MilkmanDan

Re: Plot Seed: Six Places to Nuke When You’re Serious My wife's hometown. Kalona, Iowa. It's full of Amish. Who's best equipped to survive after a nuclear war? Cockroaches, then Amish. And cockroaches can't make butter. Think about it . . .

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Nice album, eh? I lost track of PJ after Vitalogy (which apparently was their point), but the new one's pretty dang good.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Rush, "La Villa Strangiato" Yes, a geek listening to Rush. I know that's so surprising.

Re: Potential Campaign: Alpha Flight or Superhero Socialism I wouldn't actually call this "socialism" as much as "a really good financial decision". If supers are better able to control their powers and act in a more responsible manner, there's going to be less clean-up and less collateral damage. Having a government-sponsored superhero training program can be seen as just a way to wind up spending less on repairs and insurance costs. It's a good idea just economically.

Re: Character out of balance Give them a zero-point Reputation disadvantage that people know this will work. The mystical tattoos will bond to any skin they are placed upon, so they have a very well-known, bloody history. He'll be quite effective. Until he's skinned alive.

Re: Around the World With A New Character Each Week Well, maybe not now, but maybe he and Dr. Girlfriend decide to move, settle down, have a few kids . . .

Re: Now Here's A News Headline That's Just Brimming With Plot Potential He's a hero, man! Haven't you watched The Tick?

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... This is absolutely one of the best running jokes I've ever seen for a campaign. Freaking hilarious.

Re: 6000 non NGD posts. I actually died somewhere near the top of page 2 of this thread. Fortunately, I'm a Marvel character, so that won't slow me down for long.

Re: Free Will No, I believe that the right to choose in and of itself is more important than the right of a potential victim to live. You realize, of course, that by doing this you're effectively ceasing any sort of human development. You can't have change without unhappiness, because there's no reason to change. Furthermore, if it wasn't for violence, war, and the fear of being killed, we'd still be banging rocks together. Every significant human technological development I can think of comes in some way from fear of war or killing each other. Every one. The internet? An attempt to find a stable communications network that could survive nuclear war. The interstate highway system was partially designed to have a quick way to move military forces around in case of war. Penicillin grew out of a need to keep soldiers alive. Radio and television grew out of military technologies. Even the modern steam engine came into existence when James Watt saw cannons being made and realized the manufacturing method could be used to make a better cylinder for processing the steam. If you get rid of the threat of violence, NOTHING will ever be innovated again. NOTHING. There's no need to, if everybody's happy. Also, you're also more or less enforcing the social order exactly as it is today. People who have almost nothing? They're happy with it. Sure, they may wind up having enough food to sustain life, but they're not going to scrabble for a better existence because they're made content. You've also killed off sports, as their competive nature doesn't fit the new world order. No football, because you can't have a safety leveling a receiver who goes up for the ball. Too violent. No baseball--sliding into base with spikes up can't happen, and you sure can't flatten the catcher going for home. No basketball, as dunking in someone's face is too aggressive. Seriously, if you think this is a good idea in any way, sit down and read Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. It's less than 200 pages and is an entertaining and quick read (this thread actually inspired me to re-read it yet again last weekend), and it's this world exactly. In that world, people are bred to be happy, carefully controlled via uber-behaviorism to love their lot in life no matter what. Everyone is always completely happy and it is complete and utter hell on Earth. There's no joy, no passion, and no art, because you can't have those without unhappiness. It's horrific. "You can't make flivvers without steel–and you can't make tragedies without social instability. The world's stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can't get. They're well off; they're safe; they're never ill; they're not afraid of death; they're blissfully ignorant of passion and old age; they're plagued with no mothers or fathers; they've got no wives, or children, or lovers to feel strongly about; they're so conditioned that they practically can't help behaving as they ought to behave. And if anything should go wrong, there's soma." The mentalist in this case is committing an absolutely unforgiveable crime and needs to die. Now.

Re: Free Will It's a Larry Niven book, think it was a novella in The Man-Kzin Wars (he was the guy who wrote the Ringworld series, wonder if he got any royalties from Halo). The Kzin are a fierce, warriorlike cat people who basically on paper are vicious combatants, but every time they fight humans they get slaughtered. IIRC, in that novella humans dispensed with violence years before, and are on a peaceful exploration and get attacked. They basically use a navigation mirror of some sort to focus a nearby star's rays and destroy the attacking vessel, and the humans' basic reaction is "where the heck did we learn to do that".

