Time for some silver-age justice.
The Superhero
Copyright Andrew Sherbo
(This is my first attempt at this, much like many of yours. The idea is here, but I’m unfamiliar with the system and so the channels might be incomplete and perhaps a little unbalanced. Also, I may have gone overboard with the taboos. Input is appreciated.)
Action Comics #1 debuted with a new kind of hero, one with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. And yet, this power did not corrupt him. He did not use his incredible and in some ways rather terrifying abilities for personal gain. He gave of himself, selflessly and courageously putting himself in harms way again and again and again for the people of a planet that he wasn’t even born to. This hero set the standard for all the comic book heroes that have come after. They are the modern day equivalent to King Arthur, Hercules, and Sherlock Holmes, and any number of mythological heroes. They represent the best intentions of the societies that dream them up. They are the heroes children learn to love and strive to be, so that the next generation can be a little closer to perfect than the last. Today, many of the values comic book heroes stood for have been forgotten and the heroes themselves, like politicians and celebrities, are shamelessly dragged through the mud so that lazy men and women who don’t want to bother can say, “Look, even they are not perfect. Why should we even try?”
But that is the point, isn’t it? The Flash’s insensitivity, Batman’s obsession, the Martian Manhunter’s feelings of isolation, Spiderman’s teenage insecurities, and Superman’s doubts that he is making a difference are all some of the faults of today. Mythological heroes of the past suffered the same thing. Hercules, for example, would occasionally fly into insane rages, due to either drink or the malignance of his stepmother Hera, and kill those closest to him. The Greeks and Romans feared this kind of thing, and yet held Hercules up because he never stopped being heroic. Superman and Batman and the rest are held up for the same reason. Yes, they have faults, but they never give up and refuse to surrender to those faults. They are imperfect, just like the rest of us, but they remain heroic in spite of that.
Isn’t that what we’re all trying to do?
There is one who tried hard enough.
History: This Archetype is a very new and mostly unintentional addition to the Invisibly Clergy. A man who wore a simple, full-face black mask along with a classic fedora and trench coat combination and called himself the Detective was seen in various cities throughout the country. At first, the news covered him beating up two-bit thugs and catching low-rate crooks. He was considered a vigilante by the police, but no murder charges were ever brought against him, and so little was done to bring in a man who had, legally, never done much worse than breaking and entering. In fact, despite the ferocity of some of his fights, very few deaths ever came with news of the Detective. Later he was covered bringing down mob rings, smugglers, and corrupt corporate or political powerhouses. The world’s first publicly accepted masked crime-fighter had been born.
In the occult underworld, rumors flew about the Detective. Some thought he was a new kind of adept. Others believed this was The New Inquisition’s way of “going public,” that the Detective was just a mask for when TNI operatives had to do something that just could not be kept under wraps. Because Detective was known to bring down dangerous magic users, some stories said that this was the new SOP for the Sleepers, and that every Sleeper had a Detective outfit in case they needed it.
Whoever he was, the Detective entered one fray after another and continuously came out on top. Eventually, other costumed fighters came forward and formed a small group calling themselves the Masked Ones. Several of these individuals showed evidence of being adepts or avatars, and they were seen working with the Detective on several occasions.
A few of these individuals, the Detective not included, disappeared in an incident in Chicago involving the suspected Godwalker of the Faceless Man (aka the Dark Stalker), a missing nuclear weapon, and a kind of magical funnel that could store up energy for later use. Though the details are unclear, the event was well publicized (the part about the magical funnel was left out in the CNN report) and changed many opinions about these vigilantes for the better. In the following years, a handful of masked crime-fighters started springing up around the world, some of them exhibiting powers that could be explained away, but not easily.
The Detective has yet to make any public statements and is still an unknown commodity in the occult underground, but he is still fighting his fight. Although he has not displayed any overt powers of his own, the advent of other empowered superheroes has caused the rumors of him working with the Sleepers to die down a bit.
No one is sure which of the Detective’s companions ascended, as several of them disappeared unaccounted for, but one thing is certain. There are real-live superheroes out there, now, fighting that never-ending battle, and neither the public world nor the secret one will ever be the same.
Attributes: The power of the Superhero comes from two major sources. First and foremost is the will of the Superhero to always do what is right, despite the fact that he and those he protects are imperfect. Second is a belief that heroes can and do exist. This belief runs the gamut from the innocent assertions of a child that Batman is real, to the rants of a comic-book fan who has lost touch with “reality,” to the hopes of a stable adult who has not given up on the good found in human hearts. The Superhero, then, has very big shoes to fill. Those who follow this archetype become symbols of hope and virtue, and so the mere fact that they keep fighting becomes important in the cosmic scheme.
Other Avatars have been somewhat taken aback by this new addition to their ranks. Where the Warrior, the Mother, and most of the others can be traced back through mankind’s consciousness since they started walking upright, that connection is a little harder to find in the Superhero, and some argue that it doesn’t exist at all (which is not necessarily a bad thing; some proponents of this argument assert that the idea of a Superhero can only come with the idea of values and morals, which took a while longer to evolve than the bipedal movement technique). On top of that, even other Avatars who depend on developments man has made since discovering fire, such as the Faceless Man, the Magus, and the Pedagogue, are all very subtle. Superheroes by their very nature let the whole world know there’s something weird going on; not necessarily supernatural, but certainly weird. Still, many similarly aligned Warriors, Masterless Men, Flying Women, and even Gamblers work well with Superheroes, some even donning a mask and cape themselves. It is almost certain, in fact, that one of the Masked Ones, the one called Freeflight was a Flying Woman (she was one of the few who disappeared unaccounted for, which has lead to some interesting debates about the nature of avatars and their ascension, since the Flying Woman archetype appears to be unchanged). One True Kings also seem favorable to Superheroes that protect their domains. Others, such as the Faceless Man, certain Pedagogues and Necessary Servants, see them as a threat to their ways, but woe to one who thinks a Superhero is just an easily dismissed nut in a cape.
