I guess? I wanted to stress that there are things they would give up their capacity to be a super for (to make the game interesting) but nothing they'd give up their access to their own intelligence for (because it felt important for character consistency). Is there any way you think they can be made more distinct or shuffled around to encourage more interesting play?
L: @NonSequtur let's do some thinkerating, shall we? Just building a basic interstellar ship would presumably be pretty cheap, but there's way more considerations to building a viable interstellar slowboat than just that. For one thing, a Generation Ship needs to be sociologically viable. For humans, that means it needs a minimum population of somewhere in the 20,000-50,000 range. Probably more.
That on its own massively increases the required Effort for a viable colony ship, and then you need to account for the fact that interstellar space isn't exactly safe, especially not when you're boosting along at a noticeable fraction of c. That adds even more mass for ablative shielding, more propellant to get that shielding up to speed, and so forth.
So... we'd say 24-30 Effort feels like a fair price for a Generation Ship with a 90%+ chance of mission success. And that's with the costs being subsidized via cheap launch options like a Lofstrom Loop, or sourcing most of the materials from Lunar resources. And unlike colonies still in the solar system, there won't be any return on investment in the game's timeframe.
Honestly I just feel like this is a genre thing. Like yes, what you're doing isn't unreasonable in a sane world, but it totally undermines the narrative of the game and gives people a win condition where they can step out of the game where it's intended that we're all playing the one game and need to compromise with the one earth we have.
Honestly I just feel like this is a genre thing. Like yes, what you're doing isn't unreasonable in a sane world, but it totally undermines the narrative of the game and gives people a win condition where they can step out of the game where it's intended that we're all playing the one game and need to compromise with the one earth we have.
L: You misunderstand. Ranka Divya will not be on the Generation Ship. Earth still needs her to get as many people as possible to safety before The Big One.
N: Basically, instead of a binary "yes/no", our 'win condition' is analog.
L: You misunderstand. Ranka Divya will not be on the Generation Ship. Earth still needs her to get as many people as possible to safety before The Big One.
N: Basically, instead of a binary "yes/no", our 'win condition' is analog.
Neither the US nor the USSR could unilaterally avoid losing the game. They either had to win the game, and prove their economic theory right, or establish a detente that could last without fears of MAD basically forever. A feat that required mutual concessions.
That's why there's the whole "there's no other light in the universe rule" I don't think it was intended that such a rule remain true for the first couple of turns, but stop being a rule once enough in game resources are in the task.
C: Then in that analogy, setting up self-sustaining apocalypse bunkers all over the solar system would be the equivalent of proving our economic theory right.
C: Then in that analogy, setting up self-sustaining apocalypse bunkers all over the solar system would be the equivalent of proving our economic theory right.
But the US or USSR couldn't do that without proving the other one wrong. Without engaging in conflict. Critically, you can do that, then engage in conflict with other powers. Then lose or surrender in that conflict and still have won the game.
The US couldn't prove itself right without proving the USSR wrong. (Or just letting it collapse rather.)
I guess? I wanted to stress that there are things they would give up their capacity to be a super for (to make the game interesting) but nothing they'd give up their access to their own intelligence for (because it felt important for character consistency). Is there any way you think they can be made more distinct or shuffled around to encourage more interesting play?
Well the concern is that like, strategically, once you've lost the ability to exercise power you've kind of lost the ability to have a say? Which like, perhaps your character is buried underneath the Earth and still 'alive', but you are mechanically 'dead but for a Second Strike'. And if the avatar is easier to replace then you're basically saying Priority 10: don't get into a dangerous fight, Priority 15: don't die.
C: Then in that analogy, setting up self-sustaining apocalypse bunkers all over the solar system would be the equivalent of proving our economic theory right.
The issue isn't about being right it's about changing the game-state and, to an extent, being part of the game. Why should a character be let in if their ideal game plan is 'spend double-digit effort per turn in a way that steps on nobody's toes, then get mentioned in the final update after the world got blown up as Having Successfully Made Generation Ships, congratulations'?
To which the answer would have to be a) other players force them to engage b) they play out the tragedy of Etienne The Ethical and end up burning all their effort on short-term keeping the world from blowing up problems rather than building a generation ship. The former can lead to bad blood if it's not like, accepted that yeah your characters dreams might not come to anything and also everyone is gunning for you, and the latter is basically the former but self-inflicted.
