DoctorImpossible

Stuff like this, and the fact that Superman is well-known as having a fortress of solitude, is why I like to think that almost nobody can figure out that he even has any secret identity to figure out, let alone figuring it out. I also think, as of recently, that all of the Luthors, as power-mad as they may be, at least never behave transphobic. I think that they all percieve Clark and Superman, even if they know the secret (these are two of the same person), still refuse to ever acknowledge that revelation if a related topic gets brought up. Kal'El is a deadname, as far as they're concerned, so they'll avoid using it, and they always address the person who speaks to them by the name they're giving. You want to be called Clark Kent? Great! Clark Kent, famous for his incredible human interest stories! Clark is an incredible person, and really successful and driven in his chosen field, which isn't any of my own passions (business and tech) so I don't need to compete with him. He has a wiry build with old fashioned farmboy style strength, where you've not had to work out cause you grew up lifting hay for hours every day, unlike my own intentionally fairly large physique designed by exercise to *look* a lot more intimidating for a bonus negotiation tool. Superman? A powerful alien, who threatens humanity not only by preventing some of my technically illegal but clearly necessary work, but also by being an unchecked vigilante of such incredible and unstoppable power that, if he is ever convinced to rule over us, humanity will need preparations already in place to stop him. The fact that, technically, Lex is friends with Clark and the arch enemy of Superman, while they occupy the same physical form during different times? Irrelevant. Like, I'm sure Lex remembers an incredible HR manager, Sax, came out as enby and started using the name Sax, they/them pronouns. Probably, Lex remembers their deadname and what pronouns they used to use, but it would be beneath him to use that info. The same is true of Clark's deadname and of his Superman alter ego. (Also, I'm less informed on D.I.D. than I am on my fellow trans folk, so I might be missing the mark...) Lex probably sees Superman and Clark as completely different to each other in much the same way as he sees his cousins, Jeff and Dan, who're both part of the same D.I.D. system.

To achieve the impossible, you must be willing to try the unbelievable.

This thread is making me think of all those silly "grim-dark" iron-age comics about the US government either controlling, or trying to take control of, the superheroes, and I think all the violence, hero on hero conflicts, and "cool" but actually a very boringly unoriginal plots will actually play out. All manner of minor crime-waves rise up as slightly less driven hero supers decide not to bother if the government itself has turned on a hero population. The more potent simply ignore the laws and then a bunch of cops/government agents have to decide if obedience to the law is worth getting killed, beaten, or even just mind-wiped, all for the "crime" of saving people from that hurricane or whatever. Then, with the politically powerful and/or rich heroes, there's a lot of simply law not applying to them anyway. The monarchs of foreign nations, the people who donate trillions to the same cops you'd be trying to get to arrest this person, maybe even God/The Devil/An Anthropic Personification Of An Eternal Concept, are all going to be above and beyond any such jurisdiction.

Chris Evans, too.

That's one of the things that makes MCU Iron Man one of the best superheroes on screen. So many films seem to have their hero not actually change or grow from one film to another, reverting back to their old habits of bad behaviour and such, just so that the sequels can repeat a similar moral again. The Iron Man suits, and Tony's initial relative personality flaws/mental health issues, allow for a constant self-improvement and power-up in every film. Shows his extreme self-awareness and self-reflection, mirrored by his increasingly advanced technology and refined skills as a superhero.

I could see running this without people noticing that it is just Die Hard, since you'd be having a whole team of PCs. You'd just need to avoid being *too* obvious... OR Lean into the obvious "this is you guys playing Die Hard", and let them have at it.

To be fair, pseudo is the name of the game in pulp science, surely?

Alternatively, just spend a couple of points on having a tiny base with no features, the use of which being just as a closet, then an Extradimensional Movement power with all of the disadvantages you mentioned. Put it in a ring (a Focus) and allow only a person wearing the ring, plus belongings, into that closet space (so the ringbearer cannot use it as a safe place to let the rest of the team hide when they want to, etc).

