My World Needs Superhumans

[JeenLeen]

For some general recommendations, I'd suggest look at the supers in Wildbow's web serial Worm and in the superhero books by Brandon Sanderson (Steelheart, Firefight, Cataclysm). Both contain several supers who are stronger than you'd like, but there's a lot of them and many would fit well in your ranking. (Note: in the Sanderson books, a side effect of being a super is that you become evil, so it's all villains in that book.) I know Worm has a wiki that lists several supers' powers; I reckon you could find a list of Sanderson's supers somewhere online.

What is the legal attitude towards supers?
Something like the attitude in the Grrlpower webcomic seems to fit what you've described of your setting, at least mostly. In it, being a super doesn't change the law, so being a vigilante is still illegal, but there's no requirement to register your powers and, as long as you don't do anything illegal with them, you are free to use them however you want. It seems implied that several supers use their powers to make good money in private industry.
That seems, for the most part, to fit your setting, although maybe you want some vigilantism to be legal (or at least ignored by the cops) and it sounds like S-Class and maybe A-Class are above the law.


EDIT: adding in an idea I had yesterday for a weak but useful super
Burglar (actual identity unknown, but this the pseudonym that's adopted), D-Rank (maybe F)

Burglar's power is unknown to the general population, but several thefts are attributed to him or her. Nobody has records of the appearance, but it seems similar and localized enough to be suspected to be one person. Suspected powers are invisibility or the ability to cloud others' minds.
The person's actual power is an intuitive sense of laws and the chance of breaking them. If she focuses, she can get a vague sense of all the laws that are enforced where she currently is and can focus in on them to get get a better understanding of a given law (sort of like looking at an index, then reading a selected item from it, though to her it's more like the understanding just comes).
The real utility of the power is that, if she is about to break a law, she gets a firm sense of the law and her chances of being noticed breaking it. She uses this power to perfectly execute crimes by only doing them when she knows there is no chance of getting caught. She does not have to know about the law beforehand; the sense automatically activates.*

Her sense includes legal laws of the land as well as rules, policies, and unspoken/unofficial laws--what really matters is that some authority, legitimate or not, enforces the law. So if she were in an illegal casino, she'd know if she were to be caught breaking the rule against cheating at poker, or if breaking the unspoken rule that if you win too much they suspect you of being a super and break your legs.

Her power has a precog feature in that, if her action will not cause her to be caught now but will later on (such as due to being recorded), it still triggers.

To help conceptualize: picture the scene from Groundhog Day when Bill Murray's character steals the money from the bank truck by memorizing exactly when everyone would be distracted. Her power basically lets her do that, since she knows to act when her 'get caught sense' is not pinging.

*one downside is that it can get tiresome to her if she is constantly about to break laws, since her senses are going off. She tends to never speed, jaywalk, etc. because it is wearying (although once or twice she's cruised in a neighborhood at 100 mph for the thrill of it).

[Bohandas]

EDIT: adding in an idea I had yesterday for a weak but useful super
Burglar (actual identity unknown, but this the pseudonym that's adopted), D-Rank (maybe F)

Burglar's power is unknown to the general population, but several thefts are attributed to him or her. Nobody has records of the appearance, but it seems similar and localized enough to be suspected to be one person. Suspected powers are invisibility or the ability to cloud others' minds.
The person's actual power is an intuitive sense of laws and the chance of breaking them. If she focuses, she can get a vague sense of all the laws that are enforced where she currently is and can focus in on them to get get a better understanding of a given law (sort of like looking at an index, then reading a selected item from it, though to her it's more like the understanding just comes).
The real utility of the power is that, if she is about to break a law, she gets a firm sense of the law and her chances of being noticed breaking it. She uses this power to perfectly execute crimes by only doing them when she knows there is no chance of getting caught. She does not have to know about the law beforehand; the sense automatically activates.*

Her sense includes legal laws of the land as well as rules, policies, and unspoken/unofficial laws--what really matters is that some authority, legitimate or not, enforces the law. So if she were in an illegal casino, she'd know if she were to be caught breaking the rule against cheating at poker, or if breaking the unspoken rule that if you win too much they suspect you of being a super and break your legs.

Her power has a precog feature in that, if her action will not cause her to be caught now but will later on (such as due to being recorded), it still triggers.

To help conceptualize: picture the scene from Groundhog Day when Bill Murray's character steals the money from the bank truck by memorizing exactly when everyone would be distracted. Her power basically lets her do that, since she knows to act when her 'get caught sense' is not pinging.

*one downside is that it can get tiresome to her if she is constantly about to break laws, since her senses are going off. She tends to never speed, jaywalk, etc. because it is wearying (although once or twice she's cruised in a neighborhood at 100 mph for the thrill of it).

