unclevlad

Well, we already know 2021 isn't gonna be much fun. I mean, when you 've been on a 9 month bender, the detox and hangover are brutal...

1. By default, a VPP requires a skill roll to change the configuration of powers while in combat. 2. RSR can also be taken as a modifier on individual powers, or as a common modifier for the VPP, so that it applies to the activation of ALL powers. 3. The skill for #1 can be the same skill for #2. You *can* buy the advantage No Skill Roll Required on your VPP, but *also* buy Requires a Skill Roll as per point 2. They're totally separate. It's just not very efficient. JmOz, sure, if you take RSR as a common modifier on the VPP, you'll have to make the roll every time. However, if you've left the skill roll intact (and thus are NOT paying the +1 advantage to the control cost) for the VPP configuration...you've already got the skill covered, because you use the same skill. For the VPP configuration, you'll invest enough in the skill roll to cover the full Active Points you're paying for in the control cost. Well, OK, that's already likely giving you a decent roll...yeah, with a 60 point VPP, I'll buy *at least* a 20- skill, so I've got at least a 14-. So if I slap RSR as a common modifier on the powers...they're at 14-. And remember, this knocks down pool size...with no other limitation, instead of a 60 Pool, 60 Control VPP, you need only buy a 40 Real / 60 Control. So you're saving 20 right there. And hey, if you're not comfortable with 14- activations? Slap 4 of those 20 into your skill roll. The math: 1. 18 Int, so base roll is 13-. 2. Active Cost for the VPP will be 62, to allow 12d6 or 10d6 Reduced END. We'll also go with 1/2 phase to change the VPP. 3. Limited powers: Blast, RKA, and Flash, based on heat and/or light. Call this -1/2; this is a VPP-only modifier, like the half phase. Now: Config A: near-cosmic. No Skill Roll Required for the VPP, no skill roll for the powers. Pool size is 62. Control Cost is 31 * 5/2 * 2/3 (+1 1/2 for no skill roll required and half phase, -1/2 for limited powers) = 155 / 3 = 52. Skill roll cost = 0. Total cost = 114. Config B: Drop the No Skill Roll Required. Control Cost --> 31 * 3/2 * 2/3 = 31. So the VPP cost is now 93. To get a 14- skill roll on the VPP, you need a 20-, so 7 levels. That's 17 points. Total cost is 110. So the skill roll is saving you *4*. Not worth it. Config C, leave the skill roll on the VPP, add RSR as a common modifier. Pool size --> 41. Control cost --> 31 * 3/2 * 1/2... because the RSR common modifier *also* reduced the control cost...so it's now getting a -1 limitation at this point. So it's 31 * 3/4 = 23. Total cost: 64. For the skill roll, let's go with a 16-; we'll miss that roll 1 time in 50. That's 21 points. So the total points you'll need to spend on this VPP is 85. You're saving nearly 30. Config D, now I want to slap 62 points into attacks AND 60 points into defenses. So the control cost stays 62. If I use config C, with that 22- skill roll, my pool size only needs to be 82, so the whole VPP is 125. The near-cosmic would be 174. (I'd have to argue for a different Limited Powers limitation, but for convenience, let's say we still have a -1/2 here.) Because now, the 2 largest chunks of most power-based character sheets are getting a -1/2 limitation.

There's a lot of things that can be going on there, so...fine, they did it. And yes, they were in the 9 spot, but not a bad position with a game against Miami. Had they won out, I think the only help would've been a Baltimore loss because I think the Raiders had the tie breaker (fewer conference losses). And of course, the schedule's running out. There's just not much time for good things to happen. And being the Raiders, well, we know which of Santa's Lists THEY'RE on....

The kid was outmatched, wasn't he? Raiders just left way too many *gaping* holes in the pass game. Herbert had no trouble at all reading the pass defenses. 314 yards, and that doesn't count the 4 interference calls. Whose brilliant idea was it to schedule a night game in Green Bay, 2 days before winter solstice? Not gonna be an ice bowl game, just 30 degrees and fog. Joy...

