Bay 12 Games Forum

There are a dozen general categories:
Mover, Shaker,
Brute, Breaker.
Master, Thinker,
Blaster, Tinker.
Striker, Changer,
Trump, Stranger.
These categories were designed over a period of time by the PRT, and all ratings shown below are what the PRT has assigned. Other organizations may have their own rating systems, but most stick to the PRT's for simplicity.
The numbers indicate the efficacy of the powers, whether for combat or some other purpose. The PRT worries more about facing a Blaster 7 than a Blaster 2, for instance.

These numbers can change at any time. If you think one deserves a change, speak up!
On that note, I'm still working out several. Anything in brackets is a GM note and not an official designation! If you see [X], it means I haven't yet assigned a rating.

Artillery: A cape whose powers lend themselves to powerful ranged attacks.
Bruiser: A vague term; typically refers to a cape who primarily performs combat.
Independent Hero: A hero not directly connected with any organization outside the city/
Paragon: A cape with flight, super-strength, toughness, and a ranged attack of some sort, like Zion, Hero, Ubermensch, and the like. The term was derived from an early designation for parahumans, based on a defunct theory of parahuman origin.

The Guild is a hypothetically worldwide organization of parahumans, although it is primarily headquartered in Canada. It maintains presences of one to three superheroes in most Canadian cities and in major capitals worldwide. About one-third of its members are based at the Guild International Headquarters, a little town of several thousand in the Saint Elias Mountains.

The Protectorate is the largest superhero organization in the world, with teams in every major city in the US and Canada plus four trial teams in Hermosillo, Manchester, Hong Kong, and Brisbane.

Inner Circle
The Inner Circle is a group of the most powerful members of the Protectorate.

Hero: Blaster [X], Brute 13, Mover 4. A tall, heavily muscled man whose costume is primarily blue, with red boots, gloves, and cape, plus a yellow mask and a matching H on his chest. One of the first parahumans, showing up within days of Zion. Several of his powers are similar to Zion's, including super strength, invulnerability, flight, and "lasers" (yellow rather than silver). Notable for a lawsuit some years back when DC sued him for copyright infringement before Hero used the full power of the PRT legal team to end up with a plurality of DC stock.
Hydra: Brute 10, Changer 10. A tall, muscular woman who wears heavy, brown, Tinker-ceramic armor. Regeneration and shapeshifting, which causes the armor to shift with.
Leviathan: Blaster 0-3*, Brute 0-7*, Changer 9, Shaker 1-6*. A tall, thin, long-armed man with blue-tinged skin. He wears a skintight blue-and-green bodysuit with a wave pattern. When fighting or concentrating, he transforms into a massive serpentine creature, topping out around 15 meters. Aside from this ability, he also has regeneration, hydrogenesis (at larger sizes including a watery blast from the oral cavity, but mostly in the form of a constant "sheathe"), and short-ranged hydrokinesis. The newest and generally considered to be the least powerful or versatile of the Inner Circle.
Titan: Tinker 13. Believed to be a short, slender man; typically not seen outside one of his suits of armor. The first and most powerful of known Tinkers. Notable for a lawsuit with Marvel over his original name (Titanium Man, meant to be reminiscent of Iron Man without causing copyright infringement...only to cause copyright infringement over a lesser-known Marvel character).
Trump: Trump 13.  Can copy the powers of anyone she sees, only more powerful. The more powers she copies, the less powerful all of her powers become.
Victor: Thinker 13. A lithe man of average height, wearing a simple white mask and

Anchorage Team
Heat Wave

Arctic Team
The Arctic Team mainly covers the Yukon and Nunavut areas, as well as parts of Alaska, dealing with any major threats in those areas. They usually don't have much to do. The Arctic Team is where the Protectorate usually places heroes too valuable to fire but too unstable to have anywhere they might cause actual damage. Their base is in Yellowknife.
Ursine

Atlanta Team
Jade Tide

Billings Team
Seraphim

Brisbane Team
Captain Kangaroo: An Australian hero generally regarded as unhinged in many respects.

