Truth, Justice and Brownies if you got 'em (Superheroes, MHR)

[Guancyto]

I should point out (possibly for my own reference later) that Events are set up by the Watcher and function about the same way as milestones.

So even if your milestones aren't good (or even if you don't have them when we first start out and fill them in later) you can win points by following the plot and whatnot.

[ReijiTabibito]

I know.  But I need to have at least something in mind to build on so that I don't have to worry about relying on Events for XP.

[wander]

What will be your character's motivations? Why risk going out fighting villians when they could safe? Answering that may lead you to think on Milestones. Do you have a character bio/backstory sorted? That will also lead to some thoughts when making up Milestones.

One thing I liked from another game, DC Adventures, is that in that you gain experience through the complications in your life, whether they be an SO that keeps needing to be kept safe, having to juggle secret identities, a specific weakness your character has... Are they addicted to something/need to seek something out, do they have a disability, some element in their life that gets in the way of things or some other kind of responsibility to enact... A code of honour to uphold, a fear of something... How much do they value their reputation...

I know not all of these will apply to your character, but having something like that to think on not only helps with Milestones but makes your super that much more humanised.

There's something about MHR that makes people wanna instantly go for pressing the 'I win!' button when making a character, but honestly having a fun character with the odd quirk makes the game so much better.

Heh, so I kinda went on a tangent there, though the above and seeing if you can answer those thoughts may really help direct when it comes to Milestones.

I hope this helped, at least. :)

[Guancyto]

Some setting notes I had thought of.

Like so many Earths, the rise of superpowered individuals was the beginning of a very strange time, with giant robots, catgirls, magic and aliens, and dastardly plots to replace all the Earth's cookies with vegetables etc etc.

At some point during this great mass of shenanigans the human populace collectively did a double-take and said wait, what? Aliens? This didn't pass unnoticed with everyone just shrugging and going back to their lives because holy shit, there was a universe out there. It was a little like discovering that you had lived in New Jersey your entire life and that didn't actually have to be the case, with massive superhero money and superhero expertise going into a veritable explosion of human space programs (also some literal explosions, thanks to engineered-human test subjects). A ton of the high-minded heroes decided to explore the universe (because holy fuck explore the universe) and a lot of the less high-minded took off for the equivalent of a vacation in Thailand (yes, there are green alien space babes (and hunks)). Some come back and visit, some live like gods on feral worlds where in fairness they really are close enough to gods, and some discovered that Maineworld is just fine, thank you.

Because so many superheroes have emigrated, StellarWiki is of the prevailing opinion that all humans have superpowers and is very resistant to attempts to explain otherwise (no original sources!)

But that does mean that the current crop of superpowered individuals on Earth is a little more... limited. A lot less 'cosmic.' But that's fine, right? The supervillains are locked up and the superheroes responded to "wait, we've still got problems here on earth" with "Oh you're right. Wait, we have superpowers, how many drug cartels do you need us to punch? All of them? Okay be right back."

That is, until the possibly immortal light-entity calling itself ZOHAR (very insistent on all capitals) decided to let a ton of supervillains out and a surprising number of supervillain prisons (being designed to entrap specific powersets) proved particularly vulnerable to massively overpowered lasers. Not the really foul ones, but that was really a matter of perspective, wasn't it? The Vege-Might (who was the first to be broken out) was going to drown the earth in noxious food paste, which was probably worse than Doctor Murder (who stayed in lock-up; dark secret: he really only has an associate's degree) who just really wanted to kill everyone.

[wander]

Heh, I love it ^^

Reads a little like the ol' Hitchhikers Guide there. :)

[ReijiTabibito]

I can just picture it now.  Defeating the villain by taunting it to death.

"You must be Zohar..."

[Kunoichi]

Ah, so the kill-happy bronze age villains are all still safely contained, while the dangerous, absurdly-powerful weirdos have been set free.  Though it sounds like Ace won't find herself quite so out of place on this Earth as she might be on current DC or Marvel comics Earth...

