DC Heroes - Features

Features

DC Heroes' design was distinctive, and was further refined by a second and third edition. Remarkably, most of these features from 1989 would not be out of place in a modern game. Some of its notable features are :

• A unified scale ("Attribute Points" or APs) measuring weight, distance, time, volume, money and information. This allows for quickly evaluating the feasibility and impact of many actions, even at non-intuitive scales. For instance, your Strength in APs minus the weight of an object in APs is the APs of distance you can throw that object.
• An exponential progression of Attributes Points -- a score of 4 corresponds to twice the quantity of a score of 3, a score of 5 is twice as good as a score of 4 and thus four times as good as score of 3, etc. This rapid progression is a sweet spot to handle both Superman and Jimmy Olsen without using huge numbers, but without drowning the differences between characters.
• A 3x3 grid of physical, mental and mystical/social character stats expressing precision, force and resilience in each area.
• Action resolution based on 2d10 (re-rolling doubles) and two universal tables.
• A list of broad Advantages, Drawbacks and Skills that covers most characters very well without being too expensive
• A lengthy list of powers describing concrete effects rather than abstract game concepts, and with a streamlined depiction of super-speed.
• A system of Hero Points spent by characters to enhance their actions. This very important feature of the systems expresses endurance, willpower, narrative immunity, luck, story flow, etc.
• A simple system of Subplots formalising character(s)-specific stories that run parallel to the main intrigue — romance, secret identity problems, day job matters, mysterious pasts, power complications, good or bad luck, public image problems...
• A simple system of Genre to change the texture of the game system depending upon whether you're telling silly Silver Age stories or gritty Iron Age stories.
• Technological and magical inventions, social conflict, special tactics and combat manoeuvres, improvised one-off use of powers, and other less distinctive subsystems.