Creative super powers

In cape games what makes a super power interesting? limits? drawback? non combat applications?

some examples

a healer who "heals" by creating a save state of someones body and resetting if they take too much damage(only one save at a time and that person would lose all memories and items acquired since the last save)

or a teleporter who can only teleport through bodys of water with a secondary power that allows him to sense water in the area.

or SouthPaw, a hero who has superman levels of strength and durability but only in his left arm he can also fire a powerful lazer from his palm.

can Veeky Forums help me come up with some more interesting powers.

Go read worm.

It has powers that are exactly what you are looking for.

> what makes a super power interesting? limits? drawback? non combat applications?

all three.
I played in a game where one guy was almost Superman, but his powers were based off of electricity and magnetism. He could fly, manipulate humongus metal things like ships, teleport through phone and powerlines, and broadcast his voice through everything with a speaker on the planet.
He was 17, and wore a Boy Scout Uniform.

That or Jojo

Literally Superman Blue.

Healer is called
>savescummer
>speedrun
>emulator

Both good ideas

The system I really liked for this sort of thing was HERO.

The powers are just mechanical effects you buy for points, but the fluff behind them is up to you. So you can do whatever, but the mechanical effects are limited by points so it stays relatively balanced.

One character could make things heavier or lighter (specifics were some density/gravity manipulation). He came up with an attack where he'd go light, jump high into the air, become super-heavy (and tough) and crush anything beneath him. Or do the same throwing something (or someone).

Also he'd make people light and then flick them into the sky. Or make their equipment heavy, pinning them to the ground. Once he grabbed someone, went to MAXIMUM DENSITY for himself, and 'fell' through a skyscraper, dragging the unfortunate grabbed character with him.

It was a straight up slugathon villain-of-the-week campaign but man it had some great fights.

Either that powerset had very strict limitations or the player had very little imagination, he could've been casually creating black holes and causing atomic explosions if he wanted

I'll forgive you for your ignorance - of course Satan doesn't know how physics work.
The nuke would irradiate the surrounding area and everything in it. Not good if youre, well, anywhere.
The black hole would destroy the Earth.
Then again, Satan does seem the type to go "lol Create Water in your lungs"

Yeah, but in a hammy game ( which is the only correct way to do superpowers) that's boring as fuck.

>The black hole would destroy the Earth.
Eh, the Earth can deal with a few micro black holes.

Which would kill him

lets come up with some unique and interesting powers.

I played a guy named Hint his power was that he could set a goal and his power would tint his vision some shade between red and blue depending on if his current actions where helping him achieve the goal.

the power became less accurate the more long term the goal was but he could do stuff like guess passwords by hovering his hand over each key.

the power would sometimes troll me and put me into shit situation because it upped my chance of succeeding at my goal.

the power worked by looking into infinite parallel universes and calculating how many universes i reached my goal in by doing X task.

HERO is a Point based system. The fluff is freeform, the mechanical effects are not. Increasing damage dealt takes character points.

Now, he could have said he was creating micro-blackholes, but they'd still only be able to deal the same damage as his leaping piledriver attacks because of the points he had available.

I actually came up with one earlier today. Superstrength and durability that are powered by belief. If you think you can lift it, you can. If you think it can hurt you, it will.

Unless they got some self esteem issues there doesn't seem to be much stopping them from just believing they're invincible

It isn't easy thinking that a car barreling down on you won't hurt. Belief isn't so simple as that.

Sure, in the beginning. Tank enough stuff and you're gonna stop worrying about that kind of thing unless you're completely caught by surprise

I think it would be more interesting if you went the opposite way, the lower his self esteem is the more powerful he is.

>shit, my strength is fading
>*thinks about his inability to maintain an erection.

Close.

Does he have a snake's lower body and a penis on his forehead?

Oh yeah, totally forgot about this guy

>In cape games what makes a super power interesting?

I can only answer this from my own experience/opinion (I mean obviously), but for me it's always been about clearly grounding powers in how they operate and how they function as a natural ability of a person and by extension: how it can grow, develop, or therein be limited.

Too often superpowers don't really have any grounded reality (by their own settings standard) so they're usually extremely inconsistent, stupid, and it just turns into a fucking elementary school game of, "nuh uh, THIS happened!"

So, like, example:

-We have a young man who's power is he can breath fire: he breaths in and can exhale a plume of fire for as long as he can exhale. Simple Stuff. His power is limited by: his lung capacity and how hot the fire his fire burns- as he's only resistant to the temperature of his own fire. He has room to grow however: he can practice inhaling, exhaling, increase lung capacity- slowly working up to a longer, hotter, more efficient torrent of fire and so on.

Other things to consider:
-Most "B-list" Superheroes in cap-comics should be S-lists: start out small, take baby steps, always be cautious and careful lest you jump the shark and eliminate all credibility, tension, or pacing by fucking up the "powerlevels".

-Quite possible the most important thing, but: SUPER POWERS CHANGE EVERYTHING. Unless you're telling a story from the "beginning of powers"- acknowledge that our society would be entirely different if even mediocar powers were available.

y'all need weeb

Post Vault-Tintin.