Things I May No Longer Do While Playing 13: This Is A Banned List Not A Drinking Game

[Lord Raziere]

Honestly, If I were doing something like X-men, I'd instead make all the mutants have one power called "Zapslinger" they would all shoot lightning from their fingertips but it'd only as powerful as a hand pistol. No more dangerous than an actual firearm. this would make the metaphor clearer as while they'd have a power that normal people don't, they wouldn't actually be more dangerous than a person with an actual gun and the comic would open with a normal student doing a school shooting out of revenge for some bullying from other normal people while some Zapslinger with some control, shoots to stun the person rather than kill him but gets punished for using their power at all. the shooter and the zapslinger would live while various students would die from the shooter's actions and it would go into an examination of how humans don't need superpowers to kill each other and be dangerous and how prejudice can make people overlook the flaws that are already present within ourselves by projecting it onto others. the zapslinger would of course get taught lessons about responsible use of power and safety and such and how they were lucky that that they didn't kill the shooter themselves.

now examining this with someone more powerful than humans like Magneto, Superman, Jean Grey and so on....thats a different issue requiring a different story, and isn't comparable to the Zapslinger metaphor. imagine a mutant type called "Exploder" much rarer and can blow up a city. No ability to restrain this ability or empower it, just when its used, an explosion that can take out a city, happens. to keep the setting modern and normal, not only is this power rare, most people who have it probably don't even KNOW they have it, because the circumstances where they'd discover it would cause a lot of destruction because how would they know they can do this themselves unless it has been used at least once? But government scientists found the one person of an Exploder type mutant they know of from a crater caused in anger, perhaps in the ruins of a small town far away from most metropolises and extrapolated from studying them, that there are a very small number of Exploders on planet Earth- even at the billions we have now, their numbers would maybe be a hundred at the most. the one Exploder person would be distraught and depressed that they caused this and would be afraid of 99 other people having it and the agents involved would have incentive to track down these people and figure out if they have this Exploder gene before even the person themselves knows about it and figure out what to do with them, because if they try to forcefully take them they could make the Exploder angry and take them all out as well as the surrounding area, ending more lives than saving them if they are not careful, yet something must be done or who knows when an Exploder will accidentally cause this again? Worse, what if someone who wants to use this power to destroy their enemies figures it out it exists? it would be a look into how such a power would be more of a curse than a blessing for those that have it, what the ethical thing to do about this would be for those tasked with keeping people safe, and how its completely unfair to normal people who through a quirk of genetics got something that could ruin their whole life and the lives for those around them for no reason. emphasis would be placed on none of the Exploders turning evil or wanting to use their power at all- they'd just be victims of something they can't control and the people around them trying to figure out what to do about their existence.

* May not be inspired by X-men to make focused stories about superpowers that eschew them being unique or cool for the sake of a storytelling metaphor

[danielxcutter]

When you have individuals roughly equivalent to WMDs, the calculus does shift somewhat, yes.

Preeeeeeetty sure that most mutants in X-Men are closer to your former example than the latter though.

[Rater202]

When you have individuals roughly equivalent to WMDs, the calculus does shift somewhat, yes.

Preeeeeeetty sure that most mutants in X-Men are closer to your former example than the latter though.

The majority of mutants have powers like "I'm blue" or "I poop ice cream." When they have powers at all.

Mutants with practical or dangerous powers are a large minority.

The "living WMD" mutants are the smallest number and most of them didn't start that way.

[danielxcutter]

Yeah, checks out. WMD level powers are uncommon enough that they can be dealt with on a personalized basis?

[Rater202]

Yeah, checks out. WMD level powers are uncommon enough that they can be dealt with on a personalized basis?

The earliest known mutant was born 17 thousand years ago, not counting time travel. At the highest measured population, mutants numbered at about 16 million.

In all that time, with all of those numbers, there has been exactly two mutants whose power posed an immediate risk to a large number of individuals upon activation. One of them immediately gained control of it, the other was only a threat n the first place because she was panicking after being attacked in response to her powers activating.

