Stephen Mann

Re: World with superheroes - Only one power set? I had an idea several years ago involving Norse deities summoned during WWII, but that was lost during a computer crash. The main idea had the Nazis summoning Thor and convincing him to help them. On their second attempt, they got Loki, who backstabbed Thor and jumped ship to the Allies. Before he "died", Thor gave some of his power to a number of German soldiers. Loki trained a bunch of Allied soldiers. The end result was that Germany had a bunch of weather-controlling bricks and the allies had magicians/illusionists. Loki disappeared after his initial students stopped training with him, and no one knows what happened to him or where he is.

Re: Time Frame for Appearance of Superhumans Before the 20th Century, there were a few super-normals like Zorro or the Lone Ranger floating around, but very few and far between. Masked heroes became more common during Prohibition when the Mob started gunning down lawmen/prosecutors/judges who were too effective at busting rum-runners. If some of these were stronger than normal or faster, it wasn't obvious enough to be noticed. There were stories of superhumans, but these mages and psionic marvels kept to the shadows if they really existed. Powered people didn't show up until the late 1930s, and they were relatively weak powers at that. By the end of the war, some men could lift tanks or fly with the fastest pursuit fighters, but they were rare. The power level of Superman or Green Lantern didn't show up until the 1960s, and didn't become common until the 1980s. Well, common as in "more than one per continent". = = = = = = = = = = = = For the longest time, I never was really concerned for explaining this slow progression. I like the Galactic Champions theory of returning magic, and have retroactively applied that to my world. And yes, the power increase is generational; the 1800s allowed exceptional humans to push their limits, but they were limited to human normal. At the turn of the century, an invisible corner was turned and certain humans suddenly had no real upper limits. The fact that most of these people lived in the electrified cities probably has nothing to do with it (electricity is the early "nuclear accident"). The critical mass was reached with the generation born in the early 1920s; some of these were blatantly superhuman. Their children were slightly more powerful; their children even more powerful, etc.

Re: Evil Fey If you don't mind doing an extended session of reading, the story "Dystopic Return of Magic" over on the Alternate History boards is relevant.

Re: Magic systems based on science? The Dance of the Gods series by Mayer Alan Brenner (Catastrophe's Spell, Spell of Intrigue, Spell of Fate, and Spell of Apocalypse) have a magical society built unknowingly over a super science basis. The amnesiac hero from the first story is the programmer who created the computer that creates magic.

Re: Has anyone ever done the Tomorrow People in Hero rules? OK, having read the wikipedia page, I get the general gist of the show. My one question is what, exactly, were their powers? The page says, "including" telepathy, TK, and teleport. What else could they do and did they all have the same powers?

Re: Shattered Dimensions, or An Excuse to Rebuild Spider-Man I'm amused by your warped visions. How many more of these do you have?

Re: Urban Hero: a new take on Bardic Music While this isn't exactly what you're looking for, http://www.eclipse.net/~rms/dwmain.shtml has a vaguely similar idea. The main character is an incomplete mage who can create magical effects only when listening to appropriate music. The wiki and discussion board mentioned contain lists of songs and their effects.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I just finished Edison's Conquest of Mars which I got from Project Gutenberg. It's been a while since I read material from that era, and had forgotten the typical tropes; Great Men of Science, beautiful and delicate Girls of Virtue, Indescribable Evil Beyond Human Comprehension, blah, etc. Fairly tedious, and yet, also, fairly nostalgic. There's a certain charm to these early stories, especially since we can see where our more modern tropes came from.

Re: "Agents of ILM" campaign idea: Help me flesh it out? This is the real reason Hollywood hates fanfiction; it blurs the clear image Hollywood creates enough that: 1) the "avatar" is no longer clear enough to made Real. 2) the "avatar" creates multiple shadows on Reality, none of whom act the same or have the same powers/weaknesses. These shadows are thus more unpredictable. Steve

Re: "Agents of ILM" campaign idea: Help me flesh it out? Moving Pictures combined with a variant Gestalt universe gives us fictional characters possessing people, and depending on how much Belief is imbued in them, they can alter the body they're possessing and their surroundings. So, the Fict known as El Zorro possesses somebody, morphs the body to match the movie image, and can warp reality enough to perform his legendary feats in modern society (and get away with it). If the possession moves from person-to-person, I can see quasi-religious rites (Voodoo anyone?) used to try to entice the Fict to possess the subject for a time. Criminals would compete to attract famous movie villains, especially the unkillable or uncatchable ones. Steve

Re: Children of Frankenstein Perhaps the artificial manner in which their ancestors were created (sewn together and quickened with Lightning!) gave the children a quasi-Lamarckian acquired-characteristics ability?

Re: Is "Way Station" a suitable addition for a superhero campaign?

Re: Is "Way Station" a suitable addition for a superhero campaign? Well, I've given Surbrook's site a quick glance and couldn't find it. Could you please provide a link? Thanks. Steve

Re: Native American Supers: Post Your's Here I made Shaman many years ago for a con game. He and his team mates are corporate heroes (being an independent hero is very expensive!). From the con handout: TEAM America and TEAM Nippon are large metahuman teams who function as security personnel for Taesei Eigyo Amalgamated Metals. The two Teams are also used as public superheroes as a good will gesture by the T.E.A.M. public relations department. Both Teams are made up of even numbers of American and Japanese metahumans who are chosen for their public charisma as well as their powers. In other words, they're tough and photogenic. Team membership rotates between Japan and America on a regular basis in order to continually create photo ops. Both Teams specialize in children's hospitals, parades, press conferences, disaster relief, and smiling for the cameras. While their primary duties revolve around reinforcing plant security teams and bodyguarding high-level T.E.A.M. officials, the TEAM board of directors makes sure that they have plenty of opportunities to shine in public. Shaman, while a full-blooded Amerindian, was not brought up in the tribal traditions, and is very aware of how much of a fraud he is (the corporation makes him wear Hollywood-style Indian clothing in public). He is not a front-line fighter, instead using his shapechanging and telepathy as the team scout.

Re: Fringeworthy Hero In regards to skills, remember that outside of their Fringeworthiness, they’re normal humans. Even though they’ve gone through boot camp and specialized training, they shouldn’t be optimized. Yes, some of them might be highly trained and skilled military combat monsters, but not the majority.