Supreme

I don't want to get into a 9/11 debate either, but... The fact that there were people in other countries who danced in the streets at the news of the attacks shows that even that reprehensible act is not universally seen as evil. I am not suggesting that any of us revise our thinking about 9/11 or the meaning of evil. I'm only pointing out that it is subjective. Subjective doesn't mean wrong, it just means (among other things) "not objective." And GamePhil raises and excellent point about a list of specific criteria which, while arrived at subjectively, could still be objectively "Detected" for. Of course you'd have to keep that list short and simple, otherwise it'd bog the game down.

Interesting... I've never played a "god" and neither have I ever seen anyone else play one. We've all played characters with powers that were borrowed, stolen, or given from the gods, but never the god itself. I notice from the other postings that this tends to be the way it is in other campaigns too. There are a couple of Thor-types, but the majority seem to be Captain Marvel types.

Never said it was. My point was that in comics 99% of all adult female characters are drawn with a minimum of a "C" cup. When I draw my characters they rarely are above a "B". This is partly because of an attempt at realism, and partly because I just want to do something different. See attached example.

Most of these are contained within one album. "The Boston Pops in Space" contains the Boston Pops performing the themes from "Superman", "Star Wars", and "Raiders of the Lost Ark". I just put it on and hit 'repeat.' In general, I prefer the gaming music to have no lyrics as they are a distraction to me. I'm one of those annoying people who pays attention to each and every lyric. Comes from years of listening to Peter Gabriel, I guess.

And I prefer "Mixed-Chromosome Scum".

Good point. I forgot about her. Though she barely qualifies as an exception because her age is so close to the 17 year cut-off I mentioned. Maybe I should raise the cut-off age to 18 or 19. I should probably also put a ceiling on it to keep people from mentioning Aunt May and Martha Kent.

I was also thinking that there should be some conventional circuitry somewhere in the system which an EMP would disrupt. My understanding of EMPs is that they disrupt electrical systems by inducing more current (a changing electrical or magnetic field induces current in a conductor - like a wire) than the circuits can handle. Said circuits then burn out.

Huh. That's actually a good idea. If you own your own cab, as many drivers do, then you can take a break whenever you want. Of course you'd be mighty unpopular with your dispatcher.

Escapism is too much the key word for my games as well. I can't remember putting current events into the game world in over a decade. The only exception being in the most cosmetic or necessary way. For example, if I were running a game now where part of the game required a battle at the airport, I would naturally include what's been happening with airport security since 9/11. Also, most of my games are period games (GAC, SAC, Marvel Age) so current events aren't even happening yet.

Related Question Supreme: If your cybernetics are based upon fiber-optics as opposed to conventional circuitry, are you still vulnerable to EMPs?

You could still do a Transform to someone with 0 Stun and make the untransform condition stated as being woken up.

If you think about it, this issue is not limited to women. Male characters, both in comics and in RPGs tend to fall within two categories: non-humans (i.e., the Thing, the Hulk, J'onn J'onzz) and super-studs (everyone else). Even with male characters who don't put any points into COM (and I'd say that was less than 5% of all characters) they still are drawn with He-Man physiques. But hey -- vanity is fun isn't it? What I've noticed that you almost never see, in comics or games, is a female character over the age of 17 with breasts smaller than a "C" cup. Never seen it.

Other alternatives that I can see: Transform CHA Drain (INT?)

The greek version of Hercules (Herakles?) started out as a half-god, but was "promoted" upon his death. The roman Hercules was all god from the beginning. And random mewing fits is one of the reasons why I prefer dogs.

Re: Heavy Metal Hero Uhh... no. Taarna was a 20 COM. Even if you don't personally feel that way, it was clearly intended that she was your typical fantasy babe: utterly gorgeous. And her PRe could be a couple of points higher. She isn't even phased when the evil Loc-Nar overlord is torturing her. Her SPD should also be a 4. SPD 3 people really can't take out a room full of thugs the way she did, though I suppose Rapid Attack could take care of that. I'd also replace the HTH attack with the "Dirty Infighting" martial arts package. Otherwise, this is a perfectly good write-up.

Re: What Hercules can do. And something else I never read the original Hercules-towing comic, but Marvel once did put out a list of its own writing/editing blunders of all time, edited by Stan Lee. As Stan pointed out: Not only does this suppose that Manhattan floats, which it doesn't, but that it can be pulled in through passageways that are narrower than it is wide. Also, the artist showed Hercules towing it in backwards. Battery Park was in the north where Harlem should be.

Crisis on Quite a Few Earths Cosmic-level super-heroes (400+, all pre-made) are called from different time-periods to deal with a menace that threatens the space-time continuum itself. Each time period that the characters come from are corelational to the comics of that period. Thus Champion from 1941 gets his powers from the goddess Athena and utters ridiculous soliloquies like "good thinking, cowled comrade", whereas the Champion from 1959 gets his powers from "cosmic radiation" and utters soliloquies like "Suffering Schroedenger!" The 80s characters would just sit in a corner by themselves and mutter how ridiculous and pointless it all is. I actually petitioned the folks at DundraCon to let me run this, but I never heard back from them.

