Shadow-Force Files [ M&M ]

[Swack-Iron]

As expected, great stuff here. I still have a lot of reading to catch up on the actual story hour, but I look forward to it. Now the hard decision: follow things here or over on the Atomic Think Tank? Hmmmmm.......

 

[The Shadow]

As expected, great stuff here. I still have a lot of reading to catch up on the actual story hour, but I look forward to it. Now the hard decision: follow things here or over on the Atomic Think Tank? Hmmmmm.......

Lo and behold, a reader! Thanks for stopping by, I may just put up a post on Erebus to celebrate!

As for which forum... The ATT has a few more updates, but over here is much more organized. (ENWorld, as ever, benefits by coming later...) The story hour here should be caught up before too much longer.

 

[The Shadow]

Erebus

I'll also say a word about Erebus, though I can't speak for his player.

He was a museum curator specializing in Greco-Roman antiquities who was cleaning and preparing for display a well-preserved set of Roman cesti. (Spiked bracers, basically.) The cesti had somehow been imbued with power from the Shadow Realm, a vanishingly rare thing in this dimension... The power rushed into him and tried to take over his mind, but he successfully resisted and bent it to his control. However, his personality was undoubtedly warped by the constant struggle for dominance.

The Shadow Realm is a vicious place inimical to Earthly life, and indeed, virtually any life. The native creatures largely prey upon each other, as they don't have enough life-force to sustain themselves for long... there do not appear to be any pure autotrophs there, at all. The intelligent inhabitants (whom we encountered only late in the campaign) wield shadow-magic and engage in constant battles for supremacy; the Realm is divided up into the territories of various warlords.

Erebus had the ability to scry through shadows, and also to open up portals connecting shadowy areas. (Such portals travelled briefly through the Shadow Realm, so occasionally he had to fight off hungry predators to make it back.) He could also open up portals to the Shadow Realm itself, he and the Phantom used this ability to follow Jessica when she fled there. [In the original campaign, this led to a series of extradimensional adventures for just the two of them as we mostly lost contact with the other players. Though in that continuity, unlike this one, they stayed in periodic touch with home base.]

Erebus could also manipulate shadow-magic in a variety of ways, though he found this difficult and draining. Notably, he could throw "darts" of black, hungry energy. (Jessica seems to have used a more powerful version of this on Photon.) He was also prone to charging up his cesti (which he always wore) with similar energies. Finally, he was a retrocognitive, able to pick up the traces of past events. It is not known how this tied into his Shadow-based abilities; perhaps he was latently psionic before gaining his powers? Or perhaps all shadow-mages can do the like. (It's hard to tell, as Erebus appears to be the only human shadow-mage.)

Erebus... did not play well with others. Though fiercely loyal to his teammates, and zealous in defending the innocent, he did not hold the lives and well-being of his enemies in high esteem, to say the least of it. Though he didn't rack up too high of a body count, let's just say that the kills he did make were the ones where he was unlikely to get caught.

He was also undoubtedly the most quotable member of Shadow-Force. His favorite exclamation when angry was, "I'll hand him his SPINE!" He could go back and forth between such statements and a calm, erudite, courteous discussion of the issues at hand with alarming ease.

Another great Erebus line: The group has just escaped from a villain's individually-designed deathtraps, and one of the villain's brainwashed stooges has injured him badly - he is going into cardiac arrest. A government agent who has just arrived implores us to save him so he can be questioned. Erebus: "Gee, I seem to have forgotten my CPR card. Sorry, can't help you. It just wouldn't be proper."

[I could go on and on and on with Erebus quotes, but I'll stop now. He and Jessica together were always good for laughs. Can't... resist... OK, a couple more ]

Erebus receives word of a villainous situation while with Jessica. "Darling, I must go." "I'm coming with you!" "No, you're not." "How're you gonna stop me?" "I'll duct-tape you to your car." "You wouldn't DARE!"

Suffice to say, a round later Jessica had her wrist neatly duct-taped to the side-mirror of her car. After that, when Jessica got stubborn about super-danger, all Erebus had to do was hold up a roll of duct tape and grin disturbingly.

On another occasion, Jessica had come *that* close to being killed in scary psionic-from-a-distance fashion by the Doctor, only to be saved at the last second by the Phantom. Erebus arrives, concerned and relieved.

Jessica, in syrupy sweet tones: "Erebus?"

Erebus: "Yes, my dear?"

