archer

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a bill to extend free college tuition to most New Mexico residents. 
 
Two and four year degrees or career training certificates.
 
https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/local/new-mexico/2022/03/04/new-mexico-free-college-tuition-bill-signed-michelle-lujan-grisham-wnmu/9376293002/

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a bill to extend free college tuition to most New Mexico residents. 
 
Two and four year degrees or career training certificates.
 
https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/local/new-mexico/2022/03/04/new-mexico-free-college-tuition-bill-signed-michelle-lujan-grisham-wnmu/9376293002/

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a bill to extend free college tuition to most New Mexico residents. 
 
Two and four year degrees or career training certificates.
 
https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/local/new-mexico/2022/03/04/new-mexico-free-college-tuition-bill-signed-michelle-lujan-grisham-wnmu/9376293002/

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a bill to extend free college tuition to most New Mexico residents. 
 
Two and four year degrees or career training certificates.
 
https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/local/new-mexico/2022/03/04/new-mexico-free-college-tuition-bill-signed-michelle-lujan-grisham-wnmu/9376293002/

Granted; but with the huge advantage in military resources the Russians have over the Ukrainians, there's no way the situation should be this bad for them unless they're performing much worse than expected, and the Ukrainians much better. Out of what we have been seeing and hearing, there's been a lot of smart on the Ukrainian side, and a lot of dumb from the Russian.

It seems we're picking through the weekend on this one, so for my Saturday pick:
 
Base: Fantasy Island (From Fantasy Island TV show)
 

 

No.
 
Even if I were young or healthy, I have too many people here who depend on me to take care of them day-to-day.
 
The Ukrainian embassy in Canada has been fielding a lot of requests though. I don't know how many of those are Canadians of Ukrainian descent vs other outraged Canadians. There's more people of Ukrainian descent in Canada than in any other non-European country, many of them in the western parts of Canada which has a similar climate to Ukraine. 

I don't think Batman could pick up Mjolnir....

Land Vehicle: Fractal Harness (Magic the Gathering, Strixhaven set)
 

 
“Fractals are just pseudo-dimensional manifestations of asynchronous biosymmetries. It’s really quite simple.”
—Kianne, Quandrix dean

I've dreamt of it but I'd probably just be a hindrance.  As I understand it, though, sixty thousand Ukrainian expats have already streamed into Ukraine to fight the Russians.  That's... a lot.
 
 

Tolkien had basically two types of elves, those who went to the lands of the gods and learned metallurgy and sciences & those who stayed behind in the dark then never advanced as much as the others.
 
Then the ones who came back to Middle Earth after the sun was created mostly reverted.
 
D&D seems to deal with elves as if they're granola-crunching individualists who never create cities or infrastructure for a technological civilization.
 
====
 
I thought it'd be interesting to deal with elves as those granola-crunching individualists who never create cities or infrastructure for a technological civilization...who happened to live next to (essentially) African animist tribes (or Australian aborigines) who shared a lot of the elves distain for technology and cities.
 
So the elves of today are mostly intermarried with black tribes. 
 
In the vast savannahs, they often pursue a nomadic lifestyle.
 
In areas with more rainfall, they do subsistence farming and are elaborate storytellers and gift the world with a large number of bards. 
 
In coastal regions, many of them take to the seas. Some of them have used magic to revert to a form suited for living underwater. Others fish. Many live close to large ports and are coveted by captains for their seamanship.
 
But in any case, most "elves" which you meet are at least part-human. And all are black.

Home Base:  The Watchtower
 

Land Vehicle, the legendary, one and only Batmobile!
 

Inventor/Artificer/Gadgeteer character:  Dr. Horrible
 

Graham was a colonel in JAG. It's impossible for him not to understand the legal and diplomatic implications of a sitting American senator publicly encouraging the assassination of a foreign head of state. Particularly during such an explosive confrontation as we're going through now.
 
There's only one reason I can think of for his remark. He thinks it will make him sound tough to his supporters and garner him more votes.

*Have to* have?  No.  Why are they often used?  Familiar tropes.  Orcs - primitive, brutish, violent.  Dwarves - underground, mining, obsessed with material things.  Just like human tropes - Vikings, Romans, Horse Nomads.  You have a good idea of where they fit in to the world with little explanation needed.

It's not too terribly exciting, really.
 
I was trying to fill in a gap in activity / conversation.  The denouement  had...   denouement...ed? -- after the completion of a long story arc (four or five months of sessions on the one arc), everyone was feeling deflated (in a good way, I mean), and there was suddenly a very long pause-- no players spoke; no characters did anything, so just to keep the silence from hitting that "awkward" stage, Earl- the maintenance guy at their base-- chimed up with "well, it's Thursday already; I've got to be going!  Welcome home, folks.  Don't call me if you need me; I've got custody this weekend, and I'm unplugging the phone!"   
 
