What is Empowered meant to be?

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What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by ScottBernard »

It seems to be a mix of classes but mainly a variation of Mystically Bestowed. Im not getting what the point of it is meant to be.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Glistam »

With the Mystic Bestowed category you don't have to be disabled but your transformation has to be because of magic.

With the Empowered category you have to be disabled in some way but your transformation doesn't have to be from magic.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Razorwing »

The Empowered are individuals that have overcome some form of disability to become heroes in their own right. Some have done this through magic, others through technology... and a few have even managed to trigger some latent powers within themselves (psychic or super powers). The kind of heroes they become are also quite varied... as in many cases the psychic or super abilities they get are directly related to the disabilities they have.

Daredevil from Marvel could be considered an Empowered character as he received his Radar-like sense to overcome the blindness he has. True... both were caused by the same accident (in most versions of his origin), but that one power helps him to overcome his disability... as do his other heightened senses.

Oracle from DC could also be seen as Empowered... as she manages to become a hero in her own way... even though she is bound to a wheelchair (at least until the New 52 reboot). True, her "powers" were more skill-like... especially with computers and such... but not every hero has to fight on the front lines.

Basically... empowered heroes are individuals who overcome personal disabilities in some manner to become heroes in some fashion. How they do so is varied... but that they do so is what is important for this category.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Regularguy »

Pepsi Jedi wrote:There's a ton of blind heroes/villians, but the category seems to focus on the 'overcoming' the disability, more tha it just being a part of the package.


Heh. Of course, the hilarious part is, the very first listed condition to be offset is just, uh, got old. So if you're an ordinary human -- not one born a mutant, not one who underwent a chemicals-and-radiation experiment, certainly not some alien from another world -- then you just eventually unlock superpowers by witnessing injustice or heroism, or by just finding out that another superhero also happens to be old?

(And if you play with the tables just so -- what, you're facially disfigured, but it came with the package deal of being able to alter facial features? That's not "blind guy develops radar to partially compensate" so much as it's "hang on; do you even realize you have a disability?")

(At that: what about a blind guy who goes the 'demigod' route, where his disability vanishes for as long as he (a) is conscious, and (b) desires to be a superhuman -- if, y'know, he desires to be a superhuman "whenever he's conscious," and he only ever tries to look at things "when he's conscious"? Granted, he can only keep that effect going for a number of hours equal to his ME -- but what if one of his powers happens to be an Extraordinary ME, and he always winds up calling it a day and falling asleep long before he hits, like, the twenty-four hour mark? Why, he could have an entire superhero career without actually noticing that he goes blind after closing his eyes at the end of the day!)
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by RockJock »

Yeah, I've never really used Empowered as a category. I've had a character along the lines of Daredevil, or the Shroud who lost a sense/ability to pick up another, or a character in a wheel chair like Professor X or Oracle, but never as a real empowered hero. Heck, cyborgs, and transferred intel robots are sorta Empowered, but not exactly.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Pepsi Jedi »

It seems more of a 'guided background' to other categories than a true category itself. Though if someone wished to use it instead of the other categories Iwouldn't 'mind'. If anything it's more restrcitive than many of the others.

My characters tend to have pages and pages of background anyway, so I don't really 'need' 'rules' on codifying the hows and why's my char is _____. I get that all on my own.

Some might find it liberating in that "I'm just going to randomly roll -everything- and see what falls out" sort of way that Palladium often tends to embrace.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Razorwing »

I disagree with the assessment of Daredevil and Oracle... these two heroes may appear to belong in other classes... save for the fact that it is their disabilities and the way they overcame them that define their heroics.

Mathew Murdock may have lost his sight and gained his powers in the same accident, but that doesn't make him any less of an Empowered Hero for it... any more than it means he MUST be a Mutant. How would any of us react to loosing our sight, even if we gain superhuman levels of the remaining senses? Would we train as Mathew did to hone his new abilities... to find some way to use them to make the world a better place? Or would many of us end up becoming little more than recluses... afraid to go out into the world that is now more overwhelming to our enhanced senses? It is his choice not to let his disability hinder him... his choice to master his enhanced senses... and his choice to make the world better in some way... that defines Mat Murdock as the Hero Daredevil.

