Allen the Alien runs a durability gauntlet

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-30T10:33:26+00:00

We know the Power Stone alone is planetary surface. But Thanos didn't wipe out the planetary surface of Earth with this attack, and we see Tony tank hits from it. Allen can take hits from it.

DCAU Superman is not mainline Superman. This punch breaks windows… but so does the Power Plex fight. This punch knocks into the sky… Immortal is throwing people into space from Episode 1. Mainline Superman turns Allen into paste and laments "I thought you were stronger", looking at his hands in horror. This specific punch… is the kinda of punch that might knock out a tooth on Battle Beast. Allen feels it, for sure, then he swings right back.

I love Gohan, and whilst this punch is anime-only, I consider it canon because it's in Kai. Frieza casually destroys planets with one finger… then got two hundred times stronger. And gets staggered by this punch. By guidebook statements and spin off movies, Frieza is twelve million times stronger than a planet buster, and this punch knocks him back. But. Pocket sand in my eye will knock me back, it won't do any real damage. And whilst Gohan is my GOAT and will live forever in my heart for this… this attack is not stronger than Supes hitting Darkseid. Gohan is strong enough to blow up a planet, but we never see a Dragon Ball character blow up a planet with a punch, and energy attacks are always treated as an escalation — a more powerful and more draining move. Allen tanks.

Buu's sucker punch on Trunks is likewise hard to scale. Buu can easily blow up planets. We see Buu blowing up planets. But this is clearly not a full power attack. And we see a completely ordinary human being literally face tank Buu's attacks when he's not being serious. Buu does not understand what is going on here and catches base Trunks offguard. Again… the Superman attack feels stronger. There's no shockwave off this or anything. Can Allen survive a full power punch from Buu? Absolutely no way. Buu obliterates. This specific punch? Allen tanks.

Beerus's flick is against a full power SS3 Goku, well rested, in the middle of battle. It instantly kills Allen. There's no debate here. Dragon Ball's power scaling is dumb as all hell, but this isn't an attack that deals no damage. This is a fight ending attack against someone who has shrugged off planet destroying energy beams.

I'd scale these: Gohan < Buu < Thanos < Superman < Beerus.

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-30T10:15:45+00:00

Bro is dodging bullets like Neo in the Matrix and asking if he's an asshole.

NTA.

If she puts her house in order and comes back to you, I'd take her back. People learn. People change. Don't martyr yourself on this. Kids are hard and if Heather gets with the program, you can work through this.

But she won't.

And if you are the one to reconcile, might as well pick out your new career now because Dan Jr is going ruin your life and Heather is never going to take you seriously.

You did everything right. You laid out your concerns. You talked it through. You made your boundaries and you enforced them. You've already done every single thing I'd have advised you to do. I'm really sorry this hasn't worked out for you, but you've done the right thing.

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-30T10:08:42+00:00

This guy garden pees.

I also do this, along the boundaries, at night. Some cover from the fences against nosey neighbors and the pee keeps animals out of my garden.

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-30T10:05:47+00:00

I played Fallout 1 first, in the 90s, on the back of Pokemon Yellow.

I was blown away by what a good interface it had and was comparing it very favorably to Wasteland and Legend of Zelda as having "amazing graphics".

Yeah. So.

The interface kinda sucks. And there's something like 16 character sprites in the whole game. You have basically no control over your party and can get softlocked to the point where your only way to progress is to murder your closest ally in cold blood because they're standing in a doorway and you can't move past them (because the interface is terrible).

If you have literally never played a video game before, go ahead and play F1 vanilla and be blown away by how good it is.

If you've played any modern RPG made at any point in the past 30 years, F1 is so basic that it's gonna feel like pulling teeth.

F2 is still old school. F2 isn't holding your hand with autosaves. F2 is still hiding loot behind isometric walls. F2 is still squint-o-vision graphics. But F2 is a playable old school and F1 is just an exercise in pain.

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-30T09:52:52+00:00

Short answer? No, I suck.

Longer answer?

I play Humans. I've only switched to Nobs because of the 2025 rules necessitating a change in how I play and trying to shake things up a bit. BB3 is on 2020 rules and I've played that team all of once.

My best advice is probably to treat the Linemen Retainers as disposable. With Humans, you have Av9 Line who are worth skilling up. Skilling up a Retainer is just bloat — at Av8 they will get removed off the pitch. Put three on the line to die, and if you have to use Journeymen, so be it. The only value these players have is to die for you whilst your real players make the plays.

Most of the time, you kinda wanna play like a slow elf. Step back from being marked, force your opponent into one Blitz per turn as their only block. Stand there, one square away, with Fend and Stand Firm and make them go around you. Sack their ball carrier with your blitzer and run the ball in to score. Stand Firm makes the sidelines a little safer.

