Help me brainstorm the skills and powers for these two NPCs.

[Mr. Gray]

I want to give my players hero team some small bit of support as their origin story unfolds this is a very low power champagne. I am trying to avoid the over the top giant submarines hidden in New York harbored as a base thing, at least initially. At some point I am sure they will want to build their own superhero lair but in the mean time I want them to have access to some basic resources healing, guns, and armor. Toward that end I have come up with a sort of low rent super hero support organization the grittier ghetto version of shield, a sort of safe house for starting superheroes. If the players need some help along the way these NPCs may be useful, let me know what you think. I am hoping you guys can help me brainstorm the skills and powers for these two NPCs.                                 

                                                                                          

Medicine Man & Darla Dark: Use a chain of sandwich shops (Called the Hero Stop) as a front for their real agenda which is to protect the citizens of New York from evil supervillains. There Motto is “We are the hero support team”. They find and protect new and emerging superheroes helping them to develop their secret identities and setting them on the right path before the authorities find out about their powers. Hero Stop Sandwich shops can be found throughout New York City at most subway stations, for easy access to transportation, they also have a number of street level locations in bad neighborhoods. Medicine Man is an older African American (Elite Agent) NPC +CP175 +50 Complications. He owns the Hero Stop chain and has strange mystical healing powers. He should be roll played as a totally over the top new age hippie Rastafarian guru type. Darla is Medicine Mans Daughter she is a twelve years old Afro-Japanese Goth chick (Elite Agent) NPC +CP175 +50 Complications. Darla is far wiser then her years and far more powerful then she knows, she is a mystic oracle with the ability to see glimpses of the future. She uses this power to find new superheroes hopefully before they get in trouble at some time just before their origin story unfolds. Her dark mood and Goth outfits are not just a pre-teen phase she actually has PTSD from her visions her father is in denial about her problems. Recently she has taken to referring to herself as we and us.

 

Medicine Man Quotes: “Those herbs there for healing your soul not you’re broken ribs mon”

Darla Dark Quotes: “I know kitten, I know, ya just have to realize that with great power comes a great shit storm so suck it up buttercup we and us, we have your back.”

 

[Lucius]

I have reached my quota of positive votes for today?

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary says I should come back tomorrow

 

edit: I came back next week

[death tribble]

area knowledge New York on an 11 or less for starters for both.

Some sort of medical knowledge for Medicine Man like Medicine on a 13 or Chinese Medicine.

Some sort of law knowledge for Medicine Man especially, minimum 11 or less.

Contacts. They know people either in the police or another hero type on an 11 or less.

Streetwise.

I would give Darla Dark Combat Luck and mayhaps Danger Sense.

That is a start

[freakboy6117]

Multiple bases with the hero stop upstairs  training rooms,crime labs workshops and medical bay. some holding cells maybe

 

Wealth would be obvious.

 

 

 

some organisational contacts the hero stop offers a everday heros discount to LEO and FD and medical personnel they get a heads up on everything and only an idiot robs a hero stop.

 

also individual contacts with The DA the mayor police chief FBI deputy director people who can help them get a hero out of trouble

 

I think you need to expand the staff some what medicine man and darla dark are good bosses but you need  a few specialists.

 

 

 

Sensei Dan was an old school bouncer from Harlem in the 70's. Always a fighter boxing in the service bit of wrestling he could take care of himself, that was until the damn Ninjas started showing up and all those kung fu dudes. he learn't plenty of those pajama wearing fools not to mess with the sweet science. made some friends with some of the good kung fu guys. learnt a bunch, spent some time in asia with friends. Got shanghaied off to some deathmatch thing on a private island in the south china seas came home opened a gym trained kids still working the door at 70 no one messes with old Dan.

 

The Medicine Man brought him in to show these super kids the ropes, 'cause super strength don't mean jack against judo and eye beams ain't gonna help once your knees broke and you're about to get curb stomped.

 

Tarquin Devine and Andy Smith are a bit of the odd couple tarquin is the ultra flamboyant gay theatrical costumier, Andy is his down to earth material scientist husband.

no one is really sure how this odd couple even met let alone how they stay together but seems to work because they have been blissfully happy for twenty years. Now they have a side Job making and repairing super suits in a lab under Tarquin's costume shop they have a workshop where they work together to develop costumes for the new heroes.

