Downtown Khazan: Ice Cold Utopia

[Dark Soul # 7]

Best wishes to your wife and you Sharp. Hope it all turns out ok.

[Dark Soul # 7]

Seven Deadly Sins: Huh, our sweet, peace-seeking heroine used to be called Bloodstaine Elizabeth during the wars and she's now ready to show why.

And Ban has finally gotten his sacred treasure back to amp up his already OP stats and abilities further.

Cool chapter.

[FistofIron]

I hope everything is good with your wife Sharp.

[FistofIron]

Sadly tonight’s D&D is cancelled. Hopefully next week.

My buddies are interested in Mutants and Masterminds.

[Len Ikari145]

Fairy Tail: So, we're finally introduced to the Wood Dragon God and....

Natsu, I think you're gonna need A LOT more Nakama power.

[Sharpandpointies]

Thank you to everyone for your well-wishes. Wow - that's a lot. ^_^

So, good news. Apparently at least four other people I know or who are connected to people I know have been suffering similar symptoms as my wife (serious vertigo) for the last week. The specific symptoms OF the vertigo are actually identical to hers. The doctor at the emergency ward said it could have something to do with sinus pressure on the inner ear. Allergies have been at an all-time high this week in Ottawa. The four other people all have bad allergies.

My wife USED to have bad allergies, but doesn't any more (after we went plant-based, her allergies pretty much disappeared). However, the doctor did state that one can have swelling in the sinus without having mucus and other symptoms. And my wife's allergies were at their worst this time of year. Working theory is that her allergies are 'almost gone', but because it's so bad right now (outside the normal level for this season) she has some kind of swelling happening? Maybe?

Despite her not having sniffles, she tried decongestants (at the doctor's suggestion) and they seem to have helped, so that's ANOTHER good point.

In any case, that her symptoms are exactly mirrored by four other people means two things that take the stress off.

1. It's not something like a tumor (well, I suppose it's possible but the odds of that versus the odds of everyone having this due to allergies or something seem...rather low);
2. It's likely not something she'll have to live with for the rest of her life (ie, consequence of neural degeneration that is continuing in her ears).

So, it's looking good.

Thank you all again.

1. Sharp, I hope your wife’s health situation improves.
2. I’ll get a post in tomorrow on Anima.
3. Completely agree on Jessica Jones (I’ve finished it now). Of the four main Netflix series (Defenders was kind of it’s own thing and Punisher, while excellent, is only one season so far), JJ is the most consistently solid. Weirdly, I don’t hate Iron Fist the way that some do, and find it consistently better than the crappier parts of Daredevil (*cough*Elektra*cough*) and Luke Cage (which seems to cycle between excellent and crappy with worrying ease). But JJ is good all the way through. Sure, nothing is quite at the level of Season 1, but nevertheless excellent. And I really find the slower-paced detective work engaging. I really hope Disney find a way to revive these series on their streaming service, albeit with strict parental guidance obviously - you wouldn’t want a kid equating Jessica Jones with Hannah Montana.

I admit that the crappy parts of Daredevil (exactly what you say) and Luke Cage (the business of 'now we will switch villains mid-season, replacing an interesting one with one that is utter blandness) are worse than the good parts of Iron Fist. I feel that IF suffers from the exact same problems with regards to villains, though, as well as worse characters and surprisingly disappointing fight sequences for a show that was supposed to be about super-martial artists (Coleen's cage match is probably the height of good fight scenes in IF Season 1, for me). But mileage, etc. I totally understand your POV.

[Sharpandpointies]

Sadly tonight’s D&D is cancelled. Hopefully next week.

My buddies are interested in Mutants and Masterminds.

Make sure it's 2e. 1st edition had balancing issues, and 3rd...I've not heard good things about (but I suppose it could be good). 2e was really, really good. I played a few online PBP games with that, and it worked fantastically well.

