Alverant

Re: Where are the Big Dumb Objects in your campaign? Well me for one. I know not everyone shares my tastes just as I don't share the preferences of others. But having the megastructures is one reason why I like sci-fi over fantasy. You say that like it's a bad thing.

One of the aspects of sci-fi that makes it preferable to fantasy were the big objects. Things like watching Star Wars for the first time and seeing the Star Destroyer passing overhead in the beginning. Or for younger gamers, the Halo from the video game with the same name. They're called "big dumb objects" but I don't like that name. Unfortunately you don't see as many in fantasy settings. Oh, there are a few like in Discworld. You'd think that since you can do more things in a fantasy setting using magic there would be more grand scale objects. Where's the city whose walls were made from a dragon skeleton with the mayor's mansion being the skull? Where's the floating mountain? Where's the temple to the gods that can be seen from hundreds of miles away? Where are these things in your campaign? (I'm not saying you need them or something is wrong if you don't have them, I'm wondering what you do to invoke the sense of wonder in your game.)

Re: Billionaires: Supervillains earn, Superheroes inherit My theory is that an honest business man who got rich would be less likely to abandon his/her business to become a hero. While a dishonest business man who got rich would be more likely to engage in other criminal activities to increase their wealth. Those who inherit would become heroes to prove to themselves since they got their wealth by doing nothing or feel that by being rich they have an obligation to help others. OTOH inheriting wealth could mean not understanding the value of money or working and might not care how their actions affect others or feel they are entitled to their position and would do anything to maintain it. It comes down to what makes a better story.

Re: Billionaires: Supervillains earn, Superheroes inherit

Re: Billionaires: Supervillains earn, Superheroes inherit I remember in the cartoon that half the time he was trying to increase his fortune and the other half he was defending it. As for being heroic/villainous I remember one episode where he was going to shut down a manufacturing plant so he could "have his profit now instead of later" and didn't think about the people he was putting out of work (until he lost his memory and wound up rallying against himself).

Re: The Real Reason That The Nazi War Effort Failed Don't forget about the resources used to further mechanize their air force with robotic clones of their flying ace Otto Pilot.

Re: Religion in Science-Fiction? Then so is belief and worship of said god, to say nothing of using it as a moral guide.

Re: Religion in Science-Fiction? Omnipotent means having ALL the power. Free-will is power. Therefore if we have free will, then there cannot be omnipotence. If our free will can be snatched away, then we never had it to begin with.

Re: THE BOOK OF THE EMPRESS -- What Do *You* Want To See? Sorry if these were already mentioned but I'd like to see more details about 1) How do you conquer a whole universe/dimension? Is a dimension considered a small piece of a universe (like a solar system or galaxy). That way her empire could be in this universe but be a few billion light years away or even outside our visible universe? 2) How she deals with alternate versions of herself 3) Set up a difference between alternate universes and alternate timelines (if there is any, it's possible all alternate universes are really alternate timelines) 4) What these "loss of freedoms" are as described in the first Enemies book (Master Villains)? People toss the phrase around a lot but few actually explain what it means. 5) How much being conquered affects her worlds? Are they pretty much the same in terms of society or are they virtually enslaved? Do they have to give tribute or just pay lip service to the empire? 6) What sort of things are forbidden in the Empire? Is magic destroyed, encouraged, or coddled? Would they allow superheroes to help enforce the law on some worlds? Are there super villains within the empire and how are they dealt with?

Re: God of Redemption Since this is part of the Fantasy Hero thread, it does raise the question of how often this god makes personal appearances. Does he/she/it only appear in important cases and when called upon, and by "appear" I mean actually appear (if there were cameras, you could snap a photo) or is he/she/it only show up in visions by the person in question. A successor will always deviate from the goals of the founders. This can be good and bad depending on if the successors adapt religious doctrine for changing times so it stays true to the intent or if they change dogma into being more "fundamental" and hampering social progress. Think about this, during biblical times women were married in their early teens. Today that is considered immoral and criminal. At what point did it become unacceptable and who made that decision? When a god says, "OK, things have changed so I'm updating the rules of morality." What happens to those who are being punished under the old rules? What about those who were rewarded under the old rules?

Re: God of Redemption

Re: God of Redemption

Re: God of Redemption I know this is a bit late (and I would like to add my 2 cents in later after I had some sleep) but my first question for a god of redemption would be, "What do we need to be redeemed from?" Does the god decide what is good or bad or does the god enforce a higher standard of right and wrong outside of him/her/itself? In the former you risk having a god whose standards don't stand the test of time. In the latter you have to justify the need for such a god at all and explain why people don't go directly to this higher standard cutting out the proverbial middleman (or middle-deity in this case). If it is a LG god, then he/she/it won't say we need to be redeemed for things we had no control over. There would be nothing like "conceived in sin" that taints all people for example. Also would the standards of right and wrong (however derived) would be strictly applied or would it be done on a case by case basis? Like before either answer would have problems. If it's the former there will be situations where a person did violate the standards, but by a more subjective standard there was no harm done so no crime has been committed. OTOH, dealing with issues individually would leave some feel cheated as they see people who's violations were similar to their own receive lighter penalties.

