Here goes. One of my players was nagging me to be a physad based on Spidey, and I said while it could work it would be severely underpowered, he wanted to know what it would take to make it work as full powered as in the comics, so here's what I came up with, bear with me as this only took 10 minutes and I was under duress.

Spider-Man
Archtype: Physical Adept

Body: 3 (9)
Qui: 3 (9)
Str: 3 (9)
Cha: 3
Int:6
Will:6
Magic: 6 + Initiation: 34 = 40
Reaction: 7 (10)
Initiative: 1 (4)

Powers (Here we go ):
Adhesion
Blind Fighting-----------|These I figured were
Combat Sense Lvl 3---|appropriate for the
Sixth Sense 3-------------|functions of the
True Sight 3---------------|catchall Spider-Sense
Body Control 3 (Cause Spidey is resiliant to disease and poison)
Flexibility 2 (Part of that Spider Agility)
Free Fall 5
Great Leap 12
Improved Body 6
Improved Qui 6
Improved Str 6
Improved Stealth 2
Improved Reflexes 3
Missile Parry
Pain Resistance 2
Traceless Walk
Temp. Tolerance 2 (How else could he swing around in the winter in only tights?)
Rapid Healing 3 (Spidey heals quick)
Quick Strike
Improved Sense: Balance
--------------
Cost 39.75

His physical stats and Charisma are average because Pete looks like an average guy with an average build. The intelligence is 6 cause he's damn smart and the will is 6 because of all the horrible things he's been through in life he still keeps on going and being Spider-Man. Even with the magical enhancements it seems to me that his strenght and quickness are still majorly under powered comic wise. Any thoughts?

Nothing with a Magic rating of 40 is underpowered, dude.

It's sorta hard to tell - can you flip over a car with a Strength of 9? That's about the limit of Spidey's strength in the comics, right?

As for reaction/initiative, 10+4D6 is pretty bloody quick by any standard. The powers look about right as far as including all of his abilities.

Looks very accurate to me. Hardly underpowered, but yes, every accurate.

I did something similar to create a "Puma Man" PhysAd based on a cheesy character from a cheesy movie featured in MST3K with the same name.....

Well, I think he told the guy if you did it by the normal rules it'd be underppowered, but he was also showing the absurdity it would take to do it to 'full-power' and of course, it's quite absurd, but it's also what it would probably take for a full fledged Spidey.

Unless, of course, that human were to be Batman; but we all know that already.

Marveldirectory.com says:

Spider-Man's overall metabolic efficiency has been greatly increased, and the composition of his skeleton, inter-connected tissues, and nervous system have all been enhanced. Spider-Man's musculature has been augmented so that he can lift (press) about 10 tons. His reflexes are faster than an average human by about a factor of 15 (he is often able to dodge bullets, if he is far enough away). Spider-Man is extraordinarily limber and his tendons and connective tissues are twice as elastic as the average human being's, despite their enhanced strength. He has developed a unique fighting style that makes full use of his agility, strength, and equilibrium.

Emphasis added by me. So Spidey's strenght would have to be around 400 to lift that 10 tons(if these are metric tons, that is). So it would be very, very ridiculous on Shadowrun scale.

I guess it depends on how "true to book" he really wants the character to be.

It's entirely possible that the character Awoke with a comic-book motif.

Reflexes 2 (3)
Athletics +2 dice (.5)
Great leap 2 (.5)
freefall 2 (.5)

4.5

The three big things to overcome:

"Spidey Sense" (detect enemies, detect danger [personal])
"web slinging" -- tough one. Maybe a new spell, "generate web?"
"clinging" -- the "cling" spell.

You may want to check out the "knacks" --> it didn't make it into MitS as canonical, but it's not bad if moderated by the GM.

Granted, it's "Spidey-Lite", but it duplicates the basic effects.

-Siege

I think you forgot to add "Gecko Crawl" to his list of powers.

That's what Adhesion is only better.

