DC Universe Sourcebook

[rangeraero]

Starting this thread, part to enlist aid in creating a DC Universe sourcebook, and part to get feedback on the profiles I would put in. I'll start by saying that I am not an expert on DC comics, but I know a few things.

So I'll start with this, and I'll see if I can't get information in MURPG form of the car, or the cave.

Made some modifications, due to some complaints about my choices in character creation.

BATMAN, Bruce Wayne
Height- 6'2"
Weight- 235 lbs.
Hair Color- Black
Eye Color- Blue
Species- Human


Int- 6*
Str- 3
Agy- 3
Spd- 3
Dur- 3

Health- 3
Energy- 12 (i)

*Uses Int rather than Agy or Spd to determine Initiative/order of actions, as he thinks faster than most can move, and can read movements, etc.

ACTIONS-
INVESTIGATION 8
(Int bonus)
-Forensics
-Interrogation
-Traps and Ambushes
-Criminal Pursuit

CLOSE COMBAT 8
(Str bonus or Weapon Modifier)
-Martial Arts
-Hand to Hand
-Armed Combat

RANGED COMBAT 6
-Thrown Weapons
-Batarangs
-Grapple lines

INFILTRATION 6
(Agy bonus)
-Stalking
-Stealth
-Lock-picking
-Bypassing Security (systems, guards, etc.)
-Disappearing
-Disguise

TECHNOLOGY/INVENTION 5
(Int bonus)
-"Bat-" modifications
-Reverse Engineering

ACROBATICS 5
(Agy bonus)

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE 6
(Int bonus)
-Criminal Pathology
-Forensics
-Scientific Knowledge
-History/Ancient cultures
-Criminal Underworld
-World Events

SOCIAL SKILLS 5
(Int Bonus)
-"Playboy"
-Business Contacts
-Underworld
-Streetwise
-Multiple Languages/Cultures

VEHICLE OPERATIONS 5
-Automobiles
-Airplanes
-Helicopters
-Boats
-Motorcycles

MODIFIERS-
Wealth (8)
Photographic Memory
Reflexive Dodge (+2)
Mental Defense (Willpower training) (+4)
Targeting (+3)

EQUIPMENT-
Armored Costume (+2 to Defense, +1 vs. Flame/electrocution)
Cowl- Communication and Surveillance devices, Starlight lenses(Enhanced Vision- See in Darkness).
Grapple-gun and Line (+3 ranged combat to entangle, acrobatics to climb)
Batarangs (+2 Weapon Modifier)
Smoke bombs (area: 2, concealment)
Utility Belt- contains an assortment of tools used during Infiltration and Investigation actions (such as lock-picks, tweezers, etc.)

CHALLENGES-
Deadly Enemies (Too numerous to count...), Haunted Past (Death of parents, partner, betrayals of friends and loved ones.), Trusts no one.

_____________________________________________________

SUPERMAN, Clark Kent
Height- 6'7"
Weight- 250 lbs.
Hair Color- Black
Eye Color- Green
Species- Alien (Kryptonian)


Int- 4
Str- 16
Agy- 4
Spd- 8
Dur- 12

Health- 12
Energy- 36

ACTIONS-
JOURNALISM 6
(Int bonus)
-Investigation
-Interviewing

FLIGHT 10
(Str bonus when carrying extra weight)

HEAT VISION 8
-Range: 5
-2x Damage

SUPER BREATH 6
-Force Blast (attack vs. Durability to freeze, petrify)
-can hold breath up to 1 hour

CLOSE COMBAT 3
(Str bonus)
-Hand to Hand
-Grappling

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE 6
(Int bonus)
-World events
-Scientific Knowledge
-Kryptonian Culture
-Multiple Languages/cultures

SOCIAL SKILLS 6
-Diplomacy
-Journalistic circles
-League Protocol

LEADERSHIP 5
-Justice League
-Legion of Super-Heroes

MODIFIERS-
Accelerated Healing Factor- Heals 1 white per 2 panels. Regenerates 3 red per panel per 2 white.
Enhanced Vision 6- X-ray vision, Microscopic, Telescopic.
Enhanced Hearing- Range: 4, at will.
Personal Forcefield- +12 stones to defense. If attack would normally hit without this defense bonus, attack still hits, but damage is not inflicted upon the character, but rather to the field. Weakens slowly (-1 for every 20 damage), regenerates by 1 every 4 panels.

