Excelsior!

Heroes

Aspects

Tagline

A hero's tagline is their primary aspect, which sums them up in one sentence or so. Good examples of taglines include Last Scion of a Dying Alien Race, Bitten by a Radioactive Spider, and Recruited by the Guardians of the Galaxy. These are good taglines because they explain the origin and what the hero's general gimmick is.

Bad examples of taglines include Strong Guy, World's Greatest at Everything Ever, and Kryptonian. These are bad taglines because they're either too generic, too all-encompassing, or lacking any real detail.

Weakness

A hero's weakness is what keeps them human (or human equivalent) rather than being unstoppable godlike entities. It could be a Secret Identity, a Vulnerability to Psychic Powers, or something like being Sworn to Uphold the Laws of the Cosmos. Whatever might provide your hero with some adversity to overcome.

Avoid putting weaknesses like Irradiated Moon Rocks, which is a little too specific, or The Colour Blue, which is a little too general. Your weakness should not come into play every five minutes, nor should it only come into play once every month. Your character can still fall victim to irradiated moon rocks, or even have trouble with the colour blue, but not as their defining weakness.

Reputation

A hero's reputation is their tertiary, social aspect. It is how their fellow heroes, and the public, view them - for better or worse. Good ideas for reputations include All-Star Celebrity Hero with Product Endorsements, Mysterious Urban Legend, and Genuine Boy Scout. The best reputations are ones that can be used both ways!

Relationships

A hero's relationships are the final two aspects, created after you and everyone else have your heroes otherwise completed and ready to go. Because relationships are how you see other heroes, your enemies, and even the world around you.

Good examples of relationships include Captain Cosmos is My Rival!, Best Buddies with the Neon Rider, Protector of Crown City, Dear Old Grandma Petunia, and My Eternal Nemesis, Frenzy!.

Stress

Heroes get two stress tracks: Physical (like when you get hit by a car someone's thrown at you) and Mental (like when someone invades your mind or lays down a pretty sick burn on your skills).

Each stress track starts at four stress boxes. You can buy a copy of a stress box for one point of refresh. You can only have up to two of the same stress box.

Heroes also get six Consequence slots: two 2-point Mild slots, two 4-point Moderate slots, one 6-point Severe slot, and one 8-point Extreme slot.

You cannot clear an Extreme Consequence without spending a minor milestone! They are the real deal, reserved for things like loss of powers or loss of appendage. Use with caution!

Stunts

Stunts are little extras which spin off from a hero's powers or skills. They can be things like special moves, areas of specialization, or anything else you can think of. Run all stunts past the GM first to make sure they're not too complex or over/underpowered.

Heroes begin with four stunts, after which they can buy additional stunts for 1 refresh each.

Powers

Building Your Power Set

Every hero starts off with one super power, with the option to buy more for one refresh each. So if a hero has four powers in their power set, that cost them three refresh - because the first one's free.

The name of your power must be evocative without being non-specific. Super-Speed is fine, but Going Supersonic! sounds better. However, something like Superpowers is far too general and can cover too many things.

If you want to make a hero who doesn't have any powers, or whose primary ability is just being totally awesome, put your power down as Peak Human or something similar, then use your power when you need to be the best there is.

There are different ways to use your powers. Let's grab an example: Lickety-Split, who has the power of Going Supersonic! which we mentioned earlier. But what can be done with this power? Here are four things that Lickety-Split's player suggests during the course of a game:

• On the Move! Lickety-Split needs to catch up to a stolen truck that's already six blocks away and still going. This is a perfectly acceptable use of her powers, so she can use this move.

• Tornado on Two Feet! Up against the supervillain Backdraft, whose fire powers are setting downtown ablaze, Lickety-Split declares she's going to run circles around him. Literally. The resulting high velocity winds kicked up by her movement should put out the fires. This is an unusual use of her powers, but well within their scope, so the GM allows it, and says that she can spend a Fate point to have the move also knock Backdraft down.

