Toxxus

3 minutes ago, Simon said:

Are you intentionally ignoring the fact that the separation of children from parents, the conditions that refugees are being kept in, and the "zero tolerance" policy are not new complaints to this year?  Because...that would be a violation of the rules of this thread and something that you and I have discussed already.

You're getting close to that ban button.

No, I'm not intentionally ignoring those things.

I'm legitimately asking what people think the difference is that converts prison to concentration camp.  Actual prisoners all across America are separated from their kids.  If you get rowdy on the weekend and end up in lockup for a couple days - you will be separated from your kids.

However, I am probably the last remotely conservative voice in this thread because you keep threatening the ban hammer on anyone who's guilty of having a different political view from yours.

22 minutes ago, Simon said:

So you believe that the current treatment of refugees seeking asylum (and crossing into the US illegally - a legitimate misdemeanor) is acceptable?

Or do you believe that it is acceptable because Obama used detention centers (he did it too, therefore it must be ok)? Under Obama, the detention centers were used for exactly that - detaining (for typically minimal time) under the now-criticized "catch and release" policy.  Remember complaining about that?  I believe you did a while back....though I could be confusing you with someone else.

 

Once you end the "catch and release" policy and enact "zero tolerance" you change detention centers into concentration camps - where those of a particular ethnic background are rounded up and detained indefinitely, under conditions that wouldn't pass muster in a prison. This is only compounded by the humanitarian crisis being faced by refugees fleeing the violence in the South and Central Americas.

No, I don't like the current setup.  I didn't like the old setup either.

We shouldn't be holding anyone because they should be getting repelled at the border.

However, out of respect to millions of people who got Zyklon-B gassed and cremated in actual concentration camps, I find the term to be grotesque overkill for what amounts to low quality prison.  They are not concentration camps by any historically reasonable use of the word.

They are not rounding up "those of a particular ethnic background" either as I'm sure anyone from China, the Phillipines, Zimbabwe or Norway sneaking over the southern border ends up in the same facility.

Refugees cannot be fleeing violence in the South and Central Americas with the exception of Mexican citizens.  Otherwise an actual refugee seeking political asylum should be stopping at the first country they can reach and applying for asylum.

Passing through several other countries to apply for asylum at America's Southern border is called shopping.  It is an economic decision and not one based on escaping violence or persecution.

7 minutes ago, BoloOfEarth said:

The 2019 YTD number of 598,714 is certainly higher than the highest listed here (486,651 in 2014), by roughly 23%.

It's 23% higher in June than the entire year of 2014.  So in complete year terms it's about 150% higher.

If you think a 150% increase in volume won't affect service quality - not sure what would convince you.

What major difference in how detainees are being handled are you seeing?

Just a reminder - While the Orange Man has kept Guantanamo Bay open - the previous administration promised to close it in a single year - and kept it open for eight years.

In modern times the 11 is unacceptable due to lack of diversity.

Only the 10 is allowed.

24 minutes ago, Pattern Ghost said:

 

The volume doesn't excuse it. You take custody of a person, you are responsible for their well-being, full stop, no excuses.

Sounds great.  You and I both know that's not how reality works.  When the speed of incoming people quadruples in that short of a time period there are going to be logistical issues.

What if it was 10 million people per year instead of 1 million?  Would you still be expecting perfection?

Medical doctors and nurses who are all highly educated and trained are responsible for 250,000 fatal errors per year...

Analyzing medical death rate data over an eight-year period, Johns Hopkins patient safety experts have calculated that more than 250,000 deaths per year are due to medical error in the U.S

50 minutes ago, Grailknight said:

Both Trump years.

Would you be able to expand on this thought a bit?

They were obviously Trump years so I'm not sure what you're trying to convey.

4 minutes ago, megaplayboy said:

Because of differences of scale, duration and quality of treatment.   Anyone who treated the children of detainees the way they are currently being treated would be out of a job in the prior administration. 

Given the massive surge in volume it's not a shocker that the quality of treatment has degraded.

We're not even through June yet and this year we've absorbed TWICE as many people as we did in all of 2017.  We're on pace to have FOUR times the volume of just two years ago.

Also, looks like some potential help incoming from the Mexican government.

The arrest rate at the border in the last few months has reached absolutely shocking volumes.

13 hours ago, megaplayboy said:

Just an observation...regardless of protestations over the connotations thereto, the technically correct term IS "concentration camps".  George Takei, somewhat of an expert on the topic due to personal experience, has it right.

