Duke Bushido

You remind me of a wonderful session back about '88 or so that ended wonderfully and awfully at that same time, but it was ultimately a good thing:
 
When I took over as GM for my original Champiins group, one of the many things I inhereted was one of those little cheesy sand timers found packed in with various ouzzle games since time immemorial.  It was allegedly a sixty-second timer, but repeated testing (across a couple of _decades_)  had proven it to be a sixty-two sexond timer....  Yeah, not important, unless you were the guy who was waiting for your turn, in which case it was the thing you complained about most.   
 
Anyway, Jim (my predecessor) had a policy:  if you weren't ready when your turn came (everyone got a few seconds, of course, but if you werent ready after a quick "uuhhhhh....," then the timer hit the table, and you had until it ran out to complete and execute your actions.  (Newbies had exemption, of,course, for the first couple of hours of game time.)
 
The fact is (and it could have been simply the threat of it) no one ever actually needed all sixty-two seconds unless we were playing Starfleet Battles (not sure why we were all of so tediously cagey for that game).  But when the timer was put into play, whoever's turn was up suddenly became the poster child for efficiency: whatever wasn't done when the last of the sand flowed out of the top didn't get done.
 
 
And that policy had an inconsiderate corollary that bit us in the butt in the most amusing way....
 
One night, we had one player-  I don't know what her deal was: she was falling in and out of attention, constantly distracting herself with some internal thing--  I had asked after about an hour if she felt okay; if ahe wanted a break; if she would prefer her character moving onto a side-plot to be resolved later so ahe could bow out and go home--
 
It was confusing to me, because she was actually a few minutes earlier that usual, claiming she had blown off a party to come to the game.  Well, she wenr to the party, had some fun, ended up stuck talking to some creepy dude for fifteen minutes, got 'that vibe,' and left in an attempt to bail on him.  Instead, he walked her all the way to my place, said his good-byes, then beat feet back the way he came.
 
 
She kept insisting ahe was fine, and I figueed she was probably just shaking the creepy vibe off, so we kept playing.
 
We had never had to use the timer more than three or four times in any game, and frankly, it was a pretty rare game that saw it in use at all.  That night, it was used more than a dozen times, almost all of them on that same player (who was now distracted in-game; it was the only way to resolve all of this!).
 
And after waffling for a bit, the timer came out for the final time that session.  Her character had been hiding behind a column in a darkened maintenance room ( for what it's worth, we were playing Daredevils), pistol drawn (she was supposed to be covering another character as he advanced towars the villain, but had gotten distracted, etc.  Two other players were making the attempt, and were nearly,out of ammo.  Distraction Player was the only one who the villain had not yet been made aware of.
 
The timer came out, she hesitated, waffled, studied the map, asked questions that demonstrated she had lost focus about four rounds prior to now....
 
I put the timer on the table _again_.....
 
And it didn't help much.  I think it was half empty before she really registered its presence (in spite of the traditional "oh no!  It's the timer!" drama from the usual suspects).  As it got more and more empty, she just choked.
 
Then the timer did, too.
 
There was a tint bit of sand that had somehow managed to get lodged in the neck, and it just hung there.  Hoots and howls from around the table, but my Player remained... Off....
 
She turned to another player and started with "oh my God; I don't know what to do!  Do I shoot this guy?  Do I run away?  No matter what, he is going to see me, and my character isn't going to survive getting shot with his tommy gun--"
 
Helpfully, he suggested considering her motives, which degenerated into a group recap of the last four sessions-  the villain did this; the villain did that....  He framed your fiance and got him arrested, then stole his research;  
 
On and on.  "Guys...."  I started.  "She's out of time...."
 
"Oh, no!" This from my rules lawyer brother.  "She's out of time when the timer runs out!"  Everyone suddenly remembered the timer and burst out laughing again.
 
"I know it's stuck, but-"
 
"Nope!"  Quipped my brother John.  "It's in Flashback mode!"  More laughter, considering the recap underway.
 
