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Doc Democracy

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Doc Democracy last won the day on December 24 2023

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About Doc Democracy

  • Birthday 11/15/1965

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  1. The sudden appearance of Hope, by Claire North, is a story about a woman who s instantly forgotten by everyone. It is an interesting examination of place in society.
  2. If you think about all the social drawbacks people raised about wearing masks, then this doubles down on virtually all of them! 🙂 Doc
  3. There was the Mental paralysis power in third edition I think. My players hated it. If they got the hint a villain had that power, they became priority number one - every attack on every action on that villain until he (or she) was no longer moving....
  4. I have not put a lot of thought into this and my inclination is that I should not. From a purely, at the table, simplicity perspective, I would draw no distinctions unless the END Reserve was drawn up in a way that demanded complexity.
  5. I think thus highlights the incompatibility in the edge cases of pure philosophy and the practical application of law. I can follow the scientific and philosophical principles of life beginning at conception. It is clean in both these cases with the edge coming at conception. Obviously that causes issues with laws that talk about life (usually human life). So homicide is killing a human. If a human embryo is alive, then ending that is homicide. The law has accepted many compromises in the issue of homicide, war and self-defence the most obvious and there are lots of arguments being made about the right to die. The in-vitro stuff is interesting because it involves the processes by which people are seeking a right to have a baby, to create a life. The processes are reasonably wasteful with regard to embryos, the ones left in vitro and when there are multiple viable embryos developing in uterus, where some are destroyed to avoid multiple births. The convenient decision for both the in-vitro industry and prospective parents is that the embryos are not human - there is no incentive to improve processes, to seek practitioners that are less wasteful. Biology is messy, it does not easily conform to sensibilities, to legal definitions and often not even to scientific delineations. It means we make decisions on matters of society and law, looking for scientific back-up which is often not there to sufficiently make the law water-tight. I think we need to get to a place where we stop thinking science can answer our social questions. That law is there to set lines where the state has decided to set a social decision in a defined way that can be adjudicared in court. People will argue whether that line is in the right place. Science will usually be deployed on both sides, but it is most often a social decision rather than a scientific one. I often tell people (scientists) coming to parliament that when they are describing what happens (or might happen) under certain measurable circumstances then they remain scientists. When they say what should happen because of that, they become politicians. Science early tells you what you need to do, it can tell you whether doing something will achieve an end, or likely deliver an outcome, and it might identify the only known way to achieve an outcome. It never Sat's that is what you need to do. Doc
  6. I am uncomfortable about the taking no actions during this time. I like the idea of a character leaping across a chasm while firing at opponents, this rule would prevent that. I can accept that actions might be limited and may be harder, but being able to do nothing while soaring through the air feels wrong. I share your confusion about the statements. I think I would have the additional time for non-combat doubling be a suggested limitation for colour, possibly the second clause should say, every additional (or purchased) doubling purchased adds a phase, that makes it a reiteration of the first clause.
  7. That is presuming that they aren't falling onto broken ground, sharp edges. 🙂 I would be looking to find ways of dropping, pushing, pulling the doppelgangers onto sharp/edged surfaces. Change velocity into killing damage.
  8. I like the idea of the micro-dimension hunting the character. Not sure the mechanics work as well as other suggestions but it is an option I need to remember for future character builds.
  9. In my opinion points are a player thing. The character is a construct, the points are about the players engagement with the game world, not the characters. All those rules and points are, in game, invisible to the character. None of us can see their character sheet, the PCs are not aware of theirs. So I do absolutely see these things impacting the player. The character is not impacted by being absent from gameplay for a month or a year, the player is. If I did not want to run the MicroLad scenario, I wouldn't, but I would suspect my players might drive things that way, and it would behoove me to be prepared for that. I don't agree it is the equivalent of being beaten in a fight, it renders the conflict pointless. The PC is not captured, not imprisoned, not put at a disadvantage to his opponents, he is just not there. Doc
  10. I would be ambivalent about it. It would be an opportunity - bluebooking the Microverse, it would be a mini-series in a comic book, not a trauma event. If me and the player had discussed it, and nothing like this should be done without that kind of discussion, then it is relatively minor. I would have the player pull out a pre-prepared alternate PC for the duration. I would pull out the pre-prepared scenario about finding MicroLad. It would shake things up a bit. With an NPC then it is even less so. All in my incredibly humble opinion, of course. Doc
  11. @Grailknight has made a good suggestion but it feels off to me if the NPC has to pay points for something that complicates their life or disadvantages them. I would be more inclined to make it a custom complication. It might be a small value one, maybe five points, when using full shrinking, on an 8 or less he gets trapped in the Microverse for 1D6 weeks.
