Supers (Genre)

Supers is the hardest genre to model in pen and paper RPGs. The main reason is the huge range in character power. Either one aims for the power houses like the modern Superman or Thor or for the mystery men like Batman or Black Widow.
==From the Powerhouse down==
Aiming for the powerhouses, like DC Heroes or Marvel Super Heroes did, results in the mystery men having absolutely insane stats when compared to a normal person. For example, in the original DC Heroes, Batman had ST 12 vs an average man at ST 2. The problem was the system was geometric ie a 3 was twice what a 2 was. So that 12 means Batman was 2^(12-2) or 1024 (!) times stronger then an average human.
==From Mystery Men up==
Other games, like GURPS, are geared toward the average person and so the mystery men are reasonably easy to deal with but from a point prospective the powerhouses are now ridiculous (largely from the power creep that happened in comics). For example, the 1938 Superman easily clocks in over 500 points and had abilities much like the Hulk in his first appearance. But they both became more powerful over the years those the Hulk had a far slower curve then Superman did. Heck, by the mid 1940s Superman needs another 299 points added to the pile just to get his powers at the lowest level possible and he is rapidly approaching the utterly absurd power levels seen in the Silver Age.It was so bad that people would joke about it: Superman goes to the Andromeda galaxy and saves a planet by moving it out of the way of a comet, on the way home he is attacked by and defeats Brainiac, and finally saves Lois Lane by defeating Lex Luthor... all in 2.2 seconds. 'Slow day', thinks Superman.
It certainly doesn't help that many times the only way to have conflict with these powerhouses was to write an idiot plot where the hero and/or villain forgot how their powers/abilities worked.
== Additional Information ==
* GURPS Supers
* Infinite Worlds: International Super Teams
* Why Superheroes are like Classic Monsters - Cinemassacre
* Classic Supers Characters list
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Supers