Superhero Types

Found this item on my usual websurfing rounds. This is with regards to the kinds or classifications a hero is tacked under, usually in role-playing game conventions. I copy the relevant section taken from Wikipedia.com's entry for superhero.

In superhero role-playing games (particularly Champions), superheroes are informally organized into categories based on their skills and abilities:

• "Brick": A character with a superhuman degree of strength and endurance and usually an oversized, muscular body, e.g., The Thing, The Incredible Hulk, Colossus, Savage Dragon
  
• "Blaster": A hero whose main power is a distance attack, e.g., Cyclops, Starfire, Static
  
  
  
  • "Archer": A subvariant of this type who uses bow and arrow-like weapons that have a variety of specialized functions like explosives, glue, nets, rotary drill, etc., e.g., Green Arrow, Hawkeye
    
  • "Mage": A subvariant of this type that is trained in the use of magic, which partially or wholly involves ranged attacks., e.g., Doctor Strange, Doctor Fate
  
  
• "Martial Artist": A hero whose physical abilities are mostly human rather than superhuman but whose combat skills are phenomenal. Some of these characters are actually superhuman (Captain America, Daredevil) while others are normal human beings who are extremely skilled and athletic (Batman, Black Widow)
  
• "Gadgeteer": A hero who invents special equipment that often imitates superpowers, e.g., Forge, Nite Owl
  
  
  
  • "Armored Hero": A gadgeteer whose powers are derived from a suit of powered armor, e.g., Iron Man, Steel
    
  • "Dominus": A hero that uses a giant robot to combat villains, e.g., Big Guy, Roger Smith of Big O and members of the team Super Sentai; common in Japanese superhero series
    
  
  
• "Speedster": A hero possessing superhuman speed and reflexes, e.g., The Flash, Quicksilver.
  
• "Mentalist": A hero who possesses psionic abilities, such as telekinesis, telepathy and extra-sensory perception, e.g., Professor X and Jean Grey of the X-Men, Saturn Girl of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
  
• "Shapechanger": A hero who can manipulate his/her own body to suit his/her needs, such as stretching (Mister Fantastic, Plastic Man) or disguise (Changeling, Chameleon)
  
  
  • "Substance oriented Bodychanger - A shapechanger who can change his/her body into the equivalent of a mass of a substance that can have variable density such as sand or water. e.g., Sand, Husk.
    
  • "Sizechanger": A shapechanger who can alter his/her size, e.g., the Atom (shrinking only), Colossal Boy (growth only), Hank Pym (both).
    
  
  

These categories often overlap. For instance, Batman is a martial artist and a gadgeteer, and Superman is extremely strong and damage resistant like a brick and also has ranged attacks (heat vision, superbreath) like an energy blaster and can move quickly like a speedster.

The above mentioned item kinda pigeonhole the kind of hero one creates for an RPG or moreso for a comicbook project. Of course, it makes sense in terms of streamlining the concept of the character. It prevents or cuts down the occurences of making the idea of swiss-army knife heroes or jack-of-all-trades heroes which can put a serious crimp to whatever the GM has in mind for such a player in terms of complications, opposition and traps. Of course some heroes with slight overlaps are possible based on the earlier mentioned heroes Batman and Superman.

It is an interesting look into the conceptual outline of creating a hero in terms or abilities with or without the semblance of powers in the mix.

Merits of good and/or great gaming people

Looked around for some usseful stuff to post and reflect on in the matter of things RP related. I came across this item when reading it off from another blog. I backtracked it back to the actual forum item where it came from. Its located here.

Now, technically speaking, this is about good/great groups, not good/great players. But really, it all comes down to the players (if one counts the GM as a specialized player), so this got me thinking about the differences between good players and great players... Those bits of extra effort great players put into gaming that contribute to the overall experience.

Then I thought that listing some of the differences between the two could be a fun mental exercise. So that's what I'm doing here.

Note that this isn't about bad players; those are easy to spot, and there are all kinds of articles delineating the differences between bad and good players. Nor is this really about GMs, since there's likewise plenty of articles/threads enumerating the different species of GM that roam the world of gaming. I'm specifically looking at good vs. great players.

In addition to the above, this is what I've come up with so far, after about 30 minutes of off-and-on musing:

A good player will think about what his character would do before he acts.

A great player will think ways to make his character realistically take actions that benefit the game.

A good player will seek out opportunities to get his character involved in things.

A great player will seek out opportunities to have his character help others get involved.

A good player will avoid doing things that makes the GM's job more difficult.

A great player will look for ways to make the GM's job easier.

A good player will make an effort to learn the rules.

A great player will remember that the rules must sometimes be broken for purposes of flavour or story.

A good player will seek out ways to build his character's story.

A great player will know when to let his character’s story end.

A good player understands that winning means having fun.

A great player understands that winning doesn’t mean much unless everybody wins.

The above mentioned list pretty proves some things which players should aspire or improve as time progresses from lessons learned in the many campaigns and game systems experienced. I know that enough from experience. Feel free to ponder on these things. I'll have more stuff to put on here when I have time. Ciao.