You can basically simulate ANYTHING with the power system. It might cost, it might be weird, but it works. I had a martial artist who could see 'flaws'. Kind of like Karnak, I guess, but they could also see flaws in fighting styles, attacks, defenses, tactics, overall plans, philosophies, everything. It was tricky simulating this in-game for combat without just cranking up their attack/defend skills (which would make them no different from another character with high attack/defend skills...); I eventually made up a convoluted power involving Invisibility-That-Isn't-Invisibility-And-In-No-Way-Makes-Them-Unseen to simulate their ability to find and exploit flaws in people's attacks. The GM was somewhat boggled by it, but admitted it worked for what I wanted. Out of combat? There were a few things I bought for the character that simulated it out of combat that worked really, really well (including 'Master Plan' and 'Ultimate Skill: Tactics' - give the character a minute to consider a situation or an enemy plan, and they could come up with a counter-plan of their own that translated to 'everyone on my team gets a bonus on all of their rolls for the upcoming conflict').

Basically, one can build one's own powers using other powers as a base, and what you can get out of it often doesn't resemble the base power at all. ^_^

Really getting this to work requires the Powers book, which divides 'powers' into two categories - I forget their names, but let's call the first one 'base' powers (ie, basic abilities like 'blast' or 'increased movement' or the like) that one can either buy to be a power all by itself (my martial artist had one level of increased movement, allowing them to run faster than normal humans...but that's all) or use to mix together with other powers and/or modifiers to make specific stuff like 'fire control' or 'Invisibility' or whatever. The second series of powers given in the book are basically common superhero examples of more complicated powers that have already been 'made' from base powers. For example, Superspeed is basically 'increased movement' with 'increased initiative' (initiative bonus) and 'increased speed' (or something named like that, which allows people to complete tasks in much shorter time), and a number of potential modifiers one can add to it to allow one to do the kinds of things people do in comics (superspeed punching all people in an area, for example).

Side note: Superspeed in Mutants and Masterminds sucks; it's like comic book superspeed with PIS fully engaged. The writers flat-out admit this, and even point to how superspeed works in comic books with PIS engaged (they don't use that term, but they note that Superspeed in comics isn't all what it would be in reality). I can't blame them - Superspeed is something I feel has no place in RPG's if it's treated as a thing all on its own AND realistic (PIS off), because it creates all kinds of overpowered crap (as we know from Rumbles!). Also, realistically, having vast amounts of superspeed in one character and zero in another should also lead to one player sitting around, twiddling their thumbs while player two does a gazillion things...which is not good, either.

I've only ever seen superspeed done sort-of well in two ways in RPGs:

1. It's weak and expensive. There are no 'vast amounts of superspeed', only 'you can be faster, but not so much faster, and it'll cost you in terms of the rest of your character';
2. It's rolled up into other stats. There is no 'speed' stat, 'speed' is instead part and parcel of whatever Attack/Defend stat exists, so people with high Attack/defend have speed as well as skill, and people with low Attack/defend have less speed and skill. This takes speed out of the equation for being overpowered, but doesn't 'ignore' it in fluff terms.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Thoughts and prayers to you and the Mrs, Sharp. Glad to hear it seems less dangerous than it could have been.

[Sharpandpointies]

Thoughts and prayers to you and the Mrs, Sharp. Glad to hear it seems less dangerous than it could have been.

Thanks, Cleric. It's looking much better, I'll say.

[FistofIron]

Make sure it's 2e. 1st edition had balancing issues, and 3rd...I've not heard good things about (but I suppose it could be good). 2e was really, really good. I played a few online PBP games with that, and it worked fantastically well.

You can basically simulate ANYTHING with the power system. It might cost, it might be weird, but it works. I had a martial artist who could see 'flaws'. Kind of like Karnak, I guess, but they could also see flaws in fighting styles, attacks, defenses, tactics, overall plans, philosophies, everything. It was tricky simulating this in-game for combat without just cranking up their attack/defend skills (which would make them no different from another character with high attack/defend skills...); I eventually made up a convoluted power involving Invisibility-That-Isn't-Invisibility-And-In-No-Way-Makes-Them-Unseen to simulate their ability to find and exploit flaws in people's attacks. The GM was somewhat boggled by it, but admitted it worked for what I wanted. Out of combat? There were a few things I bought for the character that simulated it out of combat that worked really, really well (including 'Master Plan' and 'Ultimate Skill: Tactics' - give the character a minute to consider a situation or an enemy plan, and they could come up with a counter-plan of their own that translated to 'everyone on my team gets a bonus on all of their rolls for the upcoming conflict').

