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sirpoley · 4 years

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On the Four Table Legs of Traveller, Leg 3: Character Creation

In part 1 of this series, I described how Mongoose Traveller's spaceship mortgage rule becomes the drive for adventure and action in a spacefaring sandbox, and the 'autonomous' gameplay loop that follows.

In part 2, I talked about how Traveller's Patron system gives the DM a tool to pull the party out of the 'loop' and into more traditional adventures.

In this part, I'll talk about Traveller's unique character creation system, and how it supports the previous two systems.

Brief Overview of Character Creation

Traveller's character creation is weird, and it was the first thing house-ruled away by my old DM—and I can see why.

Traveller character creation is a minigame of sorts, in which you first generate ability scores (much like in D&D), then pick a career. You make a stat check to qualify for the career, one to 'survive' the career (more on this later), and one to advance. Every time you qualify for the career and/or advance, you get a random skill or stat boost from a table related to your training. In the Army and Marines, for example, you're very likely to get combat-related skills, while as a Merchant you're more likely to get something like Broker or Admin (which tend to be more useful, surprisingly).

You also roll once on a life event table, in which your character might fall in or out of love, make friends or enemies, study abroad, and so on.

You then advance four years in age and try again, and continue for as long as you want. If your character gets too old, they start suffering physical ability score consequences, though these can be bought off with semi-legal anti-aging meds, the consequence of which is starting with high amounts of medical debt.

Rolling to Survive

If you fail a survival roll, you're permanently expelled from your career (but can start another one), and often suffer major debilitating injuries in the form of sweeping permanent ability score damage, though this can be bought off by going deep into medical debt. It's technically possible to die in character creation if your physical ability scores are reduced to zero in this way, in which case you would start over. For that to happen, the player would have to decline treatment—basically, they're making a choice to give up and start over. This is a kind of extreme "safety net" against playing truly worthless characters, I suppose, though I haven't seen it happen yet.

Why is this Good Again?

This way of creating characters is shockingly different from any that I've seen before. The character that you end creation with might not have any resemblance at all to what you sat down and intended to create, which was a huge source of frustration, as a player, in my last two campaigns. It's more common than not to, for example, come up with a concept for a dashing space pilot and end up with a 98 year-old-that-looks-34 white-collar office worker who's got a laundry list of grievances against various corporations who have fired him over the years.

When I've seen this system work well, it's because players went into it with different expectations that they would in D&D. For a D&D campaign, you usually come to the table with a more-or-less fully-fledged character concept, then roll stats (or point-buy) and fill in the boxes. In Traveller, it's more like spinning a wheel and seeing what you'll get.

For the kind of campaign that Traveller assumes, however, this is perfect, and here's why.

First, it sets the tone of the campaign. Traveller is very different from most D&D-esque RPGs. It doesn't provide any guidance for or benefit from, for example, balanced encounters. By creating mechanically unbalanced, unpredictable characters, it is telling the players from the start that there are sharp edges to this game and they have to stay on their toes.

Second, it generates crucially important NPCs for the campaign. Those life events—and some fail-to-survive rolls—often create allies, enemies, rivals, and contacts: NPCs that are guaranteed to be met during the campaign. The book provides tips to the DM to ensure that these NPCs have access to spaceships, as they can be found on the random encounter tables. But here's the fun bit: the Player will be just as pissed at their rival, Captain Morgensen (or whatever) as their character is supposed to be, as he was (according to the events table) instrumental in getting them fired from their career as a space scout. By generating these characters during character creation's life-simulation, it gives them a real, emotional connection that leads to a lot of fun during play. These NPCs can easily function as Patrons (which, as explained in part 2, are the keys to adventure), or can provide paths to Patrons.

Third, it has the potential to start the characters massively in debt. The clear optimal path in character creation is to pay off any injuries by going into medical debt, and chug analgesic anti-aging pills like they're Skittles in order to keep advancing down your career paths, or start new ones. As explained in part 1, Traveller's 'loop' functions best when the PCs are swimming in as much debt as possible. The more debt, the more motivation to travel, and thus the more space pirates and space dragons and space princesses and whatever that they'll meet.

Fourth, it familiarizes them with the setting. The book provides quite a few career path options to the Players, and uses the same to generate its NPCs. Thus, just by reading through the career path options available to them, Players learn a lot about the world of Traveller and the kinds of people they might meet, without having to read lengthy setting handouts or pages and pages of lore or anything like that.

Fifth, it creates gaps in the party's expertise, which encourages hiring NPCs. It's virtually impossible to end up with an adventuring party that can cover every skill required to operate a spaceship, for example. This encourages hiring NPC crewmembers to fill in those gaps, which really helps make Traveller 'work'. A lot of the party's time is going to be spent on their spaceship, so the more people who are on there, the better from a roleplaying standpoint. Also,

That said, it's not perfect, as…

There Are Some Real Limitations

Mechanically, the main issue that's come up with Traveller's character creation is that it's entirely possible for the party to be missing one or more vital skills, or for a character to be lacking something that would be key to making them 'work'. Traveller's basic dice mechanics harshly penalize untrained skill checks compared to attempting even slightly-trained ones, and some roles can't be easily filled in by NPC crewmembers. If your character never rolls to learn the Gun Combat skill, for example, they'll more likely than not miss every attack they make in the whole campaign. The party can overcome this by hiring marines, for example, but the player might still be bored every time a gunfight starts.

