Review, Super Powered d20

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Okay there’s been a lot recent super-powered character point systems for d20 for the last little while, but none have seem the catch my interest, and many have some basic game mechanic problems; as well as super long design times.

The Critique Begins…

Silver Age and BESM d20 have a lot of questions and problems of combining a point based system, and experienced based levelling up. It takes an experienced and watchful DM to ensure the game is kept balanced by making tonnes of house rules (especially in BESM)…a nearly impossible task with players who (intelligently and stealthy) find loopholes to power munchkin their characters…a simple teenage mutant campaign can quickly turn into a cosmic powered battle.

The first problem and example comes in Silver Age…since a level cost only 10 points, starting off with the 50 points, I take the Adventurer Class at level five (which gives 30 character points as part of the class feature)…does this mean I can take another three levels of adventurer and be considered a eighth level character (which provides an additional 15 character points)

Or since abilities only cost 1 Character points per 2 points, as a level five adventurer, I can get an dexterity of +60…a base dexterity modifier of +30!!!

Making my adventurer as agile as the Speedster Class… Since buying ability points in this way is allowed for the Adventurer things can get kind of nasty (Adventurers are only allowed to take characteristics…guess what…ability points and levels are consider characteristics.) At least Silver Age split power into type (Powers or Characteristic) to try to limit powers…but it really does not work.

Sure the speedster can clock 1500 kph, but is going way to fast to interact in battle effectively, and the lucky Adventurer with the Dexterity of 75 (average starting roll of 15), still can only move 30 feet per round but can dodge anything with a base AC of 47, and reflex save of +38.

Even keeping maximum abilities at 30, things still get nuts, a guy with 25 to 30 in every stat is damn scary.

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The Critique Continues…

The second problem is the dynamic powers ability. Which in either system translates to: Power Gamers Best Friend…Killer GM’s wet dream…Rules Lawyers nemesis.

A supposed catch all to allow characters to take multiple powers; it can easily manipulated into a form of reality warping that far exceeds the scope of the campaign, and pretty soon everyone’s playing a hero with dynamic powers.

Why spend 20 points on just Super Strength (+80 Strength by the way), When I take “gravity” as my dynamic power theme and throw people off the planet, bring down meters, or speed myself up, while holding my foes in place; or give myself super strength by increasing my own gravitation constant);

Worse yet I take limits on it that give more points to put into it.

Favourite limits combination: works only in air(not in vacuums or under water), works only on planets with gravity of at least 1 G, increase gravity only, activation requires a will power check (or concentration) of DC 15 every round, can only affect other targets (not self).

Believe it or not this gives a minimum of 7 extra character points to play with…allowing me to, oh say take another level in dynamic powers or bump the range up to 10 miles and affecting up to 1000 people at once; allowing to use my power to crush everyone with a graviton wave that does 2d6+2 damage each round...not bad.

Might not kill heroes in close combat, but as a psychotic villain collateral damage is nothing; even with lots of super speed a hero at the out skirts of this range may take 5 to 10 rounds to reach the villain, taking 10d6+10 to 20d6+20 damage in that time period…speedsters ten not to have hideous hit points…so he’ll die fairly quickly, that slow moving brick will

Of course both systems give good examples of the GM putting in the time (they don’t state how long though) to limit dynamic powers and prevent abuse such as making players take d20 spells instead or the best comes from Silver Age from a section called “Cheating: just do it:”

“ If you want your players that you’re the best Game Master in the world…cheat and cheat often…there are no rules about ‘being fair’, ‘sticking to dice rolls’, or ‘being honest to players’…”

The suggestion is of course to fudge things to make game player more enjoyable by fudging things…what’s more fun than doing a bunch of rewriting or watching all your players get up and leave when you slaughter them all with a villain with Dynamic Powers (finding weakness, nullification and/or power theft theme) after over estimating their abilities.

Or walk away yourself after entire campaigns collapses as players start to bicker and fight over fudged rules [“but what it about what it says here…”] and the ten pages of house rules you made are turned into paper airplanes and snot rags…Maybe we should leave our d20’s and 30d6’s at home.

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The Critique ends…recommendations…

May of you may have just flipped/scrolled to this section…long story short, Super Hero d20 system BESM, and Silver Age Sentinels are not recommended for the average d20 player. Lets face it d20 is built for “normal characters”, combat, dungeon hacking and rules lawyers.

You may be a novice, and you may not be anal enough to consult books for every little detail. But there are rules that we follow to keep the game flowing quickly and smoothly, while providing a balance of stability and flexibility.

Getting into the super hero end, though they really try to make hardcore gaming rules, upsets a lot of the balance and flow that has made d20 a massive success (yes marketing helps, but the system is to date one of the most sound).

Super Hero campaigns with d20 BESM or Silver Age should only be played with experienced GM willing to put the time in to design and modify, and should only include players willing to build a character for the sake of role playing, not a power munchkins just for combat.

