The Gaming Den

Crissa at [unixtime wrote:1183598615[/unixtime]]Isn't predestiny the same as being born to it, Shirak?

-Crissa

But there is no predestiny involved. The Gods cannot control the Exaltations at all. They shards don't even have to go to Lytek. Celestial Exaltations are, by default, outside the purview of the Maidens because if they weren't the Primordials would win the War! Not even the Unconquered Sun can more than affect the Celestial Exaltations a little. Direct control, even in the form of being able to tell who will Exalt, is out of the question.

Think of it like this. You, as a Sidereal, can foretell that I, a mortal, will become the greatest swordfighter in the world. And this will happen because I've got the entire Loom of Fate backing me up. But a Solar can fuck up that fate by, say, taking me as her new boy-toy. The Convocation of Essence-Wielders will then need to reevaluate my Fate and determine a flexible Fate that will, eventually, they hope, lead me to becoming the greatest swordfighter in the world. And the Exalt can fuck up that Fate too.

Now, Exalts are not outside of Fate so their actions are at least somewhat predictable by Sidereal Astrology. But Celestial Exaltations were made to fuck up Fate by their very nature. So even if Malpheas gets tired of the game and orders the Maiden of Endings to kill off Solar A through Fate Manipulation, the Solar can tell Fate to fuck off and die and he can actually do that and succeed! That's what being Exalted means: the power to surpass the odds and be more than anyone else. To be a Hero.

Celestial Exaltations, as far as I can tell, are literally Outside of Fate. The Sidereals can detect the outcome of a Celestial Exaltation because, hey, there is way too much heroic sentiment and inspired dreams around Nexus so there must be a Solar around there. But there is no way to predict who will Exalt and how because the Celestial Exaltation was designed to specifically be immune to Fate manipulation and even direct control.

Just to add some more chum to the mix...

I've recently been a little overwhelmed by the idea of transhumanism in Mutants & Masterminds. Obviously superheroes are supposed to be larger than life, but I've always hated the idea that the average superhero, regardless of thier powers, can blatantly ignore armed police or soldiers.

It's not so much that I don't think superheroes should ever be bulletproof, it's just that being "bulletproof" can lose a lot of meaning if every other PC is bulletproof as well.

The same thing goes for attacks - the average soldier with a power level of 3 or 4, armed with a modern rifle, can't do nearly the amount of damage a level 10 superhero probably will. But the last time I checked, soldiers are supposed to be able to kill other people, including other soldiers. If every PC can easily surpass the damage necessary to kill someone, how impressive will any of them be to thier own players?

What I'm saying is when character abilities surpass the abilities of even the toughest background NPC, the context of having superpowers in a mortal world starts to slip away pretty fast.

Rob_Knotts at [unixtime wrote:1183706258[/unixtime]]
I've recently been a little overwhelmed by the idea of transhumanism in Mutants & Masterminds. Obviously superheroes are supposed to be larger than life, but I've always hated the idea that the average superhero, regardless of thier powers, can blatantly ignore armed police or soldiers.

Well, in general, the average superhero does do that at least over the short term. Part of being a superhero is that you can easily roll over grunts.

While not all of them are bulletproof, spiderman getting killed by a random grunt just doesn't happen. The same goes for pretty much every superhero. To simulate that, heroes should be more or less immune to grunt attacks, at least unless it's sustained firepower. After all, spider man has to neutralize the grunts or take cover eventually, but for the most part if guys are shooting at him with machine guns or whatever, they're going to miss.

As a game you want to put in some constraints that act more as a warning than anything else. Basically to prevent people playing spiderman from standing out in the open and being totally invulnerable.

As a game you want to put in some constraints that act more as a warning than anything else. Basically to prevent people playing spiderman from standing out in the open and being totally invulnerable.

That's one of the best suggestions that I've ever heard.

Maybe some sort of rule where superheroes with certain skillsets gain immunity to normal foes as long as they're taking some sort of action that provides SOME sort of narrative protection? For example, if you're Quicksilver, taking a five-foot step or making a tumble check every round is sufficient. If you're Cyclops, maintaining at least 1/4th cover is sufficient. If you're Captain America, keeping your shield up all the time is enough. If you're Punisher, killing at least two thugs every round with guns grants you immunity.

If you aren't doing these things, then your 'superhero protection' goes away and things like thugs can seriously hurt of. For larger or more terrifying groups, the difficulty of what you have to do to keep up superhero protection increases.

A list of options easy but character-relevant to accomplish. That way suspension of disbelief is held and gives characters a chance to concoct some Scooby-Doo plan to protect their nuts while going after the Big Bad.