psm

Re: Iron Age Philosophies

On Stan Lee:

A lot of the seeds of the Iron Age were laid by Stan Lee. The Hulk was the other title that really broke a lot of Silver Age genre conventions. The Hulk didn't fight crime. He was the result of a government experiment and tended to be unfairly hounded by the government. The Hulk wasn't even really a superhero, except more or less by accident. To my mind, the X-Men and the Hulk were the real seeds of the Iron Age.

 

Of course that doesn't mean that Stan was responsible. The Silver Age was descending into the Bronze Age and inevitably to the Iron Age under its own power. Stan was more indicative of the times rather than a driving force of it.

I think you should also include Jack Kirby too. He had a lot of ideas that helped to influence Marvel comics at that time too. You should also mention FF too when it comes to the Iron Age.

1. They wore 'uniforms' instead of costumes. Originally, they didn't even have uniforms.

2. They were more explorers than superheroes.

3. No secret identities.

4. The Thing although heroic was considered a monster. Plus, he was the poster child for angst ridden stories.

Re: need help with a character concept

Make Mordred a freedom fighter. Even a benevolant king is still a dictator. Camelot still had a feudal system and peasants. Plus, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Maybe Arthur was never the same after that whole Lancelot event. His most liberal ideas came before that debacle. Maybe the good in him died and there was nobody to stop him but Mordred.

Personally, I still like to think of Mordred as a spoiled brat though. By the way when is the campaign suppose to take place?

Re: Iron Age Philosophies

Thanks to everybody for their input. It's funny I never realized how many seeds for Iron Age stories were planted by the advent of Marvel.

Also seeing everyone's elses views helped me to really make me form my own personal views. I still think that alot of the themes that perpetuate Iron Age stories are not really indicitave of the genre but simply continued because another Iron Age story had them. I'm also amazed that more stories in the genre don't focus on legality and the legal system. I think more superheroes in the modern world would wear masks to hide themselves from lawyers instead of supervillians.

Re: Iron Age Philosophies

Unfortunately, this is a good example of a really bad explanation. The Wizard built his flying disc on pretty much a shoestring budget, and the cost factor doesn't really make any sense when applied to spacecraft. Why spend fifty million dollars per vehicle for a few dozen one-shot spaceraft when you can buy fully reusable spacecraft for seventy million each and get hundreds or thousands of flights out of each one? That's also neglecting the economies of scale likely to result if gravity control devices were actually put into large-scale production. After the initial tooling and R&D are paid for, electronics drop *very* quickly in price.

It makes about as much sense as the Wizard using his abilities for crime instead of making a few billion off his antigravity patents;)

I agree with your assessment that advances in technology are never brought to their logical conclusions. If they did it would make more comics less accessible by new readers. Also I think it would change the genre too much by adding more sci-fi elements than necessary.

Hello all,

I've been nominated to be the next GM for our gaming sessions. So I've decided to deveop the adventure along a more modern take. I have my own ideas of what makes up an 'Iron Age' story. I'm curious to hear what other feel are the essential elements for that type of sub-genre.

Re: Your house rules you do NOT want to see as system rules

You could also award the player less xp. If his character is in no danger of getting hurt then he should receive less than the other players.

By the way, I also liked the idea of having the mentalist supervillian sipping lattes in the same coffeshop.

Re: Ellis' Planetary HERO?

The biggest title from Wildstorm besides Planetary is the Authority. Personally, I think the comic has continually gone down hill ever since Millar left the series but a lot of people still enjoy it.

Personally, my favorite from Wildstorm is Sleepers. Its very different from Planetary so I don't know if you would enjoy it. Although still heavy on the conspiracy themes its has alot more moral ambiguity, and espionage to it.

Wildstorm also includes all the ABC titles by Alan Moore too. If you like Planetary I think you would definitely like Top Ten. Its been discontinued for awhile now but you shouldn't have too much trouble picking up the tpb.

Also other notable mentions include WILDCats volume 3, Promethea, Stormwatch. I've also heard Ex Machina is good but I've never read it.

Hope this helps.

Re: Shrinky Dink Heroes

Great idea. I'm assuming you are using the frosted shrinky dink paper to hold the pencil grain better. Have you ever tried using ink instead?

Re: Tank chargen: low-strength, high-soak

You may want to consider adding a movement power. You want to be able to get in front of the baddies before the rest of your team.

Crap, you beat me to it. I was going to suggest the same thing. Although my reasoning is slightly different. Without any offensive capabilities, most villians could easily ignore you or remove you from combat. With a good movement power they would have to deal with you. Plus it adds to the whole pest mentality that your character embodies. Someone who can't be hurt or ignored. Additionally, he could be very effective against villians who rely on long range attacks. But thats my two cents.

Re: The City/Hero Connection

I absolutely agree with Hermit that its easier to create representational characters of fictional cities. However, I still think using real world cities adds a lot more story opportunity. Especially, if you use multiple characters to represent different aspects of the same city. Plus, if you base characters on the regional nationalities of the cities you get a much wider array of characters and philosophies. Unfortunately, this can easily slide into the stereotype trap (also mentioned by Hermit) with the wrong players.

Still, I would love to see the Boston/New York rivalry on a cosmic scale;) Or watch Detroit's blue collar hero relate to Bay Area's techno hero.

Re: Good places to have battles...and stuff

Nope, but I set my game there. No one wants to play in Podunk.

 

"Look! The locals are tipping cattle! To the Batmobile!"

Where the hell is Podunk??

Anyway, a few other cool places in SF if you haven't used them yet would be:

SFMOMA

Fisherman's Wharf

Ghiradelli Chocolate Factory

Point Bonita Lighthouse

the section of the Bart that goes under the Bay

Presidio Bluffs

Re: Good places to have battles...and stuff

Alcatraz Island (when it still existed)

Transamerica Pyramid

An abandoned artillery site atop the Marin Headlands.

Up and down the Golden Gate Bridge

In a tidal tunnel beneath the city, and the tide is coming in . . . .

I'm guessing you live in San Fransicso;)

Re: Good places to have battles...and stuff

The Alberta Canada mall is a pretty cool idea. I might have to use that.

Other choices you could use are:

Roman catacombs

Undeground Atlanta

Petrobras Offshore oil rig

Monterey Aquarium

Roppongi Hills (a bit cliche)

Alaskan Cruise Line

Cern (especially the particle accelerator)

International Space Station

Florida Underwater caves (Devil's ear/eye)

Thats all I can think of off the top of my head.

Re: [4color] Why do you dislike the Iron Age style? (No flames, ok?)

Comics' date=' IMO, should generally have obvious heroes, someone who I can care about.[/quote']

 

Honestly, I'm not trying to start a flame war but why is it necessary for comics to have heroes? Or are you referring to the superhero genre when you are saying comics?

Re: [4color] Why do you dislike the Iron Age style? (No flames, ok?)

The Iron Age is just as escapist as any other genre.

I agree, but most use the term 'escapism' to refer to stories that don't involve uber violence, sex or swearing. It was in that sense I was referring to. Honestly, I can lose myself in a '100 Bullets' as well as in 'Astro City'.

Re: [4color] Why do you dislike the Iron Age style? (No flames, ok?)

Is it really refered to as the Iron Age?

Anyway, I prefer comics in the Iron Age style over Silver or Golden. See, I've been reading comics since the age of 4. Although, I didn't start collecting till I was older;) After collecting comics for so long I've become bored with the majority of characters, situations, themes in the Silver/Golden Age. Although, quite of few of those themes still permeate the Iron Age variety too. Still, alot of the Iron Age comics deal with new ideas and situations. To me that is more enjoyable than escapism.