The only example i, personaly, have an issue with is the smuggling.
I can definitely see it's use for NPC's. It actually gives me an idea for a lieutenant of my crime boss.
It would be hard for players to convince me the heroes aren't in fact criminals by engaging in such activity.
Then again.....have you noticed just how detailed that bronze statue of the tank in front of the hero's hq is?

LamiaMortis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The only example i, personaly, have an issue with
> is the smuggling.
> I can definitely see it's use for NPC's. It
> actually gives me an idea for a lieutenant of my
> crime boss.
> It would be hard for players to convince me the
> heroes aren't in fact criminals by engaging in
> such activity.

Smuggling basic medical supplies, food, and other such things into countries where those in power keep the masses in poverty-level conditions in order to maintain control (like North Korea) and ignorant and fearful of the outside world so they don't rise up and throw them out of power. People have given their lives in real life trying to smuggle such things in to help their fellow man, while it might be considered criminal by the regime in charge an actual crime it is not as it's what we expect heroes to be doing since they brave such evil to help others. Not an act that should cost any hero karma.

> Then again.....have you noticed just how detailed
> that bronze statue of the tank in front of the
> hero's hq is?

What tank in front of what hero's headquarters?

Nightmask Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> LamiaMortis Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The only example i, personaly, have an issue
> with
> > is the smuggling.
> > I can definitely see it's use for NPC's. It
> > actually gives me an idea for a lieutenant of
> my
> > crime boss.
> > It would be hard for players to convince me the
> > heroes aren't in fact criminals by engaging in
> > such activity.
>
> Smuggling basic medical supplies, food, and other
> such things into countries where those in power
> keep the masses in poverty-level conditions in
> order to maintain control (like North Korea) and
> ignorant and fearful of the outside world so they
> don't rise up and throw them out of power. People
> have given their lives in real life trying to
> smuggle such things in to help their fellow man,
> while it might be considered criminal by the
> regime in charge an actual crime it is not as it's
> what we expect heroes to be doing since they brave
> such evil to help others. Not an act that should
> cost any hero karma.

I could see heroes doing this. I would actually increase karma rewards for such activities. However, if they tried smuggling narcotics it would result in karma loss.


> > Then again.....have you noticed just how
> detailed
> > that bronze statue of the tank in front of the
> > hero's hq is?
>
> What tank in front of what hero's headquarters?

Sorry. Was think-typing. Had the thought of taking a tank, or other defensive items and convert them to something like bronze.
Developed a power stunt, if required, to 'unconvert' items. That way
You can surprise attackers, or make it very difficult to steal from your armory.

LamiaMortis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nightmask Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > LamiaMortis Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > The only example i, personaly, have an issue
> > with
> > > is the smuggling.
> > > I can definitely see it's use for NPC's. It
> > > actually gives me an idea for a lieutenant of
> > my
> > > crime boss.
> > > It would be hard for players to convince me
> the
> > > heroes aren't in fact criminals by engaging
> in
> > > such activity.
> >
> > Smuggling basic medical supplies, food, and
> other
> > such things into countries where those in power
> > keep the masses in poverty-level conditions in
> > order to maintain control (like North Korea)
> and
> > ignorant and fearful of the outside world so
> they
> > don't rise up and throw them out of power.
> People
> > have given their lives in real life trying to
> > smuggle such things in to help their fellow
> man,
> > while it might be considered criminal by the
> > regime in charge an actual crime it is not as
> it's
> > what we expect heroes to be doing since they
> brave
> > such evil to help others. Not an act that
> should
> > cost any hero karma.
>
> I could see heroes doing this. I would actually
> increase karma rewards for such activities.
> However, if they tried smuggling narcotics it
> would result in karma loss.

Well that should go without saying since that would actually be a crime and not for the good of anyone.

> > > Then again.....have you noticed just how
> > detailed
> > > that bronze statue of the tank in front of
> the
> > > hero's hq is?
> >
> > What tank in front of what hero's headquarters?
>
> Sorry. Was think-typing. Had the thought of
> taking a tank, or other defensive items and
> convert them to something like bronze.
> Developed a power stunt, if required, to
> 'unconvert' items. That way
> You can surprise attackers, or make it very
> difficult to steal from your armory.

