What are people's favorite powers?

[Tvtyrant]

Effectively, what powers would people want to be able to have in a game most? Why? The powers can be from any media or source, I just want to have a general list of things people want in a game.

[Dr.Epic]

Wolverine, because who would want his powers?

[comicshorse]

As a player Teleportation is the best thing to have

As a G.M. the Players having Teleportation is the worst thing for them to have

[Dusk Eclipse]

Difficult question to answer, it does depend on the game though, but some general powers I would love to have in a game:

Shapeshifting
Bending as in Avatar the last Airbender; but not restricted to the elements in the show, include things like metal, shadows, light, etc.
Telepathy
Magic (perhaps more controlled than in D&D)

[Psyren]

Clairsentience. The whole thing really. I'd be the next Warren Buffet and nobody would even be sure that I have powers.

[elonin]

The ability to do magic and have it affect the world as much as the rule books imply.

[Sith_Happens]

This. 'Nuff said.

[Tvtyrant]

Interesting. I have a sub query: Would magic be acceptable as a power? As in Wolverine, Spiderman, and then the Magician? <-Not a serious grouping, just showing an example.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Well there is Dr. Strange and IIRC Dr. Doom did have some magic powers, not to mention the Scarlet Witch, Niko Minoru and the other wizard/magician/sorcerers from the marvel verse.

[The Reverend]

I believe cracked.com's AfterHours folks actually came up with the Best Answer for the Win- Zack from Saved by the Bell had the power to stop time and therefore every incident in his life always went the way he wanted it to.

[flumphy]

Does Deadpool's ability to see through the fourth wall count?

Seriously, though, it depends on the genre. Certain powers are more suited to a superhero game than heroic fantasy or vice versa.

[Xefas]

The power to wear white clothing without being murdered is one of the greatest and most prestigious powers in Paranoia. I kind of like white clothes, so that's a pretty neat power to have.

[Tvtyrant]

The power to wear white clothing without being murdered is one of the greatest and most prestigious powers in Paranoia. I kind of like white clothes, so that's a pretty neat power to have.

I...Don't get it.

[Wyntonian]

I have two choices.

One, control what people sense and perceive. Guy tries to mug you? He drops to the groud screaming, feeling himself burn as he watches his clothing flutter away as little wisps of ash and smells his body roast. Physically, he's totally fine, aside from people possibly laughing and wondering what he's doing. Alternatively, make him see Cthulu rip out of your chest and speak to him. Yeah. I know.

Two, control what people think. Not consciously, but those little gut urges you get. "Run", "Fear", "Respect", "Eat", those sorts of things. Tap into the animal brain and saddle it up.

[Gavinfoxx]

I...Don't get it.

In the game of Paranoia, if you wear white clothes (having earned the right to do so), you are at the top of the society and can basically do whatever you want, which generally means 'act like a James Bond Supervillian'.

[Dust]

Time control is always #1 for me. Slow things down to impress people, time it completely for total freedom, rewind it for everything else.

[Elfinor]

Regeneration is my favourite, because not only are you immortal (in the 'not dying of old age' sense) but you're also damn difficult to kill, especially by accident. I'd love to live and observe people over centuries. I suppose if you count it as part of the 'body control' power it would also be pretty awesome to do the 'body as a weapon' thing a la T-1000 (Terminator 2) or Lust (Full Metal Alchemist), but that's more like icing on the cake for me. Stock regeneration is all I really want. Barring that, I'd go for telekinesis - nearly any level of that would make be happy... in my pants.

I'm not sure magic or 'being a psychic' (telepathy+telekinesis and especially with... god forbid... being able to manipulate matter on a molecular level) really can count. They seem to basically be a variety of superpowers rolled into one. You know... 'And if I can do THAT, I can do ANYTHING!' material. It feels like cheating to me But to each their own. For some reason weather manipulation seems fine to me and that's technically multiple powers - I suppose because it doesn't quite have the same level of flexibility?

[Tvtyrant]

I agree that they are more versatile than normal ones, but magic doesn't necessarily equal power. Think of how people thought of witches in the 17th century; they might be able to kill someone's cattle or poison them from a distance, but it doesn't stop the farmers from trussing them up and killing them.

Regeneration has been added to the list!

[jseah]

Since time manipulation is already taken:
Space manipulation

Teleport? Meh, that's like settling for sugar when you have quality chocolate.

The ability to change the structure of space locally. Don't want someone to get to you? Bam, the area around him suddenly has a hyperbolic geometry, now he has to run an infinite amount of distance to go anywhere.

Create a non-orientable wormhole and have your very own Through the Looking Glass effect. (as well as simutaneously doing all manners of horribleness to conservation laws)
- Best to not play around with the Alice universe though. Matter turns into antimatter over there so no one is likely to live very long.

