Houston GM

Science magazines and trendsetters. A lot of what you want to look at are the cutting edge trends, then look at where the technology will reasonably go in 22 years. Computing: The web will become immersed into hand held technology. Your cellphone/pager/organizer could be programmed to notify you about breaking news stories on the CNN website. Your watch could pick up local weather over the internet. The intranet at your workplace could be programmed to recognize your presence. When a workstation detects your employee badge nearby, it will display your desktop at that terminal. True AI intelligence probably won't be developed. But there will be specialized systems that are capable of learning. Computing technology will continue to get cheaper, and miniturization down to the nanotech level will be commercially available. Broadband will become the rule in 1st world nations, and common in major cities even in the 3rd world. The workplace: A lot more contract employees will work from home. Other technical jobs will continue to move overseas (into 2nd world nations). These employees will be paid for the work completed, not by the hour or day. This will lead to new unemployment problems in fields that were previously immune. Space: Space exploration will creep along until it becomes commercially marketable. Orbital launches will move into the private sector, mostly to put communications satellites into orbit. The commercial sector may begin exploration of the asteroid belt, if there is evidence of rare and marketable minerals. This exploration will be unmanned. Most likely it will be handled by the existing space agencies (NASA, ESA, RSA, JSA), but funded by the private sector who will reap the benefits. Climate: The melting of the icecaps in the Arctic and Greenland will cause a shift in the Gulfstream (starting in about a decade). This will cause a climate shift in NE U.S., eastern Canada, and Western Europe. Average daily temperatures will be 5 degrees cooler in the summer and 15-20 degrees cooler in the winter. This shift will last for a few decades. Elsewhere in the world, global warming will continue. Coastal areas will experience costly flooding. Environment: Environmental concerns will be largely ignored in the U.S., Eastern Europe, and all 2nd & 3rd world nations. Environmental disasters will leave large stretches of land toxic and uninhabitable. In the U.S. these will be toxic waste dumps that have failed over time ... and a few disasters caused by terrorist acts. There will be passing gestures toward environmentalism (cleaner automobiles) but these will only slow down the problems. Politics: This is very hard to predict. You could probably justify all sorts of political changes over the next 22 years. Whatever fits your campaign. Terrorism will continue to be a major political factor for the next decade, and perhaps until 2025. I expect terrorist attacks to become more frequent in the U.S., much like they are in Europe. For growing political forces, look to China, India, or a unified Arab world as possibilities. Energy: "Clean" forms of energy will slowly continue to develop, but most of the world's energy will continue to come from fossil fules. About the only thing that would reasonably change this is a nuclear war in the Middle East ... which isn't beyond the realm of possibility. Japan will lead the world in alternate sources of energy in order to compensate for its own lack of natural resources. Fusion power will still be in the experimental stages, but geothermal and solar power will become practical. Medicine: We will find cures for most modern diseases including heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer's. The human genome project will identify many genetic defects. Parents will be able to detect these defects early in the pregnancy and abort these babies. Despite an outcry against this, it will become increasingly common practice. Hormone therapy will allow the elderly to avoid physical deterioration. The same therapy will speed recovery from injuries. It will also be capable of allowing anyone to develop a super-physique (a la Arnold), but will not be approved for such use. (There will be a booming black market.) Treatments to prevent memory loss will become available. They will be prescribed to the elderly, and effectively prevent senility. (There will also be a booming black market for these among the younger population. These drugs will have side effects since they will impede the normal forgetting of information that the brain needs to reduce clutter.) There will also be treatments to halt the effects of aging. While these can't keep people young, they will be able to halt the aging effects around the 80 year mark. Combined with the treatments to prevent physical and mental deterioration, people will be able to lead productive lives well past 100. China will aggressively continue pursuing cloning and stem cell research. The U.S. will eventually capitulate and resume research in these areas. By 2025 there will be human clones in their mid to late teens. Many of the early human clones will die from defects, but there will be some survivors. Stem cells will have gone from the research stage to being used in treatments. Much damage from injury and disease will be reparable. The demand for stem cells will be high, leading to an active black market in the 3rd world. Impoverished women in these countries will be paid to abort their babies in order to feed this worldwide demand. The major medical problem will be viruses. As of 2003, there is no cure for any virus (other than the body's own defense mechanisms). While some cures may be developed in the next 2 decades, viruses will mutate faster than these cures can be developed. There are some truly dangerous possibilites for these viruses. (i.e. AIDS mutates and becomes airborne.) Some may also be developed and spread by acts of terrorism (biowarfare). ---------------------------------------------- Obviously, this is all speculation. But a lot of the medicine is based on today's research. They've begun to isolate the causes of aging (and some people naturally stop aging around 80). They've given lab rats injections which allowed them to develop 4 times the musculature, and these rats remain fit even as they grow "old". Prevention of memory loss is still being tested at the invertebrate level, but researchers know that it's possible. Human cloning is possible today, using the same technology as in vitro fertilization. The first human clones may already have been born.... ---------------------------------------------- A shift in the gulfstream is possible in the next 1-3 decades. The next 100 years will also probably see a natural release of CO2 from the ocean floor into the atmosphere. This will rapidly exarcerbate global warming. ---------------------------------------------- The last 22 years put a PC and the Internet into every home. We saw the collapse of the U.S.S.R. AIDS became an epidemic. The European Union was developed, and the North American Free Trade Agreement was reached shortly afterward. Terrorism struck the U.S. in a very major way. What changed in the last 22 years? When Star Trek came out, people thought that hand held communicators were something of the far future. By the time Next Generation came out, cell phones were already much smaller than the original communicators. Today, cell phones are everyman technology. If you want one, you have one. Many people don't even have a normal phone in their home anymore. They simply use their cell phone.

