Quote from: wmarshal;1123999So I backed at the $60 level, but I haven't had the time to dig too deep into the setting. Does the setting currently include any evil super groups? Anything like the Mutant Brotherhood or the League of Calamitous Intent?

Yes, it does. There is a group of superhuman-supremacists called Exodus who believe that superhumans need to "exit humanity" to take their rightful place as apex creatures. Exodus has conquered the Pacific island of Nauru and declared it their "homeland", and it has terrorist operatives around the world.

Quote from: Dracones;1124003There's a really good actual play of the system posted at https://youtu.be/fejJL5TlnY8.

Seems to play out really well in the session. I'm getting the vibe that the game might run like GURPs, in that the character build is crunchy and there a lot of crunchy/well built systems for you to work with for various situations. But you can also ignore the systems you want to and keep it to a lighter core in actual play. ACKs was sort of built the same way. The core game was pretty simple with a lot of added well mathed out systems on top for designing kingdoms, dungeons, magic items, new classes, etc. But you could pick and choose the systems you wanted to play with.

That's my design philosophy in a nutshell. As a game designer and GM, I would always prefer that the sub-systems be available if I want them, but I want the core of the game to be fast and elegant. You could play Ascendant without ever worrying about, say, the pandemic disease rules, but if you WANT to run "superheros vs. ebola", it's there for you.

Quote from: amacris;1124011That's my design philosophy in a nutshell. As a game designer and GM, I would always prefer that the sub-systems be available if I want them, but I want the core of the game to be fast and elegant. You could play Ascendant without ever worrying about, say, the pandemic disease rules, but if you WANT to run "superheros vs. ebola", it's there for you.

The word I use is "coherent". A coherent game is one that runs well as written, with few to no optional rules, and room for the GM to make the rules their own. Optional rules can come in supplements, especially those that "open the hood" and expose a toolkit for GM use.

ACKS nails the above. I will not be surprised when I read my Paragon-backer hardcopy of Ascendant and discover the same.

Edit to add for clarity: whatever optional rules Ascendant has will not invalidate the above.

Quote from: RandyB;1124012The word I use is "coherent". A coherent game is one that runs well as written, with few to no optional rules, and room for the GM to make the rules their own. Optional rules can come in supplements, especially those that "open the hood" and expose a toolkit for GM use.

ACKS nails the above. I will not be surprised when I read my Paragon-backer hardcopy of Ascendant and discover the same.

Edit to add for clarity: whatever optional rules Ascendant has will not invalidate the above.

I am from the same tribe as you and would like to now perform our ancient ritual dance to show my allegiance to your cause

Whereas I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Whereas I find both you amazing, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter to lean how to join your tribe.

Quote from: trechriron;1124028Whereas I find both you amazing, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter to lean how to join your tribe.

You're already in. You just didn't know it yet.

The first rule of Acks Club is: You do not talk about Acks Club. The second rule of Acks Club is: You do not talk about Acks Club. Third rule of Acks Club: Someone holds up an X-card, goes limp, taps out, you decide if the fight is over. Fourth rule: Only two gamers to a fight.

Quote from: amacris;1124010Yes, it does. There is a group of superhuman-supremacists called Exodus who believe that superhumans need to "exit humanity" to take their rightful place as apex creatures. Exodus has conquered the Pacific island of Nauru and declared it their "homeland", and it has terrorist operatives around the world.

Because I like complex moral conflicts, how feasible is it to make these guys, let's say not exactly sympathetic, but understandable? How much, to coin a term, "titanophobia" (fear, antipathy and hostility for paranormally powerful individuals) is there among the general population in this setting?

It's very grey. My own (real world) ideology leads me to believe that most organizations are grey, most people are grey, and most conflicts are real dilemmas with no easy answers, so that's the sort of world I built.