In any campaign, I like to check if there is a form of in-universe "official" *Evil*, like hell and demons. If so, then "Evil" is merely any connection to a hell or a demon, which is a potentially still moral person/place. You are theoretically capable of finding nice, moral demons, who sense as "Evil" because they are demons. You could also find nasty and immoral angels, who sense as "Good" from their angelic divinity. You mostly find those who are neither "Evil" nor "Good" whether or not they are moral, immoral, neutral or anything else. Often, however, there is no such thing as a "Detect Alignment" spell or any such thing, and the only form of evil is the regular kind with people being selfish or immoral. For a quick judgement, generally speaking, any who cause pain, sorrow, stress, and things like that, either intentionally or, to a lesser extent by simply not bothering to consider other people, is said to be an evil person. People who either restrict other's freedom or their free will, and those who deny that which others need while they could give it relatively simply, are the worst sort of evil. Slavers, tyrants, merchants who're making money from droughts, plagues, and wars. Bigots, such as racists, sexists, and terfs, are not even brought up in the games I'm playing in. If they were, they'd be killed by everybody on any side, good or evil, very quickly. Which is part of why we don't use bigots as villains. They don't last long to become major plot elements, and they're unpleasant to be around while they remain. If you want a pithy saying, maybe: Good Guy: There is no such thing as "Evil". There is only freedom, and those who would oppose it. Bad Guy: There is no such thing as "Evil". There is only power, and those too weak to take it.

I see this as two different things. One, a spell that makes a roiling thundercloud in the air immediately above your head, so it can be a source for spells. Gets cast at the start of the day (or whenever you think you need to, anticipating a fight coming up), it has a form that lingers and makes it clear so it can be targeted by anti-magic powers or spells, but not a focus that could have a problem with physical or mental attacks. Two, a bunch of spells, apparently mostly storm-themed, that can only be cast if the storm cloud is overhead. That first one seems like an Endurance Reserve, with no Recovery but a nice big chunk of Endurance, made cheap because it costs some of your own Endurance to make it (but only when making it, after which it sticks around for free), it probably takes something to create it (gestures, an incantation, some kind of Magic Skill Roll, or whatever else you normally use to do a magic spell), it is percievable (that cloud of magical energy that looks like a storm), it only sticks around for however long (I said a day, could be more or less) even if it got left unused. I would personally add ability to dismiss it early, if that is not already an option. Don't want enemies stealing from my storm cloud energy for *their* magic! That second one is the list of various ways you have of using this spell. They needn't be the same uses as other people who cast the same spell. You can have practised the spell itself, and be able to summon your all powerful storm of magic, only to quit study and be unable to do anything with it aside from letting it hover around your head and look cool and impressive to total idiots (an idiot being anyone with no magic). Or you may learn a bunch of ways to throw some lightning or thunder at your enemies, or a way to make the lightning within a cloud glow and pulse brightly for a while, to be a source of light for you, or a peal of loud thunder that will scare enemies, or any of the dozen ideas you've got for storm spell type effects. People who cast this spell as the base for a thorough understanding of those effects might have a dozen different "effects" as powers, all with no limitations except that it can only be powered by the Endurance Reserve of the cloud spell, as it is the only real, full spell in the list. Those who study it in passing as just an idle bit of weather magic in their much broader list of spells, might only have a single effect in a storm cloud spell repertoire, making their cloud shoot lightning, with gestures and incantations required and a magic skill roll before it will work.

Simply having the super-power of "I can heal people" doesn't make someone able or inclined to heal people in a medical sense to the exclusion of superheroics. Healing the ill or injured in a hospital is not going to stop me from putting on a costume, using a codename, and being the Superhero healer as well. Just like being Batman and Green Arrow doesn't stop Bruce Wayne funding Gotham's charities and scholarships, or in Oliver Queen's case, being Mayor. Lots of heroes have good works that they manage to balance with superheroics. And, in some cases, they *wouldn't* be so suited to healing in a hospital. They maybe haven't got the patience or inclination to be a hospital healer, but they do have the psychology needed for being an active superhero. There's no reason to turn down superhero healing, just because, if this person was less suited to superhero work and more suited to hospital volunteer work, they'd save a lot of lives. They already are saving lives. Frankly, they shouldn't feel pressure to be any kind of healer. A person can be altruistic and have healing powers, but still never use their healing powers. Maybe they are very active at fundraisers for charity. A healer isn't *required* to heal, in order to be a good person.

