unclevlad

Yeah, many of the studio talking heads expected this. I think particularly in Philly, where people probably still remember that perhaps the most dominating player ever, Wilt, never won a title while he was there. Never mind that while Embiid is also a dominating player...I think it's hard to build a team around him. Harden was a mistake; I think he'll be gone. But Embiid doesn't fit into a role...low post, mid post, high post? Pick something and stay with it more. Part of that is Toxic Three Syndrome. Some of it may well be echoes still reverberating from the abject disaster of Ben Simmons. And, sure, some of this might be projecting off Embiid's demeanor...but it's not very positive. If it's a player's league, then the tone set by your stars, matters. His doesn't appear to be a good one.

You could, but again, I'd rather eliminate killing dice altogether and use an advantage, as I noted, that keeps normal BODY determination. I might actually allow a +1/2 Advantage to STR to let it be applied to an appropriate attack power...but NOT as an underpinning for TK. Note that you'd better take that as a Naked Advantage...or you're paying for the END on ALL applications of STR. A naked advantage is a special power...so can't be put into a framework. Note that I am NOT!!! considering it as an advantage on, say, Blast. That's putting the scaling on the wrong side, when it's executed as an advantage. Note that my "attack power costs" are analogous to the following: 3 points: blast, no range 4 points: HA, but no AVADs 5 points: MA DCs and HAs with AVADs 5 points: Blast 7 points gives the Blast where you're allowed to add STR...and if that one doesn't work out? That's fine, it was tossed out there. I might say 6 points per die, AND you need to buy "STR at range." Yeah, I really don't have a problem making this very expensive, to try to cut down the abuse potential. While many SFX wouldn't fit...for your STR to be applied to the target, the attack has to be something that carries the STR along the way. An ice blast would fit; a fire blast wouldn't. I also wouldn't apply it to TK because TK has aspects of both Indirect and AoE applicability that "STR at range" doesn't. Also note that you can get "STR at range" cheap...with Stretching. Your HA carries over. Your martial maneuvers carry over. You even get No Range Mods, within the limits of your Stretching. Adding EGO to your mental powers...I could see that. Same condition...+1/2 advantage to your EGO. Mental Attack still needs 2 DCs to get +1 die. I'd have to think about it. INT...it wouldn't increase the dice. A better crafted image has a better PER roll adjustment, but this is already built in. DEX...a precise shot doesn't increase damage, it decreases targeting penalties to hit those spots. If you're not using hit locations, which I loathe with a passion? Welllll...I might allow it. Again, +1/2...and on ALL your DEX, that's gonna be expensive. But just because you use it in a sensible case, doesn't mean it should be forced onto ALL cases. That's just Herbert.

What's sad about it? Turn out the lights.... The party's over... They say that all good things must end...... It's the Law of Conservation of Championships. They had WAY MORE than their share. The bill became due, and they haven't paid in full yet. (It is kinda freaky tho, especially given hockey's unpredictable nature.) Did you keep your ticket stub from the game?

Can't do it. They've been contaminated beyond hope. Their mere continued presence risks corruption of your culinary soul.

In a few weeks, the Stanley Cup will be awarded to a team from one of the hockey hotbeds...Raleigh, NC; Dallas; Miami; or Las Vegas. How is this possible??? Las Vegas is actually, it looks like, the furthest north...just a few minutes (of longitude) north of Raleigh. Strange days indeed. Another potential issue: bad ice. This might've been fixed but it's tricky to maintain the ice when there's a full house, and in the kinds of temperatures that can be expected, particularly by the time the finals take place.

