They are also working on that whole inconsistently consistent bit, outside of the defense. Alex Hornibrook now leads college football in interceptions thrown this season, even as some of his other passes are really good. Eh, Wisconsin is never going to be a pass-happy, power-throwing team. 1500 yard running backs and 2 meter tall farm boys for linemen is how they play the game.

What the hell, Big Ten? I thought that Ohio State was supposed to be our machine that played great football every week. And now we've suddenly got Wisconsin, undefeated with the softest schedule in college football, as the only hope of the Big Ten making the playoffs this year? And that's only if the committee doesn't pick both Alabama and Georgia, since their only loss will be to the other. And I was kinda rooting for Notre Dame to get in this year, actually having some success at being an independent. (Sorry, Pariah) Oy. What a weird sport.

Auburn are probably your best odds to beat them. Perhaps sacrifice to the same dark gods Saban does? Now, you could always root for former Wisconsin head coach Brett Bielema's Arkansas Razorbacks to have the upset of the century. Now there's another coach you could ask if jumping ships has worked out. Going from the biggest fish in the small pond of the Big Ten West, to a team other than Alabama in the SEC. Eh, maybe he just doesn't like snow.

Huh. That Gary is a weird guy. Perhaps he'll find a position that suits him some day.

Well, that's NASCAR for you. Formula One is somewhat closer to what you're talking about, but you run into the problem that since somewhere in the last quarter of the 20th century, technological superiority pretty much means whoever want to pay the most just wins. Another argument is that oval tracks are rather boring in general; road courses, where you can turn left AND right, and even have hills, are more interesting since they can break up the pack better. But having said that, I'd much rather spend time on Formula De.

I do appreciate all the suggestions, really. I'm just afraid that they are more high concept than I'm looking for at this time. I've burned out several times trying to put together games with high concepts, and just want to keep it simple since this isn't going long term. About one episode of a cartoon is what I'm looking for. But I've worked out a relatively straightforward little plot. While traveling to their next gig in their tour bus, traffic comes to a stop because of an accident in front of them. When they go forward to investigate, they find VIPER is robbing a truck and they get in a fight. But then they find that this robbery is just a distraction. VIPER knocked out their roadies and stole their trailer full of instruments! They need to get them back, not just on principle, but because they'll loose Hostess as a sponsor if they don't play this next gig! VIPER just wants their fancy speakers, which Bondage made to keep up with Delicious Rick, to use in a new sonic cannon.

Hmm, I did sort of wonder at the party balance of Champions 3000 straight from the book. Sort of good to know that my concerns were valid. But that leads into one thought for the book, a section talking about how to handle uneven parties. Because not every character concept makes sense to have a 20 DC attack. But some villains have to be able to take such hits without crumpling, which can make people with 12 or 14 DCs feel impotent. Or maybe ways to cut back on the DCs even while letting characters push small asteroids around. Also, perhaps a bit on the logistics of adventuring and tracking with casual interstellar travel. Because Galactic Champions really does sound like it wants you to bop around much of the galaxy while you are at it. Also, I think it might be nice to have a second example team of heroes, but at a lower power level than the Champions 3000. Might be a good place to work in the LoSH reference. Hmm, maybe have University Planet, which also has preparatory levels, as the nucleus for the team? And that the PCs would be a sub-team they recruited, and on the planet because someone in the administration likes the idea of superpower scholarships. As good an excuse as any why teenagers are running around largely unsupervised.

Must be a bad habit he picked up at Wisconsin. Trying to remember the last time that the Badgers showed up for 4 quarter of football in a single game.

Thanks for the suggestions. But as I think further on it, it strikes me that pulling them out of the 80s is actually better suited to a long-term game. For just the one shot that I'll be doing, it would be better to just keep it in the 80s and just go full Saturday Morning cartoon on it. And what better way to do that then to have them foil a VIPER plot? The biggest reason I don't just use Roadkill is that the only pre-5th book I own is the BBB, and I am poor. But anyway, any suggestions on what kind of plot VIPER has in mind for this week's episode? Sonic doomsday weapon or mind-control music are obvious, but I haven't thought past the initial idea yet. Also, not that I'm going to bother with any sort of timeline adherence for this, but which dragon branch VIPERs are the oldest and most iconic?

Fair enough, Badger. That was just sad. And it makes Ohio State's goose egg last year at the Fiesta Bowl fairly cathartic. Speaking of blowouts, Pariah is not likely to be happy this weekend when Wisconsin comes to Provo.. The spread is only 14.5 points, but I hear that BYU might be down a starting quarterback? I suppose it also depends on how many quarters of football the Badgers show up for. Here's hoping that it's a real game of college football.

So, my f2f group is going have a gap between long-term games due to out-of-country travel on the part of the next GM. And I've offered to run a little something for those two weeks to introduce a couple of the players to the HERO system (the rest of us are familiar, if rusty). Which leaves me needing to do a bit of brainstorming on something to throw at them. Well, I already have an idea, but I need a bit of help on crafting the opposition. The PC will be pregens based on this cheesy old post from the boards (and yes, they are largely on board with the utter ridiculousness involved ) I can't seem to find the originial post on the forums; does anyone recognizes this insanity to give me a proper name to credit? But anyway, So our 5 heroes of rock find themselves thrust forward in time from the era of Reagan to today, where they must navigate a world that no longer as a place for big hair. Does the power of rock have a place in our modern, hip-hop world? My big issue is that I'm not that into new music, so I'm not entirely sure what to do for the villains of this piece. I'm not going to bother picking on rap for this, so don't go there. It's maligned for many wrong reasons, and there are likely better targets out there. I am somewhat tempted to make at least part of the plot that the villains kidnap Simon Cowell. How can you talk about modern music without at least acknowledging the influence of the various Idol and Talent shows? Any thoughts on villains based on post-80s music? And preferably a little newer than the Bad Spice girls or the Back-Alley Boys? Also, I'm not 100% on board with Bondage. Any suggestions for a better 5th member? I'm partial to keeping a tech-bent to the character though. Any help is appreciated.

