Karma

Re: Let's Talk CvK Two Words 'Nuremburg Defence'. Any action taken by a soldier is treated as their own decision, even if the order to do so comes from above. If the soldier is ordered to do something that goes against his conscience he is expected to refuse. When a soldier kills another under orders it is his own responsability, so one hopes that it is justified (which in war, in self defence, against other armed combatants, it is.) If, however, it is not he is just as guilty as the one giving the orders (under international war crimes law anyway). I'd give him 10 points if that, or more likely your 'Code Vs. Murder' varient (which is a lower pt value for being less common). He supports war and he can kill in certain circumstances without any qualms (much like many action heroes who mow through nameless mooks without a second thought).

Re: Let's Talk CvK

Re: Hypothetical Question Regarding A Hypothetical Campaign

Re: Campaipn Flavor Idea: "The Discovery Channel's Hero Metal Mondays" It would probably be alot like Edna Mode in 'The Incredibles', but amped up by a factor of 5.

Re: The Invisibles Writeups Maybe I missed something but Dash's 'autofire' punches didn't look all that effective to me. I mean he hit a minion several times in quick sucession and the minion was able to shake it off in a moment (post segment 12 Recovery?) and hit Dash (who may, I grant you, have jumped given what followed). At the very most all he did was distract the minion long enough to make him run into a wall. Giving him any kind of effective HA (let alone +2d6 autofire) is going a little far in my opinion. He might hit a hundred times in quick succession but it won't actually *hurt*. Of course, this is just my opinion.

Re: The Invisibles Writeups I don't klnow if anyone's pointed this out yet but you forgot Social Limitation: Secret ID Remember "Your identities are your most valuable asset" Which is why the Kids need 'super names' (apart from Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack)

Re: The Incredibles -- WITH SPOILERS O.k. the parents have super IDs but what will the kids use? They can't use Dash, Violet and JacK-Jack (as appropriate as the first two are), since they are their Secret ID names. So what do you guts think? I'll put my idea for Jack-Jack: Baby Change *Runs for cover from the well aimed rotton fruit* Also, as cool as the matching domino masks look, if I were Dash I'd probably request a full-face, friction cleaned mask so that the next time he runs through a swarm of insects it won't be quite so gross (I know I'll be considering one for my next speedster after seeing that) My take on MIRAGE: Her codename comes from the fact that the hope she offers to former superheroes is an illusion, just like a real mirage.

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes In a number of games and systems we've had *professionally* bisexual characters, a lesbian in denial (my character, had to do with needing to reproduce for the honor of her family), a homosexual male in denial (was going to be half of a pair who were 'just friends' until the other player (the first players wife) chickened out), a cross-dressing gay action hero (think Shaq in an evening dress), quiet a few hetero characers of both genders and a number of campaigns where it was never an issue (prince, princess, whatever, how much is the reward?). Come to think of it not one of these characters was a superhero or villian.

Re: Jane's Superhumans

Re: Jane's Superhumans Black Diamond: Yeah, kind of stupid could use either her brains or her body (I mean as a brick, gutterbrains) to make bucks Blue Jay: Already labeled a super criminal, so it'd be hard for her to get another legit job. Cheshere Cat: When Manic he thinks he's immortal and deserves everything that his powers can get him. When Depressed he doesn't see any other option for a loser like him. (ie. he is insane) Hummingbird: Possibly the most realistic take on what a teenage girl would do if she discovered she could control people's minds ever. Why work for something when you can convince people to give it to you. The only question is why she's working with these fogies in the first place, she should found her own clique of superteens.

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman Karma: Comes from a more sexually liberal age and has no problem being polyamorous. Still trying to understand why so many of her partners have hang-ups about that sort of thing. Fauna: *Dating* and *marriage* is for humans. Mating is for reproduction, and while she is sure she will mate for life once an appropriate male is found she has no desire to be a mother yet. Caress: Has had some long term relationships with some of her female team members, but has never seriously thought about settling down. Sees sex as just another way to manipulate men (which makes sense since she's a skin contact mind controller). Fore-Eyes: Still trying to summon up the courage to approach the girl he likes (and is aware of the irony of being willing to face death every day but not the prospect of rejection.) Hard-Ball: Feels protective of the girls he dates (floating DNPCs), but not thinking of a serious relationship (which would endanger his Secret ID too much, last thing he wants is a girl he truly cares about asking why he has to run off so often (yes he has trust issues).

Re: Background Cliches Check this one out Enemy: I am your father Hero: I know but *I* am also *your* father, thanks to a time travel episode a few weeks ago. Enemy: Noooooo The "You are your own grandfather" is a time honored cliche in any setting that allows time travel.

