transmetahuman

Re: Was watching Superman TAS and wondered about Mxyzptlk

My apologies for bringing up yet another thread on the various ages of comics. I was chatting online with a friend the other day; I was trying to explain, briefly, what I meant by "iron age" and "bronze age". He's a nerd, but apparently not enough of one to know comics lit theory or whatever that is. Another "used to read comics" guy. What I came up with was: golden age: nazis, commies and asians aren't really human; buy war bonds! silver age: jet-powered apes casually move planets around with wonder woman's golden lasso bronze age: the x-men & justice league stuff you're watching on tv iron age: neurotic, would-be-godling heros with drug addictions impose new world orders My own prejud... er, tastes are obviously showing here, I know. It was off-the-cuff and tongue-in-cheek. But I have a feeling I'm going to want to use the "Ages" terminology to explain things to potential players who might not know what it means. I'm not really sure that I know what they mean myself - pretty much everything I know about them comes fom this board. What one-line descriptions would you use to describe each Age?

Re: Was watching Superman TAS and wondered about Mxyzptlk

Re: Crazy campaign ideas (Silly or serious) I had a brief but irresistable compulsion to combine this with OddHat's body parts idea... a secretive tribe of independant body parts off in the wilderness somewhere. You'd need more than one original body... and some reason to have mutual trade, which kinda kills it. I mean, what does an ear eat? Never mind.

Re: Ben 10 I don't have a TV, so I've only been able to catch one episode and not all of that - at work, oddly enough. It was the one where they're at some tourist spot with a giant rubber band ball. I noticed Ben didn't worry about changing in front of the townsfolk (including the mayor), and none of them seemed to worry much about saying anything in front of outsiders. Is this common in the series? And if so, does Ben really have a secret ID?

Re: Your PC's might be underpowered if... I think I can actually do something with this... Thanks!

Re: Duos I think it's going to be important to have lots of player interaction when they're designing their characters. Characters who wouldn't like each other are one thing on a team ("Yeah, Adamantium Claw is a bastard, but I guess we're stuck with him. At least I can vent about him with Monocle"), another thing when you're wondering daily "Why am I hanging out with this idiot?" That goes double for a sidekick situation - I'd really HATE being in a position where the game hinges on my character's respect and veneration for his mentor, but the mentor's player has him doing things that my original character concept would despise. I'd actually hate having a dominant partner, period... let me throw my vote in for equal points, equal partners.

Re: How to: Ego Roll Wall Be warned if you use this idea... It's shown up in enough stories that a lot of players will know the trick to getting through it: Have your teammate pick you up and throw you through. It's a classic.

Re: Sick of Wolverine Given the nature of Limbo and her stepping disc power, that could change at the drop of a hat, easy. It almost seems bizarre that she hasn't been "resurrected" yet, as a slightly younger Illyana who mis-stepped through time. It'd be so easy. Maybe it wouldn't be contrived and stupid enough?

Re: Dimension Brainstorming: The Dimension Of Lost Stuff For the ruler, my first thoughts were either 1) mankind's very first utterly forgotten god, originally quite primitive but maybe evolved to sophistication over the millenia trapped in his realm, or 2) a human whose whole life tragically revolved around being mislaid, forgotten about, and lost - until one day he woke to grey nothingness, which gradually started filling with other lost things and people. he identifies with these fellow victims of an uncaring humanity, and tends to blame normal humans - especially the few normal humans who come visiting, looking for stuff - for his colorless life. He holds a special loathing for those who quip, "Well, at least your feet are always warm."

Re: movies/t.v. vs comic books

Re: Ethics for mentalists Very interesting. Incorporating the Psych Limits modifiers makes sense from an sfx perspective, too - so a "violently opposed" action (+30) that nonetheless matches his Psych Limit (like, say, really bad temper) might only need +20 effect to make him think it's his own action... he has a built-in reason to believe he could do that ("oh no! damn my temper!"). Whereas the most heinous possible acts, on someone who knows he would never do such a thing ("I always watched out for my brother, I love him") would top out at +40 on top of the +40, giving +80 needed to let them rationalize the act as their own. That's a lot of dice, but I like the way it emphasizes the need to choose your effects carefully - and I really like the way it makes things simpler for "stuff you'd do anyway" level commands. Making a guard search the other corridor first, but having him instantly realize it was coerced, is kind of self-defeating; it shouldn't take the same level of effort as making him not report you after he does see you (+20). Would you also scale "not remember actions", or leave that as a flat +10? I think I'd leave it flat.

Re: Is Crimefighting Ethical?

Re: [Campaign] Third Eye Investigations The last few posts seem to have slipped under my radar for a while, but I'm all caught up now. Good reading, thanks for posting this. One thing struck me as I was going through these - how does Third Eye, a detective agency, make any money? There don't seem to be any clients in any of these so far. Maybe you're just glossing over them, and the authorities are hiring the agency to help with the chupacabra and Wonder stuff, but the only possible client in Burning Passion (loving the puns, by the way) starts the episode already dead... Another question - do you narrate the "pre-credits" opening sequences to the players, or are you adding those to the recaps? Also, you say the general public isn't aware of magic (though the government is - I'll brush aside my objections to that under the umbrella of genre convention), yet you also say that magicians are exempt from the Gellar Act because of freedom of religion (kinda neat, that, I might steal it somehow). How could the courts have ruled on a freedom of religion issue if magic isn't generally known about? I know that some judges know, and all that, but I'm having a hard time believing that this would have ever been ruled on... or maybe I'm just misunderstanding something in the premise.

