Thondor
I run Compose Dream Games RPG Marketplace
If you've always wanted to make your own Superhero - This Game is for You.
Recruiting? Well this is an old thread, and I primarily wanted to let everyone know who was interested in the past that Simple Superheroes is now on Kickstarter. But if there is a bunch of interest . . . who knows? Maybe I'll consider reviving it, or running a new one.
Who is Thondor?
I am the designer of Simple Superheroes. I’ve been around ENworld for a while, and played in a few PbP games here and even run one (briefly).
[Sblock=Who are the Players]
Fireinthedust - Doctor Nexus - Maj. Sir Nethaddeus Cavor, MD, PhD etc (mutated Genius in armour)
Mark Chance - American Dreamer - Aiden O'Leary (Former police officer with uncontrollable pre-cognition)
Walking Dad - Yarko the Great - real name? (Master of Magic)
Zerith - Zeta WiP - Zeta (A living locomotive - Steam)
HarryBModest - ? - ? (Teleporter)
Rogue's Gallery for character write-ups.
[/Sblock]
What is Simple Superheroes?
A structured free-form Superhero Game in Pre-release. (Now on Kickstarter).
You can download The Heart of Simple Superheroes for free which lays out the majority of the rules of the game.
What are the Assumptions for this Play-by-Post?
[sblock=The Universe: Post-War - Artifice City]
I've outlined the answers to the questions. At this point I am open to feedback and suggestions.
Spinning a Universe questions:
1. How long have there been people with superhuman powers?
- Since the close of WWII. At least this is the commonly held belief.
2. Did and does the emergence of people with powers meaningfully affect the world?
- Not a lot. The main result has been creating one more thing for the news to report about. Heroes are pretty well balanced by villains.
3. Will the events of the story that will be told significantly change the status quo or do things mostly return to normal between story arcs?
- The status quo returns at the close of story-arcs.
4. Who was the first superpowered individual? Are they still around?
5. Is there a dominant source of powers, or banned sources?
- The Enhanced Soldier program (Project 33) or its ‘spin-offs' is a common source.
- All sources are welcome.
6. Does any of the following exist, and if so how prevalent is their presence and are they known to the public?
- Aliens: unknown
- Other dimensions/planes: unlikely.
- Alternate realities and alternate Universes: unknown.
- Time travel: No. (Not this time .)
- Real pre-cognition or post-cognition: Yes, though it is not widely known.
7. How does the media and government treat those with powers? Are they even aware of meta-humans?
- The government mostly ignores meta-humans. The media regard heroes with a bit of awe.
8. How prevalent are super-powered individuals in the developing world?
- irrelevant all conflict will be home-grown.
9. Does the Universe use real cities and geographies or fictional locations?
- The Universe is primarily set in Artifice City. A name that embodies the booming and innovation of the 1950's with the possibility of deception.
10. What are the Moods, themes and levels of realism?
- Cheesy Plans, Monologues, fairly low ‘realism.'
11. Do people die? And stay that way?
- It can happen, but is rare.
12. How do powers affect national and international politics?
- We could introduce Communism into the mix here, but I think we won't really focus on it. Unless someone is keen?
13. How does all the collateral damage from superhuman battles get repaired? Who foots the bill and how do they keep up with the work?
- In this booming economy? No problem.
14. When is the story set?
- 1950's
15. What other things besides being a criminal or hero do superpowered humans use their powers for?
- People with powers wear costumes. They either fight the good fight or the bad one, ‘nuff said.
16. How did the heroes (the player characters) come together
- To be Determined.
[/sblock]
Character Creation
This is outlined in detail in Heart of Simple Superheroes.
Note that making your character should feel like Brainstorming. I’ll probably discuss at least a few points for each players character to make sure we are on the same page.
Example Characters:
There are two example characters on the website; and a couple more in the forum.
Below is a straightforward example formatted appropriately.
[sblock=Pacifier]
Example character using Standard array
Pacifier
Identity: Gregory Barnes
Talents
Accurracy: 2- quick-silver blows [O]
Mobility: 2- quick-silver step [F]
Toughness: 4- titanium body [D], 2- larger than life [F]
Might: 4- iron blows [O], 3- strength of iron [F]
Brains: 3- diamond mind [D]
Senses:
Superpower Finesse: 2- strong, 2- fast, 2- resilient
Weakness: Made of metal.
