Super Hero General

Yeah. Just a quick sketch and color.

Otherwise I'm heading off to bed. I'll pop by to draw new stuff.

How many supers have you played, /shg/? Who was your favorite? If you could actually have the power set of one of them, who would it be?

I'm trapped between the dude I played who could generate and shape hard-light fields or my Marvel Symbiote-styled character--who's power set basically ripped off Agent Venom.

>Does your setting have pre-established heroes? How often do they interact with the players?
It did, yeah. And they interacted with the PCs quite a lot but always as equals, never as superiors.

Let's have more rolling for Cape World.

I made a little table. Roll on it first, then we'll switch to M&M quickstart generator.

Give me a d20!

Rolled 9 (1d20)

Rolling.

Ze Germans!

Okay. Let's get ourselves an archetype. Another d20!

Rolled 6 (1d20)

Oceania can just go get fucked?

Gadgeteer

Let's specify the type more. Another d20!

And here's the book we're using for generation

Mate, d20 ain't made of rubber. It was there but I had to remove it.
Actually, I'll remake the table for d100 later.

Rolled 13 (1d20)

How would you go about making a blow shit up mage in M&M3e? I've never played the system.

The idea I have is for a mage who's young and inexperienced. They CAN do fancy, tricky stuff but when push comes to shove it's just so much easier and more innate to fly about blasting something with raw dark magic.

They are the granddaughter of a Russian woman during WWII who was given a book of spells by Baba Yaga to help defend her nation when it was invaded. Not evil but with a decidedly dark cast to it that makes people think she's an evil mage.

Gimmick: Your genius is concentrated into a particular field of study, such as force fields, cryogenics, radiation, bio-manipulation, or something more esoteric.

What's the most German type of research? Particle physics?

It gives us the following stats:
STR 2
STA 1
AGL 2
DEX 2
FGT 4
INT 9
AWE 4
PRE 1

Let's go for Advantages. Another d20!

>Oceania
Well its a whole series of tiny islands isn't it?

Frankly there is a lot of cool stuff you can hide away there isn't there?

Monster Island, undersea cities, and Secret Skull Shaped Fortresses.

Perhaps a secret skull island base could be abandoned, and have been moved back into by locals.

Rolled 17 (1d20)

Basic stuff:
>Beginner’s Luck
>Eidetic Memory
>Equipment 3 (Headquarters),
>Improvised Tools
>Inventor
>Skill Mastery (Technology)

Headquarters:
>Size : Large
>Toughness : 10
>Features : Communications, Computer, Fire Prevention System, Infirmary, Laboratory, Library, Living Space, Personnel, Power System, Security System, Workshop • 15 points

Well-to-do Inventor: You either inherited wealth or have made money off some of your more mundane inventions.
>Benefit 3 (Millionaire)

Another d20 for skills!

...

>What's the most German type of research? Particle physics?
Psychology.

Though perhaps that's more Austrian..

Rolled 16 (1d20)

I'd argue it's part of Germany but then I'd anger the Von Trapp family.

Everyone in M&M can spend a hero point for a power stunt, basically a one-time use alternate effect for one of their powers.

So if you mostly just blast shit, buy a big old blast (with maybe alternate effects for AoE blasts or penetrating blasts or whatever) and then power stunt when you need to do something fancier.

>Close Combat: Unarmed or Gadgets 6 (CHOOSE!)
>Expertise: Science 10
>Ranged Combat: Gadgets 6
>Technology 10
>Vehicles 4

Infiltrator: You’re stealthy.
>Deception 6
>Sleight of Hand 4
>Stealth 6

Maybe E-M wave physics then?

Let's get some Offensive Powers! d20!

Here's the thing to keep in mind. When building powers in M&M, you're not exactly building the power itself; you're building the final effect of the power. You can fluff your abilities however you want, but all that you need to mechanically worry about is the end result. This is why the Ranged Damage effect (a.k.a. Blast) can be fluffed as fucking anything: an arrow, an eye beam, a fireball, a throwing knife. It's all about how you describe the power, which is what all the additional tags are for.