This is not SMAC, there aren't science victories. This is DEFCON. If I post something saying 'hey, <this character> has figured out how to break a game rule' that's a sign that <that character> should and will get jumped. Get crab bucketed. Welcome to The Madman Theory.
Well the concern is that like, strategically, once you've lost the ability to exercise power you've kind of lost the ability to have a say? Which like, perhaps your character is buried underneath the Earth and still 'alive', but you are mechanically 'dead but for a Second Strike'. And if the avatar is easier to replace then you're basically saying Priority 10: don't get into a dangerous fight, Priority 15: don't die.
Yeah, that's fair. Is it okay to note that unless someone doubles down and destroys the crystal a defeated Lightblade will still be academically alive to watch on with horror and leave it off the Agenda then? Or would you rather me scrap the whole "Two stage killing thing." and just worry about staying in one piece in the conventional way?
fuck it, i'm deeply unoriginal, so i decided to just copy one of my characters from a previous superhero game
BRAVO
BACKGROUND:
They called her Subject Bravo.
The United States had always looked to the future when it came to military might, ready to pour hundreds of billions into the next black budget project proposed by Lockheed Martin or DARPA. Such was America's disposition that, at the height of the Cold War, DARPA began work on their very own superhuman development project.
According to leaked documentation in the wake of Bravo's awakening, the project had been going on since the early 70s, almost thirty years. Twelve to develop the necessary genetic editing technology, seventeen to figure out how to grow a biological nuclear reactor from recombinant DNA, and only one to actually clone the organism and feed her brain with combat data and the philosophical underpinnings of "western civilization". She was to be the United States's ultimate strategic weapon, an atomic bomb with legs.
Barely a week after 9/11, Bravo was woken.
Major Public Actions of Bravo:
2001
September 14th
Bravo is woken as part of Operation Noble Eagle, America's initial home response to 9/11.
Psychological evaluation shows that Bravo, by all accounts, has the personality of a normal human being, albeit with a deep love for "the West".
October 1st
After a period of observation, Bravo's abilities are tested at the Nevada Test Site. The resulting flashes and mushroom clouds are spotted by Las Vegas residents sixty-five miles away.
October 3rd
Bravo's existence is revealed to the American public by President Bush, who declares her America's "ultimate anti-superhuman deterrence system".
October 7th
Operation Enduring Freedom begins. The Joint Chiefs of Staff immediately begin planning to use Bravo to seek and destroy Taliban armies.
October 29th
Bravo is airdropped alongside a Delta Force team into Afghanistan.
November 9th
Fall of Mazar-i-Sharif. In lieu of American air support, Bravo instead obliterates encamped Taliban defenders outside the city with her atomic breath.
November 14th
Battle of Qala-i-Jangi. Following an uprising by over 400 prisoners of war at the Qala-i-Jangi, Bravo is deployed and annihilates the uprising.
November 21st
Battle with an unidentified superhuman Taliban soldier who had survived Qala-i-Jangi. Taliban soldier apparently vaporized.
November 26th
Second battle with the Taliban soldier. The soldier is apparently vaporized.
November 30th
Battle of Tora Bora. Bravo obliterates Osama bin Laden's mountain hideout with over 100 kilotons of force. Death of Osama bin Laden.
December 1st
Following the disappearance of an entire American infantry division near Kabul, Bravo fights with the Taliban soldier for a third time. Resulting battle sees the destruction of the 75th Ranger Regiment, much of the American occupation forces in Afghanistan, three B-52 bombers, and thirty percent of the Hindu Kush mountain range. Both combatants are forced to retreat after receiving grievous wounds.
December 5th
American withdrawal from Afghanistan.
2002
January 10th
In the wake of the sudden emergence of superhumans, North Korea announces its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran follows soon afterwards, to the utter dismay of the Bush administration.
February 1st
An alleged assassination attempt is made by Iraqi agents on the life of President Bush on a diplomatic visit to Kuwait. Following the example of former President Clinton in 1993, Bush decides on retaliation.
February 21st
Bravo (accompanied by British superpower Insight) is deployed to Baghdad on a punitive strike as part of a prelude to the American invasion of Iraq. The headquarters of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, three Iraqi tank columns, and Uday Hussein (who had commandeered a Republican Guard battalion) are destroyed in the ensuing battle.
