wylodmayer

Re: Crime and Punishment

Re: Crime and Punishment I kind of like Nebula, especially because I don't play her as insane. She sentences people who commit *real* crimes - like armed robbery, assault, murder, etc - to imprisonment in the Duress. She presents the PCs with some real serious issues, to wit: 1) She doesn't just sentence people at random; typically, she's punishing someone she apprhends in the act. There's no way for that person to say "I'm not guilty, really." 2) Jurisdiction? She *has* jurisdiction... as far as she's concerned. And, frankly, as far as the government she represents is concerned. Earth may not like it, but there are a whole lot of backwater areas of the United States where the inbreeders (note: I can say this, since my family comes from a place called "Possum Creek") don't particularly like the authority of the Federal Government either. Doesn't negate the authority of the feds. And if you feel like mentioning "no representation," that would be valid if her government were a representative one. But if it simply claims dominion through some other variety of legitimacy, well, as Mao said - "political power proceeds from the barrel of a gun." In such a case, Nebula would have exactly as much jurisdiction as she can enforce. Mind you, I am not arguing that she should be allowed to do her thing, but it bears pointing out that she can be played as far from insane and in very stark contrast to an actual villain. I plan on using her fairly soon in my game, and really heating up the conflict by haviing her straightaway get rid of a particularly troublesome bad guy that the police have had trouble hanging on to.

Re: Crime and Punishment The question of how to deter supervillains who kill really isn't much different from what to do with *any criminal* who commits murder, now is it? Villains - usually - are people, too, and just as there are inveterate murders who do not seem in the least deterred by the threat of the death sentence, so too are there criminals to whomt this threat seems to mean nothing. Then again, there are likewise criminals who are eager to avoid getting the death penalty, and behave accordingly. For some people, life in prison is worse than death; for others, hey, you're still alive, right? Since a fair amount of my undergrad work in philosophy was on social justice and philosophy of law, and we have a public defender in our gaming group, we have been able to work out some very interesting scenarios in our superhero games. One thing we noted quickly was that robbing banks means federal, not state, time, which is guided by stricter sentencing rules and has far less generous provisions for "good time." The smarter villains in our games, especially, say, members of GRAB, avoid robbing banks like the plague. As for draconian measures like hot sleep and so on, if you want a realistic discussion of an issue not-far-enough from the fictional version we talk about here, check out the Human Rights Watch's article on super-maximum security prisons - http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/supermax/. Short version - super max prisons keep the inmates under 24-7 lockdown: no contact, no leaving the cell, no nothing, except a short walk in chains to the bathroom once or twice a day. Makes for some chilling bedtime reading from the human rights angle, or some very intriguing reading from a superhero rpging angle. We assume, for instance, that Stronghold is a supermax with high tech gear, and that "skilled norms" are sent to "regular" supermaxes. Oh yeah, SleepyDrug, the "right of the people to be secure in their persons" is a Fourth Amendment right, not a Fifth Amendment right. Ciao.

Re: Tragic Mutations / Jokers? (Iron Agey) I used to be a "fan" of the Wild Cards series (that is, I could put up with the bad stories for the good ones and the overall concept until about book seven, when I gave up completely). We played a game of it once, and there were a few joker types: 1) Crystal Blue - a cop, named Crystal, who was blue all over. That's it, or so everyone thought. Her saliva had a chemical in it that made anyone who had ingested it (say, by kissing her) highly susceptible to any "suggestions" she might make, dependent on regular "treatments." Also, there was a drug in the setting, some blue thing that Quinn was responsible for, that turned the area it was applied to (usually the gums) blue. Well, she was using it constantly, since no one could tell, and was heavily on the take to Quinn's gang. 2) A guy who could eat hair gel. And that's ALL he could eat - everything else was poisonous to him. 3) One dude who floated constantly. He could be weighed down, so he usually wore these huge lead boot things to keep him on the ground. Every now and then, though, they would find a good reason to get him out of his shoes and let him float up somewhere, tethered down of course. He died when his tether got broken once.