I'm guessing that superhero comics didn't get quite the same absurd share of the American comics market in this world as it did in the real one?  With real superheroes running around, there was probably less of an interest in fictional ones in general, and no moral panic surrounding them would then go on to mean no Comics Code Authority.  So science fiction and fantasy comics are probably a little bigger in this world, and Ace was probably just one name out of a big list of old superheroes from the sixties and seventies to most people, until someone used magic to make her real.

On the bright side, that does help out with adding a little more direction to my 'Living Fiction' Milestone. ^^ Plus, since I looked up some old silver age Superman comics and read through them, I also got an idea for a few changes I could make to my Silver Age Sensibilities Milestone to make it more accurate.  So, here's the latest edit I made to my character sheet:

Edit: Actually, after working on it a little more, it looks like I've managed to completely fill out my Milestones. ^^ What do you all think?


Milestones:
Living Fiction
1 XP when you are stymied or confounded by some aspect of real world technology or culture.
3 XP when someone uses their knowledge of the comic book world you are from to inflict Stress or Complications upon you.
10 XP when you successfully find a means to return to your original, fictional Earth, or you decide to give up the search and make a new, permanent home as a hero on this Earth instead.

Silver Age Sensibilities
1 XP when you make a new and completely unnecessary name for an unorthodox use of your powers or use an antiquated exclamation in place of swearing.
3 XP when you pretend to fall for a villain's tricks in order to trick them into revealing their evil schemes, or you try to convince others to do the same.
10 XP when your outdated notions of heroism lead you to cause a major disaster, or when they lead you to stop a major disaster and save the day.

[Premier]

I really love this one.

1 XP when you make a new and completely unnecessary name for an unorthodox use of your powers or use an antiquated exclamation in place of swearing.

Super-Knitting is a go!

As for how comics grown up, moral panic would still happen even if they're real. In fact it'd likely have continued on much longer. Think of famous sports personalities today and how much of a furore there is if they're shown as even swearing, let alone actually being immoral. If crime fighting supers are real, comics showing them as bad people might actually be rather rare, if only because it'd question the legitimacy of them at all.

It's very unlikely this world had a Dark Age of comics and that was more of a fringe edge to comics for people who just don't like Supers personally, Watchmen could actually have been considered an accusation that Supers were making up threats to keep the public scared after all and becomes even more edgy than it was at the time. You'd get Anti-Heroes, but Anti-Heroes who are shown to be in the right rather than something like Irredeemable.

I can definitely see Super Fiction taking even more of the niche that Sci Fi did, so that wonderfully optimistic 50's space exploration Sci Fi would have Super's in it and I can see Ace being from that era. Maybe she didn't just fight crime, but explored the galaxy too.

[TheFourthShade]

I think our apathy towards sports heroes' crimes and misbehavior would just mean the 'moral ages' would have died faster in a world with superheroes.

[Kunoichi]

My basic line of thought on this is that, first, superhero comics only wound up dominating the American comics market in the real world due to the Comics Code Authority making it impossible for the lion's share of their competition in the market space to get their material published, and second, that a world where superheroes were real would change up the economic and social dynamics enough to make it unlikely that something like the Comics Code Authority would come into being.  There probably was still a moral panic of some sort, but it would be less focused around comic books, and probably more focused around things like superhero registration acts, or something along those lines.  Or at least, that's what I was thinking.

As for the comics Ace was in, she would have stuck around Earth in her series, but that's mostly due to the overall plotlines that both hers and Captain Paragon's series had.  Basically, Captain Paragon originally took up that name because he was a Captain in the military on his homeworld of Venus.  Home to an oppressive, isolationist regime, Venus was ready to start up an expansionist phase by conquering their nearest habitable neighbor in the solar system, Earth, and they treated the Captain with a special super soldier infusion that gave him his ability to absorb and transmogrify radiation.  When he arrived on Earth, he found that he gained additional super-powers once freed of the oppressive atmosphere on Venus, and after getting a taste of good old American Freedom, he decided to start falsifying his reports to try and dissuade Venusian High Command from invading and make a new life for himself on Earth as a Paragon of justice.

