unclevlad

Wow. Astros' hitting coach got 20 (!) games for instigating the brawl on Sunday. That's stiff as heck this year, albeit a stiff suspension was expected. But that's 1/3 of the season. Astros haters are probably chortling, tho.

You can make the connection to the resistance to imposing restrictions, and pushes to reopen, if you prefer. That connection is more direct. The Mountain West...if the West Coast schools are pushing to cancel, how many of them would take that action even if, hypothetically, the majority wanted to continue? For some schools, not playing was likely a foregone conclusion based on state- and school-level policies. So even if, say, a Wyoming wanted to play...who would they have available as potential opponents? I'm probably wrong about the ACC and SEC changing their position this week...but I still see no chance they'll play a full schedule, and no more than a slim chance they'll play. It'll also be interesting to see if this comes back to bite their collective backsides, as this compellingly proves, IMO, that the players are NOT students first.

The rate has too many outside factors. Early-onset cases have had much higher mortaility rates; New York and New Jersey are super-high in that regard. Also, Italy and Spain actually don't *want* that mortality rate to drop...not quickly, at any rate. They got *hammered* early on...but the only way for the mortality rate to drop is for them to have vastly more cases. Italy's at 14%. For that to drop to 7%...they'd need to double the number of cases...with NO deaths. Fat chance of that. By the time the outbreak became geographically widespread here, we had some indications on treatment. If you want to measure our mortality rate versus other countries, restrict the data...say, new cases reported during July, and deaths reported since July 15th. Not perfect by any means, but it normalizes the experiential factor. The Russian vaccine thing.....take your pick of interpretation. A global politics stunt? An act of desperation? A poke in the eye to (especially) the US for being so horrifically slow to approve a treatment plan...when at the same time advocating for such tight controls? An *extremely* cynical argument is they're betting their own peoples' lives, figuring that if it doesn't work...no big deal. If it does, they stand to make BILLIONS. In that sense, it's a move by the oligarchs...and saying it's very likely with Putin's blessing (AND with a promise of a kickback) is barely another reach at all.

First...if this is the actual output from your tool, your math is off. 5 points with a +1/2 advantage --> 7. 7 with a -1 limitation goes to 3. I have a lot of this built for Champions Now...but that system is massively simpler. Trying to do it for full-scale Hero...I'm gonna first suggest the cop-out. Go Hero Designer. Focus isn't even close to the most complex; that's probably the full UBO advantage, where you start with 4 separate primary options. AoE is similarly *messy*. What I did when I was building the Champs Now tool, was to go through: --every power...what kinds of switches did it have? Were there, let's call them conditional adders...ones where B requires A, or A and B are mutually exclusive? Are there bizarre (from a coding standpoint) interaction issues? Not many, but a few...Desolid has some, and the Automaton powers have a couple BIG ones. (Takes No Stun triples the cost of most defense powers.) --every advantage and limitation...points here include, is this specific to a power, to a power type (attack, defense, adjustment), or to any power? Is it simple (no options), fairly simple (a short list of exclusive options)...or messy, like AoE and UBO? Does it affect END Cost? Does it affect DCs? Indirect doesn't. HD doesn't include this, but it is a Nice To Have for HAs, if nothing else, to get a net attack power. When you're creating a power, you'll want to bring up full, complex dialogs; there are no simple powers because all of them can have advantages and limitations. When you're looking at a stat block, you're looking at the net result...so everything gets compressed. [Power Name]: Blast 1d6, Area of Effect Radius 28m Explosion; +½) (7 Active Points); Focus (IIIF, Fragile, Difficult to obtain new focus, requires Arrangement; -1). Real Cost: 3 points. Notes...no ranges...the radius on the AoE is fixed to a specific value, and normally it can't be changed. Note that the Active has to include all advantages. This is critical for MPs and VPPs. At the level of the stat block, aggregate the factors going into each advantage/limitation and just report the final value for it. They aren't separable; AoE 30m isn't a +1 advantage with Explosion a -1/2 limitation; Explosion fundamentally modifies the value. In some cases, a "limitation" can become an advantage; I think there are some cases where an advantage can be tweaked to actually be a limitation. (Non-selective AoE explosion, perhaps.) A general format might be: (Power Name when defined) (Power) (level of effect, or what it applies to, or other descriptive info); Adders; Advantages; Active Cost: x; Limitations; Real Cost: Y I'd have to think about the +0 modifiers like Stun Only. On a Blast, I'd prefer to lay that out as Blast 10d6 Stun Only (+0) IOW, before the adders. In some other cases, a +0 should go in different spots. Writing this all up to be 100% automatic is a royal pain. I have issues with writing to a PDF; whether it's my system or something I did, HD doesn't like doing it. I write to a text file...and find I want to extensively edit it anyway.

