Character Concept Question

[Asperion]

Here is a different source concept that I would like some assistance on please. I got wondering on the abilities of a character based around the number zero would be. Here are some questions that I would like answered and feel free to add any comments of your own independent of these questions:

 

1) What would be his/her abilities/powers/skills/etc?

2) How would this affect him/her?

3) Would he/she be a hero or villian ?

 

Regardless of the answers he/she should be limited to 350 pts, geared towards a supers campaign, and all of the other usuals.

[Clonus]

Re: Character Concept Question

 

Nothing comes to mind.

 

Maybe, invisibility and insubstantiality?

[gojira]

Re: Character Concept Question

 

Sub-Zero was a character in Street Fighter, right? His powers revolved around cold (and martial arts).

 

0 might be a debuffer: Drain and Suppress your enemies until they are zeros. A Zero Point Energy character could be a defensive Energy Projector, projecting "Zero Point Energy" instead of traditional fire or lasers or whatever. The Zero might be a gadgeteer from another dimension, with a wide variety of powers based on weird gadgets he pulls from his home dimension.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Re: Character Concept Question

 

Hmmm...

 

• Zero Energy transfer: Knockback Resistance
  
• Paralysis: Speed drain/suppress or invisible entangle
  
• Void: Darkness vs All Senses
  
• I don't Exist: EDM with ED Senses--you can see what's going on here, but you're non-existent; unable to interact
  

The Villain option would have "You don't Exist" EDM UAA

 

I'll work on more.

[jkwleisemann]

Re: Character Concept Question

 

1: Generally agreed; I think he'd probably be a de-buffer, and/or a vampire sort... I kinda like the idea of a guy who's gradually wasting away, and has to drain the essence from others in order to keep from reducing himself to zero.

 

2: See above point about wasting away?

 

3: Either. I could see this particular character as either a villain, or a dark hero, rather like Cloak perhaps.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Character Concept Question

 

Sub-Zero was a character in Street Fighter' date=' right? His powers revolved around cold (and martial arts).[/quote']

 

Mortal Kombat.

 

 

As for a character based around Zero. . .

 

Zero Point Energy maybe? Syndrome comes to mind here...

[wylodmayer]

Re: Character Concept Question

 

I actually ran a villain in one of my games named Zero, and he was a power neutralizer. He was part of a group called the Sweet Tooth Gang, which also included:

 

*Fifth Avenue, a snappy dresser (thus the name) and face-man, no powers

*Jawbreaker and Rock (as in, Rock Candy), two minor bricks

*the aforementioned Zero

*Honey (as in, Bit o' Honey), a female moll-type with minor mind control powers

*Cotton (for his whispy white hair), an octagenarian gadgeteer who started out making trick umbrellas and bombs for themed villains in the thirties, and has been backing bad guys with technical know how ever since

*Kit and Kat, psychopathic female twins with minor superspeed and a telepathic link

 

They all worked for the Candyman, a grossly obese vice lord known for his sweet disposition - he was all niceness and pleasantries, allowing his underlings to handle all the ugly stuff.

 

At the time, I never did come up with any better ideas for Zero than power-zapping. The stuff about zero-point energy and debuffing that others have mentioned sound nice. Other possibilities include:

 

*A superhacker, maybe with cyberkinesis, playing off the cyberpunk term "zeroing," which is to erase someone's identity in the grid. This could be fun. Years ago, in a very old Champs campaign, I had a whole arc of the story based around what happened when a superhacker adversary of the group managed to zero everyone's secret IDs, except for one guy. It was interesting.

* A guy with duplication. He wears a big zero on his chest and every dupe has the next highest increment (1, 2, 3...). Don't have an explanation, but it sounds neat to me at one am.

* Go at right angles to the concept and make him a Japanese fighter pilot.

[Gideon]

Re: Character Concept Question

 

There are several concepts that come to mind. Versions of all of them have been mentioned already, but here are my takes...

 

• Powers based on being non-existant or taking up no space: Invisibility, Desolid, and Flight come to mind as powers. The idea being that he can cause himself to have Zero mass, Zero weight, and so on.
   
  He could also distort space by causing the things around him to take up no space. He could teleport and EDM by space folding (the distance between here and there is now Zero), attack people by folding the space they occupy (the distance between the top of your head and your kneecap is now Zero) which would probably be an NND or AVLD
  
• Gadgeteer: He could be a computers and nanotech user with super high tech gadgets.
  
• Suppresser/ Drainer: Already dicussed, but I like log's idea for a varriant on this. He doesn't drain/ suppress everything. He only drains and suppresses movement, in essence causing people to become immoble. He could have drain or suppress to all movement powers, invisible entangle, change environment (makeing it harder to move)
  

 

The character could easily be either hero or villian with any of these power sets. He could also easily have any type of origin, and thus any skills you want.

[Marketeer]

Re: Character Concept Question

 

I actually picture "Zero" to be the ultimate ghost in the machine.

 

He leaves no data trail of any kind (Invisibility to Machines, perhaps Change Environment to leave no trace).

 

Machine Code is still just a bunch of ones and zeros--and he has an intuitive knack for fiddling with those.

