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Weldun
Nov 5th, '06, 05:02 PM
Beastlord - "Trip Like I Do" by Filter and Crystal Method (Spawn OST).
Facet - "She's Got The Power" by Stan Bush.
Gate - "Open Your Heart" by Crush 40 (Sonic Adventure #1).
Gee - "Look Up!" by Yellow Dancer (Robotech: New Generation).
Gigas - "Kick some @$$" by Stroke 9.
Hardcase - "Body Hammer" by Fear Factory ("As of now/I am a tool/Of severe impact/Hammer down/Cause and effect/And create a new world").
Leatherback - "The Thing I Hate” by Stabbing Westward.
Platinum - "Little Less Conversation" by Elvis Presley & JXL.
Polecat - "One" by Filter (orig. John Farnham).
Professor Grey - "Liberi Fatali" by Nobuo Uematsu.
Shadowfire - "Freak on a Leash" by Korn.
The Specter - "Land of Confusion" by Genesis.
The Swarmling - "The End is the Begining is the End" by the Smashing Pumpkins.
Whisper - "I Kill Children" by the Dead Kennedies.
Weldun - (Firstly, *gasp* He's letting us know something else about his namesake!:p) "Plowed" by Sponge.My reply to AdamLeisemann's theme-song thread (http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50688) starting the old noggin workin', and I began to wonder about what concepts people are posting about. When trying to explain to someone why HERO is so much better than whatever crap their playing, one of the things I have trouble getting across is the flexibility of the system. People just tend to look at the size of the character creation system and run for the hills.

So I was wondering at what the basic concepts that went into people characters are? Here's a list of some of mine...

Beastlord - Doctor Dolittle meets Batman meets Daredevil. A highly acrobatic crime-fighter who has a wide array of gadgets and just happens to be able to "talk with the animals".
Facet - Mutant with the ability to draw power from gemstones, started as an experiment in converting Palladium's Gem Powers ability and experimenting with "double-strength" multipowers.
Gate - Dimension Hopping Wizard with a reputation as a storm crow.
Gee - Heavily watered down version of Gravitar and activist for Mutant Rights.
Gigas - Speedster/Brick who really just wants to have a little fun.
Hardcase - Part of my Palladium Project, his creation was inspired by the movie, Equilibrium. HU2 Weapon Expert.
Leatherback - College student on a football scholarship and catholic who transforms into "the forgotten love-child of Grond". He channeled the power of the Ultimate Herptile, he embodied all their supposed powers. I also just wanted to play an American-football-as-a-martial-art character.
Platinum - A former Silver Avenger who retained most of his abilities, he augments them with captured VIPER technology. He grew frustrated with the bureacracy in PRIMUS and went freelance, before becoming a sanctioned PRIMUS liason.
Polecat - Alien Law Enforcement Officer who doesn't respect jurustictional boundaries. More a gadgeteer as his physical abilities are fairly typical for his species.
Professor Grey - Mutant Diabolist who is very glad he has tenure. His familiar is well known around campus as having uncanny skill as a bombardier.
Shadowfire - Half-Daemon Mystic-Hunter. Being of two spirits, one daemonic, the other human. (I later found out about the movie, Demon Hunter).
The Specter - The Palladium Project again, an immortal mutant who had the ability to control his own metabolism. As a twist, he was born in the 19th century and fought for the South during the "Second American Revolution".
The Swarmling - Palladium Project, this time a gestalt being. The Spirit of the Campaign city given form, his humanoid form is composed of 500 rats.
Whisper - An unrepentant demon bound to the will of an innocent.
Weldun - A psychic warrior/templar of Marfa who was originally played in a Lodoss game, then in a Crystania game. I have since converted him to HERO, dropping a few things that aren't necessary for the concept and await a chance to play him in a supers campaign. Inspired by Drhoz's successfull (eventually) import of Vitus Dur'haz, a Gnoll Wizard.

jkwleisemann
Nov 6th, '06, 05:59 AM
I usually work on the theory that any character's *basic* concept should be able to be summed up in one sentence. So....

