Versers sometimes like being superheroes, but it usually requires a mid-level verser as their is a power threshold that needs to be crossed before the verser can play with Dr. Morticus and Captain Sting.
However, there is a way for even a beginning verser to be a superhero. That is to adjust the norms of the world downward.
1. In Ragilikan, the not-quite human Ragil, use a different chemical for their nervous systems, neurons, and something different than ATP to power their bodies. As a side effect, this means that a Ragil can survive for twenty to thirty minutes without air quite easily.
But, the Ragil sprinter can hit two miles per hour for thirty yards before collapsing. It takes about five to ten times longer for a Ragil to move than it does for a Human.
On the plus side, Ragil live to the equivalent of a thousand years, but their years are ten times longer than Earth's.
2. In Arcanus, the Republic of Zoriander tried to deal with the threat of the Prophet's of the Goddess by sinking the emmissaries boat. The result was a tsunami that slammed the city, and even now, four decades later, everyone in the Republic is cursed.
To flee the city is death, and no one wants to come here.
But the Goddess, in her mercy, has sent for a verser to break the power of evil in the city, and to let her show kindness to them again.
This is a 'story' world. It practically demands the verser to get involved. Unlike everyone else, he does not have to look right, left, right, left every time he crosses the street. He does not have to look carefully for birds to poop in his eye, he then staggers over a banana peel, and falls into traffic in the street. No, he has ordinary Luck.
And thus he has super-luck. And somewhere in the city are the rich and powerful who refuse the teachings of the Goddess, and are trying to strangle the city in their grasp. And they will continue to do so....but a hero, an avenger of the night, a champion of the Goddess has arrived...
3. Jack is a reasonably handsome guy with a strong will (1@7 Cha, 1@8 Anmag, and 1@9 Willpower). But on Tech Planet 11049B, a repair and design center for the Galactic Genetic Board which has designed the genome of the planet with an eye toward high tech skills, and low social skills, he's the Handsomest Guy on the Planet. Which would not be such a big deal, but the GGB's empire has fallen apart, and outsiders don't come to 9B anymore (thats what they call themselves 'ninebe-ers.')
And now, there is a coalition of salesman from another planet, who have come to this one. Not very good salesman, actually pretty bad....but they're taking over the planet by coercion, charm, blackmail, theft....and the only one that can resist their fatal salesmanship is Jack...
Eric, I really hope you don't take offense to this, but I gotta ask. About a year ago, I would go on those psychotic episode rants where I would post 25 posts in a row of just gibberish. Nothing really ever came out of them. You do pretty much the same thing, as this is an example, and nothing ever comes out of them, at least as far as I can see. The difference is that, I was in a psychotic state and you're not. Like I say, don't take offense, but I was wondering.
I don't see them that way although I do see your point. There are a variety of reasons I do this. Its a form of practise in world design in a congenial environment where I can get intelligent and frequently positive feedback. Also, you can go to Lulu.com, search for 'Eric Ashley' and probably find about eight products that I'll be glad for you or someone else to buy so its not like I'm totally not producing something.
My placeholder's world product came from stuff I produced here in large part. I probably ought to scoop up a bunch of the stuff I've made here, and reuse it. I did plan on doing that with the Vampire stuff. Of course, for me its a lot easier to whip up a cool idea, than to continue on, get the stats together, edit it, and get it published.
I'm in the last stretch of my 'Darwin's World' novel. And after that, I may move on to finishing 'Annoniblogger'. And I took some of my WAW articles and produced a rough draft manuscript from them called "I, Tadeusz" (reminiscent of 'I, Claudius' in name if not subject.) I've thought that if I could get my skills in order, and my work ethic in order, I could do to Michael Moorcock what Tolkien did to Wagner, and in so doing produce a couple dozen 'Tales of Tadeusz' slim novels.
Some of this online here is practise, as I said. And being a writer can be a lonely thing, and it doesn't hurt to here 'Tad get's the creativity award'. I'm somewhat used to that from my Gamemastering. I'm getting used to that with my sketches of world design. I hope to move on to something more complicated, my novel-writing, and maybe I will eventually find 'Eric's writing is profoundly moving and insightful. Read them all.' Washington Post...
