Yet another supers game!
The Game: Simple Superheroes
The Publisher: Compose Dream Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one
As I've said a zillion times before, I love superheroes, superhero movies, superhero RPGs. To a lesser extent, I like comics, too, but honestly I find the endless(ly stupid) continuity a bit much to keep up with. I like a story with an end point, which is why I like movies, and also why I enjoy RPG campaigns that end eventually.
Anyway, none of that matters because Simple Superheroes isn't very interesting, nor is it particularly simple. It's got a nifty cover, though.
Well, I should clarify. It's not complex in the sense that it has a big robust point-buy system. It's just not simple in that the text is hard to read and boring, and there's a lot of abbreviation that makes everything look like we're writing things in shorthand. To wit: No list of powers, you just assign one of your Talents (everything's a Talent) a rank, an ability category, and an intent. So if you want to be able to teleport like Nightcrawler, I suppose you'd assign that a rank (probably pretty high), a category (Mobility), and an intent (Functional). So it'd get written "5-bamf [Mbl:O]".
And that's fine if you know what all that gobbledygook means, but it's in no way "simple." Also, since everything is broken down by intent, rules-as-written I couldn't use that power to dodge an attack without taking another Talent that would be like 3-teleport dodge [Mbl:D]. Which is silly and weirdly granular.
Anyway, I picked this game to do a character for because the dot was falling off, so I'll get that satisfaction, anyway.
Right, so I need a superhero concept. The game supposedly can scale to various levels of super-heroics, but the foreword of the book indicates that it was originally meant for gritty, street-level stuff. Cool, I don't have too many of those kinds of characters in my project, I don't think (most supers game lean four-colored, other than like Cold Steel Wardens). Thinking about someone who would be useful on the mean streets of [wherever], and with the note that I've been watching Sandman of late, I think I want a character who can put people to sleep as his superpower. This isn't a martial artist or a gun-toting Punisher type, he's more of a "talk to you from the shadows" and then you feel your eyelids get heavy kind of thing. The temptation to make his hero moniker "Melatonin" is great, but I ain't gonna.
Well, where do we start? Everything is a Talent, and I can pick a well-rounded, standard, or focused array. I feel like his sleep power should be fairly high-ranked, but does that mean 4 or 5? Let's assume that it's the thing he does really well and take the focused array: 5, 4, 3, 3, 2, 2.
I know I want my sleep inducing power to be my 5, so I'll start with that one. I guess that'd be...hmm. Brains or Sensory? I guess either would work. Let's call it Sensory. 5-induce sleep [Sns:O].
UGGGGH. I just read ahead a bit and there's a discussion on how to structure Talents that gets into, for example, punching through a wall. If you want to do it, you can just take a strength power. If you want to do it and not break your hand, you have to take a toughness power.
OMG. IS THIS WHY YOU THINK PEOPLE PLAY SUPERS GAMES? TO HAVE STUPID ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOW POWERS WORK? THAT'S WHAT REDDIT IS FOR.
Anyway. I want a power that makes people ignore him, so let's call it 4-mental invisibility [Sns:D].
Cool, what else? Well, I figure I'd want him to be able to project his voice to come from anywhere, so how about 3-ventriloquism [Sns:F]. Likewise, maybe a way to confuse his foes. 3-befuddlement [Brn:O].
Kinda like the idea of him being a skilled lockpick, too, so 2-lockpicking [Acr:F]. And, finally, I think it'd be cool if once he sees you, he has an instinctive sense of where you are until you sleep again (including under his power). 2-dreamer's mark [Sns:F] (I guess that's functional, though you could make the argument for offensive).
So now for Superpower Finesse. This is actually an interesting idea and it's a shame it's kind of half-assed. The idea is that for every Talent you have in a specific theme, you get a rank in this, up to a maximum of the highest ranked Talent. So my talents are themed around sleep, I suppose? If so, then because "induce sleep" and "dreamer's mark" (and maybe "befuddlement," since it works by making people sleepy and in a dream-like state"), I'd have a Finesse of 3-sleep. Could also take misdirection as a Finesse? I guess? Could I count befuddlement twice? Screw it, I'm just taking the one.
Now for Values and Relations. These are motivation kinds of things, and I get three ranked 2, 1, 1. Let's see now. Guess I need to figure out who this guy is.
The obvious inspiration for a sleep-themed hero is dreams, but I'm gonna go with something a little more...visceral, I suppose? My character is a gravedigger (which nowadays means he gets to use a backhoe in addition to a shovel). His name is Reid Maples, and one afternoon he was digging a grave (it was too close in proximity to some other plots to use the backhoe) when he felt a profound sense of fatigue wash over him. It wasn't the weary, stressful, mental exertion of modern life, but the full-body, heavy, physical exhaustion of being able to fall into dreamless sleep. And then he woke up under the crescent moon in the open grave he'd dug, and heard men talking and whispering to each other.
Reid still isn't sure who those guys were; by the time he pulled himself out of the grave they were gone. But he's discovered three things. First, he can call on that feeling of restful slumber to incapacitate enemies, sending them into peaceful sleep. Second, he can also stop that feeling just shy of sleep, granting the much less pleasant physical exhaustion but restless mind that results in befuddlement and his "invisibility." And third, his own sleep is black, dreamless, and deep, but it is not empty. There's something in the void that helped him get these powers, and Reid does not know why. All he knows is that there are people out in the night who should be resting...one way or another.
There, that's dark. We'll say Reid works at Sunny Hills Memorial Park, a huge cemetery in [city]. That's a 1-rated Relation. Rest for the wicked is a Value, and that can be the 2. And, finally, there's a gal who works in the cemetery office named Amy that Reid has been crushing on for a long time. They eat lunch together most days, and while Reid doesn't know it, Amy is starting to suspect that Reid has more going on than he's letting on.
OK, cool. Now I need a weakness. I'll say that Reid's powers don't work on people that can't sense him in some way. They have to see, hear, or touch him (presumably smell or taste would also work, but ew). He basically has to risk revealing himself to put someone to sleep.
Cool, all done but the details. When Reid is out doing super-stuff, I think he dresses in black, but has bright red sewn into the lining of his coat to draw attention quickly. He wears a black mask on his eyes and a scarf or gaiter over his mouth, but lets his black hair fly free. Criminals have started calling him a lot of things - Sandman, the Boogeyman, Dracula - but he calls himself Requiescat.
That's me done!