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

Mind Scan, alone among the Mental Powers, includes reference to the cost of buying bonuses to ECV with Mind Scan in the actual description of the power. The summary text at the end of the power seems to indicate that such additional levels are included in the Active Cost of the power itself (as an aside, the interface for Hero Designer seems to confirm this opinion). Now, my question has several parts, based on this unusual inclusion: 1) Do CSLs normally applicable to Ego Combat apply also to Mind Scan? 2) Regardless of the answer to (1), can levels be purchased for use with Mind Scan under skills, rather than as a part of the Mind Scan power itself? 3) If the answer to (2) is "yes," why would anyone buy the bonus to ECV in the power itself, as this pushes the Active Point cap, and makes such "levels" subject to any Power Advantages on Mind Scan (thus increasing their cost)? 4) If the answer to (3) is "no," why does Mind Scan alone merit such unusual treatment?

Re: The 'Elminster' of Hero: Harbringer of Justice? In Re: Harbinger of Justice in original Dark Champions book 1) On the one hand, HoJ may be built on a lot of points, but he is built from a Dark Champions kind of perspective; he has only 8 PD & ED, 9 pts of Armor, 40 STUN and a 6 SPD. True, his combat values are truly terrifying, but most of his points go toward broadening his abilities, not deepening them. I always thought of HoJ as a Batman like character. Not the "Batman as God" type mentioned earlier - realize that our buddy the Harbinger would get squished in a fight with real supervillains. His mediocre (from a superhero-level p.o.v.) STUN and measly defenses would swiftly retire him to the sidellines in a fight against someone like Firewing or Dr. Destroyer, regardless of his point levels. On the other hand, HoJ is the kind of character who can successfully do all those things that it would normally take a whole team of characters to do; he has the range of skills, contacts, and gear necessary to investigate every aspect of an international criminal gang like Card Shark or the Master of Crime's organization. He's the James Bond of Dark Champions characters; no James can't bounce bullets or survive a nuclear explosion, but he can keep penetrating SPECTRE's plots and moping the floor with their best operatives until he gets right to the top and drops Blofeld down a smokestack. 2) On the other hand, including HoJ in the Dark Champions book without some better context for him was an odd choice. I recall spending many hours trying to figure out "wtf?" in regards to this character. Had it been more explicitly stated that he is sort of the goal that Dark Champions characters can hope to achieve someday - the lone crimefighter who can literally take on the an entire organized crime syndicate by himself - it would have made things better 3) In the final analysis, he, like the Dark Champions book itself, was Steve's baby, started from humble beginnings and *played* up to the disgusting levels with which we are all familiar. Steve did something very important for superhero gaming. The early nineties were the era of the anti-hero, the vigilante, but up to that point, no such character in any comic universe - however popular - had received any special or even adequate treatment in games that were slanted mechanically toward his more four-color counterparts. Around the same time as Dark Champions, Mayfair published a Batman-centric version of their DC Heroes game, but there was nothing different about the game except the packaging - no concession had been made to the idea that certain fundamental differences needed to be appreciated to properly "game" the vigilante-type hero. Dark Champions changed all that, and so successfully that the term became a generially used one, regardless of game system. Steve's book tapped into the new face (at that time) of superhero comics, and gave us the tools to go into those worlds. That's pretty impressive, considering that this industry really doesn't change that much. Sure, new systems spring up all the time, but their technical innovation, when they are worth anything at all, rarely accomplish anything more than providing another way to simulate the same basic genre conventions. Dark Champions ranks, in terms of innovation, with the other creation of the early nineties that tapped into the zeitgeist, the feeling of "anti-hero" - Vampire. Both took gaming to places it had never (successfully) been before, and opened up new dimensions for roleplaying. If there is greater level of maturity, a more nuanced approach, to games now, I attribute it directly to these two releases, which entered the main bastions of moral clarity (heroes vs villains and people vs monsters) and turned everything upside down. If Dark Champions (4th) seems too "light" now, then that is in part proof of the impact it had. For the man who brought us this... I can forgive a little self-indulgence in publishing the character who, for him, started it all. 4) All that having been said, I have never allowed the HoJ in any of my games as an NPC. I might, in a superhero game, but I haven't yet. wylodmayer

