My Superhero pen and paper RPG thread (design, feedback)

[lugaru]

Hi there!
I have started design on a superhero table top game and I'm going to use this thread for feedback and also to get my ideas out of my head where I can look at them and give things some thought. The idea is that I want the game based on comics and cartoons more than video games... something more about adventure than combat. Here are some design elements that are important to me:

Chance tempered by Resource Management: I love dice and the "OMG!" moments they produce but also characters can spend resources to overcome or ignore bad luck. That means that a superhero who was unable to dodge a bullet may still be able to avoid it, at the cost of not attacking that turn for example. I'll get into that a bit more later on.

A focus on heroics more so than combat: Everyone loves combat but a simple "actions" system should give you plenty of falling civilians to catch, bombs to defuse, doomsday devices to re-wire and other things to do besides punching people in the face. The action system basically means that each challenge has an entry level difficulty or requirement. That means that one character could instantly do something (a genius hacking a computer, a superhero snapping a lock) while some would take several turns or could not do so at all. Also I have a "peril" system, when ANYONE is in danger (civilian or ally) you can spend resources to intervene. That way you can catch heroes falling out of the sky, put a force field around somebody or use your diamond hard skin to deflect a bullet intended for somebody else.

Simple and open ended characters: I'm taking a page from Freedom Force and instead of creating 1000 powers I'm just doing a few that you can heavily customize. For example Iceman and Human Torch would be using the same power, only with a modifier (Ice, Fire) that changes how it works. Most powers have a "power" and "control" section... one section means big effects while the other is fine tuning. One power entry would be something you can fine tune to produce a dozen heroes... I'll post examples in another post.


Tactics mixed with Role Play: the game has a simplified tactics element (some meat on the bones) while also being declarative... in other words don't expect rules for everything, you can often just say what you want to do, but the lines are well drawn enough that you need to use strategy.

Bean Counter System: so the game requires only paper, pencil, a few d6 and DRY BEANS. You heard me... beans, the best RPG accessory ever made. A POUND costs a couple of bucks and using 2 colors (one for permanent markers, one for temporary markers) you can do a lot of cool stat tracking without scrap paper. Each character has 4 squares representing statistics, with a big number printed (say 4 in health). A "temporary" marker (say a red bean) would disappear at the end of the turn while a permanent one (black bean) stays. If you cross the threshold of temporary markers (say for red beans in a square that says 4) you get a permanent mark. That way a character with a square that says 4 health could really take 16 damage before being knocked out. Also since temporary markers disappear it encourages teamwork... if you want to beat Ultron you need several heroes hitting it at once to add up damage and produce permanent damage markers. This is also used for actions... in the Speed box you put in temporary "fatigue" counters and take away a certain amount each turn. Say attacking adds 2, but you could always add another to evade an attack that hit you, boost a power, save a civilian, help a friend, move really fast, etc. Most stat boxes don't accumulate permanent markers unless the character is injured, and you injure somebody by doing massive damage at once. Hit somebody hard enough and you can choose to put a permanent marker reducing his strength, speed or mind. Also you could use counters for limited powers (permanent markers on powers that can be used a limited number of times) or temporary markers on powers that have cool off times (remove one per turn, you can only use this power if there are no markers). That way you can have complex game play made simple.

[BlueBard]

I've never encountered 'bean counting' and 'simple' in the same paragraph before.  It kind of threw me off. 

Using counters (beans) as a tracking method is fine, but I would view it as an 'optional' game mechanic.  The same effect can be achieved with a pencil and an eraser using tick marks.  Or a grease pencil.  Or poker chips.  Or checkers.  Or beer steins.  (Suggesting an entirely different kind of game mechanic: Is your power half-full, or three-quarters-empty?  And are you fully-sloshed?)  Whatever is handy.  The important thing is to track stats, bonuses, and penalties, by whatever method works for the players.

I'll be interested in seeing more detail, maybe an example of how a brief scenario would play out.  Can't offer much feedback without that.

