HW superheroes.

From: David Cake <dave_at_difference.com.au>
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 09:52:33 +0800


>I specifically wanted some input on using Hero Wars as the engine wherein
>to play 4-color comic book superheroes. It looks very nicely made for it.
>
>That is why I posted those descriptions--what would Superman and Batman's
>writeups be if modelling them using Hero Wars?
>
>Too bad that some folks decided to instead invent a straw man to joust
>against rather than take my question literally and at face value.

        Hero Wars would indeed work well as the engine for a super hero game. The 'straw man comments' did point out an important aspect of HW for this use, though - the description sets what abilities ARE, but not how powerful they are - so a superhero character really needs to be in a superhero game. You would, however, probably want to set your campaign starting level differently - ie allow your players to start some numbers of abilities at at least a W2 level, or some similar combination. Its worth noting though that Supes and Bats have a fair bit of experience in their current incarnations, and a game shouldn't really be expected to generate them as beginning characters (well, perhaps it should be expected to generate their 1950s versions, which is a good deal easier).

	Apart from that, they would work fine.
	If you don't want people to get your assumptions wrong, state them
- - if you want to use HW as a superhero game, state that, rather than just assume everyone will pick that from context given that HW will explicitly be a Gloranthan game.

        Hero Wars actually models fairly well I think the common comics narrative event where new uses for powers are often being discovered - "perhaps if I rub my hands together super fast, that will generate enough static electricity to disrupt his electronic mind control ray" Narrator: "OK, -20 penalty but go for it" - which is not handled well by games like Champions. And it also makes abilities that are somewhat ephemeral or loosely defined, but that come up fairly often in comics narrative (like Hal Jordans willpower, or batmans gadget supply) relatively easy to handle in play. Which is, of course, one of the reasons its good for Gloranthan superheroes too.

	Cheers
		David

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