How they score. Brick Coolness: B+. Strong and tough are cool, but the "all brawn / no brain" reputation detracts a bit. Sex Appeal: B/D. Women like a man that makes them feel petite and delicate. This may wear a little thin when he cracks your ribs giving you a warm hug. Men do not prefer women who make them feel small and delicate. Trust: C. To many bricks end up as thugs for them to be wholeheartedly trusted. Even the heroes can cause collateral damage by breathing heavily. The smarter bricks can work their way into the public trust, however. Energy Projector Coolness: B. They're flashy and impressive. Power pulses through their veins. Sex Appeal: B-. They're the kings of the skin-tight costumes. The inherent risk has an appeal ... until it becomes immediately life threatening. Trust: C-. They're easy to understand, which the public likes. But they lose their temper and start blowing things up. Gadgeteer Coolness: D. Too many of these guys were the introverts who spent most of their time talking to inanimate objects. Sex Appeal: D. I think he built himself a gadget to take care of those urges. Trust: B. These are the "normal blokes" who keep an eye on those "freaky mutants". If it wasn't for the occasional doomsday device (or experiment gone wrong), these guys would be ranked 'A'. Martial Artist Coolness: A. These are the real people who have the courage to go toe-to-toe with supers. And they have the skill to win too. Sex Appeal: A. They've spent a lifetime getting an incredible physique. Unless they've been horribly scarred in the process, they're the ones you want to be with. And their level of discipline usually means they're not hopping from bed to bed. Nobody wants sloppy seconds. Trust: A. These are also "normal people" who are keeping the neighborhood safe from all the freaks. Mentalist Coolness: D. Mentalists are only cool in a creepy sort of way. People like the idea of being able to see into other people's minds, but they don't like it if the situation is reversed. Sex Appeal: D. Mentalists can take intimacy a step further than it should go. Trust: F. If they trust you, they won't kill you on sight. That's about as much trust as you're going to get. Metamorph Coolness: B. Turning into some things (wolves, sports cars, pillars of fire) is cool. Turning into other things (fish, toaster ovens, mud puddles) is not so cool. Sex Appeal: C. Sure, they can look like the man/woman of your dreams ... but what if they're really a man or an amorphous blob looking like the woman of your dreams (or vice versa)? That's not nearly as sexy. Trust: F. They can sneak around and spy on you. They can pretend to be your best friend and learn your secrets. They can sleep with your girlfriend, and she might not notice the difference. Mystic Coolness: A. They're dark and mysterious. They know secrets that other people don't. They have power. Sex Appeal: A. They have mystery, danger, and most have a fabulous wardrobe to back it up. Trust: D. Communing with dark powers and demons from beyond the pale may be cool, but nobody wants it happening next door. Patriot Coolness: D. They stand up and support the government. They obey the law. They are so uncool. Sex Appeal: D. They're safe. They're the kind of date your mother would approve of. Who wants to date a square? Trust: A. They have a mission to protect the people. They're accountable. Powered Armor Coolness: B. They may not be powerful on their own, but they're cool just like a sports car or a jet fighter. Sex Appeal: A-. All the sex appeal of a sports car, and the mystery of wondering what he/she really looks like in there. But there's that nagging question whether someone is "compensating" for something. Trust: A-. They're also seen as normal people who stand up to the mutants and freaks. While they do have potential to cause destruction, you can always sue them for everything they own (like their powered armor). Speedster Coolness: B. These are the king of the smart-alecs. They excel at making their opponents look slow, clumsy, and foolish. Wisecracks may be cool, but only up to a point. Sex Appeal: F. No one wants a man who is going to take them on a "minute waltz", or a woman who will look up and say "Would you hurry up and finish already." Trust: B+. They're not destructive. Many run around helping people out in their spare time. This compensates for their flighty nature. Weapon Master Coolness: A-. They're respected for the same reasons that martial artists are. Sex Appeal: B. They have the benefits of martial artists, but weapons sometimes cross the line from "dangerous" to "threatening". Trust: B. They're normal folks standing up for the rest of us, but some of them are clearly violating weapon laws. --------------------------------------------- These are just generalizations. Never underestimate the power of a pretty face, a cool costume, a sexy accent, and lots of money.

