drunkonduty

Dane Whitman knows nothing!

Watched Eternals today and came away satisfied.
 
It wasn't the greatest MCU movie(Winter Soldier) but it wasn't the worst(Thor: The Dark World) either.  It had plenty of action but the pacing was slower than the typical MCU  offering mostly because it had to introduce so many characters and their relationships and resolve a fairly complicated plot.
 
And, IMO, it did a good job of making the characters people I'd want to see in another movie. Ajak was bland but I was surprised by how much I liked Kingo(whose sidekick was a joy) and Phastos. They also took a needed step of generally lowering their power levels to fit the MCU better.
 
The movie certainly has consequences for the MCU both on Earth and in space. Anyone who can't see how it segues must have skipped the end scenes and the the credits scene  as we got to see Starfox and Pip and got teased for Black Knight.
 
Overall, a solid entry to the MCU. 

Just like Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: No Way Home is fan service raised to the level of art. The character interactions and story arcs, the callbacks and Easter eggs, are used so smartly to enhance the overall story, rather than just for nostalgia appeal. The payoff is joyous for the people who know and love and have followed the various iterations of Spider-Man in comics and movies over the decades, but the film is still a fine story for people without that depth of familiarity. It stands on its own as a quality movie.

Even conceding this...the source material changes so often that, to me, details like this are meaningless.  Marvel isn't as bad as DC, but the stories are still on a drunkard's walk, if you look at em over the course of decades.  
 
How many black characters existed *at all* in 1962?  Much less Latino, Puerto Rican, Filipino, etc. etc. etc.  Those limitations would be completely unreasonable when the story's set today.  That's a major change in the underlying premises of the world...and the audience.
 
Introducing friends/expected romantic interests 'earlier than' in the comics is also dictated by the medium.  There's only so much time in each movie;  the more you want to tell the main story, the less you can move background aspects forward.  People want to see MJ or Gwen earlier, rather than later.  Similar things with Dr. Strange...how long, in the comics, did it take before we met Wong and Mordo?  And I think they adjusted Wong's role a bit.  No big deal, to me;  it's part of the process of adapting to the medium.

+10 DCV, usable by Hexes.
 
 

In our 11th exciting episode -->
 
As the cheers of the crowd died, our heroes were taken to the Gladiatorial Lounge, where their wounds were attended to, and they reveled in the accolades of the other gladiators and hanger-ons...  They did interviews and had some time to relax.
 
Lady Terala Shain found the team, and after congratulating them on their victory, she asked Capt. Force if he intended to keep the agreement they had; which he said he would.  She then said, "I have fought in the arena as you did, but now fight in a different one.  The arena you left was dangerous, the one you're entering is deadly…"
 
Eventually, Goreum arrived, and informed the team he was there to accompany them as their sponsor, to the Palace, for their meeting with the Phazor.
 
They traveled to the Palace and were impressed by the majesty of it.  As they traveled, Capt. Force asked about the proper etiquette to use - to which Goreum explained, "The Malvans are used to peoples from across the galaxy, and all their cultures, so they are not easily offended, nor do they put too much importance on etiquette rules for new-comers - the Phazor is both title and name, use it as such - the guests and people who are there are guests of the Phazor, at his behest, so treat them as such, and you should be fine."
 
The hall was full of around 2000 guests, but the Malvans use of dimension-warping technology allowed everyone to have a discussions as if only the two were speaking and there was no other noise regardless of how far apart they were, so it was oddly hush for such a huge number of people.
 
The team was lead to the bottom steps of the dais, on which the Phazor and about 50 of his most honored guests milled about.  Upon the teams introduction, there was a pleasant chime which sounded, and everyone took their places - tables and chairs appeared out of nowhere, covered with food and drink, and everyone sat.  As the crowd parted that the Phazor was speaking with, and he walked to his throne, the team was shocked to see the Empress among the people he was speaking with.  She took a chair with the rest of the honored guests, in a row flanking either side of the throne (a discreet distance apart, as it should be, of course).
 
As the Phazor spoke, his speech overrode the other conversations, so that only the Phazor was heard.  "I welcome the Band Wielders, Champions of the Arena, to our humble gathering in your honor."  And the crowd cheered, for a moment.  "What would the Champions of the Arena ask of the Phazor?"
 
Capt. Force spoke for the team; "Great Phazor, thank you for hosting us.  What we would ask for, is honor.  As you may know, the Empress has designs on the Sol Sector (to which the Empress feigned surprise); and we have no intentions of joining her empire.  So, one way honor can be shown, would be to provide for our sector, planetary defenses, so that we may focus our attention on the Empress.  Another way honor can be shown, is to ensure that the games are honorable, so that everyone in the galaxy will know that the Champion has become so honorably."
 
"And what..." said the Phazor, "would we get in return?"
 
"I'm glad you asked..." said Capt. Force, "we would like to offer entertainment.  We would like to provide the opportunity to broadcast our war against the Empress, as a reality show, to entertain Malva!  Perhaps you've heard of some of our shows?  What great spectacle this would be!"
 
"I have heard of some of these reality shows..." the Phazor said.
 
