The Parvenu

John Holmes asked for an adventure with examples of many features that would help show the game. Here's an outline for one called The Parvenu.

Setup: The PCs just got their powers—at least one in an accident that put them in the hospital until this test. The session starts, in fact, in the Parker Lance test area for the newly expressed. The PCs are being put through their paces. (Others, such as those with a Gimmick, Unearthly, or Artificial origin are also invited—it's kind of a "coming out" in the super community.)

Test Day

The PCs are driven out and back by a bus. Even if they have their own transportation, the officials inviting them insist on the bus. Because...

Because the test area is in another dimension. It's safer to test supers that way. The bus has interdimensional travel but only this dimension. It drives down a dead end alley at full speed and appears near the test area.

The test area is six buildings set up around a "town square" and a hidden bunker in the country. The bunker is for the observers; it has scientists, doctors, and technicians who operate things. The bunker is more like a pillbox, and can hold about two dozen people. It normally has a dozen. Half are observers. One is Slipstream, a member of a well-known superhero group, the Freedom Squad.

(Outside the test area are two radioisotope electrical packs, each the size of a bus, which provide the power. If the GM wants, there can be an entire working installation for the manufacture and repair of the test there—so the Parker Lance test area is great for a locked-universe mystery—but I digress.)

The buildings are:

• a six-storey office building
• a bank
• a bar beside/behind a coffee shop
• a department store
• a city hall
• a police station

The centre of the "square" has a gazebo-bandstand structure. Each of the four corners of the square has a statue of a person—supposedly a town founder. Feel free to add other town square details so players can show off their powers.

The test involves rescuing some observers (robots) from a series of threats, and then dealing with the giant kaiju-robot that is "causing" it. (Fans will know that this is a refurbished robot taken from Dr. Tekno Black, one of the greats in mad science.) The PCs start off locked in jail cells but aware that the kaiju-robot is about to attack.

First they have to escape. Some powers make it easy, and all of the PCs have their gadgets or equipment.

Simple tests here. Pass or fail to get out of the cells; degree of success might indicate how far they travel. Anyone who helps other PCs escape gets a determination point.

The kaiju is a giant bipedal lizard thing with a flaming head, one clawed paw, one frozen paw, and a tail. 

Once they get out, the robot has to cross the square to get to them. There are (robot) civilians in the square, threatened by the kaiju-robot. Players who need guns can find them in the arms of the (robot) policemen, but there is ample evidence that the bullets are not effective against the giant thing.

Threats are allotted one to a player.  The exact threats depend on your players, but possibilities include:

• bystanders about to be crushed by the tail
• a blast of flame breath on bystanders
• a falling building (the department store and the gazebo are both rigged to fall)
• a jet of water from the ground from a bursting water main
• electrocution from downed power lines
• a tail smash causes the earth to crack open and swallow a bystander

Again, simple tests but without a chance of a second try, so use of Determined Effort is valid. Encourage them to spend Determination Points or to create Advantages by maneuvers or by giving themselves Trouble.

We assume that brute force isn't enough to defeat the kaiju-robot (though some powers might make it easy). There are several ways to defeat the kaiju-robot. For instance:

• Combined attacks might defeat its Damage Resistance.
• Falling walls or buildings might do more than enough damage.
• They can overload its senses; that's a pyramid test against Difficulty 6.
• There is a weak spot in its mouth that lets the PCs get to its "brain" without the Damage Resistance applying; that's a pyramid test of difficulty 7 (4 if you're in the mouth, but you will get burned).
• The operators can be controlled with mental powers, if a PC can find the operators.

Those knowledgeable about superheroes or Dr Tekno might know these Qualities; the GM should bring these weak spots out so the PCs can discover them.

• A PC who sees the mouth open might see the weak spot in its mouth.
• A technological hero might recognize the kind of sensors it uses.
• With an Intellect or Awareness test, perhaps a player can find the operators.

First they have to discover the quality, and then take advantage of it, probably involving a pyramid test.

Whether the PCs win or lose, the observers take notes. Slipstream greets them afterward but has to talk to the Freedom Squad.

