drunkonduty

I tend not to rush to see a movie in a theater as soon as it opens, so I don't usually experience packed houses, and that may color my perceptions; but I've rarely had a theater visit outright spoiled by audience members. However, what I experience in a theater is different from watching a movie at home. The big screen in a big space, the sound around me and through me, the responses to the movie by the other audience members... there's a sense of community there, of sharing in a collective event, of being part of something bigger than myself. IMHO no home theater setup, however elaborate, can offer that.

Well, I can do that for you. Look at Loki's eyes from the Thor film and any film apart from the first Avengers film. Green, right? (Except in his blue-skinned, red-eyed, form of course.) That is his natural eye colour. 
 
Now look at his eye colour when he arrives on Midgard to take the tesseract. Bright blue. 
 
Who else has their eye colour changed from whatever it was before to a piercing blue? Anyone being controlled by the stone in his sceptre. When Hawkeye is under his command, mind controlled, he has bright blue eyes, unlike his usual steely grey eyes whenever Jeremy Renner played him in the rest of the MCU. 
 
Loki isn't invading midgard because he was hoping to conquer it. Asgard has always been the only place he cared about, except for his targeting of Jotunheim simply to win his father's approval in Thor 1. Loki is here to attack Midgard as a cover for him first grabbing the Tesseract (and therefore an infinity stone) then also attacking New York (which is, canonically, where the Sorcerer Supreme is, at that exact moment) to get hold of the Eye Of Agamotto and therefore another Infinity Stone, since Earth has the rare distinction of holding two of the infinity stones at the time. Well worth Thanos risking his own infinity stone, carried by a mind-controlled god, to bring him back two more. 
 
You can even see how badly hurt Loki had been, just before he was mind-controlled and sent to Midgard to capture infinity stones, much more so than after Hulk's beatdown. He'd been tortured, for a long time, whether for information or simply to make sure that the mind control would take effect. 
 
How does this make losing a fight to the Hulk into a victory for Loki? Well, much like Dr Selvig managed to resist mind control just enough to include an off-switch for his portal, Loki managed to resist his own mind control enough to pick a fight with the Hulk and then opt to monologue instead of being ready for an actual fight. Which, much like Black Widow's punch to Hawkeye's head to "recalibrate" his brain, was able to reset Loki's mind to free it from the mind control. You may notice that his eyes, after the beatdown, are back to their normal emerald green, instead of the bright blue of the mind control effects. He also suddenly changes from Shakespearean villain monologues, that we know are not his usual mode of speech, to the casual quipster that we are more familiar with.
 
"I'll take that drink, now."

I'd probably just go with a big Variable Power Pool, with a Custom Limitation, "Tolkien-esque Magic Only" (precedents from the books and/or movies). The One Ring's VPP at least would have a Transform Side Effect to give a Psych Complication, "Obsessed With the Ring."

I like a good multiform. Especially if the size difference means a different suite of complications. 
 
Buying some powers OIAID is fine but that would change the value I'd give to complications based around size. 

Here's one of the continent maps I use for my Hyborian Hero campaign:
 

 
 
Tarantia, capital of Aquilonia:
 

 
 
Shadizar:
 

 
 
Aghrapur:
 

 
 
Another continental map:
 

In fact Dutchess Enterprises offers a fully secure cypher FM radio system at a very good price.....

So I got to see my girl today, for the second time since Pandemic. And I was talking on how much the world has changed, and how comic book universes have not kept up. And I mentioned that I thought the Avengers Project would have moved to a Gig economy model after MCU movies. And she really liked that idea. If you join Avengers, you can down load an App, that works like Uber, Door dash etc. Bank robbery within 5 blocks, are you available? Heroes can be paid bounties, and docked for excessive damages. And make a living as a full time hero, And live a private life, if wanted.
 
What other changes should the Comic book universe contain?
Do you wish to Tip your hero? Did He/She arrive in time? etc...thank you for helping Avengers become a better service!

