DusterBoy

How about Boom Girl, for the sonic boom she creates when breaking the sound barrier?

Friend of mine made a character Woth the hilarious name Blue Bayou.  (As in, he just blew by you.)
 
His emblem was a palm tree bent over by strong wind,  as if he had just passed by but was already out of the frame, so to speak.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
Quotes from my Shadowrun4 campaign:
 
Cast
Esperanza: Female Orc Sniper
Six: Female Orc Rigger
Buster: A Busta-Move toy drone heavily modified by Six.
 
-------------------
 
Background
The team is surveilling a suspicious character who has surreptitiously repelled into a AA-rated Mega Corp dock facility in Tacoma. When the Johnson gets word of this, she orders a hit on the man they have been surveilling. Six goes in with Buster attached to her back like one of those stuffed animal backpacks, while Esperanza finds a rooftop outside the facility and goes on overwatch.
 
GM: You use your mad ninja skills to sneak to the back side of the two story office building, the door is made of reinforced metals and has a maglock on it.
 
Six: Damn, I don't have any skills or equipment to defeat a maglock.
 
GM: One of the second story windows is slightly open.
 
Six: OK, Buster, get me into this building.
 
GM: Buster jumps off your back and sticks to the wall using the Gecko Grip pads on his hands and feet. After giving you a half-assed solute, he scales the wall like a creepy looking spider monkey, and then slips into the open window.
 
Six: I can see what Buster sees through his sensors, and I relay it to the rest of the party.
 
GM: OK. Its a little disorienting because your not used to seeing things from only a foot and a half off the floor. Buster is in a dark office room. He moves to the door with a waddling gate, climbs the wall and opens the door. He pokes his head sideways out the door and looks down the hall in both directions. Once he's satisfied that the coast is clear, he jumps down to the floor and puts his back to wall in the hallway. He quietly starts to hum his theme music to himself as he sidesteps down the hallway. Once he makes it to the stairway, he climbs up the wall to the hand rail and butt slides down the hand rail to the bottom floor. He spots a guy on the ground floor and freezes so as not to be noticed. The guy goes about his business as though Buster weren't even there. After the coast is clear, he heads to the door you are waiting behind. He looks up to the door handle, faux spits on his palms, rubs his paws together and climbs up the door. You hear a buzz and a click, and the maglock's red light turns green. Buster comes outside and jumps on your back.
 
Six: I give Buster a high five.
 
Esperanza: Six, you're deranged.

Pathfinder: The Mummy's Mask - More Desert Meandering
Heading north in pursuit of the cultists/amateur tomb robbers. It might be the middle of the desert, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things to encounter - including a scorpion-man in need of proper burial, a Royal Naga archeologist, and some really, really annoying birds. But we do find a river, which is nice, since it means Asrian and Zenobia can wash the dust off.

Onka: And I’m going to camp over here, since I don’t want a knife somewhere uncomfortable.

Zenobia: Any suspicious logs floating about?

This is also the first time that Zenobia has seen her girlfriend undressed in daylight - she has silver-blonde hair, and skin almost as pale as paper. Rather unusual, since we’ve met her family and they’re all ethnically Osiriani.

Nemat OoC: On the other side of the God-Rock, she’d be gorgeous.
Zenobia OoC: I imagine her mother got some cruel accusations after she was born, right up until her father got kicked in the balls.

Asrian is still extremely sensitive about her appearance, despite the fact that Zenobia isn;t at all repulsed.

Zenobia: You’ve seen the way people look at me, before they know me. I’d NEVER think you’re ugly.
Asrian: You’re fuzzy, it’s nice! I look like I’ve been dipped in flour!
Zenobia: Well, let’s see if it washes off *rolls around in the shallows with her for a bit*

Asrian eventually explains that she had a perfectly ordinary complexion when she was younger, but had an encounter with a djinn, and after she was returned from the djinn’s palace, she looked like this. Apparently she had djinn ancestry somewhere on her mother’s side of the family, and her Suli blood got awakened. Which probably explains why her mother insisted she was still beautiful. Zenobia, of course, agrees.

