According to the core book's own Intro Section, Femforce started up from the work of artist-writer Bill Black, who created a few hot-looking-but-glamorous superheroines in 1965, who became the nucleus of the “Femforce”, whose comics have been published since 1982 by AC Comics (or Americomics). While these titles deliberately focus on great-looking women, and were among the first to feature an all-female superhero team, they are also a bit more “classic” than the overtly sexual characters (male and female) of some modern titles, being cited as examples of the “good girl style” that hearkens back to old 40's and 50's pinups and superhero comics. Likewise the stories seem to have a more classic feel to them, bringing in some post-1963 elements (some characters have dysfunctional kids, Synn is an acid casualty) but not taking “realism” to the grim extremes of the Iron Age. Thus, the publishers, “Selex Inc.” decided to make this game in the mid-90s (when hero comics outside the 'Big Two' were more popular or had better distribution) that was based on the approach of the AC universe: “fun, simple to play and spotlighting the focus of Americomics; beautiful superbabes!” It is intended to be easy and fast to play, although the authors admit “we're sure we haven't ironed out all the bugs in the system”. Which of course leads to a section called What Is A Role Playing Game? And How Am I Supposed To Play It Anyway? This part includes FAQs like “Do you play against each other?” and “Is role playing evil?” Just to give some idea about how far back this game goes. (Ironically, another company, Heroic Publishing, started off in the '90s doing comic books about the characters from the old-school Champions RPG and has since shifted into a similarly glamour-girl-based comics line.)
After all this, the game goes into the Character Creation Section. Much like the BUFFY RPG, it uses the feminine gender for default pronouns, and for similar reasons. It also confirms that there are several male heroes in the AC universe (one aspect of it being that they've revived a few actual Golden Age heroes who are 'public domain' with no owned copyright). It's just that making a male PC just defeats the purpose of the setting “style.” Characters get 600 Character Points (CP) although it's mentioned as an aside that the GM can make you reserve 100 of them (for a secret origin event, perhaps, though that really isn't elaborated on). Character creation involves several sections with choices costing X number of points, and the costs are not terribly consistent with each other.
It starts with one's choice of Origin, which is required both as a foundation for character conception and as an element that will naturally lead to plot developments centered on the heroine. Mechanically the Origin is an element that costs CP, creating its own advantages and drawbacks, roughly equivalent to a package deal or “class.” The first and default option is “Adventuress” which costs no CP but is essentially “the Batman Option” for characters with no superpowers (their primary stats cannot exceed 20) but who gets Gizmos and spends points on skills. Some, like Government Sponsored or Corporate Sponsored, allow the character access to resources with the drawback that one has to obey the rules of the sponsor. Genetic Quirk (32 CP) is what other games would call a “mutant” and grants access to innate powers but assumes that since the character has had powers since at least puberty, her socialization is a bit off and this is reflected in NPC reactions even when the character's powers aren't obvious. The game allows you to have two origins by only paying the cost for the more expensive one; you just get the drawbacks and plot elements of both origins.
Then you buy Primary Statistics with each point being 2 CP regardless of which stat it's for. However, stats are bought on a base of 0. Stats include Muscles, Health, Moves (agility), Looks, Brains ('There aren't that many geniuses in the AC universe'), Will (mental fortitude) and Personality (likeability). In a typical example of the game's flavor, stat reviews include a Class Level description that is deliberately silly. For instance Muscles stat starts at 0 (Invalid) with 3-4 being “Simp”, 9-10 Average and 21-30 “Muy Macho.” Then you get Secondary Statistics, starting with Power Points (PP), based on the sum of all primaries, which is your endurance or “juice” to fuel superpowers. You also have Hits To Kill (HTK), essentially hit points. As in, most mundanes start off as 0 level characters with d6 in HTK, whereas PCs look up the chart for * each * primary stat and see the part that says “HTK Bonus”, adding all the modifiers for the primary stats. This total is the character's HTK base, which, as in D&D, goes up by gaining experience levels. Notably a deficient stat below 10 will usually cause some penalty to HTK, except that Brains under 3 actually gives a bonus (No Brain, No Pain) and having high levels of Looks and/or Personality will actually create an HTK penalty while a character deficient in these stats gets an HTK bonus.
