GURPS Supers Gameplay Balance

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by naloth

I would second (or third/fourth/whatever) this. Supers vary in abilities so much that you can have a character that's 1/2 the point value be completely invulnerable to attacks that would outright kill the higher PV character. It's much more important to consider the abilities they have purchased than the PV of the character.

Generally I try to get players to focus on having decent attack (ability to wound at least DR50) and a decent defense (survive a 20d+ attack). It helps with the frustration factor.

I'm not against the "Cyclops" or "Storm" type characters w/powerful abilities and normal human frailties; it's just that they tend to spend a lot of time in recovery if they are fortunate enough to pass their life checks.

At the 500point street super level they probably shouldn't be up against military/hunting hardware. Shotguns and pistols might be a lethal enough challenge even on relatively normal thugs.

Or, if the player's concept for the character really involves no or minimal DR, and no really outstanding Active Defenses, you make up for it with some combination of having them buy Luck for the characters, or allowing the use of Cinematic Combat Rules such as Flesh Wounds and TV Action Violence. This doesn't even have to be for PCs only, it could be available to any 'named' character, which can be helpful when you miscalculate the other way and your heroes are about to take down or even kill your Big Bad mastermind villain with disconcerting ease.

Also, don't ignore the defensive potential of abilities that on the surface look mostly offensive. Cyclops is known for blasting projectiles out of the air and directly countering others' energy beams with his own optic blast, which could involve some type of Enhanced Defense, Power Parries, etc.; Storm generally whips up some weather before laying into her enemies with lightning bolts, which if her Control Weather ability is not an alternate to her Innate Attacks, could mean that she's starting off combat by whipping up winds or fog or what have you to penalize her enemies' attacks by as much as -10; Spider-Man frequently makes shields out of his webbing; you get the idea.