Steve

You could also flip the OP’s question around and ask “What if UNTIL was never formed?”

In such a world, I suppose VIPER and other transnational criminal groups would likely overwhelm the defenses of many smaller, weaker countries as time passed. EUROSTAR might become the dominant force in Europe. The US would likely still have PRIMUS, and they might have become the model setup for other countries. In the end, there might be a few large power blocs similar to the Cold War era eyeing each other, each with their own super-agents.

UNTIL is the worldwide agency, but many countries have their own agencies as has been pointed out, PRIMUS being probably the largest and best funded of those.

As a republic, the US could also field State-level and possibly even City-level agencies, which could make for an interesting setup.

Some states might have very small agencies or just rely on PRIMUS due to not much going on there. Larger/wealthier states like Texas or California could easily have their own state agencies.

I’ve been doing this for a while. It’s pretty easy to turn a villain into a hero by swapping out Complications and sometimes adjusting skills and powers. I don’t use the same character twice in a campaign, so flavor is generally preserved and avoids copycat issues.

I just read that the actor who was the voice of Batman in Batman: The Animated Series and other works just passed away at 66.

RIP Mr. Conroy.

I guess I’m an old school grognard, but I far prefer interacting with people face to face at a table rather than playing by text/email. I’ve tried it in the past, and it’s glacially slow in getting anything done that way.

I’m curious about something and wanted to throw it out for discussion.
 

For character portraits, do you prefer using an actual picture or a drawing?

I checked my files this morning, and I bought it years ago (2014). So, it did once exist.

There was, but it does not appear to be there now. I posted a reply to the announcement of it. Maybe it’s just a store error of some kind.

This character pack is no longer in the store. Did it get deleted or moved somewhere from the 5th Edition Star Hero folder in the store?

Just a thought that struck me. Out of the CU’s cast of villainy, who would be best to use on holiday-themed teams? I’m mainly thinking Halloween and Christmas.

1 hour ago, Hermit said:

I started to post a theoretical game scenerio about an artificial intelligence terrified for her lost freedom hoping to see how others would have their heroes react...

 

then I realized "I've done this before"

 

I think my brain is calcifying.

Missed this the first time around. An interesting idea.

On 9/28/2022 at 12:22 PM, Cygnia said:

I have an update.

 

First up, I asked the GM: I need an honest answer -- is the plan for the Bad Guys to "win" whenever we have our next session or does our party have any sort of chance?

 

His response

  Reveal hidden contents

The bad guys are going to win, but there's a sliding scale. The party will have the chance to severely blunt how much they win by how and what they do.

And that will all lead directly into where the full campaign starts from, if that makes sense.

The better the PCs do against the baddies and the more creative you guys are in spoking their wheels, the better the world is in the next go 'round.

But it's unlikely any of the PCs manage to get out alive.

Unless they switch sides, which I think some may do.

 

...so yeah.

 

So, I showed the GM's response to hubby.  Then we talked properly, him and I, about my concerns.  How I didn't liked the bait & switch when I was initially told the campaign was us supposed to be saving the day, not setting up things for what's now the "real" game.  How it frustrated me as a player and as a writer myself that I'm supposed to fulfill a predestined plot as opposed to playing a game.  How, even if I wanted to go out as a Big Damn Hero, it could all be rendered moot by a bad dice roll anyways.

 

And I told hubby how frustrated I felt with him pressuring me to keep playing anyway.  That it wouldn't be fun for me like that.  And I reminded him that we do still game together (Wednesdays with the plan for us GMing together towards the end of the year), so it's not like Fridays are the only thing.

 

...I think he finally got it.  And he'll accept my choice.  I did say that I would finish this campaign first and to see how I'm feeling if I will continue on Fridays.  And I told hubby that I'm totally fine if he chooses to keep playing even if I don't.

I’m glad to hear that things are improving, especially that your husband is coming around at last. Hopefully it keeps moving forward to a better place.

11 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

I thought the killing attack in the dirty martial arts was a liver punch.  Depending how custom you want it, you could buy it as a small killing attack with a high stub multiplier or NND with Does Body.

