Starting points

[Hazzard]

How much did you give your players as starting points for your campaign. Mine the players will not start high end ex if they ran into batman, he'd easily take them all out, but they'd have no problem beating normal people. So I'm looking at a moderate campaign to begin with

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Starting points

 

How many points a comics character is built on is largely an intellectual exercise; Batman's been built on everything from 250 to 1000. What would matter is how many points Batman is built on in your campaign world (if he exists there in the first place).

 

That said, I do the standard 5e 350 point characters, though with fewer points of Disads.

[Hyper-Man]

Re: Starting points

 

If the PC's in your campaign run into a version of Batman in your world what matters is how experienced a version of Batman* it really is (* or any of the established characters for that matter).

 

My versions of JLA were created with the possibility of being used as PC's. They are partly modeled on those character's first appearances in the Animated Universe (BatmanTAS, SupermanTAS, JusticeLeagueAnimated, JLUnlimitedAnimated). In the JLU era Batman is the most experienced character because he's being crimefighting the longest. Superman is a close second and is clearly the most powerful hero. But they were rookies once just like the rest of the heroes. It would be easy to tack on 100+ Experience to any of these characters to increase their skill & possibly even powers.

 

[Hazzard]

Re: Starting points

 

Good point. Seems in my other thread all the famous people are based on 250, so my players would have to be less than 250 I guess

[Gent]

Re: Starting points

 

Having less than 250 would put the the characters within the point range recommended for Heroic characters, rather than Superheroic. A starting super in 6e is typically built on anywhere from 300-400 points. Long-established comics characters have often ascended into the 450-500 range, so they could still handle a 400-point character with relative ease.

[RexMundi]

Re: Starting points

 

My Campaign is rather complicated, but the short and simple answer is this. I start them with 400/75 points. However; they only get 275/50 of that to build the initial character. The remaining 125/25 is left either for game play development over several origin sessions, Or if the sessions are not needed to "break in the noobs" or what not, they then can use the remaining points to build their "powers"/"the rest of the Hero".......

 

Sometimes I might shift the ratio a bit, depending on "genre" and type of characters (ie, Adults, Teens, Street Bums, Military Spec Ops etc), but they all get the 400 points. Lot of other stuff factors in from the campaign as well but that's not pertinent to the topic so leaving it unsaid.

 

~Rex...

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Starting points

 

Having less than 250 would put the the characters within the point range recommended for Heroic characters' date=' rather than Superheroic. A starting super in 6e is typically built on anywhere from 300-400 points. Long-established comics characters have often ascended into the 450-500 range, so they could still handle a 400-point character with relative ease.[/quote']

 

Heroic vs superheroic is more about what you have to pay for versus how many points you get. There's nothing saying you can't run a 200 point Superheroic game or a 400 point heroic game. Heck, Teen Champions starts at 200 points for a superhero game. The primary difference is that heroic characters don't pay points for equipment and usually get mandated Normal Characteristic Maxima.

[Dr Divago]

Re: Starting points

 

in my 5e campaign they started with 100+100 and then gained another 25 point bonus two times (one after first adventure, one at the end of first season) for a total of 250 point

 

in a 6e campaign it would be 300 points (low-powered superhero)

[Pizza Man]

Re: Starting points

 

Official 6E characters are all 400 points to start, with 75 mandatory complication points. (Complications no longer add points to the character total)

 

In my sig are three 400 point starting characters. Poke around this particular forum and you will see other good examples.

[Querysphinx]

Re: Starting points

 

I find it best to start as the Cartesian origin point (0,0) and work from there.

[Big Monkey]

Re: Starting points

 

My current campaign is a 5e Teen Hero campaign. All the characters are 100 + 100.

[Christopher]

Re: Starting points

 

As a beginner, take the 400/75 Combination.

 

Yes you can make a Superheroic game where Power superheroic is defiend as 200 Points. DC's will scale accordingly (you simply can't afford a 10d6 Blast without Limitations). Disadvantages is that Skills and certain Flat Cost Powers (like Desolidifcation) have a really high relative cost (40 Base means: 20% of your staring points instead of 10%).

 

There are many reasons for the 400 Point:

The highest amount of NPC's and Villians on that level (both in Source Material and the Forums).

Easier as a beginner

You can always make "a bigger fish", just by adding about 25%-50% of thier current Total.

 

Note: For NPC that should endanger an entire team on their own, it is often helpfull to apply Damage Reduction at the 50% or 75% level. Everybody can do something, but nobody can one hit or stun them on his own.

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: Starting points

 

Official 6E characters are all 400 points to start' date=' with 75 mandatory complication points. (Complications no longer add points to the character total). [/quote']

Yeah, I missed that. Most of my 6E Characters were built on 475 points. The biggest question is are your Players up to play Low Level Superheroes. No Elemental Controls, No Min Maxing Characteristics, and more expensive Characteristics and OCVs, DCVs, and Combat Skills Levels.

 

A new edition means a new relearning how to build characters after almost 20 years of 4th and 5th Editions.

 

Cheers

 

QM

[Christopher]

Re: Starting points

 

Yeah' date=' I missed that. Most of my 6E Characters were built on 475 points.[/quote']

The 75 Points are part of the 400 Total. If you take less than 75 Matching Complciations those points go out of your Point Total.

 

So I guess this would have been written as 325/75 in 5E.

[Lucius]

Re: Starting points

 

I find it best to start as the Cartesian origin point (0' date='0) and work from there.[/quote']

 

Isn't wherever you start the Cartesian origin point by definition? (0,0,0) may describe your starting point in three dimensional space, but doesn't tell you where to start. Wherever you start is zero.

