unclevlad

Joel Embiid just took a swat that smacked the ball straight into his face mask...and orbital fracture, that's only been healing for a couple weeks. AND a concussion. He's staying in, but how much of a distraction this will be, remains to be seen. He does NOT!!!! look comfortable.

That's the Miami version. The San Francisco version is.......very different. I: Icicles. You can create a line of icicles, of varying length, from any clean edge. The icicles melt at the usual rate based on the weather.

It does get you that the END gained only helps with the teleport. Not sure it matters. As long as the END Aid is strictly limited, I'm not worried about carryover from this. Most of the gained END will be burned; it can't last more than a turn; and it'll only be 1 or 2 END at most anyway. Not really meaningful. It does work better for the INT, to do it as a Boost, but I still don't like the approach at all.

ewwwww.... A's and Tigers playing a doubleheader, first game is a makeup game for one of the games cancelled. 5th inning, a little bloop. Infielder going out, outfielder charging. Ball drops betwen them as they both dive. Infielder's foot, meet outfielder's face. No blood...lucky there. Both stayed in. But couldn't have felt good at all. Hey, Reds have won 3 of the last 4.

Well, if TBS held to the broadcasters' schedule, that was Randy Hahn. He's done Sharks games, apparently, for 30 years...so he probably knows who Gretzky is/was.

INT Aid is very inefficient; remember, you need +5 to get +1 to the roll. That's 1 1/2 d6. And given that Standard Effect, which is fine for the END Aid, is supposed to be 3 points per...you'd have to go to 2d6, or house rule things. Standard effect is a bit punitive. Thought about saying "only to cast Teleport"...but I'm not a fan of it. I *wouldn't* make it a big limitation, if any, simply because it's tied to the teleport itself, and it's not very expensive in the first place. Another thing I don't like about the INT Aid is...the END Aid can be set up so the benefit is gone once the teleport is complete. The END gets burned to execute the teleport. The INT Aid would last...AND have combat-level effects for a while. Using a skill roll bonus, that's not the case.

Mind if we call you Bruce?

A small point in this story...the guy's lawyer was disbarred. From Politico: That's a whole lot of slimeball. Like finds like, eh?

The ATP Madrid Open final is about to start...Zverev vs. Carlos Alcaraz. The noteworthy aspect is that, to reach the final, Alcaraz, who turned 19 last week, beat Nadal in the quarters...and Djokovic in the semis. Alcaraz started 2021 at #141. He had a brilliant year, climbing all the way to #38 to start this year. (That's hard to do; you either need a wild card into a tournament, or go through qualifying. #38 means you're never getting ranked...so you may face a highly ranked player in the 1st or 2nd round...and thus, probably lose. So you don't get to raise your rankings.) This year, it's been all engines firing. 3 titles...including a Masters 1000 in Miami. From #38 to #6 when the rankings are updated tomorrow. (Win or lose.) Hopefully he doesn't exhaust himself...Thiem had an issue with that, with some big dropoffs in the second half of the year due to, it was believed, fatigue. That much success == a lot of matches played...this is Alcaraz' 31st match this year. Even when you're not even 20, it adds up. EDIT: 6-3, 6-1 Alcaraz in the final. Pretty much a whoopin'. Gives him 2 Masters 1000 wins, plus 2 Masters 500's, so far...and a total of about $3.7M in prize money this year. And he won't be legal to drink for 2 full years.........

Ehhh...just make it an Aid, don't make it a Heal. Then even the sequence of events becomes irrelevant. With a Heal END, the heal has to kick in AFTER paying the END for the teleport, as I'm gonna assume you're at full END when you start it. With an Aid, it doesn't matter. You burn through the bonus END first. A "1d6-1" Aid would be 4 points...fixed effect is 2 character points. Half effect, 1 CP applied to END, or...the teleport circle itself supplies 4 or 5 of the END (this sounds like a magical campaign? and then maybe mana-based casting via END Reserve?). No, it's not necessarily strictly legal in RAW, but it's minimal distortion, and it avoids the nastier, IMO, rules issue of what the 1/2 END would cost. If points are irrelevant, then just call it 1d6, fixed effect. With the vagaries of integer math, it's still 1 CP's worth of END. Ohhh...technically, if the circle would support a Gate? The Aid can be made Constant. Healing can't.

