Super Hero Campaign Guidelines

[assault]

26 minutes ago, Ninja-Bear said:

First that isn’t cheating, that’s using resources wisely. 😜 Second though do you keep hard and fast to those suggested guidelines? Or do you tweak them a bit?

I'm tempted to say that average means what it says, but actually exceeding the guidelines is probably more common than not reaching them, so the actual average is probably a bit higher. Perhaps they can be considered as a baseline, which you need to think seriously about before you go lower.

 

Either way, there is a range of effectiveness which a character needs to stay within. Both too much and too little are problems.

 

In practice, this can only be assessed in specific cases. It's usually pretty obvious though.

[Ninja-Bear]

@assault, how do you deal with Block Range in 6th then?

[Ninja-Bear]

 I finished rewriting Black Cat and pleased with his results. I’ll  post ASAP. He does have some odd abilities, a Mental Blast and Transform to Target to Unluck, which I kept.

[Ninja-Bear]

Well I thought I was done with Black Cat. After considering Assaults advice, I swap a few characteristics around So I bumped his CON from 18 to 20. I did this cause with his Force field and PD is total 16 PD. Campaign average is 10 DC so an 3.5 average roll would yield 19 Stun past defenses. Also with CV at 8 and his martial arts, I break the  OCV of 11 guideline. So I raised his OCV to 9 (which he originally had having DEX 26 but now has DEX 24) and lowered his DCV to 7.  And I did manage to buy +2m of running too. Btw BC is a Speed 6. He’s fast but fragile.

[Jhamin]

Regarding guidelines: A piece of advice I got many years ago was that all the characters Speed scores should vary by no more than 3.

So if the slowest PC has a 4, the fastest should be limited to 7.  If the slowest is a 5, then go to 8.  This does not apply to enemies.

The reasoning (and I've found it sound) is that if you have PCs with speeds much further apart than that it can create a lot of frustration at the table when someone has to wait for the people around them to go twice before they go again. 

I once saw a player convince the GM to let them play a speed 10 time manipulation guy & then had the rest of the table rebel when it felt like they spent most of their time waiting for time guy to roll all his attacks before their speed 5 characters could go again.  It was mechanically valid, and the DCs Time Guy had made it not terribly over powered, it just wasn't fun.

[Ninja-Bear]

Next up is the Mantis!

[JmOz]

The last campaign I ran had this as the guidelines.

 

Characters will be street level heroes.  Characters are allowed to have super powers, but think Spider Man and Daredevil instead of Thor and Iron Man, This will be a playtest for a adventure I want to publish via Hall of Champions

 

• Low Powered Heroes (325 points including Everyman skills, 75 Complications)

• Damage Class: 8-12

• Combat Values: 6-11

• Speed: 3-6

• Defense: 10-25

• House Rules:

  • You pay for Everyman skills, all characters and character equivalents (Vehicles, summons, etc...) get an extra 25 points to pay for everyman skills.

    • All characters should take "Common Knowledge" as a skill, used in place of INT rolls

    • The everyman package: Acting, CK: Campaign City,  Charm, Climbing, Combat Driving, Concealment, Deduction, KS: Common Knowledge (3 points), KS (2 points), KS: (1 point), Language (4 points), Paramedic, Persuasion, Power or Streetwise, PS (2 points), Shadowing, Stealth, TF: Small Motorized ground vehicles (0 points), Teamwork

  • Vehicles, Bases, and followers are grouped together and may use the +5 for x2 rule to get different categories (so you can get a vehicle and a base for +5)

    • Nested versions can also be taken, with GM permission and should be thematically linked (A computer in a vehicle, an animal companion on a follower, etc...)

[JmOz]

On 12/3/2020 at 9:36 PM, Jhamin said:

Regarding guidelines: A piece of advice I got many years ago was that all the characters Speed scores should vary by no more than 3.

So if the slowest PC has a 4, the fastest should be limited to 7.  If the slowest is a 5, then go to 8.  This does not apply to enemies.

The reasoning (and I've found it sound) is that if you have PCs with speeds much further apart than that it can create a lot of frustration at the table when someone has to wait for the people around them to go twice before they go again. 