I'll predict that the ACC and SEC do the same before the weekend.

I agree with Scottish Fox...where did 863 come from? The highest single-day death toll on WorldOMeters has been about 300. Or is the 863 tied to counting procedures...whereby they, perhaps, added that many deaths as coronavirus deaths, but that was several days, or even weeks, worth.

I just had a thought. Some coaches are making the case that the players would be safer staying in the program, in a more controlled setting, with constant testing available. That may or may not be true; if the players conform to isolation rules, it probably is true, but the risk is high if even a few of them don't. Let's assume for the moment that would be true. Well, if you're providing the athletes regular, consistent testing, with extra security...would this not be an extraordinary benefit, not available to the general student populace, that goes far beyond room and board? As such...would this not actually be an impermissible benefit, would this be ethical to provide all of this when telling the majority of the student body that their classes are going to be online only, and they have to fend for themselves?

But this wasn't CSU alone, and I am absolutely certain they weren't unique. Reports right now: --majority of the Big 10 ADs want to play --we're hearing from several players they want to play, including some teams --Scott Frost is "considering all options" to create some kind of a schedule --James Franklin and Jim Harbaugh are pushing to play --Lou Saban is asserting the players would be safer Tie that in with CSU. There is going to be serious pressure on anyone considering opting out, and like CSU, strong disincentive to report properly. Also, the further you go down the road, the harder this will be to stop. Look at MLB, and the mess of a season they're having...but this many games in, there's a TON of pressure to play it out as best they can. And, of course, the fact that so many areas are nowhere near reaching reopening guideline markers. And yeah, the NCAA is absolutely playing the part of the emperor from The Emperor's New Clothes here.

Well, it looks like reinstating the restrictions is helping reduce case numbers here at least some. The numbers on WorldOMeters show a nice declining slope that's holding for 2 weeks. It's NOTHING like enough but it's definitely better. Well, unless the California undercount blows the numbers back up....

At this point there's no way the Cards can even approach getting 60 games in, while also playing the teams they were expected to play....and their situation is only going to get worse in the near future. For example, how can they make up the games against the Tigers that've been cancelled? The Cards have only played 5 games; the next lowest is Marlins at 10, then Nats and Phillies at 11. This story gives a good outline....and note that with the Cards, it's now out of date. By Friday they'll be about 15 games in arrears, with very little time left.

OTOH the Mountain West just did cancel, so that's 2 of the Group of Five. Looks like the Big 10 and Pac 12 may be deciding tomorrow.

Narrator's mouth full of marbles, and immediate, complete dismissal, meant going beyond 10 or 15 seconds was pointless for me.

