TRANSCRIPT
DRAGON 13
D R A G O N 6 5
Theres only one aspect of Mayfairs DCHEROES game that disturbs me: the ideaof unlimited growth. Using the gamesrules, you can start with 250 Hero Pointswhen you create a character, then buildhim up indefinitely. Granted, a comic-bookuniverse is not supposed to function likethe real universe, but its stretching thingsa little too far when the rules let a 98-pound super-heroic weakling growthrough his adventures to eventually rivalSuperman at 41,000 + Hero Points!Unlimited growth works fine for a gamelike the D&D game, in which powergrows linearly, but the DC HEROES gamemeasures power logarithmically; each one-step increase in power level doubles theamount of power existing before. Thedrawback to unlimited growth is that youwind up watching every Hero Point withan eye to increasing your characterspowers still further, which can make youreluctant to use Hero Points when theyreneeded which can lead to the death ofyour character through miscalculation.
The game rules say that if you want tobegin with a more powerful character,have everyone in the group multiply thebase 250 Hero Points by 2 or 3 (or someother integer), and start with that. But thismethod ignores the possibilities arisingfrom different characters starting at dif-ferent levels. Sometimes its more fun tobe the weakest character because youhave more reason to learn how to useyour powers effectively in order to keepup with the powerhouses. The D&D gameachieves this by its use of dice to deter-mine a characters starting attributes.
For players who would rather take therisk in starting with a randomly selectednumber of Hero Points, or who dont wantunlimited growth in their DC HEROESgame campaign, the following Origin Tableis presented. A player rolls percentile dice,generating a random number from 1-100.The table row that contains the percentile-dice result (1d100) also contains an option-al origin background result for use byplayers who have a hard time thinking uporigins for their characters, as well asgiving the Additional Hero Points result.All characters still begin with a base HeroPoint amount of 250 Hero Points, but theadditional Hero Points resulting from the1d100 roll on the Origin Table are addedto the 250 points.
Normally, a player makes only one rollon the table to try to get more HeroPoints. But the origin-background resultthat reads Multi-origin means that theplayer rolls 1d10 to determine the numberof additional rolls he receives on the table.If another multi-origin result comes up,more rolls are allowed, racking up stillmore Hero Points for the character (this ishow heroes like Superman come about).
Example: A player rolls a 22, whichrenders a result of Multi-origin. He gets a3 on the die roll and receives three rolls
on the table. The first roll is an 87 for1,100 points. The second roll is an 18 foranother multi-origin. The player then rolls1d10 for 2, resulting in two more rollsplus the roll he still has remaining fromthe original multi-origin roll; in otherwords, a total of three more rolls (unlesshe gets another multi-origin result). Theplayer now rolls 27, for 50 points; a 45 for5,000 points, and a 92 for 2,000 points. Headds all these points to his base of 250Hero Points for 8,400 Hero Points to use increating his character.
The Unexplained origin (minor) resulthas the player roll 1d10 and multiply theresult by 10 to yield the number of HeroPoints won. The Unexplained origin(major) result has the player roll 2d10 and
become the mightiest hero in the universe)and a scientific origin (due to Kryptonsadvanced civilization). Cyborg has apersonal-injury origin and a scientific ori-gin. Dr. Fate has an archaeological origin;and Zatanna has a mystic-heritage origin.Batman is a crime victim, while PlasticMan has an industrial-accident and aserendipitous-origin.
Because new characters start out withmore Hero Points for their creation thanthose afforded by the regular rules, and inorder to limit their growth to more realisticlevels, certain limitations apply whenheroes are created using the Origin Table.First, all attributes, powers, and skills thatare bought at a level higher than zero maynot be raised to more than 6 APs beyond
DC HEROES Game Origin Table
1d100 Origin background01-07 No extraordinary origin
08-11 Unexplained origin (minor)12-15 Unexplained origin (major)16-23 Multi-origin (roll 1d10 times)24-27 Crime victim (minor)28-31 Crime victim (major)32-35 Mutation (minor)36-39 Mutation (major)40-43 'Chosen One (minor)44-47 Chosen One (major)48-51 Archaeological origin (minor)52-55 Archaeological origin (major)56-59 Personal injury (minor)60-63 Personal injury (major)64-67 Serendipitous origin (minor)68-71 Serendipitous origin (major)72-75 Industrial accident (minor)76-79 Industrial accident (major)80-83 Scientific origin (minor)84-87 Scientific origin (major)88-91 Mystic heritage (minor)92-95 Mystic heritage (major)96-98 Other-world origin (minor)99-00 Other-world origin (major)
AdditionalHero Points
1d10 x 102d10 x 100
50
1,000250800400
5,00070
1,90085
1,300300
1,50075
1,200150
1,100200
2,000500
10,000
total the results, then multiply the sum by100 to get the number of Hero Points won.