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Other options or system:

---Some of My house rules and options for Silver Age Sentinels (coming soon), fix many of the problems, but fundamentally change some of the aspects of d20 (elimination of classes is one of them) and some of the powers resemble another system listed below…can you guess which one?

---MECHA d20: The Mecha D20 is on the flip side of my dislike for the character point rules for d20. Using the same basic rules as Silver Age Sentinels or BESM d20 you can build big mechs. Clearly defined rules and examples make the GM job of keeping power levels under control (to an extent).

Since characters are spending points on big mechs, the need for character classes still exist, as well a the need to take a smaller mech for closed space fights. A few flaws (present in the other systems discussed above) still exist, and course does not allow for true super heroes…though big mechs can provide decent enemies for them and fill the rules void left Own a Big Mech or Item of Power abilities.

---D20 Modern; though not quite super hero level, heroes can gain above human qualities (talents) that can easily turn d20 Modern into a mutant type theme while keeping the core of d20 intact.

Future D20 Modern super heroes updates (coming soon by me or maybe someone else out there) will make low to mid powered super hero campaigns possible for the system.

Saving the school or the city can be just awarding as saving the world or universe and actually leaves room for the campaign to grow, as well as including resources from other d20 products with minimum revision.

---BESM, original Tri-Stat system: Though is has some of it’s own bugs (low rolls are good for something’s but not others) it has feel much more like a real anime, as well as better resources and rules for GM’s to select a genre. Easy to learn, fairly quick to build, and with a fair number expansions it provides a decent alternative.

---Palladium Supers: Some things are better left on the shelf. Taking some 45 minutes to 2 hours to build a character, as well as the problem of again combining a class/experience system with a character point system.

Combat, though dynamic, is not as quick or well defined as d20, and tonnes of revisions of the system rules in other books can make for cumbersome play.

Its only redeeming quality is a variety of well-defined (though not always balanced) powers, and a system (and reasons) to actually purchase equipment.

---Champions: Some people love it others hate it. A system that has under gone plenty of face changes over the years.

Like Palladium or D20 versions building characters for an inexperienced player or someone who’s not sure what they want, can easily eat away half a day.

Combat takes some time to get use to (and time to do with large groups), and there can be a lot book referencing during game play to determine how many dice you need to throw under certain circumstances.

It is however a stable system, with some clearly defined rules (especially for table top), its own world, tonnes of resources, as well sticking to one formula: the character point system.

Good for experienced players, the tabletop obsessed and small groups, but strange and often frustrating for d20 only players. Novices should try BESM first; in a lot of ways it’s the easy to use heir to Champions.

---Marvel SAGA: Marvel Comics Group has tried numerous systems over the years, from the original that used charts, to booster card games (not unlike a mix of Pokemon and Magic) to the Hero’s click system to the current that use markers or “stones”.

The best of the bunch in my estimation is Marvel SAGA. SAGA uses a set of cards as it’s basis, but it is not a booster card system.

Marvel SAGA has a hundred odd separate powers (plus THE best, most creative and easy way of using Reality Warping in any system since) tonnes of character hindrances and power limits; as well as listings for nearly every major marvel comic character in expansion books, random powers, and on and on. Marvel SAGA allows for truly super powered cosmic campaigns, but offers the flexibility to keep it real.

Marvel SAGA only defects. It was not distributed or advertised very well, and therefore did not sell well. Its companion Dungeon and Dragons SAGA was completely crushed by hardcore gamers, TSR changing to Wizards and the massive marketing release of 3rd edition d20 put a nail in the coffin of SAGA.

Plus if you lost a card, you where screwed, and it was so complete that once you got the books you never need to get more.

Gamewise only some questions with skills, and Magic where left unresolved.

For classic table toppers use to movement rates, exacting rules and dice SAGA seemed to be a childish alien system, when in fact all it needs is a good imagination, role playing and storytelling (and maybe replacement rules for using dice). This is my favourite super system to date.

[Regrix]

Well, I for one was much more partial to the old Marvel system. It was a much more clearly defined system to my mind.

With the charts you always knew where you stood and there was really no room for interpetation.

One of my favorite powers was Probability Manipulation.. Which like the X-Man known as Longshot it would allow my character to change probability fields to my advantage..

Basically this meant that no matter which die hit the table first, whichever result was more benificial to me was how the dice were read...

UNLESS

I rolled an 01... Then things took a catastrophic turn against me.. (Oh how I hated that rule... LOL )

BUT

If I rolled a 00 then it was basically that my action worked in such a way that it had a casscading reprocussion effect to my benifit. (As the GM put it.. It's basically the Almighty looking at you saying "OK, What do you want?" )

I never seemed to roll enough of the 00's though.. More's the pity..

Due to my pencheant for thinking outside the box I became too potent a player of that game.. using any power I had in all sorts of creative ways.. Didn't matter what power it was, or what rank I had in it..