On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses....

[Tom]

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses....

 

For the record, I fully intend on *not* having this be a recurring theme for her. (Agents show up armed with grenades... so far it's resulted in 3 agent bodies and a Con stun after the first turn of combat....) I like to think I'm not "one of those GM's" y'see.

 

Actually, I kinda find myself surprised to see she hasn't tried to Dive for Cover more often, but that's me (actually, on that note, when is it appropriate for the GM to ask about tactical decisions, when he doesn't know how experienced his players are?

As Treb noted, Tactics Skill is a good idea for PCs who are supposed to already know what they're doing -- but there is nothing wrong with asking the player why they did or didn't do something either after or before a given action, especially if they should have learned better by now...

 

Players don't always think like the GM (which can be a good thing), and sometimes they aren't as familiar with the rules and don't realize (or remember) they have additional options other than hope you can take the hit.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses....

 

The amount of trouble they cause is a matter of what is convenient for the GM and is good for the story' date=' and should [i']never[/i] be dictated to the game-master because the player wanted some points and took a disad. The player took the disadvantage - and the GM may use it if its good for the game and makes good copy. If I see a character with a More Powerful hunted who is intended to appear on a regular basis I don't feel obligated to hit them with a world of hurt (of any sort) every-time, or even use the Hunted more than is my want. Thats up to me. I will use them, but I'll use them the way I want to. By making them more powerful and giving them a high roll the player has simply given me more latitude. Sometimes a More Powerful Hunted may be quiet for a while, or merely pose a moderate threat. And sometimes I may bring them in as a major offender with a "world of hurt." Thats entirely up to me.

 

Again, I agree to some extent and disagree to some extent. The GM needs to do what's best for the game and the story. That's not having the characters crushed every session because someone took "Hunted: MoPow 14-".

 

At the same time, I think players have a right to expect a point-based system to have some balance. If Player 1 takes Hunted: Mo Pow; 14- for 25 points, and never sees that Hunted, I think Player 2, who took, Susc: 3d6 from a Very Common effect for 25 points and has that Susc continually place his character at a disadvantage, has a right to feel that the disadvanages are not being applied in an equitable fashion. Part of the GM's role is to ensure that balance occurs over time. If the Mo Pow 14- Hunted isn't going to be reasonable in the game, the character should be told to look for another disad., not given a free rise because the GM decides not to apply it.

 

I liken this, although it's less extreme, to the character who shows up with a 3d6 Stun and BOD Susceptibility to Sunlight, acts every segment, knowing full well the GM's only choices are to make the disad far less a drawback than its 80 points would seem to indicate or to destroy the character.

 

This is a straw man - it has nothing to do with my previous statement - and you know it.

 

I certanly took the issue to a much greater extreme. However, your example was the PC who gets full points for Huinted by VIPER when it is only really one nest leader that has issue with him. Why should a character whose Hunted can bring the resources of a small Nest to bear get the same points as one whose Hunted by VIPER is based on having earned the enmity of the Supreme Serpent, who can bring all the resources of the entire organization to bear against him? The first is clearly not as powerful as the second, nor as disadvantageous to be hunted by.

[tesuji]

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses....

 

Case in Point: Martial Artist has no Flash Defenses or Self-Contained Breathing. Also has a Hunted, defined as the organization responsible for her powers. MoPow, NCI.

 

Now, in a stand-up fight, she can mop the floor with any normal agents of this organization.

 

Fairness -wise: The "MoPow" is your permission slip for the enemies sent after her to be able to take her down, though usually this means "after a tough fight" if she is caught alone. Whether this "MoPow" is reached by throwing a particularly potent villain or several lesser villains armed with stuff that works against her is a matter of flavor (perhaps of the week) and backstory. If their agents get trashed a few times the organization might hire out to get someone more "her type" to go bring her in.

 

The other side is the in-game rationale for these things. If the group knows of her origins or has extensive experience wit her then sure it make sense their gear would be appropriate if its within their resources.

 

But as always, this isn't a blank check. This lasts only so far as it remains fun for the PLAYER. No player writes on their sheet "my characters get +20 cp but I have to be miserable as a player" so if this proceeds so far that they stop having fun then you will need to make a change. (vary the villains more, have them change the disad to one they will "enjoy" etc.)

[McCoy]

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses....

 

Seems reasonable. As long as you don't over do it.

I usually use the Apperance number as sort of an activation to see how well the Hunted is prepared. Going after the MA described, I would want an EB, a NND vs LS, flash, and entangle, all at least 1 hex area to offset the DCV advantage. So if the Hunted appears on a 14-, we roll the dice when equipting the agents.

