Keep them excited?

[Reagren Wright]

Here's a question I've always wanted to ask. HU doesn't really allow
PCs to grow and develop. I mean HU characters pretty much stay the same.
The guy you make at 1st level is the same guy at 10th
level except damage, duration, and effect of power might go
up (5-10 ft or 1D6) skills go up (2,3, 4 or 5%) and HtH increase.
I have players make who they really think are
cool characters and after a couple of adventures their bored with
him or her. At least in PFRPG characters grow by gaining new
magic items, grow stronger to fight this type of monster, etc.
The same can be said in Rifts too. The Bane in Nightbane get
new powers almost every level, for the most part if the
GM allows you can make up your own. In Heroes, the powers
themselves dictate which kind of villians and situations
you can handle. Some 1st level PCs can take out 10th
level guys just because of the powers and abilities they have.

So how do you constantly keep HU entertaining for your players, should
a GM make house rules that allow characters to change as
they experience (powers, attributes, or etc) or should the
GM just keep coming up with more and more complex
stories and adventures that keep the player enthuised
about playing?

[NMI]

for me, its all about the story / plot line.
A good story is key.

[Uncle Servo]

Here's a question I've always wanted to ask. HU doesn't really allow
PCs to grow and develop. I mean HU characters pretty much stay the same.
The guy you make at 1st level is the same guy at 10th
level except damage, duration, and effect of power might go
up (5-10 ft or 1D6) skills go up (2,3, 4 or 5%) and HtH increase.
I have players make who they really think are
cool characters and after a couple of adventures their bored with
him or her. At least in PFRPG characters grow by gaining new
magic items, grow stronger to fight this type of monster, etc.

While I agree with Nimmy that story and plot is essential for any campaign, I have to strongly disagree with your assertion that HU characters 'pretty much stay the same.'

- Skills will, for the most part, increase between 40% and 50% between level 1 and level 10.

- HTH proficiency, as you pointed out, will definitely increase significantly.

- An Energy Expulsion power that increases 1D6 per level will do 10 - 60 more points of damage per blast at level 10 than it will at level 1.

- Any of the minor flight/speed powers that give you a 20mph increase per level will result in a 10th level character with that power being able to fly/run 200 mph faster than a 1st level character.

Now to be fair, there are roughly 1/3 of the total HU power list that do not increase with experience (not counting ones found in Skraypers/AUGG as I don't have them and therefore didn't count). Therefore it's not too surprising to hear people make that assertion, especially if he/she sees a lot of players taking the same 'no-level-up' powers time and again -- such as Invulnerability, Sonic Flight, Teleportation, Extraordinary PP, and so on.

HU characters can increase more than you think... and GMs can also supplement that increase with giving PCs gimmick weapons/equipment much in the same way that Rifts/PFRPG GMs might give away magic items.

[Iczer]

Take a look at asome of these comic book heroes.

A lot of them actually haven't changed much at all in the last 30 odd years.

for the very few that have gained new powers, there are a dozen or more that haven't.

That said, a heck of a lot of characters seem to become more experienced in the use and abilities of their powers rather than gaining more of them.

Instead of more power, perhaps there should be a way to reflect greater experience. Higher skill totals are pretty much nothing, though the advancements through HTH are a great start, but just aren't up to the task of displaying a truly experienced hero.

Perhaps some metagaming element, or a series of extra abilities that can be acquired by level advancement. A fair few systems have this sort of arrangement, and might reflect something a little better than the 'more power' argument.

I think it has been said before that there is very little difference between a first and 15th level juicer. I think that needs to change.

Batts

[Uncle Servo]

Higher skill totals are pretty much nothing

Until another PC's life depends upon whether or not your character makes particular skill roll, that is. Kinda hard to look at your gaming friend across the table and say "well, I failed my Demolitions Disposal roll so your character dies... but that's okay, because higher skill totals don't mean that much and so you'd have been screwed even if I were 10th level."

You seem to give skill improvement very little importance, and with some skills rightly so (modern W.P.s and most Physical skills come to mind). But I just can't agree with your assertion that they're 'pretty much nothing' as I've had characters die as well as plans go in the dumpster due to even a single failed skill roll.

[PigLickJF]

It depends on how you want to play and how much revision to powers you want to do as a GM.

As was mentioned, a good, engrossing storyline and character development can go a long way towards keeping players interested and excited in their characters for a long time. However, I can also understand the desire for a bit more development mechanics-wise than Palladiums's systems provide.

I think the suggestion of revising the powers is a good one. Most powers have several affects/uses/modifiers. Those could easily be broken up and spread out over the levels so that instead of getting them all right from the start, you gain them incrementally as you level. Some would be more difficult than others to do this with, such as the more "one-dimensional" powers such as Invulnerability, etc. Those may require actual modification of the power, such as reducing how "invulnerable" the character actually is, such as reducing them to say a natural AR 18 with 500 SDC then working up from there to actual complete invulnerability as per the power description as they level, or something along those lines.

The downside to this is of course the heroes will be significantly less "super heroic" at the beginning of their carreers, and will have to actually grow into the full usefulness of their powers.

PigLick

[Iczer]

Marvel saga (for those that have been realy bored enoygh to sight it) has a mechanic called edge. It allows heroes like Cap A to have an edge on probably tougher villains (such as venom fer instance)

The Indie Game Biff Bam Pow (probably one of the clumsiest games i have yet to sight) has a surprisingly elegant mechanic, that allwos you to gain a quirk every level. such quirks like 'nick of time' 'Guardian aura' and 'astute' really mark the difference between a low level character with scads of abilities, and a higher level, but less uber powerful character.

Maybe HU needs a some sort of equivilant mechanic

Batts