Re: National Warrior Archetypes

Re: Have you ever ... ? Brute Force Psych Lim Enforcement I've never really had to go around on this issue too much. Players who need "brute force" psych lim enforcement just aren't invited back to my games. That being said, my current players and I often discuss how a particular psych lim might need to be played, or applied in a given situation. Overconfidence isn't seen too often in our games, since it can be a very dangerous limitation. On the other hand, how it comes up is relative to the character. One skilled normal in our game had it, and used Dodges and Blocks all the time; this was acceptable to me, since even being in a fight with some of his foes constituted Overconfidence in my opinion. I don't think an Overconfidence character will necessarily use bad tactics, but might make bad overall judgments. For instance, the pc may fight very shrewdly... but having entered a fight against, say, Gravitar, without back up, he's still pretty screwed.

Re: National Warrior Archetypes Hermit's analysis WAS excellent, especially his keying in on the American idea of the man who "never gives up." Very incisive. In reference to a post from WAY back, "warrior" is not a Native American word. It comes from the OF. As for the American warrior, I'd say the grunt, the dogface, the marine. Definitely. Cowboy... maybe. The Indian Brave... sorry, no. America the nation has never identified itself with the Native Americans, even if they occupied the landmass first. They have always been an "other" to Americans, not "one of us." Regardless of how esteemed or admired their culture may be, a Native American hero would not be seen as representative of America... and rightly so. Native Americans make up something like less than 1% of the population and largely live on land that is still - very technically - not American as such. Besides, think about it from the reverse angle; what sort of statement does it make about our history with the Native Americans if the US co-opted one of their cultural icons as its own "hero" figure? I doubt if many Native American themed heroes would want to stand up and say they represented US values and preroggatives. Just my two cents.

Re: Unusual Character Ideas I forgot one. I can't remember the name of the character - something generic, like Ultra Gal or whatnot - but the backstory is that there's a female radio personality, the late night disc jockey on a jazz station, and she's a minor local celebrity. Anyway, there's this nerdy genius guy who is totally in love with her, and keep sending her mysterious presents and so forth, until finally they meet, and she really likes him, even if he is shy and not very attractive. So on their first date, a drunk driver runs into them, mortally injuring her. He's distraught; he takes her back to his lab, knowing that the hospitals can't save her, and transfers her consciousness into an android body. He feels terrible about it, mainly because she doesn't know she's an android. He just can't come to grips with the fact that the woman he loved from afar is "gone" (he thinks of the android's persona as a "shadow" of the real thing - even he is unaware of how great a fidelity he was able to achieve in the mental transfer). He also feels guilty because he couldn't quite restrain himself from programming the android to be in love with him. As "pennance," he's outfitted her with various superpowers, and programmed her to be a superhero. She thinks she's always been a superhero - he edited her memories to reflect this - who pretapes her nighttime show and goes patrolling while its on. So not only does she not know she's an android, but she keeps trying to hide her "secret identity" from her boyfriend, who is the only reason she is a superhero in the first place. Other odd characters include Eightball, a super scientist who permanently shrunk herself to five inches tall (this makes most other people notoriously nervous about using her gadgets); Captain Conifer, a botanist who has various tree powers and smells vaguely of pine all the time; Color Girl, who can fly and change the colors of things - that's it (this was in a different system, where "power stunts" were possible - amazing the stuff that this character pulled off with such a basic power); Braindrain, who has lots of mental powers - he can only access active points on each equal to the active points on his EGO, however - of course, he also has an Always On AE Radius EGO Transfer. Anywho, off to bed.