Lifepoints: 7
Strainpoints: 6
Relations: 2- Mandy (gf), 2- Truth, 1- Ted's sports bar
Now the above is all that is really needed to play Pacifier. However, some discussion "with the GM" is warranted.
Description of Talents:
Quicksilver Blows (accuracy -2): Pacifier can stike fast with accuracy. While his "iron blows" is more potent, he might use this in combat to try and smash something, grab something or similar actions requiring precision.
Quicksilver Step (mobility - 2): Pacifier is fast. He could have just as easily called this talent "run."
Titanium Body (toughness - 4): Pacifier's body is completely metallic making him highly resilient to physical trauma.
Note that this does not protect him from a large number of attacks including energy (things like acid, fire, cold, lightning), magic, mind-effecting, or anything that simply needs to touch him like a net.
Larger Than Life (2- toughness): This gives Pacifier an extra positive Lifepoint and an extra negative Lifepoint. His negative 1 repeats.
Iron Blows (4- might): Pacifier hits with impressive force. He can use it to smash foes, walls and even steel (his Titanium Body keeps him from hurting himself).
Strength of Iron (3- might): Pacifier is inhumanly strong. He uses this Talent to lift bend and twist, really anything where raw strength is called for. He can easily lift a motorcycle.
Note that without this Talent Pacifier would not be any stronger than an average human.
Diamond Mind (3- brains): Pacifier knows and protects his own mind. This protects him from all sorts of mind-affecting Talents, including persuasion, mind-control and fear.
Personality and Background
This is where a player writes about the characters origin, motives, interests, personality
[/sblock]
[sblock=Character Creation Tips
First find a hero and power concept.
Defenses: There are a lot of forms of defenses. You won’t have enough Talents to defend from all kinds of attack. That’s what friends are for.
Usually specific Talents trumps generic ones
Talents are meant to be narrow - a single ‘fire’ talent does not give you ultimate control over fire. In fact if you only have one fire Talent you may not be able to light a cigarette, instead you might light your head on fire.
The above is why Superpower Finesse is good.
Spending Strainpoints and pooling Talents are you friends.
[/sblock]
[sblock=Combat Example
This is to illustrate how the die mechanics work.
A gunman attacks Pacifier. The gunman gets 2 d6. Pacifier uses his Titanium body to resist, which is rank 4, giving him 4 d6.
Gunman's Attack
1d6;1d6 → [2] = (2)
1d6;1d6 → [3] = (3)
[link to roll] [link to character]
Pacifier's Titanium body vs gunmanPacifier's Titanium body vs gunman
1d6;1d6;1d6;1d6 → [5] = (5)
1d6;1d6;1d6;1d6 → [6] = (6)
1d6;1d6;1d6;1d6 → [5] = (5)
1d6;1d6;1d6;1d6 → [1] = (1)
[link to roll] [link to character]
2's and 1's are completely ignored. 3's and above are considered basic sucesses.
The highest die of each contestant is compared. Then the next highest etc.
The Gunman's 3 does not exceed Pacifier's 6, so the bullet deflects harmlessly off his steel flesh.
[/sblock]
------------Some new details
[sblock=Talents Intent]
The 'letters' next to the Talents are the talents Intent. The standard intents are as follows:
Offensive [O]
Defensive [D]
Functional [F]
Reactive [R] - reactive Talents respond to a Trigger, allowing the character to cause something to happen 'out-of-sequence'. The Trigger by definition should be narrow.
Non-standard Intents:
Time [T]
Potency [P]
Hard-Tech [H]
Time and Potency are often used for characters like Yarko the Great who can 'cast any spell' or gadgeter characters who can 'build anything.' Its also how you can handle a green-lantern type concept.
Hard-Tech is an additional designation. A Talent will have one of the 'standard' intents as well as the Hard-tech intent eg [FH]. Hard-tech Talents cannot be pushed by Strainpoints and are more likely to be damaged or malfunction. They do however have one situation where they excel; such as body-armor being especially good at blocking bullets. In this one situation they gain a rank/die.
[/sblock]
[sblock=Defenses]
Generally speaking there are several forms of defenses that don't overlap.
