David Blue

Re: Victim runs? In general, I'm not interested in criminals, or in busting criminals, and neither are my characters. So: no crime patrols, and I'm not playing to any type of criminals. But, my characters often are playing to particular types of people who need help. Gladiatrix patrolled the city gay district often, because she had a lot of fans there, who were dissatisfied with the protection they were getting from the police from gay-bashers and other menaces. Given that she had complete support from the community, which rightly looked to her as a protector, she had complete information on where trouble had occurred and where it was expected. She didn't bother trying to play the victim, as (a) she didn't look like a gay guy, ad ( she didn't have a "victim" look in her repertoire. Rather, local fans wisely trusted their star enough to play bait. Given the exhibition she made of people who hassled her fans, the problem soon ended. (The only problem was from motorcycle gang that she took down as fast as she could get to them, but which spread out and did a lot of damage.) When there was no further problem, she "patrolled" anyway, because people wanted her to come around and she liked to be around people who wanted her around. Imagine if Freddie Mercury in his prime had had superpowers and been eager to be the costumed champion of gays (or anyone else who liked him). People would ask him to come around regularly just so they could see Freddy Mercury. It was like that.

Re: Message from the President Not necessarily, in my opinion. In this communication, the POTUS does not indicate any willingness to die for the state. He only indicates a willingness to have others assasinated, specifically those who are willing to die for their country, perhaps unlike him. In the case of the present POTUS, you might decide that his National Guard service did indicate he was willing to die for his country, and therefore he could (and should) be killed. But if you thought that his National Guard service was essentially fake, he would have shown in practice that he did not subscribe to the opinion that his life would be at the disposal of the state, therefore he would be immune. Me too. It's part of why I like these extreme characters. I like to play them, and I like to gamemaster them. Not only do characters like this lend themselves to situations interesting to think about, they set up great, dramatic conflicts and scenes. The more they are for real, the more this is so. Imagine Silent Centurion has been played for about two years by a good strong roleplayer, and everyone in the team knows how utterly genuine about their misguided idealism this person is, and that they've laid their life on the line for their beliefs. Then they go on an international murder rampage. Oh, I should stop her to say why I thought this might be international. I am very pro-American, but I can't help noticing that from time to time, as in the case of Manuel Noriega, the Americans have shown that they think their laws simply over-ride the laws of other nations. Can you go to somebody else's country, smash any armed resistance, seize the de facto ruler, and try, convict, sentence and imprison him for drug offences under American law? Yes indeed. So I thought: if our extreme character is ordered to kill him or her self, and all the like-minded people who are likely to include their friends and family, and the order never says to exempt foreigners (who Silent Centurion quite likely doesn't even like), and foreigners have not been held exempt from U.S. law and executive decisions in the past - well you see how it can add up. Anyway, Silent Centurion is mowing down Important People left and right, explaining nothing (as per orders), and war impends. The POTUS orders the player characters to apprehend (and/or kill) the "rogue" (that is obedient) hero and explains the deal.

Re: Message from the President That is sublime. The occasional idea of genius like that is the reason I read threads like this. I think a properly played "extreme" player character with the right psych limits (which need not be Total - I think Strong would do it) should accept that order and carry it out to the best of his or her ability, give or take natural fumbles, hesitations and momentary crises of conscience. It would be quite a thing to discover, twenty years later, what had happened to Silent Centurion ("faithful unto death") and his soul mates. Or it might be a remarkable messy - and fun - Iron Age scenario if Silent Centurion was aware of thousands of people, in different countries, including celebrities and important officials, who shared his views on the primacy of the state, and he was very rapidly killing them all, wherever they were, possibly Chinese leaders first.

Re: Sure signs that your player doesn't want to be in your 350 pt champions game. Instantly.