• Digital Dash! Up against a locked-out computer belonging to the supercrime organization SILENCE, Lickety-Split decides to bolster her hacking skills through superspeed typing. Because this is not a direct use of her powers, but rather a way to bolster her relevant skill, she gets a boost to that skill rather than getting to roll her power level.

• Zappow! Lickety-Split uses her super-speed to shoot laser eye beams! No. No she doesn't. The GM tells her not to be silly. If she wanted laser eye beams, she should have taken a laser eye beam related power.

When a hero suggests a power use that is a little off the wall, the GM can always charge them a Fate point rather than outright saying "no", but sometimes outright saying "no" has to be done. Making sure that you specify the limits of your powers when you make your hero can help stave off the dreaded "no"!

Be as imaginative with your powers, and their names, as you like! Here are a few examples of interesting powers:

• Bombshell, who has the power of Explosive Nature. Her player describes the power as "the ability to generate and control explosions"!

• Creature Feature, with the power of B-Movie Morphology. According to his player, he can turn into any monster ever depicted on the silver screen, gaining their unique abilities (but also their weaknesses)!

• Electrocutie, possessing the powers of Electrostatic Physique that give her a shocking array of abilities. Just don't get her wet!

• Voiceover, who has a Magic Voice, letting him mimic anyone or anything, transmit his voice across vast distances, or even deliver an earth-shattering sonic cry!

Teamwork

The most important thing about playing a group of heroes is teamwork. No singular hero can do everything! Sometimes you will need one hero to hold up a collapsing building while the rest of the team gets the civilians to safety. In fights, heroes often go up against villains who they cannot beat in a one-on-one battle! So developing proper super-synergy with your allies is a must.

First off, there are the standard ways to help out allies: creating an advantage on an opponent or situation that your allies can exploit. For instance, using your Tactile Telekinesis to pin down an opponent in combat, so your allies can land some good hits!

But besides that, you can divide up your actions to best respond to a crisis. If something needs to be fetched in a hurry, the speedster should be the one to go - or the teleporter. The Human Brick should not be going, but instead doing stuff that bests suits the powers of being really heavy, strong, and durable. Remember, you are not trying to do everything yourself, nor are you equipped to do so! Rely on your friends!

During the game, do your best to figure out how you can use your powers to help out your buddies. If someone needs to get up high but cannot fly, and you have super-strength, throw them. Not without warning them first, of course!

Power Levels

Powers are all based off power level, which is the same rating for everyone's powers, and the same rating for everyone! While being able to lift a battleship is very impressive, it doesn't make someone's mind-reading powers any less powerful in comparison! Different powers shine on different occasions. Lifting a battleship might not help you in a psychic brain-battle on the astral plane!

The power level of a game is based off a rank on the Fate ladder, and it's suggested that if you are GMing, your heroes should start with Great (+4) for a reasonably super level of super powers!

Remember that power levels are the rating for how good powers are in comparison to others. Going too high or too low might make it very hard for you (as GM) to create appropriately menacing menaces or vile villains for your heroes to thwart!

Singular opponents to your hero team should be about two steps higher up the ladder, perhaps a little more if you want a truly terrifying nemesis. Villain teams should be around the same level, to act as a fiendish mirror to your heroes. Mooks and hangers-on should always be at least one step below, contributing more through hampering the heroes than fighting them effectively.

Whenever a hero rolls an action using their powers, they will roll at their power level. So if our example hero, Lickety-Split, was to use her Going Supersonic! power, she would roll it as a Great (+4) ability.

Skills

Skills are for mundane (or at least non-superpowered) actions that can be done by anyone, powers or not.

Heroes start with their choice of ten skills from the skill list. You cannot have more skills in a rank than you have in the rank below, and you cannot take higher than Fantastic (+6) at creation (unless the GM allows it).

Body Skills

Acrobatics

Acrobatics is your body's grace and power wrapped into one bundle. Superpowers like flight (as one example) can be used instead, but otherwise use this to leap around, swim, climb, and generally excel physically!

