Supreme

Re: So...what "Brick Tricks" or "Speed Tricks" would you give The Super clan?

Let's not forget the Alan Moore final issue of Action Comics volume 1, where Superman rubs his hands along the side of the stand for the Daily Planet globe turning it into a giant magnet which scoops up a team of Metallo-clones.

Re: Alternate Earth: Superman 2005

I would keep his extraterrestrial origin, since Superman effectively represents America and we are all, in effect immigrants. I would probably make his powers the result of his presense on our soil, probably a combination of gravity differential and a relative lack of pollutants in our atmosphere. Kal-El would have been sent to Earth because an attempt to perform a massive waste dump into the core of Krypton went awry and Krypton began tearing itself apart seismically. Jor-El sends Kal-El, and only Kal-El to Earth because he simply wants a better life for his son. Lara is already dead, and Jor-El like Krypton doesn't have long. The radioactive isotopes created by the failed Core Waste Dump have induced massive radiation poisoning, and its taking its toll.

Unfortunately, since Jor-El was not a rich man he was forced to use the only fuel source available -- those same isotopes. This is how so much Kryptonite follows him to Earth. The ship was programmed to dump most of the isotopes at a safe distance from Earth before splashdown. However, Jor-El didn't count on humans being space-faring enough to collect those samples. Jor-El wasn't able to make a ship that went faster than light. He was able to make a ship which accelerated almost constantly for the entire journey. Thus too much time did not pass for baby Kal-El, and his muscles were further stimulated.

Kal-El still grows up in rural America, if not Kansas specifically. I'm not sure if he grows up as Clark Kent. I would like a Superman who looked less white. Sort of a Louis Wu mixture of all the races putting him somewhere between Asian and Latino. His powers are simply super-strength and invulnerability. His weaknesses are still Kryptonite (green only) and magic. He is, however, and absolute specimen in all other aspects: mental acuity, health, courage, attractiveness, etc. Lois figures out his secret ID in a blink. She is an investigative journalist, after all. His costume is red and blue, but the S shield actually looks like a shield, not a corporate emblem. He's here to protect us, after all.

Re: Alternate Earth: Superman 2005

Best case scenario?

 

He gets his powers from Earth's yellow sun, wears a blue body suit with red cape, and has all the traditional super powers. Raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent to have strong moral values and be an iconic representation of all that is Good... you know, Truth, Justice, and the American Way/Hope. Since super-heroes have never been presented, it'd be just as likely that the origin/powers/appearance would be as they originally were depicted. Assuming you get a creative team with the vision and creativity of Siegel & Shuster to do it.

 

Worst case scenario?

 

He wears a kewl black & silver bodysuit, gets his powers from radiation/toxic waste/is bitten by a radioactive wombat while struck by lightning, and his powers are something SUPER L33T! Like he shoots knives out of his hands and heals when people cut him up! Yeah baby! His code of morality could be something awesome like "kill em first... I'm the best there is at what I do!" And we'd need him to fight a giant mechanical spider right off the bat, 'cuz spiders are the most savage killers in the $%@@ animal kingdom!

 

Ewwwwwww...

You got rep for that.

Re: Tacky, tacky, tacky !!!!

Can those of us who have not bought the book yet see a pic of the new costume so we can judge for ourselves?

Re: Things to Do With Hunteds

For long term campaigns I think its entirely reasonable for a PC to just take a fairly generic disad:

 

"Hunted by various goons under the GM's whim"

 

assign a level of frequency, power, and lethality to suit

 

Then when the PC's accidently piss off the wealth industrialist with a secret defense contract by breaking into his corporations head quarters, well, you have it covered.

 

Having the Mad Bomber show up week after week after week can get old really fast. Especially if he is gaining exp just as fast as the heros are.

Well, that's sort of the point of a rogues gallery. You keep things alive, but still have things like character development and atmosphere, rather than letting it boil down to the same guy every time you roll the hunted, or something totally generic and unconnected like "Hunted by various goons under the GM's whim."

Re: Characters of "Substance"

LOL' date=' I just submitted one to Kirby for his PBEM. Since mercury is very low friction he can "skate" at high speed. Plus, of course, he's heavy and malleable. Kind of a cross between Quicksilver and Reed Richards. Of course, mercury is a natural conductor so he's vulnerable to electrical attacks.[/quote']

I thought that with lower electrical resistance, the charge would move through you depositing less energy, thus providing you with protection -- like damage reduction. Am I wrong?

I think this subject has overlap with both Bricks, Energy Projectors, and Metamorphs: characters whose power(s) stem from having a body made of some particular material. The most obvious example is Colossus of the X-Men. He can transform his body into a body of "living steel." Great, he's a brick. But there must be a near-inifinte set of other useful substances to become. How about a character made of copper? How about a character made of mercury?

Any ideas? These don't have to be metals or even pure elements.

