Charater Concepts that WGP handles exceptionally well

[WyzardWhately]

I take the position that supers games necessarily handle some characters better than others.  Mayfair DC was horribly unfair to anyone wanting to play a sorceror.  HERO does speedsters fantastically well.  Aberrant is not a great place to try and take a mega-strength punch.

The question on my mind is:  What character concepts have you found that really make WGP shine? 

This came into my mind when I came up with one the other day.  At least I think it would work better in WGP than anything else coming to my mind.  I thought about some sort of hellish cross between Miracleman (a darker version of DC's Captain Marvel, in short) crossed with Shinji from Evangelion.

Stay with me here.

Said character is a young boy who can turn into, by speaking a power word, an entity of such power that it can be fairly described as monstrous.  How much it shares his personality is questionable.  Occasionally, unstoppable supervillains go on a rampage.  Some secretive gov't organization is aware of him.  They would very much like him to stop these attacks on the urban center, rather than have high-magnitude disasters on hand every month or so.  The problem is that he's terrified of fighting, his other half, and them for the most part. 

Why this shines in WGP (for me) is that I can just describe the stakes as: if he loses this conflict, he speaks his word of power, flips out, and wipes the floor with Captain Carnage in an orgy of violence that leaves a trail of blood all the way up to the fifteenth floor of the Zagyg Building.  Or whatever.  I can leave his other half more or less "NPCed" in a way, and off-screen for the most part.  While I could easily *build* this character in Hero, it probably wouldn't run as smooth.

Another one, which I am trying to make for another game right now, I also would prefer to run in WGP.  The character is a famous stage magician attempting to take vengeance on the mob.  Usual sorts of reasons.  He's using a lot of the apparent methods of a professional illusionist: mentalism, conjuring, escape artistry, disguise, sleight of hand, and of course really strange things happening in general.  Maybe eventually some real Tales from the Crypt/Vault of Horror schticks.  Part of the point of this is that rumours circulate to the effect that he really does have supernatural powers.  That he made a deal with the devil, at a crossroads at midnight, to have his tricks made real in return for the souls of one hundred evil men.

That may or may not be true.  I want to leave it as an open question as to whether he actually has occult power, or if he's just the world's greatest illusionist*.  Mechanically he has powers, but narratively...it's uncertain.  I'd much prefer to not need to have mechanical powers on his sheet, since they reflect what I'm doing only very badly.  WGP would be perfect for this character.

Any other thoughts?  Someone have a PC at your table that just made you think: Wow, that would have been tough to pull off in another game?

*Yes, I have seen The Illusionist, and am going to see The Prestige.  I've also read Carter Beats the Devil, and recommend that novel most highly.

[Kat Miller]

Our friend Scrott brought his pet character concept to our game.  His Hero could manipulate Time something apparently difficult in other Supers games.  He was able to make his Time hero and had a great time playing him.

One of the things I love about the game is that Ive run Buffy with it.   You can have one pc with extreem powers and another pc playing a kind of goofball dweeb and there is no problem here.  There is no unballancing efect where the scoobies can't fight. 

I'm going to be running a Charmed scenario soon. 

-Kat Miller

[Michael S. Miller]

I think WGP would handle both your characters really well. What a WGP character needs is that certain ironic twist: "He can do stuff, but" is vital. Because it's the tension of the "but" that drives the story.

Excellent concepts, I look forward to reading about your play of these characters.