Echo3Niner

For those saying high powered campaigns don't work for combat, or it's too hard, or breaks down, or whatever; so, you have to only focus on story... I just posted about our most recent game in my high-powered campaign, which was totally combat: here. For Firewing I only raised his OCV and DCV to the high 20's. For War Monger, I raised his OCV and DCV to the low 30s. Both worked well; with the Firewing fight taking over a full turn, and the War Monger fight taking about half a turn, with the whole party against him... Just as an example of what I was saying; as long as you keep the number's fairly equal, you can still have good combat too.

I'm stealing this - I'll give you credit when I do... Likely a more realistic approach...

I'm sorry, was that a shot at me (double entendre, extra points)? Are you saying snipers can't save lives? I would beg to differ! So, am I a "bad guy" for not using my skills to save people? (I'm not really upset, just thought it was funny...)

Ironically, while reading this thread to my wife (who was asking what I was "going on and on about"), I realized that the OPs question was clarified, and already answered (by the above quotes)... Ohhhh, I like this - gives me a great idea for a character (hero or villain) - Displacer - generates a field that makes everything inside the field (including Displacer themselves) always not actually where they are, like looking through a prism; oh man! maybe they should be called Prism! Anyway, makes them (or anyone else or anything in the field) almost impossible to target (so that would include aoe attacks)... I like that idea! Now, how do I write that up?

I go back to my Storm example, because it's easy. Why doesn't Storm go around using her powers to stop dangerous weather events to save people and lower damage? It also goes back to my point about not making an interesting comic or game. So, I understand what you're saying; if the character was really committed to their power, and wanted to use it for good, wouldn't they use it in another way vs. being super heroes? I would argue Storm would likely have a larger impact as far as lives saved and damage reduced by going around and "combating" dangerous weather. So, shouldn't she? And to me, the bottom line is this; yes, if Storm truly cared about saving lives and lowering damage, she would go around "fighting" dangerous weather, and given the frequency of dangerous weather, in America alone, it would likely be a full time job. But, we're talking comic books or games - I don't think "Storm the Weather Whisperer" would make it as a title. You may be able to make a decent drama out of it, with a bunch of heartwarming stories, maybe on Lifetime or Hallmark channel (my wife would love a "super hero" show like this) - but, I don't think it works as a comic book or game. Would a hero who could heal, whether or not they were allowed at a hospital or clinic, not do more good with their power by going around and healing people vs. being a super hero? Yes. Would it be interesting or fun to play in an RPG? No. Doesn't mean you couldn't say "Hey, whenever there is downtime in the game, my character is going around using their powers to help in different ways." Could even provide some good hooks for games to spin out of it. This wouldn't be limited to healers; "During this last break, my brick stormed into a refinery explosion/fire and pulled victims out to save them." All heroes could spend their "off time" doing these heroic acts; and it would go a long way to making them far more heroic in the people's eyes...

I find it interesting; this whole "because they've got X powers, wouldn't they have to do Y?" "Have to do"? I have Designated Marksman training. I went to Sniper School. I have used those skill in war zones. No one came a long and said; "Hey, since you have these skills and training, you have to go join a police force now and be a sniper." I also don't hunt; because frankly it isn't a challenge; no one has made me. I'm actually an IT guy... Does the Human Torch have to go around starting BBQs and camp fires? Does Hydro have to go around fighting fires? If you follow this logic - why doesn't Reed Richards have to put his brilliance to work solving global climate change, the trash problem, or curing cancer? Why doesn't Storm have to go around stopping every tornado, hurricane, etc. from causing any damage or loss of life? Why doesn't Tony Stark and Forge have to build clean energy and then share it with the world? I could go on and on, there are a gazillion examples. I have a very simple answer; based on my initial point about my personal skills; because it's not realistic, it doesn't happen - and second, because it would be a boring comic book, if that's all the heroes ever do...

Track Suit Mafia? 🤣 Seriously though, I like something that fits a theme, so I would like to know a little something about their origins, culture, traditions, etc. Examples of more stolen ideas: Crimson Dawn Black Sun The Hyenas The Cleaners The Rikers Black Tusk