I once saw a player convince the GM to let them play a speed 10 time manipulation guy & then had the rest of the table rebel when it felt like they spent most of their time waiting for time guy to roll all his attacks before their speed 5 characters could go again.  It was mechanically valid, and the DCs Time Guy had made it not terribly over powered, it just wasn't fun.

I basically do this, but tighten/expand based on points.  3 in low powered, 4 up to High powered, 5 above that.  Thinking about it, it really seems to come down to (for me) x2 the slowest.  In low powered games the slowest will be 3, in standard/high the lowest will be 4.... 

[Jhamin]

We are drifting a bit from the original question, but here are the campaign guidelines for my current Teen Champions game.

 

 

Teen Heroes:

Characteristics    10-30
Spd    4-6 (5 is average)
Combat Value    4-8
Standard Damage    6-14 DC (8 DC for most normal characters, higher is possible for difficult or dangerous powers but should not be what you throw around in most phases)
Active Points    40 goal, higher if needed for unstable/dangerous powers)
Typical Skill Rolls    8-12
Def/rDef    10-18/4-8

 

Base Points 250

Matching Complications: 60

In this Game all characters should take Social Complication: Secret Identity with values depending on who would care (Frequent/Major is the common value)

Everyone effectively has Social Limit: Minor, Under age 16 but gets no points for it (it’s a campaign standard)

 

Most characters should have 1 "main" power with any other powers being related.  The Main power should have a total of -1 in limits associated with it, at least for any power at or above 40 Active Points

Most characters should be capable of a main attack in the 7-8 DC range

In some cases a particular power that is unreliable or dangerous can go as high as 14 DC

 

Skill levels (combat or otherwise) require special character concepts

 

Teen Heroes do not get TF: Common Ground Vehicles or PS: Hobby as everyman skills

Otherwise Teen Hero Everyman Skills are as follows:

Acting 8-

AK: Home Area 8-

Climbing 8-

Concealment 8-

Conversation 8-

Deduction 8-

Language: Native Idiomatic, Everyman, Literate

Persuasion 8-

Shadowing 8-

Stealth 8-

 

The Power skill represents a familiarity with the characters power that is usually not appropriate for Teen characters but can be bought over time as the game warrents

[Spence]

1 hour ago, Jhamin said:

Teen Heroes do not get TF: Common Ground Vehicles

 

Just curious, how old are your teens? 

[Jhamin]

1 hour ago, Spence said:

 

Just curious, how old are your teens? 

Our teens are sophomores in High School and thus are 15.  They will start turning 16 2nd semester.

 

So far a surprising numbers of super-things have been arrived at via Uber.  The Wealth ($200/Week) and Fake ID perks that one of my players bought is giving them access to some things they might not be able to swing otherwise.

[Spence]

11 minutes ago, Jhamin said:

Our teens are sophomores in High School and thus are 15.  They will start turning 16 2nd semester.

 

So far a surprising numbers of super-things have been arrived at via Uber.  The Fake ID perk that one of my players bought it getting them through a lot of stuff.

 

I was just wondering.  I'm old, but all my friends and I were already able to drive by 14.  Not alone and if on public roads, permit required.  But we all knew how and had driven on the property and back-roads.  By the time I got my license I already had a good amount of practical driving experience under my belt. 

 

It just seemed odd that they wouldn't have TF: Common Ground Vehicles. 

Or maybe not odd thinking about it.  I know some adults that have actually never driven a car, so maybe it isn't that odd these days.

[Jhamin]

10 minutes ago, Spence said:

 

I was just wondering.  I'm old, but all my friends and I were already able to drive by 14.  Not alone and if on public roads, permit required.  But we all knew how and had driven on the property and back-roads.  By the time I got my license I already had a good amount of practical driving experience under my belt. 

 

It just seemed odd that they wouldn't have TF: Common Ground Vehicles. 

Or maybe not odd thinking about it.  I know some adults that have actually never driven a car, so maybe it isn't that odd these days.

 

I think that the needle has moved on such things.  Lots of kids are driven around by their parents until they are almost ready to drive themselves and anecdotally I hear that they aren't as driven to get the permit the way me and my friends were back in the day.