Might be worth remembering that D&D-ish coinage is already a radical simplification to turn money into an easily-tracked game resource. In Medieval Europe, not only did every country have its own money, the value could shift depending on how much base metal was alloyed with the gold or silver. In his Pratica della Mercatura, the merchant Pegolotti lists the moneys of western and southern Europe and the Middle East, and rates them for quality. In a world like that, how much something costs gets kind of metaphysical: In what currency? From what year, because it it could change? Moneychangers were vital. But that sort of chaos is probably more detail than most players want when their characters just want to buy a new sword or whatever.
 
The Pratica has other material that might be inspirational for a campaign set in a trade city, though. Like, one chapter is a list of "Spices," by which Pegolotti meant any relatively high-value commodity that wasn't cloth, precious metals or gems: actual spices, but also medicines, dyestuffs, and much more. One thing that stands out is how Pegolotti distinguishes between the sources for some commodities. For instance, he lists alum (used in dying cloth, so pretty important) from several sources, and rates some of them as better or worse quality.
 
You could use this as local color to show the trade going on in the trade city. Like, suppose you want a bar fight as part of the adventure. Instead of just having some guys start fighting, describe two merchants arguing. "You thief! You swindler! You promised me Karahissar alum, but I got Cyzican alum! Don't try to deny it, I can tell the difference. I want my money back!" "Why, you liar! That was the finest Karahissar alum, you're just trying to cheat me into getting a lower price!" A tankard gets thrown, and the fight is on!
 
Dean Shomshak

Subjects like this come up in the FH Forum every few years, so past discussions may include something useful. I recommend the thread below for the posts by Markdoc, who knew a lot about Medieval history and economics. I thought his analysis of pricing was astute:
 
http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/90705-how-do-you-handle-prices/
 
The thread includes a link to an even older thread in which he offered further observations on just how *variable* prices could be.
 
I'm not sure if this is useful, but if you want to get away from the "bags-o'-gold" paradigm, I've heard that at the low end, people in some times and places used iron nails and other small commodities as informal money. At the high end, by, oh, the 14th century or so, European merchants used letters of credit for large transactions.
 
For stranger possibilities, Ptolemaic Egypt had grain as money. This didn't mean people were handing over jars of wheat for everyday goods, or even for commercial transactions: It was all handled by direct deposit banking, just recording the exchanges in ownership in account-books while the wheat stayed safe and sound in granaries. The source I read said Egypt had coin as well, for various purposes, but the conservative Egyptian people preferred grain banking.
 
Or, Medieval monasteries gave out meal tickets in return for various favors. You how up at the monastery, present your token, and get a bowl of porridge or whatever. At a guess, it took about five seconds for recipients to think of exchanging their meal tickets for other goods. One guaranteed meal a day? That's a "treasure" for the common man.
 
For now, let's not even get into cowrie shells and trade beads. But yeah, in real history there was a lot more going on than "gold pieces!"
 
Dean Shomshak

If you are looking for something other than the popular gold standard, turn towards real history.  The gold standard was big in Europe,  but other parts of the globe used things that ignored metals altogether.  For example China invented a system of paper currency more than one thousand years ago that is similar to what is used today. Just make a quick search online and hopefully many alternatives will appear that would be a better option than the gold standard. 

I assumed that the point of his appearance in the Marvel short about breaking him out of the minimum security prison (with guest star Justin Hammer cameo) was that real Mandarin has ordered him to be captured so that Trevor Slattery can be the next host for the Mandarin's possession. Like, since he had been public about supposedly being the Mandarin, the actual Mandarin was giving him a "cruel irony" punishment.
 
(Incidentally allowing Marvel to bring back Ben Kingsley after wasting him as a kind of glorified cameo for the whole Iron Man 3 thing. It was also kind of a waste of Iron Man 3. If they had just admitted from the outset that it was the Extremis guys who were the villains and that the plot was more of a delve into Tony's PTS, they'd have been much better off.)