 

EB? 8, check

 

NND? 10, check.

 

Flash? 15, didn't pack that.

 

Entangle? 12, check.

 

So the agents come in prepared to offset the MA BIG DCV advantage, and prepared to exploit his lack of life support, but for some reason the armory was out of flash grenades.

[jkwleisemann]

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses....

 

Y'know... that's an approach I hadn't thought of before. Rep for you.

[tesuji]

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses....

 

 

The amount of trouble they cause is a matter of what is convenient for the GM and is good for the story, and should never be dictated to the game-master because the player wanted some points and took a disad.

General agreement on how everything, not just the one articluar issue at hand, is "up to the GM."

 

However, it wasn't DICTATED to your by the player... it was AGREED to by you when you approved the character with that disad at that level. CHARGEN is not some player controlled thing the Gm is forced to abide by, but a mutual agreement between player and Gm and when I gm, I try to make sure everything i agree to is acceptable to me in practice.

 

So, if I weren't going to have hunted 14- mopow occur as often or occur as strongly as the AGREEMENT would suggest, then I would not make that agreement in the first place.

 

However, if I instead adopted the notion that the level of impact a hunted would have, any hunted would have, is determined by "whats good for the story" then I would charge everyone the same price for hunteds and drop the sillyness of basing their points on whether "14-" or "8-" or "lessPow" or "moPow" were written down since those were meaningless.

 

The player took the disadvantage - and the GM may use it if its good for the game and makes good copy. If I see a character with a More Powerful hunted who is intended to appear on a regular basis I don't feel obligated to hit them with a world of hurt (of any sort) every-time, or even use the Hunted more than is my want.

i agree however i would address the "more than I want" up front from the start and tell them to lessen or replace the disad. If I AGREE to letting them take the more powerful version, then I feel I am obligated by that agreement to live up to it... and while i may not roll 14- to see when it shows up, they will see it as an issue a LOT of the time, and moreso, a lot more of the time than someone who only asked for th points given for 8- or who chose an "uncommon" disad.

Thats up to me. I will use them, but I'll use them the way I want to. By making them more powerful and giving them a high roll the player has simply given me more latitude. Sometimes a More Powerful Hunted may be quiet for a while, or merely pose a moderate threat. And sometimes I may bring them in as a major offender with a "world of hurt." Thats entirely up to me.

 

As all things are, but when I approve= points and approve values based on criteria, then i feel I am promising to use those values appropriately. That means I have promised mr "i want the points for "very often" and "mopow"" thatI will make them a lot of trouble a lot of the time, and certainly mr "rarely happens" isn't going to see his anywhere as much.

 

If i plan on enforcing all by the same meter, that of "what works well for the story" or anything else not related to the points, Then i simply remove those meaningless traits from the points calculation. Certainly i could say replace enemy with "nemesis" and have them all equiatble, but not equal, letting some appear rarely but in big ways while others are frequent but nuisances, etc and simplify things. But IMO if I am going to make those a matter of calculation then I am going to make those calculations matter. No sense in wasting my player's time making them do needless math.

[Sean Waters]

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses....

 

Disadvantages are there as much for the GM as the character/player IMO. Moreover disadvantages are not a good point balance: double stun from physical atatcks is just not worth it whatever you are getting for it, and you'd probably save more by just buying down your physical defences. So they are not point balanced and they are there for GM/story reasons. Hmm.

 

Let us look at where the concept came from: the comics - pretty much like everything else - althought he idea has been taken and run with by a lot of different games now. The thing about the comics is that the original superhero had a weakness to kryptonite, laregly for story reasons - it meant that not every villain had to be a world shaker.

 

The concept has run ever since, but interestingly it tends to be the more powerful characters who have 'damage' type or powerlessness type weaknesses (like Green Lantern's powers not working against yellow, ferchristmas' sake, or Hulk being Bruce Banner too).

 

As less powerful characters were developed the psychological limtiations played more of a part (I'm not saying Superman doesn't have them, I'm saying that if you ask: What is Supe's main weakneess, dollars will get you doughnuts the answer will be 'kryptonite'), so you get Batman and Spiderman with their anger and angst.

