Not quite normal campaign guidelines

[Heroic Halfwit]

I started this project quite a while ago with the idea of creating more specific character creation guidelines to help ensure schtick protection and minimize Speed creep among other issues. The original thought was that you take normal people with normal characteristics and then upgrade them into superheroes using real world referents like .44 Magnums for damage and Kevlar armor for resistant protection. Ultimately, as has happened so often, I needed to diverge from this original idea to make characters survivable. Anyway, I offer this for your perusal, commentary and critique.

 

The Not Quite Normal Superhero Campaign Character Creation Guidelines

 

Each of the following Tables summarizes the campaign rules for each detailed characteristic. They are divided into 5 levels. Level 1 should be considered the campaign floor characters with abilities below Level 1 may not survive the campaign. No concept justification is required for abilities at Level 1. Level 2 represent a range of abilities where some concept justification is appropriate, but not required. Level 3 abilities are the "soft cap." Abilities in the range of Level 3 require some concept justification, furthermore abilities in Level 3 are the maximum for abilities outside the character's "schtick." Schtick is defined as that which primarily defines your character and makes him/her/it unique. Level 4 abilities represent that range of abilities for characters who are closely associated with the ability but not primarily defined by it. This is the maximum level of ability for concepts such as "demi bricks" and the like. Level 5 abilities are defining abilities, abilities in this level are or form a significant part of the character's schtick.

 

Speed:

 

L1 Speed 2

L2 Speed 3

L3 Speed 4

L4 Speed 5

L5 Speed 6

 

Resistant Protection

L1 rDef 9

L2 rDef 15

L3 rDef 20

L4 rDef 25

L5 rDef 35

 

DCV

L1 DCV 5

L2 DCV 6

L3 DCV 8

L4 DCV 10

L5 DCV 15

 

OCV

L1 OCV 3

L2 OCV 5

L3 OCV 8

L4 OCV 9

L5 OCV 11+

 

Damage Classes

L1 6 DC's

L2 8 DC's

L3 10 DC's

L4 12 DC's

L5 14 DC's

 

 

All characters are still subject to the Mark 1.0 GM Eye ball test, but these guidelines should provide you with a better sense of what abilities are necessary to create a particular concept. Under these guidelines, the average superhero level antagonists has a CV of 8, 10 Damage Classes of attack, and Resistant defenses of 15-20.

 

I've strayed considerably from my original plan to make characters survivable. Anyway, I throw it out for your comment, suggestion etc.

 

Thanks for reading.

[Panpiper]

Re: Not quite normal campaign guidelines

 

This is a much simpler system to grasp for a player than most "Rule of X" systems I have ever seen. I applaud your effort.

[kahuna's bro]

Re: Not quite normal campaign guidelines

 

as do i

[The Suave]

Re: Not quite normal campaign guidelines

 

Especially if these are new players, then this writeup is great! It's very easy to grasp as a new player: "Oh, so there are all these different power levels for stuff like armor and damage. I'll buy armor up to heeere, and damage up to heeere, and maybe he's kinda quick but not too fast so I'll buy speed up to heeere." It makes it very easy for the players to have a hand in character creation, but for the GM to be able to really guide them.

 

Repped.

[Steve]

Re: Not quite normal campaign guidelines

 

Let me start by saying that I applaud your effort to create detailed guidelines for your players.

 

I started this project quite a while ago with the idea of creating more specific character creation guidelines to help ensure schtick protection and minimize Speed creep among other issues. The original thought was that you take normal people with normal characteristics and then upgrade them into superheroes using real world referents like .44 Magnums for damage and Kevlar armor for resistant protection. Ultimately, as has happened so often, I needed to diverge from this original idea to make characters survivable. Anyway, I offer this for your perusal, commentary and critique.

 

The Not Quite Normal Superhero Campaign Character Creation Guidelines

 

Each of the following Tables summarizes the campaign rules for each detailed characteristic. They are divided into 5 levels. Level 1 should be considered the campaign floor characters with abilities below Level 1 may not survive the campaign. No concept justification is required for abilities at Level 1. Level 2 represent a range of abilities where some concept justification is appropriate, but not required. Level 3 abilities are the "soft cap." Abilities in the range of Level 3 require some concept justification, furthermore abilities in Level 3 are the maximum for abilities outside the character's "schtick." Schtick is defined as that which primarily defines your character and makes him/her/it unique. Level 4 abilities represent that range of abilities for characters who are closely associated with the ability but not primarily defined by it. This is the maximum level of ability for concepts such as "demi bricks" and the like. Level 5 abilities are defining abilities, abilities in this level are or form a significant part of the character's schtick.

 

Speed:

 

L1 Speed 2

L2 Speed 3

L3 Speed 4

L4 Speed 5

L5 Speed 6

 

Since there are only five speed categories and presumably L5 would be used for speedsters, why not tweak the range to run from 3-7? That puts your soft cap in the 4-5 range, which is not overpowered.

 

 

Resistant Protection

L1 rDef 9

L2 rDef 15

L3 rDef 20

L4 rDef 25

L5 rDef 35

 

The way I read these numbers is that there is a weight towards the top. L2-L4 have a five point difference, but then L5 jumps up by ten from L4 and L1 is lower by only 6 from L2. Also, what are your standards for non-resistant defenses?