"The Community" Never intended to become a name, just like the classic name for the Mafia: "La Cosa Nostra" is literally just the phrase "our thing", used to refer obscurely to the crime organisation you're running. In the case of "The Community", it was a case of people involved always providing themselves with plausible deniability and even a veneer of respectability, as they do things on behalf of "The Community". They don't expect you to pay for protection or anything. They simply prefer you to be a generous donor, providing the community with "necessary funding". They don't try to recruit impressionable young mutants or metahumans, to serve as lieutenants of a street gang. No, they simply welcome them to the super-powered community. And if it ends up with them implicated for, or even involved in, some initial crimes, that's just more evidence that the rest of the world is out to get people like us, and only people in The Community really have your back. The super-"heroes"? They're all just sell-outs.

Having the physical capacity of a healing super-power doesn't mean that they have the psychological inclination towards, or a desire for, a position in a hospital or any of the other IRL "healer" jobs. On the other hand, having no super-power that seems very combative or whatever is no impediment at all to many, many people who have gone on to be nonpowered but still a super-hero or super-villain. You are actually already a step up the power list, as a person who *does* have super-powers.

Immunity to (Insert Genre You Don't Like) Not sure it would be accepted in a tabletop game. Or rather, instead of actually building it into the sheet, I suspect most people are going to prefer it if you just ask ahead of a campaign that it not feature X, Y, or Z. If it was built in Hero, it would be basically a very powerful version of Transform as an area around you, big enough to cover any part of the setting you can be percieving. But, funnily enough, it does exist in DC. There is, or *was* at least, a paranormal investigator who looked into all sorts of the supernatural goings on, amd always was able to debunk them and shame the con artists behind it. In his original stories that was because his universe was a normal one. But, as the DC universe became more connected, and he was gradually sharing a world with *actual* Greek Gods and ghosts and ghouls, it was retconned into him being a metahuman who was reality warping, so the things he investigated really were real all along... until he was in range of them, at which point they turned into normal human con artistry, with all the signs of having existed as that the whole time, only to flip back to being supernatural once he'd left. Personally, I'd like to try using it to make sure the campaign world was always some light-hearted family friendly adventure, not a grim, dark iron age game, or anything.

I think Transform is already effectively a Cumulative power by default. The text of it describes using it again and again to make the change happen more.

Alright... How about "The ThinkBank", a team of at least 5 wealthy genius types who, bored with their endless charity fundraisers and thinking that they could do a better job of saving the world if only they were running everything, devote their genius, and cash, toward attempting the thrilling business of total global domination together?

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The villain, provided that they have already proven somewhat capable as villains in the past, could simply offer that they will turn a new leaf and be super-heroes rather than super-villains in the future, if this scheme goes well. Or even just that they'll retire.

Hungry Hungry has legally changed her name to the single word, in a genuine tribute to the single word adjective monikers of Disney's seven dwarves. From her father, a wealthy crimelord, she has inherited a great deal of wealth, and also dwarfism. From her mother, she inherited a genius level of intelligence, a talent for engineering, and an unceasing hedonistic gluttony. She has given up on walking anymore, as she prefers being "carried around like a Queen from times of yore", aboard a seat within the two metre tall war-robot that she pilots.

Potion of Slippery Ness - Grants you a few of the more desirable qualities of famous adventurer, Slippery Ness. Makes you a bit tougher, gives you some regeneration, add a bit of a strong will, and other such things.

Honestly, I'm starting to wonder about some people becoming super, not because of their own efforts, strictly speaking, but because they're the sort of people that an enterprising super-scientist/magic-user is likely to decide might make for a good hero and therefore they end up gifted with some advancedbtechnology or mystical artefacts or super-soldier serum or some arcane empowerment. Like, we'd end up with Dwayne Johnson and Keanu Reeves showing up to join the world-saving superhero team, festooned with magical artefacts and wearing power armour, but even if you took all the gadgets and magic items away, they still turn out to be full of healing factors and superstrength and casting spells. All on the basis that the two of them have a reputation as really nice people, who are very physically capable.

