Playing M&M

Alfred's a pretty high-tier confidante and has done some fairly impressive things (in one issue of Grant Morrison's Batman run, Robin refers to Alfred repairing virtually the entire Wayne Manor over the course of about a week armed only with a toolbox and the Beatles' Greatest Hits). The standard for what constitutes superheroics gets a little gray around Batman anyway, since he's supposed to not have any powers and all. If Robin counts as a superheroic sidekick, I'd say Alfred's certainly a superheroic butler.

Also:
>Nobody around green lantern gained superpowers.

What about Carol Ferris, though?

>Carol Ferris
She was a long time love interest so she's excluded from the criteria
>Unless they're a love interest

It's a page out of the John Wick school of GMing. If you have any kind of Background or Flaw on your character sheet, he'll find a way to exploit it for cheap heat and/or to make the PC break and effectively non-playable.

Who's to say he didn't do both?

A twist like that is pretty much a staple of superhero comics. Sounds to me like the GM is running with the character of the setting.

Well, who would have better reason to kill you than somebody who hated your guts for years?
As for the superpowers - you're playing capeshit, these things just happen.

>rival
op is faggot
This thread is now about awesome GMs who introduce personal drama into their games

>but it's fairly difficult to pull off.
It's not difficult at all.

>Decides to give childhood rival superpowers out of nowhere
Not too crazy, happens all the time in super settings. Usually it's not a problem.
> convoluted reason to kill me
Details please.

It's hard to tell how to go about it. A good GM will try to include features of your backstory. A bad GM will take control over features of your backstory, when it's the singular part of the story you have some control over. It's an easy mistake to make if you look for some GMing tips and just roll with the idea without thinking about it. You have to make sure your players are okay with you advancing their backstory like that

didn't alfred beat the shit out of superman at some point? as in, to the point of kicking him hard enough to literally blow up his shoe, without hurting his foot. dude's got SOMETHING up with him if not powers.
still, that user is being dumb

Injustice: Gods Among Us: the comic. I don't know exactly what went down there but the plot involved a pill that could give people powers, possibly superman's own powers at that.

>Why do GMs do this?
Because you are playing a superhero game, man.

Your rival could only pop up again in a hand full of situations, really:
>With Powers as an Ally
>With Powers as an Enemy
>As someone you rescue

For you.

It would still be pretty hamfisted. Going from "we didn't like each other as kids" to "this person wants to murder me for real" is a huge leap. And shoehorning in them getting super powers to make them a threat is inelegant at best.

Not canon and in an awful comic series

Cape stuff is almost always inelegant. It really depends on the tone of the game, to be honest. In a lighthearted style early superman thing it wouldn't be out of place much, it the newer, grittier style of comics it would be a little weird.
Also, who's to say the old friend didn't have some other motivation? All we know from OP is that he got superpowers and tried to kill him. Maybe there's ideological differences behind it, or one of them is just a huge dick.

sounds fucking great, I would kill for a GM who acknowledged my character or incorporated my ideas into any part of the story instead of the usual fucking pre-written railroad city

Come on user, if they are playing by genre conventions then "Getting evil superpowers" and "Going from douche to homicidal maniac" are practically synonymous.

But i am not necessarily saying that OP has to be in the wrong here, but the fact that he gives it a whole two lines leaves way to much room for speculation.
I can see scenarios where OP could be right in his critique, but my experience tells me that the less info there is given, the more likely the poster is actually in the wrong.

Or you know
>With out Powers as an Ally like Alfred or April O'niel
>With out Powers as an Enemy like Lex Luther
>As some one you interact with outside of combat (I know that's probably hard to wrap your head around, not being in combat in a RPG by try to imagine it.)

I agree that it's in line with comics trope, but the GM is still being kinda lazy. Coming up ways for a rival without powers to challenge a super hero leads to interesting scenarios, especially when the challenge is of the nature the hero can't blast with his powers.

Two of the three you mentions could be arguably called powered.
(Note that i wrote "With power" and not "super powered" in my post)
Lex Luthor with his money and influence. (Plus hes always able to get Cryptonite when the plot demands it)
And Alfred i would argue is just as powered as all the other regulars of the Batfamily.

>With out
>Some one
user.

Sorry you probably missed the implied "and be relevant to the game". Because either you have powers, you are in need of rescue, or you are little more than window dressing. Of course enough money is basically a superpower in its own right.