In our 10th exciting, Giant-sized, Annual episode --> The heroes lounged around the gladiator lounge and did several press junkets - with Capt. Force working as a wrestling (Randy Savage) cheerleader, hyping up Solar as the new champ. They were careful in explaining their histories and purpose for being there; not lying, but omitting where they thought it would cause issues. When they were back at the gladiator lounge, enjoying a meal; a small (4-5' tall) alien approached them. He was odd looking; like a tall, red Yoda. In a dark black hooded robe, with a driftwood cane, red skin, a pug nose, wispy black hair, and yellow eyes. He introduced himself as "Warmagandr", and asked the team about their desire to fight. As they discussed it, he spoke about how Firewing had the heart of a champion; because he was willing to do anything to win. Capt. Force disagreed, saying that because he was willing to compromise his integrity, that he was no true champion. Warmagandr noted that without the heart of a champion, when faced with adversity, they would fold... Warmagandr's words had an affect on the team; so the team decided they should do some research; so they watched several of Firewing's matches from before he became Firewing, then also watched coverage of his fights on Earth as Firewing; to get an idea of his tactics (they watched tape on their opponent). Eventually, they decided to take a trip to the temple, to see if they could learn more about what happened in his transformation. There Solar used some of her earned XP to buy damage reduction - she also built an absorb template to use with her VPP. After returning to the gladiatorial lounge, the team finally heard what they wanted to hear - Firewing was lured to return! The team discussed strategy; determining what was the right mix of powers from Solar's VPP she should have active at the beginning of the fight. Then, Solar entered the arena... It was configured as a 300 yard across circle, and the gladiators began hovering 30 yards in the air... Finally the bell rang. Both gladiators have the same speed and dex, so it came down to dice rolls each phase. Firewing won the first roll. He started by moving a half move to his left, and throwing a no-end blast at Solar, to feel her out, and see what she could take... Solar blew it off completely. Solar started by doing a half move directly at Firewing, and throwing a no-end blast of her own at Firewing, to feel him out - he also blew it off completely. The next phase, Firewing again won the roll. He moved a half move back to the outer center of the arena, and decided it was time to test Solar's chin - he threw his Armor Piercing blast, and Solar did take a little stun, but not much. Solar moved her half move again directly at Firewing, and threw her more powerful blast; this time Firewing took a little more stun than Solar had. The next phase Firewing won again! This time moving to his right a half move, he then threw his Penetrating blast; and while Solar did take some stun, it was less than the Armor Piercing, and cost Firewing more END. Unbeknownst to Firewing, Solar had her absorption working, so every time he hit her, she was getting more dice to her blast... She moved another half move, and hit him again with her more powerful blast (with the extra dice) - and Firewing felt that one! Taking more stun. This went on for a couple more phases... The last phase of the round, and Firewing won again! He continued to move to his right and hit Solar with another AP blast - doing a bit more damage this round. The team decided it was time to press the action, instead of continuing to let Firewing dance around the edge of the area and "nickel and dime" her to death. Changing some allocation of her VPP, Solar dumped a bunch of points into flight, and burned the whole phase on a full move, closing the distance dramatically. The full turn ended, and both fighters were a bit winded. They both had sustained a decent amount of stun and had both burned a good amount of END; they both welcomed the recovery at the end of the turn. As the new turn began, Firewing got off another blast, doing some more stun to Solar; but now she was close. Solar closed the final distance, and reconfiguring her VPP, did a massively powerful 60D6 punch, sending Firewing back into the arena barrier; and that was it, Firewing was knocked unconscious and was even injured (BOD). THE CROWD WENT CRAZY!!! About half were cheers (from all the other aliens) and half were boos from the Malvans... The announcer was making a point of the great victory, when he was cut short. A booming voice announced that heroes had defeated Firewing, but hadn't proved they had the heart of a champion!!! The team was teleported from their box to the floor of the arena below Solar... The doors to the arena opened, and Warmagandr slowly walked in; but as he did, he transformed into a 4 meter tall monster and his tiny walking stick into a giant axe. Standing before everyone was War Monger! He demanded that the heroes prove they had the heart of a champion, by facing the TRUE CHAMP! The proceedings had provided Solar enough time to fully recover, so the team prepared to fight (having Solar use some of her VPP to allow them all to speak telepathically, to coordinate); when War Monger teleported into the air in front of Solar, hitting her with his mighty axe Star Splitter (aptly named for striking a hero powered by the stars!). The strike was damaging, and Solar was heavily wounded. War Monger and the team had some back in forth, with War Monger using his VPP to heal himself a couple times, to keep from suffering too much STUN... Solar returned fire, but War Monger mostly blew it off... But then it was Capt. Force's turn... Capt. Force happens to have a mental power that can force opponents to attack him via melee; and he setup to block and successfully used it on War Monger. War Monger teleported in front of Capt. Force who successfully blocked his attack. Then The Aqua Man used his band to ice the insides of War Monger's hands and the bottom of his feet, while Wuxing put up a shield on Capt. Force. The team had a plan... Finally, War Monger swung his mighty axe at Capt. Force again, only Capt. Force grabbed it and they locked into a battle of strength! With his iced hands and feet, it was difficult for War Monger to retain his grasp, and Capt. Force was able to wrest away the mighty axe Star Splitter from his grasp; just as Solar dropped on top of War Monger with all her VPP put into her punch - a full 75D6! (Plus knockback into the ground.) It was more than even the great War Monger could take - he was knocked out cold! AND THAT IS WHERE OUR SUPER SIZED, GIANT ANNUAL EPISODE ENDED! Next game we'll pick up with the roleplaying of defeating War Monger and speaking to the Phazor...

Or do you mean a defensive power that works in an area of effect (e.g. damage shield, self only, aoe, etc.)?

