After a furious battle against Wit Man, I am knocked into a vat of bovine excrement and Jack Chick pamphlets. Somehow, I survive the noxious brew, but at the cost of my sanity and my soul. I emerge…
** The Troll! **
Powers: I can leap to deranged conclusions in a single bound, I am more stubborn than a one-track locomotive and I laugh in the face of Godwin’s Law. I am immune to well-reasoned arguments and burning flames alike; the more you fight me, the stronger I become. I can also assume multiple identities, sometimes appearing as two separate people at once.
Weaknesses: The flip side of my power is that I become weaker in the face of indifference. Ignore me and I vanish in a screaming puff of insignificance. Alsoo I cnt spil wurth a dam.
Nemeses: Wit Man, The Mod.
Costume: a flaming dunce cap that covers my body from head to toe.
It was the first RPG I ever learned, and the more I learned about it, the more unrealistic it seemed. They had this huge “attack power vs. defensive power” matrix you were supposed to use 5 times with each attack. The resulting sum was your “to-hit” percentage. If you rolled equal to or less than your to-hit percentage on percentile dice, you hit and did full damage. If you rolled higher, you missed and did no damage. In other words, it worked like “armor class” in D&D – there was no concept of “your attack hit him, but it bounced off his tough hide” or “he was so tough that only a little damage got through.”
I abandoned this game like a hot potato when Champions came out.
(insert sound of confusion here)? I do indeed remember an “attack v. defense” table, but it was based on a 20-sided die, not a percentile. Pretty straightforward; you’d just take agility bonuses into account and roll against the number on the table. Maybe you and I played different revisions of the game.
True, I was playing the 1st-ever printing of V&V, and I did see a “second edition” later that seemed to have smoothed over some of the iniquities of the 1st edition.
But I digress. Does this thread remind anyone else of the “super heroes” game they sometimes play on Whose Line Is It Anyway?? “Thank God you’re here, man who always talks in rhymes man!”
Origin: While working in a zoo one night, he was attacked by the zoo’s panda. His blood was mixed with some of the Panda’s blood, and when he woke up, he felt a bit funny…
Super Powers: Amazing agility, along with strength. His skin is going a bit pale though, and there seems to be dark circles growing around his eyes. Master with a kendo sword.
Limitations: Few people who he can “mate” with. Diet is a problem as bamboo is not as easy to come by in the states as it might be in Japan. Uncontrollable urge to go Karaokeing.
Outfit: Tight Long sleeved shirt, white on the torso, black on the arms, snow camo pants.
Operates Out Of: His apartments basement. He’s transformed it into a bonsai garden, all around.
Arch-Nemesis:
Keeper: A collector of human oddities. Keeper wants to add Bad Panda to his collection.
Asania Waters: Head bitch of NAA (Not An Acronym) Industries. Wants to conduct experiments on why the panda DNA mixed with Trent.
Side Kick: Mog. From the Final Fantasy series, Mog comes to Trent in a dream. He tells him to save him from Keeper. This was Bad Panda’s first adventure.
Yeah, well that’s who I want to be.
NAME: Quiztor
POWER: To instantly know the correct answer to any question asked of him.
ORIGIN: While compulsively viewing ‘Millionnaire’ on TV and screaming abuse at contestants, a freak lightning bolt smashes through the TV set and into his cranium, stimulating some of that 90% of the brain that, of course, we all know we don’t use.
LIMITATIONS: Only works on factual questions to which there is a factual answer. Cannot ask HIMSELF questions.
COSTUME: None. He does nothing to draw attention to himself and preserves his anonymity.
LIFESTYLE: He sits at home with a friend who asks him things like ‘Which horse will win such-and-such a race’ and ‘What will be the winning lottery numbers this week?’. Also very useful at parties, so long as he can prompt someone to ask him ‘Does that blonde over there want to sleep with you or not?’.
cue gothicy music, slow latin with organs and crunchy guitar… Type O Negative will work fine
A man alone against the world, fighting for the memory of a slaughtered family. Willing to do whatever it takes to end the tyranny and fear of the common person on the streets.
