Marvel Pathways

[dvus]

So, I was inspired by a threadin the Smallville forum. And I took that inspiration and ran with it.

Using the Random Datafile Generator as a base, I have created a Pathways, a la Smallville, for Marvel. It's got instructions for a very abbreviated Relationship Map, as well, using connections to create a couple Specialties and a Distinction. I haven't used it to create a hero, yet. I'll try it tonight, I think.

Let me know what you think.

Marvel Pathways

[Superior1200]

Not bad, I'd like to see more

Ron

[dvus]

What, specifically, are you looking for?

A friend is going to help me use this to create a couple heroes later tonight. Once we see how it works out, I'll make any changes necessary and post my thoughts.

[dvus]

So, a friend helped me try this out over G+ Hangouts tonight and it worked really well! There are a couple of tweaks that I'll be making, but I wanted to share the Relationship Map that came out of it, as well as my created datafile.

Relationship Map
Created Datafile

[igorbone]

Can you explain more abour Pathways? I don't play Smallville, how does that work?

[blaster219]

Yeah, I downloaded the PDF but it made about as much sense as Kryptonion Hieroglyphics to me.

[MidnightBlue]

Nice work dvus!

I like the map...it gives a Watcher something to work with and the players of original characters some backstory to roleplay around.

Can you explain more abour Pathways? I don't play Smallville, how does that work?

Yeah, I downloaded the PDF but it made about as much sense as Kryptonion Hieroglyphics to me.

The Smallville Pathways system is pretty straight-forward once you understand the terminology and read the basic chart instructions.

Basically, you pick a starting spot for your character on the Origin's line.

At each line of the chart as you progress through it, you do two things:

1. Add mechanical elements to your character (lead) sheet. Depending on your choices, you will be adding/stepping up traits/stats.

2. Add to the Pathways Map. Like the example that dvus posted above, this map will show all of the locations and NPCs that the players add to the game world and what relationships all of these elements (locations, NPCs and PCs) share.

It is a really involved way to figure out how the world the players have created ties together, what elements are most important to their characters and how the characters feel about each other and the main NPCs of the story.

I highly recommend using it for a basis of character relationship/world building/backstory creation for ANY RPG.

If you take out the mechanical aspects and just use the Add-to-Pathways-Map section of the process, there shouldn't be much if any tweaking to do.

[malachi666]

Great work thus far, I am glad to see our discussion over there sparked something, potentially of real value to MHR.

[dvus]

Thanks for jumping in, MidnightBlue.

For anyone who still has questions and wants to see what the Relationship Map is all about (it's actually the most complicated part of Pathways), we discussed it on Episode 54 of the Shark Bone Podcast.

[Spidermaniac]

Love it! Smallville is my go-to for in-depth personality-driven supers, but marvel is much easier for action-based stories, pick-up games, and rotating casts. I've tinkered with something half-way between more than a few times.

Great work here.