UNTIL Superpowers Database -- What Do *You* Want To See?

[Steve Long]

OK, now that the boards are back up, time to start a couple more consumer opinion threads.

 

Right now I'm working on The UNTIL Superpowers Database, a Champions product scheduled for later this spring. It's a book of pre-generated superpowers for use by GMs who need to whip up a character in a hurry, gamers who want to build a character without having to learn the nuts and bolts of the system right away or become "master carpenters," and so on.

 

The book covers a list of about four dozen common special effects (such as Air/Wind Powers, Density Alteration Powers, Light Powers, and Telekinetic Powers), listing offensive, defensive, movement, sensory, and miscellaneous powers for each. The vast majority of the powers have one or more options listed so you can customize 'em. If I have time/space, I might try to put some random generation tables and lists in the back, but that's a big "if." Mostly the book's just a big ol' list o' powers.

 

So, my question to you: what sort of things would you like to see in a book like this?

[JohnathanChance]

I could always use more super speedster powers, I never was able to come up with good powers for that type of character

[Starlord]

Really, really detailed attempt at (something similar to) Captain America's shield and (something similar to) Spidey's web-shooters.

 

No shield-lite or web-shooter lite, but dig deep into everything they can do and somehow make it inexpensive too.

 

More later.

[Mightybec]

I'd like to see predesigned gadgets to target specific types of characters (anti-brick weapons, anti-speedster tools, anti-psyker equipment, ect...)

 

Mightybec

[Guest Keneton]

Steve:

 

Two large changes were made between 4th and 5th that impacted several of my characters. (I know there were more than 2 changes, but I mean these two in particular).

 

I would like to see more examples of acceptable EC's as there are more restrictions here than prior.

 

I would like to see more enhanced sense powers prebuilt as these also changed dramatically. (For The Good!)

 

Thanks in advance.

[SAVeira]

Detail examples of that use of Mulipowers, EC and VPPs.

 

Also would like to see lots of oddball powers examples.

 

 

S.A. Veira

[Fedifensor]

Book contents

 

I'd like to see several things:

* Ways to make up a wide variety of powers, including things that have been traditionally hard to simulate in HERO.

* Characteristic sets for character types - for example, a brick might have 60 STR, 20 DEX, 33 CON, 15 BODY, 8 INT, 11 EGO, 20 PRE, 10 COM, 20 PD, 20 ED, 4 SPD, 66 END, 60 STUN.

* A detailed discussion of how to balance characters (the Rule of X), with multiple ways of determining X for game balance. The discussion in the Champions book was too brief.

* I don't know if it fits with the general theme of the book, but I really want a comprehensive list of Psych Lims. It's often a pain to figure out how to word a specific psych lim, or figure out how many points it's worth.

[Steve Long]

Two things I forgot to add that I clearly should have:

 

1. There are no gadgets in this book. Gadgets make a book in and of themselves. This is a book of sample superpowers. Thus, no Captain America's shield or Spidey's webshooters. (But you can find my take on both on the FAQs page, in the "About the HERO System" FAQ.) However, you could easily take any of the powers in the book, slap the Focus Limitation on there, and voila, instant gadget.

 

2. There are no mystic powers in this book. Again, that's a subject worthy of a tome of its own. However, you could easily take pretty much any power in the book, change the SFX to "magic," and voila, instant mystic power.

[RDU Neil]

Hardcover for one thing...

 

Yes... Hardcover... black... with a nice piece of artwork on the front that does NOT wrap around the back... so the spine is clean black, with just the title and Hero # visible.

 

As for content... I'll start with some reasoning.

 

I'm trying M&M right now... not because it is a better system, but because they made the game so appealing and user friendly. I think the same thing can be done by Hero. See, M&M starts with the basic "super power" concept... say "Ice Power" with real word descriptions of what all it can do... and only then can you, if you want, look deeply into the power and see that it is built by a combination of effects, just like Hero.

