Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

[bubba smith]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

right marcus

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Duress details

 

Steve Long has generously given me permission to post the information about Duress from DH #5, minus the game stats for the Keepers:

 

Duress, the prison-realm described in the main text, is a hellish, artificially-constructed dimension built by the Republic. Suffused with energies which keep its “inhabitants” alive without the need to eat or drink, it’s a rocky, uncomfortable land. In places it’s as hot as a desert; elsewhere, it’s as cold as a glacier. Mildly acidic rains and fierce storms lash it from time to time.

 

Duress is “home” to hundreds of Andromedan superhuman criminals captured by the Republic and sentenced to reside there for specified periods of time (many permanently). They have formed societies not dissimilar to Human prison gangs, fighting among themselves for what few comforts and resources the place provides. The most prominent leaders among the inmates are Starbreaker (a powerful energy projector), Phasar (a shapeshifter), Blackrock (an earth-manipulating brick), and Slowpoke (a speedster). Each of them hates the others bitterly, and would leap at any chance to eliminate his rivals.

 

Periodically, each inmate is captured by the Keepers, fearsome, almost indestructible robot guards, for torture commensurate with his sentence. Keepers are dark grey humanoid robots about eight feet tall and proportionately broad. Small spikes stud their shoulders, lower arms, the front of their “boots,” and their “belts.” They have two fingers and a thumb on each hand.

 

Cripes. Duress is the Null Void!

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

Yep. I'm guessing it never occurred to the Republic that one of their enforcers might find herself outside her jurisdiction. If Nebula ever gets sent home' date=' maybe they should look into things like that...[/quote']

 

It's possible that the Republic has arrangements with other powers of the Andromeda Galaxy to deal with similar situations... but remember just how far outside her jurisdiction Nebula is now. I doubt her masters ever foresaw a Tel'narian Guard ending up in another galaxy.

[kahuna's bro]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

good idea lord liaden

its me bubba smithi had to re register after my computer was unplugged for moving

[Lucius]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

yes indeed tqm very good indeed

i woder if nebula has no legal standing on earth wouldnt any terrans she banished to durres be KIDNAPPING VICTIMS at that point?

 

Under Human Law, yes.

 

Under Nebula's own Code, maybe.

 

If her Republic encompasses the entire Andromeda Galaxy, has for some time, and they have dealt with little or no intergalactic traffic, the law as written may not recognize a limit to its jurisdiction at all.

 

It just struck me that Nebula is (only a little) like a villain I had concieved of independently I called Beaurocrat. He wasn't quite as oblivious as Nebula, but thought of Earth as some overlooked pocket that had been neglected so long that the local residents had "forgotten" that they had a higher Authority to answer to. He was actually quite tolerant of other people's attitudes, blaming the lamentable local situation on some failure of the Beaurocracy itself - "Someone should be monitoring this system, and they're obviously in dereliction of duty!"

 

He was less likely to try to arrest a superhero than to "deputize" them, and sometimes issued licenses as "needed" -

 

"See here now, you can't go reading sentient minds without a license! Here, this is a Temporary Emergency License to Read Minds, don't abuse it and remember to apply for a proper license when appropriate."

 

"Uh, when would it be 'appropriate?'"

 

"Just as soon as we have the necessary offices set up on this planet."

 

"So, when Hell freezes over."

 

"I keep hearing references to that place and its climate. Someday I need to learn more, but right now please tell us what this miscreant is thinking."

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Licensed to operate a palindromedary

[SvZurich]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

Lucius, I rather fancy your concept. Kudos pilgrim.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

It's possible that the Republic has arrangements with other powers of the Andromeda Galaxy to deal with similar situations... but remember just how far outside her jurisdiction Nebula is now. I doubt her masters ever foresaw a Tel'narian Guard ending up in another galaxy.

 

There are no powers in the Andromeda Galaxy, the entire things is united into one governmental entity.

[Susano]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

Sort of like a stuffy British constable that won't admit he's a little in over his head... and is willing to bend the rules to get the job done. I like it.

[Susano]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

There are no powers in the Andromeda Galaxy' date=' the entire things is united into one governmental entity.[/quote']

 

Y'know... this is where comics tropes and the idea of how big space really is breaks down.... I mean... that's one big government!