This can be mitigated by, say, letting that player control their hired NPCs in combat directly, but as the game doesn't really provide a lot of guidance for who plays hired NPCs (the DM? the player that hired them? The party as a whole, by vote?), the DM and player will have to come up with their own solution. Since they might not even realize that there is a problem that needs to be solved, this can easily lead to traps (for example, if the DM assumes full control over hired NPCs, many battles will lead to the DM just rolling checks against himself/herself over and over in front of an audience) that generate frustration.

Mechanics aside, there are some narrative implications for character creation that might strike many Players as quite weird. Most D&D Players default to making their adventurers whatever their races' equivalent of early-20s is. Sometimes there's an old wizard thrown in to spice things up, but I'd say 9-in-10 characters I've seen are 'college-aged.'

Traveller strongly rewards old characters. Sometimes very old. Don't be surprised if the average age of the Traveller characters is the same as the summed age of all of your Players. This isn't necessarily bad—immortal, eternally-young sci-fi characters are kinda neat—but it's also pretty limiting, and may not be within the Players' expectations. If a Player wants to make a character who's a young hotshot just starting out, the rules will punish them severely. They'll have virtually no skills, no money (or debt!), no ship shares (units that track ownership of the spaceship), and no NPC connections.

Making it Work

I'm not going to change these rules until I'm more familiar with the system, but my gut says that many of the game's skills (such as Computers, Comms, and Sensors, or the two skills that govern two different, but similar, kinds of environmentally-sealed armour) could be consolidated to reduce the odds of a missing skill torpedoing a character. I also think flexibly passing back and forth control of hired NPCs between the DM and Players will solve a lot of problems, but deciding on the fly who is in control in a given scenario will probably take some experience as a DM. I’m vaguely aware that there’s a second edition of Mongoose Traveller, which may have done some of these things, but I haven’t played it and as such can’t comment on it.

I think for a satisfying experience, you have to make it clear to your Players not to try to build their characters to a pre-imagined concept, but rather come up with a concept as they play through their character's life. Also, tell them upfront that, in this particular sci-fi universe, anti-aging technology has allowed for the rich and powerful to stay eternally young, and that they can expect to have already retired from one or more full careers before the campaign even begins.

Next up, how this all ties in with random encounters.

#TravellerRPG #Traveller #FourLegsofTraveller

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captainmazzic · 4 years

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Saw The Last Episode this morning so I can finally have a dash again, apologies to the dozen or so blogs I unfollowed earlier so I could cope

anyway

star wars spoilers under the cut for my hot steaming rotting carcass of an oPiNiOn

Okay so it was... an okay movie. It moved too fast and tried to do too much and introduce too many brand new characters that could have been used better, but. The parts I liked, I LOVED. The parts I didn’t... well let’s just say that Star Wars will be Star Wars, and there’s nothing I can do about that other than cherry-pick what I like and leave the rest for the vultures.

The number one thing that bothers me is mostly just... It’s kind of been a calling card of Star Wars that

1. villains can never survive their arc, and

2. any villain with a redemption arc (whatever THAT is) has to die at the end of it regardless.

The exceptions being Big Bad Clones Of the Big Bad, which might survive their first arc but ultimately all die in the end, What A Twist. That’s just... how Star Wars does things. That and its penchant for insisting that physical deformity or disability somehow always implies an inclination towards evil, and that is just utter fucking bullshit and it needs to STOP. With that and the villain death thing - mostly the villain death - it’s been like that since the OT, since the EU, since the RPGs and the comics and the novels and the video games. There’s been like, maybe two or three exceptions to the rule, and most of those are in the video games and the RPGs and so are ultimately up to user choice, but mostly those choices are often not the “official” “canon” ones anyway.

and it really bothers me, and it always has. It’s the number one reason I write fanfic, to fix the bullshit like this that they keep putting in Star Wars. Just... honestly would it have KILLED THEM to forcibly haul Hux away kicking and screaming so he could Face Justice or some other rationalizing bullshit you KNOW Poe and/or Finn is totally capable of, only for Hux to be awkwardly hanging around the perimeter of all the Celebratory Festivities at the end? That would have been liquid GOLD.

And would it have KILLED THEM to have Force Healing, like, I dunno, NOT be some sort of zero sum bullshit? That’s not how it works! That’s not how any of this works! Both Rey AND REN should have survived! It’s drawing on the Force Itself, on the entire galaxy, not just your own personal life energy! *headdesk*

But I mean. I don’t want to focus only on the shit that bothered me. There’s lots I enjoyed.

