Ockham's Spoon

Airframe by Michael Crichton.  Basically how are airplane accidents addressed and investigated written in terms of a mystery story where company politics and corporate backstabbing conflicts with the push to find the truth about an airline incident.  The plot is not Crichton's best although reasonably good given the premise, but the research and descriptions of the interior workings of the airline industry were excellent.

Then the teacher should speak more clearly.
 
Back in my Circuit City days, I had a co-worker tell a customer that I'd be able to answer all of his questions. The customer looked at me, and said, "Oh, yeah? How high the moon?"
 
To which I immediately replied, "about one and a third light-seconds or around 400,000 kilometers, give or take."
 
He looked at me with very wide eyes, and said, "Oh." After a moment, he then asked me about a laptop.

Apologies if I've posted this one before.  I honestly can't remember and am not going through the whole thread to see if I did.

Happy National Dog Day, Everyone.

I saw this on the Book of Face yesterday:

You can use Aid (or Characteristics) with advantages and/or limitations for all sorts of effects
 
Aid CON (Usable on others) - helps resist diseases or poisons
Aid Running (or swimming or leaping) (Usable on others) - either increases your movement or helps someone keep up with you
Aid STR (Usable on others) (only to increase carrying capacity) - helps you get loads from point A to Point B. If you want something creepier, add eight Extra spider Limbs to help hold on to what you're carrying.
 
====
 
Camelflage - Invisibility, (only when immobile), (only in desert environments)
 
====
 
Eagle Eyes - plus PER roll with sight and/or telescopic
Owl Eyes - Nightvision
Snake Eyes - Infrared Perception
Bat Ears - sonar
Wolfman Jack - radio broadcast/reception
Bloodhound - scent tracking
 
====
 
Skills as spells
 
Monkey Movement - Acrobatics and/or Climbing
Cat Fall - Breakfall
Sounds of Nature - Mimicry (only of animal sounds you've heard before)
Inspiration - PS: Hedge Mage (used when you can't figure out what a Hedge Mage would probably do in your situation)
Survival
 

"Adequacy achieved!"
 
This needs to be on a T-shirt

Let's do the math.  If DCs are doubled and typical defenses are doubled, what happens?
 
We established above that 12d6 normal and 9 1/2 DC AP will get 18 and 21.5 past 24 non-hardened defenses.
 
Let's go a bit more than double
25d6 will average 87.5 STUN - 50 defenses = 37.5 STUN past defenses, and 20d6 AP averages 70 - 25 = 45 STUN past defenses.  An extra 7.5 STUN at that power level is probably about as meaningful as 3.5 at the 12 DC level.
 
Absolute costs are really effective at higher power levels - for that 25d6 game, damage reduction starts looking really good, since the cost of shaving off a percentage of damage past defenses is static.

Oddly I can not only see them, but I can see them in your reply.  But let me try posting them differently to see if that helps:


 
 

Oddly I can not only see them, but I can see them in your reply.  But let me try posting them differently to see if that helps:


 
 

Oddly I can not only see them, but I can see them in your reply.  But let me try posting them differently to see if that helps:


 
 

Oddly I can not only see them, but I can see them in your reply.  But let me try posting them differently to see if that helps:


 
 

Oddly I can not only see them, but I can see them in your reply.  But let me try posting them differently to see if that helps:


 
 

Oddly I can not only see them, but I can see them in your reply.  But let me try posting them differently to see if that helps:


 
 

If you have small children, you know the horror....
 
 

Utility from Champions Villians Vol. 3: Solo Villains seems an obvious pick for his obsession with besting heroes.
 
Any number of magic-based villains might be interested in the prize, the Emerald Eye of Azog, which would bring in the likes of Black Paladin and Zoran the Articifer (also both CV 3: Solo Villains).  I could see various member's of the Devil's Advocates, Circle of the Scarlet Moon, Syvestris, or Vandaleurs also participating (CV2: Villain Teams).  If I were to use any of the teams, I would lean toward the Syvestris and Vandaleurs because they are more independent of their relative groups which lets them fit into the Contest better but also lets some of the villain group dynamics come into play.
 
But my choice would be Alchemica from CV3.  She is underpowered relative to most other villains, so one could easily see her desiring the prize to boost her power.  But she also isn't really powerful enough to pose a serious challenge, so I see her coming to one of the heroes and offering to help them bust up the GSVC by playing along with the Contest until they find the Crimson Claw.  Would the heroes help train her in tactics and the use of her powers to make her a more credible contestant with the idea that she is really reforming?  If they don't, will she see that as not trusting her and drive her toward villainy?  Does she betray the heroes when she gets a chance to get the Emerald Eye, or will the heroes be able to sway her to the side of justice?

Weirdest character I ever did wasn't actually used in play, but just as an example of how to use special effects to craft powers that I made to teach some friends how the Hero system worked.  The character was Kumquat Man, and he had the power do to anything kumquat related.  He had an Autofire Blast power vs. PD defined as a high velocity stream of kumquat seeds, and Entangle that encased the target in a giant kumquat, an Aid/Heal that was a high energy, nutrient dense kumquat that could be eaten to gain the benefits, a Force Field that was a second skin made of an ultra-tough kumquat rind, etc.

Utility from Champions Villians Vol. 3: Solo Villains seems an obvious pick for his obsession with besting heroes.
 
Any number of magic-based villains might be interested in the prize, the Emerald Eye of Azog, which would bring in the likes of Black Paladin and Zoran the Articifer (also both CV 3: Solo Villains).  I could see various member's of the Devil's Advocates, Circle of the Scarlet Moon, Syvestris, or Vandaleurs also participating (CV2: Villain Teams).  If I were to use any of the teams, I would lean toward the Syvestris and Vandaleurs because they are more independent of their relative groups which lets them fit into the Contest better but also lets some of the villain group dynamics come into play.
 
But my choice would be Alchemica from CV3.  She is underpowered relative to most other villains, so one could easily see her desiring the prize to boost her power.  But she also isn't really powerful enough to pose a serious challenge, so I see her coming to one of the heroes and offering to help them bust up the GSVC by playing along with the Contest until they find the Crimson Claw.  Would the heroes help train her in tactics and the use of her powers to make her a more credible contestant with the idea that she is really reforming?  If they don't, will she see that as not trusting her and drive her toward villainy?  Does she betray the heroes when she gets a chance to get the Emerald Eye, or will the heroes be able to sway her to the side of justice?

Then maybe you should have moved to Canada. Our contractors are no better, but we don't have the death penalty.