[BlueBard]

Just a bump.  Really curious where you're going with it.

I hope you will post an introductory scenario to walk through some of the basic game mechanics.  That will really help frame constructive feedback in the proper context, answer questions that haven't been asked, and suggest clarifying questions.

[lugaru]

Thanks for the bump... I started writing a post a couple of times but I've got such an idea flow going on that it was hard to figure out what to focus on. I'm just gonna pour out some of those ideas but I've got some stuff that actually makes sense in google docs.

Character Design:
Nothing random of course. It is done in 3 phases:
Secret Identity : who you are without powers, just a backstory, skills, basic statistics, etc.
Secret Origin: all your powers, and where they come from.
Heroic Career: a chance to add some experience modifiers, fame, alternate costumes that have effects, etc.

What a character looks like:
4 Stats
Muscles, Brains, Health and Speed. These statistics differ very little from one character to the next since they are your absolutely basic stats. For example both Superman and Batman would have a 4 for Muscles (better than average), but in the case of Superman he also has "Ultra Strength" which multiplies his stat a bunch of times allowing him to do crazy superman stuff.  Most powers are tied into a stat, just in case something compromises the stat it also weakens your powers.
Each one of these stats is actually a large box on the character sheet with a few notes. You can put temporary counters into these boxes to represent something that will wear off next turn (fatigue, damage) or permanent counters for something that is harder to remove (injuries or long term health loss).

Powers have a cost and this cost is reduced by any disadvantages and limits, so for example if you can only use a power once per scene it would cost 1 instead of 10. Likewise powers might require putting counters on stuff, such as damage (making you temporarily more vulnerable), fatigue or actual statistic loss (using a power literally weakens you).

Actions and Combat:
All actions require placing fatigue on that box, and you can wipe off 3 at the start of a new "page". So if you are moving from A to B, catching a falling civilian, disarming a bomb, you are using fatigue. Characters with super speed can use powers to turn a fatigue point into multiple actions giving them the ability to land a bunch of punches, get a bunch of civilians out of the way of falling debris or travel super long distances in a second. Think Flash punching in a hundred password combinations in a second as his way of "hacking". If a character accumulates too much fatigue they gain temporary disadvantages and at some point they become un-able to act (exhausted or even unconscious). 90% non combat actions require no roll, so don't expect me to ever say "oh, you rolled a 1, you fail in catching that falling civilian and he dies".

In combat to hit a target you need to roll 2d6, add it to your speed and beat 2x the speed of the target (printed in the speed box for convenience, especially since skills can increase that number). Also most characters can use 1 fatigue to add the speed to the stat again.

Example:
A bank robber takes a shot at Batman and rolls a 7 (+3 from his speed) equals a 10, and you need a 9 to hit Batman (4 speed and a +1 for some dodging skill). Bats could spend 1 fatigue to raise the difficulty to 13 (add his speed again) and dodge the bullet, but in doing so he is sacrificing a future action.

Damage is dropped into the health box and every time you accumulate a multiple of the health stat you add one permanent counter. For example if a character takes 8 damage and has a stat of 4 you would put 2 permanent counters in the box, which they can't really heal unless they have a relevant power. On the other hand say a character is super tough (armor powers) so most attacks only do a single point of damage (or zero). Well you could hit him with several heavy hitters and it would add up (2  counters from a lightning strike from storm, 2 counters from a punch of colossus) and 4 damage would give him a permanent damage marker. Need to play test to see if a character eliminates all temporary damage or just some at the start of a page (aka turn).

[lugaru]

A few random concepts:

Rule sheets: a sheet you can drop on the table to change the flavor, kind of like "plug in" mods for a pc game. For example you could toss in a "grim and gritty" sheet for 1990's image style violent outcomes or a "collateral damage" sheet which tracks property damage and civilians, meaning your heroes have to be careful. "Silver Age" could for example be a bit more "rock-em-sock-em" style and allow looser restrictions to perform actions.

