How you would do “soap points” in Champions would depend on what you wanted “soap points” to do.
What's your favorite superhero TTRPG and why?
Aging Bard
Canaith
I'll be a chaos agent. It is either Superhero '44 because of its legacy as one of the first examples, or Gamma World because I love Gamma World and mutations map well to super powers. I fully accept all incoming flack.
DrunkonDuty
he/him
Good point.
<Stream of consciousness ramble initialise>
I think I want them to be representative of the character's increasing mental/emotional stress. Stress that results from their disads. Not every time a disad comes up, but when the character fails to do the right thing (in their own eyes.) So Spiderman has "Loves MJ Watson." If he is so caught up in chasing a bad guy that he misses his anniversary dinner he gets a soap point. Of course, since this is Peter Parker he also has "With great power, etc." so if he lets the burglar get away (shades of Uncle Ben) he gets a soap point for that too. Poor Peter, always seems to be caught in a cleft stick.
What does that soap point actually do?
Well there's plain old mechanical penalties. The GM (maybe the player can call for it to be spent?) spends the soap point and Spidey takes a penalty that represents their distraction/loss of faith in self/whatever. Maybe the penalty could apply to a whole scene. A -1 penalty/soap point used that an be applied to OCV, DCV, or ECV.
Invoke a character's disad; meaning the chacter automatically fails a disad check or does the GM get to set up a scene in which the disad comes up? I'm leaning toward the former. Spidey has tracked the bad guy to a lair, the whole stinks of a trap. The GM invokes "With great power." Spidey knows it's a bad idea but he can't take the chance that the bad guy will get away and so goes into the obvious trap. At least he knows it's a trap, right?
Add something to a scene to heighten the stakes - something specific to the character and if possible to one of the invoked disads. Say, MJ, wondering why Peter is late for anniversary dinner, comes looking for him, only to get caught in the middle of Spidey/Scorpion battle.
Hmmmm, how about, I wanna call it Double or Nothing. The player can gamble soap point on another shot at the disad. If the player wins the soap point(s) is removed from play without being spent. If the GM wins they double the soap. Spidey from the above example is swinging along after Scorpion (I've retconned that burglar into Scorpion) and he goes past a billboard with MJ on it (she's still a model right? Doesn't matter, in this continuity she is.) Spidey is reminded of anniversary dinner and gets another chance to resist their "With great power" disad so as to not disappoint her. If they successfully resist the disad they can give up chasing Scorpion and go for dinner instead. No soap for missing dinner with MJ! If they fail to resist the disad and keep chasing Scorpion they gain 2 soap. Of course, as mentioned above, poor Spidey is in a cleft stick here because he still gains soap for failing to chase Scorpion. So unless there's different amounts of soap for these different actions (based on the strength (moderate, strong, or total)) of the disad. there's no point for the player to play double or nothing in this scenario. Hmmmm. This Double or Nothing thing clearly going to need some more thinking if it's going to work.
What does that soap point actually do?
Well there's plain old mechanical penalties. The GM (maybe the player can call for it to be spent?) spends the soap point and Spidey takes a penalty that represents their distraction/loss of faith in self/whatever. Maybe the penalty could apply to a whole scene. A -1 penalty/soap point used that an be applied to OCV, DCV, or ECV.
Invoke a character's disad; meaning the chacter automatically fails a disad check or does the GM get to set up a scene in which the disad comes up? I'm leaning toward the former. Spidey has tracked the bad guy to a lair, the whole stinks of a trap. The GM invokes "With great power." Spidey knows it's a bad idea but he can't take the chance that the bad guy will get away and so goes into the obvious trap. At least he knows it's a trap, right?
Add something to a scene to heighten the stakes - something specific to the character and if possible to one of the invoked disads. Say, MJ, wondering why Peter is late for anniversary dinner, comes looking for him, only to get caught in the middle of Spidey/Scorpion battle.
Hmmmm, how about, I wanna call it Double or Nothing. The player can gamble soap point on another shot at the disad. If the player wins the soap point(s) is removed from play without being spent. If the GM wins they double the soap. Spidey from the above example is swinging along after Scorpion (I've retconned that burglar into Scorpion) and he goes past a billboard with MJ on it (she's still a model right? Doesn't matter, in this continuity she is.) Spidey is reminded of anniversary dinner and gets another chance to resist their "With great power" disad so as to not disappoint her. If they successfully resist the disad they can give up chasing Scorpion and go for dinner instead. No soap for missing dinner with MJ! If they fail to resist the disad and keep chasing Scorpion they gain 2 soap. Of course, as mentioned above, poor Spidey is in a cleft stick here because he still gains soap for failing to chase Scorpion. So unless there's different amounts of soap for these different actions (based on the strength (moderate, strong, or total)) of the disad. there's no point for the player to play double or nothing in this scenario. Hmmmm. This Double or Nothing thing clearly going to need some more thinking if it's going to work.
I guess I have something to ponder this weekend.
Hmmmm…
I‘d probably set Soap Points (SP) as a kind of campaign-wide rule/limitation, like “Normal Characteristic Maximums” for a heroic campaign.
