Sex and the Single Superhuman

[Steve]

Let's face it. Superhumans have challenging romantic lives. If it's not that nosy girl/guy reporter trying to discover a character's secret identity, all the while ignoring that mild-mannered co-worker, you also throw into the mix alien beings, gods/goddesses from the Land of Legends, that sexy supervillainess/studly supervillain that a hero/heroine has chemistry with, and finally other members of the same superteam. What's a superhuman to do?

 

So what's the romantic life like for your character? Is he/she in a monogamous relationship with a DNPC, doing the Batman/Catwoman love/hate relationship with a supervillain, dating anything that moves, or something else entirely? Do your superhuman PCs lead active sex lives, or are they so dedicated to their life as a hero that sex doesn't even interest them? Are they straight-laced sorts, or are they care-free exhibitionists or hedonists in their free time? Do they have any dark secrets or desires they hide from others?

[Blue]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

Uncle Slam has had his share of short term relationships. (For him a year is short). His most profound experince is that he met a woman in WWII during a mission and they fell in love. On the downside, he was tied up in the war effort and couldn't spend much time with her because he was fighting the good fight and she was Queen of Atlantis. The had a tremendous collaborative effort to crush the Nazi U-Boats and keep them from discovering the hidden land. But as a result of the desire of Atlanteans to remain a secret to the world, the governments who knew of therm have by agreement kept the place's existence and location a secret. He can never travel there again, by order of his government.

 

Anthem realizes that a guy her age who is a member of the Sentinels has a crush on her. But he's incredibly shy. She has so many things going on that she doesn't want to be the one driving the relationship, so she's waiting for him to finally make a move of some sort.

 

Audra Blue is isolated enough that she only has contact with team members and some electronic contact with the outside world. There is a member of the Sentinels who has done work for her at her request and he is interested. Both are "damaged" individuals with similar life experiences that lead them to their current fates. She's too cut off to let anyone in, especially a hero, because she doesn't want to deal with losing someone close to her ever again.

[CDad]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

I joined a campaign years ago, made a fun "Captain America" type character... we spent 3 hours of the first session focused on dating and our character's sex life. There were 7 people, 2 couples (the GM was in one of the couples). One of them was taking notes. It was a bit creepy, since it appeared that this was a way for these people to talk about their real sex lives - and it was more description than I ever wanted, expecially from people that I barely knew. I read the BBB.

 

I never went back. Perhaps I'm scarred from the experience, but I have NO desire to delve into that while gaming.

 

On the other hand, Larry Niven wrote an excellent short story on this very subject... Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex...

[Moody Loner]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

Spartacus: Currently lusting after Weather Girl.

 

Weather Girl has a 20+ COM, and is the only female in the group, so he's competing with an Atlantean prince, a powerful sorceror, an intelligent and charismatic martial artist, and a rugged military hero. Bad.

 

However, Spartacus has an edge, as his player is married to Weather Girl's.

[OddHat]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

Style - Now in a serious relationship with Hexencat, another PC. Was briefly involved with Chisako, a Japanese heorine turned villainess.

 

Flesh Gordon - Has been involved with a long list of minor super-villainesses, starlets, news women, make-up girls, waitresess, flight attendants, and politicians. Most of them have attempted to kill him, to the point that it is now his standard first scene in any adventure.

 

Legend - Single, not involved with anyone at the moment, would be interested in a relationship but is probably too far on the Dad side of the Dad vs Cad scale to interest most supers, and would not date a normal for fear of the possible danger to her.

[Susano]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

Avalon had a scattering of lovers, including one long-term relation ship with .... with... (darn, the campaign ended like a decade ago and I've forgotton) a weatherwitch. He also courted a variety of magical types and ended up involuntarily fathering a daughter via Morgan le Fay. The PBEM version ended up married to his apprentice.

 

Eclipse never had much of a sex life that I recall. He was too busy trying to untangle the web of lies and such he and his team were entangle with.

 

Orion was 16 (IIRC), and just discovering girls.

 

Koyotie ended up with one of her team mates (who I think was called "Eclipse" was well...). They stayed together for a while and her getting slammed in a fight did make him go Enraged -- even though he didn't have an Enraged!