If you wanna get a little esoteric Architecture and 'Ergonomic' design a la the Bauhaus could be a nice theming element.

Lots of geometric shapes and presumptions on what's "sans-aesthetic".

Though that's like the art history course talking.

More of a Werkstätte man myself.

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>What's the most German type of research?

Rocketry

Gimmick Blaster.

Give me 3 more d20s for its abilities

Rolled 17 (1d20)

Rolling.
This guy gets it.

Imma using this one. 2 more!

So like the Rocketeer but...not like the Nazi Rocketeers in the film reel?

Antiques expert that kitbashes gear out of old Nazi stuff that no one wants to touch and was going to be junked but he saved it at the last moment?

Rolled 15, 16 = 31 (2d20)

I'll take on a name

15-17 are one result, sooo.... Try Again Please

Rolled 12, 9 = 21 (2d20)

I really don't understand why this gadgeteer would not use an array for his powers and put the rest of the PPs into better use with his skills and so on...

Gimmick Blaster
>Array (24 points, plus 3 points of Alternate Effects)
>Easily Removable (-10 points)
>Energy Blast: Ranged Damage 12
>Alt: Ranged Burst Area Damage 8
>Alt: Ranged Affliction 12 (Resisted by Dodge; Vulnerable, Defenseless, Incapacitated)
>Alt: Ranged Cloud Area Affliction 8 (Resisted by Fortitude; Dazed and Visually Impaired, Stunned and Visually Disabled) Extra Condition, Limited Degree

>• 17 points (this cost includes the cost of the Alternate Effects)

All right. d20 for Defensive Powers!

Rolled 17 (1d20)

It's a set of tables, not everything on them is hyperoptimal. Just roll with it.

why, oh why, are the defenses not maxed out? It's like he's asking to be blown to pieces.

Force Field
>Immunity 6 (Critical Hits, Cold, Heat, High Pressure, Radiation)
>Linked to Protection 10
>Sustained
>Removable (-3 points)

>• 13 points

I'm not saying it needs to be minmaxed. Just a little bit more optimal is all.

Give me a d20 for Movement Powers!

Straya, is that you again?

Rolled 9 (1d20)

No, sorry, I don't use names yet.

This would be a good NPC though so that's fine.

So this is an energy gun that can fire itself into a disorienting cloud?

And a force field....

It's a classic set up so far. Energy gun. Force Field device. We're very Buck Rogers so far.

So its either some gimmicky rockets (ones that burst into energy, explode an area, weaken opponents etc.)

Or we might do weird particle physics. considering the force field thing.

Flight Harness
>Flight 5 (60 MPH)
>Removable (-2 points)

>• 8 points

And the last d20 for Innate Powers

Very. This chargen book is really flavorful

That's sort of one of the issues in M&M. You get enough points that there's no reason to not hit your caps everywhere, but that ends up making every character sort of the same.

Like, maybe my power is animal mimicry or intangibility, but I'm going to throw a PL 10 damage effect in their anyway because it only costs like a dozen points depending on how I build it. Or maybe even 1 point if I can make it an alternate effect of something else.

I think M&M would massively benefit from some kind of Shadowrun style priority system for character creation, so characters had to specialize instead of just buying everything at the PL cap.

Looks like you haven't played around with immunities, insubstanciality and so on enough.

Rolled 7 (1d20)

Particle-Powered jetpack.

And we can go all Fritz Lang with the appearance.

Problem with that is, the way combat is set up, your BEST case scenario is that a non-attack has a 75% chance of doing nothing (50% chance to miss, 50% chance they pass their save), and even an attack doesn't have much better odds.

Being below the PL cap aggravates that even more; being at half PL or some shit more or less means you should never try to inflict damage or make them roll a save, ever.

I agree with you, that PL-capping shouldn't be a thing, but you'd have to redefine the combat system first.

Right.

