davidvs.net

home ministry math blog books rpg games recipes links

Games

Superhero Gladiators

Superhero Gladiators is a game for two or more players, who must be old enough to do some subtraction. A game takes five to thirty minutes. Besides these rules, players need hexagon paper, index cards, a pencil, one 20-sided die, a token for each superhero, and maybe a calculator.

Superhero Gladiators was inspired by the role-playing game named Champions.

Superhero Gladiators is a collectible card game. If you have not heard of "collectible card games" then you probably will not enjoy Superhero Gladiators, which admittedly is not the best collectible card game (although it's pretty good).

But since Superhero Gladiators is free, if you (or your kids) are playing collectible card games and are troubled by their possibly extravagant expense then you may find Superhero Gladiators a very nice game.

Card Creation

These rules explain how to design your own cards (the superheroes). Before playing the game you must design a collection of cards: four to six is a good number. As with good collectible card games, each card has certain strengths and weaknesses. Then you pick a few of the cards to be your deck (the team of superheroes). If you plan well, the individual cards' strengths and weaknesses will balance each other out. Finally, find someone else who has a deck of superhero cards, or maybe a bunch of such people. Together you use the cards to act out a senseless brawl among the teams of superheroes (the gladiator combat).

Ready to start? All you need is a pencil, and index card, and a calculator if you are lazy or young. Let's make a superhero! (Some sample superheroes are here if examples help with the process.)

Make Up a Name

Superheroes need names. Write one at the top of your index card.

Four Main Characteristics

Superheroes need to know how strong, quick, large, and perceptive they are. In a column at the left of the index card write: STR, DEX, SIZ, and PER.

• STR measures how strong and tough the superhero is.
• DEX measures how fast and agile the superhero is.
• SIZ measures how big and bulky the superhero is.
• PER measures how quickly the superhero notices things.

Distribute 15 points among these four characteristics.

Three Secondary Characteristics

The four main characteristics are used to calculate your secondary characteristics (which will be explained later). Write them under where you wrote the others.

• Combat modifier = (2 × DEX) + STR.
• Oomph maximum = STR × SIZ × 3
• Movement rate = DEX × SIZ

Combat modifier measures how accurately your attacks are aimed. Oomph measures how beat up your superhero is, since superheroes never die but only "oomph", "oomph" until they eventually faint. Movement rate measures how far your superhero can move.

Mark Action Segments

Determine how often you may perform an action. Each turn is divded into six segments. You can do something on each segment if your movement rate is:

For example, if your movement rate was 20 you would move on the first, third, fifth, and sixth segments.

Draw a series of six boxes, as above, and check the ones that show when the hero is able to perform an action.

Terminology

Now we need to take a break to talk about some terminology that describes superpowers.

The level is how strong or intense or long-lasting the power's affect is.

The uses per game tells you that: how many times can the power be used before it runs out?

A gizmo is a physical object that causes the power to work. A gizmo could be a real-world thing (a sword, infra-red goggles, etc.), a magical thing (a flying cloak, a magic staff, etc.), or the type of technologically advanced stuff superheros often use in the comics (wall-crawling gloves, force field projectors, etc.).

Many superheroes have hidden gizmoes because a lot of superhero gladiator combat is trying to destroy the opponent's gizmoes. (For example, Spider Man's web shooters are a hidden gizmo for his Entangling Attack: you cannot see them and he does not tell bad guys that if you smack his wrists you might destroy them.) Even better, some super powers have no gizmo or an indestructible gizmo. (For example, Superman's Flight works without a gizmo, and Wonder Woman's bracelets are an indestructible gizmo for Missile Deflection.)

Many superheroes are super-tough or wear armor. But some attacks are able to ignore this. (For example, lightning bolts and magic rays penetrate Robot Man's metal skin unhindered.) Attacks that ignore normal armor are called piercing attacks.

Most superpowers that can do damage from a distance do not involve thrown objects. Instead they are lighting bolts, fire balls, heat rays, ionic displacement beams, etc. However, some distance attacks are missile attacks, which mean that certain heroes can block them more easily. (For example, the Wonder Woman can deflect bullets and arrows and stuff like that.)

