A Matter of Balance

[Dr Divago]

First Thing: I'm new

i'm new to this forum and to Hero System too...

 

Actually i'm not playing with Hero System, and, sadly, i dont have possibility to play Hero System in recent future (Why about 90% people i known want to play only "Caverns and Fire-breathing-flying-reptiles"? )

 

But, i will be in a Con next week; so i'm preparing a Hero Adventure to play:)

 

And this is Second Thing, aka The Problem: How can i balance encounter?

 

I Mean: i've prepared a party of 4-6 superhero with a total point betwen 175 and 220, and i'm preparing some enemies to face the party.

 

And how many point can i put in the enemy creation to be sure is neither too powerful neither too simple to defeat?

 

how many points to create a thug who die with one single fist? and for a just-a-little-stronger-enemy? and for the Big Villain, final Villain of the adventure, how many point i can use?

 

I hope you can help me, and i hope you've understood what i mean (my english is very poor, i know...)

 

Best regards

[Talon]

Because of the flexibility of the Hero System, you can't really balance character based on point totals alone. (This is true of most point-based systems, I suppose.) Someone who spends their points in a combat-oriented manner is going to do better than someone who doesn't.

 

Digital Hero #3 had an "Effectiveness Rating" article which is a pretty good, if complex, method for rating characters. Failing that, the best thing to do is eyeball OCV vs. DCV, damage vs. defenses, and compare SPDs to see how 2 characters will fare in combat. If character A will hit character B on a 14-, and his attack will on average Stun character B, and his SPD is the same or higher, then character B is definitely outmatched.

[Zed-F]

If you have the time, how about you grab a friend and model out the combat? That should be a good way to get a general idea of how it will go down. I'd suggest you try it once, spend a bit of time thinking about how you could have done it better (e.g. if the brick forgot he could lob a car at that pesky flying EB guy, remember that,) make any adjustments you think the characters need based on the results, and then have that same friend over for a rematch. By the time the rematch is over, any further tweaks you might need should be at most minor ones.

[Dr Divago]

Originally posted by Zed-F

If you have the time, how about you grab a friend and model out the combat?

Well this is the best thing, i suppose...

 

and i want to "playtest" both adventure and game (i'm not playing with game, and i think is almost indispensable playtest both before the con)

 

but the problem is: how can i create the enemy characthers? i mean, i must create an adventure to test, right? and i must start with some "base points"; the plot is gone, so i need only enemy and "obstacles"...

but i must start with creation of some "base enemy", and eventually modifing them if too powerful or too weak; and i miss a system to judge if an enemy power is ok or not...

 

Talon say:

Originally posted by Talon

Because of the flexibility of the Hero System, you can't really balance character based on point totals alone. (This is true of most point-based systems, I suppose.)

and this is the point :(

 

so only method to say if an enemy is too powerful or not is to playtest;

and to test i must have some enemy created...

is an endless loop,

 

I'm Sure, experience can do the difference... experienced masters understand immediately if an enemy is a match or a time loss (or a massacre)

 

But for starting...

 

Failing that, the best thing to do is eyeball OCV vs. DCV, damage vs. defenses, and compare SPDs to see how 2 characters will fare in combat. If character A will hit character B on a 14-, and his attack will on average Stun character B, and his SPD is the same or higher, then character B is definitely outmatched.

I Think i'll use this method to evaluate power of the enemy, in the first stances

 

Successively, i'll playtest it if possible ('cause i've an examen this week, and Romics, this Roma Con where i may master this adventure, is next week...)

 

Thank you all

 

PS: add-ons to this message

If you want to see a little what i've made, go to La Casa di Alice (Home of Alice)

And inpput "dottordivago" as userid and "alice" as password (lower case)

This a "little" virtual HDD, and here you can find "enema1_1.doc" and "schlight.doc", respectively sheet of enemies (lack of supervillain) and sheet of 2 PC (other files is italian house rules for "Cavern&Fire-Breathing-Flying-Reptiles" :p

 

Sorry if some history/background is in italian (and some missing ) but is only a beta file

[Dr Divago]

Originally posted by Talon

Digital Hero #3 had an "Effectiveness Rating" article which is a pretty good, if complex, method for rating characters. Failing that, the best thing to do is eyeball OCV vs. DCV, damage vs. defenses, and compare SPDs to see how 2 characters will fare in combat. If character A will hit character B on a 14-, and his attack will on average Stun character B, and his SPD is the same or higher, then character B is definitely outmatched.

