Superhero Manager - Season One
Spontaneous Human Evolution has started occurring under high stress situations... these new capabilities manifest as extraordinary powers, often accompanied by increased risk-taking and a desire for conflict...This is a game of superhero management. Your task is to recruit superheroes and send teams of them out on missions suited to their strengths. In the bustling metropolis of Zircon City, you will compete against other teams of superheroes, lone vigilantes, and supervillains. Who will the greatest superhero team of all be?
New players may join at any time: just fill out a team sheet and a leader sheet.
You have 4 points which you can spend to increase income or base size by 1 point per rank. Any unspent points will be put into your Leader's fame.
Team Name: [e.g. The League of Honour, the Brute Squad, The Golden Circle etc.]
Leader: [Fill in leader character creation below]
Fame: 0 [The team’s fame is equal to the average fame of its members (rounded down), plus any bonuses or maluses granted by missions. You cannot recruit heroes with a higher fame than your team.]
Neighbourhood reputations: [+1 Reputation in area of your base. e.g. +1 Sandup]
Income: Broke [Broke|Tight|Modest|Comfortable|Opulent]
Cross-Overs: None [You can get an NPC team to help with a one mission if you have a cross-over with them]
Base
Base Size (base size mod): Tiny [Tiny (+0)|Small(+1)|Appropriate(+2)|Large(+3)|Vast(+5)]
Base Description: [Cave, apartment, castle, nightclub, booth at a diner, rooftop, sewer, top of a skyscraper etc.)
Base Location: (See below for neighbourhoods) [Downtown|Oldtown|Docks|Silver Row|Atomic Heights|Dusk Beach|Montgomery|Warren|Greenbelt]
Maximum Team Size: [2 + (the smaller of Base Size Modifier and Fame)]
Ethos
[Pick one from each set of options]
Killing: [We never kill|We kill as a last resort|We kill villains]
Civilians: [Saving civilians is the number one goal|Stopping the villain is the most important thing]
Collateral Damage: [We pay for any damages we make|We try to act with precision but don’t pay for damages|We don’t care about property damage if it helps get the job done]
Name:
Gender:
Appearance:
Alter-ego/backstory: [tell us a little about yourself]
Power: [Pick a broad theme like “fireballs”, “hacking”, “forcefields”, “rhino” and you will be assigned a power based on that. New powers can develop under difficult circumstances in play.]
Traits: [Give yourself 3 traits. At least one should be broadly negative. Here’s a
list of personality traits you can use to help pick. Traits can also be things like “hates [specific kind of thing]”, allergies, or reputational [like “known killer”]. Any traits that players pick will become possibilities for NPCs too. Traits impact things like team cohesion and mission suitability.
Fame: (starts at 0)
The game phases after character creation go: Recruitment -> Missions -> Reports -> Opportunities
In Recruitment, each team may attempt to recruit a known hero from the recruitment pool or the rogues' gallery. Over time, more heroes will become known. Your recruitment attempt is likely to succeed, unless ethos, personality, or another player’s recruitment attempt gets in the way. Alternatively, you can fill any number of spots in your team with a Tryout (see below).
When everyone has recruited or passed on recruitment (or the GM has gotten fed up of waiting), Missions begin. Everyone can assign any number of their heroes to missions. There may be more missions possible than teams available. You can send people to missions that other teams have assigned heroes to (any fame or rewards may be shared).
When everyone has passed or assigned all of their heroes, the missions will be concluded and there will be public Reports on the outcomes of the missions, any losses or escapes, fame and other reputation changes, new powers evolved in the course of duty etc. Usually sending more heroes, or heroes with appropriate abilities, on missions will be useful. Teams with poor cohesion are less likely to succeed. Non-Leader heroes may leave teams after missions when they’re unsatisfied.
After the reports, any Opportunities will be listed. These will be choices each superhero team can make (some may be team specific). A typical opportunity would be sending a superhero for secondment to another city for a period in exchange for greater income; or increased base size, but somewhere less conveniently located. Opportunities usually won't reappear if not taken up before the next mission phase.
Then a fresh recruitment pool is made available and recruitment begins again. Heroes who remain unrecruited for too long have a chance of dropping out of herodom in various ways. After [total player count * 10] missions have happened, the game ends and there will be a final reckoning.
Some superheroes are more forthcoming about their powers than others. More information can be revealed after missions. New powers, and deeper uses of existing powers, can evolve under extreme stress. New heroes may enter the recruitment pool each round. This is the starting pool:
Name | Known Powers | Traits | Fame
Lynxxx |Enhanced climbing and acrobatics | Hates Dogs, Vivacious, Brash | -1
PB & J | Limited Self-Replication | Comedian, Gimmicky, Charming | 0
Joshua Tree | Rapid Plant Generation, Bark Armour | Religious, Wealthy, Neat | 1
Iron Gavel | Super-Strength, Giant Hammer Fighting | Hates criminals, Brutal, Connected | 2
If you hold a tryout, 2d4 heroes will attend. You will fill all empty spots in your roster with heroes according to the criterion you pick. Unpicked heroes will remain in the recruitment pool for future rounds.
