unclevlad

But if they're looking to cut costs, can they retain The Rock? Or perhaps they'll just pay him, because he'll bring in a non-comic fan base.

I should sue you for the damage done to my eyes by even glancing at that image. I'm quite sure it's irreparable.

Yeah, I've got no issue with defining a "General Science" skill that might represent, for example, 1 year of college-level physics, biology, chemistry, and geology. Why is the sky blue? Rayleigh scattering. Describe the structure of an atom. What are the layers of the atmosphere, and the Earth? OTOH, funkier questions like "why do no stable, non-decaying atoms have fewer neutrons than protons?" or "why does the addition of 2 neutrons turn stable carbon-12, into unstable carbon-14?" get penalties, or even deny a roll to know it, if it's too esoteric. You're getting a huge scope for few points.

Merry struck with, IIRC, the blade from the barrow wight, a blade of Westernesse. Effectively a blessed weapon, to use your word. Arguably a blade designed to disrupt spirits, tying together multiple bits and pieces. Those were forged by Elves who'd lived in Valinor, so being *seriously* effective against wraith-like critters would make sense. Yeah, some sort of combination of Dispel on the blade, plus a Vulnerability to the SFX, cuz while Dispel is cheap enough, it's all or nothing, so you need rather a LOT of it. I'd still go with the Drain EGO (or PRE)...but you can keep the dice low, and/or maybe do Extra Time. The encounter didn't last long enough to give the Gaffer a heart attack.

The big starting point is Desolid, Affects Phys World, 0 END, Persistent, Always On. I think the second biggest is the fear aura, which could be done in several ways. Drain EGO, No Range AoE, Always On perhaps; also maybe switch the defense from Power Def to Ego Def.

The Broncos have played some merely terrible games. This one is gonna be in the Putrid category, I suspect, alongside the Colts-Broncos game.

Ummm...even for you, man....ok, you get to see your team, but you still have to suffer through......the Cowboys!!! Ya gotta understand, too, that Bronco fans *loathe* the Cowboys. Super Bowl history and all that. But Mr. P, especially if Wilson's out, it's likely to be a *horrible* game. Prop bet...more total points or total punts? Hmm.... Could be close.

But there is also a related story I saw this morning...can't find now. It noted that many states with the most restrictive policies, also have no allowance for citizens to place a measure onto the ballot. So the only way to get things change there, would be to manage to get the Republican control broken.

....but, god forbid, make sure they go well with each other, even if they don't match. If she has purple quartz as her pommel stone, do NOT get rose quartz, for example....

Fair enough. I think that many GMs would blow off the TF, if you buy the full 3 point PS, and especially if you take the pilot's license perk. The TF has its uses, particularly for more exotic vehicles, but for normal small prop or jet planes, it feels pedantic to require it. It's not like we're talking a lot of points either way. YMMV of course.

Grinnell is Division III. It's not particularly noticed, it doesn't draw big names. VERY, VERY few D III players will make it even to the G League, or a major European league. Even if D II, you see some...not exactly disciplined play, by design. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Troy_State_vs._DeVry_men's_basketball_game#:~:text=On January 12%2C 1992%2C Troy,have established several unbreakable records. Much less D III. And this isn't new with Grinnell. From ESPN's story about this game: I remember seeing highlights from that game...and definitely remember Westhead's LMU. They blew the doors off a very good NMSU team in the tournament...after NMSU pulled off probably its biggest win EVER, beating UNLV, the Augmon/Johnson/Anthony team that won the tournament. And LMU gave UNLV a good fight...lost by 30, but against that UNLV team at that point, that's a good fight...in the Elite Eight. Oh, and yes, lest you forgot, that was the Hank Gathers team. Fast, faster, fastest...except for UNLV which was even more athletic. I'll grant you might not see another game with 100+ 3's and *no* 2 pointers any time soon, but the basic style? Works pretty well for Grinnell.

