{"id":429,"date":"2015-05-15T17:05:46","date_gmt":"2015-05-15T17:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/super-heroes-without-the-crunch\/"},"modified":"2024-01-20T14:03:10","modified_gmt":"2024-01-20T20:03:10","slug":"super-heroes-without-the-crunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/super-heroes-without-the-crunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Super-Heroes Without The Crunch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week I posted a new article on Hubpages called \u201cSeven Rules Every Game Master Should Follow<\/a>.\u201d That explains why I didn\u2019t post here last week, but I don\u2019t have any excuse for the week or two before that beyond a combination of real life stuff and lack of ideas. I\u2019ve written, co-written, or contributed to 20 or so RPG books, I\u2019ve been writing gaming articles for around 15 years, and I\u2019ve done more convention panels than I can count, so sometimes it\u2019s hard to think of topics that don\u2019t feel like retreads of old material. Since I was drawing a blank, I posted on the QAGS Facebook page<\/a> a couple days ago asking for requests. An Alert Reader (as Dave Barry would say) named Max Traver asked for advice about doing super-heroes using the QAGS rules, so that\u2019s what I\u2019ll be covering this week.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>First off, there are already two sets of superpowers rules for QAGS in existing products, one in Weird Times at Charles Fort High<\/a> and one in All-Stars<\/a>. Both are semi-crunchy and mostly pretend that game balance is a thing, because that\u2019s what players seem want in a game supplement, but both are bare-bones because the super-powers are primarily for flavor in those games. If we ever decide to release a super-hero rules set for QAGS, it will be some combination of the rules found in those two books, only with more examples and ideas for handling specific powers and common situations, plus tons of advice about things like story structure and genre conventions. If you\u2019re looking for mechanics, you should check out those supplements. This post is about how I actually run super-hero games using QAGS (at least outside of a convention setting).<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the secret to running a QAGS supers game: Just use the basic QAGS rules. You\u2019ll need to do a little bit of fine-tuning, but not much. The main hurdle is accepting that game balance is an RPG contrivance that has nothing to do with actual fiction, especially team super-hero fiction. If you can\u2019t get over the nagging feeling that it\u2019s unfair to Hawkeye\u2019s player if his character isn\u2019t equivalent to Thor on some arbitrary mathematical scale, this won\u2019t work for you. If there\u2019s not a reasonable level of trust between the members of your gaming group, this won\u2019t work for you. If you want rules where strategy takes the form of manipulating the rules math to create powerful combos, this won\u2019t work for you. You\u2019ll probably be happier skipping the rest of this article and picking up one of the many excellent RPGs that facilitate that style of play. Different people like different things. Nothing wrong with that.<\/p>\n

Character Creation<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Character creation for supers is more about clearly understanding how to use the existing rules to define super-heroes than about tweaking mechanics, so I\u2019ll start by outlining how I\u2019d use the standard QAGS Words. During character creation, focus more on building a solid character than precisely defining powers numerically. Once the game starts, it\u2019s a lot easier to fix broken mechanics than broken character concepts.<\/p>\n

Body, Brain, and Nerve<\/h3>\n

A QAGS super-hero\u2019s Body, Brain, and Nerve Numbers can go up to 19, but keep in mind that since these scores are holistic, many super-powers are too narrow to merit a high Body, Brain, or Nerve Numbers. Captain America might have 17 or 18 Body since his powers cover basically all the physical aspects represented by Body (strength, agility, toughness, good looks, etc.) but are still more or less within the realm of human potential. Hulk would have a Body in the normal range, but his Body number would operate on a completely different scale for actions involving strength because of his super-powers. Hulk can pick up a tank without making a Body roll. Even if Cap rolled a Lucky Break on Body, he still couldn\u2019t pick up a tank despite his higher Body Number. I\u2019ll cover handling contests between characters operating on different power scales a little later.<\/p>\n

