David Blue

Re: Superhumans pulling an Authority Cheaply made reverse engineered Ultimate Nullifiers would make a major structural difference to society, but if I was Reed Richards I wouldn't be putting those on the market. Similarly, Doctor Strange doesn't want the world at large to know everything he knows, and with good reason.

Re: Superhumans pulling an Authority And there are characters, such as Wonder Woman in the Justice League and Power Princess in the old Squadron Supreme, who come fully equipped with specific ideas on how to live the good life and how to order the world, and they are supposed to be following through on their ideas. More and cooler gadgets may not address all the ideological heroine's specific ideas on who should get what, why. One reason I'm partly sympathetic with the original post is that it makes sense to me in role-playing terms. Giving it your best shot is exciting and heroic, even if it backfires. Believing you have the right answers but never giving it a go is unheroic.

Re: Superhumans pulling an Authority

Re: Characteristic inflation I don't think it does. My point is not that firearms aren't accurate enough. I might even question the OCV and Range Modifier bonuses they make available, except that I don't want to change the topic. My point is that published weapon STR minima, like published villains, beasts and races, prod players to buy up certain characteristics and to regard the allegedly "normal" 8 stat or even the "outstanding normal" 10 stat as wimpy and insufficient. That fuels characteristic inflation.

Re: Characteristic inflation Would the same be true for wielders of the M-2 Carbine, with STR 14 also required for that? And would something similar be true of wielders of M16s, with STR 13 required? And what of The Greatest Generation, Herculean monsters whose gigantic thews enabled them to use the M-1 Garand, STR Min 15?

Re: Characteristic inflation And in this case, top out at SPD 3? And top out defenses at PD6 ED6?

Re: Doctrine for beginning vampire slayers? Great thread! Thanks everyone for being so helpful and focused on the topic. Now I have enough ideas to tie up a career's worth of EXP, and a reading and film list to justify young "Sword" coming up with all this stuff straight out of the gate. Some of the suggestions I've seen were things I was thinking about anyway, but some weren't, and even when I was thinking along the right lines it's valuable to have the reading list to back up a Tactics skill, and to have my ideas becoming more specific, and prioritized. For examples: Check. Check. Check. ... I hadn't thought of that one. At all. Write this down in red letters at the top of one of the pages of "Sword's" home-made manual. Check. I thought of that. But not with a high priority. Make this, and the supporting comments, Page 1. Actually, now that I think of it, write that in Black Chancery small enough to fit all of it on the top of page one, to leave room at the bottom of the same page for: Never send my dearly beloved girlfriend off to run one last errand just before the sun sets. Also, trips to pay respects at her father's grave, if any, should always be pre-arranged outings for two, in the morning. ... Also, strongly discourage any thought of buying a dog like the one in Dawn of the Dead (2004). ... she doesn't like dogs. That's good, encourage any dislike there. I'm pretty much counting on that too. However, "Sword" is young. He's not young and stupid. That helps. Anyway, what I really wanted, and thanks to all who contributed, were the Key Sources: - VAMPIRE$ by John Steakley - the bedrock of The Way of Sun and Stake - Chill Vampires, by Pacesetter Games or Mayfair Games - Bloodhunt & Bloodlinks by Lee Killough - Dracula by Bram Stoker, annotated version (and now that I think of it the movie Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)) - Nosferatu (digitally restored DVD) - Night Stalker (DVD starring Darren McGavin) - The Vampire Files by P.N.Elrod - All things Vampire Hunter D - Sundry Hammer movies on DVD. - Fright Night, Lost Boys, Return to Salem's Lot, the Dracula 2000 series and Dusk 'til Dawn series, Hellsing, plus Shadowsoul's creative idea list. - The Last Man On Earth, by Richard Matheson, plus the DVD with Vincent Price. - Bureau 13 novels by Nick Pollotta That should keep me busy for ages.

Re: Ten Best Superhero Martial Arts ... "doomed to be a villain because he knows Karate" is the same silly straw man. No they wouldn't. You've just run a straw man argument into the ground.

