bigdamnhero

Just because a dude is really strong and is also nice, that doesn't mean he knows a damn thing about governing a country.

From last night's historical fantasy game. As part of their efforts to build an alliance against the evil Prince Kor, Our Heroes have been trying to facilitate a marriage between the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III, and Princess Zoe Porphyrogenita, daughter of the Byzantine Emperor. Things are going well, until Robert, King of the Franks shows up...
 
GM: The French King looks around the room, spots the beautiful Princess Zoe, and makes a beeline over to start chatting her up.
Geralt: (Irish Holy Warrior) Oh hell no! I step between them and politely suggest to King Robert that this isn't the Princess he's looking for.
GM: Great, make me a High Society Roll to see how badly you step in it.
[Geralt rolls a natural 18]
[headdesk]
Geralt: (angrily) "What do you think you're doing trying to make time with the Emperor's betrothed!?!?"
...followed by an exchange of Who Do You Think You Are's and Don't You Know Who I Am's, ending in...
Geralt: ...And I deck him!
 
And that, children, is how in 1001 France declared war on Ireland and sat out the war against the Antichrist.

OK, I'll bite. (I've derailed enough threads in my day...)
Powerful isn't the same as unstoppable, let alone godlike. In most "Earth-bound" superhero settings, conventional military forces aren't normally a big challenge to powerful superheroes. But in large numbers, they can still wear the heroes down until they run out of END. And there are always specialty units with advanced/heavy weapons that are powerful enough to at least get a few good licks in. (Sure Superman could take out a tank battalion with ease, but he also knows if he does it's just a matter of time until someone breaks out the kryptonite.) Even if none of that exists and military forces are no threat at all to the supers, well there are still super Bad Guys, or else what's the point? A galactic game has even more possibilities because of different tech levels; the PCs may be able to punch through a Xenovore ship with ease, but try that against a Malvan ship and they're going to get spanked.
 
Again, powerful isn't unstoppable. But that aside, maybe because they're wise enough to realize that might doesn't make right, that power corrupts, and that benevolent dictatorships rarely stay that way for long. To use the classic example, Superman doesn't take over the world because he recognizes that just because he has the power to force others to do his bidding, doesn't mean he has the moral right to do so. He believes that democracy, while far from perfect, has proven a far better method of improving the human condition than any autocracy ever tried. And more practically, he knows that if he tried, every other super in the world would join forces to stop him, and even he's not THAT powerful.
 
There's already a genre term for beings who think their powers give them a right to dictate how everyone else should live - they're called supervillains.
 
Those are fair questions, but they're not exactly new: they've been explored in numerous comic titles, mostly awful Iron Age drek and Zach Snyder movies. If that's what you want to play, fine, but I find them extremely tedious myself.
 
[shrug] I could poke the same holes in just about any fictional world, including yours. It's all just a matter of what assumptions you make, and what things you're willing to handwave in order to play the kind of game you want.
 
I've found exactly the opposite: quantifying things like that put limits on things. "Am I strong enough to rip open a tank?" [checks the numbers] "Nope, I guess not." "But the Hulk can do it!" "Well, I guess you're not the Hulk..."
 
Again, the whole point of Superman is that he has faith in humanity to find their own path, and he's read enough history to know that by becoming an autocrat he would inevitably become autocratic and tyrannical. He sees his primary job as preventing other supers from trying exactly that trick.
 
Honestly, RDU Neil, I get your points, and if that's the game you and your players wanted to play, fine. But as far as I'm concerned, your "hero" became a straight-up villain by the 3rd paragraph when he decided that he had the moral right to force his beliefs on other people.
 
Huh, actually defeating and overthrowing your "hero" sounds like a solid concept for a GC campaign...
 
In the Star Wars game I just finished, the GM actually had a lot of fun simulating SW "physics." Space has a down, you see, which is why most planets only seem to be habitable in a very small zone, because if you move too far from the poles, you'll fall off.
 
Again, it all depends on whether you want to play science fiction vs. space fantasy (Star Wars) vs. superheroes in space (GC). I'm not one of one of those gamers who thinks realism is a 4-letter word, or needs to be put in scare quotes. I've played plenty of "real world plus ____" games that were a ton of fun. But generally realism (or the lack thereof) should drive the needs of the story, not the other way around. especially in any kind of SF setting, where much of the world works however you want it to work. If you want to tell a story about superheroes who are powerful, but not godlike, who are strong enough to treat most conventional militaries as a mook fight, but there are still plenty of beings/things that can challenge them...then you just set your campaign guidelines accordingly. There's nothing wrong with the take you chose to pursue, but it's by no means the only valid take.

