Mutant for Hire

Re: Complicate the Person Above
 
From the Muppet Show is Koozbain.
 
Mutant for Hire built the Sphinx then sent it through time where it has defied all explanation as to its building.

Re: Complicate the Person Above
 
Mutant for Hire has been secretly sneaking a contraceptive in Keyes_Bill's anti-psychotic medication for years. Why else do ya think Keyes_Bill hasn't "Multiplied" ?

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now?
 
Rainbow Connection - Kermit the Frog

Re: Complicate the Person Above
 
Death Tribble used to work as William Shatner's toupee.
 
He was young. He needed the money.

Re: Complicate the Person Above
 
Death Tribble is responsible for ST: TOS failing to complete its five year mission.

Re: Complicate the Person Above
 
Doh, scooped.
 
Mutant for Hire dabbles in secret, forbidden experiments into turning prune juice into a viable fuel for thermonuclear reactors.

Re: Complicate the Person Above
 
The last thing lurching out of MfH's lab will soon take a seat in the US Supreme Court.

Re: Complicate the Person Above
 
Mutant for Hire is in fact not for hire at all, but is actually gainfully employed as a photographer for Playboy magazine, in which capacity he has met each of his seventeen wives.

Re: Complicate the Person Above
 
Mutant for Hire is not actually for Hire. If you give him money, he will just spend it on liquor and mutant prostitutes.
 
Keith "I swear this is true. My cousin saw it" Curtis

Re: Complicate the Person Above
 
Mrs. Oddhat's maiden name, when spoken, will invoke the elder gods and bring the universe as we know it to an end.

Re: Complicate the Person Above
 
keyes_bill wasn't born a rabbit. He was an archeologist once who went into the forbidden "rabbit" temple in Tibet and paid a terrible price for his curiousity and hubris.

Re: I could watch him get slapped around all day
 
In truth, the big problem with the X-Men is that they're really not suited to be in the Marvel Universe. The Marvel Universe was a proto-Bronze universe from the beginning (or at least Stan Lee's kicking off what we know now as the Marvel Universe). The concept of the X-Men came from a science fiction book, or a couple of them.
 
Most superhero teams are ultimately about preserving the status quo from various threats. The X-Men are one of the exceptions. They were all about changing the status quo for the better, and built into their fundamental concept was the idea of the human race changing and evolving into a higher species, homo sapiens superior, mutants.
 
The problem with the X-Men is that the Marvel Universe to some extent remains a status quo universe, somewhat different than our own in some areas but ultimately familiar to everyone. All of the fantastic technology that Reed Richards and Tony Stark invents never fundamentally changes the world at all. For all that people of Earth know about alien worlds and other dimensions nothing ever really happens because of it.
 
As a result, the X-Men who are all about dealing with change and evolution and so on, are stuck in a universe that doesn't fundamentally allow it. They're stuck with nothing ever improving, nothing ever changing, for better or for worse. The threat of a serious mutant pogrom can't happen, because it would screw up the rest of the universe and they can't really make any progress anywhere because again it would sort of screw things up. Only in alternate timelines is anything interesting allowed to happen. The X-Men really belong in their own universe which is allowed to deviate significantly from our own universe due to the existance of the x-factor, and where more or less all superpowers derive from the x-factor gene complex.
 
And frankly I don't see the infighting in the X-Men as being all that much worse than what goes on in the Avengers. From what happened to Pym to what happened to the Scarlett Witch and the Vision, to what is going on now in the Avengers, I think they've lost a lot of their heroic advantage. The main advantage is the Avengers tend not to angst, though Spiderman is the past grandmaster of angst.

Re: I could watch him get slapped around all day
 
In truth, the big problem with the X-Men is that they're really not suited to be in the Marvel Universe. The Marvel Universe was a proto-Bronze universe from the beginning (or at least Stan Lee's kicking off what we know now as the Marvel Universe). The concept of the X-Men came from a science fiction book, or a couple of them.
 
Most superhero teams are ultimately about preserving the status quo from various threats. The X-Men are one of the exceptions. They were all about changing the status quo for the better, and built into their fundamental concept was the idea of the human race changing and evolving into a higher species, homo sapiens superior, mutants.
 