"Yeah!" Agreed the Rules Lawyer.  "You know how it works-  every movie there's a pivotal moment where someone has like a twenty minute flashback and then we snap back to the moment and like, two seconds have gone by!  The Timer rule says (and it didn't, really; it was just an accepted interpretation, and this is how I learnes to be careful about letting that happen again) 'when the sand runs out,' which it hasn't--"
 
Distracted Player said "Okay, you're right- villain did this and this and this and this and this and it affected you this way and you that way and you this way, and it did this, this, and this to me, and he has always been this and that and the other to my fiance and his father-  this is it!
 
 
"Okay, Duke: I step out from behind the column and say "you will leave me and the French family (her fiance was Dr. Conrad French, scientist extrordinaire) alone!'  Then I shoot a couple of times to scare him back so the others can take him down."
 
Then she rolled a pretty sweet critical and he dropped, dead at her feet.
 
Howls from around the table.
 
Then she (the player) got incredibly sick on my floor, and we all freaked for a moment, and John and I loaded her into his car and we took her to the ER.
 
 
Turns out her vibe was right, and leaving was the best thing for her.  Someone had roofied her.  The only thing that saved her was her health (she was on swim team scholarship), and creepy guy not using enough to black her out, and the fact that she left.
 
We couldn't talk her in to preasing charges, but her coach did.  Creepy dude was caught with enough on him to knock out choir.
 
Sorry-  that last bit was to be left out, but in anticipation of the discussion about her 'shouldnt have shown up' or 'bad player' or whatever,  and I wanted to defend hee showing up: I suspect she felt safer in the company of her wierd friends than she would have in an empty dorm room.
 
 
We would learn later that another girl at the party had not been so fortunate.
 

I am willing to accept Ninja-Bear's claims for several reasons, most significantly being that historically, he's not given to flights of fantasy, and because he includes the very valid disclaimer "in my own experience."
 
It certainly doesn't hurt that his experiences with min-maxers mirrors my own. 
 
now I have no misunderstandings that these are the guys who prefer the tactical side of the game; it's just not my favorite part of them game.
 
and I also admit that to some degree, we have all bumped up "efficiency effectiveness" here and there even if it was only because we to shave points to buy "just one other thing."
 
 

You remind me of a wonderful session back about '88 or so that ended wonderfully and awfully at that same time, but it was ultimately a good thing:
 
When I took over as GM for my original Champiins group, one of the many things I inhereted was one of those little cheesy sand timers found packed in with various ouzzle games since time immemorial.  It was allegedly a sixty-second timer, but repeated testing (across a couple of _decades_)  had proven it to be a sixty-two sexond timer....  Yeah, not important, unless you were the guy who was waiting for your turn, in which case it was the thing you complained about most.   
 
Anyway, Jim (my predecessor) had a policy:  if you weren't ready when your turn came (everyone got a few seconds, of course, but if you werent ready after a quick "uuhhhhh....," then the timer hit the table, and you had until it ran out to complete and execute your actions.  (Newbies had exemption, of,course, for the first couple of hours of game time.)
 
The fact is (and it could have been simply the threat of it) no one ever actually needed all sixty-two seconds unless we were playing Starfleet Battles (not sure why we were all of so tediously cagey for that game).  But when the timer was put into play, whoever's turn was up suddenly became the poster child for efficiency: whatever wasn't done when the last of the sand flowed out of the top didn't get done.
 
 
And that policy had an inconsiderate corollary that bit us in the butt in the most amusing way....
 
One night, we had one player-  I don't know what her deal was: she was falling in and out of attention, constantly distracting herself with some internal thing--  I had asked after about an hour if she felt okay; if ahe wanted a break; if she would prefer her character moving onto a side-plot to be resolved later so ahe could bow out and go home--
 
It was confusing to me, because she was actually a few minutes earlier that usual, claiming she had blown off a party to come to the game.  Well, she wenr to the party, had some fun, ended up stuck talking to some creepy dude for fifteen minutes, got 'that vibe,' and left in an attempt to bail on him.  Instead, he walked her all the way to my place, said his good-byes, then beat feet back the way he came.
 