Certain superpowers are not reliable. Some only work on a 20-sided die roll of 15 or less. Others are even less reliable, and only work on a 20-sided die roll of 10 or less.

Other superpowers are always on, such as Iron Man's Defenses or Wonder Woman's Missile Deflection. Most powers that have infinte uses per game can be declared always on.

Powers

Now you can finally choose your superhero's powers! This requires a bit of math, which keeps things fair. Your superhero can have 200 points of superpowers.

These superpower points are different from the fifteen characteristic points. However, characteristics can be increased at a cost of 30 superpower points per one characteristic point.

You can only buy each type of superpower once.

The following chart tells how much superhero powers cost:

For my fellow mathematicians, the formula that determines superpower cost is: cost = 10 × 1.4948^{(level - 1)} × (3 - 3.15 × 1.1^(-uses))

Powers can be made more expensive and effective, or less expensive and cheaper. Each power can be enhanced more than once. (For example, a Distance Attack might be lightning bolts that both work as a piercing attack and have no gizmo.) Each time a power is enhanced it must be multiplied by the enhancement's cost modifier on the chart below:

Next is the list of superpowers! For each one you need to decide what it looks like. (Is the Flight just moving in the air like Superman, or wings like Hawkman, or little winged boots? Is the Close Attack a sword, or punching, or a wet noodle?)

The symbol † show powers that do not use up an action. These may be used out of turn if appropriate.

The symbol ‡ shows powers that may be always on if they have infinite uses per game.

Back to the Drawing Board

After you have made one superhero make a second. Then try out gladiatorial combat! Although the game is designed for groups of four to eight heroes per team, the rules work for heroes fighting one-on-one and that is a faster way to get used to the game.

Game Play

First, you get the map of the arena set up. Draw a map on the hexagon paper. This map can be as simple as marking walls for the arena. However, if you have superheroes with movement powers you should draw rivers, buildings, and so forth to make those movement powers meaningful. On a normal map, hexagons are 5 feet across, but you can decide otherwise.

Then put the superheroes in the arena, using their tokens. Place the superhero with the lowest PER in the arena first. In case of tied PER, prioritize by STR, then SIZ, then rolling highest on the die.

This is what happens on each segment:

1. The superhero with the highest DEX goes first. In case of tied DEX, compare PER, then SIZ, then roll highest on the die.
2. The superhero takes an action: either moving or using a superpower. Your normal movement rate is for the entire turn: divide it by the number of segments in which you can move (round down) to find how many feet you move each segment.
3. If you attack an opponent, your chance to hit is 15 or less on the 20-sided die, modified by the difference between your combat modifier and the opponent's. (For example, if yours is 4 higher then you would hit the opponent if you roll a 19 or less.) You do extra oomph damage equal to (change to hit) - 10 - (die roll), if this number is more than zero.
4. You can also attack an opponent's gizmo. The gizmo cannot be invulnerable, of course. Before attacking a hidden gizmo you must notice it by rolling (PER × 3) or less. If you are trying to notice a hidden gizmo which your opponent has not yet used, but your opponent has more than one of these, then your opponent can pick which you notice. The chance to hit a gizmo is 4 or less on the 20-sided die, modified by the difference between your combat modifier and the opponent's. A sucessful hit destroys the gizmo.
5. A superhero with zero or negative oomph faints and is removed from the game.

Victory occurs if all of your opponents' superheroes have oomph decreased to zero. A tie occurs if all damage can be avoided.

That's all the rules! Have fun!

Optional Rules

There are two optional rules.

• fumbling: any attack roll of 20 automatically misses and the superhero looses his or her next action
• area attacks: a cost modifier × 2 allows a distance Attack to affect an area whose radius in hexagons equals the Distance Attack's level; a cost modifier × 1.4 allows a distance Attack to affect an area whose radius is one less than the level, with the level of damage decreasing radially one level per hexagon

Sample Characters