All the superhero PCs I've ever played

[Guest bblackmoor]

Re: All the superhero PCs I've ever played

 

Ghost Archer: 1982; Started as a desolidifying archer with trick arrows. Has become in addition' date=' a master detective, martial artist, time traveler, world saver and pawn of the Dragon Tsar[/quote']

 

Cool description. And wow, talk about "old school" -- that predates my first Champions character by three years.

[KawangaKid]

Re: All the superhero PCs I've ever played

 

I do, like The HMS Helen Keller.

 

But perhaps you forgot that one on purpose

 

Oh Geez! I'd forgotten how... uh... strange my character concepts could get. And so non-politically correct. I seem to have blocked that character out of my memory... and therefore deny responsibility of...

 

hey... that was a model-sized fully functional "Starship Enterprise"-type ship built as a character (what if Lilliputians had their own advanced space program?)... my homage to your own unmentioned PLANETMAN!

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: All the superhero PCs I've ever played

 

I finally remembered the name of one of my V&V PC's. Keep in mind these things are generated randomly. Magic based Fire Powers' date=' Magic Weapon, good Agility and combat skills... I was reading DC's ARAK: Son of Thunder at the time, so I made the axe a Tomahawk and named him FIRE CHIEF.

 

I always figured a timehole opened and a copy of V&V fell into a comic writers hands and that is how Jon J'onzz the Martian Manhunter came about. He rolled Telepathy, Superstrength, Heatvision, Shapeshift, Invisibility and weakness to heat- and thought for days and days to come up with a cohesive idea, then finally threw his hands up in the air and cried "Ah to heck with it, he's a Martian".

[jackalope]

Re: All the superhero PCs I've ever played

 

All Champions, in order of preference:

Peacekeeper: An alien cop stranded on Earth, used superior alien technology to wage war on crime, including a forensic tricorder with criminalogy lab, multiblaster, and super motorcycle. Also a master of several alien martial arts. Thought humans were insane and hopelessly irrational, but highly amusing. (Standard)

Iron Demon: Okay, take Bruce Wayne and combine with Green Goblin, and you have Iron Demon. He has a Demon Glider, wears stylized Demon Armor, has a special forumla that gives him superstrength, and a bunch of gadgets and weapons. Is still fighting his excessively violent war on crime, though his former team - the Night Court - has disbanded. My second favorite character after Peacekeeper. (Standard)

BattlePrincess Ao: An alien princess who came to Earth to become a celebrity/superhero. Acted like a dimwitted bubbling sexpot, but was a super sharp manipulator and had the public eating out of her hand. Was forced to return to BattleWorld to take over as the BattleQueen. Currently misses Earth, but can't escape her duties. (Cosmic)

The Rampaging Razorback: A hapless truck driver is caught in a reality warping megabomb while transporting a truckload of javelina to a zoo, and becomes fused with them in to the Rampaging Razorback, a towering pig man with the strength of an entire herd of wild swine! Currently in hiding somewhere in Arizona. Not really a hero, but he does tend to show up when villians are around and smash them into buildings, hit them with cars, and otehrwise do lots of property damage. (Standard)

Arsenal: Waged war on crime from within his powered armor. Arrested for several hundred counts of murder after unleashing a devastating missle barrage inside a packed mall and bringing it down. Currently incarcerated. He was under mind control, but refused to contest the charge and plead guilty. (Standard)

Shamrock: A tiny Irish lass with a 10 ton punch and lifetime supply of lucky clovers. A Catholic, she abandoned superheroing for the life of a nun after a confrontation with DEMON that threatened her very sanity. (Standard)

 

I've left off a bunch who I only played once or twice. But here's two I never really played, but have to mention:

Kevin: A mentalist whose illusions were so powerful no one actually knew he was a member of the team, or that he even existed. He kept the team mindlinked at all times, and read the minds of others all over the world to gather information that the various characters could not possibly have and plant it in their heads. I only brought Kevin to the game once, but he was forever invoked retroactively to explain any and all table talk that couldn't have happened ("Kevin mindlinked the conversation."), outside knowledge the player acted upon ("Kevin told me."), NPCs that forgot to act ("Kevin put the whammy on him."), etc.