Job(s)<\/h3>\n

A super-hero\u2019s Job is basically \u201csuper-hero,\u201d but players are encouraged to jazz up the name with a little bit of flavor. A Grim Vigilante, an All-American Hero, and an X-Man all have more or less the same job–fighting bad guys, saving people, solving crimes, looking good in spandex, etc.—but slightly different methods and skill sets. The super-hero Job is very broad and can be used for almost any super-hero-related action that doesn\u2019t violate the basic character concept or require extensive training or specialized knowledge. Super-heroes rarely make default rolls.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re running a game that will focus entirely on super-hero activity or something like Fantastic Four where super-hero and civilian identities are merged , you don\u2019t need to worry about secret identities. If a player in that kind of game really wants a defined mechanical advantage for rolls related to his day job, he can take a Skill.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve got a character like Shazam or Hulk where the super-hero and the secret identities are essentially two distinct entities with limited or no shared consciousness, your best bet is probably to make two separate characters. If the same mind is driving both bodies, defining which powers and abilities are off-limits or have different Numbers in a particular form should suffice. However you do it, make sure the player and GM are on the same page about how the two sides of the character interact and what causes them to switch places.<\/p>\n

Gimmicks & Weaknesses<\/h3>\n

Once you\u2019ve thrown out the idea that Superman and Green Arrow need to have powers that add up to the same point value, creating a character becomes mostly a matter of definition, not mechanics. Deciding your Gimmick and Weakness is basically a matter of coming up with a good name for the character\u2019s power(s) and vulnerability(ies). It\u2019s perfectly fine for Superman to have a Gimmick\/Weakness combo of \u201cLast Son of Krypton\u201d and Captain America to have the \u201cSuper Soldier\u201d Gimmick and \u201cMan Out of Time\u201d Weakness as long as everyone understands the effects of Earth\u2019s Yellow Sun™ on Kryptonian physiology and the benefits of Super Soldier Serum.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re probably thinking that this set-up works fine with established characters, but is a little tougher if you\u2019re making original characters, and you\u2019re right. If you\u2019re using this system, the player and GM need a clear mutual understanding of the character\u2019s powers. Fortunately, most super-heroes are built around an easily identifiable theme, so often it\u2019s just a matter of clarifying whether \u201ccat powers\u201d means the character has cat-like abilities, the power to communicate with and control cats, or some combination of both. The two big exceptions are aliens (or at least ones that aren\u2019t being swiped from an existing fictional work) and Marvel-style mutants (who sometimes lean toward the \u201crandom collection of kewl powers\u201d school of character design). For Gimmicks with less obvious meanings, the GM and player will need to define things in more detail, usually by making a list of powers and vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n

Other Words<\/h3>\n

In addition to normal Skills, a super-powered character can take Skills for specific power uses. For example, Supes could take a Skill to give him an extra bonus on flying rolls or Spidey could take Web-Slinging +3. Skills can also be used to quantify minor powers (like keen hearing or stealth) or physical properties (like natural weapons) that work better as bonuses to other rolls than Gimmicks.<\/p>\n

The other Words work the same as in regular QAGS.<\/p>\n

Running the Game<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Running a supers game with QAGS is all about understanding the dramatic rules of super-hero fiction and using that knowledge to know when and how to apply the game rules in ways that facilitate that style of storytelling. Since the best way to learn the dramatic rules of comic books is by actually reading comic books and watching super-hero movies, I\u2019m going to assume you\u2019re familiar with the genre conventions and focus on how I\u2019d use the QAGS rules to model super-hero fiction.<\/p>\n

When To Roll<\/h3>\n

Super-heroes are unbelievably competent in most situations, so the threshold for rolling is a lot higher than in most games. For most characters, leaping across gap between rooftops is a stunt. For Spider-Man, it\u2019s a form of locomotion; Making Spidey roll to cross town without touching the ground would be like making J. Jonah Jameson roll to walk down the street. He\u2019s not going to fail unless there are extenuating circumstances, so there\u2019s no need for dice unless something unusual is going on. The best way to judge whether a roll is needed is to decide what would happen if the roll were to fail and then ask yourself if that would ever happen in a comic book or movie about the character. If the answer is no, put down the dice and back away slowly.<\/p>\n

\"\"Since you\u2019re going to be rolling a lot less, you can\u2019t rely on the dice to create the story for you. That\u2019s in keeping with the genre. Most super-hero stories aren\u2019t about the characters doing things that are at the upper limits of their abilities, they\u2019re about doing things for which they\u2019re fully qualified amid an avalanche of complications and extenuating circumstances. The challenge isn\u2019t breaking into the bad guy\u2019s hideout, beating up the guards, and taking the McGuffin Ray. That\u2019s a cakewalk for a gang of super-heroes. The challenge is figuring out who stole the McGuffin Ray in the first place, finding his secret hideout, breaking in, beating the guards, and stealing the McGuffin Ray, then escaping the burning hideout while also saving the roomful of orphans the bad guy was holding prisoner. During a blizzard. With an army of juggalos in power armor on your trail for reasons you haven\u2019t quite worked out yet.<\/p>\n