What about weird laws from a zillion years ago that are still on the books only because nobody remembered to take them off when they weren't relevant anymore and therefore are not actually enforced, despite being on the books? (like you can't sing in the bath in pennsylvania, or slurp soup in jersey, or carry an ice cream come in your pocket in alabama or kentucky)

And what about contradictory laws (like state vs. federal marijuana policy)

[JeenLeen]

What about weird laws from a zillion years ago that are still on the books only because nobody remembered to take them off when they weren't relevant anymore and therefore are not actually enforced, despite being on the books? (like you can't sing in the bath in pennsylvania, or slurp soup in jersey, or carry an ice cream come in your pocket in alabama or kentucky)

And what about contradictory laws (like state vs. federal marijuana policy)

I am thinking up the character as I go, but here's my thoughts:

I envision her power being tied to an authority enforcing said laws, so if nobody enforces a law (even if it is legally on the books), her senses would not be aware of it. So the dumblaws.com laws wouldn't impact her senses.
Contradictory laws would likely give a frustrating sensation, but ultimately be tied to whether or not they are really enforced in the area. If the local cops all turn a blind eye, she wouldn't feel like she'd be caught and it might not even ping as a law in the area. If it is a mixture (some enforce, some don't)... I guess she would actually be able to figure out how and in what ways the law is enforced in the given area, and her sense of whether or not she'd be caught would depend on if those who would care or not would happen to see her.

If I had to give a metaphysical justification for her power -- which I'd rather not do, but I'll use Worm's metaphysics since I'm most familiar with it and it works with precog powers -- her power mentally connects her to everyone in the 'area' (area varies, but is the area under the laws where she currently is is under) and who will be in the area in the future/possible futures. Their knowledge of laws and their intention/authority/ability to enforce said laws flows into her--not the laws as written into law per se, but the understanding of what the law means to those who enforce it and what would and would not count as breaking it. All of that is subconscious and she is unaware of it.

What she does know is that, if she focuses, she can sense the local laws and, if she focuses more, get her a good understanding of any given law (again, not as a lawyer would know it, but in practical terms). If she is about to break a law, her senses 'ping' and she gets the knowledge quickly: she automatically knows the law, what action on her part would be breaking it, and the chance of her getting caught.* When she wants to do a theft, she acts like an innocent bystander until her senses tell her it is safe, does the job, then walks away.

I suppose the metaphysical explanation could give her some 'false positives', her sensing a law that somebody believes is enforced in the area but nobody actually cares about. But I can't see it giving 'false negatives' (her believing she is safe, but actually would be caught breaking a law).

*'chance of being caught' encompasses video surveillance and such since it takes the future into account. If the videoes go somewhere far away from where she currently is, that effectively links where she is with the area where the recording will be, thereby enabling her senses to work with it. She doesn't actually get a sense of the laws that will exist in the future (or far away from her), but the ability to sense if she gets caught remains.
Going with Worm, it can get fuzzy if other precogs or those with mental-sensory powers get involved. I.e., her power might not protect her if someone with a past-sight tries to scry the area or someone with supernatural deduction tries to figure out who did the robbery--maybe they would, maybe they wouldn't.
If you wanted her to be on the stronger side, if another Thinker would interfere with her power, she just gets a real unpleasant feeling as her senses get muddy, so she probably gives up on the current job.

I'll also add 'getting caught' means someone noticing she did it and caring enough to remember it. If it was a really, really rough city, she could shoot someone in the head in the middle of a bar and--if nobody cared--she wouldn't get the sense she was 'caught' even though several folk saw her do it. The laws in that area, in effect, do not preclude murder (or, in the city they do, but nobody in the bar counts as enforceable enough to catch her, nor would they talk to cops, so she doesn't see any risk.)

[Vogie]

I am thinking up the character as I go, but here's my thoughts:

I envision her power being tied to an authority enforcing said laws, so if nobody enforces a law (even if it is legally on the books), her senses would not be aware of it. So the dumblaws.com laws wouldn't impact her senses.
Contradictory laws would likely give a frustrating sensation, but ultimately be tied to whether or not they are really enforced in the area. If the local cops all turn a blind eye, she wouldn't feel like she'd be caught and it might not even ping as a law in the area. If it is a mixture (some enforce, some don't)... I guess she would actually be able to figure out how and in what ways the law is enforced in the given area, and her sense of whether or not she'd be caught would depend on if those who would care or not would happen to see her.

If I had to give a metaphysical justification for her power -- which I'd rather not do, but I'll use Worm's metaphysics since I'm most familiar with it and it works with precog powers -- her power mentally connects her to everyone in the 'area' (area varies, but is the area under the laws where she currently is is under) and who will be in the area in the future/possible futures. Their knowledge of laws and their intention/authority/ability to enforce said laws flows into her--not the laws as written into law per se, but the understanding of what the law means to those who enforce it and what would and would not count as breaking it. All of that is subconscious and she is unaware of it.

What she does know is that, if she focuses, she can sense the local laws and, if she focuses more, get her a good understanding of any given law (again, not as a lawyer would know it, but in practical terms). If she is about to break a law, her senses 'ping' and she gets the knowledge quickly: she automatically knows the law, what action on her part would be breaking it, and the chance of her getting caught.* When she wants to do a theft, she acts like an innocent bystander until her senses tell her it is safe, does the job, then walks away.

I suppose the metaphysical explanation could give her some 'false positives', her sensing a law that somebody believes is enforced in the area but nobody actually cares about. But I can't see it giving 'false negatives' (her believing she is safe, but actually would be caught breaking a law).

*'chance of being caught' encompasses video surveillance and such since it takes the future into account. If the videoes go somewhere far away from where she currently is, that effectively links where she is with the area where the recording will be, thereby enabling her senses to work with it. She doesn't actually get a sense of the laws that will exist in the future (or far away from her), but the ability to sense if she gets caught remains.
Going with Worm, it can get fuzzy if other precogs or those with mental-sensory powers get involved. I.e., her power might not protect her if someone with a past-sight tries to scry the area or someone with supernatural deduction tries to figure out who did the robbery--maybe they would, maybe they wouldn't.
If you wanted her to be on the stronger side, if another Thinker would interfere with her power, she just gets a real unpleasant feeling as her senses get muddy, so she probably gives up on the current job.