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

There are no powers in the Andromeda Galaxy' date=' the entire things is united into one governmental entity.[/quote']

 

Is this an assumption or proposal, or something stated in a published book? If the latter, do you have a reference? It's not in either Nebula's or Vibron's backgrounds from CKC (a sentence from the latter could be interpreted that way, but it's not explicit).

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

Y'know... this is where comics tropes and the idea of how big space really is breaks down.... I mean... that's one big government!

 

To Istvatha V'han, Andromeda would probably be just a province. For that matter, the Green Lantern Corps postulates that one man can protect 1/3600th of the entire universe.

 

At some point you just have to relax and go with it.

[Susano]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

To Istvatha V'han' date=' Andromeda would probably be just a province. For that matter, the Green Lantern Corps postulates that one man can protect 1/3600th of the [b']entire universe[/b].

 

At some point you just have to relax and go with it.

 

Well, yeah. But it always made me laugh when Earth became a battleground for the Shi'ar, Skrulls, and Kree, when each basically ruled their own galaxy.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

Why do you think they ruled so much? Because they always want more!

 

(It's an "evil galactic imperialist" tradition.)

[ghost-angel]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

Is this an assumption or proposal' date=' or something stated in a published book? If the latter, do you have a reference? It's not in either Nebula's or Vibron's backgrounds from CKC (a sentence from the latter could be interpreted that way, but it's not explicit).[/quote']

 

Between Digital Hero 5 and CKC it's simply a strong implication that The Republic controls the entire galaxy. But no, it doesn't say outright it does anywhere.

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

Hmmm... a cross between the Shi'ar Imperial Guard and the Nova Corps???

 

 

Green Lanterns and the L.E.G.I.O.N.

 

 

QM

[Black Ops]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

L.E.G.I.O.N. seems to have turned into a Foreign L.E.G.I.O.N.

At least it looks like they are currently fighting ( and enforcing Peace) for the highest bidder.

Sigh.... Comics have changed since I bought those.

But thats the wrong thread for my bile....

 

I think it is not exactly clear how big the Republic Nebula serves really is. It might just control a sizeable chunk of real estate in the Andromeda. We have as somebody mentioned some inclination of the Duress Dimension thanks to the DH Articles but the rest is just speculation.

Maybe the Republics forces are for hire ala L.E.G.I.O.N. and they are branching out into our Galaxy......

Just image the competition between Star*Guard and the Tel`narian Guard...

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

Just image the competition between Star*Guard and the Tel`narian Guard...

 

 

Now that could be interesting. From the bits of info we've been given about the Star*Guard, their ideals and method of operation would be very much opposed to Nebula's. If the Tel'narian Guard was re-interpreted as an Andromedan version of the Star*Guard, and the two of them came to a jurisdictional dispute...

[Peregrine]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

 

Now that could be interesting. From the bits of info we've been given about the Star*Guard, their ideals and method of operation would be very much opposed to Nebula's. If the Tel'narian Guard was re-interpreted as an Andromedan version of the Star*Guard, and the two of them came to a jurisdictional dispute...

 

Two words: "intergalactic war".

 

"Island hopping" campaigns across the Magellanic Clouds....

 

Champions 5000, anyone?

[SvZurich]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

I'll play it!

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

Champions Beyond... BUMP!

 

 

Cheers

 

 

QM

[Alverant]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

Champions Beyond... BUMP!

 

Thanks!

 

In that thread someone commented about how Nebula's weapon was a one-shot-kill power that's easily abused. Another post reminded us that the characters are not set in stone, that we can change them if we wanted. I found three ways (not mutually exclusive) to keep it from being abused.

 

1) The gun teleports the target to a holding cell on her ship. The target is brought to "trial" with telepathic scanners and if found guilty they may be punished to Dures. Naturally this takes time (enough to allow for a rescue) and provides a chance for role playing as the character tries to explain why they are not guilty.

 

2) Anyone sent to Dures can be retrieved at will. The gun (or whatever means is used to send people there) adds a tracking signal during transit making rescue as simple as scrolling back in the gun's history and select "recall". Of course first you have to get control of the device from Nebula....

 

3) Nebula's programming is not as rigid as listed. She recognizes that she is outside her jurisdiction and attempts to work with local authorities to capture Vibron and return home. The PCs are to keep an eye on her so she doesn't harass citizens sforphling (with our without a license) or breaking some obscure alien law that doesn't apply on Earth. Hilarity ensues.

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

I like it.

 

"The GM in me goes; Hmmm... , While the Player in me goes; Yikes...!"

