Duke Bushido

I completely agree with you, but I'd like to put this up here in the middle of a friendly discussion instead of all the places I would _like_ to put, but fear it would start a negative argument: People routinely ask how to simulate this or that regarding increased reflexes or particular speedster schticks. My suggestion is usually playing hardball with the speed chart. We all know that by definition, a Character's Phase is _not_ that one segment in which he declares, takes, and resolves his action, but is in fact all of the segments since his last action up to his current one, and his next Phase begins the following segment and continues on until the next segment in which he may declare, take, and resolve an action. So how about this: He _declares_ his action in that first Segement. His action "begins" immediately. One half of the way (rounded down) to the Segment in which he would ordinarily declare / act / resolve, his half-Phase actions (if he is talking any)are resolved. If he opted to take a Full Move, then at this point, he makes one half of that Full Move. If he is not making a Full Phase action, he may now begin his second Half-Phase action. Two-thirds of the way, rounded down, he may make any final adjustments to his Skill Levels. On the final Segment of his Phase-- the Segment in which he would normally declare / act / resolve, his Full Phase action is complete. Roll to hit at this point versus the target he declared (if he was attacking), etc, etc. This does all the things we expect when we want to see super-fast characters interacting with slower characters, and it creates that "speedsters see the world in slow motion" thing. It also does things like "I shoot my area affect at the hex he is standing in!" while the much faster character will have an additional Phase or even two in which he may simply leave that area. Before shooting it down (I will take care of that myself, in a moment ), study it. Not only does this keep all the promises of the speed chart, it models precisely all those things people really want to see when they build fast-fast Characters. It let's the lightning-quick gunfighter easily get the drop on the guy who already has a weapon drawn. It let the speedsters harmless side-step and completely circle the brick who's bearing down on him. It does so much of what people wrack their brains trying to model. It's perfect, and it's pretty much doing _nothing_ to the rules but enforcing the literal interpretation of the Speed Chart. I only bring it up in this context because it works extremely well to take the bite out of AoE and Explosion attacks while doing nothing more than staying accurate to the concept of a fast Character. In fact, I like it _so_ much that I have tried for years to make it something other than an unplayable mess. No, seriously: while it very well may be a more-exact model for what the Speed Chart is intending to represent, the fact is that even when Characters have only a single point of SPD in difference, the whole thing becomes horribly, _horribly_ one sided, heavily (and I can't stress enough just how heavily) favoring the faster Character. Is this accurate? Of course it is. The Flash at SPD 12 _can_ run circles around Doctor Doom; no problem. It's accurate. But it is absolutely _not_ fun. (trust me on that). Anyway, just a slightly-related thing I have wanted to share for years, and I have finally found a place to insert it as a tangent instead of as a counterpoint. Still, if anyone decides they want to play with it themselves, and manages to find a way to make it work such that the faster Character doesn't mop the floor with everyone else on the field (I mean in a better way that the rules currently do; if you can better represent the advantages of faster reflexes / more actions / shorter reaction times better than we currently do it without making faster Characters un-hittable), by all means, let me know how you did it.

So you're saying I would have to make it Area of Effect, then?

That's the harmless version. It's great fun, and everyone laughs because all pages without actual data are completely reusable, and nicely stacked in the tray. The much more vindictive version is to tell it that you want the box outlines to show in print. Now you know that.

Hagatha. For anyone who might be too young to remember, this was the favored name for most Bugs Bunny witches, followed by Brunhilda, which made that whole spear-and-magic-helmet thing a bit odd: "Oh, Bwoonhiwda, you'we so wuvvwy...."

Not really. When they are less than one half of a oercent if the time, they are much more plausible. . honestly, I would love to, but even the full size trucks are at an all-time smallness. They keep making them taller so you don't notice, but that just makes them harder to work out of. given that I am eyeing an F550 crew cab with a 12' platform, and hiw narrow they are getting, and how tall, I may have go call it Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Stand by your promises. If you make an exemption for one peckerhead, before you can turn around you will be up to your armpits in peckerheads.

Yep. And for a while during the marketing research that brought this him way, he was Hangly Man. Fortunately, that didn't catch on.