Zenobia: The power of your ancestry shows on the outside. The light of your soul shines inside. You are gorgeous to me.
Asrian: *hugs tight*

Asrian is at least confident enough to go without her veil when we return to the rest of the party, but she’ll have it back on before we catch up with the cultists.

Nemat: You’re actually quite attractive.
Zenobia: MINE.

We also acquire some unusual loot - the power source of some unknown construct.

GM: It’s an ARC reactor.

Of course, all these side quests are going to take us over most of the desert, but it’ll probably be OK since the cultists have no idea we’re in pursuit, and are probably expecting the Lamia and other cultists to catch up with them. Although that assumes we don’t fall victim to things like the stinky stinky goo ghosts that emerge from some of the dunes.

Nemat OoC: Hang on, let me make a ‘Wot Dat?’ roll.

And things like featureless black obelisks are just annoying to the archeologist in the party, even if the proportions aren’t 1:4:9.

Zenobia: What’s the point of putting up an obelisk without inscribing the name of whoever commissioned it?
Nemat: I think the point is if you need to know, you already know.
Asrian: Actually I think the point is up the top there.

It’s actually powerfully and dangerously enchanted, but useful as long as you don’t fry yourself as you put it to use. Happily we have a spell-sage in the party who can fiddle with that sort of thing with minimal chance of spontaneous arc-welding. It’s not the only weird relic out here either of course - arrangements of skull-sized pale rocks also attract our attention.

Zenobia: Blood for the Blood God! Oh wait, they’re not skulls.

Voice from Above: Do not take another step!
Zenobia: *politely takes a step backwards*
Rest of party: That’s a step!
Onka: Let’s hope it’s not a copper dragon.
GM: Actually it’s a blue.
Keferuzagra the Blue Dragon: *lands* This is my garden! Stay away!
Asrian: OK.
Nemat: Nice work.
Keferuzagra: Uh, thanks?
Zenobia: Would you like to show us your garden or is it entirely private?
Nemat: Are you familiar with the Tien form of rock gardening?
GM: *sigh* And you’ve just taken him from hostile to friendly
Onka: Have you tried looking down in the wastelands south of here? There’s basilisks, you might find some interesting rockery.

He invites us to stay the night, to show off his other art, which includes golden statues of dragons. Admittedly gold leaf, but still very nice work.

Nemat: Are you sure you’ve never heard of the Tien forms?
GM: This dragon is SO going to find himself a new lair.
Nemat OoC: Once he finds a couple of portable holes so he can take his rocks and statues with him.

Keferuzagra gifts us an Efficient Quiver he found in an abandoned temple of Sarenrae, before he makes plans to emigrate. Some Tianese rock garden master is going to have something to be smug about, later.

Nemat OoC: We’ll give the quiver to Onka - it’s the Wizard’s Golf Bag.

He also warns us about a temple in the direction we’re heading, dedicated to Areshkagal, the demon lord of portals and riddles. Should be worth checking out, just in case, even if only to add a large AVOID to the map we eventually produce.

Nemat OoC: I’d really like our GM to be familiar with compass directions.

We hear flapping overhead, as we head north.

Zenobia: *peering * Keferuzagra again? No, that’s yellow, not blue. Are there yellow dragons?
Asrian: There’s gold dragons.
Zenobia: No, definitely yellow.
Nemat: Might be a really lost Imperial.

Actually it’s a flock of Yrthaks, huge eyeless flying beasts with a powerful sonic attack.

Asrian: SCATTER!

These things are NASTY. To the point some us go into negative hit points. Lucky for us that half of them plow into the ground when trying to do hairpin turns in mid-air, and that Zenobia can do ranged healing from behind boulders, at least until said boulders get blasted apart by the Yrthaks’ sonic attacks. Things probably would have gone much better for us if any of us had remembered Nemat knew the Silence spell, earlier.

Pathfinder : Mummy's Mask : PC Parkour
Zenobia OoC: Another random wandering monster then?
GM: No.
Zenobia OoC: Ah, this is SUPPOSED to be here then.

GM: Apart from the burning corpse of the giant spider - well, AGAIN corpse -
Zenobia: Double-corpse.
GM: There’s another body. You didn’t see it before because, well -
Zenobia: The room was black with spiders. You said. And now we have a light source.

