Marvel Reboot Design Notes - Cosmic Entities

Meeting of the Cosmic Entities

     Okay, I know that so far I haven't really done any write-ups for cosmic entities - far far, the only two are Uatu the Watcher and Death, two characters on opposite ends of the cosmic spectrum.
     Marvel's cosmic entity hierarchy is in many ways a complex web and in others a complete mess, as the pic to the right should indicate (and not every entity is present), with entities introduced almost at random during the '60s through early '90s.  The only constant appears to be the visuals based on those originally drawn by Jack "King" Kirby in the '60s.  Back then we were introduced to Galactus, the Watchers, and the Stranger as "corporeal" cosmic entities, along with Eternity and the Living Tribunal an ethereal ones.  The '70s gave us the In-Betweener, Death, the Deathurge, Eon, and the Celestials.  The '80s introduced Master Order and Lord Chaosas ethereal entities who were "revealed" (read: retconned) to being responsible for the In-Betweener; the late '80s also gave us the oft-forgotten Numinus (who looked like Whoopi Goldberg cosplaying as Galactus).  The '90s introduced Infinity, the temporal counterpart to Eternity, and replaced Eon with her child Epoch (though I believe that was later reversed, going by the pic above).  And then there are things like the Phoenix Force that have undergone major retcons over the years, an ever-increasing number of Cosmic Cubes, and the Beyonder (the prototype for the ever-increasing number of "things will never be the same" company-wide crossovers).
     And don't get me started on the evolution of the Infinity Gems.

     So, as you can see, I had a lot to work with, and not all of it makes sense or plays well together.

     The main thing I needed to do was figure out who to keep and who to toss.  But to do that, I needed to make a full list and define their areas of authority, not to mention how they interact with each other.

Marvel's Cosmic Entities
     As far as I know, Marvel's cosmic entities are:

• the Living Tribunal, the ultimate multiversal cosmic judge, and for my purposes the one responsible (from an in-universe perspective) for the Reboot.
• Eternity, the embodiment of the physical nature of the universe.
• Infinity, the embodiment of the temporal nature of the universe.
• Death, embodiment of the end of all things.
• Eon, champion of life, selector/mentor to the chosen Protector of the Universe.
• Master Order, embodiment of the laws of physics.
• Lord Chaos, embodiment of random chance.
• Master Hate, embodiment of "negative" emotions.
• Mistress Love, embodiment of "positive" emotions.
• In-Betweener, embodiment of the balance between Order and Chaos, and between Love and Hate, among other opposites.
• Deathurge, embodiment of the desire to give up and commit suicide.
• Numinus, embodiment of the "never give up" attitude and invoker of a sense of wonder.
• the Phoenix Force, embodiment of passion and the cycle of destruction and renewal.
• Galactus, the world devourer who feeds on the life forces of planets, acts as a balance between Eternity and Death.
• the Celestials, an ancient race of giants who experiment on a species' genetics and then return thousands of years later to judge the results; will also tend to judge any other entity below them that catches their attention.
• the Watchers, mostly-silent observers of events, significant or otherwise.
• the Stranger, an enigmatic giant who may be an agent of the Celestials, given that he engages in many scientific experiments for the sake of science.
• Cosmic Cubes, along with their 'evolved' forms the Shaper of Worlds, Kubik, Kosmos, and others; the Cubes are 'infant' cosmic entities that respond to the thoughts and desires of those holding them, able to reshape reality on a planetary scale.  The evolved forms are free-willed.
• Infinity Gems; not 'entities' in the strictest sense, but items of cosmic power that can make their owners major players on the cosmic scale.

     Of these, it is unlikely that I will be using the evolved Cosmic Cubes, Deathurge, or Numinus in the Reboot at the present time, though their existence in the greater scheme of things isn't unlikely; of the remaining entities only Galactus is actively slated for a Year Two or Year Three appearance.  The existence of the Phoenix Force will be hinted at but not seen.  I'm still not sure whether I want to use the Celestials; I've already said that I will not be using the Eternals and Deviants, but that doesn't discount the possibility of the Celestials.  Most of the others will be seen or at least hinted to exist.

