Captain Xenon

Re: Purple Powers purple? its a beam of pure AWESOME! usually though, your 'generic' force bolts end up with a color that matches the costume.

Re: Wait - you punch WHAT?!? (or what would the damage from an atomic bomb be?) actually you can defuse a nuke with a sledgehammer.... its just that when you knock the shaped charges out of alignment you dont get a nuke, just a big pipe bomb of uranium or plutonium that explodes and scatters radiation in a small area. so your tank gets a point-blank BOOM of explosives and goes flying, anyone else in the room gets a smaller boom with shrapnel, and the building is irradiated... count it as a change environment that does damage until you take a shower. good place for an excuse to get new powers, but no hero should die from a little radiation. just give em a penalty for a short time as they recover.

Re: "Faulty" Power you could buy a multipower, with ultra slots for the various flashes. or, you could take the 'side effect' limitation at -0. either way, this sounds closer to an advantage, than a disadvantage overall. call it +0 and leave it at that.

Re: Forth wall perception? could be a severely limited clairvoyance(extra-dimensia, possibly time with back issues). if you let him see the VILLIANS scenes as well, then its a real edge. "oh crap! red alert guys, Doc Destroyer is coming! quick, everyone grab a force-field belt before the megascale aoe NND goes off!" for a good vpp.. have him steal an artists ink pen! that would be a fantastic summons, being able to draw people and things (but he isnt that great an artist, so a point cap on their powers).

Re: Humans are "Special" so to follow that train of thought... you meet aliens, and either fight to the death, or else adapt to a niche, each race holding a comparative advantage on something in galactic commerce. in sci-fi, mankind adapt to being merchants.

Re: Humans are "Special" well, humans are a species of ape... as for ants, i think each colony counts as one individual for general purposes, so when colonies fight its like individual animals fighting over a resource. not really a 'war' ants are a good example of a bug hive though. nice and alien, in how different they are from us.

Re: Humans are "Special" on the topic of self-geneticly-modifying species... look at the Kzin from Larry Niven's known space series. they engineeried their females to be stupid. its a social change from when a primitive race conquered a more advanced one, stole their tech, and abused it. then in Dr Who, there where those gargoyle-things that kept taking traits from various other races they met, to augment themselves. If a species messes with its own genetics and has an 'oops', then its lifespan becomes much shorter... and theres another fermi paradox variable. If we presume a universe where man is the stupidist, most socialy primitive species... I think we could even then find a way to make that an advantage. a 'oh crap! the barbarians sacked rome!' kind of thing. perhaps a better argument, would be what happens when a primitive race encounters a galactic civilization, and why would the civilization decide this is not a good thing to happen? how dangerous is going to another world, really?

Re: Humans are "Special" this is a fun thread ive not seen the star trek rpgs. so dunno about those... Most game systems set humans at zero, and rate everything relative to us. something to think about for star trek though- im guessing your list is incomplete, including only those species that have star travel. So therefore, its not about how smart you are, but how long it takes you to get into space. the smarter vulcans/romulans (same species) got there sooner than humans. we dont know how many races get to the stars in what time frame, or how long their empires take to advance to the industrial age. brains alone is not enough. you need creativity, curiosity, ect. stuff that all the star-faring races are going to have to some degree. In any game setting.. humans are going to be the only 'average' race. our edge is we can spend more build points on skills, and choose a more diverse specialization than the guys who have half their points tied up in a racial package. in other words.. you see a range of humanity, but only the weaker members of the 'strong' races. things to consider for this discussion however.. humans naturaly form groups. we take sides, form tribes. we are xenophobic of things that look nasty, before we even ask if its dangerous. So we have an edge over non-group species, and will avoid the 'nasty' looking species to group with the others. Now, imagine a human empire, built by allying ourselves with species that dont offend us to look at, and trying to mold them into what we expect. we minght be able to do it too. we get into your head, figure out how you think... and give you a logical explination as to why agreeing with us is your best option. well, marketing does anyway.