J: "My birthday's coming up. Would you get something for me?"

E: "Of course, darling. What would you like?"

J: "I want his spine. BRONZED!"

[No, she didn't get his spine, bronzed or otherwise. The guy did die, though, and believe me, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Nor was there really any viable alternative - imagine Hannibal Lecter as the most powerful telepath and mind controller EVER. Only he doesn't think small like Hannibal, genocide is more his style.]

 

[The Shadow]

P. S. I.

The Parapsychological Studies Institute was founded originally to do research on the psionic metagene complexes by Dr. Sebastian Poe, who found a way to activate them to greater heights using a serum of his own creation. He himself became a mild empath and telekinetic using the serum, and he had still greater success on his son Simon. Dr. Poe turned to white-collar crime to finance his research, but was ultimately forced out by his son and his old colleague, Counselor Darke. Dr. Poe is currently serving a long jail sentence. (His powers are not potent enough to justify time in Stronghold.)

Under the direction of "Psimon" and Darke, P.S.I. became little more than a front for supervillainy. They were bent on, ultimately, taking control of the government and perhaps the world. However, that phase in their plans was still a long way off when they fell afoul of the nascent Shadow-Force. P.S.I. made it a point to kidnap youngsters with psionic potential and brainwash them to do their bidding. They had a number of installations around the country, notably in Seattle, Texas, Florida, and California. Several P.S.I. members were later inducted into the Doctor's cult of personality.

P.S.I.'s roster at their height was:

Psimon
Counselor Darke
Inquisitor
Mind Slayer
Torment
Omen
Deuce

Psimon was more or less the leader, or at least figurehead, having forced his own father out of the Institute. Charismatic and cunning, his powerful mental blast made him a formidable foe. He also was quite good with mind control, though it was too weak to affect heroes with significant defenses against it. He used it primarily against normals, and evaded imprisonment by that means after being captured by Shadow-Force. Unfortunately for him, his hold on Omen slipped when Shadow-Force closed in on him the second time, and Omen shot and killed him.

Counselor Darke was in charge of brainwashing new "recruits". He was also quite likely the power behind Psimon's throne. In addition to his own mental powers, he used drugs and hypnosis extensively. He was killed by Erebus in 2002 during the first assault on a P.S.I. compound.

Inquisitor was a powerful telepath, and could inflict an agonizing mental blast that could even kill his victims unless he used restraint. A sadist, he quite enjoyed the latter power and was in fact addicted to it; it was his mental blast that awakened in the Phantom his latent powerful telepathy and mild telekinesis. The Phantom had his revenge when he and Erebus captured the man; he drained Inquisitor's power so thoroughly that it would take years if not decades to revive. The Doctor sprung him from jail (he wasn't in Stronghold as he had no powers) and reversed this 'treatment', making Inquisitor one of his lieutenants. Inquisitor is currently still at large, having fled when his master's plans spectacularly failed. (Shadow-Force by that point had no interest in chasing anyone but the Doctor himself.)

Mind Slayer is a telekinetic who can throw and wield "blades" of intangible force. She evaded capture during the dissolution of P.S.I. and later sought revenge on Shadow-Force. (Erebus once memorably punched her across the tarmac of an airport runway, commenting, "Oooh, road rash. I bet that smarts." She escaped during the infamous Stronghold prison-break of 2005 and pursued a life of crime until she fell under the Doctor's sway. She is still at large.

Torment could inflict horrific pain - or rather, share the pain he himself constantly suffered. Torment was a basically decent guy who remained with P.S.I. solely because they supplied him with drugs to control his suffering; when the Phantom offered to drain his powers and render him permanently normal, he leaped at the chance.

Omen was a powerful precognitive who worked with P.S.I. because they threatened his family. Once Shadow-Force began dismantling P.S.I., he foresaw that with a few nudges, his "comrades" would not be able to carry out their threats. He surreptitiously passed on some information to the heroes, then shot Psimon at a crucial juncture. Amidst the confusion, he coolly took his leave, and has not been seen since.

Deuce was a recent "graduate" of P.S.I.'s "recruiting" program, and rather a disappointment - she was erratic and hard to control. Like the Phantom, she was an astral-projector; it had been hoped that she could be done away with once he got older. That plan... notably did not work out well. Deuce cut and ran when P.S.I. started to crumble; her current whereabouts and status are unknown. Before she left, she did give the Phantom some helpful information.

