Last week we started talking about different ways that you can use some of the more common types of superpowers to gain “little victories” in a superhero RPG that uses war as a backdrop. These are the different ways that the powers can be used outside of a combat type situation to be effective and helpful in unique situations. Last week we focused heavily on the physical side of superpowers – super strength, flight, and superspeed. This week, we’ll delve into some of the powers that don’t rely on the body.
Energy Blasts
Energy blasts tend to be highly destructive powers that are very useful when it comes time to hurt other people. Powers like Cyclops’s optic blast or Superman’s heat vision come to mind when thinking about these kinds of powers. But, depending on the source of power and the type of element or damage it channels, it has a lot of uses outside of combat as well.
Do you have heat vision? Well, you can also use it to burn through locks or even entire doors letting you get into places you may have needed other tools or even explosives to breach. Are you capable of channeling extreme cold? You can shatter locks, make objects brittle (which could then be more susceptible to attacks – either conventional or superpowered in nature) and help to put out fires. Stuck behind enemy lines but have the ability to shoot lightning blasts or fireballs into the air? That means you’ve always got a signal flare you can use to alert allies. Speaking of lightning and electricity, if you can use that to shock opponents, you might also be able to use to it charge devices that run on the same energy source you’re capable of producing.
Depending on how you built the power, you might even be able to dial it down for precision operations. Instead of using your heat vision to melt enemy soldiers, you might be able to focus it to make precision welds to help reinforce objects or even cauterize wounds in the battlefield. Even if you can only use the attack at full power you can still use it to melt through or destroy a variety of objects, letting you create entrances that you can use to flank enemies or even deny them cover by destroying it from a distance. You might even be a human mortar, capable of laying down sustained indirect fire on enemy positions.
Telekinesis
Telekinesis is a wonderful utility power to have. Just ask Jean Grey of the X-Men. While it is commonly seen being used to manipulate objects from a distance, depending on how you built it, it can be used for so many other things.
At its most common, telekinesis can be used in many of the ways that normal applications of strength can (or super strength depending on how powerful the telekinetic is) but from a safe distance. You can open doors or windows from a distance allowing you to avoid possible booby traps. You can operate things from across rooms even if you wouldn’t be able to reach it yourself. If you’re strong enough you can use it to restrain other people or even possibly remove enemy vehicles or weapons emplacements from an area to clear the way for allied support to move through. This would also allow you to assist with battlefield cleanup in similar ways to a hero with super strength.
But with some creative thought, telekinesis can become much more useful than just applications of force at a distance. You might be able to create force fields of telekinetic force to protect yourself and allies from harm. You might also be able to project them at a distance in order to keep enemies or explosions contained. You might be able to telekinetically bend light around you making yourself invisible to the human eye. You might be able to use the power to create telekinetic constructs that can affect the real world. You might be able to generate concussive blasts of telekinetic energy that you can use similarly to a hero who has an energy blast. Or you might even be able to telekinetically channel the earth’s magnetic field through your body to create EMP pulses to short out delicate equipment. This really is a versatile power that can effectively mimic many others, so it’s important that a potential telekinetic talk with their GM in order to make sure everyone is on the same page about what the power can and can’t do and how they’re going to have to build the power.
Telepathy
Telepaths are another constant in superhero literature. Charles Xavier is one of the foremost telepaths in the Marvel universe. Emma Frost is another character from the same universe that has great telepathic powers at her command.
Intelligence gathering has never been easier. You don’t even need to hear a conversation or interrogate an individual. You can simply probe their mind. You might not even need to be all that close to them depending on how you built your power. Even better, you never have to worry about not knowing the truth behind a mission. If you don’t trust command’s motives, a simple look into their minds will tell you everything you need to know about the mission you’re being sent on, whether they want you to or not.
If you’re a powerful enough telepath, you don’t need to worry about enemy sympathizers or spies in your midst – you can read their thoughts unless they’re very skilled at keeping you out of their brain. Even better, you might be able to use your powers to telepathically turn enemy agents to your side or plant suggestions in their brain to turn them into double agents. You might also be able to utilize your power to break an ally that has been turned into a double agent or a sleeper agent by breaking any conditioning or brainwashing that they’re suffering from.
You can also utilize your power to help allies or civilians that are being affected by the war. Shell shocked allies can benefit from you helping them to repair, suppress, or even erase traumatic memories from the war to get them into the fight or on with their lives.
And with that small look at a few non-physical powers, we will end this series and move on to new ground next week with a different topic. The powers we’ve looked at over the last couple of weeks are of course, just a small sampling of the innumerable superpowers that might come into play at your table should you decide to run a superhero RPG. But by internalizing a lot of these ways to utilize some of these more common powers to provide the characters with a sense of use and purpose in a war zone, you can find enough ways to use even the most esoteric of powers to give each hero at your table a place in the game. These idea are useful and can be applied in any sort of superhero RPG, but I believe they are most effective in games like this where the situation is way bigger than the PCs themselves to let them find hope in what can oftentimes be a hopeless situation.
Ben Erickson