How much of bad form is it to take Immunities in M&M? I'm always a bit hesitant with stuff that is 'No, I win'

Mental Database
>Enhanced Advantage 1 (Assessment)
>Enhanced Skill 2 (Insight 2)

>• 2 points

And here we go.
It would still make sense to choose the type of Close Combat in though

I'll tweak the country table and come back

Immunities aren't really looked at twice, since unless you buy a huge swathe of immunities, the bad guys can just switch to something you aren't immune to.

Even something as broad as Immunity (Will-save effects) doesn't actually mean anything in the grand scope; it's a character statement and little else. "I'm fucking great against THIS type of enemy, and I wasted 30pp against every other type of enemy."

The only Immunity I'd make angry eyes at is Immunity (Damage) because the bruised condition (-1 vs. further Damage) is the only thing that keeps M&M combat from being fucking interminable by EVENTUALLY mounting up enough of a penalty that you go down.

Immunities are a perfectly acceptable form of defense. Being able to say " literally means nothing to me" is the sort of thing you expect in a superheroic story. Salam the Fire Queen being immune to [Fire] makes obvious sense.

Right. I was looking at Immunity(Dark Magic) due to the Protection of Baba Yaga. You do NOT try to meddle in her domain with her toys.

>The only Immunity I'd make angry eyes at is Immunity (Damage) because the bruised condition (-1 vs. further Damage) is the only thing that keeps M&M combat from being fucking interminable by EVENTUALLY mounting up enough of a penalty that you go down.
Even then, you can turn to other sources to bring down the threat, like bindings or mind-based effects. Since you can't beat his face in and have it mean anything, you have to go about it from a different angle. It's basic shit: if something's not working, try something else.

So what are we? A German expressionism robot girl?

Sort of take a twist on the "space adventurer" concept. She's a adventerer from a city of robots, exploring the strange world of the people that created her race.

Maybe that can be another of Cape Germany's "things". They have a lot of robots. Maybe they're the leading experts on robotics? Sense it's problematic to use native supers (because of the fallout if anyone traces their bloodline back to a Nazi super) thy just build supers?

Have her robot home city be big on futurism? Maybe even have her name be something like "Futura"?

Being a robot fits even more with the mental database thing.

There's no guarantee the character is a robutt. All we know is that they're a cunning and tricky gadgeteer with a focus in a particular field, who has access to a multipurpose energy gun, force field device and flight harness.

If we were going to be a robutt, we would've rolled the Construct archetype.

Insubstantial + Immunity to Energy (Limited to Half Effect) is one of my favorite budget immortality methods. Not as blatantly cheesy as reaction speed variable immunity, but still quite strong for its points.

I'm still going to give that character a PL capped offensive power.

Well ideally you'd split things up so that no one could have *every* defense at the highest priority level, so every character would have some weakpoint.

(I'm also of the opinion that if perception range attack powers are okay, then no save attacks should be fair game too. Between attacks, saves, countering, and reactions there are so many rolls required to actually do anything in M&M that it can turn into a bit of a pillow fight.)

I was about to ask if we had any Robot Superheroes.

Plus Germans practically invented robots as far as the popculture idea of them.

Or I guess the Czech did.

True. It sounds more like this might be a guy/gal with more "gadgety" armor/suit, a la Blue Beetle rather than say Iron Man.

I do like the "Germany: Home to Robots" idea.

Ah, never mind then. Maybe we can fluff a robot girl later.

So how about the "antiques dealer Rocketeer" idea?

Professor Futura, the dimensional explorer?

Also, yeah. If she was a robot, she'd be a Construct, there's a mechanical difference

I'm assuming the Caribbean falls under "Other" in S. America?

The difference is that damage is harder to resist (The save DC starts at 15 instead of 10), and failing a toughness save usually makes you more likely to fail more saves because of bruising.

Non-damaging effects can immediately end a fight (Dimension Travel attacks are pretty brutal), but they also only have a 25% chance of sticking against a balanced enemy of equal PL (barring all-out attacks, perception range, etc...). Gambling that your save-or-die gets lucky before theirs does is not something you want to escalate towards.