Re: Pain/Pleasure

How does a supertough being feel pleasure' date=' much less anything? Wouldn't superhard skin negate any feeling?[/quote']

Depends. Resilience and sensitivity are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Most of the time when you feel pain in your skin from a pinch or minor burn or whatever, you are not actually sensing damage being done to your skin, but rather receiving sensory input warning you that damage may be imminent. It all has to do with whether or not thr super-tough skin can still receive tactile sensory input. Even if the input is reduced the nerves, and the input-receiving part of the brain can still expand its function to better interpret what little data it has. Normal human eyes adjust to darkness. When blinded, other senses will kick into higher gear to compensate.

 

Of course we are talking about super-heroes which is a genre which defies all forms of logic and realism.

A friend of mine and I cooked these two things to do with Hunteds, to add a little flavor to the game:

1. Rogue's Gallery

The character has a number of independent villains, all of whom are hunting him. These villains all have either powers, or themes, that relate to the character. These villains do not (normally) work as a team, but instead show up one at a time. For each session, the GM rolls a single hunted, and then selects the villain most appropriate to the scenario.

A Rogue's Gallery should be created by the GM (working with the player, if the player is willing). It should include at least three, and probably not more than six villains. This allows a hero to group several hunteds under a disadvantage - while avoiding the annoyance of having them all turn up at once.

Example

Hyperion (Master of Light) is a super-science based hero with light powers. His motivation for fighting crime is a sense of responsibility (with great power....). His player chooses to have a Rogue's Gallery Hunted. Player and GM sit down and discuss ideas. With themes of light, science, and responsibility, they come up with the following villains:

[*]Plutona Regina (Scientist with the ability to create agents of "solidified darkness")

[*]Berserker (an alien, insane, random, and violent, who shoots "change rays")

[*]Mirror (a petty thief with the mutant power to reflect light and energy

attacks)

[*]Count Zero (wears power armor with cold powers)

For this week, the adventure is centered around the Bog Witch (a celtic-magic themed villainess). The GM rolls for a hunted, and determines that

one of Hyperion's hunteds is due to show up. Plutona Regina would be a good choice - but the players put her in jail two sessions ago. The Bog Witch

might use her mind control fog on Berserker - but the GM already has Samhain (a brick/martial artist) scheduled to be the Witch's bodyguard (for a

future plot device). He decides to use Mirror, and further decides that Mirror is the one who will tip off the players that the Bog Witch is up to something. Mirror's motive is to steal some of the Witch's treasure, while the witch is distracted by the heroes. And if Mirror can get off a few shots at Hyperion - so much the better.

Aside from adding charm and atmosphere to the game, a rogue's gallery also has the strategic advantage of keeping the players on their toes, so to speak. If everyone knows that Villain X is vulnerable to Attack Y, then all the Heroes who can pull off an Attack Y will do so the moment Villain X shows up. A GM may give +10 points instead of +5, to encourage players to have a rogue's gallery.

2. Pschological Limitation: "I Must Deal With ______ Myself"

This is a psych lim specific to a hunted where the hero feels that he must take on the hunted alone. It's his fight, his responsibility, his burden, etc. The hero will not accept any help from his teammates. How common the limitation of the psych lim stems directly from how often the villain shows up. The severity of the psych lim should be moderate, but if the player is willing to have his hero allow the world to be endangered by a doomsday device, while he takes on General Woundwort, that's up to him (and the GM's approval).

Re: Superpowers that haven't been thought out...

I don't know about power per se' date=' but it is annoying how much technology that "interferes with mutant powers" exists, but yet never gets used by the Mutants themselves to help control those powers. Frankly, Rogue and Cyclops both should be wearing some wrist bracer or something that allows them to switch powers on or off at their leisure. Only, that would ruin the angst, and we can't have that. [/quote']

Brilliant. Let me see if I can rep you for that, Herm.

Re: Theme Super Hero Teams

I ran for a group that, without intending to, named all of their characters after gemstones: Ruby, Topaz, Opal, etc.

I've wanted for a long time to make a villain team all named after Punk songs: Janie Jones, White Riot, Blitzkrieg Bop, etc.

Re: How about this sci-fi battle..

I think I'd rather fight a Reaver than go see AvP, but that's the only Predator movie I haven't seen (the second was AWFUL). But my understanding is that we've only seen Predators who were out on what seem to be ritualistic hunts. Have we yet seen what Predator marines would be like?

Re: Star Trek: The Talosians

...What would be a good plot device to get them back in the action of the galaxy if I were to use them in a scenario.

They become assimilated by the Borg giving the collective a group of drones who can project unshakable mental illusions into the minds of others from light years away. Not even Vulcans can block them out (according to events from the two episodes).

Re: Person of Steel, Significant Other of Tissue paper

This one of those weird Nexus threads' date=' so if such things bother you stop reading now. I was wondering though, for those of you that do touch on issues of romantic relationships and sexuality in your supers games, do the power and related special effects ever become an issue; for example, the possible dangers of someone with superhuman strength injuring their partner during a moment of passion? Or do you just assume such things have been dealt with?[/quote']

I have always thought this line of thinking was deeply flawed, ever since Niven's infamous essay. I'm more than strong enough to injure the Wife Supreme when we are intimate, but it has never happened (keep your S&M comments to yourself at this point, if you don't mind). Tell me this: are the super-strong characters in your campaigns able to keep themselves from break normal doors that they don't know are locked? Are they unable to play with their pets because they'll lose focus for a second and snap little Fluffy's neck? Can they handle eggs without breaking them? More to the point: do they have a physical limitation stating that they are too strong to handle anything delicate without breaking it?

