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[Let's Read] Marvel Superheroes Advanced (Players' Book)
Denada
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Let's Read:
Marvel Superheroes
Advanced System
Players' Book
Marvel Superheroes
Advanced System
Players' Book
Prologue
The Mission
I had a fun time exploring (and mocking) the old D&D module known as The Keep on the Borderlands. I had such a good time, in fact, that I wanted to do another Let's Read pretty much right away. After some thought, I decided that I would go back to the era of my childhood and explore something that I have very fond memories of, since I had spent the previous thread making fun of something other people had very fond memories of.
For a number of reasons I've been wrapped up in all things Marvel Comics right now, and my mind immediately went to the old Marvel Superheroes RPG by TSR. I have very fond memories of playing this game. Those memories are vague though, and there's only a few of them, so the game probably sucks.
Let's find out.
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A list of things, should you be of the gifting persuasion
But the old Marvel Superheroes was pretty good, last I remember
I'm reading it right now, actually. It's one of the things that brought this old game back to my mind. I don't know if I'd do a thread for it because it's so new, but I'll probably be talking about it a lot in the general RPG discussion thread that someone will be posting soon.
Attributes Assemble!
Forming a team based on everyone having the same facial expression is probably a bad idea.
True to most forms of Players' Books, Guides, Handbooks, and Manuals, this Players' Book only spends a few pages on a basic introduction before launching right into character creation. Aside from the short primer on what a hero is (It's not what you think! Wait, actually it is.), the rest of the introduction is spent explaining the attributes that serve as the core of the game system.
You might think that because this game is developed by TSR, they would use something similar to the six stats of D&D. You're right, mostly, but they have taken the super-steps of changing the names and adding a seventh super-attribute to the super-mix. Marvel Superheroes uses the awesomely named FASERIP attribute system, which stands for Fighting, Agility, Strength, Endurance, Reason, Intuition, and Psyche. As we dive into the attributes and what they mean, start thinking about your character concept. What kind of superhero are you? Are you strong but fragile? Intelligent but unobservant? Hard as a rock but slow as … a rock?
Do you have a freaky pancake-hand, but only one leg?
Fighting: This is your super-attribute. I call it super because it is the new, seventh attribute added to MSH, and also because it's going to be used a lot and is thus very important. Sure, it only covers the comically-named Slugfest type of combat, but stop for a minute and think about how many superheroes and villains in comics basically just punch each other. Yeah. It's important.
Agility: The heroic cousin of Dexterity, this attribute covers things like ranged combat, holding onto ledges, and driving for some reason.
Strength: Probably best recognized by its other name, Strength. If you want to have a lot of "physical muscle power", do lots of damage with your punches, and lift heavy things, you want a high Strength.
Endurance: If you put a mask and a cape on Constitution, you would get Endurance. It measures things like "personal toughness", resistance to damage and other kinds of effects, and oddly enough your movement speed.
Reason: This attribute is Intelligence by another name. If you see phrases like "capacity for logical thought", "success in building things", and "unknown technology", there's a chance you're reading the description of the Reason attribute, because those are the sorts of things it covers.
Intuition: Also known as Wisdom, Intuition is a measure of wits, common sense, "battle reflexes", and how perceptive you are. It is also used to resist emotion control powers, which are different from other kinds of mind control powers.
Psyche: A better name for Charisma, this attribute is all about willpower, mental strength, and force of personality. It's also for controlling and resisting magic, which makes a lot more sense when you're not stuck calling the attribute "Charisma."
Seven attributes is not enough for a superhero. You also need to use those attributes to determine other attributes. Thankfully, this isn't nearly as convoluted as determining things like, well, almost anything in D&D. Let's take a look.
Health: Add up your Fighting, Agility, Strength, and Endurance, and you've got your Hit Points. I mean Health.
Karma: Determining your starting Karma is as easy as adding up your Reason, Intuition, and Psyche. What you use Karma for is a bit more interesting. It acts sort of like your XP, sort of like a morality bar, and is also used to do things like modify die rolls, activate magic powers, and build stuff. For obvious reasons, Karma is very important. For less obvious reasons, smart and/or charismatic people have more of it by default.