It’s a recent corpse, wearing a funerary mask. Just like those favoured by the weirdo who took over the Silver Chain, and who was seen lurking around the Necropolis before S*** Got Real. He’s covered in spider bites, but it’s the numerous claw marks and slashing injuries that killed him. He also has a notebook, giving the locations of the Elegiac Compasses, and orders to go to same from one Nebta-Khufre. It also mentions the Sanctum of the Erudite Eye, the Shining Bauble, and a couple of other places that we’ve been to ourselves. Some of them have been crossed out. But the Elegiac Compass that is SUPPOSED to here, isn’t, and nor is there any visible space for an attic.

We head downstairs, where there are some bored mummies. Who stop being bored the moment they spot us coming down the stairs. And paralyse everybody but Asrian with their auras of despair.

GM: Asrian, you slash the nearest mummy across the abdomen. It’s guts are on the floor… Or would be, if it had any.
Zenobia OoC: I was about to say - it’s guts should be in a canopic jar somewhere.

Nemat gets over the paralysis soon enough to attempt to Shackle the mummies to each other. Perhaps we’re making a remake of The Defiant Ones. But given the undead are soon just dead, perhaps not. We rifle through the empty sarcophagi, unfinished scientific and mathematical manuscripts, and a campsite somebody apparently set up in here. But by the looks of of things, they were NOT looting the burial chambers - the mummies got up by themselves later. The LIBRARY got looted. Happily, Nemat knows the Sift spell.

GM: Book, book, scroll, scroll, book, hidden switch, book -
Asrian: Switch?
Nemat: Yeah yeah, I’ll get back to it. Book book, scroll, book.

He also stuff’s Zenobia’s extradimensional backpack with as many books and scrolls as will fit.

There’s a hidden stairway leading up, revealed by the switch. Also something is chattering, but it doesn’t sound like language. It’s a pair of shadowy ghost-skeletons, trying to operate the Elegiac compass. THESE have an aura attack too. But at least we can get a bearing from the compass before heading back to the temple in Wati to get all our mental and spiritual damage healed. And now we know the epicenter of the necromantic energy, a temple and observatory dedicated to Maat and Thoth.

Hopefully Nemat won’t need to seduce a free Restoration out of Sebti the Crocodile.

GM: You know what? I’m going to make all the female NPCs lesbian, just to stop you doing that.
Zenobia OoC: But that won’t stop Asrian or me.
Onka OoC: So you’re screwed either way.
Zenobia OoC: As the actress said to the bishop.

Nemat’s eventual plan is to become a Living Monolith, the walking embodiments of Justice.

GM: Most spellcasters want to be liches. You just want to be a robot.

The Pharasmaens can’t think why somebody would want to set up the observatory as the epicentre of the necromantic ritual, but it is one of the tallest buildings in the district.

Zenobia: At least we can go find that other guy and tell him ‘guess who found the Elegiac compasses?’
Nemat: And ‘Your Nosoi would never have found it’
Zenobia: Can’t operate hidden switches for one thing.

An overnight rest and back into the Necropolis, via the tunnel and rooftops.

Zenobia OoC: PC parkour.

GM: You enter the Observatory of Truth and Wisdom!
Zenobia OoC: Which in most worlds means there’s not much to observe.

Asrian: I’m casting Honeyed Tongue on myself.
Zenobia: … no comment.

Nemat uses the spell ‘Locate Object’ to see if a certain golden mask is anywhere nearby, by contemplating one of the cheaper versions we picked up earlier, and imagining it gold. It is - somewhere underneath the observatory. We can expect to encounter the new master of the Silver Chain real soon...

Pathfinder - The Mummy's Mask : Job Interview
Nemat: When I called you a slippery little pig yesterday it was not intended as a racial slight.
Onka the Half-orc: It’s OK.

Nemat: You CAN airburst Fireballs, you know.
Zenobia: Thereby getting the target, and anybody tall who’s standing nearby?

Nahkt Shepses has set up a small arena for our test. A small crowd has gathered to spectate - which could be a problem since all of us have magic of one form or another, and many spells are Area of Effect. Nahkt is also doing his best to undermine Sebti in his speech to the crowd.