Well, in Hero Games site i've found an XLS that calculate "Effectiveness Total"

I think is something similar :)

 

But i think there's a problem...

cause calcualtiong, the 215 points automa result in 15,60 points (after triplication of PD and ED) and "normal lightning-bolter PC" result in 37 points...

 

so... where is the problem?

[zornwil]

Although I want to spend some time with the Effectiveness Rating, I haven't, so sorry I can't comment on that.

 

Please don't take the following the wrong way: a CON seems to be a pretty tough place to try your hand at GMing HERO if you're not yet familiar with balancing villains (or trying - it's always a struggle!).

 

That being said, I would suggest the following, both in answer to your question and how to deal with the fact you may well find in actual play things aren't as balance as they seem:

 

1 - Real real generally, I like to think of total villain points as around 2-3 times that of the PCs. Even 4-6 times if you don't build ANY efficiency in (i.e,. you don't feel like bulding frameworks. Now, this multiple should be ratcheted down if there are several villains with differing abilities, i.e., the team is flexible. A single bad guy might be at the high end or higher of this multiple. But this is only a "checkpoint", and the real abilities will dictate.

 

2 - More importantly, balance the damage classes against the defenses (both ways). Look for any obvious knock-out attacks - these are fine, but you want to know going in if your villain(s) can take out half the heroes immediately. You can crudely play-test this yourself by running a few attacks against the defenses or simply looking at what the average and higher value attacks will do (remember to factor in SPD and CV values - if I knock you out only 1 out of 3 times with this attack on average, but my SPD is 8 and yours is 3, and my OCV is 10 and your DCV is 4, I'm going to knock you out in a turn almost certainly).

 

3 - Consider SFX. Make sure your villain team doesn't have "everything" covered, but make sure they have some solid - and interesting as opposed to the PCs - ground covered.

 

4 - In play, the first few phases will tell you how things are really going. Be very prepared to ratchet your attacks down "behind the scenes" (i.e., just scratch it out while you're GMing and bring some attacks down) or simply let the villains play dumber if they're overpowering. But also be prepared to ratchet up on the fly as well. This applies of course to defenses as well.

 

At least you've got a great start because you designed the super-heroes, so you CAN playtest yourself. I almost never do that, but if you're walking into a con and don't know the players and aren't sure of balancing, it's essential you take a shot at playing both sides. Remember, though, a group of players nearly always will be better than your characters in combat as they have many minds and less to worry about individually than you. So I wouldn't worry if your villains consistently beat your heroes in playtest unless it's extreme, in which case you should bring down the villains. Also, of course, you might be a superb tactician, so take what I said with a grain of salt if so and adjust accordingly.

 

Let us know how it goes!

[Pattern Ghost]

For mooks that fall over in one punch: Just say "This mook falls over in one punch." and forget about his defenses, etc. Just assign his CV and damage value.

 

For characters more on par with the heroes, just observe the same limitations for CV and for defenses and attack DCs as the heroes, but place them on the low to middle end of that range.

 

You can also work out the average defenses, average damage from attacks and compare CVs to figure out the likelihood of attacks getting through. You can do that with group averages or on a one to one basis.

 

There's also the rule of thumb (from the "Playing the Numbers" section in the old BBB, pg. S22) that the average defenses should be 2 times the maximum attack dice (normal attacks, or DCs of killing attacks) and the maximum of 2.5 times the maximum attack dice. So, if the maximum attack is 12d6, average defenses would be around 24 and max would be around 30. Defenses are a little lower in the new Champions universe, though, which speeds up combat. A CV advantage of greater than 4 means the defender only gets hit one in six times. (Same article), so you have a range of CV to work with. SPD for full strength villains should be about the same range as PCs for a fair fight. Too much lower, and the villains will be at a serious disadvantage, and it won't seem "even."

 

Of course, you can create villains of any power level that's close to the PCs, and not worry too much if they're a bit too powerful by simply playing them "dumb" and not using the full range of combat options for the NPCs, while encouraging the players to take advantage of all their options. Also, make sure some of the villains have vulnerabilities to attack SFX the players have, but that the reverse isn't true. If a particular hero hasn't attacked a villain who's hammering someone else hard, you can simply give him the vulnerability on the spot as soon as the new hero hits him. That'll quickly even things up if you've got a too powerful villain, and nobody is the wiser. (Not that you want to do that sort of thing all the time, but heck, the good guys should win on their first outing, it keeps 'em coming back for more.)

