Kraven Kor Posted January 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2014 Yeah - on Lostorum, a subterranean creature would not have eyes and have evolved with a heightened sense of hearing, "tremorsense" or the like. Like real cave-dwelling creatures Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tasha Posted January 16, 2014 Report Share Posted January 16, 2014 When you have provable God and Goddesses running around creating all of the Sentient Species, you can just toss Evolution out the window. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kraven Kor Posted January 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2014 When you have provable God and Goddesses running around creating all of the Sentient Species, you can just toss Evolution out the window. That's just it. I don't. On Lostorum, people believe what they will and that belief can even grant them great magical power, to the point such a believer can make others believe through the manifestation of that power; but, ultimately, "proving" God's existence on Lostorum is as nebulous a concept as it is here. Those of faith believe "The Veil" (the southern aurorae) separates the land of the Gods ("The World That Was") from the land of the Mortals ("The World That Is.") The Gods and Mortals were divided from each other long ago, and mortals pass to the other side of the veil when they die. But the Gods cannot and do not walk the lands; you can't summon angels or demons (merely shadowy "projections" of them which are easily written off as illusions or hallucinations.) So evolution is not out the Window on Lostorum, and in fact Lostorum's Darwin is just now writing Lostorum's version of The Origin of Species, Lostorum being in the midst of the railroad boom. The "missing link" problem will be massive, though, as humans do not have a common ancestor in Lostorum's fossil record. Many theories exist concerning why that is - from "%deity% created us" to "humans came to Lostorum from another planet" (the latter being derided by the former, naturally.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywind Posted January 16, 2014 Report Share Posted January 16, 2014 Pretty sure she was referring to the D&D settings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kraven Kor Posted January 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2014 Pretty sure she was referring to the D&D settings. I understand that, was merely responding with why I can't go with that answer for my own purposes. On a side note, I remember the old "no absolutes" commentary in regards to things like Magic Missile always hitting or "real invulnerability" where something simply cannot be damaged, and find this kind of one of those odd little exceptions to everything in HERO playing so nicely together in my mind Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhd Posted January 16, 2014 Report Share Posted January 16, 2014 One important factor for me is that in HERO you've got other options. Subterranean races having Infravision wasn't an Act of God, it was an Act of Gygax. Every additional sense would've required other rules, and that would just have distracted him from adding another entry to the polearms table. In HERO, we're not so limited, just create any sense and with the proper modifiers and bonuses, you've got a majority of the specifics done already. Although, as I wrote in another thread a while ago, it's harder picturing things as a player. We've all seen thermographic imaging and/or black and white movies, so we know what infra-/darkvision would be about. If Llollthll would've cursed the <product identity> elves with spider eyes, well, that would be harder to immerse yourself into. Never mind that it would just ruin the cheesecake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister E Posted January 17, 2014 Report Share Posted January 17, 2014 Dark "Vision": 12 Personal Immunity (for 60 active pts worth of Darkness to Sight) [edit]: Math! Dark "Vision": 15 Personal Immunity (for 60 active pts worth of Darkness to Sight) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyper-Man Posted January 17, 2014 Report Share Posted January 17, 2014 Dark "Vision": 12 Personal Immunity (for 60 active pts worth of Darkness to Sight) While viable most GM's would only allow that ability IF (1) the character also has the Darkness Power AND (2) the Darkness Power being used against the character is of similar origin and/or special effect (ex: Cyclops & Havoc's energy). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywind Posted January 17, 2014 Report Share Posted January 17, 2014 The write-ups I saw for Havok and Cyclops both had Personal Immunity on their powers with a note that due to being brothers and all, it protected them from the other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tasha Posted January 17, 2014 Report Share Posted January 17, 2014 Well if the Fantasy World is more low magic and has more science behind it. Then you might then need to come up with something different for the subterranean races. Perhaps the 'Light source" comes from a special moss or mold that grows underground and emits some light wavelength that specific races have the ability to see. Handwavium can be a strong thing to use esp for something somewhat minor like a "see in the dark" vision ability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tasha Posted January 17, 2014 Report Share Posted January 17, 2014 Dark "Vision": 12 Personal Immunity (for 60 active pts worth of Darkness to Sight) The problem is that natural phenomena isn't generally written up as a darkness ability. Also Personal Immunity is sheer Cheese for this. Cyclopes and Havoc are immune to each other's powers as part of a certain narrative. Havoc was originally working against Cyclops. Having the two be immune to each other's powers made Cyclops use his powers and those of his team's in a different way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kraven Kor Posted January 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2014 Well if the Fantasy World is more low magic and has more science behind it. Then you might then need to come up with something different for the subterranean races. Perhaps the 'Light source" comes from a special moss or mold that grows underground and emits some light wavelength that specific races have the ability to see. Handwavium can be a strong thing to use esp for something somewhat minor like a "see in the dark" vision ability. And I use ample amounts of handwavium where I wish to; as can / should any GM. If you want any kind of scientific plausibility, you look to the real world. Most real underground creatures are blind, or at best can tell light from dark. They rely on delicate antennae which detect movements in the air currents, or on chemical senses to track their prey, or sonar like bats. Some literally just blunder around in the dark and feel their way around. There are some underground habitats with bio-luminescent flora or fauna and these are some of the strangest and most wonderfully weird places on Earth - like the one cave where these inch-worm things hang glowing globs of glue from the ceiling to lure and entrap bugs. Or caves where the entire life cycle revolves around giant piles of bat guano - creatures living in, on, and above the pile not seen anywhere else on the planet. One of my favorite CRPG's, the Exiles or "Avernum" series, had the huge underground chambers lit by glowing fungus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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