Jump to content

Create a Hero Theme Team!


Cygnia

Recommended Posts

A spin-off from the Create a Villain Theme Team thread. These heroes can be potential (not-so) friendly rivals to your PCs or just flavor characters for other parts of your game world (if your heroes are in New York and they need to hit Los Angeles or France or Japan for a case). Perhaps these heroes only focus on a particular fringe element like animal rights, space travel or protecting Delaware. Maybe they're Rust Age to your PCs Four-Color or vice versa. They could be altruistic or mercenary.

 

Team Name:

Number:

Theme/Motive:

 

Remember! Once you post the last hero of a team, you then come up with the next concept!

*****

 

Team Name: The Even-Odds

Number: 7

Theme/Motive: Given the boom poker has experienced thanks to television, it only stands to reason that criminal elements want to try to get a piece of that very expensive pie (either via metahuman cheating or muscling players/patrons for their winnings afterwards). The Even-Odds can be called in to help in case trouble's afoot at the casinos or tournaments...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!

 

Jack Strong, aka One Eyed Jack, was a former military sniper who was injured in battle, loosing the use of one of his eyes. The shock also kicked in his latent mutant power of enhanced vision. His remaining eye has telescopic, x-ray, as well as being able to project a completely invisble, lethal beam of force. He uses his power to make sure people don't cheat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!

 

Ace in the Hole is strong and fast and pretty durable. All those good superheroy things. But he's really not all that powerful.

 

Until things get bleak. The longer the odds, the more accurate Ace becomes. Whether with his fists, a gun, or a thrown peach pit, Ace's aim improves until it's all a matter of "He's only a block away. Which eye should I shoot through?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!

 

Heh. My campaign had a hero team from Texas, based on playing cards (known as The Aces). I'll borrow the name of one of them and alter her.

 

The psionic of the Even-Odds is Queen of Hearts, a very powerful empath. In addition to altering others' emotions, she can transfer STUN damage and END loss from friends to foes. A very attractive redhead, she is outgoing and friendly to all. But male heroes, beware! The Queen of Hearts is completely uanble to understand innuendo in any form. Anything from the lightest flirtation to the most crass sexual entendre will go completely over her head and be met with either a quizzical expression or, more likely, an assumption that the speaker is saying something completely innocent.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!

 

Lucky Streak is a speedster of sorts, and has a touch of the old Irish luck to him. The bad news for him is that he can only run in straight lines, and must stop to turn. Good thing he still has fast reflexes even then! His job is to be first on the scene and scout out what's going on via a radio or communicator link. At actual combat he's a bit underpowered.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!

 

Chip is Chip Clay. He has the ability to create round discs. He uses this ability to create shields, slides, even shoot them at his enemy. He has been known to drop a big one on top of a villain to pin the offender for his teammates.

CES

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!

 

The Cooler has ice powers. She has the usual array of what you'd expect for powers (ice blast, ice entangle, ice shield for defense, ice slick for trip up). When pressed, she has a nasty SPD drain as well. She doesn't talk much and is definitely less friendly than her compatriots -- to the point that even her teammates don't know her secret ID. While she's admitted that she hates gambling, she's professional when she's "on the job".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!

 

Texas Hold'Em, "Tex" to his friends, is a stretcher with limited shapeshifting abilities (he can change his physical shape, but not mass or coloration), who was a Olympic-level wrestler before being dosed with yet another attempt at undetectable performance enhancers. "Thanks, Coach. Costing me the title was totally worth it." Tex plays up the cowboy image all he can, but the six-guns are just for show as they're made out of a stretchable substance like the rest of his costume. His real tactic is submission holds and bone-breaking if he has to.

 

 

Next team: The Guardians of History!

 

Six heroic individuals plucked from different parts of the timestream to protect the flow of history from those who'd abuse time travel.

 

Edit: Presume they all have some sort of standardized Time Police equipment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!

