unclevlad

Tart

Quad

Meld

Yeah, because these 'bubbles' are force field domes powered by multiple ZPMs.

Yeah, this is the natural mechanism. Also, note that Damage Reduction can be bought Body Only. I'd also probably allow either: a) for 20 points, 50% DR vs. killing damage only b) 30 points for 50% resistant DR, but -1/2 for only resistant defense. Net costs are pretty much the same. 20 points with the 1/2 limit for Body Only would be 13; 30 points with -1 limit would be 15. The difference won't change if there are additional limitations applied, at least up to another -1's worth.

The invocation of entropy is fine because the defense is EXTREMELY common; I'd call it at least -1, possibly more. Unless undead or robots are gonna be common. That said, the point that AVADs structured like this is dubious, is a good one. And, why do a KA vs AVAD? It does NOT do BODY and the stun's pathetic. First: the pool's 87. With the skill roll, 106. The multi would be 50, 10 ultra slots would be another 50, for 100. So close to a wash. Second, you miss the big thing: Requires a Skill Roll on the VPP. Same skill can be used. You're at 15-, which succeeds 95% of the time... and spent 2 more points on the skill, it goes to succeeding 53 out of 54 times...over 98%. Doing this you can ditch the Delayed Phase (which, BTW, I would NEVER allow, not with your DEX...you'll be going last all the time anyway). 62 active --> 41 real for the VPP. Also, the -1/2 Common Mod also helps with the control cost. 31 real points, 62 active points (Only Magic Effects as eep suggests is straight out of the book (6E1 410) and is another -1/4)...find a -1/4 Limit for everything OR use slightly less dice (you've already got a -3/4 limit, so you have as much as 55 Active on a power before you need that last -1.4). TOTAL cost right now? 57 points. Spend 4 of those points and raise that skill roll to 23-. Now you botch on an 18 only. Yes, it's rude. I do disagree with eep about buying the 1/2 END. When you really look at it, it's dirt cheap here. Setting up that AID is something I personally think is cheesy as heck, and it's costing you actions. NO THANKS. Slot comments: I agree that precog and retrocog are a major hassle for the GM. Invoc of Life: split the healing from the regen Invoc of Courage/Will...these only last while you maintain the points, so...what's the point? Invoc of Transformation: as mentioned, this blows your complications away for the most part, at least outside combat. Invoc of Stealth: you're invis to sight and hearing, what's invis power effects for? You don't NEED to spend the full points, and in a VPP, you don't WANT to. You could go invis to sight ONLY, 0 END, for no cost...and throw in some flying. These slots feel very much like D&D spell slots. This isn't D&D. Invoc of Iron: A D&D Wall of Iron spell...why? Invoc of Lightning: AP RKA???? Are you planning to leave corpses in your wake? Even in a darker, gritty game, cutting this loose is putting a BIG HONKIN TARGET on yourself because YOU ARE DANGEROUS. Note that you'd take 4 BODY from this, and you have a HUGE number of points in defenses. (50% rPD is nice but EXPENSIVE). Granted it seems clear you're gonna use the Invoc of Water, as that's where you've got the levels...so it's non-lethal, but that just makes an AP killing attack even more odd to me. AP normal is bad enough. Or RKA...ditch the Invoc of Entropy, an RKA against something non-living is gonna work just fine. The other general comment about the VPP is, what's the character's perceived role? D&D PC classes covered would be seer, healer-type, bard-type, sneaky-rogue type, and blaster type. So what's the party for? EDIT: noted a problem. Only Magic special effect is a VPP limitation, not a common limitation, so it doesn't shave points from the real cost. A -3/4 common limitation on 62 points should be 34, I think, not 31.

The movie Jane Fonda wishes we'd forget, I think.... Barbarella

#1 on the monster hit parade... Vampire

The big...the bad...the ugly The Tarrasque

The Gorn

And it doesn't help that this is pattern and practice. Hollywood Reporter notes social media posts mocking mask-wearing and downplaying the pandemic, and promoting the election fraud. Disneyland and Disney World are both closed...still. On that alone, anyone with a microgram of sense would recognize they're going to be rather more sensitive about the former, if nothing else. Reporter also mentions "sources say" she was going to be given her own show. If so, she's cost herself a *tidy* sum.

In recent years, the vast majority of ships named after Presidents have been carriers; the Lyndon Johnson is a Zumwalt-class destroyer. That's the only exception I saw. (There's also a USS Roosevelt, which is an Arleigh Burke destroyer...but that's named after Franklin and Eleanor.) I'd say it's basically zero chance of happening. Trump's remarks over the summer burned that bridge down rather thoroughly, IMO. Story in the NYT today, going back to our discussion about the potential problems for Fox, NewsMax, etc. for their election-fraud claims. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/10/technology/nadire-atas-arrest.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage If it's paywalled, in summary, a woman who's made extensive, abusive, defamatory posts against *many* people over a period of decades (per a separate story in the Times recently) has been arrested in Toronto and charged with 10 counts each of harassment, defamatory libel, and spreading false information with the intent to alarm. I'm not sure if the woman is going to be prosecuted in Canada for violating Canadian law, or whether Toronto police arrested her at the request of US authorities and these are US charges. If it's the former, then there may or may not be similar US laws, but those characterizations could clearly be applied to Fox News' coverage.