Similar to how Gygax-era AD&D insisted that female characters automatically had less maximum Strength than men, without much mechanical justification (notably, no adjustments to average or minimum Str scores), these rules seem to be rather arbitrary except insofar as they reinforce the image of the “glamour gal.” Even then they don't make too much sense; the women of AC Comics are hardly drawn realistically but by the same token they aren't Kate Moss or “heroin chic” models like in the real world, looking considerably more... robust. And it would be one thing if the penalty was only based on Looks, but if the rules state that Personality is based on likeability (as opposed to a charismatic figure who is considered commanding even if people don't like her), then the “good girl” is even more penalized. Keep in mind that the penalties are relative; Ms. Victory has high Looks and Personality while her government boss, General Gordon is a fireplug with single digits in both stats, but Victory has superpowers and stats while Gordon does not, so she could beat him in a fight if she had to. However all other things being equal, the Super Babe is at a combat disadvantage against a similarly powered monster or hatchet-face villainess.
As in the old Villains & Vigilantes characters who take damage run out of PP first (reflecting both endurance and the 'shrug it off' factor of comic books), then only start taking HTK when the PP score goes below 0. Of course this means that a character who continues to exert herself after this point is burning HTK twice as fast as she would PP, since the character takes damage from doing so on a 1 for 1 basis. This can cause the character to black out if she fails a percentile dice save with a number equal to current HTK (50 HTK = 50%). If the character somehow goes into negative HTK she may die without professional help but will not actually expire until going to her negative original score (23 HTK character dies at -23 HTK).
Secondary stats also include Fame (a local popularity stat) and Experience Points (XP). The book says XP should be awarded on a scale of 100 XP for good roleplaying per player per game, with combat 100 XP times villainess level divided by number of characters in the team. Making level gives a PC 50 CP to spend on primary stats, skills or powers. The book says the player may save points to buy more expensive stuff at a higher level. Note that a Super Babes character is assumed to start at 0 level with no XP, and earning any amount of XP puts her at 1st level, with 1001 XP needed for 2nd. The XP chart is another example of author cheesiness, with level title at 1st being “Babe In Skin Tight Costume”, 15th being “Idol Of Millions” and 25th level being “About Time To Retire And Let Someone Else Have A Chance.”
bim·bo [bim-boh] –noun, plural -bos, -boes. Slang. 1. a foolish, stupid, or inept person. 2. a man or fellow, often a disreputable or contemptible one. 3. an attractive but stupid young woman, esp. one with loose morals. -dictionary.com
Next you get to “a statistic that is thoroughly unique to the Super Babes system, BIMBO POINTS!” This is of course the game's other main example of “genre simulation.” On one hand it simulates those gray-area power stunts that “crunch” games don't do very well; mechanically you can tell the GM to give you one Bimbo Point (BP) so that you can perform an action you can normally roll and have it succeed automatically. Agreeing to take TWO BPs means you can perform “(a)ny action that is not covered by the rules that a character wants to perform”. You can only earn up to 3 BP per session, “though why anyone would want more is beyond us.” See, the drawback is that at the beginning of each game, the GM rolls a d20 for each character and if the number is under the character's current BP total, she suffers a random Bimbo Event (BE). This is rolled on a percentile chart, with some events being both cheesy and predictable (character is sexually harassed by superior), some being a bit less predictable (character accused of sexual harassment) and some being potential threats to the character and her team, such as 'cult begins worshiping character' which could be a REAL problem if combined with 'cult decides they must sacrifice character'.
The book points out that in the comics, the limits of a game system wouldn't apply, only the limits placed on the character by the writer and/or editor, so again, the mechanic covers such “special” events while limiting the power this gives the player by forcing the PC to accept the consequences for going outside the “rules” by means of another plot contrivance, this time going against her. This is actually a fairly innovative mechanic in its own way-- in fact it predates the “FATE Point” mechanic by over a decade. The problems with the label being obvious; one, the mechanic is also used by male characters who are not bimbos (although they mention the mystic Green Lama as an example of someone whose near-omnipotent magic also ends up creating several complications for him), by female characters who are not bimbos (like Nightveil/Blue Bulleteer) and female characters who are not bimbos but who are objectified and/or the victims of comic misfortunes (like Yankee Girl). In fact, Flare, from the aforementioned Heroic Publishing, is probably the best example of an actual bimbo in this sub-genre: She's highly sexual, and while possessed of high native intelligence, doesn't always seem to apply common sense, and both factors end up causing her problems.