Ace herself first appeared in the multi-part story 'The Trial of Captain Paragon', where it was revealed that she was the Captain's favorite cousin, living back on Venus, whom he had been sending letters detailing the truth about what he was up to on Earth.  Ace's wicked stepmother found some of those letters while snooping around her room one day, and quickly turned them in to Venusian High Command, which lead to an exciting conclusion to the first act of the story when the Venusian Military Police arrived on Earth and used their own Venusian super-powers and advanced alien technology to apprehend him.  He was dragged back to Venus and put on trial for high treason, and after a fantastical trial in which Ace herself pretended to betray her cousin by operating as chief witness for the prosecution so that she could learn the details of what they were planning and help to foil them, the Captain was eventually stripped of his rank and dishonorably discharged, but given the punishment of permanent exile to Earth, rather than the death sentence that High Command had originally been planning.  Also, she managed to get them to seriously postpone their invasion plans, too.

Ace herself initially made the decision to stay back on Venus in order to help inspire the Venusian people to reform their government, but reader response to her was strong enough that she made a reappearance a few issues later, having been given the same radiation infusion as her cousin and then smuggled to Earth by the newly-formed Venusian Resistance.  She's been his partner ever since, though the writers of the main line of Captain Paragon Comics mostly used her as a device to help ramp up the odds against the Captain himself, having her get captured or hypnotized, or turned into a colossal lumbering fish monster so that the Captain could further prove his heroism by making some clever use of his powers to save the day.  Especially after she became popular enough to get her own solo title, since then she had her own book where they could put the adventures that were more focused around showing her worth as a hero while keeping the main book all about the Captain himself.

So Captain Paragon and his sidekick, Ace the Wonder-Girl, were more specifically written as defenders of the Earth than anything else, and while Ace has a lot of knowledge about alien civilizations due to having been raised in one, she doesn't actually have much experience exploring them.

[Premier]

I eagerly await the inevitable adventure where we all get transported to the comic world and have to be the ones who are fish out of water for a change. Well as long as it doesn't got all Twilight Zone/Justice League on us.

[Kunoichi]

True, that would be pretty fun. ^^

[Guancyto]

I like all of these ideas! *rubs hands and cackles*

So it looks like there are a lot of completed or mostly-completed sheets and backgrounds, how does everyone feel about getting started early next week or so, say Monday or Tuesday or so?

[wander]

I am ready for it! ^^

Sounds good! :)

[Kunoichi]

I'm certainly up for getting the game started. ^^

[ReijiTabibito]

I'm up for getting the game started.  I'm just working on resolving Milestones for my character, and trying to maybe find one more limit to use with one of Darclight's Power Sets.

As note.  Here's the Milestones I've got lined up as potentials for Darclight right now.  You'll notice that some of them are missing an XP trigger.  I'm willing to take suggestions for these particular blanks.


RIDERS ON THE STORM
Stormwatch was once the name in heroic teams.  They're gone now...but nothing is truly gone as long as it is remembered.

1xp - Identify a Watcher character as either an ally, member, or enemy of Stormwatch
3xp - ? ? ?
10xp - Announce to the world (after convincing enough heroes to join you) that Stormwatch has returned - or give up any hope of putting Stormwatch back together.



BEEN A LONG, LONG YEAR
Over the years, heroes fight a lot of villains.  Darclight hasn't been any exception to that - and the lack of family to take out fiendish vengeance upon means all that trouble is headed his way.

1xp - Identify a particular villain as an old foe.
3xp - Either deal trauma to or take trauma from your chosen foe.
10xp - ? ? ?



RUN SIX NIGHTS
In one of the most stunning exploits of his career, Darclight defeated - in six nights - six villains who had teamed up to bring the soldier from space down.  They're back, and once again, ready to destroy him.

