Favorite Superhero types
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fireinthedust
Explorer
I like all sorts, though the only game I managed to be in had my playing as a mix of Firestorm and Metamorpho: he could alter the chemical substances of objects *or* he could alter his own structure (but not both). I wrote a 40+ page comic script for a series about him and a pile of other characters, but got sidetracked before I could get it drawn.
Personally I like playing really good characters, with a strong sense of right and wrong, honor and justice. I GM a lot, so mostly I play villains, but when I PC stuff I try to play good guys.
Powers-wise, it depends on the scale of the series, and the focus: no one wants to be left out of the action (like the Thing in a Flash story). If I could be anyone, I'd want incredible combat abilities plus some sort of other thing, like high tech ability, psychic powers, avatar/bending, or kryptonian whateverwhatever. Something to keep me in the game, as it were.
Cyclops: nope, no military training, just X-men training. He's one of the first class, and has been the leader since, like, 1966 or so, so lots of experience technically. However, he's never been in the military of a nation, with guns and such. You could do him as a Warlord with some Warlock-style blasty powers.
Personally I like playing really good characters, with a strong sense of right and wrong, honor and justice. I GM a lot, so mostly I play villains, but when I PC stuff I try to play good guys.
Powers-wise, it depends on the scale of the series, and the focus: no one wants to be left out of the action (like the Thing in a Flash story). If I could be anyone, I'd want incredible combat abilities plus some sort of other thing, like high tech ability, psychic powers, avatar/bending, or kryptonian whateverwhatever. Something to keep me in the game, as it were.
Cyclops: nope, no military training, just X-men training. He's one of the first class, and has been the leader since, like, 1966 or so, so lots of experience technically. However, he's never been in the military of a nation, with guns and such. You could do him as a Warlord with some Warlock-style blasty powers.
cignus_pfaccari
First Post
The only super-type character I've ever had in a P&P RPG* was an Aberrant character who was a telekinetic in a form of power armor. His background was that he was a Russian fighter pilot who Erupted when the pilots he was training were committed too early, and, even with his help, got slaughtered over Kashmir, and he pulled the remains of his fighter into a makeshift suit of armor. Unsurprisingly, he went by the name Fulcrum.
* - I don't think the Sorcery-Flight-Dual Pistols anthropomorphic fox chick I sometimes play in DCUO counts.
Brad
* - I don't think the Sorcery-Flight-Dual Pistols anthropomorphic fox chick I sometimes play in DCUO counts.
Brad
Argyle King
Legend
I was trying to think of what my answer was to this question, but I am drawing a blank. I'm not sure what my type would be.
My favorite characters are Captain America and Magneto.
My favorite characters are Captain America and Magneto.
Eric Tolle
First Post
I have a fondness for fast, smart bricks. I like being able to grab the enemy, jump straight up, at the top of my arc throw the villain upwards, land, and then wait for the baddy to land on my haymaker. And then watch as the gm sadly starts totalling up the damage I did to his supposedly "super tough" npc.
Examples:
Diana: former Olympic hopeful afflicted with an incurable disease, tried a super-science cure. When the cure gave her super-powers she was disqualified as an athlete, currently making her way as a private detective. Think of a super- strong Kinsey Malone. Character design in Champions used point shaving tricks with Boost; the M&M version does as wil, but it's not as important a factor.
Snapkick: based on a character from the manga "Xenon"k a Japanese American girl who was an escapee from a secret organization that gave her cyborg legs, paranoia about cyborgs and partial amnesia. In Champions she could manage a good 60 mph; her M&M version kicked the speed up over 100 mph. In both versions she had heavy aren't on an activation roll, and kicking-based martial arts combined with heavy leg strength.
Rocketman/Rocketgirl: media names, because when Darlene built a 2.5 meter tall suit of powered armor to compensate for her personal lack of mobility, out was assumed that there was a man in the suit. Because women don't engineer big suits powered by loud rockets. Especially handicapped black women from the deep south.
A Wild Talemts character, the only way I could afford all the powers was to tie them all into a utility Growth power (based on the Doctor Dinosaur example). Everything fell into place from there.
Examples:
Diana: former Olympic hopeful afflicted with an incurable disease, tried a super-science cure. When the cure gave her super-powers she was disqualified as an athlete, currently making her way as a private detective. Think of a super- strong Kinsey Malone. Character design in Champions used point shaving tricks with Boost; the M&M version does as wil, but it's not as important a factor.