The same is true for Barbra Gordon... who, after having a somewhat successful career as Batgirl, is shot by the Joker and paralyzed from the waist down. She had to come to terms that she would never walk again... would never be Batgirl ever again. Some in such a situation would think that she could never again make a difference in the world... let alone be a hero. Barbra however chose not to let her disability stop her from helping others... to be a hero in her own way. True, she uses technology to do so as Oracle... but she still overcame her disability to do so.

Yes, we could say that these characters belong in other Categories... but the beauty of the Palladium system is that there are now multiple ways to create the same character... by emphasizing different aspects of the character. Would Mat Murdock have become Daredevil without the accident that made him blind? No. Would Barbra Gordon have become Oracle if she hadn't been paralyzed? Maybe... but chances are she would have stayed as Batgirl. For these characters, their disabilities are as important to the character as any powers. Mat Murdock has had the chance to restore his eyesight on a few occasions... but chose to remain blind instead. Up until recently, Barbra Gordon remained disabled even with other heroes could be fully healed (even from something supposedly permanent as death itself)... with writers coming up with more reasons to keep her in a wheelchair than there were reasons for getting her out of it (up until the New 52, it was an unspoken rule at DC that Oracle MUST remain in a wheelchair).

The Empowered Category if for player who want their character's disability to be a defining feature for the character... rather than as an afterthought it often is with other Categories. Yes, you can create a Mystically Bestowed character who happens to be disabled in some way (Magic being the defining feature of the hero, rather than his disability)... or you can create a character that was disabled but learned a mystic ritual that allows him to become a demigod-like hero (the character's disability he had to overcome to become the mystically empowered hero he is). The difference is in where you put the emphasis on your character's abilities... including their disabilities.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Pepsi Jedi »

Thing is, for all your words, the characters don't fit -this- category, even though it seems like it might be meant to represent such.

1) Barbra gordon didn't get any powers. *shrugs* She didn't stop fighting crime but she didn't get any powers from it. Via the Empowered category she would have overcome her disability, but she didn't. She didn't get superpowers or turn into a dimigod or werewolf or get robotic limbs. She directed her drive into something else.

So... she's right out.

2) And Daredevil didn't 'overcome' his disability as a seperate instance. The chemical that blinded him gave him the powers. Which the Experiment category covers. (Same as it would technically cover spiderman). For Daredevil to fit the category he would have to have the disability or gain the disability (Blind) and then through work or something else -overcome- said disability. He didn't.

His senses where augmented by an outside force and chemical that had the side effect of blinding him. Very clearly covered by the Experiment category.

So while yes you can get to some end points via different routes, in this case you can't.

Barbra didn't gain the Natural Genius Power Category because she was shot. (And that's a different category anyway).

Nor did Daredevil "Hone his normal senses through intense work and drive till they became super human because he was blind"

The chemical did it for him wither he wanted it or not.

So while the category seems to be trying to mimic Daredevil, as I said above it's an attempt that doesn't seem to actually know much -about- Daredevil.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by eliakon »

What if the category wasn't intended to simply neatly replicate some specific already done comic book character/characters/trope?
What if the category was... meant to be a "oh hey, I had a cool thought and ran with it and since we are writing a power categories book here you go"

It can have the feel of the comics with having to have to actually be from a comic after all.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Daniel Stoker »

Except Daredevil wasn't part of an experiment, something bad happened to him that also 'empowered' him or gave him a power to overcome his disability.

The Empowered Hero Section wrote:Often their maladies are the results of a crime or injustice peretrated against them, but they are just as often the results of luck (good or bad). This perceived injustice or weird happenstance ultimately gives the chararacter super abilities and the inner drive to become a champion of justice - a true hero.



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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Fermat »

I've had a Empowered PC, a psychic. I see it as a particular build with a few specific changes and backstory. While some options have less oomph than others (I'm looking at you overcame-with-bionics), others provide a very good framework. If it was just the similar nature that was the problem, then are experiment and mutant really that different. One has side effects and the other has mutations, but they use the same powers. Bionics vs robotics is just a question of scale or personal investment. Are magical objects and magical weapons really that different?

Motif and style has merit. While empowered may not have always got the mix correct, I think they add something to the narritive world.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Pepsi Jedi »

Daniel Stoker wrote:Except Daredevil wasn't part of an experiment, something bad happened to him that also 'empowered' him or gave him a power to overcome his disability.

