unclevlad

The language is at best ambiguous. I have no problem handling it as stated, and for a -1/2 limitation. It's NOT cheap to do it this way. particularly with the increased max range. Note that even without increased max range...with base 200m range and base 12m movement, that's 25 points to see anywhere in range. If it has to start at 0 range, it takes 16 phases to move out. How is this NOT worth -1/2? You could call it Extra Phase, only to activate, and you'd get -1/2 and see anywhere in that range in 2 phases rather than 16. Buy more speed on the mobile perception point? Expensive. And even another 10 points for x4 would require 4 phases to get out to max range, costing 2/3 of 35 or 23 points. And that's assuming no other limitations. He's got -3/4 for full concentration, yep. Missed that earlier. The fact that it's astral projection is actually just SFX; the dimensional sight is NOT required. So he's got 75 points (senses 30, range 25, movement 20). With only the concentration, the cost is 4/7 * 75 or 43. With No Range and the conditions inferred from page 129, it's a -1 1/4 limit. 4/9 of 75 is 33 or 34 So he's saving all of 10 points for a power that takes an extremely long time to move out enough to be any good. Heck, I'd even argue that the power build makes little sense, as it takes TOO long to go out that far, unless the psychic is typically staying behind, and the rest of the PCs actually have 2-4 minutes for him to move that way. Or they have to haul his dead weight around, and make sure it remains safe. AND he's got to somehow cover the END cost. Of course, all of this also just goes to suggest Extra-Dimensional Movement, with enhanced movement only in the XD space, and with senses extending back...sure sounds a WHOLE lot simpler and less ambiguous.

Well, when you realize Old Man was the father, it becomes more believable.

Yeah, Bradshaw's had several issues. Note that he's NOT listed as an analyst at this point...he's billed as co-host. According to this: https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/08/media/aaron-rodgers-state-farm-sponsorship/index.html Rodgers spots were still shown...but accounted for only 1.5% of the State Farm spots shown. State Farm vacillated by just saying they support the right to choose. I think State Farm's going to look at the massively critical, negative pushback and drop him...but as quietly as they can. Stephen A. gave a comparison to Kyrie...Kyrie took a stand, and is paying the price for that stand. Rodgers played the situation to have it both ways. PFT discussion between Mike Florio and Mike Golic here: While you can dismiss Stephen A. as a shock jock...neither Florio nor Golic are, in the slightest. And if you watch...after the first few minutes, if you don't want to watch the whole thing, I do recommend going out to the 11:30 mark. "If <Rodgers> really believed everything he said on Friday" that he'll retire. And good GOSH, I said it earlier, but I totally agree with Golic. Smug and condescending start to finish. Bradshaw apparently blasted Rodgers on Fox pregame...didn't see it. Jimmy and Howie offered complementary cuts about the whole "it's a personal decision" angle. And I did see, briefly, Dungy's swipe.

Florida-South Carolina was 10-10, then the roof caved in. South Carolina scored the next 30. According to the box score. As confirmation that, yeah, Mullen's days are probably numbered...they canned the DC and running game coordinator/offensive line coach. Both came with Mullen in 2018, so they were very much Mullen guys. NOT a good sign for the HC. And yeah...SEC East isn't that strong, other than Georgia, so 2-5 in that division is Not Good. The CBS full rankings have them at 37; they've got Florida State and Missouri, both ranked 40-50 places lower. And Samford, but they're FCS and I'm not sure if those count for bowl eligibility. Losing to Florida State might be enough to get him fired immediately after, state rivalry game and all that. Not making a bowl, likely same. But just making one of the junk bowl games probably won't be enough to save him, no. The NMSU Aggies are only +51.5 against Alabama. I overestimated. By comparison, the next largest line this week is UTSA -32.5 over Southern Miss. Oh...take that back. Different site has some more games. Clemson is -40.5 versus UConn. Still...51....<sigh> it's looking like a fair number of schools are using this as Cupcake Weekend, playing totally non-competitive non-conference games. Or I might've just spotted the specific ones this week. But there are more late-season cupcake matchups like this than in the past, as there are more legit, even conference, games in week 1 and 2.

Yeah, the results this week have led to an AFC logjam. Titans are 7-2, Ravens are 6-2. Jets, Jags, Fins, and Texans are at the bottom, at 2-6 or worse. But hey, we've seen: don't look past em. Other than that...Indy is 4-5, and everyone else is between 5-3 and 5-4. Yeah, it's THAT narrow. 9 teams, separated by a half game. It's SO tight that right now, the Steelers have the 6th best win percentage at 4-3. If they win, they join the Bills and Raiders in a tie for 4th. If they lose, they're 11th. Conversely, the NFC has the Saints at 5-3, Atlanta at 4-4, and Carolina at 4-5. The Bears can go to 4-5 with a win. The concentrations are higher up and lower down...6 teams at 3-5 or 3-6, 5 teams at 6-2 or better.

