Superhero Example Characters

[seneschal]

So as not to derail Gentleman John's game review thread, I've created this discussion to compare how different superhero games handle similar concepts. Feel free to post your own examples.

I'll begin with a comparison of Basic Roleplaying (the Big Gold Book) and Hero System, 5th edition (the Big Black Book). Both volumes are compilations of venerable rules sets that have evolved over time from specific genres (BRP began as RuneQuest, Hero as Champions) into generic systems. I've been surprised by the similarities I've found between the two systems. But they do handle many things very differently. Both set the human average for characteristics at 10; BRP scales up to 18 for normal people, Hero up to 20. Strength damage and lifting ability scale differently for each game; Hero, which began as a superhero game, is much more precise. BRP includes a SIZ stat, which is a general measure of a character's tallness and mass; Hero doesn't have anything of the sort. All damage in BRP is lethal damage; there are ways to "pull your punches" but it isn't the default. Hero System, in contrast, assumes attacks do mostly stun damage unless specifically designed to kill. In general, BRP characters are much more "realistic" and fragile, while Hero characters tend to be cinematic and durable.

Concept:

I elected to attempt a simple construct, your basic big, tough, strong guy.

Aurochs – Chad Spellman was a white-collar criminal specializing in unauthorized electronic funds transfer and identity theft. Not as clever as he thought he was, Spellman was fleeing the FBI when he was offered help by a shadowy organization: Tertiary Augmentation Unified Research Underworld Syndicate (TAURUS). The group’s arcane experiments transformed the paunchy hacker into 700-something pounds of muscle, literally as strong as an ox. Unfortunately, side-effects included a violent temper, long curving bovine horns, and a bushy bullish tail. Spellman, now calling himself “Aurochs,” is attempting to recreate himself as a super-powered gang leader, with a focus still on computer-based crime. He does occasional jobs for TAURUS as payment for his powers. The truth is, the oversized Aurochs needs helpers. He’s too big and heavy to drive a car and must ride in a truck or paneled van driven by an associate. He also stands out in a crowd and must stay behind the scenes when his underlings are required do the necessary research in public places.

Basic Roleplaying Mechanics:

Strength, Constitution, Size, Intelligence, Power, Dexterity, and Appearance. Pretty self-explanatory. Power measures a character's strength of will, spirituality, and affinity for magic and/or super powers. Appearance is your basic Charisma stat. BRP characteristics are usually randomly rolled on 3D6 but can be adjusted afterward.

A random raw roll for characteristics produced STR 9, CON 13, SIZ 15, INT 11, POW 12, DEX 10, APP 7. Overall, not a bad set of stats; strength is slightly below normal (but we’re going to “super” Spellman up anyway), and his low APP matches the ultimate outcome of TAURUS’ tinkering. The total of the characteristics provides 77 power points to buy super powers with. I took on Failings to provide 10 more. I spent 63 of Aurochs’ 87 points on enhanced characteristics, none of which will require power points (energy) to use later on. The remaining 24 points I spent on armor, since I wanted Aurochs to be resistant to multiple types of damage. Given the nature of his Failings (which I’ll detail later), I also decided he should have Natural Weapon (horns) from the Mutations chapter, since the Super Powers chapter didn’t give me the option. They do 1D6+db.

The result looks like this:

STR 40
CON 30
SIZ 30
INT 11
POW 12
DEX 10
APP 7
Move: 10
Hit Points: 30 (60 if using SIZ + CON option)
Damage Bonus: +3D6
Armor: 8 points (Kinetic, Heat, Electrical)

According to the extended SIZ chart, Aurochs has a mass somewhere between 700 and 800 pounds. Based on the object SIZ chart, his 40 Strength would enable him to lift a small airplane (but not an automobile) and burst through a brick wall like Superman (well, most of the time). His average hand-to-hand damage (1D3+3D6) is roughly equivalent to being whacked by a medieval halberd or shot by an elephant gun. His 8 points of armor provides physical protection similar that given by a medieval suit of plate armor or a modern bulletproof vest; plus he's protected against fire and electricity at a similar level. OK, so Aurochs can’t clobber the Hulk, but he might be able to take on Luke Cage aka Power Man.

As a supervillain, Aurochs has 500 points to spend on professional skills and 275 points (INT x 25) to spend on personal skills. Whew! That’s a lot of points to allocate. While characteristics are randomly rolled, BRP's skill system is a point-buy affair. Skills are rated by a percentage, and skills begin with a default level ranging from 0% to 30%, depending on what they are. So those 775 points may go pretty fast, after all. We'll figure out Aurochs' skills in Part 2.