1. FORCE SENSITIVE FINN. I will die on this hill

2. THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP oh my god I love the Finn/Poe/Rey dynamic they are PRECIOUS I honestly could watch a nine hour movie of nothing but banter and shenanigans and couch cuddles and I’d be so motherfucking HAPPY. Bonus points if Rose and Hux and Ren can just. Join in. I need a peoplepile STAT

3. TINY NEW DROID BABY oh no it’s cute

4. Finn’s hair is so fucking hot, y’all. I just. *fans self* is it warm in here?

5. Palps my man, r u ok. Like srsly. I just wanted to hold his gnarled up hands and make him take a nap, this man is Edgelord McDramaPants and I love/hate him so much. “I am all of the Sith” my dude my buddy my pal my friend, there are literally thousands of Sith standing around you, and no matter what you tell yourself you’re still like... average-powered compared to some of the Ancient Dark Edgelords of the Sith. I know you’re a megalomaniac but sit down eat a sandwich and chill, I’ll take you for a manicure

6. Speaking of thousands of Sith standing around -- FUCKING FINALLY SOME ACKNOWLEDGMENT THAT BANITE SITH ARE/WERE UTTER BULLSHIT I mean there was the Lost Tribe of the Sith and plenty of others underground and on the downlow scattered around the galaxy in old canon, but it was nice to have it up front. Can u imagine the sort of response some of my own Sith would have to an invitation/summons to a place like Exegol by the likes of Palpatine it’d be hilarious

7. Rey’s little nose scrunch will never not be adorable

8. I really. really. enjoyed the atmosphere on Exegol. I am also an Edgelord DramaDarkerton and fuck if the vibes on that world didn’t give me shivers. I love it. I love everything about it. The foggy barren landscape, the giant stark monoliths, the depths of (not quite) abandoned temples and monuments, the jagged throne, the chanting hooded figures, even the flashing lightning that threatened to trigger a seizure BUT IT DIDN’T SO I WIN AHAHAHA *cough* so yeah I love all of that and I really wanted more more moremoremoremoreMORE GIMME *grabbyhands*

9. They didn’t do much but just the fact that the Knights of Ren were there made me happy. Kinda wished they’d been more like a Ride Or Die honor guard, so WELP I guess that’s what they are now in Sarc’s Canon and that’s the only canon that mAtTeRs lolololol

10. “I’M THE SPY!” I love you, you precious, fucked up little man, come here

Anyway. It was a much better movie than The Last Jedi, imo, but there’s still a LOT that needs cherrypicking. So I’m just blithely going to say this is What Actually Happened, In The Star Wars According To Sarc:

Hux gets dragged along with Poe/Finn/Rey, whining and complaining the entire time, on a bum leg, because you KNOW Poe shot him in the leg anyway even if he planned on taking Hux with him. Because why not, right? the dickwad asked for it, after all.

Snap goes EV because he ejected at the last possible second and ends up shaken and battered but otherwise alright DO NOT TAKE HIM AWAY FROM ME TOO

The Knights of Ren recognized Ren as their rightful leader and were properly Ride Or Die with him, a man needs his honor guard after all

Ren’s Force Healing does the trick but since it’s drawing on the power of the Force itself, and not some zero-sum personal life energy shenanigans, it doesn’t make him mysteriously keel over and Die For No Reason. He just passes out and Rey has to haul his heavy ass back to the ship by herself. He doesn’t hear the end of it for months.

Reunions are both full of celebration, relief, and grief for those who have fallen, and also full of lots of awkwardness and uncomfortable glances at some of our Intrepid Villains suddenly being thrust in with all the Good Guysᵗᵐ and trying to cope. But they make it out okay in the end. Our new group of Awkward Friends hold a vigil for Luke, Leia, and Han before leaving Ajan Kloss.

And the Millennium Falcon launches out with a crew of seven. Rey, Poe, Finn, Rose, Ben, Hux, and Chewie - not quite yet entirely comfortable with each other but learning that sometimes the unlikeliest of friendships can blossom even from within the most bitter of enemies.

The end ah yes that was a good movie glad I can ignore this weird thing called canon lalalala (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

#star wars spoilers #the rise of skywalker #the rise of skywalker spoilers #sarc watches star wars #sarc has opinions

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uberguber89 · 4 years

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Custom Rule for D&D and Pahtfinder: Morale Points

Using morale points:

Every character has a maximum morale point pool equal to the sum of their constitution, wisdom, and charisma scores (typically leading to 24-54 points). players cannot gain morale points above this maximum.

After rolling any type and any number of dice, but before the result is revealed, you may spend any number of morale points you have to increase the result, up to the maximum achievable on the die type. for example, when rolling a D20 for an attack roll or skill check, with a result of 15 on the die, and a +4 modifier, you may spend 1 point to achieve a final result of 20, insuring success at that DC, or if you suspect the DC might be higher, you may spend up to 5, for a final result of 24 if you think the task is more difficult, but you may not buy any higher than that since the maximum die result is 20. OR if you use a Cure Wounds spell and roll a 2 and a 5, you may spend up to 9 morale points to ensure the maximum result on those two dice combined (16), before any spell-casting modifiers.

Why morale points?:

"isn't this stuff already covered in the rules?" short answer; "yes, technically," but let's take a closer look at those rules;

"FOOD: A character needs one pound of food per day. A character can go without food for a number of days equal to 3 + (their) Constitution modifier (minimum 1). At the end of each day beyond that limit, a character automatically suffers one level of exhaustion. A normal day of eating resets the count of days without food to zero. " - pg 185 PHB.

So, according to rules-as-written a character could have one single meal every 3 days, or up to a week with a high enough Con modifier, and suffer no penalties. Zero. none. Not even a headache. your adventurer is not a python!!! this is not how food and water work in real life! It should NOT be how it works in-game. while, yes, you can argue that this is the biological response, anyone who's gone a day (or more) without food knows that this doesn't represent the mental toll these obstacles can take.

