Ah. Thought it was a spinoff TV series.

Equestria Girls. Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like.

That's...uh...not what I was thinking, but this makes more sense.
So basically a production's taking up an idea that's mostly been a fan thing until now?
Kinda cool, though arguments about "borrowing" non-corporate IP's and ideas from the Internet come back to mind.

.....I wonder if this is going to fuel a trend of parents naming their kids things like Twilight Sparkle?
I recognize that if it was going to happen by now, it probably would have already....but critical mass involves a final push past the necessary threshold to activate.

Hey, do you think Intelligence was overvalued in SC2?
I was chewing on the idea of making a proper numbskull Thug and yet Int as a dump stat in 2.0 seemed well-neigh unimaginable.

In my experience smart LSpy operators were versatile enough that if that happened they hadn't been just snoozing the mod away until then. Or the GC might decide Diplomancing just wasn't enough, roll initiave.
For what it's worth being really sneaky seemed commonly approved of. Beating the Mastermind to the punch, sabotaging his stuff, and having every piece in place before making the "it's over before it began" speech was both rare, and excellent.

I get it though. In 3.X it was particularly obnoxious ("I take 10, I get an 80, combat's over lol"), and 4E had the mandatory 3 combats built in so it wasn't even an option/threat. To cite two examples of combat-prevention over-and-under kill respectfully.

It's a common mistake here state-side, at least that I've seen.
One I may have just made?
Either way, no insult intended.

Yeah, I understand that. Haven't seen the movie, but my interest is piqued.

Hmm. Also comes with the bonus of having kind of a sobering real-world underpinning: that killing costs the killer as well as the victim. Howe isn't in a hurry to pay that price either, not when intimidation is effective.

Interesting. Thanks.

Cool.
I like it, I'd play one...right now!

[Hate To Death]

The Explorer always gave me problems (and to a lesser extent the Sleuth and the Advocate). I tend to play Full BAB classes so when I try to branch out to 3/4's BAB classes that don't get bonus Combat feats I get uncertain. I can build a Soldier who's basically competent at Investigation and Research and who has enough Athletics and Acrobatics to get around tomb raiding.
But the Explorer I can't make work without being pretty good at, say, the Flail Chain, and nothing else in a fight. I can tell part of the problem is playing Living campaigns. In these combat is always the capstone of the adventure because it's a simple, consistent method of elevating stakes and creating tension. Life or Death is pretty reliable as escalation goes.

But...in the Explorer's world...how to put this...Indiana Jones has no Soldier friends. People who specialize specifically in the use of force are the enemy. Soldiers in Pulp? Nazis. Martial Artists? Scimitar Guy, or Mysterious Asian Assassins. Thugs? THUGS! His world is about moving beyond Force as Power, and replacing it with Knowledge because the World Wars taught a too-costly lesson about not doing otherwise.

The heroes are men (needs more women) of learning. This is a place in which 3/4's BAB is a "gentlemanly" level of combat study. It's where the Explorer belongs.

Problem is the last reel. Sure the Explorer had some awesome "X never marks the spot!" moments, but when it's Thuggee O'Clock the Grunt with the 30.06 BAR is about to give his dissertation on why the last thing Molla Ram hears won't be "you betrayed Shiva" but instead (to borrow a fantastic vulgarity from Twisted Metal 2012) "BAM! Right in the fucking face, boss!"

(Twisted Metal 2012 is a must-have PS3 title, btw. Bring your rage. You'll feel better.)

An efficient way to finish to be sure, but not really a cinematic one. I think Big Damn Heroes will go a long way to changing the stakes away from a play model that largely assumes that killed'em all = the basic state of victory.

I have played in games less...basic...but the problem remains.
In Call of Cthulu force as resolution is taken off the table, but only in one direction. The Mythos super-horrors are absolutely capable of slaughtering the investigators, while the investigators are at the mercy of a of a few blown knowledge rolls between them and defeat. So to me it's less "beyond mere hack and slash gaming" and more "nyah-nyah, I hope you genuinely believe losing is fun, schmuck!"

Plus CoC comes with the palpable irony that the real solution isn't anything like the nutty proffessor and his undergrads, but the exact opposite approach: Space Marines. What will really work is a thousand Sanity 150 psychopaths who's genocidal ignorance makes them completely uninterested in whether or not reality is going all gooey, and who instead will chainsaw to destruction everything they can reach, and Hate To Death everything they can't.
You can teach Brother Bombastus to recite basic Mythos banishing spells -with the added bonus of him not losing Sanity because he doesn't care if the walls melt and scream, he exists to win.
You can't teach Professor Layton to toe-to-toe with a Shoggoth and triumph.

