Christopher R Taylor

OK all of that doesn't really answer the question here. Is a martial throw supposed to have identical effects of a grab and throw or is it a different beast? The book isn't clear. Also The purpose of the martial arts maneuvers is to -- get this -- simulate martial arts. As opposed to other kinds of ordinary combat. That's why they exist, as a mechanic to let players have characters who use martial arts. That's why they are a separate section from both normal and optional combat maneuvers in a section called "Martial arts maneuvers." Now we all know that "martial arts" has a pretty wide definition in Hero, including things like football moves or professional wrestling, but its still to simulate specialized distinct combat, different than the usual stuff other people use when they fight. So yes, the game does base the "understanding" of martial arts combat maneuvers on... martial arts.

So, this came up on the Discord server, and I honestly am not clear on it now. How much is Martial Throw like a Throw maneuver? I have always played it as a knockdown move, at most maybe a meter or two away. As in, Martial Throw is not the same as Captain America flinging his shield around, its Batroc flipping Cap to the ground. However the rules seem to make it sound like Martial Throw is just a better throw that doesn't require a grab. So you can legsweep someone across a room? In HSR 2 it says this: In Hero System Martial Arts 6th edition, its put this way: So is it a knockdown or flinging people all over the place? Also, the Martial Arts book suggests that you can do a martial throw at the end of a half move, for velocity damage. I always interpreted the velocity damage element to be you taking down a moving target, not you moving into a target and crashing into them. But again, in the rules: I base my understanding of the martial arts rules on, you know, martial arts, and I cannot recall any example of a martial artist running across the room to crash into a target and blast them flying, much less throw them around like a ragdoll. Even if you extrapolate martial arts into stuff like professional wrestling, they still aren't throwing someone more than a meter or two.

From a comic book perspective, that's how characters like The Confessor, Spider-Man, Batman, Daredevil, The Question etc all were written: they handle this stuff. From a Champions campaign perspective, I have long wanted to run a police campaign with very low-end heroes as cops on a special squad (like Alphacore, but they're more powerful). You can do regular police stuff, special situations like SWAT engagements, and low end superheroes as well as mobsters, etc.

There are a bunch of great 5th edition books I'd love to see converted to 6th, but its such a minor change it doesn't feel like its worth the time and effort.

Of all the early Spidey villains, Kraven actually is one of the most interesting. That miniseries of his death was incredible. Another later one I liked a lot was Puma, but he hasn't been used much. Spot was one that is really cool because he started out with no idea what his powers were or how to really use them, and decided to become a criminal which ended terribly, but he got better

Its wildly out of concept for the character but I figure the GM felt bad for the player who thought they had a neat idea and it turned out to be not nearly as useful as they first believed.

That is my favorite type of Champions to be honest, even if players prefer to be more powerful. The problem is that experience points necessarily result in a growth in power and then a growth in the power of the enemies to create a challenge. I had several players who just didn't care about experience at all, and I think I would like most games if they were more static in terms of character points.

I really like those concepts on their own but it would have made a pretty miserable Fantastic Four. It would have been more Doom Patrol (they have a stretcher don't they? I know Metal Men do). Yeah they were weaker, especially Sue. Being invisible has its advantages (especially for the original concept of the comic) but its not very useful against guys like the Mole Man. I cannot actually remember when she got her force field which Byrne so brilliantly used.

Stretching is a power set I haven't done a lot with other than "this creature has tentacles" but it can be interesting if done well.

You know what makes Aquaman cool? Um... nothing. I like the character Jason Mamoa plays, but he's not Aquaman and he's not a superhero. He's just a dudebro with powers. Namor is a lot more interesting because he's such an arrogant jackass. You can make an interesting water guy but not Aquaman.

I think its best to just ignore the implications and consequences of high tech and superheroes on economics unless its for a specific one-shot scenario. Why? Because if you make the world so different and so alien to what we have now, it damages immersion and ease of understanding the world. The main purpose of superheroes is to engage in power fantasy: here's what I'd do if I had x power/someone ought to do something about this problem. See, Superman's very existence would change society, culture, and science. He would transform the world. But the comic books about Superman were about him beating up evil landlords and dictators, stopping mobsters, etc. Why? Because nobody put a cape on and jumped from things pretending to fly because they wanted to play out the socioeconomic impact of superbeings. They wanted to be the guy that beat up the villains, bullies, and criminals. They wanted to play out what it would be like if someone actually was powerful enough to stop the mafia or corrupt politicians. If you make the world too different from what we now understand and live in, you lose that entire feel. Its fine if you want to do a future-tech, sci fi Champions game, and everyone knows that going in. But you can't have it both ways.

Morbius is, to me at least, a great character with an interesting background but they didn't do a very good job with the story. I think Jared Leto did the best he could with what he was given but the writing was bad. Not Madam Web bad, but not good enough to carry a movie about a pretty unknown character.

Yeah, and since Marvel is also involved with the Spider-Man movies, and they have their input, you can't really give Sony too much credit for how they turn out, either. Marvel has not exactly covered its self in glory lately, but as Bazza says, Sony's own stuff looks more like early Superhero movies that were largely cheese rather than, say, Blade or MCU product. I think Sony's biggest problem is that they are cheap but using writers who put out a very tepid near-fail in a second film is questionable judgement as well.

