Powerless

[Cygnia]

Re: Powerless

 

Come to think about' date=' it Batman [i']did [/i]kill his parents. It has probably been retconned out of existence by now, but Superman once built a time machine and, as a birthday present to Bats, he went back to Crime Alley on that fateful night and stopped the mugger. Then when he got back to the present, there was no Batman and Bruce Wayne was happy, but a kind of spoilt brat. But because there was no Batman, Gotham was a sewer of violent crime, ten times as bad as it is with Batman. So Clark Kent visited Bruce Wayne, revealed his identity and told him about Batman. Even though this Bruce was just a spoilt brat/rich playboy, he was still (Bat)man enough to go back in time and hide in the shadows of

Crime Alley, then Shoot His Own Parents!!

 

Truly indeed, Superman is a Dick.

 

*Question: What about immortals? Did they die of natural causes maybe centuries before my character had met them? What about Monster Island and other fantastic locals Crash knew of? Are they gone?

 

Actually, I'd like to know about that too. My character Prospero is immortal and approximately 165 yrs old due to his powers (and throughout the years has changed both his secret & super identities to adapt with the times). Either he's dead, mortal but back in the late 19th/early 20th century back in England (and probably soon to be sent to an asylum thanks to these strange memories -- he was already considered "shellshocked" due to a tragic campaign in India where he accidentally got his powers) or mortal in the present time in America with some very [MEEP]ed up memories. And considering one of his enemies he'd have memories of is a dream demon who calls itself "The Living Nightmare", this might very well be its doing...

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: Powerless

 

Riot (fka Nemesis) - He would investigate his life to the last detail, look for weaknesses in this Reality, and try to make it home. In the mean time he would change jobs and join the Police Force or Military. Looking at the Intelligence/Investigations Specialties and try to help.

 

Cougar (I) - Would return to the Media World/Scene as Stuntman, Actor, & Model. Using the surreal celebrity background to benefit others.

 

 

Cheers

 

 

QM

[Metaphysician]

Re: Powerless

 

This scenario has a major genre flaw: by stripping characters not only of any superhuman powers and tech they have, but also skills, intellect, and ( presumably ) willpower, it essentially rewrites them into entirely different people.

 

Whereas *the* most important element of any "power loss" scenario is "its not the powers that make the hero." The fact that the character in question *remembers* how their life was, makes it all the more inexplicably out of place.

[Drhoz]

Re: Powerless

 

Zero would be back to being a low-grade clerk with severe mother issues. Loosing everything his gained after getting his powers - i.e. being a Hero like he imagined his father was, a warehouse full of rare collectibles, and a lady friend from a parallel world, and he'd most likely be incarcerated in a facility for the severely mentally disturbed before the week is out.

 

Vitus would be back on Aura - this would make him very, very, very happy.

[Clonus]

Re: Powerless

 

This scenario has a major genre flaw: by stripping characters not only of any superhuman powers and tech they have, but also skills, intellect, and ( presumably ) willpower, it essentially rewrites them into entirely different people.

 

It doesn't strip them of skills and intellect. It just strips them of the ability to violate the laws of physics with those skills and intellect. But if you are an expert martial artist or genius, you'll still be an expert martial artist or genius.

[Pól Ruadh]

Re: Powerless

 

El Aguila Azul, a masked wrestler raised in an orphanage, would take over the work of his teacher, continuing his work as a performer, a teacher, a trainer, and as a tireless campaigner for the rights of the urban poor.

[bubba smith]

Re: Powerless

 

tuff-man'd wonder where the supers went not being afected since he HAS no super-powers but is a martial artist who whishes he was asuper-hero

he'd volunteer his services to the local neighborhood watch program

[CoreBrute]

Re: Powerless

 

Monster Island, Atlantis and other locations like that don't exist in this world, only in stories and the sort.

 

The Immortals become legends, or myths but the characters themselves awaken in the ancient land they originate, at about the age they are an adult, and grow from there.

 

So people researching history might find an inscription in modern English while looking at Ancient Greek ruins, saying things like "Don't sell Babe Ruth" etc.

 

Recently in the news you see a record number of people being admitted into mental institutions, who run around in colourful outfits saying, "You don't understand, I'm a super hero!" There has been an increase in vigilante actions as well (Strangeiron and Riptide are in this catergories)

 

One unusual event however attracts attention. Some people who call themsleves DEMON say this on a broadcast:

 

"We of the cult of DEMON see this world as fiction, and we have discovered a way back to the true world. All those who recognise this world as false, find us and we shall take you back to the true world."

 

DEMON doesn't say how they will do it, or even if they are telling the truth. But if they can do it, it will require great sacrifice. Literally.