How come they weren't concentration camps when Obama was using them?

16 hours ago, TranquiloUno said:

A hero who can't be threatened would be dull AF. A hero that can only be threatened by "realistic" threats (in a comic book?!) would be dull AF too.

I don't mind interesting match ups and I understand that some extreme characters (like The Flash) have to toss realism and consistency out the window in order for there to be a threat by non-speedsters, but it still has to feel consistent.

If Spiderman is facing a completely normal 3 year old boy and gets KO'd by an angry swat on the knee - nobody is going to enjoy that story.

So, creepy circus themed freaks just need a moment of backstory enhancement to justify supernatural or superhuman ability.  They have to have a reason they can hit a bullet-dodging Spiderman.

I recall an equally jarring episode of Spiderman where he was facing the Punisher that had a mix of clever and stupid writing.  At one point the punisher punches himself in the chest which confuses Spiderman even though his danger sense is going off.  The sleep gas explodes from his chest compartment and it's a great surprise move.

Later and this next part was unforgivably !@#$ writing by Marvel Comics - Punisher is blasting ineffectually at the agile Spiderman and somehow as Spiderman flips through the air the Punisher shoots both of his webshooters off his wrists.

Spiderman complains he's been caught mid-leap and can't do anything to dodge.  Oh, I don't know, you could move your wrists one !@#$ing inch to the side??!! 

So. Bad.

I just want some narrative consistency.  It doesn't have to be perfect nor especially scientific, but sometimes the writers are painfully lazy and just a single tenuous excuse on how character X can now (temporarily perhaps) face character Y would go a long way.

16 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

And to be fair Toxxus when the Judo guy was introduced , Martial Arts was a “super power” . 😁

It was pretty bad in the 70s and 80s.  I recall one episode of The Hulk where an elderly woman fought the Hulk to a stand still using Aikido.

See, it doesn't matter that the Hulk is a 1000 pound monster that moves with terrifying speed and violence.  You just have to sidestep and use his own energy against him....

I took a year of Aikido at the University of Hawaii and I promise you - this is fiction of the worst sort.

A well executed Judo or Aikido move will let you do something to an opponent with a fraction of the strength to do it without technique.  But this fraction is on the order of 1/2 or 1/4.

It is not the 1/50,000 you would need to do something to the Hulk.

On 6/22/2019 at 12:12 AM, greysword said:

11+ Offense - Defense = roll needed.

I've noticed, as well, that replacing OCV/DCV with Offense and Defense leads to instant understanding with the players.  Same with replacing MOCV/MDCV with Mental Offense and Mental Defense.

14 hours ago, Gnome BODY (important!) said:

I personally feel that TTRPGs need to be less afraid of simultaneous actions.  It's surprisingly difficult to have a mutual knock-out in most systems, HERO included.  Despite that being not uncommon in fiction! 

They are unbelievably rare in actual combat sports though.  Less than one in a thousand fights ends this way and they usually make the news when they do.

On 6/22/2019 at 9:11 PM, Ninja-Bear said:

Didn’t Spider-Man have a bunch of dangerous villains that were normal? And they gave him a ok fight? One was a Judo black belt and another had trick rope skills?

Only because of wildly bad writing and power level inconsistency.

The same spider man who can lift 5-10 tons and is fast enough to dodge bullets.  In one write-up part of spiderman's bullet dodging prowess was attributed to the fact he was so quick that he could actually see the bullets coming.

Some normal judoka is going to give him any trouble at all?  Complete BS.  I have a brown belt in judo and a black belt in TKD and some other training and someone with spiderman's strength and speed would have me mutilated by the end of the first Segment 12.

Rope tricks?  Against someone who can dodge bullets?  Not sure if anyone has compared the muzzle velocity of a lasso recently, but I'm betting it's 50-100x slower than a bullet.

I HATED those comics.

1 hour ago, Lord Liaden said:

What was different about Trump is that his base of support appears immune to any revelations of his deceit or reprehensible actions.

This doesn't really seem to differentiate him several previous presidents.

Obama, Clinton, Reagan all seemed reasonably immune to backlash from their various failings.  Only the Bush's and candidate Hillary seemed to have suffered any real problems from their various foibles and I believe it was because all three lacked the charisma of the others.

Whether or not you agreed with their politics or not it is hard to argue against the incredibly high PRE scores of Obama, Clinton and Reagan.

