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Thia Halmades

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Posts posted by Thia Halmades

  1. 27 minutes ago, Pariah said:

     

    My state is so heavily Red that my individual vote against Donald Trump is statistical noise. Utah hasn't cast its electoral college votes for a Democrat in my lifetime.

     

    On the other hand, over 25% of Utah voters chose third-party candidates in the last presidential election. That's almost as many votes as Hillary Clinton got. If we're ever going to break the Republican-Democratic duopoly in this country, we need more results like that.

     

    So no, I don't agree with your assertion that any vote not for Biden is a vote for Trump. I understand and appreciate the sentiment, but it's simply not true in my case.

     

    I disagree, your math is off; it’s not whether they voted 3rd party, it’s the system. In other words, if all the people who voted 3rd party instead voted democrat, then the State could potentially flip. This bears out my assertion, that in this environment, because it is first past the post, step one is breaking through that. Step two is changing the mechanics of voting. Because the State was split, it voted red. We can agree to disagree but I’m not convinced by your argument, I see it as reinforcement of my point.

  2. 1 minute ago, Hermit said:

    Sorry, Thia.

     

    No apology needed. You didn’t do this. That was my point. I’m just tired of living a nightmare and not sleeping because I’m raising my daughter in the United States. We need better and we should be doing better, and yet “things” keep holding us back. All the posts I’m writing are heavily edited, partially to prove to myself I can do it, and largely because I know screaming about it won’t get me anywhere. SO.

     

    I appreciate the thought, and for the record, I accept your apology in the way it was intended, but no need. 

  3. Just now, Hermit said:

    I predict that if Trump doesn't become symptomatic, he will portray this as bad as it gets, and what are folks whining about? If it does, well, he's got some of the best medical care the US Govt can afford on standby... and will probably try to make sure that even if he gets near to death he'll act like it was no big deal. He lies about everything anyway, and wants to be seen as 'strong' so yeah, he'll bull@#@ his way through this.

     

    And spread misinformation galore anew, this time convincing trumpkins 'See, it was over hyped those who died were wimps or something'

     

    Everything you said is well within the boundaries of reasonability, and we’ve known each other for ... 15 years, Hermit? Not super close but we’ve been on this board together for a minute, and i have the highest respect for you. So I know, for a fact, that the rolling sickening feeling as I read what you wrote isn’t from you having written it. It’s that we live in a world where it can be contemplated at all. I am going to return to lurking for a bit. Until someone says something I can’t keep mum about.

     

    So... five mini?

  4. 9 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

    Don't romanticize them. That's a pop-culture image they themselves like to spread, but ultimately their behavior is governed by greed and fear, like Trump.

     

    Shut up! You’re not my real dad!

     

    I wrote a whole post on the difference between reality and what’s seen on TV, but it seemed to veer too far into Simon-Land so I blipped it. Short version: You’re right, I was trying to draw a correlation between reality as concept and reality as seen on TV, and how some people don’t realize they’re two separate things. I think you can figure out the rest of what I was saying from there. My first post did not have the weight of the construction behind it and thus it’s my fault for being unclear.

  5. That’s a fair point, there has been so much noise and it’s deafening, drowning out most positivity and hope. It really does a disservice to the whole process and pollutes the discourse. To be honest, there may not be a reconciliation between the “sides” but I also don’t believe that there needs to be one. Based on the actions and the ideas that I’m seeing there’s a group of people who believe that the function of government is primarily the protection of property, and another group who believe that the goal should be the common interest. Simply put, we need both to function as a society and refusing to recognize the merits of either defeats the whole point of the exercise. 

     

    But that’s all beside the point. I believe that people matter, and I believe that all citizens deserve to be represented by people who believe that they matter. No matter where on the divide you fall, each and every one of us deserve to be treated with respect by our government. We deserve to be told the truth by people we have elected to be our agents. We deserve to have the services we pay for operate at a functional level. We deserve to be able to trust that our representatives are working in our best interests, no matter where they fall ideologically. And for me personally, even if I get nauseated, I’m going to vote for the person who can uphold that basic agreement. The only way to guarantee this new status quo continues — i.e., the venomous horror we’re all witnessing —  is to refuse to believe that an alternative can exist.

