unclevlad

I daresay every one of us here owes him a debt of gratitude.

I daresay every one of us here owes him a debt of gratitude.

It's Thursday, at least one team has to crap out.  And it cannot be allowed to be a good game.

Rpg.net bans posts in support of Trump or his administration
 
 
 

I played a SPD 12 speedster (Swift) in a Golden Age campaign for three sessions before retiring him - my friends hated him.
 
He had Martial Arts, AP, Autofire and Reduced END on STR.
 
Each punch did very little damage but he threw an awful lot of them very quickly....
 
He could move in and attack and attack and move away before anyone got a bead on him.  He did steal the limelight as it was ALWAYS my turn.  All of the downsides folk have spoken about were true of Swift.  I got rid of him for a stage magician type with a tiny VPP.  Magnor the Magnificent.

It's all about the odds, and the impact.  If there is one chance in a thousand to roll a critical that instantly kills the target, eventually that roll comes up against the PC.  For some, part of the fun is that, no matter how well you play, one lucky shot could be instant death.  For others, that random chance reduces, rather than enhances, the game.
 
Sure, at one extreme, we can ask why even have dice rolls.  Let's go to the other extreme - every attack, toss a coin.  Heads, the target is killed.  Tails, the attack has no effect. That would certainly shorten combat.
 
There is a balance to be struck.  Critical hits alter that balance.
 
They work very differently in Hero than in D&D.  My Fighter in D&D gets hit with a typical Sword Strike and takes, say, 15 hit points.  Double it and he takes 30.  He has 75 hp - that was significant, but the fight is still on.  Maybe the opponent also gets a great damage roll, so he does 45 damage.  OUCH - I'm in trouble - but the battle is not ended.  Now, that can mean a lucky critical near the end of a battle means dead character instead of downed character.  But healing, and even resurrection, is pretty cheap and available in D&D.
 
My fighter in Hero may be trading 3d6 Sword Strokes.  On an average hit (10.5 BOD), 2.5 gets past my armor.  If a critical means double damage, that's 21 - 8 armor = 13 BOD.  If he got a great roll, say 15, which we double, that's 22 BOD past my armor.  That battle is definitely over.  If that strike came in the middle of hard-fought combat, that hit probably takes me from "bloodied" to "deceased".
 
Ultimately, the question simply comes down to the extent of volatility we want in combat.  Critical hits add to that volatility. 
 
Crossing systems makes it more challenging.  A mechanic like double damage that works well in one game can work very different in a game with different mechanics to interact with.  3d6 works differently from 1d20.  Hero's defenses and Stun/BOD work very different from D&D hit points.  Adding 3DC in my example above would more than double the damage getting past my armor.
 
Ultimately, I find the hit location tables replace critical hits.  The to hit roll is binary - you either succeeded or you did not.  The location roll takes over the critical hit for a great roll to hit - you could just barely hit and get a head shot, or you could roll a '3' and get a glancing arm hit.

Nah, I don't think so.  Gruden's ego is too big.  If he could wreck it from the outside?  Possibly.  But he's not gonna sink the ship while he's on it.  The bare fact, far as I can tell, is he's a tyrannical little martinet with a total "my way is the only way" mindset.  
 
Interesting article over on Yahoo:
https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-alarmed-raiders-disintegrating-jon-gruden-060137437.html
 
The new NFL power rankings should come out with the Raiders at 40th.

No, likely not.  But a major upswing in terrorist activity?  In events that go from Angry to BLOODY in seconds?
 
One thing that's important to note is the fundamental changes in attitudes since the 60s.  Demonization and dehumanization of one's enemies is the rule.  I submit that this makes lethal attacks...be it gun attacks, a la Vegas or Pulse or Parkland, or the ongoing mail bombs.  They probably don't have a lot in common, but I'm suggesting that the incident rate explosion is itself a point to consider.  Can't blame any one thing for this...altho I would give greater weight to Trump's tactics, simply because as the President, his embrace of attack speech and demonizing carries much greater than normal cachet.

I do like Mentalists too, but hoo BOY they're expensive to build for me.  I'll be interested to see your take on them.

I will on occasion do a diet Dr. Pepper when I hit Whataburger for lunch...not terribly common.  Won't do regular soft drinks any more;  not after I found out my blood sugar was SEVERELY high some years back.  It's totally well controlled now...but that's by ditching the stupid crap like sugar bombs of various sorts.  Doesn't mean the sweet tooth is 100% gone.  BUT...the price still seems crazy high, especially given that it's not something I want that much anyway.  So I usually do water.
 
Back in the day, I remember Cherry Coke...TOO sweet...and Coke with Lime.  Loved that.  So I might be willing to try the ginger lime.  Mango and orange?  Ehhh...I like mango in a morning smoothie but I dunno if the flavor would harmonize.  Orange could work, but lime has the *pop*, if you'll pardon the pun, to play properly.

