![]() ![]() An upper-bound estimate of real world tons (as opposed to “Marvel tons”).Corresponding “Class” Marvel strength for superhumans.DC Heroes RPG STR scores as the primary key.The following table wraps up everything we’ve been discussing. It presents : ![]() readers who are not tabletop role-players but use the “Class” system might thus be interested in learning about the strength value we assign to characters. You can find it in almost every profile, after the abbreviation “STR” for “strength”. Here it is in the big red square. Hence the tongue-in-cheek concept of the “Marvel ton”. As long as we are talking single digits, one Marvel ton equals one US ton. Above that, one Marvel ton equals an increasing number of tons, which rises much like a power law curve.įor instance one “Marvel ton” for many “Class 75” characters seems to be worth 10 real tons, as objects weighing hundreds of tons get moved around by such characters.Īs its name indicates, the DC Heroes RPG community members are tabletop role-players. That implies a certain expertise with using numbers and algorithms to simulate fiction. These toolsets allow for reliable quantification of the material, if enough data points are available. Generally, the “Class” systems maps well to real-world weights up to and including Class 10. After that, observation of vast quantities of Marvel comic books leads to the conclusion that there is a curve. The further one goes along the steps of the “Class” system, the less the number of the Class is correlated to what the character can actually lift. Marvel (Carol Danvers).Ĭlass 75 : classic “major bricks” such as Colossus or the Thing.īy “classic” we mean the early 1980s, back when the “Class” system was designed and deployed. Many characters have since crept upward. For instance, by the 1990s, both the Thing and Colossus were tagged as Class 90 characters (and mid-1980s Thing was already Class 85). Typical Marvel examples for classesĬlass 10 : classic versions of Spider-Man.Ĭlass 50 : classic versions of Rogue or Ms. Over time and with inter-company crossover stories, super-hero comic book fans started using the “Class” system to guesstimate the superhuman strength level of characters from other companies and other mediums. Thus, while any two “Class 75” characters could routinely lift objects weighing far more than 75 tons, they were more-or-less reliably depicted as being in the same strength ballpark, as outmuscling “Class 50” characters, and as being outmuscled by “Class 90” characters. ![]() However, the “Class” system stuck since it was easily understood, used simple numbers, and established clear hierarchies. (For more discussion of these issues, see our FAQ). ![]() Part of the issue may have been artists and writers wanting to depict spectacular scenes rather than obey arbitrary limits that felt like solutions in search of a problem. Part of the issue may have come from not having a firm idea of the weight of extremely large objects. For instance, a fully loaded older Boeing 747 airliner weighs more than 450 tons. Hey, Internet access essentially didn’t exist back then. These limits never actually stuck. Within weeks there were characters performing feats well above their supposed “Class”. Multiple characters clearly were able to lift much more than 100 tons… even though they weren’t even “Class 100”. This system was created back when Marvel editorial decided that their strongest characters were able to lift about 100 tons. Elbow room was built in for cosmic characters (like Galactus or the Celestials) to be crammed into “Class 100” as explained above, but it was meant to keep the characters grounded. …but the plan doesn’t survive contact with the enemy The high end is “Class 100”. In this case it’s not “up to 100 tons” but “100 tons and quite possibly much more, we’ve stopped counting”.Īs to the middle – common steps are Class 10, Class 25, Class 50, Class 75, Class 90. The exact steps varied depending upon the Marvel handbooks. Knowing the usual steps is useful to know the *lower* bound of a “class”. If there’s a Class 25 and a Class 50, then Class 50 means “can lift between 26 and 50 tons”. The low end of the scale doesn’t have a number – it’s called “enhanced human strength”. That covers a grey zone between “peak human” strength and 2 tons. ![]()
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