Re: Unusual Character Ideas We've had some doozies in my games. We've done - lessee - about four superhero campaigns in the past four years, and some of the highlights, from the weird character angle, were: Strikeforce: name stolen from character from "Neutral Ground." He was five identical guys, clones, meant to be part of a clone army, that developed free will and a mental link with each other. Basically just five trained normals with Mind Link. It was interesting. Dot Matrix: actually just a computer. the "character" that the players met was a Summoned holographic avatar, generated with force fields and other such Star Trekkie nonsense. The REAL character was no where near, using a psychic bond and clairsentience to "puppeteer" the Summoned avatar. Complex, but worked. (cant remember): from a game not mine, one guy insisted on making a character who was a kid who was a bit of a superhero fan, who could summon "interdimensional ninjas" to fight for him. It was a terribly dumb character, no thought to rhyme or reason, just latched onto a "cool sounding" idea and ran with it. However, the GM came up with this really neat way to work it out. He introduced an NPC who looked suspiciously like the interdimensional ninjas, who showed up here and there around the campaign. Turns out he was the kid, all grown up and very technically skilled, who remembered that he nearly got killed hanging out with superheroes when he was young, and built all these ninja robots tuned to his brainwaves, that could teleport in and rescue him when things got tight - basically ensuring his own past so that he could grow up safely. Good GM work - turned a one note character that was basically a joke into something pretty cool. Orgasm Girl: I will only say this - a BOECV Entangle that only worked on people capable of orgams. Talk about weird. Funny how effective it turned out to be. Chimera: not such a weird idea, but the implementation was odd. Guy pulled a VPP for Multiforms, so he had an effectively unlimited number of potential forms, though only a limited number available at any given time, without changing the VPP. Worked real well, but he quit playing the character after he realized that he had, by session three, about sixteen character sheet to keep up with. Liberty: a government supersoldier type who had a host of followers representing her trainers and support crew. They had various Aids to her abilities that required lots of extra time and Immobile OIFs (gymnasium), not to mention various combat drugs and clairsentience to monitor her during battle... boils down to her being able to hang with superhumans if, and only if, she got in all of her workouts each day (the Aids) and got herself pumped with combat drugs first. Pretty weird.

Re: Dark Champions Character Pack now in Online Store Thank you, Steve, for you comments on the matter. Whatever my opinion of the Dark Champions HD Character Pack in particular, I believe that your willingness to pay personal attention to the comments of the consumers has made Hero Games's products in general the best in the business. And I would like to apologize again if I insulted anyone. I certainly did not mean to, although upon review of my earlier posts, I admit that I came on a bit strong. Steve, you haven't changed my mind about the pack, though I respect the fact that you - with a far better perspective for viewing the subject than I - feel that my opinion is in the minority. However, I just wanted to say that I just can't wrap my head around the idea that the addition of the guns would jack the price of the character pack up to greater than the cost of the book, and make it "more desirable." To be perfectly clear, the main reason I want the guns in the HD pack is *convenience*. I just don't like entering in those stats; I'd much rather be able to point and click a gun into a character's inventory. As for the Dark Champions book, I bought it first and foremost for the genre and meta-game information; chapters one, three, four, seven, and eight. I buy the HD packs for the crunchy stuff, and the books for the *real* information; the game advice, genre conventions, and nifty insighst from people (or a person, in this case) who knows the genre intimately. I suppose we just see these things from different perspectives entirely; the HD pack could have every gun, knife, and super skill in the DC book in it, and cost only 1.99, and I'd still buy the book. There's a lot more of value (much greater value, in fact) to me in the book than the "crunchy" bits. I only buy the character packs for creation convenience. Peace.

Re: Dark Champions Character Pack now in Online Store First of all, if I offended anyone, I apologize. However, let me be clear that I still do not see the point in releasing a Dark Champions HD pack without the guns. Even if it cost much more to buy with the guns, I would have rather paid more - and waited longer - to get it with the stuff I need. Once again, I have to come back to the point that the guns are important to the genre. If they weren't, Steve et al would not have spent so much space on them in the book. And they are also complex; just the sort of thing we need HD packs for. I'm not trying to diss the other stuff in the Dark Champions pack; however, there is simply no way around the fact that leaving the guns out means the omission of a major chunk of the game data included in the Dark Champions book. This is unprecedented in previous HD pack releases, and I definitely don't want to see it become a trend. As for doing it myself, I would have thought it would be obvious that the whole reason that I am upset that the guns weren't included was that I don't *want* to type in the data myself... I'm perfectly *capable* of it, I'm just more than willing to pay for the convenience of not doing so. I mean, that's really the whole philosophy behind the HD packs anyway, isn't it? The classic money-for-time trade-off. I have the former, I have less of the latter; ergo, it makes sense, for me at any rate, to be willing to trade from one to the other. I don't want anyone to come to the mistaken belief that I don't like Steve or Hero or the Hero Designer guys. But neither do I want anyone to come to the mistaken belief that I have no problem with the Dark Champions pack for HD. It's not rude; it's business. I think the product is deficient, and I won't buy it. I will encourage other people not to buy it. That's the way business works. It's the only way that people outside the company's structure have of influencing internal corporate decisions. Businesses listen with their balance sheets. Nothing personal.