No problesm with telepathy. As I said in the other thread, if I have a telepath, I simply plan accordingly. 1) Telepathy is invasion of pricacy and illegal search and seizure. You might know the villain is guilty, but it doesn't mean much until you can prove it. 2) The first people you run across are the low level agents. "Need to know" is in effect. They do know something. You give them information to propel the plot forward, but not enough to wreck the plot. 3) People don't trust telepaths. Unless you can get someone's permission, you have to make sure you don't get caught. (This adds +20 to your target numbers.) It also means you have to be careful about Mental Awareness. 4) Minds contain a lot of information, kind of like the internet. And just like the internet, you have to go searching for specific information. If you're not asking the right questions, you won't get the right answers. 5) Minds also contain misinformation (also like the internet). You find out what they know or believe ... not necessarily the truth. 6) Some people's minds contain unpleasant surprises. After hitting one or two of these, a mentalist is bound to become very cautious. ------------------------------------- There's only one thing needed to prevent players from abusing telepathy against other players: Mental Awareness. If one other player has Mental Awareness, and they catch the mentalist abusing their powers, you can be certain the group will handle the situation.

Origins If you're starting an Origins type campaign, you can have them be a group of normals (friends, coworkers, neighbors) who all get their powers from the same incident.

Less work. Unless I'm creating a major recurring villain, I'm just going to sketch out minimal stats for them. That includes sketchy disadvantages. I don't need to know all their vulnerabilities. But I do no if they're vulnerable to anything my group regularly uses. I don't need to know all their hunteds. I just need to know the ones that will show up in this adventure. I will have a good idea about their PsychLims. Those are the most likely to show up during the course of the adventure. --------------------------------- I stopped creating full write-ups for opponents back when I was working way too many hours. I just didn't have the time to invest in the details. That's when I discovered that it didn't really affect the quality of the game much. I'd rather spend the time making Joe Normal into an interesting source of information than figuring out how to set up every point for a Metahuman who is only going to show up for one adventure.

