bigbywolfe

Let's take a look at one of the teams we lost to this week. The Paladins are a tough team. Even though our loss was mostly the dice's fault, it was an extremely close match. Ms. Marvel has shown to be extremely popular and last season did fairly well even when outmatched in terms of power. Captain America is, of course, Cap. What can I say? He's got popularity, skill, smarts, and that shield of his helps even the odds against opponents that should be way out of his league. He may be considered "only human", but his abilities are next to none and his popularity is a major issue in this type of contest. Shulkie is quite a dame. She's not as strong as her cousin, but she is a powerhouse nevertheless. She has a lot of finesse and relies on skill more than a lot of heavy hitters do, making her doubly dangerous. She even served on the FF for a while, though of course no one could ever replace yours truly. Storm can control weather and fly, but that's more dangerous than it sounds. She can drop lighting like it's nothing and drop the temp to near arctic on a hot summer day. Add in her experience in hand to hand combat and strategy as a leader of the X-men and we have a powerful opponent who can stay out of reach of many of us. Moon Knight is another great hand to hand fighter. I know some of you aren't too worried about taking a punch, but he gets pretty strong when the moon is full and he has a lot of gadgets too. He has no problem taking a punch if it means he'll be able to hit you too and he has thrown weapons and is pretty stealthy for a guy who sneaks around at night in all white clothing. Basically, he's tougher than he sounds. Black Adam. I worked with that schmuck last season. Guy can be okay but he's a bit full of himself. Anyway, he's one we really need to watch out for powers-wise. He's got high end super strength along with speed, agility, and he can shoot lighting. He's tough. His biggest weakness is that he doesn't seem to be that popular. To much of a "dark anti-hero" vibe for some voters, and that's when he's not a villain. Truth be told I got a bit confused about his backstory with two different pantheons of gods and time travel and alternate versions and what not. Short version, he's a tough one, be careful and try to act popular. The turtle is a turtle... that's a ninja. I kid you not. Apparently he is really good, he leads a team of turtles that all do ninja...stuff. I'm sure he's a tough opponent or he wouldn't be here. (I'm getting a headache, how the heck am I supposed to assess the threat level of a friggin' turtle...with swords) And then there's Optimus Prime. He's a great big robot who turns into a truck. He's strong and has a laser gun of some kind. I assume he's a bit tougher than a normal truck so be careful, but other than that I'm not sure what to say other than almost all of us have taken on our share of giant robots... What? Magma, could you explain to Toph what a robot is? Thanks. Okay, that's it. Any questions? Good. Let's get out there and bust some skulls, huh?

Thing: So we're supposed to do a threat assessment. I figure we should... Toph: Whoa! Who died and left rock-butt in charge? Rockslide: Last season he led his team to the semi-finals and he's the most experienced one here, so shut it. These meetings take long enough as it is. Toph: Sheesh, sorry Rock-Butt Junior. I won't interrupt daddy again. Thing/Rockslide: We're NOT related! Warlord (aside to Green Lantern): I was wondering. Thing: Fine, someone else want to volunteer? We could change the name to the New New X-Men while we're at it since half of them are here. Or maybe one of you guys (looking at GL and Warlord) wanna throw your hat in? I didn't ask to get roped back into this circus. Green Lantern: Honestly, I'm still a bit lost. Most of my experience with dimensional travel have been with alternate realities of my own world. This is... different. You all seem to know each other and what's going on. We'll follow your lead. Sandman: Alright, so the Thing's in charge, right? Can we get on with it already? Thing: Okay, here's the deal. Whoever is in charge of this cockamamie thing decided to have a strong "theme" this season, hence the name change and obvious similarity among some of your powers. (Dust and Sandman glance at each other.) That's a good thing in some ways, we know what our strong points are and can compliment each other on tag team matches. However he sacrificed a lot of raw power from last season and there's a lot of powerhouses out there like Captain Marvel, Thor, and even that Black Adam guy that was on my team last time. Green Lantern: Wait, how do you know Captain Marvel? Thing/Dust: How do you know Captain Marvel? Toph: Who the heck is "Captain Marvel"!? Magma: It seems like we have a lot to figure out yet. Obviously we have some duplicate names, we aren't the only team with "Green Lantern" for example. No doubt we'll figure some of it out during the threat assessment. Now Ben, you were saying? Ben: It's gonna be a tough season, there's a lot of power headed our way, but all of us have faced worse. A lotta flashy powers and gimmicks won't win if we're careful. Be smart. Use your environment. Play to your strengths. We're 3-2 right now and that's not too bad. I'm not much for speechifying so I'll just point out that Salt of the Earth describes a lot of the personality of this team, not just our powers. Keep it simple, hit 'em hard, work together. Now, about that threat assessment...

