unclevlad

Only hours before kickoff, UCLA was forced to withdraw from the Holiday Bowl. It is of note that this was going to be televised by Fox. Don't recall if they had one earlier but they don't have one after this.

NC State was probably together having their pre-game meal when UCLA has to pull out of the Holiday Bowl.... A big issue in college sports is they, I believe, *can't* discuss who's tested positive in advance. They typically have to adhere much more strictly to the medical privacy issues. That's why these feel like they're coming out of the blue. Got to figure the Big Six are all sweating bullets and quietly praying their games can be played. 19 games have been played, counting AFA vs. Louisville right now, with 2 more on for later. 5 have been cancelled, and 2 more have had one team have to cancel, but got a fill-in. The US 7 day average is now *just* below the worst peak from January...230,000 per day now. I believe I saw...I don't recall if it was a forecast or concern...that daily new cases could jump to 500,000 a day. So if you like watching the big games, keep your fingers crossed. My gut says the chance that we get through the New Years, with all 4 non-playoff bowl games, and all 3 playoff games, as scheduled is not that great.

Sun Bowl officially announces CMU is replacing Miami.

Last I heard, tomorrow's the first scheduled games, and a pretty full slate for Wednesday. They're also going to allow a taxi squad again, apparently something they did last year. Have to. Went back, picked a game at random...in a non-OT game, both players used 12 forwards and 6 defensemen. Every forward played 10+ minutes; every defenseman played

Wow. 3 bowl games have been cancelled now. Military Bowl and Fenway Bowl had teams forced to pull out Sunday; Hawai'i Bowl on Christmas Eve was the first. And Miami's pulled out of the Sun Bowl. Further word is, Memphis, East Carolina, and SMU, the 3 teams whose opponents withdrew, have apparently all declined. If it's not a team that's at least been practicing, even if for a different opponent, then there's no possible way, IMO, anyone can step in this late. Sun Bowl was scheduled for Friday. Just saw: Boise State had to withdraw from the Arizona Bowl. Their scheduled opponent was Central Michigan; it's more plausible than most to have them divert, because it's only 300-odd miles from Tucson to El Paso. Straight shot on I-10.

Make that "OC in the NFL" and you're probably closer. Who doesn't abandon the running game at the drop of a hat?

Ohh...just watched it. ESPN is saying torn Achilles, yeah. I've yet to see a situation like that...no contact, not even any kind of hard cut or drive move...that wasn't serious. Tends to have one of the longer recovery times, too, so he might miss much/all of next season. Cowboys are driving to win Rout of the Year award in the first half. Good excuse to read.

So Big Ben gets stripped on a slow-developing fake reverse, KC gets the ball at the 6, 1st and goal. Almost 12 minutes left, but they realize it's in the bag, and Henne comes in for Mahomes. In a display of What Not To Do...he fumbles on the next *2* plays. Recovering both, but still. Chiefs still kick the FG. And CBS takes so freaking long with a full double rack of commercials that all we see is the Raiders running the clock out. Which of course means ANOTHER full set of commercials and promos. So how insane is the AFC North? Cincy 9-5, Baltimore 8-6...BUT, Cincy has KC next week and the Ravens have the Rams (!!!!). Whereas Pittsburgh and Cleveland play each other. The loser is out in terms of the division, regardless, and very likely from the playoffs altogether. Cincy needs 1 win to be in, as they've got the tiebreaker by beating the Ravens twice. Oh my. This one snuck in on me. Seahawks led the Bears the WHOLE game...until a 30 yard pass play and roughing the passer set the Bears up with a first down at the Seahawks' 35. They punch it it, and *go for 2* to take the 1 point lead with a minute left. Seattle has 2 penalties, can't make a single first down...game over. Seattle loses, and is eliminated, not that they had more than a snowball's chance realistically.

Hey, if there's gonna be a silver cloud here, you're now in great shape for the #1 pick. The NFC is crystalizing a LOT now. 5 teams in (including Arizona, I believe with the Vikes' loss), 2 divisions clinched. 4 teams now out. That's before the afternoon slate even completes. AFC hasn't seen anything new, but KC's up 23-0...Steelers' string of disastrous first half performances will likely bite them this week...and that'll put them in. But that's *it*, I think, with NE losing. So with 2 weeks left there'll be 1 team in, and *11* still alive. And that'd be true even if there were only 6 playoff spots, I believe, but the 7-8 teams might be out.

OOOF....Daniel Jones might not be the answer, but with him out, the Giants can't throw the ball AT ALL. 10 minutes left in the 4th, they're 10/26 for 40 yards with 2 picks. Tied at 3 at the half, somehow, but it's 34-3 now. And this weeks Stunning Upset of the Decade, the Texans are taking the Chargers behind the woodshed. Meanwhile, the Bucs take care of business rather easily, while the Rams apparently have a bit of a schizo game...Stafford's thrown 3 picks but the offense has put up 30 (with special teams help) anyway. Rams should finish it off.

Well. That's it. Cards just can't execute in a huge game, against a VERY short-handed Colts team, on both sides of the ball. And you can pencil the Colts in at this point. They've got the first WC slot, and their last 2 games are the Raiders...then the Jags.

If the Cards lose this one, they're in serious trouble. Oh, they'll probably make the playoffs; 10 wins should do it. And the Colts aren't a bad team. BUT, they're down 4 offensive line starters and one of the backups. The Cards *should* be able to smother the Colts offense...but right now the Colts have the 6 point lead, and Arizona's offense has done nothing.