ELEMENTAL KAIJU-ROBOT

Prowess	4	Coordination	6	Strength	8
Intellect	4	Awareness	4	Willpower	-
Stamina	16
Specialties	None
Powers	6	Damage Resistance
	4	Flame breath (blast) Limit: Preparation
	5	Slicing claws and teeth (Strike: slash)
	5	Cold touch (Affliction)
	4	Smashing tail (Extra Limb)
Qualities	Seven-storey tall robot
	Weak spots
	Learns about opposition

After the fight, the PCs get in the bus to go home.

The First Offer

Just after popping back into our dimension, a hologram of Dr. Tekno Black  appears on the bus. (He's supposed to be in prison.)

He offers them a job. His organization can train them, refine their abilities, and maybe get them some cool swag—plus, when his plans do succeed, they'll have good positions in the new order. His caveat is that it has to be all of them.

He doesn't demand an answer now, but says they can get in touch with him. He'll keep an eye on them.

The hologram vanishes. The bus driver calls back—sorry about the delay. Engine trouble. She says she has seen nothing.

The Second Offer

By the time they get off the bus, Slipstream is waiting there. The hero won't offer them a place on the team, but will offer them training with some local heroes, the Justice Pack. Slipstream gives them information, wishes them luck, and leaves.

If the PCs tell Slipstream about the offer from Dr. Tekno, the hero looks concerned. "How does he keep doing that?" Slipstream asks the PCs to keep the Justice Pack up to date, and they'll pass the information along.

Interlude

The PCs have a couple of options:

• Ignore it all—in which case Dr. Tekno gets more insistent. Eventually he frames them by committing a theft and leaving the money in their homes. 
• Join Dr. Tekno for real—in which case you're playing a supervillain game.
• Join Dr. Tekno but planning to reveal his plans, which is beyond my scope at this moment. My only advice is that Dr. Tekno doesn't necessarily believe them, so there's a loyalty test and a watchdog NPC.
• Go to the Justice Pack.
• Strike out on their own. In this case, what  remains of the Justice Pack comes to them.

Try to encourage them to make a group decision—Dr Tekno only wants them as a group.

The Justice Pack

The Justice Pack's headquarters is on a small island in the bay or river near the campaign city.

Unbeknownst to either the Freedom Squad or the PCs, the Justice Pack has just had a break-up. Everyone has left but Flashmob, a duplicator, and his powers are currently unreliable so he's afraid to recombine. (He'll do all the support stuff at the base.)

He's willing to teach them what he can, but they have to join the team. The team has some resources. (Transportation, training area, connections with government.)

The PCs might still have doubts, but Dr Tekno thinks they've made up their minds. So he attacks.

The kaiju he sends comes out of the water, as all the best kaiju do.

The Other Kaiju

Dr. Tekno uses the kaiju he modelled the robot after. PCs might think it is the same one, but Dr. Tekno has a kaiju mind-control unit on this one—a fine mesh laced over its head.

The monster is specifically proof against the technique they used on the robot (Dr. Tekno knows about that) but it has other weaknesses.

True to his current insecurities, Flashmob works support while the PCs handle it.

FLASHMOB

Prowess	4	Coordination	4	Strength	3
Intellect	4	Awareness	4	Willpower	4
Stamina	8
Specialties	Athletics, Technology
Powers	5	Duplication Extra: Horde
	2	Super-speed
Qualities	Eager to please but not on the front line
	Knows everybody
	Justice Pack repository
	Right now, all his powers have the Limit: Unpredictable.

THE REAL ELEMENTAL KAIJU 

Prowess	6	Coordination	5	Strength	8
Intellect	4	Awareness	4	Willpower	4
Stamina	12
Specialties	Mental Resistance Expert
Powers	8	Growth Limit: Constant
	5	Flame breath (blast) Limit: Preparation
	5	Slicing claws and teeth (Strike: slash)
	5	Cold touch (Energy Drain vs Will)
	4	Smashing tail (Extra Limb)
Qualities	Controlled by nigh-indestructible gadget
	Wily
	Quick to anger
	*Growth gives "Large."

Lame villains of the day.... King's Wood

SYSTEM: ANY

Do these names not inspire an emotion in you? (Granted, it might not be fear, apprehension, or loathing, but disgusted amusement is an emotion, right?)

