Friv makes twenty superheroes!

Games Sentinel Comics RPG
#61

Yeah, I think that’s accurate (it also exists to model people like Muerto, who has two very distinct modes of being but not the extra number of modes that Modular gives you) but I find it weird that after demonstrating some really slick design in Form-Changer and Modular in terms of trade-offs, Divided just shrugs and doesn’t offer anything in trade.

I can imagine a version of Divided that either gives you stronger dice in each form at the cost of versatility, or more versatility at the cost of limiting how much of it you have in each form, but that would require the various divided states to either each give extra dice or to step dice up.

I can the various ways to change forms all being set up so that there’s a small cost to changing back and forth, but right now the cost to change is massive, which is doubly odd because there’s no advantage to having a second form for that cost to offset.

It’s weird to me. Especially because everything else seems so solid. More solid than before I built twenty characters, to be honest; there are only a few things that feel notably outside the mean, and Divided is the only one that I would say "no, that is just plain bad.

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#62

Yeah, Ra, who died before the RPG started. I guess they were just being considerate to folks who’d want to build him anyway. Divided is . . . odd. Let’s leave it at that.

Alright, all twenty Heroes are made. It’s time to guess their teams!

The magician Ilamar the Inscrutable and the mage-knight Runesword team up with the magical selkie Deep freeze and the mystic-relic-wielding Covenant!

The aliens Montage and Refuge have come to Earth where they team up with Synergist and Fernwick, who are also powered from beyond the stars!

The tech-using Nanoswarm, Archie The Adventurer, and The Artificer team up with the cybernetic Atomizer and the robotic Determinator!

The Regulator and The Channeler, whose powers are drawn from otherworldly dimension, team up with The Line and Bedrock, who hail from other realities!

The formerly villainous Doctor Cobalt and former Citizen of the Sun Breakguard team up with the rageful Commodore Ironclad!

I hope I got some right.

#63

I’d argue it moreso exists to create the Hulk

#64

Oh, 100% the Hulk, but I was at least giving them the Legally Their Idea credit.

3 Likes
#65

Whoa, I can’t believe it’s done! :open_mouth: This has been real, real good.

I need to do a little info gathering tomorrow, and then I can start my own (admittedly much shorter) attempt at using everything possible in the core book. :smiley:

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#66

Thank you! But it’s not quite done - I’ve got five team updates to go. :slight_smile:

And fjur: you didn’t get any full teams, but you spotted a lot of the pairings that went into them. Let’s start pulling back the curtain with…

Team 1: The Champions of Tomorrow

Members: Covenant, Montage, Ilamar the Inscrutable, and Channeler

Story:

The Champions of Tomorrow were formed by the alien known as Montage, who came to Earth in the aftermath of Oblivaeon’s devastation to witness the world where it all happened. Montage’s visions of the future led him to believe that there were three souls critical to stopping a new catastrophe that had been birthed by the aftermath of the terrible being’s death, a catastrophe that he couldn’t quite see the details of.

Montage’s visions led him to Covenant, who was already operating as a local superhero and helping restore Ashland, a town on the edge of the ruins of San Alonso. He approached her and explained his origins, and while she was a bit dubious she was happy to have help.

Meanwhile, Ilamar and Coco were in search of the rabbit’s mysterious mission, and came across Channeler. Jay recognized Coco as being a type of being that they had seen before, and decided that this was a sign to return to heroism. The two also traveled to Ashland, largely because Ilamar had a gig there, and wound up encountering Covenant and Montage while investigating a rogue necromancer raising the ghosts of people killed in San Alonso to try and find the remnants of the engery that had destroyed them.

Now, the Champions of Tomorrow are fighting to make Ashland safe, while also trying to figure out the nature of their visions and what the challenge that has gathered them all together is…

Qualities:

When it comes to Qualities, the Guardians are lacking a few things that would make their lives easier. They’re solid in the socializing department, have decent ability to navigate physical challenges, and possess substantial knowledge about magic (and somewhat less about space) but they don’t have any investigative skills between them. This fits for a team that mostly functions by waiting for a puzzle to come to them and then trying to solve it.