Or maybe he got an endorsement deal with an off-brand roomba(tm) clone.

In our third exciting episode -->
 
Solar and Capt. Force decide they are not going to split up, even though they know that MasterMind will have time to manipulate the relic.
 
They fly to Kansas City and see 'Zerk tearing it apart!  After a few minutes strategizing, they come up with a game-plan; Capt. Force goes down and engages 'Zerk to hold him still, while Solar uses her VPP to create a Gate under him, gating him 24 klicks into space.  The plan works; while Capt. Force's move-through attack did no damage, it did get 'Zerk's attention long enough for Solar (who had held her action) to open a gate below 'Zerk and teleport him into space.
 
As the heroes started helping victims, suddenly they hear the sound of rocket thrusters and there is a loud metallic clank sound from behind them.  They turn and see a man in a suit of red and silver power battle-armor.
 
"Easy there Big-man star-field and Roman Candle…  He's one of ours." Says the man in the armor.
 
Solar and Capt. Force do not immediately react, but as they are deciding what to do, a woman with golden metallic skin also lands next to the man in the armor, and says "Silvercloud, stop being a jerk."
 
As she speaks, a gate opens behind her, and a large man in Viking armor, with a shield and sword steps through, then a woman who looks like a cross between a human female and a Jaguar, another woman in a skin-tight power suit in a lion motif, and finally an Asian man in traditional monk garb steps through the gate as it closes behind him.
 
The Golden Girl announces that they are the PeaceKeepers; a UN sponsored super-group of Earth's Greatest Heroes.  They explain that 'Zerk is a member of their team, and that Col. Rage called them after he sent our heroes to deal with 'Zerk.
 
(The PeaceKeepers are my version of The Avengers in my gameworld, but are more global:
Silver Centurion, aka Jonathon Silvercloud = Tony Stark/Forge crossover, Iron Man - from USA 'Zerk, aka Dr. Morgan Whitiker = Dr. Banner (who looks like a cross between a younger Morgan Freeman and Forest Whitiker)/Hulk - from USA Golden Girl, aka Heather Cameroon = looks like LifeGuard, but other than her nano-skin armor, is a mentalist and former SAS agent; tactical leader of the team - from Australia (Capt. America/Black Widow) Tyr = based on the Norse God, a human "God of old", who left with his other "Gods" to another planet before the transition of Earth back over the threshold, then came back to Earth to protect it once it crossed back over - from Europe The Jaguar, aka Maria de Guzman = superheroine who is a ware-jaguar - super-regen, deadly fighter (Sabretooth analog) - from Brazilian Lioness, aka Queen Ramonda = Black Panther, queen of kingdom that is the home to Z-radmium, a metal that stores and manipulates Z-rad - damage shield suit - from Africa Wuxian (Immortal Shaman) = Keeper of the Immortal Flame Ur Tsing ("Fire" band), cross between Shang Chi and Dr. Strange - from Tibet) Capt. Force and Solar take their queue to leave the recovery to the PeaceKeepers and head to MasterMind's base.
 
Before they go, Capt. Force asks Solar to use her detection again to sense the "generator" - when she does, she discovers it is no longer at the base.  The heroes decide to go ahead and go to the base, to look for clues.
 
When they arrive at Gull Island in northern Lake Michigan, Solar scans the base and they find no living beings there.  Capt. Force has her use x-ray vision to learn the layout (there are 40 floors below the surface of the island), and to look for power sources - she finds several, including one using large amounts of Z-rad.
 
The team flies down to the base, being attacked by a large swarm of armed drones; however, they are not powerful enough to stop them, so they blow through them as they approach.  The touchscreen on the door has an AI face, who tells them they are trespassing on private property and should leave before he responds with more force.  At that announcement, Capt. Force punches the doors off their hinges into the building.
 
