unclevlad

The range is a small factor; disarming doesn't send the blade a long distance away. The visibility...no, that's not relevant, IMO. The key point is that it's largely recoverable as a zero phase action..."get back here!" And that will be possible in MOST circumstances. Push comes to shove, how different is "I can call it back from 10 meters away" than "I create it with my power"? In game mechanics, the biggest factor is that the created blade is utterly indetectable...it doesn't exist...until you create it. The recoverable blade does exist, it has to be on your person. It can be detected, should that matter. The chance that it gets disarmed, then kicked 10 meters away? Ehhh, that feels rather rich, doesn't it? So you can probably get away with Physical Manifestation; in fact, it's one of the optional uses, since HA or HKA is in that weird mixed class of Ongoing Instants. Note that OIF disallows Grab. The teleport negates Grab *and* Disarm.

That is not a focus at all. We've had that discussion before...with SFX almost exactly like this. The return to hand invalidates the notion of being disarmed/removed. At best, it might count as Physical Manifestation.

Since this can't NOT be political... https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/06/climate/climate-change-record-heat.html?unlocked_article_code=wo98WEZJps6XJR85o1l_nRHnh1hZduO8bhPpYwOQoscExQBX9XMWe7jvw_SilODRQSQLA7eBD-7-JX-kqSNSZrzrABZjE6u2NPw364oEoPxrzOr7Ypwr-eEJK8eo6qhtP4d62b5_E9j4g_fIhufmvL2KxKQizivdlMplfvykg6nQWxqaaWGPuJJdO34JNgK1hYSK6fQSv4ERYLGrfydN0Jxyzg9k7Ku5jxm_4WEFTwZIHbwQhYLXKfiw5sbnPvVdvHXbHbNaSUlnEEUZK0FLpLQtDHQbcblaeE5uCdSsYnrGzRdD-oFjgiSjV1_t51JJfc4FQcwjWiNm19oJ_p3nS7CFpxOA&smid=url-share

Was curious about the odds. DraftKings makes Vingegaard a *slight* favorite at -110 (bet $110 to win $100), Pogacar is even money. Hindley is 3rd at 35-1, Carlos Rodriguez is 65-1, Adam Yates is 100-1, and no one else is better than 200-1. To a point, that's because if circumstances conspire so that part of the field *does* produce a winner, exactly who it'll be is something of a crapshoot. But mostly, it's because the entire field is given almost no chance...maybe 1 in 15...as long as one of the top two survives the entire route.

The true yellow jersey battle came into focus in the Tour today. Vingegaard blew the field away with an insane pace on the biggest climb of the day...except for Pogacar. They went up the last climb largely alone...until with about 3 km to go, Pogacar makes a massive burst that catches Vingegaard off guard. Pogacar wins the stage. Vingegaard takes over yellow, but Pogacar cuts about 20-odd seconds from his gap. And makes a major statement that Vingegaard won't have it all his way. EDIT: Yeah, it's pretty much already down to a 2 man race. Hindley had the yellow yesterday, and did pretty well...but still dropped to 3rd overall. Vingegaard has only 25 seconds on Pogacar now, Hindley is over a minute behind Pogacar...and Simon Yates is another minute and a half back.

You can also put common limitations on the pool itself, which help reduce the pool size...that's in Real Points...and also apply to the control cost. For example: Variable Power Pool, 41 base + 62 control cost, Powers Can Be Changed As A Half-Phase Action (+1/2) (87 Active Points); Blast, Flash, RKA (-1/2); all slots Limited Range (-1/4) slot: Blast 10d6 (vs. ED), Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4) (62 Active Points); No Knockback (-1/4) slot: Blast 10d6 (vs. ED), (50 Active Points) 67 character points. Total sum of powers is 41 Real Points...in this case, generally, it'll be just one power, but that doesn't have to be the case. The control size sets the maximum Active Points. The base cost for it is 1/2 the size...so 31 points. WIth a 1/2 advantage for half phase to switch, 31 -> 46. 46 points for control. The Blast,Flash,RKA limitation says only these powers can be included. This gives a -1/2 limitation on the control size. Last: ALL the powers must take Limited Range, it's a Common Modifier. Thus, it'll be applied to all the slots. This also reduces the control cost. 46 points with -1/2 limitation would be 31....but with the additional -1/4, drops to 26 points. That's how you get the final cost for this VPP, 67 points. Note that this does NOT include the cost of the Power skill that is implicit in this definition. On the slots, note that I can build a 62 active point slot...but I have to apply another -1/4 limitation to get the cost down to 41. OR, I can skip any additional limitations, in which case, the power can have only 51 active points. Note that this differs from doing it as a Multipower. If I want an MP that supports 62 point slots, it's 62 points. I can apply the common limitation Limited Range, that'll drop it to 50. BUT, applying No KB, or Reduced Pen, or whatever, onto specific slots only reduces the *slot* costs. It doesn't reduce the overall cost of the MP. IF the -1 1/2 in limitations can be Common Limitations on all the Multiforms, then we get: Variable Power Pool, 40 base + 100 control cost, (90 Active Points); all slots multiple limits totalling... (-1 1/2) Multiform (500 Character Points in the most expensive form) (100 Active Points) And the whole thing costs 60 points. I didn't put a Limited Powers limitation onto the pool itself, because of the inherent flexibility of Multiform...but also note that when there's -1 1/2 in common limitations, it won't matter that much. The control cost started at 50, it's already dropped to 20, and the diminishing returns is kicking in heavily...especially since it's only on 50 points.