-----------------------

The Phantom's fellow "recruits" in P.S.I included:

Probe, a telepath. She was the Phantom's age, and the closest thing he ever had to a girlfriend. She learned too much about the inner workings of P.S.I. after the Phantom's escape and was killed. Mike found this quite devastating.

Force, a potent telekinetic. He was somewhat younger than Probe and Phantom.

Soulfire, a pyrokinetic with anger problems. He was a year older than Probe and the Phantom, and helped open the Phantom's eyes to P.S.I.'s evil. He is now a minor villain.

The other "recruits" were significantly younger than these three.

 

[The Shadow]

The Doctor

The Doctor was one of the most astonishing telepaths and mind controllers ever recorded, able to manipulate even powerful psis with relative ease. His raw power was matched only by his disregard for his fellow man; the Doctor (no other name for him was ever discovered) was a eugenicist with ambitions of genocide. He believed that psionics was the main axis of human evolution, and decided to exterminate all non-psionic supers, and probably eventually all normals, whom he regarded as subhuman. Meanwhile he would rule the psionics with an iron fist, satisfying his own desires along the way.

The Doctor began his reign of terror by picking up the pieces of P.S.I. He forged a number of the surviving members, along with others, into a cult of personality focussed on himself. To cement his hold on his followers, he cynically developed an elaborate "mythology" to shape their thinking. In that mythology, the Phantom - a powerful psionic who had nonetheless destroyed P.S.I. - was a Judas figure, perhaps even an Antichrist. Despite his own vast psionic power, the Doctor was not an astral-projector; he regarded astral-projection as the "purest" form of psionics, with the mind at its most divorced from mere matter. So the Phantom - who came closer to rivalling the Doctor in raw power than most, in addition to being astral - was regarded as the ideal Messiah figure who had gone horribly, tragically wrong. The cult's term for him was "the Signpost" - the one who pointed the way to the evolutionary future. The Doctor himself ("the Precursor") claimed to be receiving telepathic messages from the future from "the Pinnacle", the disembodied, supreme overmind of humanity's destiny.

The Doctor initially regarded his cult and its mythology as simply a tool. (He used the female members as concubines freely, on the pretext of spreading his superior genes.) But in the end he seemed to have begun to believe it somewhat himself. In any case, he focussed his attention on the Seattle area, to keep the cultists' hatred of the Phantom alive. He murdered the Freedom Squad with cold, single-handed ease, breaking American Eagle's wings as a final gesture of contempt. He spared only Victrix (a psionic telekinetic) to be his concubine and slave, indoctrinating her into the cult.

As the Doctor stepped up his efforts against Shadow-Force, he tried to kill Jessica telepathically while she was driving on the freeway. Thankfully, the Phantom was sitting next to her in the car, and was able to shield her sufficiently to save her life. This attempt enraged Erebus (already furious, as all of Shadow-Force was, at the murder of the Freedom Squad) to the point of assuring that the Doctor would never be taken alive. (And in any case, it is doubtful whether any prison could have held him.)

In the end, the Doctor fell by over-extending: The fully-engaged Shadow-Force, backed up by Mystra and Chameleon and shielded by the Phantom, proved to be more than he could handle. He ran for his life into another dimension using a stolen super-science gadget, leaving his cult to fend for themselves. (Except for Victrix, whom he took with him to warm his bed and defend him from physical attack.) Technoid created a similar device to follow him, leaving Beta, Photon, and the rest of the reserve team to fend for the city in Shadow-Force's absence. Shadow-Force hounded the Doctor through several extra-dimensional boltholes before finally running him to ground; in the end, Erebus impaled the man with his magically-charged cesti, while the Phantom kept his powers at bay.

Victrix was taken home to be mentally healed, but she suffered too deeply from post-traumatic stress to continue being a hero. (She has since left the Seattle area.) The Doctor's cult dispersed in bewilderment upon his inexplicable fall; many of the members are still at large. Shadow-Force took up the burden of their city once more, this time without their allies in Tacoma, and life went on.

 

[The Shadow]

Super Slang: Supers

Being "super" is more than just having powers, it's being part of a culture with its own jargon. Not all super-slang terms are in equally wide use; some, such as "cape" and "mask" go all the way back to the 1920's; others, such as "toyboy", are of much more recent vintage, and popular only with the younger generation.

