Christopher R Taylor

I mean, its worth a shot at least. Thanks for the idea.

Super science weapon that adjusts its damage on the target with gravitic and radiation tachyons adjusting the Heisenberg horizon

Its pretty narrow in its scope but it can make an interesting smart weapon or magic attack

On worldbuilding I recommend starting very small: one valley, one lake, one community. Make them make sense within those confines, then based on that, begin to spread out. Get one really well defined, interesting area and you can have lots of adventures without needing to travel much. Skyrim? About 6-8 square miles.

I understand why people don't track END but I think its a serious mistake and takes a lot out of the game that makes it interesting. Rolling to hit and missing annoys players too but I'm not gonna have them automatically hit every time. Being defeated annoys players, but I'm not going to have them never lose or have the possibility of loss.

New Idea I found in my notes, but never pursued: SELECTIVE DEFENSE: A power with this advantage chooses between PD and ED (or rPD/rED), whichever is lower when damage is rolled. Sort of a very limited variable special effect. +¼ Advantage

They were humans, but Nazis which seem to be everyone go to punching bags. Always useful bad guys, but its an odd thing of modern culture that people seem to think of Nazis as not being truly human so nothing you do to them is bad. Which is, of course, what made them so evil: treating their enemies as not really human.

I want my agents to act like classic comics where you can have a pile of Hydra agents on top of Captain America and he throws them off with a massive effort, wiping the floor with them all. I want them to be a realistic threat to normals but not dangerous to superheroes. I want them to make my heroes look badass. Look, if every single battle is a huge effort, nobody feels powerful and nothing ever seems like a major threat. Realistically, Cap in that elevator in CA 2 should have only taken that long and had that much trouble because he was trying not to kill them or do serious permanent harm.

An isolated, relatively small land like Japan has a better chance of having a long continuous history but they still were wracked with wars, changes of government, etc.

I run them 2-3, although some bad guys have better agents than others. VIPER has very drilled and skilled mercs and ex military types, they are skilled but outclassed by heroes.

Civilization depends on making sure all major threats to ordinary people are removed where the bulk of the people live, You cannot have a thriving culture with farms and art and architecture and so on if there are horrible things living in the cellar and monsters lurking nearby. That's why in the oldest settled areas there are no major predators around any longer (and, off topic, why its idiotic to reintroduce them); that's how civilizations become settled and last. If the kingdom of Plaznstein has been in this area for 3000 years without war or trouble in its borders, there's not going to be anything in those borders to cause trouble any longer. Adventurers already went into all those caves and cellars and wiped out the bad guys. Other than evil people who abuse their position of power, etc. That's not to say some new thing cannot arise, just that the history precludes any constant presence of menace and adventure. Its the difference between walking through the worst part of a big city and walking through the ritzy, high-end district.

Yeah. Look, as a GM, you need adventures for the players to get involved in. That means you need chaos, history, instability, trouble, wars, etc. If its peaceful, stable, and consistent for 5000 years, there's nothing to explore and no adventure out there for the PCs. I mean, unless you're just doing "get the kitten out of the tree" type stuff. What ruins are you going to explore? What lost structures, what tombs, what ghost-ridden shambles? Think back to the best games, the best modules, and the best settings you've played in. How many of them are based in a stable, ancient calm land of peace and prosperity that never changes? How many were based on war-torn, shattered lands that suffered vast disasters and are reformed over and over? That's what gives the opportunities for adventure and excitement. There aren't any dungeons, there aren't monsters in a settled land with people living peaceful lives, there's nothing to do.

They're worthy of being recognized for their work and excellence, not for a crap award proven to be ridiculous and rigged with stupid decisions for decades. Think of them as being like astrology: when they get something right, its a coincidence.

If they can pull that off, its a slim profit, but some, at least. But the tail off the first week doesn't look very promising. Like all entertainment awards, the Emmys are trash, so who cares who wins or doesn't win what? How many dozens of examples of incompetence, stupidity, or clear bias do you have to see to finally realize these awards are worthless? Governor Gropey McGranparent Killer got an emmy for boring speeches on TV (then got it taken away). Milli Vanilli got a Grammy for lipsynching while Jethro Tull got best metal act. How many horrible or forgettable movies have gotten Oscars?

