THE POWER OF FOUR

Comic book teams come in many forms. From solo heroes to teams with a seemingly never-ending roster, there is a great diversity in team organizations. Some teams are very static, never taking on new members while others have a very open membership, accepting new champions to their roster on a regular basis. Some teams are official organizations while others are a loose confederation of heroes bound only by a common belief, objective or motivation. There is, however, a very useful, commonly seen team organization that repeated throughout decades of comics - the four-man team. 

Much like the vaunted five-room dungeon of fantasy RPG fame, the four-man team looks to digest the concept of the super team down to its bare essentials. This team formula is not meant to be a strict layout for a team but rather the most elemental building block of a solid team structure. Adding to it and refining it is certainly allowable and even adviseable but this basic layour will get you going and give yo ua plyable team if you choose to go no further. 

At the core of the four-man team are four distinct roles. These can vary but these four are the most commonly expressed. The four key roles are as follows - 

The Brain: Often but not always the leader, this character is the thinker, strategist. Their powers may or may not helpto define their role or be completely unrelated. Character such as Mr Fantastic are a prime example of this role but others such as Cyclops from the X-Men or Captain America from the Avengers also fit the trope. The important thing for this character type is that they are inclined to provide command and control for their team.

The Brick: Frequently a huge, hulking figure such as Thing or Hulk, this character's primary role is combat and defense, often combining toughness, physical damage output. They do not need to be huge, imposing figures though and there are a fair number of examples of more normally proportioned Bricks, like Rogue. A variant on the Brick is the Brawler, trading skilled fighting for simple brute force. Example of this variant are Puck, Wolverine, and Beast.

The Blaster: The primary ranged combatant in a four-man team come in the form of the Blaster. These characters unitlize ranged attacks or mobility to engage the team's opponents. Guns, energy blasts, or psionic abilities are common manifestations of this role but also a teleporter or speedster might fit the roles as well. It is not uncommon for this role to be duplicated across another role in a team as well such as Cyclops being one of the X-Men's primary blaster characters while also being a leader. 

The Support: The most broadly defined of the roles, the Support often manifests any combination of powers that allows them to defend, obscure, transport or otherwise provide useful backup to the other members of the team. Magic characters and characters with very versatile power sets often fall int othis role and may have characterstics of other roles. Storm and Jean Grey are both good examples of Support characters even though Storm has the ability to fire blasts of lightning. 

A team that possesses some combination of these four roles will be set up for success, however with such a small team it is important that the character in each role is designed to fully support their role on the team. It is also recommended that each role have some overlap into other roles and this can be done freely between roles. There is, for example, no reason, a Leader cannot also be a qualified Brawler or a Brick have abilities that allow for Support. Doing so will help assure the team can function well enough with a member down or should the team get split. 

Once you have the core four set up, it is easy to expand a team, adding additional members who fill one or more of the roles or who do not specifically fill any of the four roles. Larger teams tend to repeat on the combat roles of the Brick/Brawler and Blasters first, with additional Support being added after that. The X-Men have a Leader who is also a Blaster but Also has a Support who is a Blaster. They have both a Brawler and a couple of Bricks, depending on the specific team lineup. 

This brings me to one of my personal variants of the four-man team which I like to use specifically for villain teams. This formula is one I noticed on a lot of villain teams, specifically in the 90s and it produces and interesting dynamic. Rather than the Leader, Brick, Blaster, Support roles, this team is broken down into the Master, Monster, Killer, and Weirdo. In this lineup characters are built more along themes than specific team roles but they tend to end up creating interesting teams nonetheless. 

The roles for my four-man villain team are defined thusly - 

The Master: Thsi character is the leader of the team but not always through virtue of being the most qualified. They are often the most powerful or more brutal ofthe team and therefore keep the rest in line through fear and their will alone. They are often gifted with a lot of power or tech that makes them able to stand on their own.

The Monster: Much like the Brick, the Monster is often a hulking, brutish figure though they may be some sort of creature or at least look the part. Savagery mixed with brute strength and endurance typifies the Monster. Monsters often have abilities beyond simple simple brute powers. 