They are:

• Tree Rex, emperor of the plant world! (Qualities include "You can do anything with plants!" and "Dirty filthy animal urges")
• Air Apparent, maker of illusions! (Qualities include "See it to believe it" and "Life's a breeze")
• Sleeping Beauty, she who controls dreams and plants posthypnotic suggestions! (Qualities include "Sultry, seductive, and soporific" but not "Slept her way to the middle")
• Pope of Roam, the man with speedster control. (Qualities include "Can control the speed force but never use it himself")

They usually have one or two captive speedsters and a carnivorous plant with them. They get access because Sleeping Beauty has arranged entry to whatever place they need, and sometimes protection against those meddling heroes.

Fallen Icons: Scott Stewart, formerly Clockwise, Second of the Cosmic Watch

SYSTEM: ICONS

Time travel is a tricky thing. There are unintended consequences that can create multiple universes. And, though human science hasn't caught up to this point yet, every universe created makes the existence of the cosmic "bubble" that contains all of them just a bit more tenuous.

The race that protects the reality stream—the Watchmen of the Cosmos—have one rule that stands above all others: No time travel. They don't prevent time travel. (Examples among earth's heroes are legion: The Streak, for example, has traveled both forward and backward in time; Exemplar had membership in both future and present groups.) Some small number of those are trying to destabilize history, either to bring about the future that they want (in the case of the Autoarchons or the Onyx Corps or the Semioticians, to name but three) or destroy the cosmic bubble entirely (the Nimble Flame).

Instead, the Watchmen have a corps of agents throughout the galaxy who are attempting to preserve what they call the Ideal Calendar. These seconds (the Seconds of the Cosmic Watch) must attempt to stop tampering events without themselves traveling through time. To help them, the Watchmen have crafted for them miraculous weapons: the Second Crystals, implanted in a wristband. A Second Crystal is limited only by its wearer's willpower and imagination.

In Nevada there is a test facility for a small aircraft company: Flying Iron Aircraft. The head of their test pilot group, Scott Stewart, used to be a Second of the Cosmic Watch, until he broke the single most important rule of the Watchmen.

He traveled in time.

He had done it before, in the company of the Streak, but this time he took a time machine from Chase Hunter, Chronomaster, and went back to save the woman he loved.

The Watchmen did not banish him. (For all their power, the Watchmen have peculiar limits; they have never been able to eliminate Dexether, the renegade Second.) They took back his crystal, and passed protection of this sector of space to another Second.

Now he lives with Cadence Ironside, the woman he saved. Together, they run Flying Iron Aircraft.

If you ask him, Scott will say that he made his choice, and he abides by it. But his wife will tell you that, sometimes in his sleep, he says the Oath of the Seconds:

Because I fought when Chaos beckoned
The Cosmic Watch hails me its second.
Every second, every day
Ever vigilant we stay
Preserving all events we may.
From Chaos and Disorder's power
We of the Watch protect each hour.

Scott Stewart

Prowess	5	Intellect	4	Determination	-
Coordination	4	Awareness	4	Stamina	12
Strength	4	Willpower	8
Specialties	Military, Pilot (Master), Power (Cosmic crystal) Expert
Powers	None.
Qualities	Fearless, for good and bad
	Will do anything for the woman he loves
	Long history, with guilt, enemies, and allies

Clockwise, Second of the Cosmic Watch

In his prime as the Emerald Moment, he had the Cosmic Crystal on his wristband.

Name	Clockwise (Scott Stewart)	Prowess	4	Intellect	4	Determination	1
		Coordination	4	Awareness	4	Stamina	8
		Strength	4	Willpower	9
Specialties	Aerial Combat, Military, Pilot (Master), Power (Cosmic Crystal)
Powers	Cosmic Crystal Cosmic Power (Device) [Constructs] Limit: Limited to user's Will score; Limit: Needs daily recharge.						10
	Extra: Effect [Adaptation]
	Extra: Effect [Blast]
	Extra: Effect [Flight]
Extra: Effect [Force Field]
Extra: Burst
Qualities	Part of a galactic paramilitary organization
	Fearless, for good and bad
	I fought the law

His biggest enemy was of course Withershin, the rogue Second.

Notes

The comic book item has a ridiculous number of powers, but for these write-ups I wanted to keep the number of powers down to six or less, with the rest being stunts. I hope I chose wisely, and that the Qualities involved will help you generate enough Determination to stunt the extra powers. The Adaptation power takes the place of universal translation and life support or the occasional flying to the center of the earth or whatever. (I know that the Adaptation power doesn't officially do translation, but it's in the wheelhouse of this concept, and really, the stories are almost never about translation difficulties; as a GM, I'd just give it to him.)