 

Hero does it the other way around. It gives a bunch of generic effects, with very little flavor to them, from which an EXPERIENCED player can build all kinds of "super powers." This is fine... except that it lacks the "Zap" "Pow" "Bing" for new players of simply going... "I want Ice Power... oh, here they are on Pg. such and such..." scribble down simple cost on character sheet... done.

 

It can work in Hero this way. You should have simple, half page, real language description of powers labled things like "Ice Powers" "Time Powers" "Speed Powers" etc. Give flat costs like 57 pts for "Basic Ice Powers" with simple description, so people can plug and play. THEN, in the back, linked by a footnote, have the actual points and powers in Champions terms... since Ice Powers would likely be a Multi-power, with five or six slots... the total of which comes to 57 pts. or whatever.

 

There you have clear plug-n-play powers to introduce new players, but all the detailed rules are there... in back... for them to explore as they increase their knowledge.

 

Show those M&M types that Hero can be just as user friendly by doing some work for them. Make their first glance at a Hero Product a flavorful, interesting and engaging one, so they WANT to play Hero. The rules are in place... now I'd suggest moving away from text heavy, rules laden, minutia crunching... and write for new Hero players who want to jump in and just go.

[allen]

Enhanced Senses

 

I'd really like some well-built Detects... especially, I'd like to see what is essentially the same Detect built at several levels of "discrimination".

 

For instance:

 

This Detect allows the PC to sense an metal.

 

This Detect allows the PC to sense an metal through walls.

 

This Detect allows the PC to sense an metal through walls, and tell what type of metal it is.

 

This Detect allows the PC to sense metal through walls, tell what type of metal it is, and the materials used in its manufacture.

 

This Detect allows the PC to sense metal through walls, tell what type of metal it is, the materials used in its manufacture, and the precise amounts of those materials.

 

I'd also like to see some descrip. of the special effects. I mean if a Detect is "attached" to a Sense Group or else has a Focus: Monitor, it's obvious enough. But if not, things get kind of vague for me. For instance, with the Detect Metal -- if it's defined as "not a Sense Group", then how precisely does it "look" to the character, or how does he "perceive" it exactly. The description of Tesseract's hyperperception in CKC is a good example of what I'm asking for.

 

I don't know, maybe it's some weird gap in my HERO system understanding, but Enhanced Senses make me tear my hair out...

[Michael Hopcroft]

I'd like to see:

 

* What a quiver of super-arrows or a bandolier of super-bullets is likely to be like. And no, no arrows with boxing gloves at their heads!

 

* A phaser. Don't call it a phaser, of course, but I'd really like to see something that'll let me build a Starfleet officer trapped in an alternative 20th century where superpowers are real and he has to rely on his Starfleet-issue equipment. Basically a hand weapon with three settings -- stun, kill and disintegrate.

 

* Disintegration as a superpower. THAT would be nasty.

 

* A versatile laser vision/laser type power that can be used not only as an attack but also for welding metal, melting ice entangles, boiling water, etc.

 

* A cartomancy VPP in which the powers you can use are controlled by a deck of Tarot cards or something similar. If you don't have the cards handy, you can;t use the power.

 

* A good example of an Exorcism power. You can drive demons and ghosts out of their unwilling victims or send them back to their home planes.

 

* The ability to implant subliminal messages in things like songs and films that aren't triggered until days later, but which either subtly alter the victims' perceptions or force them to do things they wouldn;t otherwise do.

 

* Timelord-style regeneration. When you are on the brink of death this brings you back almost instantly, but with a new face, a new body and some unexpected changes in personality. You could even (if you rolled badly) pick up some unwanted Psych Lims in the process.

 

* The power to make people fall asleep -- useful for disposing of mooks and guards, but probably not strong enough to make a major villain zonk out.

 

* The power to be rooted to one spot and be immovable, or alternatively the power to meet and barrier concievable and plow through it unhindered. (Imagine one character having both these powers!)

