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Superpower ideas?

yeah, i was also looking for less popular superpowers, but it was difficult, then i came accros a random superpower generator tool that generate superpowers, i just clicked on generate button and it gives me some superpower ideas… that tool suggest me “Memory Manipulation” superpower , i its really cool looking for me.
i have generated some more superpowers, you may like:

  • Power Erasure
  • Electric Sound Generation
  • Time Manipulation
  • Ice Manipulation
  • Gravity Distortion
  • Energy Absorption
  • Kinetic Vision
  • Teleportation
actually i am new here so its my first post, i am trying to add value to this community…
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
Welcome to the site, James.


I can pop up a lot of extraneous superpowers, but I am sure even the obscure ones have probably been grabbed by Marvel and DC by now. And if you have a random generator anyway....

I bet a power to command a swarm of stink bugs has not been taken.

What is the story you are wanting to make?
 
Thanks for the welcome! You're right about Marvel a
Welcome to the site, James.


I can pop up a lot of extraneous superpowers, but I am sure even the obscure ones have probably been grabbed by Marvel and DC by now. And if you have a random generator anyway....

I bet a power to command a swarm of stink bugs has not been taken.

What is the story you are wanting to make?

nd DC snatching up all the good stuff. But commanding stink bugs? Now that's a hilarious twist! Honestly, I'm just here for the ride—I don't even have a story yet! But who knows, maybe the stink bugs will inspire something wild. 😃
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
I do like the memory manipulation. That would cause a lot of cognitive dissonance, and image having to explain why you changed someones memories. That would be a huge trust killer. I could see a lot of ways to make good stage business with that.
 
If you're looking for random powers, I think Brandon Sanderson did something like this in the Alcatraz series, where the characters have some random power, like always being late to things or falling over.

I think part of his idea came from X-men, where the mutants always have these awesome powers. However, if you have someone gain a power to control the weather, or read your mind, then you would likewise also have a lot of people with very weird and useless powers. Or maybe 'useless', since in Alcatraz, Sanderson uses some of these silly powers to great effect. After all, always being late is terrible, except if it means that you're late to bullets flying at you and thus they miss.
 
If you're looking for random powers, I think Brandon Sanderson did something like this in the Alcatraz series, where the characters have some random power, like always being late to things or falling over.

I think part of his idea came from X-men, where the mutants always have these awesome powers. However, if you have someone gain a power to control the weather, or read your mind, then you would likewise also have a lot of people with very weird and useless powers. Or maybe 'useless', since in Alcatraz, Sanderson uses some of these silly powers to great effect. After all, always being late is terrible, except if it means that you're late to bullets flying at you and thus they miss.
thank you so much for your suggestions bro 😎
 
I do like the memory manipulation. That would cause a lot of cognitive dissonance, and image having to explain why you changed someones memories. That would be a huge trust killer. I could see a lot of ways to make good stage business with that.
Absolutely! Memory manipulation brings a whole new level of drama and ethical complexity to the table. It's like navigating through a maze of trust and deception with each altered memory
 

Gurkhal

Auror
I personally wouldn't worry to much about being original, unique or whatever about magical powers of abilities. Picking one that works in a story with all the other elements and executing this story well is what will count in the end.

Good luck though, I hope you find a good way to implement memory manipulation in the story.
 
I personally wouldn't worry to much about being original, unique or whatever about magical powers of abilities. Picking one that works in a story with all the other elements and executing this story well is what will count in the end.

Good luck though, I hope you find a good way to implement memory manipulation in the story.
thank you so much for your kind words.. yeah i will try my best to implement memory manipulation in my story 😉
 
What do people think are powers that can easily be “scary” if utilised a certain way.

I have an idea for a villainous character who has similarish powers to Sue Storm around force field manipulation, ie telekinesis, invisibility and inaudibility, force field creation, energy constructs. I thought there’s some ways to make those powers nightmarish, eg creating microscopic force fields and then rapidly expanding them to create explosions, or vice versa. Also creating tiny force fields in people’s arteries or brain and causing mysterious deaths.
 

hunfrith

Acolyte
I agree, I think it would be hard to find a superpower which has never been used. One cool way to twist things though could be having different mechanisms by which the superpower acts, as I think someone mentioned above.
Some ideas that come to mind:
  • I was reading something a while ago where someone had the ability to change the nature of things by adding or subtracting letters, for example they could change a pear into a pea by removing the r
  • Teleportation, but it is done by accessing a person's (or object's) coordinates, either longitude and latitude or some other way, and changing it. So it can be an interesting issue where the person needs to memorize a bunch of coordinates in order to use the power safely.
  • Gravity powers that you get from seeing the space-time continuum, you can ripple the sheet that is the fabric of space
  • Seeing the future, but it comes in the form of being super lucky at guessing. You can't change the future by simply making a prediction, but if you are genuinely trying to guess what will happen you are always right
  • If you write a contract and a person signs it they will have to complete it even if the contract is impossible. If you convince someone to sign a contract that they will obtain you a stone from the moon, they will eventually be teleported to the moon, and teleported back once they grab a rock.
  • Computers like you. You can't code or anything but they want to do their best to make you happy.
  • Some power based on forgetting things, like if you forget someone's name they lose their name or something
  • Progressive shapechanging - you can polymorph into different things but what you can change into is based on the last thing you changed into. Maybe the first letter of the thing you change into has to be the last letter of the last thing you changed into; if you change into a glass then you have to change into something that starts with s next, like a snake, and then an elephant, and then a tarp, then a parrot.....
 