1xp - Identify a villain as belonging to that particular villainous team-up.
3xp - when you engage with enemies from this old team, who are using the TEAM Affiliation against you.
10xp - defeat them all again, in six nights, or admit you can't do it alone anymore and bring in help from allies.



IGNORANCE CANNOT DICTATE THE COURSE OF MEN
Science.  It is the future.

1xp - whenever you first use your Science Specialty to create an Asset or a Resource.
3xp - ? ? ?
10xp - whenever your Science Specialty saves the day...or causes it to blow up in everyone's face.

[Kunoichi]

I'm up for getting the game started.  I'm just working on resolving Milestones for my character, and trying to maybe find one more limit to use with one of Darclight's Power Sets.

As note.  Here's the Milestones I've got lined up as potentials for Darclight right now.  You'll notice that some of them are missing an XP trigger.  I'm willing to take suggestions for these particular blanks.


RIDERS ON THE STORM
Stormwatch was once the name in heroic teams.  They're gone now...but nothing is truly gone as long as it is remembered.

1xp - Identify a Watcher character as either an ally, member, or enemy of Stormwatch
3xp - ? ? ?
10xp - Announce to the world (after convincing enough heroes to join you) that Stormwatch has returned - or give up any hope of putting Stormwatch back together.

Hmm.  Given the 10 XP note, perhaps a good option for the 3 XP one would be asking a hero or team of heroes to help you rebuild Stormwatch?

BEEN A LONG, LONG YEAR
Over the years, heroes fight a lot of villains.  Darclight hasn't been any exception to that - and the lack of family to take out fiendish vengeance upon means all that trouble is headed his way.

1xp - Identify a particular villain as an old foe.
3xp - Either deal trauma to or take trauma from your chosen foe.
10xp - ? ? ?

The similar Milestones to this one on Luke Cage and Spider-Man both have 'When you forgive your old for or they beg you for forgiveness and you let them go' as the 10 XP note.  Any particular reason why that one won't work for your Milestone?

RUN SIX NIGHTS
In one of the most stunning exploits of his career, Darclight defeated - in six nights - six villains who had teamed up to bring the soldier from space down.  They're back, and once again, ready to destroy him.

1xp - Identify a villain as belonging to that particular villainous team-up.
3xp - when you engage with enemies from this old team, who are using the TEAM Affiliation against you.
10xp - defeat them all again, in six nights, or admit you can't do it alone anymore and bring in help from allies.

As I noted over PMs, this seems more like a Milestone for an Event or something along those lines, rather than a character Milestone.  It's pretty solid as something event-based, though. ^^

IGNORANCE CANNOT DICTATE THE COURSE OF MEN
Science.  It is the future.

1xp - whenever you first use your Science Specialty to create an Asset or a Resource.
3xp - ? ? ?
10xp - whenever your Science Specialty saves the day...or causes it to blow up in everyone's face.

Looking through the Fifty State Initiative pdf, the character Elsa Bloodstone has a Milestone called The Bloodstone Curator that could be adapted for this one in an interesting way.  Basically, the first two notes on your Milestone would be:

1 XP when you explain something scientific to an ally.
3 XP when you use your Science Specialty to create an Asset or a Resource.

And then the 10XP note would be the same as before.  Does that seem like it could work, or...?

[ReijiTabibito]

Hmm.  Given the 10 XP note, perhaps a good option for the 3 XP one would be asking a hero or team of heroes to help you rebuild Stormwatch?

That almost seems too easy.  I mean, yeah, alright, the 3xp trigger can happen what, once a Scene?  I wouldn't object to it, but I would worry about it becoming an XP farm as Darclight just pesters his fellow heroes to help him rebuild the team.  Maybe it has to stick?  Or it has to be a group of heroes?  (Qualifiers under TEAM Affiliation)

The similar Milestones to this one on Luke Cage and Spider-Man both have 'When you forgive your old for or they beg you for forgiveness and you let them go' as the 10 XP note.  Any particular reason why that one won't work for your Milestone?