 

Generally, I don't sweat balancing things too much. I give guidelines for the PCs and follow those guidelines for my villains mostly. That gives a fair fight, and I can usually be out thought by a group of PCs using their collective RPG savvy, so it's not a big problem. My players do get knocked around a bit, but will prevail nine times out of ten. After all, they only have one character to run, while I have several, and they have mulitpile POVs to look at a situaion with, while I only have one. That's a pretty good balancing factor IME.

[Killer Shrike]

Consider buying the Shades of Black adventure (in pdf format) from the Online Store and running that straight, using 350 point PCs.

 

Baring that, here is a link to Enforcers INC: http://www.killershrike.com/EnforcersINC , a group of super thugs for hire. Using the lower pointed ones if you are running supers at the low totals you indicated, you should be ok.

[prestidigitator]

You might also consider how much of a challenge you actually want to provide. If you are running an adventure with players who know nothing about the system and little about roleplaying, you probably want to give them little challenge; just make it a fun introduction to the system that isn't likely to frustrate them or turn them off in other ways.

 

On the other hand, if you think you will get a group of experienced roleplayers (maybe even if they don't know anything about Hero), you could give them a real challenge; make a scenario which they are going to have difficulty beating unless they think hard, pool their resources, and use a high level of teamwork. Still don't make the solutions really system-specific, but put together situations where it should be reasonably easy to figure out given the concepts of the PCs and NPCs, the setting, etc.

 

I don't have a lot of experience with Cons, and I have no idea how they might be in your area, but I have put together games for several kinds of independant game groups, in several different systems. Even with a group who are close friends, introducing something new can be tricky. The best advice I can give is: don't scare them; don't unduly frustrate them; don't lord over them anything you might know about the system that they do not; don't cause them to feel like puking when they hear the word "Hero" in the future.

[Dr Divago]

Originally posted by zornwil

Please don't take the following the wrong way: a CON seems to be a pretty tough place to try your hand at GMing HERO if you're not yet familiar with balancing villains (or trying - it's always a struggle!).

Sigh i know...

so i want to playtest this BEFORE but...

the con is next sunday (well, fromthursday to sunday but i can go only in sunday) so i don't known can playtest...

 

in every case, i don't know if i will play Hero at this Con, 'cause if i don't' playtest it's problematic, and i know that around 90% players want only to play in Dungeons killing Dragons

(i like D&D but HEY THERE'S SOMETHING ELSE!!!)

 

1 - Real real generally, I like to think of total villain points as around 2-3 times that of the PCs. Even 4-6 times if you don't build ANY efficiency in (i.e,. you don't feel like bulding frameworks.

Well i planned this:

1) initial attack from some "robot", automaton with OCV/DCV3 and PD/ED4 (non resistent) and a single 12 active points energy blast (3d6, no kcnokback, beam; SFX variable from indiviual to individual) and 8 body. Total 105 point.

Exact number will be decided in game, if are too weak or to "fast to die" i'll increase the number, and viceversa

This attack will be to let "known" characters each others

 

2) attacked from some robot,CV3, Body10, PD/ED6 (14-, 4 resistent) and a 12 points EB to force them to collaborate each others; can put down one or two of them but before or after must flee (140points total)

the plot is: TV have filmed first combat and declared that hero are supervillain; so the group must demonstrate his innocence

 

3) variable, the group can:

3a) assault enemy base (full of soldier, cv4 stun 24 body 10, 11PD/ED (14-, 8 resistent) with 9mm pistol (4 dc) and 5d6 stun only Hand Attack, total cost 100), with some veteran (little better with 12 body and 9 points energy rifle, 132 total cost)) in strategic points, and one or two mechasoldier (30 STR, 10 PD/ED Resistent+damage reduction 25% and life support, and a 10 points energy rifle, total cost 164) at the end.

 

3b) sneak in a secondary base; lot of soldier and little robot, some veteran and/or advanced robot (STR 18, 5PD/3Ed 82 resistent)automaton with 12 body and a collection of weapon (VPP changed only in laboratory, around 15 active points for each "weapons") total cost 150) in strategic points/end of base

 

3c) use intelligence and sneak in the TV Studios, (at most, combat with some overweighted donuts-eater cops )

 

At the end, the cgoup decouver there's someone else behind this and follow to investigate into the next destination

 

4) last destination, house of the "master plotter", before the entrance combat with a single powerful villain, redcap, around 200 total cost, with 5CV, 21 stun, 2PD/3ED (and armor/absorption to stun up to 12 ED), 2d6 NND EB (11 points), teleport 5" ½end (19), Suppress 3d6 cumulative, and sense energy (targeting touch group sense)

