Alverant

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

Didn't Scarlet Witch believe he'd fathered her children? I'd imagine they had to do something to give her that impression. OTOH' date=' she's been shown to be pretty mentally unstable...[/quote']Have you ever read Twisted Toyfare? She's MEEEAAAN to the poor guy. Peggy Bundy mean and Vision doesn't have the ballbearings to stand up to her.

Re: How can mutants be discriminated against while other "supers" get a pass?

Honestly, in a setting where there are multiple ways of getting superpowers, the ONLY way to distinguish between a mutant and a superhuman of a different origin, would be genetically. And that's only if there's an identifiable set of "supergenes" that cannot be activated through scientific experimentation.

 

In short, Marvel's take on "mutants" is impossibly unrealistic and is there pretty much only to play on teenager's fears of being considered "different."

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

I know that's not the only use. But while CvK works in stories but I haven't found it to be a significant hinderance in play without loading the situation. Pretty much the only time it has been significant drawback' date=' IMO, has been situations where the PC could/should kill someone but can't because of their CvK.[/quote']

IMHO, that's more of a fault of the GM and not the player. Either the GM has to make more settings where the CvK is an actual disadvantage or the GM has to ask the player to rearrange his disadvantages so the CvK isn't an issue.

Players tend to assume that opponents are going to be scaled appropriately to the campaign' date=' most villains are designed to the standards so its very difficult to actually harm (do Body) unintentially or at least lethal levels. If you don't want to get a Killing Attack then don't. There's really no reason for you to be rewarded for it, IMO. In 6th KAs are a bit neutered anyway. Even then you can use a slighty lower number of dice in an attack without declaring your Pulling your Punch (with a -OCV) if someone seems fragile. The amount of fiddling to get things "just right" or setting up situations really doesn't seem worth it most of the time. Let the players decided (or the dice) if someone is killed or not and role play the repercussions of either choice feels like less to work and a little more "natural" to me.[/quote']

I like the rules about KA in 6th. It's because I'm a player and more than once my character got KOed because of the 17% chance a 6 is rolled on the stun multipler (meaning a 2d6 KA can do 50+ stun with a good roll on 2 dice while a 6d6 normal attack does substantially less even with a good roll).

 

I can get behind the "if we don't do it, neither will the GM" philosophy if that's what everyone wants. I'm a strong believer in practicing what you preach and if the players collectively forgo killing attacks then it sets the tone for the campaign. So the GM should follow suit and make KAs rare or non-existent.

Re: How can mutants be discriminated against while other "supers" get a pass?

It would be like disliking people who inherited their money but not lottery winners or "self-made millionaires". Oh wait. People actually do that.

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?

Also. Since this is 6e and there is only 75 pts in complications' date=' the need for Psych Comps is lessened. As I convert a lot of my 5e Characters I am dropping some. I'll admit to occasionally reaching for disad points in the past. But now a case could be made for the GM to say, "This is a Silver Age Game, consider the world to have a "Strong" aversion to killing."[/quote']Agreed. Once you got things like DNPC, Hunted/Watched, Vulnerability/Suspectibility, character-centric psych compl, and one or two others central to the character concept, you're done. You don't need to reach for points anymore, just focus on the ones that make the character unique.

 

As for the nature of CvK, my problem with it is that it applies equally to all targets. I'd rather see a complication where the focus is on who the character is willing to kill. As mentioned in a different thread, my characters would be more willing to kill supervillains as opposed to agents or normals even if met with deadly force. For example if a supervillain had "casual killer" would get the business end of a meson cannon but a gangbanger would get the stun beam. I think realistically if someone could push a button and make Dr.Destroyer's head explode, most people would do it even if they had CvK because Dr.D slaughtered thousands and will kill again. But if it was a "gentleman theif" type (ie non-killer) instead of Dr.D, many people wouldn't push the button. That should be reflected either as part of roleplaying the character (a 0-point complication) or worked into something like CvK.

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?

Marvel's New Warriors once faced a Math Telepath (who I believe died later)

 

And having the APG I have seen at least one of his abilities: An INT based Entangle now easy to represent.

 

So I'm thinking of using a teen math wizard (quite literally) named Theorem.

 

 

Beyond the "Story Problem of Doom" attack above, what other abilities could I give this kid?

(My math knowledge is low end calculus)

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?

If he does advanced math in his head, he could have some kind of throwing weapon(s) with something like +8 Combat Skill Levels used for Bouncing his attack. He sees and calculates angles, energy transfer, and other factors so quickly and precisely that he can ricochet off virtually anything.

 

Also, there was an episode of (I think) Fringe where a super-brilliant guy with a deadly vendetta had a unique way of killing his targets: he'd make some tiny adjustment to the environment that would set off a chain of events soon leading to his targets' death. I'm not sure how to model this in Hero (probably some combination of Precognition and Mind Control), but it's worth thinking about.

Re: Wrath of God

Ruler from Hell? Nuns can be vicious with a ruler. Did you ever see The Blues Brothers?

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

Since the sexual orientation' date=' spouse and/or significant other isn't mentioned for most NPCs, what makes you think some of them aren't?[/quote']

Well people make assumptions. Not just about orientation, but religion, political affiliation, etc. So if a character deviates from the assumption, it's usually mentioned if deemed important. For example I believe a few non-christian characters working in the US do have their religions mentioned. A hero with healing powers in 4th Ed was mentioned as being Atheist, but that was due to his origin (an experiment between a faith healer and an Atheist on who was more effective in healing the sick).

 

Unfortunately due to how society views some groups, if a character is part of that group then it should be mentioned. At the least, it could be used as a plot device. For example how would the public react if they new a hero was gay? Would people refuse to be saved by him? Would people he saved later claim to be molested (or would anti-gay pundits make that charge)? Would he loose endorsement deals? Get hate mail? Would his motivations for being a hero be questioned?

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

Personally I start with a name.

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?

20' date='30 years ago, maybe. In the modern political climate (aka 'nonstop s**tstorm'), aligning oneself with a politician is just asking to get raked over the PR coals.[/quote']Actually that's what one of my characters wants. In the campaign one of the other characters accidentally blurted out my character's secret ID. Then he tried to fix it by authorizing a million dollar ad campaign, "Jack Daystrom is not Smokin' Ace" which became an internet meme. Next the public started putting two and two together. So now my character (Daystrom) is running for governor of Illinois hoping that his rivals will create that nonstop storm, demolishing the internet meme and thus protecting his identity.

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.

Re: Pink Anime Power-Suit Girl

She's Mari (Su) Illustrious Makinami' date=' the new character in the alternate universe retelling of Eva, "Rebuild of Evangelion." I thought her plug suit was green, though.[/quote']A retelling of one of the most confusing and depressing animes by the Japanese version of George Lucas... This should be considered an act of war. Let's beam Three and a Half Men to every screen in Japan as a warning. Then if they continue to make this retelling then we have no choice but to use Larry the Cable Guy.