 

Official 6E characters are all 400 points to start, with 75 mandatory complication points. (Complications no longer add points to the character total)

 

Not that I like to flatly conradict you, but in this respect Complications work in EXACTLY the way Disadvantages always did. What's changed is that instead of being expressed in a way that's relatively clear and easy to understand, it's now expressed in a more obscure and confusing way.

 

The 75 Points are part of the 400 Total. If you take less than 75 Matching Complciations those points go out of your Point Total.

 

So I guess this would have been written as 325/75 in 5E.

 

Exactly.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Starting with a palindromedary

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Starting points

 

Not that I like to flatly conradict you' date=' but in this respect Complications work in EXACTLY the way Disadvantages always did. What's changed is that instead of being expressed in a way that's relatively clear and easy to understand, it's now expressed in a more obscure and confusing way.[/quote']

 

This is a matter of interpretation. One could restate the 6e model to provide that all characters have beneficial abilities up to a point maximum (400 for starting Supers) and other elements which complicate their lives to a point minimum (75 for starting Supers). Then, right near "skills as powers" and "characteristics as powers", toss in "reduced complications as powers". For every one of your points you spend on this power, your character's required complication points are reduced by 1. Now everyone has 400 points, right?

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: Starting points

 

the 75 points are part of the 400 total. If you take less than 75 matching complciations those points go out of your point total.

 

So i guess this would have been written as 325/75 in 5e.

Yes please!!

[Hyper-Man]

Re: Starting points

 

The 75 Points are part of the 400 Total. If you take less than 75 Matching Complciations those points go out of your Point Total.

 

So I guess this would have been written as 325/75 in 5E.

 

A 350 point super in 5e means 200 base points with up to 150 more points with matching disadvantages.

A 400 point super in 6e means 325 base points with up to 75 more points with matching complications.

 

The base assumption in 5e was that disads above the 150 default could increase the total above 350.

6e just gets rid of this part, nothing more.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Starting points

 

The base assumption in 5e was that disads above the 150 default could increase the total above 350.

6e just gets rid of this part, nothing more.

 

No, I don't believe that was ever an assumption of 5e. I have never seen it stated that you could take more than the campaign-dictated maximum of Disads (though you could take less with a corresponding loss of points to spend).

[Hyper-Man]

Re: Starting points

 

No' date=' I don't believe that was ever an assumption of 5e. I have never seen it stated that you could take more than the campaign-dictated maximum of Disads (though you could take less with a corresponding loss of points to spend).[/quote']

 

Please see 5er pages 28-29 and compare with 6e1 pages 28-34.

 

Maybe base assumption is too strong a phrase, whatever. The 350 in 5e was not as 'hard' of a cap, it begins with the 200 base plus however many points from disads. The emphasis was more on maximum disad points from any one category of disads than staying under the total 150. 6e places more emphases on 400 total IF there are at least 75 matching complications. They both arrive at the same place but the emphasis in the language is most definitely different even if somewhat subtle.

[RexMundi]

Re: Starting points

 

On top of that, the 6e Method has turned out to be far easier for new folks to pick up and understand. I'm an Old Grognard that's been with the game since '82. Took me about 5 minutes to adapt but then I've always heavily house ruled the old stuff to lean this direction anyway.

 

~Rex

[Ice9]

Re: Starting points

 

For a typical superheroic game, 400 points, with an bonus 25-50 points only for background stuff. Could be higher or lower depending on the specific campaign, of course.

[Ninja-Bear]

Re: Starting points

 

One point that wasn't brought up yet, is how specific in detail you want to make the characters. What I mean is do you expect things like skills to be narrow when bought or are you going for broader descriptions. I.e. ps scientist vs having ks physics, ks molecular science, ps scientist, perk scientist, etc. Martial arts is another area that can be limited (everyone has cinematic style with couple of csl or individual styles and a hoarde of niche techniques like having extra body only for calculating disable manuevers). I'm not saying one is better than the other and of course you can adjust between the extremes. Just something to think about.

[Lucius]

Re: Starting points

 

This is a matter of interpretation. One could restate the 6e model to provide that all characters have beneficial abilities up to a point maximum (400 for starting Supers) and other elements which complicate their lives to a point minimum (75 for starting Supers). Then' date=' right near "skills as powers" and "characteristics as powers", toss in "reduced complications as powers". For every one of your points you spend on this power, your character's required complication points are reduced by 1. Now everyone has 400 points, right?[/quote']

 

The 5e model could be restated in exactly the same way. But what purpose does it serve?

 

On top of that' date=' the 6e Method has turned out to be far easier for new folks to pick up and understand.[/quote']

 

I've never known anyone to have a problem understanding the concept in 1st, 4th, or 5th editions. They have problems with OTHER things, like Advantages and Limitations, but not understanding "You get X points for free, and then up to but no more than Y points for Disadvantages."

 

I HAVE seen a new person come onto these boards and post about it because he was thoroughly confused. I explained how it was expressed in previous editions, and that the new edition works the same way but is just less clear. He understood at once.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary thinks Complications should be less complicated

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Starting points

 

The 5e model could be restated in exactly the same way. But what purpose does it serve?

 

It's all semantics. Removing the "Disad points add to character points" meme was intended, in part, to reduce some gamers' focus on "he got more points for those disad's, so I must ensure they appropriately nerf his character" and transfer that to "these complications can be used to enrich the game and make it more fun".