 

Now over time the comic book characters change, and that includes their disadvantages - and something I think a lot of players are sometimes reluctant to do is spend XP getting rid of disadvantages - on the perfectly logical basis that:

 

A) They are still going to be facing challenges anyway - they may as well have a hand in defining some of them, and

I really need that extra 1d6 EB

 

So, I'd be inclined to discuss disadvantages with players before hand and listen tot hem in game: so long as they are enjoying themselves, no problemo, but if it becomes a drag for them either you need to back off a little or suggest they do buy off those hunteds, or at least shift them into other disadvantages.

 

AS to hunteds being prepared: well, often they will. If a character wants a 14- hunted, that's nearly 91% of the time - tell them you'll have to make it into a whole story about the hunted - or just ban it at that level from the start - it is ieither not going to be used or it is going to dominate the game.

 

You can bear in mind that not every instance of 'hunted activation' requires combat. I mean, take Angel and Wolfram and Hart - they come in virtually every episode in some way, but they are not always trying to kill Angel: they really just define a part of him.

 

What was my point? Oh yes. If you have at the character with the advantage of proper planning, there is a good chance you will have him gift wrapped in not time. When you do, what is the plan then? I like brainwahing them and sending them back to the team. Good excuse for the hunted to lay off for a while too, until some programmed 'event'

[Robyn]

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses....

 

I like brainwahing them and sending them back to the team. Good excuse for the hunted to lay off for a while too' date=' until some programmed 'event' [/quote']

 

Especially if it is a programmed "obey and forget" event

 

The group can spend forever trying to track down the Shapeshifter who is impersonating one of them to commit crimes, only to finally catch the villain and find out that it is their teammate.

 

Whereupon the player turns to the GM and says:

 

PC: "But you said I was on a date with George!"

GM: "Right! And you remember how you met George, don't you?"

PC: "Of course! He's one of the heroes who broke into VILLAIN* and let me out by destroying my superprison along with most of their secret base."

 

*I don't know the "real" villainous organizations well enough to put a good name there.

 

Indirect results. George might even be a real hero, and VILLAIN was just killing two birds with one stone; move all the valuable stuff out of their base after learning in advance that George was coming, to be replaced with decoys and malfunctioning (destined for the scrap heap) technology, and leave the impression that they had been dealt a severe setback; then, blackmail George later on to provide a cover story for the brainwashed PC. Or, maybe George wasn't much of a hero without their assistance; the whole "George demolishes VILLAIN headquarters" was a setup with troublemaking goons and almost-out-of-warranty equipment (that still functioned perfectly, in case anyone checked) to eliminate what VILLAIN would have soon gotten rid of anyway. Or perhaps the entire "George" story was fabricated out of whole cloth by VILLAIN, and it was a safe investment since George never had to do anything villainous himself to be worthwhile; he just had to date a nice superheroine and occasionally give the trigger word to pass on orders.

[tesuji]

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses....

 

Moreover disadvantages are not a good point balance: double stun from physical atatcks is just not worth it whatever you are getting for it, and you'd probably save more by just buying down your physical defences. So they are not point balanced and...

 

To my way of thinking, its just as faulty to stick with the "book price" when a disad is "too cheap" as itis for when it is too expensive. So, just like I would tell "vulnerable to magic" guy that he could not get the points for "common" if magic was rare in my campaign, i would have no problem telling mr "double from physicals" to get extra points for it. I look at it this way, if i am fine with giving NO POINTS for the magic thing (presumably cuz magic doesn't exist in my game) then i ought to also be fine with charging more than 25 cp (or whatever the max vuln price is) for something exceedingly common.

 

Of course, its entirely possible I just decide "double from physical" is an inappropriate limitation for my game (as i might see any 50-80 pt disad as "too severe") and tell him "no" to start with, but thats going to depend on factors. If it makes him basically unplayable as a HERO, then yeah, its out.

 

For example: someone might play a hero who is desolid astral projecting most of the time, so his physical body is sitting back in his loft. That guy liklely wouldn't get to even take "common" level points for "physical damage" vulnerabilities.

 

But in general IMO if you think its priced wrong for this specific character in this specific campaign the same principle that guides limitations and disads (if it doesn't hurt it aint worth points) applies both ways. If it hurts more for this specific case than the default pricing scheme, charge what its worth (or say no.)

[Vondy]

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses....

 

 

General agreement on how everything, not just the one articluar issue at hand, is "up to the GM."

 

However, it wasn't DICTATED to your by the player... it was AGREED to by you when you approved the character with that disad at that level. CHARGEN is not some player controlled thing the Gm is forced to abide by, but a mutual agreement between player and Gm and when I gm, I try to make sure everything i agree to is acceptable to me in practice.