Moronic freaking git....  Events sound seriously juvenile too.  
 
Even league min is more than he'll make in any other job he'll ever have, and backup QB just needs to show decent promise to keep a roster spot.
 
My, my...Deadspin had another article on Kelly, but even more amusing was this piece:
 
https://deadspin.com/and-now-jon-gruden-is-losing-the-locker-room-1829967182
 
Speculations along those lines had crossed my mind, based on the Khalil Mack boot, and some of the other stories.  

On Hilary...
 
As early as summer 2015, I actually liked the thought of Trump winning the Republican nomination because I felt any Dem could beat him........EXCEPT Hilary.  She'd energize the Republicans, she was an easier target, she really doesn't come across well.  The last, I think, was the clincher...she was in fact a terrible campaigner.  Had she won, some things would be different but the gridlock in DC would have been horrific.  I suspect we'd be in a government shutdown right now, for example.
 
On the global warming, yeah.  It doesn't apply to all of them, but a good chunk of evangelicals simply turn their brains off.  The Bible holds all truth that matters;  their brains don't have shutters, they're tucked inside a neutronium shell.  
 
And yes, lots of people have no idea of the scale of things.  Like how the US burns, IIRC, about 20 MILLION gallons of gasoline every day.  They also don't understand how the system works...how little carbon there actually is, as a percentage of the atmosphere.  (I had a notion of a character who drew in and recombined the gases in the air, to make stuff like Kevlar, or creating a graphene-sheet armor.  On the one hand, all you need is carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen for a LOT of useful materials.  Turns out...to get 1 gram of carbon, you need 7 cubic meters of air.)  So it doesn't take that much to start messing things.  Plus, over the centuries, we've extensively altered the biosphere.  We've stripped the rich, complex old growth forests which had extraordinarly dense biospheres.  And this has happened on a scale of thousands, even tens of thousands of square miles.  So we have massive output of carbon that had been, by and large, locked in place for millenia, AND a reduced absorption capacity.
 
It's pessimistic to say this, but...the best case I can see is that the measures we're allowed to take are always a step shy of what's needed when they are allowed.  I simply don't think we'll bite the bullet hard enough to make the moves that will be needed.  And I do mean best case....because in all honesty, I think we're 2 steps shy of what's needed NOW.  The situation is only getting worse, and this at a time when we're even more divided than ever.

On Hilary...
 
As early as summer 2015, I actually liked the thought of Trump winning the Republican nomination because I felt any Dem could beat him........EXCEPT Hilary.  She'd energize the Republicans, she was an easier target, she really doesn't come across well.  The last, I think, was the clincher...she was in fact a terrible campaigner.  Had she won, some things would be different but the gridlock in DC would have been horrific.  I suspect we'd be in a government shutdown right now, for example.
 
On the global warming, yeah.  It doesn't apply to all of them, but a good chunk of evangelicals simply turn their brains off.  The Bible holds all truth that matters;  their brains don't have shutters, they're tucked inside a neutronium shell.  
 
And yes, lots of people have no idea of the scale of things.  Like how the US burns, IIRC, about 20 MILLION gallons of gasoline every day.  They also don't understand how the system works...how little carbon there actually is, as a percentage of the atmosphere.  (I had a notion of a character who drew in and recombined the gases in the air, to make stuff like Kevlar, or creating a graphene-sheet armor.  On the one hand, all you need is carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen for a LOT of useful materials.  Turns out...to get 1 gram of carbon, you need 7 cubic meters of air.)  So it doesn't take that much to start messing things.  Plus, over the centuries, we've extensively altered the biosphere.  We've stripped the rich, complex old growth forests which had extraordinarly dense biospheres.  And this has happened on a scale of thousands, even tens of thousands of square miles.  So we have massive output of carbon that had been, by and large, locked in place for millenia, AND a reduced absorption capacity.
 
It's pessimistic to say this, but...the best case I can see is that the measures we're allowed to take are always a step shy of what's needed when they are allowed.  I simply don't think we'll bite the bullet hard enough to make the moves that will be needed.  And I do mean best case....because in all honesty, I think we're 2 steps shy of what's needed NOW.  The situation is only getting worse, and this at a time when we're even more divided than ever.

First choice would be a blaster who can fly, but that's not an option.  So, voted for sorcerer...because it's the only one on the list with comprehensive versatility.
 
I don't want to be too critical on the poll, but...what's the real difference between the Blaster and the Gunner?  Between the Tank and the Unstoppable?  And you even note that the Weapon Master is a subset of the Martial Artist.

The more I see about Aussie politics, the more I realize it would NOT be a place to move to.
 
Although the alt-right is rearing its ugly head back up in many places, as I understand it.

The difference between what most politicians do, and what Trump does, is that he's much more blatant about it.  His rhetoric is also that of a campaigner, not of a leader, no matter if he's at a rally or from the White House.  
 