Because they're trial drugs. They've generally passed several tests already, but the human body is complex, and doesn't react the same. Bad Things can happen. In this case too...let's take the vaccines. The ramp-up from trials to mass distribution was VERY fast. There was a non-zero chance that there would be surprises...and in this context, a surprise is a Very Bad Thing. Had that happened, there may well have been a significant number of cases...and therefore BIG!!!! lawsuits...without the waivers. It was a reasonable precaution to wait a bit...not hop up to the front of the line to get the first shots, and let more data build.

I can probably accept Dimensional affecting range. It is, however, ambiguous as to how it works. The underlying mechanics are not explicitly defined, as far as I know. I brought up megascale just to point out that if you want serious range, it's often the far cheaper option. You're basically defining standard astral projection, sounds like...altho that's often 0 DCV and even the full Totally Unaware, -3/4 version. In Shadowrun, that's a standard caster power...but by the same token, magic is fundamental, so methods to *block* astral perceivers are more common. It also has its own risks; astral encounters are quite possible. But there's nothing inherently "easy" or "hard" about it...the cost is an attempt to measure the impact. Clairsentience that's very hard to stop, has high impact. That's why, I think, it was made so expensive. As a thought: since it's defined as extra-dimensional, you might want to define it from that basis. Specifically, I'm thinking the Cyberspace power...sidebar on p. 223 of 6E1. You need to define extra-dimensional sensing on your senses as well, but they mention a big modifier.

Not if they read the stat line. Before then, OK it was completely putrid...but it was still awful. 19/39 for 232. QBR under 25, rating under 75. That said, yeah, stats lie regularly. The raw cumulative numbers like total yards passing are particularly egregious. 24 for 50 for 320 yards is terrible...but it'll be listed and praised as a 300 yard passing performance. Total yards is like points scored in basketball...oh great he had a 40 point night, but he shot 14 for 39 and had 9 turnovers and no assists. Translation, he hogged the ball. A lot of it is the media hype train; every national broadcast and every national broadcaster/analyst is part of their league's PR department. Everyone's brilliant, everyone's "one of the best we have in this league." Criticism is VERY rare, and almost always nuanced...oh, Dak really had a poor game. With the clear subtext of, this was an aberration. Yeah, I hear ya man......

Because most teams don't run the ball well enough, probably. But yeah, play calling is pretty weird to me sometimes too. A somewhat strange one was Chargers vs. Eagles. 1:45 left, score tied, Chargers have the ball 4th and 1 at the Eagle 28. They go for the first down. OK, a 45 yard FG is nowhere close to automatic but it's odds-on, or should be. They made the first down and ended up with a chip shot FG on the last real play of the game, but I'm not at all sure that was the right course of action. Reports on Rodgers. League's investigating protocol violations by Rodgers, and Packers' failure to force compliance. However, ONLY fines are on the table at this point. No suspensions, no loss of draft picks. If the violations recur once Rodgers comes back, tho...different story. I'm disappointed but not surprised.

To a degree you could also put Giants over Raiders in there, but a) the Raiders have been erratic this season, and b) obviously, losing Ruggs can't help. Some things haven't changed. Sam Darnold' showing his Jets performance wasn't the Jets' fault. (Esiason *ripped* him in the postgame. The Texans are still full throttle for the #1 draft pick, and I think they have the inside track to themselves now. The Chiefs' offense is still misfiring way, way too much. Bengals are still erratic.

Dispel won't do anything; it's an Instant. It'll take out any active spells, but that's it. The Suppress variant of Dispel is not all or nothing...see 6E1 197, particularly the example. This is what you want. It's gonna cost ya because you need that honkin' big expanded effect advantage, and as written it's on a MASSIVE number of base points. I seriously, SERIOUSLY doubt they ever worked out that example. 10d6 drain (as suppress) == 100 points all magic powers simultaneously is +4 AoE 30m is +1 600 (!!!!) active points.