The writer on FanDuel is picking Arizona, but I think that's on the presumption that Wilson is out, from his concussion. O/U is 36.5...I'd take the under, because I think it'd be a decent bet if Wilson plays, and a very good bet if he doesn't. No Murray, no Wilson...the defenses could potentially outscore the offenses. 13-9 or so...? USA Today is showing No Line. This is the weekend the NFL promotes themselves...3 games on Saturday, NFL Network only. And one of em probably ticks off the other networks...Miami-Buffalo Saturday night. That's a big game...if it's reasonably playable. Buffalo, at night in mid-December. Tua and cold weather don't mix; Fins had sideline heaters out for a game in the 50s. Might be over fast. That said, the forecast is for at least near freezing, which is more than one can say for some other games, like Chicago and Green Bay. Huh...y'know why we love watching a game at Lambeau this time of year? Take your pick: --we're sadistic, and love watching fools and idiots freeze their tails off --we love feeling the smug superiority because WE are smart enough to be comfy and warm inside, thank you!!! --we love to see the smarmy, smug, smart-ass athletes reduced to bumbling cretins by the cold --we have an old-school gladiator mentality, and playing in these conditions is largely the last satisfaction we can get Or, of course: e. All of the above. EDIT: samplings from NFL.com's power rankings... Raiders, #18...The Raiders have now blown four games this season in which they had a multi-score lead in the second half. This latest setback was the true debacle, however, one that could potentially be pointed to as a catalyst for change for an organization stuck in neutral. Packers, WRT Aaron Rodgers..."We made a big commitment to him this offseason, so that was obviously something that was really important to us," he said of the three-year, $150 million contract Rodgers signed last March. "But like we've talked about in the past, this is something we'll sit down with him after the season and it will be something we do together and move forward that way." Hmmmm. Falcons... Turning to a completely untested third-round pick in the middle of December is the type of gamble a team takes when it has no other recourse. Good luck, kid. Why many are expecting Kingsbury to be fired Arizona...Arizona had no choice but to trudge on after that devastating gut punch, but the team was undone by the same issues we've seen all season: too many penalties, sloppy execution and a general listless vibe that's come to define the Kliff Kingsbury era in Arizona.

Related story from yesterday: https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/attorney-sanctions-upheld-utterly-baseless-lawsuit-challenging-2020-election-2022-12-13/

Sometimes an old post hangs around in my editor. But the more accurate explanation is, of course, it's a kind of magic.

I'm more worried about the massive increase in banned books, than about this ruling. The banned books movement is another clear indication of their overall intent, so trying for the contraception ban is completely in their ideological focus.

Mississippi State is going to play in their bowl game, to honor Mike Leach. The game isn't until Jan. 2nd...which tells you, it's a big game anyway. It's the former Outback Bowl; they ended their affiliation a few years ago. This late gives everyone a reasonable amount of time to work through the debilitating stages of grief, most likely. This will not be a team with dubious motivation. They might be overly hyped...but they will be up for it.

Of course they are. I'm not that worried about it, yet. Go back to the special master appeal...the judge who said yes to it, got roundly criticized. There's strong reason to expect this will be struck down on appeal. And it's not news that the religious right will never stop until their notion of acceptable sexual behavior is made law. Remember Heinlein's Future History? It included a right-wing takeover, that buried America under all kinds of repressions, and America as a theocracy. It led to the Howard Families' bailing in Methuselah's Children, and thus set up Time Enough for Love. The culmination was the counter-revolution in Revolt in 2100. There are hints of it in Stranger...but that's actually a different universe. Still, remember the power that church wielded, in Stranger.

To what point? What would be on it? It'd also either be insanely long...and if you work in HD, one thing you know is that working with the Languages is something of a PITA because there are over 600 of them...and about half, perhaps 2/3, are applicable (other than a single representative language for general use) outside of campaigns sharply focused. This makes finding what you want MUCH more tedious than it should be. Or it wouldn't be complete. A Sciences table is probably worse than the languages table...crossovers between physics and astronomy, and massively between biology and chemistry. How do you classify Anatomy and Physiology? Uncommon sciences I've taken: --Metallurgy --Materials science (yes, it's quite different in its focus) --Mineralogy --Quantum computing (a quantum computer is built and programmed very differently from a normal one)...I just built a character with this. --Pharmacology --Toxicology (again, quite different focus) Others might throw in Nuclear Engineering, or Power Engineering. How about Cybernetics? The list of science skills is huge...limited only by one's familiarity with the specializations options.