As noted above, you can use the originbackground listed to come up with a per-sonal history of your character, althoughyou are not bound by the result from thetable. If you want an alien as a hero, youdont have to have a result of Other-worldorigin from your 1d100 roll. Origin back-grounds are intended to prompt creativitywhen needed.
By way of example, here are severalorigins. Superman has an other-worldorigin (his home planet is Krypton), achosen one origin (its been pointed outin the comics that it was his destiny to
the level at which they start. Second,powers and skills may be purchased atlevel zero as latent powers or skills to beincreased later. These powers or skills maynot be raised above 6 APs. No latentpowers or skills may be bought later.
In using the Origin Table, GMs may wishto adopt a method from the AD&Dgames character-creation system. You mayallow each player three attempts to gener-ate a characters Origin Hero Points fromthe table, allowing him to use the highestresulting point total. This method makes itless likely that a player will feel cheated bythe dice.
indicates a trademark of DC Comics Inc. All character names, renditions, associated slogans, and indicia are trademarks of DC Comics Inc.1988 DC Comics Inc. All Rights Reserved.
D R A G O N 7 1
New AP tables forMayfairs DC HEROES game
The Gamemasters Manual of MayfairsDC HEROES game gives several bench-mark tables on page 4 relating AttributePoints (APs) to different types of measure-ment: time, weight, distance, volume, andinformation. But, as friends and I realizedduring a late-night gaming session, there isno table relating APs to area, the measure-ment that fits between distance and vol-ume. How large an area can be affected bya superpower? Then I realized there wasno table dealing with explosive force,either. How do you know how powerful asupervillains bomb is? This article resolvesthese problems by presenting benchmarkAP tables for area and explosive force.
Acres of APsPlayers of DC HEROES games should
note that the items in Table 1 are given for
90 JULY 1988
ease of conceptualization. A field hockeyfield is much easier to visualize than a halfacre. But these items do not necessarilyrepresent the upper range of each APlevel. For instance, a soccer field is onlyslightly larger than a football gridiron, nottwice as big but the football gridironlies just under the upper range of areacovered by 14 APs of area, while a soccerfield is just above that (thus 15 APs).
To calculate the actual number corres-ponding to the upper range of area, startwith a numerical measurement from thetable; for example, 250 square miles (Chi-cago) equates to 31 APs. Divide by 2 eachtime you go down 1 AP, and multiply by 2each time you increase by 1 AP. Note thatthere is a slight change in this procedureinvolving calculations that double 64 (I use125 for the result, not 128) or halve 125 (I
use 64, not 62.5). This is done to make thenumbers easier to handle.
Lets calculate the size of Washington,DC. (29 APs) from the 250 square-milesize of Chicago (31 APs). From 31 APs(Chicago) to 30 APs, you divide 250 by 2,yielding 125 square miles. From 30 APs to29 APs (Washington), you divide 125 by 2,yielding 62.5, but changing it to 64 squaremiles. Therefore, Washington, D.C. isabout 64 square miles in size (its actually67). The square-mile areas of other real-world cities, states, islands, and nationscan be found by consulting an almanacand converting the result to APs usingTable 1 and the above calculation method.
Note: Theres a mistake in the Volumetable of the Gamemasters Manual (page 4).The first three entries that refer tosquare feet should read cubic feet. Thesame table on the Gamemasters Screen isprinted correctly.
Measuring megatonsThe APs given on the explosive force
APs table, Table 2, are the number of APsexperienced (as both Acting Value andEffect Value) by a character standing atthe center of a blast that is, at 0 APsfrom (within 10 feet of) an explodingobject. For each AP of distance beyond 0APs, a physical explosion drops by 2.5 APsin its force. This only applies to physical,
Table 1DC HEROES Area APs
APs Area0 square yard1 Coffee table2 2 square yards3 4 square yards4 Ping-Pong table5 16 square yards6 Bowling alley7 Boxing ring8 125 square yards
9 Singles tennis court10 Baseball diamond11 Olympic-size pool12 Ice hockey rink13 Field hockey field14 Football gridiron (1 acre)15 Soccer field16 4 acres23 1 square mile29 Washington, DC.31 Chicago (250 square miles)32 Los Angeles34 Rhode Island40 United Kingdom (125,000
square miles)42 Texas43 Alaska (l,000,000 square miles)45 United States of America47 Soviet Union48 Asia49 Atlantic Ocean50 Pacific Ocean51 Surface of the Earth
bomb-type explosions, not to ray-beamweapons. (This drop in force, like the gun-use system in the game, means that explo-sions are less likely to kill heroes thanwould be the case in the real world.) If acharacter is one mile (10 APs) away from a100-megaton nuclear explosion (46 APs),he would experience an AV/EV blast effectof 46 - (2.5 x 10) = 21 APs, whichmakes one hope that the character inquestion is at least equal to Superman.