Wow. This game has been an incredible, extended example of Why We Can't Win Games by both teams. Or if you're feeling generous, one can say, this is team sports in the Age of Covid, where the only consistency is inconsistency, and the Next Great American Novel is the league's injury/inactive lists each week. EDIT: Annnddd....the Raiders' playoff chances have pretty much evaporated. They need a LOT of help. They may be able to catch Miami; they play each other next week, then the Fins have to play Buffalo. But the Ravens are 8-5, with the Jags and Bengals.................. Tenn, Indy, and Cleveland have 9 wins, so the Raiders could only get into a tie-breaker with em if they lose out. My, my. Isn't that horrible....

Derek Carr pulls up as he's running OB; cameras show him heading into the locker room, so probably out for at least a bit. Chargers have the ball now. Camera shows Marcus Mariota, NOT warming up yet. Joe Buck's comment: "Well he's seen the Raider defense all season, so he knows he has time. No rush." Ohhhhhhh the burn.....................

It's now 8 teams that've said No Mas and won't take a bowl bid.

Ugh....10K+ new cases for the last 3 days in Tenn. With < 7M people. Yeah, that's acute stupidity. That's about twice as bad as Florida at their worst. That's talent.... US 7 day moving average for daily deaths has now crossed the 2500 threshold, and it's anyone's guess as to when it'll drop back below that. 3500 new deaths yesterday; just missed 3000 Tuesday. Should comfortably break 3000 today. Daily new cases average is over 218,000, so 3000+ deaths per day is unfortunately going to be a sustained rate. The case rate won't miraculously drop, so at best, at this point, that 3000 deaths per day will hold until probably late January to early February.

Requires a skill roll (-10) is -1/2. No Skill Roll Required is +1 on the VPP. Reason? Just hit me. Because it's on the control cost, which is 1/2 the active points. So that's why I'm saying -1 per 20 should be allowed, at +1/2; it's completely in line with the existing rules. BTW, I know you don't *have* to take RSR as a common modifier, but cripes, if you're buying the power skill roll in the first place, it's almost SCREAMING to be taken in most cases. Exceptions can be: --A Blast/Flash/RKA VPP has 3 limitations that can be mixed nicely: Beam, Red Pen, Limited Range. (Especially for lots of base dice, the range mod kills you well before you get to 1/2 max range.) Plan to take 2; you're at -1/2. Other VPPs can use the same notion; you're always expecting to slap some limitations on. --Little things can be done easily (no limitations); big things might require Concentration or Extra Time or the like. So 40 pool size, 60 active...up to 40, no sweat. An example might be a single-targeted Healing, versus a Mass Heal (AoE). OTOH, RSR is simply insanely good when the VPP is being built to support multiple powers at once...120 pool size, 60 active with RSR as a common mod means you can have 3 max-active powers going at the same time. And remember: it *is* offsetting your control cost. So if that 120 and 60 VPP is, let's say, half phase to change slots, and has, let's say, only -1/2 limitation on powers available: 60 control = 30 points, * 1.5 for half phase to switch is 45. 1/2 limit for limited powers --> 30. RSR as a common mod --> 22. Still a nice savings. And obviously if the VPP powers are even less limited, it's helping even more.

Within a day or two, the US will have the 2nd highest per capita infection rate of any country with at least 1 million population, passing Belgium. #1 is Czechia; their infection rate is really bad. At its worst, their rate was about 70% *higher* than what we have. 15,000 cases a day...in a country of only 10M. We are just about reach the point where one person in 19 in the US has tested positive...but in about 9 days at this rate, well pass 1 person in 17. Oh...and in less time than that...1 person out of every 1000 will have died.

This year makes #30. Bengals may well have been the worst team in football in the 90s. From 91-02, 12 seasons...8-8 once, but worse, the overall record was 55-137. Went through 3 different HCs, but with a record like that, for THAT long, it's not surprising. Marvin Lewis actually had a decent overall record...over .500 during his 16 years. But 7 first-round eliminations, and a general sense of a team going nowhere. I don't recall if he had a rap like Jeff Fischer, as a coach who played not to lose, but his teams were rarely top echelon, IIRC.