 
She kept insisting ahe was fine, and I figueed she was probably just shaking the creepy vibe off, so we kept playing.
 
We had never had to use the timer more than three or four times in any game, and frankly, it was a pretty rare game that saw it in use at all.  That night, it was used more than a dozen times, almost all of them on that same player (who was now distracted in-game; it was the only way to resolve all of this!).
 
And after waffling for a bit, the timer came out for the final time that session.  Her character had been hiding behind a column in a darkened maintenance room ( for what it's worth, we were playing Daredevils), pistol drawn (she was supposed to be covering another character as he advanced towars the villain, but had gotten distracted, etc.  Two other players were making the attempt, and were nearly,out of ammo.  Distraction Player was the only one who the villain had not yet been made aware of.
 
The timer came out, she hesitated, waffled, studied the map, asked questions that demonstrated she had lost focus about four rounds prior to now....
 
I put the timer on the table _again_.....
 
And it didn't help much.  I think it was half empty before she really registered its presence (in spite of the traditional "oh no!  It's the timer!" drama from the usual suspects).  As it got more and more empty, she just choked.
 
Then the timer did, too.
 
There was a tint bit of sand that had somehow managed to get lodged in the neck, and it just hung there.  Hoots and howls from around the table, but my Player remained... Off....
 
She turned to another player and started with "oh my God; I don't know what to do!  Do I shoot this guy?  Do I run away?  No matter what, he is going to see me, and my character isn't going to survive getting shot with his tommy gun--"
 
Helpfully, he suggested considering her motives, which degenerated into a group recap of the last four sessions-  the villain did this; the villain did that....  He framed your fiance and got him arrested, then stole his research;  
 
On and on.  "Guys...."  I started.  "She's out of time...."
 
"Oh, no!" This from my rules lawyer brother.  "She's out of time when the timer runs out!"  Everyone suddenly remembered the timer and burst out laughing again.
 
"I know it's stuck, but-"
 
"Nope!"  Quipped my brother John.  "It's in Flashback mode!"  More laughter, considering the recap underway.
 
"Yeah!" Agreed the Rules Lawyer.  "You know how it works-  every movie there's a pivotal moment where someone has like a twenty minute flashback and then we snap back to the moment and like, two seconds have gone by!  The Timer rule says (and it didn't, really; it was just an accepted interpretation, and this is how I learnes to be careful about letting that happen again) 'when the sand runs out,' which it hasn't--"
 
Distracted Player said "Okay, you're right- villain did this and this and this and this and this and it affected you this way and you that way and you this way, and it did this, this, and this to me, and he has always been this and that and the other to my fiance and his father-  this is it!
 
 
"Okay, Duke: I step out from behind the column and say "you will leave me and the French family (her fiance was Dr. Conrad French, scientist extrordinaire) alone!'  Then I shoot a couple of times to scare him back so the others can take him down."
 
Then she rolled a pretty sweet critical and he dropped, dead at her feet.
 
Howls from around the table.
 
Then she (the player) got incredibly sick on my floor, and we all freaked for a moment, and John and I loaded her into his car and we took her to the ER.
 
 
Turns out her vibe was right, and leaving was the best thing for her.  Someone had roofied her.  The only thing that saved her was her health (she was on swim team scholarship), and creepy guy not using enough to black her out, and the fact that she left.
 
We couldn't talk her in to preasing charges, but her coach did.  Creepy dude was caught with enough on him to knock out choir.
 
Sorry-  that last bit was to be left out, but in anticipation of the discussion about her 'shouldnt have shown up' or 'bad player' or whatever,  and I wanted to defend hee showing up: I suspect she felt safer in the company of her wierd friends than she would have in an empty dorm room.
 
 
We would learn later that another girl at the party had not been so fortunate.
 