X-Ray: He's a free-standing intelligent X-Ray. that is, an invisible, desolid flyer with N-Ray vision and no range penalties on an indirect extended range penetrating RKA usuable while desolid that does body. It's also continous, so once he hits, no need to reroll. No GM has ever actually let me play him, nor do I expect them to. Oh yeah, he's 250 points.

[chiralman]

Re: All the superhero PCs I've ever played

 

No time for detail here, but this was just too much fun to pass up. These are all for Champions in no particular chronological order:

 

Boltmaster/Electrolord/Boltlord/Electromaster, my first and I just couldn't settle on a name, don't you hate that?

Wildcat

MindMaster/MindHunter (no originality points)

Muskrat (my coolest and longest lived)

Buzzsaw (ended up getting reprogramming and killing Muskrat)

Blue Angel

Silent Swordsman

Moonbeam (want to forget that name soooo bad)

Lightguard (another cool concept that kept getting better)

Labrynth

Sting (a buddy stole him for another campaign)

Mindshadow (lasted a long time)

Magknight

Commander

Microman

Derringer

Shadowhawk (no originality points)

Acrobat (LOVED THIS CHARACTER!)

Barricade

Wildshot (LOVED THIS CHARACTER)

Arealist

PowerBeast! (a woman who could morph into a huge, ugly energy being... cool)

Nowhere Man

Thunderfist (no originality points)

Golem

Wire

Flex

Feedback

Heatseeker

Hotzone

Reptilian (great concept character, but no originality pts)

Whisper (again NOP)

Sonicator

Gauntlet

Runt

Saint

Glacier

Snare

Evader (LOVED THIS CHARACTER)

Barrage

MindForce (NOP)

Penance (the darkest, baddest PC I've ever conceived and played)

Mallet

Goon

Fly-Tech

Impact

Behemoth

Phantasm (NOP)

The Primative

Flashpoint (LOVED THIS CHARACTER)

Heavyweight

...there's more, I'm sure of it. Thanks for helping me empty my mental closet and take a good look at how much of my long term memory is taken up by retaining this garbage. ;-)

 

I've got character ADD, what can I say?

[Redmenace]

Re: All the superhero PCs I've ever played

 

Began with a home-brewed D&D variant, A gamer buddy came up with a simple super game by having everyone roll up a a chr then rolling one more time for powers. On a 1-2 you got one spell or magic item as your power, 3-4 got you two, etc.

 

Lynx, rolled a one for powers so I CONvinced the gm to let me play a lycanthrope.

 

Electradyne, rolled a three so took shield, lightning bolt and blink.

 

Crude but this was before we'd heard of V&V.

 

V&V

 

Nachtfeur, Ex Nazi super who really believed the Reich's propaganda and spent the next 4 decades trying to make up for it before sacrificing himself.

 

Madball, named after a superball toy from the 80s, stretchy super looney.

 

Doc. Phosphorus, lab accident created burning man.

 

Whipsnake, rolled stretching, one of the energy powers and regeneration and tried to make a character out of it.

 

Mike Gungungaleese- combat hack, a New York cabbie who drove around in a ww2 tank. No idea what I was thinking...

 

Heatwave, pyrokinetic street punk.

 

 

Champions

 

Dreadnought, Jamaican brick, later played in Gurps IST.

 

Speed Demon, cross between the Flash and Human Torch

 

Caliban, x-mutant whose body morphed to meet the demands placed on it, ie in an arctic environment he'd grow a coat of white fur and blue eyes, in melee he'd grow claws and limited armor etc. A favorite of mine

 

Blockade, a telekinetic catholic man who was a reluctant member of the Vatican super team, odd campaign.