The Killer: Killers are similar to Brawlers though they are not always combat oriented. Sometimes, the killer is more of a stealth support sort of character. They are often indicated by savage weapons, natural or otherwise. 

The Weirdo: This is the most outlandish of the four villain types in this model. The Weirdo is usally some sort of strange being such as an alien or demonic life form, a being of pure energy, or an unspekable horror from beyond reality. Weirdos often have strange powers, making them something of a Support character.

As you can see the basics of the four-man team can be altered with a little thought along the lineso f themes or style rather than specific tactical roles. You should never feel limited by the four-man team either, whether it is the just the basics unit o your team or the entirety of it, creativity really is the only limit.

CAMPAIGN IDEAS - MARVEL'S 50-STATE INITIATIVE

THE SETUP MADE FOR TTTPRGS

Whether you are a fan of the Civil War storyline and its aftermath, the concept of the 50-State Initiative is one that is ripe for use in tabletop games. Much like the West Coast Avengers and the Marvel Superheroes RPG book, "Avengers Coast to Coast" provided an outline and even in-game resources for creating their own Avengers teams, the 50-State Initiative creates and instant framework in which players can assemble a team. While gamers don't need these frameworks to create their own uniwque teams, they do make it remarkably straightforward - pick a state and make a team. 

Yes, Marvel  has already assigned a number of existing heroes and teams or created new ones for some of the 50 states but as any tabletop game is going to effectively become its own alternate timeline, you have total freedom to insert your own teams in their place or even come up wth reasons there might be a second team in the area. IT IS YOUR GAME. If you are not playing in the U.S. you could even assume that other countries take a similar initiative assembling and assigning teams in whatever state equivelants they have. This sort of canned team background gets you in and gets you playing without a lot of fiddly "why are we together" worries. Your heroes are together because it's their job. 

In the comics, the initiative was never fully realized and dispanded before full deployment but your game could always say otherwise. You might also come up with a way to avoid the questionable ethics (Superhuman Registration Act) that formed the initiative.

Have you played this sort of campaign before? If so, what state did you play and who was in your lineup?

IN THE BEGINNING - SOME THOUGHTS ON PLAYING OUT ORIGINS

While I have never had an opportunity to play out the origins of a superhero character, the idea of doing so intrigues me. There are, of course , some things to consider before approaching this sort of campaign. You may have even heard of this or seen it in other games systems. White Wolf called it a “prelude” in their Vampire the Masquerade game and the concept is very much the same in superhero games.

1) HOW MANY CHARACTERS IN THE CAMPAIGN?

Playing out the origin of a character requires a certain amount of commitment to action and story that takes place before the main campaign begins and the number of players in the campaign should really be the first thing you consider as it will inform all other decisions when it comes to approaching the idea of playing out character origins. If you are playing a campaign with a single character, this shouldn't be too great a concern as you have only the one player's time to worry about. If, however, you have a few players, then you really should consider how much time to spend on playing out the characters' origins stories. Ideally, the amount of time spent on each character's origin role-play should be reduced for every character in the campaign. Obviously, if you have a particularly large group of players it may not be practical to play out their origins except in a few instances as I will discuss further along in this article.

2) DO THE PLAYERS PICK THEIR POWERS?

This step, while completely optional, is very important and has huge ramifications on the tone and action of your campaign. The decision as to whether or not the players begin play with fully created characters and simply go back to play out their origins or if they begin as blank slates is absolutely something they should agree to before you attempt to try this. If you go this route, your players are putting a lot of faith in you as their GM to create interesting and playable power sets for them to play with

3) HOW FAR BACK?

After you have figured out how many players you are going to have in your campaign and whether or not they begin playing knowing what powers they will have, you can now think about how far back you are going to go in their origins. If the players have created characters with full determined powers, then you are free to play out their origin stories with this information and use it to guide the play.

If, however, the players have agreed to start as blank slates, you will have to construct stories that position the characters to receive their powers or play out the manifestation of spontaneous powers. Such “retellings” may be more involved as you have to play through the getting/appearing of the powers and is best done only for smaller or solo games.