Two reasons - well, one personal reason and one sort-of.  The sort-of is that I'm wondering if it's appropriate for that sort of thing to be happening in a game of this tone.  If I understand the GM correctly, it's based on Brave and the Bold, which is one of those lighter-toned shows.  The personal reason is that...I'm not sure I personally see Darclight as the forgiving type.  It's kind of weird, to me, that they gave this to Luke Cage and Spider-Man.  Cage is on the side of the angels, sure, but he is not a nice guy.  And Spider-Man - he never really struggled much with the 'what happens to the villains now?'  Usually his villains get defeated by him and go to jail, or they get killed by someone else.

As I noted over PMs, this seems more like a Milestone for an Event or something along those lines, rather than a character Milestone.  It's pretty solid as something event-based, though. ^^

That actually brought me an interesting idea - Events where there are Character-specific Milestones.  The thing I'm drawing inspiration from here is Maximum Carnage, which is one of my more favorite Spidey story arcs.  (Even if it is relatively short)  Basically, there's an Event, and a Milestone the GM creates for that Event is set for one specific hero to undertake.  I do have idea for THIS particular Milestone (based again, on Maximum Carnage), if we cast it as an Event, for the GM to hear.

Looking through the Fifty State Initiative pdf, the character Elsa Bloodstone has a Milestone called The Bloodstone Curator that could be adapted for this one in an interesting way.  Basically, the first two notes on your Milestone would be:

1 XP when you explain something scientific to an ally.
3 XP when you use your Science Specialty to create an Asset or a Resource.

And then the 10XP note would be the same as before.  Does that seem like it could work, or...?

Yeah.  That seems like it could work pretty well as a Science-based Milestone.  That reminds me, I've been thinking of switching up one of Darclight's Distinctions.  The 3 he had are: DEFENDER OF LIFE EVERYWHERE; STORMWATCH ORIGINAL GENERATION - RED TEAM LEADER (altered the wording); BROUGHT YOU ALL TOGETHER FOR A PURPOSE.  The lattermost was a more cerebral and manipulation-oriented one, but I'm not sure it's a really appropriate Distinction for this new incarnation.  I was thinking something Science-related.

Thoughts from the assembled table?

[wander]

On Luke Cage;

His datafile was based on the Breakout arc with that Milestone and he actually never got to hit 10xp with it. He does hit 3xp once when he goes after the Purple Man (of course), Spiderman pulls him off before he can flat-out kill Kilgrave, though trauma was likely inflicted before then.

His On the Job one he does complete by the end as he joins up the New Avengers after originally working I believe as a bodyguard at the arc's start, for Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson.

His On the Job Milestone was this;

1 XP when you start a Scene working for another hero as an employee.
3XP when you engage with a foe and your employer becomes stressed out.
10 XP when you either quit working for your employer to join a team as an equal or
decline to work with a team in favor of staying in the pay of your employer.

Spiderman's Milestone differed from Luke's as Luke has him give trauma, Parker's 3xp is him receiving it. Indeed he does get beaten to a pulp in the Raft Breakout, around the same time Luke hits his own 3xp.

[Kunoichi]

That almost seems too easy.  I mean, yeah, alright, the 3xp trigger can happen what, once a Scene?  I wouldn't object to it, but I would worry about it becoming an XP farm as Darclight just pesters his fellow heroes to help him rebuild the team.  Maybe it has to stick?  Or it has to be a group of heroes?  (Qualifiers under TEAM Affiliation)

Ah, true, having another hero or team of heroes agree to help you rebuild Stormwatch would probably be a better way to handle it, in that case.

Two reasons - well, one personal reason and one sort-of.  The sort-of is that I'm wondering if it's appropriate for that sort of thing to be happening in a game of this tone.  If I understand the GM correctly, it's based on Brave and the Bold, which is one of those lighter-toned shows.  The personal reason is that...I'm not sure I personally see Darclight as the forgiving type.  It's kind of weird, to me, that they gave this to Luke Cage and Spider-Man.  Cage is on the side of the angels, sure, but he is not a nice guy.  And Spider-Man - he never really struggled much with the 'what happens to the villains now?'  Usually his villains get defeated by him and go to jail, or they get killed by someone else.