Power Modifiers: Power Cosmic
     Going by the multi-tier breakdown in GURPS Powers for the Cosmic power modifier, which in the Reboot I'm calling "Power Cosmic^*" to differentiate it from the other uses of the Cosmic modifer, the percentages end up as such:
* I sometimes find myself calling it the "Power Kirby", thanks to my alt.comics.lnh and rec.arts.comics.creative days of the mid '90s

     Tier 1 Power Cosmic (+50%): The Living Tribunal, the Quesada.
     Tier 2 Power Cosmic (+40%): Eternity, Infinity, Death, the Phoenix Force.
     Tier 3 Power Cosmic (+30%): Eon, Master Order, Lord Chaos, Master Hate, Mistress Love, In-Betweener.
     Tier 4 Power Cosmic (+20%): Cosmic Cubes, Galactus, Celestials.
     Tier 5 Power Cosmic (+10%): Zeus, Odin, other heads of deific pantheons, Galactus's Heralds (most notably Silver Surfer), the Watcher, the Stranger.

     Of these, I'll likely only give stats to the lower two tiers, as they are corporeal and more easily defined.  I placed the Phoenix Force as a multiversal Tier 2 since I'm playing with the idea that the Phoenix Force of one timeline is the same as all the others, hence her protectiveness of Rachel, her sole surviving daughter.

The Quesada?
      You caught that, did you? :)
      As part of the Reboot background, I created a malevolent cosmic entity that threatened the Marvel Multiverse, which I named after Joe Quesada, the former Editor-in-Chief and current Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Comics, who is responsible for such things as "One More Day" (Spider-Man selling his marriage and happiness to Mephisto to save Aunt May's life even when she was ready to die).  Quesada was one of the most hated men by the fandom ten years ago when I started the Reboot and is still held in contempt today.  I thought it was a nice "take that!" at the man, naming an entity that will appear mostly "off-camera" in exposition as causing such chaos and problems that the Living Tribunal was forced to remove most of the related timelines to prevent the destruction of the multiverse after him.

The Infinity Gems
     So where are the Infinity Gems in the above Power Cosmic schema?  As of right now - and please note that this is not set in stone - the Gems individually are Tier 5 Power Cosmic power objects, though when two or three are used together it bumps them up to Tier 4; all six together - ala the Infinity Gauntlet - I'm not sure if they'd be Tier 3 or Tier 2; I do not want to put them at Tier 1, as they are universal cosmic power objects rather than multiversal ones.

     Speaking of Thanos, I need to figure out if the Mad Titanian is himself Tier 5 or Tier 4, though at present I'm leaning towards Tier 5.

Other Notes
     Acute readers will note that I left off some known characters of a more mystical beat that could possibly interact with cosmic entities on their own level: Cytorrak, Aggamoto, Gaea, Chthon, Set, Mephisto, etc.  I'll be touching upon the more mystical aspects of the Marvel Reboot in a few weeks as I hammer it out more.

Marvel Reboot Designer's Notes: Spider-Man

     As many of the regular followers of this blog know, I'm working on a GURPS Marvel Comics Reboot project on the side, which has been going on for the past 10 years.  (I started in '07; has it really been that long?)  Today, I begin work on a series of Designer's Notes for various characters in the Reboot, starting with our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!

Our Friendly Neighborhood
Spider-Man

     The biggest complaint I receive emails about for Spidey's Reboot is "how dare I make Pete a college student!  He's supposed to be a high school teenager!"
    First, with the exception of the Ultimate Marvel imprint and various other media Pete hasn't been in high school in the comics since the mid-1960s!  At the time I read his titles - during the height of the comics craze from the mid-'80s through mid-'90s, when he had four concurrent titles (Amazing Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man, and Spider-Man) - Pete was a college graduate student pursuing his Masters of Science degree in Chemistry at Empire State University (Marvel's fictitious university on the south end of Manhattan) and married to Mary Jane, who was expecting their first child (a daughter they named May after Pete's Aunt May).  Gwen had died in '75 (an action nearly universally held as the start of the Bronze Age of Comics).
     It's only the Ultimate Spider-Man titles and the movies put out post Spider-Man 3 that have him still in high school.
     In my case, I cannot relate to a high school aged Spider-Man.  It's been far too long since I was in high school (late '80s), and as I said the Spider-Man I know and love was an adult.  I also realized that making Pete a graduate student would alienate the fans who see him as a perpetual teenager.  So I split the difference: I made him a college freshman, just out of high school, and new to his powers.