As a servant of Order, the Superhero is at his best. Whether he defeats massive threats and is the constant subject of the daily news or he trashes punks in back alleys, he makes sure criminals are brought to justice. In some cases, however, the Superhero may decide that the status quo isn’t good enough, and will start taking the role of judge, jury, and executioner along with that of a protector. Still, he maintains a code, at least in his own mind, and does not break from it. There is little difference between this incarnation of the Superhero and when it becomes a Servant of Chaos. Serving Chaos, they are emotional vigilantes, punishing evildoers in whatever way they feel like at a given moment. Still, as long as they do not become overzealous, Superheroes of this kind can remain on the lighter side of the Archetype while keeping villains on their toes with their unpredictability.
As either incarnation, the Superhero can become so obsessed with protecting one thing (after all, it’s exhausting to be trying to save the whole world at once) that he will do so to the exclusion of all else. Some become stereotypical dim-witted soldiers of justice (i.e. the Tick). Still others become glory hounds, looking more to impress the public than they are to defeating evil. Others still get too much into the comic-book style and forget that they are fighting very real bad guys with very real weapons. The Superhero is a symbol of the values and strength of comic-book heroes, but he does not live in their world. The good ones understand that, but some of the others miss that fact and even start to think they can fly or run through walls or catch bullets, even when they can’t.
Not yet, anyway.
Taboos:
-“With great power comes great responsibility.”-
A Superhero may be plagued by human flaws, but it is his duty to overcome them. His very identity is based in saving and protecting people, and thus whenever his human failings cause things to go terribly wrong, it hits him harder than it would most. Any time a Superhero faces a stress check due to a personal failure on his own part, the check is considered one rank higher, and he cannot use his first channel to try and overcome it. He can, however, make an Avatar check to try and postpone the stress check until later, when the danger is passed and he can afford to fall apart over his failure.
Example: Vroomboy, a hero with the magic touch when it comes to driving, is chasing down a rogue cultist on the streets of Los Angeles. Vroomboy gets a little … overzealous when behind the wheel, and he pulls a few crazy stunts in the chase to let this punk know he’s dealing with the best. The punk gets desperate and tries a few stunts of his own. He loses control and spins out on a bridge. Vroomboy whoops a victory cry as he rams the other car and spins it a bit more just to rub it in. The cultist’s car spins into the oncoming traffic. A family van hits it and nearly falls off the bridge in the resulting crash. Vroomboy makes an Avatar check and succeeds, postponing the effects of this break with his Archetype. He realizes that whatever mistakes he just made, he has to keep it together while these innocent victims still need his help. Acting quickly, the hodrodding hero is able to save the family from dying, but the mother and her twelve-tear-old son are rushed to the hospital. In addition to losing face with the public, Vroomboy has broken with the Archetype and needs to make a stress check. It is one rank higher than normal, and Vroomboy cannot use his first channel to work through it without it affecting him.
-“Powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men …”-
Whether it’s their superpowers or a favorite tactic, a Superhero always has their chosen way to combat evil. Batman tracks it down relentlessly and finds some ingenious way to exploit its weaknesses. Spiderman bounds through the fray, quickly bringing down his opponents with dazzling acrobatic stunts. Wonder Woman has her bracers and her lasso. So, too, must a Superhero have a favored mode of righting wrongs. Thus, a Superhero’s Obsession Skill may not be his Avatar skill. You can’t fight evil just by proclaiming yourself a Superhero; you’ve got to have something to fight it with. Power first, costume later; it’s a simple matter of what is dependant upon what. A Superhero’s obsession skill becomes like his power, even if he cannot fly or grow claws (though some adepts following the Archetype might be able to), and he has to have it before he can start wearing the mask and cape.
Example: Tigerlily, the hotheaded Native American heroine, is a warrior. She fights just as well with knives, tomahawks, spears, clubs, and her open hands. She has trained long and hard to be able to open up a can of red-man whoopass any time some punk starts asking for it. Vroomboy can drive anything like a pro, and he loves it. If it’s got an engine and goes fast, he’s got a hard on for it, and he can make that baby bend over backwards for him. Battlescar is an Epideromancer. Yeah, they cut big holes in themselves so they can kick more ass. Need I say more? These individuals know their trades well, but they aren’t good at these things because they’re Superheroes; they’re Superheroes because they’re good at them.
-“What’s your real name, John?”-
A Superhero must also have an alter-ego, one with a name and at least some kind of distinctive costume to go with it. A ski-mask isn’t enough for a Superhero named The Blue Watchman, but a blue ski-mask with a “W” painted on the forehead is. It does not necessarily need to be maintained as a secret, but overtly fighting evil for too long while not in costume is a break with the Archetype. Every three rounds the Superhero fights evil, he has to make a Self check, since he’s not fighting the way he is “supposed to.” If he succeeds, he may keep fighting for another three rounds. If he fails, he cannot use any of his Superhero channels until he has had a chance to don his outfit.
Example: Peter Freedmont is a policeman who has publicly announced that he will now be fighting crime batman-style, with the support of his precinct, by running over rooftops and hiding in alleys as the Blue Watchman instead of patrolling in a black-and-white like the rest of the force. After a few successful weeks of this experiment, Peter is attacked in broad daylight by some gangsters who don’t like this new breed of cop. Without time to get his mask on, Peter returns fire as he runs for cover, and even uses one of his channels to avoid having to make a violence check when a little girl is hit by a stray bullet. He fights with them for a few rounds, then fails a self check and frenzies. After jumping out into the open and unloading his clip (to little effect), Peter gets hit in the leg, bad. He wants to use another channel to try and get a second wind, but can’t until he can face these punks properly, as the Blue Watchman. Hobbling behind a car, he takes a few rounds to don his distinctive mask and gloves. His utility vest is still in his car, but the mask and gloves are enough for the cowering onlookers to recognize their hero and, more importantly, for Peter to see himself as the hero he really is. Just as the gangsters come running in to finish him off, they find themselves facing the Blue Watchman, fully prepped and ready to clean up his town by a few more lowlifes.
