ShadowWraithe

Re: What would happen if Los Angeles County vanished? I would expect nation wide martial law to go into effect, and probably a maximized state of military alertness world-wide. As an extreme, some reactionary governments may even take the opportunity of mass confusion to launch a nuclear missile or two at their neighbors while the US and other super-powers are distracted. A massive emergence of UFO groups, conspiracy theorists and psychics claiming they can talk to the lost friends and family members for a small sum. Local militias would find their memberships swelling to unheard of levels and gun sales would go through the roof. Paranoia would reach an all time high and might lead to an initial wave of suicides by people fearing the end of the world, not wanting to be left behind or who just couldn't deal with an unknown power being displayed on such a massive scale. Religions, churches and cults will gain membership from people who've never even set foot into a church before much less recognize a bible. The Apocalypse and The Rapture would be big selling points while glossing over the point that only people in LA were righteous enough to be "saved". Scientists and mystics from all over the world will flock to the site formerly know as LA County to study and reverse the incident. Endless theories will be developed on how and why it happened and endless debate will take place on how to prevent it from happening again. With the right leadership, it would be possible for the country to either regress into a new dark age of superstition, fear, paranoia and brutality. Or it could pull together, sink massive amounts of time and money into research which leads to a new golden age of enlightenment, whether mystical or technological. Or the religious or militia groups might gain enough power to fragment the country into regions run by local warlords and the federal government has no real power.

Re: Heroes from All Fifty States

Re: Completely Undetectable

Re: Doctor Who's Sonic Screwdriver Originally I tried using a VPP, but this approach seemed too expensive. I decided to go with a Major Transform limited to "Can alter objects as if effecting them with any handtool." I think this should cover most uses The Doctor has demonstrated over the seasons. Welding, repairing/fusing circuits, locking/unlocking doors, activating/deactivating security panels, and even turning screws. I think the new series has an application or two that won't be covered by this though. I seem to remember him using it offensively somehow against some cybermen? Maybe like a sonic laser? My memory is a bit vague.

Re: SG-1 style campaign There are many ways you can work existing elements into the game without the general public being aware of them. Many of the supers can do their thing without wearing flashy outfits. Street clothing and trench coats for some of the ones who have equipment or features harder to hide. Most paranormals should be given enough common sense to be sublte with their powers, use them mostly at night or when no one else is around, unless absolutely necessary. The ones too crazy to hide get captured quickly. Viper's uniforms don't have to be flashy either. They could be designed to resemble military or swat police uniforms with modest snake emblems or patches where normal insignia would be found. They would limit the occasions they bring out their robots, cyborgs and paranormals and they would plan them out well enough to minimize public witnesses. Or they may leave no witnesses. The government's PR will also have a huge roll to play in this as well. Their clean-up crews roll in asap to give statements to the press, discourage witnesses from saying what they think they saw, drop off weather balloon wreckage where hovercrafts fell. They should hire scores of experts to debunk stories of flying men and show how stage magicians shoot fire from their fingertips all the time. Perhaps a few times a year the government puts out a few movies or TV shows with absurdly ludicrous, impossible and tongue-in-cheek plots to lower public belief in paranormals. They could put in a few real-life events that they had trouble keeping quiet into a movie and claim the witnesses actually saw the filming of the incident or that it was a publicity stunt. Possibly a few movies would come out where the theme is paranormls (ie. mutants, aliens, monsters, androids, etc) are antisocial deviants who always end up getting caught, disected, imprisoned or killed. Witnesses who don't remain silent could be ridiculed as quacks. At the extreme end of the spectrum, the noisy ones could even get reprogramed by the government. As for interacting with the DoD, you can try the Mission Impossible approach, "If you choose to accept this mission, ...... , This computer terminal will self-destruct in 10 seconds" The missions may be optional, but the importance and possible consequences of not taking could be emphasized. - The less qualified 'B Team' will need to be sent in. On one of the declined missions, you could have the DoD come back in a couple of days with surveillance video of the tragic defeat of the totally outclassed 'B Team' - Innocents will be injured if the threat is left unchecked - The last two pieces needed to create the death ray satellie will fall into the wrong hands - The government will have to send a unit of assassins to resolve the problem if the group won't go to capture and subdue the threat.

Re: Piercing Questions, or Making Tech Levels Distinctive Different technologies could be differentiated in several ways. - Make some technology organic in nature, such as living ships or parasitic handguns. - Add more dials and gauges to represent richer depths of information being handled and interpreted. - Remove more dials, gauges and controls to represent some functions being automated or no longer necessary. - Cybernetic, telepathic, neural interfaces or AIs are used to run equipment instead of doing it by hand. - Higher level technology may be harder to repair and require more specialized skills to repair or use. - Higher level technology may be self repairing or run itself. In general, higher levels of technology will be more effective against lower levels of technology, but there are exceptions where the level of effectiveness may vary against other levels of technology. For example if a person in shiny new platemail were to fight a person who has a taser, he would have no protection at all from the electricity coursing through his armor. But if the same person in platemail fights a person with a laser pistol, his shiny armor may deflect the entire effect of the laser shots.

