Dr.Device

Emotional Teflon

Characters shrugging off the death of friends, mentors, or even loved ones after a moment (if that) of grief. Often celebrating wildly once they've "won."

On 6/4/2018 at 8:57 PM, Hermit said:

*Looks for part where I said Free Speech was absolute*

Mmm nope.

Nada.

ZIp.

 

*Looks for where I used quotation marks to suggest an exact quote*

Mmm nope.

Nada.

Zip.

 

That said. 

Ranxerox, did you just compare the 'liberty to drive' with Freedom of Speech? Only one of these is in the bill of rights so..no. 

 However, you do have a fair point about the crisis of confidence being somewhat understandable. Again, I respect much of what the ACLU does and has done. So yes, it's alarming when Crisis of conscience included telling its members to toe the line as the article suggested.

 

Dr. Device, I cannot claim to understand your struggles. No way, no how. That said, I don't think tolerating hate speech is the same as just treating it as the opposite of non-hate speech. I think it exposes the hate to the light. Will it convert the hateful? Probably not, but it will expose their true nature to those who were indifferent to certain dangers. Sunshine and Fresh air, so to speak, can be the best way to make folks aware we have a roach..pardon me, a bigot problem.  For some folks, I'm sure it is obvious. But there are far too many that seem clueless. IMO

 

I don't believe Freedom of Speech means surrender.  Rather the opposite, to me, it is when we burn down what made us great in order to protect what we have that endangers us. If we must err, I want us to err on the side of liberty rather than destroying the liberties out of fear that someone else might.

 

But that is my take on it. Others disagree. 

 

I think we ALL agree Nazis are A-holes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry that I implied that you were a free speech absolutist. I was just trying to make the point that there are limits, and we, as a society get to choose where those limits are.

I used to believe in the whole "sunlight is the best disinfectant" (not quoting anyone here, that I know of) idea. But seeing the surge is white nationalism and other forms of open bigotry has gone a long way to convincing me it's just not true. People see these ideas out there, hear the president of the *%^&$ United States talking about there being "good people on both sides" when the Nazis marched in Charlottesville, see the New York Times running story after story about dapper Nazis, and it starts to permeate the air. Soak in. Fester.

Something has to give, or we really could go the way of Nazi Germany.

I don't really fear for myself.  Since I've come out, being trans really isn't a struggle for me. It's awesome. I get to be myself after fifty-two years of hiding. There is no force on this planet that will send me back into hiding, and if I end up suffering because of that, nothing can take away the fact that I'll do it as myself. But  I fear for all my LGBTQ siblings. And I'm sad for the ones who are afraid to be themselves because of the environment of hate that is blooming, fanned by the current administration.  I fear for every visible minority, because if the far right continues to gain power in this country, none of them are safe.

So, it's not that I'm going to try to get Nazis outlawed, but I just don't see them as worth spending the money to defend. I am a donor to the ACLU. I think they do a lot of great work. But the idea of my money going to defend people who not only would gladly see me dead, but are actually striving to make that happen, makes me almost physically ill. 

The thing is, free speech is already less than absolute. Sure there's the obvious "shouting 'fire' in a crowded theater" example, but there are many others, as well.
In a system where you could never be punished for the content of your speech, the following things would all have to be legal.

• Blackmail - It's legal for me to say anything I want about someone. And a threat to say something is still just more speech.
• Extortion - As long as I don't follow through, I've done nothing illegal.
• Assault (in the sense of threats of bodily harm) - Once again, as long as I don't follow through.
• Slander & Libel - Well, duh.
• Perjury - Hey, I can say whatever I want.
• Incitement to violence - As long as I don't commit the violence myself. Heck, I could lie and tell you whatever I think it would take to get you to beat up some guy I don't like. 
• If you consider yourself a free speech absolutist, to you think all of these should be legal? If not, then clearly there are limits to free speech.

Nazis aren't just telling people that Jews are bad. They are trying to change the system to make it so that Jews can, once again, be rounded up and exterminated. By allowing this "viewpoint" to be treated just like the opposite —Hey, let's not round up and exterminate the Jews and other minorities— we give it credibility. I think that as a civilized society, we can set limits on what is reasonable discourse. You want to advocate for the menadatory separation of the races, fine. That makes you a bad person, but whatever. You want to campaign that I* should be killed? Nope. That's out. It's illegal to try to convince someone to commit murder. Why should it be legal to convince a lot of people to commit genocide?

We strive to be a society of rights, that's true. But none of those rights are absolute. The paradox of tolerance is ever present.

