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Help Me Understand the GURPS Design Perspective
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7849328" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>In Marvel Heroic RP, the plot point that (as per [USER=6779310]@aramis erak[/USER]'s post upthread) allows Batman's player to delcare that Batman has such-and-such a gadget on him that he prepared earlier for just such a contingency is not a resource the character has. The resource the <em>character </em>has is the gadget. And the capabilities the character has include skill in prepraging gadgets, and cleverness in anticpating when they'll be needed. The plot point is a resource that the player has which s/he can spend in accordance with the rules of the game.</p><p></p><p>Wouldn't this be on the <em>player</em>? (At least primarily.)</p><p></p><p>Given the speeds at which you are saying Superman can move, in fact he can do everything worth doing in the context of a RPG scenario effectively simultaneously.</p><p></p><p>This is a more general question that arises in any superhero fiction (and often in genre fiction more generally). In some Marvel comics (I think 70s Super-Villain Team-Ups) Magneto could control minds by manipulating blood flow in the brain by manipulating the iron in the blood. Why not do it all the time?</p><p></p><p>Superman can (you've been emphasising) travel much much faster than light, yet he doesn't race around the world stopping every act of violence, or taking every gun from every villain, before anyone can react.</p><p></p><p>Just like readers do (whether for an official No-Prize, or not) in a RPG we can construct our own explicit or implicit rationalistaions. And the system mechanics establish the rationing (eg in MHRP the GM can establish that Dr Doom was really a Doombot, but that costs points; Nick Fury can turn out to really be a Life Model Decoy, but that costs points; etc).</p><p></p><p>Playing a superhero game with the mindset and aesthetic expectations of ASL seems misguided.</p><p></p><p>You give your own counterexamples to this.</p><p></p><p>In literal terms there's no such thing as "superhero physics". There's genre convention and narrative conceit.</p><p></p><p>But this is incoherent. In our world, <em>the very same things that explain the square-cube law make it the case that there are no Pym particles or cosmic radiation </em>as those things exist in the Marvel Universes.</p><p></p><p>There's no <em>physics</em> there - in the sense of a systematic body of knowledge that explains the fundamental ways that the world is. It's all tropes - the use of particular vocabulary, paritcular sorts of fictional framing, etc - used to tell a story.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7849328, member: 42582"] In Marvel Heroic RP, the plot point that (as per [USER=6779310]@aramis erak[/USER]'s post upthread) allows Batman's player to delcare that Batman has such-and-such a gadget on him that he prepared earlier for just such a contingency is not a resource the character has. The resource the [I]character [/I]has is the gadget. And the capabilities the character has include skill in prepraging gadgets, and cleverness in anticpating when they'll be needed. The plot point is a resource that the player has which s/he can spend in accordance with the rules of the game. Wouldn't this be on the [I]player[/I]? (At least primarily.) Given the speeds at which you are saying Superman can move, in fact he can do everything worth doing in the context of a RPG scenario effectively simultaneously. This is a more general question that arises in any superhero fiction (and often in genre fiction more generally). In some Marvel comics (I think 70s Super-Villain Team-Ups) Magneto could control minds by manipulating blood flow in the brain by manipulating the iron in the blood. Why not do it all the time? Superman can (you've been emphasising) travel much much faster than light, yet he doesn't race around the world stopping every act of violence, or taking every gun from every villain, before anyone can react. Just like readers do (whether for an official No-Prize, or not) in a RPG we can construct our own explicit or implicit rationalistaions. And the system mechanics establish the rationing (eg in MHRP the GM can establish that Dr Doom was really a Doombot, but that costs points; Nick Fury can turn out to really be a Life Model Decoy, but that costs points; etc). Playing a superhero game with the mindset and aesthetic expectations of ASL seems misguided. You give your own counterexamples to this. In literal terms there's no such thing as "superhero physics". There's genre convention and narrative conceit. But this is incoherent. In our world, [I]the very same things that explain the square-cube law make it the case that there are no Pym particles or cosmic radiation [/I]as those things exist in the Marvel Universes. There's no [I]physics[/I] there - in the sense of a systematic body of knowledge that explains the fundamental ways that the world is. It's all tropes - the use of particular vocabulary, paritcular sorts of fictional framing, etc - used to tell a story. [/QUOTE]
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