Adhesion
COST: 1
The Adhesion power gives the physad the ability to make parts of his body adhere to objects in a manner similar to a magnet, except that it works on all surfaces. The range of the power is exceedingly short -- extending only to the outermost layer of his aura -- but can be controlled fairly precisely. A physical adept may cause only one extremity, two, or his entire body -- anything that he desires. The maximum weight that can be supported by the adhesion power is equal to the maximum lifing weight (Strength * 20) plus the physad's own weight. When combined with the "Traceless Walk" power, the adept doesn't apply pressure/force to the object he is adhesive to; pressure sensors will not recognize him and so on.

RedSunofKrypton:

As a suggestion (it's your campaign, after all), why not make the character an Adept of the Magician's Way, following a Shamanic Totem--in this case, Spider.

The Adept would have all of the traditional magical powers and abilities associated with this totem (whatever they may be--I'm afraid that I haven't looked them up), and, at the GM's (in this case, your) discretion, I have an idea:

How about a magical talisman linked to his totem that would temporarily (so that he can't abuse it) give him the proportionate strength of a man-sized (or Metahuman-sized, in this case--you didn't mention what Metatype the character is in your original post, so I'm taking the chance that he's Human based upon the number of 3's (Human average) in his stats) arachnid? The time interval is, of course, up to you, but I would suggest no more than 10 to 30 seconds at a time (and no more than a certain number of times per day), so the player can't abuse it.

I'm not certain how you'd duplicate the webbing, though, assuming that a magical or technological equivalent couldn't be found. A monoline coated with a high-strength adhesive, perhaps? I think what I'm describing is essentially the same thing as monowire, but without the sharp edge. Also, if you want to duplicate Spider-Man's webbing, it would have to be treated with a VERY slow-acting corrosive, which activates upon exposure to oxygen. In the comics, Spider-Man's webbing is an unknown long-chain polymer (described as "related to nylon") that emerges from the "web-shooters" as a liquid, but hardens almost immediately upon exposure to air, and eventually--after about 12 hours--breaks down into a nondescript powder formed from the residue of its component chemicals. The idea is to keep anyone from analyzing the chemical composition of the webbing and tracking him down.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

The others, particularly Neon Tiger and Siege, have elaborated well enough on the means that could be used to duplicate Spider-Man's other abilities.


{Now do you guys and/or gals see why I picked "The Foreigner" as a basis for my SR character? He might not be as well-known as, say, Spider-Man, Batman, or Superman, but his powers--such as they are-- are a lot easier to duplicate using SR Adept abilities, although some are "home-grown" abilities which I found on SHADOWRUN-related Websites, and not "official" (i.e., strictly canonical) abilities.}


--Foreigner

Well to make his stats match, he would literally need a reaction of 45 (15 times a normal human) and a strength of 30+. This would place his quickness at about 60-70 to get that reaction. He also has a metric buttload of mystic armor. He can take significant hits and shrug them off, from opponents as strong as him. That makes 30 or so points of mystic armor too.

Hey Red, as far a it goes it looks pretty good. I mean it's not spidey, for that the physical stats would need to be much higher. Two things you could change though are his mental stats. Pete is a world class scientist. As gifted (if noas educated) as Reed Richards. If you ever read Secret Wars theres a scene where Pete explains how a piece of alien technology works to a dumbfounded Mr. Fantastic, it was priceless.

@ Broho,

Keep dreaming buddy, Spidey would mop up the floor with Bats. Sure Batmans tough and smart, devious and has a lot of heart... Guess what, so is Spidey, plus he has power. Power that Batman could never hope to over come. Spidey has heart.

Spidey after all took down the hulk, Juggernaught, and the guy with the Mohawk from the Shiar. And those guys could go tow to tow with Superman.

There are times when Spider-Man's reflexes are cited as being 40 times greater than the average human's. (Tom Defalco's Spider-Man Official Encyclopedia as well as other works and certain issues of the comics themselves.) And Spidey's not that durable, he can be shot and even stabbed by normal humans (provided they catch him off guard in some way), my point is that a knife weilded by a normal man will puncture Spidey...it's happened. And while he may be worthy of a couple points of Mystic Armor, I can't see him as having 30 and being comically accurate.

