Making superhero gear make sense (mostly Marvel related)

[Cyronax]

To be fair, let's move beyond mainstream 'cool' Marvel.

Let's go to an Avengers founder, but a relatively unpopular hero: Hank Pym.

(he's the gnome of Marvel)

He's not that great. He's billed as a wife-beater (though Spider-Man did as much, if not worse), but he returned (?) to popularity these last few years because he made his S*** work.

He's the underdog with all the gadgets, but the gadgets fail him as much as they help him. He's more than gadgets and utility belts. He's EMO in a big way .... he's all about style, alluding to points made by PirateCat, Umbran and others.

He did create Ultron afterall.

Anyway, when building a superhero setting ... just remember --- having too many pouches, baldrics, blades, or hard edges just makes you look like a cheap Rob Liefield knock-off.

Cable and Deadpool aside, nothing good came from that early 1990's style.

Why else do you think comics are in a renaissance using old Silver age concepts + modern sensibility?

BTW ... Thor's hammer should never be in the same league as Cap's Shield or the Iron Man armor.

C.I.D.

My profile is malfunctioning. Please ignore the following:

 

[prosfilaes]

It's not just the 11-foot pole mentality, it's also the combat focused mentality that pervades the way a lot of people play RPGs. Your example provides an excellent case for that. Who goes to a frat party loaded down with weaponry and the stuff needed to tend to wounds? Nobody sane. But because many people approach RPGs like they're playing a game about killing things and taking their stuff, that's what you get from superheroes, college students, Jedi, computer hackers, and even actors in It Came from the Late Late Late Show (though at least there it's funny).

If you want me to play an average college student trapped in a frat party gone wrong, try Primetime Adventures or Dread. Toss a game like Beyond the Supernatural at me, where you list hit points and attack values prominently, the first thing I start thinking of is what to do to keep the first up and make the second useful.

Not only that, victim-level horror strikes me as a genre that's not popular in RPGs for a reason: most people like to play competent, powerful even, characters. Dread and Primetime Adventures both give the player enough power to make it fun, but I can't imagine it ever being fun in a game like Beyond the Supernatural. If your players load their characters down with weaponry, maybe it's because they don't really want to play the genre.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

He's not that great. He's billed as a wife-beater (though Spider-Man did as much, if not worse)...

OK, long time comic book reader who quit 'em in 1996- when did Peter Parker get involved in a domestic violence situation?

 

[Relique du Madde]

Double post due to tapa talk timing out.

 

[Relique du Madde]

I think he's talking about the murder of Gwen Stacy. Remember, since Peter Parker was an physics honors student he cann'T claim ignorance to the laws of inertia nor the laws of gravity, thus the accidental death can be tried as murder... or manslaughter due to gross negligence.

If not that, then there is the issue of Brand New Day and the fact that since Peter and MJ were married in the church, they still are married in the eyes of the church even if the devil retconned existance for everyone but Peter Parker, because you know, an omnipotant diety knows they are married. Thus, Peter Parker is still an adulterer since he hasn't asked for his marriage to be absolved due to being thrust into a parallel reality. If he tried to get it annualed by the local priest, and the priest didn't want to do it, he could have always asked Nightcrawler (who knows about alternate realities and is a priest*).

*Edit: I forgot Nightcrawler is catholic, therefore he is unable to nullify marriages without being X-communicated.

 

[pawsplay]

Actually, I find the same is true for nearly all fiction-to-RPG; Star Wars is the one I'm most familiar with. Most of the heroes carried no more than a blaster (or lightsaber) and maybe a couple odd pieces of equipment (comlinks, Qui-Gon's breaher-mask, etc). Heck, Luke and Han only carry a utility belt after stealing off a Stormtrooper in the Death Star!

