power/ability concepts

[paul_runstedler]

You know, one thing I've found about this discussion board is that it really stretches my envelope on how the Hero rules really can be used to create pretty much any type of effect.

 

When I used to create Champions characters (back in the 80's) I would have a bit of an idea of an architype I'd like to create, then I'd skim through the book looking for what powers matched. Kindof a bottom-up way of creating characters which never really let me realize the full potential of the types of powers and effects I could create when making a character. I now try to emply more of a top-down approach where I come up with exactly what I want the character to do before even looking at the powers.

 

My question is what do the rest of you do to come up with such innovative ideas for powers and effects? Or do they just come to you? I'd like to get my gaming group to "think outside the powers list" and am wondering what the best approach for this is...

 

Thanks in advance,

Paul

[Mike W]

It depends on the players. With people that I don't know very well or that aren't very experienced I've taken the time to put together a sort of "character outline' where I ask them to write out(no numbers/stats allowed) where their character comes from, how long they've been a hero, what their personality is like, their history, and their abilities. The last question is always the same - what makes you character different/better than other characters of their archetype(brick, energy projector, martial artist, etc). This makes them think about the character before they think about the numbers.

 

More than anything, I try to get the players thinking about concepts...about "what kind of character" they want to play and also "what makes them different".

[TheEmerged]

Well, speaking for myself I'm the GM for a group of strong readers. Most of the time I'm not being innovative, I'm just desperately trying to keep up with genre fiction

 

One exercise that helps me is to engage in power fantasy -- if I had a certain broad power, what would **I** try to do with it?

 

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The following example isn't restricted to power descriptions, but I never think of just powers when designing characters.

 

I just finished a writeup for an NPCharacter that is defined as being a "living psionic energy generator & battery." Step one is to move it from "this character has this powerset" to "I have this powerset."

 

The definition is that my control is limited -- so limited in fact I can't buy mental powers -- but the amount of power generated & stored is considerable. So I start by building a sizable END Reserve to reflect that the energy isn't my "personal" energy -- 300 END 60 REC in this case (it's for a high-powered character).

 

It occurs to me that, in the genre tradition of comic books, I'm going to be the target of kidnap attempts by supervillains seeking to use me to involuntarily power their McGuffin of the Week. So I develop a "Hunted by the Mad Scientist of the Week" disadvantage.

 

Unless I can control the output pretty well, the power is going to leak. These leads me to another disadvantage -- a Distinctive Feature (Mental Group) to reflect that this makes me more visible to psionics.

 

However, it also leads to a power concept -- if I leak enough I can "jam" other mental powers. This could justify MD/UBO (mental defense usable by other, simultaneously), an MD Force Wall, Darkness to the Mental Group (bought Usable As Attack but Self Only so it stays centered on me). I don't need to worry about Personal Immunity because, again, my control isn't sufficient for me to how mental powers.

 

Another idea that hits me is that if I have Mental Awareness I'm either overwhelmed by noise I myself generate, or that I might be able to detect the presence of others within a radius by observing the "feedback". Hey, I can justify "Mental Radar" based in the Mental group instead of Radio (or Mental Sonar if you prefer that image).

 

If I'm willing to purchase Analyze for my "mental radar", I can justify taking the Analzye "MindPower" skill to find out how smart and willful someone is (that is, learn their INT and EGO score).

 

Of course, a battery is no good unless it's plugged into something. Since I'm partial to gadgets anyway, the idea occurs to me that I might be able to build "super science" gadgets that are powered directly from me instead of charges et al. This is probably a good source for the "standard" powers that every superhero should have -- a ray gun for offense, a force field for defense, and a jet pack for transport. Nothing fancy here, of course.

 

So it's time to get fancy. I can probably Flash the Mental group innately without requiring much control -- although this could be redundant if I bought the Darkness above. I might be able to leave "darkness land mines" (Darkness, Trigger, to Mental Group) behind as well.

 

With a degree of control, I might be able to temporarily enhance my characteristics. That's dangerously close to a mental power though (Biokinesis), so if allowed should cost a disproportionate amount of END (END x10 perhaps?).