Super: Short for "superhuman", this is the generic term for anyone with powers. More widely, it refers to anyone who can hold their own in a super-combat, even if it's only by using gadgets. Note that there is a distinction between being a super (having powers) and being part of the Super subculture. (When capitalized, it refers to the culture.)

Cape: While this can be used as a generic term for supers, it definitely carries a "good guy" flavor. Capes are heroes, fighting crime usually openly with the police.

Mask: Again, this can sometimes be a generic term, but it carries a darker, more sinister edge. Masks aren't necessarily villains, though - violent anti-heroes can be called masks.

Vig: Short for "vigilante", this refers to someone who fights crime illegally. Vigs are usually also masks - it would seem strange to call them capes, unless perhaps they are squeaky-clean otherwise. Nocturne is a vig, and a hardcore vig at that. (See "hardcore", below.)

Hero: A collective term for anyone super who fights crime; it covers both capes and vigs. More of a general-society term than a Super term, though capes do often believe in being heroic. (On the other hand, as a verb 'to hero' it is quite common in Super circles.)

Villain: Supers who aren't heroes. Villains are a subset of masks, though "mask" in context often means the same as "villain". Though this term is also current in wider society, it sees some Super use too.

Slacker: A super who does not participate in the Super subculture; they neither fight crime nor commit it. Either they are trying to hide their powers, or they use their powers for some non-heroic, non-villainous purpose. Above all, they do not wear costumes or use codenames.

Half: Someone with super-powers, but not at a level or of a type to be remotely useful as a hero or villain. Halves aren't usually called slackers, whether associated with the Super subculture or not; they're basically "norms with powers".

Old-School: Refers to supers who, while they are heroes or villains, disdain to wear costumes and often avoid using the flashier Super lingo. (Costumes, and to a lesser extent codenames, came back to the fore during the Vietnam War as a way to avoid being preferentially drafted. They had been used previously by the Mystery Men, though.) There is a spectrum of old-schoolness - supers with families to protect will almost always conceal their faces. Also, it's nearly impossible to avoid having a codename these days, as the press will pin one on you if you don't have one already.

It should be noted that old-school supers have a tendency to also be hardcore (see below) - they may not buy into the unwritten Super code of not using excessive force. Golden Age heroes did not have much compunction about killing.

Bazooka is notably old-school. His only "costume" is Army fatigues with "Bazooka" where the name should be. To many supers of his generation (he was born in 1950), costumes are associated with draft-dodging.

Hardcore: The Super subculture has an unspoken agreement not to use excessive force. Heroes and villains will fight each other cheerfully, but few will try to actually kill their foes. (Deathtraps are a grudgingly accepted, traditional dodge.) Likewise, deliberately killing or maiming norms with superpowers is frowned upon even by most villains. (Though using one's powers to put norms in danger - collapsing a ceiling, for instance, to delay heroes - is, again, more acceptable.) Hurting kids, in particular, is considered so vile that even most villains will spit on you.

Hardcore heroes and villains do not abide by this tacit code. Supers with a reputation for being hardcore will often find their opponents treating them in a hardcore fashion as well - the rule being that the code doesn't apply to those who don't observe it.

Hardcore can also refer to other violations of the unspoken rules. (See "wigjob" below for an example.) These rarely call forth lethal force in response, but do "authorize" the opposition to use similar dirty tricks. For example, Enigma draining Photon's powers (as he thought) was borderline hardcore; that's why Photon felt fully justified in sniping at him invisibly, which would otherwise have been rather questionable itself. But a villain whose powers revolved entirely around draining would have been given a pass by many supers; things get complicated that way.

In Shadow-Force, Erebus was as hardcore as he could get away with while still remaining a cape. (This is sometimes called "softcore". Villains can be softcore too - Enigma arguably is.) Bazooka, while not as hardcore as Erebus, did not go to great lengths to restrain him.

Civilized: The opposite of hardcore. "We're both civilized individuals, let's just fight this out."

--------------

Types of super: (Note that some of these terms can also be applied to norms. Also, some are current in the culture at large as well - especially the terms for different kinds of mages.)

Artificer: A mage who makes artifacts. (Artifacts are the magical equivalent of super-science gadgets.) While most mages can do this, the term artificer refers to those who rely on artifacts strongly, much the way "wrenches" rely on gadgets. If someone uses artifacts without having the ability to make their own, they are a type of "toyboy", not an artificer.

Baldy: See "deadhead".

Baseline: See "deadhead".

Beast: A super with great fighting prowess, but without being a brick. Erebus was a beast.

