sinanju

I beg to differ. If, say, the "warp" drive theory proposed recently (the ship that uses the circular rings as part of the drive) were to pan out...that would allow FTL travel, but it wouldn't do *anything* for FTL communication. You can't wrap a warpfield around a radio wave. And that's just one approach.
 
If you posit "jump points" of the kind used by Niven & Pournelle in The Mote In God's Eye, or in David Weber's Honor Harrington series, again--you can move ships instantaneously between systems. But you can't send any kind of messages that way, short of sending a ship (which could then radio someone in that system).
 
So, yes, it's plausible that a breakthru in FTL travel doesn't *necessarily* mean you'll have the ansible as well. Your insistence that the two go hand in hand is just as arbitrary as any other set-up, and not grounded in realism any more than the other approaches.

Well, it's all rubber science so it's not like either of us can marshall compelling arguments. I just think that, esthetically, I prefer the idea of a stargate as a doorway you walk thru rather than as a disintegrator/reintegrator. That seems like an unnecessary step.

Well, yeah. The original movie has dialogue about how the objects traveling thru the gate get dematerialized and then reintegrated at the other end. That never made much sense to me. An actual wormhole, as I understand it, would simply be a shortcut. No disinte- and reintegration. You look thru the gateway, you step thru the gateway. For that matter, the whole "using constellations as the coordinate system really, really doesn't make any sense. I always preferred to think of it as every gate has its own "IP address" and hitting the big red button was the equivalent of pressing "enter" on a keyboard.
 
I really, really loved the SG-1 series, and they did a lot of things right. Most things, really. But those were two items I had to just sigh and ignore to enjoy the rest of it.

I'm currently reading Hero (Girl in the Box # 31), by Robert J. Crane. I'm re-reading the whole series, at least until June 2nd, when book # 50 is released on Amazon. It's superhero fiction--of a sort. With rare exceptions, most metahumans don't wear costumes of any sort, and a lot of them (the younger ones, anyhow) regularly use guns. In fact, when the series starts, although metahumans have always been around, almost nobody knows that they exist. That doesn't last, and eventually their existence is public knowledge, and dealing with meta criminals (now that they're not restrained even slightly by the necessity to stay out of the public eye) is a big part of the ongoing story.
 
The main protagonist is Sienna Nealon, an 18 year-old shut-in when the series starts. She's never left her house since she was five years old. Her mother educates her, and trains her in combat every day, and when she deems it necessary, punishes her by locking her in a steel box (the titular box of the series title) for hours or days. She wakes up one day when she hears strangers breaking into the house, where she's remained alone for several days after her mother went to work and didn't come back. That rude awakening is only the start, as she discovers the wider world, and the world of metahumans, and tries to figure out her place in it (and what happened to her mother). She finds herself thrust into frequent conflicts, and all that training--plus firearms training by her new allies--comes in handy.
 
This is a violent, often bloody series. Lots of characters die. Heroes, villains, bystanders. Sometimes in large numbers. Sienna (and other characters, but mostly Sienna) really gets put through the wringer physically, mentally and emotionally. She has major triumphs--and crushing defeats, and while each book stands alone, they're also all part of ongoing multi-book plot arcs. It's a very pulp-style series
 
I would say more, but most of what I could tell you would be spoilers--it's a fifty book series so far, so there's a lot of backstory and background info that was only revealed gradually. I bought the first book a couple of years ago, when I was trying out various superhero series on Kindle Unlimited. I liked it, so I bought the next one, and the next one. And eventually caught up, and now I have to wait for each new book to be published. Fortunately, the author is a MACHINE. He publishes four of these a year...in addition to several other series he also writes (or collaborates on).

Duke Bushido is a man after my own heart. I love shapeshifting characters (like Mystique), but 6ED Shapeshift sucks for that. I transform into a Schwarzenegger-sized thug or a slinky asian female. If I want it to be convincing, it's gotta cover sight, hearing ,smell, taste, touch--and those are just the basic senses. If you to want to cover *everything*? It's ridiculous. And as DB points out, you never *really* turn into whatever it is, you just pretend to.
 