 

Mrs Lexington has been a librarian all her life now only working part time In the NY public library system at loose ends since her husband died she now works for the hero support network as chief researcher she is an expert at finding just about everything and putting together complex patterns from esoteric sources both online and dusty paperwork. she is an expert at crosswords and puzzles she appears to be very prim and proper but hides a wicked sense of humor( and perhaps an interesting past).

 

Lionel Hertz  was a big deal defense attorney working for some of the biggest names in crime in NYC until he found out something he shouldn't about a super villain client they came after him and his family if it wasnt for the super heroes who almost died to save him that would have been the end so lionel quit defending criminals packed in his lucrative partnership and went to work  officially he is Hero Stops lawyer but he fills most of his time doing pro bono stuff for the little guy. He also helps smooth things out for young and inexperienced heroes gives them a grounding in the law and tries to make sure they know just what is on the line and who they are dealing with when they join the life.

 

 

 

just some examples probably also need a tech guy, security guy, medical assistants, a cleaner(to cover up any spilt DNA evidence etc that might out a young hero) maybe a forger for alien heroes with no ID or for outed heroes who need to change Identity.

[bigdamnhero]

I like the idea, and the character concepts a lot! A great noncombat resource for starting heroes, with lots of great roleplaying potential.

 

Medical help is always great, especially in a gritty game where the PCs are likely to come home with Body damage. I'd throw some Extra Time on there, so it's not instantaneous but still faster than normal healing. Make sure he has Healing options that also work on other Drained Characteristics, poisons, etc. Maybe some Forensics if none of the PCs have it, for when the plot needs a few CSI-driven clues. Mystical effects like curses he probably can't handle, but he "knows a guy."

 

In a previous Champions game I ran I gave the PCs a precognitive NPC Sidekick. (Older and different personality from Darla, but similar idea powers-wise.) At first, she was mainly limited to Precognitive Clairsentience, Vague & Unclear, No Conscious Control, which made her a walking plot hook for me to get the PCs headed down Story Lane. As she got more powerful, she got more control over her abilities and added more powers, like Precog-based Luck, various defenses based on "I saw that coming," plus Danger Sense, Lightning Reflexes, etc. But it sounds like  you're seeing Darla as more of a noncombatant?

 

I'd definitely give them both Streetwise, Contacts, etc. The PCs may not have a lot of those starting out, so this gives you as GM the ability to feed them info at Speed Of Plot. Maybe some Access or Favors, but those would likely need to be added in as plot requires them. If it were me, I'd give them very limited contacts inside "The System" - cops, courts, etc; basically they can try to help the PCs stay out of trouble, but are less able to bail the PCs out if the PCs don't listen. (I know, right?)

 

Contrary to the previous suggestion, I wouldn't give them much money; you don't want to make things TOO easy for the players. Give the impression of a shoestring operation barely staying above water, so the PCs can't just expect to get whatever they want whenever they want it - make them work for it in terms of roleplaying and maintaining the relationship. Rather than bases per se, I'd give them access to a small number of safe houses. Yeah, they know a guy who can make/repair your costume, but the costumer doesn't work for free. That sort of thing.

[BoloOfEarth]

For Darla, I'd find some interesting non-combat ways to use the precog.  For instance, she can direct a driver through the city in record time (making every green light, avoiding any construction or traffic blockages), and find that one car about to pull out of a parking space on a crowded city block.  When the heroes show up at the sandwich shop, she already has their sandwiches and drinks ready, and it's exactly the sort of thing they'd have wanted, down to substitutions.  ("Don't worry, I put honey mustard on it instead of mayo.")

 

If the PCs don't have a team vehicle, Hero Stop could have a driver and vehicle on call.  A nondescript, mildly beat-up looking older-model van driven by a guy who claims his cousin is a famous NASCAR or Indy-500 driver.  Maybe he drives the heroes to a battle in between sandwich order deliveries.

 

One idea I had but never used was having a badly dented but mechanically sound Yellow cab driven by a pretty knowledgeable guy with obvious Combat Driving skill.  Just about every time one of the PCs hails a cab, they get him.  However, if they look at the cabbie license, his name is different every time.  One day, it might be an Indian name, another time Irish, a third time Arabic, etc.  If they ask him his name, he'll say, "it's on the license" and point to it.  Granted, a taxi wouldn't work for a larger group, but 3-4 people could fit.

[Mr. R]

I know this will sound cheesy, but have a contact be Dr McQuark's Super Hero Supply Store and Gymnasium.  So for those more esoteric items "... he's a friend of a friend of a friend of mine"

[bubba smith]

I like sensei dan