Alverant

Re: Evil Fey As two of my characters would testify from personal experience, the fey are already evil. Fey don't really care for anyone but their own kind (if then) and see mortals as playthings and don't consider the consequences of their actions. Fey will "help" if they think it sounds like fun. For example if a fey learns a character's secret ID then later hears the character complain about the troubles of leading a double life, the fey may help by revealing the secret ID to the world. See, problem solved. And now the character isn't boring the fey anymore by complaining about the same thing all the time.

Re: Alternate Sexualities in Champions and Supers settings I think a lot of it comes down to what the players and GM are comfortable with. We're gamers not actors even though we act. For some of us, our characters represent a part of ourselves and if the character is of a different sexuality then it we fear it may imply something we don't think is true or we don't want to admit has a little truth to it. But for others, it makes no difference and how far they go depends on the others. This is a game and everyone should be having fun. For myself, it's like nuts in ice cream. I hate it, I don't see the appeal, but I know others do like it and I'm not self-centered enough to go nuts when someone puts Peaches and Pralines in their shopping cart or demand Rocky Road be taken off the shelves.

Re: Alternate Sexualities in Champions and Supers settings

Re: How can mutants be discriminated against while other "supers" get a pass? I disagree. If your 14 year old daughter suddenly starts excreting blue slime from her pores, I doubt anyone would blame exposure to cosmic radiation or magic. Mutants get their powers for no apparent reason. Other origins have a clear cause-effect relationship. That's how you tell the difference.

Re: Ok GM's weigh in. We've been talking players CvK...how do you handle these things

Re: How can mutants be discriminated against while other "supers" get a pass? Well how did those people get their money? Lotto winners took a chance and played. "Self-made millionaires" took a chance and did something to get the money. Trust fund babies ... well they were born. They didn't do anything to become rich. They didn't work or take a gamble or anything. (There's also the belief that those who inherited money don't understand the value of money. A belief supported by certain children of rich people who are famous just because they're rich.) Mutants are the same way. In most other origins the superhuman took an active role. They made a choice that eventually led them to getting powers. Even if that choice was something incidental like taking a janitorial job at a lab then accidentally getting exposed to weird Science. Even Bulldozer did something to "earn" his powers. But like trust fund babies, mutants were born with their powers. They didn't do anything to get them. Anyone can be a mutant. You don't know if getting into an argument with someone will make their latent mutant power erupt and make your body explode into a million pieces. You can do tests for mutants before their powers manifest. Except for innate magical talent, you can't do that with other superhero origins. Mutants are also a collective origin where there is only one way to get your powers. Radiation accidents can happen for a thousand different reasons, but only mutants have the passive role of the individual. (Aliens also took an active role in getting their powers. Even if such powers are inherent to their species, they did take an active role in coming to Earth.) I guess the same would apply to magical creatures as well, but they haven't formed an alliance dictating that they should rule because of their superiority. Mutants get their powers from their genetic code which came from their parents. In many cultures a deformed baby signals the mother did something wrong and the baby is the manifestation of that sin. Mutants can be seen in a similar light. Parents see their children as a reflection on themselves. If a child does well, it's a sign they did their job as parents. If a child becomes a criminal, the parents get blamed. Mutants can be seen as a sign the parents made a mistake. As mentioned before, mutants are the only group of superhumans who have banded together under a common origin. OK, there are some others like Devil's Advocates and Sunburst's crew which also have a common origin, but they're not as big and don't have membership requirements limited to "Are you a ___? Do you want to join? If you said yes to both, you're in!" Mutants also stay hidden. Like in politics, it's not the actual wrong but the cover-up that gets people angry. Even if the muties have a good reason to hide, they are still hiding. Mutants don't do anything to become mutants. Anyone can be a mutant even if they don't know it. And their numbers are growing. No other origin of superhumans can say that. That is part of why mutants are singled out.

Re: Is Kinetik a casual killer?

