Supers by Other Names

[Doctor Agenda]

I'm trying to come up with a snazzy alternative word to 'supers' for a new campaign about weird superheroes and mindbending horror. Supers are a recent (late 90s) development, but costumed crimefighters of the Watchmen (or Tick) sort have been common since the mid-eighties.

 

I want something distinctive to call supers that will also make my players think I'm clever.

 

Supers is the generic term. DC often uses the word Meta, and Marvel sometimes calls them...Marvels. The Wild Cards novels called them Aces or Jokers, depending on their looks. The Aberrants game calls them Novas, and the Defiants game calls them Deltas.

 

Here are the ideas I've already come up with, which don't quite do it for me:

 

Avatars--I like it, but I'd prefer one less syllable.

Ultras--Is this what they call supers in the Ultraverse?

Warps--Appropriate, but sounds kind of insulting.

 

Comments, suggestions, cute remarks?

[rayoman]

Aces

Metahumans

Primes

[KA.]

How about: The Select.

 

KA.

[Doctor Agenda]

I like Primes and Selects. Those are exactly the kinds of names I'm looking for. They get the 'supers' idea across and are cool-sounding.

[SomeAsianKid]

Go with Gattaca. Valids and Invalids.

[wcw43921]

Paranormals is a popular one.

 

Or supranormals.

 

Of course a lot depends on your point of view. If you're against superbeings, you might call them "freaks" or "monsters" but if you're for them you might call them "demi-gods" or "angels."

 

A lot more depends on who was the first, best known hero (or villain). I think the big reason the terms "superhero" "supervillain" and "supers" came into prominence is because of the guy with the Big Red Cape and the Big Red "S" --and he's also the reason that supers are sometimes referred to as "Capes" even though so few of them wear one.

 

Hope this helps.

[winterhawk]

I've always liked the versatility of 'mask'. Unlike 'cape', a majority of superpowered individuals seem to wear them. It works well because it can also be used as a verb:

 

Reporter: "The robbery was thwarted by the masked crimefighters known as the Good Guys."

 

and derrogatory:

 

Police Detective: "Blaster scorch marks, a shattered skylight, a bunch of skells with broken bones...this scene has f!@#ing mask written all over it!"

[freakboy6117]

teh ones that are popular in wild storm comics are "masks" and "SPB" abreviation of super powered being

[Argus]

Name for Supers

 

I ran a game where they were called "The Weyrd" After the name of the Virus for the Alien race that infected them.

 

A.

[Doug McCrae]

Wildstorm calls them 'posthumans'.

[yamamura]

Given the supernatural overtones how about......

 

THE AWAKENED

 

G

[farik]

After reading Brian Michael Bendis and Avon Oeming I've grown found of the term "Powers"

[Doctor Agenda]

I think I'll use 'masks' as the generic slang for anyone who feels they need a special costume to fight or commit crimes...and for the groupies and wannabes who like to dress up. It has a ring to it. The somewhat more derogatory 'tights' works, too.

 

Low-level psychic powers have been considered proven in this background since at least the seventies. The first confirmed person with undeniable super powers was the Living Blaze, who torched a respectable percentage of the outlying areas of Mexico City before being brought down by soldiers. The corpse was never identified. This may have been an 'emergence' type of event like in Aberrant, rather than a malicious rampage.

 

Tentatively the rising weirdness is due to Fortean-like intrusions from alternate timelines and other planes of existence, perhaps related to the existence of psychic phenomena (and therefore levels of being like the astral plane and collective unconscious). Just about any origin is possible, but space aliens are not known to exist and there is no mutant 'x-factor'. You might think you're a mutant, but that just means you don't know how truly weird your origin is.

 

The player group will start off realizing that they have spent the last five years purposefully gaining super powers and setting themselves up to be a classic superhero team, using knowledge and skills they never learned, but their memories of the time are detached and they feel like that time passed instantaneously. They've got superpowers or gadgets or superior training or magic or whatever, a base, costume designs, a sparking and malfunctioning power supply, and the feeling that they were up to no good up to about a minute ago.

 

There have been some very good suggestions, I hope this extra information helps inspire some more ideas. I appreciate the help.