clnicholsusa

5 hours ago, Michael Hopcroft said:

A: And isn't it ironic, don't you think? A little too ionic? Yeah, I really do think...

Q: Shakespeare used iambic pentameter, so what's wrong with it?

A: I'm just not a big fan of 'beat' poets.

1 hour ago, Michael Hopcroft said:

A: Much to the disappointment of Mrs. Ultraman.

Q: Is it true there's another dead kaiju on the beach?

A: That's why we have the ban on Presidential sunbathing.

1 hour ago, Old Man said:

 

The Joker is obviously immortal. 

Of course. Am I the only one thinking the Joker is another aspect of Coyote? Look, if WW can take on the mantle of the Olympians it makes perfect sense for one of the native deities to jump into the fray on the other side.

Just thinking out loud, but if the victim of a successful 'clinging darkness' attack were to subsequently activate the victim's OWN darkness shield power (throws up a 2m darkness globe centered on the character who has personal immunity) wouldn't this break line of sight and force the 'clinging darkness' to abate.

I think we're coming at this from the wrong angle. The answer to the question "Does Invisibility cover an obvious focus?" should be "why wouldn't it?"

As far as a focus goes, "obvious" does not mean "visible". If someone is cut with an invisible sword, they may not SEE the object, but they will know that the cut came from the object.

The book actually says, "If a Focus is Obvious, it’s clear to anyone looking at the character that the power comes from the Focus" (emphasis mine).

None of that indicates the observer can actually SEE the character, or the focus, just that it is clear the power comes from the focus.

Let's not go there. The last time I had to buy off a naked group was a really bad week for me.

As a thought experiment, could it be built using Indirect and Reduced By Range?

12d6 energy blast, (Indirect - power has source point other than character but source point is the same for every use of the power (+1⁄4), Path of power is from source point to target (0), Source point is defined as a point 128m away from the user of the power on a line through the target of the power
Reduced By Range, does full damage between 120m and 128m, loses 2DC's bewteen 104m and 120m, loses 2DC's between 72m and 104m, loses 2DC's between 8m and 72m, loses 2DC's when the target is within the last 8m of the user, (-1⁄4)
Oddly enough, this would have the same cost as a vanilla energy blast.

On 12/22/2018 at 7:12 AM, steriaca said:

Well, there was the classic Morbanes which can combine there fowl magic blast to cause more damage then normal. And there were the 4ed Inner Circle Morbanes (Rose, um, and many others who's names I forgotten). They never had a vast amount of hierlings (Morningstar, but he was brought over).

Why did no one else ask when the Morbanes started firing chickens from their scepters?

I've seen several characters in campaigns that didn't use the maximum allowable points. Most of these were 5E, and it makes more sense if I explain that the GM was determined to apply every disadvantage. He would develop villains that had attacks to match every vulnerability used, and didn't plan anything as a campaign because there was always a 'hunted' rearing its ugly head. Some of the players started to develop their characters with fewer overall points to avoid having susceptibilities or vulnerabilities or addictions or anyone hunting them. In play, you'd be hard pressed to figure which characters had done this and which had not.

Just watched a sub of an Italian film "They Call Me Jeeg"

Felt a bit like staring into a campfire or a snake pit, I was putting enough effort into deciphering what the subtitles really meant that I watched the whole thing, but if I hadn't been invested by expending that mental energy I would have turned the thing off. It's not for the feint of heart.

I've already been allowing, actually requiring, this. If Ubermensch wants a cell phone he has to have equipment points. If The Raving Raja's alter ego (Dirk Gentlery) wants a car, buy the vehicle as equipment and let The Raving Raja figure out how to use it and maintain his secret identity. One of the supers wants to carry a .357 for those occasions when pounding someone with a city bus isn't the right method, then he buys it with equipment points. This equipment doesn't cost less than the powers it copies because the characters must STILL have weapon familiarities and relevant skills to use it.

In my head, equipment exists in a sort of 'tier' structure. The character pays one point per five points of equipment, then an adder that indicates what equipment is available. In tier one, the equipment has to exist on Walmart's shelves. For a five point adder (tier two), the equipment doesn't exist in a department store, but doesn't have restricted distribution. For an additional five points, the equipment isn't readily available and is restricted from the general public (military equipment is tier three). If I were to extend this to "tier four - equipment matching that used by other superheroes/supervillains" it would probably require an additional ten point cost.

