Wanderer

Re: Seduction an Everyman Skill

Re: Seduction an Everyman Skill Well, of that I'm extremely well aware from both personal and professional experience. My point is, drawing on the same experience, in most cases, people who have severe deficiences in social skills have them across the board. It is rather rare to be really, really lousy at seduction, sexual magnetism, and winning friends with personal charm, and then being average good at face-to-face persuasion, telling convincing lies, being a decent conversationalist or actor. Hence my point is: either all of Seduction, Acting, Persuasion and Conversation are Everyman skills, or none is. Either approach has its reasons. Even if, I'm in the favor of the former. Really severe deficiences in basic social skills are fairly rare, even if well-known to mental health professionals. Estimate, very roughly, 3-5% of population (schizofrenics, severe social anxiety, some personality disorders) double it if you include borderline or subthreshold cases.

Re: Astroman (Superman Tribute) Being presently engaged in setting up a similar (if more broadly cosmic) character, I may offer up some additional ideas: Moving at least part of the STR into a Multipower slot, to represent the fact it is powered by solar energy, and it is not plain muscles. Toning down BODY, CON, STUN and END a bit and moving some of those points into Damage Reduction. An additional Multipower slot with a Variable Advantage would be a great way to show the flexibility in using power that cosmic characters often have. You can make the char not needing to eat at all, since he has an alternative source of energy. And since he does not breathe, he has no use for food anyway. No oxygen, no way to utilize energy in food. I'd place the Limited Power Lim on the full Multipower reserve and all slots, as well as Flight and most of STR. Clarify if the Char is going to need ambient Sunlight (ie diffused daylight), or direct Sunlight. Anyway, -2 seems excessive to me. I'd give (-1/4) for daylight, or (-1/2) for direct sunlight. Moreover, probably char is going to travel and fight in space, where starlight is ever present. Define how this is going to affect powers. Sunlight Lim have the problem they leave char powerless and a burden to the group for too much time. After much thought, I've thought up of a similar Lim: (-1/4) Power does not work within Radiation Shelding or Underground (maybe also Deep Underwater, I'm still thinking about it). Logic is, wherever a significant poertion of solr emission spectrum may reach the char, he stays powered. Where he is too heavily shielded, he loses powers. All kind of visual and hearing Enhanced senses are good for a Solar Archetype. The Sun sees all, hears all... Almost 151 points in Contact Perks looks like rather excessive to me. What is this guy, hero or Washington lobbyst? For my tastes, this guy looks rather too straitjacked. Unless you really, really, really, want to emulate Supes unsufferable Boyscoutish sainthood (which I admit I have a truckload of bias against), please add at least one or two Psych Lim that isn't goodey-good, for more depth. Hasn't this guy some personality flaw, like say overconfidence, excessive curiosity, secret doubts about his worth as a hero, excessive fondness for the fairer sex, inability to turn down challenges, whatever. Follow the Stan Lee Axiom: at least one Super-Problem, please. Another good Vulnerability for a Solar-powered cosmic hero is Cold (NOT Water). You can combine them. Another one, following the Supes example, si Magic, especially Dark or Demonic magic. A possible good Susceptibility is Absolute Darkness, or some exotic element that you can rationalize as disrupting his internal energy matrix. I'd tinker with the Limited Power Lim, as above, and either drop the Dependence, or move it to 6 Hours or 1 Day. Otherwise, he suffers too many, too frequent wide variations in power level. Since apart of high-end master villains like Destroyer and Takofanes he has pretty much any cosmic-level CU supervillain as an enemy with the exception of Viperia, I'd suggest to add her to the roost as well. To have such an impressive roost of enemies, showing up so frequently, I'd expect the char to be at least 1400-1500 pts. Hope this Hunted is for the rest of the group too and he gets assistance for his Hunted, or the GM never ever fudges things and has multiple enemies team up on him, or he is toast. Tone down the Hunted or raise the point total: moving some of those excess Perk points into Powers would be a good move.

Can anyone point me to good Hero *5th* writeups of iconic cosmic benchmark characters, especially Cosmic hybrid Brick/Energy Projector or even Mystic Archetypes like Silver Surfer (especially), Warlock, Firelord, Quasar, Thanos, Thor, Dr. Strange, Supes, GL, Phoenix, Capt. Marvel ? Reasonable representations of the comic characters: no tries to show off by fitting Superman in 500 points, please.

Re: Should all skills be everyman to some degree? I recognize the problem: computer *programming* is far from being a widespread skill, yet varying degrees of computer operation is. Maybe Computer Programming Familiarity should be redefined to be for operation only. On that basis, it might be a valid modern Everyman skill. OTOH, for Stellar Hero or Galactic Champions, the full version of the skill should be Everyman, along with basic Science skills (Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Physics), Electronic, and Mechanic. Maybe also Navigation: Air, Space. Just doing a reasonable assumption on which skills basic school training is going to give in the future millennium.

