unclevlad

*Some* of that, tho, is that the modern-day lineup is so massively different.  Lead-off guy's job is to get on...usually your best base stealer.  #2's your bunter.  #3 is your big doubles guy.  

But since bunting as a general tactic has been dead for several decades now...it's coming back somewhat, but as a surprise move or tactical move...the thinking's shifted to the college thinking.  Get your best 3 hitters in there, so they get that extra AB.  (DH also plays a role here, in lengthening out the lineup.)  They're not the first, but...cripes.  All 3 could hit 3 or 4 in a WS-caliber lineup.  Over 100 HRs, 125 doubles, 540 hits combined last year.

BTW, here's the reference...Sarah Langs, not surprisingly.

https://www.mlb.com/news/betts-ohtani-freeman-historic-trio

Phillies in 83...Morgan, Rose, Schmidt.  Morgan the base stealer, Rose great at moving him over, Schmidt the thunder.  He usually hit 4th, I suspect.  The other cases were in the Big Red Machine years...with Rose and Morgan again.  

The roll-off lower down might be sharper than the 2 best lineups I can remember...the '99 or '00 Yankees, and the early 70's Big Red Machine that had NO holes.  But the top 3 are terrifying.

Oh my...first game.  First inning.

Put the sign up in the visiting clubhouse in Dodger Stadium now...abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

Bottom 1st.  Betts singles.  Ohtani doubles deep into the RF corner.  With none out, and not clear-cut to score...fine, Betts is held at 3rd.  Ohtani's chugging, tho...and doesn't expect it.  Tries to stop but gets caught in the rundown.  Oops.  But then Freeman singles.  Then Will Smith...who just signed a nice little 10 year, $140M contract of his own...singles.  Max Muncy hits a sac fly.  2-0 Dodgers...

EDIT...it gets worse.  Betts leads off, top 3rd.  Homer.  Ohtani walks.  Freeman homers.  6 plate appearances, on base of 1.000, 5 hits, slugging percentage of 2.400.

12 minutes ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

I find that Hero doesn't scale well to a really, really high power game either.  It does well up to a point then things just stop working.  You can have 150 STR, which is enough to life, I dunno, Pluto, but you're only doing 30d6 damage.  I mean, that's a lot but you should liquify entire cities with a punch at that level of strength.

150 STR can lift 25M tons...which, according to 1 site (searching for world's heaviest objects) is about 1/2 the weight of the Great Wall of China.  All 13,000 miles of it.   So, not quite Pluto, but still essentially a practical infinity.

There's aspects that don't.  That's a big one;  lifting STR is exponential, whereas damage is linear.  What I do is say, ok, the high STR is enough to justify more damage, in and of itself...so you can get a 12d6 punch without Class 100 STR, which is VERY high end.  For me, it's 1d6 per 5 points of STR over 20, is built in.  Your choice of HTH MA additional damage, or HA/HKA, or a mix.  So, a 35 STR gives a base 7d6.  35 is 15 over, so, let's say, +3 DCs HTH with martial arts.  Your +2 DC strikes include Basic, Fast, and Martial...so you're at 12 DCs.  And 14 DCs with some penalties, if the GM's cool with that.  

Defenses also are an issue, because you've got to manage that LARGE amount of STUN now.  For 20d6, 77+ STUN happens 20% of the time, and 80+ STUN happens 10%.  If you go with a 28 CON, you need to reduce at least 50 STUN, and that's hard to do.  Along similar lines, the risk related to any defensive hole grows.  No or low Power Def?  10d6 Drains will HAMMER you.  20d6 Mind Control will turn you into a complete puppet.  

Essentially, at lower power levels, a substantial amount of the cost of a special attack can be countered by the built-in baselines, or with minor purchases...this is analogous to the first several dice of a Blast are about overcoming defenses.  But once you've done that...it's all smacking down the poor schmuck on the receiving end.  And, sure, the GM can recognize it, and not use Mental Illusions very often, if at all, but this only goes so far, in my book, before it starts feeling contrived...the GM just handing you things you can handle.

