For 10 years, makesense has mobilized more than 200,000 citizens, entrepreneurs and organizations to carry out socio-environmental impact projects worldwide.
It’s been a while since the last list. The chaos of living one life as a civilian and the other as a vigilante is always a balancing act. But here we are, another 100 ideas for all your superhero adventures! Whether you defend a small neighborhood or the entire planet, there should be something here for everyone. If you like what I do, please like, comment, or reblog. So let’s grab our massively overpriced vehicles and take call all our partners in crime-fighting, and take to the skies for another day of heroism!
You investigate a series of robberies and discover that the party behind it is a matriarchal clan where crime is the family business.
B-rank heroes are trying to take on your enemies so they get status. But in the end, they’re endangering more lives than they’re saving.
Prominent meta-humans are being sent invitations to play a game on an island where their skills will be tested. They must complete the objectives, and get the highest score to win. The catch? Some of the objectives involve killing other participants.
Someone is orchestrating tragedy for heroes, knowing that they will become powerful meta-humans. But what does this person have in mind for them once they reach their full potential?
A catatonic billionaire uses everything in his power to find a body suitable for his devious mind. This includes his money, technology, and criminal connections.
A series of magical books have been stolen, each one belonging to one of the foremost sorcerers in Earth’s history. But when put together, they will unlock a codex that will either unleash an evil creature, or bind it again for another 10,000 years.
A foreboding alien ship is hovering over the world’s largest cities, but does not destroy them. Instead, it’s sucking energy out of them. You must stop it before it leaves the world in darkness.
A villain is terrorizing the city by infusing common items with poisonous substances. He challenges you to crack the code and save the city.
A team of heroes calls for your help in taking down a mutual enemy.
A league of villains forms to take down your team.
Disaster strikes (bridge collapse, burning building, etc) and you have no way of getting your super suit in time. You must find a way to save the civilians without blowing your cover.
A new set of meta-humans hit the streets and are using their unusual abilities to reek havoc. No particle accelerator explosions or toxic waste disasters have been recorded, so you need to find out how these powers originated, and how they are being transferred.
A city-wide cryogenic freezing has occurred. With everyone motionless, the villains will be able to judge the wicked and preserve the innocent. Everyone is at their mercy, except your team.
A monstrous being has emerged, but they don’t seem capable of harming anything. The government insists on recollecting it, but it fears what will happen when it is brought back. You must aid in this beings capture or escape. Both will prove difficult.
A new power source has emerged that can imbue people with life and power beyond measure. The only downside is that they are written out of existence.
A meta-human has the power of cellular regeneration. While he hoped to use it for healing, the villains want to use it to form weapons, making the cells take in an infinite number of forms.
Someone has replicated the event granting you superpowers, and is trying to take your place. They will stop at nothing until you’re replaced, dead, or otherwise incapable of resuming your duty as a hero.
An alien crash—lands on your planet and requests your help in reassembling it’s spacecraft. It says it must escape its intergalactic pursuers, but refuses to tell you why. You must either turn the alien in to humans, turn it in to its pursuers, or help it escape.
After saving children from a natural disaster, you unleash a mythical creature that is hell bent on destruction.
A cannibal is on the loose in your city, and for every person he feeds off of, the more enhanced his powers become.
Someone has perfected the genetic code in a plant (or animal) species. With it, they will be able to cause infertility and systematically cause extinction of crops, species, perhaps even humanity!
A criminal empire is growing too fast to fight the old-fashioned way. So instead of a fight in the streets, you have to go undercover to take down their biggest operations.
When one of your teammates falls ill, and conventional medicine fails, you will have to use unconventional methods to cure them. You will have to shrink yourself to cellular size and take down the illness at its source.
Terrorists have demanded that the heroes reveal their secret identities to the world, or they will kill ten innocent people every week.
A legendary hacker has died, claiming that he has developed a universal hack, codenamed “Skeleton Key.” Whoever finds it first gets to keep it, and the clues are all throughout your city to find it.
A hero goes to great lengths to remove their powers. Their continued existence as a full-time hero is destroying their relationships. But the supposed cure is a trap to kill them.
The mob’s greatest hitman turns out to be a child. After saving him/her from a disaster, it turns out they had planned the whole thing to bring you in.
A mysterious new gang surfaces at the same time a new a mayoral prospect arrives in the city. Is the whole thing a coincidence, or a devious scheme?
The ancient Gods are holding a conference in your city. They plan to decide whether or not to finally unleash the apocalypse. Until they make a decision, they will pit you against some of the most vicious and powerful creatures ever made.