Even if we ignore the incongruities already mentioned, it has always stuck out to me while reading novels like Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings or just about every fantasy novel involving travel, that they tend to spend a lot of time describing the mental and emotional fatigue of living away from the creature-comforts of home and/or on the road. Sure! Frodo and Sam can eat Lembas bread all day, every day, until the elf finishes reciting his poetry, but it's not gonna raise anyone's spirits. sure, you've got piles and piles of fresh bear-meat to keep you fed, but it doesn't go down easy if you can't afford the time to start a campfire to cook it. there's a reason they only give bread & water when you're in medieval prison, and it's because it sucks. even if you have all your biological needs met, your brain needs flavor as much as your stomach needs calories. We've all experience that feeling of doing something you're not necessarily "bad" at, but optimal performance requires more mental resources than something you have a higher skill bonus in you are more familiar with, and while you are perfectly capable of the task in ideal conditions, (i.e. well-rested, hydrated, nourished, etc,), it becomes disproportionately difficult in non-ideal conditions (think about "hangry" or all those posts about existential dread turning out to be dehydration). It should be noted, you can experience all this without the "exhaustion" described by the core handbook, and that needs to be represented somehow. It also stuck out to me that these challenges are almost never included in rpg's in a way that is both meaningful AND fun. In every case I've ever experienced, it is either hand-waved and ignored, or examined in excruciating detail, halting every other aspect of play. With this in mind, I set out to design a set of rules that are substantial enough to affect the story and be worth tracking, while staying abstract enough to maintain a game's pacing. I want these rules to elicit the same “gods! I need a beer” or “I’d kill for a home-cooked meal right now,” sentiment you see from characters in most traditional media, with the same desperation the players think, “I’m out of hit points/spell slots, I need a long rest”. Thus, morale points. It should be said, that all of these rules are in addition to the rules-as-written, not a replacement.

regaining and losing morale points:

sleep: A minimum of 4 hours sleep in a relatively safe location (i.e. camping with an ally keeping watch, or in a barn or secluded alleyway) is required to avoid losing morale points. getting 8 hours of solid rest in a safe location will restore 1 morale point, and doing so on a bed will restore 2. for every night without sleep, or sleep in an unsafe or uncomfortable area, your character will lose one morale point.

food: while 1 pound of food will keep 1 character fed for the day, such as trail rations or a simple tavern meal, each GP spent on food will restore 1 morale point. your character will lose 1 morale point for every 24 (twenty-four) hours without sitting down for a meal. (Even a meal at half-rations can serve this purpose if it’s treated as a relaxing sit-down)

drink: every GP spent on wine, ale, or other good drink of your character's choice will restore 1 morale point. This can include smoking herbs, or other recreational substances like coffee or other drugs (fantasy or real), however, the 1gp per morale point exchange rate remains the same. a character will lose 1 morale point for every 6 hours without water.

random happenstance: rolling a natural 20 will restore 1 point, and a natural 1 will lose you a point. No “critical hits” or “critical failures” on skills or saving throws, only the auto succeed/fail and the morale point change.

good company: during a rest, 1 character may make a performance check. with a 10 or higher, each other member of the group may regain 1 morale point. on a result of 20 or higher, the group gets 2 each. 30 or higher gets 3, and so on. the performer can only regain 1 point on a 20 or higher (performing can be fun, but hard work) A result of 9 or less causes everyone involved to lose 1 morale point.

Going hunting: jerky, nuts, and dried berries in your rations may meet your daily protein requirements, but nothing beats fresh. During a rest, a character may make a survival check. With a 10 or higher, you may gain 1 morale point to allocate to any character, including yourself. on a result of 20 or higher, you may allocate 2 as you choose. 30 or higher gets 3, and so on. A result of 9 or less causes everyone involved to lose 1 morale point.

Going foraging: Spice is the variety of life - as a wise man once said, "a man can live on nutrient blocks from here to Judgement Day, if he's got enough rosemary". Any number of wild herbs and natural substances can be used to flavor your food or for recreational purposes. During a rest, a character may make a nature check. with a 10 or higher, you may gain 1 morale point to give to any one character, including yourself. on a result of 20 or higher, you may allocate 2 as you choose. 30 or higher gets 3, and so on. A result of 9 or less causes everyone involved to lose 1 morale point.

Emotional labor: during a rest, a character may make an insight check. with a 10 or higher, you can aid another character’s check to restore morale, giving them advantage on their roll. A result of 9 or less causes you to misread the situation. You grant disadvantage, and lose 1 morale point.

Pep talk: flattery and pretty words may not win battles, but they sure can brighten someone’s day, and isn’t that an encouraging thought? It isn’t? Ok, well, in any case, during a rest, a character may make a persuasion or deception check. with a 10 or higher, one other member of the group may regain 1 morale point. on a result of 20 or higher, the character gets 2. 30 or higher gets 3, and so on. The speaker can only regain 1 point on a 20 or higher. A result of 9 or less causes everyone involved to lose 1 morale point.

Minor treatments: Not every injury or ailment causes hit point damage or noticeable stat changes. It may be a minor allergy that makes you cranky, or a joint that gets just stiff enough to be annoying “but it’s fine i’m totally fine guys”, or that ringing in your ears that won’t go away unless someone rubs your jaw the right way. You’re not performing medical miracles, just the observations that can come with medical training. during a rest, a character may make a medicine check. With a 10 or higher, one member of the group may regain 1 morale point. on a result of 20 or higher, the group gets 2 each. 30 or higher gets 3, and so on. the care provider can only regain 1 point on a 20 or higher. A result of 9 or less causes everyone involved to lose 1 morale point.