Plus, wasn't this guy's goal to make theatrical movies the priority? Granted, these were rather far along, IIRC, before he took over, but what this mostly suggests is he may have little or no leash. He'll need to have a hit *soon*.

Not really here. Political thread if you think it has political overtones; this doesn't appear to have those. Extra! Extra! for general stories like this...like the man who stole the forklift and deliberately ran over a woman in the process. This thread's for cases when we can say "how can someone be so STUPID as to do THAT?" or the like. This case, from what I've read...simple google search brought it up...appears to be bullying...nothing more, altho that in no way is intended to be dismissive. The girl who struck the kid has been ID'd, arrested, and charged with FELONY assault...so it's no joke.

I was reminded of something. Wasn't this date, sorry, it was June 30th...but on that day in 2013, the Yarnell Hill wildfire, ignited by dry lightning a few days earlier, in difficult, rugged terrain in Arizona, and complicated by "an extreme and sudden shift in weather patterns," 19 members of the Granite Hill Hotshots crew were killed fighting the blaze. One article I saw that I can't find now, indicated that was the 3rd worst death toll among firefighters, in US history...the 2 that were worse, date back to, IIRC, 1910 and 1933. The only survivor of the team was a lookout who was separate from the rest. It was a devastating blow to the community. So even if it's a couple days late, it is worth remembering.

And bringing on a cost slasher does not bode well in any case, for one's future endeavors. Especially for action movies.

IIRC they did say that was a newer wall, but...yeah. He also apologized, but I suspect he's gonna be REAL sorry here soon enough:

It's one of the cases where the rules language is just using convenient terminology and not caring it's seriously misdescriptive...because everything means whatever they want it to mean at the time.

Yeah, in a lot of ways, simply downscaling everything...including expectations...is the most straightforward approach. The higher you go, the harder it is to nail things down...or the harder it is for people to accept. And we're conditioned to really, insanely powerful characters...because writers are simply practicing dramatic license, and when we see mechanical translations...? HSEG has the RPG-7V, an extremely common anti-tank weapon. From WeaponSystems.net: ERA is Explosive Reactive Armor. So when HSEG calls this 7d6+1 *killing*...yeah, OK. But that means you need close to 30 resistant defense. It's also got...scary point...+1 STUN. So 1/3 of the time, we're talking 75-90 STUN...and another 1/3, it's 100-120 STUN! And this is "just" an RPG. We expect a standard-super brick to take this, and keep going, by the source material...but man, cost that out...... This isn't some wild, crazy, rare attack, either. So building those squishy-soft characters is just asking for an early funeral, unless they have particular tricks to avoid being targeted...Ego Blast's range is LOS. That helps. Flight and Invis to Sight, with ranged attacks and LOTS!!! of practice with Strafe, and 6 PSLs to offset range mods...yeah, there ya go. But just blithely saying that squishy-soft concept *should* be playable in even a standard-power supers game, without these kinds of avoidance aspects, says you want GM Protection to me.

If a weapon of opportunity is "just something I grabbed"...yeah, it's AF by my lights too. I feel strongly that special effects simply do not trump the language of rules mechanics. An improvised weapon isn't OIF, it's IAF; it's not obvious that it is a weapon. Until you start using it. This'd also be the proper category for a spring-loaded sleeve knife, for example.