Criteria
Versatility: The widest range of powers will be picked.
Power: The most impressive powers will be picked.
Team Cohesion: The heroes who least despise one another and your existing team members will be picked.
Your team can gain Infamy from wicked deeds. Villains all have infamy rather than fame. Team Infamy = [Average team member infamy rounded down]+[team infamy bonuses]. The easiest way to wrack up infamy is to recruit villains. You may substitute team infamy for team fame when recruiting villains.
This is the list of villains that players have faced. You can attempt to recruit villains, but you’re less likely to succeed unless they have an amenable motivation. If your team’s infamy is greater than your team’s fame, your team is consider villainous, and becomes a threat in the game, and can no longer recruit from the main pool, and can no longer partake in missions, and may be the subject of hero missions.
Name | Known Powers | Traits | Infamy | Motivation
(None yet)
You will arrive at the scene quicker to missions in your own neighbourhood. Teams can gain good or bad will in neighbourhoods.

Downtown: Commercial and financial centre of the city
Oldtown: Political and historical centre of the city
Docks: Warehouses, wharfs and derelict cargo ships
Dusk Beach: Waterside nightclubs and casinos, most alive at night
Silver Row: the famed shopping and culture hub
Atomic Heights: An area with a concentration of scientific and technological companies
Montgomery: A middle-income urban neighbourhood, home to the large Montgomery Park
Warren: A low-income urban neighbourhood with many narrow alleyways
Greenbelt: the semi-rural outskirts of the city where the very wealthy have their estates
Sandup: Ongoing reclamation project in former swamp; currently a huge construction site
Mireton: Old mixed-income neighbourhood, now full of trendy cafes
Hermitage: wealthy suburban neighbourhood, home of the Zircon Cathedral
Signups (I'll start after I get at least 4, but more than 4 people can join)
- VermilionSkies
- Stirk
- EganBW
- Glass
- IronyOwl
- BlackPaladin
- Nakéen
- Maximum Spin
- Kashyyk
- crazyabe
Heroes
Name | Known Powers | Traits | Fame | Place of Death | Cause of Death
CUTTING EDGE
Bullwhip | Sonic Booms, Whip Fighting | Vindicative, Vicious, Loud | 2 | Montgomery | Vile Viola possessing Tin Soldier, smashing through the upper floor window of a psychiatric ward
Gaffer | Sand Control, Glass-Based Weapons | Neat, Clever, Irritable, Uncontrollable Sandstorm | 0 | Sandup | Died after normality field calmed his out-of-control powers
Harpoodle-Kaiju | Can shoot claws, Gigantic dog monster form | Vindictive, Image Obsessed, Dense, Careless, Canine-Mind | (3/)2 | Killed by combined efforts of Protection Inc. (but mostly Nitrox's Unstoppable Power Attack)
CONSTELLATION AURORA
Parapraxis | Truth-Telling Gaze | Incisive, Commanding, Pseudo-Psychologist | 7 | Mireton | Shot by Crimson Plague assassins
HOUSE EDGE
J | Limited Self-Replication | Comedian, Gimmicky, Charming, Fed Up with Dying | 2 | Atomic Heights | Sniped by Marmalade
Luke Teach |Probability Manipulation, Gadget arm | Lucky, Out of Shape, Self Indulgent, One Armed | 5 | Blew up in Bill Cleaver's self-destructing compound
THE WATCH
Sally Sixpence (Sally Agreste) | Attention to detail | Bankrolling the Watch, Quiet, Insightful, Discrete, Heroic | 6 | Montgomery | Jumped on a grenade thrown by a Crimson Plague sleeper agent
Muffin Madness | Random (based on eating Chiffon's pastry), {Super-strength, Super-jumping} | Manic, Open-Minded, Indebted to Chiffon, {Electrogirdle}, Tires Easily | 0 | Silver Row | Crushed by a wall stepped on by a giant Harpoodle
SPIDER KNIGHTS
HellTooth | Venomous Bite | Focused, amnesiac, cunning, Decisive, vicious | 2 | Silver Row | Murdered in cold blood by Cephala, with tentacles
LEAGUE OF PARADISE
Mapsona | Other Teleportation | Practical, Analytical, Neurotic | 3 | Docks | Exsanguinated by Justinian the Bloody
Formerly:
Spit Feathers | Feather generation?, Feather Propulsion? | Impressionable, Inexperienced, Athletic, Despises Fish | 1 | Downtown | Feather power inverted by Auntie Anti, sinking her in the river
WATCHTOWER
Miraculous Mirror Maiden (Johanna Freedman) | Copying opposing powers to counter them | Enthusiastic, Gimmicky, Athletic | 6 | Docks | Self-exsanguinated to defeat Justinian the Bloody
ROUTE HORIZON