Powers:

Wide spread of powers, too. Montage wields cosmic energies and has a decent physical background. Covenant is heavily telepathic, Channeler leans in on toxic power but with a background in the classic flying brick when they need it, and Ilamar summons animals and controls the weather.

In Action Scenes:

In Green, Ilamar takes the lead, with a strong status die, area-effect Hinders, and the ability to take multiple actions. Covenant can support by using her Telepathy to boost the team’s attacks and overcomes, Channeler can move quickly to deal with anyone trying to flank the crew, and Montage is mostly a brick who creates one-time boosts and charges in to fight.

In Yellow, Channeler starts to take the lead on clearing out minions with toxic storms and defending the team against major attacks. Ilamar pulls in animal helpers and starts manipulating his dice by unchecking Collections each turn, Montage can give his allies sizeable boosts and focus his attacks on the environment and newly-arrived enemies, and Covenant targets major threats with attacks that hinder, after taking a moment to Boost herself (and Defend the others if they take too many hits.)

Finally, in Red Covenant coverts minions who are feeling uncertain about this whole thing, and Channeler destroys the rest of them, Ilamar creates a swarm of helpers to overwhelm anyone who survives Channeler and obliterates anyone that the team has piled penalties on, and then Montage strips the battlefield of any bonuses and penalties the villains have created and launches attacks that push himself back into Yellow.

They’re a pretty solid action crew.

Overview:

This is a team that works well together. They’re not laser-focused on supporting each other’s niches, and if they were being built at the same time together I would have suggested someone take more Mental skills, but that kind of reactive uncertainty fits for their thematic goals and gives them a fun vulnerability to secrets-based villains.

#67

Team 2: Best Practices

Members: The Regulator, Atomizer, Deep Freeze, Determinator

Story: Harrison Kent, after his terrible experience with the rogue scientists in his own lab, began to worry about what other corporations and secretive groups might be doing with alien technology, remnants from other worlds, and recovered super-science. He first examined his own labs, and was surprised and somewhat concerned to learn that an offshoot of the extradimensional research that had almost killed him had accidentally produced a sentient AI. Fortunately, he was able to learn that K-17 was friendly, and put the robot on the payroll for an investigative unit to look into misuses of science, especially dimensional science.

Their efforts shut down a few labs, which is where they encountered and freed Siobhan, who decided that she approved of their efforts and joined the team. Most recently, an investigation of an entirely off-books facility that had been the subject of a mysterious power failure led the team to Patience, who was living nearby and trying to investigate her own background. Kent doesn’t know who she is, but he wants to keep an eye on her in case her programming is dangerous, and in the mean time she’s a great addition to the team…

Qualities:

This team has a wide array of useful Qualities, with good knowledge of science and magic, investigative skills, general social abilities, and a solid stealth expert. They balance each others’ abilities well without overlapping too badly.

Powers:

Best Practices is mobile. Regulator and Determinator can teleport, Deep Freeze uses her shapeshifting to cover ground, and even Atomizer has some noticeable mobility. Everyone also has access to energy generation of different types, which is great for fights, with a handful of useful secondary abilities for the weird edge-case situations.

In Action Scenes:

In Green, the Regulator takes the lead as the only hero without a d6 Status die. He can boost himself up, attack people while burning himself down, and tank damage. Deep Freeze has a variety of versatile Attacks that can hit multiple people or cover her allies, Atomizer throws boosts around like candy while drawing fire, and Determinator moves around enemies while creating individual strong Boosts or focusing on Overcomes.

In Yellow, the Regulator can hurt himself to burn lots of people or hit a couple people and heal. Deep Freeze gets her Boost in and starts shifting around the battlefield defending her friends, Atomizer starts blasting with nuclear fire while healing up, and Determinator also has a mass attack, plus the ability to mess with enemies and reroll his pools.

Finally, in Red everyone gets hyped. Deep Freeze and Determinator hop to d12, while Atomizer reaches d10 and even Regulator stays at d8. The Regulator can create a host of minions and get around the scene, Deep Freeze either takes massive attacks or lots of actions, Atomizer also gets mobility while throwing around Hinders or focus-fires major enemies by evading their defenses, and Determinator locks down some enemies, while creating absolutely gigantic boosts for his friends.

Overview:

This is my favorite team and I am definitely doing something with them. I don’t know what. I just love the idea so much.