GMs and mental powers. Some GMs don't want to deal with mental powers. Others do allow them; they just incorporate them into the overall plan. Give them access to the minds of the agents. What self-respecting villain feeds the whole plan to his goons. They know part of the plan, and thats the part you want the team to know right now. Learn from watching "The Dead Zone". If your group has precognition or telepathy, don't let it destroy the story. Use it to drive the story forward.

Not offended. I'm not at all offended, Noumena. There were several things that I didn't get around to before you left town. The current adventure was actually going to be a chance for you to cut loose. They're up against clones which have low ego (~8) and are vulnerable to Mind Control. Speaking of PsychLims, I just discovered some player PsychLims. The bad guys got away with some genetic tissue off Levi. They're convinced that they can't effectively fight him. (Levi is a PC telekinetic. He's nearly immune to physical damage.) I'm going to have to send 3 Levi clones against them sometime just to witness the collective bladder voiding. ----------------------------------------- Hasty attempt to not derail. Levi got suckered through one of his PsychLims: Charitable. He was convinced to go support a Red Cross benefit. The enemy staged an ambush at the benefit.

That's *too* good. That one's just too good to pass up. I'm going to have to use it sometime.

Bah. If the Lt. had ever realized you had this PsychLim, she would have used it a lot more. She wouldn't have asked you to do anything extreme. Just little things ... you know ... go spy on the Count. Nobody knows too much about him. That would have fit in real well with your paranoia PsychLim.

Other options. Spread your 12d6 EB across 2-3 agents in consecutive hexes. That way you can drop a few at once. Does your Explosion or AE con-stun agents? That's a lot of actions lost with one shot. Better yet, coordinate your attack with 1-2 teammates who also have AE or Explosion. You can drop all the agents and con-stun a villain or two. If you're allowed to rapid fire your AE, you can drop 3 shots in one phase. Sure, it's a lot of END, but clearing the field of agents in one action may be worth it.

Mind games. You're on the right track. Think up attacks in advance, then modify them and apply them in combat. When using a mentalist villain, I effectively took the team pilot out by rendering him incommunicado. All he heard over his radio was static. He couldn't hear the team. He tried talking to the team, but had no indication that they could hear him. Another time I convinced the team pilot that the VTOL had been rolled over and was plummeting toward the ground. He compensated and rolled the VTOL "back over". Crash. Your target hears a noise behind him. When he turns around, an agent is pointing a rocket launcher at him. (Ego +10) Of course, it's really his teammate, but nobody is going to stop long enough to figure that out. Once you run mental illusions enough, your opponents become hesitant to act. They no longer trust their own senses. Your opponents will also become hyper-paranoid, and try to see through your illusions. Use this to your advantage. Example: Durak is standing to the right and slightly behind Fiacho. Fiacho hears a radio crackle, and then Defender's slightly distorted voice, "I'm going to distract Fiacho, then you hit him from behind." Durak murmur's back in Ironclad's voice, "I'm ready." Because he's paranoid, Fiacho will believe he has "seen through" your clever illusion, and retaliate first. After Fiacho nails Durak, hit Durak with a mental illusion: he hears Fiacho say "Surprise" in Defender's voice. You're now getting the same results for Ego +10 (or less) that used to cost Ego +20 (or more). ---------------------------------- Quick and dirty stunts: Total sensory deprivation. All 5 (or more) senses go blank or black. (Ego +20) The person they've squared off with disappears. This turns an evenly matched fight into a total mismatch. (Ego +10 or +20) If the fight is evenly matched, one of the less brave opponents hears their leader call "Retreat." (Ego +0) ---------------------------------- If you can figure out someone's psychological buttons, push them hard. This works for other archetypes too. I once had a shapeshifter facing Ra (Egyption sun god). I went after him as a swarm of locusts (special effect for desolid). ---------------------------------- Mind Control is less elegant, but can be easier to use. Tell your opponent to attack one of your teammates. That's Ego +0 or +10. However, you've directed them to attack the teammate that's nearly immune to them. While their brick is trying to smash the guy who's desolid, and their energy projector is shooting the guy with missile reflection, the rest of their group can concentrate on the enemies who are still effective. For a lot of laughs, send their move-through specialist after your teammate with martial throw.