STR has a real-world, specific effect...30 STR does let someone deadlift 1.6 tons. The translation from STR numbers to damage...that's a game mechanic. But just dismissing the lift chart as "special effect" is a bit much for me. No, the real issue is that comics writers don't care about rules, system, or even consistency within their own contexts. Some forms of Batman have 500-1000 points of hand-wave applied, compared to what the baseline description would appear to be. Quite honestly? Batman does not, and has NEVER, belonged in JLA combat...but Batman can't be sidelined because...he is Batman. Hand wave, so the writers can give the fans what they want. One of the things to recognize is that "points is points" is FALSE. Certain build structures are simply MUCH more expensive than others, and that doesn't always translate to powerful, especially in a combat sense. This is much worse in 5E than in 6E, due to figured characteristics, but even in 6E, there are simply more ways to combine things, without resorting to dubious measures, with a brick than with, say, a blaster. The typical brick is the least versatile concept out there, sure...but they're really, really good at what they do. The cosmic power pool build may be versatile as heck...but isn't built for direct confrontations. Nor is the mentalist. We also have to remember that the comics and movies fundamentally use continuous action, and phased combat is a massive, massive shift. The goons get to counterattack, and that's very tough to prevent. The goons won't always miss; even a 6 OCV will hit an 11 DCV on a 6-, which is 10% of the time. It'll happen in-game; it never happens in comics or movies. Star Wars has some of the most blatant examples of this. Han and Chewie *never* get hit, despite dozens, if not hundreds, of shots aimed at them. They don't necessarily hit *all* the time...but they always drop the storm troopers they do hit. Because comic and movie combat is NOT quantitative. Hero is quantitative. I'd also suggest that Hero's base system does not scale that well...which isn't surprising. Few systems do, much less systems that are as complex as Hero. Specialized attacks targeting alternate defenses become hard to ignore...especially given the *terrible* Transform rules. (The reference standard Transform power is, IMO, D&D Flesh to Stone or Polymorph Other...and that's as non-quantitative as can be.) Drains can also be rather nasty. So...? If we strive for something close to balance, these are generally not powerful enough to be a real problem in a typical 500 point game. In a higher power game? Different story. Sooo...if you leave significant holes in your defense, you seriously risk being taken out for *extended* periods. If you want to do an NND? It better be against something exotic, because the more common stuff *has to be* covered. With basic attacks? The STUN damage is the huge concern. It's growing too fast. Perhaps the first adjustment is to rescale the *lower* levels. Goons have SPD 3-4; goon leaders may have 5's. Now the heroes can have 8 SPDs and still have the major advantage in the action economy. It might be interesting to shorten the combat turn...10 phases per turn, instead of 12? This would help magnify the difference between a 7 SPD and a 4 SPD. Implement a house rule that most goons' gear simply isn't up to dealing with high-power attacks. Rather than scaling up the attack...how about a house rule that the DEF of goon- or civilian-level armor is halved versus the STUN of that attack? So you don't need to make those attacks overly powerful, while giving the goons the kinds of armor that make life difficult for civilian response, or even lesser heroes. For things like blasting through obstacles, particularly out of combat...let the high-power character focus...and make his attack AP. Spend the END, sure, but it's a free trick. How about a SPD-like characteristic? In RAW, once you've executed a terminating action like attacking, you're 'frozen' until your next turn...you can't even abort. Buying this would let you reset to a greater or lesser degree, X times per turn...you buy how many times you can do this. This might be done as: --your action was no longer terminating...it's as if the phase changed to the next phase. At its most basic, you're allowed to blow your next phase to execute a defensive action. --for something more powerful...as above, plus any DCV penalties from your earlier action are erased. This might well be enough to say you don't have to blow to dodge. --most powerful...as above, but if you can act in the next phase, you can also execute a half or full move...altho these count against what you could do in the next phase when your initiative comes around.

Speaking of downers, box office for The Flash is definitely a downer. $54M on release weekend (Fri-Sat-Sun); only $16M on second weekend, and only about $5M last weekend. Total domestic just barely over $100M and there's serious doubts whether it'll break even. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/2023/?ref_=bo_yl_table_1 Similar concerns about Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Screen Rant also calls it a major bomb. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl162234881/?ref_=bo_yld_table_21 With all the turmoil at Warner recently, this is not the time for disastrously bad numbers. Warner is in a really bad place right now: https://www.the-numbers.com/market/2023/summary Scroll down to the middle to get box office by distributor. They're 7th...and $160M of that $260M is from *bombs*. I wouldn't be surprised to hear major rumblings coming out of Warner in the next few months.

