Superhero License...

Most importantly, of course, we know about our own stories and explanations, even when they fly in the face of all these established "facts". I believe firmly that the lore is not established on facts, but on facts that seem necessary at the time, in each instance of the universe, experienced by each player character. This is our lead designer's own belief about the way his team should approach established facts, and it fits a comic book universe that is host to many thousands of writers, if you include us and our stories. This is our world too. When we create our characters and their stories, we help create the world. Our bios don't exist in a vacuum, and in that sense our separate experiences aren't islands, but neither do we have to seek approval for our creations.

I posted that today in response to an RP thread, where the OP doesn't quite have the delivery possessed by Venture, and is under fire for informing other players exactly what sort of game world they all live in. Here is an example of what I mean by "under fire."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ardrea You must die inside a little whenever you see someone fall off a building and survive. I felt you first post was overly preachy and more of a peeve than actual advice; regardless of how you intended it to sound. This latest one though, this is just silly. Almost nothing in the game world is accurate or realistic, and trying to pin down a whole genre of character concepts to fit your conceptions of what they should be based on your own limited interpretation of a narrow real-world field is just over the top. People's characters are inspired by a long tradition of comic literature and lore that is evidently beyond you. Excuse me now, my character needs to go pick up a cache of enriched plutonium one of these street thugs happened across, and I need to get it done between dawn and dusk, which as you know is a fifteen minute window. It's okay though, since I run at 60 miles per hour, even while wearing a ridiculous costume. Mostly I worry about gunfire from snipers on local buildings, but since bullets only travel a hundred feet or so, and rarely break skin when they hit, I think I'll make it.

Not quite how I would have said it. But I empathize with the feeling of frustration, in trying to explain why it is I think this game was made purposefully vague in places. Those broad, empty spots are not for Venture to fill in. They're for you to fill in. And by you, I mean whoever is reading this (which means Venture too ). I waited all of my life to play this awesome super hero game in the tradition of the comic books, where a simple mask is still good enough, darn-it. I go to comic books because they're a light read, often as a break from science fiction that takes itself more seriously. For me, this game is an extension of that. So, thanks, Venture, but no thanks.

And no one needs to point out that this isn't the most sane and reasonable interpretation of the whole game universe, or that I might have overstated Positron's position. Maybe I did, maybe I didn't.

However, this is the ONLY option for anyone whose characters live in a universe based not just on canon lore, but their own lore and that of their fellow RPers. I accepted a long time ago that I could not separate these facets without completely invalidating my own experiences and the experiences of my in-game friends. And that's not fun.

The only solution is to live in a truly whacky universe. The water's fine over here. Really.

Identity crises happen occasionally in the comics, but they're not lurking around every corner. In the game, I can walk into the strangest situations without worrying about it, if the current plot (or my current plot) doesn't have an identity crisis on tap that evening.

At the end of the day, for most RPers, these are just stories we're telling. You go with the method that best tells the story. In comics especially, don't let those pesky little details stop you. I love the comics because I've taught myself not to take them too seriously.

Given that a solid half of the characters that I see running around the city either look like or explicitly state in their description that they are some kind of robot, demigod, demon, alien, apparition, homunculus, et cetera, it seems like any serious consideration of the super hero license as anything but an attempt to tie character creation together back when the vast majority of existing costume parts were pretty standard superhero stuff will fall apart when the de jure roleplay ideas slam into the de facto reality of the game as it's played, i.e. by a wide variety of character concepts that would have no use for a secret identity in the first place. Exhale.

I know of at least two "magic hacker" type books.

Both have some poor mundane schmuck pulled from our world to another.

One is Rick Cook's Wizard's Bane

That's ones interesting because complex spells take on a form...

His Rapid Deployment Recon Drone (R2D2) takes on a familiar form...

Then there is S. Andrew Swann's Broken Crescent.

Guy gets put into a world where ages ago, due to two gods making a bet, man went from enslaved to the enslaver of the world's original humanoid race, and did some nasty magic on them. And so the magicians of that world hate change and do not allow research.

Also, the guy happens to mention he (as a former black hat hacker) used the name Azrael - a name auto translated to "Angel of Death" by the mages' artifact (as they don't speak the hero's language), the name for the figure the original race's god gave to the tall, pale skinned human "who would teach them more of his language (the magic language) than even he could".

Anyway - in both books the "Magic Language" tends to follow the rules of good computer programming.

In the later the guy even designs a virus

I believe security level advancement is currently held by the super secret organization called F.A.R.M. They took over when official channels couldn't keep up with how quickly new heroes would rise through the security levels (it actually doesn't sound COMPLETELY implausible)

The majority of my characters are simple incapable of having a "secret identity". Kinda hard to disguise a 8.5 foot cyborg that looks like a Rhino and an Abhrams tanks had a love affair as anything else.

However there are a couple characters that while they don't go as far as duel lives or anything, they don't exactly broadcast that they are super heroes. One being an introverted extremely shy 22 year old woman just can't look someone in the face and so is very unlikely to get to a point of being able to talk to someone long enough to bring up the topic of super powers.

Another character is a school teacher that is technically speaking a magical trans-sexual. Yeah... if that little note got loose imagine how fast some parents would stop paying tuition for their kids.

In both cases it's not that they try and deceive everyone around them, they are simply selective about who knows it. The teacher has to transform into his alternate form to use his powers, so someone casually recognizing him is unlikely, while the woman wears a full head mask so people can't meet her eyes so same point.

I have one hero who has a secret identity. The organization he works for provided false documents and records to register.


Another, a magic user, caste a spell to create a hero I.D. and within the system.


So both have their secret identities covered up within the registry system.