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Well folks, sorry I wasn't in the last issue. The
Editor in the Chief couldn't run it last month. Us
hard working writers tend to cut things a little close
to the wire. I had it done. Not my fault. She
doesn't check her mail after 4 A.M. on the deadline
day. So hang tight, True Believers because do I have
a surprise for you. What was going to be parts two
and three of this amazing six part series are going to
be jammed in with a shoehorn into "Giant Size" column.
Sure it means coming up with a new idea for issue
six, but I'll do it just for you. (Not that schmoe
looking over your shoulder, just you.) Who says this
isn't the Collector Times Age of guaranteed reader
satisfaction?
Sorry for the last paragraph. I spent four hours
reading a volume of The Essential Fantastic Four the
other day and it hasn't quite worn off yet.
Part One : It's Character Building
One of my old gaming buddies always used to have two
complaints about licensed gaming. One is that
continuity is a pain in the butt. I covered
most of that in part one. Secondly, that if a player
was creative enough with a generation system they
could create a "newbie" character that was as powerful
or even more powerful than the members of the
Fantastic Four or Teen Titans. (Okay, aside from
maybe The Thing, Cyborg or Donna Troy.) That was his
major problem with most super hero games. Yes, there
is a bit of a risk of doing Mary Sue-like characters
in a game. On the other hand, if you don't let the
players be powerful enough to stop some big name
villains they won't want to play. This month I will
cover some very important aspects in character
generation. One is creating your character
backgrounds so that they fit with canon (or the
variant you're using for game purposes) and house
rules that will limit the extent of the players can go
hog wild with powers and still allow the game to be
fun. Not only that, you'll get to see an example of a
character that uses canon continuity but does not
break it.
The first step for any player is get their characters
approved and find out what which part of the vast
campaign setting the game is going to focus on.
Sometimes you can have a great character that just
doesn't fit with the campaign.
In a Marvel Universe game a friend of mine ran, I
wanted to play a Skrull named Rol'jok who could
shapeshift and mimic super powers. (Though we
actually used the West End DC game engine since it is
a lot freer when it comes to character design and
general game play then Marvel from TSR or the Saga
system.) The problem was this was going to be a
mostly Earth based campaign. I needed to come up
with an explanation not only for his extra power but
what he'd be doing on Earth. After flipping through
some Fantastic Four reprints and the Official Handbook
of the Marvel Universe I discovered the character
Super Skrull was not the only Skrull that was
experimented on. He was the only one that actually
worked. That was the key.
Rol'Jok's parents were both washouts of the Super
Skrull project. The process didn't work on them
because it was incomplete. Their offspring had a
mutation. He could mimic the super powers of anyone
he encountered as long as he remained within 25 feet
of them. A Kree fleet attacked the outpost where he
lived. This led to his secret being exposed as the
infant Skrull fought off a meta powered Kree soldier.
He became a scientific curiosity with a bounty on his
head. The only thing that saved him from prison was
that as soon after the Kree left the planet, they had
another visitor; the greatest of predators, Galactus.
Rol'jok and his family managed to escape. The
Skrulls thought their precious super soldier was dead.
They eventually settled into a poor immigrant
neighborhood in New York City where their accents
wouldn't be noticed. Their one mistake was filing
with I.N.S. After a thorough background check they
got provisional green cards provided that Rol'Jok do
the occasional job for SHIELD.
Which brings us to an important house rule. The
person at the government that serves as a contact
could be a moderately expensive contact to buy or a
really expensive one to buy. Officially, most game
books don't treat having Colonel Joe Six Pack any
different than having Colonel Nick Fury as a contact.
The rank is the same and their access should be the
same, so the cost is the same. To curb abuse of this
the first GM (and later myself when I took over) made
the decision that no names like Colonel Six Pack would
be at book cost. Nick Fury would be double the price.
We applied this to any established character all the
way down to Katie Power. (Don't ask. Really you
don't want to know. It was embarrassing.) This made
canon characters as contacts as expensive as some low
level super powers. The reason being that an
established character is generally more powerful than
their never been seen before counterparts and the
players can and will try to use that to their
advantage.
Furthermore, to limit use of established character
contacts, I recommend another house rule. If the
contact is called to actually assist in combat with a
villain (or group of villains) of equal or lesser
experience pool to your group than you only got half
your experience. Example, let's say Rol'jok and his
friends Coldfire and Kid Alloy got into a fight with
Stiltman, The Mole Man and Madcap then called in help
from Alloy's contact (Colossus) then they'd only get
10-15 points for beating them. Whereas if they held
out calling Colossus until they fought someone like
The Super Adaptoid then they'd have kept 20-30 points
for themselves. If on top of calling in Colossus,
Rol'jok called in Clay Quartermain and a squadron of
SHIELD troops they'd only get 5-7 points. The cut of
the experience should also be put into place if they
become to dependent on their contacts.
Another GM trick for limiting the out of control
character design in point based systems is don't let
the players stack any two packages they want together
simply because they have the points for them and it
gives the characters the powers, skills and advantages
at a small discount. Make sure there is something in
game to warrant it. Rol'jak had two packages. One
being his Skrull package. (Which we simply modified
a package I had originally designed as Durlan super
soldiers. We just made minor changes) and the secret
agent package. Both of these made sense with the
character background. Now if instead of buying secret
agent, I had decided that my Independent Contractor for
SHIELD took the "Beat Cop" or "Scientist" or "Medic,"
he would have had perfectly legitimate for refusing
that part of the character.
The next trick is actually two tips in one: 1) As a
GM, you should balance your characters by setting a
limit on just how high their skills can go. If
you're playing a licensed game this is rather easy.
