Total Point Cost Guidelines for 80's supers

[AlCook]

To clarify, I'm asking what would be a good guideline for a total points cost for the lower powered 80's super heroes. What kind of total cost would you give to folks like the 80's Vulture, Hydro, Boomerang,Nightcrawler, Moonknight ect. This will be the first time that I'll be creating some characters with HERO (6th ed) and I don't know if the low powered supers guideline in the book would be too powerful or not.

 

 

Thanks for your time.

 

Al

[JmOz]

Re: Total Point Cost Guidelines for 80's supers

 

That is actualy a tricky question. First I am Assuming 6th edition. I could do a fairly decent Nightcrawler (of the X-men) or Moon Night on 500 points, but might not have EVERYTHING on them. Furthermore it depends on what you consider normal CV, damage, and Defences are. Funny thing by the way, all the characters you listed are from the 70's or before...

 

400 points for trimed down versions (Suggest starting) is actualy very doable on the ones you listed

[AlCook]

Re: Total Point Cost Guidelines for 80's supers

 

Definitely 6th edition:-) I'm really loving the new books.

 

Yeah, most of those guys are much older than the 80's, but those were the years that I first got into reading comics and I have very fond memories of those times:).

 

So someone like Nightcrawler or Moonknight could be 500 points? If there's one tough thing I have with HERO (or any super hero game that isn't Marvel or DC) is that I have a tough time determining how this character or that would stack up against Moonknight, Nightcrawler, Martian Manhunter...ect. With things like the Strength table and the Speed table, it's easier, but I just have a hard time with other things I guess.

 

Al

[mayapuppies]

Re: Total Point Cost Guidelines for 80's supers

 

Yeah, comparing an RPG character to a literary character who's abilities are defined more by author fiat than any hard numbers is always going to be difficult. What it comes down to is simply deciding how they stat out in your game world rather than the literary one.

[AlCook]

Re: Total Point Cost Guidelines for 80's supers

 

Yeah' date=' comparing an RPG character to a literary character who's abilities are defined more by author fiat than any hard numbers is always going to be difficult. What it comes down to is simply deciding how they stat out in your game world rather than the literary one.[/quote']

 

Doing that makes sense. It's just going to be a new concept for me to wrap my head around. I'm used to Marvel FASERIP. If a character had Amazing Agility, I knew that they were as agile as Spiderman.

 

Thanks for the responses, I appreciate it:)

[bigbywolfe]

Re: Total Point Cost Guidelines for 80's supers

 

Doing that makes sense. It's just going to be a new concept for me to wrap my head around. I'm used to Marvel FASERIP. If a character had Amazing Agility, I knew that they were as agile as Spiderman.

 

Thanks for the responses, I appreciate it:)

One thing that can help is to set baselines using characters you know. Is Spiderman (or his equivalent) the most agile/dexterous character in your universe? Then choose his DEX (I'd say 30 or so) and bam, now you have the top DEX you'll see in your setting. You can do the same with STR and DEF et cetera. It's not about having the numbers be consistent with the comics (heck, the comics aren't even consistent with themselves), it's about having the numbers be consistent in your setting/universe.

[ned-kogar]

Re: Total Point Cost Guidelines for 80's supers

 

See, I reckon you could do a nice version of Moonknight or Boomerang (or even Nightcrawler) on 300 points... as long as I made sure to model their core powers first, and assumed some of those 'writer's fiat'/infrequently used powers were down to Power Skill usage.

 

I prefer making pared back characters and then, if they seem short of an ability from the comics, handing them some XP.

 

Ned

[bigbywolfe]

Re: Total Point Cost Guidelines for 80's supers

 

See, I reckon you could do a nice version of Moonknight or Boomerang (or even Nightcrawler) on 300 points... as long as I made sure to model their core powers first, and assumed some of those 'writer's fiat'/infrequently used powers were down to Power Skill usage.

 

I prefer making pared back characters and then, if they seem short of an ability from the comics, handing them some XP.

 

Ned

True enough. You could probably even make decent homages to many, if not most, characters with 200-250 points. It’s not about having them be able to do every single thing they’ve ever done in 30+ years of comic history, IMO. It’s about having the same level of effectiveness and shtick, which will rely greatly on consistency within the setting.

[prestidigitator]

Re: Total Point Cost Guidelines for 80's supers

 

From what I've seen those "low-powered" superheroes from the comics can be anywhere in the Standard to Very High-Powered Superhero ranges in Hero. The "high-powered" superheroes from the comics need way more than the Cosmically Powerful category suggests as a minimum. Sometimes in the thousand(s) of points.

