Creating a character for fun - comments and questions

[DreadDomain]

So, I decided to create a character just for for. I used a rough concept that will be the base for a HERO 5th character in an upcoming Champions game. The characetr is not written in HERO yet so it was not an exercice of conversion but really one of building a character from a basic idea.

I religiously went from step 1 to 10 of character creation except that I skipped step 2 : powers. The idea was to create the "normal" identity before the "super" identity. The creation process was very easy and enjoyable and there is generally enough pointers in the book to guide the player.

Step One

Personally I find strange that the standrad method suggest to roll 3d6 for every characteristics except for SIZ and INT (2d6+6) when it is explicitly stated the for a human, the average is 10-11 for every one of them. Sure a 3d6 can give very low results for SIZ and INT but so it can for STR and DEX. So what if you can roll a 3 ft, 60 pounds dwarf (or child for that matter)? You can also roll a DEX 3 klutz and it is no less penalizing.

Anyway, it wasn't an issue since I choose to allocate 60 points in my characteristics

To choose EDU, I used this simple guideline :

Raised in society 3

Primary School +3

High School +3

College +2

Bachelor Degree +2

Master Degree +2

Doctorate +2

Each post doc +2

Adjust for age

Step Two

I claerly wanted a Superhuman level character but since not much is said about how to scale up in the superhuman level (low power superhuman versus high power superhuman), I decided to create my own like this (note that I have slightly adjust normal, heroic and epic level) :

Normal 10 points

Heroic 20 points

Epic 40 points

And then Superhuman

Street (Daredevil, Green Arrow) 80 points

Very Low (Captain America, Batman) 160 points

Low (Spiderman, Aquaman) 320 points

Medium (Iron Man, Firestorm) 640 points

High (Thor, Flash) 1280 points

Very High (Superman) 2560 points.

For my character, I chose High (1280 points). I have no clue if my scale is correct (can you build a good Firestorm with 640 points?) but I do admit that my character ended up fairly close to what I was expecting point wise.

Step Three and Step Four

Nothing to report

Step Five

I like skill bonuses so I used them for my character. The problem is, with Super Characteristics, some of them can be quite high so it can create huge bonuses. I decided that any characteristics would not contribute to bonuses pass 50. In my case, only STR (at 250) was an issue.

Step Six

This step I quite like. I had a good idea how my character would behave and the four sample personalities helped quite a bit to define the skills I needed. As an aside, I also used the Opposed Traits (page 295) just because I loved them from Pendragon. I know I would use that in any campaign for player characters by simply letting them allocate values the the traits as they like (or roll if they would prefer).

Step Seven and Step Eight

Nothing to report except that I used both Education and Increased Personal Skill Points.

Step Nine and Step Ten

Again, not much to say except that I was quite happy with the range and detail of the professions.

As I said, creating the character was both very enjoyable and the result surprisingly close to my expectations. The whole process was a breeze except where it got to the superpowers. I had a lot of questions along the way and the lack of example and the sometime too concise decriptions were both responsable of this. There is a good range of powers described in the bok but for a full fledged Superworld campaign a supplement expanding the power creation system would be welcomed.

Here are a few questions just in case someone would be versed enough to answer :

1) In many occasion a power, like Energy Control, refers to "affects 1 SIZ of area per level". What does "1 SIZ or area" represents? Does it increase linearly? For example, Darkness Control affects a volume of 2m of radius (radius increases by +1m per level). Is it the same for an area (2m of radius increasing by +1m per level)?

2) How do range increase? For some powers it is explicitely written but for others, not so (Energy Control). Do I have to assume that the maximum range increase par level as per Energy Projection? Or that some levels might be used to increase range instead of effect as per Snare Projection?

3) Speaking of Snare Projection, the Power Point Cost is 1 per use. Shouldn't bu 1 per level per use?

4) When you buy Resistance "always on" at 3 CPC per level, can you still use it against someone else (touch, 1 full turn at 1 PP per level)?

5) Finally, less a question than an affirmation, Flight is really screwed up (ok, that's harsh >:->). A movement power that you can't increase speed except by using another one (Super Speed)? The setup of Leap is much better even if it lacks a way to increase exponentially.

[Eletarmion]

Hey there!

I'm new to this board and very interested in starting a supers campaign in Chaosium. I know it's not "the best" system for classic superhero gaming. Trust me. I've been playing Champions since 1980, Mutants and Masterminds since its inception, and am now a huge fan of BASU UE. That being said, my gaming group LOVES Chaosium (as do I, for CoC, which I've been playing for years). I also think that a supers game in Chaosium would have a distinctive feel (akin to Watchmen, perhaps). In any case, I'm interested in testing it out.

I ran into this old post. The original poster may not even be around any longer, but I like the process he laid out here and I'd love to see the character that he created using it. So - if you are still out there - can you post the character sheet? :-)

I have Superworld and Superworld Companion (from years ago), and intend to convert all the powers over to the BRP (as I gather that they haven't been converted anywhere else).

Does anybody have any advice?

Best,

Eletarmion