SteveBerman

Re: Queer heroes

I'm glad that discussion has been cool and heavy on this thread.

Here is a character I worked on yesterday. I really wish I could play him myself, as he looks fun.

Your thoughts are welcome on ECHO.

Steve

Re: Queer heroes

Here's a few ideas--I tried to identify them as being gay without making them flamboyantly stereotypical. I hope you can find a use for them.

 

White Knight--Henry Torrance was an Army officer serving in Desert Storm when he was severely injured in a Scud missile attack. The doctors decided to use an experimental regeneration machine to heal him; it worked perfectly, and he was able to return to duty.

 

Shortly after his return to the States, Torrance's relationship with Ethan Morton was uncovered by Army investigators. Faced with a court-martial, he chose to resign his commission and settled down to life with Ethan. Two years later he dashed in front of a speeding car to rescue a child--and that's when his powers emerged. The Army, along with the other services, tried to re-recruit him, but he turned them down. "I was prepared to give my life to defend my country," said Torrance, "only to find out my country would not defend my rights. From now on I will defend my own rights, and the rights of my partner and friends."

 

As the White Knight, Torrance holds himself up as the "defender of the gay community." Any time there's a crime committed against gay persons or gay-owned businesses, or gay-on-gay crime or violence, he's there to bring the guilty parties to justice. He's also been there when the city's come under attack by the latest mad science or sorcery threat, or whenever else a hero is needed. He has a very high public profile, and he and Ethan are recognized wherever they go. This has led Ethan, who otherwise enjoys the attention, to begin wearing a Kevlar shirt underneath his regular clothes, and to take up training in weapons and martial arts. He has half-seriously suggested to Henry that he could become his sidekick--"Squire Guy." Despite the precautions for his safety, Ethan is the biggest supporter of the White Knight's crimefighting career.

 

(I leave the White Knight's powers to you--I think he could either be an enhanced human like Captain America, or a speedster, or a Luke Cage-style brick.)

 

Gargoyle--Lewis Morrison's parents did not take it well when he revealed to them the truth of his homosexuality. They swore that no matter what it took, they would find a way to make their son "normal." Their search led them to a mysterious man who guaranteed the desired results. Convinced there was no other way, they gave their son over to him.

 

Lewis' sexual orientation was the least of the man's concerns. He was actually a sorceror who saw in Lewis an ideal specimen for his experiments in melding humans with otherworldly monsters. He chained him to a stone altar and cast his spells--and Lewis became a grotesque figure of living stone. But the binding spells that were supposed to give the sorceror control over the monster failed, and Lewis broke free and destroyed the sorceror's chambers in a fit of rage and agony. The sorceror managed to escape, and Lewis managed to calm down--only to be overcome with anguish as he realized he was trapped in the monstrous body, quite possibly for the rest of his life.

 

He made his way back to his parents' house to confront them with what they had done. "Is this really what you wanted?" he screeched in a voice of stone. "Did you really believe that living my life like--THIS--is better than living my life as a gay?" Renouncing his parents altogether, Gargoyle went away into the night to find the one man who could possibly restore him to human.

 

Gargoyle resembles a stone statue of an emaciated demonic figure, with horns and fangs in its head, oversized claws on its hands and feet, and demonic-looking wings. He possesses super-strength, his stone skin can resist most, if not all forms of damage, and his stone claws and fangs can gouge and bite through almost anything. While possessing wings, it tires Lewis quickly to fly, and he prefers to run after criminals, or leap from rooftop to rooftop if he needs altitude.

 

Spotlight is Darrell Moreno, a runway fashion model with light-based powers. Like White Knight he is out in a very public way, and uses his powers and his celebrity to support gay and lesbian charities.

 

Whirlwind is the opposite of White Knight and Spotlight. Not only does he keep his true identity--Clifford Jackson--a secret, he is also an African-American living on the down-low, concealing his sexuality from his wife and three kids. His gay partner also provides a voice of conscience, and exhorts him to "always use his powers for the best."

 

As Whirlwind, Jackson has extensive control over the air. He can generate high-velocity winds for attack and defense, and merge with the air to fly at incredible speeds, or become intangible to let attacks pass through him or enter a closed room through holes in the wall or cracks in the window sash. (Not to mention the ventilation system.)