Hot take coming in. Anyone else seen this that “Min-Maxers aren’t so bad”? Now I agree that being a Min-maxer doesn’t automatically make you a bad roleplayer. I just think that though most min-maxers I’ve come across aren’t worried about roleplaying.

If what you are after is more 'long term effect' from combat I have used a house rule that every 5 full points of Stun through defences causes 1 point of Bruising damage.
 
Bruising damage can be used in a number of ways.  You can use some or all of them.
 
First you can add it to the total damage you have taken to determine if the character is KO'd (you can do something similar with END too - if you are bettered you have less energy).
Second (and this has more immediate effect) you can add it to damage through defences to determine if the character is Stunned.  If this is too nasty, you can add half of it, or whatever ratio you like.
Third (if you want 'more Body but not completely lethal) every 5 full points of Bruise damage does 1 Body.
Lastly, if you want a really rather brutish game you can deduct Bruise damage/5 from defences - once you are injured you are more susceptible to damage.
 
Bruise damage heals at REC/day, but faster if someone makes a Paramedic Roll.  Healing Bruising does not restore lost Body - that has to be healed normally.
 
This is more book keeping but gives a grittier feel as characters can not just run from one encounter to another with impunity after a minute of rest.  It also makes avoiding or reducing damage more important and makes Field Medicine a more important part of the game.
 
Bruising is not a characteristic.
 
You can obviously tweak the 5 points up or down depending on how much Bruise damage you want to inflict, and also mess with the Healing rate.
 
The way I see this is like a Boxing match - a minute's rest between rounds is not going to let you get all your health back, but most of the injuries you receive will be gone in a few days - and this despite the fact you may never have actually taken any Body damage directly from the attack.

I liked Sean's suggestion.  It is analogous to long term end loss.  The more big hits you take, the less able you are to take damage and longer healing requirement.
 
Not for supers but definitely in more heroic genres.
 
Doc

The kind of players I like to have are the ones who show up on time and keep coming back for a long term campaign.

I've always thought of Magic The Gathering as a cancer on the TTRPG Hobby since it's debut in 1993 Worldcon. It's a curse, that crippled the hobby for about a decade, until Paizon figured out a formula to avoid it, but that caused a bump in CCG's that just sucked money out of the hobby.  MTG is Hasbro's  flagship at the moment, as it's on of the few activities they still sell that makes money, and does not require a screen to play. For what had been a toy company, that produced GI-Joe, and then later Transformers, the loss of Toys-R-Us, as well as a general shift to screens for kids, meant that their options had changed and CCGs were it.

At what degree?  A Nuclear Exchange wopuld cause a lot of problems, maybe up to extinction. But a Civil War would depopulate the large cities, but leave the countryside mostly intact. Governments would be severely weakened, much as Duke's scenario does. but travel would be hampered, Distrubution would be expensive or non existant. Local governments would be either the province of strong men, or strong ideologies, or hopefuly strong institutions/oprinciples.  A lot of Mend and Make Do. 

Did one last year with the Youth group-  it was part of an on-going campaign that had gotten a bit derailed by a Hunted roll, leading to a Foxbat arc that proved popular enough that we just kept rolling with it.
 
Short version:  FB (one of only 2- Technically 3) published characters I have ever used, ever (I think I mentioned that enemies books aren't really useful to me)) and Leroy (in my universe, Leroy is the only thing that makes FB competent.  Without Leroy, FB is a run-of-the-mill whacko with irritating personal traits) have succesfully stolen the oldest gemstone in the universe, a boring dun-coloured not-quite-transuscent thing with a couple of elements found nowhere else on earth and rumored to be magical (maybe it is; maybe it isn't).  He needed it as a cap for his walking stick so he could complete his Evangelist costume for The Church of Everyone Else is Going to Die.
 
At the climax, the stone was lost.  It resurfaced a couple of months later when, while decorating the record-holdingly-massive pine tree in front of Campaign City Hall, it was found lodged in the higher branches right about the time they workers were done decorating the tree for Christmas.  Having struck most of their equipment, they just left it, planning to "discover" it when undecorating.
 
