Game balance for an introductory scenario for noobs

[douglaswick]

Hi all,

 

I played a moderate amount of 4th edition and I'm planning on introducing my gaming group to 6th edition Champions (we currently play Shadowrun).  I thought a quick one-off session to introduce them to the game system might be worth a shot.  So here was my first idea.  I'm eager to hear suggestions for improvement and suggestions for game balance.

 

Each player (usually 4-6 of us) would play an agent of the "coping with supers" agency (UNTIL?).  They are manning a super prison when a couple of bad guys attack!  The attackers have scrambled the robot defenses, so it's up to the intrepid agents to hold off the bad guys for 5 combat turns or so until help arrives (the generators come back online?  Captain Overpowered appears from his charity event downtown?).   The reason for playing as agents is it would allow a noob to be handed a character sheet with only 2 or 3 offensive options and one or two skills.  I would let my PC's each choose skills from a short prepared list and one nonlethal subduing weapon from the "oh crap, emergency" rack at the prison.  (For instance:  grappling hook with an entangle and an electrical stun attack, dart gun with attack vs limited defense, pneumatic ram arm prosthetic with STR enhancement and double knockback, super low friction AOE running drain.)  

 

I was imagining two low powered supervillains, 250 or 300 points, and building the agents on perhaps 150 points (including the points for a weapon), each agent with a single psychological complication or vulnerability.  

How does this sound for a very rusty GM and some completely new players?  My hope is to make them use a little common sense (don't entangle a brick) and/or be smart with terrain & tactics to win.  Then, once they have a sense of how the system works, they could do a better job designing characters for regular play.  

 

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!  

 

 

[mrinku]

Brilliant concept!

 

Do you happen to have the old 3e Super Agents or 4e Classic Organisations? Those have the sort of stuff just right for this.

 

However you design the agent characters, I'd assume the players will want to meet them again. Make sure their power level fits in with that role; 175 pts appears to be the new 75pts - these are definitely in the action hero range (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) as opposed to regular Super-SWAT or Stronghold guards (who'd probably be 50-100 pts with added weird tech). 

 

You can have the villains at any power level, really, it'll come down to how they're tuned against your agents (and vice versa). Again, you may want to run those same villains against the player's Superheroes, so using nerfed ones may end up being counter-productive. Keep in mind the agents can be expected to know villain weaknesses in this scenario.

 

Example of what I mean by "tuning": Roborage, the beserker bot, is one of the escapees, having somehow been reactivated (plot thread to follow up in itself - Roborage was meant to have been permanently powered off...). Agent Smythe, having grabbed her Tesla Cannon, knows that electrical attacks are one of this target's Vulnerabilities and takes a shot. Since you want this to succeed, make sure Roborage's DCV isn't too high vs the agent (make the weapon AoE, make Roborage the kind of slow, easy to hit bruiser who usually just soaks it up, or have the agent get a surprise attack in etc). Even though Roborage might normally cream an agent level character, they can go down quickly and logically here.

 

Look at what extra concepts you want to teach (i.e. Surprise, Vulnerabilites, Entangles, Area Effect, Co-ordinating attacks etc) and set up the villains to fall foul of the appropriate idea. And probably have the first villain encountered one that they can deal with simply by blasting away, to get used to basic to hit and damage stuff. Everyone acts on Phase 12, so if that villain just happens to have a low DEX (1 point under the agents would be about right) they all get their shots in first.

 

I'd err on the side of the players as far as balance goes. You want it to be interesting, but they can be expected to make mistakes (Which is good! Otherwise they may not learn). You also probably want it to be a win, and they'll feel better about doing it themselves, even if it turns into a turkey shoot, rather than have Captain Guest Star save the day.

 

Unless... you actually *don't* want them to stop the villains and get curb stomped (telegraph this to avoid hard feelings). If they know it's going to be a losing battle that's setting up a situation for their real characters next time around they hopefully will get into the spirit of the thing and lose heroically. Maybe one or more might even do an Agent Coulson and die (or get critically injured) to underline how dangerous these criminals are and how little use even the best normal humans are against them.