Since the real challenge of super-hero plots comes in the form of figuring out what\u2019s really going on, coming up with a plan, and dealing with unexpected complications, resolving them requires a lot more initiative on the part of players than dungeon slogs where the players can just roll dice to overcome the problems that the GM puts in front of them. That being the case, you\u2019ve got to structure your adventures so that there are a lot of different ways for the players to arrive at a resolution. You also need to \u00a0be open to solutions you didn\u2019t think of. If there\u2019s only one way to complete the mission, either the players are going to find it immediately and be bored or they\u2019re going to get frustrated (and feel railroaded) trying to find the One True Answer.<\/p>\n

Combat<\/h3>\n

The \u201cdon\u2019t roll if there\u2019s no chance of failure rule\u201d applies to a lot of super-hero combat as well. If Batman\u2019s beating up a mugger, you can usually just let the player describe what happens without rolling. If you need a longer mook fight for pacing, use the combat rules but ignore the damage to the heroes. Most mook hits don\u2019t hurt heroes, they just temporarily keep the heroes from pounding mooks. Depending on how well the mook succeeds, the hero might lose his next action, suffer a temporary penalty, drop his weapon, etc. If a mook scores an extremely lucky hit (a Lucky Break, for example), he might actually cause a problem that will affect the hero after the fight is over. This can take the form of (usually minor) damage if you don\u2019t have any better ideas, but less abstract options usually work better. Specific wounds that incur penalties, loss of equipment, and (if appropriate) odd effects on super-powers (like a head injury that causes a character\u2019s psychic powers to go wonky) are all possibilities. Obviously, this requires more descriptive combat than \u201cI shoot it for 3 points of damage\u201d and \u201cHe pokes you with a stick for 5 points of damage,\u201d but you\u2019re going to need to step up your descriptions for a super-hero game to work no matter what combat rules you use.<\/p>\n

Even in fights against real threats, heroes shrug off a lot of damage, so the standard QAGS damage system only works if you give the players \u00a0a lot of Yum Yums to spend on negating damage. If you want to avoid too much Yum Yum inflation, you can either make sure every character has something that functions as an Armor Rating (actual armor, a healing factor, super speed that makes it hard to land a solid punch–most comic heroes have something to explain why they\u2019re harder to kill than civilians) or change the damage rules slightly (all damage is halved, all characters ignore the first 5 points of damage per hit by virtue of being super-heroes, etc). You can also change the amount of damage that each YY negates. The extent to which you need to tweak the damage rules depends on what kind of game you\u2019re running. A street-level game will probably stick closer to the existing rules than a cosmic game.<\/p>\n

If a character does manage to run out of Health Points, he\u2019s still not dead, he\u2019s just out of the fight. In most cases, a character with zero or fewer HP is still conscious and might even be able to take non-combat actions. He may even be able to get back into the fight if he can find a convincing explanation for his second wind. Super-heroes only die if they consciously decide to sacrifice themselves (which often means game mechanics aren\u2019t even involved) or if they are in an earth-shattering \u201cend of a major crossover event\u201d type battle. In the latter case, the GM should make sure the players understand the stakes and the exact rules for death by die roll (HP reaching negative Body is a good rule of thumb).<\/p>\n

Differing Power Scales<\/h3>\n

Since Batman has a 16 Body Number (on the human scale) and Superman has a 16 Body Number (on the Kryptonian on Earth scale), they\u2019re evenly matched mechanically in an arm wrestling competition even though Supes can pick up oil tankers. This kind of scale difference isn\u2019t usually a huge problem if you run your stories like a comic book because like tends to pair up with like. Tanks fight tanks, super-speedsters fight other super-speedsters, and blasters fight blasters. Even in the Batman vs. Superman example, comic writers always make sure Bats has some kind of power armor or something that puts him on the same power scale (more or less) as Superman. Still, you\u2019ll occasionally run into uneven power match-ups, so you need a way to deal with it. I suggest dividing scale differences into four different levels depending on the circumstances:<\/p>\n