+10 DCV, usable by Hexes.

Don'r mistake tall for big. One od the reasons I have put ofd buying a new truck is that they are four and six inches narrower than my truck (which is three-point- five inches narrower than the truck I swapped for it). They are pointlessly tall, though. That I dont get.

Actually, that picture reminds me of a story from ten years or so ago-- The Leviathan was enjoying her tenth birthday, and the younger guys at work were starting to pop up in new cars-- right after tax time, don't you know. Now it's no secret that in spite of what I do or don't know, I have worked blue collar my entire life, because I have yet to find a white-collar job that lets me work outside and randomly call out my coworkers as absolutely morons when they are being absolute morons. Accordingly, a very large percentage of those "new cars" were trucks, and most of them were Dodge trucks. Now I say "trucks" to be nice: most of them were little half-ton four-by-fours with those ridiculous little "I didn't want a truck; I wanted a 4-wheel drive Malibu" 5-foot micro beds on the back. "Man, Duke! You gotta get you a new truck!" Nope. "But my Dodge is the best damned truck you can drive!" The best truck you can drive is one that's paid for, dipsh*(%. Besides, I can't get a Dodge. "Nah, Duke! They got a sale on right now-- it's like zero down and blah-blah-blah. You can get one!" Nope. I checked. They won't sell you a Dodge if they find out that you know how to park. For what it's worth, the Leviathan turned twenty last year. It's almost time to start thinking about maybe someday in the next ten years to start looking for a new truck.

The greater the mass, the greater the force of attraction? Is that where we're going? I mean, I _agree_, but still, I think Newton was the ultimate T-totaler: if it was remotely enjoyable, he was against it.

From my limited experience with Ohio back in my house-moving days, I'm going to say it's probably the staggeringly high percentage of racists.

Not any more, he doesn't.

The next time I need an educated Greek character, I am _so_ naming him Praphesies.

Ugh. I had to quit watching that show. I can't help it-- that whole contrived "oh, just one more thing--" I don't know if I have any others, but for me that's just an instant rage trigger. I stopped watching when I realized I was about to hurl an ashtray at the television. (No; I have never smoked, but it was like '78 or so: you had them for your guests...) Dude, _nobody_ gets Miss Kitty. It takes a while to figure out that _we_ aren't supposed to have the hots for her (hallelujah!); it's about Matt Dillon having the hots for her. Granted, I don't get that either, but I guess if you want to guarantee manly children, that's the pairing that should do it.

Regarding top-down tokens and transparent borders: I cannot remember who it was, but many years ago, on this forum, some absolute genius mentioned having made minis / tokens using Shrinky Dinks. I sobt know if they still exist (I really thought that was a seventies thing), what sort of plastic it was, or what sort of inks paint them, but it might be worth checking out.

That, Sir, is a _lot_ of unique math. I'm assuming it's a constant, as it's clearly not an equation.

Okay, I'm going to call it. I am being completely honest when I tell you that it was difficult, simply because everyone had something that I really, _really_ liked. In the end, I think Steriaca is the winner, if only because of the delightful absurdity and simultaneous threat of "The Yellow Orb." I mean-- it was wonderful. Believe me, though-- everyone had something I wanted to reward. The idea of a suit that grants the power of Growth hearkened back to a player in the 80s who had a power armor character-- with Growth, bought IIF: the armor grew. It was just odd enough, you know? And the name Crimson Colossus! Absolutely _classic_ name for a super character. Quackhell's entire group had a bit of background, and you guys know that stuff just sells a character to me. Even Tribble-- well, I think it says something that I liked his team and their schticks. I mean-- have you _ever_ seen me participate in _any_ of the "make a theme team" threads? Of course not. Do you know why? I _hate_ theme teams; I hate almost everything about them. But Tribble managed to create people who actually seemed like they wouldn't get along at all, and there was appeal in that, too-- shades of Season 1 Farscape, perhaps. So I have spent half a day mulling it over, re-reading it from time to time, and at the end of the idea, The Yellow Orb wins. Well done, _everyone_. Pat yourselves on the back. Pretend it's a stranger and secure your wallets. You're up, Steriaca!