Re: Ethics for mentalists

Re: Ethics for mentalists I would say, "during the commission of a serious crime" rather than "in combat". I don't believe the use of lethal force is a good benchmark. I'll wager that nearly everyone on here will agree that "mental surgery" is unethical, except in cases of (prior!) informed consent. The question becomes, What line do you draw to distinguish mental surgery from other mental coercion? My first impulse is to say "depriving the person of the ability to know *why* they act or think as they do". If they know they only surrendered because you made them do it, it's "just" coercion. If they believe they made the choice themselves, and have to rationalize it somehow, that's going to affect their self-image and choices far beyond the base effect ("I can't ever drink again", "I can't rely on my judgement", "I must be insane", etc.) Yup, the ramifications on the justice system - any nation's justice system - would be a nightmare. GURPS Technomancer describes a modern Earth where mind control is a fact, and touches on some of the responses, but relies on "experts in mental magic" being able to determine whether such control has in fact happened. A bit inadequate IMO, and unless such experts are ubiquitous and dirt cheap, you can't go to them every time some little thing comes up. Some kid caught stealing candy at a store claims he was mind controlled by another kid - do you think they're going to call in experts? What happens when every petty criminal in the world starts making the same claim? Where is justice when you discount them all, but some of them aren't lying? Nearly everyone caught doing something wrong has an impulse to justify it, preferably by showing that "it wasn't my fault!" Unless mind control can be easily, retroactively proven or disproven, or has large and provable limitations of scope or application, I honestly think known mind controllers would mean the end of civilization. Civilization requires accountability for one's actions.

Re: Ethics for mentalists I'm the guy who stated passionately in another thread that I personally would do my best to kill Charlie Xavier as soon as I found out what he was capable of, so you might guess I'll be one of the hardliners. Apparently, I'm not. The crux of the matter for me is long-term and undetectable versus short term and self-evidently coercive. Maybe I've just had too much experience with drug, alcohol, and brain-chemistry induced (or at least influenced) mental states (edit: not to mention HORMONES, jeez), but I don't see short-term free will as being all that holy a thing. Coercing someone into giving up and going to jail is still coercion whether you use mental powers or threat of violence. The ethics of the act, to me, depend on all the other factors that go into deciding whether coercion is an acceptable response. To answer the original question... if I, personally, had such powers: I'd do my damnedest to make sure no one ever found out; I'd probably succumb to the incredible temptation to use them; and the interplay between those two driving urges would probably lead me to what I consider unethical use - depriving the victim of the ability to know why he made the decisions he did. If any of you are supernatural beings, lurking on this thread in order to decide who to grant mind control powers to, please count me out.

Re: Marvel's Ten Best Metamorphs Too silly for me, sorry.

Re: Theme Super Hero Teams

Re: Marvel's Ten Best Metamorphs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Sinister I was a little taken aback by some of the original poster's choices, too. If the Hulk counts, then Thor, Colossus, Sasquatch (edit: oops he's on there), the Human Torch, Iceman, etc. ad nauseum should count too. I know you're going by the book's definition, but it'd almost be easier to list folks who *aren't* metamorphs. Rogue... I guess I never saw her take on more than cosmetic physical changes, but I haven't read X-books in a long time. And I've got no problems with size-changers falling under the definition, but for some reason I balk at density-shifters like Vision and Shadowcat, and duplicators. And, yeah, why Blob? My list, no particular order: Mystique Mr. Fantastic Sandman Absorbing Man Snowbird Mimic Super-Adaptoid Pym (don't like the character, but love the range of his powers) Human Torch Super-Skrull

Re: Standard Effect Idea If it rounds off, wouldn't you be able to get 10 points on your SPD from two dice (standard effect = 6, rounds to 10 for SPD)? So it'd be 2d6 Aid for 20, +1/4 is 25 points. I don't like it.

Re: What concepts have you used for a 'Superman'? Superman is to superhero comics as LotR is to fantasy fiction. Now ask why 90% of fantasy game settings have elves and dwarves. And I agree with the rest of your post, too.

Re: Love Child of the Marvel Universe When I read the thread title, I immediately got a mental image of Eternity, hugely pregnant, sitting on the Local Group of galaxies, complaining about a sore back and morning sickness to the off-camera father.

Re: How to have a power and not have it

Re: Power Build: Position Swap This is one of those powers that might be doable by the rules, but might not work very well from the point of view of the characters' reality for a lot of ranged attacks. I could see it for a thrown weapon or maybe an arrow from far away, but anything as fast as a bullet- including most EBs... Well, I just don't think the guy with the power could use it fast enough. The switch has to happen during the time the energy or projectile is in transit between the enemy's gun/fingers/eyes/whatever and your position. Maybe you can find a rationale for some kind of superfast electronic or magical Trigger (though it'd have to use FTL detection to work against lightspeed EBs), I dunno.. I'm just saying if I was GM, I would either limit this to certain kinds of attack, or look really hard at the justification/SFX.