Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[jonrog1]

Hey all. The Supers Companion is one of those books I love, that can handle anything from magic to cybertech. But I hit a snag a little while ago, in that I WANTED to play a pulp game, and trying to muck out the balance gave me a headache. I wound up going with the (very very excellent) AGENTS OF OBLIVION setting for the game.

So I'd like to open up a thread for discussion of how people built their SPC campaigns. Specifically, how did you balance PC's without powers vs. those with? Did you go street level, and if you did, did you further modify the number of pp available at build? (Say 5pp at generation, 5pp per rank rather than 10), or some variation thereof? Did you use Total power? Could you in theory run an Urban Fantasy Harry Dresden campaign with this sort of thing? Just trying to get a sense of how people use this resource.

[jpk]

I've played in a Harry Dresden-style game with the SPC, and it was fantastic.

For me, though, you shouldn't allow a game with the SPC rules to include PCs without the super powers. Period. They don't have to have big flashy capital-letter Super Powers, but they should have access to that system and represent themselves as exceptionally skilled, gifted, or lucky. If they only want to stock up on Super Edges and Super Skills, fine. Heck, totally normal abilities like a good fastball can be represented as a 2d6 Attack, Ranged with the trapping that you need something to throw.

[ValhallaGH]

The lucky 12 year old street acrobat with no combat skill? Deflection -3, Parry +6, and Armor +3, all with the Agility and Luck trappings.


The SPC can't balance Super and Non-Super characters. However, "normal" characters can still have "Super-Training" powers - skills, edges, attributes, and a few "stealth" powers (armor, deflection, etc. with skill or luck trappings).


If you use the SPC for everything then you need to use it for everything, including all the PCs.
_________________
"Got a problem? I've got the solution: Rocket Launcher."
"Not against a Servitor."
"... We're all gonna die."

[kronovan]

I've actually found the SPC to be a decent system for pulp adventuring and I'm running a campaign in which the PC's are standard heroes that began with 15 pp. For the most part I just let extras be classical Pulp mooks that go down after 1 or 2 hits from the PCs. To balance things out I try to have enough villains, or a solo villain of a high enough rank, that their combat rating(s) aren't too far below the PC's. I also occassionally give some Extras special abilities or heavy weapons if they're supporting a solo villain. Once you get used to the combat rating formula as explained in SWD, the balancing gets quite easy. What I've found most important is to not go too action heavy in the adventures and have a good number of sessions more RP focused; i.e. social interactions, searching for key items/locations, puzzles, etc. Of course that only works if you're player enjoy that, and it's admittedly a fine balancing act for me when I create my adventures.

[jonrog1]

[SeventhZombie]

I ran (soon to be picking up again) a B.P.R.D game and I had the same concerns because half my group wanted to play paranormal beings and the other half just wanted to play soldiers. After a lot of consideration I decided that there wasn't really a good way to balance the characters. I could give the normal folks super skills and attributes but in the end I felt that would take away from the roleplaying aspect of the game. In B.P.R.D there are several characters without powers who fight right along side Hellboy and Liz. All I ended up ruling was that if someone wanted to play a paranormal being they had to purchase the Arcane Background (Super Powers) and would not receive the free Human starting edge. Also to slow the progression of the super powered PCs I limited the option of picking up the Power Point Edge to every other rank. It worked really well. In fact the human gun nut tends to hold her own better then the supers

[Zadmar]