Steve Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 I titled this thread as The Second Stringers, meaning the heroes who don't quite cut it. Heroes who have less than useful powers, or maybe even utterly useless powers, but who still try to be heroes. Or maybe they're people who really have no business putting on a costume, because even though they have powers, they're not very competent. Who are the also-rans in your campaigns? Are they PCs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Johnston Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 Re: The Second Stringers Secretariat: The worlds fastest secretary! Marvel Man: Designed in Superworld, with 75% clumsiness and 40 points of protection. The perfect man to defuse a bomb, provided you were a long, long way away. He also got around with gigantic amounts of Superleap to maximise the amount of damage he'd do just arriving. I Can't Remember That Guy's Name: A PC who attempted to turn breakdancing into a martial art. He was also the only person in that particular world who wore a superhero costume. They look a lot dumber when you're the only one making that fashion statement. Captain Chaos: A pudgy 14 year-old boy with poorly controlled telekinetic powers that would just sort of randomly trash the area whenever he got worked up. The PCs would very politely refer to him as "The Captain". It's amazing the kind of respect you can get when everyone's afraid you'll go "Carrie" on them. Phreak: Had stretching powers. Couldn't remember exactly how his body originally fit together, so all of his limbs were a different length at rest and one eye was three times the size of the other. He was my tribute to both Bill the Cat and the artist who created Warlock, apparently to make virtue out of his liabilities. Phreak's most memorable trick was his ability to create eyestalks for his eyes and stretch them around to take sneak peaks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BNakagawa Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 Re: The Second Stringers Marvel Man: Designed in Superworld, with 75% clumsiness and 40 points of protection. The perfect man to defuse a bomb, provided you were a long, long way away. He also got around with gigantic amounts of Superleap to maximise the amount of damage he'd do just arriving. Isn't this the Tick? Add: anyone who has ever been in the Legion of Substitute Heroes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st barbara Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 Re: The Second Stringers Isn't this the Tick? Add: anyone who has ever been in the Legion of Substitute Heroes. Let alone "The Legion Of Superfluous Heros" from "Normal Man" ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Johnston Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 Re: The Second Stringers Isn't this the Tick? Yes, but I came up with Marvel Man about ten years before I ever heard of the Tick (as the fact that he was a Superworld character indicates. Boy that system has been dead a long time). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted March 24, 2006 Report Share Posted March 24, 2006 Re: The Second Stringers Hmm... I missed this thread... Personally, I'm a firm believer in trained normal characters being viable, so characters with lame to non-existent powers aren't necessarily useless. Then again, I haven't ever really thought much about the reverse case of physically incapable people with effective powers, apart from the occasional Professor X "brain in a jar" type. I would be quite happy to play a character like Air Wave, whose main power was that he could make a phone call from anywhere, almost like he had some kind of mobile kind of err... phone. OK, that was in the 40s, but still... He would be a perfectly viable character to play simply because he could potentially fight as well as any other character without "real" powers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nexus Posted March 24, 2006 Report Share Posted March 24, 2006 Re: The Second Stringers Indestructible: Physically and mentally very average with the skills of a normal man of his age and educational level. His power is very simple. He can't be killed. Ever. He's no more resistant to injury than a normal man but will recover from any lethal injury (Even being reduced to atoms) in a few moment good as new. He also ages normally (the one way to permenantly kill him is by artifically aging him to the point of death) and can be knocked unconsious. He doesn't recover from being knocked out any faster than a normal man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austenandrews Posted March 24, 2006 Report Share Posted March 24, 2006 Re: The Second Stringers Isn't this the Tick? Add: anyone who has ever been in the Legion of Substitute Heroes. Or any superhero in the Tick who isn't the Tick or American Maid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Johnston Posted March 24, 2006 Report Share Posted March 24, 2006 Re: The Second Stringers Personally, I'm a firm believer in trained normal characters being viable, so characters with lame to non-existent powers aren't necessarily useless. I would be quite happy to play a character like Air Wave, whose main power was that he could make a phone call from anywhere, almost like he had some kind of mobile kind of err... phone. Seems to me that his major power was the ability to listen to other people's phone conversations without need for a wiretap, and that's nothing to sneeze at when it comes to detective work. I actually had one character, The Masked Mystic who was a phony psychic, with bugging devices that were a bit ahead of their time. He'd then go to the cops and pretend the information he was giving him came from his nonexistent psychic powers. All the fighting was done by his bodyguard, a former boxer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Schultz Posted March 24, 2006 Report Share Posted March 24, 2006 Re: The Second Stringers Or any superhero in the Tick who isn't the Tick or American Maid. Wasn't the Sewer Urchin a serious booty-kicker, but only when he was in the sewers? As such, it wasn't that his powers weren't effective, but rather that he was on-screen with The Tick, he wasn't in his optimum environment. In that sense, I figured he was kind of like Superfriends Aquaman - acually a pretty good solo character, but useful to the group only when there was an ocean nearby. