David Johnston

Re: What if the M.U. was consistent?

X-Verse

Power Sources: Either you are a human mutant, or you use technology developed

as a result of mutants, (a mutant with invention powers, a precognitive

mutant bringing tech back from the future, or a discovery made by

studying a mutant's powers), or you are an alien, probably drawn here

by the presence of all those mutants.

Society:

Most baseline humans are a bit unnerved and untrusting of mutants with a substantial

minority responding to them with rabid paranoia. There's a _lot_ of

superpowered mutants, but most of them are less combat compable than a

baseline cop or soldier with a gun and try to remain "closeted" if they

can. Those who can't end tend to end up living in ghettoes to avoid

human harassment. There is something of a fad for baselines to enhance

themselves into cyborgs to "keep up" with the mutants, but most normals

regard the cyborgs with equal mistrust, and are actually more inclined

to trust mutants, provided the mutants are operating under human

leadership like that of Reed Richards or Captain America.

Characters:

The premier superteam in the United States is of course the X-Men,

who actually have as almost as many adherents as they do opponents

among the baselines and are largely unchanged. Running a close

second is Freedom Force which, fronted by powerless figurehead

"Captain America" has numbered the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver

and Beast among their members. Spider-Man is largely unchanged,

except that now it was his mother who was bit by a radioactive

spider and Aunt May always knew who Spider-Man. Juggernaut is quite

a bit less tough since he's now just a mutant.

The Fantastic Four are a group of mutants named Franklin, Susan,

Ben and Johnny adopted by baseline scientist Reed Richards as

babies in order that he could study their development, who now

assist him in his scientific investigations of alien activity on

Earth.

Ironverse

Power sources:

Superpowers come from deliberately designed technology. Either you are

wearing a battlesuit, (which can range from actual suits of armour down

to just circuitry laden spandex-like body stockings) or you are some

kind of robot, android or cyborg. Human cyborgs are rare, since few see

the appeal of self-mutilation when you can get equal powers just by

donning a costume, but some victims of terrible accidents get themselves

rebuilt with combat capable prosthetics. There are no real magicians,

or superpower granting random mutations.

Society:

In Iron, corporations operate on fairly equal terms with even the most

powerful governments and both governments and corporations build both

"heros" who act as their public symbols and "villians" who can be used

to attack and rob each other with plausible deniability. The lines

between government and corporation tend to be vague, and the line between a

corporation and a criminal organisation is equally vague. Of course sometimes

the battlesuits really do get stolen or the androids rebel, but this

only adds to the deniability of the others. The public take what's

going on at face value rarely questioning the theory that lone geniuses

can build cutting edge weaponry in their garages.

In general technology is higher than that of reality, but the price

curve is high for the more advanced technology limiting its distribution.

Still, you'll see clumsy power loader suits in the warehouses, flying cars

driven by the ostentatiously rich in the air above the cities,

humanoid personal androids and other such anachronisms.

Characters:

The most powerful fighting force in the world is the Alliance,

a technically non-governmental organisation, but one which defends

the common interests of the United States and the collected contributing

corporations both at home and abroad. Members of the Alliance include:

Stark Industries: Iron Man. The original Iron Man armour was the

prototype for modern battlesuit technology and virtually everyone uses

a version of Stark's mind machine interface technology to control their

advanced weaponry these days. But he's still the best at using it and

his weaponry is constantly advancing and modifying.

Advanced Idea Mechanics: Hawkeye. While not nearly as powerful or

durable as the Iron Man battle armour, the Hawkeye armour has

superior targeting capabilities and the rockets it fires have a wide

variety of special purpose warheads letting it excel in flexibility.

Van Dyne Industries: The Wasp. Packs amazing power into a tiny

robotic packages operated by a human pilot via telepresence.

Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency: Captain America. Miraculous

surviving a landmine explosion that left him a paraplegic, Steve Rogers

was extensively rebuilt as a cyborg super-soldier and eventually

placed on "detached duty" with the Alliance as the representive of

the federal government.

Ultech: The Vision. A biocybernetic android notable for his ability

to "phase" through solid objects and his secret relationship with

Scarlet.

Department of Justice: Scarlet. Scarlet's costume contains ECM circuitry

allowing her to scramble electronic technology, a weapon

she once used as a member of the outlaw Rebel Brotherhood, a group which

violently opposed the corporate domination of society until she

discovered they were in reality just being used by a corporation

named Magnetodynamix to attack their rivals. Disillusioned,

she turned herself into the authorities and helped them shut down

the Brotherhood and in return was paroled into the custody of the

Alliance.

