One of my new players wants to play a Magneto type with great control of metal. What backgrounds, power sources, archetypes and personalities plus red abilities would you combine to give him that feel?
So many to choose from! It all depends on how you want the hero to play. I will give you an example from each category, but I honestly think you could go with literally any of them.
Background: Former Villain, this ties into Magneto once being a villain, but is now a hero.
Power source: Accident, pick up Metal as a Materials Power of course. The ability Inflict could be the hero wrapping up people in metal (both hindering and damaging them)
Archetype: Robot/Cyborg, but instead of being a robot it is just you controlling metal around you. Metal Skin represents either deflecting bullets with magnetism or floating metal plates around you at all times.
Background: Analytical, someone surrounded by metal all the time might be a bit cold and calculating perhaps.
Red Abilities: Field of Hazards (Materials Powers), just crunch up all metal in the scene, maybe even turning them into caltrops on the ground.
Also choose Purification (Mental Qualities), just get rid of all metal in the scene.
Hope this gives some inspiration. Knowing more how the Magneto like character would use its powers would probably make it easier to create the hero.
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Well, @deanjday, like @JoeSteeloak said “It all depends on how you want the hero to play,” “you could go with literally any of them,” and “Knowing more how the Magneto like character would use its powers would probably make it easier to create the hero.”
Really, the only thing that I think the hero must have is the Metal (Materials) Power. Now, is this hero pretty much exactly Magneto? Or does he merely have Magneto’s power-set?
Here’s some questions to ask your player:
- What did he do before he got powers or became a hero? Or did he always have them?
- How did he get his powers?
- How does he use those powers in an action scene?
- How would you describe his personality?
- What does he use his powers to do when the stakes are the highest?
The answers you get should help inform what Background, Power-Source, Archetype, Personality, and Red Abilities the hero should have.
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This may sound a bit odd, so bear with me. I think that if “I CONTROL METAL” is the big Thing that you want to be doing, you should look at the following:
Background: Any that gives you a d10 or d12 for Powers. If they’re thinking Magneto personality-wise, I would direct attention to Tragic or Former Villain; otherwise Retired would let you really make this your one trick, and Created would make you the literal Metal Man.
Power Source: Something that lets you put your d10 (or d12) die in Materials so that you can start getting metal control right away is critical, and something that also gives you access to Presence is nice. Accident is a great choice, with Inflict to attack and Change of Circumstances to boost yourself built on your metal control and an Area Alteration for Hinders and Boosts based on your Presence. You could also go with Unknown, letting you attack two people and boost yourself with Metal, and use your Presence to attack people when your metal is interrupted. (The other options are Relic, Cursed, and Higher Power, which don’t work as well.)
Archetype: Be a Sorcerer. I know Magneto doesn’t literally use spells, but it reflects how he uses his metal control well. You can use your metal control to Attack multiple people in Green and your combat skills to simultaneously attack and hinder someone, and go back to metal control in Yellow to destroy all the bonuses and penalties on someone (probably hurting them in the process) and then really wrap them up in metal.
For Red Abilities, you can use a FIeld of Hazards to really dial your metal devastation up by attacking and Hindering a whole bunch of people at once, and create an impassable defensive barrier with Impenetrable Defense.
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I actually had one of these as an idea when I was working on test PCs to learn the system. I just had the Metal power to represent manipulating stuff (ripping apart a train, or something), while Telekinesis was actually moving the metal around.
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