Methinks someone has been abusing Change Environment....

And, forgetting to bring my glasses to the computer with me, read it as Pastor of Muppets. Granted, I knew it wasn't right, but I did have to pause and think about it for a while.

Well, it's that time again. The last-- unintentional, but an annual event nonetheless-- "tradition" of the Merryneum. It's bedtime, Jan 1. (Well, technically it's the wee hours of Jan 2, but we've been on a roll of productivity, and couldn't bring ourselves to stop. Christmas was enjoyable, as were the seasonal birthdays. The entire thing was overshadowed by having lost three uncles this season (forgive me if I don't fret too much for a woman I've never met who managed twenty-odd years-- half a lifetime-- more than the oldest of them did), but we had a good time. We got to meet Chris and his wonderful family face-to-face, even if it was relatively briefly in terms of the time I would have liked to have spent with him (perhaps next time we can get in a quick game! ) Then the New Year, and the traditional meal-- those of you not from the south (and I think a year or two ago, I learned that was something on the order of all but two of you), the traditional meal for heading into the new year is blackeyed peas and greens. This year we had a massive pot of neck bones, oxtails and rice, and I managed to find six pounds of purple hulls (the best of blackeyed peas) still on the shelves, so I bought all of them), and against all odds, we found a couple pounds of frozen mustard greens (the second best of all greens, but the best ones don't grow here). Yes, it seems like a lot, but the superstition dictates that the more of these items you consume, the better your health and fortunes will be as you go forward, blah blah blah. Problematically, it _does_ get a bit monotonous (except to me, I mean. For one, I am not a foodie-- not even _remotely_ a foodie, and have proven during the lean years some decades back that I can exist on the exact same thing, day after day, and not only not care, but mostly not even notice), but I have the advantage that blackeyed peas is one of those tiny handful of foods that I will, on occasion, actively seek out. They are delicious, and the purple-hull variety is the most perfect of the types. That's neither here nor there, of course. I was discussing the monotony. So there's a late-ish lunch of stewed meat and rice, which has been slowly cooking into the rice pretty much all day, and it's delicious. This is consumed alongside all the peas and greens you can cram into your belly, meaning that supper is a small affair, and-- for reasons both superstitious and practical-- consists of smaller servings of lunch, particularly since it's all still simmering on the stove, making the peas more perfectly mushy and the rice so much more flavorful. It doesn't change the greens much, but hey-- mustard greens are awesome on their own, and we _did_ have an early fall last year, making them a bit more zesty than they might have been otherwise. Nobody (except me, because I don't care) wants peas and greens for breakfast, though the rice and some eggs are well-received by everyone. Then comes lunch and later supper, which are used-- if you're lucky-- to eat even more of the peas and the greens. Remember: it's still New Year's Day, so it's your last chance to pack your guts with magic food. Ideally (and I've never had a problem with this), you have prepared more food for those two days than the entire family can eat; it wouldn't do to run out of this superstitious blessing now, would it? Eventually, the day is over, and you head off for bed. Suspiciously eyeing each other. By silent agreement, you both end up sleeping on top of the covers, partly because it's hot, and partly because you have learned that a level of suspicion about the new year is important. Unfortunately, it's a bit chilly tonight. You would think that at the ripe age of 61 I wouldn't worry about this quite as much, but remember that I do have a spinal injury. That means that, when she wants to be, she can be faster than I am-- way, way faster if she's feeling particularly evil. Also, I have a type. Unlike most men, I will proudly tell anyone that I have a thing for strong women. I like to wrestle. Even back in school, the guys would be ogling the swimsuit models and I didn't give a damn. I was waiting for softball season because the new pitcher was smokin'. And of course, the longer you stay together, the more your senses of humor grow together. Not completely, mind you-- each has their own preference, no doubt, but your tastes take on some seasoning from your partner and even from your shared experiences. And for whatever reason, if you grew up sharing a bed with siblings, well-- dutch ovens are still hilarious, so long as you're the fastest and strongest. Wish me luck, folks! Good night.

Really? Because GRRM seems to be making a fortune on apparently random character deaths. All the cool kids are doing it.