Hey, all of you who still believe this election stealing BS!!! This is what your movement is!!! If you don't denounce this, you own it. If that was me, I'd be a quivering mess for I don't know how long. Days, at least.

Can you spell "class action lawsuit" where every infected worker at that plant, goes after the managers? MAYBE Tyson as well, but it seems very likely these managers were acting completely on their own. Criminal charges might be possible too, but the standards of evidence are different for a criminal trial.

To be expected, particularly with long-running characters. The power presentations sometimes change considerably. Plus, we're converting from the comics presentation to game mechanics. THAT is always tricky because the comics are almost always *extremely* lax about details. A character sheet can't be. A little loose sometimes? Yeah, but only a little, by comparison.

No Skill Roll Required is an advantage, not a limitation. The base VPP requires a skill roll that's -1 per 10 Active, which as a limitation is -1/2. So the issue is, how about allowing the intermediate step of the easy skill roll, at -1 per 20, and call that a +1/2 advantage. Skill Roll *is* the correct fit, as it clearly should be a scaling check. From a cost perspective, it actually is cheaper to buy up the skill roll, particularly since I'm using Requires a Skill Roll (normal or easy, depending on the skill roll for changing the slot) as a common modifier. But, the skill roll itself gets to be more than a little crazy, and that bugs me; it tends to be the one roll that's wildly out of line with the rest. So yeah, I can certainly just buy up the roll several points, but I figure I'd like to have the intermediate option, cuz No Skill Roll (and presumably then, no skill roll attached to using the powers) is CRAZY expensive most of the time.

As it says. I'm thinking of this as an expansion. VPP either requires a normal skill roll at -1 per 10, or no skill roll. I'm thinking of adding Easy Skill Roll Required, for +1/2. Thoughts? I'm thinking this is a nice intermediate step, and quite appropriate for narrower VPPs. But just in general, having nothing between 0 and +1 kinda screams for a middle ground to me.

Well, he couldn't sustain the flame form indefinitely at the very beginning, but that pretty quickly changed. His flame form isn't just SFX tho; it's a damage shield too. It has to be bought with Reduced Endurance...to 0 END. At least that. Probably the Flight too. Also note: it's not Multiform because he can light up just parts. Basic powers: Fire Form: Fire damage shield, x d6 Blast, No Range, AoE Surface Flight: linked to Fire Form; also gets Leaves a Trail, but that's a +0. Damage Negation (physical only), linked to Fire Form, not vs. objects highly resistant to heat Not sure how I'd define the fire attacks...multipower or VPP. Haven't read FF in *ages*...I'm not sure how much flexibility is there. But, note that it's not dependent on being in fire form. I would probably give it a -1/4 limitation because it really is brutally obvious...it's not like even, say, Cyclops' optic blast. You see Johnny preparing to attack well in advance. Not sure how I'd define the rest of his defenses; they actually look pretty pathetic. But that's comics, too. So OK, Combat Luck, like 3 levels. The rest is pretty up in the air.

Multiform should largely be limited, IMO, to serious, extensive transformations. It's not just physical, it's also mental. So I agree with Asperion; this is OIAID for 6th ed, only in hero form for 5th. (Same thing...but it's not just 'hero' form.) I'd probably go with a Vulnerability to water, which is expressed as a Suppress rather than taking damage. Still rather awkward to define, as it takes a substantial amount of water. EC vs. Unified...I'd just try to get things defined the way I like first, regardless of points. That choice can be deferred. Billy Batson to Cap Marvel *is* a Multiform, I believe. There are mental changes aren't there? At least in some versions. Never read CM that I can recall, but of course the SHAZAM! schtick is well known.

