assault

Re: In need of a good origin story No, it's full of eggs - ova.

Re: In need of a good origin story Hmm... Marvel has had a few speedsters over the years. The main ones are Quicksilver (as Hermit has pointed out) and the various Whizzers. Of these, the Squadron Supreme Earth's one ran through a strange fog one night. The Golden Age Whizzer was given a blood transfusion from a mongoose! One has to wonder if the mongoose was radioactive... There was also another Whizzer, also known as the Speed Demon, who was created as a playing piece for one of the Grandmaster's little games. As you can see, Marvel didn't try too hard to give their speedsters particularly clever origins. Basically I would pick something that is metaphorically related to speed and get bitten/hit/exposed to it. Or you could have a supernational bestowal - maybe you find the Sandals of Mercury or something. Oddhat and Hermit's suggestions are all perfectly fine. I would avoid Trebuchet's since it feels a little too "modern".

Re: An odd question

Re: An odd question The ethnic cleansing bit was about the forcible deportation of the Palestinians, but let's not go there, for everyone else's sake... Apart from that, it's alarming how much we agree on the general point, given that we agree that we would probably mess up the world big time... Now, unfortunately, I don't think this situation would be particularly suitable as a game. The outcome would be very dependent on the starting conditions, the preferences/prejudices of the players and GM, and a whole bunch of contestable assumptions. In other words, it would be inevitably rigged. In addition, if the characters are too powerful, it runs the risk of degenerating into a "my surfboard is more silver than yours" competition. I would suggest running it as a more X-Man power level. Yes, there are some cosmic level characters around - Magneto, Professor X, etc - but most of the conflict occurs between their followers. That would allow a bit more balance and allow for the conflict between the factions to seesaw backwards and forwards, rather than everything being decided in one big punchup. It would also allow for more diplomacy, planning and general roleplaying, since there would be a lot fewer characters with Cosmic Awareness and similar powers hanging around, saying "he's there!". It's not an accident that the X-Men have been being published for forty years, while the higher power level stuff tends to occur in limited series and so on. Or else requires a whole new set of characters every few issues. Incidentally, I'm rereading Zenith at the moment. There's a realistic super world for you! Zenith: "Come on! I've never seen so many complete idiots in the same place before. Well, not since the last Iron Maiden concert, anyway. All those pervy skintight suits. It's brilliant. So what's everyone doing? Getting in a few drinks before the Vice Squad turn up to raid the place?"

Re: An odd question Continuing the thread hijack... For what it's worth, I have written nothing that even hinted at the "humans must make their own choices" faction being "fervent belie(vers) in The American Way". There is nothing particularly "American Way" about opposition to the kind of terrorist actions you described on the previous page - religious genocide, ethnic cleansing, murdering "anti-American" political leaders, and so on. The "human self-determination" supers are not defenders of the status quo. Rather, they are the participants in a non-aggression pact and military alliance. They set their own agendas aside as a precondition for banding together against their enemies - those with incompatible agendas, such as the one you described. Or at least some of them do. Others may do it on principle, and still others (really probably most) for a mix of the two reasons. The "human self-determination" supers are the ones who would defend North Korea against attack by other superhumans. The "American Way" supers are likely to be the ones who would attack North Korea. That's the difference. And as for Magneto: his victory has been inevitable for forty years now... Hmm... now what was this thread about, initially, anyway? Oh yeah, now I remember! Yes, lots of young supers - well, super-me and super-Wanderer, anyway - would engage in trying to change the world. The result would inevitably end up being violent, as different agendas clashed. But we would still do it. And it's not a function of age, either. I'm over 40 now, and I would still try to change the world and/or prevent Wanderer from changing it his way. It would be immoral not to!

Re: An odd question Frankly, this sounds more like a factional manifesto than an inevitable result. There would be another faction which says: "humanity must decide its own future". It's entirely likely that the second faction would be better coordinated than the first, since they're less likely to exhibit megalomaniac egotism. This kind of division is a staple of superpowered worlds, of course - it's the division between supervillains and superheroes.

Re: Hypothetical Axis Amerika 2005 This would only work if Germany had naval superiority. At that point Quebec would be pretty well irrelevant. In any case, this is still an example of non-superpowered thinking.

Re: An odd question And I would have tried to stop you. There are a remarkable number of things on your list I would have objected to. That is the real secret of this thread. St barbara noticed it a couple of pages ago: if we all had superpowers we would end up at war!