The Empowered Hero Section wrote:Often their maladies are the results of a crime or injustice peretrated against them, but they are just as often the results of luck (good or bad). This perceived injustice or weird happenstance ultimately gives the chararacter super abilities and the inner drive to become a champion of justice - a true hero.



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No Daniel. 1) He didn't have a disability to over come before the 'something' that allowed him to overcome the disability happened.

That's like going "That bullet let you overcome the wound of being shot before you were shot"

2)And "Experiment" Via HU rules covers Daredevil.

If you read the Experiment write up the second paragraph reads "Presumeably, prior to the experiment, the character was an ordinary human being, or perhaps even a physically impared or underdeveloped Human specimine."

Then under the tables

Table "A" Nature of experiment
1-25 is "Chemical" 51-75 is chemical+Radiation. 76-100 is "Exposure to unknown" Which more than covers Daredevil.
Table B covers him under "Accident, the manifestation of super abilities is completely unexpected, unintentional, impossible to duplicate.

Then you have number of abilities and side effects. In Daredevils case, the blidness is a side effect


As I've said before, the Empowered one -looks- like it was maybe ment to -replicate- DD, but only if you didn't really know DD well.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Daniel Stoker »

I didn't say he had the disability before, I said he wasn't an experiment, because he wasn't part of an experiment, but something happened to him that took away his sight and also empowered him. In this case the weird happenstance was the accident that took his vision and also gave him his radar ability and enhanced senses. As the quote from Empowered said:

Often their maladies are the results of a crime or injustice peretrated against them, but they are just as often the results of luck (good or bad). This perceived injustice or weird happenstance ultimately gives the chararacter super abilities and the inner drive to become a champion of justice - a true hero.


And sure you can kludge him into the Experiment category but he fits a lot better into Empowered.


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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by ScottBernard »

Pepsi Jedi wrote:It seems more of a 'guided background' to other categories than a true category itself. Though if someone wished to use it instead of the other categories Iwouldn't 'mind'. If anything it's more restrcitive than many of the others.

My characters tend to have pages and pages of background anyway, so I don't really 'need' 'rules' on codifying the hows and why's my char is _____. I get that all on my own.

Some might find it liberating in that "I'm just going to randomly roll -everything- and see what falls out" sort of way that Palladium often tends to embrace.


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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Pepsi Jedi »

Daniel Stoker wrote:I didn't say he had the disability before, I said he wasn't an experiment, because he wasn't part of an experiment, but something happened to him that took away his sight and also empowered him. In this case the weird happenstance was the accident that took his vision and also gave him his radar ability and enhanced senses. As the quote from Empowered said:

Often their maladies are the results of a crime or injustice peretrated against them, but they are just as often the results of luck (good or bad). This perceived injustice or weird happenstance ultimately gives the chararacter super abilities and the inner drive to become a champion of justice - a true hero.


And sure you can kludge him into the Experiment category but he fits a lot better into Empowered.


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Well that's the thing the 'experiment' category covers "Weird crap happening to people and turning them into heroes" As a large part of the power category comes from being exposed to ______ and a large portion of the 'why' is "Random inexplicable "HUH??" Sort of things.

Yes the category is named 'experiment' but not all of them are done purposefully. Case in point would be Daredevil or.. 50 other heroes that get splashed, doused, immersed, bitten etc by "Some wierd thing" and got their powers from it.

Empowered has three base concepts

A) That the person had a disability or something to over come, FIRST
B) Something happens to cause them to strive to over come their disability and
C) The manifestation or acquisition of powers to overcome said disability and become super.

DD doesn't fit, because until he received his powers, the only thing he had to overcome was a rather crappy boxer dad. lol. His 'blindess' didn't arrive till he was a superhero, it was a side effect of gaining his powers via the 'strange chemical accident'.

You can certinly make 50 sort of homages to DD. (As straight conversions aren't allowed anyway) but DD himself wouldn't fit this category due to those three concepts.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Daniel Stoker »

Yes you can kludge it in, but by it's very name the concept is supposed to be an Experiment, not a random accident on the street.