All point-buy game systems have their sweet spots...areas where the mechanics work well.  Hero's not great at the lower end;  the fact that Heroic rules let you use equipment at no point cost, is a strong indicator.  And too high, and...you can do it, but just recognize that when building an 800 point character, you should *not* expect "twice the power" of a 400 point character.

It isn't your phone, Ndreare.  Not quite sure what happened, but OP's post formatting got *mangled* somehow.

GURPS doesn't scale well to a high-power game.  For example, to get even moderate super strength in GURPS is incredibly expensive, IIRC.  GURPS Basic Lift is (STR * STR / 5) pounds.  Hero's max lift is pretty much GURPS' 2-handed lift, which is 8 * BL.  A 30 STR in Hero can lift 1600 kilos...3500 pounds.  3500 / 8 = 440.  x5 = 2200  SQRT(2200) is 47...which is 370 points.

And that's just 1.6 tons...really not that exceptional.  But GURPS' STR scale means a fourfold increase in lifting STR requires doubling your STR score.  

Similarly, defenses in GURPS are actually fairly expensive.  If you want to blow off a .30 caliber light machine gun, t'll cost you.  Make it a .50 cal...LOTS more.

I do think GURPS is much better for lower-power games because its skill system is far better.  That said, setting up a GURPS character is also FAR more complex...even in just the base rules, the knobs and tweaks are far more complicated.  I have a copy of the GURPS 4E PDF...somewhere, I can't find it at the moment, could be on a different computer.  And a copy of the character builder tool...but even with the tool, it was like...whoa.....this is work!  I was building one of my favorite character types...the 'heavy' martial artist.  Good STR, fairly good defenses.  It was kinda tricky...and got expensive fast, I thought!  

To be sure, some of that is far less experience...I vaguely remember a game that was gonna get run in GURPS, but basically, yeah, I've only read the rules.  There's tricks, I'm sure...but OTOH, most melee-only characters are a piece of cake to set up in Hero.  An issue with 6E in particular is trying to be everything at once...GURPS does too, by definition, but it's about 2 levels MORE complicated.

10 minutes ago, Old Man said:

Anything to make kickoffs more interesting, after however many seasons of kickers just routinely drilling the kickoff past the end zone.

I suspect that won't change, tho.  I think kickers may try to develop HIGH, angled kicks...an ideal target zone would seem to be around the 5 yard line, and near the side line.  Make it hard to return, make it so, if it lands, then crosses the goal line, then goes OB...or you can force the receiving team to down it...the ball's at the 20.  But that's still aiming to be unreturnable.  And failing that, I suspect just sailing deep into the end zone is going to be the preference.  Fine, give the other team the ball at the 30...if you just kick normally and allow a normal return, I rather suspect the return team will average better than the 30.  Barring holding calls, that is...

29-3 for approval, so it's in.

It'll SERIOUSLY change kickoff returns.  My first thought is, teams will be looking for a return specialist, if they don't already have one.  RADICAL about-face from the last couple years.

And there's gonna be lots of flags for players crossing the lines before they should.  

I'm ok with basically no onside kick until the 4th quarter.  But...you can't line-drive a kick now, either, and probably, you can't try the pooch kick.  Neither is likely to reach the 20, and the rules say if the ball touches the ground short of the LZ, receiving team gets the ball at the 40.\

Other than the major need for a kick returner, it'll be interesting to see how fast this affects rosters.  The kicking team would seem to need, to an even greater degree, the fast-mobile guys...the OLBs and safeties.  Because it seems like those are what you'd want.  But, it's not like rosters have that much versatility in the first place, so...we'll see.

5 hours ago, Gauntlet said:

 

One reason you may not need life support for an undead creature is what the Transform changes. If it is human to flower, then it would not affect a skeleton as, although it may be a "human" skeleton, it is not actually a human, it is an undead and they are not the same thing. The same would be true for a spell that transforms undead would not affect a human.