Re: WWYCD: Hero with "Questionable" Political Views I think that's a good point. Busting criminals may make you useful. (Or it may make you a vigilante and criminal yourself.) To be a hero's hero, literally, to be respected as hero by other heroes, more than useful actions are required. Judgments of motive and character come into it. Some political views are not just nutty, they are dreadful. That may not affect who you have to work with in a crisis, but it is relevant to judgments of motive and character. Someone who is from another world (or from any time before the 20th Century) and doesn't know that the swastika is a bad symbol is fine (by default). Someone with views that sound Nazi-like, unless you examine them carefully, when they turn out to be quite different, may be fine. Someone who is the real thing has earned a highly unfavorable judgment on their character and likely motives - even if, let's say as a spokesman for National Socialism, they go around doing things calculated to make them popular.

Re: WWYCD: Hero with "Questionable" Political Views Off-topic, but that's an easy one. Hitler's views on Jews were inconsistent, except for being consistently malign. He thought the races should be slugging each out with each other to produce a perpetual genetic superbowl champion, which would of course benefit Aryans, who were the best; and he also blamed the Jews for being the ones who always got the other races fighting. (It's the Mel Gibson theory of how all wars begin.) Which, surely, is what they were supposed to be doing? And what Hitler was eagerly doing himself? But anyway: always blame the Jews! It's all their fault! Blame! Hate! Punish! Kill! Graagh!! (Ahem...) Just let the Aryan be a little more logical: "yes it's in the nature of the Jews to start fights, and as a born winner that's fine by me. Oh, Doctor Goldberg, what marvellous device do you have for us today?" The Aryan would assume whenever a Jewish scientist invented something amazing that we were going to wind up fighting over it - and in a comic book world, how often would he be wrong?

Re: WWYCD: Hero with "Questionable" Political Views Yup. Not worth it. Anyway, in answer to the present "what would your character do?" - it would depend how the other character's out-there views bounced of my character's quite likely equally out-there views. For example, Gladiatrix had views on the legitimacy of violence in sport and entertainment that would turn your hair white. As a purpose bred gladiator (and a credit to her creators) she could hardly have been expected to think anything else. She just never ran into anybody who objected to that. It was a bit like Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) - whenever Martin Blank would reveal that he was a professional killer, it would go like this: Mr. Newberry: What have you been doing with your life? Marty: Uh... professional killer. Mr. Newberry: Oh! Good for you, it's a... growth industry.

Re: WWYCD: The rest of the world's Supers just changed sex.

Re: WWYCD: The rest of the world's Supers just changed sex. Gladiatrix - Try to hit the right tone in mass media releases, to get credit for taking this unexpected and unexplained sex change like a trouper, while not coming across as a gay guy who was glad to be altered. Whatever is happening, the first, most important thing is to retain the love of the fan base. Chain Lightning - Investigate. Whoever did this is probably going to do other things that won't be nearly as funny, so Chain Lightning may need to beat them up. If this looks like a harmless one-off event, though, leave it like it is. Chain Lightning has no stake in anyone else's sexual identity. Orgone Man - Investigate. This has to change. Orgone Man is respectably married, and that is supremely important to him. Things are going to go back to normal, and that's that. Last Hero - Investigate. This has to change. Changing a queen egg to a drone egg means racial extinction. That is the only issue, and the rest of the world can go hang. Gladiatrix - Leave things like they are. Gladiatrix would not see a reason to alter them. Fans can love you just as much whichever sex they are. Chain Lightning - Leave things like they are. Chain Lightning plans on staying a boy, whatever may come. Orgone Man - Don't change the world back at the price of changing sexes. Keep trying to get things back to normal in the Orgone household. This is not about the rest of the world. It is about a man and a woman being married forever, as man and woman. Last Hero - Change the world back of course. The good of the queen egg is everything. And hey, that means that Last Hero becomes a drone, and (a vain, irresponsible) First Stud-muffin. Yeah! Who looks too cute to resist? You do, hunky-boy, you do! Goodbye to "death lighter than a feather and duty heavier than a mountain," hello to The Artist Formerly Known As Last Hero! (Try not to hate me 'cause I'm so handsome. Pout!) All female characters She-Hulk/Big Barda size or better will be hit on. Oh baby you know what I like! This thread is actually the most fun idea that's ever occurred to me in respect of Last Hero.

