Regarding superpowers: For two weeks now the previews have been hinting at visions. The website for the game also more than hints that the characters have some sort of super-tech AI based powers of some sort. Without playing the game, however I can't say more.

However: I will say that I would find it highly irritating if something in the game accepted as canon (implanted super-ai badassitude) fails to show up in the show.  Either it exists in the setting, or it does not. Pick one.

I'll accept that monsterous bugs the size of office buildings can be skipped under the basic assumption that Defiance would have killed all the local ones as part of making the town a safe haven.

I sat down expecting to watch some traditional Syfy channel rubbish and instead got a pretty damn good wee show! Special affects weren't so bad as to be distracting and the make up I thought was pretty good in places, but mostly, it was just entertaining.

Last night's episode added detail to the visions and includes hellbugs, too. More crunchy RPG bits, which is great.

The game has the luxury of more time, and so offers a lot more detail. As for the 'what humans typically do' vs 'aliens did it', it turns out to be primarily the former. See, the Votan set out for earth before humans were sending out radio waves, and were surprised to find it inhabited. Humans originally tried giving them reservations to occupy, and as such most of the aliens stayed asleep in space.

Then humans started picking at the seams of things, exploiting the newcomers, etc, and war broke out. Sometime after that, someone killed all the aliens in suspension, which is why the stuff is still orbiting in the present.

I missed out on Gamma World, but this setting seems pretty ripe for roleplaying to me...

Quote from: Soylent Green;649089Defiance has  the different races and cultures to help quickly differentiate characters, super-sciences gizmos, monsters in the wilderness - the only thing missing from typical roleplaying fare so far is some sort of magical-superpower style abilities.

And lo and behold, turns out characters in Defiance can have some sort of aline/psionic/magical power. It's all there, 100% roleplaying setting.

Quote from: mcbobbo;650788I missed out on Gamma World, but this setting seems pretty ripe for roleplaying to me...

I had a lot of fun with older version of Gamma World. The current one though is a bit of an oddity, a rather tactical game with Paranoia-style wrapped around it. It has its fans, as does everything, but I'd be hesitant to recommend it.

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;649104Parts of the show reminded me of Rage or Fallout 3 or Atlas Shrugged at times.

The end of the pilot made me think of RIFTS.

'Old St Louis' really made me think of RIFTS, too. All they needed was skelebots...

Quote from: CamofCthulhu;650016I sat down expecting to watch some traditional Syfy channel rubbish and instead got a pretty damn good wee show! Special affects weren't so bad as to be distracting and the make up I thought was pretty good in places, but mostly, it was just entertaining.

I was shocked.

Just saw the Pilot, and it was good.

But its the SYFY channel.

End of days are here! Run!