Jump to content

Alternate terms for "superhumans"?


Trebuchet

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 67
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Re: Alternate terms for "superhumans"?

 

What is with all of the thread necromancy lately!

 

Ok on with the OP's question

 

Capes

Supes

Paragons

 

 

Wild Cards has both Aces and Jokers. Aces being powerful, pretty/handsome, supers. Jokers being those bearing physical mutations and usually having minor powers (or their physical mutation being their "power")

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Alternate terms for "superhumans"?

 

In my game the first 3 being on the planet to show any super powers were actually aliens that were caught on film fighting during one of the worlds fairs. Over the years the 3 of them individually got tagged with Starshine, Powerhouse, and The Iron Beast. Collectively they became known as the Alphas. The fallout from their battle caused the first wave of supers that were called Betas. Gammas had just showed up when they found and killed the 4th Alpha and opened up a whole new set of powers to manifest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Alternate terms for "superhumans"?

 

Malibu had 'ultras', which I'm currently using in a campaign. I'm also using 'jinks', people with a 'jink' in their genetic code, the over-simplified 'gene X' idea, but not powerful enough to be considered ultras or have a downside that outweighs their power, like 'hideous freak who can bend forks with his mind'. Also a pun on their misfortune, all the prejudice at a fraction of the power. I'm going to have a 'Jinkstown' in Reno, but I haven't decided what I'm going to do with it in detail.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Re: Alternate terms for "superhumans"?

 

Positive/Official/PC names:

 

Darwins - applies primarily to mutants or similar

Manhattans - experiment gone wrong/right types

Awakened - psi/magic based supers, stolen from Shadowrun, but still one of my favorite terms

Specials - from the PC term, mostly applied to those whose physical abnormalities make life 'difficult'

Savants - from the psychological term, indicating one of abnormally high mental abilities, but could be applied to supers as a whole

Wunderkind - adapted from the german for wonder-child

 

 

Negative/Insulting terms:

 

Mutes, and variations thereon (Muties, Mutts, etc...)

Clowns - for those who wear the costumes

Vigs - from vigilante

Schachs - from guess where

Stumps,Twigs,Shrubbery - from the concept of the evolutionary tree (and Monty P)

Igors, Stunts

Sports - an evolutionary throwback, term primarily used by 'pacifists', referring to the tendency of supers to solve problems with violence

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Alternate terms for "superhumans"?

 

47s--referring to the (possibly erroneous) belief that mutants have a 47th chromosome

DeeBees--stolen from R**ts, any being from another dimension

Extees--aliens

Fremont--any child with exceptionally strong meta-abilities, particularly related to reality alteration, matter manipulation, etc.

Cleanup Hitter/Anchorman or Anchorwoman--the most powerful member of a team, when they get fully involved it's usually in order to "close the show"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Alternate terms for "superhumans"?

 

How about "Benders"(as in' date=' they're constantly bending the laws of physics to their will)?[/quote']

 

"Bender" to me is what an alcoholic does on a regular basis, so I can't say that would fly in my campaign.

 

A term I have used is Transcendents, which was primarily for psi-types in my campaign, but could be applied to anyone with extraordinary abilities.

 

Other ones I have come across are Beyonders, DEMAs (from deus ex machina), and Redlines (both because they peg power-meters into the red and because they are often violent and bloody)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Alternate terms for "superhumans"?

 

I have used the following in Campaigns (I apologize for duplications of previous posts):

 

BoM : From a campaign where human meta-evolution was the result of the "Book of Man" project.

Meta : Short for Meta-Human. Meta means "beyond" and was popularized by DC Comics

Nexts: In a campaign where the supers were the next step of human evolution

Sigma: For a number of reasons: Sigma is the strongest type of nuclear bond in chemistry, it is used to represent the Sum total of a group.

Ultra: Clearly an extension of "Super" and was used by Malibu Comics in their Ultraverse

 

Sigma was always my favorite. It was (as far as I know) original to me, gave me a great symbol (The Greek Letter in question) to represent supers as a whole, and was a fine logo for the government group that monitored Sigma activity.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Alternate terms for "superhumans"?

 

Bender to me is a robot.

 

Well sure, but why do you suppose Groening named him that? The very concept of a robot on a drunken binge makes the character amusing from the get go.

 

In all fairness to Megaplayboy, were it not for the slang usage, "bender" would be a great term.

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...