Unicorp: Goliath. As seems appropriate for the world's largest

corporation, they offer the world's largest and most powerful robot,

albeit neither the most advanced nor most effective member of the team.

Other individuals and groups in Iron include:

The Rogues: A team of runaway androids and robots who fight for

their freedom and the rights of other enslaved intelligent machines,

led by a computer named Cerebro.

Spider-Man: A vigilante hunted by Oscorp for stealing the

technology he developed in their labs, then absconded with once he

learned about the crimes his employers were committing in his city.

The Fantastic Four: Have no powers but make use of

costumes invented by Reed Richards. His own suit of armour is

equipped with telescoping tentacles.

And most of Iron Man's usual opponents.

Re: Creating the Silver Age Team

The very first black comic book superhero was named Lion Man and his comic book was very abortive given that the stores wouldn't even stock his first issue.

That's all I know about him. But I bet his costume looked really silly.

Re: Evil Organizaitons

Any of you guys get to take a look at the stuff? If so' date=' what did you think of the initial write-ups? The paln is to flesh them out so they look more like m write-up for BSI (The Bureau of Special Investigations)[/quote']

 

Well...you see the problem is, I didn't see any link. What's it supposed to look like?

Re: Creating the Silver Age Team

I wasn't actually recommending that you change the name as such, just answering your question about why you kept getting that reaction. Glamour Girl _is_ hokey and how much hoke you can stomach is purely a matter of taste. Roy Thomas may have a thing for the Golden Age, but he still put a black guy into the team, something that never would have happened in the real Golden Age. There was only one black superhero in the Golden Age and he only lasted for one issue.

But in the real Silver Age, nobody would have seen a problem with calling a woman in her early twenties "girl". Sue Storm was apparently into her thirties before she finally told everyone to stop calling her "girl" and they had to shoot Barbara Gordon to change her name. Lightning Lass was there to represent all of her many sisters in the Legion whose naming conventions reflect Silver Age sensibilities, and as those went out of style were renamed to things like "Triad", because apparently _some_ people think "Triplicate Lass" isn't a cool name....which it isn't, I suppose.

I just had a bit of a scarey thought. I shudder to think how things would work out if Iron Age characters travelled forward in time to a 30th century that was still stuck in the Silver Age because they hadn't kept up with the changing styles. A bit like Demolition Man, I guess.

Re: When Bad Translators Attack!

Yes, the rest of it seems pretty comprehensible allowing for translation into and then out of Chinese. Jack Straw isn't even all that bad a name for a scarecrow themed character.

Re: "24" Challenge

Put a cowl on Jack Bauer and he'd be practically indistinguishable from Batman. Except for the "taps bad guys with guns" thing.

Batman has lines he won't cross. Jack Bauer's more like Jason Todd

Re: CHAR: Iron Man

How is being a technophile a disadvantage worth points? It's not like he'll refrain from demolishing Ultron because he's such a unique technology.

Re: Millennium City walled or not

Softly, softly. Let's face it, the original question in the thread was answered a very long time ago. A bit of drift is to be expected.

But now that I think about it, Millenium City is kind of like the world's biggest gated community. Heavily policed, and difficult to get into except through specific ports of entry. Frankly when I looked through it, I could see why people would want to live there just as people DO want to live in gated communities, but taken as is, not a particularly appealing base for a group of superheroes so far as I could see. It's...too science fictiony without being science fictional enough for my taste.

Re: Creating the Silver Age Team

T

Glamour seems out of character for the Silver Age, but still a good character for a 70's era game (The Disco Age? The Goldchains Age?)

 

People have said that before. May I ask what in particular is out of place?

The name. Look at actual Silver Age heroines

Invisible Girl

Marvel Girl

Bat Girl

Lightning Lass

Wonder Woman

Scarlet Witch

Elastic Girl

They weren't all like that as in the case of "Black Orchid" and "The Wasp", but most were, particularly when the name was an adjectival one. It wouldn't be Glamour. It would be Glamour Girl. It was only with the Bronze Age that girls started to get some terser, more androgynous names like "Storm", "Dazzler",

"Phoenix", (and why are all my examples coming from the X-Men?). Oh right, "Raven" and "Starfire",

Re: Solara

"Magical girl" is a big tent. It includes avatars of Amaterasu, and even bonafide goddesses descended to Earth. (Although Belldandy is not a magical girl. She's a magical girlfriend. Different genre with different roots.). While the current Solara is a magical TG his predecessors were magical girls complete with transformation sequence.

