Tactics and a young gamer

[sobran]

So I am gearing up to run a Teen Champions campaign for my son, who is 11. This presents a number of challenges. For one, this will be a one on one campaign, at least at the beginning. I may run secondary characters as his teammates, only a couple of which may be involved in any given scenario. However, I don't want his character to be overshadowed. In addition, it is difficult enough keeping track of paperwork and roleplaying the villains and random passerby without also tracking the other members of a Teen Supergroup. So it seems likely I will be making excuses to put him on his own or with only one other person who may help point him in the right direction in case he gets completely lost or flustered.

 

Advice on any of the above issues would be appreciated, as a sort of aside, but isn't actually the point of this thread.

 

The first attempt to create a character was semi-disastrous, so I came up with an alternate plan. I am creating a number of character 'templates' essentially, groups of basic powers with a basic origin story, which he can then apply to the skillset of his choice. The idea is to give him choices without overloading him with the infinite possibilities the Hero System allows.

 

As I was creating one of these, an interesting dilemma presented itself. One template I was working on was a character that acquired powers through an alien device he found that allowed him to channel the power of black holes. This gives him Density Increase, a graviton Blast, teleportation, and a darkness power. The template is designed to be primarily a melee brick, with the Blast having an Increased Endurance limitation that he may buy off later. The teleportation and the ability to justify the purchase of an Entangle ability later should give the template some versatility.

 

Here's the dilemma: I came up with the idea of a PBAoE darkness effect (Darkness with No Range). However, this gives the template what is essentially Invisibility against opponents that do not possess alternate senses or sufficiently large AoE attacks. This, when paired with his brick defenses, could be unbalancing.

 

I have considered two solutions: the first is that this character may have an END-heavy theme. No use of Reduced END on the Density Increase, Increased END on the Blast, and perhaps Increased END on the Darkness Effect. He would have to carefully manage his Endurance to avoid burning out in a long fight. To me this seems reasonable. However, I have been GM'ing for years. This kind of paperwork is second nature. Anyone else play with kids? How much, in your experience, would this get in his way of having fun and telling a cool story?

 

The other solution I considered was a simple Lockout Limitation that he can't buy off. That is, the Darkness ability can only be used by locking out the use of some or most of his Resistant Defenses. This would create a tactical situation in which he would have to consider whether he needs Defenses or (effectively) DCV more during a given fight or Turn. Too cheesy?

 

Related to this, if I went the Lockout route, I may want to ditch the END heavy theme altogether, which I had been considering from the beginning. If you would recommend not tracking END heavily, what alternatives would you suggest to keep with this theme? Time Limit on some abilities? An interlocking system of Lockouts? Simply throwing everything in a Multipower and explaining the AP limit?

[Hyper-Man]

Re: Tactics and a young gamer

 

HERO has 2 separate set of great rules that can be challenging to any new player: Character Creation & Combat and Adventuring. The power creation section as well as the overall character creation rules can be very daunting without the context of experience in adventuring using the game engine first. I think you might be better off creating or borrowing a prebuilt generic but well-rounded character for him and let him learn via the Combat and Adventuring rules how the more complex power builds interact with the game world.

[sobran]

Re: Tactics and a young gamer

 

Mayhaps you're right. A simple set of powers, all with zero end cost, might be the best way to go initially...

[BNakagawa]

Re: Tactics and a young gamer

 

I always say that the best introduction to this game system is via a pre-gen character that the players already know. The system gives players a huge menu of possible actions, but a simple, established character will focus a player on the right path. If you're playing someone like Cyclops, you should stand back and shoot eye beams at them. If you're playing someone like Colossus, you should probably run in and punch someone.

 

In the days of 1e, they used to run games featuring the X-Men, Alpha Flight and Teen Titans. Pick a show your son likes and see if the characters have already been built and stored in an online database. Or just look for an existing character with a close match and use that as a template.

[Christopher]

Re: Tactics and a young gamer

 

Mayhaps you're right. A simple set of powers' date=' all with zero end cost, might be the best way to go initially...[/quote']

You can also just Elimiate the END Stat. There are rule for that in 6E1 46.

I am not certain if END is that much of a problem for Bricks, as the usually have rather fair Recovery (to survive all the stun they take).

 

About organsiation of larger fights:

Use a seperate paper to track Initiative and the NPC's

Use miniatures to place them on a battlefield

Let him do the Rolls for them (but decide what they do).

After every phase (or just before he get's his next phase) repeat what has hapened since his last phase - this is a technique used on herocentral and by my Warhammer 40k RPG GM, when doing fights with two dozen (24!) and more participants.

[Martin2]

Re: Tactics and a young gamer

 

11, trying to brain wash him at an early age .

 

Keep it simple. Possibly get rid of the END and probably body as well (at least for his character).

 

How about building a whole team based on a group he likes and allow him to play one character at a time until he finds one or two he likes. Play one on one or bring one of his team mates along which you run to explain how it goes. Its always good to say what would Wolverine do in this situation etc.

 

Keep the power cost low but explain they are young and will get growth and power spurts (and say increase by 50 points after a few sessions going from 250 to 300 to 350 etc).

