I need some diverse 'supers' character ideas

I'm plotting out a future mutants and masterminds campaign for some friends. For those of you not familiar, it's essentially Dungeons and Dragons but with Superheroes instead. It's quite a neat, flexible system that supports the majority of power sets you can think of.

The problem is, I've hit a wall on thinking up potential major NPC's for it. So far, I've got a telepath with some serious power control issues, planned to be an AoE debuffer and disabler who's got little control over how and when his powers go off. I've got a mind reader with photographic memory, so they'll essentially rapidly become an expert in whatever they encounter. A character who can mimic others power sets. Another who's part of a reality show squad and is intended to just be annoying, thinking speedsterish works for that. But that's about it.

Currently, I've got two parts of the campaign story rough drafted. An initial 'awakening' of powers and the subsequent reactions. Nothing revolutionary in terms of story telling, super powers abruptly become a thing in the world and it leads to fairly widespread confusion as people start going on power trips. Superhero's (including the players) become a thing shortly after to try and curb the worst of the chaos. Genius mind reader is going to be the mastermind behind this first act, but right at the end of it I'm planning to reveal that there's an organisation behind the sudden awakening of powers, and that those with potentially world changing powers (such as being able to generate unlimited energy, or being able to cure diseases en mass) have been deliberately assassinated before they could even begin using their powers, leaving only those with flashy, but non-revolutionary powers behind. The key here is that genius mind reader is not a part of this faction and, having discovered this, intends to try to discover who is behind it. As a result, they lose their motivation to fight the heros. I'll be honest, this reveal is pretty much ripped straight from a superhero webcomic I read, but I know that the people who'll be playing don't read it, and I like the story implications, so I'm keeping it.

Second act is going to be about how super powers integrate into society after the initial rash of supervillains. And how would that work in western culture? Showbusiness. It'll mostly act as a backdrop to the players investigation into who's behind the appearance of powers, but the idea is to have stuff going on with corporations looking to turn a profit on metahumans. I'm thinking there'll be a team of heroes existing purely for reality show purposes, the aforementioned speedster belonging to that, maybe a televised gladiatorial tournament type thing with a prize fund for the winner. Stuff along those lines.

The second act is going to see fewer active villains, though not none at all, whilst the first act carries the higher risk of genuine danger to civilians. The second act may lead into a civil war 'restriction of all metahumans' deal, but I'm still in two minds on that.

So to bring this back around, I could use suggestions for NPC's for both acts. If you want to suggest powers, motivations, or a combination of both, I'd appreciate it!

 

what are you using for inspiration?

the flash, gotham, legends of tomorrow, tiger and bunny?

 

None of the above. I've used Hunter x Hunter a bit, as well as the aforementioned webcomic and RWBY. But honestly, I'm open to ideas from whatever. I'm open to grimdark ideas, as well as silly light hearted ideas. There'll be places for characters anywhere on the spectrum.

 

well tiger and bunny has superheroes who get sponsored by companies and fight crime while being filmed reality tv style and one of the main characters ends up losing his powers slowly.

the best thing about the flash and legends of tomorrow is the alternate dimension and timeline shenanigans:

timeline and dimensional shenanigans are responsible for the best team-up stories aswell


edit: what about Heroes and Heroes reborn? your mind reader photo memory copier sounds like one character in one of the bad later seasons of heroes.
edit^2 this one:

 

Not so much a speed reader as a mind reader

I don't particularly want to delve into alternate dimensions as that kind of power falls under the 'world altering' stuff that has explicitly been eliminated. Sponsored heroes sounds like a thing, particularly for act 2.

 

Part of this depends on how "realistic" you want the world to be. Comic-book "science" obviously, but, for example the first act is the "awakening" and the like.

How "real" do you want people with and without these sudden powers to react to this tremendous change? And within that, how "Dark" or "Light-hearted" do you and your players want such a campaign to be (note that a tendency towards one does not preclude elements or moments of the other)?

How subtle or blunt would the "organization" behind it be in trying to shape events? (What else are they involved in even before hatching their plan?) What is even their motivation? How would they and the world likely react if their plans are revealed/fulfilled/thwarted in secret?

I think when it comes to thinking up a "second act" it's also important to leave room for anything "unexpected" that might come out of the players for the first act.

