Let's Build: Superheroes

I’ve been enjoying the Let’s Build: Mecha series, and since I also love superheroes, I figured let’s do one for that too.

I created a bunch of superheroes for my Superhero Funnel concept for the Funnel Jam. As much as I still really like the idea of a Superhero Funnel and appreciate @SageDaMage for running the Funnel Jam, I ultimately decided I wasn’t happy with the direction that my Superhero Funnel was going and realized I was going to have to scrap a lot of the work I had done, and so it sort of sapped my motivation for the time being, but I do hope to come back to this or something like it eventually.

In any case, while that blog post in the link includes ~30ish entries, I later wrote 50, so here are my 50! I will probably make a blog post out of them eventually, but in the meantime, I’d be interested to see all of your superheroes!

  1. Bloodhound: Has the proportional strength, speed, and senses of a bloodhound.
  2. Gray Goo: Nanomachines convert non-living matter into other things (must understand the creation’s properties), and create virtual reality spaces.
  3. Vector: Unstoppable while moving in a straight line, vulnerable while pivoting.
  4. Pinball: Superspeed and proportional superstrength, but must account for inertia and other laws of velocity and acceleration.
  5. Snake: Floating orbs spontaneously appear around them. As they eat the orbs, they grow longer. Their sharp scales are dangerous even to themself.
  6. 2D: Two-dimensional. Can flatten against surfaces, slip through crevices, and fold like origami.
  7. Scanner Darkly: Superspy skills and gadgets, appearance and voice scrambling mask, separated brain hemispheres for multitasking, and deep-cover identity dissociation.
  8. Mushroom: Grow giant-sized or shrink to the size of a mouse from eating mushrooms.
  9. Flash Fry: Project hot grease and resistance to grease fires.
  10. Cinnamon: Emanate novas of burning-hot capsaicin.
  11. Mint: Emanate novas of ice-cold menthol.
  12. Alkahest: Project a universal solvent.
  13. Kintsugi: Injuries make them stronger with scars of gold.
  14. Librarian: Paper Elementalist.
  15. Technomancer: Override software and control devices as an extension of themself.
  16. Herbalist: Gain superpowers relating to the properties of held plants.
  17. Landfill: Telekinetic control of trash and waste.
  18. Schrodinger: While unseen, can be anywhere and nowhere in the vicinity.
  19. Laservision: Laser-grid visual overlay for perfect accuracy and precision.
  20. Aye-Aye Aye: Long bony finger, like an aye-aye, with advanced supersenses.
  21. Memetos: Living idea that can infect the collective unconscious over time, or more rapidly the consciousnesses of individuals in the vicinity.
  22. Constructor: Rapidly construct cartoonish but functional devices and structures from minimal resources that break down shortly after use.
  23. Cleric: Summon rays of cleansing, healing, but also searing light.
  24. Parkour: Superhuman agility, dexterity, flexibility, reflexes, etc., that accelerate so long as they remain in motion, returning to athletic human levels if halted.
  25. Icarus: Waxy melting wings, dripping with the heat of Greek Fire. Wings melt and regrow over the course of a turn.
  26. POP: Compel any non-living object to spontaneously combust. The force of the explosion and predictability of the detonation time is proportional to the size of an object.
  27. Flurry: Throw rapid and near-infinite consecutive strikes.
  28. Wavecrash: “Teleportation” via the internet and strike from the other side with the force of a vehicle speeding down the information superhighway.
  29. Babylon: Scramble or silence sounds, including language, and emit sonic force beams.
  30. Triplets: Coordinate in perfect harmony; far greater than the sum of their parts.
  31. Warhead: Fortified with an organic metal shell. Can explode without harming themself, but lose their metal shell for the remainder of the conflict.
  32. Kafka: Proportional strengths and abilities of various arthropods, although their greatest power (and weakness) is their utterly horrifying appearance.
  33. Combo Ace: Store three pre-programmed athletic or combat feats like video game controller macros, infinite use unless replaced (between conflicts).
  34. Chopper: Human attack helicopter cyborg.
  35. Wormhole: Create a temporary human-sized portal between two locations in the vicinity.
  36. Snapshot: By taking a photo and holding it up to their face in the exact spot it was taken, they may retrieve small objects from the same place and in the same state as in the photo, even if the object is no longer in that place or state.
  37. Rainmaker: Project a torrent of (fake) money strong enough to knock over an average human. By shooting into the air, those caught under raining money are overcome with excitement and susceptible to greedy impulses.
  38. Rust: Make metal rapidly rust.
  39. Roller: Superspeed from biological wheels under their feet.
  40. Superposition: They can take up to three brief actions in a row, all occurring simultaneously and able to affect each other, before collapsing into the last action.
  41. OP: Can’t affect or be affected by things they can’t see; lack of “object permanence”.
  42. Firehose: Rapidly absorb any raw material (e.g. water, dirt) by pressing one hand into it and simultaneously project it as a powerful and steady stream from the other hand.
  43. Nono the Non-Euclidean Clown: Wibble-wobble in spacetime-bending strides stretching and collapsing like a human slinky.
  44. Redlight: Bathe the vicinity in red light and cancel out any one kind of action (e.g. moving, fighting, talking) for the round, once per conflict.
  45. Plasma Platypus: Electrolocation, biofluorescence, venom “plasma” shock, and other superhuman abilities proportional to a platypus.
  46. Tetraminos: Summon brick-like tetrominoes that can be rotated as they fall in a 10x20 block grid. Once started, they continue to summon for the duration of the conflict. At 20 rows they are incapacitated for the rest of the conflict, but a filled row disappears and lowers the others.
  47. Tough Enough: Always and only as tough as the toughest other person in the vicinity.
  48. Broadway: General superhuman abilities and a magic weapon only active while monologuing in song and dance. Infectiously spreads to others (without the benefits).
  49. Nitro: Nitrogen-related powers including freezing liquid nitrogen, explosive TNT, superspeed of nitric oxide (NOS), and biological effects of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) which they can use to self-empower or release as gas to affect others.
  50. Captain Canine: Uplifted experimental super-dog; a “one dog army”.
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  1. Mister Buzz: A swarm of bees in a trenchcoat, got into superheroing for revenge and then stuck to it since they had nothing better to do.
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Isn’t this already a Marvel and/or DC villain :rofl:? It’s a good idea though!

