unclevlad

Not that I can see. You can make the entire power Standard Effect...with the scaling problems we've discussed...but not parts of it. Standard effect...ok, open up the stock HD. RKA, 1d6. SE is 3 BODY, 6 STUN. +1: 4 BODY, 8 STUN. +1/2d6: 4 BODY, 8 STUN. +1d6-1: 4 BODY, 8 STUN. Increase the base to 2d6...same thing. All 3 add 1 BODY, 2 STUN. So there's no help there, because the latter 2 make no sense at all. And we know standard effect grossly nerfs the result as you move up the line. Because it's incorporated an adjustment, to eliminate the fraction, prematurely. If we adopt the adjustment we've mentioned: standard effect gives you the mean of whatever you're rolling, then the mean of 1/2 d6 is 2. 1/2 d6 with beneficial rounding means 1,1,2,2,3,3. I'd just rather call that +2. Standard effect on 1d6-1 varies. On a base of 1d6, 2d6-1 has a mean of 6. 1d6+2 has a mean of 5. On a base of 2d6, 3d6-1 has a mean of 9.5; 2d6+2 has a mean of 9. Using the mean for standard effect computations shares the root problem that killing dice have...inconsistent steps. It's not a large amount, but it's annoying. The rounding issue (even or odd full dice) can't be helped, it's implicit. But I'd rather not add another aspect. So just calling 2 DCs a flat +2 avoids things. +1, +2, another die. Easy to understand, as fair as can be made as long as the system embraces killing dice.

Advantage stacking could become an issue, that's true, but adding to the base damage a) doesn't scale well. If this is 1d6, then it's 5 points. If it's 3d6, then it's 10 points. So...what's the cost? b) doesn't impact additional damage from any source, and the more dice you add, the more this improves. The biggest potential issue with advantage stacking, in my mind, is probably Autofire. Damage Over Time might be another, but that's known to be problematic in the first place. With Autofire, the fact that you are much more likely to get a good roll becomes far more significant. We already have that autofire attacks against non-standard defenses require an additional +1, so one solution might be that this gets a similar treatment...+1/4, OR +1/2 when it's combined with Autofire. That said: yes, there's potential synergies here that are nasty. That will be true either as a base booster like the +1 or +1/2d6, or as an advantage, I suspect. THAT argument, tho, says either consider it as a yellow Caution power, or simply don't allow it. I would allow it with explicit approval...so, not when I thought it would create problems...and that probably means, nothing else that impacts damage delivery/resolution. AP, Penetrating (doubt this would be sensible anyway), Reduced Negation, Autofire, Double KB, AVAD...I don't want to go through all the issues. Some might work; some likely won't.

But even Marvel got off to a pretty rocky start. Doing this with only theatrical releases is a very risky style; the time factor's so bad. Movies take so long to go from concept to screen, and cost so much... Plus, they'll have to do what Marvel did...mostly, at least. Get a single creative vision, and keep everything on-brand. That also suggests constructing stories with broad appeal. Core characters FIRST, don't drift all the way to dystopia, let heroes BE heroes. Flawed? Fine, within reason. But a full reboot will take QUITE some time to kick off. I'm also not at all sure the theaters will cooperate.

Along these lines, should there ever be another edition of the rules, then I'd suggest streamlining all this. a) 1 DC --> +1 pip b) 2 DCs --> ONE OF (2 pips, 1/2 d6, +d6-1). The only one I really don't like is the 1/2 d6. I'd prefer to avoid half dice when possible. I don't have a strong favorite between 2 pips and d6-1; overall it makes little difference. 2 pips is simpler and cleaner; it's a bit less effective, but hey, it's also guaranteed, where d6-1 isn't. But just use one of them ALL the time.