Domestically, there is a pressure group, American Citizens Against Vigilantism (ACAV), that is demanding a nationwide registry of ascendants with tracking and confinement of dangerous "humans of mass destruction". Exodus responded by setting fire to their HQ during the middle of the night. Star-Spangled Squadron responded with a counter-attack and that led an act of arson to turn into a bloodbath.

Internationally, Exodus chose to take over an extremely isolated island (Nauru) to claim as their homeland, but the UN has refused to recognize their sovereignty. The leader of Exodus claims they want to be left in peace to transcend their humanity. Whether it's true or not that they have no violent plans is left uncertain... and even if it's true it's not clear that humanity would be comfortable with ascendant transhumanizing.

Quote from: amacris;1124102It's very grey. My own (real world) ideology leads me to believe that most organizations are grey, most people are grey, and most conflicts are real dilemmas with no easy answers, so that's the sort of world I built.

That's very mature of you. It's extremely difficult for the overwhelming majority of people, including politicians, to view the world that way. Our current polarized environment demonizes all opposition.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales;1124104It's extremely difficult for the overwhelming majority of people, including politicians, to view the world that way. Our current polarized environment demonizes all opposition.

True, although in the end, this is an RPG setting; if there isn't occasionally someone around whose butts the PCs can kick with a perfectly clear conscience, audience appeal is going to be limited in some key ways. And the whole point of trying to find one's way through shades-of-grey conflicts is that you can't have shades of grey without black and white both being in there, and it mattering how much of both is in there.

Even the tragic conflict at the end of Captain America: Civil War (one of my favourite examples of shades-of-grey conflicts in moviedom) is most cathartic when it shows another character how to make the clearly right choice, forswearing vengeance in favour of justice.

Quote from: Stephen Tannhauser;1124108True, although in the end, this is an RPG setting; if there isn't occasionally someone around whose butts the PCs can kick with a perfectly clear conscience, audience appeal is going to be limited in some key ways. And the whole point of trying to find one's way through shades-of-grey conflicts is that you can't have shades of grey without black and white both being in there, and it mattering how much of both is in there.

Even the tragic conflict at the end of Captain America: Civil War (one of my favourite examples of shades-of-grey conflicts in moviedom) is most cathartic when it shows another character how to make the clearly right choice, forswearing vengeance in favour of justice.

Sure. It's like I said: *most*.

American Eagle is characterized as unquestionably good in the setting. He is a firefighter, a husband, a father, a little league coach. His powers manifested when his neighbor's little kid got trapped under a car and he saved her.

The Manticore is characterized as unquestionably evil. He's a psychopath Special Forces operator who murdered innocent civilians in Iraq, becoming known as the "Maneater" (Manticore) for his kill count. When his powers manifested, he became the monster he was inside. You can have sympathy for him - as a prisoner of the US Army he was experimented on - but it doesn't change his nature.

At the start of the official campaign, American Eagle has gone missing and the player characters have arrived on the scene; so it's set up that they can, if they wish, fill the gap and be the good heroes the world needs.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales;1124104That's very mature of you. It's extremely difficult for the overwhelming majority of people, including politicians, to view the world that way. Our current polarized environment demonizes all opposition.

Thank you, that's very kind. Speaking of our current polarized environment, that was a difficult needle to thread for Ascendant, since it's set in "the real world, right now". I ultimately decided there was nothing I could do with President Trump that wouldn't alienate half of the consumers. So I replaced President Trump with his expie, President Flush. Flush is portrayed as a dirty old man who has the hots for one of the female superheroes, but not as an evil fascist or as a MAGA god-emperor. I think we can all laugh about someone's sexual peccadilloes without it being too political.  (I also replaced Secretary Esper with Secretary Esperanto, but that was because having someone called Esper running around who wasn't actually, you know, a telepath was too confusing.)

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales;1124104That's very mature of you. It's extremely difficult for the overwhelming majority of people, including politicians, to view the world that way. Our current polarized environment demonizes all opposition.

I too demonize my opposition...

But only in-game, when I'm playing the Wizard, and I have the appropriate summon spells memorized.