There's gotta be a better way.

Eh, that's an artifact of trying to produce a weekly tv show. Spending half of every episode engaged in pantomime or struggling with pigeon English (or Egyptian or whatever) would get old real fast, and take up valuable story time. Note that in the original movie they did, in fact, need Daniel Jackson to translate for them. It's really a question of how you want to spend your limited show/game time. A PC who knows a lot of ancient languages could be fun to play and an important part of the game. Or you could handwave the issue and go with the universal translator effect.
 
As for the kawoosh--I wouldn't stat it out. I'd make GM Fiat. Anything engulfed by the kawoosh is vaporized. End of story. We never saw anything that could withstand it (the iris prevented it from forming in the first place, according to canon.)

The Enterprise sure as **** is a military vessel. They have a military system of ranks and chain of command. They operate under military discipline. They are tried, when necessary, in a court *martial*, not a civilian court. The ship is heavily armed, and provides military defense for the area of space in which it operates. The Captain is vested with the power, on his own authority, to wage WAR on other powers. That is a military vessel, no matter how much they may pretend otherwise. And none of this a "rewriting" of Starfleet--this is all straight out TOS.

Keep telling yourself that. Ignore the existence of General Order 24, by which Kirk threatened to "sterilize the planet" in one episode, or the fact that the Enterprise had the firepower to do it. Never mind the canonical fact--which I mentioned--that Enterprise D was the linchpin of the Federation's defense plans, and all the rest of it. Star Fleet *is* military. A slidshod, half-assed military most of the time. But still the military.

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year
 

 
So your supplies include long-storage MREs (or the equivalent) sufficient in quantity to see you through a crop failure, and...plenty of seeds with different pedigrees in case of a blight. A single point of failure is always bad design, but there are work-arounds.

Yeah, but I think you're talking about two different things now.  In the game, a Secret ID won't be revealed to the public unless the player just absolutely blows it.  The purpose is to add another dimension of gameplay and give obstacles for the player to overcome.  Amazing Man isn't going to have his Secret ID busted by an IRS investigation or because somebody tested a hair follicle, because that would be a boring game.  That's not superheroey, so it won't happen.  But if we're talking about a "realistic" scenario where supers are hiding their identities, that's when you start wondering about how they file their taxes and which cell towers they're pinging.
 
Cool stories (and fun games) have different considerations than a realistic deconstruction of the genre.
 
Although, this discussion has given me an idea for a story/character.  What about some kind of "SecretIDs R Us" company that sets you up with good alibis, covers your tracks, and provides red herrings to investigators?  Nobody is going to investigate your Secret ID if they think they already know who you are.  I mean, of course Batman is secretly Mark Manchester, the Gotham PD detective who got fired for police brutality 10 years ago.  His wife got killed by the Joker, and he went on a rampage putting guys in the hospital trying to catch that clown.  He almost went to prison, but the DA declined to prosecute because of the circumstances with his wife.  Mark had a big fast car, knew some martial arts, and a bunch of SWAT gear went missing right before he got fired.  He still lives in Gotham, runs a gym, and disappears for days when Batman is away on Justice League missions.  Who else could it be?  I hear he's even got an under the table connection to a big company, like LexCorp, where he gets some of his really cool stuff.
 
Imagine being a really low-tier superhuman who gets hired to be Superman's "real identity".  You're about the right height and build, and you kinda look like the Man of Steel.  You're a construction worker in Metropolis, and you sometimes "accidentally" bend a steel bar or step out into the street and get hit by a truck, surviving unscathed.  "Wow I really got lucky there" as you leave a palm print in the hood of the vehicle.  You run off during disasters and come back to work with really lame excuses.  You tell government agents that you're definitely absolutely not Superman, and then place a call from your definitely-tapped phone line to a secret number and tell the gravely-voiced Batman-sounding guy on the other end that you're running late to the League meeting.