The difference is you increase the mean, increase the probability of high damage...but DON'T raise the max damage. 3 1/2 d6 maxes at 21, not 18. I wouldn't buy it as a limited 4d6. I'd buy it as an advantage on 3d6. Probably +1/4, because it's not better than AP, and that's 11 points anyway...basically the same as the half die. Another aspect: this is an advantage impacting damage, so damage added elsewhere (STR, martial maneuvers, weapons master, deadly blow, skill levels) has to be adjusted for the advantage. And that's good; go up one more die, to 5d6 dropping the lowest, the improvement in the mean goes from 1.75 to 1.9. Great site here: https://rumkin.com/tools/die-stats/#!/?dice=6d6D1 So additional damage is handled reasonably when you take this as an advantage. And even if this is on 1d6...the difference between 1d6+1 and 2d6, drop lowest, is low. 2d6 drop lower means 5 and 6 happen 58% of the time...but 1d6+1 gives 5-7 50% of the time. 2d6 drop low has a mean of 4.47; 1d6+1, 4.5. So I'd probably allow it as a general +1/4 advantage. What does this simulate? An attack that finds weak points better. In a sense, you could think of it as a form of automatically spreading a bit, in order to find those little flaws in the defense. Don't think of this as More Damage...but adjusting the style. Much like AP or Penetrating.

1. The attacker has been caught. 2. Mr. Rushdie has taken very serious injuries. From NYT: That individual is his agent. Police are looking for a motive.

It's gonna be a long 3 months... The Republican PACs in New Mexico are blasting the airwaves with attack ads right now, hoping to take another governor's seat away. As is far too common with PAC ads, they're echo-chamber attacks...for example, citing a "troubling" story in...the Washington Examiner. I was disgusted with Ronchetti's ads earlier, when he ran for the Senate. They're no better now. And it's gonna be 3 months of near-unremitting torture....

Court played extensively in the closed era, when the pros weren't allowed. Also, 11 of her singles titles were in the Aussie...and even through the 80s at least, many players skipped the Aussie. Getting there was just too much of a pain. Chris Evert only played it 6 times, for example. On the other hand, she did win the Grand Slam in '70...6 consecutive overall. So, no doubt she belongs in the conversation, but there's no way it's automatic she's the best ever. I agree with Michael that the competition is deeper and better. Another factor, the matches are MUCH more physically demanding, and therefore draining. This to me has been a factor in the wildly erratic week-to-week results we see in the women's game...seeds getting knocked out *early* on is extremely common. Even top-5 seeds. Unseeded players making semis and finals. I think modern media is harsh, intrusive, and fundamentally a negative factor...Naomi Osaka is the obvious point, but it's much more pervasive. Court operated largely in a vacuum, which in this case...is a pretty nice place to be.

Maybe. but I think FCS coaches are gonna take more convincing before they'd bring him on. The top-level...those who've earned it, and those who think they're owed it like Texas and Miami...FBS schools are closer to pro organizations...what can a player contribute to the bottom line? I suspect you're right, that some FCS schools will look at how high a recruit he was, and take the shot...at least some of em. But if so, his leash is likely to be REALLY short.

Alabama kicks off the 2020 5th-ranked WR recruit in April. He goes petulant and transfers...to Texas. Generally a school where character is a secondary concern at best. Yes, well...Texas has now suspended him. He was arrested on charges of criminal mischief between $100 and $750...a Class B misdemeanor, that can get you up to 180 days. On Bama, he was deep down the depth chart, but considering their receivers, of course he was. At Texas, he was listed #3. Makes one think he thought he was getting hosed again...and perhaps now he acted out like a 4 year old. Yeah, well, there's a pretty fair chance that he won't have to worry about it any more...he might be gone. And it's a lot less likely someone will give him a *3rd* chance. Especially if he gets convicted of the full charge.

Fernando Tatis suspended 80 games for PED violation. This doesn't kill the Padres' playoff hopes but it's very damaging to making any deep playoff run. 80 games also stretches about 30 games into next season. So soon after signing Soto, too. This is Very Very Bad News.

IIRC, SCI isn't over and above TS. MOST TS is actually SCI...the C means compartmented, and anything that's TS is almost certain to need that as well. You might have a TS for, say, nuclear information, but no need to know the control codes used by targeting radars in missile systems. They're totally unrelated. Secret clearances are...somewhat common. Not too hard to get. Had one for quite some time. OTOH, TS is RARE. The investigation for a TS is very intrusive. Handling even Secret documents was a serious matter. Leaving out TS in improper circumstances...yeah, that's really, really bad.