[seneschal]

Hero System Mechanics:

While characteristics are randomly rolled in Basic Roleplaying, Hero System is a full point-buy system. Standard 5th edition superheroes begin with 200 points and can take up to 150 points worth of Disadvantages to boost their abilities. Hero System characteristics are divided into two parts: primary characteristics and figured characteristics (the latter are analogous to BRP’s derived characteristics). The primary characteristics are similar to their BRP counterparts – Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Body, Intelligence, Ego, Presence, and Comeliness. Body is a character’s hit points and can be bought up by the player, unlike BRP Hit Points (which are derived from the average of SIZ and CON and tend to stay the same). Ego is analogous to Power in BRP. Presence and Comeliness roughly equate BRP’s Appearance.

Since the scale of normal level characteristics is similar between the two systems, it isn’t a problem to keep some of them the same. A CON of 30 is pretty darn impressive in either game. INT of 11 and EGO of 12 is fine, too. Aurochs isn’t a strong-willed genius. We’ll reduce Comeliness from the standard 10 to 6; Aurochs is kind of ugly, and it will save us 2 character points. Presence determines both how brave a Hero character is and how impressive he is to others. We’ll probably want to beef that up (pun intended). Determining his Strength, Dexterity and Body will require some thought.

Based on his BRP lifting ability and hand-to-hand damage, Aurochs’ Hero System STR would be 28. That enables him to lift a medium-sized missile (but again, not a car), punch through some walls, and dish out 5-1/2D6 worth of damage. Translated into killing damage (the kind that reduces Body), that’s 2D6-1, about the amount a big polearm like a halberd does, equivalent to BRP’s 1D3+3D6. Here’s where we begin to see some of the differences between the two games. While a 40 STR in BRP won’t allow you to arm-wrestle Cthulhu, it is amazing for most player-characters. A 28 STR in Hero is much better than a normal person and would enable a character to easily slap around a group of thugs. Compared to many published NPC heroes and villains, however, it’s kind of wimpy, particularly since I envisioned Aurochs as a big powerhouse.

Speaking of “big,” Hero System doesn’t have anything like BRP’s SIZ characteristic. However, Aurochs’ 700+ pounds of mass would give him the equivalent of 15 points of Growth. Since he’s that size all the time, he won’t use the Growth power. We’ll just give him similar benefits: +3 Body, extra reach compared to 6-foot people, being harder to knock out or knock back in combat. In Hero System, Aurochs stands about 12 feet tall in addition to being so heavy. His mass provides most of his enhanced strength. And it also provides a 20-point Physical Limitation Disadvantage. The world is his china closet.

While DEX 10 is fine in BRP, where combat competence is divorced from a character’s physical abilities (more on that later), it is positively clumsy in Hero System even compared to non-superheroic player-characters. In versions of Hero System before 6th edition, a character’s basic ability to hit or avoid being hit was tied to Dexterity. In order to keep up with the Joneses, we’ll increase Aurochs’ DEX to 15. That makes him as agile as an American Bison, and most James Bond or Indiana Jones style PCs.

We’ve already determined that his mass would probably equip Aurochs with a BODY of at least 13. However, the 1st edition Hero System Bestiary (1986) I own indicates that most large cattle have BODY of 20 or above. We’ll cut Aurochs some slack and give him 23 BODY, the same as an African Cape Buffalo. At first blush, this seems inferior to his BRP Hit Points. However, most attacks in Hero System do much less lethal damage than those in BRP, particularly when we’re talking about superhero brawls. Since we’re also going to give him super defenses, Aurochs will be just fine.

So Aurochs’ primary characteristics will look like this:

28 STR (18)
15 DEX (15)
30 CON (40)
23 BODY (26)
11 INT (1)
12 EGO (4)
20 PRE (10)
6 COM (-2)

So far, we’ve spent 112 of Aurochs’ starting character points. That’s appropriate, since his improved physical stats are his main power. Plus we can take on Disadvantages to get more points if we need to.