Side point first...adders do not increase base cost for the purpose of determining range. 6E1, page 129. There are some ambiguities here; there are things where the intent is not clear. For example, on clairsentience, does adding another sense count as increasing the base cost, and thereby the range? I asked, and Derek said yes. There's some other cases. On the flip side, tho, a mobile perception point is explicitly an adder, so it does not, by the rules. Neither does the extra range. The additional senses do, so your range is 30 * 10 *32, or 9.6 km. Yes, it bites. It's extremely hard to build any clairvoyant...probably because they're such potential game-wreckers. I've done it by dropping as much as I could OUT of the clairsentience, and into the sense(s). That lets me slap MegaScale onto it, but it's still expensive as heck. But it's intended as a very high-powered character; his major powers are the clairsentience, and teleport using gates. (Yes, the clairsentience is targeting.) I'm going to disagree with the other two. Back to page 129: So by analogy, the perception point appears at the current location. The power user can then, by this, move away from that point...the target location doesn't move. So the perception point, on this argument, does NOT always remain adjacent. If we accept things so far, then there's no sound reason to assert that the perception point can't get moved. And note that it's still a severe limit. Perception point mobility is expensive, and it's bloody SLOW. (Or you're spending a fair bit on that mobility.) LOS has to be maintained, which is a significant reduction in applicability...it can't pass through a wall, for example, or turn a corner. He's bought 96 meters of movement, so it'll take 100 phases to get this to max range. 100 phases of very high END costs, too. So I think this is legal, and generally should be balanced. Side point 2: base Clairsentience covers a sense group. Might as well make it the sight or hearing groups; as written, it looks like you made it smell. Sure, fine, but it's so hard to build this power in the first place, I don't want to gimp it unnecessarily.

The end of the world is at hand. Jags 9, Bills 6. In good weather, no less.

Yeah, and how poorly Dallas is playing. Well, that's a plus in my book. I've read that the Cowboys' pricing...the seat licenses are *expensive* before you even get into game tickets...drove out their long-term fans weveral years aog, and generally, they don't have much of a home-field advantage. Still, I can't offhand recall hearing this many cheers for the other team. Dallas offense is non-existent, that's the #1 shock. It feels like, OK, Miller's gone for the Broncos, we'll just roll through them. But they've been totally punchless. GOD...the replay procedures are a bloody abomination. Bridgewater to Patrick on a 1st and long after a holding penalty. Patrick gets his hands on the ball, it looks to have been stripped. Patrick goes down poorly ; trainers have to be called. Network cuts to commercial. So, come back. Broncos line up, just about SNAP the ball...THEN DENVER!!! challenges the catch. #1: WHY THE HECK was the challenge allowed THAT LATE?? Yeah, fine, the rule is "until the next snap" but allowing that much time is ridiculous. #2: WHY THE HECK did it take Fangio SO BLOODY LONG to call for it? Oh...it's Fangio. I'm not exactly impressed, on several levels. Broncos lost the challenge. Pretty sure they're still gonna win the game. Cowboys desperately!!! need a stop down 19 as the third quarter winds down. Broncos are backed up, 2nd and 17 on their 8. 16 yards, then 3 more to punch out a 1st down, then 2 more runs for another first down and run out the third quarter.

As Veteran's Day is this week, saw a new (to me) spot today. Soliciting contributions for the National Medal of Honor Museum. Intro'd by Obama. Continued by W. Completed by Clinton. Cool that they got all the former Presidents. 😈

Wake Forest lost to UNC. The game was not a conference game. The joys of an excessively large conference is what happened there. The game's a rivalry game that both schools want to maintain, but not enough of one for the conference to mandate they play every year as a conference game. So 2 more top-10 teams lose to unranked teams. Oregon, Ohio State, Cincy, and Alabama didn't pick up any style points...but they won. And ohhhhh nooooo.................. They were showing Bama's upcoming schedule. Next week they host.......yes.......... NMSU..... Rankings vary of course, but Alabama is top 5 for sure, and NMSU is bottom 10 to bottom 5. This one might not even make the board, the mismatch is so ridiculous. They've given up at least 35 points in 6 consecutive losses...and Bama's an offensive machine. Bama -60?

