Comic

No, no, no. See, her name is quite clearly "Liv Moore", not "Live More". Completely different words.

The same as elephants or bears, but front and back. On the whole, it appears you grok my point. I have _got_ to work that up into a campaign world.

Doesn't it depend on the type of super? A character in power armor is barely different from a heavily armed criminal in body armor with automatic weapons, I'd think, to the public's mind. An alien vanguard of invasion, the first of many to come, would radically change the game board, in particular if we can see the others coming through telescopes? A biologically altered human, in particular if the technology that altered them was something like a simple pill readily available? After all is said and done, the villain in this scenario isn't much different from a bull elephant or a polar bear, albeit one who bounces bullets a bit more successfully than most, and with more persistent blood thirst. How do we treat elephants and bears?

Agreed on all points. It wasn't so much the why.. as the how. The Holmesian villain mastermind was essentially ineptly trying to identify an archer among all the world's archers in a pre-Internet world by narrowing him down through the most commonplace piece of his shtick.. with a silly faked accent, deerstalker cap, oversized magnifying glass, non-functioning violin with a Walkman inside, and clay pipe, accompanied by hired thugs he called Watson. All of them. And whenever he ran into a dead end in his investigation (the GM later explained), he'd commit a crime to attempt to obtain new arrows. I never saw the write-up, but it was very Keystone Cops and hilarious. EDIT: In retrospect, I realize I'm seeing this as sillier than it seemed at the time, given our modern age of Internet, DNA testing, trace evidence testing, CSI television shows, and the like. Magnifying glass and arrow shaft seems quaint now.

I don't disagree it'd be bad form for a GM to spring it on a player in play. However, I've heard exactly this argument from a GM in character creation time, albeit for an archer not a cardster. And I'm convinced it led to a better character, one with more depth of background, more plot hooks, and a subplot involving a Sherlock Holmes-like villain nemesis trying to track down the hero's SID by tracing the source of arrows.. Which was pretty silly, OTOH it is a game based on comics, so a degree of silly is appropriate. And if I recall correctly, that story led to another player in another game's "Weapon Master" character who was a super martial gadgeteer, with the power to weaponize pretty much any innocuous small object into a lethal projectile of opportunity by superskill. (He used his knowledge of demolitions to knock down a villain's skyscraper base with a pen borrowed from the chief of police at one point. After the villains had been cleared from the building, of course.)

For reference, from an apparent fansite: http://timelordcurse.com/post/20749253489/gallifreyan-biology

Not that they're aphorisms, per se, but if you mean Wombatman, Wonder Wombat Woman, Wombatquaman, Invisible Wombat Girl, Wombat Torch, Wombatler, Wombatker, Wombaterine, Wombatclops, Professor Wombat, Juggerwombat, Heimwombat, Wombat The Boy Wonder, Wombatlad, The Wombat Surfer or The Silver Wombat.. I believe QED.

Well... you can if they don't have WS: Playing Card weapon, Trading, Contacts: Weaponsmith, or any plausible explanation for how they produce their trick decks, and you run into the kind of GM who thinks that sort of thing is necessary for your character to replenish their charges.

I could make an argument for a speedster time dilation Change Environment that essentially shrinks AoE attacks by Relativistic effects, though I imagine it would be pretty hard to referee the exact build.

Lady Lacuna The play on lacunar arteries (which fill the brain), inspired by the red costume and mental powers, and the meaning of 'lacuna', a missing piece of a story, such as a glimpse of the future with the events that lead up to it missing.

Damage Negation "He Never Laid a Finger On Me" works as a defense with the special effect of too fast to hit.

Putting "Wombat" in your name has no effect.

And here's the oddity of how my thinking works. I'm perfectly fine with a 5 pt martial maneuver, Flying Dodge, that allows a speedster or martial artist to dodge even AoE. Nimble as Spiderman diving through the windows of a bus and clinging to it when the Hulk tries to smash him with it. Agile as the Flash running up the side of the building as it crashes down on him. I'm not okay with AoE on DCV, even if it costs over seven times as much and doesn't give a free abortable full move and the ability to use 3 pt CSL's defensively. (Well, really, about three times as much, since the maneuver is only +4 DCV.) Because Game Logic and tunnel vision.

Possible you mean Transfer for Drain? Or is the effect that it Drains Body down to 10 (ie 'Starting' value)? Also, Drains do no KB, so there's no point in taking it. If the SPFX is Cold, I'd suggest also Does Not Affect Targets With Life Support Vs. Cold. And I'd suggest Does Not Affect Inanimate Targets, as your guy will end up draining the Body of the ground they stand on and heading for China. And then destroying the planet.

