Powers and Pulp

[awesomejohn]

I'm looking to bring Champions characters into a Pulp setting. But what do I do about their powers?

 

Here's what I'm looking at:

 

1. A character with ice-based projectiles.

2. A character with pretty standard "high fantasy" magic

3. A character with different powers every sixty minutes

4. Batman, sort of.

 

I have no problem moving Batman into Pulp, and I don't really have a problem moving the magic-user into setting, I can just scale back the specifics of magic.

 

But the other two....how can I balance the presence or lack of powers?

 

In a Champions setting, powers became the source of character identity, and practically a character unto themselves. If I strip them out, I'm worried about the disconnect. If I leave them in, it may become a balancing issue.

 

Suggestions? Thoughts?

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Powers and Pulp

 

Could you be a little more specific about what you're planning? Taking existing modern Champions supers and having them transformed into more pulpy characters?

 

Generally my thoughts on "supers->pulp" is "dial it down a notch" and for "pulp->supers" is "dial it up a notch".

 

So maybe something like:

 

1) Ice guy - low body temperature, resistant to cold. Uses ice/cold based gadgets/freeze ray gun instead of inherent ice projection. More Captain Cold, less Iceman.

 

2) Add more restrictions into the magic, like can only/can not target living things, incantations, etc. Powerful, but has an 'off switch' so can get captured by the natives/Nazis/cultists/gangsters and put into peril.

 

3) Again, add more restrictions. Since he's sorta like Hourman, maybe include some of those restrictions - needs a focus or something to activate, and can't do twice in a row (needs an hour recharge).

 

4) As noted, not a big problem.

 

One of the big points is that too much shouldn't be invested in their special ability. A pulp hero even without his powers/gear should be able to take on a couple of mooks.

[bubba smith]

Re: Powers and Pulp

 

I'm looking to bring Champions characters into a Pulp setting. But what do I do about their powers?

 

Here's what I'm looking at:

 

1. A character with ice-based projectiles.

2. A character with pretty standard "high fantasy" magic

3. A character with different powers every sixty minutes

4. Batman, sort of.

 

I have no problem moving Batman into Pulp, and I don't really have a problem moving the magic-user into setting, I can just scale back the specifics of magic.

 

But the other two....how can I balance the presence or lack of powers?

 

In a Champions setting, powers became the source of character identity, and practically a character unto themselves. If I strip them out, I'm worried about the disconnect. If I leave them in, it may become a balancing issue.

 

Suggestions? Thoughts?

make them1/3 as powerful as thier modern day versions

[Prometheus]

Re: Powers and Pulp

 

How about:

 

1. A character with ice-based projectiles.

"A man so cold, so fearless, he freezes his foes in their tracks."

 

A high PRE, some Change Environment (That Guy Gives Me the Chills), Lightning Reflexes (Frozen in their Tracks), and either Combat Skill Levels or +1d6 KA with Pistols- or both (Stone Cold Dead).

 

2. A character with pretty standard "high fantasy" magic

For pulp, this would likely be a mesmerist, but it could also be something a little more exotic. An archeologist trained as a Shaman? Or better yet, some cross-cultural knowledge? Practically any power could be included.

 

"Not to worry. We take a little Australian bat guano, this Rhodesian gemstone, and a pinch of the Tso-Tso tribe's 'Red Fire Dust' and..."

 

*BOOM!!!*

 

3. A character with different powers every sixty minutes

"The Living Library!"

 

Cramming bought multiple times, Acting to represent a degree of adaptability, a block of Overall Skill Levels (Anything You Can Do...), and a Shape Change/Disguise combo with Continuing Charges to represent a material (Plastic X!) that allows him to take on the appearance of others, but only for an hour.

 

4. Batman' date=' sort of. [/quote']

 

Sorry, I'm drawing a blank...

[assault]

Re: Powers and Pulp

 

Are the characters being designed for the setting, or are they existing characters from some other setting?

 

Either way, I would make sure they were at least occasionally facing comparable opponents, and would think very hard about their vulnerability or otherwise against random thugs.

