New super I'm using in an ongoing play by post game.
Name: Raymond Marks, aka Ray-D8 (pronounced "radiate")
Origin: Raymond Marks left high school in his junior year over the objections of his widowed father. The day after he he turned17 he volunteered for duty in the US Army, getting through boot camp without issue and then joining the controversial new all-volunteer Anti-Superbeing Military Response program. He'd just completed ASMR training when several units were mobilized in response to [campaign supervillain of your choice] attack on a site containing tactical nuclear weapons. The ensuing battle was a disaster for the ASMR units, who suffered over 80% casualties before [campaign superhero team of choice] intervened and drove off the villain. The entirety of Ray's squad were fatalities - except him.
Instead, he was altered by exposure to a blend of exotic energies, changing his metabolism so the he became a living nuclear reactor, constantly generating a variety of radiation that he initially struggled to contain. Diplomatic and legal considerations keep most supers out of active military service, and for once the Army was happy to turn a former soldier over to [campaign civilian superhero aid agency] for counseling and training. The entire ASMR program had been a debacle in hindsight and Ray was a reminder of it they were quick to sweep under the rug as best they could.
Subject D8-7666 "Marks, Raymond" quickly mastered his new abilities, although there were lingering concerns from counselors about lingering trauma from his sole military action. Despite this and his young age and limited education, he was actively recruited for a role as a public superhero. Part of this process included issuing him a piece of advanced (possibly alien) technology that had been held for study - his "force gauntlet" requiring a user capable of generating compatible energies to power it, and having been largely useless hitherto D8-7666 coming along.
After half a year of evaluation there was a push to "graduate" him to active duty with [dubious government agency of choice]. Some of his more sympathetic counselors managed to divert him to [young superhero academy of choice] instead, citing the fact that he'd never completed his high school education as well as reiterating concerns about his psych profile. This would have happened quite recently - he crammed a lot of experience into last two and half years or so, and at 19 years old he feels awkward about resuming his education again even in such an unusual environment.
Description: Lean but fit young man. His haircut and the way he carries himself suggest a military background, while his glowing eyes are a dead giveaway that he's empowered in some way. His "costume" is just a set of unmarked dark urban-camo fatigues with the sleeves removed. Wears a bulky armored gauntlet on his left arm that reaches up to his elbow, a pair of chunky jet boots and an obvious commo headset with mike and earbuds. In civilian guise he ditches the obvious technological gear and adds black sneakers and a pair of very dark sunglasses which do a poor job of concealing his internal radiance even at the best of times.
Gender: Male Age: 19 Height: 5'11" Eye: Glowing Cyan Blue (used to be brown)
Hair: Black High-and-Tight Skin: Heavily Tanned Caucasian (from within) Build: Trim
Background: Military Power Source: Radiation Archetype: Marksman
Personality: Stalwart Health (G/Y/R): 28/21/10
Powers: Force Gauntlet d10, Nuclear d10, Absorption d8, Awareness d8, Gadgets d6
Qualities: Ranged Combat d10, Alertness d8, Ex-Army ASMR Infantryman d8, Leadership d8
Status: Green (28-22) - d8 / Yellow (21-11) - d8 / Red (10-1) - d8
Abilities:
Green
Principle of Debt: Survivor's Guilt (A) Overcome in a situation related to repaying a debt. Use your Max die. You and your allies each gain a Hero Point. Minor twist: How does your survivor's guilt impact you in this moment? Major twist: Who has come to call in your debt? RP: You owe your squad mates more than you can ever repay. You know the military would be quick to offer you assistance, but it will always come with strings attached.
Principle of Great Power (A) Overcome in a situation using one of your highest rated powers. Use your Max die. You and your allies gain each gain a Hero Point. Minor twist: How do you restrain yourself from unleashing your full power? Major twist: What major damage do you inflict in the process of saving the day? RP: Your powers are so strong they frighten even you, but you work hard to control them. You can wield those powers to intimidate others.
Quick Assessment (A) Boost using Leadership. Create one bonus using your Max die and another using your Mid die.
Radioactive Barrage (A) Attack multiple targets using Nuclear. Use your Min die. If you roll doubles, also Attack one ally using your Mid die.
Variable Kinetic Blast (A) Attack using Force Gauntlet. This Attack ignores all penalties and Defend effects, and no reactions can be taken against it.
Yellow
Atomic Flash (A) Attack one target using Nuclear. Hinder that target using your Max die.
Careful Control (R) After rolling your dice during your turn, you may take one irreducible damage to reroll your entire dice pool.
Combat Coordination (A) Attack using Leadership. Boost another hero using your Max die.
Precision Shot (A) Attack using Ranged Combat. Use your Max die. If you roll doubles, use your Max + Min dice instead.
Red
Atomic Metabolism (I) If you would take damage from Nuclear, ignore that damage and instead Recover that much Health. Use the value of that damage to Boost yourself.
Nuclear Torrent (A) Attack up to three targets using Nuclear, one of which must be you. Assign your Max, Mid, and Min dice as you choose among those targets.
Reactor Heart Restart (I) Once per issue, if you would go to zero Health, roll your Absorption + Alertness + Red status die. Your Health becomes that number.
Out
Radioactive Aura (A) Defend an ally by rolling your single Nuclear die.