Perhaps in some countries... But, the "this or that" scenario you paint is a very "western-centric" way of thinking. Imagine your scenario again; only this time imagine it all over the Earth, right now... Think of all the other scenarios where this could happen... How about just Somalia as an example? No functional government to speak of, run by war lords - now add supers to the mix? Let's not even get into the middle East? The islands of SE Asia? Just imagine...

As I posted in another thread: You mean, "What if this wasn't a comic book?" If this was real life, and some people had powers, can you imagine how bad that would go? Comic books are what they are, for a reason... They cater to all our inner desires to imagine ourselves heroes, in all the myriad forms that can take. But, that is not reality... That's why they're called "escapism"... The movies Chronicle, Brightburn and series The Boys anyone? And frankly, those are light weight as to what I think it would really be like... Caligula, with unstoppable personal power vs. political? How are "faith-healers" treated, until their "healing" is proven untrue? Now, what if they could really do it? None of these people are working in a hospital; that's far too small scale, and not controlled by anyone "important"... It would depend on how much healing, and how common it was with other supers... If you could basically make someone immortal, and you were the only one? EVERY. SINGLE. super-villain, just "plain-ole" villain, rich person, powerful person, dictator, father who's child is dying, etc., etc., etc. would be trying to force the "hero" to save them/theirs. It would be post-apocalyptic on a scale hard to imagine.

You mean, "What if this wasn't a comic book?" If this was real life, and some people had powers, can you imagine how bad that would go? Comic books are what they are, for a reason... They cater to all our inner desires to imagine ourselves heroes, in all the myriad forms that can take. But, that is not reality... That's why they're called "escapism"... The movies Chronicle, Brightburn and series The Boys anyone? And frankly, those are light weight as to what I think it would really be like... Caligula, with unstoppable personal power vs. political? It would be post-apocalyptic on a scale hard to imagine.

I think thou doth missed the broader point I was making about levels scaling up / staying relatively equal / keeping the ability to have heart-touching, humanitarian stories... As has been mentioned a gazillion times, in the comics, everything is relative to the story - so if the writers wanted to have a Punisher / Iron Man crossover, they'd make it happen - whether it made sense or not. And yes, if the Punisher knew Tony Stark was Iron Man, and was seriously going after him; Stark should worry, in the broader sense. But, if like in most comics, Iron Man ran across the Punisher in the midst of a story; and the Punisher had no time to prepare - Tony would have nothing to worry about... All of that wasn't the point however...

Well, I know for my players, part of it is that they know comics, movies, TV shows (both live-action and animated) and they have expectations of what characters of that type (cosmic level in our case) can and can't do. The idea of making a Hulk or Superman character, on 400 points, was just silly. Yes, I know people have done it, and you can get the gist of it, I get it; but, you can't hold up a mountain range like the Hulk did, or move planets like Superman did on 400 points (go take a look at my 'Zerk character on another thread - who is a Hulk facsimile; that's true Hulk level). And my players know that (both from a points perspective, and a storytelling perspective - remember, I have mature players, who are in it for the story, so they're not min/maxers, trying to build someone unstoppable). For our game, they need to be able to travel the galaxy and deal with fleets at a time, by themselves. But, we knew that going in, that was the game they wanted to play - so I geared it for that. They HAVE to destroy fleets at a time, because if they don't Earth will be invaded and overrun, etc. So, they do ignore the "normals", but that doesn't stop my stories; we literally just ignore them, I don't roll for them, they just "bounce off". It all boils down to the game level you want to play at - there is a difference between a Dare Devil, street criminal campaign, and an Avenger's level (400+ point) campaign, vs. a Silver Surfer, cosmic level campaign. Different style of play, different settings, types of issues, etc. But, that doesn't mean you can't still have the heart-touching, humanitarian games, just requires some planning and pre-work on the GMs part. Yes you level everything up appropriately, to keep the game competitive and fun; but, not every character is scaled up, just the ones that make sense for the story. In an Avengers level game, Iron Man doesn't worry about the Punisher coming after him; they're not on the same level. But, I can have just as poignant stories for either.

Ironic, since I was using actual history to make my points... 😉 (See what I did there, huh? 😄)

While I agree with this in a literal sense (understanding you mean the "normal", human/earthly, cops/robbers/gov.) - I think you can still have the same emotional impact and kind of stories, by simply using stand-ins (with higher combat values, that are higher than "normals", much like you mentioned the other stats going up as the game goes along). An example would be a murder mystery with intergalactic cops, or an alien pirate (or other "robbers"), and of course the governments can be intergalactic also, or you can simply have the earthly government enlist/create/grow/build/etc. some super-agents. Much like the scale of "normal" cops, robbers or government agents; they may not be on scale with the heroes, but can be the same steps away as "normal" cops, robbers or gov. agents are from "normal" heroes - thus providing the same "bother" and possibility for the "human interest story". Just takes a little more creativity and pre-work by the GM.

