womble

It's not an invalid viewpoint to say that we're in an evolutionary/developmental war with plants where they "try" and stop us eating them by being toxic, and we evolve tolerance to their toxicity. Or gimp their evolution by selective breeding...

Isn't it much simpler than that, especially in 6e where SPD is decoupled from DEX? Since combat by RAW starts in Phase 12 of "Turn 0", and everyone but the slowest (and that probably won't be a combat character anyway) gets an action on their DEX, it means that there will be situations where low SPD characters have an action that they could choose to hold, if they have high DEX, or if they're not forced to abort by the first thing someone with a higher DEX does to them. It's obvious that the certainty of this opportunity goes away with a random starting Phase. However, given that 7 is the most likely starting Phase on 2D6, and SPD 3-4 the likely range of SPD in a Heroic game, it's worth noting that SPD3 goes on 8, whereas SPD4 goes on 9, so there will be times (start rolls of 4, 5, 7 or 8, whether you're using D12 or 2D6) when the slowster SPD3 bods "get the drop" on the faster SPD4 fellows. And then they might go first in a randomly-selected Phase 12 if their DEX is higher. In some ways, given that the high SPD characters tend to have higher DEX than low SPD characters, it's even possible that the random start gives the SPD3 chaps tactical options that they otherwise might never have. The higher speed character will be able to recover from being on the back foot, Aborting, faster than the low SPD character, and that's exactly how it should be.

One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing

"Magic as Superstition that works" is something I'm including in my Troy Invictus game, using RuneQuest's (1-3rd ed) Spirit Magic. Little things that give you an advantage. Additional stat will be "Magic Points", which acts as an End pool for such cantrips.

The Imperial Roman legionary didn't wear greaves as a standard equippage until the Dacian campaigns where they came up against large numbers of Romphaia which are powerful enough to be able to defeat the lower edge of the Scutum and inflict serious wounds. Similarly with Manica (arm protection). When you're a marching army with big shields, greaves are more of an embuggerance than useful protection.

Not a hypothetical we have to worry about. He won't pick up any significant number of Democrat votes, every Republican woman will vote for the party nominated candidate; all he'll do is split the Rep vote, ensuring the Democrat candidate gets the Oval Office. I simplify, but the Republicans simply don't have enough (any?) of a lead in the Electoral College to beat the Democrats with their vote divided at all. Trump as the anointed Republican Party candidate is another matter, but I still think he's pissed off enough non-Primary voters that he'll be a liability in the final run for the White House.

In a way, a smartphone (at least a plain old mobile) is an "Everyman" skill. More people worldwide have mobile phones than pretty much any other domestic appliance. In a game based in the First World, smartphones are almost ubiquitous, so, like "AK: home town", they should be free...

I'm putting together the bones of a "What if Troy had won the war, by ambushing the raiders in the Horse" bronze age/heroic swords and sorcery game (with additional "stuff"). Interesting to note that flint was still used for arrowheads at least in this battle. I'll have to find some more info on this Tollense thing to see if there are any more conclusions drawn about the state of "military science" in that Age. It's intriguing to think of a potentially Mediterranean expeditionary force pressing north into Germany. What were they seeking? What might have provoked their rulers to send them there?

Sadly, "The bus" is an aeroplane... Though Lola is there

Depending on quite how dark your Champions, the sniper doesn't have to miss with their first shot. Getting the casualty stabilised without exposing yourself to followup rounds is a challenge for someone while the others hunt down the shooter. Sucks to be the casualty, perhaps, but, again depending, doesn't have to suck for too long.

The supermodel of the raccoon world? Apparently not closely related to Procyon though, being a marsupial...

In other words, if you're going to make your fire guy susceptible/vulnerable to water damage (even if he wasn't going to choose it), tell him to buy the disadvantage, "because that's the way the metaphysics of the setting works." And make sure you're consistent, or you'll get some unhappy players wondering why fiery enemies are not likewise douseable. There's such a variety of settings that people play in that there are no hard and fast rules of what affects which; the only rules are: "You pay for what you use", and the converse of that: "You get points for what you agree to let the GM use".

It occurred to me the other day that my 10-18 school was, at least on the male side, close to 50% jocks. This an examined-entry school from which University entrance was the expectation for every child; maybe half a dozen a year didn't achieve that. A year's intake was four classes of 30, 50% boys. In the winter, we boys played Rugby or (field) Hockey. Rugby required a 15 man side and 3 subs. Hockey has a team of 11 and I don't know how many substitutes. So of 60 boys in an age group, at least 29 were playing school-representative sport. The girls didn't have as high a proportion, as their Netball teams were half the size of the boys' rugby teams. While the "Jock/Nerd divide" might be institutionalised in American High Schools, it's far from universal.

The point is, it's not rare. The examples are extremes in and of themselves; Lundgren is merely the buffest guy with advanced degree and Dan grades that I can think of; there are plenty of international professional sportsmen and women with the brains and focus to get an advanced education while remaining elite competitors in their field. Combinations of brain and brawn are not unusual, especially if you're looking at cadres from which protagonists might be drawn for the kind of adventures "we" like to represent around a table. There's plenty of room in most points allocations for someone to be an above-average physical specimen and still kick ass magically. They perhaps won't be as magically versatile as someone who has bought their physical stats down to "puny", but they can hit campaign caps in one or two directions. There are other RPGs than Hero and DnD, too. RuneQuest, for example, has pretty much everyone being able to use magic in a minor way, and the true movers and shakers are Rune Lord Priests, who are masters of many physical skills, as well as having wodges of God-backed magic and their own mojo, but they're probably build on Superhero levels of points, since they're "very experienced" if they're PCs.