Here's an idea: instead of a single, unified game world, maybe provide options?
 
Characters, organizations, artifacts, adventure ideas--they all could be tagged to indicate what sort of background assumptions work for them.
 
[Character A] exists in a world where superpowers only came into existence a few years ago.
[Character B] exists in a world where Pulp Heroes first appeared in the early 20th century, but now costumed supers are common.
[Character C] has lived for millennia, revered as a god in the ancient past, and now is part of a team of modern-day superheroes.
[Organization X] was formed as a supernatural adjunct to the Third Reich and is still around today.
[Organization Y] was formed in the 1990s in response to the sudden appearance of superhumans.
 
GMs looking at the wiki could see which characters/organizations/etc would fit the background they want for THEIR campaign. And they'd be able to see quickly which ones would need some work to fit.

No one has mentioned "Gullibility" or "Blind to the most obvious threats".
Thinking of what I have seen of the CW series of course

Self-employed writer selling books on Amazon, Kobo, Apple, etc. You can make your own hours, and if you're at all prolific, you can make a decent living (or even get rich) in relatively few hours per week, allowing you to spend more time crime-fighting. Also, even if your face is known to the public, if you keep your nom de plume secret, nobody will know that it's Iron Maiden writing all those pulp-style thrillers. (I have a PC, Iron Maiden, who is in fact doing just this.)

Really? I've been reading about outrageous abuses of "no knock" warrants (and the deaths of innocents as a result) for a very long time. Ditto the "asset forfeiture" scam that permits the authorities at the local, state, and federal levels to commit blatant robbery, which has also been going on for decades.
 
Just goes to show: you learn something new every day. You--that "no knock" warrants even exist. Me--that despite how well known they seem to me, plenty of people still haven't heard of them.

No they do enough research to say whatever they want to imply, or what mood they want to create or what spiel they want to throw at you sound plausible but they are not journalists because they dont care about truth they only care about the SEMBLANCE of truth a veneer that they can sell to people who like to sound smart. And then you add the comedy as an convenient absolution of responsibility and you have a social disaster. It brought Donald Trump into the white house and it created the idea that every American lives in an action movie and no matter what you do it is justifiable because you are the hero. 
Communists have developed tactics for taking over academia using social pressure and exclusions to do so.
Off course right wingers use the fact that there are communists in academia to discredit the idea of academia itself. Because they themselves are very often anti intellectual and want a society where knowledge is the purview of the rich and powerful and their chosen servants. 
This does not hamper the communists though if anything it helps them as it makes academia feel hunted by "the outside" making the environment ripe for indoctrination into the cult.
Which is what communism is.
Freedom of speech yes.
Have voice yes.
Be listened to yes.
Be able to vote yes.
Be given the benefit of trust when they are speaking from the position of being a minority of some kind and they speak from their perspective yes.
Be allowed to dominate the conversation completely by pretending to be knowledgeable while making everything a cynical joke, avoiding intellectual responsibility and cultivate a veneer of trustworthyness to make your half truths and outright lies easier to swallow? NO!
 

Half truths do have a kernel of truth. But by setting himself up as an authority in practice but not in a manner that makes him take any responsibility for what he is saying because he is "just a comedian" have a long term negative effect that cannot be ignored! Enough already! This guy can take his sanctimonious lying ass straight to hell for all I care!
And you know who can join him? Those low brow but try to feign wisdom by saying the most obvious truisms guys who run the South Park show! Sure they are right about a lot of stuff just like this comedian but when everything is drenched in a cynical funny ha ha crap then you loose track of what is important, what is ideal and what is true and humane! To hell with them too! Even though I will admit they dont lie as much as that comedian dude. 
As for my anti communist spiel its based on a historic precedent. 

Another blow to theories of deterrence.   But if the only use for cameras is to hold police who use excessive force accountable, IMO that's still worth the expense.