OK, I'll play... I'll "nitpick" back... (This is not aimed directly at you Duke, others have said the same, you just happened to have brought it back up.) I didn't only give an example of Jews and Nazis... I gave several real world analogies; including Northern Ireland and Bosnia - both of which also go against your point. There doesn't have to be anything obvious for one group to hate another; proven by human history, period. I also don't think that all the points raised above are contradictory to each other... I agree it was all contrived, and forced to fit a narrative, and was targeted to the sales demographic audience. Um, these are comic books, not realistic autobiographies; and it's a business. The whole point is to contrive a narrative, targeted to your audience, that will strike a nerve and sell comics; it just so happened that the idea of writing about a minority hated by the majority worked on many levels, as a parallel of many types of minorities, told over 60 years, changing with the times, as a means of exploring the plight of the situation, even as it changed and morphed with the times. I am not trying to imply the concept is the perfect parable for minority suffering; only that it works - and that's born out by 60 years of high sales and success in many mediums. The point I was making about history, is you cannot simply dismiss it as "unrealistic" just because it isn't obvious that Spidey isn't a Mutant, or that Jean Grey is one. That is flawed logic, disproven by history. So, if you want to pick it apart, you'll have to find a better angle than "mutants aren't obvious, so it doesn't make sense as an analogy, because all supers aren't hated". As I stated above; by all means, there are ways to pick it apart - the "obvious" angle just isn't one of them. Bottom line, it has been successful, in print, animation and live-action movies - so no matter how many holes you punch in it, debating that it shouldn't be successful, for this or the other reason, simply goes against reality. The original question was, why does it work; ironically, I think the answers given about how it panders to the target audience is one of the reasons it does, even if it has to be stretched and forced to do so.

I find all these "how come other supers aren't painted with the same brush" questions interesting. Let me pose a point about racism/hate that may help here: So, because Marvel / Stan brought in the concept of mutants in 1963 and mutant hate sometime later (becoming a main focus of the titles in the '80s), and used Prof. X and Magneto as allegory for MLK and Malcom X; everyone has said "this doesn't make sense as an allegory for racism, because people can't tell the difference between Cyclops and Spiderman, just by looking at them." So, the problem with this viewpoint, is that most people posting are from the era of the mutants as presented in the comics, and thus are thinking about racism in the context of modern times, where it is primarily ethnicity based, and thus is as simple for idiot racist as looking at the target of their hate; because it's as obvious as the target's skin color, hair, etc. (Which is why they often can make mistakes, calling a Native American a slur for a Mexican, for instance.) However, think about it in the context of the Civil War in the USA. A political belief motivated war, having nothing to do with race, religion, or any outside, easily identifiable aspect. It sometimes led to families hating and killing each other. Between WWI and WWII period of Europe, and the Nazi hate for the Jewish. It is often impossible to discern the difference between a Jewish person and non-Jew Caucasian of the same nation; especially when you start talking about Russian Jews (among others). A point Magneto himself has made in both the comics and movies; yet ignored by this whole line of thought. How about Northern Ireland? Same people in every way, hating and killing each other simple because one was a Catholic and one was Protestant (among other reasons)? Want a more modern example? How about the Genocide in Bosnia during the Bosnian War (92-95) - three different sub-cultures from the same area, same ethnicity, in some cases same families. My point here is simple; just because it is not "obvious" that Spiderman is NOT a Mutant, and it is NOT obvious that Wolverine is NOT an altered human, but an altered Mutant, simply by looking at them, doesn't mean people still can't hate one, and not the other. Hate and racism have never been isolated to "white vs. black (or brown)", until recent times. Many times in history there has been hate against a sub-group with no possible way to simply "seeing" the difference; yet the human capacity to hate, and be aggressive toward any sub-group they wanted, has never been hampered by such simple things as having to be able to tell the difference in an obvious way. So, I would challenge that looking at the "Mutant Problem" through glasses colored by today's ethnicity (color) based hate and not understanding the capacity of human nature to hate and somehow figure out who to hate, without it being obvious, is the true "cop-out".

Attached is the PDF for Solar and her example VPP powers (just the powers section of that PDF). I have recently updated the last few episodes... Solar.pdf Solar VPP Power List.pdf

