Zeropoint

This is a good example of why a voluntary taxation scheme or opt-out system is a very bad idea. All of us, including you, ScottishFox, benefit every day from the advantages of an educated populace. That you would only be interested in paying for the education system when it directly benefits you and yours is disgustingly selfish. Would you also argue that if you don't drive, none of your taxes should go to roads?

This is a good example of why a voluntary taxation scheme or opt-out system is a very bad idea. All of us, including you, ScottishFox, benefit every day from the advantages of an educated populace. That you would only be interested in paying for the education system when it directly benefits you and yours is disgustingly selfish. Would you also argue that if you don't drive, none of your taxes should go to roads?

This is a good example of why a voluntary taxation scheme or opt-out system is a very bad idea. All of us, including you, ScottishFox, benefit every day from the advantages of an educated populace. That you would only be interested in paying for the education system when it directly benefits you and yours is disgustingly selfish. Would you also argue that if you don't drive, none of your taxes should go to roads?

This is a good example of why a voluntary taxation scheme or opt-out system is a very bad idea. All of us, including you, ScottishFox, benefit every day from the advantages of an educated populace. That you would only be interested in paying for the education system when it directly benefits you and yours is disgustingly selfish. Would you also argue that if you don't drive, none of your taxes should go to roads?

I think a lot of people do live in that bubble.  They don't realize that Fox's bugaboos are typically centrist stuff, since that's not how it's portrayed by the Fox commentators.
 
Heck, Obama turned into law the conservative Heritage Foundation's plan to save the profitability of the healthcare system from the rising tide of discontent, and was excoriated as a socialist for doing it.
 
You're absolutely right that some of the commentary on MSNBC is well to the left of Fox commentary. That doesn't mean it's all that left-leaning.
 
And Fox is actually not anywhere near as far right as we go, media-wise, as I'm sure you're aware. Nor is MSNBC as left as we go.
 
But the right-wing is far better funded and far more prevalent, because there has been a concerted effort for decades on the part of some of the wealthiest to get themselves even more wealth and power by moving the country far to the right of where it was mid-century. They have been very successful in that.
 
And that, in turn, is why anything that is not right-leaning seems "hard left" to many of us.
 
But, Ruben Bolling makes the point better than I ever could.
 

And it feels to me like we, as a nation, have a narrow and rapidly closing window in which to re-assert the rule of law. Until Trump, we just sort of assumed that the president and his staff would mostly follow the law, or at least try not to get caught. If we don't manage to bring the sword of justice down on Trump & Co., I fear that we'll be entering a new era where it's accepted as the de facto truth that the president and his staff really are above the law.
 
I do not want to see my country go down that road, and I don't know what I can do to help my country avoid it.

I agree. You don't need to buy a power with character points to be able to use a shovel. A HERO character already has the INT to figure out how to dig a hole, the DEX to make the shovel go where they want, and the STR to lift the dirt. You wouldn't (I hope) buy the Summon power to represent the fact that your character can call a taxi/Uber/Lyft. This way lies madness and spoons with half-page writeups.

The simplest thing would just be to take Detect Ghosts for five points and assign it to the Sight group. There, you can see ghosts now.
 
If you're building something like the Ghostbuster's PKE meter, you start with an appropriate Detect power and build it into a focus, with whatever adders and limitations seem appropriate.

I'm definitely NOT questioning deathtraps (a genre fiction staple), nor am I questioning whether this one is escapable (depends on the numbers).
 
What I specifically AM questioning is: how does writing up the ability to throw someone in a coffin and pile dirt on top as a power have anything to do with how escapable it is? I don't understand what is gained by doing that.

I'm not clear on why the coffin has to be written up as a power to offer a buried character a chance to escape. If the killer is making these coffins himself, you just give the coffin lid whatever DEF and BOD scores you think is appropriate for the challenge level. He doesn't need a power to build a wooden box. If he's using off-the-shelf coffins, you do a little research and set the DEF and BOD to simulate the coffins he's buying. He doesn't need a power to buy a wooden box.
 
If you're this hung up on using powers to represent things, a buried character won't have any chance of escape from the grave anyway . . . unless they had the foresight to buy some Tunneling to let them dig up through the dirt.

That reminds me, I should try to run/play a game of Cyberpunk 2020 next year.

I have my own hypothesis on the urban/rural political divide. (And it is only a hypothesis: I know of know empirical research to back it up, so take it with a grain of salt.) It's that small communities and large communities create different social incentives.
 
In a small community, you interact with pretty much the same group of people throughout your life. New people are born, old people die, but turnover is slow and one rarely encounters people who have no social context. This means you must fit in, because the people around you have great influence on your own well being.
 
Take barbershops for an example. Suppose you run a barbershop in a town that can only support one or two barbers. You have a limited supply of potential customers. If people decide you're a weirdo and Not One Of Us, you quickly go out of business.
 
A small community thus encourages sentiments of loyalty and social conformity. Anyone outside the community is an unknown quantity and therefore threatening. And thanks to modern media, rural Americans receive threat-signals of freaky, Not Like Us outsiders every day.
 