 

Now this does not state that life support is not something that would be a good idea for a skeleton, just a random point. Should an animated skeleton have an immunity to ageing? Definitely yes, as I can't see it having problems with age; but at the same time I can see people thinking "What's the point, it's not like they are going to be in the game for a long period of time". 

It just comes down to 

a)  what you think the undead can be affected by

b)  are the immunities you'll give, worth points?

Can an undead be affected by radiation, say?  If you want, sure.  Broadly, perhaps the animating force gets disrupted by radiation.  (Hello, susceptibility.)  Perhaps the skeleton becomes exceptionally stiff in the cold...the END loss still occurs, or perhaps instead of END, it's an accumulating SPD loss, or OCV and DCV loss.  You just don't see these in most fantasy because it's rare for stories to explore these corner nuances.

And if the zombie's immune to aging, as you note..."who cares?" is sensible.  Is it ever going to come into play?  I doubt it.  So why should it cost points?  Doesn't need to sleep?  Useful.  Doesn't need to eat?  Ehhhh...maybe, but I'd lean to "never really comes into play."  

I'll also note that in most cases, the average skeleton's minion-level.  It's there to be turned into fertilizer.  

7 minutes ago, Old Man said:

Frodo arguably lost points, picking up physical complications from being stabbed with a Morgul-blade and having a finger nibbled off.

 

And being poisoned by Shelob.  Also...physical or psychological complications from the mental battle against the Ring, and when in Mordor, seeing the Eye.  It's no surprise that he only stays in the Shire for less than 2 years.

But he did pick up Favors...really big ones...and Reputation.  So maybe it's close to a wash.

The only slightly positive point is, the ship mayday'd in time, so traffic was blocked from entering the bridge before the collision.  Unfortunately, there were still vehicles that'd started crossing before the blockade could be erected, and clearly, some didn't have enough time to cross.

OMG....this is...a mind-blowing pic. Has to be well after the fact because the collision was also very early in the morning...

And you have to admit...given a long term close relationship, and with Ohtani probably picking up quite a bit of Ippei's expenses on the road *anyway*...embezzlement, lying...it's all entirely plausible.  That gambling can be horribly addictive?  WELL known.  Chasing losses?  Too common.  Hey, I'm sure we've all seen the disclaimers..."if you have a problem setting or holding a limit" etc...I can completely accept that it's all Ippei's fault.  It's entirely believable.

Also note that, from the sound of things, Ohtani was pretty heavily flappered by Ippei.  A question might well be...does Ohtani have an American accountant?  For more than just taxes, preferably a full scale financial planner.  Cuz if not...if it's just a tax person, say...he may not have thought *enough* about his money.  

Need the 3rd guy in there, Mr. P...Freeman.  Most expensive 1-2-3 batting order *ever*...and almost certainly by a gobsmackin' big amount.

Given that the CEO's announced his departure?  Nope, fair game now.

To give an example of what LL's talking about...Glynn Stewart's ONSET series.  Premise:  supernaturals exist.  Mages, vampires, shifters, various other empowerments.  Governments know;  they've suspected for some time.  The earliest records in the US go all the way back to the colonies.  It reached a point in the US where a separate branch was created to handle supernatural affairs...completely black.

All well and good for quite some time...but the later you move forward, the less plausible this becomes, because the harder it is to keep this secret.  Not when everyone and their cousin has a phone, and security cams have become more common.  And keeping it quiet also *requires* that there isn't nosy media...media's *always* been nosy, tho, so that's a big issue.  The explanations are fine in isolation...but not in aggregate.  There will be people that won't accept the cover stories...they'll try to dig deeper.  There's an event in the recent past, where *major* force was required to stop a really, really bad situation.  Multiple thousands of soldiers killed...oh, but it's all brushed off.