Clinton, as I recall, was guilty of statutory sexual harassment (a felony) with Monia Lewinski and walked away from that and multiple rape accusations without any trouble at all.

Hillary is recorded threatening to silence the accusers and she missed being president by the slimmest of margins.

The rate of politician slime has been escalating steadily and you can't lay the root cause at the foot of Trump.  It's been rising so rapidly that the public voted for a non-politician.

It's hard to forget that the DNC completely f*cked Bernie Sanders and made sure Hillary was going to be the candidate.  The corruption is everywhere.

Here's a fun chart:

PS:  I didn't vote for Trump.

1 hour ago, Duke Bushido said:

Most folks here are already aware of this, but my "solution" for the complexity problem was to not advance.  My group and I lived 2e, and we stayed there.  When FH came out under 3e, I bought that and used it to bring our already extant non-supers game more or less (which is  to say, as far as we wanted to go) in line with the new rules for "heroic" level games, but even then, we just cribbed the bits we wanted and totally ignored the rest. 

 

And we've done it for every version since: crib what we like, and ignore the rest.  And hon---

 

Stop.

 

Let me say this:

 

NO!  THIS NEXT COMMENT IS NOT AN INSULT, IS NOT SLANDER, AND IS NOT HATE-DRIVEN, NOR IS IT THE LUDDITE RANTINGS OF A DERANGED OLD MAN PINING FOR IMAGINARY GOOD OLD DAYS!   IT IS SIMPLE FACT, AND OFFERED ONLY AS SIMPLE FACT IN REPLY TO QUESTION AT HAND. 

 

Sorry for yelling, but this next comment has the tendency infuriate the faithful fans, even to the point of forgetting that I am actually one of them. 

 

As I was saying:

 

Each subsequent edition brings less and less for us to crib, because there is less and less within that appeals to us.  For this conversation, that's really all that matters:  we use the 72-page (not counting character sheets) page rule book I bought in.... '83?  I think it was' 83--  and occasionally pull a modifier or ruling or new ability from a later edition. 

 

It doesn't affect our enjoyment of newer material at all, because as noted all over this board, as the system changes very little, there is built-in compatibility in either direction.  As a bonus: tiny rule book.   at this point in time, I have about seven copies of that book I can lay hands on, and four others on loan to other people, which is great for new players, because after an intro session or two, I can offer them a copy to study at home when it's convenient, and they can show up to the next session with a list of questions.  It really helps them pick it up quickly.  Doesn't hurt that that the first three editions were nowhere near as dry as the last three. 

 

I can't imagine even trying to buy a dozen copies of the current rules.... 

 

When 5e came out, I picked up three copies (still have 2), but we never did a lot with it.  I did run a couple of 5e games, but we ran it via "Sidekick," which is a very-pared-down version of the 5e rules.  We used Sidekick so much I bought a second one, but by that time there had been a revision, so my Sidekicks don't quite match up. 

 

I have never run a 6e game, and judging from the looks on my players' faces when I finally got print copies and plopped them down on the table, I seriously doubt I ever will.  I know I'm not really interested in it at all, but on the off-chance that I give it a whirl, I picked up Hero System Basic, which like Sidekick, is a seriously pared-down version of the rules. 

 

If I were to consider using 6e, it would be from Basic. 

 

There.  That _almost_ answers the question, at least as far as how we do it.  One bit of universal and universally-ignored advice:

 

You have to be familiar..  No; that's wrong.  You have to _know_ the rules before you even show it to your players.  Why?  When you're confident, they become confident.  When you can recite- or at least flip directly to- an answer for the current conundrum, they are going to be more comfortable.  Think of yourself as a tour guide.  You want them to have a good time, and part of that is answering their questions with ease and confidence. 

 

And of course, you need to decide ahead of time which rules you are going to use, and which you are not going to use, and present the rules in that fashion: they only have to (at first) learn the rules that apply to the game they are in, period. 

 

And of course, have fun.  Have lots and lots of fun. 

 

 

Duke

 

 

 

 

Every time I play 6e I feel like I'm cheating on 4e. 

She was the worthiest of the HERO editions.  Really felt like the right balance between rules exposition and playability.

HERO takes longer to digest, but recently my Wednesday night table - that I had kind of written off in terms of really getting to understand the game has finally turned the corner and they are buying HERO Designer and trying to build their own power frameworks.