I also wouldn't worry too much about planning too far beyond the second act before the first is done. If the players "win" by destroying NYC for example (or your regional/in-universe equivalent) that might have much different consequences to your plans than if they saved they day from behind the scenes with no one publicly knowing what all was going on.

As far as source material... eh, I've mostly been just reading manga in terms of Super Hero stuff, and watching CW stuff which is boring me more and more but a time waster.

*shrug*

One thing I've always liked about One Piece was how, sort of... interpretations? Or "alternative" uses of otherwise very specific properties were stretched around and really put to their limits. A lot of them are just silly and stupid. But, for example Luffy's use of being a Rubber Man tends to be much more impressive than anything I've seen from Reed Richards do with his power (granted, I never read much of the Fantastic 4, and of course the powers are different in nature). While the style of power and the tone of the comic might not fit your campaign, it could be a good source of inspiration for how characters might try and stretch the limitations of their powers or effectively redefine their usage, which might help define characters even if they end up with the same power, their mentality and ideas take them in different directions.

Anyway, just a thought.

 

I know,I reread your post and edited. but I think I did nail it as the copycat type hero as seen in heroes right?

anyways you are going to make it hard on yourself if you want your superhero toast but don't want the superhero butter.

Oh I just remembered, something else where powers are used for shenanigans.

powers are there because of a comet passing, and abilities dissapear with age,
it later does get timetravel but then that gets disabled also main character actually steals powers while possesing. main character then travels the world going nuts and possesing everyone to stop people being experimented on, discected or used for evil.

 

Plastic man is best "rubber" - powered person

 

The setting is essentially modern. I figure a fairly realistic reaction would work well. So you get governments suddenly having to deal with the appearance of what are essentially human weapons, people getting to enact their power fantasies (either as heroes or villains), and probably a full range of responses from the civilian population from "Wow, they're so cool! And awesome for saving us!" all the way through to "These people are dangerous and should be killed for the sake of everyone". The latter opinion in particular would be most dangerous to those metahumans with relatively weak power sets, and would leave those metahumans that are most dangerous more or less ignored.

The organisation responsible for it all is going to be subtle as hell. I'm planning to drop very minor hints as to their existence in the first act, ideally stuff that will only be noticeable in hindsight. I kinda want to leave the group in the dark on a lot of what the organisation is, and to be honest I've not hammered out much about it yet aside from its existence. It might be rogue government elements, it might be mad scientists, it might just be one guy. The only thing for sure about them is that they have global reach.

The campaign is still a good year or so away by my estimate, so I've got time to work out setting details. Mostly I just could use inspiration for NPC's

 

What the


I'll never get that role playing stuff.

 

I'm running a different campaign currently, I think they've still got a year or so before they finish it, but I've had ideas rattling around in my head so I want to play around with concepts a bit.

 

what the

 

Rough estimate, I'm running an adventure path, based on their rate of progress I think it's not an unreasonable estimate.

 

The Reckoners/Steelheart book series would have some great content for you. If you dont want to read them http://the-reckoners.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Epics has a list of the powered individuals.

 

What about someone with super strength, but also perfect balance. The kind of character that could stack bowling balls with a giant boulder at the top to lay a trap for his enemies.

 

As long as there is no wind he is unstopable... as long as there is no winds and his enemies walk into an obivious trap.... As long as there is no wind and a lot of bowling balls and a boulder around and his enemies walk into an obvious trap he wiill be unstopable.

 

Well, since you're going for a "realistic" approach, with "awakened" powers I think the best approach is to go with a basic human, and then add in reaction to it. I'm not sure if the Powers are based on personality (a reflection of a person's inner qualities for example), genetics, randomized (not based on anything in particular), or whatever (which can make for interesting discussions itself). If the "Organization" is behind it they should have a reason for doing it (even if it's accidental, like the creation of TMNT for example, there should be a reason for the risk. That "goal" might inform you as to the nature of the Power manifestation. And, likewise, the means of the Awakening and whether or not it can be replicated or even applied to an individual multiple times (and thus loading them up with powers... though that can also create it's own complications especially if it's "random" and thus resulting in conflicting abilities).

Which matters because different people will react differently to different powers. Someone who gets gills that can let them breath under water might be horrified at the idea if they are a vain supermodel but might be fascinated by it if they are the spiritual descendent of Jacques Cousteau or something.