The problem with the X-Men is that the Marvel Universe to some extent remains a status quo universe, somewhat different than our own in some areas but ultimately familiar to everyone. All of the fantastic technology that Reed Richards and Tony Stark invents never fundamentally changes the world at all. For all that people of Earth know about alien worlds and other dimensions nothing ever really happens because of it.
 
As a result, the X-Men who are all about dealing with change and evolution and so on, are stuck in a universe that doesn't fundamentally allow it. They're stuck with nothing ever improving, nothing ever changing, for better or for worse. The threat of a serious mutant pogrom can't happen, because it would screw up the rest of the universe and they can't really make any progress anywhere because again it would sort of screw things up. Only in alternate timelines is anything interesting allowed to happen. The X-Men really belong in their own universe which is allowed to deviate significantly from our own universe due to the existance of the x-factor, and where more or less all superpowers derive from the x-factor gene complex.
 
And frankly I don't see the infighting in the X-Men as being all that much worse than what goes on in the Avengers. From what happened to Pym to what happened to the Scarlett Witch and the Vision, to what is going on now in the Avengers, I think they've lost a lot of their heroic advantage. The main advantage is the Avengers tend not to angst, though Spiderman is the past grandmaster of angst.

Re: I could watch him get slapped around all day
 
In truth, the big problem with the X-Men is that they're really not suited to be in the Marvel Universe. The Marvel Universe was a proto-Bronze universe from the beginning (or at least Stan Lee's kicking off what we know now as the Marvel Universe). The concept of the X-Men came from a science fiction book, or a couple of them.
 
Most superhero teams are ultimately about preserving the status quo from various threats. The X-Men are one of the exceptions. They were all about changing the status quo for the better, and built into their fundamental concept was the idea of the human race changing and evolving into a higher species, homo sapiens superior, mutants.
 
The problem with the X-Men is that the Marvel Universe to some extent remains a status quo universe, somewhat different than our own in some areas but ultimately familiar to everyone. All of the fantastic technology that Reed Richards and Tony Stark invents never fundamentally changes the world at all. For all that people of Earth know about alien worlds and other dimensions nothing ever really happens because of it.
 
As a result, the X-Men who are all about dealing with change and evolution and so on, are stuck in a universe that doesn't fundamentally allow it. They're stuck with nothing ever improving, nothing ever changing, for better or for worse. The threat of a serious mutant pogrom can't happen, because it would screw up the rest of the universe and they can't really make any progress anywhere because again it would sort of screw things up. Only in alternate timelines is anything interesting allowed to happen. The X-Men really belong in their own universe which is allowed to deviate significantly from our own universe due to the existance of the x-factor, and where more or less all superpowers derive from the x-factor gene complex.
 
And frankly I don't see the infighting in the X-Men as being all that much worse than what goes on in the Avengers. From what happened to Pym to what happened to the Scarlett Witch and the Vision, to what is going on now in the Avengers, I think they've lost a lot of their heroic advantage. The main advantage is the Avengers tend not to angst, though Spiderman is the past grandmaster of angst.

Re: I could watch him get slapped around all day
 
In truth, the big problem with the X-Men is that they're really not suited to be in the Marvel Universe. The Marvel Universe was a proto-Bronze universe from the beginning (or at least Stan Lee's kicking off what we know now as the Marvel Universe). The concept of the X-Men came from a science fiction book, or a couple of them.
 
Most superhero teams are ultimately about preserving the status quo from various threats. The X-Men are one of the exceptions. They were all about changing the status quo for the better, and built into their fundamental concept was the idea of the human race changing and evolving into a higher species, homo sapiens superior, mutants.
 
The problem with the X-Men is that the Marvel Universe to some extent remains a status quo universe, somewhat different than our own in some areas but ultimately familiar to everyone. All of the fantastic technology that Reed Richards and Tony Stark invents never fundamentally changes the world at all. For all that people of Earth know about alien worlds and other dimensions nothing ever really happens because of it.
 