Raw secondary characteristics based on his primary stats would be:

6 PD
6 ED
2.5 SPD
12 REC
60 END
52 STUN

PD and ED are Physical Defense and Energy Defense. In Hero System, characters automatically have some protection against attacks that aren’t specifically designed to do killing damage. PD and ED of 6 are pretty good for a normal person, low for a superhero. That’s OK. We’re going to buy Aurochs armor when we get to powers. Hero characters have a Speed that enables them to move and attack in a combat system somewhat similar to BRP strike ranks. Since partial SPD doesn’t count, we’ll spend another 5 points to give Aurochs a 3 SPD, meaning he can take three actions in a 12-second combat round. That’s typical for a movie-style action hero, and Chad Spellman is no Spider-Man. Recovery determines how fast a character gets his wind back and heals. Endurance determines how much activity a character can take before he gets tuckered out. Stun determines how much non-lethal damage a character can take before he gets knocked out. Aurochs is pretty good on all three counts, so we’ll leave them as-is. With the sole improvement of SPD, we’ve increased the cost of Aurochs’ characteristics to 117 points.

Powers

There are two approaches a superhero game can take towards powers. One is to attempt to list and provide descriptions of and rules for every comic book ability that the authors can think of (cold powers, flame powers, molten asphalt powers, etc.). The other is to take an effects-based approach; provide a set of flexible powers that the player can describe and/or use to model whatever abilities he wants. Mechanically, “blast” is the same power, but the player can describe it as a jet of flame, magnetic force, or a stream of icicles. BRP takes the former approach, Hero System the latter. Both systems allow players to purchase powers for their characters by allocating build points and to increase those points by taking on disadvantages or failings for their hero. Both systems allow players to modify those powers, limiting how they work to achieve different effects and to gain more build points. However, BRP’s starting build points are based on the total of a character’s randomly rolled characteristics; all heroes are not created equal. Hero System gives each character the same number of points to start, although players may elect to take on different amounts of disadvantages. Hero System provides 65 powers, Basic Roleplaying 34. The old Worlds of Wonder Superworld had abilities not listed in the current edition of the rules. The author of BRP wanted to provide enough powers to enable superheroic play but felt he couldn’t cram the whole of Superworld’s options into the system’s core book.

Because there are such a variety of powers and modifiers in each game, I chose to build a guy whose powers were mainly enhanced characteristics, as previously mentioned. However, many of Aurochs’ physical abilities in Hero System require purchasing powers. For starters, we’ll tackle his defenses. Eight points of physical armor in Hero System is the same as 8 points of armor in BRP. Since energy defense doesn’t differentiate among types of energy in Hero System as it does in BRP, we’ll purchase 8 PD/8 ED Armor for 24 character points. For normal, non-killing attacks, he’ll get to stack his regular PD/ED on top of his armor, for a total defense of 14. He’s not invulnerable, but that isn’t too bad. With his high Stun and plentiful END, he’ll be able to take a few hits and keep on fighting.

Aurochs’ 1D6 horns would be purchased as a Hand-to-Hand Killing Attack for 15 points. His extra mass would give him -3 inches of Knockback Resistance (6 points) in combat, his height an extra 6 feet of reach (1 inch of Stretching, another 5 points). That’s a total of 50 points spent on powers, 167 points overall. That leaves 33 points to spend on skills before we have to take any Disadvantages to pay for them. Although, based on his description, Aurochs should have a number of Disadvantages, which we’ll deal with later.

Skills

Skills were sort of tacked on to Champions 3rd edition as an afterthought. Despite their relative cheapness in terms of character build points, players sometimes had to choose between a nifty set of skills or really cool powers until Hero System 5th edition increased starting points for superheroes. Skills are rated on a 3D6 roll under, and range from 8- (good luck!) to 18- (pretty good). A skill’s starting level is influenced by its related characteristic. A character with a high Dexterity, for example, will start out better at Stealth or Acrobatics than a character with an average stat. You can compensate for a low related characteristic by buying up the level of a specific skill, but it is often more efficient to buy up the characteristic and boost several skills at once.

In contrast, in Basic Roleplaying skills are divorced from a character’s stats. A character can have an average or low DEX but still thrive with his Gymnastics or Sniper Rifle 85% skill (roll under skill level using two D100s to succeed), even if he’s a klutz in other matters. A BRP character is his skills, since characteristics and hit points tend to stay the same but skill levels can improve over time.

[seneschal]

Real life has a way of interfering with good gaming. Whew!

Let's take a look at Aurochs' Hero System skills.