The Empress stood, "Surely you are not considering this Grand Phazor?  These back-water beings do not deserve your intervention!  The Malvans do not concern themselves with the trivial machinations of minor galactic empires."
 
Capt. Force interrupted her, "I'm not asking them to; I'm simply asking that they provide protection to our sector so that we can provide them more entertainment!"
 
"But what of the games?"  The Phazor asked Capt. Force?
 
"We would be willing to return, once a new contender has proven themselves worthy for us to defend our championship of course."  Capt. Force noted.
 
Lady Terala Shain seized the opportunity, "I would be happy, Grand Phazor, to organize tournaments to culminate in arriving at a contender to provide great entertainment challenging these new Champions!"  The Phazor slightly raised an eyebrow to this, but, with everyone watching, he allowed it.
 
Before any further discussion could continue, War Monger (in his smaller guise), spoke up, "As the Band Wielders have proven to me that they do indeed have the hearts of a Champion, what would you ask of me for reward?"  All could read the surprise on the faces of everyone present...
 
Capt. Force leaned over to Goreum, "What type of request is typical?"  Goreum said with incredulity, "He has never offered this before..."
 
Capt. Force spoke to the rest of the team telepathically real quick; and they arrived at a thought...  "We would be honored to have you as our coach, as we waged war against the Empress."
 
The Empress spat, "I object, this is ridiculous!"
 
Capt. Force says, "I think the Empress should speak plainly; do you plan to conquer our sector?"
 
"You mean bring you peace, prosperity and into the greater galactic community?  Yes." she retorted.
 
"This is boring me already..." the Phazor said, "Let us eat and celebrate."
 
During the dinner, Capt. Force took the opportunity using the discussion link to speak to the Empress, "Why do you want our sector?" he asked.  "To help the people of the galaxy.  Your people are a lawless, warlike bunch, who do nothing but fight each other.  You have rudimentary technology, hunger and poverty.  You would have none of this in my empire.  You shouldn't be fighting me, you should be thanking me!" she replied.  "But we do not want to be ruled." Capt. Force shot back.  "Perhaps not now, but once you've lived in peace and prosperity, that would change." she noted.  "OK, enough, I see there is no reasoning with you; you are crazy." and with that Capt. Force cut the link.
 
After dinner Lady Terala Shain thanked Capt. Force for keeping up his end of the bargain, and ensured them that they wouldn't have to worry about being called back too often.
 
One of the Phazor's assistants told the team that they could simply notify them when they were ready, and they would send Melvan drone cameras to shoot the show.  Then War Monger told them if they simply spoke his name out loud and told him they were ready, he would join them.
 
The team then went back to Earth and told everyone what all had happened.  By the time they arrived, the Malvan planetary defenses had already shown up in the sector.  They were also happy to hear that Col. Rage had successfully linked UNTIL, the rebels on Narrai and the smugglers of Lyrissi together to begin forming the "Men in Black" organization.
 
They then grabbed Silvercloud and took him to Somewhere, so he could start copying all the advanced technology, and they took a couple week's vacation (downtime); where Solar went on a date with the human Marshal, and they both spent some points.
 
And that is where our exciting episode ended!
 
Next game, THE WAR BEGINS!
 

In our 10th exciting, Giant-sized, Annual episode -->
 
The heroes lounged around the gladiator lounge and did several press junkets - with Capt. Force working as a wrestling (Randy Savage) cheerleader, hyping up Solar as the new champ.  They were careful in explaining their histories and purpose for being there; not lying, but omitting where they thought it would cause issues.
 
When they were back at the gladiator lounge, enjoying a meal; a small (4-5' tall) alien approached them.  He was odd looking; like a tall, red Yoda.  In a dark black hooded robe, with a driftwood cane, red skin, a pug nose, wispy black hair, and yellow eyes.  He introduced himself as "Warmagandr", and asked the team about their desire to fight.  As they discussed it, he spoke about how Firewing had the heart of a champion; because he was willing to do anything to win.  Capt. Force disagreed, saying that because he was willing to compromise his integrity, that he was no true champion.  Warmagandr noted that without the heart of a champion, when faced with adversity, they would fold...
 
Warmagandr's words had an affect on the team; so the team decided they should do some research; so they watched several of Firewing's matches from before he became Firewing, then also watched coverage of his fights on Earth as Firewing; to get an idea of his tactics (they watched tape on their opponent).
 
Eventually, they decided to take a trip to the temple, to see if they could learn more about what happened in his transformation.  There Solar used some of her earned XP to buy damage reduction - she also built an absorb template to use with her VPP.
 
After returning to the gladiatorial lounge, the team finally heard what they wanted to hear - Firewing was lured to return!
 
The team discussed strategy; determining what was the right mix of powers from Solar's VPP she should have active at the beginning of the fight.  Then, Solar entered the arena...
 
It was configured as a 300 yard across circle, and the gladiators began hovering 30 yards in the air...  Finally the bell rang.
 
Both gladiators have the same speed and dex, so it came down to dice rolls each phase.  Firewing won the first roll.  He started by moving a half move to his left, and throwing a no-end blast at Solar, to feel her out, and see what she could take...  Solar blew it off completely.
 
