Minor changes to make the rules simulate Super Heroes (now with 50% more Thor!)

[Wraith Form]

I'm going to reskin my group's Paragon tier 4E heros into superheroes, a la JLA or the Avengers, spandex and all. I want to tackle Revenge of the Giants replacing Argent, the city from the adventure, with Asgard....post-Ragnarok. All the Asgardians are dead or wandering the planes (resolving other crises) and Odin needs the Heroes to help him with that pesky giant problem he's got knocking on his front gate. (Obviously not sticking with canon here.)

I'm trying to think of some fairly simple adjustments I can make to give the illusion of superheroic stunts. For example:

- any push, pull or slide effects (PCs or monsters) are x3 to give it that "epic punch that sends you flying across a parking lot" feel,

- PCs hit for subdual damage only, but monsters hit for lethal damage (because monsters are jerks like that),

- minions get the "1st hit you're bloodied, 2nd hit you're down" modification.

Any other fairly easy rules adjustments/tweaks/mods that might make my game feel just a little more superhero-y?

 

[Alex319]

You might want to change the "x3 forced movement" to a flat addition rather than multiplication, like all forced movement is +2 squares. A thunderwave that pushes everyone in its AoE 12-15 squares sounds pretty nasty. And even martial characters have builds that can force move 1-3 squares on every hit. This is definitely something to keep a close eye on - with that much forced movement lots of nasty tactics will be possible.

Maybe something you could do instead of this is give everyone a free action encounter power that says "after you hit, push the target 5 squares" or something similar.

BTW, the concepts of "subdual damage" and "lethal damage" aren't in 4e anymore - you can just choose to knock someone out instead of kill them when you reduce them to 0 hp.

 

[keterys]

Actually, minions are extremely superhero-y as just dropping, aren't they?

I think doubling forced movement would be decent (though possibly still too much), but tripling sounds too much. Remember you don't want to make forced movement negate the ability to move back and charge, for instance. Though critical hits having _forced_ pushes on them could be good... whether you want to or not, they go flying, kinda thing.

The PC subdual monster lethal thing seems fairly meaningless to me, but I do think many enemies would have a second wind effect that triggers when you drop them the first time, perhaps even a round later. Like 'is smashed away into a building and it collapses on them' and a round or two later they struggle out, bloodied but a power recharged or two.

 

[Wraith Form]

Actually, minions are extremely superhero-y as just dropping, aren't they?

Yes, but at level 12...minions need to gain a bit of "oomph" IM not-too HO.

 

[Wraith Form]

Though critical hits having _forced_ pushes on them could be good... whether you want to or not, they go flying, kinda thing.

I like this idea! Thanks.

Keep the discussion coming!

 

[keterys]

Yes, but at level 12...minions need to gain a bit of "oomph" IM not-too HO.

Perhaps, but they might do that in more ways than requiring two hits. When Thor throws his hammer at 'Mook with a Gun #17' you expect him to fall over - now, having lots more minions, having them resistant to autodamage, etc... sure, totally agree. Feel free to use _lots_ of minions in heroic games, even.

Just don't make it so that you hit them with a tremendous smash of a daily... and they're still good, thanks

 

[Fanaelialae]

I agree with keterys that 2-shot minions are rather un-superheroish.

I'd recommend instead reducing the xp value of minions (increasing the number of minions).

Perhaps you could also add that if forced movement is used to knock a creature into a minion's square, that minion gets taken out as well (hitting a mook so hard that he crashes into another, taking them both out). Put another way, forcing a creature into another creature's square inflicts 1 damage on both.

 

[Wraith Form]

I agree with keterys that 2-shot minions are rather un-superheroish.

I'd recommend instead reducing the xp value of minions (increasing the number of minions).

I can do that.

Remember, however, that the Heroes are going to be in Asgard, so they're fighting mooks (err, minions) that aren't quite as flimsy as mortals.

 

[Garthanos]

I had a discussion earlier in which we came to the conclusion the entire Daredevil storyline could be better than adequately played as a big war of mostly and partially "martial" sorcerers ....

How little would be changed aside from getting proper copyright for D&D 4e mechanics to be the core of a new Marvel RPG.

 

[Storminator]

Instead of giving minions 2 hits, have them make saves vs death. Each time they take damage, roll a save. Fail the save die, make the save live. No bookkeeping! The occasional surviving minion is cool.

PS