The only thing that I would change if I were designing them from scratch would be to suggest that maybe not every character needs an area attack in Green or Yellow.

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#68

Ooh, the team analysis is a lot more detailed than anything I could come up with! :open_mouth:

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#69

Team 3: Rapid Force Alpha​

Members: Commodore Ironclad, Refuge, The Line, Nanoswarm, Doctor Cobalt

Story: The American government is growing increasingly concerned about the growing superhuman population of the Earth, especially after the dangers of Oblivaeon. A decision is made to create their own, purely American rapid-response team to handle natural disasters, rescue operations, and the occasional supervillain attack. Commodore Ironclad is placed in command of this team, but it’s honestly kind of clear that the government is working from the bottom of the barrel here in terms of options.

Refuge signs on as an ambassador from Plava’Col, trying to show Americans that her people are trustworthy, and the Americans are up for having a Maerynian that they can actually watch in action. Nanoswarm’s mother was a product of military research, and she invented her devices on a military budget, so she’s pressured into joining. The Line is a true patriot, albeit one from another world, and… well, Doctor Cobalt is on a work-release program where a lot of people can keep an eye on him, if we’re being honest.

Their goals seem noble enough, for now. But will the government try to lead them into increasingly political actions, or will they be allowed to do what they do best – save lives?

Qualities:

Another good spread of qualities, although a bit light on investigating in favour of physical action and social prowess. There’s a lot of science and technology knowledge, and Nanoswarm adds a ton of heroic and historical insight, but the team is lost in more magical arenas, and most of them are not too subtle. In general, Nanoswarm and The Line are charging in as bricks, with Refuge and Cobalt hanging back, and Ironclad shifting around as needed.

Powers:

Hilariously, almost the entire team has low ratings in Presence, and there’s some serious gadgetry overlap going on. Everyone is creating something, either elements, materials, or in the case of The Line, duplicates of himself. There aren’t any pure bricks, although everyone has a bit of everything.

In Action Scenes:

In Green, Refuge and Doctor Cobalt are the strong starters, with the others starting weak. Ironclad can create good Hinders and is generally reliable, the Line attacks nearby people and starts building and boosting minions, and Nanoswarm is a great Boost and Hinder engine who can slow down enemies or give bonuses to The Line to help his minions be better, or can shift to being a brick alongside him. Meanwhile Refuge is blowing enemies around the scene and evading hits, and Cobalt is throwing fire and lightning at everyone in sight.

In Yellow, there is some ludicrous healing going on: Refuge starts medic’ing, sticking an area heal on her basic actions or making attacks that let her defend for the round, Cobalt can combine area healing with a Boost or throw a lot of Boosts and Hinders around, while also becoming immune to lightning, The Line can heal himself with a boost, make attacks that hinder, and protect himself with his duplicates, and Nanoswarm can attack weakened enemies to heal, attack and defend, or just hit stronger enemies repeatedly, plus tie a Boost into her defenses. Ironclad can take a teamwork lead to provide big boosts at his own expense seriously pumping up the others, or focus on attacking others and boosting himself.

Finally, when things eventually reach Red Refuge and Cobalt start to falter, as everyone else takes the lead. Refuge can still tank area attacks and becomes a phenomenal medic, and Cobalt can either fall back to a full defense or pour everything into an attack that might destroy him. Ironclad can deal damage and tank hits at the cost of effectiveness, stumbling along, while the Line creates a horde of minions and then hits people like a truck. Meanwhile, Nanoswarm is throwing around her fun d10+d12+d12+Bonus dice while solving every problem and locking down villains hardcore. Combined with all of them being nigh-unkillable thanks to their healing, and they’ve got most situations solved.

Overview:

This is a very, very powerful team. The sheer amount of healing thrown around, combined with the various people who can hurt themselves to do things, is a wonderful combo, and they’ve got a good balance of “Refuge and Cobalt start strong, and then Nanoswarm and The Line build up to unstoppable, while Ironclad draws fire and dramatically helps everyone else at the cost of his own effectiveness.”

Narratively, they are not a team that really understands each other, but their origin works for that. They’re all on this team for a different reason, most of those reasons kind of idealistic in maybe not the best way, but they will learn to get along and save the day.