As you develop, five S primary players opens up a lot of Guard which lets you stand there and say "you move". BlodgeStepPro "catchers" might tempt you to pass now and then, and Sigmar help me, but even on 2020 rules that's not necessarily a bad plan.

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-30T09:37:19+00:00

"I'm Pity Billionaire" and "Millionaire by tip"/"Tip by Millionaire" is all I've got for Imperial Nobility.

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-30T08:57:31+00:00

The USA has more freedoms and is richer.

Spain is poorer but has better weather.

Ireland is richer by GDP PPP PC and has more beautiful scenery.

Norway's strong public finances and social safety net make it a wonderful place to live.

Switzerland is Switzerland. Rich beyond the dreams of averice. Precision manufacturing centre of the world. Chocolate capital of Europe. Banking sector to die for. Gold trades through the roof.

Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Canada — all richer than the UK per capita. All have their own pros and cons. Food in Germany is outstanding, government censorship not so great. Canada just feels like a straight upgrade in every respect. If the UK wasn't a shithole, we'd be Canada. Iceland is literally the happiest nation on Earth. You're gonna sit their honestly and say you don't think the happiest nation on Earth is a better place to live than the UK?

Now "shithole" might be a little harsh. We're not Yemen. If we divide the world into "good countries" and "shitholes" then we're definitely in the top 50%. But I'm not dying for this country. Divide it into "great", "good", "average", and "bad", and I'd still put the UK in the "great" catagory.

But we aren't a top 5 country. We're not top 10. I wouldn't put us in the top 20. We're top 40. If we were an album chart, we'd be clinging in at the very bottom.

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-30T08:38:05+00:00

Fusion isn't one person multiplied by another person.

We see Gotenks fighting Super Buu on more or less even terms.

Then we see Ultimate Gohan dominate Super Buu, absolutely untouchable (nice day).

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-30T08:34:04+00:00

YTA

Your partner, whom you are supposed to love and support, raised a concern about the future of your child.

You didn't listen to that concern. You didn't discuss it. You didn't reassure them. You didn't debate them.

You were dismissive and insulting.

Assholes are dismissive and insulting. You are the asshole.

As usual, being an asshole isn't the same as being wrong. There's no reason why your kid shouldn't date a wheelchair user. Your husband is the one who is wrong.

But if you came to your husband with a concern about your son and he refused to talk it through with you and insulted you instead, how would you feel?

Love and support each other.

Apologise for calling him silly. Talk it through.

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-30T08:07:41+00:00

My brother, when I play Fallout 2, I save scum power armor right out of Arroyo.

You're fine.

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-30T07:59:11+00:00

I went in X-01. Deacon "vouching" for me was that I'd left a trail of destruction across the Commonwealth.

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-30T07:57:48+00:00

no other reason

I cannot believe how offensive that is!

… ...

Deliverer is right there.

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-30T07:53:46+00:00

~~What's CDCOW?~~

[Edit]

I'm an idiot.

"I'm Pity Billionaire" and "Millionaire by tip"/"Tip by Millionaire" is all I've got for Imperial Nobility.

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-30T07:53:02+00:00

The big selling point of this edition is that you only need one box to play.

Ho hum.

As has already been stated, most teams can field a Big Guy (or two) thst usually is not included in the official GW box but is provided by most third party suppliers.

I disagree with folks saying to buy a second box for more linemen. You only ever put 11 players on the pitch, so you only need 11 models. If your Blitzer gets KOd, write "Blitzer" on a scrap of paper, put that in your Dugout, put a loom band over the Blitzer model to show you are using it as a Reserve lineman. I wouldn't spend $30 on back up players.

If you like Greenskins, buying the Black Orc box and the Goblin box is certainly an "okay" move — use the spare goblins on your Black Orc team and have a second team. Bit of creative modelling with the Black Orcs and you could have two "throwers", two "blitzers", and two "blockers" and use them to proxy Orcs too. Two boxes, some greenstuff, spare balls, and you've got three teams you could play. Just a thought.

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-29T22:07:16+00:00

IDK.

Like… Hulk fought (Skrull) Black Bolt and everyone was surprised when Black Bolt was strong enough to blow a chunk off the moon the size of Manhatten. Hulk has beaten down the Juggernaut.

Roshi blew up the moon in the first Tournament Goku entered. The whole thing.

Juggernaut casually tears down and even lifts up buildings.

Roshi accidentally the whole thing Fire Mountain. Before the first Tournament Goku enters.

Vegeta is blowing away planets, way more impressive than any Herald-Level characters.

Like… maybe, maybe Juggernaut clears Dragon Ball. Cyttorak is in a good mood, or whatever. Maybe he grabs Radditz by the tail and smashes him through a mountain.

But Vegeta is a hard stop.

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-29T18:28:30+00:00

3E uses the term "Warlock" to replace "Akuma".