Oh, I'd HATE!!! doing this in skill vs. skill contests. First, what trained skills end up resulting in a skill contest? Not many, and not often. Take a case where A has concealed something, and B is searching for it. This is not a skill contest as I think of it, but the rules do. You roll A's Concealment, and use that as a modifier on B's roll. See 6E1 57. That actually brings up that modifiers are based on standard skill rolls, not on some funky BODY-based manipulations. Plus, now you're introducing another factor...oh, is this a standard skill check, or a funky one where BODY's in play? Strikes me that you're doing the exact opposite of simplifying/streamlining. If you want the contest to run 2-3 rounds, fine. Make it an extended contest. First to get +5 total advantage. A makes roll by 2, B fails roll by 2...A's at +4. Next roll, A makes by 1, B makes by 3. A's at +2. And so on. This has a more dynamic feel to me anyway. But these are very rare. The most common would probably be grapple vs. escape...and that's counting BODY anyway. IF you're using cyber combat, ok, Comp Programming vs. Comp Programming...in Matrix combat, very definitely contested checks. Be careful here tho: this commonly involves only one player. From time to time, sure, it's cool, but it can *easily* be overused and become stale and boring.

I direct your attention to all comments about the chocolate-covered pickle... Those...cooks.....who dream up stuff like this, will be spending their afterlife in a kitchen run by a cranky Gordon Ramsay.....

Every system has the notion of contested rolls versus uncontested rolls. An uncontested roll is when you're dealing with a static effect...a specific, unchanging instance. There is nothing actively opposing you, so your success or failure is predicated strictly on your performance, and the difficulty of overcoming this particular effect. A contested roll is when this isn't the case...when someone else is dynamically opposing you. Can you solve this puzzle? Uncontested. Can you solve the puzzle before your arch rival does? Contested. STR stuff generally is checking BODY...but this is because defenses are BODY-related. A wall with 10 DEF and 10 BODY...it doesn't care about STUN pips. OTOH, mental and adjustment powers don't care about BODY pips, they're total level. I'm not fond of counting BODY routinely on a very small number of dice. I'll grant that the scaling is somewhat similar...5 points gives +1 die, or +1 to the roll...but the result range is far too small, and far, far too variable. The standard deviation of BODY pips for 3d6 is 1; that's way, way too high.

I agree that perfect balance is not only pointless, but probably impossible. Far too many moving parts. I disagree about the DI being cheaper. Buying STR or an HA, you don't spend END every phase...even if you're doing nothing. You do with DI, which has the occasional issue that you can't take a recovery with the DI active. Unless you're going to 0 END, and now the cost is higher. Plus, DI quickly applies what should be a significant Phys Lim...which may not be used against the player nearly often enough. 400 pounds...not much of an issue. 800? Problem. 1600? BIG problem. BTW, as I want to keep the SERIOUSLY high STR characters down, I use HAs, or martial arts DCs, a LOT more often. Lifting STR doubles every 5 points, whereas damage increases linearly. That screams mismatch. For me...past a 20 STR, my feeling is +5 STR --> 2 DCs. One's from the STR, the other from HA or MA DC. Still have to pay for it, but this keeps damage dealt more in line with lifting STR, for a while anyway. Hm. A side point here is applications. When you're building a weapon via HA, it actually makes more sense to start with 5 points per die, to keep DC costing as consistent as possible. It's NOT adding to your STR in any way, there's no pretense that it does. That mindset also argues for 5 points for MA DCs. Why were they 4? I'll argue, because they were 4 points in 5E and they failed to recognize that the costing NEEDED to change when they removed Figured Characteristics. OTOH, if I want a power that says "my punches hit harder"...an HA with no extraneous limitations...then pricing it the same as STR just begs the question, why buy it at all, rather than just more STR? I can get behind CRT's idea to simplify things...but I'd go further. ONE power to add damage. One can either change the base cost per die based on applicability, or specify a fixed base cost and use modifiers. This isn't a trivial distinction, because the cost of OTHER advantages is tied to the base cost. It might work out to split advantages into 2 groups...one that increases the level of the base (and thereby ties to things like range), as an adder does, and another that just increases the active cost. Another aspect can be looking at CSLs...a 2 point CSL can't be used for adding damage. So perhaps here, some of the levels *can't* be used with, say, AVADs...which is part of the reason why they're cheaper. So I kinda like varying the base cost. Maybe......cost suggestions are per d6... 3 points: No range. Can't add STR. Limited to normal damage versus PD or ED. 4 points: No range. Can add STR. Limited to normal or killing damage vs. PD or ED. 5 points: MA HTH DCs. 5 points: Ranged. Can't add STR. 6 points: MA Ranged DCs. 7 points: Ranged. CAN add STR (at the usual rate, +5 STR --> 1 DC.) Standard range. +1/4: as suggested above, the BODY damage is resisted only by resistant defenses. NOT allowed at the 3 point level. TK: I might roll that into this but keep the 3 points per level, and I might leave it as a standalone power. That's just off the top of my head, so I'm not locked into those numbers, and hey, maybe it doesn't work. But, I'd rather define a framework I can use that fits fairly well, over hopefully a fairly broad point range.

