Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
Please come back and remind us when it goes live.
What's your favorite superhero TTRPG and why?
TheHand
Adventurer
Yes, I'd also like to check that out when it releases!
Another thing about FASERIP that I recall was a downside for some was that attacks did static damage (unless I'm remembering it wrong?). So you either knew exactly how many hits you could land on Green Goblin to take him down, or your Incredible (40) lightning attack had no chance of getting through Potassium Man's Amazing (50) armor. But it's been a while since I played.
(I think the group I played with a house-rule that a yellow or red result shifted up your attack damage...)
Without going into too much detail, how does Astonishing Heroes handle attacks, damage vs armor?
Thomas Shey
Legend
It was complicated. You could still get some side effects through that were not dependent on damage per se (a trait Icons kept over from it) but, yes, damage was pretty binary; you could get some through or you couldn't.
I thought that out of the box, it was an ok game with missed potential. Now, add in fixes from Steve Kenson and the MSHAG community along with Tom Costa's erratas/expansions for the Roster Books and it becomes one of my top supers games (even if still disliked most of the art used).
I don't mind going into detail since we're very conscious of our system being (1) backwards compatible with other FASERIP games, (2) not meant to replace some person's favorite version of FASERIP, but rather exist as optional add-on rules, and (3) act as an affordable, in-print option for fans of the podcast we use the system in.
It's purposely very, very similar in order to fulfill our Book 1 promise of backwards compatibility. That said, it does have one additional combat result wherein Yellow and Red results not only do the special effects noted by attack type -- blunt might Slam or Stun, Shooting might Bullseye or Kill, etc. -- but you also get +1 to the rank of the results effect for Yellow and +2 for Red. So there's a very slight variability there. Plus certain advanced combat tactics might also influence damage (true in original FASERIP; no change there), which we've made some a little easier to implement in an effort to place a bit more focus on teamwork strategies.
Combats are thus just a little more variable, erring on the faster side. This is intended, and vaguely mitigates the fact that the social conflict rules we've added to the system provide another avenue of conflict, so we wanted most conflict -- physical or social -- to resolve a tiny bit faster by design.
TheHand
Adventurer
Oh if we’re adding card games too, I have to give a shout out to Sentinels of the Multiverse. I even went so far as to print out my favorite fan-created decks and made a couple of my own.
This was why our group preferred the DC Mayfair system, ultimately; in Marvel FASERIP, Spider-Man was a clear underdog against Scorpion (as an example) precisely because of this damage-armor relationship.
I might be getting into minutiae with this, but I'd expect that (Spidey = underdog versus Scorpion) because in a single issue Spidey should be the on the ropes against him to show he's a threat. It's Spidey's intelligence and access to entangling/restraining webs that gives him a shot at defeating Scorpion through some means other than just raw fisticuffs.
Of course, then you get into the whole thing of how/why does Scorpion have more Strength than Spidey, or why in one comic panel can his armor resist ABC but in another he gets knocked out by XYZ, and...anyway, comics are funny like that sometimes ;-P
Similar Threads
