bigdamnhero

I'm with you there. But then, fearing the government has always been pretty central to the X-Men mythos. The premiere didn't blow me away (like Legion did!), but I enjoyed it enough to keep watching for now. Runaways OTOH looks so damn good it might be worth getting Hulu for.

As I understood it, I think RDU Neil's question was less about party balance and more about can the system handle both low-level and high-level powered characters. There aren't really that many game systems that scale well at those extremes.

I only played the one short game, so I can't really say. I do agree that SW suffers from scale problems on the high end generally. (Tho in NE remember the tanks were supposed to be super-advanced alien tanks that had already killed off all of Earth's superheroes, so they weren't exactly meant to be mooks.)

Don’t forget pawn shops, used car dealerships, and cheap Chinese buffets.

I generally use Hit Locations in most Heroic games. Our basic rule of thumb is games either use Knockback or Hit Locations. Although when I run convention/demo games, I usually skip Hit Locations. That's the main reason I like Hit Locations in fantasy. In fact, the very first FH game I played (c1986?), my rogue/fencer/conman got in a swordfight with an armored knight, and my rapier couldn't penetrate his heavy armor; but his legs were more lightly-armored, so I started targeting them and was (eventually) able to hamstring him. It was something so different from every D&D game I'd played I fell in love with Hero then and there. I agree re vitals vs genitals. But it's worth pointing out that taking Killing Damage to the nads is going to result in a LOT of blood loss... I use a similar rule, but the players have to spend a Hero Point to do so; since they have a limited supply of Hero Points, they have to be choosy about when to spend it. In practice my players use it more to pull away from hands/feet towards chest, rather than to heads/vitals. Hmm...now I'm thinking of increasing the cost to move to head or vitals, maybe is costs 3 for 1 instead of 2 for 1? I'd have to play around with it, but I like the idea. I had the same thought: hit locations in a swordfight are going to be much different than in a gun fight, or even than a fist fight. Similarly, a punch in the "heart" isn't typically going to do much more damage than another chest punch, so in that case treating 13 as genitals sorta makes sense. But no, I don't really want to come up with 3 (or more) different tables, so I think we can just call this one "close enough for gaming." Well the idea is that they have to have a reasonable/plausible method of blocking. For most heroic characters, blocking spears or arrows empty-handed is not plausible. But if they're holding a bench or a heavy book or something they can try to block with, that's different and very in-genre. GM judgement and common sense applies. As for PSLs, there a Word Of Steve saying that while you can buy PSLs to reduce Called Shot penalties, you can't buy PSLs to "pull" rolled Hit Locations. I don't like this in principle, and have allowed it for some characters...but again it can be easily munchkined if you're not careful.

Baby Driver. It was kinda fun and the music was good, certainly worth the $4 I paid to see it, but I'm not sure what all the fuss was about.

FIFY, human nature being what it is and all. Well, bullets do have pretty good penetration (I don't mean the game Adv) compared to arrows. I've done this in the past as "AP, only vs. medieval armor" or something like that, but either way works. I tend to agree that time frame makes more sense, but YMMV. I also really like the gold idea, but given how ubiquitous gold is in most fantasy games, it does seem unlikely that no one has figured that out before now. Especially assuming writing is a thing that exists, knowledge doesn't get lost that quickly. My main question is, while this is an interesting exercise in world-building, how does it affect the PCs? Even with a relatively quick transition from no magic to peak magic, over the timespan of a typical RPG campaign it's still going to be relatively stable. So how do you see the fact that magic levels were different X years ago and will be different Y years from now, how does that drive the story and how does it affect the players of a day-to-day basis.

...and a scenario idea is born!

That ones actually relatively easy, since they go on every Phase once the bump kicks in.

Honestly I usually just swag it. As long as the character gains/loses the right *number* of Phases (amortized across an entire Turn) I don't worry too much about exactly *which* Phases they act on. I know it's not By The Book, but it keeps things moving.

Not a bad rule of thumb. But as others have pointed out, the actual legalities are likely to get a lot more complicated.

Uh, I wasn't assuming that at all. If you have a magical energy blast, you can probably Block an incoming energy blast (or at least try to), but it all depends on sfx, type of energy, and what the GM feels is appropriate. (IIRC Ultimate Energy Projector has a lengthy session on what happens when this type of energy interacts with that type of energy, which could make EB Blocks more interesting.)