 

Nice

 

QM

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

Perhaps we might move the discussion which has derailed the Champions Beyond thread here? Steve has pretty much heard "some people would value fleshing her out and others would not", so there's nothing more to say on topic to that thread.

 

To that end, I repeat the discussion from the CB thread below.

 

Doesn't matter. Nebula will still be totally broken because the character forces people to pay points for spot defenses like Extra Dimensional Movement, only to prevent from being extradimensionally moved, instead of working on their concepts. The only purpose of this character, as near as I can figure, is to annoy players by removing their character from the game as a cheap shot. I would rather eat glass than use Nebula if I used the CU. This is ridiculously unfair, especially if some martial artist or character that can't breathe in space or operate dimensional equipment gets a good roll and tags Nebula hard. Bam. Nebula sends them to Duress.

 

GM: So, Bob, who are you playing this week?

 

Bob: I'm playing Dimension Man Alpha, since Nebula sent my last eight characters to Duress. Now you can't move me there. Nyah! Nyah! (BLEEP) You!

 

GM: Feeling a little angry about those die rolls, Bob?

 

Bob: Not at all.

 

There's very little I would refuse to play in a game with. But I would refuse to play in a game where the GM used Nebula.

 

I don't know if I can agree with you here. It's not the fact that the character is being used, but how he is being used that would bother me. If there was some way to get out, or it was not going to be a blatant Total Party Kill, I could play along. It might be fun.

 

Sure, the GM could have Nebula banish your character to Duress, but that shouldn't be the end of the character unless the player and the GM want it to be.

 

The next step would be having an adventure set in Duress where your character tries to survive with all the maniacs. "I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with me." Supes did that all the time with the Phantom Zone.

 

While you are doing that, the other players could be trying to convince Nebula to let you out, or they could join you one by one, if that's that ways more fun. What if there is a time differential in Duress, and they come in like a day or so later even though it's just a turn in the real world. Star Trek did this like three or four times to pretty good results. Voyager "Wink of an Eye" was my favorite.

 

Maybe there is a McGuffin that will release you. I smell a quest. You could play another character for a couple of games while the quest is going on, and pick up your regular character again when he/she is sprung.

 

The Chinese word for GM is a combination of the characters for danger and opportunity.

 

So, Mike, how do you really feel about Nebula? Don't hold back now.

 

Look, I'm not a fan of Nebula either, as I'm not a fan of her EDM weapon sending people to a supposedly unescapable prison. However, Laspedgamer brings up some excellent ideas on how to use Duress, all of which are perfect in-genre solutions. There's also the fact that you don't have to use her EDM weapon as is... too many people seem to think what Steve's done is written in stone and can't be changed. Don't like her gun? Revise it so it's easier to defend against! Or take it away and make her an alien cop, stranded on Earth, trying to enforce laws that don't apply.

 

I'd also point out that the post I was responding too had a number of other good ideas I liked, aside from Nebula, and since Duress exists, it would be a good idea for Steve to flesh it out a little, so that GMs would now how to use it, and keep it (and Nebula) from being a TPK plot-device.

 

The problem is that the character is written in such a way that ICly, this is impossible. Nebula is a space cop with alien morals and no compassion. Let me explain how this translates in an environment where everything is kept IC and the gamemaster doesn't pull punches. If I were running this character, I would have to play the ball where it lies, because, comic book game or no, the character is going to take out the greatest threats first. Usually, when dealing with unknowns, that means "The person who deals the most damage."

 

Let's look at your adventure setup for Duress. What the HECK are the other players doing while your character runs around Duress? Anything that the GM does to let the character out of Duress is going to look contrived and a freebie thrown at the player unless he paid for powers and abilities to get him out prior to doing so. Spending XP to get out of duress during the adventure IS cheating. Period. You shouldn't be allowed to spend XP on the spot during an adventure to fix a problem that you didn't forsee.

 

While you are doing that, the other players are sidekicks, period. Let me tell you how this runs with 99 percent of PC groups.

 

Player A: Oh, my god! What happened? She shot him! He's GONE. Completely GONE.

 

Player B: She killed him?

 

Nebula: I merely sent him to an extradimensional prison in another galaxy for his crimes. You are next, doer of evilness.

