So I've been talking with Christopher Brady about sidekicks and teen heroes, and with his input and the Facebook group, I think I have something reasonably coherent to say. Bear in mind that I am not solely responsible for these thoughts: lots of people offered opinions. What I am solely responsible for is that, if you disagree with me, it's my responsibility that the words are here.
There are two ways to approach sidekicks in ICONS, and ICONS books actually tackle both of them. ICONS A to Z suggests that they be handled as Qualities (like pets). But ICONS Team-Up (which isn't canon anymore) suggests that there be a Quality and a character writeup, built on two-thirds the points of the main hero.
So there are two different situations where you might want a sidekick (mechanically, anyway):
- Working with the main hero (Batman and Robin)
- Working as part of a teen group (Robin and the Teen Titans or Robin and Young Justice)
If you just want a helper to the main hero, a simple Quality is probably the way to go: The hero stunts Fast Attack or Increased Effort or Extra: Burst or Pushes the power to reflect both of them hitting the bad guys or taking out the horde of minions. Even if the sidekick has vastly different powers, the sidekick Quality can be used to stunt any power that the sidekick has. (You might want to have a list of powers that the sidekick has or a description of the sidekick so you can figure out what stunts are appropriate.)
But if you're doing troupe play or if you're running a team of teenagers, then the sidekick is going to be a player character and you need an actual character write-up. So some thoughts.
A couple of caveats. I'm not talking about teen heroes in general; Spider-Man started as a teen hero, and some of these things don't apply (and nowadays, he's not a teen hero). I'm restricting the discussion to members of teen groups. There are teen heroes that don't fit this discussion (and there are probably members of teen groups who don't). I had Young Justice, Teen Titans, and Young Avengers in mind in thinking about this.
There are "pair" relationships that could be considered sidekicks (Johnny Thunder and the Thunderbolt, for instance, or even the wizard Shazam and the various members of the Marvel family), or Booster Gold and Skeets. They aren't what I think of when I think of sidekicks, really. Skeets is a fine example of a Quality given a body; I don't think of Shazam as a character, but I stopped reading Billy Batson stuff back in the 1980s, so maybe Shazam is a major character now; Thunderbolt isn't really a separate character from Johnny Thunder (though arguably Jonni Thunder).
And even though the Legion of Super-Heroes is about super-powered teens, I'm possibly cherry-picking a bit to claim it's not a teen team book. But I don't think it's about the same kind of things as most teen books; it does have some of the interpersonal stuff, but none of the mentor stuff.
Back to the thoughts. Teen heroes in a teen group tend to come in two different types:
- Sidekicks, whose main story is usually about growing up and choosing to be like or unlike their mentors
- Non-sidekicks, who might have a variety of stories but who usually use the group as a substitute family.
Sidekicks are usually a lower-powered version of the mentor. That doesn't have to be the case; a sidekick might be very different from the main hero. But usually the sidekick is a Captain America-Bucky thing, or Human Torch-Toro, or Batman-Robin, or Flash-Kid Flash, or Green Arrow-Speedy. (Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl are kind of a weird exception, but Dianna can beat Donna during the Wonder Girl time.)
Sidekicks should have a quality that reflects the sidekick status; call it Sidekick for how. It gets invoked as Trouble whenever the hero is fighting his or her mentor; it gets invoked as Connections because as a sidekick the character has met other movers and shakers in the universe, can talk to law enforcement agencies, knows things that aren't general knowledge. It might be a kind of Resources. But it's also not being taken seriously by the same law enforcement agencies. ("Yeah, kid, did Owlmaster put you up to this?") When the Quality is resolved or changed, then the sidekick doesn't get that Trouble applied when a fight with the mentor happens.
Non-sidekicks are usually disenfranchised in some way, and are looking for family: they're green, part-machine, or the offspring of a demon (Teen Titans); they are possessors of abilities that make them feared (every X-Men ever); they are gods de-aged, fated to become world conquerors, or secretly the heir to a warring galacting empire (Young Avengers or Teen Titans or Young Justice, which had a de-aged Lobo for a while). And often they are very powerful.
Both types of teen heroes end up sticking with the group because it becomes a kind of family, but I suspect that's more narrative: it was a convenient way to keep the players here.
So a non-sidekick probably has a Quality that includes that family connection: Needs a family, Looking for help against empire or so on.
Because of them, I might argue against lowering power levels. For a sidekick, unless you're actually modelling particular characters, just assume that the mentor is better at whatever the player character.
Lowered power levels
One of the things I considered is an origin tables chart that only goes up to level 7, so that even with an origin that grants +2, you can't possibly get to 10: only 9. The numbers are fudged slightly so that you are more likely to get 3 to 5.
| 2d6 roll | Level |
|---|---|
| 2 | 1 |
| 3 | 2 |
| 4 | 3 |
| 5-6 | 3 |
| 7-8 | 4 |
| 9-10 | 5 |
| 11 | 6 |
| 12 | 7 |
If you're doing point-buy, I'd consider using 40 points instead of 45, or 40 points but a player can plead the case for the extra 5 points, or the extra 5 points in return for one all-bad Quality.
Though in some cases (like sidekicks) power level is important, there are enough exceptions that I suspect that attitude adn play-style are more important in running a teen team game.
Digression: Street-level
You could also use this for a lower-powered street-level campaign, although in that case, I'd up the number of powers by 1, because while street-level vigilantes tend not to be as powerful, they do tend to have more tricks up their sleeves. I'd also use the alternate rule involving additional powers that Steve Kenson introduced in ICONS Origins. (You can buy additional powers in the same power category for 1 point, so long as they can't be used simultaneously.)
Street-level vigilantes are often held up as an example of lower powered characters. Generally true, but I can think of lots of exceptions...still, I haven't researched it thoroughly enough, and maybe the characters are more highly powered in non-street-level contexts. Spider-Man is often spoken of as a street level hero, but it is tough trying to get Spider-Man down to 45 points. I have some trouble claiming that 40 points is enough for a street-level campaign. Again, I think attitude is a big part of it.
>Other Mechanical Changes
I'm tempted to take a page from Masks and DC Heroes and introduce multiple damage tracks: Stamina and Acceptance. While Stamina is Willpower+Strength (toughness of spirit and toughness of body), Acceptance is (6-Intellect)+Willpower. That is, the smarter you are (up to 6), the more you know you're not like other people; being smarter than a 6 actually reduces your acceptance level. A Quality that's specifically about self-acceptance can add or subtract 2 to the level; GM's call on what actions affect your Acceptance level, but it's all about roleplaying the character..
I have no idea how that would work in practice, but it's an idea.
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