For the very old. One of the NPCs in my campaign is around 1000 years old ... or so he says. Nobody has been able to verify this. He has the PhysLim: Anachronistic - frequent, greatly impairing. He doesn't understand modern technology. He doesn't typically operate anything more complex than a light switch or faucet. He doesn't mind modern technology. He just doesn't have much use for it in his personal life.

High rise. For one mentalist villain, his base was a high-rise apartment complex. He'd transformed all the occupants into his mentally dominated slaves. Every person was technically an innocent, but they would make attacks worthy of a suicide bomber.

Favorites, but not common. My favorite ones I use infrequently. They're special because they only crop up once in a while. Also, since I'm a GM, these tend to be applied to NPCs and villains. Weakness for beautiful ladies - common, strong. If you meet a beautiful lady, you want to take her to a fancy restaurant, a gallery opening, or a night at the opera. You'll even extend this invitation while she's trying to attack you, provided she's not being crass about it. Just imagine how your teammates will envy you when they discover that you posted bail for a villainess so she would be able to attend the dinner date you had arranged. Courteous - common, moderate. You always call people sir or ma'am. You always say please and thank you. You don't just shoot the intruders in your base. You politely ask them to leave first. This is especially entertaining when you give the psychlim to a ruthless villain. He regrets that you refuse to answer his questions, and he'll even mention that ... right before he sighs and blows up your head. Must humiliate opponents - common, strong. No explanation needed. This is just plain fun ... and it earns you a lot of hunteds.

They're allowed. I allow my players to take called shots. I've only seen one or two taken by them, and none at all since FREd came out (and I implemented Rapid Fire). I have had 3 NPCs who do called shots to the head. They are/were rightfully respected for their destructiveness with low-powered weapons. I'll also sometimes describe hit in terms of a location (for flavor), based on the damage they do. If you have an 11DC power, and you get 85 stun on one roll, you just just scored a head shot.

He's 4th Ed. The Idiot King is in Underworld Enemies, a 4th Ed supplement. The Idiot King (Elliot Mann) suffered severe brain damage during a suicide attemt. He has an IQ of 50 ... most of the time. Every so often, the Idiot King "wakes up". His intelligence elevates to a super-genius level. He gains numerous skills. He also has a mad plan to wake up the rest of the world. Usually some form of twisted social commentary. The Idiot King alerts all local police, heroes and media when he gets loose from the mental institution. He also drops clues along the way to help people catch him. He wants to be caught ... if you're smart enough. The Idiot King prefers non-lethal attacks, but he's not overly concerned if his pranks end up killing someone. When in his "genius" phase, the Idiot King wears a mask that covers his entire head. If this is removed and he sees a reflection of his face, he reverts to his "brain damaged" self.