CornerCases
There is also a whole bunch of cornercases, or odd situations that a character might not be protected from.
Sonic, gases, injections or intoxicants, being blinded, and probably a few other things I can't think of.
Usually a hero can be effectively immune to a cornercase if they have a rank 3 talent that would protect them. Having 3- sonar makes a character effectively immune to blindness.
[/sblock]
[sblock='Narrowness' of offensive Talent example]
We'll start with a one shot wonder, someone with a single powerful Talent. Let's call this character Bob.
Bob v1
Might 5- Telekinetic Blow [O]
Now Bobv1 can hit things with a massive amount of force with his telekinesis. It is an almost instinctual blast of power that is over a very short (close) distance. He tends to make dramatic hand gestures (like punching the air) when he does so. He can smash large objects with it (like doors).
What can't Bobv1 do?
He can't hit a small target with it.
He can't hit someone who is far away or deliberately keeping their distance.
He would probably hit both people in a grapple.
He can't lift things. (He can only knock them over or break them.)
He cannot lift himself into the air.
He can't defend himself at all.
In short he has no Finesse.
So ... Let's add a few Talents
Bob v2
Accuracy 3- Telekinetic Manipulation [F]
Mobility 2- Telekinetic Stability [F]
Might 5- Telekinetic Blow [O]
Telekinetic manipulation gives Bobv2 the the ability to pick up small objects, or flip a switch across the room, or pull a gun out of someone's hand (if he's lucky).
It also makes him a little more flexible with his Telekinetic blow, he should be able to effect things slightly further away from him.
Telekinetic Stability is used to 'push off' of surfaces to keep Bobv2 light on his feet. he might aslo try to break his fall using this Talent. If he advanced this Talent further he might be able to levitate.
So how about the restrictions on Telekinetic Blow? They are still largely the same, but a Game Master 'Judge' should be a little more lenient since Bobv2 has several Telekinetic Talents, meaning that he has 'Finesse'.
[/sblock]
Recruiting? Well this is an old thread, and I primarily wanted to let everyone know who was interested in the past that Simple Superheroes is now on Kickstarter. But if there is a bunch of interest . . . who knows? Maybe I'll consider reviving it, or running a new one.
Who is Thondor?
I am the designer of Simple Superheroes. I’ve been around ENworld for a while, and played in a few PbP games here and even run one (briefly).
[Sblock=Who are the Players]
Fireinthedust - Doctor Nexus - Maj. Sir Nethaddeus Cavor, MD, PhD etc (mutated Genius in armour)
Mark Chance - American Dreamer - Aiden O'Leary (Former police officer with uncontrollable pre-cognition)
Walking Dad - Yarko the Great - real name? (Master of Magic)
Zerith - Zeta WiP - Zeta (A living locomotive - Steam)
HarryBModest - ? - ? (Teleporter)
Rogue's Gallery for character write-ups.
[/Sblock]
What is Simple Superheroes?
A structured free-form Superhero Game in Pre-release. (Now on Kickstarter).
You can download The Heart of Simple Superheroes for free which lays out the majority of the rules of the game.
What are the Assumptions for this Play-by-Post?
- Your character will be a City-level hero. Meaning he can have pretty wacky powers, but there will be notable limitations.
- A friendly, bantering, not particularly high realism game. Your costumed heroes out to foil the villains diabolical plot ‘nuff said.
- All players are on a Team. Team name TBD.
- Scenario’s/Issues will be short. I’m hoping to have a short quickly resolved story or two. Hopefully this will fit in well with the drop-in drop-out nature of PbP.
[sblock=The Universe: Post-War - Artifice City]
I've outlined the answers to the questions. At this point I am open to feedback and suggestions.
Spinning a Universe questions:
1. How long have there been people with superhuman powers?
- Since the close of WWII. At least this is the commonly held belief.
2. Did and does the emergence of people with powers meaningfully affect the world?
- Not a lot. The main result has been creating one more thing for the news to report about. Heroes are pretty well balanced by villains.
3. Will the events of the story that will be told significantly change the status quo or do things mostly return to normal between story arcs?
- The status quo returns at the close of story-arcs.
4. Who was the first superpowered individual? Are they still around?
5. Is there a dominant source of powers, or banned sources?
- The Enhanced Soldier program (Project 33) or its ‘spin-offs' is a common source.