February 23rd
In the face of condemnation from undeveloped nations, Bush reaffirms the right of America to preemptively deploy Bravo against "terrorist threats".
July 24th
Bravo participates in the Millenium Challenge 2002 wargames, in which she, despite severe constraints on her movements, is able to "mission kill" four US carrier strike groups in under ten minutes.
October 15th
A CIA report indicates that North Korea and Iran have established their own superhuman development programs.
2003
February 13th
Bravo, after overhearing discussions between her handlers about North Korea and Iran, openly questions why she hasn't been deployed to eliminate the enemies of Western democracy, culture, and civilization. She requests a meeting with President Bush.
February 15th
Bravo meets with President Bush. Reports indicate he was shaken after the meeting.
April 12th
Bravo is deployed to strike an identified Iranian nuclear reactor. Iranian media reports that four hundred and thirty nine civilians were killed.
May 13th
In response to Iranian threats to blockade the Hormuz Strait, Bravo is deployed to strike an identified Iranian superhuman research site. Iranian media reports that three hundred and fifty six civilians were killed.
May 17th
Bravo is deployed in Operation Praying Mantis II in retaliation for a speedboat attack on the USS Kidd during Iran's blockade of Hormuz. 70% of Iran's navy is destroyed in under an hour.
August 5th
A second meeting is held between Bravo and President Bush. Details are classified.
September 11th
On the second anniversary of 9/11, North Korea conducts its first nuclear test with a yield of fifteen kilotons. The test sparks fierce condemnation from an America still dealing with egg from its face from Afghanistan. Plans are drawn up for an extra-judicial strike on North Korea's nuclear reactors following the example of Operation Opera.
September 13th
Bravo is deployed to destroy North Korea's only nuclear reactor, cutting through an infantry brigade and a quarter of the DPRK air force in the process. In desperation, a twenty-kiloton nuclear bomb is deployed by North Korea against Bravo to no effect. Before Bravo can retaliate, the People's Republic of China intervenes with their own Superpower: Hu Jintao, the leader of China. Bravo is forced to withdraw with the nuclear reactor remaining intact.
December 25th
A third meeting is held between Bravo and President Bush. Details are classified.
2004
January 1st
Bravo is honorably discharged from the United States military, effectively freeing her from the President's orders. She relocates herself and her military entourage to the state of Hawaii, which hosts a Republican pro-Bravo Governor and legislature. Hawaii is now effectively under Bravo's control.
AGENDA:
15: MAINTAIN AMERICAN NUCLEAR, MILITARY, CULTURAL, AND SUPERPOWER DOMINANCE
13: SURVIVE
10: INFLUENCE THE FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES
8: BECOME PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
5: WRITE A BOOK THAT SETS OUT BRAVO'S IDEOLOGICAL AIMS
0.1: KISS A GIRL
PERSONALITY:
Classified psychological evaluations conducted by the United States indicate psychopathic tendencies and a near total devotion to the concept of "the West". It, however, is unknown how Bravo defines "the West", rendering her at the best of times a loose cannon. She appears cold and emotionally distant from most of humanity apart from a small group of people, yet has managed to cultivate a small political following through her actions and a knack for public speaking.
SUPERPOWER:
Bravo is a walking thermonuclear reactor, capable of projecting highly destructive atomic energy from her mouth at extreme long range or emitting it in a pulse from her own body (she can even direct her atomic pulses in a manner akin to an Orion Drive, allowing her to fly). She is able to scale the range and damage and even the radioactivity of her atomic breath; she can choose to merely destroy a building, or annihilate a small city sixty kilometers away with a 300 kiloton burst. Theoretically she could blow the International Space Station out of orbit.
In order to contain her destructive energy, the American scientists who created her gifted her body incredible durability and strength, which allowed her to shrug off a North Korean nuclear strike. Her running speed has been measured at 600 miles per hour, while her underwater swimming speed has been recorded at an astonishing 1400 miles per hour (and counting), with scientists speculating that this is due to supercavitation. Her flight speed has been recorded to exceed Mach 10. Although Bravo still emits higher than average background radiation, her honorable discharge by President Bush also included a prototype armored hazardous environment suit, allowing her to sit at the same table with other humans.
The Americans made several other modifications to her body, mostly animalistic in nature. Dorsal fins erupt from her back and a newly gained reptilian tail. Pitch-black keltoid scars cover her body, appearing almost like scales. She even has gills on her neck, allowing her to breathe underwater.