There's always the option of 'limitation-conversions/transformations are temporary' on a power. There was also a depressingly stupid storyarc with Absorbing Man that had him written retarded and a drug-addict who is tricked into turning into cocaine at which point the mob boss has him cut down and sold across the city to people with the unexpected side-effect that people started temporarily gaining his power (not too surprising since it's magical in nature) but not being able to control it.

The main (if not only) issue that seems to really come up for this topic boils down to the GM thinking that a hero is somehow not really being a hero if he wants to use his powers to profit him (unless he explicitly starts wealthy, apparently it's fine to profit from them if you have that as the backstory than as part of story development) and majorly punishes the PC anytime he attempts to do so to force him to live like the GM thinks he should rather than how the player thinks he should. This is especially bizarre if he's condoning criminal activity on the part of the heroes particularly murder (no, it is not acceptable for your PC to be killing bad guys when you can take them in and give them to the proper authorities).

This of course is nonsense, you aren't somehow not a hero or less a hero because you'd rather improve your living conditions so you're living in a nice expensive townhouse or mansion rather than a one-bedroom apartment and forced to use public transportation rather than have your own car or truck. People who're putting themselves in harm's way in order to protect others and save lives certainly deserve as good a life as they can manage; expecting people to risk death for your sake without even a thank you or home like your own is appalling (although sadly Truth In Television). Police and Fire Fighters deserve far better pay and benefits than we afford to them and they don't even remotely face the kinds of threats the average super-hero does yet some seem to think that the super-hero doesn't deserve that same consideration. They stop seeing them as people and end up seeing them as things that 'owe' them.

Super-heroes keep crime rates down, a very valuable commodity. So those with the powers who'd like to exploit them to have better incomes should be able to do so, they certainly aren't getting paid for their hard work and risk after all. I don't know how motivated I'd be to be a hero if the world was actively conspiring to keep me poor because it felt I had no right to better myself and should be a martyr serving their needs, especially when getting to watch pro athletes who do nothing but run around on a field for the entertainment of others making tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.

I think away to make money being a hero and make yourself into a bigger hero would be endorsement and charity. I think if superheroes were real then the media would cover them like they do celebrities. Much like in Mystery Men i cold see a hero getting paid to put company logos on their costumes. Celebrities get paid crazy amounts of money to wear nike shoes. How much would they pay to have the nike symbol on supermans cape? Would it make superman less of a hero? Nobody thinks twice about a football or baseball player getting paid millions to wear nike if they giving a little back through charities.
Say the Red Bull paid The Falcon 40 million to be the spokesman for red bull gives you wings ads. Now the Falcon decides to give 30 mil of it to a special city fund to repair damage done to the city in super power battles. He also convinces fellow avengers to do the same. Now if i was the GM i would give a popularity boost maybe even karma for not only fightig to save the city but also continuing to help the city by helping to repair the damage done in saving it. It would also be a resource boost for keeping 10million for himself.

geekgirl Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think away to make money being a hero and make
> yourself into a bigger hero would be endorsement
> and charity.


Ah... the Booster Gold approach.



Captain Amazing also.

Thrudjelmer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> geekgirl Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I think away to make money being a hero and
> make
> > yourself into a bigger hero would be
> endorsement
> > and charity.
>
>
> Ah... the Booster Gold approach.
>
>
>
> Captain Amazing also.

Well odds are given he was a walking billboard from head to toe in spite of being a billionaire he really doesn't qualify as a hero, he was an attention-hound who just found going the 'super-hero' route fed his ego properly.

Also Johnny Storm was trying the same thing in the second FF movie (although Reed looked like he nixed it). Endorsements aren't a bad deal, provided you can keep acting the hero even if it means risking losing that endorsement.

Hyper-Digging: In case this wasn't brought up you'd be great for mining of all sorts, excavating things, doing things like laying cable, water lines, and the like.

Animal Communication And Control: Thanks to this power you can engage in betting on various events featuring animals and either talk with the animals to learn who'll most likely win or if you don't mind losing some karma you can simply control the animals and force a win for yourself. So you could hit the horse races and come back flush with cash and if you're subtle and not too greedy make it quite the steady source of extra income.

