Marketeer

Re: WWYCD: Omelas I don't think you can dismiss the Omelan thought-experiment simply because it creates an "artificial" Utopia. By my reading, the town of Omelas is *Utopian*--it's not just that people have their needs taken care of, they have ethics, peace, and not just pleasure, but joy. People aren't hungry; more to the point, people aren't angry, and they don't ever live in systematic fear. It's what every good parent wants for their children. Each individual is given an opportunity to end this for everyone; not just himself, or herself, or her family, but for everyone, forever. Giving succor to the child means that other children will die of cancer, of starvation, of rape, or even worse, that other children will grow into murderers and rapists. At least in Omelas, people feel genuine sorrow that the child suffers; if the society ended, countless more will suffer for no more reason than random chance--and in many cases, noone will feel bad for the victims. I'm not a utilitarian; I do think some prices are too high and some consequences too severe, but at the same time, I don't think this is anywhere near a cut-and-dry case; changing this scenario is likely to drastically increase the sum total of human suffering and I don't think the people choosing to perpetuate it have been demonstrated as evil.

Re: Character name help needed It sounds a little bit like she's trying, like most people, to reach the point where the world "makes sense"--the universe, her role in it, the nature of her soul, and so on. Epiphany

Re: C.U. alternate world, after "Independence Day" I'm going to take a literal extrapolation from the events of Independence Day, and use it to present an absurd, if somewhat amusing, universe. Ok, in one particular scene during the movie, a map of the entire world is displayed, with red dots signifying all the alien strikes. Most of the world is decimated, with major cities all over the globe vaporized. HOWEVER, the area North of the 49th parallel is completely untouched. For some reason, Canada is unscathed. By 2005, Canada is the major industrial power. With a plethora of natural resources, and an infrastructure-decimated US desperate for funds and finished goods, the trade balance between the two nations has completely flipped. Further, due to the long and largely unguarded land border between the US and Canada, there have been numerous cases of US citizens sneaking across the border--since most of the Canadian urban centres are close to the border anyways, many Americans have tried to move to Canada, seeking a better life. This has led to tightened border security, which is causing tensions between the US and Canada. Much of the rest of the world is also suspicious. Why has this one country been untouched? Where the Canadians conspiring in some way with the aliens? If Canada had some kind of defence, why didn't the country share it with the rest of the planet? PS, seriously, if you rewatch Independence Day, that map of the alien strikes honestly does completely ignore Canada. It's baffling--but in a Champions game, it makes for a good plot thread.

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss Blackberry would be of two minds on this. On the one hand, she is aware that she is attractive and sought-after by many. On the other, she is generally fairly conservative in her dress and mannerisms, so there's no basis from which to draw any assumption that she'd act in an overtly sexual manner. Since she does quite a bit of work with charities and in the area of public relations, she'd certainly have some concerns, but she'd realize that acting on such websites could make the situation worse. She'd probably mention to her friends/relatives that these things were bothering her, and trust to them to end it.

Re: Anyone combine Champs with Call of Cuthulu? ...so the Cthulhu Mythos came to earth looking for a good party?

Re: WWYCD: Don't Say You Didn't Warn You Blackberry would search her older counterpart's body. There's no way Blackberry could envision a future version of herself failing to write down the details of whatever is going on.

Re: WWYCD: Holes in the story Blackberry would be all sad for a moment. Then she'd order a dozen muffins.

Re: WWYCD: Life is but a Dream Blackberry: Would be deeply distressed. Many of her "powers" are second nature to her, and most of her family and friends wouldn't exist in this universe. She'd be at a bit of a loss, really--she'd normally turn to her relatives for help. She'd probably start by looking for analogues to people she knew. She's not prone to panic, but this sort of thing is almost exactly the right sort of thing to push all her "I'm uncomfortable with this" buttons.

Re: WWYCD: We're here for the reward money... Interesting side track though. If Blackberry was there while various camps of superheroes were starting to argue, and maybe even come to blows, she'd try to make sure innocents were safe. Then she'd pull out her camera and notebook, start taking pictures, and ask for quotes!

Re: Supervillains and the death penalty In my campaigns, the issue of "appropriate sentencing for supercrime" is an ongoing background issue, right up there with sentencing for non-violent big-money offences (IE, how many years is $100 million in embezzlement worth?). Characters and players fall into various camps, but use of dangerous superpowers usually ups the severity of any given sentence, on the grounds that it is analogous to the use of a lethal weapon or lethal force. Even when the death penalty isn't involved, it's a LOT easier for someone to sue privately if a supercriminal injured him or her (or property) in the course of a crime. As a result, in my worlds, there is a tendency towards less blatant supercrime, and more "I'm going to use my superpowers in unethical but not illegal ways" to make money.

