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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ValhallaGH" data-source="post: 4525360" data-attributes="member: 41187">I like your ideas for Darkness.  It sounds like guys who want to abuse their Darkness powers will have lots of free uses of extra effort (check out the pink section of the book) to increase their power ranks by 2.  That's all kinds of tempting. }<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />A note on PLs.  This is probably the hardest concept to understand for people new to the system; I know it took a while for me to get the scale down, and I know at least one guy who tried running a campaign last year and still hasn't figured it out.If the following isn't helpful, it was the equipment section that finally gave me the scale.  250 lbs of TNT, skillfully bundled together, is +12 damage (explosion area).  The 16 inch guns on a battleship dealt +13 damage (explosion area).  A modern main battle tank (like the M1 Abrams) has a +12 toughness with 6 impervious, allowing it to ignore hand grenades and most personal weapons, and giving a good resistance to the main guns of other tanks (+10 damage).  With my background I found all that most instructive.  That and the Skill Benchmarks on page 38.PL 0 - average person on the street.  Some professional training (a skill or two at rank 1 to 5), but no combat ability and average overall ability scores.  Your basic Innocent Bystander and conveniently labelled as such in the back of the book (blue NPCs section).PL 5 - average professional infantry soldier.  Well trained and equiped, with a broad group of skills focused on combat, survival, and movement.  Take the Soldier archetype in the back and give him a few more skills at 1 to 4 ranks to represent training in things like swimming, driving, stealth, or land navigation (survival).PL 6 to 8 - most military special forces.  U.S. Navy SEALs, Green Berets, CSOR, SAS, Mossad and other elite units would fall into this range.  With the right equipment and a good plan, they can take down almost any target, though they're still very human (and extremely vulnerable if caught by surprise).Also, most Luthor-like villains (brilliant, evil billionaires) would fit into this range due to their skill ranks (and possibly personalized martial arts training).PL 7 to 9 - most starting super heroes.  Enough power to shake a city, but without the experience and skill to really change it.  However, the potential is all there.PL 10 - veteran super heroes that have a couple years of experience and have probably saved the city or world a couple of times.  By this point they should have a nemesis, a fan base (even if a small one), or a growing urban legend "known" to be true by the residents of their favored neighborhoods.  Some rookies start here, but they tend to be incredibly powerful, able to melt tanks with no effort and possibly by accident.PL 12 - this is probably the level I'd place the veterans of the Avengers at.  Most heroes won't go past this PL and very few of them ever should.  At this point, a single character should be a viable threat to an entire country, assuming that his power set allows him to be threatening.Normals really shouldn't go past this point, as training and experience can only do so much.PL 15 - the demi-gods of super-dom, this level is generally reserved for those few individuals (hero or villain) that change the world just by existing.  At this point, a hero can be so talented that their ability is measured on a cosmic scale.  Superman, Shazam, Thanos, occasionally Thor, and others of a power that rivals gods.  Heck, Freedom City has the Greek diety Hades at this level and he works perfectly.PL 16+ - that handful of characters that alter all of reality.  A creature that can personally kill an entire city in an hour or so, before sweeping across the rest of the planet.  An inter-stellar conqueror, leader of a warband composed of half a galaxy, and personal champion of his own nigh-endless hordes.  The interdimensional ruler-invader that could decide to unmake the universe the heroes are in, if they annoy him enough.  That kind of guy.</blockquote>

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