Tactics
Open with Quick Assessment, applying bonuses to whoever needs them most - often yourself, if you plan on performing Principled Overcomes or sweeping minions with Radioactive Barrage on round two. If you can avoid having to sweep until you're in Yellow it's safer for your allies thanks to Careful Control allowing a reroll on doubles. Variable Kinetic Blast is your go-to against any target demonstrating a strong reaction, or when buried in penalties.
In Yellow, Atomic Flash is best for debuffing enemies with multi-target abilities. Precision Shot deals the most raw damage and you could fish for a bit more with your dice-fixing reaction, although that's pretty unreliable. Combat Coordination is good for aiding a key ally while delivering some damage, although you might want to go back to your Green booster ability if you really want bonuses badly.
In Red, the insanely versatile combination of Atomic Metabolism and Nuclear Torrent gives you simultaneous damage output, self-healing and self-Boosting. Be polite and at least declare who you're targeting before rolling, this is already great without being greedy about it. If you manage to get taken down before you can act in Red, or just don't manage to heal enough when you do, you have one "get out of Out free" card per session with Reactor Heart Restart, which should leave you around 14-15 Health, but note that your dice-fixing can't be used here since you aren't rolling on your turn. Between that and the Red combo you can reasonably expect to pogo between Red and Yellow several times a session.
Principle of Great Power is often fairly easy to apply, but twists may wind up reducing your best powers' die sizes or worse. Principle of Debt: Survivor's Guilt has been slightly altered from the rulebook version to reflect that what you owe can't be paid back with mere money, although you might still bankrupt yourself helping vets and their survivors while trying. Your Overcome game is not great in general, so try to save some bonuses to improve your odds of avoiding a twist - or better yet, generate bonuses for other heroes who can handle the job better than you.
Powers & Qualities
Force Gauntlet is a signature weapon, recovered from a supervillain lair and possibly of alien origin. It lacks an integral power source of its own and currently runs off its user's own internal atomic energy. The device is a dual-mode kinetic energy projector most easily described as a tractor/pressor beam. It normally delivers damage by rapidly alternating between the two modes, subjecting anything it focuses on to massive stress from the brutal shaking. It can also be used to push or pull a target by exclusively using one mode or the other, although this is usually much less damaging. In theory using a low-power, wide-focus setting and high mode cycling rate could allow it to perform more subtle functions akin to telekinetic affects, but that would be tricky and any twists generated while attempting it are likely to cause unintended damage.
Nuclear stems from internal atomic reactions, the result of poorly understood metabolic changes following exposure to exotic energy sources. The process is largely involuntary (much like breathing) but can be ramped up or tamped down with concentration. He can emit beams and bursts of radiation at will, usually from his eyes or right hand - and grappling with him is a good way to get scorched. Channeling output into the Force Gauntlet helps control accidental radiation overflow, and being deprived of it for long periods of time becomes increasingly risky.
Absorption is an outgrowth of his radioactive metabolism, allowing him to selectively absorb energy and transform it to raw nuclear energy to fuel himself. It doesn't have much range, but can be useful for de-powering or damaging technology or energy-based lifeforms. It's the key ability for his Red zone resurrection ability and potentially handy for many types of Overcomes or other basic actions.
Awareness is a suite of "atomic vision" powers, which let him easily detect and identify energy sources, see in darkness and smoke, and even see through solid matter, although the last is limited by both the density and thickness of the material. Lead, for example, can't be seen through at all. He can voluntarily suppress his extra senses but only while conscious. Has a lead-lined sleeping mask to keep from waking up at night since he can see through his own eyelids and darkness means nothing to him.
Gadgets are a handful of modestly effective technological tools he's been issued to make him a more effective hero. The most impressive of these are his jet boots, which can manage air speeds about as fast as an athletic man can sprint but aren't very agile and don't handle severe weather at all well. They also have a low altitude ceiling, topping out around a few hundred feet. He also has a commo rig that lets him listen in on police and emergency response channels and allows encrypted radio communication with allies - and he has enough earbuds to hand them out to his team if they need them. The encryption isn't very good though, and they're easily jammed - although he can personally see most jamming signals with Awareness. A good smart phone might be more useful, honestly. He's also got cuff tape and some really basic first aid supplies tucked away in his fatigue pants, at least when he's working. Note that while he knows how to use this stuff he's no engineer and can't repair any major breakdowns or damage.
Ranged Combat and Alertness are a combination of army training and his new super-senses. He's a pretty good shooter even by cape standards, and his time in the ASMR (Anti-Superbeing Military Response) program serves him well against supervillainous threats.
Leadership and his Ex-Army ASMR Infantryman also stem from his time in the army, with some added training after gaining his powers. He was only a private when his squad was wiped out, but he had completed the specialized anti-supers training program and was on track for promotion. Between the two he's not only a good, fast tactical thinker, he knows how to communicate what he's seen with his team efficiently. Just completing boot camp teaches you a lot of basic life skills when you're only seventeen, but it's fair to say he's kind of callow at this point. His high school education and lack of life experience leaves him on default d4 dice on a lot of things.
Trivia
His "Ray-D8" supranym is a play on "radiate" inspired by both his case ID during training (Subject D8-7666) and the fact that he was a gamer kid in high school - something his family disapproved of.
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