Far, far, far, far, FAR too much money committed to do that. WC rights are sold everywhere. Plus, every other group's schedule has that period blocked out; ain't no way the major leagues will even consider playing, and obviously the national teams are...playing in it. The NHL had a bit of a mess when it decided to skip the Winter Olympics; the World Cup would be far worse. Yeah, the Sounders qualified for the Club WC. But according to wikipedia, there's no date set. Found this, which is relatively recent. The English isn't very good but the gist is, there's no planned date. At least one major stumbling block is that Europe already has a major scheduling issue, what with UEFA and the Champions League, on top of the regular league play. Article also points out that the pandemic has led to some pretty massive losses, as well as losses of sponsorships. https://pledgetimes.com/the-new-version-of-the-club-world-cup-between-2023-and-2024/

Personally, I think you're giving most current comic artists too much credit. Or maybe it's closer to the publishers are getting what they pay for....

Bad NFL coaching hires are a dime a dozen. I'll grant...Chucky's was up there with Potato Chip Kelly, and not too far behind The Ultimate Disaster, Urban Meyer. I'm just fine with the Raiders wallowing in the swamp. The history you mention died, far as I'm concerned, with the first move to LA. In other news...I missed this, until a promo blurb during Bucks-Celts. Buck and Aikman both bailed on Fox; Aikman first, as his contract was up, then Buck...becoming the new MNF broadcasters, and oh by the way, splitting just $33M between them. They may need food stamps to get by.... ESPN's got to do something. They're paying an obscene amount for the rights; what they're paying the booth talent is a pittance relative to the rights costs. Ratings were up nicely...but still about 40-50% lower than SNF. I think they're expecting another bump with this; I liked Levy, Riddick, and Griese, but Griese is the QB coach for the Niners. ESPN's *bombed* with so many of their booth teams...Tessitore isn't great on football, McDonough does college far better; Witten and Booger were disasters. Even Gruden was a mixed bag...dropped good points sometimes but he was also really irritating quite often. And going back further, there were the Kornheiser and Dennis Miller debacles. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned that last one, without warning you in advance. Hope you hadn't eaten too recently....

Vanity. I graduated 40+ years ago...need I say more?

The guy looks to be a total loser. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/north-carolina/articles/2022-05-05/man-indicted-for-forging-deeds-to-steal-n-carolina-property

I tend to find pecan pie on the sweet side...without tossing in chocolate chips. I might order a slice...well, not any more, but in the past...cuz chocolate and nuts, ok, that's fine. But I wouldn't want a big slice, I don't think. And definitely with coffee.

The NFL is going to have to be worried about these, tho. If there's substance to them, this'll be the 2nd organization. It's easy to downplay Washington when it stood alone, but this brings up a specter that it's more pervasive. This, atop the racist issues and flagrant disregard for league rules with the minority coach hires.

The Power skill also seems like a good solution here because: a) there's a split opinion whether it should be a fundamental aspect of the power, and b) its applicability, in terms of the power, is limited. Neither adder nor advantage fits that well, structurally. I also agree that the Power skill should be allowed to be used with greater flexibility at times.

Side point...when I'm building a non-combat teleport, I rarely consider reducing the END. I don't anticipate going to phases immediately, or be spending END in any meaningful way on arrival. Not most of the time. Now, if it's the gate version, I'll want reduced END.

I agree with the general sentiment that golf should be considered a VERY low priority, but I'd rather simply order closure. In all likelihood, that's what you'd be doing with that kind of rate hike. Found this, from a paper Mr. P probably knows: https://www.deseret.com/2022/3/22/22988989/an-illogical-oasis-golf-course-water-usage-st-george-golf They say 145 million gallons. Found the utility rates for the city. They've got a rate for golf courses...$90 per month, $3 per 1000 gallons. So that 145M per year is 12M per month, or $36,000. Per month. Even a 10x cost increase for the water might force greens fees to impractical levels. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to do it this way...heck, it's probably easier to defend in court. That said, a lawsuit's guaranteed, if any measure fundamentally forces a private business to shut down. And it darn sure may happen. We'll see; there's some other highly water-intensive activities that might be in a similar boat. IIRC, almond trees are very water-intensive. Corn is pretty bad. Once we get to the point of considering closing the golf courses, well, I think many things start popping onto the table. This is pretty interesting: https://www.treehugger.com/from-lettuce-to-beef-whats-the-water-footprint-of-your-food-4858599