Perk: Four 50-point Followers (20)
Bugging 11- (3)
Computer Programming 13- (7)
Concealment 13- (7)
Disguise 11- (3)
Electronics 13- (7)
Forgery 11- (3)
Interrogation 13- (3)
Language (Programming Language, fluent) (3)
Persuasion 13- (3)
Professional Skill: Hacker 13- (4)
Running +6” (12” Total) (12)
Security Systems 13- (7)
Stealth 12- (3)
Streetwise 13- (3)
Systems Operation 11- (3)
Trading 13- (3)
Weapons Familiarity: Small Arms, Common Melee Weapons (4)
+2 Skill Levels in Hand-to-Hand Combat (10)

Aurochs’ skills represent his competence at electronic crime and his ability to deal with the underworld. His increased Running enables him to run as fast as a horse (or in this case, a cow). He has four thugs to assist him, each with a base of 50 points. They can take on Disadvantages, too, to increase their points. Aurochs knows how to use common firearms and melee weapons but isn’t especially good with them. However, his skill levels in unarmed fighting boost his brawling ability with his hands or his horns.

Combat effectiveness in Hero System is rated by Offensive Combat Value (OCV) and Defensive Combat Value (DCV). To attack, a player rolls his character’s OCV + 11, minus the target character’s DCV. If he rolls under 11- on 3D6, he hits. So having a high OCV and DCV is a good thing. Before 6th edition, both values were based on a character’s DEX, divided by 3. Aurochs’ OCV and DCV, because of his DEX 15, are each 5. His skill levels increase his OCV to 7 in hand-to-hand combat, but it remains 5 when he uses a gun or knife. His DCV stays 5 (which is why he needs Armor).

Earlier, I noted that he had 33 of his base points left to spend on skills, but I’ve spent 108. That means Aurochs’ needs to take on Disadvantages to pay for his abilities. Fortunately, his origin story gives us several obvious ones:

Physical Limitation: Always 12-feet tall, 800 pounds (constant, major inconvenience) (20)
Distinctive Features: Twelve-foot-tall bull man (not concealable, major reaction) (20)
Subject to Orders 8- by TAURUS (infrequent, major risk) (10)
Psychological Limitation: Violent temper (common, strong) (15)
Psychological Limitation: Ladies’ man (common) (10)

That gives us the 75 extra points we needed.

How effective a villain is Aurochs in Hero System? Well, he’d be in trouble in a toe-to-toe fight against the Hulk or the Flash, but against street-level martial arts heroes or Avengers-style secret agents he’s a pretty good boss. He’s kind of a behind-the-scenes type of guy, anyway. So heroes will be struggling to unravel Aurochs’ schemes and tangling with his agents long before they actually meet him. In my old 3rd and 4th edition games, a 275-point villain was pretty standard since heroes were limited to 250. In a 5th edition game, where heroes get up to 350 points, Aurochs would ironically be considered low powered.

A minor difference in systems: In Hero System, I was able to buy up Aurochs' basic 6" of movement, which is now twice as fast. In BRP, his MOV is limited to the human-normal 10, equivalent to 6" in Hero System. The only way to increase his running speed would have been to purchase the power Super Speed, which I didn't have points for.

I said we’d come back to Aurochs’ Failings for BRP. Although the points involved are scaled differently than for Hero System, the effect is pretty much the same:

Super powers on full-time, +5
Bad temper, +3
Responsible to TAURUS, infrequent, +1
Ladies’ man, +1

We still need to deal with the BRP version of Aurochs' skills.

BRP suggests that characters pick a suite of skills, based on profession. Since Chad Spellman is both a Computer Tech and a Criminal, we’ll choose both, plus a handful of “personal” skills to round him out. Aurochs can afford two careers since he’s got twice the number of skill points as a normal PC.

Attacks: Brawl 25%, 1D3+3D6; Grapple 25%, 1D3+3D6; Head Butt 25%, 1D6+3D6; Heavy Pistol 20%, 1D10+2

Bargain 5%; Command 5%; Craft (Computer Code) 5%; Craft (Alternate Electronic Identity) 5%; Dodge 20%; Drive 20%; Fast Talk 5%; Gaming 23%; Hide 10%; Knowledge (Accounting) 5%; Knowledge (Computer Fraud) 5%; Knowledge (Law) 5%; Language (English) 55%; Language (Programming Language) 0%; Listen 25%; Persuade 15%; Repair (Electronics) 15%; Research 25%; Science (Mathematics) 1%; Status 15%; Stealth 10%; Strategy 1%; Technical (Computer Use) 1%; Throw 25%

Now, the percentages listed are the base values for each skill. We've still got 775 points to improve them with, which is something I'll deal with next time.