@Shadow

It depends on which version of Superman you're talking about, post crisis John Byrne version, yes they could go toe to toe with him. The Silver Age Superman however was the second most powerful being in all of creation next to God himself. And Superman as he is in the comics right now could womp Juggernaut and the Hulk pretty easily and Gladiator (The mohawk shiar guy) too.

kevyn668:

In answer to your question, "Rafael Basil Sabitini", a/k/a "The Foreigner", a/k/a "Lieutenant Christopher 'Kris' Keating, N.Y.P.D. Special Powers Task Force" was a minor character in MARVEL COMICS GROUP titles, beginning in the late 1970s with DEFENDERS, Volume 1, Issue #65 (November, 1978), in which he made a brief (two-page) appearance disguised as Lt. Keating. (It wasn't revealed that The Foreigner had, in fact, murdered the REAL Keating and assumed his identity until PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, Volume 1, Issue #129 (August, 1987)).

He's a professional assassin and was, up until sometime in 1994, the leader of a group of assassins known only as "The 1400 Club", and described as "twice as deadly as its nearest competitor". (The Foreigner himself disbanded The 1400 Club that year due to an attempt at a hostile takeover by a disgruntled former employer--criminal industrialist Justin Hammer had hired "The Foreigner" personally to eliminate Anthony Stark (IRON MAN's alter ego).The Foreigner had reneged on the contract because the situation had turned out to be not as represented when he was hired, and appropriated a prototype spy satellite built and launched into orbit by Hammer's company when the industrialist refused to pay him for his services up until that time.) He used an import-export company as a cover, so I suppose that he could be considered James Bond's "evil twin".

He's also the ex-husband of Silver Sablinovia, a/k/a "Silver Sable", another MARVEL COMICS GROUP character. It seems she fell in love with him and they married before she discovered what he did for a living. When she found out, he filed for divorce. They've been on-again/off-again adversaries since then. In fact, his last appearance to date was in SILVER SABLE AND THE WILD PACK, Volume 1, Issue #31 (December, 1994).

He stands six feet, two inches (1.88 Meters) tall, and weighs, depending upon the source you consult, either 180 pounds (81.6 Kilograms) (various editions of The OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE) or 240 pounds (108.9 Kilograms) (THE MARVEL ENCYCLOPEDIA, Volume 4 ("Spider-Man")), and has brown hair and eyes.

As far as SR Adept-type powers, he has nearly superhuman reflexes (Enhanced Reflexes spell), the ability to increase his strength to near-superhuman levels for brief periods through concentration (Strength Boost ? (non-canonical Adept power) or something similar), and a "near-mystical" (that's MARVEL's description, not mine) ability to place an opponent in a trance-like state for up to ten seconds at a time simply by momentarily making eye contact with him or her (Mesmerize, another non-canonical Adept power).

He's also described as well-versed in several martial arts, as well as being an "Olympic-level" archer, swordsman, and marksman with firearms. He claims to have mastered every known method of killing another human being, as well as six methods known only to himself.

In one comic (PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, Volume 1, Issue #210 (March, 1994), he hinted that his first job as an assassin was the assassination of U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Spider-Man had helped him against his former employees when they turned against him. In exchange for Spidey's help, he'd agreed (A) NOT to kill anyone while they worked together, and (B) to SURRENDER to the NYPD when the job was finished. (Of course, Spider-Man had no way of knowing that The Foreigner was so good at covering his tracks that there was NO evidence against him, even WITH a full confession.)

Foreigner: "Officer, I'd like to confess to a MURDER. A HOST of murders..."
Cop: "Heads up, boys! We've got a LIVE one here! So, when did you START killing people?"
Foreigner: "Texas. Early 'Sixties. You MIGHT want to call your C.I.A.."
Cop: "Is that RIGHT?"