So, tl;dr if you don't believe all the things on the list above should be legal, then you agree that there is a line where speech can be made illegal. We just disagree with where the line is.

*This is not theoretical. I'm trans. There are, in fact, large number of Nazis arguing that that means that I should be killed.

17 minutes ago, bubba smith said:

a professional clown would dispute THAT all day

Exactly. That's exactly what I'd expect a clown to do.

Keep in mind the hero PAID to have healing that can heal limbs on others.  This is something they bought to avoid this kind of situation - taking it away might make the villain memorable but it might just upset the player with the power: after all, how often do they really get to use this paid for aspect of their power?

 

Instead why not have the 'Joker' target the healer and his team-mates for continually ruining his 'fun'? 

I second this.

If I were playing the healing character and this came up, I would likely not return to the game. It's not about the points spent for me, but about the principle of the thing. If you didn't want the character to be able to heal limbs, you shouldn't have allowed the power.

Re: A quick question

I run it all the time on my Macbook Pro using Doh123's wrapper she made for Star Trek Online. It works just as well for CO.

Re: List Your CO Heroes!

Dr. Device are you sure that the device was the Elder Worm Humidity Dome? It never did that for me...

Yep.

But it only does it when your endurance is at (I believe) 80% of maximum or higher. For that character, I have one build with a ton of REC equipment, and no END. That keeps his equilibrium high enough that the effect stays on by default.

Re: List Your CO Heroes!

This is Wraith, the first hero I have built specifically to take advantage of the cosmetic effects of an upgrade.

He's pictured below consulting with reporter Julie Morgan

I ended up power-leveling[1] him up to level 36 so he could get the necessary item[2] to be semi-transparent.

[1] power-leveling for me, anyway. I've heard some claim to get characters from 0-40 in a couple days.

[2] Elder Worm Humidity Dome.

Re: Allocatable

In my campaign I think I'd allow it at the (+1/4) with the restriction that up to half the points in any type of defense could be re-allocated. So in the 10/10/10/10 example' date=' the biggest reallocation possible would be 5/5/5/25. [/quote']

 

I'd take that one step further and say that no defense can be allocated less than half or more than double the base amount purchased. So, in your example, none of the individual defenses could go under 5 or over 20.

Re: Help - Offence Stat Bug?

The 0 Offense is normal. Offense is it's own stat which gives a damage bonus at the same rate as your super stats. Unlike superstats, though, the only way it can (currently) be gained is through equipment. Some equipment will have +5 - +25 (or even +300 on a very intermittent basis) offense. Most of the time, it will just be 0.

Can the advantage persistent be used on powers such as darkness, flight, and shape shift without adding Reduced Endurance (0 END) to them first, as long as one does not add Cost END only to activate?

(This is in reference to this discussion on the Hero Designer forums)

Re: Free Trial Codes

I also have trial keys, if anyone wants them. Just let me know.

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

The idea reminds me of A Coming of Age, by Timothy Zahn. The book takes place on a colony planet, a few generations after a diesease caused all children between five years old and puberty to develop immense telekinetic[1] powers. Their civilization was wrecked, and they lost a lot of knowledge/technology before the adults managed to get back in charge.

It's a good read, and might give you some ideas about how a society might handle such things.

Re: What can you do with five points?

Be anywhere in the world in minutes (a few seconds if I didn't need to zero in)

2 Whoah, I'm Floating: Flight 2m

3 Like, Poof! I'm There: Teleportation 1m, Safe Blind Teleport (+1/4), MegaScale (1m = 100,000 km; +2 1/4) (3 Active Points)

Re: When sfx lie

There's another thing that makes DCV a bad fit for a character who wants to be "indestructible" that I haven't seen mentioned yet.

A lot of people have pointed out where it does too little (AOE, MCV vs DCV attacks, etc.) , and I agree that those are problems.

But it also does too much in other areas. Being indestructible shouldn't keep you from being grabbed or entangled. It shouldn't keep someone from tagging you with Darkness or Teleport Usable As Attack. And what happens if you try to martial throw someone with indestructibility bought as DCV?

Mrs. Dr. Device is out of town with Dr. Device Jr., so I'm going to be online for much of the evening. My namesake is Level 29, and has Dr. Destroyer's Lab, Teleios' tower, and Monster Island Crisis queued up. If anyone wants to join in, feel free to message me at Dr. Device@descriptivist.net.

Re: Grandiose Schemes II

The players in one of my games visited an alternate world where something similar had happened around the end of the 19th century. All writing had been erased, and all knowledge of it had been erased. Civilization had survived and in the meantime reinvented an entirely new writing system.