Stewart does offer an explanation for why people don't think supernaturals exist, but...come on.  That part of the premise just never held up that well for me.

EDIT:  heck, we can go with something incredibly classic....NO ONE seems to connect that Clark Kent is Superman?  That the glasses are really enough to be a disguise???  When that gets called out, they start inventing absurd explanations, because, well, that's far too established to retcon.  

Ohtani sits down in front of the media, denying betting on anything, or dealing with bookmakers, and claims the money was stolen from his account, and the translator's been lying.

If you're interested:

Skip forward to the 8 minute mark, that's when they sit down.  

8 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

Sure. I fully appreciate the motivation behind the series. But I fully admit to liking rationality.

Me too.  Especially as I got older, and starting noting these things more.  Which, I gotta admit, was well after the state of comic book art dropped to stick-figure level.  THAT was an instant turn-off.

On 3/20/2024 at 10:37 PM, Lord Liaden said:

Speaking of the Legion, it used to seem to me like a rather odd and awkward concept. A huge and diverse assemblage of super-powered beings protecting the whole galaxy, with the cooperation and support of government and law enforcement, with a charter, headquarters, training and recruitment programs... yet the entire membership was kids. In fact, they used to have an official upper age limit for membership. That would seem to put an unreasonable burden, and trust, on young shoulders.

Now, see, you're trying to apply rationality to comics.  How often does that work?  Especially in that period, comics were escapism/wishful indulgent.  Who bought comics?  Largely, teens and young adults.  Hey, wouldn't YOU want a club of your peers, with actual respect from the adults, particularly at that age?

I think it's less a mental agility test, and more a bunch of rank novices playing darts.

On 3/23/2024 at 1:10 PM, Steve said:

The best literature example might be Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring. Gandalf and Aragorn on one end of the scale and Frodo and the other hobbits on the opposite end.

However, I think it could be said that the top end in power characters didn’t seem to gain as many XPs over the course of the campaign as the four hobbits did. Sam and Frodo both showed quite a bit of growth. Aragorn seemed to be mainly gaining perks along his storyline. And Gandalf didn’t seem to be more powerful, but more like he had his restraints removed.

 

Maybe not quite pointless, but fantasy seems to favor growth in power and ability more than superheroes seem to emphasize. Peter Parker hasn’t seemed to change a lot in his powers from when he was a teenager, but Frodo and Bilbo both changed in their abilities over the course of their heroic journeys.

Aragorn was 90 at the start of Fellowship.  He'd been helping Gandalf, scouting, and serving in Rohan and Gondor for decades.  Gandalf was a millenia-old Maia.  They'd developed fully, in terms of capabilities.  Gandalf...yeah, restraints removed almost literally, as the wizards were barred from countering power with power, lest they simply replaced the old bad guys with new bad guys...themselves.  Saruman's the perfect case of *that.*  And, heck...note that Gandalf almost never shows powers, in  the game sense.  To a point, the fight with the Balrog.  He lifts Faramir's body and stretcher off the pyre, as Denethor's madness reaches its culmination...ok, so he's got some super-strength, but that doesn't require much.  

Frodo and Sam...what abilities?  Their PRE rose.  Their EGO probably rose.  One could argue they lost disads.  What abilities did they ever show?  I'd also argue that in game terms, Merry and Pippin gained more...mostly definable as skills, like CSLs and Leadership.

Points are a game concept.  In literature that isn't LitRPG or close, there's no such thing.  Players like getting more powerful...in part because players often want to reach the points-free capabilities and flexibility of their comic/literary characters.  Another aspect is, going all the way back to 1st Ed D&D...players get more powerful.  That became the norm.  More recent game systems sometimes take approaches that are more analogous to how literary characters grow...milestone events.  Bilbo's got 2 major milestones in The Hobbit, IMO:

--helping the dwarves to escape, entirely on his own, twice...from the elves, then the spiders.

--Thorin's forgiveness and death

Note that neither milestone results in him becoming more powerful in the normal sense, but they definitely lead to changes.

