Gelare wrote:Frank, if you felt like putting up some details about Superhero stuff somewhere, I'd be very interested in reading about it. After showing some folks down here Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, I've got them interested in the idea of a superhero game.
Well for now I would recommend Champions, on the grounds that it is playable, up and running, and quite good. It's kind of math-heavy during char gen for many people, so I understand if you have trouble getting people to jump on that bandwagon. But inspired as I was by your vote of confidence I went and put a couple thousand words to paper this morning on the subject. Here's how far I got:
Fantastic!
A superheroric game based on many of the precepts of 4e D&D.
Forward
“
I thought you hated 4e D&D?”
“
I do.”
4th edition D&D is a bad system for what it was intended to do: which is ostensibly to do Sword and Sorcery hijinx. This is because characters in Sword and Sorcery really only have one “archetype” that is available to them under D&D rules: the Adventurer. Characters in 4e D&D are essentially Slayers characters, and run the gamut from Gourry to Lina Inverse. But those characters could be very easily rendered as the same character – Lina has more “spell” attacks, and Gourry has more “sword” attacks, but there's no real reason for them to have been differentiated in the rules. On the other hand, the core concept makes a lot more sense when you switch perspectives to something more like X-Men: every character has just one core power and all their maneuvers are different ways of
using that power.
This core mechanic where a character
is something and that allows them to have specific expendable abilities that
An Even Playing Field
“
You can lift a car? So what?”
The Superheroic genre covers as much ground as folk tales do, as comics in fact
are the folk tales of the modern age. And just as you wouldn't really have Prince Charming stand next to Gilgamesh if you wanted that to make any sense at all, putting superheroes on the “human” end next to superheroes on the “godlike” end of the scale makes for clumsy storytelling. Frankly, characters in the Gotham Bubble are basically normal people with crazy hats and they have no business being in the same room or even the same story as major characters from Metropolis who in turn are literally fighting space gods with their fists. And while you
can put Batman and Superman in the same story, you can only do this with judicious use of author fiat. If one were to put things on objective criteria an allow dice to fall where they may the fact is that any attack capable of slightly phasing Superman would turn Batman into a thin red mist.
It is tempting to have different “power tiers” try to come in and represent the full gamut of potential power discrepancies between Green Arrow and Thor, but that's really pretty impractical. If the Green Lantern
exists in the world somewhere it severely undermines the ability for Hawkeye to fight threats to world peace. The world that superheroes live in has cell phones and stuff. So it is imperative that characters be on a relatively even keel throughout the game world. Sure, some characters are more powerful than others, but if the band of potential power isn't fairly tight, it ends up like Watchmen where every single character spends their entire time trying to convince Dr. Manhattan to do stuff. As it happens, this particular game assumes that everyone is substantially superior to a human policeman or thug, but still forced to pay attention to one. In short: everyone lives in a comic book which might contain Spiderman, but which would not contain Galactus.
Agreements on the extent of power
breadth have to be made as well. I mean seriously the Martian Manhunter has telepathy, recognition, shapechanging, super hearing, teleportion, atomic vision, flight, super strength, and honestly who knows what all else? Put up against a character like Bandit it becomes just ridiculous. In general, characters should expect to have the kind of power breadth of characters in the X continuity: that's simple enough that other players can follow along and remember what it is that your character can do.
And finally, agreements on the nature of the universe and the expectations of available resources and conduct have to be made. A world in which metahumans are hated and feared (like the X continuity) is very different from one where they are loved and respected (like Central City or Metropolis). A world where everyone with powers is a mutant (like the X world) or exposed to a special serum (like The Boys) or whatever provides a special point of view to how the characters interact with the world. A universe that has an entire alien race with the powers of Superman (or even Starfire) is inherently and permanently altered beyond recognition by the inclusion of each one. That kind of thing is fine for single author fiction like a comic book because extraneous character and alien powers can be ignored for the purposes of each individual story. But that just doesn't wash in a
game. So here are some ground rules:
- Magic exists. Some people have natural talent for it, and there are learnable secrets that allow you to become proficient with it. Also there are events, artifacts, confluences, and wahtever that can bestow magical talent onto “normal” people.
- Psionic powers exist. Some people have them and other people do not. There are technological devices that expand people's natural psychic potential. Also psychic potential can be unlocked by trauma such as radiation, toxic chemicals, and whatever. Magic and psionics are not the same, and characters in the world can easily distinguish between them.