How quickly they forget. 2011-2015: won 9, 10, 11, 10, and 12. In the playoffs all 5 years. Lost in the WC round each time. Even 16-18, they went 6-9-1, 7-9, 6-10. Not good, but not horrible. They and the Lions were quite similar; each one had the puncher's chance with big-arm QBs. The Browns were the worst team of the 2010s...not surprising. Next worst is actually Jacksonville, then Tampa Bay, Washington, Raiders, Jets. And therefore, in The Year Everything Went Upside Down...the Browns and Bucs are in strong positions to make the playoffs. While the Pats won't. Stop smirking there, Pariah....

12 bowls have now been cancelled. SMU withdrew from the Frisco Bowl today; UTSA switched to the First Responder Bowl. I can't believe this'll be the last one.

True, but if they retain 'sergeant' that leans to someone who's 30. 50? Officer. Them's the tropes. And the guy's supposed to be a combat expert. Harder to pull that off with an older guy. A 30 year old captain gives you Kirk; a 60 year old captain gives you Picard. One's in the middle of things, the other guides the active players. Even if they brought back the old cast, there's no promise they'll get the same chemistry. How many of those actors were basically unknowns at the time? Fillion has moved way past that...Castle ran 7 years, The Rookie will have a 3rd season. That's not A-List, but it's solidly B-List. And the actors will all be a little different, simply as a matter of time. It is, of course, possible that a new cast wouldn't work out...but a new, younger, hungrier cast is more likely IMO to click together. I'd be more worried about studio-imposed restrictions, about whether show-runners and directors can recreate the feel, than about the cast.

But that's what might be amusing. Will Trump turn on yet another of his most stalwart allies? McConnell made sure there was no substantive impeachment hearing in the Senate; he made sure to ram a third SC justice. If Trump's been Prince John, McConnell's been the Sheriff of Nottingham. Mind, I don't disagree that Trump may well react that way. Upside to McConnell's statement: it makes the AGs and Congressmen who signed onto that vacuous lawsuit look that much worse. It should also put a dampener on any shenanigans in Congress after the new year, and seating the new Congress. Will it stop the push that the election was stolen? Nope. It won't slow down. All ya gotta do is turn the argument a bit...well, damn, we lost. But see? We have to change the laws to protect the integrity of the process!! We have to coordinate so this Can Never Happen Again!!! Kick off the 2024 campaign, and start a major Retake Congress! movement for 2022. KEEP THOSE DOLLARS ROLLING IN, FOLKS!!!!

One thing you also suspect with Disney is, when they say PG, it'll be a lot closer to G than to R. Which is not promising. Of note: the impetus looks to be, this should be a very good streaming property...and numerous articles are talking that movie theaters are dead, from multiple directions. Whether they're going to completely die...remains to be seen, but there's a VERY good chance they'll never be what they were before. And if this is streamed, it's in homes, and the notion of 'acceptable' gets tightened. It isn't a death sentence; I don't think Babylon 5 ever came anywhere near R. But it is limiting. And can they keep the core premises, with the old cast? Everyone's 20 years older. Just look at shots of Fillion from Firefly and from The Rookie. It's not quite as bad as Moore's Bond in the last couple of his films...that was a total embarrassment to the role...but it's pretty bad.

Well, it is official now. https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/15/politics/mitch-mcconnell-congratulates-joe-biden/index.html It may be quite amusing to check on how this goes over, but it could also lead to nothing.

I'm also talking about whether the Browns have a legit chance to win a playoff game or two. 7 of their wins have been against bad teams...3 vs. the NFC East, Bengals twice, Texans, and Jags. The 2 good wins are Indy and Tennessee. They should make the playoffs; they have the Jets for as close to a lock as you can get right now, and the Giants are a team they need to beat. This isn't the lock it would've been, but they are favored by 3 to 4 points. That's 11 wins prior to week 17 against the Steelers. That should get them in. And the fact that they've already beaten whoever wins the AFC South does say they can win one. I don't see two, but one never knows. Particularly this year; every year has some teams that start slow and improve, or start fast before vanishing...but this year, that almost seems to be the story of the entire league. That, and the inability of defenses to get stops in 4th quarters....