Doc Democracy

Maybe this is a niche for someone to fill for the Hall of Champions. It would be good to have benchmarks. If you have the ability to control wind (as seen through a variety of powers) then you might have a difficulty number to block a light breeze, another to block a strong wind, more for a tornado and something much larger for a hurricane. As a HERO GM I can see several ways to approach this but it would be useful to have something that everyone can point to and say "this needs to be lower/higher/more flexible" and to decide to use it because it is easy to use the published benchmark or use it to make your own....

Pretty cool Massey. A decent summary of the system.

Writing stuff, sharing it is valuable, a human thing to tell stories. Sorry to hear about your mother in law, Norm, but I think we will all know someone who has fallen victim to this before it is over. My son has a cough but I do no think it is coronavirus but we are self-isolating anyway. Two weeks at home. Fortunate that I can work from home, even more that I get paid regardless. My wife, who is prone to get stir crazy, is now a bigger danger to me than anything else.

you know, I have been GMing Champions for over 30 years. In that time I have found the trick to be allowing the characters to shine, each one getting a chance to show their powers in play. I have NEVER had a group tell me it was too easy. A cool story and the chance to show off leaves folk feeling like a hero. You don’t need to compete, just give those experienced players a decent canvas and sit back and watch. my only other tip would be to leave your brain open to possibilities and opportunities. When things crash and burn because you went in too hard, look for reasons why players schemes/plans/ruses will work rather than why they might fail. Beyond that, sit back and gain experience in both the system and GMing it. doc

I challenge each player to find reasons why he wants to work with two other characters in the group. If the characters cannot work together and the players cannot find the bonds that tie the group then I, as GM, will be unable to devote enough energy to do that. i like creative tension, I like sparks between the group but there has to be an underlying desire within the team to be a team. also, as a GM, you should be able to find players that want to be in your game, GMs are difficult to come by. Doc

yup. Office for National Statistics created this chart... The price of fuel can be divided into three sections the cost of the fuel itself (which is made up of the wholesale price, the cost of distributing the fuel and fuel companies’ profit margins); fuel duty (which is charged at a fixed rate of 57.95 pence per litre); and VAT. VAT is charged at 20% of the wholesale price plus the duty, which equates to 16.7% of the final price. Under normal market conditions, only a fraction of the cost of a litre of petrol ends up in the coffers of fuel retailers. For petrol, at its current average price of £1.04 per litre, just over 72% of the price will go to the exchequer in fuel duty and in Value Added Tax (VAT), leaving only around 28% of ‘wriggle room’ for cutting the price to consumers when the price of crude oil falls. I will stop now as this has *nothing* to do with coronavirus...

Damn you! Currently £1.25 per litre here (or $1.47 in US terms)

You are talking per gallon there aren't you? So cheap......

It is a mistake that the European nobility made. Shortages were for the poor, hardship was for the poor. Until the shortages and hardships were enough to mean that they saw they had nothing to lose by rising against those who saw no shortages or hardship. I think that our corporate masters have now had their worldview changed for long enough that they have forgotten what shortages or hardship are and feel more secure in their supremacy than they should. It would not take a huge amount for people to move from suffering in silence to actively protesting to ultimately taking what they need. I do not think coronavirus will be the trigger but something a little bit scarier where the death rate was increased and hit younger folk would raise fear enough that the social order that corporations rely on will not prevent us getting to the survival of the fittest (or most vicious). Doc

I think that the issues with toilet paper will be done, everyone, by that time will be filled to the brim with toilet paper - it keeps coming in to the shops every morning. We make it here. I think we will also be sorted for so many other things. As it is, I think that I will be able to go out and pick up things I need as opposed to things I want. As for "dreadful Corbyn supporters"...MY PEOPLE!! 🙂 Doc

RE panic buying. I went to put in an order for online shopping today. No slots for THREE weeks. That is longer than any self-isolation advice. Better to isolate and go out and pick it up yourself in two weeks time. People are crazy...

Well, we are seeing the toilet paper pasta and rice shortage but also paracetamol and hand soap. It is apparently important that you use paracetamol, aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory exacerbate the lung issues. Doc

BBC is saying that the US Administration is deferring taxes and sending out cheques to Americans... "Treasury Secretary Sreve Mnuchin says the administration is “looking at sending cheques to Americans immediately”. “Americans need cash now and the president wants to get cash now. And I mean now, in the next two weeks.” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-51921683/page/2

Now there IS a concern...

For an object there is absolutely no need to summon it. Just buy it without the focus limitation. You can use it whenever you want. The SFX of that might be putting your hand out and the weapon flies into it, wherever you are. You could come up with a custom limitation (along the lines of restrainable) if you want to make it more difficult to summon the weapon if you are in Hel and did not have it on you when you travelled. Doc

The thing is, most things are not impacted by this panic buying, even your friend would be only mildly impacted by my extreme measures. Indeed, they would probably be better off, they would be able to access SOME rice, pasta, soap, etc rather than NONE. Shops would not run out and they could go back and get SOME more later on. I am talking about a measure that does not stop someone buying stuff but severely slows down folk that want to corner the market and break shops ability to hold a small selection of goods. That inability triggers others to buy LOTS too. We either ration or provide counter incentives or people like your friend will be disproportionately affected by the panic buying. After all, if he NEEDS more, then unavailability will hit him harder, earlier than you. Doc

See, I am very much against this kind of thing but I would be very much in favour of a reverse of the BOGOF that is usual in supermarkets. In this case I would be telling folks that the price of spaghetti/toilet paper/paracetamol is static (for one or two items), each item after that doubles in price. That would allow for a sensible amount of preparedness - buying little bits extra, giving stores time to ramp up re-supply - and disincentivising the panic buying except for the really terminally stupid who will pay any price to screw over their neighbours... Doc

I did not know whether to like that or not. I have, but because I like the attitude, not the necessity to find a silver lining!

To me, you really are just talking about a limited killing attack. If you limit the STUN delivered to x1/2 BODY then you get exactly what you are thinking about. I think I would class this as a 1/4 limitation and definitely no more than 1/2. Killing attacks were not designed to kill and limiting their potential to KO opponents is not really restricting their usefulness. If you wanted to bake that into a new attack type, 1/2 makes for easier math. The new attack would cost 10pts per 3 DCs.

Ah Duke! You now have me wondering to what purpose people might put shampoo and moustache wax in a diarrhea epidemic. The images are..... disturbing!🤯

I aspire to sorcerer....

There is a HUGE difference between the controlled movement of a known carrier within a controlled environment to the wild spread of a disease. We often think too much on movies like Outbreak where one breach of safety protocol launches a disaster, real life does not usually pan out that way. 🙂 Doc

The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French is a good book. Different take on half orcs. Interesting because the author ensures the narrative is reliably unreliable (the story is told within the knowledge and biases of the protagonist). My only criticism is that the capability of the orc antagonists seems to vary depending on story needs a bit too much. Doc

That makes no sense biologically. So, there is a widespread feature of coronaviruses that immunity gained is not retained (simply because the virus changes its antigens reasonably quickly). As for killing you the second time, if you have had a bad case that leaves your lungs damaged then ANY subsequent respiratory disease is more likely to kill you. Doc

I grew up in Scotland, sunlight was at a premium...