Bigger: Anyone with growth powers. Biggers are usually bricks when grown. (Or "embiggened", as it is sometimes humorously called.) Jo-Tan was a bigger.

Blaster: See "zapper".

Brick: A super who is very strong and, crucially, also very resistant to damage.

Brute: A big, dumb brick. Often a villain.

Clotheshorse: See "suit".

Deadhead: A pejorative term used by wigjobs (q.v.), above all telepaths, for those who aren't. The more polite version is "baseline", for "baseline psionic potential". However, 'baseline' can also mean someone without any sort of psi powers; it would be odd to call a telekinetic a baseline, but perfectly appropriate (if rude) to call them a deadhead. An in-between version that gets around the limitations of "baseline" is "baldy" - ie, someone who doesn't have a wig.

Elemental: A common sort of mutant, with powers relating to a particular type of energy or substance - NOT necessarily one of the four classic elements. Enigma, along with most other people, wrongly thought Photon was a light elemental. Bolt, Photon's first foe, is a lightning elemental. Erebus could loosely be called a shadow elemental, though his powers were magical in origin. Likewise, Demeter could be called a plant elemental, but this is stretching the term somewhat.

Feral: Classically, an animalistic beast. (See "beast", above.) More widely, anyone with "naturalistic" powers. Demeter is a borderline feral - she's not enough of a combatant for the term to feel completely appropriate.

Flag: A super with a patriotic theme. Very popular in the Golden Age, though the term didn't arise until the 60's.

Godfather: A villain (almost always), whose "power" comes from commanding huge numbers of minions. These can be summoned, duplicates, or even just norms on the payroll. (The last option isn't very "super", but even a norm can be a godfather.)

Jedi: See "zapper".

Layman: A joking term for those who aren't super-geniuses. "Laymen's terms" sees a lot of use.

Mage: Generic term for wielders of magic. This encompasses wizards, sorcerers, and artificers, though usually not magical toyboys.

Muggle: See "mundane".

Mundane: A term used by mages for those who aren't. This is tolerable when used as an adjective, but elitist and insulting when used as a noun. "It's hard to explain in a mundane fashion," is fine, but "It's hard to explain to a mundane," would definitely be rude. Nowadays, "muggle" is also sometimes used, and it's definitely more insulting than "mundane".

Peeper: Someone who can spy on others from a distance with powers of any type. Precognition is sometimes called "peeping ahead", and retrocognition and object reading are likewise sometimes called "peeping back". Erebus was a peeper - he could scry through shadows and was also a retrocognitive. Though the Phantom was not technically a peeper, his invisible, astral spying largely qualified.

Though "peeping" is the generic term, "esping" and "scrying" are often used to narrow things down to psionics and magic, respectively.

'Port: Anyone who can travel between two points without crossing the intervening ones. Not always done by straightforward teleportation; dimensional travel works too. Brimstone is a 'port; Photon isn't, but his light-form is fast enough that many people probably think he is.

Shaker: "To shake" means to move something telekinetically, thus a shaker is a telekinetic. (The term comes from the association with "mover".) Teke and Mind Slayer are shakers. While shakers are usually psionic, shaking can also be done by magical spells, or even by some kinds of mutant energy powers.

The past tense of "to shake" is "shaked", not "shook". "Teke shaked me off the ground and shook me up and down."

Sorcerer: A mage who gains magical powers from summoned spirits. Enigma is a sorcerer as well as a wizard.

Speedster: A fairly common mutant power suite, involving running (or sometimes flying) at great speed.

Stalker: A super with powers slanted toward sneakiness and spying. Several Shadow-Force members, notably Erebus and the Phantom, were stalkers, as is Chameleon.

Suit: Someone who wears powered armor. If they built it themselves, they may be called a "tailored suit" (and jokingly "upper management"); if they're a complete norm without the armor, they are "toy soldiers" at best or "clotheshorses" at worst. Silver Siren is a (tailored) suit.

Tin Can: A robot, generally a mindless one. If you can have a conversation with it (Beta's close enough) it can be called a "tin man" instead.

Tin Man: See "tin can", above.

Toyboy: A "super" whose powers derive completely from gadgets. The implication is that they did not make the gadgets themselves; to call a gadgeteer a "toyboy" is quite insulting. American Eagle was a toyboy, though he was such a hero's hero that few would have called him that. Black Phantom had some mild powers apart from his gadgets but not many knew about them, so he likely would have been called a toyboy also. (Though again, nobody would have said it to his face.)