Peril: time always stops when a character is in danger of receiving damage, be it a hero or a civilian. That means that if a ray gun is gonna blast Storm you could have Colossus use fatigue to move into the way. Likewise say Ironman is blasted out of the sky and takes some serious damage but it is gonna be a lot worse if he hits the ground, you could use a character to "catch" him.

Power Stacks: a card you can toss on top of a character... imagine something like "war machine suit" or "symbiote costume" that you could hypothetically just drop on any character, such as Frank Castle. That could work for simple things (batman putting on a Kevlar vest when he goes up against deadshot) or crazy (a "marvel zombie" card you could dump on any character to get a zombie version). And these have a cost just like powers do... so if you played a tactical game instead of an rpg session (the game will be good for both) you could allocate some points to maybe give your character a Green Lantern ring. Pair a power stack with an "Secret Identity" template and you have a character in a few seconds. "OK, I'm starting with a soldier (collection of skills and stats) and adding on this stack of cybernetic powers... all set!".

Bonus Stacks: powers and skills often have a modifier you can throw in when you roll a 6, making combat more dynamic. They could increase a stat (muscles, speed) until the end of the turn, stun an opponent, put in some extra damage, etc. The idea is to be able to tailor a "critical success" to give you what you need to succeed, be it enough extra damage for your opponent to feel the attack or perhaps a small speed bonus so you actually connect or have an easier time dodging for the rest of the page. Likewise you can do this with non combat skills, depending on the circumstances.

[BlueBard]

Just to ask a clarifying question concerning the Power Stacks...

At what times in-game would the player be able to apply one or more Power Stacks to his character?  Upon creation, or at the start of a scenario, or what?

To refer back to your Batman example, would Batman have a pool of unspent "character points" that he can use to simulate a mix of gear that changes from scene to scene?

I'm also curious about the details of what seems to be a point system for character design.  On a scale of 1 - 10, the Hero System being a '10', what complexity level are you shooting for?

[lugaru]

The idea behind power stacks is that it could be bought with a slush fund of points (i.e. your team gets 100 points to spend on equipment they take into each mission) OR it could be a special event (Storyteller offers you a special anti-radiation suit for a fight inside a nuclear reactor) OR it could be a permanent feature of your character, basically as templates. Take a ninja one (stealth, martial arts, weapons) and mix it with a psychic powers stack and you have a Psylocke style character. The idea is that I am playing with the idea that powers are fluid, which is a feature of the last 10 years of comics. Tons of characters are picking up new equipment, gaining new powers, borrowing items from other characters, etc. Think The Punisher with Pym Particles and confiscated supervillain weapons or Bullseye as Hawkeye or The New Warriors (recent) with depowered mutants wielding power giving devices. Heck, you could shoot up Bruce Wayne with super soldier serum if it suits your playstyle. In other words it is more of a philosophy than a set of rules, but of course rules will be in place. There should be room for crazyness in comics, for The Joker to show up in a giant battle armor built by Toyman or for example in Secret Six when Scandal took a dose of Venom to beat up a demon. I'm not a "everything was better in the silver age" sort of guy but you have to admit people where not afraid to go big concept back then, and now between continuity, "realism" and lazyness you rarely get those "oh #$@!" moments unless it is somebody getting killed.

As for hero complexity I would say simpler than a hardcore RPG (such as TSR marvel or Hero System) and it would probably be around a 5. Basically you have a bunch of individual powers for stuff like teleportation and telepathy while most attack powers are pure damage with modifiers (damage type, range, area, etc). Character creation works mostly by buying powers in multiples of ten, but I'm in early phases of those powers salvaging an earlier much more hardcore rpg. Also most powers have a "power" and "control" path, and by purchasing from one, the other or both you get better results.

Example:

Energy Constructs: the ability to create phisical objects out of energy.