 

So, if I weren't going to have hunted 14- mopow occur as often or occur as strongly as the AGREEMENT would suggest, then I would not make that agreement in the first place.

 

However, if I instead adopted the notion that the level of impact a hunted would have, any hunted would have, is determined by "whats good for the story" then I would charge everyone the same price for hunteds and drop the sillyness of basing their points on whether "14-" or "8-" or "lessPow" or "moPow" were written down since those were meaningless.

 

 

i agree however i would address the "more than I want" up front from the start and tell them to lessen or replace the disad. If I AGREE to letting them take the more powerful version, then I feel I am obligated by that agreement to live up to it... and while i may not roll 14- to see when it shows up, they will see it as an issue a LOT of the time, and moreso, a lot more of the time than someone who only asked for th points given for 8- or who chose an "uncommon" disad.

 

 

As all things are, but when I approve= points and approve values based on criteria, then i feel I am promising to use those values appropriately. That means I have promised mr "i want the points for "very often" and "mopow"" thatI will make them a lot of trouble a lot of the time, and certainly mr "rarely happens" isn't going to see his anywhere as much.

 

If i plan on enforcing all by the same meter, that of "what works well for the story" or anything else not related to the points, Then i simply remove those meaningless traits from the points calculation. Certainly i could say replace enemy with "nemesis" and have them all equiatble, but not equal, letting some appear rarely but in big ways while others are frequent but nuisances, etc and simplify things. But IMO if I am going to make those a matter of calculation then I am going to make those calculations matter. No sense in wasting my player's time making them do needless math.

 

All of which assumes a great deal that I did not say. You missed the point entirely.

 

*shrug*

[tesuji]

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses....

 

All of which assumes a great deal that I did not say. You missed the point entirely.

 

*shrug*

 

cool!

[gojira]

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses....

 

I only skimmed all the responses, but I didn't notice this:

 

1. Hunted shows up. Gets butt kicked. Variations on the theme "hunted gets butt kicked."

 

2. Hunted wises up a little, starts packing Flash grenades. Team has a temporary set back, then is able to find/buy/gadgeteer some Flash Defense. Return to previous theme.

 

3. Etc.

 

Yep plot device. Just be creative about it.

 

Also remember Hunteds don't always have to try to beat the character up. After a few times getting beat up, they might start spying on the characters "to learn their secrets" or some such. Hacking into the team computer, phony crimes to draw the characters into traps, hiring extra goons with different powers, harassing the other characters' DNPCs, going through their trash, standing outside pretending to be a hedge, etc. There's all sorts of things you can do with a basic Hunted.

[Pattern Ghost]

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses....

 

The Disadvantage system is inherently flawed at higher power levels if you use the suggested numbers. What GM really wants to keep track of an enforce 150 pts of Disadvantages for an entire group? This tends to dilute the higher point value disadvantages considerably.

 

It's more reasonable to cut back on allowed disadvantages (and by allowed, I mean required, because the game is usually balanced around everyone having the same total character cost and players will take the max points availble nine times out of ten), and have them be more meaningful.

 

I've got my Champions 5th book sitting here. Let's look at the sample team, the, er, Champions:

 

DNPCS: 4 total, one at 11-, the rest at 8-

Hunteds: Whole team has Viper 8-, then there are 7 more 8- hunteds that are NPCs.

Psych Lims:195 pts total, with everyone having 2-3 lims.

 

Then there are some throwaway Disads, like the team mage having a Vulnerability to Cold. Tell me they weren't just looking to fill out a full 150 disads with that one.

 

Flipping to the villains, you'll find that the villains don't even have a full 150 Disads, even on the 350 pt characters.

 

IMO, if the disads are used according to their mechanics, 50-100 pts should be plenty enough for a superheroic level game, and 25-50 should be plenty for anything lower powered. At least you'll be able to enforce the disadvantages. Giving out points for disadvantages you won't be enforcing is the same thing as giving out base character points anyway.

[tesuji]

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses....

 

Giving out points for disadvantages you won't be enforcing is the same thing as giving out base character points anyway.

 

pretty much agrement with this. I think the last HERO supergame i ran at 350 total cut required disads back to 100 pts. My plans for "the next game" was to drop it even lower or figure out a different tally system entirely.

 

IMX "required" disads gets you "required responses" while "cuz i want to" disads (not done cuz the points are needed) gets you things the player wants to see in play and te latter work muh better in the long run.

 

then again, I am the loony guy who wants most all chacter disads turned into three elements: frequency, severity, and flavor with far less mechanics details (limitations too but thats another story.)