After the BP rules, the book goes to Super Powers. “After all, without powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal housewives, this game would just be about a bunch of bimbos in skintight outfits running aimlessly about. Kind of like an afternoon at the mall.” The style here continues to be reminiscent of Macho Women With Guns - in fact with power titles like “Get Young Again”, “Pass Through Stuff” and “Suck It Up” this game practically IS Macho Women With Guns for superheroes. Mechanically most of these powers have a set cost (except for basic attack powers like Blast, which cost around 6 CP per d6 damage), and at the end of the power description you get the power's basic cost, range if any, and PP cost for use. “Suck It Up,” incidentally, is the power to convert an amount of damage equal to your Health stat and convert it into Power Points. In case it needed to be explained.
After the powers list the book gets to the Skills Section. In introduction, the authors admit that a lot of these characters don't seem to possess a great depth of skills, and so they intentionally constructed the skill system in two tiers, for basic skills and “ultra-competent” skills. In this they state that if the character is slightly skilled but superpowered, she will fit in well with the rest of the AC universe. If you want both high skills and high powers, something will suffer in your character build. Of course the Adventuress option exists for the “normal” heroine based mainly on skills.
In this system, a character can have a General Skill to reflect a certain background, ranging from Unskilled Laborer (no cost) to Multi-Skilled Laborer (20 CP, reflecting someone like a reporter whose job requires multiple skills but not great specialization) to One-Skilled Expert (40 CP, reflecting a registered expert such as a lawyer or physicist). These skills do not grant any of the skills from the specific list; they simply allow a character to function at a particular job. Thus each also includes rules for determining yearly income.
Then you get the “Super Skills” which reflect the skill packages an actual PC might get. They each include more than one individual skill and as in DC HEROES can in some cases include special abilities with the skill (for instance the Inventor Skill can apply to either Scientific or Occult devices and includes the unique abilities to Invent devices that duplicate powers or Jury-Rig repairs to a broken device). These are all expensive packages (80 points or more, with the Inventor skill being 175!), which is intentional given that these “are skill sets that an entire character will usually be based upon”.
Individual skills (Acrobatics, Demolitions, Survival, etc.) usually average 20 CP each. In some cases “proficiencies” are measured in terms of a single case being 10 CP and all cases being at least 25 CP (so 'Piloting One Space' is a 10 CP skill enabling one to pilot one specified space vehicle, while 'Piloting Space' is a 30 CP skill allowing one to pilot any space vehicle). As is mentioned in the Super Skills section, some of these would cost a lot for a PC to buy to get all the skills for her character concept, which is why the Super Skills packages exist, allowing a Tara or She-Cat to buy “Athlete” Super Skill for 80 CP and get 14 related skills. If somehow the skill package doesn't include a skill for the character concept, see if you can scrounge more points to get the individual skill.
Then you get the Gizmos section, rules for building special equipment that duplicates superpowers, or a skill or stats. This idea implicitly uses “the Wal-Mart Rule”- you don't need to build standard equipment, even military hardware, as a Gizmo, only something that you could never buy in the real world. This ALSO means that a raygun from an alien world IS standard equipment there and not a Gizmo. Naturally this is all subject to GM interpretation. Of the various character origins, only the Adventuress, the Inventor or the Supernatural Pupil can start with a Gizmo; other characters may get Gizmos if they can get an Inventor to make one for them. It is always possible to steal a Gizmo, but unless you pay CP for it, it ends up not working for very long. (Gizmos are petulant that way. Which is also why you can't just mass-produce them; if an item can be mass-produced, by definition it's not a Gizmo.)
