sinanju

After reading a post about Marvel Mutants* just now, I began to think about the origins for characters of mine in both my games and my fiction. And I decided to make a list and see what I got. IRON MAIDEN, flying brick (Portland, OR). The result of a one-night stand between an unnamed Flying Brick hero and her mother. Her mother never knew he was Flying Brick To Be Named Later , she only knew him as a hunky one-night stand; he never knew she got pregnant. Is she a mutant? She inherited her powers, but does that make her a second generation mutant? Or does it depend on whether her father is a mutant (as opposed to the recipient of powers acquired via accident/radiation/chemicals/alien physiology)? ROSE HANCOCK, flying brick (London, UK). ALSO the result of a one-night stand between FBTBNL and a married woman. Iron Maiden's half-sister, though neither of them are aware of it for a long time. BLACK KNIGHT, a WWII vet who received a mysterious gem in the mail in his retirement home (he was in his nineties), which he held onto for a long while before succumbing to a heart attack and dying. then he woke in the morgue in the muscular, 20 year-old form he had in WWII--with a healing factor that would make Wolverine weep with envy. The gem disappeared while he was "dead" so he still has no idea who sent it to whom or why or who's got it now. So, origin: magic or Weird Radiation . ZOE HARRISON, a young woman who is effectively immortal, as a result of exposure to the same gem as Black Knight (she's the one who sent it to him, to keep it out of the hands of bad guys pursuing her for it). So, origin: Weird Radiation. (She's based on Chloe Sullivan from Smallville, who in a panfandom LJ game was aged nearly to death by Wraiths from SG: Atlantis, but who had a piece of Kryptonite (the gem) in a lead box. With nothing to lose, she gambled and won by exposing herself to it for days, and being rejuvenated.) LLOYD GREYSTOKE, Man-Ape. A former B-list actor whose struggling PI show (Gumshoe Guy) became a worldwide phenomenon after his Kafkaesque transformation (in real life) into a man-ape was written into the show. Eventually, of course, the show ended. There's not a lot of call for Man-Apes in Hollywood, so his career ended with it. Origin: darned if he knows. He just woke up that way. DOCTOR SMITH, suuuuuper-genius. Only child of intelligent, ambitious, driven--but normal human--parents. An inventor and gadgeteer. Is she a mutant because she's so smart? Was Tesla a mutant? HELL'S ANGEL: Human torch with angel-like wings. She acquired (discovered? accessed?) her powers while being tortured by a fire-wielding criminal for information. Some hints that he might be her father (though he either didn't know or didn't care). Apparently there's a lot of unsafe hanky-panky going on in my game/fiction world.... SILVERSTREAK, speedster. Origin, unknown (I haven't written it yet). RAVEN, reality-manipulator. To hear her tell it, she's simply the only person lucid enough to recognize that "reality" is a collective fantasy, and therefore she's able to manipulate it in various ways. Everyone else just thinks she's crazy (albeit with the magical mojo to back up her delusions). Not a mutant. Not a classic magic-user either. A madwand (untrained mage), maybe? BLACK MASK, martial artist and reality-manipulator. Essentially the same powers as Raven, but a more sober and stable personality. I could go on, but that's enough, I think. What can I determine from this? Powers in this world are definitely inheritable. They DON'T follow the Marvel approach of Power A + Power B = Completely Urelated Power Z, though. Your powers will resemble the powers of your parent(s). On the other hand, it's clear that sometimes people just acquire powers seemingly out of the blue, like Lloyd Greystoke. No dramatic disaster, no accident, no...nothing. It just happened, as randomly as getting hit by lightning or winning the lottery. And he's not the only one. It *can* happen in extremely stressful situations, providing for the classic radiation (or chemical) accident origin. But it probably won't. Most people, most of the time, don't find themselves in such situations, so when they manifest powers, it's seemingly without cause. It's also the case that such events seem to be on the increase. There may have been (and probably were) such individuals throughout history, but they were extremely rare (plus, the population of earth through most of history was much smaller, so "one in a million" was a considerably smaller absolute number. There's also still room for some magic, and even for some nominally-normal human supers like Doctor Smith. *I have always found the anti-mutant hysteria in Marvel comics to be absurd. The man in the street is not privy to the details of the characters' origins in most cases. So, how exactly, do they manage to discriminate (har har) between mutants and non-mutant supers so precisely? Spider-Man, mutant or non-mutant? He's superhumanly fast and agile, and sticks to walls and spins webs (again, most people are probably unaware of the web-shooters). How is he NOT viewed as a creepy mutant? But, eh, I'm probably preachng to the choir....