     

    And an alternative can exist, but it only comes to fruition if we all vote in the people who we believe are going to balance what can be competing interests, but who, above all else, see the needs and inherent value of the people first. I have no issue with “conservatism,” i.e., the value of institutions, but what seems to be happening is that rather than act as agents for the people, but for themselves. As an example, defunding the Post Office is not in the public interest. It only serves a very small group under very unique circumstances.

  6. it’s an interesting approach, using the mechanics of each school as their differentiation. Not how I would do it, because that seems overly complicated to me. When I think of school I don’t think of mechanics, I think in terms of special effects, i.e, abjuration, evocation. Where when I think in terms of class, I’m more inclined to change up the mechanics.

     

    Of course, we could be saying the same thing in different ways.

  7. Hmm. Hmm hmm hmm.

     

    First off, the chain thingy. I’m assuming that he can hit people with it, so first, build it as a HTH attack. Chain, HTH, Reach, OIF. 

    Now you can hit people who are X away with the chain. Coo. Next, entangle. Remember that when someone is entangled, the chain is now “busy.” To represent that, the Entangle carries Lock Out (-1/2, I believe). And it locks out the HTH function. Coo? Cool. Oh, and your Entangle is on a Trigger; that way, he can choose to bash people with the chain, or choose to hit someone and then when it strikes, engage the Trigger (it is optional) and roll for Entangle.

    Finally, with the target wrapped, he sends the current down the chain and deals whatever you want electric damage to be; you can make it raw STUN, you can make it RKA, you can make it Penetrating, etc etc. The special effect of lightning you’ll have to decide on, just remember to keep it consistent through the campaign. Because of this, your lightning element is Linked as the lesser power to your Entangle. So Entangle on Trigger, lightning Linked to a successful Entangle.

  8. 10 hours ago, TrickstaPriest said:

    Literally was comparing Trump's 'run america like a business' to my last job to a friend.  A friend who was fired for disagreeing with the boss from that job.

     

    People like Trump because he's destroying what they view as the current corrupt government.  Trump is really good at destroying things.

     

    But it's really easy to destroy things.  That's not an exceptional or valuable quality.

     

    It's easy to end up with an even more corrupt government by destroying a current government.  Literally happens all the time...

     

    When people say “run America like a business,” — and I saw another post on this but was too tired to reply — they do not mean ‘yell at people because they didn’t do their job.’ That’s not how you run a business. A business is about the people in it. Those of us who want to see America run like a business mean things more like this:

     

    * Quarterly & Annual targets, with the appropriate accountability

    * SMART goals

    * Reasonable transparency for our taxes

    * The construction of a new, uniquely American culture; Amazon holds people accountable, we should as well

     

    And so on. If there’s yelling, that’s because the manager is a [redacted], because if that [redacted] happened in my work place? Pfft. It would be a call to HR and a bunch of meetings and suddenly I’d have a new manager.  Running America like a business means proper accounting of resources, resource management, goals, stretch goals, etc. Stop wasteful spending, cut budgets to force people to find new solutions, etc. 

     

    I recognize that this is not a broad opinion, it could just be mine and that of a few people, but I did want to debunk the difference between “managing a store,” which has its own challenges, and the actual requirements of running and growing a full business.

  9. Just now, ScottishFox said:

     

    Problem is I want better choices.  I feel like my options are belladonna or ricin.

     

    I don't want these options.  I want good ones.

     

    And I want to go back to the office without risk of getting a life threatening illness; I want my daughter to grow up in a world that doesn’t involve fascism. I want a leader who isn’t bull horning for racism, and who at least at the basic level, can get through 5 sentences without lying. 

     

    I want a pony.

     

    The options are what they are. I get it. But. This is the system. These are the current rules. We have to play by those rules and we have to play to win. The only way to achieve that, currently, again, from a non-Trump point of view, is to vote Biden/Harris or, preferably a straight blue ticket. Again. Hope I did that without triggering anyone.

