Alright, so after about this point in the server, Archon himself, Ascendants creator, came in for some discussion.
I will be summarizing what followed, with Archon, Teleros, Arbrethil, DR and a couple of other members chiming in.
First, Archon did thank us for all the time put in and all the details in the feedback and the campaign log. He did however want to seek some more clarity on two things. In italics below I will put his exact starting wording related too this.
Ascendant was inspired by both DC Heroes and FASERIP and while I was building it I actively imported DC characters and Marvel characters into the system to build them out. I’m curious what made them think that you can’t use Ascendant for anything but Ascendant? As the AU didn’t even exist when I made the game – I made the universe up later for players who asked for a universe
*So it’s weird to be told that the game doesn’t work except for a universe that didn’t exist when I designed the game. *
A lot of comments on “formatting” but without specific explanations of what you mean I don’t know how to handle that. I love the formatting of Ascendant and everything is, in my mind, exactly where it should be, cleanly laid out. So like what are examples of what people mean? “I wish it had double columns instead of single column formatting”? “I don’t like the blue and red scheme”? “The font isn’t nice”? Like?
I should add that the standard I’m using for #1 is whether the game can simulate action at the table as well as either MEGS or FASERIP did, not some platonic ideal. Neither of those games was every perfect at what they were simulating either.
I will note, I attempted to get the Games GM into the thread at this point a couple of times to be party too the discussion, however this attempt was unsuccessful. Just bad luck on the timing I suppose.
Anyway.
My initial response too the first point about the game’s universe will be laid out below.
*So let me start with this while we wait for The GM. *
I should, perhaps, preface that there must be an admission, that some of what were seeing could be a matter of either house rules creating an imperfect impression, or else of just lack of lot’s of experience with more simulationist style games among the group. The only way I could determine that with certainty would be to spend more time running in Ascendant games with different GM’s that have more familiarity with the system, and compared experiences after that fact.
That said, the magic point has been mentioned, as while I am aware that Ascendants universe does not have magic as a distinct thing, Marvel and DC both very, very much have magic and supernatural forces as distinct forces and factions in there universes that often but not always, play by not exactly the same rules as the guys getting powers form alien biology or cybernetics or mutant powers or such. And there big parts of the universe in both universes. Too the extent that, as a example reference point, FASERIP had to do rules expressly for magic characters even though when FASERIP first launched, it did not have rules expressly for people that wanted to be Ghostrider or Dr. Strange or Thor.
There were other things, for example, I understand the statement Teleros has made that the games math should allow you to have Batman and Superman or Ironman and Hulk standing shoulder to Shoulder in a party and keeping pace just fine with one another, but the live in the field play experience we had was that that didn’t work terribly well at all when we tried it. This could, again, be a lack of skill or an adverse and unintended affect from the GM’s house rules, that’s one of the reasons I pinged him above is in the hope of figuring that were any effects of that begin, and were they end and things the system could address in a 2nd edition being instead.
To summarize my answer too question 2, it was a matter of the delivery of the information, making reference too the point about the game term definition in the wealthy and income rules throwing us off, and that we’d struggled with getting a none powered human ala Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne to keep up with the super powered people like Hulk or Superman. As well as repeating the suggestion that a prospective Ascendant 2nd Edition would benefit greatly from being split into 2 or 3 core books, thus allowing more room to repeat information if and as needed.
There was a lot of discussion on this. Some high light points in my estimation from Archon, that I strongly recommend any newer player or newer GM for the system take note of, are that as a system, Ascendant doesn’t ask “What is your concept?” but instead, “What can your character physically do?”. So, guy who’s really good with a sword to use Buccaneer since he was topic this came in relation too. Is really good with a sword like Miyamoto Musashi were he wins 1 on 1 duels but if he had to fight 10 on 1 he’d loose? Or is it like a video game were he fights 1,000 dudes at the same time and wins comfortably?
Another point I think of some importance. was that part of our problem is that what Ascendant thinks of as a normal human and what DC or Marvel think of as a normal human are not the same thing. More so if one goes not just by the lore of a character, but what sorts of feats there shown pulling off. An example from Batman Year One being pointed too of Batman, after taking a Gunshot Wound, being able with a burst of strength to break solid steel handcuffs with out a Tool. Which is not humanly possible with out some kind of superhuman ability to aid it in happening. It also got mentioned that in general, Ascendant favors the on page actions and accomplishments to simulate and model a character after, over the baseline lore. So if a character says there just human but then often survives or does things a human physically could not do? They are by Ascendants estimates, just Superhuman.
To put it another way that came up later in the conversation from Archon, albeit summarized: “If you can dodge Cyclops from the X-mens eye beams, your super human, because normal humans cannot move faster than light to dodge a laser. If you can be hit by and survive Cyclops form the X-mens eye-beams, you are super human, because normal humans cannot take a hit that has enough force to take the roof clean off a train station and still be alive.”
Last note for this was that there was a pregen for what Buccaneers player was trying for, with some very minor adjustments. The Dark Detective. In the Rogues Gallery Book.
That book did not help us much because while we were doing character creation it was not out yet at that time. It might however help you, dear reader, if you find yourself in a situation were you need to do such a character.
Archon did eventually bow out after again thanking us for the feedback. He noted he did not agree with all the feedback, but he still valued the feedback he did not agree with as it gives a different view. I did make a point to note to him that we provided the negative parts of the feedback purely in the hopes of helping to identify pain points that other customers may encounter so that in future supplements and/or editions, they can be addressed and corrected.
It should be noted that DR suggested Theme Party’s, Teleros suggested that Niche Protection tended to be stronger at lower Power levels, and there was also a suggestion toward the end that reinforced that Marvel and DC’s idea of what a normal human was was far physically and mentally more capable than Ascendants idea of the same, or real world reality.
As for why the summary, please understand that this was a multi person exchange over multiple hours. And I find I lack the time in this period, which is during the holidays season, to write all that up and give it the additional documentation of who’s saying what and who’s responding to whom, to make it work. So I am streamlining it to make transferring the thrust of the conversation over here more manageable.
The next post, will related to Zebraspider in between games. See you then. 
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