Re: The supporting cast - in the limelight

Re: "Use the Source, Fluke..." or Does you campaign have a central rationale? Main Campaign: Anything goes. Although there seems to be a prevalence of 'highly trained' there is no actuall campaign reason for this. A.C.E. High: Unified Concept (High-tech and power armour). The heroes have their 'powers' cause they stole them from the 'evil multinational' (and have a rebel tech to keep them working) so everyone with powers has the same archetype. That said, one of the players convinced me to allow a little magic into the system (although without her suit it's less useful than a hand-gun).

Re: Goodbye Washington DC It is quite possible that once the culprits are discovered that supers will become the next combination terrorists/people of middle-eastern origin/WMDs. They have only been around for 10 years so they have not had time to gain the publics trust/adoration/whatever. Suddenly the remaining government would publically denonce, arrest and incarcerate beyond the US borders any super who refused their secret offer to become part of the black op group you spoke of. The public would distrust and possibly attack anyone even suspected of superpowers. The suspicion that any other country might have super-soldiers would be enough to have them nuked either literally or metaphorically ("They have super-powered humans and are therefore a clear and present danger to the United States"). There might even be a Macarthite witch-hunt set up to ferret out supers ("How long have you been a mutant? Do you know of any other meta-humans? Is it not true that in your time as part of the supergroup Liberty-Force you were involved with a member of an Extra-Terrestrial Alien Power? During this time did you tell this person anything that might in any way compromise the security of the United Startes? Please think carefully...") (See Wild-Cards 1 for a good instace of this) None of this answers what effect it would have on the economy etc. but that's because I don't know.

Re: Gray vs Dark (or mid-point between Silver and Iron or such) I'd say Dark: Corruption is the rule rather than the exception and is a 'public secret'. Government, law enforcement and other services work for the person with the most money rather than those they have sworn to serve. Good people exist in these areas but are so up against it that they are forced to 'work outside the system' in order to do the right thing (these are usually the PCs). Such people are then hunted for working against those in power. Criminals commit unspeakable acts in the sure knowledge that if they are caught they will never be punished. The heroes must commit crimes in order to stop even worse ones and death is the only sure way to stop a criminal. Gray: Corruption exists, but those who engage in it do not have the power to do so publically. Government works for it's consistuants and those who contibute to their campaigns. Law enforcement tries to work for the people, yet fight a hard battle against criminals who are better equipt and funded. Good people exist and while they try to work within the system there are times when they need to step outside it for the good of all. These times are only punished if the perpetrators are public enough about it and usually get a severe talking to at worst otherwise (since the heads of the overwhelmed police force relise that 'by the book' isn't always the best way). Unless insane criminals only commit those crimes that they need to in order to survive or keep their power base (in the case of organised criminals). The insidence of criminals 'getting off on a technicality' is low enough that heroes see the system as better than stooping to murder unless the criminal is particularly vile. Light: Corruption only exists for the length of an adventure, is usually the focus of that adventure and is stamped out by the end. Politicians, law enforcement and those who are supposed to work for the people. Good people are the norm and criminals are never morally ambiguous and can be beaten senseless before being taken to the police station where you know they will stay imprisoned until the story requires their escape, and will be recaptured before they do any real damage. Despite being 'Evil' villians will never commit really naughty crimes and will stick to bank robbery or threatening people with badness that they never get time to carry through on. No-one ever dies, really, since you never see a corpse. IOW boring as he**.

Re: Do you use the official Champions Universe? No, but I do use characters from the books in my own universe.

Re: Schmucks? I find it ironic that this comment would come from the Dark Champions board, a board based on a game where a 350 pt character would be the 'Harbinger of (frickin') Justice'. I'd expect the comment to be "anyone who feels they need that many points in a Dark Champions game is a schmuck, this should be a 'heroic' level game". From the sound of it some of the people on the Dark Champions board should be playing 'Galactic Dark Champions: Defending the Universe from the Scum of the Earth'. Of course I may just be misreading...

Re: What's *your* superpower? Precognition (No Conscious Control, only useless information. (used to be 'Only in Dreams' but I musta put points into it without knowing). Detect spelling/grammar/logic mistakes (Usable only on others). Good listener (Mind control, IPE, Incantations, Set effect (Trust me with your deepest secrets) Just one of the gals (Mind control, Always on, IPE, Only on women around my age, Set Effect (Only to make women forget I'm actually male). Unbreakable mind (Ego +50, only to defend against the psychological effects of 'disturbing revelations') Odorless Man (Invisible to Smell group (possibly taste, no-ones told me), Always on.) Eidetic Memory (Only for useless trivia related to movies/RPGs/music lyrics/etc.)