Re: Ten Best Superhero Martial Arts Right. A Martial Throw is a Martial Throw, in game terms. It doesn't matter which art the move is from, it still works the same in game terms. When combat maneuvers are the same in game terms, which they often are, the difference is merely one of roleplaying. I'm highlighting the advantages of the less injurious, less maiming-oriented, less lethal martial arts from the point of view of roleplaying superheroes. There are always options, but there aren't always equally good options, especially in roleplaying terms. Chiun, the master of sinanju, which is an excellent candidate for the supreme martial art assuming all you want to do is assassinate people, said that a user of the art could be placed at a very dangerous disadvantage if he wasn't going to kill people. The art had to be used in the right way, and like a powerful engine could even be dangerous to its wielder if its proper aim was blocked. Many stories illustrated the idea that once you start doing sinanju, you had better do it right. And doing sinanju right included lethal intent. This likely wouldn't be reflected in a specific style disadvantage, more likely it would just be a roleplaying issue and a hook for sub-plots in scenarios and the occasional complication in a medium sized, otherwise un-threatening fight. To a lesser extent, Sapir's frozen and revived master gladiatior in his book The Far Arena had a similar issue. He was an awesome killer, and could grab a normal kitchen knife and turn an Olympic fencing champion with a sharp foil into bloody chunks, quickly, safely and in such a spectacularly cruel fashion that it would make crowds roar, if the modern world still had crowds like they had in the good old days. Striking to stun: not so much. Again, this would be mostly a roleplaying issue. But, I think those roleplaying issues count, if you're trying to roleplay a superhero.

Re: Ten Best Superhero Martial Arts I would also like to remind you of the well-loved gag where a villain threatens a DNPC or has some other overwhelming blackmail threat going, and forces two heroes to fight each other to the death, likely in a Roman-style arena. The heroes go along, but it's all fake: they're really just getting into position to set the DNPC free and take out the villain. In this scene, a martial art that almost invariably causes serious injury, maiming or death is not ideal. Pro wrestling is ideal.

Re: Ten Best Superhero Martial Arts

Re: Superhumans pulling an Authority Oh, and I think that if the heroes playing "Authority" happened to look back soberly after say twenty years of doing what they do so well (with Authority-like body counts), and if unlike the Authority they had the self-discipline and detachment to do a good, tough review, if they asked themselves who they'd been killing, and which states, nations and ethnic and religious groups they had crippled and broken, I think they'd find that they'd wiped out the non-hypocrites. The flatterers and manipulators would have been doing land office business, while those who looked them in the eye, told them no, tried to make it stick, and disdained to launch sneaky plots at others would be out of business.

Re: Superhumans pulling an Authority I think the most likely scenario is that every government would be officially against them, and would steadily build hatred for them into the education systems, while those same governments not only tolerated them but courted them and schemed constantly to use their killing power for state ends without state responsibility. Almost everyone the heroes ever met would be an agent of one power or another. Being officially against the heroes would be part of the game of manipulating them into doing all the dirty work while denying responsibility for their actions. Over time, there would be more and more hatred and terrorist plots directed at the heroes, and any loved ones they had, especially any loved ones that were genuine and unprotected by intelligence agencies. Again, nobody would take any responsibility for any of this. I think one of the best reasons for heroes not to kill and not to impose solutions on states is that as soon as it is clear you are willing to do both those things, "everybody" will want you to start crossing names off their enemies lists and imposing their preferred diplomatic solutions at other people's expense, with you taking the risk, the blame and over time the hatred for doing their dirty work. One obvious challenge for the heroes might be each other. After all, they would be living in a cauldron of plots heated by ever hotter fires of hatred. (Imagine four Jewish megabeings in an otherwise Palestinian world for the atmosphere.) People are always trying to manipulate you into killing people they hate, and every year they hate you more, either for things you did for their enemies (or things they imagine you did or will do at the behest of their enemies), or things that you did for them that they won't acknowledge, or just because they imbibed hatred of you with their mothers' milk. Stirring up deadly hatred within the team is a natural move.

Re: Superhumans pulling an Authority You weren't.

