Creating Spider Man, Part I: Origins

One of my goals in Great Responsibility is to stay as close to the core 4e rules as possible. That means, among other things, that the PCs will have a race.

The problem is, race isn't especially appropriate for a Superhero RPG. Sure, superman isn't human, but the cool things he gets from being Kryptonian are better reflected through class powers than through his racial choice.

So I'm taking a page from city of heroes and using Origins.

Origins are the reason your character gained his abilities. Maybe he's an alien from another planet. Maybe he was bombarded by gamma rays. Maybe he has no superhuman abilities, but relies on his combat training and technical expertise.

The circumstances that caused your character to gain his powers also provide some other benefits--and these benefits are reflected in your chosen origin.

So, now let's get specific. As an example, we'll build a 1st-level version of Spider-man:

Peter Parker gained his powers when he was bitten by a radioactive spider. That makes him a perfect candidate for the Survivor origin. Survivors are those who experience some catastrophe, but rather than being injured or killed, are granted superpowers.

Lets see what the Survivor origin Grants:
These traits are shared by every origin. While all dwarves are sturdy but slow-moving, and all halflings are small and agile, superheroes can't be painted with a similar brush--therefore these basic traits are as generic as possible.

Peter Parker gained the proportional Strength and Agility of a spider. I'm going to emphasize the agility here, and give him a +2 dex. Peter's powers also made him a lot more confident and sure of himself, so let's go with +2 cha for the mental stat.
Survivors are a pretty diverse lot even for superheroes, so they gain an extra skill of their choice. Let's give Peter training in Science (Int).
Survivors are usually pretty resistant to whatever sort of disaster they experienced before. Let's give Peter resist poision--That'll fits in with both the spider bite and the radiation.
This is something you're going to see over and over again in Great Responsibility. Because the Races/Origins and the Classes are much more generic, there's going to be more choices and variations within each Origin and Class. The power list for the Survivor will focus on damage avoidance, durability, and luck. In Peter's case, we'll pick avoid danger (a cheezily retitled version of the halfling racial power), to represent his spider sense.
You'll notice that this power is listed as a "racial power", and that Survivor's Fortitude gave a racial bonus. While origins aren't races in the story sense, they need to be races in the mechanical sense.

The goal is to deviate from 4e D&D as little as possible. And that means using existing names and structures. No 'origin bonus' when 'racial bonus' works just fine.

That's it as far as Spidey's Origin is concerned. Next up: Class Features.