     

    If you want to change the system, then elect people who will fight for ranked voting, so we can get away from the first past the post/wasted vote mechanic (no offense meant to the intent of your vote, as much as the way votes are tallied). So in a ranked system, you could put Libertarian first, then Democrat, and when the LIbertarian is mathematically eliminated, your vote moves to the next viable candidate. However, that won’t happen in a Trump/GOP administration. Shoot, it might not happen in a Biden/Harris administration, but Maine did it. Which means your State can do it and enough States do it, then Federal law will change.

     

    Separate thought, but I thought a valid point, considering.

  10. 17 hours ago, ScottishFox said:

    All that debate did was confirm to me that while I felt my choices in 2016 were godawful - they were not as bad as my choices in 2020.

     

    It's unbelievable how bad that debate was.

     

    At one point in the debate I was wishing Trump would just shut up and stop interrupting so much that I mentioned it to my wife.

     

    Me:  He's interrupting WAY too much.  Like - this is hard to watch.

    Wife:  Joe Biden looks weak.

    Me:  That doesn't bother you?!

    Wife:  I like that he's taking it to him.

     

    Somehow, impossibly, my three-decades-of-voting-Democrat wife is now more conservative than I am. 

    I am probably going to join my fellow Vote Giant Meteor 2020 friends and vote Libertarian again.

     

    Here’s where I potentially veer into trouble, but I’ll make it plain: Any vote that is not for Biden, is a vote for Trump, mathematically speaking. It’s not enough to want to vote Trump out, nor is it sufficient to vote for an alternative, non major party (i.e., Democrat). Your vote is part of the group vote that determines how your State votes and pushes the electoral college. 

     

    I am not telling you how to vote; I am telling you how you should vote if you want Trump out of office. Because we are in a democratic republic, and not a democracy, your best tactical option, regardless of personal opinion, is to vote Biden. Everyone who identifies as a member of  the current Republican Party is going to vote a straight red ticket, so bear that in mind. This is a “first past the post” system. If you vote an alternative party, you’re only weakening the Democratic position, not the Republican. This is the battle for the margins I was speaking of earlier; if that display pushes you to not vote for either of them, then it counts as a win for Trump. It’s kind of like a pass in football; there’s three options, and only one of them counts as a success; the other two — incomplete and interception — are both bad. Relative to a democratic, or at least, non-Trump point of view.

     

    ...I think I said that without triggering anyone. 

  11. On 9/30/2020 at 12:23 PM, unclevlad said:

     

    Maybe.  I skipped it.  I think my brain actively chose to reject that it was gonna happen because it figured it was going to be a horror.
    Looked at the recaps...a very common theme was, if it's going to be that kind of debacle, what's the point of having them?

     

    On 9/30/2020 at 1:53 PM, DShomshak said:

    Ten minutes into the debate, my brother said in disgust, "This is a farce." 45 minutes in, I decided there was no point in continuing to watch the farce, because it was truly not funny.

     

    What burns me most is that to his loyal base, Trump's bullying, blustering, talking over Biden and Wallace probably looked "STRONG!" I am sure that right-wing media are gloating that Trump ate Biden's lunch, and Wallace's too.

     

    I don't think there's any point in watching the remaining two debates unless the moderator is given a mute button to use on interruptions.

     

    Dean Shomshak

     

    The point is this:

     

    I will submit, as an apriori premise, that the majority of people’s minds are made up. I will also acknowledge, via point A, that they are fighting for the margins. If you agree to those two points, then the conclusion I’ve drawn is this: We must have two more debates. it is the only way to actively demonstrate the material differences in plan, in approach, in demeanor between the two in real time. It’s the only time that both of them are ‘putting themselves out there’ and fighting for votes. 

     

    Well. One is fighting for votes, the other is fighting to get you to NOT vote, including bull horning for fascist groups who represent a material national security threat to start poll watching. Interesting note, SCOTUS told the GOP 30 years ago they couldn’t poll watch in the manner they intended. That restriction lifted this year as its time expired. Because 2020. Go figure. 