  12. Let me volunteer upfront. I draft/proof for a living, though not in a professional capacity. My approach to HERO is less traditional than most so I am either just the right person to be talking about adaptation or exactly the wrong one! It will follow the system in C&S, Colin's new edition? Would give me a reason to read it properly.
  13. A lot of the grunt work you could delegate out on the boards. Am sure you would find plenty of folk happy to generate stat blocks or proof text etc. All for the kudos of being involved. 🙂
  14. I am going to embark on thus epic. I have NO idea how you type all this on a phone.... I think that it is not going to work with a vancian style magic which, itself, is written as a technology in the dying earth books, ways of harnessing ancient power with the trappings of magic. So yes, I agree, slots and unreliability don't work. I would also say there is a lot of ground in between getting effects so defined you can throw a fireball to hit opponents in melee with your friends and not even singe their eyebrows and starting the magic with no idea of the effects you expect or hope for. Well, because technology is measurable and semi-dependable. It is something people, as you say, utilise but rarely are able to explain, nevermind maintain. Technology works, utilises measurable forces and anyone doing the right things with the right kit get the same results. If that is what you want in your game, why call it magic, it is technology and might as well be presented as such, no? This is indeed a big thing. No point in looking too hard at the literature because you xan actually find anything and everything to support stuff because, to our understanding, there is no such thing as magic. 😀 Technology is learnable and teachable. If there are, like you say, restrictions on who can learn magic then magic is not universally learnable or teachable. I think that is one of the significant differences. Only those with talent can do more than dabble (sometimes not even that) and some folk can, fir some unknown reason, become adepts. Now that might be seen as similar to maths. some folk find it hard to add up single figures, others solve quadratic equations in their head - we don't really understand how that happens either. And yet, in Fantasy literature, they rarely are. Grimoires are often the personal notes of an adept. Others trying to use them approach with care, like dealing with an unexploded bomb, trying to extract meaning and understanding to create their own grimoire. Each adept adapting the teachings to their iwn situation. I reckon that is another feature, for me, of magic. Technology is universal, it works the same way regardless of who applies it. Magic is personal and individual, and every practitioner begins with a broad understanding but needs to fine-tune the process to accommodate their particular relationship with the magical powers. I love this analogy, but you are almost arguing against your statement that you xannot teach what you do not know, possibly because these things are not binary until you get to the point where you either do it absolutely right or die. Beyond that a whole range of approaches get a number of outcomes that approximate OK, those closest to "correct" go faster/straighter/longer. I think that feels magical to me but with magic, there is no single correct way, there is probably only one way for any individual but not one that you can reliably teach. Yes! The difference though is that while the technology folk are working to a template, knowing where they are making compromises from an ideal and seeking a physical harmony, the magician is "listening to the vapours" hoping to find a place where they properly resonate to deliver the right harmony. More art than science and influenced by who is doing it. I think that it is more likely to be secret from the cgaracter than the reader. Or they both share a belief of what is true, like the motorcyclists you talked about, they think they know what is true, they believe what they are going to will result in a particular outcome. Thing is, even with technology there are the pioneers who do stuff for the first time,teaching themselves through trial and error. With technology it is better as, when you find something out, you can show someone else in the firm knowledge they will be able to do it too. With magic, none of that is a given. It is where not only finding a teacher, but the right teacher is important. I hear you but you realise you have probably now put more thought into the basics than most people who love reading about it. You are even getting close to gave written as many words on the matter as a Fantasy writer. Doc
  15. I think a game needs a narrative structure in its magic and there needs to be a way in which players interact with that. I still claim that it does not need to be like technology. But throughout human history we have had folk "practice" magic that was neither reproducible, consistent (beyond not actually working) or reliable. People want power and they are often willing to risk inconsistency, unreliability or reproducible results if there is a chance of that power. I think it is possible to make it gameable but I get that it is not for everyone. Tell me, do you need to know what is true, or do you need to know what the wizard thinks is true? Personally, it us the latter for me, I like to know what he wants to achieve and what he wants to be true. He might be right, he might be partly right, sometimes things might happen, other times they don't. There are quite a few studies showing how animals pick up superstitions, relying on actions that seemed to work once or twice, hoping that will work again. People are animals in this. I kind of missed Vampire, the folk playing it never appealed to me and I stuck with Runequest and Champions. one of my friends though did a few Mage one-offs. My son is far more emotionally developed than me. I had to work hard at modelling that behaviour for him.
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