The best title/rank for a super hero

[Hermit]

In the superhero world: Misters abound, Captains aplenty, and we have Doctors galore.

So, which title is your favorite?

[Blue]

Uncle ;)

I will go with Captain.
Doctor is more of a villainous title (Doom, Destroyer, etc.)

[Hermit]

Originally posted by Blue
Uncle ;)

I will go with Captain.
Doctor is more of a villainous title (Doom, Destroyer, etc.)

One day I want to make a good guy named "Baron" something :) Talk about turning an stereotype on it's ear. Add "DF: German Accent" and the poor guy is going to have "Hunted: Impulsive Heroes" as well :)

[Blue]

Not a lot of heroic Barons, certainly.
Not a lot of villainous Sirs either.

[Ghost who Walks]

I've used all of them, I like giving the titles to characters I make, becasue my players get a kick out of it.

Example dialog:
Professor Centaur: "As a certified Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Brooklyn College, I'm sure I can determine how much damage King Kong will cause when he hits the street below. Let me just pull out my slide rule..."

Doc Smash: "Use a calculator, you tenured twit!"


My all time favorite title was "King Ogre", from Champions in 3D. I ended up making a whole race of "Ogres" eventually, who lived on another planet.

Some of the classic Champions characters take on entirely different aspects once you give them a title..."Captain Foxbat" becomes a mentally unstable Veteran...:)

[proditor]

I'm partial to "Major" since it has the military connotations and the enhancement connotations. You can be Major Victory, Major Glory, Major Force (possible dual meaning), Major Disaster, etc. etc.

[Doug McCrae]

Post-GA, only villains can be called Master something.

[Hermit]

Originally posted by Doug McCrae
Post-GA, only villains can be called Master something.

Well, true... but we did have the "Master of Kung Fu" :)

[Southern Cross]

True enough,but Shang-Chi was known as "Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu",just as Dr. Strange was known as "Master Of the Mystic Arts".
So if it's a secondary title it's all right,as is using "master" as a suffix e.g. "Judomaster".

[Monolith]

I had to go with Doctor. Dr. Doom is my all-time favorite supervillain and there just aren't enough good Dr "hero" names, IMO.

[Solomon]

Make it Doctor for me. Most of my characters, both heroes and villains, tend to be technically or mystically inclined (as opposed to bricks/MAs).

[wcw43921]

Depends on the name that goes with the title--some fit better than others. Alliteration goes a long way with titles, I think:

Captain Crusader
Major Magnificent
Colonel Colossal
Doctor Daring
Prince Power
Professor Prime
Sergeant Supreme
Countess Conjure
Baron Brilliant
Mr. Mystery

[Crusader108]

I voted Captain. I just screamed leadership, command, and charisma (maybe not physical beauty but sheer presence)

...by the way, wcw43921, I am very partial to Capt. Crusader. :D (my 1st real Champions superhero...which has gone through over 108 rewrites/updates/upgrades since 1983...and my username) :cool:

[CrosshairCollie]

You know ... I have *never* played a character with a title like that ... no Captains, no Doctors ... I've never even played one with the old-fashioned -Man/Woman/Boy/Girl ...

Wow. I feel weird now.

I did make a 'King' once, though I haven't played him.

[VegasNomad]

Ah, who needs a fancy title if you've got the biggest attack? ::snickers::

[Bengal]

I prefer the Adjective-Pronoun construction actually. But Dr. is a great title for a good guy or a bad guy.

[Mephron]

"No one will tremble in fear at the mention of the Mad Mister Rainbow!". (Alas, Tom Rainbow (http://isfdb.tamu.edu/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?Tom_Rainbow), we miss you and your essays for IASFM.)

My characters wander over the map, but I've just never quite gotten into the whole 'patriotic' thing that you need for 'Captain' or 'Major', 'Master' seems a bit pretentious... Nah, 'Doctor/Professor' works fine.

