Superbabes, published in 1993 by Selex, Inc, was based on characters and titles published by AC Comics. This is following RPGs for the majors, Marvel Super Heroes, also known as the FASERIP* system, in 1984 and DC Heroes Role Playing Game in 1985**. Prior to that, superhero RPGs were set to allow players to create their own setting with sample characters that hinted at existing supers but were still just different enough to avoid setting off attack lawyers. AC Comics, though, doesn't have the same amount of mindspace as Marvel and DC have, not now and not in 1991. That shouldn't matter; a decent licensed RPG should allow for original characters along with recreating those from the setting, especially with settings that are huge.
The main difference that sets off AC Comics is that it uses what is known as Good Girl Art, a pin-up style that uses an air of innocence. Superbabes takes the idea and uses feminine pronouns throughout the rules when referring to player characters. That's the extent of the enlightenment, though. Still, there are some interesting ideas in the game, even if some work needs to be done to polish them. Take Bimbo Points, but not too many. I've mentioned them before; they're an early karma/plot/drama point mechanic where players take one to succeed despite the odds or two to ignore the game mechanics of a skill or power. take too many and karmic backlash occurs. Intriguing idea, not so wonderful execution, except that the events listed on the Bimbo Event*** table have occurred in the comics emulated. Change the name and change the events, you get a viable mechanic.
Background and questionable naming methods aside, let's test this system out. Superbabes uses a point-based system, much like Champions and GURPS. Everything comes from a pool of 600 character points, or CP. That seems like a lot of points, but the costs match the pool size. Before starting on such an endeavor, it's best to have an idea in mind. Meet Ringette.
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| Code name: Ringette. Source. |
While not as, um, robust, as some of the cast of AC Comics, the costume fits in with the crowd. Ringette gets her name from the rings of fire she can toss around and the girls' ice sport. Ringette can also fly and uses a shield of flame to protect herself. Maybe not the most original set of powers, but I have a place to start.
First step in the book, the origin. There are a number, including Adventuress and Inventor, that don't fit. Adventuress covers the likes of Marvel's Mockingbird and Black Widow, well trained but still within human boundaries, thus, no powers allowed. Inventors make Gizmos, devices that have powers and can't be bought in stores. Ringette's powers are innate to her, so Genetic Quirk, or, as Marvel would put it, mutant, or Scientific Accident work best, followed by the Corporate and the Government Sponsored. If I wanted, I could combine origins, such as a Corporate Sponsored heroine who got her powers from a Scientific Accident. Each origin has a cost, combining means taking the highest cost and the limitations from each origin. For now, I'll take Scientific Accident for 5CP.
Scientific Accident has a limitation built-in; the player can choose between rolling a d20 to determine the character's lifespan, anywhere between one hour to twenty years, or have the character not aware of the powers until they come out. Since Superbabes starts everyone at level zero, with zero experience points, I choose the latter for Ringette. The powers will come out during the first adventure. For anyone who has read Subject 13, this is what happened to Nasty; she breathed in some sort of gas trying to help a truck driver after an accident then had her first flare up when she punched a classmate. I am hoping that Ringette isn't going to set fire to her workplace.
Next up, the primary statistics: Muscles, Health, Moves, Brains, Will, Personality, and Looks. Each point in each stat costs 2CP. Human average is 10, maximum human is 20, superhuman can go higher. Ringette isn't necessarily strong but the accident has changed her in ways she doesn't realize yet. I'll put some numbers down and then explain after.
Primary Stats
Muscles 14 HTK Bonus: +2 Muscles Dmg: +2 Max Press: 700 poundsTotal cost of the above is 280CP. Ringette isn't superhumanly strong, but she works out. Her health, augmented by the accident, is what kept her alive in whatever explosion granted her powers. Moves, or how agile and fast she is, also got a boost. Ringette may also have been the scientist involved in the experiment that went oh so wrong, thus a higher than average intelligence and willpower. Surviving the accident has made her more confident, though the accident gave her an extra boost there.
