World with superheroes - Only one power set?

[Lucius]

Re: World with superheroes - Only one power set?

 

The Set I choose is the Set of All Sets.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary chooses the Set of All Sets not included in my Set

[Andrew_A]

Re: World with superheroes - Only one power set?

 

All of the Wild Cards were based on TK.

CES

 

No. Superstrength for example was based on increasing the "contractile strength of the muscles." The downside was that an Ace could only be just so strong. 50 tons was the most any Ace could ever lift. Telepathy, ESP, supertough skin, regeneration, superhuman reflexes, acid spit, teleportation, enhanced senses, and other powers existed in the setting.

 

Also, even the "TK" based powers tended to be very diverse. It covered flight, force fields, energy "projection", "gadgets", superluminal flight, shapeshifting and honest-to-Campbell telekinesis among others. That isn't remotely the same as "everybody has the same power set".

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: World with superheroes - Only one power set?

 

All of the Wild Cards were based on TK.

CES

 

A lot of them were but hardly all of them. Brain Trust' date=' Dead Head, Demise, Digger Downs, Envoy, the Jumpers, Kid Dinosaur, Popinjay, Puppetman, Roulette, Ti Malice, and Wraith are all examples of Aces that didn't exhibit any form of telekinesis. Croyd and Mark Meadows might sometimes exhibit TK but that wasn't really the basis of their Ace ability.[/quote']

 

I wanted to keep the Jedi feel' date=' but I didn't want it to [i']BE[/i] Star Wars, so no lightsabers.

 

I was thinking Danger Sense, FF, TK, Super Leap, +Dex/+SPD, maybe some EB to augment the TK. Then, like your idea, not everyone gets the same amount of each power.

 

I read the notes in the back of the books. When the WC virus infects you, it Alters your brain first to create this TK ability. The TK ability then tries to rewrite the host body's DNA, the result of which may or may not include any overt TK abilities. Of course, the human mind is a complex thing, and the virus tends to primarily tap into people's phobias, often (90% of the time) killing them outright. In the remaining ten percent, the ego and superego get into the act, mitigating some of the more lethal effects, but only in about 10 percent of those are there no signs of deformity or lessening of function. Of those lucky few, perhaps 10% or fewer exhibit abilities of sufficient magnitude to be considered more than just an unusual talent, a superpowered form of cracking one's knuckles or wiggling one's ears.

 

The O.P. made me mindful of a British program about three agents of some international police force who all had been trained by monks in the far east to maximize their human potential, making them stronger, faster, etc. than any human ought to be. Of course, they kept it a secret even from their employers.

 

ETA: Fittingly, it was called The Champions, or at least it was when I saw it here.

[drunkonduty]

Re: World with superheroes - Only one power set?

 

Some years back we tried an "all powers derive from technology" game inspired by Bubblegum Crisis. Starting in mid 21st C things like power armour existed but were fairly primitive. Many powers had Limitations like Activation Roll and and Burn Out. Certain powers, like Teleport and most Psi powers, were not available at the start as they were "too advanced" for the current level of technology. Then a UFO crashed in the Arctic. Everyone (nations, villain organisations, the UN) rushed to get their samples of super-advanced alien technology.

 

The game never got further than its opening couple of sessions but the idea was that powers would become better (more Active Points) and new powers would become available depending on what bits of tech had managed to be salvaged form the wreck. It would begin with perfecting existing tech (ie: the ability to buy off limitations on existing powers; add more Active Points) followed by new power sets being developed (with early models having limitations like Activation Roll and Bulky.) I was also playing with the idea of different groups getting different powers based on what sort of tech they managed to salvage from the UFO. This would in turn lead to a great deal of espionage between competing factions as they strove to expand their available technological base.

 

If I ever get to run another Champions game I might give this idea a go again.

[Orion]

Re: World with superheroes - Only one power set?

 

I love the idea of technology slowly advancing and new powers coming about - I think it could make a great campaign. Could also easily work if all powers were induced mutations or cybernetic equipment.

[drunkonduty]

Re: World with superheroes - Only one power set?

 

@Orion: Ya know, that didn't occur to me. But of course induced mutations and cybernetics make perfect sense and would be a great technological step forward. Thanks!

 

Sample speech from in-game character using meta-game knowledge: "Let's get rid of these clunky OIFs and go to new, improved IIFs or even drop focus's all together."