unclevlad

Some of the messiness comes, IMO, from trying to make Hero a universal system, when different genres have incompatible assumptions. It also doesn't help that Summon demands so much interpretation. When you try to nail down interpretation to hard-core mechanics, you usually have issues. The difference WRT Mind Control is, you're converting an opponent into at least a temporary ally. So, yeah, in a sense, Summon and Mind Control share the aspect of increasing my side's action count, Mind Control does it while simultaneously decreasing the other side's action count. Because the writers don't care about quantitative aspects, they're only working the narrative ones. This runs afoul of a fundamental premise in how Duplication's evaluated...duplicates are not intended to be throwaway. It makes for easier narrative, tho, to ignore this, and hand-wave. These really are better modeled as Summons...but then you run afoul of the tropes tied to it, like number of tasks and willingness to cooperate. Plus you get the weird interpretations that are even in the book. Is an astral form really duplication, when the base form becomes incapacitated? Is a 9-headed hydra Duplication, or SFX of a really nice form of Multiple Attack? Telekinetic Sidekicks gives you a basis to say "I maintain my own built-in work gang"...it's practically just acting as a SPD boost. (Or alternately, it's a lot like clairsentience...send in a dozen separate scouts to report.) So...yeah, especially when you look at what's on the sidebar (6E1 page 204) the distinction between Duplication and Summon is pretty darn vague.

"Stand" isn't quite correct, as I understand it. They didn't block enforcement, but that isn't a ruling on the merits. It is, however, bad enough, and will create a total mess. I can still hope they change their mind later. I will admit to pessimism on that score, however. But that's joining a litany now...this, voting rights, anti-vax madness, the VERY likely situation that no matter what climate change legislation might get passed now, it'll be tossed out by the next Republican triune...and thus, nothing effective will happen. It's hard to be sure where we'll be in 10 or 15 years, but I can't see how it's a LOT worse place than now.

IMO it's Biblical. Life begins at the moment of conception. Therefore abortion is by definition murder and a mortal sin, and the Morality Police have no qualms with "incidental consequences" like this, so long as their moral imperative is enforced. Can also argue it's very Old Testament...really, was EVERYONE in Sodom and Gomorrah guilty? One of the more terrifying aspects of hard-core ideologists, of any stripe, is they're not concerned with the side effects.

I'm hoping that sanity prevails when this reaches the Supreme Court. Restricting abortions is the lesser problem; the HUGE issue is, as was pointed out, eliminating the notion of standing, and letting anyone and their cousin file suit. Because if this notion is allowed to stand WRT abortion, what *else* will it be applied to? Jaywalking? Spitting on the sidewalk? And just in case there's any doubt...the abortion restrictions are untenable IMO. They're awful. They're still not the worst aspect of this attempt to *seriously* abrogate civil liberties across the board.

But you can also argue that stars aligned for Cam in 2015. Look at both 2014 (5-8-1) and 2016 (6-8). Cam's never been consistent...12 wins, then 5, then 15, then 6, then 11, then 6. Granted that's a WHOLE lot better than many QBs, but it's still really troubling. And the Pats recognized it...$4M for a vet QB is nothing.

If you're not taking Amicable and trying to force the critter to fight, I'm giving the critter a major bonus on its Ego roll. And let's recognize something. The EGO vs EGO roll, the summoner is at -1 per 10 active points in the Summon...so even a 200 point Summon it's -4. So that first +1/4 from Amicable is buying quite a bit, even if it's only negating that initial roll. Summon, perhaps more than most powers, is wildly variable, depending on what gets allowed. I'd rather start with narrower restrictions. You want it to fight for you? Pay for it.

Yes, I'd still require higher. The Amicable advantage acts like a Complication applied to the critter...but it's not a complication on the summoned critter's sheet. What you're doing here is taking a complication on the critter and trying to use it to say you have a larger Amicable. At no cost. That's a huge red flag IMO. At the VERY least, some form of amends *should be* required afterward. The angel might be willing...but that doesn't mean it's happy to be dragged into whatever mess the summoner's in.