CHALLENGES-
Vulnerable to Magic (2x damage from magical attacks, adverse effects from passive magic at GM discretion)
Weakness to Kryptonite (Causes great pain, -1 to physical stats to a minimum of 1 per panel of exposure, negates all modifiers related to super-powers, -2 to powers to a minimum of 0 per panel of exposure. Kryptonite range= 1 ft per ounce. Kryptonite effects wear off at a rate equally opposing negative effects, beginning when exposure is discontinued. Special note: Personal Forcefield regenerates by 1 per panel after exposure ends.)
Exposure to Red Sun radiation (All Physical stats decrease by 1 per panel of exposure to a minimum of 2, all Power Actions decrease by 1 per panel to a minimum of 0, and Modifiers related to powers are negated. Exposure to yellow sun radiation negates these effects, and all abilities, actions and modifiers are at full strength after 1 panel per page of red sun exposure.)

[pgholland]

Why both Close Combat and Ninja? Also do you know there is an action Private Investigating? It though (like social skills, doesn't come with an ability bonus).

[rangeraero]

Because Ninja is supposed to be ranged OR close combat, not both, though by spending a bit more, I could have used it for both. CC being seperate is to show that he is trained in many forms of close combat, since "martial arts" covers alot of groud to me.

[pgholland]

Yeah Close Combat or Ranged Combat, it works as BOTH.

[rangeraero]

Yes, and I feel that CC does his fighting skills more justice than just Ninja, thus I have CC and Ninja, rather than just one. In theory, I could use Ninja instead of Acrobatics too, but I don't hear you complaining about that one.

And also, if I'm reading the rules correctly, CC and Ninja stack...

[pgholland]

Didn't notice that one, but yeah, why bother with Close Combat and Acrobatics when you have Ninja which IS Close Combat, Ranged Combat, Acrobatics and other actions to boot as well? With the right specialities Ninja can do his close combat justice as well, take a look at the otehr Batman that's been done- he hads Ninja too.

[rangeraero]

pgholland said:

Didn't notice that one, but yeah, why bother with Close Combat and Acrobatics when you have Ninja which IS Close Combat, Ranged Combat, Acrobatics and other actions to boot as well? With the right specialities Ninja can do his close combat justice as well, take a look at the otehr Batman that's been done- he hads Ninja too.

....Just because something CAN function in multiple ways, doesn't mean it has to. I feel (yeah, me, the guy who wrote up this version), that acrobatics, ninja and cc should be seperate. Also, and again, this is if I'm reading it right, you can stack ninja with acro and cc.

IMO, Batman's fighting skills are as good alone as his stealth skills, so I listed them as seperate actions.

[pgholland]

You can't attack CC with Ninja- main guide page 83;

Actions that cannot combine stones

• Ranged Combat and Close Combat, Ninja
  

However Ninja and Acrobatics can be combined and rereading Ninja it CANNOT function as Acrobatics (hence why you can try and combine them, page 83 again).
If you just left him with Ninja then he'd still be just as good a Hider/stalker as with Close Combat, in fact if you were trying to keep his already phenomenal cost the same you could actually increase Ninja by 1!

[rangeraero]

Okay, thanks for correcting me on the stacking thing. Missed that one.

But that doesn't change my reasons for having Ninja and CC seperate actions.

"Oh look, he's wearing bright yellow, which gives him a -2 modifier with on his Ninja action. But he's still kicking ass with his Close Combat!"

...okay, so that may be a bad example, but I'm hoping it gets the point across.

[pgholland]

Well brigth yellow would give a negative situational modfier yes, but not to all Ninja actions, it would probably give it instead to any hiding, sneaking, blending in and maybe social interaction actions, the close combat part of Ninja isn't one of those, so that example doesn't really work, all the same situational modifiers that apply to Ninja combat apply to Close Combat too, so i can't see why you'd say that.

[rangeraero]

You know what, nevermind, I'm not changing the close combat, and I've already stated the reason, so moving on.

[dorkknight23]

Okay. 10 points.