Situational:

Ideals: seeing, experiencing, or doing somethingthat reinforces your ideals can gain you one morale point. Conversely, an extreme event, as determined by the GM, that causes you to question your ideals causes 1 morale point loss

bonds: you can regain 1 morale point by spending an hour or more with one of your bonds. If one of your bonds are injured or damaged, you must make a wisdom saving throw equal to 15+ the damage they suffered, or lose morale points equal to the damage they suffered. If one of your bonds is killed or destroyed, you lose all of your morale points when you learn about the loss.

Flaws: you can gain morale opints by acting on one of your flaws, at the risk of another character losing morale points. During a rest, you may choose another player character, describe how your flaw manifests, and choose a DC. then, the GM will assign a skill or saving throw for each of you (these may be the same roll or different) based on the situation. If you both succeed, you gain 1 morale point and the other character gains 0. If you succeed and the other character fails, you gain 2 points, and they lose 1. If you both fail the roll, you both lose 1 morale point.

hobbies: during a rest, a character may make a roll with a gaming set they are proficient in. with a 10 or higher, each other member of the group may regain 1 morale point. on a result of 20 or higher, the group gets 2 each. 30 or higher gets 3, and so on. If two or more characters are proficient in the same game, each participant can make this roll with advantage. A result of 9 or less causes everyone involved to lose 1 morale point.

Travel pace: traveling at Fast pace causes you to lose 1 morale point for each hour at this pace (think about running a marathon). Traveling at Normal pace causes no morale point loss, but no actions can be taken to restore points. Traveling at slow pace, stops for food, rest, and hobbies can be assumed as part of the travel time, but you cannot make stealth checks at the same time as checks to improve morale. You move at half speed in difficult terrain, and you lose an additional morale point per hour.

How many morale points should the players start with?:

if they're professionals hired for a daring assignment, they may understandably have full points. However, if they're independent agents, with no employment to speak of other than turning to adventuring, or starting out escaping from captivity, it would be understandable (though perhaps less fun) to start at 0. In most other, less-extreme circumstances, you may want to consult with your players, and choose a middle-ground such as half-maximum, or a percentage based on a wis or con saving throw (player’s choice).

#D&D #pathfinder #tabletop rpgs #custom rule #morale points #personal #edited and reblogged

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awesomelephuoclocblog-blog · 4 years

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https://lephuocloc.com/dropshiply-review/

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Dropshiply Review

Substance [hide]

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About Creators

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Thing Watchdog: Watch at all the cost changes and subsequently update them.

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Inbuilt Pricing Margins: Create evaluating rules so you can have solid edges for all the things you sell!

Thing Reports: Get full reports on what number of things have been sold on your stores!

WooCommerce Integration: Dropshiply totally consolidates with WooCommerce so you can have all of your things appeared in your dashboard.

Inbuilt App Store: Dropshiply has a worked in App Store where you can download our Free and Paid online business applications to build up your business and improve your traffic, advancing and bargains!

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Bunches and numerous also surprising features! You will have the alternative to build 6 figure redistributing areas!

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momzoneonline · 4 years

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MOVING TO CANADA IS A JOKE...The Economic, Military, and Social Integration of North America

Eh? I can think of scores of reasons to move to Canada (or opt for the Mexican Riviera) . . . any place but Babylon the Great: The USA. The War in Iraq . . . or better yet: The entire Military-Industrial Complex sucking the life-blood out of Americana for starters. Or, how about the whole hedonistic culture of greed, avaricious appetites, and super sizing all things godly and ungodly--from Hollywood to Mega Churches; indeed, ours is a "city set on a hill which cannot be hid" but the closer you get to this glittering jewel, the more it resembles the "Little Shop of Horrors," you know, that flesh-eating plant crying out: Feed me, Seymour! Conspicuous consumption of a nation which spends $1.8 Billion more each day than the whole earth combined and finds herself some $14 Trillion in debt (National Debt + Balance of Payment/Trade Debts) is a bit too much, wouldn't you say?--after all, she represents but 5% of the world's population.

Come on, half the eagle is in a declared state of emergency and the overt identification by Big Brother of all things human is prepared and/or is itching to pounce upon American liberties once thought sacrosanct by both the ACLU and the NRA by euphemistic legislation called Patriotic Acts, and finally, a cashless society where all of us are implanted with chips awaiting true identity and debit through scanning devices at your local Safeway.

The clock is ticking. Peak oil, where American's "zero sum game" is played out--for you to gain I must loose--refuses to share her bounty with the Asian tigers of China and India; and, of course, they are more than pleased with our indulgence. Like Rome, our legions amongst the world's "provinces," are stretched thin--and the draft can't be all that far off if we're to maintain our economic edge and SUV-lifestyle (latest stats for the past two years show that 58% of all vehicles purchased in the USA are SUVs, pickups, or plain old gas guzzlers). And, as if these outrageous consequences weren't enough to abandon ship--toss in the worst natural disaster ever to afflict the homeland: Katrina; man, wait till we finance that one!