Snapkick: based on a character from the manga "Xenon"k a Japanese American girl who was an escapee from a secret organization that gave her cyborg legs, paranoia about cyborgs and partial amnesia. In Champions she could manage a good 60 mph; her M&M version kicked the speed up over 100 mph. In both versions she had heavy aren't on an activation roll, and kicking-based martial arts combined with heavy leg strength.
Rocketman/Rocketgirl: media names, because when Darlene built a 2.5 meter tall suit of powered armor to compensate for her personal lack of mobility, out was assumed that there was a man in the suit. Because women don't engineer big suits powered by loud rockets. Especially handicapped black women from the deep south.
A Wild Talemts character, the only way I could afford all the powers was to tie them all into a utility Growth power (based on the Doctor Dinosaur example). Everything fell into place from there.
I have a fondness for "Soul Gems" and "Power Rings" of all kinds- I design jewelry as a hobby- PAGs are as varied as the weapon systems you can design for the armor...or the exotic materials you think of to make them with.
For Bricks, its less about power level and more about personality or design quirks. The last 2 I designed were both heavyworlder aliens.
Thredd was inspired by Greg Bear: the creature's physical form was a segmented rubbery/metallic thread about .05" in diameter and thousands of yards long who coiled his body into a generally humanoid form. He spoke by vibrating portions of his physique. His sensory organs were equally distributed on each segment. His structure made him virtually impervious to physical harm, but he was also quite conductive, so he was just slightly tougher than a normal human against energy attacks.
Hazard was an alien gladiatrix whose schtick was her martial arts prowess, including the use of a nasty fighting staff. She was nearly 7' tall, could grow to just around twice that, and was hyperdense as well. To power all of this, she had to consume her body weight in food- 800lbs- daily. On top of that, she was allergic to some terran foods, so going to the all you can eat buffets was both necessary AND risky (even moreso than it would be for normal patrons). Not shy, she often could be seen with her "Will fight crime for Food" sign, and often hit on those human males she found attractive- even though she knew them to be "frail"- because they were similar to the males of her own species in size and appearance. (Yep, extreme reversal of sexual dimorphism in humanoids.)
For Bricks, its less about power level and more about personality or design quirks. The last 2 I designed were both heavyworlder aliens.
Thredd was inspired by Greg Bear: the creature's physical form was a segmented rubbery/metallic thread about .05" in diameter and thousands of yards long who coiled his body into a generally humanoid form. He spoke by vibrating portions of his physique. His sensory organs were equally distributed on each segment. His structure made him virtually impervious to physical harm, but he was also quite conductive, so he was just slightly tougher than a normal human against energy attacks.
Hazard was an alien gladiatrix whose schtick was her martial arts prowess, including the use of a nasty fighting staff. She was nearly 7' tall, could grow to just around twice that, and was hyperdense as well. To power all of this, she had to consume her body weight in food- 800lbs- daily. On top of that, she was allergic to some terran foods, so going to the all you can eat buffets was both necessary AND risky (even moreso than it would be for normal patrons). Not shy, she often could be seen with her "Will fight crime for Food" sign, and often hit on those human males she found attractive- even though she knew them to be "frail"- because they were similar to the males of her own species in size and appearance. (Yep, extreme reversal of sexual dimorphism in humanoids.)
My game is Champions - because you can make any kind of character, with any kind of power. I'm usually the GM, so I seldom get to play a character, but my favorite kind of superhero is one that is actually a hero, as opposed to a super-powered swine. Such a hero can (and should) have faults and can make mistakes, but he should be distinguishable from the villains.
Starfox
Hero
i have played the MMO City of Heroes a lot. There, you are constrained in your power selection options, but not in your background and concept. Here are some of my favorite characters.
Cidri - Claws and super reflexes. She is somewhat like Longshot in that she is very lucky, and does damage more based on luck than on power or skill. Her origin is that she was a model displaying a set of armor found at an archeology dig when the show was attacked. The spirit of the former owner (an old DnD character of mine) reached out to her and gave her powers - together they beat the bad guys. Now two spirits reside in one body. They are both reckless, but in different ways, and like to goad each other into doing daredevil stunts.
Dragon Puff - The large plush toy of Jack, a somewhat disturbed young boy, Puff was animated by the boy's wishes for a protector. Eventually, they were separated, and Puff lost his reason for living until joining the Extraordinary 8, an Australian super team. Much later we met Jack, in prison. Seemed his powers had all burned out creating Puff. Physically, Puff is about four feet of stuffed plush dragon, able to breathe fire.