-“I’m not the one who let Vicki Vale into the Batcave.”-
The Superhero should have a safe haven, a place to retreat to where he can reload, recuperate, and plan his next moves. It also has to be a secret. An apartment rented out to a false name is too easily traced and simply will not do. A hidden room in that apartment, though, even if it’s old big enough for a bed and a shelf full of weapons, will work nicely. A limited number of people can know about this secret lair without the Superhero going outside of his Archetype, but they cannot exceed the tens place of their Avatar skill. If anyone beyond that does discover it, it’s considered a break with the archetype. If anyone the Superhero has trusted with the location of their lair betrays them, it invokes a rank 5 helplessness check that the first channel cannot work on.
Example: Battlescar, the heroic Epideromancer, uses the basement of an abandoned warehouse to keep his tools and work on his motorcycle. He has told only a few people, including Jennifer, a doctor-turned-stripper who lost her doctor’s license because she pissed off a local Plutomancer cult. She treats Battlescar’s teammates when he brings them back with bullet wounds they don’t want to explain to a hospital staff. Battlescar and his buddies are giving the cult a lot of trouble, so the cult goes to the desperate young woman and offers her a chance to get her practice back, along with a hefty investment on their part, if she gives up Battlescar’s lair. No slouches, Battlescar’s team gets wind of this through one of their many sources and the poor fleshworker feels the sting of betrayal. Jennifer had better watch her step, too; most of the aggressive Battlescar’s failed stress checks result in furies.
-“… because they all have one. Just like you.”-
Superman has Kryptonite, the Martian Manhunter has fire, and the Green Lantern’s ring doesn’t work on yellow, so the Avatars of the Superhero must each have their weaknesses, too. It can be an extreme allergy. It can be a phobia. It can be something that distracts the Superhero, like shiny objects. Heck, it could even be a kind of music that drives the Superhero crazy. Whatever it is, the Superhero loses his power from the third channel (if he has it, yet) and his Avatar skill is halved for purposes of rolling only (he may still use channels as if his skill were at its normal level) whenever he is exposed to it. It can also be something normally harmful to human beings, like fire or drowning, that the Superhero is even more susceptible to. In this case, the Superhero may keep his power when exposed to it, but takes double damage from it and still has his Avatar skill cut in half. This weakness must be independent of any adept’s taboo, and keeps the adept from generating more charges when exposed to it.
Example: Tigerlily grew up running free across the open plains of Texas, and is now more than a little claustrophobic. Since she has become a Superhero, that claustrophobia has become her Avatar’s weakness. While going after a serial rapist, she falls into his trap and gets trapped in a tiny closet with barely enough room to sit down in. As she begins to panic, the incredible strength she has had since Chicago disappears when she needs it most, and using any of her other channels is going to be a lot harder. On the other side of the door, though, she can hear the sicko going at it with some poor young woman. Tigerlily’s Noble Stimulus, “children in trouble,” kicks in. Despite her greatly reduced skill, Tigerlily makes an Avatar check and succeeds at using her last channel to flip-flop her “Break Things” roll and kick down the door. She feels her strength return in a rush as she looks down at the surprised rapist and gets ready to make the world a little more like the comics.
Symbols: Capes, masks, tights, comic books, and a big, red “S.” Rooftops, the accepted traffic-lanes of superheroes everywhere, and all sorts of distinctive insignia or gadgets also symbolize the Superhero’s eternal struggle.
Masks: Superman is first. Batman is a close second. The others get in line behind them. The Shadow, Zorro, Doc Savage, and other pre-Superman heroes can also be put into this category, but never would have until after Action Comics #1 had hit the stands.
Suspected Superheroes in Contemporary Game History: It is generally accepted that Detective is the Godwalker of the Superhero, though there are those that think he follows a different path, despite the fact that he was the first of his kind. Still, if it isn’t him, it is certainly one of the surviving members of the Masked Ones. Battlescar, the Roman Candle, Vroomboy, Mother Triage, and Tigerlily are all still around, each of them powerful in their own right. They’ve spread out since the incident, only coming together to combat great risks that they couldn’t handle on their own. None of them talk much about the incident surrounding the suspected ascension. The three who disappeared are Temper, El Trueno, and Freeflight. It was almost certainly one of these three who ascended.
1%-50%: “Hey! That’s my hearing aid!”
“Thanks.”
A Superhero is fearless in battle, unaffected by the terrors that would turn other men aside. He has to be. If the guy in the cape won’t go in, who will? Any time the Superhero needs to make a stress check, he may make an Avatar check, instead. If he succeeds, he takes neither a hardened nor a failed mark and may proceed normally. If he fails the Avatar check, he makes the mind roll and takes the hardened or failed mark as usual.
51%-70%: “A never-ending battle …”
Superheroes fight long and hard against things that no ordinary mortal man would face. They get hurt quite a bit, but they keep on merrily thumping away at evil despite the beatings they all too often receive at the hands of evildoers. Any time during a fight, a Superhero can roll his Avatar skill to ignore wound penalties. Also, the Superhero can roll to regain a number of lost Body points equal to the result. He may take less than the number rolled, if he so chooses. The Superhero may do this as many times as he likes, but can only regain a number of lost Body points equal to his Avatar skill per day. In effect, this is a second wind. Wounds do not close and lost flesh is not re-grown, though bleeding may stop. The Superhero is still wounded, but has gathered his courage and is ready and willing to look down at that bullet wound in his belly and say, “Is that all you got?”
71%-90%: “How much can you lift?”
“That’s the most I’ve ever lifted.”
Where would a Superhero be without his powers? The Superhero is given an edge over evil, some special power, normally tied to his obsession skill. Alternatively, a Superhero who is more like Batman and has no powers may take a second obsession skill. Adepts may choose a single, minor formula spell that they do not need to use charges to cast. For those who become supernaturally capable, there are a few suggested powers below, each one tied to a stat. Each one is an example of how powers should be handled and scaled, and other powers should be modeled on them.