Re: Should all skills be everyman to some degree? In addition to the canon Everyman Skill list, I think that also Seduction should be Everyman for each list, in any age and setting (see relevant thread). Moreover, in modern settings, Computer Programming should be Everyman for anyone born past, say, 1965, or at the very least 1980. Pretty much anyone who has been a teen or twentysomething past the mid-late '80s and has been raised in decent socio-economic conditions has very basic Computer Operation (NOT Programming) compentency. For futuristic settings, I'd also make basic science skills (Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Physics) Everyman.

Re: Seduction an Everyman Skill You all raise valid points, but then the question is why other Social Skills are deemed Everyman. There are as many persons in the general populace who are as catastrofically unable to tell a convincing lie, be charming or persuasive or strike an interesting conversation as they or others are in scoring a successful seduction. Either you deem that for the average person, basic socialization process ia enough to give very basic proficiency in all social skills, including seduction (and most people are able to set up a reasonably stable relationship or string of short-term ones somehow), or you recognize the presence of people without basic social skills. Either all Social Skills are Everyman, or none is. There is no valid reason why Persuasion is, and Seduction doesn't.

I'm very puzzled by Seduction not showing up in the Everyman Skill lists, along with Acting, Conversation and Persuasion. After all, Seduction is a basic socialization ability as fundamental as any of the other social skills.

Assuming a 1000-pts. cosmic level char whose special effect is to be a living solar/stellar battery of cosmic power, who has: a three-tiered STR of increasing (one in civilian ID, a boosted one for "ordinary" Heroic ID, and a very much enhanced one as a Power Cosmic Multipower slot), which would an appropriate "Does Not Add to Normal STR" Limitation value for the latter one, if it does not add to, but substitutes, the others? Which would be a proper restraint for OIHID for a 1000-pts cosmic-level guy to keep it balanced ? Concentration ? Extra Time (Full Phase) ? Gestures? Incantation ? All of the above ? Smilarly, wishing to give him some Achilles Heels and weak spots, what might be appropriate, but not crippling ones ? I thought of tagging a (-1/4 ?) Limited Power (Does not work in Radiation Shielding or Underground) to simulate cutting him off from cosmic radiation on all of most of superhuman powers (mindful of Superman and Silver Surfer power sources). Do you think it's appropriate ? Maybe also cutting off power in Deep Underwater, but I dunno if ocean's deep are able to stop most of stellar radiation effectively. Another ones I'd have thought of are: Vulnerability to Cold and Darkness Attacks, Vulnerability to "Black" or Demonic Magic (mindful of the Superman example), susceptibility to Heavy Metals (gold, platinum, palladium) or maybe Noble Gases ? Maybe also a Vulnerability to Mental Powers and/or Presence Attacks ? Do you think they are appropriate ? Or is the good old Susceptibility to Improbable Alien Glowing Substance best ? Other good ideas? If a character has OIHID, which requires some condition to switch voluntarily (deep concentration, extra time, magic word, striking armbands together, etc.), also giving an Accidental Change for uncontrolled spontaneous change, when the mundane form gets angry, overly stressed, injured, etc. would it be balanced or abusive (assuming the char gets a Secret Identity as well) ? Overall CSLs, Defense Maneuver IV, high-level Danger Sense, Combat Luck, Evasive as game effect of OIHID Cosmic Awareness (Captain Marvel). Appropriate ? No Turn Mode: appropriate or abusive to give a flying PC, in your experience ? Correct way to stat a Major Transform , Any Inanimate Object (including "air" or "nothingness") Into Any Inanimate Object ? Mental Transforms: are they proper Mental Powers, or not ? Possible good Origins for a high-end Cosmic char: transformed by Space God or Mystic Power for ineffable reasons, "radiation" accident or purposeful power-seeking, risk-taking during esoteric physics or occult experiment, avatar of god, pact with demonic entity, being handed UberPowerful Artifact, recipient of massive amount of psychic energy (e.g. a whole species passing out), what else ? Might Mutant be appropriate for a Cosmic Archetype ? A good CU enemy to utterly lay waste to galactic civilization in a future GC(alternate) timeline to travel back from (a la Terminator): Mechanon 3000 ? The Kings of Edom ? Tyrannon ? The Nibu Gemani ? What else ? If a char with Magic- or Cosmic Energy-sfx Powers suffers a mind-switch body-swapping, do the powers stay in the body, travel with th4e mind, or manifest in both bodies ?

Re: Nested Variable Advantages Thanks for the answers. Indeed I envisioned it working best for a character using very broad, generic SFX like cosmic energy or magic. Tagging Variable Advantage to several Standard/Attack Powers is a very apt way of building an effective suite of different Powers for this kind of character without necessary recourse to VPPs, I noticed.