Trap a bullet into a 3-torus and watch it go round and round the same place indefinitely. Maybe you can put one on your shelf for display.

FTL travel (the Alcubierre metric is within reach!). And by extension, closed time-like curves. Of the self-consistent kind. Far more powerful than time rewind.

[ZerglingOne]

You can cheese telekinesis pretty bad with a rudimentary knowledge of physics to produce nearly any super power or magic effect.

For example, if you have the ability to pull all of the air in a large radius into a very small radius, the resulting temperature, pressure, and oxygen saturation would cause instantaneous combustion of anything flammable much like an internal combustion engine does.

[Randel]

1). Healing powers - Regeneration is fine for yourself but it's usefulness increases exponentially when you have the power to heal other people as well. If you have the ability to cure cancer, regrow peoples limbs, reverse the effects of aging, and cure normally incurable diseases with a touch then you've got near unlimited potential.

Be a good Samaritan and heal people for free? Check. Be a recluse and just keep yourself healthy forever? Go ahead. Become a miracle doctor and cure people for lots of money? Hey, you've got a jab as long as people with money enjoy living. Become a villainous cult leader who claims to be the chosen avatar of the god of life and instigate a plan to overthrow all other religions and take over the world? Hey, you're immortal as long as you heal yourself and you can actually give your followers eternal life! You've already got two huge advantages over every other cult leader in history and some of them have started nations.


2). Matter manipulation - Sort of like the alchemy powers from Full Metal Alchemist, basically the power to turn random garbage into more useful stuff. That would be incredibly useful for getting rid of garbage or making hard to make stuff.

3). Owning a self-replicating spaceship - I've been playing Space Pirates and Zombies alot lately (got it on sale on Steam) and it cool because you can build ships using material mined from asteroids. A ship like that combines space travel (explore the universe as much as you want), self-sufficiency (mine asteroids to get the materials then fabricate whatever you need as long as you've got blueprints), and a mobile base of operations.

I suppose depending on the setting you could replace that with flying ships, a TARDIS, or similar.

4). Flight and weather manipulation - Kind of like the pegasus ponies from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Fly wherever you want and have the option of resting on top of clouds or building a base there. Plus I'm sure you can find some useful things to do with the weather manipulation abilities.

[Knaight]

Vastly improved memory and cognition. The ability to effortlessly learn languages, to never need to study, and the numerous other things that come with it appeal to me far more than most anything else.

[Golden Ladybug]

...how has Super Speed not been brought up yet? Surely people on giantitp have read the Flash?

Well, calling it now; Super Speed is the god mode power. When someone tries to stop time at you, you can react faster than they can think, outrun the light barrier, go back to before they started triggering their power and punch them in the face with a fist that is hitting with the force of all the mass in the universe, because Energy=Mass and the Energy required for a object with mass to break the light barrier is infinite, then you have infinite mass at that speed.

And thats not even starting on the whole "Outrun the personification of Death" thing.

And yes, I could go back in time and save those catgirls who just cried out in terror and keeled over.

[DoctorGlock]

In no particular order...
Teleportation
Temporal Manipulation
Reality Alteration
are my top 3. Any time I play any game I check for some variation on these 3 and then build around it.

[Caphi]

Probably the most popular hypothetical situation is the superpowers one. If you could have any superpower... You know what ninety percent of people say? [nasal voice] "Ooh, I'd take the ability to fly because I always love it when I fly in my dreams and plus I'd never be late to work ha ha!"

**** you! You could have the ability to do anything. Anything! You could end world hunger! You could cure AIDS! And you picked a power that can be easily replicated with a couple of yards of nylon and a cliff.

You know what superpower I'd pick? The ability to give other people superpowers. You can't tell me it doesn't exist! Somebody used it on me!

So here, all the people who want to end world hunger, form a line to my left, I'll be giving you the ability to shoot linguine noodles out of your wrists like Spider-man. Everyone who wants to cure the world's diseases, form a line down the middle, your spit is now vaccines, go make out with people. Everyone who wants end war, form a line to my right, I'll be giving you the ability to bring people back to life, effectively turning all armed conflict into one big game of force-feedback laser tag. Everyone who wants to be able to fly? Fire escape's that way. Good luck.

I'm disappointed in all of you.

[Mastikator]

Dr. Manhattan's powers is closest to what most people want.

[Anderlith]

Time Stop is the best. Super Regeneration & Invisibility are a close second

[shawnhcorey]

Do over, unlimited.

[jindra34]

Shapeshifting, even if limited by mass conservation and only to 'real' living things. Simply because its so flipping versatile.

[Dr.Epic]

This. 'Nuff said.

More like this.

Also, Alchemy from FMA would be pretty cool.