Good PL for High School Game...

[shadeling]

Just curious as to suggestions on a good starting PL for characters in a High School campaign. Characters would actually be high school students. Anyhow, let me know your PL ideas.

[Strand0]

Just curious as to suggestions on a good starting PL for characters in a High School campaign. Characters would actually be high school students. Anyhow, let me know your PL ideas.

I don't see any problem with PL 10. Just because someone is young does NOT mean that they should have weak powers. They are supers afterall.
Maybe they should have the Base Attack and Defense held to a low level? Bases of "5" for characters that are not Combat Specialists and "7" if they are.

When they mean older established supers they should hear things like, "When I was your age... blah, blah."

[Apex]

Just curious as to suggestions on a good starting PL for characters in a High School campaign. Characters would actually be high school students. Anyhow, let me know your PL ideas.

I don't see any problem with PL 10. Just because some is young does NOT mean that they should have weak powers. Maybe they should have the Base Attack and Defense held to a low level?
They are supers afterall.

I totally agree with Strand0 on this, and if you have PL10 (or near) adults as the majority of the your NPC heroes it can make for GREAT role-playing as the earlier generations watch and react to youngsters who will most likely far outstrip them. Fear, Control, Envy? You can almost taste the plot hooks.

-A

[Graveyard Greg]

I can taste the plot hooks...hmmmmm...

[arcady]

As others have said, set your PL for the tone, not the age.

Are you doing Young Justice, Teen Titans, New Mutants, or Gen-13 in tone (or whatever).

If you want to have the same kinds of threats the adults face, but mooded for teens, then PL10. If you want them facing weaker threats, lower the PL, tougher threats, raise the PL.

Choose your PL for what you think you will find easiest to handle and most enjoyable for you and your players. You can cram just about any tone into whatever PL you choose (within reason).

[GaryB]

I started my group out at ....<shock>... PL 4 and the game is and was fantastic... The group has to think so much more than my previous PL 10 game...

It also allowed for fast accelleration...it has been 2 months and they are now PL6...

The discovery and the growth(5-7 pionts each week)... makes them really enjoy the game....

I plan on lower the points to 3-5 a week at PL 7 and then to normal 1-3 at PL 9...

They thought they'd hate it...but quite the contrary...

[Greg K]

I hope this help, because I just asked Steve the other day about something similar. I wanted to run a new mutants type campaign with the following guidelines:
1) characters had relatively few skills (and those they had were fairly low)
2) max BAB +4 (+6 for Martial artistist type)
3) a character could have 1 major power such as Elemental Control at PL 10-12.

As I told Steve, the PL limits did not work well for what I was doing. What I needed and prefered, was someting along the lines of what he had done for his Marvel Superhero Adventure game point creation system in which he suggested point ranges where New Mutant level heroes were built on roughly X amount of points (no pun intended), New Warrior level heroes on Y amount, and z points equivalent would be Avengers or Fantastic 4. I preferred that approach to the PL limits, because it allowed the GM more flexability in setting the caps of his campaign while giving a general guideline of how many points to allow for character creation.

Anyway, Steve said that the above guidelines I set looked pretty good already and he recommended that I allow characters to start with 80 points each and, if the number of points seem too little, bump the points up there.

Hope that helps

Greg

[GaryB]

a character could have 1 major power such as Elemental Control at PL 10-12.

No offense intended... but most people's memory of the New Mutants is slightly off...

Mirage... could make people see their own fears and can BARELY control it.

Karma... could control ONE person with great strain to herself... and NEVER control another super...

Wolfsbane... could turn into a wolf... much like a real one... hardly a super.

Cannonball... probably the most powerful... could blast in one direction...uncontrolably and wearing himself out in the process.

Sunspot... the strong one... couldn't lift a car...

Power Level 4-5... NO WAY 10th....
The great thing about the NEW Mutants...the charm was, that they didn't belong fighting with the Avengers... they were kids finding their way by working together...and growing( both in power and spirit) in the process...

why are people so drawn to that PL10?

[WilliamPall]

why are people so drawn to that PL10?

My guess, because it's given in the book as the "Default" PL.

[Greg K]

a character could have 1 major power such as Elemental Control at PL 10-12.

No offense intended... but most people's memory of the New Mutants is slightly off....

Actually you might want to go reread the Marvel Team up 100 (Karma's first appearance) and then just the first 8-10 issues of the New Mutants. You might change your mind.

Mirage... could make people see their own fears and can BARELY control it. .

Her power also includes the ability to also see their greatest desire. Lack of control would be a limit on the power. As for her illusions, she is probably the one character we don't really see a sense of how powerful she may or may not be. In the first 10 issues, we know that she can effect multiple individuals at once , but not affect the mutant Axe, who claims it is because he knows no fear or Selene, who later becomes the Black Queen in the X-men.

Karma... could control ONE person with great strain to herself... and NEVER control another super....

Marvel Team Up: She seperately controls Spiderman (and she maintains it is not just for a moment, but for a long while) and Human Torch. She also defeats her brother who can control all the Fantastic 4 at once.

In New mutants she has controlled two agents at the same time.