Dolph Lundgren has two Bachelors degrees and a Masters in Chemical Engineering. He got a scholarship to MIT which he ditched in favour of shacking up with Grace Jones and getting into acting. Which he succeeded in doing at least in part because he was buff as a coat. He's also a 3rd Dan in a recognised school of Karate. Near 2m tall and made of muscle, he doesn't fit the archetype of the weedy scholar.

Don't get caught and held prisoner by someone who wants to disarm you of your Foci; you might be needing some skin grafts... I always thought that particular disadvantage was enough of a downside to balance the advantage of having the focus so convenient.

There'll still be fewer instances of death, so those suits will be less frequent.

Aye, a 90cm arrow is 150x as long as a 6mm BB, giving a commensurately wider time shutter for the deflecting object to intersect its location.

Awwww! What kind of feline is that? Apart from "The mostest cutest evereverever!!!"

There's a reason for the saying...

So what actually changes? "Oh noes, my soul (that I didn't believe in, didn't know I had and didn't need for any practical purpose) has been stolen. But it will come back in 20 years or when I die (and I don't need it til I die)."

I spent an afternoon with the bowyer for the Foresters of Arden (before longbows were as readily available as they are nowadays, and longbow shooting was pretty much the preserve of a scant handful of wealthy folk), and he said that when they were refereeing "clout shoots" (range 100m plus, at targets laid flat on the ground), you would watch the shooter, and if, once he had loosed, you couldn't see the arrow, you should move, because it meant the thing was point-on to you. Yes, the refs stood out by the targets; it was the only way to have a running score, because it was impossible to judge closeness-to-target from back on the firing line because the targets were laid flat.

CQB: Combat within the same building or even room, ranges rarely over 10m, usually 5 or less. Movement through doorways and other portals. Might include actual hand-to-hand combat, but most gun-armed participants are going to want to keep it at gun range, cos guns are good at killing people. It's fast, confusing and lethally risky unless you stack the odds heavily in your favour by using amonst other factors: numbers; surprise; equipment (mostly explosives of one kind or another); superior skills; having a well-developed plan (which relies on good up-front intel) and SOPs for when the plan inevitably goes South. What do you want to define in game terms? A skill/ability to conduct CQB successfully/advantageously? Teamwork is frighteningly important: knowing to the centimetre where your team mates are going to be when you make dynamic entry into a room is vital so you don't suffer blue-on-blue incidents. Personal proficiency with your weapon is key. Knowing where you're going to need to go, and where to point your weapon is important; that'd be a PS, I reckon, or just "Tactics". Hand-to-hand Martial arts outside the "fantastical" (Gun-fu) have little to do with conducting CQB efficiently: you don't want to be closing to knife/punch/choke range most of the time; those ways of killing are slower and risk more than a three-round burst from surprise ( good muffler won't make much more noise than a near-miss throat-cut and subsequent exclamations... ), and if you're able to actually sneak up behind someone to neutralise them with a knife or MA takedown, it's not really CQB, since there's no real "battle" going on. Gun-fu type martial arts (a la Equilibrium) cover the tactics and team-location-awareness, I guess. Whether PSLs are relevant will depend on whether there are penalties being applied for gunplay at close quarters, dynamic situations, snap shooting and poor lighting and visibility. Some ability to mitigate the effects of flashbangs seems to be important to today's SF soldiers, since they do like to disorient their targets... Target discrimination (plain ol' PER rolls, mostly, I guess) can be reallly important in some CQB scenarios: not shooting the hostages or the innocent bystanders is generally considered a Good Thing . Perception in general to recognise threats, both obvious and subtle, before they become actually dangerous ("Is that a gat you have there, Mrs Innocent Bystander, or just your handbag?") It'll depend on how gritty and nitty you want to get with your room-to-room fighting. Will a PS giving a small bonus on some rolls be more use than a single CSL, and is it worth the extra trouble of rolling the supplemental skill all the time?

From one lingering touch? No. And I have plenty of female friends who simply wouldn't (perhaps because they've been burned before, or because they value their word and they've said they're in an exclusive relationship, or just because they're savvy), but that wouldn't protect them against the "power". The power as described doesn't say "only on girls who tend to fall for the 'dangerous' type"; it works on any female from 18 to 103, if the user (and I use that word advisedly) so chooses, whether they're aware of the existence of the toucher or not. So jostling elbows on the dancefloor or at the bar would be enough contact. And he could do it over again, to people prepared to reject him. Strong will (high Ego) just means the predator has to be more persistent: eventually it will work. No co-worker would be safe unless they got an inappropriate conduct grievance in to their managers before they caved. And I don't think existing friends warning her that she's acting out of character counts as "Body healing" for helping her get out of it... Tighter limitations, different methods of recovering the "damage", and you're getting closer to "persuasive lothario", but as it stands, it's way too potent to be explained by any "mundane" special effect, any more than 40 Str can be explained by any normal human physiological/anatomical variability.

The fact that it wears off, or can be healed, that it only requires a touch, only works on females for lustful purposes make it Rohypnol, not charisma.