Re: Stalin's Legion of Super-Apes! I made the same mistake - not noticing that others were already aware of this brilliant story. But after all, it's so good it's worth mentioning again.

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!) Rather than seeing this as a military weapon, I think it's better to recognise it as a pure V-weapon, a Vengeance weapon against the Jews of Jew York, who had manipulated a (mostly) white America into the unjust war against the Reich. As we know (if we are paranoid lunatic Nazis) the Jews are indifferent to the purity of their doctrines, but intensely protective of the purity of their blood. This unstable random mutation weapon would be the final blow against that perverse purity of the blood, in the most Jew-infested city in the world. Lest we forget, while we are discussing V for Vengeance, V for Vendetta, V V V V V, there was this British project, also based on captured stocks of war materials and Nazi scientists... Are you aware of Stalin's all too real demand for the creation of an ape/human super-race, indifferent to the quality of its food (a key issue for the Soviet Union) and far hardier than human-kind, to use as super-soldiers? With a super-formula, something like forced Lamarkian evolution, turbo-charged by an utter indifference to humanitarian considerations, became marginally possible. At this point I believe we have to discuss the so-called Red Ghost and his astonishing results with creatures popularly but inaccurately believed to be genetically pure apes.

Re: WWYCD: Lost in a world without Supers; 9/11/2001 What would you recommend as the realistic plan?

Re: Killers Two issues implicitly brought out by Chimpira (repped by the way): 1. If you're lucky enough to have a player who gets it, reward him or her, not just the character. Talk to the player and make sure he or she is having a good time. Because a good player typically will find playing with killer bozos frustrating even if his or her character is cleaning up in rewards. If he or she is not really having a good time, break whatever crockery has to be broken to fix this. 2. If the good player characters should be beating the tar out of player character "heroes" who are villains, and arresting them, not adventuring with them, let that happen. Make sure people know this is a valid option too. Don't leave your players under the false impression that they are supposed to put up with murderous misbehaviour whether that would be in character for their heroes or not. As a gamemaster in a four color game, you shouldn't be neutral between heroes and villains. This includes player character heroes and (soon to be former) player character villains. The coldest words I have heard from a gamemaster, and the phrase you have to be able to say and back up, to be a real four color gamemaster, is: Time for a moral decision. The hero wins. He's not you.

Re: WWYCD: Lost in a world without Supers; 9/11/2001 Most of the characters I have actually played would start off in Sydney Australia or parts nearby, and lack rapid long-range movement powers. All would wish to help, most passionately. But they would probably be out of luck. Gladiatrix and the others would use their Presence (and, typically, high Comeliness), and their super-abilities to add to it. I think they would all head straight for the American embassy. It would be easy for any of them to convince the local staff they were not joking. Whether they could convince anyone in America would be in the lap of the gods.