I'll also add 'getting caught' means someone noticing she did it and caring enough to remember it. If it was a really, really rough city, she could shoot someone in the head in the middle of a bar and--if nobody cared--she wouldn't get the sense she was 'caught' even though several folk saw her do it. The laws in that area, in effect, do not preclude murder (or, in the city they do, but nobody in the bar counts as enforceable enough to catch her, nor would they talk to cops, so she doesn't see any risk.)

Instead of going a sort of Law-abiding superpower, you could go the way of Griffin from Alphas, from the episode OnTheNose named "Blind Spot" - she has an ability to intuit and supernaturally know where people will look, giving her the ability to hang out in people's blind spots, and a type of aura or presence that messes up video surveillance. The pairing gives her a sort of Perception Filter ability. In the show, she is caught by a blind person who using echolocation to see, thus not actually having a visual blind spot to hide in.

[JeenLeen]

One hero idea I found really funny was from the webcomic Strong Female Protagonist. I think the name was Werewolf, and his power is that he can turn into a normal wolf and can talk to wolves. An exchange happens in-comic:
"So, can he talk to wolves"
"Yeah, but not, like, persuasively"

The powerset of Menace seems like it could fit in your world. I'll spoiler the full powers (or what we know thus far, at least):

Spoiler

Show

Can read minds, but this includes not just surface thoughts but reading memories, deep intentions, subconscious urges, internal workings, etc.
He can also assimilate knowledge over time. Examples include getting the contact info (address, name, SSN) of a mob in a short time, or becoming a leading authority on time by being around several unconscious physicists who specialize in time for a night.

Thought to have mind control, but really it's just that he can read people so well and know their internal workings that he can effortlessly manipulate them. I don't know if it's explicitly stated in the comic or not, but it seems he was close to conquering the USA and would've if not for some class A heroes fighting him. Had several cape henchmen, since really easy to recruit given his powers.

A funny side effect is that, as he can't turn his power off, he finds TV uncomfortable since it's disturbing to see folk without also sensing their thoughts.

Instead of going a sort of Law-abiding superpower, you could go the way of Griffin from Alphas, from the episode OnTheNose named "Blind Spot" - she has an ability to intuit and supernaturally know where people will look, giving her the ability to hang out in people's blind spots, and a type of aura or presence that messes up video surveillance. The pairing gives her a sort of Perception Filter ability. In the show, she is caught by a blind person who using echolocation to see, thus not actually having a visual blind spot to hide in.

That'd definitely be a less complicated way to get a similar end result!
I got the concept when I was trying to think up some low-utility Thinkers for the Worm setting, and something about intuiting laws come to mind.

[DuctTapeKatar]

Eh. Here's some more:

Lumberjack

B-class Villain
Mercenary Bank-robber

The Lumberjack is the alias for Nickolas Chemstrol, a construction worker who works for a firm controlled by the Gosling Mafia. The Lumberjack's power is that of super stregnth -- rather basic, with only twice that of normal people, considering. However, with this in collaboration of a massive chainsaw-bladed mattock made him jump from low C to higher B rankings. He is able to break through walls with ease, and he has cleaved hundreds of vault doors from their hinges. A tactic of the Lumberjack is to break into the vault, then run into the street and cause enough chaos for his compatriots to slip away. He has the blood of eighty innocents on his hands, and has injured dozens in his rampages, only to slip away once more powerful super-powered individuals start arriving.

Road Flare

Rank-C Hero and rising

The young teenage Rich began his road-trip across the US a month after he gained his superpower. He chose to leave highschool life to better understand and learn to control his new ability. Rich is able to touch an object and raise its temperature up to 1000 degrees without changing its chemical composition or melting/evaporating it. Along with this, Rich is immune to all heats that coincide with the amount of heat he can produce. Rich has since gained a small following when he began to blog about his interstate adventures across America, gaining the title "Road Flare," with a steadily rising fanbase. Some superheros have proposed to take him in as a sidekick, but he has refused every proposal, stating "I'm not done with my trip yet."

Lloyd

F-class at worst
Wannabe-anarchist, wimp

Lloyd works at your average management office, dealing with horrible working hours, uncooperative customers, and terrible management. When he was gifted with incredible destructive capabilities, he swore to unleash hell onto the world that crammed him into his current employment.
That is, if his psychic powers cooperated with him. Whenever he attempts to harm someone with his telekinetic abilities, something holds him back. Instead of throwing every knife in the nearby cutlery store, he tosses the muffins from the local bakery. Whenever he lifts a semi-truck with his mind, the truck is placed in a safe place instead of smashing the innocent bystanders. The worst that happens is some property damage, and even then, whenever he attempts to crush buildings into rubble, more often than not, the building ends up in better shape than before.

Lloyd is mostly ignored by everyone.

[Bohandas]

These both sound under-rated to me. Mr. Thoughtless could use his power to become unspeakably rich provided he doesn't hurt anybody while stealing, which there'd be no reason to do if he sticks to burglary rather than robbery. Sounds to me like C at least, and more likely B.

It's limited to things that are only mildly outrageous though. The efficacy starts to falter if he does anything more terrible than stealing forty cakes

[JeenLeen]

Here's a hero team, but they could work equally well as villains or independents.