[Anonymouswizard]

Eh, when there's eventually billions of mutants somebody's going to eventually develop recursive supernova powers. Having a working method to deactivate dangerous powers and then have them reactivate slowly is going to be useful. Plus some kind of power limiter for people as passively dangerous as Rogue to snog without killing their partners.

Plus some day people who's powers cause immortality will want to die. You can argue whether or not it's moral, and there's always the possibility of healing factors and the like burning out before then (as I believe happens to Logan in some futures), but it's another reason to potentially want a stock of 'cure'.


* My superhero cannot spend all their points on five Sidekicks.
** My sidekicks cannot spend all their points on giant aerospace vehicles.

[danielxcutter]

Yeah, that was more or less what I was thinking. The "cure" was more or less thinly-justified racism in-setting in terms of implementation, not going to argue that.

[Rater202]

Eh, when there's eventually billions of mutants somebody's going to eventually develop recursive supernova powers. Having a working method to deactivate dangerous powers and then have them reactivate slowly is going to be useful. Plus some kind of power limiter for people as passively dangerous as Rogue to snog without killing their partners.

1: They have that, it's called "a telepath puts in a slowly degrading mental block."

2: Likewise, the solution to someone like Rogue is "psychotherapy to overcome whatever trauma creates the mental block that prevents the regulation of their powers."

[Anonymouswizard]

1: They have that, it's called "a telepath puts in a slowly degrading mental block."

A) you're assuming there are telepaths available.

B) Yeah, like I'd want someone messing about in my head when there's a reliable injection.

C) Actually, I'm not sure I want a telepath messing about in my head at all.

The way that the various Marvel Universes treat mutants is as bad as how 40k treats Psykers. That doesn't mean that some of the tools they use don't have productive uses. A short term suppressor is much better than a permanent cure, I'm not even against weaponising such a thing.

2: Likewise, the solution to someone like Rogue is "psychotherapy to overcome whatever trauma creates the mental block that prevents the regulation of their powers."

From my admittedly limited experience of Marvel, there's no implication that Rogue's powers aren't working exactly as they're supposed to. So from the point of view of the films the suppression is a legitimately useful thing for Rogue.

Rogue's in a weird situation where her powers can potentially be incredibly useful, but she lacks the ability to live a normal life without medication. We probably want a suppressor with a shorter length than the one in the film, but it's a good way for her to manage her disability.

...hell that's a character I can add to the superhero/urban fantasy story I have on the back burner. Somebody who uses medication to help manage an automatic power (probably some kind of temperature control).

[Rockphed]

he's draining magic energy from star gods made of hyper-technology to heal magically. this is kind of explanation you get when too many nerds over decades point out all the other explanations don't scientific sense and the writers just want them to shut up already and enjoy the comic.

* My superhero may not be powered by soda
** Their powers may not depend on which soda they consume
*** Their story may not be about how they to deal with an addiction to soda as a result of their powers
**** Or deal with having to hide their need for soda so that corporations don't find out and try to make deals with the hero, not wanting to sell out to them.

I present Michiganman! He flies when he drinks Vernors, gets various powers from Faygo, and can teleport anywhere in Michigan by pointing at his hand.

* My superhero cannot spend all their points on five Sidekicks.
** My sidekicks cannot spend all their points on giant aerospace vehicles.

Are you playing Coran? Or the guy who tells the power ranges what to do?

[Rater202]

A) you're assuming there are telepaths available.

B) Yeah, like I'd want someone messing about in my head when there's a reliable injection.

C) Actually, I'm not sure I want a telepath messing about in my head at all.

The way that the various Marvel Universes treat mutants is as bad as how 40k treats Psykers. That doesn't mean that some of the tools they use don't have productive uses. A short term suppressor is much better than a permanent cure, I'm not even against weaponising such a thing.

Most of the mutant cures arne't temporary. You take the shot and the best case scenario is yur powers are gone forever.

The hope fomula had a temporary ersion, but overdosing on it made the effects permenant(it was a matter of concentration) and the creator destroyed it when she realized that it was being used as a terror weapon by anti-mutant hate groups.