In a big city you interact daily with people you don't know and whom you might never see again. It is very important to get along with strangers. If you don't know who's a threat, you also don't know who's an opportunity. And it's worth keeping your eye out for new opportunities, because so much of your life depends on people you don't know: The business where you work could close, your house could be demolished to make way for a bypass, a bank in another country could throw the economy in a tailspin, and so on.
 
Again, consider barbershops. In a city that can support a hundred barbershops, your challenge isn't to fit in -- it's to stand out! Because why should customers go to your barbershop instead of the other 99? Maybe your gimmick is to cultivate a social niche, like being a Black Barbershop, or a Punk Barbershop, or a Blue Collar Barbershop, or whatever. (Cue Ray Stevens' "When You Get A Haircut.")
 
This difference in incentives becomes especially important, I think, in reactions to immigration. In a small town, the sudden arrival of several hundred people from a place you never heard of, who talk, dress, dine, worship and do everything else differently, is an existential crisis. The social order you have known all your life must change. And down in your genes, ten thousand generations of Stone Age ancestors who lived in tiny homogeneous communities are screaming that an enemy horde has arrived and you'd better be ready to fight for your life.
 
In a big city, the arrival of several hundred ethnic strangers is a drop in the bucket... and an opportunity. If you're a politician, maybe it's a new constituency you can cultivate that could tip a close election. For anyone else, the most it likely means is there's going to be a new ethnic restaurant. Impress your friends by being the first to discover it!
 
City folk can feel xenophobia, sure. They have the same ten thousand generations of Stone Age ancestors as rural folk. But there are countervailing incentives as well.
 
Like I said, just a hypothesis. I won't be offended if people with more and wider experience of both big-city and small-town folk say it's full of crap, that's not their experience at all.
 
Dean Shomshak

I agree. You don't need to buy a power with character points to be able to use a shovel. A HERO character already has the INT to figure out how to dig a hole, the DEX to make the shovel go where they want, and the STR to lift the dirt. You wouldn't (I hope) buy the Summon power to represent the fact that your character can call a taxi/Uber/Lyft. This way lies madness and spoons with half-page writeups.

I agree. You don't need to buy a power with character points to be able to use a shovel. A HERO character already has the INT to figure out how to dig a hole, the DEX to make the shovel go where they want, and the STR to lift the dirt. You wouldn't (I hope) buy the Summon power to represent the fact that your character can call a taxi/Uber/Lyft. This way lies madness and spoons with half-page writeups.

It never came up in the homebrew fantasy world/game I have, but areas could be "aspected" or "flavored" magically such that certain categories of spells would be easier or harder to cast. A magic user trying to Create Water in a desert, or in the middle of a drought-stricken area, would have a harder time of it. Also I had an area which was once a breadbasket agricultural region but is now a wasteland thanks to past use of strategic level magic; no one is just going to walk in there and fix the problem by spamming noob spells.

It never came up in the homebrew fantasy world/game I have, but areas could be "aspected" or "flavored" magically such that certain categories of spells would be easier or harder to cast. A magic user trying to Create Water in a desert, or in the middle of a drought-stricken area, would have a harder time of it. Also I had an area which was once a breadbasket agricultural region but is now a wasteland thanks to past use of strategic level magic; no one is just going to walk in there and fix the problem by spamming noob spells.

That reminds me, I should try to run/play a game of Cyberpunk 2020 next year.

The Webley-Fosbery Automatic Revolver is a rare gun that is perfect for a unique Pulp hero gun.
 
 
The Webley–Fosbery Self-Cocking Automatic Revolver is an unusual, recoil-operated, automatic revolver designed by Lieutenant Colonel George Vincent Fosbery, VC and produced by the Webley & Scott company from 1901 to 1924. The revolver is easily recognisable by the zig-zag grooves on the cylinder.  It was made in 6-shot Webly .455, and in 8-shot .38 calibers.
 
The Webley–Fosbery is a recoil-operated revolver. It has three functional sections: the barrel and cylinder section, the lock and hammer action, and the frame which houses the trigger, recoil spring, grip, and safety.
The process of opening, emptying, and loading the Webley–Fosbery is identical to all other contemporary Webley revolvers. A pivoting lever on the side of the upper receiver is pressed to release the cylinder-barrel section, which tilts up and forward ("breaks") on a bottom-front pivot, simultaneously ejecting the contents of the cylinder chambers. Once loaded the section is tilted back to lock closed.
 
Once loaded the Webley–Fosbery is cocked by pressing the entire action-cylinder-barrel assembly as far back as it will go, using the free hand. An internal spring then brings the assembly to ready position.
When the action-cylinder-barrel assembly moves back, either by hand-cocking or recoil, a pivoting lever connected to the frame cocks the hammer while a stud on the frame rides in the zig-zag grooves on the outer cylinder, revolving the next chamber part-way to ready position. When the internal spring brings the assembly forward the stud revolves the cylinder completely, and the chamber lines up with the barrel. Neither pulling the trigger nor manually cocking the hammer alone rotates the gun's cylinder; the entire assembly must be cocked to ensure that a chamber is properly lined up with the barrel.
 