Calgary Team

Chicago Team
Silver Hand: Changer 3, Brute 4. A woman made of silver. She can shift her form. Leader of the Chicago team.
The Butterfly: Tinker 6. A Tinker with a chemical bent, who uses a sort of crude (but clean-burning and safe) jetpack to fly, as well as having a variety of chemical weaponry. Recently graduated from the Wards.
Dungeon Master: Master 6, Shaker 10, Trump 3. An overweight man in a blue robe and cloak, plus a plain white mask. Former villain, working alongside Goblin under Leadfist. He can change the landscape around him, with an exact radius varying based on concentration and other factors but typically around 5 meters, typically making it more similar to the interior of some kind of heavily-trapped castle. He can also create a number of minor minions, several possessing minor powers, often including pyrokinesis. One of the Chicago team's heavy hitters.
Likho: Trump 4. A scrawny man who wears crumpled dark gray robes. His power causes unfortunate occurrences to happen more often. He rarely speaks, but when he does he speaks with a heavy Russian accent.
Michigan Man: Blaster 4, Brute 4, Shaker 4. An older man, whose costume includes an old brown robe and a scaled mask. A hydrokinetic, capable of creating "blobs" of water, with greater dexterity at closer ranges. He uses these as weapons, walls, and a sort of shell.
Vinesnake: Brute-Changer 8. An unassuming man, who can grow vines from his skin. When fully transformed, he is a semi-amorphous blob of vines, typically trying for a vaguely serpentine shape. While in this form, he regenerates rooms.
Windy: Blaster 3, Brute 5, Mover 6. A small woman, wearing a white bodysuit. Aerokinetic, plus enhanced strength and durability.

Colombus Team

Dallas Team
Falcon Flock: Changer [X], Mover 4. A Hispanic man who wears a brown-and-orange jumpsuit with a feathered pattern, and a helmet designed to resemble an avian head and beak. He can turn into a flock of avian creatures, and when he reassembles himself he heals any injuries he sustained beforehand.

Denver Team

Detroit Team
The Detroit team is one of the most stressed in the nation. Its funding has been cut significantly, its workload has multiplied in recent years, and it is the butt of every joke about the Protectorate teams.
Wreckerball: Tinker 6. Leader of the Detroit team. A presumed man of indeterminate appearance, only ever seen in a mecha. Wreckerball is named for the flails he incorporated into his mecha. Robots of various sorts are Wreckerball's Tinker specialty; an additional shtick of his is his skill in improvising Tinker gear or materials from scrap.
Blunt: Brute 4. A tall, muscular tannish-skinned man who wears an armored suit, heavy over his chest and torso and completely unarmored on the lower arms and legs, accessorized with a pair of big, crude-looking gauntlets. Super-strong. In addition, when cut he bleeds a sort of muddy liquid that causes the wound to heal up and can also be used as a sort of healing serum if used quickly.
Electric: Breaker 3, Blaster 6, Mover 4. A thin man who wears a yellow bodysuit with blue armored plates over the chest and vitals, plus a white helmet covering the skull and most of the face. He can transform into an electric form, allowing him to ignore many physical influences, move at speeds comparable to automobiles, and project electrical bolts.
Vision: Thinker 8. A woman who wears a concealing orange robe. Her power is a combination of short-ranged precognition, postcognition, and clairvoyance, creating an image of a scene up to about a kilometer or an hour in any direction, or some combination of the two (say, 40 minutes in the past, a couple thousand feet away). Sadly, the farther away the when and where, the less precise the location is, and her power sometimes triggers unconsciously or not at all.

DC Team
The Protectorate team in Washington, DC is seen as one of the most important in the US, in part because of all of its heavy hitters.
Captain America: Brute 7, Mover 2, Thinker 2. Originally General Washington, until he, the Protectorate, and Marvel reached an agreement. Super strength, invulnerability, enhanced speed and senses.

Hermosillo Team

Hong Kong Team

Houston Team

Los Angeles Team

Louisville Team

Manchester Team

Miami Team
Delfin

Montreal Team
Lightshow: Blaster [X], Breaker [X], Mover 9. Leader of the Montreal Protectorate. A petite woman with a controlled megalomania and an uncontrolled dramatic flair. Powers: Can transform herself into a semihumanoid form made of what seems to be light, granting rapid flight; she can also fire lasers.
Bonesetter: Trump 4. A tall woman wearing a white robe, with a red cross on the shoulder. She provides regeneeration with a touch, with the strength, duration, and speed increasing with the severity of the injury.
Mensura: Shaker 9. A skinny woman wearing a pink-and-purple armored bodysuit. She warps space.

New Orleans Team
Phoenix

New York Team

Philadelphia Team

Phoenix Team
Thunderbird

Quebec Team

Salt Lake City Team

Saskatoon Team

Seattle Team
Phoenix Jones

St. Louis Team

Twin Cities Team

Vancouver Team

Vegas Team
Dionysian

Zion: Definitely not Scion! No-sir-ee! He's silver-skinned, and, um...his name...okay, yeah, he's basically Scion.

Ahem. A silver-colored androgynous person, easily seven feet tall and well-muscled. Known powers: Flight, super-strength, invulnerability, "silver lasers," healing.

The Family is a group of capes who have banded together, bit by bit. They mostly keep to themselves, and their occasional illicit activities lead to the PRT placing them tentatively in the category of villains; however, they also act heroically at times, including showing up to every Terror attack since their founding. Capes join occasionally, or die.

