I'm not sure how to stat up this Superhero PC

[Minuteman37]

In a supers game how would you stat a character who has a rather large FTL spaceship in orbit and a plethora of advanced Alian equipment. This all fundamentally being his super power.

[Kelly Pedersen]

There's a few approaches, and which is appropriate will depend on the style of game, and the GM.

Since it's supers, I'd say the best approach is to figure out what sort of abilities the ship gives you, and stat those individually. So, if it can fire an orbital death ray down at a target you designate, when it's above the horizon, you'd take a large Burning Attack with appropriate modifiers (like Overhead, and probably something like Unreliable to represent the fact that it's sometimes out of position and thus unavailable). If it can beam you up, then beam you back down somewhere, that's Jumper. If you spend significant time on the ship and it acts as a base, buy it as a Headquarters with Signature Gear using the rules in Supers (p. 85). And so on.

This will be expensive, but I feel that's appropriate in a superhero game - in that sort of game, this is effectively, as you say, your superpower, so it should enjoy considerable "plot protection" - the GM is not regularly going to be denying you access to it, because that would mean you're not getting the chance to be a hero.


The second option is to take enough levels of High TL to match the TL of the ship, then buy sufficient Wealth to afford the ship as a piece of equipment (note that Signature Gear will almost certainly be grossly inefficient to get the ship - just buy Wealth, and if the GM allows it, the Signature Assets enhancement to Wealth from Spaceships 2 (p. 27) that lets it act like Signature Gear).

This option will probably be cheaper, point-wise, even if you do have to take a lot of points in Wealth to make it work. However, it means that, even if you take the ship as Signature Assets, it's not as guaranteed. The GM won't arbitrarily take it away from you entirely, but it's entirely reasonable for the GM to ask questions like "how do you intend to handle NASA trying to take the ship away?" or say "it's cloudy today. Orbital lasers will be significantly reduced in power".


Finally, you can take the ship as a Patron. This option gets a lot of discussion in "The Captain's Boat", in Pyramid #3/71, but the short version is, you buy the ship using the price to calculate the Patron's assets, and thus its point cost. Then, when you make the frequency of appearance roll, the ship does something to help you - shoots an orbital laser blast, beams you out of trouble, etc.

This is the cheapest option, point-wise, with a large military ship costing only 25 points. However, it's also the most limited. For starters, it's only available when the frequency of appearance comes up. Next, you really should have some kind of Duty or other social disadvantage to represent your obligations to the ship - even if you're the captain, there's still things like writing the reports, overseeing disciplinary issues, and such that you'll have to do. And you may have obligations to a larger "space navy" you have to fulfil too. Finally, the GM chooses how a Patron responds to a request - they should always help if the frequency of appearance comes up, but it may not be what you request. If you ask for an orbital strike, they may respond with "Sorry, the laser cannon's out of alignment. We'll beam down a combat droid instead."

[Culture20]

If you’re familiar with Ultra-Tech and Space, you could just give your hero high TL and some extra wealth, then start buying ultra-tech items to make yourself more powerful than the average human.

[AlexanderHowl]

High TL plus lots of wealth because each TL difference make equipment worth more (x2 for +1 TL, ×6 for +2 TL, ×12 for +3 TL, and ×20 for +4 TL). A TL 12 spaceship is going to be worth ×20 in a TL 8 campaign (a $100 million spacecraft at TL 12 will be worth $2 billion at TL 8). Of course, Multimillionaire 4 will give you $20 billion at TL 8, so you could afford it from your 20% budget for adventuring equipment.

[Kelly Pedersen]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

High TL plus lots of wealth because each TL difference make equipment worth more (x2 for +1 TL, ×6 for +2 TL, ×12 for +3 TL, and ×20 for +4 TL).

This is not correct. Each TL doubles the price, so it would be X2 for +1 TL, X4 for +2, X8 for +3, and X16 for +4. See "Tech Level and Equipment", p. B27.

[AlexanderHowl]

I do not know what I was thinking, but it is still relevant. You need lots of money to be a High TL super.

[Warlockco]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I do not know what I was thinking, but it is still relevant. You need lots of money to be a High TL super.

https://youtu.be/5NG3n_gONws

Per Bruce Wayne/Batman: I'm Rich.

[Praxian]

Another way to do it is to stat out the ship for the different benefits it gives you - and then take it as an "Ally" or "Patron" with the appropriate modifiers depending on whether it's a sentient ship or not.

If it's not sentient, but simply follows the commands of the player, make it a non-sentient ally with the following mods:
Non-Sapient (make the sheet for the ship with a 0-IQ) and Special Abilities +50%. When you make the ship up via stats, make sure it starts at the campaigns tech level and then add "High TL" to get it to the appropriate level.

If it's a sentient AI that runs the ship (like Tony Starks Jarvis computer AI), then it would be a Patron with the following mods:
Start with a 20-point Patron for "An Ultra-Powerful individual based on as many points as the GM wants", Equipment: More than starting wealth +100%, Highly Accessable +50%, Special Abilities (Grants Special Powers +100% (for Nanite Implants and Tech), Possesses equipment from a greater TL +100%, and I'd add Unusual Reach in Time or Space +100% if the ship can make use of Teleporter Technology). Without Unusual Reach in Time or Space it's a 90-point advantage, with it, it's 110 points. Keep in mind this is all for "Frequency of Appearance" of a 9-, so if you roll that 10 or your out of range, etc. Becomes much more expensive if you want "All the Time" Access (becomes 360 - 440 points then).

And then talk to the GM on what you want the ship to do. It's a supers game, so I'd suggest making it as a Patron because then it can also give you the High Tech Gear (you paid for it after all with the "Possesses equipment from a higher TL) instead of taking the "Signature Gear" separately to apply.