Defining Spider-Man's Powers

     Speaking of his powers, everyone knows Spider-Man's origins: bit by a radioactive spider, he gains the proportionate strength, speed, and agility of a spider.  There's just one problem with that situation, which please permit me to paraphrase Futurama:

RADIATION DOES NOT WORK LIKE THAT!

     Ahem, sorry.

     There have been different attempts to explain Spidey's powers in the comics and movies that recognize this aspect, from the bite transmitting a genetic retrovirus that rewrote his genetic code to the bite conveying unto him the post of "champion of the spider totem".  For the Reboot, I've decided to take a page out of the Sam Raimi/Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movie trilogy and make the bite inject him with a genetic retrovirus which augmented his DNA.

     Spidey's classic power set is essentially as follows: Superhuman strength in the "10 ton lift" range, superhuman agility, the ability to stick to most surfaces the way most insects and spiders seem to be able to, and a "spider-sense" which enables him to sense danger just before it happens.  One lesser-known power is the ability to see bullets in flight, which is generally considered part of his spider-sense.  He is also generally more durable than most, given the beatings he often takes.  The Sam Raimi/Tobey Maguire movie trilogy also gave us the idea that his webbing was innate; most other depictions have him using mechanical web-shooters using a chemical formula he invented. I have chosen in the Reboot to go with the Raimi/Maguire explanation for the time being.
     To begin with, let's review what I have as his powers:

     Attributes: ST 22/112 [20*]; DX 12/18 [40†]; HT 12 [20]..
     Secondary Characteristics: Dmg 2d/4d (12d/14d); BL 97 lbs. (2,509 lbs/1.25 tons); HP 22 [0]; FP 20 [24]; Basic Speed 6.00/8.00 [0]; Basic Move 6/8 [0]; Brachiation Move 4 [0]; Dodge 9/15.

     Advantages: Binding (Webbing) 20 (Sticky, +20%; Super, -10%) [44]; Clinging (Passive Biological, -5%) [19]; Danger Sense (ESP, -10%) [14]; Enhanced Dodge 3 (ESP, -10%) [41]; Enhanced Time Sense (ESP, -10%) [41]; Extra DX +6 (Super, -10%) [108]; Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction  /10; Limited: Crushing Attacks, -40%; Super, -10%) [75]; Perfect Balance (Super, -10%) [14]; Super Jump 2 (Super, -10%) [18]; Super ST +10/+100 (Super, -10%) [360].

     Perks: Climbing Line [1]; Swinging [1].

     * Includes +10/+100 from Super ST.
     † Includes +6 from Extra DX.

     Allow me to go into detail on a few items:
     First, his superhuman agility.  You'll note that I have his DX split, 12/18, resulting in his Basic Speed, Basic Move, and Dodge also being split (6.00/8.00, 6/8, and 9/15 respectively).  His Extra DX +6 has a power modifier (Super, -10%) on it, which means that in rare cases where his powers are negated he essentially still has an above-average DX score (12).  In the Reboot, I've decided to cap DX, IQ, and HT at 15 unless those traits are deemed to be "superhuman".  This makes Spidey's typical DX 18 effectively superhuman. Assisting in his superhuman agility are Perfect Balance and Enhanced Dodge 3, the latter of which enables him to most blows.
     For his superhuman strength, Pete has a wiry physique; he doesn't look muscled, but there's also almost no body fat.  With his powers, he's able to lift a 10-ton car over his head with effort using both arms.  Reverse-engineering his Basic Lift from the 2-handed lift (BLx8), we have SQRT(20,000/8*5), which gives us ST 111.8, which I rounded to 112.  Then I looked at the closest Super ST level: +10/+100.  This gave me a base ST of 12 before factoring in Super ST.  He's also said to be able to leap great distances thanks to his strength; this is handled by giving him Super Jump.  Not on the sheet though certainly plausible is giving him levels of Super Throw giving him the ability to throw items farther than he normally should be able to.
     Spidey is quite durable, able to withstand blows from superhumanly strong foes, though he doesn't come through those fights unscathed.  I've forgone the use of DR and instead went with Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction), which I've limited to reducing the power of Crushing blows (such as most superhumanly strong punches) only.  This has the side-effect that blades, bullets, lasers, and other such effects affect him normally.
     His webbing.  I used Binding for the main effect, which is typically holding his enemies in place.  If you want to give him mechanical/chemical web shooters, I'd replace the "Super, -10%" with "Mechanical, -10%", "Electronic, -30%" (depending on whether you rule they rely on advanced electronics or are purely mechanical) or a set of Gadget limitations (including "Breakable: SM -7, -5%", "Breakable: DR 2 or less, -20%", and "Can Be Stolen/Forcibly Removed, -10%").  The two Perks - Climbing Line and Swinging - are also part of the web shooters, and work as-is regardless of whether the webbing is innate or technological in nature.  He has also been known to craft items with his webbing, but since the Reboot is a Year One reset he hasn't yet messed with that as much.  If adding those in, I'd go with using Gizmos with an Accessibility: Webbing Creations Only limitation (which I'd set as a -20% limitation, reducing Gizmos from 5 per level to 4 per level).  Another way would be to use Create Webbing and Control Webbing, with a Link on both, though I don't recommend it.
     Finally, his "spider-sense".  At first glance, Danger Sense is perfect for it.  On top of that, the ability to perceive bullets in flight is part of Enhanced Time Sense (which includes the effects of Combat Reflexes).  His Enhanced Dodge is also part of this spider-sense.