Spend a few hours on a channel like Active Self Protection and you'll quickly realize that violence often is over minutes before the police arrive.  The idea of sending a response team that then has to call for an armed response team "if" things turn violent is like sending team A out to die.
 
Just spend a few hours watching martial arts fantasy and self-defense theory melt away in the face of hundreds of real life deadly or violent encounters.  Doesn't matter if its citizens or police.  You have split seconds to react.  Not minutes.
If Team A has to call for back up they are in serious trouble or are already wounded/dead.
 
 
Just - Thank you.  So much better than I would have said it.

I threw out my idea (for dealing with multiple fantasy races) on another thread. They're all the creation of some ancient civilization (elder gods, traditional gods, ultra-tech/magical mortal civilization, whatever), and effectively different breeds of humanoid. Humans are what you get when any of the other races don't carefully police their bloodlines, i.e., mutts. The elves (and dwarves and goblins and et cetera) have specific appearances (as opposed to humans, who can vary widely) because that appearance is *the definition* of an "elf" or "dwarf" or whatever (again, like breeds of dog). Vary from it by too much, and you're considered a "half-elf" (etc). Vary even farther, and you're just another mutt (i.e., human). Some cultures practice infanticide on those who don't meet the criteria, others will simply banish you, or just view you as definitely a second-class citizen or worse, and would never let you marry their daughters. In this world, humans are more numerous than the other races (they can breed like rabbits and nobody cares--other races have to police such things, so tend to be fewer in number), but also the least respected--albeit, to quote the News Monster from Futurama, "numerous and belligerant."
 
This is *why* elves are graceful and beautiful (they were playthings). Dwarves were bred to labor in mines and other enclosed places. Halflings were intended as quiet,  unobtrusive servants). Giants, goblins, hobgoblins, orcs, and the like were bred as cannon fodder. More exotic forms ( minotaurs, for instance) were bred to be hunted for sport. 
 
This rationale satisfies my desire to explain how and why so many different intelligent races co-exist.

Traditionally, wizards/mages/whatever have always been rare. If just anybody can learn magic and use it easily, that's certainly a viable campaign environment, but it doesn't fit historical model (where mages, real or imagined, were rare) or mythology or fiction. If that kind of Xanthian "Everybody has magic!" campaign is what you're after, go for it.
 
But most campaigns are going to have relatively few mages. And as Chris said, if you're gating off magic to that extent, giving mages access to Multipowers isn't unreasonable.

Now you need a hero with sonic powers...the Howling Commando!

Meanwhile in North Dallas we are clocking in at a devastating, way-of-life altering 2.2 deaths per 100,000.
 
It will probably get worse before it's over, but I can't fault people who think this thing has been grossly overblown.
We suffer a mortality rate about 100x higher than that by way of over-eating here.
 
If I take the top ten things that kill Texans the last entry is 6x higher than Coronavirus.
Add drug overdoses, suicide, firearms accidents and homicide the bottom of the 13 item list is still almost 3x higher than Coronavirus.
 
South Dakota didn't even shut down and they're clocking in at 3.5 deaths per 100,000.
 
It's not hard to understand why people in rural areas believe this was economic ruin in return for nothing at all.
 
We'll find out over the next month or so now that we're opened up.

I never disagreed on a macro level.  
 
But, you didn't have to tell us you have no sympathy, people in rural areas already know.  hence, why self-sufficiency becomes a big thing.   More about survival.   As unlike the rosy picture you painted, there is rarely that larger community that rallies around you, when in need.
 
I started to post more, but I realize banning is possible due to my feeling on the matter.  ANd I just don't care if you see the other side of things.
 
 

Mine wasn’t as awful as I’d heard. The prep was unpleasant but I just stocked up on TP,  baby wipes, magazines and a Tom Clancy novel. Those things are the size of a brick.
    The procedure itself was like being at a college party.  Somebody I didn’t know gave me a pill to swallow. I felt sleepy and while I was out cold I was violated and filmed.