Thanks,  Jareth, as usual you said what I was struggling to. (But you were more eloquent

You triggia memory that MA has an optional rule to limit dodges bya cumulative -1 penalty after the first one.

Yeah, I sometimes use that in my games, but only the "combat is a nightmare mode" type games where all the reality toggles are flipped to "gritty" (bleeding, Last Gasp, weapon's can be damaged, shield degradation, Lasting Major Wound Effects, etc).

It's fun, but a different sort of "and every fight is approached with the utmost caution" type of fun.  Not something I'd do for DF, but a Sword and Sandal fantasy (like Conan), sure.

Sometime I'd like to play a game in that mode.  The closest I've come is playing a "modern" setting Hero System -- no "healing" but Hero's Recovery mechanism and the fact that most attacks do mostly Stun, little Body damage, still makes it more cinematic.

Seems like a good mode to play a Delta Green or other horror-based game.  Bring extra character sheets...

Yeah, Delta Green would be perfect for it.*  I like it for Conan because the stories aren't very "high cinematics" (ignoring the movies) where people bleed out and die of infections all the time.


* I could even see it for a GURPS Men In Black, no wait, hear me out.  Yes they are 500-600 point PCs, but that would allow them to still feel like cinematic characters in a super deadly setting, but spinning all the reality dials up to 11 means you could overwhelm a MIB kill team with a simple zombie horde, not just the occasional super beast†.  It would shift the feel from cinematic combat and investigation to gritty-but-survivable combat and investigation...

†  It's really hard to challenge an MIB kill team without slipping into "insta-gib" mode witht he super-tough, super-powerful monsters.  Or by having some goal other than "kill the beast before it kills you/civies/the power plant/etc".

going to try and catch up tomorrow

In reply to Narrator (msg # 60):

The original player of half the junior group is back, and playing Haveron

Glad to be back, after quite a long long time.

In reply to Haveron Stormwal (msg # 62):

Welcome back!

Welcome back indeed.

In reply to Ardenas Barehand (msg # 64):

out of work today with back pain again, may not post until tomorrow

Get well soon

In reply to Haveron Stormwal (msg # 66):

thanks, been filling out Workmans Comp paperwork

Ugh.  I remember that.

"We're going to make you fill out lengthy forms, and then pay you half what you're used to getting."

Huh.  Construction and restaurants must be different than hospitals (and where ever Ardenas worked), HR always filled out all the paperwork (even drove out to my house to have me sign it after reading it at teh fast-food restaurant), and I got paid 2/3rd my weekly (as averaged over the last months).



Though, admittedly when I broke my foot at the steelyards, I did have to "fight" to get it.  HR was all "You're not wearing steeltoe boots, so you aren't covered", so the next day I came in to HR and requested everything I'd signed when I took the job.  30 minutes later I handed the stack back and said, "No where in here does it specify my boots must be steeltoe.  Just that they  must be full leather and come at least two inches above the ankle."†  I always wore recruits (army boots).  HR looked shocked, then read the papers, then sighed and filled out a different set of accident forms, I signed them, and got paid more than my regular hourly (we'd been on mandatory 60+ overtime the last 3 months).

Of course two days later new "uniform requirements" went out that everyone had 1 week to sign and comply with, the only change to the old uniform requirements was "steeltoe boots" for all positions (previously only forklift and crane operators were required them for some reason... and despite having been trained for both positions, and having done both jobs, I was never given that paperwork, because I was hired as a steel bender).  Our plant foreman was ... mildly displeased.  His old requirements were just "boots", not even full leather or above the ankle, so he'd always worn hikers with mesh sides.  He also spent 90% of his day in the air-conditioned office doing paperwork and chasing jobs on the phone, so he really had no room to complain.


† I honestly thought I'd maybe missed it, but as I'd read those requirements with an eye towards "do I have to buy steeltoes?", considering my ginormous feet makes that a very annoying prospect, I was pretty sure steeltoes were never specified.

In reply to Jareth Mooncalled (msg # 69):

That was a fascinating read. Yes, I'm geeky.

Ah, the joys of work place strife.

I honestly think working for an american (presumably) company kind of scares tf out of me.

Not certain, but I presume there's some requirement for the employer to supplement the cost of steel/safety toes (many of them are composite now instead of actual steel) for employees.  Mine, cheap as they are, gives me $85 (used to be $65) every two years to buy safety shoes (seemingly set by the price of the least costly compliant footwear -- my last pair was $145, remainder out of pocket -- and good only at a single shop thirteen miles from our workplace), even though I don't have a forklift certification any more (forklift drivers are the only ones there for whom safety toes are mandatory).

Yeah, I forgot to mention the lengthy interview after an on the job injury (after you're back from the emergency clinic, but before you even go home, never mind miss a day, unless you're in surgery or getting a cast) to try to pin the blame on the employee for failing to follow some one-line codicil in a forty-page employee handbook -- with the potential outcome of firing you for getting hurt on the job.

As I tell my friend in Netherlands every time health care comes up, "This is America.  We're barbarians."

I mean not to make this all "political" or US bashing or whatever - but the healthcare system seems, to me, to be actually insane. Granted, I probably know the bare minimum (being a UKer), but the thought of buying some rural ranch or land in USA is very appealing - the healthcare system is basically what makes it tricky.