Constructs is from Great Power. I decided that he stunts the Space flight extra to his flight, though he does use it frequently.

EDIT: Did I really forget to give the prime version three Qualities? Yes. Yes, I did.

Fallen Icons: Erzebet Sforza, some day to be Harrier

SYSTEM: ICONS

In the heart of New York City is a girl who will know the past.

Erzebet is the latest reincarnation of a Mongolian girl, Monkh, who was betrothed to the Khan Garuda in his human identity. He blessed her with eternal reincarnation, and she carries on his fight against the naga, or dragon-people. At some point in each life, she becomes aware of who she was and whose spirit she carries, and undertakes her mission. Khan Garuda gave her three things to help her in her fight: first, wings, with a magical flying harness; second, great strength and enhanced eyesight, which come when she realizes her identity; and third, a mace that came from the stars and that can damage any magic.

Erzebet is five. Her parents do not know. In fact, they are not even aware that they have a Mongolian ancestor. Her father, Jorge, is a janitor for a large industrial firm. Her mother, Katrina, is a seamstress.

If the naga discover who she is, they will kill her, and delay her reappearance by years.

They killed her when she was Harrier.

Name	Erzebet Sforza	Prowess	5	Intellect	4	Determination	–
		Coordination	1	Awareness	4	Stamina	5
		Strength	1	Willpower	4
Specialties	Athletics
Powers	None.
Qualities	A child
	Many past lives, currently unknown
	Hates snakes

Harrier

Her last incarnation, Sheila Falcone, was an Egyptologist at the Smithsonian.

Name	Harrier (Sheila Falcone)	Prowess	6	Intellect	4	Determination	2
		Coordination	5	Awareness	5	Stamina	12
		Strength	7	Willpower	5
Specialties	Athletics, Investigation, Military, Weapons (Melee), Wrestling
Powers	Flight Limit: Indestructible winged harness						5
	Super-senses (+1 Enhanced sight, Telescopic sight)						2
	Strike (Device: Mace of Garuda)						8
	Extra: Secondary Effect (Nullify, Limit: Magic only)
Qualities	Hatred of snakes and naga
	Remembers every previous life
	Loves the people in her current life

This image is from Deviant Art:

(Okay, what's with the bare midriff thing?)

EDIT: How embarrassing! I had transposed her Intellect and Determination. Fixed now.

Fallen Icons: Laurel Kitchen, formerly Nightingale

SYSTEM: ICONS

And Nightingale was one of the significant heroes.

So far as anyone knows, Laurel Kitchen owns two small businesses in town: a flower shop and a martial arts studio. She is mostly busy with raising her twins, Oliver and Felicity, and running the flower shop. It's a far cry from the days she brought down international drug cartels and stopped madmen from destroying the world.

Only a few years ago, she was the heroine Nightingale, child of the first Nightingale. She was married, tempestuously, to the aptly named Quarrel. When he died, she was pregnant with their children, though she didn't know it at the time.

She's not sure how her mother fought crime and raised a child at the same time: raising twins seems like more than she can manage, sometimes. Laurel is still good, but she knows she's not in crime-fighting trim any more. Yet. She plans on getting back to it, but the twins are babies still, and she has these twenty-five pounds to lose, and...

Well.

The assumption among the public is that she died when Quarrel did.

In the meanwhile, she turns out to be good at the business thing, and the ridiculously-named Saffron Thyme does a fine job of running the dojo and giving after-hours access to vigilantes who need practice or training. 

Name	Laurel Kitchen	Prowess	5	Intellect	4	Determination	–
		Coordination	4	Awareness	4	Stamina	7
		Strength	3	Willpower	4
Specialties	Athletics, Business, Drive, Investigation, Leadership, Martial Arts Expert
Powers	Sonic scream Limit: Must be able to speak.						6
	Extra: Burst (Constant: must happen for all Sonic Scream powers)
	Extra: Effect [Stunning]
Qualities	Legacy of Justice
	Single Mom, Double Children
	Computers Hate Her, and the Feeling Is Mutual

If the PCs need a place to work out, they might get steered to her dojo. Sure, during the after-school time it has a horde of children and moms who want to get in shape, self-defense classes and a little weapons work besides, but at night?