 

An ill-fated (or was it?) team-up between the Time Masters and the Real (Anti) Americans. The Real Americans paid the Historian a huge sum to find them a member that would best represent the "True American Spirit of the Wild West".

 

Much to their dismay, from 1879 Mustang Sally was summoned to modern times -- a tough as nails stagecoach driver of mixed black, Mexican and Comanche heritage. And she didn't particularly like what the so-called "Real Americans" represented. Fortunately for her, the Guardians of History were there to investigate the temporal disturbance. In gratitude for saving her (not to mention, the Guardians being impressed by her accuracy with a firearm and by her overall attitude about being plucked from her time line), she immediately jumped at the chance to join the Guardians.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!

 

United States Marine Corpse. There already being an 'Old Soldier' and an 'Unknown Soldier' and even 'Marine', this undead soldier is a Revenant. Appearing nowadays in Vietnam fatigues (whatever the location in the world) and carrying an AK47 assault rifle, the USMC goes into certain death and out the other side. He is very protective of the poor common grunt and will negotiate with soldiers and the like before opening fire. He cannot or will not explain his purpose but helps The Guardians maintain the timeline. He did say that he has seen a world where the Nazis won but when asked to elaborate says 'Don't ask'. Several times those who can control the Undead have tried to control him but have failed utterly leading scholars and those in the know to conclude that he is not merely undead. He has said to the others and to other heroes, 'We cannot change the past and should not. We can alter the present for the common good'.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!

 

Sir Richard Grenville, when the Roanoke Island Colony was attacked by enemies of the Guardians, the whole colony was lost in time. So far Sir Grenville, or just Grenville as he likes to be called is the only member of the lost colony who was actually leave the colony. He hasn't aged a day since the colony disappeared from the face of the Earth. He's truly a man outside of time. Grenville isn't the easiest to get along with. He's arrogant but in fight there is no greater champion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!

 

The Sky Avenger and his amazing Sky Ship brings aerial support with his modified fighter/bomber. Secretly aviator Stan Azul, he has switched from battling robot menaces and mad scientists of the early days of air travel to battling almost the same type of villain trying to manipulate the very fabric of reality,

CES

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!

 

In 1703, British master craftsman Henry Wilkinson built a pocket watch that was so precise, it was in perfect synch with time. This alone would have been an amazing enough achievement -- a watch that never loses a second -- but he soon discovered that his watch was so in synch with the flow of time, that changing the time on the watch would literally carry anyone touching the watch to that new time. This had one major drawback -- the user could only move forward in time at an accelerated rate; the stem wasn't designed to turn the hands backward. However, he also found out that time around him (but not including him) would stop while the stem was pulled out. This, he found could be *very* useful when he saved a child about to be run over by a horse-drawn carriage.

 

His playing around with his amazing watch caused enough ripples in the time stream that the Guardians came to investigate. They were impressed, both with Wilkinson's expertise with precision machining as well as his selfless attitude, and they invited him to join them. He accepted, taking the code name Timekeeper.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!

 

In Michael Tanenbaum's native time period, "super genes" have filtered out into humanity as a whole. Not so much so that everyone is a full super, but most people have a power or two. Plus, the typical levels of physical and mental performance have increased. In game terms, everyone starts with a 20 in all base "primary" stats and "secondary"/figured stats based on 20s in the primaries.

 

Everyone, that is, except for the unfortunate Michael Tanenbaum. Born in an O'Neill habitat near Jupiter, he was a sport of some kind, a throwback. A sickly child, (all of his physical stats started at 10. They've since gone up some, with working out and whatnot) he was compensated to an extent by his great intelligence (considered high even by the standards of his century), though he was given a powered armor/exoskeleton suit to help, especially in play with other kids, who tended to injure him in play if they weren't careful. His parents treated him as if he was breakable, fine china, which he grew to resent over time. So much so that, on his 15th birthday, he invented a time travel device just to get away from them, reasoning he could travel back to a time when he would be considered physically normal. He rigged his TTD to explode after use, so that no one could follow him with it (sadly, his parents believe he was killed in the explosion). Here and now, in the early 21st century, his exoskeleton effectively makes him into a superhero. He's hoping someone comes up with a superhero name for him, as he never thought of one (also, English orthography has changed over the intervening several hundred years; the schwa is now a letter, and everything is now largely spelled one letter/one sound, so he spells name Mykəl Tanənbom).

