Doc Quantum

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps! My 2 cents. Comic book mages deal with things that would drive most people insane upon their first exposure. I think of magical adventures as being like radiation poisoning. Mages have better shielding but some still leaks through over time. Also, as a mage becomes more powerful, he might become so attuned to mystic phenomena that his entire frame of reference shifts to that and everyone else starts commenting on how he seems to only speak in riddles and non sequiturs. It would make perfect sense to anyone who shared that frame of reference. Putting on a costume to fight or commit crimes is, I think, an attempt to become more than just a human being. When a highwayman concealed his face, he didn't just conceal his identity. He also signaled that he couldn't be expected to conform to normal behaviors and could do anything, including kill at the drop of a hat. Batman is a classic example of symbolism to evoke fear of the dark, imo. Criminals accustomed to thinking of the night and darkness as their protector from the law had to rethink that when Batman loomed out of the shadows. I agree that mutants just a metaphor for prejudice in most cases. There was a supplement called The Mutant Files that covered GENOCIDE and a mutant supremacist group whose name escapes me at the moment(IMAGE?). Anyway, it talked about a subset of mutants called the New Generation. They didn't have any obvious physical mutations other than being very physically attractive. Their package deal included extended lifespan, reduced need for sleep and stat bonuses. They were supposedly the result of the mutant genome stabilizing after the initial breakout and all of its variations. The implication was that they were the future of mutants on Earth (sorry, Beast, but you ain't it). It made me think of the Inhumans or some kind of proto-New Gods.

Re: Time Frame for Appearance of Superhumans In Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series, there were always people with "superpowers" but they were mostly only suited for low-power campaigns. The closest the series had to Invulnerability was a magic charm tattoed on Mike Fink's (see the Disney film Davey Crockett and the River Pirates) backside (his mom had it done when he was a child) that acted like damage resistance. Alvin Maker himself was like a low-level Dr. Manhattan with some transmutational powers that extended to body control (self and others) and even DNA changes. He did this to a runaway slave child so that the trackers couldn't find him anymore.

Re: What if there are no super-prisons? Ditto to all the above. I can't see any government being willing to allow a private prison with no government supervision or control, even for someone like Valak. For the U.S. at least, I don't think it would pass Constitutional muster. If the mirror cell tech was given or even just licensed to the feds and they ran it, then I don't see them having a problem with such a facility.

Re: Nighthawk's Rogue's Gallery

Re: Curious about your view on the current state of CO. (Anybody still play regularly I don't know about Teleios' Tower, but Destroyer Factory has been bugged since the Nighthawk update. You can't finish the final room because Destroyerbot's flying fist drones keep duplicating. Even if you teleport past them, they home in after about a minute and no character can stand up to that barrage for long.

Re: Announcement: The Monster Hunter International RPG! Baen is offering the first three novels as a bundle for $6.

Re: Announcement: The Monster Hunter International RPG! Baen has the first three bundled together for $6.00. I downloaded the ebook format for my ipod.

Re: Announcement: The Monster Hunter International RPG! So to be clear, is this going to be a Kickstarter book or is DOJ, Inc. I just want to know if I should stop looking for it at kickstarter.

Re: Announcement: The Monster Hunter International RPG!

http://miskatonicmuseum.blogspot.com/

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff? Write them and I'll buy them. To borrow an idea from Barry Trotter and the Unauthorized Parody, I move that we confine Steve to a secured room with a chair, a table, a laptop and a floor rigged to administer electric shocks if he falls below a certain number of words per minute. Any seconds?

Re: What "Pulp" have you read lately ? I'm reading The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu.

Re: Ultra-Tech Punishments?

Re: Realistic Monetary Systems in FH Oh, why do it the easy way? Do it like real people did. Imagine the most commonly purchased goods and services in your fictional society and set values in your fictional currency. By the time your campaign is ready, your players will have lots of time on their hands (being retired and all).

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter Someone just canceled a pledge.