Points and Parameters for a "Sunday Drivers"-like scenario

[Utech]

This is rather long. At the end, I'm asking for input.

 

A fond memory: Playing one of the "Sunday Drivers" Car Wars expansion scenarios. One side was playing the residents of Midville and the other was playing a group of drivers coming into town to trash it. Each side was given a certain amount of money to spend on cars, motorcycles, weapons, armor, etc. The townies could set traps and generally prepare for the drivers. The drivers would come up with their own tactics. Mayhem (fun!) followed.

 

I'm considering setting up something similar for HERO as a one-off battle royal. Each side is given some number of points and encouraged to spend them all on characters, vehicles, automatons, computers, etc. One side must also spend points on a base. In the base we place the MacGuffin. The invaders want to take/kill/turn on/whatever the MacGuffin and the defenders want to stop the invaders from doing so.

 

This could be for all sorts of different genres, of course.

Fantasy: invaders want to kill the king in his castle; invaders want to disrupt the end of the world ritual the local necromancer is conducting in his crypt

Star Hero: aliens attack the star base looking for unobtainium; space marines enter the space hulk in order to activate the self-destruct sequence

Pulp Hero, Champions, and more are certainly possible.

 

Here's the input I'm looking for:

 

1. How many points should each side be given? What are some general cut-offs?
   
2. What restrictions should be placed on what the points are spent on? (Example: All points spent on a big bomb might win, but would also clearly not be in the spirit of the game.)
   
3. What problems and/or opportunities do you see arising with this sort of game?
   

 

Any thoughts are much appreciated.

[jtelson]

Re: Points and Parameters for a "Sunday Drivers"-like scenario

 

Hmmm - Number of points would probably depend on the number of players and how involved you wanted the scenario(s) to be - my first pass would probably be 250 points per player divided evenly between teams. I think there would need to be a 'buy in' cost for People to prevent the I have an infinite number of baseline bodies running around. I haven't picked up Ultimate Base (yet) but it might be a good resource for you to start with.

[Susano]

Re: Points and Parameters for a "Sunday Drivers"-like scenario

 

I think you, as the GM should design the basic base (to keep things from getting out of hand). I also think you need to decide what the power level you want is. For example, with Mondos versus Bikers, you're only talking Heroic-level PCs built on (5E) 75+75, or (6E) 175 points or so. Multiple by 30 Mondos and you're talking at least 4,500 points. Vehicles are tricky, since you divide by 5, so you need to decide... do you count the value before dividing by 5, or after? There's also the number of characters to think about. For example in Space Marines versus Gene-Stealers in the Space Hulk , Space Marines are easily 400 points (more more) each, while the Gene-Stealers are much less, but come in mobs. Oh, and here's a good question -- doe you have to buy all of your guy's gear?

 

Probably the first order of business is to decide a setting -- post-apoc oil refinery, floating derelict in space, castle on a cliff, and so on. Then decide on the objective and thus, the participants. This will help decide power level, point totals for most PCs, gear and vehicles, and so on and so forth.

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Points and Parameters for a "Sunday Drivers"-like scenario

 

I've pretty much come to the conclusion that if you're going to use Hero for a wargaming scenario like this, you need to pay full points for everything...no cost breaks for followers, vehicles, or multiples of the same power. All that stuff's fine for allowing a role-playing character to have some depth without spending all his points on it, but for something like this all that +5 for x2 can result in some pretty ridiculous numbers.

[Utech]

Re: Points and Parameters for a "Sunday Drivers"-like scenario

 

Thank you for the replies!

 

CO: I like the idea. I do, however, want to encourage people to spend points on more than characters. I suppose that might be ruled in with something like, "You have X points to spend on characters, Y points to spend on vehicles..." etc.

 

Susano: The Space Hulk scenario suggests a way to simplify all of this. As I remember, the Space Marines simply picked from a short menu of equipment options and the Gene-Stealers were all identical. It would really speed things up if the GM were to create a menu of character, vehicle, automaton, computer, etc. options. I'll look into it.

[AnotherSkip]

Re: Points and Parameters for a "Sunday Drivers"-like scenario

 

car wars pretty much predivided characters vs equipment. therefore I would at least predivide at least that much.

 

i would suggest TUV (within limits) + Plus Surbrooks ( http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptationsvehicles/vehicle.html) for some interesting ideas and Gadgets and gear or some Dark champions for the weapons. For the original Car wars gear/flavor.

[Susano]

Re: Points and Parameters for a "Sunday Drivers"-like scenario

 

There's also Autoduel Champions... if you can find it.

[jtelson]

Re: Points and Parameters for a "Sunday Drivers"-like scenario

 

There's also Autoduel Champions... if you can find it.

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000B7PWBY/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1266679043&sr=8-1&condition=all

[Susano]

Re: Points and Parameters for a "Sunday Drivers"-like scenario

 

Heh, I have a copy ofd Autoduel Champions... I think I may have to migrate the NPCs and vehicles to HERO 6E and post the results.