Some toyboys use magical artifacts instead of gadgets. There is, as yet, no special term for them.

Toy Soldier: See "suit".

Upper Management: See "suit".

Wigjob: Someone who specializes in "wigging" others. "To wig" is to affect someone's mind with powers - usually psionics, though others are certainly possible. (The term comes partly from "wigging out", and partly from this sequence: Telepathy -> TP -> teepee -> wigwam -> wig. "Wigwam" is occasionally heard in place of "wigjob".) The Phantom was a wigjob par excellence; Whisper is also a wigjob. Silver Siren, while she does wig people, doesn't rely on it enough to be called a wigjob.

Wigging others in a long-lasting fashion is frowned upon by the Super code. This can be called "wigging someone hardcore". (The more vulgar term for "to wig hardcore" is "to mindf*ck".) The Phantom infamously wigged Inquisitor hardcore early in his career - blocking off his powers near-permanently - but most supers would agree that Inquisitor very much had it coming. (The man was slime even by supervillain standards.)

Witch: A wigjob who affects the emotions, or who uses magic - the term is rather vague. In any case, witchery connotes a less direct, more subtle sort of wigging than the usual. "Bewitch" is the verb. "Warlock" is sometimes used for males, the complaints of neo-pagans notwithstanding. Silver Siren and Captain Kidd both bewitch people, though they probably wouldn't be called witches except in the context of using those powers.

Wizard: A mage who is capable of casting spells of his or her own, as opposed to sorcerers and artificers. Mystra, the Texas Hex, and Dr. Miracle are wizards. Enigma is both a wizard and a sorcerer. Erebus was a very minor wizard, but one with a highly unusual specialty.

Wrench: A super-genius gadgeteer. Since wrenches often do not have overt powers of their own and rely on their inventions, their relationship with the wider Super culture can sometimes be uneasy. Technoid and Hardhat were wrenches, as are FAQ and Silver Siren.

Zapper: To "zap" someone is to shoot them with some sort of energy. A "zapper" is thus a super who makes extensive use of zapping. If zapping is pretty much all a super does offensively, they are a "blaster". Bazooka is a blaster. Zappers who can also shape energy in more subtle ways are "Jedi". Photon is an electromagnetic Jedi. Energy elementals are often Jedi as well, but the reverse is not true - you can have the ability to shape energy without having the all-encompassing orientation that an elemental has.

Striking someone with a bolt of telekinetic "force" counts as zapping. Wide-spectrum, versatile telekinetics can even be called "shaker Jedi". Teke definitely qualified, though Mind Slayer was only a "shaker blaster".

 

[The Shadow]

Super Slang: Norms

Norm: The generally-accepted neutral term for someone without powers. Sometimes jokingly expanded out into "Norman (or Norma) J. Citizen".

Null: More dismissive than 'norm', this implies someone who stands no chance whatever in a super-conflict. There are norms who are crimefighters; but the idea of a null being a crimefighter is laughable.

Zip: An openly contemptuous term for people without powers.

Fan: A norm with an obsessive interest in supers, whether in general or in specific. Fans are often conversant with the Super subculture and its lingo.

Bat: A norm who fights crime. From "Batman". Bats tend to be plugged in to the Super subculture, and a very few are even fully accepted as part of it.

Norms who fight crime *as equals* with supers using super-science gadgets are not generally "bats", they are "toyboys". (Or "toy soldiers" if in powered armor.) Norms with minor super-gadgets are more often called "toy capes", see below. (The darker ones are instead "toy masks".) Toyboys are basically considered honorary supers.

Toy Cape: A versatile term, this has several meanings. It can mean a sidekick, or a fan with delusions of becoming a sidekick. Can also be a dismissive term for a bat, especially if the bat uses gadgets. Note: This term can also be used for supers who are sidekicks, though it's fairly insulting.

Toy Mask: Like a toy cape, only darker and edgier - either a wanna-be villain, or a wanna-be anti-hero.

My Friend Sid: "Sid" is short for "Secret ID", and refers to a norm with ties to a super's hidden life. Can also be used in such phrases as, "Sid called, I gotta go." This lets supers mention their secret lives without giving specifics.

If it would be awkward for "Sid" to have a masculine name (such as, "Going out on a date with Sid" in the mouth of a straight male), the accepted alternative is "Sal", for "Secret Alternate Life".