 

Unless the players all decide that they want to be shot by Nebula, the PC's are going to beat the living daylights of Nebula, or Nebula is going to find herself hard pressed and run away. And Nebula is VERY good at running away. No group of superheroes worthy of the name is going to stop and negotiate with someone who just sent their ally to another dimension! They'll trash her or bring her to justice for kidnapping, assault, reckless endangerment, and a host of other criminal offenses. Plus, remember, Nebula is "One Shot, One Kill." Every hit sends a character to Duress.

 

Remember that most games are run by this principle. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. If you, as GM, use tons of one shot, one kill villains, then the players will put stuff like this on their sheets too, and then your game is pretty much ruined, because you will have no recourse but to build better one-shot, one kill characters, and that's how they will react; with wars of escalation. I've seen this before in other games hundreds of times. Plus, as GM, you don't have a defense here. Using a crappy deus-ex-machina hole in the rules tactic to send characters to an extradimensional prison is a jerky move. I've seen stuff like this destroy games and create angry players too many times to ever use this.

 

The time differential only works in a game where you don't keep careful track of time. In the game I run, SIDs are just as important as hero IDs. "You aged me four weeks in the span of two hours?" is just as bad as "Only one minute passed, but six weeks passed in the real world?"..."Oh, my god, I got fired!" "Oh, my god, I failed algebra." "Oh, my god, my girlfriend is going to bed with some other guy. I got dumped in absentia."

 

It only takes one or two adventures like this to turn people into power gamers with no regard for anything the GM does. Trust me. I've lived through it enough times to know. You have to respect the rules as GM. But you have to respect your players more. This is a low-down, dirty tactic that does nothing but abuse the fact that no one would ever buy Extra-Dimensional Movement, only to protect against Extra Dimensional Movement power. Power Defense is not an absolute shield here. It depends on the SFX of the Power Defense. The stupid thing is, the best defense against this is Density Increase or Growth. If Nebula doesn't have the mass multiples, she can't transport you. While it makes a ton of sense, it also leads to STR inflation. This kills concept-driven games, too.

 

The Maguffin that can release you idea in a situation like this is CHEATING, unless it comes with a consequence. The most logical thing would be a dimensional movement machine. However, if the PC can't force someone to operate it for him, he's pretty much doomed. Do you have any idea what the penalties for Systems Operation are for figuring out an unfamiliar alien machine with a tech level above yours? Rules as written, this is like -12. It's like 7 tech levels and -5 for unfamiliar. Most PC's can't even ROLL this number. When was the last time you saw a PC spend 15 points on his Systems Operation skill? The average skill roll is around 13 to 14-. If you give the hero an ally that he has to work with who's distasteful, like a galactic criminal or something like that, then there's a consequence, because he can't get out without releasing another bad guy.

 

The problem is that if you do this, Nebula comes after him, and it all begins again. This is dirty pool, too.

 

The American words for GM are Tough, but Fair. This is unfair, period. You automatically create a situation where one PC is the "Star" for weeks on end, or some people might as well not show up to the session, start another game, or spend three hours outside smoking.

 

I know I would really hate to be chewing my cud for four hours while a GM dealt with this. And I CERTAINLY wouldn't appreciate the extra four hours of time that player got if it got dealt with offscreen. The three worst things about the CU are 1) Power Escalation 2) Everything comes from magic and 3) Nebula.

 

You play games with your friends. Don't treat them like acquaintances.

 

I can tell that you are very passionate about this, but I still don't see it that way. If I as GM knew that the players wouldn't want to play out a scenario where one character was absent while they tried to save the other PC, and the player whose PC was absent was playing Dr. Silverback or someone, for a couple of sessions, I guess I wouldn't do that. I think it might be fun, but I guess I can see how some folks wouldn't get it.

 

The time differential thing and all the complications that go with it are fodder for roleplaying to me. All those matching complications you got points for will have to eventually bedevil you. Everything you listed as things that could happen are kind of clever and might make for a good game with the right people.

 

If everyone goes into Duress at the same time and has to come out, that might make for a neater never-split-the-party vibe, but I don't believe that it is always wrong to split the party and play things out that happen at different times simultaneously or off screen. If the other players can't stand to have one person have a quick solo run that's handled off screen, I guess we can all mob around together and kill stuff, but I tend hate those sorts of games with a passion if that's all that's going on. I can play an MMO and do that from the comfort of my own couch. Hell, I don't even need the headphones on, so I don't have to talk to anyone.