 

Then once he learns the rules and effects he can grow into his character.

[Ockham's Spoon]

Re: Tactics and a young gamer

 

Playing with my own kids, I can tell you that keeping track of END is not their strong suit. I wouldn't ditch END altogether, because it can be used to good effect now and then, but I would buy the power sets such that they don't usually have to worry about running out of END so you can ignore most of the time.

 

The idea of playing different characters on the team sounds like a great idea, although perhaps a lot of work for you, but that depends on what your son likes. My son wants to try everything under the sun, so swapping team members would be ideal for him. My daughter on the other hand only wants to play characters who have good ranged attacks and can fly, so YMMV.

 

The only other thing I would suggest is that the characters your son runs should have above average OCVs, and even master villains should generally not have excellent DCVs unless that is their shtick. Not being able to hurt an opponent is a bummer, but not even being able to hit is doubly frustrating.

[dsatow]

Re: Tactics and a young gamer

 

Since its a 1:1 game, I wouldn't worry about power level, since you can always compensate with the villains. On power creation, you probably should make sure that the character is versatile in order to help stimulate the idea that there are always different options he can take.

 

As for type of character, I would say, let him come up with a comic book character. Say he likes Batman. Then tell him, "OK, we can make a Batman style character for you but remember, this is when he first starts out. Its not when he is with the JLA and fighting the Legion of Doom.". Since its a 1:1 situation, you control the power level, so Batman could do a 5d6 punch and be effective against the Joker who may be throwing a 5d6 punch himself or using 1d6K gun.

 

The big thing for an 11 year old is the fun aspect. He wants to feel like he's the comic book hero he's dreamt of. In comics, the heros and villains fight. Sometimes the hero loses and he's put into death traps, but he always figures a way out. The hero does the right thing and can feel noble about it, even if he suffers a bit for it. In the end, the hero always wins and in the stereotypical fashion, there is always someone there to congratulate him on a job well done.

[Bloodstone]

Re: Tactics and a young gamer

 

Playing with my own kids' date=' I can tell you that keeping track of END is not their strong suit. I wouldn't ditch END altogether, because it can be used to good effect now and then, but I would buy the power sets such that they don't usually have to worry about running out of END so you can ignore most of the time.[/quote']

 

Hey, I play with adults that have issues keeping track of END

 

I find poker chips, glass counters and similar can make for a good system of keeping track of these things, with different colors having different values or being applied to different stats.

 

You can even design the character so that his major powers have a cost in multiples of 5 to make things easier:

 

"I use my MEGA SUPER ULTRA BLAST!!!"

 

"Are you sure? That will cost 4 red chips before you can roll the attack dice..."

 

"hmm... maybe just the regular old ultra blast then..."

 

:: PC-Lad hands over 1 red chip ::

 

:: GM-Dad hands over the Dice ::

 

However, do NOT use M&M's for this purpose or his character will always be out of END

[sobran]

Re: Tactics and a young gamer

 

Hmm. I hadn't really considered the fact that a typical Brick character is going to be losing and gaining STUN just as often as they gain and lose END. If using one, it isn't much of a stretch to use both.

 

I particularly like Bloodstone's suggestion of using colored tokens denoting different values for tracking END. I think this might be the way to go, actually. We've been playing Gamma World recently, so he has gotten used to having cards that come and go, representing various abilities.

 

To respond to some of the suggestions about character generation, I tried many of these already actually. I do appreciate the suggestions. Don't get me wrong. It just seems that every approach results in him wanting to cram three or four types together or being completely unable to settle on a firm decision. This may still be the case. I am hoping that presenting him with three or four clearly defined choices will enable him to settle on something. If not, I may just go with swapping out who he plays on the fly, as Ockham's Spoon and Martin2 suggested. In fact, that is sounding increasingly attractive. Instead of having him pick one, he'll just play each in turn until he hopefully settles on one he thinks is "most awesome."

 

Also of note from Spoon's post: good advice on the OCV front. My son HATES when he whiffs on some really important uber ability in Gamma World.

 

Thanks for the advice folks!

[dsatow]

Re: Tactics and a young gamer

 

You could always give him a Ben-10 style character where all the characters share the same END, STUN, and BODY.

[Lucius]

Re: Tactics and a young gamer

 

Hey, I play with adults that have issues keeping track of END

 

I find poker chips, glass counters and similar can make for a good system of keeping track of these things, with different colors having different values or being applied to different stats.

 

You can even design the character so that his major powers have a cost in multiples of 5 to make things easier:

 

"I use my MEGA SUPER ULTRA BLAST!!!"

 

"Are you sure? That will cost 4 red chips before you can roll the attack dice..."

 

"hmm... maybe just the regular old ultra blast then..."

 

:: PC-Lad hands over 1 red chip ::

 

:: GM-Dad hands over the Dice ::

 

However, do NOT use M&M's for this purpose or his character will always be out of END

 

That's a great idea, and it gives me another idea:

 

One could use monopoly money or a similar play currency, too.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary thinks no one has a monopoly on good ideas