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Heroes Unlimited provides a plethora of options for characters

However

Sometimes you either come up with a design that is too reminiscent of a existing character or
You literally just make that existing marvel or DC hero

So the following questions must be asked:

1. What existing character have you literally input into a heroes unlimited game

2. Do you play characters that are derived from an existing hero

A) which character did you adapt properties from

B) how did you apply them to your character

3. Does it make an adventure less fun to play something that everyone already knows or is it more fun to play something everyone is familiar with

4. Have you played any famous comic villains

5. Have you ever been annoyed that someone blatantly ripped off a famous character

Let's make sure that we avoid any potential conversions.

I used to, a long, long time ago.

I abhor doing it now. It is too easy to simply *not* do it. If i find that I am doing it, I step back from a character and give myself 30 seconds to do better.

If I can't It gets deleted.

Truth be told, there are no new idea's under the sun, and it is awfully hard to resist the tropes. But the Third rule of Gm'g has a caveat that says "don't get caught"

That said. I won't stop a player from doing it. most notable currently is "the silver spider" Ahem.

Thankfully he has diverged over time to not resemble his (obvious) inspiration. He has inspired eye rolls from other players, and I in turn have thrown out dome obvious references to his origins (His rgues Gallery are variously animal themed for instance, and He is dating twins at the moment called "Jane" and "Mary" both descendants of Mr Holmes' sidekick.

But apart from that I try to have people strike out in their own direction as much as possible. Stretching roleplaying muscles as it were

Batts

SmilingJack wrote:Heroes Unlimited provides a plethora of options for characters

However

Sometimes you either come up with a design that is too reminiscent of a existing character or
You literally just make that existing marvel or DC hero

So the following questions must be asked:

1. What existing character have you literally input into a heroes unlimited game

2. Do you play characters that are derived from an existing hero

A) which character did you adapt properties from

B) how did you apply them to your character

3. Does it make an adventure less fun to play something that everyone already knows or is it more fun to play something everyone is familiar with

4. Have you played any famous comic villains

5. Have you ever been annoyed that someone blatantly ripped off a famous character

Well considering that now comic had beocme so mainstream that is impossible to not be influenced. Also Is worht nothing that if you look a some sites(like powerlisting wikia and Tvtropes) one realize how is really HARD to come out with something that does not resemble even a little to something already existing(from ancinte myth till now...)
that being said....
1) In order: humanoid pikachu(girl, ex actress of kid tv show, mutated and force din a superpowered gladiatorial tournament), Guyver in all possible sauce(now wiht Splicer and Power unlimited 2 is easier making him), Good doomsday(i'm probably the only one fan of the biker short wearing krytonian puncher bone guy..ehhhh), evil Lum(from urusei Yatsura), The avengers and x-men with origins all scrambled up(Thos is sicentist who use asuper tech belt and hammer, Cap is a genetically engineered mutant, IronMan is the champion of the greek god Ephestus..well you got the idea, Gatsu from Berserk(Just because), the bis bis niece of usagi yojimbo, Freakazoid's Candle...well you know...
2) Now this is hard, while fluff text, and sotry is easy, stricly talking apart guyver(really Splicer second name could Guyver vs. Terminator the RPG), and Jedi(before the prequels they were suprising conversion friendly), converting is very complicated. You cna make something that come close, but won't be exactly like in the fiction, mostly because charcters have author induced invulnerability - read they will win or lose depending on the story need and author's plans. This explain why Batman essentially know eveyr possible skill, Cap can't be hit by bullet not even if he stand still without shield, or everyone in a Garth Ennis comic that does not talk like an inbred idiot is a complete idiot while the less understandable you are the more badass you are. Jokes apart is impossible to convert most characters, unless you want to convert them at year zero, still it will never look/sound allright.
A and B had already been covered in point 1
3) it depend. Sometimes it is sometimes it is not. It depend more how the mood is and how well one roleplay it. Generally go better doing a midl impression and making it your own take on the character, rather than blatant
"copy of."
4) Doctor doom, everyone , I assume, has at least tried it. Also Cthulu(well its cultist at least...no RPG is safe from those guys, they always ALWAYS pop up.
5) no not much

I have used comic characters as a basis and in some cases even tell my fellow gamers that I used comic character XXXX as the idea (in some cases it is a combination of 2 or more characters).

When I have the character do something that the GM says Comic Character XXXX would not do that, I take great pleasure in reminding them that while I used Comic Character XXXX as the basis, I am not that character, nor am I the writer of that book.