How about the Ultimate Disadvantaged?

[zornwil]

Okay, the topic name is a joke and I know it wouldn't be an "Ultimate" book, but some source book with tons of details on disads would be useful and fun to read. Sections on each of the main types, their uses, examples, and then some laundry lists for each one. What do people think?

[Nato]

You know what, it sounded silly at first - but I kind of agree. I don't think it will ever be a book itself, or even a large section of any one book. But there's no denying it, having a resource like this with just TONS of disadvantages would be extremely handy and help spark ideas for characters. I know sometimes it gets tough finding 150 points of disadvantages. After the first 75 points or so I find myself really straining my brain to think of new ideas for disadvantages.

[lemming]

I'm too sleepy and lazy to look up right now, but there are some web sites that have lists of disadvantages. Thought I don't think it would get you to the level of one person I knew who could come up with 400 points of disadvantages.

[SirViss]

Hope the owner doesn't mind my advertising his site, but I found this page to have lots of good disads:

The Master Lists

Check the lower left corner.

And I am pretty sure that he is looking for more disads to add to his lists...

[MisterVimes]

Originally posted by Nato
You know what, it sounded silly at first - but I kind of agree. I don't think it will ever be a book itself, or even a large section of any one book. But there's no denying it, having a resource like this with just TONS of disadvantages would be extremely handy and help spark ideas for characters. I know sometimes it gets tough finding 150 points of disadvantages. After the first 75 points or so I find myself really straining my brain to think of new ideas for disadvantages.

Absolutely... I think this is a great idea... and though the List was added above, I am sure we can all come up with really creative uses for disadvantages in our campaign. Ogier300 has several creative ones o his Ironman thread:

1) Using the company business as a DNPC (as a target of corporate espionage/Hostile takeover)

and

2) Stringing a Characters entire rogues gallery in one hunted...

[Monolith]

Originally posted by MisterVimes
2) Stringing a Characters entire rogues gallery in one hunted...

I do the same thing, only I give a 10 point Gallery Bonus to the Hunted Disad to signify that it covers several Hunteds.

[MisterVimes]

Originally posted by Monolith
I do the same thing, only I give a 10 point Gallery Bonus to the Hunted Disad to signify that it covers several Hunteds.

I think that's a really clever idea. I can't believe I never thought of that. It's perfect for characters like Flash, Batman and Ironman that have such a colorful roster of Rogues to choose from and allows you to use the hunted without boring the player:

"Oh... it's Hunted-Man... my Hunted... wow... what a surprise..."

[Law Dog]

Maybe the real idea here would fit well into a book with a lot of other smaller ideas. Those few pages of expansion on the disadvatages in Allston's genre book were very welcome.

[Nato]

Wait, I think the real way to go would be to make a disadvantages pack for Hero Designer. And then just cram 100 truckloads of disads into it.

[Chaosliege]

Originally posted by Nato
Wait, I think the real way to go would be to make a disadvantages pack for Hero Designer. And then just cram 100 truckloads of disads into it.

Or an E-Book in PDF format

[CourtFool]

I would certainly pick up The Ultimate Disadvantage. Maybe it would not be a big book, but you could certainly fill a pamphlet. It would be handy for experienced players as well as gamers from other systems who have a difficult time thinking up disadvantages. I mean really? Why would anyone voluntarily take a disadvantage?

[Derek Hiemforth]

It has potential, but I think it would need to be handled carefully. For any Disad that has a commonality modifier, the value will change from campaign to campaign; not all things are equally common in all campaigns. You wouldn't want to see players insisting on getting "x" number of points "because the book said that's how much its worth."

I think a more useful and interesting approach would be a comprehensive look at what kind of obstacles heroes in fiction often face, how these classic themes translate into Hero mechanics, and how GMs and players can decide on how common and severe they are.

[Nato]

Originally posted by Derek Hiemforth
For any Disad that has a commonality modifier, the value will change from campaign to campaign; not all things are equally common in all campaigns. You wouldn't want to see players insisting on getting "x" number of points "because the book said that's how much its worth."

This is true, but just having a huge list of different disadvantage examples wpuld be helpful. For generating ideas and stuff.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Originally posted by Monolith
I do the same thing, only I give a 10 point Gallery Bonus to the Hunted Disad to signify that it covers several Hunteds.

Actually you could do something like this:

+2 points x2 Gallery foes
+4 points x4 Gf
+6 points x8 Gf
+8 points x16 Gf

So if the Hunted was a 20-pointer, then for 28 points you'd have 16 foes in your Gallery.

The old HERO standard of "+x points, double the effect" would fit nicely, I think.

The only problem is that I'd REALLY prefer it to be +5 point groups, but if your Gallery was (like, say, Batman's or the Flash's) that big, you'd have a 40-point Hunted, and that might be a bit much for some people's taste.

[Foxiekins]

Originally posted by Dr. Anomaly
The old HERO standard of "+x points, double the effect" would fit nicely, I think.

The only problem is that I'd REALLY prefer it to be +5 point groups, but if your Gallery was (like, say, Batman's or the Flash's) that big, you'd have a 40-point Hunted, and that might be a bit much for some people's taste.

Well, in spots, like with clips of charges, that x2 jumps to x4 in Hero system... You might go with +5 => x4 Foes...