vitruvian23

Re: Real world vs. Game world Heh - it would be fun to find out that the insurance company to which you pay tremendous premiums and are always fighting with over claims is actually a front for the local VIPER cell. When you take them out, you of course lose your coverage until you can find another carrier - and the property management company that leased the building to VIPER (what, you think they'd buy?) brings a lawsuit against you for damages since there's no insurer to go after... The setup for this was rather lacking, in that there was plenty of time between the event cited and the events of the book for a test case to get to the courts (and likely have the EO overturned as too broad - what threat is a person with a minor power who never engaged in criminal or vigilante activity anyway?). However, it appears that this has yet to happen - every superhuman's response has been to leave or go into hiding. It also seems odd that all the superhumans being taken down by the squad are either slightly deranged or basically innocent - nobody deciding that this action made it open season for out and out supervillain action, therefore going out and proactively committing crimes. After all, outlaw superpowers, and only outlaws will have them... Far more likely would be more stringent laws against vigilante action by anyone, superhuman or not, and massive government recruitment of superhumans to work directly in the established chain of command for law enforcement, disaster relief, etc. Even a registration law (which would have to be for powers specifically able to cause harm, not just any powers at all) would probably take quite a while to push through. If DHS and similar bodies did just decide to stamp out all superhuman activity in a hysterical reaction to the disaster, they'd be very unlikely to offer deportation as an option, given that that potentially puts superhuman resources into the hands of other nations... you'd sooner see concentration camps than deportation.

Re: Wanted! Actually, it's not internally consistent at all, given that many of the targets he shoots are either bulletproof or faster than a speeding bullet. Nor did Millar ever bother to establish the Professor giving him special guns or bullets of any kind, which would probably have made sense given his status as enforcer within the organization. In other words, a single panel would have made the action consistent, but Millar chose not to bother.

Re: G.I.Joe Okay, forget all this newfangled COBRA stuff - I want writeups for the original G.I. Joe and his Action Team. You know: G.I. Joe - with lots of accessories Atomic Man - cyborg with one robotic leg and one robotic arm that becomes a helicopter prop Bulletman ?? - martial artist with a steel hand Maybe they could have Stretch Armstrong join as an unofficial member....

Re: Who is the best Archaic/Anachronism/whatever in comics? Sticking strictly to anachronisms, as opposed to characters in their proper milieus... Cowboy - Jonah Hex, especially given his recent appearance on JLU. Vigilante or any other Lone Ranger clone come close second. Ninja - Steven Grant's Whisper. Okay, not really a ninja, but she fooled plenty of people into thinking she was one. Knight - have a fondness for Sir Justin (and the new Sir Ystn with the tennis shoes), but have to give it to Dane Whitman - when done right. Archer - close call between Mike Grell version of Oliver Queen and the Ultimate version of Hawkeye. Other favorites - I like cavemen, samurai, and all that, but for favorite anachronistic character of all time, it has to be Hammaglystwythkbrngxxaxolotl the Weather Wizard of Badger fame....

Re: WWYCD-Hurricane Katrina What would he do about parents 'looting' food and water for their children?

Re: Champions Characters DEX Inflation Why? What's your spread actually look like? DEX 5 to 30 gives you a spread of 25. Most of the Champions sourcebook characters I've seen go from 18 to somewhere in the high 30s, which is more like a spread of 20. It's also a CV spread of 8 (2 to 10) as opposed to 7 (6 to 13).