Mechanically, Gizmos are bought in terms of obviousness: as with Hero System Foci, the more obvious and easily removed the device is, the less it costs in terms of the powers it gets you, though the formulas for building them aren't exactly the same. Thus an “Incredibly Obvious” Gizmo grants 3 CP in powers for every 1 CP the Gizmo actually costs, a “Moderately Obvious” Gizmo that is visible but not easily removed (like a ring) gives 2 CP for 1 purchased, while a “Secret” Gizmo (like a magic item worn under clothing and not obvious) is a 1 for 1 cost and used mainly to justify buying powers outside one's skills or character conception. A Gizmo that requires PP has 1 PP for every Gizmo CP it has (so the Incredibly Obvious Gizmo that cost 24 points and has 72 CP of powers also has 72 PP). Otherwise there aren't any examples of how to make these except in terms of their CP cost.
After one page on character description (it's pointed out that Looks determines how good your character looks but not exactly what she looks LIKE), you get the GM section, or
The Part For The Guy In Charge
It starts with the “prerequisite” Movement, Time and Rounds section. In Super Babes a round is six seconds long in combat but one minute out of combat. Those one-minute rounds are usually called non-combat rounds and are used for recovering PP and other non-combat purposes. (This also means that if one is maintaining a power with PP over time, it sustains longer in a non-combat situation.) The factor of distance (when a game board is used) is measured as one real inch on the game board equaling five feet of game distance. However movement rates measure differently out of combat; in combat a character's movement is figured in inches (x 5 feet) but noncombat speed is measured in miles per hour (so if Yankee Girl flies at a rate of 32”, this translates to 160 feet per round in combat, or 18 MPH, but out of combat, she goes a straight 32 MPH).
Then you get the Combat section. Initiative is rolled on a d10 plus one's initiative modifier, which is based on the Moves stat/10. At this point characters have the option of holding an action to react to a lower initiative/action. In this game, surprise is determined mainly by the GM (if he says you're surprised, you are) although this only means the surpriser gets one free round of actions on the target. Simultaneous initiatives roll off.
As in HERO System, you can either do your full move in combat or do up to a half move and attack. You also have the option to Do It Twice - that is, before any other actions are declared, the PC must declare an intent to Do It Twice in order to double her number of actions in the round. This requires a d20 roll under the character's Moves stat (even if the stat is 20+ a natural 20 always fails) and it costs 3 PP whether it succeeds or fails. This allows the character to double move, half move and two other actions, or half move, attack and half move again.
Similar to D20 System, characters roll 1d20 and compare their level to the score they need to hit the target based on a difficulty factor of his Hittability. Yes. I said 'Hittability.' This roll is modified by the character's chosen combat maneuver, with the basic Punch being one action for 2 PP cost, and a variety of other actions possible, listed with action cost and PP cost, including Hitting Things With Other Things (now that I look it up, Macho Women With Guns did come out before this game), Strike for Effect (extra knockback), Whip (essentially a 'presence attack' to cow an opponent)... Do It Twice, Whip... man, even the combat maneuvers are double-entendres, aren't they?
This is followed by the environment section, or “Damage from normal stuff” where a standard acid is usually 1d6 damage per round, while an atomic explosion has an “average damage potential” of instant vaporization within a 2-mile radius. This leads to the subject of Fatalities and how to avoid them (this being a basically 'four-color' supers game). The GM is advised to keep track of when combat takes a PC (or villain) into HTK, as it will give him a cue to ease up on the heroines, while against a villain the PCs will be alerted that further damage might kill the person, with all the legal and moral ramifications for such. By the same token it's also pointed out that not all villains are going to fight to the last breath, and some might try to engineer an escape or distraction.
Then there is an actual Gamemasters Section in which the authors go over advice for running a campaign, specifically one in the AC Universe. It's pointed out for one thing that having a fictional universe with lots of resource material saves the GM a lot of setup time versus making the whole history up himself. As far as scenario ideas go, the book recommends looking over current news articles, or reviewing the characters' histories to see if their archvillainesses are due to make appearances. It's mentioned more than once that with GM permission the PCs *could* all be villainesses, but in addition to group dynamics among evil characters being a bit volatile, such characters lack the advantages that heroines have; it's also mentioned that in the setting the Femforce are a government-sponsored team and in fact all paranormals in the US are required to register with the government. This leads to discussion of the FAME stat, which can become Infamy if the characters go evil deliberately or even have a few careless incidents. (It's also pointed out that the Femforce is based in Florida, where murder carries the death penalty.) Again, the game allows different choices, but seems to uphold a “four-color” standard; it gives a little leeway to heroines who make honest mistakes but not to those who persist in acting like villains or killer vigilantes.