"Sid" is sometimes also expanded out to "Sidney J. Citizen". (The feminine version being "Sally J. Citizen", naturally. "Sidney and Sally" is yet another variation.) In the days since the Star Wars prequels, a friend or relative on the wrong side of the law can even be "Darth Sidious" - though an individual called by that name is unlikely to be a norm. Finally, the word "insidious" can be used as code to cue in another super to keep secret-ID issues in mind.

-----------------

In super battles:

Specks: Short for 'spectators'. These are norms who watch the battle and generally get in the way. They differ from gawks in that they retain a certain minimal degree of self-preservation instinct.

Gawks: Norms who watch a super battle with stupefied wonder. They differ from specks in that they do not have the sense to get out of the way.

Rabbits: Norms who panic during a super-battle and flee in a disorderly fashion, often causing trouble.

Citizens (1): When unmodified, this refers to norms with the good sense not to be specks, gawks, or rabbits. When a super-battle occurs, they vacate the premises in an orderly fashion, helping others as necessary. All capes are very grateful for citizens, and many masks are too.

Citizens (2): When modified with a positive adjective, such as "fine citizens" or "upstanding citizens", this refers sarcastically to norms who are in the way or causing trouble. "A bunch of nice citizens crowded around asking me for autographs, and the perp got away." Sometimes used as a code between capes: "Photon, let's not bother these fine citizens," as a warning to stay off a sensitive topic.

'People' is often used in the same way. ie, "Good people" or "fine people". This form is more often used when directly addressing the individuals in question. "Good people, I would ask you to stand back from the fighting."

Reptiles: Reporters, considered as lower life-forms. Reptiles are usually also specks, of course. The classic (if bitter) joke is that "Reptiles prey upon rabbits".

The term can also refer more broadly to anyone snooping around with ulterior motives. In particular, 'lizards' are lawyers digging up dirt on a hero, and 'snakes' have darker motives - blackmail or worse.

Our Dear Friends: When said with heavy sarcasm, this is another term for reporters. The official full phrase is "Our Dear Friends in the press corps", but there are all sorts of more colorful endings. One common one is, "Our Dear Friends of the reptilian persuasion".

Badges: Often cops, but can be anyone connected with the government who has at least minimal combat training: soldiers, spies, agents, what have you. Badges are usually armed, and aren't completely useless (or harmless) in a battle. On the other hand, they often have the ability to make trouble later.

Our Blue Brethren: A cape term for the police, collectively. Usually said with sarcasm.

Both capes and masks are apt to make use of such phrases as, 'the boys in blue' and 'the thin blue line' as well. Going to jail can be called going 'into the wild blue yonder'. "Feeling blue?" is a common crack from a cape to a mask. (Or more darkly, in the opposite direction.)

The Loyal Opposition: When used by capes, this refers to minions, mooks, thugs, and any other norms generally on the side of the bad guys. When used by masks, it usually refers to cops. In either case, the full phrase is, "The Loyal Opposition is prepared to Give Their All," meaning that they will go down quickly.

Often abbreviated to LO, pronounced 'low'. The usual joke is, "LO, and what before my wondering eyes should appear?", among many other variants. "LO-down rascals" and "LO-er criminal element" are others. The abbreviation also comes up as a mocking, "'Ello!"

 

[Asha'man]

These are fantastic, and I'll definitely be yoinking for home games. (My setting doesn't have as much of a "super" culture, but as it develops, I figure the lingo will develop with it.) One questions: Did you make all the jargon from whole cloth? If not, which terms if any had their origin in character?

 

[The Shadow]

These are fantastic, and I'll definitely be yoinking for home games. (My setting doesn't have as much of a "super" culture, but as it develops, I figure the lingo will develop with it.)

Thanks! I hope you're enjoying the Story Hour as well.

One questions: Did you make all the jargon from whole cloth? If not, which terms if any had their origin in character?

Good question! Some of both.

'Super' and 'norm' go back all the way to the beginning, as far as I recall.

'Brick', 'speedster', and to a lesser extent 'blaster' are classic Champions terms for different kinds of hero that we picked up as a matter of course.

'Wizard', 'sorcerer', and 'artificer' are terms our group has long used for different styles of mage, both inside and outside the Shadow-Force game. (The terms LONG predate D&D 3.0 - there is no connection to the D&D sorcerer, despite a superficial resemblance.)