Here's an interesting video essay speculating on why the world of Game Of Thrones has never advanced out of the Middle Agess after thousands of years. You could easily extend the logic to most fantasy worlds. https://youtu.be/PDdKmx0PW7s

Interesting idea. One of the reasons I quit playing fantasy was that every game/campaign seemed like minor variations on the same song. So I like the idea of trying something different. I went the other direction: the game I'm currently running is a historical fantasy set in the "real" 11th Century, except magic & monsters actually exist. The fact that both tech & magic are much lower than your standard D&D world has really given it a distinctive feel. Re the comet: I believe the idea is that the comet brings magic space dust or whatever to the world as it passes, after which the magic fades with the passage of time until the next visit. Not that magic is made possible by the proximity of the comet itself. Does that make sens? As for technological progress in the medieval world, there was actually a lot more of it than most people assume. Nothing like today, of course, and most of the advances they did have seem relatively inconsequential to us today. But to the people of the time, relatively minor advancements in things like agricultural techniques or animal husbandry could make a huge difference. In fantasy, the usually-unstated assumption is that the existence of magic retards technological progress, either directly (if magic and tech are viewed as opposites) or indirectly (because the Smart People are all researching new spells instead of inventing a better water wheel.

That's *always* the rule with Block, at least under 6ed: you have to have something that could plausibly Block the attack. If you're Superman, that might be the big red S on your chest. If you're a wizard, it might be your own energy blast. If you're Joe Normal, you're going to have to work harder to come up with something, but things like furniture or other found objects typically get used a lot in fiction.

Right. So if you want it to be a free action, you'd need to put Trigger on it or something. Or build magical defenses with Requires A Roll. Or just say that's how magic works in your world.

"We've secretly switched the kyber crystals this Death Star normally uses with Folger's. Will anyone be able to tell the difference?" (For you youngens, it's spoofing a series of commercials from the 80s.)

Loki's appearances in Ms. Marvel have been awesome too. Very much the God Of Mischief. Or as he's known at Kamala's High School "Hipster Viking Dude."

Which is ironic, given that the word "slave" is itself derived from "Slav." (In the early Middle Ages, the bulk of the slave trade was captured Slavs,)

Agreed, tho the OP specified that in his game the creatures were created by magic. Legally, I'm not sure that would make much difference under CU law? As for AI, I agree the ability to overcome your programming is typically regarded as one of the hallmarks of true sentience. So say UNTIL's AI recognized that UNTIL was doing something wrong/illegal, and called in a team of superheroes to oppose them, that would be a strong argument for free-will. With Mechanon

In the old comics, maybe. Personally I'm much more fond of Mythological Loki, the Trickster, who's always causing trouble of one kind or another, but isn't necessarily evil per se. Most days, anyway. The idea of Loki as a shifting, unpredictable force of chaos is much more interesting to me than any 2D Villain-For-Villainy's-Sake.

Exactly. It's all about what types of stories you want to tell. Spidey & DD's SIDs are integral to their characters, in part because they're "street level" and have people to protect. The Avengers have bigger problems. And having a Public ID doesn't mean you can't tell stories about how it impacts their lives (see Tony in IM3 & Clint in A: AofU), it just changes the nature of the impact. As someone pointed out above, Pepper Potts is CEO of Stark International; she'd be a target whether people know she's Iron Man's girlfriend or not. Which seems appropriate, since Loki still doesn't quite understand Loki. I think Hiddleston is spot on: you can never fully understand Loki because Loki is always changing.

Thanks for posting the text on the Act; I don't have the book at hand. I feel like it would come down this way: The Frankies' attorneys would argue they are "independent and free-willed" with "capacity for creative and philosophical thought." The opposing side would argue they are undead, what with them having been created wholly from parts of dead bodies and all. The Frankies would try to argue they don't meet the legal definition of the law as established in the AAA Act. I don't think CU provides that actual definition, which means the GM can word it however you want in order to create as much or as little wiggle room as you want. Failing that, the Frankies would try to argue that while they may fall under the letter of the definition undead, they don't meet the "spirit" of that definition. If the Judge is somehow convinced "it was clearly Congress' intent" to exclude vampires & zombies, but not golems for some reason, then they might rule in the Frankies' favor. But most likely it would require that Congress amend the Act to clarify/change how they define the undead exclusion. As noted above, as long as the Frankies aren't making any claim of inheritance, they'll probably encounter less resistance. And if they can prove that they're sentient as defined under the Act, that should resolve the "are they property" question. Either way, if your players are up for a good courtroom episode, there's potential for some really great roleplaying there! In a world VERY different from our world, superpowers aside. Fair enough.

So far, I find the drama mostly uncompelling and the humor not very funny. The storylines so far all feel like rejected TNG scripts punched up with potty jokes. I'm glad some of y'all are enjoying it, but I think I'm done. Call me if it gets significantly better. One thing I did think was interesting. While TNG had a very utopian view of a more evolved & enlightened humanity, Roddenberry' original concept for TOS was specifically "20th Century man in outer space." So the concept of doing TNG, but with 20th century foibles & slang played for laughs could've been an interesting idea. But for me, it's not cutting it.

It was awesome when I was 12.