This one must be most tough combat

 

5) after this combat, RedCap flee (back-to-home teleport ) and group can enter the final room, wher encounter Kynetik, a 60year old man (inspired me by Magnet of XMen films), much powerful mastervillain (around 520 points, with STR40 no end TK, Telekinetik shield, and some similiar, plus ECV8 )

Killing RedCap the group has "freed" him, which power was "supressed" by RedCap; he has planned all to be free;

he state some revelation (yes, even the "I am your father" if in the group are one particular PC :) )

He give at the hero the unomidifed film, so the group can demonstrate his innocence, and fly away

 

This is, VERY SHORTLY the plot i've prepared

 

2 - More importantly,

sniiip(remember to factor in SPD and CV values - if I knock you out only 1 out of 3 times with this attack on average, but my SPD is 8 and yours is 3, and my OCV is 10 and your DCV is 4, I'm going to knock you out in a turn almost certainly).

all enemies are SPD2 except for final that are SPD3, and party are around 2-3 of SPD

 

3 - Consider SFX. Make sure your villain team doesn't have "everything" covered, but make sure they have some solid - and interesting as opposed to the PCs - ground covered.

Yeah, the roboto are MUCH vulnerable to lightning attack from one PC and two another PC has a killing attack (one ranged, one HtH)

 

Let us know how it goes!

I'll do

 

 

Originally posted by Pattern Ghost

For mooks that fall over in one punch: Just say "This mook falls over in one punch." and forget about his defenses, etc. Just assign his CV and damage value.

well if necessary is a good iea

 

There's also the rule of thumb (from the "Playing the Numbers" section in the old BBB, pg. S22) that the average defenses should be 2 times the maximum attack dice (normal attacks, or DCs of killing attacks) and the maximum of 2.5 times the maximum attack dice.

one moment: must be around 2-2.5 times MY max attack or ENEMIES max attack?

 

Generally, I don't sweat balancing things too much. I give guidelines for the PCs and follow those guidelines for my villains mostly. That gives a fair fight, and I can usually be out thought by a group of PCs using their collective RPG savvy, so it's not a big problem. My players do get knocked around a bit, but will prevail nine times out of ten. After all, they only have one character to run, while I have several, and they have mulitpile POVs to look at a situaion with, while I only have one. That's a pretty good balancing factor IME.

 

Yeah this is true...

 

One last qquestion: in the initial part of this longwinded post i've put a briefly version of adventure plot; doyou (all) think i must create another villain who combat alongside RedCap (or just in case of necessity if there's somtehing wrong and the combats are too fast)?

 

Thanks to all (i cannot reply to all of you, you known)

[Dr Divago]

Originally posted by prestidigitator

I don't have a lot of experience with Cons, and I have no idea how they might be in your area

sigh, con situation in my area are very sad :( :(

[Lemur866]

Just a note, if your heroes only have Speed of 2 or 3, that seems VERY low. In most campaigns even the slowest bricks will have SPD 4, your average energy blaster will be SPD 5, and the martial artists will be SPD 6 or 7. I've never seen even a beginning hero or villain with only SPD 3, only agents and normals are that slow.

 

Think about it this way. To go from SPD 3 to SPD 6 is only 30 points...and you double the number of attacks you can do.

 

Take a look at some of the sample characters, and see if your characteristic totals are in line with theirs.

[Dr Divago]

Originally posted by Lemur866

Just a note, if your heroes only have Speed of 2 or 3, that seems VERY low. In most campaigns even the slowest bricks will have SPD 4, your average energy blaster will be SPD 5, and the martial artists will be SPD 6 or 7. I've never seen even a beginning hero or villain with only SPD 3, only agents and normals are that slow.

Well i known but so is less difficult to understand for beginners, and con-people-who.don't-ever-played-hero

(PC are built on a 150 basis, that is very low for superheroistic...)

 

If this session is very succesful, and if my friends want to play more hero, i'll give about 50 points more to "customize" PC and i'll permit SPD higher

[Lemur866]

Well, what I'd do to keep things simple in that case is just give everyone the same speed, so everyone acts on the same phase, no need to keep track of the SPD chart, etc. If you do that it doesn't really matter WHAT speed everyone is. If everyone has SPD 3, they all act on the same phase, and it's just like standard game systems where everyone gets one action every turn.