  12. I would put caps down, though, now that I’m thinking on it, which I mentioned in one of @Gandalf970’s threads, and I mention him here as I think he’ll find the discussion interesting. So for me, using some real world examples;

     

    All Persona skill are: Gestures, Incant, Cost END, Only Known Powers (-0), Only Equipped Persona (-0), RSR (specifically a stat roll for EGO, which is -1 for 20 AP), but in reviewing my notes and my builds not all of those are consistent, and I would likely go back and make a few changes, such as:

     

    * -1/Power Rank (I - VII), and equate that in terms of cost to 1/20

    * Ironically, this means that my system works similarly to yours, and a player could buff up their ability to throw, say “Fire” or “Support” skills (I would be largely fine with it)

    * My CAP on that, though, would be Stat/5, or, Stat/3, depending on my mood and what I think worked in context with common and dramatic sense. 

     

    I mention that because I didn’t see you list any specific limit, and I wasn’t certain where you wanted the final average difficulty to fall (I am usually looking to cap people out at 14-, after difficulty modifiers, any higher and it can get into automatic territory).,

     

    Tired, making a 4 or 5 course meal, rambling. But hopefully that’s giving you some context around my thoughts.

  13. Those WERE my comments to the question, because it’s all theoretical, that’s why I posted the rest of what I did, because I’m still trying to get a handle on what you really want to do beyond “does this work?”

     

    And to clarify, my experience is not that equal points is equal balance; my experience is that in a well designed system, where I have accounted for most contingencies and mentally built out my core classes, THEN, points tend to be balanced. You’re absolutely right, and I’ve said this before; 200 points in my hands is wildly different than 200 points in a new player’s hands.

     

    What’s the question you wanted a direct answer to? The 1 point cost reduction for 2 CP? A qualified “yes.” The qualification being that I don’t know how many skills they need to take, is it by spell, or by school?

  14. On 9/30/2020 at 10:01 AM, eepjr24 said:

    Scale is whatever you can afford, restricted by other criteria like that all spell END comes from a reserve, spells can be challenging to locate after creation, new spells are non trivial to create.

     

    This, to me, is an issue, but it explains a lot. So if I’m following your logic:

     

    They can build any spell, so long as they can pay for it; i.e., OIF, Gestures, Incantations, RSR, etc. You then wanted a safeguard against player madness by locking in their spell casting ability. Assuming casting is stat based, we’ll say on CHA for the moment, they have a 20 Charisma, and a skill of 14-, a 30 point spell (and trust me when I say 30 points is nothing in a complex magic system) is a -6 penalty out of the box. I would choose to play a fighter at that point. You’ve also made the spell cheaper by putting that RSR to 1/5 (which is... -1?) where I would generally start with 1/10 as the book suggests, or go out to 1/20, particularly if you want magic to be plentiful. 

     

    Next. You said you wanted there to be an incentive to play other classes; most initial thought follows the track of “push these things down to keep them balanced.” HERO doesn’t require you to do that. Just set your maxima and then let players do their builds. When I did Kamarathin, and the zodiac magic system, it was built on the assumption that literally everyone could learn magic, just not everyone knew they could. That didn’t detract from fighters, paladins, etc. Being good at magic in HERO comes at a cost — generally a steep one, considering I’m still unclear which framework, if any, you’re using. If you bake in some fighter tricks, like whirlwind attack, cleave, power strike, etc., you’ll have plenty to keep the field level.

  15. 7 minutes ago, Old Man said:


    This is the takeaway soundbite from this “debate”. As a conservative commentator put it, “Trump isn’t running against Biden, he’s running against the election”. 

     

    I agree with you, this was not a debate; he was not engaging with intent to debate, he intended to drive people away, to convince them to tune out, because the current poll data shows an exceptionally strong lead, and voters who reinforce that lead mean a referendum and forced accountability. That would go against the existing narrative of being a “rule breaking deal maker.” The goal here is to push everyone out of the picture and failing that, to plan on dragging the election into a stacked SCOTUS. 

     

    When you’re planning on fighting the results, when you insist repeatedly that the election is rigged, and you call for fascist groups to poll watch — that suggests you know where this is going and you’re grasping for any possible way to remain in power.

  16. 2 hours ago, Old Man said:

     

    They ought to love this debate then.  One candidate came ready to play chess, the other came to knock over all the pieces and s--t on the table.

     

    I think you’ve captured the heart of my opinion. My greatest concern is that when given an opportunity to denounce white nationalism, and a name, which Trump asked for, and was provided “Proud Boys,” he said “stand back, and stand by.” 