The AI defense system responds with more bullets and some laser weapons as well, but none are powerful enough to slow down our heroes.   Capt. Force asks Solar to interface with the computer system and get a schematic of the base; she does so (VPP) and they learn that the control room is on the 4th level, and the large power source is the vault.  They go to the control room first, where Solar again interfaces with the computer system, and learns that MasterMind has taken the relic to his secret base on the dark side of the moon.
 
After contacting Col. Rage and telling him what's going on, they fly to the moon and find the base.  As Col. Rage was unaware MasterMind even had a secret base there, they take picture with the UNTIL super-phone and text them to Rage.
 
Solar scans the base, and finds 6 living beings in the base.  After discussing the right way to go about infiltrating the base, they decide to have Solar desolidify and inviso, and go in to recon and see if she can find out what's going on.  She does so, passing 4 costumed villains on her way down.  When she reaches the lab, she finds MasterMind and Black Mist ending a conversation, at which point Black Mist teleports away.
 
After stepping around the corner, to an unseen location in the base, Solar contacts Capt. Force and he teleports to her location; at which point she immediately makes him invisible also.  They discuss a plan, and settle on Capt. Force flying over invisibly, and simply grabbing the relic and teleporting back to DC, to take it to Col. Rage.
 
Solar stays behind for a moment, to see the reaction; as the alarms go off and MasterMind begins to react, one of the team of The Fearsome Foursome zooms in immediately (she is obviously a speedster).  The rest arrive moments latter on the elevator.  Solar take that as her queue to leave, flying back to DC.
 
Capt. Force is reviewing the box, as he flies to the UNTIL HQ.  Inside the now open box, he finds a band with the markings of water on it.  He scans it and can tell it is immensely powerful, and something to do with the manipulation of liquid.  He and Solar arrive on the roof of UNITL and speak to Col. Rage.  Solar remembers seeing a band just like this one, on the wrist of the Asian member of the PeaceKeepers, Wuxing.  After speaking to Col. Rage for a bit, they fly out into space; where Capt. Force contemplates putting on the band.  After much discussion, where one of Solar's concerns is that activating the band may alert other cosmic entities to them, they decide he will simply stay there in space, while she goes and speaks to Wuxing, while using telepathy with Capt. Force so he can participate in the discussion.
 
Solar flies to Tibet and arrives at the monastery where Wuxing lives.  He meets her and tells her he was expecting her.  They discuss the bands, and learn that the band he has controls "fire" (plasma).  He explains that his sect has had the band since the last battle with the Empress, and they have kept it safe.  He was selected as the one; the bearer of the band, after many ordeals and trials.  He has trained his whole life to be able to bear the band.  He explains that putting it on causes a massive influx of power and can drive most people insane.  So, if there was a concern that activating the band would alert a cosmic entity, that "horse had already left the barn".  After further discussion, where Wuxing explains that Tyr was at the last great battle, the heroes decide they need to discuss this with the whole team, so they ask Wuxing to arrange a meeting of the PeaceKeepers.  He agrees and gates to gather the team, saying they will meet at Silvercloud's tower in NY.  The heroes also call Col. Rage to meet there as well.
 
When the heroes arrive, they explain everything going on, and ask Tyr to tell everyone the story of the past battle.  Tyr tells them all the story; but no one, including him believes that the Empress could come back, and even if it was possible, no one knows how they would unite the three systems peoples to prepare to oppose her.  Capt. Force asks Tyr what happened to the other bands?  Tyr explains that the "Earth" band went back to Narrai Prime with the Narrai hero who was it's wielder, and the "Air" band went back to Lyrissi 3 with it's wielder.
 
Eventually, they decide to take Golden Girl (who is a mentalist) to the Europaites.  There she convinces them to "show her" what their Oracles saw.  After some additional discussion, they return to NY, where Golden Girl projects into everyone's minds, what she saw (which is not only the preparation of the Empress' armada and legion for her return, but the fact that she populated whole planets with humans in order to study them and prepare for her next conquest).
 