Re: Sure signs that your player doesn't want to be in your 350 pt champions game. My initial build for Gladiatrix, alien super-warrior, involved: - an irrational, very common psychological limit of showboat/glory-hound - an irrational love of fighting - a hunted by Firewing 8-, more powerful (much, much more powerful) Her defence against ranged attacks was "bullets and bracelets" with hefty bracers/buckler-shields that each served as a one-shot area effect (line) killing flame-thrower. And she had: - 2xSTUN, 2xBODY from all fire/flame attacks. She sweated napalm, in effect, and was not immune to the effects. Basically she was an experimental accident, a super-effective freak deviation from a line of clones created for a Gladiatorial Circus of Cruelty. As beautiful and charismatic as possible, they would dance around in hot bikinis and cheerleader outfits, stabbing each other with swords, hurling javelins at each other and parrying them with the bucklers (or not) and torching each other (or dodging), always being careful to conserve ammo, because there would always be a lot more than two opponents in the arena to start with. The pinnacle of their careers would be to be the warmup act for Firewing - who, in his occasional visits to the cluster as Galactic Champion, would announce his arrival to the drooling crowd by making the winner explode in a sea of fire. Yaay! Naturally I built Gladiatrix with Dodge, Block, Missile Deflect and Dive For cover at campaign limit values. Gladiatrix ran away from the Circus of Cruelty. She wasn't a coward (even by her own severe standards) - but she wasn't content to be just a soon-to-be-forgotten opening act either. She'd had it with cynicism, and rigged fights for cynical audiences. She wanted real fights, for primitive (human), un-jaded audiences, who would believe everything and love their star/heroine/planetary defender/fighter like crazy. (Though as crazy as how much Gladiatrix loved her fans/audience is hard to come by. No player character could have been more passionate about rescuing normals who came close to applaud, photograph or just watch her in action.) The gamemaster forced a comprehensive rebuild. I accepted that. He was the gamemaster. But I was perfectly serious about the original build. Gladiatrix wasn't about living forever. She was about living and dying for the (global) crowd - what that might mean if you give it everything, what it might cost, what the rewards or consequences might be. I'd still love to play the original concept. I was never one for singing What I really feel Except tonight, I’m bringing Everything I know that’s real. Stars they come and go They come fast or slow They go like the last light Of the sun, all in a blaze And all you see is glory Hey but it gets lonely there When there’s no one here to share. We can shake it away If you’ll hear a story. People lust for fame Like athletes in a game We break our collarbones And come up swinging Some of us are downed Some of us are crowned Some are lost and never found ... If you're playing that character properly, in a good team, then with what you do for your friends and team mates most of the time (everything you can), when Firewing or some other flaming killer comes round and you start getting that moth-to-a-flame look in your eyes and wondering aloud if Earth people would be excited to see a real heroine die in prime time, they keep you alive. And if not, not. To me, that's not much stranger than saying that if (movie) Superman gets nailed good by green kryptonite, some woman is going to have to save him based on his previous good conduct, or he dies. Some characters, in some ways, are meant to have no armor against fate.

Re: Killers

Re: New Group and I'm Nervous. So I warmly recommend you give the player characters a chance to counteract that right at the start. If they do, you've set up a good conflict between an undesirable trend in the world and the heroic player characters overcoming it, which is great. And if they don't, then later on the player characters will be able to say, let's look to our own actions or lack of them for why things are the way they are. I'll say this again: if you're leaving things up to the player characters, fine, but make sure they face real choices and real chances to do good and be recognised for it. Don't set up a situation where there's not much they can really do about bad things happening in the game and then say, "I left it up to them..." Make sure they have ample opportunities to react like heroes if they want to, and that if they do act like heroes people whose minds are not made up - civilians, not guards - will see and remember them. Here's what I suggest. Assume the storm has hit other nearby islands too. Design three rescue situations with normal people - not the staff of the base that is hostile to the player characters - specifically for each of the player characters. So, if one of them has telekinesis, set up one - two - three situations where ordinary people are in danger and a telekinetic would be the perfect person to save them. Make sure the player character telekinetic meets all three of those situations. (And do the same for the other two, based on their different powers.) By the end of that series of choices, it will be clear whether the player character mutants help ordinary people (3) every chance they get (2) more often than not (1) occasionally (0) never or practically never. Make these easy choices, there's no need to complicate them with dilemmas like "save the lady or the child". Just: help or don't help. For example, lift the people in the path of something bad up to a safe ledge and fly on, or just fly on. Easy, either way. What do you want to do? The whole campaign can flow from that choice. I'd say don't get too interested in the guards, the robots and evil mutants. Those are all fine, but the player characters will have plenty of time to meet them all again later, when the hunt for the escaped mutants is on. Sure, use them, but make darn sure they don't stop the player characters getting away to their three potentially heroic situations each. Don't try to make these fights close run things. Also, don't define the player characters by how they react to the staff, "sympathetic" or not. That risks confusing player characters who may be generous in spirit in general, but vengeful or unhelpful to those who may be their enemies, with player characters who are just not heroic in general. Big difference. You need to clear that up - and not just by looking at what is on the character sheet but by how the player actually plays the character. So be sure to get each player character mutant to those situations involving people who can't be suspected of having done him or her any wrong.