Some of the best in the world come there. The basement is not unfinished: it holds durable and high-tech equipment that can stand up to some of the toughest people in the world. The first aid service is excellent.

Nightingale

If you want to play her in her prime, she doesn't have the lack of sleep implicit in the Single Mom quality (among other things).

Name	Nightingale	Prowess	6	Intellect	4	Determination	4
		Coordination	5	Awareness	4	Stamina	8
		Strength	4	Willpower	4
Specialties	Athletics, Business, Drive, Investigation, Leadership, Martial Arts Expert
Powers	Sonic scream Limit: Must be able to speak.						6
	Extra: Burst (Constant: must happen for all Sonic Scream powers)
	Extra: Effect [Stunning]
	Super-Speed (Motorcycle)						4
Qualities	Legacy of Justice
	I'm a Fighter, Not a Lover
	Computers Hate Her, and the Feeling Is Mutual

Here's an image from the always excellent Project Rooftop:

Fallen Icons: Ape X, formerly The Streak

SYSTEM: ICONS

Deep in the bowels of the Center for Restraining Antisocial Hyperhominids, known familiarly as CRASH, is a gorilla. A telepathic gorilla. Ape X.

He has fantastic mental abilities, but the nullifiers on the floor prevent him from using them. The small community of sapient apes has not come to rescue him. He has betrayed them (for their own good, he'd say) too often.

He claims to be the Streak, the fastest man on the planet. The automated guards ignore him, because they know that Ape X plays the long game, and gorillas are long-lived animals. The only other ape to get the same treatment seems to be effectively immortal, so the long game might be very long.

His story, if it can be believed, is a simple one: Ape X traded minds with the Streak, but unable to control the Acceleration Field, that energy source that grants all speedsters their powers, the Streak's body disappeared, leaving only Ape X with the mind of a man.

It's silly, of course; the Streak is presumed gone, and another speedster has taken on his mantle, his legacy.

But your heroes might be used to control Ape X: his powers might be necessary for some reason or even his knowledge of where the Simian Troop lives, and then they would hear the entire story. If he's correct, he has nothing like the powers that Ape X used to have; those mostly went along with Ape X's mind.

Current Ape X

Ape X is a former experimental subject, exposed to alien radiation, just like his former mate, Sunshine, the other immortal and mentally powered gorilla. He is not at his peak, having been in a specialized prison cell for several years.

Name	Ape X	Prowess	4	Intellect	5	Determination	–
		Coordination	4	Awareness	4	Stamina	11
		Strength	6	Willpower	5
Specialties	Athletics, Investigation Expert, Mental Resistance Expert, Wrestling
Powers	Super-Senses (Enh. Hearing, Enh Smell).						2
Qualities	Forensic Scientist in the body of a gorilla
	Out of touch for years
	Honesty and Code of Honor

The Streak

You know all those powers that speedsters have? This guy, the Streak, he pretty much defined them.

Name	The Streak (Jay Bartholomew)	Prowess	5	Intellect	5	Determination	1
		Coordination	5	Awareness	4	Stamina	8
		Strength	3	Willpower	5
Specialties	Investigation Expert, Power (Super-Speed)
Powers	Super Speed Limit: Needs an Advantage to go over 8						10
	Extra: Defensive
	Extra: Surface Movement
	Extra: Effect [Fast Attack]
	Phasing						4
	Air Control Extra: Burst Limit: Extra only						7
Qualities	A Bit of a Square Forensic Scientist
	The Rogues—It's Complicated
	An Ourobouros-Like History and Future

This image is from Project: Rooftop and is by Jey Odin:

The Prime Ape X

Ape X, or Apex as he was sometimes known, tended to stunt powers like possession or mind swap, or incredible inventions that he rarely used twice. He looked like this:

Name	Ape X	Prowess	5	Intellect	7	Determination	–
		Coordination	4	Awareness	4	Stamina	13
		Strength	6	Willpower	7
Specialties	Athletics, Mental Resistance Expert, Technology Master, Wrestling
Powers	Super-Senses (Enh. Hearing, Enh Smell).						2
	Telepathy .						7
Qualities	Genius gorilla
	Hatred of people
	I Will Do What's Best Even If They Hate Me

Notes

You could make the case that some of the Extras there are just stunts, but by the peak of his career, he did all of them pretty regularly. He gets a lot of Trouble or compels from his job, and his complex relationship with the Rogues...alternating being hunted by them and trying to help them. And then there's time travel mixed up in it...