     One other thing I got bitched at a lot about was his "low" Dodge score.  Seems folks expect Spider-Man to be Dodge 18+ right from the start.  I figured people were looking at Spider-Man in the comics with over 15 in-universe years experience who has put earned XP into additional DX and Enhanced Dodge, not a Spider-Man who has had his powers for less than a year and is still learning all that he can do with them.


Next week, I'll be giving designer's notes on either Daredevil or Hank Pym/Ant-Man.  I'm also open to suggestions for others in the Reboot I've posted who folks want explanations on.

GURPS Supers - How to Brick

     In superhero setting parlance, a "brick" is a character who is designed to take a beating, often being described as "invulnerable", "nigh-invulnerable", or "able to withstand blows from" various sources.

The Man of Steel
The prototype "flying brick"

     One of the first actual bricks in the comics was Superman in Action Comics #1, described as "nothing short of a bursting shell could penetrate his skin".  This has waxed and waned over time; at the height of the silliness of the Silver Age, Superman could contain a nuclear explosion by literally sitting on it(!), while at the start of the Iron Age of Comics (sometimes called the Dark Age or Dork Age), Superman was killed by a creature designed specifically for the purpose of killing him (he got better...).  Generally, though, Superman is described as being nearly invulnerable to anything the bad guys can dish out, except when kryptonite, magic, and "red sun" radiation are involved, or (lately) when he's low on energy and blocked from recharging in sun.

     Other bricks in the comics are Ben Grimm/the Thing of The Fantastic Four fame, various battlesuit wearers (the Iron Monger suit developed by Obadiah Stane in the Iron Man comics), the Hulk, Thor, the Juggernaut, Giant Man, his DC/SuperFriends counterpart Apache Chief, and, though many people don't think of him this way, Aquaman.  All these characters are able to take a beating far beyond what their more human-durability cohorts can.

     MMO players may see a correlation between the MMO's concept of a "tank" and the superhero concept of a "brick".  Both are built to take a beating; the difference is that the brick is rarely designed to "grab and hold aggro" through a threat generation mechanic.  A brick will often be attacked first or hardest, but this is a general narrative idea, not a mechanical one.

     Bricks often but not always have superhuman strength as well.  This superhuman strength assists in enabling them to dish out damage while they take it.  Two bricks pounding on each other have been shown to demolish entire buildings!

Making a Brick

     The first thing to decide when making a brick is "how much damage should I be able to absorb?"  GURPS has two traits that are essential to making a brick: Damage Resistance (DR) and Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction) (IT:DR).  Other possible Injury Tolerance traits - such as Homogeneous and Unbreakable Bones - can be used to make a brick, but they aren't essential to the concept.

It's clobbering time!

     Damage Resistance is the first trait to come to mind for making a brick.  Ben Grimm (pictured left) has Flexible and Cannot Wear Armor on his DR (supplemented with a Non-Protective Clothing Perk so he can wear pants), while Superman (above) has Tough Skin and No Signature on his DR (No Signature means his DR does not look like armor; and his is sometimes described as a Force Field, enabling him to take a bullet to the eye without blinking).