 

The financial world cares very much about how many zeros come after the digits in, say, your bank account.

 

And Zero claims all of these things as his purview.

 

He's got a high Int, an insane Pre, various skills, and is a master of dealing with things that are purely conceptual in nature.

 

No energy blasts.

No martial strikes.

No force field.

Nothing tangible.

 

But if something exists solely or primarily in the realm of concept, it's in his domain.

[Doc Samson]

Re: Character Concept Question

 

Here is a different source concept that I would like some assistance on please. I got wondering on the abilities of a character based around the number zero would be. Here are some questions that I would like answered and feel free to add any comments of your own independent of these questions:

 

1) What would be his/her abilities/powers/skills/etc?

2) How would this affect him/her?

3) Would he/she be a hero or villian ?

 

Regardless of the answers he/she should be limited to 350 pts, geared towards a supers campaign, and all of the other usuals.

 

Hmm...the others already beat me to some good ideas. here's what I am thinking anyway.

 

1) Zero Mass - Desolidification package including life support. Near Zero mass could be duplicated with Damage Reduction.

Zero Gravity - Flight and/ or Gliding

Zero Point Energy (absolute zero) - A paralysis or freezing attack. Could be done with a Transform or an Entangle.

 

Another term for zero is null. Another term for nothingness is Void.

A Null Field might be built using Suppress and Darkness.

Void Travel could be used to duplicate EDM or Teleportation.

 

2) Zero is often the designation for the first of something. Perhaps the character could be the first superhuman in your campaign world, or the first from whatever source (ground zero) bestowed the powers (experimental subject zero).

 

3) I could see either.

 

Other random stuff from Wikipedia

Zero has been proposed as the atomic number of the theoretical element tetraneutron. It has been shown that a cluster of four neutrons may be stable enough to be considered an atom in their own right. This would create an element with no protons and no charge on its nucleus.

 

As early as 1926 Professor Andreas von Antropoff coined the term neutronium for a conjectured form of matter made up of neutrons with no protons, which he placed as the chemical element of atomic number zero at the head of his new version of the periodic table. It was subsequently placed as a noble gas in the middle of several spiral representations of the periodic system for classifying the chemical elements. It is at the centre of the Chemical Galaxy (2005).

[Iron Wallaby]

Re: Character Concept Question

 

I'd go with a villain, or a perahuman with unknown motivations.

 

Powers would be along the lines of:

 

Unable to be tracked, and detects won't work against him.

No records anywhere of him existing.

Power negation in a field around him.

The ability to make people forget them met him.

 

And probably some others.

 

He'd be a minion, rather than a master, and a very effective one. Able to get into places and accomplish things without people remembering he was there.

 

Cool idea.

[pinecone]

Re: Character Concept Question

 

It all sounds good..."Zen mind" Invis:Mental sense group , Major Damage reduction....A energy blaster that uses "zero point energy" would be cool as well...If a villian, I'd totally go with the "I drain your powers so I may Live..." angst/sentiment villian...

[freakboy6117]

Re: Character Concept Question

 

three suggestions

 

Zero

a Japanese flying energy projector took the name to honor his grand father a WWII era fighter pilot he wears his grand fathers flying jacket and head band

 

Jimmy "The Zero" Garzorzki

hes a wannabe super villain but his powers aren't great asset he has the power of anti luck anyone who gets to close to him starts having a really bad day anything that can go wrong does unfortunately for Jimmy hes not immune to his own powers so whilst people around him are having a bad time he seldom profits from there misfortune.

 

Mr Zero doesn't exist his universe was amalgamated dissipated destroyed or decompiled and for some reason he was shunted here.

 

or at least that's what he thinks happened he got amnesia in the process so what few memories he does have doesn't seem to correspond to this universe.

what ever the cause the universe does not recognise Mr zero any attempt by him to establish him self in The universe seems to be purged.

 

any trace is vanishes memories fade records are accidentally erased foot prints are quickly unitelligable.

 

he spends a lot of time breaking into dimensional research facilities trying to find a way home which is where your heroes may encounter him but they probably won't recall after.

[1EyedJack]

Re: Character Concept Question

 

A japanesse world war II fighter pilot sling shoted into the future, who wants revenge on the US for defeating the mighty empire of japan using cowardly tactics (Nuking them). His powers would be irrelvanent

[Jaxom]

Re: Character Concept Question

 

I like the concepts around zeros in physics that have been mentioned... I'd avoid ranged stuff but give him nasty touch attacks or "auras" (Area of effect, zero range, probably with hole in the middle or personal immunity)... Cold comes to mind (zero thermal energy). Disintigration is an option (zero binding energy or potential energy). Zeroing specific stats or abilities (drains). Mind wiping (zero mind). Darkness (zero light). Silence (zero sound waves). Mind Control (zero will). Could also do vacuum-related powers... Thunderclap, suffocation, explosive decompression... Might be able to stop any chemical or nuclear reaction although I am less certain how to build that in HERO.

 

Physically he's straight 10s. He's nobody (at least nobody noticable). Might be invisible and undetectable but might also be built using illusions as an indistiguishable norm (like the computer agents in The Matrix who could be any person in the matrix).