Jagged

And I completely disagree with you. I was a little surprised at the extent to which it was realistic, but I found the directness and brutality of it refreshing (and much less CGI-looking than a lot of other cinematic super-battles). It was far from a "little tussle," particularly when Thanos started wailing on Hulk. His every blow looked and sounded vicious and punishing, particularly since we're not used to seeing Hulk manhandled like that. Hulk has been accustomed to overwhelming his opponents with brute force, and I liked how outclassed Hulk was when fighting someone in his strength league with actual combat training and experience. That's consistent with how MCU Hulk has been portrayed when pitted against Thor and Abomination. Thanos didn't need to destroy much of the environment -- his blows were going exactly where he wanted them to.

Heroes in fiction benefit from ridiculous luck all the time, as though the universe (i.e. the writer) is in their favor.   If this is Thanos's journey, I don't see why he shouldn't get the same treatment.
 
I found Thanos as written by his creator, Jim Starlin, to have grown increasingly boring over the years, because Starlin made him a Mary Sue, without flaw or weakness, always a step ahead of the heroes. His presentation in Infinity War feels more balanced to me. YMMV.

Saw CM for the second time.  Perhaps it's because I was looking out for it, but I don't think Brie's performance was wooden so much as subtle.  She's quietly competent and confident without crossing the line into actual arrogance.  What I still didn't get was that the film wasn't funny.  The jokes were there, but the timing or delivery is just off.  I can't put my finger on it.
 
Still a good film, but like some other films, I felt there were wasted opportunities.  Anyway, people in the audience cheered when the screen flashed "CM will return in Endgame".

Toxxus nails it for me.  It made what should be an important element of Fury's backstory [https://www.polygon.com/2019/3/4/18241645/nick-fury-loses-eye-marvel-comics]- instead it was played for a cheap laugh.
 
Sure, a cat might lash out.  How many cat owners are missing an eye because of Fluffy or Snowball?  Many cat owners have small kids.  How many cat-related mutilations do you hear about?

Getting 'subversive man-bashing' from those scenes requires an ability to reach that Mr. Fantastic would be proud of IMO.
 
Well, maybe unless that's what you were looking for all along, I suppose.

Maptool 1.5.0 has finally been released.
 
There was a considerable delay between this release and 1.4.1.8 due to Oracle kindly taking stuff we used for the launcher, out of core Java. So we had to completely retool that. Thanks Oracle.
 
As a consequence the release contains a shed-load of stuff. Bugfixes and features. Syntax highlighting in the editor. AI pathing. Terrain movement cost modifiers. New script functions and more!
https://www.rptools.net/2019/03/maptool-dev-test-version-1-5-available-for-download/
 

Totally agree. 
Also demonising the individual gives people the idea that this person should have been easy to detect and prevent. The cynic in me thinks it's so politicians can make some quick law change and say "job done"  rather than invest in the harder job of mental health services needed to find these people. 
 

The primary difference between the Wonder Woman movie and Captain Marvel is that one incorporates an archetypical myth and the other is an Hollywood action film set in WW1. 
 
The mythology in Captain Marvel is the goddess who falls to earth, with amnesia. For a twist, this goddess has forgotten her Earth heritage, not her celestial heritage. Through a journey of self discovery with Fury acting as the role of wise companion (Ben Kenobi/Han Solo, etc) which leads to this divine feminine goddess embracing her humanity, her identity, her power, and turns on the technological God society who used her. As an added bonus She acts as a motherly figure to find her new charges, the Skrulls, a home. 
 
 
 

I wonder whether there is even one other person who left the theatre after IW expecting the MCU would continue with half the universe's population disintegrated, especially when one of those has a movie coming out shortly.  I'm pretty sure Spider-man is coming back.  I'm also trying to recall any comic book where an event this massive would not be undone in some manner.
 
I would rather not see a reboot, although I could see it as the excuse to re-cast major characters as current actors resign from the roles, or age beyond them, appealing to the producers.  That's the same reason we don't have Grandpa America Steve Rogers, and the FF in geriatric care, in the comics.

Like a charismatic lead or good fight choreography?

I am sitting here screaming "No" at this thread. 
 
I think skill levels of all types can only be balanced within an individual campaign against the other players and to a lesser extent npcs. If one player takes physicist as an int based skill while another takes science, one player is at an immediate disadvantage imo.
 
I also think combat skill levels should be used to enable how a player feels their character should work. Like your defensive swordsman above. Once they start getting loads of skills I would start pushing to merge them into globals or characteristics.
 