Capt. Force then asks them what their plan is?  Col. Rage explains that he will work politically to try to convince the UN/earth to prepare.  The PeaceKeepers explain they will work to prepare as well.  With that, Capt. Force decides to leave the water band with Col. Rage; so Silvercloud whips up a tech-box that will contain and shield the band from "prying eyes".
 
Though all of this, Capt. Force struggled with whether or not to give the band to the Europaites - however, after learning that the original wielder of the "water" band was a Lemurian earthling; though still concerned that the Europaites would again be enslaved as no one seems to have much stake in defending them, he decided to give it to UNTIL for now; though he declared he would keep Europa as a priority in his defense of this sector of the galaxy.
 
Capt. Force and Solar decide they will go to Narrai next, to try to track down the "Earth" band - and that is where this exciting episode ends...
 

Well, I am not drawing upon Roman Catholic theology.
 
 
Mmm... No. Since I don't think I can explain further without delivering a long, boring philosophy seminar. I shall simply acknowledge that much depends on definition of terms. I suspect we do not define our terms the same way.
 
There is certainly villainy in my campaign, that needs heroes to fight it. There is no supernatural force causing it or defining it.
 
Dean Shomshak

Giants were opponents of the Gods in both Norse and Greek (the Titanomachy) mythologies, so those are places to look for inspiration.
 
In one setting I used, giants were an "elder race," slowly vanishing from the world, leaving behind ruins and cryptic monuments, and represented in the present by isolated individuals wielding strange powers that might be magic or technology, holding onto ancient fears, grudges, ambitions, or just habits, with tired monomaniacal zeal.

I like the idea of "beefing up" Heroic Action Points (HAPs) a bit, and tying them to Complications. I use these rules:
 
Starting HAPs: GM option, based on the nature of the campaign. For most games, one or two should be plenty to start with.
 
Gaining HAPs: After play begins, characters gain new HAPs in two ways. First, they gain 1 HAP per game session they participate in. Second, they can gain a HAP when their Complications come into play.
 
The GM will typically bring a Complication into play (and award a HAP accordingly) only when it's driven by issues beyond the player's/character's control (such as a Hunted or an Accidental Change). This is called “Compelling a Complication.”

Most HAPs are earned by players bringing character Complications into play themselves (called "Invoking a Complication"). To Invoke a Complication, the player must accept the appearance of the Complication in the story; they cannot, for instance, attempt to make an EGO Roll to override their Psychological Complication, then take a HAP for playing the Complication after they fail the EGO Roll. They have to forego the EGO Roll.

For example, a character with the Psychological Complication Sticks Foot In Mouth is undercover at a fancy party. His player might note, "You know... Bob is pretty likely to say something innocuous-but-completely-inappropriate to the hostess while making small talk." By bringing that Psych Comp into play, roleplaying the exchange and accepting the consequences into the flow of the story, Bob's player has Invoked a Complication, and receives a Heroic Action Point.

HAP rewards are intended to encourage creative and appropriate use of Complications; they're like rewards for seeking out chances to make the story more interesting. HAPs won't be awarded absolutely every time any Complication comes up, just because it comes up. For example, if a character has Psychological Complication Code Against Killing, they don't gain 1 HAP every single time they refrain from killing every opponent. But if they refrain from killing (say) even the murderer of their parents, and refrain without attempting not to refrain... then they get a HAP.
 
