I'm joining a potential game of Mutants & Masterminds (which is a tabletop RPG) and was thinking of creating a Discordian super hero. If you were a Discordian super hero, what would your powers be?
THE POWER TO KILL PEOPLE WHO USE DISCORDIANISM AS A BRAND NAME, USING ONLY MY UPPER LIP AND LEFT GONAD.
I think that makes me a villain.
I piss a flammable, toxic chemical and then set it on fire with fire from my ass.
Oh, I know. A True Discordian HeroTM would spew word salad at his opponent, and then viciously attack the villains fists and feet with his teeth. He would also have some very obvious DiscordianTM images all over his spandex, and his battle cry would be Fnord.
No, I may have it! He would troll their strategy meetings and cause their plans to all fail!
This reminds me, Big Bang re-runs are coming on and we never miss them. Sheldon Cooper is a God.
Hang on.
Has anyone told the OP that we have an RPG subforum?
We do? :?
Also, I think I need to write that "Discordia is Not a Brand" rant, and I need to do it NOW.
Because it occurs to me that basing your personality and/or activities on "Discordianism" is the absolute best example of "eating the menu" (a phrase I used to hate, but now have a new appreciation for) that I've ever seen in my life.
I'll be damned! We really do have one, all these years and I never knew.
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on February 11, 2012, 12:56:59 AM
Also, I think I need to write that "Discordia is Not a Brand" rant, and I need to do it NOW.
Because it occurs to me that basing your personality and/or activities on "Discordianism" is the absolute best example of "eating the menu" (a phrase I used to hate, but now have a new appreciation for) that I've ever seen in my life.
Jesus fuck yes.
There are two ways to answer that question:
1) If you were a Super Hero whose philosophical/religious leanings were Discordian
or
2) If you were a Super Hero with Discordian powers
The answer to 1 would be "Plastic Man," the answer to 2 would be to create a character that's utterly unaware of Eris and Discordianism but has the ability to literally create strife among his/her foes (limited form of mind control, probably), but with the penalty that it also goes off on their friends periodically. I would also buy some serious DR or invulnerability, or your spag won't last long.
Quote from: Charley Brown on February 11, 2012, 12:57:38 AM
I'll be damned! We really do have one, all these years and I never knew.
Don't worry, it hasn't been there forever. I think less than two years, maybe only one? I forget.
And, of course, there is only one Really Real Discordian Superhero, and it is Deadpool.
DEADPOOL +1
With a +23 Vorpal Fnord.
I actually like QG's idea best. I don't know how this particular RP system works, but in most you have that as you progress in power you get new abilities, right?
You could base some strife-based abilities around the golden apple, for instance. You'd need to discuss with your GM which ones you'd get at which level etc, having a hard time estimating which is more powerful than which:
- golden mind ray / area effect that makes people strife--not just fight eachother, actually bicker about stuff. variables are how long it lasts and how easy it is to detect (and therefore to attempt to resist)
- conjuring an actual golden apple that everybody who sees is, really REALLY wants to obtain (how long before it vanishes)
- enchanting an object (limited in size) so that it affects people like the above apple. how long does the effect last and think about what people need to observe about the object to be under its effect. Just seeing it (what about blind ppl), being in range of X feet of it and, seeing it, being aware of it for Y time, just being near it, touching it, etc
- maybe some magical form of NLP anchoring, to create strife between individuals, you must touch them (they must be aware of this) when they feel some negative emotion. But you must do this a few times touching the same part of the body before the effect gains full strength. Maybe to make it not entirely useless, allow the effect to be not strictly related to the negative emotion felt.
Just some ideas.
QG is also right that some damage reduction is probably really vital to survive :lol:
If your system also works with "flaws" to make up for superpowers, how about this one: Your character gets snubbed at EVERY party, refused at every line in front of a club ("you can come in .. you .. and you--you stay outside.") and <diceroll> odds of simply being excluded by whoever asks the party to come to anywhere. You can still come regardless, but they won't like it, act as if you're unwanted, showed up uninvited, maybe depending on the number of the dice roll. If your system has some sort of "willpower points" or whatever you can spend, you might use those to suppress this effect temporarily.
Well, the real question about bringing Discordian memes into an RPG is how much spill-over into the world it has.
Try to take backgrounds that embed the mythology into the game-world. Make Operation Mindfuck important with a background some-how, and you have inserted OM agents into your setting. Same thing with the Illuminati (as a pseudo-foil/antagonist riddled with OM sleepers). Make Eris important somehow (and if your GM balks, you can go "really? you don't like a background where greek gods long though dead grant treasure to worthy mortals id the midst of crisis? What have you got against Wonderwoman?").
Claimed to have possession of esoteric secrets gifted to you by the Bullgoose of Limbo, delivered by the Messenger God St. Gulick. When asked what they are, say "I don't know, I can't get the damn lock open!". Spent character points on that as a trait.