In our 9th exciting episode (actually in person thanks to the Thanksgiving break!) --> The heroes returned to Earth and told Project Citadel (UNTIL) and the Narrai and Lyrissi about the intelligence they had gathered; specifically about the terrible plans the Empress had for combating the Narrai and Lyrissi. Both those governments retreated to determine how this news would impact their strategies. Capt. Force and Solar continued to work with Col. Rage on the strategy of creating the "Men in Black" type of organization, to protect the sector's three systems from galactic threats. Capt. Force connected Col. Rage with the resistance forces on Narrai, who might be open to align with the MIB concepts. Capt. Force also worked with the resistance to increase the power of his teleport belt (spent CP), so he can now teleport his considerable mass plus himself (2x mass), allowing him to teleport the entire rest of the Band Bearers (and then-some). The Band Bearers then started discussing their strategy with the Malvans: They teleported to Somewhere and used the IGN (Inter-Galactic Network) to read up on the Malvans. The first thing they learned was that all the Malvans cared about were the gladiatorial games. The second thing they learned was that both Wuxing and The Aqua Man had fought on the Moon, even though they didn't remember it! (Learning about how they kidnap heroes and make them fight, then return them with no memory of it.) They also learned that there was really no other way for them to quickly ingratiate themselves into the Malvan society. They learned about the Forum Malvanum on the Earth Moon, and leaned that the only way they would be able to gain the respect they needed, was to go through the gladiatorial system, and become champions - because the Champion was allowed to ask the Phazor for a reward. After much discussion among the team; they decided on three strategies to ask the Phazor once they won (yes, they are that confident): They wanted Malvan planetary defenses for their sector; with such, the Empress would not be able to attack. Second, they wanted an advanced ship, to use as their base to wage war against the Empress. Third, they wanted Malvan tech. (They eventually learned that they would not get access to Malvan tech; but, upon further discussion, realized if they simply took Silvercloud on a tour of the galaxy; they could start in Somewhere, he would be able to copy everything they needed to match the Empress' tech - in fact, they realized that with their ship/base, they could provide him access directly to the Empress' tech, which he could simply copy.) So, off to the moon they went - arriving outside the Forum Malvanum, they spoke to the robot sentries, who called Kovarl. After Kovarl received the scan data from the robots, and asked the Band Bearers why they were there. After a quick conversation, where they explained they were volunteer gladiators, he noted that Capt. Force and Solar were type 36 gladiators, while Wuxing and The Aqua Man were now type 18... He started by pitted them against battle-bots in one of the side arenas to test them. Once the heroes quickly dispensed with the battle-bots, they moved up to challenge some of the more famous gladiators. (So, I actually confused the gladiators from Malva vs. the Forum Malvanum on the moon; so, even though they were on the moon, they initially fought the gladiators from Malva, then fought the gladiators from the moon, while on Malva...) Solar was put up against Dawn Bird - who she very quickly defeated in a flying, energy projection only fight. Capt. Force was pitted against Scarmaker and Halberdier. Capt. Force did a quick multi-attack and struck both major damage initially. They both tried to hit him and failed - Capt. Force's second multi-attack knocked them both out. Finally, Solar was put up against Plasmarax. She was able to knock him out with a couple energy blasts; he never laid a finger on her... So, after defeating their best gladiators quickly, they were taken to meet with Tatekyls; who asked them what they wanted (he simply wanted them gone, as their battles were too short and not entertaining enough, but they were too powerful to trifle with). Once they explained they wanted to go to the Phazorum on Malva, to fight the champion, he simply had them teleported directly there (relaying the information he had on them to Malva). There they met Goreum, one of the fight arrangers, who explained that they would have to all face challenges to face the champion. He also explained, they needed to make the fights more entertaining, if they were to gain any chance of really ascending the ladder. As Capt. Force awaited his first match, Lady Terala Shain came to him; she spoke to him about honor, and wanting to "clean up the games", eliminating the corruption. He explained what they wanted, and she asked if she could help them get it, would they demand from the Phazor (assuming they won), that he clean up the games? Capt. Force agreed, as long as his goals were met. She said she would be there when they met with the Phazor, if they won. First, Capt. Force went up against both Malachite and Talon in a ground battle with melee only - the battle was entertaining, in that Capt. Force never threw a punch (remember, his fighting style is based on Steven Seagal) - blocking a punch from Malachite, he then grabbed and threw him at Talon; though he missed Talon, Malachite was stunned from the throw (80 meters away!). Talon then tried to claw Capt. Force, but missed. Capt. Force then grabbed Talon and threw him at Malachite (who had just recovered from his stun) - this time he hit, and knocked them both out! The Aqua Man and Wuxing having won both their matches as well; it was now up to Solar to face Zpartykys in a ground battle, with only HTH and energy blasts allowed. The battle started with Solar using a large fireball of a blast, which injured Zpartykys some. He then charged to hit Solar, but with a held action, she simply used the wind from her Band to knock him down. She then hit him with another fireball, which knocked him out. Just as she thought the fight was over, she was attacked from behind by an energy blast (she had her full DCV, due to Combat Sense) - the energy blast did nothing to her however. She turned to see Frostbite! In what will surely cause Frostbite more mental injury, he was up against another fire user (though Solar's is literally the energy of a star!). Frostbite had attempted to hit her with Deepfreeze II, but her defenses protected her completely, so she started with simply walking over and cooking him with Solar heat - this took about half his stun after his defenses. She then let him recover, and waited for him to strike, to entertain the crowd... He hit her with Freeze your Flesh, but again her defenses were too high (though it would have been close, if she hadn't had her force field up also). Solar then ended the fight by cooking him one more time, this time knocking him out. With the battles over, the crowd began chanting "Firewing, Firewing, Firewing...", as they wanted to see the true Malvan Champion against these new interlopers. Goreum took the Band Bearers to relax with the gladiators, while they arranged to send word to Earth, and try to lure Firewing back, with a test that could finally offer him a challenge! (They of course would also like to get him back in their clutches...) And THAT is where our exciting episode ended! The plan next game will be to bring in Firewing, who I'm going to boost with a few hundred more points, to put him on equal with Solar (who the Band Bearers feel is their champion). Hopefully, after a good fight, if the heroes are successful, I'm going to have Warmonger appear and tell them they haven't really bested the TRUE Champion, until they've defeated him! That should give the whole team a challenge, and really raise their awareness to the Malvans... Then, we'll see how the politicking (role-playing) with the Phazor and Lady Terala Shain plays out... Can't wait!

