unclevlad

In this year of covid, the Jets ending the year on a 3 game win streak would be completely fitting. There probably is very little scheduling flexibility here. For one thing, the close contact is still several days. Then, you probably can't push it past Monday, MAYBE Tuesday, because everyone plays on Sunday in week 17. That's not something they want to change; they want every game that can count, to count. Plus you don't want a short week (if the Browns, say, play Monday night in week 17) leading into the playoffs. And I don't think Tuesday would be long enough anyway. And yeah, this shouldn't be broad enough to postpone the game beyond Sunday night, and even that doesn't appear to be happening. Still on for the early slot tomorrow. ROFLMAO!!!!!!!! Ball don't lie! Poor coverage combined with a terrible face mask to move, what, 40 yards in one play to set up the game winner. Got to love the Raiders. (As in the crass "hire the handicapped, they're fun to watch" sense.)

"Class of minds" doesn't work great as a limitation, as it applies to too much. I've got an in-progress build going; the major power is high-STR TK, the secondary is Mind Link...any willing mind, x16 minds at once. Give me a limitation and you're cutting the cost of ALL of that back, when it's not all that warranted...at least on Mind Link. Mind Control on the Machine class of mind? In a modern campaign, that's scary. Plus, the intent's to distinguish between the decker, the mentalist, or the animal speaker. Generally they're wildly separate, so the notion of a completely unlimited, works on anything mental power isn't sensible. So what would the base cost be, of doing this? And, it's a power with a TON of adders that commonly get used, so that's why trying to do this as a limitation is mechanically unwise.

Can anyone who saw the end of the Niners-Cards game explain the play calls for Arizona inside 2 minutes?

Well it's a combination of factors too. Harden's got a massive contract...3 years, about $130M in salary, and almost $140M in cap hit. As much as I hate his game and attitude, he's one of the top...10 for sure, probably 5...players in the league. So the demands have to be high. And one can't ignore the point that Harden isn't a great fit on a lot of teams. We hear about the Nets, but good gosh, get serious. Irving and Harden together would be massively more toxic than Westbrook and Harden. THEN you have Durant.

I was goofing off in a very silly little computer game and got round to turning the Bucs-Lions game on...halfway through the first, no big deal right? Wow, game over already pretty much. Gash city. 2 drives, 10 plays, 160 yards, 2 TDs. And Stafford hopped off and into the locker room. Uhhh huh. I may switch to a basketball game soon.... EDIT: OK, it is over, and we're looking at a Rout of the Decade candidate. Bronco fans can relate to the misery the Lions are faced with. What's worse, no QB or no coaching staff, the day after Christmas, with a team that's got no reason to play. But hey, maybe the people playing fantasy who didn't have Kamara might have a chance if they have Brady.... EDIT 2: Brady's first half passer rating, using the NCAA formula: 238. The NFL rating uses the same factors, but some of them are artificially capped. Uh oh. Browns are facing a VERY late positive test from a player. Flight to play the Jets delayed while contact tracing is done. This could be ugly, as contacts still have to be isolated for a few days...

The NBA stars know they have basically ALL the power; their team has very little. Yeah, he's a little brat I wouldn't want on my team.

The Duke women's basketball team has had a long, sustained run of success...but not this year. The team voted to not play due to the stress of the Covid-19 protocols, the first such basketball program to do so after trying to start. (The Ivy League shut down winter sports before the season.) I don't expect they'll be the last such. A little fact from the Buffalo vs. Marshall bowl game...local regulations covering Marshall's campus have meant they haven't been home since May. For college kids? Ugh, that's got to be brutal for some of em.

It's what happens when you forget your tinfoil hat too often.

You might be able to build your set of languages and save it as a prefab.

If you ever, an a moment of otherwise utter emptiness, wondered why the current NFC East leader couldn't manage something so seemingly simple as picking a team name, well, this artlcle suggests the answer: https://awfulannouncing.com/nfl/dan-snyder-claim-dwight-schar-media-leaks.html We always figured upper management was rather dysfunctional; I don't know if anything quite like this had been anticipated.