There's an urban fantasy series (Women of the Otherworld--all the protagonists are women) in which there are vampires. They can drink blood without killing...but once a year they MUST kill someone. It's the price of their extended lives; it's paid for with other peoples' lives. So even the "good" vampires are killers.

David Brin's Sundiver, Startide Rising and a couple of other novels in the same universe. In that universe, humans eventually develop FTL and get out into the galaxy--only to discover that it's not a vast, unclaimed wilderness. It's New York City. And our solar system is simply one of countless not-particularly-nice apartments therein. There is a galactic civilization that is literally billions of years old. Extant species seek out and cultivate pre-sentient species from fallow worlds* to groom into sentience as their protegees. The newly-emerged species spend 100,000 years as the students/wards/subjects/slaves (it varies depending on the personality of their patron species) of their mentors before becoming full members of the galactic civilization. Nobody does original research anymore; everything was discovered billions of years ago by now long-gone Ancients; "research" consists of looking through the Galactic Library. *Whole arms of the galaxy are declared off-limits for millions of years at a time to allow new life to evolve on those worlds before being reopened to exploration and colonization. Humans evolved** on a world in one such sector, which is why we found no immediate neighbors. **Only sentient species evolving without help is virtually unheard of (clearly SOMEBODY managed it--the Ancients had nobody to help them along), and most of the other intelligent species in the galaxy don't believe humans did. They think someone started an uplift project on the sly and then abandoned us partway through. Status in the galactic civilization is based on how many "client" races a species has uplifted. Plenty of species would LOVE to take humans under their wing (for our own good, of course) for a 100,000 years or so. A great deal of human politicking in the galaxy is based on acquiring allies who will help us remain free of such "help". It also helps that humans had already uplifted chimps and dolphins before we encountered the galactic community, thereby forcing them to concede--however grudgingly and tentatively--our status as equals in law, if not in practice. One of the ways in which humans are mavericks is in our insistence on continuing to do actual scientific research, and employing our own (often laughably primitive) technology along with things gleaned from the Galactic Library. The humans don't completely trust the library, or maybe just don't like using technology that might as well be magic given our complete lack of understanding of how it works.

Yeah, I've designed characters with RKAs that were essentially guns, but w the IIF limitation. The character either always had another gun on him, or could grab a pre-positioned gun (a la Chow Yun Fat in various gun fu roles) or the weapons of defeated foes. If you could subdue and handcuff him, you could deprive him of a weapon, but if he was able to move around and had a free hand, it was all but impossible to disarm him.

We've watched all four episodes so far (streamed the one that airs on Tuesday) and we're enjoying it too. It's nice to see some (relatively) hard science on a tv science fiction series--especially on SYFY of all things! The ships and torpedoes do still tend to swoop and soar like atmospheric vessels too much, and of course there's the inevitable sound in space, but overall, yes, it's a nice change. I have to say, though, that I'm mostly invested in the five survivors of the Canterbury and their attempts to survive. The adventures of the Space Cop on Ceres, and the machinations of the folks on Earth and Mars interest me very little--but more, since the Canterbury survivors are clearing being drawn into that plot.

Yeah, I like Captain Cold. I like his prickly relationship with Barry, and his willingness to help them out--always indirectly, of course. He has a reputation to think about, after all. Zoom's hot and cold relationship with Wells makes sense to me. Many abusive relationships involve an element of randomness. The abused never knows how the abuser is going to react and tries to keep them placated. It keeps Wells off balance, and leaves him with a thread of hope that if he can just keep Zoom happy, he'll get his daughter back.