Likewise, Super Strength might be something that most people would get excited about. But others might become extremely afraid of accidentally exerting too much force (or even experienced a situation where that happened, scarring them mentally). Rogue of the X-Men, for example, accidentally harmed people she greatly cared about, and developed intense intimacy issues as a result. On the other hand, there are undoubtedly people that would revel in being able to drain others of their energy/life (we call them psychopaths, but they are totally out there).

There are a lot of different possibilities for characters when you have their base personality, and add on to that the sudden gaining of specific powers, even (especially?) if those powers aren't unique, the variety of reactions, and the variety of initial experiences with those powers, can create a vast array of potential resultant characters.

The Anime and Manga "My Hero Academy" is a shounen-styled Hero thing, but it actually deals with a world where there are many people born with "quirks/super powers." As well as some of the ways in which the use of "quirks' are regulated (generally only licensed "heroes" can use them for combat for example, and there are strict penalties for people that use them for anything but necessary self defense [and even then there can be problems]). Of course, it is still a society which mostly embraces "heroes" and "quirks", so such things might be much more draconian in a society which hasn't acclimated to the existence of such things yet. Obviously the story focuses more on the aspirant Heroes that go to the titular Hero Academy, but it does provide some looks at life for those that don't become Heroes, as well as "quirkless" humans, albeit not as in depth as some might like.

Not "Super Powers" (though a DC property) but The Books of Magic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Books_of_Magic has a really interesting sequence near the beginning where Tim is introduced to a wide variety of characters and their different approaches to Magic and a brief bit of how it affected their lives. It's also a very well done series in general, so if you can get it, I recommend it regardless.

(This also brings up the question of whether or not you want Actual Magic in your campaign, and if so, what kinds and how much. Marvel's film universe has largely avoided direct Magic by hand-waving it as Alien-Super-Powers or tech or leaving it undefined, but supposedly they'll have Dr. Strange in there at some point. DC's CW universe avoided Magic until the recent season of Arrow [it also avoided actual Super Powers in the first season of Arrow, though it since embraced them].)



If all of this is simply too much general, nebulous possibilities, focus on the people that are most likely to make themselves known or be encountered in the outset of the campaign. And, of course, the specific individual(s) that are likely to move behind the scenes (for the betterment or the detriment of the party). Charicatures rather than characters are perfectly fine to start with, so long as you don't get overly stuck on them during the course of the adventure itself.

Do the characters have any family or friends outside of each other (if applicable)? If so, how would they react? What about the character's employers (or teachers)? Are they powered? Are they normal? Of course plenty of that can be worked out with the players themselves as they design their characters.

What force united the players, and got them working together (whether directly organizing them or indirectly providing a common enemy)?

 

Probably won't have literal magic, though there will probably be psionics present, which makes the distinction a bit wooly. Also, while I do genuinely appreciate the advice people are giving on the setting, it's amusing to see the actual question of "What characters can you think of" get dodged in such a convoluted way

 

I mean, I could say: "Hey, how about you have a guy that shoots laser beams out of his eyes?"

But that's not a character, it's just a vague description of an ability. Maybe it could serve as inspiration. Maybe it'll just remind you that X-Men exists. Or Superman. (as an example of completely different characters that both fit that description)

Fleshed out characters are difficult to come up with, and, frankly, I'd rather use them in one of my books or something. Besides; as I've indicated before I don't really know enough about what kind of story you want to tell, or your players want to tell, and that's really where a lot of stuff gets fleshed out. "In X situation, what would this character do and why?"

But part of this is also me making assumptions that you're already going to include some tropes. People that act like a Hero in the wake of their newfound power. Plucky kids. Emo kids. People terrified of what they have become and/or what others have become. And the details of the powers aren't necessary to set out in the beginning when designing that character.

The Plucky kids can have almost any power. An Emo kid stuck with the ability to make Rainbow Beams in care-bear fashion (though not necessarily dependent on their positive attitude or whatever) would be potentially hilarious, but it's hardly the only possible combination and still doesn't say much about who they are other than "emo" whatever that means to you.

 

definatly have someone with a flashy sprinkles/rainbow/confetti power to use sarcastically!