Name: Fear
Alter-Ego: Anonymous lotto winner
Brief History: After winning a moderate lotto sum, our anti-hero was out with the family, when tragedy struck and a roving thug attempted a hold up. Fear foolishly attempted to wrestle the gun away from the assailant, which led to shots killing his family, and wounding himself.
After recovery, Fear went back into martial arts training, as well as intensive urban combat drills.
Our hero now walks the night, his long black coat whipping in the wind, a string of bullet’s arond his neck. A private war has caused our hero to become what he hates, but he only kills those that bring harm and fear… street thugs, hustlers, and lately, local organized crime (Russian’s, mostly).
Powers: None, just the ability to kill and no fear of dying. Also, a disturbing amount of martial arts skill.
Enemies: Any who would stop his one-man war against the darkness of the city.
I am SO loving the posts here! I hope this isn’t considered bad netiquette, but I’m nominating my own thread for “Threadspotting” so we can get more folks in on this! I wonder what Satan would say??
Needing a W.W.S.S. Bracelet,
Patty
P.S. If you haven’t done so already, please look up and read the “Goat Porn” thread. Very Wally-esque.
Okay, this is more of a practical power that…I’d just like to have.
NAME: silent_rob (I wouldn’t be a super hero because of it)
ORIGINS: Accidentily set the microwave for 20 hours instead of 2 minutes, and fell asleep on the couch. When I woke up and went into the kitchen, I was bathed in radioactive material.
POWERS: I have the ability to listen to a CD by putting it up to my ear, and watch a DVD by looking at it. The main purpose for this: when I buy a new CD or DVD, I don’t have to wait until I get to my car or get home.
LIMITATIONS: I don’t know…I have trouble with some burned CD’s, maybe. Depends on the format. Maybe the dual layers in some DVD’s messes me up.
COSTUME: Umm…KHAKI PANTS! Yeah, and…a various t-shirts! With a hoodie over top!
Powers: Can dig up the most esoteric bits of trivia, overwhelming and amazing friend and foe alike.
Limitations: Still can’t make a living off of it.
Origin: Well, I don’t really know, I just read a lot of books growing up. And the Straight Dope definitely helped. And then there was this costume at the thrift store …
Costume: Second hand from one of those sidekicks from the sixties. Maybe matter eater lad, I’m not sure. Or the suit covered with question marks that the guy on those commercials wears.
Mild-mannered Nina Hoyle was a roulette croupier until a (what else?) freak bolt of lightning struck the casino, sending chips and tuxedoed spies flying. The massive bolt of electricity altered the, uh, electromagnetical makeup of our heroine, transforming her into The Gambler!
POWERS: She has infallible luck. If she needs to roll sixes, she rolls sixes. If the game requires her to roll ones, she rolls ones. Lotto? No problem.
Her power also has non-gambling applications, as when she was once attacked by a footpad. She seized her assailant and flung herself (and him) off an overpass, knowing that they would land with the thug on the bottom, herself on the top. The Gambler escaped unscathed!
LIMITATIONS: Freaks people out. Makes enemies. Other women think she’s a bitch. Also, this talent is of no use in lose-lose situations.
COSTUME: The Gambler’s phenomenal luck has altered her somewhat-dumpy figure into a slim-yet-curvy one, without exercise, so of course she wears skintight spandex with a Queen-Of-Hearts motif.
PLAGARISM: This idea came from a character in that really long Robert Jordan series - I read the first four books and then gave up. But one character actually developed this power and did the overpass thing, which I thought was pretty darn cool.
Okay, on a more mundane level, I’d be content with the ability to persuade other people to whatever point-of-view I want. Could be great for buying new cars and getting loans…
Hmmm…my super hero persona would be that of “Sensitive New Age Man”. Due to an unfortunate incident at a popular nightclub involving being slapped simultaneously by two powerful women at precisely the same picosecond after having been throughly tazered and pepper sprayed my body underwent certain mutagenic changes.
