Low Level Power Ideas Needed for Superhero team Liaison/Career Bureaucrat

[S7Michelle]

I'm trying to come up with an interesting and logical power or set of powers for a reoccurring NPC in a game I'll be starting in a few months. But while I have a good idea about what the Mrs. Gray looks like and how she acts, I'm drawing a blank when it comes to super-abilities.

 

The setting is basically four-color though made a bit more realistic and containing elements of the aberrant setting. Super powers are common (1 in 100 people have some sort of special ability). But most of the powers are minor and most metahumans work for companies, rather than become traditional super heroes or villains. It wouldn't be at all surprising to meet a model that could instantly change her hair length and color, or a fireman that was immune to fire damage (though not to other types of damage).

 

The PCs will be more powerful than the average metahuman (450 point level), and will have been hired by the City of Denver to act as city defenders. Mrs. Gray will be the liaison between the heroes and the city. She is a career city worker that is currently in her early fifties. She is stocky with gray hair pulled back in a bun. She usually wears dark gray suits and is often seen with a clip board. Her personality can be described with such words as efficient, organized, inflexible, and...though not to her face...bulldozer. She has no sense of humor at all.

 

I don't think I want her powers to be combat oriented. She's not meant to fight beside the group or anything like that. Though....I can see her lecturing a villain into submission or even whacking him with her clipboard if necessary.

 

Suggestions?

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Low Level Power Ideas Needed for Superhero team Liaison/Career Bureaucrat

 

Maybe some sort of limited near-future precognition...not enough to get the lottery numbers before the drawing, but enough to have ready what you are about to ask for before you even know it. Or to be able to sound the alarm for a supervillain invasion/strike just before the attack actually happens.

 

Speed Reading.

 

Absolute Time Sense.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Low Level Power Ideas Needed for Superhero team Liaison/Career Bureaucrat

 

Extra presence, only for defense (-1) "I've dealt with a lot of things in my life, and you simply don't impress me."

[Vanguard00]

Re: Low Level Power Ideas Needed for Superhero team Liaison/Career Bureaucrat

 

Give her high defenses and/or Damage Reduction, plus mental defense and power defense. She just simply can't be hurt. She can't fight, mind you, but she's unimpressed by anyone with powers because it's so hard for them to hurt her.

 

Give her lots of administrative skills, bureaucratics, persuasion, etc. Lots of KS, too, like "Civil Procedure" and "Superhumans of the world". Then give her eidetic memory and speed reading. Basically, besides being near-invulnerable, she's the perfect government liaison, able to recite rules and regulations, reports and statistics, etc, at will.

[Chuckg]

Re: Low Level Power Ideas Needed for Superhero team Liaison/Career Bureaucrat

 

Naah, just give her the same power One-Eyed Jack got in the 4e Dark Champions... the ability to act as a paranormal lie detector.

 

Imagine the horror of the liason you simply can't con.

[EverKnight]

Re: Low Level Power Ideas Needed for Superhero team Liaison/Career Bureaucrat

 

Extra presence' date=' only for defense (-1) "I've dealt with a lot of things in my life, and [i']you[/i] simply don't impress me."

 

I would have thought extra Presence, not just for defence. From the sounds of it, everyone takes notice when she is around and she can Presence attack people into submission.

[Matt Frisbee]

Re: Low Level Power Ideas Needed for Superhero team Liaison/Career Bureaucrat

 

I would have thought extra Presence' date=' not just for defence. From the sounds of it, everyone takes notice when she is around and she can Presence attack people into submission.[/quote']

 

If that's the case, try an area of effect presence drain or transfer, something like:

 

xd6 PRE Transfer, AOE 2" radius (+1), 0 END, Persistent (+1), No Conscious Control (Not aware she's doing it) (-2), Only vs. people she is talking to and who can hear and understand her (-1/2), Gestures: must shake finger o'guilt at person (constant power) (-1/2) [45 AP / d6] : 15 points / d6

 

Reminds me of a teacher or two I've had in life, actually...

 

Matt "Got-tired-of-the-adaptable-nickname-in-quotes-thing" Frisbee

[itsalwayssunny]

Re: Low Level Power Ideas Needed for Superhero team Liaison/Career Bureaucrat

 

I'm trying to come up with an interesting and logical power or set of powers for a reoccurring NPC in a game I'll be starting in a few months. But while I have a good idea about what the Mrs. Gray looks like and how she acts, I'm drawing a blank when it comes to super-abilities.

 

The setting is basically four-color though made a bit more realistic and containing elements of the aberrant setting. Super powers are common (1 in 100 people have some sort of special ability). But most of the powers are minor and most metahumans work for companies, rather than become traditional super heroes or villains. It wouldn't be at all surprising to meet a model that could instantly change her hair length and color, or a fireman that was immune to fire damage (though not to other types of damage).

 

The PCs will be more powerful than the average metahuman (450 point level), and will have been hired by the City of Denver to act as city defenders. Mrs. Gray will be the liaison between the heroes and the city. She is a career city worker that is currently in her early fifties. She is stocky with gray hair pulled back in a bun. She usually wears dark gray suits and is often seen with a clip board. Her personality can be described with such words as efficient, organized, inflexible, and...though not to her face...bulldozer. She has no sense of humor at all.

 

I don't think I want her powers to be combat oriented. She's not meant to fight beside the group or anything like that. Though....I can see her lecturing a villain into submission or even whacking him with her clipboard if necessary.

 

Suggestions?

 

You could have her lecture a villain into submission without having to have any real super powers. Does she have to have super powers to be the liaison?

[freakboy6117]

Re: Low Level Power Ideas Needed for Superhero team Liaison/Career Bureaucrat

 

Maybe a very minor power say 10 - 20 points say speed Reading at 100x great for a beaureacrat or thermo-graphic vision good for an expert negotiator. How about desolification always on might be intresting can't be touched has to use voice controls. How about life support doesn't need to eat sleep or breath pretty handy for a secret agent not much use to a middle age beaurecrat but she's always available when the team needs them. How about duplication maybe just a couple of dupes would be handy for running an office.

[Folded]

Re: Low Level Power Ideas Needed for Superhero team Liaison/Career Bureaucrat

 

Speed Writing (or typing) would be useful for a bureaucrat. Her humorlessness could be explained by a subconscious Telepathy that only picks up on people's negative aspects and lets her know when they're lying to her (most of the time). A CE that drops the local temperature ten degrees Celsius whenever she is upset. Eidetic Memory at the full value (the clipboard is just for show).

 

Alternately, her power could be something that represents another part of her personality that the PCs never see (due to a sense of privacy or even shame). Seduction abilities come to mind, of course, but also artistic ones. She reminds me a little of the female bureaucrat in Futurama who had an affair with Fry. Even the Cigarette Smoking Man had aspirations other than the job, so perhaps that's her hook.

[novi]

Re: Low Level Power Ideas Needed for Superhero team Liaison/Career Bureaucrat

 

It sounds like she should have a power unrelated to being a bureaucrat. Otherwise, it would make more sense that she would be at the central bureaucracy pushing paper, not in a quasi-field position like liaison. And it sounds like part of the "realism" he's going for is that people with powers tend to do jobs that suit that power. And at least at the beginning of the game, it's probably best to not confuse that point.

 

Hmm, how about weak technopathy? Pretty much just HRRP, and KS: Everything (only when and where wifi is available). No combat utility, but she always connected to base and, especially in a city, can find out about almost anything the team needs to know?