Power
10 Small simple objects (bands, ropes, etc) with 2x strenght.
20 Super: Large objects with 3x strenght
30 Ultra: One huge (building sized) object with 4x strenght or multiple small ones with 2x or 3x.
40 Cosmic: One massive (visible from space) object with 5x strenght or many smaller ones.

Control
10 Give objects any shape you wish and the abilities of basic tools
20 Super: Objects become complex tools and intricate reproductions of objects. 
30 Ultra: Perfectly emulate average mechanical devices producing any sort of damage you wish.
40 Cosmic: Perfectly emulate any complex device or biology you have basic understanding of, and have these operate indipendant of your will.

I would want to expand on it a bit (such as list damage types) and add limitations (things that make the powers cheaper) and advantages (perks that make them more expensive) but you get the idea. With nothing but 10 points in Control will let you creat simple things like an energy hammer while 10 in power will let you lash out with damaging energy blows. Once you start combining and investing more you can get a green lantern style character.

a power stack:
Green Lantern Ring (210) A powerful weapon of alien origin capable of shaping will into objects.
_________________________________
Energy Constructs
(60) Ultra Power
(60) Ultra Control

Forcefield
(60) Ultra Shield

Flight
(30) Super Flight
________________________________

Obviosly it would have more going on than that but you get the drift.

[lugaru]

Two more things that I'm working on:

Damage types: obviosly damage types are important given that some characters may have strenghts and weaknesses against certain types of damage. More importantly though each damage type has its own basic effect and critical effect. Basic effects are something that the damage type does, such as a little bit of extra damage, ignoring armor a little, more stun, more knockback, etc. Critical effects are something your damage type CAN do (if you choose) when you roll at least one six while attacking. You know, catch an opponent on fire, freeze them, poison them, stun them, modify a statistic, etc. For example fire damage could do an extra, completely separate d6 points of damage starting the next turn. If the character is heavily armored or has a forcefield this will probably be useless but against most characters it will help wear them out fast and might require an action to put out.

Temporary counters: I'm moving towards the idea of removing a set number (based on your character) of temporary markers from ALL your statistic boxes. For example a character can remove 4 each turn, you could use that to remove them from fatigue (so you can have more actions), from non permanent damage (so you dont get overwhealmed by the next attack), or from a temporary attribute penalty. Lets say Batman has 3 on fatigue from the actions he took, 2 on damage from a punch he took and one on Strenght from a debilitating attack he took. He will probably want to remove that strenght penalty first, then 2 fatigue so he can attack and one damage so he can take another low damage punch without incuring permanent damage. A tank might focus on damage first while a dodger would focus on fatigue so he can spend it on dodges. Meanwhile attackers would do well to place temporary penalties to statistics to set up teamwork attacks and so foes waste time recovering from those instead of damage and fatigue. 

[BlueBard]

One optional game mechanic I thought of that you might want to think about is adapting the rules for playing by post.

I like RP Posting Games, but lack of a way to quantify abilities and verify die rolls puts everybody on the honor system and things can get out of hand very quickly.

The absence of actual dice is obviously the sticky point.  I know there are ways around it, and some forums even have virtual die rolls built into them for that purpose.  But what about an optional rule to establish an Action Point system in place of die rolls?

Say every player gets a pool of Action Points available to spend in each scene or mission.  These points would be 'spent' to simulate die rolls, with a limit on how many points can be spent in each turn (or per action).  The players will need to budget their AP's; they can start out with fantastic 'die rolls' but will quickly run out of steam if they spend too freely.

Additionally, characters with a 'slush fund' of points could buy advantages that increase their total AP's, or raise the maximum limit they can spend on particular actions or powers.

Since the random element would be removed, you would need another way to generate Criticals.  One way to do this would be to require the player to spend their cap on a particular action AND double the fatigue.  That would allow a player to heavily 'juice' an action at the expense of future actions.

It would raise the complexity level a bit, but as an optional game mechanic it could be freely ignored.