Quote
Nightmask
Animal Communication And Control: Thanks to this power you can engage in betting on various events featuring animals and either talk with the animals to learn who'll most likely win or if you don't mind losing some karma you can simply control the animals and force a win for yourself. So you could hit the horse races and come back flush with cash and if you're subtle and not too greedy make it quite the steady source of extra income.

This reminds me of a Mad magazine where a parody of the Flash went to a racetrack and bet on a horse that was losing until he came behind the horse and pushed it forward with his super speed. At the end, he was shown walking away with a lot of money.

Quote
Screaming Dean

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Nightmask
Animal Communication And Control: Thanks to this power you can engage in betting on various events featuring animals and either talk with the animals to learn who'll most likely win or if you don't mind losing some karma you can simply control the animals and force a win for yourself. So you could hit the horse races and come back flush with cash and if you're subtle and not too greedy make it quite the steady source of extra income.

This reminds me of a Mad magazine where a parody of the Flash went to a racetrack and bet on a horse that was losing until he came behind the horse and pushed it forward with his super speed. At the end, he was shown walking away with a lot of money.

I was reminded of it while rereading Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple as one of the masters is a Friend To All Living Things and when another master talked him into going to the track with him said master realized the other could be used to win big by having him talk with the horses and either get them to fix it or find out which was most determined to win and bet accordingly.

Quote
Nightmask
Animal Communication And Control: Thanks to this power you can engage in betting on various events featuring animals and either talk with the animals to learn who'll most likely win or if you don't mind losing some karma you can simply control the animals and force a win for yourself. So you could hit the horse races and come back flush with cash and if you're subtle and not too greedy make it quite the steady source of extra income.

Can't tell if this was also brought up but you'd be great at pest control since you could just make the mice/cockroaches/rats/squirrels/etc simply leave someone's house, either to eliminate them or relocate them someplace where they wouldn't be a problem for people. You'd also be perfect as a real Pet Whisperer. Just think what cities would pay for you to remove their pigeon populations, I know Terre Haute has a truly awful problem with them.

Quote
Nightmask

Quote
Nightmask
Animal Communication And Control: Thanks to this power you can engage in betting on various events featuring animals and either talk with the animals to learn who'll most likely win or if you don't mind losing some karma you can simply control the animals and force a win for yourself. So you could hit the horse races and come back flush with cash and if you're subtle and not too greedy make it quite the steady source of extra income.

Can't tell if this was also brought up but you'd be great at pest control since you could just make the mice/cockroaches/rats/squirrels/etc simply leave someone's house, either to eliminate them or relocate them someplace where they wouldn't be a problem for people. You'd also be perfect as a real Pet Whisperer. Just think what cities would pay for you to remove their pigeon populations, I know Terre Haute has a truly awful problem with them.

Or this would be great for a con job. Convince roaches to infest a house. Walk the next day in a pest control outfit and get paid to "exterminate" them.

Same would work for Weather Control: cause a drought then get paid as a rainmaker to bring back the rain. Or even bigger: get paid by insurance companies to either prevent or divert hurricanes (some of which you may have created...)

Quote
barna10

Quote
Nightmask

Quote
Nightmask
Animal Communication And Control: Thanks to this power you can engage in betting on various events featuring animals and either talk with the animals to learn who'll most likely win or if you don't mind losing some karma you can simply control the animals and force a win for yourself. So you could hit the horse races and come back flush with cash and if you're subtle and not too greedy make it quite the steady source of extra income.

Can't tell if this was also brought up but you'd be great at pest control since you could just make the mice/cockroaches/rats/squirrels/etc simply leave someone's house, either to eliminate them or relocate them someplace where they wouldn't be a problem for people. You'd also be perfect as a real Pet Whisperer. Just think what cities would pay for you to remove their pigeon populations, I know Terre Haute has a truly awful problem with them.

Or this would be great for a con job. Convince roaches to infest a house. Walk the next day in a pest control outfit and get paid to "exterminate" them.

Same would work for Weather Control: cause a drought then get paid as a rainmaker to bring back the rain. Or even bigger: get paid by insurance companies to either prevent or divert hurricanes (some of which you may have created...)