Endurance

Endurance is your resilience in the face of harm! While some superpowers can give you a measure of invulnerability, those who are touch more fragile must put faith in their Endurance. Use it to shake off stress boxes, defend against harsh conditions, and tough out poisons!

Perception

Perception is how alert you are, how much you're paying attention to the world around you. Actively looking into things and conduction thorough searches is more a case of using the Investigation skill. Instead, use Perception to spot ambushes, subtle hints, and stuff like that!

Smarts

Smarts is generally how crafty you are. Your cunning and guile, as opposed to the education side of things, which is represented through the IQ Skills. Use Smarts to solve puzzles, engage in battles of wits, and maybe even defend against psychic attack!

IQ Skills

Investigation

Investigation is the skill you use when there's been a supercrime and you weren't there in time! Or when you're trapped and need to find a way out. Use it to thoroughly survey the situation, uncover hidden things, and generally discover the truth about a place!

Knowledge

Knowledge is just that: knowing stuff. Everything from trivia to esoteric facts, it's all represented by how many ranks you have in this skill. Use Knowledge to connect the dots between clues, or just to impress your friends!

Science

Science is the knowledge of the various avenues of superscience. Need to find a way to shrink yourself to a teeny-tiny size to fight invaders from the atomic dimension? Science! Need to reverse the effects of a cosmic entity's afternoon snack on the local sun? Science!

Technology

Technology is about the understanding and creation of gadgets, gizmos, and gear of all stripes! Use technology to rewire death rays instead of just smashing them, or to keep the cool stuff in your secret lair functioning perfectly!

Practical Skills

Fighting

Fighting is pretty useful when it comes to getting into fights. If you're not sporting a superpower you can use on the offensive, then try a spot of Fighting instead! You can also use it to create advantages against enemies by your canny understanding of tactics!

Stealth

Stealth is sneaking around, going unseen, and getting the drop on the bad guys! Use Stealth when you need to get places without anyone noticing you, or when you need to disguise yourself to go undercover. Watch out for people with good Perception, though!

Vehicles

Vehicles is about driving or piloting vehicles, not owning them. Use this skill whenever you're behind the wheel, joystick, or neural interface of a vehicle: be it wheeled, winged, or anything in between!

Treatment

Treatment is about fixing people up with medical training! Proper medical training, none of this homeopathic nonsense. Use it on the spot to make sure none of your buddies get too badly banged up, but remember that this skill counts as being two steps lower if you try it on yourself!

Social Skills

Banter

Banter is the art and the magic of good quipping! Plus generally being good at speaking to other people. Use it to win friends, influence people, and also drop some pretty devastating insults on your enemies to make them get way too mad to fight properly!

Contacts

Contacts is the skill you use to get in touch with someone, whether than someone is an ex-villain (now retired) who can shed some light on why their giant robot is currently running amok downtown, or the world's leading surgeon so they can perform open-heart surgery on an alien prince!

Insight

Insight is seeing through lies and bluffs, determining the truth behind misdirection, and generally being able to read people. Having decent Insight can prevent supervillains from replacing all your buddies with evil robot duplicates! This happens more often than you think!

Leadership

Leadership is being good at leading and directing people. While you can use Banter to shoot the breeze, use Leadership to be commanding and inspiring. Law enforcement officers and emergency services respond better to Leadership, as do panicking civilians! Also use it to inspire your friends!

Teams

It is highly recommended that all the heroes in the game be on the same team. Maybe they can found it during their first adventures together, or maybe it's been around for generations, but a team is essential! A team allows for teamwork most importantly, but also material things like transportation and a place to hang out.

When the team comes together, before the game or during, each hero should put forward one thing they would like the team to have. It should depend on the tone and level of the game, of course: a group of teenage street-level heroes will probably not get to have their own moonbase.

If you, as someone playing a hero, cannot think of a good thing for your team to have, consider chipping in to enhance someone else's suggestion. If they have suggested a Supercomputer to manage and maintain the Satellite Headquarters, why not take the extra step to give it a friendly and helpful Artificial Intelligence? Much better to have someone else to talk to during monitor duty.