Fallen ICONS: Daniel Hugo, formerly Exemplar

SYSTEM: ICONS

Daniel Hugo believed he was a strange visitor from another world, one who had been raised on Earth and fought for truth, justice, and the things he believed in. He worked that much harder at being human because he wasn't.

Years later, he learned that was only half true. Yes, there were significant amounts of alien DNA in his system, but he was essentially human, crafted from human eggs, sperm, and something that crashed in the Nevada desert. The scientists who crafted him built in a fail-safe: certain frequencies of radiation, when combined and not present with other radiations in the same ranges, would trigger an enzyme that excised the alien DNA from his system. They didn't know that just some of the frequencies would kill him, or that others would cause wild and unpredictable temporary changes. The rocks that produce these radiations got lumped together as Xenite.

The truth didn't come out for a long time: a "man hunter" had come to earth to find the missing alien and he discovered the base, the project, and the child. He destroyed the base and its backups and left the child in another state, where he was given the name "Daniel" and raised by the Hugos, a childless farming couple.

Years later, when the truth was revealed, someone pieced together the fail-safe and used it. Exemplar was just a man, but he continues to fight for truth and justice--now as a reporter. Few people know he was once Exemplar; they think Exemplar fell in battle or returned to his home planet. But Daniel knows. And if the heroes can help his fight for truth and justice, they might be told.

Daniel Hugo

Daniel is a reporter and a blogger and an investigator. He retains most of his knowledge from his days as Exemplar, and he has picked up martial arts in order to stay fit and to protect himself.

Name	Daniel Hugo	Prowess	4	Intellect	4	Determination	–
		Coordination	4	Awareness	4	Stamina	8
		Strength	3	Willpower	5
Specialties	Art (Writing), Business, Investigation, Leadership Expert, Martial Arts
Powers	None.
Qualities	Midwestern Upbringing and Former Experimental Subject
	Truth, Justice, and the North American Way
	Web of Connections: Friends, Allies, Contacts, and Enemies

Exemplar

With his powers, Exemplar looked something like this:

Name	Exemplar (Daniel Hugo)	Prowess	5	Intellect	4	Determination	1
		Coordination	7	Awareness	7	Stamina	15
		Strength	10	Willpower	5
Specialties	Aerial Combat, Art (Writing), Leadership
Powers	Flight						9
	Damage Resistance Limit:Not vs magical effects						8
	Blast (shooting) Heat vision						7
	Super-senses: +1 Enh. sight & hearing, microscopic vision, telescopic vision, X-ray vision						5
Qualities	Truth, Justice, and the North American Way
	Alien Heritage, Midwestern Upbringing
	The Major Hero

Notes

Another character with a huge history and a huge suite of powers, ranging from ubermensch to juggler-of-worlds. I chose to concentrate on only a few, and the player can use the "Alien heritage" quality to stunt the rest. In my mind, the character is a better man: whatever humans can do, he can do better. Strong? He's stronger. That strength gives him a toughness. He can see farther. Instead of leaping, he can fly. You could arguably put Super Speed and Life Support in there, but I prefer to stunt them. Most "normal" uses of Life Support are handled by his great strength, and the Super Speed was never consistent...it was always sort of an afterthought and never part of his schtick like it was for a certain other flash-y character.

Exemplar and the original character are, also, a creature of science. Implicit in the "Alien heritage" quality is the idea that it is not magic.

Thanks to Fred Hicks for suggesting the name "Exemplar." The Daniel Hugo name is my way of suggesting Hugo Danners.

What's the alternative to effects-based?

Okay, a lot of supers games are effects-based: you buy the effect, and then define the cause. So a blast can be a fire blast, a mystic blast, an energy blast, whatever. Usually these are point-based: you have X points to spend.

(Originally, games were menu-style, where you picked powers off a menu. You got the vulnerabilities that came with it. You had no choice. In the third edition of DC Heroes you can see the transition starting to happen there: they say that the names are essentially suggestions.)

But there never seem to be enough points to buy everything you should have.