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#70

So, I had a different name for this team originally, but with @Godai’s permission, I am going to be changing it.

Please meet:

History’s Mysteries (With Archie and Eleanor)

Members: Archie the Adventurer, The Artificer, Runesword

Story: The story of History’s Mysteries begins with Archibald Hapsbury, intrepid explorer and media personality. He’s been exploring all sorts of ancient places and mysterious ruins, and he organized a whole TV show about it. As part of that show, he put out a call for a co-host, and his team eventually decided on Eleanor Dulac – she and Archie have an antagonistically friendly relationship, with Archie interested in the beauty of the places he sees and Eleanor gushing over their historical and cultural significance. It tested very well with focus groups.

Everything got a lot more complicated when the pair ended up in a fight against a dangerous pack of wights off the coast of England, and the battle awakened Sir Teylor from their ancient slumber. Teylor joined the fray, and has only since begun to understand what the modern world is – and the addition of a third cast member has sent ratings through the roof. Everyone loves the interaction between these three, and merchandise is flying off the shelves – which means more money for conservative and ecological protection, and more delves into the deep!

Will the adventures of these three heroes remain pure, or will the lure of fame and fortune draw them from their respective desires? Only time will tell…

Qualities:

I’m noticing a trend and it may be my fault. There’s a lot of combat skill on this team, really good understanding of magic, history, and technology, and some okay social skills, but once again pretty limited deductive and investigative ability outside of ruin-diving, which they are very good at.

Of course, with only three members History’s Mysteries are more limited than your average team, but it still works. A fourth member acting as the crew’s manager, working behind the scenes and investigating, would probably round them out well.

Powers:

Two bricks and an ornithopter isn’t a bad mix. Archie has a lot of close-up versatility, Eleanor has a lot of cool stuff and some good ability to handle the ruin-crawling aspects of the job, and Teylor is a radiant energy-absorbing swordmaster which is always nice in mystical places.

In Action Scenes:

In Green, none of History’s Mysteries are that strong, with d6s and d8s to draw on, but they make do. Archie is pretty defensive from the get-go, or can go fully flexible and take multiple different actions at some effect. Runesword can powerfully hinder and maybe attack, or just go for strong attacks, and Artificer can Hinder groups of enemies to set them up or do hit and run tricks to divert attention away from her.

In Yellow, Archie starts to shine, setting up long-term boosts and chewing through groups of enemies. Runesword shifts focus to the environment, and pulls apart enemies who’ve been boosting, while defending the others if needed. And Artificer also sets up big boosts, and then uses her boosts to make area attacks. Notably absent – Artificer getting a lot of boosts from her allies, which is a bit of a shame; Archie can give her something while doing other things, but there aren’t any really strong boost-buddies to overcharge her Abilities.

In Red, Archie uses his defensive skills to protect Eleanor and Teylor, while rapid-fire burning through his health. Teylor shifts to be aggressive, creating a strong bonus for themselves and then unleashing overwhelming attacks that knock themselves down in the process. Finally, the Artificer can drop her ornithopter on a group or focus on overcoming the challenges of the probably now-in-danger ruins.

Overview:

Three-person teams are a bit rough. What this team could really use is someone with a lot of Boosts and some decent healing, who can offer support to the others. Specifically, they could use Refuge, who would be a massive effectiveness boost, provide Archie with solid healing in Red to help him defend better, and also balance out the team by being good in green. But I needed someone to be my three-person team, and I think this showcases a decent example of one.

Narratively, I really like History’s Mysteries, and they could sustain a campaign pretty effectively.

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#71

You may already know the last team, since they’re the only ones left, but still, let’s formally meet up with…

Team 5: Fair Play

Members: The Synergist, Fernwick, Breakguard, Bedrock

** Story:** Each member of Fair Play was working towards the same goal from different directions, until Synergist uncovered their activities and brought them together. The Synergist was working through their home city of Kesonee, figuring out the new criminal structures that were hurting innocents. Fernwick was working on things from the opposite end, fighting against police corruption and political misdeeds. Naomi was trying to live a normal life until her foster family was targeted by criminals, and she has been trying to work on fixing corruption and abuse throughout the municipal and regional government. Finally, Bedrock exploded onto the scene, barging into the middle of a major drug deal and drawing a lot of unpleasant criminal attention.