A villain has designs on demolishing the entire civilized world so humanity will die out and natural order will be restored. Only the strong will survive as the wilderness dominates the landscape, and mutants become gods.
A mysterious entity lands in your city. But when you investigate, it’s a humanoid Figure with no memory of who they are or where they come from. You must find out why, and if they’re a threat.
A man has gained superpowers, and elects to take revenge on the people that tormented him in high school, and ultimately killed his family. Subdue this mutant and either teach him to use his powers for good, or turn him in.
Explosives have been placed on every entrance and exit to your city. Nothing goes in, and nothing goes out. This is the perfect opportunity for the villain behind it to declare himself supreme ruler of the metropolis.
One of your most prominent villains has recently gained a massive inheritance. You’re convinced they’ll use it for crime, but their actual usage surprises you. They clean up the streets (so they can take it over later).
The promising new brain-training clinic is actually a twisted experiment to drive people crazy. By overloading the mind, it’s possible that psychic abilities will be unlocked. While this does work in some, it’s disastrous for others.
Someone is rewriting the memories of the people they capture. Rebels are suddenly obedient, children forget their homes, and heroes are becoming villains. Find the pattern, and discover a lead back to who is altering these people’s minds.
A reclusive aristocrat has called for the help of your team. A terrible curse has been placed on him for as far back as he can remember, and it is now spiraling out of control. All born from an artifact owned by his family for generations. He’s tried to destroy it, but it’s only harmed him in response. Discover what this malevolent force is, and vanquish it.
People are going missing across the city. Only it’s not regular missing persons, they vanish out of thin air.
Mutants have gathered from all over the world to discuss their rights as mutants when most have treated them as monsters and outcasts. Many call for the destruction of humans, but some hold out hope. That is, until a riot ensues and kills five mutants in cold blood.
An omega-level mutant has flown across the sky of a major city and declared war on humanity. He calls for all his fellow mutants to either stand by him or perish. While this may be localized to once city, his ambition led carry to other cities. Perhaps your own.
A natural disaster has forced all of your city’s civilians into safety shelters. Once they’re inside, the villain will infuse the shelter air vents with cyanide. His enemy, be it the populace, or a group within it, will perish.
A band of young and powerful meta-humans are tearing up America as they leave every town they cross scared, robbed, or destroyed. One of their members is picked up by your team, and he wants to stop them. He knows their weaknesses, but it will still require a team on par with them to win.
A villain has been terrorizing the world for centuries, yet his presence has always remained hidden. But now that his operations been stopped by you again, he will reveal himself and accept the challenge of killing you. A ruthless criminal mastermind who has replaced his body with soulless machinery.
Aliens invade your planet, only their arrival is not malicious in nature. They are stopping here because their armada has been demolished, and they were look for reinforcements to take down a far greater evil. And since your planet is rich with meta-humans, you are the perfect allies.
A shape-changing entity has arrived in your world that will achieve invincibility when it collects all nine artifacts it is hunting for.
An entity has entered the dream world, and is trapping all of the world’s children into experiencing the perfect dream. One they don’t want to wake up from. He hopes to harness the collective unconscious of humanity’s children and become all-powerful.
A maniac obsessed with immortality is taking people off the street and using them in an experiment to extend human lifespans. You try to stop him, but those that survive insist on helping him.
Your latest trophy from crime fighting is a bug to discover your team’s secret lair. With this information, the villain who was put away will have his second in command attack you when you’re at your most vulnerable.
A massive fortune is left behind by a man who enjoys playing sadistic games. His last will and testament is that his entire fortune goes to whoever finds it. You must use your team’s resources and find the money before your enemies do. With so much on the line, all of your enemies could be in the running!
A corrupt cop is tormenting meta-humans no matter what their affiliations. His status under the law makes him untouchable by criminals, and he intimidates his colleagues into submission. You must bring him to justice when the law and underworld won’t touch him.
A new kind of competition has emerged for meta-humans: Hero Olympics. Complete with obstacle courses, team battles, and all manner of organized heroics, it’s the perfect place to exhibit your skills. It’s also ample opportunity to commit a crime.
The next holy war has been confirmed. Only this time, it’s the “Holy Knights” of Humanity against all meta-humans.
The mastermind behind all the city’s crimes has declared war on your team. He has demolished your headquarters, and or a price on your head that’s so high, civilians are gunning for you.
