Since I seem to be doing a big segment on Superhero's at the moment. Here are some Superhero Origins, that may help you out!
1. Cybernetics–replacing human limbs or organs (usually crippled/injured ones) with superior mechanical substitutes.
2. Genetic engineering–e.g. replacing genes with sequences from other sources can create interesting results, such as pigs that glow like jellyfish.
3. Powersuits, exoskeletons and/or giant death machines. We already have jet packs, military-grade lasers, and a five-pound rocket launcher.
3.1. Robotics. Domo arigato, human-sized death machine. (Robots don’t have to be androids, but usually are in fiction).
4. Any other technological hardware. For example, uses a variety of surgical implants for superpowers and use implanted recoil suppressors.
5. Chemical enhancement. Kinda like Captain America.
5.1. Chemical mutagens
6. Neurosurgery, especially if the powers involved have a mental component (e.g. anything mental, reflexes, pain suppression, etc).
7. Ridiculously tough training
8. Nanotechnology. Some choice excerpts from Wikipedia: “Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Nanotechnology ranges from developing new materials with dimensions on the nanoscale to investigating whether we can directly control matter on the atomic scale, as well as raising speculation about various doomsday scenarios.” Manipulating matter? Doomsday scenarios? Sign me up.
9. Mutations
10. The character is not human ALIENS!
10.1. Alien symbiotes
10.2. The character has been given superpowers by an alien or alien entity. The science fiction equivalent of a blessing.
11. Miracle operations
12. Stimulating the visual cortex could help people learn certain skills extremely quickly, like kung fu.
13. Radiation
14. Super-narcotics. These might be helpful if you need one-off superpowered antagonists and/or DEA subsidies. (“Kids, drugs will really fuck you up.)
Fantasy
1. The character’s gifted with magic
2. Supernatural artifacts
3. The character has been blessed, cursed or enchanted in some way, but is not a magic user.
4. The character belongs to some fantasy species (e.g. elf, orc, gelatinous cube, etc).
5. The character is (or was) human, but has been supernaturally modified in some way (e.g. a vampire, a werewolf, some sort of demonic transformation, etc).
6. Mythological origins
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Designing Your Character & Other Handy Things
RandomCharacters are hard to create. So consider this book a giant cheat sheet of all your writing needs. This book not only helps writers create their characters, but is a menagerie of descriptions for your stories: Smells. Sounds Instead of Said Describ...