[Dr Divago]

Originally posted by Lemur866

Well, what I'd do to keep things simple in that case is just give everyone the same speed, so everyone acts on the same phase, no need to keep track of the SPD chart, etc. If you do that it doesn't really matter WHAT speed everyone is. If everyone has SPD 3, they all act on the same phase, and it's just like standard game systems where everyone gets one action every turn.

Well, mi idea is to make thing simple, BUT meantime show that is different have SPD 2 or 3

 

But i've read your conseul; so i've raised all SPD of PC by 1 (SPD 3 charachters become SPD 4, and SPD 2 PC becomes SPD 3)

To balance, i've introduced a "Distinctive Features: Mutant" (like the NPC showed in CKC) for 3 Charachters; and for a fourth, non mutant PC have introduced a new Psychological Limitation: Honorable (Common, Strong) balancing 5 points extra in skills

 

But the problem is: there are 2 Charachters that i don't' have idea what type of disadvantages introduce!

One is an automaton (RTX-9900) with 215 Total Cost (so raising SPD will bring to 225 points!And it have Hunted, Distincitve Features, Vulnerability... and i've no idea of a further disdvantage

 

Other (Heavy Rider) is a boy with an Armored Suit (well, transofmable Aromred Suit but is another question ) and is not a mutant, and i've not idea of what disadvantage give him! (yes, i've thinked a sort of vulnerability, but what vulnerability? same of RTX-9900?)

 

If you want, you can download the sheets:

http:file.lacasadialice.it and input "dottordivago" as userid and "alice" as password (lower case)

you can find "enemies.doc" and "schlight.doc", respectively sheet of enemies and sheet of PC

 

To download click on "scarica" button (scarica transalte in "download" )

 

 

 

[Lemur866]

I always think characters should take their max points in Psychological Disadvantages. If you are role playing the character, these points are essentially free...you use the Psych Lims simply to define the character. He is always honorable, doesn't kill, never lies, and is extremely gullible. Or he is devoted to his country, will never betray a buddy, cracks jokes, and hates Nazis. Or he doesn't understand human emotion, always protects innocents, doesn't feel fear, and yearns to find his creator. Or he is a prankster, loves to show off, is overconfident, and hates to be called short. Or whatever. The psych lims define the character a bit, and are essentially bonus points for playing in character.

[Dust Raven]

Originally posted by Dr Divago

Well, mi idea is to make thing simple, BUT meantime show that is different have SPD 2 or 3

 

 

You can do this and still make all of the PCs the same SPD. Just make a few of the knock-over villains with a SPD a point or two lower than the PCs.

[Dr Divago]

Originally posted by Lemur866

I always think characters should take their max points in Psychological Disadvantages.

 

Well you are right;

but, thisi is the disaadvantages of RTX-9900:

"15 Distinctive Features (Concealable, Alway Noticed)

5 Physical Limitation: lack of smell and taste (Infrequently, Slightly)

5 Vulnerability: x1 ½ BODY to EMP, Microwave, Intense EM Field (Uncommon)"

 

This is self explainatory...

 

"10 Hunted: by local agent of “STOP†(Superhuman Terrorism Operative Police) 8- (Mo Pow, Analyse)"

[is the S.T.O.P. that created RTX-9900; it's escaped after some old model, RT-8000 and RT-9000, opened fire against an innocent, and infringed the law; so it former "fellow" has begone "enemy"...]

 

and that is the psychological limitation:

"15 Psychological Limitation: Directive 1-Uphold the Law (Common, Strong)

15 Psychological Limitation: Directive 2-Never Kill a Human (can kill human only to defend other human or in face of a big threat and/or law violation) (Very Common, Moderate)"

 

this limitations are much limiting, i think, you don't? so you suggest any other limitation?

 

Originally posted by Dust RavenYou can do this and still make all of the PCs the same SPD. Just make a few of the knock-over villains with a SPD a point or two lower than the PCs.

 

Well, actually enemy are all SPD 2, except for RedCap that is SPD 3 (but i think she must be SPD 4 or more, if i raise average party SPD)

But having different SPD betwen PC is a sure method to show the use of SPD (and the "power" of high speed)

 

For the latter PC, Heavy Rider, i'm thinking about a possible Psychological Limitation: he's a "Don Giovanni", he likes to be "engaged" with beautiful girls :p

(i'm thinking about an "engagement" between he and BlueLight :)

and im' thinking about to give it SPD 2, with a SPD boost, with boostable charge or fueled charge, so he can boost SPD 3 or SPD 4 or evely SPD5, but if he boost SPD 5 this is only for one time, SPD 4 for little time and SPD 3 for much more...