But I'm at a lost as to how even with your list how Daredevil doesn't fit. He was blind before he was a super hero, he didn't become a hero until YEARS later. Yes he was blinded and got his powers at the same time, but as the power category itself says, "Often their maladies are the results of a crime or injustice peretrated against them, but they are just as often the results of luck (good or bad).This perceived injustice or weird happenstance ultimately gives the character super abilities and the inner drive to become a champion of justice - a true hero." His malady (blindness) is a result of blind luck and that weird happenstance that caused him to be blinded also granted him his radar sight that allowed him to become a champion years later. He seems to fit really easily into the category to me with no need to kludge anything in.


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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by eliakon »

I would also like to point out that Empowered is not just "a guided version of another power category"
This is because... as written the powers, bonuses, and penalties that you get from most every possible combination of Empowered...
...can not be replicated by any other power category with out invoking house rules.

So... if you want a character that was... oh... lets say... physically crippled by an accident but got powers that allow them to compensate...
...you either need to make an Empowered or have your GM break out the Rule Zero wand.

That is what the Empowered was meant to be.

And yes, I know that you can Rule Zero anything. But to be blunt if your using Rule Zero to just make up your own power categories in the first place then no category is going to be anything but a kludge.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Pepsi Jedi »

Daniel Stoker wrote:Yes you can kludge it in, but by it's very name the concept is supposed to be an Experiment, not a random accident on the street.

But I'm at a lost as to how even with your list how Daredevil doesn't fit. He was blind before he was a super hero, he didn't become a hero until YEARS later. Yes he was blinded and got his powers at the same time, but as the power category itself says, "Often their maladies are the results of a crime or injustice peretrated against them, but they are just as often the results of luck (good or bad).This perceived injustice or weird happenstance ultimately gives the character super abilities and the inner drive to become a champion of justice - a true hero." His malady (blindness) is a result of blind luck and that weird happenstance that caused him to be blinded also granted him his radar sight that allowed him to become a champion years later. He seems to fit really easily into the category to me with no need to kludge anything in.


Daniel Stoker


By that logic, TMNT are Empowered, not 'Mutant animals' because they trained for years with their mutations before becoming the heroes they would one day become. (As a side note TMNT was actually a knockoff/Homage to... Daredevil. lol)

He didn't become blind and ---develop his powers to overcome his blindness--- He was splashed with the chemicals that both gave him his powers and blinded him. By the write ups in HU he's either an experiment, or a mutant. (Marvel's mutants are just 'genetic mutants' but in HU you could be mutated by exposure to chemicals or radiation.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Pepsi Jedi »

eliakon wrote:I would also like to point out that Empowered is not just "a guided version of another power category"
This is because... as written the powers, bonuses, and penalties that you get from most every possible combination of Empowered...
...can not be replicated by any other power category with out invoking house rules.

So... if you want a character that was... oh... lets say... physically crippled by an accident but got powers that allow them to compensate...
...you either need to make an Empowered or have your GM break out the Rule Zero wand.

That is what the Empowered was meant to be.

And yes, I know that you can Rule Zero anything. But to be blunt if your using Rule Zero to just make up your own power categories in the first place then no category is going to be anything but a kludge.


Not really. If you were physically crippled by an accident, you could get bionics via the normal bionics category, or an experiment could give you powers, There are transformation powers that would fit too.
I get what you're trying to say but it's not really that impossible to get from A to Zed with out it.
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Re: What is Empowerehttp://palladium-megaverse.comd meant to

Unread post by Daniel Stoker »

Pepsi Jedi wrote:By that logic, TMNT are Empowered, not 'Mutant animals' because they trained for years with their mutations before becoming the heroes they would one day become. (As a side note TMNT was actually a knockoff/Homage to... Daredevil. lol)

He didn't become blind and ---develop his powers to overcome his blindness--- He was splashed with the chemicals that both gave him his powers and blinded him. By the write ups in HU he's either an experiment, or a mutant. (Marvel's mutants are just 'genetic mutants' but in HU you could be mutated by exposure to chemicals or radiation.


Well yes you COULD kludge them into empowered, or just use the much more obvious mutant animal category because they don't have some sort of accident that gave them a deficiency and powers that let them compensate for it.

And yes, he became blind and got his powers, just like how in empowered it says, "Often their maladies are the results of a crime or injustice peretrated against them, but they are just as often the results of luck (good or bad).This perceived injustice or weird happenstance ultimately gives the character super abilities and the inner drive to become a champion of justice - a true hero." See his malady (blindness) was a result of luck (bad in his case) and this weird happenstance (the accident) gave him his super powers too. So yeah, he's pretty clearly an easy fit into the empowered category.