Re: WWYCD: We're here for the reward money... Blackberry has serious reservations about the whole "end justifies the means" mentality, as well as the alarming tendency of shades-of-grey types to send the wrong message to the general public. She'd definitely write a piece, maybe several, for publication on the matter; as a minor celebrity known for being able to cleanly articulate her thoughts, her work gets published regularly.

Re: Old Villians Made New Actually, if I recall correctly, it was "Pagan", and the character's name was "Gremlin".

Re: Ideas for a Black Canary Homage Well, if you're going for a blatant homage, I'd use the name from Justice League's "Justice Guild": Black Siren (Mind Control through singing or voice would be the obvious power)

Re: Did anyone ever write-up the DC Impact comic characters? I'd suggest starting with the more straightforward characters, like the Shield or the Jaguar. Doing research for them might prompt your memory of other characters' profiles.

Re: Sky High The Movie It has Linda Carter playing a Principal at a Superhero High School, which seems oddly appropriate, does it not?

Re: WWYCD: Bride Of The Shadow Lord Blackberry is deeply suspicious of "dark magicians" of any kind. She'd start investigating, or even prying, almost immediately. She genuinely likes people, and she'd hate to see something bad happen to Amanda, the general populace, or for that matter, Terror'Khan, as a result of this situation.

Re: Characters of "Substance" Try a being composed of an abstract concept, like "Thought", or "Hope". Still brings to mind several possibilities for appropriate powers, while refreshing the "body of X" trope.

Re: Belief in magic by normals. I think the big question/issue in regards to belief in magic is "when in the timeline of the campaign universe was the first independently verifiable super power occur?" If "mutants" were confirmed to exist around the time of say, "when Camelot was supposed to exist", cynicism will be higher than say it is now. Conversely, if non-divine "magic" was confirmed to be usable around (and I'm intentionally shooting for "critical shift between game universe and real life") the time of Jesus, or the Buddha, or Moses, faith would be of a substantially different form. For my universes, I generally leave enough uncertainty in the universe that the "average joe" could rationally disbelieve in magic, simply by upping the number of "crazy psionicists with mental crutches" in the universe. If Jane Telekinesis only believes her powers work after a minute of devout prayer, and her power evolves to compensate, an outside observer simply cannot tell if the prayer is the cause, or not. Lowering the accuracy and precision of "mutant power scans" in the universe helps too, and helps allay some of the other questions raised in this forum, like the "why don't more people use power suppressors?" thread from awhile back.

Re: Superhero Football Nitpicky time: If you want Marvel's premiere martial artist, shouldn't you be asking for Shang-Chi?

Re: Superhero Football

Re: Superhero Football You don't even need to go that far. Have a superhero legitimately injure (IE, without malice) another, severely. It happens when real-life players hit each other, and they are all in roughly the same league when it comes to strength, speed, and toughness. If the speedster gets hit by a bad tackle, he or she could be hurt, maimed, or crippled. Now you've got a story, since the one hero has a very legitimate, lasting grudge against another.

Re: Clean Slate or What Would Your Villain Do? One of the big subthemes I would love to see explored is the second-iteration effects of having superhumans in the workforce. Taking my easiest example, Bulldozer: 1) So he sets up shop as a one-man wrecking crew. To make the example simple, we'll assume he's competent (or hires competent aides), so that demolitions where he's involved go off more or less without a hitch. 2) Ok, so he's essentially put a lot of construction and demolition people out of work. He's also hurting sales on heavy equipment. 3) Well, several of the other skilled professions (electricians, for example) have decided to weigh in on the issue. Suddenly building contractors get blacklisted for retaining Bulldozer's services. 4) Because of the PR nightmare ("you're putting good men and women out on the street!") as well as labor-dispute issues, many potential employers start declining Bulldozer's services. 5) Now, Bulldozer is finding he can't even make a decent living, let alone a cushy one, thanks to his powers. 6) NOW you start looking at being a supervillain... It doesn't add a lot to your typical fight scene, but I find fleshing out the gameworld like this makes it feel more alive, and easier for players to relate to and navigate within. It also leads to more villains who are at least somewhat sympathetic. In the example above, Bulldozer could probably have kept looking for alternatives, after all. But it's all so overwhelming, particularly when media types are reporting how he "lost his shirt" to labor pressures...

Re: Your character's theme song would be?

Re: Your character's theme song would be? Is that the one also used by Hulk Hogan as his theme music?

Re: Your character's theme song would be? Blackberry: "Mahna-Mahna" (alternatively referred to as "Phenomenon": From the Muppet Show