RDU Neil

In the last supers campaign I ran (lo those many years ago) I had this. Super powers (and a bunch of other weirdness) were relatively new, and the government was trying to figure things out. A decent chunk of one session was spent with the group taking the FAA inspector on a test flight in their flying car [1] so she could license it. If the players hadn't been into it, it would have been a few minutes of the game, but they seemed to enjoy it, so we played the whole thing out.
 
They were also targeted by assassins[2] sent by De Boers because of their Gemerator 3000™[3]. It was a bit of a wacky game.
 
[1] It was a 1960s looking station wagon (wood paneling and all) that they had received as a boon from an extra dimensional entity when they requested a vehicle that could take them "anywhere on Earth". 
[2] One of the assassins made the mistake of trying to blow up the car.
[3] Another boon from the entity. All the boons they got were excuses to spend character points.

The initiative system boils down to "Roll a d6 and Add it to your SPD stat... highest number goes first... get a high enough roll, you could get more than one action"
 
That is the tl-dr of it. Bit more explanation...
 
SPD still costs the same, but every character gets an action every round (Actions per Round is the basic terminology and roughly four rounds would be equivalent of a 12 Segment Turn on the Speed Chart) Each round starts with "Roll for initiative! Each player rolls a d6, GM rolls one for all NPCs (or could roll for each, but that is often too much, as the SPD of different NPCs differentiates enough in most instances) adds the die roll to their SPD. then ask "Ok... who is highest? And people call out their numbers and the player (or NPC) with the highest roll goes first. If two or more are on the same initiative, highest DEX goes first, if DEX is same, DEX off (roll Dex rolls and person who makes it by the most goes first) So, say the highest was a 10, they say their action, then I say "Nines? Eights?" etc. and we count down. Once all actions taken... "Ok... next round. Roll for it."  
From playing with this for close to 20 years, our play group likes it a LOT more, because everyone has an action, the higher SPD has an advantage, but is not hogging all the limelight while the lower SPDs twiddle their thumbs. We noticed, and this was over years, with many groups, that the SPD chart had serious negatives: a herky-jerky aspect, the "always act on the same phase" predictability, and the "not my phase, I tune out" aspect... not to mention combats just seemed to GRIND. We didn't like. I came up with this and we play tested and modified it, and the players love it. Everyone watches everyone else when they initiatize (not a word, but we use it anyway).  All rolls are out in the open, so they are looking at the GM roll to see if the badguys are fast or slow this round, etc. The fact that everyone has an action, and anyone could be the first to act, keeps everyone focused on the game, etc.
 
Now... for super-speeds...
 
We quickly understood that everyone having an action each round was good for play, but what about characters whose powers reflected super speed or were just much faster than normal humans?  I created and we tested the "Second Action" concept and it works pretty well.  If your TOTAL (SPD plus initiative roll) is 11 or higher... you get a second action. After every other action is taken, I ask "Any second actions?" and then the countdown starts again. This means that you need at LEAST a SPD of 5 to have the possibility of getting a second action, and a SPD of 10 to guarantee a second action. So it isn't (usually) guaranteed or predictable, but is significant when it happens. We pushed the boundaries, and allowed for a possible 3rd action with a 17 or higher (requires an 11 SPD to have a chance), and basically ruled that every increment of 6 got you another action.  
The results were predominantly used for superhero games, and what we saw in general were two things... we actually had 4 SPD Bricks or other slower types, and they were just fine. We saw dexy types inch up from 6 to 7 as the most common SPD. We found that the percentage chance increase of each point of SPD seemed about right... 5's felt lucky to get an extra action... sixes seemed like 1 out of 3 rounds, yeah feels good... 7's getting a 50/50 chance... ok, you are FAST!
 
Specific play results we saw... players who had a second action used it to their advantage, as they should. They were able to go all out, knowing they had an abort action to dodge or block waiting... or vice versa... play defensive, knowing they were going to have a clean opening with their second action. They also knew just how dangerous it was when the opponent had a second action against their one. It plays out in a sense of combat flow... sometimes you have advantage, some times you are on your heels, giving combat a really dynamic feel. Our one, hard core gamist in the group definitely knows the advantages of a second action... but the abuse at least SEEMS way less than when a classic 6 SPD vs. a 4 or 5 on the SPD chart has a guaranteed free action or two every turn. The fact that sometimes the 3 SPD thugs roll a 6 and the 6 SPD martial artist rolls a 1 is a great shift in the combat flow, so players are paying attention and fights, at least for us, become more organic and flowing, and less mechanical and herky-jerky.
 
