The PowerTeam

Draft Version 0.2
Based on the PowerForce Campaign Setting by Marcelo Sarsur and Development Team
Copyright © 2000 by Mauno Joukamaa
The Powergame is Copyright © 1994-1997 by Mikko Kauppinen

 

A Universe of Adventures

The members of the new PowerTeam (a.k.a. PowerTeens) are Melissa, Henry, Louis, Louisa and Jonathan Watkins, a group of orphan siblings who have no idea whatsoever who their parents were or what happened to them. They were all raised in the same orphan home by the home's head-mistress, who was the closest living person to them and was mutually loved by all of the siblings.

They became exposed to Superium radiation in the Second Dawn of Superium, when they were lost and caught in a thunder-storm during a camping trip. Their powers manifested themselves first during the Krethorian occupation when they had to witness the brutal execution of the head-mistress of their orphan home, who was a key member of local resistance. Using their powers to avenge the death of their foster mother, they managed to steal a small Krethorian scout-ship and joined the super-powered resistance in fight against the invaders.

After the liberation of Earth the Watkins siblings decided to become full-time superheroes, becoming the new PowerTeam after Quantum had suggested it to them. They re-christened the captured scout-ship as PowerCraft and use it now as their main mean of transportation and also as headquarters of sorts.

Despite being heroes and teen-idols, the Watkins siblings would like to live off-duty as normal teenagers. Most of them try to finish their high school between their adventures, taking classes in various subjects under assumed names. They make a modest living from various promotional and publicity appearances and have yet to settle down, travelling from town to town and city to city after their work.

Neither the group itself or the media haven't been able to come up with satisfactory super-hero names for the young heroes so they use Greek letters as code names, the twins Lou and Isa sharing the letter Gamma with suffixes A (from Greek word andros, meaning male) and G (from Greek word gyneikos, meaning female respectively) for difference.

PowerTeam: Member Roster

Alpha (Melissa "Mel" Watkins)

Attributes: Agility 2, Strength 1, Health 1, Charisma 1, Wits 1+1, Psyche 1+1, Protection 1, Speed 1
Superpowers: Attraction/Repulsion 5, Flight 3, Amplified Agility
Good Things, Bad Things and Vulnerabilities: Increased Wits, Increased Psyche, Intuition, Direction Sense, Orphan
Skills: Fast-Food Restaurant Clerk, Leadership, High School Graduate, Shooting and Maintaining Small Firearms

Date of Birth: January 10, 1981
Height: 1,75 m.
Weight: 70 kg
Hair color: Dark brown
Eyes: Green-gray
Blood type: O-

Mel is the natural leader of the group, being eldest of the siblings and used to taking care of and supervising her younger sister and brothers. She has a little bit motherly attitude towards the others, always making sure that everyone is okay and nobody has any hard feelings towards others. But she is also a true team-leader, coordinating and planning the action of the group during battle and keeping the team spirit high.

Mel's superpower allows her to attract to or repel from her body objects like a magnet attracts or repels other electro-magnetically charged objects. Attracting or repelling large objects, however, usually results in herself moving while the object stays in place; whenever she is trying to attract or repel something non-living, she must make a Strength roll against the Size PL of her target to remain where she is. When she is using her power against a living target, the roll is the PL of her Power against the Strength of the target. Mel is also able to fly by controlled repulsion of ground from her body.

Mel has developed with Jack a special tactic they use against super-strong opponents. First, Mel uses the repulsion aspect of her power against the charging opponent, usually at least stopping the villain or making him or her go slowly backwards. Then, Jack uses his power to negate the strength of the opponent, which usually results in the villain being thrown backwards with great speed.

