newbie needs help getting started with Supers

[Flyndaran]

I don't know about supers. It has a lot of information on simplifying things for the genre. And the templates are perfect for most character types.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by JoeStrout

It's not that any of the GURPS material, by itself, is incomprehensible... it's just that there's so much of it. And much of it seems to overlap considerably: powers, skills, talents, and advantages all occupy pretty much the same place in my head, for example (and don't even ask me what "techniques" or "maneuvers" are, I have no idea).

Let me break it down.
Powers are advantages that are defined as a power.
For example you could have the advantage Luck and it means your just a little luckier then average OR you could slap a power modifier on it and call the same thing part of your Super Powers.
Power Modifiers or PM are just a minor limitation you get that makes the power cheaper becasue it can be countered. But also give you he ability to boost them with talents.

Attributes are the foundation of most skills and die rolls. So a IQ 10 means your skills that are IQ based work off that.

Talents are a bonus to all the appropriate skills and work like you have a higher attribute for those specific skills or powers it applies to.
So a jeweler Talent means that for jewelry stuff you have (Attribute + talent) as your base.
Talents also reduce training or learning time but dont worry about that for now. It just is a way to have someone good at a related group of skills without having to push their attributes higher. A way to specialize.

Skills are things your good at, weapons skills, scientific skills, social skills, etc.
Some are easier then others and so they are higher level for the same number of points spent on them.
Many skills have a default which is a way of saying that even with no training you can still try them. But a trained person will be better.

Techniques are simply very specific applications of a skill. So with a few points in techniques your better at doing one particular thing then someone with just the base skill.

Maneuvers are combat actions.
The martial arts cheat sheet and combat cards can help you get used to them but in the beginning you may just keep it simple. Allow Attack, Wait, Move, etc. Go to fancier maneuvers as people get used to the system.

[Refplace]

On the can you do Supers with just Basic.
Yes you can. Bills suggestion (note he wrote Supers) is a great one, the Psionics chapter will help you get the feel of it.
Basic has pretty much all the rules and advantages you will need for just about anything.
The various suplements tend to explain how to use the Basic stuff and mold it to fit the genre in the book. They do add new stuff as well but you can play without them, it just helps you do it better.

Powers has lots of examples and some new modifiers to existing advantages and 4 new advantages. Mostly it is a book that helps you build custom advantages so it is really helpful to most games but especially a Supers game.
However it is a great reference book and adds only a few optional rules.
This means you can skim it to be familiar with it then just look up stuff as you need to. Also it is rarely used in a game, more pregame as you build the charecters. After that you may need to look up how a power works in it but your players should know what they can do before a game.

Supers is like Powers but focused on a Super Hero game and adds a lot of material in the way of suggestions and explanations on how to do something.
It is very dense though so harder to use as a reference book if you have not read it.
GURPS has traditionally an excellent table of contents and index and this helps a LOT when trying to find something in a hurry.
Supers is more about building your campaign then building a character but it gives to of help there as well.

I recommend you be familiar enough to find things with all your books and dont worry about memorizing or digesting the details.
Also if during a game somethign comes up, have a player find the rule or item while another player is doing something.
That frees up your time and gets your players more familiar with the rules and options. However do not worry about looking up everything, especially in a Supers genre you can just eyeball a ruling and say well do it this way for now.
Write anything that comes up and look it up later adn make sure everyone knows things are new so you may have to reverse a ruling later as you get more familiar with the rules.
But better that then stopping them game for 10 minutes while you look something up.
Building characters will be daunting at first but gets easier with practice. Building Supers can be more math heavy then any other type and overall a Super is among the most complex characters to build.

Come back to the forums for suggestions on how to build something you or a player has in mind. Hopefully you wont have any martial artist or mage types in your first batch of characters. But you can stil do them, just they add complexity in play. Means at the beginning they may be a bit weak till everyone used to the rules.
If you do though find out the player goal as well as you can, often a player wants to build something he saw in a book or comic. Tell us if hes trying to build batman or Superman for example.

[JoeStrout]

OK, first, let me say "thanks" to the whole group — this is an amazingly responsive and helpful community.

Next, I'm pleased to report that things are finally starting to click into place a bit. The recommendation to study the Psionics chapter was a great one; I had just skimmed that before, thinking that psionics weren't too relevant to the world I have in mind. But now I see that this is the chapter that lays out the whole concept of powers and talents. There's even a little box on p. 257 that points out how new powers could be defined for comic-book supers. It's only four pages, but it's an important four pages!

So, now I'm thinking of this approach for my first supers campaign:

1. Pass the GURPS Lite rules around to all my players.
2. Supplement this with a little summary of how powers and talents work.
3. Define new powers which relate more directly to super powers, and let my players choose among those (as well as the standard psi powers, I suppose).

For the powers in step 3, I'll look again in the Powers and Supers books. Perhaps these will be more digestible now that I know what I'm hoping to get out of them. And of course I'll let them look at my books if they want more detail (and at least one player is planning to buy them himself), but the above will at least provide a playable ruleset we can all swallow.

Left out of this picture are a lot of new rules I seem to recall regarding super-strength, super effort, etc. Are these things I can safely do without?

Also, what should I do for a gadgeteer character like Iron Man or Batman, whose abilities come not from innate talent or ability, but from super tech? I'm tempted to just go ahead and define these as Powers anyway, with the "electronic" modifier to all the abilities granted, and maybe something else ("deniable"?) to indicate that the tech can be taken away, leaving our poor hero with merely human capability. What do you think of this approach?

[samd6]

Also, what should I do for a gadgeteer character like Iron Man or Batman, whose abilities come not from innate talent or ability, but from super tech? I'm tempted to just go ahead and define these as Powers anyway, with the "electronic" modifier to all the abilities granted, and maybe something else ("deniable"?) to indicate that the tech can be taken away, leaving our poor hero with merely human capability. What do you think of this approach?

Batman has Gizmos. Lots of Gizmos.
Use the Gadget limitations from the basic set for devices which can be taken away to depower people.

Super-effort is in genre, but can probably be ignored for a while.

[JoeStrout]

Originally Posted by samd6

Use the Gadget limitations from the basic set for devices which can be taken away to depower people.

OK, I've found the Gadget limitations you mentioned on p. 116-117. I also see the Signature Gear ability on p. 85. I suppose power-suits, bat-shark-repellent, etc. could be built up as Signature Gear with the Gadget limitations.

Thanks again... I'll post updates (and probably more questions) as it all comes together.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by JoeStrout

I suppose power-suits, bat-shark-repellent, etc. could be built up as Signature Gear with the Gadget limitations.

Supers discusses how do to this.

[samd6]

JoeStrout, I'm pretty sure that powers with the Gadget limitation and signature gear are two different things.

Gadget is for things like a ring of flight (in a setting without enchantment), or a palm-sized flame thrower, or a suit of power armor if power armor is really rare.

Signature Gear never gets the Gadget limitation. Sig gear is for things like a fancy rifle, or a nice car. If the power armor is common enough that lots of people have it, it's sig gear.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by samd6

JoeStrout, I'm pretty sure that powers with the Gadget limitation and signature gear are two different things.

Supers has a discussion of taking some piece of mundane gear and then adding abilities to it, IIRC.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by JoeStrout

Also, what should I do for a gadgeteer character like Iron Man or Batman, whose abilities come not from innate talent or ability, but from super tech?

Look on page B117 for the simplest way to do such characters.