Yogzilla

When I started my current game, I told my players to write up idealized versions of themselves (i.e. how they'd see themselves as action movie characters; like that), but they must be completely normal. Then, I came up with a couple of questionaires, trying to get into their mindset. The final question was very obvious, though - "If you could have one superpower, what would it be?" With that info obtained, I took it upon myself to create the superpowers that the characters would get. I made sure to give the players pretty much what they wanted, but also add in a couple surprises for them to discover. Some of them were easy (the player who wanted superspeed and is a known Flash fan), others less so (the player who wanted telekinesis so he could launch spacecraft). So far, though, everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. -Yogzilla

Well, "basic" can also be "archetypal", so you can run with that... -Strong guy -Fast guy -Smart guy -Energy projection guy -Magic user guy -Gadget guy -etc etc etc (BTW, "guy" is just a shorthand for "person" - - I'm not advocating just male characters. In fact, I once came up with a game world where superpowers were recessive on the X gene; thus only women {and guys with serious genetic defects} could gain superpowers.) -Yogzilla

Don't ask me - - I once came up with a martial artist named Jay Jitsu... -Yogzilla

Here's a few concepts that spring up all the time in anime/manga/tokustasu (live action sfx shows)... (1) low gravity - people (especially the heroes) can make phenomenal leaps, as well as survive falls that should result in massive bone-breakage (2) high blood pressure - hit someone with a sword or knife, and the blood literally fountains out; similarly, guys getting bloody noses when thinking dirty thoughts would normally die from such blood loss (3) with great age comes great power - the older the character, the more powerful they are, but also smaller; the most unbeatable character in a given story is usually the very old man who's only about 12inches tall Hope this helps. -Yogzilla

Since it does seem as though your past games revolve around the Marvel Universe, here's my favorite campaign idea for pre-existing gameworlds (I'll stick with Marvel for this example)... Last summer, during one of those seemingly-annual bruhahas (sp?), every single participant suddenly disappeared. Heroes, villians, sidekicks - - all gone! Now, a new threat has arisen - - say, a Skrull invasion. But the Avengers, FF, et al are gone. Who will save us? Enter the Watcher (who you know will interfere all the while saying he's forbidden to do so). He summons those who are best suited to deal with the current crisis (i.e. the PCs), and equips them with immediately identifiable items/powers... -Thor's hammer (1 PC *must* be worthy) -Cap's shield -a suit of Iron Man armor -access to the Enigma Force (aka Captain Universe) -etc So, the campaign is two-fold - - stop the invasion, and figure out what happened to the heroes (and why is all their stuff still here?). Want to switch to DC? Replace accordingly... -GL Power Ring -Dr Fate's helmet -Hawkman/Girl's wings -Batman's utility belt -etc etc The upside is PCs get to play favorite characters, but with their own spin (i.e. Thor as a rapper, a fashion model as Iron "Man", etc etc). Downside, of course, is the powers are pre-set - - but a good player should easily be able to overcome that. After all, the heart of a character is the *character*, not the power-set. Anyway, that's my thoughts. -Yogzilla

I recommend "City of Angels", but be warned it is definitely a date flick. Still, take all the 'sappy romance' away, and you've got a pretty cool interpretation on angels. -Yogzilla

A side adventure I set up for one of my PCs came together muh better than I could've hoped for. When he decided to test out his "Crossworlds" power, I had him end up in the universe of the Champions campaign I was in during college. I even got the GM of that game to run this adventure! Even better still, it gave me a chance to once again run my old supers character (Power Knight; as my tagline proudly displays his most memorable flub)!! It was great!! -Yogzilla

I managed to kill off all the PCs (and a number of NPCs) in the first session of an immortals campaign. Worse, it was by accident. Sigh; the GM still won't let me live that one down. At least he can laugh about it nowadays... -Yogzilla

Unified origins don't have to be completely universal, though. My campaign has all the PCs gaining their powers by the same "event" - - however, one of them is also a being of "magick", which is what accounts for all the demigods, wizards, psychics, mystery-men, etc throughout history. So, the PCs are able to detect others who are similarly powerded to themselves, but unable to identify those who use "magick" - - except, of course, the one PC mentioned above (and I haven't yet clued her in on all she *can* do; ah, the joy of secret GM-added abilities ). -Yogzilla

Weird. I started my current campaign in Aberrant, and came oh so close to just stopping it after a year of painfully trying to get WW's system to work. Ultimately, we ended up with more house-rules than actual WW-rules. I was ready to chuck it all... But then Hero5th came out, and I was saved! I picked up the book, read through the first couple chapters, and said, "Y'know, THIS is how to make the game work." So I talked the players into switching over (which wasn't all that hard, actually), and things have been going great since! Well, "great" in the sense that I still have problems coming up with sufficient antagonists to challenge them (converting over to Hero made them wicked-more-powerful!), but now everyone - including me! - is having fun. -Yogzilla

Transform (into a new Wildcard) -Self Only -Uncontrollable -Limited: Only when asleep Maybe throw in Extra Time to handle the extended sleep cycles... -Yogzilla

I think the real question is why the player wants an always on force field for their character? Put another way, what purpose does this field have for the character? -Yogzilla

{posted by Doug McCrae} He's a fantastic artist. The two double page spreads on his first issue of Avengers were awesome. {...} Couldn't agree more. (Well, maybe if I push my Agreement Power... ) {posted by Doug McCrae} Are you talking about their packages? Who was bigger? {...} Can't say I recall correctly, but I do know that Kurt was always more popular with the ladies, so perhaps there's your answer. -Yogzilla

{Posted by Supreme} What I've noticed that you almost never see, in comics or games, is a female character over the age of 17 with breasts smaller than a "C" cup. Never seen it. {...} Untrue; it's just not the norm. I think back to my college days (woo, feeling old) when I had a poster for "Excalibur" (the Marvel mutant group) on my wall done by the incomparable Alan Davis. The 3 female members of the original team were drawn with very distinct body types; to wit... Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde) - youngest member, dancer, very slim physique Pheonix (Rachel Summers) - probably late teens, very athletic figure, redhead (insert Homer-esque drool here) Meggan (Meggan) - VavavaVOOOM!!!! As a side note, I do recall my female friends of the time remarking that Davis had also drawn Nightcrawler and Captain Britian similarly *ahem* correct. Hmmm, funny how I never noticed that until it was pointed out to me... -Yogzilla

Paranoia. My players are pretty fanatic about not changing the past (even though my concept of time travel *does* allow for that without threatening your own existence). Of course, one of them did, and now the other 'heroes' blame him for the new timeline they currently reside in. -Yogzilla