Chaotician B class hero
Chaotician (formerly known as Chaos Mage, but that got too much of a villain vibe) disrupts others' ability to have ordered thoughts. Multiple people can be targeted at once, and select targets can be made. In most people, they get confused and stumble around as they are unable to follow through on plans or figure out how to react. Some people fly into a rage or just do bizarre stuff, but that is rare. Usually target's villains, making it easy to arrest them.

Mellow C (?)-class hero
Mellow's power is to emit a field of peace, making people 'mellow out'. Tempers cool, passions calm, and people generally become relaxed and apathetic.
A caveat is that this power does not work on anyone whose aggression or passion targets Mellow himself, and most supers with mind-based powers are immune.
He works as part of a hero team to calm down minions and mobs, generally posing as a mundane in the crowd so he isn't targeted. His power is difficult to get to work well since he can't select who it targets, so he makes his teammates apathetic as well (although he can turn his power off, and it only works if he's conscious). Fortunately, Chaotician is immune.

Brick C class hero.
Brick can change his body into a brick-like substance (sorta like Fantastic Four's the Thing, but different coloration), giving himself superstrength and durability. He actually does little on the team beyond look intimidating and step out first (since he alone can take gunfire), since his psychic mates' powers take care of most of the issues. Very useful when they don't, though.

Blink D class hero.
Blink can teleport herself and anything she's holding (including a willing or unconscious person) to anywhere in her line of vision. Momentum is conserved when teleporting.
Usually uses her power for movement (rescue innocents), but carries a sword and uses her power to gain momentum to deliver a strong blow (like Harem in the Grrlpower comic) in cases when she and Brick need to fight.

[jqavins]

Chaotician B class hero
Chaotician (formerly known as Chaos Mage, but that got too much of a villain vibe) disrupts others' ability to have ordered thoughts. Multiple people can be targeted at once, and select targets can be made. In most people, they get confused and stumble around as they are unable to follow through on plans or figure out how to react. Some people fly into a rage or just do bizarre stuff, but that is rare. Usually target's villains, making it easy to arrest them.

Mellow C (?)-class hero
Mellow's power is to emit a field of peace, making people 'mellow out'. Tempers cool, passions calm, and people generally become relaxed and apathetic.
A caveat is that this power does not work on anyone whose aggression or passion targets Mellow himself, and most supers with mind-based powers are immune.
He works as part of a hero team to calm down minions and mobs, generally posing as a mundane in the crowd so he isn't targeted. His power is difficult to get to work well since he can't select who it targets, so he makes his teammates apathetic as well (although he can turn his power off, and it only works if he's conscious). Fortunately, Chaotician is immune.

The results could be comical when these two hit the same target at once. "What's... oh, whatever. Why am I happy? I was... Mmm, pretty blue sk- what's that blue up there called?"

[JeenLeen]

My character idea Blink makes me question something about the ranking system. How much of it deals with the supernatural power in isolation, and how much in how one utilizes it?

As 'base' (teleport self, equipment, and willing folk), Blink's power is useful but good mainly just for moving gear and personnel in place and rescuing folk. She can't use it offensively, since I put on the 'willing' limitation.

However, she's trained in sword and martial arts in conjunction with her power, giving her the ability to deliver very powerful blows by teleporting to gain momentum before delivering a blow. She doesn't have superstrengh or -durability, so she does risk breaking her arms if she does too strong a blow (similar to the idea of a guy falling off a building grabbing a flagpole--probably lose your arms if it worked). But that does give her the power to kill someone rather easily then teleport away to safely 'charge' her momentum for another blow.
Makes her seem C-rank, as SWAT team or other well-trained team could coordinate to take her out (i.e., shoot when her blinks in, and hope she's not gone before the bullets land). BUT that's due to her training. Powers alone, a random gangster could bonk her on the head while she's grabbing a hostage and she's out.

A different question for Mellow and Chaotician. Their power isn't destructive in itself, but it is an incredible defense and (for Chaotician) offensive power. They could easily stop an army nearby them, requiring snipers or aircraft from far away to have to take them out since nobody else mundane can get close enough. Thus, I put Chaotician in the "takes an army to defeat you" (B-class), but Mellow a rank below due to his "can't protect himself" weakness.
Does that seem to fit the flavor of the rankings for utility/crowd-control powers?

[jqavins]

My character idea Blink makes me question something about the ranking system. How much of it deals with the supernatural power in isolation, and how much in how one utilizes it?

Larzzral has made statements that seem to me to imply he's looking at potential applications, which can support an even higher class than how the character does apply the power, let alone the power's raw strength. Beyond that observation I won't comment. Larzzral, please weigh in to clarify your criteria (again).

If Blink were my character, I might not invest character points, or whatever the system here uses, in a high level of combat training, but I'd carry hand grenades and guns. Teleport in, shoot or drop a grenade, and teleport out. Quick, easy, and quite deadly.

Incidentally, how does she use her power to build momentum? Teleporting up then falling presents the problem of how to reverse the process and slow down. Teleporting all the way to the horizon, with momentum conserved in her original reference frame would give some momentum in the new local frame due to the Earth's curvature, but I've calculated that it is very, very little. (So little that I suspect I got it wrong; I'll do it again with a clean piece of paper when lunch time rolls around. But even if the real answer is 100 time what I got it still wouldn't be much.)