Re: Power suggestions for a "Perfect" human being I have been toying with the idea of a package for humans who have had their DNA cleaned-up and bodies purified. Over the past couple of hundred years, with improved medical care, the average human lifespan has roughly doubled. Human perfection resulting in a resistance or an immunity to disease could mean another doubling or quadrupling or more of lifespan. In game terms, LS: Immunity to Disease LS: Slowed Aging 200 or 400 years CON +5 REC +5 END +20 STUN +10

Re: Immortality and progressive diseases In the book The Mis-Enchanted Sword, the hero of the story was given immortality when he bonded with a magic sword. But because lesser materials were used to craft the swords enchantment (a bronze ring rather than gold), he grew older and weaker over the years to the point where he feared he would one day no longer have the strength to even lift the sword. Immortallity could be viewed as four general types: Lesser Immortlity - You don't die, but you age and get so that you wish you would. More of a curse than a benefit. Average Immortality - You dont get older or weaker. You don't heal any faster than normal people, but you can potentially live forever as long as you don't get sick or critically wounded. Greater Immortality - You can live forever and have enough immunities to diseases and regeneration to live young and healthy forever. But you can still be killed if someone put enough effort into trying to kill you, much like in the Highlander genre. True Immortality - You never age and never die. You are immune to everything and all wounds heal. Nothing can kill you regardless of what you or anyone else tries. The world could turn to cosmic dust around you, but you continue on. Much like Prometheus having his liver torn out each morning only to regrow to be torn out again.

Re: Batman's Utility Belt If I remember correctly, in the Batman TV series with Adam West, he even had a live goldfish in one episode.

Re: Character concept: Mecha I'm also a Darkhawk fan, but reading your description made me first think of The Guyver. A young martial artist falls face first on an alien gadget, it bonds to him and clads him in alien bio-armor. You might add some martial arts to your list of abilities. It seems that almost everyone in anime knows kung fu. Do you plan on having any appendages detac, fly about and act as cameras or mobile weapons? A flying fist, a drone popping off of your back and hovering around or your swords flying and fighting without you holding it.

Re: [space Wizards] Magical Constructs For a more unusual idea, how about a Worm Hole Golem. By their nature, worm holes need an origin as well as a destination. Thus creating a Worm Hole Golem is a two stage process. First a Singularity Golem must be created. These are little more than pinpoints of light that move around as directed by their masters. A worm hole waiting to be opened, but with no place to go. Once a Singularity Golem gains in age, strength and power, it is able to split off a child and thus evolves into a Worm Hole Golem. It now has an origin and a destination and can finally open a worm hole between itself and its child. Once open, objects can be passed back and forth between the two ends in a fraction of time. As the golems gain in strength and age, they are able to create more children which can be left in more places. Each time a child is created, the golem will also gain another corresponding pinprick of light as part of its core body. Initially each end of the portal is only about a foot in diameter. As the golem gains in strength and creates a new child, the maximum diameter increases by a 1 foot increment. So not only can very old golems have a versatile array of destinations, but they can transport increasingly large objects (ie. small vehicles or even armies.) The children of these golems are singularities of light until their parents open them into wormholes. But they are not golems themselves, they are not free willed and will never evolve into golems. The parent can open and close the worm holes between them and their children at will and can move their children to wherever they wish. But these children can only move at normal running speeds and must actually pass through real space to get there. Children of Worm Hole Golems have also been used for devistating destruction as well. Placed in the depths of an ocean will result in a guyser of water being summoned at will, while a child in the depths of a fiery volcano can produce lava flows or spouts. Near a sun can produce daylight at will, while in a sun can release devistating radiation attacks or an unlimited energy source A more benign use could be a deep space garbage desposal. For the less ambitous mage, a Worm Hole Golem may just be an easy way to travel between summer homes on planets on the far side of the galaxy or a shortcut to the refridgerator.

Re: [space Wizards] Magical Constructs What about animating the matter between planets? For solar systems with asteroid belts, perhaps several of the smaller asteroids could be animated together to form an asteroid golem. On a larger scale one of more asteroids could be given magical propulsion and used as ships. Multiple asteroid ships could orbit each other to provide stronger gravity. Asteroids could be animated to orbit and guards ships. They could be used to push objects out of the way if they get too close to the ship or if they are in the ship's path.