 

* The ability to store an incredible amount of air in your lungs and, when you blow it out, simultaneously chill and knock down your adversaries.

 

* The ability to absorb all the toxins in a room so that nobody else is affect by them. Hopefully you are immune yourself....

 

* The ability to know EXACTLY where you are at all times.

[Acroyear]

I think it would be useful for newer players to have a bunch of more standard powers like the Torch's Nova Flame or Sandman's "sandy body" that aren't the plain ol' "Flame Blast: 10d6 EB" and "desolid" but work-ups of good ways to simulate things with the modifiers. The energy build up to a big blast and the tk/grab damage shield thing might not be too obvious to many people. Sort of a showcase of how those modifiers can be applied to straight powers to make something totally new.

 

I also think it should include a decent number of "odd" powers. For example: Tendril has the ability to project whip-like limbs from his wrists. A lot more can be done with that than just stretching - like various grab bonuses due to leverage or being able to wrap up more limbs along the lines of extra strength for grab maneuvers (like grab & control), NND choke holds or Flashes (covers up the eyes) etc. Another example might be the "goo body" guys who can be splatted and then pull themselves together over time without really suffering ill effects from being in pieces... or who can send puddles of themselves limping away to reform and fight another day.

 

The hard part, of course, is thinking up these more unusual abilities. I think that would make it more useful to the experienced player, too. I'll be honest here and say I don't see a whole lot of personal usefulness in this particular book, but I think if there is a balance of simple and advanced concepts it will be attractive to the widest possible audience.

 

While "web shooters" might best fit a gadgets book, the web powers idea could still fit here (eg: movie version of Spider Man). Of course, you have to save some stuff for a gadgets book, I guess (handcuffs to lightsabers to Judge Dredd lawgivers).

 

It might be a good place to discuss older themes like "mystery powers" and provide more examples of/expand on SFX alterations to mechanics due to environment (like lightning bolts or ice blasts in the water) as there was a lot of call for such a thing before.

 

The Powerpoint/Haymaker articles might be a good example of expanding on concepts like growth and such, too. I know I found those articles to be lots of fun once upon a time.

[Hermit]

Hmmm, would it be possible to put in some write ups for frequently debated powers in these boards?

Two Examples:

I notice "Time powers" (Freezing folks in time, etc) come up a lot.

The "Jericho effect" where one physically enters another body to borrow it.

 

 

The "common special effects" is definitely the way to go, but some of the tricky ones could sure make a begining GM's workload easier and spare him or her some headaches.

[Patriot]

Details

 

As long as it has more details to particular powers I'd get it.

[FeralWhippet]

I would like to see the shape change power fleshed out. The changes seemed to be fairly controversial (going by the debate in one of the topics on the old boards).

[Enforcer84]

I would like to see some nice energy control powers. Pyrokinisis, Electrokinisis, Cyberkinetics, Light control, Radiation control...

a few nice brick tricks, perhaps some Martial arts powers or "insect" abilities. Mostly, though I need energy type powers as my Blasters often look identical save for the special effect.

perhaps some looks at unusal powers, such as those posessed by Bouncing Boy, or Doug Ramsey, or even how to do a nice Rogue-like power absorbtion.

 

also, it would be nice to se a power progression section that gives innovative ways to make our abilities more powerful than by just adding a d6 or Armor Piercing.

[winterhawk]

Power examples that mimic popular comics charaters (Superman's heat vision as a MP: EB, welding, brain surgery in conjunction with X-Ray Vision to Jack Hawksmoore's ability to pull a city around him and use it like battle armor).

 

And the Random Generator! (time permitting)...sometimes being able to do what you wahtever you want makes you yearn for a random character.

[Jerry A!]

Hmm. This is a tough one. I'd break it down into categories (probably relating to the archetypes).

 

For instance a section on elemental powers. Probably with a general framework, and add-on packages for various additions and specials based on specific types of elemental powers (earth, water, etc...).