PFT on the Watson ruling: https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2022/08/12/is-today-the-day-peter-harvey-rules-on-the-deshaun-watson-appeal/ They're postulating a basically disgusting, rather petty batch of legal maneuvers and counters, in the event of a 1 year ban. IMO it's worth reading all the way. The story shows why, IMO, this case is going to explode in the league's face HARD, down the line. Evening update: no word yet. Watson issues an apology...eek. Sorry boyo, it's WAY too late for any lame attempt. And it's REAL weak. "I'm sorry for the decisions that I made that put me into this position." Uhhh....huh. Browns are apparently ready to accept 8 games and a $5M fine...who cares what THEY'RE prepared to accept? I don't believe they have any standing in this process. Fans in Jacksonville apparently ROUNDLY booed him...despite, as one might expect, rather a sparse crowd. Looks like Watson was in only for a couple series. 1/5 for 7 yards. Yeah...3 series. Looks like -4 total yards...lots of penalties is part of it, but still. Josh Dobbs comes in for 4th series, 3/3 for 28 yards, a 41 yard run...net, a 70+ yard TD drive. The only thing better than Watson getting suspended, is him looking HORRIBLE. THEN suspended.

Oh man. Really unfortunate mess. MAJOR mess. Oregon vs. Washington. Tied in the bottom of the 7th, ergo extra innings. Winner to LLWS...a lifetime dream. Runner on 1st, batter pulls a ball down the 3rd base line. VERY close, fair or foul. Umpire raises both hands...which always means "foul ball"...but apparently is *saying* fair ball. You can see Washington's 3rd base coach jumping up and down. The ball goes down into the corner...and the runner from first has no opposition. Thing is...did the defense *stop*? The visual signal was Foul Ball. The ruling in the end? Fair ball, the run's allowed to score. No explanation, but it just happened. It is possible that the runner would've scored anyway, but that's not a given at all. And to lose like that was just....UGH. I'm never gonna overly criticize Little League umps...seems reasonably clear the 3rd base ump messed up, but heck, the umps are volunteers too. It is, as I led with, just quite unfortunate.

WOW. Don't care that it was AA, that's insane. Favorite baseball movie: Major League. What can I say, I'm partial to Grumpy, rather than Cute.

The NBA has announced that the #6 will be retired for all teams, in honor of Bill Russell.

Yes, in fact, it does.

Not a story the NFL wants to hear. Headline and lead from NYT:

Killing attacks will ALWAYS pose a problem because you can't split 3.5 points of damage into 3 even increments, and also thinking that 1d6-1 is an increment. It's not. It's a translation. Of course it doesn't scale. Plus, using that "buy 1d6-1 to get 3d6-3" can be recast. What's 1/2d6 + 1/2d6...? Sounds like 1d6 in any sensible scheme...but it's not because the system uses beneficial rounding which is a distortion, so it's not "1/2d6" it's d3, and 2d3 is better than 1d6. But even at that, 2d3 is worse than 1d6+1. They're NOT purchase increments. The purchase increment should be DCs, and what you're doing at the end is converting the fractional DCs. 1 DC == 1 pip. 2 DCs --> 1/2 d6 == 2 pips. 3 DCs --> 1d6 == 3.5 pips. OR 1 DC == 1 pip 2 DCs --> 1d6-1 == 2.5 pips. 3 DCs --> 1d6 == 3.5 pips. ONE of those steps will always have a larger increment, +1.5 instead of +1. That can't be helped as long as killing damage is in use. Oh, BTW: HD does let you buy 1d6-1 for 10 points. NOT 12.

That sounds right...but... https://epicstream.com/article/ezra-miller-removed-from-daliland-tiff-credits Miller is listed in IMDb as playing Young Dali, so he's probably in a decent number of scenes that are presumably important to the story development, and it's much too late to even consider reshoots, since it gets released in mid September. I expect this is the producers doing the most they feel they can...and Miller's involvement came before his toxicity escalated to polonium-like levels. That was what I saw, too. And the "it was horribly bad" could well be true, but it's also potentially pure CYA. I don't believe WB in the slightest, not given that they're gutting HBO Max regardless. Remember Babylon 5? And PTEN? And how higher ups wanted PTEN to die, as they were trying to form The WB at the time. So...they did. They killed Kung Fu, and basically forced Claudia Christian off the show. (She wanted to do a movie, that was gonna pay a LOT more. She would've had to be written out of scripts for a chunk of the season...but that would've been quite manageable. The studio said No, so she quit.) This has a similar feel, of the executive suite more interested in getting its way, collateral damage be damned. Another argument: the video, and other outlets, mentioned that both Batgirl and Supergirl have been viewed as being too woke. Whether that's a real factor or not...they're both dead in the water. Also, that kind of characterization frequently does translate into a good-sized segment *loathing* a movie, so the "it's too horrible to let live" charge has a basis.