Another incident. A man with a baseball bat enters the offices of his Democratic congressman and assaults people. 2 are in the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries...but that doesn't mean non-life-changing. https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/15/politics/gerry-connolly-staffer-attacked/index.html And ANOTHER (#$@$ shooting incident...in Farmington. Shooter dead at the scene. Not a good day. Yet another Not A Good Day. And in Florida, DeSantis continues his mission to ensure Floridians are exposed only to Approved Ideologies....signed a bill today to completely defund any diversity, equality, or inclusion programs at all Florida public colleges and universities. There is a possible silver lining: if he gets the Republican nomination, he's SO extreme that I think he'll get very much movement from any undecideds. He's making Trump look almost palatable. One would never have conceived that to be possible.

Related story: https://www.bicycling.com/racing/a43878141/covid-19-cases-giro-ditalia-riders-2023/ According to Cycling News, Evenepoel is the 7th rider who has tested positive and forced to withdraw. IIRC, COVID had a nasty impact on last year's Tour...didn't take out a leader/favorite, but hurt some teams. Yeah, the Bicycling story suggests some measures may need to be reinstated, and that was before these last few withdrawals.

Kind of a strange, nasty, ugly issue happening at the Italian Open in Rome right now. Evening session. It's been raining; well, clay courts can handle some rain. There's 3 matches going on. In 2 of them, the play's been stopped, and at this point, the players have left the court altogether. In the Musetti vs. Tiafoe match...they're still playing. Tiafoe's IRATE. Jim Courier has expressed concern about safety...heck, that was 20 minutes ago. You can slide on dry clay; wet clay can clump and stick, and *that* is a badly sprained ankle just waiting to happen. More rarely, a nasty knee injury that can cost you MONTHS. OK, they FINALLY just suspended it. FAR too late. Courier's very critical of the organizers' inconsistency. Why did 2 matches stop 20-30 minutes earlier, but despite Tiafoe's vociferous objection AND the fact that 2 other matches were stopped...the organizers didn't stop play on this one. Elsewhere, earlier in the day, Hungarian player Fabian Marozsan entered the Italian Open at #135 in the world, and never having won an ATP world tour level match. He faced #1 (in live rankings, #2 seed) Carlos Alcaraz...and won. In straight sets. 2nd set tie breaker, he was down 4-1 but ripped off 6 straight points to take the match. It's earned him a nice, but not yet huge, jump in the rankings, as this was the round of 32...not *that* many points. He's moved up 20 spots to #114, tho, which could get him into the French. Next up is Coric; if he can back up this stunner, he'll move just inside the top 100, which should get him automatic entry.

.......anything for a Follow or at least a click

Just mentioned on ESPN SNB... Mike Shannon, the LONG!!!!! time radio voice of the Cards...he retired in 2021 after 50 years in the booth...died a couple weeks ago. A stroke was listed. I think he's one of the last booth institutions, with such an extraordinary tenure with one team; it seems to be happening less than in the past, altho that might be due to the greater importance of the TV broadcasters. The LONG careers were rooted in the radio side, sometimes with simulcasts, or splitting time...some teams flip their radio and TV announcers during the game. And with many more games on TV, the radio side has had declining value.

We all know the value of material on social media, tho... Reports appear solid that he's having a health crisis; the events he didn't attend are very suggestive, but going beyond that is, I suspect, wishful thinking. Feel free to join in on it..................