Basically, one can build one's own powers using other powers as a base, and what you can get out of it often doesn't resemble the base power at all. ^_^

Really getting this to work requires the Powers book, which divides 'powers' into two categories - I forget their names, but let's call the first one 'base' powers (ie, basic abilities like 'blast' or 'increased movement' or the like) that one can either buy to be a power all by itself (my martial artist had one level of increased movement, allowing them to run faster than normal humans...but that's all) or use to mix together with other powers and/or modifiers to make specific stuff like 'fire control' or 'Invisibility' or whatever. The second series of powers given in the book are basically common superhero examples of more complicated powers that have already been 'made' from base powers. For example, Superspeed is basically 'increased movement' with 'increased initiative' (initiative bonus) and 'increased speed' (or something named like that, which allows people to complete tasks in much shorter time), and a number of potential modifiers one can add to it to allow one to do the kinds of things people do in comics (superspeed punching all people in an area, for example).

Side note: Superspeed in Mutants and Masterminds sucks; it's like comic book superspeed with PIS fully engaged. The writers flat-out admit this, and even point to how superspeed works in comic books with PIS engaged (they don't use that term, but they note that Superspeed in comics isn't all what it would be in reality). I can't blame them - Superspeed is something I feel has no place in RPG's if it's treated as a thing all on its own AND realistic (PIS off), because it creates all kinds of overpowered crap (as we know from Rumbles!). Also, realistically, having vast amounts of superspeed in one character and zero in another should also lead to one player sitting around, twiddling their thumbs while player two does a gazillion things...which is not good, either.

I've only ever seen superspeed done sort-of well in two ways in RPGs:

1. It's weak and expensive. There are no 'vast amounts of superspeed', only 'you can be faster, but not so much faster, and it'll cost you in terms of the rest of your character';
2. It's rolled up into other stats. There is no 'speed' stat, 'speed' is instead part and parcel of whatever Attack/Defend stat exists, so people with high Attack/defend have speed as well as skill, and people with low Attack/defend have less speed and skill. This takes speed out of the equation for being overpowered, but doesn't 'ignore' it in fluff terms.

That sounds really cool. I’m definitely going to give it a shot. Super speed seems to be a potential problem though.

New chapter of Abyss Rage is out and one of my theories turned out to be true. This should be badass. I’m worried one of my favorite characters might’ve just thrown up a death flag though.

[Sharpandpointies]

Super speed isn't a problem in M&M if you don't want it. It's just not terribly effective in game as opposed to how good it would be if realistic. That's not to say it's absolute crap - having a super-high initiative is good, having a ridiculous movement speed is good, having the ability to carry out a task in 1/20th of the time is good, etc. It's just not the "I Win" card some would consider it. The rules basically stop that from happening, relegating superspeed to 'you go first, you can do non-combat stuff fast, you can get some special effects in combat if you buy them (like everyone else), you can move fast, and if you're REALLY fast you can get a good defensive score if you do nothing but RUNRUNRUN'.

I don't actually mind - I'd rather see Super Speed nerfed than be realistic in a game, because then EVERYONE needs to have it -- or a counter to it -- to be viable. And one doesn't need superspeed in one's concept to have a good character. ^_^

[FistofIron]

Super speed isn't a problem in M&M if you don't want it. It's just not terribly effective in game as opposed to how good it would be if realistic. That's not to say it's absolute crap - having a super-high initiative is good, having a ridiculous movement speed is good, having the ability to carry out a task in 1/20th of the time is good, etc. It's just not the "I Win" card some would consider it. The rules basically stop that from happening, relegating superspeed to 'you go first, you can do non-combat stuff fast, you can get some special effects in combat if you buy them (like everyone else), you can move fast, and if you're REALLY fast you can get a good defensive score if you do nothing but RUNRUNRUN'.

I don't actually mind - I'd rather see Super Speed nerfed than be realistic in a game, because then EVERYONE needs to have it -- or a counter to it -- to be viable. And one doesn't need superspeed in one's concept to have a good character. ^_^

Ah okay that works then. Tell me more about your martial arts character.