I’ve been playing a super hero campaign recently and having a lot of of fun with it! I made an automated super/hero villain generator that you can use here:

https://lizardmandiaries.blogspot.com/2021/08/super-herovillain-generator-freeform.htm

Might come in handy for making more Supers! I’ve had a lot of fun just clicking the buttons and seeing what comes up!

(You can also download the tables in PDF and HTML for free here: DriveThruRPG)

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I read your generator when you first posted it on your blog and it’s great! However, that link you provided doesn’t seem to work for me haha, but I was able to re-find the post from scrolling through your homepage.

Thanks for the catch! I don’t think I can edit the post, but here is the working link:

I haven’t nailed down the concept at all yet but I just came up with a My Hero Academia character idea “All for Naught”. Not sure where to go with that yet, a few obvious things come to mind but still mulling it over.

A while back, I came up with 30 “useless” superpowers. A clever player could still find a way to have some of them be useful :blush:

  1. You can sleep anywhere.
  2. You throw playing cards really hard. Just playing cards.
  3. You can drink as much milk as you’d like with no drawbacks
  4. You are able to change the color of skin to bright pink
  5. You’re able to hold your breath for 1 hour. You can’t swim though.
  6. You burp crazy loud
  7. You’re a fast talker
  8. You’re able to lick your own elbow
  9. Your hair will never turn grey
  10. You always have an even number of eye lashes
  11. You control when you sweat
  12. You turn your hearing off and on at will
  13. Flowers wilt in your presence
  14. Milk curdles in your presence
  15. You vomit on command
  16. You eat really spicy food with no issues
  17. You can’t get drunk
  18. You never sleep, but you still get tired
  19. Torches and lanterns within 30 feet of you dwindle and die
  20. You have an iron stomach. You keep down anything you can swallow.
  21. You produce the smelliest of farts
  22. You seem to get dirty no matter what you do
  23. You see germs
  24. You chug liquids inhumanly fast
  25. All yeast dies within 10 feet of you
  26. You suck all the excitement out of a room
  27. You understand the language of cats. They hate you and make sure you know.
  28. You can smell colors
  29. You can scream for hours on end without going hoarse
  30. Strangers feel like they’ve met you before and didn’t like you
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I love this idea :)! I actually wrote a similar blog post at one point about similarly “useless” powers, i called it Cantrippers.

I have this idea of saying, whenever you read about a ridiculous sounding superpower, ask “What if this were Batman”? Because Batman has no superpowers at all, so even a kind of ridiculous superpower would be no worse, but then how might Batman find a good use for it?