So . . . isn't it about time to flee to Canada or head for the Mexican Riviera? Eh? Canada's a safe haven for pot-people and same-sex marriage is the rage. Crime's relatively low compared to the lower 48 and the death penalty's been outlawed for nearly thirty years. Finally, most of the 125,000 Viet-Nam Era draft dodgers who fled to Canada stuck around and now constitute the leading edge of all the above progressive life-style. Wow, we're talkin' about socialized medicine for all--a veritable paradise compared to the inflictions of them patriots down under. Cheap drugs (includes tons of cannabis), affordable housing, tiny military budget, etc., etc.--a little cold, but you'll get used to it.

Finally, if Hollywood's collective apoplexy over President Bush's election can be believed--we're outta here . . . a few of these righteous indignations (unfulfilled) are duly noted, if for nothing else, their entertainment value. Notwithstanding the Hollywood stars and directors who claimed exodus was their only option under Bush--Barbra Streisand, Alec Baldwin, Michael Moore, Robert Altman, Lynn Redgrave, Pierre Salinger (now deceased), and Cher--all found the allure of Babylon on the Hudson irresistible; so much for leftist vibratos. Misquoted or just plain fluff--they all abide within the walls of the crystal palace celebrating the party atmosphere, as they star in a movie sequel to the "Left Behind Series" entitled: Talk is Cheap, Follow Us falling in love with a single mom quotes.

ECONOMIC INTEGRATION VIA NAFTA, CAFTA, FTAA--Enter the "Three Amigos"

Patriots would exclaim we're selling off and out America; globalists would see dollars galore; socialists would see an on-going rip off; and a whole bunch of people in the middle could care less (a.k.a. "victims anonymous").

Meanwhile Deanna Spingola in "Building a North American Community" (July 15, 2005) keeps telling it like it is:

"While our sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, mothers and fathers having been spilling their blood in the sands of Iraq under the guise of restoring the country to the Iraqi citizens, our president is in the process of giving our country to the elite One World Order insiders. While our president is requiring protected borders in Iraq, he is obliterating, not only our southern, but our northern borders." Actually, Deanna (and you've got to read her entire article) is referring to the Bush/Fox/Martin meeting (USA/Mexico/Canada) held at Baylor University in Waco, Texas on 23 March 2005, where they were busy about establishing the "Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America" - to wit, the SPPNA's troika:

"We, the elected leaders of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, have met in Texas to announce the establishment of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.

"Over the past decade, our three nations have taken important steps to expand economic opportunity for our people and to create the most vibrant and dynamic trade relationship in the world (i.e., NAFTA; my insert). Since September 11 2001, we have also taken significant new steps to address the threat of terrorism and to enhance the security of our people. "But much still remains to be done. In a rapidly changing world, we must develop new avenues of cooperation that will make our open societies safer and more secure, our businesses more competitive, and our economies more resilient.

"Our Partnership will accomplish these objectives through a trilateral effort to increase the security, prosperity, and quality of life of our citizens. This work will be based on the principle that our security and prosperity are mutually dependent and complementary, and will reflect our shared belief in freedom, economic opportunity, and strong democratic values and institutions. It will also help consolidate our efforts within a North American framework, to meet security and economic challenges, and promote the full potential of our people, by reducing regional disparities and increasing opportunities for all."

COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS--They're at it again!

Now don't go conspiratorial on me . . . hee-hee . . . don't need to . . . let the truth speak for itself:

It was on May 17, 2005 the CFR formalized its "Independent Task Force" to review at length the parameters of such a three-pact agreement among the USA, Canada, and Mexico. This 31-member force de jure was chaired by John F. Manley, Pedro Aspe, and William F. Weld and vice-chaired by: Robert A. Pastor, Thomas P. d'Aquino, Andrés Rozental. Cooperating with the CFR's efforts were the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and the Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales.

Indeed, the composite document released by the aforementioned is the very title of Spingola's article . . .

No wonder that Spingola and other American patriots view this as the "Great American Give-a-way!"

Take a gander at their timid prognostications and guess why moving to Canada's a joke . . .for what NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement) could not destroy, FTAA (Free Trade Area/Agreement of the Americas . . . a.k.a. "Building a North American Community") fully intends:

"We are asking the leaders of the United States, Mexico, and Canada to be bold and adopt a vision of the future that is bigger than, and beyond, the immediate problems of the present . . . they could be the architects of a new community of North America, not mere custodians of the status quo." (Canadian co-chair, John P. Manley, Former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance). CHRISTIANS ARE THE MOST VULNERABLE

Now, listen to Spingola's assessment of all this--and, don't think she's some brainless Libertarian gone amok down in Texas somewhere . . .

"This basically means that Americans must give up their freedoms and hard won sovereignty along with all resources for the greater good of the 'New Community.' It is a socialistic equalization designed to make slaves of everyone in all three countries. This will occur as a result of the secret, subversive activities of our ruling elitist who have never sacrificed anything except their integrity. When it comes time to sell this socialistic venture, Bush will adopt his multipurpose 'Christian' stance and use every possible guilt maneuver to encourage this good hearted Christian country to open our hearts to the less fortunate. This is a ploy to make all of us less fortunate. There will be many who will fall for this scam under the pretext of Christianity. If we think Christians are media maligned now, just wait! We will be the most hated inmates in the camp!" Wow! Powerful projections here, right? I'm sure we'll somehow meet up with Spingola one day--if not in glory, then in some gulag cell contemplating how all of this got out of hand . . . I mean, if Shirley McClain went out on a limb, Spingola's going out on a twig:

"All of this is done under the facade of protecting us - from terrorists? The worse terrorists we face are those who serve in our government. Another day that shall live in infamy, 9/11, has done much to serve the purposes of those whose main goal is to establish the One World Order. What an opportunistic event! It couldn't have worked any better if they had planned it!" O CANADA - VIVA MEXICO - Life is good!