Re: Hypothetical Axis Amerika 2005

Re: Hypothetical Axis Amerika 2005

Re: Hypothetical Axis Amerika 2005 The Atlanteans helped too. Not to mention that lost Roman city that was discovered in the 1930s. Italy would have been in real trouble without them.

Re: Hypothetical Axis Amerika 2005

Re: Champs Worldwide: Whaddya want? OK, so I was being a bit precious about the indigenous stereotype thing. There ya go. I still don't want to see a lot of it, but I'll stop being a PITA about it... You're descended from whisky?

Re: Champs Worldwide: Whaddya want? OK. But it's also stupid, boring and cliched. IMHO, of course.

Re: Champs Worldwide: Whaddya want? I hope that this suggestion will be ignored. Indigenous cultural material is not in the public domain. It is the intellectual property of the members of the respective cultures, and should not be used without permission.

Re: An odd question Well, I was doing political activism by my early twenties, so count me as a "yes". It's as likely as not, though, that I would have ended up trying to stop the rest of the group from imposing _their_ view of the world on the world, since my view and theirs' would probably have differed. Whenever I address issues like this, I end up saying that. That's largely because I don't expect that the other supers would share my Real World political views. My opinions have changed over time, but a lot of the essentials haven't, so I guess I would have found myself in the same boat back then.

Re: Sample Oddity From Gestalt-Earth

Re: Champs Worldwide: Whaddya want? There was another one as well, published by the same publisher. As I noted, several of the names I listed have been used at one time or another. However, the names themselves, as distinct from the published characters, should be in the public domain. Unless, of course, someone has managed to gain sole rights to the word "wombat".

Re: Champs Worldwide: Whaddya want? Here is a brief list of suggestions for Australian super names and name elements. While a couple of them have been used by one or other comics company in the past they should still be public domain enough for you to use them for CU characters without problems. Not all are uniquely Australian, but they are all reasonably likely to be used by Australians. The list is, of course, not even remotely exhaustive. The name "Southern Cross" is, sadly, used by a poster on these boards, so it might be polite to avoid it. I've listed them by categories, and added brief comments. Animals: Magpie - common sight in many cities. Flying Fox - likewise. Redback - poisonous spider, like a Black Widow, only better. Dingo - unimpressive wild dog. Shark - we've got lots. Wombat - just because. Mythological animals: Bunyip - apparently a mythological version of a crocodile in indigenous myths. Non-indigenous myths have tended to lose that connection. Yowie - another mysterious critter. Historical Bushrangers (real people): Captain Thunderbolt Captain Midnight Captain Moonlight Other criminal specialties: Bushranger Standover - a "standover man" is a violent extortionist. Toecutter - see Standover, with extra overtones of "hitman". Other: Southern Cross - part of national iconography. Also used by New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. Southern (anything) Cyclone Boomerang

Re: Angel, the worst original character concept ever? The Martian Manhunter's concept is simple enough: he's the Silver Age, science fiction based, equivalent of the Spectre. Basically, he's a detective with scary mystical powers. Of course he usually isn't portrayed like that these days, but that's how he started. Would it bother you if a player came up with a detective who used magic to help solve crimes? Because that's what the Spectre and the MM do, although the MM doesn't admit it's magic. For what it's worth, almost all of my characters tend to have martial arts, even if it's only cinematic brawling, irrespective of their other powers, or even if they have other powers. In particular, my bricks rely heavily on Offensive Strike as their main way of doing damage. And so do most of my energy projectors, since "a right to the jaw" is cooler than just zapping someone. Oh yeah, and so do my mentalists... Of course, I also think that Air Wave and Jimmy Olsen are playable characters.

Re: Angel, the worst original character concept ever? Unfortunately, this example is completely backwards. Black Canary was a non-powered martial artist character who was given an energy blast twenty-five years after her first appearance! So, you technically should have written: "For example, say you built Black Canary. You could say that she's a Martial Artist, why does she need Energy Blast?" Silliness aside, your main point is absolutely correct.

Re: Angel, the worst original character concept ever?

Re: Angel, the worst original character concept ever? The character has shown no signs of possessing superstrength (in his original form, anyway). It has also been explicitly stated that he doesn't in a couple of "official", if unreliable, sources. (OHOTMU and MSH RPG stats). The most obvious conclusion is that he doesn't possess such strength. Your argument about the dodgy physics of his wings is pretty pointless, given the impossibility of superpowers in general. Besides, Angel's wings make more sense than Namor's!

Re: Angel, the worst original character concept ever?

Re: Champs Worldwide: Whaddya want?