On a side note, anyone else in as much despair over the *glut* of late-season political ads?  Had the baseball game on the TV, Chiefs/Pats streaming off and on.  Carpet-bombed by them, and of course, a HIGH percentage of them are corrosive, pernicious attack ads.  
 
 

The difference between what most politicians do, and what Trump does, is that he's much more blatant about it.  His rhetoric is also that of a campaigner, not of a leader, no matter if he's at a rally or from the White House.  
 
On a side note, anyone else in as much despair over the *glut* of late-season political ads?  Had the baseball game on the TV, Chiefs/Pats streaming off and on.  Carpet-bombed by them, and of course, a HIGH percentage of them are corrosive, pernicious attack ads.  
 
 

People have often complained that Trump has never stopped "campaigning" since he won the last election. I suspect he's not campaigning at all. One of the symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder (of which Trump displays several) is a need for constant adulation. On the campaign trail Trump experienced crowds worshiping him, and I believe he's addicted to that.

BIggest shocker to me was the ending to Deathwalker.  Which is also one of my favorite episodes, along with Comes the Inquisitor.

BIggest shocker to me was the ending to Deathwalker.  Which is also one of my favorite episodes, along with Comes the Inquisitor.

BIggest shocker to me was the ending to Deathwalker.  Which is also one of my favorite episodes, along with Comes the Inquisitor.

I remember the Vietnam era, which also overlapped good chunks of the civil rights era.  You're wrong, by and large.  Things are much worse now. 
 
--Trump is eviscerating senior leadership and expertise by driving them away, or appointing dismantlers (EPA).  
--Fake news has been a political weapon for a while now, but Trump has sanctioned it by giving it Presidential legitimacy.  This has, IMO, severely increased the polar segregations.
--On the world stage, the damage done to our alliances, and to our trustworthiness, is incalculable.  We have no moral standing in the world at all.
--As someone pointed out, Trump's brought the radical racist factions back into the game.
--Neither Johnson nor Nixon ever publicly sank to the trash-talk radio levels Trump routinely uses.  Trump's a sewer and every so often he has to find a wind tunnel to use as he flushes himself out.
 
I'll agree to a point that things may not be irreversible *yet*.  As I mentioned, I think we have 1 last chance in a month.  If the election doesn't repudiate Trump and the entire Republican Party...if they keep both houses...then there's 2 more years where they *also* have the Supreme Court.  I am *seriously* worried that in 2 more years, the economy will be crushed from the consequences of his trade war.  Immigration policies will only be more punitive.  Race hatred will only grow.  
 
The Vietnam protests were arguably healthy...divisive, yes, and the vets of that era were major victims.  You could call them knife cuts.  Trump's poisoning everything...the damage isn't as visible but it's a heckuva lot more extensive.
 
Last point:  a side aspect of the damage is that, even once he's gone, the fight to undo any of this is going to be equally vicious.

If you have a few minutes, this is hilarious.  Monday morning reactions from BleacherReport.  
 
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2799057-monday-morning-digest-giants-letting-odell-beckham-jr-down?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_medium=referral#slide7

We have to almost assume Trump's not going to get a 2nd term, altho that doesn't amount to a Dem in the WH.  There still exists a chance that Trump won't be the nominee, for one reason or another.
 
Will retaking the WH matter w/o the Senate?  That said, if the Dems can manage a better candidate, coattail effect *should* come into play enough to get the Senate.
 
Impeaching Trump is still possible, IMO;  impeaching Kavanaugh?  Not a snowball's chance.
 
Add seats to the Court?  Arguably the worst idea I've ever heard.  First, it slams to door on actually governing, as it's such a blatant, partisan move.  It'd 100% lock us into Partisan Wars, IMO.  Beyond that, there's a HIGH risk it'd backfire.
 
No way you can pass a "law" to circumscribe the SC.  Not possible.  First, it'd have to be a constitutional amendment, and that....NOT a chance.  Second, again, start considering the consequences.  Something like this passing?  I'd feel some pain if I moved....but I'd be moving.  DISASTROUS idea.  The only reason this isn't worse than the notion before is, it's got zero chance of happening.
 
Trying to do #5 is overt, outright tyranny.
 
The hope is, the undercurrents that do exist in the younger generations...diversity tolerance, anti-gun violence, anti-bullying...translate moving forward.  For a variety of reasons, tho...I doubt it.  There are undercurrents, obvious and inobvious, that suggest there's not much chance of that.

Yeah...it's worth noting that Gorsuch and Kavanaugh are under 55, so you're looking at a good 25 years on the Court easily.  Worse, the next to retire will probably be Ginsburg;  she's 85, and been treated for colon and pancreatic cancers.  And Breyer is 80.  
 
Plus, we've seen that the Republicans are entirely willing to flip the bird at governance, in favor of ideology...leaving the Court seat vacant rather than even starting a confirmation process.