There used to be Central America... had to delete it. But we can interpret "South America" as "The rest of Americas"
Also, you might notice there's NO AFRICA

Rolling.

As much as I do love robot girls. I do think it'd be nice to go the Johnny Five/Iron Giant route, dangerous inhuman war machine that learns to love life.

Oh, yeah. D100 please!

Rolled 1 (1d20)

So much for rolling.

Professor Futura is an anthropologist, naturally.

A lot of robots in fiction are curious about humans because the want to be human. Not Futura. She finds us incredibly interesting, and the world outside her robot city fascinates her, but she doesn't want to be a human girl.

Another bit of German Fluff: Say that genetic experiments on the population gave a small percent the ability to manifest super powers. Think an artificial metagene/ X-gene.

What this means is that if you're a "German Mutant" with this gene you're allowed to act with your powers if there is an immediate danger to yourself and others-but not a step beyond that. No costumes. No names. No identity, secret or otherwise. A lot of German heroes are "angels in disguise" because no one wants to admit to saving the day with a super gene Nazi scientists injected their grandparents with. And god help you if you think you can market your powers. You aren't allowed to profit off Nazi gifts. You aren't even allowed to use them outside "pressing and immediate danger to yourself and others".

There are support groups of "non-superhero" superheroes in Germany who feel frustrated by being unable to use their powers to the fullest but still want to make a difference. You can have really cute things like an underground handyman team that'll construct a house in a hour by combining their powers and do it for nothing for people that need it, then vanish into the night. Like vigilante Social Services. They want to use their powers to help and they will, government bans or no.

GO TO FUCKING HELL BASTION. I AM SICK OF SEEING THREE OF YOU ON A FUCKING TEAM.

...sorry, venting a bit there.

Wrong die

Why not both? I imagine there are several little "robot cities" in Germany.

>A lot of robots in fiction are curious about humans because the want to be human. Not Futura. She finds us incredibly interesting, and the world outside her robot city fascinates her, but she doesn't want to be a human girl.
She's not a robot. The closest she might be is a Vision-like artificial human
Otherwise she'd have to have no STA rating

Post war Germany's greatest hero was a secret robot, and after he was outed instead of being feared by Germans he was embraced and loved and Germany became robot crazy afterwards?

Rolled 45 (1d100)

I've made a huge mistake. My bad.

Here have a different robot.
I haven't really played much of Overwatch beta. Been busy. How is it user?

Futura isn't what we rolled. We're still undecided on that (although I think we might go with antiques dealer if no one objects). Futura is just some extra fluff.

>Eastern Europe
SUPER SLAV! SUPER SLAV! SUPER SLAV!

Eastern Europe.

Give me a d20 for Archetype

Rolled 17 (1d20)

Oh boy, I'm all out of ideas for Cape Eastern Europe.

Has there EVER been an Eastern Europe cape? Like EVER?

Veeky Forums ate my image.
Either that or I forgot.
I am ashamed of myself.
I can live with artificial human.
Just means we go with Osamu Tezuka's instead of Fritz Lang's Metropolis.
Hell we can even go with "Human Raised by Robots from Birth" for maximum weirdness.
But going by we can save the robot hero for later.

Pietro and Wanda Maximoff

Totem
>The Totem is a superhero whose powers are closely tied to a particular animal.

Let's get another d20 for specific origin

creator of Overlord Darkness here, once again you've done something lovely

yeah if I'm not using a pre-existing Supers Setting, then I populate it with versions of old Public Domain Superheroes from the Golden Age

I'd honestly suggest dropping the Other category from the Middle East and maybe Europe and add another country slot for Asia, at the very least India should be on there

also I mentioned this in the last thread and it didn't get noticed;

should there be a Guild of Calamitous Intent style group for the villains in the United States?(if there is, I'd suggest playing up the Labor/Trade Union aspects even harder than Venture Brothers does)

could be one of those things in the setting that people note as being kinda ironic, the German and Japanese Supers communities being close due to both having a higher than average amount of Supers whose powers or even existence are artificial in nature

also I figure it's less bloodline shame, and more that much like Japan, by the end of the war very few German Supers were alive, and most of the remaining few ended up defecting to either the Americans or the Soviets and thus left Germany forever, so both countries are relatively starved of "Natural" Supers

A Czech totemic. Oh boy.

