What Are The Skills All Superheroes Should Have?

[Greywind]

Depends on concept. A teenager isn't going to be as well-rounded as an adult.

[Cassandra]

Depends on concept. A teenager isn't going to be as well-rounded as an adult.

 

True enough.  Most of my "Sidekick" characters have 25-50 less points in their characteristics, and 25 Points less in their powers and/or skills.

[Cassandra]

Black Canary screams, but she doesn't run away.

 

She didn't need to run.  Besides, men were too busy looking at those fishnets.

[Cancer]

Required skills vary by campaign, and that is part of the flavor the GM gets to set, similar to requiring the Code Against Killing limitation for all PCs in a four-color sort of campaign. If you as a player don't want that limit, then that's saying you don't want to play in that flavor of campaign. You can't expect the GM to go along with your desire to play a Punisher knock-off in a CvK-required Silver Age sort of campaign, as a trivial example.

 

That means, though, the GM has some work to do to establish the right tone in the basic superhero package the GM requires. If the group starts with local police powers, then they have to all have local AK, or else they won't know where to take the thugs they arrest, for example. The power level also influences the flavor and the contents of the basic superhero package too, as does any campaign or setting backstory that is relevant. I would expect some possible negotiability about particular items in that package, but the understanding should be that stuff in the package will actually be of use in the campaign (otherwise it's just a de facto reduction in the number of disposable build points for starting characters, and you are actually rewarding the player who rebels against your intended campaign flavor because they get more points to build with than the more cooperative players).

 

Though the Alien Cipher is a popular sort of character type to pick that plausibly would skip components of a required hero package (especially for those who don't consider real roleplaying to be important), a creature willing to turn lethal RKAs on fleeing adolescent shoplifters because the character supposedly lacks the social context to differentiate among levels of crime ... is likely to be a real problem in many campaigns (and show up in the Take A Drink thread over in the General Roleplaying forum).

 

So the question in the OP needs some fleshing out: what kind of campaign is under consideration?

[tkdguy]

Black Canary screams, but she doesn't run away.

 

And my ears are still ringing from the last time she did that!

[IndianaJoe3]

What Skills Do All Superheroes Need?  There are exceptions, of course, but there are some Skills that are common to the majority of Heroes?

 

Three skills of near-universal utility are Paramedics, Tactics, and Breakfall.

[Lucius]

Skills for Almost Every Superhero:

 

Paramedics/1st Aid

 

Stealth

 

Concealment

 

 

To be Considered for Most:

 

Climbing (not for fliers, obviously)

 

Breakfall (unless you can fly, or bounce)

 

PS: Costumed Adventurer

 

A Power Skill

 

Martial Arts

 

 

Lucius Alexander

 

 

Animal Handler: Palindromedary

 

 

 

[GhostDancer]

Re: Everyman Skills - for modern games, consider adding Familiarity with PS: Computer Operation, 8-

[GhostDancer]

If the GM requires a basic superhero Package, it might as well be free.  This way, there is no reward for the player who rebels against your intended campaign flavor - they get no more points to build with than the more cooperative players.

 

Seriously consider Deduction.

[Nothere]

No all charecters do not need martial arts. But they do need some sort of combat skill as fighting bad guys is in the job description.

 

In the comics a superhero can't go three blocks in costume without running into a crime of some sort, this may not qualify as needed. But streetwise and ks criminal underworld would cut down on a lot of empty patrol time.

 

Stealth/ Concealment for stakeouts and shadowing to keep that suspicios guy whos probably up to something in sight

 

And a high perception roll to spot important matters