 

Beta (Henry "Hank" Watkins)

Attributes: Agility 1 (2), Strength 1, Health 1, Charisma 1, Wits 1, Psyche 1, Protection 1 (3), Speed 1
Superpowers: Flexibility 4, Bouncing 3, Amplified Protection, Amplified Agility
Good Things, Bad Things and Vulnerabilities: Natural Talent: Mechanics, Special Knowledge: Machines, Photographic Memory, Night Vision, Natural Talent: Acrobatics, Orphan, Legal Status: Minor, Transformer: Must transform to use powers
Skills: Mechanics, Gymnastics, Acrobatics, High School Student

Date of Birth: March 21, 1982
Height: 1,80 m.
Weight: 74 kg
Hair color: Brown
Eyes: Green-gray
Blood type: O-

Hank is the loner of the group who likes more to fiddle with all kinds of machines and vehicles, especially PowerCraft, than to hang around with his siblings. This situation is caused by his withdrawn personality but also somewhat by the group structure of PowerTeam: Lou and Isa form a natural pair and Mel and Jack are another pair, which makes him a sort of "odd member" of the group.

By concentrating for one action Hank is able to make his body soft and malleable so that he can bend and bounce as if he were made of rubber. In this form he is also more resistant to damage because he can "give in" to blows and hits thus reducing their effect. His favorite tactic is to bounce against opponents, throwing them off-balance, but he has yet to develop a "banking shot" with which he could bounce from one opponent to another.

 

Gamma A (Louis "Lou" Watkins)

Attributes: Agility 1+1, Strength 1, Health 1+1, Charisma 1, Wits 1, Psyche 1, Protection 1, Speed 1+1
Superpowers: Decrease Own Density 4, Flight 3, Density-Altering Touch 5 (limitation, see below)
Good Things, Bad Things and Vulnerabilities: Increased Agility, Increased Health, Increased Speed, Limited Psychic Connection with Twin Sister, Natural Talent: Driving and Piloting, Orphan, Legal Status: Minor, Limitation: Must touch sister to use Density-Altering Touch
Skills: Athletics, Driving Motorcycle, Prowling, High School Student

Date of Birth: Date of Birth: June 12, 1983
Height: 1,73 m.
Weight: 66 kg
Hair color: Light brown
Eyes: Green-gray
Blood type: AB-

Lou is a free-going and fun-loving individual who loves all kinds of fast and dangerous sports like surfing, skateboarding, sky-diving and the like, but also engages in more serious sports. Besides being an avid athlete, Lou also likes to ride all kinds of fast machines, be they cars, motorcycles, airplanes or space shuttles and so acts as the pilot of the PowerCraft, sometimes scaring his siblings nearly to death with his wild stunts.

Lou is able to decrease density of his body. He can also decrease the density of some light-weight objects on his body, such as undergarments, but any heavier objects remain solid. While he is in de-solidified form, he can walk through most solid objects (roll Power's PL against the Protection PL of the object) and physical attacks are ineffective against him; energy attacks, however, are not affected. Trying to become solid inside persons or objects is very painful to him, so that he must make a Health roll against the Protection of the object or person inside which he is trying to materialize. Even then the solidification causes as much damage to himself as the target.

Lou shares with her twin sister a psychic link that makes them aware of all strong emotions that the other is experiencing as well as general direction where the other one currently is. If they can see each other, they are able to communicate between themselves as if they were speaking by using small and usually unnoticeable facial, hand and feet gestures.

 

Gamma G (Louisa "Isa" Watkins)

Attributes: Agility 1, Strength 1+1, Health 1+1, Charisma 1, Wits 1, Psyche 1, Protection 1+1 (3), Speed 1
Superpowers: Increase Own Density 4, Amplified Protection 3, Density-Altering Touch 5 (limitation, see below)
Good Things, Bad Things and Vulnerabilities: Increased Strength, Increased Health, Increased Protection, High Pain Threshold, Limited Psychic Connection with Twin Brother, Orphan, Legal Status: Minor, Limitation: Must touch brother to use Density-Altering Touch
Skills: Martial Artist, Wilderness Survival, Mountaineering, High School Student

Date of Birth: June 12, 1983
Height: 1,73 m.
Weight: 69 kg
Hair color: Light brown
Eyes: Green-gray
Blood type: AB-

Isa is more serious than her twin brother and usually tries to keep an eye on him so that he won't get himself or the rest of the group into trouble. Her interests are also more serene than her brother's and include camping, mountaineering and hiking, various disciplines that train the body and mind like meditation and yoga plus all kinds of martial arts.