 

Having been treated as handicapped his whole life, and somewhat of a social outcast (personality somewhat like the character Jordan from the movie Real Genius) he's very much an odd duck in 2010. But he's trying.

 

(A lot of this was from memory. I have a more detailed writeup at home and will edit from there.)

 

I believe that's six. Next up: the Crusaders. The team has been around since just before World War II, and a lot of the members have worked their way up from sidekick to B-team to full membership. Each current member is a sidekick-turned-hero, a second or third (or more!) bearer of a well respected hero name, or both (there are even third generation sidekick-to-heroes). 7 members; include their connection to the earlier hero, and possibly an arch-enemy relationship with a character from the villains thread. (They don't absolutely have to be a so-and-so III; it could as easily have been something like Robin becoming Nightwing.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!

 

From my campeign world we have FORCE

 

Force is the great (x3) grandson of one of the worlds first super heroes.

 

His ancestor was a man who fought off a alien invasion in the late 1800's. During this invasion he found a pair of weird bracelets (think like Quasars) on one of the martians. The bracelets gave him superstrength, bulletproof, and the ability to jump an 1/8 of a mile. What he did not realise was that the bracelets also examined the reaction to pathegeons on the wearer and transmited them to the aliens. This caused a miscalculation and the aliens died from common diseases.

 

The Bracelets have been handed down, in the 30's-40's the origianl's grandson took on the name Force, and learned to use the bands to create blasts of energy and simple force shields. Who fought of the aliens once again when they invaded again on the night of Halloween in '38

 

Now it is a heroes turn, young (18), been around heroism sense he was born, and not sure this is what he wants to do with his life (He has dreams of being a school teacher). He is however extremly well trained, with and without the energy bands.

 

The character has a sense of responsibility thing going, and a desire to not be a hero, creating a lot of internal conflict, exasperated by his grandfather & families insistence and tradition (Father is dead)

 

The bands have been handed down over and over

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!

 

The fifth bearer of the Golden Knight name is 19 year-old Christopher Wright. A former high school football star, Wright happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when the Crusaders were fighting the Neo-Luddites on his college campus. One of the Nuddites hit Golden Knight (the fourth)'s battlesuit with a technology-suppressing power while he was high above the ground, and he fell to the ground in front of Wright. The fall grievously injured the man inside the battlesuit (Dr. Robert Turnwell), crippling him for life. Turnwell convinced Wright to don the battlesuit and help his teammates defeat the Nuddites.

 

After his release from the hospital, Turnwell took Wright under his wing, teaching him how to operate the Golden Knight armor. He told the teen that his was actually the third incarnation of the suit. The first suit was magical armor found by the first GK (archaeologist student Richard Knight) in 1943, but it was lost along with its current wearer (Richard's son Johnathan, GK-2) when Golden Knight dragged the Death Druid through an interdimensional portal in 1971. The "Golden Knight" name lay dormant for 18 years, until Johnathan's daughter Alicia, a technological genius fueled by her grandfather's stories of glory, built a high-tech battlesuit in 1989. Her battlesuit disguised her gender -- she felt a woman superhero wouldn't be taken as seriously -- and she brought new glory to the GK name until she died rescuing people trapped in the Twin Towers on 9/11.

 

Dr. Turnwell found Alicia's design specs and built a new Golden Knight suit, after first getting her grandfather's blessing to carry on the name, and started as the fourth Golden Knight in 2003. Now he's passing on the Knight legacy to Chris Wright.

