System A:
Roll a d20.  On a 10 or better, "hit." (Actual flavor is up to the one being targeted)  Enemy takes 1 "damage."  Minions have 2HP, Lieutenants have 4, Bosses have 16.  Players start with 32? HP.  Don't remember.  After whiffing 2x in a row, the next shot is a guaranteed hit.

In order to prevent PCs from steamrolling powerful cannon characters, the DM must not include them in any scenes.  PCs never level up.  Only indicator of getting stronger is, "If they exist in the scene, your character can kill them."

At any time, players and DM alike can choose to not deal damage.

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System B:
Similar to above, but adding a little bit of extra mechanics for the sake of the DM being allowed to include powerful enemies in a scene while also dealing with numbskull PCs who insist on attacking Tripticon because he's a part of the scene at all.

Each power tier has an associated value.
Beginning 0
heroic 1
paragon 2
legendary 3
etc.

NPCs of 2 or more tiers higher are tagged as scenery and cannot target PCs.  At most they can blast a nearby cliff and cause some dramatic hazard, but the rest of the time they should be too busy fighting enemies in their own weight class while the PCs deal with the team of enemies in their own weight class.

If targeting an enemy of higher tier, find the difference between your own and the enemy's power tier (PTD.)  (This math shouldn't have to happen often.)  Roll a d2.  Subtract the PTD.  Deal the resulting damage.  Thus, players cannot deal damage to enemies that are 2 or more tiers higher than they are.

Thus, heroic PCs have a 50/50 chance of one-shotting a Heroic Minion, but will always defeat them in 2 shots or less.  Heroic PCs have a small chance of defeating a paragon minion in 2 shots and an equal chance of dealing no damage at all.  The purpose is to make it feel much harder to fight a higher tier enemy.

NPCs of 1 tier or higher are forbidden from focusing fire on a single PC.  They also may only attack PCs if the PCs pick a fight with them.

PCs deal added damage to lower tier enemies and are not restricted from targeting them in any way.

After several adventures, PCs go up a tier?
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:46, Sat 18 Jan 2020.