More botching the better you got.
Super Squadron Rulebook Characters
There are only three detailed, two with names.
Multis — Leader, Pseudo-Vampire
Super Squadron Adventure Book Characters
Super Squadron Adventure Book Characters
Heroes — Villains
— Blood Tie [Goons, Assassins,],
— Cobra,
Dragonfly,
— Flying Cobra Goons, Fu-She Tu,
Green Sting,
— Invigilates [Mk I, Mk II,],
— Laser Bolt,
— Fred Nerko
Pamela,
Red Eagle, Rock,
Silver Knight, Shiffon Tank,
Super Squadron Character Generation Example and book readthrough summary
Super Squadron
character generation
eight basic statistics
Strength, Agility, Charisma, Intelligence, Stamina, Public Standing, Ego, Luck
For the first 6 except Public Standing, you roll 1d20 No-name hero (or villain) Public Standing starts at 11.
2, 9, 3, 15, 10, 11
a total of 50
the rules suggest that you can reroll if you do not get a total of 60, or rearrange them if you want, but you only need to get 50
Let’s just leave them for the point of the exercise.
For Luck, roll percentage dice on a table to get the factor, basic 10 or under you have one. 44, so a normally lucky character.
next, roll 1d10 for character origin, of which there are 6. A roll of 2 means a Mutant. Born with powers, either as a result of a previous accident to their parents, or just dumb luck. An Age roll for this origin of 1d12 + 15 gives 8. So a 23 year old Mutie.
Next, number of powers. A d100 roll, the lower the more powers. Most likely is 3. A roll of 11 gives 4 powers. Lucky characters might get more.
A character with more than one power has the option of taking all their remaining rolls as automatic re-rolls of the first result. Otherwise, rolling a power twice it increase the intensity, twice damage, half cost, double duration etc., pick one.
A player may also take a weakness (the glowing green rock clause) and get an additional power. Nifty anti-munchkin note: The GM decides the weaknesses and doesn’t have to reveal all of them.
So, rolling on the Mutant Powers table, the first is 98. Which is Organic Power.
Which means the character can choose a particular animal or plant whose powers or abilities they wish to imitate. They then receive 2d4 adaptations. Some examples listed include Ant, Cactus, Eel, Fox, Mantis and Rose.
2d4 gives 3 and 4 for 7 adaptions.
Time to cogitate on those and work out if the other three powers should also be this.
Being not strong, maybe a clever, sneaky, smart type animal or plant. Not that plants are too smart.
and probably funny looking, with that charisma.
So, I believe we shall debut:
The Fruit Bat.
so assigning the other three power rolls to Organic Powers we get adaption rols of :
1+3, 2+4, 2+1 for another 13 adaption slots to go along with the original 7, a total of 20.
Generally the examples given are each adaption can give a half strength power copy.
e.g. 1/2 Heigtened Agility, 1/2 Flight, etc.
So making it easy, we’ll go for this :-
20 Adaptions
2 Enhanced Intelligence * 1/2 (+2d10) (1,10 = +11)
2 Heighted Speed * 1/2
8 Heighted Agility * 1/2 (+4d10) (5,1,7,10 = +23)
2 Ultraviolet Vision * 1/2
2 Ultrasonic Hearing * 1/2
4 Flight * 1/2
So, currently
The Fruit Bat
Abilties
02 Strength
32 Agility
03 Charisma
26 Intelligence
10 Stamina
11 Public Standing
11 Ego
00 Luck
Organic Powers – Fruit Bat
Enhanced Intelligence +11
Heightened Speed
Enhanced Agilty + 23
Ultraviolet Vision
Ultrasonic Hearing
Flight (extendable wings)
Bat Faced, small for a human
Looking at the Ability Modifier tables
Strength 02 is Puny, -1 HT (Hit Points), -3 DD (Hand to Hand Damage Mod)
Agility 32 is speedy, movement rate 80m, +05% Accuracy, +3 HT, +2 DD
Charisma 03 is Ugly, which Reaction to heroes is -10% and Villains, +10%
Intelligence 26 is Brilliant, +4 HT, +2 DD, +30% Accuracy, 9d8% to detect entrances and 8d10% to detect trap (3,6,8,6,7,3,7,2,5 = 47%) and (1,8,4,9,3,4,10,5 = 44%)
Ego 11 is Average Superbeing, 10% Compulsory Retreat (if you lose half HT or more) and 30% Willing retreat. +05 HP (hit probability) Retreating when not supposed to drops your ego and various successes/failures impact it.