That, 2 weeks vacation per year? Please.

please take everything I say with a pinch of salt though, I might just be flat wrong about any of this stuff.

In reply to Haveron Stormwal (msg # 73):
I get a month of vacation. problem is I have now developed a pattern of sick calls due to old injuries- my knee has been acting up four years postop, and this is the fourth time I have injured my back, but I can't see my wc docu til the 3rd...and the i jury was 3/23.

Probably a "State by State" thing, but speaking in Floridian, "Not even a little bit."  I've only had one job that supplied shoes, and since I couldn't use any they supplied (McD's shoe supplier, back when it was corporate*, only had shoes up to 12s), so they had a "yearly pay supplemental".  After 5 years of working there my non-skid (steel-toed†) work boots we're finally giving up the ghost, so I talked the Regional manager into lumping all five years supplemental into one pay-out and replaced my somewhat expensive non-skid (steel-toed) work boots with a new pair (okay, I didn't bother getting steel-toe this time, and the supplementary only covered just over half my boot cost, but I was still happy enough, boots in my size are expensive if they aren't army issue cheap).

No where else I've ever worked has had a "shoe budget", though I've been at several places that supplied "everything but the shoes".  And almost worked at one place that garnished your first paycheck to pay for your uniform, including 15$ for the "Worker's Handbook"!!!  The moment I heard that in training I laughed, said "I quit", and clocked out.  The full 'uniform and other work essentials' fee was around 150$, which was most of a week's training pay.  Since I'd quit before we had to sign that form and receive our uniforms, day 3 of training, I got paid more than those who stayed the whole week of training.


* Back in the day, like 20 years ago, before McD's went pure franchise, back when corporate stores were the main model.  Franchisees don't have to follow those rules, so they don't.  Some even charge for uniforms.

† Yeah, the previously mentioned boots.  I was in a position int he plant where I rarely dinged up my boots, so they were still in great shape when I quit the steelyard (for health reasons) 6 months later.  Those boots lasted me almost 20 years, which is crazy since recruits usually only last me about a year or two, and most shoes are dead within a year.  I'm rough on clothes.


Smells like a pro-Union state... which is good.  I wish all states were pro-Union.  But then we wouldn't have Florida Man and all of Florida's wackiness if that were so.


Mine were never lengthy.  Maybe five minutes.  But at the steelyard, after I had HR argue that I should just butterfly closure my arm when I had a chunk ripped out of it by a wild piece of rebar, yeah, they were 'lengthy' only in that I argued for treatment and made sure to always carefully read their incident reports to make sure nothing was "accidentally" left out.  (I later found out that HR got bonuses based on how many days the the plants went "accident free"... that's never a good thing.)


Honestly, it was only ever the steelyard, which was the penny pinchingest place I'd ever worked, that I had issues.  And man, I've worked some dodgy, fly-by-night seeming places, and those were always the most over-the-top, take care of the injured employee places I've worked.  Like at one place I was threaten with firing if I didn't go to the clinic to have a doctor look at the wound and declare it "properly taken care of, why are you here again?"

Frex, I have a long, long, long (and stupid) history of treating my own injuries (not just because I'm poor, I'm workplace injuries are free hospital visit right? Exactly what a poor person wants, free visit to the doctor, but no rather because i can treat it, and do so faster than a care center or emergency center... usually).  So I have a long history of signing a job accident paper that says, "administered self treatment, went back to work".  Because I'd usually rather be working than sitting in a waiting room for 5 hours because the injury isn't an actual emergency.


Not barbarians, buuuuut... we have a very twisted set of ideals as a nation.  On one hand we're very libertarian "Do it yourself, bootstraps, self-sufficiency, self determination‡", which a socialist medical system would over-ride, but then on the other hand, we have a very greedy, masters versus slave capitalism-run-amok, system of not paying workers enough to "do it themselves".

Like I don't get paid anywhere near enough to afford medical insurance (or put money aside to buy a house, or any of the other things our grandparents and parents could afford - I'm a Gen Xer for those wondering, so when I say 'grandparents' I'm referring to the The Silent Generation, not the Boomers).  Not good insurance anyway, I can afford 'shitty, does jack-all actually' insurance.  So instead I save money in the hopes I never have an emergency**, but I could afford to see a doctor every so often for checkups, etc... if these dang emergencies would stop happening.


** So yes, Trump erasing the ACA "it's not actually a tax" Penalty from our tax returns was one of the few things I thought he did right.

In reply to Narrator (msg # 74):

Ah man, I feel for you... that's pretty rough

Ah, that's where we left it.  Jeez, you'd think with something so large we wouldn't misplace it so easily... Hey Mario, the Hobs found our bhole!

That makes Military Retirement seem pretty good indeed, at least in my day; I gather things are not as good now.

Tricare for life is definitely worth serving four years in the military these days.  Almost, almost makes me wish I weren't too old to give four to old Uncle Sam...

Except it takes 20, not 4 years. But in combination with Medicare, our out of pocket expenses are rare and small. My wife had minor back surgery to replace her TENS unit and our portion of the whole bill is $17.