There was a story where a man managed to win out over Satan himself in three bets (as Satan challenged him because the man was a gambler who'd bet on anything) with Satan then declaring that the man would NEVER win another bet and devoted all the resources of Hell necessary to prevent him from winning ever again. Down in the dumps after repeated attempts to win a bet he's with a friend in a diner and just happens to note that if he wanted he could stop the rain in minutes and sure enough does (by betting it WON'T stop within the next 10 minutes) and his friend explains how he's been looking at it all wrong and talks him into going into the Insurance business because he could bring in big money preventing rain during weddings and the like simply by betting a disaster would occur and quickly becomes a successful wealthy man with a fine wife (that he abuses his betting failure power to manipulate her into being his wife) and a large family with a bet that he and his wife won't live to be 99. So he was using his power to lose bets to make himself wealthy.

Quote
Nightmask
Can't tell if this was also brought up but...

I've consolidated most of the ideas discussed in this thread, as well as added a couple to the list, below:

• Animal Communication/Control: zookeeper, animal trainer, pest control, gambling (horse races and such)
• Body Adaptation: any work that involves hazardous environments
• Catalytic Control: baking without an oven, firefighter, toxic spill cleanup
• Chemical Touch: sedation/medical treatment, illicit drug dealer
• Collection: gathering recyclable materials
• Communicate With Dead: TV Talkshow
• Danger Sense: law enforcement
• Dimensional Travel: acquisition of precious metals/gems from other realms that might have them in abundance
• Dream Travel: psychiatry
• Elemental/Molecular Conversion: waste disposal, smuggling, creation of fuel
• Enhanced Physical Abilities: circus performer, pro-athletes
• Enhanced Senses: human lie detector in court
• Environmental Awareness: Locating deposits of natural resources
• Flight: skyscraper window washer or maintenance person... no safety harness needed
• Gateway: transportation hub
• Gravity Manipulation: professional movers
• Healing: miraculous success rate as a doctor
• Hyper-Digging: mining & excavation jobs
• Hyper-Invention: step 1) engineering genius, Step 2) ... Step 3) profit!
• Illusion Casting: replace CGI special effects for film/television productions (and add them to live productions)
• Internal Limbo: champion of eating/beer guzzling contests
• Iron Will: performance of feats of physical abuse for show
• Life Detection: disaster search & rescue
• Light Generation: performance art light shows
• Linguistics: translator
• Link Senses/Clairvoyance: see another player's poker hand
• Molding: artistic expression
• Plant Growth: farming
• Probability Manipulation: gambling
• Precognition: gambling
• Radiation Control: nuclear power plant worker that prevents & cleans up accidents
• Resistance to Fire: firefighter
• Self-Duplication: performer as a one-man quartet, holding down multiple day jobs at once
• Shapeshifting/Imitation: celebrity impersonator, body double for important people in who are in danger of kidnap or attack
• Shrinking: professional movers
• Super Speed: manufacturing
• Telelocation: locating lost/kidnapped people or escaped criminals
• Teleportation: delivery service
• Skin Armor/True Invulnerability: Hollywood stuntman, crash test not-dummy, test pilot, almost any hazardous job
• Waterbreathing: underwater construction & repair
• Weakness Detection: inspector of houses/construction sites
• Weather Control: hurricane prevention, rainmaker, meteorologist

Nice Work!

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barna10

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Nightmask

Quote
Nightmask
Animal Communication And Control: Thanks to this power you can engage in betting on various events featuring animals and either talk with the animals to learn who'll most likely win or if you don't mind losing some karma you can simply control the animals and force a win for yourself. So you could hit the horse races and come back flush with cash and if you're subtle and not too greedy make it quite the steady source of extra income.

Can't tell if this was also brought up but you'd be great at pest control since you could just make the mice/cockroaches/rats/squirrels/etc simply leave someone's house, either to eliminate them or relocate them someplace where they wouldn't be a problem for people. You'd also be perfect as a real Pet Whisperer. Just think what cities would pay for you to remove their pigeon populations, I know Terre Haute has a truly awful problem with them.

Or this would be great for a con job. Convince roaches to infest a house. Walk the next day in a pest control outfit and get paid to "exterminate" them.

Same would work for Weather Control: cause a drought then get paid as a rainmaker to bring back the rain. Or even bigger: get paid by insurance companies to either prevent or divert hurricanes (some of which you may have created...)