Five terrible beings who come out periodically to terrorize the world. Basically this world's Endbringers, but a little weaker and less-organized.

Chuhaister: A humanoid being, composed of roots and vines tangled together. Its exact appearance varies between attacks, but it typically has a head, two arms, a "trunk," and a height between 9 and 12 feet. First seen on March 11, 1992 near Prague. Attacks approximately every 4-5 months, or longer if changing continents. Targets are typically centers of environmental damage, although this is not an absolute. Powers include: Impressive strength and durability; Biokinesis, allowing it to animate plants and control animals, even disrupting human brain functions to an extent; Regeneration of damage except that from caustic chemicals or burns; and production of large quantities of organic matter (such as vines, pollen, or even fruit).
Ogoun: A 16-foot-tall humanoid with four metal-clawed arms, three eyes (the left one thrice the size of the right two), and a lower torso shrouded in flames. It first attacked Plymouth, Montserrat, on July 20, 1995, and has attacked about once every 3-4 months since. Powers include flight, pyrokinesis, teleportation, and a sort of explosion that destroys almost everything nearby (within 6-8 meters) and also heals it.
Qilin: A 25-foot-long centauroid creature, with clawed limbs, a horned and snouted head, and thick brown-gray scales. It first attacked on November 9th, 1997, striking Lhasa, and has since attacked once every three months or so. It has super strength and can regenerate, manipulate earth in various forms, and shift shapes.
Heterodyne: When Heterodyne manifests, it creates a body from 30 to 40 feet in height and length, typically composed of a number of assorted limbs attached to a head in the middle. It first attacked on September 1st, 2001, striking New York City and destroying such iconic buildings as the Empire State Building and Twin Towers. It attacks precisely once every 128 days. Its powers are telekinesis and technopathy, which combine to make it an extreme danger around tinkers. Its bodies often have various Blaster powers, super-strength, etc.
Naga: A violet, 60-foot-long serpent with a human-like head and two black stripes down its side. Its first attack was Sri Lanka, on Christmas 2004; since then, it has attacked once every season. Its only known power is hydrokinesis, but between the sheer scale and its impressive dexterity--not to mention that it can ignore the Manton effect once a victim gets within an estimated 10 meters--it does not seem to need additional powers.

Leadfist is a major villain based in Chicago.

Leadfist: Possibly unpowered. The leader of a major criminal organization in Chicago, and suspected to be supported by Langer Technological Imports, a major business in Chicago. When he goes out, he wears a clean, gray suit and tie, plus a metallic cross between a mask and a helmet.
Heretic: Tinker 6. Although usually remaining in his laboratory or one of Leadfist's safehouses, Heretic is known to be an...eccentric older man. His devices tend to work exceptionally well for one individual and worse for others. Notable inventions include a type of body armor that fits easily under normal clothes and a laser weapon with various settings.
Hotspot: Striker 4, Shaker 1. A tall, heavily-built man in an armored, flameproof, gray, heavily modified business suit, accessorized with a horned metal helmet and a pair of metal gauntlets. Absorbs heat from the area, heating his own body (usually channeled into his gauntlets) and cooling his surroundings. Stubborn, nearly to a suicidal extent.
Merrow: Brute 6. A humanoid person, over two meters tall and covered in grayish-blue scales. His hands are clawed and he typically wears a gray suit vest, blue dress shirt, and blue jeans. He possesses enhanced strength and durability, along with regeneration and the ability to breathe water.
Murus: Tinker 4. A tall woman, whose left arm has been replaced with some sort of robotic prosthetic (possibly made by Heretic). Her focus is on defensive gear, including armor, shield projectors, and a few one-shot teleporters. She rarely ventures into the field.
Oblitus: Stranger 6. A small woman in a gray dress suit, though descriptions are hard to obtain. Can make herself completely imperceptible to human senses.
Quasit: Trump 5. A boy around 14 years old, wearing a demonic mask and an orange vest over a yellow dress shirt and gray pants. He has a number of minor powers, which vary from time to time.
Shieldbearer: Trump 7. A tall, slender woman wearing a blue gown ending at the knee. She has the power of projecting force bubbles around people who she can see, effectively granting them flight and invulnerability.

Leadfist also has a number of unpowered employees. Or minions, or mooks, or whatever you want to call them. They wear Murus's body armor and use Heretic's laser rifles.

Trump-Mover 6
A Chicagoan businessman with the ability to give Mover powers to others. The duration of these powers varies, from several hours to a couple weeks, by the strength of the ability and how often it is used. He runs Baron Shipping and Transport, a major corporation which uses these Movers for a variety of purposes. BS&T is a major force in revitalizing the Chicago region, and is well-known for rumors of its unsavory business practices, from addicting employees to drugs to keep them there to smuggling to paying supervillains to deal with the competition.