Frequently Asked Questions:
Question: Hi. I'm interested in possibly joining the game, but I was wondering if you could clarify for me
what, exactly, you mean when you say the characters are lower powered than the X-Men. Could you be a little more specific? For instance, if I want to play say, a super-strong character, does that mean he has to be less strong then any super-strong X-Men, or just less strong then Colossus (the strongest X-Man I can think of off-hand, since I don't count Juggernaut's run on the team)?
Answer: Mittens:
Greetings! Very good question. What we had in mind for this forum was to avoid the power creep (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_creep ) so prevalent elsewhere.
GM Joe in rules thread:
5. Along similar lines, powers are intended to be very cut and dry along with the 'low tier' vibe we're going for. This means no implying that 'I can shoot lightning' = 'I can control the electrical impulses of your brain'. General sense of 'Despite what Magneto would have you believe, Magnets can not do everything.' Especially considering rule 4.
For above example, shooting lightning. We'd be looking for something along the lines of "T-Bolt is a dynamo capable of generating up to 1.21 gigawatts of electricity! That's enough to power a time machine! But he can't sustain his peak for longer than an instantaneous bolt and it leaves him exhausted. When fighting crime, T-Bold can shoot bolts up to 1000 kV (stun gun level) and never run out of juice! Using his power on electronics is more likely to fry them than power them, but with a lot of practice he may be able to have enough control not have to worry about his cell phone battery running low again!"
Example man, T-Bolt, doesn't have flight powers. No super reflexes, super smarts, super speed, the ability to travel through the power lines, pass through metallic objects, etc. He's got one thing going for him. But even the one-trick ponies of the X-Men like Cyclops tend to have a one-trick that could level a city block if they're not careful. Let's look at the example you gave:
Colossus possesses superhuman levels of strength, which currently exceeds that of the Thing, as well as superhuman stamina and durability. Also, in his metal form, he is immune to telepathy and all kinds of psionic attacks. While in his armored form, Colossus requires no food, water, or even oxygen to sustain himself, and is extremely resistant to injury. He is capable of withstanding great impacts, large caliber bullets, falling from tremendous heights, temperature extremes of hot and cold, electricity, and certain magical attacks. It has been shown that he is vulnerable to the anti-metal vibranium in his metal form, his body instinctively shifting to human form when faced with a vibranium weapon.
Colossus is an excellent hand-to-hand combatant, having received training from Wolverine and Cyclops. He has had training in acrobatics and sword fighting from Nightcrawler. In his human form, he is exceptionally strong and fit, though not superhumanly so. He has completed college-level courses at Xavier's school.
Never mind his invulnerability alone would make him too powerful to fit into this setting. How strong is he? He's now in the 100 tonn category from what I've read. Meaning he can juggle 5 ton panzer tanks with ease. People talk about him being able to go toe-to-toe with Juggernaught. That's just ONE X-Man. Colossus would probably be able to handle every last villain in this forum with both arms tied behind his back, blindfolded, and chewing bubblegum. On his own. Without any help from the rest of us.
By comparison GM Tim has a "tough girl" character concept that would likely wind up maxing out at "bullets feel like punches," but that's all she gets power wise (beyond her other physical abilities being able to match an athletic human man.)
A "strength only" type character here would probably peak at a one-time lift of a school bus (14 tons tops) if he didn't have much else beyond being as tough as your typical bar brawler. (Opinions, Tim? Joe?) Edit: As Joe points out in his reply, he'd need to at least be tough enough to not get squished by the bus. Comic book physics would allow him to both punch through a brick wall with his bare fists and say "OW!" when hit by a brick to the head hurled by a street thug.
We'd like to provide a situation where our untrained super team is about as awesome as a squad of commandos. We're trying to avoid a situation where just ONE of us is as awesome as a squad of commandos all by himself while the rest of us look like tinker toys by comparison.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFuMpYTyRjw
Power creep for us will probably consist mainly of: "You've done so much for this city, we've decided to issue you all police style bullet-proof vests!" Joe: "Great. That means street thugs are going to be carrying flame throwers now, doesn't it?" Narrator: "How'd you know?"
Joe Darkthorne
At the very least strength as primary gimmick should be able to tear up street signs/parking meters/bike racks etc to hit people with. Admittedly my sense of scale is very inaccurate when it comes to 'how much strength does being able to do X require?', but I think punching a fist sized hole through a brick wall when you hit it as hard as possible may be the range we're looking at?
There is of course that always confusing situation of 'how do they survive punching scenery if they aren't super tough too?', but at the very least not breaking your own hand when you punch things of collapsing your spine when you lift them is a good freebie. Whether or not someone hitting you with a baseball bat hurts you as much as the next guy.
Joe's degree of toughness is mostly side-effect wont-splatter-if-they-miss-that-skyscraper-jump physical durability, though he'd definitely feel like he got hit by a car if he, well, got hit by a car. It's mostly there so I don't need to think too hard about 'wait will this kill him or send him to the hospital?'. And so I don't spend Joe's 'I'm really Agile' carrier avoiding literally everything.
just saw this turn up approved elsegame and showcases nicely the sort of thing we're trying to avoid.
Mutant Powers:all powers are half-strength from the original wielder on earth 616: mainstream Marvel universe: an eyebeam, healing factor and claws(titanium/steel alloy) organic steel skin with increased physical strength/mass, teleportation, enhanced sense of smell/hearing
They go on to list limitations as 'can only lift Olympic levels of 450 pounds when unarmored' and Weaknesses as 'his healing factor is only half as fast as wolverines'. Yeah...
Question: Can my character have the power to turn lead into gold?
Answer: No. No "unlimited wealth" powers.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:53, Fri 08 Oct 2010.