Yeah that's the conclusion I reached. Magic tends to stagnate development. Why create a better crane when magic can do it? Sure, not everybody can do magic but SOME people can. As big and full as the Jolrhos Field Guide is, that's my approach. I don't want to detail the entire world, just the places adventurers will be busy in. I gave the basic overall "here's how the world works" in the Field Guide, and specific areas will have their history, background, cultures, etc when released. The base setting is one country called Morien, but I hope to have later stuff come out eventually about other nations. And honestly, beyond a really vague concept, most of those nations I don't even have a lot of details worked out. Because nobody has ever gone there in my games. So... why bother, beyond odd little stuff that once in a while peeks into the setting of the adventure like a coin, some pottery, an odd suit of armor, etc.

Unless its changed, the Marvel Universe has earth as a Celestial Egg, which explains why all the superheroes etc. Its part of the planetary defense mechanism

Culturally, China is still several separate regions forced by a tyrant to be a single nation. They have different languages, different religious structures, different traditions, etc, etc. That's why you have movies like Hero that try really hard to push the idea of a single united China at any cost as a positive and noble goal as pushed by the Communist government being so common in their cinema.

Probably leading into that. A post-credits scene (I thought I read Marvel wasn't going to do any more of those?) seems to hint at it.

I also have kept the time line pretty short for Jolrhos for three reasons. 1, the whole "it was nine thousand years ago when" bit... I mean, we don't have history back that far for earth, and we have great research and historical data. Its too long. 2, Elves ruled most of the planet for the bulk of known history and their lifespan is so long and their attitude toward life is very slow, resistant to change, and static. 3, Big secret: the planet isn't actually all that old. Lots of spoilers to why but there simply ISN'T history going back very long.

Definitely stuff like that, anything that feels superhero-y, especially if it can have a caption added to it that's fun or amusing

This actually is something in the back of my head constantly and I strive to come up with a way that the entire planet of Jolrhos is basically stalled in development. I want it that way because it fits the setting and concept I have for the game, but why? I came up to the idea of magic basically stalling development because if you can wish fulfill, why bother making anything else?

I don't think you are technically supposed to buy adders apart from a power but... what's the difference between "Position Shift" and "0m Flight with Position Shift" in the end?

We said we'd never forget...

I have heard Good things about Shang Chi, particularly the fight scenes (although everyone seems to agree the main actor is not especially charismatic or interesting). Its struggling though, the film is said to have cost $150 million to make (plus 50-100 million in publicity and distribution; the rule of thumb is equal to production costs, but I don't think they pushed this movie as much) and its only recently exceeded 150 mil. It was a bit of a gamble on Marvel's part to release in theaters exclusively, but right now everyone is experimenting. It started pretty well with a 75 million opening day, but has tailed off steadily, sometimes significantly, ever since then. As I noted earlier it was a bit of a gamble to release a martial arts movie, because those are pretty common, but its doing well for a martial arts film. The main complaint seems to be that the ending CGI fest is both not up to previous Marvel film par, and the weakest part of the movie. It appears to be setting up possibly a Galactus storyline, maybe? There seems to be a Kang tie-in as well with Mandarin. And, unfortunately, Ben Kinglsey's wretched faux Mandarin shows up in it and is not murdered horrifically.

OK I'm hoping I can wrap up the Champions Begins project in a month or two, and I want to please ask something of everyone: Those of you who are artists, or who know artists, even if its goofy fun sketches, whatever, please if you have any old Superhero art that didn't sell or something you just did for fun, or something that you aren't going to use, consider donating it to the project. I need incidental illustrations and filler art, particularly for the Player Guide. I can't pay you anything and the project is going to be given away for free, so there's no money in it, but hey if its just sitting around anyway...