I actually have a thread on a campaign I've been running, that is "Cosmic powered" - 1500 point characters: The high-level stuff starts about halfway down 1st page. There is a 6th Ed version of The Hulk, in my game called 'Zerk - who is 2000 points. We haven't had much issue running this level of game, even though they have crazy high (~40d6) attacks - BUT, and this is the point; I have mature, adult players, who have been roleplaying for the better part of 30+ years, and are really in it for the story - so they're not trying to min/max the system - just make good, well rounded characters, that fit their ideals for the characters they want to play. If you read though it, hope it helps.

In our 8th exciting episode (after a 6 week "real life can suck" break) --> The heroes, having returned to Earth, after being gone for 6 weeks (in game as well), began by discussing the progress that Project Citadel had made, and where the other two local systems were in the process of preparing for the invasion. What they learned was not comforting to Capt. Force or Solar... As isolationists, the Narrai had decided to focus on preparing their system for the invasion, by basically preparing for a siege, while the Lyrissi being a trading culture, believed there was still an opportunity for diplomatic solutions; basically their thoughts were if we could only make a trade-deal with the Empress, then everyone would profit, and no one would be oppressed. Earth had decided since it was clear they were in the weakest position, and had no opportunity in a direct conflict, that they would wage a gorilla war of espionage and sabotage, hoping to weaken the Empress prior to the final conflict. Capt. Force and Solar discussed at length, how to get the three systems united, and focused on actually trying to win or prevent the war. There were discussions of how historically people were rallied for war; a Pearl Harbor or 9/11 type of event was discussed and discarded, "Weapons of Mass Destruction" arguments to the leaders of the systems (which they felt they basically had already done), dictatorial command or some other type of force, or anything else they could think of. Eventually, it was decided it was up to the Band Bearers to go and stop the Empress, potentially taking the battle to her, causing so much chaos that they would eventually take her gaze away from invading the three systems. Capt. Force spoke to Col. Rage, explaining that he needed to continue to leverage Project Citadel and try to basically create the "Men in Black" type of organization across the three systems, to work to continue to unit them. As the discussion was coming to an end Solar's UNTIL space-phone rang - Bin-Dar'in was calling to tell her that the L'sandrons had reached out to him, to contact the heroes, for their help. The heroes schedule to meet him and the L'sandrons on Somewhere, in a week. They spoke to the other two Band Bearers, and asked if they wanted to come along; not knowing the details of what was going on? The two decided they should go, as they needed to see Somewhere and the greater Galactic Community, so they could start to acclimate themselves and help the team in their efforts; they could also took the opportunity to speak to the Core Lord of the Milky Way, as Band Bearers. They asked for a couple hours to make arrangements - gating back to their homes and doing so - they returned a few hours later, and the team took off, flying first to the Core Lord, where Wuxing had a long conversation with him, then to Somewhere. They arrived, and after giving The Aqua Man and Wuxing time to gawk and be tourist on Somewhere, they met with Bin-Dar'in; the L'sandrons followed soon after. The leader of the local L'sandron cell explained that a contact of theirs had reached out for help; a former member of the Empresses inner circle who had defected, had in essence become a "Coyote", helping others defect. She has successfully aided the family of one of the senior scientist of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Empresses empire, defect, but the scientist himself did not make it. She now had a chance to help liberate him, but it was high risk, and she needed help getting him away from the Empress. After a bit of conversation, Capt. Force asked the L'sandrons why they had asked for the heroes help; not knowing how difficult this would be? The answer was simple; the L'sandrons had seen the heroes in action, and knew they were super-powerful, and also, it may be a trap, and frankly, the heroes were disposable assets to the L'sandrons... The heroes agreed to go. They gave the heroes coordinates to rendezvous with the contact. Upon arriving, they met Katarina, a Kalishari. She explained that the scientist was on a campus, where there were several buildings he worked in the labs, and dorms that he lived in with other single scientists (other scientists lived off-campus and came and went as needed) - however, due to his attempt to defect, he had D-Soldier guards with him at all times; they basically worked like a body-guard escort, driving him and following him wherever he went, but instead of simply protecting him, they were also ensuring he did not attempt to defect again. She had a plan; every evening he would take a walk on campus, and only two of the guards would accompany him. She had found utility tunnels that ran into the campus from the city, that would get her into a utility building for the campus, which was near the path he walked. She would sneak in, approach him from stealth, then reveal herself to him, he would recognize her as the "Coyote" who rescued his family, and she would take him back through the utility building, out of the city. She had sensor arrays in place around the campus, and drones prepared to harry the guards. The heroes would then get the scientist off planet, and out of the Empresses