Supers

I've been busy creating a "Master Document" for the weapons and traits that I'll need for the MEST Narrative advanced rules.  It will also help with the generation of genre documents. One of the benefits is that this document helps me think of what could be possible within the MEST Narrative frame-work so that I can determine interesting powers and traits.

Part of the exercise with the master list of weapons and equipment is to get a sense of what is powerful and what is not.  With the knowledge I'll be able to properly scale the powers of super-hero characters like the Hulk, the Flash, or Captain America.  Of course, I've got my own genre variation of this known as SH2156 which you can see an inkling here: Silmarrimis.  I can't wait to bring in Frenzy, Controller, Ogar, The Black, Futility, and a whole host of other unique creations.

I'm still in process of completing the more outlandish weapons for the document but already I can see that I'll have to consider the following for any super-heroes.

• Fear.  These guys will have some equivalent of Grit 2 [ typical hero ] to Grit 5 [ Captain America ].  These are big numbers when combined with QA that goes from 3 to 6 for Dr. Doom or Mr. Fantastic.
  
• Celerity.  I've created Celerity as a trait to allow characters like the Flash, Quicksilver, or even Spiderman to have more action points.  The thinking is still pretty rough, but I'll make the cost be a multiplier on the total BP worth of a character.  Spiderman would have 3 AP. Quicksilver probably 4 AP and the Flash 5 AP.  Movement rules will need to be identified as well.
• Armor. Luke Cage and Rhino might have Armor 8+ which can stop a .50-calibre round.  The Hulk gets more armor as he gets angrier; probably start at 10 and +2 per 'Angry' step; it should eventually lead to being Berzerk.
• Energy.  A character like Iron Man would have the Energize X feature for his armor.  Maybe it starts at AR 8 and goes higher - maybe up to 16.  But then his repulsor cannons may do 6 Damage and as high as 12 ... barely enough to deal with an Angry Hulk.  I'm not sure if I want to introduce energy management here; I'm sure there's an easier way to deal with overloaded usage by Iron Man.
• Fight.  The majority of the supers from DC and Marvel have tremendous experience in fighting.  Batman/Catman/Huntress, Wolverine, Master of Kung-fu, Daredevil, Elecktra would have these probably at Fight 4 to 6.
• Shoot.  Characters like the Green Arrow and Hawkeye would have Archer/Shoot 5 or 6.
• Acrobatics.  Harleyquinn, Spiderman, Angleman would have these around 3 or 4.  Combine that with SPD 5 or greater and these guys become very hard to hit.
• Magic.  Dr. Strange, Zatanna, and their kind are also very powerful.  I'm sure that there's a general way to bring in magic effects into combat that could make it interesting without being a game breaker.  There's already the HPL Mythos genre (work-in-progress) that is exploring use of the Spell Tables/Cards.  Maybe something like that.
• Planning.  Many of the brainier heroes like Batman, Mr. Terrific, Dr. Doom, or Mr. Fantastic need to have a way to get the upper hand on the tactical and leadership situation by providing more than just assigning the Obviate, Tactics, or Leadership traits.  At some point those stats will bring in huge differentials in Initiative checks but won't do much for theme.  I'm considering a new trait that will allow mid-game changes .. sort of like a deux ex machina effect.

Anyhow, these are the extremes but should be because of the fact that the supers are the archetypes for those tricks.

To view the work-in-progress for the master document, visit  http://sites.google.com/site/mesttactics/ or just download the document directly from here.