Marvel has a few more "successes" like The Marvels and they will go out of business.

Yeah they have five years to put out each film, and they are putting out like one a year. So they aren't struggling to keep their licensing, they're trying to make money but are cheap and not doing very good work. Now, it takes about 3 years to put out a modern movie (especially with CGI) so they can't just sit around 4 years and crank something out. But a 5 year deadline doesn't explain this release schedule: Venom: 2018 Into the Spider-Verse: 2018 Venom 2: 2021 Morbius: 2022 Across the Spiderverse: 2023 Madam Web: 2024 Incidentally I think the Tom Holland Spidey movies count as Sony movies under the contract which would pad the release schedule even more, but I cannot say for sure. So there's more to it than just "we don't want to lose our ownership"

Yeah its not impossible, however unlikely, that Madam Web will make money in rentals, Blu Ray etc. But as for licensing, you can go quite a while without losing the license/rights for a character. For example between Superman IV killed the franchise and Superman Returns was from 1987 to 2006. So Sony isn't required to make crappy Spiderman side character movies every year to keep the license. My best guess is that they figure they have their own little cinematic universe that they are trying to create with as little effort and money as possible and at first it was working. Venom, inexplicably, made a lot of money. Even Morbius made a handfull of cash. But its been diminishing returns, and Venom 2 was a huge bomb.

Almost nothing whatsoever has changed in basics of combat in Hero from the first typewritten pages.

Yeah the trailers looked awful, I'm not sure why Sony keeps doing these.

And China as I listed. Where they were doing "gain of function" research. And rumored in several other nations. Not exactly the kind of thing they like to let people know about and the press is conspicuously disinterested.

I'm amazed that people missed the labs in Ukraine story LOL. They aren't secret, you can read about it on the CDC page, described as "cooperative" labs https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/countries/ukraine/pdf/ukraine_09262022.pdf More data here https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN11886 The Pentagon reported on these labs as well https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/politifact/2022/06/18/fact-check-pentagon-military-funded-labs-ukraine-russia-invasion/7646221001/ They were reported by Russia as "secret" labs for bioweapons, which may or may not be true (I don't trust anything from the official news from Ukraine or Russia) but the labs exist. It is inescapably true that China operates labs with the US researching bioweapons and doing "gain of function" research.

CDC has labs all over the world in the worst places on earth doing experiments not legally permissible in the US. We had several labs in Ukraine (probably still do) that were doing this kind of research.

Yeah it was a lot like that, but less Hanna Barberra. And I never mind cribbing some existing idea for a character

Its not enormously grandiose but one of my favorite scenarios Hero published was in the 4th edition Viper book, and it goes like this. A celebrity who has a chain of restaurants* opens one in The City. Viper comes over with a powerful flying ship and uses gravity control to rip the entire building, including all the dignitaries and celebrities inside, and hang it in the air. Then VIPER demands all of them pay a ransom or they will drop the building. Obviously destroying or damaging the ship will cause the same result. *They clearly meant Planet Hollywood and Arnold Schwarzenegger, but had to file the serial numbers off, but I used them in my campaign. It was a good time for all, including a Hero who was inside the restaurant with his family. This is the kind of Champions adventure I love. Does it make sense? Kinda? Is there any real chance that VIPER could get away with it? Nah. But its fun and exciting and requires more careful thought than "punch the bad guy" with real dramatic challenge but not too depressing or deep. This is the kind of VIPER I like, not terrorists, not super serious spy masterminds, but comic book bad guys who do comic book crimes.

Yeah its like nukes or guns or porn or whatever. The cat is out of the bag, you cannot put it back. Superman could grab all the nuclear weapons in a net and throw them into the sun, and nations would just build more and keep them in lead silos or disguise them as something Superman ignored. You can't unlearn tech, unless there is a horrendous catastrophe that resets civilization. You just have to learn how to use things responsibly and how to respond when people do not. Approximately 1.2 million people die each year as a result of auto collisions. That's a price we have come to accept as being worth having cars; how many are saved as a result of automobiles? Ten times that, if not more. New tech requires new responses, moral judgement, and law. It takes time, and study, and analysis and cultural change. We're in the process now of getting used to the idea of instant communication on the internet. We're trying to learn socially how to handle that, legally how to approach it, and it takes time, philosophical thought, theology, legal study etc. Every new wave of tech makes that necessary, and people adapt. The problem we're facing right now is that tech is happening so fast and is so potent in terms of cultural impact that its rough trying to get it all straight. Making matters worse is that our culture has removed nearly all consequence to certain kinds of behavior, so a lot of corrosive things are consequence-free, or consequence-light, at least. It will all get worked out to at least a functional level, but not perfectly, in time. Until then its a rough ride, like when the Model T drove through town and scared all the horses and womenfolk.

Yeah there's a reason that the X-Men comics generally felt like they were not a part of the Marvel universe at large. Although the mutant menace thing was not really a major factor in most of the stories, it only really works if mutants are the standout changes rather than all the other origin stories and people with powers. So if you want to do that kind of paranoid, enemy of the people kind of campaign, it works best to isolate things, I think.