The Webley–Fosbery is intended to be carried at full cock, ready to fire. The revolver therefore has the unusual feature of a safety catch, which is found on the left side of the frame at the top of the grip. When disengaged the safety lies horizontally along the frame; it is set by pressing it down, which cams the upper assembly slightly backwards, disconnecting the hammer from the sear. It can only be set when the pistol is cocked.
 
--
This is the Gun that shoots Sam Spade's Partner in both the book and the 1941 movie of The Maltese Falcon (the movie writer didn't know the gun and assumed the 8-shot meant it was  a.45 automatic).
Its available in Battlefield 1 as the 'automatic revolver'
And its the gun used by Ange Le Carre in the anime Princess Principal

I think if it gets to that point the more honorable response might be
 
"I wasn't born in a fascist country, but I worry I'll die trying to prevent my grand kids from doing so."

APPLICATION FOR ENTRANCE TO THE CITY
 
 
1) Full name
 
Kilanie of the White Sands
 
2) Mother's maiden name
 
It is not the custom of my people to change names when married. My mother's name was and is Karanda of the White Sands
 
3) Any titles you have and where they were granted
 
"Death Witch", an unimpressive hamlet of ignorant peasants in the east
"Cast Iron Bitch", mercenary camp of Veltran's Blades
 
4) Place of birth
 
North-eastern grazing territory of the White Sands clan
 
5) What is your reason for visiting our fair city?
 
Commerce, sleeping in a real bed, eating something besides pub food
 
6) Education
 
I am skilled in all things that an Elven nomad of the eastern deserts must know, and also in the arts of magic, particularly that relating to harm and healing of the body, and of the undead
 
7) List your previous three jobs
 
Investigate and control outbreak of skeletons near the village of Turnip Flats
Artifact retrieval for mage's guild of Grant's Port
Protection and medical care for mixed group of pilgrims and peddlers
 
 8 ) List of references (preferably at least one within the city)
 
Sheriff of Turnip Flats
Mage's guild in Grant's Port
Brother Flandrian, Earth Mother's temple, Hammondburg
none in city
 
9) Preferred religion
 
I worship the Lady of Sorrow, as is proper for one of my clan
 
10) Any outstanding tax debts
 
no
 
11) Any outstanding bounties and the circumstances of why a bounty has been placed upon you
 
A mishap with healing magic led to a rival family in the White Sands clan placing a bounty of 100 silver pieces for my capture.
I advise you not to attempt to collect.
 
12) Declare all dangerous companions and all dangerous items in your possession
 
My companion is a half-demon with great strength and an enchanted sword. He is quite dangerous.
I possess a variety of knives and daggers and also a rod of ebon and bone which amplifies certain magics.
The most dangerous thing I possess is my knowledge.
 
13) Declare whether you are possessed
 
no
 
14) Do you eat carrots?
 
I fail to see how this is relevant. I have no special love for carrots but I will eat them when they are presented.
 
15) Emergency contact information
 
My travelling companion, Jonah Kane. He appears to be a tall male human with black hair. You will know him by his red eyes, the bone spurs on his knuckles, and the fact that he never removes his hat.
 
16) Are you literate?
 
This is an insulting question. I am a mage and a scholar and I am literate in several languages.
 
17) Do you have a horse or other livestock which you are bringing into the city?
 
one horse of inferior human stock but endearing disposition
 
18) Are they literate?
 
it is a horse. no. 
 
Giving false information on this form is punishable by fines, imprisonment, and/or execution as deemed necessary by the local magistrate and such punishments may be inflicted in any order.
 
I swear by my honor as a scholar that the information I have scribed here is correct to the best of my knowledge.
(signed)
Kilanie of the White Sands
 

I've abstained from commenting on the gun violence topic, but from my (American who grew up in Canada) perspective, the real problem with mass shootings to me is that it's a symptom of an often clearly abusive relationship certain extreme political show hosts have with their viewership.  We can be kind and say it's a symptom of what happens when a large part of the rural population feels abandoned by political efforts (which it is), or children feeling abandoned by their own society (which they are), but it's also a symptom of an idology that's literally preying on the minds of those vulnerable people and instilling violent anger in them as a mechanism of control.  It's been happening for a long time, but if the government was invested in preventing that abuse instead of using it then we wouldn't have 'these styles' of shootings.
 
Which of course is only a subset of the other shootings we have (school shootings are their own category), or the gun violence in general in this country...
 
The amount of people being killed, relatively speaking, is low.  But it's a very obvious symptom of societal breaks that are "not good" for the future of a stable, democratic society.
 
...OTOH those symptoms are great if you don't care about maintaining a stable, democratic society.  But that's just my opinion now.  (edit: not as a conspiracy theory, just as a 'some people are shortsighted opportunistic assholes' statement)

So those earthlings threaten to put people into a bubbling vat of universal solvent, and then they wonder why no one responds?

Today is special because it's MCU Nick Fury's birthday.
 
Happy Fury Day, everyone!

So those earthlings threaten to put people into a bubbling vat of universal solvent, and then they wonder why no one responds?

To quote myself from a different context, "There is no god but John Moses Browning, and Barret is his prophet."