 

Maybe I'm too compulsive about trying to get things, "right," (and not going for cheese like 80-90 Body damage to destroy a planet) but if you seriously sit down and even go for the basics, it can get big very quickly.

[IndianaJoe3]

Re: Total Point Cost Guidelines for 80's supers

 

Well, you also have to decide if you need to model every power the character has ever used (which can be quite expensive), or only what they use on a regular basis.

[prestidigitator]

Re: Total Point Cost Guidelines for 80's supers

 

Well' date=' you also have to decide if you need to model every power the character has ever used (which can be quite expensive), or only what they use on a regular basis.[/quote']

True.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Total Point Cost Guidelines for 80's supers

 

A lot of the "costing" issue falls into standards. How many DC's will we set Spidey, Daredevil, the Torch, the Thing and the Hulk at? If the range you set is 7 DC to 12 DC, these characters will be a lot lower cost than if you set the DC range at 12 to 18 DC. This falls into line with the same question asked about the highest DEX in the campaign. Set Spidey at 6 SPD, 30 DEX and the Thing at 3 SPD, 11 DEX and the characters will come in, overall, cheaper than if we establish Spidey as having a 44 DEX and a 9 SPD and set the Thing at SPD 5, DEX 23.

 

Most abilities can be readily scaled up or down campaign-wide, and setting the average sets a lot of the costing.

[Jhamin]

Re: Total Point Cost Guidelines for 80's supers

 

Hugh is really hitting the nail on the head here.

 

You would quickly go insane reading all the old "how much Dex does Spiderman have?" threads going back as far as these boards have existed.

 

The thing that the old FASERIP Marvel Superheros had that Hero doesn't is official writups for the Iconic Marvel Characters. Spider Man had Amazing Agility. Period. It says so in the book! That means that Daredevil, Dexterous as he is, cannot have an Amazing Agility because in the comics they say over and over Spider is more agile than Daredevil. The existence of benchmarks in Marvel allowed everything else to be extrapolated.

 

There has never been an official writeup of a Marvel Character in Hero. Lots of guesses, even a couple posts by Hero employees, but nothing official. So we just all have to go by what feels right for each of us. Lots of folks feel the Thing is fine with a Str of 60-75, while others feel that he obviously needs 125.

So if Things strength is somewhere between 60 and 125 how can you even begin to guess what Thor or Wonderman have?

[bigbywolfe]

Re: Total Point Cost Guidelines for 80's supers

 

A lot of the "costing" issue falls into standards. How many DC's will we set Spidey, Daredevil, the Torch, the Thing and the Hulk at? If the range you set is 7 DC to 12 DC, these characters will be a lot lower cost than if you set the DC range at 12 to 18 DC. This falls into line with the same question asked about the highest DEX in the campaign. Set Spidey at 6 SPD, 30 DEX and the Thing at 3 SPD, 11 DEX and the characters will come in, overall, cheaper than if we establish Spidey as having a 44 DEX and a 9 SPD and set the Thing at SPD 5, DEX 23.

 

Most abilities can be readily scaled up or down campaign-wide, and setting the average sets a lot of the costing.

 

Exactly the point I was trying to make, but you say it so much better...

[Mister E]

Re: Total Point Cost Guidelines for 80's supers

 

 

You would quickly go insane reading all the old "how much Dex does Spiderman have?" threads going back as far as these boards have existed.

 

 

/ahem... Spider-Man's DEX

[JmOz]

Re: Total Point Cost Guidelines for 80's supers

 

Hugh is really hitting the nail on the head here.

 

You would quickly go insane reading all the old "how much Dex does Spiderman have?" threads going back as far as these boards have existed.

 

The thing that the old FASERIP Marvel Superheros had that Hero doesn't is official writups for the Iconic Marvel Characters. Spider Man had Amazing Agility. Period. It says so in the book! That means that Daredevil, Dexterous as he is, cannot have an Amazing Agility because in the comics they say over and over Spider is more agile than Daredevil. The existence of benchmarks in Marvel allowed everything else to be extrapolated.

 

There has never been an official writeup of a Marvel Character in Hero. Lots of guesses, even a couple posts by Hero employees, but nothing official. So we just all have to go by what feels right for each of us. Lots of folks feel the Thing is fine with a Str of 60-75, while others feel that he obviously needs 125.

So if Things strength is somewhere between 60 and 125 how can you even begin to guess what Thor or Wonderman have?

 

Was there not a official Hulk write up done by Darren a few years ago? Part of a promo for the movie IIRC

[bigbywolfe]

Re: Total Point Cost Guidelines for 80's supers

 

Yes there was. I'm sure I have it saved somewhere...