Re: Non-"adventuring" Metahumans P.S. 235 is good for this. (for those who don't know it's about an elementary school for Meta-prodigies (the next generation of Meta-humans who have developed powers before they hit adolecence). Their is a 'Rain-maker program' for those whose powers are not 'combat worthy' to find niches for them in society. Of the ones I can remember there is a child who can control the position and proportion of body-fat in others (a super plastic surgeon if you will), a boy who can turn rocks into nutritious food of any flavour he wants (although they still look like rocks) and the latest incarnation of the goddess Hestia who can control the fertility of plants and animals and hands out advice on finding the perfect mate. These are 'non-combat worthy' metahumans. There are also 'combat worthy's who have no intention of taking up the 'family business' like Captain Claranet who has the powers of the world's Superman but only wants to be a musician. Also the staff are all full-time teachers despite being former 'crime fighting' supers (and at least one of them thinks his former life was safer and less stressful). Personally I like the idea that not all (or even most) metahumans feel the need to take up either crime or crime fighting.

Re: Iron Age Champions campaigning Not necessarily higher point totals, much of the grit of iron age can be better shown with lower. However I'm not a reader of either of your source comics so perhaps their high powered. As for Secret ID, I'd think you'd be more likely to take it in a realistic Iron Age game unless your family/friends/etc were already dead (ala the Punisher) since Iron age villians are more likely to "hunt down your family and kill them graphically to warn you off" than to "kidnap them and put them in a 'fiendish death trap' in order to draw you in for a final confrontation". You'd therefore be more likely to protect their lives by using a Secret ID.

Re: I Can't Believe He Played That! You knocking the paper masters from the anime Read or Die? 'cause they are cool. 'course they do more than *cover themselves* with paper (paper cuts through sold stone; huge origami fighting beasts; weapons made of hardened paper). If all he did was cover himself as armor he is lame for his lack of imagination.

Re: A contriversial "Would your character...?" Caress: Assuming that Mega-Creep is Mentally sheilded up the wazzo (otherwise he's going to publically do things to himself that will make men cringe for generations to come), she would agree then do said things herself when he's at his most vulnerable and laugh as she and millions of people died a horrible death. Karma: [before conception] "O.k., sure, whatever. I can keep my mask on?" [After] "Alright [censored] you want to see me or the bundle of joy ever again I suggest you play nice from now on. I'll expect some steep alamony too... you'll hear my other demands later" (Teleports away)

Re: What Would Your Character Do? #69 Fore-Eyes: Find all the teen supers, use precog to see how they will do in the future (heroes can go bad and villians can go straight), check whether there is any way to turn the bad ones to the right path. Present villians who seem unable to be changed get 'outed' to the authorities, teen-villians who can be 're-educated' are (even if it means pulling in a few favors), Heroes who seem safely on that path are protected from inevitable VIPER attack squads and invited to team up with each other for mutual safety (since they all obviuosly now have VIPER as a Hunted) and possibly given their dossier to do with as they will. Less 'stable' heroes are watched and helped at the key moment where they would otherwhise have 'left the path' to remain on it. Did I mention Fore-Eyes has a complex about using all his knowledge for 'niceness'. Hardball: Mysterious warnings appear at the teen villian's house, things that say 'I know who you are I know where you live and I'm watching you. Play nice'. Teen heroes are protected by mysterious flying objects that seem to hit their enemies just when the heroes are at their greatest disadvantage. Any teen-villian who is a member of a gang or linked to organised crime is found beaten and bloody on the doorstep of the nearest police station. It's not child abuse, it's 'a painful lesson'. Ghost Dancer: Checks out the cute boys (both heroes and villians), writes down their numbers and usual places to hang out, and makes sure to 'happen to be there' when the fight starts so that she can 'save' the heroes and have a good tumble with the villians. Oh yes and she hands the dossiers to some more mature heroes to deal with. Karma: The violent villian's are 'narced' on, the non-violent villian's are contacted to see whether they'd like to join a heist or two, and the heroes are made to look foolish (with a little help from her new friends) if they're 'forthright, flagwaving, more-heroic-than-thou types and aided if they are more secretive, effective-at-protecting-the-little-guy types.

Re: I made the GM cry.... Rule #2 If you absolutely must make the pieces destructable, then the ritual only needs those pieces that survive. Badguys get all remaining pieces or Goodguys destroy all pieces = same result (freedom of & inevitable showdown with the Big-Bad). The best they can hope for is that their destruction of the pieces has weakened the Big Bad enough to allow it's defeat.