Super Strength (Body): The Superhero is incredibly strong, capable of lifting dumpsters over his head and stopping moving vehicles with his bare hands (given the right leverage, of course. Physics is physics, after all). He can choose to do firearms damage with his bare hands, and his Body stat is doubled.
Invulnerability (Body): The Superhero can withstand astounding amounts of punishment from means of destruction both mundane and magical. He takes hand-to-hand damage when a normal human would take firearms damage, takes half-damage from hand-to-hand attacks, and his Body stat is doubled.
Super Speed (Speed): The Superhero can move at amazing speeds, able to run as fast as a car. The Superhero’s Speed stat is doubled and his base Initiative skill becomes equal to his Speed stat instead of half of that. He can also make multiple actions per round by taking a 10% penalty for every extra action he attempts.
Flight (Speed): The Superhero can achieve that dream among dreams. Superman has an abundance of powers, but the one that everyone knows and everyone wants is the ability to soar through the clouds. The Superhero can fly at about half the speed of a car, and may also simply hover. In combat, the Superhero can use this ability subtly to gain an advantage. Because he can simply move without having to move his feet, the Superhero may float in combat and gain a 15% bonus to any dodge or a 10% bonus to any close-combat attack, once per round.
Super Senses (Mind): The Superhero’s senses are supernaturally acute, allowing him to hear and see at far greater ranges than normal human beings. He may now add half his Avatar skill to his Notice skill (which may take it over his Mind stat). He can also use his Notice skill to observe things that would normally be impossible, like a cry for help a mile away or a license plate number from the top of a ten story building. In addition, this skill may make the Superhero’s attacks more precise in some cases, such as at night or when taking a long-range shot, at the GM’s discretion.
Invisibility (Mind): The Superhero can become unnoticeable. He could actually become invisible or he could simply fade into the background. However he does it, the Superhero must make a Conceal check with a bonus equal to half his Avatar skill as he moves about and does things that might draw attention to him. If he simply remains skill, no one will notice him unless they somehow bump into him.
Magic Resistance (Soul): The Superhero can resist hostile rituals, magical blasts, and other arcane forms of aggression towards his person. Any time the Superhero is the target of such a thing, he may roll his Avatar skill in the same way a Dodge is made; the higher success wins.
Healing Hands (Soul): The Superhero can heal the wounds of another. The same mechanic for healing himself is used, but in this case wounds actually do close, and bones do reset themselves.
Mind Influence (Soul): The Superhero can psychically influence the thoughts of another, and may add half his Avatar skill to Charm and Lie rolls. He can make the target do or think things that he would normally never think or do, but only if he rolls under his un-enhanced Charm or Lie skill.
91%-99%: “… for truth, justice, and the American way.”
A Superhero is noble to the point of nausea. At least, they are to supervillains with no stomach for the piquant sting of justice! He tirelessly fights for what is right and the strength of his convictions never wanes. The Superhero is no longer limited to one use per day of his Noble Stimulus. Any time the Superhero’s Noble Stimulus could be used, he may roll his Avatar skill to see if he can use it.
Hmm… aside from the fact that a real person has to embody an archetype in order for it to ascend, it could work in some kind of 4-color UA setting, I guess.
Why not have a single Super-figure be the same achetype for both heros and villans?
Impressive. One part documentary on superheroes, one part Occult Underground and two parts ‘Unbreakable’.
Enough taboos to make it difficult, but enough payoffs to make it well worth the efforts.
I’d love the chance to run a group of these some time in the near future.
“Now that we know who you are, I know who I am. I’m not a mistake.” — Elijah Price
To respond to Menzoa, a “real” person did ascend- it’s just that very few people know who it was, and those who do aren’t talking. In the section, “Suspected Avatars in Contemporary Game History,” it mentions three possibilities for the one who ascended: Temper (an irrascimancer), Freeflight (a suspected Flying Woman), and El Trueno (a former mexican wrestler). These three disappeared during a big, publicized incident in Chicago, and it was after that incident that Superhero Avatars started showing up.
This is all entirely made-up history the GM would have to add into his game, but someone *did* ascend. I know that much about the game.
Also, while the Superhero Archetype comes from a Four-Color outlook, he was not made to live in a Four-Color world. He exists to bring Silver-Age values to a world that needs them, badly. For inspiration on how this archetype works, take Mr. Unlucky’s advice and look to the movie Unbreakable. It’s a movie about a dark world where evil people do unthinkable things (yes, like the UA world), into which steps a superhero. For a look at the darker side of this archetype, look at the graphic novel “The Watchmen.” The first Batman movie and the series Smallville are both excellent examples of realism I had in mind while making the Superhero Archetype.
As for villains, the Supervillain Archetype was going to be my next project. In my experience with comic-books, I have found that, while they may seem similar on the surface with their powers and their costumes, supervillains and superheros are really very different as you go deeper (and that *is* what this game’s about, right?). Obviously, there is the motive, but there is also the method. Supervillains use minions, deathrays, diseases, nerve-gasses, deathtraps, etc, things that no true superhero, even a very dark one, would even consider. It is their skewed perspective, their twistedness, that makes them so different. Despite all the rantings the Joker makes about him and the Batman being the same, he will never be right because they see things so differently; Joker thinks the world is there for his amusement while Batman has a selfless outlook. That factor, along with the fact that Unknown Armies seems to have a lot to do with perspective, made me want to seperate the Hero and Villain archetypes.
I’m hesitant to inject something like this “because the world needs it, badlly.” The cosmos spirals more than it ballances. If it’s bad, it’s more likely to just get worse. Just ’cause the world needs a superhero doesn’t mean enough people truly believe in them strongly enough to send one up. I see it mroe about defined roles in society, rather than a wish-list for the universe. That being said, I understand the desire to give UA a taste of 4-color goodness.
