Super Team Membership Fringe Benefit

[Colossus]

How no you handle new members on an especially on a well developed team.

I have no problem starting new PC at the campaign standard (350, for example) even if some players have as much as 100 or 150 EP. Remember Thor and the Falcon are on the same team, but what do you do about team property, contacts, and reputation.

 

Suppose, for example Super Team 1 has five members, each of whom over a year throws 40 points into a single base/vehicle. The team could have the team could have the Starship Enterprise as a floating base/vehicle. Suppose two members leave, do the others need to come up with the 80 points or does 2/5th of their ship disappear? If a new member joins does she have to pay for her “share” of the vehicle.

 

 

My answer is to set a Fringe Benefit of Team Membership. When the team is first founded this is free. Once the team has a minor base, a vehicle, or even a decent reputation I charge 1 point (generally after 2 or 3 sessions). Once the team is more established (Team Mansion, Team Jet, the President of France is coming to dinner tomorrow) I will charge 2 or 3. Maximum “Team Membership” benefit is 10 points. Equipment bought for the team is the team, as long as it is not abused. (OK our team of four spends 200 points a piece on our ship the Power Monger, so that’s 4000 points. At the start of the next session three of us quit and bring in our new characters and the final player loses his character in the third phase of combat and creates a new one)

 

Here is the chart I think works

 

Benefit

 

+ 1 For every 50 EP (250 points) of equipment the team shares up

to 250 EP

+ 1 For every 100 EP (500 points) of equipment the team shares after

250 EP

+ 1 to + 3 For team contacts

+ 1 If team is sanctioned

+ 1 If the team has a positive reputation

 

A character may also take Limitations like Hunted and Reputation if they know they are joining a villain team. Sure Wimp Boy just joined Force Seven three days ago, but it was in the paper so now he is a target .

 

Normally I would not allow a PC to join an established NPC team.

 

“I am a member of the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Spider Friends!”

[JmOz]

Re: Super Team Membership Fringe Benefit

 

I use something similar, gets you non combat vehicles and based for cheap but also gets you some downsides (Like goverment liasons)

[Dynamo]

Re: Super Team Membership Fringe Benefit

 

In a similar vein, I've been considering a Team perk.

 

Much like the Base and Vehicle perks, players shell out points at a 1:5 ratio. The point are used to buy reputation, access, contacts, mind link, foci, gadget pools, and so on. Disads can be added for more points and to replicate genre tropes like a group hunted or a negative reputation.

 

The Membership FB could be considered the "price of admission" to get access to the shared points.

[Dust Raven]

Re: Super Team Membership Fringe Benefit

 

I sould see using a Perk for access to equipment and facilities, but not things the character always use, or even use frequently. If the team wants everyone to wear a special armored uniform and carry a high tech radio, each member has to pay for it, just like any other Power. If the team actually lives in and owns their base, then they pay for a Base.

 

Now, if they just have "access" to this stuff, but don't actually use it all the time, that's different. Say the team operates out of a para-military base, and becaue of their status there, they have access to the base's vehicles, weapons and equipment. That dosn't mean they constantly drive hummers, dress is full combat gear and carry m-16s. But if they needed immediate transport, the'd have a normal vehicle handy. If they needed a lab for some reason, they'd be given access. It's not their lab, but they can use it. For stuff like this, I'd see using a Membership Perk.

[Dynamo]

Re: Super Team Membership Fringe Benefit

 

Yah, that's one of the sticking points that's keeping the whole Team perk idea on the back burner. Like anything else in Hero, it's subject to abuse and needs to be examined with a skeptic's eye.

 

One thought I've had is to limit physical stuff, equipment & such, to bases and vehicles, and allow a Team perk for the social aspects, contact & hunted & such.

 

However, I've also considered relaxing the stricture against taking base equipment on missions. Weapons are out except in certain situations, but I want to encourage things like handheld scrambled/encrypted satellite communicators without forcing the players to pay for their own Megascale IPE Radio Hearing. Even with Fragile OAF, that's going to discourage a player who'd rather have a couple more slots for a multipower.

 

I dunno. I guess it comes down to whether I want to give a hefty discount to encourage a specific behavior.

[JmOz]

Re: Super Team Membership Fringe Benefit

 

On Radios: I will allow encrypted Cell Phones, don't use them tacticaly and all is fine (In otherwords you can call a teammate when you need to, but you can't use it like military comm systems)

[Lightray]

Re: Super Team Membership Fringe Benefit

 

In my campaign, the team members pay full points for equipment they individually use all the time -- primarily, their team radios.

 

They divide the points of the Base (and any vehicle they eventually get) among them. If some characters leave or new ones join, the're charged the same points as everyone else.

 

Every member of the team also gets saddled with some Disadvantages common to the team (a Hunted right now), and is required to purchase specific skills that the team agreed upon (Computer Programming, Systems Operations, Teamwork).

 

All of these things may be paid out of experience, and I'm lenient on calling the "loan" payments due.

 

Since seeing Dark Champions, I've been pondering whether to add the use of a general equipment Perk, where they might be able to requisition odd items for occasional use -- like adamantium handcuffs or satellite phones.

[Colossus]

Re: Super Team Membership Fringe Benefit

 

But what do you do when players leave or join a team. If everyone chipped in 10 XP for the team base and two of five members leave, do the other three need to come up with 20 points?

 

If a PC dies and the player replaces the PC does she have to pay what her old PC did for group equipment. Of course if she wants her last PC's Green Lantern ring she needs to pay for it, but the team Jet? Is it already paid for, or does the new PC need to pay her share.

[Lightray]

As I had alluded to, when a new member joins the team, they have to chip in the same number of points as everyone else was required to. Eventually.

 

If a member leaves the team, they don't get the points back -- kind of like they're bought as Independent. Sort of counteracts the fact that when they join as new members, they get the advantages of the team's base, vehicles, equipment, etc. even though I don't make them pay up immediately.

 

However. I based the point total of the team's bases on the total contribution of the original team members. If they get several additional members (my campaign has multiple characters for players), I might increase that point total -- but at my discretion and using the points as I wish. But I tend to allow a lot of leeway in getting additional use out of their team perks, so no one really complains about this.

 

If they want to add-on to the team's total points, then the characters need to pony up more points on their character sheets. They can spend those however they wish.

 

Mind you, all of this kind of evolved over time in my campaign; it wasn't laid out formally beforehand. If you present a scheme like this to players, there might be some "discussion" about it...

 

I really do think that the equipment requisition stuff in Dark Champions is along the lines of what you want. It allows government agents or military personnel (or members of other organizations) to requisition a certain amount of points worth of equipment, and gives guidelines for how to prevent abuse of this in-game.

[Guest WhammeWhamme]

Re: Super Team Membership Fringe Benefit

 

Well, I charged a perk (or not), and had an NPC pay the points for the base.

Why? Because I intend to keep control of team stuff (Only supers I've GM'd were Govt. sanctioned).

[Dust Raven]

Re: Super Team Membership Fringe Benefit

 

We've had a flux of players over the past year, with some leaving, new ones joining, and some that only play occasionally.

 

Basically, I add up all the points that have ever been paid for the stuff. New players/characters aren't required to pitch in, but are reminded (sometimes by the other players) that if they do, those points are added to the current value of the team's Base/Vehicle/Computer.

 

As it is, there are, at most, three player contributions to the team's Base and Computer (two if the intermittent player is available). Still, that's an extra 10+ points (50+ worth of equipment) that arn't being represented by any active player. That's not much, considering what everyone else has pitched in, but I consider that 50 points worth of stuff I can mess with behind the player's backs.