- Super Science exists. Super science is very different from regular science. For one thing, it is almost never replicated. When people create devices, chemical compounds, and processes with super science it normally just gets used once or a couple of times and then is put away and forgotten about. It is important to remember that this happens for no reason. Maybe it turns out that the original super soldier program killed almost all of the participants (except the hero, naturally), or maybe the original plans were destroyed. But this is a story about champions fighting it out with villains, not one about incremental improvements to the quality of our standard of living and knowledge base. Sure the technology that allows your character's water cannon could probably save more people when given to the fire and water departments of the world's governments than your character could ever save from villainy by hand, but that's not the point.
- There are aliens. Some of them are inherently competent, and some of them are inherently giant space monsters, but none of them are inherently super heroic. A character can be a super hero “because she is an alien princess” but not because she's an alien stock broker.
- There are about 100,000 humans in the world for every metahuman. About one in ten metahumans are heroes. That means that a superhero is one in a million. Pure demographics would indicate that the Bay Area of California would have 8 or 9 superheroes and about 80 supervillains. That would be enough for about 2 supergroups and their associated nemeses. However, large urban areas also attract disproportionately more supers than rural zones, meaning that you can actually expect more like 12-20 superheroes in a major and famous urban area like the San Francisco Bay Area, with an accompanying lack of superheroes in places that are less “cool.” Even though demographically one might expect there to be like 4 superheroes in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, you're probably only seeing one or two heroes protecting it.
- There are other universes. Prominent ones are the Evil Dimension, where things are a dark reflection of here and there is a copy of you that has all your abilities and is a total douchebag; the Demon World, where things are all on fire and evil monsters run amok hither and yon; the Astral Void, where everything is flooby and looks like it was drawn up by Kirby; and the Magic World, where no one has much technology more advanced than “advanced stick” and there are wizards and fairies and such.
Archetypes
“
Like a Character Class in D&D.”
Every character has an Archetype. It determines what maneuvers are available to them as well as what defenses and movement powers they can choose from. There are three sample character names listed for each archetype. You're welcome to use these names for your own characters or as other supers running around in the world. Either way is fine.
Blaster
“
I make things explode.”
A Blaster is a super whose primary power shoots energy at foes and makes them fall down. A Blaster is a heavily offensive archetype, and is weighted against defense. When in a super group, a Blaster is expected to knock suckers down but may rely upon compatriots for protection.
- Defense Options: Forcefield, Magic Shield
Movement Options: Flight, Speed
Character Names: Brushfire, Positron, Thunderhead
Brick
“
It is in fact time for clobbering.”
A Brick is a super whose powers give them great strength and toughness. Contrary to stereotypes, there is absolutely nothing that requires a brick character to be stupid.
- Defense Options: Toughness, Psychic Wall
Movement Options: Acrobatics
Character Names: Holocaust, Magman, Wolframite
Cape
“
Up, up and away!”
In many ways the most “standard” super hero, the Cape is a mixture of strength, flight, and laser blasts. Well rounded, Capes excel at not being overshadowed much in any endeavor, allowing them to operate alone better than many other heroes. And this means that many of the most remembered heroes are Capes.
- Defense Options: Dodge, Toughness
Movement Options: Flight
Character Names: Captain Victory, Praetor, Queen Maive
Controller
“
Now I've got you!”
The Controller literally controls specific things (weather, plants, and gravity being the most common), but it's a pun because their classic contribution to super conflicts is to control the battlefield with their animations and creations.
- Defense Options: Magic Shield, Psychic Wall
Movement Options: Speed, Teleport
Character Names: Ice Princess, The Lorax, Mistletoe
Gadgeteer
“
”
A true self-made hero, the Gadgeteer uses his or her own inventions to fight their enemies. Whether using bombs or boomerangs or trick arrows, a gadgeteer's devices impede and capture villains.
- Defense Options: Dodge, Forcefield
Movement Options: Acrobatics, Speed
Character Names: Artemis, Doctor Hexagon, Toybox
Mentalist
“
”
Using the augmented powers of the mind, the mentalist paralyzes and confuses foes.
- Defense Options: Forcefield, Psychic Wall
Movement Options: Teleport
Character Names: The Bishop, Penumbra, Wet Noise
Monster
“
”
- Defense Options: Magic Shield, Toughness
Movement Options: Acrobatics, Teleport
Character Names: Marquis d'Mar, The Red Menace, Tiger Khan
Sorcerer
“
”
- Defense Options: Dodge, Magic Shield
Movement Options: Flight, Teleport
Character Names: Doctor Impossible, Metaman, Tesseract
Speedster
“
”
- Defense Options: Dodge, Psychic Wall
Movement Options: Speed
Character Names: The Blur, Punctual Lad, Snap
Suit
“
”
- Defense Options: Forcefield, Toughness
Movement Options: Acrobatics, Flight
Character Names: Bruce Avec Pitié , Circuit Breaker, Nemesis
Defenses
“
You can tell by the way I use my walk that I'm a woman's man. No time to talk.”