Solar started by doing a half move directly at Firewing, and throwing a no-end blast of her own at Firewing, to feel him out - he also blew it off completely.
 
The next phase, Firewing again won the roll.  He moved a half move back to the outer center of the arena, and decided it was time to test Solar's chin - he threw his Armor Piercing blast, and Solar did take a little stun, but not much.
 
Solar moved her half move again directly at Firewing, and threw her more powerful blast; this time Firewing took a little more stun than Solar had.
 
The next phase Firewing won again!  This time moving to his right a half move, he then threw his Penetrating blast; and while Solar did take some stun, it was  less than the Armor Piercing, and cost Firewing more END.
 
Unbeknownst to Firewing, Solar had her absorption working, so every time he hit her, she was getting more dice to her blast...  She moved another half move, and hit him again with her more powerful blast (with the extra dice) - and Firewing felt that one!  Taking more stun.
 
This went on for a couple more phases...
 
The last phase of the round, and Firewing won again!  He continued to move to his right and hit Solar with another AP blast - doing a bit more damage this round.
 
The team decided it was time to press the action, instead of continuing to let Firewing dance around the edge of the area and "nickel and dime" her to death.  Changing some allocation of her VPP, Solar dumped a bunch of points into flight, and burned the whole phase on a full move, closing the distance dramatically.
 
The full turn ended, and both fighters were a bit winded.  They both had sustained a decent amount of stun and had both burned a good amount of END; they both welcomed the recovery at the end of the turn.
 
As the new turn began, Firewing got off another blast, doing some more stun to Solar; but now she was close.  Solar closed the final distance, and reconfiguring her VPP, did a massively powerful 60D6 punch, sending Firewing back into the arena barrier; and that was it, Firewing was knocked unconscious and was even injured (BOD).
 
THE CROWD WENT CRAZY!!!  About half were cheers (from all the other aliens) and half were boos from the Malvans...
 
The announcer was making a point of the great victory, when he was cut short.  A booming voice announced that heroes had defeated Firewing, but hadn't proved they had the heart of a champion!!!
 
The team was teleported from their box to the floor of the arena below Solar...  The doors to the arena opened, and Warmagandr slowly walked in; but as he did, he transformed into a 4 meter tall monster and his tiny walking stick into a giant axe.  Standing before everyone was War Monger!  He demanded that the heroes prove they had the heart of a champion, by facing the TRUE CHAMP!
 
The proceedings had provided Solar enough time to fully recover, so the team prepared to fight (having Solar use some of her VPP to allow them all to speak telepathically, to coordinate); when War Monger teleported into the air in front of Solar, hitting her with his mighty axe Star Splitter (aptly named for striking a hero powered by the stars!).  The strike was damaging, and Solar was heavily wounded.
 
War Monger and the team had some back in forth, with War Monger using his VPP to heal himself a couple times, to keep from suffering too much STUN...
 
Solar returned fire, but War Monger mostly blew it off...  But then it was Capt. Force's turn...  Capt. Force happens to have a mental power that can force opponents to attack him via melee; and he setup to block and successfully used it on War Monger.
 
War Monger teleported in front of Capt. Force who successfully blocked his attack.  Then The Aqua Man used his band to ice the insides of War Monger's hands and the bottom of his feet, while Wuxing put up a shield on Capt. Force.  The team had a plan...
 
Finally, War Monger swung his mighty axe at Capt. Force again, only Capt. Force grabbed it and they locked into a battle of strength!  With his iced hands and feet, it was difficult for War Monger to retain his grasp, and Capt. Force was able to wrest away the mighty axe Star Splitter from his grasp; just as Solar dropped on top of War Monger with all her VPP put into her punch - a full 75D6!  (Plus knockback into the ground.)
 
It was more than even the great War Monger could take - he was knocked out cold!
 
AND THAT IS WHERE OUR SUPER SIZED, GIANT ANNUAL EPISODE ENDED!
 
Next game we'll pick up with the roleplaying of defeating War Monger and speaking to the Phazor...
 

Why does this make Hero a copy of D&D?  
 
There are 4 basic success-test mechanics that I know (plus Fate's odd one, or MSH's table-based that I really dislike)...
 
1.  Actor's rating combined with a die roll compared to target's rating or a static difficulty.  D&D, Hero, etc.  Note that rolling percentiles is only a variant on this.
2.  Roll dice, add them up to get a total.  
  2a.  Roll and total all dice.  (Star Wars, IIRC)
  2b.  Roll some dice, take a subset of the best.  Exploding d10 uses this...older L5R, Seventh Sea are the two I know.
3.  Trials.  Roll N dice, each is considered separately.  Success is based on the number of successes.  Storyteller, Shadowrun.
 
Trials is an ugly approach;  minor tweaks in the target number for a trial to succeed, have BIG effects.  
Roll and total is fairly flexible;  the trick is recognizing difficulty/target numbers.
The "roll N, take the best M" is complex to analyze.  What's better...roll 5, choose the best 2 (which I'll abbreviate r5c2 from now on), or 4c3?  Those are both clearly a step better than r4c2.  And if you've got r5c2, is it better to advance to r6c2 or r5c3?  That makes costing tricky.
 