Re: Weaknesses in Armor Joints I was thinking more along the lines of taking a -4 OCV (or more) penalty you can avoid some or all of the armor by targeting a known/suspected weak point if the character in question would know how to target specific areas. So a SWAT team or military sniper would be able to but a brick or energy project who aren't as "fussy" as where they hit just as long as they hit would not. That way you can have "the little guy" have a greater effect on combat.

I'm a big fan of the armored/robot hero and one thing I have noticed in machines real and fictional is that the joints are not as protected because they have to move. This applies to the natural world too. (Watch Monster Bug Wars on Science channel. Fangs slipping in between armor plates is a pretty common tactic.) My question is how to reflect this weakness in the Hero system. Normally if you buy a defensive power defined as a kind of armor then you get covered from head to toe in the same defense including areas that are traditionally weaker (elbows, back of the knees, visor, etc). Is there some way to reflect this? I'm thinking more of a house rule that applies to all such situations by default instead of applying a specific disadvantage that players or GMs might not remember or might not want to take. For example I finished the first chapter of a superhero podiobook where a SWAT team was able to disable Nazi robots by shooting out their knee joints. If they didn't hit the knee, their bullets bounced off. What would be a good way to simulate this without adding a bunch of complicated powers/abilities/weaknesses to the rulebook?

Re: Religion in Science-Fiction? Perhaps, but it's the pinning down a definition of a god whose limits can be tested (either logically to test for paradox or in a lab to test existence) is where most arguments fail.

Re: Religion in Science-Fiction?

Re: Religion in Science-Fiction?

Re: Religion in Science-Fiction? Wrong. Science can prove/disprove 'God' in two easy steps. 1) Define 'God' 2) Hold 'God' up to the hype If either step fails, then the notion is disproved. In my experience the main fault in proving God exists comes when the God who made the universe is assumed to be the God in a religion.

Re: Superhero Team Threat Levels At that level all prayers go to voicemail because the god either hiding under the bed or planning to start worshiping Cthulu and/or Galactus in hopes of surviving.

Re: Alternate Sexualities in Champions and Supers settings Let's consider comics. How many comic books by the big two (Marvel and DC) had titles feature a hero or heroine of color that has lasted more than 50 issues? How many featuring white hero or heroines? What about the new bi-racial Spider-man? That itself seemed to have caused quite a stir among comic book fans and not all of it good. I was intentionally being over the top to be a little silly. Sometimes it's the best way to address a subject. And technically a fetish isn't strictly sexual. I could have easily said "and his favorite color is green". I probably should have in retrospect. In any case, I think it would give some people pause due to the misconceptions people have about LGB and that can lead to lost sales.

Re: Alternate Sexualities in Champions and Supers settings We should also consider non-sexuals. People who are apathetic about sex. They may have a preference and don't mind looking but realize that due to their powers or some other reason don't have much motivation to perform the physical act. Take Blackstar and Thunderbolt for example. What would happen to their partners if their powers suddenly activated wildly when they ummm peaked? Condoms can only protect against so much.

Re: Alternate Sexualities in Champions and Supers settings The target audience for superhero RPG tends to be hetro white males so a company would do well to pander ... I mean cater to that demographic. For better or worse, things like sexuality, religion, political affiliation, etc aren't mentioned in the character descriptions unless they are key parts to the character. And while it does tend to suck not knowing for sure if the heroes and villains in the book match (or in the villain case oppose) your own choices, in some ways it really doesn't matter. Plus by not mentioning it, you avoid some backlash from the customers and public. If Steve Long came out and said, "Defender is bisexual with a fetish for being Entangled." would people be more or less likely to buy Hero products? (Sorry Mr.Long, not trying to put words in your mouth, just offering a hypothetical.) In a business, sometimes you have to make these decisions. But I still wouldn't mind seeing more diversity in heroes/heroines. Being good should not be linked to being a particular race, gender, religion, political affiliation, whatever.

Re: Eccentric but plausible ways a character could be rich? Professional athlete who had to retire early dot-com founder who sold his company at the right time out of court settlement head of own religion stockholder in a big company that sells so many products you buy one every time you go grocery shopping winner in reality show

Re: Aliens in Dark Champions