What do people think are powers that can easily be “scary” if utilised a certain way.
All powers can be scary if you get creative enough. It depends a lot more on the character and what they're willing to do then it does on the power.

A great example is in one of the X-men films (I have no idea what it's called and am too lazy to look it up). It starts with Magneto who is locked up in a space without any metal. A guard mistakenly brings in a small pin of metal. Magneto then uses this fraction to first kill the guard and then escape. How? Since he can move it around and manipulate it, he can first turn the metal into a bullet and kill the guard and then use it to break the lock. Then he can smooth it out and with his powers make it thin but strong enough to turn it into a bridge of sorts.

You can do this with everything. If you have a character who can manipulate water, then you could have them transform someone's spit inside their mouth into a spike that drives into their skull and kills them. Or with teleportation, you could just teleport someone 200m into the air and drop them to their death. Or you could rob pretty much any place you want or kill by simply appearing next to them, stabbing them and disappearing again.

The thing is, most writers don't take these powers to their extremes, because it would ruin all the fun you can have along the way. Or they give some pesky moral code to the characters. But the truth is, any power could be scary if you're creative enough.
 

jhmcmullen

Dreamer
I have lately been infatuated with the idea of being able to control blood flow. No good against organisms without closed circulatory systems (can’t do anything against bugs, but can make earthworms explode), but the ability to make people faint or feel like all the blood is rushing to their heads (uh, because it is), or kill a limb through oxygen starvation…. No, it’s not a power your superhero would use in a fight, but it’s subtle.
 

JBCrowson

Inkling
My water mages can do something like that if they're well practiced. They can also make water change phase so they can boil the blood of an opponent or fill their lungs with water to drown them.
 

Letterdust

Dreamer
What about super powers that are completely pointless, but single you out as different from everyone else and therefore subject you to all the difficulties and trials of being an outsider in your own community?

Like being able to grow a mini tree on the end of your nose? Or being able to turn oranges into butterflies? Or being able to eat a never ending amount of sand? Or making dust motes dance like ballroom dancers at a concert hall?!
 

hiteshprajapati

New Member
Hey everyone! Loving all the creative superpower ideas being shared here! If anyone's looking for some extra inspiration, I recommend checking out this random power generator. It’s a fun tool that can spark some new ideas, especially if you’re feeling stuck or want to explore powers you haven’t thought of yet. Sometimes the most unexpected abilities can be the most interesting to write about! Happy brainstorming! 😊
 

jhmcmullen

Dreamer
I write a series of super-powered-individual stories that are explicitly based on a roleplaying game system (in that case, ICONS Super Roleplaying System Assembled Edition), but I gather a number of superhero roleplaying games.

If you're totally bereft of ideas, they're great. But, as someone else pointed out, in the comics (and movies, TV shows, etc) the hero's powers complement his or her personality. Given superhero stories span eighty years, sometimes that fit is ironic (The Fastest Man Alive is always late in his personal life) but sometimes the fit is more illuminating of character. Batman doesn't have powers, so the stories are either puzzle stories (okay, most of all comic stories from the fifties to about 1970 are puzzle stories) or stories of determination. (The period where he reliably had a Bat-Deus-Ex-Machina was actually quite brief.) Superman has more powers than anyone but Martian Manhunter, so his stories tend to be more about character and influence, rather than having a power solve things.

Okay, one story I wrote (don't confuse "writing" with "publishing" :) ) was about someone invulnerable, but that was a metaphor for walls in relationships. She could go anywhere because nothing would hurt her, but she couldn't/wouldn't let people touch her.

But the lists in places like ICONS or the random power generators tend to be catalogues, right: they are descriptive of what has gone before, rather than coming up with new powers. (The game systems Champions or Mutants and Masterminds offer more control but I get lost in the superhero physics rather than the story.)

Again, a lot has gone before, so that's pretty comprehensive, but it's not everything. What do you need?
If you just need a buttload of powered people, generators are great!
 

jhmcmullen

Dreamer
Though of course, I never answered the question.
  • Teleportation. I find teleportation very cool, in any of its forms (what constitutes an object you can teleport? Does it matter about mass or volume? What about kinetic energy?)
  • Telepathy. I once noodled with the idea that everyone's brain was different, so you had to attune to someone before you could read the mind. Rather than being fast, it was very slow...faster if you could talk to them or guide their thoughts through conversation, but still slow. Once you had someone decoded...once you had the Rosetta Stone for someone....you could essentially control everything about them.
  • I thought about being able to control someone's bodily processes. Sure, you could heal them or stop their hearts, but you could also give them uncontrollable bowel movements, which would end fights pretty darn quick.
 
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