 

I won't go into the cast of KAZEI 5, we'd be here all day....

[incrdbil]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

Hornet--happily married..or at least, trying to be while leading the hero life

 

Ranger Married to the work. Had to kill the last woman he loved.

 

Eclipse Hated what powers had done to him, avoided relationships. wound up in one..and eventually pushed her away to let her be with a romantic rival who could provide for her and be there full time. No relationship angle after that.

 

Blaze Unrequired love. Cosmic Power Pool. Many a rival boyfriend NPC owed their life to a successful ego roll. Finally found the girl of his nightmares though.

 

Demon Though 900, was a 9 year old emotionally. Perhaps he had succubus pin up posters in his room, but nothing more.

 

EbonStar Playboy. Never met a woman who he didnt love..or could remember their name later.

 

Nucleon Long distance relationship with a superheroine in an alternate universe, but it worked.

 

Now as a GM, I've created a lot of odd relationships (one entire team had romantic dfficulties after a fight with GenderBender.)

[nexus]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

Eve, really too young to have a romantic interest you. She does beleive in relationships though and constantly plays "Matchmaker" for the rest of the team. Knows almost nothing about biological reproduction beyond "Babies grow inside their mothers and it takes about nine months" Her current theory is that there's a advanced but somewhat slow autofactory in there.

 

Shidoku: Doesn't really have relatiohips, but frequent flings and one night stands.

 

Valkeryie is "dating' a co coworker, but neither of them has offically called them dates yet. He's trying to coax her out of her shell. Difficult. Sexually, she is a virgin.

 

Nexus is very much a sexual free spirit, openly bisexual and has a covert lesbian relationship going with her partner.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

Dr. Anomaly - no romantic interests yet, at all, and it doesn't bother him one bit...he's more interested in experimenting and researching. His secret ID, Dr. Solomon Kinkaid, though, is a very well-off bachelor, and has some problems keeping "society mothers" from trying to "arrange things" between him and their daughters. Something on the romantic front that does have him worried, though, is that Isis (the goddess) has made a couple of...suggestive...remarks indicating that she may decide to pursue him just in order to convert a modern mage to her worship. Frankly, that really makes him nervous because he's pretty sure he couldn't resist her if he tried...and it concerns him even more that he's not sure he'd want to resist, if/when she does "make a play" for him...

[Ghost Archer]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

Ghost Archer: Married, been with her for about three years. The problem is the love of his life is another woman who has 'ascended' to become the Avatar of a Goddess and well never return to him. He tries to find happiness in his wife's arms but the operative word is 'tries'. She is totally committed to him and tries very hard to make him happy but . . . (All three are PCs)

 

Icehawk: Billionaire playboy, that went through women like ties and remembered very few. Fell for a stripper and paid her for a private gig to last a month. She found that he was far more then a rich ass just trying to buy her and he found out she was far more than he could ever hope for. They are now married and have a little girl. (PC/NPC)

 

Probe: Wanderer seeking a lost member of his family. Very much a hedonist now having a secret and very torrid affair with the team's office manager who happens to be the lost family member (2nd cousin) he has been looking for. (PC/NPC)

 

Goliath: In love with one girl, loved by another that had his child after having sex with him while he was in a coma. Now trying to explain it all to the girl he loves and waiting patiently for her to figure out her feelings while he tries to cope with his new daughter and his disgust for the baby's mother. (All three are PCs)

[nexus]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

Goliath: In love with one girl, loved by another that had his child after having sex with him while he was in a coma. Now trying to explain it all to the girl he loves and waiting patiently for her to figure out her feelings while he tries to cope with his new daughter and his disgust for the baby's mother. (All three are PCs)

 

Whoa and I thought my games had some romantic entanglements.

[Susano]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

Whoa and I thought my games had some romantic entanglements.

 

Should I mention Morgan le Fey set it up so that Avalon would (unknowingly) sleep with his own daughter? (Who was older than him at the time -- living in seperate dimensions can do that).

[animemun001]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

Zargoth: After being dimensionally misplaced and using his super powers to destroy strange armies of 'magic' with a few other dimensionally misplace individuals, he settled down with a pleasant farm girl and has two children.