[JeenLeen]

Incidentally, how does she use her power to build momentum? Teleporting up then falling presents the problem of how to reverse the process and slow down. Teleporting all the way to the horizon, with momentum conserved in her original reference frame would give some momentum in the new local frame due to the Earth's curvature, but I've calculated that it is very, very little. (So little that I suspect I got it wrong; I'll do it again with a clean piece of paper when lunch time rolls around. But even if the real answer is 100 time what I got it still wouldn't be much.)

I'm basing it off the Grrlpower hero Harem, whose powerset includes teleporting. She gains momentum by teleporting into the air and falling, then teleporting back in the air again to gain more momentum if needed.

I forgot to add that while momentum is conserved, orientation can be changed. So she can fall down (momentum in the direction of her feet) then teleport so that her body is sideways. The momentum is still in the direction of her feet, but now that is directed towards the side, allowing her to deliver a strong side-wards kick.

In effect, she can gain and conserve momentum, but change the direction/vector of the momentum.

To quickly lose momentum, she teleports 'upside-down' so that her momentum carries her upwards a bit, against gravity. Once she starts to fall down again, she re-teleports to the ground, thereby safely landing.

One of the Grrlpower comics went into detail about how it works, but for some reason their archives trigger my work's NSFW check (at least sometimes), so I'm not going to search for the link.

[jqavins]

I forgot to add that while momentum is conserved, orientation can be changed. So she can fall down (momentum in the direction of her feet) then teleport so that her body is sideways. The momentum is still in the direction of her feet, but now that is directed towards the side, allowing her to deliver a strong side-wards kick.

In effect, she can gain and conserve momentum, but change the direction/vector of the momentum.

To quickly lose momentum, she teleports 'upside-down' so that her momentum carries her upwards a bit, against gravity. Once she starts to fall down again, she re-teleports to the ground, thereby safely landing.

Got it. I should have asked "Momentum is conserved, but in what reference frame?" The answer is it's conserved in her own body frame, and the rest follows from that.

So another simple and deadly, but not so quick attack would be to:

• Lie prone and teleport up, in that orientation, so she appears facing down. She then falls forward in her own reference frame.
• Repeat, gaining lots of forward momentum. In enough time she could reach terminal velocity, which is generally about 60 mph for a human body, but may be less in this particular orientation.
• Change her orientation so that she is moving laterally along the ground directly toward her enemy.
• Throw a heavy, sharpened dart at the enemy with all that speed behind it.
• Teleport away before hitting the enemy herself, and slow by a series of supine teleports.

It's not quick, because of the build up and slow down times, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to be hit with a sharpened one of these at 60 mph. (The article doesn't say, but if memory serves they weighed somewhere around 8 to 16 ounces.)

[JeenLeen]

Thought of some funny D/F rank.

F-Class (he's aware of it, but it's really, really weak)
This elderly man's power is a limited form of time travel. Namely, he can cause wavelengths from the past to replace wavelengths from the present. (For those better at physics than me, this is limited to the wavelengths used for stuff like radio, cell phones, etc.--either above or below the visible light spectum, but not into the radioactive energy spectum.)
He uses his power to listen to the radio stations he liked as a kid, instead of the new-fangled music playing nowadays.
For some horror, say he can take wavelengths from the future, too, but it only works in the very near future (for precog powers); if he tries any further, he just hears screaming or disgusting alien/Cthulu-esque sounds.
Could possibly be used to gather intel, like picking up HAM radio transmissions or cell phone calls from the past, then decrypt with the tech of today.

F-Class (not aware of it)
This guy just can't catch a break. His wife left him, his family hates him, and every job he gets winds up being a hellish place of office politics and internal bickering. He even can't seem to find a nice coffee shop to go to, so he winds up switching eateries about once a month. His neighbors always turn out to be jerks, so he's moved into an isolated place outside of town just to get some peace, but even then the local cop gives him a hard time. As far as anyone can tell, though, he's just a nice guy.
The reason for his problem is his superpower: he drains the 'good mood' of those around him. One-time or even very rare interaction doesn't cause anything, but seeing him daily or even most days a week causes people to just be irritable, unpleasant, and ticked off. He is generally happy and trying to pick his life up (fueled by the 'good mood' he's draining), but, well, he intellectually knows how much it stinks even if emotionally he's kinda okay. The disconnect has led to him having a drinking problem.
Once interaction with him ceases, the effect fades in a few days to a few weeks (depending on length of contact) but being around him again causes a temporary reversal to a really bad mood while he's in the vicinity.

I could see a higher-rank villain/hero who drains the luck of those around him/her, and can release it in bursts. Generally just rather lucky, but can (when needed) get lucky breaks like the guy chasing him happens to fall and break a leg, or the random combination he types into a keypad happens to be the right code.

[jqavins]

Thought of some funny D/F rank.

F-Class (he's aware of it, but it's really, really weak)
... Namely, he can cause wavelengths from the past to replace wavelengths from the present. (For those better at physics than me, this is limited to the wavelengths used for stuff like radio, cell phones, etc.--either above or below the visible light spectum, but not into the radioactive energy spectum.)

Those better at physics would see that this terminology is all wrong, meaning no offense. Just say he can intercept radio signals from the past or very near future and leave it at that.

How does he hear the signals' content? I mean, does he get the content in his head, or direct the signals into a radio, phone, or whatever? If the latter, he could make some nice pocket money as a consultant for radio astronomers who need to get a replay of something they just missed. (You turn your dish to some interesting or new part of the sky and find something going on. You call Mr. Time Radio to get the signal from that spot for a day or more prior.)