Using HAPs: Spending a HAP also involves a Complication. The player chooses what they want to use the HAP for, and then (if it's not immediately obvious how the proposed action relates to the Complication) describes how this ties together with one of their Complications. HAPs can be spent in three ways:
Establish A Story Detail. Allows the character to have something in the story be the way he or she wishes it to be, within reason. This could be something relatively tangible, like having a desired object nearby, or more esoteric, like knowing a fact or a person. The effect could be considered similar to a single level of Luck. You "just happen" to find the right thing, or have read just the right book, or bump into a friend of the family who can help you out, etc. Add +3 to a Success Roll. Pretty much what it sounds like. For example, a doctor in need of +3 to their attempt to stop severe bleeding might invoke their Psychological Complication: Hippocratic Oath, spend 1 HAP, and add +3 to her attempt. Re-Roll a Success or Effect Roll. Again, pretty straightforward. Here, our doctor might use Hippocratic Oath to explain spending a HAP to re-try a failed Paramedics roll.
 

I like to keep my normals normal - 0 pts + maybe a minor psych lim or something, a few points moved around.
A (one, singular) professional skill is enough to be a professional and have an ordinary career.
 
I guess that's kinda old-school.  But it means a background or secret id concept doesn't need to eat up a lot of points, so you can be what you want without being less super.

I don't tend to write up characters who don't have combat abilities or are likely to appear in a combat situation. I assume average BODY and STUN, and whatever skills make sense.  If they are shot or punched by a brick, they will go down, and die unless they receive quick medical attention.
 
(EDIT: I might write some backstory for them, but I don't stat them out.)
 

Yes, please keep real-world politics out of this.  
 
In my new Champions campaign, the heroes are based in San Francisco.  And one of the first news items concerned a hero team (Angel Force) forming in Los Angeles.  The PC team (Golden Gate Guardians) disliked Angel Force immediately simply because the NPC team formed before them.  I had planned to make Angel Force holier-than-thou, dismissive of the Guardians, too tough on criminals (taking the law into their own hands), probably start infringing on the PC team's turf, but haven't really needed to yet.  There's no Rivarly on any character sheets, or Watched, just plain old roleplaying.
 
Now, if the PC team wanted to build, say, a base or team vehicle, and wanted to add Rivalry: Angel Force or Watched by Angel Force as a team-wide Complication, I think I'd be okay with that.  

Orcs... a fantasy staple race now popularized almost anywhere.
 
I ran a game (past tense) where I decided that it made no sense for orcs to be so brutal, warlike, aggressive, unintelligent. A society of people like that simply would collapse without workers, farmers, or craftsmen.
 
So I created a world where orcs were a true society. There were three varieties: urban, savage, and nomadic. The urban orcs were like any other civilization: intelligent, organized, specialized in their tasks (traders, farmers, craftsmen, soldiers, leaders, artists, philosophers, witches, shamans, etc.) The savage orcs were like the orcs we know today: brutal, tribal, aggressive, somewhat isolated, highly prolific, and relatively primitive. The nomadic orcs were a bit of both: civilized, intelligent, organized, but cunning and somewhat militaristic, raised with a philosophy of domination, and to some extent, xenophobia. But they did get along reasonably well with others, despite their xenophobia. You could talk to them.
 
And within each subgroup you could find individuals who fell right into the stereotype and those would be far from the norm. Anything was possible.
 
So, you could meet all types of orcs, and you had to decide how you personally would want to react to one orc or another, not because they weren't orcs anymore, but because you now had a choice. It no longer was "black & white".
 
I liked the idea and it threw up a lot of interesting situations, like when the party was joined by a nomadic orc warrior detachment who encountered undead with the party. The orcs thought this was not acceptable and offered to join the PCs to destroy a common enemy. Not your typical orc interaction, but it was great for the story and the roleplay. Unfortunately I also had one player who could not tolerate the idea that orcs were not the "evil, ugly brutes" that he knew and loved to hate, so he almost immediately quit the game. To each their own, I say.
 
So, then I decided that it was actually orcs who had been here longer than humans. They had an ancient civilization with magical and mechanical wonders that were lost thousand of years ago due to some cataclysm. But the remains of their cities and fortresses were scattered throughout the lands like pockets of buried treasure, ripe for the looting by clever thieves and research by enterprising mages. If they could get past the prodigious magical and mechanically animated guardians. It made for an interesting contrast to see how low orcs had fallen in recent centuries when compared to their ancient predecessors, and it gave the orcs historical significance and a past they could be proud of.
 