 

Lega, Sp for alloy, Mexican super who could change into several metal states, copper, iron etc.

 

Maskeras Mysterioso, a Santoesque super wrestler, monster mashing, ladie's man

 

The Lord of Masks, meant to be a Warren Ellis like chr ala Jenny Sparks or rose Tattoo, the embodiment of transformation.

 

Suprosa, Italian american super-speedster and unrepentant lounge lizard.

 

The Alchemist, a student forensic pathologist who was working the midnight shift at the morgue when a deceased golden age super's corpse was brought in. Discovered the super drug the hero used, reverse engineered it and began searching for other deceased supers who used drugs and potions. Tried mixing drugs and turned into a power house villain, he's now cured but takes the alter ego as a kind of berserk/hunted. A very variable character and among my favorites.

 

Fornax, a inverted Peter Parker, a thug and criminal who is fighting to bring down a even worse crimelord, an attempt to play a guy who is on the side of the angels for all the wrong reasons. His only power was a plasma metaform making him a anthropomorphic lightsabre. His journey from manipulative seeker of vengeance to wizened, guilty hero is still my all time favorite gaming experience.

[PoorWandering 1]

Re: All the superhero PCs I've ever played

 

Looking back, it's been a strange crew. All champions mainly 3rd ed.

The highlights

 

Stonewall. Forcefield based brick. Openly gay. One of the other players, who happened to be gay, had a wonderfull time baiting this to-PC-to-be-real paragon.

 

Super Flea! You can have an unseemly ammount of fun with high strength and 7 levels of shrinking. Only played once or twice, too one sided to be fun once the comedy wore thin.

 

T.T.T.Timelag. Duplicating MA using the 3ed duplication rules. Died, in a plane crash, from being eaten by an dinosaur, due to the deflected and redirected arrow from an overly violent team-mate and retired to write adventure novels.

 

Kid Thursday. His background was never revealed but he had a grab bag of strange and unusual powers. Images visible only to n-ray vision. Full invisibility only to machines and animals. Extra limbs /w invisable power effect. McGuffin bombs and other oddities. In retrospect bropping a McGuffin bomb in the middle of the GSVC may have been a bad idea. Asked to retire as he made the GM's brain hurt.

 

Presto. Teen mutant with ranged 'anything to nothing' transformation attack. Now you have guns, now you don't.

 

Theremin. Dark Champions. Sound and taser using blind MA/vigilante. The active sonar was surprisingly usefull.

 

Sunspot. Dark Champions. MA with flash grenades.

 

Of them all Thursday was the most fun. I hope to play him again someday.

[Doug McCrae]

Re: All the superhero PCs I've ever played

 

The Alchemist' date=' a student forensic pathologist who was working the midnight shift at the morgue when a deceased golden age super's corpse was brought in. Discovered the super drug the hero used, reverse engineered it and began searching for other deceased supers who used drugs and potions.[/quote']Cool idea. What was it with those Golden Age guys and their secret formulas?

[GrooveD70]

Re: All the superhero PCs I've ever played

 

Wow! If ya could include NPC's Ive ran when GMing this would look better.

 

V&V

Champion- A lame Brick/armoured/Magic Axe weilding Superhero. Hey, I was a 13 yr old AD&D Munchkin at the time.

 

Marvel TSR RPG

Played the Thing for awhile.

 

Champions 4ed

Nightswan- A superherioc ninja MA type. Powers came from a mystic Katana.

 

Champions 5ed

The Wraith- A Batman/Daredevil ripoff with a tech version of a Spwan-like cape.

[Redmenace]

Re: All the superhero PCs I've ever played

 

Cool idea. What was it with those Golden Age guys and their secret formulas?

 

 

I don't know, same need to call magic something more timely as we did with radiation in the Marvel Silver Age. I should have asked Timothy Leary when I had the chance.

 

If you ever want to do something like this, There were quite a few posts to my query about super drugs on the board.

