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unclevlad

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Everything posted by unclevlad

  1. It might not be particularly hard to do. Hero System has a whole section for physical problems; they're called Complications. Deconstruct the "package powers" ...especially DI. If you want the characteristics, buy them. If you want the Complication, take it. Just don't mix them together. Growth suggests the notion of "complications as powers" and the DCV and perception penalties are simple physical complications. Pre-loading a limitation into the base cost of a power has very screwy effects. The obvious: it makes any further limitations more effective. +10 STR, costs END, concentration to activate...10 points with -3/4 knocks down to 6. +10 STR costing 7 because the costs END is already included, then with concentration to activate, knocks down to 5. It also plays havoc with active points, which is important in VPPs and multipowers. Heck, Growth has the size templates with specific powers, and with a physical complication. 6E1 443. Shrinking's on 444. Use things like the extra KB as part of the mechanical interpretation of the Phys Complication.
  2. Option 2 is an entangle, but the "no, no, over HERE" doesn't generally create a lasting entanglement. Stretching also works to build Spidey's swinging from building to building. That is a valid point...not about electrical per se, but that no damage shield the target may have, actually affects Spidey. By the same token, tho, Spidey can't use it against, say, Human Torch. Or at least I don't think so. So seems an SFX wash.
  3. It's also just week 1, AKA the first preseason game of the year for the first string. No matter that it counts in the standings. The quality of play is frequently very low. That said...for a unit, yeah, the Saints defense probably had the worst single performance...them, or the Buffalo offense...but the offensive performance was such that I can't count it an ostrich egg. BAD loss, tho. Home game in the division. I tend to weigh the Detroit loss a bit heavier, simply because Detroit was at home. They even get spotted a total freebie...horrendous decision by Darnold...but they roll over and get gutted in the 3rd. At home. Buffalo got pancaked. Offenses are often a bit behind defenses, but that was beyond pathetic, to be sure...but it was on the road. It makes me question the coaching staff and whether the Bills have any decent veteran leadership...because that performance tells me they were simply not ready to play at something approaching real game conditions. Saints defense...we'll have to see. Look at the numbers last year...they were middle of the pack in many things like yards per play, and quite bad in some others. 5th worst in yards per rush. What they did VERY well, was grab interceptions...3rd best. But I believe these were more by good secondary play. That's a tough way to live, as opposed to having a front 6-7 that consistently puts considerable pressure and forces bad decisions and bad throws. I remember the Broncos during Elway's 2 SB wins. The defense was good, but not as good, I though, as some felt. Where they *throve* was pressuring the other team when they had the lead. That was most of the time. But against an offense that could dictate to them? They struggled. We shall see. I discount the predictive aspect of week 1 for most of these games, with some exceptions. Cowboys, because it was part and parcel of their root problems for years now. Steelers, because not throttling the Browns is simply unforgivable.
  4. Oh yeah... Counting Gruden as a 'rookie' coach in that it's his first year back... Rookie head coaches in week 1 had a perfect record. 0-7.
  5. So, what's worse.... The Raiders' defensive performance vs. the Rams...who are expected to be quite good... Or the Bears losing despite paying their messiah a full royal family ransom and trading a pair of #1s? Ostrich Egg of the Week nominees for most embarrassing performance by team: Steelers, Bears, Bills, and Lions. Goat of the Week for most pathetic individual performance, most directly leading to terrible result: I've got Big Ben and Stafford for sure. Any other nominees? Vote early. Week 2 is imminent. God I loathe TNF.....
  6. One big problem exists here. How does this happen? There's only 2 plausible scenarios...one's a whole bunch of nukes, the other's a natural disaster. Most obvious one there, is an asteroid impact. HOWEVER, that's something that probably can be identified in advance, so some precautions could be taken. There's a few sites that offer models of asteroid impacts of various sizes and velocities. Kind of fun to look at them. To take out something as relatively compact as NYC, it wouldn't necessarily take that large of an asteroid. One thing to remember is there's going to be sweeping secondary damage from water effects. It's actually possible the disruption *might* be mitigated by distributing things. Option 2 is more complex. 2 events combine. #1: big honkin' nasty earthquake in the Atlantic, leading to a tidal wave. #2: at the same time, a big honkin' hurricane hits. Yeah, the hurricane will offer some advance warning so the population loss could be mitigated....but throw 150 mph winds in with the tidal wave? It doesn't erase NYC, I'll grant, but the damage is immense. However, it's likely NYC would be rebuilt. So let's go asteroid. Let's also assume many of the companies *don't* decentralize. Well....it's a mess. Read this first: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_effects_arising_from_the_September_11_attacks And this is talking damage 1000 times greater. Basically, within a week you've got a worldwide depression. Insurance companies either go bankrupt...there's no possible way to pay off the claims, as they'll quite possibly exceed the entire US GDP...or they're stuck in total PR hell in denying claims because it was an act of God. This also totally depresses markets; the insurance companies own a LOT of stock. Oh, and the stock market crash annihilates pension fund income, meaning many, many retirees are *flattened*. This isn't speculative; the banking crisis caused major problems for quite a few pension plans. This is gonna make that look like a hiccup. The politics are more complex than just saying there's a loss of a Democratic stronghold...because the market collapse is going to crush many, many fortunes...more of which lean Republican. I'm also thinking most of the area does NOT actually get rebuilt. It's honestly not even clear to me if it would be cleaned up. First, we're talking a HUGE area that's been pulverized. Second, as was pointed out, there's a honkin' big crater, which means water flooding everywhere, filling ALL the subway tunnels, which will further destabilize the entire region...sinkholes will appear at random. Now also consider it's going to be a MASSIVE toxic site. I think there would have to be massive efforts to just stabilize things so the damage doesn't spread. And given that the economy is in the dumpster? Rebuild ain't gonna happen. The pollution aspect makes me think Boston and Philly are Right Out. I suspect different sectors would move to different cities. Markets to Chicago, as the mercantile exchanges are already there. Banking, I'm gonna suggest Austin. Culture...Miami? Possibly Atlanta? Media would be LA and probably Chicago. But recognize this is gonna be in a vastly changed world; recovery is going to take decades.