(Incidentally, in a backstory in two issues of SILVER SABLE AND THE WILD PACK (Issues # 15 and 16, August and September, 1993), it was revealed that The Foreigner had been hired by unknown parties to assassinate then-President Jimmy Carter, in order to sabotage the historic Camp David peace accords between Egypt and Israel.)

Sorry if I rambled, but I hope this answers some of your questions.

Mister Campbell: I apologize if this bothers you, but I was trained this way (I worked as a proofreader for twelve years, and all of the titles I read were Boldface, Italicized, Underscored, or some combination of the three. Old habits die hard. And regarding the above quotation from the comic book I mentioned, it was printed that way in the original.

Laughing Tiger, RedSunofKrypton: I believe you were both thinking of "Ras Al-Ghul", Batman's allegedly immortal on-again/off-again nemesis since sometime in the 1970's. (One of my first crushes was his daughter Talia, but I was about 10 years old then, and of course she wasn't real, so I couldn't do much about it. )


--Foreigner

As far as the Spidey Vs Batman....

Consistently in comicsThe Punisher Defeats Spidey, not in hand to hand, but hands him his ass regardless, and in corssovers Batman hands Punisher his ass, so by extension Batman could Beat Spidey senseless. The thing about Batman is he would never, ever let it be a fair stand up fight. and he would win. Period.

Spidey'd win a first matchup, thanks to superhuman capabilities. But then Batman would go home, obsessively brood on his defeat, design and build Spidey-defeating toys, and in any subsequent matchup, he'd hand Spiderman his ass. This leaves Spiderman with a net winning record, because as good guys, they'll fight once and only once before becoming allies. But Batman will still have those toys in the cave, just in case....

The thing about Batman is his endless supply of contigency plans. In the "Tower of Babel" JLA story arc, one of Batman's enemies, Rache Al Goul, whose name I CANNOT spell, used the Bat's own plans against him and took out the entire JLA. Bats has stuff rolling around in that cave designed to take out everyone he's ever known and even some things he probably just dreamed up. If Spidey suprises him, the Bat might be in trouble, bat after that, Spidey's toast.

It's spelled Ra's al Ghul, just for completeness sake...or something

Spider-man is a great source of inspiration for creating a character, both for the theme and for one of the better-developed personalities in comics (although as with every corporate-owned character, he has had his ups and downs, quality-wise. With people like Straszinski writing it now, it is currently very good).

But he is overpowered for Shadowrun. After the story arc where he temporarily gained cosmic powers, the villains he had beated while cosmically-powered all teamed up for revenge. Graviton, Giant-Man, and others. Spidey beat them all!

Re: Spidey vs. Batman:

Dudes. Take this to the HeroClix forum.

....but where to put the "winged croc vs. jet-packed shark" debate? That's what I call using critters for security. Just need the stats for them....

Assuming the shark travels at 100m/s (movement rate of 300), it will do from 27D to 33D damage to the winged crocodile under most scenarios if it hits. If it hasn't already suffocated, it will also take the same amount.

Oh, look, an egg! Oh, wait...it's Donald Pleasance.

That's why even Superman calls Batman the most dangerous man on Earth.

I agree. I started a game with a friend where he was Batman and I was Robin (D.G.). We were both phys. adepts who did not acknowledge our abilities as being magical. As starting characters it is fun trying to build up the skills, attributes, abilities, resources, knowledge, gear, and street recognition.

RedSunofKrypton:

As an addendum to my previous post, MARVEL COMICS is currently exploring the possibility that Spider-Man's arachnid-derived powers may be at least partially totemistic in nature.

The current 3-part story arc (AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (2nd series, 1998-present) ), which begins with issue number 505, hints that Peter's 'spider-sense', for example, is magically-based, and not a mutation based upon any natural arachnid ability.