 

I've got an "early Golden Age" setting which I've been working on lately, which is essentially a Pulps with Powers setting. I wasn't planning on making the PCs too vulnerable to the Bad Guys - I was planning on putting a lot of the challenge in the non-combat part of the game.

 

Personally, I wouldn't go for the set of characters you have described, or at least I would think about them differently. I would model the magic guy more on folks like Mandrake or Zatara, and leave the "High Fantasy" ideas for Fantasy games. In particular, I wouldn't give him defences that were on all the time, in order to allow for the possibility of someone getting the drop on him.

 

That mightn't be a bad principle for all your characters (although I would modify it for any wannabe Superman characters that came along!)

 

I'd need to see the ice and power-changing guys before I could usefully comment about them.

 

I recommend reading any Golden Age comics you can lay your hands on. A lot of them are pretty much Pulp with Powers.

[Basil]

Re: Powers and Pulp

 

I'm looking to bring Champions characters into a Pulp setting. But what do I do about their powers?

 

Here's what I'm looking at:

 

1. A character with ice-based projectiles.

"Dr. Jacoby and His Amazing Freezo-Ray-Gun." Make it Weird Science and it should work out.

 

2. A character with pretty standard "high fantasy" magic

All the wrong feel for the pulps. Mystic Masters are quite different from high fantasy wizards.

 

3. A character with different powers every sixty minutes

Why do they change? What sorts of powers? That's key to figuring out how to make it fit in a pulp campaign

 

4. Batman, sort of.

Now that's going to be tricky.

 

[bubba smith]

Re: Powers and Pulp

 

3. A character with different powers every sixty minutes

by this i take it you mean a"ben 10 kind of deal?

[st barbara]

Re: Powers and Pulp

 

A lot depends on how many points these characters are built on. The one I have the most trouble with is the "different powers every sixty minutes" one. The others are easy enough to simulate with pulp era tech or making the "magician" really use hypnotism and misdierection with just a few relatively minor magical effects rather than the "fireball flinger" type of mage more often found in Fantasy or Supers campaigns.

[awesomejohn]

Re: Powers and Pulp

 

I should have given more details.

 

I've got characters not designed for a Pulp setting being thrust into a Pulp environment. I know the magic user is the wrong feel for Pulp, I want the fish-out-of-water feeling. I have a character with intermittent sixty minute powers as a result of foul alchemy.

 

I don't expect them to stay in the Pulp setting long. Of course I said that with the last campaign, and we were in it for almost a year.

 

They're the standard heroes-with-powers and I'm hoping the Pulp atmosphere will do two things:

 

1. Let them punch Nazis.

2. Prove to them that they're not just sacks of powers but heroes because of MORE THAN their powers.

 

The way things look now, I'm dialing things way down, practically to a single "power" per character (in the case of the unstable man, I'm making it variable), and letting the pulp setting breathe a little on them.

 

Thanks.

[Merovign]

Re: Powers and Pulp

 

It's all about balancing the challenges to the characters. It's easy enough to make a "Pulp Setting" that fits with super-powered characters, and if you've been successfuly creating challenges and enemies in a Champions campaign, just keep doing what you've been doing.

 

Scaling down the characters, I would think, would only be needed if you want to use pre-made challenges and enemies, or just want to tone down the campaign, in which case the suggestions above about "flavor changes" in addition to simple points-changes are awesome. But you're kind of making new characters at that point - which is also cool, sort of a "multiverse" kind of thing.

 

But you can also scale up the setting to meet the characters - especially if the players are happy with the challenge level.

[bubba smith]

Re: Powers and Pulp

 

I should have given more details.

 

I've got characters not designed for a Pulp setting being thrust into a Pulp environment. I know the magic user is the wrong feel for Pulp, I want the fish-out-of-water feeling. I have a character with intermittent sixty minute powers as a result of foul alchemy.

 

I don't expect them to stay in the Pulp setting long. Of course I said that with the last campaign, and we were in it for almost a year.

 

They're the standard heroes-with-powers and I'm hoping the Pulp atmosphere will do two things:

 

1. Let them punch Nazis.

2. Prove to them that they're not just sacks of powers but heroes because of MORE THAN their powers.

 

god idea i hope it works out