You could make your prediction DT, so we know who to bet on... I have no clue, I've almost entirely avoided it. And that says something, because during the weekdays, other than Feast Week...it's the only notable sports.

Coaches' contracts are rarely guaranteed.

Ewww. This is truly Kingsbury starring in a remake of The Nightmare Before Christmas. He played for Mike Leach for 3 years. I think he's probably gone once the season's over, particularly if the belief is Murray's recovery will run on the long side. There's also a plausible question about the GM there. Signing Murray to that deal was questionable from the standpoint of his injury history, altho I must concede there might be a bit of hindsight there.

Yah, I don't see this becoming a significant source of energy much before the end of the century. Cool, sure, but LONG way to go.

There are bigger goals established by the academies, for those people, than winning or losing. I kinda wonder if the AD is going to get a lecture from the Commandant, altho the guy's been there for over 20 years. Or maybe...he's 71. Perhaps he'll be...politely...requested to step down. Here's his official bio: https://navysports.com/staff-directory/chet-gladchuk/1 So there's a lot of "money talks" in there.

Sounds like the AD is prioritizing winning, as if Navy was a Power 5 school.

Not the way I read it. You don't need Combat Driving to drive a car; you do need it to perform difficult maneuvers like, say, a forward 180 J turn. Remember there's also Transport Familiarity. Professional Skill: Pilot goes into the commercial side of things...you can make money as a pilot. That usually involves several standard emergency maneuvers, flight plans, flight operations in and around major airports...I'm sure there are lots of details. It definitely does not cover combat-capable planes, tho, or combat maneuvering. That is the dividing line, IMO. I'd also say: Combat Piloting might be useful as a complementary skill *at times* for PS: Pilot...Sullenberger's bringing down the plane for a landing on the Hudson River might be an example. (Wikipedia says, yes, he was a fighter pilot.) OTOH, PS: Pilot cannot be a complementary skill for Combat Piloting. Similar: PS: Demolitions allows you to do commercial blasting, for example to prepare to excavate, or to demolish a building. It does not let you disable a bomb threatening to blow a church up. Rather than exploding the basic skills list, it might work better to adapt the Specialization approach, a la Shadowrun. A specialization would be an element of the skill where you're extra good. +1 to the skill when the spec applies, for 1 point. Can only be taken once...there's no point in taking 2...and would require at least 11- proficiency. For something like Security Systems, biometric sensors or keypad systems might be specializations. For Combat Piloting, the skill's already tied to your Transport Familiarities, but "Combat Planes" covers a pretty big swath. The specialization might be "fighter jets" or even specific models. I'll grant: many of the skills might not readily accommodate a specialization. A few are very broad...Bureaucracy is even called out in APG 1 IIRC...and Security Systems is another. On the other end would be Acrobatics and Contortionist. They're fairly specific. This might be the middle ground. There's already places where there's problematic overlap, most clearly in the Interaction skills. Conversation vs. Interrogation. Conversation lets you extract information without seeming to do so; Interrogation is when you and your target both know you're trying to get information. But that's a lot of overlap. Charm vs. Persuasion is another; isn't Charm mostly a very specific aspect of Persuasion? Persuasion vs. Oratory. If I'm building a team leader type? I take both. The more granular you get, the worse this situation becomes. Plus, a bunch of very narrow skills can get to be quite expensive. I'd rather leave this up to the GM and group to lay out as they need it, rather than formalize a static structure in the rules. The specialization notion would be worth considering...because it's not static, and keeps the rules impact narrow. Difficulty. Steps needed to disarm. Taking out a tripwire probably starts with a Concealment check to even know it's there. A retinal scanner? You're not disabling it directly. You can --try to spoof it --hack into the system to disable it --access the controls to open the door anyway All of these should be HARD, and may have requirements and drawbacks of their own. Or specialized gadgets. Getting into the vault where the nuclear launch codes are kept should require more than a single, simple skill roll.