Then why ever take HA versus PD? Why not just buy STR? I think the intent with HKA is to discourage them. Personally? I'd love to just throw killing dice out...which probably is why I wasn't about to make them cheaper. I hate them, because their variance is far too high since you're rolling so few dice. Make it a form of AVAD...targets resistant PD or ED for the BODY, and still does BODY. Or avoid the AVAD structure and just say it's +1/4, "BODY damage is resisted only by resistant defense." In a 12 DC game, if 12 DC KAs are allowed, you need to worry about 18 BODY headed at you. That's over the average roll, sure, but it's still fairly frequent...16% of the time, just under 1 time in 6, you have to deal with 18 or more BODY. You don't necessarily need 18 resistant, but you'd better have a fairly substantial amount. That also points out that the HKA is *more* effective than the HA, even at the same number of DCs...because the defense against the HKA is more expensive. BTW: what I did was to make HA 4 points per d6, with 1/2 d6 for 2...mostly for +1 AVADs and NNDs.

The root problem is that, it's a direct consequence of the power assembly process, and the attempt to be everything for everyone. There will be holes like that. There are, IMO, also things that are horribly overpriced...floating fixed locations for Teleport is a big one for me. I actually posted here, a couple years ago: whatever your baseline point level is, add X%...but disallow virtually all limitations. In some cases, this might mean restructuring a power...HA comes with an implicit limitation, for example. Fine, how about dropping the cost to 4 points. If you don't like that, well, that might be a limitation you need to keep, but generally...no, disallow limitations. You can try to scrutinize all you want, but you have to toss out a fair bit of RAW, and trying this piecemeal is also guaranteed to have holes. Note: I'm talking for supers. This almost certainly falls apart for fantasy, at least not without even more extensive consideration.

The best part of watching the Knicks fail miserably was seeing SAS reduced to spluttering incoherence. The worst part was realizing practically everything he says isn't much better. At one point, I didn't think he was down to the level of a Bayless, a Whitlock, or a Cowherd. Now....? Far too often, he's giving them a run for their money.

Jeremiah was a bullfrog... Was a good friend of mine... Never understood a single word he said but I helped him drink his wine... And he always had some mighty fine wine....

2 hours until Sixers-Celtics. The loser is probably facing significant criticism and changes...Monte Williams got fired today, according to reports. It's likely Doc Rivers gets fired if Philly loses. With Boston, it's less clear, but there'll likely be notable lineup changes. The Athletic was pointing out that Jayson Tatum will be viewed as Not Ready To Be The Superstar if he fails again, especially if he's got another effort like most of game 6. Elsewhere...I'm mostly sad about this. Ja Morant reportedly flashed a gun again, in another video on IG. This isn't in a club, it appears to be in a parked car, but it's incredibly foolish to do this *so soon* after being suspended. And WHY? DON'T BE FLASHING GUNS like this!! The team has suspended him already, and the league will certainly come down much harder, as a repeat violation within such a short time period. I'd like Morant to succeed, but one has to wonder if he needs to completely overhaul his personal life. The video from IG can be seen here: https://www.tmz.com/2023/05/14/ja-morant-filmed-hold-gun-again-memphis-grizzlies-nba/