And lastly as an aside: many moons ago, when challenged to a duel at a larp, I did parry thrown daggers and arrows. Skill levels or missile deflection?
 

Hey! Don't start pulling at that thread, the whole thing will come apart. I hear a knocking at the door, its the Union of NPCs and they want to talk to us about some missing Post-Segment 12 Recoveries ?
 
 

I have to agree with Lucius overall. There really is no benefit to adjusting NCM. While NCM can be used as a way to reign in out of control stats, overall, you should pay for what you get. Yes, some races will cost more than others due to conception, but that is as it should be. It's essentially an accounting trick to use NCM in that, if you use them to full effect you get what you pay for and otherwise you are penalized for "potential". Seems easier just to set campaign guidelines (and enforce them), rather than fiddling with the numbers that, in one way or another will be unfair.

I wish I cared, but I just don't. No matter what they do with sfx, they still seem stuck in 1980s dialogue and soap opera drama that, yes, back then was definitive of the X-Men, but is dated and tedious, now.

I wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to see this. It is from a thread in the Hero System Discussion board but I know not everyone here frequents that spot regularly. I know how it hit me, and sad as it is I would still want to know. 
 
HM was a long time resident of these boards. He was a mainstay for many of us, always there, always supportive and friendly. I used to live in his part of the state but I never was able to meet him in person. I never knew quite what to say even earlier in this thread. But I wanted to get a chance to somehow say farewell to a guy I considered a friend even though I never got to shake his hand. When I heard about further brain surgery I pictured what he must be going through, I've seen my dad get such a procedure, but Didn't understand how truly bad it must have been for him.
 
Goodbye, Hyper-Man. Thanks for stopping by and spending some time with this esoteric message board. We were better for it.
 
Goodbye, David. I wish I could have met you.
 
Good bye, Hero.
 

To me his expression looks more like, "What took you so long?"

Hey! Don't start pulling at that thread, the whole thing will come apart. I hear a knocking at the door, its the Union of NPCs and they want to talk to us about some missing Post-Segment 12 Recoveries ?
 
 

I like any edition of Champions I actually get to play. To me the differences between editions are like the differences between sports cars. Yes, an Alpha Romeo T33/2 Stradale Prototipo 1967 is different than a Tesla Model S, but either one is a radically different experience to driving the D&D minivan.
 
Champions third edition was my introduction to super heroic gaming, and I have fond memories of it, but the people I play with run sixth edition/Complete. It's still a sports car even if the user manual is really, really long, and I'm not always sure how to refill the continuing fuel charge.

Still playing _mostly_ 2e.  I've found that those concepts are mostly found on purpose in attempts to stump the game.  Still happens in newer editions, too.  Hence, the Trifecta of Cobble: T-form, EDM, and Desolid. 

Hey! Don't start pulling at that thread, the whole thing will come apart. I hear a knocking at the door, its the Union of NPCs and they want to talk to us about some missing Post-Segment 12 Recoveries ?
 
 

Not sure I agree with that. Batman seems built around the idea. Ignoring mundane attacks from mooks (baseball bat to the head) is a repeating image for Superman.
 
Plus remember I had a character with a little more PRE when in costume? That idea was inspired by stuff taken directly from the Spiderman vs Wolverine comic #1*  I loved that and felt it really spoke about who the character was
 
Yes, we only ever used PRE Attacks spontaneously when the situation suggested. Is that a house-rule? Not sure, page 80 (or was it 82) always had the minus dice for inappropriate situations, second attempts etc. So I am sure we were using as intended. 
 
 
 
* Set in pre-unification Eastern block Germany. Excellent story if you can find it, although obviously dated by world history.

Other possible reasons why you might be reluctant to summon Giant Eagles 
https://www.oglaf.com/ornithology/
 
Warning: this page is safe. Others on that site very much not! 
 

I also preferred the old multiples of PRE rather than +10 etc. Isn't that how it originally worked?

Summon Giant Eagles is also one of those campaign breakers.  Gandalf's player tried to use it, and the GM flipped the table over and started ranting about how much time he'd spent prepping the game.  "I even wrote a damn language for the elves!" he said.
 
Finally he was like "you can't do that!"
"I can too!  I paid the points for it!"
"No you can't!  Because.... because... because the Nazgul have these like, big ass flying dinosaur things!"
 
Then the GM reminded Gandalf that he hadn't chipped in for pizza for the last couple months, and Gandalf decided they'd just walk to Mordor.