[Torg] Jumping in Torg

[Benjmain Grant]

Schtick is in the eye of the beholder.  I do not feel compelled to submit
*my* sense of shtick to the popular sentiment.  

 

While I love *playing* a super in computer and pnp games, and while I love
watching movies and tv regarding supers, I do not particularly care for the
comic book experience.  I cannot say whether or not the Flash, Quicksilver,
or anyone like them used their high inertia to cross large distances.

 

On the other hand, even if that hasn't happened in the "funny books", that
does not compel me and my sense of what is schtick.

 

To put it another way - while I am not at all ready to grant the point that
popular uses of speedster characters never can translate their speed and
inertia into long distance hurtling, discussing that point is only
discussing *popular* use.  I do not popular use, whether it agrees with my
conclusions or not, is relevant to the topic that I have been asking
questions about.

 

Schtick, apart from an appeal to popularity, is nothing more than a
subjective opinion.  I accept that a speedster schtick in your eyes may not
include leveraging his huge momentum to cover great distances, while in my
eyes it does.  I am not sure how a schtick discussion that is not about
popularity would go.  If you say you like chocolate and I say I like
vanilla, there's really nothing to argue or discuss.  If you say chocolate
is more popular, and I say that popularity is not a relevant option to the
use I will be putting the food to, then there is not much left to discuss
there either.

 

I think the only thing to discuss is "realism" and consistency - the very
topic I was on.  And I stand by my previous statement, that for super to be
*less* effective than a "dead weight" object *because* of his powers is a
logical disconnect much greater than person having superpowers to begin
with.

 

Thanks.

 

-Benn Grant

eFix Computer Consulting

benn at 4eFix.com

603.283.6601

 

From: torg-bounces at justintimeadventures.com
[mailto:torg-bounces at justintimeadventures.com] On Behalf Of Morgan Nash
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 9:52 AM
To: torg at justintimeadventures.com
Subject: Re: [Torg] Jumping in Torg

 

On Wed, Dec 10, 2008 at 2:28 PM, Benjmain Grant <benn at 4efix.com> wrote:


Make sense?

 

I suspect I'm going seriously off-topic here :) ....

Your reasoning makes perfect sense. But for one thing. The "schtick".

The "schtick" is central to the superhero. Logic, physics and such have no
basis in the "schtick". Questions such as: "Shouldn't Quicksilver be
resistant to heat-based attacks? Running at super-speed through the
atmosphere must make him very hot!" can be answered with: "Nope. It's not
part of his schtick".

So, every logical argument says that a super-speedster can jump for miles.
But, in general, decades of comic book speedsters have not done this.
Therefore it is equally correct to suggest that super-running does not
necessarily bestow super-jumping.

To explain my (geeky superhero-fan) point-of-view further:

Torg is a game of "genres". The Nile Empire is a "pulp hero" genre and I
have often thought that this genre is misunderstood. The Flash, Superman,
etc do not really fit within the "pulp" genre and Nile Empire characters in
published material were often called things like "Captain Egypt" - a naming
convention more appropriate to a later era. See also the pictorial depiction
of the Rocket Rangers (name from memory?) in gleaming metal battlesuits when
they ought to be guys and gals in leather flying jackets with outrageous
"rocket pods" on their backs.

A pulp hero should be a simple character with a simple "schtick" - he runs
fast; he hypnotises people; she's a queen-of-the-jungle. Adding extra
capabilities because their powers ought, in theory, to enable them is more
... well ... non-pulp.

Morgan

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