Superheroes versus Spaceships

[AlexanderHowl]

In the majority of comic books, they have superheroes tearing through spacecraft like they are tinfoil, but the spacecraft in GURPS tend to have far superior range and damage than superheroes (even if superheroes are really small targets). While spaceships are expensive, I have a feeling that they are easier to replace than c-scale or m-scale superheroes, so how much of a threat is a group of c-scale or a couple of m-scale superheroes to an invading fleet of spaceships, especially if the invading spacecraft benefit from superscience technologies like force fields, reactionless engines, and stardrives? Have you had a game where it ended up being superheroes versus spaceships? If so, how did each side do in the conflict?

[Michael Thayne]

Almost replied "I haven't done superheroes vs. spaceships, but..." However, I have sort-of done it. 500 point heroes, they defeated the threat by killing the alien leader rather than attacking the ships directly. Really, in GURPS any time you're facing off against something with more than 30-40 DR or so, you're best off using powers that make that DR irrelevant. For example, don't destroy the tank, mind-control the tank's crew.

[Refplace]

Low and Medium power supers need to get sneaky. M scale or such just need the right powers. If your Supers are able to slug it out with spaceships like you describe the nest bets are Injury Tolerance: Damage Reduction or Insubstantiality and an attack with maximum Armor Piercing or Cosmic, Ignores Defenses.

[David Johnston2]

The kind of hero who rips up spaceships (that are any bigger than unarmoured fighters) isn't the kind you can represent on 500 points. They'd start at five thousand. I have actually run a game with heroes who operated in a science fiction setting, but they weren't in that category. Instead they did more conventional boarding actions.

[Tyneras]

I majority of hero vs spaceship battles I remember are either hero's vs fairly small ships (like fighters) or a hero busting into a ship, then fighting the crew or smashing important internal equipment. That only requires being able to penetrate an airlock or small section of hull.

[Refplace]

Think about the Heroes able to take on starships.
Directly

• Silver Surfer
• Phoenix
• Superman (some iterations)
• Jack of Hearts
• Quasar
• Nova Prime
• Mon-El

Boarding

• Vision
• Thor/Beta Rae Bill
• Fantastic Four
• Hulk
• Many X-Men
• Nova

Those are among the highest powered supers in thier setting.

[Fred Brackin]

The closest I have come is when a PC cast (Telecast actually) Earth-to-Air at 3x cost on a Goa'uld Death Glider. It left two Jaffa in their underwear sitting on a couple of seat cushions briefly flying through the air.

So not only was DR avoided but range was too. Even Powers tend to have terrible range in Gurps. Trying to make a cosmic Super will usually have you buying not only lots of dice but lots of Increased Range too.

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

The closest I have come is when a PC cast (Telecast actually) Earth-to-Air at 3x cost on a Goa'uld Death Glider. It left two Jaffa in their underwear sitting on a couple of seat cushions briefly flying through the air.

So not only was DR avoided but range was too. Even Powers tend to have terrible range in Gurps. Trying to make a cosmic Super will usually have you buying not only lots of dice but lots of Increased Range too.

This is what maledictions and malediction-like effects with the Long-Range enhancements are for. At the maximum level, you can destroy (or mind-control!) your enemies from the other side of the universe!

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

This is what maledictions and malediction-like effects with the Long-Range enhancements are for. At the maximum level, you can destroy (or mind-control!) your enemies from the other side of the universe!

If you can locate them.

If you run supers vs spaceships using GURPS without adjusting ranges, etc., supers won't just need lots of range on their attacks or very fast movement, but will need some serious super sensory powers just to find the enemy - and spaceship weapon ranges in GURPS are fairly modest by many SF universes' standards.

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by Rupert

If you can locate them.

If you run supers vs spaceships using GURPS without adjusting ranges, etc., supers won't just need lots of range on their attacks or very fast movement, but will need some serious super sensory powers just to find the enemy - and spaceship weapon ranges in GURPS are fairly modest by many SF universes' standards.

This is what Detect with the Long-Range enhancement is for!