Wild Cards: Difference between revisions

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* [[Sapient Ship]] - the Takisians use and breed sapient (or semi-sapient) ships. Dr. Tachyon's ship - which he named "Baby" - regenerates its "ghost drive gland" over a period of years or decades, after he burned it out trying to go real fast.

* [[Reality Show]] - The ''Inside Straight'' novel is all about the Aces/Jokers Reality TV Show "American Hero" and who gets discarded from the deck [voted off].

* [[Reed Richards Is Useless]] -- Subverted; the world is a lot like our own, but different in certain ways (Buddy Holly never died but became a washed-up has-been, Joseph McCarthy went after Aces ~~<s>instead of</s>~~ as well as Communists, the Arab-Israeli Wars are initially averted of a peace agreement secretly influenced by a powerful Ace).

* [[Reed Richards Is Useless]] -- Subverted; the world is a lot like our own, but different in certain ways (Buddy Holly never died but became a washed-up has-been, Joseph McCarthy went after Aces as well as Communists, the Arab-Israeli Wars are initially averted of a peace agreement secretly influenced by a powerful Ace).

** Only the latter is really an example of subverted RRIU. The others are just stuff that's different. The Gandhi example under [[For Want of a Nail]] above also qualifies, as it involves an Ace actively using his powers to change the world.

** The fact that Dr. Tachyon has not shared his knowledge of vastly advanced biotechnology with humans is an example of RRIU played straight.

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* [[Split Personality]] - Puppetman, Lazy Dragon, Oddity, literally Quasiman, Mother, Captain Trips.

* [[Steven Ulysses Perhero]] - Jack Braun gains superstrength, Mackie Messer is a german human buzzsaw ace.

** [[Bilingual Bonus]] - "Messer" is a German word for "knife". [[The Threepenny Opera|"Look out, ol' Mackie is back!"]]

** [[Bilingual Bonus]] - "Messer" is a German word for "knife" -- and "Mackie Messer" was originally the name of a fictional character better known as [[The Threepenny Opera|"Mack the Knife"]]. "Look out, ol' Mackie is back!"

* [[Stock Dinosaurs]]: ~~<s>Dinosaur Kid</s>~~ ''Kid Dinosaur'' is able to shapeshift into any dinosaur he knows. He knows a lot of them and is bugged by people who know only T-Rex and pteranodon.

* [[Stock Dinosaurs]]: ''Kid Dinosaur'' is able to shapeshift into any dinosaur he knows. He knows a lot of them and is bugged by people who know only T-Rex and pteranodon.

** But his mass doesn't change, so he becomes a very small tyrannosaur. (Mr. Nobody, another shape-changer, is able to thwart the mass limit by transforming lots and lots of energy. He caused the New York City Blackout of the late Seventies by sucking up enough energy to turn into King Kong.)

* [[Stock Super Powers]] - ~~this~~ is a very, very long list. And not all the powers here have a trope because the [[Wild Cards]] authors were pretty inventive. Croyd Crenson, aka The Sleeper, is [[Blessed with Suck]], as he falls asleep, then wakes up having turned a different Wild Card every time, including Jokers, spending weeks to months in a coccoon-like metamorphosis. Said metamorphosis isn't painless and sometimes Croyd wakes up before completion. This is inverted into [[Cursed with Awesome]], as Croyd

* [[Stock Super Powers]]: This is a very, ''very'' long list. And not all the powers here have a trope because the [[Wild Cards]] authors were pretty inventive. Croyd Crenson, aka The Sleeper, is [[Blessed with Suck]], as he falls asleep, then wakes up having turned a different Wild Card every time, including Jokers, spending weeks to months in a coccoon-like metamorphosis. Said metamorphosis isn't painless and sometimes Croyd wakes up before completion. This is inverted into [[Cursed with Awesome]], as Croyd:

# chooses the life of a freelancer rogue

# is completely healed and has changed his appearance entirely after every new sleep

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# artificially prolongs his time awake {{spoiler|by using amphetamines}}

# apparently doesn't age.

⚫

:Croyd probably should be listed under nearly every entry below, but we're mentioning him here to save time.

⚫

Croyd probably should be listed under nearly every entry below, but we're mentioning him here to save time.

** Animal Empathy

*** Bagabond

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*** The Racist, a [[Those Wacky Nazis|neo-Nazi]] with superspeed (Race-ist, Get it?)

** [[Super Strength]]

*** A common denominator of ~~<s>all</s>~~ many of the ace forms and several joker-ace forms of The Sleeper

*** A common denominator of many of the ace forms and several joker-ace forms of The Sleeper

*** Black Shadow

*** Bludgeon - Joker-ace with a hand deformed into a superstrong bone club