Hmm....
 
Think the Players.  What could that be about?
 
"HHHmmmm....." grunt the Players.  "What was that about?"
 
"Earl's divorced.  It's his weekend with the kids.  He's done this before.  It's on the calendar in the office, but you guys have been so busy the past few week...."
 
"He's up to something--!"
 
And for the next hour-- real time; a couple days game time-- the start gathering intel on Earl-- everything they can get their hands on.
 
The next two game sessions they are _obsessed_ with Earl!  To the point that they follow him, looking to see what he's up to.  It was funny for about ten minutes, then it got weird....
Problematically, they got really _excited_ about the idea that Earl-- a pop-up NPC who had been running their base for honest-to-God _six years_ of game time-- was secretly a villain, or a spy, or some sort of mastermind---
 
Toward the end of the second session of "What's up with Earl," I had put up with all I could handle.  I dug in-- Earl left his apartment an hour before sunset, took a cab to the drug store, and bought skin cream, lotion, a humidifier, and stopped at a hardware store and got rock salt.
 
"Where's his kids?!"
 
You don't see any kids--
 
"I _knew_ it!  He's up to something!  He's probably building some kind of bomb!  What kind of bomb can you make with salt?!"
 
Truth was I had focused so hard on giving Earl something to _do_ that I had forgotten it was custody weekend.  That's all there was to it.
 
You've already learned he lives on the top floor--
 
"Skylight!  What do I see through the skylight?"
 
The skylight....   what would you do in a tenement building with a skylight?  Hmmm.. ooh!  Better lighting in the shower!-- the skylight is directly over Earl's bathroom--
 
Is he building a bomb in the bathtub?  What's he doing-?!
 
Well, as you watch, set back from the grimy glass so as not to cast a shadow on it or to accidentally be seen, he appears to be --- running the bathwater!  
 
"What's he putting in it?  Ammonia?  Bleach?  Nitrogen?
 
crap... what did he buy.....?   A hasty side glance at the notes-- uh...  he's carefully measuring out the rock salt!
 
What?  What's he up to?
 
There's a... Thermometer!  He's checking the temperature of the water very--
 
he looked up!  Good thing the sun is setting and you're setting back a bit, or he would have looked dead at you!
 
The water!  The thermometer!  What's it for?!
 
He appears to be checking the temperature of the water--
 
I call John!  This could be it!
 
(john, in character) Jetstream here.
 
Jetstream, I don't know what it is but it's going down!  Earl's measuring rocksalt into a bathtub full of temperature-controlled water!  This could be it!
 
(jetstream)  I'm on my way!  Call the others!
 
Within moments, all the heroes are gathered, staring at Earl as he carefully checks the salinity and temperature of the water.  Then he darts off to another room and comes back with a mysterious sealed container!
 
What does it look like...?!
 
Well, it's brownish, maybe quart-sized (I had been winging it, but at this point, I had made a decision).  It says "Country Crock" on the side..
 
What?  Butter?
That's margarine, idiot!
Yeah, and it's pretty---
 
What's he doing now?
 
He's lighting candles--
 
A ritual!  Is he summoning something?!  They need salt for that!  Where's Mysteria--
I'm right here--
Yeah; make a skill check!  Is he summoning something?  Can you tell what it is--?
 
oh, why not....  "Go ahead, if you think he's summoning a demon."  I push her player (Straight John) three dice.  Natural 18!  Under the circumstances, hilarious to me; frustrating beyond measure to them. 
 
Wait!  He's putting something in the tub-- 
 
is it the butter?
 
No; it's a small device of some sort.  There's a cord that runs to it and plugs into the wall---
 
(to Mysteria) Are there electro-demons?  (to me) is a bomb?  Is the water crackling with electricity?
 
No.  make a PER Check....  You see some kind of clear tubing hooked to the machine; it's laying on the floor-
 
Is it pumping the water out?!
 
No.  The candles are lit in a pattern (now I'm just having fun with it).  There are three arranged in a triangle around the tub, five in a circle beyond those, and nine outside of those.  He's pressed on a button on a gizmo that looks like CD player-- at least, same size; same shape--
 
Does it vibrate?!
 
No, but when he throws a switch in the cord, the small device in the tub appears to-- a small, steady stream of bubbles begins to percolate to the surface of the water---  it's pretty dark; you can probably get closer if you want-- 
 
Yeah!  What do I see?
What do I see?
Can I see what he's doing--?
 
He's opened the plastic tub and he reaches in...  he appears to be sprinking something into the water-- like bits of potting soil and..  something you can't really see what it is--
 
I have telescopic vision!  Where's my dice?  I rolled five!  What do I see--?
 
 
it looks like small worms of somekind-- not earthworms, but hundreds of small worms....
 