Ball's Pyramid - Named after a volcanic island off the coast of Australia, the name is really an excuse for having "Balls" in the name. He is super-macho and a misogynist, preferring the company of men, but really very, very deep in the closet. He has volcano-like powers - he surrounds himself in rock and smashes foes with flame. He can teleport trough the earth, using exclamations like "come to me through the brown tunnel of love!" (Excuse in advance if this offends anyone, but this character was a total parody.)
Cidri - Claws and super reflexes. She is somewhat like Longshot in that she is very lucky, and does damage more based on luck than on power or skill. Her origin is that she was a model displaying a set of armor found at an archeology dig when the show was attacked. The spirit of the former owner (an old DnD character of mine) reached out to her and gave her powers - together they beat the bad guys. Now two spirits reside in one body. They are both reckless, but in different ways, and like to goad each other into doing daredevil stunts.
Dragon Puff - The large plush toy of Jack, a somewhat disturbed young boy, Puff was animated by the boy's wishes for a protector. Eventually, they were separated, and Puff lost his reason for living until joining the Extraordinary 8, an Australian super team. Much later we met Jack, in prison. Seemed his powers had all burned out creating Puff. Physically, Puff is about four feet of stuffed plush dragon, able to breathe fire.
Ball's Pyramid - Named after a volcanic island off the coast of Australia, the name is really an excuse for having "Balls" in the name. He is super-macho and a misogynist, preferring the company of men, but really very, very deep in the closet. He has volcano-like powers - he surrounds himself in rock and smashes foes with flame. He can teleport trough the earth, using exclamations like "come to me through the brown tunnel of love!" (Excuse in advance if this offends anyone, but this character was a total parody.)
That's frickin' hilarious!
Has he told anyone he's "Hot blooded, check it and see" or asked anyone to "check out his ash" as quips?
DrunkonDuty
he/him
Taken 2 days to get a chance to reply to this thread; damn you busy work.
Anyway. In terms of system I like Champions. It's flexible, detailed, fun. Also love the old Marvel FASERIP game. Fast, silly, simple.
For character type I've got a big soft spot for Power Armoured types. It's partly the point cost break you get in Champions. I just love getting into the charcter design and fiddling about with things like Sensor and Life Support Systems. It's a bit sad really.
My fave character, who I've gotten to play a whole TWICE in the 10 years since I drew her up, is a Power Armoured multiform: that is she can change shape. Her base form is lightly armoured, high dodginess. Her other form, Heavy Combat Form, is tough, strong, big gun but not so dodgy. She needs her motor cycle to change shape, the bike provides the extra bulk, armour and power that makes her Combat Form so much tougher. Stop me if you've heard this sort of thing somewhere else...
I get more use out of my NPC villains. My fave NPCs are: a teleporting martial artist (yes, Champion fans, a lot like the Cheshire Cat) and a Dark Force controlling guy called, uh, Dark Star. Funnily enough both are only villains by circumstance, either could easily be redeemed and turn into a hero if I found someone else to GM a while...
Hmmm, that might be a thread there: NPCs you'd love to play as a PC if you only got the chance.
Anyway. In terms of system I like Champions. It's flexible, detailed, fun. Also love the old Marvel FASERIP game. Fast, silly, simple.
For character type I've got a big soft spot for Power Armoured types. It's partly the point cost break you get in Champions. I just love getting into the charcter design and fiddling about with things like Sensor and Life Support Systems. It's a bit sad really.
My fave character, who I've gotten to play a whole TWICE in the 10 years since I drew her up, is a Power Armoured multiform: that is she can change shape. Her base form is lightly armoured, high dodginess. Her other form, Heavy Combat Form, is tough, strong, big gun but not so dodgy. She needs her motor cycle to change shape, the bike provides the extra bulk, armour and power that makes her Combat Form so much tougher. Stop me if you've heard this sort of thing somewhere else...
I get more use out of my NPC villains. My fave NPCs are: a teleporting martial artist (yes, Champion fans, a lot like the Cheshire Cat) and a Dark Force controlling guy called, uh, Dark Star. Funnily enough both are only villains by circumstance, either could easily be redeemed and turn into a hero if I found someone else to GM a while...
Hmmm, that might be a thread there: NPCs you'd love to play as a PC if you only got the chance.
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