No Skill Roll costs 1 point per 2 points in the control size...subject to common modifiers and limited powers limitations. The skill roll costs 1 point per 5 in the control size. It's not subject to those limitations, but you can reduce the costs a bit by going with a higher INT, which has the nice advantage of adding to your base PER, and several useful skills. The skill roll has the advantage that you can use it as a limitation on power activation. Even if the GM disallows it on persistent powers, just putting it on the attack powers reduces a 60 active to 40 on its own, or from 48 to 34 with Limited Range. Either way, that's allowing for a smaller pool size, and that's a direct savings. As far as missing the roll...16- succeeds 53 times out of 54. And for 2 more points, it's 17- and succeeds over 99.5% of the time. Heck, at that point, a missed roll...ok, it can be painful at the time, but I think I can just shake it off with an eyeroll and a big sigh...because I can treat it as a fluke. How often do you need to change things that frequently, too? The half phase, to me, is more about tactical thinking. It can be accommodated. It comes down to whether the overall cost difference is worth going from "VERY RARELY fails" to "never fails." Or half phase to zero phase. Let's go with control cost 60, pool size starts at 60, but is reduced by common mods. Limited powers, -1/2, to be concrete, for attack powers, and a common mod of Limited Range. Then the total cost: skill roll, half phase: 75 (54 + 21, I'm using a 23 INT) skill roll, zero phase: 82 (61 + 21) no skill roll, half phase: 91 no skill roll, zero phase: 99 points Control size matters. In a higher-power game...15 DCs with 1/2 END needs 94 active. The costs go to 112, 123, 142, and 155. And clearly, the more points I can attach RSR to? That's where the massive point shaving happens. Conversely, losing the Limited Powers becomes MUCH MORE expensive...the 60 active pool's costs, with no Limited Powers, goes to 81, 89, 108, and 120 character points. Plus, you very likely lose Limited Range as a *common* modifier. Common mods reduce the cost of the control side. Even if you keep a 48 point pool size...your 60 active point powers will always have a -1/4 limitation...the no skill roll, zero phase goes to 48 + 90 or 138 points. Even a simple -1/4 common modifier is saving you 18 character points...because the control side is SO expensive in this configuration. It's something of a juggling act...and to be honest, useful to me. In many cases, going from half phase to no phase just isn't that expensive. If the character notion is based on high mobility, then half phase to switch is more of a pain. Yes, this whole thing gets to be a serious artform. HD makes these manipulations MUCH!!! easier, as long as you're willing to play around.

Presumably nothing. Why would something happen? The box/button didn't give you any powers.

So the latter part of the Phillies-Rockies game is on MLB Network right now. The recap mentioned a Rockies pitcher taken out of the game after being hit by a line drive. This is what happened. No, it's not pretty. https://www.mlb.com/video/nick-castellanos-singles-on-a-line-drive-to-first-baseman-c-j-cron-deflec At least the 2nd serious incident in a week. To be sure, that's unusual; these don't happen *that* often. Getting extra-padded helmets AND face masks...the dorky-looking super-sized, super-padded helmets alone aren't enough, and very, very few MLB pitchers have ever been willing to wear one...is an extremely hard sell.

Politico.EU says the Russians are hunting for saboteurs, too. There were plenty of reports about sabotage to tanks last year, IIRC, so...this is plausible too.

I agree, but that's notably harder to spot, as it applies to ALL Constant powers. It's also subject to serious interpretation differences...when is it "not limiting"? I may well put Nonpersistent onto my VPP defenses...so now reactivating them may have to occur in combat. So when is it limiting? Even with Instants, if my roll is 17-, is that really limiting, since that only fails 1 time in 216? And it's no worse than OIF on a ton of stuff...which people allow. Even OIAID, rather than RSR, on the 3 defense powers, would shave 19 points off. How limiting is OIAID? Heck, my favorite for attack powers is Limited Range. How limiting is that, when range mods are so large, so fast? If you want to enforce "a limitation that isn't limiting isn't worth points" seriously, you have to re-evaluate a BIG chunk of the rules, and if you're gonna do that, you should also reconsider whether there are things that are overpriced, or don't give enough of an impact for the limitation value. On the slots...might be my bad too. Yeah, it's 15 fixed slots...and it's not all that hard to get there. Even more, tho, that's the worst case for a VPP, and largely overkill. For 60 active, -6, just to change slots, I can go with 16- net...probably even 15-. So, 21- or 22-; I need 8 or 9 levels. That's 19 or 21 points, to NOT have to spend 31...but have it work almost all the time. Plus...the MP gives a price break because once you have a 12d6 Blast vs. PD, how much additional capability does a 12d6 Blast vs. ED get you? Some, yes, but not a lot. That argument applies to slots in the MP vs. control cost in the VPP. The base point cost for the control size, for the 60 point VPP, is 30. Add in 1/2 Phase...45. Now factor the 16- skill roll for 21...66 points. That's 11 slots. At what point should it stop mattering? Or is it more accurate to say that 1/2 Phase to Switch, and 0 Phase to Switch, are much TOO expensive in practice? Same with No Skill Roll. To be sure: we haven't included Limited Powers on the VPP, which can't be applied to an MP at all, and can readily smack down the final control cost. But that's Hero. It's core principles...particularly 6E...make it all about gaming the rules to get the most you can, so picking and choosing problem elements is mostly futile.