The Synergist discovered the other heroes first, and was quietly observing them. Finally, they decided to approach each of the others, proposing an alliance against the vast criminal conspiracies threatening to turn Kesonee into another Rook City. The members of Fair Play now target powerful and crooked people in Kesonee, bringing them down one at a time. They haven’t revealed their secret identities to one another yet, but they’re growing to trust each other bit by bit.

Qualities:

A little bit focused for plot, but in solid arenas. There’s stealth, investigation, a variety of social skills, some good close-up and ranged combat, and a lot of knowledge of crime, but not much knowledge of anything uncommon – no super-science, no magic, no aliens. Only Breakguard’s Citizen knowledge really backs them up there, plus the whispers in Fernwick’s head from their tech. As long as the team is focusing on their goal, they’re going to do fine. Of course, one of them has a cosmic alien in their backstory and another has alien-derived powers, so…

Powers:

With one team member moving stealthily and manipulating enemies, another one controlling plants and animals, a third acting as a high-speed telekinetic brick, and the last reshaping the earth with cosmic powers, we have a real variety of powers and not much in the way of overlap!

In Action Scenes:

In Green, Fernwick is the strongest and Breakguard is weakest, but everyone has stuff to do. Synergist has a widely-versatile attack that can hinder, weaken, or move around and can redirect damage. Fernwick can give themselves a long-term Boost and then attack more people the more bonuses she has. Breakguard can use telekinesis to give strong boosts or hinders, launch attacks to heal weaker heroes, or defend herself while attacking, and Danielle can snark at people and evade damage, then turn into Bedrock and use the stone to attack and defend teammates.

In Yellow, Synergist can lead strong group attacks and Overcomes, apply wide-area boosts or hinders, or make a stealthy attack and boost himself. Fernwick gets an extra Boost for free, can also create area boosts and hinders, and can unleash massive attacks based on how many bonuses they’ve stacked. Breakguard can go defensive by boosting herself and then removing penalties or healing, defend herself against the environment, or attack and hinder groups of enemies. Bedrock finally gets something interesting to do, developing a powerful boost and then launching overwhelming Cosmic strikes that hinder her enemies.

In Red, everyone is at least moderately capable. Synergist can Boost someone and give them an extra turn, turn penalties into bonuses, and take extra basic actions. Fernwick can hinder themselves in order to heal, which Synergist can turn into a bonus, or drop massive plant Hinders on the enemy (and maybe attack them.) Breakguard’s attacks start automatically Hindering, and she can make people reroll attacks against her. Finally, Bedrock can burn all her bonuses to launch an overwhelming strike, and use her Awareness to keep all her actions functional.

Overview:

Not a bad team! They work together thematically, and they work together mechanically. One of the best strategies might be for everyone to run through Green with Fernwick boosting themselves and Breakguard boosting Fernwick, and then as soon as they hit Yellow Synergist and Fernwick can area boost while Breakguard and Bedrock cover them, then Fernwick starts using their attack that just keeps growing based on their bonuses. Fernwick can easily have five or six bonuses stacked by then, and those attacks are just going to get stronger in Red, when Synergist starts giving Fernwick Boosts and extra turns, and Fernwick can unleash giant attacks and use bonus turns to heal.

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#72

The teams have been very cool. :smiley: So what’s next?

#73

An after-action report!

I’ve learned a lot from working my way through these characters, and it was generally a lot of fun. So let’s just do some quick summaries of what I’m feeling, especially compared to where I was at based on reading through the character creation section initially.

Backgrounds

I am more convinced than ever that lots of dice is not actually an even match for good dice, and that the Backgrounds that give one strong Quality and one strong Power are a lot better than the others. The roleplaying Quality gives a lot of extra versatility for the Qualities section that I hadn’t thought about, which makes a lot of dice less critical. Also, Academic is worse than I expected in terms of what it does to power sources.

I’m still a bit confused by some of the actual dice choices that Backgrounds make, but they basically work. In my own games I’ll be houseruling the weaker Background arrays up a bit, but it’s not a game-breaker.