Wolfsbane... could turn into a wolf... much like a real one... hardly a super..

Actually she can also turn into a hybrid form granting her greater strength, speed, smell, claws, and somehow, IR vision. So rather than 1 high level power she has several lesser ones.

So in terms of character design for my campaign, the character could choose 1 big power such as elemental control (and maybe 1 stunt) or they could choose to design the character to have many lesser powers.

Cannonball... probably the most powerful... could blast in one direction...uncontrolably and wearing himself out in the process..

Actually, I see the lack of control as a limit on his power. He can generate enough force to charge through a large tree or car or to knock a Sentinel through the roof of a parking structure and into the air.

He also has a forcefield that protects him injury from things such as crashing into Sentinels, through trees or cars, but it has a limit that he must spend a hero point or make a concentration check to to keep the forcefield up if he hits an object tht he was not prepared for.

Sunspot... the strong one... couldn't lift a car....

Lets see. Sunspot topples a Sentinel. He throws a moving truck or at least a truck that looks like one. His punch can destroy the front end of a car or a large tree. He has held up part of a collapsing building. And these are just in the first eight issues.

Power Level 4-5... NO WAY 10th....
The great thing about the NEW Mutants...the charm was, that they didn't belong fighting with the Avengers... they were kids finding their way by working together...and growing( both in power and spirit) in the process...

why are people so drawn to that PL10?

You are right that they don't belong fighting with the Avengers. But the low PL is represented in their ability scores, skills levels, power limitations and few, if any, power stunts not necessarily the ranks in the base powers themselves.

[rstehwien]

Just curious as to suggestions on a good starting PL for characters in a High School campaign. Characters would actually be high school students. Anyhow, let me know your PL ideas.

PL 20 sounds about right....

Actually any PL would be good. A PL lower than common for your heroes (if the suggested PL 10 is most common, then so be it) would make sense if younger supers grew into their power. A similar or higher level PL than common would show that the next generation of supers is growing in power. An obscenely powerful game would have some interesting possibilities - the powers of a god, but you are grounded.

Power is relative. You as a GM can make a challenge for any group no matter how powerful they are. It depends on what you want to be challenging for them. If you want the local and mundane drug dealers to be a concern, then run lower than PL 10 (around 5-7 street weapons can still be a threat). If you want the high school kids to keep the norse gods from bringing about ragnarock, then PL 15+ sounds good.

[GaryB]

Actually I do remember Sunspot toppling that Sentinel.... sorry

However, all the excepts...Karma controling Spiderman... is the writer's take on these characters....

Typically, the stories(from the actual book) were character driven...

The Silver Samuari took down the entire group... they did become the forth level heroes toward the end of the book's run...

Hell, Dani Moonstart became a Valkarie...

Let's just politly disagree.... ok...maybe 8th Level...TOPS!

lol

[Strand0]

Let's just politly disagree.... ok...maybe 8th Level...TOPS!

lol

Sure. I think arcady said it best. Choose the PL for the flavor your thying to present.

PS: don't forget Magma. She made volcanos.

[Greg K]

Actually I do remember Sunspot toppling that Sentinel.... sorry

However, all the excepts...Karma controling Spiderman... is the writer's take on these characters....

Actually, all the issues I referred to were written by Chris Claremont, co-creator of the New Mutants.

Typically, the stories(from the actual book) were character driven...

The Silver Samuari took down the entire group... they did become the forth level heroes toward the end of the book's run...

one of the best aspects of the book and why I enjoyed Chris Claremont's earlier work

Hell, Dani Moonstart became a Valkarie...

Having put my collection back away, IIRC, this was done by Louise Simonson, who basically destroyed the series as far as I am concerned which is why I sold all the issues of her run on the series.

Let's just politly disagree.... ok...maybe 8th Level...TOPS!
lol

Fair enough. I agree that characters would be PL 4-5 in terms of skill and BAB limits. And 8 does seem right for some of them in terms of Power Rank limits--Karma, Magik (only because the power she wields in Limbo) and possibly Magma are probably 10-12 in terms of power rank limits. Regardless, this is where I find using the PL system to pose a problem.

[Strand0]

I was just thinking that New Mutants isn't only was to go. I automatically thinks of (no not the W-men) The legion of Super-heroes. Teen age supers from all over the galaxy. Who powerful they are (as usual) dependes on how early the stories were written. Most of the Legionaries had only one power and not usually overwhelming, but at the top end was Superboy (planet tossing), Supergirl and Mon-el. (Dating my knowlege- I stopped read shortly after they blow up the Earth. I had they brought it back?)
They had opponents that covered a huge range of power.
Might be an interesting way to do a game where the players have several PCs at different PLs.

Anyway! Teen heroes.

[GaryB]

On a lighter note...

There's a new NEW MUTANTs book available soon...
but no Sunspot or Cannonball...sigh.... not even Warlock...

Now Warlock would just be a nightmare to try and recreate in ANY game system...


I do like Claremont but, god does he know how to overuse a subplot....
...I wish Grant Morrison would take on the New Mutants...

[shadeling]

Thanks for all the suggestions.