 

Since in my campaign all super powers are defined as being mental at their root, I can probably transfer my power to recharge another characters -- Healing their END or END reserve.

 

Can I draw in power in addition to producing it? Then a Drain/Suppress/Transfer might be in order. An AE Suppress might be another way to reflect the "static" I generate.

 

Perhaps my mental static has the effect of confusing any mentalist that gets too close to me. Change Environment to reduce ECV -- or DCV, to reflect their lose of physical awareness. Or both

 

Perhaps I can focus enough of the power to simply overload mental effects -- Dispel.

[pinecone]

Personally I try to list 2 "cool powers" for every character I make and I try to suggest that many for any character I reveiw..."Hey wouldn't it be cool if Blue lightning could "X"?" That at least puts me in the "mood" to think put side the box......

[Guest Kolava]

When I write up characters, I tend to be translating full entities from another system to Hero (with "another" usually being my imagination). Because of this, I simply reason from effect and often end up with very interesting results to read (in action they work just like they did in my head).

 

Where do these full entities come from? Usually I create a character shell during moments of inspiration, then add it to existing blank shells whenever it seems to fit. For example, a laid back owner of a restruant that is frequented by supernaturals in a world where supernaturals are not socially accepted. He would have lots of perks, obviously. Also, stealth and mental powers might help to avoid the law. Later, I think it would be cool to have a character that was a vampire (scaled back in the undead department, more of just a elegant gothic aristocrat with fangs and a cape) I combine this with the above character shell in a mental experiment, and find that I really like what I get. Now I have a very interesting character who practically writes himself.

[Blue]

It's almost always reverse engineering. Actually, most of my stuff is created in this order...

 

Drawing > Special Effects > Character Background > Powers

 

So nearly every power I come up with is a result of a drawing I did and wanting to make a power that simulates something the person in the drawing should be able to do.

 

And if you get stuck for how to do something, come here nad post and you'll get about 18 ways of doing something when you only thought of two on your own.

[Sociotard]

Mine come from wishful thoughts.

 

For example, a while ago I was sneaking around in the dark in a game of capture the flag. At one point I wasn't sure if I'd been seen or not. He wasn't moving, but he could be trying to lure me in. Dang I wish I could detect someone seeing me.

 

A few day's later I posted such a power on the boards.

 

I get similar inspiration in the fiction I take in. "shoot, it's too bad so and so cant do this and that". Then I realize it's a cool idea and write it up, even if I never use it.

 

Mechanics and house rules come in a similar fashion. For example, I read about american indians killing an buffalo and taking bites out of the (sometimes) still beating heart. I started to ask myself "That would be a cool objective for a 'great hunt' style game, where the heros must not only kill the critter, but kill it right. What skills and modifiers do you need to chop out a heart before it stops beating?" That's what I'm trying to figure out right now.

[TrickstaPriest]

I tend to get a rather eclectic approach involving a little bit of development here or there and a fair amount of inspiration. Often, I'll picture a character in my mind, decide a few fundamental things on what they are like and maybe what they can do, and then I "Power Framework" it. That is, I decide upon a defining description of what the character's abilities entail, which then brings up a whole host of "sub" abilities at least as long as my arm. I find it actually helps to decide what a character -can't- do as much as what they can do. This not only helps with disadvantages, it also helps define in what direction the character's powers go, and this helps you define even more powers. Really, this is the most important step for me, getting a foothold and then building up from there. Recently I've been breaking people's powers down into their power concept and their basic "feats", or what they can do with it at the most rudamentary level. Then, I can come up with a good half-dozen different powers in each "feat" group. I've made some frightening and bizarre powers with this.

 

To get that initial first step, I find it usually develops either from sudden inspiration, looking at what I came up with the character so far, or simply looking at something familiar and twisting it into something unfamiliar.

 

Of course, I also cheat when I'm desperate and use a random table I made to give me a power "theme" of some sort.

[Dust Raven]

I GM for a group of players primarily new to the HERO System. Because of this, it's usually me that does the actual writing up of the characters. By default I take the "reverse engenering" method. I listen to what they want their character to do and then figure out how to do that using the game mechanics. It usually takes a few game sessions of rewriting before we get it just right though.