Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.super-heroes (
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I understand how it works, and so therefore I dont expect 20 resistant
PD to be enough. I guess I didnt make myself clear. What I'm saying is
that it is a staple of comic books to have quite a few Supers who
literally ignore 20mm rounds, and even tank shells, but are a danger to
one another. Because of the way the Hero system works, you'd have to
have 200 resistant defense or more to achieve that. Probably more. The
system is totally workable as-is but the default campaign is just
perhaps quite a bit less epic than some of the comic books standard
heroes (in some comic book universes).
I've played Hero for years and love it and I'm comfortable with the
power levels, but its just a fact that heroes that ignore heavy gunfire
are common in comic books, but to have that kind of defense in Hero,
assuming other heroes are balanced to have offense to not be negated by
that same defense, that the power level of the heroes is way off the
scale. Now, there are plenty of world-threat level heroes that ignore
gunfire in comics, but plenty non-global scale ones that dont ... these
inbetween heroes, who ignore gunfire but cannot destroy Europe for
breakfast, that are hardest to simulate with Hero.
But no big deal.
I'm thinking of adding a mechanic to the next game I run where heroes
are rated by "Power Class" a la DCU's metahuman index or Powers
universe scale, 1-10 or whatever. Heroes in a given class are built on
50 points per class rating, plus disads. So, a "standard" Class 5 hero
has 250 points for free, a 50 point active power limit, and can get up
to 100 more points from disadvantages and personal limits. For every 50
experience points earned, your class rating goes up by 1, and the
active point limit goes up by 10 points. If I can find a balanced way
to do it, each Power Class over 5 will start having advangates .... for
example at Power Class 7, maybe Killing Attacks can never do more than
average stun. It just makes the heroes more hardy. However, I'd
probably say that hero powers would be special and immune to the rule,
so a killing attack from a superpower wouldnt be limited, so the titans
are relatively the same, but can be safe from "normal" stuff without
having to be planet-splitters.
Of course then you get into ... what constitutes a superpower. I'd
probably label powers as Mutant, Magic, WeirdTech, or WeirdScience,
maybe Chi, and anything of that classification is immune to the defense
benefits of being an Epic or high Power Rating Super.
But its just an idea that may or may not work and is in the primitive
stage.
Lewis
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