In any case, the channels can very easily allow both good and evil characters with just one modification: let the fourth channel work for either Noble and Rage passions and have it be a question of personal character which they allow themselves to use.
As for the rest… the channels could work pretty well for villans and heros, perhaps called something like “The Four-Color Man”. Hero side is louder at the moment because the guy who ascended was “good.” This is far preferable to the highly unlikely line that humanity not only called out for, but believed in and embodied a second “super” archetype.
Also, if they share the same archetype, you have a perfectly natural reason why super-heros oppose super-villans, and vice versa: at best, this archetype has a very weak foothold in the IC, so if a villan gets too strong, they can make a play for his seat. The archetype, feeling his precarious position, directs his “loyal” avatars against the insurrectionists…
Of course, there’s another way to play. Maybe it was the bad guy that ascended, and the heros are the insurrectionists. That way, the villans focus a disproportionate amount of their attention on the rising “hero” types, and the heros must take down the more powerful villans in order to save this world and the next world.
Having the villan in the clergy also allows you to have a steady stream of targets with unique special powers to try to take down, only to be replaced by one of the other 98%-ers acting every bit the part of comic book evil.
And now for yet another post on the same idea…
Here’s a mix of the two previous positions. Say the good guy did get the sent up… the rest of the world is still far more corrupt than he was, so a good number of his avatars decide to be villans instead of heros. (The pay is better.) Once one of them hit the godwalker position, he started the fight.
Now, as much as they have a good number of fellow villans around, they are all trying to contest the weak seat on their own. The heros are the minority of the avatars who are loyal to the archetype, fighting to keep the world safe from one of the bad guys winning. As villans need to sway society in their favor, they use cults and oganizations and flashy master plans and such for much the same reason that all ambitious godwalkers do: to give them more leverage in the contest and insulate them from a hostile UAniverse.
A hero, on the other hand, can afford to be a lone operator, because he’s not trying to reshape the concept.
I’m sorry, but Superhero is not a human archetype.
The superhero is a very human thing, Bruce MacMonkey. It was dreamed up by humans to describe the struggle to remain decent in spite of one’s faults, which is the struggle of humanity itself. Superpowers don’t make their wielder less human.
That’s really why I can’t see the same archetype being used for both superheroes and supervillains; their surfaces are very similar, but their goals are SO different. Supervillains don’t try to overcome their faults. They relish in them. That difference in attitude seperates them on a level that would keep them seperate in the Invisible Clergy.
That said, Menzoa has some really cool ideas about who’s got control of the invisible clergy, and I encourage him to try it out. Whatever my personal feelings are on the subject of heroes and villains, it would make for some really neat adventures, and that’s what is important. I just hope some people like this idea and use it- I don’t really care how.
As for my villains, there are plenty of “super-powered” bad-guys in UA. With people like TNI, the Spider, and all manner of crazy adepts and avatars out there causing all kinds of havoc, along with nasty things like carnals and tooth-fairies, I don’t even REALLY have to come up with an archetype for the Supervillain to have super-powered villains for my Superheroes to bring down. I’ll still make it, though. It ought to be fun.
I intended for the darker side of the Superhero archetype to come out in the overzealous or fanatic hero, such as the Submariner or the Batman who took over for Bruce Wayne after Bruce’s back was broken. These heroes do whatever it takes to bring evildoers to justice. I think that allowing the Superhero to use his last channel on either his Rage stimulus or his Noble stimulus would reflect that (thanks Menzoa), and it’s an excellent addition to the archetype. Superheroes like this may mean well, but could easily become villains for the PCs (as they often do in the comics). But their basis for being is still different from that of a Supervillain.
Anyway, that’s why I’m keeping them seperate. You do what you like with the archetype and have fun doing it.
–Detective–
“A hero, on the other hand, can afford to be a lone operator, because he’s not trying to reshape the concept.”
I read it again and liked the idea even more. A hero isn’t trying to reshape the concept; all he wants to do is to help people.
Then again, wouldn’t one way to help people be to reshape the concept?
Not at the expense of human life and dignity … a true and good Superhero is more concerned with attending to society’s immediate needs. By attending to these, he sets an example for all to follow and thus attends to the farthest reaching goal immaginable: teaching the human race to better itself. Interesting paradox, really.
Don’t mind me, just musing.
Have fun with the idea- I’m going to stick to my own idea of a seperate Supervillain archetype. In all actuality, they’re already in the UA game setting in the forms of various Occult Underground leaders. Villains with grand nefarious schemes and supernatural powers … they’re already there, and for the most part they are unopposed, except by eachother.
I suppose that’s why Superheroes finally showed up. The UA cosmos might not *tend* to balance out, but sometimes the actions of a few determined and heroic individuals can do it accidentally. The way I concieved it, it really had nothing to do with answering some cosmic need. It might not even be a very balancing thing, either; think about how wild comic books get, sometimes. Sure, it pits a new player against quite a few of the old ones, but that’s hardly a recipe for balance and harmony in the universe.
They weren’t even trying to change the cosmos. They were a bunch of guys who decided that the best way to fight evil was from behind a mask. They happened to avert something huge, and through no fault of their own the act was televised. Then one of them ascended. It was a total accident.
And poof. They weren’t really trying to be heroes. They just were heroes, and the Superhero archetype was the payoff. I didn’t make the Superhero “because the world needed it, badly.” I know I said that’s what the Superhero is here to do, so maybe I had better rephrase: the Superhero is here to dish out some silver-age style justice. The world happens to be in need of some.
It happens to need heroes, yes, but I made it because I like Superheroes, I thought it was a neat concept, and I think it’d be fun to play them against UA villains.
(to be continued)
So don’t inject it into the game “because the world needs it, badly.” You are right in saying that UA isn’t really about balancing things out- it’s about them constantly changing. So if you’re going to put it into the game, do it because it’s a real surprise and totally different. Think about the look on the face of the next TNI operative whose plans get foiled by a guy calling himself the Wild Wonder (Entropomancers make great Superheroes, both light and dark). Think about how that evil Avatar of the Pedagogue will feel when he knows that the person who exposed him runs around in tights and a cape. And also think about the struggling group of PCs that crosses the legal line to do what’s right and finds themselves being tracked down by the relentless Judicator.