[Guest bblackmoor]

Re: All the superhero PCs I've ever played

 

I don't know' date=' same need to call magic something more timely as we did with radiation in the Marvel Silver Age.[/quote']

 

So I guess quantum mechanics or whatever is the equivalent now? Eh... maybe I'm an old fogey, but I think radiaton is sexier.

[Redmenace]

Re: All the superhero PCs I've ever played

 

Quantum mechanics and/or genetic engineering I think. Warren Ellis did the first one nicely in Ultimate fantastic Four #2.

[Doug McCrae]

Re: All the superhero PCs I've ever played

 

Radiation is so Silver Age. Even genetic engineering is a bit old fashioned - it's genetic modification now, grandad! Likewise with quantum theory. These days its all about superstrings, M-theory and dark energy. Nanotechnology, AIs, human cloning and global warming are also big.

[dbsousa]

Re: All the superhero PCs I've ever played

 

Golden Eagle: My little brother's Iron Man clone I would play when I gave up the GM's chair...

Bouncer: A character with a forcefield that prevented damage on both sides. If he hit a wall really fast, he would bounce off it, doing no harm to himself or the wall. All punches did double knockback, but no initial damage.

Johnny Angel: a teenager in 1959 at Dr. Wizard's School for Talented Teens. Every PC was a teen hero with a link to a WWII hero. Johnny's dad was Rebel, a member of Sargent Steele's Suicide Squadron who could "smell danger", and his neigbor was Dr. Icarus, of the Homefront Heroes. Johnny inherited powerful precognition from his dad, and a set of magnetic wings from Dr. Icarus.

Malcolm: a PI who was among the first people to gain superpowers in the modern world. Powers were given by the GM, and in Malcom's case included regeneration and the ability to generate a knife edge by focusing his ch'i.

[Acroyear]

Re: All the superhero PCs I've ever played

 

Having played many, many characters, I thought I'd share some of the favorites I'd built but NOT played.

 

The Entropic Man (working name) - a scientist studying entropic theory (or whatever it is these days) has an experiment that goes awry and turns himself into an "artificial demon." Essentially, his powers are science driven demon magic. I don't remember the specifics, but he had a major issue in day to day life because so many people knew his "true name."

 

Never named - The grandson (and weaker version) of a significant hero discovers a plot by a villain to go back in time and cripple his grandfather. He goes back in time, too, to prevent it but causes his grandfather's death. He attempts to set things right by "re-enacting" the adventures from his grandfather's journals (based on memory). Some difficulties include duplicating the feats of the original (because the current is watered-down/weaker) and the realization that the death occurred before the original met his wife. However, he did have a great knack for showing up in the right place at the right time for significant events.

 

A nazi super soldier from nazi world/dimension who begins to grow rebellious concerning their way of life. He is put to death by disintigration (which, in fact, turns out not to disintigrate people, but transport them to our dimension - but nobody knows that unless they are disintigrated). Now, in a place which is "better" in his opinion, he realizes that every other terrible criminal from his world was set loose here (along with some "good guys" but they aren't a threat to the world, but to him as a "known nazi agent")....

[tribe]

Re: All the superhero PCs I've ever played

 

This thread has got me thinking back to the handful of face-to-face games I've played before being side-lined by so-called growing up and ddrifting away from other role players. Now I do the pbem thing and I have to admit pbem has turned out to be so much more rewarding, and there aren't those problems with people throwing tantrums and taking their chips and cheezos home in a huff.... anyway, off track a bit.

 

My first Champions character was Cure - a guy who could heal other people as well as a handful of stun attacks. His schtick was that he secretly drew life-energy away from people around him. My brother was the GM and we cooked up a wicked side-story. Cure had actually killed three people in his life before realising and controlling his powers better. They became recurring guests in the game, although no one except Cure knew they were dead people. They walked around and interacted and stuff, but they were dead. I named the dead people after a T.S. Eliot poem: Gerontium. There was Gerontium, Mr Silvero and Fraulein von Kulp (?). Silvero was a psycho.