  7. Absolutely. Combat is a crucible where effectiveness wins. Prioritization is critical, as there's always ways to spend points...and they're all high priority. You're basically compelled to seek efficiency points.
  8. BTW: Champs 3E also has a very narrow set of limitation types: activation, always on, End Bat, Focus, Increased End, Limited Power, and Limited Uses.
  9. It's very much in the spirit of what Ron's trying to do in Champs Now, and I think it's the better direction. That said, it's probably asking a lot for newer players to assess what limitations should be worth. My copy of Champs Now rules is now a couple months old...haven't downloaded in a while. But one thing for others to note is, the list of limitations s MUCH, MUCH shorter. Categories: activation, always on, burnout, costs End, focus, increased End, linked, no range, only in hero ID, and the catchall Limited for usable or not, reduced effectiveness/all or nothing. I also have to wonder the degree to which limitations have exploded, in Hero System, is due to trying to duplicate other systems. For example, trying to duplicate spells and magical items for fantasy gaming, while letting them be affordable and reasonably effective.
  10. He never got that far, it seems safe to say. And it's not that much of a tangent, as it's almost much the concept I was targeting insofar as the movement went. I'm just not going the limits range, but levels because the viscous body notion totally dovetails in with damage negation IMO. It's not entirely the same as moving to Desolid but it's close.
  11. Well, DUH. Not like it hurt HIM any. He'd already had his fun. Zeus was very much a love em and leave em kinda guy, if I recall.
  12. Psych Lim: Dissociative Personality Disorder. https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/dissociative-identity-disorder-multiple-personality-disorder#1 Note, for severity, this could be a +15.
  13. Greenland and Iceland...makes sense, altho Iceland might go to Germany as well. Their westernmost base, useful as an advance warning post. EDIT: also a staging base for North Atlantic subs to operate from. Why would Germany bother with South America? At least military intervention. Political influence, puppet states...sure. But what'll be much more important...and EASIER...is the Middle East, once the oil fields are discovered. Germany's got a lot on their plate as is, trying to retain much of central Europe and the eastern Mediterranean (and possibly north Africa), and retain forces on the eastern border to keep a way eye on Russia. Military occupation across an ocean is hard to pull off, if the native populace of the occupied lands are at all feisty. In South America...they'd be feisty, and I think, better organized than, say, India vs. the British. I'm also figuring that long term stability is largely inversely proportional to the degree of military action.
  14. Shay Carson ain't got no 20 STR. Yeah, a bit of extra running and/or leap would help. Acrobatics and Breakfall to go for the clean landings that are implicit in the movements. Lotta climbers actually don't have high Str; they do tend to have high Str-to-weight. Wiry strong, whenever I see wall or free-rock climbers. But that's only gonna buy you another +1, so if it doesn't fit, it's cheaper to toss in another skill point. Or a general +1, even +2, with the 3 skills...acro, breakfall, climbing. Good END too, as a lot of this sounds like you're burning both running and leaping END in many phases.
  15. True nuff. 3 HR game is impressive if it's 1100 feet or 1300. But those mammoth drives are cool to watch. And special shots...splashdowns in McCovey Cove, completely *clearing* any stadium....those are just IMPRESSIVE.
  16. Whichever way floats your boat. Alliance is plausible, but so is revulsion on the Canadian part, and jealousy on the US part. Canada can undercut Pittsburgh; Birmingham's a mess. Quite plausible that Canada treats the US like the little brother. But yours is fine too. And thank you. I think this would be an excellent superheroes environment, and an *awesome* street-level game setting. We never once really got into powers once we started on the Sino-Japan alliance path.