To paraphrase from Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court: Heaven must be the perfect place to be, because it has the perfect absolute dictator running it. But a mortal tyrant, however wise, however moral, will eventually die. The likelihood of someone of equal character succeeding him/her is vanishingly small. Simply taking over because you have the power to, is setting up a system ripe for corruption and exploitation by whoever succeeds you. Superheroes recognize that to have a system that's inherently just and fair, that will endure beyond the life of any one person, a people have to build it themselves, in their own image, not have it imposed from above.
 
That doesn't preclude superheroes fighting against an unjust, oppressive system. The Golden Age of comic books essentially depicted that. Lots of comics since then have shown superheroes combating government corruption, social inequality, and the like. But they defend the classic ideals of America -- individual liberty, the rule of law, equality for all, government by and for the people, strength used to protect the weak -- because they believe that at their core, those ideals are worth fighting for. It's the system that can be twisted, and sometimes needs to be corrected, not the ideals.

Ah.  I see the problem.
 
Your group doesn't like superheroes.  You like people with powers.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  But I'm not going to be able to explain to you what is cool about a particular genre, any more than you could make me like jazz by talking about it.
 
It's like if I'm saying what a cool movie Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure was, and you go "why didn't they just go back and murder Ted's dad?  Then he can't send Ted to military school..."  I can't logically explain why they didn't do that, except that's just not what you do in an 80s teen comedy.  I guess if you don't like those movies, it doesn't really make sense?  But, damn dude, I can't explain why D&D characters want to get treasure and magic items either.

Duh,, (to myself) Jericho! Joshua with the trumpets and the walls came down! (Well there is more to it than that)

"I am Barbie of Borg. You will be accessorized AND assimilated. It'll be fun!"
 
Lucius Alexander
 
I am Palindromedary of Borg. You will be assimilated coming and going.

Last night's D&D game, our party finds the cavern where a white dragon is hanging from the ceiling over his (frozen-in-ice) horde. 

Player 1:  Does the dragon see us?
DM:  Yes.  It's looking at you.
Player 2:  Should we roll initiative? 
DM:  Not yet.  It's waiting to see what you're going to do.
(long pause as nobody wants to set things in motion and get us all killed)
Player 2:  Okay, well, maybe I should walk into the room.  (bored tour guide voice)  And here, we have the dragon's chamber.  You'll note the horde - feel free to add to it as you go through.  Next on our tour is the southern tunnel...
Player 3:  And we're walking... we're walking...

At risk of immodesty, I'll suggest my Spells of the Devachan mini-supplement (available through the HERO store!) as a source for a galactic-scale magical milieu. No one has shown enough interest for me to write Foes of the Devachan, Worlds of the Devachan or anything else, but I'm sure you can file the serial numbers off other Hero System material and use it as the demonic Catabolics, the sword-and-sorcery magi of savage Perilune, the plasma entities of Irradion, and so on.
 
Dean Shomshak

One thing I'd suggest to keep superheroes "super" is to steal something from the old Mayfair DC Heroes game.  In one of their Legion of Superheroes supplements, they explain why starships aren't as super-powerful as you might expect.  You don't really get Super Star Destroyers or Death Stars in the Legion universe.  Instead the starships are smaller and less powerful.  Somebody wanted to know why.
 
The answer is because those mega-ships are really expensive, and no matter how tough you make them, Superboy can still smash through them without a problem.  The really high-end supers can take apart a fleet of giant warships in an afternoon.  To avoid that occurrence (which could bankrupt your entire empire), you build smaller ships so it doesn't hurt so much if you lose one.  This can help keep a lot of the super-tech rare, especially when it would outclass your PCs.  They aren't engaging in space combat with ships that have 100 PD and 30D6 RKAs, because Captain Super Surfer, who has a 9 Speed and a 250 point Cosmic VPP, can make the Imperial Colloso-Dreadnought vanish.  And won't Emperor Glurgg be pissed that you wasted so much of his money.
 