For a cosmic or magic superbeing character, is it possible to take the Variable Advantage on some Attack powers, at +1 (allowing switching +1/2 Advantages), and then assigning it to the Variable Special Effects Advantage ?

Re: Looking for NEW words of transformation: (SHAZAM, Thunder! Thunder!...) "Enter the Might" "Here's the Champion" "By the Infinite Power of the Cosmos, I am Reborn" "Supreme Justice, Reveal" "Now is the Time of Reckoning" "The benevolent Powers of the Universe brought change Where was dark, now there's light Where it was void, now there's life Where was a man, now there's HYPER-MAN"

Re: Campaigning for Supervillain PCs... The innocent wife and children of the dutiful, law-abiding Joe Torturer, Executioner, and Slave-Market Clerk will starve when torture, slavery, and the death penalty are summarily outlawed

Re: Any Good Non-Four Color Super Game Needs:

Re: Any Good Non-Four Color Super Game Needs: Please go on, it isn't as you were richly showing that some people are really too immature to play nice even when explicitly asked :

Re: Any Good Non-Four Color Super Game Needs:

Re: Any Good Non-Four Color Super Game Needs: Nexus- play nice, please. Do notice that I didn't post in the four color thread about all those things that make it ridiculous, annoying and laughable IMO. Please return the favor. If you despise the genre, abstain from commenting.

OK, having done it with for four-color, let's done it with its opposite number: Iron Age, Realistic, Gritty, Grim, Dark, Post-Modern, Shades of Grey, Ultimate, Image you know what I mean. Any Good Non-Four Color Super Game Needs: Corrupt intelligence or government high-ranking officials/cabals trying to manipulate the heroes Supers burdened with mystical/ultra-technological power sources that are as much as a curse as a blessing Alternatively: Mutants. A lot of feared and misunderstood mutants. With the public hysteria to boot Revealing and sexy, or *really* skintight, costumes, with a lot of leather and metal The hunk/supermodel body types to fit them Multiple layers of Truth, Half-Truth, and Falsehood. The real deal about the character's origin, past history, the supporting characters' real motives, is never actually what it seems to be. Skyrocketing crime rates, and a thoroughly corrupt, inept, or binded in red tape police. Dramatic socio-economic divides: the have-nots literally live in gutters, and are legion. The haves live existences of ostentatious opulence. Crumbling city streets Overarching crime syndacates Conspiracies everywhere Supers that kill those they deserve it Villains with motivations just only one step from heroic - or so thoroughly evil that any means feels justified vs. them

Re: The Authority:What the heck? As a matter of fact, after I got to read Authority V2 #10, I felt a bit vindicated about our recent debate Points I especially appreciated about the issue: The Authority takes over as a provisional government when the elected amidnistration proves too corrupt and dangerous for world survival (causing two million deaths and threatening to plunge earth into interdimensional war). Too bad the constraints of the comic book medium prevented the authors from giving additional details over the legal structure of the takeover (it seems the supergroup has assumed full legislative and executive powers for a limited timespan: maybe a full presidential term, or the remaining of the ousted president's term?) They implement a far sweeping program of internal reform: retroactively abolishing tax cuts for the rich, universal health coverage plan, redirecting the full production of hard drugs to an alternate Earth where they work as antibiotics, bullying the oil cartels into giving 17.5% of gross profits into R&D for environmentally-friendly energy sources, outlawing automatic weapons. The issue highlights that taking over as heads of state is a thankless, exausting job they take up out of sense of duty "Who'd ever want to rule the world ?" (jack hawksmoor, after dealing with the typical bureaucrats deluging him with paperwork) With all their godlike, world-restructuring power, the superheroes recognize there is no easy solution for the touching issue of Jenny Quantum's biological mother claiming visitation rights "The problem is, sometimes there's nothing to hit". (even if I fail to see where the true drama is: surely a compromise about reasonable visitation rights for the mother can be reached; OTOH, given Jenny's budding cosmic-level superpowers, and her destiny as the guardian of 21st Century, and the fact unscrupuolous super-villains already tried to kidnap her, it is likely safer and more reasonable for the child and the world if the Authority keep custody; they raised her adequately and affectionately so far). But the point I appreciate more about Authority was made in the last page of the first run (Engineer and Jack Hawksmoor, discussing the lasting impact of the Authority on the world): "Guys who can hear atoms whizzing around just can't get away with ignoring screams for help from third world concentration camps anymore". That summarizes the reasons why I cherish this comic so much