Uh.. Wut? The AoE advantage on skill levels is henky enough; on DCV?! Should I get Penetrating on my Charm skill? Usable at Range on Lockpicking? Armor Piercing on .. heh. Penetrating Charm sounds kinda funny when you think about it! I'd be very dubious of this power build.

It's a Translation Folly to try to be the Flash. The Flash is practically a god, depending on the version and era. Such high speed he's effectively Desolid vs area effect attacks if he sees them coming (but can't pass through solid objects) is a good way to get the Flash ability to dodge even huge attacks, and balances in game mechanics. But really, if Flash is going up against Hulk, he ought to lose. If he's attacking a smart or versatile enough Brick on similar points, a Speedster ought expect to feel some pain, at least some of the time, in the long run. That he's likely already the most combat effective character in the campaign ought be some comfort to your Speedster. And also, yes, it's smart for Speedsters to rope-a-dope their way out of problems, rather than just pay points. The Brick is waiting for a vulnerable moment? Deny it. Find another way. Use another technique. Be stealthy. Be nimble. Do something unexpected the slower Brick can't anticipate.

I believe the consensus view is that Australia is a Madland more than a wasteland.

Show me a hero, and I'll write you a tragedy. Show me a superhero, and I'll draw you a comic.

Blood in the Water Childe Plaza swam with people coming and going. Waves of Powereds and Wonnabees, Powseurs and F'anNoys mixed and melded, pooled and niched and cliqued among passersby and tourists. Jim thought back to his own origin. The moment he knew. He was swimming literally, in a literal pool of literal water beneath literal waves lapping the pool deck and the bouys. Viktor was his sparring partner. They were doing double drills: thirty seconds submerged wrestling for banners, break fifteen seconds for breath, thirty seconds submerged wrestling again, five minute 'breather' doing sprints in flippers. The pair had been drilling for over an hour this way. Neither tired. Neither giving in. Viktor was way behind on banners, Plug's growth spurt and sudden performance surge of the last few weeks combining with his years of training, being coached, striving finally showing up in results. And they were submerged again, grappling for all they were worth, when frustrated Viktor purposely drove his knee into Jim's throat -- a foul that could kill underwater. It almost killed Viktor, when Jim's phosphegenic reflex smashed Viktor's femur -- the toughest bone in the human body -- under Jim's elbow, snapping the star athlete's legbone like a dried twig. Blood bloomed in the water, obscuring the pair. The broken bone had severed Viktor's femoral artery and pierced the skin of his thigh. In five seconds, he would bleed out entirely, so rapidly was his heart pumping from the exertion. He'd already blacked out from the pain and shock. Without thinking, Jim's hands found the wound and applied pressure. He prayed in silent submerged scream, tasting bitter blood in his nose and mouth and eyes. His eyes suddenly awash in phosphorescence saw like a perfect three-dimensional X-ray, the bone, the artery, the wound. And then the flash only Jim saw, in the blood cloud, consuming the blood and sealing the wound, healing the break cleanly, healing the artery, that first uncontrolled dumping of pent-up life energy stored in Jim so long, pouring out of his hands. It was just that quick. Jim swam up to the surface with Viktor, beginning CPR, clearing the water from his lungs and.. and that was enough. The Bulgarian aquathloner's fantastic level of fitness took over in coughing and vomiting on the pool deck. People had rushed over, others who were training, the coaches and trainers and life guard on duty. The flash of gore from the wound was gone, the wound was gone. There was a bruise at Jim's throat, and a bruise on Viktor's leg, but nothing that gave away Jim's secret. Except to Jim. And he was back at Childe Plaza, just another Power Childe no one knew, in anonymous face paint, getting checked out by the hangers out of the place. The ones who cared about pecking order and rank. The ones with stories to tell.

I'd go with Clairsentience, retrocognition, NCC and a few miscellaneous other limitations, such as Side Effect (discovered as a cannibal), and Side Effect Negative Trait for the memories of the ingested, and simple Transfer Skills, same limitations.. since the skill can only come from someone who has the skill, this fits within the restrictions on skill transfer.. albeit on a technicality. On the whole, freakboy pegged it.. dead on.

Metaman ( http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/90928-wip-metaman/?view=findpost&p=2418631 ) has a very low-rent 'open-ended' strength through absorption powerset. It of course has an upper limit (8x Cumulative), but what's really being asked isn't STR and PD. All the STR and PD in the world won't touch a desolid target, won't reach a fast enough speedster, and won't resist teleport attacks or drains. Absorb Cumulative to VPP or to add advantages to STR and PD might do something, but still, you're not going to get the Hulk, because translation follies. You're just going to get the strongest unconscious guy in the world.