The worst-case scenario? X-Cise didn't actually make someone not a mutant, it chemically lobotomized them, destroying the part of their brain that regulated their powers.

Beyond that, telepathy is literally the most common mutant power.

From my admittedly limited experience of Marvel, there's no implication that Rogue's powers aren't working exactly as they're supposed to.

That wasn't a made-up example. Canonically the reason Rogue's powers don't turn off is because she first used them by accident while kissing a boy and the one-two punch of suddenly having his memories and him ending up in a coma traumatized her and gave her a psychological block that prevented her from regulating her powers.

She overcame this block and was then able to regulate her powers as normal, barring a few incidents where nostalgic writers try to screw her over for the nostalgia but those incidents never last long.

This is, canonically, the case for every mutant who can't regulate their powers. Likewise, Scott Summers is supposed to be able to turn off his optic blasts, but he has brain damage. And sometimes you get control issues if your powers awaken prematurely, like the little girl with dream manifestation powers that got shaken awake by night terrors.

Unless your mutant power is "I'm an antropmorfic cat" or "I have a healing factor," ot the like, it's supposed to turn off. The Celestials put time and effort into guiding the course of human evolution to create a superpowered species for a reason, they put in safety measures to stop them from accidentally going extinct.

*I'm not allowed to point out that Psykers actually being a potential gateway for Chaos and not having inbuilt safety measures into their powers means that comparing them to Mutants doesn't scan.
**The most about comparison in 40K would be the actual mutants.
***Even then, I think Marvel Mutants have it worse. There's no cult in 40K kidnapping mutant/psyker children in order to harvest their organs and graft them to others to get their powers while telling the mutants/psykers that they're being bigoted against baseline humans for not wanting to be murdered for their organs.

[danielxcutter]

I mean, using medicine to treat symptoms or take the edge off is very common IRL. That seems like it’d be the next logical step.

Also re: psykers… well, WH40K. Do I actually have to explain that?

[Anonymouswizard]

Are you playing Coran? Or the guy who tells the power ranges what to do?

If I could find a GM who doesn't ban it at first mention the characters' first complication/disadvantage would be 'cannot walk convincingly'. Also one of the sidekicks never participates in actual operations, they pretty much just relay communications.


On Rogue, I think her having control over her powers is actually less interesting. This isn't just from an 'oh woe is me' point of view, you can spin plots out of her need for accomodations and/or mitigations. Like there's an entire movie possible just in the fact that Storm and Rogue are disagreeing over the 'cure'.

But then again Marvel's probably run out of interesting things to do with the Marvel Universe, you can't throw a stone without hitting 80 years of lore telling you that it wouldn't bounce that way. It's probably time to wrap it up and start a new story with new characters.

I'll also tell the psykers being fed to the ancient corpse to be happy they're not being killed for a different reason.

[Rater202]

I'll also tell the psykers being fed to the ancient corpse to be happy they're not being killed for a different reason.

Do you have any idea how much human sacrifice happens in the Imperium? Every single sanctified Bolter bolt has a dead human behind it. The Psykers aren't special in that regard.

But they aren't having their organs ripped out while they're alive and conscious by some ******* who wants their powers.

[Anonymouswizard]

Do you have any idea how much human sacrifice happens in the Imperium? Every single sanctified Bolter bolt has a dead human behind it. The Psykers aren't special in that regard.

Am I trying to claim the Imperium are good guys in any way?

But they aren't having their organs ripped out while they're alive and conscious by some ******* who wants their powers.

Given the sheer scale of the Imperium it's more than possible. But psykers also have to face other forms of torment and being used as living tools (and sanctioning is not exactly a pleasant process). Much of the Imperium literally treats them as subhuman.

They don't have to go through the exact same ****, but they do have to go through roughly same magnitude of ****. Unless you're saying that having your soul devoured by an immortal bastard is pleasant

[Rater202]

They don't have to go through the exact same ****, but they do have to go through roughly same magnitude of ****. Unless you're saying that having your soul devoured by an immortal bastard is pleasant

Given that the forces of Chaos control the Warp and the Warp is the afterlife, I'm pretty sure literally everyone goes through that sooner or later.