- All sources are welcome.
6. Does any of the following exist, and if so how prevalent is their presence and are they known to the public?
- Aliens: unknown
- Other dimensions/planes: unlikely.
- Alternate realities and alternate Universes: unknown.
- Time travel: No. (Not this time .)
- Real pre-cognition or post-cognition: Yes, though it is not widely known.
7. How does the media and government treat those with powers? Are they even aware of meta-humans?
- The government mostly ignores meta-humans. The media regard heroes with a bit of awe.
8. How prevalent are super-powered individuals in the developing world?
- irrelevant all conflict will be home-grown.
9. Does the Universe use real cities and geographies or fictional locations?
- The Universe is primarily set in Artifice City. A name that embodies the booming and innovation of the 1950's with the possibility of deception.
10. What are the Moods, themes and levels of realism?
- Cheesy Plans, Monologues, fairly low ‘realism.'
11. Do people die? And stay that way?
- It can happen, but is rare.
12. How do powers affect national and international politics?
- We could introduce Communism into the mix here, but I think we won't really focus on it. Unless someone is keen?
13. How does all the collateral damage from superhuman battles get repaired? Who foots the bill and how do they keep up with the work?
- In this booming economy? No problem.
14. When is the story set?
- 1950's
15. What other things besides being a criminal or hero do superpowered humans use their powers for?
- People with powers wear costumes. They either fight the good fight or the bad one, ‘nuff said.
16. How did the heroes (the player characters) come together
- To be Determined.
[/sblock]
Character Creation
This is outlined in detail in Heart of Simple Superheroes.
Note that making your character should feel like Brainstorming. I’ll probably discuss at least a few points for each players character to make sure we are on the same page.
Example Characters:
There are two example characters on the website; and a couple more in the forum.
Below is a straightforward example formatted appropriately.
[sblock=Pacifier]
Example character using Standard array
Pacifier
Identity: Gregory Barnes
Talents
Accurracy: 2- quick-silver blows [O]
Mobility: 2- quick-silver step [F]
Toughness: 4- titanium body [D], 2- larger than life [F]
Might: 4- iron blows [O], 3- strength of iron [F]
Brains: 3- diamond mind [D]
Senses:
Superpower Finesse: 2- strong, 2- fast, 2- resilient
Weakness: Made of metal.
Lifepoints: 7
Strainpoints: 6
Relations: 2- Mandy (gf), 2- Truth, 1- Ted's sports bar
Now the above is all that is really needed to play Pacifier. However, some discussion "with the GM" is warranted.
Description of Talents:
Quicksilver Blows (accuracy -2): Pacifier can stike fast with accuracy. While his "iron blows" is more potent, he might use this in combat to try and smash something, grab something or similar actions requiring precision.
Quicksilver Step (mobility - 2): Pacifier is fast. He could have just as easily called this talent "run."
Titanium Body (toughness - 4): Pacifier's body is completely metallic making him highly resilient to physical trauma.
Note that this does not protect him from a large number of attacks including energy (things like acid, fire, cold, lightning), magic, mind-effecting, or anything that simply needs to touch him like a net.
Larger Than Life (2- toughness): This gives Pacifier an extra positive Lifepoint and an extra negative Lifepoint. His negative 1 repeats.
Iron Blows (4- might): Pacifier hits with impressive force. He can use it to smash foes, walls and even steel (his Titanium Body keeps him from hurting himself).
Strength of Iron (3- might): Pacifier is inhumanly strong. He uses this Talent to lift bend and twist, really anything where raw strength is called for. He can easily lift a motorcycle.
Note that without this Talent Pacifier would not be any stronger than an average human.
Diamond Mind (3- brains): Pacifier knows and protects his own mind. This protects him from all sorts of mind-affecting Talents, including persuasion, mind-control and fear.
Personality and Background
This is where a player writes about the characters origin, motives, interests, personality
[/sblock]
[sblock=Character Creation Tips
First find a hero and power concept.
Defenses: There are a lot of forms of defenses. You won’t have enough Talents to defend from all kinds of attack. That’s what friends are for.
Usually specific Talents trumps generic ones
Talents are meant to be narrow - a single ‘fire’ talent does not give you ultimate control over fire. In fact if you only have one fire Talent you may not be able to light a cigarette, instead you might light your head on fire.
