SpittingTrashcan

I ran a more or less weekly D&D4e game for several months using Skype and MapTool. MapTool changes the DMing process: it requires more initial setup time, but once the DM and players are familiar with the tool the actual gaming proceeds at a somewhat brisker pace, with less consultation of rulebooks and mental arithmetic. Also, as you build up an asset library of frameworks, macros, tokens, textures and maps, and become familiar with the process of generating content, the setup time is reduced. I would recommend MapTool (and the rest of the RPTools.net family of programs) for anyone who wants to run tactical RPGs with a widely distributed group of players. It works and it's fun.

Pursuing this tangent: I've noticed the change in foe behavior, but has it propagated to NPC combat allies? In my experience, NPC combat allies still frequently spend long periods standing near foes and not attacking them, and it's not due to recharge debuffs or mez. Shock Treatment and Doc Delilah stand out particularly in my mind for this behavior: they'll use their ranged attacks, then run into melee and... stand there looking cute. It's particularly striking because it only applies when they're combat allies: Shock Treatment is quite aggressive when she is a foe.

Controller and MM pets do not have this problem. MM pets have their own problems, but being timid with their attacks is not one...

I say this in a spirit of honest confusion: I wasn't aware that the Syndicate was created by the state.

I do agree with your larger point - that the conflicting factions in Praetoria are generally either directly working for the state, directly working against the state, or a side effect of that conflict. It would be nice to have some ordinary greedy people, although the Syndicate seems to be this. It would also be nice to resolve the question of whether the Devouring Earth continue to be a threat, because if the DE turn out to be a falsified threat then I feel this detracts enormously from the scenario as presented.

My personal feeling is that popular media, particularly in the US, tends to shy away from any implication that the designated villains have a point, and tends to reconfigure morally ambiguous stories into ones where the designated villains are the sole source of all evil. For instance, the film adaptation of V for Vendetta implicates the leaders of fascist England in causing the crisis that precipitates their rise to power; the original graphic novel takes the much more disturbing tack that the crisis was unrelated and that the people of England voluntarily chose fascists to lead them - and worse, that the alternative that V offers is not a populist restoration of democratic rule but rather a violent, bloody, anarchic revolution against a backdrop of dire and desperate circumstances that have not been resolved.

In short: if Praetorian Hamidon isn't real, then Going Rogue is V the Movie and I am disappoint.

I'm aware of all of the above. I suppose it wasn't entirely clear from my first post that I was expressing a contrasting experience, and not a contrasting opinion on the same experience, but rest assured I did read the information presented to me (amazing, I know!) and did realize that acting as my character did for the stability of Praetoria was against the expressed orders of Emperor Cole. However, what I did not make clear in my OP was that the character I was playing so thoroughly believed in the Emperor's public image that when presented with evidence that the Emperor would allow Praetoria to come to harm, or invade an innocent dimension wholesale rather than accept badly-needed aid, she simply refused to believe any of it. Instead she snapped her Occam's Razor over her knee, and constructed a barely-plausible theory of rogue elements in the government acting without Cole's knowledge or sanction.

Which is why the Emperor's speech, in which he confirms that the invasion plans do indeed originate from him, was so unpleasant for her.

Carrion Creepers. Oh good heavens.

No, because Tar Patch is not a defense debuff. Dark Miasma has no defense debuffs.

I think he meant "drop" as in "cast", not "drop" as in "leave out of the build".

It doesn't take Accurate Healing because it doesn't take Accuracy. Energy Drain is autohit. Powers generally don't accept set types that provide enhancements to aspects that can't be improved.

Not anymore they aren't. Sonic Grenades are resistable now.