This is an abridged version of an adventure that I just ran for my group. Theme: The Idiot King is apalled by the "drug culture" of modern society, and decides to do something about it. Of course, he's targeting the major offender ... legal drugs. Clues: The Idiot King is leaving "alphabet crime" type clues (A, B, C). There are also some clues that generally point back to him. A. The Idiot King announces his presence by sending out packages to the group, the police, the media, etc. The package contains a bottle holding 2 tablets. The label says: "The Idiot King is on the loose. Take two and call me in the morning." One tablet is an aspirin. The other is an amphaetamine that looks like an aspirin. B. The Idiot King steal a case of barbiturates from the police evidence room, and replaces them with assorted birth control pills. C. The police get a tip from a snitch about a cocaine shipment coming through the Coca-Cola bottling plant. The police bust in to find Coke ... but only the kind you drink. D. The regional DEA office is sent 4 cases of diet pills "for destruction and disposal". My group was nice enough to mention that this was a prank, so the pills were harmless, so precautions weren't really necessary. This is how the hapless DEA agent discovered that the outside of the bottles were coated with a mixture of DMSO and Demarol. E. The local paramedics have an emergency down at Escapade (a popular dance club). A few dozen of the patrons have severe diarrhea and dehydration. Since Escapade does not have that many restrooms, the club is now a smelly mess due to the people who can't stop soiling themselves. What happened? The Idiot King sent his henchmen to mug the clubs resident Ecstasy dealers. The dealers think the muggers got their wad, but not their stash. But the henchmen grabbed both, and substituted in Ex-Lax pills (yes, it is available in pill form too) which were modified to look like Ecstasy. If your group is bright, they'll notice that the legal drug was much more damaging than the illegal drug. F. The Idiot King attempts to frame the group by sending a story to the local Fox news affiliate alleging that a few of the PC's have been abusing Fentanyl (a prescription narcotic). If any of the group has been recently hospitalized for injuries, it's conceivable that they were actually prescribed them. In addition, the Idiot King has duped the Dept. of Public Works into installing a filter onto the water main leading into the group's base. The filter removes the flouride from the water and replaces it with Fentanyl. (Good luck passing a drug test now.) Do any of the heroes have a name beginning with the letter F? When the police come to search for the Fentanyl, they will find some in that hero's belongings ... in a bottle of Fiber-All. By this time my group was anticipating the Idiot King's moves enough to undo most of this before it happened. G. The police sex crimes division notices a tie between a new case and the Idiot King. Some graduate students had been hosting weekly parties in which they drugged co-eds with GHB (the date-rape drug). The Idiot King sent in a female agent of his to mess up their plans. She found the bottles of GHB they were using that night and swapped them with identical bottles of glucose. After spending a little time at the party, she called the police and accused the guys of groping her. (They had, since they thought she was affected by GHB.) The police arrive on the scene and find several other women who are willing to back up the agent's claims. In addition, one of the grad students is in a bedroom raping an unconcious co-ed. (He thought the GHB knocked her out, but she's actually a diabetic who was put in a diabetic coma by the raw glucose.) I. A drug dealer gets beaten up by a dissatisfied customer because the isobutyl nitrite (Poppers) he sold were actually iodine. The dealer bought the iodine from the Idiot King, who posed as a new drug supplier. What happened to letter H? The Idiot King has made his headquarters at Himalaya USA, a manufacturer of herbal remedies. (I chose them because they're the only drug manufacturer in Houston.) By now, there should be a few clues to point the group in the right direction. The executive offices at Himalaya USA are being renovated, but behind the drop cloths, the Idiot King is running his whole prank. ------------------------------------- Obviously, you will have to modify the adventure to fit your campaign city, and you'll need to add in appropriate clues.

A few I've used. My campaign is set in Houston, one year ago. I initially did this so I could run one Idiot King adventure set at the end of 2000. The Idiot King had created a "Millenium Virus" that would do everything the Y2K bug was supposed to ... just 1 year later. Since then, I've run Tropical Storm Allison: the basement begins to flood, forcing the team to move everyone out of the base jail. Impromptu jailbreak time. A couple years ago, a Japanese fishing trawler sunk after it collided with a U.S. submarine. In my campaign, the trawler was transporting some super-tech, and the "accidental" collision was merely plausible deniability. The U.S. grabbed the technology, and brought it back to the U.S. Japan sent a platoon of cyber-augmented special forces to get it back. I did one based around 9/11. I changed up events slightly. One of the planes was headed for the Houston ship channel, with its miles of refineries, tank farms, and volitile pipelines. The plane had one metahuman terrorist, and a few normal terrorists. The team vehicle was slower than the plane, so the group had to think quick in order to win. I saw a program on the Discovery Channel about mega-tsunamis, so I put together a Dr. Destroyer plot where he was trying to trigger a massive collapse of Cumbre Vieja in the Canary Islands in order to wipe out the eastern seaboard of the U.S. (This is something that might naturally occur in the next 1000 years, but Dr. D was speeding up the process.)

Damage reduction Damage reduction could be appropriate, because he's "too dumb to know he's hurt". I would not buy it resistant, because killing attacks tend to reflect damaging, killing attacks. You could use the same justification for massive STUN or END.