[Sharpandpointies]

Ah okay that works then. Tell me more about your martial arts character.

It has been a while - I'll see what I can remember. I imbalanced their stats to prioritize attack and defense skills over damage and toughness (heavily prioritize in the case of defense). Rather than using strength for damage, I gave them a 'Strike' power with autofire (autofire adds to the damage with better hit rolls, simulating more attacks of the 'burst' hitting...in this character's case, it simulated 'a higher attack roll means more accurately hitting weaker areas' to add to the damage, another case of using one power to simulate something different) and made it a multi-power, allowing them to stun, nauseate, and weaken people, depending on what they wanted (comic book pressure points, hits to vital areas, that kind of thing) - autofire in that case added to the number people had to save against in order to resist the effect. A little extra movement, for running speed. Ridiculous physical skills (stealth, acrobatics, the like - truly comic book levels of these). An extra sense - air pressure sensing, precise and targeting, to allow them to recognize details and also fight using air pressure alone (if blinded).

The capper was a 'full concealment' power, against all senses. However, it had the modifiers 'Only in combat, has no visible effect (haha), and doesn't work against people with Superspeed'. There were a couple of other modifiers, I'd need to look them up. Essentially it gave the character the benefit of 'Full Concealment' (by the rules) without rendering them invisible, inaudible, or anything else like that. They were there, they were visible, you could see/hear/smell/sense them, but by the RULES they were considered to have Full Concealment...which meant in combat, they received the benefit of every attack that 'hits' having a 50/50 chance of then automatically missing. This was the character's 'Sense Flaws in attacks' ability - basically, even if someone managed to hit them with their ridiculous defense, there would then be a second roll with a 50/50 chance of negating the attack. The weakness against fast characters represented the idea that while they might see the flaw in the attack, they simply wouldn't be quick enough to capitalize against it. There was one sense it was weak against, as well - mental senses (mind reading).

Also, the character had immunity: fear (they were somewhat...unbalanced, mentally, and not feeling any fear was part of that) and an immunity to having their powers messed around with by people who had 'power control' (they were 'unpowered', really - all of the character's 'powers' were really representing ridiculous skills and trained or innate 'natural' abilities to do things). They had numerous weakness, as well, which made them fun.

Feats can make for a ridiculous martial artist in-game. This character had feats to swap points between attack, defend, damage, back and forth if need be, allowing them tactical choices in a fight. Feats to improve their initiative. Feats to allow them to just keep hitting people as long as they KO'ed a target and their next target was within 5' (making for an impressive kind of 'Street Level Martial Artist Blitzes Normals' thing in a single round - the character once hit a group of 12 thugs standing around 3 cars and KO'ed every one of them in a round, made for a fun description in my PbP post). Another pair of feats were 'ultimate skill: tactics' and 'master plan' to simulate seeing flaws in plans and devising counter-tactics.

The character's big weakness was that they were awfully fragile compared to other heroes. If a superstrong character managed to hit them, they were pretty much done - likely injured or 'crippled' (or the equivalent), stunned, etc (they could weather the strikes of a normal human, though with a chance of injury, and a strong human would start to stack up damage against them pretty quickly). And they could get telepathically fried, or whathaveyou. Area attacks worked decently. Massively durable characters would laugh at them (and did, though they took that in stride, finding it funny as well), though they managed to KO one once by hitting them over and over with stunning attacks until the dude failed two saves in a row and went from Stunned to KO. But they were sneaky (like, Batman-sneaky), they were solid in a fight, they were fast, and due to their personality, hilarious to play. Great searching skills and senses as well. Not group leader or most powerful, but they were a solid part of the team, helping in lots of ways.

M&M doesn't do too badly at doing martial arts (in this case, 'better hand to hand fighting'). It doesn't have specific martial art RULES, but the Feat system and the powers allows for simulation of all kinds of hilarity, including grappling, breaking people's bones and such(damage that is lethal and/or has extra effects over and above 'damage', like weakening people for a long period), debilitating strikes, adaptability, etc, etc.

[Sharpandpointies]

Apologies to others for massively nerding up the thread. ^_^

[Jcogginsa]