In his two (excellent) Superman novels from the 70s*, Elliott S! Maggin addressed this exact point. Lex Luthor has countless false identities. He creates them, uses them, and discards them whenever it's convenient. He hires actors to play the parts of various identities on occasion, just to keep the illusion going. Luthor has always assumed that Superman does the same thing, that he has numerous false identities and, even if one identity were exposed, he'd simply discard it and create another. Thus, Luthor has never put much effort into figuring who Superman's alter ego is, because it would be pointless. He has no idea how attached to being Clark Kent Superman is, and how devastating it would be to have that identity revealed. *Miracle Monday and Last Son of Krypton, both novels in which Superman is at the height of his Silver Age powers and yet he makes them work. (And Luthor is as super-intelligent as Superman is super-everything else. He casually invents Extra-Dimensional Movement with no need for tools from personal observations and first principles, as a means of escaping jail. He builds one-man FTL-drive starships, which he places on public display as a piece of "modern art" by one of his artistic identities until he needs it, and on and on and on. He once figured out how to build a bomb powerful enough to blast him out of prison from the legal pad and pen they let him keep in his cell...but doesn't do it, because next time they wouldn't let him have them, and he wants to be able to jot down the ideas that come to him in the middle of the night.)

I can't argue with what's been said. Kryptonians are horrifically overpowered, and only copious use of the dumb stick (or "the idiot ball", as in "who's carrying the idiot ball this week?") prevents Kara from handily dealing with any and every threat before the first commercial break--if that long. Nor is she the only character who has to carry the thing around. The writing on this show has been...subpar, to say the least, although I'm enjoying Cat Grant far more than I thought I would. I really like her interactions with Kara and Supergirl. Nonetheless, I enjoy the show. I'm a sucker for superhero shows.* Plus, Melissa Benoist really is charming. I wish were better--I wish the writing, specifically, were a lot better. But I'll keep watching. After all, I endured the depths of Heroes far, far, far worse levels of stupidity and bad writing. *As long as the characters have actual powers. I think I just realized that the main reason I don't watch Arrow is because he's just a guy with a bow. Just not my cup of tea.

I actually enjoyed (the Flash portion of) the crossover event. I didn't bother watching Arrow because...I just don't care about Arrow. I didn't mind the ID reveal. Barry doesn't keep the secret very close to his chest anyhow. I mean, Captain Cold knows who he is. And probably other villains. That ship has sailed. The Man In The Street doesn't know, and that's good enough. I also enjoyed the dialogue (lots of sass) and the way the characters all reacted to one another and to the many revelations. "We know the Flash? Did I know we know the Flash?" "Does that guy know any other way to enter a room!?" "Don't move!" "But then how will I kill you all?" "What are you doing?" "Ending it!" (Yay Speedy!) "If you take another step, I'll shoot." BLAM! (Yay Patty for ACTUALLY following through on a threat far too often uttered and never performed.) And the blond guy with the killer touch. (Who is he?) "I could do this all day." "Whoa! What was THAT?"

Yeah, I had zero interest in an Ant-Man movie. I'd much MUCH rather have seen a Black Widow movie. Or a Captain Marvel movie. As for DD vs JJ, while I liked Daredevil well enough, I loved Jessica Jones. I have no particular desire to watch DD season one again--but I could easily watch 13 hours of Jessica Jones again.

An alternative to a complete causal influence diagram that is less work (and which I've used) is plotting in the Who-What-When-Where-How-Why style. When I did that, I always included a paragraph or two for myself about how the villains' plans would go in the absence of interference, and how he/they would respond to interference. For instance: Who: Damien What: Making People Vulnerable to Possession By His Dark God When: It started three weeks ago, with the opening of... Where: Damien's Deep Pit BBQ How: By feeding people "soylent" BBQ (bbq with human flesh in it) Why: His dark god can invade the dreams of those who eat human flesh, even unknowingly; from there, dark god can influence them to crave more (though they don't know its origin). Once a person has voluntarily consumed it, he can completely possess them, even using them as vessels in combat. When enough people (and especially enough people in positions of power) are under the demon's sway, he will control the city and his cult will open the door to his return to the mortal realm... If opposed, Damien will play the victim, calling for help from the police and the authorities (especially individual cops, media folk or politicians who are under his control, or at least his influence). If that fails, he'll send people (simple hired thugs, then agents) to bribe or threaten potential troublemakers, or beat them, or (finally) to kill them. (Bodies get "recycled" as a two-fer.) In the last ditch, the dark god/demon itself will send agents to attack his enemies, and will jump from cultist to cultist using its powers to destroy the enemy. If routed, the demon will send as many agents as possible fleeing the city for distant parts, to go to ground and start the cycle over again elsewhere. It's not a full causal diagram, but it gives me plenty of options for how the bad guys will react to whatever the players end up doing. (And if they end up doing nothing, the plot succeeds and I work on the next plot, where the bad guys are preparing to open a portal to hell....)

