Orion

Re: Repercussions of mass-producing comic book technology So you've got some geniuses that want to do good for the world. Cheap power, medical advances, artificial intelligence. How about that one genius that truly wants to do good for the world, but realizes that the changes are socially unacceptable? It really is good for the world, but some or all societies cannot handle the idea. Maybe the short-term economic upheaval is too much to contemplate, or business concerns won't let it happen because it would ruin them. The specific example I'm thinking about is human reproduction. Too many people = bad. We just can't decide on what number is too many. This genius decides to do something about it. Maybe everyone goes sterile for a couple years, or reproductive rates are cut in half worldwide. Maybe he offers extended lifespan and disease resistance, but tells you up front that it causes permanent sterility. Another one....some people are just loony when it comes to vaccines. They'd rather chance the measles than have the gub'ment tell them what to do. So the genius releases something that effectively vaccinates the world against measles. People can bitch all they want, but they've been vaccinated, and measles will never bother a person again. And since he is a genius, it works as he means it to, and there are no other side effects. If it ever gets out how he did it, then you can imagine the calls by certain governments to use that tech for other purposes, and not always for the general good.

Re: Fantasy Economies: How closely should we examine them? I think this comes down to the expected power level of the campaign. I've never even played in a game where this would have been possible, or allowed. In current main campaign world, a nature shaman could expect to alter the harvest of the area by 5% if everything went right and the deity gave them a boost. They can do a lot better if talking about a single field, garden, or tree. Likewise, they can slightly alter precipitation chances over an area, and only cause small amounts water to move. They cannot prevent the river from flooding, as no one person has that much power (skill, points, endurance, whatever). If my player expects to prevent all these bad things from happening, then I have failed miserably at explaining the campaign background and how magic works to him.

Re: Repercussions of mass-producing comic book technology To many people, nuclear = Bad Juju, and you can't educate them enough to change their minds. If fission is bad, fusion has to be worse. There's no way they'll let one be in their home, and they don't want to take the chance neighbor Bob's fusion plant will blow up either. The government is going to want to safely test these things for years and years before releasing them to the general public. Many of those making money selling power now will spread FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt), and their lobbyists will try to get government on their side. Some Third World countries, if they can afford it, would love the fusion power, as it greatly reduces the infrastructure they need to build. With so many possible changes to the social and business world as the new super-technology is introduced, I'd make that the primary theme of the campaign. Companies trying to destroy or protect the new stuff and steal secrets from each other need agents and protectors. Governments will fall in the future as oil-based economies fail. New tech causes certain industries to fall, and the resulting unemployment leads to riots if it last long enough. This new tech is going to eventually cause social upheavals.

Re: A galaxy of humans

Re: How do you introduce players to champions? I did option 1. Looking back, I think they really didn't have an interest in the Hero System - just were just willing to let me run a game or two. They never got beyond the most basic understanding of the rules, and I couldn't get past their overwhelming need for dungeon crawls and constantly rising power levels. My preference would be to use an existing character from some supplement in a quickie adventure. If none suited them, I'd I toss together one in 10 minutes or less. After going through this basic session and learning a tiny bit about combat and how characteristics and powers worked, we'd brainstorm character ideas and start building. I'd make it clear that they didn't have to stay with this first build, and would be free to modify it in the next couple sessions, or even use something completely different if it turned out they didn't like it.

Re: Blasters: why? Not seen any damage to humans, but I have shot a lot of deer and wild hogs in the last 10 years. Sometimes it's a mess, but often times it's just a little hole going in, a slightly bigger hole going out, and a little blood on the ground. But once that arm has a hole in it, you're not going to be punching anyone with that arm anytime soon. I heard a story once of an idiot who decided to cut up a deer carcass himself, rather than taking it to a butcher. No big deal - I do this myself. However, I'm smart enough to not use a skil-saw to cut it up while in my own kitchen! I'm told his wife just about killed him when she found the mess.

Re: Okay class: Make me a rogue. From my old Harn campaign I present Thiergon. I have little interest in playing thieves and cutthroats, but we needed someone with the abilities. My solution was to give him a lot of thief abilities, but change the job description to chief spy and intelligence officer.

Re: Alternate Sexualities in Champions and Supers settings I have a character that is into both polyamory and BDSM. She knows there's no way she can stay true to one man, so doesn't even try, but does tell the guys up front. She prefers to be submissive in private, but in her super identity is a dominant ice-queen bitch. She may show up in skin-tight leather, transparent lace gowns, or hot pants and a bikini top. The public thinks she's an exhibitionist trying to distract her opponents, but in reality that's just what she was wearing at home when she got the call. None of her sexual life ever came up in game because that group just didn't do romance, but it's detailed just in case. In Watchmen, two of the characters talked about some of the odder villians, and how they got a sexual thrill out of being beat up or captured. There is widespread speculation among the non-comics crowd about why adults want kids as sidekicks, or why they want to dress up in skin tight outfits and go out in public. This kind of stuff makes sense on some levels, so I decided to base her personality on some of the more lurid things that are said about comic superheroines, but play it without the negative overtones. It seems to me that gay and bi-sexual people are more acceptable to the general public than the alternative lifestyles such as polyamory, BDSM, swinging, and the various kinks some have. There are a lot of alternative sexualities out there, but most of which probably should fall to the GM to assign to characters, rather than being stated in the books. As I see it, if the character is only getting a paragraph or two in a book, skip sexuality completely. Mention DNPC, but don't state the sex of the partner. If it's a full page writeup with other personality traits mentioned, then mention sexuality as well.