Re: Dark Champions Character Pack now in Online Store But, and this is the important bit, GUNS ARE IMPORTANT TO DARK CHAMPIONS. I defy anyone to explain to me how they aren't important to creating Dark Champions characters; even if not all Dark Champions characters wield guns, it's pretty durned hard to get through even a small party of DC characters without running into at least ONE who does use a gun. And if we take the more recent stance that Dark Champions encompasses such things as crime dramas, spy games, etc, then the ratio of gun wielders to non-gun wielders jumps even higher. I agree with cndblank - it would be like having Fantasy Hero without magic. It's just freakin' ridiculous. In fact, I would stipulate that the widespread use of guns by the protagonists is one of the major "cosmetic" distinguishing features that marks Dark Champions from other genres. Besides, if the guns aren't important, then explain to me why so much space and text in the Dark Champions book were devoted to rules concerning them? Of all the things in the DC book, it is the guns that required the most space for explanation and rules constructions; it is the guns that have the most intricate power builds... which means that it would be the guns that would be most useful to have in Hero Designer!! Whoever made the f**king genius decision to leave the guns out of the Dark Champions pack for Hero Designer would have probably come up with the idea to publish Playboy without any pictures of women. J***s C****t. I am used to a high standard of content from Hero. This is a bizarre and frankly inexcusable oversight. I am not only not going to buy the Dark Champions character pack until it includes the guns, but I will discourage others from doing so as well; I will also boycott any further Hero Designer pack purchases and discourage my friends likewise.

Here's an idea I came up with for a type of Regeneration that robots and other technological characters might have. With some changes it could be applied to other character types as well (for instance, fairies might be resurrected by applause...). Regeneration 1 BODY, Can Heal Limbs, Resurrection, Inherent (+1/4), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Persistent (+1/2) (79 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Day, Character May Take No Other Actions, -4 1/4), No Conscious Control (Power only activates when an outside party who meets the necessary requirements chooses to activate it; -2), OIF Immobile (Robotics Laboratory; -1 1/2), Self Only (-1/2), Crew-Served (2 people; Requires technicians; -1/4), Requires A SS: Robotics Roll (-1/2) The whole thing works out to a very small expenditure, despite the high active points, so it wouldn't be a burden, by any stretch of the imagination. Depending on the GM's perrogative, one might add in Cannot Heal Certain Types of Damage, limiting the healing to things that the technologists might reasonably be able to address. The Persisitent is necessary to allow the power to be activated without the character being conscious (or even alive!), and the Inherent is necessary because the power is not really a power so much as a property of the character's nature. The Extra Time could easily be reduced to 6 hours or even 1 hour without a significant increase in Real Cost. Likewise, the Crew Served could be eliminated without too much expenditure.