Considering that the average adult male chimp is supposed to be as strong as four professional heavy-weight division wrestlers, I think teaching them martial arts is a bit of overkill -- but hey, if you're not doing anything. Naturally, the competitive Kung Fu practioner in me says, "See, even a chimp can do it."

Re: For that matter The original Iron Man for one. His original origin was that his heart was wounded by a land mine in Vietnam, and he needed the suit to run an artificial heart. All the boot-jets, anti-magnetic repulsors, and servo-motor strength enhancements were just optional extras.

Personally, I prefer the use of allegories in campaigns. Zombies certainly make an excellent allegory for fascists because that's what fascism does to its population. It homogenizes them, removes their humanity, and turns them into automatons. The US contingent being werewolves is, while it is a good polar opposite to nazi zombies, seems to present a couple of problems. First, if your PCs want to play Americans, it seems like their only choice will be lycanthropes. I don't know what your players are like, but it seems a little narrow to me. You may wind up with a lot of players saying, "I want to play an American - BUT..." That's always the player's way of saying, "I'll play in your campaign, but I don't really care for the background you've written." Those games are always troubled. Second, werewolves are powerful, loud, and unsubtle. During the War the Allies greatest strength was in espionage. You may want to think of things along those line. In the US, the natives have a folkloric tradition of skin-walkers - but the settlers have a long tradition of psychics. As for UK suggestions, I suggest wicca/pagan magic-users. Also, anything associated with Camelot (i.e., Excalibur, Knights, Merlin, etc.). As for Italy, the sky's the limit. You can do stuff associated with Roman deities, or anything from classical mythology. You could also throw in magical stuff associated with Catholic saints, though this might be offensive to some of your players. Personally, I'd do something with Bacchites. It fits the Roman mythological theme, and the political theme as Mussolini's "politics" were based upon fervor and violence to the exclusion of rational thought. Russia? No ideas. The Russian mythology I know is Baba Yaga, the witch who eats children. Doesn't make for good press amongst the Allies. Here's another general thought. Since one of themes of the war was that each side fought by bringing to bear all the sheer industrial might that they could muster, you may want to play out some kind of merging of the mystical with industrial. Zombie-robots, as you already mentioned. Steel golems. Cursed factories. Etc.

Interesting character, Acroyear. I must say, "Hunted by Mechanon": I think we just found the new "man without fear."

Personally, I find many of the day jobs of classic super-heroes to be rather hard to swallow. It's one thing to work eight hours in a day and fight crime. Many super-heroes do possess the physical and mental fortitude to do this. However, with most jobs you can't just up and leave on a moments notice when the super-villains attack. Amongst these hard-to-believe day jobs are: * Doctor Doctors work a LOT more than 40 hours a week, and are on call to boot. * Professor/Teacher/Lecturer Different than research scientists, teachers have strictly defined work schedules - especially those who are still trying to get tenure. * Police Officer/Law-Enforcement Officer Not only are your hours strictly defined, but many Law-Enforcement agencies will monitor the off-duty activities of their officers. * Attorney Attornies work LONG hours like doctors. As well, they are expected to put in 50-60 hours a week just to impress the partners. This doesn't stop once you make partner or junior partner. You have to keep putting in the hours to make sure that you keep your position. * Actor True, most actors are out of work most of the time. But once you get work, you have to do it! Otherwise you need to find another career. However, there are many classic day jobs that do work: * Research Scientist/Graduate Student These people actually have very felxible schedules and can always take a few hours off of their project here and there as long as they make it up. The only hinderance would be when they have to work with others. Of course lots of high-level academics are known for idiosyncracies. * Private Detective Unless your a junior member of a firm, you're your own boss. You just have to make sure that you actually put some time in on the cases you do have. You also won't make a lot of money. * Reporter Reporter actually works well, because you always have the excuse of "chasing down" a lead. Making up the work later is simply a matter of super-speed. * Free-Lance Photographer You just show up when you have pictures. "Best thing for a kid your age." What I haven't seen yet are software programmers and people making money via the internet (there are still a few out there). These are also people with very flexible hours.

Re: Re: Re: Unknown reasons According to the English people I know, "naff" can mean corny, stupid, or just generically inferior.

Yeah, but then you figure out that you're doomed because you didn't spend any points on offense or defense.

I would definitely incorporate a DEX rolls as well as a STR roll. You may also want to incorporate DEX-based skill rolls too. It would be the best representation of how hard those athletes work, and all the physical and mental resources they bring to bear in competition. Though, I would use metric sub-divisions as they convert to HERO better, which is metric-based, not imperial.