Nothing in Arcane Shield costs END by default, tho. So it's not 30 END per turn, it's 0. I built quite a few character concepts using Costs END to activate on a defense...until I realized a while back that it's the exact same limitation value as Nonpersistent. So, no, on a persistent and inobvious or invisible power, it's decidedly NOT costed fairly. It's OK *as an advantage*...but I believe every power that costs 0 END normally, is also inobvious (defenses) or invisible (most senses). So you lose out on *both* aspects. So, sure, Costs END to Activate as a +1/4 advantage is sometimes TOO cheap...because, note, there is NO mention of a change of power visibility. (And that's why it's got a warning sign attached. It can be too cheap, and generally will be when Persistent would be a Bad Idea.) Costs END to Activate as a -1/4 limitation is never, as best I can see, worth it, as it's applying Obvious and Nonpersistent. If someone can come up with a power I'm missing, feel free to correct me, but on all of these...off the top of my head, and limiting to 6E, it's strictly worse: --Damage Negation --Damage Reduction --Resistant Protection --Power Def --Mental Def --Flash Def --all senses --all life support --any Characteristics bought as powers And possibly others, but I think I've made my point. Now: if the GM rules that, on a power that starts as 0 END, persistent, and inobvious or better, Costs END to activate does *not* change the power's visibility. Note that it's still not any better than simply taking Nonpersistent, tho. But there are times where, like Damage-based END Cost, I like it thematically. For an example, as a combined power: DI 3 levels, costs END to activate Damage Negation 6/6, costing END to activate would be reasonable...but also note that the visibility isn't an issue. But also note that in this combination, trying to apply Nonpersistent to the damage negation does *not* work, IMO...because the DI is only Constant. So if it would go down, the whole power should go down with it.

This'll help a little. On powers that are normally persistent like senses and defenses, Costs END to activate is something of an odd man out. Including APG, there are 3 related limitations: --Nonpersistent --Costs END to activate --Damage-based END cost (with 2 different levels) They share a major aspect: the power becomes Constant and shuts off when the character is KOd or stunned. Costs END to activate has the likely *nasty* side effect (6E1 374) that it's automatically Perceivable...and no, you don't get points. So there's never a systemic reason to take Costs END to activate on a persistent power...especially one that's persistent and Inobvious. Costs END to activate is great for, say, Flight, but it's grossly undervalued for senses and defenses. I mention damage-based END cost because I really like it for most defense powers, thematically. Superheroes don't get beaten up...they get beaten down, til they can't fight any more, they're exhausted. It's -1/4 for 1 END per 10 STUN blocked, but it's not listed as perceivable. So of these, the one that bites is Costs END to activate. It's by far the worst, IMO, because of the "this power is screaming OBVIOUS SUPER HERE!!" aspect. And I can simply take Nonpersistent AND Perceivable for -1/2. Auric Sense, you went Costs END to activate. I get the goal here, but I'd go a different route. My first thought was Side Effect...could be full-on Blind or possibly Deaf (major) or perception penalties to all senses but Mental (minor), automatic when the power's used (x2). Automatic minor side effect is -1/2, so that shaves another 5 points off the cost. Other options could be Perceivable and Concentration.

What do you mean by extra protection, if it isn't DCV? If the attacker can take an OCV penalty to negate...is that not fundamentally DCV? "The defender gets +3 DCV" versus "the attacker takes -3 OCV to avoid the shield". Feels like the same thing to me.

I saw quite recently that Schottenhiemer had been moved to hospice care...i.e., made as comfortable as possible, and let family and friends say goodbye. So it wasn't a surprise. Probably unfair that his career was defined by 2 somewhat *bizarre* games against the Broncos.

That was the long and short of what he was trying to do, was my take as I watched it. Altho not just clickbait per se; it'd be used as ammo by all the Fox talking heads.

Was this disinformation or simply not saying anything? Also, was this the will of the electorate, or those serving the whims of the plutocrats? On the face of it, this goes hand in glove with reductions in oversight in other areas. How much noise would the reductions to the Postal Service have made...if not for the election-related issues? There's been no impetus to bring up the IRS reductions...heck, it could be argued that a lot of em were "the result of automated process improvements."

The US 7 day average for new cases has dropped almost 60% from the early January peak; it's now at the lowest level since early November. Active cases are dropping very slowly, but it's been 10 days or so now that they are declining. Not there yet...but looking better.

The glacier that collapsed was actually in Tibet, but fairly close to the India-Tibet border. The catastrophe was the flood this cut loose. No warning. And probably major elevation drops to give the flood massive energy. This might be the first, pretty clear-cut, climate change-induced disaster. It won't be the last. EDIT: from the NYT:

Oh man.... If you're not a baseball fan, the name may not mean anything...but Pedro Gomez of ESPN died unexpectedly Sunday. He was 58 One of the best baseball journalists out there.

Ahh. Yeah, other than maybe the instant change...but I wouldn't call those non-combat powers per se.

With a qualifier for me: that it's a structural template. Blast? PD or ED, SFX...subject to change. Limitations *may* be subject to change...beam, limited range, and red pen, pick 2. AVAD or NND, I might just note what the advantage level is...+1/2, +1 or +1 1/2...but not necessarily the defense. Most advantages, tho, need to be fully spec'd. Which ones are you considering? Most of these are special powers, and require GM permission.

I'm sick and tired of Brady, but that's separate. He's not first-ballot HoF; he should be UNANIMOUS HoF. You simply cannot argue with 7 Super Bowl victories, 5-time Super Bowl MVP, 3-time league MVP, #1 or #2 in passing yards, completions, and TDs. I'm not sure it's as relevant...I can't find whether vote counts are announced, or whether there've been unanimous ones before...like Peyton just this past week. Speaking of Peyton...the 64 cent question...does he go in as a Colt or a Bronco??? I kinda hope a Colt, as that's where he earned it.

OK.