[Pattern Ghost]

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses....

 

I think the frequency rolls should be dropped. Those rules come from an older mindset where the dice sometimes were expected to dictate a bit too much. I mean, if you rolled for a group of the Champions above, you're pretty much gauranteed to have a minimum of one hunted a session creep in.

 

The whole "The GM secretly makes this roll at the beginning of the adventure..." thing really needs to go.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses....

 

I think the frequency rolls should be dropped. Those rules come from an older mindset where the dice sometimes were expected to dictate a bit too much. I mean, if you rolled for a group of the Champions above, you're pretty much gauranteed to have a minimum of one hunted a session creep in.

 

The whole "The GM secretly makes this roll at the beginning of the adventure..." thing really needs to go.

 

I'd like to see a better discussion of frequency overall. I think it would be reasonable to leave the rolls as one rule of thumb, but also to discuss many of the options for a successful Hunted or DNPC roll other than "your hunted shows up to beat you up" and "your grandma is held hostage by the villains".

 

I'd like to map out a ling-term plan for the Hunted, with steps along the way that the heroes might hear about, or even be affected by, without direct presence of the Hunted. They could follow up at various points, or the plot could simply develop to the point where the Hunted's plans become a focus of the adventure. For example, one plot might start with, say, reports of a theft of some unusual element or item. It might follow with a scientific report of some unusual anomaly. That's two "plot advancement" rolls that don't even mention they result from the Hunted designing and building a device that will change Earth's magnetic poles.

[Pattern Ghost]

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses....

 

I think a big part of the problem is weaving 8 Hunteds into any storyline. I think we all grok what you're saying about varying means of using hunteds (and agree the rules could cover that some more, though I don't know if revised has expanded there or not as I don't have it), but a big part of the problem is the large number of disadvantages suggested as the default for a campaign.

 

Another way to handle some categories of Disadvantages where having too many can get difficult to manage just occured to me: Team disadvantages. The idea is similar to pooling points to buy bases and vehicles, except in reverse. Hmm. I don't have any suggestions on mechanics for that thought, as it just occured to me and I've been up all night.

[tesuji]

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses....

 

I think the frequency rolls should be dropped. Those rules come from an older mindset where the dice sometimes were expected to dictate a bit too much. I mean, if you rolled for a group of the Champions above, you're pretty much gauranteed to have a minimum of one hunted a session creep in.

 

 

Actually, why is having a hunted appear almost every scenario a bad thing for a super-team group?

 

Why is it a bad thing for the villain of the week not be just "some bad guy the Gm whipped out" but instead to be someone with history and backstory with the PCs backgrounds? Why not have the "adventures" be "personal" to the characters in this manner as a matter of course?

 

Now, one notion I have is that the notion of hunted being "their own thing" or "not part of the adventure" ought to be reexamined. Its certainly, IMO, wrong headed to think of "well i have my adventure already planned but now lets roll to see if their disads intervene and then try and inject these based on random rolls.

 

When i build a campaign, 90%+ of the design is done after i get PCs, and their background" becomes integral to the story. If they are hunted by demon, then the "villain group number two" jotted down as part of my arching plot becomes demon, not "some other group" and if they are hunted by mechanon then the evil overlord loosely determined to be behind it all is mechanon not "some other guy" and so on and so forth.

 

Now, of course, this is likely not the normal way of doing things and it does beg the question "but if you just replace the bad guy with their hunted where is the disadvantage?" is a perfectly valid question... but not one where i feel "the answer is to make it harder" but rather to ask the bigger question

 

"should hunteds be a disadvantage at all, giving you "bonus points", or should they be perhaps a normal element of "being a superhero" or whetever genre term you prefer?

 

An Aside...

 

I think the rolls should go as well, be replaced by more obvious metrics such as something simple like "how many sessions out of ten should this be a problem for your character" which is how i express frequency in the last HERO game I ran. If you ask it that way, you get very very different answers than you do if youput the rolls out there.

 

The ranges i used were usually

rare 1-2

Commonly: 4-6

Always: 8-10

 

Almost veryone chose a frequency of rare... some wanted less than that (not just for hunteds by the way.) No one chose always ever and even commonly was very scarce. However, looking back before this expression, 11- and 14- were not uncommon at all.

 

Now do that and also express SEVERITY as "how much hinderance does the problem typically cause your character durting the session"

 

Minor: Minimal loss of for example -2 penalties to rolls and/or -2 DC off attacks or -10 ap to powers, lose one action per turn.

