[OOC] Weird Supers

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by Lamech

We go up to nightwatch and say "Hey we have someone who can raise the dead, if you help us on the aliens will help your investigation by raising X." Then I spend 8 hours make the modular ability slot for the affliction extra life +250%, and raise one of the victims (with the correct stunt to allow for working on dead).
Also I mis-typed "plot" as "pot" so the last sentence makes no sense. Its basically saying, "I assume the actual killer was smart enough to make sure the victims can't identify her/him."
Finally, since Cee would prefer not to be known as "the girl who can raise the dead" for obvious reasons, if it wasn't for her SoD she would blame you guys.

Is that less rambly?

Just saw this now, sorry for not responding earlier. I actually have to veto this plan; letting Affliction (Extra Life) raise the dead is unbalancing even by the loose standards of balance I had in mind here; look at Powers and you'll see raising the dead is built as Affliction (Cosmic, Unkillable, Regeneration, something something).

[ErhnamDJ]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

I should tip people off that given that EhrnamDJ paid the points for +4 Reputation.

+3 actually (+5 with Russians; maybe you're averaging those together?). And I took a -2 with prudes, giving her a +1 with them. My thinking there was that they would still respect her, just not as much. And that's before her Appearance. She might be the prettiest human on the planet. And I guess her Talent would give her another +1 with certain athletes.


I had thought of this when making the character. I just thought I could throw enough points at it to make people ignore the weirdness. I remembered how in DF you can buy the Hero reputation and that cancels out the Social Stigma from being a goblin. I figured +3 had to be enough to cancel out whatever penalty she was getting from being naked.

Maybe I should have come up with more heroics in her backstory. But I really wanted her to mostly be doing a large amount of very low level heroics. Saving people from fires, rescuing lost hikers, delivering organs and medicines, stopping muggings and rapes, finding missing children, etc. The kinds of things that don't get any government agencies after you for interfering with investigations or destruction of property. The big heroics she keeps in Russia, where she feels safer playing fast and loose with the rules, since they could never have a trial there with her because of the PR disaster it would be.

There's also the issue of her father. Everyone knows she's his daughter, and he did the big heroics. I'm talking household name, probably as high a Reputation as you could get. And it's not just that Streaker is naked, but she's naked 1) for a reason (using her powers destroys her clothes) and 2) she's wearing her father's costume, in the form of her tattoo. And then there was that whole sacrifice thing. Streaker has taken over for her father, who sacrificed himself. Streaker fully intends to do whatever it takes to keep the world safe, even if it means she has to die, and people understand that. They respect that. Even if they don't like that she's naked.

[ErhnamDJ]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

Just saw this now, sorry for not responding earlier. I actually have to veto this plan; letting Affliction (Extra Life) raise the dead is unbalancing even by the loose standards of balance I had in mind here; look at Powers and you'll see raising the dead is built as Affliction (Cosmic, Unkillable, Regeneration, something something).

I think he's trying to use the build from Divine Powers, which says afflicting Extra Life to bring back the dead is a feature.

Feature: Extra Life is retroactive, instead of preventative; the unique nature of the advantage makes this a special effect

But that one has Extended Duration, Permanent, +300% on it, and the person you use it on loses 25 points. They get 25 points in Disadvantages if they didn't have some spare points sitting around.


Seeing the nature of Cee's power, were I the GM, I would probably allow it, but have those 25 points in Disadvantages make them wish they had never been brought back. Maybe I would give them Agonizing Chronic Pain, or Nightmares, or Amnesia, or something. I would make it to where the characters don't want to bring people back from the dead. Not like that. I'd make it a fate worse than death. But that's just me. :)

[Lamech]

ErhnamDJ has the right of it. That said it is an optional rule from Divine Power, and to do it I would need a psi-technique which need to be GM approved anyway. So it doesn't need to be approved in the least. On top of that those -25 points could easily be something like "psychotic killer" or "Delusion: People should go to Heaven"

[Michael Thayne]

Or Chronic Depression, to take inspiration from Buffy.

Hmmm...

Okay, you're welcome to try, no guarantees on how it will come out.

[ErhnamDJ]

So what's going on with Streaker? Are we going to have her go around and talk to some of the other relatives and witnesses of the murders?

[Michael Thayne]

Let's assume Streaker is there. I've been assuming that pretty much everyone knows her and accepts her quirks.

Come to think of it, a better analogy is not "naked Superman," but Dr. Manhattan. In Watchmen (comic or film), do you ever once hear anyone complain about his nudity?

[ErhnamDJ]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

Come to think of it, a better analogy is not "naked Superman," but Dr. Manhattan. In Watchmen (comic or film), do you ever once hear anyone complain about his nudity?

I did consider Dr. Manhattan, but I've only seen the film. I'm not much for comics. And in the movie, you don't see him doing a whole lot while naked. He wears clothes for the interview he does, if I remember correctly. And he wears whatever this is while in Vietnam.

And I just kinda figured he was looked at as being so insane that his clothing (or lack thereof) wasn't important. It's like if you have some demon from hell going around frying people with fireballs. Who would care that its junk is hanging out?




And I'll just say that if you're doing any mind reading on innocents near Streaker, you really don't want to let her know about it.

[LemmingLord]

Originally Posted by ErhnamDJ

And I'll just say that if you're doing any mind reading on innocents near Streaker, you really don't want to let her know about it.

In this case we have informed consent. We asked Miss Griffin if we could use our powers to read her mind and find additional clues to help bring the culprit to justice and she said, "yes." I'm guessing Streaker won't have a problem with that.

Originally Posted by LemmingLord

"Amongst our tallents is the ability to read thoughts and memories... If you are willing, we could pull everyone's recollection of what you know about the tragic event.... and we will see if there is anything missing we can use to help end the cycle of violence before it spreads. If you are not willing, we will leave you as we came, in peace. In any case, we will leave you with resources and contact information so you can get any assistance you may need in your time of grief, including my personal phone number."

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

At Miss Griffin's

"Superheroes? Oh my," the woman says, "Yes, I guess that's okay, anything you can do to help would be greatly appreciated."

[ErhnamDJ]

Originally Posted by LemmingLord

In this case we have informed consent. We asked Miss Griffin if we could use our powers to read her mind and find additional clues to help bring the culprit to justice and she said, "yes." I'm guessing Streaker won't have a problem with that.

Yeah, that's fine. I just want it to be completely clear that she's not going in for any non-consensual mind reading or mind control on innocent people.

I don't know how she would determine whether someone is innocent or not. So there is a little bit of wiggle room there if anyone can make a convincing enough argument.