[Vulcan]

Re: Powerless

 

Vigil would fight DEMON tooth and nail to keep the world as-is. And since he's a hacker, his best tactic would be to crash the computers DEMON uses for spell-checking...

[Lucius]

Re: Powerless

 

One unusual event however attracts attention. Some people who call themsleves DEMON say this on a broadcast:

 

"We of the cult of DEMON see this world as fiction, and we have discovered a way back to the true world. All those who recognise this world as false, find us and we shall take you back to the true world."

 

 

In other words, they're saying what literally millions of people and groups have said before, dating back to the Gnostics at least in the West, and including practically every important religious or philosophical thinker in the East.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

And this palindromedary tagline is lying to you

[Kal'El Wayne]

Re: Powerless

 

It doesn't strip them of skills and intellect. It just strips them of the ability to violate the laws of physics with those skills and intellect.

The problem is, they never violated any laws of physics. Iron Man can fly. In our world you can't make a flying suit of armour like Tony Stark yet, but the laws of physics in the Marvel Universe say that you can. So the scientific knowledge that they had suddenly becomes worthless because they don't know the laws of physics of this universe. (Or they do and can build supergadgets again). Of course, nothing is stopping the more realistic Pulp Hero style people, like Rocketeer, (A guy with a real world style rocket pack, and a gun.) or the 'Stage Magician with no real powers' version of the Shadow.

[Tandem Esk]

Re: Powerless

 

Tandem Esk' date=' if your some kind of being composed of magic or something...you become a normal human but with weird memories. Your homeless, and have no birth records, or any records what so ever.[/quote']

 

Nope. She is the "avatar"/"exemplar"/"embodiment" of "superheroics". That's all she's capable of being, that's what caused her to become and sustains her. No superheroics, and no "avatar"/"exemplar"/"embodiment" (only possible in a world not at all like Earth). So, she can't exists. Her very being defies "science as we know it."

[Clonus]

Re: Powerless

 

The problem is' date=' they never violated any laws of physics. Iron Man can fly. In our world you can't make a flying suit of armour like Tony Stark yet, but the laws of physics in the Marvel Universe say that you can. .[/quote']

 

I'm talking about the real laws of physics. Not the comic book laws of physics.

[Guest steamteck]

Re: Powerless

 

I'm talking about the real laws of physics. Not the comic book laws of physics.

 

 

What he's saying is since physics. is different their scientific skills aren't really intact.

I don't play just Gm but Most of the top heroes in my world would feel the world was better off non mundane and try to find a way back to making it what it was. Especially he ones who are aware of the multiverse. Since in my multiverse in over 600 known universes none are that aggressively mundane, it could be a threat to everything. Time for some of the parallel universe allies to break out the PRGs ( portable reality generators)

[Kal'El Wayne]

Re: Powerless

 

What he's saying is since physics. is different their scientific skills aren't really intact.

I don't play just Gm but Most of the top heroes in my world would feel the world was better off non mundane and try to find a way back to making it what it was. Especially he ones who are aware of the multiverse. Since in my multiverse in over 600 know universes none are that aggressively mundane, it could be a threat to everything. Time for some of the parallel universe allied to break out the PRGs ( portable reality generators)

Exactly.

 

Come to think of it, one of Sir Johnstone's other universe contacts will probably get agitated and start investigating.

[Clonus]

Re: Powerless

 

What he's saying is since physics. is different their scientific skills aren't really intact.

 

Ah but comic book physics are just an add-on to the real ones. And of course if Riptide in his new vigilante identity hears that an organisation like Demon is plotting to use human sacrifice to bring back the world that was, he will try to stop it.

[Guest steamteck]

Re: Powerless

 

Ah but comic book physics are just an add-on to the real ones.

 

 

True in 99% of cases I suppose. My games are almost always the exception:nonp: My game sort of uses enhanced steamteck/pulp physics. Things work really differently! Electrical healing rays anyone?

[Fabricati]

Re: Powerless

 

Well, for Jo, not a lot would change. She'd still be in Detroit. She'd still be richer the Croesus, living in the equivalent of Watts, and generally wreaking a little havoc here and there with money and pure engineering.

 

DEMON's proclamation might cause a few... very bad memories to surface.

 

But here's the conundrum- if DEMON is telling the truth- and that's a big if, considering what little she remembers of DEMON- then she might be caught in a third or fourth layer of delusion.

 

If DEMON is lying- and they probably are- she'd gladly arm up and set her empire to investigating their claims and organization.

 

In fact, she'd do the latter anyway; she's not precisely subtle.

 

And then she'd look at her state-of-the-art laptop, and vaguely recall when it was so much more...

 

A click.

 

Opening the case. and slowly piecing together the information, she'd come to realize that while she's happy here, she was just as happy working on the other ALIS. Just as happy fighting crime with the big boys.