Re: Champions Characters DEX Inflation Why? I see no problem with rescaling DEX so that it compares more rationally to that of normal humans, so long as you don't end up contracting the scale. A possible (rough) scale. DX Examples 5 Man-Thing, Glob 8 Blob, Juggernaut, Joe Schmoe 10 Slightly faster Joe Schmoe, average thugs 11 Colossus, Kyle Rayner 14 Hulk, Firestorm 18 Thing, Hal Jordan, Alan Scott, Nick Fury 20 Nighthawk (not Nightwing), 1938 Superman, Moon Knight, Wolverine, Question, Oliver Queen, Dr. Mid-nite II 23 Black Canary, Wildcat, Connor Hawke, Mr. Terrific II 26 Batman, Daredevil, Superman, Wonder Woman 30 Spider-Man, Flash This would give you base CVs ranging from 2 for the really slow lumbering brutes, to 3-5 for many bricks, 6-8 for most martial artists, and reserve 9-10 for the really incredibly agile or fast characters. A spread of 8 levels of base CV rather than 6 isn't that bad. As you can see, I wouldn't insist on a NCM 20 cap for all martial artists, just those who are presented as a fairly bland 'intensive training' type as opposed to those that are supposed to be truly exceptional. As for SPD, I can see an argument for having the range be something like 2 (for really slow, lumbering monster types) to 3 (for most bricks) to 4 and 5 (for faster types) and restricting SPD 6 to the Spider-Mans and Flashes of the world. On the other hand, being able to do something each and every second (SPD 12) doesn't seem like an unreachable goal even for a trained normal human, so I might allow SPD inflation without limit, except for its unbalancing effects in play. Of course, I'm actually going to be running GURPS next, for which DX inflation is not really an issue, given the rather high cost and the lack of a need to go beyond the 'normal human' peak of 20 for all but a few character concepts.

Re: Questions and Suggestions for my next campaign. Not at all. A lot of the stories of one of the paradigmatic pulp heroes, Doc Savage, hewed fairly closely to realism with respect to the majority of gadgets, technology, etc. used, although there were always exceptions and of course Doc's own omnicompetence was in no way realistic. Real airships used hydrogen, fire was a real danger as seen with the Hindenburg, and the dramatic implications of this may actually be a plus rather than a minus. On the other hand, helium was also known, and it requires only a little handwaving to have the sponsoring organization have access to a remarkably rich supply of the stuff (perhaps a large pocket on an actively volcanic island, or deposits beneath deep sea sediments that nobody else has the technology to access). Of course, come WWII, any countries that realize this will look at it as a strategic resource that should be handed over to them... Superscience is also a possibility of course. Without resorting to completely made-up names and properties, three thoughts come to mind: 1) Monatomic hydrogen (as opposed to H2), kept stable as a low-temperature plasma by an induced electric field which also reduces the chances of ignition. 2) A rigid pressure vessel using a ridiculously thin, strong shell to surround cells of pure vacuum. 3) It turns out that the phlogiston theory is correct. Since objects are heavier after combustion, it follows that phlogiston has negative mass and therefore free phlogiston has remarkable lifting properties. Of course, already being free, the phlogiston is completely immune to incendiary threats...

Re: If Superman represents a god, then winged heroes represent angels? Um, no. Try again.

Re: Ideas and advice for a Captain America Homage Baldie?

Re: journal of a hero A wonderful little city? Just about as big as London in terms of the city proper, 2/3 as big if you include whole metropolitan areas (5 million vs. 7.5 million). Maybe he's being ironic here? Also remember that that Toronto is not really in the Great White North as such - it's south of Maine, for example. You'd no more expect to see a lot of Inuit there than anywhere else in the North American continent. Lots more of other ethnic groups, considering there may be no more than 1000 or so Inuit within the entire city.

Re: Batgirl:TAS: The Rogues Gallery Just a quick thought on Jester and Harlequin - if they are students of clowns through the ages, then perhaps they should actually be Harlequin (male) and Columbine. Then at some point Harlequin can masquerade as a hero, Scaramouche...

Re: Golden Age Myth? As already noted, Golden Age would be pre-code.

Re: Are the MC8 worth it? Probably mostly characters for Champions, settings and rules crunch only secondarily.

Re: Are the MC8 worth it? Okay, so I've gotten the subscription and downloaded #13. Now, what are the other 9 of the 30 odd issues remaining that are most worthwhile to download?

Re: Astro City: the Dark Age From the context, you can just about bet that he wasn't so much taking the side of the Viet Cong, as acting to prevent (another?) My Lai massacre and preserve life on one side and honor on the other.

Re: Rant - Quit yer whinin' about Crisis! I never whine about Crisis itself; it was very nicely done. The aftermath, however, had issues. I liked Byrne's Man of Steel when it first came out, but it would have been nice to figure out the Legion stuff beforehand - even something like Clark only *ever* being Superboy in the future, and having his memory of such events erased on each time trip back, would have been okay. The one thing they did right in that case was set the Man of Steel miniseries stories in the 7-10 years before 'current' DC titles. The Wonder Woman revamp was nice, but would have been much better if also set in the past so that she could be a mainstay of the JLA from the beginning. Similarly, there was nothing wrong with Truman's Hawkworld that couldn't have been fixed by shoving it into the past and having Katar and Shayera adopting more 'superheroic' outfits by late in the mini. Really, a little more editorial control would have prevented 90% plus of the problems they later encountered.