At Heroic levels, PCs still tend to take 4 SPDs vs. 2-3 normals... and with my current game, we've had a couple 5 SPDs (which I did some research on reaction times in combat and simulated combat situations, and some of the elite, best of the best, doing moving live-fire targeting runs through "Hogans Alley" type of things, clearly mapped to 5 SPDs... getting roughly five actions over twelve seconds between half-moves firing, reloading, etc.)   The 5 SPD in our Heroic Games is really "Special" and when it gets a second action, it is really powerful, but the odds are still low, so it doesn't unbalance the game.
 
I think that covers it. I'm not saying it is for every group, but we'd never go back to the SPD chart for our games.
 
 
 

 

I agree to some extent. Comic books do have their own logic, based on the conventions of how their worlds are established to function. It's when sloppy writing breaks those conventions that logic appears to go out the window. Unfortunately too many writers, and readers, use the fact that they're comic books as its own excuse for sloppiness.

You're going to have to write the entire script now.  Sorry.

SO, I guess I'll help the snakes vs the AI.  
 
Whoever wins has to be better for the world than what we have now, right?

The part that I didn't expect was how unpleasant the pressure wave was even in a pool that big

Good god, don't these people know better?
 
Tomorrow morning, a lab tech will walk into the lab and find the little piece of amber cracked open... FROM WITHIN! The so called "fossil" is nowhere to be seen.
 
Soon afterwards, all contact with the lab will be lost. The same will happen with the first emergency responders on the scene, as only a garbled radio call will be recorded... "...ahh... so many... kkkkkk...aaaa.... all over us... kkkkk..."
 
Local news will show shakey camera shots of Myanmar soldiers setting up a road block, then the camera image will jerk skyward to the roar above, tracking two PAC JF-17 Thunder aircraft rocketing toward the lab location. Seconds later, the ground shakes violently from a massive payload drop.
 
The next day, all contact with Myanmar is lost to the outside world.
 
 
Seriously people... it all starts like this!

Except in this case, perhaps it should be interpreted as "See no facts, hear no facts, speak no facts."
 
Trump certainly speaks plenty of evil.
 
Dean Shomshak

Good god, don't these people know better?
 
Tomorrow morning, a lab tech will walk into the lab and find the little piece of amber cracked open... FROM WITHIN! The so called "fossil" is nowhere to be seen.
 
Soon afterwards, all contact with the lab will be lost. The same will happen with the first emergency responders on the scene, as only a garbled radio call will be recorded... "...ahh... so many... kkkkkk...aaaa.... all over us... kkkkk..."
 
Local news will show shakey camera shots of Myanmar soldiers setting up a road block, then the camera image will jerk skyward to the roar above, tracking two PAC JF-17 Thunder aircraft rocketing toward the lab location. Seconds later, the ground shakes violently from a massive payload drop.
 
The next day, all contact with Myanmar is lost to the outside world.
 
 
Seriously people... it all starts like this!

With more poop flinging

Good god, don't these people know better?
 
Tomorrow morning, a lab tech will walk into the lab and find the little piece of amber cracked open... FROM WITHIN! The so called "fossil" is nowhere to be seen.
 
Soon afterwards, all contact with the lab will be lost. The same will happen with the first emergency responders on the scene, as only a garbled radio call will be recorded... "...ahh... so many... kkkkkk...aaaa.... all over us... kkkkk..."
 
Local news will show shakey camera shots of Myanmar soldiers setting up a road block, then the camera image will jerk skyward to the roar above, tracking two PAC JF-17 Thunder aircraft rocketing toward the lab location. Seconds later, the ground shakes violently from a massive payload drop.
 
The next day, all contact with Myanmar is lost to the outside world.
 
 
Seriously people... it all starts like this!

This^.  Iron Man was the only comic I had a subscription to back in the early '70s.  I used to have a ton of old Tales of Suspense, including #s 39 and 40. I had no problem with the way they handled the Mandarin in IM3, for the reason you stated:  he was a racist caricature, with a rather silly origin to boot.
 
Having said that, I am interested in who this 'real' Mandarin is who was mentioned in that short, if they ever get around to showing us.  I'm hoping it was more than just a sop to the fanbois who were complaining.

I've been reading Iron Man since Tales of Suspense and I loved Iron Man 3. (Well really, since about Iron Man #75 or so... but still.) Granted I'm a huge fan of Shane Black's movies, so seeing that translated into Marvel (just like I love Waititi's movies) was a real treat. Mandarin is a dated, racist villain, and what they did with Trevor was genius, a real dig at fear mongering and profiling, etc. 
 
I've said before, the only thing I didn't like was the "blow up the armors" at the end, but it was clear that when Black was asked to write this, it was assumed RDJ was stepping down, and Iron Man was supposed to "end"... and so that ending doesn't make sense in the larger context. 