 

Eric Drake: So far he has one person that chases him and he flee's, and on top of that he has two romantic interests..unfortunitly there both on the side of the heroes and thats just not going to bold well for his future I imagine.

 

Argus: Ex-God that had his memories and big powers stripped from him. Currently dating a Private Investigator/Martial Artist type why he tries to piece together how his powers really work

[Karma]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

Karma: Comes from a more sexually liberal age and has no problem being polyamorous. Still trying to understand why so many of her partners have hang-ups about that sort of thing.

 

Fauna: *Dating* and *marriage* is for humans. Mating is for reproduction, and while she is sure she will mate for life once an appropriate male is found she has no desire to be a mother yet.

 

Caress: Has had some long term relationships with some of her female team members, but has never seriously thought about settling down. Sees sex as just another way to manipulate men (which makes sense since she's a skin contact mind controller).

 

Fore-Eyes: Still trying to summon up the courage to approach the girl he likes (and is aware of the irony of being willing to face death every day but not the prospect of rejection.)

 

Hard-Ball: Feels protective of the girls he dates (floating DNPCs), but not thinking of a serious relationship (which would endanger his Secret ID too much, last thing he wants is a girl he truly cares about asking why he has to run off so often (yes he has trust issues).

[Supreme]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

In our campaigns it's either that there is no mention of their private, romantic lives, or their relationships are intrinsically a part of the story arcs (in love with supervillain, in love with same person as supervillain, etc.). I recently played two Golden Age characters.

[BcAugust]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

Cyrande is a Malvan Princess, and is happy to be free on Earth to pursue who she wants, without having to worry about the whole slave issue. So far, she's pursuing Horus(PC), being pursued by a possible villian (Kuraaz, NPC), and is likely to get Firewing's attention too. The list of other possible suiters is... vast. Her attitude toward's sex and relationships is almost typically Malvan, except a concern to not hurt her partner.

 

Nox... well, it hasn't come up in game yet. but I doubt she would go for a super, and certainly not a team member. And she certainly wouldn't date anyone attracted to her hero form. Honestly, I think she would like a relationship that ended in marriage and a white picket fence house.

[Rapier]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

Down here in Chicago there used to be a club (actually in River Grove) called the Thirsty Whale. It was around for like 30 years or something and a significant number of very popular (and an even larger number of not so popular) bands got their start or played there at one point.

 

I used to have to drive past every day on my way to work. Out front on the big sign they would post the bands for that weekend. Local bands always have the best names.

 

My all time favourite? Pud and the Whackers.

 

Now, what does all this have to do with the sex lives of superheroes? I'm getting there. Chad's character is notoriously bad with women. He's struck out more times than...a really bad baseball player (so I don't like baseball, sue me!). He's a bit of a geek and (I swear to you) every time he has some kind of interaction skill roll with a woman (Conversation etc) he critically fails. EVERY SINGLE TIME. It got to be a joke with us. His character is also an amateur musician. Yep, you guessed it. As an inside joke, we made sure that his band's name was "Pud and the Whackers."

 

EDIT: FYI approx 10 years ago they tore down the Whale and put up an Amaco/McDonalds. The last band I saw there was Blue Oyster Cult about 3 months before the close.

[Guest WhammeWhamme]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

Flippant had a budding relationship with his physical therapist (who, in her own way, would have been as awkward to deal with as a reporter when it comes to maintaining his Secret ID...) when the game fizzled.

 

Rook doesn't have time for distractions... so it's inevitable, really. I mean, he can't be all "I must prevent the future I grew up in" ALL the time... right? Since he's both quite "Conan" in personality/origin, but is intelligent and driven to support civilization/morality, I think a frustrating tension with someone refined and/or a kinship with some kind of "primal" female would suit him.

 

Estatua - Public ID, true hero, Superstrength, Superspeed AND a normal metabolic rate? I'm sure his fan club is devoted. He'd be quite traditional though - so nothing exciting there.

 

Division - Well. Diverse. Each duplicate has their own tastes, but they do overlap, so it could be interesting. Frankly, I think one of him would be interested in just about anyone...

 

Fred - actually, his powers have probably great curtailed this. Being able to crush people unintentionally (/having disad to reflect it) probably presents a problem... that said, he is attracted to a fellow student (why? god knows...)