Demon worms!
nanobots!
Alien parasites!
 
(if you're wondering:  tubifex.  Tubifex was the correct answer.  No one got it).
 
You see Earl start to tremble-- his hands are shaking, and he's having trouble with his balance--
 
He's in a trance!  It's beginning!  Mysteria, get up here, front and center!
 
Be careful!  All of you, make an easy PER check (no failures) The moon is coming out, and you're perfectly silhouetted against it--!
 
Crap!  (rolls dice) I want a stealth check to creep silently to the other side of the skylight!
 
No problem; you make it.  You see--
 
oh, me too!  
I don't have stealth!  Can I just creep over slowly--
Got an 11-!
 
You're all on the other side of the skylight, and have the perfect vantage point to watch a fifty-four year old man strip.  Clearly, this is one of your finest moments.
 
No; he's up to something--!
 
He's also naked.  He's staggering; he can barely stand--
 
Should we help him? maybe he's being possessed!
No; he's summoning something, or building some kind of weird bomb
I don't think Earl is a bomb....
Maybe it's the control pod for like an entire mech hidden on the floor below--
In someone else's apartment?
He probably rents that one, too!  (to me) How much do we pay him?
"Not enough for him to catch you watching him undress, or rent two apartments....   He kneels down beside the tub and rolls over into it and begins to spasm.
 
Here it comes!
 
And as the moon finishes rising, complete and full, and its silvery light shines through the skylight, you see him twist and writhe and---  He's shrinking!  Something's happening!  He is getting smaller, his arms are shrinking and his fingers are getting nightmarishly long-- 
 
It's a transformation!   He's becoming some kind of Hell beast!
 
He's becoming a fish-
 
WHAT?!
 
Right there, before your eyes, you-- The Seven, the mightiest defenders Campaign City has ever seen-- stand aghast as you watch a naked old man (this was long enough ago that I thought 55 was ancient) shrivel and shrink and gasp for air and sprout scales and turn as silver as the moon-- and within moments, where Earl had been, there is a smallish fish, swimming around the bathtub, lazily eating tubifex worms.....
 
 
 
WHAT?!  
 
THAT'S _IT_?!
 
THAT is what we've wasted two entire sessions on-?!
 
No one is more upset about it than I am; I promise.
 
Why would you do that--
 
_I_ didn't do it!  _I_ was getting tired of telling you that know Earl, you know his ex-wife, and you know his sons, but _you_ wierdos decided he was some sort of Soviet spy---!
 
Well how where we supposed to know--?
 
 
And more and more in that vein...
 
 
I have said it before: Players do the most confounding things.  Just roll with it.  If you don't leash them too tightly, they'll build you an entire world.
 
And Earl the werefish.
 
 
 

IMHO the OP really didn't describe what he wanted to DO with the power.

Like I said above, I think people are overthinking this. Reasoning from ability description and not from functionality AKA from what the ability does, not how it works/looks.

That closet can be sheer special effect to many abilities. ie Multipower could have that as a Special effect. It would be good as a special effect for a VPP. In fact in someways it seems like the player is looking for a VPP if the character has a wide variety of gadgets.

I haven't seen anything so far that isn't a special effect of an instant change.
 
Or a Multiform, a Multipower or a VPP, if the character can gear up differently.
 
In any case, don't overthink it 

Trump and Putin are invading Ukraine together in order to stop bioweapons from being constructed by Dr. Anthony Fauci. - latest QAnon conspiracy drivel
 
====
 
Former Vice President Mike Pence will tell Republican donors Friday that there "is no room in this party for apologists for Putin," according to speech excerpts shared with NBC News.
The remarks from Pence, who is scheduled to address a Republican National Committee retreat in New Orleans
 
====
 
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he discussed Belarus’ interest in having access to the Baltic Sea in a phone call with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko.
“Just today we talked with the President of Belarus on this matter. Our Belarusian friends are interested in being present in the Baltic, interested in developing their own port facilities. You know that I also support it,” Putin said during a ceremony for a new Russian ferry, which he attended virtually. - CNN
 
The only way to give landlocked Belarus access to the Baltic Sea is to cut a 400-500 mile long path through a NATO country, either Poland, Lithuania, or Latvia.
 
Maybe not the best time to double down on announcing your territorial ambitions.
 
====
 
Russian forces have seized control of that nuclear power plant and are allowing the Ukrainian workers continue to operate it at the moment. We'll see what happens after the blizzard hits in a couple of days. The live feed of the plant which was running yesterday is no longer functional.
 
Some sources claim a number of the workers have been killed but no major media outlets seem to have confirmed that as of yet. 
 