Nakht Shepses: As you may have heard, the Mausoleum has had a slight disagreement yesterday. I and the Voices of the Spire plan to send our greatest Psychopomps throughout the city to root out this undead menace, and uncover the source of the corruption plaguing our city. Sebti and the Pharasmean priests wish to send these adventurers into the necropolis on a wild goose chase for old compasses!
Crowd: *scattered laughter*
Nahkt: So we shall put these ideas to the sword to see whose is strongest! I do not wish to see more death in this city, so the first to render the other unconscious shall be the victor!

Nahkt is siccing his personal psychopomp and two other servants of his particular sect on us.

GM: Welcome to the miniboss.

He magnanimously gives us a chance to prepare. Zenobia, of course, Blesses the party, and Asrian surrounds herself with illusions of herself and Zenobia silently curses where her imagination takes her. The first Esobok pounces Nemat and gets poked in the eyes. Asrian blinds the Vanth with Glitterdust. Nemat insults all the psychopomps with Blistering Invective.

Zenobia: Does Blistering Invective only affect enemies we know about, and how far away is Nahkt?

Onka casts his first Fireball, and Zenobia protects her lover with Shield Other. More battle magic follows. These psychopomps might be tough - and the Vanth especially - but being Stunned, Blinded, Shaken, and on fire isn’t healthy. And since there’s no information otherwise, they probably return to their native plane still on fire.

Nemat: Summoners are pricks.

GM: At this point the Vanth remembers it has a Fear aura.
Zenobia: I’m afraid of nothing when Asrian is in danger.
Nemat: And I think we have emphatically proven that I’m more scary than a Vanth.
Asrian: We are doing quite well.
Nemat: Well, for one thing it’s not a Rakshasa - that set a high bar for this party.

The Vanth yields, but Nemat is still highly annoyed by the curse he got hit with, and expresses this opinion to the crowd.

Nemat: THIS is what you would unleash on this city? Unthinking creatures that will curse even Wati’s defenders?
Nahkt: You will face much worse in the Necropolis.

Of course Asrian trowels on her own abuse, and Nakht backs down.

Nahkt: I am not unreasonable. I apologise for doubting you.
Nemat: Still cursed here.

Onka: There need to be desert penguins.
Nemat: Bear in mind that the wizard said this, adding more weight to the adage ‘A Wizard Did It’

The next morning we prepare for our expedition into the Necropolis. There are three objectives - the Elegiac Compasses, the Xotl, and a clan of atheist Lamias in the Cenotaph of the Cynic that Nakht blames for the whole problem

Asrian: I suggest meeting the Xotl first - we need allies.
Zenobia: That is wise, my love.
Nemat OoC: And we’re still in the Shadowrun part of the adventure - legwork is important. And the Johnson has already tried to screw us. A bit more experience and they’ll trust us to make our own mistakes.

Of course, the moment we’re in the Necropolis, we’re mobbed by ghouls and zombies. Happily, this only slows us down slightly, and we don’t get overrun. The Xotl, when we find them, and holed up tight, and heavily armed. But not in a shopping mall, or US army chemical waste disposal facility. Their Matriarch, Unwrapped Harmony, is willing to see us, but clearly distrustful of anybody that can walk around in the light of the Daystar without bursting into flame. She’s willing to assist us with information, in return for a service.

Zenobia OoC: Sidequest!
Nemat OoC: It just appeared in my journal.

One of Unwrapped Harmony’s clanmates apparently got a little TOO interested in the rituals of Mummification, and experimented on some of his own people. U.H. wants proof of his death.

Welcome to the family, Trese

Nubia?
 
 

More good work.

I love these vignettes.

Part Three of Typhoid Dee:
 
The CDC says that they need Pigeon (as Patient Zero) to better concoct a cure to the disease.  With their police connections, the heroes learn that Pigeon is a girl named Diane Carvey with a juvie record, but nothing they find can help them locate where she might be now. 
Pops:  We could dress up as old men, go to the park, and throw bread crumbs on the ground.  She's bound to show up.
 
They also learn that Pigeon is part of a group of freaks / society rejects known as Vermin, whose other members are Cockroach, Flea, Mink, Gopher, Weasel, and Willard (who can summon a rat pack). 
 