IRON MAIDEN would fly at it, shouting, "Really? REALLY? You have to do this today? You ***hole!" She'd then pick up and fly it out to the desert (eastern Oregon) or out to sea, to get it away from potential victims/property damage ASAP, then tear it apart, using the full extent of her strength, which is something she seldom does against living opponents.

The MCU may feel small, but remember that it officially includes all the newly-emerging Inhumans from the Agents of SHIELD storylines. Which means that the demand for registration is, presumably, aimed not just at the famous faces of the Avengers--but at all the previously-normal humans (Americans!) who have had superpowers thrust upon them by no fault of their own. Demanding that they register themselves when they've done nothing wrong--and may never do anything wrong--is just the sort of thing that would stick in Steve Rogers' craw. Presumption of Innocence, yo. Plus, you know, the necessity for specific warrants for searches and arrests and so forth. I can easily see Steve getting exercised over this kind of draconian response, not so much on his own behalf--he's been a soldier, after all--or even on behalf of the Avengers (who all have some level of fame and/or wealth and power), but because of John Q. Citizen, who is being treated like an enemy simply because he now has powers he never asked for. Story-telling-wise, focusing on a few characters is probably the best way to go, but it would be pretty easy to show that this issue actually involves hundreds, if not thousands (maybe millions?) of previously normal people in the US (and possibly elsewhere, if registration is an international or multi-national effort).

Yeah, that was fun. "Say it like you really love me--but you're going to kill me anyway." "Yeah, that's it."

This was the bane of superhero movies--and tv shows--for decades. Producers wanted to create shows/movies based on superheroes, but didn't want to risk employing all the trappings of superheroes. Which most often resulted in half-assed attempts that bombed because they were half-assed, but they figured it was because no one could take superheroes seriously. Even successful movies (Superman, Batman--the ones from the 70s and 80s) tended have out-of-genre silliness at times. When the first X-Men movie was announced, I was excited--and fearful. Excited because the potential was great, but fearful that they would botch it for the same reason. But they didn't. They took the story/characters seriously, and it worked. Yes, they changed the yellow spandex to black leather and made some other such changes--but there was no winking at the audience to suggest that they were in on the joke. The story was told with a straight face (and began with a scene in a Nazi concentration camp, just to make it perfectly clear that this was a serious tale), and I think that's why the X-Men films worked as well as they did. And it probably helped convince Marvel that the MCU was a feasible concept. As for all the superhero shows airing currently. I very much enjoy The Flash and Supergirl. I enjoyed Daredevil, though not as much. And I fully expect to love Jessica Jones (but then, I've been a fan of the Alias series since I discovered it). I've tried Arrow several times, but I just can't bring myself to care; I only pay attention to the crossovers with Flash.

You wouldn't have to write them out of the show. Winn could continue to be her a) co-worker, friend (best friend, per Kara), and c) confidante--after all she trusts him with her secret. He could still do everything he does for her now, except it would be out of undiluted FRIENDSHIP instead of the vaguely creepy hope of getting into her pants eventually. Ditto for Jimmy. He could still be a voice of reassurance, a conduit for information from Her Cousin , and a confidante. But all the while he's happily involved with Lucy Lane. P.S. My wife is convinced (and I'd have to say with good reason) that Cat knows Kara and Supergirl are one and the same. Her "Oh, it's you..." reaction to their first meeting, for one thing. And, when being pursued by Livewire, she sends Kara for help (from rent-a-cops 20 floors down? really? what are they gonna do, exactly?), so Kara doesn't even have to make excuses for disappearing. And when Cat says she wants to talk to Supergirl, Kara volunteers to check with the FBI...and decides to go home after all. And Cat is unsurprised. Yeah, I can see it.

