Basic Action Super Heroes!

It looks like, by default, you can lift a vague amount 100% of the time?

I'm trying to put together some very easy, quick to play, guidelines for heroic lifting stunts. Here's what I have so far:

Minimum lift based on the example rules a more definitive "basic" lift for each Brawn level seems to be:
0: 10 lbs (interpolated)
1: 50 lbs
2: 200 lbs (decreased a bit so that max human lift at x5 = ~1000 lbs)
3: 2 tons
4: 10 tons
5: 100 tons
as minimums you don't need to roll for (effective role below 10).

When lifting more you need to roll vs Brawn. For each 10 you roll, the amount you can lift increases: 10 = x2, 20 = x3, 30 = x5, 40 = x10, 50 = x20 for up to 3 panels. If you fail a lifting roll you can take Hits to make the next multiplier. If you fail a roll to sustain lifting, you can instead take hits to make up any difference (provided you have the Hits to burn). Heightened adds a +3 dice bonus (effectively giving a 0-1:+3, 2: +6, 3: +9, 4: +12, 5: +15). Growth/Density increases add half your weight to your basic lift before multiplying. Add +10 to the end result if you're just trying to push or shift it instead of lift.

Example: Strong Guy (Brawn 3, basic lift 2 tons) needs to hold up a 10 ton gate while everyone escapes. He needs a 30+ (x5) result on his Brawn 3 to lift it. He rolls an 8 which times Brawn 3 bring him only to 24. That's close enough to allow him to take 6 hits to make it up to 30. After 3 panels he checks again but this time rolls a 4 which multiplies out (Brawn 3) to a 12. Strong Guy needs to take 18 hits to make 30 this time if he's going to continue for another 3 frames.

Benchmarks:
- Normal man would be able to lift upwards to 150 lbs without much strain. 250+ would require someone in better shape or willing to risk injury even with a good roll.
- Our current record lifter would be Brawn x2+3 (avg 17, max 27) which is just in range of a 1k lift.
- Cap (comic, not MCU) would also be Brawn x2+3, but between Hero Point, Hero Dice, and exploding dice could potentially lift a ton more.
- Under this scale a young Spidey would be Brawn 3 (max around 10 tons) while the current one would work with Brawn 3 + Heightened (max around 20 tons).
- The Thing works pretty well at Brawn 4 with Increased Density 1 or 2. His regular roll (dice 7 x 4 = 28) would be around x5 (50+ tons w/weight) and hitting (10x4 = 40) x10 for 100+ tons on a good roll isn't that hard either.
- Brawn 5 becomes truly amazing for characters like enraged Hulk.

Thoughts?

So, Awesome Powers does address this question with a specific optional rule. It appeared in Awesome Powers Vol. 12 and will also be appearing in the upcoming Awesome Powers Omnibus book.

It has a chart where based on your Brawn, it tells you what you can lift with a specific 2d6 roll. So with a Brawn of 2, you could lift a 400 lbs barbell with a roll of a 3-5, but you could lift a 1,000 lbs economy car with a roll of 13+. Heightened gives you +3 to your roll AND also allows you to roll on the chart for a Brawn that is one higher, but raises the difficulties by 10. So for a person with Brawn 1 + Heightened, they could lift a 400 lbs barbell, but only on a result of 13-15.

It is recommended that you might roll once to determine your specific limits rather than roll each time (it would be weird if you could lift 4 tons one day and fail to lift 2 tons the next day). Maybe roll when you try to push past your previously established limit.

How does Growing/Density affect rolls on the strength chart?

The alternative rule for lifting is on page 18 of the AWESOME POWERS OMNIBUS.

naloth wrote: ↑Wed Feb 15, 2023 1:13 pm How does Growing/Density affect rolls on the strength chart?

I'd handle it the same as Heightened, but adds +5 to the roll (per rank) and you can choose to shift over to a higher level chart by adding +10, up to the number of ranks of Growing/Density Increase you have. So, you could shift 2 charts higher by adding +20, 3 charts higher for +30, etc. Obviously, this will really hinge on rolling an exploding result if you want to attempt things many levels above your own Brawn (but it is possible). Here are a few examples:

So if you have Brawn 2 Growing 2, you would roll on the Brawn 2 chart with +10 to the roll, and you can roll on the Brawn 3 chart with +10 to the Difficulty and the Brawn 4 chart with +20 to the Difficulty. So if you rolled a 7, you get 17; that would be enough to lift a 5-ton ambulance on the Brawn 3 chart. If you rolled exploding dice with a result of 16, that would give you a total of 26, allowing you to lift 40 tons, like an 18-wheeler.

A character with Brawn 2 Growing 4 adds +20 to their roll and could shift up to the Brawn 6 table for +40 to the difficulty. Rolling a 7, you would get 27 which would be enough to lift a 40-ton RR boxcar. Rolling exploding dice with a result of 16 would give a result of 36, allowing you to lift a 747 aircraft.

Sounds promising. I'll have to give it a try when I can.