Re: When, if ever, would your character kill? I take it generally the same way for all my superheroic characters. First, they would kill anyone actively trying to kill innocent people. Not planning to, actually about to as in the weapon is pointed at the target. Second, avoid killing agents, mooks, and "normal" people. Super can kill super, norm can kill super, but super shouldn't kill norm. Third, has the villain killed innocent people before and is likely to again? If so, then killing the villain now, in combat, is acceptable. Fourth, do not execute the defeated villain. Finally for those villains who are mass murders and irredeemably evil, well to quote Arnold J Rimmer, "I would gladly shoot him if he were sitting on the loo. It's just a pity he's awake." (episode Justice) OTOH, when my team defeated Monster (we got some lucky dice rolls) and shrunk him down to action-figure size, my character put him in a microwave and set it to 5 minutes while waiting for the authorities. He thought he was a robot. Besides, given the Monster's abilities, he seriously thought the Monster would spring back up and force feed him his own intestines. The microwave was just "making sure". Of course, this is in a fantasy game. Executions in the real world are too complex to give a blanket statement.

Re: Mathematics based mental attacks? I don't think he died, but due to a lack of actual defenses, he got beat up a lot and eventually went into a non-combat role for evil corporations. After reading the other replies, I would also suggest working in a mechanism that would make these attacks less effective against those with math-related science skills and perks like lightning calculator or even a high INT score which could figure out these math puzzles quickly even without training. I also suggest looking at the shows on Science channel if you're looking for mind-bending math. There's a show called "Through the Wormhole" that doesn't shy away from asking big questions. Telepathically sending someone the equations described on that show and making the target's brain try to understand them would make a good ego attack (the math behind branes and other higher-dimensional problems, the physics explaining a star's collapse into a black hole, quantum teleportation). A Taste of Forever: mental paralysis vs int, target sees the universe from beginning to 10^X years (X being the number of seconds since the paralysis started). To give a sense of scale, after 1 turn (a billion years) is the formation of stars. One turn and one phase (10 billion years) is roughly today. One turn and two phases (100 billion years) and the universe rips itself apart from ever-accelerating expansion or begins the slow slide to maximum entropy aka heath death. I'd give the power a 15 phase max limit because at that point (1 trillion years) either the universe has ended or has become static that people could shake themselves out of it. I would also consider teleportation as a power as the math telepath works out how to instantly change his XYZ coordinates and a dispell on any superhuman power as the hero points out how the power is mathematically impossible.

Re: Mathematics based mental attacks? It might have been in Fringe (don't know, never watched), but there was a character like that in The Cape who did that.

Re: Wrath of God In Blues Brothers 2000, the ruler was replaced with a self-telescoping car radio antenna. It looked very scary in her hands.

Re: Turbo-Boost Energy Drink Redouble efforts to find the local Viper nest and shut it down. Find a scientist who can create an instant cure that can be delivered in gas form (the idea being to get the super-fast Viper agents to run through a cloud of cure and return to running away at human speeds). Put the company president into "protective custody" until the wrongful death lawsuits start coming in.

Re: Cat Up a Tree This is why I give most of my characters stun only attacks.

Re: Vandaleur Twins For my own 2 cents, I think making them identical twins makes the characters more interesting. Since they have the same DNA and largely the same experiences encoded the same way in their brain it raises the question of how the magic of the Veil would influence them. Would it be in different ways or would the warping of their minds bounce back and forth between them until they came out the same? One of the Dark Champions books has a villain(ess) called 3 of a Kind that does something like this but with triplets (two male, one female). As for noting a character's sexual orientation, I would say it does have some importance since it's a part of their identity. But it would have to be done in a way that doesn't imply that they are a hero/villain because they're a member of a group; unless, of course, that's why they are a hero villain. I guess what I mean is that unless it's a key part of their motivation, then it should be treated matter of factly like you'd mention their favorite flavor of ice cream.

Re: Vandaleur Twins

Re: Arabic/Middle Eastern based Character To continue Shadow Hawk's comment about the different nations and cultures, it should be pointed out that the name Arabia goes back to the ancient greeks. In theory you could include every civilization in that area including Persia, Sumeria, Babylon, Akkadian, Hurrian, Mesopotamia, etc. Civilizations that have a rich mythology and history to use as a basis for a time-lost hero. Particularly the ancient Sumerian goddess Inanna would make a good female character. One of her myths involves sacrifice for love and returning from the dead.

