How can Radiation heroes justify using their powers?

[TheMoneyMaker]

7 hours ago, Mopery said:

Your body radiates infrared light at all times, in fact, everything in the universe radiates Electromagnetic energy at some wavelength.

It's all natural, and beyond human sight, in spite of what you might have heard.

I suppose you just mean ionizing radiation?

🍌 Bananas

[Zombra]

19 minutes ago, BasiliskXVIII said:

If you're producing radiation—that is, emitting high-energy particles or waves directly rather than using something like enriched uranium to decay and generate it—then residual radioactive contamination isn’t really a concern. Despite what pop culture often implies, radiation doesn’t make things radioactive just by hitting them. There’s an exception for neutron radiation, which can induce radioactivity in certain materials. But that’s a specific interaction with specific elements—usually metals, not concrete or drywall—and it requires sustained exposure. Neutron radiation also has an incredibly short range in air and is easily blocked by skin or a few centimetres of plastic or water. It’s wildly inefficient as an offensive weapon.

 

So the biggest actual hazard is likely heat—radiation can scorch, melt, or pit materials it hits. That’s more of a contact or collateral danger than something that "lingers" in the environment. If radiation did leave everything it touched dangerously radioactive, then walking into a room with an X-ray machine would be a death sentence. It’s not.

 

Now, if you're firing gamma radiation, which is extremely penetrating, there could be a concern with long-range misses—those beams don't just stop when they hit air. But in-game, the visual effects show radiation blasts dissipating after a certain range, implying there’s a controlled decay or limited emission distance (say, 60–80 feet). So even that concern is clearly accounted for in-universe.

 

TL;DR: Unless you’re flinging fistfuls of uranium around, a Radiation Blaster isn’t leaving behind a hot zone. They’re just burning and battering with focused energy—and maybe giving safety inspectors a reason to carry a thermometer, not a Geiger counter.

 

I love all this.  Thank you so much.  I can make my new Blaster without guilt now 😄

 

1 hour ago, mechahamham said:

 

As the saying goes, if you're not afraid of water, you simply haven't thought about it enough.

There's a 'horror' subreddit dedicated to images and videos of terrifying aquatic phenomina:

Water's pretty damn deadly, especially for how little we think about it.

 

 

I just looked it up, there's a term for people like me.  "Radiophobic" - thinking that radioactive contamination is dangerous.  😄

[lemming]

"Ever been to Utah? Ra-di-a-tion. Yes, indeed. You hear the most outrageous lies about it. Half-baked goggle-box do-gooders telling everybody it's bad for you. Pernicious nonsense. Everybody could stand a hundred chest X-rays a year!" -J. Frank Parnell, Repo Man

[Skyhawke]

I had a joke about a Water/Rad Blaster and drowning in cancer, but that would be fission for laughs. 

 

 

[Latex]

I actually use radiation Heroes as a character-driver that turned my Slavic girl into an all out Villainess hellbent on targeting radiation Heroes (and any of their Hero friends because she's loopy).

Her story is that in more impoverished ex-soviet states Heroes were flying by a 'busy traffic area' to get to battles elsewhere against the reds. There was an influx of radiation themed Heroes who didn't know the true extent of their own powers, yet still flew over airspace to do good in cold wars against the Soviets. They ended up contaminating crop fields, slowly and over a long time when all the flashpoint black-ops style wars died down. However in my character story there was an awful famine caused by radiation from passing Heroes (that basically salted the soil for agriculture for hundreds of miles around), famine was a main problem for this small village, but all the awful things associated with radiation came with it which included the loss of my characters loved ones. 

Figured it was a great way to make a Villain who 'has a point', my favourite style.

Edit: Also, I'm the type of writer that treats Hero powers as Magic under another name. The more you explain it, the less it works. The Force and Midi-chlorians being one infamous example of overexplaining things, one person can describe Radiation Powers in City of Heroes lore one way, and another the opposite way and both would be right.

If you do want the absolute nitty-gritty on Radiation, well they infused lead into building construction (or some alternate made-up material that 'radiation shields') in Paragon, I think that says enough that Radiation power use is dangerous in some forms to private homes. Honestly? This only serves to make Rad heroes more interesting in my eyes (and Rad villains all the more callous), the flaw of their powers means they really don't want to fully unleash their powers in busy areas.
 