--Foreigner

i don't think spider-man jives with SR's magic system. spinning webs, there could be a spell for that--but that web can be of any size, which is clearly not limited by magic rating. i suppose "catching crooks just like flies" might make an interesting geas, though.

hmm, there is a "puma man" in marvels lineup. he is the last in a line of mystical crossbreeds done by the indians to counter a fortold threat. at one time he was after spider-man over something or other, then found out that he had the wrong buy, tryed to clean up spider-mans reputation to regain his honor or something by buying that newspaper we all know. damnd if i can recall what his name was tho...

edit: isnt it typical? the guy was in fact called puma, more info on spiderfan.org...

about a batman vs spdienr-man matchup the outcome depends on who starts the fight. if its batman he will have the whole fight preplaned from start to finish with variations to cover unstable variables. spidey on the other hand will just go bang in there and think on his feet while dogeing blows left right and center (and cracking jokes about every small detail).

hmm, spidey explaining something to mr fantastic, now that must surely have been a sight to behold. still he have foiled dr. doom at times (in many ways marvels version of batman, this guy have plans within plans within plans! his only problem is hubis) alltho atleast ones he have been allmost killed doing so.

this reminds me, i must make sure to get my hands on the new marvel p&p rpg...

/me suddenly has the urge to create a shadowrunner that aspires to be batman, but really isn't. Probably just has a batman t-shirt and doesn't use guns. He'd be slightly badass, but people would make fun of him behind his back for being a dork.

any superhero is munchkin at heart. thats why a gritty game like shadowrun dont realy to them justice. the hero system or similar systems that are customdesigned around that theme should get the job done.

hmm, that reminds me, get that hero system...

hobgoblin:

The fellow in question was Thomas Fireheart, a/k/a "The Puma".

He's an Amerind, from an as-yet-unnamed Western tribe. All that's known about his background before he moved to NYC is that he was born on a reservation near the town of Hartsdale, NM.

He weighs 240 pounds (108.86 kilos), and is 6 feet, 2 inches (1.88 meters) tall--about the same size as Steven Grant Rogers, the original (and current) "Captain America".

He has black hair in his normal form, and green eyes. His body becomes covered with reddish-brown fur when he transforms.

The transformation is a combination of things--a form of mysticism mixed with a type of genetic engineering (perhaps selective breeding) to produce as perfect a human being as was possible at the time.

In his superpowered form, he can lift (press) up to 10 tons (9.07 metric tons). He also has superhumanly enhanced agility, senses, speed, stamina, and coordination.

I realize that the superhuman strength (at least at the level mentioned in the comics) would be impossible to replicate in SR, but I think that the others could be duplicated using standard Adept powers, possibly combined with a feline shapeshifter of some sort or a Shamanic cat totem. Another possibility is genetically engineered modification of Metahuman DNA using a genetic template based upon the big cats, although I'm not certain how one would accomplish the changing back and forth from one form to another. I suppose a high-level anchored Physical Mask spell (possibly using a fetish or other Spell Focus) to maintain a standard Metahuman appearance might be possible, but as always, that would be best left to your GM.

Hope this helps.

--Foreigner

not to get things back on track or anything...

as for the web slinging, i see two options:

1) the techno solution - specialized stealth grapple dispenser, where the catalyst chemical has been bound in small gel capsules that deteriorate over time or exposure to air/heat/whatever and applied to the line as it comes out of the dispenser. push the button, whoosh, the line comes out and about 30 minutes later, reduces to powder...

2) the magic solution - simple, one word: SURGE

Comic Spidey has organic webshooters now ala movie Spidey...or so I'm told.

If a player ever tries to emulate Spidy, the GM must send Venom againt him.


Hidden life vessel for a force 6 shadow spirit? Or Carnage, hidden life vessel for a force 12 blood spirit.

This reminds me of tonight's game.

I was DMing due to the regular DM having a nasty case of the runs and not being able to show up. And, naturally, tonight was the night we had the newbie who's never played an RPG before. Oh, what fun.

Anyway, Newbie, after reading about the adept, kept bugging for me to have him bitten by a radioactive spider so he could turn into Spiderman. Finally, I gave in and allowed it to happen. Nothing like the pained screams of a new team member being bitten by a fission-powered arachnid drone with dikoted saw blades for teeth.

Strangely, Newbie was quiet about wanting to be Spiderman for the rest of the game...