Re: Solara

Y'know, if this was being done as a comic book (or in a game I ran) the character getting his alter would probably be a lot more dramatic. A monster attacks and as his grandmother gets ready to transform she's seriously injured just as she gets the transforming gizmo out. He touches it trying to grab for her and get her to safety and...

So...is Sailor Moon a fictional character, or is there really a Sailor Moon just as there is a Batman? I was thinking that by rights if there were going to be magical girls in World War II, Japan should have at least some of them.

Re: Personal Armor Tactical Response Infantry Operative Techsuit or P.A.T.R.I.O.T.

The last couple of letters are straining to fit the desired acronym. Hm. Personal Armoured Tactical Response Infantry...Offense? Offensive?....Technology.

Re: [HELP]Champions of the North 5ER - The Local Scene

On further thought, I think you might dispense with the Fine art and Museum category. Museums are tourist attractions, and more upscale entertainment fits into the Wealth/High Society category.

Re: A different kind of super mage

 

Howsomever, the manga comes very close to saying that Uranus is a hermaphrodite.

 

It's the Starlights that switched between male and female.

Yeah. However, all it meant was "Uranus is very, very butch." At least by shojo standards.

Re: 1930s Superboy and the 21st Century LSH

Rex Randall

Rex Rosenberg

Heck just about anything alliterative, just as long as it doesn't just sound you are saying "Lex Luthor" with a speech impediment.

Re: Millennium City walled or not

Again, you're making the mistake of assuming that rights are granted. Rights are not granted by a government. Whether a particular government recognized a right isn't the same question as whether or not that right exists.

So how do you determine whether a right exists?

Re: Astro City: How to get the feel of the series in Champions?

For a somewhat less complex and ambitious approach you could just simply be careful to remind the players at all times that there are other things happening in the city than the stuff they are involved with. The pace of superhuman activity in Astro City is positively frantic. On any given day an omnisicient observer there would see several superheros fighting street crime, several supervillains being foiled by other heroes, a hero or two intervening in house fires or suicide attempts, a pointless brawl between heros, a supernatural monster stalking prey, and heros like Samaritan or the First Family whipping in and out of town to deal with international or interplanetary issues.

Re: Patriotic Heroes

Captain Eagle?

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

In my group, the detective does half the work,

and the mentalist does the other half.

 

Man if the mentalist didnt pry open the bad guys brains

we'd still be stuck on adventure one.

 

But I as the GM built this into the campaign feel.

I dinna write a 4-color, CVK setting.

 

 

Using telepathy as an interrogation tool against known supervillains and their goons while or after they fight you is one thing. Just randomly rummaging around in people's minds the first time you meet them is another.

Re: Millennium City walled or not

According to who? The government?

Specifically according to the law which doesn't forbid it and hence allows it.

Re: [HELP]Champions of the North 5ER - The Local Scene

Without being responsive to your actual question at all, something I think you definitely put in, is the ferry to Vancouver Island. If I was doing a bit in Vancouver I'd definitely put a fight on the ferry.

Re: Millennium City walled or not

But in fact you don't have the _expectation_ of privacy (as a legal concept). Anyone who wants to, private eyes, police in unmarked cars, can follow you around on your daily routine and you don't have a legal right you can invoke to stop them, so far as I know. The closest you can get is anti-stalking laws, or complaints of harassment and those aren't about privacy, but about implied threats. If you don't know they're doing it and file a complaint, they aren't doing anything illegal even if someone else knows. But I'm more interested in the secret identity issue. How would you go about maintaining a secret identity that was actually secret from the authorities in such a set up?

Re: Millennium City walled or not

There is no civil right to go unobserved in public so far as I know. The expectation of privacy applies to private property. That's why they call it "private". However, having inconspicuous cameras widespread all over the place poses obvious, perhaps insuperable problems for any superhero with a secret identity. One answer of course is to not have secret identities in the first place. For example in the Silver Age Legion, the Science Police were watching everywhere with their little police drones and everyone took it for granted, but nobody was trying to be Batman under those circumstances, at least not in that city.

Re: 1930s Superboy and the 21st Century LSH

Rex Reuther? Might be better to give him a name that really exists, rather than just the Scooby Doo pronunciation. Rex Reuter? Rex Randall?