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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by eliakon »

Pepsi Jedi wrote:
eliakon wrote:I would also like to point out that Empowered is not just "a guided version of another power category"
This is because... as written the powers, bonuses, and penalties that you get from most every possible combination of Empowered...
...can not be replicated by any other power category with out invoking house rules.

So... if you want a character that was... oh... lets say... physically crippled by an accident but got powers that allow them to compensate...
...you either need to make an Empowered or have your GM break out the Rule Zero wand.

That is what the Empowered was meant to be.

And yes, I know that you can Rule Zero anything. But to be blunt if your using Rule Zero to just make up your own power categories in the first place then no category is going to be anything but a kludge.


Not really. If you were physically crippled by an accident, you could get bionics via the normal bionics category, or an experiment could give you powers, There are transformation powers that would fit too.
I get what you're trying to say but it's not really that impossible to get from A to Zed with out it.

But you don't get the Empowered powers.
You get a Bionics character or an Experiment who has some flavor fluff in their background.
They will not have the powers and abilities and game stats of an Empowered.
You can not get to "zed" with out either house rules or using an Empowered.
THAT is what an Empowered is.
It is the way to get the powers and abilities of the Empowered power category/class/archetype/whatever-you-want-to-call-it
The rules are not a bludgeon with which to hammer a character into a game. They are a guide to how a group of friends can get together to weave a collective story that entertains everyone involved. We forget that at our peril.

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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Pepsi Jedi »

eliakon wrote:
Pepsi Jedi wrote:
eliakon wrote:I would also like to point out that Empowered is not just "a guided version of another power category"
This is because... as written the powers, bonuses, and penalties that you get from most every possible combination of Empowered...
...can not be replicated by any other power category with out invoking house rules.

So... if you want a character that was... oh... lets say... physically crippled by an accident but got powers that allow them to compensate...
...you either need to make an Empowered or have your GM break out the Rule Zero wand.

That is what the Empowered was meant to be.

And yes, I know that you can Rule Zero anything. But to be blunt if your using Rule Zero to just make up your own power categories in the first place then no category is going to be anything but a kludge.


Not really. If you were physically crippled by an accident, you could get bionics via the normal bionics category, or an experiment could give you powers, There are transformation powers that would fit too.
I get what you're trying to say but it's not really that impossible to get from A to Zed with out it.

But you don't get the Empowered powers.
You get a Bionics character or an Experiment who has some flavor fluff in their background.
They will not have the powers and abilities and game stats of an Empowered.
You can not get to "zed" with out either house rules or using an Empowered.
THAT is what an Empowered is.
It is the way to get the powers and abilities of the Empowered power category/class/archetype/whatever-you-want-to-call-it


Have you opened the book? Bionics is one of the results in the empowered category. So is (A narrow) Subset of superpowers to compensate. The difference between someone starting in the bionics category and choosing "Empowered, overcome by bionics" isn't a rule zero. It's one of the options on how to overcome the disability.
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Re: What is Empowerehttp://palladium-megaverse.comd meant to

Unread post by Pepsi Jedi »

Daniel Stoker wrote:
Pepsi Jedi wrote:By that logic, TMNT are Empowered, not 'Mutant animals' because they trained for years with their mutations before becoming the heroes they would one day become. (As a side note TMNT was actually a knockoff/Homage to... Daredevil. lol)

He didn't become blind and ---develop his powers to overcome his blindness--- He was splashed with the chemicals that both gave him his powers and blinded him. By the write ups in HU he's either an experiment, or a mutant. (Marvel's mutants are just 'genetic mutants' but in HU you could be mutated by exposure to chemicals or radiation.


Well yes you COULD kludge them into empowered, or just use the much more obvious mutant animal category because they don't have some sort of accident that gave them a deficiency and powers that let them compensate for it.

And yes, he became blind and got his powers, just like how in empowered it says, "Often their maladies are the results of a crime or injustice peretrated against them, but they are just as often the results of luck (good or bad).This perceived injustice or weird happenstance ultimately gives the character super abilities and the inner drive to become a champion of justice - a true hero." See his malady (blindness) was a result of luck (bad in his case) and this weird happenstance (the accident) gave him his super powers too. So yeah, he's pretty clearly an easy fit into the empowered category.