The Vancean system has also been massively criticized. That change in 4E was to give them *something* to do without worrying about their extremely limited resources. Forcing casters to use items is, IMO, ridiculous. Casters *cast*. Also, compare the wizard vs. the sorcerer. The sorc could use his low-level spells for common attacks. So, they'd already moved away from the Vancean system. You're also, it seems, always attributing the reasoning to the influence of video games. Not saying they aren't a factor but that's a serious oversimplification. Psionics didn't use the Vancean system, and it supported pretty frequent actions. Sorcs. The Vancean system was a literary device for a VERY LOW MAGIC environment, and D&D is completely the opposite. Also note that casting from a staff or wand was LESS effective. The save DC never incorporated the casting stat when the spell came from an item, unless the caster took an unusual late-add feat IIRC. With wands, the spell level was fixed; if the caster leveled, the wand didn't. And isn't it a little ridiculous to try to support a half-dozen different wands or staves? If nothing else, just swapping between them becomes absurd very quickly. Last...doesn't this get *seriously* expensive? Creating a wand cost SL * CL * 375 gold, AND if enforced, SL * CL * 30 XP...so a 6th level wand of lightning is 6750 gold and 540 XP. In 2E, where were you getting them? Also of note: an exception here, sometimes, was with 1st level spells. SL 1 meant they were cheap. Cure Light gave most of its power at CL 1 to begin with...so 50 charges of 1d8 for 750 gp? WORTH IT! Because the pricing algorithm had this as a big loophole. There wasn't an equivalent for wizards; magic missile's damage scaled too slowly. But...if we stipulate extensive use of wands/staves, doesn't that flat-out say that the class's build patterns fail to achieve the needs and roles of the class? I also remember *using* scrolls and wands a lot in the 2E games...because they were basically free. You got a ton of em...especially scrolls. The money wasn't important; the scrolls had the salient advantage of always going off.

So, right now the Suns are playing one of their last NBA bubble games. It's being broadcast through Fox Sports Arizona (rather than NBA TV or another national venue) so the ads are frequently Arizona-focused. Political ads are numerous...and not surprisingly, many are focused on Covid-19 responsiveness or lack thereof, depending on the side in question. And it's just August. It's gonna be an ugly fall.....

Ahhh...you're right. That said, consider it just as an example, and the point still applies. There's a MASSIVE number of expansions for 2E. I agree that 3E was too rigid; 4E was worse. With 3E, tho, a lot of it was in reaction to the utter anarchy of 1E, which 2E didn't target. I don't think 3E was a mistake per se; I felt from the first that they didn't go far enough to address issues, presumably in the interest of not alienating the existing player base. The mistake, IMO, was 4E. Going back to Pathfinder...from what I saw, I'm concerned they made similar mistakes in their 2E that Wizards made with 4E. Too jargonistic, too complex, not friendly, still fairly rigid.

NOT correct; the DFP link is mis-stating things. The story says "expects to cancel" but it is NOT a done deal as of yet. The Indy Star picked up the story with the same misinterpretation. The Big 10 has a meeting scheduled for tomorrow, and I expect everyone to decide very quickly; there was something about students starting to return to campus *today.* I don't recall the details, but clearly if this is for the fall sport athletes, you need the decide NOW. The other issue, from reports, is they're trying to CYA big time. They want a shared announcement. They talk about "we need to explain to the athletes." Send in the medical staff to do that! Not just the death rates but the serious complications. IOW, I think they're hoping for a wing and a prayer so they don't have to lose the billions of dollars that will vaporize once they say that ugly word, Cancelled.

Living City opened up a magic shop a few times at major cons. IIRC...and the times I had the chance to do this, the lines were INSANE so I didn't...the iitem GP values were used for the trade-ins, and you had to trade in at least half the value of the item you wanted, in magical items you had. A big factor here, remember, is that 2E advocated random treasure generation SO much. Which meant the party tended to get a LOT of, if not junk, stuff that was either redundant or very sub-optimal. So if there's not a marketplace for magic, the players are accumulating a bunch of encumbrance, and not much more. A BIG!!!! chunk of the DMG was...random treasure generation. With tables. Usually percentiles, sometimes expanded to 3d10's to do 1 to 1000. Roll for # of items. Roll for item type...potion, scroll, weapon, armor, misc, etc. Most types had subtype rolls. Weapons, IIRC, had 2 or 3 tables...basic (just enhancement bonus), low-power special, high-power special (vorpal, dancing, stuff like that). THEN you rolled for the specific item. I forget how shops were set up, but I think, for exotic items, there was what amounted to rarity rolls. This, BTW, also points out a core problem: the lists were pretty static. So the DMG had all those tables, but then UA had to update them and replace several. It was very clunky.