The rating and simple, consistent roll approach is straightforward.  Using 1 die has issues with being linear, and getting REALLY good can be hard.  On the flip side, rolling 3d6 means that not all +1's or -1's are created equal.
 
But recognize:  Hero's system for attacks IS fundamentally the same as D&D's.  They LOOK different but they're not.  And how Hero does it is...kind of bizarre.  As I noted, it's like THAC0...we got used to it but it took time and effort to get there.

My homebrew low-end-of-high-fantasy world has a few barbarians, mostly defined by being uncivilized (i.e., not having cities). Apart from the people in the focus land (semi-civilized, based on Sweden circa 1100-1200), there's head-hunting sea raiders on an island chain (Iron Age Celts with longships), forest-dwelling farmer-hunters to the north with spirit warriors (Finns with powers borrowed from L.M. Bujold's The Hallowed Hunt), horse nomads on the steppes over the eastern mountains, and the hill folk in the foothills of the southern mountains (humans and dwarves in a loose confederation, no banjos). The vast highlands are infested with goblins, trolls, ogres, and the occasional giant. The forest beyond the southern mountains have more of the same, and hound- and catfolk. There is an elf kingdom along the coast to the north, but they are very cultured, if lacking in cities.

My "Plenary Empire" setting has barbarians as appropriate to the quasi-Byzantine setting.
 
First are the barbarians within the Empire. I remember reading about "Hill Tribes" in India, maintaining their separate cultures and sometimes acting as "professional barbarians" -- outsiders the settled lowland princes sometimes hired as mercenaries. Orcs are the mst notable such professional barbarians: the orcs of the Bone Desert, the Togrian Hills, etc. still live as semi-nomads or in rough little villages, allowed to govern themselves by their traditional folkways, as long as they don'tbother their neighbors. The orc tribes supply a steady stream of recruits for the Imperial Legions: See the world, get paid to fight and kill people, maybe come home with a bit of swag, what's not to love? And the chow is good! (Good compared to orcish cooking, anyway.) The orc drill sergeant is a trope of popular culture in the Plenary Empire; the orcs' chief god, Gruumsh, now has extensive worship among non-orc legionnaires.
 
Outside the Plenary Empire, the human Savaxi are the former horse nomads who conquered a swath of Imperial territory and still press for more. A century after the Savaxi swept down from the highland steppe to conquer the fertile Macrine plain, Savaxi live off tribute from their subjects rather than herding and stealing cattle, but they maintain skills of roping, riding and war, and a culture of extreme aggression. The uniter of the tribes, Harix the Great, served the Plenary Empire as a mercenary in his youth -- which is where he learned Imperial military doctrines, and how the highly mobile Savaxi could break them. Harix also pushed the natural arrogance of the horse nomad, confident in his ability to rob and kill settled folk and get away, into a code of Master Race megalomania as a tool to unite the feuding Savaxi tribes. So the Savaxi aren't just pseudo-Mongols: They are pseudo-Mongol Nazis. Yeah, they are one of the villain groups.
 
Since this is a D&D campaign, there is also the barbarian class. Only within the Plenary Empire, most members of this character class don't come from barbarian cultures. They are just people who practice channeling rage into combat prowess. Could be a Bone Desert orc, but more likely a streetfighter or a really badass farmer.
 
Dean Shomshak

The Current "No Magic" fantasy game, is centered on Barbarians. They are temperate herd following nomads, that do trade with the empires they interact with. The current group have been hired as caravan guards, and they have run up against hostile horse nomads.  That's the fight.  In the background, barbarians have integrated into the  the various empires after a couple of generations of worshipping the Imperial gods, and becoming sedentary.  It happens in waves.   The Caravanners are happy to have them as they have better skills for being out in the forests and grasslands they are traversing. They are also a talkative bunch.
 

I have done campaigns with and without barbarians; I suspect I shouldn't be so honest, but mostly it boils down to whim as to whether or not there will be barbarians, and just what it is that qualifies them.
 
A few of the more memorable:
 
One campaign featured a race of giants that were the barbarians.  They were barbarians because they lived on a large (think "the size of Italy) island / mini-continent that was a line of dormant / smouldering volcanoes.  The toxins, etc, given off by the regular emissions of gas and smoke stunted neurological and brain development.  As a result, they tended to travel in bands not much larger than nuclear families, had only the most rudimentary basics of language, and that was usually unique to each clan, were aggressive on sight, and occasionally were cannibalistic. 
 
Why?  Why would a GM do this?!
 
Well, they were giants, and as such were physical powerhouses.  Other side effects of the neurological stunting included a staggering amount of Stun-only defenses on top of everything else.  They could periodically be found as slaves elsewhere, but were extremely rare outside their native lands.   So they _could_ be encountered or seen-- and perhaps the party should free this slave!  But what of the fallout of a free giant with zero rage control, etc?   Made for interesting moral and social conflicts.  Also, because of the rage and intellect issues, _no one_ wanted to have one as a PC, in spite of their ability to go toe-to-toe with a squadron of any other race.
 