And once the lights were flipped on to show off the tree--
 
Well, the adventure was called  "Versus the Christmas Treant," if that helps.
 
 
 
Best part (for me) was when Kinetica (whose player decided she was native to the city because none of the other characters were, allowing her periodic grabs of inventing things as a "tour guide" of sorts) felt the ground rumbling and intoned in terror "oh God!  Not _again_!"
 
Which made for some hilarious role playing when the treant ripped free of it's earthly fetters....

Did one last year with the Youth group-  it was part of an on-going campaign that had gotten a bit derailed by a Hunted roll, leading to a Foxbat arc that proved popular enough that we just kept rolling with it.
 
Short version:  FB (one of only 2- Technically 3) published characters I have ever used, ever (I think I mentioned that enemies books aren't really useful to me)) and Leroy (in my universe, Leroy is the only thing that makes FB competent.  Without Leroy, FB is a run-of-the-mill whacko with irritating personal traits) have succesfully stolen the oldest gemstone in the universe, a boring dun-coloured not-quite-transuscent thing with a couple of elements found nowhere else on earth and rumored to be magical (maybe it is; maybe it isn't).  He needed it as a cap for his walking stick so he could complete his Evangelist costume for The Church of Everyone Else is Going to Die.
 
At the climax, the stone was lost.  It resurfaced a couple of months later when, while decorating the record-holdingly-massive pine tree in front of Campaign City Hall, it was found lodged in the higher branches right about the time they workers were done decorating the tree for Christmas.  Having struck most of their equipment, they just left it, planning to "discover" it when undecorating.
 
And once the lights were flipped on to show off the tree--
 
Well, the adventure was called  "Versus the Christmas Treant," if that helps.
 
 
 
Best part (for me) was when Kinetica (whose player decided she was native to the city because none of the other characters were, allowing her periodic grabs of inventing things as a "tour guide" of sorts) felt the ground rumbling and intoned in terror "oh God!  Not _again_!"
 
Which made for some hilarious role playing when the treant ripped free of it's earthly fetters....

I am with Doc D (which, honestly, is not unusual in most things):  you are setting up a bleak, must-lose-and-endure-anyway campaign, and as a thought exercise, it can be a lot of fun.
 
As a gaming experience, though, it's kind of depressing.  Most choices will be centered on minimizing attrition by horrible means, and victory conditions are "continuing to inflict the horrors of the world on as many people as possible for as long as possible," even while knowing that the survivors probably won't stay alive anyway.
 
It's hard to get stoked for.
 
However, the last couple of decades have seen a shift in society that makes me crave societal collapse through global peasant uprising, wherein the richest world controllers and other cash sinkholes are stung up by the ankles and beaten like stainless steel pinatas, followed by a mass exodus from business, reliance on anything,that costs money they will,never have, etc-
 
People start ripping up pavement and planting food.  Society is for the middle,and,upper class, and built,on the backs,of,the day-to-day grunt.
 
What happens globally,when they have all had enough of supporting the non-contributors, and simply stop?
 
Besides, they have better odds of living through this one.

Dont know if it helps, but generally I start with "thinking about putting something together for Traveller next month.  Interested?"
 
And see where the snowball rolls and how big it gets.
 

Dont know if it helps, but generally I start with "thinking about putting something together for Traveller next month.  Interested?"
 
And see where the snowball rolls and how big it gets.
 

Agreed!   I have always loved this thread and one other as the best part of these boards but they are both extremely streaky: when they come back, they are  full-bore and full of energy and fun, than they go away for months at a time....
 
It's great that it'a back.   
 
 
Ans thank you for doing that!
 
 
 
 
I'll get to it; it takes me longer than ever having to do it via phone.  But I'll get there!
 

 
 
 
Too easy!
 
That's Wallace Shawn!  I'd recognize him anywhere.  I can almost _feel_ his voice chewing it's way through my auditory and optic nerves as we speak!  Looks like this one was taken on his forty-fifth birthday, if I am not mistaken.
 
