Shattered Heroes - Creating those with Powers

Making Those with Powers

The group comes together for the first session of play...

"I want to play a demigoddess named Feilcia. Her mother won't tell her the truth about the one night stand that led to her birth. She grew up in a small rural town far away from the city because the mythical enemies of the family pantheon are hunting them down. We can work out her powers as we learn about her divine bloodline."

"OK"

"I want to play an alien who has come to Earth because there is conflict on his homeworld. He doesn't know much about people but he's way with machines and tchnology is almost magical. His real name is unpronounceable."

"Yep, we can work with that"

"I want to play a rich socialite influencer who has millions of followers, she actually has psychic powers and is applying a limmited mind control effect on everyone who watches her channel. She tried a more heavy effect once, but that lured a bunch of stalkers who tried to kill her. Her name is Kyeisha."

."That could be fun"

"I want to play a hardened veteran of the wars in the Middle East, his name is Sergeant Spader, but he's known on the streets as the Ace of Spades. While he was deployed he was sent to raid a lost tomb complex and awakened something that had been inactive for millennia, the thing attached itself to him and whispers in his mind."  

"I like where that might go"

"I want to play a regular guy named Henry"

"What?"

The first few books of the series have given a explanation on how the game is played, and how a game is run. Now comes the opportunity for players to make their own characters to explore the world and create epic adventrues.  

Characters in Shattere Heroes are generallt divided for ways, and players can mix and matchthese otions to create almost any kind of hero found in comic books, computer games,or action movies. If the right combination isn't there, a future booklet will probably have what you're after.

Characters are defined by:

Heritage

• Humans - Those who begin like almost anyone else on the planet
• Aliens - Those not born on Earth
• Experiments - Lab grown heroes and villains 
• Constructs - Mechanical creations that have gained awareness
• Mutant Animals - Creatures that have developed intelligence and other powers
• Mutant Humans - The next step of human development
• Exotics - Inhuman things that cannot be defined by science
• The Divine - Children of the old gods (and new)

Upbringing

• Military - Those who grew up among fighting and warzones
• Insular - Those who grew up in cults, or hidden communities far from regular folks
• Numinous - Those who grew up among magic and mystcism
• Offworld - Those who grew up on another world (in space or another dimension)
• Street - Those who leared to survive under difficult circumstances without a home
• Suburban - Those who grew up in a normal childhood
• ...and 12 others

Occupation

• 50 possible starting occupations -each explaining what the character has done for a living, and what benefuts they picked up from doing it. With a system allowing characters to easily swap between themand move into more powerful and exclusive occupations later.  

Upgrade Path

• Awakening - Where characters see the underlying structure of reality and learn to manipulate it
• Enchnatment - Where characters become more powerful y their connection to magical effects
• Implants - Where characters gain benefits from the technology added to their body
• Mythic - Where the character gains a connection to legends and ancient tales to empower their soul 
• Power Armour - Where the character builds a suit that contains their strength
• Psychic - Where the character becomes mentally attuned to the forces that bind reality
• Serum - Where a chemical concoction, and other mysterious effects, infuse the cells and grant powers
• Symbiote - Where a characters gains power from an alien entity connected to them
• Variant - Were a character gains power from being shifted into our reality from another universe

In addition to the regular mundane skills and abilities a character might possess,this guide provides over 100 powers that a new hero might possess.

All text in this core book written by Michael Wenman, with the text in remaining Shattered Heroes books written by Michael Wenman and the members of the Peel High School Gaming Club.

All layout work and illustrations produced by Michael Wenman and Erin Gumiho, inspired by characters and events found in the sessions run by the gaming club. 

Shattered Heroes is released under a creative commons license.