One thing to note about Cleveland... Their last possession, they get it to a first down at midfield, with a minute left, all 3 timeouts, and down *2*. So FG to win. The kicker's made an XP and a FG at this point. They averaged almost 9 yards per rush. But throw the ball 3 times in a row, with the last getting picked. Mayfield's strength is NOT in the straight drop-back. So you gotta put some of the onus on the play caller.

That's damnation by faint praise. Looking at the stats? he's not worth *average* QB money. https://www.espn.com/nfl/qbr 25th in QBR. (And, yes, the ones that are behind him are the on the teams you'd expect.) 24th in PAA, points above average. At -14. So his play's been notably below an average NFL QB. 26th in PASS, which is based on points added on pass plays. He's 18th in career QB rating among active QBs, behind Bridgewater, Wentz, Carr, and Mariota. So...yeah, he might be a better actor than QB.

That argues for a Chromebook, and a throwaway account, so you set up a sandbox for this sort of site.

And spend a few moments going through that site's home page. Their "stories" are straight anti-vax, anti-green, and pro-conspiracy.

I don't fear a different, legitimate opinion. I do fear disinformation. The sites you've posted are clearly alt-right disinformation sites. The damage that's already been done by their campaign gives me a zero tolerance policy.

But we've come to expect that from anything Greywind offers on this thread.

Y'know, if we put some of these crimes into any game modules or fiction we do, it'd be roundly ridiculed as unrealistic. Which is why it's soooo funny to see these.

Oh, in most ways, 3E was way better. Normalizing stats and saves helped a great deal, for me. I also greatly disliked the fact that ALL of 1E/2E was random caprice...like racial level limits. The problem was that the conversion from 2E to 3E *in Living City* was bungled. And, quite a few LC modules in those later stages were Contests. Power DMs out to kill Power Players. Because a LOT of the players were getting obscenely powerful...and I don't know if it was legit or not. At Gen Con one year, I think not long before the switch to 3E, the senior module writers and DMs ran a magic shop. Bring in your certs, that showed the magic items you got playing other modules. Trade them in for...well...pretty much anything you wanted. You can imagine the potential for abuse. Yes, well, people brought in BINDERS with their certs. The BIG ones, with 2" rings. FULL. Because IIRC the rule mostly was you had to trade value for value and then some...the store would make a profit. But lots of things were dirt cheap back then. You can imagine: the line moved really, really, REALLY slowly. They only opened em up a few times...but the people who could go to them? No problem. There was also an issue that players in more densely-populated areas could attend a couple small cons a month...and thus, play a TON of LC modules. Including more of the "special" modules where a MAJOR magical item might be awarded...can we say, Vorpal Sword? So the game just got totally out of hand, as far as I was concerned. 3E would've made things worse *eventually* because 3E allowed for more min-maxing, via feats and prestige classes. And LC was always min-maxed. Standard 3E tournament modules, with pre-built characters...those ran much better. But that was true in 2E as well. I don't think I played that much 3E locally; by that point, I think we were doing Hero (probably 4E) and Shadowrun. And later, got into a Vampire game.

This is a black day in NFL history. The Cowboys clinched a playoff berth with the Niners' loss. <sigh>

Do people really take Dispel Flight that often? I never saw it, that I can recall. It's something one NEVER sees in the superhero genre, either. Knock the Surfer off his board? Sure. Knock Iron Man's jet boots offline? Occasionally, especially, IIRC, Iron Man II. Those aren't Dispels, tho. Also: can you cite where in the rules it allows a controlled landing with Flight, rather than an uncontrolled freefall? Last: even if it's dispelled, it's pretty rare to take a complicated setup. It can be restarted. 6E2 has the Falling Table; it's NOT like you crash instantaneously. I suspect most of us just see what you're trying to do as just...a misfit. You're trying to go from A to B when there is no terrestrial path from A to B. Fine. --Flight as an Instant Power. --Leaping. --Teleport, with Must Pass Through Intervening Space. --how about Stretching, with Cannot Do Damage? I think none of us care to bastardize the core concept of Swinging, and the notion of "anchoring to nothing" is just...ehhh...weird. Not when there's plenty of other ways to capture the idea.

It's something that's a real object, so it can be targeted to be disrupted and stop the power. It is NOT a focus; it can't be taken away for an extended period, for example. The difference between PM and a focus can be kinda subtle in play, especially if the GM doesn't generally try to strip/disable them.

Those are some BUFF drones, to handle a typical character's weight. Phys manifestation makes sense, and I'd be very much inclined to include Obvious Power Effects unless you've got some crazy tech demon. But ya know, if you can do this, why not make a hoverboard where the drones are providing the lift? As far as anchoring in the air....what's holding the anchor fixed in place? This makes no sense to me. As an alternative to flight, some of these also sound like Leaping, potentially with some Gliding. It's certainly a heckuva lot less confusing.

Reminds me of a really, really bad Living City experience. First: the con was...less than organized. We got relocated into a small room, taking quite a long time for everyone to actually find it. Second: this was *right* when 3E came out; everyone was reconfiguring from 2E to 3E builds. Those are *massively* different. The party had quite a few multi-class demihumans...those work OK in 2E but don't exist in 3E. The party was just...not good. Third: we got jumped. The module had it...the DM said we weren't paying attention. It was just outside the initial meeting to get the mission, fer crissakes! Fourth: the DM didn't fudge multiple *arrow* crits. 3E arrow crits...triple damage. At low levels. Because of the timing, and inexperience in the system, she didn't realize how bad things were gonna be. We were obliterated in a couple rounds. Worst LC session I ever played in. Second worst-run I ever saw...which should tell you something about how bad the worst was. I wasn't playing it, I was just watching...I'd played it earlier.