Also, just how far ahead is the very near future? I'm curious because of this thought: he listens into next week and hears only screaming, chaotic horror, as if a global Cthuloid catastrophe is coming before then. Next week comes and everything is (basically) like it is now. But week after week, a week in advance always sounds like that. This would cause great consternation if one thinks about why that would be.

F-Class (not aware of it)
This guy just can't catch a break. His wife left him, his family hates him, and every job he gets winds up being a hellish place of office politics and internal bickering. He even can't seem to find a nice coffee shop to go to, so he winds up switching eateries about once a month. His neighbors always turn out to be jerks, so he's moved into an isolated place outside of town just to get some peace, but even then the local cop gives him a hard time. As far as anyone can tell, though, he's just a nice guy.
The reason for his problem is his superpower: he drains the 'good mood' of those around him. One-time or even very rare interaction doesn't cause anything, but seeing him daily or even most days a week causes people to just be irritable, unpleasant, and ticked off. He is generally happy and trying to pick his life up (fueled by the 'good mood' he's draining), but, well, he intellectually knows how much it stinks even if emotionally he's kinda okay. The disconnect has led to him having a drinking problem.
Once interaction with him ceases, the effect fades in a few days to a few weeks (depending on length of contact) but being around him again causes a temporary reversal to a really bad mood while he's in the vicinity.

So, a superpower with the effect of placing the one who has it in a living happy-hell. From now on I will call you MeenJeenLeen.

[JeenLeen]

Those better at physics would see that this terminology is all wrong, meaning no offense. Just say he can intercept radio signals from the past or very near future and leave it at that.

How does he hear the signals' content? I mean, does he get the content in his head, or direct the signals into a radio, phone, or whatever? If the latter, he could make some nice pocket money as a consultant for radio astronomers who need to get a replay of something they just missed. (You turn your dish to some interesting or new part of the sky and find something going on. You call Mr. Time Radio to get the signal from that spot for a day or more prior.)

Also, just how far ahead is the very near future? I'm curious because of this thought: he listens into next week and hears only screaming, chaotic horror, as if a global Cthuloid catastrophe is coming before then. Next week comes and everything is (basically) like it is now. But week after week, a week in advance always sounds like that. This would cause great consternation if one thinks about why that would be.

No offense taken.

My thought was that he'd still have to use a radio to hear the signals. Basically, he replaces the signals in the present (say, in a bubble around him) with those from the past. He can control when in the past. Thus, when he drives his car, he can listen to the radio stations from when he wants to.

I was thinking 'very near future' as a few hours to a day. I didn't give much thought to this aspect, since I was just mentioning it as an add-on should the OP want to use this guy and make him a little stronger. It could potentially be useful for warnings (if listening to the police radio) or gambling (have an ally on a walkee-talkee tell you what the next hand is going to be). The 'horror' in the future is to deter big time paradoxes and I thought it'd be funny to hint that, at least in some future, the world is being destroyed a few hours to a day or so from now.

Maybe say the future-sense is only right most of the time, as it grabs the 'most likely future' when looking an hour or so, but it starts to veer into 'worst possible future' fairly quickly.

[Durkoala]

The Ironic Women
Unaffilated/ D-A, depending on circumstances
Tina 'Teeny' Bleak* & Jane Streats

Two former heroines from the superhero team Justice Sorioty of who were fired for being drunk on duty and abusing powers for personal gain. They're not related, but have the same powers: to make the worst decision possible and persuade others to join in. Despite scepticism, these are genuine superpowers: both Ironic Women have a low-level form of mind control that compels people to join in on the impending chaos and either involuntary probablity manipulation or selective subconscious foresight that mean that any action they take will rapidly snowball into doing the exact opposite of what they intend, usually with wide-ranging collateral.

This ability is extremely potent and becomes stronger the more people are involved: one infamous incident left Bleak suspended from a third floor window wearing only her underwear and a large print copy of Understanding Comics within nine minutes of attempting to clear a crowded subway station. The Ironic Women have collapsed housing complexes, flattened military bases (both allied and enemy), changed the course of a river, 'called down' a meteorite on the aeroplane they were in and started an economic recession. However, this great power cannot be consciously controlled: each attempt at using it is a roll of a cosmic die that can only be predicted in so much as that it will do the opposite of what it was intended to do.

Both women are able to keep the power surpressed under normal circumstances and are adept at manipulating their goals to positive results: Streats once managed to save a Birmingham neighbourhood from a fire (and inadvertantly completed several construction works in the area) by deliberately inciting a mob to riot. This is by no means a perfect level of control, especially in the heat of battle, however.

Their powers don't protect them against attacks, as it's hard to want to get injured or captured, but the rapidly-unfolding mayhem around them makes it difficult to defeat them in a fair fight. They are just as easy to ambush as unpowered people, and are textbook examples of glass cannon superhumans.

Despite having served on the same team and using the same codename, Streats and Bleak are not working together and hate each other for 'impersonating them'. They frequently clash, with disasterous consquences, as one is now a villain and the other a vigilante hero despite being fired from the Justice Soroity. However, due to sabotage, misunderstandings and the scale of the damage in their wake, nobody knows which is which aside from Bleak and Streats themselves.