Which has lead to a level 2 conversation - Why you need DM approval on warning/stop sign powers.

52 minutes ago, megaplayboy said:

https://newrepublic.com/article/154113/democratic-party-fighting-spirit-give-war-chance

 

Interesting hypothesis on what ails the Democratic party establishment.

Holy balls!  And I thought CNN was bad.

That article pulls so hard left it makes AOC seem like a bitter 90 year old ultra-conservative.

"Cory Booker, who seems like an obvious addition to the “moderate” bucket"  - I literally laughed out loud - at work - like a crazy person at this.

"Warren is, of course, correct. Fox News is a poisonous influence on our society, a propaganda organ that irresponsibly foments racial hate" - Alternately, it's just a right-leaning news site - like the only one remaining.

It's one thing if I think CNN is pandering to its liberal viewer base and another thing completely if I think it is secretly part of Russia's attempt to undermine our democracy and turn us communist.

One fun thing is to watch CNN and then Fox News and then realize those two news stations cannot be operating in the same reality.  They're not difference of opinion distances from each other.  They are alternate universe distances from each other.

I just assume they're both full of crap and the truth lies not in-between, but somewhere else completely.

Anyway, great article, read the whole thing.  Enjoyed it for entirely the wrong reason.

1 minute ago, Killer Shrike said:

Ya. I've been doing narrative and rules lite games for the last six to seven years (Fate Accelerated is a favorite; if you haven't checked out my Pathfinder Fate Accelerated stuff you might find it interesting), and only just came back to the Hero System by request of @WilyQuixote (who is a Hero System diehard player) and @Scything who became Hero System curious after years of hearing about past Hero System campaigns and from looking at stuff on my website. 

 

I think the essence of the HS is the SPD chart, the 3d6 bell curve for resolution, a pool of D6 for effect, separate STUN and BODY stats, maneuvers have CV modifiers built into them,  sandboxy point buy vs class / level / tree. More limited things cost less than less limited things. Mechanically similar things use the same rules vs being arbitrarily redefined. 

 

The rest of it is largely embellishment, for me.

 

Excellent summary.

For my Fantasy HERO campaigns I would agree with everything above and add:

1-  Armor mechanics are more intuitive:  adds to safety, but makes you slower, clumsier and easier to hit.

2-  Hit Locations:  Add a lot of variety to combat and differentiate from systems that don't use it.

I wouldn't buy multiple blasts.  I suggest upping the trigger advantage level so you can have multiple triggers (when removed or when Toy Boy triggers it).  The ability of the damage to hit both the original target and someone who tries to pull the dart off is covered by Sticky, imo.

I wouldn't bother with the cosmetic transformation either.  It's just the special effects of the suction cup based weapon.

Generally, I would recommend towards the simplest solution possible.  Over-complicating power builds is a common malady.

There can be tremendous value in going first.

One of the real benefits of going first is the ability to hold your action, let your opponent do a thing and then go twice back to back (after enemy in current phase, before enemy in next phase).

DEX rolls also tend to be called into play during dangerous situations.  Would you like to leap away from the fireball?  DEX roll.  Would you like to try to grab the edge of the pit before you fall 30 feet onto poisoned spikes?  DEX roll.

Haven't had anyone I've ever played with balk at the price of DEX.

Quoting the legendary Kung Fu Hustle:  In the world of kung fu, speed (DEX) defines the winner.

On 6/13/2019 at 9:02 PM, Pariah said:

"The razor blade is sharp, but cannot cut down a tree. The axe is strong, but cannot cut hair."

Someone needs a couple more levels in Axes.

3 hours ago, Logan.1179 said:

Today I Learned... There are such things as vulture bees. They feed on rotting meat rather than pollen. They still make honey. 

Corpse honey. 

 😲
 

Now we just need a mad scientist to breed killer bees with vulture bees to get an apocalyptic scenario going.

Swarms of killer vulture bees are devouring people and crops alike as they descend upon [insert city your heroes are located in here].

15 hours ago, Lucius said:

The  palindromedary suggests a Diagnosis power built as "Detect medical condition."

Might be a good spot for a variation of Analyze as well such as Analyze Medical Condition or Analyze Health.

On 5/25/2019 at 10:03 PM, wcw43921 said:

Where Were You In Seventy-Seven?

In a frozen wasteland in the north of America, but I saw this movie and it melted our collective minds.

Eventually I had a whole collection of action miniatures.

Really wish I had saved those.