An important note about explosions isthat an explosion not caused by a raybeam is always considered killing combatif the force at its center is at least 4 APs.Such blasts continue to be killing combateven after distance has dropped theirforce levels below 4 APs. Explosions withless than 4 APs of force at their centersare not automatically killing combat; ifthe person initiating the explosion doesnot declare killing combat, a charactermight be injured, but death cannot occur.Incidentally, after I designed Table 2, Ichecked the Gamemasters Manual andfound that the 3 AP stun bomb used byNightwing and 8 AP plastic explosiveused by Batman fit exactly within thistables design!
Nonphysical (ray-beam) blasts in theform of a directed beam from weaponrysuch as Lex Luthers Warsuit can be atany level of power and are not killingcombat unless so declared. These types of
Table 2DC HEROES Explosive Force APs
APs Force1 1 gram of TNT4 1 oz. TNT89
1 lb. TNT 1 kg TNT
10 Hand grenade12 10 lb. TNT15 100 lb. TNT19 1 ton TNT23 10 tons TNT26 100 tons TNT29 1 kiloton nuclear weapon33 10 kiloton nuclear weapon36 100 kiloton nuclear weapon39 l-megaton nuclear weapon43 10-megaton nuclear weapon46 100-megaton nuclear weapon57 1 gram matter-antimatter62 1 oz. matter-antimatter66 1 lb. matter-antimatter67 1 kg matter-antimatter83 Energy emitted by the Sun in 1
second96 Energy emitted by a nova
110 Energy emitted by a supernova141 Energy emitted by the Sun
during its lifetime as a main-sequence yellow star (10 billion
years)
and indicate trademarks of DC Comics Inc. Allcharacter names, renditions, associated slogans, andindicia are trademarks of DC Comics.1988 DC Comics inc. All Rights Reserved.
weapons will always subject a target to thefull APs of the attack because the targetwill be hit (which is like being at the cen-ter of an explosion). Only the target willsuffer the effect of the force of a beamblast, although if the beam misses itsintended victim it may hit an innocentbystander, building, etc. Beam blasts havea range equal to the range of the weaponor superpower being used.
But explosive force delivered by physicalmeans (missiles, bomb shells, etc.) is adifferent matter. A physical explosion of28 APs or less will usually be nonnuclearor chemical in nature. A physical explo-sion above 33 APs will usually be nuclearin nature, and even a 33 AP nonnuclearexplosion will be extremely rare, as itwould require 20,000 tons of TNT Naturaldisasters like asteroid strikes and volcanicblasts could create multimegaton explo-sions, but are (hopefully) incredibly rare.Military arsenals are unlikely to stock thatamount of chemical explosives in onelocation, so most chemical explosionsshould be kept to considerably less than28 APs in power. In the case of matter-antimatter nuclear explosions, the matterand antimatter must be equal in quantity(e.g., a 1 gram matter-antimatter blast willhave gram of matter and gram ofantimatter involved).
Furthermore, nearly all chemical-typephysical explosions involve fiery blasts, socharacters having a vulnerability to fire (asdoes the Martian Manhunter) will suffermore than other characters. It is impor-tant to differentiate between an explosionand an explosive force, however. A watermain might crack open with a force of 10APs, but thats an explosion due to waterpressure, not combustion; thus, it is not afiery attack.
There are some ambiguities in Table 2herein for example, between 15 and 19APs. These arise because of the use in theDC HEROES game rules of upper limits intables. If you take 100 lb. of TNT at 15APs, doubling it each time you go up 1 AP,you only have 1,600 lb. at 19 APs, which is400 lb. shy of the 2,000 lb. of TNT thatmake up one ton. But the values in thetable were calculated in terms of joules, ameasurement of energy. One hundredpounds of TNT would release about 20joules of energy, and the upper limit at 15APs is 25.6 joules. The upper limit at 14APs is only 12.8 joules; too small for 100lb. of TNT, so 15 APs was used. Otherambiguities come about for the samereason, but the table is accurate for theforces listed, which should be suitable formost situations. Other force levels used bythe Gamemaster will not differ by morethan 1 AP from their actual value.
Nuclear notesAny mention of nuclear blasts brings up
the question of fallout and other lingeringradiation. (Ray-beam attacks leave nolingering radiation.) I personally recom-mend that players assume physical nucle-
ar blasts are clean, with no lingeringradiation. Besides, characters will notnormally hang around after a t...
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