Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 06-19-2019, 09:56 PM   #1
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Minor League Supers [Powers/Supers]

One of the more interesting type characters to me is the Minor League Super (my definition would be a 250 CP super). Such a super may be the protector of a large neighborhood or a small town, the type of superhero who is known and respected by their neighbors, at least until they come up against a problem their power level cannot handle. Alternatively, they may a supervillian who targets a large neighborhood or small town, either as a tinpot autocrat or a Robin Hood type character. In either case, their stories can be much more interesting than the stories of more powerful supers.

What type of Minor League Supers have you created or played? What is the attraction of such characters to you? Would you be willing to share your Minor League Super?
AlexanderHowl is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-19-2019, 11:07 PM   #2
Phantasm
 
Phantasm's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
Default Re: Minor League Supers [Powers/Supers]

Ghost

Real Name: Tanya Riggs.
Uniform: White bodysuit, billowing white hooded tattered cloak, white featureless full-face mask.
Powers: Insubstantiality (Can Carry Objects: Light Encumbrance; No Vertical Movement; Partial; Reflexive; Super; Temp Disad: Vulnerability to Gas Attacks x2); Invisibility (Switchable; Super).
Weapons: 9mm semi-auto pistol, paired escrima sticks.

Ghost is one of those characters I never actually get to play because the GM I present her to claims to not be able to handle the combination. Basically, I see her as equal parts Shadowcat and Invisible Kid.
__________________
"Life ... is an Oreo cookie." - J'onn J'onzz, 1991

"But mom, I don't wanna go back in the dungeon!"

The GURPS Marvel Universe Reboot Project A-G, H-R, and S-Z, and its not-a-wiki-really web adaptation.
Ranoc, a Muskets-and-Magery Renaissance Fantasy Setting
Phantasm is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-20-2019, 12:06 AM   #3
Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2
 
Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: The deep dark haunted woods
Default Re: Minor League Supers [Powers/Supers]

This is a character I saw mentioned in passing in a webcomic called Everyday Heroes (which has a number of small-town super-hero types in it). I felt she was the very essence of the C-list small-town super-being.

Cool Hand Lucy

Name: Lucy Van Dorne
Skills/Profession: Small-town police officer, self-defense instructor
Description: Pale blonde with pixie cut, blue eyes, slender, Minnesota accent.
Costume: Pale blue domino mask, short white cape, white body suit with blue cutouts.

Powers: Innate Attack/Fatigue 3 [Contact Agent -30%] (21 pts)
Temperature Control 3 [Reduced Time 3 +60%; Cold Only -50%] (17 pts)
Temperature Tolerance 20 [Cold Only -50%] (10 pts)

(Cool Hand Lucy can lower the temperature around her by 8 degrees per second, lowering it by 60 degrees total. With a touch she can induce hypothermia in a person, incapacitating or knocking out most normal people. She can also withstand unnaturally cold temperatures.)

Lucy has no secret identity but has a masked costume because that's what people expect. She works as a police officer in a county-seat sized community (around 10,000 population), teaches a self-defense course, and does occasional jobs elsewhere. She often protects court witnesses as her powers make her ideally suited to incapacitate unarmed attackers, and she is usually called out when people are lost in winter conditions.
__________________
"When you talk about damage radius, even atomic weapons pale before that of an unfettered idiot in a position of power."
- Sam Starfall from the webcomic Freefall

Last edited by Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2; 07-11-2019 at 02:20 PM.
Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-20-2019, 04:31 AM   #4
Astromancer
 
Astromancer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
Default Re: Minor League Supers [Powers/Supers]

One low points supervillain in one of my games was an elderly Mage who specialized in mind reading and subtle memory alterations. He stole information and sold it to the highest bidder. Not a threat in himself but a cause of chaos and violence in others.
__________________
Per Ardua Per Astra!


Ancora Imparo
Astromancer is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 06-20-2019, 08:51 PM   #5
Infornific
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Default Re: Minor League Supers [Powers/Supers]

The attraction is playing characters who are exceptional and outclass ordinary competition but still can be challenged by mundane forces. The problem you can get with higher powered characters is that they can be effectively immune to anything short of fully equipped soldiers.

250 is the starting level for GURPS Action so this is closer to cinematic level than classic superhero. Leverage would make a good model for this kind of campaign. It's basically a superhero show minus the spandex.
Infornific is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-20-2019, 09:28 PM   #6
a humble lich
 
Join Date: Jun 2017
Default Re: Minor League Supers [Powers/Supers]

It is a bit above the level under discussion, but I ran a low powered supers game that was successful. The PCs were 350 points and it was set around a group of crime fighters in 1930s Paris.

I agree that the attraction is that you have PCs that are threatened by fairly ordinary people. The foes that the PCs fought in this game often were often frug dealers or organized crime thugs. Their motivation wasn't to stop an alien invasion, but rather to stop a new gang bringing heroin into Paris.

There are a lot of classic superheroes that are basically at this level. Many Batman or Daredevil stories are at this level, where Batman is going after thugs and organized crime. (Of course, there are other Batman stories where he is much more capable and is probably well over 1000 points.) Most of the characters from the show Heroes were probably about 250 points.

(Now by the end of my campaign, the PCs had grown to over 400 points, and they were no longer low powered. Instead of drug dealers, they were fighting KGB super assassins and elite white Russians who had taken Nazi super-soldier serum. The campaign started of low level though.)
a humble lich is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-20-2019, 09:50 PM   #7
David Johnston2
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Default Re: Minor League Supers [Powers/Supers]

The Dead Boyz are a superpowered street gang made of youths most of whom found themselves unwelcome after they manifested their powers. They have carved out a small territory for themselves on the border between two large gangs, both of whom are a bit reluctant to take on supervillains...even though the Boyz are comparative lightweights who could be taken down by guys with guns if put to the test.

DOA is the leader. He has good reflexes and retractable poison claws.

Big Bad is the lieutenant. He's a humanoid werewolf, with mildly superhuman strength and decent hit points. He heals fast but not instantly.

Suicide Girl is DOA's girlfriend. She is Unkillable.

Bloody Mary has a strange relationship with mirrors. She can see through them to other mirrors, make them violently shatter, or project duplicates through to the other side.

Shiv has the power to telekinetically control his knife...that's it.

B-Devil wears a Halloween devil mask spray painted blue. He can give other people a terrible feeling of sadness.

Bandit lost an arm to trying to steal the wrong mystic artifact. Now at the end of his stump he can manifest replacement arms made out of the four elements. The fire arm can shoot fire. The water arm can put out fires and knock people over with it's fire-hose like power. The stone arm hits hard and has good DR. And the air arm...well just isn't very useful. Unless there's a heat wave.

Dead Earnest is a zombie left over from an abortive zombie apocalypse who regained his free will and some of his intelligence after the necromancer was defeated.

The Dead Boyz occasionally encounter a superhero who operates in the territory of one of the nearby gangs, Tarantula Hawk or "T-Hawk". She's a gadgeteer with extremely limited financial resources, so she has a suit of "powered armour" that is good enough to protect against low calibre pistols but not much more, can fly at about 30 mph, and is armed with an electric "sting".
David Johnston2 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
supers

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 04:15 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.