Re: Stay on topic.

Re: Ten Best Superhero Martial Arts I have another opinion. Both in superhero fiction and in real life the ability to act effectively and with restraint is good. The ultimate extremity of violence is not superiority, and intelligent restraint is not weakness. This is why I don't regard sinanju as the ultimate superhero martial art, or even one of the best: Remo and Chiun don't act with superheroic humanity and restraint, and this is partly built into their style. Arts that emphasize control of violence are superior for a superhero. It can be an obvious kind of control, like in aikido or judo. (And I'm still a Judo Master fan.) Or it can be a subtler kind of control, like with professional wrestlers who are acting like savages but in fact take pride in never injuring their partners. (Brett the Hit Man Hart would be my poster boy here.) Either way, an art that does not routinely end in serious injury, maiming or death is something a superhero needs. A killer art, likely a weapon-based art, is at best a second string to your bow.

Re: Ten Best Superhero Martial Arts I agree that this matters, but I think it's more important that it do what you need it to do. "Everything I need and nothing I don't" is a valid concept. I think what matters most is that the art (be in character and) have the +1 to "use art with weapon" for every weapon that seriously matters to you, plus all your absolute "must have" maneuvers for that character. To buy an armed martial art for your favorite weapon, and then a different martial art to fight unarmed (in effect buying maneuvers twice, once armed and once unarmed) is too costly. I think many more superhero characters would profit from a primary focus on kung fu or ninjutsu, or for bricks who use a lot of improvised weapons perhaps professional wrestling, than will stay happy with a choice of fencing or kenjutsu. The bare-knuckle brawl is too important in the superhero genre for it to be a good idea to ignore it, for most characters. If you are not going to use a martial art that helps you both fighting unarmed and using your favorite weapon, I think there's a strong roleplaying / simulation case for taking a straight unarmed martial art. I was watching my Underworld DVD the other day, and I noticed that Victor's big sword was purely for dishing out damage. All his martial moves - the highly skilled moves that he could tag and control a faster, stronger opponent with - were unarmed, and he was winning with these unarmed moves till Selene intervened. Morpheus, in the Matrix movies, also likes a sword for dishing out more damage, but may be more effective on the whole unarmed, because of his excellent throws.

Re: Ten Best Superhero Martial Arts I recommend professional wrestling as the number one unarmed martial art. Anyone who wouldn't be in a position to do a course and learn this art, because they don't have the brawn, endurance and pain tolerance for a career throwing and being thrown around by huge, beefy individuals, or because they lack the needed flamboyance, or because they don't have the control (when they are hit and hurt) to refrain from injuring people, or because they can't put together the fees for a teacher, had better reconsider a career as Batman or something like him. I'm not saying you should go ahead and actually be a professional wrestler as your job. That might cut into your crime-fighting schedule, or make your physique and style overly recognizable to fans. But I do think the requirements and skills of professional wrestling are as near mandatory as you can get for a would-be Batman. Other good martial include boxing, krav marga and escrima. However if your primary martial art is boxing, and you are training to be Batman, you have to be a heavyweight. You don't have to be very big. Rocky Marciano wasn't. But your fists have to carry heavyweight authority, otherwise you need to rethink your aspirations. If you are skilled but you need to fight only within your weight class, you are not Batman.