SECOND STRIKE (20/20):
Bravo's body contains carcinogenic radioactive elements and a biological thermonuclear reactor that routinely outputs energy comparable to that of the Sun. At best, her death would result in a nuclear meltdown that outstrips Chernobyl multiple times in scale and raise cancer rates worldwide by a factor of ten. At worst, the resulting thousand megaton nuclear detonation would annihilate an area two times the size of Belarus and blow a hole in the Earth's crust.
APPEARANCE:
Bravo is a woman twenty to thirty years in age. She stands at six foot five and regularly wears military-style fatigues, along with her armored hazardous environment suit. Her tail and reptilian features distinguish her rather easily in a crowd.
I just thought having someone who would be willing to lose the game in surrender under the condition of someone tracking down their secret weakness and threatening them with it, but not under the condition of someone threatening to smash them into buts conventionally could be interesting.
'Create A Better World' as a top-line Agenda item is a bit unclear. Since you've already got 'prevent mass death' as a Priority 10 which is... that's already going to drag you into a lot of things. Generally speaking Agenda items above Survive should be viewed through their defensive interpretation as much, if not more, than their offensive one. This is advice that applies to a lot of people - remember that Agenda items are also your passive, get involved in some bullshit triggers.
14 Prevent Armageddon
12 Survive
10 Do Not Kill
8 Advance Human Prosperity
In this case, it would still be a major goal to prevent normal mass death (instrumental to advancing prosperity), but not a sort of drop-everything goal until someone decides to go nuclear.
Yeah, that's fair. Is it okay to note that unless someone doubles down and destroys the crystal a defeated Lightblade will still be academically alive to watch on with horror and leave it off the Agenda then? Or would you rather me scrap the whole "Two stage killing thing." and just worry about staying in one piece in the conventional way?
I just thought having someone who would be willing to lose the game in surrender under the condition of someone tracking down their secret weakness and threatening them with it, but not under the condition of someone threatening to smash them into buts conventionally could be interesting.
Well, the decision matrix here is like- in order to threaten the crystal they presumably have to be able to beat the avatar, right? And if they threaten the crystal and say 'destroy your avatar and I won't kill you' the crystal has lost its only source of defence anyway, nothing will keep them from killing the crystal afterwards except the Second Strike, but if you know a Second Strike is coming and have free time you can do a lot to reduce the impact.
And even if nobody knows where the crystal is, that's basically just praying nobody finds it in the future or blows up wherever it is on accident. Which might be better than having an actively antagonistic Superpower, but it's still really not good.
So I think it mostly comes out in the wash. I'd say either you can just say your Second Strike only activates if someone <whatever would actually kill the crystal> and treat Survive as otherwise being about the avatar, since like. Once the avatar is gone you're basically reduced to praying that nobody kills the crystal body, from what I can tell? Which is sufficiently horrifying that I'm okay letting you have it. The alternative is you make the avatar much less important and embrace having your Survive Agenda tied to wherever the crystal is.
14 Prevent Armageddon
12 Survive
10 Do Not Kill
8 Advance Human Prosperity
In this case, it would still be a major goal to prevent normal mass death (instrumental to advancing prosperity), but not a sort of drop-everything goal until someone decides to go nuclear.
Yeah, though if the Superpower has Specific Ideas about who/what/how Human Prosperity is best achieved that will help flesh things out. Though I guess advancing global communism might take a back seat to preventing megadeaths given the kind of submissions we've been getting, we've got a lot of psychos around.
15: THE MAINTENANCE OF AMERICAN ATOMIC, MILITARY, AND CULTURAL SUPREMACY
12: THE REPRESSION OF ANTI-WESTERN MOVEMENTS, NATIONS, AND SUPERPOWERS BOTH FOREIGN AND ABROAD
Bravo is a walking thermonuclear reactor, capable of projecting highly destructive atomic energy from her mouth at extreme long range or emitting it in a pulse from her own body. Additionally, her nuclear reactor grants her practically unlimited stamina. In order to contain her destructive energy, the American scientists who created her gifted her incredible durability and strength, which allowed her to shrug off a North Korean nuclear strike. Even this was not enough to truly contain Bravo's might, and her body routinely emits lethal amounts of radiation.