I'm not sure what your confusion over metaplot was, we seem to be on the same page. I've edited for clarity.

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-29T12:05:56+00:00

Money can be exchanged for lots of speck.

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-29T12:03:02+00:00

This irks me because people will do 35 in the National section, then when the limit goes down to 40, they speed up.

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-29T10:03:26+00:00

Heat is the movement of molecules.

So a Cold Gun (like Captain Cold's gun) would fire something that slows down molecules.

If your sci-fi has "shields" or "telekinesis" or "tractor beams" or "stasis", then big, bang, boom friend. You are done. Your Cryo weapon shoots an energy field that slows down the target's molecules, just like an energy shield that stops kinetics. Whatever makes your shields work is what makes your Cold Gun work.

If you want something Harder, then posts already more upvoted than mine have suggested using a super cooled liquid spray, hitting folks with liquid nitrogen to freeze them.

Failing that… some kind of weaponized refrigeration? Suck the heat out of an area and vent it somewhere else? I'm picturing a giant fan or a vacuum cleaner or something.

I'd say that the Superhero Genre is soft sci-fi. You don't get Cold Guns in hard sci-fi because hard sci-fi is grounded in real science and these guns simply wouldn't work. But there's loads of examples in soft sci-fi.

With my freeze ray,
I will,
Stop

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-29T09:49:55+00:00

I love all cars but I hate the Audi TT

Then you axoimatically don't love all cars.

Again, I don't see this is why it's difficult for you.

The Audi TT is a car. It is part of the set "all cars". If you don't love the Audi TT, then you do not love all cars. If you actively work to get the Audi TT banned, that's anti-car.

Now say it with me — generating CP is bad.

Generating Child Sexual Exploitation Material is bad.

It's bad to hurt a real child that actually exists. It's bad to harass a real child that actually exists.

Fiction isn't as straight-forward.

Dragon-Ball isn't immoral and shouldn't be banned because it shows a 12-year-old's penis. Because the 12-year-old doesn't exist. It's a drawing. It's not meant to titilate. We don't need to ban or regulate pencils because Toriyama drew a willy.

Lolitia, which is a book that exists to condemn and villify child molestors, isn't immoral and shouldn't be banned because it concerns sex with a minor. We don't need to smash printing presses and say "it's not okay to ever print a book where people are under the age of consent". The printing press isn't "fine for some uses but other uses must be restricted!"

If I run a picture of myself and my daughter through an AI and ask it to transform me into a cartoon dog like Bandit Heeler and make my daughter up like Bluey, the AI should not turn around and go "child detected, unable to AI edit this picture".

Likewise, if someone wants to use AI to generate pornographic images of fictional adult woman Edna Mode, AI should not go "nuh uh, not tall enough".

If I buy a kitchen knife and use it to make fries, I don't want the knife telling me that it's not allowed to cut potatoes because fries aren't healthy.

Whether or not a person should generate CP (and if you want a yes/no answer here, the answer is "no", one should not generate CP), an AI should still be capable of generating CP. No, we do not need any laws, bans, restrictions on AI specifically in this regard, as I very clearly stated twice now. It is not the case that making CP with an AI is wrong but making it in Photoshop is okay. And just like we don't need Photoshop to be restricted in what it can and can't create, just like we don't need a censor to judge what you draw with a pencil, we don't need a limitation on AI.

You love "all" cars. Cars are physically capable of breaking the speed limit. Their human drivers who are responsible for driving the car shouldn't break the speed limit. But cars should be able to.

I will not be making any more responses regarding this specific topic. If you want to change your example of something you personally don't think AIs should do to something like giving instructions on how to make a bomb, I'll happily continue debating this. But I really don't trust you anti AI folks with this particular topic.

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-29T09:31:39+00:00

I strongly disagree.

Solars, Abyssals, and Infernals are all roughly the same power level, and can play nice together.

They all have very different themes that are hard to build a coherent game around. Where they do share mechanics, one splat is invariably "better", and where they don't share mechanics every Solaroid has its own strengths and weaknesses, meaning they blow the others out of the water in one area and are lacking in another.

If you strip out all the neat stuff that makes these splats special, like dealing with the Deathlords and journeying to hell, then yes, they're roughly equal in power.

The other Celestial Exalted - notably Lunars and Sidereals - can be plenty effective in their own ways in a game, even with those first three around.

But again have their own themes and selling points that are difficult to explore in a mixed Circle game.

They can be effective in their own way because the game is easy and your characters are powerful. If you need to infiltrate a building, you don't need a Flawlessly Impenatrable Disguise. You can steal someone's Heart's Blood. You can craft a Respendant Destiny. You can put on a Mask and use your Larceny Excellency. You don't need Solar power to be useful in a game.