Don't look now.... But... Based on the standings showing Baltimore in 3rd, TB in 4th today? If the season ended today, the Orioles are the last playoff team. 22-30 on 1 June. 58-52 now. That's over .600 ball, for almost 60 games.

But hey, self inflicted futility is the hallmark of half the teams in the league. And then there's the Jets. They have plenty of self-inflicted futility, and now you can add losing their big #1 pick OT....which may have been at least partly self-inflicted. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/34374198/new-york-jets-coach-robert-saleh-says-mekhi-becton-season-likely-knee-injury

I'm not sure I see much reason to keep ANY of the Miller footage in, if you're gonna have to re-shoot everything where he's Barry anyway. It just feels a lot more sensible to just dissociate from him *completely* as fast as possible. There's just wayyyyy too much that's incredibly toxic in these reports, and the problems just keep piling on. Right now there's another: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/ezra-miller-vermont-child-services-department-1392572/ This is in addition to the felony burglary charges from yesterday. If he's connected to a cult where he's putting YOUNG kids at risk, this almost has to be the kiss of death; Warner will have no choice but to cut all ties ASAP. Much like Jared Fogel and Subway. But heck, at this point? It's already too serious in my book. The longer they appear to hang on to him, the more damage I think they'll do to the entire brand.

And in the DC Quick references table on V1, after the index, 2 DCs is given as 1/2d6 OR 1d6-1. Which, I believe, is mentioned in other places, AND it's how it's done in HD. Your argument then asserting 6 DCs is 3d6-3 is absurd. That's not how it's done, and you know it. The issue has never been anything but how to treat the residual 1 or 2 DCs, it's not the basis for scaling up from 2 to 2*N. This, BTW, is why the Standard Effect rule is so bad. Of course negation is purchased in DCs, but overall attack power is limited in DCs...THEN converted to dice based on DC-affecting advantages. When dealing with bonus damage separate from the attack power itself, all bonus damage is bought in DCs...then converted to dice. That is the correct process to follow with negation. If a GM said I'd be stuck with getting the averages for the amount negated, but he rolls full dice? Then damage negation becomes even LESS cost effective in a combined defense because the moderately high rolls become MORE likely. I don't care about the issue of taking a little BODY; taking ONLY negation is foolish. The proper treatment for negation in an overall defense strategy is to counter STUN. Which means that shift? Is EXTREMELY alarming.

Yeah, given everything going on, Warner's not putting a dime into a venture like DC Heroes. Rumors of DC's overall vulnerability have been circulating for a few years, which arguably suggests there's more smoke than fire, but the new CEO is a slash and burn cost reductionist. And games are just not significant revenue streams now. The RPG industry in general, is also...not in good shape. I'll grant I don't follow things closely, but...what new stuff is coming out? And that's *before* the last 2 years. The 18 months of social distancing had to be massively damaging. Granted, connecting online might help some, but that's got limitations, and I don't think it's all that close to the same thing. Article here: https://www.wired.com/story/tabletop-rpg-workers-say-their-jobs-are-no-fantasy/ We hear much the same about comic artists...making ends meet is HARD as a freelancer, and that's the dominant model. It's great for the employer; it's a TON cheaper. (For a full-time, full-benefits, on-site employee...for every dollar the employer pays in salary to the employee, they pay another dollar *or more* elsewhere...group health care share, leave, Social Security employer share, facilities costs, etc. etc. A freelancer generally avoids ALL of those; they're self-employed and must find their own insurance...which BTW is MASSIVELY more expensive if they can't get covered by a group plan.)