I would argue that it actually fits pretty well as far as Brave and the Bold's tone goes, but if you don't see Darclight as the forgiving type, I suppose it can't be helped.  Perhaps your 10 XP note could involve either stopping the hunt for your chosen villain or putting him away for good, then?  That would be a slightly more event-based Milestone, but from what wander's just said, I suppose it wouldn't be that big of a problem...

That actually brought me an interesting idea - Events where there are Character-specific Milestones.  The thing I'm drawing inspiration from here is Maximum Carnage, which is one of my more favorite Spidey story arcs.  (Even if it is relatively short)  Basically, there's an Event, and a Milestone the GM creates for that Event is set for one specific hero to undertake.  I do have idea for THIS particular Milestone (based again, on Maximum Carnage), if we cast it as an Event, for the GM to hear.

Yeah.  That seems like it could work pretty well as a Science-based Milestone.  That reminds me, I've been thinking of switching up one of Darclight's Distinctions.  The 3 he had are: DEFENDER OF LIFE EVERYWHERE; STORMWATCH ORIGINAL GENERATION - RED TEAM LEADER (altered the wording); BROUGHT YOU ALL TOGETHER FOR A PURPOSE.  The lattermost was a more cerebral and manipulation-oriented one, but I'm not sure it's a really appropriate Distinction for this new incarnation.  I was thinking something Science-related.

Thoughts from the assembled table?

'I Never Actually Got My Chemistry Degree' could be a good one, based on what you've told me about your character's history. I think that Brought You All Together For A Purpose would still work pretty well, though, if you're still going to be the one trying to bring the team together in this particular game.  If not, then I could see why you might want to replace it.

[ReijiTabibito]

Ah, true, having another hero or team of heroes agree to help you rebuild Stormwatch would probably be a better way to handle it, in that case.

Yeah.  The 1xp trigger just usually requires you to do something simple - talk, use a common SFX, stuff like that.  3xp requires some degree of success, or at least effort invested into the direction the Milestone takes.

I would argue that it actually fits pretty well as far as Brave and the Bold's tone goes, but if you don't see Darclight as the forgiving type, I suppose it can't be helped.  Perhaps your 10 XP note could involve either stopping the hunt for your chosen villain or putting him away for good, then?  That would be a slightly more event-based Milestone, but from what wander's just said, I suppose it wouldn't be that big of a problem...

You think so?  GM!  Can I get a call, over here?  And I can see your point...I might be better off going with some other Milestone.  That 10xp trigger is basically what I had for a previous Milestone I cooked up for Darclight, which Guancyto suggested I set aside as an Event Milestone, rather than a character one.   But maybe...maybe.

'I Never Actually Got My Chemistry Degree' could be a good one, based on what you've told me about your character's history. I think that Brought You All Together For A Purpose would still work pretty well, though, if you're still going to be the one trying to bring the team together in this particular game.  If not, then I could see why you might want to replace it.

Yeah.  But I have two combat oriented ones - Defender of Life Everywhere; Stormwatch Original Generation - Red Team Leader (phrasing may or may not be shortened).  So I can theoretically also replace one of those (probably the first) with it.

I also came up with two more - one a pun, the other a reference.

Kiss My Acid-Base Complex
Lavoisier, Mendeleev, Arrhenius?  Morons

[wander]

He's starting to sound like Machine Man with those distinctions... xD

What I wouldn't do to play Captain in another Nextwave game... 

[Premier]

I may have introduced the GM to Nextwave over the weekend. I'm not apologizing.

[wander]

Nomnom Elsa Bloodstone nomnomnom! 

[ReijiTabibito]

NEXTWAVE:

Suck it, literary criticism!


(Points to anyone who can place this)