Super powers are easy, though:  Sonic Powers.  His voice can melt steel, shatter any crystaline structure, and soften or even melt plastics.  A full-power scream can blind you briefly.
 
The only known defense is playing a re2corsing of Gilbert Gottfried, which sets up a counter-resonance in an algebra-defying "negative times a negative equals zero" kind of thing.
 
 
 
Now on the whole "quality of images" thing--
 
Dudes, this image is one of my favorites, and I am pretty sure that it was meant to be a joke!
 
 
It isn't-
 
And this is for everybody-
 
It isnt about how conventional or unconventional the image is (it was a strange swimsuit cheesecake image that got me started playing instead of spectating, if anyone remembers.
 
It is about the challenge of doing something _with_ the image!  Just like that photo of Wallace Shawn up above:  I gave him superpowers!  Anyone who has never heard him speak might think I was just making it all up, but still:  I did something with the image.
 
Fact is, no image in this thread is perfect:  the ones that don't look like superheroes or supervillains... Well, they dont look like supers, and it's a ramp up in difficulty.  The ones that _do_ look like supers are so damnably generic (most of the time; not always) that it is hard to get a start: nothing leaps out to pick at (at what point did superhero looks become more about style than saying something about the character?  They might as well be wearing ski-suits with over-sized boots and gauntlets) and gives that initial inspiration.
 
So _none_ of these images, historically (except for that skeleton in jeans Tribble put up and some vaguely bug-looking dude someone else put up a while back) have been great images, but to me, that's kind of the _point_.  Who is he?  What can you do with her?  Who are these guys?
 
At the end of the day, unlike fantasy character art or aliens or spaceships, Googling for superhero images is going to return several hundred pages of well-know, well-loved copyrighted characters who are useless for this game.  Finding images isn't easy.
 
Somewhere there is a balance of "I finally found one" and "I think I can work with that" that makes this game work, that makes it fun!
 
If we are going to bash on the images or rage quit over a lack of responses, the game,disappears again, and no one gets to enjoy it.  The fact is, though, that not every image is going to inspire every player.  I think I have only ever done what?  Four?
 
Let's see....  The flagsuit barbie in dinoland, the mini Rich posted, one I put up myself (the guy with the sweatervest and belly and towel cape) and it seems one other, but I can't at the moment recall what it was-
 
It's the nature of inspiration.  Sometimes even what spoke to you yesterday will never speak to you again.  Sometimes it's the other way around.  Always, though, images are hard to find.
 
For what it's worth, I appreciate all of them- both for the time it took, and for the fact that someone thought it might work for someone else.
 
And finally:
 
I take _all_ my "entries" (quoted not to minimise them, but because I only play for fun) seriously: even a tongue-in-cheek suggestion is meant as a very real suggestion: some characters are just more light-hearted than others; that does not devalue the character or the effort that went into creating it.
 
I'm not going to rage quit, though.  I am going to assume that I missed out on a very strange blood sugar crisis with multiple participants and that everyone will get their gripes  and grunts sorted and go back to having some fun _because that's why we come here_.
 
Right?
 
 
 

That's more of a phablet, I think. 
 
oh, and in the words of the world's greatest robot:
 
"I'm back, Baby!"
 
Record time, too!
 
 
At any rate, my phone should have excellent vision now.
 
I took it to the i-doctor for i-surgery, so it should have 20/20 vision now.
 
Weird, since I took it in for a charging issue.
 
 
 

I just feel that all villains (man, woman, alien, lower plainer, whatever) should have real wants and needs of their own. Even when I use Grond, he has wants and needs. He hates what he has become and the fact that he no longer has the mental capacity to understand much of which is going on around him. He deals with this via violence, if he can't understand it his only option is to destroy it. Villains that have no wants/needs, such as The Monster, I just won't use, or will just use him as an automation for another villain.