territory. Capt. Force explained that they could help; they had powers that could help her and the scientist escape quicker, with less exposure. The plan became that Solar and Wuxing would invisibly accompany Katarina and stay in the utility building. She would get the scientist, and then they would all gate out of there, directly to the planet with the scientists family. Capt. Force and The Aqua Man would be on a building top in the city, watching from afar, in case they were needed to come as reinforcements. The plan began fine; however, as Katarina moved into position, Solar's Danger Sense went off, and they saw several D-Soldiers hiding in ambush. Solar initially used her force field to put around Katarina, to protect her, while Wuxing opened a portal under the scientist, depositing him right next to them in the utility building. As the soldiers began firing at Katarina (none of their blasts could even scratch the force field), Solar then also opened a gate under Katarina, also depositing her next to them in the utility building. They had been instructed to take any electronics from the scientist, so he could not be tracked; however, he explained he must take his hand-held computing device, so they let him. The guards were scrambling to determine what happened; meanwhile, the heroes decided they wanted to know how the bad guys knew what was going on. So, Wuxing gated Katarina, the scientist and himself to the planet with the scientist family. Meanwhile, Solar flew out and dropped a 40D6 STUN only punch on the leader of the ambushing force, then before any of the enemy could react, she gated him and herself to an alley behind the pawn shop on Somewhere. Capt. Force and The Aqua Man also gated to the same alley. They tied up the Lieutenant, and put him in a room to interrogate him later, with The Aqua Man standing guard. Capt. Force then teleported to Wuxing, and explained what all had happened. After being thanked by the scientist, he gave Capt. Force his hand-held computer. He explained that he had discovered the theoretical physics behind two breakthroughs, both using Gravitons. One would allow almost instantaneous travel across almost any distance of space, the other could potentially open black holes at any point the "Graviton Gun" was pointed; black holes large enough to destroy whole star systems. He was so troubled by this, that he refused to develop it - until the Empress had his family abducted and was holding them as ransom to ensure he continued his work - this is why they defected. After his family was saved, he had been dragging his feet, and slowing any work done. After he had gotten a message from Katarina, he had started keeping the only true copy of his real work on his hand-held computer; everything the Empresses Science and Technology Ministry had, was flawed. The heroes regrouped on Somewhere and interrogated the Lieutenant; with Solar using her VPP to compel him to tell the truth. They found out he was a squad leader of the RRAF (Rapid Recon Assault Force). He explained that Katarina had a double agent in her network, which is how they had found out about the defection and planned the ambush; they didn't know the heroes were even involved (had they known, they would have been better prepared). Having learned everything she needed to know, the heroes gated Katarina to one of her safehouses. She is a valuable contact for the heroes, as she operates clandestinely in the Empresses space, and has a vast network of supply stashes, safehouses and knows how to maneuver in the Empresses "back yard" without being detected... It was also clear by her green skin color, that she found Capt. Force attractive... The heroes then turned back to the Lieutenant and interrogated him for hours; learning everything they could about the structure of the military, what he knew about the Empresses plans, etc. Though not high enough level to offer much insight into her plans, he did know a few things, as the RRAF had been training for the invasion. That the Empress had whole planets of human populations and had studied them exhaustively; and, that they were loyal to her and would fight in her army against their own kind. Having studied the Narrai as well, the Empresses did not plan a direct conflict; as they are an engineered species, she had engineered a genetic bio-weapon 'virus' that she would simply seed the planet with spores, and it would wipe out the Narrai resistance without a fight. And finally, having also studied the Lyrissi, she had developed "air dispersion" weapons, that would obliterate Lyrissi forms. This was news both terrifying, but also good to bring back and hopefully help unite the three systems against the Empress. Then, Capt. Force and the heroes discussed the information on the hand-held computer. While the technology on it could help them against the Empress' invasion, it was also terrible. The scientist had explained that you couldn't really have the transport tech, without the weapon, because the theoretical physics behind them allowed for both - there was a brief discussion of what Silvercloud could do with such information, and if he couldn't be trusted with it, could Col. Rage, or anyone else? Eventually, it was decided the tech was too terrible and Capt. Force destroyed it. (This was a great moral dilemma for the team...) So, the heroes had several plans going forward; they were going to take the news and intelligence they discovered back to their home systems, in hopes of better galvanizing them. Capt. Force was also going to go back to Narrai Prime, and meet with his old resistance colleagues, to modify his teleportation belt, so he could take others with him (spend some character points). Capt. Force is also trying to figure out how he may get the Malvans involved on their side, or at least some of their tech... And that, is where this exciting episode ended!