I very much like games like ICONS where you sketch out the basic powers and the stunt mechanic lets you have the other powers you ought to have. But I have to admit that sometimes I chafe under the problem of "Well, I have a swingline; why don't I just tie him up?"

In ICONS you'd just get rid of the swingline, taking the Trouble of "no swingline" in order to stunt Entangle at the same level. But why should you have to?  Why do you have to buy/choose Blast, Swinging, and Entangle to represent that grappling gun that can be shot at someone or used to tie them up?

Is there a rules-medium to rules-light supers game that is effectively cause based? It lets you specify a cause and then you have a suite of powers that you can choose from that go with the cause. I haven't read Mutant City Blues but it sounds somewhat like the table there (apologies for forgetting the name).

The constraint might not be points but rather the number of powers you can choose that are associated with a specific power: the more powerful, the fewer powers. Between that and something like a Determination point mechanic, you might not have to worry about player balance. If you had a list of causes, you could make this relatively easy for the player. This is close to what Supers! does with its offense/defense/other trinity for each power, but that still has the problem that you have to buy Entangle separately, and that specifically is one of the problems I'm trying to avoid.

I'm just tossing out ideas, but let's model this off ICONS because that's what I'm thinking about today.

Power Level	Number of Powers	"Cost"
1-2	10
3-4	5
5-6	4
7-8	3
9-10	2

You can have between one to four causes, depending on what the GM wants to run. Something like this gives your utility belt guys lots of little powers (you wouldn't specify them, you'd just mark them off on a sheet of paper and charge extra after you hit the limit) because they get a bunch of powers at level 2 or so. Your big guns get Strength&Invulnerability (they go together so often in the comics that I'd just count them as one power, unless you want the disadvantage) and, oh, flight.

Then you tie them together with your cause. Again, you can choose the effects.

Or does that just hide the not-enough-points problem under a layer of complexity?

Fallen Icons: Ambassador Alfdisa, formerly Virago

SYSTEM: ICONS

Once, the heroine Virago was the emissary to man's world, eager to see what had happened on the outer crust of the earth since the Sitones had hidden themselves away, early in the days of the Roman empire. Now, the Sitones formally recognized, the former champion can no longer overtly fight crime. Her badges of rank as Virago, the Sitone champion, have been stolen by someone unknown, the person who killed her successor. Alfdisa (or just Disa to her friends) has too many responsibilities as the ambassador of the Sitones to man's world. She can't go after them herself. Even her invisible plane has been made visible, in recognition of the danger to air traffic.

She's strong, but no longer can she bounce bullets off her bracelets, or make people talk with the lasso of Freya. If the goddess wills it, she can fly...but Disa's life is not as pure as it once was, and the goddess sometimes holds back permission.

Someone has the bracelets. Someone has the lasso. Someone killed the last Virago. If she trusts the heroes enough, she'll ask them to help. She can offer some assistance, but it has to be behind the scenes. She can't run around doing the superhero thing any more.

Ambassador Alfdisa

As ambassador, Alfdisa no longer has the special devices and favors of the Virago; she has, however, cunning, and a network of favors and debts.

Disa has become a mover and a shaker, being the ambassador to much of the world. (Some countries still don't recognize the Sitones.) She has lost the favor of the Goddess and her people in many ways—diplomacy is an ugly business—but she's still strong, superhumanly so. As member of the ruling family of the Sitones, she is rumored to have in her the blood of gods.

Ambassador Alfdisa
PRW	CRD	STR	INT	AWR	WIL	Stamina	Determ.
6	6	7	4	4	5	12	–
Specialties				Qualities
Aerial Combat, Leadership Expert, Mental Resistance, Military Expert, Wrestling				Ambassador for the Sitones Network of friends and enemies Ledger of favors
Powers
Flight Limit: Unpredictable (must pray for favour of the gods)

Virago

In her prime, as Virago, chosen of the Sitones and the Goddess, Disa looked something like this:

Virago (Alfdisa)
PRW	CRD	STR	INT	AWR	WIL	Stamina	Determ.
7	7	8	4	4	5	13	–
Specialties				Qualities
Aerial Combat, Leadership, Military Expert, Wrestling				Champion and favoured of the Goddess It's lonely at the top Even her enemies like her
Powers
Amazing (8) Flight Amazing (8) Entangle (device) Extra: Secondary effect [Mind control Limit: Only tell truth] Incredible (7) Reflection (device) Limit: Performance

From Kris Anka via Project Rooftop:

Notes

Historically, Flight is a relatively recent power, but then there are several things that got lost by the end of the 1950s—like the pet kangaroo and that the lasso was originally a full-fledged Mind Control.