Reading back through this thread I was reminded that in the PS238verse one of the kids, the Flea, has as one of his powers insect communication and control and at one point while at a casino he ends up temporarily working for it and the former super-villain that ran it asked him to keep the bugs out of the food (Flea responded he'd try but something about their cheese dip the bugs just loved).

Super senses would be great as a spy, private detective, or sleaze reporter. Just walk through a restaurant and hear your next story, or head to the projects and hear crimes being planned.

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barna10
Super senses would be great as a spy, private detective, or sleaze reporter. Just walk through a restaurant and hear your next story, or head to the projects and hear crimes being planned.

Great for someone in the field of forensics as well, a crime scene investigator could spot things that simply wouldn't be spotted otherwise and be a fluke that it was discovered. Many good uses for enhanced senses in the job field.

Hadn't thought about it before but my super-power of Reconstruction would provide massive financial benefit. Being able to restore anything to like new condition would have exceptionally broad-ranging options depending on the power rank.

Low ranks you'd still be able to fairly quickly repair and restore small objects like laptops, you could even use it to repair/restore old objects like paintings or broken archaeological finds to pristine condition. Imagine how much it could help science being able to reconstruct things like that. You could make scary amounts of money at higher ranks for that and repairing larger things like cars or even buildings, ships, etc.

You'd also have amazing usefulness in forensics for law enforcement. You could restore a damaged or otherwise destroyed item that could provide helpful information in tracking down a criminal (bomb makers would be truly screwed when you could remake their bombs to provide all the information that they felt would be destroyed by the explosion).

You'd also never have to worry about things like paying for car repairs because you'd be able to fix things up in almost no time at all. Clothes never wear out, car never breaks down for long, etc. Imagine how great that would be.

Okay this is comical but inspired by finding a hero (Wonder Man) doing just this: test dummy. He would wear protective vests that would then be shot with weapons to determine how effective the vests were at protecting people as part of the development process. So a hero with suitable powers (particularly high ranks of Body Resistance or True Invulnerability) could be a test dummy for things like protective items or vehicles (so if you don't mind the pain having immortality and regeneration you could be a vehicle crash tester so that they can actually see the real injuries that could result before you regenerate back to new).

I'll just sell Grit to finance my subscription for FOOM.

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The Abominable Dr Adrix
I'll just sell Grit to finance my subscription for FOOM.

I remember reading about that while reading old issues. Does Grit really exist and can you actually make money selling it?

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Screaming Dean

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The Abominable Dr Adrix
I'll just sell Grit to finance my subscription for FOOM.

I remember reading about that while reading old issues. Does Grit really exist and can you actually make money selling it?

It really exists and you probably could make money selling it, a few people on one of the facebook groups dedicated to the first 25 years of Marvel said that they'd actually sold Grit or one of the other 'kids get rich quick!' gimmicks from the comics. You'd have to be a REALLY dedicated kid selling it to make a kid's grade living at it though.

Yeah, but the real question is can I get issues of FOOM?

A new one:

Animal Transformation -> pony rides -> exotic animal rides

How much could a low-powered mutant make simply setting up in some stripmall parking lot and charging $5-$10 for DINOSAUR RIDES!?

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barna10
A new one:

Animal Transformation -> pony rides -> exotic animal rides

How much could a low-powered mutant make simply setting up in some stripmall parking lot and charging $5-$10 for DINOSAUR RIDES!?

Now that's a clever thought. How about that plus Self-Duplication, you're an entire petting zoo/animal rides park without the overhead costs of feeding and caring for dozens of different animals.

A super with the right powers could make billions in Iraq right now. They are estimating it will take $88 billion to rebuild from teh damage done to Iraq by Isis.

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barna10
A super with the right powers could make billions in Iraq right now. They are estimating it will take $88 billion to rebuild from teh damage done to Iraq by Isis.

Which doesn't even include the costs that will be added by further destruction. Even helping at pennies on the dollar you'd still end up a billionaire by the time you were gone.

Heck remember when Mirage could create solid images? There was a time when she created an entire workforce of at least a hundred construction workers and emergency personnel to help rebuild after a fight they were in, and the crew somehow were magically competent at their work even though she obviously has no knowledge of such things.