Spoiler

Show

Tina Bleak is the villainous Ironic Woman and was thrown out of the JS for using her powers to commit petty theft. Jane Streats is disgruntled at losing her job for turning up drunk once during the collapse, but remains an unlicenced hero despite her surly attitude. Bleak is an energetic party girl who revels in the attention and Streats is a cynical commentator who walks into danger to help people, with a big helping of dry sass.

[Bohandas]

The Mover - Class F - Tactile Telekinesis applicable only to furniture

[jqavins]

I realize the thread title says superhumans, but I simply must rip off Spider Robinson.

Ralph the talking dog.
Unaffiliated F-class

Ralph has normal human intelligence and can talk. Which is pretty darn super for a dog. Other than that he's a completely ordinary dog, or prdinary guy, depending on how you want to look at it.

[JeenLeen]

I was thinking about the idea of the guy cursed with good luck drain, and it made me think of this villain. (I also realized it made more sense if he left his wife and hated his family, since they just became such horrible people. He doesn't know it's his fault, and they can't tell he's the source of their bad mood.)

Curse, deceased villain, rank in debate (generally did D-rank damage, but could kill A-rank supers)
Curse was the name of a villain whose power was 'cursing' people with superpowers. The powers were always weak, generally D or F rank, and worked out with minor annoyances to horribly for the accursed. (The aforementioned 'good mood drain' was one of his targets, a practice run.) He doesn't have any control over what power the person gets, but it does seem to be influenced by the target's personality and circumstances. (Our former target was a very happy person and generally helped get others in a good mood by his demeanor, for example.) He seemed to be crazy, and enjoyed seeing the mayhem his curses unleashed.

This power seems just annoying, but the big power of it is when he uses it on a super. The super's real powers are temporarily suppressed and replaced with the D/F rank power. He had used this to kill at least one A-rank (a Superman-lite who was flying), then plummeted to his death as his new power to conjure a few feathers around him was insufficient to soften his fall. He was assassinated by one of the S-rank heroes out of fear that his power would trump theirs. The assassination attempt was done indirectly, via one of the S-rank's subordinates.

Also, based on Contessa from Worm
Victory, C-class hero
Victory has the ability to intuitively grasp a perfect way to accomplish an action. If there is any chance at all of accomplishing it, she knows the steps to accomplish it. However, unlike Contessa, she does not have any power to perfectly execute these steps. Furthermore, the intuitive understanding vanishes from her mind if she messes up some of the steps; she'll still have an idea of what she needs to do, but the details are fuzzy and jumbled (sort of like trying to remember a dream). The understanding also vanishes if she purposefully deviates from the intuited plan; and, at least so far, writing down the plan has always counted as deviating from it, so she never can write down any step past the first one (which is usually just what direction to start walking).

She is still very useful and has done several remarkable deeds.
As a fun alternative, make her a villain who uses her power to guess passwords and such for hacking, robbing ATMs, and such.

[Larzzral]

Holy heck! Life sucks when it's been two weeks since I last looked in :( Looks like the post blew up again. Awesome!

As for power levels, don't worry too much if you don't know exactly the classification. Just describe the power.

There have been a lot of questions and wondering. I'll hopefully get more detailed answers to some of the more elaborate ones soon, but here is just what I can quickly throw out posting from my phone in bed.

Personal skill doesn't increase a person's power level. A highly skilled, trained and equipped human may be able to take out a D class on his own. Said human would still wouldn't even be considered an F class. So for the short teleportation, she would be rated on what her power can do, not the unrelated skills.

Umm, let's see. Precognitive/Oracle type abilities are just not in play. Same as time travel. Things like that get really screwing in my belief unless done perfectly and add an element I don't want. That being said, someone could be an expert at human behaviour to the point it appears he's a precog but in reality they're just predicting based on they rapid deductions.

There isn't any sort of active mythos. No Greek gods, sorry. And yes, tsunami and earthquake are S class. As two of the three S class leveling half a block is what made them so. I really won't be introducing more . I actually love the stories of small scale supers more than the world changers honestly.

For powers such as knowing the law of an area, I'd focus more as knowing the what those with the legal right to have a law on something says. So for State vs federal, if a constitutional amendment doesn't give it to the federal government, I'd say it's a state. Of course that specific power I probably would avoid as one day I hope to draw in readers and obviously every single America law these days has two sides saying one way is right and one way is wrong. Ten years ago being Canadian and saying sorry would've kept people from being mad at me, but not so sure anymore! Lol

There's definitely more I'm forgetting. And thanks all for the suggestions. I have read Worm! A lot of superpower types I do have. But needed a few more for the immediate story to begin and a lot more to always have something down the road ready. And however many dozen brains that have read and contributed are better than my own for ideas!

[lt_murgen]

http://www.angelfire.com/rpg2/xmanalb/downloads/UPB.pdf

Create every superhero, ever.

[Bohandas]

Class D-F Can Always tell what number a person is thinking of. Good for party tricks and possibly ATM fraud but not much else

[Excession]

Kelli Rose, D-class, unaffiliated

Two years ago, Kelli, then aged 14, stopped breathing with no ill effects. She can still breathe consciously, so she can still talk, but doesn't need to breathe to expel carbon dioxide or take in oxygen. This gives her a small advantage in athletic pursuits, a large one in swimming, and she can avoid inhaled poisons. Not an especially useful power for super-heroics, but she's considering training as a fire fighter, commercial diver, or astronaut once she finishes school.