Resources: How rich you are, basically. It is "generated when the character is created," which we'll get to in a later installment.
Popularity: Like Resources, Popularity is determined during character creation. It's exactly what it says on the tin: a measure of how much or how little people like you. You can have a negative number for this attribute, and you can also have two numbers for this attribute that are not the same. Fame can get complicated.
Did you think eleven attributes was enough? YOU'RE WRONG. But that's not important. The important thing is that you're right. The only things left are your special abilities, which are:
Powers: The stuff that puts the "super" in superhero. They're the difference between Pyro and a pyromaniac, or Cyclops and a kid that played with sharp sticks against the warnings of his mother. Each power is individual and can do wildly different things from other powers. But wait, in a game where everyone has powers, how can anyone feel special? Don't worry. Some of them suck.
Talents: Non-super powers, basically. These are the special things that a person can do, like whats-his-name being a trained acrobat, or that-other-hero being able to do that thing that's pretty great.
Contacts: Pretty much just a list of people or organizations that your character is able to call upon for information or other assistance.
The ability to be only mildly annoyed by giant bullet holes is of debatable usefulness.
Whew, that was a lot of information. But now that we're through it, we can get on to the fun stuff and start making some characters. You have the option of using pregenerated characters - heroes that already exist and have stats, like Storm or Mr. Fantastic - but that's boring and wouldn't make for a good character creation section. So if you'd like to play along, roll a d100 and wait for the next installment.
I rolled a 57
my character will be Captain Average
66.
that's good, right?
Best roll.
...waitaminute...
35!
53!
Do....do I win?
alt-post: OMG U H4X0RD MY G1850N!
character generation: 1d100 37
Supersized Interactive Issue! Part One!
After covering attributes, the Players' Book goes on for a bit about Pregenerated Characters, which are just the existing Marvel characters that have been given stats. We're not going to be talking about them, because they're not actually in the book.
Generated Characters are also exactly what they sound like, namely characters created by the players. The book helpfully points out that generated characters "have an advantage in that they are individuals created by the player and in that form they are unique." It also points out that they have a disadvantage in every other way. But they don't conform, man, and there's nothing more advantageous than freedom.
There are five steps to generating a character in MSH, and the first step is rolling for your origin. Technically you have the option of just choosing your origin, but where's the fun in that? Let's get started.
Beetle-shaped ram-tanks are the bane of many heroes.
Congratulations @Antimatter! You have the great distinction of being the only altered human of the bunch. Heroes like Spider-Man, Hulk, and Doctor Strange are all altered humans. That means you started your life as a regular person, but then through some kind of accident, experiment, or funky mystical study, you gained powers. If you're really lucky, your powers might even be useful.
You roll your primary attribute scores on Column 1 of the Random Ranks Table, and you get to raise any single ability by one rank. Only Aliens and Robots get better columns, but they have some negatives to go along with that slim chance of being better at stuff.
It's important to have your mutant gang-signs ready when stepping out of a miniature nuclear explosion.
@Athenor, @Horseshoe, @dresdenphile, @Dex Dynamo, and @Solar all rolled mutant as their origin. The most popular examples of mutants are any of the X-Men or their spinoffs. Unlike altered humans, you were born with your powers, though you don't generally manifest them until sometime around puberty. For being special snowflakes, you've earned yourselves not only the classification of Homo Superior, but also the hatred of mankind in general. That's what you get for being born different. Next time try just making yourself different by taking experimental drugs or accidentally getting hit by waves of gamma radiation, like the good lord intended.
As a mutant, you roll your primary ability scores on Column 1. You also get to raise your Endurance by one rank, and you gain one additional power. You pay for that privilege by reducing your starting Resources by one rank, setting your starting Popularity to 0, and being affected by mutant-specific devices.
Sup ladies.
@Stilts, @Lord Palington, and @Elldren are our resident High Tech Wonders. You're just regular people, not altered or mutated, like Iron Man or … I don't know, someone else who gets their powers just from their equipment. You don't really get a lot of benefits for being a high technology hero over some other origin, other than being smart and wealthy.
