Doug McCrae

Re: Setting up a new game (general questions)

Ben Samuel's cover collection

Perusing the covers gives a good feel for Golden Age superhero comics as a whole, the sort of gonzo universe the characters inhabited (the sort of universe that had giant green nazi gorillas in it), and the prevalent attitudes which included virulent anti-Japanese racism.

Re: Setting up a new game (general questions)

Pure Excitement Comics

Re: Setting up a new game (general questions)

The most notable feature of the Golden Age was action. No moral dilemmas, no lengthy debates, much two-fistedness. Golden Age superheroes weren't necessarily particularly nice or law-abiding. But they sure as hell got things done.

In his first year Superman was an outlaw, wanted by the police. A strongman who dispensed justice as *he* saw it, irrespective of the law. Early GA Superman dealt with wife-beaters with a good left hook, much different than the modern Supes agonising over such matters. He cleaned up his act, admittedly, after the first year and became more 'family friendly'.

Namor the Sub-Mariner was even more extreme, battling humanity and attacking New York until he teamed up with his old foe the Human Torch. (Torch vs. Namor was the very first hero vs. hero fight in 1939.) Together they fought the Axis powers.

There was no angst in the Golden Age, no moping about. There were teenagers, sure. But they were cheerful, spunky types who helped capture nazi spies.

Re: What is Evil?

Let's distinguish between evil and Evil. The former just means 'extremely immoral' and there are plenty of examples of it down here on Earth. The latter is something metaphysical.

Psychopaths do what they do because they don't give a shit about other people's feelings. If their minds are like ours then they're evil. If not, then they're monsters.

Re: Use of Mutants and Masterminds

I found San Angelo to be pretty boring. Mainly just normal people, not many 'superhero universe' ideas.

Freedom City is excellent IMO.

Re: Rampaging through the Champions Universe

500' date='000 cannibals with automatic weaponry[/quote']w00t!

Re: My Dee-en-Dee conversion!!!1

But is this the real Killer Shrike? How can we tell?

Re: My Dee-en-Dee conversion!!!1

I thought it was pretty funny. Liked the pun on Killer Shrike's name.

In fairness, I should point out that I like all those World's Most Terrifying Police Chases shows. I have no taste.

Re: How many is enough??

How players are in your play group?

Re: What is Evil?

In bad fantasy stories' date=' though, the villains are often evil for the sake of evil, proudly, arrogantly evil, proclaiming from the rooftops that they are the very epitome of evil, doing evil, rotten things just because they're evil.[/quote']Yeah, crap like Milton's Paradise Lost, for example.

Re: What is Evil?

In your fantasy games' date=' how do you represent evil, if at all?[/quote']I'm not really interested in representing evil. In the fantasy world I'm working on at the moment there certainly are evil beings, but they're not symbols for evil, they just are.

Re: Character Challange: Superman Clones

He's the big guy, the superhero's superhero, the one all the rest look up to, the guy you can trust, the guy you can rely on. To fulfill that role I think he really needs to have strength and toughness, though Captain America gets by without either in a similar position.

Superman was the first superhero, the archetype. All the rest are just imitations. He's the quintessence of superhero, the definition of the word. Superman is more 'superheroey' than Batman, say, or the Incredible Hulk.

Re: Fantasy Races

You're right, Priodon is a good name.

I'd call the frogmen Bullywugs, I've always liked that name.

For the rest, why don't you just call them Cowmen, Dogmen, Fishmen (Deep Ones?) etc. OK, admittedly it doesn't work for frogmen and horsemen. You could change it to Horsefolk, Frogpeople, maybe? Maybe Kelpies for the horsies? Fomori or Merrow for the fishmen?

I'm working on my own fantasy setting right now, trying to be a little bit different from the usual. I've got:

Boarfolk

Boggarts

Fomori

Maluans (octopus people)

Barghests

Grues

Chitterlings (snake people)

Daevas (Persian shadow demons)

Arimaspians (one-eyed)

Gallu-demons

Fenbacks (part spider, part frog)

Thunder Chargers (to elephants as centaurs are to horses)

Fleshless Claws (undead crabs)

Bandersnatchs

Re'ems

Indrik the Beast

And a lot more.