 

Silyione - she's not used to the idea of individual people. She's from a Human Hivemind, so her idea of a relationship is being assigned to bear/raise children. That said, those kinds of unions _are_ mind and body, so it's not like she was really missing anything. As she develops her independence (already unusually strong) she may develop more "normal" emotions.

 

Ghost - Still young in some ways, she's likely to develop a crush on older teammates - which is likely to end badly, given the apocalypticness of the world she's in. Poor Ghost .

[Blue Jogger]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

Captain Power - You would think an attractive shapeshifter would have lots of dates, but sadly when no one can tell whether you're a man, a woman or sexless demon from another dimension, this limits your chance of dating to strangers who don't know or don't care. Hurrah for 4th Edition version of 30 pts of Full Life Support: Immune to Disease!

 

"Billy" Won Ton - Finally realized that the world is actually several conflicting timelines meant that he could have his ex-wife (she died before they got married, but changes in the timeline brought her back as a kick-ass superheroic vampire, but she never met him in this timeline, they enjoy heavy flirting) and his girlfriend (met before the timeline changed and got together but now that the timeline change...) Billy is starting to like time travel. To his superheroic vampire friend, "I like this version of you better." To his girlfriend, "No dear, that was the *other* timeline. I only have eyes for you."

 

Shaylee - Was good looking before (14 COM), but now can transform into a 22 COM sexy elf. She's going to enjoy college life.

[Metaphysician]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

Microman II: Is an android. Don't. Go. There.

 

Diomedes: No time for a romantic life at the moment. It'd probably have to be a woman as big a "work"aholic as him.

[Stormraven]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

Checkmate Married, quite happily, wife knows all about him, as she used to be a heroine, and still joins in occasionally. Son is quite powerful in his own right.

 

Fianna In a relationship with a policewoman, she hopes it lasts.

 

Puritan Very much a hedonist, she has no intention of settling down for a good long while.

[megaplayboy]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

Most of my PCs get more action than I do IRL--just an extension of that whole "wish fulfillment" thing, I guess.

 

some of them see more action than a Caribbean resort

[Boll Weevil]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

I have never been in or run a game where romantic involvements occured. Occasionally a player takes a DNPC: girlfriend but these serve mostly to be tied to railroad tracks by the handlebar moustache villain. Our games are about fighting bad guys. I have no interest in having players work out their sexual issues through gaming. Personal preference only; not a judgement.

[OddHat]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

I have never been in or run a game where romantic involvements occured. Occasionally a player takes a DNPC: girlfriend but these serve mostly to be tied to railroad tracks by the handlebar moustache villain. Our games are about fighting bad guys. I have no interest in having players work out their sexual issues through gaming. Personal preference only; not a judgement.

 

It comes down to the personalities of the players. Romnce is and has been a big part of my campaigns, but then my wife is always a player, and we've had several maried players and couples. They have not been working out sexual issues; they've been roleplaying a part of the genre that they enjoyed, adding some melodrama to the mix. If the Super-Soap Opera aspect of comics is not to your taste, that's cool as well.

[Kristopher]

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

 

Some of the characters I've posted recently...

 

T'Shenk Kennet -- as a mortal in the late 900s AD, he was still mourning his dead wife. Succubi were never his thing, and so there's all that time in hell he wasn't interested. It's been over 1000 years since he was physically human, and for much of that time his memories of his mortal life helped keep him sane, so he's not really thinking along romantic or sexual lines any more. It would take some kind of extraordinary event to change that, even though he can retake the guise of his former human self now.

 

Omega Girl -- she's not opposed to meeting someone she could date, maybe get serious with, but on the other hand she's scared of what all that power inside her could do to someone if it was accidentally unleashed during a moment of passion. She has no idea if it even would be a problem, but it's not like she can just "run a test".

 

War Angel -- where to start... it's not as if she would be physically incapable, but she's not even human -- mentally and spiritually, or even physically, really. It's quite possible that she's not capable of feeling physical attraction or romantic love. She's been around longer than mankind has had cities, or writing, or agriculture, and has never felt or thought about such things. She's an Angel of War, not of love or anything even remotely related. There are stories of angels sleeping with humans, so one never knows, but she'd have to change significantly to get to there from where she is now.