Even if the average member of the Legion of Superheroes can't take down those massive ships, guys like Superboy, Mon-El, Cosmic Boy, and Element Lad can.  The galaxy just has to have enough ultra-powerful people to make those things not cost effective.  So instead you're getting enemy ships that do damage and have defenses that your players can deal with.  Galactic Champions was for characters around 700 points, as I recall.  Attacks somewhere in the range of 20D6 or so.  That should be plenty powerful for an enemy spaceship.

BDH, do "relevant Hero books" include the Star Hero line? Scourges Of The Galaxy includes details and NPCs from the Church of the Infinite Dark, and a time-traveling future version of Tateklys, who would make fine foils for GC PCs.
 
From other games, I would suggest Rifts Conversion Book Two: Pantheons of the Megaverse from Palladium Games. Mythic gods from multiple pantheons wielding sci-fi ultratech, interacting with superhumans and aliens. Aliens and cosmic entities masquerading as gods. Ignoring the system, the book is a goldmine of innovative and bizarre ideas. Some of them are horrific, others quite comical. (Personal fave touch is the god Hermes' man-portable rail gun, which he calls "the Herminator.")

Does the alchemist have the equivalent of a quiver ... to make potion vials/bottles instantly-accessible/ready much like a quiver makes arrows instantly-accessible/ready for the archer?  If so, then it would make sense to treat them in a consistent manner with Fast Draw ... but if not, you have a solid place on which to hang your hat for treating them differently.  

I meant to post this awhile ago, but honestly forgot all about it. Last year in my Revelations 1001 historical fantasy campaign Our Heroes got involved in a massive Viking naval battle. (Viking "naval battles" mostly consisted of pulling the longships alongside each other and then fighting hand-to-hand, so it's really more of a melee battle that happens to take place onboard ships.) While I didn't want to wargame out the entire battle, just the number of fighters on the PCs' ship alone would be too many to handle individually. So I grouped most of the warriors on both sides together into squads of 5 and used a simplified version of the mass melee rules from FH. I thought it worked out pretty well, so I thought I'd post my results here.
 
Rules:
 
Individuals (PCs and major NPCs) were represented by their own paper minis. Squads were represented by counters.
To simplify, all squads started out with 5 warriors. Each squad adds +4 to its starting BODY for unit size (see FH mass melee rules for further discussion) To simplify, I started all squads with 15 BODY (11 Base +4) just to make the breakpoints easier, but it would work with different BODY scores All other Characteristics were basically the same as the individuals' While we're using Hit Locations and sectional armor in this campaign, for squads we just treated all hits as being vs. Torso (9-11)  
Rather than increasing the damage that units do (as per FH), I represented that by giving squads Autofire attacks:
Attacks against other squads hit on 1-for-1 Attacks against individuals hit on 1-for-2, as normal  
Each squad has a Readiness Level: which is affected by both Casualties and Morale:
Full: +1 OCV, +1 DCV, +1 Morale, Autofire x5 Shaken: +0 OCV, +0 DCV, +0 Morale, Autofire x3 Disrupted: -1 OCV, -1 DCV, -1 Morale, No Autofire Routed/Destroyed: Unit is removed from play Most squads started as Full, but a few went in Shaken due to various reasons  
Casualties:
Squads start with   15  BODY Units that have lost   5  BODY cannot be above Shaken (+0) Units that have lost  10  BODY cannot be above Disrupted (-1)  
Morale Check:
Each squad has a Morale Roll, which is based on EGO with certain modifiers Squads must make a roll when a Unit takes damage > 1/3 its current (not starting) BODY, or when directed by GM. Failed Morale Check drops the Unit one Readiness Level.  
Rallying:
A successful Rally raises a Unit’s Readiness Level, but it cannot exceed that indicated by its Casualties. Units get a free Rally (Morale Roll) post-Phase 12, or may take it as a Full Phase action per Recovery rules. Individual Characters may make Oratory Rolls or PRE Attacks to give bonuses/penalties to Rally Rolls.  
For each unit type, I gave the players a 1/2 page character sheet, along with a 1/2 page rules reference.
 
I used  Alea disks to represent each squad because they're awesome and you can write on them with dry erase markers. Each PC got a color to represent the troops they were controlling to make it easier to keep track of them, and the enemy troops were similarly color-coded. Written on each disk were 3 things:
Unit type (mainly axes vs. sword & shield) Readiness Level Body damage taken, represented by hash marks  
I'll post some pics further down so you can see what it looked like. The beauty of this was that Body Damage and Readiness were the only characteristics that changed, so writing them on the disk eliminated the need to keep track of "Wait, how many body does this squad have left?" and so forth.
 