Sounds like a fun addition to a game. Plenty of people use nazi soldiers and mafia henchmen as classic pulp bad guys, so a little variety ripped right out of the headlines from that era sounds great! Well, since you're asking here, you're clearly playing a pulp action-adventure game, so I'd lean towards them being somewhat skilled but also having fairly potent weapons and a pretty good car (speedy, yet manoeuverable, but also reasonably tough) and then also add a heaping helping of plain old luck on top (good luck for them, and maybe bad luck for anybody trying to stop them). Basically I would try to make them seem like significant threats to normal civilians and even less combat-focussed heroes, but not enough to stand up to an enemy military (Nazi invaders, or an alien war robot or the like) by themselves.

Booked to see it this week coming. The latest of The Rock's amazing career of Jungle Adventure Pulp Films. Starting to feel like The Rock has the same taste in films as I do.

Personally, I would say natural/training is the same as any other forms, *except* it comes mostly from your own skills and not any kind built-in superpowers, or strange effect that changed you, or even being a normal person except for having a gadget or artefact or gift of power from a wizard. Shazam/Captain Marvel? Magic. Got given alternate form of immense power and the associated skill with magic as a result. Thor? Magic. Got born with superpowers compared to humans because of being magical in nature. Also, gifted with Mjolnir. But Doctor Strange? Natural/Training. He wasn't born a god, he wasn't gifted with a bunch of superpowers by an immortal and nobody left him a magical artefact. His dedication to study, meditation, practice, and eventually to defending the world, led Doctor Strange to become skilled with the spells and rites and invocations that grant him his incredible "powers". Cyborg? Technology. His body is rebuilt as something new, using a fusion of human and the advanced technology that now is his body. Green Lantern? Technology. He was gifted with the Green Lantern ring, an extremely advanced piece of alien technology under his command. Iron Man? Natural/Training. Tony Stark has honed his genius intellect and advanced purely human technology to a level that is comparable to many alien empires. The X-Men? Mutants. They have been born with an advanced, superhuman physiology that blesses them all with superpowers. The Inhumans? Mutants. They suffered an exposure to terrigen mists that mutated in their DNA to give them superpowers. Hourman? Natural/Training. He uses his incredible intellect and thorough education in chemistry, and biochemistry, to produce Miraclo, the one hour superpower pills that grant him superpowers for one hour at a time, letting him perform great heroics. And so on. Basically, whatever your superpower is, you can potentially get there with your own skills and talents, and therefore be a Natural/Training based superhero... Or, you can get lucky, and stumble on them, in which case you have to use a different type of origin story to explain. Basically, I think that the important part is the fact that these heroes are who they are without their powers. If Billy Batson couldn't change forms, he is just a human child. Thor used to turn into Donald Blake regularly, and always needed to change back into Thor before he was a significant threat to his enemies. Meanwhile, Doctor Strange had a long story arc recently that centred entirely on him *losing* his magic, but still finding ways to be just as effective without them, because he knows his enemies strengths and weaknesses. If Green Lantern loses his ring, he is just a man. Potentially, depending on the Green Lantern, a military officer, but still just a man. Take away the suit from War Machine, and he, too, is just a military officer. But take the suit away from Tony Stark, and what is he? A billionaire, genius, playboy, philanthropist. Heck, if he can find a cave and a box of scraps, then a few days later, he'd have another Iron Man suit. Inject a mutant with "the cure" and what do you get? Functionally humans, although technically just still mutants with a dormant X-gene that can still be triggered again. Cure inhumans? They become humans. Dose Hourman with some new "antidote" to miraclo? He'll just take another dose and get another hour of superpower.

Yeah, Tenet seems to have been almost intentionally full of loud background noise over a lot of inaudible dialogue, so that the audience would ignore the vague, poorly explained scifi elements, in favour of just enjoying how the big, dumb, explosive action was made to work backwards and forwards. It was a sort of showcase for a few action set pieces with a cool gimmick, rather than any of Nolan's usual, plot-driven, playing with a timeline films, like the reverse story order (Memento) or the different rates that time flows in different dream levels (Inception).