Public Standing 11 is – Reaction DM
Hit Points
Formula is 1/2 * SA + 1d10 + LK + Exp + Modifiers (currently no Experience, need 40 points to get to Level 1)
So, 5 + 2 + (-1,+3,+4 = 6) = 13 HT
Action Potential
Formula is ST + 1/2 IQ + SA + 1/2 AG + LK + Exp
So, 2 + 13 + 10 + 16 = 31
Characters can train over time to increase abilities up to 20, if a Self-Developed origin, then up to 25. You gain experience while super-heroing and can get % bonuses for roleplaying.
There are tables for family details, height, weight, job and if you happen to actually be an alien artifact.
GM says in this case size determined by organic powers. Strength, Stamina and Agility give modifiers to height and weight. Female characters take off 4d4 kg and 5d4cm.
There are patrolling, paying off informants and tracing rumours rules too. Plus Encounter tables.
Ordinary Encounter 12-14 on d100 is Espionage.
Super-Villain Encounter 12-14 is Jail Break
Extraordinary Encountey 09-13 is Mutant Villain (01-70) or Hero (71-00) Encountered
If you get supebeings, an 01 means a team, 02-21 on this roll a teamup.
Initiative is 1d20 + AG + LK (Luck you pretty much get to use in everything)
AG+LK of 30 or more is multiple actions a round if you make a manoeuvre roll of
Agents of S.W.I.N.G. – FATE of Swinging Sixties Superspies and others
Suggesting three red white and blue dice, keeping one spare to save for when you do well. Rather than spin for shifts, you get to keep the spare die as an ace in the hole reroll to use once.
The organisation’s pronounced acronym pointing out that this is a game of superspies in the Swinging Sixties with a UK flavour. With 13 different departments ranging from the unknown to crimefighters, assassins, spook hunters and mad scientist chasing superheroes you could have any flavour of game you wanted, sixties style, from hardboiled crimefighting to paranoid vampire chasing a la Night’s Black Agents.
Updating or regressing the technology involved and the same framework would get you other era gaming pretty happily, if changing the tone a little.
James Bond RPG players should like this game. However, the basic tone of the game sits with The Avengers. Steed and Peel and other UK pop culture types of the era, like the Third Doctor get NPC writeups later in the book. This is extremely well done…game master advice like ‘Plot Stress’ as note for when the players have worked out enough to advance further in the plot. Clever.
Then there are useful vehicle rules and also interesting organisation rules. Tech upgrading and other bits and pieces. How to get help from headquarters and other nice tweaks. The FATE Ladder is given a swinging skin, with ‘Bummer’ and ‘Fab’ as skill ranks. A fun one is that ‘Artillery’ is one of the listed skills, so an expectation that lots of shit will blow up given an explosives section, too. A nice and concise list of useful stunts adds on.
A great one book game that would also be a useful resource for those wanting to plug in this short of spy shenanigans in a game of another genre. Lulu available, too, so Australian affordable unlike quite a few small press games given the uselessness of the US post office these days.
Star Ace – Leftover oddballs
A game of leftover heroes who happened to not get wiped out in interstellar battle with the Imperial forces. The Star Teams. Humans, crystal clone, hybrids, polar bear and catpeople. Some amusing artwork, but a poor game with a really oddball tone. The Luck attribute is interesting in an evolution sense. Percentile system with a resolution table. Everyone gets a fighter and a proton rifle and a literal in a game sense handful of cash to start…so odd right from there.
Kapow! breakdown
Kapow! Breakdown
172 Pages
PART I
In the introduction, definitely wearing his four-colour heart on his sleeve, the designer.