Don't make me go medeival on y'all.... Today we have a space warp game...the New Mexico Bowl is being played in Frisco, TX. Don't ya love 2020?

By whose count? As of right now, WoM is showing 335K; the day will probably end with about 337K. Still 7 days left. Not a normal point of reference for me, but Rush Limbaugh put things pretty well:

Ah, I see. So Florida is the counterspell for the Pariah Jinx. That explains the Dolphin-Bronco game.......

That's on the pandemic relief bill tho. Repealing the social media protections was one of his demands on the defense spending bill. And it's a surprise to no one, I figure, but he continued his pardons...Manafort, Stone, and Kushner's father.

And remember the Supreme Court's recent decision overturning several locales' restrictions on churches.

This just in...Trump vetoed the defense spending bill. House is going to have to come back Monday. This will be the first major test of whether the Republicans are still owned lock, stock, and barrel by Trump, or whether they'll draw the line in the sand. I'm particularly thinking of the Congressmen who signed onto that last absurd lawsuit. I'm also thinking this is going to be a VERY big deal for the Georgia Senate runoffs...especially if the Senate has to vote on this. EDIT: secondary thought. This may be a threat by Trump...override me on this, kiss the pandemic relief bill goodbye. At least without cramming the individual payments down the Republicans' throats.

There may be several provisions like that, which he doesn't much like. But to me, the root of it is, Trump is the ultimate troll. He loves to cause chaos; he feels empowered because, gee, look how many people have to react to his impulses? That's Power, Baby!! The only way to avoid that is give him everything he wants...like a second term. And damn the consequences. He doesn't care if the government shuts down. He might care that the economy collapses...but he probably doesn't think it will. The stock market's still up, up, up, baby, see? We're doing a great job!! Conversely, you can argue that he doesn't care if the economy tanks because he wants Biden to have as large a mess to clean up as possible. Picking the "let's up the direct payment to $2000" also feels like retaliation against McConnell, who doesn't want that, and really the rest of the Congressional Republicans.

Current death toll from WorldOMeters is 330,800. So by some time tomorrow afternoon, it will reach 332,500. The significance of this: the population is 331,900,000 and change. Ergo: one out of every 1000 people in the country will have died of Covid-19. The UK also just passed that mark today.

In Drew Hayes' Super Powereds, the main characters are in a college-level, intense, competitive qualification program to be licensed to use their powers in combat situations. One of the scenes discusses a hero's career expectancy. I thought his breakdown was quite good. As best I can recall: --supers without exceptional regenerative/longevity abilities, but who use their bodies intensely...speedsters, martial artists, supers with touch-delivered powers. Their bodies suffer the wear and tear and once they start slowing down, they'd better get out of the game before they're taken out. You'd be looking at maybe 35-40, typically. --as above, but whose powers permit them to generally stay out of the fray...most blasters, mentalists, that sort of thing. The limiting factors are avoiding being taken out (mentalists rarely have great defenses), or the accumulated stress. Lasting into their 50s or even 60s is plausible; in many cases the limiter might be mental acuity. --power sets that include decent self-healing...healers is an obvious example; Wolverine...that sort. I've long felt that adequate regen...1 BODY per hour would clearly be enough...plus LS immune to diseases and poisons, is enough to justify Longevity 200 years for free. And that was his argument...such characters can go until they burn out. Age is just a number. In the scenario you're outlining, sounds like everyone will be in the first group, but some who are more detective-oriented might fit into the second.

How did they manage to avoid the Pariah Jinx?