When I wrote the new, improved background story for the Phantom several years ago, I had Erebus use the phrase 'our blue brethren', intending it as off-the-cuff snark. When we started creating the Super subculture in earnest, it got taken on board.

Likewise, when we were first discussing the ground rules and history of the new campaign, we started using the terms 'old-school' and 'hardcore', little dreaming at the time that we would actually put them into the game as IC slang.

Then when I wrote 'Life and Light' as a proposal for how to start the game, I had Photon use 'hero' as a verb, with the vague idea it might be common usage.

So far as I know, 'capes' got used spontaneously in the game for the first time in 'Stone of Night', though SP tells me he's had a vague idea of an opposition between 'capes' and 'masks' in his head for quite some time. Ditto with the whole idea of a Super subculture to start with.

Shortly after 'Stone of Night', SP told me that he saw a real theme surfacing of supers - both heroes and villains - being set apart from norms. He wanted to explore the idea that they had a common culture and code, despite the fact they were constantly fighting each other. (This ended up having the happy side effect of explaining some genre conventions - why people seldom die in some comics, and when they do it's shocking and unusual, but why body counts are higher in others. It's just a matter of who's hardcore and who's civilized. So we started pondering.

Then halfway through 'Smoking Mirror', life issues forced us to put the game on hiatus for about a year. (That's why the game is set in 2008, though I'm only posting it now - we didn't want to mess with advancing the timeline again.) We were still in contact, though, and threw brainstorming ideas around.

I came up with 'wigjob', 'the Loyal Opposition', and 'Sid' (I think I was truly inspired with that last one) among others, and SP came up with 'slacker', 'specks', and 'citizens' (both kinds), along with others. At that point we hit a critical mass and ideas really started to flow. The creation of 'toyboy', for example, spawned a number of other terms: 'Toy soldier', 'toy cape', and 'toy mask'. (Though ironically, chronologically in the game world it's probably the most recent of the four!)

There followed some polishing, and the creation of a few terms to fill in chinks we'd missed - notably 'godfather' and 'shaker'. 'Jedi' also came late, and I'm quite proud of it. Makes a nice opposition to 'blaster', as well as the obvious "use the force" rationale.

We're quite happy with the final product. (A third post, on characteristic super actions, will come soon.) I especially like the fact that you can sense the layers of terms evolving over the decades... It seems to me, for example, that 'our blue brethren', 'our dear friends', and 'the loyal opposition' hang together, and probably date back to the early Golden Age, maybe even the Mystery Man era.

Meanwhile, 'specks', 'wrench', 'Sid', and maybe 'wigjob' have a Silver Age feel to me. 'Jedi' and 'slacker' are more 80's, and 'toyboy' and 'muggle' are fairly recent.

As mentioned on the Story Hour thread, there are good reasons why Photon wouldn't have become familiar with a lot of these terms, which explains why they didn't make a big showing in the first sessions of the game.

 

[The Shadow]

Nukleon

Nukleon is a being formed in the explosion of Werner Heisenberg's lab during World War II. It rampaged through Germany for several days, further hampering the Nazi war effort, until the Thule Society successfully destroyed it. Or so they thought... Nukleon manifested itself again at Hiroshima, and has come into being again several times in the ensuing decades, always at the sites of nuclear explosions or nuclear accidents. (The threat of Nukleon has been more effective at enforcing a nuclear test ban than any treaty.) Thankfully, it seems to "decay" after a period of days or weeks if not "fed" with radioactive energy or materials; it eventually gutters out and disappears.

Nukleon is a towering being of glowing, radioactive plasma. Only vaguely humanoid, its only real constant is two legs; it usually has two arm-like extensions, but can form more as needed. Its "body" generally contains three or more hotly-glowing "eyes" that shift about seemingly at random. When especially angry or in pain, Nukleon takes on the shape of a mushroom cloud. The only sound it makes is a deep basso roaring, though its mere presence gives off a hot metallic hiss.

Mentalists attempting to contact (or control!) Nukleon have never made any headway. Its "mind", such as it is, is fixed in a rictus of fear, pain, and anger. Many attempting to contact its mind have even come away horrified and scarred by the experience. Though it is aware of its surroundings, it does not seem to engage in destruction out of malice or any distinct plan; it seems to be simply blundering about in its suffering. However, it reacts angrily to attempts to destroy or contain it. Neither has any attempt to nullify its powers ever succeeded, though its radioactive touch can be countered as usual.