- Dodge The character is really fast, incredibly intuitive, or just highly trained. Most attacks do not connect. It is an effective defense against Power and Shadow attacks (which have a tendency to be slow and easier to dodge), but it's an ineffective defense against explosions or mental attacks (as they aren't readily sidestepped).
- Force Field The character has a force field. Maybe it's shining energy, a distortion in the air, or only shimmeringly visible when resisting an attack, but it's always there. It is an effective defense against Electricity and Ice attacks as they are disrupted by the energy of the field; but Gas and Laser attacks are strong against it (as gas and light pass through fields normally).
- Magic Shield The character is protected by defensive spells, charms, and sorcerous counterspells. This type of defense is best against Magic and Gas attacks for which counterspells are most effective; but Speed attacks usually land before utterances can be made and Ice attacks dampen magic as effectively as heat.
- Psychic Wall The character's psychic powers put up a barrier around his mind and body that clouds and dampens incoming attacks. This is most effective against attacks with light (Laser) and Mental power, and is at its least effective against attacks that disrupt the mind (Electricity) or which are already made of darkness (Shadow).
- Toughness The character is simply nigh invulnerable and shrugs off attacks without injury. This may be from powerful armor or merely personal damage resistance. This is most effective against attacks that rely on surety of impact such as Explosions and Speed attacks, and is at its worst against overwhelming attacks such as Power attacks or Magic attacks that target the spirit directly.
Movement Powers
“
It's not when you get there, it's how
you get there.”
Every character has access to a signature movement ability. Characters do not get two movement abilities nor do they get to trade their movement powers in for something else. This is not because every masked hero has had exactly one – indeed Superman quite famously has super speed
and flight while The Green Hornet merely “owns a sweet car.” However this
is a fairly important game play demand. The running battlefield that super heroes fight in is simply too massive and, well,
mobile for a character to be able to contribute just standing around. And it's not just battlefields either. Crime happens on the other end of Manhattan all the time, and your character
needs to be able to do something about that. Characters in single author fiction can often be
carried by their flying compatriots, but that's really just unreasonable to demand in a cooperative storytelling game. Of course, this very same argument falls down when we're talking about
Villains. The opposition really
doesn't need to be able to deploy in a hurry, because the action starts wherever they happen to be robbing a bank or taking hostages. So while movement powers are not optional for heroes, they
are optional for villains.
- Acrobatics – characters with Acrobatics have super leaping, rope swinging, and/or climbing abilities. This is one of the slower ways for a super hero to cross the city, but it is also one of the safer. Characters with acrobatics abilities can catch themselves when falling or hurled into things better than other characters, and take less damage from falls and knockback.
Flight – characters who can fly can fly. They move through the air by their own impetus. This may be because of wings, jet packs, magic powers, or simply no reason (like Superman). Whether it uses props or not is largely a special effect – in any case flight fails if the character loses control over their movement. A flying character can hover if she wishes, but if dazed or entangled, she falls to the ground.
Speed – characters with super speed are able to move ridiculously fast. We're talking so fast that gravity physically can't pull their feet back to Earth fast enough for them to be able to continue taking steps while running at that speed. But it works anyway, and it does so for no reason. Maybe it's time manipulation, or psychic impulse or something, but mostly it relies heavily on Comic Science. The key features of Super Speed is that it goes very fast but it doesn't allow characters to move far away from surfaces.
Teleportation – characters with teleportation are able to move from one place to another without traveling through intermediate space. This is, of course, the fastest possible movement method, but it can't be used continuously so the maneuverability isn't up to any of the other movement powers.
Elective Movement Powers
“
Dude, I'm the Marquis of the Seas.”
Crime hunters have access to a certain number of elective powers, and some of them are classified as movement powers. These powers are not always useful for chasing down criminals so these are in addition to the normal one super movement power that every character is required to have, not a replacement.
- Dimension Shift – the character is able to move to one or more of the alternate worlds.
Insubstantiality – characters who can move insubstantially can pass through walls like a ghost. This is great for getting past barricades, but it doesn't inherently get you there any faster than just walking normally would.
Swimming – characters with swimming are able to move through the water at excessive speeds.
Tunneling – characters with tunneling can move through solid matter leaving a tunnel behind that others can see and even walk through. This sort of worm movement is actually quite slow, but it can be hard to catch up with.
Skills
“
It's not all blasting things with lightning bolts. Unfortunately.”
-Username17
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