That's inaccurate. Jedi actually do carry utility belts, including a rebreather mask, a climbline, a microtronics kit, a first aid kit, spare energy cells, a communicator, and a very compact all-weather cloak. Boba Fett has more equipment than the Emperor of Greyhawk. An average stormtrooper carries a grappling line, to say nothing of a set of armor that includes a heads-up display, range finder, targeting system, climate control, and an integrated communications system. Han flies a ship with an automated antipersonnel weapon, two separate hyperdrive boosting systems, customized turrets, smuggling compartments, and a holochess board. Leia infiltrates Jabba's palace in an envirosuit, using a voice change, carrying an explosive device and a customized vibroweapon, in addition to a a concealed blaster. Luke lands on Dagobah with lanterns of eternal flame, iron rations, a hand crossbow, and a keen flaming longsword.

 

[pawsplay]

Pawsplay, thank you the effort, your comments really help my game and me as GM. I really really hope I get someone like you to play in my games some day *long look to the sky*.

Based on your responses, it seems like you are looking for plausible prima facie explanations, without mining too deeply into reality or thinking too hard. I therefore suggest that costumes should serve multiple reasonable purposes, without being a straightjacketed part of superherodom.

Some suggestions:
- Lightweight bulletproof materials, such as Batman's suit and the X-Men yellow-and-blue costumes.
- Costumes signify a social role, much like a knight's banner, a samurai's swords, or a Red Cross worker's insignia.
- Further, costumes are fighting colors, like gang members, wrestlers, sports teams, or racers. Supers might even battle over costume themes, with the battle ranging from friendly rivalry to full-contact bout to a death match, depending on the attitude of particpants.
- Many costumes have unique expalantions, such as alien tech, being magically summoned, or being some sort of traditional costume.
- Extraordinary training, in the fashion of Batman's proteges, is readily available to most heroes, so that they need depend on a minimal amount of equipment. For instance, night fighting training obviates the need for goggles except in extreme dark situations.
- Dangerous offensive powers are common that shred like kevlar like it was a lightweight woven fabric, rendering it of little to no assistance. Instead, costumes are mainly for looks, basic modesty, and durability against the user's own powers.
- There may be super designers, who offer specialized costumes like skintight heat reflective outfits.
- They may be a tradition of self-incorporated super teams, as opposed to government ops or corporate hired guns.
- Costumes may vary some from the classic look, based on some reasonable design constraints.
- Costumes may be a part of classic fight demonstrations, much as with pro wrestling, and the costumes may be "expected" when reasonable. For instance, gentleman thief types might consent to a duel with a costumed hero at a place and time, and costumes might be expected, and armor out-of-bounds.
- Maybe heroes often keep "dress costumes" for formal occasions but often use similar but stripped down versions for intrusion and combat.
- It may be legal to have powers, but illegal to use a lot of specialized security and military equipment.
- Ops gear may advertise to enemies that you have no native defensive powers.

 

[Relique du Madde]

- Ops gear may advertise to enemies that you have no native defensive powers.

OR Ops gear may be used as a misdirection.

Mr EvilBadMan: "Ha ha ha! I see your Iron Age styled Special Ops gear, Silent Stalker! I know you are powerless! Now Die!"
Silent Stalker: "Sorry, but not only am I actually left handed, but I also am Nigh Invulnerable Mutant with the power that allows me to shoot laser heat rays from my eyes."

 

[Cyronax]

OK, long time comic book reader who quit 'em in 1996- when did Peter Parker get involved in a domestic violence situation?

It happened in the 1990's during the Clone Saga (so it was the Peter and Mary Jane era still). Admittedly Peter was slightly out of his mind, but this event is often brought up as an example of one character getting a pass for something while another one doesn't. In this case I was just joking about Hank Pym being forever tied to domestic abuse, when he did more or less the same thing that Peter did.

Speaking of Clone Saga, did you get out of comics because of that horrendous story perhaps?

C.I.D.

 

[Walking Dad]

Who wants Captain America to look like this?

And the Punisher like this?