[Lemur866]

Well, for robots the classic psych lim is something like "doesn't understand human emotion" or "wishes to experience human emotion". Others might be "must obey creator" or "must protect creator" or "wants to find creator". Give the poor little robot a goal in life! Sure, he's PROGRAMMED to fight crime and protect people. But what else? It is a classic genre bit for a robot to wish to transcend its programming, to want to experience humanity. Just think Data from Star Trek. Or imagine the conflict when the robot wants to fight crime, but its creator keeps making it do questionable things.

[prestidigitator]

Originally posted by Lemur866

I always think characters should take their max points in Psychological Disadvantages. If you are role playing the character, these points are essentially free...you use the Psych Lims simply to define the character. He is always honorable, doesn't kill, never lies, and is extremely gullible. Or he is devoted to his country, will never betray a buddy, cracks jokes, and hates Nazis. Or he doesn't understand human emotion, always protects innocents, doesn't feel fear, and yearns to find his creator. Or he is a prankster, loves to show off, is overconfident, and hates to be called short. Or whatever. The psych lims define the character a bit, and are essentially bonus points for playing in character.

Hah! All my charcters are super-mentalists with earth-shattering Ints and Egos. Why should they be limited mentally?

 

This sounds like the D&D philosophy of, "every character must have, and play by, a strict alignment:"

• Mr. Coyote: Umm, excuse me? Could I have like 1000d6 of Unluck for 25 points instead please?
• DM: Quiet you! Take your Neutral Evil alignment and be happy! Now go to the back of the room where you belong!
• Mr. Coyote: Oh, ah...yes sir, Mr. GM, sir. Thank you.

[Dust Raven]

Originally posted by prestidigitator

Hah! All my charcters are super-mentalists with earth-shattering Ints and Egos. Why should they be limited mentally?

 

Psych LIms are the same as psychological disorders. I'd say anyone with that high of strength and skill of mind is likely to have at least one or two social oriented limitations.

 

Besides....one of the defining attributes of modern-day heroes is the adhearence to a higher code of ethics and morality. Psy LIms like Code Against Killing, Protective of Innocents and Honorable are the cornerstone Disads of the Superheroic genre. Then again...if your theme is more along the lines of a street-level vigilante game....Code of Vengence, Hatred of [target antagonist group] and such might be fore appropriate.

[Farkling]

And on a less high note...

 

Psych Limits at a convention give people more basic outlines of the characters' minds and personalities...

 

Just my experience...

 

And as to Heavy Rider...what about the ever popular psych limits of

 

"Showoff"

"OverConfident"

"Thrillseeker"

 

The Automaton could have::

"Logical" - There is a 47.3% chance we will be destroyed. We should not do this.

"Lacks Emotion, or Overconfident" - What is this fear you speak of?

"Short-Circuited Chips" - Indulges in occasional random action (this could be simulated with Unluck also.)

[Dr Divago]

Originally posted by Farkling

The Automaton could have::

"Logical" - There is a 47.3% chance we will be destroyed. We should not do this.

"Lacks Emotion, or Overconfident" - What is this fear you speak of?

 

This is a good idea!

[Lemur866]

Well heck, even "disdain for normal human emotional limitations" is a good psych lim.

 

If the character has any sort of moral philosophy, that can be given as a pysch lim. If he is consistently amoral, that can be a pysch lim. If he is honorable, that is a psych lim. If he only pretends to be honorable, that is a psych lim. If he is logical and unemotional, that is a psych lim.

 

In other words, write a short paragraph describing the character's personality. Why does he put on a costume and fight crime? Pick 50 points worth of psych disads out of that. Hey, free points! If you can't think of a reason for your character to be running around fighting crime, or saving Capitol City from supervillains, or rescuing kittens stuck in trees, then you're going to have a pretty boring character that is just a pile of points and powers, who is just a vehicle for the player to accomplish in-game tasks.

 

Think about Superman, Spiderman, Batman, or whoever your favorite characters from comic books are. You could make a giant list of all their psychological limititations. The more the character is defined by WHY, the more fun the character is to play. Read "The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay". Every hero has to have a reason to be a hero, otherwise they are just a cardboard cutout.

[Dr Divago]

Balancing Encounter 2

 

Well, now, i'll make an Hipothesys (presumption?):

 

We're assuming that RedCap is balanced with other PC, i means that effectiveness of RedCap is equal than average effectivenes of the single PC

So the problem is: is sufficient RedCap or is necessary to party her with other villain?