transmetahuman

Re: Vampires in Supers Setting Meh. Every vampire shapeshift I've ever seen (in movies and comics - don't be a wiseguy) includes his clothes - it's hard to be a suave, menacing creature of the night when your junk is all hangin out. Why couldn't an implant go where the clothes go? And as for mutant genes, well, a vampire's eye color is determined by his genes and retained post-mortem... Though yeah, case-by-case would be the way to go with this. But yeah, Dog Soldier, I can totally understand wanting to avoid that whole "stack up ever more templates so my character is the Kewlest Ultimate Power" thing; it's one reason I argued on the Random Powers thread in favor of consistent themes. If I ever put a Ninja Cyborg Mageborn Mutant Psionic Adamantium-laced Half-Dragon Vampire in a game, everyone else is invited to me...

Re: Worst comic book superfight ever I didn't read the books this happened in, but I was under the impression that Superboy Prime was the kid from the old one-off comic whose parents named him Clark as a joke, because Superman comics existed in that (supposedly our) world. I didn't get the impression (from my hazy memory of the original story) that he was raised anything like "our" Clark - for one thing, his parents never knew about his powers.

Re: Vampires in Supers Setting

Re: red ribbon of fate power build? Wouldn't Megascale mean that she wouldn't be able to use it nearby? Edit: Oh, I see, you had it as a naked modifier. I wouldn't let Megascale be used like that; the inability to use the ability up close is the only justification for the huge range discrepancies in the first place.

Re: Vampires in Supers Setting

Re: Secret IDs: In or Out? Oh, come on. If I got even a silly super-power, and never even considered crime-fighting, nor anything remotely illegal, I'd still want a secret ID. Heck, if I ever won the lottery, I'd want a secret ID. Some of us don't *want* celebrity, especially when circumstances thrust it upon us. Not that I'd go for spandex-and-mask, of course.

Re: Power Build Suggestions: "Spectral Gun" MP Is that really Gestures? If his arm is restrained, he can still shoot just as well as someone with a vanilla EB (that's defined as coming from the hand), right? And without OAF or OIF on the EBs, I'm assuming he can just conjure the "gun" to his hand when needed. If he needs to use a particular gun, and can't just conjure it to his hand, he should get a focus limitation instead of Gestures.

Re: Least Abused Powers That seems oddly appropriate.

Re: Seeimgly Strange Characters to Model And vice-versa. If that many aliens will make out with a guy like him, just because he introduces them to kissing for the first time, I am so pulling for more funding for NASA.

Re: Caution : Superhero at Work Whoever's playing that kid missed a chance to pull out one of those really cheesy code-names that we come up with and then reconsider as too silly. A three/eight-year old weaned on TV could be a great justification for "Captain Cosmic Man" (or whatever) to be used with a straight face. At least on the character's part... Sounds like a fun (N?)PC though. Depending on what comic-age the game is, I could totally see NASA, or someone at NASA, trying to take on an in loco parentis type role, legally or de facto, and trying to raise/train/indoctrinate the kid.

Re: Jokes A blind man enters a lesbian bar by mistake. He finds his way to a bar stool and orders a drink. After sitting there for a while, he yells to the bartender in a loud voice, "Hey bartender, you wanna hear a dumb blonde joke?" The bar immediately falls deathly quiet. In a deep, husky voice, the woman next to him says, "Before you tell that joke, sir, I think it is just fair, given that you are blind, that you should know five things: One: The bartender is a blonde woman. Two: The bouncer is a blonde woman. Three: The woman sitting next to me is blonde and is a professional boxer. Four: The lady to your right is a blonde and is a professional wrestler. Five: I'm a 6-foot, 200 pound blonde woman with a Ph.D., a black belt in karate, and a very bad attitude! Now, think about it seriously, mister. Do you still want to tell that joke?" The blind man thinks for a second, shakes his head and says: "Nah... not if I'm gonna have to explain it five times."

Re: Random powers? His action figures could become the boy's version of the Barbie doll. Ninja Wolverine! Pirate Wolverine! Stunt Driver Wolverine! Nazi Ass-Kicking Wolverine! And you just know the phrase that Talks To Me Wolverine says when you pull his string...

Re: Random powers? Sheesh. Next we'll learn that he used to be a cowboy/test pilot/astronaut/pirate.

Re: Seeimgly Strange Characters to Model My hero! Rot in hell, telemarketers of the world. Now if only he had a radiation accident to let him do the same thing to spammers.