Typically, at least when I do barbarians, they are simply a race of tribal natives discovered by one (or more) of the dominant races, and are "barbarians" simply because they don't have fancy clothes (or... clothes....), wagon wheels, brick buildings, agriculture, and some form of financial system more complex than barter.  In this case, "barbarian" is applied the same way white settlers to North American called the natives "savages."
 
I have had a couple of games where the "barbarians" were simply extreme warlike or heavily militarized people-- in one, the society was every bit as "advanced" as everyone else, but all success was measured in terms of conquest, be they financial, military, raiding other lands, what-have-you.  Violence was typically embraced as the first-choice tool for getting what you wanted; shopkeepers existed, as did a class of wealthy people, but they were well-armed, with a well-armed entourage, and were always very vigilant, even against their own hirelings.  They may or may not have been based very vaguely on House Harkonen-- I say may or may not, because it wasn't done intentionally, and I never even realized it until it was pointed out to me after nearly a year of playing the setting.
 
My favorite "barbarians" of my devising-- and I _think_ I have spoken of them before-- were desert nomads who travelled the continent along well-organized routes, each family having established their own route hundreds of years prior, and all families meeting for a festival once a year in the middle of Sea of Sand.  Their social structure was Byzantine, as where there rules of conduct and interaction with each other.   They were "barbarians" because they went out of their way to eschew machine-made or slave-made goods, all warfare was conducted with swords and spears (though there were a few bow users, specifically for combat with "outsiders," as killing at a distance was a deep insult to the bloodline of whoever you were trying to kill).  Everything was handmade and food was hunted or foraged: agriculture was an affront to the "natural" nomadic lifestyle.  Wealth-- gold or what-have-you-- was a means to an end, and never to be hoarded, but used to the benefit of all-- family first, of course, but for all.  Fancy complex fabrics and beautiful artistry in wood-- for wagons, weapons, furnishings, or what-have-you-- glass, copper, and brass-- these were the trappings of opulence, as were furs and food stores. 
 
The pantheon of seven-hundred gods and goddesses was impenetrable to outsiders, but the religion guided almost the entirety of everyday life.  These people were "barbarians" simply because their idea of a society was so far out-of-sorts with everyone else's: most people travelled to support a fixed location.  The barbarians travelled because all free creatures are migratory by nature.  People wanted homes in which to pack their riches, but hoarding was as unthinkable to the "barbarians" as is giving away wealth to modern Christians.   Short version is that the simple difference of opinion about what was universally "valuable" made it impossible for a "civilized" person to make much sense of their behaviors, other than their violence. 
 
No; they weren't Conan-level violent, but they thought in the exact terms of "the People (being all the tribes of the nomads), the Clan, and the family."  If you made an enemy of any one of the nomads, you made an enemy of not just his family, but his entire clan, and to declare an outsider an enemy of the Clan was tantamount to taking out an irrevocable contract on his life.  Amongst Nomads.... it got complicated.     No one ever made an enemy of "the People," but likely because of all the stories of the three empires throughout history that had made that mistake....   Their ruins still stand, in some places, where the earth is hard and salted....
 
Strangely enough-- or perhaps sensibly enough-- they were extremely gregarious, generous, and polite people-- you know: so long as you were, too. 
 
 

Current update on my game: One murderer has been caught and driven out in my game. The other appears to have successfully framed a dead man for his crime...
 And the child murderer is still frozen in a gem.

In our 9th exciting episode (actually in person thanks to the Thanksgiving break!) -->
 
The heroes returned to Earth and told Project Citadel (UNTIL) and the Narrai and Lyrissi about the intelligence they had gathered; specifically about the terrible plans the Empress had for combating the Narrai and Lyrissi.  Both those governments retreated to determine how this news would impact their strategies.  Capt. Force and Solar continued to work with Col. Rage on the strategy of creating the "Men in Black" type of organization, to protect the sector's three systems from galactic threats.  Capt. Force connected Col. Rage with the resistance forces on Narrai, who might be open to align with the MIB concepts.
 
Capt. Force also worked with the resistance to increase the power of his teleport belt (spent CP), so he can now teleport his considerable mass plus himself (2x mass), allowing him to teleport the entire rest of the Band Bearers (and then-some).
 
The Band Bearers then started discussing their strategy with the Malvans:  They teleported to Somewhere and used the IGN (Inter-Galactic Network) to read up on the Malvans.  The first thing they learned was that all the Malvans cared about were the gladiatorial games.  The second thing they learned was that both Wuxing and The Aqua Man had fought on the Moon, even though they didn't remember it!  (Learning about how they kidnap heroes and make them fight, then return them with no memory of it.)
 
They also learned that there was really no other way for them to quickly ingratiate themselves into the Malvan society.  They learned about the Forum Malvanum on the Earth Moon, and leaned that the only way they would be able to gain the respect they needed, was to go through the gladiatorial system, and become champions - because the Champion was allowed to ask the Phazor for a reward.
 