As a result, the X-Men who are all about dealing with change and evolution and so on, are stuck in a universe that doesn't fundamentally allow it. They're stuck with nothing ever improving, nothing ever changing, for better or for worse. The threat of a serious mutant pogrom can't happen, because it would screw up the rest of the universe and they can't really make any progress anywhere because again it would sort of screw things up. Only in alternate timelines is anything interesting allowed to happen. The X-Men really belong in their own universe which is allowed to deviate significantly from our own universe due to the existance of the x-factor, and where more or less all superpowers derive from the x-factor gene complex.
 
And frankly I don't see the infighting in the X-Men as being all that much worse than what goes on in the Avengers. From what happened to Pym to what happened to the Scarlett Witch and the Vision, to what is going on now in the Avengers, I think they've lost a lot of their heroic advantage. The main advantage is the Avengers tend not to angst, though Spiderman is the past grandmaster of angst.

At a recent conference about the future, someone did a brilliant satire of a company involved in vampire research. This is practically a Champions or Dark Champions scenario pre-built for you.
 
The presentation is available on the web here. Warning: the presentation is a half-hour long but it's well worth the time.

Re: Jane's Superhumans
 
Now we're starting to see what sort of can of worms would be opened by this sort of thing. The question is, how do we handle "living weapons" compared to ordinary citizens. How can we allow someone on a plane who is far more powerful than an assault rifle while we don't allow people to bring firearms onto planes? Where and how do you draw the lines in these cases?
 
Is it all right for precognatives to buy lottery tickets? Can telepaths work on Wall Street or in other professions where access to information can lead to serious issues? Again, where and how do you draw the lines in these cases?

Re: Jane's Superhumans
 

Well, I hate to come in and nitpick, but if you gave me a conventionally designed superhero and threw them against modern militaries, I think the supers would come out a little better than you think, at least if we were switching from Silver Age to Iron Age in every regard.
 
The main thing you're overlooking is that if we're going to go with conventionally designed Champions characters dropped into a realistic setting, then we get to play with more realistic equipment rules. That's right, we're not using superheroic equipment rules, we're using heroic equipment rules, which all of a sudden changes the equation considerably.
 
Take your average superdense brick like Colossus. Do you think the Russian/Soviet military, if they had their hands on him would tell him to go out and use his bare hands on the enemy? Or would they find the heaviest guns they could find and see what he could shoot while still standing upright? And remember that ammunition weight isn't an issue for him the way it is for regular grunts.
 
The main issue then becomes is the ground beneath him solid enough to support his weight or not. In situations where he doesn't sink to his knees, he's a mobile weapons platform. Not as fast as a truck mind you, but a lot more bulletproof. And able to go places that a conventional vehicle wouldn't. In urban situations, Colossus and a BFG might do very well, especially as the caliber of the weapons that would be returning fire probably wouldn't do him any harm at all.
 
A lot of conventionally designed Champions characters would end up in a more realistic sort of situation would end up taking on a lot of equipment, equipment that regular military types couldn't use or could use in ways that regular military types couldn't, and to devistating effect as well.
 
Flyers are the classic example of that. The problem that ground forces have is that they can't move fast over hard ground. The problem with airborne forces is that they tend to stand out. Helicopters make a lot of noise and they're big enough to attract attention. Now put together a squad of flying paranormal types, and give them state of the art military gear up to their carrying and usability capacity (in the case of flying bricks, that's quite scary).
 
For that matter, flying energy projectors are nothing to sneeze at as well. Able to fly close to the ground, they might even be able to blast missiles fired at them out of the air or throw up a force field to protect themselves (or carry a superhero who can shield them, remember the Dash/Violet combo in the Incredibles?).
 
Remember that even conventionally designed superheroes can be equipped and deployed in ways that normal human forces can't be. Not overwhelmingly so, but I can bet that the military right now isn't set up for human sized flying objects with the manuverability of your typical flyer, and if that flyer was carrying sensor arrays and acting as a spotter for artillery and missile launchers (ground based or flying), they could make a very devistating combination.
 
Admittedly, the powers we can't duplicate are more valuable than the powers that we can, but remember that DARPA is funding an exoskeleton program right now to give soliders greater strength and endurance than what we have now. Even 250 point bricks can put even the exoskeletons we'd like to have in 2020 to shame.