The story has the group's CEO trying to justify the action. Worth reading in and of itself. Another story here: https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/august/daniel-darling-fired-nrb-covid-vaccine-morning-joe-usa-toda.html?utm_medium=widgetsocial

Wow. Schefter and Greenberg are speculating that this is doing Cam a favor. Mac Jones won the job *hands down*...it wasn't close. The team's sold on him. So what do you do with Cam? Schefter pointed out, he'd be going from former MVP to backup...awkward. This does give Cam a chance to sign on with anyone. From the Pats' perspective, *any* thought of a QB controversy gets its heart cut out and mouth filled with garlic. And Booger pointed out that, hey, the Pats had Cam for a full season. And still drafted Jones...pretty high. So they clearly weren't sold on Cam. He also argued Cam was a bad fit philosophically. Interesting to see who signs Cam. I expect someone will; I also expect there won't be that many teams looking too seriously.

A plausible house rule, if you don't want to worry about duplicate deaths, is that the duplicates get this in place of the base character's duplication cost, and that this in itself doesn't force an altered duplicate. "Friendly" does not include "willing to stick around in a firefight" IMO. If you want that, you need at least the +3/4. Also, from 6E1 290: But at that point, it's probable that the GM will say, you have to spend considerable time directing them. Plus, at this point, that's a LOT!!!! of active points to get anything much. And since Summon costs END, that means each one you Summon is a pretty notable END hit. I think Hugh hit on a good point: Summon is a classic fantasy spell, and it's built that way. It's really a core effect. It's also, quite often, the summoner's threat, rather than a threat multiplier; or, it's the way to allow a solo villain challenge a team. OTOH, Duplication is for supers. This particular implementation is very specifically the Duo Damsel/Triplicate Girl style...they're biological duplicates. They're automatically threat/force multipliers, because they're action multipliers. With a bit of work, it's not *that* hard to get the cost of duplication down to manageable in a higher-power campaign, so each duplicate may be a fairly significant threat.

But that doesn't address Duke's point. For how long is this a black mark for you? How far back, before it at least shifts to a yellow flag...let's see if he still thinks that way before we pillory him?

Well, if that's true..... How do we explain Pariah?

That's often a pain, especially if you read a lot. "Oh that'd be...no, wait, that's just X from that series....." Sometimes that's ok, tho. Other times, it's just a combo you almost never see...or, not in supers. Like, one idea for a healer is a "flesh sculptor." So healing with the SFX of reshaping to fix the injury...and shape shift. Different. Healing slots nicely into a MP with HAs that are versus power def, too. But, whatever. Once that's sketched out, quite often my next step is the descriptive aspects like size, hair/eyes, ethnicity, and getting a handle on the personal interests. Sometimes quite a few skills might be suggested by the power concept...the flesh-sculpting healer should know anatomy and/or physiology very well, for example, but not necessarily squat about medicine generally...but many things are still open. I don't need everything all at once; these lead to establishing the framework, and as you fill things in, usually it gets easier. Character name's the LAST thing I do, most of the time. Hero name...sometimes it's quick based on the concept, others...not so much.

But with only the +1/4 the number of services you get is limited, and what they'll do for you is somewhat constrained. One big thing to remember is that you can invest in a Summon Multipower to get multiple types, rather than Expanded Class. Summon is a Standard power; Duplication is a Special power, so no framework. So you could build a Summon for, let's say, aerial scouts to do recon, then drop them in favor of combat powers. Another point: Duplication as written, says the points the primary spent on the duplicate, are NOT available to the duplicates. Even with some big limits, that's gonna knock a big chunk of the points off. With a Summon, the full character points can be spent on the summoned critter.

Orioles have been eliminated from the playoffs. D'backs...not quite yet. Their e-number is still 4. Largely because San Diego's fallen off the cliff. 66-49 and 4.5 up on the Reds on August 10th. 3-13 since, and now 1.5 back of the Reds. And 10 of their last 19 games are against the Giants...who'll be playing to win the division, not relaxing, looks like.