Re: Power Defense

Re: Power Defense

Re: WWYCD: Evil in Innocence Chain Lightning will neither kill the child nor permit him or her to be killed. First, that's completely unacceptable. Second, as Chain Lightning understands his duty, it's his job to keep trying to defeat demonic magic, with or without hope. Third, if "bonding" is potentially breakable the problem is potentially soluble, and if it isn't it's just a matter of time till this is a routine tactic for demons. Not every demon-haunted soul is going to be killed. So giving up in this case implies giving up in what may become the general case. Chain Lightning won't give up. Orgone Man will try to build an orgone-powered magic-proof cell. Thunder will go along with what the magic or weird stuff experts say. Last Hero will consult the experts, weigh danger of the sorcerer to the last Korbenite egg against the legal and other risks of killing the human child, and likely make a quick, ruthless decision.

Re: Power Defense

Re: WWYYCD: The Rally Thunder would gladly help the police. Where there is no team work to do, she generally gets assigned boring duties. This would be a day out. Orgone Man would be delighted to help the police. This job is what he does. He'll work conscientiously to make the day a peaceful one. If he has to hit some KKK guys with calming rays, and they find a bath of mental health an unsettling experience - good! Last Hero would listen to the advice of his dancing and arts crowd friends, so he would join the anti-KKK rally. But he would also arrange to have a friendly policeman in eye and ear shot, to signal him if help was needed. Last Hero's real agenda for the day would be: nobody gets hurt today. All these heroes would much rather do this than bust criminals, super or otherwise. They like protecting people, and they're very good at doing so with little or no violence. Chain Lightning would refuse to appear in daylight and get photographed. However he would appear in the spectators, wearing civvies though in super form, not carrying a weapon (a chain), not drawing attention to himself, and definitely not about to cut loose with demon-slaying lightning in a crowded area.

Re: Mob Boss in Champions

Re: WWYCD: Registration Chain Lightning would refuse to register and would actively aid others of good character refusing to register. If you think you can register and deregister a Sorcerer Supreme and/or their Familiar / lightning wielding enforcement arm, you are not really grasping the concept. If you think a government bureaucrat can train them in their duties, you are not really grasping the concept. If you assume that such mundane duties as it may please you to impose on them are important and keeping the gates of Hell closed is not ... (etc.) From Chain Lightning's point of view, which is mine: registration is a good idea if you really want to live with the consequences that would follow if people like Doctor Strange were forced to abandon their real duties in favor of being bossed around by the like of Henry Peter Gyrich. But if not, not. Thunder was designed to operate in a campaign where registration in effect was a gamemaster reqirement. Personally she had a cud-chewing easy-going pleasantness, but that had nothing to do with her actions, which ultimately turned out to be whatever whoever was behind the government hero group decreed. Thunder would think it funny that she was supposed to have an "opinion". Why, so next time someone with real power asked her what to do she would know what to say? She was a utensil, and she knew it, end of story. Last Hero can only have a Public Identity anyway, and would say whatever seemed expedient. Last Hero is designed so that he cannot forfeit his conscience or his duty, as both require him to protect the last egg. Anyone setting themselves up to override his judgment on whether and how the egg ought to be protected would be setting themselves up for a fight to the death. There is little of free will for a Korbenite super-warrior. Orgone Man would disagree with registration but as a public hero might see little reason to make that disagreement in principle a practical one. If push comes to shove, he is cold-blooded enough to wait with arms folded till the numbers of innocents needlessly killed in consequence of a registration policy becomes so great that public opinion changes. The good doctor must pursue his aims, but need not do so hastily or obviously. Thus he is a good citizen type, much like Ozymandias in Watchmen.