From: jogle@zia.aoc.nrao.edu (Jim Ogle (Ks. Jim))
Subject: DC Heroes changes (was Re: The BEST Superhero game)
Organization: National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro NM
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 92 23:36:28 GMT

In article <mumble> mortal@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (71079000) writes:
>
>As it happens, I've gotten out my old DC heroes game (1st edition), and I've
>been looking it over. I have a couple problems with it, and I'd like to know
>if they've been changed.
>
>First, there's character creation:
>
>Powers: Is it really necessary to have Starbolt, Bio-Energy Blast, Sonic Beam,
>        and Heat Vision be separate powers? Couldn't they just all be variants
>        on Energy Blast, a la Champions?

They kept Sonic Beam and Heat Vision seperate but Starbolt &
Bio-Energy Blast did get converted into the more generic Energy Blast.
Sonic Beam has enough pre-defined 'special effects' they kept it
seperate and Heat Vision is kind of the same way (gets that bonus
against metal or something like that).

>        This problem extends to a lot of things. If you want your character
>        to have the exact same power as a DC hero that works fine, but it
>        doesn't encourage creativity. Take, for instance, Jericho. His power,
>        Personality Transfer, is precisely described, down to the control
>        of the vocal chords (or rather, lack of same). This means that unless
>        I want a character with EXACTLY the same power as Jericho (except for
>        the eye contact), then I have what I want, but if I want a power
>        SIMILAR to Jericho's, then things are much tougher. I would rather
>        have the power defined more vaguely, and then altered with advantages
>        and disadvantages, again a la Champs

They did make the powers more generic so that they weren't exactly
like a pre-existing character's version of it.  They also introduced
rules for modifying the powers, which are pretty similar to the
Champions ads & disads.

>Gadgets: This seemed like a pain and a half. Has it been improved?

Yes.  You still cannot realistically build a fork or any other simple
'real world' gadget but it is easier to build a super-widget of about
any kind.

>Motivations: Why do you need to define it in three words or less? Seems
>             too similar to the D&D Lawful-Neutral-Good-Pisces system.

Still the same but since Motivation has no actual effect on the game
mechanics (unlike Good/Evil in AD&D) I've always pretty much ignored
it except as a role-playing tag for characters I'm not too familiar
with.  

>Back to Powers: Why is Lightning a Mystical power? Is Lightning Lass
>                a mystic hero? Is Black Lightning?

I think they moved Lightning to the Physical powers but I don't
remember for sure.

>                This applys to a lot of "mystical powers": plant control,
>                weather control, joined, etc.

I can see plant and weather control being mystical in nature as that
is how the DC universe seems to be classifying those kinds of powers.
Joined is, I believe, still a mystical power for some reason.

Just because a power is "mystical" doesn't mean that only magic-based
characters can use them of course; its just a label.  

>Combat: Too vague at points. For instance, can you use more than one power
>        in a multi-attack? Grappling seems too klunky and complicated.
>        Devastating attack seems too general and easy to use, as does
>        critical blo

Depends on the powers you want to use.  If you mean more than one
Standard (ie, dice-using) power, then no; you can only do one Standard
action per round.

Grappling is still the same as far as I remember.  They did include
some kind of restrictions on the use of Critical Blow/Devestating
Attack but I cannot remember it offhand.

>And finally, when I played the Terminator against the Titans in combat,
>    the Terminator was unable to last more than one round, and I know
>    that's not right.

Depends on the situation and the luck of the dice (and how Hero Points
are being spent).  If Deathstroke is using his Acrobatics to Dodge
(ie, be defensive) then without spending lots of HPs or rolling real
well none of the Titans should be able to touch him.  If he just waded
into the middle of the entire group trying to duke it out with them,
then yes, he's going to go down.

>You may ask "Why isn't he playing Champions, then?" Well, I WANT to like
>DC. I like the one-roll system. I like the straightforward style.
>
>Champions, frankly, does not simulate the Comics very well to me. Combat
>takes too long, and I lose the panel-by-panel rapid action feel of the comics.

My feelings exactly!

>I'd love to hear about any changes in newer versions of DC.

Lets see...Wealth was changed to where its more like the rest of the
system (its an AP value now, not just a ranking), there are a lot more
limitations and vulnerabilities plus advantages (things like Area
Knowledge, Rich Family, Popularity, etc), some powers and skills were
better defined/refined, genre rules were introduced (things like
limits on how much you can push attributes/powers/actions, how long it
takes to get recovery checks, what kinds of attacks are Killing
Combat, etc), rules on making up alter-egos (ala Billy Batson/Captain
Marvel), new combat and character interaction maneuvers, etc etc.

One rule change that isn't in the 2nd edition of DC Heroes but is
apparently a house rule for at least some of the Mayfair people
(including Ray Winnager) is that everything costs 1/5 of what it says
in the book (character creation, gadget construction, increasing
powers/attributes, buying new stuff, etc) but awards are also 1/5 the
normal size (plus the NPC writeups have 1/5 as many HPs as listed).
The idea is that the characters should only be using their HPs in
really important, dramatic situations but when you have 100+ HPs at
the beginning of an adventure its much to easy to spend them on
everything and still have points left at the end of the night -
where's the drama in that?

I haven't tried out the 1/5 rule yet in my game yet but it sounds
reasonable.  
-- 
Kansas Jim (Jim Ogle, TORG guru)
jogle@aoc.nrao.edu (NRAO-VLBA, Socorro New Mexico)
"I'd be apathetic if I cared."

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.advocacy