Oscar Jefferson, aka Fieldday, C-class hero

Oscar can generate approximately 12m² of nearly impenetrable force field, in up to four separate flat planes, and keep the fields up for about 3 hours before becoming tired. The fields must stay within 5m of him, and move with him. The fields can only be summoned in open air, no cutting things with them. Any force applied to one of these force fields is shared with Oscar and the other fields, so while he can be knocked over he can counter that by bracing another field against a solid object. He can also also use the fields to glide, and is experimenting with a small jet engine for powered flight.

[Lleban]

Oooh I have a couple ideas

The Fondler Class D Villain


Backstory: The Fondler aka Roswell Jenkins has, by many exhaustive accounts is scum. Car salesmen in the 80's, loan shark in the 90's, and, when his power manifested, 21st century thief rapidly changing times were not kind to Roswell. The Fondler is quite fond of roping other D and F class thugs into heists of varying complexity, frequently gaining subordinates through bribes, trickery and threats. Unfortunately The Fondler, is frequently disregarded by many major villains due to what the therapists call, chronic backstabbing disorder.

Power: Invisible Hands- Invisible hands allow The Fondler to conjure up to 6 normal sized hands. Each hand can move freely for up to a hundred meters and phase through solid objects.


Portail Class C Hero

Backstory:
Portail aka Lamar Jean Baptiste immigrated from Hati to the United States after a hurricane, believed to have to have been caused by superhumans, alienated his family from his community. After all a family of superhumans, even C and D class humans, must be cursed...or worse. Though the process was long, the Baptistes found a home in Philadelphia, settling just in time for Lamar's powers to manifest, fortunately his family helped him develop without incident. As his power manifested in his teenage years he used them as an outlet for his growing curiosity about the natural world leading him to eventually becoming a physics doctoral student. Now a days Lamar is a young scientist who part times as Portail to mentor to help displaced young superhumans.

Power: Portals Portail is capable of conjuring a pair of connecting portals between 1 and 8 feet in diameter. Portals can be placed up to 500 meters from each other on the condition that Portail is either able to visualize or calculate where the portals are conjured relative to his location.

[Bohandas]

Based on a real guy

The Fartiste - Class F - Extraordinary control over his bowel muscles allows him to suck air into his colon at will and expel it at will

[Bohandas]

Not sure what the powers would be, but what if someone tried to mix together sex, drugs, and rock & roll to create the perfect rock star but accidentally added chemical x as well

[Larzzral]

Not sure what the powers would be, but what if someone tried to mix together sex, drugs, and rock & roll to create the perfect rock star but accidentally added chemical x as well

Haha. Whoever is listening to his music does whatever the lyrics say... But only once the song is on the top 40? And he's immortal cuz rock is eternal. Lol.

My computer is barely functional and I'm half side-tracked starting a star trek game but I'll get the super humans I have come up with from this thread posted so all interested can see. Mind you, some of the more basic powers l already had, so if you don't see yours, that's likely why.

Precog and time travel powers won't be used though. Sorry to those ones. But it was mentioned in the OP and again in another reply.

I will still take ideas! Though I think I have enough now for the first while.

[Benthesquid]

Man, populating a world with supers? That's like... my jam.

Spoiler: The Old Butcher:

Show

Class C
Supervillain (Retired)

A legendary assassin from the Hong Kong docks.

Powers: When he comes in contact with another person's blood, he absorbs it, allowing him to create a psychic link between him and the blood's originator. Said psychic link prevents the individual on the other end of it from attaching any significance to the Old Butcher's Presence.

(I.E. oh crap, somebody just stabbed me! What's going on? Well, it can't have anything to do with that sweet old guy with the bloody knife!)

The Old Butcher can maintain up to three psychic links for an indefinite period of time with little effort. More than that requires him to dedicate gradually more of his attention to it, with a maximum of roughly twenty psychic links if he enters into a light meditative state.

Notes: In addition to his superpowers, the Old Butcher brings to the table a frightening proficiency in bladed weapons, and decades of experience in the international underworld. However, he is neither as strong nor as agile as he was in his youth, and has largely retired, spending his days playing Mah-Jong in his nephew's restaurant.

Spoiler: Baphomet

Show

Class D:
Vigilante

The hellish vengeance that stalks Chicago's worst sinners.

Powers: Minor mind reading and illusion abilities

Notes: Zeke Larsden was a stage magician, using his abilities to enhance his shows until he was called to serve on a jury for a well connected lobbyist who had killed a young girl in a hit and run accident. Zeke's powers allowed him to determine the man's guilt, but through indifference and corruption, the prosecution's case fell apart and the charges were dismissed.

Larsden swore that he would not allow such sins to become unpunished, and developed the identity of Baphomet, under which he, claiming to be a demon escaped from hell to punish the wicked, uses his superhuman illusion abilities, and keenly honed skills of misdirection to stalk and torment those he deems sinners.

So far, he has driven the lobbyist to confess his guilt, left a corrupt attorney paranoid and heavily sedated in a psychiatric ward, and broken a drug kingpin's confidence to the point where he was murdered by his subordinates.

Baphomet prefers to select one target at a time, and study them extensively before beginning his campaigns of terror. He is currently searching for his next victim, unaware that elements in the Chicago underworld have begun to suspect his true nature and are searching for his identity.

More to come, most likely.

[Bohandas]

Link to Related Thread:

101 Villains for Superhero Games