Think about the Superheroic Dispomancer … BEERMAN!
Just some liquid-lunch for thought.
–Detective–
Hmmm… I’m not much for superhero gaming (will play Godlike one day really soon now, though) but….
This doesn’t really sound like a “new” archetype, rather like the old archetype “the hero” got thrown out in an ascension war.
The old hero, renounced, is out there…
One issue is that they don’t have to be heroic, they just have to act heroic. That’s one problem I have with the “obsession” requirement of the taboo. It requires a specific mindset, rather than just acting a part.
Or maybe they don’t even have to do that. People are less likely to know what this guy ascended as than they are to know the nature of the Naked Godess. The Clergy (which decides who gets taken up and as what) may well have boosted him as the “Four Color Man” as opposed to the Superhero. The powers and theme are defined as they are because he saw himself as a hero; the clergy may have had other ideas.
BTW, all the taboos can easily be followed by someone without any interest in saving people or the greater good, and who could make very extensive use of the channels. Someone following all the rules, but promoting over-the-top malice rather than over-the-top goodness would be a more than possible.
Then I will have to fix that, because the specific mindset of the Superhero should be very important to this archetype. Superheroes have to both *act* and *be* heroic, and if the taboos aren’t making that clear, then something needs to be fixed. Thanks for pointing that out.
Although I do think that one of the taboos, the one where you make a stress checks at a higher difficulty whenever it happened due to failure on your part (specifically innocent people getting hurt because you messed up) does promote the over-the-top goodness, even if it does not outright enforce it. I don’t really want to enforce it anyway- the darker side of the Superhero must be able to exist.
Any suggestions for taboos that would enforce this specific mindset of being a good guy? (I suppose they don’t actually have to *act* heroic, just *be* heroic, at least in their own minds. For example, the darker side of the Superhero is trying to do what’s right- he’s just a fanatic and thus dangerous to the same people he ought to be protecting.)
–The Detective–
re-read the description of avatars. They don’t have to actually believe in what they are doing. They just have to act like it. Avatarhood, by definition, does not require a specific mindset. A major feature of them is that anyeone can cheat the system by just following the rules and playing the part to get the benefits.
It’s adept schools that require specific mindsets and obsessions. If you want to include an internal mandate, then you should make it a school, maybe a poorly defined one with only random magick or something, more like a catagory of Mageekians than a proper school.
Yeah, that is something I missed. My GM never made that clear to me.
Of course, that does make the “Flight of Terror” one-shot make more sense …
Well, whatever. I’ve gone over the nature of superheroes again and again, here, and that’s what the archetype is supposed to be. If there is also supposed to be a way to channel an archetype without believing in it, that just makes the whole idea of archetypes cheap, and it’s something I’ll be keeping out of my games.
Good old rule-zero.
What’s a Mageekian?
–The Detective–
Postmoderm Makick (pg 35 )defines a Mageekian as “somebody so obsessed with a particular, fairly minor aspect of life that thjey spontaneously generate magick around themselves.” This book, though out of print, is availible for download from Atlas Games.
It’d be an outgrowth of a hero’s “fight crime” obsession. If you’d take the “mageekian” route, you’d give these guys a few minor effects that they can use after charging up via an apropriate method — such as, catching a “bad guy.”
That being said, I still think this would be a good tidbit for giving a UA game a taste of comic book clarity. Hence my comments about the “four color man.” If you wanted to include a aspect of comic-goodness in a game, having one ascension cover both super heros and supervillans would be nice, discrete unit of mids to include.
Hm. My GM has the Postmodern Magic book, but I’m slowly being swayed.
Okay, I’ll see what can be done about this Four-Color Man. Certainly, with the continuity I have set up, right now, there would be an overwhelming majority of Superheroes, at least to begin with, since it was a heroic person that ascended.
This would be neat, too … the heroes are bringing down one classical UA badguy after another, but slowly they start meeting badguys with powers like theirs as villainous people learn about the archetype and see it as a quick way to power.
That would make for a very interesting campaign.
–The Detective–
P.S: This statement confused me: “… discrete unit of mids to include.”
One thing I still don’t see- why doesn’t the darker side of the Superhero I described balance the archetype?
Does the fact that both Superheroes and Supervillains come from comic books mean that they should have the same archetype? I have found that their … fascades are different enough that “acting the part” of a Superhero would be a very different thing from “acting the part” of a supervillain, different enough to illicit different archetypes. You say that “acting the part” is enough to channel an archetype and become an avatar.
Is it that you think the two are similar enough, or is it something else?
I’m very open to suggestion, right now- I’m not looking for a fight, just clarity.
–The Detective–
Oh, the vigillante could balance the archetype, for those who are interested in keeping it heroic. Villans don’t erally represent a dark facet, they represent a potential revision. Close enough to technically qualify, but definitely going for something a little different.
Nobody would have very strong ratings at first. There would be no 99%-er right off the bat, so it’d be a race to godwalker seat, to either defend, or start the assault against the archetype.
Maybe the IC didn’t take him up as a hero, but as a representative of the clear morality associated with comic characters. When he got there, he gave it a heroic slant, because that’s the kind of guy he is. In doing so, however, he’d have weakened his position, because the world believes in disguised bad guys and conspiracies more than it does in masked men who show up at the last minute.
Or at least that’s how I’d handle adding comic book supers to UA.
I would just like to point out that I brought this topic up, as a reply to “so you want to write a school” under Miscelaneous.
The only prior thing i can think of is somewhere deep in the archives, and that was an entirely nonmagickal delusional bastard with a cape.
On another note, Plutomancy and the Superhero haven’t coexisted since Dollar Bill got shot dead on his first mission.