Re: Foxbat Went a Courtin'.... Logically, the dance should be the Foxtrot, no?

Re: WWYD: The Perfect Partner (potentially controversial) I don't think that's accurate here. Vibrators don't listen, pretend to be sympathic, converse, give emotional support, or do anything else. The posting isn't talking about a sex toy, it's a partner-substitute, capable of realistically mimicking human emotion and response. This is about finding a replacement for all the work of a real relationship, not about getting off (at least how I read this). Fully operable on/off sex dolls are a real possibility but I think they'll suffer the same stigma as inflatable love dolls do today. People who use those sorts of things are universally seen as creepy as hell, while vibrators are perfectly acceptable, largely because vibrators aren't seen as a replacement for a partner and those creepy-ass Real Dolls are. Nobody's going to get rid of real people in order to bang a robot because there won't be the excitement or emotional connection you get from actually interacting with a human being.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... In some cultures, ripping out someone's spine through their rectum is not only polite, it's expected. Surprisingly, these sorts of places don't get much in the way of tourist dollars.

Re: WWYD if you could recieve ONE super power Clairsentience, Retrocognition, only to see which of the @#$!!! cats is pissing on the floor in front of the litter box.

Re: Help me name a team Ooh, I like this one. Make there be nine villains in the group, and they're the "Human Elimination League IX".

Re: Foxbat Went a Courtin'.... Yeah, like any of these could be worse than the originals.

Re: Free Will Oh Brave New World that hath such people in it! Happiness is nothing without sadness. In this scenario, people aren't actually "happy" in any sense of the word. They're just basically living in a walking coma. Whether the soma is in pill form of via mental waves, the entire world being happy would be a stunningly bad thing. First thing that should be done is to drop a truck on that mentalist. The second thing should be to make everybody read Brave New World for a view of what this "utopia" would be like.

Re: WWYD if you could recieve ONE super power Actually, this one comes over from the "worthless power" thread, but Taste as a Ranged Sense would absolutely freaking rock. No more walking into a restaurant and saying, "wow, that looks good, I'd like to try some of that". Try everything you see. Add in some Stretching, Does not cross intervening space, and you can stand outside restaurants trying whatever you want. Not that I love good food or anything. Seriously, this would be an absolutely awesome power to have.

Re: WWYD: The Perfect Partner (potentially controversial) Make the perfect partner? Why, I already have the perfect partner! I wouldn't change a thing, she's ideal! OK, she's gone, so we can talk now. This is a really, really creepy idea. I don't doubt there are a number of people who would go for thing, but they're going to be emotionally damaged people incapable of a real relationship anyways. A perfect partner is one you don't always get along with and who doesn't share all your interests. The conflict and differences is what makes life rewarding. The wife ain't "perfect" in some silly ideal sense, but she's pretty amazing and I wouldn't trade her in for anyone.

Re: The New Minutemen Everyone should have known Adamant was up to no good after that stupid "Goody Two Shoes" song in the 80's.

Re: Point Efficiency vs. Concept I think the possibilities with that one are hilarious. "So, Armor Man, now I have you in my clutches, powerless! Hey, wait a minute, put me down! AAAAAAAAAH!" Throw in a few quips like "Ah, you got my armor, but your forgot my secret strength-enhancing earpiece!" Keep a few baubles on your person and the villain will keep thinking they're foci. Until, of course, you wind up captured, naked in a shell, completely shaved and shorn of anything that could be considered strength-enhancing.

Re: Let's Play "The Naming Game" The blaster's from California. Golden Bear. Give them a golden power effect on their powers, and it works. Gadgeteer is Hawkeye. Not that I'm from Iowa or anything.

Re: WWYD if you could recieve ONE super power Some kind of Extra-Dimensional Movement, to my own past only. I mean, I have a great life. I adore my wife and kids, have a good job, and I live a very comfortable existence. I'd never want to be 22 again. I would, on the other hand, very much like to visit 22 for a day or two every few months or so. I don't want to be young again. I just want to stop by and say "hi" every now and then.

Re: The amazing Superblog! Can we get an Eva von Doom superblog for the Thunderbolts campaign?