 

I've actually started playing a revised pbem version of this character this year. Cure debuted in 1990 (or there abouts) and Nostrum, the new version, debuted last month 2005.

 

Have I been superhero gaming that long?

 

I think I'll try to come up with a list of all my characters over that time as well, but maybe not right away. A project for a rainy day perhaps!

[Ken Solo]

Re: All the superhero PCs I've ever played

 

Thanks for starting this thread! It sent me dancing down memory lane for a few minutes! The key here to make the list shorter is ‘played’ (under a GM), as opposed to all the characters I’ve written up (hundreds), or characters I’ve used as NPCs only.

Champions/HERO

·White Dwarf * (c.1981 or ’82. I misunderstood the rules some, so he got a 110 STR and a 90 pt FF/EB/Flight multipower. Because I didn’t put points anywhere else he has one of the worst win/loss records in superherodom. I love this character!!)

·Moonfire* (rip off of Firestar from Spiderman TV show)

·Gargantua* (lots of growth, and stats boosts linked to the growth)

·Archer* (Hawkeye rip off. I always wanted a better name but could not come up with one, until just before the character died. He was called Shaft for 5 minutes)

·Dark Warrior * (suit with Darkforce™ control. When that was taken away (OIF ya know) became Punisher type, now a James Bond type)

·Remedy *(UNTIL agent with REC usable vs. others. Also a force field based suit)

·Steel/Diehard * (a mart with 4pts armor and 60 BODY. Again I searched for years to find a better name, and Damage Sponge Girl seemed silly, if appropriate.)

·Mole* (Tunneling based powered armor suit)

·Pummel (minor brick, got killed by shotgun)

·Champion (Capt. America type w/ No Range EB in gauntlets)

·White Fly * (shrinker w. mechanical wings and blaster.[flight was almost mandatory for shrinkers when the rules cut ground movement in half for each level of shrinking])

·Fox/Shadowfox * (Invisibility and all the enhanced senses 1st edition offered)

·Headsman (alien executioner. Killed by firearms)

·Volt (Electricity wielder [including green & yellow costume] died somehow)

·Cannibalizer (gadgets. Concept was to take all the foci of vanquished foes)

·Coyote* (mart/detective with eye beams)

·Crusader* (mart/detective with a .357 and levels in it)

·String Man!* (Mild mannered clothesline caught in battle between three super teams! The Cosmic Energy, and Psionic Projections, magical spells of Mind Trapping, and Electro-bolts (among other things) all combined to give sentience and animation to this ball of twine! Now a master of Hemp-Fu, and wielding the Green Argonite Stone Projector (G.A.S.P. gun ;4d6 phys EB, 1 rec. charge, OAF) dropped by Dr. Destroyer, Stringfellow Hemp seeks to tie up the loose stings of society! Etc, etc…) I never got to play this character enough.

·Incubus*(Dream and sleep powers)

·Sgt. Greene (The gray Hulk with “Ar-my training, Sir!â€)

·Prof. Genesis* My current character in a weekly game(89 year old govt. scientist. 50 INT, lots of SS skills and contacts in govt. and academics. He WAS the “Top Menâ€)

Paladium System

·Dr. America (ultra athlete/patriot/redneck. Not right in the head)

Marvel Super Hero Game

·Hunter/Allen Pressnight * (minor brick mutant, powers of pheromones (people either loved him or hated him) and Immunity to Biologically Generated Energy Emissions—also a hit or miss power; Prof. X was an old man in a chair, Cyclops was a guy in stupid glasses and the Invisible Woman was just a woman, but Colossus and Wolverine hurt!)

