Duke Bushido

I freakin' _knew_ I wasn't the only GM with that problem! It comes up too stinkin' many times to be a unique problem! I knew I like you.... The bulk of my settings do, too. However, they will not look like Tolkien elves, and the negatives are expressed moreso than the positives. You can't deny it's an elf, but you can't freakin' make Legolas out of it, either. Oh, c'mon, Dean! We're all friends here. Is it elves or cat girls?

Good news! A dear, dear old friend from Michigan tells me Corona virus is in Detroit. We can relax. Within the week, it will be shot to death.

if I remember my childhood correctly, by kidnapping princess and serving up Knight Flambe

Thank you. That's pretty much my guide for "how many races should I have." When you can stop making them both alien and unique, you're got _at least_ enough. As for the how..... I have no idea; for the most part, we just "do." However, there are mandatory limits: if it's a player race, they have to have enough in common (goal or motivation-wise, if nothing else) to interact and work together, else there's just no point in making them a player race.

It's funny you bring that up (sorry; you hadn't yet posted when I captured dsatow's quote, or I'd have gotten this, too. I used to play it exactly that way, back before "combat starts on Phase 12" happened. I have to be honest, I don't really remember why we stopped doing it. I mean, we still do what you are doing; it makes sense: If I hold Phase 3 until Phase 8-- essentially, I am using Phase 3 on Phase 6 and now sitting on a held Phase 6, right? So why does it suddenly become wrong to go further with that logic, particularly since I can only keep a single held Phase. I mean, if the rules allowed you to do a Capcom's Balrog-style hold 12 Phases for the ultimate Turn-around Punch, I can see an issue. But you can only hold one. What prompted us to change it? I wasn't kidding; I really don't remember. Certainly it wasn't the advent of a bunch of bookkeeping at "post-12," as that wasn't new. And nobody _starts_ combat with a held phase... I may have to go back into letting them hold a Phase all the way around the Turn. It doesn't really hurt anything, from all I ever saw.

Well, D; I am _not_ saying you're wrong. Seriously: if it wasn't a bit vague here and there, this thread wouldn't exist at all, right? However, playing it as you lay it out (which, for the record, is close to what I do, on the rare occasion I use it-- as detailed above), then it isn't a special move or rules exception or anything like that: it's merely a held action. Again-- nothing wrong with that, and it certainly give way more power to the idea of escaping cover via a distraction (as the "Coverer" must now decide to deal with the distraction or not, knowing that doing so will force him to lose his advantage).

Tywill pointed out the Trigger discrepancy; I will point out anotherther one: the ability to launch more than one attack via MPA attacks. And for the one relevant to the topic at hand: The attack action isn't in this Phase. It may have been in the previous one, but it could have been in _any_ previous one. The attack action is acquiring the target and rolling to hit. End of Phase. Opting to roll the damage later instead of right now is what defines it as Cover instead of just another attack. Going straight off of rules for what is and isn't a phase-ender (which means pretty much a second half-move or an attack), it seems perfectly legal to roll the cover damage and still take both of your available actions in any Phase after cover has been established.

In this case, I would rule that the covering character had the option to either roll his cover damage then enter combat normally, or forego his cover damage and enter combat normally, or forego entering combat and maintain his cover.

Yes. Laughing like a maniac the whole time. Adams got it wrong: telephone sanitizers are essential people; civilian businesses turning government activity into a for-profit industry? Not so much.

Thank you for the clarification. If he covered the opponent before Phase 12, then yes, by the book he will get another action in Phase 12. However, I would tend to rule that if this action was taken before resolving the Cover damage, that he would lose his Cover on his opponent. At the moment I can't quote the book at you, but that is the way that I would go with it. The damage occurs.... Well, it might help to think of Cover as a sort of Trigger. "if he moves, blast him!" The point at which damage is resolved is declared when you make the cover: I wait for him to step away from the kid or I wait for him to return to the window or the most common--if he twitches, I shoot. . That is the moment the damage occurs. Now is it a "free a second action?" Not at all. The Cover roll is the attack roll. Once you take this Attack Action, your Phase has ended; your triggering condition determines when (or even if) the damage is ever resolved. That's just my read on it, and Steve's official answer may be completely opposite of what I just said. I'd leave that in GM call territory myself, as I can see situations where calling it either way is more appropriate than the other. Yes; he does have a valid point, and it's the reasons that military and Swat raids are made with large amounts of men with their weapons drawn looking first for targets to cover (military) or young black men to shoot (SWAT). It is a clear Tactical advantage. That clear advantage is probably the primary reason I don't use Cover very often: it's perfectly realistic, but it doesn't really fit that action hero feel players tend to prefer.

Add about a teaspoon of butter to replace the milk fat and it works fine.

i can't rep anymore today; i owe you, Scott, and Chris. i based that number on something i had read in a magazine a few weeks ogo that broke his current personal wealth and the value of Amazon across the time from the rebounding of Amazon after the dot Bomb of the nineties to the time of the writing, and broke it across a thirty hour work week (European author, I guess?) Anyway, the number they arrived at was 32 point-somethig million per minute of his "Workday."

Do what Granny used to do: Dry milk. People swear they don't like it, but honestly, I've never been able to tell the difference between dry milk and skim (not that I'm a huge fan of skim, mind you). One gallon of whole milk split four ways into four gallons of dry milk (the milk fat seems to be the "missing ingredient" that makes people go "eeewww!") Barring that, a sliver of unsalted butter, melted and added to straight-up dry milk to replace the milk fats. Either one seems to work fine.