Quote

6.3.6 Haley Philips (also on the Wiki: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Haley_Philips)
Occupation: Health Department Inspector
Location: Skyway City
Villain Groups: Hellions, Circle of Thorns
Background: As an inspector for the Health Department, Haley investigates health hazards associated with super-powered, supernatural, and alien events. Her group is dedicated to making sure the city's residents live in safety, and that their homes protect them from Paragon City's exotic threats. For example, most cities don't require radiation shielding for private residences. Nor do most building codes call for walls strong enough to withstand the impact of a flying hero. Haley specializes in identifying new threats and liaising with heroes who can help her find more information.

All mentions in the lore bible written by Sean Fish (Manticore) seem to frame radiation as a few things.
One seems to be a catalyst for inducing super powers.
The other seems to be that everyone who has Radiation powers is seeking a cure to stop having Radiation powers. Unless they're Villain aligned.
 

Edited April 4 by Latex

[Oubliette_Red]

7 hours ago, Ghost said:

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

☝️  This

One of the things I love about this game, the origin of your powers can be whatever you want. Prior to Water Blast being added I had a Fire/Time character who's powers were water-based. Fire Blast takes on water colours surprisingly well. 

 

[Jacke]

1 hour ago, Skyhawke said:

I had a joke about a Water/Rad Blaster and drowning in cancer, but that would be fission for laughs. 

 

 

 

Just wait.  That drummer will explode in Spontaneous Combustion!

 

 

[Scarlet Shocker]

I'm gonna be a bit more serious than most of the responses here.

 

We've lost some amazing friends to cancer, in this game, in other lives and throughout our lives. To an extent it's something we have all experienced, directly or indirectly. Loved ones have succumbed and we've held their hands and wished them goodbye and mourned.

 

But everyone of you reading this has at least survived those moments and come through them - altered perhaps and changed forever but still here, still moving forward.

 

My own journey with cancer is something I'm not going to reiterate here - if you know, you know - and so far I've beaten it and I'm probably going to die of something unrelated so there's that.

 

But we're bombarded by particles and radiation every single moment of every single day so let's not make radiation and cancer synonymous. Let's also differentiate between the "atomic" radiation and the metal thing on our wall we call a radiator that keeps us warm in winter. Radiation is a very broad term that means many different things to different people.

 

But in a comic book world, radiation rarely makes your teeth and hair fall out. It's more likely to turn you into a giant green rage monster or give you the ability to teleport and possess a prehensile tail. Or perhaps imbue a spider with magic venom that works once and once only.

 

It's a good question from the OP - but I fear he may be trying to take a comicbook scenario that is rarely that serious and turn it into a real world case and that's a strangely profiled peg and a peculiarly radiused whole.

 

Let's remember that while in the real world some radiates might give us a disease, others might cure us. It ain't black and white.  Perhaps we should just take it for what it is in our game and assume it only harms people we specifically aim it and intend it to harm and then only temporarily. If you don't like that, well the mediporters remove all anomalies and hey presto, back to normal.

 

And of course, Paragon has invested billions in the unseen, unheard, unappreciated "Clean-up Crew" who put stuff back and rebuild things once the heroes and villains have finished trashing the place. So I'm thinking they remove all traces of rad from the environment while at it. But they really are a thing - they're just more ninja than pirate.

 

Ultimately I leave the OP to arrive at some form of conclusion himself and make peace with.

[biostem]

17 hours ago, Zombra said:

it just seems completely insane to go around shooting dangerous radiation everywhere. 

More so than launching fireballs, calling forth storms, summoning undead, or even demons?  IMHO, it's all about control and how/when/against whom you use your powers, not what those powers are.  Now, you could RP that your character does have some issues with containing their powers, so you just toggle them off or otherwise simply don't use them while civilians are nearby...

Edited April 4 by biostem

[Zombra]

43 minutes ago, biostem said:

More so than launching fireballs, calling forth storms, summoning undead, or even demons?  IMHO, it's all about control and how/when/against whom you use your powers, not what those powers are.  Now, you could RP that your character does have some issues with containing their powers, so you just toggle them off or otherwise simply don't use them while civilians are nearby...

 

Yeah.  I feel like this thread has kind of run its course, but I'm happy to answer again.  Bullets and fire are bad, but don't leave invisible death behind that can render an innocent looking place a deathtrap for the next thousand years.  It's a different kind of danger.