Of course most Americans, Canadians, and Mexicans can't stomach all of this unification at once; thus, the GREAT TRANSITION awaits us all:

Unified military command? Listen to what the CFR plans for your future:

1. Establish a common security perimeter by 2010. 2. Develop a North American Border Pass with biometric identifiers. 3. Develop a unified border action plan and expand border customs facilities. The CFR web site is effusive in its sacrifice of sovereignty:

4. Create a single economic space: 5. Adopt a common external tariff. 6. Allow for the seamless movement of goods within North America. 7. Move to full labor mobility between Canada and the U.S. 8. Develop a North American energy strategy that gives greater emphasis to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases - a regional alternative to Kyoto. Hey, and let's shoot the gap - listen, we're talkin' INTEGRATION BIG TIME . . . and we're not whistling Di

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junker-town · 5 years

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There’s nothing special about the Suns, which is why they’re succeeding

Phoenix is winning with an ordinary approach.

And that’s a really, really good thing.

Ten minutes into a press conference announcing his perennially dysfunctional franchise will hire its fifth head coach in the last four seasons, newly promoted Phoenix Suns general manager James Jones communicated his offseason plans about as clearly as one can.

“We need to add guys in their prime. We need to raise the floor of our team,” Jones said. “And you only do that with NBA players. Not prospects, but NBA players.”

As a rallying cry, “Raise the Floor” isn’t exactly “Trust The Process.” Still, it conveyed a specific message: we must walk before we can run, and the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Adding proven players wasn’t just a way for the Suns to avoid embarrassment. It’s the only way they could then take any next step.

That message didn’t break through in a summer where the Suns’ asset management ranged from adequate to baffling. It’s sure breaking through now as the Suns rise to the league’s third-best point differential in the very (very) early going of the 2019-20 season. They look like an actual basketball team, which is an incredible compliment given their recent past.

It’s difficult to find one specific reason for Phoenix’s surprising start. Outside of Aron Baynes turning into Splash Volcano, no Suns player has played well above their means. Their games aren’t really that exciting, unless effective screens and early rotations to the nail are your idea of appointment viewing. (Guilty.) One of their core young players is suspended until December, and the other is scoring and assisting less than he did last year. Their marquee free-agent signing is shooting 35 percent from the field.

But they’ve become a functional and possibly even good team precisely because they aren’t special. They’ve been bolstered not by top-level talent, but instead by the pristine positioning, floor spacing, and toughness from a crew of competent NBA role players. Or, as Jones put it, they’ve raised their floor.

“Aggressively competent” is how you’d describe recent additions like Baynes, Frank Kaminsky, Dario Saric, and Tyler Johnson. It’s how you’d describe Ricky Rubio at this stage of his career — consider that a good Jazz team let him walk to upgrade to Mike Conley. It’s how you’d describe 23-year-old rookie sharpshooter Cameron Johnson, selected way higher than anyone expected in the draft. It’s how you’d describe new coach Monty Williams, who slowly made the New Orleans Pelicans decent before they fired him to aim higher themselves.

The price for that aggressive competence wasn’t always ideal, but the total sum created a necessary baseline from which Phoenix is now building. The Suns’ early-season style of play is thoroughly unremarkable while also showing the power of executing a thoroughly unremarkable style of play effectively.

The Suns’ keep-it-simple ethos is most evident on defense. They do three things well and only three things well: pressure the ball, collectively pack the paint, and make second efforts if the first screen beats them.

Phoenix gets a lot of mileage out of being pains in the ass. Rubio is one of the NBA’s peskiest defensive point guards, but young wings Kelly Oubre and Mikal Bridges are also long and quick, while Saric never makes posting up pleasant. Even Booker, never known for his defensive energy, is blowing up dribble handoffs.

That ball pressure gets cranked up to 11 when backup point guard Jevon Carter enters. The days of the pitbull point guard defender that always seems to be in the opposing star’s grill are over, except in Phoenix, where Carter is relentless. Poor Tyus Jones needed 10 seconds just to get Memphis’ play going.

Ninety-four feetBall pressure is a life hack because it burns precious seconds off the shot clock, but you don’t see it much anymore for two reasons. One, it’s hard to defend physically without fouling. Two, it’s prone to backdoor cuts that ruin the system.

The Suns accept the first as a necessary tradeoff — they are dead last in the NBA in foul rate, which annoys Williams publicly, but probably not as much privately. They account for the second by aggressively rotating off perimeter players to pack the paint, especially when defending pick-and-rolls. The nail, which refers to a spot just above the free-throw line where an actual nail from the court’s structure peeks out, has become a second home for Suns perimeter defenders.

In theory, every NBA defensive scheme asks that help defender to stand on the nail to stop penetration. In practice, though, the nail defender is the one most stressed by the NBA’s spacing revolution. With the rise of the three-point shot and then the deep three-point shot, the nail defender is spread thin. It’s nearly impossible to plug rolls to the basket and also close out to their own man ready to fire from 27 feet. Worse, offenses have developed intricate tactics to distract that nail defender: switching two shooters along the three-point line, setting flare screens to delay closeouts, decoying a pick-and-roll to swing into another one, driving gaps instead of shooting, and many others I’m forgetting.