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Frisbee Posted March 25, 2006 Report Share Posted March 25, 2006 Re: The Second Stringers My two most (in)famous creations that all my players loved to hate: Stupendous Man Imagine a rambunctious eight-year-old with developing telekinetic powers -- slow flight and a really good (PD only) force field -- and believes that the way characters act in comic books is how a "real" superheroes (like himself) should act! Now imagine he starts hero-worshipping one of the player-characters...(Can you say worse than "Buddy" aka IncrediBoy?) Doctor Dreadlocks A supervillain with magical hair he can use as a weapon or a swingline, plus various drug-based powers that can actually warp reality (at least temporarily)! I never found out if the players hated the character or my attempts at a Jamaican accent more... Matt "Occasionally-misfiring-on-the-concepts-thing" Frisbee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheQuestionMan Posted March 25, 2006 Report Share Posted March 25, 2006 Re: The Second Stringers 2nd Stringers http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35871&highlight=Stringers Marvel Second Stringers. Help me out. http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31799&highlight=Stringers Marvel Comics Second Stringers http://home.flash.net/~jeanneb/ Cheers QM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zornwil Posted August 21, 2006 Report Share Posted August 21, 2006 Re: The Second Stringers In one of my earliest campaigns, there was TV Eye or some-such, not sure if I remember his name, I think I named him after the Iggy Pop title, though, but anyway he had a TV for a head and could get any show at any time. Also incredibly obnoxious and got killed in an altercation with rogue super PCs. Recently the Listener tried to join up with the Justice Squad but they got him focused on to the Mysterymen. Basically, the Listener has the best listening you can imagine, so he is useful, but that's all he has, he at one point donned a knight's outfit for protection. He can hear so well that if he's close to a person and listens he can hear their thoughts in the way that you can hear the needle on a vinyl record produce sound if you put your ear up to it. I have lots of those sorts around... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikesama Posted August 21, 2006 Report Share Posted August 21, 2006 Re: The Second Stringers A friend of mine had a joke group refered to as the "Handi-capables" that included such reveared (and I use the term loosely) heros as: Crash Course: Speedsteer + Narcolepsy Epicenter: Grand mal epilepsy prone brick Lucky: Parapalegic Capoeria Master There were others but I can't remember thier names / power sets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkham Posted August 21, 2006 Report Share Posted August 21, 2006 Re: The Second Stringers What better place to find the never-were's than real comics. And so I present to you "Armless Tiger Man"! http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/armlesstig.htm In my own universe, the players were introduced to a few of the useless supers at the beginning of the game. It was a Reality Show, "West Coast Supers", and the ever amusing non-talent that such American Idol style shows have. We had "Lemur Man" who can climb anything... as long as he has handholds... and a rope. And "The Vette", who has the power to turn himself into a '73 Corvette. But doesn't have the power to drive himself once he does so, or turn back. Though luckily for him there is a button inside that would let him do so. And then there was Captain Calcium, who can drink a gallon of milk in 4 seconds flat, and then grow his hair and nails out six inches. And "The Bright One" who glows all the time. Very brightly... Happily for him, when the show was over, The Bright One hooked up with a gadgeteer who made him a fibre optic outfit that focused his constant blinding illumination into lasers and other light-based powers. This showed once again that with a little ingenuity, even a useless metahuman can be a force to be reckoned with. Now if only The Vette hooked up with a skilled combat driver, Captain Calcium... umm, I'm at a loss for him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkham Posted August 21, 2006 Report Share Posted August 21, 2006 Re: The Second Stringers A friend of mine had a joke group refered to as the "Handi-capables" that included such reveared (and I use the term loosely) heros as: Crash Course: Speedsteer + Narcolepsy Epicenter: Grand mal epilepsy prone brick Lucky: Parapalegic Capoeria Master There were others but I can't remember thier names / power sets. I've heard of these... Either you've posted them before, or I know this friend... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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