Early comment about the story: If you put this in a movie, no one would believe it, not even Quentin Tarantino. I'd be happy to diss the kid til the cows come home, and suggest this belongs in the Dumb Criminals thread......but this piece of sub-moronic refuse killed a total innocent. I wouldn't be surprised if it's hard to sit a jury for this trial, if it goes that far. Maryland is not a death penalty state, so there's no chance of pleading in return for taking that off the table. It could go to trial; the kid has little to lose. Granted, from the story, he's pretty much certain to be in jail for a very, very long time; the facts suggest he's got no real chance at trial. His mother is apparently saying he's been having mental health issues, so...ok, there may be that route, but I'm not sure that a prison psych ward is preferable.

That position feels rooted in a sense of insecurity, or a need to assert that there is something intrinsically superior/different about being Human.

Or just raise a glass to help get through the noise...... Yeah, they tricked me, and saved up everything for this evening............. So I need another beer.

Plus, who's to say exactly WHAT the concept is....other than the player that built it? To be sure, if there are very much atypical aspects, then the GM may be well advised to inquire why...if it matters to him. Really, it isn't so much a problem with high-end Hero, as it's a problem with high end in many systems. It's also endemic when you get to *build* to high levels from the get-go...rather than start at more moderate levels. If I start at 800, then I'm going to have something VERY!!!! different than if I start at 500, and add 300 over the course of a year. And, note that if the game's attacks are moving into the, say, 16-18 DC range, you're looking at 70 STUN coming down the line for a basic attack. If you only have 30 DEF...no DR, no negation...then if you get hit with something like that? 40 STUN. First time you're stunned, bad enough. Second time, plausibly stunned and knocked out...or, you took a phase to recover from being stunned, then another phase to recover, from the first. BORING. Resistant defense? Same thing. 5d6 killing can be 20 BODY quite easily...in fact, 20+ will happen almost 1/3 of the time. Considering that...how much resistant do YOU want to have?

We haven't seen/heard much...there were some last night but not all that many. Not sure, but weather's a plausible factor. The lowest high temperature in the last 2 weeks has been 99.5, and it's been windy off and on. Last rain was about a tenth of an inch...almost a month ago. And it's been VERY dry so far this year; 1.2 inches of rain, total, which is probably about half what we usually see in the first 6 months. We'll see how tonight goes.

Sure, but I wasn't trying to build to any specific goal, just pointing out that 1000 points is a LOT of points, and the 20 CV is very likely overkill. It is the easier methodology, rather than building specifically 100 level versions that are clearly NOT the same as what you faced earlier. But, yes, it can be rather irritating. The problem is, tho, what does it take to challenge a Kiloton, or any other coherently built character with 900-ish points in combat-related points? Escalation issues have always led to serious distortions. How many ancient dragons *are* there in a given region? And why is this ancient lich active *now* just as the PCs can handle him?

SPD 12 can also mean you're burning through a LOT of END. IF you're built so you can take a recovery...and IF the opposition lets you...that may be fine. Remember, tho, you can't have any powers active that are costing you END. It isn't that it's not feasible, it's just a lot narrower...particularly at higher levels where open phases where splitting the goons between SPD 6 and SPD 7 leaves only 1, 3, and 5 as clear.

Another general issue...what does one mean by "high scale"? Ran across this. It's somewhat ambiguous...what exactly is city block level durability? But still, it outlines the notions involved, the descriptive notions for the kinds of power we're talking about. https://marvel-dc.fandom.com/wiki/Tiering_System My sense is, my guy up there is Urban level...8-B or 8-A. But also remember, destroying a town is QUITE a bit bigger. And City Level, 7-B, is leveling multiple square miles. Not damaging...FLATTENING. Perhaps 24d6, 48m radius Explosions? But if you want to take out a major building, there's a LOT!!! of BODY to account for, if you're being realistic. (Granted, things like the wall rules aren't realistic...which is a separate issue when we're talking this level.) BTW, in the equipment guide, a wire-guided missile has a damage rating of 8d6K Explosion...and AP x2. That's for getting through tank armor. Is your notion of high power being able to take out a tank....or one-shot a tank through the front armor? it's rated at 20 and the wire-guided missile suggests it's got at least 1 level of hardened, too. Or, is your goal to say...one-shot? Nonononononoo...roadkill it. Vaporize it. Start looking at the DCs involved.............. I'd rather not give anything more. I just take it as a justification for buying an HA or martial DCs. A 60 STR is 100 tons; that's well up there, but it's only a 12d6 punch. I also like treating Lightning Reflexes to suggest you can accelerate/move quicker than usual...and with a punch, that means more damage. So 5 points of LR, generally for All Actions, also justifies buying 1d6 of damage in a similar manner.

Running is a pain. Just remain flexible. You'll find things that work, things that don't....things that work in one genre, or at one point level, that don't work in another. Hero's got a LOT of moving parts and room for GM discretion.