Christopher R Taylor

Or, you could just drop the rule which is silly and unwarranted. Its not there as a balancing feature. Its there because in the comics, when the most famous one (in the Legion of Superheroes) had a duplicate died, she lost it forever. That's it. They were simulating comics. But it was a poor simulation better done with an optional limitation "duplicates die permanently" probably a 1/4, given how rarely anyone dies in the Superhero genre. And you don't see duplication many other places. I can't see why anyone would even argue this. Taking points away from a character permanently, making them fewer total points than everyone else in the campaign permanently just because they bought a certain power is utterly ridiculous. The only perk that says this is Deep Cover. The rest give ways to shift the points to something else. Even Deep Cover offers an optional "or you could let them put the points somewhere else." Option. Just because the rules are written a certain way doesn't make them right or scribed in stone by God on high. That's why the cost of things change over editions.

Trump had to show he's not a raging lunatic and Hillary had to show she's not on death's door in the debate. They both succeeded. Other than that, doesn't move the needle.

Flexibility is paid for in the points; you pay to have those alternate and additional abilities, just like with a Power Pool. Nobody argues that you have to lose points permanently at any point with a power pool to offset all that flexibility. They don't do so because that would be ridiculous. Any power that has with it the inherent chance of permanently losing points from your character sheet like the GM came and ripped a piece off should have a limitation -- should cost less than usual -- not be a built-in feature.

Problem is that he didn't learn anything. The first time he punches Kryptonian thug and he crashes into a building he should have gone "oh crap! Look at the damage, those people were hurt!" and then he tries not to do that. This is all just excuse making for the writing. They wanted epic damage and huge, massive strength on display. Look, he punched him so hard, the building collapsed! ITS EPIC!!!!!!

I find its best to stay at 4 or fewer copies or the effect Doc Democracy notes really gets to be a problem: its the empire of Duplicate man, and everyone else is just a spectator. Yeah that's one I've house ruled out every time, both that and Deep Cover. I think its a nod to Triplicate Lass who lost a copy permanently in the comics. If you lose your points permanently, that's worth a limitation.

That's not true. What you're describing is No Range Energy Blast. Rules for HTA, from 4th edition: The origin of the limitation was that in 4th edition HTA was 3 points per d6 (because it had no range) and was hideously broken. So 5th edition made it properly 5 points per d6 then slapped an "only to add to STR damage" limtiation in it that was no limitation at all, but brought the real cost down to about the same. I think the 1/4 is a grandfathered thing that should have just been left off entirely.

I'm not really sure why HA gets a 1/4 limitation at all. Seems to me that you have one attack "Blast" that does normal damage and it either does this at range or it does it in melee but strength adds to it, just like killing attacks. As for comparing it to stats, stats and powers do not compare well, so they probably ought not be considered in any math comparison. Stats are very efficient for the points, in order to allow people to build their concept.

Forget it, he's rolling

Doesn't help the problem any. If you can take somone's punch to the face without notable harm, your neck probably will resist his strength, too. See the problem isn't "boy he's stronger than them" its "why is Zod's neck so weak?"

Yeah this is a guy he couldn't hurt by punching him in the face so hard he knocked over a skyscraper but one twist of the neck? Kryptonians have glass spines, or something

Exactly. Well stated overall. The inability to comprehend or see this is a troubling reminder of how odd our culture has become.

Right. The Superman depicted in the Donner films was consistent with the comics, and overall cheerful and uplifting. Then, when you saw exceptions to that, you knew they were momentary, driven by plot, and exceptional. You were confident that, true to the comics, Zod wasn't dead because dude, nobody dies in comics. If all you get is angsty, conflicted, angry and violent Superman, and he kills someone blatantly and outright after destroying small towns and cities alike without the slightest wince of regret... that's a different perspective entirely.

And I think that's why it is difficult to take a "realistic" approach with these characters. They would quickly implode from the sheer implausibility of their circumstances. I just feel that humanizing a character like Superman (too much) undermines his ability to actually do the job assigned to him. That's part of the answer and part of it is that its mythical, not gritty, as has been noted too. And yeah, not everyone gets moody and depressed under stress, some benefit from it and are even more cheerful. I get that this kind of Superman doesn't appeal to everyone, but its true to his character and concept, rather than dark skies and grim demeanor. But there are some who'll never be reached with this simple truth, because it just isn't what they want to see.

You know what I'd do if I woke up every morning with boundless strength, bulletproof skin, a ripped physique, stunning good looks, and the ability to fly? Smile. I'd smile all day long. I'd smile constantly. I'd be upbeat and cheerful and happy all the time. Not frowning and worried and cloudy skies.

So, a blind guy apparently shattered a bunch of Olympic records in the paralympics, and it made me think: why is a blind guy not just in the regular Olympics? What about not being able to see affects running speed? Its gutsy to run blind, but he's on a track, not out in the street or where there's debris to avoid.

They did do good work in WoW this expansion finding ways to create quests that don't involve Amex deliveries or killing lots of stuff. With arms and fury, I found that Fury does kill things faster, but there's more down time and arms is more survivable.

I almost posted that. Its so adorable

Best part of that game was the Jim Steranko cover art

You should bundle them up and put them into downloads

I'm sure that's what they thought, but it has a wonderful retro feel and is so very memorable and effective, they were fools.

I agree and I think Lord Liaden gives the reason why: They are too sparing with the use of their themes. They can't be iconic if they don't have exposure. Using the theme so sparingly and with such apparent reluctance is a strange decision on Marvel's part. Sales of sound track records made Lucas and Williams a ton of money.

Iron Man does have a distinctive and memorable theme song in the first film, I agree.

Legion is the best expansion they've put out since Wrath of the Lich King but it has a few flaws: the trade skills thing is interesting, but will be only interesting one time through for each one. After that it is going to be obnoxious and infuriating. They've gone a bit overboard on the "we have a story and by damn we'll make you follow it" cut scenes, apparently inspired by 9000 hours of anime watching. There are so many bad guys out there in most zones you can't travel without being highjacked and wading through them, and its plain that level 110 was balanced against a certain presumed power level including a bodyguard, which if you don't have yet (very likely with warriors) you get hammered. Still, visually spectacular, overpacked with content, lots of hilarious stuff, fascinating new concepts, and well done overall.

Its pretty obvious that even that pretty damaging fight in the clip is dwarfed by the Man of Steel fight where they're knocking over more buildings than an earthquake disaster movie. Half of Metropolis is dust at that point. The problem is, people expect some damage and awesome epic hits in a superhero movie, and Avengers had come out with a pretty spectacular amount of damage. That level of wreckage was troubling, but at least 99% of it was done by the alien invaders and the worst damage was prevented by the only single heroic and sacrificial thing Iron Man ever did in his life -- fly the nuke into the wormhole. So Man of Steel came out and they said "lets crank that up to eleven!!!!" but the problem was twofold: first, the level of destruction was so vast it stopped looking like a superhero battle and people started to count bodies. And second, a large portion of that battle was caused not by invading aliens (unless you count Superman as one, a valid thought in that film) but by the supposed good guy. It was too much, too over the top. Superman seemed to relish knocking people directly into occupied buildings and explosive things even when he started a fight in the middle of a field somewhere.

Avengers is really memorable (at least the first, the second they changed to Danny Elfman and he crapped all over it, barely using the distinctive music). Captain America's end credits "Captain America March" was way better than the original theme. However I will say that he's got a point: many of the themes aren't really distinctive, super memorable ones. I LIKE the Spider-Man theme (first series), the Hulk theme (first movie) and Thor theme, but I couldn't pick them out of a lineup. And I couldn't call them to mind just sitting here.