Superpowers logistics question — body duplication / multiplication

You could go the route of the Wild Cards series: every single power, regardless of its manifestation, is psychic in nature. It's limited by the user's own mind, usually in a way that can't be changed.

For example, there was a guy named Popinjay who could teleport anything, but only if he could point his finger at it and make a "finger guns" gesture, including closing thumb to finger. A villain cut off his thumbs at one point, and he couldn't use his powers, even though he knew it was 100% a mental block.

Another was a genius "inventor," except that none of his creations could be mass produced, because they all depended on his subconcious belief in his own genius, and that ability had its limits. When he lost his powers (long story), his creations slowly started falling apart, including a sentient android he'd built.

"I can duplicate myself and whatever I'm carrying, but there's some mental limit that prevents me from doing..." fill in the blank for whatever you need.
 
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You could go the route of the Wild Cards series: every single power, regardless of its manifestation, is psychic in nature. It's limited by the user's own mind, usually in a way that can't be changed.

For example, there was a guy named Popinjay who could teleport anything, but only if he could point his finger at it and make a "finger guns" gesture, including closing thumb to finger. A villain cut off his thumbs at one point, and he couldn't use his powers, even though he knew it was 100% a mental block.

Another was a genius "inventor," except that none of his creations could be mass produced, because they all depended on his subconcious belief in his own genius, and that ability had its limits. When he lost his powers (long story), his creations slowly started falling apart, including a sentient android he'd built.

"I can duplicate myself and whatever I'm carrying, but there's some mental limit that prevents me from doing..." fill in the blank for whatever you need.
Hey ... never thought of this angle.

Mind over matter. I like it, since it does jive nicely with how Fade and Jumper work, as well as my OC.

And thanks to the previous replies as well; it's given me food for thought.



ONE MORE (SUB)-IDEA – want your opinion(s):

Imagine for a moment, the duplication allows for a permanent copy (including leaving a corpse, if slain).

The character does at least one split, and one particular copy undergoes hormonal transition and adheres to a non-SRS single gender preferred lifestyle. The original, or another dupe, who doesn't, gets R63'ed attracted to the gender-swapped clone, and bangs her.

Hot, weird, or DUDE_WTF_WTF_WTF ?
 
Hey ... never thought of this angle.

Mind over matter. I like it, since it does jive nicely with how Fade and Jumper work, as well as my OC.

And thanks to the previous replies as well; it's given me food for thought.



ONE MORE (SUB)-IDEA – want your opinion(s):

Imagine for a moment, the duplication allows for a permanent copy (including leaving a corpse, if slain).

The character does at least one split, and one particular copy undergoes hormonal transition and adheres to a non-SRS single gender preferred lifestyle. The original, or another dupe, who doesn't, gets R63'ed attracted to the gender-swapped clone, and bangs her.

Hot, weird, or DUDE_WTF_WTF_WTF ?
I have a character in my universe (that I'll eventually get back to writing) called The Human Race. She's a speedster, but her powers work by converting the potential energy of other versions of herself from other universes into kinetic energy; as a sort of side effect, each of the other Human Races (something of a misnomer, since there's a Planet of the Apes one, a dinosaur one, etc.) across the multiverse can also ask for help from the others to jump into their own universe to help out. When they show up, you have several slower speedsters (because they're all needing to draw on the same finite resource) running alongside each other, hence the Human Race. I'm sure at least a few of them have hooked up as a result.
 
Now that you got my imagination going, this probably isn’t what you’re looking for, but the concept might be some food for thought:

A scientist is working with superheroes to experiment with teleportation because their superhuman abilities can help protect them during the process. They come up with a way to scan and transmit the subject but in the process they produce a copy in a quantum data processor. The scientist later finds that additional copies identical to what was originally scanned can be made by applying 1.21 gigawatts 😉 to the teleportation receiver unit, but the duplication only exist as long as the power is available.

This phenomena is used by the ‘Justice League’ or whoever as-needed to increase manpower or for other temporary necessities including things like producing ‘Leprechaun gold” when needed.

There could be all sorts of conflicts with the clone coming to terms with being a temporary copy, being made to realize they have no new memories past the date of the original scan… Also, having to allocate and maintain that much energy can have all sorts of challenges and consequences. 🤔
 
.(5) Other means ???

If anyone has other means or comments for duplication, I'd like to hear it. This may be my magnum opus, if I decide to commit to it.

Thanks
One that might fit your bill is solidified energy, green lantern style? The dupes are psychokinetic constructs through which the original has clairvoyant powers so he can use their POV for his senses?

These aren’t autonomous creations - there’s still just the one controller - but it does explain why he has clothes but not super-gear?
 
I have a character in my universe (that I'll eventually get back to writing) called The Human Race. She's a speedster, but her powers work by converting the potential energy of other versions of herself from other universes into kinetic energy; as a sort of side effect, each of the other Human Races (something of a misnomer, since there's a Planet of the Apes one, a dinosaur one, etc.) across the multiverse can also ask for help from the others to jump into their own universe to help out. When they show up, you have several slower speedsters (because they're all needing to draw on the same finite resource) running alongside each other, hence the Human Race. I'm sure at least a few of them have hooked up as a result.

I touched on that briefly, as perma-death is rather permanent in my works. I ain't no Marvel, where the same heroes are killed on every page and resurrected on the next.

One that might fit your bill is solidified energy, green lantern style? The dupes are psychokinetic constructs through which the original has clairvoyant powers so he can use their POV for his senses?

These aren’t autonomous creations - there’s still just the one controller - but it does explain why he has clothes but not super-gear?

Green Lantern, as potent as he is, is a B or even C-tier character. Not bad for support, but always terrible to write for.

Also, I did have an idea for a Mandarin like character, but the rings were much, much more potent. One of the powers was "duplicity" and "multiplicity", but I got into Soleil's The Master Inquisitors, and the first volume's character, Obeyron, who has the ability to dupe himself, and the confusion of who was who (and the French dialogue) made it hard to follow, so I got rid of that power on the ring wearing guy and spun the power over to my "real" modern day universe.

But yes. Good idea, but not going for a ring based power. Has to be innate (so it can't be taken away).
 
Asexual budding where the substance is generated as small pellets in a glandular system in the host similar to Toby McGuire's Spider man. It's an innate ability and he can control the number he ejects and can psychically control them to a reasonable extent. You get to define reasonable.
 
Imagine for a moment, the duplication allows for a permanent copy (including leaving a corpse, if slain).

The character does at least one split, and one particular copy undergoes hormonal transition and adheres to a non-SRS single gender preferred lifestyle. The original, or another dupe, who doesn't, gets R63'ed attracted to the gender-swapped clone, and bangs her.

Hot, weird, or DUDE_WTF_WTF_WTF ?
Something like that did happen at my gaming table - we did run a superhero game including multiverse bullshit and my heroes ended up in an alternate dimension where they did run into their gender-swapped selves. One of my players fell head over heels for her male alternate self and she confessed she'd fuck him senseless if the opportunity ever arose. The comments around the table went from "Narcissist much?" to "Can I watch?" I have weird players :)
 
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