Re: Superhumans pulling an Authority There might be a whole lot of reasons, but ultimately they would all boil down to an OOC one: RPing and GMing the story of the slow, sure, safe, respectful road just isn't so interesting, entartaining (Sp?), or sheer fun as the epic, dramatic, heart-wrenching, Hollywood-blockbuster-like global conflict and takeover. This way, you can make the same socio-political point, and insert huge combat scenes, heart-wrenching decisions, and breath-stopping moments (and yes, vicarious power tripping takes an hand in this, as in all Rping), such as characters addressing the U. N. live in taking over as the new Security Council permanent members. And hell, I just wish to re-do that classic Superman II White House takeover sequence, just this time with a decent blockbuster budget (and doing it on the current occupant, instead of the rather decent guy doing the Commander in Chief in the movie, would be triple the guilty pleasure )

Re: Superhumans pulling an Authority Excellent ideas, my friend. Just a little comment 1: Whales: while your ideas have merit, using just a little cohercion in this specific case, might still be more appropriate, to teach a general lesson: hunting down endangered species of high biological value just to indulge a nationalistic caprice is *not* a good idea. Better to grow up beyond the notion. OR: we might develop a super-efficient adult absorbent, but maybe learning sphincter control is better. 2. Permanent mind alteration might be just the type of thing they would balk on, like indiscriminate massacre of civilians. They'd rather offer a modicum of free choice, even if it's the choice to die fighting them. As you say, finding a worthy replacement as head of state shouldn't be impossible. As for the dictator himself, it would depend on his general record: if he had it not too bad, they might be satisfied with resignation (as long as he did not chose armed resistance causing too losses: in that case, better teach an example) and sending him to the World Court for a quick human-rights-violations trial. If he were of the really rotten "death camps and torture for opponents" variety, a summary public execution, best on live T.V., would be the only practical choice.

Re: Superhumans pulling an Authority I couldn't have said it better. The status quo is just what this scenario is up to definitely break. OTOH, introducing in the scenario Master Villains or rival super-teams which the characters may find worthy opponents is an excellent classic "comic book" element to counterbalance the prevalence of dry political themes (i.e. some good old super-powered slugfest to counter all those political rants and social angst, and to ensure combat element is not limited to "character X thrashes tank division Y". Point totals should be tweaked so that characters may be able to defeat (or lose to) opponents decisively, too. I dunno, yet. Maybe 2500-3000 pts for MVs (MVs can team-up, too), and 1000 pts. for rival super teams?? Open to suggestions.

Re: Superhumans pulling an Authority

Re: Superhumans pulling an Authority *shrug* Given that money in a superheroistic campaign has a definite, but ultimately limited scope, and that the overall power level is demigod-like anyway, I didn't thought of it as a very big issue, anyway. However, say about half the group is likely going to use Transform powers to churn out raw materials, food, wealth and the like to relief those affected by their operations. It's only practical to suppose they would do the same to subsidize their own operations, and personal finances. Anyway, Filthy Rich is just 1% of their point total, and inter-group financial solidarity has a hollowed tradition in comic books: Tony Stark funded the Avengers' lavish mansions for decades. Anyway, if it offends you, it's not essential. But with characters with cosmic-level Transform, the group will be working at that functional level of wealth soon enough. Moreover, they are cosmic-level guys and gals with Total Life Support: what are they really needing money for, personally (except funding their operations): food? travel? anti-wrinkle cream? When you postulate cosmic-level powers, realism also entails making reasonable assumptions about the logical consequences of those powers. I beg pardon?? No doubt, the clerk of the slave market and the court torturer, and their nice families, suffered terribly from unemployment when slavery and torture were abolished. Too bad average joe whaler took a really rotten career choice, and it finally took up with him. But never mind. Here is our special unemployment relief fund, and admission to our job reconversion training fund. In some months, we may need some new labor for the mini-fusion reactor factory we'll sponsor with our energy source discoveries. 1. "oh, in case you think you just need to be sneakier than the late unlamented president, we'll do a general audit of your administration next year. You don't really think you can hide questionable practices from your whole poplation, don't you" 2."On the other hand, we are reasonable people, ad sometimes one can do all its best and fail. If you honestly think that your country has a problem your people and you can't solve on your own, lend us a call. We might give some help". However, creating raw materials,food and precious materials works wonderfully as a temporary solution, and in times of economic squeeze (as when you are shutting down polluting factories), to fund unemployment relief and long-term reconversion of the economy. In the meanwhile, you are getting the new, more advanced, and environment-friendly technologies on the market, to create new jobs and new wealth to redistribute. Witness the practical mini-fusion reactor, the molecular nano-conversion of garbage, the cancer vaccine, the wide-spectre polluter-eating bacteria... Of course, if world governments would be really taking a grudge from all those whaler ships we blew up, and are presently raining down missiles on us, you'd have to just wait a while, while we finish ousting these @$$%&!£$ from power, and then we'd be able to implement our global reconverion program when we're in charge. In that contingence, please stay away from open places and hit the cellars in the next few days: world wars can be messy, and we don't want civilian losses...

Re: Superhumans pulling an Authority