 

It should be noted that Wright has *two* mentors: Dr. Turnwell (who helps maintain and occasionally upgrades the battlesuit) and the first Golden Knight, 87 year-old Richard Knight. The former has more of an Iron-Age sensibility, while the latter is decidedly Golden Age. Both admire Wright and give him the best advice possible, but they often conflict.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!

 

During World War II, a German occultist seeking the origins of "true Aryan power" teamed up with the Children of Shiva. They kidnapped a young woman to be used as a sacrifice. However, Kanta Jain managed to outwit and escape her captors, attracting the notice of the Hindu goddess of fortune Lakshmi. She imbued Kanta with a portion of her power to serve as her avatar, where she helped fight the Axis menace throughout the sub-continent.

 

With the Children of Shiva now walking the earth again, Kanta's grand-daughter Naari has now been chosen by the goddess to take up the mantle. Naari is admittedly scared of this destiny and at times seems overwhelmed by the concept of luck. The "Winds of Fortune" (probability manipulation) haven't quite bent easily to her will just yet...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!

 

Group Name: The Gangbusters

 

Members: The Siren (Leader), G-Man, Lady Justice, Straight Arrow

 

Location: Justice City

 

Background: The Siren was asked to recruit other heroes in the wake of the U.S. Government ending it's relationship with the United Superheroes of America. All members have either police or FBI backgrounds. The group has Local Police Powers in Justice City and the state it's located in.

 

 

G-Man

 

Cost Char Val

10 STR 20

24 DEX 18

20 CON 20

4 BODY 12

8 INT 18

2 EGO 11

10 PRE 20

4 COM 18

4 PD 8

2 ED 6

12 SPD 4

0 REC 8

0 END 40

0 STUN 32

Total Characteristics Cost: 100 Points

 

Cost Skills

3 Acrobatics 13-

2 AK: Justice City 11-

3 Breakfall 13-

3 Bureaucratics 13-

3 Criminology 13-

3 Deduction 13-

3 Fast Draw 13-

3 FB: Federal Police Powers

3 Interrogation 13-

4 Martial Block

4 Martial Dodge

4 Martial Strike

3 Martial Throw

5 Offensive Strike

2 PS: FBI Special Agent 11-

3 Shadowing 13-

10 SL: Overall +1

3 Stealth 13-

3 Streetwise 13-

2 WF: Small Arms

Total Skills Cost: 69 Points

 

Cost Powers

16 Armor +8 rPD +8 rED, OIF: Body Armor (-1/2)

20 EB 8d6, [8c/4 Clips] (-0), OAF: Pistol (-1)

15 Entangle 3d6, DEF 3, No Damage from Attack (+1/2), Must Follow Grab (-1/2), No Range (-1/2), [8c/Recoverable] (-0), OAF: Handcuffs (-1)

3 ES: Nightvision, OIF: Glasses (-1/2)

5 ES: Radio Perception and Transmit, OAF: Radio (-1)

4 HA +2d6, HTH Attack (-1/2), OAF: Telescoping Club (-1)

2 Running +1"

12 Running +5", 8x NCM, Only on Appropriate Terrain (-1/2), No END (+1/2), OIF[bulky]: Car (-1)

4 No END on STR (+1/2), Linked to Running (-1/2), OIF[bulky]: Car (-1)

Total Powers Cost: 81 Points

 

Total Cost: 250 Points

 

150+ Disadvantages

5 DF: Federal Agent (Easily Concealable/Noticed)

15 Hunted: G-Man Enemies (As Powerful/NCI) 8-

10 Watched: FBI (More Powerful/NCI) 8-

20 Normal Characteristics Maxima

20 PsyL: Protective of the Innocent (Very Common/Strong)

20 PsyL: Sworn to Uphold the Law (Very Common/Strong)

10 SocL: Subject to Orders (Infrequently/Major)

Total Disadvantages Cost: 250 Points

 

Background: John Edward Harrison is the FBI Special Agent serving as liasion with the Justice City Police Department. He has worked with superheroes, and battled supervillains in his career.