Whereas Lou can make himself less dense, Isa is able to grow her density so that her body becomes harder than iron. This gives her increased protection as well as makes her punches' and kicks' damage equal to the PL of her power. Isa's favorite tactic with Lou is that Lou aggravates the opponent to attack him while he is in de-solidified form which gives Isa an opportunity to make a surprise attack with full strength on the opponent while the opponent's blows pass harmlessly through Lou.

When Lou and Isa are touching each other they are able to manipulate other objects' and persons' density by touching them. They can make their target denser or thinner up to the PL rank of their shared power but the change lasts only as long as they are touching their target and each other. They can affect only one target at a time.

 

Delta (Jonathan "Little-Jack" Watkins)

Attributes: Agility 1, Strength 1, Health 1, Charisma 1+1, Wits 2, Psyche 3, Protection 1, Speed 1
Superpowers: Negate Superpowers 5, Amplified Psyche, Amplified Wits
Good Things, Bad Things and Vulnerabilities: Increased Charisma, Good Luck, Sixth Sense, Natural Talent: Computers, Orphan, Legal Status: Minor
Skills: Computers, Electronics, High School Student

Date of Birth: May 23, 1984
Height: 1,68 m.
Weight: 63 kg
Hair color: Black
Eyes: Green-gray
Blood type: AB-

Jack, or Little-Jack, is youngest of the siblings and thus has had always to struggle somewhat to be noticed, which has made him a keen-minded, talkative and a bit nosy teen-ager. With his quick wits and sixth sense he is usually two steps ahead rest of the group and he likes to take the limelight whenever there is an audience of some kind.

If Jack concentrates on an opponent he can negate, with a successful roll against the PL of the power or attribute, that opponent's one superpower or superhuman attribute that is Superium-derived. Jack must be aware of the existence of the power he is negating, so he can't negate powers that he doesn't know of. If Jack's concentration is broken, the target regains the use of the negated power.

PowerCraft

Attributes: Size 4, Speed 6, Handling 3, Protection 3
Abilities: Sensors 4, Cloaking Shields 5, Life Support 5
Other features: VTOL capability, complete living quarters and communications equipment with military-class de-scrambler capable of receiving, transmitting and monitoring traffic on all wavelengths, including laser communication

PowerCraft is a sleek and relatively small ship that was used by the Krethorians for reconnaissance and intelligence purposes before and during the occupation. It is incapable of attaining FTL speeds but very highly maneuverable. It has passenger and accommodation spaces for five persons, but room can be made for two more by bargaining from comfort. The cockpit can be jettisoned in case of emergency; it is airtight, resistant to very high pressure as well as buoyant and has many passenger safety features such as crash nets and airbags.

A Final Word on the PowerForce

The PowerForce Universe is open for expansion. After the planet-shattering events of the last months under Krethorian domination, the world is ready for new super-heroes, alien races, expansion and adventure seeds. New teams such as the Meta-Human League are not developed, and more people to help me fleshing out the descriptions of the new super-humans in the planet are needed. I have developed several villains and stand-alone heroes besides the new PowerForce, as for descriptions of the main cosmic powers in the PowerForce Universe and some alien races. But it is up to all of us to create a whole new Universe over this draft.

I would like to hear from you about new ideas for super-human teams (the Meta-Human League, the New Red Army and maybe more international super-teams would be fit for development), new Alien races, more villains, the major independent super-heroes - whatever you wish to collaborate. And if you don't like anything on this draft, we can discuss and change it. After all, I would love to see an official Powergame setting produced by this Mailing List with the help of the fans, playtesters and Mikko himself (if he finds the time to do it).

Let's create a world! And if you want to e-mail me personally to get more information on NPCs and give opinions about this draft, send e-mails to msarsur@hotmail.com.