Phoenix’s early-season approach has vastly simplified those outcomes. Stopping dribble penetration is the only goal that matters, even at the expense of allowing spot-up three-pointers. That’s why you see Suns help defenders head to the nail before a pick-and-roll is even set, even if that may open up a shooter. They pre-rotate so they don’t have to rotate later.

That strategy works in concert with the Suns’ other core tenant: keep their big men by the basket and stay vertical rather than trying to swat shots. In this respect, Baynes has been an essential addition. The 32-year-old, 6’10, 260-pound center, acquired in a draft-day salary dump with the Celtics, is physically imposing, precise, and unconcerned with recognition or embarrassment — the role player’s holy trinity. He’s made an eight-year NBA career out of standing near the basket and putting his hands up.

With him patrolling the back line, Suns players can pressure their men and collectively pack the paint. They can also recover to the roller when the initial screen beats them and gain credit for a steal or deflection — impressive hustle to be sure, but also effort that only gets rewarded because Baynes held up the ball-handler.

The Suns’ offense has also benefited from simplifying the operation. Williams preaches an “0.5 system” in which every decision should happen in half a second or less. The concept isn’t new or even especially novel. Prior Suns coaches Earl Watson and Igor Kokoskov used similar terminology with far less success. But the Suns now have a roster of floor-raisers who can actually embody its principles.

Simply adding Rubio, an adequate floor general, has made a huge difference after not having anything remotely resembling one last year. Rubio is the guy who keeps the rest of the players focused and gets Phoenix into its sets early to maximize the time they have to score. This preseason possession showed both skills on display.

7 Plays Or Less - Random Observations.... 1. Want to see the impact Rubio's signing has on a team desperate for leadership? Watch him get to every player on the court after a bad transition D possession, that ended in Book/Ayton bickering. The result? Highlight of the game. pic.twitter.com/ZeDVbx26wf

— Seven Seconds Or Less Podcast (@7SOLpod) October 9, 2019

Rubio also takes a huge burden off Booker, who has responded by channeling more energy into defense and reading the floor. His scoring is down, but he’s getting better shots and moving the ball more effectively when a shot isn’t there. He’s launching more often within a normal flow of the offense and less often when the shot clock is winding down and he needs to bail the Suns out. Fifty-six of Booker’s buckets are assisted this season compared to just 36 last year, and more than 45 percent of his shots have come off one or zero dribbles this year, compared to just 34 percent last season.

He also can do less because Phoenix’s new collection of floor raisers follow two important offensive rules: keep moving, and never roll into the paint if someone else is already there. Kaminsky and Saric always seem to be zipping around somewhere, like flies attracted to light. Both run the equivalent of at least a full mile on offense while playing fewer than 28 minutes, according to NBA.com’s player tracking stats. Only one other player 6’10 or bigger has done that this year, and only nine did so last season.

That movement is contagious because it tilts the defense and facilitates more motion from other Suns players. The Suns have scored directly from a cut on 9.4 percent of their possessions this year, second-highest in the league behind the Zombie Warriors. Oubre, a player not exactly known for his decision-making, has been a major beneficiary, as Bright Side of the Sun’s Brendon Kleen noted.

Crucially, Phoenix doesn’t allows two players in the paint at the same time, which would only shrink the space for each. Instead, their bigs often hang on the perimeter to open the lane for their wings to cut through. Baynes’ remarkable mid-career transformation into a giant flamethrower is especially important: he’s taking nearly seven threes per 36 minutes while hitting 46 percent of them, which is astonishing. Nowadays, he sets screens, chills at the line as his guards drive, and waits for the opposing center to either help too much on the ball-handler or, hilariously, cede a wide open shot for a way better teammate in fear of his own shooting.

All of this is unremarkable, and that’s exactly the point. Protecting the paint? Good spacing? Proper positioning? Moving without the ball? These sound like prerequisites for NBA success, not bonuses. But the Suns haven’t taken any for granted, acquiring players who embody them and stressing a style of play that reinforces them. That’s a huge step considering how terribly they’ve built their rosters in the last decade.

Competence is not the same as brilliance, so don’t go printing those playoff tickets yet. In particular, I’m skeptical their defense will stay this elite once opponents realize their simple approach cedes open three-pointers. That’s already happening to some degree: the Suns are getting away with it largely because teams are only shooting 31 percent from downtown, which won’t happen over a full season.

In other ways, the Suns’ defense is getting a bit lucky. Opponent shot quality against Phoenix — which estimates the effective field goal percentage based on a model that considers the shot location and play context — is actually the fourth-worst in the league and more than five points higher than the actual effective field goal percentage the Suns are giving up. The incessant fouling will cost them more in the future, and it’s hard to see how they stop hacking when they are so physical with their ball pressure. Despite their pack-the-paint emphasis, the Suns also allow the sixth-highest percentage of shots at the rim, though they’ve effectively defended said shots so far.

But this is also the same organization whose owner brought live goats into his general manager’s office as a motivational ploy, only for them to shit everywhere in sight. Against that backdrop, competence will do just fine.

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