A villain is collecting a vast assortment of arcane relics, each with a different ability. Once all of them are gathered, he believes he will become the supreme ruler of the cosmos. But really, he will become the lapdog to the creator of the relics.
A terrible tragedy (war zone, act of terrorism, outbreak of a deadly disease) has been looped by an unknown entity. If you are to escape this nightmarish scenario, you’ll have to prevent it from happening in the first place.
You have been captured by your enemies. They have you in their clutches, and are about to unmask you when you and your team manage to escape. But as you try and leave, you discover you’re in the headquarters of your enemies. Its labyrinthine design keeps you trapped in a sadistic game of cat and mouse.
An anarchist at the head of an underground organization has called out for the elimination of heroes, only he doesn’t want to take their lives, he wants to take away their powers...permanently.
A zealot of an ancient religion has gained the power to convene with spirits. After communicating with them, he has concluded that if the earth is on the brink of destruction, he will be able to merge with a cosmic being responsible for the formation of the universe.
A powerful elemental villain is planning to make the entrain the entire city with their element (perpetual heat wave, relentless blizzard, carnivorous jungle, etc). With such an intense source of energy, they will be able to expand their influence exponentially across the country, perhaps the world.
An unconventional mob war hits the streets. A mob boss has been killed by his second in command, in the hopes of usurping his seat of power. But shortly after this, his spirit emerged and becomes the leader of a whole new underworld. The living and dead of your city engage ins turf war, and you have to stop it before civilians get caught in the crossfire.
The latest exhibit in a museum has been stolen. You track down the thief, and discover that they are of alien origin. They claim that this artifact was “entrusted” to humanity, but is actually a pocket dimensional prison, containing some of the universe’s most vicious intergalactic criminals. It is scheduled to release them all to conquer earth, a planet seen as low-priority. Survivors will be given a full pardon of their crimes as well, free to rule earth as a sovereign nation once it’s been conquered.
The Earth is drawing alien objects into its gravitational pull, and shattering them to form rings on par with Saturn.
A group of tech-savvy teens are using special effects technology to rob people as they pass through the woods, and they gradually expand their racket into the city. But as you advance on their “territory” they reveal a few tricks to put meta-humans in their place.
You intercept a drug den, only to find that the Lotus Eaters have lulled its inhabitants into a state of bliss. You must find a way to save the drugged humans from their trance.
A hidden civilization has intercepted your team. They hope to use them as their guardians in exchange for protection from the surface world. The catch is that you can never return to your home. Find a way to escape.
A cult of corrupt magic users plans to use human sacrifices to resurrect an ancient entity. Only when he is finally revived, his intentions differ with that of the people who summoned him.
Someone is removing select organs from a handful of human targets. Some believe it to be a serial killer collecting trophies, but you’re certain there’s more to it. Someone trying to replicate human beings, replacement parts, or an attempt to save a loved one.
A child approached your team, intent on finding a long-lost parent. When a picture of them is shown, you recognize them as one of the most powerful heroes of your time. You must find out who this child is, how they don’t know their identity already, and how to help them.
The city has become host to a massive array of holograms. When a registered hero touches one, it provides a set of holograms to challenge your skills. Is it a corporation’s challenge, a tech-wizard’s prank, or a distraction for a heist?
A sentient collection of antimatter beings possessing animals, objects, and people to fight humanity. They are revealed to be planet-consuming entities that fester like bacteria in the wounds they create on the planet’s surface. Their end goal is to encapsulate the whole planet in their festering influence until they form a massive new entity the size of earth.
Heroes have gathered in secret to discuss disturbing movements of an old villain’s movements. But this is impossible, as this villain died fifty years ago.
A creature has been captured by the villains, and they plan to use it to steal buildings by tunneling beneath the city.
A school for superheroes is being developed, and the heroes and politicians of your city are backing its development. However, many of its students need guidance, experience, and protection. Perhaps you can supply all three.
A nomadic biker gang has declared war on heroes. They are armed with anti-mutant weaponry, and seem to have limitless funding. You suspect there’s more at work, but you must defeat them first.
A band of heroes have gone rogue and are fighting against the law. Their leader has fallen off the radar, while his partners reek havoc. You are tasked with discovering why they went off on their own, and bringing them in by any means necessary.
One of your most formidable villains has recruited a meta-human child that lost his family as a result of one of your heroic exploits. The child has no way of coping with what he’s lost, and so the villain “guides” him to get revenge on you.
A villain has kidnapped the world’s foremost scientific minds to rebuild the earth from scratch. He plans on gathering all the world’s species, and preserving them in a spaceship while releasing a nerve gas throughout the planet. Once the dust settled, the world will be his for the remaking.
