Superpowers 2.0

My old Superpowers (or Mutations) Weird & Wonderful Table is still one of my most popular posts (as can be seen on the sidebar), and there were a lot of cool ideas there, but it suffers from the problems of many of my older writings (and frankly many of my current ones still 🙃) of being overwritten, overly dry or "clinical", and not enough regard paid to gameability. I'd like to think I've improved on that front, so here's a new set of 50 superpowers (this is actually my third superpowers table if you include Cantrippers).

You may note some redundancy compared to previous lists (not including the superhero funnel posts since this is just an extension of that), but these are much more tightly written, and I tried to only use powers that would be gameable and threw in some that are less high-concept but still tickle my fancy for whatever reason.

These were originally posted on The OSR Pit and also The Cauldron, and most of them previously appeared in my last Superhero Funnel post. As much as I still really like the idea of a Superhero Funnel, I ultimately decided I wasn’t happy with the direction that my Superhero Funnel was going and realized I was going to have to scrap a lot of the work I had done, and so it sort of sapped my motivation for the time being, but I do hope to come back to it or something like it eventually. But for now, here's the list of 50 superpowers I created for it.

1. Bloodhound: Has the proportional strength, speed, and senses of a bloodhound.
2. Gray Goo: Nanomachines convert non-living matter into other things (must understand the creation’s properties), and create virtual reality spaces.
3. Vector: Unstoppable while moving in a straight line, vulnerable while pivoting.
4. Pinball: Superspeed and proportional superstrength, but must account for inertia and other laws of velocity and acceleration.
5. Snake: Floating orbs spontaneously appear around them. As they eat the orbs, they grow longer. Their sharp scales are dangerous even to themself.
6. 2D: Two-dimensional. Can flatten against surfaces, slip through crevices, and fold like origami.
7. Scanner Darkly: Superspy skills and gadgets, appearance and voice scrambling mask, separated brain hemispheres for multitasking, and deep-cover identity dissociation.
8. Mushroom: Grow giant-sized or shrink to the size of a mouse from eating mushrooms.
9. Flash Fry: Project hot grease and resistance to grease fires.
10. Cinnamon: Emanate novas of burning-hot capsaicin.
11. Mint: Emanate novas of ice-cold menthol.
12. Alkahest: Project a universal solvent.
13. Kintsugi: Injuries make them stronger with scars of gold.
14. Librarian: Paper Elementalist.
15. Technomancer: Override software and control devices as an extension of themself.
16. Herbalist: Gain superpowers relating to the properties of held plants.
17. Landfill: Telekinetic control of trash and waste.
18. Schrodinger: While unseen, can be anywhere and nowhere in the vicinity.
19. Laservision: Laser-grid visual overlay for perfect accuracy and precision.
20. Aye-Aye Aye: Long bony finger, like an aye-aye, with advanced supersenses.
21. Memetos: Living idea that can infect the collective unconscious over time, or more rapidly the consciousnesses of individuals in the vicinity.
22. Constructor: Rapidly construct cartoonish but functional devices and structures from minimal resources that break down shortly after use.
23. Cleric: Summon rays of cleansing, healing, but also searing light.
24. Parkour: Superhuman agility, dexterity, flexibility, reflexes, etc., that accelerate so long as they remain in motion, returning to athletic human levels if halted.
25. Icarus: Waxy melting wings, dripping with the heat of Greek Fire. Wings melt and regrow over the course of a turn.
26. POP: Compel any non-living object to spontaneously combust. The force of the explosion and predictability of the detonation time is proportional to the size of an object.
27. Flurry: Throw rapid and near-infinite consecutive strikes.
28. Wavecrash: “Teleportation” via the internet and strike from the other side with the force of a vehicle speeding down the information superhighway.
29. Babylon: Scramble or silence sounds, including language, and emit sonic force beams.
30. Triplets: Coordinate in perfect harmony; far greater than the sum of their parts.
31. Warhead: Fortified with an organic metal shell. Can explode without harming themself, but lose their metal shell for the remainder of the conflict.
32. Kafka: Proportional strengths and abilities of various arthropods, although their greatest power (and weakness) is their utterly horrifying appearance.
33. Combo Ace: Store three pre-programmed athletic or combat feats like video game controller macros, infinite use unless replaced (between conflicts).
34. Chopper: Human attack helicopter cyborg.
35. Wormhole: Create a temporary human-sized portal between two locations in the vicinity.
36. Snapshot: By taking a photo and holding it up to their face in the exact spot it was taken, they may retrieve small objects from the same place and in the same state as in the photo, even if the object is no longer in that place or state.
37. Rainmaker: Project a torrent of (fake) money strong enough to knock over an average human. By shooting into the air, those caught under raining money are overcome with excitement and susceptible to greedy impulses.
38. Rust: Make metal rapidly rust.
39. Roller: Superspeed from biological wheels under their feet.
40. Superposition: They can take up to three brief actions in a row, all occurring simultaneously and able to affect each other, before collapsing into the last action.
41. OP: Can’t affect or be affected by things they can’t see; lack of “object permanence”.
42. Firehose: Rapidly absorb any raw material (e.g. water, dirt) by pressing one hand into it and simultaneously project it as a powerful and steady stream from the other hand.
43. Nono the Non-Euclidean Clown: Wibble-wobble in spacetime-bending strides stretching and collapsing like a human slinky.
44. Redlight: Bathe the vicinity in red light and cancel out any one kind of action (e.g. moving, fighting, talking) for the round, once per conflict.
45. Plasma Platypus: Electrolocation, biofluorescence, venom “plasma” shock, and other superhuman abilities proportional to a platypus.
46. Tetraminos: Summon brick-like tetrominoes that can be rotated as they fall in a 10x20 block grid. Once started, they continue to summon for the duration of the conflict. At 20 rows they are incapacitated for the rest of the conflict, but a filled row disappears and lowers the others.
47. Tough Enough: Always and only as tough as the toughest other person in the vicinity.
48. Broadway: General superhuman abilities and a magic weapon only active while monologuing in song and dance. Infectiously spreads to others (without the benefits).
49. Nitro: Nitrogen-related powers including freezing liquid nitrogen, explosive TNT, superspeed of nitric oxide (NOS), and biological effects of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) which they can use to self-empower or release as gas to affect others.
50. Captain Canine: Uplifted experimental super-dog; a “one dog army”.