I rather enjoyed this episode. I liked Livewire quite a lot and hope we see her again. (I also thought that a number times she strongly resembled Holly Hunter in appearance and body language.) I thought the did a pretty good job of humanizing Cat, too. They didn't soften her too much, but they definitely showed us that she's a human being with feelings after all. The love triangle, yes, is very tiresome. It's a cliche for a reason. It's been done to death. I'd really like to see Kara a) not be oblivious to Winn's crush, and tell him straight up, "It's never going to happen, Winn. I love you as a friend, but that's all. There's no spark." THAT would be different and interesting. As would Jimmy telling her essentially the same thing. I really like the teenage Kara and Alex going out for a covert nighttime flight. (I don't know about anyone else, but if _I_ came to earth as a 13 year old and discovered I had superpowers, especially flight, I'd be using them every day. Okay, yes, keeping them secret would be a good idea, but with flight, superspeed and supersenses to warn me of potential witnesses long before they saw me, that shouldn't be all that difficult even when going out and flying around every night.

I think...your basic premise is flawed. Yes, in comics, Bruce Banner is subjected to a lethal dose of gamma rays and Hulks out instead of dying. Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider and gets spider powers. And so forth. But I've always seen their stories as the fantastically unlikely result of an accident that would, even in a comic book world, simply kill the vast majority of people. It's like winning Powerball. Yes, it happens, but it's not something to bank on. In most cases, exposure to lethal levels of gamma rays (or cosmic rays, for the Fantastic Four) won't give you powers, it's just gonna kill you. So terrorists aren't going to worry about a hostage suddenly turning into the Hulk or the Human Torch. It's theoretically possible, yes, but far less likely than the government simply storming the building and shooting them all to death. And while there may be a few misguided souls who die trying to acquire powers, most people will weigh the odds and choose not to take the risk. (On the other hand, a survey once revealed that a large percentage of Olympic athletes would risk death if it meant they could achieve their goals in life, so maybe people would.) I don't believe abusive relationships would be less common for fear the abused will Hulk Out or otherwise turn the tables. They can do that today by using a weapon--a knife or a gun--and that's far more likely (despite being very unlikely, statistically) than an origin story happening the millionth time you beat up your spouse. I do agree that an insurance company probably won't pay out if you acquire superpowers in an accident--but mostly because the accident is most likely because they'll simply claim that as the equivalent of a superhero battle that levels a city block--the equivalent of an Act of God or an Act of War (i.e., the sort of risk that nobody can reasonably anticipate and plan for, and which no insurance company is going to cover).

Sadly, I"m in that demographic now. Oh, god, I'm a CBS target. I will continue watching the show, mostly because Melissa Benoist is charming, and because I have a high tolerance for dumb if it gets me my superhero fix*. But my wife, who was also interested initially, has lost interest after the most recent episode. She just finds it boring. *As a general rule, I value smart writing and intelligent characters above most other things, and will suffer through wooden acting, flimsy sets, cheap props and cheesy dialogue if the characters are clever (even if their words aren't) and genre-savvy. Usually. In this case, the neither the writing nor the characters are particularly clever, but I'm still willing to watch. Case in point: if *I* were Supergirl (i.e., nearly invulnerable but with no real fighting experience) my go-to plan when confronting a supervillain would be--fly up at superspeed, grab him, and then fly AWAY--up and out over the sea would be good--to prevent collateral damage, injuries or deaths of bystanders, or the possibility of taking hostages. But that's just me. (And Iron Maiden, who--here's a shock--behaves just that way when I write her.)

You can't steal an identity if you blatantly murder your double in front of witnesses "so I can steal your identity!" either. Especially if you leave a body lying around. Maybe she's concerned about Entropic Cascade Failure.

Well...Iron Maiden and the Black Knight would have no idea anything was happening, most likely. They'd be at a party. The sort of party that involves no costumes (or clothing) of any kind, if you get my drift. Until and unless someone got the news on their phone, they'd be ignorant of the problem. Once they knew there was a problem, they'd start corralling the monsters and protecting the innocent, but unless the source of the mist was obvious (something they could trail to its origin) they wouldn't be much use in finding the cultists. Black Mask and/or Raven (different versions of the same reality-twisting martial artist) would be rescuing innocents and subduing/capturing "monsters" while searching for the ultimate cause. Silverstreak would search for the source of the mist. As a speedster, it shouldn't take her long, even accounting for time out to rescue victims from imminent peril. Hell's Angel would do likewise, searching from the air. She'd also see if the "mist" was flammable. Doctor Science would very quickly track the spread of the mist to its origin point using her access to networked surveillance cameras and/or orbital surveillance, and let the other heroes know what she's learned so they can "handle" the cultists ASAP.