This seems to work, for me, but I've not had anyone attempt to abuse it, yet. The possibility exists that eventually I'll need to limber up the old GM veto, because as soon as the equipment list has more than three or four items on it all balance is lost. When there's just one item on the list, it can cost more than the original. For example, you can stat out an M16 for eighteen points, but to buy it through my equipment system comes out as nineteen points.

Because someone had to do it:

Archibald Andrews

Denny Colt

45 minutes ago, Cancer said:

 

Q: Are you sure this is a performance of the Shakespearian play?  Seems a little creepy to me.

 

A: The answer is more whiskey, independent of the question.

Q: Is it true you've discovered the secret to world peace?

A: No, we don't shoot horses, either.

1 hour ago, Cancer said:

 

Q:  Do you understand how you got the diagnosis of Acute Excessive IntArWebZ Dependency Syndrome?

 

A:  If you don't know what a volt is, you haven't had enough of them applied to you!

Q: Where do you measure the applied voltage to calculate current events?

A: Usually the pop in pop culture is the sound made when millions of heads simultaneously implode from the created vacuum.

Or they could do Swamp Thing

... correctly this time...

though I do miss seeing Adrienne Barbeau on screen

I did see the first part of 'Buster Scruggs', but I've always had issue with the titular character being eliminated before the halfway point. I know it's supposed to be a set of vignettes, but they had enormous opportunity to choose some other title for the whole.

Mostly, I've been catching up with Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.

Jabberwock, but that's just personal preference... I've always had a tove fetish.

Maintaining a theme: wabe vs courtyard

18 minutes ago, Asperion said:

A:  The next sound that you hear will be your necromancer.

Q: What's he moaning about?

A: I'm not dead! I'm not dead! I'm not! I'm getting better! I don't want to go on the cart.... I feel fine! I think I'll go for a walk.... I feel happy!  I feel happy!

3 hours ago, Lucius said:

 

Humbaba the Giant vs Molly Whuppie

 

Give it to Molly, mythological mental jiujitsu always defeats giants.

In honor of NaNoWriMo, which read is more uncomfortable Lolita or Naked Lunch?

2 hours ago, Michael Hopcroft said:

Q: You're saying a PC is going to put me in handcuffs and take me down to the station for questioning?

 

A: I'll plead Artistic Self-Defense.

Q: What did Mr. Pollack say when you asked him why his ex-wife was splattered with paint?

A: She knew the job was dangerous when she took it.

"Not really. That lame-brained freeway idea could only be cooked up by a Toon."

52 minutes ago, tkdguy said:

 

Q: Pardon me, which way to the the Istari Convention?

 

A: Only on alternate Tuesdays.

Q: Doesn't the Constitution require the legislators to be human?

A: Not really. That lame-brained freeway idea could only be cooked up by a Toon.

When I started with first edition, there had been recent calculus lessons. I applied those processes to discovering what values were most cost effective (the CON equations took four pages). Until version 6, your best bet was a SPD of 9 and a DEX as high as you could afford. The version one character I created had a 35 DEX with his 9 SPD. He was fun to play till the opposition figured out he would avoid anything that wasn't an area affect.

On 11/2/2018 at 6:35 AM, BoloOfEarth said:

 

Do you mean the Patriot Act rather than the NDAA?  AFAICT, the NDAA mainly covers funding the military.  Or am I missing something in there?

The Patriot Act was signed by Bush. The NDAA (which is the act that funds the military, and is regularly revised and updated) in 2012 was signed by Obama, who actually stated “The fact that I support this bill as a whole does not mean I agree with everything in it. I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation and prosecution of suspected terrorists.”

Those provisions remain on the books, and can be interpreted to allow the president to send the military to detain indefinitely anyone that has been labeled a terrorist by the president.

It's always said those that do not learn from history are destined to repeat it, so for a historical parallel you may want to look up the Reichstag Fire Decree.

As unpleasant as this will be, the truth is the truth. The reporter asking the question is, at best, uninformed or, at worst, intending no more than propaganda. Two factors have combined to make it so the federal government doesn't have to suspend habeas corpus to do whatever they want with the migrant caravan. The first factor is the assertion that the migrant caravan is infiltrated by terrorists. Once this assertion is made, the second factor gives the POTUS carte blanch on his actions. Our public memories are short, so I'll remind everyone that the NDAA has been signed into law. The government has the authority to assert that ANYONE is a terrorist and have them captured and detained by the military without recourse to any court system, and therefore free of habeas corpus.

This nibble at your civil liberties came directly from the senate, please be sure to let them know how you feel about it.