Kind of concerned that you don't seem to have anything between 'make threats' and 'cobalt bomb a neighbourhood or two at best'. Valid design, liable to make anyone with a 'prevent too much bad shit' prio to be getting up in your business even before we mention America.
@NonSequtur just wanted to make sure my offering was strong enough, or if you think I can word anything or present a more interesting dilemma.
I mainly want to focus on the conflict that can come from enforcing peace and security, yet having the personal ideal of being a peaceful non violent person. its a simple conflict but I think I can play around with it here.
13 - Peace and Security
12 - The maintaining of his conscience, his personal moral fibre, it would take far more than the threat of his own life to make him compromise his beliefs.
10- The protection of inalienable rights, freedom to worship, freedom to life, and the pursuit of happiness.
9- The protection of his community.
8 - His own life
5 - The exporting of his own ideals, mainly that no man should have the right to kill another man.
3 - The destruction of authoritarianism superpowered or otherwise.
Kind of concerned that you don't seem to have anything between 'make threats' and 'cobalt bomb a neighbourhood or two at best'. Valid design, liable to make anyone with a 'prevent too much bad shit' prio from getting up in your business even before we mention America.
What about making one shot of Bravo's atomic breath much more powerful and also longer-ranged? Make her an artillery piece that can both destroy a neighborhood at close range but also fire a 300 kiloton nuclear blast accurately at a target over 50 miles away?
What about making one shot of Bravo's atomic breath much more powerful and also longer-ranged? Make her an artillery piece that can both destroy a neighborhood at close range but also fire a 300 kiloton nuclear blast accurately at a target over 50 miles away?
I think the issue is more uh, probably that every attack of yours has the potential to lethally irradiate an area as your flavor text has you routinely release lethal amounts of radiation.
I think honestly there's always the option of "throw rock", but also maybe the US gave (or "gifted" as an "honorable discharge / retirement reward") some more scaled down options once they realized you were going to set up shop in Hawaii — or maybe just one of your old military suits powered by your reactor that'll give you some options besides "have a free wilderness preservation area"
Also GM, how specific / detailed do you want to have infrastructure? I sorta wrote my app in a haze last night after work, so things are pretty skeletal right now. If I'm looking to like, run a global (and potentially inter-planetary) portal network and have semi-permanent space lift capacity, how detailed does that need to be? Considering the example of Haven in the OP and such.
Name: Hu Jintao, President of the People's Republic of China, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China
Inspirations: Exalted Second Edition. Questions of monopoly of force. The paradox of international law which recent events have perhaps dated where none of the signatories really need to care about it but yet try at least to justify their decisions underneath it. Xianxia bullshit. Reluctant stakeholder discourse. Orientalism but ironic.
Origin Story: Hydropower engineer turned politician turned leader of the most powerful country in the world, advocate of peaceful rise and consensus-based governing. Admittedly, right now, the former is based on the technicality of the United States of America having suffered a few small setbacks a few years ago and him possessing almost the entirety of the military might of the PLA, and the latter is increasingly looking to be impossible. He has not talked about what he saw or what apotheosis meant.
Agenda:
Priority 14: Preserve the existence of the People's Republic of China as a political entity.
Priority 14: Preserve the existence of the population of the People's Republic of China.
Priority 12: Survive.
Priority 8: Ensure the continued growth and prosperity of the People's Republic of China.
Priority 6: Preserve the international political order.
Priority 2: Behave ethically.
(No, the identical priorities are not a typo)
Personality: Much has been written about him, from CIA briefings to media speculation on his thoughts - some of it useful, the rest drastically wrong. The thing is, apotheosis changes a man, and so does the fact that the only tool that he has to solve the world is violence. The President now is far more comfortable with personal violence than his previous psychological profiles would suggest, and although he still appears to hold some value in terms of his previous roles and acculturation, it is important to remember that he technically needs no power base. Perhaps he may still be intellectual, reluctant, and maybe even somewhat liberal at heart - but the exigencies of running a state in crisis - and having only superhuman violence as a tool to advance that state's interests and protect it - would change anyone.
Powers:
A world leader turned superpower might wish for the ability to understand and sway the hearts and minds of men. Some sort of psychic nexus who can read the minds of their constituency, perhaps.
The Mandate of Heaven came down and granted Hu Jintao none of these.