Yeah, I'm just glossing over the "normal" 400 point'ish characters, as they really can't hamper the PCs too much. I basically stop to roll dice when it's a bad guy I've built, or it's a mob of "normal" super-bad-guys. If the PCs doing something silly, I'll roll that out. It's been working fine; I've got mature players, who are in it for the story, so they don't need to play out stomping some henchmen. I haven't decided how I'm going to play out the "war" against the Empress completely - likely, I'm going to focus on some specific battles, "turning points" in the war and story tell the rest... We'll see.

In our 7th exciting episode --> The heroes discussed plans with Col. Rage and the Peacekeepers. Col. Rage described Project Citadel, and how UNTIL was working with various groups to prepare for the coming invasion. The heroes decided to start by speaking to the Milky Way's Core Lord (who they saw in the memories of the bands, as he created them). They flew to the center of the Milky Way and encountered Laktarian (in my gameworld, Laktarian looks like a baby Buddha). As wielders of the bands, Laktarian did speak to them; however, he also explained that he would not help them, as invasions by conquerors were not something he troubled himself with. He explained that the bands were created, to be wielded by heroes, and that if he ever needed aid to protect the very integrity of the Milky Way, he would call on them. He did offer that there were many ways to tip the balance, and that the heroes should go to Somewhere to find more information. Capt. Force realized that "somewhere" was an actual place, so asked where it was; Laktarian put the place into their brains. After some more discussion, the heroes left to find Somewhere. When the heroes arrived at the coordinates, they found the head of an ancient android, the size of a small moon (akin to Nowhere in the MCU). They landed and were astonished at the plethora of alien species walking around... Acting like tourist and walking around in awe, they also saw some aliens in uniform; eventually seeing what appeared to be a human. They approached and asked his name (they both have Universal Translator) - he introduced himself as Bin-Dar'in, a Marshal in the Inter-Galactic Quasar Corps (the IGQC; my analogy to the Star Guard - are cross between the Nova Corp and Judges from Judge Dredd). He also shocked them when he explained that he was a human from earth, from 500 years ago! When the heroes started peppering him with questions, he offered to buy them a drink at a bar. The heroes sat and spoke with him for some time, learning about his history, the IGQC and the larger galactic community. Eventually the heroes explained that they were trying to make contact with rebel forces aligned against the Empress, so they could learn intel from them. Bin-Dar'in explained that all three major factions (The Exrandal’rian Revolt, The L’sandron Army, and The Ta!ra Freedom Fighters) all had agents in Somewhere. The heroes asked about each, and he explained what he knew, which was only the basics. Capt. Force felt that the L'sandron's sounded like a good place to start, and Bin-Dar'in explained that a Pawn Shop owner up the way, was a good place to start. The heroes went and spoke to Mandron, the owner of the Pawn Shop. After some discussion, and Solar taking offense at his surprise that she was an Earthling, he eventually offered to reach out to the L'sandrons, and that they should stay at a hotel a couple levels up, and they would contact the heroes, if they chose to. The heroes went to a money exchanger - who explained that Narrai money could be exchanged for 1000 to 1 in galactic credits, Earth dollars were almost worthless, and he might exchange them for 10,000 to 1, as Earth was not part of the galactic community, and thus their money was of little value... Capt. Force went into an alley, gathered some trash, and used his band to transmute it into Narrai dollars - with that they went back in and exchanged it for 1000 galactic credits. They then went to the hotel and got a couple rooms - they also ate at the hotel restaurant; after Solar called Bin Dar'in and asked what she should eat (since she had no idea). The scene played out with their food was pretty entertaining in itself... After a couple days of them milling about, using the IGN (Inter-Galactic Network) computers in their rooms to read and learn about much of the galaxies history and various aliens, including the Empress; they were eventually contacted by the L'sandrons. They went to meet, and after some discussion, offered to help the L'sandrons with their efforts, in exchange for intel and learning about how they fight the Empress. As a test, the L'sandrons offered that if the heroes would transport a shipment of arms to the L'sandrons, they would have the chance to speak to one of their cell leaders. Capt. Force used his band to shrink the huge shipping contained down, so it could be put in his pocket, and they flew to the coordinates, with Solar making them invisible. Meeting with the cell leader, the heroes accompanied them on several raids and assisted them in a couple battles, in order to see what the inner workings of fighting the Empress entailed. They also collected samples of D-Soldier armor and weapons, along with a computer and communications equipment from the Empress' Legion, and teleported it back to Project Citadel for study (especially by Silvercloud, as he could use it to make effective weapons against it). After basically conducting a successful reconnaissance; the heroes returned to earth, with ideas and thoughts on how they would use this information to begin to counter the Empress' invasion plans. And that, is where this exciting episode ended!

Almost - 1500 points.