Sure, but the arbitrary, capricious, and inconsistent nature of 2E was the motivator for 3E. 2E items often gave fixed benefits...but that made for rather inconsistent power. The girdle of giant strength, or just gauntlets of ogre power, were *awesome* for the fighter-type who failed to roll exceptional Str; nice but not crazy-good for someone who got lucky. It also doesn't help that the benefits could be massively out of proportion for some items, compared to anything you might get from normal play. (A GoGS was worth more than multiple wishes? Quite often, yes.) Basicallty, 1E and 2E were the DM's games, and the characters too often played supporting roles. It didn't help that the DM had little guidance as to what was, or was not, reasonable, and campaign derailment was not uncommon. Granted, quite often we didn't care, because we didn't vest in the characters, we vested more in the stories. But there was pushback on that, and a desire to give the players more control, AND the DMs more structure. Thus...3E. One of the things 3E probably, ultimately, did *wrong* was magic item creation. Along with a weak skill system. The cloak of elvenkind shouldn't turn the 12 Dex wizard into Aragorn moving through the woods; that's excessive IMO. But the skill system made it useless, as you note, and that's wrong.

The dominoes are shaking... https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29629669/power-5-talking-no-fall-football Great quote from the story that, IMO, says it all:

And unfortunately, India's situation appears to be spiraling out of control; daily case counts doubled during June (more or less)...and tripled in July. And still going up. Also says their daily death counts will continue to rise. Their overall rates aren't bad...but that's a surface analysis. They are in bad shape. EDIT: and....we just broke 20M cases worldwide.

WRT the cloak of elvenkind, tho, iin 2E t's using a completely disconnected "skill roll." It doesn't connect with anything else, which is structurally very poor. The problems in 3E were manifold. Apropos to the cloak, the skills system was bloody AWFUL for too many classes (horrible skill selection, no skill points). There was always a scaling problem with bonuses, as noted; at higher and higher levels they became much less useful. It took a while to realize that a weapon's most important aspect was its crits, because crits were insane. (SO insane that they hadda be nerfed a LOT by a negating defense.) Just went through the first few sections of the PF2 SRD, including char creation. I agree that it feels like it's designed for computer use. The cross referencing, the terminology reliance...it's easier to build most Hero characters, with only a little guidance. I looked at the Fighter...there are 74 fighter feats available. 74!!!!!!! You get one every other level. You get a skill feat every other level. Ancestry and general feats too. Bloody crazy! And does all of this belong in the core rules? It feels like they decided they'd combine materials from 1E core rules and 20-odd supplements, convert it to a consistent mechanic, and call that all core. I'll grant that Hero suffers from this complaint as well...which is an argument for the slightly slimmer Champions Complete, for supers play. But the core language is easier, I'd say, than PF2's. And that's saying something. PF2 doesn't remind me of Hero, so much...as GURPS. High-point character creation in GURPS is a MAJOR PITA.

That's from CNN. One still has to wonder about the choice of sounds. If those were intentional, they simply weren't well-thought. That said, I'd bloody well bet there's a management review that results in some people getting fired...either for adding sounds that weren't approved, or for approving the sounds. Mind, there's also a Rolling Stone article about how this is...a little different from what it seems, and we're having OUR hot buttons pressed and reacting. Which could well be true too, but even after reading that story...I think Hasbro made some poor judgments. Trying to say "it's not a button, it's a sensor" is hair-splitting.

A grateful ded.

As I and others have said for some time. But it's not the first domino in this case, more like...there's a bunch of wooden beams holding the season up. The termites have been moving in, with every outright cancellation by a school or a conference. This is the termites starting in on the main beam. What this also suggests is that on-campus classes are very much up in the air.

Perhaps so but the sounds produced are also really wrong, IMO.