Instead of doing specific things, accumulation of SP perhaps they would increase the probability of Disadvantages triggering.
Or, you could treat them as a global Luck/Unluck mechanic, using SP like free-floating XP to buy levels of those powers for particular PCs. Limit the SP to make them expire when used. Because SP like this could be good or bad, track them separately: Black SP (Unluck) and White SP (Luck).
DrunkonDuty
he/him
All good ideas.
biopsinc
Explorer
I've become a big fan of Cypher system supers, Claim the Sky. Character creation is fun and pretty simple, while the game itself moves quickly with a big story focus. The power stunt mechanic allows for a ton of flexibility. We're running lower powered characters (3 power shifts) and borrowing heavily from a live game from a few years back called Callisto 6, basically cyberpunk meets supers. Three sessions in and we're having a great time!
Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
You have my attention!
My favorite game ever for RUNNING or playing supers was MnM 2; I found it incredibly fast, intuitive, and fun. Character creation was a real bear, though. I've hunted for something with a similar feel ever since, but I haven't quite landed on it.
TheHand
Adventurer
Well since this thread took a Recovery and is back in action (Champions players should get that reference), why not share some thoughts!
My first supers rpg was FASERIP and though I doubt I would play it again without some modern design sensibilities bolted on, I still have a huge nostalgic fondness for it and I can remember the name and number value of every rank. Haven't played it in ages though.
Throughout the 90's I probably logged hundreds of hours in both playing and running Champions 4e. I created so many characters with the DOS floppy disk program that the hardcover came with. It was my go-to game for anything super or near-super related. One of my most treasured rpg memories was when I got to play Champions at a convention (US West-Coast) with some of the Hero Games staff and a big guy with a resonating voice named "Mike" who I later learned was Mike freaking Pondsmith!! All that being said, I don't think I'd ever play Champions again. These days I find I just don't have the patience for that level of crunch in my games and even with veteran players, combats just dragged on and on (and I grew to loathe the Speed system).
I like but don't love Mutants and Masterminds. Character creation was always a struggle for most players and making 'saving throws' against damage just didn't hit me in the right feels. But I will say, it's a solid system and can do most of what Champions can do for much less of the work.
Of all the classic Super RPGs I'm sad to say I never got to play the Mayfair DC game; I actually have some of the books and the system seems to be well loved by its fans.
I've played a smattering of others, but I haven't found any Super Rpgs in recent years any that I could truly get excited about. Marvel Super Hero's seems to have its fans, but the whole Cortex system never clicked for me. I actually picked up the most recent Savage Worlds Supers Companion and have been playing that... it works pretty good if you're playing around Classic X-Men tier power, but I've heard the engine has scaling problems if you prefer to play in the world-class Justice League tiers. Savage Worlds also has its quirks, but it works for our group because most of us already know the engine and are fine with it.
My first supers rpg was FASERIP and though I doubt I would play it again without some modern design sensibilities bolted on, I still have a huge nostalgic fondness for it and I can remember the name and number value of every rank. Haven't played it in ages though.
Throughout the 90's I probably logged hundreds of hours in both playing and running Champions 4e. I created so many characters with the DOS floppy disk program that the hardcover came with. It was my go-to game for anything super or near-super related. One of my most treasured rpg memories was when I got to play Champions at a convention (US West-Coast) with some of the Hero Games staff and a big guy with a resonating voice named "Mike" who I later learned was Mike freaking Pondsmith!! All that being said, I don't think I'd ever play Champions again. These days I find I just don't have the patience for that level of crunch in my games and even with veteran players, combats just dragged on and on (and I grew to loathe the Speed system).
I like but don't love Mutants and Masterminds. Character creation was always a struggle for most players and making 'saving throws' against damage just didn't hit me in the right feels. But I will say, it's a solid system and can do most of what Champions can do for much less of the work.
Of all the classic Super RPGs I'm sad to say I never got to play the Mayfair DC game; I actually have some of the books and the system seems to be well loved by its fans.
I've played a smattering of others, but I haven't found any Super Rpgs in recent years any that I could truly get excited about. Marvel Super Hero's seems to have its fans, but the whole Cortex system never clicked for me. I actually picked up the most recent Savage Worlds Supers Companion and have been playing that... it works pretty good if you're playing around Classic X-Men tier power, but I've heard the engine has scaling problems if you prefer to play in the world-class Justice League tiers. Savage Worlds also has its quirks, but it works for our group because most of us already know the engine and are fine with it.
MGibster
Legend
I have yet to play another superhero game I enjoyed as much as I did Marvel Superheroes from TSR.
I like SW, but it does have problems when you try to scale it up too far.
Funny you should say that! At the risk of being a selfish shill, I'm about to release book 1 of 2 that is exactly that first week of February.
AstonishingSuperHeroes.com
The first book is the Basic Rulebook, which is basically OGL FASERIP with a dramatic social conflict system, and Cortex-inspired alternate Karma system. Done in a way to keep it fully backwards compatible. The second book will be a bit more of a departure, featuring even more modern principles.
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