That’s a Kidney Punch, but I guess a Liver Punch could be built the same way. I was hoping to avoid making it too lethal though which is why I was looking at other options.

The Liver Punch comes in around the ninth and tenth ribs, so low in the Chest area or maybe the Stomach area, but to the side. In boxing, it’s usually done with a left hook since it has to hit the lower right side of the opponent at the bottom of their ribcage.

I’m wondering if it could be a 1 pip Killing Attack maneuver with the Disable element, but that would quickly get pretty lethal once extra 4-point Damage Classes start getting bought.
 

The chance of rib breakage seems higher than just a straight up punch to the chest, since it’s lower down in the floating ribs area.

This is for a Heroic campaign, so defenses will be staying lower.

I was doing some research on Boxing and came across commentary on how devastating a Liver Punch was. In looking at Hero, I'm uncertain how to best replicate it. There is nothing like a Liver Punch in the Hero System Martial Arts book that I could find.

It seems to function like an Impairing shot to the Chest or Vitals but am wondering how to do it without requiring the target take half their BODY in a single hit.

Maybe build a maneuver that targets area 11 with the Disable element? Per page 96 there is text that "At the GM's discretion, a character can define a single specific non-limb target (say, the Chest) for use with the Disable Element if he can use the maneuver only against that hit location and no other." Because it would have the Disable Element, it then doesn't take any hit location penalties.

Maybe another way?

An interesting game world I came across was Eschaton by BTRC on DriveThruRpg. The world there had a single mass empowerment event a year before the game campaign should begin, complete with a timeline of what happened pre-campaign in that year. Whatever it was that granted those powers to people chose those who wanted to make a change in the world. For better or worse.

Ninety percent of world leaders and countless legislators were assassinated in the first three days. The remaining ten percent survived only because someone with powers supported them or managed to get them away to somewhere safe.

Another thing to consider is if the appearance of superhumans is a one-time matter or recurring.

It would be one thing if ten thousand supers suddenly appeared today spread all over the planet, but it would be different if a hundred new ones appeared each week. A sudden, one-time appearance is hugely destabilizing to society, but a steady influx in smaller numbers might be more manageable.

1 hour ago, Scott Ruggels said:

Developing superpowers In statistically significant portion of the population would be bad. Western nations would lose their philosophical underpinnings with regards to equality, and would either go totalitarian, or dissolve.  Less developed nations would factionalize into might makes right situations. The unpowered would hide, and the labor market would become unstable.  Civilization would collapse, or regress into feudalism. Rule by Kryptonian level thugs or powered sociopaths would become the norm.  

Numbers would likely be a large factor, also who is getting the powers.

Statistics would imply that it’s far more likely for someone poor and socially powerless to gain powers than an existing tyrant or a member of the “one percent.” So, some former nobody in North Korea suddenly has godlike power, or a middle-class farmer with a family in Kansas, or a poor widow in London terrorized by street gangs, or a refugee in Mexico. And there are another ten thousand more stories like theirs. Maybe one or two of them are already rich or socially powerful.

Boom, they all have superpowers, and some of them rival Superman.

What do they do with them? How do people react to them?

There’s the old saying, power corrupts. Would any people really use their powers to help others? How many of these people would feel they should eliminate the competition?

How many of these newly empowered people would care if normal people freak out? Would they put on a costume to make themselves seem less scary?

What if those chosen were people motivated to change things around them, if they only had the power?

Once you start getting away from comic book tropes, superhumans become a temptation for governments to weaponize. You see it in the comics, but it would likely happen much more often in a more realistic world.

Some governments might even fall quickly, if the right (or wrong?) person obtained superpowers. The temptation to march into the halls of government and forcibly redress one’s grievances would be far too tempting, especially if that person was the only one (or one of a very few) in a country to get superpowers.

Controlling superhumans is easier if there are many at a rough parity in power level with each other. However, it becomes far more challenging if one or a very few are at a greatly higher power level. If only one person on Earth had Kryptonian-level powers while the rest were much less powerful sorts, even sending an army of superhumans would not work, if that person refused to cooperate.

