Making superhero gear make sense (mostly Marvel related)

[Kraydak]

You're still trying to beat challenges by having the right gear - that's an arms race. List out all your gear. The GM can construct a scenario you aren't prepared for. And, as I said, it is the GM's job to present a challenge - it is supposed to be difficult, no matter what gear you are carrying.

I wasn't being clear enough. I meant the stupid stuff the GM didn't think about because it was, well, the stupid stuff. And all of a sudden the GM is faced with the PCs getting stymied, or blatantly para-dropping the needed gear in through a plot-hole in the ceiling. Most GMs balk at that last step. A GM who balks at that last step is not running a spandex-supers game, even if he thinks he is.

This is a difference between games and real life - in real life you want life-and-death struggles to be as easy as possible. But easy in a game is boring.

Your non-strong hero is faced with a heavy object? Well, if the GM is a real jerk, there's no other way to deal with it than by block and tackle. But, for the majority of the time, there's some way around the obstacle that uses something you can do. That's part of the genre, too, you know. The heroes have the stuff, but they sometimes have to use some ingenuity.

It is all well and good to say "be creative". It is another matter entirely to rely on "creativity", especially when PCs are expected to be spandex wearing, and therefore not able to provide many tools.

 

[Umbran]

It is all well and good to say "be creative". It is another matter entirely to rely on "creativity", especially when PCs are expected to be spandex wearing, and therefore not able to provide many tools.

Dude, you aren't just a guy in spandex. You have superpowers. Those are tools, and using them creatively to solve problems is a major genre trope.

 

[Remathilis]

And as if by magic...

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[Janx]

Dude, you aren't just a guy in spandex. You have superpowers. Those are tools, and using them creatively to solve problems is a major genre trope.

amen.

the more powerful the hero, the less gadgets he carries. Superman carries none. batman had to carry a ton of stuff. He has no superpower, only having extraordinary training, conditioning and problem solving.

Like the typical D&D adventure, most supers problems can be solved with fighting. Most supers powers are combat useful. Therefore, not a lot of need for combat gear vs. the common criminal. You'll note most supers are bullet-proof or hard to hit for a reason.

Personally, if I was a super, I'd have a small tool belt. Probably carry a small swiss army knife, some heavy zip-ties, a roll of tape, and an iPhone. Bluetooth ear piece would be built into the costume.

Not too much stuff, but stuff that comes in handy for opening/fixing things, restraining things, and holding things in place and communicating and gathering evidence (pictures), and research.

except for the zip ties and tape, that's stuff I carry already. The rest is in my truck.

to me the supers trope is:
bad guys get away, but crime is thwarted
low lethality rate for heroes and major bad guys
outside of combat, powers are used creatively to solve problems
costume is to hide identity and attract attention to it, rather than the face.
costume acts as a symbol of heroes fighting to defend the public

To our modern conventions, what looks good drawn, doesn't always look good as actual fashion. But then you can see the shift in fashion tastes even in comics. The costumes of 20 years ago look silly in many cases to the costumes of our current era. So basically, if you grew up in the 80's the 60's x-men costumes looked lame. If you're growing up now, the 80's costumes look lame.

dressing up as a soldier would probably be misinterpreted by the public. Dressing up in a "superhero" costume would probably be seen by the public as "a superhero has come to save us" barring a public back-lash trope being in effect.

 

[Piratecat]

It is all well and good to say "be creative". It is another matter entirely to rely on "creativity", especially when PCs are expected to be spandex wearing, and therefore not able to provide many tools.

I suspect you're thinking d20 Modern, not superheroes. In a supers game, if the spandex hero needs a hammer he picks up a tank and uses it to bash something. Or if he has superspeed, he races around the world to this neat little hardware shop he knows in China, selects one, and runs back to the fight. Or he uses his mental powers to command a construction worker with a tool belt to do the job for him. Your powers ARE your tools.

I'll point out that Mutants & Masterminds captures this beautifully because it's so easy to make heroes or villains immune to normal tactical weapons like guns. In the same way that Batman never gets shot and bullets bounce off of Superman, all heroes in MnM can buy some sort of protection as part of their powers. A flak jacket is never needed when your magician has a mystic force field that turns bullets into butterflies.

 

[Sorrowdusk]

Even Watchmen didnt take this route.

Well, you could always gear your heroes with lots of those little belts and pouches like whats-his-face artist would always do.

 

[jmucchiello]

Speaking of Clone Saga, did you get out of comics because of that horrendous story perhaps?

Not who you were talking to but I in fact did drop a $60 a week comicbook habit cold turkey the day I read (in the comic, not in the news) that Peter Parker was actually a clone. It was about 5-6 weeks later when I took the stack of unread comics and just dumped them in a box still unread.

A few years ago I was curious what was going on in comics and found out about the PP/MJ marriage retconn and was glad I was still out of comics.

 

[Umbran]

I suspect you're thinking d20 Modern, not superheroes. In a supers game, if the spandex hero needs a hammer he picks up a tank and uses it to bash something. Or if he has superspeed, he races around the world to this neat little hardware shop he knows in China, selects one, and runs back to the fight. Or he uses his mental powers to command a construction worker with a tool belt to do the job for him. Your powers ARE your tools.

Usually up to the point that if you're really expecting to be a mundane tool user to build and fix stuff and change things, then you probably have the equivalent of the "Tool Using Monkey" power, and the tools are kind of implicit.

I once played a M&M session with P-cat here running it. I played the team's gizmo-science character. I was also a hyper-intelligent dog, rather than a human. No thumbs! The character had a cybernetically controlled tool set with little manipulator arms as part of his collar, right there listed on the sheet. So, the screwdriver really was part of his powers!

 

[Umbran]

Not who you were talking to but I in fact did drop a $60 a week comicbook habit ...

The $60 a year "Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited" is sooooooo much better than that habit.

 

[WizarDru]

I'll point out that Mutants & Masterminds captures this beautifully because it's so easy to make heroes or villains immune to normal tactical weapons like guns. In the same way that Batman never gets shot and bullets bounce off of Superman, all heroes in MnM can buy some sort of protection as part of their powers. A flak jacket is never needed when your magician has a mystic force field that turns bullets into butterflies.

This is one of the many reasons that I consider M&M the only superhero game I need. This and things like giving Hero Points when the GM effectively screws the players over; it's a great mechanic that inconveniences the player while simultaneously setting the PC up for victory later, a common trope of the genre that serves the story and setting.

M&M, more than most games, truly understands it's setting and embraces it with the rules.