Re: Him, AGAIN? Assistance with Recurring Villain Consider the following when trying for a recurring villain: 1) Players can get frustrated if you keep "letting" a villain get away. 2) Any villain can be powerful/resourceful enough to get away consistently... if he's enough more-powerful than the party. Players also tend to get annoyed at fighting villains who clearly out power them with little chance of matching the bad guy's level. 3) Conversely, any villain who is a "fair" match for a group of heroes is likely to eventually get nabbed, through luck or diligence. So ask yourself some questions. How many times does the villain need to recur? When you say "recur," what do you mean? Does it really need to be the "same" villain, or just a continuation of the theme? How much does your game involve realistic considerations like evidence and due process? And, most importantly, what are your players like? In my game, I used the villain from the Champions book called Tachyon, with some minor alterations. From a villain built on a mere 350 points pitted against a party of 450 point characters, I have so far managed to squeeze out five separate encounters... and that's just so far. Here's how: The villain first appeared when one of the PCs met him solo, while on patrol. The patrolling character was a brick with a moderately low OCV. With Tachyon's extra DCV levels dependant on his Teleportation, he easily avoided the brick's first blow, and then escaped. He could have easily stuck around for a few phases, using his t-portation to stay out of our brick's way and tossed some stuff at him, but that was a sufficient first appearance. Besides, he had what he had come for. The characters took note of the incident, and did some research without turning anything up (he was a new villain), and eventually put the incident on the back burner (the clue - what he was stealing when encountered - was inconclusive, as it was meant to be at that point). The characters ran into him again later, when one of the characters who happened to be an angel was using her Detect Sin powers to look for crime. This time, he stuck around for a few phases, using his powers to avoid their physical attacks. Here's where knowing my players came in strong. The first few attacks he dodged easily using teleportation DCV levels, and I played up the description of how casually he avoided their blows. This was important, because the angel had a high OCV and a devastating physical attack that could have easily stunned him right out of the gate. But by the time she came to attack, the player had decided to use an emotion control attack. Well, the attack worked wondrously - but, since it was an emotion control attack, the results cannot always be predicted. Tachyon's response to the emotional surge was to bug out. This didn't turn out to be that bad, as he then did something - again, under the influence of the angel's emotion control - that tipped his hand and, in the end, led to the player's discovering who he was, but at the time, it looked like he had escaped again. (as a side note, Tachyon was able to stand against the whole team also because the situation was arranged so that not everyone arrived at the same time, and because his first few attacks removed characters with less movement powers from the fight altogether by teleporting them away - why settle for a little damage when you can get your enemies away from you? situation control and battlefield management contribute more than raw power to a villain's ability to fight on) After this, the characters were more interested in Tachyon, and went looking for him. Although they came across evidence inadvertently created by Tachyon under the influence of the angel's emotion control, as they pursued the trail, he lay low. Finally, he dropped a commuter plan on the office of the brick (who had a public id). It didn't hurt the brick, but it killed several of his employees. This was a "appearance" where the villain didn't even show up on paper at all, yet it was decisive in how the players felt about him. Note that a villain doesn't even have to confront the characters to "recur," for all intents and purposes. Next, while the PCs were pursuing Tachyon, he killed another superhero (an NPC) who had been following up some of the same evidence independently. Again, this was another potent "recurrence" that did not even necessitate the villain confronting the PCs. They were finally able to track him down and confront him. However, by this point, they had come to the conclusion that he was capable of making long distance t-ports, and were concerned that they might not be able to Stun him with a single blow - and that, if they couldn't, that he might escape again. So, in this encounter, the fastest character, and the one who knew for certain that he could act before Tachyon, chose not to attack with his action; rather, he planted a tracking device on the villain faster than could be seen. By carefully planting the idea in the players' heads that Tachyon might escape if a bad roll was made, I was able to convince them to allow him to escape, albeit temporarily. In order to have recurring villains, you need a way to force the players to by your willing accomplices in the plan. Naturally, Tachyon teleported in his very next action. Of course, the PCs quickly located him and, this time armed with a way to disrupt his powers, beat him. Now Tachyon is held in a cell surrounded by force walls that Cannot Be Escaped with Teleportation, in part designed by the PC who helped jam his powers in the first place. Of course, with time and practice, Tachyon will develop a Costs END Penetrating on his Teleportation, and get away. I expect I can work in at least one or two more "recurrences" before he is nabbed again. Realistically, I can't play *that* trick more than once; first of all, it would get annoying to the players, detracting from their enjoyment of the game. Second, it just wouldn't fly; the PCs are resourceful and intelligent enough not to get burned twice on these things. So, in order to get even more appearances out of Tachyon, I later plan on bringing in an alien invasion that either comes from an alternate dimension or uses technology like hyperspace drives that utilize alternate dimensions. Either way, in such a global crisis, Tachyon will be able to buy a full pardon for his powers and expertise in helped defeat these aliens; this will fly because his abilities are so uniquely suited (especially if the villain is the Empress of a Thousand Dimensions, and more especially if she is working with Tesseract). So, once again, after that, I can work a couple of more appearances out of him before he goes back to jail. In the end, I can get a dozen recurring appearances of a single villain, built on a hundred points less than the characters, over the course of an extended campaign. Most of this accomplished not because the villain is super powerful, or even possessed of really odd powers, but through careful management of the situations, the players, and the story. And that doesn't even take into account other ways of generating an "extended presence" for the villain, such as: having some other villain who gets out of prison use different powers (like invisibility or mental illusions) to cop Tachyon's name and commit crimes that will get blamed on him, having a scientist at the prison use Tachyon's DNA in a well-meaning but ultimately misguided attempt to create another superhuman with similar powers (who will, naturally become a villain), or even having an alien mimic Tachyon's powers and costume in an effort to get the PCs attention. Crap, you could practically build a whole campaign around this one villain. It would be weird, but you could.