The players ran across writing first, and were surprised when they met one of the natives and the native spoke perfectly normal sounding English.

Re: Official Hero Boards Super Team And Chat Channel!

I'm @descriptivist.net (all my characters get their own email address).

Re: Hero Board Chat Channel

Count me in for this.

Re: Multiform for Free? Frustrated....

My rule on this is pretty simple, and seems perfectly fair to me.

Every form pays for multiform as if that form were the base form.

Example 1:

Robot Boy has two forms. His base form is a 150pt normal, and his second form is a 350pt Living Robot (Robot Robot). His normal form pays 70pts for multiform, and his Living Robot form pays 30pts.

Example 2:

The Mammal has five forms. He has a 200pt normal form, a 150pt ferret form, a 300pt cougar form, a 250pt horse form, and a 350pt elephant form. All the forms except for the elephant form pay 80pts (350/5 +10). The elephant form pays 70pts (300/5 +10).

I have considered going to a version where each form only pays the points for the forms that it can directly shift to. In that case, if the Mammal could had to go through human form to shift to a different animal, then each form, other than human, would just pay 40pts to shift to human, and the human form would pay 80 for access to all forms.

Re: 10000 Closed Beta Keys

for Champions Online.

Their server is getting hammered, I suppose.

Re: increased END - too much?

Assuming no AP or other relevant caps, what do y'all think of these two powers a player has proposed:

 

Healing BODY 4d6, Can Heal Limbs, Decreased Re-use Duration (20 Minutes; +3/4) (79 Active Points)

Increased Endurance Cost (x10 END; -4)

Extra Time (1 Turn (Post-Segment 12), Character May Take No Other Actions, -1 1/2)

OAF (-1)

Activation Roll 14- (-1/2)

Concentration (0 DCV; -1/2)

Gradual Effect (1 Minute; -1/2)

Real Cost: 9

Considering that it's just 2 more points than:

11 Regeneration: Healing 1 BODY, Can Heal Limbs, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Persistent (+1/2) (30 Active Points); Extra Time (Regeneration-Only) 1 Turn (Post-Segment 12) (-1 1/4), Self Only (-1/2)

which is much more useful, I wouldn't sweat it.

Multiform (130 Character Points in the most expensive form) (26 Active Points)

Increased Endurance Cost (x7 END; -3)

Concentration (0 DCV; -1/2)

Extra Time (Extra Segment, -1/2)

Costs Endurance (Only To Change; -1/2)

IIF (-1/4)

Real Cost: 4

 

Thanks.

If he wants to pay point to have a secret ID, I'm fine with that, as long as he's not doing any weird point gaming on the alternate form.

I have often felt that the fixed and floating locations for the Teleport power don't offer enough flexibility to represent the abilities I have seen in fiction, or would like to give to my own characters. As a result I have come up with the following expanded version of the memorized location concept.

Costs in between those listed could be assigned to fixes of intermediate broadness/usefulness.

Geographical Fixes*

1pt - Any Exact Location

2pt - Any location in a very small, simple area(small house, large apartment, etc.)

3pt - Any location in a small, simple area (large house, small business, etc.)

5pt - Any Location in a small but complex area, or medium-sized simple area (Medium-sized Office Building, Stadium, Park etc.)

7pt - A Large area (a small town or a city block sized office building)

10pt - A City

15pt - A Country

20pt - Anywhere the character has been

30pt - Anywhere the character can specify in geographic terms

*The character may only safely teleport to places within the chosen area which he has visited or seen in person. So for 10 points he could teleport to any location he has visited in New York, but he could not teleport into the warehouse he has never entered or looked into without risking a blind teleport.

Personal Fixes

2pt - Any one person.

3pt - Any very small group (2-5) of associated people (small family, small superteam, closest friends, etc.)

5pt - Any small group of (6-12) of associated people (family, large superteam, small sports team, close friends, etc.)

10pt - Any medium sized group of less than fifty of associated people (extended family, preofessional sports team, friends, etc.)

20pt - Any person well known to the character

30pt - Any person the charcter has ever met [stop]

Object Fixes

2pt - Any specific object

5pt - Any small group of very closely related objects

10pt - Any group of very closely related objects

Conceptual fixes

5pt - A singular concept (the nearest fire, the tallest tree within range, the last place I teleported from, the other end of this phone call, the spot I last memorized)

10pt - A collective concept (any known mirror in range, anyplace I have teleported from)