An explosion in the distance...you have mere moments to find a convenient place to set aside your persona and don a new identity to act fast in saving lives, stopping damage and thwarting evil. ( in that order kids, you know the old knight code of God, king and country, this is kinda like that)

Phone boothes are obsolete. Not everyone has poles to slide down like a fireman.

Unless you ice up, hulk out , or yell Shazam! You need to find a place to change into your crime fighting and life saving uniform.
That's right , uniform . Not a costume. That is something you wear on Halloween or in a play on stage.
A Hero's uniform is for one root purpose. Communication. The bright or distict color or shape is a presentation to any who behold it that you are there for a reason and you belong there.

Villians will recognize the uniform as a threat and focus violence on the hero, rather than civilians.

When you see flashing red and blue lights, don't you immediately recognize that you have to make way and let them do their jobs?
Police , fire fighters and Emt/paramedics all have uniforms to communicate to anyone, even if they don't speak or read the language, exactly who and what they are .

Heroes that refuse to put on the uniform are just creating more problems .
"Omg he saved me! "
"Who? What did they look like ?"
A guy in a grateful dead t shirt and a. "Fuck you" hat.
Real classy hero work bud.

So it's time to put it on . The last set of alt clothes you'll ever wear, unless you get different powers or turn evil.

So, they call these heroes 4 color. What 4 colors are they? There are only 3 primary colors. Is the. 4th color interchangeable? Some tint, tone or shade of a secondary color?
Yellow seems to be common, except for Green Lantern.
Blue is also common, except, again for GL. But then yellow and blue make green, so technically he has both in a secondary kind of way .
Black? Black is a shade, not a color. It's a modifier. I'll take it though. Seems many heroes wear black .
White is also a modifier. It is a tint. Pink is a tinted red.
Gray? You got it . Also a modifier born of both black and white called a tone.  These tones give feelings to a uniform.

Both Superman and Batman wear blue. Batman has a lot more tone and shade in his blue. "Dark and brooding " feel.
Superman's blue is more of a " look at me here I am" feel.

The whole purpose of this post ? To see if I could get a coherent first post that used a minimum of. 2500 characters.
Mission accomplished  .
I'll be back with more on this. But feel free on adding what you think should be a staple in a hero uniform.

Costume changes...

That's always been an issue for anyone that doesn't transform (Firestorm, original Thor, Pheonix, Atom, Green Lanterns or most magicians) or have super speed (any of the Flashes, Superman Family possibly Whizzer or Quicksilver).

Everyone else has to put on one boot at a time.

Finding a place for that can be seriously hard and in some cases compromising.

The heroes that can fly might have an advantage, but even that could prove compromising.

Most heroes seem to do a side jaunt from the conflict while every one else runs in terror of stares in disbelief... Hopefully.

Course the FF and Challengers of the unknown always wear their uniforms... So no problem for them.

In any case it is a pain to be a hero!

Fun fun!

Omniforms then? Lol. Work clothes?
Uni being "one" telling they area are all on the same side.  Opinions vary and I respect it.

Technically it is a uniform... Though the colors may vary... They all pretty much say... Look at me, NOW! And let me be your focus.

The typical uniform can be crazy colored or it can be much like what the FF or X-Men (once wore).

It typically designates the wearer as something to pay attention to.

Unfortunately the foes can wear similar gaudy costumes. So unless they are wearing a red white and blue costume... It is not always apparent who is the good guy and who is the bad one.

The Floop Brothers (or Black Guard in my campaign) wear uniforms, so do both CHESS and Intercrime.
Most lackey's wear them as well.

But for established teams they are indeed uniforms eventually.

But heroes and villains have to be established...

Guess it's just subjective to your mindset.

Masks.... Yes.

We don't need heroes or villains to know about these.

We do it all the time... Especially here in this unreal cyber world.

We present what we wish to personify... Hold back those points of Ourselves others might find in objective... Being unaccepted...