Re: Humans are "Special" Key point, is we dont know what is 'normal' for habitable worlds yet. gravity? atmosphere? dominant lifeforms on average? What if humans are the biggest species, physicaly? there was a movie where this happened, and when the alien cop landed on earth he was like 12" tall at most. Humans are bipedal primates who work in groups, are omnivores, and use tools. we have a septic bite, and we can train ourselves to break stone with our bare hands. we know kung fu! now, how common are primates? or mammels? in 'never play chess with a dragon', most races are dinosaurs, or bugs, or even plants- mamals are rare and looked upon as vermin. Think how life evolves. we have an oxygen atmosphere, because some plant came along and polluted the atmosphere with a chemical toxic to everything else. So we have an edge over amonium atmosphere evolution- we can seed algea to kill their ecosystem. Then you get the cambrin explosion. every last possible option is explored at once, and the best adaptation becomes the new planetary standard. Theres a bunch of factors involved, but if you get an exotic enviroment, then you may end up over-specialized. Then life evolves and competes... do you have land outside your ocean you can move onto? hard to get fire underwater. once on land, whats the best form? dinosaurs were the best form on earth, until a chance meteroite killed em off planetwide and let the vermin breed and evolve higher than rats. We wont see big one-celled creatures because of how cells grow (surface area vs volume). we wont see many big 'bugs' because of how their exoskeletons breathe. we wont see many smart plants. but we have no data whatsoever on non-organic life (silicon base?). looking at what can evolve... based on what we know, it seems more likely that the top of the line will be a dinosaur-derived group. and we all know that giant apes always beat mutant lizards. our victory is assured what about social systems? the winner has to be evolved to work as a group. tribal or herd behavior. lone predators dont need starships. i like the psionic ideas. what if we are the most radiation-resistant? able to expose ourselves carelessly to 'lethal' energy feilds with little care or concern? x-rays, magnetic feilds, and so on.

Re: Perk: Gold Cross Policy? gold cross would make a tape backup of your mind, and take a cell sample.. if you die they grow a clone and upload the backup. the downside is cost, backups that are lacking vital data (including why those guys want you dead)... and the possibility someone could make a clone and send him to kill you.

Re: Dr Destroyer really did die. What now? What if doc destroyer had a backup plan for his death? a masterwork of long-term planning, that would take place when he was confirmed dead? What if Destroyer had a son? So, the Son of Destroyer is kidnapped. he wasnt aware of who he was... but his abscence does not go unnoticed. where plot goes from there, depends on what the plan was, and how the kid reacts to it. other than that... i expect on DD's death, a lot of troops will desert. no use fighting for a dead mastermind after all. Several other organizations and villians will probably take over various assests, leaving destroyer loyalists with little or nothing... hmm, that would be an awesome background for a new hero, wouldnt it? left with a crumbling legacy of a supervillian, salvaging what he can to become a hero.

Re: Things That Make You Go "Hmmmm...." why combine AOE(radius) with no range? that seems self-defeating. If i was GM, i would not allow those two on the same power. now, AOE (one hex) could work, giving a suppresion field, for multiple targets in touch contact. i could see this working as a guy who supresses any devices you put on him to suppress his powers, all at once.

Re: What are the Normal Limitations? look at it the other way around: HA is cheap, because for 5 points of strength you get the same thing, with numerous bonuses. HA is actualy Strength with (-1/2) for not affecting figured characteristics. On top of that, HA is weaker in that it dosent add to weight lifted. strength at range gets expensive. you can go with telekinesis, streching, or the 'ranged' adder, but it all adds up to a higher active point cose per DC than your standard EB. ultimately, buying HA instead of Str is better for frameworks (cant get the -1/2 on strength as thats already forbidden), but in most other instances buying Str is more effective.

Re: test. i think i recognize that name...

Re: Other Odd Twists interesting thread 7: an alien, dying in the crashed wreck of his starship, brings an airforce pilot to him and grants the man the ring of the green lanterns. Following procedure, the pilot debreifs at base, and hands the ring over to his COs while being put in quarentine for a few days. the airforce recovers the wreck, and NASA tries to reverse-engeneer the alien technology. The ring ends up in the hands of a CIA agent, who uses its powers to defend America from crime.