Daniel Stoker



No.... Empowered don't get their powers -with- their disability.

They have a disability. (Period.. stop....)
(Pause)
Then they find a way to overcome their disability, via bionics or powers or something that manifest.

Specifically
Three steps.

First they gain the disability or have it their entire lives.

Second step something happens to trigger the want/need/impetus to overcome said disability.

Third, they develop or attain powers in some fashion to overcome said disability


Daredevil wasn't blind and then through hard work or magic find a way to overcome his powers.
He was given his powers, via an unknown chemical, and the -side effect- of said chemical was blindess. I.E. the experiment category.
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Re: What is Empowerehttp://palladium-megaverse.comd meant to

Unread post by Daniel Stoker »

Pepsi Jedi wrote:No.... Empowered don't get their powers -with- their disability.


All, no but generally? Yes, yes they do, as the power category itself says:

Carmen in PU2 wrote:Often their maladies are the results of a crime or injustice perpetrated against them, but they are just as often the results of luck (good or bad). This perceived injustice or weird happenstance ultimately gives the character super abilities and the inner drive to become a champion of justice - a true hero.


They CAN also overcome it with bionics if you want, but again, this quote makes it clear that the happenstance that caused their disability can also be the one that gives them their powers.


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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Pepsi Jedi »

That's not the same thing that gave them the disability to start with. You should read the category, the disability comes prior to the the crime or injustice witnessed. They're two separate events in the character's life.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Daniel Stoker »

I did read the category and I'm quoting directly from the description of it PJ where it tells us that:

Often their maladies are the results of a crime or injustice perpetrated against them, but they are just as often the results of luck (good or bad). This perceived injustice or weird happenstance ultimately gives the character super abilities and the inner drive to become a champion of justice - a true hero.


His malady (blindness) was caused by an injustice perpetrated against him but in this case by bad luck (being an accident with a truck full of chemicals), this weird happenstance (the accident with the truck with the chemicals) gives the character his super abilities (the radar vision etc), and the drive to become a champion of justice. (And dress up originally like a bad looking Wolverine clone. :p)


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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by dreicunan »

So as I read it, Daredevil is not empowered, just a guy mutated by a chemical spill with the side effect of blindness that was never really disabling blindness because he could still effectively see. Iron Man, however, would be empowered.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Pepsi Jedi »

Daniel Stoker wrote:I did read the category and I'm quoting directly from the description of it PJ where it tells us that:

Often their maladies are the results of a crime or injustice perpetrated against them, but they are just as often the results of luck (good or bad). This perceived injustice or weird happenstance ultimately gives the character super abilities and the inner drive to become a champion of justice - a true hero.


His malady (blindness) was caused by an injustice perpetrated against him but in this case by bad luck (being an accident with a truck full of chemicals), this weird happenstance (the accident with the truck with the chemicals) gives the character his super abilities (the radar vision etc), and the drive to become a champion of justice. (And dress up originally like a bad looking Wolverine clone. :p)


Daniel Stoker


I'm sorry but no. The blindness wasn't the injustice perpetrated against him. It was a side effect of the powers.

The Injustice Perpetrated against Matt was the loss of his father to the gangsters (Roscoe Sweeney) for not throwing the fight.

Matt was actually pretty well adjusted for a blind kid before that happened.

You're trying to tie things together, that ----via palladium's power category----- is not. Nor are they in the comics.

Matt Murdock didn't get blinded as a child and go "OH DAMN!! I"M BLIND!! I"M GOING TO BECOME A SUPERHERO IN-SPITE OF IT!" That wasn't his motivation.

His motivation came later. You're trying to inaccurately lump things to force a fit, either out of ignorance (Of Daredevil) or forcing together things in the rules that are clearly separate, as you roll for them separate in the category itself.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Daniel Stoker »

The blindness isn't a side-effect of the powers, the powers and the blindess were caused by the same thing, the accident with the truck spilling the chemicals into eyes. That did 2 things, took away his sight and gave him his powers. And I didn't say injustice, I said malady. He lost something and gained something, which when his father was killed gave him an ability to do something to try and deal with that (wait for it....) injustice. ;)


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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Pepsi Jedi »

You DID Say Injustice. lol You said the "Malady (blindness) was caused by the injustice. lol It's quoted directly above.

you may wish to review your own argument Dan.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by eliakon »

Pepsi Jedi wrote:You DID Say Injustice. lol You said the "Malady (blindness) was caused by the injustice. lol It's quoted directly above.

you may wish to review your own argument Dan.