After much discussion among the team; they decided on three strategies to ask the Phazor once they won (yes, they are that confident):
They wanted Malvan planetary defenses for their sector; with such, the Empress would not be able to attack. Second, they wanted an advanced ship, to use as their base to wage war against the Empress. Third, they wanted Malvan tech.  (They eventually learned that they would not get access to Malvan tech; but, upon further discussion, realized if they simply took Silvercloud on a tour of the galaxy; they could start in Somewhere, he would be able to copy everything they needed to match the Empress' tech - in fact, they realized that with their ship/base, they could provide him access directly to the Empress' tech, which he could simply copy.) So, off to the moon they went - arriving outside the Forum Malvanum, they spoke to the robot sentries, who called Kovarl.  After Kovarl received the scan data from the robots, and asked the Band Bearers why they were there.  After a quick conversation, where they explained they were volunteer gladiators, he noted that Capt. Force and Solar were type 36 gladiators, while Wuxing and The Aqua Man were now type 18...  He started by pitted them against battle-bots in one of the side arenas to test them.  Once the heroes quickly dispensed with the battle-bots, they moved up to challenge some of the more famous gladiators.
 
(So, I actually confused the gladiators from Malva vs. the Forum Malvanum on the moon; so, even though they were on the moon, they initially fought the gladiators from Malva, then fought the gladiators from the moon, while on Malva...)
 
Solar was put up against Dawn Bird - who she very quickly defeated in a flying, energy projection only fight.
 
Capt. Force was pitted against Scarmaker and Halberdier.  Capt. Force did a quick multi-attack and struck both major damage initially.  They both tried to hit him and failed - Capt. Force's second multi-attack knocked them both out.
 
Finally, Solar was put up against Plasmarax.  She was able to knock him out with a couple energy blasts; he never laid a finger on her...
 
So, after defeating their best gladiators quickly, they were taken to meet with Tatekyls; who asked them what they wanted (he simply wanted them gone, as their battles were too short and not entertaining enough, but they were too powerful to trifle with).  Once they explained they wanted to go to the Phazorum on Malva, to fight the champion, he simply had them teleported directly there (relaying the information he had on them to Malva).
 
There they met Goreum, one of the fight arrangers, who explained that they would have to all face challenges to face the champion.  He also explained, they needed to make the fights more entertaining, if they were to gain any chance of really ascending the ladder.
 
As Capt. Force awaited his first match, Lady Terala Shain came to him; she spoke to him about honor, and wanting to "clean up the games", eliminating the corruption.  He explained what they wanted, and she asked if she could help them get it, would they demand from the Phazor (assuming they won), that he clean up the games?  Capt. Force agreed, as long as his goals were met.  She said she would be there when they met with the Phazor, if they won.
 
First, Capt. Force went up against both Malachite and Talon in a ground battle with melee only - the battle was entertaining, in that Capt. Force never threw a punch (remember, his fighting style is based on Steven Seagal) - blocking a punch from Malachite, he then grabbed and threw him at Talon; though he missed Talon, Malachite was stunned from the throw (80 meters away!).  Talon then tried to claw Capt. Force, but missed.  Capt. Force then grabbed Talon and threw him at Malachite (who had just recovered from his stun) - this time he hit, and knocked them both out!
 
The Aqua Man and Wuxing having won both their matches as well; it was now up to Solar to face Zpartykys in a ground battle, with only HTH and energy blasts allowed.  The battle started with Solar using a large fireball of a blast, which injured Zpartykys some.  He then charged to hit Solar, but with a held action, she simply used the wind from her Band to knock him down.  She then hit him with another fireball, which knocked him out.  Just as she thought the fight was over, she was attacked from behind by an energy blast (she had her full DCV, due to Combat Sense) - the energy blast did nothing to her however.  She turned to see Frostbite!  In what will surely cause Frostbite more mental injury, he was up against another fire user (though Solar's is literally the energy of a star!).
 
Frostbite had attempted to hit her with Deepfreeze II, but her defenses protected her completely, so she started with simply walking over and cooking him with Solar heat - this took about half his stun after his defenses.  She then let him recover, and waited for him to strike, to entertain the crowd...  He hit her with Freeze your Flesh, but again her defenses were too high (though it would have been close, if she hadn't had her force field up also).  Solar then ended the fight by cooking him one more time, this time knocking him out.
 
With the battles over, the crowd began chanting "Firewing, Firewing, Firewing...", as they wanted to see the true Malvan Champion against these new interlopers.
 
Goreum took the Band Bearers to relax with the gladiators, while they arranged to send word to Earth, and try to lure Firewing back, with a test that could finally offer him a challenge!  (They of course would also like to get him back in their clutches...)
 
And THAT is where our exciting episode ended!
 
The plan next game will be to bring in Firewing, who I'm going to boost with a few hundred more points, to put him on equal with Solar (who the Band Bearers feel is their champion).  Hopefully, after a good fight, if the heroes are successful, I'm going to have Warmonger appear and tell them they haven't really bested the TRUE Champion, until they've defeated him!  That should give the whole team a challenge, and really raise their awareness to the Malvans...
 
Then, we'll see how the politicking (role-playing) with the Phazor and Lady Terala Shain plays out...  Can't wait!
 

OK, let's consider...
Agree 100%.
 
 
So we will never have any new Directors?  What was James Gunn's track record with Supers before he directed GoTG?  How many had Joss Whedon directed before Avengers?
 