Power Sources

I’m a little bit less concerned about power source variation than I was, but the general rule that “not giving a d10 to your Archetype is rough” remains true. Cosmos and Multiverse still need better gifts in exchange for losing an Ability, Experimentation can be worked with (Deep Freeze is a tank!) but doesn’t do a lot for itself, but I think my concerns about the others were overblown.

Archetypes

Aside from Divided, which I’m going to put over in a box on its own labelled “the time-out corner”, the Archetypes all seem to fall into a functional spread when you see them inside full builds. I’m feeling a bit more kind towards Close Quarters Combat after building Archie, and Deep Freeze got some serious use out of Armored (two of the Archetypes I had singled out as weaker), and Modular, which I wasn’t sure about, gave me one of the strongest characters of the set. Transporter is still a bit rough, and as mentioned above, Divided needs substantial boosts to be functional.

Other than that, Archetypes are pretty solid (with a minor note, which I will touch on below.)

Personality

I did not change my opinion of the Personalities at all. I still think that in general, the 6/8/10 ones are a bit stronger than the 10/8/6 ones, but having early access to a persistent Boost can flip that. The 6/6/12 are risky, actually riskier than 6/8/10 since you can boost your Red die in the Retcon step, and both of the ones that don’t use the normal array are just bad.

I think that Mischievous is actually a lot worse than I thought it was, though. It gives 6/8/8 and bonus health calculation, but I only built a single character out of 20 who didn’t have at least a d8 for health calculations, and he had a d6. There’s also a hidden penalty due to the smaller red die that I didn’t take into account when I was first looking over these. The absolute best case is turning Red d10 and no Power (26 Health) into Red d8 and a d12 Power (32 Health), which gives 6 bonus health at the cost of a Red step up, and that only works for heroes that both have a d12 die and absolutely nothing in Mental or Athletic.

There are only four Backgrounds that grant d12s, three of which also have a Mental option. There are only three Power Sources that grant d12s, two of which also have Athletic options. And every Archetype allows either an Athletic option, a Mental option, or both, and also three of them require you to take something that will count and a fourth increases the range of what you can take. So literally, the only reason to not have a die in something Health-boosting is if you have specifically chosen to, and die spreads are wide enough that you’re not likely to be forced into that decision. Especially since both Mental and Athletic are very versatile dice for pools.

If you have at least a d8 in something, you’re looking at a Health difference of 0-2 (depending on if your highest die is a d10 or a d12) in exchange for losing a point off every roll in Red, which is terrible. Even if you only have a d6, it’s a maximum difference of 4 Health, which I don’t think is worth it.

Principles

Okay. Let’s talk Principles.

Ultimately speaking, Principles are conceptually very good. They create roleplaying rules that your character can assert (“Mind control can’t make me betray my ideals! My family can be called on for favours! I can breathe in space!”) and give access to interesting Overwhelms that aren’t tied to specific powers and qualities, which is important especially because most of your powers and qualities will mainly be used for Overcomes.

There are only two problems with Principles, really. One is that they are arranged oddly. The other is that they are arranged unevenly.

Arranged Oddly

So, in theory, there are five types of Principle that you can have, and they’re fairly straightforward:

  • Esoteric Principles are about having something weird about you.
  • Expertise Principles are about a thing that you are very good at.
  • Ideals Principles are about the thing that you believe most strongly in.
  • Identity Principles are about who you are and how you present yourself.
  • Responsibility Principles are about how being a hero interacts with your life.

This seems reasonable, but in practice there are some weird ducks. Most of the Esoteric Principles make sense to me, although I think I’d consider the Principle of the Time Traveller to be more of an Identity thing. Expertise has thirteen very “this is a thing you’re good at” Principles plus “and also there is a mysterious whisper in your head with its own agenda”, which is the most Esoteric thing I’ve ever heard. Dependance is listed as an Ideal – you…. Believing strongly in being addicted to something? Similarly, the Principle of Great Power could be the Principle of Responsibility, but the wording is all about being very good at something, i.e. an expertise. Ambition and Discovery are listed as Identity, but they’re really all about your ideals.

Savagery is… not a good look, in the vein of a few other “not a good look” bits in this book that aren’t deal-breakers, but make me a touch uncomfortable. Being good in nature and disliking ‘civilization’ should not be tied to rage and/or animalistic behaviour. Yes, I know it’s a trope, but there are tropes that shouldn’t be reproduced.