[srmalloy]

18 hours ago, Zombra said:

it just seems completely insane to go around shooting dangerous radiation everywhere. 

We already know that Paragon City is in an alternate universe; it just has physical laws that make some forms of radiation beneficial rather than damaging, similar to the way people fixated on it historically as a health treatment. For example, Radithor, a patent medicine that was sold between 1925 and 1930:

Or the "Revigorator", a pottery crock for water lined with an ore that emitted radon:

In the world of Paragon City, it's easy to handwave that some of the early research into radioactivity identified effects that were genuinely positive, rather than the negative effects in our world -- William Bailey, the producer of Radithor, dying of cancer in 1932 after fervent consumption of Radithor, the deaths of the "radium girls" hired by the US Radium Corporation to handle radium and paint luminescent indicators, the deaths of Marie and Pierre Curie, who had no idea of the harm their handling of radioactive material was doing to their bodies, and the deaths of Harry Daghlian and Louis Slotkin after accidents with the "demon core" at Los Alamos, among many others.

[Zombra]

18 minutes ago, Krimson said:

Why are we assuming that all radiation is ionizing?

 

Because we tend to think that blasts of radiation that can incapacitate a person in less than 1 second might be the dangerous kind.

[biostem]

34 minutes ago, Zombra said:

Yeah.  I feel like this thread has kind of run its course, but I'm happy to answer again.  Bullets and fire are bad, but don't leave invisible death behind that can render an innocent looking place a deathtrap for the next thousand years.  It's a different kind of danger.

We can literally call down meteorites from the sky.  Inside a building.  And don't tell me that tossing around some radiation has greater ramifications than opening a literal portal to an infernal realm and summoning demons.  If you can suspend your disbelief for one, then you can do so for the other...

Edited April 5 by biostem

[Troo]

 

(I love getting to use this)

[Troo]

@biostem I thought you nailed it with "If you can suspend your disbelief for one, then you can do so for the other.."

 

@Zombra Do you have a microwave? A cell phone? Use wi-fi? Been on an airplane? Have any remote controls? Live inside? Spend any time on a computer? Drink water? Breathe air? Have electricity? Basically if you live on earth you are being exposed all sorts of radiation nearly all the time. Not so fun fact: Did you know Grand Central station potentially exposes visitors to more radiation than nuclear facilities are allowed to emit?

[Zombra]

8 hours ago, biostem said:

We can literally call down meteorites from the sky.  Inside a building.  And don't tell me that tossing around some radiation has greater ramifications than opening a literal portal to an infernal realm and summoning demons.  If you can suspend your disbelief for one, then you can do so for the other...

 

Sure, I can suspend disbelief for anything if I really want to.  The point is that it's harder for some things than others.  Again, none of the things you mention have a half-life.  Yes, a demon is scary.  But when you open a portal, a demon comes through, and the portal closes, you're done.  The demon may do bad things, but when it's over, it's over.  There's no particular reason to think that lingering death is left behind when the demon is gone, unless you decide to make it up.  With radiation, it's not made up.  Hard radiation in the real world can have very bad lingering effects.  That's where the disbelief comes from.  All I was looking for here was a better reason to suspend it than "don't worry about it".

 

Sidebar, if we want to go there, I'm not crazy about "heroic" characters who summon demons in the first place.  I get it, let anyone have any power set, fine, but ..... players who choose to do that and want me to believe they're good guys had better have the most amazing backstory I've ever read.

 

7 hours ago, Troo said:

@Zombra Do you have a microwave? A cell phone? Use wi-fi? Been on an airplane? Have any remote controls? Live inside? Spend any time on a computer? Drink water? Breathe air? Have electricity? Basically if you live on earth you are being exposed all sorts of radiation nearly all the time. Not so fun fact: Did you know Grand Central station potentially exposes visitors to more radiation than nuclear facilities are allowed to emit?

 

For about the sixth time, innocuous, harmless radiation is not what I'm talking about.  How many of those things you mentioned function primarily to knock humans out?  Radiation Blast has a primary function of knocking people out (or killing them, if your character is a meanie).  Which kind is more harmful hmmmmmmmm

 

It's not insane to imagine a possible connection between weaponized radiation and the potential for lasting environmental damage.