·Maudlin (ability to create illusions and drunkenness in others. A fun combination)

Superworld

·Dr.?/Capt.?/Mr? Midnight (I don’t recall his name proper. A minor brick with enough PRE (in HERO terms) to intimidate gods)

Villains & Vigilantes

·Paladin (a D&D character transported, except the GM Pat Rogers made each bit of armor a throwing weapon, and Paladins magic ring could become any vehicle)

DC Heroes

·Bullet (Turned out like Colossus of X-Men)

 

The characters I've marked with an * are ones that were well developed with extensive history, personality, rational for powers & all that stuff.

[Guzalot]

Re: All the superhero PCs I've ever played

 

I can't remember them all, but here's a partial list in chronolical order.

 

Renegade (V&V)- Telekinesis-based energy projecto

Breakdown (V&V)- Gadgeteer

Smash (Superworld)- Typical brick

Mercurite (V&V)- Body was composed of pure mercury. Stretching, density increase, speedster

Omega Knight (Champions)- Mystical power armor brick w. a big ass sword

Mandragon (Champions)- Mutiform dragonman

Nemesis (Champions)- Power armor bounty hunter

Flurry (Champions)- Autofire punch light brick

Breeze (Marvel)- Wind & air powers

Runestrike (Champions)- Archaologist w/ "shazaam" style multiform

Wraith (Champions)- Undead martial artist

Ioun (Champions)- Mentalist w. am "ioun stone" based duplicate that was esentialy an energy projecting flying orb.

Razor (Dark Champions)- Martial artist w. very sharp blades (2x AP)

Shade (Champions)- Martial artist PI w. desolid

[Barton]

Re: All the superhero PCs I've ever played

 

Only one character, I have been GM most of the time.

DDT - Champions 2nd edition armor suit user that looked like a dragon fly. He was a scientist and the armor suit could fly and spray toxic gases. A blast to play! DDT had public ID and the GM had him become a pop icon complete with coloring book! Fought the Hulk and his unluck kicked in and his flight module failed and he landed near the Hulk. DDT's famous line was "hi Hulk" just before the Hulk picked up a city bus and used it as baseball bat and hit DDT into next Tuesday. The "hi Hulk" line got me an extra experience point.

[Great Beyond]

Re: All the superhero PCs I've ever played

 

Forgive the necromancy, but this looked too fun to pass up

 

I've only had three superheroes in my long gaming career - but a couple of them had several versions when we rebooted the game from time to time.

My very first one was Newton Weyrick, created somewhere around '89-'90 ish. He was a pretty basic character - a tanker with some flight (and a fear of heights - which was just fun). That game lasted for a year or two until it fell apart (to my regret, it was partiality due to my fault - I was bitter that the Star Wars had imploded so abruptly and replaced).

A couple of years later, as the players cycled out, we tried again. It was a cool enough concept and I was over the chip on my shoulder, so I recreated him again - this time with a car that could travel time and space (A flux capacitor, but in a car with style like an Aston Martin DB5). He was considerably less a jerk and more flaky impulsive eccentric with an irresponsible streak a mile wide.

When it came time to wind down that game, we went with a third "newtonverse", but this time we shifted him and his team forward 20 or so years, and I played his daughter - Natasha. She was a Tanker also, but she was a super genius who loved to tinker with cars and electronics and other Mad Scientist things. She also had about 100 points of shrinking/growing (and some various support powers and skills). She had a kicking electric train set, a full on town she built while an inch tall.

The problem that I had - while I enjoyed the conventions and had read comics for years, I was really a one trick pony. I was never able to come up with anything that really satisfied me as a concept - until I played City of Heroes. That's where my third hero character comes from

Great Beyond is a second generation hero, inheriting the name and look from her golden age hero father after he died (of old age, you looking for sinister subplot types - sheesh). She's a an ice blaster with a couple of fire attacks and flight, who also deals with arcane and mystic lore.

Of course the problem is - I have too many character ideas now left unplayed! Scarlet Arrow (an Olympic caliber archer), Chill Out Woman (the manifestation of a winter Goddess), One Hit Wonder (a Kung Fu Speedsteer) . . . .