Advantages and Disadvantages (Superworld)

[Jeffrywith1e]

Not D&D 5E!

I read somewhere that there were Advantages and Disadvantages in the Superworld rules. I'm curious what those were like and surprised they were not featured as an option in the BGB. Can anyone share to how those were portrayed?

[Aelwyn]

The Power Disadvantages in Superworld are limits on powers, such as "can't be used underwater," "doesn't have immediate effect" (Action Rank Delay), "requires extra energy," "chance that the power will burn out." The Superworld rules have a little more crunch than the superpowers section of the BGB and enable you to carefully design a character a little more, i.e., I want my character to have Teleport 18, which would normally take 18 energy points (similar to power points) to activate, but I also want it to only cost my character 9 energy points, so I'm going to spend an extra 9 hero points (similar to character build points) to have that Advantage. To pay for those 9 hero points, I'm willing to add the Disadvantage of Failure Chance 45%, which gains me back the 9 hero points. So now I've got a very customized Teleport power that due to an Advantage and a Disadvantage doesn't work exactly like the default power.

"Handicaps" from Superworld are more like personal problems a character might have to deal with, but they also include things like "susceptible to damage" and "bad luck." In the BGB, they're known as Character Failings, and they're on p. 142. The list isn't exactly the same as the one in Superworld, but there's a lot of overlap.

Edited October 28, 2015 by Aelwyn

[Aelwyn]

And for the low price of only $10.97, you can read all about them. Plus you get to view some cutting-edge art from 1983. 

http://www.chaosium.com/superworld-roleplaying-pdf/

Why weren't they included in the BGB? Pure speculation, but... they would have made the book too long, and they don't really add much to the game. They tend to make players obsess over fine details of character creation rather than to just grab the powers you want, accept the default advantages/disadvantages of those powers, and start playing. However, if you're looking for highly customized, unusual characters or NPCs, Superworld enables you to fine-tune how the powers work to a great degree, using a universal point buy system.

[thomas5251212]

The superpowers section in the BGB was much more designed around the original Worlds of Wonder version of Superworld, and is much less well developed, just as those were.