Sorry, bit of a diversion there. Guess I'm still working on resolving the whole feeling of, "so where's the rest of it? Where's the part you guys loved so much?" I've felt the spine-tingling horror of defeat and the bleak despair of a victory barely of consequence, but I get enough Despair and Inevitable Futility in real life. I'm still waiting on relishing that in my escapism. Maybe it's like Infantilism. Really real-world powerful and successful people are ones into feeling helpless and vulnerable in a controlled, safe setting. Hobos? Not so much.

Anyway. Genre firewalls. Trusting your GC that if everyone rolls a 3/4's or less BAB hero ultra-demanding combat won't be the end-all experience capstone. Striving to see that every kind of game interaction could be weighted similarly, without relying on badly inequal mechanics or plausibility-cracking plot twists.

With chaps like Wolverine, it's something I'd considered back when I was a kid, but never seen in print (well, you know) before.  Well done SFP.

Yeah... awkward, but intriguing.

I'm reminded of a scene in Kingdom Come when one of the Flash children terminates a lecture from dear old dad by pointing out that "Haven't like 12 people died while you've been here talking to me?"

I remember that.
My in-head answer was, "yeah, and that's how important this lecture is. Get it together."

And the SFP nightmare fuel reaches its crescendo.  

But the downward spiral continues.
God-damn I love SFP.
The thought that goes into exploring these ideas is just...terrific!

For Mr. A: Mastermind's analysis inspires reflection on the Archer Conspiracy versus Ulysses Agenda; how one was about constant damage control and preemption, and the other was about taking up the pieces and trying move forward with them -the answer to the age old question, "now that we've won, what do we do?"

The Charging chain added to Snake Strike.
Draw-cut-move-cut-move.
Step away from the blood, reflect on the beauty of the way of the sword.

On the other hand...

There was that time in Bruges where that Redbull and eucalyptus absinthe cocktail saved our backsides when Sergei got the drop on us.

Of course we got declared persona non grata and had to burn those identities.

And clothes.

And the warehouse.

Still, any mission you can walk away from, right?

Ugh.. 4 day hang over and a 3 day flight.. but hey.. I'm sure that orphanage loved the DB9 you left them.  .. you did remember to remove the MILAN from the trunk.. right? 

As it happens, I did.
"But wait," you say, "you weren't in Bruges, Val."
To which I reply, "exactly."
 

Damn it!

That was for the children!

Hmm.
At the time I had wondered about the beret-wearing koala stenciled near the trigger.
Mystery unraveled.

Castle's posture is unchanging.

"I don't follow, Gator."

One short repeated explanation later.

"I got nothing, man. Sorry. Seriously, not feeling or finding it."

On the other hand...

There was that time in Bruges where that Redbull and eucalyptus absinthe cocktail saved our backsides when Sergei got the drop on us.

Of course we got declared persona non grata and had to burn those identities.

And clothes.

And the warehouse.

Still, any mission you can walk away from, right?

Ugh.. 4 day hang over and a 3 day flight.. but hey.. I'm sure that orphanage loved the DB9 you left them.  .. you did remember to remove the MILAN from the trunk.. right? 

As it happens, I did.
"But wait," you say, "you weren't in Bruges, Val."
To which I reply, "exactly."
 

Hmmmm.

Safety Line should be AD per Session, imho.

I like Environmental Sealing, but ES 2 feels like it's not quite on target. It can do what it does, but it needs more...something. Maybe extending the benefits to vehicles, equipment or areas as well?

Having both Initiative and Defense be Low makes me itch. That's a little too close to Alpha Strike vulnerability for my comfort. How about Medium or High initiative for general situational awareness perhaps? I guess I also wonder what core classes are expected to lead into Sentinel. Is the plan for their Def. and Init bonuses to compensate somewhat?

Huntsman access is slick. I like it.

Born Survivor is decent. Being able to foil enemy ambushes, traps, and the like selectively is potentially strong stuff, but it seems like the other functions like foraging and orientation are probably already your strong suites. Maybe throw in being able to scrounge up kits and the like? Improvised weapons perhaps? Maybe make traps?
Imho needs more "pinnacle" feeling, more "game-changer" potential.