Re: How would you "Gath" Earth?

I think I'd keep all the governments in place, but re-dressed as Fantasy-type governments. The US is a democratic monarchy (which it nearly was), like Denmark once was (I've heard). You may also want to think about fantasy equivalents for other modern things: the Apollo Program, nuclear weaponry, the internet, etc.

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

It isn't hard. But it will excite a tremble from anyone who trembles at the thought of Subtopia' date=' the suburb world.[/quote']

I'm just thinking about the "keeping up with the Jones'" effect on a global scale...

 

What do people think about an all-Industrial planet? It'd be covered in smog except for pin-cushion needles of sky-scrapers and what-not pocking through the upper-most layers. This is especially true of the ring of tethered satellites around the equator.

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

Atoll world.

Is this basically an oceanic world with scattered islands?

Marsh world (as opposed to swamp world).

Not sure what the big difference here is. I don't know much about Marshes. I'm from California.

Bog world.

Good one! Spooky, dangerous, and with lots of peat.

Wheatfield world.

I can see an entire world terraformed just for agriculture. It's a checkerboard pattern of artificial lakes and croplands.

Grassland world.

Not sure what the appeal would be, but it makes sense.

Dry woodland world.

What is that exactly?

Mulga scrub world.

You just googled "climate types" didn't you...

Rocky mountainous world.

A place where they never had use for the wheel.

Hawkesbury Formation sandstone gorge-country world.

Badlands world?

Bristol quarry wolrd.

What? Did you get a degree in this stuff?

Suburb world.

Actually makes me shudder.

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

It just so happened that I saw part of a program on the Science channel a couple of nights ago that showed that exact demonstration -- which is why I had the example so ready to hand. They were showing various environments (Death Valley' date=' hot springs with boiling water, etc.) where bacteria thrived to put paid to the notion that life was "incredibly delicate", and that we shouldn't be surprised to find it in places like Europa.[/quote']

Though we're getting dangerously off-topic my problem with that model of thinking is that it ignores the fact that life here had a chance to develop in relatively comfortable regions before moving out into these less hospitable environments.

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

Indeed, most of the oxygen going in to Earth's atmosphere is produced by bacterial photosynthesis, is it not?

 

But I think that they would need water.

I thought that the majority of our Oxygen came from the algae in the oceans.

Re: Astronaut Package Deal

I wanted to represent more the astronauts of today.

 

Experimental Aircraft TFs aren't included because the Pilot Astronauts need them, not the Mission Specialists; Pilot Astronauts can buy them with the extra two points of Skills alloted them, if they didn't pick them up in their Basic Training package.

 

Does the FBI still keep tabs on the astronauts?

If any part of their mission exposes them to classified or sensitive information, they should.

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

To quote Doug Berry at one point on the Traveller Mailing List when asked about the Denebian Tree Oxen

 

"I'm not so much worried about oxen living in trees, as whatever drove them there in the first place"

Just like the bit in FoTR when the goblins first have the Fellowship surrounded then run off. Gandalf has to ask, "What made them run?"

Re: How To Model: Magic adversely affected by cold iron

...the effect could either be increased END cost...

Anyone buying a spell with reduced END, must do so through a naked advantage which has the "not in proximity to cold iron" limitation applied. Also, anyone with an END reserve could have a "not in proximity to cold iron" limitation applied to either the REC or the END.

Re: V'Ger from the 1st Star Trek movie.

And for a cashless society like the Federation - it amuses me that they keep proving that anything involve teleportation or holographic technology was obvious designed and built by the lowest bidder....

 

(but that's off topic)

Even more amusing is V'Ger's adopted home world which is filled to the brim with super-technology, but they can't wipe the soot off of V'Ger's side.

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

Had a volcanic world in my SW game. Picture a blackened, jagged, ash covered landscape with occasional lakes of molten rock, kilometer-deep fissures that glow orange-red in the depths, more-or-less continuous tremors of varying magnitude, and the occasional ash flow to obliterate everything within 50km, just to keep complacent players on their toes.

 

The planet was heavily mined, or more accurately surface-vacuumed, for the abundant minerals. Lotsa hazard pay for jobs like that.

 

The planet had one "city", a high-altitude anti-grav affair similar to Cloud City, but dirtier.

 

John T

I bet it smelled lovely too, what with all that sulphur and CO2.

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

The Ocean mono-climate is Calamari (or something to that effect) where Quarrans and Calamarians (like Admiral Ackbar) are from.

 

Kasshyyk is another forest mono-climate.

Right. But they've not had a rain-forest mono-climate, which is very different. I'm thinking a rain-forest monoclimate would be difficult to live on because so little of the bio-material would actually be edible. Plus there'd be all the little poisonous critters, and the occassional tree-clearing mastadon types who would trample you if you didn't see them coming.