unclevlad

According to Wikipedia, NOT a cover. Jeff Lynne wrote it for the movie; ONL was the lead actress so she sang it, and Lynne and ELO provided instrumentals and backup vocals. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanadu_(Olivia_Newton-John_and_Electric_Light_Orchestra_song)

For the first one... Naked Advantage: Penetrating (+1/2) for up to 30 Active Points of RKAs, AOE (4m Radius; +1/4), UBO (+1/4), Constant (+1/2) Naked advantages have 2 sections. The naked part...that's what applies to the other powers. Here, it's just Penetrating, applying to RKAs. A naked advantage is itself a power and it has a base cost, so the rest...the AoE, the UBO, and the Constant are just standard modifiers on a power. Per 6E1 314, a naked advantage has a duration of Instant, so you need the Constant. For the spell booster...the only difference is that Penetrating would go to Variable Advantage, mechanically anyway. Maybe tweak to the AoE. The bigger concern is whether it's balanced...which is enough of a problem on the first one. These are slapping a LOT of extra punch to a potentially significant number of attacks.

What TAKES so freaking long???? Just under 4 years ago, a self-described white nationalist and hatemonger drove 10 hours to open fire at the Wal Mart in El Paso, ultimately killing 23 people. Today, after only a 3 day trial where he pled guilty to 90 (!) counts including murder and hate crime charges, he was sentenced to 90 consecutive life terms. He was caught. He flat out said "I'm the shooter." But it still took just under 4 years. He showed little or no remorse. These were federal charges. Texas is going to prosecute on state charges...and they will seek the death penalty. Generally I think that's a bit pointless, myself, but...it's been some time since I've heard of someone who deserves it more, so I'm ok with it.

Stephanos Tsitsipas has had plausibly the hardest opening 2 rounds in Wimbledon history, particularly for a high seed...he's the 5 seed. First round? Thiem...former #3, but ranking crashed and burned from a wrist injury. Thiem hasn't had great results this year but it's hard to come back. 2nd round? Andy Murray. Former #1, and 2-time winner...AND a national hero in England. Pair of HARD!!! 5 set matches, exacerbated by rain issues, which has been a big problem. Some of the commentators have criticized the tournament because many 2nd round matches were started before held-over 1st round matches.

If you want a bit of a shock? Google "mortar on head." It's happened 2 other times!!!!! in 8 years. Darwin Award winners, indeed...

Yeah, they can go anywhere, but what I usually do is navigate to the folder where my HD6.jar file is. I'll create a folder there, called Prefabs, or somesuch, then put your sparkly new files into that folder.

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.