Making RPGs Pointless

So I was reading through some old issues of Digital Hero and I discovered an article from Issue #3 by Theron Bretz called "Pointless Champions." The idea is that with the Champions setting for HERO System, foregoing the actual point costs could be beneficial to keep the feel of comic books and other super-hero related source material which inspired the creation of Champions in the first place. The article details how to build and run a campaign in which the characters don't have the standard creation and advancement that one would find in more standard campaigns. This system foregoes the idea of Character Points altogether and allows players to create exactly what they want from the beginning while knowing that continued advancement will be limited in some ways throughout the campaign.

Now, there are two types of people who could potentially read this blog entry: those familiar with HERO System (and role-playing games in general) and those unfamiliar with HERO System. Either way, you're probably saying: "What the hell are you talking about?"

I'll explain.

For those not yet initiated in the workings of HERO System (or role-playing games), the game revolves around a series of points called Character Points which are used to determine what a characters capabilities and weaknesses are. Strength, Dexterity, skills, powers, and other useful abilities are all determined by the spending of these points. The more points spent, the more capable a character is. In this way, a character built using 350 points would be, theoretically, weaker than a character built on 500 or 1000 points.

Example: Particle Man is built on 250 points. He's pretty bad-ass because he has capabilities based on subatomic particles. In fact, it's rumored that when he is submerged, he doesn't get wet but, rather, the water gets Particle Manned. However, Triangle Man (one of Particle Man's Hunteds) is built on 500 points, to when they do battle, Particle Man is soundly handed a defeat. Universe Man, however, is built on 2000 points and is well above and beyond the scale of either Particle Man or Triangle Man. Were he to fight either one of them, Particle or Triangle would be beaten. Meanwhile, Person Man, who was struck in the skull with a blunt object and lives in a refuse container, is built on, oh, let's say -50 points. He is absolutely pathetic. Because he's a jerk, Triangle Man beats up Person Man for no reason. Then an accordion plays.

This is a way of handling game balance which is great when games are played with players competing against each other (think Monopoly or Chess). There are many varied ways to deal with this between different RPG systems, not all of them using points. Some rely on a leveled basis to do this. Leveled games (such as Dungeons & Dragons... you might have heard of it from the movie, or something) can be incredibly easy to play, but are also very limited in scope. Point-based games (GURPS or HERO System) can have a much wider degree of variation but can be significantly more complex to play. In addition, many other solutions have been developed in order to create games which ensure that every player has a character that is balanced with every other player's characters; no one is supposed to be better than anyone else. Overall, this balance works fine, but there have been, are, and always will be those players that are able to beat the system and create unbalanced characters through manipulation or even outright cheating (BOO! HISS!).

While "playing the points" may work in some settings and not over-balance things, in a superhero setting, where players are making with world-shaking characters, such a thing can ruin the entire game. From another point of view, it's not entirely true to the subject matter. Often, in super-powered stories, those heroes banding together are NOT completely equal. Although the less powerful characters will have capabilities and skills that the more powerful may lack. I will illustrate this with three examples:

The Avengers are known for their diverse membership, but let us examine the "big three," Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. These three characters are, by no means, exactly equal in power level. Captain America could be around 500 or 600 points in HERO, Thor around 700 or 800, Iron Man, with his resources and various armors available, probably upwards of 1000 points. However, the three characters work together well, with the two more powerful characters often deferring to Cap's experience, even. The fact is, these characters are balanced in the fact that each lacks skills that the others possess. Thor would be all but useless in a situation that required technical know-how and Iron Man's knowledge of magic is limited, but together with Cap's leadership, they can take on anything. Alongside other members of the Avengers, who probably waver somewhere between 300 to 500 points, these characters make an unstoppable force of heroes.

The Legion of Super-Heroes is made up of a huge and diverse roster, each having a unique set of abilities. Is it likely that Mon-El (who has the powers of Superboy), Saturn Girl (who has telepathic abilities like Professor X of the X-Men), and Karate Kid (who has the martial skill of a post-trilogy Ralph Macchio) are of differing power levels. However, each has skills and abilities that are missing from other members. Another key component of the Legion is that the most powerful members have interesting weaknesses. Both Ultra Boy and Mon-El have the same powers as Superboy, but Ultra Boy can only use one ability at a time (super-strength, invulnerability, flight, etc.) and Mon-El has can be killed by exposure to lead! This evens out the board and allows the Legion to realistically operate as a team.

On the TV show "Heroes," a diverse group of normal people gained superhuman abilities, but not all of these abilities were equal. Although much of the show was about how characters were split up and dealing with various aspects of the plot, there were a few team ups. Certainly, Claire Bennet's ability to regenerate from death and Nathan Petrelli's ability to fly, while both extremely practical, is not nearly as potent as Hiro's control over space and time and Peter Petrelli's ability to mimic the powers of others! Despite this, each character had an important role to fill when dealing with whatever threat was rearing its head and even the unpowered Noah Bennet and Ando played a very important role in the plot. Without being equal, the characters managed to work together and utilize their capabilities in concert.

So, in this way, I see the idea of taking the points out of HERO System for super-powered games; and, indeed taking them out of any System; as both important to the genre and workable. My recent Marvel Super Heroes game relied a great deal on a limited point advancement system. I really didn't want to deal with the point system as I saw it a hinderance to actually building a plot. However, I didn't allow the players to build characters in ways they might have wanted to. Using a random system to create characters might not have been the best way to experiment with something like this. Also, I think a certain one of the players may have been problematic in a point-free system... or maybe better, now that I think of it.

Anyways, I intend to test this at some point in the coming year. Perhaps this will be the superhero game I've always wanted to run.