Re: Losing items or death?

Thor without his hammer would kind of suck. I'm not sure he'd even be Thor any more.

Re: I need a strong woman that flies.

Why don't you check out a few superhero comics?

Re: Is "evil race" an intrinsically rascist concept?

First' date=' the idea that roleplaying encourages racism is on a par with the idea that roleplaying encourages devil-worship.[/quote']I think roleplaying probably does encourage devil-worship. If the game has references to it anyway. Traveller certainly doesn't. And what's wrong with devil-worship anyway?

 

The real fraudulent claim made against rpgs is that they encourage suicide. This has been statistically proven to be false. I can't see why they would, given that rpgs don't particularly make any reference to it.

 

However surely any subject matter has a small effect on the behaviour of the reader or player? I'd say playing sci-fi games encourages people to apply for jobs at NASA. By an incredibly slight and only statistically noticeable factor.

Re: Is "evil race" an intrinsically rascist concept?

Elf Only Inn:

No Dwarves Or Irish

Re: Is "evil race" an intrinsically rascist concept?

Tonight I've been writing up a history for a fantasy world, which purely by coincidence (honest!) is quite strongly racist.

I've got a first race of men who were created by the gods - superior to the men of the current era (and the races that arose in the intervening period) in every respect. However they interbred with other races of men that sprung up (my history doesn't say how these lesser races came to be) diluting their racial purity. This led to moral weakness and the first race were destroyed by the gods in a great flood.

Now if that's not racism I don't know what is. It's straight out of Theosophy and Nazi mythology (with its story about how the Jews deliberately interbred with the Aryans to dilute their racial purity). Admittedly I don't say whether any of the races were black.

Re: Is "evil race" an intrinsically rascist concept?

I've found cyst13's threads to be extremely interesting. A little heated perhaps but that's perfectly understandable given the subject matter.

I certainly don't think he's a troll. He just wants to talk about subjects that interest him.

Re: Is "evil race" an intrinsically rascist concept?

It has been supported, just not proven.

Re: Is "evil race" an intrinsically rascist concept?

I don't see it that way. If we are trying to convince you that evil races promote racism are you not equally trying to convince us that they don't? I don't see the burden of proof falling on anyone.

Re: Is "evil race" an intrinsically rascist concept?

Oh' date=' this is good. You're rebuking me for not taking your hypothesis on faith.[/quote']You shouldn't take it on faith. You should take it for what it is, an interesting idea for which there is some evidence but no proof. Providing counter evidence, as has been done, is perfectly appropriate. Demanding proof isn't.

Re: Is "evil race" an intrinsically rascist concept?

Its not up to me to prove that he's wrong. Its up to him' date=' as the person making the statement in the first place, to prove himself right... and sorry to say he's got a long, long way to go[/quote']What sort of proof do you mean? A scientific proof in the sense that smoking has been proven to cause cancer? Obviously that's impossible as no studies have been done in this area. You know this, I know this, everyone involved in the debate knows this. So why are you asking for proof?

Re: Is "evil race" an intrinsically rascist concept?

In my view the concept of evil races does promote racism. Very very very very slightly. So slightly in fact that I don't think it's worth worrying about.

Ultimately even the best of us are at least a little bit racist. Provided it's no more than that I don't think we should beat ourselves up over it or be too concerned about it.

There's a lot of far more important, big, serious evils out there we could be confronting instead.

Re: Is "evil race" an intrinsically rascist concept?

Oh bullshit. This is the same unprovable rhetoric that says heavy metal lyrics cause suicide' date=' Christianity causes abortion clinic bombings, and D&D causes satan-worship.[/quote']A friend of mine with a psychology degree once told me that domestic violence figures spike on the nights when a heavyweight title bout is televised. Explain that Mr. What-We-Watch-Doesn't-Affect-Us-In-Any-Way.