 

 

Again, I hope you can find a use for these. Next time I'll see if I can come up with some lesbian characters.

Some nifty ideas here. I especially like the background for Gargoyle (but that name seems to have been done to death). I think it would be cool to roleplay someone like that with a very bitter attitude who has to come to terms with his appearance.

Re: Queer heroes

So a character called "The Pink Fruitfly" is right out ?

Utterly.

Re: Queer heroes

A sonic using drag queen diva is probably a bit TOO subcultural... it could be seen as insulting (tho the right crowd would probably have a ball with such a character)

Perhaps named Melody Fierce?

A Iron age-y street avenger Flagsuit based off the Leather Pride flag' date=' OTOH, could be very cool. Its not like leather BDSM gear hasn't made NUMEROUS appearances in straight hero's costumes for the last 2 decades. Probably want to avoid the sterotypical bondage utility belt...[/quote']

 

This one begs to be named Discipline.

 

Re: Queer heroes

Good call that.

I think that a character or two who draw elements from gay culture would be quite appropriate, myself, but only approached from a position of strength. Superheros are iconic anyway, and often draw elements of their costumes and heroic ID's from cultural sources, so drawing on some LGBT cultural elements would be completely appropriate.

 

A sonic using drag queen diva is probably a bit TOO subcultural... it could be seen as insulting (tho the right crowd would probably have a ball with such a character)

 

A Iron age-y street avenger Flagsuit based off the Leather Pride flag, OTOH, could be very cool. Its not like leather BDSM gear hasn't made NUMEROUS appearances in straight hero's costumes for the last 2 decades.

Probably want to avoid the sterotypical bondage utility belt, the gimp hood and some of the other possible travesties you could inflict.

Okay, you have sold me on the above two. I especially love the 2nd. Hmm, have to get Storn to draw them. I think I need to provide maybe 10 characters and have the 5 or 6 players choose what they want.

Re: Queer heroes

And as for one thing that should go without saying: make sure you have a mature gaming group. This is actually hard to do at a Con' date=' and most gamers I know are actually far from mature. Maybe this would be a better idea with a group that you know can handle that kind of content in your game.[/quote']

 

 

Well, hopefully since this would be a gay science fiction con, this problem would be solved. I know my local group razzes me when I play a transgendered D&D character.

Re: Queer heroes

Good ideas.

I also want to avoid making the supplied player characters be silly with names that announce their sexuality. Rather, they should be heroes who happen to be queer.

Well, I'm thinking about attending Gaylaxicon in June and running a Champion event or two. In my regular campaign, there are no LGBT-heroes except for an occasional NOC (probably because the other players are straight). So I would need to create a lot of new stuff.

I was thinking that the adventure would involve a hero who's DNPC was the victim of a hate crime and he has gone over the edge and is threatening people. Not just for vengeance but actually is endangering a large populace. Because of the sensitive issue, a bunch of queer heroes has banded together for the first time to try and reason with him (if possible) or stop him (if there is no other way).

Any thoughts?

Steve

http://www.steveberman.com

Re: Old School, Yesterday's Heroes

This all makes me thing of the Robert McCammon short story, "Night Calls the Green Falcon." Very well written and evocative of the old pulp genre yet still heroic as 4-color.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

Storn, I'm looking forward to your designing the characters I sent you. I forgot that I had a forum ID here - the letter was sent on Lethe Press letterhead. I also stupidly forgot to send you character sheets, but I can email them to you.

Steve

Re: How do construct the ability to activate others' powers?

The one problem is that the GM worries that without some ego type roll or such, that the other players might feel my activating their powers at will to be intrusive. My character is an ex-villain with some mentalist powers.

Hi all,

I am building a character and I want her to have the ability to mentally activate other metahumans' powers from a distance. I know there's Mind Control but I wanted to see if there's another way.

Originally I considered an easy form of this would be just as an Energy Blast, Indirect with Variable Special Effect, to mimic activating energy beams from the eyes or causing the brick to punch something.

But the GM said that if I did this with one of the other players, they would get upset at me influencing them/forcing them to act, without making any form of a roll. So I suggested a limitation of an Ego Roll check.

But I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks,

Steve