To Strange Person: Poor Dollar Bill. Should’ve sprung for the bulletproof vest.
Who’s this delusional bastard with a cape?
To Menzoa:
Coming back to an old discussion …
I like the idea of a battle to defend the Godwalker seat quite a bit. I would like to see how you would deal with creating a Four-Color Man Archetype because, like I said, there’s too much of a difference in my mind about how heroes and villains act. Even if you only have to “act the part,” the part one must act to channel this archetype is a heroic. However, a Four-Color Man seems to be an excellent alternative for someone who wants there to be a lot more of the question, “What is the real difference between heros and villains?” Sure, the archetype might be hero-friendly, but a man can be heroic without being a Superhero, so he could also be villainous while wearing the mask of Superheroism. A “true heroism lies in the goal, not the method” sort of theme.
On the other hand, what about an Archetype like this one, that is Superheroic only? There could be a villain who “acts the part” in front of everyone in order to take over the seat in the invisible clergy, and then turn it towards darkness when he gets there. He may even start out as a friend of the PCs. This would be a game of protecting something pure.
Either way, it ought to be good.
–Detective–
More to Strange Person-
So I read your bit on a Superhero Archetype. I liked it, and I was surprised that we both thought Superpowers should come before the last channel. Lots of other similarities, too, like the resistance to stress checks and the costume providing the power (although mine is handled in a taboo, not a power).
What do you think of how I tackled the problem? Did you think I made it enough of a “big deal?” (you mentioned that the creation of an archetype should be huge)? And what do you think of the fact that Superheroes are, really, a very new idea (albiet one with roots in things far, far older)? Do you think that it has taken deep enough roots to hold up an archetype?
And for Menzoa- Yes, people do believe far more in false heroes than in masked men who show up at the last minute. Damn shame, too. Stupid cynicism.
I wonder what the Superhero (or, in your case, the Four-Color Man) will do to change that … I’d love to hear how it goes if you (or anyone else) decides to put this into a UA game.
–Detective–
I can’t seem to find the delusional guy. Somewhere before the earliest Dukes archive. Simply put, some poor kid’s sister got kidnapped and he became convinced she’d joined some kind of superheroic organization, so he pinned on a bath-towel cloak and went forth into the world to try and atract that group’s attention and get himself recruited.
I think you made it a big enough deal. Greek myth is probably far enough back to have a decent foundation, and Hercules is almost a superheroic guy, especially once Disney remade him.
I’m working on an idea for a couple small-timers, one of whom betrays and kills the other. They’re both students of an obscure subschool of Epideromancy that charges up on electricity and has some weird influence on karma, seeing souls as a kind of charged particle. Death is simply neutrality: the cancelling out of the complete existence while alive and the complete non-existence beforehand.
The one that got killed (stabbed in the back with a retractable dagger/tattoo, actually; severed the spine just under the shoulderblades) managed to crawl fifty yards down the road and up a high-voltage tower, and used the major charge from the fatal electric shock to return as a demon, posessed her own corpse, and decided to balance the charges: murder one, after all, is one of the most serious charges around, so turning it around is only fair. One good turn deserves another.
So now, Bat (short for Battery, although her dark-clothed, red-glowey-eyed appearance suggests otherwise), back from the dead and weilding superhuman reflexes and a magic tazer with unusual qualities, wanders across the country, seeking her lost lover Jumper, a recreational biker currently looting rural Nevada. Her breif fundamentalist-christian conversion motivated her to kill Bat, but she got so hammered afterwards that she forgot the incident completely and honestly belives Bat is still alive and well, back home. The nicknames refer to how they originally met: in a parking lot outside the nuke plant’s visitor center, Bat had left her car’s headlights on, and Jumper was the only one there with cables and sympathy.
If anyone asks, she (Bat) wants to get back some money Jumper borrowed (to buy that cool tattoo from some guy in L.A.), and something else: ‘mi cuello,’ my neck.
To summarize, a couple of lezzie electophiles, one of whom is dead and has the third channel of the abovementioned archetype, not to mention a burning desire for vengeance.
Oh yeah, and Dollar Bill wouldn’t have been any better off with a cape: he got capped in the forehead, point-blank, with his cape caught in a revolving door.
Interestingly enough, he was a more or less unconscious follower of the path: he got set up as the International Banking Conspiracy’s shot at the archetype. Interestingly enough, there’s no evidence that he ever had any sort of “secret hideout,” or even a well-defined weakness. That downright beaurocratic oversight probably killed him.
You should also check out Chad’s Mystery Man.
On the issue of how I’d handle the villans sharing the same archetype with the heros, it’s pretty simple: the archetype isn’t really “The Superhero.” Although the archetype a person ascends as is largely decided by the collective unconscious, what they do with the seat is a factor of who they are as a person.
In the two-in-one theory, the guy went up as “The Four-Color Man,” but because he was a heroic character, he favors the good guys over the bad. Even as written, the combination of taboos (Can’t Freak-Out; Obsessed; Alter-Ego; Secret Lair; Special Weakness) don’t actually require heroic behavior. You can do all of that as a villan just as easily.
It’s like the reverse of Stolze’s “Godwalker” background story, the couple was trying to unseat an archetype to send someone good and loving up into the IC. In this case, the archetype is ambiguous, but the guy in the seat is a hero. (This is why it favors heros over villans.) The villans, like that couple in “Godwalker,” want to take over the seat for themselves, replacing the good godling with a bad one.
Strange Person- Huzzah! Someone is using my archetype! Very sweet setup, by the way. Undead zapper. I like her already, and I don’t even know her.
That Dollar Bill story sounds awfully familliar … you didn’t take it from some famous work of superhero literature, did you? Something about watchers or something? Naw, couldn’t be.
Putting the Watchmen into UA. I approve.
Menzoa- I saw Chad’s Mystery Man and loved it. I thought of using it when I first created The Detective, but decided that it would be more meaningful if he were a normal human.