 

 

Lady Justice

 

Cost Char Val

40 STR 50

24 DEX 18

30 CON 25

4 BODY 12

8 INT 18

2 EGO 11

10 PRE 20

4 COM 18

10 PD 20

15 ED 15

12 SPD 4

0 REC 15

0 END 50

0 STUN 50

Total Characteristics Cost: 149 Points

 

Cost Skills

3 Acrobatics 13-

2 AK: Justice City 11-

3 Breakfall 13-

3 Bureaucratics 13-

5 CSL: HTH Combat +1

3 Conversation 13-

1 FB: License to Practice Law

3 Persuasion 13-

2 PS: District Attorney 11-

Total Skills Cost: 22 Points

 

Cost Powers

10 Damage Resistance 10 rPD 10 rED

5 DEX +5, No Figured Characteristics (-1/2), OAF: Sword (-1)

22 ES: Spatial Awareness

24 Flight 10", Variable Advantages (+1/2), Megascale or 1/2 END Only (-1/4)

4 HA +2d6, HTH Attack (-1/2), OAF: Sword (-1)

7 HKA 1d6/2d6 w/STR, OAF: Sword (-1)

4 LS: Intense Cold, Intense Heat

Total Powers Cost: 76 Points

 

Total Cost: 250 Points

 

150+ Disadvantages

15 Hunted: Lady Justice Enemies (As Powerful/NCI) 8-

20 PsyL: Code Against Killing (Common/Total)

15 PsyL: Devoted to Justice (Very Common/Strong)

15 PsyL: Protective of the Innocents (Very Common/Strong)

10 SocL: Secret Identity [Justine Law] (Infrequently/Major)

10 Vuln: Chemical/Gas/Poison, 1 1/2x STUN (Common)

15 Vuln: Surprise Attacks, 1 1/2x STUN (Very Common)

Total Disadvantages Cost: 250 Points

 

Background: Justine Law is the District Attorney of Justice City. She is also the superheroine known as Lady Justice.

 

 

More to come . . .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!

 

Multiple characters here, who will count as one for purposes of the theme.

 

After World War II ended, several members of the Crusaders went their own way, though they remained on good terms with the original team. Captain Justice, Lady Liberty, and Liberty's sidekick Kid Liberty left the Crusaders, and were quickly dubbed by the media Liberty and Justice. Receiving a tip, and unable to contact the Liberties, Captain Justice went off by himself one day in 1955 to confront Mr. Science, and promptly disappeared without a trace (actually, he was sent forward in time by Mr. Science to the present day). Lady Liberty and Kid Liberty rejoined the Crusaders, and in 1965 Kid Liberty graduated from the B-team to full membership as Captain Liberty. In 2003, Captain Liberty retired from active duty, to become the mentor to a new superhero duo, Stephen "Red Jack" McBride and Kelly "Blue" Summers (unknown to anyone except her grandmother, at least until her grandmother's tell-all book was released, Blue is the granddaughter of Captain Justice, her father having been conceived the night before Justice's disappearance in 1955).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!

 

Laughing Mask

 

Tai'ichi Monomoto is the latest bearer of the mask of Warai Kamen, or as he's better known to the American Press, the Laughing Mask. Interestingly, each Laughing Mask has had a markedly different power set, the connection being that each, in a time of great need has found a laughing oni (demon) mask and a pair of Nambu pistols and donned them to fight injustice. The first Warai Kamen operated in post-war Japan, and was a ninjitsu-trained spy whose speech centers had been injured by an exploding shell. He could no longer speak, only make an eerie laugh that each subsequent Warai Kamen has imitated.

 

The second Warai Kamen was a low-powered mutant who used his ability to turn into mist to claim to be "the ghost of Warai Kamen." The third was a gadgeteer, the fourth was a straight-up martial artist, and the fifth had the ability to cloud men's minds, making himself invisible at will.

