assault

For the campaigning stuff, I'd have a good look at the original Strike Force.

Probably Champions II as well.

1 hour ago, Ninja-Bear said:

Interesting fact about this is that REH submitted some stories as Conan and Kull and the editor didn’t like them and when he resubmitted the story with the other hero then they were approved.

With some serious rewriting.

Discovery of pottery rewrites Aboriginal history

How about a True Name type system?

As always, what special effect do you want?

With Superboy, you could go back to the 1945 version, where leaping over a barn or outrunning a deer were amazing feats. He was weaker than the 1938 version of his adult self. Even the world's greatest superhero has to begin somewhere...

The Smallville TV version is a more modern (and powerful) take.

I thought about the Marvel family, but omitted them to keep things short. Still, Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jnr and Mary Marvel are all potential teen heroes.

I skipped the Legion, because they are such radical outliers. Still, there were enough stories where individual members came back in time and did things, that they could be used as a source. In the first appearance of Ultra Boy, he only had (used?) his vision powers. His full power set wasn't mentioned until his second(?) appearance. The result was Cyclops with X-ray and telescopic vision. (And a flight gizmo, because the Legion.) Perfectly fine.

Some of the derivative characters that we think of as sidekicks appeared more often in solo stories than teamed up with their supposed mentor. Kid Flash is a good example. Supergirl is another.

The biggest of the independent, although derivative, teen heroes was, of course, Superboy.

A lot of the problem is that the party of business as usual (Democrats) doesn't have answers for the problems business as usual caused.

Even the re-emergence of a business as usual Republican party wouldn't help. They were part of the problem too.

Something has to change - but the response to Bernie Sanders showed the obstacles to that. Even if they wanted to, Biden and Co. are incapable of the kind of reforms that could undercut the lunatic right. There is no way to genuinely make America great again.

With options to the left precluded, only rightist options are available.

---
Please ignore the following. I'm just being mad.

The best way to restore the viability of capitalism as a whole would be to have a Really Big War. Nuclear war is still bad though. A war with China might work, but is risky. A war between Russia and the EU (with the US somehow staying out of it!) might be preferable. (Who cares if some Poles and Germans get nuked!) Then the US can swoop in to rebuild the European economies, with their competitors eliminated.

So, yeah, the US needs to withdraw from NATO. This is sufficiently idiotic that it would take a Trump to do it.

That's how to Make America Great Again.

It's OK, I'm taking my pills now...

8 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

The D&D Gazeteer series was a real eye-opener for me. I'd never seen such an in-depth dive into a single fantasy region before. The attempt to justify and make logical a lot of details that the original writers of the setting just threw together; the creation of a consistent historical timeline; the wealth of unique cultural details... I know most campaigns probably won't need all that, but my coherence-loving brain and heart ate it up with a spoon.

Is it coincidental that Aaron Allston wrote GAZ1 - The Grand Duchy of Karameikos Gazetteer?

Just curious.

😉

8 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

I think the GAC character Assault has in mind is Long John Sliver.  There's also Origami Girl but she's more a shape shifter

Exactly these characters.

Have you got Golden Age Champions? I think there's at least one in there. The British guy in the Expatriates supervillain group maybe?

My copy is in a pile somewhere at the moment, so I can't check.

1 hour ago, Lord Liaden said:

None of that is as cool as 300 Spartan armor. Shields and speedos.

According to ancient Greek pottery, speedos weren't a thing. Shield and helmet. That's what you need.

After some Googling: bronze chain mail did exist, and was both probably the earliest form and definitely used later.

It was a derivative of scale armour.

Obviously iron/steel is a preferable material, but it isn't always available, especially when you need a lot of armour in a hurry.

Its weaknesses can be compensated for to a considerable degree by mixing it with scale, plates and so on, in places where protection is more important than flexibility.

Any armour is better than no armour.

1 hour ago, L. Marcus said:

Do you suppose one could make chain mail out of bronze ... ?

Yes you can. It was done.

However, chain mail seems to have been an Iron Age innovation.

12 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

For my part, I've always been fascinated by cultures and worldviews that are the most different from my own, whether historical or alien. The closer an era or location gets to modern Earth, the less it appeals to me.

This was the context in which I used "alien". I didn't necessarily mean nonhuman.

The problem with alien cultures is that you need a degree of familiarity at the same time.

It's the difference between "yeah, I get it" and "no, I am not going to read forty pages of mediocre prose just to be able to play". Much of the skill in worldbuilding lies in that difference.

2 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

I believe Testament is Iron Age, though.

I just checked. It's Bronze and Iron.

It goes with "Iron is better" rather than "Iron becomes cheaper", although there is a bit of the latter in that iron becomes the default in price lists for the later period.

2 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

There is a "Christian RPG" called Testament that is set in that kind of time period too, has a lot of interesting source material.

Testament was by Scott Bennie and is a good read.

Good conversation and ideas so far.

Perhaps the next thing might be to reduce some of these ideas to a playable form. Something of a microcosm of the big picture, with the basic ideas and conflicts reduced to something more PC scaled.

For example, instead of a conflict between the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope, one between a Duke and a Bishop. Or something like that. I don't find that specific situation particularly compelling, but something broadly along those lines.

This probably has to go in here, rather in the other news thread. It's about Australia rather than the US though.

A key absence in the linked story is the political stuff, including at least one notorious frame-up.

The mysteries that prevail after disgraced former detective Roger Rogerson's death

A lot of Steve-era stuff is overpowered compared to earlier material. Tanks, guns...

The problem is that superheroes have fallen behind in comparison. Even the extra points don't make up for it.

George MacDonald's guidelines worked well for early Champions, unsurprisingly. That stuff in the books about 100 points being generally wonderful was serious. Around 500-1000 points, you get to be a JLA level character.

By Steve's standards, you're an X-man.

Paralyse you for later. Or bind you up in webs 

Grab you and take you home for their children.

5th Century is good, but I've kind of trapped myself into Knights & Stuff. (And Scots, Poles, Albanians...)

Still, I'm going to be filing off the serial numbers anyway.

2 hours ago, Old Man said:

About the only thing 12th century Europe doesn't have is Vikings, but you could probably squeeze them in and no one would know any better.

Scandinavian Scotland was still pretty wild.

Suppose you were creating a setting based on mediaeval Europe. (Reluctantly or otherwise.)

Where and when would you base your main area on?