Chapter 1 – Steps to Creating a Superhero
Scope – From 1. Normal, to 12. Cosmic. An approximation of the power level of the game. Also Tone – from Grim, to Camp.
Quick Start Hero – pick an entry from the sample list closest to your idea and modify. Decide if a power is Automatic or Active. There are a few different templates. Standard, Powerhouse, Minimal Jack-Of-all-Trades.
Power names and descriptions are free-form. Every character gets 3 Boosts to differentiate with. You can take Disadvantages on powers to boost them. Add Complications and background detail. There are Advantages as well like Ultra-Flexible and Area Effect.
Chapter 2
Concept – make one up.
Chapter 3
So to take the Standard Template to convert my first Super Squadron character Nightblack. A darkness generator that wears all black and has a big red sword and shuriken with some enhanced abilities like fighting and Agility.
Standard:
Main Power: 8 (d8, d8) – call this Fighting
4 others powers at: 6 (d6, d6) – Darkness Generation, Strength, Agility, Endurance. Spend the three boosts on Tough, Will and Actions.
Tough: 3
Will: 3
Stamina: 2
Actions: 3
Chapter 4
Boosts, Advantages, Disadvantages.
In Kapow! powers are scaled to Scope. Nightblack was a standard four-colour type hero. It gives examples that 8 Telekineses could lift a car at Street scope but a Blue Whale at National scope. So the narrative fictio matters.
Minor Powers are the fourth type are Regular, Movement and Utility. Characters can have any number they like of these. So explicitly could definite Nightblack as having the ability to see in the dark at 4: and also Running at 4:.
There are rules for Assets, Companions, Gear, Vehicles, Bases, etc. and for making up your own add-ons to these and to powers. Also Perks, Contacts, Reputation and Favours.
Chapter 5
Complications
You must take one Big one and two Small ones. So if Nightblack is tackling Doctor Technology’s hidden US bases, he is then Out Of His Area to go along with Aging Vigilante and Alone.
Chapter 6
Origin and Background
Skills and abilities from this are at the Default Power Level of 4. In Nightblack’s case, Asian Weapons and Academics.
Drive – let’s say Justice.
Appearance – dresses in skintight black spandex with small red goggles.
Add a Battle Cry. Only mentally, in Vietnamese for a darkness wielding martial artist, really.
Chapter 7
Examples characters.
Part II
Playing a Superhero
Chapter 8
Quick Summary of the mechanics. The dice rolling, roll the two dice that your power is rated at: 8 is (d8, d8), 7 is (d8, d6) etc. and you use the higher result.
Then a list of various combat manoeuvres and options – even the Sudden Death challenge one roll takes it – highest side wins.
Chapter 9
Defining Powers. With examples and levels.
Chapter 10
Using Powers. They have to make comics sense. The Default Skill substitution roll if you have nothing relevant. Contested and Uncontested Actions with difficult numbers. What happens when you are Damaged and Hindered (reduced effectiveness). And Out as in taken out in an appropriate manner, physically or mentally. There are simple timing rules in recovering from this…or preventing an opponent from doing so. Tired, Overkill, Disabled.
Minion and Mob rules!
Chapter 11
Tropes, Battle Cry, Combining Powers, Pulling Punches. Failure Is Not An Option, Overdrive, Power Play – for those times when you really call on the reserves, Sheer Determination, Sudden Death, Wild Shot.
Chapter 12
Rounds and Turns
Chapter 13
Special Situations
Like Crossing Scopes and Crossovers with Guest Stars.
Chapter 14
Ranges
These are abstract. Normal = large room, Agent, Street, Cosmic etc. Like Scopes. Movement, chases and senses.
Chapter 15
Investigation, Gumshoe. With a note: don’t overuse it and make a skill system.
Chapter 16
Experience. Generally one XP per session. Getting taken Out or capture gives extra. Spending it, Patrol, Training.
Chapter 17
The Environment
Vehicle scope, Buildings, More Stuff to Break. Hazards and Obstacles.