My amazing power is that henceforth, fighting for gender equity in an oppressive patriarchal society no matter that the temptation, no matter how beautiful or curvaceous the woman, my eyes can lock onto their pupils unwaveringly and carry on entire conversations, focusing on their needs, while moving not a millimeter from their eyes. This astounding ability confuses and dis-orients all female villains, who naturally all have amazing Playboyish shapes stuffed into tight spandex costumes.
This power has seen me through to victory against such arch villains as the Estrogenator, Imnotcomfortablewiththat Lass and of course the Whipstress and the Vortex Of Neediness when they had teamed up. The only villain to defeat me so far is the Silver Speculum and her sidekick SlipperyClots. I just couldn’t maintain eye contact while my head was spinning and my body was trembling with fear as she spoke.
The only downside is that I can’t turn the power off so naturally my non-crime fighting relationships have deteriorated somewhat, to the point that female significant others tease me with names like “Gay Man” similar cruel taunts.
Ah well… crime fighting is a lonely business but at least there’s no “monkey business” when Sensitive New Age Man is on the scene.
I would borrow my name from the comic strip Curtis: Supercaptaincoolman. And I would be able to absorb any form of energy and project it from my hands and feet in any manner I choose, enabling me to fire bolts of electricity or flame or light from my fingertips as well as fly through the air. For a costume, I’d steal one of Evel Knievel’s outfits, including the star spangled crash helmet.
Super Hero Name: The title of the series he appears in is “Agent Omega”, although he never uses that name himself. In his travels, he has been variously referred to by others as “The Inviolable Man”, “The Outsider” and “Last Chance”.
Origin: Completely ordinary middle-aged man from a universe where paranormal phenomena never happen is transported out of his universe by a mysterious hypercosmic entity that tells him that he will serve, willingly or not, as that entity’s pawn in various multiverses. Allen now finds himself transported randomly between various universes all having in common that they have super heroes.
Powers: Only one superpower, that of total, absolute immunity to any superpower of any being he encounters. For example, he is utterly psi-null- cannot be scanned, mind controlled, or hear projected thoughts, cannot even be detected clairvoyantly (indistinguishable psionically from empty air). Totally immune to magic, even at cosmic/god level entities. He is vulnerable to the ordinary laws of physics; for example, a super-being that can generate intense flames can burn him, but he cannot be set on fire by pyrokinesis.
Other abilities: After constant exposure to danger has picked up variety of survival skills, including marksmanship, hand-to-hand combat, wilderness survival, elementary burglery, etc. Skill level greater than Novice but below Expert.
Costume: None as such, often wears whatever local garb is available, but gravitates toward utilitarian wear such as boots, jeans and leather/canvas jacket. Looks terrible in spandex.
Career: Often finds himself hip deep in current universe’s cosmic crisis. Standard M.O. is to get involved with local super hero group who provide protection against ordinary physical annihlation while he employs his immunity against paranormal power to defeat the bad guys.
With the power to leave visual tracers every time I move, even the most mundane of chores becomes a visual adventure. Just watch as I streak across the frshly polished hardwood floors in my socks.
I’d look really cool if life wasn’t pretty boring.
Powers: Ten years studying several vaguely defined Eastern disclipines have enabled him to see into the future consistently and accurately… but only 7 seconds from the present, and only if he concentrates on a given set of conditions. i.e., what will happen if I ask this question, open this door, etc. Combined with some basic martial arts, makes him near-invincible in a fight. He just avoids all actions that would end with him losing.
Nominally he can sort through a dozen possibilities every second - with time his control of the power increases, so he can handle more alternate possibilities and sensory input. Time limit remains, though.
Side Effects: Antisocial - conversations tend to be one-sided as he knows what you’re going to say before you say it, and has no need to ask questions that take more than 7 seconds to answer. Doesn’t talk much as he’s concentrating on parallel timelines constantly. Also, the more complex a situation, naturally the weaker he becomes. A crowd of people would give him a headache - too long among them and he’d faint from the overload.
