PDA

View Full Version : Your favorite Hero archetype? [M&M/Any]



Warlawk
2011-04-04, 04:21 AM
So our gaming group has just last week ended up picking up copies of Mutants and Masterminds 3E. I have this feeling that in our D&D game sometime in the very near future a large quantity of rocks are going to fall and we'll end up taking M&M for a spin since it's a totally new system for us. Previously we've always run our superhero games in Heroes Unlimited. Our GM likes the setting info from there, but no one is real keen on the system, so we're just going to drop the M&M system into the HU world and roll with it.

Since this kind of came out of the blue, I'm starting cold for ideas. Figured I would just toss this thread out there and see if anyone wants to share their favorite hero types to play or read about. This can be a character of yours, someone else you game with or even just some of your favorite heroes to read about. Totally new to Mutants and Masterminds so I'm not really sure yet what will work well within the system, but I'm much more interested in strong thematic characters than strong mechanical ones.

Ecalsneerg
2011-04-04, 09:53 AM
Anything not built by Steve Kenson. He's made a great system in MnM, but he can't work within it to save his life, it's got NPCs so awful it puts 3.5's later efforts in a great light.

But, in all seriousness, costumed detective. Cos you gotta be Batman.

The Rose Dragon
2011-04-04, 10:46 AM
You can't go wrong with the mighty Superman-expy. Super-strong, super-tough, super-fast flier. Sprinkle with other powers as you see fit.

Ravens_cry
2011-04-04, 11:03 AM
Personally, I like the Spiderman type. He's clever, not just brute forcing ones way through, witty, the guy does banter like no other, and determined to do right by the world even when it doesn't do right by you. I respect that perspective a lot.

Fhaolan
2011-04-04, 11:57 AM
Personally, I like the 'poor-man' Batman-types. The Question, Catwoman, etc. Basically highly trained investigators with high levels of athletic and combat skills, but without the infinite cash to fall back on. Gadgets - yes; Dues ex machina - no. I want to solve the mystery/puzzle/crime/etc. I don't want to always have the right power or gadget on hand that automatically solves it for me.

When dealing with actual 'powered' types, I take the above and put some special abilities on them. My wolfman superhero has one special power, regeneration. My archer superhero has magic wings. So on and so forth.

I'm into superheroes who have to work hard at it. :smallsmile:

Warlawk
2011-04-04, 07:26 PM
Tossing my own opinion in, I wrote the OP just before hopping into bed and didn't feel like writing a longer post.

I tend to really like mutant characters, that particular origin and background just resonates well with me. I don't generally care for superman types, it just feels a bit heavy handed though that could be more an issue of power level than power selection I suppose.

My favorite hero character that I had played was in Heroes Unlimited 2e. An african american mutant in NYC. Only child, his family life was happy but not well off. The family was scrambling to climb up to lower middle class, just barely scraping by. Jamal was a pretty gifted kid, bright and fairly athletic. His parents probably could have made a little better money, but they put family first and always tried to be sure he had something constructive to do so he didn't fall in with a bad crowd. Boxing at the Y, extra classes that interested him, that sort of thing. Just out of high school he started looking into local community colleges and was still living at home. Fall rolled around and he hadn't found a school yet that interested him. The family took the weekend to tour a couple of campuses and just walk around the city a bit enjoying the last of the fall before winter rolled around. Completely unprepared, they were caught in the open when a freak snowstorm whipped up out of nowhere. The winds were vicious and cutting, and snow fell in torrential gusts quickly turning into a blizzard, whipped to a frenzy by the harsh winds. The family was trapped in a park by the sudden storm, and was separated from each other trying to get to the nearby buildings for shelter. Jamal was caught outside and took shelter from the winds behind the statue of a guardian angel in a church courtyard, the snow falling so heavily that he could not see the church to run for it. Never particularly religious, he gazed up at the angel, feeling the cold cut him to the bone while the wind seemed to gust right through him. The hours of the storm passed as a blur, never to be remembered clearly. The freak storm claimed a number of lives, including those of Jamal's parents. His experience in the storm left him changed, awakening his latent mutant genes. Though no one ever stepped forward to claim responsibility, it was supposed that the storm was the result of a superhuman terrorist. Soon afterward, Jamal was recruited by a school for the gifted that operated in the region. (Yeah, the school was a straight rip from Xaviers school for gifted children, but with a very different patron)

Jamal Blaine AKA Whiteout
Random mutant side effect: Angelic Face (HU2 has a random mutation table for picking just a random feature that reflects the fact you are a mutant)
Powers: Winged Flight (big white angelic wings), Alter Physical Structure: Ice (Ice armor, hurl ice shards, encase targets in ice or make a surface slick, general ability to make the immediate area cold), Control Elemental Force: Air (general air control, hurl lightning bolts, limited weather control).
Education: Recruited into a school for gifted mutants, as his ability and aptitude came to be known, he was trained in self defense as well as rudimentary military field tactics and operations. His schooling also honed his early interest in journalism including various research methods and photography. As play progressed he became increasingly interested in matters related to mutants (New Skill: Mutant Theory, encompassing general genetics knowledge, mutant politics, law in regards to mutants etc) as well as a strong interest in Law as well as some general studies in basic mechanics and electronics to help with field work.