      How much DR is needed?  That depends on what you expect to run into.  Most police-issue pistols do 2d+2 to 3d damage, submachine guns and carbines can average 4d, assault rifles average 5d, and hunting and police sniper rifles can hit 7d.  Some anti-material rifles and heavy machine guns (such as the Barrett Light-50) can do 12d or 13d damage!  2d+2 damage is an average 9 damage, max 14;  3d is an average 11 damage, max 18; 4d is an average 14 damage, max 24; 5d is an average 18 damage, max 30; 6d is an average 21 damage, max 36; 7d is an average 25 damage, max 42; 12d is an average 42 damage, max 72.  If you have a setting where weapons routinely have armor divisors (the bad guys carry armor-piercing rounds, lasers, or blasters), it is often cheaper to put levels of Hardened on your DR than it is to multiply your DR by the standard armor divisor.

     So now we have our DR set against conventional firearms.  But what about those nasty 32d punches your fellow bricks and some super-strong scrappers can dish out (average 112 damage, max 192)?  If you're on a budget and can't afford that much DR, that's where IT:DR comes into play.

     Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction) is applied after DR is subtracted from the damage and wounding modifiers from Injury Tolerance (Homogeneous), hit locations, and the damage type (commonly cutting, impaling, or the various piercing types) are taken into account.  IT:DR is a damage divisor, starting at "divide by 2" as the first level and going up from there in a 2-3-5-7-10-15-20-etc. manner.  This means that IT:DR /10 divides the injury taken from the attack by 10.  Damage after IT:DR is always rounded up, so that even if the damage is reduced to 0.01, it'll always round up to 1 damage taken.  This may seem counter-intuitive at first, but this can be used to explain how some brick type characters have bruises or are shown bleeding from the mouth or nose after taking a very solid hit.

     Let's consider a character with DR 45 and IT:DR /50.  He's attacked by a character who is doing 30d cutting damage, doing an average 105 damage.  That 105 damage is reduced by DR to 60 injury, then multiplied by 1.5 due to being cutting damage to 90.  After that, the damage taken is divided by 50, to 1.8 damage, rounded up to 2 injury taken.

Bricks and Superhuman Strength

     Many bricks are shown to have superhuman strength; in fact, superhuman strength and effective invulnerability go hand in hand.in the comics and many movies (think about how often the Hulk is actually injured).  Most bricks start their ST at 20 (due to mass alone, if following some form of the square-cube law for mass and size) and Super ST adds to that; a typical brick in GURPS has Super ST +12/+200 or better, though some get up to Super ST +15/+700.  If there's no point limit, some bricks can get up to ST +20/+5000 (think about how strong the Hulk or the Silver Age Superman can get, and you may realize that may actually not be enough strength for some of their feats!).  A D-scale or M-scale brick can be incredibly strong, and be just as invulnerable as their DR and IT:DR can also get in the thousands or even millions.

     Of course, there's healing to consider.  Many bricks - Superman, Hulk, and Thor, to name some notable ones - heal a lot faster from injury.  This is best represented by using Regeneration (Fast: 1 HP/minute) or faster; Hulk himself may top out at Regeneration (Extreme: 10 HP/second).  And since a superhuman brick will have 20-40 HP, the Regeneration is multiplied by 1/10 the HP value; 20 HP makes Regeneration (Regular) renew 2 HP/minute, not 1; 40 HP is 4 HP/minute.  Regeneration (Extreme) for HP 40 is 40 HP/sec, meaning that the damage taken is removed almost immediately.
     Many bricks also have levels of Super Throw, enabling several of them to use telephone poles as javelins ("Let me get this straight, Mr. Grimm: you threw a what through where to hit who?")  Bricks excel at melee, but their ranged ability is either really short-ranged (Superman's heat vision and cold breath) or throwing random objects to get their flying opponents on the ground.  Some (I'm looking at you, Hulk!) also have Super Jump, but in essence they're ground-based fighters.

     A brick's ST, Super ST, HP, DR, IT:DR, and Regeneration levels are limited by the point value of the game.  Because a brick's traits are not cheap and need to be taken in large levels, I tend to permit bricks to apply 50% more points than others in the game; for a high-powered (Justice League, Fantastic Four, original Avengers) 1000 point game, this means the brick is built on 1500 points; for a typical 500 point game (New Teen Titans, Young Justice, X-Men), the brick is built on 750 points, and for a street-level (Batman, Green Arrow) 250 point game, the brick is built on 375 points.  Of course, the lower levels limit just how effective the brick can be, but 375 points can produce a character that can shrug off police handguns with ease, while the 1500 point brick can withstand tank shells without flinching.

