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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Blue" data-source="post: 7401070" data-attributes="member: 20564">I'm going to ramble a bit.I started with D&D.  It came in a red box.  And you stated at first level and you earned every bit of power you ever had, be it levels or loot or things less mechanical.  If you died, you likely started back at 1st level even though others around you were unimaginably powerful, say third or maybe even fifth!But once I started playing regularly (a feat that took a few years) I also starting playing Champions, a superhero game.  And my new character was based on 250 points, and their existing character was based on 322 points, but the power caps kept things from being TOO different so they were only a smidge more directly powerful, though definitely more well rounded and will less glaring weaknesses.  And then we'd do crossovers with 400 point behemoths that were the first characters players made in the world and no longer actively run.  And they were awesome, but as a newb hero I still made a contribution.So was my introduction to "Zero to Hero" games like D&D and it's opposite, which I don't know if it has a zesty name but basically you come in already powerful and it's just refinements from there, not the incredible spectrum of power that D&D 1 to 20 encompasses.Now, somewhere along the way, D&D-like games got so that new characters came in at the same or near the level of the party so they could contribute.  Needed perhaps when a 1st level character would be toast just to incidental damage in a 12th level session.So the idea of vastly different power levels faded some in RPGs.  But not elsewhere.  Hulk, Thor and Hawkeye can adventure together and all make contributions, though in most non-contrived scenarios it's pretty obvious that one of these is not like the others.Marvel Heroic Roleplay embraces that, and you could play Hulk, Thor and Hawkeye if you wanted.  As a matter of fact, it's XP system was not around "character success", and it didn't really contribute to making your character more powerful directly.Other systems handle this in various ways.  In Fate, my character may not be good at combat, but pushing a chair at someone to entangle their legs while my buddy comes in with a killer punch is a perfectly cromulent action, and just as effective if it's a pushed chair, fancy work with a bullwhip, or fey magic.  So you don't need to be "good" at something to contribute, as long as you're clever and can help those who are.And I'm wondering about mixed power levels in zero-to-hero games.Say I said in a D&D-like game "we've got no XP, you can be whatever level you want to be and can advance whenever you think it's appropriate for your character" ... well, I think the results would vary a lot by table, but there are places it would not be good.But saying the same with "you're all heroes, in levels 6-10", it's still a wide range but could probably work out well.  But simply the lower level characters can't contribute as much, unlike the Fate characters, or the lwoer point total Champions superheroes who still had the same active point caps as the advanced heroes so could dish out the same.So, in a zero-to-hero type of game, where power levels WILL vary greatly, how do you allow players choice over the power of their character and play with mixed power groups?Thoughts?</blockquote>

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