Disadvantages

[alms66]

In GURPS it's easy, base points [minus] disadvantages [equals] character's point total (meaning you have base points [plus the absolute value of] disadvantage points in positive abilities). If Hero is similar to GURPS in this regard, then a 50 base points/ 50 disadvantage points character should have 100 points of positive abilities. In Hero 5ER, I have yet to see any correlation to disadvantages written on the character sheet and so-called "extra points" gained by them. Maybe I've been playing GURPS too long or maybe the text in 5ER just isn't clear enough for me on the subject but can someone explain to me how disadvantages give you extra points in Hero and how they affect the character's point total?

[Steve Long]

Re: Disadvantages

 

Since this isn't a rules question per se, I've moved it to discussion so that anyone who likes can participate in the discussion.

[alms66]

Re: Disadvantages

 

er... true, it's not rules per se, but since I didn't see it clarified in the rulebook & the fact that it's not clear from the example characters in the rulebook... a quick answer would be nice.

[Mike W]

Re: Disadvantages

 

Traditionally, Superheroes were built on 150 points of disads plus 100-200 base points. The new book probably doesn't state it this way because so many people changed the numbers that it probably wasn't worth including on the chart. The Big Blue Book though had a chart that showed Heroic Characters built on 75 base + 75 disads, beginning Supers on 150+100, and so on. But, as I said, most of us changed the base to 125-150(or even a bit more).

[alms66]

Re: Disadvantages

 

Traditionally' date=' Superheroes were built on 150 points of disads plus 100-200 base points. The new book probably doesn't state it this way because so many people changed the numbers that it probably wasn't worth including on the chart. The Big Blue Book though had a chart that showed Heroic Characters built on 75 base + 75 disads, beginning Supers on 150+100, and so on. But, as I said, most of us changed the base to 125-150(or even a bit more).[/quote']

 

Thanks for the reply, and nice try Mike , but that's not the answer I was looking for. I understand that different games have different values, what I want to know is, (assuming a 50 base and 50 disadvantage character), how many points of characteristics, powers, perks, talents, and skills can I buy? If this were a GURPS character, it would be 100 points worth of "positive stuff" for a 50 point character with 50 points in disadvantages since

 

100 (positive traits, advantages, etc.)

-50 (disadvantages)

=50 (a 50 point character)

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Disadvantages

 

Thanks for the reply, and nice try Mike , but that's not the answer I was looking for. I understand that different games have different values, what I want to know is, (assuming a 50 base and 50 disadvantage character), how many points of characteristics, powers, perks, talents, and skills can I buy? If this were a GURPS character, it would be 100 points worth of "positive stuff" for a 50 point character with 50 points in disadvantages since

 

100 (positive traits, advantages, etc.)

-50 (disadvantages)

=50 (a 50 point character)

 

50 base + 50 Disad = 100 points available to purchase abilities.

[alms66]

Re: Disadvantages

 

50 base + 50 Disad = 100 points available to purchase abilities.

 

Thanks Hugh. So the math is the same. I was a bit confused about it since I hadn't seen a single character in the book that actually follows that convention - granted, I'm not done reading the book and I only skimmed the example characters chapter.

 

*taking another look now, Randall Irons is built this way, so I should have seen it.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Disadvantages

 

Thanks Hugh. So the math is the same. I was a bit confused about it since I hadn't seen a single character in the book that actually follows that convention - granted, I'm not done reading the book and I only skimmed the example characters chapter.

 

*taking another look now, Randall Irons is built this way, so I should have seen it.

 

The sheet looks different. Hero characters I see tend to total the various categories to come to total power, then add up base points, disad's and xp to come to the same total.

[Dust Raven]

Re: Disadvantages

 

It's functionally identical to the math in GURPS, but it's treated a bit differently. It's typicaly assumed that all characters in a campaign will have the total points in Disads to add to their character's base points. Rarely a character will take fewer Disads and fewer total points, where in GURPS it isn't even assumed that you will take any (though from my understanding most players do take at least some if not the maximum allowed by the GM).

[prestidigitator]

Re: Disadvantages

 

Thanks for the reply, and nice try Mike , but that's not the answer I was looking for. I understand that different games have different values, what I want to know is, (assuming a 50 base and 50 disadvantage character), how many points of characteristics, powers, perks, talents, and skills can I buy? If this were a GURPS character, it would be 100 points worth of "positive stuff" for a 50 point character with 50 points in disadvantages since

 

100 (positive traits, advantages, etc.)

-50 (disadvantages)

=50 (a 50 point character)

It sounds like what you are having is basically a terminology problem. In Hero, terms are defined as follows (not exact quotes or anything):

 

Base Points - The number of points you get, "for free" (i.e. without taking any Disadvantages). If you wanted to, you could forget about Diadvantages altogether, spend these points, and be done.

 

Total Points - All the points you have to spend on beneficial things like Characteristics, Skills, Perks, Talents, Powers, etc. This includes Base Points, points gained from Disadvantages (remember that there are maximums for the amount of Disadvantages you can take, depending on the campaign), and possibly Experience Points.

 

Disadvantage Points - Rather than subtracting from Base Points, these add to Base Points to determine Total Points (well, actually Total Points and whatever, "left over experience," you wish to keep and your GM approves).

 

Note that a lot of the NPC writups are a little hokey in that they assign some huge bonus, Experience, miscellaneous, "NPC," Disadvantage, etc., to make up for the fact that the NPC has a large point discrepency and they still want to show it with the same number of Base Points as the assumed campaign norm. IMO, such an excercise is lame, and the NPCs should just be shown with a non-standard number of Base Points (they don't have to conform to PC creation limits in any regard, and the real useful measures are the number of Total Points and the number of true Disadvantages anyway).

 

As what I think is a corollary to Dust Raven's statement: in Hero, the total measure of how powerful you are is taken to be your Total Points (all the points you have spent to buy abilities), and it does not directly figure in what Disadvantages you have. While Disadvantages can be limiting, and are often ways that an enemy can use to make you, "easier to defeat," they aren't considered to factor into a direct measure of your power level.

 

So in a game with 100 Base Points, characters may in fact be of different power levels, but this is assumed to be mitigated a bit by the fact that those with extra power have added complications, limitations, and flavor. If we see a character in this campaign that has 1700 Total Points when most (due to Disadvantage maximums or just due to tendency) have around 350, we are likely to say, "Damn! That guy is powerful!" even if he in fact has 1600 points of Disadvantages (ever tried to imagine up that many? It would sure take some work for me!).