Re: Arabic/Middle Eastern based Character I usually do a concept first. Names are usually pretty difficult. That's how I wound up with a hero named for a caper movie.

When creating a campaign for your players, do you take the content from the books wholesale or do you modify large chunks of it? I'm for whatever works for you, but I'm curious as to what changes people have made. In a campaign I'm in, Dr.Destroyer dabbled in magic after his psionic experiment (menton/mentalla) vanished thanks to time traveling characters. That's just an example.

Re: Would your Hero endorse a polititian?

I'm working on a character concept who's spiritual. Someone who is so serene and at peace that just being around him makes people feel better. How would this be done? It's a minor effect of an aspect of the character so I'm hoping it could be done with Change Environment as opposed to Mind Control or Transform.

Re: Your PCs might be overpowered if... The US Superpowered Division has 4 threat levels: Local Threat National Threat Planetary Threat Annoys

Re: Random Pondering: Istvatha V'han Well first we have to consider how big a dimension really is and what it really is. Is it another word for "universe"? I don't think so. There's mention of "the Earth dimension" as if that's all that's really in that dimension. In Mystic World (or Ultimate Mage, I forget which), there's a dimension called "the city-states of Hod" which is a bunch of floating islands in a sky. Now does this sky of breathable air fill up a sphereoid of about 26 billion light years in diameter? Unlikely. So personally I define a dimension as being something where you could travel in one direction and eventually return to your starting point. (OK, not the best definition and I'm willing to be flexible and make exceptions but that's the basic idea.) So it's possible that there are multiple dimensions in the same universe and Extra Dimensional Movement can in fact be teleportation megascaled to lightyears. Of course other dimensions can, in fact, be in other universes or so "small" (on a universe-scale) be their own universe. So instead of "Empress of a billion dimensions" we have "Empress of a billion planets" which is a little bit more reasonable. Then remember that Earth has other dimensions tacked onto it, Elysium, Netherworld, Fairie, and Bablyon. Plus a section of the Astral Plane. There's no reason to think other worlds don't have their versions of these planes, so conquering one conquers them all. Six for the price of one. So we're down to "Empress of 167 million planets" Still a huge number. Since she could move between dimensions, perhaps she has a link to her extra-dimensional counterparts with identical personalities and upon meeting they instantly share their knowledge. So it's one one Empress but many each with their own army and goals working together whether or not they realize it. Finally, some of these "conquered" dimensions are pretty much conquered in name only. They pay a tribute occasionally, have an overseer, and a few additional laws but for the most part life is pretty much the same. Most people may not even be aware they have an Empress.

Re: Calling all Doctors... Doctor Howard, Doctor Fine, Doctor Howard

Re: Villainous Motivations It's also worth pointing out that "greed" isn't just about money. It could be about power or knowledge as well. A villain motivation could be to learn dark magical secrets but to learn those secrets he winds up unleashing undead horrors on the populace and he doesn't care.

Re: Villainous Motivations I think most of them are already covered. When I consider a villain's motivation I remember that they don't consider themselves to be EVIL (well a few do, but most people don't). "Higher calling" and "ends justify the means" are pretty close together. If the villain have a cause you really believe in, then normal laws and considerations don't apply. Remember the Blues Brothers, "We're on a mission from God." Anything goes if your cause is God-approved. The only one I would add would be "survival". The villain came from a kill or be killed environment and is unable or unwilling to adjust their behavior to fit into normal society. They could have lived in poverty so bad they had to fight for each bite of food and attack other people first because otherwise they were going to attack you. Or they grew up in the wild and only know the "law of the jungle". Or lived in a corporate rat race where getting ahead (or even staying put) meant backstabbing and vicious ruthlessness. They may not be bad people really really deep down, they just feel that their life and comfort are more important than your life.