[seneschal]

4C version

I never played Marvel Superheroes, although members of my gaming group enjoyed it. I don’t own it, but I do have a hard copy of its retro-clone, 4C. Unlike BRP and Hero System, everything in 4C is randomly rolled: traits, number of skills, number of powers, and the powers themselves. It’s much lighter, a less detailed and exact game, no Strength or Size charts here. It uses percentile dice exclusively. Both traits and the effectiveness of powers are measured in ranks rather than in exact numbers, accompanied by descriptions: Feeble, Average, Amazing, Unearthly, etc. There are 25 possible powers on the basic chart, 50 on the advanced chart.

I had intended to use the point-buy rules devised by Curt Meyers and Bill Browne to assign the values needed to reproduce Aurochs for 4C. However, on a whim I began random rolling and rolled well, gaining a fitting set of primary traits, three skills, and four powers. Marvel Superheroes karma must have been with me. The only “cheating” I did was to pick the powers instead of rolling randomly for them.

Character Origin: Changed Human (one Primary Trait increased by +10 Rank, Intellect)

Primary Traits:

Melee: Rank 30 (Maximum human limit)

Coordination: Rank 20 (Exceptional human)

Brawn: Rank 45 (Low superhuman)

Fortitude: Rank 55 (Superhuman)

Intellect: Rank 20 (Exceptional human)

Awareness: Rank 20 (Exceptional human)

Willpower: Rank (Above-average human)

Secondary Traits:

Damage: 150

Fortune: 40

Lifestyle: 40 (Head of a large, international corporation)

Repute: 7

Skills: Hacking, Electronics, Contact: TAURUS

Powers:

Body Armor, Rank 20

Horns, Rank 6

Trait Increase (+15 Rank to two primary traits, Brawn and Fortitude)

Headquarters (Fenced, multi-building compound)

And that’s it. In general, the 4C version of Aurochs is smarter, more agile, more intuitive, and more competent in a brawl than his BRP and Hero System incarnations, and without those annoying Disadvantages or Failings. He’s much richer, too, the head of a Microsoft-style software and computing empire with a large R&D campus to work from. Here, Chad Spellman is less the fledgling thug boss and more the Lex Luthor style mastermind.

The Melee trait is a character's hand-to-hand fighting ability. Awareness splits the difference between the previous games' INT and POW/EGO stats. Damage is essentially hit points, Fortune a measure of a character's luck. Repute is how famous a character is. Fortune, Lifestyle, and Repute can fluctuate during a campaign as a character uses up his luck, gains or loses wealth, and rises in fame or infamy.

On quirk typical of 4C, Aurochs’ fearsome horns (the Claws power, Rank 6) do less damage than his fists (Melee, Rank 30). It isn’t the first time I’ve random-rolled a 4C character whose “unique” equipment, weapon or body part does less damage than a simple punch.

[Blood axe]

On quirk typical of 4C, Aurochs’ fearsome horns (the Claws power, Rank 6) do less damage than his fists (Melee, Rank 30). It isn’t the first time I’ve random-rolled a 4C character whose “unique” equipment, weapon or body part does less damage than a simple punch.

------------------------

Yeah, happened to me alot too. I just usually change it to equal basic strength or 1 rank above.

[AnnDempsey]

Every superhero must have an extra ability,example of this is Superman that having an ability to fly that be able help to rescue the peoples and having and extra-ordinary power so that the enemies will be lost.

[Gavin]

The first real regular gaming group I got into was with a group of guys who met in a side room of a comic book shop. Dave, the owner, was kind enough to let us play there. DC Heroes had just come out and we were all pretty much biased towards DC anyways so that was the game we primarily played. It used what is now known as the Mayfair Exponential Game System and it worked pretty darn good. We played that game as our regular standard game system for about six years. When the second edition was about to be released we were lucky enough to at that point have a recently new member of the group who had some contacts at Mayfair Games. He got us all Xerox copies of the upcoming box set and so we got to play test it. We played other RPGs but DC Heroes was always our favorite because we were all primarily comic book geeks.

[Eldrad]

I like the 4C version best.

[Blood axe]

I like the 4C version best.

4C is basically the old Marvel RPG. II think its available free online now.

[seneschal]

Yep, both the original FASERIP Marvel Superheroes and 4C are free online. 4C is shorter and more compact but a bit cryptic.

You can get 4C here:

http://hazardstudio.net/id18.html

I've been hunting for the Marvel download site and can't find it. I apologize.

I recently picked up Villains and Vigilantes, another "old-school" random-roll superhero game. Once I dope it out enough, I'll try to stat up Aurochs in that system.