Recently I was looking over my old MSH guides, and looking o er character creation.

Everything was random.

Roll for all stats.

Roll for number of power and ranks.

Did anyone else ever play that system?

If so - do you prefer the randomness or do you prefer a point buy system so characters are a bit more equal?

If a point buy, how many points?

What is everyone's thinking on MSH?

I remember my FTF group ran a short campaign once. Character creation was pretty easy and it wasn't very complex.

I don't mind randomness but the GM can nudge it a bit to keep things close so no one feels useless.

I ran a Tony Stark armored kind of guy but no flying. Instead he had rocket boots with inline roller skates.

I used to like random, now I like point buy as I like to plan a bit more of my character. I can certainly do either, they both have appeal. But I have grown in the direction of more planned.

I'm not as fond of random. Generally I have an idea of what I want to play when a game is initiated. Now random works only when you can then reassign those rolls to the relevant stats. I do remember quite a while back rolling for an AD&D game with a ranger character in mind. However I did not get enough stats high enough to play a ranger. It was a disappointment.

Points based systems provide the ability to shape your character in the direction you want. It is also a fair system where all the players get exactly the same. I think these are why most games are adopting this sort of system, fair & flexible

Point buy is certainly a good way to let the players have a better chance of creating a character they like.

There is a variation of that we used once. The GM decides what all the 'die rolls' will be, the players get to decide how they will be assigned.

With the point buy idea, how much would you say is a good amount for MSH?

Not sure about how many points, but I do like the idea of picking stats and powers and point values, at least to some degree. Besides, the dice roller here has sworn vendetta against me for some reason

As a thought, why not combine point cost and random though? Let me see if I can work through this thought and it makes some sense...

Select a base amount of points, have Players roll for additional points... for example purposes, say 250 base points, roll for more. Those are the points Players can use to customize the character with... Again for example... Set a "maximum" points per character of 400 points.

Player A starts with 250 points, rolls an additional 100. They can choose where 350 points goes.

Player B starts with the 250 points, rolls an additional 15 points. They choose where 265 points go.

The difference between those points (350 for Player A and 135 for Player B) and the 400 point cap are allocated by the GM. The characters would all be balanced with the same point spread, some would just know less at start up than others do about their characters. So Player A might have 50 points allocated by the GM, might be a little stronger than they think, or have some additional power. Player B would have more fun of discovering what exactly they are capable of.

Or... Just give everyone the max points and make it easy on you.

That is a good idea Mina

And we do have a little 'Mina' routine programmed into the dice roller!

Gypsy, I KNEW IT!

Ah, TSR's Marvel Super Heroes. I remember back in the day, we were playing TMNT & Other Strangeness by Palladium Books and I asked the players if they want to expand into a Marvel supers game. They did. So I saved up and bought the boxed set and asked everyone who they wanted to play and they said Blade, Hannibal Kane, Ghostrider, and fight vampires and demons, and I was like "Guys, seriously!? That's a horror game!" Because of course, the Marvel Super Heroes had bugger all support in it for those characters or that style of game.

Sorry, had to get that off my chest. Back to your scheduled programming.

The trouble with random stats is that people can feel screwed if they roll poorly or they roll average and someone else rolls great. Point buy levels the playing field between players.

Agreed!

Agree. And like Gypsy I come to a game already having a concept of what kind of character I want to play. I don't roll stats and then start thinking about what kind of character those stats might be good for.