Setup in-character goals like mass mindfucking the employees of IRL corporations (you've suddenly drawn Goldman Sacs into the game-world). When asked why, grin and mutter something about checking the IRL stock prices after you play it out in-game.
Put Points into Hollistic Investigative Techniques (i.e. the Dirk Gently Method). Claim to have sacred relics holy to The Dread God Finagle and His Mad Prophet Murphy (http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=28577.20).
:lol:
Quote from: Danjanon on February 11, 2012, 12:25:10 AM
I'm joining a potential game of Mutants & Masterminds (which is a tabletop RPG) and was thinking of creating a Discordian super hero. If you were a Discordian super hero, what would your powers be?
I played a gunslingin' Emperor Norton in a Wild West campaign. My powers included turning undead (by preaching nonsense at them), the
suggestion spell (by preaching nonsense at them), healing people (by giving them a GOOD SHAKING), and issuing my own currency (not worth as much as I'd hoped). I think I was also a gunsmith, because the party needed that.
Been done.
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_98zZGlDC3HY/TOAjUUzDp2I/AAAAAAAACGQ/pp2FBn4qWe8/s1600/AmbushBug1985pg00.jpg)
I had a Favored Soul of Kau (Kau is the DM's goddess of chaos in his world). Kau is generally respected, but there aren't 'worshipers'. She has priests (mostly gnomes) and some followers (mostly gnomes). I was a half-elf that was marked by Kau at birth and spent my entire life pissed off that I had to do her favors/take her quests etc. It was really challenging to play a favored soul that wanted nothing more than peace, but was always an agent of chaos :D
For M&M, there are a lot of options:
You could go with super smarts & loads of cash creating a character with shades of Hagbard Celine. You could even work out a golden submarine I'm sure :D
You could go with mind powers as a hippie guru student of the Great Dealey Llama with illusions to confuse the enemy etc.
A Golden Applicant from the Golden Apple Corps, a group of heroes from across the Galaxy that have one small weakness, the color grey. :D
Maybe the Comedian from Watchmen. Dr. Manhattan is a little too serious.
A Discordian's™ superpower is the ability to cause intense amounts of butthurt from a distance.
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on February 13, 2012, 12:57:59 PM
A Discordian's™ superpower is the ability to cause intense amounts of butthurt from a distance.
We all have our own methods though, a lot of us use Internet butthurt, but Spider Jerusalem has the bowel disruptor for literal butthurt and his reporting for the figurative kind while Dr Manhattan has a giant blue cock, for the worst kind of butthurt.
Quote from: Triple Zero on February 13, 2012, 08:11:20 PM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on February 13, 2012, 12:57:59 PM
A Discordian's™ superpower is the ability to cause intense amounts of butthurt from a distance.
We all have our own methods though, a lot of us use Internet butthurt, but Spider Jerusalem has the bowel disruptor for literal butthurt and his reporting for the figurative kind while Dr Manhattan has a giant blue cock, for the worst kind of butthurt.
:spittake:
Quote from: Luna on February 11, 2012, 02:24:27 PM
Been done.
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_98zZGlDC3HY/TOAjUUzDp2I/AAAAAAAACGQ/pp2FBn4qWe8/s1600/AmbushBug1985pg00.jpg)
:mittens:
Quote from: Telarus on February 11, 2012, 10:57:01 AM
Well, the real question about bringing Discordian memes into an RPG is how much spill-over into the world it has.
Try to take backgrounds that embed the mythology into the game-world. Make Operation Mindfuck important with a background some-how, and you have inserted OM agents into your setting. Same thing with the Illuminati (as a pseudo-foil/antagonist riddled with OM sleepers). Make Eris important somehow (and if your GM balks, you can go "really? you don't like a background where greek gods long though dead grant treasure to worthy mortals id the midst of crisis? What have you got against Wonderwoman?").
Claimed to have possession of esoteric secrets gifted to you by the Bullgoose of Limbo, delivered by the Messenger God St. Gulick. When asked what they are, say "I don't know, I can't get the damn lock open!". Spent character points on that as a trait.
Setup in-character goals like mass mindfucking the employees of IRL corporations (you've suddenly drawn Goldman Sacs into the game-world). When asked why, grin and mutter something about checking the IRL stock prices after you play it out in-game.
Put Points into Hollistic Investigative Techniques (i.e. the Dirk Gently Method). Claim to have sacred relics holy to The Dread God Finagle and His Mad Prophet Murphy (http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=28577.20).
:lol:
The whorelike nature of my existence makes it impossible for me to not post a link this thread (http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php/topic,30289.0.html).
My character is nearing completion, if people are interested in what I've come up with I can post the character sheet.
Quote from: Danjanon on March 15, 2012, 09:45:16 AM
My character is nearing completion, if people are interested in what I've come up with I can post the character sheet.
Please do!