Four-Eyes updated. Here's a bit of new text that incidentally addresses one of my pet peeves with the Champions Villains trilogy: A tendency to present all characters as experienced and in a sense "finished," with little uncertainty (or freedom) in what way they'll go. Sometimes I think characters should specifically be *new* villains, giving the PCs a chance to shape their destinies.
 
 
Dean Shomshak

On thing I do think that Hero does well, is allowing all of their earlier versions be available and even supported. If you do have a group of new players, you could even have your game utilize an earlier version that may be a bit simpler. Then in the future, go to a newer version if you feel it is necessary, or stay with the older one, who cares as long as you and your players are having fun. 
 
And to add, the problem I see with invisibility is what to be invisible to. So does it mean that if you have invisibility to sight, does that mean that someone who can attack with hearing can hit you? Also, just because you are fast should it mean that you are also immune to mental attacks?

Complaints, complaints.  The burning in your eyes and the throbbing headache will pass when you finish your entry.  It's supposed to be a challenge, and so it is. 
 
So here's my take on him:
 
Mangorilla's latest rampage had been going on for about ten minutes when the first superhero showed up on the scene.  The big ape-man had snatched a police car off the ground and was just starting to swing it down on the pair of officers who'd been crouched behind it when a streak of color flashed by.  A pair of red-gloved hands wrenched his improvised weapon loose in passing, setting it down gently as the super touched down a few yards away.  Staggering, the furious villain wheeled around...and stopped cold in surprise as he saw his opponent.
 
"Who the hell are you?" Mangorilla grunted, a sneer spreading across his bestial features.
 
"Hadn't really decided on that yet, but it didn't seem like the right time to worry about a supranym with lives in danger.  Let's just say I'm the guy who's going to put you back in jail."
 
"Ha!  Big talk, but I suppose you have to be pretty gutsy just to go out in public like that!"
 
"Seriously?  You're going with that?"
 
"Better get used to it until you get a better tailor.  What were you thinking with that costume?  I thought the Particolored Man was an eyesore, but you - I'll be doing you a favor beating you senseless before the news crews show up so you're not caught on camera like that."
 
The newcomer sighed as Mangorilla leapt forward, furry fists swinging - and then he stepped forward, delivered a single efficient uppercut and stepped aside as the unconscious brute collapsed in an untidy heap.
 
"Well, that could have gone worse." he thought as the police advanced warily.  "He should be out for a while, officers.  If you want I can deliver him somewhere?"
 
"Uh, no, we've got backup on the way with a containment truck and lifting equipment." the sergeant replied.  He looked askance at the unfamiliar super.  "You new at this?  I don't recognize you and that costume's...uh...pretty distinctive."
 
The hero sighed again.  "Yes, this is my first time in public.  Went through some MONITOR training when I realized I had powers, and they did a lot of testing before they figured out what I could do exactly."
 
"Well, MONITOR knows their stuff, but...did they talk to you about, y'know, PR and stuff?  That stuff's pretty important for you supers in the long run."
 
"This is about the costume, isn't it?"
 
The sergeant's partner desperately smothered a laugh.  "Well, you have to admit it's...pretty colorful.  Wait, is this one of those alien super-suit deals where you get your powers from it?  Like that schoolteacher back in the Seventies?  I didn't mean to..."
 
"No, it's not quite that simple.  But MONITOR told me not to talk about it too much, so..."
 
At that moment a news van squealed to a halt nearby, the cameraman leaping out with his rig already running.  As he swept the camera around the scene he froze as the most garishly-dressed super he'd ever seen came into his viewfinder.  And laughed.  A dark-haired reporter kicked his shin as she advanced, microphone in hand.  "Hello there. I'm Mary Morgan from TV12 news and I'd like an interview.  I'm afraid I don't recognize you, sir.  May I ask what your supranym is for the viewers at home?"
 
The hero restrained a sigh this time and looked down at his brilliantly-colored outfit, complete with that godawful belt buckle logo and the fake muscles.  Well, fine, he'd known this going to be a problem, so he might as well lean into it.  Besides, he'd always liked his dad's ZZ Top albums.
 
