Supers

[nickmayhew]

I'm trying to understand the difference between 3 and 4E supers. I see on pages 4 and 5 of the Powers book, there's an attempt to tell the differences. For example, the 3e villain Chemico has alter, analyze, and disintegrate as super powers, but I can't see them in the 4E powers book. Maybe they are in there, but the names had to be changes for whatever reason, maybe to be different? I don't mean to seem to be negative of 4E. I've been a 3E player since 1988 and am forced to look at 4E if I want to incorporate Gurps into foundry VTT. Characters created in Gurps character sheets can be brought into fvtt seamlessly, but I wanted to use the only character examples that I can find, which are in the 3E books. Thanks for your help.

[Mark Skarr]

Well, Phantasm has a massive list of Marvel characters in this thread.

Which is a good starting place.

[David Johnston2]

Alter is in Powers on Page 94 as the "Transmute" modifier to "Create". Disintegrate is right above as "Destruction". Analyze is in Basic, Page 48 as "Detect"

[mburr0003]

The hardest of the 3e supers to convert over would be any with Passive Defense as one of their main selling points, since PD is simply gone and without a similar enough replacement.

My suggestion for those characters; look at Enhanced Defense and then either Danger Sense so they always get a defense roll or some odd build of Obscure with every possible 'sense' (so Sight, Hearing, Smell/Taste, Touch, Radar, Thermal), Self Only +100%, Stealthy +100%, Always On -50%, Targeting Only -20% ...

This works out to roughly 28 points per level, so if you just want to recreate Passive Defense at 25 points per level which only reduces people's chances to hit them, go for it. I think I just might, it's certainly simpler than trying to makes some weird Obscure build to fit the bill.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by mburr0003

The hardest of the 3e supers to convert over would be any with Passive Defense as one of their main selling points, since PD is simply gone and without a similar enough replacement..

PD characters are just "good at dodging". Should probably give them Danger Sense if they don't already have it.

[mburr0003]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

PD characters are just "good at dodging". Should probably give them Danger Sense if they don't already have it.

Except it's not. It's "not getting hit" even if your unconscious on the floor. As someone who made a PD 6 super in 3e, trust me, it's more than just "good at defending". Especially if you're a few yards away from the grenade and unconscious on the floor...


However, my "weird Obscure build" seems to be me remembering how my group* did PD and not how it actually worked in the rules. We applied it as a penalty to the attacker's roll, not as a Defense Bonus. So yeah, Enhanced Defense and DR would cover it they way it actually was supposed to work just fine.


* I think we did it that way to reduce rolls and to simulate "armor or force fields bouncing off attacks and the defender not even being aware of it happening". Also it fit the "protects you even if unconscious" better in our minds.

[the_matrix_walker]

Originally Posted by mburr0003

The hardest of the 3e supers to convert over would be any with Passive Defense as one of their main selling points, since PD is simply gone and without a similar enough replacement.

My suggestion for those characters; look at Enhanced Defense and then either Danger Sense so they always get a defense roll or some odd build of Obscure with every possible 'sense' (so Sight, Hearing, Smell/Taste, Touch, Radar, Thermal), Self Only +100%, Stealthy +100%, Always On -50%, Targeting Only -20% ...

This works out to roughly 28 points per level, so if you just want to recreate Passive Defense at 25 points per level which only reduces people's chances to hit them, go for it. I think I just might, it's certainly simpler than trying to makes some weird Obscure build to fit the bill.

PD is recreated as DB

Defense Bonus [30] =

Enhanced Block [5/level]; Enhanced Dodge [15/level]; Enhanced Parry (All) [10/level]

If you want to recreate the ability of PD that turns attacks without an active defense, Add Cosmic! (See Cosmic Defenses!)

[Gollum]

Or make it become DR instead.

In the 4th edition, a blow is deflected by the armor when Damage is reduced to 0.

[nickmayhew]

Thank you very much.

[Bathawk]

Originally Posted by nickmayhew

I'm trying to understand the difference between 3 and 4E supers. I see on pages 4 and 5 of the Powers book, there's an attempt to tell the differences. For example, the 3e villain Chemico has alter, analyze, and disintegrate as super powers, but I can't see them in the 4E powers book. Maybe they are in there, but the names had to be changes for whatever reason, maybe to be different? I don't mean to seem to be negative of 4E. I've been a 3E player since 1988 and am forced to look at 4E if I want to incorporate Gurps into foundry VTT. Characters created in Gurps character sheets can be brought into fvtt seamlessly, but I wanted to use the only character examples that I can find, which are in the 3E books. Thanks for your help.

Hello! Wow you got into gurps Supers a few years before I did, so I know what your going through

There are a lot of changes, I'll try to go over some of the major ones I recall
Damage Resistance is more expensive, hit points less so; This makes sense because in 3rd edition, at medium to high power levels if any damage was enough to penetrate DR, it was likely to kill the target, cheaper HP allows characters to soak damage like characters in other games

Invulnerability is gone, the idea being that if DR costs 5 points per level, and the equivalent invulnerability is say 100pts., why would you ever buy DR over 20?. Instead there is Injury Tolerance: Damage Reduction, so you can now divide damage by say, 100 for 300pts.

"super powers" are gone, which is a good thing, instead of having a skill based on "very hard" skill progression, you typicaly just need a single easy Innate attack skill, which saves a lot of points

Most former super powers that had a resistance rolls like "Blind", "deafen" or "mute" are now covered by the affliction advantage. not a huge fan of this, at 10 points per level affliction can get very expensive once you start adding modifiers, but after you "sell back" your Basic Speed and FP, HT ends up really only costs 2 pt's per level, it can be really easy for a Super to be near invulnerable to afflictions

A power modifier (usually -10%) helps define powers, two characters might have a 3d "Fireball" effect but the one who has "super -10%" as a modifier isn't affected by detect magic or anti-magic fields, while the one who has "magic -10%" aren't affected by...for example "power nullifiers"

One thing I use a lot is "shared abilities" (not sure if it's in Powers or or Supers) It allows you to buy abilities at 1/5th cost by making them a separate "setting" of another ability (a laser than can be switched to a blinding flash)

A lot of powers from 3rd edition are represented by other abilities...Chemico's "Analyze" would be a variation of "Detect"..."Flesh to Acid" Would be Innate Attack (corrosive), And as mentioned "Alter" would be "Create (with the transmutation modifier)