The ones Sacrificed to the Emporer are the lucky ones.

[Lord Raziere]

***Even then, I think Marvel Mutants have it worse. There's no cult in 40K kidnapping mutant/psyker children in order to harvest their organs and graft them to others to get their powers while telling the mutants/psykers that they're being bigoted against baseline humans for not wanting to be murdered for their organs.

**** Y'know, Just an entire galatic Empire genociding them whenever they aren't lazy about it and getting away with it without any heroes or hope of escaping.
***** your foolish if you think there aren't cults in 40k who'd do exactly that, fanaticism and hypocrisy are constants in the humans of 40k.
****** Technically Chaos often recruits mutants to join their cause THEN they get slaughtered by the Imperium which is worse then merely getting killed before they join, because that means their souls get to be tortured by the Chaos gods for all eternity.

[danielxcutter]

Also it’s WH40K, aka the origin of the term “grimdark”. Well, more like grimderp honestly.

[Anonymouswizard]

Grimtire. 10 chats

[TeChameleon]

Warhammer 40k: Where everyone and everything in the entire universe is hangry, cranky and needs a nap.

As an aside, there's already a safe, effective way to shut off mutant powers in the Marvel Universe- Genoshan Inhibitor Collars. Slim one of those down to a choker or a bracelet or whatever that can be easily removed by the wearer when they want, and voila, no problems with uncontrollable powers. Honestly, I think writers just ignore those because they want to milk more 'drama' out of some weird mutant 'cure'. Again.

* My superhero must have a goal other than 'force all the canon heroes to swap rogues' galleries', no matter how funny it would be to see Lex Luthor get his head handed to him by Aquaman, or have the Joker slowly go even crazier because every time he tries something, the Flash has him back in Arkham Asylum between blinks. Also, whoever got Wonder Woman's rogues' gallery would be ****ed.

** No, the goal can't be 'eat Amazo's heart to gain his power', either.
- Because "Cannibalman" was never an allowed superhero concept, and Amazo doesn't have a heart anyways.

*** "Getting a happy ending for the X-Men" doesn't work either; you have to choose an achievable goal. Hamfisted racism allegories don't get happy endings.

[danielxcutter]

I mean, "milking the setting for moar drama" kinda explains... a lot about modern long-running comic books.

[Metastachydium]

Do you have any idea how much human sacrifice happens in the Imperium? Every single sanctified Bolter bolt has a dead human behind it. The Psykers aren't special in that regard.

But they aren't having their organs ripped out while they're alive and conscious by some ******* who wants their powers.

Also it’s WH40K, aka the origin of the term “grimdark”. Well, more like grimderp honestly.

Grimtire.

Meh. Marvel is trying a bit too hard to grow up to that task.
[Mutant 1: Huh. This week's attempted genocide seems to be late.
Mutant 2: [Checks calendar.] Hm. Yeah, it's thursday and there's nothing yet. Weird.
Mutant 1: Right?
Mutant 2: Yeah. Hrm. You think this means they'll do two next week?]

[Rater202]

Meh. Marvel is trying a bit too hard to grow up to that task.
[Mutant 1: Huh. This week's attempted genocide seems to be late.
Mutant 2: [Checks calendar.] Hm. Yeah, it's thursday and there's nothing yet. Weird.
Mutant 1: Right?
Mutant 2: Yeah. Hrm. You think this means they'll do two next week?]

I know you're joking, but they actually managed to go three years between genocides this time.

[Lord Raziere]

* May not derail the joke thread with talks of marvel cyclical storytelling

* May not a make a superhero who was taught a Superhero Code similar to a knights one as basically a list of behaviors Superman would approve of
** Then have in their backstory, break it and be treated like a ronin who has dishonored themselves

* May not make a new kind of superpower based entirely on having the power of a single verb
** Verb Use: Stop is an abstract power that can be applied to many things, but Stop: Saying Memes is probably abusing it
*** so is Stop: Being Serious
**** Start: Hilarity will have inconsistent results
***** Prank: The world is only funny so many times.
****** Punch: Despair is not the way to solve depression
******* Verb Users are overpowered and ridiculous.