Also a story from ABC News, about the potential ramifications to privacy. The grave concern is that Alito's draft suggests that the only rights under the Constitution are those very specifically enumerated, and some that have longstanding basis. It rejects the notion of a right to privacy...and that's the basis for any number of things. We can readily envision a challenge to the legality...not of same-sex marriage, but all same-sex activity, period. It's not a reach that some would push to make anything but sex between a husband and wife illegal. (In that very broad context, it probably wouldn't pass, but there numerous, more targeted activities that could.) If there's no right to privacy, then other policies might become broader. Most people know there's a sex offender registry, for example...and last week I got a notice from Experian that a sex offender had moved into the area. I think 'area' is...pretty broad, but I deleted it. That info is public record; anyone can search the state database. The point here, is that...well, why limit it to sex offenders? How about every violent criminal? How about EVERY person convicted of a felony? Personally, I think that's going way, way too far, but I can see it happening. Gutting the right to privacy is a precursor to moving to a police state.

You can also use Windows' screen magnification, but that affects everything. My RunHeroJar.bat file: javaw -Xmx1024m -cp .\HD6.jar com.hero.HeroDesigner 14 -Xmx1024m == allow a gigabyte. Can generally be smaller, but I always install quite a bit of memory. The font size is the last parameter. IIRC the default is 11 or 12. 14 or 16 is getting pretty big. The .bat file is in the same folder as the HD6 jar.

Half END applied to what base cost, tho? Naked advantage has to be tied to a max number of points. I'd also think you need Uncontrolled if anyone can use those skill levels/reduced END, if it's not just you that can use it. I'd lean to GM fiat, if it's a fixed location, and it can only be used to teleport OUT from the circle. If nothing else, the fact that it's immobile is, what, -2?

My original points were: a) I do expect some benefits, at times b) I don't know for sure what form they'll take yet. Defining a specific effect limits what this can do, to that effect. That's backwards from what I'm trying to do.

I'll start by agreeing with Simon's last point. Most things are obvious, but there's armors, for example, that are metal-reinforced leather. Slightly oddball, but ceramics are metal oxides...aluminum oxide (sapphire in crystal form) and zirconium oxide are fairly common. Quite a few varieties of stone have high metallic element content. Cement, according to Wikipedia Calcium is an alkaline metal; silicon is a metalloid; aluminum and iron are traditional metals. On top of that, of course, there's often steel rebar included. If Crusher wears steel gauntlets, but mostly punches...ok, if the gauntlets are defined as +2d6 HA, you don't take those...but you should take the rest of the punch. But that's getting to the limitation on the Desolid, which is separate. The alternatives to Affects Physical World are in APG: 1. Selective Desolid: + 1 1/2 advantage on desolid. This might actually work out, because "to metals only" is a potentially big limitation. 2. Alternate Desolid. The power writeup was an attempt to define a scaling form; Desolid is a pricey all-or-nothing. Or you can build it. How about a combination of Damage Negation and a Passwall power? Tunneling is preconceived to be digging-related; the book actually advises NOT using it as a basis for this. So, build something sane. Something like Pass Through Metals: 10 points to pass through 5 PD (that's minimum for metal) at 1" per phase. +2 points for +1 PD, or +1". Costs END. Doesn't leave a mark. Note that a safe door or submarine have 10 PD. A major combat ship is probably 12-13; a vault's listed as 16, but that's probably not that practical for most vehicles. (6E2 171 for the object table.) NOT sold on that pricing, but it's got a very narrow definition. You can't go through the walls of a house, for example. Damage Negation...you're only buying the PD, and "metal only"...maybe -1/2? As you're trying to define it....ick....I'm about to get lunch going. Turkey enchis. Simple assembly, cover with aluminum foil, bake.........oh. Cover with aluminum foil......surprise...... Lots of baking pans are metal, too, altho you can use ceramic or glass too. For that matter, a great deal of low-end tableware is just stamped metal. Making this always on has some...interesting everyday drawbacks.