Aematlon flew into the Power Childe district (renamed after the Power Childe tragedy decades before Jimmy Adams was born) under cover of darkness, changed to civvies, and walked to a low-rent avoiding street cams and keeping his face down from the Triphammer Hovercams. At the desk, he paid cash and took a room under the name Adam James. He slept until afternoon. When he woke, he applied face makeup. In a city where public displays of superpowers was a misdemeanor, and would lead to asking for a Powers Registration Card, dressing up in tribute to a Powered was not only still allowed, but the fashion. Everyone loves an outlaw, so long as they obey the law. The difference was, this face makeup had an expensive facial recognition impairment under layer. Many Powereds avoided this and other Registration jurisdictions, but this city was where the story was. The anniversary of the Anniversary, where twenty years after Hunger's slaughter at the Power Childe Club, on the same day he broke out of containment and repeated a new mass murder, in public, of almost six hundred people - normal and powered alike - before Hunger's recapture by his own former pupils and followers. Now, it was twenty years later, to the day. After applying the makeup, Jim spent some time jotting down his thoughts, editing them, rewriting, before he headed down to Power Childe Plaza. The Plaza was were Power Children -- the dismissive name for younger people with superpowers trying to fit into a world with no place for them -- congregated, mixing with wannabe's and fans, and other disaffected youth. There was a story here. It was the story of his generation. James Adams, watched by a hundred Triphammer Hovercams, mixed among his kind, in plain sight, unseen. Aematlon was way out of the league of this crowd; if he flashed his blue and red there'd have been a dozen heavily armed response units on the scene in five minutes.. not enough to capture an unregistered Aematlon-level Powered just for being seen in public, unless there were some Pact Powereds feeling particularly masochistic that day in attendance, but enough to make the scene unpleasant. How did the country come to this? Had it always been this way, even before Powers? It wasn't how it saw itself, in its storied past. There was a story here. Aematlon was going to tell it.

There's a story Franko Columbu tells about when he and Arnold were young body builders, drunk one night, walking the length of a street and lifting and turning parked cars in a zig-zag with their bumpers touching, so no one would be able to drive them away in the morning. I have a picture of my grandfather-in-law, in his prime, at a "cow-lifting contest": the cows stood on a platform, and the 'lifter' was to raise the platform a minimum of one foot from just below shoulder height to full shoulder height. This was of course meant as a joke, what with the two-cow minimum. He lifted four, because he didn't get that it was supposed to be a joke. I'd say 30 is about the strength a human might exhibit at the 'lift off the floor and stagger a couple of feet' level, for a few months, at their prime. But I'd call that pushed strength; what Captain America has are the vestiges of the transformation that made him something else; what Bruce Wayne, with advanced chemistry and biology degrees and the resources of Wayne Enterprises has? That's not natural, either.

So.. Can I resell the second copy at a higher price to my friends? I mean, if I had.. friends?

The particular concerns I have about Aematlon: 1. Skill, "Analyze Story" is inspired by the character Castle from the show of that name. A hero who can see a narrative and spot flaws in it, to understand where the narrative is false or incomplete. This helps with deduction and interrogation, replacing conversation, and of course helps him edit and improve his own storytelling as a professional author. As a referee, would this fly with you? 2. Skill, "Science, General" is meant to reflect a background as a high performing speed reading prodigy in a typical athletic scholarship at a good school (along with "KS: Law"). As such, the skill could be used to check science facts, claims and broad questions, as opposed to the type of specialization someone might use as an Inventor to advance discoveries at the leading edge of a subfield of science. Where science is involved, it would be a complement to Deduction, for instance; or if giving a speech on science as a complement to Oratory to come off sounding knowledgeable; It would also include advanced mathematics, working with Lightning Calculator. As a GM, would you allow this sort of use? (EDIT: Thanks to GrandmasterGM for the advice; have updated 'SS: General Science' to 'Electronics', and will commit XP to development of the science knowledge as appropriate.) 3. Skill, "Deduction", not gained from detective work but being a logical, 'deductive' thinker. While he's read a great many detective novels, and more case history in his liberal arts pre-law studies, is that enough to justify the skill? 4. Lack of Noncombat multiple for swimming, with a background as an aquatic athlete. Aematlon has Normal Maximum (5") swimming speed, but his sports were sprint types that needed full CV at all times, not distance types. Does this work? 5. Background; too inspired by a villain NPC no one seems to like: Powerhouse? I'd even begun with football as Aematlon's background sport. But I just couldn't get the Powerhouse imagery out of my head, and that wasn't what this character is meant to be like. Does this character differ enough? 6. Dorky name? 7. ATP - too technical? Should I have just said, "Life Force Powers" and be done with it?