1) Intelligence for initiative? Batman is awesome and all, but I don't think he can react quite that quickly.
2) Intelligence is maybe too high. I made the argument for an 8 intelligence as well, but after some reconsideration, he's probably at a 7, but a very cunning 7.
3) Private Investigation 10, with an intelligence bonus? He's the world's greatest detective, but he could do that with an 8, or a 7.
4) You've made your argument about having Close Combat and Ninja. I'm not going to argue with you about it. I'm just saying it's a really, really, really, poorly thought out idea. If you want to split up his combat, his stealth, and his acrobatics, another choice might be to use Black Ops/Spying (but rename it something like "Stealth Skills" or something,) which does overlaps with Private Investigating, but those actions could conceivable be combined. But Ninja works better and covers a lot of what Batman does for only one action. And Multitasking is very Batman.
5) Invention? Batman isn't really much of an inventor, from what I've seen, mainly a guy who knows how to use his immense resources to get the high tech he needs.
6) the ANs you put are generally way too high.
7) Concentration can be a part of Ninja, if you use it as one of those specialties.
8) Acrobatics 8. Seriously?
9) No business skills? Or Vehicle Ops?
10) Targeting might not be necessary.

Not to toot my own horn. But I made my own Batman write-up a while ago:

murpg.proboards19.com/index.cgi?board=conversions&action=display&thread=1134671069

If you want, you have my permission to use it in your sourcebook, with accreditation.

[rangeraero]

On the Int 7 thing, I can't really argue against it, so that may get a change.

ANs are high in an attempt to show his vast experience. some of them may be a bit much, but investigation isn't one of them. acro.... okay, acrobatics would best be at 6.

Batman is an inventor, though most of what he does is modification, hence the specialization. Tower of Babel has a good example, since Bruce synthesized Kryptonite, with no outsourcing done.

Concentration may get replaced with vehicle op, since i ran out of space in the actions, and that was the main reason it didn't make it. Buisness skills.... I didn't included, because in the comics, he doesn't run Wayne enterprises. Lucius Fox does. So i included "buisness contacts" in social skills.

Yes. I get the according to game mechanics, I don't need CC with ninja. I did it for character flavor, since he trained in bushido with mostof his martial arts. Also, close combat thru ninja sounds like sneak attacks to me, and that's how i'd play it.

the Int initiative thing.... i can see both for and against that one, so i don't know.

[Beacon]

dorkknight23 said:

1) Intelligence for initiative? Batman is awesome and all, but I don't think he can react quite that quickly.

Yeah, Batman is fast but not that fast. I could see giving him the melee equivalent of Fast-draw at a low number (one or two) just so he could deal with low level superhumans but eight is excessive.

Then again, the initiative rules are really only an issue when the fighters know where each other are and this is BATMAN we’re talking about. He can just pick people off with Batarangs while he stands in the shadows.

2) Intelligence is maybe too high. I made the argument for an 8 intelligence as well, but after some reconsideration, he's probably at a 7, but a very cunning 7.

I really don’t think Batman should be smarter than Bruce Banner. Honestly I don’t think he’s as smart as Spider-Man either but Peter’s tendency not to apply himself makes that one harder to prove.

3) Private Investigation 10, with an intelligence bonus? He's the world's greatest detective, but he could do that with an 8, or a 7.

Yes, buying an ability bonus seems a bit excessive.

4) … And Multitasking is very Batman.

Best. Understatement. Ever!

5) Invention? Batman isn't really much of an inventor, from what I've seen, mainly a guy who knows how to use his immense resources to get the high tech he needs.

Yes, he’s long since been rectonned into someone who gets his tech from other parties rather than making his own. Granted, his two biggest suppliers Ted Kord and Harold have recently been used as canon fodder in recent events (Countdown and Hush respectively).

His ability to use Technology, on the other hand, might be too low in his profile. This guy loves to play around with advanced alien technology.

8) Acrobatics 8. Seriously?

But he can leap tall buildings in a single bound!

9) No business skills? Or Vehicle Ops?

That’s what he has Lucius Fox and Alfred Pennyworth for

10) Targeting might not be necessary.

It seems appropriate to me and it isn’t like it’s as high as the true ranged combat masters like Bullseye, Hawkeye, and the western heroes.

[Beacon]

rangeraero said:

Batman is an inventor, though most of what he does is modification, hence the specialization. Tower of Babel has a good example, since Bruce synthesized Kryptonite, with no outsourcing done.

That wasn’t inventing. That was Batman combining his knowledge of various sciences (I could certainly see the argument for giving him, say, chemistry* as an action) via his computers and laboratories in order to artificially create a modified version of a radioactive alien mineral. At no point in that did he “invent” any sort of device.

*Especially since it seems to be an action he regularly combines with Private Investigation.