How dangerous are normals in your campaign?

[Cassandra]

Can a normal person, including a criminal or police officer, harm your player character? Do they have any chance of inflicting damage in hand to hand combat, or even using a gun?

[Greywind]

It depends on the normal and what you consider "dangerous".

[Hyper-Man]

Well, Jason Bourne would probably give a starting version of Batman a wee bit of trouble. That's mostly due to Bourne not paying points for equipment though.

[Greywind]

Bourne didn't have much in the way of equipment. He left the gun in the safety deposit box. After that, it was pretty much whatever came to hand.

[assault]

My Mystery Men type characters could theoretically take a bit of body from a gunshot (KA). A bad result on the stun lottery might stun them or worse.

 

Many of my characters might take a few points of stun from a tough normal's punch, although the brickier ones won't.

 

The trick is hitting them.

 

In 6e, killing attacks are nerfed relative to 5e, so things are better for my characters there.

 

So, yes, theoretically normals are quite dangerous in my campaign. This is intentional. It's also "theoretically", rather than "actually:.

[CrosshairCollie]

In a regular supers setting, I don't even roll attacks for normals. They either bounce or miss. If a super-being attacks a normal, they're just out cold (or whatever effect of said attack would be if not damaging). All normal objects and people have a double-BODY and double-STUN (if applicable) Vulnerability to super-powers or super-tech ... this is my way of letting supers do things like smash tanks in a single shot without running a 1000 point game.

 

So, basically, normals are props.

[ayinde]

normals cause no threat kinda boring sure there will be heroes who can shrug there attacks but that should not be the norm

[BTolputt]

Depends on the normal, what they're carrying, and what kind of game I'm playing.

 

In a supers game, the characters are pretty much untouchable. If a normal manages to pick-up one the OAF source of a power (energy rifles and the like), they can use and hurt heros with it... but they won't last a round of retaliation.

 

In a mystery men or street-level heroes game - they players aren't that far up the ladder from normals. A knife in the guts is going to hurt them and it should. A mob of normals could easily take down my players in these games if they don't play it right.

[psyber624]

Depends on the power level of the campaign.

 

400 pt supers are unlikely to even be affected by most Standard Normal (25 pt) characters and Competent Normals (100pt) would likely require good equipment to do anything. Part of my "campaign guidelines" are designed to do just that (Avg CV 8, Avg Def 24, 1/2 resistant, etc.) Of course that depends on the build ("Glass Cannons" can easily be hurt, and MA's have the odd chance of getting hit if I bother to roll all those 18- Attack Rolls, Brick builds however just laugh). IMO that's what makes them "Supers".

 

If its a Heroic level campaign then yeah, normals are a serious threat and one you always have to watch out for. That's one of the differences in power level.

[Escafarc]

Most of my characters would take damage from "normals" IF they are hit but that would most likely be a lucky shot or an ambush of some sort.

[TheQuestionMan]

As dangerous as I need them to be.

 

 

QM

 

P.S.: The PC's never get to look my NPC's Character Sheets.

[Ockham's Spoon]

I prefer a power level for the heroes where a normal is definitely outclassed by a superhero, but a properly trained and equipped normal can still pose some threat. This allows the players to run Batman-type heroes that aren't super-powered per se but can still hold their own. It also allows me as GM to have agent-level troops in sufficient numbers be a challenge for the heroes so I don't have to come up with piles of super-powered adversaries for every fight scene.

[bigbywolfe]

I think it might help this conversation if we define what a "normal" is. I mean, if we go by "not powered" then sure, normal may be dangerous. Most henchmen are "normals". Now if you are talking 25 point or less characters limited strictly to real world equipment, then no they usually won't be dangerous except in low powered campaigns.

[Cassandra]

A normal would be someone who has no extra characteristics. They would be armed with HA to simulate brawling, and would be armed with a RKA Gun or HKA Knife. They could have Combat Luck, and any Armor they wore would have activation rolls.

[JmOz]

• depends....For my Fox is Dead campaign Idea, then certainly (I am assume a DC around 6 for a normal with a CV around 4-5). However it should take about 3-4 to be a minor threat. So 1-2 is just a small diversion that might cost a few points of stun, 3-4 a point of body, might stun them, 5-8 a serious fight that the hero may loose.
  

[Old Man]

Normals in my campaign gestate inside a living human host! They are so resilient that even limb loss might not incapacitate them! Their vision is superior to that of any other animal! They have (slightly) acidic blood! They have adrenal glands that drastically improve their strength and reaction time under duress! They can and do eat almost anything organic! If you repeatedly work them until exhaustion, they can actually get stronger over time!

[dmjalund]

Normals in my campaign gestate inside a living human host! They are so resilient that even limb loss might not incapacitate them! Their vision is superior to that of any other animal! They have (slightly) acidic blood! They have adrenal glands that drastically improve their strength and reaction time under duress! They can and do eat almost anything organic! If you repeatedly work them until exhaustion, they can actually get stronger over time!

Better vision than eagles?

[L. Marcus]

Normals in my campaign gestate inside a living human host! They are so resilient that even limb loss might not incapacitate them! Their vision is superior to that of any other animal! They have (slightly) acidic blood! They have adrenal glands that drastically improve their strength and reaction time under duress! They can and do eat almost anything organic! If you repeatedly work them until exhaustion, they can actually get stronger over time!

... Actually, human blood is about pH 7.4 ...

[Cassandra]

Normals in my campaign gestate inside a living human host! They are so resilient that even limb loss might not incapacitate them! Their vision is superior to that of any other animal! They have (slightly) acidic blood! They have adrenal glands that drastically improve their strength and reaction time under duress! They can and do eat almost anything organic! If you repeatedly work them until exhaustion, they can actually get stronger over time!

Believe it or not, as Ripley would say.

[Cassandra]

Normals in my campaign gestate inside a living human host! They are so resilient that even limb loss might not incapacitate them! Their vision is superior to that of any other animal! They have (slightly) acidic blood! They have adrenal glands that drastically improve their strength and reaction time under duress! They can and do eat almost anything organic! If you repeatedly work them until exhaustion, they can actually get stronger over time!

They do have a susceptibility to Water.

[Tech]

Well' date=' [u']Jason Bourne[/u] would probably give a starting version of Batman a wee bit of trouble. That's mostly due to Bourne not paying points for equipment though.

 

The Batman here is, IMO, an excellent write-up for a Batman: Animated Series campaign. Thanks Hyper-Man for the link.

[Cassandra]

My version of a Normal

 

Male Char Female

10 STR 5

10 DEX 11

10 CON 10

10 BODY 10

10 INT 10

10 EGO 11

10 PRE 10

10 COM 10

2 PD 2

2 ED 2

2 SPD 2

4 REC 3

20 END 20

20 STUN 18

Total Characteristics Cost: 0 Points