Christopher R Taylor

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.

The key with Multiform is to make sure that the characters are to design, not just "I wanna do a lot of different stuff". In other words, use multiform to build a character with a theme and a concept, not just to have lots of characters. I did make a guy who could turn into like 20 different superheroes, each a different build, but... they were random. He never knew what was going to activate when he turned on his superpower, and the GM chose them at random for me. The concept was kind of like Miracleman's body suit thing, where they were all in this stasis and he could tap into them, but had no control over who. It was kind of fun, but sadly the campaign didn't last long enough to really explore how it would play out. So it was a tight concept, and controlled. The GM could at any time just say "you get to be aqua boy this time" at will instead of rolling a random character, even if we were in the desert.

Right, all those restrictions are in place but people are finding ways around them for images. We've seen quite a few images of politicians already -- they look fake, but how long will they be recognizably false?

Yeah my Golden Age game all powers came from a single source (magic and Asgardian fruit). Its very restrictive, in some ways, but in others it makes storytelling work better and the overall campaign has more cohesion and focus.

A combination. The street level part of the team handled the alien invaders (who turned out to be Gweenies) and saved lives, the heavy hitters kept Godzilla busy while part of the team looked for who caused this and dealt with him.

Yeah I had a guy like that, a reality manipulator who was fixated on movies, so he kept creating these cinematic events. The biggest disaster was he had Chicago attacked by the aliens from War of the Worlds and Godzilla who rose up out of Lake Michigan. I never did massive super grandiose stuff, I wish I had at least once.

The Fantastic Four is cursed, they should just give up trying to make a movie out of them. At least, until they figure out what makes them work and lean heavily into that.

Heh wow I had never considered that. Its too cheap to allow but its a neat twist.

Detect the magical darkness, or dispel it, suppress it, etc. Use an area effect images spell that causes objects to glow.

I did love the crime attempt in Despicable Me a lot: steal the moon and hold it hostage.

Reed housed the gate to the Negative Zone prison in the Baxter Building but he really, really should have known better.

Its not a book per se but I have been reading Savage Realms magazines on Kindle. They are sword and sorcery short stories bundled, a handfull every month. Some are a lot better than others, but overall its fun stuff and worth reading. I kept up with the Dresden books for a while but got tired of the escalation of the story and it got ridiculous to me after a while. Dresden wiping out a thousand vampires with a single spell claiming he could have cast it at any time but never had the acreage required. The stories were at their best just as PI with magic street level stuff, not this huge storyline of epic proportions. Butcher lost his way.

In terms of narrative, that's useful though. The story needs a way for things to go wrong and people to escape for the genre to work.

I cannot remember all of them but I liked the ideas in Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. They had that cube on its corner in the Nevada desert, the shrunken prison in Ant Man's lab, an undersea one, one in the Negative Zone, one floating as an island, and one other. I think Tony Stark designed all but the one Ant Man controls.

That is, in a way, the plot concept I have for the Escape from Stronghold adventure, but what has jammed me up is trying to figure out how much of Stronghold I need to put in. I do not want to just duplicate huge chunks out of the 5th edition version, even though its good, because it would be way too much setup. But you have to have enough to actually, you know, escape. It was getting too big so I have to pare back a lot and keep the essence of how the place runs and is structured, because you cannot expect a GM to buy Stronghold just to run an adventure.

Honestly? I prefer to just not think about what happens to supervillains after they are caught. The multiple types of prison in Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes was cool, but I just don't even wanna know. They are defeated, and that's enough. They come back eventually, and need to be defeated again. Anything else results in some really depressing, awful stuff like putting villains into an enforced coma or locking them in an energy field at the bottom of the ocean, etc. That said I am looking closely at Stronghold to redo the Escape from Stronghold module, so it does come up. As I understand it there are multiple layers of security where bad guys are kept. If you are just Johnny Gadget, you can put them in general population in a normal prison. If they have powers, they are put in the prison with the power dampers, and treated like regular guys. And the worst are put into the super high security area.

I like art for that for inspiration, gives me ideas by looking at a clever or interesting image.

That's why I had Dr Destroyer trash the entire Champions for the Island cover. Equal opportunity. Seeker isn't part of the new flavorless bleh team or I'd have had him front and center, as tradition dictates.

That is a lot closer to what I as looking for yeah. But I like the A-10 Elephants :))

Star Hero complete sounds good but my sense is that we need more adventures. Many, many more adventures. dozens of them for every genre. Tons of support.

Another, optional idea is to use it vs Body: controlling them physically through your mind. Not exactly telekinesis, but controlling machinery.