 

Tai'ichi was this last man's sidekick, using his limited darkness powers as Kagemusha, ("Shadow Warrior"). they did well together, until the day Tai'ichi and his extended family decided to visit distant cousins in America. The man who was Warai Kamen also had business in America, so came on the same plane (unknown to any but Tai'ichi of course.) But this particular flight had been targeted by the Little Folk, to demonstrate their power. The plane went down with only one known survivor.

 

Tai'ichi wandered the streets of San Francisco's Chinatown in shock and mourning, searching for a reason to live. And then in a little pawnshop, he saw a laughing oni mask exactly like the one his mentor had worn. It had been hanging in the window for five years, claimed the neighbors Tai'ichi asked. When he saw a pair of Nambu pistols in the same store, Tai'ichi knew it was fate. He was to become the Laughing Mask and avenge his family, and all victims of injustice.

 

Laughing Mask is a personable fellow until he puts on his mask; then he becomes a creature of darkness, whose eerie laughter chills friend and foe alike. The other Crusaders worry that one day Tai'ichi will be consumed by his other identity and go too far.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!

 

She goes by the simple moniker i. What does it stand for? Perhaps 20-year-old Vera Ivanovna will explain it one day. Not today. Only one other person would have understood; her mentor, friend, guide, teacher, disciplinarian, and vision of perfection: Psyonica. But Psyonica is dead.

 

Psyonica taught i all there was to know about being psionic. How to move things with your mind. How to place images in the minds of others. How to search a city of millions without leaving your armchair and plucking out that one mind you sought. Psyonica taught i about reading the minds of others and how to control them -- and taught that it was wrong to do so. i listened. i learned. i did as she was told.

 

And i is convinced that these self-imposed limitations led to Psyonica's death. If only her mentor had been willing to peer inside the skull of that man! If only she'd been willing to force him to turn that gun around and put the bullet where it really belonged... But Psyonica did not do those things. So Psyonica died.

 

i will not make that mistake. Though i idolizes her former mentor, she believes the world has changed and i must change with it. Some might say that i is overcompensating. They'd say that because the first thing i does when she meets someone is to rummage about in their thoughts, memories, fears, and desires. They'd say that because i doesn't hesitate for an instant to force others to obey her will.

 

Some call it excessive. Some call it "mind rape". i calls it heroism. And she's convinced that everyone else will, too. Someday.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!

 

Wow. Hard to follow up some of these, but I'll throw in the final one.

 

The man known as Eternus is the only currently-serving original member of the Crusaders. He was born in 142 BC in a small village in northern Italy and was in his teens when he discovered that he healed most damage almost instantly. This healing applied to aging as well -- as his grandchildren and great-grandchildren were dying of old age, he still looked to be in his mid-20s. Grieving as every person he loved died, he vowed to never marry or father children again. For over a century he lived as a hermit, until he had what he describes only as an "epiphany" (he refuses to say more about it) and came down from the mountains to once again walk among mortal men and women.

 

He travelled the world, learning languages and cultures, taking on new identities along the way to disguise his immortality. He also underwent a few more emotional crises along the way, which led him to explore many religions and philosophies. He still has yet to find one with all the answers, and secretly suspects that *all* hold pieces of The Truth.

 

A very sophisticated, intelligent, and worldly man, Eternus has gathered many heroes and right-thinking individuals through the years into various groups and teams, most often acting behind the scenes. Careful investigation might reveal his presence at the start of numerous charitable organizations and bands of gentleman (and lady) adventurers in the past. When the clouds of war were darkening in the 1930s, he decided to take a more overt hand in matters. He helped form the Crusaders as a way to actively oppose the Nazi menace, and has kept the team going through good times and bad. While he sometimes comes across as a know-it-all, it's hard to argue with someone who has basically seen-it-all. And his good nature is very obvious, causing many to make allowances for his personality quirks and at least listen to his advice and counsel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...