>I'd honestly suggest dropping the Other category from the Middle East and maybe Europe and add another country slot for Asia, at the very least India should be on there
Thanks for the critique. It's important.
And see for a (hopefully) better table

Pretty damn fun. Bastion is just a particular sticking point for me right now because he's a tad too good. You really need a good sniper in order to deal with Bastion and he's got the rate of fire to take out most snipers faster than they can take him out if he spots them.

Though I think I'm mostly bitter due to all the 'Rheinhart's fire strike is great against bastion because he can't dodge it' tips I get whenever Rheinhart dies. Despite what the devs think, the hard counter does NOT go in that direction. He'd be a lot better if his turret mode actually had a limited turning rate to make it not objectively his best option all the time.

Aside from Bastion though it's a hell of a fun game with a lot of fun characters. My only real non-bastion complaint is the end-of-match 'Play of the Game' only takes into account pure offence. So Mercy rezzing all four teammates for a sudden turnabout doesn't show up there or Mei blocking off an objective with an ice wall in the last 3 seconds of the game to stop it being stolen.

Well, if you count russia there's been tons.

If a character's a vampire, they'll probably be from Romania.

And good ol' Doctor Doom is from a fictitious Eastern European country if that counts.

Rolled 10 (1d20)

Okay. Imma roll myself then.

>What this means is that if you're a "German Mutant" with this gene you're allowed to act with your powers if there is an immediate danger to yourself and others-but not a step beyond that. No costumes. No names. No identity, secret or otherwise. A lot of German heroes are "angels in disguise" because no one wants to admit to saving the day with a super gene Nazi scientists injected their grandparents with. And god help you if you think you can market your powers. You aren't allowed to profit off Nazi gifts. You aren't even allowed to use them outside "pressing and immediate danger to yourself and others".
>There are support groups of "non-superhero" superheroes in Germany who feel frustrated by being unable to use their powers to the fullest but still want to make a difference. You can have really cute things like an underground handyman team that'll construct a house in a hour by combining their powers and do it for nothing for people that need it, then vanish into the night. Like vigilante Social Services. They want to use their powers to help and they will, government bans or no.
eh much like some of the stuff suggested initially for Japan, just doesn't feel right, a bit too oppressive and grim, instead I'd suggest that German Supers, at least those that become heroes, tend to be less flashy about it than American or Japanese heroes are, their outfits tend towards the practical(capes are a bit of a cultural taboo), still recognizable as Superhero clothes/uniforms, but more in the Morrison X-Men era vein than the usual Superhero outfits, overall due to how over the top and impractically Nazi era Supers tended to dress(one of the major Superhero websites did a 100 worst dressed Supers of all time lists recently, and 7 of the top 20 were from Nazi era Germany, including the number 2 slot)

Invocation
>You were granted your powers by calling upon the animal spirits.

STR 4
STA 4
AGL 2
DEX 2
FGT 4
INT 0
AWE 4
PRE 2

Give me a d20 for Advantages!

Rolled 8 (1d20)

hmm I'd say the numbers for China and Japan should be swapped, way I see it in terms of Supers population, it goes US in first place, Japan in second, and then everyone else pretty much as you have it(kinda feel China would be one of those countries where up until the mid to late 90's it sucked hard to be a Super for a bunch of reasons, so they have a surprisingly small Super population for a country of their size, with 99% of their Supers living in Hong Kong and making it very clear they want nothing to do with the mainland government, and are fully prepared to turn Hong Kong into a "Genosha" should they try to interfere with their business)

Rolled 14 (1d20)

Here you go.

What kind of animal spirits can we work with?
Bats, Wolves, Aurochs?