Pricing doesn't work that way. The cost for the pool size never changes. It's always 1 point for 1 point of pool size. As you note, that is Real Points, so in a 60 point pool, you can have a pair of 60 point powers when each has -1 in limitations. The base cost for the control aspect is 1/2 the max active points of the power...30 points in this case. THEN it's tweaked by advantages and limitations. In a VPP, limitations come in 4 flavors: 1. VPP advantages and limitations. These affect the control cost only and describe what and how the VPP can do. No skill roll to change powers, half phase or no phase, and limits on the powers in the VPP are of this type. 2. Common limitations. These automatically apply to all powers in the VPP. The value of common limitations is also applied to the control cost. 3. Common advantages. These are a tad weird. Not a lot, but a tad. What they do is to make the given advantage "free"...it's already paid for. The active points of a power can exceed the control cost when that is the result of the common advantage only. Reduced END is probably the most common. This one's always been squirrelly for me. 4. Advantages and limitations on individual powers. These pretty much run as normal. Just remember to apply the common mods. VPP-only mods do NOT apply. So to give an example I might use...in the order I might need it. 1. Control cost: 69 or 70 points. That's 55 with 1/2 END (69_, so 11 dice, or 13 or 14 dice if I'm willing to pay full END. 2. VPP mods: most of the time, 1/2 phase to switch powers. Also may include something to limit the powers available. Depends on purpose. 3. Common mods: hey, since you haven't paid to eliminate the skill roll (which would be +1 on the control cost) then make the skill roll do double duty. Requires a Skill Roll, -1/2. Others are entirely possible, but it depends on what you want to include. 4. Real cost. Depends again on what you want to include. Let's say this is a versatile energy projector type. So, let's go with, let's say, 10/10 Resistant and 4/4 Damage Negation, STUN ONLY. It's a nice combo when you've got some other baseline defenses, but if this is still a fairly major component of your defenses, drop the Stun Only. It won't save you that much anyway because the RSR is in place. Then an attack power set...say, Blasts, Flashes, and RKAs. Let's also plan to assign at least a -1/4 limitation on these attack powers to have -3/4 total limitations here. They won't be Common Mods because they can't be used on the defenses. 3 good candidates are beam, limited range, and reduced penetration...take whichever you like. (I almost always apply limited range because the range mods are a killer when you're shooting past what's allowed by limited range.) Last, Flight...let's allocate 45 active. So pool size: Offense: 70 points with -3/4 --> 40 points Defense: Resistant protection is 30 with -1/2 --> 20. Damage Negation is 40, which goes to 27 without or 20 with Stun Only. Like I said, not a huge difference. Flight: 45 with -1/2 --> 30. So the overall pool size would be 110 or 117. The control cost is 1/2 of 70 or 35; +1/2 for half phase, -1/2 for RSR common mod. 35. The skill roll? Buying it to 14- for the attack power means 21-. That's 6-8 levels, most likely, so 15-19 points. Me...by the time I've gone that far, an extra 2 levels is a strong investment in reliability. If that is too high, then maybe 45 points is excessive on the flight...? I tossed that out off the top of my head but how about 31? 20 meters, Position Shift (handy as heck for flyers) and 1/2 END is 31. High-speed cross country flight might gets done separately...10 meters, x 16 noncombat is 25, so half end is 31. I loathe Megascale on flight as it's TOO MUCH...15 meters, with base megascale 1m = 1 km, and a 4 SPD is 5 km *per second*...about 11,000 mph, or about Mach 14. But...whatever. Point is, you just build it as a separate power, it's in a VPP, you're done. 31 points for the Flight would --> 20, so your pool size drops by 10. Might be needed.

Hey! We weren't ungrateful, we were just selfish, self-centered reflections of our generation. I mean, really..."ungrateful" suggests we paid attention to our teachers....... (How many of us could name...oh, let's say, 10 teachers from middle school through high school? Probably, if I worked at it, but 10 would take some effort.)

I don't think he wants to turn it into a life's work... I could be wrong, tho....

Just saw on ESPN bottom line... Prevea Health, a Wisconsin healthcare group, has terminated a 9 year partnership with Rodgers as of today. Op-ed in USA Today was also calling out the NFL, asserting (and I agree) Rodgers acted as if he was above NFL rules.

There is a growing movement to use the kinds of recycled plastics recovered by efforts similar to what tkdguy posted. I got a couple watch straps from a Kickstarter project not too long ago. They're quite comfortable. Don't look bad at all. I'm all in favor of these efforts. Consumer products...ehh...I'm not sure how many things will create large-scale interest. Hopefully they can develop industrial-level uses for this stuff. 9 metric tons of plastic crap *from one haul* is amazing and disgusting. Efforts like this give me some hope that despite the best obstructive efforts of politicians, there may still be a chance.

Not his career, his entire life. Which is why I've always felt bad for the idiots doing these things. Or angry, or maybe just jealous? Here kid, you've got it *all*. Then one piece of stupid, and it's all gone. Camelot, meet Mordred...by looking in a mirror. Ugh. Rodgers, OTOH, I feel nothing but revulsion.

If the prosecutor's throwing all of those charges out onto the table, it makes me think a) he's not even thinking about a deal, and b) that the circumstances are exceptionally aggravating As for Rodgers, far as I'm concerned if he never played another down in the NFL, I'd be happy. Good point about the State Farm ads. According to a story in Ad Age from yesterday, State Farm hasn't decided. That said, that might be before the interview came out, and what he's been doing became clear. They did say, you won't see his ads, but SF says it's because they're pushing a new theme using Terry Bradshaw.

And how do we think the league is going to respond? Rodgers broke the rules of conduct for unmasked players. Willfully, and for *months*. A question also arises: the league never considered him vaccinated...not from day 1. Yet they did NOTHING for months even tho he clearly was breaking the rules. My god, what does this sound like? I'm hearing echoes of the Black Hawk fiasco...doing nothing so as to avoid upsetting the apple cart during the season. I don't like Rodgers. I'll say that right out. But what he did deserves a 1 year suspension, IMO. The NFL cannot tolerate what he did, or they are throwing their own policies away.

Last week, the University of Florida declared that 3 of its professors could not testify against the state in a voting rights case. Amid a storm of criticism, they reversed that policy today.