 

I don't believe that it is cheating in an RPG as long as the GM is trying to keep the game flowing and give the players some interesting challenges without making it TPK. If the GM makes a McGuffin and makes it reasonable to get with some effort this is not cheating. Cheating to me is twinking out your character so that he/she can never be effected by anything just because you were effected by an exotic attack once before. If you know that the main villain for more than one arcs of your campaign is Menton or PSI, you might try to invest in some Metal Defense devices. If you encountered Menton once and it didn't go well, I don't think rewriting your whole character is called for.

 

I wouldn't be jealous if the GM handled the other player's time in Duress by bluebooking or E-mail. It also wouldn't bug me if the GM ran the two things simultaneously. I think most people can hold off on metagaming enough to get something out of that. It all depends on the personalities involved. It's more a matter of taste. It's also not fair to say that one player would be the star for weeks on end. Most shows are able to resolve plotlines like this in one or two episodes. It's just a matter of keeping it brisk.

 

You can't really win a table top RPG, and the only way to lose is if no one has fun. It's not a direct competition between the GM and the players. It's a cooperative storytelling session with the GM trying to create an environment and basic plotline for the players to improv off of, often riffing off of stuff that they provide. The rules keep everyone honest, but even the Line Editor says that you can tweak things to make more dramatic sense if needed.

 

If you believe that the only way to "win" a scenario is to tactically beat the villain, what happens when Dr. Destroyer or Valek is on the board?

[Alverant]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

Thanks for posting the discussion. I confess to being too lazy to do it myself. I figured anyone who would read this thread would have also read the Champions Beyond thread.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

 

Personally, I would say the challenge Nebula presents for the GM is to find a way to use the character that does not degenerate to "zap - make a new character". If the GM is not able or willing to find a way to use the character in such fashion, then the solution is to not use the character. Whether that means modifying her to better fit the model the GM can use, or simply not using the concept at all depends on the GM. There is no requirement that the GM use each and every character presented in any Hero publication, or that the GM use them exactly as written.

 

Personally, I've never used Nebula. But I think having some further backstory on her, her society and the extra dimensional prison itself could flesh out the character and provide opportunities for those GM's who care to use them. It could also illustrate how to use the "one shot zap" to further an entertaining story, rather than to destroy a character, or even a campaign.

 

Balabanto, when I read your posts, it seems like you are looking for excuses to keep Nebula in the "zap-your character is removed from the game" model. I'm glad you wouldn't want to use a character in that manner, but my preference would be to look for ways the character can be useful, rather than just eliminate the character. Lapsedgamer, in particular, provides some good in-genre examples like:

 

- role playing the character's endeavours to escape from Duress. You dismiss this, but it is very much in genre. To the jealous players, perhaps they would be less jealous in a game built around this model, knowing that their turns for off-screen attention would come. That may not be a viable model for your game, but it may well be viable for others. You point to "realistic" skill modifiers. I counterpoint with the source material, where those penalties do not seem to prevent an escape.

 

- role playing the other characters' efforts to locate and free their teammate also seems like a valid, in genre approach. Whether by getting the weapon away from Nebula, analyzing the effects of the weapon ("we need to get her to fire again so I can get a better read on the EM and Dimensional Field Variances and try to recreate the pathway to her prison dimension"). Cutting back and forth between the two could be quite interesting, and invokes memories of a lot of great source material where some of the team is working to get out of an area while the rest is working to find them and rescue them. When the two (or more) threads combine at the end of the story and everyone has a hand in pulling off the rescue, that makes for a pretty memorable climax.

 

- not every problem needs to be solved by beating someone to unconsciousness. Having one or two team members stranded extra dimensionally, followed by capturing Nebula and having to reason through her morals and ethics to determine an argument that she has violated her own code of conduct and should make redress by rescuing the target could be an engaging arc revolving around skills outside combat, and role playing. Again, this depends on the game.

 

If your players are going to turn this into a war of escalation, then it's not good for your game. My players don't game that way, but then they would also expect me not to run a "zap - you're dead" scenario either. They would expect a challenge they can win. If a GM runs a game where any failure on the part of the characters results in character removal, or long-term damage to the character, no surprise the players don't want to leave any way their characters can lose. If failure means looking for a way to recover and do better next time, then the players tend to find losing much less distressing, and may even find it spices up the game as they role play their reaction to the loss, and their planning (not "player plans a character rewrite", "characters plan how they will better deal with a similar issue in future, using their existing abilities") for coming out on top in the inevitable (in the source material, anyway) rematch.