Nor cornerstone

Oh come now, I have always been the meekest and mildest of men

Anyway, nice to see all the comments - Old Man contacted me and mentioned this thread, so I thought I would post. I wasn't actually banned back in the day, but Simon did give me a warning about making rude comments in a political thread during the last US presidential elections. I didn't think the comment was terribly out of line, to be honest, but these are Simon's boards, and I appreciated the effort he goes to in maintaining them, so rather than giving offence I said I'd bow out during the elections and come back when things were quieter.
 
That was actually the plan buuut ... you know how these things go. By the time the election was over, I had a new job in a new country, and I was busy with all kinds of stuff (work, and being a tourist, mostly). Then there came another international move, and then we bought an old house that we are doing up, and I was active on other sites .... basically, I kept meaning to drop in, but never got around to it. 
 
I'm still gaming regularly and carrying on much as before: hope everything is cool with you guys.
 
cheers, Mark

The scene started showing Scott's TV with the Emergency Alert System colored stripes and irritating tone, with drums playing in the background, and then the camera moved down the hall to show the ant playing the drums. 

As long as we're listing our favorites...
 
The Avengers (I could pick it apart on technicalities, but this one just hit the zenith of enjoyment for me) Captain America: The First Avenger (I love period pieces, unreservedly altruistic heroes, and Chris Evans as Cap. Plus, the one Marvel romance I buy with no reservations!) Captain America: The Winter Soldier (great political thriller with a side of superheroics) Avengers: Infinity War (most of what I want in cosmic superhero adventures) Black Panther (loved almost everything except the climactic fight, another thing it shared with Wonder Woman) Guardians of the Galaxy (great music and action-adventure marred only by a hopelessly stiff villain) Ant Man (Paul Rudd is just awesome; I liked almost everything except the cartoonish villain) Dr. Strange (worked magic into the MCU far better than I expected; Tilda Swinton was amazing) Thor: Ragnarok (so low because it hamstrung all its dramatic moments with bathos; would have taken my #1 spot if the whole movie were like the trailer) Captain America: Civil War (generally good, entertaining effort with significant narrative problems) Spider-Man: Homecoming (Tom Holland may be the best casting find Marvel has been blessed with) Iron Man Thor (A+ for production design and cinematography, C- for the lead performances) Ant Man & the Wasp (enjoyable, but not fond of 2 of the 3 sets of antagonists) Iron Man 3 Age of Ultron (you could see the seams where it was stitched together; Black Widow/Banner romance and Thor exposition made of WTF?) Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (some fun and funny moments, but forgettable) Incredible Hulk (should I send my notes to Edward Norton?) Thor: The Dark World (would have been much higher if Mjolnir had flown through Darcy at some point) Iron Man 2 (Black Widow was all I liked about this movie) Really only my top 4 and bottom 3 are solid though; the rest could shuffle easily depending on what mood I'm in. And I'd generally be happy to rewatch the first 17 on TV.

Agreed. They seem to have the gist of it, but fail in the execution. Like the big fight with Luke and Danny. That was horribly staged, but they did try some typical superhero fight stuff like a fastball special.
 
 
I'd watch a Bushmaster and Power Man buddy show. In fact, they could just insert Bushmaster into the Netflix MCU in place of Danny and I'd be fine with that. Much better chemistry between the two than between Luke and  Danny.
 
 
 

I just finished watching season two of Luke Cage. Let me start off by saying that I enjoyed this season way more than season one. I found the story more interesting and the characters far more compelling.
 
Bushmaster was a terrific villain, because not only was he absolutely riveting every time he was on screen, he actually was someone you could sympathize with in a way, even though his methods and the intensity of his obsession undermine that sympathy. Mariah Stokes was the more complex villain, the one you loved to hate, and I'm completely satisfied with the trajectory of her character arc. I really liked Tilda Johnson, and felt she added a nice wild card element to the drama. And, of course, the real shining stars for me continued to be Misty Knight and Shades.
 
Overall I would give season two a solid B+ grade, whereas season one was a C- for me.
 
However, there were two things that really bugged me throughout the season, and while they did not seriously impact my enjoyment of the season, they nevertheless rubbed me the wrong way. The first one was the incessant use of the phrase "I'm not gonna front." (and its myriad variations). This bit of ghetto slang came across as phony and forced when coming out of the mouths of otherwise intelligent and articulate characters. And it happens so often that what starts out as merely an awkward moment of bad writing quickly grates on the nerves.
 
The second one is more foundational, not just to the character of Luke Cage, but to the genre as a whole, especially as it pertains to the tonal line these shows are trying to walk. And this has to do with Luke's 30-point Code vs. Killing. I feel this puts Luke, as a character, into a morally flawed position given the gritty, violent environment he's forced to operate in (i.e., urban gang warfare).
 