 
Agree.  That does not mean proven talent.  Who else would have hired RDJ?  Tom Holland wasn't exactly a household name either.
 
 
Honours, sure.  But as I recall the source material, Peter Parker had no real friends in high school.  His early crushes/girlfriends were Betty Brant (a secretary, not a fellow student), Liz Allen (a white blonde), Gwen Stacy (ditto) and Mary Jane Watson (a white redhead). His Aunt was elderly and frail, as I recall, and never knew Peter was Spider-man (certainly not in his high school days).  I don't recall any Filipinos in his high school classes, but I do recall Flash Thompson, a red-haired white jock. 
 
Some might say the various castings are
 
 
but I'd say they
 
 
 and
 
 
Finally...
 
 
So ditch those teachers, that high school buddy "Ned Leeds" and any father figure for Peter Parker?
 
And we certainly would never want any new characters creeping into the MCU, or the comics for that matter!  In fact, the movies should stick to high-profile characters like the Hulk (how did his movie do again?), not B-Listers like Iron Man and Thor, much less more minor characters like Hawkeye, GoTG or Black Panther.
 
Did I get all that right?
 

I haven't run a fantasy genre campaign for some time now, although I play in several and follow some online DnD campaigns to get ideas.
 
The things I am looking forward to doing is that the healing magic of healers has a superficial impact on the target, and that provides for some interesting roleplay and makes sure that the "cleric" (or any other type of healer) is noticed by the party and not just taken for granted as a source of healing.
 
Some ideas:
- Good cleric healing which only works if the target says prayers to that god, or at least says or does something that the God likes ("Say your prayers if you want your BODY back!").
- A druids healing where the target has to touch a natural plant or the ground and wines/roots reach out and touch the target. There is a residual effect such as a leaf found in a pocket or a green tinge to the healed area.
- An evil cleric/warlock whose healing looks just nasty (but works as normal). Afterwards, the target has an mild uneasy feeling of guilt, paranoia or anger, etc (based on the god).
- A necromancer who can heal but you need to find something alive to drain the life force of - he insists that the target provides the life source for their own healing.
 
If cheap and "clean" healing is freely available including in the form of potions bought at a shop, the cleric is not valued... but if every source of magical healing in the world comes with such minor effects, those needing healing will be more interested in finding a source they can live with and value a cleric/deity who is relatively less demanding or more compatible with their character's ethos.
 

Roman dinner guests got menus. Here is ours — a proper meal, "from eggs to apples."
(Nota Bene: My sister’s family is vegetarian, so not everything is quite as it would have been in ancient Rome… But close.)
 
          AB OVO...
 
PATINA OVI
Laura's egg lasagne
 
TOFULLUM ASSUM
roast toficken
 
PULS HORDFUM
Barley
 
LENTICULA ET TOMACULUM
lentils and sausage
 
CAROTAE
carrots (orange carrots weren't invented yet)
 
ACETARIA CAULIS
Greek style cole slaw
 
PANEM, BUTYRUM, CICER, DULCIA CITREUM
bread, butter, chickpea dip, citron preserves
 
CARDUI, OLIVAE
artichokes, olives
 
GLIRES (mock) dormice, a great Roman delicacy
 
MUSTACEI
traditional spice cakes, the Roman version of gingerbread. It wouldn't be Saturnalia without mustacei.
 
LATERCULI
filled cookie "birds"
 
DULCIA SESAME
Sesame candy
 
ENKYTHAI
honey cake
 
GLYKINAI
grapej uice crackers
 
DACTYLOS ALEXANDRINE
stuffed dates, sweet-and-salties
 
CASEUS
Cheese
 
NUCES
Nuts
 
MALA GRANATA, MALA
pomegranates, apples
 
          ...USQUE AD MALUM
 
AQIJA, LAC. VINUM
water, milk, and best Falemianwine (or, you know, sparkling cider and cran-raz juice)
 
Dean Shomshak
 
 

Tonight is the longest night;  the actual solstice is mid-morning tomorrow.
So we can call it solstice both nights.

If mutants are ok in the Avenger's book (enough to join the group), who am I to complain about it?
 
Scarlet Witch
Quicksilver
The Beast
Wolverine 
Wolverine 
Wolverine 
Did I mention Wolverine already?

Personally, I prefer to have fantasy character start off with as few points as possible and allow circumstances and need drive development - say 50 to 75 pts plus 50 complications. Otherwise, you get power-designed characters who have a backstory just to explain how they got so perfect. This way, they have almost no back-story as they have no heroic history, just a pretty normal upbringing with perhaps some personal struggles, advantages and achievements. You can be generous with experience points at the start and make skills learning not too difficult (e.g. friendly mentors are available) and they can decide how to develop their characters in response.
 
I would also expect a minimum points spend on background skills and talents since you can't logically develop these quickly later. 50 pts of complications can seem a lot at that early stage, but you can go soft on those at first until they get more powerful (eg their hunters are rumored to be near, but they never actually show up in force until much later).
 