In play he rarely just outright made an attack, generally he would use ice, air or a combination of the two and control the battlefield with them by either hindering enemies or helping out allies. While the group operated on private funding and outside the law, they were all strictly moral people and while they were happy to step outside of legal niceties to get the job done, they were all in it to protect those who could not do so for themselves. Much of the campaign involved rescuing mutants who had run afoul of the law in various parts of the world, or keeping outright evil mutants from causing further damage to the mutant image in the public eye which could lead to harsh legislation (the Mutant/Superhuman Registration Act from marvel tends to feature heavily as a backdrop in our games). I guess in a way we were the worldwide mutant public relations department. Operating socially in political circles on a couple of occasions and covertly as heroes the majority of the time.

A fairly long running game that went from level 1 to level 9 in the palladium system. That's probably roughly the equivalent of level 17-18 in D&D 3.5 terms. One of my favorite characters overall and certainly my favorite hero. Lightly armored with little in the way of raw firepower he had a lot of utility powers and was certainly a "thinking mans" hero. Lots of fun to play.

Starsign
2011-04-05, 08:16 AM
Well, if I might voice my own opinion, I like the brick/tank superheroes (not the flying brick Superman ones though) because of their hardiness and strength, there's usually isn't much that they can't go toe-to-toe with and come out on top. Sometimes I like it when they're not so bright either; they'll often do things that would be dumb, reckless, or otherwise suicidal, but with their durability they'll survive it; and it's sometimes their stupidity in certain cases that makes them struggle, but all more rewarding when they succeed because they're doing what they feel is right (usually). The smart ones are also cool, they can be strategic, think creative, and exploit things in their favor, which puts a new curve on the standard brute-punch-things-stuff-go-break battles. But I always prefer it when the brick/tank superheroes are wise. They can be super-dumb or super-smart, but I find it hard to like them when they have a lack of discerning and ability to judge what is right and wrong, which in my opinion, is one of the most important things when it comes to superheroes.

Warlawk
2011-04-05, 02:20 PM
About playing bricks, I played one that still gets joked about regularly even though it was many years ago.

Alter Physical Structure: Metal. Not a metal coating or skin, but your entire body becomes 100% metal clear through. I think the character weighed between 800 and 900 pounds when transformed and we were fighting in a warehouse that extended out onto the water. The floor was reinforced concrete, so falling through wasn't a worry... until the bad guys blew up the floor underneath me.

GM: Baddie #3 blasts the floor underneath you, between the damage and your weight it's going to collapse and dump you into the water.

Me: ... Can I make a parry roll to react in time to grab the forklift I was standing next to? (I had moved over to it with the intent of throwing it)

GM: Sure, but it's heavy too and you'll just drag it down with you.

Me: Oh, I know, I just wanted to use it as a flotation device!

Since it had a lot of non-metal parts it was a lot more buoyant than I was. Not really functional for anything, but it was good for a laugh. To this day every now and again when someone ends up having to swim or getting dumped into the water they will crack a joke about bringing something heavy as a flotation device.

Though on topic for the thread I was thinking about developing something to use the Versatile power. I really like the idea of having a strong concept and then being able to rearrange my power choices to fit within the situation and concept. My first through was an acupressure specialist who had expanded to study a little bit of the Atemi applications of the same knowledge. Then use the Versatile power to shift between things like Regeneration, Healing, Affliction, a close combat attack power and maybe some enhanced attributes or something. It would make for an interesting character with a decided weakness when fighting robots, constructs etc in which I could switch my powers to more defensive/support selections.

I know the book said that when you increase attributes you can choose for it to be innate or "powered" in which case you can use extra effort and power extras. That had come to mind because I was thinking I could use atemi stimulation on an ally to temporarily enhance their energy flow/chi and temporarily boost one of their attributes.

Not really a fully fleshed out concept yet, just something off the top of my head. Our DM had not yet got his copy of the book and he made off with mine at our weekend session, so he has my book until next weekend and I'm just running off the top of my head from my read through it.

Optimator
2011-04-05, 03:46 PM
I haven't played 3E, but in 2E and 1E I always loved the Badass Normal (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BadassNormal). I just find them both compelling, storywise, and fun to build and make work in the game.

Starsign
2011-04-05, 04:33 PM
About playing bricks, I played one that still gets joked about regularly even though it was many years ago.

Alter Physical Structure: Metal. Not a metal coating or skin, but your entire body becomes 100% metal clear through. I think the character weighed between 800 and 900 pounds when transformed and we were fighting in a warehouse that extended out onto the water. The floor was reinforced concrete, so falling through wasn't a worry... until the bad guys blew up the floor underneath me.

GM: Baddie #3 blasts the floor underneath you, between the damage and your weight it's going to collapse and dump you into the water.

Me: ... Can I make a parry roll to react in time to grab the forklift I was standing next to? (I had moved over to it with the intent of throwing it)

GM: Sure, but it's heavy too and you'll just drag it down with you.

Me: Oh, I know, I just wanted to use it as a flotation device!

Since it had a lot of non-metal parts it was a lot more buoyant than I was. Not really functional for anything, but it was good for a laugh. To this day every now and again when someone ends up having to swim or getting dumped into the water they will crack a joke about bringing something heavy as a flotation device.
Haha, I remember once making a brick superhero based on Juggernaut with 2e. I used the Density power and in the end I think my character ended up being either 3.5 tons or 35 tons, can't remember which. :smalltongue: It was good fun, though I didn't think my RP skills were good back then, so I might think about trying him out again.