The buzzsaw arrow.

I really like these gender swapped Spidey villains, but this one gave me pause. You see, on a small cellphone screen her yelling mouth looks a lot like a big ol' mustache.

Huh, the dice caused a couple of upsets today.

I'm confused, if it's an "old antibiotic, decades off patent" couldn't any company make it? I mean, that doesn't make this guy any less of a dick, but if the patent has lapsed I'm not seeing how he supposedly has some kind of monopoly...

I'm sure you've already said it, but what's the time deadline for turning in the next day's pick?

I don't mind a bit of snarkiness, I'm guilty of it myself often enough and in this forum most people are pretty good natured about it. But lately I've noticed a trend of people saying something "clever" and when someone asks for clarification because your oh-so-clever comment was vague, to respond with more jokes/snark, and often condescendingly, without ever answering the question/clarifying their original point. That isn't conducive to having a conversation or even to making a joke. Language is used to communicate, if you aren't capable of making an understandable point at least don't mock the people trying to figure out what the hell you are trying to say. I know the line between snark and jackassery can be pretty thin, but some people just seem to dive across it and act like anyone that doesn't get the "joke" is stupid. It gets old.

Shouldn't WHAT?

Not much of an exaggeration at all. Spend 2 minutes on a Yahoo news comment section and you'll find someone calling for the death or deportation of all muslims.

Monday of week 1 says you get an arena bonus if your character doesn't fly, yet the match is a "powerless peril" no powers match so no one will be flying, right?

What IndianaJoe said.

My final pick will be Toph Beifong. Phone currently won't let me post an image.

Sorry if I held things up, I spent most of the day in a place with no reception for my data plan and 6 hours on the road. Empowered by the life force of the Earth itself, Earth 2's Green Lantern , Alan Scott.

Pretty sure they are discussing Narosia, Sea of Tears, so a Campaign setting rule, not House rule.

The next round is the one I'm most likely to get sniped on. Fingers crossed...

From the center of the Earth itself I choose Travis Morgan. With nothing but a pistol and sword Travis has survived dinosaurs, killed necromantic wizards, befriended kings, married a sorceress, brought peace to as large of portion of Skartaris to have ever seen peace and earned the name The Warlord. +2 points if the pick is selected within 12 hours (Still have 24 hours to pick) +1 point for codename (not sure if The Warlord counts as a codename or not) +2 if totally mundane (real world, can buy it in a store stuff only) Total of +5? (EDITed to add details I couldn't from my phone).

80's night was a tough pick for me as I waffled between two great ladies, but eventually I just had to choose one, so I went with Amara Aquilla (Alison Crestmere)AKA Magma +2 points if the pick is selected within 12 hours (Still have 24 hours to pick) +1 point if the character wears a costume in super ID +1 point for codename +1 if no ninjutsu training Should be 5 points unless I missed something. I'll get my other picks' points counted up eventually.

While many GMs allow Martial Arts with TK, not all do and many that do require the TK to have Fine Manipulation. It's an interesting approach though.

No, Superman was banned but other Kryptonians were not.

I t h ought the banned characters were the same as last season.

I may suffer in the vote department due to lesser known characters or lack of raw power (though my biggest powerhouse died last season, so who knows) but I wanted to have a more cohesive theme this season. I think I'll pull it off, though the "no power" pick is leaving me with some odd options.

Youth Movement Pick is Dust's friend and former teammate on the Hellions student training Squad, the Young X-Men, and X-Men propper: Santo Vaccarro AKA Rockslide +2 points if the pick is selected within 12 hours (Still have 24 hours to pick) +1 point if the character wears a costume in super ID (He originally wore a costume before his transformations and I believe still does on occasion) +1 point for codename +1 if never a sidekick 5 points total

My Girl Power pick is Sooraya Qadir, AKA Dust. +2 points if the pick is selected within 12 hours (Still have 24 hours to pick) +1 point for codename +1 if name is not a derivative of a male character +1 if character is not a martial artist +2-4 if character is not a supermodel (not sure to tell how many points I get on this one?) Total of 7 (9?) points.

My first pick is William Baker, perhaps more well known as Flint Marko, the Sandman. Team name is Salt of the Earth. +2 points if the pick is selected within 12 hours (Still have 24 hours to pick) +1 point for codename +3 if your team has a name +2 if Marvel or DC +1 if I like you? Total of 8 (9?) points