In generating NPCs for combat purposes, Super Babes presents various categories: Average Joe (basically '0 level' NPC), Cops, Thugs Soldiers and Agents (built on 150 CP and averaging 10 in every stat, but with the ability to use PP for various maneuvers; they can go up in level but only get 10 CP per level) and Supernatural Entities Class 1-4 (where Class I is the 'average Joe' but from another dimension, a Class II is equal to a beginning PC, a Class III is created with 1800 CP and a Class IV is 3600 CP and on the level of gods. There are also Aliens class 1-4; same deal).
Then you get the category of Stuff. Stuff is sort of like Gizmos, except Stuff CAN be mass-produced; this is the category of “unstable molecule” costumes, for instance (here the costume material is called 'Span-XX'). Otherwise you have a chart for more 'normal' combat items (on a scale where a Fist punch is 1d6+ Muscles bonus and a 'Sword or other big sharp thing' is 2d6+ Muscles and a rocket launcher is 3d20+20 in a 2” radius).
There's also a fair amount of space devoted to the super team's Bases & Vehicles, which in this game are paid for in regular cash, not CP; the drawback of course being that various plot complications can drive the team out of a base (the example with Femforce being that they had a base due to their government sponsorship, which for a certain period was revoked, meaning they had to get a new base). The book doesn't actually get into any of the details of designing a base, leaving it to the GM, and to the realm of plot device- the main rule being that anything the GM allows to be put in a base is something he will have to deal with at some point in the future. For instance if a PC wants to have the base protected by a force field generator, that is a Gizmo and the PC would have to pay points for it (although such a 'base Gizmo' is paid for on a 1 real CP per 5 Gizmo CP ratio for being immobile). Any such devices that need CP can be paid for by a 'group fund'. Vehicles are approached on a similar standard; a motorcycle with weapon mounts and other James Bond gadgets is farfetched but not necessarily a Gizmo, whereas a cycle that actually flies is.
There's also a “unique” option in this section for the PC, the Character Makeover. As in, not a makeup change but a radical overhaul of the character concept. For instance the Adventuress Blue Bulleteer became the super-sorceress Nightveil. Mechanically this simply means advancing a character level and then forfeiting the 50 CP she would get, at which point the plotline or “radiation accident” allowing the change occurs.
Then after all this you get a Sample Adventure called “Old Age, Old Ways”. Then there's a list of the NPC villains for the adventure and a few of the Femforce characters. Stats include bust-waist-hip measurements. (Except for the male character Black Commando and the 50 Foot Robot She-Cat.)
SUMMARY
Super Babes is a guilty pleasure to be sure. It's a fun, playable game even now (if you can scrounge a copy). It carries over the appeal of the AC Comics, which are not simply focused on hot girls but also have a Golden Age glamour to them while still being fairly modern. On the other hand the book not only has the casual sexism of the books (which may or may not be indicative of 'Good Girl Art' as a whole) but reinforces it with a “Math Is Hard!” attitude in the text. And the fact that the game is somewhat less prurient than Hot Chicks or Macho Women With Guns almost makes it seem more disingenuous about how prurient it is.
And like those two games, my main test is, would this rules system work if you built the PCs as guys? Well, actually, it would. Maybe better than those other two games. The Bimbo Point mechanic in particular covers a lot of the plot elements that both help and hinder superheroes in comics, but it is also a primary example of how the combined sexism and silliness of this subgenre undermines any attempt to use the concept for something more universal or serious. But again, we have FATE now.
Style: 4
Super Babes is an entertaining read with classic-style superhero(ine) art.
Substance: 3
A few great ideas and a workable system packaged in a jokey presentation that some might not appreciate.
