Powergame

Overall score:

http://www.uta.fi/~trmika/gameindex.html

Powergame is a free, homebrew RPG for the superhero genre. It is significantly good, with simple rules and good character options.

All mechanics in Powergame are handled by the use of nine basic “Power Levels”, (PL’s) ranging from zero to eight. Zero means impaired, and one is the human average; two is the absolute limit of human potential, and anything higher represents superhuman ability. PL eight is restricted to gods and similar superbeings. These power levels are assigned to everything, from ability, to size, to speed. The appendix of the rules includes a set of tables detailing what each PL refers to in each instance, and a copy while playing is so useful it's almost mandatory.

When a task is encountered, it is resolved by rolling a D6 for each PL in the appropriate attribute or superpower. The difficulty number is the PL itself, or, in an opposed action, the PL of the other character. Thus, lifting a heavy object would involve a roll of strength versus Size/Weight PL, while shooting a Super Power Energy Beam would be a roll of the opponent’s agility versus the beam’s PL. Critical successes can occur if the winning roll is double the losing, while rolling half of a required difficulty results in a critical failure.

The second part of the thirty-eight page, downloadable PDF rulebook is character creation, and it is described well. The system is quite fantastic at using statistics to portray superheroes. Three methods of creation are provided: Modelling, PASS, and random. Modelling is simply writing the character how you would like it, and is mostly useful for recreating existing heroes. PASS, or Point Allocation SyStem is the same as random, although it takes every die roll as if it was a three. The random method is the most interesting.

There are a few different types of characters, but superheroes are the most important. Firstly, the Attributes are defined. The eight attributes (Strength, Toughness, Agility, Speed, Charisma, Intelligence, Will and Alertness) each start at the standard human PL 1. Next, the player may choose 1D6 1 superpowers. These may be defined as anything the Gamemaster allows, and includes such things as flight, energy beams, or superhuman attributes. Superhuman levels of skill may also be taken to create, for example, the world’s greatest archer. These are in addition to normal skills, which a character makes a list of; skills have no limit, provided the GM okays the list.

Having picked superpowers, the player can gain 1D6 1 Good Things (GTs). GTs include such things as fame, wealth, good senses, or a photographic memory. GTs can be taken at super levels, to have a character as rich as Bill Gates or as famous as Elvis, and can also be used to increase superpowers and attribute levels slightly. Bad Things may also be taken to gain more good things. Extreme amounts of Bad Things are called Vulnerabilities, and include Phobias, Substance vulnerabilities (such as Kryptonite) or power limitations. These are worth more points than ordinary Bad Things. Finally, a character is rounded out with a name, personality and history.

The combat system is very simple and fast paced in Powergame. I have experience GMing a short game using a previous rules version, and it ran well, despite some small hiccups. In the new version, subtle changes have been made to the system and wording, which I predict would remove these small problems entirely. Combat is played in rounds, in which each character may take a single action. Having made initiative rolls, characters roll against appropriate skills to take actions, which are fought against with dodge rolls. Critical dodges result in a free counter action. On taking damage, a character gains a –1 penalty to all actions. To further hurt a character, critical damage rolls must be made. These give further penalties each time, in addition to lowering the toughness attribute temporarily. On reaching zero, rolls for knockout or critical condition must be made. Nicely, this results in characters slowly becoming weaker as they take damage. The combat rules also include a handy table of how to deal with common combat situations, such as grappling a character.

For the superhero genre, Powergame’s rules fit very well. They are fairly loose, meaning a comic book style, pulp/humorous campaign works best, particularly if the plot is melodramatic. The way different power levels are handled means criticals can occur often. Which suits the ridiculous nature of superheroes. It also makes heavy simulation annoying, since contests between different PLs are almost non-events. The end of the rules contains ideas for converting Powergame rules for different settings, but I greatly doubt the rules would work well for this.

Powergame is not a perfect system. Game balance is easy to lose, and any event can quickly scale out of control. If you feel you can handle something that can easily and frequently balloon in scale, fine. However, don’t expect a tight narrative. The combat, although smooth, can take a while to get used to, and the first few battles will take a bit of bookkeeping simply to learn how everything works. You also need a lot of dice, considering you will often find two PL 6 characters blasting each other. (Which means twelve dice)

The game also has weaknesses from all three of the typical roleplaying archetypes. Simulationists will find the rules lacking and very light, while gamers may find the lack of game balance appalling. Storytellers may find the melodramatic nature not up to their standards. If you plan on playing Powergame, don’t expect anything more than a light-hearted, melodramatic game. If, of course, you are interested in superheroes, this is likely what you want anyway.

Overall, Powergame is a very solid system for what it was intended for. Considering it’s free, if you’re looking for a system to run a superhero game, it would be worth your while to have a look at this.

Written by JamPaladin on September 08th, 2003