Lately I've been watching the amazing "Frieren: Journey's End", which for any unfamiliar, features a team of young heros accompanied by a 1,000 year old elf and it got me thinking again about wanting to play a game where one can play a mentor or elder figure like Gandalf or Frieren without overshadowing the other characters at the table. I'm sure there are a few systems that do this, Ars Arcana I believe has such a feature, as does Mouseguard, but neither system is to my taste, so I wondered if others know of RPG's where more powerful characters are not necessarily more important.
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RPG Systems that allow for characters of diverse levels of Power
- Thread starter Davinshe
- Start date
overgeeked
B/X Known World
You can do that with a lot of superhero games. The one that does it best, I think, is Marvel Heroic Roleplaying. The generic version is Cortex Prime.
Anything that focuses more on story than levels and stacking bonuses should do the trick. Fate is one. Over the Edge 3E is another. But many generic systems should fit the bill.
Doctor Who RPG does this as well with one player as the Doctor and the rest as companions in the normal setup. They use a metacurrency to sort it out. I’m not sure it works at all, much less well. But some people swear by that approach.
Anything that focuses more on story than levels and stacking bonuses should do the trick. Fate is one. Over the Edge 3E is another. But many generic systems should fit the bill.
Doctor Who RPG does this as well with one player as the Doctor and the rest as companions in the normal setup. They use a metacurrency to sort it out. I’m not sure it works at all, much less well. But some people swear by that approach.
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The most common way I've seen that handled is via some form of metacurrency. The two games that come to mind are Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dresden Files.
In Buffy, a PC can either be Slayer-level or Scooby-level. Slayer-types have way better stats and such, but Scoobies get more drama points.
Dresden has a similar but more granular mechanic. When setting up the campaign, you decide on a Base Refresh level, which determine how many Fate points you start each session with (if you ended the last session with more you get to keep them). Every Stunt (mundane abilities that are tied to your skills, sort of like specializations) and special ability you take costs lowers your Refresh by one or more. Also, if you're a Pure Mortal (no supernatural stuff) you get +2 to your Refresh. Having more Fate points both means you can spend them for bonuses, and also for denying the GM when they want to compel your Aspects in negative ways (plus that someone with a low refresh might be more likely to accept the compel to get more Fate points).
ninja'd! dammit
Wofano Wotanto
Hero
Does the powerhouse character need to be a PC here? The Kids on Bikes game and its cousins have a much more powerful adult NPC that the group can exert some narrative control over, effectively acting as a protector and advisor for the kid PCs.
Outside of that, yeah, supers games often have wild disparities in PC power levels, although not all of them handle it equally well. As others have said, using some kind of metacurrency is a common solution and it helps if the game is "death optional" in the sense of the player decides if or when their PCs dies - a moderately common conceit in more modern supers games.
Outside of that, yeah, supers games often have wild disparities in PC power levels, although not all of them handle it equally well. As others have said, using some kind of metacurrency is a common solution and it helps if the game is "death optional" in the sense of the player decides if or when their PCs dies - a moderately common conceit in more modern supers games.
Cool! But, how and why was the BBC involved? Is EDEN somehow owned by the BBC?
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