     A final thought: a brick is a simple yet relatively expensive superhero build.  They can be fun, but be aware of both their strengths and limitations.  Not every flying brick is Superman, and not every ground-based brick is the Hulk.  But when things need to be beaten up while taking very little damage yourself... it's clobbering time!

Superhero Game Power Modifiers - What, When, and Why?

Anyone running a superhero game - or any game with power modifiers for that matter - will want to look at various power modifiers and ask themselves: Who gets what power modifier, when do they come into play, and why are power modifiers a thing for this?

The "why" is easy to explain: Power modifiers are a thing because they give a set of conditions where powers are able to be turned off, either as part of a setting deal with power dampening shackles, Kryptonite cages, power thieves (ala DC's Parasite and Marvel's Rogue), or a granting authority saying, "you have failed me for the last time."  It's a given for the genre that a character's powers will be turned off at least once.

What power modifiers are in play?  This is the big question that needs to be decided when designing any setting that has powers, not just a superhero universe.

* Are powers innate?  Then Biological (-10%; GURPS Powers, p. 26), Mutant (-10%; GURPS Supers, p. 34), Psionic (-10%; Powers, p. 28), Savant (-10%; Supers, p. 34), and Super (-10%; Powers, p. 29) are viable, along with a Passive Biological (-5%) and Mutant Biology (-0%), the latter two detailed below.
* Are "powers" really different forms of technology?  Then Electronic (-30%), Mechanical (-10%), Nanotech (-15%), Passive Nanotech (-10%), and Superscience (-10%), all from Supers, p. 34, along with Chemical (-10%), detailed below, are likely to be in play.
* Does magic exist?  Then Magical (-10%; Powers, p. 27) should be made available.
* Does the power come from spiritual enlightenment? Chi (-10%; Powers, p. 26) is appropriate.
* Are there entities that can grant and take away powers?  Divine (-10%; Powers, p. 26) Demonic (-10%; detailed below), and Spirit (-10% or -25%; Powers, p. 28) can fill those roles.

(Moral (-10%; Powers, p. 27) and Nature (-10%; Powers, p. 28) are normally not viable in a superhero universe.)

Of course, each universe has its own set of rules.  In my case, I tend to look towards Marvel and DC for inspirations, and both of those have a gamut of power modifiers.

Examples

Biological (-10%): This is applied for characters who expend some sort of energy, commonly Fatigue Points but could use an Energy Reserve, to power innate abilities.  For example, the Flash/Barry Allen played by John Wesley Shipp in 1990-'91's The Flash television series, who had to constantly replenish his body's store of energy after using his powers.

Chemical (-10%): These characters have to take a chemical (or occasionally alchemical) concoction, usually in the form of a pill, drink, or sometimes injection, to either maintain or sometimes trigger the powers.  DC's Hourman (who gained incredible strength, agility, durability, and reflexes for an hour by taking a pill) and Bane (when he was using the drug Venom) are probably the two better-known if still somewhat obscure characters using it.  In a sci-fi game, characters along the lines of a Rifts Juicer would qualify.

Chi (-10%): The character has learned - usually through meditation techniques taught in Eastern mysticism, but occasionally through other kinds of martial arts - to channel his body's natural energies to perform incredible feats.  While the flashier aspects are common to those of manga/anime (Naruto, Dragonball Z, etc.) and fighting vid-games (like Street Fighter), a number of western comics characters have this (the Question, Iron Fist, and arguably Batman).  It's sometimes hard to say with "non-powered" characters who qualifies and who does not; a good rule of thumb is whether the character loses his abilities if he fails to follow a self-imposed Disadvantage such as a Vow or Code of Honor.

Divine (-10%) and Demonic (-10%): Any character who is empowered by a deity, major demon, or cosmic entity (and the line between those is often quite fuzzy) that is able to remove or suppress the powers at will is probably going to have one of these two power modifiers.  The main difference is whether the entity will remove the powers in a life-threatening situation; use Divine for the more benevolent entities that won't and Demonic for the less benevolent ones who will.

Electronic (-30%): This power modifier is common to cyborg type characters, as well as battlesuit type characters who don't purchase their battlesuits as Alternate Forms.