An Elder evil is released when it is thawed from any icy prison in the arctic. Most think it means to destroy the earth, but it’s really looking to reclaim something it lost.
Children are going missing every night and there is no sign of a struggle in their homes.
A hero plans to marry his love interest, only to have the villain come in and threaten to destroy the chapel if she doesn’t marry him instead.
A prophecy of doom looms over your city, and soon plagues begin to demolish the metropolis. Is it a supernatural force at work, or a mad scientist scaring everyone away?
A series of doors open to different parts of the world, each leading to a great evil to overcome (monster, criminal operation, etc). Is this the work of a hero trying to vanquish evil, or a villain trying to eliminate the competition?
You discover a strange life form that’s a hybrid of nature and technology. The purpose of this anomaly is unknown to you, but it seems intent on breaking out of its container and mingle with the soil.
Meta-humans are disappearing all over the city. Some from home, some from prison. You attempt to track them down, but it seems they’re being rescued and sent through a program called the Railroad to freedom from human society.
Meta-humans are being sent to labor at a camp while their families are forced to live under the tyrannical rule of the mastermind behind the abductions and his meta-human enforcers.
A scientist attempts to revive his deceased wife using a combination of black magic and scientific formula. But what he brings back is one of the deadliest foes your team has ever faced.
The latest milestone in military technology is anti-mutant battle-suits to be worn by soldiers. Little for their buyers know that they are meant to kill heroes as well as villains.
The team is placed in a hunting ground where they are being sought out by a hunter of legendary reputation. If you manage to kill or capture your pursuer before he does so to you, you will be free to leave.
A hero has fallen to the side of villainy. You must decide whether to turn them back to the die of good, or turn them into the law.
Someone is trying to combine the genetic code of mythical creatures (vampires and werewolves, hydras and dragons, elves and humans). But that’s end results prove to be more volatile than expected.
A villain has unlocked his psychic powers to such a degree that he can carve out his own little piece of the world and gather inhabitants for his world by rendering them comatose in reality.
A group of vampires are attempting to resurrect their elders to lead them into a new age. You must decide whether to let the coven live, and escape authorities, or to destroy their chances at starting new and causing more destruction.
A member of the villain’s ranks has defected, but has requested sanctuary for him and his family. If you pull it off, he will give you the rest of your enemies on a silver platter.
A paranoid mob boss has put up a fortress in the middle of your city, with entire buildings bought off and filled with armed guards and assassins. You must find a way to bring him to justice before his aircraft arrives on the roof and takes him out of the Justice System forever.
Villains are gathering from all over the world at a castle in one of the wildest and least-known portions of the world. You must go there and find out what they’re planning. If you can take them on and beat them in combat, that’s just a bonus.
You enter a Necromancer’s tomb only to find that it has been carved in the bowels of the earth to stretch for miles. Complete with undead guards, dark magic traps, and the ability to turn fallen heroes into recruits for defense.
A behemoth has been loosed in the city. Find a way to subdue it without causing the civilians and city more harm.
Spoof heroes and villains begin cropping up like weeds. While some see their exploits as comedic, it’s encouraging others to take to the hero and villain life without realizing the consequences.
A group of crazed killers have had their minds transferred to robotic bodies. They are able to strike at humans without need of food, water, or rest. All they have to do for the mastermind in turn is to kill targets he chooses first.
An “Underworld Gate” has opened above your city. This occurs once every 100 years, and always marks the site of a massacre, disaster, or genocide. You must find a way to close the gate and save everyone residing in your city.
This short guide was first put together by the team at Bang the Table back in 2009 to engage your community online when we were still babes in the woods. The business was just two years old, and our online engagement experience ran to around 200 projects, almost all in Australia.
Now we work with over 200 clients in five countries – Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK and the United States. In 2015 alone, we hosted more than 2300 consultations on our specialist EngagementHQ and BudgetAllocator community engagement and participatory budgeting platforms respectively.
It’s this experience that has helped us develop the second iteration of the “100 Ideas” booklet.
We’ve written it with the time poor in mind. And we’ve tried to walk the line between creating a resource that will help get you up and running with online engagement, without weighing you down with too much information.
We hope it will provide a starting point for people working across a range of sectors; community engagement, public relations, communications and project management.
A few of our ideas are controversial, many are common sense; we hope all will help you navigate across the new and burgeoning field of online community engagement.
Get your free copy of the guide: 100 Ideas to Engage Your Community Online
