Character Project - Marvel Super Heroes

The game I started playing with was not D&D, but instead was Marvel Super Heroes.  This was during the mid- to late-80s, when D&D was vilified as a gateway to Satan worshiping.  As a compromise, I was allowed to play some games that focused specifically on heroism.  Marvel was one, and Star Wars was another.  That didn't keep me from sneaking off to play D&D (or other, much more violent games, like Twilight 2000).  Still, Marvel Super Heroes has a special place in my heart.

This entry is going to be unlike previous ones because I'm not going to use a particular product to gauge my critique on.   Instead, I'm going to pull out an old database I've created that is an amalgam of several sources: The Advanced Set, The Ultimate Powers Book, Realms of Magic, and a couple of Dragon Magazine articles.

EL CHUPACABRA


STATISTICS

F  In (36)
A  In (36)
S  Fe (1)
E  Ex (16)
R  Pr (3)
I   Gd (8)
P  In (36)

Health: 89
Karma: 47
Resources: Fe (1)
Popularity: -5

BACKGROUND
Real Name: Unknown
Occupation: Vagrant
Legal Status: The world at large believes El Chupacabra to be only a legend.
Identity: Publicly known
Place of Birth: Puerto Rico
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: None
Base of Operations: Mobile
Past Group Affiliations: None
Present Group Affiliations: None

KNOWN POWERS
Pheromones: El Chupacabra can emit an Excellent (16) Rank stench through his pores that causes nausea.  Anyone subjected to the stench must make a successful Endurance Feat against this power's intensity or be incapacitated until El Chupacabra leaves the area or stops emitting pheromones.  He can emit the stench for a number of rounds equal to his power rank each day.

Leaping: El Chupacabra can leap up with Remarkable (26) ability.

Danger Sense: El Chupacabra detects danger with Amazing (46) ability.  He may substitute this rank for his Intuition for the purposes of combat.

Natural Weapons: El Chupacabra has several large quills that run along his spine.  Additionally, he has long fangs and claws that he may use in combat.  These sharp objects cause Amazing (46) damage.

Infravision: El Chupacabra can see into the infrared spectrum with Excellent (16) range and ability.

Shrinking: Because of his diminutive stature, El Chupacabra is considered to have permanent Feeble (1) rank shrinking.

Talents: El Chupacabra has learned how to survive in the wilds and may be considered to have survival and stealth talents.  He has also shown a remarkable ability to learn and understand languages (particularly Spanish and English), though he is unable to speak them.  Finally, El Chupacabra is considered to have the Acrobatics and Tumbling talents, receiving a +1CS to all FEATS involving those actions.

Contacts: In his travels, El Chupacabra has met many people that he may call friends, particularly the outcast and unwanted.  Furthermore, he has attained a form of cult hero status in many areas of the Southern United States, Mexico, Central America and South America.

This is a difficult system to nail down.  There is a remarkable combination of organic, build-as-you-go character creation and controlled random generation.  I think it helps best to have a clear idea of a character before sitting down with dice, because every time I let random chance determine any part of the creation process, I end up with the oddest characters (the first and last time I let the dice think for me entirely, I inadvertently recreated a giant space hamster from the Spelljammer AD&D setting).  On the other hand, any sort of randomness in a character creation process means that a player has to be willing to sacrifice at least part of his initial concept.  Sometimes this means a character could have lower scores than the player would like, and other times this means a generalized or uninspired character concept becomes a more individualized and interesting one.  This encourages adaptation to circumstance, something players will have to take with them into the playing of the game itself.

All things being fair, I should include some hard criticism of the game as a whole.  Combat is fast and fun, but damage is static, which often leads to regretfully frustrating encounters.  An armor ranking effectively defends against all attacks equal to or less than that rank, and no matter how much a character exerts himself, he always does the same amount of damage.  That means there is no way for strengths of equal rank to overcome one another.  Furthermore, the Marvel Super Heroes RPG is an early example of a single mechanic that dominates a rules set.  However, I get the distinct feeling, while looking at the Basic set rules and supplements, that the game was designed as simplified role-playing rather than something more complex.  The Advanced set was a change from that, as the developers moved from a simple rules set to a larger complex world.  Like many single-mechanic games, the character was the central focus rather than the setting itself... and that is the setting: the unique individual existing in a normal world.