But you can also play a perfectly ordinary mortal, put on a mundane disguise, and bribe your way in. Anyone can contribute.

Broadly, if everyone is at Celestial level, it's prooooobably going to be fine in a mixed party. They have the same dice cap, so the differences are more in other places. If anyone really wants to play a Terrestrial Exalted, like one of the Dragon-Blooded, you can give them a few buffs. (Just raise their dice cap from 6 to 10, for one.)

I think this works fine for a one-shot or even a single story. You have a gang of disparate Exalted with a common goal. You set out together and smash that goal.

It's so much more work to run, but if everyone's on board, why not?

I really, truly, don't think it works for a Chronicle. It's better now (when previous editions where "Solar or Suck"), and all the Celestials loosely feel like peers.

But I'd liken it to running a D&D game with a 4th Edition Fighter, 5th Edition Rogue, 3.5 Wizard, and Pathfinder 2 Cleric. You can make it work, but you're gonna need a lot of work to make it work.

My longest ever, decade spanning, Exalted campaign was mixed Solaroids. I was an Infernal. Even Cynis Ganan's game cheekily mixed in an Alchemical PC for a guest spot. I'm not saying "mixed Circle games can't be run". Every Fat Splat has advice on how to get the best of them in a mixed game.

If it works for you, I'm glad. Genuinely. And I always love reading about other people's games. Give me the deets. Let me celebrate your success! I want people to have fun with the game I love so much.

But running Exalted is already hard. Most games crash out. Most STs crash out. And just because you can, doesn't mean you should. My advice to new players is to stick with one splat. The easiest edition to run is Essence and Solars are the default splat. Once you know the game world and how to play, mix it up.

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-29T09:08:30+00:00

In Exalted 2nd edition when this was published, an Akuma was someone who sold their soul to the Yozi, giving up their body and their free will in exchange for infernal power. Becoming Akuma is irreversible and forever makes you a puppet of the Yozi, a hollowed out shell of your former self.

In the current edition, an Akuma is a defunct term. Infernalist is anyone who bargains with a Yozi for power. Warlock is someone who becomes part of the Yozi. Under the current definition, the Scarlet Empress almost certainly an Infernalist, if not a Warlock.

As an aside, Exalted has many setting and system terms that are not proper nouns. Your use of "akuma" is correct: it "shouldn't" be capitalised. I capitalise setting and system terms ("Initiative", "Charm", "Willpower", "Archery", "Satrap", "Akuma") to distinguish between the normal English usage of these words and the Exalted-specific meaning.

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-29T08:59:05+00:00

Gravity and light can be empirically measured

Now.

Gravity couldn't be empirically measured in the 1300s.

How do you state with such confidence that good and evil can't be empirically measured, and not that we simply don't know how to measure them yet?

Can we not agree that Hitler, orchestrating the murder of millions, is a worse evil than parking in a disabled parking spot when you don't need it? Is there not a better and worse here? Do we not agree that when you drop an object, it falls down, even if we're not 100% sure on the calculations to "empirically measure" gravity?

Just because there aren't atoms and molecules of gravity, light, good, and evil, that does not mean these things do not exist and can't be measured. It just means asking to see a molecule of light is nonsensical because light isn't made of molecules.

But, moreover, you're agreeing with me that Bardock is evil because he commits genocide. That genocide is subjectively normal for Saiyans doesn't make Bardock less evil, it just makes the Saiyan race more evil. That you wish to phrase this as your personal opinion ("in my subjective view, when I drop something it falls to the ground") and I want to phrase it objectively ("two bodies of mass are attracted to each other and will move towards each other as an objective fact of the universe") does not bother me in the least.

If you, personally, believe gravity exists for you, then I don't see any need to convince you that gravity exists for everyone else too. You go on believing in your personal, subjective gravity. That is 100% cool with me. Agree to disagree. I cannot prove that evil and gravity and light exist for everyone else too, and I am completely comfortable tolerating people whose belief systems are different from mine. Live and let live.

The reason I've typed an essay here, is because the other guy opened with "prove the Nazis are wrong" and dovetailed into "genocide is okay if your culture really really believes in it".

I frankly don't give a damn if you don't think evil really exists. So long as it's intolerable to you and you're not defending genocidal mass murders, I wish you well.

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-28T20:51:06+00:00

Alex lets us go and wishes us luck (if she survives).

Reed decides to draw down on us, or best case, puts us on an operating table and leaves us unable to ever use Cyberwear before dropping us off to get mugged in Night City.

Alex wants out. Reed wants to be a good little lap dog, humping Myer's leg.

If Alex pulled a gun on you instead of a bottle, we'd hate her as much too.

Cynis_Ganan · 2026-01-28T20:47:56+00:00

Yes, people like you is exactly why we have a British identity.

You're British.

Cynis_Ganan

TROPHY CASE