[Rater202]

* May not a make a superhero who was taught a Superhero Code similar to a knights one as basically a list of behaviors Superman would approve of
** Then have in their backstory, break it and be treated like a ronin who has dishonored themselves

***May not make a Chi User who takes "The Way of The Spider" too seriously and seeks to achieve enlightenment through the emulation of Spider-Man.

[thorr-kan]

I present Michiganman! He flies when he drinks Vernors, gets various powers from Faygo, and can teleport anywhere in Michigan by pointing at his hand.

What about the rest of the state?! Friggin' Troll regionalist...
^THIS is a Joke. If you are Not From Michigan, I am going ruin it by Explaining The Joke.

The Lower Peninsula is shaped like a mitten. And Michiganders do indeed greet each other by holding out a hand and pointing. Those of us from the *other* third of the state (the Upper Peninsula) shake our heads and say, "Above the Bridge!"

Since LP residents live Under the Bridge, they are, by definition, Trolls...

Regional and National media have a tendency to assume the UP is part of Canada, or even worse, delete it from visual representations entirely. At least the majority of LP residents remember the UP exists...

*Banned from playing Michiganman. Because I totally would.
**Banned from playing a Wolverine based on the state's official animal and the mascot of the REAL UoM. Because I would do it...
***We don't TALK ABOUT the *terrible, terrible* superhero parodies I stated up in the MSH RPG back in the 80s, living in Michigan. Any resemblance to persons living or dead was entirely intentional, and some of those people could still find me...
****Not allowed to flog this equine corpse anymore, Halloween or not.

[D&D_Fan]

* Your alternate geographic history USA setting cannot have East Dakota and West Dakota as divided by the Missouri river.
** While it makes sense initially, the north-south placement creates further buffering between the USA and Canada.
*** North and South Virginia, on the other hand.
**** Almost heaven...
***** North Virginia (N. Virginia would have the Blue Ridge Mountains, and Shenandoah valley in it...)
****** Yeah no, it doesn't have the same ring to it.
******* North Virginia Man cannot fight Michiganman.

[Rockphed]

What about the rest of the state?! Friggin' Troll regionalist...

When I want to point out a location on the lower peninsula, I point to my right hand. When I want to point to a location on the upper peninsula I point to my left hand. It isn't as good a map but it works decently. Houghton is on my right thumb knuckle. Green bay is on the webbing between my right ring and pinky fingers. (I may have accidentally annexed Green Bay and the peninsula south of it now that I look at a proper map). No, what he cannot do is teleport to Isle Royale.

* Ohioman does not have the power of "Heart".
* New-York-man is not part alligator. Neither is Floridaman.
** Neither of them can summon alligators to do their bidding.
*** Alligators do not have thumbs and cannot open doors.
* Utahman is not just an angry swarm of bees.
* Idahoman must have some non-potato powers.
* Texasman is not Chip Gaines. Just because the two of them have never been seen in the same room does not make one the secret identity of the other.
** Texasman is also not Joanna Gaines. Besides, what sort of superpowers do you get in a freak interior design accident?

[Lord Raziere]

* Washington State Man does not have the power to make it rain whenever they want
** Nor does he have some technopathic power over all digital devices.
*** finally they do not have the power to summon a ferry to get to anywhere they want.

* may not make a superhero campaign of a team of new villains that try to infiltrate a big superhero organization separately and are all assigned to work together. Each one thinking the other four are heroes.
** they may not try to pass for heroes and end up gradually becoming heroes and comrades for real.
*** may not find themselves facing a problem of what do about their double agent status to the five villain organizations they came from and keeping the secret of their spy status to each other and the superhero organization they're apart of.

[Lord Torath]

**** May not keep the players in the dark as well, as to the double-agent status of the rest of the team.