Void: Mutant Batman-clone who crusades less against crime in general than the anti-mutant forces who want him dead.

Huntress: A brilliant scientist in a self-designed suit of power armor... and a drug addict.

Sparky: Rin Tin Tin with lightning bolts.

Galaxy Girl: A human girl too smart for her own good, trapped in a world she never really imagined.

Darkchild: A mystic with unimaginable power... none of it her own.

Outsider: Wilbur Whateley, brought up by a somewhat more sane family.

Patchwork: Frankenstein's Super-Heroine.

Hellhound: The love-child of Rahne Sinclair and Johnny Blaze.

Mistral: An MTF transsexual whose girlfriend is on the wrong side of a war. (Note that this concept doesn't address her powers in the least; that's largely because I barely knew what they were going to be until I'd already gotten the concept down and started the build. I stand by the idea that a superhero's concept doesn't have to be about the powers....)

Flagburner: Dedicated nemesis to anybody foolish enough to work for the Government.

Hermes: An attempt to design a character with Enter the Speed Zone who wasn't particularly abusive (honest. He's an NPC in my Milwaukee Masks game; I literally designed him just to play around with the idea of using Charges to apply a forced limit to Enter the Speed Zone that would keep him from being able to waltz through a fight without risk.)

Razor: What happens when Jean Grey is forced to spend some "quality time" with BTK before Professor X finds her?

Scarface: Phantom of the Opera meets the Punisher.

AdamLeisemann
Nov 6th, '06, 06:32 AM
I have a slightly smaller stable of characters.

Sonic Eagle: Flying man with power over sound.

Kitsune: Mythically based shapeshifter from Japan.

Lab Rat: Teenage mutant genius with a knack for gadgets and the looks of a kangaroo rat. Dedicated to fighting crime primarily because he feels his genius would go to waste if it wasn't used to help people.

Reinard the Fox: Living cartoon cop from another dimension, much more serious than one would expect.

The Crimson Carpet: A sorceror's soul trapped in a magic carpet.

And now for some of my villains...

Lord Nocturne: (a villain for Beacons of the Night.) An ancient vampire with grandiose dreams of global conquest.

Lyle Lynx: (Technicaly, my brother came up with the idea, but I went all Stan Lee and stole it from him. :p Nemisis of Reinard.) An "animated" sociopath driven by greed and malice.

The Skunk: A thief who uses a gas-emitting mechanical tail-belt of his own invention to aid him in his heists.

And now for some other characters...

Techsune: A kitsune technology genius in the distant future whose serendiptidy and wits get her into, and out of, trouble.

DSR: Techsune's Robotic Raccoon Assistant.

Gunner: A Dark Champions hamster hitman. The business and financial aspects of his job are handled by a little girl named Sata Kohashi.

Cosmo, the cosmic puppy: a godlike canine whose greatest wea[pon is the Puppy-Dog-Eyes-of-Doom, much akin to Ghost Rider.

Sundog
Nov 6th, '06, 07:18 AM
Terminus: Super-soldier from another dimension seeking the dangerous foes who escaped him and destroyed his people.

Zed-F
Nov 6th, '06, 08:12 AM
Soulbarb: Cross Buffy, Hellboy, and Batman. Student by day, monstrous brick/detective by night. Could get some changes soon as I might get a chance to play someone similar in a new game on HC.

Sylph: Bright but naive college student with plant-control powers, who turns into an out of control maenad-brick when seriously hurt and at various other times.

Zeropoint
Nov 6th, '06, 08:23 AM
Special Agent Trent: basically a blend of Agent Shirota from "Daiguard" and Tetsuo Shima from "Akira", with a pinch of Agent Smith for flavor.

Weldun
Nov 6th, '06, 10:59 AM
Sonic Eagle, Kitsune, Lab Rat, Reinard the Fox, The Crimson Carpet, Lord Nocturne, Lyle Lynx, The Skunk, Techsune: A kitsune technology genius, DSR: Techsune's Robotic Raccoon Assistant, Gunner: A Dark Champions hamster hitman, Cosmo, the cosmic puppy.
Emphasis=Mine.