Honey Badger:  They may be named Vermin, but I'm calling them "lunch."
 
After learning that witnesses had overheard Pigeon tell Wight he's a "freak like us" and tried to get him to join Vermin, Circe heads to PRIMUS to see if Wight knows where Pigeon might be holed up.
 
GM:  Are you going to tell PRIMUS you want to read his mind?
Circe:  No.  I speak Russian.  I'm just telling them that I want to talk to him.
GM:  Okay, they'll let you talk to him over the intercom, while he's still in the cell.
Circe:  Can I see him?
Nexus:  They should have a camera on him in the cell.
GM:  Sure, but Circe's powers won't work over a video feed.  She needs direct line of sight.
Circe:  I could use Mind Scan to lock on...
GM:  You want to scan the PRIMUS base to lock onto a prisoner in a super-cell?  Think it through.
Circe:  ... yeah, probably not a good idea.
 
After Circe points out that Wight's sickness can also be cured if they capture Pigeon, the Russian relents and gives them a location:  a deserted factory on the south side.  With building blueprints, a bunch of police and PRIMUS agents as backup, and a combination of Circe's Mind Scan and Shadowboxer's Shadow Sight (Clairsentience) to pin down the specific locations of the members of Vermin, the heroes are ready to go in.  Since Weasel (a mentalist) and Flea (a shrinker) are both in the same room, the heroes decide they are the first targets.
 
Circe:  (herself a mentalist)  We need to take out Weasel first.  Because mentalists are sooo evil.
 
Malarky:  Before we go in, do you want me to cast a spell on all of you?
Honey Badger:  Are we all gonna become frogs?
 
Gopher is actually about six meters underground, in a burrow he dug out along with a network of tunnels under the factory.  Shadowboxer uses his Shadow Sight to see what the gadgeteer is up to.
 
GM:  He's working on some device, you're not sure what, while humming.
Shadowboxer:  What song?
GM:  (Hums a tune, but the player doesn't catch it).  At one point, he actually quietly sings, "When Captain Gopher throws his mighty shield..."  And yes, there's a small round shield lying next to him.
 
While most of the heroes take down Flea and Weasel, and Shadowboxer takes on Gopher, Maker (remote-piloting a captured VIPER flyer bot since she's still in quarantine) smashes through a skylight and fires a missile at Pigeon.  It's a 1 1/2d6 Penetrating RKA with +1 STUN Mod, and she rolls badly:  3 BODY and 12 STUN.
 
Maker:  Useless.
However, Pigeon's armor fails the Activation roll, so she takes the full damage.
Shadowboxer:  (OOC)  It's actually a good thing you rolled so low.  We wouldn't want to bring a corpse back to the CDC.
 
Seeing the drone attack and hearing the sound of combat from the room where Flea and Weasel were, Mink leaps into action.
GM:  She runs to the fire door, shoves it open, and runs outside.
Nexus:  Really?  She's running away?
GM:  Yeah.  Mink is definitely a "me first" kinda person.
 
The injured and pissed-off Pigeon flies up to try ripping the flyer bot apart with her claws.  She also rolls incredibly low, getting no damage past the bot's defenses.
 
GM:  That nice new paint job you gave it, though - she scratched that all up.
Pops:  We're painting our whole base with that stuff.  I mean, look how well it protected the drone...
 
Upset at the drone attacking Pigeon, Willard summons a rat pack and sends it up into the rafters to drop onto the drone, blinding it's cameras.  But with the shrinker and mentalist down, Honey Badger runs into the factory proper and jumps up to grab Pigeon.
 
Honey Badger:  Do any of the rats come along for the ride?  If so, I'll munch on them while I'm squeezing Pigeon.
 
Because of the surprise attack taking down three Vermin so quickly, the heroes soon defeat the rest of them...
GM:  Well, Mink got away.
Pops:  Wait, didn't we have police and PRIMUS out there?
GM:  Oh, yeah.  Forgot about them.
Pops:  But she's a martial artist, so she probably has a high DCV.
Shadowboxer:  Which won't help much against stun grenades.
GM:  So, all of Vermin were captured...

Never forget what happened one Christmas at Nakatomi Tower...
 