The above is why Superpower Finesse is good.
Spending Strainpoints and pooling Talents are you friends.
[/sblock]
[sblock=Combat Example
This is to illustrate how the die mechanics work.
A gunman attacks Pacifier. The gunman gets 2 d6. Pacifier uses his Titanium body to resist, which is rank 4, giving him 4 d6.
Gunman's Attack
1d6;1d6 → [2] = (2)
1d6;1d6 → [3] = (3)
[link to roll] [link to character]
Pacifier's Titanium body vs gunmanPacifier's Titanium body vs gunman
1d6;1d6;1d6;1d6 → [5] = (5)
1d6;1d6;1d6;1d6 → [6] = (6)
1d6;1d6;1d6;1d6 → [5] = (5)
1d6;1d6;1d6;1d6 → [1] = (1)
[link to roll] [link to character]
2's and 1's are completely ignored. 3's and above are considered basic sucesses.
The highest die of each contestant is compared. Then the next highest etc.
The Gunman's 3 does not exceed Pacifier's 6, so the bullet deflects harmlessly off his steel flesh.
[/sblock]
------------Some new details
[sblock=Talents Intent]
The 'letters' next to the Talents are the talents Intent. The standard intents are as follows:
Offensive [O]
Defensive [D]
Functional [F]
Reactive [R] - reactive Talents respond to a Trigger, allowing the character to cause something to happen 'out-of-sequence'. The Trigger by definition should be narrow.
Non-standard Intents:
Time [T]
Potency [P]
Hard-Tech [H]
Time and Potency are often used for characters like Yarko the Great who can 'cast any spell' or gadgeter characters who can 'build anything.' Its also how you can handle a green-lantern type concept.
Hard-Tech is an additional designation. A Talent will have one of the 'standard' intents as well as the Hard-tech intent eg [FH]. Hard-tech Talents cannot be pushed by Strainpoints and are more likely to be damaged or malfunction. They do however have one situation where they excel; such as body-armor being especially good at blocking bullets. In this one situation they gain a rank/die.
[/sblock]
[sblock=Defenses]
Generally speaking there are several forms of defenses that don't overlap.
- Physical resilience
- 'Energy' resilience
- Mental resilience
- Dodging
- Magic resilience
CornerCases
There is also a whole bunch of cornercases, or odd situations that a character might not be protected from.
Sonic, gases, injections or intoxicants, being blinded, and probably a few other things I can't think of.
Usually a hero can be effectively immune to a cornercase if they have a rank 3 talent that would protect them. Having 3- sonar makes a character effectively immune to blindness.
[/sblock]
[sblock='Narrowness' of offensive Talent example]
We'll start with a one shot wonder, someone with a single powerful Talent. Let's call this character Bob.
Bob v1
Might 5- Telekinetic Blow [O]
Now Bobv1 can hit things with a massive amount of force with his telekinesis. It is an almost instinctual blast of power that is over a very short (close) distance. He tends to make dramatic hand gestures (like punching the air) when he does so. He can smash large objects with it (like doors).
What can't Bobv1 do?
He can't hit a small target with it.
He can't hit someone who is far away or deliberately keeping their distance.
He would probably hit both people in a grapple.
He can't lift things. (He can only knock them over or break them.)
He cannot lift himself into the air.
He can't defend himself at all.
In short he has no Finesse.
So ... Let's add a few Talents
Bob v2
Accuracy 3- Telekinetic Manipulation [F]
Mobility 2- Telekinetic Stability [F]
Might 5- Telekinetic Blow [O]
Telekinetic manipulation gives Bobv2 the the ability to pick up small objects, or flip a switch across the room, or pull a gun out of someone's hand (if he's lucky).
It also makes him a little more flexible with his Telekinetic blow, he should be able to effect things slightly further away from him.
Telekinetic Stability is used to 'push off' of surfaces to keep Bobv2 light on his feet. he might aslo try to break his fall using this Talent. If he advanced this Talent further he might be able to levitate.
So how about the restrictions on Telekinetic Blow? They are still largely the same, but a Game Master 'Judge' should be a little more lenient since Bobv2 has several Telekinetic Talents, meaning that he has 'Finesse'.
[/sblock]
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