Part III – Page 109
Gamemastering Superheroes.
Chapter 18
Advice on types of game, campaign, etc.
Chapter 19
Villains
Motives, Modus Operandi, Types along with the two former. Complications and casting.
Chapter 20
Adventures, types of Scheme. Lairs.
Adventure Preparation.
PART IV – Page 148
Appendices
A
Otherwise known as Yay!
Suggest that it is a guideline, not a complete procedure. This is the gamemaster section.
Trying it out :-
Theme – 1d10 = 3 Elemental
Elemental Theme – 1d20 = 17 Magnetism
So the bad person here might just be a Magnetic Elemental.
Appendix B – Page 159
Tables of different levels of Scope and what they approximate to for weight and speed.
Appendix C – Page 165
Options summary for manoeuvres.
Appendix D – Page 166
How to be a good player.
Then an index to finish.
Overall this is a very solid point buy creation game with reasonably straightforward mechanics and would seem to be somewhere between BASH and Cortex in that sense. A few power levels, referenced as dice with very free form power choice, design and definition like the latter.
The game makes consistent sense and reinforces the design decisions with the general advice favouring a standard four-colour type hero game, but with other possibilities. This is the Primary Rule that actually exists in game. Be superhero-like. The title obviously suggests it, too.
Having played a couple of times, it is quite suited to bringing a new player in. What can your hero do? What are they best at? Ok, that is an 8, the others are at 6, we will work out the abilities and some minor powers as we go. Done in a minute or two.
The Power Level chart could use reiteration of listing earlier, I think, before Page 67:
Again, the base mechanic being roll 2, keep 1, the highest.
e.g.
PL Dice
2 d1
3 d4
4 d4, d4
5 d6, d4
6 d6, d6
7 d8, d6
8 d8, d8
9 d10, d8
10 d10, d10
11 d12, d10
12 d12, d12
13 d8+5, d13
14 d8+5, d8+5
15 d10+5, d8+5,
16 d10+5, d10+5,
17 d12+5, d10+5
etc.
Definitely a lot better than I thought it would be. The advice for Gamemasters section is longer than Villains & Vigilantes and Super Squadron, at least in page count.
Abstract ranges and measurement means a fiction-weighted rules light game that holds together very nicely and would suit lots of people.
Something like this, to go with the BASH! ones
0 0ut of 10 Price (lower is cheaper per page)
6 out of 10 Length (lower is shorter)
4 out of 10 Complexity (lower is easier)
5 out of 10 Playability
2 out of 10 Artwork
Space Opera – Table mish-mash
Take Traveller, bloat it up a lot, make sure you have tables for as much as you can think of, including double level fatigue and dropping the ball. This comment also nails it :- “the barely sketched out campaign milieu is a mish-mash of animal-men, vulcans, jedi, lightsabres, space nazis, space commies, martians-from-War-of-the-Worlds and implacable hiveminded insectoids.” http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?461973-Necro-FGU-s-Space… Some very dodgy writing and concepts, but it has a certain charm, and some of the stuff you could have enhanced Traveller with..more detailed character enlistments, some effects of the planet that your character has come from, etc. How to bias stat rolling to make players likely to have higher level stats than the ordinary by using d100 to roll d20, that sort of thing. Much weapons and gear, too. The middle game I guess you could call it of Traveller and Spacemaster from the time. Worth a browse for entertainment and occasional useful part.
Batman Role-Playing Game: Cut down DC Heroes
To capitalise on the Bat-movie craze at the time
Has a 22 page Character section
Batman, Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing, Nemesis, Question, Pennyworth, Gordon, Vale
Calendar Man, Cat-Man, Catwoman, Clayface II, , Clayface III, Copperhead, Croc, Doctor Tzin-Tzin, Joker, Kobra, Mad Hatter, Man-Bat, Mikado, Penguin, Poison Ivy, Riddler, Scarecrow, Two-Face
so a couple of others of interest and notable for having more foes than friends
Living Legends
A simpler old style superhero RPG from one of the Villains and Vigilantes creators.