15 hours ago, Cygnia said:

No games since then.  GM has family obligations due to high school football now, so scheduling is on the fritz.

Well, that lets your husband focus more on you then, so your calm explanations as to why the situation is toxic should carry more weight. Perhaps if you keep at it during the lull, he’ll get worn down and submit.

If these people are friends, does that mean you do things with them other than gaming? If not, that really weakens the friendship argument a lot. If gaming is your only social contact with them, ditch the game.

14 hours ago, unclevlad said:

I'll recommend Marion G. Harmon's Wearing the Cape series.  The premise is that, on one day in the early to mid-2000's, the EVENT happened.  The entire world literally blacked out for 3.14159+ seconds...and everything changed.

 

(snip)

 

Harmon does go into many of the questions you're asking here.  He does use the costume paradigm, for heroes...because the symbology is so known.  Superman is the Ultimate Good Guy, and using that costumed symbology helps the very scared norms accept that they have help.  Drew Hayes in Super Powereds did something very similar, where supers went public in, IIRC, the late 50s...and adapted strict standards to try to ensure public confidence.

 

I read the first book of Wearing The Cape, and I found it interesting.

Wearing costumes to keep the norms from freaking is a reasonable justification, I suppose. What might end up happening is that only a portion of the superhuman population goes for the costumed look (heroic sorts and more publicity-minded villains), while the rest either don’t use their powers much (most people, I imagine) or commit crimes in regular clothes.

Passing legislation against superhumans is expected, but enforcement is still an issue. If someone is able to ignore bullets and can bash around or blast police like mooks in an action movie, you then need other superhumans to enforce those edicts.

There are also issues of public popularity. Will the populace always support heavy-handed actions against superhumans? They are scary and “other” so maybe?

14 hours ago, Sundog said:

The situation in White Wolf's Aberrant (part of their Trinity - Aberrant - Adventure series) is similar. You have Novas (superhumans activated by a traumatic or high-stress event) who are mercenaries, shootfighters (think professional wrestling with superpowers), superstars and just normal folks. The first known Nova is a fireman who gains the ability to control fire - and who simply stays on with the FDNY, using his powers to fight fires. There is a designated "Superhero Team" - Team Tomorrow - but they do a lot more disaster support and civilian architectural and ecological aid. But they aren't without their secrets, and their primary opponents, the Nova-supremacist Teragen, aren't really the bad guys, either. The system has problems, but the setting is great.

This seemed to be the direction Wearing The Cape chose too, that superhumans would act as disaster help and civilian aid. Crimefighting happens in the comics, but probably not as much in a world closer to real life. Aberrant is probably closer to X-Men in its take on superhumans.

Has there been progress on this issue?

I was reading through the new Champions supplement Lifted and started thinking about how campaign worlds might be structured without using the classic comic book superhero/supervillain tropes.

If superhumans don’t take part in the cosplay out of comic books, how would they engage with society? Would it be X-Men anti-mutant paranoia? Some other sort of dystopia?

How would governments react to suddenly having superhumans in their midst today, regular people suddenly having godlike power, without a history going back to World War II? I imagine the first instinct would be to try and control superhumans, either by force or threatening their loved ones. That likely will not go over very well.

What if those superhumans were pretty much immune to man-portable weapons like handgun and rifles? Would they eventually start policing each other with some sort of code of conduct?

Do these issues then lead back to some kind of comic book paradigm after sufficient time has passed?

There actually is a Japanese sentai team that was written up for Hero, Zen Team. Each of them had a single superpower, in addition to martial arts and a suit of body armor.

They can be found in the Allies supplement, available for sale for $5 here.

1 hour ago, Ragitsu said:

Yeah: it's not explicitly mentioned, but, if you go through the rules, it makes sense.

 

Both of the following excerpts are from the GURPS Basic Set (Characters and Campaigns).

I discovered that the Knockdown and Stunning section has a similar note about making a HT roll to avoid knockdown and stunning. I don't play GURPS, so I'm not that familiar with the rules.

Modifiers: -5 for a major wound to the face or vitals (or to the groin, on a humanoid male)