 

She'd look up to the ceiling of her run-down tenement, and grin.

 

"Here's your answer. I was happy. I am happy. And you can't change that. And I'm going to stop them, powers or not, because it's the right thing to do. Because I'm certain that they'll kill us all if they're really on to something.

 

"So... I guess it doesn't matter, does it?"

[Tandem Esk]

Re: Powerless

 

Ah but comic book physics are just an add-on to the real ones.

 

Are they? Or are they completely seperate but look kinda like?

[Hermit]

Re: Powerless

 

Mole- Met his girlfriend because of being a superhero, and he really loves his powers. However, his father being alive would really tempt him. After all, he might be able to find Kaydee and win her affections anyway, right? As long as dad's ok

 

Except, Hudson City without superpowers is still an ugly place... and all it would take is the realization that whether it's death by an acid spitting meta punk, or a gun shot, it's still crime, and someone out there just lost a loved one. That the superpowered guys are actually HELPING Hudson City more than they're hurting it.

 

Once he realized that, he'd get really torn up...then try to undo this

And part of him would always hate himself

[Clonus]

Re: Powerless

 

Are they? Or are they completely seperate but look kinda like?

 

Since normal science goes on alongside the weird science, close enough for government work.

[Great Beyond]

Re: Powerless

 

Natasha my brick would be extremely depressed. She loves having being nigh invulnerable, she loves being a super genius putting together infindibulators and capacitors and time machines out of toasters. So the answer to "are you happy" is hell yes.

 

Scarlet, strangely enough wouldn't change all that much. She has one super power - 1 inch of flight with like times 10 endurance costs and like 30 levels of difficult to dispel - so unless you are god, that power isn't going anywhere. The rest of her shtick - trick arrows and investigation skills - are all within the realm of normal humanity. She's effective because she's SO damn diverse.

 

So she'll just go right back to being a hero, thwarting street level crime and busting up terrorist groups. All it does is change the focus of the game from one city to a global setting.

 

My new character, Chill Out Woman would be tough - I'm not sure how she would change. You cant remove her powers without completely rewriting her nature. She's a 4,000 year old deity (currently with amnesia) and the personification of winter. Take that away (and assuming that the seasons don't grind to a halt next fall), there's nothing left to the character.

 

Great Beyond wouldn’t have her sister (an ancient and powerful MacGuffin given human form), and that right there would be cause for her to move heaven and earth to get things back the way they were, warts and all. She herself isn't super powered, but she knows all manner of arcane history, mystic lore and secret magic stuff (basically, she's a magically charged blaster). Assuming her occult lore remains, and given enough time, she could probably undo this.

 

If THAT is gone, then it's another total re-write of the character, and she'd just be a very skilled stage magician doing two shows a night in Vegas.

[7thGate]

Re: Powerless

 

Homeland would be a normal computer program, chugging away scanning the internet for terrorist activity. As a sentient computer program, there isn't really a good way to turn him into a normal person. If he did somehow turn into a normal person....he would be really confused. And probably happy, since he would get to be a real person.

[Zed-F]

Re: Powerless

 

Soulbarb: Is happy to have the world this way as it means her soul is no longer bonded to a demon, or at constant risk of destruction from nutcase megavillains, alien invasions, etc. She probably still won't be much for organized religion, but she will at least make an effort to understand the core principles of Christianity and formulate a closer personal relationship with God. She will probably also focus her school career more towards law enforcement and/or independent investigative work. If she gets word that DEMON wants to change things back the way they were, and she is close enough to the action to matter, she probably will anonymously alert the authorities (in a way that will make sense to them) and attempt to go investigate; she's had to work while powerless before and isn't completely incapable of taking care of herself, especially once she gets her hands on a few conventional-tech weapons and gadgets. Plus she's pretty familiar with DEMON and has the mystic background to understand what they're trying to accomplish and how best to stop it. Of course, she may find things considerably more inconvenient than she's used to if this isn't an action-adventure world at all...

 

All this of course assuming she doesn't smell a rat during all this business and figure out that it's all in her head or something of the sort.

 

Sylph: Is uncertain whether she prefers things this way or not. On the one hand she never asked for her powers, and sometimes those powers have had repercussions in the past that she no longer has to worry about. On the other hand, being able to magically heal people and save them from all manner of trouble was very gratifying for her, and falling back on dreams of being a world-class ballet dancer seems tawdry in comparison. If she knew how to go about reversing things, she probably would... but she's never been a good investigator. Most likely her first step is to try to find someone else who remembers how things were, and hook up with them. Otherwise, she'd probably look into the possibility of changing her major from Fine Arts to Medicine, and possibly think about taking some self-defense and criminology classes on the side, just in case.