Elemental (-10%): The only power modifier that is permitted to "stack" with others, most notably with Mutant, Psionic, and Super.  Builds of Powers that use both Super and Elemental as sources tend to roll the two into a single power modifier, such as Cryokinetic, Electrokinetic, Pyrokinetic, etc.  Air, Cold/Ice, Darkness/Darkforce (the latter being shorthand for "solid darkness"), Earth, Electricity/Lightning, Heat/Fire, Light, Sonic/Vibration, and Water are the most common "elements", though Radiation has its place in the occasional build.  (I'm currently writing a series of Pyramid articles that create a number of elemental Powers for supers to use; I might go ahead and pitch it as a book instead, should I get enough articles under my belt.)

Magical (-10%): Characters with this power modifier aren't necessarily mages.  Most characters with magical powers are actually unable to cast spells in the traditional manner (spellcasters in superhero settings commonly use Ritual Path Magic, Realm Magic, Sorcery, or straight Magic-magic); instead, their powers were granted to them by magical means.  A number of characters in comics have magical artifacts granting powers, which would be the abilities with Gadget modifiers as well as the power modifier.

Mechanical (-10%): Some characters, particularly proto-supers in pulp-era and steampunk fiction, have powers with this power modifier.  These abilities are commonly hydraulic or pneumatic in nature, though some can be intricate clockwork.  Very few characters nowadays have this, as even the mechanical aspects of a number of tech-based characters have electronics controlling the mechanisms.

Mutant (-10%): A variation (sometimes a subset) of Super, characters with this power modifier are born with genetic variations which permit them to gain powers, usually (but not always) during puberty.

Mutant Biology (-0%): A variation of Mutant, above, but used when there is no way to suppress or turn off the power because the power is in reality a physical mutation, such as wings, a tail able to be used as a third arm, or feet with toes arranged to be used as hands.

Nanotech (-15%): The premise for this is that the powers are granted by nanotechnology. In superhero type settings, this is commonly the result of alien or highly experimental technology.

Passive Biological (-5%): Similar to the Biological power modifier, but these are for passive rather than active abilities, such as DR and Injury Tolerance, or for abilities that already cost fatigue or some other form of energy to use, such as Super ST or Warp.

Psionic (-10%): Often seen alongside or as a component of Super or Mutant, this is generally described as "powers of the mind": telepathy, telekinesis, illusions, and ESP are the main versions seen in the typical source material.

Spirit (-10% or -25%): Usually seen in more mystic aspects of a superhero universe, commonly in powers related to voodoo or Amerindian traditions.

Super (-10%): This is typically the go-to power modifier for super-powers.  If the powers don't fit any of the other categories, it's probably some form of Super.

Superscience (-10%): This is commonly used by characters who have equipment rather than innate powers that follow the general rules of Super, above, and are described as being "sufficiently advance technology".  Probably the best known example is Green Lantern (and the various other "lantern" corps).

New Power Modifiers

Chemical (-10%): These abilities are dependent upon some form of chemical/alchemical potion being applied to the body on a regular basis, whether through ingestion, inhalation, skin application, or injection.  This potion is the equivalent of Maintenance (One Person; Weekly) (-5%); the potion takes at least an hour to create. In addition, the effects of the potion can be counteracted through other pharmaceutical means, same as with the Passive Biological power modifier, below (-5%).

Demonic (-10%): These abilities are granted by supernatural entities that are at best uncaring or more often actively malevolent (a "demon").  The entity requires the character follow a -10 point self-imposed disadvantage of the demon's choosing, which may not be one of the 'heroic' disads.  Should the character violate the demon's code, the demon will remove the ability.  Demons are notorious for removing the ability immediately upon violation, even (especially!) in life-threatening situations (-0%), and usually requires only a minor quest or minor harm to restore (-0%).

Mutant Biology (-0%): These abilities are physical mutations or adaptations, and cannot be negated through any means save surgical removal.  It counts as a power modifier as the abilities may benefit from any Power Talents that would conceivably include them.

Passive Biological (-5%): Like Biological (Powers, p. 26), these abilities are part of the character's physiology, but may be negated through the application of drugs geared specifically for such purpose (-5%).  As these abilities are passive in nature, no FP expenditure is necessary.

I'll probably touch upon the cosmic scale of things, including the use of a Cosmic (+10% to +50%) power modifier in such a universe, in a later post.