If they start off weak and grow fast, they will develop according to what you throw at them and in ways that fit the campaign setting. If there are lots of combat tasks, they will naturally spend point on combat. If there is more talking, sneaking, travelling or mysteries, they will naturally spend points on skills to be better at those things. They will then work out that they don't need everyone to be good at everything, so strategic decisions about who specialises in each area of ability naturally occur and everyone feels they have an important individual role in the party.
 
This is particularly useful for starting players, but it's also an interesting challenge for experienced players who may have a "road map / master plan" in place but can then adapt their concept to fit the campaign and work with other party members more effectively.
 

So, I'm considering suggesting a move to Hero from Pathfinder. And I'm not particularly worried about convincing them to try a more flexible rules set, having seen them all get frustrated at (and in some cases try to bend the rules around) not being able to grow the characters to match the story rather than the 'class'. 
 
Which only leaves me with a much more serious issue: they really like their pretty dice
 
Given this'll be a fantasy game, I forsee a lot of killing attacks so I'm considering using dice for the different DCs of KAs. It seems to work fairly nicely, something along the lines of: 1, 1d4, 1d6, 1d8, 1d10 for the first 5 DCs without skewing the resulting body damage too far. In fact, I think they might even be quicker to pick up than the normal Hero progression ("you want me to roll one and a half dice?!"). 
 
Has anyone tried anything like this before? The numbers start drifting rather more if you start using d12s, and I still don't have a good use for d20s so I'm also all ears for ideas there! 

OK, I'll play...  I'll "nitpick" back...  (This is not aimed directly at you Duke, others have said the same, you just happened to have brought it back up.)
 
I didn't only give an example of Jews and Nazis...  I gave several real world analogies; including Northern Ireland and Bosnia - both of which also go against your point.  There doesn't have to be anything obvious for one group to hate another; proven by human history, period.
 
I also don't think that all the points raised above are contradictory to each other...  I agree it was all contrived, and forced to fit a narrative, and was targeted to the sales demographic audience.  Um, these are comic books, not realistic autobiographies; and it's a business.  The whole point is to contrive a narrative, targeted to your audience, that will strike a nerve and sell comics; it just so happened that the idea of writing about a minority hated by the majority worked on many levels, as a parallel of many types of minorities, told over 60 years, changing with the times, as a means of exploring the plight of the situation, even as it changed and morphed with the times.
 
I am not trying to imply the concept is the perfect parable for minority suffering; only that it works - and that's born out by 60 years of high sales and success in many mediums.
 
The point I was making about history, is you cannot simply dismiss it as "unrealistic" just because it isn't obvious that Spidey isn't a Mutant, or that Jean Grey is one.  That is flawed logic, disproven by history.
 
So, if you want to pick it apart, you'll have to find a better angle than "mutants aren't obvious, so it doesn't make sense as an analogy, because all supers aren't hated".
 
As I stated above; by all means, there are ways to pick it apart - the "obvious" angle just isn't one of them.
 
Bottom line, it has been successful, in print, animation and live-action movies - so no matter how many holes you punch in it, debating that it shouldn't be successful, for this or the other reason, simply goes against reality.
 
The original question was, why does it work; ironically, I think the answers given about how it panders to the target audience is one of the reasons it does, even if it has to be stretched and forced to do so.

Two points of order: One, for much of his career Spider-Man was the subject of fear and hatred, albeit a significant amount of that was pushed by J. Jonah Jameson's obsession with him.
 
Two, if you're a mutant and your powers suddenly emerge, someone is going to know -- family, (former) friends. Any of them with prejudice is likely to inform the authorities if they want to know, or the media. Plus many superhuman mutations are very hard to hide, like Angel's wings, or Nightcrawler's, well, whole body. Even Cyclops just has to lose his glasses once at the wrong time and place.
 
If you're Jewish, or black, or gay, and you're discriminated against, the point comes when you're not willing to hide it any more, or conform to whatever role the majority of society defines for you. You want recognition and rights for who you are, and you're going to proclaim yourself and organize with others like you to demand that acceptance. That's been the history for every oppressed minority, and the only way that aspect of society has progressed.

Have to disagree here. Hatred and spite need no more basis than envy, fear, projection, and/or someone exploiting those emotions for their own gain. It's been that way throughout history. Jewish global conspiracies and poisoned vaccines are just another variation on witches and baby-eating Christians. Someone starts a rumor, it spreads and amplifies and mutates, until there's something outrageous that everyone has heard and believes because it's so repeated. And the explanation doesn't have to be legitimate science, it can have a pseudo-scientific veneer that sounds plausible enough to fool the gullible. Like Jews building space lasers, or vaccines making someone "magnetic." These things aren't subject to reason -- as has been illustrated lately, trying to counter irrational belief by pointing out rational facts carries no weight.
 
To the man on the street, it's not that there's a difference, as that there's believed to be a difference. Aliens can be (and have been) a target of paranoia, but Superman for example is just one person, who happens to look and act like America's dominant ethno-cultural group (at least dominant until recently). Spider-Man is not the best example either, as he's been the target of distrust and fear for much of his career. But neither of them are breeding more of their own kind, at least not obviously. And it taking many generations until mutants become the dominant species? Again, you're trying to counter emotion with reason.