Re: I have a dream. (and MAN was it wierd!)

Re: Tactics 1. The widespread assumption that flash suppressors on rifles meant your targets couldn't see you fire. 2. Not ensuring a downed enemy is permanently down. 3. The player mindset that they must be heroes, and not soldiers or police. This leads them to doing crazy stunts that often get them killed. 4. "I'm in charge, so I get to be the first through the door." No, the SWAT officer is full armor is the first through, and only after he clears the area does your weenie manager ass enter the building. 5. Letting the villain hold a gun to a hostage while negotiations are done. The correct response is to shoot the villain first, talk later.

Re: Common superhero types you've never seen in play

Re: Ways to manage a huge team with a lot of characters? Every player creates a single main character. They are always in the action unless mandated by the storyline. These main characters should be created so as to work together well as a team, both in personality and powers. Each player then selects or creates additional characters, but knows they can only use one of these a session. These secondary characters may or may not get along and may or may not have complementary powers (or even have mostly useless powers). As a GM, you also create some that can be used to guide the PCs and help out, but are either rarely or never used as PCs. As part of character creation, decide how often each character is willing and able to be part of the group. Some are rarely available, others camp out on the base's doorstep. Define some basic rules like if A is present, sidekick B must be present as well, but C and D are romantic rivals and so will only serve together in dire emergencies. For each character, have a basic timeline going. If A can't show up, decide how long he'll be out of action. Don't bother figuring out where he is or what he is doing, just know that during the block of time he is unavailable. Quicker, but less fun, is to assign each a probability of being available. I would not let the players have any character they wanted - there are times they must do without A, because his mental powers would ruin the scenario, or you want them to run a certain combo. Personally, I'd only give EXP to those characters in use. I would assume some characters are much more active, and thus advance faster. And remember, not all powers get stronger, and not all heroes have the brainpower to learn new skills or improve the ones they have. Having the character stay the same forever is not such a bad thing. I also would encourage different power levels, and so not be troubled by 200 and 500 point characters on the same team. Simply put, I wouldn't care that they are not going up in power equally. The main characters get more radiation accidents just because they are main characters. If this feels off, then give every character the same number of points, and assume they are just as busy during their solo adventures. At least once, run a scenario where the second-raters are the only ones available. All the primary characters are busy, or captured and need rescued. Use this as a change of pace and tone as needed. Make sure in at least one scenario all the chosen characters are the incorrect ones for the job, and in another you insure the perfect team is chosen to easily overwhelm the opposition. Don't always let them know who the opposition is going to be. Sometimes it's just who is on duty and can respond in time, while others they can put out the call for A and B, because supernatural agents are their specialty.

Re: Common superhero types you've never seen in play

Re: Religion in Science-Fiction?

Re: Superhero Team Threat Levels Assuming this is meant to be for a generic team, and not a specific team with a known number of members, I have a minor nitpic. At level 2, don't say entire team assigned, instead say 7+ team members assigned. All teams fluctuate in size, and it could easily go from 5 to 20 in many storylines. At Level 1, just say that all available heroes in the area are called, whether current members or not. This team size thing, along with the more important aspect of team power, led me to leave the number of respondents off my threat level chart. A dragon shows up, bringing numerous giants. Code Red. I could send Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Panther, Falcon, Wasp, Ant Man, Black Paladin, and maybe some others, or I could just send Thor and let everyone stay at the mansion and keep watching the movie they rented. The threat is the same either way, but the response differs based on capabilities of who is available.

Re: Religion in Science-Fiction?

Re: Would you buy...

Re: Eccentric but plausible ways a character could be rich? I don't think you make so much finding the cure as being the company selling the drug. Now if you're smart enough to both create the cure, and head the company that markets the cure, you might be able to print your own money. My organic chemistry prof at Texas A&M was too lazy to turn some bunsen burners off in his lab one night. He said it was a closed-system experiment, and a standard one at that. Many people had done this experiment/setup, so no worry. Came back the next day and instead of a clear liquid bubbling away, there was brown goo. Spent significant time figuring out how that could happen, because it was completely unexpected. After that, spent time figuring out exactly what it was and what the goo could be used for. Ended up getting the chemistry prize right below the Nobel. Some drug company built a brand new factory in Brazil to mass produce the stuff, and hired him away to run the place. I assume he got pretty good money for all this, but bet the drug company got the majority. As I dimly remember, the goo treated some people with genetic disease that limited digestion of certain proteins.