So we humans are VERY accustomed to masks and the perceptions we weave of who and what we allow others to see... Out of fear for self and possibly those we love or care about.

So we do have an indepth understanding of how a mask works.
So no more discussion need be had about how Clark Kent can hide himself from others... We do it all the time.

Off on a tangent point: As twisted as this may seem... Sociopaths and many messed up individuals walk amongst us and seem to be nothing more than the mask they wear... Until exposed. Then the horror of they're reality is shown and nearly all are surprised at the undeniable truth of what those sort of humans are.

So someone putting on a four colored uniform and helping others becomes less far fetched than one may believe... In part because we want to believe...

Example. In Spider Man 2, when Peter is unmasked... Though this may be reaching on my part, I think that those people on the train needed or wanted to believe enough in what Peter had done that they saved the hero that rescued them and might well preserve his secret... Because it was that secret that made it possible for that boy to save them...

It was the mask that helps make him bigger than life... Because we love our heroes.

It is so human to love those who protect us... If we could only un-jade ourselves and trust.

Then maybe there would be no need for masks of any sort... But until we can expose the good within ourselves (if it really is there)... Masks will be a likely and necessary evil... To combat it.

Bit preachy I know... But I do believe this to be true.

If wearing a mask was to inspire people to be better... I would be the first in line to wear one... Oh... And a cape!!

Gotta have the cape!

Okay... I do have the cape... *wink*

These boots were made for ...

How long will those nikes last on that speedster?
What if the hero is struck on the foot? Steel toed boots?
How well can you balance and stealth wearing cowboy boots?
Consider the source of your footwear. And the practicality of them.

Detective27 wrote on Dec 25^th, 2014 at 8:58pm:


Most of our heroes nowadays carry smart phones.  I'm glad you mentioned this, as I'm going to have an attack someday (perhaps one that hits on a defense, or an attack that 'goes wild') damage a player's smart phone.

I would imagine that - in real life - that would really piss somebody off!  Good opportunity to role-play that frustration! 

Fits like a ...Glove?

"Hand print identification please"
Uhh...
Whether your hero takes out bad guys with a microwave blast, wields a weapon or solves problems wither fists, the hand probably needs both protection and a way to make use of powers without hinderance.
How can the skin tight leather gauntlet withstand the energy blast emiting  from the hand?
Even UFC fighters complain about hand fatigue from constantly pushing against the resistance from the gloves. (It does allow for harder hits and less damage to the hand )

Can the hero use fine manipulation to deactivate a bomb wearing those cool, yet bulky padded hand wraps?

Remember kids , it's about role playing fun. Have your heroes explore solving these frustrations in game play. (But don't let it derail the campaign)

How do the gloves work in tandem with super powers?  Easy; protomatter!

I always played it like they could clip someone for half damage incurring no damage to self... But full damage reflected half back at themselves... Without special protection... Like impact resistant gloves.

D27:  T's Speedway had them... It was an invention of his so he could strike full force.

To allow a hero to strike full force makes them a hyper fast brick... At least make them pay for it.

Way I see it...

If Speed Demon shrikes Mountain Man... And fails to do damage beyond his basic hits of 40 (or a wall's structure points) he remains in place (ala his weight).... Ouch to their hands... Which were only designed to punch for their HTH... Not for the further die+whatever.

But I at least tried to meet them halfway... Ala super speed aura (not to be mistaken for invulnerability).

Your public persona.
What are your street clothes? How do you act when not wearing the mask?
Do you hesitate to help in fear that your secret identity be revealed? Do you help as an ordinary citizen ?

What if you are framed or accused of a crime, and your only alibi is your costumed alter ego?  Do you expose your secret to exonerate yourself?

Doors that open for a hero are closed to a "Norp" as I hear cops call them. (Norp stands for Normal ordinary regular person)

Ears that once listen to your Hero side of events are suddenly deaf to you.

Some heroes have a public identity. That avoids many problems but presents an entire chapter of new problems to handle .