That's the basics. I'll post the scenario and how the battle went in follow-on posts, along with some pictures, and end with my thoughts and observations.

Lastly, if anyone ever needs some longships, here are the maps I made. The large (40-oar) and medium (32-oar) ships spread over 2 pages; the small (20-oar) ship fits on one page. And then I have some "fleet scale" longships. I can't remember where I found the actual clip art I used for those ships.
Longships.pdf

Zooming out, here's a view of the 4 lashed-together longships that formed the PCs' battlefield. And yes, in hindsight I should've folded the edges so the ships were actually adjacent, but you get the idea.
 
This is just about in the middle of the battle described above. The PCs' ship is at the bottom; above it is King Olaf's larger ship; above that is the Danish ship; and at the top, a smaller ship of Olaf's men has come to reinforce.

Speaking of Marvel's Cosmic stories, I did come across this:
 

Speaking of Marvel's Cosmic stories, I did come across this:
 

Speaking of Marvel's Cosmic stories, I did come across this:
 

Very cool!! I also like your use of three 6’s and three 1’s too!

Most of this seems like a Special Effect Attack.  An EB that happens to be a Sling.  You could take it as an OAF or a Gestures and Only in Hero ID.
 
What kind of attacks were you thinking of using?

HM is correct that an actual sling is, indeed, counter-intuitive when it comes to adding accuracy, as someone who can barely throw something well with his/her hands ... likely can't properly operate a sling with any reasonable degree of reliability.
 
There is, however, a noteworthy exception: the staff sling.  This is effectively a lever with a pocket in which to place an object to be flung -- something that's light, simple, easy to use, and reliable ... without needing nearly the release timing and specialized practice/knowledge required for an actual sling.  Throwing Skill Levels (aka PSLs for Range Mods when throwing) on an OAF sound just fine to me.
 
I would allow Fast Draw to be used to get the staff sling, sling, or whatnot out quickly, but I would NOT allow it to be used to speed reloads, since its use in speeding reloads is for magazine changes (not single-shot reloads) ... and staff slings, slings, and the like are not magazine-fed.
 
The CSL depends. If the staff sling, sling, or whatnot is only usable for throwing potions because of its construction, then I think it's a 2pt CSL ... but if it can also be used to lob ammunition used to do damage, then I think it's a 3pt CSL for a tight list consisting of potions from the VPP, sling stones, and other ammunition suitable for a sling (cast lead balls are, for example, ideal ... and presumably this alchemist does things with lead, right?!)
 
Surreal
 
P.S. Notice I avoided use of the word 'clips' when talking about Fast Draw since, as a firearm instructor, it pains me to see a magazine improperly called a clip. You have no idea how badly I loathe the 'Clips' portion of the 'Charges' RAW. Here's why: )
 
 

I promised pictures. This first one is "fleet scale." We mostly narrated their way through this part of the battle, so we could get to the main action.
Ships labelled with a red O and a number are Olaf's forces, a mix of Norse, Russians, Slavs, a few Turks, and whoever else he could recruit. Ships with a blue D are Danish forces under King Sweyn Ships with a yellow J are Jomsvikings. The PCs' ship can be seen right-center with a blue circle with a 2 on it. It is lashed to King Olaf's ship (O1 with a star), which is in turn lashed to a Danish ship D4. On the far side of D4, another of Olaf's ships (O24) has just come to reinforce.
 
You can also see the PCs' other ship bottom-center, where it was stopped and engaged by O18.
 
To be clear, we didn't fight out the results of any of these other battles; just the one the PCs were in.

As someone suggested on another forum...
 
"Threat of emotional death - losing love or respect from a close relative (ex: Leslie Lehr - What A Mother Knows)
Threat of economic death - losing a fortune, the family company (ex: Largo Winch)
Threat of social death - losing status, a career, being framed. (ex: Michael Crichton - A Case Of Need)
Threat of psychological death - losing one's mind, fall into eternal sorrow, revenge. (ex: Josin McQueln - Premeditated) "

If rubber is available then a slingshot would be a cool way to increase accuracy and range.

You considered her constructing a device that resembles a sling but for the purpose of throwing potions?  That would be +STR, only for throwing, OAF.  Not sure how much value that would get you but it avoids all of the considerations about slings, whether you can fast draw or reload and the questions about the skill level...