Anyway. Detective is a Responsibility Principle that really feels like it should be Expertise, or possibly Identity; it’s entirely about your ability to spot hidden things and zero percent about how being a hero interacts with your life, and Veteran is definitely an Identity Principle and not a Responsibility one as presented (although you could build a Veteran Principle that is about your military connections and the effects that has had on you.)

None of that is really a big deal, mind you. It just sort of stands out as a little bit weird to me.

Arranged Unevenly

Now this is a bigger deal, both for Guided and Constructed play. Numbers-wise, there are 12 Identity and Responsibility Principles, 13 Esoteric and Ideals Principles, and 14 Expertise Principles. My instinct was that these would be spread fairly evenly, possibly with a slight tilt towards Ideals and Responsibility Principles since an awful lot of superheroes are defined by what they care about and by how their lives are affected by heroing.

This is not the case.

There are a total of 39 possible options for Principles, based on your Background and Archetype, with Modular providing the Principle of Whatever Other Archetype You Pick. On average, that should be just under eight choices per category. As I discussed over the course of this thread in tones of increasing disbelief, we do not hit the average.

There are 14 different options that give Expertise Principles; over a third of the total. Esoteric and Responsibility clock in closer to average, at 8 and 7 choices respectively. Ideals is below average at 6, and there are only four options that give out Identity Principles – three Backgrounds and a single Archetype.

And I don’t know why this happened. It’s weird. It’s not as though having Expertise critical for many of these options – you would think that a Former Villain would be defined by the Ideals that caused them to reform, or that Reality Shapers would have an Esoteric nature. Couldn’t a Created character be more interested in their Identity than what they’re good at? Shouldn’t a Criminal be defined more by why they’re a criminal, with Identity or Responsibility? Maybe a Minion-Maker should be defined by their Identity, it seems important. Those five shifts would take Expertise down to 9, and boost Esoteric to 9 and Ideals and Identity to 7. (Alternately, you could give the Background step two choices instead of one, although that runs the risk of choice paralysis.)

I don’t know if this just happened organically, or if the creators really wanted “be good at a thing” to be the primary way that characters express themselves, but it feels off, especially since “take a Principle that isn’t the one you’ve been assigned” is considered to be an adjustment equal in impact to getting a third Red Ability or an extra die.

Speaking of which…

Retcons

It will surprise no one to learn that Retcons ended up almost exactly as I expected them to. Generally, by the time I was at the end of the process an extra d6 wasn’t worth losing out on being better in the clutch, especially with all of the Abilities already assigned and a decent spread already in existence. Out of my twenty heroes, eight boosted their Red die, eight more picked a third Red option, three grabbed an extra die, and one swapped two dice to fix their concept. Nobody reassigned an Ability or a Principle.

In general, I think that I would have grabbed the extra die more often if it was a d8, and I’m going to stick with that as a houserule. I also am sticking with my Retcon belief that you should get one bonus and one change, instead of one or the other. The changes don’t affect a character’s power particularly, whereas the bonuses really do. I could be persuaded that “change what die an Ability keys off” qualifies as a power-up, since it makes it easier to focus on one particularly strong die, but in general it’s still not a big deal.

So that’s it. We’re all done. Twenty heroes, united in their desire to save the world, and there is nothing else left to do.

Or is there? What is a hero without villains to face?

That’s right, I built eighteen villains to go up against my heroes! Stay tuned…

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#74

This is why my very first Houserule is “pick whatever Principles you want”.

4 Likes
#75

It’s good to sort the Principles out by category and restrict them per other bits of character-building, just to cut down on the number of choices you need to make and analysis paralysis.

But I agree, they’re not quite laid out right. And also, Principles are maybe the easiest thing to pick off a long list. Especially the second one; by the time you hit that, you’ve got a really strong idea of who your hero is, and you know what would and would not guide them. At worst, you narrow it down to two or three options and pick from that.

I at least tend to retcon as I go, changing up die sizes, Principles, you name it, as I get closer to understanding who a character is. Unless I’m going for a really stringent “we roll this character!” build, you can fudge things on a level of, “Oh, I would have picked that if I’d known ahead of time.” :B

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#76

I think these are great so far.

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