Health 24 HTK Bonus: +10 At Rest Regen: 1PP/rnd HTK Regen: 3d10/day
Moves 24 HTK Bonus: +5 Bonus To Hit: +4 Base Move: 9" Base Hittability: 9
Brains 16 HTK Bonus: +0 Mental Attack Bonus: +1 Base Mental Hittability: 5
Will 18 HTK Bonus: +3 Regen: 1PP/4rnds
Personality 22 HTK Bonus: -2
Looks 22 HTK Bonus: -2
Each stat provides a modifier to Hits to Kill, or HTK. I did mention a lack of enlightenment above? High Looks and Personality tend to make a character a little more fragile, though not if other stats keep up. Health provides the biggest boost to HTK, so if Looks and Health are at similar levels, the penalty from being beautiful is negligible from being a paragon of wellbeing. Ringette lost four HTK from being a lovely young woman, but her Moves more than made up. To add to the fun, each stat has a descriptor. Ringette's descriptors, in order from top to bottom, are: Pumped Up, Amazonian, Excellent, Remarkably Smart Chick, Driven, Magnificent, and Magnificent Piece of God's Art.
Now that the primary starts are done, it's time to work on the secondary stats. The first two secondary stats, Power Points (PP) and HTK, are based on the primaries. Power Points are found by adding the primary stats up, so Ringette has 140PP. HTK is a little more involved, requiring looking up the bonus by stat, already done above, and then adding 1d6 to the total. Ringette's HTK bonus is 16, and the d6 roll is 6, for a total of 22HTK. Both of these can go up during game play. For PP, character points earned can be used to increase primary stats, directly affecting the total Power Points. With HTK, characters get another d6 when gaining a level. If a primary stat increases to a level with a high HTK bonus, the difference gets added.
The remaining secondary stats, Fame, Bimbo Points (BP), Experience Points (XP), Level, and Character Points (CP), all start at 0. Fame is earned along with XP during game play, both given by the GM. Level is based on the number of XP earned; first level is reached after earning one XP. Character Points can be saved with GM permission. Characters also get 50CP when reaching a new level. Ringette, after her first adventure, will get another 50CP to spend. It's a way for players to fill out items they missed during initial character creation.
Power Points work in two ways. First, they power a character's powers. Everything that a character does has a PP cost, from tossing rings of fire to just punching an opponent. Second, they're the first set of points used to take damage. Running out of PP is a good sign that the character should run away or surrender. Once a character is out of PP, damage goes to HTK, meaning the character could die. Actions cost double when down to HTK as well, so a character could kill herself by pushing beyond her limits. Zero PP is the game's way of saying, "Slow down."
Secondary StatsNow we get to the super powers themselves. There's a list, but the special effect is in the hands of the player. Take Blast, which just does dice of damage. How does it work for a character? For Ringette, she tosses rings of fire at opponents. Frozone, from The Incredibles, throws ice. Traveller's PGMP-14**** fires hot plasma, and could be built as a Gizmo in Superbabes. Back at the concept stage, Ringette's powers were defined as fire-based, thus giving me the special effect. What can she do with her powers? She can throw rings of fire, generate a shield of flames to defend herself, fly, and possible encircle an opponent with her fiery rings. Let's see what Superbabes has to help there. Keep in mind that of the original 600CP I started with, I'm down to 315 after origin and primary stats.
Power Points: 140
HTK: 22
Fame: 0
Bimbo Points: 0
XP: 0
Level: 0
CP: 0
First power on the list is Blast, which does what I mentioned above. Seven dice of damage should work for now. If I need more, I can buy them after the first adventure. Seven dice at 6CP per die of damage costs me 42CP. Flight is also in the list, costing 4CP for 4" of flight, where one inch on a map is about two metres, in combat, or about one mile per hour out of combat. Ringette picks up 48" of flight for 48CP and descides there's a trail of fire behind her as the special effect. Flight costs 2PP to use, whatever the speed. Forcefield is the closest to the shield of flames. I want it to stop bullets, so a quick look on the weapons chart shows that rifles can do up to 20 points of damage. A 20-point forcefield costs 60CP and requires 2PP per point used per round. There's no power specifically for trapping people in a circle of fire, but a note with Forcefield shows that, by taking two Bimbo Points, I can use it instead of the Blast. Handy to know.