Re: Batman VS Captain America! yeah right... Should also mention that Black Adam is by no means a new character - he's been around since the 40s in publication time, from back when Captain Marvel (the original, the Big Red Cheese) was owned by Fawcett and sold more copies than Superman.

Re: Alternate Earth: Superman 2005 Ah - forgot one suite of abilities for nanotech Supes, aka Human 2.0 - 'metabolic dominance', which DARPA is actually trying to develop. This would translate as some degree of Life Support vs. Sleep, Eating (with a time limit or requirement to ingest food to fuel regeneration), temperature extremes, fatigue, etc., with Reduced END on physical abilities.

Re: Alternate Earth: Superman 2005 Or a modern-day writer could go with more of the intellectual and psychic/psionic Superman typical of much science fiction prose, from Odd John to Weinbaum's New Adam to A.E. Van Vogt's Slan or even Heinlein's Valentine Michael Smith. Such a character would likely eschew a specific costume in favor of street clothes, but would arguably be both more powerful and potentially scarier than Siegel and Shuster's version. Another alternative - presuming that the speculation about 'transhumanism' goes in the same directions in the absence of inspiration from the superhero comics, a modern take on Superman could be based on the concept of nanotech enhancements, to include: unbreakable bones due to carbon fiber (flexible diamond) substrates; skin as resistant to injury as Kevlar; rapid healing approaching Wolverine levels of regeneration; enhanced strength and athleticism, but only to about a 10x normal human level; massively enhanced reaction time due to faster nerve fibers; and massively augmented intelligence and senses due to integrated onboard computer systems and sensors. Abilities that could be added as time went on could include interfacing with/controlling electronics (ala Jake 2.0), releasing swarms of nanites for purposes ranging from spying to dissolving things to building equipment from raw materials; changing his appearance rapidly; and giving other people similar abilities, especially for healing purposes.

Re: Dr. Doom vs Iron Man In the original OHOTMU, Hulk's unenraged lift was given as 90 tons, the Thing's as 85 tons, when both had been observed lifting far, far more. I don't know exactly what they based their figures on, except throwing numbers around to give a good idea of relative strengths. They sure didn't do it by examining the comic books, even if you discount absurdities such as Hercules towing Manhattan into place.

Re: The Fox How about adding Weapon Elements of Fencing Weapons and Whip to his MA? We all know what his name translates to in Spanish, correct?

Re: New Avengers? I would hope that Cap and Tony kept the numbers of all the old and reserve Avengers - how many are there now, about a hundred? Of course, some of them might be pissy about having the team disbanded on them and then rebuilt with newbies rather than contacting any of them first... I really want to see the full scene of Falcon, Wonder Man, Warbird, et al asking Cap why he has Cage and Spider-Woman on the team and not them.

Re: Sky High Gamer's Eye Micro-Review I don't know if they're as common as all that - the student population at Sky High seemed relatively low, maybe a hundred or so students per class year like many small private schools? Figure they had 30-40 kids per bus and 4-5 buses visibly parking - maybe some of the older kids are allowed to get there under their own power. Anyway, let's say a total student population of no more than 500. In the 2003 census (assuming Sky High to be a US institution - not necessarily the case), those aged 14-17 were 16,522 of a total 290,810, or between 5 and 6% of the total. That would give a total US super population of something like 10,000-12,000 individuals, or one for every 30,000 normal citizens. Of course, only those in the 18-65 range (barring LS: Aging folks) are likely to be supers in the middle of their careers - that works out to about 6000 active supers on both sides of the hero/villain divide. That's still quite a few, but given that the Commander and Jetstream are considered tops in the field, I suspect the power levels of 90-something percent of them are not all that high. Lots of locales may have to make do with slightly superpowered big fishes in small ponds with names like Great Scott and the Amazing Joanie.

Re: Sky High Gamer's Eye Micro-Review And they badly need a few Batman nonpowered types to keep them on their toes and demonstrate that the powers don't make the hero... Coach Boomer: What's your power, son? Devil Dog: The ability to adapt and overcome, coach!