Re: What Gold/Silver/Iron Age story or series do you love? Golden Age: Marvel family, like so many others on this thread. I really think that's where some of the best writing was to be found. Also, the Black Terror. I never really enjoyed much other GA stuff, although I have stolen characters liberally from the Golden Age, since so few players know them. Silver Age: Definitely Green Lantern, Spider Man, Legion of Super Heroes. Bronze Age: Cliched or not, Uncanny X Men was pretty fresh back then. Jim Shooter's run on Avengers - dude, he made Hank Pym a wife beater and freakin' kicked him out of the Avengers! Shooter's work on the Avengers influences my gaming style and appreciation for comics to this day. Early Defenders, back when it was still Doc Strange, Silver Surfer, Namor, Hulk, Nighthawk, etc. In case you didn't notice, I really didn't care for DC in this period. I also quit reading Marvel titles when Jim Shooter left as Editor In Chief (may Tom DeFalco rot in Hell). His insistence on continuity and believability, as well as character development, was directly responsible for the greatest period in Marvel history (although he deeply, deeply disappointed me with the resurrection of Jean Grey in X Factor - shame, Jim, shame). I acknowledge nothing that happened afterward. Zot! was and is one of the greatest comics ever; I also steal villains from that title, as well, because I *know* my players haven't read it (sigh). Iron Age: Ultimates, Alias, Ultimate FF, Fables, Tom Strong (honestly, I am so tempted to put him in Silver Age just on principle). Ultimate FF is honestly as good as Ultimates - anyone who's missing his or her fix, grab some of that stuff to tide you over. Likewise for Ultimate Nightmare. Ultimate War, Ultimate Six, and any other Ultimate Title except maybe Ultimate Spider Man, well, not so much.

Re: Psychological Limitations and You An excellent post, Worldmaker. Thoughtful and well stated. As a side note, not specifically limited to the issue of Psych Lims, zornhill's comment about "developing into" many Psych Lims not on the character sheet reminded me of our group's "three session" rule. In deference to the fact that, sometimes, one finds that a character in play develops "a life of his own" and suggests changes never anticipated, we allow for wholesale changes - with GM approval - up to the moment where the fourth session begins. This usually involves only minor tweaks in the design of certain powers or a few attributes, as the players settle into the particular use of the new character. On at least a few occassions, however, players have realized that the personality they envisioned for the character won't work or is not quite on spot or is just not nearly as interesting as something that only revealed itself after a session or two of actual play and interaction with others. In these cases, entire Psych and Social Lims have been rewritten to help realize the player's new vision and - I think - this has led to some vastly improved characters. On a related note, has anyone noticed that there are some players who prefer to get many if not most of their disad points from Psych Lims, while others seem to have an almost pathological aversion to them?

What a worthless bunch of... "Does not include guns or guns accessories"???? What the f*** am I paying 7.99 for? No thanks. That's like offering the Conquerers, Killers and Crooks pack with a disclaimer that says "does not include any actual characters."

Re: Design Challenge: Robot PC Note that I didn't bother fiddling with ECs or whatnot, which may be permissible in your campaign and increase efficiency of design.