One thing that should be noted - there is no way to reduce the cost of a power in exchange for a reduction of its effectiveness. I can't buy Invulnerability to just fire like I could in Champions or GURPS Supers. It's not necessarily a limitation on Superbabes; the original comics might not have shown that as a possible power. It's also not worth taking two Bimbo Points by taking Invulnerability and then ignoring it for everything but fire. Forcefield may be enough for those times when Ringette needs to fly through flames to be heroic.
PowersI spent 150CP on powers, leaving me with 165CP, which should be more than enough for skills. The first set of skills is the general skill areas, which reflect the character's career up to the start of play. Ringette is a scientist, one who wasn't careful, so the One-Skilled Expert fits her, with a cost of 40CP. The next skill list are super skills which combine a number of skills under one name. For the likes of Mockingbird and the Black Widow, there's the Spy super skill. Ringette, though, will take Scientist for 50CP, puttin her in the same league as Marvel's Mr. Fantastic and DC's Batman, at least in terms of knowledge base. Finally, there's the list of regular skills. Computer Ops and First Aid, at 20CP each, fit Ringette.
Rings of Fire: Blast, 7d6, 6" range. 1PP/d6 damage
Flight: 48", 2PP/round to use
Shield of Flames: 20 point Forcefield, up to 10 square inch coverage, 1PP/2 points/round
SkillsWith 35CP left, I can go back and make adjustments. I can increase the range of the Rings of Fire by 1" for every 2CP spent, so Ringette now can toss the rings out to 10". I'll increase Ringette's Health to 31 for another 14CP. That increases her Power Points to 147 and her HTK to 37. I'll also add two more dice of damage to the Rings of Fire, leaving me with one Character Point left over. Since there is nothing in concept for Ringette that costs just one CP, it'll carry over.
One-Skilled Expert - Organic Chemist
Scientist super skill
Computer Ops
First Aid
That's it for character creation. It took some time, but characters in the system aren't meant to be disposable. Killing a character takes effort, even at starting levels. The fine details have been added to the overall sheet below. For the character description, refer to the pic above. The character's here if anyone wants to use her in a game, but please let me know.
Ringette
a.k.a. Carly Nordstrom
Age: 33 Apparent Age: 33
Origin: Scientific Accident Birthplace: St. Paul, Minnesota
Primary Stats
Muscles 14 HTK Bonus: +2 Muscles Dmg: +2 Max Press: 700 pounds
Health 31 HTK Bonus: +25 At Rest Regen: 1PP/rnd HTK Regen: 4d10/day
Moves 24 HTK Bonus: +5 Bonus To Hit: +4 Base Move: 9" Base Hittability: 9
Brains 16 HTK Bonus: +0 Mental Attack Bonus: +1 Base Mental Hittability: 5
Will 18 HTK Bonus: +3 Regen: 1PP/4rnds
Personality 22 HTK Bonus: -2
Looks 22 HTK Bonus: -2
Secondary Stats
PP: 147
HTK: 37
Fame: 0
BP: 0
XP: 0
Level: 0
CP: 1
Powers
Rings of Fire: Blast, 9d6, 10" range. 1PP/d6 damage
Flight: 48", 2PP/round to use
Shield of Flames: 20 point Forcefield, up to 10 square inch coverage, 1PP/2 points/round
Skills
One-Skilled Expert - Organic Chemist
Scientist super skill
Computer Ops
First Aid
Movement
Ground: 9"
Flight: 48"
Takeoff: 12"
Fighting: 24"
Really Fast: 36"
Full Speed: 48"
* Named after the main stats, Fighting, Agility, Strength, Endurance, Reason, Intuition, and Psyche.
** The Batman Role Playing Game, a simplified version of the game, was released in 1989 after Tim Burton's Batman was released in theatres.
*** I am not making up these names.
**** PGMP-14: Plasma Gun, Man Portable, Tech Level 14.
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