The "typical" power level in our campaign is medium.  It's most assuredly not a low-powered campaign (where street level stuff is tough), and it is rarely high powered (where Superman-types are common).

I would say the average number of powers is around 6.

It's a bit higher powered than I would prefer at times, perhaps, but I personally prefer things close to where we have them (medium) than any other.

I wouldn't mind a high-powered experience, but only for the occasional adventure (like at a Con); for campaigns I prefer low to medium.

Majestic wrote on Apr 10^th, 2010 at 4:08pm:


So, if 6 powers is medium level, what's considered low end, and what's the high end?

For starting characters, I prefer less powers but higher than average stats.
This way, everyone can take a punch or two, and they have time to expand their super powers as they develop.

dsumner wrote on Apr 11^th, 2010 at 5:51pm:


To me the average number of powers has nothing to do with the power level of a campaign (well, almost nothing).

In other words, you could run a low-level, street-level, urban, gritty campaign, where a single shot from a gun typically kills, but where the average number of powers is 5-6 (all Skills).

And you could have a high-powered campaign, with really powerful characters (with powers like Gravity Control or Solid Energy Illusions or Magical Powers) that only have an average of 3-4 powers.

So my answer of about 6 powers (on average) is just reflective of how many powers our heroes tend to have.  Many have been played for a long time, so they may have started with, say, 4 powers and added a few along the way (such as via inventions).

Troy wrote on Apr 12^th, 2010 at 9:01am:


I don't think I agree.  I've seen Superman done in V&V a number of times, and one time our characters (in our old, high school campaign) even fought him.  Of course, much is open to interpretation and it matters which 'version' of Supes you're dealing with.  But I've seen V&V equivalents that would approximate MOST of the versions I've read of Superman from the various comics he's appeared in.

So to me Superman (and characters like him) fill in the high-powered ranks (to me high powered means like the classic Justice League lineup), V&V usually deals with medium to low, where medium is more like the X-Men or Teen Titans, and low is your "street level" like you see with Batman or Daredevil.

V&V can do high-powered, and I don't feel it's only tied to the number of powers (though obviously, if you have a lot of the really powerful powers, it can get out of hand pretty quickly).  V&V doesn't typically lend itself towards high-powered stuff, though, so I agree it's usually mid to low leveled.

As far as levels increased per adventure, I guess it depends on how you define an adventure.  Our characters might go up two levels at once, but only during the really early levels, and then only with longer adventures (that last a number of sessions).  Conversely, when our characters hit 16th level - even if they're fairly powerful - it takes them years to get to 17th (literally dozens of adventures).