It might have been interesting if the rival had recognized the character's alter ego and started trying to take advantage of that some how. And to soften the annoyance of that also try to help the character out if only so they could continue to benefit from having a superpowered "friend".

>you can only be relevant to the game if you are directly involved in combat
That is probably one of the most muderhobo-y things I've ever seen.

Why do you play with John Wick shit?

He's a weeaboo copying anime.
AssClass and Hero Academy did it.

That recent Batman game did it with The Penguin

Green Goblin also surely counts as a possible influence?

Sure, its a genre trope what the GM did (and inherently tripe to some degree)
But there isn't that much which a non-powered can threaten a powered that's not either some kind of extortion (concerning their secret identity, skeletons in their closet or their family members, all of which are just as trite as the thing OP is complaining about) or mundane.

>recognized the character's alter ego and started trying to take advantage of that some how
Wow, how original!
Then the OP would have been this:

>Playing M&M
>GM notices I have a childhood rival
>Decides childhood rival know my alter ego out of nowhere and has a convoluted plan to blackmail me
Why do GMs do this?

Yep.

Blackmail isn't the only way to get some one to do something. Taking advantage of a situation doesn't have to be overtly antagonistic. The rival could easily try to sway them with some sob-story.

>complaining that a M&M game is full of tropes and cliches
Why do retards do this?

Childhood rival.
Rival.

It is reasonable as DM, as a quick jump in logic to link it to "To make so that the rivarly may continue, I need to put them on the same level".
So it gives him superpowers.
The other step...eh, not necessary. I believe it would work alright if it was less for killing you, as much as "outdo" you.
The GM that decides on the killing plotline, is either to go all the way down the rivalry issue, or to attempt to shake a bit things around.
A GM's job is to attempt to get everyone to have fun. He likely thought it would had been interesting and would had gotten you more involved into the game. If this is something that you find unpleasant, probably you should discuss with your GM what is right, and what isn't right with you.

>John Wick school of GMing

His way of killing players with supernatural immunity to diseases by declaring that this new disease ignores disease immunity while also ruling that the same disease immunity renders your character unable to be cured always makes me laugh.

Just use Iron heart surge

Wait, really? What the fuck? This can't be real.

It could be worse. He could have gotten superpowers and decided to become a superhero dedicated to constantly upstaging you and making you look like a chump and lose out on your superhero funding/merchandise money. Then you can't even go and kick the shit out of him without looking like a total wang.

>not having the rival be a normie
>not making him/her incredibly jealous
>not having them make a shady deal with the big bad for power(s)
>not having mutated rival then confront hero
>not having thr hero unable to recognize them
>not having the hero redeem their rival
Step up your game

Better than forgotten and never seen again, I'd say.

>Playing M&M
>GM notices I have a dead childhood friend
>GM brings them back from the dead and makes them a brainwashed superhuman ala Winter Soldier

>playing M&M
>realize the setting relies entire on cliches
>still get salty af when the GM uses one of these many cliches

Just because almost all comics are garbage doesn't mean that your game has to be too.

Page 12 of john wick's Play Dirty

Immunity gives a character supernatural immunity to diseases and poisons. It’s a very popular advantage. Of course, Mr. Carter had to do something about that.
I had his scientists come up with a disease that would kill off anyone with the “super gene” that meta-humans had. Carter had a cure, of course. The only problem was all those super fellows who bought Immunity were, well, immune to it.

So what he did was completely ignore the advantage when it would apply to help the hero and only apply it when it would harm the hero.

If your game is based on garbage because people want to play in that garbage then in should, in fact, be garbage.

Even better man, make the Rival a Superhero. One that's, you know. An actual, wants to help people Good Guy.

That just happens to constantly do something just that little bit more impressive, or gets better press coverage, or is more popular.

It'll irritate your players to no end.

I prefer to give the childhood rival a power suit instead.

That's not good GMing. That's just spiteful. "Oh you're immune to all diseases, artificial and natural? Well not this one."

The worst part is that the "john wick" GM is a common archetype among GMs.

The reason for a character to have a backstory/rival/love interest/weakness is to invite the GM to make it an element in the story. You should be happy they actually used your hook rather than ignoring it entirely.

Oh, you're irked that they weren't original or creative enough with how to use your special snowflake narrative? Then get your own ass behind the GM screen if you're so damn talented.