Back in the early 1980s, Greg Gorden led the game design project for Mayfair Games to create a tabletop role-playing game based around the superheroes of DC Comics (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, et.al.). No easy task that, considering the rules system had to account for vast differences in ability scales. (“So Robin, with a Strength of 9, arm-wrestles Superman, with a Strength of 4,582,341,209…”)
In the 1985 first edition of the DC Heroes Role-Playing Game (ISBN 0-425-06633-9), their solution was to make the numbers for ability scores work off a logarithmic scale. An “average person” value of 2 was twice as powerful at a rating of 1, a 3 was twice as good as 2, a 4 was four times a powerful, a 5 was eight times better, and so forth.
Furthermore, every measure in the universe was given an Attribute Point number to make easy comparisons of abilities and powers. For example, throwing an object a specific distance was Strength AP – object’s weight AP = distance AP.
The general concept was very similar to the much-simpler Marvel Superheroes role-playing game put out by TSR a year earlier, and more strongly echoed in the follow-up Marvel Superheroes: Advanced Set that came out in 1986. (There remains to this day a lot of love for the so-called FASERIP system.)
In the late 1990s, I revisited this AP scale under plans to create yet another homebrew RPG. Here’s a crib of those benchmarks, many taken straight from Gorden’s books.
AP EFFECT MULTIPLIERS
0 … x1
1 … x2
2 … x4
3 … x8
4 … x15
5 … x30
6 … x60
7 … x125
8 … x250
9 … x500
10 … x1,000
20 … x1,000,000
30 … x1,000,000,000
40 … x1,000,000,000,000
50 … x1,000,000,000,000,000
60 … x1,000,000,000,000,000,000
70 … x1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
80 … x1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
90 … x1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
100 … x1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
TIME
-2 … 1 second
0 … 4 seconds
1 … 8 seconds
2 … 16 seconds
3 … 32 seconds
4 … 1 minute
5 … 2 minutes
6 … 4 minutes
7 … 8 minutes
8 … 16 minutes
9 … 32 minutes
10 … 1 hour
11 … 2 hours
12 … 4 hours
13 … 8 hours
14 … 15 hours
15 … 1 day
16 … 2 days
17 … 4 days
18 … 1 week
19 … 2 weeks
20 … 1 month
21 … 2 months
22 … 4 months
23 … 8 months
24 … 16 months
25 … 4 years
26 … 8 years
27 … 16 years
30 … 128 years
33 … 1,024 years
50 … dinosaurs roamed Earth this number of years ago
56 … estimated age of the Earth
58 … estimated age of the universe
DISTANCE
0 … 10 feet (3 meters)
1 … 20 feet (6 meters)
2 … 40 feet (12 meters)
3 … 80 feet (24 meters)
4 … 160 feet (49 meters)
5 … 100 yards (91 meters)
6 … 200 yards (182 meters)
7 … 1/8 mile (0.2 kilometer)
8 … 1/4 mile (0.4 km)
9 … 1/2 mile (0.8 km)
10 … 1 mile (1.61 km)
11 … 2 miles (3.2 km)
12 … 4 miles (6.4 km)
13 … 8 miles (12.9 km)
14 … 15 miles (24 km)
15 … 30 miles (48 km)
16 … 60 miles (97 km)
17 … 125 miles (201 km)
18 … 225 miles (402 km)
19 … 500 miles (805 km)
20 … 1,000 miles (1,610 km)
21 … 2,000 miles (3,220 km), NYC to San Francisco
22 … 4,000 miles (6,440 km), surface to center of Earth
23 … 8,000 miles (12,880 km), Buenos Aires to Shanghai
24 … 16,000 miles (25, 760 km), about the circumference of the Earth
27 … 1 light second
28 … Earth to moon
33 … 1 light minute
35 … Mercury to Sun
36 … Venus to Sun
37 … Earth to Sun
39 … Jupiter, Saturn to Sun
40 … Uranus to Sun
42 … Pluto to Sun
51 … 1 light year
69 … length of Milky Way galaxy
SPEED
0 … 1 mph (1.6 kph), person walking
1 … 2 mph (3.2 kph), person jogging
2 … 4 mph (6.4 kph), person running
3 … 8 mph (12.8 kph)
4 … 15 mph (24.1 kph), person sprinting
5 … 30 mph (48 kph), horse galloping
6 … 60 mph (96 kph), top Jeep speed
7 … 125 mph (201 kph), top ordinary car speed
8 … 250 mph (402 kph), fasted boat
9 … 500 mph (804 kph), passenger airline
10 … 1,000 mph (1,600 kph), Mach 1
11 … 2,000 mph (3,200 kph), fast jet plane
12 … air-to-air missile
13 … standard orbit (9,600 kph)
14 … ICBM, space shuttle
15 … comet
25 … quarter impulse (Star Trek starship)
26 … half impulse (Star Trek starship)
27 … full impulse (0.25c) (Star Trek starship)
28 … The Flash running on Earth
29 … Warp Factor 1 (1c)
32 … Warp 2 (10c)
34 … Warp 3 (39c), about 0.03 parsecs / day
36 … Warp 4 (102c,) 0.10 pc/day
37 … Warp 5 (214c), Warp 6 (392c), 0.20 pc/day
38 … Warp 7 (656c), 0.4 pc/day
39 … Warp 8 (1,024c), 0.8 pc/day
40 … Warp 9 (1,516c), 1.6 pc/day, Green Lantern’s flight speed in space
41 … Warp 9.9 (3,053c), 3 pc/day
45 … Superman’s flight speed in space
47 … Warp 9.99 (199,516c), 210 pc/day – Star Trek universe maximum subspace radio speed with booster relay
DAMAGE
0 … slight
1 … moderate: fists, small bites
2 … serious: club, kick, fall from 10 feet height, bites from dog-sized beasts
3 … critical: arrows, .22/.38 caliber bullets, medium blades, daggers, 20-foot fall, bites from wolf-sized beasts
4 … lethal: .45 caliber, longsword, battleaxe, mace, flail, 40-foot fall, bites from lion-sized beasts
5 … shotgun, submachinegun, flamethrower, fall of 60 feet height or more
6 … automatic pistol
8 … machinegun, bazooka, 105mm tank gun, fragmentary grenade
9 … 155mm Howitzer, thrown boulders
15 … air-to-air missile
35 … 20-kiloton nuclear bomb (the kind dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Aug. 1945)
44 … 15-megaton nuclear bomb (the kind tested at Eniwetok, U.S. Oacific, Nov. 1952); ruinous earthquake (Richter 6.9), causes houses to collapse
46 … 60-megaton nuclear bomb (the kind tested at Novaya Zemlya, USSR, Oct. 1961); distastrous earthquake (Richter 7.3), many buildings destroyed, rails bend
50 … very disastrous earthquake, few buildings survive, landslides
52 … volcanic eruption (Krakatoa, Indonesia – Aug. 1883)
55 … volcanic eruption (Santorini, Greece – c. 1470 B.C.)
56 … volcanic eruption (Tambora, Indonesia – April 1815)
ARMOR
1 … heavy cloth armor, hides
2 … leather armor, flak jacket
3 … chainmail armor
4 … metal plate armor, Kevlar vest
5 … modern full-body armor
6 … Wonder Woman’s bracers
11 … Cyborg’s armor
15 … Green Lantern’s invulerability
50 … Superman’s invulnerability