Other than Horror Hero itself, what's a good source of doctrine for beginning vampire slayers? I'm looking for something a young, self-taught vampire slayer in training might plausibly read and be influenced by. He already has KS Blade Movie Mythos 8-, and is working on being a good, solid Horus worshiper, figuring that if you're not cut out to be a Christian, a militant sun god having your back is as good as it gets, so he's working on a religious KS. He looks up to Whistler, from the Blade movies, and is working hard on basic skills like WF Shotgun, Mechanics, Electronics and Inventing. But I feel he needs more. There are endless guides to the undead, and there's any amount of vampire fiction to refer to, but I'm not seeing much that serves my purpose. I'm not looking for a semi-plausible source for a KS: Vampires but for a Tactics skill focused on vampire slaying: a Sun Tzu with stakes. I don't think that reading every Anne Rice book I haven't read so far and re-watching the Underground movies is going to help me. I've got the idea: vampires (and possibly rivals like werewolves) are awesome and cool, warm-blooded mortal cattle are just munchies; what I'm interested in is the career of the super-brilliant psychic who refuses to conform to that. Young "Sword" has night-vision and is a handy psychic, which is why he feels chosen for his task, and he recently managed to train his DEX up to 11, so he's not useless, but the tactics of Buffy Summers - wander into the fray with a stake and overwhelming physical superiority and lay waste to all comers - are definitely not going to be available. Mistakes that lead to a determined, INT 20 psychic kid getting into a wresting contest with the likes of Lestat or even the young Louis will not be recoverable. Of course, he could run into a real life Whistler, and instead of doing his self-guided study and becoming the founder of the modern school of vampire slayers, he could become an apprentice of the NPC who was. But that's not the concept I have in mind. The genre is mostly Dark Champions, and not Eldritch Horror. I'm looking for ways to kick butt, not to Increase the Horror and Dive Deeper into the Endless Whirlpool of Madness and Despair.

Re: Stalking a superhero. Dodge Bullets For Me. I think this scenario, or possibly a running sub-plot, would work best for an acrobatic crime fighter. Normally when a hero rescues a damsel from the mob, she helps to resolve the situation, by entering a witness protection program, or by staying out of the way in future, or in the worst case by getting herself killed. But this one is different. Her reaction is to obsess over the studly superhero who saved her. She loves seeing him in action, against fearsome odds, and she's convinced that whatever she does, Her Hero Will Save Her. Since none of the bad men she used to be frightened of can hurt her - they can at most force her stud-god superhero into showing his invincibility against all odds, which she wants - she can go around to everybody she hates and provoke them all she pleases. "Hey you! Yeah, Fat Tony, you ugly jerk - I'm gonna testify against you-hoo! Three strikes for you, Tony boy! Wanna know where I live now? Here's my card. Come around and visit me any time. Bring all your friends." (Under her breath: "Here they come, handsome. Dodge bullets for me.") She's actually doing a good job provoking very bad people into public mistakes...

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Thanks!

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine The link http://www.heroomatic.k6.com.br/ has stopped working for me, in effect. When I try it, I get taken past a red page to a blog http://fabricadeherois.blogspot.com/ which leaves me stranded as I don't speak Portugese. Does anyone have a solution?

Re: about bricks and possibly super powers in general

Re: S.H.A.R.D. - Super Hero Acronym Resource Directory A.S.P. - Australian Security Patrol (also: Australian Superhuman Patrol and Australian Supers Patrol)

Re: Opinions: A 'Hero' Stealing Their Gear.....???? Exactly. If someone breaks into the museum, steals something, and tries to fence it, that's one thing. If, when they examine the item and take it, they transform into one of the people that made and owned that item, and start doing things in line with their values, that's strong evidence that the claims of the original owners are still live - live enough to work magic! - even though that had not been immediately apparent. Even if you say that to the extent of the incompatibility between the property rights of the original owners and the property rights of the museum, the property rights of the original owners are suppressed, that still leaves open what those rights are, what the extent of the conflict really is, and what might be achieved in negotiations between friendly and reasonable people. Outside Iron Age conventions of story-telling, most people don't get into museum work to be plundering and destructive enemies of the ancient peoples whose creations they catalog and display. The Greek antiquities guys are likely to the think highly of the Greeks, the Roman antiquities people to think well of the Romans, and so on. In a world where there are more exotic options, it's a fair bet that the exotic antiquities people are going to be symathetic to virtuous ancient cultures, or even mildly xenophiliac. By and large, they're not likely to ignore the interests of the museum in making a deal that's good for everyone. They're not likely to take whatever view of the museum's property rights is most vexatious to the real life elf that they're actually getting to meet, and stick to that regardless of reason, Presence, Persuasion and so on. Mind you, if the elven hero starts off by energy blasting staff, to that people's awe turns to fear and hatred, that's different. In a situation like this, first impressions count for a lot.