 

Powers for bricks. Regeneration packages, different types of "iron skin".

 

Someone else has already mention speedsters.

 

A slew of "heroic" mental powers (different from the psionics of Star Hero).

 

And examples of building and scaling a power. Show how a character can plan out additions once character points are gained. Think of it as packaged, planned growth.

 

Maybe a section on sample powers/levels through the various ages of comics (eg typical gold/silver/modern age, etc...)?

[Syberdwarf2]

Re: Book contents

 

Originally posted by Fedifensor

I'd like to see several things:

* Ways to make up a wide variety of powers, including things that have been traditionally hard to simulate in HERO.

* Characteristic sets for character types - for example, a brick might have 60 STR, 20 DEX, 33 CON, 15 BODY, 8 INT, 11 EGO, 20 PRE, 10 COM, 20 PD, 20 ED, 4 SPD, 66 END, 60 STUN.

* A detailed discussion of how to balance characters (the Rule of X), with multiple ways of determining X for game balance. The discussion in the Champions book was too brief.

* I don't know if it fits with the general theme of the book, but I really want a comprehensive list of Psych Lims. It's often a pain to figure out how to word a specific psych lim, or figure out how many points it's worth.

 

In addition to/ or instead of, character archtype templates, how about a more drawn out version of the "Character Ability Guidelines Table"? To wit, Jane Doe wants to build a Brick, she looks up in the UNTIL database and finds a description of RANGES for the various archetypes and powers (the average Energy Blast registers on the (???) scale between X and Y).

 

Also, since UNTIL is a (non-US of course) government organization, you may want to try and go for the governmrnt 'field manual' feel. Pick up any Army training manual (e.g. "FM-60-30") to see what I mean.

[Jhamin]

I would like to see some commentary on the various approaches you can take with a special effect, and not just in the "does this power have AP or not" vein. In my opinion there is too much of a tendency to say "if I'm in a fight I need an EB, so how can I justify it?".

It seems like this is a good oppertunity to some up with alternate power writeups that allow for use in combat without falling back on EB, HA, KA, RKA, Armor, & FF.

 

There is a big difference between somebody like Deadweight from "Enemies of SanAngelo" and Gravitar from CKC, not just in power level but in approach. They both have gravity but Deadweight manifests his as a really nasty gravity field that he has learned to use, while Gravitar has a more standard array of attacks and defenses. Both are valid, but you end up with two very different characters with the same special effect.

[TechnoViking]

1. Energy Construct Power: I.E. Green Latern, Jade, Doctor Spectrum, Starman. Are these powers a giant VPPs or more.

 

2. A really good example of a element transmuter power I.E. Firestorm, Element Lad.

 

3. Some good Time Power Examples.

 

4. Some good examples of the Power Skill and Power Tricks. "Torch, can you spot weld the machine for me?" Fuzing sand to glass. etc... I would love to see a large section on this. Would help beginners flesh out their characters.

 

Mike

[Killer Shrike]

Super Powers Database

 

Hidey ho. Glad to see the new boards up and running....

 

 

Ok, as to what I would like to see in the product in question:

 

Does anyone remember the Ultimate Powers Book? The supplement for the old Marvel Superheroes Advanced game (the FASERIP version, not the SAGA version -- you kids and your damn card games )?

 

Well, I do.

 

The power write ups themselves were kind of arbitrary, but I always thought it took a decent tack as far as organization and breadth of scope.

 

Perhaps something similar to that, grouping powers by special effect.

 

As far as layout goes, in the interests of furthering the 'database' schtick, perhaps each individual power could be organized into a data-card format, including the name of a character exhibiting each particular power (ie, the superhuman who has that particular power whom UNTIL observed/analyzed).

 

Also, anyone remember the old Street Samurai Catalog? For old 1st edition Shadowrun? Some of the 'merchandise' presented in that book had tagline comments by various 'street samurai' giving thier opinion of the usefulness/quality of the item, and occasionally anecdotal testimonials/razing.