Daniel Stoker wrote:I did read the category and I'm quoting directly from the description of it PJ where it tells us that:

Often their maladies are the results of a crime or injustice perpetrated against them, but they are just as often the results of luck (good or bad). This perceived injustice or weird happenstance ultimately gives the character super abilities and the inner drive to become a champion of justice - a true hero.


His malady (blindness) was caused by an injustice perpetrated against him but in this case by bad luck (being an accident with a truck full of chemicals), this weird happenstance (the accident with the truck with the chemicals) gives the character his super abilities (the radar vision etc), and the drive to become a champion of justice. (And dress up originally like a bad looking Wolverine clone. :p)


Daniel Stoker

Going to go out on a limb here and suggest that he meant to say "His malady (blindness) wasn't caused by an injustice". Since that is the only way the sentence grammatically fits the next sentence.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Daniel Stoker »

Basically... you could say it's blind luck even. :p


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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Sir_Spirit »

Pepsi Jedi wrote:[

I'm sorry but no. The blindness wasn't the injustice perpetrated against him. It was a side effect of the powers.


THATS NOT WHAT HE AND THE BOOK SAID. WHAT THEY SAID WAS THAT IS WAS A RESULT OF THE INJUSTICE PERPUTATED AGAINST HIM.
WHich is true, his dad dying was just a side effect that help drive him.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by drewkitty ~..~ »

The maladies presented in the book are "pre-existing condition" (to use insurance speak) to getting/reciving superpowers. But they are also a prerequisite to be a part of the Empowered power cat.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Sir_Spirit »

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:The maladies presented in the book are "pre-existing condition" (to use insurance speak) to getting/reciving superpowers....t.

Not according to the bit Daniel quoted.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by RockJock »

So does anyone use Empowered characters?

Comics have lots of characters that have weaknesses compensated for(Psylocke with Mojo eyes, or Hawkeye with hearing aids/implants), or uncompensated for(Wizkid, Prof X, Oracle), that fit the Empowered class on one level, yet not on another. My games are more to have a Physical Training character with cybernetic hearing to compensate for an injury in their background, or gameplay then an actual rolled up Empowered character.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Fermat »

1. I have had a player with an Empowered PC, an elderly man with EMpowered TK.

2. My 2 bits on how to explain the difference of Empowered versus the other power categories: think of it like the alien category.
Alien: Empowered
1. Born on a distant Planet 1. Get a disability
2. Have abilities due to this unique background. 2. Have abilities to compensate

Just as an alien may have a lot of similarities to a mutant or experiment, they will also have some key differences. An Empowered is in the same boat, definite similarities, but very different features as well. Empowered (with the possible exception of the Bionics option) and ALiens overlap with other categories, but are decidedly different, in both narrative and mechanics.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by csyphrett »

The original Dr Midnite fits the power category. He was blinded, then discovered he could still see in the dark, then turned into a crimefighter.

That's how the category is supposed to work.

Daredevil fits in, but not Barbara Gordon/Oracle. Gil the arm fits in, but not Professor X.
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by gaby »

What type of powers do you think will wokr for a deaf character?
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by Regularguy »

gaby wrote:What type of powers do you think will wokr for a deaf character?


The book suggests Mirror Mastery -- which I guess is to give you someone to watch your back? -- and which pairs well with Transmutation (which has nothing to do with being deaf, but, c'mon, that combination seems incredible: create temporary mirrors, to make use of the mirror power; and create mirror duplicates, to permanently transmute stuff? If that's not banned, it's a heck of a deal).

Anyhow, that watching-your-back aspect suggests stuff like Radar and Spin At High Speed: you can't hear people coming up behind you, but you can perceive them, and that's pretty good; also, I'm guessing you could use Mechano-Link to turn various 'hear' problems into 'see' solutions.

(Incidentally, if you Transfer/Possess someone, is the idea that you can then hear with their ears?)
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Re: What is Empowered meant to be?

Unread post by csyphrett »

To build on Regular Guy's mechano link suggestion, something like animal control/familar link might let you hear through the ears of an animal.
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