How can Radiation heroes justify using their powers?

[El D]

17 minutes ago, Zombra said:

 

This is an important point.  In the absence of an explanation, to me radiation sounds potentially much worse than fire, bullets, or a punch in the face.  Really this is why this thread exists at all.  It felt like Radiation powers need enough of an explanation to say "It's OK, these powers don't actually irradiate the environment or leave behind residue."  We can intuitively see that Fire powers don't burn anything down, but we can't see that Radiation doesn't leave behind invisible contamination.  No story ever about radioactive weapons said "And everything was fine and safe the next day," yknow?

 

Looking at CoH's powersets and requiring any explanation reliant on real world physics and science is just going to keep causing this disconnect because it's a video game. Any connections to the real world are verisimilitude, included to make a point about the game's lore, the plot of a story arc, and/or the nature of its community. To the point about 'no evidence of no contamination' there's no evidence that radiation powers in CoH do cause any ambient effects like real world radiation does either. As far as the game goes, it's very explicit about when and where the radiation effects are active via the neon green glow and the bubble SFX and also about what that does (Energy damage and -Defense, usually). Where that stops, the radiation stops. There's no post-mission text that pops up for radiation powersets saying a hazmat team arrives with Geiger counters and gives iodine pills to all the defeated bad guys and rescued hostages.

 

Not that that wouldn't be an interesting take for a character, but that's purely up to an individual player to choose for themselves. Including the real world effects of powersets can be a fantastic source of drama and I have a friend who had a radiation defender with this exact gimmick of 'and now all those guys go to the hospital with radiation sickness' but that's all that is - a personal story gimmick. Any 'game canon' explanation beyond that would just be the same as any other baked-in handwave for the other powersets. The game ignores the 'real effects' of radiation the same way it ignores how a super strong Tanker can flip giant mechs like pancakes but not rip the head off every human enemy they fight with the same uppercut.

[Zombra]

41 minutes ago, El D said:

To the point about 'no evidence of no contamination' there's no evidence that radiation powers in CoH do cause any ambient effects like real world radiation does either.

 

What you're ignoring is the popular understanding that radiation can have lasting effects that are not visible.

 

When a Fire Blaster's Blazing Bolt animation is finished and nothing is burning 3 seconds later, anyone who has ever heard of fire knows that once you no longer see the fire, it is because there is no more fire.  It's intuitively obvious.

 

When a Radiation Blaster's Neutron Bomb is finished, anyone who has heard of atomic or radioactive weapons has a good reason to wonder about lingering, harmful radiation, even though you can't see it any more.  Intuition alone is not enough to justify an assumption that the danger is over.

 

This is a substantial difference.

 

As much as everyone wants to say "Ahhh no powers make sense, everything is equally unbelievable," this is simply not the case.

 

Edited 18 hours ago by Zombra

[catsi563]

On 4/4/2025 at 9:13 AM, Ghost said:

It doesn’t have to be radiation.  You can write it to be anything your imagination can come up with.

exactly my healer Lifeline uses empathy and rad blast I have the rad blast as green bio enerrgy that she uses to stun and disrupt bad guys

[biostem]

1 hour ago, Zombra said:

What you're ignoring is the popular understanding that radiation can have lasting effects that are not visible.

At this point I do not believe you are arguing in good faith.  This is a comic book setting, where real science doesn't apply.  Radiation in CoH does NOT work like it does in real life, full stop.

[GM Crumpet]

On 4/4/2025 at 9:36 AM, Snarky said:

no radiation! safe heroes only please

I loved the Tick, I'm sad they cancelled it. 

[Scarlet Shocker]

1 hour ago, Zombra said:

 

As much as everyone wants to say "Ahhh no powers make sense, everything is equally unbelievable," this is simply not the case.

 

 

In an entirely fictional game setting, that is simply not true.

 

[Snarky]

12 minutes ago, GM Crumpet said:

I loved the Tick, I'm sad they cancelled it. 

The Tick is never cancelled.   The Tick is just awaiting a new interpretation!

[Healix]

Edited 16 hours ago by Healix

[Healix]

2 hours ago, Uncle Shags said:

Oh, I got it!  If a super is capable of controlling radiation to the point where they can form it into a ball and chuck it like an exploding pumpkin, then they could probably also collect all the radiation in the room, including sucking it out of bystander's bodies.

[lemming]

1 hour ago, Snarky said:

The Tick is never cancelled.   The Tick is just awaiting a new interpretation!

It's why I still have my run of Tick comics

[merrypessimist]

The answer is clearly "Because I don't care about the fallout."

[Octogoat]

2 hours ago, merrypessimist said:

The answer is clearly "Because I don't care about the fallout."

Okey dokey

[High_Beam]

In my sixth book, the Malta Group had exfiltrated the research the Rikti carried out in the Second War relating to de-powering specific power vectors seen in humans that vexed the,  While the Rikti never deployed it (it was considered a failure in that it killed not de-powered).  Variant 17 essentially killed any individual that was able to generate or manipulate Atomo-Catalytic energies, leaving only a handful of uninfected rad slingers or those who used purely technological means.

[Neiska]

On 4/4/2025 at 12:46 AM, Zombra said:

I'm trying to make sense of a new hero concept of mine, and I want to use Radiation powers, but it just seems completely insane to go around shooting dangerous radiation everywhere.  How is it possible that Paragon City is even livable with this happening every day in every neighborhood?

 

Is there any common consensus as to why this is fine?  What's your headcanon that makes Radiation Heroes just as safe and helpful as an all-natural environmentally approved martial artist?  I'd rather have 100 Fire Blasters and Demon Summoners go through my neighborhood than a single Radiation Defender.

 

Well, going by the Heroes Unlimited Palladium (a tabletop RPG) one of the neat things is they go into more than just combat features for powers, they also elaborate on things like perks, side uses, and quality of life things. Some of the quality-of-life side bonuses are pretty neat!

 

Here are some examples for Control Radiation - 

Use yourself as a radiation damper - you can't stop a nuclear explosion, but you can make a contaminated area safe for others by soaking up the lingering radiation in an area.

Detect radioactive elements - you can sense the presence of radioactive elements and isotopes, such as uranium, plutonium, radium, thorium, polonium, etc.

Generate light/glow - you can cause your body to glow and illuminate an area.

X-ray vision - you have X-ray vision, able to see through most walls and substances, stopped by lead and lead alloys.

Discharge Nuclear Fire from limbs - you can ignite materials with a toxic fire.

Generate Heat - you can emit heat as high as 2000 degrees and have can roughly guess at a materials melting point. Some materials have a melting point beyond the heat you are able to generate, such as Titanium, Chromium, Tungsten, and Vanadium. 

 

It does go on to mention that use of this power may endanger innocent bystanders, and that you are constantly emitting a small but potentially dangerous amount of radiation that over time can cause harm. You can consciously suppress it, but doing so cuts the number of attacks and bonuses you have by half. Then they can also use Enviromental Body Armor and radiation suits to protect others.

 

So, what you could do, is have the character always wear an Armored Radiation Suit, with "ports" or controlled releases to focus the radiation? Kind of how Cyclops from X-men does with his Visor? Or you could also just say that your character is a Radioactive Sponge whose presence simply soaks up the radiation from their powers and "recycles" it to continue to fuel their abilities.

 

Just a few thoughts.

[Octogoat]

I want to see the cancer rates among radiation heroes and villains