I enjoyed it, for the most part. I liked Melissa Benoist a lot. I liked Jimmy--James!--Olsen. He's not the Jimmy Olsen I know, but I like this version. I even liked Callista Flockhart as Cat Grant, which I didn't think I would. Yes, she's playing a cliched obnoxious, condescending, demanding boss...but she completely owned the part. She's powerful, rich, hot*, smart and she hasn't got time for anyone who doesn't live up to her standards every minute. I'd hate working for her, but the character works. Winn (the office friend/confidante) not so much. The villains not so much. I understand that they're setting up a supply of superpowered adversaries, and it's probably better than Smallville Mutant du Jour concept, but still...it feels a bit forced. Kara's aunt as the Boss Villain? Oh hell no. I concur with whoever said she's a terrible actor. She is. And it felt like a lot of telling and not much showing, but that's typical of a lot of pilots. I hope they'll do better as the season progresses. But it's got potential, so I'll keep watching. And I love that it's NOT GRIMDARK. I love that Kara loves using her powers, and helping people. She doesn't have a tortured backstory to justify heroing--she just wants to help people. Overall, it wasn't as good as I'd hoped it would be. But it was pretty good, easily good enough for me to keep watching. *To some people, perhaps. Not to me. Tastes vary.

I started my RPG career in 1977 with original D&D. It was murderhobo-ism from the get-go. Make a character, equip him, then go murder things and take their stuff on an endless quest to become more powerful so you could murder bigger, tougher things and take their better stuff. My wife, however, says, that while she did start with murderhobo play when she switched to an all-woman group even D&D became all about the roleplay. They told stories. Yes, sometime there was a fight, we killed our share of goblins, but it was in service of a larger story. They actually got XP for having craft skills and exercising them, for using diplomacy to solve problems instead of weapons. My wife also sent me a link recently to this article: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/16/video-games-power-agency-control The gist of it is that computer RPGS (but all RPGs really, I think) are more about agency than about killing things. They give you the opportunity to feel like you're in control, and to make decisions. But you only choose between options you can imagine. In early D&D, we (me and my friends, other peoples' experiences may differ) went delving in dungeons for XP and loot because that's often all there was to do at the time. With time, our options expanded. I still remember when one of the players in my first gaming group (we'd moved on to Traveller) decided, rather than play her character to the bitter end, to RETIRE that character. That was a mind-blowing revelation. You don't HAVE to play your character til he dies in combat. You can CHOOSE to do something else. Many of my earliest characters didn't even have names. They were collections of stats and equipment. That changed after a while, and we started crafting actual characters with backstories and personalities--but not at first. It isn't so much about starting with D&D, it's more about what you see as possibilities in the game.

I think he'd almost certainly be denied bail, given his wealth and access to supertech--it would make fleeing the jurisdiction remarkably easy. That's assuming the DA presses charges. I think his confession to the PCs would be completely admissible, given that he volunteered it to them. But without any other evidence, convicting him would be extremely difficult. It would be his word against the PCs' word, and even if he can't impeach them (with his claim that they're trying to protect another PC), it's asking a lot of a jury to convict based solely on a confession. (By "no other evidence" I assume no witness testimony either, in addition to no DNA, etc.) On the other hand, if he's got no alibi for the murders and the PC he's trying to throw under the bus does...that would weigh against him. But still, the DA might choose not to press charges at this time, hoping that additional investigation will uncover some kind of evidence. If he charges him now, and loses in court, the bad guy can't be tried again.

It doesn't have be railroading. You can let the players consider their options and come up with alternatives. Then, as GM, you assess the alternatives and present them with the drawbacks and advantages (as their characters understand them) of each. But, again, the key point is that it's a CHOICE. There is no option to try A then resort to B when A fails. Once you choose option A, option B is no longer viable. At best, you can abandon A and go with Option C, which will be considerably harder and riskier than B would have been. That's how you give players a real sense that their decisions matter. They choose a course of action knowing that if they try it and fail, any other option will be more difficult and uncertain and dangerous. So they have to really consider whether to try (for instance) the safer, less rewarding option or go for the big risk/big reward choice...with the understanding that it may well fail, leaving them worse off than if they hadn't tried it.