First, I think it has to be noted that Transfer was removed. from 6E. Second: Transfer can be defined as a Drain triggering an Aid...but that Aid is self only. You're applying UOO and probably Ranged, so those alone mean at least +3/4. Assuming you are using the earlier Transfer, we're still looking at +1/2 as a minimum.

The "Ole MIss" connotation you mention is probably not blatant enough to raise eyebrows, but eventually...I suppose I could see it. Great joy...Scott Frost and Nebraska lose to an Illinois team that's one of the consistent cellar-dwellers in the Big 10. 4-5 in conference in 2019, but that was the high-water mark. 3 wins one other year...otherwise, 2 or less every year for the last 10.

Let me just say... WITHOUT Googling the story...who can name the kid? If you have the name, then where did he go to school, and/or how many years has he been in the league? Me, I'd be 0 for 3. But I did find all my answers...and...yeah. NOT a surprise on any account. One of these days, some uber-genius will figure out how to make the position playable for something more than *maybe* 2 dozen players, and I'll concede I'm probably being very optimistic. Lots and lots and lots of cuts, then the cycle of recycling and more cuts. They've got a total off-week while college football rolls into full swing.

Well it depends on the booze. If you're talking something like 23 year old Pappy Van Winkle? I wouldn't trade that for Minshew....

I hear ya. My printable reactions... #1: Can the teacher be fired? Probably not. Can the teacher be sued? Also probably not The grounds for either or both, tho, are the fact that she went to work *knowing* she was unvaccinated and suffering from symptoms that *could be* Covid. #2: That school district had better pass a vaccine mandate ASAP. If it takes an emergency board meeting, call it now. #3: ANY board member who doesn't push for a mandate now should be the subject of a recall election.

And a bit more expensive. Delta Airlines announced that they would start charging an extra $200 a month to employees who have not been vaccinated. This may not withstand legal challenges, but the reason? The average hospital bill to Delta from Covid-19 has been $50,000. And everyone who had to be hospitalized, had not been vaccinated. $50K buys a lotta masks...and a new truck along with em...

Story in the NYT this morning...the Federation of State Medical Boards is suggesting their member states to consider penalties, including revoking licenses, for doctors who spread disinformation and lies about Covid-19. The AMA calls doing so a violation of medical ethics. The damage has already been done, but hopefully this'll happen. I'd rather it went further, but it'd be hard to charge these scammers (and they are profiting from it) with the serious charges I think they deserve.

Love it. Pretty sure it's a rare step by the judge, but one I was hoping would be taken in at least some of these ridiculous filings. Powell et al get stuck with the tab, altho collecting...who knows, that might be trickier. And may well be disbarred. Utterly. Deserved. Next up: the MyPillow boycott.

Ehhh...OK State and K-State wouldn't add that much to the Pac-12 in basketball. They're reasonably good teams most years, but not enough to elevate a conference at all. And overall, the Pac-12 has been mediocre *at best* in the 21st century. Conference has 5 Final Four appearances, total...4 by UCLA. 2021 was a good year for the conference, yes, but they've been completely out of the tournament by the end of the 2nd round in a few different years recently, IIRC. I also don't see that they fit, but as noted, that hardly matters. Do they add value to the Pac-12? That DOES matter, and I don't really see it. But....yeah, the Texas and OU move was the latest money grab, and this time I think also a power grab. The NCAA is so shaky right now. The SEC wants to dominate any post-NCAA college sports world. And that's leaving everyone else to scramble. Kickoff is 2 days away, altho the teams playing are barely recognizable by anyone not on their campuses.... The real "opening day" is Thursday the 2nd...looks like 16 games, leading into the big bash next weekend.

That, and just that it'll seem all cool and daring to do it. It's marketed to teenagers, so the less sense it makes, the better it'll move, at least at first. Can also expect it's a "limited time offering" because a) that'll be a draw in itself, and b) maybe they don't expect many repeat buyers.