Re: Would you buy... 1. Not unless it differed significantly from Mystic World 2. Never. I'd organize book burnings just to get rid of the foul stench. Any writer should be examined for insanity. Regardless of the verdict, hanging is too good for them. 3. Meh. Yet another world beater from another dimension. 4. Meh. Better than #3 though. 5. I'd probably never use it, but it is the most interesting of the group.

Re: Who are the greatest (?) super villains? Most mastermind types I dislike, because they have to act dumb in order to let the heroes win. Goofy and crazy villains I never like - characters like the Joker and Foxbat pretty much guarantee I won't like the storyline. All in all, there are few villains I really liked. Magneto is probably my favorite comic villain, but it depends on the incarnation and story. Loki is always a good one, although often not handled well. Deadshot (DC) is probably my favorite regular villain, and all because of the Suicide Squad book. When acting as a villain of the month in some other book, he was useless. Hobgoblin was great, and much better than the Green Goblin in the stories I read. On the assumption that there was a Buffy comic, and that Spike appeared in it at least once, I'll add him to the list. I loved that character as a villain.

Re: Do you use Dr Destroyer in your campaign and if so, which version & how? As a GM, I dislike the overwhelming, cannot be defeated, type of villain. As a player, I despise them and the GMs that inflect them on me. Masterminds are great, but the power level and abilities of DD and his ilk are just too much. Once they get to that point, they are a plot point, and no longer have powers and characteristics - they just do anything the GM needs them to do at that point. DD is an important part of my campaign, but he has very little in common with the canon version. I have only seen the official write-up for him this spring. Years ago I made my own DD based on the name and picture in old books, and a few rumors I saw on the web. Of course, I guessed totally wrong. Mine is a Nazi scientist specializing in genetics. He escaped with most of the mystical artifacts after the war, along with the few pieces of superscience that actually worked. He has stopped his own body from aging, but hasn't bothered to reverse it yet. He has a suit of armor, but it's to protect him during dangerous experiments, and is nothing special. Combat is something he considers beneath himself. He is the premier scientist working on cloning and genetic engineering, and has a loyal cadre that are all at the pinnacle of human ability. This cadre, and the few metahumans he has created, is what the players fight. Only one base, but he's just about to the point to try and re-created the Third Reich. Once he does this, I'd be very surprised if he's allowed to live after his eventual defeat.

Re: Alternate Sexualities in Champions and Supers settings Even though I prefer the characters canon sexuality be left blank the majority of the time, I do have to agree with you here. If the race/sexuality/religion/etc is stated at times, then it should reflect the culture in which the story takes place. If it is only mentioned for straight white protestant males, then it starts looking odd after a while. In my superhero stuff I note the race of all metahumans and recently noticed a strong lack of minorities, so I changed a couple, and created a couple more. If religion or sexuality played much of a role at all in the campaign, I'd start noting those as well, and would try to proportionally represent each group.

Re: Alternate Sexualities in Champions and Supers settings Pretty much so, as they play no role in the campaign. Besides, having a wife or girlfriend doesn't stop them from being bisexual, or even being gay but hiding the fact, in denial, etc. It's the fact that they have someone that regularly interferes with their costumed life that is important, not the sex of that person. Just as easy to say that the canon wife is actually male, stays at home, and raises the adopted kids.

Re: Alternate Settings: Rules to villany

Re: How have you used androids in campaigns? Robots - anything originating on Earth is just a smart computer with good programming. "Kill anything that moves" or "monitor this process" is about all they can handle, although I do allow better bipedal locomotion than current tech. There is a group of 10 worlds that are a mix of robot and cyborg, and they are about ready to invade the Earth. A single AI is in control of each world. Robots have differing levels of complex programming, but all can be taken over by the main AI as needed. They are little more than independent processes overseen by the AI anyway. Each world is basically a hive mind. None have emotions. Cyborgs are low in numbers, have little to no say in the running of the world, but are sometimes valued for their ability of independent thought and creativity. They often rise up against the AI overlord. Mechanon is an AI sent to conquer Earth - we are to be planet #11 in that space nation. To psionics and magic, robots and AIs are just complex computers. Cyborgs register as human if they still have the original organic brain. The 10 AI (and Mechanon) would be considered people and given rights if they weren't working to enslave or exterminate humanity. Cyborgs are fine as a PC if the person originated on Earth, but no robots. Androids - a few one-off villains from space are androids, but none are constructed on Earth. I have clones and genengineered people running around, and they take the place of androids. No way to tell they were cloned, so they could fit into society easily. Some are grown for spare parts and the brain isn't developed, some are to be recipients of personality/memory transfers (live forever, basically), and Dr Destroyer has an army of identical clones serving him. If they have a functioning brain, they are considered a person and get full rights. Those without are considered brain-dead wards of the state, and whether the plug is pulled depends on the laws and culture where they are found. Cloning is considered illegal everywhere, and being a clone is a severe social stigma in some, but not all, societies. I wouldn't allow androids as a PC because they wouldn't have the necessary grasp of Earth culture, and I probably wouldn't allow clones because no one has made a clone with powers yet. A genengineered person is usually at the pinnacle of human potential, and so with gadgets and weapons could be a viable character.