I'm sensing a theme here, but I can't quite put my finger on it...:p

jkwleisemann
Nov 6th, '06, 11:06 AM
Now, now, in his defense, Sonic Eagle and The Skunk are both entirely human, and Cosmo and Gunner were joke characters. :-P

Besides, if you haven't caught onto the themes our characters tend to take on... well, it means you haven't looked at the original write-ups of mine, but Adam's? That takes work to avoid noticing. :-P

Weldun
Nov 6th, '06, 11:14 AM
Now, now, in his defense, Sonic Eagle and The Skunk are both entirely human, and Cosmo and Gunner were joke characters. :-P

Besides, if you haven't caught onto the themes our characters tend to take on... well, it means you haven't looked at the original write-ups of mine, but Adam's? That takes work to avoid noticing. :-PCuriously, Gunner wouldn't be a joke in my Champions Campaign.

jkwleisemann
Nov 6th, '06, 11:21 AM
Uhm... you *do* realize that Gunner, at least in the initial write-up, was a regular hamster. Not an anthropomorphic one, a little tiny one who went around shooting people with Kite-style exploding bullets at the behest of a young girl who was making ends meet through assassination.

Right?

Whole character was designed to rip on Kite, I helped. ^^()

Weldun
Nov 6th, '06, 11:27 AM
That would still work. I'm an Eastman and Laird fan, so...

st barbara
Nov 6th, '06, 12:25 PM
"St Barbara" Marvel's "Jubilee" with a power upgrade . Although when I was creating the character I didn't remember "Jubilee, I was only reminded of her AFTER "St Barbara" had been created. She was created to fill the niche of "flying energy projector" in the game.

sinanju
Nov 10th, '06, 11:14 AM
Hell's Angel - Looks like an angel, perfectly at home in hell.

Black Mask - Jet Li look-alike who can fight like Neo only wishes he could.

Man-Ape - Bruce Campbell after a Kafka-esque transformation into, well, a Man-Ape.

Trained Chicken
Nov 10th, '06, 08:56 PM
Snail Man: S.D.E., and S.E., slow-motion brick with no upper limit to strength and no lower limit to perceptiveness.

I think there's more in my notebook, I can't recall.

Trebuchet
Nov 11th, '06, 02:45 AM
Zl'f: World's most agile superhuman fights supercriminals with an eclectic blend of gymnastics and martial arts.

Justicar: Merge a Roman Catholic priest with Batman; then tack on "holy" powers such as healing and detect supernatural evil.

Stormraven
Nov 11th, '06, 04:46 AM
Checkmate Cross Batman, Ra's al Ghul, and Bobby Fischer.

Drhoz
Nov 11th, '06, 07:46 AM
Drhoz An inventively sadistic pirate and slaver
Brother Staples Rennet A kindly travelling priest (killed by lap-dancing orc)
Mister Pink A quietly but completely sociopathic bankrobber

(a role given at random in a convention game of Reservoir Dogs , but one I relished. and yes, of course the colours didn't match, we didn't want to give away who was who, did we?)
Chris Forrester A pleasant but obsessive starship's engineer
Father Ionnu A Dark Age vampire with religious mania
Eidolon A COMPLETELY sadistic alien invader
Vitus Drhazz ul Kashrak ur RrschdA monstrously arrogant and foul-tempered - but easily manipulated - stranded alien sorceror
The Professor A bored supergenius toying with world governments
The Hadean A lone alien castaway roped into alienating civic duties
Democles A lonely scholar irretrievably lost in a hostile land

also - A devoted father and professional cannibal and human-butcher
Herman's Intellect from Herman's Head (another con game)
A thermal detonator sales-gibbon

and many others

Kid Jurassic
Nov 11th, '06, 08:27 AM
Shockwave: Cross Static Shock and Magneto

Kid Jurassic: Like Beast Boy, but dinosaurs (Like T-Rex etc..), and things decended from dinosaurs only (i.e. snakes, crocks, birds of prey)