  17. Hm. Something I'd not considered. The British Empire still falls apart; that's a given. It can't survive. OK, so...what happens with Canada and US/Canada relations? There's no NATO. There's no history of bailing out the Empire by the US. They are still neighbors, but without as much joint history. HECK...ya know, we could argue that Canada industrializes to a higher degree, as *they* have to intervene to help the Old Country more. So the big iron mines in and around the Great Lakes feed Canadian growth to a higher degree. The US steel industry was rebuilt for/by WW II, as I recall; it was in need of modernization. Well, now that takes place more in Canada, and...ok, perhaps they're not the dominant industrial power on the continent, but the gap is much smaller. I'm thinking US/Canada relations are largely.....testy. Perhaps cautious, from the Canadian perspective, might be a better word.
  18. 1/4 mile is 1320 feet, so you need 3 averaging 440. 440's a LONG dinger. Remember shots down the line might only be 380...even 350 in some parks.
  19. Orioles won't quite have the worst season in the post-expansion era, even if we toss out the '62 Mets. 2003 Tigers darn near became the first team to lose 120. And consider they've got the Sox, challenging for the best regular season record ever...looks like they'll miss now, but 110 or so wins is still insane. And the Yanks will be at 100 wins. AND the Rays may sniff at 90, which would be right in there to make the playoffs fairly often. Last week of the season elimination, for sure. That said, gotta figure Orioles (and Nats) are likely looking at big changes. I think having Ohtani hit next year is a non-starter. Whose spot in the lineup would he take? DH is Pujols and he's still owed almost $90M. And he can't play the field any more. You can't carry 2 people on the active roster for this; there's just not enough slots, given the HUGE pitching staffs everyone carries. And of course, this assumes he actually *could* hit safely. Not sure of that...but I am sure that if anything did go wrong? Like, say, get hit on the elbow???? OY!!!! No...the risk/benefit analysis is terrible on that alone, and the other factors make it, to me, baseball equivalent to criminally reckless. My early pick to come out of the American League: Astros. Easier path by a wide margin. National League...who the heck knows??? Whoever comes out there is likely a serious dog to whoever escapes the minefield of the AL.
  20. Not trying to be antagonistic but, based on what? IMO the Burn Nike protests are car alarms in the parking lot of life...massively more noisy than numbers say they should be. Trump doesn't like it? Considering his current ratings, there's no better support you can ask for than his condemnation. NFL Live today was also saying that the ad is strongly resonating with younger demographics...which isn't surprising. So ok, maybe there's some short-term loss, but long-term, this is expected to be highly successful.
  21. Ewwww.... If the Japinese gain the toehold....we can give Las Vegas a big problem. Mafia vs. Yakusa.
  22. I don't offhand have a way that the blacks would pull it off, per se. I was running through potential conclusions in my head, and...well, something like South Africa? Maybe? OK, put it down. Note that I didn't dwell on it. BUT...ok, one path. The Nazis were even MORE racist. The upsurge in violence in the South might be countered by shaming...this is Nazi behavior. I'm painting the Germans as 50's vintage Russia-level villains at least, so this could be a basis for damping down American racism and possibly leading to a detente in the South. In this construction, it's reasonable to play up the anti-German sentiment at least, and potentially broaden it to much of central Europe. Note that I'm leaning away from too much overt, aggressive anti-Asian prejudices, as the stronger that is, the more difficult it is to justify a successful "peacekeeping" mission on the West Coast. The fracture I like the most, from the standpoint of supporting a Japinese intervention that can be in place for an extended period... --the South at war with itself --Texas splits; whether they bother to go to war with Mexico or not. Texas won't give a damn about California one way or the other, I'd think. --the East Coast caught up in a Nazi-based McCarthy-level panic that shows no sign of letting up --the Midwest is 100% absolutely bugnuts isolationist and non-interventionalist...in fact, the midwest states might even favor taking back more power from such a fractured central government. And of course, Utah would probably *LOVE* that! It might well become theocratic in all but name. No one cares about the northern plains or mountain states. No populace, no power, at least initially. I was thinking, hmm...maybe East Coasters would flee into Nevada or Arizona, kinda as they do now, albeit for different reasons. Well, here...those states might become rather less inclined to accept the Snow Belters.
  23. The scenario I'm posing has the US completely sitting out events in Europe and the Pacific...even if the Philippines is taken. That said, the incarceration of the Japanese on the West Coast did happen, and there was quite strong anti-German sentiment...LOTS of families changed names, as I understand it, to avoid being tarred by the Germanic brush. So that's plausible too. But move forward to the 50s, and I think the deeply-rooted prejudice is going to be fanned once more. That said, hey...all of the above. Northeast and Great Lakes (Milwaukee was the beer capital of the country for a reason)...Germanic. West Coast...Japanese. South...blacks. Plenty to start, if not a full-on civil war, an ongoing cycle of violence, riots, and distrust that fractures any bonds. That's the climate where Japina can intervene in a "peacekeeper" or "protectionist" role...not the conquering role...and reprisals will be impractical.
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