Christopher R Taylor

I can have susceptibility to objects a certain shade of blue. Would necessitate a minor transform?

 

No, because of the definition of the power and how it works.  Changing the color of an item is cosmetic, by definition, according to the rules:

Changing the function of the item is minor or greater, according to the rules.

Its pretty straightforward here.  This isn't about the complication, its about the degree of change to the target.  That's how transform works.  Its like how Teleport moves objects and Change Environment doesn't build Barriers.

The problem with these movies isn't the writing, that's pretty solid.  Its the almost complete lack of understanding of the characters.  If you cannot grasp that Superman is supposed to be noble, uplifting, heroic, and inspiring, you shouldn't be anywhere near writing a Superman movie.  I you cannot comprehend that Batman has only one rule -- do not kill --  you shouldn't be writing Batman movies.  Its like doing a James Bond movie and having him work for the Russians and afraid of both violence and women.  Its like doing Hamlet, but nobody dies and Hamlet is a monk that chants prayers all day.  The very minimum you should do as a writer is be faithful to the characters.

She messes with people's minds more than just reading them.  She apparently can become invisible and teleport as well (or its just lousy writing in Avengers 2 with her showing up behind everyone unnoticed).

I would say its not cosmetic because it is changing the item beyond its normal range of simple appearance and sensory alterations.  Turning your sword blue: cosmetic.  Making your sword do extra damage to creatures vulnerable to a kind of attack: minor.

Yeah I think I'd go with change environment, for this one

Probably for a similar reason to why piranha don't either.

They will, though.  If they are bloody or damaged.  They take bites out of each other when swarming, too.

The real answer is: because if they ate each other instead of stupidly stumbling after humans, then it wouldn't be scary.

How many ounces is that? The platinum, that is.

Gotta be measured in milligrams, I'd think

I haven't always liked everything Johns has written, and he tends to be a shade more Iron Age than I tend to prefer. 

That's the problem.  His version of superheroes is the same dreary, grimdark, miserable, angsty, goth vision they're already suffering under.  Not really heroes so much as guys with lots of power that fight each other causing vast property damage.

If Warner/DC want to address the concerns fans have and box office receipts are reflecting, they need someone with a different vision.  Angry, frightening, emo Superman is not what fans want.

None of the sample characters have mental powers, for those reasons and several others (such as only one in the Avengers did, and she's just... undesignable, because she has wish powers).

I'm concerned that Johns is a main part of the problem, though.  So not a terribly great solution.

Martial Block is a pretty specific type of action though, it involves not just interposing but moving and acting in a way that makes you harder to hit as well.  Just putting a shield in the way of an attack is a far cry from martial arts.

For me its an either/or thing, because of how its used.  If you're blocking with a shield, you're actively using it to interpose against a specific attack.  If you're using it for DCV, you're using it to make it harder to hit you because of its coverage.  Its not going to work to try to do both at the same time.

Might move presence attacks up to Part 3, but yeah that looks like a good breakdown.  By Part 6 I think the characters should have their full bloc of xps, bringing them up to 400 point full heroes.

Along side this we need the experience blocs and tips on spending them, tips on GMing for the sidebar with ideas on storytelling and how to handle situations, and the rest of the story: character stories, using complications, bringing background and non-heroic activity into the game with the sample characters.

Oh I expect you can get anything to go to a point of demented rage that they lose all sense of place and time and ignore instinct.  But that's sort of a particular, special case.

A cat could open up an artery on your neck

 

Sure, in theory, with a perfect hit on a target, you can do amazing things.  I could kill you with a papercut but that doesn't mean a piece of paper has a killing attack.  The way a cat is built right now, they could kill someone by clawing them 10 times on the thigh.  That's baldly ridiculous.

Yeah but still.  A cat could claw your head 20 times and you still will not be dead.  Cat claws are painful, not lethal.

And you can presence attack an angry cat.  Its first instinct in danger is to run away and hide, not fight.  All you have to do is trigger that response.

In HERO System terms I'd say this is a maneuver that either increases DCs or changes their normal attack into a killing attack.

 

I'd say just a normal attack against a foe with little to no PD, targeting the head for x1½ body.

I just build my undead with a vulnerability to presence attacks by holy people; x2 for weak ones, x1½ for stronger.  A "turn undead" type ritual is just more presence with instant and offense only, vs undead.

I would allow it as a GM, yes.

It's an artifact of the game starting as a Supers RPG. So for that, +2DCV per level of Shrinking made sense.

 

It never really worked for shrinking either, they always overestimated the benefits of being small, and if you wanted being small to make you unhittable, you could always buy DCV levels.

Yes, there has always been a language that the criminal and lower classes used to talk.  Part slang, part trade language, and part "conceal what we're saying from the filth."

The Barbary Coast (old time San Francisco) even had one.

I like the idea of saving throws against certain concepts.  Stuff that you can resist through enough willpower or magical ability, or just being agile.  A spell that isn't possible to dodge, but through force of will prevent taking effect

Well a lot of stuff is denser than depleted uranium, but it gets ridiculously expensive.

Why don't zombies eat each other?