     

    They’ve now turned this into a new banner. It’s truly chilling. I think if I said anything else I would risk wandering into @Simon land, so I’ll leave it there. I think I am safe in saying this: anyone who believes that is a proper and rational response to being told to denounce white supremacy is not someone I want to know.

  17. Hey E;

     

    You said “one of your schools.” For me, out of the box, if I’m going to use activation rolls/skill rolls (which I have) I make them system wide. When I built Persona, I required skill rolls for all casting under pressure. That out of the way, -1/5AP is extremely granular. I look at the whole system I’m building, so my scaling was for I - VII, and I believe it ran 30 - 150 or so, and I used -1/20 AP, because I wanted each level of magic to be specifically tiered and cost that extra level to cast. If you’re starting at 1/5, that’s exceptionally challenging to hit, especially if you’re going for a pure pass/fail.

     

    If you’re going for something that tight, you could also consider a graded success system, meaning, the spell always works, but it may lose efficacy if your roll is sub-par. Also, and this is one of the innate challenges of using this rule, in most cases you’re also making a to-hit roll and an effect roll, which can get frustrating, so that’s something to be aware of, because it opens up two avenues of failure, instead of just one (the attack roll). 

     

    With all of that said:

     

    * What is the scale of your spell system? What is the maximum AP of a spell? Once you know that, you’ll be able to work out the roll required

    * I am fine with PSLs, however it needs to be consistent, so if that’s the primary representation, I’d say roll with it

    * Be aware of the total cost to a player to be a high end caster or do a caster build

     

    It is late and I am a little tired, I’ll review this in the morning and provide additional insight if it occurs.

  18. 13 hours ago, Old Man said:

     

    No he doesn't.  I know I couldn't care less, and I say this as someone who started reading in 1996 and had to wait 23 years to see how the story ends.  The first three books were great, now I'm done.

     

     

     

    See, you made the classic mistake of thinking that there were any protagonists.

     

    The only streaming service that has the entire series is Google Play for $30/season.  Find a DVD box set.

     

     

    I own(ed?) the entire B5 on DVD; whether it still exists is questionable because many things got thrown out in my last move. Many more will be thrown out with this one, but at least going forward I’ll have a whole house to fill with random crap.

  19. It’s why I outlawed wish. Just didn’t exist in my games. 

     

    I get where you’re coming from @Scott Ruggels, however I actively side with Mallet and Hugh on this issue; to me your argument says “we are all equal and must all be playing by the same rules which I should have complete and total insight to.” That may not be what you’re saying, but that’s what I keep pulling out as the underpinning “core” of your objection. I can’t have infinite summoned MOBs, neither can they.

     

    This next bit is said without snark, and I want to say that because a) I’m easy to misinterpret and b) people get sensitive and I’m trying to be mindful of that. There are a ton of completely legal ways to get “Summon a Lich-Load of Skeletons,” in addition to the various mentions people gave. Some general things:

     

    NCM applies to players, not monsters, meaning, a monster has as many CP as it needs to satisfy its special effect(s). So my troll needs 50 STR because it’s a troll? Cool. That’s already outside of what a player can have (by my own post) because I can account for game balance as a GM for what I build, but I cannot anticipate every permutation of what a PC will come up with. 

     

    Summon Skeletons, Trigger; when this tomb is disturbed, and the password is not uttered (PS: there’s no need to ever tell anyone there’s a password, it could just as easily be “and it ain’t me, guys” THEN, Summon Skeletal Horde and Attack. Is it wonky? Sure it is, but it’s also legal and reasonable, it’s why you’re standing there for a hot minute before t3h h0rd3 descends upon you. What this all comes down to, for me, is those two classic words, “Common and dramatic sense.” I respect the kinds of games you want to play, I just think it’s very limiting to want all games forced into that block. Doctor Doom has way more toys and resources than most heroes, including the Fantastic Four. Shoot, Darkseid has a whole planet, sub dimensions and New Gods vs... the Justice League. Like. Those odds are BAD. Having your foes have more points just means you have to utilize better team work.

     

    Maybe I’m off topic at this point? It’s possible. I’m not eating today. And my stomach is slowly licking my medulla oblongata for how much salt may be required before consuming it.

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