 

DCV

L1 DCV 5

L2 DCV 6

L3 DCV 8

L4 DCV 10

L5 DCV 15

 

OCV

L1 OCV 3

L2 OCV 5

L3 OCV 8

L4 OCV 9

L5 OCV 11+

 

My only comments on these two categories would be to synch them up a little tighter. DCV looks to be a little higher on average than OCV in some categories but not all of them. If you want a little more missing built into the categories, then take your OCV ranges and add 1 to get your L1-L5 DCV ranges, maybe adding 2-3 instead at L5

 

Damage Classes

L1 6 DC's

L2 8 DC's

L3 10 DC's

L4 12 DC's

L5 14 DC's

 

This seems to scale fairly well. I might suggest linking this up to your defense numbers to get resistant and non-resistant levels. Say 1.5 times DC at a given level to get the equivalent L1 Resistant Defense and 2 to 2.5 times DC to get non-Resistant.

[Heroic Halfwit]

Re: Not quite normal campaign guidelines

 

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately the tables didn't port over and I forgot the footnotes.

 

On Speed: putting the "soft cap" at 4 was intentional, for several reasons one of which is Speedsters. Speed for a Speedster is a defining characteristic, but I wanted that Speed defined more in terms of "I'm twice as fast as a highly skilled martial artist and three times faster than a mere human." I also wanted to balance in game "screen time." Having a Speedster act three times in a row before anyone else does get onerous for the other players. With a hard cap of 6, even a Speed 2 Brick only has to wait out 2 phases relative to the Speedster. The other primary reason was human scaling. I wanted what would in 5th be called characters with "normal characteristic maxima" a reasonable shot.

 

Everything in my guidelines was designed with the idea that it is the relative difference that creates meaning in Hero, rather than absolute points. E.g. a 10d6 energy blast can be absurdly powerful where average defenses are 8-10, or massively underpowered if average defenses are 40+. In too many Hero games, I found the slowest characters were Speed 4, most were 5 or 6, so a Speedster had to take Speed 12 just to be twice as fast as average. In these guidelines, a Speedster can be 3x faster than the average brick (SPd 2), 2x as fast as the average energy projector (Spd 3) and still 50% faster than the fastest martial artist (Spd 4). And there's still room for that Speedster to develop their characteristic power.

 

Resistance Protection

The gaps Steve noted are intentional, and are based on what I calculated the average damage getting through. Again assuming an average super powered attack of 10d6, a rDef of 35 will allow the character to basically ignore it. If "things bounce off" is a core concept then a character with this level of protection is appropriate. Level 4 was for Demi-bricks and others whose primary defense is resistant protection, this allows a very reasonable level protection while not stepping on the "pure brick" schtick of "stuff bounces off." The minimum was set at 9, because anything less than that is likely to get you killed very quickly, and the soft cap 20 because it's still a good amount of protection (particularly since many characters at this level would have other damage mitigation abilities darkness, higher DCV, invisibility what have you) while giving the "demi brick" some schtick space.

 

All that said, this part is the most likely to require the GM Eyeball test. The overall goal was to create a system where even the most fragile characters weren't constantly going to hospital, while preserving some threat even to the most resilient. As far as resistant vrs. normal defense, that's rolled in. Basically, a character whose concept is not really tied up in "stuff bounces off" can have a pd or ed of 20, how they want to divide that up into resistant or non-resistant defenses is up to the player, bearing in mind the strong recommendation that the character have at least 9rpd.

 

On the OCV/DCV thing:

 

The gap between OCV and DCV is to provide space for Artful Dodger or "DCV as my primary defense" concepts. The problem with CV is that not all CV is created equal. For example an OCV 5 v. DCV 5 character gains more to hit probability from a +1 OCV modifier (12.5%), than an OCV 10 v. DCV 5 (little over 1%). So just as the bricks needed a level of resistant protection so that they could ignore most stuff, an Artful Dodger needs to have sufficient gap between his DCV and the opponents OCV to be "mostly unhittable." The gap is more extreme between OCV and DCV than Damage Classes and Resistant Defenses, because DCV, in my opinion, is just a whole lot more vulnerable than Resistant Defenses.

 

Resistant Defense has to worry about Armor Piercing, NND's, both of which mathematically rarely out perform the active point equivalent in the base attack. By contrast the High DCV character's has to worry about Flash, Darkness, Invisibility, certain environmental effects such as Zero-G, muddy or unstable terrain, certain Pre attack levels, any area of effect essentially negates it, etc.

 

Resistant Defense has to worry about some combat maneuvers Hay Maker, Offensive Strike come to mind; DCV has to worry about Most Martial Arts attacks, Braced, Set, etc.

 

May occasions arise where the GM would disrespect the gap? Sure, I can see a character like Bull's Eye who had "I don't miss" as a very central aspect to his character having an OCV greater than 11. But I would also hope that that divergence would be balanced by keeping Bull's Eye's damage classes and speed relatively low. Alternatively, there could be a sniper type character where the divergent OCV might require that the character be braced and set.

 

I just wanted to see more diversity in games and more difference between characters. I remember the first Champions Book I read with the sample characters. Bricks were Spd 4 or 5, Energy Projectors generally 5, Martial Artists 5-6. Everyone had an effective pd/ed of at least 20, most were at 25 and bricks had pd/ed of 28-30. Everyone pretty much had 10 to 12 damage classes. Combat Maneuvers were very optional because most had a CV 7-8, the high end was 10, the low 5.

 

Still working on it, everything is subject to judgment

[Matt Holck]

Re: Not quite normal campaign guidelines

 

If bricks are running around with a 2 spd and martial artist with a 3 spd,

Recovery while have a significant effect on combat which may go into extra-phases

Speed is not so expensive in 6th with the extra points and strength not effecting other characteristics

 

as far as the death ray goes

resistant defenses is dependent on the campaign limits of DCV as well

 

I'm tired of every character having kill resist that destroys flavor as well