 

Domino, my sorceress character runs a second-hand bookstore specialising in mystical/mind/body/spirit literature and has a reputation for being able to get you anything. Of course, she’s also the scion of one of the richest families in the Bay Area, so it’s not like she *needs* a job, but she enjoys the work and the clientele. 
 
(I do confess, I haven’t thought through the practical logistics of this, I just thought it sounded thematically appropriate, not merely a cool idea.) 

Adjusts glasses and knocks on Ragitsu’s door “Excuse me, have you time he hear about the Nephilim?”

Yeah, but I think you're talking about two different things now.  In the game, a Secret ID won't be revealed to the public unless the player just absolutely blows it.  The purpose is to add another dimension of gameplay and give obstacles for the player to overcome.  Amazing Man isn't going to have his Secret ID busted by an IRS investigation or because somebody tested a hair follicle, because that would be a boring game.  That's not superheroey, so it won't happen.  But if we're talking about a "realistic" scenario where supers are hiding their identities, that's when you start wondering about how they file their taxes and which cell towers they're pinging.
 
Cool stories (and fun games) have different considerations than a realistic deconstruction of the genre.
 
Although, this discussion has given me an idea for a story/character.  What about some kind of "SecretIDs R Us" company that sets you up with good alibis, covers your tracks, and provides red herrings to investigators?  Nobody is going to investigate your Secret ID if they think they already know who you are.  I mean, of course Batman is secretly Mark Manchester, the Gotham PD detective who got fired for police brutality 10 years ago.  His wife got killed by the Joker, and he went on a rampage putting guys in the hospital trying to catch that clown.  He almost went to prison, but the DA declined to prosecute because of the circumstances with his wife.  Mark had a big fast car, knew some martial arts, and a bunch of SWAT gear went missing right before he got fired.  He still lives in Gotham, runs a gym, and disappears for days when Batman is away on Justice League missions.  Who else could it be?  I hear he's even got an under the table connection to a big company, like LexCorp, where he gets some of his really cool stuff.
 
Imagine being a really low-tier superhuman who gets hired to be Superman's "real identity".  You're about the right height and build, and you kinda look like the Man of Steel.  You're a construction worker in Metropolis, and you sometimes "accidentally" bend a steel bar or step out into the street and get hit by a truck, surviving unscathed.  "Wow I really got lucky there" as you leave a palm print in the hood of the vehicle.  You run off during disasters and come back to work with really lame excuses.  You tell government agents that you're definitely absolutely not Superman, and then place a call from your definitely-tapped phone line to a secret number and tell the gravely-voiced Batman-sounding guy on the other end that you're running late to the League meeting.

After a small-time (but vicious) bureaucratic villain got away scot-free during the course of our latest escapade, we met with the NPC that hired us to investigate said fiend.
 
NPC: *still upset, but steadily beginning to cool down* "Merrius will get his due. Every rope has an end."
Me: "Comforting words. Your own?"
NPC: "My father's."
Me: "He must have been a wise man."
NPC: *takes a measured sip of his drink* "He was a hang man."
Me: *takes a swig of ale with nonchalance plastered on my features* "Doubly wise, then."

Cool drawings, Scott.

I drew a lot of Supers back in the 80’s and 90’s but rarely used  skin tight costumes. Pockets pouches or armor were common. My own characters were mostly some variation of armor. But I would draw anything for $20 bucks back then. 

 

NPC: "That was one alias. I have many names. You should..."
Player: "So do porn stars. You'll have to try a lot harder if you want to impress me."

Hey, at least I didn’t say Wildey loves you.... 😛
 
And as for communicators, secure phones/radios with Bluetooth earpieces are always an option. I keep thinking about a headset which combines scrambled comms, a flip-aside HUD and a miniature video camera. The idea is to be able to let everyone see what you can (a la movies like Aliens) and have data able to be projected into your POV without it being overly distracting. 

Choosing the first “modern” option was actually a spur of the moment thing, because I started to thinKing of a scenario where the first superheroes with verifiable “powers beyond mortal ken” appeared a little over two generations ago (the late 60s).

Good work there, Pariah.

How about Redline, after the red line on a car’s tachometer?