 

In my games, I like to have backup plans. If things don't work well for the heroes, what will the consequences be? I don't want a failed die roll, or bad luck in combat, or what have you, to mean the campaign ends, so I either remove those elements, or I figure out what will happen that allows the player characters to recover from a failure. Sometimes, that means having to take a break when something unexpected occurs in game to figure out what happens next. In some instances, "what happens next" may be a bit contrived to make the game work (hey, the source material also seems contrived sometimes). Where you find creating solutions to keep the game progressing to be "CHEATING", I find a GM refusing to make the game work is abdicating his responsibility to keep the game fun for all involved.

 

I find your description of players who simply buy a defense to every attack they come across to indicate immature players and/or an adversarial game style. I doubt that's the case in your games, and I have only a limited description to go from, but it is what your description suggests to me. In my games, players routinely accept that certain attacks are very effective against them, because that's part of their concept. They trust the GM to recognize those complications, and use them without abusing them. So they don't buy up mental defenses because they expect to face mentalists - they expect the GM to present them with challenging, but winnable, scenarios. The GM who accepts a weakness in a character and is then unable to highlight that weakness without rendering the character ineffectual is just as bad as the GM who allows an ability which renders the character undefeatable and impossible to challenge.

 

In fact, a lot of good gaming really is about trust. Good players can be trusted not to abuse the rules, and good GM's can be trusted not to abuse the weaknesses a good player will leave in a well-constructed character. Take away that trust, and the game becomes adversarial. If you shunted half a dozen of my characters off to Duress and defined that as "out of the game - make a new character", of course my next character would be somehow immune to that attack. You have shown you cannot be trusted to refrain from abusing my lack of such defense. Just as I would make a character with resistant defenses if history in your game showed a lack of such defenses meant near-term character death by killing attacks. If lack of a given defense means the character will be ineffective, the players will contrive to justify those defenses. If having an Achilles' heel makes the character more fun to play, not more easily exploited by the GM, then such weaknesses become acceptable, even desirable, to the players.

 

You highlight a lot of very realistic results from being away for six weeks. How often do you see those results occur in the source material? Yet Supers are routinely away for extended periods of time, and these details are glossed over. If they are a feature of a given game, then I think you have entered an unwritten contract with the players that you will use scenarios in that game that do not require or result in extended absences for the characters. Those complications should be used to enrich the story, and even add challenges. Your comments suggest you will simply make those challenges insurmountable, so clearly I should not take those complications. They will not be used to make my character more interesting, but to make him less playable and less fun.

 

There's no question that part of the problem is the one shot nature of Nebula's power. But an equal or greater part of the problem is any GM who will just throw that into a scenario without considering the consequences. If a GM is going to run Nebula as a PC Eraser, such that the only way they can keep a character in play is to buy defenses against her EDM power, then I agree that GM should not be using the character. But such GM's will abuse pretty much any NPCwho possesses an unusual ability, or has some other advantage over one or more PC's. ["He has extensive non-combat influence, and so your character is now Hunted by every law enforcement agency on earth, hated by the general public, and hundreds of investigators and profilers are working out his secret ID, so they'll certainly know who you are within a couple of game sessions."]

 

Such a GM should restrict his games to tactical combat simulations where the characters are relatively balanced. He should probably rule against any character with a vulnerability or susceptibility, since he likely can't take advantage of it in any way other than demolishing the character. In my view, that will make for less interesting games, so maybe that GM should step down and let someone able to run a richer game, with a greater variety of challenges, take the reigns.

 

For me, I really detest GM statements like "well, that's what it said in the module" or "that's the character as written". The GM is responsible for the characters and scenarios he puts on the table. When using published materials, part of the GM's job is to adapt them as needed to suit his playstyle, and that of the group he is gaming with. The few pages devoted to an NPC villain in their published appearance provides a framework for that character. It should not be considered a straightjacket. We know Nebula views justice differently than we do. What are her rules? We know she sends evildoers to an extradimensional prison. What happens there? How does it work? She DOES NOT kill them, so they must still be in play. The GM is the only one who can fully flesh these out, and every GM will put their own take on them. The suggestion that Champions Beyond, or some other publication, flesh out Duress seems completely reasonable to provide more tools to the GM. Tools that the GM can work with, customize, modify and/or discard at his discretion to make a structure that works best for his GM style and the players in his game.