Endless Highway | Impossible Driving, Energy Conversion (kinetic to sound) | Adrenaline Junky, Bold, Determined, Heroic, Disfiguring scars, Worried about Longfire, Boxer, Trusts his team, Impressed with Reverso, Friends with Longfire, Concerns about Ponche, Hazmat | 9/1 | Docks | Crashed into ground stopping Comette
Ponche | Alcohol generation/combustion/consumption, Superhuman pugilism when drunk | Crude, Robust, Forgiving, Unpredictable, Brawler, Friends with Longfire, Friends with Swan Dive, Loves Route Horizon, Unsure about Endless Highway, Stealth, Dating Longfire | 3/1 | Docks | Fatally beam cut by Flea
BRO CLUB
Pincushion | Needle-spray, Enhanced Healing, Poison-tipped Quills | Accurate, Trigger-Fuse, Understandably Hates Flying, Dedicated to the Bro Club, Friends with Joshua Tree | 1 | Sandup | Super-Cancer induced by his own healing and Aunty Anti's power
Brouhaha | Sound Blasts; Sonic Shattering | Reckless, Charismatic, Muscular, Known Killer, Wealthy, Respects Marigold, Respects Pincushion, Poor Memory, Friends with Bolt Blue, Friends with the Advisor | 3/2 | Mortared by Mortar in a false flag attack
ANIMALIA
Bloodmoon | Werewolf, Terrifying Howl, Scent Tracking | Known Killer, Incisive, Sensitive Nose, In Touch With Inner Wolf, Hates Johnny Knifehands, Anti-Civ | 5/2 | Greenbelt | Mass plant impaling from Joshua Tree
Villains and Rogues
Name | Known Powers | Traits | Infamy | Motivation | Place of Death | Cause of Death
INDEPENDENT
Skinflint | Electric Touch | Addict, Agreeable, Impulsive | 1 | Get another fix | Dusk Beach | Fell in the river before the game began
ZO-0808 | Frog mutations | Hungry, Violent, Confused | 3 | Assuage the hunger! | Mireton | Torched to death by the Spork
The Mangler | Crushing with reinforced limbs, Impervious to most damage | Destructive, Known Killer, Vicious | 5 | Joy of mangling | Downtown | Suffocated by Bloodmoon
Doppelswap | Bodyswapping | Capricious, Hedonistic, Curious, Completely Catatonic | 10 | Pleasure Seeking, Immortality | N/A | Spirit rendered into nothingness by Suffrage
Mistree | Grab bag of little powers | Sophisticated, Protective, Snob | 5 | Enjoying family time | Hermitage | Shot by Antonine
Marmalade | Limited-Self Replication | Stealthy, Crackshot, Unhinged | 4 | Becoming the only replicator | Docks | Many clones were shot, but the final copy was absorbed unwillingly by PB
DARK HUMOUR
Melancholia | Amnesiac tears | Depressed, Intellectual, Sensitive | 2 | Escape Sanguine's control | Mireton | Ended her life before the game began
Sanguine | Blood-based mind control | Cunning, Cruel, SHE-Supremacist, Infectious Humming | 4 | Demonstrate the supremacy of Evolved Kind | Green Belt | Stabbed in the throat by Mistress Extra
ODD SQUAD
Rev. Pongo | Strength and appearance of a large orangutan | Religious, Cautious, Loyal | 7 | Flourishing of the Odd Squad | Sandup | Killed by HellTooth's venom
E CORP
The Watch Bot | Giant Robot, Freeze Ray, Anti-Power Control Bands | Huge, Imposing, Contingency Plans | 2 | Ruining The Watch's reputation?? | Hermitage | Self destructed after being trapped by Frostara
Landshark | Matter Destruction , Giant Shark-Body | Ravenous, Unreasoning, Vicious | 2 | Feeding | Downtown | Brain-burst by Bitter Candy after caught by Psyla, lightened by Plumbaris and flown into a yacht by Pathfinder
CRIMSON PLAGUE
Antonine | Good shot? | Cold-hearted, Professional, Power-Supremacist | 6 | Assassinating Mental Manipulators | Hermitage | Melted by Mistree's daughter, Reflux
Cocoliztli | Changing the colour of surfaces | Power-Supremacist, Inventive, Bruiser | 2 | Rising through the ranks | Sandup | Executed by Brouhaha and Joshua Tree
Knoll Shot | Duplicating Projectiles from different angles | Power-Supremacist, Cunning, Allergy to seafood | 7 | Ruling his own city | Docks | Shot by a PB
Carmen La Plaga | Short-Range teleporter construction, Debilitating whistling | Romantic, Devious, Confident | 8 | Support her husband, Justinian | Docks | Exsanguinated by Justinian after being defeated by Miraculous Mirror Maiden and Anuran
Septia | Corruption Beam | Power-Supremacist, Philosopher, Known Killer, Tactical | 10 | Rule by the Evolved | Docks | Exsanguinated by Justinian after being defeated by Miraculous Mirror Maiden and Spork
Justinian the Bloody | Telekinetic Blood-Manipulation, Blood Shields | Cruel, Determined, Charismatic, Prepared, Known Killer, Legend | 15 | Rule by the Evolved | Docks | Unshielded by Miraculous Mirror Maiden and telekinetically bisected by Psyla