It made for a very different game where players actually had to truly consider the orcs, and in some places, admire them, instead of just hating them by default.

I thought it looked fine. The 1998 version from the one with Matthew Broderick in it, that was a true stinker.

And there was the Marvel FASERIP's device of referring to task resolution as a FEAT--a Function of Extraordinary Ability and Talent.
 
I thought it was kind of clever, myself.  'Nuff Said.

to answer the question in the heading: "Am I typical?", the answer is no. Your a HERO player, by definition that makes you weird. Welcome to the club with the rest of us at this site.

When I first read your opening post, I _leapt_ to something that has rankled me more than anything has in many years:
 
Those ugly little "house elves" in Harry Potter:  wrap it however you would like, those are slaves, and the normalcy assigned to having house elves---   well, I don't want to violate any rage speech rules, but suffice it to say that I had no idea how the series ended until it penetrated pop culture deeply enough that I picked it up from references and memes.
 
Mind you: not slavery as concept, but specifically that it was just "done" that affluent people had these slaves.   Gah-- I can't even talk about it.  
 
No: other fiction with slavery-- while it's never a pleasant thing-- doesn't work me up quite as much as seeing it normalized by a modern author in a modern work essentially marketed at modern children.  And no: making them disgusting to look at didn't help me to accept their enslavement at all.  I'm not sure if it was supposed to, but it didn't.
 
 
 
That being said:
 
I have several fantasy worlds in which indentured servitude exists; the legitimacy of this varies from culture to culture and even from person to person, but it's never applied as a racial thing.
 
I have a couple of fantasy worlds-- and a couple of western worlds, actually-- where slavery exists.  
 
In these fantasy worlds, much like the indentured servitude, it's not a racial thing so much as-- just as was pointed out above-- something modeled on the ancient origins of war slaves:  "we kicked your butts and trampled your city; we own you now."   And, as in ancient times, this was really more about politics or a warlord amassing bodies to throw at the next enemy more than anything else: any race may take slaves, depending on their own culture, and any race can be slaves, depending on their circumstances.  Aggressive Group A needs the resources currently held by Poorly Defended Group B....   there you go.
 
Even in these worlds, though, there are usually circumstances that allow a slave to "earn" freedom-- mostly through exceptional service, and frankly, mostly posthumously in the darker settings.  No; this is not done to justify slavery-- no; let me clarify: this is not done so that I may justify it to myself.  It is done, again, as a model of things that were in times gone by actually practiced, and as a means of pointing out just who even those taking slaves understood on some level that "this is kinda messed up."
 
 
All that being said, I do have one particular non-YATRO fantasy world where slavery is racial, kind of, in as much as there is only one race that keeps slaves.  They are a hive-minded insectile race who absolutely do not accept the concepts of individual worth or even personhood of any other race, and accordingly view the other "people races" as being no more than any other sort of animal.  I mean this quite literally, to the point where the slaves are those members of a prey species that have demonstrated a particular cleverness or trainable docility and have therefore been put to work.  They will still ultimately be eaten, but it won't be until they do not perform their duties to the demanded standard.  This extends to pretty much every animal, including weaker or underperforming members of their own race.  The collective is the only "person," and everything is acceptable in the service of the collective.
 
Of course, this _has_ caused a sort of racial tension in which these people are killed on sight, and are viewed (rightfully so, I suppose, seeing as how they are literally a tool-using ant colony) as brutal barbarians who are unable to participate in a larger society.  They _can_, of course; it just has to be _their_ larger society.  Unless it's that of a competing collective, in which case, there are no other collectives; these are prey animals and nothing more.
 
 
 

If I put slavery into a campaign it's always to show the bad guys as bad guys. It's something for the heroes to oppose.