That said, yeah, in ways I'm just goofing off.
I will admit that there have been times when something inside me has complained that I did not have time for another long world design post from Eric; however, Eric is right--his posts are the seeds for worlds in ways that very few others are, and as the rule book says, Multiverser referees burn through worlds very quickly at times. I find myself rerunning familiar worlds all too often, in part because I don't have time to do the work and in part because when I am caught off guard and absolutely need a world idea right this minute I just don't always have one. Thus the fact that Eric posts these provides at least starting points for more interesting worlds. A good referee can take any of those ideas and build a world from it. At the same time, they are not marketable in that form--it's very difficult for players and budding designers to grasp this fact, that no one is interested in stealing your idea because there are plenty of other ideas just as good and yours probably is not so terribly original as you believe it to be. So what Eric offers is a large number of starting points which anyone can use to create a world if they're willing to do the work, and a good world if they're good at it.
Keep it up, Eric.
--M. J. Young
And silly me, I did not comment on the thread.
Another way to achieve the superhero effect with a relatively weak verser is to create a situation in which he is the only person who has unusual powers. Most versers pick up at least a few psionic or magic skills early in their travels. Make it possible for the verser to use those skills, however unreliably, and it gives him an edge. This is sometimes a big deal in Why Spy, where the verser spy can use his @1 skills in a world where they are completely unexpected.
There are three ways to do this.
One is the way Harry is using it right now in Mary Piper Alpha, in which the flatlined biases allow only the @1 skills (I think I allowed a M1@2 skill in there, but I don't remember with certainty), and he uses those effectively despite the fact that there are very few of them.
One is the way it works in NagaWorld, in which the biases are all 0@25 (NagaWorld really has no indigs). That means the verser can do anything but the indigs cannot, and everything is difficult. That again means he must be cautious and expect failures and botches, but he's got a greater range of possible skills from which to choose.
Finally, you can give the world high or even through-the-roof 15@10 biases in which everything is possible, and state simply that it is possible for at least some indigenous creatures to learn and use these skills but none of them do. This gives the verser the edge that all his skills are possible, and he gets the full success bonus for his bias, and the significant learning bonus for the world bias, and so he can more easily do many things that the indigs cannot. This is the more interesting, though, because once he introduces the abilities the indigs might be able to learn--he could train his own sidekick, for example, or even a team of junior supers learning skills from him. At the same time, some clever criminal mastermind might take the time to figure out how it is that the hero does all these things, and start to develop his own skill set so he can arise as adversary. (Conversely, if the verser is using his power to exploit the world, the adversary could be an indig who learns these powers in order to oppose him, making the verser the supervillain.)
So there are some other ways to do it.
--M. J. Young
It would be good if I took some of my fun off-the-top of my head ideas, and took them a step further. Maybe not all the way to publishability, but at least part. If I can get to the point where I can casually do that, then perhaps I can move on to the next step.
If some of that sounds familar its because I'm describing some of the transition from amateur to professional. (In MV rules, a pro can produce a lot more, quicker, and easier.)
But, in order to do this, I need to stick to smaller ideas. One of the problems with finishing Music Wars is that its a really big, cool idea that needs a lot of support. We will see if I can do some publishable ideas online here. Not promising anything.
With Music Wars, since it was kind of my baby, I have so many ideas floating around in the back of my mind, but I don't know how to begin to put them on paper.
For example,
Extreme, little to no magic, but they are usually bionic and armed to the teeth.
Classic Rock, earth magic. Healings, natural magic. The kind of things that Osevens would probably be into.
Death Metal, black magic, curses, things like that.
Jazz, psionic teleportation would be a big one. (Jazz just makes you feel "Transported" somehow)
Country, earth magic again.
Rap, psionic confusion. The beats get into your head and confuse you like there's no tomorrow.
Things like that. The power is in the music.
This is my advice for ALL beginning game designers: Deliberately choose a small topic to develop fully.
Like...
Take one of the elements of Music Wars and give it a new, but SIMPLE background. And keep the factors in your background limited to a few broadly sketched stereotypes, the fewer the better.
Music Wars, you could write 20,000 words on it. You're looking for somethign you can fully describe in 3,000 words.