Also, I understand your “Four-Color-Man” idea very well, and I like it. It’s not quite what I was reaching towards when I made it, but it’s an excellent idea and someone should take it and run with it. Defending the rightful place of a heroic god/goddess from supervillains would make for an excellent superhero story, as well as a good Unknown Armies game. I would defenitely play in it.
Although the first taboo … the one marked, “with great power comes great responsibility,” seems, to me, rather prohibitive of villainous behavior. Personal failures on the part of the Superhero that lead to bad things happening to those he is meant to protect mean worse stress checks. Could you give an example of how it isn’t?
–Detective–
Yo, Detective. This is a cool Avatar. I like it. I’ve also plundered the concept shamelessly, re-written most of the rules and used it as a villain GMC in one of my games. Would you mind terribly if I submitted it to this site? I just thought that as you were the source of the idea and all, it would be best to ask.
Hey, Regis.
As a shameless plunderer of ideas, myself, I don’t mind at all. I’m just really glad my idea is being used.
I’m also glad you had to rewrite it to make it a villain. 😉 I just hope that there are some good Superheros in your game, too, or at least that you offer the avatar as a character option.
One way or another, I am complimented by your interest. Go ahead and post it- just tell me where it ends up so I can look at it.
–Detective–
“A Superhero may be plagued by human flaws, but it is his duty to overcome them. His very identity is based in saving and protecting people, and thus whenever his human failings cause things to go terribly wrong, it hits him harder than it would most. Any time a Superhero faces a stress check due to a personal failure on his own part, the check is considered one rank higher, and he cannot use his first channel to try and overcome it. He can, however, make an Avatar check to try and postpone the stress check until later, when the danger is passed and he can afford to fall apart over his failure.”
Having read through this I think I can easily spot where you failed to seperate hero from villian in this taboo… intent.
A villian’s true intent is, really, to protect the villian, and -possibly- those whom have proven themselves most loyal to the villian. If a villian goes out and kills 3 people on the dtreet with a gun, accidently catching 4 people due to bad aim, he wouldn’t feel very bad, as his intent was never to protect them in the first place.
A villian would only get hit by this taboo if, due to his actions, his most trusted luitenant was mortally wounded, or if the villian fails himself. If you want to expand on this to make the taboo count more for the villian, say that the villian gets hammered if he finds out his failures harmed those that sympathised with him. Other than that, there’s no real reason a villionous Super can’t fit into the Superhero arch-type.
the second taboo is a matter of perspective. Is it truly wrong to use your powers to harm or kill innocents that you know in your heart are being harmed worse by not living in your ideal world? It’s a bit hard to imagine, but an example might be:
The Burning Tree
The Burning Tree is out to save the world… his own way. Humankind’s vanity is it’s downfall, and all those who accept the modern world are at fault. The people who unwittingly accept it must be liberated from thier delusions that the way thigns are is the right way, whether they want to be liberated or not. Globalization, satelites, the forging of steel, the working of the earth, it all has to go, one bit at a time, even if The Burning Tree must stoop to thier level to make it happen. Using high explosives at times to take down larger targets, the Burning Tree has no qualms about anyone or anything who gets in his way.
None of the other taboos even slow a villian down.
I have worded that taboo incorrectly, then. By saying that things have gone “terribly wrong,” I mean that the Superhero has failed in his duty of protecting people. As someone who studies superheros intently, sometimes I forget that not everyone is clear on what a superhero does.
The other taboos aren’t supposed to “slow a villain down.” They are the … trappings. Restrictions on dress, behavior, etc. that make superheros identifyiable in comic books. The second taboo goes with this category, and I think you have misunderstood it.
That said, your Burning Tree character is a perfect example of how I envisioned the archetype being used the *wrong* way. I had a difficult time with thinking about the bad-guy side of the Superhero. All archetypes are supposed to have light and dark sides to them, and Burning Tree is an awesome poster child for the dark side of the Superhero. Rather like the Submariner, I think; one of the first “antiheros” to be featured in comic books.
I have actually rewritten this archetype, using many of the suggestions on this board. The problem you outlined here about “intent” was addressed a while ago … on another computer, I’m afraid, so I can’t quote it, right now. :/ Essentially, it was an overarching taboo in the style of more traditionally written UA archetypes. As I remember it, it called for a basic Avatar check any time the Superhero did not to his utmost to defend those in need. Something like that …
Thus the first taboo, the one which is missing the treatment of “intent” that you outlined, became secondary, as opposed to this incarnation here in which it’s really the primary guiding force. It is now, to simplify, a punishment for failure in the line of duty, whereas the new one is the punishment for straying from the line of duty. I agree that intent should be more fully addressed, and I think you’ve pointed out exactly what was wrong with how I wrote this in a way I was having trouble getting my mind around. Thank you.
Either way, I still like Burning Tree. In trying to find a loophole, you’ve nailed the darker side of this archetype exactly as I had hoped. How amusing.
–Detective–
Hey, so. About the Superhero not being a human archetype.
The WATCHMEN graphic novel was very, very popular. And now they’re making it a movie. In fact, there’s been a totally disproportionate surge of super-hero movies recently. And they’ve all been trying to set their Four-Color subjects in more plausible, REAL, modern-day settings. Some movies, like HANCOCK, refused to start OUT with the caped hero, and instead show regular shmoes with super powers who then rise to the public image of “superhero.”
Not to mention Smallville and Heroes, which have both been extremely popular – the latter phenomenally so.
Meanwhile, in the age of easy internet fame, prodigious physical feats by people who are nobodies, who just had the focus and dedication to get good at it, is showcasing a lot of determination and ability that we used to see only in comics. Parkour and the “Spiderman” wall-climber come most readily to mind as the modern, real, and popular equivalents of the hero training their abilities. (Especially for heroes without superpowers – like Batman.)
I don’t know, guys.
If this ain’t an archetype already, now’s the perfect setting to have someone go for that ascension attempt.
How about a super whose power involves having one of these? http://ua.johntynes.com/content_comments.php?id=161_0_3_0_C14