 

Perhaps something along those lines would be cool, with some super powers having 'field notes' entered by observing UNTIL agents, scientists, and what not commenting 'in character' on the power construct.

 

 

I think the most important thing for this product however is, as others have mentioned above, to make sure it can serve as an abstraction layer for players/potential players that dont want to get into the crunchy bits of the system.

 

In this vein, I think its important to ensure that advancement is covered as well, so that if a player picks "Hyper-speed Punch" at X pts for Y base effect, translated into English

 

Hyper-speed Punch/Kick: You are able to launch a flurry of blows at high speed. Strike an opponent in close combat up to 5 times for STR + XD6 damage.

 

Cost: Z points

Effect: (HA xd6, Autofire x5)

 

Advancement:

 

Precision Timing As control improves you are able to strike with greater precision, hitting opponents in less protected areas and pressure points. Opponents only apply half of thier defenses vs your attacks unless their armor is unusually sturdy.

 

Cost: Z+A points

Effect: (HA xd6, Autofire x5, AP)

 

Punishing Blows As control improves you are able to strike with greater force, using velocity as a weapon. You now strike opponents in close combat up to 5 times for STR + XXD6 damage.

 

Cost: Z+A+B points

Effect: (HA xxd6, Autofire x5, AP)

 

 

etc etc etc

 

In other words, give systems-lite types a nice little predefined progression path for thier preconstructed powers.

 

Anyhoo, just some ideas.

[Steve Long]

I notice "Time powers" (Freezing folks in time, etc) come up a lot.

 

The book does have a section of Time Powers. It won't have Time Stop or Time Manipulation, though; those take up too much page space. For my (detailed!) take on both, you can read Digital Hero 8 and 9, respectively.

 

The "Jericho effect" where one physically enters another body to borrow it.

 

Already taken care of. A character in Millennium City has a similar ability, and I'm planning to put it in USPD as well.

 

I would like to see the shape change power fleshed out.

 

Just to be clear, this isn't a book of rules. There are a few new Limitations in sidebars, and of course unusual powers comes with whatever "gamespeak" explanation is necessary to explain them, but it's not an exploration of the rules per se. There will be quite a few powers built with Shape Shift, but there won't be any explication of the Shape Shift rules just for the sake of explaining 'em -- any explanation will be in the context of the powers created.

 

in the interests of furthering the 'database' schtick

 

Actually we don't really have any interest in that, at least as far as the write-ups go. That would just interfere with peoples' ability to use the book, so I keep the schtick to the introduction. However, we are going to have little "flavor bits" quoting from UNTIL field notes, reports, and such to explain the illustrations. That'll be the last part of the book I write, after we get the layout done. Should be fun.

 

In other words, give systems-lite types a nice little predefined progression path for thier preconstructed powers.

 

That's pretty much what we're doing, since one of the reasons to do the book is to make it easier for non-system-types to use the system. Each power comes with a capsule description -- basic effect, target, duration, range, END, etc. -- followed by a text description, followed last by the actual game writeup of the power. Then there's a section called "Options" that offers customization tips -- make it stronger, make it weaker, add this Advantage for this effect, apply this Limitation to restrict it thusly, substitute this power instead to get this other effect, and so on. Some of the options are pretty simple, some are more complex. I'm trying to come up with a reasonable mix of "standard" and "unusual" powers.

[Tamashii2000]

Examples of how to use the "Power skill" with a variety of powers.....

 

As a GM its one of the hardest things I have found to deal with.

[Wombatman]

"There you have clear plug-n-play powers to introduce new players, but all the detailed rules are there... in back... for them to explore as they increase their knowledge."

 

I am in agreement with RDU Neil...plug-n-play is something that HERO needs. I would like a supplement that will help my "non HERO" friends to quickly jump in and play an introductory game without taking a lot of prep time on their characters. Not that they won't want to take the time later to create the "perfect" character, but getting them started is the tough part.