Re: Design Challenge: Robot PC Just for the hell of it, here's my rough version. Posted in Hero Designer format as well as rtf.

Correction TWO, not one, of the quoters are FODs. I momentarily forgot about one of them... although the mind is beggared at the thought of how that could have happened.

About eight years ago, a roommate of mine uttered the phrase, "It's a worm, but it explodes." And I just had to write that down. Now, the statement made some sort of sense at the time, in context. But it was so obvious that there was no way on earth to communicate the context, that I knew the bizarreness of it all had to be preserved for all time on what would later become the Quote Wall (papers tacked to the wall). Virtually all of these statements are drawn from our gaming table, and they all conform to certain standards, such as being genuine statements that were uttered in context and for a purpose (as opposed to merely being quips offered in order to get on the wall). A few are not gaming related, though I defy you figure out which ones. Many are very adult oriented, and quite a few seem obsessed with alternative lifestyles, in spite of the fact that only one quoter listed is, in fact, a Friend of Dorothy. Again, I defy you to figure out which one. Duly warned, then, let me post the link. (ADULT CONTENT WARNING) http://quotes.infinities-within.net/quotes.jsp

Re: What to do about missing evidence? I'm not sure I agree with Vanguard's assertation that Dragon is screwed, although the rest of his advice sounds good to me. I disagree with that initial point simply because in any singular, given situation, almost anything can happen. In News of the Weird, I once read a story about a judge who used to fine defendants in front of him in strange ways, such as in foreign currency, beads, or cans of tuna. Now, this guy got forced into retirement not long after, but the point is, you never know. The crucial point is the player's perception of the situation. Dragon sent the eggs into a pocket dimension because he felt that they were dangerous. Well, heck, it's not like the things are ready to hatch next week... or, if they are, it's not like there isn't a way to prevent that - certainly someone can cook up a stasis field or something. The point is, Dragon has to be convinced that bringing the eggs back (a) is not dangerous or at least not immediately dangerous and that ( bringing the eggs back serves some useful purpose. Now, the authorities having already asked politely, and Dragon having refused, we can conclude that he won't be convinced by a simple request. Obviously the authorities already know what it was he sent away, and if he gave any kind of statement at all, they clearly know why he sent it away. Now, if these heroes are at all known as heroes, or if the authorities just want to avoid antagonizing people who can help them stop the odd alien invasion, they can always try honey rather than vinegar. Have someone he trusts or can be made to trust explain to him the benefits of cooperation. I mean, where did the eggs come from? Surely it's worth bringing them back long enough to examine them for evidence of how VIPER got them and what *kind* of dragon eggs they are. Besides, it would be a favor for some powerful people with influence, which never hurts. Also, this same person - perhaps a third-party superhero who is made aware of the situation - might emphasize the downside of not cooperating. If this Dragon guy has *any* Psych Lims that make him a hero, pointing out that failing to find some compromise might turn him and anyone who helps him into a fugitive (thus greatly reducing their effectiveness as superheroes) should work. Of course, the key thing to keep in mind is what sort of message you want to send about your world. In a very four-color game, superheroes are sort of the be-all/end-all of justice. Superman doesn't (usually) arrest someone only to worry about chains of evidence and so on. On the other hand, in some games, that is precisely a concern. The question is whether you want to have a game where the superheroes are positioned as "larger" than the non-hero authorities. Because the players in a game world do not actually inhabit their characters, and therefore do not live in the world full time, they cannot be assumed to have the same intuitive awareness of the functioning of the world in the way we are aware of ours. It would be impossible to explicate every detail of the "feel" of the world, so certain key moments must be made to suggest the feel. In situations like this one, if Dragon's failure to cooperate with the authorities causes great problems in his life as a hero, then the implicit message is that heroes are not, in fact, above and beyond the human world, but rather entangled and responsible to it as much as any person. This may not be appropriate in some games. Think carefully about what sort of feel you are trying for, and how any given response by the NPCs will reinforce or detract from it. By developing a consistent feeling, the players will become comfortable enough to respond instinctively to situations, as we might automatically make assumptions about how things work here in the real world. Hope that helped.