====
 
 
From a partial second-hand translation: "As a result, thanks to "friendly fire", 9 tanks and 4 armored personnel carriers were destroyed. Accordingly, it saved us 13 Јavelin."
 
Some grimly amusing comments about the incident:
 
Good to see Russians fighting the real enemy.
 
Probably figured if they were (fellow) Russians, they'd be out of gas or stuck in convoy/mud.
"They're moving, shoot it!".
 
Any time I get shot at I consider it unfriendly fire.
 
Just throwing out an idea. Put up a toll booth. Then they will have to go back and get a crapload of rubles.
 
====
 
Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova have in the last two days submitted formal applications to join the European Union.
 
https://www.commonspace.eu/news/amid-fog-war-ukraine-georgia-and-moldova-submit-formal-application-eu-membership?PageSpeed=noscript
 
I'd heard this of Ukraine and Georgia but this is the first I remember hearing it of Moldova.
 
====
 
US official states Ukraine still has "significant majority" of its aircraft - Reuters
 
92% of assembled Russian forces are now inside Ukraine.
 
I'm not a military expert, but the general rule of thumb is that you retain at least 10% of your forces to be a reserve so you can respond to large enemy counterattacks and such. If Russia's digging into that margin while there's no large-scale enemy counterattack, that's either bad planning or things are going much worse on the ground for Russia than we're being told (even as being told by Ukrainian forces).
 
====
 
Canada promises another 4500 M72 anti-tank weapons and up to 7500 hand grenades out of their existing military stock.
 
====
 
 

You could name him:
 
Star Blazar
 
 and give him a theme song.
 
 

You could name him:
 
Star Blazar
 
 and give him a theme song.
 
 

You could name him:
 
Star Blazar
 
 and give him a theme song.
 
 

About RT:
 
Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok made RT's and Sputnik's social media content unavailable to users in the European Union on 28 February.
 
Microsoft removed RT and Sputnik from MSN, the Microsoft Store, and the Microsoft Advertising network on the same day.
 
YouTube, on 1 March, banned access to all RT and Sputnik channels on its platform in Europe (including Britain).
 
Apple followed by removing RT and Sputnik from its App Store in all countries except Russia.
 
Roku dropped the RT app from its channel store
 
DirecTV pulled RT America from its channel lineup.
 
New Zealand satellite television provider Sky also removed RT, citing complains from customers and consultation with the Broadcasting Standards Authority.
 
There's been a wave of resignations from RT, including some on-air talent, because the channel wouldn't characterize what's happening in Ukraine as an "invasion" and allow unbiased coverage.
 
Today, there's scattered reports that RT America (the branch responsible for US content) is shutting down.
 
When RT was registered in the US as an agent of the Russian government in 2017, many hoped they'd open their books and reveal how much of their funding comes from the Russian government (much like Canadian Broadcasting and the BBC do). But RT kept their funding hidden even then.
 
If it's true that they're shutting down US operations, I guess that answers the question about how much of their funding comes from the Russian government.
 
edit:
 
15 minutes ago CNN confirmed RT America has permanently laid off most of its employees which will mean it effectively has ceased operations.
 
That's 22 minutes after I made the original post. Remember to come here for all your breaking news before it breaks.  
 
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/03/media/rt-america-layoffs/index.html

About RT:
 
Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok made RT's and Sputnik's social media content unavailable to users in the European Union on 28 February.
 
Microsoft removed RT and Sputnik from MSN, the Microsoft Store, and the Microsoft Advertising network on the same day.
 
YouTube, on 1 March, banned access to all RT and Sputnik channels on its platform in Europe (including Britain).
 
Apple followed by removing RT and Sputnik from its App Store in all countries except Russia.
 
Roku dropped the RT app from its channel store
 
DirecTV pulled RT America from its channel lineup.
 
New Zealand satellite television provider Sky also removed RT, citing complains from customers and consultation with the Broadcasting Standards Authority.
 
There's been a wave of resignations from RT, including some on-air talent, because the channel wouldn't characterize what's happening in Ukraine as an "invasion" and allow unbiased coverage.
 
Today, there's scattered reports that RT America (the branch responsible for US content) is shutting down.
 
When RT was registered in the US as an agent of the Russian government in 2017, many hoped they'd open their books and reveal how much of their funding comes from the Russian government (much like Canadian Broadcasting and the BBC do). But RT kept their funding hidden even then.
 
If it's true that they're shutting down US operations, I guess that answers the question about how much of their funding comes from the Russian government.
 
edit:
 
15 minutes ago CNN confirmed RT America has permanently laid off most of its employees which will mean it effectively has ceased operations.
 
That's 22 minutes after I made the original post. Remember to come here for all your breaking news before it breaks.  
 
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/03/media/rt-america-layoffs/index.html