Doc Democracy

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.

22 minutes ago, greysword said:

I can't really compete with the depth of possibilities and min/maxing available with 6E.

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

2 minutes ago, Sociotard said:

Is that from taxes?

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...

Just now, Starlord said:

 

Yes

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

59 minutes ago, Starlord said:

Wow, gas is going for as low as $1.52 around here.

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

3 minutes ago, Sociotard said:

I get my "conservative side" news from National Review. I read an article that actually defended the Resellers

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/03/coronavirus-there-is-no-such-thing-as-price-gouging/

 

He seems to miss the point. Raising the price of TP (and everything else, if my local grocer is an indication) might prevent absolute shortages, but it would be ruinous for the people who have a hard enough time buying things at their current price!

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

2 hours ago, assault said:

 

Naturally you are assuming that people will have settled down in two weeks time.

 

It's possible that they will be even more frenzied when you have to go out and pick it up yourself.

At least they will be polite Brexit supporting Tory types, not dreadful Corbyn supporters. Hooray!

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...

1 hour ago, Duke Bushido said:

You know what they are _nit_ hoarding up on?!  What we haven't even had to order in three weeks? 

 

MEDICINE! 

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

4 minutes ago, Cygnia said:

They postponed voting here in Ohio. 😕

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

7 hours ago, unclevlad said:

Resistance is Futile.

 

NASCAR's now cancelling 7 races, taking their shutdown up to at least May 9th.  

 

This time they're ahead of the curve.

Doc:  to a point I can see where you're coming from with that reverse BOGO.  However...shopping yesterday, I was talking to a youngish guy who works in the meat department.  We were talking about some things...I mentioned my intent to try to do a rolling reserve.  He mentioned...he's got 4 kids.  

 

So what he *needs* to get through a week is rather different than what I need.

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

5 minutes ago, Duke Bushido said:

Well, if you want to believe the media, once the great Boomer Remover Virus runs its course there should be hundreds of thousands of vacancies. 

 

(and I caught my local grocer price gouging amidst the panic.  Kids wanted spaghetti, so I swung by on the way home.  Things I bought yesterday are a dollar and more higher than they were yesterday when I went grocery shopping g). 

 

 

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

32 minutes ago, tkdguy said:

 

Thanks. Hopefully it doesn't last more than a few weeks. On the bright side, I needed a vacation anyway.

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!

4 hours ago, MechaniCat said:

So I'm thinking about creating another attack type which would do xd6 Body and half that in Stun. Or at least an attack that does more body damage than stun by default.

 

Part of the purpose would be to ensure higher death versus knockout rate in heroic campaigns.

 

But to balance out the attack how many Damage Classes would such an attack type be? 3 DCs per d6 because it does the same amount of Body or would it be fewer DCs because of less Stun?

(I don't like hit locations so I probably won't use them)

 

In addition I figure Normal Defense would reduce Body damage but not stun. So the more defense a character has, the more likely they are to be knocked out first and by extension the longer it would taken to drop them since you would have to rely on dealing damage to the larger value. Note that all attacks would do minimum 1 damage in this structure.

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.

3 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

Dude, if there was a sudden epidemic of a diarrhea virus, they'd start hoarding shampoo and mustache wax.

 

 

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....

7 hours ago, Badger said:

I do seem to remember Obama flying somebody back with Ebola to treat them.  *I smacked my forehead into a concussion from it, so maybe I misremembering some details.  But, that was a disaster waiting to happen.

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

8 hours ago, Zeropoint said:

 

What I've heard is that having had COVID-19 provides no immunity to it, and may even make it more likely that the victim will be re-infected.

8 hours ago, Scott Ruggels said:

I've heard the same, but cannot confirm.  Also rumored that if it doesn't kill you the first time, it will kill you the second time.

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

1 hour ago, dsatow said:

LOL, in college I used a window and sunlight.

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

I used a light box* to draw on paper laid over the templates.  Works well.

Doc

* A large tupperware box with an LED light underneath it!

6 hours ago, Sketchpad said:

Yes,  worldbuilders may not need a setting, but it's handy to have some setting info to see how things are built and get some inspiration from. I also agree that not everyone has time to work on a setting, or to make their own adventures. 

To me, this is where one book games would have dual benefit.  If the toolkitting info was online somewhere, then not only does everyone get a game they can play straight off the shelf, world builders (and proto world builders) can see how a published game went about it.

If I was HERO, and publishing these games, I would have a podcast with the designer, talking about the book and how they used the toolkit to achieve their aims.  This would be decent advertising for the game but also provide oxygen for the toolkit itself.

Doc