Where to begin? It is probably only a little hyperbolic to say that Wisconsin doesn't actually play anyone until November. That's what, week 12, when Michigan comes to Madison? Can't say I wish Mike to go to Oregon State, either. Gary Anderson actually ate a $3 million buyout on his contract to jump ship and head there when he found out that Wisconsin wasn't about to compromise their admissions standards for him. I can at least feel a little smug about my alma mater requiring at least some effort on both sides of student-athlete. Now, if Wisconsin can just start looking professional for the entire game, or find a good quarterback for once... And I'll refrain from calling them the Badgers until we sort out that provisional return from being the Possums.

Because Killer bees don't, and mosquitoes barely manage 5 months out of the year, in addition to being ones that can't carry malaria or zika. And essentially no risk of earthquakes, hurricanes, wildfires, flooding, or armed conflict. And the food is great. But that is an interesting comparison on the high temperatures there. At least the low here is a much more reasonable 0F.

Um, no. Not at all. As far as I can tell from the story here and from other sources, almost all of the 'new' galaxies are dwarf galaxies not properly accounted for in earlier estimates. The 100 billion galaxy number has been around for a long time, dating back to the days when the Milky Way only had a few satellite galaxies, instead of the 50 known today. And the mass contained there isn't quite enough to explain dark matter. Also, it's the wrong shape to explain dark matter, since dark matter must be inside known galaxies to explain how they rotate. And certain other observed things I'm not actually qualified to explain

I suspect I'm over-thinking things again, but what else is new? Also, forgive me if this has already been answered, but I wasn't able to locate anything in the FAQ during a quick search. As regarding Mimic Pools, ie VPPs with the express intent of copying other character's abilities, I was noticing that in the example write-ups in various books, the Reflex Memory example, and the villain Eclipse are all lacking any advantages relating to the action required to change the pool or skill rolls. This seems counter to the rules govern use of VPP. Is this an editorial oversight, or is this precedent? The other limitations and difficulties involved in the given examples satisfies my sense of game balance, but I was hoping for an official opinion on whether Cosmic should be included in the proper build.

Re: Best/Worst Characters? Random Thread necromancy! Knew a guy who played Mr. Gum (IIRC) once. A bubblegum golem created by one of the Wrigley's.

Re: Low Level Power Ideas Needed for Superhero team Liaison/Career Bureaucrat It sounds like she should have a power unrelated to being a bureaucrat. Otherwise, it would make more sense that she would be at the central bureaucracy pushing paper, not in a quasi-field position like liaison. And it sounds like part of the "realism" he's going for is that people with powers tend to do jobs that suit that power. And at least at the beginning of the game, it's probably best to not confuse that point. Hmm, how about weak technopathy? Pretty much just HRRP, and KS: Everything (only when and where wifi is available). No combat utility, but she always connected to base and, especially in a city, can find out about almost anything the team needs to know?

Re: Science: Particles seen moving at FTL speeds (CERN) (non-climate change thread) If I'm reading the wiki correctly, while FTL tunneling is possible, it's the sort of thing that they would have checked for before making their claim. Nor, IIRC, can tunneling occur over distances large enough to explain the measured effect.

Re: Champions Villains Volume Three: Solo Villains when will it be on the shelf? Would it help if people who really wanted it could pay today, get the book later, to help with the cash issue? I'm personally hesitant, because I'd prefer to order through my local brick & mortar game store and try and keep two dinosaurs alive with one stone. But if it would help, I could order it straight from the source.

Re: World-building: When what works for the heroes works for everyone? True. Security would have more layers and options. I would invoke Shadowrun as an answer to that, in terms of what can be done. But at the end of the day, no security system is perfect; there is always a way to defeat it. It's just a question of how difficult it is to get past and how time-consuming. I would say, from a dramatic and a game balance standpoint, that there should always be a way to counter something and there should always be clues as to what was done. And, since I said that this would be a world where things work more like they do in comics/movies, I can say it follows that the world functions with some sort of dramatic balance. Also, I'm not worried about points at this point. I was thinking that the world is still largely composed of baselines, or people indistinguishable from them. Something like less than 1 in 1000 people has a detectably superhuman ability, maybe even rarer. More common would be people who have an ability, but it is undetectable/within human possibility, an those would still be a fraction of the total population. Like the guy with indestructible tendons; it's unlikely it would ever be noticed, even though it is technically superhuman.

Re: World-building: When what works for the heroes works for everyone? Well, yes. But in the same context, every fictional story ever involves an alternate universe/history; Hamlet did not happen in this universe, nor did Pride and Prejudice, or any other title you care to name. However, no one really cares about that in normal fiction, as it's not the focus. But in the genre of alternate history, the focus is on what would be different and how it would change. Alternate history is always set in an alternate universe, but not every alternate universe is alternate history. I will also grant that I am invoking alternate history, but I don't want to focus on specific events. I want to look at things from more of an anthropological standpoint than a historical standpoint. Which I hope makes sense to everyone. And, just to put dates on things, let's keep things essentially the same up through WWII. It had such a large impact on history and the world that trying to imagine a world without it is very difficult, and would sort of become the point rather than whatever else might be looked at. Let's say that there are superhumans by this point, but they're not powerful enough or numerous to greatly alter the course of the war, to the extent that it's over in 1945 and the Allies are victorious.

Re: World-building: When what works for the heroes works for everyone?