Let the player choose one or two stats and let them have
skill a level higher than the average starting hero.
Look in the source books for the typical new character
starting out. Limit skills in all other skill levels
to around that level. If they have more than a few
high stat areas (or all the stats high) do not let
them have super powers. Or they can have some stats high
and have a lower number in something else. The
classic of these "min-max" characters is Reed
Richards. In Marvel Diceless, he has an intelligence
of 9 but Reflexes and Durability of 3. Which means he
is almost smarter than the game really allows for but
he's barely above average human in terms doing feats
of agility or at taking damage. 2) Make them buy
skills that are seemingly unrelated to combat or
adventuring. These types of skills could be as
complex (and actually useful) like Iceman's sculpting
skill and Nightcrawler's fencing or as mundane as
Xavier's chess playing or Reed Richard's finger
puppets skill. (Don't remember that last one? Don't
worry everyone, even Stan Lee, has forgotten it. Last
time I remember it being used was in the 80's
Fantastic Four and The X-Men miniseries.)
Chapter Two : Building An XP winning Personality
The real fun part of most comics isn't the bash and
crash combat. A good comic is about interaction
between characters. The Fantastic Four would be the
Not Quite So Entertaining Four if Johnny didn't play
the occasional prank on Ben. That's not to say you
can't have a combat session that is also character
building. (If you don't own the comic do yourself a
favor, use your Google Fu and look up Batman Vs. Guy
Gardener.)
To accomplish this type character interaction in a game,
it helps to have a firmly developed idea of your
character's personality. There are several ways to
do this. The first (and least creative) way is to
just play yourself. The second (and second least
creative) way is too base your character on a
character from a comic, tv show, movie, book, etc.
The funnest, in my opinion, is come up with an idea of
the type of character you want to play. (The big dumb
brick, the quick-witted comic relief, the strong
silent leader etc.) Take aspects of other characters
or people you know and mix them together. What's the
fun in swiping another character in whole and slapping
another name on them?
Rol'jok was a shapeshifter and a Skrull immigrant.
An alien green shapeshifter who is an outsider to
human society had been done to death at DC with
Martian Manhunter. I decided that since Rol'jok was
in his late teens and had lived on Earth since early
childhood he had become fairly integrated into
American society (much to his parent's dismay). He
listened to human music and watched a lot of movies.
This taught him to hone his shapeshifting and allowed
him to speak English and several other Earth languages
without a universal translator. Only when he does so
there are hints of an accent and some words get put in
wrong order. In spite of the fact that the English
mode of his universal translator has two
settings,Canadian Accent and Brooklynese he is still
prone to using it.
.
Far from your typical Skrull warrior Rol'jok is
actually a very jovial young man. Perhaps because he
is around grim, cynical people while working with the
government and his SHIELD liaison office Clay
Quartermain, he became the "class clown" of almost any
group he's in. He also doesn't like violence. He
won't even attack a Kree unless that particular Kree
did something to provoke him. He's not beyond using
slapstick either.
The inspiration for all this? Truth be
told, as a film student I developed an affinity for The
Marx Brothers. If Groucho, Chico and Harpo were one
guy, it'd be him.
I know what you're thinking. I can see how
developing a character's personality is interesting,
but why should a GM award points for it? There are
several reasons. A well developed character is a
sign that the players are enjoying themselves. It
means they care about the game and want to continue
playing it. Secondly, often times a characters
background will suggest plot threads for the GM to
use. So when the GM is out of ideas for the week he
can simply look into the information the players have
given him. With Rol'jok's background there are
several ways to go. Since he is a Skrull sending him
to fight Kree is sort of obvious. While he may be an
enlightened individual who only hates people on a
case-by-case basis, most Kree are not. A Kree could
attack him and be trying to hurt him, while he isn't
doing the same to the Kree. Skrull intelligence
could come looking for him. Being someone who has
worked for SHIELD he might have enemies in A.I.M. or
HYDRA. Being around Agent Quartermain in particular
might lead him into a classic misunderstanding battle
with The Hulk. Those are just the surface level
obvious ones. (A truly evil GM would have used the
Quartermain and Kree connection to do a
misunderstanding with Genis/Rick Jones.)
Another great reason to encourage that level of
character interaction is that it helps the players
define what type of super team they want to be. Are
they a family like the Fantastic Four? A paramilitary
unit like the X-Force? A non-team like the
Defenders? Or maybe a futuristic group of idealists
who want to spread peace, love, joy and harmony
throughout the galaxy? (Yes, I'm blatantly sucking
up to the E.I.C. in hopes of getting a 10% pay raise.)
One final note: don't let the players trap you
with a background. If they write one that is almost
ironclad and has little room to manipulate it, feel
free to reject it in whole or in part. A background
should define a character's history and basic
personality. The GM should always feel free to pull
the long lost friend or neighbor out of the hat.
Sometimes the player will come up with some great
background details that just don't work for the
campaign. It might tick the player off a bit but you
can make appeasements later. Give them something
else small and useful.
Oh and players, I know not having a powerful
character at the start of play is a let down but look
at it this way: the fun of the game isn't being the
best. It's about finding out if you have the
potential to grow to be the best. Could you imagine
Spidey beating the Green Goblin the way he was in
Amazing Fantasy? No way. Your heroes will grow and
change in time. It only took 16 issues for Spidey to
fight Goblin. So hang in there adventure and you'll
get there. Don't forget to be here next time for:
Hello, Goodbye. The episode where we talk about was
to start a campaign and ways to finish them. 'Nuff
said. Good Gravy, I'm doing it again.
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