Serious: -4/-4dcs, -20 ap to powers, lose two actions a turn,

Major: drastically hindered, like maybe having most/all powers nullified etc. only get one action a turn etc.

 

get rid of rolls and use "times in ten" and express "severity" in concrete "what doi i lose" terms and i think you stop seeing a lot of the excessive disads... but then, you might also as suggested want to review "how many disad poijns are required."

[JmOz]

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses....

 

While I agree, to some extent, I think that the power level of the Hunted must be considered based on the resources they will bring to bear against the target. Those resources may be combat-related, they may be investigative, they may cause problems for the character in some other fashion. But they MUST cause problems for the character commensurate with the power level assigned.

 

A character who is Hunted by VIPER does not, at least in my game, get to say "Oh, there's one lunch lady in the VIPER - Tuktayaktuk cell that really hates my character. She can't access any resources to give him any trouble. She really hates him, though, and she's with VIPER, and VIPER is more powerful than my character, so I took the Hunted an More Powerful."

 

Well, I gues e he gets to SAY that. He also gets to find another disadvantage, though.

 

 

For me: They get to say how bad it is, to use your viper example, if he makes it a low power, low regularity, no NCI, etc... Fine (basicaly a 5 point disad)

 

If he says more powerful...Well she just may become the next Super-Viper soldier...Player said More Powerful

 

 

goes for anything, a player took a Nosey Neibor one time as more powerful...did I have fun with that. The neibor was basicaly Jessica Fletcher and had a serious mistrust for t he player...

[Robyn]

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses....

 

"should hunteds be a disadvantage at all' date=' giving you "bonus points", or should they be perhaps a normal element of "being a superhero" or whetever genre term you prefer?[/quote']

 

Good question, and perhaps tying in with the "campaign baseline" (not to be confused with the system's baseline).

 

On the one hand, characters receiving additional points should be additionally impacted by enemies.

 

On the other hand, characters that are part of a group don't always handle things alone; that's part of what it means to be on a team. The characters who didn't take Hunted are going to be engaging with the enemy, even though they didn't receive any extra points for it.

 

But the Hunted might focus on whoever they were Hunting, so it should be possible to maintain that extra pressure even during a group fight.

[Pattern Ghost]

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses....

 

Actually, why is having a hunted appear almost every scenario a bad thing for a super-team group?

 

I agree on using the characters' backgrounds to fuel your scenarios. However, if one of the hunteds (or more, and most likely more based on one common hunted and seven individual hunteds, even on an 8-) shows up every session, then you've just created a cycle of the same guy showing up every 8 sessions, or even more frequently. This can get old very fast.

 

"should hunteds be a disadvantage at all, giving you "bonus points", or should they be perhaps a normal element of "being a superhero" or whetever genre term you prefer?

 

Again, I think the proliferation of hunteds is the issue. Perhaps if "Hunted" was replaced with "Nemesis" it'd be more fitting of an advantage. Let's take Batman. How many Hunteds does he have? He has a large, psychotic, rogue's galley, many of whom would like to see him dead or worse... but how many are really dedicated to making his life hell over the long term? Really, the Joker. He's the flip side to Batman's coin. He's the one villain that does the most to define the Batman. He's worth points. The rest aren't, they're just an occupational hazzard.

 

So, allowing just one Hunted per character would solve a lot of problems. You could just rename the disadvantage to "Nemesis" and assign a couple of choices for a flat point value to the disadvantage.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses....

 

I like the idea of evolving Hunted's, most commonly Mystery Hunteds. Most long-lasting Supers, as time goes by, lose some disadvantages and replace them with others' The girlfriend breaks up, but the hero's co-worker finds out about his secret and decides he should be a "sidekick", placing himself in danger. The Crimson Crowbar dies, but a new criminal on the scene decides that the Obsessed Avenger is too great a threat, and begins plotting to remove him from the picture.

 

Magneto appears in well over half of the first 11 or so X-Men issues. He's then removed from the scene for an extended period - but other forces do come after the X-Men.

 

A rogues' gallery Hunted also works well to rotate the characters.

 

Depending on campaign theme, the whole team being hunted by VIPER on a 14- can work - it just means the game is very much themed around VIPER. All the Teenage Mutamt Ninja Turtles seem to have a common 14- Hunted - virtually every adventure leads back to the same guys.

 

I'm a big fan of mystery hunteds - you set the points, and the GM will use your backstory (or perhaps things you don't know about your backstory) to set the actual Hunted.