Re: Wierdest powers... Not to be a spoilsport, but wouldn't that be either a "Vulvo" or a "Volva"? And, am I sick because I wondered whether, afterwards, the woman would be like a Barbie doll, or more like, uhm, a building's plumbing in cross section after a super-fight destroys part of an apartment building? And just what sitting on the car's seat would feel like. So much they didn't explain on the Electric Company (or was it Sesame Street?)...

Re: Random powers?

Re: Random powers? Wolverine's regeneration-that-also-grants-hyperkeen-senses bothers me more than the skeleton. And don't forget: Superman - x-ray vision? heat vision? Thor - extradimensional travel? Wonder Woman - why not give her some mythological items of power instead of some random lasso that compels truth? Though I guess "bondage" was a central theme for her. And how the heck does a reclusive Amazonian society develop an invisible aerospace industry? All the bizarre stuff the Flash can do by "vibrating". Would any GM let a player justify desolid because he's a speedster, if the Flash hadn't been around? And of course the ultimate grab-bag, the Martian Manhunter... Seems like almost all the really big iconic supers from the early years of comics had some pretty "random" powers.

Re: Random powers? Well, it did sound like it came from a random table, without any context to judge otherwise. I didn't even say that I disapproved - though, yeah, the context probably implied it. My preference is for thematically solid characters, and I might not have let Spider-Man into a game if some player had invented him first (though I'm totally fine with Trophy Checklist Man, go figure). Some of it is a suspension-of-disbelief issue (yes, in a game where people can turn into animate sandpiles). I also find the limits and boundaries of powers to be one of the most interesting aspects of them. And maybe I'll think more about letting a scattershot character into a game next time (not that it's ever come up before; IME most people like strong themes too), because you made me think about this issue and why I have the preferences I do, and we might lose out on a cool character because of my knee-jerk reaction.

Re: Random powers?

Re: Random powers? Spider-Man: spider-like strength and clinging - of course. Mechanical web-shooters - okay, that fits. Spider-trackers - uh, well, okay, he has a dual theme already: spider stuff and boy genius... plus the plots really need it. Danger sense??? Uhm, uhhh... [well, i really really pictured him bouncing around like a jumping jack in combat, he doesn't really have any kind of invulnerability, he needs the edge to survive] ...Okay, triple theme: spider stuff, boy genius stuff, and jumping jack in combat stuff. POWERED ARMOR?????????? Well, I love Spider-Man. I could only pray that someone in a game I run comes up with a character that works so well. So, I'm not going to be inflexible about this stuff... but too much of it, and it just feels... yeah, cheesy.

Re: Wierdest powers... Sounds like Morrison rolled him up on a random powers table.

Re: Wierdest powers... Danny the Street, a sentient transvestite street, and The Quiz, who "had every power you hadn't thought of", are two favorites from The Doom Patrol.

Re: A multipower question for you all. I can see where you're coming from - Fire-Absorbo-Woman could just stand there and do the exact same thing you want to do, for the exact same points; why should you have to pay extra for what's basically a special effect of the Suppress? If you were willing to say that flying around in circles left you just as vulnerable to attack as someone who was standing still, an attacker only needs to reach the nearest point of the circle to affect you (because you're zipping around so fast), ranges average out to the center of the circle, etc etc, I might let you get away with it. Actually, one thing you are getting that Fire-Absorbo-Woman isn't: you're off the ground, which can be important. I'd probably make you use at least 1" of Flight with that AoE Supress - you're moving faster than 1", but it "averages to a hover". If you're using a VPP, you'll almost certainly be able to fit the Flight in with the Suppress, since something's going to have *some* limitation to bring the real points below the pool cost. Or make the Supress a teeny bit weaker to fit it in. In a multipower, just make the ultra slot AoE Suppress + 1" Flight, you don't need multi slots.

Re: Comic Books VS. Graphic Novels/Collections I'm another TPB-through-libraries reader. Stopped buying comics years ago, but you'd be amazed how many graphic novels & collections you can get through interlibrary loan these days. I was also pretty suprised at the mature content in some of what's available, since I assumed it was mostly kids checking them out - but now that I think about it, all of the titles from Superman to the rustiest iron age stuff *are* in the adult section. It's a bit tough to read a series in order and without gaps sometimes, but you can't beat the price. And I don't have to get mad at myself for wasting my money when the writers do something reeeeeally stupid.

Re: Supervillain Psych Lims: The Reboot This thread and the last one (IIRC, I didn't really follow it) have good ideas for how to interpret "evil" on a pre-made character's disad list, but I'd just like to say that I'd want something a lot more specific for an NPC I was GMing. Definitely for a PC, if your game rolls that way. I think the term is too vague and subjective, and shouldn't be used for published characters.