He is as fast as an ICBM, and he can reshape mountain ranges by hand. He has the reactions to weave through the shrapnel from a car bomb, he can project force over long distances with similar impact. He can make technology - down to, if you believe it, knives - stop working in a very sizable range. Not even natural processes like fission or surface tension work if they're induced by a manmade object. He is expected to be similarly tough, and he has been looking visibly younger as of late. His mind is in some sort of arcane high-energy state that makes it difficult to affect him psychically, one of the few esoteric powers he has.
Nothing that lets him understand what someone is thinking. Nothing that lets him see if someone is corrupt or lying to him. Nothing to grant greater wisdom. Nothing to help him rule well.
Just brute, horrific strength.
But perhaps in this age, that might be enough.
Second Strike:
If you fell him, you will have to do it again, but with the pretensions of civilization stripped away. His revenge will be a dying, newborn god of war, with a lifespan measured in hours or days, pure human spite powered by godlike might, powers turbocharged without any humanity to hold them back, with just enough human memory and human control to point armageddon in the right direction and bring ruin to those who dared to fell him and everything within the same geographic area as well.
The Mandate of Heaven empowered this man for a reason, and should he fall, it shall send its lesser gods and demons to punish the world for its choice. Demonic invasions? Natural disasters? Horrific misfortune? Any of these, on their own, would be a minor problem. All of these, working in concert? That's a bigger, worse issue.
@ChineseDrone the Van Jackson essays about how America has become the revisionist power in the face of multipolarity write themselves lmao
Except I guess right now he's just a Korean language student instead of a blob creature because he hasn't gotten promoted that high up yet (figurative) and he wasn't deployed to Afghanistan so Protean wouldn't have eaten him (literal)
Also GM, how specific / detailed do you want to have infrastructure? I sorta wrote my app in a haze last night after work, so things are pretty skeletal right now. If I'm looking to like, run a global (and potentially inter-planetary) portal network and have semi-permanent space lift capacity, how detailed does that need to be? Considering the example of Haven in the OP and such.
Basically it's a question about what do you want that infrastructure to be and do. Like, in a sense 90% of Jacky Magus' stuff is infrastructure. But we're not modelling it as that, it's just part of his power, it's What He Does Stuff With. So, arguably, you could have 'since I assist in global shipping/have orbital capability, I can Do Stuff that involves fucking with those things' as just part of your power and you can be pretty vague, it just means you don't get to assume any passive benefit/effect beyond like 'You Are A Superpower' with all the conditions and benefits laid out in the original post.
On the other hand, if you want to have it Be A Thing - like Haven being a floating sanctuary that incidentally can block out other Superpowers more than the passive defences every Superpower is assumed to have would - then it should be a thing you're spending Effort to maintain every turn, like how Heavy in the opening post has a high priority, low Effort 'Haven is floating and stuff' action, where you need to be a bit more specific about like, where Haven is, what it does, et cetera.
There's a weird grey area when you get to technology that is maybe technically feasible (like half of Divya's stuff) where you can build it and have it just exist, or the like, weird energy production powers a few people have, but I think the dividing line is 'if thinking about what this does to the economy would give me a major headache, you should be spending Effort on it' just to prevent people from jumping us from 2004 to 2400 technologically. I don't want to have to track a hundred AU elements from the word go.
Origin Story: Hydropower engineer turned politician turned leader of the most powerful country in the world, advocate of peaceful rise and consensus-based governing. Admittedly, right now, the former is based on the technicality of the United States of America having suffered a few small setbacks a few years ago and him possessing almost the entirety of the military might of the PLA, and the latter is increasingly looking to be impossible. He has not talked about what he saw or what apotheosis meant.
Speaking of, 'China Doing Something' will inherently give me a headache, so if anybody does end up in a position of significant influence over a Major Power, you aren't getting like- major mechanical benefits. Lower effort costs for pushing policy in that country, sure, but I am not building a robust subsystem for landmasses full of collateral damage.
Basically 'Being <leader> Of <wherever>' becomes an additional part of your power-set, and will give some benefits the same way having 'telepathy' makes information gathering easier. The benefit of not supernaturally browbeating people into compliance is counterbalanced by the inevitable grinding of any bureaucracy, and also the fact I will toss some crises at you.
Yeah absolutely. You could make a character who could reform their body from Thin Air even without a glowing immobile weakspot, it's just that mechanically it won't, on balance, save you from another Superpower. They'll blow up bodies until you stop reforming for good.