Places to fight!

I know it sounds terribly mechanical, but one of the things I do when I'm creating an adventure is think about where the fight(s) will take place. Sometimes the location is forced on you by the crime or the confrontation, but sometimes it's open. After all, they might discover agents of FANG (Friends of Absolutely Nothing Good) almost anywhere, and after you've had thirty or forty fights outside the corner where Rosie's Bar sits¹, you want somewhere else.

So, in no particular order, here are some locations and things that make them interesting. I might go back and insert links at some future date so that you can see the inspiration for things like the underwater mansion, but I shan't do it today. I see there are twelve here, so you could use a D12 to choose among them...

• Any Place Abandoned Warehouses, Victorian mansions, amusement parks, old theme parks, ski resorts, factories...
• Hi-Rise Construction Site Some sheltered floors, some open to the elements, construction equipment, cranes, heavy mud if there's a rainstorm, good access for flying heroes, adequate for swinging ones, air ducts to hide in.
• Used Car Lot Lots of cars to throw at each other; which contains the MacGuffin you need? Pennants on wires, a garage, a repair facility including jacks, floodlights, a showroom, access for shady dealing, a forgotten entrance from when this was a hideout, a secret carjacking ring.
• High School Twisty halls, chemistry labs, a swimming pool, a big open area with a baseball diamond or football field or both, gyms, innocent bystanders galore.
• Multilevel Mall at Christmas A huge Christmas tree, Salvation Army Santas, hundreds of bystanders, open area for flyers, decorations to grab and swing off, hostages and helpers, guards, anybody's loved ones.
• Municipal swimming pool in high summer Water, the high board, nobody's wearing much of anything so no hidden weapons, a stretcher in case of spinal injury, a hook, pool cleaning equipment in a closet, change rooms.
• In storm sewer Tight spaces, darkness, unexpected depths, a catwalk, the smell, sudden rush of water, lost child, albino alligators, strong monsters hiding, wet walls you can't stick to.
• Waste treatment plant Big pools for separating waste, the smell (no, worse than that), sluices, access to the river, drying waste matter, possibly UV chambers for purifying waste, skimmers, places to put waste that won't degrade (lots of used condoms), catwalks above the pools, a control center.
• Recycling center Disassembly lines, hazardous materials, prisoners separating out trash, big vats for materials, criminals diverting stuff to sell as "new", high security if they're recycling money (which some few do), shredders for paper, acid baths, furnaces for glass and metals, skimmers to take different density of materials off, and some should have the process for making oils but probably don't.
• Teaching hospital Sick people, medical equipment, paramedics and doctors trying to be heroes, someone trapped in secret ID, unconscious targets, people under police arrest, teaching arenas for operating theatres, clumps of residents, candy-stripers, old women selling coffee, visitors, men waiting around obstetrics and maternity, senile people who can't be put in a home yet, imaging equipment with radioactive materials.
• Underground mansion Proof of an eccentric mind, strange labyrinth, collections of unusual things (art; weapons; superhero devices not quite deactivated), security systems, guards, haughty owners, a pool entirely underground, its own generator, access to solar power or its own nuclear power plant.
• Window washing platform A four-rope platform (so the window washers are not required to have separate safety lines); small space, access for those who fly or crawl walls, threatened window washers, no access to inside the building, cranes that lift and lower it, hidden under gargoyles, or an old system like the Empire State Building, where the window washer hooks his belt to the window frame, opens it, and leans out to wash the window he's just opened. (Did you know that window washing is considered the most dangerous job in the UK?²)

^1. For those who don't know, Rosie's Bar was on the map that came with Champions when it still came in a box. We had many a fight near Rosie's Bar. Someday I have to design the interior to that. Just because.

^2. Possibly because they're not counting “farmhand on a farm with a bull.” I don't know if it's true in the UK, but in Canada at one point (and possibly still today) they didn't count farmhands in workplace injury statistics because the numbers were just too high.