4) SHARED OR INDIVIDUAL ORIGINS

This last step is one that can very much simplify most of the above steps if not all of them. Not a complicated question, it is still no less important. A shared origin will mean that you are only really telling a single origin story to which each individual player will bring their character’s experience. Because of the efficiency of time created by a shared origin, the GM can add more detail and take the time to tell a more robust story, should they want to. Shred origins are particularly useful if you are playing a campaign where the players do not know what powers they will have because the GM can at least give some sort of general idea - all gods, alien heroes, space cops with power rings, etc./

Separate origins are where the GM really needs to ride a fine line in managing time. No origin story is identical and some may require more time and effort than others. A lab accident or granted powers might be a very simple story while a character who grew up with their powers might have a lot to unpack and much more story to tell. These examples are not universally true but the key is to recognize what each player needs for their character’s origin. Make sure that you talk to the players about who will need more time and should a player require a lot of time for their origin, consider setting aside a separate time to play that out.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It is important to remember that playing out a character's origins is neither normal, nor required for a good campaign. It is a completely optional step and can be done without. Just understand that playing out origins means that both the player and GM are both accepting the responsibility for the character.

How do you feel about playing out origins?

Have you had any experiences with doing so that you would like to share? 

MEGA TEAMS - THE SECRET TO FLEXIBLE GAMES

Tired of not being able to play when players don't show up? Worried that your campaign won't progress because of so much missed time? Do you have a player who's character dies all the time or who is fickle and never wants to play the same character? 

No problem, play a mega team! 

Mega teams are those teams that seem to have an endless membership. Justice League, Legion of Superheroes, Avengers, Defenders, or even The Green Lantern Corps. These teams usually have extensive memberships made up of an ever-changing, ever-growing roster of primary members, secondary and even back-up members. New members come, go and are and are not available as other missions take up their time or their own private lives keep them out of action. 

These sorts of teams allow for a nearly infinite flexibility in both individual adventures as well as campaign progression. They ccomplish this in a number of ways but it all comes down to allowing play to continue no matter who shows up. Three of the most common and useful to gamers are as follows - 

1) Guest Appearances

These are sessions where character who were not originally involved in the main campaign appear in one or more sessions. This can be done for a number of rreasons such as a new player joining the game or an occasional player being available on a given night. They are also useful for when a regular player has a character taken out of action. The popular Marvel Team-Up series is a great example of this but guest appearances are very common even in the main continuity of comics. 

2) Crossovers

Similar to guest appearances, crossovers have a bit more intent to them. These are best used when a GM know he's not going to have all of one or more of his regular players available for the game for a period of time allowing him to plan a crossover event that includes the characters that will be available. 

3) Spin-Offs

These games are most often played with completely new characters and are best used as palate-clensers, fill-in games, or ways to accomodate an influx of new players. Spin-offs can include characters from the main campaign but should not do so unless they take place at some other point in continuity or those characters are not involved in the main game anymore. They are also a good place to reintroduce returning regular players who may have been left behind by the main campaign. Good examples of this are Justice League International, The New Mutants, or West Coast Avengers. 

The main benefit to keeping campaigns going and enriching the overall campaign experience is that the game and thus the players' comic book universe is perpetually growing as each adventure and character comes with its own NPCs, settings, plots and world-building that grows the whole and creates feedback loop. It is also important to not get overly wound up on ironclad continuities. Comic book continuity has always been a bit loose at times using flawed logic, handwavium and retconning to explain things.

Can you think of any more benefits of mega teams?

Do you enjoy playing in mega teams?

SOLO HEROES - THE THING SUPERHERO RPGS DO BETTER

 

I have talked a lot about superhero teams and how they facilitate TTRPGs but there is one place that these games do better and easier than most other TTRPGs is solo games. 

When it comes to solo play (one player & one GM), superhero games shine. Superhero characters are generally quite powerful and capable on their own and do not suffer from systems requiring sinergy between a number of characters to function in play. This is further surpported by a vast collection fo inspirational materials showcasing countless heroes operating primarily on their own. Solo characters are also great for GMs as they often face a revolving door of enemies they face one-on-one, allowing creative GMs to constantly cycle through ideas and inspirations. Such characters can easily adapt to small groups of villains or even mobs of henchmen without needing much adjustment or forethought. 