It also makes a lot of difference where you live.  In my state unless you were a farm kid you had to be 15 and have a learners permit before you could drive with an adult and you had to be 16 before you could drive without one.  I grew up in the city in the 90s and got my license at 16.  There were only pubic roads to drive on around me. My wife (who grew up in the same city) didn't get hers until she was 19 because she mostly used public transit.

 

In this case, My game takes place in Horizen City (think Seattle) and the PCs live in a fairly urban area.  They either come from wealth or are literally 6 months old so none have learned how to drive.  Learning Permits will become a plot point once we get back from christmas break.  (Assuming the robotic duplicates currently impersonating them don't muck it all up first)
If someone chose to get behind the wheel I'd let them of course, then demand lots of dex rolls to avoid disaster during their madcap drive across town filled with fruit stands, guys carrying panes of glass, and similar all while screaming "I don't even have my permit!".

[Duke Bushido]

4 hours ago, Jhamin said:

In my state unless you were a farm kid you had to be 15 and have a learners permit before you could drive with an adult and you had to be 16 before you could drive without one. 

 

Wow.  Around here, you can get a farm permit at 12.  You used to be able to get a motorcycle license at 14, but they upped it a few years back.  Regular learners at 15; regular license at 16 (assuming you took Driver's Ed already: you now have to have Driver's Ed to get a license here).  But seriously: the kids around here who _don't_ grow up on a farm license are, at least for now, still a minority.

 

[Jhamin]

2 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

 

Wow.  Around here, you can get a farm permit at 12.  You used to be able to get a motorcycle license at 14, but they upped it a few years back.  Regular learners at 15; regular license at 16 (assuming you took Driver's Ed already: you now have to have Driver's Ed to get a license here).  But seriously: the kids around here who _don't_ grow up on a farm license are, at least for now, still a minority.

 

It was 15 with Drivers Ed back in the early 90s for me unless you got a farm permit.  As I lived in a metro area with 2.5 million people that wasn't really an option. Farm permits weren't on the radar for people I grew up with.

 

I just checked my state's (Minnesota) laws today. 

- Learning Permit: 15 years old, classroom instruction, enrolled in behind the wheel instruction, pass a written test. 

- Provisional Driving License for under 18: 16 Years old, completed behind the wheel instruction, Show a log proving 50 hours of supervised driving, already had a Permit for 6 months, passed a driving test

                Provisional Licenses let you drive on your own but no cell phones (even hands free, which is OK for full licenses), no night driving for the first 6 months, only one teen age passenger for the first 6 months, no more than 3 teen age passengers for the next 6 months.

- Full License: 18 years old, provisional license for 12 months, must re-apply for license

 

Farm Licenses are a thing.  You have to be 15 & do all the stuff for a Learning Permit.  You can only drive alone or with a parent (no friends or farm hands), only during the day, only within 20 miles of the farm, and only outside an city with a population less than 100,000.  Parents have to prove they actually live on a farm.

A day shy of your 15th birthday?  No legal driving of cars or trucks for you. 
There are no age requirements for Tractors & Farm equipment but the Highway patrol has lowkey said they will start looking real close at the parents if they find a 7 year old driving a combine down the interstate.

 

So yeah, *way* more restrictive and with a lot more requirements than when I was getting my license in 1990.  There are also links to various studies that show how teen driving accidents went down markedly when the new laws were imposed.  So maybe a good thing?

[Scott Ruggels]

On 12/2/2020 at 4:41 AM, Ninja-Bear said:

@archeri should amend my answer from comics to cartoons. My information of comic book characters is primarily formed from watching the cartoon versions. Whether that’s good or bad is anterior of opinion.

The amount of violence allowed between cartoons on network TV, between 1970 and 1984 is far less than allowed in Comics Code approved comics. Network BS&P was petrified of Congressional oversight that they went much farther than  what happened in the 50’s with Frederick Wertham’s crusade.  You could still injure and knock out foes in comics, but physical violence was a no-no after 1970 (Dammit). I thank my lucky stars that Johnny Quest was grandfathered in.