 

(I'd only use the latter with a group that are mature enough to handle it, though)

[douglaswick]

Hi Mrinku- thanks for the suggestions!  I do indeed have classic organizations.  And updating the agents to the new rules formats is good practice with the HERO generator software.  Thanks especially for the thought of entwining the escaped villains with future campaign action. 

[mrinku]

No worries

[TheQuestionMan]

CHARACTER BUILDING GUIDELINES
• Starting Points: 200
• Maximum Disadvantages: 150
• Maximum Points From One Category of Disadvantage: 50
• Normal Characteristic Maxima: Not Required
• Combat Hit Location Rules: Not Required
• Knockdown Rules: Not Required
• Long-Term Endurance Rules: NO
• Limited Push: YES


CHARACTER ABILITY BUILDING GUIDELINES

Power Levels Beginning Range Maximum Minimum
Characteristics: 10 – 40 60 10
Speed: 3 – 6 8 4
Combat Values: 6 – 9 12 6
Damage Classes: 6 – 12 16 8
Active Points: 30 – 60 80 --
Skill Points: 20 – 60 80 --
Skill Roll: 11- /15- 18- 8-
DEF/rDEF: 20/10 30 6/6


HOUSE RULES: (Special Restrictions, Requirements and Exceptions)

• All player characters should have a Psychological Limitation concerning Killing. 

• The character must have a form of Movement Power or Transportation.
• The character must have Social Limitation: Secret Identity or Public Identity. 
• Bonus Character Points awarded for Character Background/History +1 to +5 
• Bonus Character Points awarded for Art, Images, etc... +1 to +5 
• Bonus Character Points awarded for Quirks (Like GURPS) +1 to +5 
• Bonus Character Points awarded for Archvillain / Nemesis Write Ups +1 to +5 
• Bonus Character Points awarded for Special +1 to +5

[TheQuestionMan]

Double Post

[TheQuestionMan]

Double Post

[TheQuestionMan]

Hero System - Wikipedia 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_System 

 

Champions - Wikipedia 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champions_(role-playing_game)  

 

List of Hero System Products - Wikipedia 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hero_System_Products  

 

Champions (Super) Hero Resources - Note: Out of Date, but good reference point.  

http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/29522-champions-superhero-resources/  

 

 

 

 

Cheers 

 

 

QM

[douglaswick]

Hi QM- thanks for those summaries, excellent!

[mrinku]

• Bonus Character Points awarded for Art, Images, etc... +1 to +5 

 

 

This one has never come up for me, since I'm the GM AND handle all the art and miniatures 

 

Good summaries, QM.

[TheQuestionMan]

I am an Archivist, not the hard working author, but thank you anyway.

[BoloOfEarth]

HOUSE RULES: (Special Restrictions, Requirements and Exceptions)

• Bonus Character Points awarded for Character Background/History +1 to +5 

• Bonus Character Points awarded for Art, Images, etc... +1 to +5 

• Bonus Character Points awarded for Quirks (Like GURPS) +1 to +5 

• Bonus Character Points awarded for Archvillain / Nemesis Write Ups +1 to +5 

• Bonus Character Points awarded for Special +1 to +5

 

I've mentioned this elsewhere, but in addition to bonus points for character background, I've awarded 5 bonus points for each player who provides 5 NPCs (note:  NOT DNPCs, and not Contacts) whom his/her character knows -- family, friends, coworkers, classmates, neighbors, etc.  This really helps flesh out the game world, and gives them additional investment in the world from the start. 

 

You just have to work to make sure you don't accidentally turn any of those NPCs into DNPCs, because that wouldn't be fair since the character doesn't get full points for them.  But as GM, you're free to use those NPCs to introduce plot points, remind the players of stuff, play on that whole Secret ID thing, etc.

 

Example 1:  Sentinel's mom tells her about stopping at the bank on her way home from work, to find it had just been robbed prior to her arrival.  Oddly, all the bank clerks and customers were sound asleep when she walked into the building, and there was this weird humming sound fading away. 

 

Example 2:  Circe's friend, a fashion model with a substance abuse problem, started using a new designer drug. This turned a potentially ignored background news item into a more immediate problem (at least to the players' POV), as well as providing a starting point for them to dig into (specifically, the friend's drug dealer).