[Doug McCrae]

Originally posted by CrosshairCollie
You know ... I have *never* played a character with a title like that ... no Captains, no Doctors ... I've never even played one with the old-fashioned -Man/Woman/Boy/Girl ...Well, it is a bit old fashioned. I don't think any modern, non-pastiche, non-retro hero has had a 'double- barrelled' name like that since the early 60s. Captain is pure WW2 era. DC kept giving their villains names like that for a while longer. Into the early 80s I think (Colonel Computron for example).

Personally I'm a huge fan of the double-barrelled name. I loved some of the ones mentioned already on this thread like Professor Centaur, Doc Smash and Tom Rainbow

[Hermit]

I have to admit, "Doc Smash" does sound cool. Like a brick who knows how to use applied physics to best advantage :D

[lemming]

I've played one title and that was Mister Impervious

[Ghost who Walks]

Originally posted by Hermit
I have to admit, "Doc Smash" does sound cool. Like a brick who knows how to use applied physics to best advantage :D


Originally posted by Doug McCrae
Personally I'm a huge fan of the double-barrelled name. I loved some of the ones mentioned already on this thread like Professor Centaur, Doc Smash and Tom Rainbow

Let's see, how to describe Doc Smash...
He started off as the DNPC of one of the players, who after about 8 years of playing retired her primary character (Smash's mother, a mega-powerful Psionic), and decided to play Smash instead.

Smash's only power at the time was his supergenius mind and ability to be smarter than all the other heroes. As a genius, he earned his physics doctorate by the time he was 16. (when his character started play as a PC).

In his first adventure, he quickly had an origin, when he was visiting a Major Metropolitan University. A professor there was giving a demonstration of some alien technology (a field that would create gravity, and Smash wass there to witness the demonstration.

Unknown to Smash, however, the professor was angry at Smash for disproving all his theories in a recent book. To add insult, Smash was in an entirely seperate academic field to the professor (who was a mechanical engineer).

Using his connections with VIPER, the professor redisgned the chair Samsh would be sitting in, so that when the demonstration began, Smash was hurled into the Gravity Field Projector.

Crushed by the insanely powerful gravitational Field (comic book physics here), Smash was crushed to such a degree that he was hurled into another dimension. There, a race of all energy beings restored him by granting him Super Powers(tm)! Smash discovers later that the aliens did this because they were very bored, and by granting him energy powers of his own, they could "sense" everything that he did.

Returning to his own dimension, Smash returned in time to witness his assistant hurling the bespeckled professor into the Gravity Field Projector! The Professor's legs were horribly crushed, yet he managed to survive, and was taken away by the authorities.

A month later, with his lower body replaced by a robotic exoskeleton, Professor Centaur returned to extract is revenge against Doc Smash!

Doc Smash later had adventures taking him through time, other worlds, alternate Earths, and marriage. He meets another version of himself every other week, and has problems dealing with his superpowered mother (who having been played for 8 years is slightly below Menton in power).

Doc Smash: Primary power is telekinesis, defined as "zero range", this gives him a force field, super strength, life support, and superleap. On occasion, his powers flucuate, since they are dependent upon the aliens sending him power.

Professor Centuar: Former mechanical engineering professor who is about 20 years out of date technology wise. He doesn't understand computers, and hates those "meddling kids". His lower body is robotic, and powered by an internal combustion engine.

[Chromatic]

I'm wracking my brain, and I can't think of a single titled character I've played.

[Bengal]

Back in my larval stage of superhero roleplaying, I made Calamity King up for the dreadful-yet-nostalgic Marvel Superheroes RPG. He fought the good guys in his pajamas, and used a large trophy to hit them over the head. And he had hex powers a lot like Wanda's, but they could only result in bad luck.

[Bazza]

Originally posted by Hermit
One day I want to make a good guy named "Baron" something :) Talk about turning an stereotype on it's ear. Add "DF: German Accent" and the poor guy is going to have "Hunted: Impulsive Heroes" as well :) You could try "Earl" or "Marquis" (Marquise).

[zornwil]

I've never played a titled hero. But I had to pick Dr. as that seems to come up a lot.

[Agent X]

I like Dr. or Professor. Mr. is too generic. Captain is too militaristic. Lord/Duke/Baron etc. is just too uppity.