As a high tech wonder, you're forced to roll your attributes on Column 3. This is the worst column, lest you forget that without your special crap you're barely more than a regular human. BUT! You're smart, meaning you get to raise your Reason by two ranks. You also get a default Resources rank of Good, though you can roll it if you want to.
Hawkeye! There we go. I knew I could think of another one.
I hope he doesn't pop his tire-feet. That would really deflate his combat ability.
@jdarksun and @tzeentchling are our robots. This doesn't mean they're actually robots, because that would be too easy. In MSH, robot is just a blanket term for "artificially-created sentient beings" of any kind. You could be organic constructs, magic statues, cyborgs, clones, whatever. The important thing is that someone made you, did so artificially, and that you are sentient. The Vision is probably the best example of this origin, though Ultron is also a robot, if you're into that whole villain thing.
Robots get Column 4 for all their attribute-rolling needs. They also get Popularity 0 and some weird statements regarding Karma. Apparently it's cool if you kill them, even though they're sentient beings.
Swimming Really Good is one of the less-appreciated powers.
@Tox was kind enough to provide the roll for the alien origin. For his efforts he gets to be from another planet, dimension, or otherwise. It doesn't actually matter where you're from, as long as you're not a regular human, altered human, mutant, or a robot. So, I guess Alien is just the "Other" category. Thor and Namor both qualify as aliens.
Being an inhuman monster gets you Column 5 for your attribute rolls and the ability to choose whether your powers are natural, from equipment, or both. You pay for that flexibility by having one less power, Poor Resources, and a maximum of one Contact. That contact needs to be from your home turf, or else you'll be branded an outcast and hunted by your people. It's well known that daring to befriend other races is considered heresy in alien societies.
So those are your origins. Congratulations! You've completed the first step on your journey to becoming a super-special guy, gal, or other. Next we need to determine your attribute scores and ranks:
altered humans are just as rad as robots, can deal with it
16, 32, 21, 93, 83, 16, 68
100
62, 78, 93
Stats 2: 1d100 66
Stats 3: 3#1d100 27 4 98
Resources: 1d100 77
Last set: 3#1d100 24 76 34
Looks... well, we'll see, I guess! At least I've got some cash to make up for any shortcomings evolution may have dealt me.
well, keep in mind that this book is from about 15-20+ years ago.
stats: 7#1d100 9 83 37 87 27 84 70
secondaries: 3#1d100 100 34 72
I'm probably going to suck at fighting.
He's half human, half merman, I think, and he somehow has an x-gene
Wasn't sure how recent the retcon was, now I know it was younger than I thought.
Hm.
(My dice on a glass surface sound weird.)
7d100 = 95 / 53 / 47 / 76 / 40 / 24 / 49 // (Damn, I think I'm screwed.)
1d100 = 97 // (woohoo! )
3d100 = 06 / 49 / 53
... And this is why I avoid random roll games. =P
Set Two: 84
Set Three: 32, 98, 29
The WotC dice roller was both cruel and kind to me.
same here, saaaaaaaaame here.
99
43, 63, 21
7d100=66, 99, 44, 96, 71, 53, 64
1d100=82
3d100=4, 66, 32
This is some old-school shit, so I'm guessing they're screwed
Marvel 1: 7d100 36, 93, 12, 33, 20, 37, 77
Roll 1d100. Aliens don't get to make this roll. High Technology heroes may choose to skip this roll, but if they make it they have to take it.
Marvel 2: 1d100 96
Roll 3d100 and record them in order.
Marvel 3: 3d100 20, 83, 40
saferip: 7#1d100 8 32 94 82 61 76 81
...and this one: 1d100 65
...and these: 3#1d100 17 19 18
Yup! You can either play it safe and take your default, or risk it with a roll. There's a 20% chance you'll end up back at Good, a 30% chance you'll do better than Good, and a 50% chance you'll do worse.
50/50 isn't actually that bad, as far as random BS goes, but it would make more sense to me to just have high-techs start at Good instead of Typical, then roll like everyone else.
I will be constantly on the talk show circuit solely because of this.