So...translating this?  It's kinda hard.  Much of this really belongs on the player side.  My first Living City character was...a halfling fighter-thief.  Yeah, OK, it was Bilbo, more or less.  I was lots younger back then.  Started as a country bumpkin, had to join the Nightwatch cuz...he needed a job.  He grew *in my mind* quite a bit, over the course of several sessions.  Things go from "OMG we're all gonna die!!!" to "oh man...again?  OK boys, we've got a job to do!"  Mechanically...add narratable flexibility.  Don't add damage...add skill levels, and encourage the players to play out how they're fighting...that's how the levels get set.  For casters?  Say your norm is "long-ish incantations"...Incants and Delayed Phase.  OK, well, a spell that gets used a lot maybe loses Delayed Phase first, then the incant...which helps visualize the pattern...either becomes too short to be meaningful to anyone else, or unnoticeable (remember the textural requirements for something to be an Incantation)...or just goes away entirely.  Maybe some spells even rise to "quickened"...zero phase actions executable once per phase, that do NOT terminate your phase even if they're attack spells.  Maybe it's at half strength compared to the normal, terminating casting...still be nice.  

Boeing's CEO announced he will leave the company at the end of the year.  The head of commercial planes stepped down immediately.

NYT points out that finding replacements will not be simple.  The potential talent pool isn't that large, given the specialized nature and sheer size of the company.

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First MAJOR!!! buzzer beater, I think, of the year!!  

A&M's down 3 with 10 seconds left...flurry of shots all miss.  Ball gets tied up with 1 second left...arrow to A&M.  Pass, from underneath the basket...which is a tricky spot.  Obviously has to be a 3, so the inbound pass goes out several feet past the 3 point line...it's low...caught...gather...rise...shoot....BINGO!!!!  Tie ball game.  Completed a 13-3 run in less than 2 minutes.  

Ah me....but chalk holds...again.  Houston pulls it out in OT, after a strong challenge in the OT.  

So it's almost pure chalk.  Only 2 real outliers...4 games are 1 vs. 4 or 1 vs. 5, 2 games are 2 vs. 3.  Then it's 2 vs. 6, and 2 vs. 11...NC State.  The only outlier there, the only real Cinderella.  I suspect that this is the lowest seed number total in quite a while.

1 hour ago, BoloOfEarth said:

 

I think my blood pressure spiked just watching them pour on all that salt.

If that was your only major physiological reaction, count yourself fortunate.

BYU should've had a #5, but they don't play on Sunday...and 3 of the 5 seeds play the Friday-Sunday schedule.  So they got dropped to the 6 seed.  That's the common belief.

Same point was made with the NFL betting suspensions last year, but that's another genie that will never be pushed back into its bottle.  

....and it always seemed like the DM threw the black puddings out, AFTER the mage had used his best attack spells.....UGH!!!

Of course, practically every monster in that slimes group was *seriously* unpleasant, and best avoided if possible.

154 isn't particularly different from 162.  It would help a bit;  it'd cut 10 days off.  Shift the start of the season forward, and at least avoid November should the WS go deep.  (Game 7 is Nov. 2nd this year.)

But I'd rather target opening day to April 10th, and WS game 7 October 20th or so...if not even a bit shorter.  Lessee...6 division games (24), 4 games in-league (40).  Interleague, maybe 3 games against 12 teams, with alternating home field, and 4 game series (home and home 2 game series) against 3 teams, based on geography/natural rivalry.  Chicagos, New Yorks, LAs, KC/STL, etc.  That's another 48.  We're at 112 at this point...8 division and 6 in-league would add 28, so 140 games.  Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

But clearly, yeah, that's never gonna happen.  My traveling to Alpha Centauri is more likely.

10 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

You realize your example of mushroom intelligence is allowing themselves to be dried and eaten, right?

Sure.  Those that did it, sacrificed themselves for the good of the rest of the colony.  Honor them.