Logistically speaking, these sorts of characters are great for players who may be isolated by real world availability, unable to coordinate with other players. A willing GM can run a solo character on the side and when the gaming stars align, set up a team-up for that solo hero to set out with - the regular group - or even other solo heroes. 

So, if you have a single player you can still run a very satisfying and meaningful campaign in a superhero RPG.

What sorts of experiences have you had running solo hero campaigns?

MORE ON THEMED TEAMS

 

I thought it would be fun to talk, some more, about theme teams.

A themed team can come in many forms. Whether is is a common origin, style, or focus the one thing they all have in common is that every member fits the theme in some way. Themes can be tight, like the Metal Men pictured along with this post, or loose like the X-Men who all adhere to the theme of "mutants" but are all over the place within that theme. Tight themes are, in my opnion, trickier to work with but ultimately mor satisfying from an artistic point of view but a looser theme can allow for much greater freedom for players to create their characters. 

Some themes are more stylistic, like the Serpent Society, which is a loosely themed team that relies far more on aesthetics and naming conventions than anything more concrete for its theme. The Green Lantern Corps is an incredibly tight themed team where all the members share pretty much the same power set with what variation there is based on their experience and whatever species-specific traits they might have. Power Pack has the theme of "kids" and, on the surface, that is it. But Power Pack also has a common theme in terms of the origins of their powers. There are some teams, like the Avengers, that have a theme that is so loose as to not really be a theme at all. "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" is about the only real theme they have and that tagline seems relatively meaningless given the wide disparity it power level between the team's members. 

In my experience it is better to start with a tight theme and then loosen it as needed. If your theme is "mutants" but one player really has his heart set on playing an Iron Man type character then maybe work with him and let his mutant ability be something like hyper-intelligence, mechanical aptitude, or even some sort machine speech which allows him to make the suit and other cool stuff like the team's transport, training room, etc..Similarly, if the players were making villain characters who were members of the Serpent Society and a character wanted to make an Iron Man type character, you just need to make sure whatever battlesuit they make for themself adhered to the theme of "snakes". Just remember, tight or loose, the important thing is that every player makes their character fit the theme. 

When conceptualizing your character it is up to you, as a player, to make your character fit the theme. While this may seem chalenging at times, it is ultimately your responsibility, in an agreed-upon theme to make your character fit. 

A handy trick is to look at other themed characters and try to imagine them as something other than the themed character they are. When you realize that that spider-themed, web-slingers, could just as easily have been made as a battlesuit or commando with a handy bag of tricks rather than radioactive spider powers, this reverse engineering of theme can help you to realize that theme is really not all that tricky. 

So, next time you sit down to run or play a superheroes game, consider giving the team a theme. It can be challenging, creatively rewarding and in the end just plain fun.

THEMED TEAMS

When it comes to superhero teams, themed teams are a fun and quick way to establish a sense of place and character for the PCs in your game. It can be argued that almost all superhero teams are themed but for the purposes of this discussion we will be talking about teams that are perhaps a bit more specific in their theme. Yes, "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" might be considered the theme of the Avengers but as themes go this is very general and casts a very broad net when it comes to a sense of person and place in the universe. 

Whether you are talking about classics such as the X-Men or Fantastic Four or cult classics such as ROM and the Space Knights of Galador, or even new favorites like the Spiderverse, establishing a theme up front will provide your players with a shared connection between their characters while not necessarily limiting their character creation options. The theme of "mutant" or "cosmic energy derived powers" certainly hasn't limited the diversity of powers and in some cases we have seen crossover characters such as Cipher, Magik, Mr Fantastic, and Wolverine who combine their mutant abilities with other power sources such as technology and magic. 

A stronger theme can also be very fun and provide a sort of limited palette for creating characters. Great examples of this are concepts such as ROM and the Space Knights, The Spiderverse, or, in the realm of villains, the Serpent Society. In each of these cases there is a stronger sense of theme that extends beyond a simple shared origin. Each character is now a variation on a very identifiable theme and from this come myriad iterations on that theme. Finding new ways to come up with special powers for a Space Knight that distinguishes them from the other knights or a fun way to interpret the Spider-Man concept can be incredibly fun and worthwhile. 

So, next time you are starting a superhero game, consider picking a strong theme and running with it.