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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   4169 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 12, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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That sounds good to me, I'm all for a hierarchy of powers, especially if you find inventive ways for the seemingly shitty ones to punch above their weight-class.

Maybe consider a God-like Ur-Superhero in the form of Totipotent Stem Cell Man, his sidekick Pluripotent Boy, you know, just because it would be funny.

You could look up a wiki article on all known cell lines and find something obscure, if you want to go beyond the obvious. Cells can and do overlap in functionality, if you want generic superheroes, or weird shit like Neutrophil Dude who swallows his enemies whole and digests them.

Teamwork is the main way they'll punch above their weight class.

I was also not gonna have the traditional hero / villain split that most superhero settings go with. More of a city vs city type model. And civilians are the resource they are fighting over. Your local city you protect, and other cities you attack and make life miserable for civilians, or kidnap/steal their stuff in an attempt to bribe them over to your city. Since there are factions the fights are typically dozens of speedsters. The speedster energy is limited on a personal basis and can take days to recharge, so defenders and attackers want to only use just enough speedster energy to accomplish their objectives.

I think nation vs nation makes more sense, but it depends on what your world looks like, the general tech level, whether superpowers just showed up or have been around long enough for things to adjust and so on. In the end, you can make anything work if you put in the effort to help users suspend disbelief (well, there's superpowers involved!)

The idea of balancing speedsters by making them high value, long cooldown assets is very interesting, especially when you consider things like strategic deterrence and first strike capabilities.

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