 

 

Edited April 5 by Zombra

[FFTMime]

By the thread, it seems the REAL danger of radiation heroes is roasting your opponents alive in a way that's even nastier than being a fire blaster. That said, imagination and POWER RECOLORING can do a lot of lifting.

...But then I had a thought.

RP Challenge: You have to play a combination of powers you can justify as nonlethal as possible. Maybe make yourself play something unusual because of it. Things with obvious high impact values are probably out too. No energy blasters causing people's organs to rupture when knockback triggers. Most melee AT options are right out too. For those that don't usually play them, controllers can possibly be a 'safe AT'. The low damage accounts for the care and alternate methodology behind the power use. You COULD incinerate your foe, but you're trying to be good here. 

..Also depends on how nasty you want to be, I guess. People can live through lightning strikes, for instance. If you don't mind nerve damage. 

[Healix]

For me, here in this game, if a character has radiation powers, the lethal quality/residual effects is controlled by their mind and biology.  (Sort of the way you use your voice to whisper or scream.....also spit.)

[Octogoat]

I always considered cox radiation lore to be the same as comic book lore as in its whatever you say it is. If it's edgy dangerous it's edgy dangerous if it's nice cool mutating healing radiation it is or it's the latest in 60's bullshit science.

[Uncle Shags]

4 hours ago, Zombra said:

All I was looking for here was a better reason to suspend it than "don't worry about it".

I bet they've got a cure for it.  Maybe just a direct treatment for radiation damage, or maybe a cure for cancer. Or maybe just being rebuilt in one of the hospital "good news you're not dead" machines. 

[Latex]

I'd just lean into it, depends if you want to know the ins and outs of exactly how Radiation in City of Heroes works, when you start explaining superpowers it ruins the mythos. Truth is, no ones take is incorrect or correct. The official lore only states that the building code in Paragon City involves radiation shielding and that's as far as the official lore goes.

Roleplaying wise if you're making a Rad Hero I'd go head first, perfect character flaw, perfect weakness. Powerful but fearful if they were to fully unleash, great story potential for Villains to exploit. Feels like it's in a similar vein to the cover page Heroes of Marvel. Every well written (powerful) Hero has to hold back, any Omega-level mutant unleashing their powers to the 100% results in bad shit for everyone. This is obviously why Dr. Strange makes 'mirror dimensions' because they want to show off his powers without affecting reality, it's a cheap cop-out imo.

Storm won't want to unleash Hurricanes in New York.
Jean Grey doesn't want to dominate an entire planet, but could.
Iceman could easily freeze literally anyone to death, including speedsters.
Magneto, well, that's why he's one of the most interesting mutants, because sometimes he does go 100%.
 

Edited April 5 by Latex

[FFTMime]

3 hours ago, Octogoat said:

I always considered cox radiation lore to be the same as comic book lore as in its whatever you say it is. If it's edgy dangerous it's edgy dangerous if it's nice cool mutating healing radiation it is or it's the latest in 60's bullshit science.

If we're going in to classic cape comic lore...

It works off thematic/symbology. The difference between the hero and the villain isn't really something like helpful versus not helpful to people. The hero typically has their powers as a gift in some form (you can even say this is a blessing from God). You didn't choose it. It chose YOU. The villain grasps power by their own will in some form out of their desire for it or it's potential usefulness. The hero exercises their capabilities with humility. The villain is prideful. This then filters down into simpler to understand results like helpful, law abiding, not a jerk, and so on. 

This may also explain why most classic capes get their power by 'happenstance'. Why inventors are usually villains or unstable heroes at best. Also why capes don't tend to train and upgrade themselves. It's a violation of theme. Desire for more than you have been granted as a boon is more on the villainous side of theming. The hero gets used to what they already have or happenstance strikes again if they need an upgrade. God sees fit to gift the hero more as they have not violated the silent covenant formed when they were gifted the powers in the first place. 

The hero is just.. better in some meta/spiritual sense. And by spiritual I don't mean metaphor. I mean a real manifested reality. That's kind of how classic stories work. Ever wonder why Batman Beyond can use the most high-tech suit on the planet while every single villain he fights pays a heavy price for trusting technology? It's kind of like that. 

Edited April 5 by FFTMime

[Captain Fabulous]

Kids today will never know the healthy glow from radium-laced cosmetics.

[Zombra]

1 hour ago, Latex said:

When you start explaining superpowers it ruins the mythos.

 

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?

[Uncle Shags]

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.