It's a legit point, but there's problems. First: I love the definition of an encounter that, IIRC, dates back to my RPGA days...so 2nd Ed, maybe 3rd. But not 3.5. An encounter is anything where the PCs have to overcome an obstacle, and failure has a consequence. This can simply mean not getting certain information; it isn't limited to risk of injury or the like. In addition, the PCs have to face a legitimate challenge or obstacle; if it's "don't roll a 1 and you succeed" it's not an encounter. So with this in mind, most of the 6E skills *can* become encounter-significant. Some will be rather unusual; others could be quite common. But there are certainly many that have no real encounter-usable benefit...Profession skills, quite a few Knowledge skills. They might become hooks for the GM to use in building a scenario...but that's different. BTW: Wealth becomes important if players want to use it in lieu of powers. Figure that the rules take a pessimistic, restrictive view; the GM can relax things, particularly Wealth, if the players aren't going to use it abusively. I love, for example, to buy 2-3 points so I can say "we've got an off night? I'm making reservations at Del Posto for me and my Significant Other." For a lot of fun things, money gets removed as an obstacle. Or with a big, like 10 point, wealth perk..."I want to build a company that specializes in post-combat cleanup and repair...and price it fairly. I don't care about losing SOME money along the way." I agree that a lot of this comes down to campaign guidelines, tho. I admittedly look to min-max somewhat, in part to have points for skills, some talents, and even some powers like many of the life support options that won't come into play very often, if ever. For campaign guidelines, this is also why I like to encourage *minimal* limitations, particularly on the generally highly efficient brick or martial artist builds. (Maybe I'm not great at building them, but mentalists just never seem to be cheap.) So a compensation is to say...put the points, without trying to chisel a ton more, and everyone gets 20-30 points for non-combat purposes.

"What do we have here?" "Looks like another stupid farmboy who panicked and froze to me." "Yeah, you're probably right. Not even worth looting the body, I bet." "I think you're more likely to find lice than coin." "So..." <looking around> "...you think we should find whatever did this and smack them down?" "WHY? No one's gonna pay us for it......" As for me? Psion, heavy on the knowledge skills. For race...elan.

Jerry's problem is he thinks he's competent to make the football decisions. He isn't. So Mike Tomlin's grown tired of JuJu's selfish, childish pregame stunt of dancing on the other team's logo and says he'll talk to him. Well DUH. Apparently, some of the Bengals also decided to target him. Well, yeah!! Can't blame them for it; this wasn't like the coaching staff telling them to do it, this was a player inciting it. Lots of us might remember TO dancing on the Cowboy star after a touchdown, then one of the Cowboys racing from the sideline to clean his clock. Yeah, I think the Cowboy got thrown out, but come on. There *are* limits. Did it in Buffalo, did it in Cincy. Steelers lose both. Cause and effect? That might be a bit much. Contributing factor? Seems rather likely. Kind of the ultimate bulletin board material. In other news, Dwayne Haskins might have just blown his career to pieces. Caught at a gentleman's club after the Seattle game...maskless. Discipline hasn't been set, but this is considered high-risk behavior...duh...and this is the *second* time he's violated the virus protocols. Not like his performance level is that high, so this kind of dangerous, damaging, immature behavior is not going to sit well. Washington just said they didn't plan to release him right now, but they're stuck between a rock and a hard place; Alex Smith may not be ready to come back, and they're still looking at a playoff spot. Once the season's over...???

WOWWWWwww.... Betting on bowl games is, IMO, generally a terrible idea; one never knows how teams will handle the holiday break. The CFP games tend to be less influenced by this, but it's still there. THIS year I think it's insanity. If the players can't go home for Christmas, the emotional impact has to be an issue. If they can, then how many are gonna test positive, or need to quarantine due to contact? That said, I like looking at the betting lines. Alabama is favored by 19, give or take, depending on the betting site. At least right now. This could change. But still...wow. That's a HUGE line for a putative top-5 matchup. I think the bettors might be feeling that the CFP committee did its usual favoritism, and don't think Notre Dame belongs. Kinda hope they're right....

Trevor Lawrence won't make your franchise competitive without a WHOLE lot of pieces around him, even if you think he might be a future HoFer...with the right team. LOTS of "can't miss" QBs haven't panned out. BUT...actually...the Jets probably shouldn't trade the pick, be it #1 or #2. Which is contrary to my common feeling, but here's the deal: Jets 2021 have 2 first, 1 second, and 2 third round picks. 2022, 2 more firsts, 1 second, 1 third. And a ton of lower round picks so even *some* misses/busts won't hurt. They might be able to rebuild a good bit in relatively short order. Nahhh...it's still the Jets.