unclevlad

Anything but rolling a ton of dice, needing X successes, a la Shadowrun and Storyteller, but particularly Shadowrun because of d6's. A 1 point target number shift is big; 2 points, enormous. Any linear-distribution roll has the advantage that any adjustments have consistent impact, until you get to the fringes. Not true with 3d6.

C.S. Lewis

Notes from the world of sports media... --The Field of Dreams game this year attracted only half the viewers it did last year. Some of it could be the teams...neither the Reds nor the Cubs are close to contending. What has to concern everyone is whether it's principally a gimmick...cool enough, sure, but after a while, it gets old. Fox beat us over the head with it...last year and this year...for months. Burnout...? Another issue might've been the timing. For a national game, it started at 5 (Mountain). --The Dallas Cowboys signed a rights deal for preseason broadcasts, and pre- and post-game content during the season, in Mexico. The deal's with TelevisaUnivision...a honkin' big player in the Mexican media world brought about by a merger earlier this year. This likely will make it harder for anyone else to try to exploit that market. --A hedge fund investor type with a big stake in Disney, is advocating they spin off ESPN. The major argument, apparently, is that the separation will let ESPN go places Disney wouldn't accept...namely, for more sports betting support. I dunno; most bottom-line crawls offer at least some near-real-time live updates. Me...I think Disney's been gutting ESPN for years now

First round matchup at the Western and Southern in Cincy...a fan's *dream*. Andy vs. Stan. Murray-Wawrinka. Neither where they were, both past their prime, but 3 GS titles each, which in careers completely overlapping The Big Three...is a big deal. Andy's doing better; he's had more time. Stan had surgery *twice* on his foot. Brett Haber noted that Stan's clearly nearing the end of his run, and referred to an article in the Player's Tribune Stan wrote. Interesting article...but I've always liked Stan anyway, so I'd feel that anyway. https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/stan-wawrinka-tennis-wimbledon

The big theater chains got burned hard over the last few years, and they've been working to realign the power between them and the studios. For Warner's theater-reliant strategy to work, they need lots of screens for extended periods. They also need people to return to theaters...and in a tight-money environment, with ticket prices being high, one may expect people will be choosier.

Worse than Texas? Cuz...that's saying something.......

The extent of the attack on Salman Rushdie was laid out in court. It is not short or pretty, so I am going to put it into a spoiler tag...note, it's perfectly clean, but it may turn your stomach a bit... The threat to Rowling is horrific, awful...and most terrifying of all...not that surprising.

VERY!!! high STR Clinging. You could try to do an Entangle definition, but that's gonna get very costly because you'd have stuff like "Entangle does not provide defenses."

Manfred Mann

Knopfler, Mark

Iglesias, Julio music artists includes singers only... No, I won't apologize for anyone who suddenly remembers To All the Girls I've Loved Before...and wished they hadn't.....

According to WaPo, as of 15 minutes ago, Rushdie has been taken off the ventilator and is able to talk. No further info on the extent of damages. The DA showed rather strong evidence the attack was pre-planned; the judge must have agreed, as she ordered the suspect held without bond.

Not applicable. That's a rule specifically for Penetrating, and it is not a model for standard half damage. Penetrating treats the dice as "normal damage dice"...so they're using the 6E2 98 rules. Normal damage attacks This has the sensible, simple rule for *pip* counting...multiply by 1/2, round up. With killing dice, you're doing pip counting, for BODY...so use that part of the rule. For Penetrating, you're not doing pip counting in any situation.

Ahh...yeah, OK. Rules allow it; HD isn't set up for it. As far as removing all rolls? Come on, this is reductio ad absurdem. There's no significant variance when we're ONLY considering the 1/2 d6 --> a flat 2. If you want Standard Effect, fine...but make the clean mathematical definition, not some ridiculous kludge like "bonus BOD for every 30 points." "Standard Effect is that the Power does average damage...." rather than a flat 3. Are we talking normal dice or killing dice? The entire discussion's been killing dice, so how would 1/2d6 EVER be 0 BODY? If it's normal dice, it still makes no sense. 1,1,2,2,3,3...4 out of 6 give 1 BODY, so the mean is 2/3. Fractions over 1/2 --> the next integer up.

If they're smart, go for the longer recovery. Oh, wait, it's the Jets...

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.