"Well, ma'am, you can just call me the Sharp-Dressed Man."
 
 
 
Mitch Salvatore discovered he had superpowers on Halloween night.  It was a complete accident.  His parents had never celebrated the holiday and he'd grown up without all the costumes and trick-or-treating and pumpkin-carving stuff.  But when a co-worker invited him to costume party on October 31st he'd thrown together a lame superhero costume using some gym shorts, a towel for a cape and a stupid lightning logo pinned to his chest just to fit in.  That turned out to be fortunate when a couple of muggers jumped him (and his date the Sexy Librarian) on the way to the party.  The first one broke three fingers when he punched Mitch in the nose (which remained very unbroken) and the second one broke his flip knife on that stupid paper logo like it was hardened steel.  Mitch was surprised but not dumb, and discovered he could pick two grown men up and knock their heads together without a struggle.  Also had to be careful about not cracking his girlfriend's ribs when he gave her a triumphant hug afterward.
 
It was much later that night he discovered his powers vanished when he was naked, but that's between him and the Sexy Librarian.  They also didn't seem to work when he showered and dressed the next day - until he tried pinning on his "cape" again, and then he was stronger than normal but not on par with last night, and he still nicked himself shaving.
 
Thoroughly confused, he called a 900 number for MONITOR's "superpower breakout" hotline, and within a few hours he was enrolled in their testing and training program while their experts tried to figure things out.  It wasn't long before they decided he had what they called a "psychosomatic power set" that was tied to some element of his subconscious and how it regarded his current wardrobe.  His impromptu Halloween costume had granted him "street level" hero abilities, but after some time (well, a lot - months worth) the scientists found he had a lot more potential than just that.  A whole lot more.  They eventually found that his subconscious preformed at absolute optimum when he was wearing...well, look at that image.  
 
It was almost enough to put him off the whole idea of hero work, but MONITOR could be pretty persistent with someone whose peak performance was up in the top 1% of known supers.  Mitch was eventually convinced to "do the right thing" as his trainers put it, and has begun making a name for himself as the Sharp-Dressed Man.  A silly name, and one connected to a ludicrous costume, but he's still doing good deeds and saving people from danger.
 
The Sharp-Dressed Man is a classic FISS and ranks well up in the top tier in terms of power level when he's in full costume, as well as having the ability to electrify himself at will, with voltages ranging from merely stunning to a full-on lightning bolt.  His outfit is as indestructible as he is, making disrobing him in combat fairly tricky even for those who understand his powers - which are still fairly few.  His extended testing period with MONITOR also led him to getting a lot of training time, so he's quite a bit more clued-in to how the supers community really works than most relative newbies.
 
That same testing period found that he can manifest weaker but still useful levels of power without the full costume.  A simple belt with that logo grants him about the same street-level strength and toughness as he originally manifested, as well as enough electrical generation to sting, mess up most electronics, jump-start a car or recharge his phone, although he can't fly.  Adding a domino mask almost doubles his durability and physical strength as well as speeding his reaction time, and accessorizing with red gloves (even less tacky ones) help even more.  No matter how "dressed" he is he can't seem to fly without the tights and boots, and he's not great at it unless in the full costume.
 
Perhaps not the most serious of concepts, but it's way better than getting random powers from a rotary phone dial many readers today will never have seen. 

Which is why I tried to kick it into action again

Given that I didn't know the thread even existed prior to you doing so, I'm glad you did.

Thanks to everyone for their takes on the pic and the quick responses. So good to see this thread active again after being dormant for a time.
 
While I really liked the detail and world building of Rich McGee's entry I am going to go with wcw43921 as the winner. Guess I am just a sucker for a tragic backstory. 

One trick I've seen for speedsters is a lot cheaper:  Invis.  They're simply moving too fast to be targeted.  Desolid is just too much of a PITA.  (And your suggestion wouldn't be legal.)

The one conceit of gaming is that concept and dice rolls don’t always mix. 😁