This is sometimes described as the Batman and Joker Problem, and it came into clear focus in season two as Luke repeatedly vacillated between wanting Mariah dead (and for good, justifiable reasons) and yet always saving her from harm. Like Batman, Luke seems to conveniently forget (or disregard) the countless innocent lives that have been, and will be, lost by allowing such a homicidal maniac to always escape the lethal consequences of her own savagery.
 
When you are at war, triage becomes an unfortunate but necessary process of prioritizing, for determining who lives and who dies in order to save as many as can be saved, and in this context triage means putting the concerns of innocent lives, that will be inevitably lost as collateral damage, above abstract platitudes about the Rule of Law. And I'm not even talking about Luke doing the deed himself--I wouldn't want to see Luke cross that line--but rather the extraordinary lengths he goes to prevent even Bushmaster from taking care of the problem (and it is a very serious problem, folks).
 
Marvel puts some of their heroes into morally gray, tonally dark, iron age milieux and then gives them wildly incongruent gold/silver age ethoi. At least with Jessica Jones the showrunners understood that the noir tradition they were drawing upon demanded that their flawed hero be willing to kill the villain in order to protect innocent lives. Hell, even Daredevil, with his Roman Catholic derived Code vs. Killing, killed Nobu. Twice!
 
It's no wonder Luke Cage has a credibility problem with the evil warlords of NYC. When threatening Rosalie Carbone, all Luke could say with any credibility was that he would make her life a living hell by disrupting her illegal operations around town; threatening her life was simply not on the table and she knew it. While this is a common trope in superhero stories, it doesn't really play well when the tone and setting is more like John Wick than the 1960s tv Batman.

I'm afraid you'll have to settle for my list 
 

Since this gets revisted after every new release... here's how I feel about the 20 movies tonight.
 
1. Captain America: Winter Soldier
2. Black Panther
3. Captain America: Civil War
4. Spider-Man: Homecoming
5. Iron Man 3
6. Ant-Man & the Wasp
7. Avengers
8. Iron Man
9. Thor: Ragnarok
10. Captain America: The First Avenger
11. Avengers: Age of Ultron
12. Guardians of the Galaxy
13. Thor
14. Thor: Darkworld
15. Iron Man 2
16. Ant-Man
17. Incredible Hulk
18. Doctor Strange
19. Avengers: Infinity War
20. Guardians of the Galaxy 2

Many things... 
1) The silly cape "wiping tears" stuff (and the general, lowest common denominator, simplistic, forced humor)
2) The classic "white savior" essentialism (especially the "white man becomes a master magician in like five minutes compared to everyone else" bit)
3) The arrogant, sexist white man on a redemptive track (hello, Mr. Stark?) all over again
4) The flat out simplistic plot... Kasellius (sp?) having decent motivation and still not interesting as a villain
5) Dormamu looking like Max Headroom
6) Time Turner shenanigans
7) the fact that all those assigned to protect that major Magic locations were inept, they knew Kasellius was coming, but didn't send dozens of mages to each location, etc. Strange to save the day when he, in no way, was trained in magical combat, etc.
 
There was little that I liked, to be honest.

I should work on my own list.  Mine wouldn't match with RDU but then, why would it? Different strokes. Interesting to see regardless

Since this gets revisted after every new release... here's how I feel about the 20 movies tonight.
 
1. Captain America: Winter Soldier
2. Black Panther
3. Captain America: Civil War
4. Spider-Man: Homecoming
5. Iron Man 3
6. Ant-Man & the Wasp
7. Avengers
8. Iron Man
9. Thor: Ragnarok
10. Captain America: The First Avenger
11. Avengers: Age of Ultron
12. Guardians of the Galaxy
13. Thor
14. Thor: Darkworld
15. Iron Man 2
16. Ant-Man
17. Incredible Hulk
18. Doctor Strange
19. Avengers: Infinity War
20. Guardians of the Galaxy 2

Since this gets revisted after every new release... here's how I feel about the 20 movies tonight.
 
1. Captain America: Winter Soldier
2. Black Panther
3. Captain America: Civil War
4. Spider-Man: Homecoming
5. Iron Man 3
6. Ant-Man & the Wasp
7. Avengers
8. Iron Man
9. Thor: Ragnarok
10. Captain America: The First Avenger
11. Avengers: Age of Ultron
12. Guardians of the Galaxy
13. Thor
14. Thor: Darkworld
15. Iron Man 2
16. Ant-Man
17. Incredible Hulk
18. Doctor Strange
19. Avengers: Infinity War
20. Guardians of the Galaxy 2